bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Perceptions and Practices Related to Consumption of ‘Energy Drinks'
Authors: Ravichandran Aiswarya , Vemula Sudershan R. , Mendu Vishnu Vardhana Rao , Konapur Archana , Gavaravarapu SubbaRao M.
Published: October 2018

Energy drinks are becoming increasingly popular in India. There is a need to understand the extent of consumption and perceptions among consumers. There are no studies in India in this direction. This study aimed to assess the perceptions and practices related to consumption of energy drinks among consumers. A cross-sectional study was conducted among students (n=132) and employed persons (n=48) of 13–40 yrs age, who were purposively selected using snowballing technique. Only those who have ever consumed energy drinks were included as subjects. Those consuming at least twice a month were categorized as frequent consumers. A pretested and pre-coded questionnaire with open-ended (5) and closed-ended questions (26) was administered in interview mode. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used for analysis. Frequent consumers were more among students (47%) than in working group (14.6%). Significantly (p<0.05) higher number of participants from high socio-economic groups (71%) reported higher consumption of energy drinks than their middle and low-income counterparts. A majority (53.3%) were introduced to energy drinks by their peers. Participants mostly consumed energy drinks when hanging-out with friends (56.1%), during parties (43.3%), when they feel tired (36.1%) and during performance (28.8%). Consumers were using energy drinks for taste (64.4%), flavour (60.6%), and to feel energetic (57.2%). Frequent consumers (53.3%) assume that energy drinks give extra energy. Considering that there are hardly any studies in India in this direction, the study provides information that even frequent consumers of energy drinks were unaware that energy drinks are caffeinated beverages and their knowledge about health benefits/effects was varied and scanty. Most of them perceive that energy drinks provide ‘extra energy’ and are ‘beneficial’ to health. This myth should be dispelled.
Optimization of two-stage cooling conditions for wire rod diameter 5.5–6.5 mm of low-carbon steel grades in order to ensure the required degree of descaling mechanically before its subsequent processing
Authors: Savinkov V. V. , Kovaleva I. A.
Published: October 2018

With the aim of obtaining scale with a high degree possibility of mechanical removal under the conditions of the section rolling shop No. 1, at the mill «150» JSC «Belarusian Metallurgical Works – Management Company of Holding «BMC» developed technological modes of production of wire rods made of low-carbon steel grades.

The peculiarities of scale formation were studied, namely, the factors influencing the removability, obtaining the optimal thickness and its phase components on the wire rod diameter 5.5–6.5 mm in the cooling process immediately after rolling, intended for wire production.

To obtain the necessary ratio of the phase constituents of the scales on the surface of the wire rod, the following factors was taken into account: the temperature of the layout of the turns on the roller table in the air cooling line; (uniformity along the length of the turn), the cooling conditions of the helix of the turns (prevention of the 4FeO = Fe3O4-Fe decay), where the condition of cooling the wire rod from 600 to 250 °С, not exceeding 100 s, must be observed.

The results of metallographic studies of scale on the wire surface are presented. The introduced technological regimes provided the optimal thickness and the FeO / Fe3O4 ratio after the experimental rolling of the metal. Exhausted cooling regimes allowed to reduce the consumption of fiber for all types of wire.
Overview of test methods to determine strength and plastic properties of the wire
Authors: Kukharenko M. A. , Mokhoreva V. A.
Published: October 2018

The article presents various methods for determining the strength and plastic properties of the wire to assess the quality characteristics of the products produced in the steel shops of JSC «BMW – the Management Company of the Holding «BMC».

The methods of determining the propensity of a thin wire to laminations by reversing the twisting («Swedish» twist) and unilateral twisting, fixing the length change of the sample with a prefix with the dial indicator are considered. The article describes the procedure and results of research to determine the effect of the ratio of the conditional yield strength to the time resistance of the rupture on the plastic properties of the wire, the type of tensile diagram of the wire fragility.
Defects of welded joints of the wire, causing breakages during drawing
Authors: Seregina E. S. , Ayupova T. N.
Published: October 2018

Based on the research experience of the wire raptures all weld defects are systematized. These stydies were done during the rough-the middle wire drawing and bronzing. The defects which most often occur breakages of wire were listed and requirements to the weld seam were established.
Community Consensus: Volunteerism - Of Promoters and Promises
Authors: Spady Darcy
Published: October 2018

President's column

SPE can help small companies navigate financial understanding

Half of my career has been in the producer side of the business and the other half with a service company. The service experience has been with large organizations. It’s rather a nice place to be. My producer experience has been primarily with tiny, small, and intermediate companies.

