bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Creating and Sustaining Continuous Improvement Culture in a Technical Environment: An Insight into Implementation and Benefits Measurement Challenges
Authors: Vellimana Ashkok Kumar , Al Mohsin Atef Hussain
Published: May 2016

This reference is for an abstract only. A full paper was not submitted for this conference.

The upstream business of a leading LNG producer and supplier embarked on a mission two years ago to institutionalize continuous improvement (CI) culture in their activities. As a result, a CI Team was formed which adopted CI ideas, put them into practice and measured the benefits.

The CI team's challenges included expert resource, functional overlap within the organization, resistance to change, information barriers, middle management commitment and the intangible nature of some of the benefits from CI.

The benefits accrued through CI of processes are both tangible and intangible. The tangible benefits are measured in terms of cost, time and quality benefits. The intangible benefits, collectively termed in the paper as Quality of Work Life Benefits, are measured by means of peer reviews, self-assessment of processes, employee surveys, internal and external audit results and external customer feedbacks.

The reactionary responses by process owners to process change initiatives, perceiving them as 'external threats' can be effectively turned around to work as catalysts for creativity that can help in the propagation of CI culture. The authors view the reactionary responses and their turn around as a very effective indicator of the effectiveness of CI efforts.

The paper provides introduction to the CI concepts and how they are embedded in the organization's management systems in a technical environment. Further it describes the challenging and upstream technical focused environment in which the business process improvement initiatives were undertaken, the benefits the organization realized evidenced through the results of periodical measurements.

The paper provides insight into the tools and means developed to encourage CI mindset, capture initiatives and manage their implementation with the help of illustrations.

Applications:

The paper, supported by real-life implementation examples, will help organizations aspiring to institutionalize CI culture with information on the challenges and possible ways to measure the progress in realizing the opportunities.

Results:

Institutionalizing CI culture, though challenging, is immensely rewarding to the organizations. The authors observe that the benefits organizations can realize from continuous improvement of processes are both tangible and intangible. The paper concludes that certain non-traditional Key Performance Indicators are essential to measure the intangible benefits.

Significance:

The paper adds to the existing knowledgebase by providing real-life implementation challenges in the upstream segment of the petroleum industry and shows how non-traditional methods can be used to measure intangible benefits of CI efforts in an upstream technical focused environment.
ERD campaign for Matrix Acidizing with Coiled Tubing - Nkossa South and Nsoko Fields - Congo
Authors: Dulout Guillaume Jean-Marie , Mazel Jean-Michel , Prossaird Sylvain , Pujol Dominique , Ogunwole John Olatunji
Published: May 2016

In a field study directed at improved well intervention on horizontal wells, several horizontal wells were treated with acidizing techniques using coiled tubing (CT). The study indicates that CT can be efficiently deployed to target depth in highly deviated and horizontal wells using tools such as vibrators in combination with the effect of a friction reducer and proven pumping techniques. The study emphasizes CT operation design and will provide for operators and services companies common tendencies that may be encountered during those operations.

CT mechanical simulations necessary to confirm feasibility of the operation were carried out. However, the complex geometry of the wells led us to identify critical and corrective friction factors after every operation to plan for upcoming interventions - taking into account the technology to be used and well characteristics.

Introduction

The trend in the E&P industry today is to drill more horizontal and highly deviated wells for several reasons which include accessing reserves in a more economical and more environmentally acceptable way and maximizing the reservoir contact. However, operators are losing the opportunity to effectively perform the required interventions which are normally carried out using CT services such as stimulation, well circulation, and fill cleanout, because of technical limitations. Previous experiences have shown that interventions are limited in terms of reach capabilities in wells located at the edge of the drilling envelope (Fig.1). Several techniques have been developed to counter this limitation, but prediction of the results is difficult and is mainly dependent on a set of external conditions such as completion size and material, production history or well geometry. This document presents a field example of interventions which were accomplished in the Republic of Congo where one of the world's longest CT strings is exploited to intervene in this type of challenging wells (Table 1).

Starting from December 2004, Total E&P Congo has used CT intervention to develop the Nkossa South and Nsoko fields (Fig.2) with extended reach drilling (ERD) wells to access extra reserves from the initial platform installed offshore. These interventions have been mainly acid stimulations which were performed immediately after well completion, but also include completion contingencies and perforation operations.

