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A Comment: Natural Gas Can Lead the Way

Mark Zoback — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:00:00 GMT

RPSEA Board Member Dr. Mark Zoback with Stanford University wrote the Commentary in EARTH Magazine's February Edition.

Much of the debate concerning energy, climate and the economy involves how to manage the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources. In this context, it may seem ironic to promote one fossil fuel over another, but natural gas is an inexpensive, abundant and relatively clean fuel that can lead the transition away from coal and oil, while achieving significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants over the next two decades. In short, increased use of domestic sources of natural gas needs to be an essential component of U.S. energy policy.

Please click here to view the entire article.

16-Feb-10 7:00 PM

Global Unconventional Gas 2010: Unlocking Your Potential

Diane Miller — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:00:00 GMT

Global Unconventional Gas 2010: Unlocking Your Potential is the world’s premier international conference and workshop designed to transfer knowledge and best practices gained in active unconventional gas plays to the rest of the world. Energy professionals and stakeholders will hear from the top U.S. and international experts about the enormous potential of gas shale and other unconventional gas resources across the globe and learn about the latest issues, approaches, processes and techniques key to unlocking the resources in their own countries. The conference will be held June 15-17 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

GTI is pleased to announce that Aubrey K. McClendon, Chairman & CEO, Chesapeake Energy Corporation, will be speaking on the topic of enabling unconventional resource development and Dr. Abdul Rahim Hashim, President, IGU will address The International Gas Union perspective of a unified industry voice. Day One offers a broad perspective of the potential for unconventional gas in a sustainable global energy mix and the issues associated with resource development. Day Two is focused on five technical sessions that will deliver state of the art insights into unconventional gas resource development around the world, reviewing current and developing technology with a focus on gas shales. You can view the complete agenda by clicking here.

The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel will host the group, with the conference sessions being held in the unique 17th century Koepelkerk, connected to the hotel. Hundreds of gas professionals from around the world are expected to attend. The conference will include several networking opportunities to meet and exchange ideas with others active in the unconventional gas area.

Registration is now open, with early discounts: $1495 if you register and pay by February 15; $1795 by April 15; and $1995 after April 15 and at the conference.

Make plans now to join the conference. View the conference website at www.gastechnology.org/gug2010 or e-mail gug2010@gastechnology.org for more information.

2-Feb-10 3:00 PM

U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy is Seeking Candidates for Advisory Committees

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:00:00 GMT

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy is currently seeking applications from qualified individuals to serve on their Unconventional Resources Technology Advisory Committee (URTAC) and Ultra-Deepwater Advisory Committee (UDAC). The Committees were established pursuant to Section 999D of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The closing date for receipt of applications is March 1, 2010. Any interested person or organization may nominate qualified individuals to serve on either committee.

More information about the program and how to apply can be found on the Committee Web pages linked below.

UDAC
http://www.fe.doe.gov/programs/oilgas/advisorycommittees/UltraDeepwater.html

URTAC
http://www.fe.doe.gov/programs/oilgas/advisorycommittees/UnconventionalResources.html

26-Jan-10 11:00 AM

RPSEA and ANGA Member Companies Win Big at Platts Global Energy Awards

Regina Hopper — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:00:00 GMT

It was a doubly successful night for two ANGA member companies at the recent 2009 Platts Global Energy Awards.

Not only did Chesapeake Energy take home the award for Energy Producer of the Year, but the company was recognized as the top-ranking industry leader of the year, too. Now that’s impressive! “Chesapeake has a track record of very strong financial and operating results with consistent production growth for 19 consecutive years, increasing production by 18 percent in 2008,” the judges wrote. “They hold a No. 1 or No. 2 position in each of the Big 4 shale plays, with no other company having more than one top-two position.”

If that isn’t enough to recognize our member companies’ leadership, Anadarko was awarded Energy Company of the Year and its chief executive, James Hackett, was named CEO of the Year. (Want to see why: See Hackett in action for yourself in Monday’s edition of CNBC’s Closing Bell.) The judges pointed to Anadarko’s three-year transformation following its acquisition of two major competitors, noting that with Hackett at the rudder, the firm had successfully steered through numerous divestitures, exceeded its production targets, restored its balance sheet and maintained its commitment to exploration, which paid off in one of the world’s top 10 discoveries offshore Ghana.

Congratulations on your well-deserved recognition as leaders in the energy industry!

To view the actual article, click here.

18-Jan-10 2:00 PM

Worldwide Gas Shales and Unconventional Gas: A Status Report

Danette Mozisek — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Vello A. Kuuskraa, president of Advanced Resources International, Inc. and a member of the Board of Directors and the Strategic Advisory Committee for the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA), presented Worldwide Gas Shales and Unconventional Gas: A Status Report in Copenhagen, Denmark at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 on December 12, 2009. His talk was part of a panel on “The Evolving Role of Natural Gas: An Industry Perspective” during the special Saturday afternoon session on “Natural Gas, Renewables and Efficiency: Pathways to a Low-Carbon Economy."

Kuuskraa’s talk discussed how the discovery and development of gas shales and other unconventional gas resources in North America have led to a “paradigm shift” in the outlook for natural gas and the much larger role it could play in reducing emissions of CO₂. Using the North American experience as the example, he discussed how the development of gas shales and unconventional gas could provide similar impacts on energy security and CO₂ emission reductions in Europe, China and other areas with large, prospective gas shale basins.

Other presenters included Christopher Flavin, president of the Worldwatch Institute, Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, and Senator Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation.

The event marked RPSEA's partnership with the Worldwatch Institute and the American Clean Skies Foundation, with generous support from The Fleischaker Companies, of the United Nations Conference. It highlighted the role that natural gas could play in emerging global energy systems and kicked off a global unconventional gas resource assessment led by RPSEA with team support from and RPSEA members Advanced Resources International, the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, the Gas Technology Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University and several other invited organizations.

Please see below to view the report and presentation.

