bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Pressure-Transient Testing and Production Logging To Monitor Performance of the Mars Deepwater Field
Authors: Denney Dennis 
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Senior Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 115591, "Case- History Review of the Application of Pressure-Transient Testing and Production Logging in Monitoring the Performance of the Mars Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Field," by Jeffrey Weiland, Shell, and Mehdi Azari, SPE, S. Suparman, SPE, Phil Fox, SPE, and Daniel Dorffer, SPE, Halliburton, prepared for the 2008 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Ex hibition, Denver, 21-24 September. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
Proper producing-well characterization is necessary for asset management. Whether the reservoir has partial aquifer influx or is waterflooded, the flow profile of produced/injected water and the reservoir pressure, permeability, fluid saturations, and formation compaction are useful to evaluate the overall sweep efficiency properly. This information is more crucial in a field with multilayered reservoirs having different permeabilities, pressures, and structures. Multirate/multi-zone (MRMZ) production logging and pressure-transient testing help obtain necessary information.

Introduction
Many of the Gulf of Mexico Mars field wells produce from multiple reservoir layers, making MRMZ production-logging and well-testing surveys valuable methods to estimate the layer flow rates, pressures, permeabilities, and skin factors and the distance to and type of boundaries. A surveillance logging program has been conducted since 2004, with initial baseline surveys to monitor and optimize production performance and to track waterflood progress. This approach allows reservoir characterization without requiring zonal isolation. It also helps to evaluate where the waterflood has influenced pressure maintenance.
Monitoring the waterflood with cased-hole logs is critical to improving the performance and increasing the overall recovery. The ability to acquire carbon/oxygen data for monitoring sea-water injection and sigma data for reservoir-fluid changes, combined with MRMZ production logging and testing, is essential in reducing unnecessary risks of well intervention.

Objectives
Production logging in the Mars field has facilitated reservoir management by identifying and reducing excessive water production. Production logging was designed to obtain one or more of the following reservoir and wellbore objectives.Characterize production or injection along the productive intervals of the wells.Determine the source of the excessive water production for further remedial work.Determine crossflow between the layers at shut-in and at low flow-rate conditions.Verify if all perforations are effective.Determine the productivity index for each layer and for the entire perforated interval.Evaluate individual-layer pressures and flow rates for each fluid phase.Check for bypassed hydrocarbon zones with pulsed-neutron and carbon/oxygen logging.Monitor stimulation or completion effectiveness.Confirm the length and sizes of downhole tubulars used.
Q&A with Mike O'Brien
Authors: O'Brien Mike , Donnelly John 
Published: February 2015

What is the government doing to attract interest in U.K. oil and gas production?
We are fully committed to extracting every last drop of economic oil and gas from the U.K. Continental Shelf. To do this, we need to make sure we have the players and licensing system to match the opportunities and the right business and regulatory environment to give stability and certainty for investment. To this end we are positively and vigorously pursuing a range of initiatives with the oil and gas industry, including promoting the opportunities to attract new players, modifying the licensing system, freeing up fallow acreage and discoveries, and ensuring that there is fair and reasonable access to infrastructure. On the technical side, we want to ensure that the wealth of geological and production data that has been gathered over the years is available to those wanting to invest.

What have been the accomplishments of Pilot, the joint government/industry initiative formed in 2000 to secure long-term oil and natural gas production from the U.K. Continental Shelf?
Pilot is very important to the government. We see it as a great example of industry and government working together in partnership. It has achieved many good things, not least of which is the ability for us to sit down together with the industry, debate, and move forward on key issues effectively. We want to see Pilot continue to succeed and we will continue to do all we can to achieve that success. Of the current key Pilot initiatives, we have seen a good deal of movement recently on infrastructure access.
Potential investors should not be deterred from examining the potential of the North Sea because they think it would be too time-consuming, costly, or difficult to acquire acreage or utilize existing infrastructure. The industry has been fully engaged and has worked hard to construct a process that will ensure third-party access to infrastructure on fair and reasonable terms. The system to achieve this is now being implemented and will further enhance the commercial climate here.
Erosion by Sand and Ceramic Proppants During Slurry Injection and Proppant Flowback
Authors: Denney Dennis 
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 90604, "Erosion by Proppant: A Comparison of the Erosivity of Sand and Ceramic Proppants During Slurry Injection and Flowback of Proppant," by M.C. Vincent, SPE, Carbo Ceramics Inc.; H.B. Miller, U. of Arizona; D. Milton-Tayler, SPE, FracTech Ltd.; and P.B. Kaufman, SPE, Carbo Ceramics Inc., prepared for the 2004 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Houston, 26-29 September.
During fracture-stimulation treatments, particle-laden slurries may damage pumping equipment and have been shown to erode perforation tunnels. During subsequent flowback operations, minor to severe erosion of surface equipment may be observed if formation sand and/or proppants are produced. This paper compares the erosivity of sand-based and ceramic proppants. The erosion mechanisms are examined, and theoretical and laboratory measurements are in agreement that low-density ceramic proppants, because of roundness and sphericity, are less erosive than more-angular sand products.