The main challenges faced during those operations are:• Well geometry - of ERD wells with measured depth (MD) over true vertical depth (TVD) ratios between 2.02 and 2.70• Chromium completion resulting in high sliding friction factors• Operations carried out from a drilling (tender) barge

A critical parameter to the success of many CT operations in horizontal wells is the depth penetration that can be attained before the CT buckles and locks up. Lockup happens when frictional drag forces overcome external pushing forces.
Human Factors in Large Capital Projects
Authors: Kenefake Daryl , Vaughan Charles , Harms Larry D.
Published: May 2016

Considering human interaction in a project's design is not new and is traditionally applied at various design reviews and during construction to ensure operability. Human factors are routinely considered in industry for a facilities operating phase including walking working surfaces, access for maintenance, and general biometric requirements. Including human factors in construction and constructability reviews is the next step-out in human factors program implementation. This requires careful consideration of human factors and the design implications to allow for safe construction execution processes and overall safety of construction workers.

This paper will discuss ExxonMobil's systematic application of human factors considerations throughout the life cycle of a project including engineering design, construction planning, and execution phases to allow safe operations throughout the facility's life cycle.

Definition of Human Factors and Programs

Human Factors affects the design and engineering of the interface between work environment, technology, and human interaction to increase safety, performance, and productivity. More specifically, human factor programs provide a systematic process to design that applies and integrates knowledge of the capabilities, limitations, and needs of people with respect to:• worksite design (facilities layout, configuration, and accessibility)• equipment and tools used• environments worked in (temperature, noise, lighting)

All of this while considering the biometrics of the workforce that will be employed at the worksite.

Human factors reviews normally will focus on human interfaces (physical and cognitive factors) that improve a workplace designed for human use (working environments and machines and equipment used).

Major consideration must be given so that procedures can be written and employed that do not require performance beyond the operators capabilities, produce fatigue, provide appropriate information flow and do not violate the operators expectations.

Human Factors in Engineering Design

Incident rates have fallen since the implementation of process safety management regulations and process safety systems. These systems and regulations target facility information, risk characterization, and development of sound operating procedures for a facility. The implementation of these programs and management systems did create a step change decrease in industrial accidents as they were implemented as illustrated in Figure 1. Application of human factors programs created a reduction in accident rates in operating facilities. These programs were also implemented in the design of new facilities considering the operating phase of the facilities. Human Factors is now considered integral to the design.
Investigation of Pore-Scale dispersion in Polymer Flooding
Authors: Li Junjian , Jiang Hanqiao , LIU Yuzhang
Published: May 2016

Local displacement in polymer flooding is significantly affected by mixing taking place in the medium. Despite decades of research on mixing and dispersion, there remain questions about the amount of mixing occurring at pore-scale, especially for non Newtonian fluid. This study has investigated the local mixing experimentally as well as computationally.

Tracer dispersion in Newtonian and shear-thinning fluids flowing through sand pack has been carried out experimentally using classical transmission dispersion. Transmission dispersion increases markedly with the shear thinning index of the fluid at all Peclet numbers. The normalized dispersivity difference has same order of magnitude for sand packs and increases with the shear thinning exponent a.

Local mixing is also investigated by solving the Non-Newtonian Nervier-Stokes model and convection-diffusion equations in two dimensional packing of circular disks. The computational studies qualitatively support the experimental observations for the homogeneous sand pack and explain the mixing mechanism inside the pore body. In limit of very large fluid velocity local mixing tends to zero and core-scale mixing is entirely caused by variations in velocity. If the fluid flowing inside the porous medium has shear thinning properties, the velocity fluctuations are enhanced: in the zones of large permeability where the shear rates are large, the effective viscosity is low, and the velocity is higher than for Newtonian fluids. On the contrary, in the zones of low permeability where the shear rates are low and thus the viscosity high, the velocity is smaller.
Ensuring Global Offshore Workforce Safety and Competence by Integrating National Regulatory Frameworks with International Industry Standards
Authors: Laing Ian Stewart
Published: May 2016

This reference is for an abstract only. A full paper was not submitted for this conference.

Governments of developing oil and gas provinces are committed to ensure that their nations maximise all the benefits of being a hydrocarbon producing country. They seek to be progressive where best practice in skills, qualifications and workforce development is adopted. They seek global recognition for their commitment to building a safe and skilled workforce for their oil and gas industry using world class standards.

This paper will describe the process where indigenous aspirations in the development of a safe and skilled workforce can be supported by the adoption of industry best practice through the integration of globally recognised training and competence standards.

Building a world class learning infrastructure within a developing market to ensure the workforce can gain the skills, knowledge and qualifications needed to meet local demand and receive global industry recognition of their achievements

Establishing a fit for purpose workforce development framework based on global industry standards and qualifications but retaining local relevance and ownership.

Improvement in a safe working environment.

The international accreditation of local training and education delivery.

Internationally recognised qualifications through the integration of indigenous programmes with global industry standards workforce development.

