bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
De-Bottlenecking of Existing Flare System for Facility Up-Gradation using Dynamic Simulation Approach - Case Study
Authors: Wasnik Rakesh , Singh Harendra , Kamal Faris Ragheb , Takieddine Oussama Halim 
Published: November 2018

Abstract
In today's oil prices scenario, industry's focus is shifting towards Brownfield projects having low CAPEX utilizing existing Oil & Gas assets. Towards this objective, de-bottlenecking of existing flare system becomes inevitable for facilities up-gradation. The spare capacity of existing flare is utilized to accommodate additional relief loads from new facility, thus avoiding installation of new flare. Dynamic simulation approach provides significant advantages over conventional approach in terms of realistic estimation of flare capacity and optimal use of existing plant assets.
The conventional steady state approach assumptions provide conservative relief loads considering sum of instantaneous peak flows of relieving devices irrespective of their opening time. Flare operations are inherently dynamic in nature and dynamic simulations provide more realistic relief loads and presents optimal approach to de-bottlenecking of existing flare system.
Latest API approach to determine relief rate based on Fire Response Analysis using vessel rupture acceptance criteria also provides additional benefits in terms of relief load optimization as compared to conventional API approach to reduce the system pressure to 50% or 100 Psig in 15 minutes.
Dynamic approach also accounts for the packing effect in flare network, system operating pressure at which blow down will initiate and sequential opening of blow down valves for each isolatable section. Thus, dynamic approach provides better understanding of the dynamic behavior during blow down scenario. The flare system of offshore gas processing platform was originally designed based on steady state approach, commonly used being a conservative design which is more appropriate for green-field projects. In this approach, the total flare design load is established by adding all individual loads; assuming that peak flow from all sources will occur at the same time resulting in overdesign of flare system.
A dynamic simulation model was developed to analyze the behavior of flare system during emergency relief scenario incorporating the actual volumes of Flare KOD, sub/main flare header and actual opening time of blowdown valves. The dynamic approach accounts for the packing phenomena in the overall flare system network which significantly optimizes the design of flare system and associated equipment.
The results of dynamic approach are compared with conservative conventional approach. The study concludes that dynamic approach for flare system design provides more accurate estimation of peak flare load.
Dispersive Mode Processing of Borehole Acoustic Logs Using Fast Slowness-Frequency Inversion
Authors: Assous Said , Tudge Joanne , Whetton James , Elkington Peter 
Published: November 2018

Abstract
Shear slowness is commonly computed from well log dipole flexural mode data using slowness-time-coherence (STC) processing. Flexural dispersion is handled by restricting the signal's frequency content to the low frequencies that travel close to the formation's shear velocity, or by altering the phase relationships within the waveforms prior to STC processing in accordance with observed dispersion characteristics. Restricting the frequency range may not eliminate the need for a residual dispersion correction, however, and in noisy environments the dispersion curves needed for modifying phase relationships may be of poor quality. Formation and borehole properties have a significant influence on observed frequency content, and selection of bandwidth for the optimal balance between noise and size of the residual dispersion correction adds to overall processing time. Inversion addresses these difficulties by computing shear slowness directly from observed dispersion characteristics, but the process needs to be fast and tolerant to noise to be effective in commercial applications. In order to make the inversion efficient the iterative steps which compare observed and forward modeled dispersion curves are replaced with a fast neural net trained on a large number of pre-modeled curves generated with known formation and borehole properties. Automated mode frequency detection constrains the bandwidth over which dispersion curves are matched, accounting for potentially high levels of noise seen, for example, in horizontal wells. Results from 127,000 modelled and field data points show improved accuracy and precision relative to STC processing.
A Kinetic Simulation Study to Decrease Carbon Monoxide CO Emission from Sulfur Recovery Units SRU
Authors: Ibrahim Salisu , Rahman Ramees K. , Raj Abhijeet 
Published: November 2018