29-Dec-09 4:00 PM

RPSEA to Present at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference

Danette Mozisek — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:45:00 GMT

RPSEA is pleased to announce its support in partnership with the Worldwatch Institute and the American Clean Skies Foundation, with generous support from the Fleischaker Companies, for a presentation in conjunction with the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009. Vello A. Kuuskraa, president of Advanced Resources International, Inc., and a member of the Board of Directors and the Strategic Advisory Committee for the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA), will present his outlook on “World Resources of Gas Shales and Unconventional Gas” in Copenhagen, Denmark on December 12, 2009. His talk is part of a panel on “The Evolving Role of Natural Gas: An Industry Perspective” during the special Saturday afternoon session on “Natural Gas, Renewables and Efficiency: Pathways to a Low-Carbon Economy,” in support of the climate change meetings and negotiations underway in Copenhagen.

Kuuskraa’s talk will discuss how the discovery and development of gas shales and other unconventional gas resources in North America have led to a “paradigm shift” in the outlook for natural gas and the much larger role it could play in reducing emissions of CO₂. Using the North American experience as the example, he will discuss how the development of gas shales and unconventional gas could provide similar impacts on energy security and CO₂ emission reductions in Europe, China and other areas with large, prospective gas shale basins. Other presenters include Christopher Flavin, president of the Worldwatch Institute, Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, and Senator Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation.

This invitation only event will highlight the role that natural gas could play in emerging global energy systems and will be the inaugural event to kick off a global unconventional gas resource assessment led by RPSEA with team support from and RPSEA members Advanced Resources International, the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, the Gas Technology Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University and several other invited organizations.

If you are interested in attending this event, or if you are interested in supporting the global gas resource assessment study, please contact Danette Mozisek with RPSEA at dmozisek@rpsea.org for further information.

For more information on the conference, please click here.

2-Dec-09 11:45 AM

RPSEA's Unconventional Resources Program Wins Best Project Award at the 24th World Gas Conference

Danette Mozisek — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:00:00 GMT

The Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) Unconventional Resources Program was recognized at the 24^th World Gas Conference, The Global Energy Challenge: Reviewing the Strategies for Natural Gas with the RPSEA New Albany Shale Gas project receiving a best project award.

RPSEA’s Team Lead, Unconventional Resources Kent Perry presented at the conference that was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina and was attended by more than 3,500 attendees from 83 countries around the world.

The International Gas Union (IGU) hosts the event every three years, which comprises all domains of the gas industry, from the wellhead to the end user, covering special important features, sustainable development, market integration, regulation, and research and development. It is the purpose of IGU to continue in its contribution to a sharper insight on the new key energy and natural gas industry challenges, involving every representative stakeholder in this process, including governments and policymakers.

The New Albany Shale Gas project is being performed by a research team led by the Gas Technology Institute and includes Amherst College, University of Massachusetts, ResTech, Texas A&M University, Pinnacle Technologies, West Virginia University and the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology to develop techniques and methods for increasing the productivity of New Albany shale gas wells to a level where the otherwise noncommercial gas resource may become commercially viable.

The primary goal of this project is to identify technical hurdles to successful development of this large gas resource and, through a focused research effort, resolve those issues. All the necessary aspects of developing a shale resource are being integrated into this project. The New Albany shale will require careful consideration of well drilling geometries, accurate formation characterization, and completion practices to ensure optimum gas recovery.

Funding for the projects is provided through the “Ultra-Deepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Resources Research and Development Program” authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This program—funded from lease bonuses and royalties paid by industry to produce oil and gas on federal lands—is specifically designed to increase supply and reduce costs to consumers while enhancing the global leadership position of the United States in energy technology through the development of domestic intellectual capital. RPSEA is under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory to administer several elements of the program. RPSEA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit consortium with more than 150 members, including 25 of the nation's premier research universities, five national laboratories, other major research institutions, large and small energy producers and energy consumers. The mission of RPSEA, headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, is to provide a stewardship role in ensuring the focused research, development and deployment of safe and environmentally responsible technology that can effectively deliver hydrocarbons from domestic resources to the citizens of the United States.

Please see below Kent Perry's paper and presentation that won the award. Congratulations to Kent and his team for a job well done!

3-Nov-09 11:00 AM

IOGCC Selects HARC Program for Stewardship Award

Ginny Jahn — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:00:00 GMT

The Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems (EFD) Program, a collaborative project led by the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), has been selected by the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission's Stewardship Award Subcommittee as the winner in the Environmental Partnership category. The award was presented at the Commission's annual meeting in Biloxi, Mississippi on October 5.

Since its inception in 1935, the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) has voiced the need for sound oil and natural gas environmental policy. In 2001, the IOGCC initiated the annual Chairman's Stewardship Awards, representing the Commission's highest honor for exemplary efforts in environmental stewardship. The awards recognize achievement and challenge organizations, companies and individuals nationwide to demonstrate innovation, dedication and passion for our environment.

The EFD program seeks to

combine new low-impact technologies that reduce the footprint of drilling activities,
integrate light-weight drilling rigs with reduced emission engine packages,
address on-site waste management,
optimize the systems to fit the needs of a specific development sites, and
provide stewardship of the environment.

The program involves industry, the public, environmental organizations, and elected officials in a collaboration that addresses concerns on development of unconventional natural gas resources in environmentally sensitive areas. Partners bring their regional expertise together in a synergistic manner to address the needs across the country.

Dr. Richard Haut, project director and principal investigator of the EFD program, explained that the project seeks to reduce environmental tradeoffs associated with operations for unconventional natural gas and, at the same time, to involve all stakeholders in the process. "Our program aims to foster dialogue among the public, industry, environmental organizations, academia, and government agencies/regulators so together we can develop the best drilling methods to safeguard environmentally sensitive ecosystems."

