bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Investigating the Viscosity Reduction of Ultra-Heavy Crude Oil Using Hydrocarbon Soluble Low Molecular Weight Compounds to Improve Oil Production and Transportation
Authors: Fakher Sherif , Imqam Abdulmohsin , Wanas Ehab
Published: December 2018

Heavy oil reservoirs contain a large amount of hydrocarbons that are relatively difficult to produce and lift to the surface due to the very low mobility of these heavy oils. Even after producing these heavy oils, transportation problems arise as well due to the extremely high viscosities that these oils have. This research investigates the ability of several low cost chemical solvents to reduce heavy oil viscosity and also develops four novel formulations with high stability under harsh reservoir conditions and high solubility in crude oil to aid in the reduction of heavy oil viscosity and hence increase production from these reservoirs, and improve transportation of these heavy oils. A heavy crude oil from Kansas USA was used to conduct all experiments. The oil composition was determined using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and the asphaltene weight percent was determined using the conventional asphaltene solubility detection test. The pure chemical additives researched include kerosene, xylene, toluene, naphtha, and heptane. These chemicals were added with 5, 10, and 20 wt% to the crude oil, and the viscosity was measured using a viscometer at temperatures of 25, 40, 60, and 80 °C. The oil was found to have 5.73 wt% asphaltene, which is a good indication that the oil is heavy, since asphaltene is one of the heaviest components in the crude oil. Of all the pure chemicals used, toluene managed to reduce the oil viscosity the most, followed by xylene, then kerosene, and finally naphtha. Heptane could not be used since it had a very low boiling point, and thus evaporated very quickly, and also asphaltene was insoluble in it which resulted in a significant amount of asphaltene precipitation which would result in severe operational problems during the production operation. The novel formulations managed to reduce the oil viscosity significantly, however the pure toluene still showed slightly more oil viscosity reduction. The main advantage that the novel formulations had over the toluene however was their higher stability, even under harsh conditions due to the incorporation of a stabilizing agent within them. The main difference between the chemical compositions of the formulations was the concentration of the stabilizing agent, and the addition of some other chemicals. This research shows the capability of several chemical solvents to reduce heavy oil viscosity, and also develops four novel formulations with high stability to reduce heavy oil viscosity. These formulation can help increase oil recovery from heavy oil reservoirs, and also reduce lifting and transportation costs for these oil.
Hydraulic Dilation Stimulation to Improve Steam Injectivity and Conformance in Thermal Heavy Oil Production
Authors: Yuan Yanguang
Published: December 2018

In thermal heavy-oil production, steam is injected to reduce oil viscosity and promote the less viscous oil flowing to the production wells. Steam injectivity and its conformance in the reservoir greatly impacts oil production and project economics. It is found that hydraulic dilation stimulation of heavy-oil reservoirs before steam injection can create a large and targeted stimulated reservoir volume for the steam to contact the heavy-oil phase. As a result, steam injectivity increases and steam conformance improves. These eventually translate to increased oil production and reduced steam/oil ratio, which has been proven in hundreds of wells worldwide. This paper describes relevant fundamental mechanisms and field performance.

As a major novelty, the hydraulic stimulation avoids fracturing the reservoir, but seeks to cause dilation. If the reservoir is fractured, a linear conduit is created. Steam can easily break through to neighbouring wells and the steam conformance is poor. When dilation takes place, however, additional pore space is created in the rock matrix. This results in truly volumetric stimulation, which is helpful to increase the steam injectivity while ideal thermal conformance is also achieved. This paper illustrates these theoretical bases and their resultant positive field performance in assisting thermal heavy-oil production.
Analytical and Numerical Models Assist in Water Production Management in a Heavy Oil Reservoir in Northern Kuwait
Authors: Al-Shammari Asrar Ajaimi , Kharghoria Arun , Garcia Jose Gregorio , Saikia Pabitra , Al-Shammari Abdulrahman Fares , Al-Rabah Abdullah Abdul , Husain Hisham , Kalia Devesh
Published: December 2018

A comprehensive numerical and analytical assessment of water coning in a heavy oil field in Northern Kuwait is presented in this study. Several wells were investigated in light of possible coning affect. Based on the lessons learned from the field data and modeling efforts, a coning envelope is generated and possible mitigation actions are explored. The complex geologic and stratigraphic architecture of the reservoir with underlying oil-water contact presents a unique challenge to achieve water-free oil production in this field. The field produces average 150 API crude of 50-100 cp at 100° F.

Production data from wells from different structural locations were history-matched using numerical simulations on single well models (including type well models). Model runs were extended to estimate critical liquid rate to avoid coning. Additionally, critical rates assessed from several analytical models were compared against those from the numerical simulations.