Abstract
To meet the regulations on the emission of toxic gases such as carbon monoxide (CO) and Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) from the Sulphur Recovery Units (SRUs), a high amount of fuel gas is burnt in the incinerator to oxidize them that increases the sulfur production cost and CO2 emissions. This study investigates the major reactions that cause CO emissions and recommends possible solution to mitigate its formation in the SRU. The SRU simulations were conducted using a well validated and detailed reaction mechanism that captures the chemistry of CO and Sulfur species in the Claus furnace. The Claus reaction mechanism, containing 290 species and 1900 reversible reactions for the oxidation of H2S and the formation and destruction of COS, CO, CO2, hydrocarbons, and CS2 was used for reactor simulations, which was validated successfully using industrial plant data and the experimental data from lab-scale setups. The process parameters were varied to find the set of conditions that minimize CO production in the SRUs. The CO production in Claus furnace occurred through the high temperature decomposition of CO2 and CH4 present in the acid gas stream. The production of COS occurred from the reactions of CO with sulfur. The inlet temperatures of the feed gas streams (air and acid gas) were varied systematically to observe their effect on sulfur recovery and emissions of CO, SO2, COS, and aromatics. Upon decreasing the furnace temperature (by decreasing inlet air temperature) from 1105°C to 1050°C, CO emission from the SRU decreased by up to 60%, while sulfur recovery efficiency increased by 0.2%. However, the emission of aromatics (mainly benzene) increased by 3.5 ppm, while the more detrimental toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene were completely oxidized. Thus, maintaining an optimal feed temperature was found to minimize CO emissions from the SRUs, while maintaining high sulfur recovery. The simulation results predict the cost-effective solutions of minimizing CO and SO2 emissions from SRUs through the variation in process parameters that will help in reducing the consumption of fuel gas in the SRU incinerator.
New Engineering Approach for Environmental Impact Mitigation in Drilling Operations
Authors: Daoudi Adlane , Sator Salim , Samira Bellatache 
Published: November 2018

Abstract
Drilling waste generated during the drilling of wells using oil-based muds (OBMs) can often contain a high level of oily waste liquid as a result of surface mud losses, fluid displacements, rig wash down activities, and rig tank cleaning. This type of waste commonly known as "drilling slops" represents a significant volume of the overall waste generated while drilling a well and contributes to the overall environmental impact, cost of waste haul, and final disposal. In addition, the use of emulsifiers and other chemicals in OBMs leads to these liquids becoming difficult and expensive to treat efficiently with conventional separation and treatment systems.
This paper sets out a new method for treatment and recycling of this type of waste for land drilling operations that achieved a 73% reduction in waste volumes generated compared to other wells drilled in the same area. The results in the paper will also demonstrate that the oil and water recovered by this system was within the recommended quality parameters for recycling in the drilling operation. This system significantly reduces the need to transport wastes for offsite treatment and disposal while reducing the overall environmental impact of the drilling operation.
After analyzing the source of wastes generated during drilling at a land location in Algeria, a methodology was devised to segregate drilling wastes and avoid the co-mingling of different waste types before sending the drilling slops to the system for treatment. Lab tests were carried out to determine the optimum flocculants and dosing rates required to separate and recover the oil and water from the solids. This new method for treating and recycling these waste is an integrated chemical flocculation and dewatering system using a container fabricated from a specially engineered textile that provides confinement and drying of drill solids inside the container while allowing the liquids to permeate through the engineered textile for recycling and reuse on the rig. This system reduces the amount of liquid wastes hauled off site for treatment leaving dried solids that are easily handled and disposed of with conventional treatment methods.
The use of this technology can have an important and cost effective contribution to reducing the environmental impact of land drilling operations using OBMs in Algeria and beyond.
Blended-Acquisition Encoding with Generalized Blending Operators: Signaturing with Temporally Amplitude-Modulated and Spatially Dispersed Source Array
Authors: Ishiyama Tomohide , Ali Mohammed , Blacquiere Gerrit , Nakayama Shotaro 
Published: November 2018

Abstract
Recently, we established a generalized blending model, which can explain any methods of blended acquisition by including the encoding into the generalized operators. With this highly flexible and tolerant model, we come up with a challenging question: what it is to be, and how to find an optimal blended-acquisition design, which should be the most suitable for deblended-data reconstruction among plenty of concepts of blended acquisition. In this paper, we introduce a method of blended-acquisition encoding: temporally modulated and spatially dispersed source array, namely M-DSA, that jointly uses modulation sequencing in the time dimension and dispersed source array in the space dimension. This allows quite straightforward deblending by filtering and physically separating frequency channels in the frequency domain.
We run our blended-acquisition designing based on the deblending performance for several scenarios of blended acquisition. These examples show that: M-DSA attains the best deblending performance; this method has less constraints in the encoding with more operational flexibility, compared to other methods being developed in the industry today. Indeed, this method requires only simple signaturing in the encoding; merely frequency-banded and modulated signatures in the time dimension for each shot in the blended-source array. This could even render any other blending properties unnecessary. Those, such as distance separation among shot locations and time shifts among shot times, might not be required anymore. There might be no limitation on the number of sources, thus no limitation on the blending fold, in order to secure successful deblending. Furthermore, this method allows random sampling; randomly distributed sources in the space dimension in the blended-source array. Consequently, this method makes the blended-acquisition encoding and operations significantly simple and robust, as well as for the deblending processing. We believe that our M-DSA method should be one of the best methods of blended acquisition.
Tight Reservoir: Characterization, Modeling, and Development Feasibility
Authors: Salahuddin Andi A. , Al Seiari Jamila M. , Al Shehhi Abdulla S. , Al Hammadi Khaled E. 
Published: November 2018

