bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Securing a Productive Future for E&P: It's All About New Technologies
Authors: Gamman Einar 
Published: February 2015

Guest editorial
The easy oil is gone. Schlumberger described it this way in its 2009 annual report: “As the exploration and production industry strives to meet the energy needs of tomorrow, it is challenged by deeper waters, increasingly complex geo-logical settings, more diverse hydrocarbons, and greater extremes of temperature and pressure.”
US President Barack Obama said it like this in a June speech on the tragic Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico: “…oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean because we are running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.”
The reality behind these remarks, coupled with current economics, can paint a grim picture. In 2009, technology expenditures in the oil and gas industry were curtailed as world economic conditions worsened, dropping oil prices to under USD 40/bbl. The price has now recovered, remaining between USD 70 and USD 80/bbl, but regulatory uncertainty and other factors have kept the company purse strings closed on all but the most essential expenses.
In these times it is important that the oil and gas industry learns a few important lessons. The Deepwater Horizon incident has shed light on how dependent the industry is on technology that will perform in some of the Earth’s most difficult conditions, as well as how critical it is to protect employees, the public, and the environment—regardless of the cost.
As we look to the future, our industry faces rising energy demand—specifically an increasing need for transportation energy—and new, more stringent regulations on operations in many parts of the world. This means our industry will continue to move toward reserves that are harder to produce, and that increasing recovery from currently producing fields will have to be a priority to meet future demand.
How will we be able to produce more hydrocarbons in remote and complex environments and increase operational safety? The answer is, and has to be, technology.
Technology is the only bridge between where we stand now and a future in which we can produce hydrocarbons in ways that are safer, cleaner, and more efficient. But this begs another question. Investments in reserves and production are firmly at the top of most E&P companies’ agendas, with R&D coming in as a much lower priority, if it makes the list at all.
Historically, there are numerous examples of how our industry has made incredible advances in technology to meet increasingly difficult E&P challenges—advances that have moved the entire industry forward and resulted in billons of barrels of additional oil produced.
Across just about any industry, innovation is more fertile outside the largest companies and organizations. Oil companies themselves are doing less in-house technology development than in the past and, where service companies used to spend a sizable portion of their budgets on targeted R&D many have realized that acquiring intellectual property, technology, and services is an equally interesting and profitable way to increase their footprint.
Gas-Reserves Estimation in Resource Plays
Authors: Denney Dennis 
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Senior Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 130102, ’Gas-Reserves Estimation in Resource Plays,’ by W.J. Lee, SPE, Texas A&M University, and R.E. Sidle, SPE, Consultant, prepared for the 2010 SPE Unconventional Gas Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 23-25 February. See SPE Econ & Mgmt, October 2010, page 86.
The petroleum industry’s lack of understanding of physical properties and the physics that control production from many important resource plays limits the ability to model and forecast production and reserves from these resources with confidence. While measurement technology and modeling accuracy are improving, the industry often is forced to resort to empirical methods that lack the validation usually required for high-confidence results. Some of the procedures in common use for forecasting are reviewed, and key strengths and limitations of the techniques are identified.
Introduction
Preferably, proper characterization of a resource play begins with production. When attempting to characterize a resource and to forecast production, it is important to know what can and cannot be determined. Thus, pilot tests, resource characterization, and analogs are favored over curve fitting or highly complex reservoir simulation. Analytical models not based on analogs are useful, but only to investigate the generalized incremental effects of different production conditions, such as horizontal vs. vertical wells or completion and well-operation methods. Analogs (usually based on older in-field wells) for decline analysis or type-curve techniques generally would be the preferred methods for high-confidence forecasts and reserves estimates. This approach has proved valuable in examples as diverse as the Antrim shale, Pinedale tight gas, and California diatomite.
As a result, high-confidence reserves estimates begin with older wells—wells that have experienced any early-life transient-production effects and have reached a stage in which only stable, long-term trends are the dominant influence on production rate. The considerable complexities of production from resource plays make it important to isolate early effects from those that are fundamental to ultimate recovery.
An incomplete understanding of the basic physics of fluid flow and stimulation results in complex-resource plays currently of interest has limited the ability to develop models that provide high confidence, particularly in shales. Because of this lack of understanding, empirical methods take on an unusually important role, but production histories from the most-modern completion and stimulation techniques are limited in duration, causing problems with validation of a forecasting methodology of any kind. The full-length paper provides a detailed critique of the methods used to forecast production and estimate reserves in poorly understood resource plays.
Spectrum: SPE's Efforts on Young Technology and Innovative Ideas
Authors: Thakur Ganesh 
Published: February 2015