Mike Smith, Executive Director of the IOGCC, said that the Environmental Partnership award presented to the EFD program recognizes an innovative project led by a non-industry organization in cooperation with industry partners. "The EFD program is an outstanding example of what the award represents," Smith said.

Created in 2005, the EFD program is a partnership of HARC, Texas A&M University, Sam Houston State University, the University of Arkansas, the University of Colorado, West Virginia University and TerraPlatforms, L.L.C. It is co-funded by the US Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory, the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America and a number of environmental organizations, government agencies, and industry sponsors including major integrated and independent operators, service companies and suppliers. The program has become a clearing house of knowledge on reducing the impact of oil and gas operations through presentations, publications and website: www.efdsystems.com.

Created in 1982, HARC is a not-for-profit organization based in The Woodlands, Texas, dedicated to improving human and ecosystem well-being through the application of sustainability science and principles of sustainable development.

The IOGCC, representing the governors of 30 member and eight associate states, promotes the conservation and efficient recovery of the nation's oil and natural gas resources while protecting health, safety, and the environment. Established by the charter member states' governors in 1935, it is the oldest, largest, and most effective interstate compact in the nation.

For more information, contact Rich Haut at 281-364-6093 or rhaut@harc.edu.

You can view this press release on the HARC website at www.HARConline.net/Press/IOGCC.

RPSEA footnote:

Both HARC and IOGCC sit on RPSEA's Board of Directors and are RPSEA members. Congratulations to HARC!

21-Oct-09 4:00 PM

UH Professor Making Waves in Deepwater Drilling

Brett Clanton — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:00:00 GMT

No matter how big the oil company or smart the scientists they employ, drilling for oil in the deepest waters of the Gulf of Mexico may always be a gamble.

Little by little, however, Arthur Weglein is helping to improve the odds.

Research by the University of Houston physics professor, along with faculty colleagues and graduate students in a program he directs, has led to advances in the field of seismic exploration technology that have played a role in recent major oil discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico, off Brazil and elsewhere.

Today his team is close to completing a theory that could be another leap forward. Though it would use conventional seismic equipment, it calls for a fundamentally different approach to processing the data.

In an attempt to remove the “noise” sound waves pick up as they travel thousands of feet into rock beds and out again, Weglein said he has a found a way to make existing seismic data “talk” to one another and link information to produce a more accurate picture of subsea formations.

Such images could help oil companies reduce drilling risk and provide an invaluable road map to the industry in its global hunt for energy resources.

“Our goal is to make the currently inaccessible petroleum target accessible and the accessible better defined,” Weglein said in a recent interview at the University of Houston building where he teaches.

That mission has gained importance in recent years, as higher commodity prices and rising world energy demands have pushed oil companies into ever-deeper waters and into more complex rock formations in search of resources.

Limitations found

Along the way, the companies have encountered limitations in traditional seismic survey technology that has been the industry standard for years.

Seismic surveys use sound waves to determine the composition of subsurface rock layers, yet they have had trouble providing accurate data through salt domes that often trap oil deposits underneath.

Rather than shooting straight through, bouncing off the target and coming back to the surface where the data is collected, sound waves tend to bounce around several times in a salt dome before emerging, creating readings called “multiples” that make interpretation of the data difficult.

What's really there

Weglein is perhaps best known for theories and processes that have helped remove these multiples and achieve a better picture of what lies beneath a salt dome.

That research laid the foundation for Weglein to establish the Mission-Oriented Seismic Research Program at the University of Houston in 2001, with the backing of more than a dozen corporate sponsors including Exxon Mobil Corp., BP and Shell.

“All of those companies are members because of Art Weglein,” said Tom McClure, IBM's business and technical manager for deep computing to the petroleum industry and a member of the program's board.

The program is at the forefront of UH President Renu Khator's effort to make the school a leading hub for energy industry education and research.

Even member companies that don't use research produced by Weglein's program see value in supporting it because of its potential to improve subsurface images extracted from seismic data.

“Better images lead to more effective oil and gas exploration, particularly in geologically complicated areas such as the deep water Gulf of Mexico,” said Bill Dragoset, geophysical adviser with WesternGeco, oil field services giant Schlumberger's seismic business, and another member of the consortium's board.

Doubts arise

Weglein, however, will be the first to admit there are plenty of naysayers about his current theory, which he will present at a conference in Egypt in November and hopes to field test next year.

“What we're aiming to do is to get the target located and delineated without needing to know anything above it,” he said.

By contrast, traditional seismic imaging methods require an estimate of the speed of a sound wave as it travels from the water's surface, into the earth, bounces off a target, and returns to the surface.

Oil companies may spend years and hundreds of millions of dollars trying to interpret such data and map a formation, but deciding where to drill still involves a lot of guesswork, Weglein said.

Last year, for instance, oil companies drilled 85 exploratory wells in water depths of 1,000 feet or greater in the Gulf of Mexico but only announced 15 discoveries, a success rate of about 17 percent, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service. And at more than $100 million per well, the cost of dry holes can add up quickly for oil companies.

Domestic oil potential

Weglein believes his new theory will help boost the success rate in the deep water and allow oil producers to revisit shallow-water areas where salt domes had blocked their view. It could even reveal far more oil in U.S. waters than previously thought.

A recent Interior Department report said unexplored areas of the Outer Continental Shelf could contain some 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, though not all is economically feasible to recover.

But those who try to predict the amount of petroleum left in the U.S. or the rest of the world, Weglein said, are “destined to be incorrect.”

For the actual Houston Chronicle article, click here.

11-Oct-09 8:00 PM

Observers Question Strategy Behind Raising Taxes on Oil, Gas

Nick Snow — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 29 -- A strategy that diverts federal tax incentives from domestic oil and gas to renewable and alternative energy would quickly increase oil and gas imports, industry observers warned on Sept. 28.

“We need to probe what it actual means to overinvest in oil and gas,” said Lucian (Lou) Pugliaresi, president of Energy Policy Research Foundation Inc. (EPRINC) in reference to recent statements by US President Barack Obama and other administration officials.

