bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Mechanism for the effects of Relativity
Authors: Cornwall Remi
Published: March 2019

This paper seeks to investigate the questions of: How does the constancy of the speed of light come about? Why does time dilation and length contraction occur? Are they physical effects with a mechanism? Does mass have a role is in these effects? Is Relativity an emergent phenomenon? The enquiry is along a different tact than the standard Lorentzian invariance canon but in the realm of readily known experimental facts or analogies and theory in the domain of wave propagation and solid state physics. These analogies, to almost prosaic physics, have a small following and are called Ether Theories, which modern physics has implicitly reinstated by General Relativity and Quantum Field Theories. In the category of Ether Theories based on analogies to solid state physics, this presentation is unique in not being Lorentz invariant; it is based on earlier papers by the author enquiring into the speed of coincidence counting of the Bell Inequality and a communication protocol. It is believed that Lorentz invariance emerges from the Ether and all Relativistic Mechanics can be built from the bottom up. The conclusion is that space-time is not really curved but the effects are all ascribable to mass gain.
Robust Supervision by Integration External and Bond Graph Models of a Desalination System
Authors: Sallami Abderrahmene , Mzoughi Dhia , Allegui Allegui , Mami Abdelkader
Published: March 2019

This article aims to solve the problem of robust supervision of a reverse osmosis desalination system (RO-DS) with two models, external model and bond graph model. The structure of an industrial system from the point of view of the external model operates according to several modes of operation (degraded and normal). For this external model, we cannot locate the faults since we are talking about a global operation of the system. The possible solution for the development of research was to use the multidisciplinary model called bond graph. This model by its graphic nature and using a unified language makes it possible to model the industrial system element by element from where it helps the user not only to detect the faults but also to locate them when they appear in the system. The results suggest that the use of the bond graph model for alarm 02 is a reverse osmosis error (RO1); these phenomena are readable on the bond graph model and can be quantified by equations. The equation of the model of this reverse osmosis (RO1) is found in the residual equations (r5, r6 and r7), so that these residues will be sensitive to this rupture. The possible solution during research development was to use the bond graph model to supplement information with physical knowledge and to locate faults. This article also describes the operating safety (by minimizing false alarms and non-detections as well as delays in fault detection) of the desalination system by using the bond graph model described in Linear Fractional Transformation (LFT) form for enable it to manage the robust supervision of a desalination system. An approach based on (LFT-BG) is developed to monitor tank leakage (Cu) and reverse osmosis (RO1 and RO2) faults or valve level (V1 and V2) closures and membrane clogging reverse osmosis (Rm1 and Rm2) that can occur in the reverse osmosis desalination system (RO-DS).
Non-Dispersive Extraction of Ge(IV) from Aqueous Solutions by Cyanex 923: Transport and Modeling Studies
Authors: Kamran Haghighi Hossein , Irannajad Mehdi , Teresa Coll Maria , Sastre Ana Maria
Published: March 2019

The transport of germanium from an aqueous solution containing oxalic acid was studied using a flat sheet supported liquid membrane (FSSLM) system. Cyanex 923 immobilized in a polytetrafluoroethylene membrane was employed as a carrier. The solution chemistry and related diagrams were applied to study the transport of germanium. The effectual parameters such as oxalic acid, the carrier, and strip reagent concentrations were evaluated in this study. Based on the results, the oxalic acid concentration of 0.075 mol/L and the carrier concentration of 20 %v/v were the condition in which the efficient germanium transport occurred. Among strip reagents tested, NaOH had the best efficiency to transport germanium through the supported liquid membrane system. Furthermore, the permeation model was obtained to calculate the mass transfer resistances. According to the results, the values of 1 and 1345 s/cm were evaluated for Δm and Δf, respectively. The model curve showed that the P value reached a steady state at higher concentrations of the carrier because the viscosity governed the transport phenomenon.
Hernia de Spiegel como causa de obstrucción intestinal de íleon en una paciente anticoagulada por fibrilación auricular, abordaje laparoscópico. Reporte de caso.
Authors: Machado Rivera Faber Albeiro , Calle Lotero Carlos Andres , López Uribe Federico
Published: March 2019

La Hernia de Spiegel es un tipo de hernia de la pared abdominal poco frecuente. Una vez se diagnostica es conveniente intervenir por el alto riesgo de encarcelación y complicación. A continuación presentamos el caso clínico de una paciente con antecedente de fibrilación auricular anticoagulada con Apixaban; Consultó al servicio de urgencias con signos y síntomas de obstrucción intestinal y se confirmó por tomografía de abdomen la presencia de Hernia de Spiegel izquierda encarcelada. Decidimos esperar 24 horas luego del consumo de anticoagulante para intervenir a la paciente por el alto riesgo de sangrado, la espera podía producir en la paciente una perforación intestinal; por lo que no consideramos oportuno esperar 48 horas sin el consumo de anticoagulante a pesar de ser la recomendación. El abordaje se realizó vía laparoscópica con técnica IPOM, buscábamos evitar sangrados masivos ya que vía laparoscopia se produce un menor trauma en los tejidos. La paciente no presentó complicaciones, tampoco presentó sangrados masivos en la cirugía ni en el postoperatorio. Han transcurrido 13 meses luego de haber sido intervenida y hasta el momento sin reaparición de su hernia.
Public Intoxication: Sobering Centers as an Alternative to Incarceration, Houston, 2010–2017
Authors: Jarvis Suzanne V. , Kincaid Leonard , Weltge Arlo F. , Lee Mike , Basinger Scott F.
Published: March 2019

