bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Guest Editorial: The Looming Market for Abandonment and Decommissioning
Authors: Jardon Michael 
Published: March 2017

Guest editorial
The market for abandonment and decommissioning has undoubtedly grown over the past 5 years, as the boom of the 1970s and 1980s makes way for the first tranche of major decommissioning projects. From the smaller plug-and-abandonment campaigns in the Gulf of Mexico to the mighty Brent field in the UK North Sea, we have reached a milestone in our industry that feels alien to many of us.
Having spent the majority of my 25-year career focused on exploration and appraisal, this has not been lost on me. A large proportion of those years were committed to the complex challenges associated with high-production land wells in the Middle East, offshore, deep water, as well as subsea projects in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Asia, and Australia. However, as we continue to optimize recovery from mature fields, it has opened my eyes to the prospect of decommissioning from a challenge that was “on the horizon” to one that is quite literally on our doorstep.
Government legislation has played a large part in this refocus, as recent changes drive specific technical and time requirements. For example, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) says that, under its Idle Iron Program, wells or platforms no longer in use must be decom-missioned within 5 years. As of 2015, this amounted to 535 eligible platforms and rising. While Europe’s legislation is different, Oil and Gas UK’s recent Decommissioning Insight 2016 report estimated that over the next decade, 186 projects are forecast for decommissioning, including 1,800 wells. To deliver this in a safe and economic way, we need to accept and embrace decommissioning as a serious industry challenge.
Many people still perceive or talk about decommissioning in a negative way, as if it marks the immediate death of our industry. Setting aside the fact we are still making new discoveries, it has taken us many decades to explore for oil and will take many more to abandon our wells and decommission infrastructure. A study from the late 1990s estimated the cost of decommissioning the world’s 6,500 offshore platforms at between USD 29–40 billion over 30 years (Pittard 1997). However, this now seems a huge underestimation, given that the UK alone is forecasting a cost of nearly GBP 18 billion/USD 22 billion over 10 years (Oil and Gas UK 2016). Either way, the figures are extremely compelling.
Technology Update: Retrofitting MPD Systems to Deepwater Rigs Aids Drilling, Efficiency, and Process Safety
Authors: Toralde Julmar Shaun Sadicon 
Published: March 2017

Technology Update
The unique properties of deepwater formations pose significant challenges to the capabilities of conventional drilling rigs. By retrofitting rigs with automated drilling systems, including managed-pressure drilling (MPD) equipment, operators and contractors in global deepwater basins can optimize efficiency and economics while maintaining the level of safety that the industry and regulatory community have mandated for this high-stakes arena.
MPD, an adaptive drilling process that actively controls annular pressure throughout the wellbore, is increasingly being integrated into the risers of existing deepwater drilling vessels (Fig. 1). It is the cornerstone of an automated well-control strategy that augments and enhances standard well-control protocols.
The technique provides distinct drillability, efficiency, and process safety benefits in deepwater environments. It addresses the higher level of priority that the industry has placed on process safety, which largely involves the ability to accurately and actively monitor and control operations while drilling.
Long used in land and shallow-water drilling, MPD-ready rigs are proving their value in deepwater operations by delivering a reliable level of automation and process control when the risk of a well-control incident is highest. Fluctuations in wellbore pressure often create drilling hazards that result in lost circulation, kicks, and other problems that can significantly increase rig time and cost, or lead to catastrophic well-control incidents.
An automated MPD system installed onto a deepwater semisubmersible rig or drillship can effectively monitor and maintain the annular hydraulic pressure profile by applying common MPD variants, such as constant bottomhole pressure (CBHP) and pressurized mud cap drilling (PMCD).
The ability to continuously monitor various wellbore parameters—particularly those related to downhole pressure—while drilling and making connections also enhances personnel preparedness by serving as an extra set of eyes to supplement those of less-experienced drillers.
While expanding the drilling envelope and monitoring wellbore pressure profiles, an MPD system that provides automated advanced flow detection, including early kick detection, also reduces the risks of human intervention by mitigating the possibility of gas in the riser.
How To Develop a Well-Specific Capping-Stack Blowout Contingency Plan
Authors: Wilson Adam 
Published: March 2017