“But if you reduce what you invest domestically in oil and gas, you increase imports. There’s no way to get around it,” Pugliaresi told congressional staff members at a Capitol Hill briefing that EPRINC cosponsored with the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Energy Economics and the Brookings Institution.

The organizations hosted the briefing at the requests of US Reps. Cynthia M. Lummus (R-Wyo.) and Harry Teague (D-NM), Pugliaresi noted. He said White House oil and gas tax proposals in its proposed fiscal 2010 budget would adversely affect downstream as well as upstream operations.

One proposal that would keep refiners from the Section 199 tax exemption available to all other US manufacturers would hit a business with a rate of return significantly lower than other industries, he said. Combined with proposed carbon cap-and-trade costs and existing consumption taxes, EPRINC estimates that losing the tax credit could reduce US refining capacity by 2 million b/d over time, Pugliaresi said.

Gas demand growth
Even without a federal greenhouse gas emissions control program, stronger US natural gas demand also is inevitable because low-carbon technologies are immature and their costs and timing of deployment are uncertain, observed Michelle M. Foss, chief economist and head of UT-Austin’s Center for Energy Economics.

“Demand for gas is going to be robust in the future, especially as people explore new ways to use it,” Foss said. “The desire to move away from fuels with higher carbon emissions also is having an impact.”

The oil and gas investment climate is similar to that of the pharmaceutical industry because it requires large sums to be committed with slim chances of success, she pointed out.

“I wouldn’t call it overinvesting,” Foss said. “More people simply need to understand how much money needs to be spent before that first barrel of oil or first cubic foot of gas is produced. Even with all the technology that’s available, there’s still a substantial risk.”

Development of hydraulic fracturing to recover gas from shale formations has improved the domestic resource outlook significantly, Foss said. It also has made water management a key issue in several potential production areas, she pointed out.

“There’s a lot of communication across the producing community, state regulatory offices, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory to see what happens in each shale formation,” Foss said. “But every formation is different. Parts of each formation are different too.”

The overall goal is to use fewer rigs to produce more gas, she explained. “It’s extremely exciting, but it’s extremely challenging too. We need to consider what the best regulatory environment will be,” she said.

Incentives needed
Smaller independent producers would be hit hardest without exemptions for intangible drilling costs, tertiary injectant expenses, enhanced oil recovery costs, and costs for marginally producing wells, several speakers said. They said that these producers, who are not big enough to go to private capital markets for money, must rely on cash flow to stay in business, and that cash flow has fallen with oil and gas prices recently.

Upstream independents who use commodity hedges to keep cash flow steadier also would suffer if proposals to require all over-the-counter transactions to go through regulated exchanges become law, according to Lee O. Fuller, vice-president of government relations at the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

“Using the OTC markets lets them use their reserves as collateral,” Fuller explained. “Forcing them onto regulated exchanges requiring cash collateral and daily clearing could lead to more volatile prices because most independent producers could no longer afford to hedge 2 or 3 years of production as they do now.”

“Small producers also can’t survive without government-supported research at universities like ours,” said Van Romero, vice-president of research and development at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, NM.

Romero noted that since the US Department of Energy’s fossil fuel research budget has been eliminated, the only federal money available for oil and gas research and development is $35.9 million that the Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized for unconventional onshore and ultra-deepwater research.

“This is no giveaway to Big Oil as I’ve heard some people call it,” Romero said. “It’s directed money, not an appropriation, which supports education of the future oil and gas workforce as well as future technologies’ R&D.”

29-Sep-09 5:00 PM

BP Discovers Vast Oil Reserve in Gulf of Mexico

Danette Mozisek — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:00:00 GMT

BP announces major Gulf of Mexico (GOM) discovery. The immense technical challenges facing development of this ultra-deep well in ultra-deepwater and other recent discoveries in the GOM are many of the technical research areas RPSEA is focused on in its Ultra-Deepwater program (UDW) under Section 999 of EPAct 2005. BP is one of several ultra-deepwater operators which helps direct the RSPEA UDW program managed by Chevron through its DeepStar research consortium.

Please click here to view the Associated Press' press release on Fox News' website.

Please click here to view BP's press release.

14-Sep-09 3:00 PM

RPSEA Selects Projects for the 2008 Ultra-Deepwater Program

Danette Mozisek — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:00:00 GMT

SUGAR LAND, Texas – September 1, 2009 – The Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) announces twelve proposals have been selected for negotiations leading to an award under the 2008 Ultra-Deepwater Program focused on increasing the supply of ultra-deepwater and unconventional natural gas and other petroleum resources.

"These twelve projects continue to build the integrated research portfolio envisioned by the 2007 and 2008 approved Annual Plans for the Ultra-Deepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Resources Research and Development Program to develop technologies and architectures for operations in ultra-deepwater,” said RPSEA President C. Michael Ming. “They add to the 17 projects selected for the 2007 Ultra-Deepwater Program to make an increasingly important contribution to the nation’s energy needs. This Program is designed to bring the resources of America’s leading universities, research institutions and technology innovators to bear on the development of domestic resources in water depths of 1,500 meters or greater by reducing costs, increasing efficiency, improving safety and minimizing environmental impacts.”

While awards under the RPSEA Ultra-Deepwater Program are open to any U.S.-based organization, most projects involve a team consisting of researchers along with producers or service companies that are in a position to evaluate and apply new technology. Each proposal must provide a minimum of 20% cost share, with up to 50% for field demonstration projects.

