bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Development and Use of Improved Wireline Formation Tester Technologies in Challenging Deltaic Reservoirs
Authors: Orban Nicolas , Ayan Cosan , Ardila Mario 
Published: December 2009

AbstractMany sedimentary features of gas fields are multilayered, deltaic, thinly laminated shaly sandstones consisting of channel and bar sands with limited lateral and vertical extension. Relying only on conventional openhole log data and performing correlations among nearby wells proved to be inconclusive in identifying gas reservoirs owing to their thin beds, high shale content, and variable formation water resistivity. Missing gas-bearing formations translates into lost productivity, while perforating water zones can have detrimental effects on well performance. Moreover, the limited lateral extent of these relatively tight gas sands leads to extremely depleted reservoirs alternating with layers with virgin zone pressures. As a consequence, the depleted layers face a significant overbalance while drilling with an oil-base mud system.Given these complexities, fluid identification and pressure measurements have a significant impact in resolving key uncertainties of such reservoirs. The main challenges faced during formation testing in the reservoirs studied have been a) laminated, low mobility and thin formations with varying water salinity, b) high depletion, resulting in extreme overbalance for some layers in new wells, c) possible formation damage while drilling, d) cable creep while station logging.Several different approaches have been recently launched to increase the success ratio of wireline formation testers (WFT's) in getting reliable pressures and fluid analysis, including real-time monitoring of each survey by reservoir engineers. This paper describes the development path and results from the new techniques: i) extra-large diameter probe, ii) elliptical probe, iii) the openhole driller, iv) cable creep correction and v) extra-extra high displacement pump unit. We will present each project and its impact on the improvement of WFT tester success ratio in such challenging environments.
Optimized Fracturing Design for Buried Hill Reservoirs
Authors: Dan-feng Xiao , Cun-rong Li , Qi Liu , Chang-ming Zhao , Wenming Huang , Ming-hui Zhang 
Published: December 2009

Abstract
The metamorphic rock reservoirs of buried hills in Hailaer oil field have many properties, such as, deeply embedded largely thickness, multifarious rock types, and rock character complexity. There are also widely natural fractured extensive up-growth reservoirs and low stress difference between reservoir and barrier. Therefore, the man-made fractures easily extend along vertical directions during fracturing construction. In this way, it results in low net pressure and narrow man-made fractures. The demanding width and length of these fractures are unavailable. On the basis of stress distribution feature between reservoir and barrier through analyzing factors affecting fracture three-dimensional extension, a new technique was developed and used for definitude controlling factor of man-made fracture extending. According to small volume hydraulic fracture results, utilizing fracture height control technology, optimizing fracturing operation scale and enhancing stimulation, the problem of fracturing lapse for low stress shielding reservoir is solved. This technology was applied to thirty wells. The rate of successful fracturing construction mission reaches to 81% and the effect is marked, the rate of successful of fracturing construction is enhanced and the production improved particularly.
Environmental Risks - Oil & Gas Operations Compliance and Cost Control Using Smart Technology
Authors: Rena S. 
Published: December 2009

Abstract
The objective of the paper is to review the environmental risks facing Oil & Gas industry with the perspective of reducing pollution and environmental compliance costs by using innovative technological tools.
The environmental risks of industry operations are many but are commonly associated with; drilling fluids containing toxic materials (including oil/grease, heavy metals, & naturally occurring radioactive materials); produced waters posing threat of accidental release; potential emissions of hydrogen sulfide in natural gas deposits with its deadly effects on human health; and blowout of exploratory wells (statistically, in 0.5–1% cases) under pressurized contents of a geologic formation resulting in harmful emissions; and other accidents severely impacting environment and the project economics.
To focus on general environmental risks, statistics of environmental incidences and preventions related to well drilling, pipelines incidents and spills/leaks are described. Guidelines and some economically feasible options based on technological advances to minimize risks to environment & human health are also listed.
However, the paper essentially emphasizes the importance of technological advances to reduce industry's operational and environmental compliance costs during all phases (exploration, drilling, production, transportation, and storage) of oil and gas exploration and production (E&P). An an example, using modern technology, a substantial cost reduction from $8M in 1980 to about $0.1M today is realized for a 50 sq-mile exploration survey. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that by 2020, the lower cost compliance technology programs could decrease cumulative industry environmental compliance costs by over $36 billion. The cost reduction coupled with better survey and monitoring data allows less intrusive methods with least impact on environment. Compliance cost reduction further provides opportunities for investing in continued research & development (R&D) towards achieving environmental protection goals. Therefore, special emphasis is to be given to applications of "smart technological solutions" in achieving essential goals of environmental protection, economic benefits and environmental sustainability.
Non-Explosive Solutions for High Performance and Operational Efficiencies
Authors: Schiavi Victor , Tjoonk Richard , Mahammed Hadj , Waheed Arshad 
Published: December 2009

