bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reducing Fines Migration by Use of Nanofluids Injection - An Experimental Study
Authors: Denney Dennis
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Senior Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 144196, ’Reduction of Fines Migration by Nanofluids Injection - An Experimental Study,’ by A. Habibi, SPE, M. Ahmadi, and P. Pourafshary, SPE, University of Tehran, and Sh. Ayatollahi, SPE, Shiraz University, prepared for the 2011 SPE European Formation Damage Conference, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 7-10 June. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

Formation damage because of fines migration is a major reason for productivity decline. Many studies have characterized fines and their migration effect on permeability reduction. Nanofluids that contain nanoparticles (NPs) show specific properties including a high tendency for adsorption and being a good candidate for injection into the near-wellbore region because of the very small NP sizes. The study indicates that fines could adhere to the matrix grains, hindering their migration, when the porous materials are soaked with nanofluids.  

Introduction

Fines are loose unconsolidated particles (smaller than 37 µm) that move with fluid flow and cause formation damage because of the filtering action of the porous media. The biggest drawbacks of this process are pore plugging and productivity-index reduction. Various surface forces have been found to be responsible for fines detachment and release from the pore surfaces. London/van der Waals attraction, double-layer and Born repulsion, and hydrodynamic forces are the dominant forces in the detachment of fines from porous media. When the total interaction energy between fines and pore surface becomes positive, the repulsive forces are bigger than attractive forces and fines detachment occurs.

NP size ranges from 1 to 100 nm, and NPs have high specific surface area and unique properties, such as very high adsorption potential and heat conductivity. NPs have been used for formation-damage control, enhancing oil recovery, and wettability alteration. In the proppant packs, NPs strengthened the attractive forces and fixed the suspended fines in the porous media. In this experimental study, porous media were soaked with nanofluid for 24 hours and then the suspended fines were passed through porous media to determine the most efficient component. In the next step, a glass-bead-packed column containing uniformly distributed fines in the bed was flooded with distilled water. To investigate the main parameters in this process, the NP concentration and fluid-injection rate were investigated. The zeta potential of the treated models was measured, and the total interaction energy was calculated to verify the results. Finally, scanning-electron-microscope (SEM) images of the surface were obtained for qualitative observation of fines attachment to the pore surfaces.
Innovation: Innovation in Our Industry
Authors: Imomoh Egbert
Published: February 2015

President's column

In spite of persistent global economic turmoil, various sources predict that the world will continue to need increasing volumes of hydrocarbons to support a growing population and to improve the standard of living in areas where standards are currently low. Therefore, our industry will need to continue to find and produce hydrocarbons from additional resources in increasingly complex regions and geological settings. This will make the activities in our industry more difficult and expensive and will present new challenges that will call for innovative solutions.

There is a general and well grounded belief that we still have many opportunities, in both green and brown fields. The challenge is how to bring production from these fields to the market in a manner that is cost-effective, safe, environmentally and host-community friendly, using mature and well tested techniques, equipment, and processes while we explore innovative ways to continuously improve our methods.

We live in a world where the pressure on resources will demand that smaller and smaller amounts of materials and efforts will accomplish more and more, thus achieving “ephemeralization,” (Fuller, 1938) a word that Buckminster Fuller, an American inventor, used to describe progressively accomplishing more with less. This pressure, among other factors, has driven innovation in our industry. I will examine some of the game changers that have shaped our industry in the last 10 to 20 years in my JPT columns in the coming months.

Innovation has always played a very important role in our industry, but some-times I wonder if we under-estimate this role. Does constant contact with what we have today make us forget that such techniques were not always there and that some innovative mind brought about the new ways we now enjoy? Think about 3D seismic, deepwater drilling, horizontal drilling, some of the very sophisticated logging tools now in use, and reservoir characterization, to name only a few. The one sector outside our industry that has had a tremendous innovative impact is information technology—the effects of IT’s growth, new products, and adaptions introduced in the last 10 years has been phenomenal. How does innovation come about? What is it that makes a few of us use the huge fertility of our mind to challenge the known and seek better ways? A number of groups have studied this phenomenon and come up with what really drives innovation. I recently came across a study carried out by New & Improved, a global organizational development firm, which identified 10 things that really drive innovation (New & Improved LLC. 2010). I have chosen to focus on the top two things: the individual and the team. I believe these are the main drivers of change in our industry.
Offshore Ghana's Jubilee Project Finds Success With Cooperation and Rapid Development
Authors: Wilson Adam
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Editorial Manager Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper OTC 23430, ’Jubilee Project Overview,’ by Dennis McLaughlin, Kosmos Energy, prepared for the 2012 Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, 30 April-3 May. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

The Jubilee project was an ambitious challenge for the first significant development offshore Ghana. The joint venture used a split operatorship to execute a world-class deepwater project in an area with no existing infrastructure in less than 3 years from the start of concept selection. Despite several significant technical and commercial hurdles, the project achieved excellent health/safety/environment (HSE), schedule, and cost performance. Jubilee’s unique circumstances justified a very aggressive appraisal development strategy and dictated an unconventional approach to organizing and managing the project, which ultimately was highly successful.