The experience quite literally has highs and lows. Imagine a cartoon character jumping off a cliff—at first, you feel like a bird but as the ground approaches you are terrified and shortly thereafter you are quite compact, so to speak. I have had moments of pure euphoria as a small producer (usually the 15 minutes after a capital raise or a sale event), but more often it is panic, terror, and a lot of out-of-control times when you wished you had a finance degree or two.

It may not seem intuitive, but engineers need to understand financial matters, and that’s where SPE comes in, with connection opportunities to places other than your technical discipline. There are a lot of us technical types trapped or living in the small cap producer world or technical innovator space. We don’t get much support at technical conferences. We don’t get much time to do technical things. Little producers are very often forgotten. Small technology providers rarely get love, and often they have little time allotted to pitch their idea. I’m going to pay some attention to that group in this column. I’m going to promise some good things in the future.

Early in my career—when the local price of oil was less than $10/bbl and the future was extremely bleak—I was fortunate enough to encounter people who held very lofty positions and took the time to care about this lonely new grad. In the early 1980s, Gerry Maier O.C. (the Order of Canada) was president and CEO of TransCanada Pipelines, a large public company located in an office towering above Toronto’s financial district. I was a struggling new grad working on the periphery of the industry, but Maier took me under his wing. He gave me all the attention I needed to discuss establishing a petroleum engineering chair at the University of Alberta, our alma mater. Even after all these years, Maier has not forgotten that meeting. He has met with other CEOs, Canadian prime ministers, and even royalty, yet Maier remembers that meeting with me.

He has no idea how it kept me going at one of the darkest moments of my career. He remembered the little guy. To this day, I try to pay back that generosity by modeling that behavior.

For example, I hope that Tarun Kumar from UPES in Dehradun, India, is encouraged for life because I took the time to encourage him, after disagreeing strongly with a technical point he made in a student paper competition. Maybe someday he will be involved in a small cap Indian producer listed on the Mumbai exchange.
Guest Editorial: Higher Capability, Lower Costs With Cloud Subsurface Data Management
Authors: Neely Joe , Upadhya Vasuki
Published: October 2018

Guest editorial

Lower oil prices, lack of experienced personnel, and uncertainty about long-term global oil and gas demand are driving petroleum companies to seek new ways to improve operational capability and lower costs. Cloud subsurface data management has the potential to allow standardized data acquisition, improve data integration and quality, and catalyze data analytics—all at a lower cost than traditional methodologies.

Many challenges are involved in acquiring, analyzing, and managing subsurface data. Why is subsurface data so different from other domains? Subsurface comprises many complicated data types, including well logs, core analyses, geologic interpretations, and more.

Each data type is complex and requires an experienced subject matter expert (SME) to deal with data acquisition, formatting, and managing. In addition, the subsurface data must be aggregated into a business context to be useful to the daily operational business. IT and domain SMEs must collaborate to ensure that data are always correct, integrated, and accessible. To be effective, a subsurface data manager must have a strong blend of domain and technical capabilities.

The minimum level of qualification for a position in data management requires a degree in a relevant discipline such as geoscience, engineering, or information technology. Candidates must capably handle multiple operating systems such as Windows and Linux, and should understand company-specific software at a base level.

The technical requirements of subsurface data management are significant. Candidates should know how to script in AWK, sed, Perl, or Python, and additional scripting languages can’t hurt. Lastly, candidates must under-stand management from both a technical perspective—in understanding quality control and juggling multiple data bases—and from a people perspective, in possessing excellent communication skills and handling team personalities. With so much required of those in subsurface data management, the result is a complicated landscape that changes from one business unit to another and evolves through time.

With the advent of data analytics, the subsurface data manager’s responsibilities have increased. Analytics cannot thrive unless there is good data on which to act. The broadening subsurface workspace, coupled with the large legacy application set and increasing amounts of information, creates a critical problem. Continuing with the same issues and proprietary software is not the answer: A new way of thinking is required.

Why Cloud Platforms Work

Utilizing a cloud platform solution for subsurface data can lower infrastructure and support costs while simultaneously providing a platform for all structured and unstructured data along with a col-lection of best-in-class applications for managing and acting on the data to create business value.
Technology Update: Characterizing a Coal-Seam Gas Reservoir by Interpreting Permanent DTS Data
Authors: Oguche Iko , Konopczynski Michael
Published: October 2018

Technology Update

In Australia’s Surat Basin, gas is contained in hundreds of coal seams, which have highly variable properties and are grouped into four distinct reservoir zones of similar qualities. Economically producing these wells from multiple reservoir units is generally favored and as a result, understanding the relative contribution to production by different zones at different times in the well’s life—and whether production is dominated by a single zone—adds value to planning future wells.