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper SPE 181393, “How To Develop a Well-Specific Blowout Contingency Plan That Covers Engineering Analysis of the Deployment, Installation, and Soft Shut-In of a Subsea Capping Operation,” by Ray T. Oskarsen, SPE, Morten H. Emilsen, SPE, and Amir S. Paknejad, Add Energy; Mike Cargol, Trendsetter Engineering; and Kwee Choong See, SPE, Shell International Exploration and Production, prepared for the 2016 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Dubai, 26–28 September. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
The planning process for developing a well-specific subsea-capping contingency plan involves assessing the feasibility of deploying a capping stack from a floating vessel, determining the weight and stability of the capping stack to overcome the force of the blowout jet, and performing dynamic-flow simulations of closing the capping stack outlets without loss of well integrity. This process not only assesses the feasibility, complexity, and risk exposure of the capping operation but also may justify further planning, studies, or expenditure.
Introduction
Blowout-kill techniques can be classified as either surface-intervention or relief-well methods. Relief wells aim to kill a blowout from the bottom by injecting fluid into the wellbore until the influx of formation fluid is stopped and the well is static when pumping stops. In many cases, a relief well will be the safest intervention and have the highest likelihood of success, and often it is considered the last line of defense against a blowout. Surface interventions are kill attempts aimed at controlling the discharge at the wellhead or at the fluid-exit point. An example is to install a capping stack on top of the wellhead and close its openings, which can be gate valves, chokes, or rams.
Blowout Contingency Planning. Blow-out contingency plans ensure that people understand and can manage risks, thus ensuring safe and sustainable operations at all times.
All blowouts are inherently different; thus, it would be both impractical and impossible to attempt to cover every possible blowout scenario in a contingency plan. For source-control planning, an operator should, at a minimum, address a worst credible scenario to demonstrate how the well will be brought under control. This scenario may be different from the worst-case discharge, which is used to estimate spill potential and necessary resources for containment and cleanup. As an example, if there is uncertainty about the gas/oil ratio (GOR), a low-case GOR may cause more oil spill, while a high-case GOR may make source control more challenging.
Technology Focus: Offshore Facilities (February 2017)
Authors: Elkins Mark 
Published: March 2017

Technology Focus
Welcome to the Offshore Facilities feature in this month’s JPT. I had the plea-sure of screening 207 papers submitted to SPE in this field during the past year to come up with the three papers selected for this issue that cover elements of offshore facilities design and inspection.
The first paper describes a design case study for split-process floating liquefied natural gas, in which the primary production and gas-treatment functions are provided on a host platform while liquefaction occurs on separate vessels that serve also for storage and trans-port. Splitting the services results in advantages that include facilitating standardization of the liquefaction design and eliminating the need for liquefied-natural-gas-offloading systems designed for open-water conditions.
The next paper describes a risk-based approach for application of passive fire protection (PFP) on an offshore structure. Principles of this unified risk-based approach for accidental loadings and its application to fire-response analysis and PFP are explained, and the method is compared against the conventional approach.
The third paper covers work performed by the Hull Inspection Techniques and Strategy joint-industry project to develop new floating production, storage, and offloading vessel hull-inspection methods that minimize or eliminate diving. This has been achieved by conducting many of the inspections from inside the hull, using advanced methods to inspect critical isolation valves and marine piping, and inspecting the hull appendages with miniature remotely operated vehicles. The alternative method delivers improved inspection data as well as significant reductions in cost and people on board and minimal weather/sea-state downtime.
I hope you enjoy reading these papers.
Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
IPTC 18373 Adapting the Caspian Factor for the Installation of Petronas’ First Gravity-Based Structure by Khairil Raezwan Rashdi, Petronas, et al.
OTC 26481 Development of a Novel Hybrid AUV System for Pipeline Inspection in Gulf of Thailand by Phakhachon Hoonsuwan, PTTEP, et al.
OTC 27068 Fuel Efficiency on Floating Production Systems by Jos Bronneberg, SBM Offshore USA
Passive-Fire-Protection Optimization in Offshore Topside Structures
Authors: Wilson Adam 
Published: March 2017