In 2010, the Houston police department admitted 20 508 publicly intoxicated individuals into its jail. To address jail overcrowding, the city created a jail diversion policy that allowed law enforcement to admit publicly intoxicated individuals into a new sobering center. By 2017, public intoxication jail admissions had decreased by 95%, freeing valuable resources. A promising public health intervention, sobering centers offer an alternative to incarceration and relieve overuse of emergency services while assisting individuals with substance use issues.
Gout Presenting as Acute Hip Pain in a Young Woman
Authors: Xu Shin , Emanuelli Elisa , Tarakemeh Armin , Vopat Bryan G. , Schroeppel John Paul , Mullen Scott
Published: March 2019

Case:

A 28-year-old previously healthy woman developed worsening right hip pain without any preceding trauma or injury. Because of concern for septic arthritis, she underwent arthroscopic irrigation and debridement. The culture specimens were negative; crystal analysis showed monosodium urate crystals, which are consistent with an acute gout flare. The patient was started on naproxen and prednisone therapy and had substantial improvement in hip pain.

Conclusion:

Gout is a common cause of joint pain in older individuals. While rare in younger patients, our case report shows that gout should be included in the differential diagnosis when a patient presents with acute monoarthritis, regardless of age.
The Diamond of Efficiency: An Innovative Analytical Model to Unlock Opportunities for Operational Improvement
Authors: Cedeño Ramiro , Al-Bahrani Aqeel , Haldar Surajit
Published: March 2019

This paper presents the Diamond of Efficiency (DoE), an innovative analytical model developed to identify opportunities to improve efficiency in any type of operation. The model can be applied for identification of recommendations to enhance established procedures for executing operations in a more efficient way within different types of organizations. The DoE considers four dimensions to underpin the key aspects for operational improvement; these dimensions are Value Added, Expertise, Alignment to Roles & Responsibilities and Time Consumption. The first three are the root dimensions and are subject to qualitative evaluation of their implementation in the operation being analyzed. The fourth dimension is quantitatively calculated. Results from the four dimensions are presented graphically in a radar chart, providing an easy visualization of the aspects that must be tackled to improve efficiency.

To maximize efficiency while executing routine operations is a key target for a highly competitive organization. Due to multiple tasks executed simultaneously, sometimes it is difficult to see clearly how efficient certain operations are being conducted.

Results from the four dimensions considered by the DoE are compared against its ideal shape, which is built under the assumption that an efficient operation maximizes value for the three root dimensions; therefore, their ranked value is the maximum. Regarding Time Consumption, the model considers a time framework that should be appropriate to the specific operation under analysis, which implies a middle ranking in the measured scale. The combination of results from the four dimensions considered by the DoE allows the researcher to undertake a critical evaluation and recommend opportunities for improvement to bring any operation to the ideal shape defined by DoE.

The DoE model has been developed to attend the necessity of having an easy-to-apply analytical tool to clearly identify opportunities for improvement in operations conducted by multitasked professionals in large organizations. The possibility to underpin such opportunities in a timely manner represents a tremendous potential for savings. This results from better utilization of the available human resources, the clear determination of the value added to the process, the degree of needed technical knowledge involved in the operation, and its alignment to the particular roles and responsibilities of the function defined for executing the operation under evaluation.
Asphaltene Stability Analysis for Crude Oils and Their Relationship With Asphaltene Precipitation Models for a Gas Condensate Field
Authors: Siddiqui Muhammad Arsalan , Tariq Syed Mohammad , Haneef Javed , Ali Syed Imran , Manzoor Abdul Ahad
Published: March 2019

Asphaltene deposition can cause production reduction in oil fields and can create problems in surface/subsurface equipment. The three main factors which affect asphaltene stability in a crude oil are the changes in pressure, temperature and composition. Composition changes occur as the pressure depletes with time and fluid becomes heavier or with gas or chemical injection in reservoir. Any of these changes can destabilizes the asphaltene in crude oil and can cause different operational difficulties, loss in production and increases safety concerns. The objective of this study is to develop a workflow for modeling asphaltene precipitation during pressure depletion and its application to develop mitigation strategy via asphaltene stability maps for a gas condensate field in South Potwar basin, Pakistan
Key Technologies for Fire Flooding in Thin Interbeded Heavy Oil Reservoirs
Authors: Feng Tian , Wu Yi , Song Yang
Published: March 2019

In this work, we show a case study of using fire flooding process in thin interbeded heavy oil reservoirs to tackle the problems of low oil production rate, low gas oil ratio, and low oil recovery factor in later stage of cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) operations. The fire flooding process was adopted for the Block D reservoir in Liaohe Oilfield, China.