The well designs are quite simple. An 8.5-in. wellbore is drilled from surface casing through the target coal seams. A 7-in. production casing and preperforated liner with an external casing packer and a cement stage tool is run to total depth. The external casing packer is deployed at the top of the reservoir, and the 7-in. casing is cemented in place through the stage tool above the packer. No external packers are installed between groups of coal seams (zones) to segregate production from each zone through the preperforated liner.

Production tubing is installed in the well, which typically runs to the base of the preperforated liner, and a progressive cavity pump (PCP) is installed in the tubing to lift the water produced with the coal-seam gas (CSG) [dewater the well]. Gas production comes from the coal seams and flows around and through the preperforated liner, then up through the annular space, between the production liner/casing and the production tubing, to surface. The water flows to the bottom of the completion, where it is lifted up the production tubing by the PCP as shown in Fig. 1.

Understanding Zonal Allocation

Normally, production logging tools (PLTs) are run to obtain an understanding of zonal allocation in commingled wells. However, running PLTs in CSG wells can be expensive as it requires the PCP to be pulled out and the well to be lifted with gas. The switch to gas lift at shallow depth is not a normal operating condition and may affect the result.

An additional issue is the unsegregated, openhole completion. With no external packers, neither the PLT tools nor the distributed-temperature sensor (DTS) fibers inside the liner can measure flow in the space between the liner and the sandface.
Technology Focus: New-Frontier Reservoirs I (July 2018)
Authors: Chipperfield Simon
Published: October 2018

Technology Focus

Recently, a lot of discussion has revolved around the benefits of multilaterals in unconventional reservoirs. But is this truly the next breakthrough for the industry, or is it all hype?

No doubt enormous need exists for a technology such as this to improve reservoir recovery and reduce well cost.

The current modus operandi in many plays is to drill horizontal hydraulically fractured wells. The results, however, continue to show that these well types are not effective at draining the reservoir. This is a result of complex hydraulic-fracture geometries with very short propped heights and lengths. Fracture complexity is a natural phenomenon now proved by coring and is likely caused by reservoir stratigraphy and geomechanics. Completion engineers typically counteract this, to some degree, by pumping more fracture treatments in the horizontals. This ineffective drainage points to the benefits of greater reservoir contact with a multilateral.

As well as improved drainage, multilateral technology also can reduce well cost by avoiding the necessity to drill top hole for the second (or third) lateral and requiring only one completion and one set of surface equipment.

Multilateral technology has been around for many years; however, what has changed in recent times is the reliability of these systems, with more than 98% reliability quoted in a recent publication. Hydraulically fracturing the laterals is now possible as well. 

Companies such as Occidental, BP, and ConocoPhillips are evaluating the potential of this technology in onshore unconventional plays. In fact, in the fourth quarter of 2017, Occidental successfully performed its first pilot.

Enormous need for this technology exists, and time will tell whether it is the next major step in subsurface technology to improve the unit cost of production.

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

SPE 188231 Modeling Early-Time Rate Decline in Unconventional Reservoirs  Using Machine Learning Techniques by Aditya Vyas, Texas A&M University, et al.

SPE 186107 Optimization of Spacing and Penetration Ratio for Infinite-Conductivity Fractures in Unconventional Reservoirs: A Section-Based Approach by S. Liu, Texas A&M University, et al.

SPE 186092 Rate Dependence of Bilinear Flow in Unconventional Gas Reservoirs by M.S. Kanfar, University of Calgary, et al.
Coalbed Methane Prospects in Indonesia
Authors: Carpenter Chris
Published: October 2018

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 186343, “Review of Coalbed Methane Prospects in Indonesia,” by C.  Irawan, D. Nurcahyanto, I.F. Azmy, J.A. Paju, and W.M. Ernata, SKK Migas, prepared for the 2017 SPE/IATMI Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, Bali, Indonesia, 17–19 October. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

In 2005, two companies began studying the potential of seismic operations for the Kutai and South Sumatra basins (Fig. 1). However, the progress of coalbed-methane (CBM) operations has been slow for several reasons. This paper reviews the efforts to exploit CBM resources in Indonesia, the challenges these efforts have faced, and possible solutions that can make operations more efficient and profitable.

Introduction

Despite the current industry climate, operators in Indonesia continue to pursue CBM production opportunities. The Indonesian government has stipulated in its contracts with these companies that current operations must yield production within a set time frame, highlighting the importance of making such operations cost-effective.

