bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Technical Papers Have Been the Backbone of SPE's Mission
Authors: Denney Dennis 
Published: February 2015

In 1957, tail fins were big on the popular, if not all, cars. A 1957 Plymouth Belvedere was placed in an underground vault as part of a time capsule in Tulsa (they could have used better seal technology). A color TV was rare, and it had a round picture tube. Even most movies were still in black and white. Oil companies still constructed new derricks to drill new wells; the drawworks were moved, but the derricks usually stayed over the wellhead. Drilling rigs that could be moved from location to location were just beginning to be used. And SPE became an independent organization.
I would not be a part of the industry officially for another 11 years, but my father already had spent several years with a big oilwell cementing company, so I knew what it was like to be in the oil patch. He joined the Panhandle Section of SPE in 1958 and transferred to the Amarillo Petroleum Section when it was formed in 1964. New technology was improving exploration and production. My father was excited about new types of well logs that could do more than just measure the self-potential and natural gamma radiation of the formations. He also was excited about technology that had moved from military uses during World War II to casing-perforation technology—jet perforating. I even got to take sample jet-perforating guns to school for science class show and tell. (I would not recommend trying that today.) Technology was improving the industry, and SPE was at the forefront of sharing that knowledge.
SPE's mission is "To collect, disseminate, and exchange technical knowledge concerning the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas resources, and related technologies for the public benefit; and to provide opportunities for professionals to enhance their technical and professional competence." JPT has been a main link in the dissemination and exchange of technical knowledge among petroleum engineers for more than 50 years. Before the Internet existed, JPT was the only link for many engineers and the main link for many more.
SPE's online electronic library, the eLibrary, contains 150 papers that were written in 1958, the first full calendar year that SPE existed as an independent society. JPT published 86 papers in 1958. In 2006, the latest full calendar year, there were 2,251 papers added to the eLibrary. From 1958 through June 2007, 45,450 papers were made part of the permanent record of technical papers available to members and to the public through SPE. With the help of many industry experts over the years, SPE and JPT have presented important advancements in technology to engineers and other scientists.
As the Industry Has Changed, So Has Petroleum Engineering Education
Authors: Greenberg Jerry 
Published: February 2015

Petroleum industry technologies have advanced significantly since the birth of SPE 50 years ago. The industry today is drilling wells 6 or 7 miles long, and nearly as deep. Offshore, operators are "routinely" drilling and completing wells in 7,000 to 10,000 ft of water, using state-of-the-art drillships that were not available to the industry just a few years ago. Robust electronics measure downhole temperature, pressure, and other parameters as wells become "smarter" than ever before. The industry is learning to mine data and, even better, learning how to use the data better to construct optimally performing wells.
And although the basic structure of the courses offered for bachelor and master's degrees in petroleum engineering has not changed dramatically during the past 50 years, curricula have kept pace with the evolving technology and the changes in the profession. In addition, students are expected to learn much of the new technology post-graduate on the job or in specialized short courses offered by the industry rather than just by a textbook course at the university level. Several universities now offer distance-education programs, providing engineers already working in the field a means to continue their educations toward a master's degree, and engineers also can take several courses Lee toward a PhD degree in a distance-education program.
Many changes have occurred in the teaching of petroleum engineering over the decades. "One thing that was essential 50 years ago for most petroleum engineering and, arguably, most other engineering curricula, is that they were more concerned with technology and nuts and bolts," said W. John Lee, who has been a petroleum engineering professor at Texas A&M University for 30 years and holds the L.F. Peterson Endowed Chair at the school. "Today, they are much more concerned with the fundamentals and the applications of what I would call engineering science to solve engineering problems."
For example, Lee said, most engineers 50 years ago took such courses as surveying, machine shop, and welding, "hands-on courses that all engineers took. Today, that is all gone. Engineers now concentrate on just the fundamental math and science."
Part of the reason is the computer technology available that, of course, was not available or widely used decades ago. However, Lee emphasized that the move toward the sort of curriculum concentrating on math and science fundamentals began before computers took over.
"Now there is a need to develop and use mathematical models for everything," he said. "To understand the mathematical models you have to understand the basic physics and, in turn, have some understanding of the math that is involved in solving the equations of the physics models. That was beyond our capability for the most part 50 years ago. We could not begin to think about solving some of the problems. The arithmetic was just too horrendous, so we used very simple assumptions and approximations."
Why Our Approach to Sustainability Is Unsustainable
Authors: Bruni Thomas 
Published: February 2015

