A technological entrepreneur approached a potential investor with a proposal to finance an innovative project to create an enterprise for the production of autonomous DC power sources operating at temperatures above 150 ° C - batteries (rechargeable).
Fields of application - long-term power supply of submersible (downhole) equipment during geophysical works (GIS), drilling (Logging While Drilling / Measurement While Drilling), production and repairs in deep oil and gas or geothermal wells, including suspended wells (monitoring and transmission of information to the surface, downhole control and safety systems).
Project implementation stage - availability of experimental samples.
Hypotheses of the initiator: the possibility of ensuring sales in the oil and gas exploration and production segment both by replacing foreign analogues and by replacing the cable power supply of equipment.
Difficulties in market analysis:
- lack of statistical information and ready-made studies both on the subject of research and on analogues
- lack of market scale in specialized publications
- lack of information on the volume of output of current sources in the annual reports of manufacturers etc.
The study revealed positive growth factors in demand for the studied current sources:
- an increase in the average depth of drilling a well, and, accordingly, the temperature at great depths,
- the lack of rechargeable batteries of the required capacity on the world market with an operating temperature of more than 150 ° C if there is a demand
- the possibility of replacing the cable for power supply at great depths due to the increase in the weight of the cable
- increase in production at offshore and deep water fields, at tar sands deposits,
- shale gas production using hydraulic fracturing and inclined drilling technologies, also due to the limitation of cable bending relative to the curvature of the well.
Negative factors:
- the temperature of most wells does not yet reach 150°C.
- weak dependence of well temperature on drilling depth,
- availability of available alternative current sources capable of operating at high temperatures,
- the presence of temperature restrictions for the use of electronic components as part of measuring equipment.
During the study, it was revealed that there is no rigid connection between the equipment and the number of current sources used - due to the various areas of application of power sources that are in demand both at the well development stage (as part of the downhole Measurement While Drilling telemetry, including including logging while drilling (Logging While Drilling), & nbsp; and during well operation (during hydrodynamic, production geophysical and geophysical surveys), as well as the availability of substitute products (batteries, turbine generators, their combinations, as well as external power sources using a geophysical cable).
It was found that a number of devices do not require power due to design features.
For example, information is being read based on the change in signal sent to the sensor via fiber optic cable.
Nevertheless, the developed research methodology made it possible to obtain estimates of the current scale of the market for high-temperature current sources and its development potential.
Based on the information provided, the Customer (potential investor) determined the feasibility of investing in the specified project.
