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GLORI ENERGY, A LOW-COST OIL RECOVERY COMPANY, RECEIVES BOOST FROM ENERGY TECHNOLOGY VENTURES-A GE-NRG ENERGY-CONOCOPHILLIPS VENTURE
HOUSTON, July 5, 2020 – Energy Technology Ventures—a GE-NRG Energy-ConocoPhillips venture—has invested in Houston-based Glori Energy, whose technology helps extract trapped oil from mature oil fields, significantly boosting well production.
"Glori Energy's technology revives oil fields with depleting production volumes, reclaiming oil at a fraction of the cost of drilling new wells," said Kevin Skillern, GE Energy Financial Services' Managing Director of Venture Capital and representative of Energy Technology Ventures. "Energy Technology Ventures brings deep oil industry expertise and reach to help accelerate the commercialization of Glori Energy's technology and achieve the scale required to significantly benefit consumers and the economy."
Conventional oilfield technology typically extracts only one-third of all discovered oil, leaving significant crude underground. Glori Energy's technology, the AERO™ (Activated Environment for Recovery of Oil) System, may extract an additional 30-45 percent beyond that obtained from traditional processes. The most common method to enhance oil retrieval following primary recovery is termed waterflooding, which entails injecting water into wells to maintain or increase reservoir pressure. This process is limited in effect because oil is more viscous than water and is bypassed as water flows through the rock matrix. Glori Energy's methodology introduces a customized mix of safe nutrients into waterflooded oil fields to stimulate the growth of indigenous microbes which temporarily modify the fluid pathways to redirect water and improve oil mobility.
"Glori Energy customizes its treatments to optimize the microbiology of each oil field. This is the key to our ability to extract substantial crude oil from wells at low cost," said Stuart Page, CEO of Glori Energy. "With oil remaining part of the energy mix for the foreseeable future, our technology increases production from mature fields without having to drill a single new well."
Oil is among the strategic interests of Energy Technology Ventures, which helps companies develop and commercialize their next-generation energy technologies. GE Energy Financial Services' activities include $3.5 billion equity in oil and gas assets since 1991. This complements GE Oil & Gas' global leadership in advanced technology equipment and services. ConocoPhillips, meanwhile, is the fourth-largest refiner in the world and the seventh-largest reserves holder of nongovernment-controlled companies and is known worldwide for its technological expertise in reservoir management and exploration. Among other advanced technology initiatives, NRG Energy is exploring the use of captured carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants for use in enhanced oil recovery.
Additional financial details on Energy Technology Ventures' investment in Glori Energy were not disclosed.
About Energy Technology Ventures
Energy Technology Ventures is a joint venture involving GE (NYSE: GE), NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG), and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) focused on the development of next-generation energy technologies. Bringing together three market-leading companies with a wide range of deep technical and financial expertise, relationships, services and products, the joint venture invests in, and offers commercial collaboration opportunities to, venture- and growth-stage energy technology companies in the renewable power generation, smart grid, energy efficiency, oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear energy, emission controls, water and biofuels sectors, primarily in North America, Europe and Israel. For more information, visit www.energytechnologyventures.com.
About Glori Energy
Glori Energy's mission is to cleanly and safely recover billions of barrels of oil that are trapped in existing well reservoirs without having to drill a single new well. Glori partners with oil producers to install the AEROTM (Activated Environment for Recovery of Oil) System to significantly increase oil production. The AERO™ System provides a new, viable low-cost option to cleanly and safely recover previously trapped oil and bring it to market. For more information visit: www.glorienergy.com.