You may advocate peak oil theory or rather see yourself among its detractors, but irrespective of your views on the subject, you will unmistakably agree that resources and reserves are finite, thus making our industry nonsustainable by definition. Although these premises might lure us into the vicious circle of "We will not try to fix something that cannot be fixed in the first place," the oil and gas industry should aim higher and avoid receding into isolation from one of the most potent issues driving today's (and likely tomorrow's) big business—sustainability and its multiple declinations.
The underlying popular fronts have long grown to coalesce into a critical mass that has made its presence felt to a number of socioeconomic constituencies, including investors. The corporate world naturally followed suit, and organizations have adopted sustainability as one of the key elements of their strategies and, in some cases, as a core value.
The Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI) includes the top 10% of the biggest 2,500 companies worldwide based on long-term economic, environmental, and social criteria. One often-assumed mantra that must be quickly dismissed is the equivalence of sustainability and the environment. While the association may have been true when these ideas were first born, the broader concept of sustainability has developed into a more systemic and companywide scheme. This index, for example, evaluates corporations based on several criteria, including climate-change strategy, energy consumption, human resources development, knowledge management, stakeholder relations, and corporate governance, as well as more financially conventional metrics such as returns to investors, customer management, and business models. Ideally, all decisions and actions and their consequences should "meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs," according to the United Nations' Report of theWorld Commission on Environment and Development.
Our oil and gas sector, which represents approximately 20% of the world's economy, makes up only 8.8% of the sustainability index, and, while some worthy exceptions do stand out (e.g., BP and Total), the overall presence is not satisfying (the classification is size-biased, so a very green but minute oil and gas company would go undetected).
According to a recent survey in SPE's magazine for young professionals, The Way Ahead, this trend is transparent to younger members. Young professionals see their companies inactive regarding climate change and underinvesting in alternative energy. Widespread discomfort among young professionals is such that up to one-third of respondents in the survey said they would consider moving to the renewable energy sector as good for their career security.
Your SPE: Dateline October 2008: Planning for the Year Ahead
Authors: Roodhart Leo 
Published: February 2015

President's column
I start my term as 2009 SPE President with the good fortune to follow in the footsteps of Bill Cobb and the long chain of Presidents who came before him who have provided strong leadership and clear vision to the Society. It is thanks to these people that SPE is what it is today: the largest and most inter-nationally diverse professional society serving our industry.
Like Bill and other presidents, my primary goal will be to give direction to the Long Range Plan, a plan that has been made and is owned by the entire Board of Directors. However, all presidents—and I am not different—also set out on their journey with personal aims, and have only 12 months to start to make them a reality. As I said in my JPT interview last month, one of my main objectives is to continue the drive for true globalization. We will be truly global when every member feels that SPE is not only the local section or a loosely connected group of national or regional organizations, but rather a single organization of professionals, united for a common purpose, that belongs to each and every one of us. "Your SPE" means it does not matter what job you do, where you are located, or what nationality you are—SPE is yours.
My priority will be to interact with our members by visiting as many regions and sections as possible to listen and report back to both all of you and the SPE Board of Directors. My monthly column will take the form of a "paper blog" in which I will describe my visits to sections around the world, share their good ideas, and seek solutions to local challenges. In support of this, I asked staff to set up a "debating forum" on SPE's home page: the President's Forum. Your feedback through this new forum will provide invaluable support to this effort. It is my vision that all members can debate and react to my column on this platform and I can join in to learn more about your needs and issues. I don't know whether this will work, but we will give it a try!
With 170 local sections worldwide and regional offices in London, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, and Moscow, I have a hectic schedule ahead of me. In the next few months I will be visiting Russia, Australia and New Zealand, the U.S., the Middle East, and Malaysia. My first blog will feature a recent trip to China, which offered many fascinating insights.
Comments: Industry Pioneers
Authors: Donnelly John 
Published: February 2015

