Future Directions for the U.S. Geological Survey's Energy Resources Program (2018) / Chapter Skim
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3 The ERP Portfolio with Respect to Energy Challenges
3 The ERP Portfolio with Respect to Energy Challenges
Pages 45-66
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and newer efforts in the rapidly changing energy landscape (e.g., methane hydrates, geothermal energy, and produced waters)
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Examples provided in this chapter reflect the present mix of projects in the ERP portfolio, including mandated service products and opportunistic research that has evolved in response to rapid changes in the energy landscape over the past 10 to 20 years. The committee provides its conclusions based on members' personal experiences with ERP products, interaction with ERP staff, and interactions with federal and nonfederal consumers of ERP products.
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OIL AND GAS ASSESSMENTS Using a geology-based approach, the ERP assesses technically recoverable oil and gas resources in priority basins within the United States and globally. The program does not assess economically recoverable resources.
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To illustrate the variety of ERP products, Table 3.1 lists oil and gas assessment products released in the last quarter of 2017. The table includes information about the region assessed, the type and description of product released, and the year the assessment was initially completed.
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FIGURE 3.2 2017 status of ERP oil and gas assessments for priority basins globally.
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geologic boundaries of assessment units within the defined total petroleum systems Lower Paleogene Geologic Report -Open- Full geologic framework for 2007 Midway and Wilcox File Report 2017-111 Tertiary strata, including Groups, and Carrizo (Sept 2017) source rocks, maturation, Sand of the Claiborne migration, trap and reservoir Group - Northern characteristics.
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, unbiased, and trusted data that would be helpful to ERP product consumers. Basic Research Related to Oil and Gas The ERP conducts basic research in support of oil and gas resource assessments: for example, ERP publications on "basin-centered" gas from the late 1980s through late 1990's (e.g., Spencer, 1989; Law, 2002)
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Laboratories The ERP operates chemical analytical laboratories that support ERP analysis needs as well as the analytical needs of other federal agencies, state and local agencies, and universities in its Central Energy Science Center in Denver, Colorado. They offer a unique and broad complement of experimental and analytical capabilities that enable fully integrated characterization of a broad suite of geological based energy resources.
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In consideration of ERP oil and gas assessments moving forward, product consumers identified how expanding assessments to consider economically recoverable resources within a range of oil prices, given fluctuations of prices in recent years, would expand the utility of ERP assessments (see Box 3.2 regarding supply curves)
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COAL The ERP quantifies technically recoverable coal resources on and under federal lands9 as well as the coal resources and reserves at the basin and national scale (e.g., East, 2013)
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However, continued technology advances in information technology and data analyses, as well as changes in coal utility and the coal market may indicate the need for a new external review. Recent products available through the USGS website include a major assessment of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana, which is the most productive coal basin in the United States (Luppens et al., 2015)
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in 1975.10 The NCRDS includes a cooperative program in which state geological surveys from all coal states compile basic stratigraphic and coal quality data. This information populates the primary database used to quantify coal resources and reserves.
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Increased engagement with international institutions is a positive development that increases the relevance and reach of ERP assessments, but the magnitude of the ERP coal resource program is likely to continue to decrease as coal becomes a less significant component of the domestic energy mix. In addition, limited funding of the NCRDS program has adversely affected cooperative activities with the states, which are vital sources of information for continued expansion of domestic coal resource databases and assessment products.
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The current ERP geothermal program area began in 2005 and collaborates with other USGS focus areas (e.g., Water Resources, Mineral Resources, Geologic Mapping, Earthquake Hazards, and Volcano Hazards) as well as externally with the DOE, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Labs, state agencies, academia, and industry (e.g., Ormat Nevada Inc., and FIGURE 3.3 Map showing the modeled spatial distribution of relative favorability of occurrence of geothermal resources in the western United States developed during the assessment of geothermal resources by the ERP program in collaboration with the DOE.
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is intended to expand the geothermal assessment methodology applied throughout the United States and includes assessments of low temperature, EGS, and sedimentary basin geothermal resources. The ERP contributes through characterization of the nation's geothermal resource endowment, complementing GTO technology development programs that address exploration and operational issues and reduction of the costs and risks of geothermal development.
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And in response to a USGS management request, IUREAP members evaluated how the ERP could contribute to decision making in the ongoing siting process for a longterm nuclear waste storage facility in the United States.18 The ERP conducts valuable and unbiased work related to the nation's uranium endowment that no other government agency or private company does. In collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the ERP developed new methods to estimate undiscovered uranium resources, and results of ERP efforts support international assessments of uranium resources.19 16 See https://eerscmap.usgs.gov/windfarm/.
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If economically feasible and safe technologies to develop methane hydrates are developed, then methane hydrates may substantially change the global and domestic energy mix. That finding became the basis for a sustained, multiagency effort to solve the scientific and technical challenges of
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a See https://www.energy.gov/fe/science-innovation/oil-gas-research/methane-hydrate. converting methane hydrates into a usable energy resource, beginning with the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act of 2000 (HR1753-106th Congress, 1999-2000)
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, in collaboration with the DOE, identified onshore Alaska and the offshore Gulf of Mexico were as focus study areas with large hydrate accumulations and the infrastructure that would allow for drilling and production of accumulations. Other countries, including Japan, Canada, and India,have also established research programs to investigate the energy resource potential of gas hydrates, although the government of Canada stopped funding gas hydrate research in 2012 (Arango, 2013)
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hydrate accumulations in coarse-grained sand-rich depositional systems Marine Methane Coordinated by DOE and Describes key scientific and technical Hydrate Field Research Consortium for Ocean challenges facing hydrate researchers Plan (2013) Leadership, and led by the today, lays out scientific drilling programs USGS that address outstanding challenges, and outlines educational opportunities for supporting the growing public interest in methane hydrates SOURCE: USGS.
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The ERP Portfolio with Respect to Energy Challenges 65 not include an economic cutoff. The ERP has since assumed responsibility of carbon sequestration research within the USGS and now focuses those efforts on supporting technology development for use of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR)
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