bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
High-Density Acid Used in a Deep HP/HT Well
Authors: Denney Dennis 
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Senior Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 142033, ’Study and Application of High-Density Acid in a Deep HP/HT Well,’ by Xingsheng Cheng, Yongping Li, Yunhong Ding, SPE, and Mingguang Che, Langfang Branch, Research Institute of Petroleum E&D, PetroChina, and Fuxiang Zhang, SPE, and Jianxin Peng, Tarim Oilfield Company, PetroChina, prepared for the 2011 SPE European Formation Damage Conference, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 7-10 June. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
The KKY reservoir in the Tarim oil field in western China is a deep high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) dolomite reservoir. The formation was damaged with heavy mud during drilling, and matrix acidizing could not clean the skin effectively. To decrease the surface treating pressure to a safe level, a new high-density-acid system was developed. Extensive laboratory testing was conducted to evaluate its corrosion-inhibition and friction-reduction capacities, rheological properties, and stability. The new weighted acid ensured successful acid fracturing of the KKY reservoir.
Introduction
The KKY is a deep dolomite condensate/gas reservoir at a depth greater than 6000 m with reservoir temperature and pressure of approximately 150°C and 110 MPa, respectively. The formation suffered extreme damage because of the use of heavy mud and the existence of natural fractures. At first, matrix acidizing was used to eliminate the skin, but treatments were limited by the high pressure required. Production increased somewhat, but dropped quickly and could not be sustained. Analysis showed that matrix acidizing could not remove the damage completely; therefore, acid fracturing was investigated. It was determined that an acid-fracturing treatment could not be implemented with conventional acid because the surface pressure exceeds the working-pressure capability of conventional 103.4-MPa fracturing equipment. A high-density-acid proposal was developed to reduce the wellhead pressure.
High-Density Acid
Weighting Agent. Generally, high-density acids are blended by adding acid into high-density concentrated halide brines, such as sodium chloride, calcium chloride, sodium bromide, calcium bromide, or a combination of zinc bromide and calcium bromide, among others. Because the reservoir is dolomite, the main processing acid is hydrochloric acid (HCl), and all the salts and brines mentioned above can be used. The selection of salts or brines is based primarily on the required properties of weighted acids and on cost effectiveness. Considering the need of density in the reservoir and the density of different brines, calcium chloride and some bromide were selected as weighting agent according to the properties of individual wells. The density of weighted acid can be adjusted between 1.25 and 1.55 g/cm3 by regulating the type and quantity of brine.
Rigorous Drilling-Nonproductive-Time Determination and Eliminating Invisible Lost Time
Authors: Denney Dennis 
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Senior Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 138804, ’Rigorous Drilling- Nonproductive-Time Determination and Elimination of Invisible Lost Time: Theory and Case Histories,’ by Eric Maidla, SPE, and William Maidla, SPE, TDE Petroleum Data Solutions, prepared for the 2010 SPE Latin American & Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference, Lima, Peru, 1-3 December. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
Measuring techniques that involve data-quality control (QC) and automatic detection of routine drilling operations are available in modern drilling programs. Implementation was carried out in an onshore area in which a series of similar wells was drilled. Measurement accuracy, training, and development of new work processes that were implemented successfully and these led to major key-performance-indicator (KPI) time savings of 31 to 43%.
Introduction
Past performance of drilling and completing wells was analyzed to capture learnings, which then were applied on the next well or well campaign. The process relied on running rigorous QC on the drilling morning-report data and correlating those events with other well data from electric logs, geology, and recorded drilling data.
Leadership is critical, whether through internal management or through specialized consultants who understand how to motivate groups to excel. Even when implemented properly, many approaches tend to be cyclic, and keeping the processes in effect has proved to be difficult with the processes breaking down when certain elements of the group leave. In most cases, improvements of the drilling performance of routine drilling operations were very limited until a change occurred on the rig, regardless of how many meetings and workshops were carried out away from the rig, and even if some rig personnel were involved. Only when the driller was engaged did the final results improve.
The process presented by the authors focuses on the driller. The proposal is to provide this individual or group with all the information and support necessary to allow the drilling-rig group to achieve the required safety practices that come from understanding how to perform the job properly and in a consistent manner.
Automatic Operations Detection
The work used automatic operations detection of the routine drilling operations and was the basis of collecting real-time (or near-real-time) data to determine the rig status. The key was to have an independent data-QC process performed by a company other than the data provider, thus ensuring no conflict of goals or interests. Following the QC process, the data were classified and processed and a rig state was assigned to each time interval (e.g., drilling—rotary, drilling—sliding, and reaming and washing upward). These rig states were the building blocks for all classifications and reports per-formed throughout this study.
