Energy politics changed in the last years, hydraulic fracturing restrictions arose in several European countries, like e.g. in Germany where the government passed a law restricting fracking, with exceptions for scientific and non-commercial projects. In 2015, a „stricter“ set of rules/legislation was passed that prohibits „unconventional fracking“ except for four scientific wells and subjects „conventional fracking“ to more stringent requirements. Therefore, a need in an environmentally friendly option to optimize reservoirs evolved to maintain a countries energy supply, while reducing the dependency on foreign countries like Russia, the U.S. etc. Resource-poor countries like e.g. Germany cannot afford an energy supply without its own contribution. Still there is a huge focus on unforeseeable ecotoxicological and health risks as well as seismological questions from politicians and residents. Appropriate solutions for both sides, the oil and gas companies as well as politicians and residents, need to be found. The BEER® project is one idea to do so, namely to find new technologies for increasing productivity and recovery using an economic bio enhanced energy recovery method.
The components selected for BEER® have been used for years in the drilling industry in various concentrations and compositions. The aim of this research project is an optimized, economically friendly method of operating in the field of hydraulic stimulation and sand control using a carrier fluid, the BEER® fluid, in combination with glass proppants. The fluid, consisting out of four components (water, linear polymer, potassium carbonate and glass proppants), needs to be adjusted to keep the outstanding properties of its components, like friction reduction, corrosion inhibition or clay stabilization, but also to get an economically and logistically friendly product for the oil, gas and geothermal industry. Additional requirements are a good transport capacity for the proppants, compatibility with rock formations and reservoir fluids and the possibility for a controlled breaking of the fluid for well clean-up after treatment. In a first step, the formulation of the BEER® fluid, having a focus on keeping the properties mentioned above, was studied in the laboratory of Fangmann Energy Services GmbH, Germany and OMV Exploration & Production GmbH, Austria. The amount needed of the different components was studied, while having the focus on using the smallest concentration of each constituent as possible, but still get the best possible properties for the present reservoir properties.
In the second part the BEER® fluid was customized for two different study areas. Namely, for oprojects with high temperatures present in the reservoir and the highest possible density and projects with a reservoir temperature of 70°C and standard conditions. So, the BEER® fluid will be tested for its minimum and maximum temperature resistance. The goal here was to test the limits of the fluid.
Additionally, the economic efficiency of the BEER® fluid was considered. Factors e.g. oil price that can dynamically change prices – like for transport, personnel, equipment, chemicals and disposal – were critically examined and analyzed using PERT analysis. Furthermore, the fluid was reflected ecologically with the help of a CO2 balance.