The depth of Block D heavy oil reservoir is 800-1200m. The reservoir includes 30-40 thin layers in vertical direction, with average thickness of 2.2m per layer. Through laboratory experiments, numerical simulation, and analysis of surveillance data from the initial small scale field pilot, we improve the understanding of fire flooding recovery mechanisms in thin interbeded reservoirs. Then, technical limits such as reservoir thickness, number of layers and permeability contrast are established for successfully conducting fire flooding with high temperature oxidation. Reaction types identification methods based on corresponding field surveillance data are also proposed. Using such guideline, we have deployed fire flooding expansions in Block D reservoir with more well patterns.

It has been proven that fire flooding process with the designed well patterns can improve recovery and sweep, and make the wells more productive with enhanced inflow from multiple directions. The process technical limits successfully guides us in properly expanding the project. Reaction type identification method further helps to perform continuous dynamic surveillance of the high/low temperature oxidation burning state of the combustion front in the field. The initial pilot test includes 7 well patterns, which have been operational since 2005. Up to now, we have deployed a total of 105 fire flooding well patterns in Block D reservoir. Within the fire flooding area, the single-well oil production rate has doubled on average, with the reservoir pressure also doubled. For the multi-layered block D reservoir, the ultimate oil recovery factor for fire flooding can reach up to 55%, an increase of 28% from the expected recovery of CSS.

In conclusion, we have shown in this work that fire flooding process can be applied to deep thin to medium thickness interbeded heavy oil reservoirs. As a follow-up process in later stage of cyclic steam stimulation, it can significantly increase oil recovery and process performance.
Application of Acid Activated Bentonite for Efficient Removal of Organic Pollutants from Industrial Phosphoric Acid: Kinetic and Thermodynamic Study
Authors: Ali M. M. , Attia Azza A. , Taha M. H. , El-Maadawy M. M. , Abo-Raia A. M. , Abouria Amr
Published: March 2019

Environmental and health issues are critical challenges for sustainable development in the 21st century; therefore, this paper investigates a simple and cost-effective process for recovery of organic matter (OM) from phosphoric acid to provide environmentally acceptable P-fertilizer. This study analyzed the structural transformations and adsorption properties of Na-bentonite clay before and after chemical activation by sulfuric and hydrochloric acids. The untreated and treated clay samples have been used for adsorption of organic matter from high strength phosphoric acid. The experimental data exhibited that the clay treated with sulfuric acid caused highest organic matter adsorption capacity. The kinetic models of adsorption were analyzed by the pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, Elovich kinetic and Morris-Weber models. The results indicated that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model is more appropriate than the others for natural bentonite; but, for chemical activated clays, pseudo-first order is fitting. Obtained adsorption thermodynamic parameters (ΔH°, ΔS°, and ΔG°) expose that the organic matter adsorption is an endothermic, physical, and spontaneous process.
Environmental Friendly Water-Based Pre-Flush Formulation for Oil & Injector Wells' Acid Stimulation
Authors: Al Jaberi Jaber , Sultan Abdullah , Shamsan Abdulmalek , Hassan Islam , Marine Hope , Akram Asad , Saleh Raed M
Published: March 2019

Aromatic based chemistries have been used extensively as additives in the pre-flush systems of acid stimulation programs. The need for these solvents stems from the requirement to displace oil or break asphaltic or waxy materials ahead of the main stimulation treatment. These chemicals while effective, are highly flammable, difficult to handle and have negative impact on the enviroment. Aromatic additives are always mixed with diesel-based pre-flush systems in acid stimulation jobs. If water is added to this system, the resultant emulsion damages the productivity of the formation. Water wetting surfactants typically of aqueous nature pose the same problems when mixed with diesel systems. The main challenge, however, is to mix these hydrocarbon-based fluids with water and surfactant to clean the wellbore and water-wet the formation face in preparation for the acid stimulation treatment.

The objective of this work was to evaluate new environment-friendly water-based pre-flush formulations for oil and injector wells. The new aqueous Pre-flush formulations was developed to avoid the aformentioned problems with using diesel. The new Pre-flush formulations include between 10-15% blend of specialty surfactants and solvents, successfully homogenized with low-cost field water. These formulations are able to alter the wettability of the formation face by breaking the oily phase and separating it from the surface of the formation. The new formulations have high flash points and are biodegradable which results in easier handling and an environment-friendly alternative to existing diesel pre-flush systems. Wettability, stability and interfacial tension tests at reservoir conditions helped optimized the new formulation.