Abstract
Although it is common to think of health, safety, and environment (HSE) as one focus area, in many countries where internal political stability is of concern, this area also includes security (i.e. HSSE). It is also discernible in such places that a considerable portion of non-productive time (NPT) is associated with waiting for the delivery of explosives to perform routine operations, such as casing perforating or pipe severing, or even setting bridge plugs or packers. The occurrence of NPT can result from many factors, but it primarily arises from the sensitive issue of moving explosives and the security measures it demands. In some cases, this lost time is conservatively estimated to be more than $12 million annually for a land-based operation. It is easily plausible to incur triple these costs for offshore operations, noting that these cost estimates do not account for the revenue losses attributable to a delay in production of hydrocarbons.
Considering the magnitude of the problem, a concerted effort was put forth to determine viable alternatives to the use of explosives. This paper presents a comprehensive range of non-explosive solutions, including field-proven technologies that address a majority of the operations encountered in the field. The solutions come in various forms, such as the use of slickline, electric line, or coiled tubing services with specialty tools, all depending on the well situation.
These technologies provide results and performances comparable to explosive-based methods and, in some cases (such as perforating before a hydraulic fracturing treatment), outperform the traditional solutions. There are also instances, such as in a highly deviated or horizontal wellbore, damaged casing or tubing, or tight restrictions, in which shaped charges will not work effectively but, with the versatility of perforating with coiled tubing using high pressure pumping and abrasive material, can surgically place perforations or sever pipe, as needed, at the preferred location.
The prospects of significantly reducing the NPT and improving performance are substantial. The case histories presented will validate the success of the technologies and their application in the industry.
Cementing Casing Strings across Salt Zones: An Overview of Global Best Practices
Authors: Hunter Bill , Tahmourpour Farzad , Faul Ronnie 
Published: December 2009

Abstract
The global oil and gas industry is being challenged to increase production to meet the rising world energy demand. One of the key areas now being explored and developed to meet this demand are reserves below massive salt formations.
To reach these reserves, it is necessary to drill through and case off the salt. Casing and cementing operations in such salt zones can pose particular challenges, ranging from the effect of salt dissolution on cement-slurry properties, to the potential dangers presented by salt creep to the integrity of the well and the need to plan for contingencies for potential zones of overpressure or lost circulation. This paper examines and explores the challenges inherent with cementing across salt zones in the global arena.
The current best practices for cementing casing strings across salt zones in some of the major subsalt basins of the world, including the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, are detailed and discussed.
This work should help assist those tasked with the construction of wells that have to penetrate significant salt formations to achieve their objectives safely and reliably.
Multistage Centrifugal Pumps for Drilling and Production Waste Injection Operations
Authors: Newman K. , Woolsey G. , McCosh K. , Hand E. , Boodhai M. 
Published: December 2009

Abstract
Injecting oilfield waste into suitable receiving formations is an effective and environmentally acceptable method to dispose of drilling and production waste including cuttings, drilling fluids, produced water, emulsions and other produced waste. Traditionally, solid waste is degraded to less than 300 microns and suspended as water-based slurry containing 20% solid matter. Rheological properties are controlled so that the slurry can be injected, typically using triplex pumps, under high pressure (1000 to 5000 psi) through a casing annulus or tubular into hydraulic fractures. At locations, where injection pressures are within limits and the disposal well and domain may cope, or be benefitted with higher rates of injection, increases in the rate of disposal is beneficial to operations due to the increased efficiency allowing faster ROP's or faster evacuation of waste storage devices.
This paper discusses the suitability and application of multistage centrifugal pumps for drilling waste injection and provides some data obtained during real time waste injection operations using multistage centrifugal pumps in parallel installation with traditionally used triplex pumps. Wear data in conjunction with engineering economic evaluation will be discussed. Slurry viscosity and particle size data will be presented to show the effect of pump shear on slurry properties and the implications for waste injection.
A multistage centrifugal pump proved capable of pumping waste slurry continuously at relatively high rates for a limited trial period of time. A multistage centrifugal pump provides a continuous flow without the pulsation normally associated with using a reciprocating plunger-style pump and the need to have such pulsation dampened. Laboratory testing and realtime subsurface injection data at an offshore installation indicates that multistage horizontal centrifugal pumps may offer some benefits compared to traditional reciprocating triplex plunger pumps. Some operations requiring relatively high flow rates with flow media containing solids may benefit from implementation of this style pump providing the net power requirement and equivalent downhole pressure requirement are within the pump design range, and there is available footprint at the location.
Oilfield waste can be disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner under zero-discharge conditions with the performance of the pump ensuring operational reliability and injection assurance. Operations on a global scale may benefit from this new application for multistage pumps. Decreased downtime together with slurry stability and controlled injection assures operational performance and cost effectiveness, enabling oilfield waste to be disposed in a safe, controlled and environmentally responsible manner.
Research on Environmentally Safe Temporary Plugging Drilling Fluid in Water Well Drilling
Authors: Cai Jihua , Wu Xiaoming , Gu Sui 
Published: December 2009