Empowerment of the workforce through internationally recognised qualifications.
3D Multi-scale Tomostatics using First Arrivals
Authors: Zhou Huawei , Li Peiming , Yan Zhihui , Yuan Fang
Published: May 2016

Tomostatics is a technology to estimate a source of error in seismic imageries called near-surface statics, which are spurious timing variations of seismic reflections caused by the lateral variations in topography and the thickness of the weathering layer of extremely low seismic velocities. Most tomostatics methods use first arrivals of seismic data to invert for a near-surface velocity model and estimate the static corrections based on the model. In this paper we present a 3D tomostatics method based on deformable layer tomography (DLT) using first arrival data. Because the near-surface velocity fields in many areas are composed of thickness-varying velocity layers, the DLT method focus on inverting for the geometry of layer interfaces. To account for inhomogeneous distribution of ray coverage, a multi-scale inversion is applied to invert for interface variations of different wavelengths simultaneously. Several measures are devised to establish the reference velocity models and to increase the computation efficiency. Tests with synthetic and field data demonstrated that, in areas of sufficient spatial coverage of shots and receivers, the first-arrival multi-scale tomostatics method is able to establish 3D near-surface velocity models of satisfactory levels of data fitness and model resolvability.
Dealing with Complexity of Combination Traps in the North Malay Basin
Authors: Sriyarak Pakpoom , Anis Ahmad , Rungsai Khunamai , Bunpitaksakul Teerasak
Published: May 2016

This reference is for an abstract only. A full paper was not submitted for this conference.

The hydrocarbons production in the North Malay Basin, Gulf of Thailand, has been focused primarily on the post-rift reservoir formation, for example, Arthit and Bongkot Fields. The targets consist of mixed coarsening upward deltaic and crevasse splay deposits interbedded with fining upward channel deposits as well as organic-rich shales and coals. During the early phase of the development, wells were targeted and appraised mainly within the structural closure and/or the bright seismic amplitude anomalies. The well results show that the hydrocarbons were trapped even outside or beyond the structural closure as well as with or without seismic anomalies. Over the last few years, a number of wells including development, appraisal and exploration wells gave unexpected results either too good or too bad. The pre-drilled prediction and post-drilled results sometimes gave considerably difference both net pay thickness and hydrocarbon in-place. The seismic attributes are not always able to indicate the hydrocarbons accumulation.

While the nearby fields in the Pattani Basin, over thousand of development wells mainly targeted behind the faults where the structures up dip to the fault and found considerable amounts of pay along faults with no defined structural closures. The Probabilistic Method has been used to estimate the hydrocarbon in-place and the lognormal distribution has been applied for some volumetric parameters. The result has significantly improved both the drilling success and resources/reserves in the region.

This concept has been applied to the exploration and development in the North Malay Basin to cope with the geological complexity of the region. The large and beautiful structural traps were tested already. The rest would be stratigraphic and combination traps that always give unexpected results. Thus, the exploration and development strategy has been focused especially on the combination traps. This has been expected both to improve the drilling success and to increase the resources/reserves of the fields.
Benefits of PSTM and PSDM Reprocessing in the Exploration of the Deep Malay Basin
Authors: Charron Patrick , Ravaut Patrick , Riou Alain , Sirgue Jerome , Zuwaimi Mohd Noor
Published: May 2016

In May 2008 TOTAL E&P Malaysia (TEPMY) was awarded, together with his partner Petronas Carigali, two blocks with ultra HP/HT deep exploration targets. Work commitments on these blocks included seismic acquisition, reprocessing and drilling of two deep exploration wells below the conventional mature plays.

Imaging problems in the Malay basin are related to coal-bed multiples and absorption, pull-down effects and seismic resolution in a fluvio-deltaic to coastal plain depositional environments during Lower Miocene and lacustrine environment during the Oligocene.

To perform our "deep frontier exploration in a mature basin" TEPMY first analyzed available vintage dataset on the area. Most 3D seismic data have been acquired or processed in the last 10 years with long enough streamers (5 to 6 km) for our exploration targeting reservoirs from 2.5 to 5km deep. But vintage processing sequence was dedicated to conventional targets from 1 to 2 km deep, where imaging issues are limited.

TEPMY and his partner decided to reprocess all data covering identified prospects and leads on one block. New PSTM processing sequence was focused on multiple attenuation in target window with careful velocity picking and application of 3D-SRME despite shallow water depth. It results in a significant seismic improvement of lower Miocene sedimentary fairways imaging leading to exploration risk reduction. More reliable velocity analysis was also a key outcome in the evaluation of overpressure zone in the Malay Basin.

In parallel with time reprocessing, we have also launched depth reprocessing on the two main prospects of the southern block, prospect A and prospect B affected by strong structural uncertainties related to low velocity anomalies in several areas. Multi-approach accurate velocity model building strategy, including in-house Full-Waveform Inversion in shallower part, together with strong iterative interpretation input, leads to significantly improve structural image of the prospect B which now become a candidate for drilling.