The selected projects are as follows:

Coil Tubing, Drilling and Intervention Systems Using Cost Effective Vessel
Project Leader: Nautilus International, LLC
Additional Project Participants: GE Oil & Gas; NOV CTES; INTECSEA; Tidewater Marine, LLC; The University of Tulsa; Texas A&M University; General Marine Contractors; Huisman Equipment BV

New Safety Barrier Testing Methods
Project Leader: Southwest Research Institute

Riserless Intervention System (RIS)
Project Leader: DTC International
Additional Project Participants: Superior Energy Services; NOV Texas Oil Tools; Deepwater Research, Inc.; Det Norske Veritas (USA)

Advanced Steady-State and Transient, Three-Dimensional, Single and Multiphase, Non-Newtonian Simulation System for Managed Pressure Drilling
Project Leader: Stratamagnetic Software, LLC

Technologies of the Future for Pipeline Monitoring and Inspection
Project Leader: The University of Tulsa
Additional Project Participant: T.D. Williamson, Inc.

Wireless Subsea Communications Systems
Project Leader: GE Global Research
Additional Project Participant: Northeastern University

Replacing Chemical Biocides with Targeted Bacteriophages in Deepwater Pipelines and Reservoirs
Project Leader: Phage Biocontrol, LLC
Additional Project Participants: Texas A&M University; Shell International Exploration & Production; ConocoPhillips Company; Petrobras America, Inc.; Halliburton; Nalco Company; Multi-Chem Corporation; BJ Services Company; Champion Technologies, Inc.; Intertek Group plc; INTECSEA; Livermore Instruments, Inc.

Enumerating Bacteria in Deepwater Pipelines in Real-Time at a Negligible Marginal Cost Per Analysis: A Proof of Concept Study
Project Leader: Livermore Instruments, Inc.
Additional Project Participants: Phage Biocontrol, LLC; Texas A&M University; ConocoPhillips Company; Shell International Exploration & Production; Petrobras America, Inc.; Halliburton; Nalco Company; Multi-Chem Corporation; BJ Services Company; Champion Technologies, Inc.; Intertek Group plc; INTECSEA

Fiber Containing Sweep Fluids for Ultra-Deepwater Drilling Applications
Project Leader: The University of Oklahoma
Additional Project Participant: M-I SWACO

Heavy Viscous Oils PVT for Ultra-Deepwater
Project Leader: Schlumberger Limited

Early Reservoir Appraisal, Utilizing a Well Testing System
Project Leader: Nautilus International, LLC
Additional Participants: Knowledge Reservoir, LLC; Expro International Group Ltd.; General Marine Contractors LLC; INTECSEA; Louisiana State University; The University of Tulsa; Texas A&M University; GE Oil & Gas; Tidewater Marine, LLC

Ultra-Reliable Deepwater Electrical Power Distribution System and Power Components
Project Leader: GE Global Research
Additional Participants: Texas A&M University; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; GE Oil & Gas

Funding for the projects is provided through the “Ultra-Deepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Resources Research and Development Program” authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This program—funded from lease bonuses and royalties paid by industry to produce oil and gas on federal lands—is specifically designed to increase supply and reduce costs to consumers while enhancing the global leadership position of the United States in energy technology through the development of domestic intellectual capital. RPSEA is under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory to administer several elements of the program. RPSEA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit consortium with more than 145 members, including 25 of the nation's premier research universities, five national laboratories, other major research institutions, large and small energy producers and energy consumers. The mission of RPSEA, headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, is to provide a stewardship role in ensuring the focused research, development and deployment of safe and environmentally responsible technology that can effectively deliver hydrocarbons from domestic resources to the citizens of the United States. Additional information can be found at www.rpsea.org.

1-Sep-09 1:00 PM

RPSEA's 2010 Draft Annual Plan Complete

Danette Mozisek — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:00:00 GMT

RPSEA has completed its 2010 Draft Annual Plan (DAP), a component of the Ultra-Deepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Resources Research and Development Program Annual Plan established to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct).

A DAP is written and submitted by RPSEA and is used as the input for a final Annual Plan that must be approved by the Secretary of Energy each year. The 2010 DAP is an evolutionary document building upon the foundation of the 2007 through 2009 approved Annual Plans. At this stage of RPSEA’s program, the objectives are: the continued aggressive engagement of the private sector and research communities to enhance the value of the public/private partnership; a focus on building, maintaining, and managing the optimal portfolio contemplated by the original DAPs; and, the transition from planning to execution of the plans. Each of the three RPSEA program portfolios, ultra-deepwater, unconventional resources and small producer, have developed according to plan, and the 2010 DAP continues that evolution to build the foundation required for optimal portfolio composition.

Once the 2010 Annual Plan is approved, funding follows for the 2010 year and requests for proposals follow within each of RPSEA’s programs. This year marks the beginning of a regular cycle of predictable annual plans and approval, as RPSEA and NETL have worked together to “catch up” on the cycle with our upcoming requests for proposals later this summer.

To view RPSEA's 2010 Draft Annual Plan, click here.

31-Aug-09 5:00 PM

Texas Academic Sees Global Abundance of Unconventional Gas

Mark Smedley — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:00:00 GMT

International Oil Daily's July 2, 2009 issue features RPSEA Board Chair Dr. Stephen Holditch's view on unconventional gas here in the US and throughout the world.

The US probably has much more technically recoverable gas in unconventional reservoirs than in conventional reservoirs, and it seems reasonable to assume that this is also the case in other parts of the world, according to a Texas-based petroleum engineer.

Stephen Holditch, head of the petroleum engineering department at Texas A&M University, says unconventional gas — from tight sands, shales and coal seams — exists not only in the US, but also in the Mideast, Russia and elsewhere. “They just haven’t been found or recognized yet,” he says.

Holditch began his career in the 1970s as a Shell Oil production engineer and later served as an adviser to Schlumberger. He has authored over 150 technical articles and is a past-president of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

At a recent conference in the Netherlands, Holditch said he and his colleagues at Texas A&M have re-examined public geological data from eight US gas basins with a view to developing fresh estimates for “technically recoverable” gas in unconventional reservoirs. They plan to expand on their work to include a further 17 basins.

The estimate for the eight basins evaluated so far indicates that the recoverable unconventional gas exceeds conventional oil and gas in the same basins by an average ratio of around nine-to-one.