The results showed excellent dissolving power for oily sludges and surfaces in addition to excellent stability and wettability. The new pre-flush formulations can enhance the reactivity of the acid with the formation and improve treatment results. It will enhance the flowback and post-treatment cleaning of the well.
Applications of Applying High Rate Coiled Tubing with Fiber Optic System to Meet the Growing Challenges of Coiled Tubing Interventions in Sour Gas Producer Wells
Authors: Al-Zaid Mustafa R. , Bulekbay Aslan , Al-Harbi Abdulaziz , Al-Driweesh Saad
Published: March 2019

Dealing with tight high pressure/high temperature (HPHT) sour gas reservoirs encounters many challenges. One challenge associated with these reservoirs is the development of hard and heavy scale mixture in the production tubing, causing flow and accessibility restrictions. To restore full accessibility, a mechanical de-scaling operations using special milling and cleanout assemblies is the best current solution to this problem, due to the fact that chemical dissolving methods do not deliver the desired results. Another challenge is conventional perforation in some tight wells gives limited penetration, which does not establish the required wellbore reservoir communication. In this case, utilizing the abrasive jetting tool will offer the best solution to overcome the casing string, cement, formation damage achieve optimum penetration which will optimize the stimulation design and enhance the well productivity.

In recent years, using coiled tubing (CT) equipped with fiber optics with aforementioned coil tubing intervention operations, have become a common practice in gas wells. Using this system provides the ability to acquire on-job real time data such as pressure, temperature and gamma ray depth correlation. Furthermore, the incorporation of a new rugged fiber optics system into the intervention strategy has enabled increasing operational success rate and results in robust control on the operation parameters, minimizing the risk of gas influx, reducing coil tubing runs and improving decision making process during the operations.

This paper describes the challenges in mechanical de-scaling and slot cuttings operations, overview of different applications using CT with fiber optics system, provides a comparison between the rugged and standard fiber optics systems and lessons learned of recent implementation of the rugged CT fiber optic system.
Development of ANN-Based Predictive Model for Miscible CO2 Flooding in Sandstone Reservoir
Authors: Khamidy Nur Iman , Tariq Zeeshan , Syihab Zuher
Published: March 2019

Up to 2010, 44.55% of 312 EOR's project for light oil implemented around the world in sandstone reservoirs were come from continuous miscible gas CO2 injection which contributed to an incremental Recovery Factor (RF) of about 34.5% for less than 10 years of production period. This fact has triggered many oil industries to apply this potential and proven technogy for their assets. This potential comes with the needs of having a robust tool to forecast additional recovery due to CO2 injection. This work focuses to development of predictive model using artificial neural network (ANN). More than 6000 series of input-output parameters for ANN training and validation/testing data are extracted from numerical reservoir simulator of 1/8 of five-spot pattern models. The models are set as combination of reservoir geometry, rock, fluid and well operating condition parameters within the range of CO2 EOR screening criteria. The main objective of this work is to find the best ANN architecture/model which accurately matches reservoir simulation results, especially the relationship of RF, total volume of injected CO2 (GI) and the reservoir characteristics and well operating conditions. Trial and error of ANN architectures and parameters are done on number of hidden layers, number of neurons for each hidden layer, learning rate (LR) value, and momentum constant (MC) with minimization algorithm (Lavenberg-Marquardt) in Feed-Forward Back Propagation (FFBP) schemes under log-sigmoid transfer function. An optimum result of ANN model is achieved with an architecture of 18-26-11-2. The relative error of RF and GI of the ANN model are within range of 3 to 10% respectively. A better average relative error of RF and GI of 2.8% and 4.15% respectively are obtained after removing the outliers (unrealistic combinations of input data) from training process of the ANN model. Furthermore, it is clearly found that oil viscosity plays the most the important factor in CO2 EOR method.
An Automated Trajectory Control for Drilling Operations
Authors: Ignova Maja , Montois Michael , Mantle Katharine
Published: March 2019

The paper presents a trajectory control and automated directional steering method for drilling operations. The core philosophy behind the trajectory automation and control is a multi-layered primary-secondary based approach in cascade. The complexity of the system increases with additional layers. This methodology improves the overall trajectory control system efficiency when dealing with nonlinearities, delays and uncertainties that are present during drilling as well as dealing with different frequencies of interest. This principle has been previously applied to several operational modes of trajectory automated control for RSS tools (e.g., attitude control with vertical drilling control as a special case). The remaining significant challenges facing trajectory automation include automated kick-off, automatic curve control for geometric and geological steering, and combining them into automated trajectory control by combining the surface and downhole information.

This paper presents the next level of directional trajectory automation and control that are currently handled and controlled by the directional drillers [e.g., geometric and geological steering (automated curvature control) as outer (primary) layer to the attitude controller]. The proposed method removes the surface drilling parameters dependencies on the downhole trajectory response. The performance of the curvature controller method has been investigated in virtual field test environment using model-based design process methodology.
Evaluation of the Potentials for Adapting the Multistage Hydraulic Fracturing Technology in Tight Carbonate Reservoir
Authors: Al-Fatlawi Omar , Hossain Mofazzal , Patel Neha , Kabir Akim
Published: March 2019

Hydraulic fracturing is considered to be a vital cornerstone in decision making of unconventional reservoirs. With an increasing level of development of unconventional reservoirs, many questions have arisen regarding enhancing production performance of tight carbonate reservoirs, especially the evaluation of the potential for adapting multistage hydraulic fracturing technology in tight carbonate reservoirs to attain an economic revenue.