Abstract
In China, the drilling industry has had numerous environmental restrictions on some materials it uses and the methods of the disposal. Both the governors and the drilling engineers welcome the use of environmentally safe drilling fluid. However, there is a contradiction between maintaining borehole stability and protecting the permeability of the reservoir in water well drilling. The mud invades in the porosity in a large radius near the wellbore. With the flushing work, some of the invaded mud is cleaned. However, the majority of the mud remains in the porosity. The residual mud not only plugs the porosity but also is a kind of contamination to the aquifer. It becomes a barrier to recover the permeability of the promising aquifer and greatly decreases the yield of water. The paper proposes the use polymers such as Na-CMC, guar gum and HEC to develop temporarily plugging drilling fluid, combining with the bio-degradation principle in modern biology. This fluid is marked as self-degrading, harmless to the reservoir and can be widely used in oil, gas and water well drilling. Distinguishing from traditional temporarily plugged agents, it does not need additional unplugging technology which elementarily improves the unplugging technology. This paper analyses in detail the action mechanism of temporarily plugging drilling fluid and the enzyme degradation mechanics. Meanwhile, it presents the lab tests of viscosity and permeability recovery and the field trial in Zhangye city of Gansu province of North West China. The results of lab and field trial confirms the performance of temporarily plugging drilling fluid that it can be self-degrading, harmless to the reservoir, effectively maintains the borehole and plugs the leakage while remarkably recovers the permeability of the reservoir. Therefore, it has a promising future.
Fracture Diagnostics and Modeling Help to Understand the Performance of Horizontal Wells in the Jilin Oilfield, China
Authors: Wang Feng , Liu Xinghui , Liu Changyu , Zhang Yingan 
Published: December 2009

Abstract
The Jilin Oilfield is a large complex that consists of more than 20 individual fields. Most of the target zones in these fields are low permeability oil reservoirs. This paper describes fracture treatments in three horizontal wells from three different tight oil reservoirs in the Jilin Oilfield. Fracture diagnostics (microseismic and tilt mapping) and modeling analyses were conducted to understand fracture growth behavior and post-treatment well performance. The fracture orientation and dimension (length and height) for two horizontal wells were obtained from microseismic mapping. The microseismic results indicated that the measured fracture azimuths for both wells differed from expected fracture azimuths and that the fractures in both the wells grew much longer than designed and expected. Surface tilt mapping was performed for the fracture treatments of the third horizontal well. The results revealed that dominant fractures was created during the treatments were vertical in a shallow reservoir at an average payzone depth of 275 m. Fracture models were calibrated using the microseismic results for the first two horizontal wells. Production modeling analyses were also conducted. The mapping and modeling results were used to optimize fracture designs for the remaining stages and future well completions. The mapped fracture azimuths were also used for future horizontal well planning. This paper presents detailed case studies and discusses some lessons learned from these cases.
Start-up of Gelled Waxy Crude Oil Pipelines: A New Analytical Relation to Predict the Restart Pressure
Authors: Vinay Guillaume , Wachs Anthony , Frigaard Ian 
Published: December 2009

Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the problem of the start up of gelled waxy crude oil flows in a pipeline. Waxy crude oils are deemed to be weakly compressible, thixotropic and viscoplastic material. In severe situations, the waxy crude oil is fully gelled in the pipeline and the main issue concerning the restart of waxy crude oils relies on the estimation of the minimum pressure required at the pipe inlet. The objective of this study is to examine the possibility that the flow can restart for a pressure drop below the value predicted by the conservative relation Δp=4τyL/D, where τy denotes the yield stress, L the pipe length and D the pipe diameter, thanks to the combined effects of compressibility and thixotropy.
Using a 1.5D numerical model, we evidence that there exists situations where, though the pressure drop is below the theoretical minimum pressure drop 4τyL/D, the flow restarts thanks to the combined effects of thixotropic and compressibility. From a parametric survey, we derived a new analytical relation able to predict more accurately the minimum pressure required to restart pipelines filled with a gelled waxy crude oil. This relation accounts for not only viscoplastic effects but also for compressibility and thixotropic effects.
Performance of Formate Based Drilling Fluids for Gas Hydrates Drilling in Deep Water
Authors: Ning F. L. , Jiang G. S. , Zhang L. , Tu Y. Z. , Zhang H. 
Published: December 2009