Critical liquid production rates for different areas of the field have been assessed based on the coning envelope generated. Further works showed that the critical rate is also a strong function of operational, reservoir and fluid parameters as well as completions standoff from current oil-water contact (OWC). Since the current oil API is very close to that of water, the critical rate is not a strong function of the density difference of the reservoir fluids, however, difference in the fluid viscosities displayed a some degree of impact on the coning rate. Operational results also showed that average of 15 ft standoff from the existing OWC is critical to avoid imminent coning. This presents an important opportunity for efficient completion decisions of a candidate well. The most significant new finding is that two analytical models evaluated during this study indicated that these models have limited capability to assess the critical rate from the heavy oil reservoir, and appear to have high degree of sensitivity to oil viscosity.

This paper provides an integrated approach to assess and manage water cone in a heavy oil recovery project. Generated coning envelope provides a tool for a proactive strategy for rate management including opportunities for strategic well completion decisions. Another noteworthy assessment is that the existing analytical models have significantly limited capability to model water coning behavior in a heavy oil reservoir.
Field Surveillance and AI based Steam Allocation Optimization Workflow for Mature Brownfield Steam Floods
Authors: Kumar Anjani , Novlesky Alex , Bityutsky Erykah , Koci Paul , Wightman Jeff
Published: December 2018

Heavy oil reservoirs often require thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes to improve the mobility of the highly viscous oil. When working with steam flooding operations, finding the optimal steam injection rates is very important given the high cost of steam generation and the current low oil price environment. Steam injection and allocation then becomes an exercise of optimizing cost, improving productivity and net present value (NPV). As the field matures, producers are faced with declining oil rates and increasing steam oil ratios (SOR). Operators must work to reduce injection rates on declining groups of wells to maintain a low SOR and free up capacity for newer, more productive groups of wells. Operators also need a strong surveillance program to monitor field operational parameters like SOR, remaining Oil-in-Place (OIP) distribution in the reservoir, steam breakthrough in the producers, temperature surveys in observation wells etc. Using the surveillance data in conjunction with reservoir simulation, operators must determine a go-forward operating strategy for the steam injection process.

The proposed steam flood optimization workflow incorporates field surveillance data and numerical simulation, driven by machine learning and AI enabled Algorithms, to predict future steam flood reservoir performance and maximize NPV for the reservoir. The process intelligently determines an optimal current field level and well level injection rates, how long to inject at that rate, how fast to reduce rates on mature wells so that it can be reallocated to newly developed regions of the field. A case study has been performed on a subsection of a Middle Eastern reservoir containing eight vertical injectors and four sets of horizontal producers with laterals landed in multiple reservoir zones. Following just the steam reallocation optimization process, NPV for the section improved by 42.4% with corresponding decrease in cumulative SOR by 24%. However, if workover and alternate wellbore design is considered in the optimization process, the NPV for the section has the potential to be improved by 94.7% with a corresponding decrease in cumulative SOR by 32%. This workflow can be extended and applied to a full field steam injection project.
Land Controlled Source Electromagnetic Technique for Shallow Viscous Oil Reservoir Characterization of North Kuwait
Authors: Kumar Rajive , Biao Ren Zu , Khalid Ahmad
Published: December 2018

Controlled Source Electromagnetic (CSEM) method provides an effective imaging tool for the reservoirs characterized by distinctive resistivity signature, such as lithological change or fluid saturated channels. Acquisition, processing and modeling of CSEM data provide us an effective complementary information to seismic in characterization and potentially production of viscous oil from the shallow reservoir. CSEM methods using electric dipole sources are very sensitive to thin resistive layers similar to shallow clastic reservoir of North Kuwait. Prior to CSEM survey, the sensitivity of this method to presence of viscous oil bearing layers was tested through synthetic simulation study utilizing several well logs of shallow clastic reservoir. Feasibility study highlighted the good sensitivity of CSEM to resistive shallow clastic reservoir.

In CSEM survey layout, the source position started with offset from the receiver spread progressing through the spread and move to the opposite side by same offset. The electric field data are recorded on 100m dipoles, at continuous 100m interval, with 100m between receiver lines. Transmitter dipoles were also 100m, but spaced at 300m intervals along line. Data processing is carried out in the frequency domain. Source and receiver calibration functions are included in the process along with all geometry data. Amplitude and phase response is obtained for each source and receiver combination at multiple frequencies. Measured amplitude and phase values varied depending on the source-receiver separation and more importantly on the subsurface resistivity distribution between source and receiver.