In this paper we present a feasibility study of multistage fractured horizontal well in typical tight carbonate reservoirs covering different values of permeability. We show that NPV is the suitable objective function for deciding on the optimum number of fractures and fracture half-length. Multistage fractured horizontal well has been found to be a feasible technique to produce from tight carbonate reservoirs with permeability in the range of 0.01-0.05 mD, while it is not economic reservoirs with permeability of around 0.001 mD. In addition, our study suggests that for feasibility study purposes simplified homogeneous reservoir models can be used instead of a heterogeneous one without compromising the quality of conclusions. This will save time, money and efforts in evaluating production performance of various options like, number, length and other fracture properties of multistage fractured horizontal wells.
Development of Artificial Intelligence Models for Prediction of Crude Oil Viscosity
Authors: Al-Amoudi Luai Ali , Ba geri Badr Salem , Patil Shirish , Baarimah Salem Obaid
Published: March 2019

Crude oil viscosity is a significant parameter for the fluid flow in both porous media and pipe lines. Therefore, it has to be determined using highly accurate methods. Oil viscosity is usually predicted with the correlations obtained from the laboratory measured data. However, some of the presented correlations have very complicated assumptions which make them very difficult to apply in most of the case studies reported. On the other hand, simplified correlations companies the accuracy.

The present work in this paper studies predictive capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to estimate the oil viscosity. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models are proposed to predict the undersaturated, saturated and dead oil viscosity in Yemeni fields. A data set consisting 545 of laboratory measurements on oil samples was gathered from different oil fields in Yemen. 70% of the data points were used to train the proposed ANN models while the remaining data set was tested the model performance. The performance of the ANN methods was compared with some of the conventional correlations such as (Beal's correlation, Khan's correlation, Kartoatmodjo and Schmidt correlation, Vasquez-Begg's correlation, Chew and Connaly correlation, Beggs and Robinson correlation, Elsharqawy correlation and Glaso's correlation).

The result of this study shows the superiority of the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models over the current models for predicting oil viscosity from PVT data. The comparative results displayed that the proposed ANN models performed better with higher accuracy than those obtained with published correlations.
Integrated G&G and Engineering Assessment of a Remarkable Cretaceous Discovery in Bahrah Field at North Kuwait
Authors: Al-Shuaib Sarah , Al-Bader Haifa , Al-Salali Yousef , Abdel hameed Waleed , Ahmad Hanan , Al-Dousari Sarah
Published: March 2019

Comprehensive and fully-integrated analyses were performed on the first discovery in Zubair formation of lower Cretaceous age at Bahrah field in North Kuwait with objective of assessing HC potential, well performance, reservoir characteristics and verify connectivity between reservoir flow units.

Based on petro-physical evaluation of OHL, bottom-hole samples, and RDT pressure points two flow units within Zubair reservoir were identified. The OHL showed that these two zones are separated by thin shale strikes additionally; the resistivity against the upper zone showed possibility of being water. Therefore, it was decided to test the two reservoir units separately.

Subsequently, after two successful production tests, analyses of well production performance including Nodal Analysis, PVT, RDT and PTA were carried out for both zones in order to assess reserve potential, obtain essential reservoir rock & fluid characteristics and verify vertical connectivity.

Remarkable oil discovery was made in Zubair reservoir of Bahrah field with substantial addition of proven reserves and commercial production potential, which will definitely support achieving the strategic production target. In order to verify long-term production sustainability, Extended Well Testing (EWT) was conducted. The results showed that this reservoir is capable to produce Hydrocarbon in a sustainable manner. Production Performance, PVT, RDT, PTA and Nodal analysis results showed that the two tested zones in Zubair reservoir are interconnected with same fluid characteristics and it can be considered as one reservoir even though the open-hole logs responses showing that they could be different reservoirs.

This paper will present detailed comprehensive engineering and geological analyses of first Zubair oil discovery in Bahrah Field at North Kuwait. All available structural, petrophysical, PVT and production information were used to develop static model by Petrel-RE and subsequently, detailed data acquisition, appraisal drilling and conceptual field development plans have been established.
Effect of Permeability Anisotropy on Probe Permeameter Measurements
Authors: Al-Azani Khaled , Al-Yousef Hasan , Mahmoud Mohamed
Published: March 2019

Probe permeameter (also known as Mini-permeameter) has been widely used in many field and laboratory applications where in-situ measurements and spatial distributions of permeability are needed. Mini-permeameter measurements have become popular techniques for collecting localized permeability measurements in both laboratory and field applications. It is designed to obtain fast, cheap, intensive and non-destructive permeability measurements and to describe the spatial arrangement of permeability.

