Richard A. Sears
Richard Sears is Vice President and Extra-mural Research Coordinator for Shell International Exploration and Production Inc. He is currently on loan to MIT for a period of three years, where he serves as Visiting Scientist in the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. The intent is to create a research and technology relationship model for Shell with major US universities and manage Shell energy research activities at MIT as well as other research relationships in the Americas.
Read more bio
Richard Sears is Vice President and Extra-mural Research Coordinator for Shell International Exploration and Production Inc. He is currently on loan to MIT for a period of three years, where he serves as Visiting Scientist in the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. The intent is to create a research and technology relationship model for Shell with major US universities and manage Shell energy research activities at MIT as well as other research relationships in the Americas.
In his more than 30 years with Shell, Richard has gained significant domestic and international experience, frequently representing Shell to partners, governments and national oil companies, including presentations to governmental authorities and ministers of eleven countries. He has been an invited and keynote speaker at industry conferences in the US, UK, Africa and Asia.
Prior to his current assignment, he shared responsibility for developing Shell strategy for deepwater exploration and development worldwide and was one of three vice presidents within Shell E&P responsible for the work of over 800 technical professionals across the globe from over 15 distinct geoscience, engineering and business disciplines.
Previous positions within Shell have included exploration geophysicist, technical instructor, economist, strategic planner, and general management.
He is the author of numerous internal publications including field studies and case histories, geophysical research reports, and technical training manuals.
Richard has been a member of the Stanford University School of Earth Sciences Advisory Board since 2004. He is a Licensed Professional Geoscientist in the State of Texas, an active member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists and a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers.
He earned his Master of Science degree in Geophysics and his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Stanford University.
Viewpoint: More Energy, Less Carbon Dioxide
3-2-1-6-5.
At Shell, we call it the "More Energy, Less Carbon Dioxide" strategy, which acknowledges the three hard truths about the energy challenge: surge in energy use, struggle for supply to keep pace, and increasing stresses on the environment. To help think about the future of energy, Shell developed two scenarios (Scramble and Blueprints) that describe alternative ways it may develop, and identified one (Blueprints) as the preferred approach. To enable Blueprints, Shell will work on six reduction pathways and advocate for five policy objectives to address the energy challenge and climate change.
discussion |
printemail
  |
Moderator: Hi Everyone. We will be getting started in just a few minutes.
Richard Sears : I am looking forward to answering your questions.
_______________________
Moderator: Good Afternoon everyone. Thank you all for being with us today. And thank you Mr. Sears for being here. Let's get started.
Richard Sears : Nice to be here. Let's get started.
_______________________
Boston, Mass.: What is the main difference between "Scramble" and "Blueprints"?
Richard Sears : The main difference is in the degree of cooperation between companies, governments and people. In Scramble everyone acts independently trying to solve their own supply/demand or environmental problem, whereas in Blueprints there is a greater sense of cooperating to find workable solutions for everyone. By acting together under Blueprints, the outcome is more likely an earler transition to alternative energy sources, a broader mix of energy and more effective measures for dealing with climate change.
_______________________
Sterling, Va.: In these pressing times, it is a great boon to have companies like Shell taking the lead on research and development of alternative energy solutions. In the long run, once these solutions come to fruition, what role does Shell envision for itself in a world where oil will become increasingly marginalized by changes in technology and standards of living which will evolve to require less energy use?
Richard Sears : Over the coming decades, we will see a transition to different energy sources. Companies like Shell have shown that we can efficiently deliver energy to consumers and we are currently researching and developing new technologies in solar, wind, and biofuels as well as unconventional hydrocarbons, such as oil sands, oil shales and natural gas trapped in "tight" formations. We believe that the technologies required to bring these alternative energies to reality are areas where we excel so that we can continue to supply energy for the future.
_______________________
Denver, Colo.: You say "More Energy, Less CO2" - And your efforts for shale development here in Colorado, and the tarsands in Canada and gas and coal to liquid elsewhere will deliver more energy - But how can Shell deliver on both promises with these CO2 intensive acitivities?
Richard Sears : In the case of shales and oil sands, the challenge is to produce those resources without producing as much carbon and we're researching that by trying to develop methods for what's called in situ conversion.
For coal-to-liquid, in order to lessen the carbon impact of coal-to-liquids as a fuel, we have to devleop technologies for carbon capture and sequestration so we can capture the carbon produced and sequester it, for example, in saline aquifers instead of the putting it into the atmosphere.
