Statoil, GE Unveil Winners of First Open Innovation Challenge

“We want to push the envelope in terms of doing things quicker, faster and better,” Bill Moloney, EVP of development & production in North America, told reporters at the 2015 IHS CERAWeek conference earlier this year in Houston.

The Last Mile fueling solution, which is CNG in a Box, is already used commercially, and offers a great solution for natural gas flaring in places such as North Dakota, which lacks the infrastructure to deal with gas produced with oil.

The use of liquid CO2 stimulation in fracking operations is not new, but GE and Statoil have sought technology to enhance production, Moloney said.

The collaboration between GE and Statoil had started even before the recent oil price downturn, and the companies would still have pursued the technology joint venture in spite of the oil price decline, GE O&G CEO Lorenzo Simonelli told reporters at IHS CERAWeek.

With its Last Mile program, GE and Statoil have captured in North Dakota’s Bakken field 1.5 million standard cubic feet per day of flared natural gas on a 24/7 basis. GE and Statoil plan to bring two more systems online capture gas, which is put into truck engines and engines on rigs.

Lorenzo said the companies, which have both been through oil price downturns before, are not reducing their spending on new technology and the programs in which they are currently investing.

“We have to keep progressing and advancing” in spite of oil prices, Simonelli said.

Using technology innovation to boost hydrocarbon recovery at a reasonable cost creates a “no-lose” situation for industry, said Moloney.

“We see the downturn as an opportunity to aggressive go on the offensive and work with customers on new technology solutions to ensure a better outcome,” said Simonelli.