Blur the Boundary Between Upstream and Downstream

Cementing systems using ultra-lightweight hollow spheres can improve lightweight cement performance in deepwater operations and provide a viable alternative to conventional lightweight cement slurries. Efforts to expand the temperature limits of MWD and LWD tools have seen limited success. New approaches may be necessary if industry is to meet the demand for gas from deep reservoirs. Mixing fracturing fluids downhole, using liquid carbon dioxide and a suite of pump rate and pressure functions, may result in better control of the hydraulic fracturing process and significant cost and safety benefits. Production from unconventional gas resources has grown rapidly over the past decade. What new technologies will be needed to reach even greater levels of production by 2010? A prototype device for liquefying natural gas using thermoacoustics is capable of producing 500 gallons per day of LNG, consuming 35 percent of the incoming gas in the process. Larger capacities operating at higher efficiencies are on the drawing board. Efforts at the University of Arkansas have resulted in computer models that accurately predict the behavior of high-density methane vapor releases from LNG tanks.