Pressured for profit, oil majors bet big on shale technology

[thackney]

Pressured for profit, oil majors bet big on shale technology
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-oil-technology/pressured-for-profit-oil-majors-bet-big-on-shale-technology-idUSKBN1DS0FO
NOVEMBER 28, 2017

Shale oil engineer Oscar Portillo spends his days drilling as many as five wells at once - without ever setting foot on a rig.

Part of a team working to cut the cost of drilling a new shale well by a third, Portillo works from a Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) office in suburban Houston, his eyes darting among 13 monitors flashing data on speed, temperature and other metrics as he helps control rigs more than 500 miles (805 km) away in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. oilfield.

For the last decade, smaller oil companies have led the way in shale technology, slashing costs by as much as half with breakthroughs such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking that turned the United States into the world's fastest-growing energy exporter.

Now, oil majors that were slow to seize on shale are seeking further efficiencies by adapting technologies for highly automated offshore operations to shale and pursuing advances in digitalization that have reshaped industries from auto manufacturing to retail.

If they are successful, the U.S. oil industry’s ability to bring more wells to production at lower cost could amp up future output and company profits. The firms could also frustrate the ongoing effort by The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) effort to drain a global oil glut.

“We’re bringing science into the art of drilling wells,” Portillo said....

[IsailedawayfromFR]

The most significant part of this article are two quotes, the first from Shell and the second from the former head of EOG, Mark Papa.

“We’re bringing science into the art of drilling wells,” Shell

“There is no amount of technology that can improve bad geology,” Papa

A wannabe shale player in big boy Shell is idealistic in believing 'technology saves the day' whereas a true shale entrepeneur connotes the reality of shale plays.

I have seen technology in many faces over my career.  Most is garbage as it cannot be economic when deployed outside the lab.

The oil industry began using geology in its infancy and will do so until the last well is drilled.  Geology still controls the oil business and no amount of technology can overcome bad areas to drill.