Introduction

The Jubilee field was discovered in June 2007 in the Gulf of Guinea, approximately 60 km offshore western Ghana. It is a very large light/sweet oil accumulation in 1200–1500 m of water. The Jubilee partners, along with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), decided in January 2008 to develop the field using a phased approach after just one appraisal well.

Discovery

The Jubilee field was discovered offshore Ghana by Kosmos in June 2007 with the Mahogany-1 wildcat well on the West Cape Three Points block near its western boundary (Fig. 1). A large oil field was confirmed by the Hyedua-1 well drilled in August 2007, 5 km southwest of Mahogany-1, across the lease line on the Deepwater Tano block. The field was Ghana’s first significant oil find after some 40 years of offshore exploration, and it was also one of the largest fields discovered in the last decade offshore Africa. Understandably, the discovery was a source of immense pride and hope in Ghana, and, consequently, the Mahogany discovery was renamed Jubilee field to commemorate Ghana’s golden jubilee—50 years of independence—which was celebrated in 2007.

The discovery holds a light (37°API), sweet, high-gas/oil-ratio crude and covers approximately 110 km2 across the two blocks. Resources are located in five stacked zones of thick, high-quality rock.
Improve Unconventional-Reservoir Completion and Stimulation Effectiveness
Authors: Denney Dennis
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Senior Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 152839, ’Improving Completion and Stimulation Effectiveness in Unconventional Reservoirs - Field Results in the Eagle Ford Shale of North America,’ by C.D. Pope, SPE, Complete Shale, and Terry Palisch, SPE, and Pedro Saldungaray, SPE, Carbo Ceramics, prepared for the 2012 SPE/EAGE European Unconventional Resources Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria, 20-22 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

In unconventional reservoirs, project success is driven by the completion. Most shale wells have long horizontal wellbores completed with cemented or uncemented casing strings. Economical wells require large hydraulic-fracture treatments in multiple stages along the lateral. Several areas are critical for a successful completion, including casing size and pressure rating, wellhead selection, treatment design, perforation spacing and stages, linear vs. crosslinked fluid, and proppant selection. While no two resource plays are the same, these findings can be used as a guide in other unconventional plays.

Introduction

One of the more active shale plays in the United States is the Eagle Ford shale (EFS). Exploitation of the EFS has focused attention on the potential of liquid-rich unconventional plays. Past vertical completions proved to be inefficient and uneconomical. However, successful results in the Barnett and Haynesville shales encouraged a search for other shales that could be developed with similar horizontal-well completions and multistage-hydraulic-fracture stimulations. This play has been exploited almost entirely by the use of long horizontal wells. The rig count was less than 20 in 2009 but rose to more than 200 by the end of 2011. By the end of 2010, approximately 30 million BOE had been produced from approximately 600 wells. As of the writing of this paper (January 2012), approximately 1,800 horizontal wells had been completed in the EFS since activity began in 2008.

Geologic and Reservoir Discussion

The EFS is productive in a trend that appears to exceed 15,000 sq miles in south Texas. Production has been established at depths from 5,000 to 14,000 ft. The EFS ranges in thickness from 50 to 400 ft within the productive trend. The formation produces from dry-gas, wet-gas, volatile-oil, and nonvolatile-oil windows. Porosity ranges from 4 to 11%, and permeability ranges from 50 to 1,500 nanodarcies.

The EFS is thought to be self-sourced in that the hydrocarbons are thermogenically sourced from the kerogen that is present. Therefore, the reservoir is overpressured and shallower portions of the EFS are less thermally mature with lower porosity. However, these lower- porosity areas are oil bearing, while the gas-bearing intervals are deeper, have higher porosity, and are overpressured. Reservoirs found between the shallower oil and deeper gas windows range from volatile oil to condensate-rich gas.
National Oil Company Works to Shift Management Toward Digital Culture
Authors: Wilson Adam
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Editorial Manager Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper SPE 150219, ’A Perspective for a National Oil Company To Transition From Traditional Organizational Management to a Digital Culture,’ by Iraj Ershaghi, SPE, University of Southern California, and Adel Al-Abbassi, Kuwait Oil Company, prepared for the 2012 SPE Intelligent Energy International, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 27-29 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

The Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) introduced a digital culture within its management and professional organization. The drivers were many, mostly emanating from the concerns for enhancing production of greenfields, arresting production decline in mature reservoirs, minimizing workovers, enhancing health and safety issues with oilfield operations, and reducing decision-cycle time by effective professional engagement of subject-matter experts. Solutions required planning steps move the engineering task force from the burden of getting and managing information to deciding on options and consequence analysis presented by interpreted data.