In this work, the effect of vertical and horizontal anisotropy on the probe permeameter measurements was investigated. A numerical simulation model for the rectangular system representing a porous rock sample was built based on finite difference discretization of steady-state flow of an incompressible single-phase fluid in a three-dimensional (3D) system. The seal and tip of the probe permeameter are represented by no-flow boundary and constant pressure boundary, respectively. All the sides of the sample are represented by a constant-pressure boundary in which the sample is exposed to the atmosphere. The investigation was conducted by examining different permeability anisotropy ratios. These include fully isotropic sample, different vertical anisotropy ratios in a horizontally-isotropic sample, different vertical anisotropy ratios at different horizontal anisotropy ratios. All these investigations are performed at a constant probe injection pressure of 50 psig at the injection tip.

The results obtained showed the clear effect of anisotropy on the probe permeameter measurements and were expressed in dimensionless parameters. These dimensionless parameters include the ratio between the flow rate measurements at different directions for different vertical and horizontal anisotropy ratios. They also include the dimensionless pressure drop for the pressure drop measurements at different directions. From the plots of these dimensionless parameters, the permeability at different directions can be evaluated from a few steady-state flow rate and pressure drop measurements at different directions on a rectangular core sample. Therefore, a practical procedure for evaluating permeability anisotropy from probe permeameter measurements is also described.
Succession Planning; A Way Forward in Achieving Organizational Strategies
Authors: Al-Daihani Eisa , Nandi Arun Kumar , Raza Syed Mohammad
Published: March 2019

The upstream oil and gas industry, facing with an aging workforce, need to implement the right approach to ensure that competent work force available to carry forward the needed tasks in achieving the company's strategic goals. As organization grows, we need to ensure that processes are in place to attract, retain and develop the employee's talent for succession planning and management. The paper present a strategic process that focuses on creating a sustainable value chain of high potential talent who have the requisite knowledge and skills to lead and manage new organizational requirements and address business challenges.

As good succession planning is critical for companies facing the "big crew change," a systematic approach to implement fast track processes is proposed. It involves: i) Critical analysis of manpower (ageing/ specialization etc.), ii) Identification of specialized jobs / competencies, iii) Designing training & development roadmap for all jobs/ levels iv) Young Professional's, Mid- Career and Advance Career Competency Development Roadmaps v) Shadowing the personnel according to the jobs with target date and vi) Robust competency assessment process.

The significant impact of implementing above process will ensure the changed crew acquire the desired competencies within timeframe and will be able to take over the retired employee's position. Moreover, there will be no substantial setback to the organization in achieving the organizational strategies since technical capabilities is retained through systematic knowledge transfer process.

Implementing a proper succession plan process within the company is one of the significant initiatives to support the development of technical capabilities and leadership capacity to address the challenges like growth in production targets and handling maturing and more complex fields. The proper succession planning and management will also overcome the challenges of selecting the top performers and pooling the talent with equipped technologies.

The approach adopted will not only solve the problem of emerging big crew change but also help in achieving the company's strategic goals.
Reservoir Modeling of Complex Carbonate Deposits Integrating Well Data, Seismic Inversion and Depositional Model in Minagish Reservoir of Greater Burgan Field, Kuwait
Authors: Ben Amor Faical , Madhavan Sethu , Edwards Keith , Kalyanbrata Datta , Filak Jean Michel
Published: March 2019

A Cretaceous carbonate reservoir, deposited in a shoal complex environment, produced only 10% of the estimated STOIIP, yet currently suffering from a rapid reservoir pressure decline. Recently acquired geoscience and engineering data revealed a lot of subsurface uncertainties. To boost the production and support a pressure maintenance project, a reviewed reservoir evaluation was critical to narrow down the uncertainties on reservoir structure, Tarmat prediction, rock quality, oil distribution and connectivity of aquifer with neighboring fields.

Owing to lateral variation of depositional environments field-wise and a complex diagenetic processes history, mutli-scale heterogeneities are seen both vertically and areally. Capitalizing on limited dataset, collected from early development wells and previously overseen deep exploration wells, a fully integrated approach was required to address these heterogeneities. Fault data, integrated with log & pressure data analysis and seismically mappable Tarmat related flat spots enabled to decipher reservoir compartmentalization. Detailed property modeling used a hybrid hierarchical workflow of deterministic, statistical and stochastic techniques, and allowed capturing depositional/diagenetic rock quality variations, including seismically mappable Tarmats' overprint, calibrated with well and geochemical data.

At borehole-scale, a cascaded PCA-NNs methodology in a hierarchical order yielded the best results in predicting lithofacies at un-cored intervals using wireline logs, thus enabling more favorably the comparison with the benchmark charts than the clusters generated by directly using NN with the same original logs.

Starting from a statistically proven tight relationship between borehole lithofacies, reservoir rock types and porosity, well-calibrated inverted seismic porosity maps have been used in combination with their corresponding kriged lithofacies proportion maps, together with well/seismic based variography analysis and sedimentological/stratigraphical concepts, to generate lithofacies trend maps. Thesemaps will be the main input we used for 3D facies distribution at the field scale.