We consider this time and depth reprocessing approach is a key parameter to properly evaluate deep exploration potential of Malay Basin as well as mature drillable prospects.
Investigations on Gas Trapping Phenomena for Different EOR-Water Alternate Gas Injection Methodologies
Authors: Bhatia Jigar Chandrakantbhai , Srivastava J.P. , Sangwai Jitendra Shital , Sharma Abhay
Published: May 2016

This reference is for an abstract only. A full paper was not submitted for this conference.

Water Alternate Gas (WAG) injection methods are the derivative of gas injection methods, wherein water and gas are injected intermittently. WAG injection can lead to improved oil recovery by combining better mobility control and contacting upswept zones and by leading to improved microscopic displacement.

Gas trapping in the reservoir after WAG process is an important parameter that affects the recovery of oil. Trapped gas refers to the immobile gas saturation remaining after the rock is flooded with oil or water. Trapped gas creates significant hysteresis effect (during drainage and imbibition) and reduces the relative permeability of water in the mixed wet or oil wet reservoirs.

In this work, gas trapping phenomena is presented for different WAG methods for a Indian Brownfield, namely, single, five cycle WAG, tapered WAG, five cycle WAG with Hydrocarbon gas (HC) and CO2 gas. Experiments are carried out on the recombined fluid in the core flooding apparatus at the reservoir conditions. The crude oil and gas is obtained from the separator at separator conditions and recombined at the reservoir conditions of 120 oC and 230 kg/cm2 at reservoir gas-oil ratio (GOR) to become representative of the reservoir fluid. The actual core sample is obtained from the field and is used for the study. The water and gas injection rate used for this study are 20 and 10 cc/hr, respectively, for all the experimental studies. Two types of gases are used for WAG method, namely, hydrocarbon gas (collected from the field and having about 90 % methane by composition in mole %) and CO2 gas. The results on the saturation of phases and Land's trapping constant have been calculated for several cases of production life cycle and for different WAG methods.
Making Wells Safer, Process Safety & Advanced Well Control Training
Authors: Van Den Brekel Bernd
Published: May 2016

Industry has to demonstrate to society that it can safely operate in challenging environments. This paper focuses on Wells and in particular well control, and discusses some process safety initiatives that will significantly contribute to keeping our license to operate. The first part will focus on some initiatives that Shell is currently implementing, whilst the second part will deal with advanced well control training.

Introduction

Process Safety means the management of hazards that can give rise to major accidents involving release of potentially hazardous materials, release of energy (such as fire or explosion) or both. Process Safety is distinct from Personal Safety in that Process Safety incidents may have catastrophic potential such as multiple injuries and fatalities, and massive economic, property and environmental impact. For well operations the recognised Process Safety hazards are related to well control and wellbore integrity (see figure 1).
Evolution of Well-testing Methods and Multi-phase Metering Techniques in Gas Condensate Fields in Central Oman
Authors: Al-Shukaily Alwaleed Rashid , Srinivas Mandalparthi Umamaheshwar
Published: May 2016

The gas development in Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) concessions commenced with the non-associated gas development from the Yibal field in the 1970s. The Yibal processing station incorporated permanent test separator facilities that allowed regular testing of the producer wells according to the field surveillance strategy. Yibal is a platform carbonate reservoir containing dry gas and was relatively straightforward for allocation using both wet gas meters at the well pad and test separator at the processing facility. Production from the gas condensate fields in Central Oman commenced with Saih Rawl and Barik fields in 1999 / 2000. The implemented metering methodology involved using conventional wet gas meters, venturi meters, installed at the well pad for single phase measurement. The wet gas measurement is then converted to dry gas and condensate phase measurements using a wet gas model (WGM).This model requires periodic update for giving the correct conversion to dry gas and condensate measurement. For the first few years, the mature gas fields relied on the tracer dilution techniques for measuring the produced fluid CGR and WGR. The multi-phase metering trials started in 2004 with the newly developed MFM provided by Schlumberger, VX phase tester. The post-trial assessment showed issues with the data repeatability with respect to CGR measurement and high dependency on the feed gas PVT which required frequent fluid sampling. The work in 2005 resulted in further maturation and refinement of the gas fraction technology and testing procedure using the VX and was followed by large scale implementation in the area. The ongoing study showed measurement uncertainty of condensate measurement reaching 20% and higher which instigated further research into alternative metering solutions.

An extensive well-testing study was initiated in 2009 and completed in 2011. It was focused on meeting the key reservoir surveillance targets such as wellhead allocation of gas and condensate, fluid characterization among other well and reservoir management objectives.