Introduction

A vision emerged a few years ago for taking systematic steps in modernizing the monitoring and management of KOC’s upstream oil and gas operations. This initiative is called the Kuwait Integrated Digital Field (KwIDF). From the experiences of other exploration-and-production companies, it was clear to the planners that the most challenging component to make the experience successful for the company was man-aging the issue of the human element. The first step was to select a number of interested and experienced staff and designate them as champions, hoping that their enthusiasm and leadership skills will affect others who can later join the movement.

KOC jumpstarted the human championship issue with a series of formalized training programs, targeting approximately 60 experienced staff members in engineering and geosciences. Those successfully completing basic training where then challenged with tougher problem-solving sessions. The overall training also included some short-duration executive training to demystify the roadmap to the transformation initiative and to emphasize the importance of clear support for the champions.

Solution Approach

From the beginning, it was clear that failure to engage qualified personnel to run the collaboration center was a major risk affecting the installed systems’ ability to deliver value. In the vision for rapid deployment of smart oilfield technology solutions, two parallel tracks were followed. One focused on the technology and the development of collaboration centers and their first-generation-associated workflows. The second was addressing the human preparation to own the processes.
Multiagent Systems Provide Support for Asset-Management Workflow Automation
Authors: Wilson Adam
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Editorial Manager Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper SPE 150285, ’Decision Support and Workflow Automation for the Development and Management of Hydrocarbon Assets Using Multiagent Systems,’ by Amr S. El-Bakry, SPE, and Michael C. Romer, SPE, ExxonMobil Production Company; Peng Xu, Anantha Sundaram, and Adam K. Usadi, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering; H. Lane Morehead, SPE, ExxonMobil Upstream Research; and Mark L. Crawford, SPE, Bryce A. Holloway, and Charles A. Knight, ExxonMobil Information Technology, prepared for the 2012 SPE Intelligent Energy International, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 27-29 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

Asset-management workflow automation poses challenges because these workflows are multidisciplinary, cross functional, and expertise intensive. Advancements in the fields of artificial intelligence, software engineering, and decision sciences have led to the development of multiagent systems (MASs). Each agent functions as an entity of a distributed computing system, performing a broad range of tasks that may include advanced analytics, data-quality checks, and oversight of other agents. Although agents may have competing priorities, they can convey information to one another to broker a decision.

Introduction

To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of asset management, it is essential to develop an integrated, flexible, and sustainable information-technology system that addresses these challenges. Such a system should integrate heterogeneous, distributed data sources and computer models (e.g., analytical models). It must process data automatically, converting them to high-level information understandable by people. It must be capable of developing asset- management plans, monitoring the execution of those plans, and adjusting them as necessary. Such a system should adhere to best-practice workflows and yet adapt to novel situations, allowing for easy customization to address evolving asset needs.

The MAS technology and design approach can satisfy these requirements in a scalable, flexible, and sustainable way. MASs are composed of multiple interacting intelligent software agents, each of which is a computer entity that is capable of autonomous action within its environment to meet its objectives.

Why MAS?

An intelligent agent is an autonomous, goal-driven, problem-solving computational entity capable of effective operation in dynamic and open environments. It is a natural extension of modern software-design and -development best practices. Fig. 1a shows a schematic of an intelligent agent. Fig. 1b illustrates an agent using two methods to plan its actions. For simple scenarios, an agent acts in a reactive mode; it directly maps the state of the environment to an action. For more-complex scenarios, an agent operates in a deliberative mode; it uses more-sophisticated planning algorithms to identify a sequence of actions to achieve its goals.
Ultralightweight Proppants for Long Horizontal Gravel Packs
Authors: Denney Dennis
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Senior Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 150581, ’Ultralightweight Proppants: Best Practices for Long Horizontal Gravel Packs Offshore Brazil,’ by A.T. Jardim Neto, F.G.M. Prata, and J.R. Gomez, Baker Hughes, and C.A. Pedroso, SPE, M.O. Martins, and D.N. Silva, SPE, Petrobras, prepared for the 2012 North Africa Technical Conference and Exhibition, Cairo, 20-22 February. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

Operators developing and producing reservoirs with deepwater and ultradeepwater wells are pushing technical limits with horizontal extension. Deepwater wells completed in unconsolidated formations usually have low fracture gradients, severe-leakoff zones, or significant washouts. Long horizontal open holes may become technically difficult or economically unfeasible to gravel pack by use of conventional fluids and gravels. Use of ultralightweight proppants (ULWPs) has enabled gravel packing in these longer horizontal open holes. The reduced gravel density allows a significant reduction in pumping rate to avoid fracturing the formation, minimize fluid losses, and eliminate the risk of premature screenout because of excessive gravel settling.