The quantification of lithofacies statistical correspondances between well and seismic inversion data, enabled to segregate between reservoir shoal facies (porous limestone), non-reservoir facies (tight limestone), and intermediate-quality facies (fine-grained packestone). Seismic-scale sedimentary/diagenetic bodies were explicitly integrated into the facies model, however high-resolution borehole facies were stochastically populated, through constraining them to pre-established lithofacies trend maps. This served to directly constrain the 3D porosity distribution and, in turn, reservoir rock types - integrating lithology, petrophysics and reservoir behavior - all closely linked to each other.
The Synthesis and Application of a New Plugging Inhibitor PAS-5 in Water-Based Drilling Fluid
Authors: Li Zhiyong , Li Qiang , Yang Gang , Zhang Fengyan , Ma Tengfei
Published: March 2019

Wellbore instability caused by the dispersion of the clay is one of the most important challenges in drilling operation of fractured formations. The synthesis of new plugging inhibitors and the research of drilling fluid systems are key steps to keep the wellbore stabilization. In this paper, the limitations of conventional drilling fluid inhibitors are discussed and a new plugging inhibitor PAS-5 is synthesized by using amine inhibitor, polyethylene glycol and asbestos fiber as the main monomers. The detailed synthesis step of the plugging inhibitor PAS-5 is illustrated and its action mechanism is explained by scanning electron microscopy. In order to express the good effect of the PAS-5, a new evaluation system is used to indicate its plugging performance. At the same time, the plugging inhibitor PAS-5 was used on-site drilling operation in the Ordos Basin. The results of research show that the synthesis process of PAS-5 is simple and the effect of plugging inhibition is obvious. Compared with conventional treatment agents? PAS-5 outperforms sulfonated asphalt FT-1 and emulsified asphalt RHJ-3 in terms of plugging inhibition performance, with a plugging rate of 90.5% and roller recovery rate of 93.7%. It also has better temperature resistance, there is almost no change in viscosity and filtrate loss when the temperature rises from room temperature to 80°C. The field application results indicated that PAS-5 meets the requirements of drilling, that the reaming time of the trips of the wells is shortened considerably, that the ROP is improved, and that the hole enlargement rate is less than 6%. During the drilling process, PAS-5 can inhibit formation hydration and seal small cracks, thus maintaining the stability of the borehole. This study synthesized a novel plugging inhibitor PAS-5 and an evaluation system was adopted to reveal its plugging performance, and achieved good application effect in on-site drilling operations.
Forecasting and Modelling the Oil and Gas Reserves in Indonesia Using the Creaming Curve and Linear Regression Analysis
Authors: Abdul Azizurrofi Ahmad , Rahmat Firdaus Rikky
Published: March 2019

In early 2016, oil price has fallen to its lowest level (30.32 US$/bbl) over the last 12 years. Since then, petroleum exploration and exploitation activities are decreasing worldwide due to high production cost and low oil prices.

As of December 2017, there were 435 projects approved by the government of Indonesia, which is expected to maintain the national energy supply and to increase national income from oil and gas industry. This paper will evaluate and analyze the oil and gas reserves per project to help Contractors to find the area in Indonesia that has the highest trend of oil and gas reserves per project so that they can produce big revenue.

The purpose of this paper is, to divide the geographical areas of Indonesia into 5 different areas (Sumatera, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua). Then, to collect the data that related to projects and oil and gas discoveries and the trend of oil and gas discoveries per project are calculated and analyzed by using the creaming curve method, the result will be distributed to those aforementioned areas and finally define the area that has the highest and the lowest number (trend) of oil and gas discoveries per project.

Based on the analysis of 435 Projects in Indonesia, Sulawesi is estimated to have the highest amount of oil and gas reserves by 111.24 MMBOE per project which means that these areas become the most interesting area for Contractors to produce profitable projects, meanwhile Sumatera is estimated to have the lowest amount of oil and gas reserves by 7.19 MMBOE per project which means that these areas are becoming the most mature area in Indonesia.

Finally, this paper is expected to provide contractors a quick look at oil and gas industry in Indonesia especially the contractors who are looking for the giant oil and gas reserves and also help them create their petroleum exploration and exploitation strategy in Indonesia by considering on this information which will provide benefits for both government and contractor.
Date-Leaf Carbon Micro-Nanostructured Particles DLCMNPs for Enhance Oil Recovery
Authors: Haq Bashirul , Aziz Md. Abdul , Hakeem Abbas Saeed , Mheibesh Yazan G , Ahmed Mohammed Ameen , Al Shehri Dhafer
Published: March 2019

To make proper utilization of natural resources, we try to explore the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) potential of the date leaf as the date tree is available all over the Saudi Arab as well as the Middle East. The aims of the study are to develop carbon nanoparticle from green Date-leaf and apply in EOR process.