Digital Standards Collaboration: Key To Unlocking Intelligent Energy's Potential
Authors: Beckwith Robin 
Published: February 2015

Digital standards
Late June in Houston, Texas, senior executives from the Standards Leadership Council’s (SLC) nine member organizations hosted a forum, whose goal was to encourage collaboration on open digital standards for the benefit of the upstream oil and gas industry. More than 125 industry representatives attended the all-day event. Formed in February 2012, the SLC’s mission is to avoid duplication in oil and gas industry electronic standards development projects and to address mutual challenges, such as determining business value metrics for standards adoption, enhancing the benefits members receive from the various oil and gas digital standards, and maintaining financial sustainability of standards organizations.
Derek Mathieson, president of western hemisphere operations at Baker Hughes, delivered the keynote address. He became involved with the digital oil field in the mid-’90s. The problems then, according to Mathieson, were the result of having to deal with 50 years’ worth of infrastructure. “You would have thought almost all of that would have gone away by now,” he said. “But the same challenges exist today.”
Looking ahead, Mathieson observed that fascinating things are going on in relation to learning and connectivity—what he referred to as “the ‘wikification’ of our business” to facilitate learning. Heavily influenced by social media and reliance on collaboration, the new generation of professionals in the petroleum industry appears to learn in ways that are different from “traditional” ways of learning. He said he believes, therefore, the challenge now is how to “take away the pain of major project implementation.” This leads to the need for increased industry collaboration for electronic standards, said Mathieson, who encouraged forum attendees to participate in the development process.
Duncan Junor, vice president for Halliburton and the Energistics’ board chair, formally closed the forum. “It was a sold-out event,” he said, “which speaks volumes to the dedication and passion of this industry to work together to adopt and implement standards.”
“Just to have all nine standards organizations in the same room,” he continued, “is a huge accomplishment.”
Alternative Oil Spill Response Technology: Results from the Deepwater Horizon Response
Authors: Cortez Michael J. , Rowe Hunter G. 
Published: February 2015

Management
Oil spill response technology progressed significantly as a result of innovations and experience gained during the Deepwater Horizon response in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, particularly in areas related to surveillance, controlled in-situ burning, booming, skimming, mechanical oil/water separation, and sand cleaning. During the response, the Alternative Response Technology (ART) team, under the direction of the Unified Area Command, screened approximately 43,000 spill response technology ideas submitted by the public. The ART team’s work was done alongside, and consistent with, the US federally directed Interagency Alternative Technology Assessment Program.
The ART team field tested or evaluated in detail about 100 of the 43,000 ideas, resulting in at least 45 ideas being recommended for use in response operations. The successful ideas are listed in Table 1.
Of significance was the number of ideas that came from other industries and were adapted to spill response needs. For instance, the team field-tested at least 10 sand cleaners for beach cleanup, and the most notable was the Sand Shark (Fig. 1), a technology that was adapted from the road maintenance industry (material loader). The Sand Shark could clean a mile of beach per day, using its sifting process, down to a depth of approximately 12 in.
Another successful sand-cleaning technology was the Gravely Rapid E Sand Cleaner. The Chicago-area Gravely Co., which makes industrial lawn mowers, had adapted its technology into a one-person sand-cleaning machine that could get in and out of hard-to-access beach areas for cleanup. Its use was proposed by a distributor in Illinois, who saw the larger sand-cleaning machines on a newscast and reasoned that the smaller machine would be useful to responders.
The Boom Blaster (Fig. 2) was a technology adapted from the car wash industry and was able to clean 600 ft of boom per hour, which far exceeded what could be cleaned manually. During the response, more than 13 million ft of boom was deployed, thus saving considerable time and manpower in cleaning boom for storage.
These and other technologies adapted from other industries—including the Parachute Surf Skimmer (a pool and pond cleaner proposed for tar ball capture), Yates Boom Cleaner (another automated process with dishwasherlike water jetting), and the M-I Swaco sand cleaning plant (adapted from tar sands production operations)—have been added to the industry’s toolbox. One key lesson learned to aid in future spill clean-ups is to open the search for technology outside of industry and to be willing to think creatively.
