The helium well that produces 93% CO₂
In the USA, 0.3% or 3,000 ppm helium in the gas stream is regarded as the cut-off for profitable onshore production. Yet, French company 45-8 Energy has identified a prospect…
Europe
Heating a block of houses rather than a single one
Closed loop geothermal systems, with a heat pump superimposed, form a new and promising way of domestic heating systems. Hundreds of small rigs are actively drilling these loops across many…
The further from shore the more sand
Looking at this cross-section from the Norwegian Sea, showing Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene sediments, a surprising thing seems to happen. The amount of sand increases going westwards, away from the…
Europe’s first full-scale onshore CO2 storage project
Gas Storage Denmark (GSD) is currently in the detailed engineering phase of Europe’s first large-scale, commercially operational onshore CO2 storage facility (CO2RYLUS). This initiative aims to accelerate the development of…
Extended reach drilling for geothermal energy production
The energy transition is about pipe, lots of pipe. Where gas can be transported across the globe, geothermal energy, especially the low-temperature version of it that is mainly used for…
Dutch flagship CCS project given the go-ahead in court
More than 1000 people listened to the online broadcast of a hearing that lasted for about 3 minutes. There was something important at stake; the future of carbon storage in…
An analogue for carbon storage reservoirs
The German Eifel hosts some great outcrops of the Lower Triassic ‘Buntsandstein’, such as this one featured here near the village of Bitburg. These sandstones were deposited in an arid…
“It’s not difficult, it’s different”
Many people think that heavy oil developments are even worse than lignite, but that is not the case according to Maurice Bamford who recently gave a talk on the Pilot…
Where to drill in the Dutch offshore?
The GEODE platform, an online viewer and database compiled by EBN and TNO – Geological Survey of the Netherlands – provides an overview of the exploration potential and risks associated…
Norway inches closer to opening up for deep-sea mining
“We need minerals to succeed with the energy transition. Today, resources are controlled by a few countries, which makes us vulnerable. Seabed minerals can become a source of access to…
Would Keir Starmer have changed his mind when he would have attended Devex 2023?
Twenty years ago, the first edition of Devex took place in Aberdeen. At the time, the conference revolved around extending the life of oil and gas fields. “Not much has…
Schoonebeek oil production is on hold in the Netherlands – again
When looking at a map of the Schoonebeek oil field and its equivalent in Germany (see below), one would almost think that the Germans and the Dutch agreed on the…