Currently, many methods are avail-able to drill CBM wells. In early efforts to exploit CBM wells, contractors used conventional methods to drill a well at a target depth of 500 to 800 m at a high operational cost, but time frames were not met. Of 51 exploration contract areas involving CBM in Indonesia, only 17% of these have fulfilled their commitment. Obstacles that prevent success in these endeavors are often nontechnical in nature, including organizational difficulties (suboptimal financial conditions of operators), land- and permit-acquisition issues, challenges in community relations, gaps in the supply chain, and problems with access and infrastructure. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are difficult to formulate and implement under these conditions. The CBM well must follow industry operational standards, which, when com-pared with standards involved in the mining industry, for example, involve a higher level of technology and the need for more permits and, thus, a greater cost. 

Indonesia CBM Contract Area Indonesian unconventional prospects are essentially divided into two areas, Sumatra and Kalimantan. These areas contain the most abundant coal-seam prospects. However, proved resources do not equal the estimated resources calculated more than a decade ago.

Geologically, target coal seams in the Sumatra and Kutai basins differ only in their depth. The target coal seams in Sumatra are shallower than those in the Kalimantan region. In both basins, the cost per well is high.
Technology Focus: CO2 Applications (July 2018)
Authors: Kokal Sunil
Published: October 2018

Technology Focus

In my previous features, I discussed the challenges facing carbon dioxide (CO2), both technical and economic. By far the biggest use of CO2 is in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). In this feature, the focus is on overcoming the biggest challenges facing CO2 EOR—gravity override and mobility.

When CO2 is injected into a reservoir, it has a tendency to rise and segregate to the top of the reservoir, thereby bypassing some of the remaining oil. This is primarily because of the density difference between CO2 and reservoir fluids. CO2 also fingers through the oil because of its high mobility and lower viscosity. One way to control CO2 mobility and improve its sweep efficiency (and thus improve the incremental oil recovery) is by injecting a CO2 foam or CO2 emulsion. The foam, because of its high viscosity, diverts the CO2 away from the paths already created and conforms it to previously bypassed areas of the reservoir. It does so by blocking the flow channels, thus improving reservoir sweep.

During the past several decades, and especially the last few years, consider able effort has been made to address this challenge. Most of this research has been in either viscosifying or densifying the CO2. Some of the mobility- and conformance-control methods that have been tried include surfactants that create CO2 foams, direct thickening of CO2 using polymers and gels, and nanoparticle-stabilized CO2 foams.

Some of the leading research on CO2 foams/emulsions is being carried out by, in no particular order,

George Hirasaki’s group at Rice University

Quoc Nguyen’s group at The University of Texas at Austin

Texas A&M University

Delft University of Technology

Robert Enick’s group at the University of Pittsburgh

Arne Graue at the University of Bergen

IFP Energies Nouvelles in France

The papers that follow are meant to be a starting point for understanding this phenomenon and further research. The focus in the coming months and years should be on extending the field deployment of this emerging technology.

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

CMTC 486622 Surfactant and a Mixture of Surfactant and Nanoparticles Stabilized CO2/Brine Foam for Gas-Mobility Control and Enhanced Oil Recovery by Z.A. AlYousef, Texas A&M University, et al.

SPE 190176 Fluoroacrylate Polymers as CO2-Soluble Conformance-Control Agents by Robert M. Enick, University of Pittsburgh, et al.
Guest Editorial: A Carbon Tax Would Be Good for the E&P Industry
Authors: Labastie Alain
Published: October 2018

Guest editorial

A few weeks ago, a very passionate discussion took place within the SPE reservoir online community about climate change and global warming. The issues were, not surprisingly, about the reality of global warming and about the role of human activity. This was certainly the most passionate debate this online community has had for the past few years, with a lot of people denying either the concept of global warming, or the role of an anthropogenic (i.e., man-induced) effect on greenhouse gas emissions.

As I am not a climate scientist, I did not join the discussion. However, I have learned a few things on this subject by reading a lot of literature:

Climate analysis and modeling is extremely complex due to the number of parameters playing a role, and the importance of interactions between parameters (including higher-order interactions, i.e., interactions between interactions). Climate behavior is not intuitive and sometimes is counterintuitive. This makes simple “good sense” analysis very unreliable and often misleading. And there is some confusion between climate forecasting and weather forecasting.

SPE produces high-quality technical literature through our peer-review process. In the domain of climate science, there are dozens of peer-reviewed papers/articles stating that there is likely a man-induced impact on climate change, and not a single one stating the opposite. I mean peer-reviewed by reference organizations, not a group of friends peer reviewing each other.

