4. Reservoir Nanoagents for In-Situ Sensing and Intervention

Nanotechnology is often associated with the alternate clean energy technologies of tomorrow, from the super efficient solar and fuel cells to hydrogen economy and the extreme lasting batteries. As only recently, the Oil and Gas industry started uncovering the great potentials of this field for its use, upstream E&P professionals need to be able to clarify facts from misconceptions and have a basic understanding of the physical phenomena that govern the behavior of things at the nanoscale. This chapter introduces the potentials of nanotechnology in E&P. It highlights current and anticipated benefits in the upstream sector and explores the feasibility of having molecular agents (Resbots) in the subsurface. The future reality of reservoir nanoagents is demonstrated in a suite of nanofluid coreflood experiments targeting stability and survivability of the nanoagents at reservoir conditions.