Introduction

Horizontal openhole gravel-pack (HOHGP) completions are preferred by many operators, especially in permeable unconsolidated formations. Offshore Brazil, especially in the Campos and Espirito Santo basins, HOHGP completions are used to develop post-salt reservoirs. The most common gravels used in the early wells were natural gravels and conventional ceramics. The particle densities (2.65 to 2.73 g/cm3) caused much difficulty with proppant transport, hence an increased dune height that could lead to premature screenout at low pumping rates. A lower-density proppant would be easier to transport with unviscosified fluids such as completion brines, thus allowing the use of reduced pumping rates to circulate proppant at the bottom of the screen and pack the entire horizontal open hole successfully. Two types of ULWPs have been used for this purpose, one with a specific gravity of 1.25 and one with specific gravity ranging from 1.75 to 1.90 (ULWP-1.25 and ULWP-1.75, respectively).

Well Configuration and Completion

Most fields in the Campos and Espirito Santo basins are developed with a minimum number of wells, some being extended-reach wells. To reduce the number of casing strings, a slender-well design often is used. The horizontal open hole is drilled at 90° to final depth with an 8½- or 9½-in. bit and drill-in fluid. After the final horizontal extension is reached, the drill-in fluid is replaced with completion brine. Then, the completion assembly is run into the well.

The completion equipment comprises an isolation packer and 13 Cr premium screens. The gravel-pack operation is performed with a special horizontal tool system that allows gravel packing and stimulation of the horizontal well in a single trip.
Discussion/Reply: Advances in Measuring Permeability Address Shortcomings of Crushed-Rock Technique
Authors: Hong'en Dou
Published: February 2015

Discussion/Reply

Dou Hong’en, SPE, Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina

I was very glad to read paper SPE 152257, titled “Advances in Measuring Standards and Flow Properties Measurements for Tight Rocks Such as Shales,” summarized in the JPT August 2012 issue (p 57). I have several issues regarding the paper.

Sinha et al. mentioned that Darcy’s law may not be valid under those conditions that are at the pore pressure, the flow of gas through tight-rock samples such as shales may be in the free- molecular-flow regime or transition regime because of the relatively small pore sizes in nanometer range in this paper. However, they did not present any new method dealing with non-Darcy flow. In contrast, the authors used the Hagen-Poiseuille equation combined with Darcy’s law to obtain effective permeability. As it is well known, the Hagen-Poiseuille equation can only be used to describe the linear flow in accordance with Darcy’s law. Therefore, I do not think that the authors solve the non-Darcy flow of the permeability measurement at low-rate flow. Assuming that the fluid flow does not follow Darcy’s law in low permeability reservoirs, permeability value will not be obtained by Darcy’s law, in this case, if gas flow is high-rate at turbulent flow, the Forchheimer’s equation may be met, if gas/oil flow is low-rate/ultra-low-rate, the permeability is not a constant, and it will change with pressure gradient, for the above two cases, the permeability is difficult to measurement under laboratory conditions. Generally, low-rate and ultra-low-rate flow occurs in the tight rock of low-permeability reservoirs. Thus, the Forchheimer’s equation will not be considered applicable with the experimental data. Obviously, the authors will not derive the function relationship between the permeability and pressure gradient; and they cannot solve non-Darcy flow at low-rate flow in the low-permeability reservoirs. Once the study on the fluid flow in porous media is not based on Darcy’s law, any one permeability value will not be obtained in the whole process of cores displacement.
Selling New Proppant Demands Focus on the Old Bottom Line
Authors: Rassenfoss Stephen
Published: February 2015

Oxane Proppant

At Oxane Materials’ headquarters, signs tell workers to “challenge your assumptions.”

Now the company is out to challenge some of the industry’s assumptions about how much proppant can increase production after fracturing, as part of its campaign to commercialize “advanced ceramic proppant,” which gained notice as the industry’s first proppant created using nanotechnology.

As part of the process, Oxane has changed its slogan from “energy-focused nano-products” to “More oil, more gas, more quickly.”

“People are not buying it because it is nanotech; they are buying it because it works,” said Chris Coker, founder and chief executive officer of Oxane.

After a decade of quiet research and development, building up a library of more than 20 patents, Oxane has begun talking and presenting technical papers. Its first paper describing field testing with the proppant will be delivered at SPE’s Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans.

