bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Artificial Lift Methods for a Heavy Oil Field in Kuwait
Authors: Worth D. , Al-Safran E. , Choudhuri A. , Al-Jasmi A. 
Published: December 2014

Abstract
This paper describes a systematic assessment artificial lift methods for a heavy oil development in Kuwait. The main recovery strategies that were being considered for the development consisted of different sequencing of primary production, cyclic steam stimulation and steam flooding, with both vertical and horizontal wells.
In 2007, Kuwait Oil Company drilled five vertical wells in their heavy oil fields, as a precursor to the full field development planned in the coming years. These five wells represented the first major activity in the formation since the 1980s when two cyclic steam stimulation pilot tests were conducted. The characteristics of the development and of the associated planned recovery strategies presented several AL challenges that needed to be assessed.
This work consisted of an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of various AL systems and a ranking of these systems according to well geometry, oil viscosity, targeted flow rate and the recovery method. The assessment and ranking were mainly based on vendor quoted capabilities, focused wellbore modelling and lessons learned from other heavy oil field cases around the world. While significant experience with rod pumps in cyclic steam stimulation exists in Canada, the lessons learned from that experience needed to be evaluated due to the differences with the Kuwait heavy oil development, such as the requirement to "easily" transition from primary to thermal production and the possible use of metallic stator progressing cavity pumps.
This paper provides guidance to other developments around the world in regards to heavy oil AL selection and to how best to apply lessons learned from existing heavy oil developments.
Flush by Unit: A Game Changer Well Service Technology for Kuwait Heavy Oil
Authors: Pandey Dharmesh , Al-Khamees Waleed , Dashti Hussain , Kumar Rakesh 
Published: December 2014

Abstract
South Ratqa (SR) Heavy Oil is a strategic field development project for KOC which is aiming to deliver in the first phase, a production capacity of 60 MBOPD. In order to meet this strategic target a large number of wells will produce on artificial lift and hence will require frequent interventions as the wells will be on multiple cyclic steam stimulation followed by steamflood. Reducing the operating cost per barrel will be a big challenge.
The application of Flush by Unit for servicing the shallow wells of South Ratqa in an ongoing pilot has proved to have significant impact in reduction of intervention costs, downtime and deferred production. The Flush by Unit is an innovative, highly mobile and efficient service technology for servicing wells producing with artificial lift.
The unit consists of a fluid tank, a triplex pump, a small derrick and hoist assembly, with tools and safety equipment's including rod tongs and sucker rod blow out preventer, all mounted on one truck. Servicing capabilities expand if the unit is deployed in collaboration with other service units or supporting equipment's for carrying out coiled tubing unit (CTU) or well surveillance activities. It also enhances safety, is user friendly, well-engineered, requires fewer operating people and has shorter work process with less nonproductive time compared to alternatives, such as conventional work over rig, for the same applications like pump replacement, upsizing/downsizing pump, preparation of wells for steam injection, well killing and back flushing operations, etc.
This paper presents the experience and results of utilization of Flush by Unit in the ongoing pilot wells which have proved this is a game changer technology for shallow heavy oil wells in Lower Fars reservoir by improving well intervention costs and cycle times when compared to conventional work over rigs.
Foam Stability of Solvent/Surfactant/Heavy-Oil System Under Reservior Conditions
Authors: Wang Chao , Li Huazhou 
Published: December 2014