The CSEM synthetic responses obtained through forward modeling are compared with observed processed data to perform a further quality control step and start a qualitative data imaging. In fact, the measured electric field amplitude and phase deviate from the synthetic data as much as true subsurface resistivity distribution deviates from reference model. Another essential step in CSEM data analysis consists of inverting the data to infer a resistivity model that could fit the observed measured data. We followed an incrementally more complex workflow from 1D CSEM laterally constrained anisotropic inversions to 3D anisotropic CSEM inversion. 3D inversion of co-located MT data and 1D CSEM inversion helped to build a reliable a priori model.

The output anisotropic resistivity earth model showed good consistency with the previous step qualitative imaging results and with the available resistivity logs. Resistivity volume obtained from 3D CSEM inversion can be interpreted to correlated resistivity lateral variation in depth and space with known features to infer rock physics variations at the shallow reservoir levels. This information, together with the results of non-seismic data acquired at the same time and of the seismic dataset has helped in characterizing the shallow clastic viscous oil reservoir.
Cost-Effective Improvement of Core Analysis for Heavy Oil Development in Northern Kuwait
Authors: Ahmed Khalid , Tyagi Aditya , Saikia Pabitra , Taqi Fatma , Al-Rabah Abdullah , Appel Matthias , Benham Philip , Zhang Ian , Mani George , Luague Jefferson
Published: December 2018

Routine and Special Core analysis (RCAL and SCAL) are the cornerstone of Petrophysics Modeling and Formation Evaluation. In order to obtain the required information, it is important to have quality core, its processing and analysis. This paper summarizes current practices vis-à-vis improvements made in key technical areas.

Coring and core analysis are cost-intensive processes. Only quality data from representative core plugs can offset the high cost and can help to achieve the objectives of coring and core analysis. To obtain consistent quality core plugs, coring practice, on-site handling and plugging procedure have to be the best in class. Coring and core analysis in the shallow-depth Heavy Oil Fields in Northern Kuwait have been in place for some time. The processes like i) coring operation ii) on-site core handling and preservation iii) core slabbing iv) core plugging and finally v) core analysis are continually improved.

In order to be efficient and cost-effective, all the above processes were re-visited, quality gaps identified and improvements implemented by incorporating unconsolidated formation characterization from the available extensive petrographic studies. For example in the coring practice front, coring and core handling protocols were modified for sour heavy oil-bearing formations noticed in parts of the fields. On-site dry ice was used in addition to the prevalent practice of normal freezing. In the laboratory analysis front, obtaining representative plugs and getting useful results from them were the key challenges. Compared to the previous practice of liquid N2 injection from top only during core slabbing by band saw, liquid N2 injection from both top and bottom resulted in improved core integrity. The previous practice of plunge cutting of plugs with liquid N2 was continued. Before any analysis, Computer Tomography (CT) scan of the plugs was performed to discriminate plug-integrity related issues.

This paper discusses lessons learnt from past coring and core analysis processes and their impact on heavy oil development. Improvements to these processes as cost-effective measures are presented through real examples. Recommendations for improvement include field procedure, laboratory process, and usability of the tests performed, which may be useful to the industry where heavy oil core analysis is used.
Miscible Gases Based EOR in Unconventional Liquids Rich Reservoirs: What We Can Learn
Authors: Alfarge Dheiaa , Alsaba Mortadha , Wei Mingzhen , Bai Baojun
Published: December 2018

Over the last decade, Unconventional Liquids Rich Reservoirs (ULR) have become the main target for oil and gas investors as conventional formations started to deplete and diminish in numbers. These unconventional plays have a huge oil reserve; however, the primary oil recovery factor is predicted to be less than 10%. Unconventional Improved Oil Recovery (UIOR) techniques are still a new concept in the oil industry since there is no commercial project reported for any IOR technique yet. Miscible gas based EOR technique might be the most potential strategy to improve oil recovery in such complex plays.

In this study, a comprehensive and critical review has been conducted to evaluate the feasibility of miscible gas based EOR technique in ULR. The reports and studies from three different approaches (lab, simulation and pilot tests) were summarized and combined to provide in-depth insights and lessons learned from the applicability of miscible gas based EOR in ULR. Firstly, the main problems in the previous lab and simulation approaches, which were used to investigate the viability of different EOR methods, have been diagnosed. Secondly, the performance of injecting different miscible gases to enhance oil recovery in the pilot tests conducted in ULR has been extensively discussed. Thirdly, the physical and chemical reasoning behind the performance gap for the injected gases in the lab scale versus the field scale of ULR been diagnosed.

