I'm John Karanikas. I'm the Shell Chief Scientist for Reservoir Engineering.
Very promising, very big and very tantalising sources of oil and gas...
are stored in unusual rock formations.
Bringing the so-called unconventional resources to the surface...
would require new and innovative technologies.
We're talking about huge volumes of hydrocarbons here.
For example, the oil sands of Alberta hold over 100 billion barrels of oil.
The oil shale in the US could account for potentially...
over 800 billion barrels of oil.
And the shale gas in the US could fuel US consumption for decades.
Equally, in other parts of the world...
there are promising unconventional gas projects.
For instance in China, we develop together with our partner, PetroChina...
the mayor Changbei gas field.
The challenges in dealing with unconventional resources are plentiful.
They are either contained in rocks with very small pores...
that cause high resistance to flow...
or, in the case of oil, is just too thick to flow.
Sometimes the oil and gas reservoirs are full of fractures or fissures...
which changes temperature and pressure varies.
For a reservoir engineer like myself the one specific challenge...
is to use mathematical models to accurately capture...
the changing behaviour of rocks and fluids, and predict what happens...
when the temperature and pressures underground vary.
Having a deep and broad understanding of the science of physics...
the chemistry of rocks and how the liquids and gas flow, is a prerequisite.
We use mathematical models because it's very expensive...
to test new production methods in the real rock formations.
Instead, we collect small sections of rock that contain the hydrocarbons...
and analyse the behaviour in the laboratory...
where testing is comparatively inexpensive.
Finally, we apply these models to design and operate...
field tests in 'the real world'.
For example, in the production of unconventional oil...
we often inject steam to make the oil flow more easily.
In the hot region of the reservoir where we inject steam...
oil and water may turn into a mixture of vapours.
On its way to the cooler production zone...
the vapour mix turns back into liquids of somewhat different composition...
that flows more easily.
As you can imagine it isn't an easy exercise predicting all these changes.
But that is exactly our job.
Oil shale reservoirs pose different challenges to the engineers.
Producing the hydrocarbons that are stored in a solid form in the rock...
requires a different technique than traditional steam injection.
We're developing a new thermal recovery technology...
based on injecting pure heat, using long heaters, stuck in the formation.
Now what makes the job truly innovative...
is a strong impact of chemistry on the models.
We sometimes call that 'a refinery in the subsurface'.
Our department recently started working on unconventional gas technologies too.
Unconventional gas is tightly locked in rocks with often hair-thin pores.
Typically, developing these resources...
requires a huge number of wells to be drilled...
and the rock needs to be fractured to increase the gas flow.
The overall challenge here is to reduce the number of wells...
to bring down the cost and reduce the footprint.
Equally, we seek to minimise the energy...
and the water consumption of the fracturing process.
Again, enhanced models of what is happening in the subsurface...
are critical enablers towards these objectives.
As a Chief Scientist, part of my job...
is to help stimulate innovation here at Shell...
and keep us at the forefront of technology development.
Technology is critical to help all forms of energy flowing.
Part of my initial attraction in coming to work in the energy industry...
was that my research would have an impact.
I came to Shell because it has that extra edge versus other companies...
in being a truly global player in energy technology.
Shell offers unparallelled opportunities for those...
who like to develop technologies, fuelling progress in the world.