Parker: Blue Spark triggers improved well production
An interview and article with Todd Parker. By David Parker, Calgary Herald. Published on: September 17, 2015 | Last Updated: September 17, 2015 6:00 AM MST
Blue Spark Energy is a relatively new company headquartered in the office tower at 8 St. and 8 Ave. S.W. that has already introduced its new technology to more than 50 companies worldwide.
President and CEO Todd Parker had almost 20 years of hands-on experience in oilfield services before launching the company. His work with Schlumberger took him to Grande Prairie and then as the operations manager responsible for the east coast of Canada and eastern Venezuela and Trinidad/Barbados. In 2001, he moved into the technology field as regional manager of six product lines for Siemens Canada, working out of its Ontario office.
Parker said his automotive and refinery clients were not fast enough to make saving decisions. He was used to the oil and gas industry, which was eager to try new ideas. He joined Weatherford International’s wireline division in its Houston office before returning to Calgary in 2009 as vice-president of the Canadian region overseeing 4,000 employees across the country.
Things changed for Parker when he was introduced to new technology in Europe being researched by I-Pulse Power in France. He says it’s really only a manipulation of high school physics, yet the technology is capable of using the power of an ordinary D cell battery to lift a ton of water.
He met with the people running the laboratories who were putting the instant power to work in the welding industry. Parker thought there had to be a way to use the technology in the oil and gas industry. After conducting his own research, he quit his job to launch Blue Spark Energy.
Parker’s focus was on how to recover oil at the bottom of wells economically. Blue Spark has done it with an innovative, low-cost, low-risk well stimulation technology that assists companies in challenging the economics of existing wells.
Wireline Applied Stimulation Pulsing technology has been recognized with the 2015 Canadian Oil & Gas New Technology Development (Product) 0f the Year Award.
It uses electricity to create powerful impulses to stimulate oil flow by delivering rapid, high-power impulses at the precise depth where blockages exist. Each impulse is a shock wave travelling at more than 1,500 metres per second followed by a 10,000 psi high-pressure pulse.
Existing fractures can be dislocated at any depth and most operations are completed within one day. And the necessary power is generated by simply plugging in to an energy battery in a truck. There’s no water, no acids, no explosives, and no need for heavy equipment rolling down highways.
According to Parker, his BLUESPARK® technology is “an efficient way to add production is to revitalize your existing assets.
“The current state of the energy situation creates a perfect opportunity to assess your current portfolio and address production issues which may be preventing it from reaching its full potential,” he said.
Many companies worldwide have successfully used WASP in more than 300 projects. Case studies have demonstrated oil flow performance has improved by an average of 250 per cent. In a six-month period it recovered 20,000 barrels in one specific project in the North Sea.
Blue Spark Energy still uses the French laboratory as a research facility. It owns a number of patents on components applications and has others pending.
The company is today working on other ways of using its technology and is currently looking to hire more people in sales, field technologists, and geophysicists.
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