For these reasons, it appears to me that climate change caused by an increasing greenhouse gas effect, mostly the result of carbon dioxide emissions, is likely, even if I have no absolute factual evidence for that. Most important is the fact that, globally, a growing and already important number of people, including the general public and decision makers, have the same opinion and related concerns. Also, this opinion is very widely shared within the younger generations. I had the opportunity as SPE president a few years ago to meet a large number of university students all around the world, and I have been very impressed to see the concern about climate change by the vast majority of these students. And the discussion in the SPE online community I mentioned earlier was joined mostly by experienced members and included few (if any) younger members. For those who want to persuade people and politicians that this is not an issue, it looks like the battle is already lost, and the policy of the current US administration cannot change long-term trends, although it may delay things a bit.

A consequence of all this is the development of “green” alternatives. I note that the meaning of “green” is unclear for many people: does it mean decreasing emissions of polluting agents, such as sulfur compounds, nitrogen oxides (NOx), fine particles, etc., all detrimental to human health? Or does it mean decreasing emission of greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide? Or does it mean both?
Is the Permian Barreling Toward a Breaking Point?
Authors: Zborowski Matt
Published: October 2018

The next year could spell trouble for operators producing oil in west Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

The Permian Basin currently has more crude than it can handle, and production there continues to grow at a steady rate month-over-month after surpassing 3 million B/D earlier this year, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.

Pipeline takeaway capacity isn’t sufficient and won’t be until the second half of 2019. There aren’t nearly enough trucks or truck drivers to make up the difference, and any meaningful expansion of crude-by-rail transport is restricted by infrastructure and business-related constraints.

Both options are already competing with movement of equipment and supplies such as sand and water, demand of which has also grown—along with their costs—to support the continued production growth. Many operators in the basin struggled to generate positive cash flow even before the bottlenecks became an issue. Now, the price of the crude they’re producing is trading at a big discount vs. spot prices in Houston, near the Gulf Coast refining and export center; and Cushing, Oklahoma, the crude trading hub from which the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) price is derived.

The spread between Midland crude and WTI grew to double digits in May, spiking from roughly $1 a couple months earlier. If WTI prices were closer to where they were a year ago, the impact of the spread immediately “would have been significant for almost every operator,” noted R.T. Dukes, Wood Mackenzie US Lower 48 upstream research director. Fortunately for Permian operators, WTI prices have been much higher than the range of prices for which they budgeted coming into the year, minimizing the impact of the spread thus far.

But WTI prices aren’t guaranteed to remain that high, and differentials could grow—just look at the Western Canada Select heavy crude price, which has traded at up to a $30/bbl discount to WTI this year due in large part to transportation constraints. The spread forced operators such as Cenovus, Husky Energy, and Canadian Natural Resources to slow their oil sands production during the first quarter.

Permian operators are similarly being forced to examine whether continued growth over the next year is sustainable or even worthwhile. Their exposure to Midland spot prices varies, ranging anywhere from less than 5% to 50–60% of Permian production, said John Coleman, Wood Mackenzie senior analyst, North American crude oil markets. Most operators are in the 20–30% range, meaning there already has been a modest hit to cash flow, he said.

Consultancy Rystad Energy believes the Midland vs. Cushing spread will “stay very much depressed” into mid-2019 and “won’t be surprised” if it moves into the low $20s/bbl, said Artem Abramov, Rystad vice president, shale analysis. “Everything points to the situation getting worse and worse going forward.”
Someday Soon, a Computer Will Do the Report for the Morning Meeting
Authors: Rassenfoss Stephen
Published: October 2018

There is one form of drilling automation that does not appear to alarm engineers: an automated daily report creator.

The feedback on a project to do just that was all positive when it was offered as a new application at a customer meeting put on by Moblize, a company that offers an online platform that makes it easier to manipulate and analyze data.

An app that generates and distributes a formatted report suitable for the morning drilling meeting is under development by the young company whose future depends on a growing array of tools to analyze and present data.

Automating the morning report is “high on our value creation ranking,” said Chris James, project manager, drilling, for Moblize. His thinking is that companies are paying the engineers supervising drilling projects a lot of money “so why should they be taking time out to be writing reports?”

The argument for computer-generated reports is also based on personal experience—James recalled his days managing drilling for a large independent where squeezing report writing into a day was a “nightmare.” Often, after it was done, something big happened that should have been in there.

The goal is to combine performance tables based on real-time data—which have been available since the start of the year—using software that automatically generates a professional-looking report integrating graphics and comments by those in charge. Delivery can be scheduled using email or posted on a website. The updated document can also be constantly accessible, serving as a performance dashboard.

That app is an example of Moblize’s business plan. It has brought on 40 exploration and production (E&P) companies as customers over the past 18 months using a personal approach in an intensely competitive business.