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper OTC 26579, “Passive-Fire-Protection Optimization in Offshore Topside Structures,” by Ali Sari, Genesis Oil and Gas; Ekkirala Ramana, Technip Malaysia; and Sepehr Dara and Umid Azimov, Genesis Oil and Gas, prepared for the 2016 Offshore Technology Conference Asia, Kuala Lumpur, 22–25 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Copyright 2016 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission.
Applying sufficient passive fire protection (PFP) on topside structural-steel members is critical. Simplified and conservative approaches are available to estimate the extent and amount of PFP necessary. The main concern with simplified approaches is that they can lead to overapplication of the PFP, resulting in substantial increase in topside weight. These methods also may result in underestimation of the required amount of PFP, which can compromise structural integrity. This paper presents a risk-based approach for PFP-scheme development.
Introduction
The structural-integrity assessment and fire-response analysis of offshore plat-forms in fire focus on providing safe escape routes for personnel for a specified period of time and minimizing the probability of damage and fracture in primary structural steel, hydrocarbon-equipment supports, secondary steel along the primary escape routes, and pressurized hydrocarbon pipes and vessels.
In order to achieve this, PFP is used extensively in offshore topside structures. A PFP material is a good thermal insulator, and application of PFP on steel components of the topside structure results in a delay of the heat transfer to the protected members. Therefore, material degradation and thermal expansion are postponed in protected members. Consequently, structural integrity of the escape routes and safety of hydrocarbon pipes and vessels can be retained for a specified period of time, depending on the rating of the PFP material (properties and thickness). On the other hand, if PFP is used excessively, a considerable amount of cost will be imposed related to PFP material, installation, inspection, and maintenance and a considerable amount of dead load will be added to the structure. Therefore, investigations on the optimal application (e.g., choosing the right places—members, joints, vessels, and pipes—along with the right material in the appropriate thickness) in offshore platforms can result in cost-effective use of PFP while still achieving the purpose of the PFP application.
Existing PFP-Optimization Approaches
Global Fire (Individual-Member Failure). The global fire analysis method for identifying PFP application on a top-side structure requires analysis of the whole structure when entirely exposed to the most severe fire loading. The PFP scheme is then developed on the basis of the structure’s response. This method is very conservative and results in an excessive amount of required PFP to resist the fire loading.
Integrated Approach To Managing Formation Damage in Waterflooding
Authors: Carpenter Chris 
Published: March 2017

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 174174, “Integrated Approach To Managing Formation Damage in Waterflooding,” by Sergey Aristov, Paul van den Hoek, and Eddie Pun, Shell, prepared for the 2015 SPE European Formation Damage Conference, Budapest, Hungary, 3–5 June. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
Understanding of formation damage is a key theme in a waterflood project. An integrated multidisciplinary approach is required to determine an optimal design and strategy. An operator has developed a suite of tools to tackle these issues and help in adequate design and optimization of waterfloods.
Introduction
Many waterfloods in the operating phase do not perform as expected. Often this is because of well-injectivity issues where the required water quality for the injected water is either not properly defined (i.e., by the subsurface disciplines) or not properly managed (i.e., at the surface facilities). A rapid decline in well injectivity can result when injecting under matrix conditions, and a loss in reservoir containment caused by out-of-zone injection (OOZI) or a short-circuiting injector and producer can occur when injecting under fractured conditions, all negatively affecting reservoir sweep.
Subsurface and Subsurface-Modeling Work Flows
To determine an optimal waterflooding concept, it is important for the integrated work flow that the outcome of the sub-surface assessment be a range of technically feasible scenarios. These scenarios should incorporate the ranges in subsurface uncertainties combined with sub-surface concept options. The objective for the subsurface work flow is to define for each of these scenarios the production profile for the field, injection volume, quality of injected water, number of injection wells, subsurface targets, risk, and mitigations.
The subsurface work flow is illustrated in Fig. 1 of the compete paper. The following main steps are identified:
Identification of potential water sources. All available water sources need to be identified, and a screening should be performed by assessing the compatibility of the injected water with the clays in the reservoir (i.e., risk of clay swelling).
Injection targets for field development. On the basis of the expected reservoir performance for waterflooding in a field development, the targets for the total water-injection volume for the (full) field should be defined.
Cover Crop Options and Mixes for Upper Midwest Corn–Soybean Systems
Authors: Appelgate Seth R. , Lenssen Andrew W. , Wiedenhoeft Mary H. , Kaspar Thomas C. 
Published: March 2017