Editor's column
Elsewhere in this issue is the obituary of Charles S. Matthews, coauthor of SPE's first monograph and the recipient of some of the Society's highest honors. The longtime Shell reservoir engineer and manager did pioneering work in well testing, enhanced recovery, tar sands, and geothermal energy.
His monograph, coauthored with D.G. Russell, Pressure Buildup and Flow Tests in Wells, was published in 1967 at a time when SPE was putting great effort into building up technical offerings to members and to the industry, and enhancing member services in general. In addition to the monograph series, the 1960s saw the creation of the Distinguished Lecturer Program, continuing education courses, standing technical committees in the major disciplines, the SPE Journal, and the Videotape and Traveling Lecture Series. The standing committees improved the content of SPE's Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) by securing papers in the major technology fields.
Matthews’ and Russell's monograph was followed by publication of Hydraulic Fracturing by G.C. Howard and C.R. Fast. Both monographs were widely praised for their technical accuracy and breadth, and quickly became required reading in both college petroleum engineering courses as well as continuing education courses. Fast, who was involved in the first hydraulic fracturing job in 1947 on the Klepper No. 1 well in the Hugoton field in Kansas and conducted the first commercial fracturing job in 1950 on Willis Wooley No. 7 in the East Texas field, died earlier this year as well. His obituary was in the July JPT.
Howard and Fast were honored in a special event at ATCE 2 years ago called "The Legends of Hydraulic Fracturing." The reception paid tribute to several of the pioneers in the first generation of hydraulic fracturing technology. Similarly, at last month's ATCE, pioneers in the drilling field were honored as "JPT Legends of Drilling." Honorees included William C. Maurer, Martin Chenevert, William Rehm, Marvin Gearhart, and Leon Robinson.
SPE, and the industry at large, dole out lots of awards, recognizing excellence in technical innovation, competence, and the transfer of knowledge. That dissemination of technical knowledge is a crucial need today, given rising global demand projections and the increasing difficulty of finding and producing oil. As 2008 SPE President Bill Cobb pointed out during ATCE, the challenges facing the industry now appear to be as great as they ever have been. Even as alternative energy use grows, hydrocarbons are likely to be in great demand for at least another quarter- to half-century. Some projections show global oil demand during the next 25 years rising 50%, to more than 120 million BOPD. With current decline rates, that means the industry will have to double current production of 80 million BOPD in the next 25 years. That makes efforts to transfer technical knowledge as critical as ever, and it makes honoring those who have played a key role in developing and disseminating knowledge equally as important.
Nanotechnology Products Hold Promise for E&P
Authors: Rae Alan 
Published: February 2015

Technology Update
The oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) industry is going through an interesting transition. When new reservoirs were being discovered on land, at reasonable depths and with reasonable chemistries, the need to change materials was limited, and there was little pressure to improve the technologies used to explore for and extract hydrocarbons. How things have changed! Sour wells, complex reservoirs, high temperatures, low temperatures, high viscosities—to name just a few changing parameters. Combine this with tightening environmental regulations at the well, on the platform, and at the refinery and you have a ‘perfect storm’ of changing materials needs.
Some things haven't changed. E&P is still a mature industry that counts every penny. We may have discovered all of the readily extractible, large-scale reservoirs—such discoveries are now scarce at best—and hence we need to extract the remaining molecules as efficiently and as cost-effectively as possible. We certainly don't need costly "rocket science" solutions to our materials problems.
It always seems to be an exciting time in the materials business. In the 1950s it was aerospace alloys. In the 60s and 70s it was plastics and the space race, the 70s and 80s ceramics; the 90s had optoelectronics and the other materials of the information technology revolution. The last decade has been nanotechnology's time in the sun. Those who have spent careers in the materials industry recognize a number of common factors in all of these—for high performance you need pure, small-grained, and reactive materials in pure or composite form.
Nanotechnology isn't really new; it only became an area for research when we could image and measure it, and therefore manage it. New tools such as the atomic-force microscope and improved electron microscopes enable us to measure—and thus control—the size and the size-related properties of nanometer- (nm-) scale particles and structures.
Micron- (1000 nm-) sized products such as paint pigments are common; subnanometer-sized products are atoms and small molecules. So what is so special about the 1–100-nm realm? It all comes down to structure and reactivity. Small particles have relatively more surface atoms looking to form bonds with their neighbors than large particles. Their size means they are too small to scatter light (hence their use in sunscreens and automobile clear-coat). They can react at low temperatures, below 200°C, to form useful structures (as in printed electronics). Their structures may contain nanosized pores for selective absorption and controlled release (zeolites and nanotubes) or can develop exceptional strength (as seen with carbon nanotubes in sporting goods). They can have unusual biological, thermal, magnetic, optical, or electrical properties (giant magneto resistance, quantum dots).
Troll West Oil Field - A Giant Gas Field Becomes the Largest Oil Field on the Norwegian Continental Shelf
Authors: Denney Dennis 
Published: February 2015

This article, written by Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 112616, "Troll West Oilfield Development-How a Giant Gas Field Became the Largest Oil Field in the NCS Through Innovative Field and Technology Development," by Richard Dyve Jones, StatoilHydro, and Erland Saeverhagen, SPE, Arve K. Thorsen, SPE, and Sveinung Gard, SPE, Inteq, prepared for the 2008 IADC/SPE Drilling Conference, Orlando, Florida, 4-6 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
The Troll West oil field has been developed with more than 110 horizontal subsea wells including 53 multilateral (ML) wells. The thin oil rim was developed through extensive use of multilateral drilling and wells containing up to 7 horizontal branches. The process of drilling the ML wells and the benefit/risk evaluation for the ML process are discussed.