The evaluation process adopted by the government gas directorate team involved examining the leading multi-phase metering technologies and their field applications through vendor and operator discussions in addition to field qualification trials. The results of the study were benchmarked against the functional standards set by the company.

This paper will describe the journey of wet gas metering application in Central Oman gas condensate fields, challenges that were experienced, the screening process for the multi-phase metering technologies leading to the adopted solution by the gas group in PDO.
Prediction of Solid-Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium in Natural Gas Using ANNs
Authors: Shuker Muhannad T. , Ismail Firas
Published: May 2016

In the last five decades, several studies have been performed on the measurement and predication of hydrate forming conditions.

Many correlations were presented in the literature, but most of these correlations considered pure gases and their mixtures which leads to low accuracy.

In addition, some of these correlations are presented mainly in graphical form, thus making it difficult to use them within general computer packages for simulation and design.

The purpose of this work is to present a comprehensive neural network model for predicting hydrate formation conditions for pure gases and gas mixtures. The neural network model enables the user to accurately predict hydrate formation conditions for a given gas mixture, without having to do costly experimental measurements.

Introduction

Gas hydrates are ice-like crystalline compounds, inclusions. Their stability occur through occupation of suitable size gas components (guest molecules) into cavities formed by water molecules (host molecules)[1]. In 1810 hydrate was firstly discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy. During the first 100 years after the gas hydrates discovery, the interest in these compounds was highly concerned with the identification of (a) the species that can form hydrate and (b) the pressure and temperature conditions at which the formation occurs. Recently, naturally occurring clathrates hydrate in the earth which contain mostly methane are regarded as a future energy resource [2]. Clathrate components are mainly two structures structure I and structure III, although structure II has also been known. Most studies of gas hydrates have concentrated upon measuring the three-phase dissociation pressure however; few data are available for (H-Lw) phase equilibria [3]. In 1934, it was recognized that the plugging of natural gas pipelines was due to formation of hydrate of natural gas.

Typical operating problems include the fouling of heat exchangers and other vessels, erosion of expanders, in addition to plug gage of transmission lines with the solid hydrate [4]. The best method for determining conditions of hydrate formation is to measure the formation experimentally at the temperature, pressure and composition of interest. It is impossible to satisfy the infinite numbers of conditions for which measurement are needed. Hydrate formation prediction methods are needed to interpolate between measurements. However, such experimental endeavors are both time consuming and expensive relative to industrial needs for a number of hydrate formation conditions. Therefore some means of interpolation between the experimental results are needed, and ideally the interpolation could be extrapolated beyond the condition of the data. The petroleum industry spends millions of dollars to combat the formation of hydrate. So, the accuracy of estimating the natural gas hydrate is extremely important for optimizing the cost of piping systems and processing units.
Improved Performance with New Casing while Drilling Bit Design Elements - Development and Case Studies
Authors: Chung Chay Yoeng , Abdul Razak Ahmad Hakam , Tan Ming Zo , Ugwuocha Sharp , Twardowski Eric , Won Shao Wang Keith , Beattie Scott
Published: May 2016

Casing while Drilling (CwD) is an effective means of mitigating hole stability and lost circulation problems in many parts of the world. In recent years this technology has become a standard part of a drilling engineer's toolkit resulting in a reduction of flat time and more cost effective means of drilling surface and intermediate hole sections. The popularity of Casing while Drilling stems from the ongoing success in the Asia Pacific region, where softer rock strength and high rig rates make it a cost effective technology.

In many parts of the world, operators are faced with significant drilling hazards in areas with harder or more abrasive formations. However, unlike conventional drilling, the current selection of CwD bits has been limited for these types of applications.

The design of the casing bit must improve drilling performance and effectively enhance the economics, while still retaining the ability to be drilled out without damaging the polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) cutting structure of the drill-out bit. There are a number of Casing while Drilling bits on the market with various types of cutting structures. Some are readily drillable, utilizing soft materials but with limited longevity. Others are designed with robust cutting structures, delivering enhanced performance in hard formations, but may require additional drill-out, milling, and clean-out trips. Finding a balance between durability and ease of drill-out is an ongoing challenge.

This paper will introduce new CwD bit design elements, development testing, operational efficiencies, and several case histories, and will also highlight a number of key successes - particularly the optimized drilling performance and ease of drill-out without the need for a specialized drill-out bit.

Introduction

Well construction costs have been escalating significantly over the past decade especially in the offshore segment where rig costs have more than tripled (Figure 1), spurring both operators and drilling contractors to search for methods of reducing drilling flat time. The century old Casing while Drilling (CwD) technology hence received renewed interest and has been further improved and deployed in many geological areas since the late 1990s.