Core Ideas
Cover crop mixtures did not provide benefits beyond cover crop monocultures.
Cover crops did not influence soil temperature, soil P or K concentrations, or corn yield.
Cover crops did not influence weed density or weed community in subsequent corn.
The use of cover crops can decrease soil erosion, weed density, and nitrate leaching while improving soil quality. We investigated nine cover crops, winter rye (Secale cereale L.), winter triticale (× Triticosecale Wittm. ex A. Camus), two winter canola (Brassica napus L.), winter camelina [Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz], spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), spring oat (Avena sativa L.), turnip (B. rapa L.), and hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth), as sole crops and selected binary and trinary mixtures and their influences on subsequent corn (Zea mays L.) productivity. A control treatment of no cover crop was included. Cover crops were no‐till drilled immediately after soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr] harvest. The study was a randomized complete block conducted in five environments over 2013–2014 and 2014–2015. Across environments, rye and rye mixtures produced the greatest spring aboveground biomass (758 kg ha−1), C, and N accumulation, had some of the lowest spring soil nitrate concentrations, and generally produced the lowest corn leaf chlorophyll. Rye accounted for more than 79% of spring aboveground biomass accumulation in rye mixtures. Triticale and camelina monoculture produced approximately 50% less biomass than rye or mixtures with rye. Cover crops in monoculture and mixtures did not influence surface soil temperature, soil P or K concentrations, weed density, weed community, or corn yield. Cover crops had limited influence on volumetric soil water content. Cover crop mixtures had no advantages over monocultures except for increasing fall stand density. Turnip and vetch had limited winter survival while barley, oat, and canola winterkilled.
Impacts of Cattle Grazing of Corn Residues on Soil Properties after 16 Years
Authors: Rakkar Manbir K. , Blanco-Canqui Humberto , Drijber Rhae A. , Drewnoski Mary E. , MacDonald James C. , Klopfenstein Terry 
Published: March 2017

Core Ideas:
Spring cattle grazing of corn residues slightly increased the risk of soil compaction.
Fall cattle grazing of corn residues had no negative effect on soil properties.
Increased soil compaction caused by grazing was small and did not reduce crop yield.
Corn (Zea mays L.) residue grazing can be an important component of crop–livestock systems, but its long‐term impacts on soil properties are not well understood. Some producers are concerned that residue grazing can induce soil compaction and reduce crop yields. We assessed the 16‐yr cumulative effect of cattle grazing of corn residues on soil compaction, structural quality, soil C, fertility, and microbial communities and studied their correlations with corn and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] yield in a sprinkler‐irrigated no‐till corn–soybean system on a Tomek silt loam in eastern Nebraska. Three treatments were studied: (i) fall grazing [4.4–6.2 animal unit‐months (AUM) ha–1], (ii) spring grazing (9.3–13.0 AUM ha–1), and (iii) control (no grazing). Cattle grazing did not affect bulk density, wet soil aggregate stability, particulate organic matter, soil organic C, and nutrients except Ca and S. Spring grazing increased the cone index (soil compaction parameter) by 1.3 to 3.4 times relative to the control, but fall grazing had no effect. The increase in soil compaction caused by spring grazing was below the threshold limit (≤2 MPa) and did not reduce corn and soybean yields. Although grazing had a positive effect on the biomass of most microbial groups, the results were not significant, except for actinomycetes, which increased with residue grazing (p = 0.06). Overall, long‐term corn residue grazing had little or no effect on soil properties and the small changes did not affect crop yields.
HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING OF BORON DISTRIBUTION ON DIAMOND FILM USING ENERGY FILTERED TEM
Authors: Dimyati A. , Purwanto S. , Iskandar R. 
Published: March 2017

