Release Date: August 5, 2009

DOE Selects Recipient to Transfer Oil and Natural Gas Innovations

Washington, D.C. — The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded to the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) funding of up to $4 million to disseminate the newest, most energy-efficient and cost-effective innovations, ideas, tools, and knowledge developed in the realm of oil and natural gas by researchers at DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and other organizations.

In order that the latest oil- and natural gas-related ideas, technologies, and innovations be of service to our country as quickly as possible, they must be transferred to stakeholders—such as independent operators, small producers, academic researchers, and technology developers—to empower them to make timely, informed technical and business decisions.

President Obama pointed out in his Fourth of July address, “Now is the time to meet our energy challenge—one of the greatest challenges we have ever confronted as a people or as a planet.”  One way to help meet this challenge is to ensure that those supplying our country with oil and natural gas—which provide over 60 percent of our energy consumption in the United States—are kept informed of the most up-to-date innovations and insights.

Through this funding, which may be extended for as much as five years, PTTC will collaborate with NETL’s Strategic Center for Natural Gas and Oil and others to accomplish the critical goal of supplying a broad spectrum of stakeholders within the oil and gas industry with the how, where, and when appropriately applied technologies can help them solve problems and realize opportunities that will increase production of oil and natural gas in an environmentally sound manner.

PTTC was first organized in the early 1990s as a joint Federal, State, and industry collaboration to provide the oil and natural gas industry, primarily independent operators and small producers, with improved access to the most advanced and underutilized technologies. PTTC has served as a key outreach organization for U.S. independent oil and natural gas producers, continuously developing its technology transfer expertise and expanding its role as a liaison between the research and development community and independents in all areas of the country.

Goals of this funding opportunity include ensuring that—

• DOE’s and industry’s technology and knowledge are appropriately publicized to the industry at large.
• The value of DOE and industry products, expertise, and capabilities are fully realized by all stakeholders.
• Successful technologies are commercially deployed to all stakeholders in order that, appropriately applied, these can assist them in solving problems and realizing opportunities that will increase production of domestic oil and natural gas in an environmentally responsible manner.
• Sustainable, reliable, and affordable supplies of domestic natural gas and oil resources are made available to meet our country’s energy needs.

PTTC plans to transfer technology to the oil and gas industry using traditional outreach tools such as workshops, the web, and publishing information in the various oil- and gas-related trade journals as well as using more novel tools such as webinars, distance learning, and social networking.  Strong alliances with universities, geological surveys, trade associations, and professional societies will enhance PTTC’s capability to leverage the proposed technology transfer activities.  PTTC will provide over $2.2 million in cost share over the five-year period.

This crucial technology-transfer position will not only benefit our nation by publicizing money-saving, environmentally friendly, and forward-reaching information, ideas, and technologies quickly, but it will also aid in creation of jobs. “As our economy adapts to the challenges of a new century,” President Obama commented on July 2, “new ways of producing and saving and distributing energy offer a unique opportunity to create millions of jobs for the American people.”