bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Novel Washpipe-Free ICD Completion With Dissolvable Material
Authors: Corona Georgina , Fripp Michael , Novelen Ryan 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
Completions using inflow control devices (ICDs) help provide balanced production inflow, delay water and gas breakthrough, and extend the productive life of the well. For fluid circulation, displacement, and wash down, an ICD completion typically utilizes a washpipe or inner string to provide flow to the bottom of the screens. However, the use of a washpipe increases operational time, operational risks, and costs. Through the use of dissolvable materials, a washpipe-free ICD completion has been developed for fluid circulation and wellbore displacement.
The dissolution properties of multiple dissolvable materials were experimentally measured with field fluid samples used during running in hole (RIH) and displacement. The degradation rate was characterized at downhole temperatures in terms of both mass loss and volume loss versus time. The dissolvable material was incorporated into a nozzle ICD to help prevent flow between the inner and outer annulus of the tubing. The pressure-holding performance of the ICD with the dissolvable material was measured by means of small-scale testing for pressure integrity, followed by full-scale testing, simulating particular fluid circulation and displacement sequence characteristic of both a Middle East and West Africa application.
Laboratory testing was used to determine dissolution rates of multiple materials at representative temperatures and in various fluids. Small-scale testing demonstrated that the dissolvable material provided pressure sealing integrity within the ICD. The dissolution rate of the dissolvable material within the plugged ICD behaved as predicted in the laboratory tests when subjected to circulation and displacement with the fluids representative of the field application. The washpipe-free ICD completion performance tests indicated that the dissolvable material provides a means for circulation and displacement while maintaining pressure integrity necessary for the successful deployment of the lower completion. The capability to run washpipe-free ICD completions helps reduce operational time and costs, and upon dissolution of the dissolvable plugs, delay gas and water breakthrough through the use of ICDs.
Smart Cement Performance Enhancement with NanoAl2O3 for Real Time Monitoring Applications Using Vipulanandan Models
Authors: Vipulanandan C. , Mohammed A. , Ganpatye A. S. 
Published: April 2018

AbstractNano aluminum oxide (NanoAl2O3) up to 1% was added to the smart cement with a water-to-cement ratio of 0.38 to investigate the effects on the sensing properties and compressive strength. Series of physical, curing and compressive loading experiments evaluated the smart cement behavior with and without NanoAl2O3 up to 28 days of curing. The addition of 0.5% and 1% NanoAl2O3 increased the initial sensing property (electrical resistivity) of the smart cement by 10% and 30% respectively. In a one day of curing, the maximum change in the electrical resistivity (RI24hr) for the smart cement without NanoAl2O3 was 375%. The RI24hr for the smart cement with NanoAl2O3 increased with the amount of NanoAl2O3. Addition of 1% NanoAl2O3 increased the compressive strength of the smart cement by 14% and 42% after 1 day and 28 days of curing respectively. The nonlinear Vipulanandan p-q curing model was used to predict the changes in electrical resistivity with curing time. The piezoresistivity of smart cement with the addition of NanoAl2O3 was over 500 times (50,000%) higher than the regular cement depending on the curing time and NanoAl2O3 content. Also a gage factor correlation model was used to relate the strain to the resistivity changes under compressive loading. The Vipulanandan p-q stress-strain and the piezoresistivity models also predicted the experimental results very well. A linear correlation was obtained between the RI24hr and the compressive strength of the modified smart cement based on the curing time.
Reliability Analysis of Buried Offshore Pipelines in Sand Subject to Upheaval Buckling
Authors: Ismail S. , Najjar S. S. , Sadek S. 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
In this paper, the sources of uncertainty in the design of buried offshore pipelines against upheaval buckling in cohesionless seabed soils are combined and propagated within a reliability-based framework. The objective of this effort was to assess the inherent risk for pipelines that are designed as per standard practice, which is based on semi-empirical approaches that assume vertical or inclined slip line models within the overlying soil mass. A comprehensive database that consists of 143 laboratory experiments involving uplift of pipes through sand beds was compiled to assess the model uncertainty. The statistics describing the model uncertainty could be used by researchers and practitioners when assessing the risk of upheaval buckling of pipelines in cohesionless seabed soils. Results of the model uncertainty analysis indicate that the models of Schaminee et al. (1990) and Bransby et al. (2002) result in predicted soil uplift resistances that are on average 21% and 41% smaller than the resistances measured in the laboratory tests, respectively. The two methods also exhibit large model uncertainties with respective coefficients of variation (COV) of 0.39 and 0.37 for the ratio of measured to predicted resistance. The methods by White et al. (2001) and DNV (2007) are less conservative and less uncertain, with average under-predictions on the order of 2% and 9%, respectively and COVs on the order of 0.30 and 0.32. The reliability analysis results indicate that the probabilities of failure are sensitive to the design factor of safety, with probabilities of failure decreasing from around 1% to 0.001% as the factor of safety is increased from 2 to 3. For any given factor of safety, the probability of failure was found to be sensitive to the method used to predict the uplift resistance, and insensitive to the relative density and the temperature and pressure values adopted.