Abstract
Solvent-based method is an important method for recovering heavy oil. In the case of solvent flooding, its sweeping efficiency might be adversely affected by the sharp difference in mobility between solvent and heavy oil. It is of great importance to develop new techniques for decreasing the mobility of solvent phase. Solvent-alternating-surfactant injection, where foam creation can be expected, might be a feasible approach for achieving such purpose by increasing the apparent viscosity of solvent phase. The foam stability plays an important role in this process. In this study, the foam stability of C3H8/surfactant/heavy-oil system under reservoir condition has been examined experimentally by using the pressure/volume/temperature (PVT) system. The following factors are considered in the experiments: surfactant concentration, salinity, temperature, and the presence of pure C16H34 as pseudo-heavy oil. During the experiments, foam is generated by sparging C3H8 at a constant flow rate through the surfactant Triton X-100 solution and then stirring the mixture with a magnetic stirrer. The foam stability is subsequently evaluated in terms of its height change as a function of time. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of surfactant Triton X-100 is confirmed firstly by conducting three runs of experiments at three different surfactant concentrations. Then the foam stability tests are performed by using such validated CMC at different salt concentrations and different temperatures. It is found that the increasing surfactant concentration contributes to an increase in foam stability, while foam stability is insensitive to surfactant concentration when the surfactant concentration is above the threshold CMC. An elevated temperature is detrimental to foam stability. At a higher temperature, the effective surfactant CMC also increases. Foam stability is negatively affected by increasing salinity; but such negative effect is found to be in small scale. As the C16H34 is added to the solution, significant decrease of foam stability occurs.
Organic Alkali for Heavy Oil Chemical EOR Improves the Performance Over Inorganic Alkali
Authors: Xie D. , Hou J. , Doda A. , Trivedi J. J. 
Published: December 2014

Abstract
Alkali is an important component for alkali/surfactant/polymer technology for enhanced oil recovery. The mechanism and advantages of traditional inorganic alkali for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) was reviewed in this paper. But the weakness of inorganic alkali, such as scaling, corrosion and high cost of water treatment, are significant too. This paper comparesthe use of a type of organic alkali ethanolamine for EOR with inorganic alkali (NaOH) for alkali-polymer (AP) and alkali-surfactant-polymer flooding. The solution of 0.1 wt% polymer (FLOPAAM 3130S) was mixed with different concentrations of ethanolamine and NaOH respectively. The rheological and dynamic properties of the combination of alkali and polymer were analyzed. The results show that the polymer solution with ethanolamine has better shear viscosity and elasticproperties at room temperature. Surfactant (Alfaterra 123-8S-90) with concentration of 0.15 wt% was added into each alkali-polymer solution. No significant change was observed in rheological properties of alkali-polymer solutions with and without surfactant. Emulsification test shows that ethanolamine has better performance with oil. Injectivity tests were also conducted. The results indicated that RRF for ethanolamine-polymer solution is always higher at each flow rate tested in comparison to NaOH AP solution which is beneficial for oil recovery. Core flooding experiments were tested in homogeneous sand pack and the performance of ethanolamine-polymer and NaOH-polymer was compared. The pressure comparison during flooding shows that it has higher injection pressure in ethanolamine conditions which result in good sweep efficiency. The ethanolamine-polymer flooding showed a significant increase in oil recovery (15.33%) over NaOH-polymer flooding. After addition of surfactant, the total recovery improves by 14.8% for ethanolamine-polymer-surfactant flooding over its inorganic counterpart. The results of core flooding indicate that ethanolamine has better performance in EOR for AP flooding and ASP flooding. Ethanolamine can become a potential alkali and can replace NaOH for EOR.
Successful Drilling and Completion of Shallow-Depth Horizontal Well in Unconsolidated Formation
Authors: Ahmed Khalid , Abbas Faisal , Choudhary Pradeep , Al-Naqi Ahmad , Ahmad Abuzar Tanweer , Al-Khamees Waleed 
Published: December 2014