Radio-Frequency-Identification Technique Opens and Closes Sliding Sleeves Remotely
Authors: Wilson Adam 
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Editorial Manager Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper SPE 153834, ’Interventionless Completions for Unconventional Shale Plays,’ by Jane Mason, SPE, John Tough, Paul Day, SPE, and Shirley Hatton, Petrowell, prepared for the 2012 SPE Middle East Unconventional Gas Conference and Exhibition, Abu Dhabi, 23-25 January. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
To simplify the process of multiple fracturing operations, a new approach has been designed that uses radio-frequency-identification (RFID) techniques to operate sliding sleeves remotely. The number of sleeves that can be run in a well using this technology is essentially unlimited, each having the same identification and a unique electronic address that allows it to be operated remotely at will. This approach makes considerably more zones available for treatment without coiled-tubing or wireline physical intervention and, thereby, speeds the operations.
RFID-Technology Overview
RFID technology will be familiar as the basis of toll-road tags for identification of one’s car—the tag in one’s vehicle contains a microchip that positively identifies it and triggers a toll charge. This same microchip system (Fig. 1) can be used to trigger a downhole tool that has an embedded antenna that picks up the coded signal in the chip as it is pumped down the hole. RFID’s method of data transfer and adaptability permit widespread application in a downhole environment. It is a close-proximity means of transferring data; no direct line of sight is required, and it works by using at least two devices—a reader and tag. The devices are paired and able to recognize each other through the transmission of radio waves; a tag is coded with relevant information that can be read as it passes an RFID reader. The term “close proximity” is relative. Tags are read from 100 m in the airline industry, where readers are able to use vast amounts of power. In contrast, the distance would be reduced to 6–12 in. in the oil industry, demanding far less power downhole. The tag, which contains an electronic circuit (transponder), is programmed with specific information, and, when it approaches the reader, the radio-frequency field generated by the reader powers up the tag, causing it to transmit its data continuously by pulsing the radio frequency. The data are then captured by the reader and processed.
Because the tag is so small, it allows great freedom of movement, and there is no need for direct contact for both devices, which results in a high level of convenience and flexibility. Some of the other advantages of RFID are
Tags can be hidden or embedded in nonmetallic materials.
No line of sight is required.
Its contactless nature limits wear and tear.
Tags can be read even if they are covered with dirt or submerged.
Unalterable permanent serial code prevents tampering.
Technology Focus: Drilling Management (September 2012)
Authors: Cunha J.C. 
Published: February 2015

Technology Focus
At the very beginning of my career, as a young drilling engineer in South America, I used to work in a company where, as far as drilling activity was concerned, we would do (almost) everything by ourselves. We had our own rig and everybody on the location was a company employee. We had our own mud technician, who would, with the help of almost everybody on site, mix the chemicals and prepare our own drilling fluid, sometimes with formulations being decided on the go, depending on the formations we would encounter or on the mechanical problems we faced. We had our own cement unit, and, of course, we would decide on the cement-job specifications and then mix and pump/displace our own cement slurry.
No, I am not bragging. This was not a good thing and, actually, I do not want the industry to ever return to that primitive stage. I am certain that, even for those simple wells, we positively could have done a better job if we had had the help of specialists in drilling fluids, cementing, directional drilling, geomechanics, and other areas. Additionally, we definitely would have had a more-reliable drilling rig if we were not performing the maintenance, welding, and repairs ourselves.
On the other hand, in today’s operational environment, with so many companies on board, so much expertise, so much equipment, and so many parameters to check and control, it may be a real challenge to have a smooth operation, where all pieces are placed in the right place at the right time. Managing such complex drilling operations requires, besides experienced managers, a very well-trained team. A flawless operation is a result of good management and careful planning. Integration of the many disciplines is a must. No one is there to do a single, isolated job. Everybody should be aware of each other’s tasks and responsibilities and of which role these play in achieving the final common objective. As in an orchestra, the final result will depend as much on a good conductor as on capable and integrated musicians. They may be playing different instruments, but they are playing the same music.
Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
SPE 150422 Early Symptom Detection Based on Real-Time Evaluation of Downhole Conditions: Principles and Results From Several North Sea Drilling Operations by Eric Cayeux, SPE, IRIS, et al.
SPE 150201 Improving Management and Control of Drilling Operations With Artificial Intelligence by Giulio Gola, Institute for Energy Technology, et al.
SPE 150069 Real-Time Drilling Engineering: Hydraulics and T&D Modeling for Predictive Interpretation While Drilling by Ricardo Borjas, SPE, Schlumberger, et al.