<p class="TRANSAffiliation"><span>The main difficulty in investigation of thin film systems is the lack of capability to get detail information of the material in nano level due to the low resolution of conventional imaging techniques such as SEM, SIMS etc. In this work Electron Spectroscopy Imaging (ESI) in energy filtered transmission electron microscope (EFTEM) was used to produce a real image of boron distribution in a diamond film deposited on (111) Si by chemical vapor deposition. The result revealed the layer consists of 1.3 µm thick diamond structured carbon film adjacent to Si substrate and 120 nm amorph carbon layer on top most surface. Boron atoms were distributed uniformly in both layer, however slight higher concentration in the second layer is observed. There was obviously no grain boundary enrichment of Boron atoms observed.</span></p>
Prevalence, intensity and abundance of endoparasites in Oreochromis niloticus and Tilapia zilli (Pisces: Cichlidae) from Asa Dam, Ilorin, Nigeria
Authors: Amaechi C. Ebube 
Published: March 2017

Disease is an important factor in fisheries, affecting both wild and cultured species. Using standard parasitological techniques we determined the prevalence, mean intensity and abundance of endoparasites from 250 specimens of two cichlids, Oreochromis niloticus and Tilapia zilli from Asa dam, Ilorin, North Central Nigeria between February and August, 2013. We found two digenetic trematode parasites:Euclinostomium heterostomum and Clinostomum tilapiae. The highest prevalence was recorded in O. niloticus (35,9%) infested by C.tilapiae, while the highest mean intensity was recorded in T. zilli. There was no relationship (p >0,05) between parasite burden and fish size(length and weight). Male fish were more heavily infected than females.The overall health status of both fish species remained unaffected. Thehigh rate of pollution noticed in the study area might be favoring parasite load. Therefore, pollution control and regular surveillance of the water body are advocated.
A new species of Hemibrycon (Characiformes: Characidae), a freshwater fish from the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, Caribbean drainage, Colombia
Authors: García-Alzate Carlos A. , Román Valencia César , Taphorn Donald C. 
Published: March 2017

Hemibrycon is a group of freshwater characid fish species first recognized by Günther (1864) as a subgenus of Tetragonopterus, and now included in the subfamily Stevardiinae. There are 21 speciesrecorded from the rivers of Colombia, but only one species, H.santamartae, has been reported previously in drainages of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Hemibrycon sierraensis n. sp. is described fromthe Río Gaira, Caribbean coastal drainage. It is distinguished from all congeners by having in life a bright red adipose fin (vs. hyaline or transparent)that turns dark brown in specimens preserved in alcohol. It differs from Hemibrycon beni, H. boquiae, H. brevispini, H. colombianus, H. mikrostiktos, H. metae, H. microformaa, H. palomae and H. rafaelense in having a vertically elongate humeral spot that extends 3-4 longitudinal scale series below the lateral line. It differs from H. divisorensis, H. pautensis and H. santamartae by having the last dorsal-fin ray unbranched; and from H. pautensis by the number of scale series between the lateralline and the pelvic-fin insertions. It differs from H. divisorensis in the number of unbranched anal-fin rays, and the number of teeth on the dentary and maxilla. It differs from H. santamartae in the number of supraneurals, caudal peduncle depth, head length and orbital diameter.
List of harmful birds in Costa Rica : the other side of the coin
Authors: Acosta- Chaves Víctor , Monge Otto 
Published: March 2017

We consider that some bird species categorized as “harmful” by Monge in his “Updated list of harmful birds of Costa Rica (2012)” should not be in the list. Birds should not be considered “harmful”, “pest” or “potential pest” in Costa Rica just because they were so inother latitudes. We argue that the list should be reevaluated to avoid an unnecessarily negative perception of birds.