This study reported that most of the previous lab and simulation approaches suffered from significant lacks and drawbacks, which created a clear gap in the performance of the injected gases in the lab scale versus the field scale. This research clearly found that the performance of Natural Gas (NG) injection is significantly better than the performance of CO2 injection in terms of enhancing oil recovery in the field pilots. This study also found that the production response of unconventional reservoirs to the injected NGs is much faster than that for the injected CO2. Combining the pilot tests data and simulation studies showed that the number of cycles in huff-n-puff operations has a negative impact on CO2-EOR while it has a positive impact on NGs-EOR. Finally, this research provided deep insights on what the operators can expect from the EOR performance by injecting different miscible gases in the lab scale versus the field scale of ULR.
Advanced Ion Management to Improve Oil Recovery in Oil-Wet Carbonate-Sandstone Composite Reservoirs
Authors: Alhuraishawy Ali K. , Bai Baojun , Wei Mingzhen , Al-Bazzaz Waleed H.
Published: December 2018

Waterflooding with different inonic composition called advanced ion management which play a role with ionic composition of injected water to enhance the oil production. In the last decate, many studies pointed out that the composition of injected water could changes rock wettability during waterflooding. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of SO4 and low salinity water on improving oil recovery in oil-wet carbonate reservoirs. Sulfate ion concentration, low salinity water, rock composition, porosity, and permeability were examined using a designed model. Typical seawater, increase SO4, two and three times in the seawater, and low salinity water that had been diluted 10 and 100 times were applied as waterflooding processes with three different average matrix permeability. Oil recovery factor improved as sulfate ion concentration increased and water salinity decreased by changing core wettability with greater water-wet conditions. Morover, the diluted seawater has more effect than sulfate ion concentration when a carbonate core has a few percentage of silica. Sulfate ion concentration performance increased with porosity and temperature, and the dilute seawater showed more effect at high temperature. Increased sulfate ion concentration followed by diluted sea water with present silica in the core composition might be a viable technique to improve oil recovery in the carbonate reservoir. The experimental results validated by field-scale simulation study and provides deep insight into understanding of advanced ion management performance.
Technical and Economical Aspects of Use of Solar Energy in Oil & Gas Industry in the Middle East
Authors: Temizel Cenk , Irani Mazda , Canbaz Celal Hakan , Palabiyik Yildiray , Moreno Raul , Balikcioglu Aysegul , Diaz Jose M. , Zhang Guodong , Wang Jie , Alkouh Ahmad
Published: December 2018

As major oil and gas companies have been investing in renewable energy, solar energy has been part of the oil and gas industry in the last decade. Originally, solar energy was seen as a competing form of energy source as a threat that may replace or decrease the share of fossil fuels as an alternative energy resource in the world. However, oil and gas industry has adapted to the wind of change and has started investing and utilizing the solar energy significantly. In this perspective, this study investigates and outlines the latest advances, technologies, potential of solar both as an alternative and a complementary source of energy in the Middle East in the current supply and demand dynamics of oil and gas resources.

A comprehensive literature review focusing on the recent developments and findings in the solar technology along with the availability and locations are outlined and discussed under the current dynamics of the oil and gas market and resources. Literature review includes a broad spectrum that spans from technical petroleum literature with very comprehensive research to non-technical but renowned resources including journals and other publications including raw data as well as forecasts and opinions of respected experts. The raw data and expert opinions are organized, summarized and outlined in a temporal way within its category for the respective energy source.

Solar energy is discussed from a perspective of their roles either as a competing or a complementary source to oil and gas. In this sense, this study goes beyond only providing raw data or facts about the energy resources but also a thorough publication that provides the oil and gas industry professional with a clear image of the past, present and the expected near future of the oil and gas industry as it stands with respect to renewable energy resources.

Among the few existing studies that shed light on the current status of the oil and gas industry facing the development of the renewable energy are up-to-date and the existing studies within SPE domain focus on facts only lacking the interrelationship between solar energy and oil and gas such as solar energy used in oil and gas fields as a complementary green energy.
Concentric Coiled Tubing Technology for Well Cleaning & Evaluation in Shallow Horizontal Wells: A Case Study from Heavy Oil Field Kuwait
Authors: Kommaraju Srinivas Rao , Garcia Jose Gregorio , Al-Bahri Abrar Marwan , Al-Faudari Mohammad J , Al-Naqi Ahmad Mohamad
Published: December 2018

The drilling of shallow horizontal wells in unconsolidated sand formations faces the particular challenge of achieving proper well trajectory, needed that minimizes dog leg severity and if not accomplished can increase well intervention frequency. These well complexity challenges may result in improper wellbore sand clean outs that can promote early failure of the artificial lift equipment and increase the frequency of interventions that cause production deferment. Wellbore clean out operations are risky because of potential fluid losses and low reservoir fracture pressures, which limit downhole clean-out circulating pressures.