Moblize’s business plan was inspired by social media businesses built around communities of like-minded users who are loyal to a fee-based platform because it regularly offers new things that help them do their jobs as well as allowing them to use their software on it.

“Users in E&P companies are the consumer,” said Amit Mehta, the founder and CEO of the company, which is moving next into completions. He added, “We want to get to the point where engineers love to use it.”

The relationship and ease of use are critical because the performance metrics its customers want to track are not unique. It uses tracking-performance indicators ranging from connection times to downtime, from the rate of penetration (ROP) to the percentage of time spent sliding during directional drilling. The fact that cloud-based analytics need to be packaged in such a traditional format is a reminder that while digital analysis is growing, selling those ideas means still making a case for something at a meeting.

As one manager in the conference crowd said, “phase one is to put them [performance charts] in the morning report because that is the habit.”
Pulsed-Neutron Comparison of Open- and Casedhole Wells: An Alaskan Case Study
Authors: Carpenter Chris
Published: October 2018

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 190062, “A Pulsed-Neutron Comparison Between an Open- and Casedhole Well: An Alaskan Case Study,” by J. Burt, T. Zhou, D.A. Rose, R. Grover, S. Ahmad, and J. Nemec, Schlumberger, and J. Dunston, Hilcorp, prepared for the 2018 SPE Western Regional Meeting, Garden Grove, California, USA, 22–27 April. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

This paper compares the results of gas identification and lithology identification using pulsed-neutron spectroscopy in openhole and casedhole environments. Most pulsed-neutron tools are run after casing; this study provides a unique opportunity to examine the effect of casing on spectroscopy by comparing casedhole measurements to measurements taken in the open hole before the casing was run.

Introduction

Pulsed-neutron logging has evolved over the last 50 years, but the intrinsic physical measurements have remained unchanged, which means that operators cannot obtain a complete picture of the rock and fluids behind casing with conventional tools. However, advances in tool design and a new fast-neutron cross-section (FNXS) measurement provide for an alternative gas-identification technique. Gas in open holes is typically identified from neutron porosity and gamma-gamma density crossover. In casedhole environments, gamma-gamma density measurements are challenging because of the large casing and cement corrections needed. Previous gas identification in casedhole environments has relied on the formation hydrogen index (HI) or neutron porosity (TPHI) log and sigma.

In openhole environments, density and neutron porosity crossover is a typical gas identifier, but, in many instances, shale can mask the identification of gas. This is a common problem in some gas reservoirs in Alaska, and it leads to ambiguous interpretations about the gas saturation and potential producibility of different zones. Gas identification in casedhole environments is even more complicated because the density measurement is not commonly available. 

The FNXS measurement responds primarily to formation atom density, for which most rocks, clays, and liquids have similar values. Comparatively, gas has a low atom density, and its presence will make the FNXS measurement read low. Thus, a gas pay zone can be differentiated from tight zones by the shift toward lower FNXS values. Also, the difference in FNXS between clean lithologies and clay is less than for sigma and TPHI, so FNXS, which is less affected by variable clay content, can be a more-robust gas indicator when variable clay is present.
Technology Focus: Subsea Hardware and Technology (August 2018)
Authors: Carpenter Chris
Published: October 2018

Technology Focus

A long-standing truism is that ideas that change one industry dramatically often are the result of innovations from a different industry altogether. In the realm of subsea exploration and production, with its high levels of risk and expense, concepts pioneered or used elsewhere are positioned to initiate important advances, a fact reflected in the three papers chosen for this year’s feature on Subsea Hardware and Technology.

Paper OTC 28051 uses the strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) analysis technique often used in organizational and personal strategy-building to compare four different development concepts that hold promise for meeting the environmental and economic challenges posed by presalt fields in the Santos and Campos basins.

In its discussion of fiber-communications technology that has been widely used in other industries, paper OTC 27987 describes the search for optimal use of wet-mate connectors in subsea applications, stressing that the significant opportunities in data collection offered by this hardware are of limited value without rigorous quality control. Finally, paper OTC 29069 delves into the world of marine mining, where developments in artificial intelligence and robotics are redefining the roles of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). These innovations, including diverse aspects such as increased mobility and manipulation abilities and enhanced inspection capabilities for extended AUV missions, may increase cost-effectiveness while creating minimal disruption to the seafloor—innovations that will likely have a powerful echo in the oil and gas industry.

With hard work, the progress outlined in these three papers may help create a better balance between cost, production, and ecological stability in offshore operations. The papers illustrate the inter-dependence of both technological and environmental systems, a truth of which operators in all realms of the industry must remain perpetually aware.