Introduction
Impingement tests designed to simulate flowback conditions demonstrated that use of a spherical lightweight ceramic (LWC) may reduce wellhead or other impingement-surface erosion by up to 95% compared with an angular sand. Additional studies with intentionally crushed proppant (to increase angularity) demonstrate that proppant shape is a dominant factor in controlling erosion. Surprisingly, flowback testing has shown that resin coatings applied to proppant can increase erosion 15-fold. Erosivity and abrasiveness of all proppant types were shown to increase with prop-pant damage. Erosion in chokes was found to be three times greater with sand than with LWC. Several laboratory studies have demonstrated that spherical proppants are less likely to flow back from the fracture than more-angular products.
Optimizing Horizontal Completions in the Barnett Shale With Microseismic Fracture Mapping
Authors: Denney Dennis 
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 90051, "Optimizing Horizontal-Completion Techniques in the Barnett Shale Using Microseismic Fracture Mapping," by M.K. Fisher, SPE, Pinnacle Technologies; J.R. Heinze, SPE, and C.D. Harris, SPE, Devon Energy Corp.; B.M. Davidson, SPE, C.A. Wright, and K.P. Dunn, Pinnacle Technologies, prepared for the 2004 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Houston, 26-29 September.
The Barnett shale of north Texas is an ultralow-permeability reservoir that must be fracture stimulated to obtain commercial production. Techniques to optimize hydraulic-fracturing effectiveness have evolved over the past decade. In 2002, the Newark East field produced 202 Bcf, the seventh largest gas producer in the U.S. This pilot study compared production from the first 23 horizontal wells in a “core” area of the Fort Worth basin with vertical wells in the same area. Drilling and completion strategies, fracture-network areas, and fracture effectiveness were compared with the standard procedures used in vertical Barnett wells.

Introduction
The commercial success of Barnett shale development programs is attributed to a change in stimulation techniques in 1998. Previously, most Barnett shale wells were completed with massive hydraulic-fracture treatments that used crosslinked-gelled fluids, some carrying more than 1 million lbm of proppant. Because of the extremely low permeability of the Barnett, its inability to efficiently clean up fracture damage from gels, and the high cost of massive hydraulic stimulations, most Barnett treatments did not provide an adequate investment return. In 1998, Devon Energy experimented with an old fracturing technique that was regaining acceptance at the time in east Texas. The technique was light sand fracturing, or “waterfracs.” In the Barnett shale, this technique provided a much larger surface area of contact with the reservoir and minimized fracture-face damage, resulting in improved productivity.
Even with the success with light sand-fracturing treatments, not every area of the Barnett proved as successful as the core area in Wise and Denton counties. As shown in Fig. 1, the Barnett shale covers a large area, from the Fort Worth basin past the Permian Basin of west Texas, into New Mexico, but the quality and quantity of Barnett pay varies substantially from the traditional core area to the newer plays on the fringes. Successful development in the newer areas will likely require additional changes in completion techniques, and several new strategies are being tested in both core and fringe areas of the Barnett shale.
Stand Tall and Speak Up: Work and Your Other Life - Navigating the Course
Authors: Sprunt Eve S. 
Published: February 2015