Concentric Coiled Tubing (CCT) technology has been used to clean out horizontal slotted liner sections with suspected sand fill. This sand fill reduces well productivity due to sand bridging within the slotted liner. The application of CCT technology reduces the risk of lost or limited fluid returns and provides an effective clean out method. In addition, it can also provide drawdown at the CCT power head, resulting in lost workover fluids from the wellbore effectively removed by using the system under vacuum-mode. The multiple operating system modes provide the benefit of cleaning and treating the wellbore in the same run.

Workover interventions using conventional CT have been used in the past with limited success. Moreover, in some cases, these wells have showed sharp production declines after post CT clean-out operations. It was suspected that in addition to sand fill issues, formation damage has occurred in these wells due to the fluids used during those interventions. The application of CCT has resulted in the removal of sand and lost clean-out fluids previously used.

This paper reviews the wells, which have had conventional cleanout methods done that were unsuccessful and provides the results of using CCT technology to restore well production thus reducing well interventions by 50% and OPEX savings up to 15%.
Application of a New IPR Model with a Comparison to PGOR Test and PLT Data to Evaluate Wells Productivity
Authors: Elyas Mohamed , Al Watyan Abdullah , Freile Daniel , Abba Abdessalem , Shati Jassim
Published: December 2018

In 2009 a new Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR) model "SPE- 124041"was built using simulation and field data sets. Reservoir simulation was used firstly to accurately select the best fit between the oil mobility function and the average reservoir pressure. The new IPR was developed based on the resulted oil mobility-pressure profile. Then, many field cases were used to develop an oil mobility-pressure relationship. Accordingly in this work, an attempt to apply the new IPR was proposed.

To check the applicability and accuracy of the new IPR model, multi-rate test with bottom hole pressure is required to plot the actual IPR curve. Many Portable Gas Oil Ratio (PGOR) tests integrated with ESP bottom hole pressure data and Flowing Bottom Hole Pressure (FBHP) surveys were used to create actual IPR curve for each well. Also, bottom hole pressure and flow profile obtained by Production Logging Tool (PLT) data for each entire producing interval in a layered reservoir system is used to plot each actual IPR curve. Then, the new IPR model was tested and compared to the most common IPR models to get the IPR curve for each well as well.

The applicability for different fields (KOC fields) of the new IPR model was tested and compared to the most common single point IPR models known in the industry (Vogel, Wiggins, and Sukarno). Many PGOR field cases were used for comparison. The best method for PGOR and PLT cases was the new method and that with average error of around 3.6 %, while the errors from the other models are higher than 4 % ranging from 4.5 to 5.3 %. For PLT cases.

To combine layered reservoir production testing, which could be conducted under pressure transient conditions with the inflow performance; it will help accurately to determine the optimum production rate for each well of interest. The results showed this method is accurate, reliable and simple. Is general for oil reservoirs, requires only one test point and has a wide range of application.
An Innovative Approach to Test Heavy Oil in Burgan Reservoir of Greater Burgan Field
Authors: Naik Vinay , Mudhfar Dalal , Pal Arindam , Karam E. M. , Attar Imad , M. Al-Haddad Saud
Published: December 2018

The Greater Burgan field is under production for more than 60 years and producing light to medium API oil. The objective of this paper is to explain an innovative method adopted in testing of Lower Burgan formation heavy oil and challenges faced during testing.

Heavy-oil zones are identified based on petrophysical logs interpretation and are located mostly near regional original oil-water-contact (OOWC). A previous study done on mapping of heavy oil zone for Burgan reservoirs and based on the maps, new process helped to identify expected heavy Oil zones in the upcoming and existing wells. To sustain future production target raised a need to explore flow potentials in the heavy oil reservoirs. A new methodology was developed by using a specially designed electrical submersible pump (ESP). Special testing pump (ESP) was designed and configured based on low API, high viscous oil, high angle deviation and reservoir characteristics from nearby wells.

The well was tested using specially designed ESP. The well produced for few days with Oil API 19-20 and flowed with a rate of 650-800 BLPD with 40%-50% water cut. In the future, this zone could be put back on production.

