Technology Focus: HP/HT Challenges (April 2009)
Authors: MacAndrew Robert 
Published: February 2015

Technology Focus

Once again, recent SPE papers reflect technical advances made in high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) drilling and production. Over the years there has been, not just an increased number of papers, but an increase in subject areas. This activity demonstrates steady expansion in developing HP/HT reservoirs and the increasing importance to hydrocarbon supply. This diversity of technical areas and geographical distribution makes it impossible to provide examples of all technical and operational matters with just three highlighted papers.

However, the advances in the industry's technical capabilities are overshadowed by the world's financial system. Fundamentally, SPE is a technical society, but we cannot ignore the seizure of the banking system, which was supposed to provide the vital "lubricant" of finance to enable our industry, and others, to expand and develop.

How does this financial disturbance affect SPE? We do not work in isolation and are very much a part of society's economic activities. SPE's membership is vital to society. The direct link is in the reduction of research and development budgets, which many feel are already inadequate to address the industry's needs to meet future demand for our product. The development of HP/HT hydrocarbon reserves requires moderately long-term financing to enable development of materials and equipment to enable replacing current production. As a "learned society," we must add our collective voice to other commentators who advise the industry not to reduce the head count in an industry that is already suffering from dangerously skewed personnel demographics and facing a serious loss of core competence and experience as a significant proportion of the workforce retires. Recruitment is already reduced: "In response to what?" one may ask—certainly not the future needs of this industry. Is this the sensible collective response of an industry planning for the future and working to ensure the growth of the underlying value of our industry? Or is it another short-term knee-jerk reaction of management that "knows the price of everything and the value of nothing"?

But all is not doom and gloom. While North American budgets are being severely reigned in, budget reduction in the rest of the world is significantly lower. The potential saviors appear to the big national oil companies (NOCs) and the super large international oil companies (SLIOCs) that are relatively cash-rich. Being less dependent on the banking system for financing, the NOCs and SLIOCs appear to be in a stable position. So, provided that the NOCs’ governments maintain financing levels, at least steady, we may see the NOCs and the small band of SLIOCs carry-ing the industry forward, maintaining the momentum in developing hydrocarbon resources that are technically challenging to develop.

HP/HT Challenges additional reading available at the SPE eLibrary: www.spe.org

SPE 114518 • "Natural-Gas Z-Factors at HP/HT Reservoir Conditions: Comparing Laboratory Measurements With Industry-Standard Correlations for a Dry Gas" by J.A. Rushing, SPE, Anadarko Petroleum, et al.

SPE 115708 • "Titanium-Alloy Tubing for HP/HT Applications" by Manuel Gonzalez, SPE, Chevron, et al.

Additional reading available at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org

OTC 19502 • "Fracture-Mechanics-Based Fatigue Predictions for HP/HT Equipment" by R.D. Cordes, Stress Engineering Services, et al.