There are two mainstream CwD technologies, namely the retrievable and non-retrievable systems, sometimes referred to as the latch system and cement-in-place system, respectively (Fisher et al, 2004). As the name implies the latch system involves latching the bottom-hole assembly (BHA) into the first joint of casing. Drilling torque is transmitted to the bit either from surface via the casing string, or generated by a downhole motor as a component of the BHA, enabling the bit to turn independently of the casing. Upon reaching total depth (TD), the latched BHA (including the bit) is pulled out of the hole prior to cementing.
Accelerating Time-to-Autonomy for Technical Staff - Developing the Industry's Best Performers
Authors: Schaaf Michael , Garg-Buck Anu
Published: May 2016

Shell has publicly stated a production target of 4 mboe/day by 2018. This will require the recruitment and development of a large number of technical staff both recent graduates as well as experienced professionals. Shortening time to autonomy and time to integration respectively is critical to success. Structured programs are industry proven vehicles to achieve this and to provide the assurance that staff are truly competent to do what they are required to do. In addition, competence driven development programs offer a clear performance and competence bar.

This paper describes Royal Dutch Shell's approach to developing this critical pipeline of technical professionals by outlining the necessary and sufficient conditions for success of the Shell Graduate Programme, the Advanced Technical Programme and our approach to integrating Experienced Hires.

The Shell Graduate Programme is an integrated approach that combines formal learning, with on the job tasks, active involvement of technical coaches and line managers and standardized methods of competence assurance. Not only does this follow the 70/20/10 methodology of learning but also results in the expected "time to autonomy" for graduate joiners being reduced by 1 to 2 yrs as compared to other less comprehensive approaches. In addition to closing critical capability gaps in the business, this is also a clear component of the Employee Value Proposition as Generation Y graduates today look for faster and more structured progression when selecting their employer of choice.

The Advanced Technical Programme which is aimed at staff exiting the Shell Graduate Programme as well as experienced hires with only a few years relevant business experience, builds on the Graduate Programme and uses the same structures and principles. It focuses on developing technical professionals to make nonstandard, original technical decisions autonomously (and similarly follows the principles of blended learning combined with active involvement of Leaders.

Finally shortening time to integration for Experienced Hires is critical to enable them to deliver for the business and a clear retention lever. The development of a single, comprehensive onboarding programme maximizes the impact experienced professionals have by accelerating the time to integration into Shell and enabling experienced hires to blend their past experience with the 'Shell Way'.
Application of a New Method to Estimate Free Fluid Level and Recognition of Compositional Grading Using Wireline Formation Testing Data
Authors: Khajooie S. , Qassamipour M. , Farhani M.
Published: May 2016

Determination of fluid contacts in a hydrocarbon reservoir is extremely important in calculation of initial hydrocarbon in place and field development planning. The uncertainty in the present fluid type and fluid levels may have a significant impact on the reserves estimation and well completion strategies. Wireline Formation Testing is widely used to discover fluid contacts (or its generic term, Free Fluid Levels). Precise analysis of pressure data obtained from these tests is crucial in defining the type of fluid and fluid contacts.

Although the traditional method of P-D Plot to determine a Free Fluid Level(FFL) is easy to implement, however it has the disadvantage of lack of information on uncertainty of the analysis. It is often difficult to identify and remove noisy data which may result in inaccurate estimation of contacts.

A method has been mentioned in the literature by which Fluid Level is discovered using formation pressure data that are projected to a datum depth. With this method, it is very simple to find noisy data points which contribute to uncertainty in the FFL estimates. Another benefit of applying such method is to authenticate compositional grading presence in the reservoir. Also it can discriminate layers with different pressure behaviors in a multilayered reservoir.

In this paper, several wireline formation testing data such as data from MDT and RFT tools -in different fields in Middle East- have been analyzed by previously mentioned method. A good agreement was observed between the results of this method and other data like petrophysical interpretation, geological evidences, DST results and finally PVT analysis. Also a correlation has been developed to confirm existence of compositional grading and a strategy has been proposed to calculate the rate of density change with depth in those reservoirs where variation of density is not extremely nonlinear.
Well Failure Detection for Rod Pump Artificial Lift System Through Pattern Recognition
Authors: Liu Feilong , Patel Anilkumar
Published: May 2016

Rod pump is by far the most widely used artificial lift method within the oil industry to improve the oil production for reservoirs with energy levels too low to lift fluids to the surface. It is roughly responsible for about two-thirds of the artificial lift producing oil wells. Well failures, including surface, reservoir and down-hole failures, in rod pump artificial lift systems commonly occur, leading to substantial downtime, production loss and operation expense. Correct identification of well failures and scheduling appropriate maintenance will reduce inappropriate repairs, minimize downtime and subsequently improve operation efficiency.