Earlier for heavy oil Burgan reservoirs, the oil viscosity and density were measured from downhole fluid sampling in few of the wells. However, there are uncertainties on how oil properties change with pressure. For the first time in Greater Burgan field, using specially designed ESP was a remarkable success for initial testing of heavy oil reservoir close to regional OWC.
Experimental Investigation of Steam-Alkali Flooding with Borax: A Case Study on Bati Raman Oil Field
Authors: Hashim Noori Wildan , Cinar Murat , Salehian Mohammad , Alkouh Ahmad
Published: December 2018

Steam injection is one of the well-known thermal recovery processes that has been extensively applied to heavy oil reservoirs. Several efforts have been made to understand theoretical and practical aspects of steam injection and alkali flooding. However, the detailed information about the performance of steam-alkali flooding in field applications has not been deeply addressed yet. In this sense, in order to shed light on the background and applications in this area, this study comparatively investigates the efficiency of different strategies of pure steam injection and cyclic steam-alkali flooding in Bati Raman oil field, Turkey.

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the advantage of steam-alkali injection compared to pure steam injection for an 11.6° API Bati Raman crude oil. The steam injection system consists of two reservoirs for water and the alkali solution, an electrical pump, and an electric steam generator. Those three experiments are as follows; conventional pure steam injection, cyclic injection of steam and alkali solution 4.0 wt%, and cyclic injection of steam and alkali solution 8.0 wt%. Steam was injected with the rate of 10 ml/min at 110°C and the system pressure was set to be the atmospheric pressure. The liquid produced from the separators is sampled periodically to determine the oil recovery.

Observation of sand packs after the experiments indicates the tendency for steam channeling in the vertical direction around the upper thermocouple. Since the upper thermocouple was inserted after the sand packing operation by pressing and rotation, steam could be passed through these channels without entering the all pores in the porous media. The average oil recovery by conventional pure steam injection, steam-alkali solution 4.0 wt% injection, and steam-alkali solution 8.0 wt% are 8%, 3% and 5.5% OOIP (original oil in place), respectively. This indicates that although the oil recovery in conventional pure steam injection was maximum, increasing the alkali concentration in the aqueous solution from 4% to 8% has caused the improvement in the recovery.

The theoretical and practical information is supported by the experimental examples to evaluate the performance of different steam-alkali flooding strategies with Borax in heavy oil reservoirs of Bati Raman. This study also examines the challenges of steam-alkali flooding in extremely heavy oil reservoirs and explains that the pure steam injection is preferred due the insufficient change in interfacial tension during Borax injection process.
Improving Sucker Rod Pump Performance and Overall Production After Applying Continues Steam Injection in Heavy Oil Project-North Kuwait
Authors: AbdulHadi Fahd , Al-Ajeel Fatemah , Sierra Tomas , Mohamed Assem , Heshmat Kareem
Published: December 2018

The manuscript focuses on benefits realized in sucker rod pump system performance, number of workovers, downtime periods, and overall production efficiency as a result of continuous steam injection (steam flooding) on a heavy oil pilot field. It also presents benefits on production performance as a result of real-time well optimization of sucker rod pump systems.

Implementation of real-time production optimization techniques to record behavioral changes provide for up-close field operational surveillance (allowing for faster response time).

The steam injection effect varies from between locations, based on the distance between injector and producer wells, along with the degree of down-hole interference.

The objective was to study steam injection effects on a group of wells and adjust the operational parameters of sucker rod pump systems based on individual well performance conditions. Real-time wellsite monitoring (including creating notifications, warnings and alarms to identify troublesome or non-optimized wells) and data-trend analysis allowed us to make necessary corrective actions continuously, which led to an improvement in well performance since steam injection started (thus optimizing productivity).

The continuous steam injection, supported by real-time optimization and constant sucker rod pump system performance adjustments, led to the following operational efficiency improvements: Reduced downtime related to troubleshooting activitiesReduced pump replacements (obtaining longer run life of downhole equipment)Improved pump efficiency (measured by improvements in production rates)Created a workflow for sucker rod pump system performance review and optimization opportunitiesImproved field-wide overall productionImprovement in sucker rod pump system efficiency (pump efficiency dyna card analysis was significantly improved in wells with low pump submergence after steam injection)

Maintaining the same downhole pump configuration, we found that pump efficiency (calculated by measured production rates) changed significantly: from low efficiency before steam injection (on colder periods) to higher efficiency (after steam injection). We also studied pump performance during the production phase and adapted the sucker rod pump system operational parameters to the wellbore's changing operation conditions, driven mainly by wellbore's temperature changes.

