As the upstream industry moves further into the 21st century, innovation and anomaly continue to play a major role in developing newer technologies that inevitably expand the recoverable resource window.

Rice University in Houston is credited with developing the first “nanomolecule,” Carbon 60 (C60), in 1985. In 1996, Dr. Richard Smalley and Dr. Robert Curl were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery. After Smalley died in 2005, Rice University renamed its nanocenter The Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, which is devoted to the development of new innovations on the nanometer scale.

Smalley Institute director Dr. Wade Adams believes that current nanoscale research will have great impact on the upstream oil and gas industry over the next 10 to 50 years. “We have a way to go with nanotube fibers, but their theoretical strength is much higher than any known fibers,” Adams said.

Currently, carbon fibers are used in the structures of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus 380. “Those fibers have a strength of 6 gigapascals; nanotube fibers in the lab have been made twice as strong.” Adams added, “In principle, these fibers can be as much as 20 times as strong.” Essentially, this would cut the weight of a standard SUV by two-thirds and maintain enough strength to withstand an accident.

Carbon nanomaterial is only a small portion of current research in nanotechnology. Since its inception, the challenge has been how to develop nanomaterials. According to Adams, this question is being answered. “Now, it’s time for engineers to start thinking about what can be made out of the material.”

The potential for the oil and gas industry could be limitless, from nanoreporters designed to enter a reservoir’s pore structure to determine reservoir characterization to elastomeric material that is three times as strong as traditional rubber with no change in elasticity. “There is a near-term aspect of things that could be done very quickly, but there are also more sophisticated developments for nanotechnology in the long term,” Adams said. What is needed now is research funding.

With a historical average of 40% production from most reservoirs, the remaining 60% is a huge value proposition. “Why not support long-term research that would allow us to incrementally improve total production over the course of the next ten years?” Adams asked, adding, “We are going to become more and more sophisticated in nanotechnology every decade.” With the likelihood that oil prices will continue to increase during this time, matching nanotechnology research with the upstream oil and gas sector could prove to vastly increase resource recovery rates over the course of the next 10 to 30 years.

Nanotech innovation currently is under way in a number of industries including aerospace and medicine. When asked about the competition between these sectors for nanotech innovation, Adams replied, “You take advantage of that. Percentage wise, oil companies tend to support less research than most industries.” Now more than ever, suppliers are depended upon to bring in new technology. Traditionally, large suppliers do some research, but also seek out smaller companies developing new technology and sometimes buy them out. “It will be up to these companies to be alert enough to pick up on a discovery, say, in medicine. For instance, nanomaterial currently is being developed to treat cancer. These particles are designed to function in the bloodstream, which is a salty fluid. It’s definitely not high pressure or high temperature, but the salinity makes it similar to reservoir fluids. Something that works in the bloodstream may also function in downhole environments. Why not? That’s a starting point.”

Rice University currently is at the top of its game in research funding. “We’ve grown from US $3 million/year to $15 million/year in industrial, mostly nanotech, research funding,” Adams said. The measurement of value for research funding can be determined in how patents are awarded.

“We crank about one patent per million dollars per year,” Adams said. Rice University is number one in the US for patents generated per million dollars. Its next-highest competitor, Georgia Tech, does 0.66, and MIT in Cambridge, Mass., generates four-tenths of a patent per million dollars ($2.5 million/patent) on average.

Fundamental research focused on solving problems requires investment; investing in new technologies today likely will increase long-term value of oil and natural gas operations.