The company faces a common challenge for innovative new products: It is difficult to persuade decision makers to pay more for a product based on the promise of greater production until there is a body of evidence that supports it. That is not easy given that results in unconventional formations are often uncertain because of hard-to-predict variations in a reservoir.

Oxane says its proppant is stronger pound-for-pound, and is rounder, smoother, more consistently sized, and even bounces farther than others. That last attribute is Oxane’s addition to reasons why some proppant works better than others. Oxane began studying the impact of that property, which it scientifically describes as the “coefficient of restitution,” after a researcher spilled some Oxane proppant and observed how it scattered more than other ceramics or sand.

The thinking is that this contributes to the ability of a proppant to travel farther in larger quantities, allowing the creation of more uniform proppant layers that lead to smoother, higher flows of oil and gas.

The company says it measured the coefficients of variation, friction, and restitution of its proppant and other proppants and compared the levels of saltation. It believes that smooth, uniform-sized balls are less likely to form a stable dune in a fracture, and its “tendency to bounce causes settling particles to re-suspend more easily and be carried farther,” according to the paper that will be presented at the SPE conference.

The comparison can be imagined as dumping a box of golf balls—the uniform, round, bouncy balls are not apt to form a stable mound—versus a box of potatoes—apt to form a stable pile. Oxane’s studies assume the water does not contain chemicals used to keep particles in suspension by increasing viscosity.
Q&A with Rod MacGregor, Chief Executive Officer and President, GlassPoint Solar
Authors: MacGregor Rod
Published: February 2015

Q&A

What is the main scope of the first thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project in the Middle East and what are the technologies involved?

Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the largest producer of oil and gas in Oman, partnered with GlassPoint to build the Middle East’s first EOR project. GlassPoint’s Enclosed Trough technology was selected because of its protective glasshouse structure and streamlined oilfield integration. This technology takes proven concentrated solar power trough designs and pairs them with an agricultural glasshouse, making a system uniquely suited for desert oilfield applications. The 7 MW system is now in daily operation, generating an average of 50 tons of emissions-free steam per day that feeds directly into existing thermal EOR operations at PDO’s Amal West oil field.

Was “cutting-edge technology” used in the development of the project?

The Enclosed Trough architecture is an innovative approach to concentrated solar power. The system uses traditional agricultural glasshouses to protect solar collectors in a sealed environment, free of dust, dirt, sand, and humidity. By shielding the solar collectors from the elements, low-cost, lightweight materials can be used. The system generates steam by using ultra-lightweight curved mirrors. These aluminum mirrors move throughout the day, tracking the sun and focusing light on stationary receiver tubes. The high-intensity light heats the water in the receiver tubes to generate high-pressure steam for EOR.

The maintenance of solar panels in the region is expensive because of the dust. How did you manage this problem?

The technology’s architecture reduces maintenance cost by protecting the solar collectors from the harsh oilfield environment. We further reduce cost by using an automated robotic washing system, which eliminates the need for manual cleaning and minimizes water use, recapturing nearly 90% of the wash water.

What are the major challenges you faced during the execution of the project? How did you manage them?

Building anything in a remote desert location is a challenge. You must construct an entire work camp and bring all your materials in from a great distance. You cannot afford to forget a screwdriver, because it might cost you days of work. Extreme heat during the day means that workers are often building during twilight or dark conditions, when temperatures are less dangerous. We overcame these challenges by meticulously managing every detail of the building process. We designed our system to be easy to assemble, so it was a matter of being organized and making sure we had all the materials we needed on hand.
The Elements of a Soft Competency Matrix
Authors: Fattahi Behrooz , Milanovich N. , Howes Susan , Giovanni Paccaloni Giovanni , Brett Ford
Published: February 2015

Talent & Technology

The oil and gas industry is facing a progressively more complex work environment that is ever-shifting, less predictable, challenging, multidisciplinary, and increasingly global, with more complicated technical problems to be solved. There is also more public awareness and interest in what we do, how we do what we do, and who we are. Combined with our industry’s rapidly changing demographics, these developments stress the need for development of competencies within a spectrum ranging from emotional intelligence/soft skills to technical skills. In the new work environment, new attributes are rewarded and, although developing technical literacy is highly regarded, the necessity of acquiring soft skills is gaining recognition and is considered equally critical for success.

In an article published in the August 2012 issue of JPT, the SPE Soft Skills Council discussed the critical need for technical professionals in the future to learn and refine a number of important nontechnical (soft) competencies that have a great impact on the bottom line. With the increasing role of technology and the mixture of social, environmental, political, and economic construct across our industry, the essence of the council’s message was that there is a requirement for finer attunement and shedding of parochial paradigms. This follow-up article introduces a proposed competency matrix as a tool to identify soft skills gaps at various stages of one’s career.