My favorite adage about work/life balance is not the oft-quoted saying, "No one on their deathbed ever wished they'd spent more time at the office." Instead, I prefer the advice to "write your own obituary."
Although the first is a good warning, it doesn't provide much guidance. In contrast, the second supplies a technique to help you plan your life even at an advanced age. Alfred Nobel made a fortune by inventing and manufacturing dynamite. In 1888, when his brother Ludvig died, a newspaper misattributed the work of Alfred to his brother and printed the headline, "The Merchant of Death is Dead!" Disgusted by the obituary of himself, Alfred Nobel decided to use his wealth to alter his legacy. When he died 8 years later, he provided funds for awards for people whose work was of benefit to humanity and in doing so successfully turned around society's assessment of him. Today, almost no one associates Nobel Prizes with death from the use of dynamite.
The exercise of writing your own obituary and thinking about what you want to accomplish is a good way to clarify your priorities. Then, you can work the inverse problem to identify the steps you must take. As Alfred Nobel's story illustrates, even if you are in the sunset of your life, it is not too late to ask yourself what you want to accomplish with the remaining time you have.
Meshing career planning with work/life balance issues is challenging, because we each have different dreams and priorities. One person's perfect job is another person's worst nightmare. Also, since our family situations and goals change with time, the ideal job at one point in our life may be totally unacceptable at another time. People are not mind readers, so we must not expect someone else to intuit what we want. We must be willing to tell them what we want or to figure out for ourselves how to execute an alternative plan. We must also recognize that the choices we make may cost us promotions or rapid advancement. For me, this is the central premise of being responsible for your own career.
Experience is cumulative. If, for work/life balance reasons, we choose to seek positions that do not provide the opportunities to develop certain skills, we must recognize the consequences of our actions. Later, it will be difficult to secure a job that has those skills as a prerequisite, unless we can convince people that we have equivalent competencies. Alternatively, we may be willing to take on the responsibilities of a position, but not be selected for a role that provides the experience we desire. In either case, to get past the roadblock we need to take independent action.
Technology Update: Manufacturing Approach to Fracturing Limits Environmental Impact
Authors: JPT staff _ 
Published: February 2015

In the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, a manufacturing approach is being developed to enable fracture stimulation of hundreds of gas wells from one semipermanent location that can operate around the clock. This development is in response to the area's unconventional gas fields that offer unique environmental, social, and operational challenges. Fig. 1 shows this concept, called FracFactory service, in schematic form.
Fig. 2 illustrates that the FracFactory service concept is appreciably different from the conventional layout of a frac spread. For every well treated, the conventional frac-equipment spread is transported from a logistical base directly to the location, set up for operation, broken down after the stimulation job is completed, and transported back to the base/satellite storage facility. The process is repeated for every well treated, with potentially significant impact to the environment, resources, and required man-hours. This is the current practice across the industry.
To help reduce the environmental footprint, many wells can be drilled in clusters from a single location. Surface piping can be installed to provide a conduit for the frac fluid from the FracFactory service facility to the well cluster for placement downhole. An efficient system of manifolding at each well cluster completes the connection from the pressure pumps to the appropriate wellhead. Fig. 3 shows the concept in greater detail—supplies, crew quarters, pumping and blending gear, and water reclamation equipment within a single footprint. High-pressure pumping is housed nearby in an enclosure designed to reduce the noise level for the crew and the surrounding local environment.

Opportunities Wrapped in Challenges
Recent authorizations to drill for gas on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands has handed E&P companies and service companies an opportunity wrapped tightly in a number of challenges. Companies must:Operate with a small footprint on the mountains and prairie valleys of Wyoming.Avoid lowering the water table to supply fluids required in fracture stimulation of production from unconventional (tight) reservoirs.Avoid creating excessive traffic on local roads and across lands that are home to numerous game animals.Protect aquifers from contamination.Provide efficient well-stimulation operations with minimal non-productive time caused by the logistics concerned.
The Rockies are believed to hold enough gas to heat and cool 70 million homes for nearly 50 years, but reserves are located in hard-to-produce reservoirs. Because the U.S. government controls so much of the land in this part of the country, oil and gas producers have flooded BLM with applications for drill permits. One major operating company plans to spend about U.S. $2.2 billion in the next 15 years to drill 2,000 wells in Wyoming's Wamsutter field. In fiscal 2004, BLM approved 5,747 drilling applications to drill on public lands in Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Montana, up four-fold from the industry slump in 1999.
Overview: Hydraulic Fracturing (March 2006)
Authors: Chipperfield Simon 
Published: February 2015