_______________________
Miami, Fla.: Prof. Sears- While I clearly understand that Shell Oil, like most oil producing and/or refining companies, is profit motivated I praise Shell for taking earlier initiative than most in publicly coming (I recall magazine adverts from the early 2000s) to the task of informing the public of its green initiatives.
My question(s) is given the natural solar/wind production abilities of Florida, Texas, S. California etc. What steps has Shell made in becoming a producer of or investor in Solar Cell/Wind generation technologies and how are the current profit margins and the future projections on profits?
Regards,
Adam Oliver
Richard Sears : We recognize the future potential of both solar and wind as primary energy sources and we have ongoing research efforts in converting solar power to electricity with thin film solar cells. Shell is an active developer of wind power with developments capable of generating more than 845MW in Texas, California, Colorado, Wyoming, West Virginia, Iowa and offshore and onshore Europe.
_______________________
Chicago, Ill.: What are the potential impacts of a disruptive new primary energy source technology (http://www.blacklightpower.com) on future scenarios for energy consumption and fossil fuel use?
Richard Sears : I like this question because it shows that someone is really thinking out of the box. There's huge potential in disruptive future energy sources, I think. But, of course, we haven't included that in our Scenarios and our quantitative thinking of the future because we don't know what they are - they come as a surprise, often from totally different technology areas. So, at Shell we want to be looking at a whole range of solutions in the hopes that we might be the ones to recognize one of these disruptive technologies.
_______________________
Brooklyn, N.Y.: Everyone is talking "green" and converting to a cleaner alternative, but there hasn't been discussion of one distinct solution. Does Shell forsee a future of multiple sources or just one dedicated solution?
Richard Sears : For the near-to-medium term, it will be a future of multiple sources of energy. In the very long term, we might develop a new energy source that can dominate energy supply in the way that oil and gas or coal do today, but we don't see that happening within the next few decades and it could be that future dominant energy source is one of the disruptive technologies that hasn't been discovered yet.
_______________________
Palmer, Ala.: What is Shell doing to build a hydrogen based economic through electrolysis of water rather than getting hydrogen from methane or other hydrocarbons?
Richard Sears : We actually have a hydrogen demonstration project in Iceland where we're supplying hydrogen for municipal energy use that is generated using the abundant geothermal energy there.
_______________________
Hacienda Heights, Calif.: What are you doing to make the USA energy independent?
Richard Sears : In today's global economy, it's about energy interdependence. Just as there's no one energy source that will take us independently into the future, it's not realistic to think that we could achieve energy independence as a nation by ourselves.
_______________________
Gibsonville NC: Hi Mr Sears, I would like to know your opinion on CNG fuel to power American autos, trucks, and locomotives. Thank you, Maximillem Alves
Richard Sears : The world has abundant natural gas supplies, so that compressed natural gas (CNG) is a viable transportation fuel. It does require, however, evolving the fleet and infrastructure needed to support wide scale commercialization.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.: Recently I have heard that there is actually plenty of oil - but it is just in increasingly difficult places to retrieve it from. How will Shell be pursuing this oil in efficient yet environmentally responsible ways?
Richard Sears : Over the last 20 years, Shell has been one of the leaders in moving into deeper water environments to produce conventional oil and gas. We have developed innovative technologies such as snakewells and smart fields to recover more oil from existing fields. And, we work on innovative and environmentally responsible technologies for producing oil from shales and oil sands.
_______________________
Salem, Ore.: I've been reading a lot recently about plug-in electric cars. Don't they just shift the carbon emissions from the tail pipe to the electric plant flue?
Is Shell doing anything to move towards a hydrogen fuel cell auto refueling concept?
Richard Sears : You're right that electric vehicles shift emissions from the tailpipe to the electric plant. However, at the electric plant the CO2 can be captured for sequestration rather being emitted into the atmosphere.
We have a number of research partnerships where we're working with others to develop the technologies for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. These include domestic trials with GM for fleets of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that refuel at existing Shell stations. So far, in the U.S., we have three - one in L.A. and another in Washington, D.C. and a third in New York state.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.: Which presidential candidate did Shell support?
Richard Sears : Shell does not support one candidate over another, rather we actively work with the adminstration as a resource on energy issues.
_______________________
Moderator:Looks like that's all the time we have for today. Thank you Richard for taking the time to answer our questions. And thanks to everyone for joining us.
Richard Sears : Great. I realize there are a lot of questions I didn't get a chance to answer, and I will try to answer some of them so they can be included in the online archive. Thanks for this opportunity. Rich.
_______________________