Expediting Deepwater Subsea Development with a Batch Drilling and Completion Strategy: Lessons Learned Offshore Angola
Authors: Piemontese M. , Tassone G. , Sita F. J. , Bertoldi L. , Taleballah E. Y. , Zhao G. , Crawford N. 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
Batch drilling and completion improve field development efficiency in deepwater subsea environments, but well completion operations may be suspended for a long time while waiting for a subsea production system to be installed.
An Angola deepwater field development plan called for five oil producers, two water injectors, and two water-alternate-gas injectors. Using a fast-track approach, the drilling campaign started in parallel with the subsea production system manufacturing. Seven of the nine wells were drilled and completed with reservoir isolation valves (RIVs) that were expected to suspend the wellbore for several months and then remotely open the wellbore without intervention. However, the RIV remote opening mechanism was compromised due to well conditions and compatibility issue in two wells, prompting contingency operations including coiled tubing and electric-line interventions and a redesign of the upper completions for the remaining wells.
The lower completion strings were designed to be isolated with an RIV equipped with a remote opening system based on a nitrogen precharged spring chamber and tubing-applied pressure cycles. After pressure cycles not trigging the remote opening mechanism to reopen the valves in two wells, root cause analysis determined that the combination of bottomhole temperature (120°C), fluid (CaCl2 brine), and long suspension time (12 to 22 months) prematurely aged the RIV elastomers, causing the nitrogen section to loose pressure integrity. As a contingency, intervention operations were performed in the two wells with compromised nitrogen section RIVs, and engineering designs were modified to optimize the upper completion strategy for the five remaining wells. The RIVs in the first two wells were successfully opened using coiled tubing milling (first well) and electric-line mechanical shifting intervention (second well)—the first such operations in the world for the full-ball type of RIV. The paper explains the tool selection and testing processes for the intervention operations, compares the economics of the different intervention approaches, and describes how engineers optimized the new completion design on the remaining wells.
By sharing lessons learned from root cause analysis, intervention operations, and new completion design, this paper adds critical experience to a relatively limited body of work related to engineering completions and contingencies for long-term well suspension and reentry for completion.
Innovative Subsea Repair of a Leaking Flexible Joint Using Hybrid Gasket and Composite Material
Authors: Assier Ludovic , Byrd Daniel , Furmanowski Yves , Golecha Kartik , Beaumert Baptiste , Marin Olivier 
Published: April 2018

During a routine subsea inspection of the Akpo subsea assets, leaks were identified on two of the flexible joints at the top of the water injection steel catenary risers. These leaks were categorised as the highest integrity threats for the district and a task force was formed in order to determine the cause of the leaks and thereby, the most appropriate means to resolve the issue. A phased array UT inspection method has been specially developed to perform underwater inspection of the gasket groove.
The nature of the leak was deemed time-critical. The leak was of relatively high volume (the leak rate was estimated at 5 000 cubic meters per day), was worsening and was inducing structural damages to the flexible joint by cavitation.
A technical solution was studied involving underwater machining using divers. The upper joint surface of the gasket groove was part of a replaceable spool but the lower joint surface was integral to the flexible joint and therefore had to be repaired in-place. After several months of planning and testing, it was determined that the machining tool was not suitable for the operation by divers. With only a few months remaining in the 6-month target delivery, a second solution was proposed using a composite epoxy mastic repair together with a hybrid steel-elastomer gasket. The use of such a solution would be a first-of-its-kind for this application and would involve underwater grit blasting to achieve proper adhesion of the mastic. It would also involve precise bolt torquing and tensioning in very restricted work space around the flexible joint receptacle and ultrasonic acoustic bolt length measurements, in order to measure the stress in the bolts.
