GE Oil & Gas hopes to harness the power of existing technologies from its centers across the world, feeding applications into possible new solutions to oil and gas sector challenges while also developing unconventional technologies.

“For instance we’re developing multiphase flow metering technology in our center in Bangalore, India. That will feed into oilfield optimization solutions that will be developed here at the oil and gas center in Oklahoma,” Eric Gebhardt, CTO and vice president of engineering for GE, said during a media call Monday about the company’s newest technology center.

GE held a groundbreaking ceremony Monday for the $125 million center, which will span 9,290 sq m (100,000 sq ft) and create at least 130 high-tech jobs in Oklahoma City. Plans are for the center to open by third-quarter 2015. Gebhardt said the center will be a first for GE because it is solely focused on one industry—oil and gas.

The center will target five key areas, including production systems, artificial lift, electric well pads, other technologies for optimization and well construction.

“We’re looking at transformational technologies in the drilling completions operations with a focus on environmental footprint. Water technologies fit very well in this space also,” Gebhardt said. “It shows the synergies across GE where the oil and gas business can lean into our water business, which … allows us to use technologies for desalination or other technologies that can be utilized in the unconventional space.”

Attention also will be on CO2 and EOR technologies. This includes use of CO2 in hydraulic fracturing in areas where water supplies are not plentiful, he said, adding that GE will be partnering with Statoil on the CO2 and hydraulic fracturing project.

During the center’s groundbreaking, GE announced a technology collaboration agreement with Devon Energy.

“Devon Energy, being located here in Oklahoma City, ties in very well with the center that we have, and we’re working with them specifically around artificial lift systems, advanced drilling technology and water treatment solutions, which all play very well into the unconventional space that this center will be initially focused on as well as where Devon is focused today,” Gebhardt said.

The agreement aims to “drive innovations that will enhance the performance and economics of unconventional oil and natural gas projects,” according to a news release. As part of the agreement, the two will work on technology areas that include:
• Artificial lift systems to increase the flow of liquids from production wells;
• Advanced drilling technologies to improve performance as well as reduce costs and environmental impacts; and
• Water treatment and processing, also aimed at reducing water use and better utilizing water resources for unconventional oil and gas development.

The partnership is one of several that have been unveiled recently. In April, GE, PEMEX and the Mexico Institute of Petroleum inked a technology collaboration agreement. Areas of initial focus, according to GE, include efforts to “improve the efficiency of a mechanical flow device that could offer PEMEX significant recovery rate benefits in hundreds of wells, to increase the reliability of downhole equipment in the challenging onshore oil fields operated by PEMEX and to develop monitoring and inspection technologies for subsea equipment, allowing PEMEX to develop future deepwater projects in a safe and cost-effective way.”

Chevron Energy Technology Co. also has teamed up with GE building on an existing relationship involving flow analysis technology for oil and gas wells. In addition, GE broke ground in April on a $1 billion oil and gas manufacturing facility in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, and formally opened an expanded oil and gas facility in Fót, Hungary, in March.

“We have a portfolio of eight R&D centers around the world. Many of the centers today are focused today on first principles, physics types of technology such as metallurgy, coding, advanced manufacturing, computational fluid dynamics,” Gebhardt said before turning to the need for the center in Oklahoma. “We saw the need in this space to create a center that would be more applied research and development,” moving concepts to prototypes working directly with customers to move these technologies forward.

Contact the author, Velda Addison, at vaddison@hartenergy.com. Image on the home page is courtesy of GE Oil & Gas.

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