Dominican entrepreneur recognized by Forbes, talks with DL
Diario Libre
SD. A student of Finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, young Pedro Tomas Santos, 27, led a group of students that undertook the development of a new system of technology that allows for considerable savings in the area of energy production thorugh OsComp Systems. Thanks to his invention, which dates from 2009, Santos and his group have won 14 recognitions and acknowledgements, with the most significant for him being the one that was recently made by the prestigious business magazine, Forbes, which declared him to be one of the 30 most outstanding young persons in the energy sector in 2011.
Diario Libre: What does this recognition mean to you?
Santos: It is a great honor because Forbes is the most widely read business magazine in the financial and business worlds, and with this being the inaugural list, because they have never done it before, it is very prestigious. (See: 30 under 30 at www.forbes.com)
DL: Exactly what is wellhead compression?
Santos: We began the business looking for a solution that would increase production of natural gas and oil wells, and we were able make the discovery by analyzing the different characteristics of natural gas and oil wells, looking at ecological conditions, and their composition. Normally what happens is that at each well they only recover between 20% and 40% of the petroleum that there is in the pocket, and there are ways to extract a lot of the quantity of petroleum that is left when they make a well, and this is more than half. We came up with a technology of efficient compression, which permits that well with decaying production, can see this increased and the cost of compression is less and can extend the life of a well from 10 to 30 years and even 40 years.
DL: What do you base your calculations on that you can reduce the cost of production?
Santos: The cost of capital, which is to say, the amount invested, can be reduced by half and later, the operating cost, with regard to energy and maintenance of the wells can be reduced by 30% and these are the two things that increase the earnings in energy production. Comparing this to the amount of machinery that is needed at a typical well, utilizing this technology we only need to have our compression equipment and this cuts the capital costs. The second thing is that production increases, if the well was producing 200,000 cubic feet (of natural gas) a day, the production can increase up to 300,000 cubic feet a day.
DL: How long did it take you to develop this system and who work on it?
Santos: A group with me as the leader developed this technology. We are studying Finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and although I was studying Business, I am an engineer with a Masters degree. We took about two years. The technology still needs to mature, but we think we can release it perhaps by the end of this year, in November, but we already have orders from the Middle East and the United States.
DL: What is the cost of this technology?
Santos: The cost depends on the capacity. But the equipment costs anything from US$150,000 per unit up to several million dollars per unit. A typical American well costs US$250,000 per unit.
DL: Have there been any approaches to sell this in the country?
Santos: We are in the process of commercial talks, because out technology could be uses in refilling industrial vehicle natural gas. We hope that next year we will be here with a distribution network. We have already begun the contacts but we have not selected with will be the company that will represent us, yet.
Diario Libre: What does this recognition mean to you?
Santos: It is a great honor because Forbes is the most widely read business magazine in the financial and business worlds, and with this being the inaugural list, because they have never done it before, it is very prestigious. (See: 30 under 30 at www.forbes.com)
DL: Exactly what is wellhead compression?
Santos: We began the business looking for a solution that would increase production of natural gas and oil wells, and we were able make the discovery by analyzing the different characteristics of natural gas and oil wells, looking at ecological conditions, and their composition. Normally what happens is that at each well they only recover between 20% and 40% of the petroleum that there is in the pocket, and there are ways to extract a lot of the quantity of petroleum that is left when they make a well, and this is more than half. We came up with a technology of efficient compression, which permits that well with decaying production, can see this increased and the cost of compression is less and can extend the life of a well from 10 to 30 years and even 40 years.
DL: What do you base your calculations on that you can reduce the cost of production?
Santos: The cost of capital, which is to say, the amount invested, can be reduced by half and later, the operating cost, with regard to energy and maintenance of the wells can be reduced by 30% and these are the two things that increase the earnings in energy production. Comparing this to the amount of machinery that is needed at a typical well, utilizing this technology we only need to have our compression equipment and this cuts the capital costs. The second thing is that production increases, if the well was producing 200,000 cubic feet (of natural gas) a day, the production can increase up to 300,000 cubic feet a day.
DL: How long did it take you to develop this system and who work on it?
Santos: A group with me as the leader developed this technology. We are studying Finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and although I was studying Business, I am an engineer with a Masters degree. We took about two years. The technology still needs to mature, but we think we can release it perhaps by the end of this year, in November, but we already have orders from the Middle East and the United States.
DL: What is the cost of this technology?
Santos: The cost depends on the capacity. But the equipment costs anything from US$150,000 per unit up to several million dollars per unit. A typical American well costs US$250,000 per unit.
DL: Have there been any approaches to sell this in the country?
Santos: We are in the process of commercial talks, because out technology could be uses in refilling industrial vehicle natural gas. We hope that next year we will be here with a distribution network. We have already begun the contacts but we have not selected with will be the company that will represent us, yet.
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