This paper presents a systematic Pattern Recognition approach to detect the well failures. In this method, we start with the pattern recognition workflow, explain how we choose the right data and define good features based on the domain knowledge and how we extract features utilizing signal processing techniques. Finally, we will describe how we establish the classifiers via heuristics instead of training. Through this practical application of pattern recognition, we describe some fundamental concepts and steps to build a successful application using pattern recognition technologies.

This method was firstly tested on one year history data of 100 rod pump production wells from an active oilfield and the results were compared with the state-of-the-art method from Liu et al (2010); and then on six months of history data of 100 rod pump production wells. The pilot test results showed that our method could correctly identify the well failure with success rate of 82–86% and only 11–15% of false alarm. Comparing to Liu's the state-of-the-art method (2010), our method has much lower false alarm rate while with similar success rate of detecting failure, thus confirming that our systematic method is more capable of detecting well failures successfully.
Rock Mechanical Properties of Shale Gas Reservoir and their Influences on Hydraulic Fracture
Authors: Li Qinghui , Chen Mian , Zhou Yu , Jin Yan , Wang Fred P. , Zhang Rixing
Published: May 2016

Each shale gas play is unique and the stimulation and completion method should be determined based on individual attributes. Selecting the completion style for an emerging shale play should begin in the laboratory rather than copy successful cases. An understanding of the rock mechanical properties is essential to help understand how the shale reservoir should be completed.

We conducted triaxial compression tests for specimens from North America and South China. The failure modes and mechanical behaviors are analyzed. A new method combines rock mechanical properties and mineralogy to quantify the brittleness was derived and the practical use is demonstrated afterwards. Natural fracture analysis from core and borehole image are conducted and potentially active fractures, which could be most important hydraulic conduits and another index of the fracability, are identified through a three-dimensional Mohr representational method.

The results of this study revealed that black shales are usually more brittle than imagined. Splitting and splitting-shear hybrid failure modes are the main failure modes under low confining pressures, while shear failure modes predominate under higher pressures. Types of shale, burial depth, coring direction and confining pressures are all affecting the mechanical behavior of specimens. The brittleness characterization of shale samples from China is similar to that from America. Compared with North America, shale from South China has higher strength and Young's modulus, while lower Poisson's ratio. A systematic approach of designing completion and stimulation is proposed based on brittleness, closure stress and hydraulic fracture width.

The analyzing results from two shale gas wells verified the value of this method. Brittleness calculating results tallied well with initial production of these wells, indicating good application prospects. Calculation of strength properties, closure stress and fracture width can be practical useful in selecting and designing stimulation measures.
Formation Damage and Treatment of Offshore Water Disposal Wells in Saudi Arabia: Case Studies
Authors: Mei Ken , Qahtani Hassan B. , Al-Kuait Abdulmohsen S. , Sukkar Luai A.
Published: May 2016

In one Saudi Aramco offshore oil field, the formation fluids are being produced from different platforms and transported to one onshore gas-oil separation plant (GOSP) where the produced water is removed from the hydrocarbon stream. The produced water is injected back to highly permeable formations through disposal wells with no interruption. In this way, the water disposal system is an integral part of the hydrocarbon recovery system. A failure of one of the disposal wells could adversely affect oil production. Saudi Aramco petroleum engineers are placing more and more attention on water disposal wells as a higher volume of produced water from the increasing hydrocarbon production rates has to be disposed of continuously every day.

The primary objective of surveillance on the disposal wells is to keep an extra disposal capacity for continuous oil production from the field and to precisely monitor the decline rate of the capacity of each disposal well. Areal sweep efficiency and pressure maintenance are not the surveillance scope for water disposal wells in our case. Few technical papers have been published that discuss the problems a water disposal system may have in a matured field and address issues such as surveillance of well performance and water quality, formation damage mechanisms, treatment and so forth.

In this paper, the existing water disposal system in a matured offshore oilfield is briefly described and discussed with the surveillance of well performance and the quality disposal water, potential problems, and the evolution of the surveillance philosophy. The reasons why most disposal wells experienced severe injection decline are analyzed and discussed in detail. Historic treatments were summarized with actual outputs demonstrating" ineffective" treatments for the issues discussed. After several trial tests, one customized chemical treatment recipe was developed to effectively tackle the issues and actual well data is included showing the effectiveness of those treatments. A new surveillance strategy for better monitoring of well performance and the quality of "waste" fluid is also discussed in this paper.