President's column
The need for oil and gas has not diminished and, contrary to popular belief, supply is abundant. Getting to that supply is the challenge. Many reservoirs are very complex in nature and reside in extreme environments. Producing these assets will require the most advanced technology, the brightest minds, more capital, and attention to safety and the environment.
To keep up, the industry must continue to invest in R&D and become better at being early adopters of technology. The industry has historically been slow in the uptake of new technology, but conditions will mandate a step-change in our behavior. Instead of adopting technology 10 to 15 years after its inception, the oil and gas industry needs to create ways to accelerate that time line. We cannot afford to spend 10 years vetting technology as we did with horizontal wells. It took 10 years to see a spike in SPE papers about horizontal well technology from its inception.
I believe SPE should take a leadership role in this initiative. SPE collects, disseminates, and exchanges technology and technical information that is vital in the uptake of new technology. The industry looks to SPE conference papers, books, periodicals, and events as guidance in what is successful in the industry. It is this exchange of ideas and knowledge sharing that is the vehicle to adopting technology. But this vehicle should have the speed of a Porsche, not a jalopy. Information about new and young technology should play a larger role in our communication. The earlier the communication, the faster the uptake.
The life cycle and uptake of technology can be represented by a curve (Fig. 1). Time is represented on the x axis and technology usage on the y axis. The curve is initiated by the innovator. In the first part of the curve, the usage is low, with only a few early adopters—the adventurers. As the technology proves successful, more users engage and the slope increases. When the technology becomes more established, the curve levels off, indicating that most operators have adopted the technology. Finally, the curve levels off as the technology becomes best practice.
Imagination, Purpose, and Vision
Authors: Fattahi Behrooz 
Published: February 2015

Guest editorial
With the changing landscape of reservoir management, SPE has made dissemination of emerging technology a high priority. SPE meetings are excellent venues where you listen, debate, and discuss with some of the best brains in the industry on what will become the “next big thing,” possibly the game changer. We also look at what challenges the industry must face, and what technology can provide to help meet those challenges. This is a priceless experience. Whether it is a futuristic look at evolving reservoir surveillance and management technology (including data acquisition, high performance computing, processing, integration, visualization, and modeling), or what automated and intelligent applications of technology can do, SPE plays a key role in examining the path of progress toward the future of using game-changing technologies.
Daunting Challenges
The balance between the global supply and demand for crude oil is becoming tighter, increasingly requiring our industry to face new and unique challenges. The significant challenges are in the areas of operation in the inhospitable deepwater Arctic and economic recovery of unconventional oils.
More than two-thirds of the remaining known world oil reserves are in the unconventional form that mostly comprises heavy, extra-heavy and oil sands, and bitumen. With the estimated proven oil reserves at approximately 1.2 trillion bbl, the current unconventional oil reserves add up to roughly 800 billion bbl. This is a large figure, but we must remember that the world’s remaining oil in place probably amounts to 6 trillion to 7 trillion bbl. The technical and environmental challenges of recovering this oil are immense.
While we will not run out of oil anytime soon, the significant challenge will be to produce oil at a pace to meet the energy demand from the growing global economies led by China and India. The US Energy Information Administration predicts that the demand for energy will rise to 700 quadrillion BTUs or by more than 50% by 2030. The same outlook also projects that more than 80% of this future energy consumption will be from fossil fuels.
A recent study by Energy Files shows that the gap between the oil supply and demand will grow dramatically to as much as 20 million B/D even with painful conservation measures in place. The alarming report requires our immediate attention.
The immense challenges ahead are global, multidimensional, complex, and interlaced. Failure in one area will have detrimental effects on others, posing a serious threat to our growth. These issues are many and some of the most critical ones we are clearly experiencing today, namely management of human assets, technology from development to application, process optimization, collaborative efforts, and managing risk and uncertainties. These are not new issues, but ones that have become the most critical to the future of oil supply.
Brazil Using Offshore Oil Boom To Build International R&D Center
Authors: Rassenfoss Stephen 
Published: February 2015