Abstract
Kuwait has an unconsolidated formation with viscous oil at shallow-depth. Drilling and completion of horizontal well at such shallow depth is quite challenging. Industry practice is to use Slant Rig for shallow wells. Drilling experts preferred solution that would not entail Slant Rig for any future interventions and instead suggested using conventional vertical rig to establish feasibility of drilling and completion as a pilot.
Lots of pre-drilling studies were carried out which involved Geomechanics Study to understand Stress orientation, pore pressure and sanding risk; Laboratory test of return permeability on core plugs for drilling fluid design and pore-bridging material selection; XRD & SEM analysis for clay mineral identification; Torque and Drag Analysis for predicted performance during drilling and completion and Particle Size Analysis for sand control design with slotted liner.
Pre-job coordination meetings, Daily briefings, usage of Rotary Steerable System, Geo-Steering and Mid-course correction of trajectory based on Real Time Data Monitoring resulted in well placement in sweet spot. Well by well, rig days got reduced, lateral lengths increased, tangent sections for pump placement optimised and practically no held up occurred during drilling, casing/liner lowering or completion. This was a World record of drilling horizontal well using vertical rig at such shallow depth.
The well completion as verified from Silicon Activation log suggests optimal placement of the slotted liner. This is further vindicated from zero sand and water production, another great achievement for the pilot project. Till date 7 such shallow wells have been drilled with 6 on continuous production for over 2 years in different parts of the field. Successful drilling and completion of these shallow-depth horizontal wells by conventional vertical rig in an efficient and cost-effective manner has confirmed all the pre-drilling assumptions and technological tests for the pilot phase, reaching world record breaking achievement.
Sand body Architecture Predictive Model using Sequence Stratigraphy for Proper Thermal Recovery of Unconventional Resources in Kuwait
Authors: Llerena Javier , Ferdous Hasan , Choudhary Pradeep , Saikia Pabitra , Bora Deepender , Ali Lahmar Hakima 
Published: December 2014

Abstract
Shallow poorly-consolidated viscous oil bearing sandstones in Kuwait were deposited in a complex fluvio-deltaic environment that was episodically influenced by estuarine-transitional-marine settings. Ongoing reservoir characterization is uncovering high matrix contents along with various cement phases, predominantly calcite, dolomite, and clay minerals that control the pore-networks with inter-granular primary porosity and generation of secondary pores, thus impacting the overall lithofacies and fluid flow-path used to design the development strategy.
A high-resolution Sequence Stratigraphy model revealed the dominant lowstand and highstand-transgressive depositional regimes for reservoir development. In the model sand bodies commonly represent multi-stacked fluvial to distributary channel-fills and associated facies resulting with variable degree of fluid saturations.
Using Sequence Stratigraphy first time, for an unconventional oil reservoir in Kuwait, this model is aimed to: 1) improve the understanding of depositional facies, evolution and distribution of reservoir sand trends within a chronostratigraphic framework, and 2) address the predictability of lateral and vertical complexity and distribution of the reservoir/non-reservoir Lithofacies.
A Gamma Ray/Density model was built in Petrel® software module, allowing creating a log-based property model and applied it to a set of logs, defining 11 lithofacies which have been calibrated with sedimentary core descriptions and divided in three categories; pay reservoir, non-pay reservoir (cemented baffles) and non-permeable facies. Discontinuous shale/siltstone/cemented baffles would act as thief zones and may cause cross-formational flow and conductive heat loss; this must be taken into consideration for thermal recovery strategy.
The developed Sequence Stratigraphy model has established a pattern of Systems Tracts that would address to define the lateral and vertical complexity and distribution of the reservoir lithofacies, and the model would provide a greater ability to identify and predict individual pay and non-pay zones with inherent rock lithologies and heterogeneity to result in a predictive sand-architecture framework for proper thermal development.
Assessment of Oil Reservoirs Suitable for CO2 Flooding in Mature Oil Reservoirs, Changqing Oilfield, China
Authors: Zhao Dongfeng , Liao Xinwei , Yin Dandan , Li Zhen , Gai Jian , Wang Huan 
Published: December 2014