Date-leaf carbon micro-nanostructured particles (DLCMNPs) were prepared from date leaves using pyrolysis method. After that, carboxylic acid functionalization was performed by acid treatment to make water soluble. Finally, morphological and chemical compositional characterizations of the DLCMNPs were done. Interfacial tension (IFT) between Arab light crude oil and DLCMNPs was measured using ASTM D 971-99a method [1] to find out the critical micelle concentration (CMC) and do core flood experiment.

Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopic (FESEM) images revealed that the carbon particles are in the range of few μm to 20 μm and are micro-nanostructured (i.e the micro-particles composed from nanosheets). The Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) indicates the presence of oxygen and little amount of silicon in addition to carbon in the particles. The TEM images indicated that the particles are porous in nature and contain nanosheets which correlate the findings of FESEM study. The selected area diffraction (SAED) pattern showed that the particles are crystalline in nature. XPS analysis of the DLCMNPs found that the presence of Si, C and O which was similar to the observation of EDS analysis. It also confirmed that the DLCMNPs is carboxylated functionalized. IFT between Arab Light crude oil and different concentrations of DLCMNPs solutions with distilled water were measured to determine the CMC. It was found that the particle has the capability to reduce IFT significantly. Core flood are going to conduct to explore the oil recovery potential.

The novelty of this work are: (1) the DLCMNPs are invented from low cost and locally available biomass, and (2) it has the capability to reduce IFT which is a vital parameter of EOR process.
Distributed Pressure Sensing for Production Data Analysis
Authors: Assiri Wisam , Uzun Ilkay , Ozkan Erdal
Published: March 2019

Well testing is an essential tool to estimate reserves and forecast production. The assessment depends on the analytical solution of the continuity and diffusivity equations which results in average reservoir properties. The key challenge is to acquire real-time data of pressure pulse signatures as they propagate and reach the boundaries. A potential solution is to use a permanent downhole pressure gauge or an array of distributed pressure sensors (DPS) placed at each hydraulic fracture cluster to characterize the flow. This work presents the elements of an innovative analytical model that uses this data to derive formation properties, visualize averaged flow dynamics, and evaluate the Stimulated Reservoir Volume (SRV).

The real-time distributed pressure data, together with flow rate history, provides information that can be used to characterize the flow and estimate the boundary effect of hydraulic fractures and fissures. First, the numerically generated synthetic data is analyzed at each cluster to eliminate pressure drops due to friction. Next, analytical solutions of the continuity equation as well as trilinear models are used to invert reservoir properties to verify the proposed model. Based on the results, an advance statistical analysis is used to characterize the contribution of each variable to the flow rate.

The numerical results suggest that there are key variables to identify different flow regimes. Numerical simulations are used to gauge the accuracy of the analytical model at predicting reservoir properties and flow patterns. Statistical analysis evinces that there are key parameters of the formation, fractures, and fissures that control the well productivity. The numerical analysis showed that for every reservoir type there are different combination of fracture parameters that can optimize the flow. Moreover, the results describe a method to obtain hydraulic fracture properties around each pressure sensor (DPS) and forecast their productivity. Finally, statistical learning was investigated as a potential solution to derive reservoir properties, including hydraulic and natural fractures, using the pressure pulse signature data without the need of inversion.

The results show that there are key parameters that determine flow patterns. The importance of the accurate recognition and analysis of the multiple linear flow regimes at each cluster is in the potential to estimate the size of the SRV around hydraulic fractures during the transient life of the well. Moreover, this paper explains the procedure used for analyzing the change in the flow rate to obtain reservoir properties.
Evolution of Frac Plug Technologies – Cast Iron to Composites to Dissolvable
Authors: Walton Zachary , Fripp Michael , Porter Jesse , Vargus Greg
Published: March 2019

A technological revolution in hydraulic fracturing has occurred between early wellbore stimulation techniques and present day stimulation that has reduced cost and increased stimulation performance. Part of this revolution has been driven by the improved technology of frac plugs. This paper discusses how the evolution from cast iron frac plugs to composite plugs, then later to an interventionless stimulation completions process has enabled stimulation in extended-reach wellbores.

Drillable frac plugs were initially created from cast iron. Although cast iron plugs met run-in requirements and pressure ratings, the time required to remove these plugs by milling was long. Composite frac plugs were developed to accelerate the mill-out process. The light weight of the composite frac plugs also enabled the frac plugs to be run into a horizontal section of the wellbore. This operational change, combined with the ease of milling the composite plugs, has paved the way for the horizontal completion market for the past 15 years. However, the use of composite frac plugs in extended-reach horizontal wells was limited by the need to drill out the plugs. The development of dissolvable frac plugs eliminated the need to drill out the plugs allowing operators to produce wells much sooner. This elimination of the drill-out step for dissolvable frac plugs has also enabled the successful completion of extended-reach horizontal wells which may be beyond the practical range of coiled tubing or jointed tubing.

The need for efficient production in extended-reach wellbores has spurred the continuing evolution of hydraulic stimulation. This paper describes 20 years of new technology and field results to document the changes to the design and construction of frac plugs, as well as changes to the design and operation of the wellbore.