In Rio de Janeiro, they are building an island of energy technology.
Near the center of the Ihla do Fundao is Petrobras’ central research center (Cenpes), which recently doubled in size with an enormous structure topped by a roof that looks like a giant wave. From the open top floor is a view of the south end of the island where the Rio Technology Park is sprouting.
The park, nearly vacant a year ago, is now home to Schlumberger’s Brazilian research center. Its staffers will soon be joined by hundreds more from FMC Technologies and Baker Hughes. The construction wave is expected to grow from here. Within two years, the park is expected to be filled by international companies including Halliburton, BG, General Electric, Tenaris, and Siemens.
Between the technology park and Petrobras lies the campus of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). The university, which created the park, is part of a network of research institutions in Brazil that have partnered with Petrobras on research and development (R&D) projects that have helped the company become an exploration and production (E&P) technology leader.
The island is on the leading edge of Brazil’s drive to become an international center for oil industry technology development. Fueling the transformation are the billions of barrels of oil found beneath a thick layer of salt in the deep waters far off the coast of Brazil.
Investor-owned oil companies are buying into government policies that will funnel billions of dollars into research in Brazil because the country offers a rare opportunity to lease off shore blocks that could hold billions of barrels of crude. Winning those blocks at auction requires buying Brazilian, hiring Brazilians, and now developing technology in Brazil.
“We are doing all of this with a purpose” to improve the Brazilian economy, said Magda Chambriard, director of the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), which regulates the country’s oil business. “We will have a lot of investment in research and development that will come from these agreements for oil exploration.”
Two parts of the country’s oil regulations are driving the changes: local content requirement and the 1% rule.
In lease auctions, a key measure for determining winners has been how much of the materials, labor, and services used will be from Brazil. Now there is an added criterion: Was the technology developed in Brazil?
A Look at the Ohmsett Oil Spill Research and Test Facility
Authors: Beckwith Robin 
Published: February 2015

On 11 October 2011, the X Prize Foundation announced the winners of the USD 1.4 million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE, launched during the summer of 2010 in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the US Gulf of Mexico. According to a press release, “the competition inspired entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists worldwide to develop innovative, rapidly deployable, and highly efﬁcient methods of capturing crude oil from the ocean surface.” Emerging from an original ﬁeld of more than 350 submissions from all over the world, Elastec/American Marine of Carmi, Illinois, captured the USD 1 million ﬁrst prize, with Norway’s NOFI Tromsø awarded the USD 300,000 second prize; no contestant’s cleanup system qualiﬁed to receive third prize.
Testing the 10 ﬁnalists’ technologies in order to determine the winner would have been impossible were it not for a facility called Ohmsett (Oil and Hazardous Materials Environmental Test Tank). What is Ohmsett, and why is it so critical to the development of oil spill prevention and mitigation technology?
Omsett’s Origins
The existence of Ohmsett arose from response to another oil spill disaster.
On 24 March 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling an estimated 260,000 bbl to 750,000 bbl of crude oil. Considered one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters, a number of preventative or cautionary measures ensued. One of these was the US Oil Pollution Act (OPA 90) of 1990, which among its many provisions established a program providing for “research, development, and demonstration of new or improved technologies which are effective in preventing or mitigating oil discharges and which protect the environment.” The disaster also provided the push needed to get the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF), created in 1986 by the US Congress, off the ground.
In August 1990, US President George H.W. Bush signed OPA 90 into law, and authorized both the use of the OSLTF as well as collection of revenue to maintain it. One of the primary purposes of OSLTF’s Principal Fund (exclusive of its Emergency Fund) is to carry out oil spill-related research and development (R&D).
Technology Focus: Production Facilities (December 2011)
Authors: Saadawi Hisham 
Published: February 2015