Gaining Importance

Soft skills are about broadening our views and perspectives to enable us to perceive the interdependent nature of our work within our respective organizations and, even more importantly, within a larger social, political, ecological context. By remembering our humanity, we are provided with the possibility to develop sustainable technical and business strategies that consider both the intended and unintended consequences of our solutions. Recognizing the critical importance of soft competencies, Albert Einstein said, “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”

A century later, the dominant paradigm about what may be the key for technical professionals’ career success is shifting from technical know-how to an equally or more important soft competencies. Obviously, technical attributes are core to our industry. However, for some years, the quality and strength of human interactions have been increasingly presented as at least equally important in sustaining business success for individuals and their organizations. J.W. Marriott, chairman and chief executive officer of Marriott International, said, “To succeed in today’s workplace, young people need more than basic reading and math skills. They need math skills. They need substantial content knowledge and information technology skills; advanced thinking skills, flexibility to adapt to change; and interpersonal skills to succeed in multicultural, cross-functional teams.”
Techbits: Workshop Discusses Framework for Successful EOR Project
Authors: JPT staff _
Published: February 2015

Techbits

More than 130 professionals comprising geoscientists and engineers, government officials, executives of public and private operating firms and service companies met in May in Manta, Ecuador, for a workshop on enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The workshop, titled “EOR: Technical and Managerial Framework for Ensuring a Successful Implementation,” covered the successful implementation of EOR projects, including the design and essential criteria for evaluating a pilot project, technical complexities, experiences, results from several international projects, implementation costs, and time to achieve commercial results.

EOR processes have been applied for decades, with steam injection, gas injection, and polymer injection the most common. Steam injection is used primarily in producing heavy and extra-heavy oil in shallow reservoirs; however, further research is needed for its application in deep reservoirs. Enhanced recovery through gas injection (hydrocarbons, nitrogen, and CO2) has increased rapidly in recent years because of its low risk, and has interesting potential for use in carbonate reservoirs. The main challenges for CO2 injection processes are the availability and distribution to candidate fields.

Characterization

Successful implementation of enhanced recovery processes require detailed geological knowledge of the reservoirs. Therefore, it is important to plan and execute appropriate actions for the acquisition and interpretation of data that will allow adequate characterization of the reservoirs and their fluids, thus reducing uncertainty in the understanding of the underground formations.

Scrutiny (Preselection)

With data gathered from the reservoir and its fluids and with the scrutiny rules developed in the past several decades, it is possible to establish initial alternatives for enhanced recovery efficiently. It is noteworthy that these pre-selection criteria should not be taken as absolute rules; they are useful as a practical tool used by specialists with experience in enhanced recovery techniques. Data mining tools that complement the scrutiny work have been recently developed.

Laboratory

Laboratory experiments are needed to define the most appropriate EOR process and the formulation to be injected. Estimate in the laboratory also help in understanding the recovery potential (recovery factor), and the main mechanisms responsible for the displacement of the remaining oil. Among the most relevant aspects for evaluation are interfacial phenomena, phase behavior, capillary pressure, relative permeability, minimum miscibility pressure, and the interaction between fluids and reservoir stone. With efficiency in mind, laboratory studies should be performed in parallel with other phases of the process, such as reservoir characterization.
Techbits: Workshop Covers Subsea Processing Issues
Authors: JPT staff _
Published: February 2015

Techbits

An SPE Applied Technology Workshop (ATW) on subsea processing recently took place in Stresa, Italy. The workshop was divided into sessions covering concept development, subsea boosting, subsea compression, subsea power, subsea separation, and operational experience. Each session included topic presentations, question-and-answer sessions, and mini-workshops allowing participants to interact, learn, and share from one another.

Subsea processing is allowing increased recovery, lower capital and operating expenses, and health, safety, and environmental (HSE) benefits. Subsea processing success stories are increasing in number and during the workshop participants heard that:

Petrobras has extensive experience from subsea electric submersible pumps (ESPs) and has recently applied subsea mudline multiphase pumping (MMP) pumps at the Barracuda field, subsea raw water injection pumps at the Albacora field, horizontal mudline ESP skid at the Espardarte field, and a subsea gas/liquid separation system and an oil/water separation system at the Marlim field.

At the Vincent field, Woodside has applied a subsea MPP system, including two off multiphase pumps. The processing system has given accelerated production and increased the availability of topside facilities and will extend the production life of wells.

Pazflor’s subsea separation units (SSUs) have been in operation and operator Total considers the project a success for subsea processing. SSUs make topsides facilities easier to operate.

Statoil and Shell are confident that the technology can be deployed at Ormen Lange.

