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Shell’s enhanced oil recovery programme, in conjunction with PDO in Oman, is an example of cutting edge technology being deployed in the Middle East.

Shell's chief technology officer, Jan Van Der Eijk, speaks exclusively to Oil & Gas Middle East about the IOC's latest developments and investment strategy.

Shell's portfolio of energy and petrochemical companies spans 104,000 employees in more than 110 countries. Investment in research, development and execution projects runs into the tens of billions of dollars each year, and encompasses activities across the entire energy remit.

The company's recent strategy update revealed that over time, and across the commodity cycle, Shell has achieved higher earnings and returns on investment in the upstream compared with its other businesses, and sees significant growth potential for oil and natural gas.

The report stressed that upstream business will constitute the major focus for future growth.

Net capital spending in 2007 was in the region of US$22 to US$23 billion, of which around 80% was invested in upstream projects.

Heading up and co-ordinating the technology programmes across the company's global effort is Jan Van Der Eijk, Shell's chief technology officer. The scope of his job remit is wide and the challenge substantial, but the CTO says he relishes the role and is at the helm at an exciting time for the company and industry as a whole.

"My career at Shell began in basic research and I have never lost my deep sense of the beauty and glory in technological discoveries. But I am equally aware that new technology is useless unless you know how to apply it.

That's why my Shell colleagues and I are committed to turning innovative ideas into practical ways of providing the energy and petrochemicals societies need to grow and prosper."

"It's my job to ensure that the totality of our technology programmes are in line with what we want to achieve in our business aspirations, so I work with the various technology departments we have worldwide to make sure the whole operation is co-ordinated and together as an approach," he says.

Van Der Eijk says we are on the eve of a new energy revolution, driven by the world's need for affordable energy and by the very real threat of climate change.

Oil companies are exploring increasingly hostile environments for new oil and gas reserves, and Shell is focussed on developing the technology necessary to extract them in responsible and economically viable ways.

"We are in a very interesting period right now. In the past upstream technology was all about exploring for oil and gas reserves and bringing them to light, and downstream traditionally meant starting with oil as the base product and refining that into other marketable goods.

What we see now is that new technology developments are transcending those established boundaries," he says.

Examples of where upstream and downstream have become blurred abound in the current energy scene, and the technology driving these changes is often attributable to Shell's investment.

Middle East focus

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector involves cryogenically cooling natural gas to -162 degrees Centigrade (-260 degrees Fahrenheit) for transportation and storage, followed by regassification, which has a lot in common with downstream activities.

LNG has been thrust to the fore of the regional agenda by opportunities to work with Qatar's vast natural gas resources, estimated at over 910 trillion cubic feet.

Sticking with Qatar, shell has been involved in the flagship Pearl gas to liquids (GTL) facility which is reportedly progressing on schedule, with the first train expected before the end of the decade.

The vast project is currently employing 20,000 people on-shore to construct the plant, and the first of three 1 200 tonne reactors has been installed at Ras Laffan.

"We are building a GTL facility in Ras Laffan. Our complex there is very large and takes gas produced from the northern fields to shore, where the contaminants are removed and the gas upgraded.

Then it can be turned into synthesis gas, which can in turn be turned into a range of hydrocarbon products, which, for example, can be used for cars and planes," says Van Der Eijk.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, Shell's successful partnership with PDO in Oman has been at the forefront of developing and improving a variety of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques.

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