Holditch acknowledges that current US gas prices of around $4 per million Btu or less — which reflect a surge in domestic production from unconventional reservoirs such as the Barnett Shale in Texas — are not high enough to support the development of emerging unconventional plays.

Prices of $6/MMBtu or more might just do the trick. But not all of the technically recoverable unconventional gas will be commercially recoverable at $6/MMBtu. Nevertheless, it’s worth remembering that only a year ago gas prices on both sides of the Atlantic were above $10/MMBtu.

In the coming decades, Holditch expects gas production from unconventional reservoirs to occur in virtually every major basin in the world, but technology transfer will be crucial for success.

Virtually all unconventional reservoirs are “tight” — that is to say they have low porosity and permeability — and they require stimulation to produce gas at commercial flow rates.

Successful development of shale reservoirs requires pinpointing the brittle portions of the shale, so they can undergo hydraulic fracturing to make the gas flow more freely. Techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance, horizontal drilling, and micro-seismic analysis will all play a role, Holditch said.

A few years ago, geophysicists Rogner and Kawata estimated global unconventional gas resources at 32,560 trillion cubic feet (922.4 trillion cubic meters). Of this, North America accounted for 8,228 Tcf (233 Tcm), the former Soviet Union 5,485 Tcf, China 5,094 Tcf, Latin America 3,448 Tcf, the Mideast 3,370 Tcf and Europe 1,254 Tcf.

The worldwide estimate of 32,560 Tcf broke down as 49% shale gas, 28% coalbed methane and 23% tight sands.

Holditch said Texas A&M’s work on reevaluating the potential of US basins, suggests that the global endowment of unconventional gas resources will ultimately exceed such estimates because relatively little exploration has been conducted.

In a poll conducted at the conference in the Netherlands, most of the audience agreed with Holditch that Europe’s Southern Permian Basin — stretching from the Russian border to the southern North Sea — was likely to hold far more unconventional gas resources than conventional gas.

Exxon Chief Executive Rex Tillerson, speaking to mostly the same audience, said he believed large tight gas reservoirs were still to be found in Europe, mainly in eastern Europe and Germany. Costs and technology would be key factors in determining whether they would ever be developed, especially as some were “high temperature, with high acid content,” he added.

To view the article, click here.

19-Aug-09 5:00 PM

Potential Gas Committee Report Released

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:00:00 GMT

The Potential Gas Committee (PGC) report released in June 2009 indicates the United States has a total resource base of 1,836 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of technically recoverable resource, a sharp jump from the last estimate two years ago of 1,321 Tcf and the highest in the group's 44-year history.

Darrell Pierce, the Chairman of the PGC Board of Directors, serves on the RPSEA Unconventional Resources Project Advisory Committee providing important coordination between the two organizations. The results of the recent report underscores the importance of the United States natural gas endowment and the role it can play in our energy future. The report highlights the effects of new technology, in particular its impact on unconventional resources such as gas shales. RPSEA will be utilizing information from the report to help guide its ongoing research program for further development of unconventional gas resources.

Please click here to view the report.

11-Aug-09 3:00 PM

Depth Charge

Russell McCulley — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:00:00 GMT

The July issue of OFFSHORE ENGINEER features the RPSEA-funded project The Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems Program led by the Houston Advanced Research Center focusing on the technological possibilities of seafloor power generation in the Gulf of Mexico. Below is the article in full.

There’s a business case to be made for seafloor power generation at deepwater Gulf of Mexico oil fields. Now a Houston-based research team is looking at the technological possibilities, along with the considerable challenges. Russell McCulley reports.

With oil & gas production moving into deeper water and more operations being carried out further from a field’s surface facilities, operators increasingly are incorporating subsea production systems in development schemes. In time, scientists say, most operations will be carried out on the sea floor, including the power generation needed to operate subsea equipment. But little work has been done so far to determine how such power generation systems will look.

Late last year, a team led by the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) started laying the foundation for the development of seafloor power systems. The project, funded in large part through the federal government’s Energy Policy Act of 2005, is still in the very early stages, says HARC senior research scientist Richard Haut. ‘We’re still in a data gathering mode. Our goal, within the first year, is to identify two or three concepts’ from a wide field of technologies, come up with plans for prototypes and gain an understanding of the environmental impacts of the finalists, he says. ‘Right now, we are still identifying’ which technologies are good candidates, he says. ‘We haven’t yet started to narrow the field.’

Haut, who chairs the environmental advisory board for the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA), a consortium of industry, academic and independent research programs, says the point is to eliminate the need for extensive – and expensive – umbilicals used to supply power and hydraulics to subsea fields located miles from their surface facilities. ‘What we are trying to do is completely do away with the umbilical,’ he says. ‘How can you, first, eliminate all hydraulic functions’ – including the development of an electric downhole safety valve, which some service companies are attempting – ‘and what about chemical injection? If you think about the amount of power that these systems will need, you’re looking at some huge cables needed to transport that amount of power great distances.’

The technologies that make the final cut will have to be capable of generating considerable energy. Oil companies with extensive deepwater operations are looking for systems that can generate between 10MW and 30MW, Haut says. ‘That’s getting up there, in terms of power.’ Whatever system emerges from the HARC study will be a hybrid that combines both energy conversion and storage capabilities, and the list of options to be screened includes both power generation and advanced battery systems. Researchers are looking at existing technologies, but as Haut notes, ‘nothing has been designed yet to function in 10,000ft of water.’

Along with HARC, the research team includes experts from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center, and Yardney Technical Products, which has done extensive work developing battery systems for NASA and the US military. The Curtiss-Wright Corporation and GE have signed on to the effort, along with supermajors Chevron, Shell and Total. The budget for the initial four-year phase of the project is $600,000, which includes a 20% contribution from industry sources. A second phase, if the program can secure the estimated $16-$18 million needed to continue, will entail the design, fabrication and testing of prototypes.