Rigorous qualification testing, access to good test facilities, and a stepwise development of technologies are important factors to succeed with the implementation of new subsea processing technologies and to mitigate risk. Communication of success stories and a correct allocation of risk for subsea processing technologies are critical to the selection of subsea processing solutions by decision makers.

Concrete new subsea separation projects and business cases are relatively few and there seems to be less confidence and some confusion about the maturity of separation technologies. Several suggestions for improvement were discussed during the workshop. Generally, oil companies have confidence in subsea processing solutions, but costs are becoming a serious issue. If costs continue to increase, deployment of new technologies could be hampered.
Technology Focus: Field Development Projects (October 2013)
Authors: Rebelo Mauricio Pestana
Published: February 2015

Technology Focus

The oil industry is moving every day to new frontiers to find and produce oil. The development of new fields is bringing different challenges. Several of these new frontier projects require the use of new technologies, thus further challenging project teams. Examples of such new frontiers are the Lower Tertiary in ultradeepwater Gulf of Mexico, the presalt in Brazil, and unconventional reservoirs.

Drilling and completion are important activities in any field development and are also the most expensive, representing the biggest portion of the capital expenditures. Reducing the cost of wells, especially in ultradeep water, can make a big difference in the economics of a project.

The number and placement of wells and the well trajectory and design are key factors for the success of a project and also require a significant investment in studies for knowledge and understanding of the reservoir, to make the correct selection for the wells to be drilled.

One important aspect to be considered for well design is the appropriate technology to use to maximize recovery from the reservoir and reduce drilling costs.

The papers featured this month are good examples of well design and use of new technology. Please enjoy your reading.

Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.

SPE 158860 Subsurface Appraisal and Field-Development Planning of the Gas/Condensate Field GVLA, Angola by S. Balasubramanian, Chevron, et al.

SPE/IADC 163443 First-Oil Requirements Drive Simultaneous Drilling and Subsea Construction Operations on UK Central North Sea Development by R.M. Allan, E.ON E&P UK, et al.

SPE 161507 Full-Field Development Plan Optimization Integrating Subsurface Reservoir Uncertainties for Greenfield Offshore Abu Dhabi by Mohamed S. Afia, ADMA-OPCO, et al.

IPTC 16391 China’s Marine Qiongzhusi Shale Play, First Deep Asia Pacific Region Horizontal Multiple-Stage Fracturing:  Case History, Operation, and Execution by Zonggang Lv, PetroChina, et al.
Drilling and Completing Cascade and Chinook Wells: A Case History
Authors: Carpenter Chris
Published: February 2015

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper OTC 24179, ’Drilling and Completing Cascade and Chinook Wells: A Design and Execution Case History,’ by Flavio Dias De Moraes, Petrobras; Oswaldo Moreira, Petrobras America; Ziad Haddad, FOI Technologies; Scott Ogier and Jonathan Shipley, SPE, Cherokee Offshore Engineering; Mauricio Rebelo, Petrobras; and Fernando Gama, Petrobras America, prepared for the 2013 Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, 6-9 May. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

During the design, implementation, and operation of the Cascade and Chinook (C&C) field development project in ultradeep water in the Lower Tertiary play of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), the technical limits of single-trip multizone (STMZ) frac-pack systems were pushed to depths greater than 27,000 ft using high fracture rates and high-strength proppants; knowledge was gained from ultrahigh-pressure (greater than 20,000 psi) tubing-conveyed perforating systems; and well-design criteria suitable for high-drawdown (more than 12,000 psi) production operations were demonstrated.

Introduction

The C&C development plan in the GOM is one of the most technologically challenging and complex projects ever implemented by Petrobras. This project uses the first floating production, storage, and offloading vessel in operation in US waters at a water depth of 8,200 ft. The C&C subsea infrastructure considers the use of subsea manifolds, rigid flowlines, pipe-in-pipe pipelines, and freestanding hybrid risers. These two fields are 15 miles apart and share several characteristics such as depth, lithology, and reservoir similarities. The Wilcox 1 (Eocene) and 2 (Paleocene) sands belong to the Lower Tertiary geologic period and are part of the latest exploratory frontier in the GOM. At least 12 discoveries have been made in the Lower Tertiary, holding a potentially recoverable volume of several billion bbl of oil, highlighting the importance of this technology development for the industry. These reservoirs are characterized by a considerable thickness of intercalated sandstones and shales. The reservoirs show low horizontal permeability (less than 100 md) and poor vertical communication between sand layers. Other characteristics include a very high static formation pressure, a maximum temperature of 256°F, and a low gas/oil ratio. The produced oil has carbon dioxide concentration in the gaseous phase of less than 1.5%, and there is no evidence of hydrogen sulfide contamination.

