Current Status of Commercial In Situ Combustion Projects Worldwide
Authors: Turta A.T. , Chattopadhyay S.K. , Bhattacharya R.N. , Condrachi A. , Hanson W. 
Published: March 2010

Picture of Alex Turta (Available In Full Paper)

Alex Turta is a project leader for Improved Oil Recovery at Alberta Research Council (ARC) in Calgary. His research interests include primary recovery of heavy oils, waterflooding of light oils, and thermal recovery methods for heavy oil. He has extensive experience of heavy oil exploitation, from laboratory to field pilots, and has undertaken international consultancy for thermal pilot evaluation. He assisted in the development of the enhanced oil recovery evaluation software PRIze. Alex holds M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Oil and Gas and Petroleum Engineering, Bucharest, Romania, and worked previously at the Research and Development Institute for Oil and Gas, Campina, Romania. He is a co-inventor of the THAI and CAPRI processes for heavy oil recovery and upgrading, and is a member of SPE, the Petroleum Society and the Canadian Heavy Oil Association.

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Dr. S. K. Chattopadhyay is Chief Chemist for the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Ltd., India, working at the Mehsana Asset. He joined ONGC Ltd. in 1983 as a Graduate Trainee in Chemistry. Over the last 24 years at ONGC, he has gained experience working at different offshore and onshore production installations, the LPG/CSU/C2-C3 process control laboratory, onshore drilling rigs, the in-situ combustion process monitoring laboratory and, presently, he is working in a multi-disciplinary team for the monitoring, interpretation and process control of the commercial in-situ combustion process at the Balol and Santhal Fields of the Mehsana Asset, India. Dr. Chattopadhyay has presented several technical papers on the in-situ combustion process at various national and international conferences and symposiums. He graduated with a Ph.D in chemistry from the University College of Science, Calcutta University, India.

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R. N. Bhattacharya is the General Manager (Reservoir) for the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Ltd., India, working at the Mehsana Asset. He is presently working on the company 's commercial in situ combustion scheme in Western India. Mr. Bhattacharya has had experience working on different assets and projects for ONGC, including overseas projects. He has over 30 years of oil industry experience as petrophysicist, reservoir engineer and in contract monitoring. Mr. Bhattacharya earned an M.Sc (physics) in 1972 and M.Sc. (geophysics) from Banaras Hindu University, India. He studied reservoir engineering at the India School of Mines (ISM), India, the University of Austin and Stanford University, USA. He is the author of several technical papers and numerous technical reports.

Picture of Alexandru Condrachi (Available In Full Paper)

Alexandru Condrachi is a Reservoir Engineer for PETROM S. A. Member of OMV Group, E&P Central Region Division, Ploiesti. He earned a B.C., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, Romania.

Picture of Wayne Hanson (Available In Full Paper)

Wayne Hanson has been with the Bayou State Oil Corporation (BSOC), Bellevue, Louisiana since 1980. Initially, he served as a Petroleum Chemist, and starting from 1990, he has been Supervisor of the BSOC In-Situ Combustion Project.