An April status report listed the power conversion technologies under consideration: proton-exchange membrane fuel cells powered with hydrogen and oxygen; fuel cells, internal combustion engines or turbines powered by natural gas produced at the subsea site; solid state thermoelectric and thermionic generators powered with natural gas, geothermal sources and radioisotopes; surface renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and wave power; ocean currentpowered turbines on the sea floor; and small pressurized water nuclear reactors, also known as PWRs, that can use lowenrichment fuel.

The report offered initial assessments of the potential power sources, downplaying surface renewable sources (although wind could be used as a ‘transition’ technology that takes advantage of existing infrastructure while subsea systems are being developed). It also offered encouraging notes on natural gas-powered fuel cells and – although researchers acknowledge that public perception could be problematic – nuclear power. Haut says the team has taken interest in small nuclear reactors under development at Toshiba. The company hopes to have a 10MW compact nuclear power system that can operate for up to 30 years without refueling ready for commercial distribution within the coming decade. ‘We will be taking a close look at those devices and see if they can be marinized,’ Haut says.

The HARC team is also investigating a number of energy storage strategies, including compressed gas storage; liquid redox batteries; secondary batteries in sealed pressure vessels; pressuretolerant secondary batteries; and other nonconventional battery systems, including oil-compensated polymer gel lithium ion, polyurethane potted polymer gel lithium ion and next generation solid state lithium ion batteries.

Haut says the prototype subsea power system will likely be a combination of technologies, and that other hurdles beyond power generation remain. ‘One question is what the electrical connections will look like,’ he says. ‘High-power connections, in saltwater, under pressure – that’s a major technical element that needs to be addressed.’

If the project proceeds, the first deepwater subsea power generation system to emerge from the HARC effort would likely be deployed in the Gulf of Mexico, Haut says. But research, development and permitting could take 15 years or more. ‘This is not something that will be put in the water in five years,’ he says. ‘It will be quite some time.’ OE

To view the article on OFFSHORE ENGINEER's website, click here.

4-Aug-09 1:00 PM

Project Undertakes Deepwater Production Measurement Gaps

Guntis Moritis — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:00:00 GMT

The Oil & Gas Journal highlights a RPSEA-funded project that the Letton-Hall Group was awarded last year in the June 2009 issue.

A new joint interest research project aims to improve production measurements from deepwater fields.

The Letton-Hal] Group, Houston, received a contract from the nonprofit Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) for the project.

"'This project is significant because, if successful, it will clear the way to more affordable, more realistic deepwater production," says Jim Chitwood with RPSEA.

"The current situation in deepwater exploration is that often companies may drill several deepwater wells and commingle their production. Measuring the flow from each well and allocating the oil and gas production is a big issue at those depths," he says.

Jim Hall, cofounder in the Letton-Hall Group, told OGJ that the project came into effect on Nov. l, 2008, with work starting in February 2009.

Click here to view the entire article.

27-Jul-09 11:00 AM

RPSEA Board of Directors Elects Dr. Stephen A. Holditch as Chair

Danette Mozisek — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:00:00 GMT

SUGAR LAND, Texas (July 15, 2009) – The Board of Directors of the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) elects Dr. Stephen A. Holditch, the head of the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University, as its new chair effective June 30, 2009. Dr. Holditch succeeds Mark Murphy, president of Strata Production Company in Roswell, N.M., who completed a two-year term. The organizational bylaws stipulate that the chair position alternate between industry and academia every two years.

RPSEA President C. Michael Ming commented, “Dr. Holditch has served on the RPSEA Board since our inception and has served as the Chair of the RPSEA Strategic Advisory Committee for the last three years. Along with his commitment to the RPSEA mission, Dr. Holditch has had a distinguished career and brings an array of experience in the oil and gas industry and academia to the RPSEA Board. Steve has been a pioneer in many of the technologies associated with unconventional resources, especially hydraulic fracturing. It is an honor for us to obtain his leadership. It has also been an honor for us to have had the capable leadership of Mark Murphy over the last two years. Mark is a highly regarded businessman and independent producer with extensive experience in government and political affairs, and the organization has greatly benefited from his vision and guidance.”

After receiving his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate from Texas A&M University, Dr. Holditch joined the faculty there in 1976 and was named Head of the Petroleum Engineering Department in 2004. Dr. Holditch was the Society of Petroleum Engineers International (SPE) President in 2002, SPE Vice President-Finance and a member of the SPE Board of Directors from 1998-2003. In addition, he served as a Trustee for the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) from 1997-1998. In 1995, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and in 1997 to the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. In 1998, Dr. Holditch was elected to the Texas A&M University Petroleum Engineering Academy of Distinguished Graduates. He was elected as an SPE and AIME Honorary Member in 2006.

“This is an opportunity to increase my involvement with RPSEA and to focus on the technology we need to produce more natural gas and oil from unconventional reservoirs and the ultra-deepwater environment," Dr. Holditch said. "RPSEA is extremely important to the 25 research universities, who are members of RPSEA. These universities are educating the professionals that America needs to find and develop domestic hydrocarbons to meet the needs of the USA."

RPSEA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit consortium with more than 145 members, including 25 of the nation's premier research universities, five national laboratories, other major research institutions, large and small energy producers and energy consumers. The mission of RPSEA, headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, is to provide a stewardship role in ensuring the focused research, development and deployment of safe and environmentally responsible technology that can effectively deliver hydrocarbons from domestic resources to the citizens of the United States. Additional information can be found at www.rpsea.org.

17-Jul-09 11:00 AM

Study Will Identify Maximum Upside Potential in the Deepwater GoM

Gavin Longmuir — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:00:00 GMT

E&P Magazine's June issue highlights RPSEA's-funded project titled Improved Recovery that Knowledge Reservoir was awarded. Knowledge Reservoir's Gavin Longmuir contributed the article.

The goal is to identify technologies needed to effect improved oil recovery.