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

OTC 28992 Horizontal Well Placement in a Thin Heterogeneous Carbonate Reservoir Using Azimuthal Sonic and Resistivity Measurements: A Case Study From Offshore Abu Dhabi by Amr M. Serry, ADMA-OPCO, et al.

OTC 28562 Electric-Controls Technology: The Role in Future Subsea Systems by Sigurd Moe, TechnipFMC, et al.
Guest Editorial: Innovation - A Word We Throw Around
Authors: Baker Brad
Published: October 2018

Guest editorial

“We are the innovation leaders.” “We are increasing spend on innovation.” “Hey, you’re innovative.” 

In our industry, positive advancements turn to unquestioned trends, which are then embraced with a buzzword. Has “innovation” become the latest sales jargon where its true meaning and application have become convoluted?

As a reader of JPT, you will no doubt be dazzled by the latest technology developments and self-proposed innovations, for example, in completions, drilling, and petroleum engineering. But how many are true enablers to a new way of doing something or solving a real problem? Are we really innovating as an industry or merely applying a catchphrase to already tried and tested processes because that is what’s “in?”

What Does Real Innovation Mean?

In its classical sense, innovation is basically any new idea, process, or solution to a problem. So, in that respect, I guess our industry is very pioneering as there seems to be a relentless stream of new products, methods, and techniques hitting the market. However, the term has more recently been tagged to almost every new idea, whether purposeful or just a “nice-to-have” variant of an existing product.

For example, how long have we been talking about intelligent wells coupled with improved digital data to enhance reservoir recovery factors? How big have those innovative leaps really been, or are they simply small steps in a long journey to the solution? The ideas that bring significant changes are what we should be heralding and measuring as true innovation in our industry. I like to call this efficacious innovation—developing real answers to real problems that create a positive step forward.

Who decides what innovation is? In a sense, it is the end user and how important the new idea is to them. For example, when the clever engineers at Zenith invented the remote control for the television, was that really an innovative product or just a cool twist on an already simple process? For me, it is extremely innovative, but for my octogenarian dad, it is an unnecessary device for his lazy son.

Sometimes a nice-to-have novelty becomes an essential innovation as it drives different, unintended behavior and efficiencies. Some would say the remote drove the quickfire viewing pat-terns of today and the television industry built its programming around its ability to access a range of content at the press of a button.

For reservoir recovery today, it seems we are so focused on gathering data that we are missing the big innovation of making that information work to significantly improve low recovery factors. While we have figured out how to capture data, we don’t seem to know how to handle it.
Oilfield Service Patent Contests Get Heated
Authors: Zborowski Matt
Published: October 2018

From the highest courts of the US judicial branch to the C-suite, contests involving patents have recently come to the fore in the innovation-hungry US oilfield services industry, even as filings and litigation have recently declined.

In the past few months, the US Supreme Court has ruled on two disputes involving oilfield services firms, providing guidance on the extent to which patent protection applies beyond US borders and reaffirming a controversial process by which a patent’s validity is reexamined. The decisions come as companies adopt a more tactical approach in their pursuit and defense of intellectual property (IP).

The most recent ruling, which came in June, found that Schlumberger’s geophysical services subsidiary WesternGeco could recover lost profits for infringement abroad of four of its US patents by rival Ion Geophysical. The technology in question involved control systems for marine seismic streamer steering devices, separately falling under WesternGeco’s Q-Marine brand and Ion’s DigiFin brand. Ion was shipping the components overseas to customers, which then assembled the technology for their own use. 

The first chapter of the saga came in 2012 when a federal jury ruled in favor of WesternGeco in its infringement suit against Ion, finding that the practice caused WesternGeco to lose multiple survey contracts. The case was turned on its head, however, when an appeal by Ion resulted in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversing the lost profit award. A subsequent appeal by WesternGeco elevated the case to the US Supreme Court.

While Ion’s appeal was pending, the companies were involved in separate proceedings, initiated by Petroleum Geo-Services, that challenged the validity of the WesternGeco patents before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) under a process called inter partes review (IPR). Challenged in the other US Supreme Court decision this year involving oilfield service firms, IPR is a procedure that takes a patent challenge to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rather than before a jury in a district court.

The PTAB invalidated the four patent claims that formed the basis for the federal jury verdict, and, upon appeal by WesternGeco, the Federal Circuit in May determined that three of the four patents were invalid.

Meanwhile, in the original case, the US Supreme Court in June ruled in a 7–2 decision that infringement did occur under Section 271 of the Patent Act—which covers the exporting of components for a patented invention for assembly abroad—and that WesternGeco was in fact entitled to lost-profit damages for infringement. The court determined that “the conduct in this case that is relevant to the statutory focus clearly occurred in the United States.”