Applying continuous steam injection in a heavy oil area supported in improving pump performance, reducing downtime, and improving overall production from a specific number of wells, compared to lower production and higher downtimes (with larger number of wells), but without continuous steam injection.
Estimation of Ukraine’s foreign trade structure in order to determine the areas of export potential
Authors: Dekhtyar Nadiya , Mazorenko Oksana , Serpukhov Maksym
Published: December 2018

Now there is no single approach to the planning of normative indicators of the foreign trade structure and the optimization of foreign economic operations, including marketing mix, which consider the priorities of socio-economic development of the territories acting as the global market agents. The work proposes an expanded method for using the Grubel-Lloyd and Horvath indices when assessing the level of inter-industry trade, which will determine the priority fields of international cooperation in the process of developing a foreign economic strategy both at the state level and for an individual company interested in expanding the geography of trade in the global market via finding new partners and using non-discriminating marketing methods.The article reveals the existing trends in foreign trade of Ukraine that predispose current economic policy and foster the initiation of a new exporting strategy. Namely, the volume of total external debt exceeded GDP in 2014–2016; although a significant reduction of this ratio has been observed since 2017 due to the GDP shortening. Unfavorable trends were supplemented by the negative total balance of trade in goods and services in 2014–2018, with redistributing geographical structure in favor of the EU instead of the CIS countries (however, the exports in services, measured by absolute income, exceeded imports). The Grubel-Lloyd and Horvath indices, calculated for the recent trade data, proved a high level of diversification of Ukraine’s foreign economic activity, with significant intra-industry trade, but the scores of the Grubel-Lloyd index did not coincide by the geographical and commodity structure for the prevailing majority of countries. Nevertheless, new potential exporting destinations may be found, precisely because of the detected imbalances.
Masking agent efficiency on odor removal from WWTP sludge drying process
Authors: Rousseille F. , Ventura A.
Published: December 2018

A study was executed in 2016 to determine the efficiency of two different neutralizers on odor perception from a sludge drying process. One of the products was injected by fogging system at the inlet of the odor control unit while the other was added directly to the washing solution of the last stage of the odor control unit, according to supplier recommendations.

Performance evaluations encompassed complementary approaches including both sensorial analyses and analytical measures. Odor analyses were performed via dynamic olfactometry according to European Standard EN 13725 coupled with hedonic tone approach according to VDI 3882. Additional analyses on VOC emissions were conducted using gas chromatography screening. In parallel, several odor panels composed of site operators and plant neighbors carried out observations on the WWTP and its perimeter. The main conclusions of this study illustrates:

• Only one test leads to a reduction of the odor concentration at the stack,

• Overall, neither of the two masking agents significantly reduce the odor concentration at the stack,

• The addition of masking agent seems to increase foul odor persistency,

• The local odor panel observed no significant improvement in odor reduction within the environment around the WWTP.
Grey water footprint of a dairy industry wastewater treatment plant: a comparative study
Authors: Yapıcıoğlu Pelin Soyertaş
Published: December 2018

Available fresh water demand of a growing population is a fundamental concern of water resource sustainability. Dairy industry wastewater treatment plants have been considered a major polluter due to the high organic content and large wastewater discharges. Grey water footprint (GWF) was developed by the Water Footprint Network (WFN) as a measure of the water pollution loading. In this study, four treatment scenarios including no treatment process (Scenario-1), primary treatment using Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) (Scenario-2), secondary treatment using DAF and a Upflow Sludge Bed (UASB) reactor (Scenario-3), and a DAF and UASB with a reuse application applying reverse osmosis (RO) (Scenario-4) have been studied for a full-scale dairy industry wastewater treatment plant. For these four scenarios, GWF assessment was undertaken using the WFN method by taking into consideration three pollutant parameters, chemical oxygen demand (COD), fats, oil and grease (FOG) and total suspended solids (TSS). The results show that the GWF of Scenario-4 for COD was lowest with the value of −5,609 m3/d and Scenario-1 has the highest GWF for TSS with the value of 41,026 m3/d. According to the assessment results, reuse applications decrease the GWF values.
Presentación número 17
Authors: El Colegio de San Luis Revista de , Cruz Israel Ramírez
Published: December 2018

Se expone el número en su totalidad.
Texto Completo del No.17 - Revista de El Colegio de San Luis Nueva Época
Authors: De San Luis El Colegio
Published: December 2018

Revista de El Colegio de San Luis en su totalidad, incluyendo artículos, notas y reseñas del No. 17
Página Legal del No. 17 de la Revista de El Colegio de San Luis, Nueva Época
Authors: De San Luis El Colegio
Published: December 2018