SPE 149906 Advanced Predrill Simulations for Safer and More Cost-Effective Drilling by Dan Sui, Sintef Petroleum Research, et al.
Multidisciplinary Collaborative Concept Aids Challenging Deepwater Operations in Brazil
Authors: Wilson Adam 
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Editorial Manager Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper SPE 151186, ’Upgrading the Real-Time Drilling-Optimization Culture in Brazil's Challenging Deepwater Operations: The Utilization of a Remote and Rigsite Multidisciplinary Collaborative Concept,’ by Augusto Borella Hougaz, Danilo S. Gozzi, Isao Fujishima, and Klaus L. Vello, Petrobras, and Sandro Alves, Ian Thomson, Raul Krasuk, SPE, and Frank Buzzerio, Baker Hughes, prepared for the 2012 SPE/IADC Drilling Conference and Exhibition, San Diego, California, 6-8 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
In Brazil, deepwater well-construction activity has increased significantly since the first major presalt discovery in the Santos basin in 2006. The creation of a multidisciplinary drilling-optimization group, integrated with the operator’s drilling team in 2008, and the introduction of a highly specialized downhole-drilling-dynamics measurement-while-drilling (MWD) tool changed the drilling-optimization concept in Brazil. This new optimization concept pioneered the remote (off-the-rig) downhole drilling-parameters surveillance in deepwater operations.
Introduction
A novel real-time optimization drilling service was implemented in 2008 with the major deepwater operator in Brazil in the Santos basin. Throughout the implementation and execution of the real-time optimization service, the importance of not only knowing where (wellbore placement) and what (formation evaluation) you are drilling but also how you are drilling, which is mainly driven by the integration between operator and service company, became apparent. After 3 years, it was clearly observed that the higher the integration between service company and operator was in a proactive and collaborative environment, the higher the drilling performance was. Today, in the deepwater Santos basin presalt environment, the real-time optimization drilling service is already part of the drilling program in almost every well, from the top hole section to the reservoir section.
Real-Time Drilling-Optimization Team
In 2008, to answer the “how” questions in the Santos basin, a new culture of real-time optimization arose with the concept of a multidisciplinary optimization team from the service company acting in collaboration with the major operator in Brazil in an integrated manner to achieve superior performance.
To accomplish effective remote and rigsite real-time drilling optimization, it is important to use a highly specialized downhole drilling-dynamics MWD tool that records and transmits real-time dynamics data (e.g., stick/slip, lateral vibration, whirl, and axial vibration) and downhole drilling parameters (e.g., weight on bit, torque, revolutions per minute, and bending moment), which allows for a better judgment of the down-hole conditions while drilling and better support for adjusting the surface drilling parameters to optimize operations, in a continuous feedback cycle (Fig. 1).
Creating a Common Safety Culture
Authors: Keiller Bob 
Published: February 2015

Guest editorial
Most people who work in the oil and gas industry know what a “permit to work” is. A blue permit indicates that it covers “cold” work—work with no potential to create a naked flame, hot surface, spark, or explosion. Having a permit ensures that the job site is safe for the team to do its work, that the team understands the potential risks of the work it is planning to do, and that it agrees to put suitable controls in place.
I spoke recently at the Piper 25 Conference, a 3-day event held in Aberdeen to mark the 25th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster that killed 167 people on board the oil platform in the North Sea. On display at the conference was a copy of Cold Work Permit 23434. The tattered paper was found in the accommodation module that was recovered from the seabed. The permit was for the replacement of a relief valve on the B condensate pump. It was this work that was at the heart of the initial release and explosion when the operators tried to start the pump even though it was not ready. The rest, tragically, is history.
It begs an obvious question and a supplementary one: Could something similar happen again and, if so, can we do anything to reduce the chances of it happening?
The oil and gas industry has made huge advances in safety management over the past 25 years. The goal-setting regime, safety cases, and verification schemes have been hugely beneficial.
We have greater collaboration and everyone now talks about safety as being important and most people genuinely believe it. However, the industry is still experiencing too many serious events which, if we are unlucky, could easily result in another tragedy.
We are a global industry in which good practices are shared across our operations. The loss of life in any country has to be as unacceptable as a tragedy on our own doorstep.
Over the past 25 years since Piper Alpha, there have been more than 25 multi-fatality accidents in our industry. In June, two people died in an accident on a gas platform in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. Last year, three died in an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and 11 died in the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the GOM in 2010.