It can be concluded from our work that formation damage exists extensively in wastewater injection wells and that it greatly influences the performance of disposal wells. Any treatment for restoring the injection capacity of water disposal wells impaired by low quality water is expensive. Any successful treatment is rooted into the detailed analysis of the problems. Implementation of a proper surveillance program and appropriate processing of the injection fluid is also vitally important for wastewater management.
Modelling Well Performance Forecasting of Complex Volcanic Reservoir
Authors: He Liu , Yingan Zhang , Honglan Zou , Yang Gao
Published: May 2016

The formations of DaQing gas field are mainly volcanic reservoirs which have the characteristics of low permittivity and complex formation structures. Most of these wells need fracturing remodeling to meet the standards of industrial gas stream, and also, the gas productivity tests as well as the pressure recovery tests conducted on these wells are different from other regular gas reservoirs. Considering the nature of the volcanic reservoir, such as dissolution pores, karsts caves, natural fracture development, we built two mathematical models of dissolution pores development and natural fracture development under both of the Darcy flow conditions and Non-Darcy flow conditions separately to predict the production of triple porosity reservoir after gas reservoir well fractures. By using the Laplace transform and numerical inversion, the equation to calculate production of complex volcanic gas wells is obtained. Based on these researches, law of volcanic reservoir productivity is investigated. The theoretical data are compared with the practical data collected from the field operation. The comparison results reveal how the parameter of the fluid volume, proppant indexes, and conductivity of artificial fracturing induced fractures and length of fractures change affect the productivity. The research work reported in this paper provides theoretical support on the optimization method of fractured wells design of volcanic gas reservoir.
China's Future Energy Needs
Authors: Hornyak Albert , Vossoughi Shapour
Published: May 2016

China is the world's second-largest consumer of energy and the third-largest producer of energy. China consumes more than 10 percent of the world's energy, following only the United States. It is projected between 2015 and 2020 the world oil supply will flatten and then slowly decline. In contrast to declining oil reserves China's oil needs are projected to more than double by 2030.China's electricity and natural gas demand is expected to triple while reliance on coal is expected to double. If China maintains its current pace it will overtake the United States and become the largest consumer and producer of energy in the world.

China's current plan to meet future energy needs is very much dependant on fossil fuels. According to industry reports coal (60%) and oil (27%) will account for 87 percent of China's total energy demand by 2030. If China does not utilize new cleaner burning initiatives into their coal-fired power generation plants China will continue to pollute the world and may cause irreversible damage. The World Heath Organizations reports that within the next two decades China will become the largest emitter of green house gases in the world. The effects of pollution on the Chinese economy are enormous. The World Bank estimates pollution costs China eight percent of GDP.

Finally, if energy demand continues to grow at present rates, China may begin to crowd the United States and others out of the global energy market. The United States as the top consumer of energy will either have to curb consumption to make room for China, or will have to find a way to curb China'smassive energy needs. Both China and the United States need to realize the powerful incentives which would be gained through mutual cooperation in the search for new energy reserves and energy sources.
An Effective Acid Placement Technique to Stimulate High-Temperature Sandstone and Carbonate Formations
Authors: Gomaa Ahmed M. , Cutler Jennifer , Qu Qi , Boles Joel , Sun Hong
Published: May 2016

Viscoelastic surfactant-based acids have been used in the field for several years, and have been the subject of many laboratory and field studies. An extensive literature survey revealed that corrosion inhibitors and high-temperature dramatically weaken the surfactant structure and significantly reduce its viscosity. Therefore, these fluids are typically limited to placement in relatively low-temperature formations.

This study was conducted to evaluate a new VES system that can form a gel and maintain useful viscosity at high temperature. The effects of temperature, initial HCl concentration, corrosion inhibitor concentration, surfactant concentration, and breaker type and concentration on the viscosity and corrosion rate of the new VES were investigated. Additionally, a core flood study was conducted using Indiana limestone and Berea sandstone cores to evaluate the diversion ability of VES system.

Experimental results show that because of the low viscosity of the new VES system at live condition, it can be used at an initial HCl concentration of 15 wt% or higher. Even in the presence of a high concentration of corrosion inhibitor, the new VES system maintained its viscosity at 300°F. With no breaker in the system, the viscosity of the new VES system was stable for at least 3 days, and viscosity increased with surfactant concentration.

Breakers based on mineral oil caused a smooth viscosity decline, while breakers based on mutual solvent caused instantaneous viscosity reduction. The pre-flush stage of mutual solvent did not prevent gel formation during acid neutralization. Mixing the new VES in 5 wt% NH4Cl brine formed a gel at surface. The new VES acid system increased the pressure drop by a factor of 18 inside Berea sandstone core and resulted in a 60.5 % permeability enhancement. Corrosion inhibitor reduces viscosity of the new VES system, while intensifier has nearly no effect. Also, increasing the concentration of either corrosion inhibitor or intensifier reduced the corrosion rate of the new VES system. Therefore, in some cases, a higher intensifier loading can be recommended to achieve viscosity goals along with corrosion protection.