Maersk Oil Company Profile

74 Research & Innovation Research & Innovation
75
TriGen
Maersk Oil is collaborating with U.S.-based Clean Energy
Systems and Siemens on a unique combustion technology that
could unlock stranded gas fields or provide CO 2 for Enhanced Oil
and Gas Recovery (EOR/EGR), while producing clean energy.
e technology, TriGen, is derived from the space industry and
involves burning gas together with pure oxygen to produce
power, water and carbon dioxide. e resulting high puri CO 2
is captured – making the power generation emission-free
– and can be transported to fields for EOR/EGR.
Maersk Oil is currently exploring opportunities in the Middle
East and South-East Asia that have different value chains and
benefits, yet can be made commercial through the implementation
of the TriGen technology. e technology also complements
Maersk Oil’s current work and studies on CO 2 -based EOR
in Denmark and Qatar, enabling the company to offer integrated
field development solutions in this area.
Artist’s impression of an oxyfuel combustor, whose technology is based on space rockets
In the Middle East, TriGen’s low-cost CO 2 can enable EOR
projects especially in Gulf countries where many oil and gas
reservoirs are well-suited to CO 2 -based EOR and nitrogen or
CO 2 -based EGR. Here, gas would be burned to produce clean
power and water for households. Nitrogen, a by-product from
the production of pure oxygen, and CO 2 would be supplied to
oil fields.
In South East Asia, the value chain starts at a different point
– at large but CO 2 -contaminated gas fields. Such stranded
gas fields could now potentially be produced economically
because the TriGen technology can burn gas contaminated
with up to 90 per cent of CO 2 without requiring any costly
pre-treatment for CO 2 removal.
Maersk Oil acquired the rights to CES’s combustor in January
2011. CES, Maersk Oil and Siemens, with the help of U.S.
Department of Energy funding, is maturing the technology
after CES proved it on a smaller scale over the last 15 years.
Siemens is currently converting a conventional gas/air turbine
to a gas/oxygen turbine for a commercial power plant
project in California using the TriGen technology.
e TriGen value chain
Oil
Increase
recovery
factor by
10-20%
Oil
reservoir
Production facilities
Low quali
gas reservoir
Nitrogen for
pressure maintenance
Natural gas + CO
Air
separation
unit
CO2 - based EOR
Well Conformance Control
The Well Conformance Control team is a cross-border
collaboration effort between the Petroleum Engineering
Department and the Well Technology team in the Danish
Business Unit and the Long Well Conformance Control team
in the Qatar Business Unit. The team has focused on identifying
opportunities for improvement in completions technology,
well interventions and production profile control.
e team gives input in well and pattern reviews in the Danish
North Sea and in Qatar, thereby helping identify any existing
potential for conformance control technology applications.
e converted turbine – approximately the size of a Maersk shipping
container – will be hooked up to a power grid in Los Angeles
later this year and has the capaci to deliver 150 megawatts of
electrici – enough to provide energy to over 100,000 homes.
2
Pure
O2
Emission-free
power for
125,000
households
Water
for 2,000
households
It is actively engaging with the Maersk Oil Research and
Technology Centre (MO-RTC) in Qatar and collaborates with
researchers at the Danish Technical Universi (DTU) and
Carnegie Mellon Universi – Qatar. Patent applications were
filed for various technologies, including new innovations and
enhancements of existing tools.