Abstract
Most oil reservoirs in Changqing Oilfield area are low permeability. After several ten years of production, the effect of water flooding becomes worse and worse as the reservoir enters middle development stages. CO2 flooding is an important method for oil fields in the future to enhance recovery factor. In this paper, based on the data of 253 mature oil reservoirs, a set of potential evaluation method for CO2 flooding were builded to assess the potential of CO2 EOR in Changqing Oilfield.
A numerical model was established to study the effect of the related factors to CO2 miscible flooding and immiscible flooding. These factors are reservoir properties (thickness, Angle, temperature, pressure, depth), rock physical property (porosity, permeability, saturation, permeability differential, fracture development degree and permeability) and fluid properties (viscosity, density). Technical and economic benefits is assessed, to determine screening criteria and index for CO2 miscible flooding, their relative importance, and the index weights. Using comprehensive fuzzy evaluation method, this paper sets up a comprehensive evaluation method of CO2 miscible flooding and immiscible flooding, Which suit for the different blocks of Changqing Oilfield. Comprehensive evaluation value of reservoir was calculated, according to the evaluation method.
With evaluation value of 0.53 as a boundary, CO2 flooding potential assessment of Changqing Oilfield has been done. Among 253 reserviors, 213 reservoirs are suitable for CO2 flooding EOR, which accouts for 84% of the total number of reservoirs within the block. The geological reserves which is suitable for CO2 flooding could be 25.05×108 t, equaling to 80% of the total reserves of Changqing Oilfield. Therefore, CO2 flooding has a good application prospect in Changqing Oilfield, and it would bring huge economic benefits to Changqing Oilfield.
Steam-Induced Wettability Alteration Through Contact Angle Measurement, a Case Study in X Field, Indonesia
Authors: Naser Madi A. , Permadi Asep K. , Bae Wisup , Ryoo Won S. , Yunsun Park , Dang Son T. , Kim Seongil 
Published: December 2014

Abstract
In steam-flood projects, injected steam does not only change fluid properties, but also affects particle and porous media properties by rock surface processes such as rock wettability change. It may be described in a simple case as follows: the pore in a sandstone formation is naturally water-wet, at high temperature condition, in which the residual oil is trapped in the center of the pore. The oil is encapsulated and inhibited from contacting with the rock matrix by surrounding liquid-phase hot water. When the transition to steam-flooding occurs, the encapsulating water is vaporized allowing the residual oil to contact with the rock surface directly. This allows adsorption to happen, which in many cases, even at elevated temperature, can cause the wettability state to be altered rapidly. This phenomenon will affect the irreducible water saturation, the efficiency of immiscible displacement, and thus the efficiency of oil recovery.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate specific changes in rock-fluid interactions, which are triggered by steam, as a function of the change in wettability of the porous media/fluid system. The specific case introduced is X Field, Indonesia, where steam-flooding has been in operation for almost 3 decades. However, this field is currently struggling with its declining production.
In order to study and understand this mechanism, the contact angle between a solid and two immiscible fluids was investigated. Experiments were run at elevated pressure and temperature conditions. After that, image processing was applied to determine the contact angles of solid/oil/steam systems on the quartz surfaces from the drop profile. The results showed that the contact angle generally increases when the saturated pressure and temperature increases. The results of the experiment were very useful for understanding the mechanism.
The Impact of Order Effects on Nonprofessional Investors' Belief Revision When Presented a Long Series of Disclosures in an Experimental Market Setting
Authors: Daigle Ronald J. , Pinsker Robert E. , Pitre Terence J. 
Published: December 2014

SYNOPSIS
Because firms are likely to release both good and bad news in close proximity to each other, it is important to understand what impact a long information set of mixed directional (i.e., both good and bad news) disclosures has on nonprofessional investors' stock price valuation decisions. Previous experimental research has identified information order effects as a critical factor impacting the decisions made by nonprofessional investors. However, the efficient market hypothesis predicts that individual biases are eliminated by the presence of market incentives, an element that is missing in prior studies on the effects of long information sets disclosures. Consequently, this study seeks to understand if and how order effects prevail in a market setting that includes economic incentives.
Our findings indicate that initial primacy effects revert to recency effects over time. These results offer insights regarding how nonprofessional investors process mixed information disclosures over time and should be of interest to firm managers and investors, since firms that release information to investors want to know what effects, if any, information order/disclosure patterns have on investors' long-term firm valuations.
Data Availability: Data are available from the first author upon request.
Exercise and Blood Glucose Concentration in Intact and Pancreatectomized Dogs
Authors: Moxness Karen E , Molnar George D , McGuckin Warren F 
Published: December 2014