Technology Qualification of Deepwater Transport Shuttle Adjustable Buoyancy System
Authors: Gaskill Collin G. , Carlisle Kipp B. , Schroeder Art J. , Chitwood James E. , Gay Tom A. , Zhao Wenhua 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
Qualification of new technology for deepwater offshore oil and gas exploration and production is needed for the industry adoption process of new equipment and methodologies. Comprehensive programs can alleviate numerous risks associated with new technology through the application of appropriate industry practices such as DNVGL-RP-A203: Qualification of New Technology. Once qualified, innovative designs can provide effective sources of required sustained cost reductions for field developments creating new economic viability. The objective of this paper is to describe the systematic approach developed for the qualification of macro buoyancy spheres used in loose configuration as adjustable buoyancy in deepwater transport shuttles for subsea facilities and chemical transport.
The qualification process is designed to examine macro buoyancy sphere structural stability under representative conditions of offshore transport shuttle loading, storage, and unloading at the surface and at depth. An overview of empirical testing procedures, equipment, and the configurations through which sphere performance will be quantified against application requirements is presented. Macro buoyancy spheres have been used for decades in a number of offshore and subsea buoyancy applications such as drilling riser buoyancy modules on marine drilling risers, mid-water distributed buoyancy on production risers and umbilicals, and installation buoyancy for subsea equipment. Their performance in these applications is well understood with wide acceptance in the market. Mass manufactured from high strength, low density materials, sphere performance specifications can be tightly controlled while still being produced in a very cost-effective manner. Once qualified, under the program described in this paper, these same buoyancy spheres have an innovative re-purposed extension within deepwater transport shuttle delivery systems.
The readily adjustable and controllable nature of this innovative approach with loose buoyancy spheres, versus a fixed buoyancy system, allows a single subsea transport shuttle to be utilized for a wide variety of loads and service conditions. The buoyancy can be adjusted to match specific payload needs, reliably positioned when and where required, then re-used multiple times in a service delivery mode. This patented feature (patents published and provisional US and world-wide) will enable subsea shuttle transport barges to economically convey equipment from the sea's surface to the mudline and vice versa, especially in remote locations for smaller subsea projects where a typical heavy-lift vessel may prove to be cost prohibiting.
Recent Advances in Well Modeling: Axial Interaction Between Structural Casings and Soil Under Cyclic Thermal Loads
Authors: Zhou Hongjie , Amodio Alessandro , Rodriguez Antonio Borges , Boylan Noel , Deeks Andrew 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
During operation, the structural casings of a well experience two types of cyclic loads due to the heating-up and cooling-down of the well, which are: i) cyclic thermal induced forces on the structural casings themselves; and ii) cyclic thermal forces at the top of the structural casings generated due to the expansion and contraction of the inner casings and tubing (against the restraint from the structural casings). Combined with the nonlinear, hysteretic and degradable behavior of the surrounding soil, the interaction between the structural casings and surrounding soil have a significant effect on the overall performance of a well.
This paper presents recent advances in the numerical modeling techniques of the well system, focusing on the axial interaction between the structural casings and surrounding soil under cyclic thermal loading. The complex structural casing – soil interaction under cyclic loading has been successfully modelled by using advanced cyclic t-z springs. The springs are integrated into a structural model representing the multi-string well system and the associated cement. In the model, the soil specific behavior of the t-z spring is accounted for by calibrating the t-z model against laboratory model tests on the particular soils encountered along the structural casings. The developed modeling approach can capture the variation (e.g. degradation) of the casing-soil interface strength under cyclic loading; thus allowing accurate prediction of well head movement, post-cyclic axial capacity of the structural casings, and oscillation and distribution of axial force along the structural casings during cyclic thermal loading. The predicted wellhead movement with thermal cycles is found to be consistent to the field observation. The insights gained from the modeling exercise enhance our understanding of the casing-soil interaction mechanism and could greatly benefit optimization of well design. The developed modeling technique is also equally applicable to conventional and energy pile designs in degradable material, and capable of accounting for the coupling effect between the axial and torsional loads.
Industry Limits Pushed on Cabiunas Gas Export Pipeline Project
Authors: d'Huart Pierre-Emmanuel 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
The Pre-Salt basin offshore Brazil provides lot of challenges in installation of pipelines and risers. As it is an area with very deep waters (&gt;2000m) and relatively harsh wave conditions (Bi-directional waves, of annual average Hs 2m) Petrobras contracted SAIPEM FDS2 to overcome these challenges. This resulted in two records: the vertical pipe laying tension world record, and the installation of the largest, deepest and heaviest Free Standing Hybrid Riser (FSHR).