Innovation can come from surprising places.
Henry Bessemer commented, after developing the modern steel-making process: "I had an immense advantage over many others dealing with the problem inasmuch as I had no fixed ideas derived from long-established practice to control and bias my mind, and did not suffer from the general belief that whatever is, is right."
The key to Bessemer's success was his unique and unencumbered way of thinking. In hydraulic fracturing, many new technologies have been developed in a similar manner, namely by introducing new ways of thinking, often developed in different areas of our industry.
Microseismics, a technology more closely associated with geophysics, now is used by engineers to optimize hydraulic fracturing, and, in some reservoirs, it reveals a more complicated geometry than many people previously predicted. The challenges now for engineers are to better understand what drives this complexity and to further optimize stimulation treatments.
Fracture stimulation has recently learned from both traditional reservoir engineering and classical heat-transfer theory to develop after-closure analysis and other diagnostic-injection approaches. These methods enable more accurate reservoir characterization.
Hydraulic fracturing also has merged with conventional sand control. This application of hydraulic fracturing (termed frac packing) has extended into more-challenging environments such as deep water, increasingly less consolidated reservoirs, and areas where cost minimization is critical (e.g., the development of screenless sand control).
I anticipate that the trend of sharing ideas between disciplines will continue into the future, blurring the boundaries between fracture stimulation and other sciences.
The next generation of hydraulic fracturing will challenge the existing paradigm, in much the same way as the above technologies have. It is crucial that we continue to challenge the accepted wisdom and to encourage and test ideas that some might label "crazy."
As Albert Einstein said, "If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it."
Hydraulic Fracturing additional reading available at the SPE eLibrary: www.spe.org
SPE 95568 "Comparison of Single- and Dual-Array Microseismic Mapping Techniques in the Barnett Shale," by N.R. Warpinski, SPE, Pinnacle Technologies Inc., et al.
SPE 93419 "After-Closure Analysis To Determine Formation Permeability, Reservoir Pressure, and Residual Fracture Properties," by M.Y. Soliman, SPE, Halliburton, et al.
SPE 97994 "Application of Microseismic-Imaging Technology in the Appalachian Basin Upper Devonian Stimulation" by J. Fontaine, SPE, Universal Well Services, et al.
SPE 96080 "Developing Calibrated Fracture-Growth Models for Various Formations and Regions Across the United States" by L. Weijers, SPE, Pinnacle Technologies Inc. et al.
Overview: Production Operations (March 2006)
Authors: Poe Bob 
Published: February 2015

A strong global demand currently exists for readily useable energy in the form of petroleum and natural gas, and demand has been projected to increase steadily for the foreseeable future. Developed consumer nations are expected to increase consumption of oil and natural gas as their economies continue to improve and expand. Similarly, the energy appetite of developing nations also is expected to increase the demand for petroleum and natural gas, as long as that energy source remains a convenient, economically viable, and environmentally acceptable alternative. The strong demand in global energy needs therefore presents both welcome challenges and boundless opportunities for the petroleum industry. Therefore, the major challenge facing the petroleum industry in satisfying this demand may be the development and application of new or improved methods of finding and producing the required hydrocarbons. As a result, opportunities for the development and implementation of new or improved pro-duction technologies abound in this environment.
Some excellent examples of the opportunities that exist in the industry for novel or improved production technologies are presented in the summaries of the selected technical papers that follow. These examples are but a small sample of the extremely important production-operations issues addressed by the petroleum industry recently, many of which pertain to the modeling and assessment of the production performance of wells. I hope that you find the issues addressed in these technical summaries and the full-length papers, as well as in the additional technical references cited, as interesting and inspiring as I do. With the petroleum industry's efforts to address modern production-operations problems, such as those illustrated by these examples, the challenges presented by increasing demand will invariably present many opportunities for future innovation.
Production Operations additional reading available at the SPE eLibrary: www.spe.org
SPE 95685 "Waterflood Surveillance and Control: Incorporating Hall Plot and Slope Analysis," by D.B. Silin, SPE, U. of California, Berkeley, et al.
SPE 96697 "Modeling Permeability Reduction Caused by Asphaltene Deposition," by A.A. Garrouch, SPE, Kuwait U., et al.
available at the OTC Library: www.otcnet.org
OTC 17152 "Characterization of Hydrate Formation in Black Oil Using NMR," by S. Gao, Rice U., et al.