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Manage supply and demand
Meeting the growing energy demand; extracting difficult-to-access resources; processing heavier and sourer crudes; and providing cleaner fuels to address concerns about greenhouse gases and climate change are the key challenges for the oil and gas industry. Although alternative energy sources are being developed, oil and gas will be integral to global energy needs for many years. Across the industry, from producers to refiners, innovation will be the key to meeting these needs. Shell Global Solutions’ consultancy and technology services can help energy companies to manage unconventional resources, refine difficult-to-process crude oils and manufacture cleaner products.
- Supply – meeting energy needs
- Changing feedstock slates – meeting ever-tightening specifications
- Changing demand patterns
The decline of easy-to-extract conventional resources is prompting energy companies to look at developing unconventional resources, for example, oil sands and tight gas, as well as deepwater reserves. Although these sources of hydrocarbons may be more difficult to access, they can provide a valuable source of supply with the right expertise.
Accessing resources
Debate about energy security is widespread, and many countries are concerned about their reliance on imported energy. In China, Shell Global Solutions’ coal gasification technology is helping to convert coal reserves to cleaner fuels. In Qatar, Shell is working with Qatar Petroleum to develop the Pearl gas to liquids (GTL) project, which will draw on Qatar’s large reserves of natural gas.
International and independent oil companies are seeking to increase oil production and extend the lives of reservoirs. Global Solutions, in conjunction with Shell Exploration & Production, continues to pioneer enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology. This can help energy companies to extract previously inaccessible reserves. EOR techniques include injecting steam into reservoirs to heat the oil and make it more fluid so it flows more easily; injecting gas to push the oil out or thin it to improve its viscosity; and injecting chemicals that can free trapped oil.
Supply chain gains
Further down the supply chain, Global Solutions can help companies to improve their planning and scheduling processes. Crude oil planners and schedulers can be helped to increase the range of crudes available for processing to take advantage of lower-priced opportunity crudes. For instance, Godorf refinery in Germany enhanced its bottom line by $1.5 million after introducing global crude evaluation successful practices and looking for synergies between plant configuration and product demand and quality.
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Growing global demand for energy, coupled with decreasing supplies of easy oil, is prompting energy companies to consider heavier and unconventional sources of crude oil.
Many of the world’s future accessible hydrocarbon resources will take the form of oil shales or sands. These sources produce heavy crudes, often with high densities and high levels of sulphur and other impurities, all of which make the oil difficult to process and meeting product specifications demanding and expensive. Heavy crudes also have high total acid numbers, which can lead to corrosion problems during processing.
Margin focus
Shell Global Solutions’ technologies can help customers to take advantage of difficult-to-process crudes. We provide business and operational consultancy to help customers upgrade the capacity and performance of their existing units. We license technologies that are designed to help refiners to process increasingly heavy crudes into lighter products that meet ever-more stringent fuel specifications.
As the purchase of crude oil forms a large percentage of a refinery’s costs, customers can also take advantage of the crude oil risk assessment service (CORAS), which helps refineries to predict the corrosion behaviour of different crude oils and identify those that can be processed without compromising plant reliability.
Articles
Rising energy demand is set to continue globally, and is driven by economic growth in Asia, particularly in India and China. The International Energy Agency predicts that by 2030 demand will be 67% up on 2004 levels, if current trends continue. Many larger cities have concerns over air quality through increased levels of industrial activity and transport, and governments are responding with tighter legislation, such as reduced sulphur levels in gasoline and diesel, or mandates for biofuels.
The market also needs to address imbalances. In Europe, there is a surplus of gasoline and an undersupply of diesel. Europe’s gasoline surplus has traditionally found a home in the USA. However, the import requirements of the USA could decrease as the country increases its refining capacity and substitutes gasoline with ethanol.
Investing in technology
One way of staying ahead in a changing market is to take advantage of technology and innovation. For example, Shell Global Solutions’ gas to liquids (GTL) process is an innovative technology that converts natural gas into synthetic hydrocarbon liquids. GTL fuel is cleaner burning than conventional diesel; it is virtually sulphur-free and produces fewer particulates in exhaust emissions. Shell has pioneered GTL fuel and lubricants, and is building the world’s largest GTL plant, Pearl GTL, in Qatar.
Global Solutions’ Middle Distillates and Lower Olefins Selective (MILOS) process is a commercial method that can help refiners to meet the trend towards diesel.
Another example where technology makes the difference is the combination of Criterion Catalysts & Technologies’ catalysts and Global Solutions’ reactor hardware to help meet ultra-low-sulphur diesel mandates. Continuous R&D has helped improve the relative volume activity of Criterion's desulphurisation catalysts by a factor of four. These catalysts can be combined with Global Solutions’ reactor internals, which can produce 30–50% activity gains through improved catalyst utilisation and extra volume for loading catalyst.
Working together
The automotive industry is also addressing the development of new fuels, and Shell has worked for many years with vehicle manufacturers such as Ferrari, Audi and Ducati to promote technological advances. In 2006, Shell’s technical partnership with Audi resulted in the first diesel-powered car to win the Le Mans 24-hour race: a win repeated in 2007. The car was fuelled with Shell V-Power‡ Diesel race fuel, one of the components of which is Shell GTL Fuel.
‡Shell V-Power is a Shell trademark.
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