Abstract
Marine gas hydrates have now become a hotspot of energy resource researches. Drilling is indispensable when exploring and exploiting gas hydrates existing in deep water. But it will be confronted with more complicated safe problems than that of the conventional marine oil & gas drilling. Drilling fluid is the crux of gas hydrates drilling and its performance is extremely important to the well-off drilling.
The hydrates inhibition and low-temperature stability of formate based drilling fluids as well as effect of hydrates inhibitors on the fluids were evaluated elementarily by the experimental system of gas-hydrate integrative simulation (ESGHIS). The results show that a basic system of formate based drilling fluids, which composed of seawater,3% HCOONa, 3%SK-2, 0.2%KPAM,0.1%LV-PAC, 2%SMP-2 and 0.3% modified starch, has a good performance stability under low temperature environment(−5°C −15°C °C). Adding NaCl and KCl, thermodynamic inhibitors, has little effect on the rheology properties of the basic system, while PVP(K30), a dynamic inhibitor, has a great effect on those. The basic system has a low ability of hydrates inhibition when they are used in deep water over 1400m. Low dosage of PVP(K30) can improve increasingly the hydrate inhibition of the basic system, and the suitable concentration is about 0.5%. Therefore, the formate based drilling fluids which contain high concentration of salts and low dosage of hydrate inhibitors, can meet the needs of gas hydrates drilling in the deep water.
Reservoir Monitoring Using Radar Satellites
Authors: Arnaud Alain , Granda Johanna , Banwell Marie-Josée , Duro Javier 
Published: December 2009

Abstract

Description of the material
InSAR (Interferometry for Synthetic Aperture Radar) technology is a spaceborne measurement method, capable of detecting ground motion with millimetric exactness using radar satellite images. Measurements are taken remotely, from the space.

Application
Ground motion monitoring with radar images can contribute to oil & gas reservoir monitoring in several ways: For oil & gas extraction areas, InSAR ground motion results support site safety since risk areas can be identified at an early stage. In addition for enhanced oil recovery, millimetric ground motion monitoring contributes to production efficiency: By mapping ground motion changes over the production area, InSAR measurements can aid the assessment of whether the pressure of injection is correctly distributed over the area.

Results, observations and conclusions
Ground motion has been detected with high precision and high resolution in several production areas. InSAR technology is particularly successful in EOR production areas. During specific periods, due to its millimetric accuracy, InSAR technology has been able to identify potential risk areas at an early stage which were later confirmed with other data. Therefore, InSAR technology has been proven as an efficient tool for risk prevention and production efficiency enhancement.

Significance of Subject Matter
InSAR technology is very valuable for reservoir monitoring, especially for EOR production. Surface displacement measurements combined with pressure and temperature surveillance in the reservoir deliver important information to understand how the production system is working. In the integration of these three surveillance methods, surface displacement monitoring is extremely relevant, because it provides an accurate measurement of the impact on the surface, and therefore delivers information to aid steam chamber distribution mapping and first alerts for excessive heave. As a summary, surface measurements can contribute to improve production efficiency, safety and reduce environmental impact in EOR production areas.
Is That A Gap In Your Safety Culture – A Discussion Paper on Leading Safety Excellence
Authors: Whitefield D. 
Published: December 2009

Abstract
Safety culture is now recognized as being a significant influencer of safety outcomes within the workplace. However positively changing safety culture has proven to be a bigger challenge than expected in many organisations. If current strategies and initiative have failed to have the impact that was desired, perhaps it is time to discard them and explore other options.
Using a traditional safety model where the physical environment, systems of work, and personal behavior all interact to impact on safety outcomes, this paper takes a a unique approach to revamp and reorganize this model in a pway which identifies the key drivers and outputs required. What emerges is a very practical and logical model that clearly shows the various strategies that should be focused on in the areas of safety control (safe environment), safety management (systems of work) and safety leadership (safe behaviours). With reference then to safety culture being an influencer of safety in general, and safety culture being directly affected by the safety attitudes of personnel, then safety leadership becomes the key driver for change.
Safety leadership is something that everyone already does. Effective and positive safety leadership on the other hand requires a safety thinking mindset, and then the application of leadership skills such as leading safe behaviours, coaching safety thinking and rewarding positive safety behaviors. In addition, some strategies that appear to be safety focused may in fact be harming safety culture. These include the recording and measurement of incident data, the use of safety slogans, and in particular the use of "zero harm" terminology. Organisation should consider discarding these strategies.