Technology Focus
Every year, SPE organizes more than 30 conferences worldwide. Critical issues of current interest to the oil industry are reflected in the SPE papers presented at these conferences. When selecting papers for this feature, I was not surprised that many papers deal with topics related to safety in facilities design and to asset integrity.
With recent publicized accidents and the industry’s continuing concern about its public image, operating companies are focusing on process safety and improving asset integrity, and are addressing these issues early in facilities design. Indeed, it can be argued that enhancing safety performance and dealing with the increased environmental risks remain the key challenges facing the industry today. Some concepts relevant to these topics are briefly outlined.
Asset integrity can be defined as the ability of the asset to perform its required function effectively and efficiently while managing health, safety, and the environment. In this context, asset integrity refers to hydrocarbon systems and includes support systems and infrastructure, such as platform structures.
Critical safety elements are those systems and equipment that prevent, control, or mitigate major accidents. They include elements such as pressure-relief valves, shutdown systems, fire- and gas-detection systems, and firefighting equipment.
Safety instrumented systems (SISs)—since its publication in 2003, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61511 standard is becoming the basis for the specifications and implementation of SISs in the oil industry. Initially, the industry was relatively slow to adopt this standard. A dilemma facing operating companies is what to do about the existing shutdown safety systems that were installed before 2003 and that are not in compliance with IEC 61511.
Papers selected for this feature along with those recommended for additional reading highlight industry progress in these issues. I hope that they will be of interest to you.
Production Facilities additional reading available at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org
SPE 146240 • “The Practical Application of Process Safety Principles To Determine and Monitor Asset Integrity of Oil and Gas Facilities” by John Hopkins, WGPSN.
SPE 141174 • “Replacement of Existing ESD Valves With New SIL Rated ESD Valves: A Case Study of Production Optimization and Enhancement of Process Safety and Integrity in Kuwait Oil Company” by Sadoun Mutar Bezea Al-Khaledi, Kuwait Oil Company, et al.
SPE 137461 • “Corrosion Management of a Worldwide Existing Pipeline Network” by Michel Bonis, Total S.A., et al.
Technology Focus: Bit Technology and Bottomhole Assemblies (December 2011)
Authors: Fear Martyn 
Published: February 2015

Technology Focus
The last decade has seen significant change in many areas of the drilling business, particularly with bits and bottomhole assemblies. Rising drilling costs, more-complex and -demanding drilling environments, and the ever-present stimulus of provider competition are continuing to drive improved understanding and decision making in this area. The days when bits were seen as simple commodities, with their leverage on well time and cost unrecognized, are fading. And this is long overdue.
Particularly encouraging is the growing use of field-behavior modeling of the bit and drillstring under realistic conditions, and the development of knowledge-based tool-selection techniques, refined by an intensive study of field data. The migration toward deeper or more-tortuous well designs, often accompanied by simultaneous drilling and hole opening in regions in which vibration effects are prolific and are more punishing, is leading to more understanding and rigor. These are admirable trends that more-traditional operations can and should capitalize on, and sometimes are.
My learned colleague Graham Mensa-Wilmot wrote of these trends a year ago in this feature, correctly pointing out to us that “We have the key, let’s open the door.” Perhaps we can claim to have done so with some challenges and in some geographical areas (e.g., vibration diagnosis and mitigation in deepwater Gulf of Mexico operations). However, with other equally important challenges (quantitative optimizing of the rate of penetration comes to mind), fundamental understanding and rigorous methods are not so widespread; we are still operating with “pockets of excellence.” So, it is appropriate to lay another challenge to those managing drilling operations and providing drilling services—if your teams are relying on a fuzzy definition of downhole processes or on trial and error to deliver drilling performance, it is time to modernize—let’s have the current pockets of excellence show the rest of us the way.
Bit Technology and Bottomhole Assemblies additional reading available at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org
SPE 142431 • “A Practical, Application-Based Guide to Borehole-Enlargement-Tool Selection” by J. McCarthy, SPE, National Oilwell Varco, et al.
SPE 146732 • “Geosteering With Sonic in Conventional and Unconventional Reservoirs” by Jason Pitcher, Halliburton, et al.
SPE 140069 • “Exploration of the Interaction Between Drill-Bit-Gauge Profile and Point-The-Bit Rotary-Steerable Systems” by L.A. Lines, SPE, Weatherford, et al.