Exercise studies were performed on six intact and seven pancreatectomized, unanesthetized dogs to examine the conditions under which exercise decreases the concentration of glucose in blood.
No major change in blood glucose concentration was demonstrated during exercise experiments on normoglycemic intact dogs. In the pancreatectomized dogs, the blood glucose concentration curves during exercise followed either one of two patterns: Some rose with exercise and some fell. In dogs with baseline blood glucose concentrations less than 400 mg. per 100 ml., a sustained decline in blood glucose occurred with exercise, while in those dogs with an initial level greater than 400, a rise occurred.
No effect of exercise was evident in a pancreatectomized dog with blood glucose concentration near the normal range during continuous infusion of insulin. Exercise produced a decrease in blood glucose concentration in an intact dog with hyperglycemia induced by glucose infusion, but this dog's blood glucose level increased during rest periods following exercise.
The Effect of Protamine Zinc Insulin on the Outcome of Pregnancy in the Normal Rat
Authors: Love E J , Kinch R A H , Stevenson J A F 
Published: December 2014

Intermittent hypoglycemia was produced in normal pregnant rats by the administration of 0.5 I.U. of Protamine Zinc Insulin at twelve-hour intervals during either the last two weeks or the final week of pregnancy. The animals treated during the final week of pregnancy delivered significantly lighter litters, with a reduction in the weight of the living pups, and with a significant increase in the incidence of stillbirths which were significantly lighter than the pups delivered to the untreated controls. The exact cause of the growth retardation and the excessive loss are as yet unknown. Two alternate hypotheses are suggested: (1) that growth retardation occurred as the result of relative inanition of the fetus associated with the maternal hypoglycemia, less carbohydrate being available for fetal nutrition and growth, or (2) that with intermittent hypoglycemia there was less stimulation of the fetal pancreatic islets and of the production of insulin with its growth-promoting properties.
The animals treated with insulin for the last two weeks of pregnancy delivered litters of equal number and weight as the controls; the living pups were of equal weight compared to the controls; the number and weight of the stillborn pups was significantly increased. To explain this unexpected finding, it is suggested that in time adrenal cortical hyperfunction occurs secondary to intermittent bouts of hypoglycemia and that the normal or excessive growth is the result of excessive amounts of maternal adrenal corticoids.
Insulin Content of Microdissected Fetal Islets Obtained from Diabetic and Normal Rats
Authors: Dixit Padmakar K , Lowe Irene P , Heggestad Carl B , Lazarow Arnold 
Published: December 2014

1. “Insulin” content of microdissected islets was determined using the epididymal fat pad assay method. Measurements were made on fetal islets obtained from both normal and diabetic mothers and from normal postnatal rats up to five weeks of age.
2. The insulin content of the normal fetal islets, expressed as units “insulin” per gram dry weight of tissue, increases progressively with increasing fetal age; at birth the value approximates that of the adult.
3. The insulin content of the fetal islets obtained from diabetic mothers is between 7 and 19 per cent of the corresponding normal value.
4. In the acid-alcohol extracts of the pancreas of seventeen-day-old fetuses, small though measurable amounts of “insulin” were detected viz.: 0.23 units per gram wet weight of normal pancreas. There was a progressive increase in the extractable “insulin” content of the fetal pancreas with age; the “insulin” content of the twenty-one-day normal fetal pancreas was 5.3 units per gram of tissue. In the pancreas of the fetuses from diabetic mothers, the values were about one third of those in the normal.
5. Thus measurable amounts of insulin-like activity were found in the pancreatic tissue of seventeen-day-old fetuses; this is prior to the time that beta cell granules could be detected cytologically using the aldehyde fuchsin staining method.
6. The insulin content of the islet tissue remained relatively constant during the first five weeks of postnatal development.