American technology company GlassPoint first arrived in the Middle East in 2011 when it was awarded a pilot project with Petroleum Development Oman (PDO). GlassPoint completed the pilot project in Oman on time, on budget and exceeding performance targets.
This success led to the $600mn-worth, 1,021MW-capacity solar thermal project, called ‘Miraah’, currently being built for PDO in southern Oman. It will be among the world’s largest solar projects, underscoring the major market opportunity for deploying solar power in the enhanced oil recover segment of the global oil and gas industry.
“We didn’t enter the Omani market at first, but rather found the interest coming out of Oman. If you look back in history, this was a PDO-driven effort,” Marwan Chaar, vice president of Project Development, at Glasspoint, said during the roundtable discussion on EOR that O&GME hosted.
“PDO started looking for solar technologies for thermal EOR before Glasspoint even knew what PDO was. Back then we were a very small company based in California, trying to get into the local market. Through PDO’s technology division there was a connection and an introduction, since our technology was significantly cheaper than all the other technologies available that PDO was looking at,” Chaar said.
“And that was drove us to Oman. We had no presence in Oman before that. From that initial discussion, PDO awarded the pilot project to us. From that pilot project we set up an office in Oman, strengthened our investments there with further expansions and started to grow our business in the Sultanate.”
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GlassPoint’s focus on the Middle East stems from the challenges the region’s geography presents oil producers with, the large amounts of viscous oil reserves beneath its surface, and the abundant sunshine found in its deserts. Given the shortage of natural gas in the region, the company understands the Middle East is perfectly suited to adopt its technology, which has been purpose-built to survive in the harshest desert climates and deliver the lowest cost energy to power oilfield operations.
“So we built our pilot with PDO and it became operational after a sort of one-year testing period that started in February 2013. We signed a contract for 1GW project in mid-2015. So we basically did a year of testing and then you get into the negotiations and technical due diligence (process) to move on to,” Chaar explains.
‘We took a year to test the technology and we looked at a date when independent engineers come in and review how to move forward. So that’s on the technology side. We are innovating very quickly, so we are constantly updating technologies that are coming to play, being tested in labs and on the fields.”
Offering an update on the progress of the ‘Miraah’ (Arabic for mirror) project, Chaar mentions: “Glasspoint develops the technology first, and it is built in independent blocks. So, now we are already starting to see some of these blocks coming online and we will be announcing soon in partnership with PDO, some of the results of that. As of the moment, we are still ahead of schedule and on budget for these first few blocks.”
When asked to elaborate on Glasspoint’s pioneering technologies, Chaar elaborates: “So let’s break this discussion into two. So one is what technology can our clients use to get steam, and really you have three main methods. One is the simple standard oilfield boilers, you have co-generation and then you have solar. The way they choose that, that really comes to the economics of gas.
But if you also look at co-generation, one of the big constraint is they may not need that much of power. On a remote oilfield, you may not use it. So, once you make that filtration, you come down to solar.”
“What differentiated us, and that’s why PDO selected us when we did the pilot,” Chaar continues, “is we designed (the technology) specifically for the oilfield. And, what does that really mean. There are a couple of things.
One means using the same equipment for oilfield uses. So we talk about boiler receiver pipes, boiler pumps, separators, and all that equipment is the same that the oilfield is used to – so that really separated us.
The other thing that separated us is designing the actual system to withstand specific oilfield conditions. So we had to design in a way where everything is protected. So we built these greenhouses that protect the solar field. So these are really the two main ways we differentiated our technology. By doing so we manage to innovate on cost structure as well, and not just on performance. Since everything is enclosed now, our mirrors are of significantly lower cost, even significantly lower capex than regular solar technology.”
The Special Report ends with this op-ed piece from a senior industry expert…
