Abstract

Net energy analysis (NEA) has traditionally been utilized by nonindustry actors, such as academics, economists, and regulators. It has not been widely accepted as a beneficial method within the oil and gas industry with regard to oil extraction systems. This research describes several NEA metrics, such at the energy return on energy investment (EROI), and the energy intensity ratio (EIR), and suggests several practical benefits to oil and gas owner/operators of applying them. The benefits are primarily realized by integrating NEA into economic analysis at the field level, facility level, and well level. The high level impact of energy on both capital and operational (OPEX and CAPEX) expenditures is explored. The case is made that NEA can be used to illuminate the drivers behind energy intensive oil and gas extraction processes, and thus can be used to reveal important economic risks and opportunities.

References

1.
Evans
,
D.
,
1982
, “
Energy Analysis as an Aid to Public Decision-Making
,”
European Federation of Chemical Engineers Conference on Energy
,
London, UK
,
Oct. 12
.
2.
Herendeen
,
R. A.
, and
Cleveland
,
C.
,
2004
, “
Net Energy Analysis: Concepts and Methods
,”
The Encyclopedia of Energy
,
4
, pp.
283
289
. 10.1016/B0-12-176480-X/00241-2
3.
Cleveland
,
C. J.
,
2005
, “
Net Energy From the Extraction of Oil and Gas in the United States
,”
Energy
,
30
(
5
), pp.
769
782
. 10.1016/j.energy.2004.05.023
4.
Murphy
,
D. J.
,
Hall
,
C. A.
,
Dale
,
M.
, and
Cleveland
,
C.
,
2011
, “
Order From Chaos: A Preliminary Protocol for Determining the EROI of Fuels
,”
Sustainability
,
3
(
10
), pp.
1888
1907
. 10.3390/su3101888
5.
Guilford
,
M. C.
,
Hall
,
C. A.
,
O’Connor
,
P.
, and
Cleveland
,
C. J.
,
2011
, “
A New Long Term Assessment of Energy Return on Investment (EROI) for US Oil and Gas Discovery and Production
,”
Sustainability
,
3
(
10
), pp.
1866
1887
. 10.3390/su3101866
6.
El-Houjeiri
,
H. M.
,
Brandt
,
A. R.
, and
Duffy
,
J. E.
,
2013
, “
Open-Source LCA Tool for Estimating Greenhouse gas Emissions From Crude Oil Production Using Field Characteristics
,”
Environ. Sci. Technol.
,
47
(
11
), pp.
5998
6006
. 10.1021/es304570m
7.
Gordon
,
D.
,
Brandt
,
A. R.
,
Bergerson
,
J.
, and
Koomey
,
J.
,
2015
,
Know Your Oil: Creating a Global Oil-Climate Index
,
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
,
Washington, DC
.
8.
Tripathi
,
V. S.
, and
Brandt
,
A. R.
,
2017
, “
Estimating Decades-Long Trends in Petroleum Field Energy Return on Investment (EROI) With an Engineering-Based Model
,”
PLoS One
,
12
(
2
), p.
e0171083
. 10.1371/journal.pone.0171083
9.
M., E.E.a.B.
Rystand Energy Ranks the Cheapest Sources of Supply in the Oil Industry
,” https://www.rystadenergy.com/newsevents/news/press-releases/Rystad-Energy-ranks-the-cheapest-sources-of-supply-in-the-oil-industry-/, Accessed February 12, 2020.
10.
Kaiser
,
M. J.
, and
Yu
,
Y.
,
2010
, “
Marginal Production in the Gulf of Mexico—II. Model Results
,”
Appl. Energy
,
87
(
8
), pp.
2526
2534
. 10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.02.021
11.
King
,
C. W.
,
2010
, “
Energy Intensity Ratios as Net Energy Measures of United States Energy Production and Expenditures
,”
Environ. Res. Lett.
,
5
(
4
), p.
044006
. 10.1088/1748-9326/5/4/044006
12.
Maxwell
,
J. P.
,
2013
,
Energy Intensity Ratios as Net Energy Measures for Selected Countries 1978–2010
, Thesis, Department of Energy and Earth Resources, University of Texas.
13.
Grassian
,
D.
, and
Olsen
,
D.
,
2020
, “
Detailed Energy Accounting of Electrical Submersible Pumping Systems
,”
Energies
,
13
(
2
), p.
302
. 10.3390/en13020302
14.
El-Houjeiri
,
H. M.
, and
Brandt
,
A. R.
,
2012
,
Oil Production Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimator OPGEE v1. 0. Work
.
You do not currently have access to this content.