In a subsequent statement to JPT, Schlumberger said it was “pleased” with the high court’s decision. “More importantly,” the company said, the ruling “reinforces our position that, as a technology innovator, we receive the full protection of the Patent Act against those who infringe US patents.”
Google Offers Insight Into Industry Data Possibilities
Authors: Jacobs Trent
Published: October 2018

Enticed by the promise of billions of dollars in savings and production uplift, the oil and gas industry has paid heavy attention in recent years to the fast-paced development of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Budgets for this area of advanced computing software have exploded since the onset of the downturn, and now industry professionals want to know more than ever what success really looks like.

To share views on how the industry’s digital transformation is shaping up, top executives from Google, Shell, Encana, and Schlumberger will take the stage for the opening session of the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) in Dallas, 24–26 September.

This kickoff discussion will focus on the culture shift required to adopt big data tools, and how to effectively leverage a new workforce of digitally-enabled engineers and scientists that is beginning to fill the industry’s rank and file.

Darryl Willis, the newly appointed vice president of Google Cloud’s oil and gas unit, is a trained geologist who spent more than 2 decades in senior positions at BP. From the podium, he plans to share perspectives on the digital challenges and opportunities the upstream sector is currently faced with.

“Machine learning, data analytics, and AI thrive on lots of data,” and while the industry has plenty of that data, “it only uses a fraction of it,” he explained.

To start unlocking the value of this information, he said that companies must do things that include “liberating” data from their traditional silos while also ensuring they are in fact capturing high-quality data from their wells and rigs. These are just two of the big steps required to take advantage of the power of cloud computing, and by not taking them, future profits are at risk.

“Companies will either be a catalyst for change, or they will be a casualty of change,” said Willis, citing projections that say many of the globe’s largest firms are poised to be surpassed by newcomers as technological and economic disruption continues.

ATCE’s opening session will provide attendees a chance to hear about where the industry is making the right moves and seeing positive returns on its recent investments in digital technologies. One place that fits the bill is the Wamsutter tight-gas field in Wyoming, an asset that Willis used to be in charge of during his tenure at BP.

“Wamsutter was a very tough field to produce because it was 2,500 wells over 2,500 sq. miles,” he said. “The way we managed that field was by sending pumpers, out in trucks, to actually check on the health of the wells.”

But business-as-usual changed last year when BP hooked 180 of those wells up to an AI program developed by a Silicon Valley startup called Kelvin Inc. The success metrics from the pilot were highly encouraging: operating costs dropped by 22%, production increased by 20%, and gas venting was cut by a whopping 74%.
Technology Focus: Reservoir Performance and Monitoring (September 2018)
Authors: Livescu Silviu
Published: October 2018

Technology Focus

Since the last Reservoir Performance and Monitoring feature in 2017, the industry has continued to advance with innovation in technology and business models to drive sustainable change. Operators around the world have continued lowering production costs aggressively, and oilfield service companies have continued to survive by making a low-margin profit in a greatly competitive market. If the industry until recently was lamenting an oversupply of oil and that a global upstream investment slump caused a focus on incremental technology improvements with fewer capital resources and personnel, now a looming oil-supply shortage has reignited discussions about how innovation, digital technologies, and collaborations can accelerate future major project development.

In the last 12 months, 157 technical papers were presented at various conferences and meetings with reservoir performance and monitoring programs and were reviewed for this feature. For comparison, 160 were reviewed for the 2017 feature. Interestingly, 62 papers had first authors from academia, 70 from operating companies, and 25 from oilfield services companies and consulting firms. Sixty-three papers had authors with different affiliations.

The six papers selected and recommended as additional reading are a representative sample of the papers reviewed for this feature. They are a geographically diverse mix of fundamental research, industrial research and development, and field-application studies, reporting the latest published advances in reservoir-performance monitoring, analysis, and optimization.

In considering the 157 technical papers reviewed for this feature, I am looking forward to seeing how our industry is going to react through innovation and digital technologies to the supply and demand changes of coming years. A new era of operational efficiency improvements, improved recovery factors, and lower production costs from continuous reservoir performance monitoring, analysis, and optimization is ready to begin.

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

SPE 188890 Effect of Irreversible Retention on Tracer Deployments: Constraining Novel Material Deployments by Hsieh Chen, Aramco, et al.

SPE 189846 Applying Subsurface DNA Diagnostics and Data Science in the Delaware Basin by J. Silva, Anadarko, et al.

SPE 190480 Effect of Dilution on Acoustic and Transport Properties of Reservoir Fluid Systems by Ram R. Ratnakar, Shell, et al.