Se presentan en este documento los datos y nombres de las autoridades de El Colegio, así como el número y fecha de publicación de este ejemplar. Se incluye también información de los integrantes del Consejo Editorial.Se incluye además información del Director de la Revista y nombres de contacto de algunos de los colaboradores de la misma, algunos datos de impresión y el tiraje de los ejemplares impresos.
A Conceptual Review of Green Neighbourhood Adaptive Model for Urban Living
Authors: Ahmad Puziah , Misni Alamah , Kamaruddin Siti Mazwin , Daud Nurazureen
Published: December 2018

Green Neighborhood can be defined as a neighborhood area that meets the needs of peoples’ daily activities and allows communities to control pollution, save energy, increase employment, decrease crime rates, develop friendships, practice on-site renewable energy methods and preserve agricultural and environmentally sensitive areas. In such an environment, people make easy access to their home, workplaces, public facilities, transit facilities and green spaces within a comfortable walking scale. The guidance is aimed at assisting local authorities and agencies to implement five (5) selected green neighborhood initiatives; Provision of Pedestrian Walkway, Provision of Bicycle Lane, rainwater Harvesting System, Waste Composting and Community Farming.Keywords: green neighbourhood; environment; community; comfortableeISSN 2398-4295 © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v4i15.167
A Controlled Study on Young Motorcyclist’s Cognitive Function
Authors: Ali Anila , Mohamad Hussain Roslinah
Published: December 2018

Young motorcyclists are exposed to high noise exposure which can affect their cognitive function. This study was designed to evaluate the cognitive function of undergraduate University students (aged: 19-25) which ride a motorcycle as a primary mode of transportation. Total of 60 motorcyclists participated which were divided into two groups: an experimental group which performed neuropsychological battery test under motorcycle noise (≤90 dBA) and control group under controlled laboratory noise (≤65 dBA). The result showed significantly better cognitive performance (p < 0.05) of a control group. The results demonstrated that motorcycle noise significantly decreased the cognitive performance of the experimental group (p < 0.05).Keywords: Motorcycle noise; Motorcyclists; Neuropsychological assessment; Reaction-timeeISSN 2398-4295 © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v4i15.168
Aspect Continuity to Restore Place Identity Of Sipiso-Piso, North Sumatera
Authors: Ginting Nurlisa , Rahman Vinky , Delianur Achmad
Published: December 2018

Maintaining place identity of Sipiso-Piso, North Sumatera, toward supporting Toba Caldera isThe current research observed continuity principle as National Strategic Tourism Area Priority. Striving to develop geo-tourism, Toba Caldera would face environmental and social risks arising instead of generating quality of life. This research aims to examine the influences of continuity, one of principle constructing place identity, in Sipiso-Piso, Merek Sub-district, Karo Regency. A mix-used approach was conducted to identify respondents' perceptions that indicates satisfying experiences. The result showed that since Sipiso-Piso merely offers the natural resources as the main attraction, the integrated planning related to strategic management then is crucial due to the increasing number of tourists and demands from several tourists’ parties.Keywords: Place Identity; Continuity; Sipiso-Piso Waterfall; Toba CalderaeISSN 2398-4295 © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v4i15.169
Development of Maintenance Culture Model in Malaysian Local Authorities
Authors: Abdullah Sani Suwaibatul Islamiah , Khair Nurhayati , Mohamad Junainah
Published: December 2018

Infrastructure development is fundamental to the success of a country to achieve the status of the developed nation. However, the development made is deemed to be unsuccessful without a high culture of maintenance to maintain the existing infrastructure. Nevertheless, the effort is unworthy since the performance level for the maintenance of an immovable asset in Malaysia, especially those that belong to Local Authorities are still at an inadequate level. Local Authorities hold a large number of facilities that place demands on resources. The purpose of this research was carried to produce a structural model for developing of maintenance culture in Malaysian local authorities.Keywords: maintenance culture; measurement model; structural model eISSN 2398-4295 © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRAcE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) andcE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v4i15.170
Public Plazas Physical Environment Affect People’s Activities in the Cases of China and the USA
Authors: Mao Maozhu , Kinoshita Isami
Published: December 2018

This study targeted on public plazas in Chongqing China and the Boston United States, and analyses several sites in neighborhood scale and spatial scale. Through field observations supported by William H. Whyte’s analysis, data were collected concerning people’s activities in public plazas, and a discussion of how spatial factors have an effect on people’s activities was down. The results suggest that Whyte’s 7 components partly applied to China, and people’s activities are vastly affected by spatial factors, and conjointly influenced by cultural background. Several elements work along may strengthen a vicinity way more.Keywords: Public Plaza; Environmental Behavior; China; United StateseISSN2398-4295 © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v4i15.171