Drilling Design

The casing design was based on delivering an 8½-in.-internal-diameter casing at total depth (TD) to accommodate the completion design. In this design, each string is run to its approximate design limit to maximize leakoff-test (LOT) values. One of the most important strategies of the C&C wells was the elimination of the 11⅞-in. liner, which prevents achieving adequate circulation rates for a successful primary cement job on the 10⅛-in. production casing.
Reducing Time to Autonomy for Technical Staff
Authors: Carpenter Chris
Published: February 2015

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper IPTC 16394, ’Accelerating Time to Autonomy for Technical Staff - Developing the Industry's Best Performers,’ by Michael Schaaf and Anu Garg-Buck, Royal Dutch Shell, prepared for the 2013 International Petroleum Technology Conference, Beijing, 26-28 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

Meeting increased production target in the near-future will require the recruitment and development of a large technical staff, made up of both recent graduates and experienced professionals. Shortening time to autonomy and integration is critical to success. This paper describes Royal Dutch Shell’s approach to developing this pipeline of technical professionals by outlining the conditions for success of the Shell Graduate Programme (SGP) and the Shell Advanced Technical Programme (SATP) and by discussing the approach to integrating experienced hires.

Context

Structured programs built around on-the-job development such as the SGP have achieved the development of recruited personnel and have ensured that autonomous staff are truly competent. The key strategic driver is faster time to autonomy, which is essential in the context of a shortage of capable technical staff. In this work, the term “time to autonomy” is used per the definition provided by Schlumberger Business Consultancy as the time it takes a new graduate employee from entry into the company until he/she can make nonstandard decisions autonomously.

The SGP

In 2011, the SGP was launched for technical professionals in all 29 technical disciplines in Shell. This was followed by similar programs for the commercial, human-resources, and legal skill pools.

The SGP is an integrated approach to accelerate graduates’ development up to the first level of autonomy in terms of performance and competence. The expected time to autonomy is on average 2 to 3 years, reduced from 4 to 5 years with the previous approach. The focus is on technical depth and broad business understanding.

Completion of the SGP has also been positioned as a prerequisite for consideration for internal job postings. Promotion occurs only when a graduate is successful and has been selected for a fully fledged technical professional job. 

The principles of the SGP are as follows:

The program is owned by the global technical disciplines within Shell, as opposed to other corporate divisions. This is a critical success factor because the technical disciplines are tasked with setting and ensuring the competence of their staff. They can set and enforce global standards for graduate development within the discipline.

There is a focus on a small critical number of competencies (approximately 10). Reduction of competencies from often more than 25 to 10 or fewer has enabled greater focus and speed of development. Other competencies less critical for autonomy are developed over a longer period of time alongside participants’ primary work, mostly through self-study or online learning.
Technical Master Class: A New Approach to Knowledge Transfer
Authors: Carpenter Chris
Published: February 2015

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper IPTC 16752, ’Technical Master Class: A New Approach to Knowledge Transfer,’ by Crystal Gully, ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, prepared for the 2013 International Petroleum Technology Conference, Beijing, 26-28 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

Technical master classes (TMCs) are a new training concept designed to accelerate building expertise among geoscience, engineering, and commercial professionals. The ExxonMobil TMC concept emphasizes transferring knowledge from experts to practitioners through a training process that blends mentoring and traditional technical training. Rather than teaching only the factual knowledge and technical concepts that dominate traditional classes, the master-class learning experience simulates real technical situations so that experts can coach practitioners through the complexities of an issue.

Introduction

In 2008, ExxonMobil’s executive leadership team challenged its upstream organization to address imminent knowledge and experience gaps in its technical workforce resulting from severe demographic shifts that threatened the entire petroleum industry. With the guidance of internal and external experts, a framework of solutions was proposed, aimed at accelerating the transfer of collective experience within the upstream organization. A project team was formed, and the concept of a TMC was piloted, revised, and implemented.

The goal of the master-class project was to develop a training format that could effectively share experts’ unique knowledge and ways of approaching complex problems. This is a difficult objective because of the very nature of expertise. Intuition and know-how are difficult to articulate and even more difficult to teach in a training classroom. In comparison, traditional technical-training classes teach explicit knowledge: information and processes that have been identified, articulated, and captured in a way that is transferable in print and lecture. 

A challenge the development team faced was verifying the value proposition of the master-class concept. Unlike other initiatives in the framework that affected a majority of the upstream workforce, the TMC concept targeted a relatively small portion of the upstream population. The TMCs focused on practitioners that showed potential for becoming the next technical experts. This is a much smaller population compared with that of other technical training programs that target all 1- to 5-year employees, or all midcareer employees. After piloting the training concept for more than a year, however, the development team collected enough data to verify the value of the TMC concept in more ways than were originally expected.