The first of the two records - on which this paper will focus - was set in December 2014 on the Rota Cabiúnas contract awarded by Petrobras to SAIPEM. For this project, the FDS2 laid the deepest section of a 24" pipeline in the Santos basin, which had a wall thickness ranging from 1.25" to 1.438" at water depths from 1700m to 2240m. A specific ultra-high-tension J-lay configuration, planned, engineered and implemented for the purpose of maximizing vessel operability in harsh environmental conditions, was made possible by the FDS2's high lay tension capabilities which allowed the planning of laying operations even in flooded configuration. The maximum tension recorded on the project of 760mT, which to date represents a vertical pipe laying tension world record, The FDS2's J-Lay Tower was also used to lay five In-Line-Items and the Pipe end assembly safely and efficiently.
Tactical Airborne Oil Spill Remote Sensing: Poseidon, A New Operational Approach
Authors: Vagata Alessandro , Pinho Guilherme , Hengstermann Theo 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
The extensive oil and gas infrastructure system and port systems in the Gulf of Mexico are crucial not only to the Texas economy but also the United States’ economy, with both environmental and national security impacts. The coastal gulf states are particularly exposed to pollution from either accidental or illegal discharge.
Both recent natural events and accidents have highlighted the urgency of ensuring the best available technology is available to mitigate the risk from hydrocarbon pollution.
Within this context airborne remote sensing is becoming a foundation of the overall strategy to improve the ability to plan and position response resources in the optimal areas to respond to spills. Having the right information at the right time optimizes dramatically the use of all the response resources. And assess the effectiveness of the response and make an accurate natural resources damage assessment is critical and requires as well quantitative and timely information.
In the past the main effort has been directed towards developing airborne sensors with enhanced spill monitoring capability. Recently, more and more attention has been paid to the operational approach and to the automated processing of oil spill data acquired by integrated airborne sensor platforms.
The most relevant features for an effective airborne remote sensing platforms are: multi-sensors system for complementarity and redundancy of information; capability to classify oil targets as Recoverable or Non-recoverable; capability to georeference the targets and track moving oil; real time relay of immediately usable information - for tactical and strategic use; data suitable to support the Common Operating Picture; ability to expand the operating window to low-light conditions.
This paper focuses on advanced data processing and presents ways of improving the usability of airborne multi-sensor oil spill monitoring systems. In this context, is given an overview of currently existing oil spill remote sensing technology like infrared/ultraviolet line scanners, microwave radiometers, laser fluorosensors and radar system. The paper presents Poseidon, a new airborne system for network-based real-time data acquisition, analysis and fusion of multi-sensor data. Also, a method for the distribution of oil spill data and related data products using web-based geographical information systems is described; automated generation of thematic maps of the oil spill scene along with their real-time web-based distribution is becoming more important in marine incident management.
New LWD Technology Provides High-Resolution Images in Oil- and Water-Based Muds for Improved Decision Making in Real Time
Authors: Gillen M. E. , Moody B. , Dymmock S. 
Published: April 2018

Abstract
A recently developed logging-while-drilling (LWD) ultrasonic imaging tool has been field tested and shown to provide high-resolution images that give an early indication of problems during drilling operations. These images are compared to other LWD imaging techniques in oil-based muds to demonstrate the advantages of the new technology.
The new tool employs a system of three equally spaced ultrasonic transducers along the circumference of the tool at the same level. This arrangement provides the high data density needed for the images and enables precise location of the tool in the borehole for accurate borehole corrections to the data, thereby enhancing the overall image quality. The images are used with other real-time LWD and measurement-while-drilling (MWD) measurements such as equivalent circulating density (ECD), and formation pressure tests (FPT), to monitor wellbore stability and other issues that can lead to non-productive time (NPT) during drilling operations.
The new tool has been field tested in a number of wells in different parts of the world. These tests demonstrated the capabilities of the images to identify wellbore stability issues such as breakouts and cavings. The images can also be used to identify geologic features such as fractures and faults that can impact the drilling operation as well as the eventual production of the well. Examples will also be shown that combine the interpretation of the images along with other MWD and LWD measurements to provide a superior technique for wellbore stability management in real time.
The new LWD tool provides high-resolution borehole images in oil-based and water-based mud systems. Previously, high-resolution images from an LWD tool were only available in water-based mud systems using electrical imaging tools. This new technology provides a much clearer image of the borehole that has been available in the past. The techniques developed for using this information in real time reduce the frequency and magnitude of borehole-related NPT events.