Introduction
The Troll field is offshore Norway on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in 300-m water depth, as shown in Fig. 1. The field was discovered in 1979 and covers an area of 750 km2. Drilling of the production wells began in 1994, and production began September 1995. Oil production to September 2007 was 188.3×106 m3 of oil, all from horizontal wells. The 250 horizontal sections have drilled 900 000 m, including 560 000 m of reservoir section.

Field Description and Challenges
Gas and oil are found mainly in the Sognefjord formation and in the underlying Fensfjord formation. The oil in the Troll West is from a 22- to 26-m thick oil column under a small gas cap. In the Troll West gas province, there is a 12- to 14-m-thick oil column and a gas column up to 200 m thick. The Troll reservoir sands are of two distinct types, with large grading between. The C sand is a clean coarse sandstone, with permeability ranging from 1 to more than 10 darcies. The M sand is micaceous, with a finer grain size than the C sand, and, in general, has permeabilities in the range of 1 to 100 md. The sorting in this sand is poorer than in the C sand; therefore, the permeability is less.

Recovery Strategy.
Oil production is through long horizontal wells drilled just above the oil/water contact (OWC) in the thin oil zone. The main recovery strategy is pressure depletion, but with simultaneous expansion of the gas cap above and the water zone below the oil. In the Troll West oil province, some of the gas produced has been injected back into the reservoir to optimize the oil production. One important aspect is to recover the oil quickly, because less oil can be extracted when the pressure declines in Troll East. Therefore, limits were placed on gas extraction from Troll East.
Technology Focus: Tight Reservoirs (November 2008)
Authors: Kubala Gregory 
Published: February 2015

Technology Focus
Attention to tight reservoirs has moved beyond the boundaries of North America as the importance of these hydrocarbon systems as global energy assets continues to grow. In addition to the complex geology, petrophysics, and reservoir heterogeneities dealt with in our industry today, tight reservoirs (&lt;0.1-md permeability) provide unique challenges related to hydrocarbon storage and flow.
Over the coming years, drilling wells with an ever-reducing surface spacing will strain available resources. New technologies and processes (e.g., improvements to drilling and completion of horizontal wells) will be developed to increase reservoir contact and drainage, which in turn will improve operations efficiency, production, and recovery significantly. Effective exploitation of tight reservoirs will depend on new technologies and on improving the fundamental understanding of tight reservoirs over the life cycle of the field.
The evolution in fundamental understanding will rely on obtaining critical reservoir data including saturations, wettability, capillary pressure, structural features, deposition and diagenetic effects, volumes, mineralogy, lithology, in-situ stress effects, and rock strength. It will also rely on the ability to incorporate the structural, mechanical, and petrophysical properties of the reservoir into simulators so one may simulate and assess different reservoir-drainage strategies.
Achieving continuous subsurface monitoring and measurement during drilling, completion, stimulation, and production will be critical to evaluate the drainage behavior and to validate the optimization of the field-development strategy. In this way, we will not only lower capital expenditures, investment-recovery times, and operating costs but also ensure maximizing the recovery of the hydrocarbon from the reservoir over the life of the field.
Papers selected for this month's feature focus on the industry's progress in building the tight-reservoir knowledge base and how we are crafting methodologies to improve our decision making in reservoir development, characterization, and production.
Tight Reservoirs additional reading available at the SPE eLibrary: www.spe.org
SPE 110050 • "A Comparative Study of Capillary-Pressure-Based Empirical Models for Estimating Absolute Permeability in Tight Gas Sands" by J.T. Comisky, SPE, Apache Corporation, et al.
IPTC 11545 • "A Case Study: Using Wireline Pressure Measurements To Improve Reservoir Characterization in Tight Gas Formation—Wamsutter Field, Wyoming" by R.A. Schrooten, BP plc, et al.
SPE 110809 • "Barnett Shale Completions: A Method for Assessing New Completion Strategies" by R. Leonard, ProTechnics, et al.