Abstract
The distribution of reservoir quality in tight carbonates depends primarily upon how diagenetic processes have modified the rock microstructure, leading to significant heterogeneity and anisotropy. The size and connectivity of the pore network may be enhanced by dissolution or reduced by cementation and compaction. Consequently, a clear understanding of the diagenetic process that responsible for the reservoir tightness would offer vital assurance on the spatial property distribution and future field development plan. In this paper, we have examined the factors which affect the distribution of porosity, permeability and reservoir quality in the Thamama Group, which is a prospective low permeability carbonate reservoir rock in Onshore Abu Dhabi.
The dataset includes regional stratigraphy, well logs and core material from a number of wells, a suite of laboratory petrophysical measurements, seismic attributes, geomechanics, fracture study, and production history. Dataset analysis and interpretation suggested that the reservoir was deposited in shallow to deep marine low energy environment which led to deposition of fine to very fine grains (lime-mud supported) types of sediments. This, in turn, would produce poor reservoirs during compaction and finally leads to tightness.
Because of the low permeability nature of this tight reservoir, it is quite challenging to obtain their complete reservoir properties and dynamic behavior. As in many other tight reservoir projects, a considerable area of the reservoir must be effectively stimulated during the hydraulic fracturing process to achieve economic productivity. In addition, development of tight reservoirs often faces challenges, for example, low initial production rates and high declining rate.
This paper aims to frame all possible optimum development practices for tight reservoir in the studied field that should be considered for future development plan. We also investigated the application of new technology to enhance the poor oil recovery within the pool including horizontal drilling and multi-stage fracture completion technology. Furthermore, this paper also discusses well orientation relative to the far field principal stresses, hydraulic fractures treatment, fracture fluid selection, and nano-technology application. This, in turn, would provide valuable information on how to optimally develop this previously considered marginal and uneconomic reservoir.
The Application of Refracturing Technique in Horizontal Wells of Daqing Oilfield
Authors: Wang Xianjun , Wang Wei , Li Borui , Li Dongxu , Gu Mingyong , Tang Pengfei , Zhang Hao , Liu Yu , Li Yonghuan , Wang Jing 
Published: November 2018

Abstract
Aiming to the development of the tight reservoirs with low permeability in Daqing Oilfield, the horizontal well fracturing technique has achieved good results. However, the output gradually decreases later. The initial average daily oil production per well is 17.0t and drops to 2.6t after some time. Also, the wells with the production lower than 2t constitute more than 50%. Thus, to realize the economic and effective exploitation, the refracturing technique is needed to improve the production.
According to the geological and producing conditions, two optimization methods have been formed, including the chart method and the dynamic method.
Based on cement quality and wellbore integrity of horizontal wells, 2 kinds of refracturing pipe strings including the double-packer isolation refracturing one and the single-packer isolation refracturing one have been formed. Besides, based on the initial fracturing parameters and completions, 4 refracturing modes are formed aiming to 4 scenarios including inadequately fractured stages, new fractures supplement, diverter refracturing within the fractures and multi-stage diverter refracturing, and are carried out for field tests.
(1) Small-scale initially fractured wells can be treated by the massive in-situ refracturing and 15 wells field tests are carried out. Compared with the initial fracturing, the sand amount and fracturing fluid are increased by 58% and 145% respectively and the daily oil production increases from 0.4t to 4.2t after refracturing.
(2) The wells having sparse initial fractures can be treated by refracturing to infill new fractures and 13 wells field tests are carried out. Compared with the initial fracturing, the gaps among fractures are reduced by 54.7%, and the daily oil production is increased from 1.7t to the 4.6t after refracturing.
(3) The wells with small angles formed by two directions between initial artificial fractures and wellbore can be treated by the diverter refracturing and 3 wells are treated by this to increase the production from 1.63t to 5.33t.
(4) 2 wells having not been sectionally fractured in light of their poor cement quality have been treated by the diverter refracturing within the scope of the whole wellbore, with the production increased from 1.5t to 4.5t.
In general, the daily oil production of 33 wells is averagely increased from 1.1t to 4.5t, which reaches 70.4% of the production after the initial fracturing.
Optimizing Stringers Development Using Latest Probabilistic Seismic Inversion Technique
Authors: Al-Busaidi Ahmed , Qureshi Tahira , Al-Naamani Ali , Al-Abri Mohammed 
Published: November 2018