One of the most significant petroleum exploration frontiers in North America is the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GoM), where operators in recent years have announced a number of major discoveries.

Developing deepwater fields is a substantial technical and economic challenge. Most recent ultra-deepwater discoveries have not yet been brought into production.

It may therefore seem a little odd that industry and the US Federal Government are already working on improved oil recovery (IOR) for undeveloped fields. However, it is readily apparent that technology breakthroughs will be required before IOR processes can be successfully applied in deep water. The first question is where to focus the limited available research funds.

On Feb. 3, following a competitive bidding process, the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) awarded an 18-month, US $2 million contract to Houston-based Knowledge Reservoir, LLC to lead a study on IOR for deepwater and ultra-deepwater assets in the GoM. Knowledge Reservoir’s academic partner on the project is Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La., and its industry partner is Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which is funding 20% of the project costs through an in-kind contribution of laboratory data from its current K2 deepwater GoM field development.

RPSEA is a non-profit consortium with more than 145 members including 25 of the premier research universities in the US, five US national laboratories, other major research institutions, large and small energy producers, and energy consumers. Its mission is to provide a stewardship role in ensuring the focused research, development, and deployment of safe, environmentally sensitive technology that can effectively deliver hydrocarbons from domestic resources to the citizens of the US.

RPSEA was chosen by the US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory to manage a public-benefit research program set up by the US Congress in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, funded from lease bonuses and royalties paid by industry to produce oil and gas on Federal lands.

Knowledge Reservoir’s project is a component in RPSEA’s long-term road map. Its ultimate aim is to identify improved recovery opportunities in the early stages of field development planning.

A key outcome of the current study will be the identification of “technology gaps” — areas where technological breakthroughs could make significant incremental oil recovery possible in the very challenging deepwater environment.

Study approach

The work plan includes four major components (Figure 1):
• Build a resource database characterizing deepwater and ultra-deepwater reservoir assets, and identify the key reasons why remaining hydrocarbons are projected to be left unrecovered in such reservoirs.
• Conduct a comprehensive worldwide review of IOR processes, experiences, and best practices, both on and offshore. From this review, develop methodologies for quantifying the potential incremental recovery from application of key IOR processes.
• Based on the above two foundational building blocks, quantify the potential incremental oil recovery which might be deliverable using key IOR processes — if the technological barriers to implementing them in deepwater GoM fields could be overcome. IOR processes will then be ranked based on the incremental volumes they could potentially deliver and on the perceived difficulty of closing the technology gaps.
• For the most promising IOR processes, identify possible ways to close technology gaps, tapping into the ideas of experts from operating companies, service companies, national laboratories, and academia through blue-sky brainstorming sessions. After appropriate analysis, recommend the most promising concepts for further research.
IOR in deep water

The definition of IOR has long been controversial within the industry. IOR is seen as being a broader term than enhanced oil recovery (EOR). When applied to deepwater (more than 1,000 ft) and ultra-deepwater (more than 5,000 ft) GoM, the practical definition of IOR may be even broader.

Ultimate recovery is affected by processes that happen at the pore level in reservoirs. But it is also affected by processes that happen at the reservoir level (e.g., sweep efficiency), in the near wellbore region (e.g., stimulation), in the wells themselves (e.g., artificial lift), and in seabed flowlines and surface facilities (e.g., corrosion control). In the harsh environment of deep water, all of these processes are part of IOR.

Deepwater and ultra-deepwater fields can be very large; Thunder Horse and Mars have in excess of 1 Bbbl original oil in place (OOIP). However, many individual reservoirs are quite small due to the presence of multiple sands and compartmentalized reservoirs.

It was reported that 151 out of the 211 reservoirs in this sample have OOIP less than 50 MMB, and another 30 have OOIP between 50 and 100 MMB. Thus, 85% of the reservoirs in this sample have less than 100 MMB OOIP each, but together they account for 39% of the total OOIP. Part of the challenge for improving oil recovery in the GoM is making it work in smaller reservoirs.

The project team has begun by casting a very broad net and, so far, has identified almost 60 IOR processes for consideration, ranging from artificial lift methods to microbial EOR. As the study proceeds, this list will be whittled down to a group of key IOR processes. For those, the aim is to develop methodologies for making screening-level predictions of potential incremental recovery when applied to specific GoM reservoirs.

GoM resources

According to the MMS, estimated ultimate recovery from proved fields in the deepwater GoM is about 9 Bbbl, which implies an OOIP of around 30 Bbbl and a target for IOR of around 20 Bbbl projected remaining oil in place at abandonment. In addition, the MMS estimates the undiscovered technically recoverable resources of the GoM Outer Continental Shelf at around 45 Bbbl. Clearly, there is a substantial remaining oil in place target for IOR in the deepwater GoM.

To put these volumes in perspective, the National Petroleum Council estimated that OOIP in the largest 2,500 onshore reservoirs in the US was about 325 Bbbl. Much of this oil will remain in the ground after primary and secondary production.

The current project will make use of Knowledge Reservoir’s “ReservoirKB” Web-based database of public-domain data on fields and reservoirs in the deepwater and ultra-deepwater GoM. The plan is to assemble key reservoir parameters from ReservoirKB and other sources, and use them as inputs to the screening-level methodologies for estimating the IOR potential for specific processes in specific reservoirs.

Ultimately, this study will provide RPSEA with well-justified, prioritized recommendations on where to invest its R&D funds. And the world will have taken one small further step down the long road towards maximizing ultimate recovery from the hydrocarbon resource base, in the GoM and beyond.

To view the article on E&P's website, click here.

13-Jul-09 4:00 PM

Lower Tertiary Focal Point of RPSEA R&D Initiatives

Jim Redden — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Offshore Magazine highlights RPSEA in the June 2009 issue with the article Lower Tertiary Focal Point of RPSEA R&D Initiatives focusing on the Gulf of Mexico.

Click here to view the entire article.

30-Jun-09 11:00 AM