Abstract
The A2C carbonate reservoirs are known to be the most complex sour gas reservoirs in South of Oman. These reservoirs are considered to be tight with varying porosities. The main challenge with the Asset is to identify high porosity layers with sufficient net thickness. The previous QI work done on newly available 2016 PreSDM Wide Azimuth (WAZ), provided the acoustic impedance derived porosities for sweet spotting. However, it was not able to characterize the net pay thickness due to limited vertical resolution of the inverted porosity cube.
The present model-based probabilistic seismic inversion was carried out on 2016 PreSDM Wide Azimuth (WAZ). It combined the rock and fluid properties, and prior knowledge from static reservoir model and provided porosity realizations that are consistent with seismic. The Porosity from inversion provided better vertical and lateral resolution and the uncertainty associated with it. The high resolution porosity model highlights possible sweet spotting zones and appraisal opportunities. The updated porosity models using this latest technique shows details that enable better understanding of the reservoir performance and optimizing future development.
Water Treatment Challenges to Meet BFW Spec Using Reject Streams from Municipality Sewage Plant - Kuwait
Authors: Kuijvenhoven C. A. , Ghouti R. , Alenezi M. Z. , Al Rasheedi R. A. 
Published: November 2018

Abstract
Water from the reject stream of the Reverse Osmosis (RO) units in Sulaibiya Waste Water Treatment plant (SWWTP) will be used as source water for the Once-Through Steam Generators (OTSG) for the South Ratqa (SR) Phase I project. Using sewage water as source water for steam boilers directly impacts the complexity of the water treatment processes.
Based on the South Raqa steam quality specifications, a water quality requirement has been defined which was found in line with international guidelines. For one of the quality requirements specified (Chemical Oxygen Demand) a tight specification of &lt; 0.1 mg/l was set, which is not often seen in the industry. Instead the industry does define Total Organic Carbon (TOC) as water quality specification, which is closely related to COD. As the water source in the Sulaibiya is coming from a sewage plant (unknown organic components), COD was included as water quality specification.
To deliver the required BFW quality, seven different treatment steps are being installed, which all need to be optimised to ensure the required high plant availability. The major risk area is the requirement to achieve residual chlorine in the water stream coming from the Sulaibiya plant.
Employing Lean Practices in Well and Reservoir Management to Optimize a Thermal EOR Development, Sultanate of Oman
Authors: Shaqsi Khadija Al , Alwazeer Abdullah , Belghache Abdesslam , Mawali Shaikha Al , Sawafi Marwan Al , Aulaqi Talal Al , Bulushi Badriya Al , D'Amours Kevin , Yahyai Ahmed Al , Yazidi Rashid Al , Hilali Ali Al , Zaabi Yousuf Al , Hinai Jaifar Al , Mujaini Rahima Al , Gheithy Ali Al , Bettembourg Solenn 
Published: November 2018

Abstract
This paper describes how the deployment of multiple Lean projects by Petroleum Development Oman's Thermal Well and Reservoir Management (WRM) team has resulted in significant cost savings, in terms of efficiency and oil production.
WRM teams are an integrated group within production assets, comprising of petroleum, process engineers, operations staff and well services. Supported by data acquisition and interpretation, the teams are responsible for operating and optimizing the field.
Historically, Petroleum Development Oman's Thermal WRM team faced some challenges such as data access and activity processing including pattern reviews, Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) planning, business planning and operational routine activities such as fluid levels. In addition, key surveillance activities suffered from delays and data interpretation inaccuracy. The above resulted in significant time inefficiencies and deferred oil production.
The continuous improvement initiatives started in 2015 with a particular focus on improving thermal WRM process. A deployment plan was created starting with identifying the need and clarifying the required steps to earn the Lean status as defined in PDO. Lean Management System (LMS) was defined followed by awareness sessions. These initiatives resulted in the identification of many opportunities for continuous improvement and Lean initiatives.
Multiple improvement areas were identified against a set of measured baseline conditions. The following projects were selected for Lean: Integration pattern reviews improvements.CSS optimization by monitoring key reservoir management indicators.Reduction well intervention cycle time in CSS.Exception based automation of reservoir surveillance tools.Visualization of CSS workflow and efficiency enhancement.Production forecast automation.Automation fluid level above pump for well optimization.
Four of the above projects were successfully completed in 2016 and 2017, with the remaining were completed in 2018. Below are highlights of implementing Lean projects in PDO: ∘Estimated 70% manpower time saving.∘Approximated 5% incremental oil gain.∘Anticipated 42% reduction in unscheduled deferment.∘Confirmed 80% waste reduction in overall forecasting, CSS workflow and steam flood monitoring process.∘Eliminated the need for manual fluid level shots, reduced HSE exposure due to travel.
Improved tracking of CSS activities reduced operational errors. A thermal economic dashboard was also introduced to rapidly identify sunk costs, minimize Unit Technical Cost and improve Cash Flow.