Introduction to Technology Series
0800–0930, Monday, 12 November
Hilton Anaheim
Sponsored by 
SPE’s Introduction to Technology Series provides both new and experienced oil and gas professionals with high-level overviews of decision-making processes associated with a broad range of real-world projects. Each session features technical experts who will address their specific technical disciplines to provide the audience with a better understanding of why choices were made by the decision makers in those situations.
| PLEASE NOTE: These sessions are currently full. If there are "no shows" on-site, people interested in attending may wait until the sessions begin to see if there is any seating available. |
Session topics include the following:
Drilling: The Art and Science of Well Planning
The drilling process makes it possible to extract precious hydrocarbons and detailed information from the subsurface. This special session will address key aspects of well planning to showcase the challenges and marvelous engineering required to provide cost-effective, usable wells in harsh downhole environments fraught with complexity, risk, and uncertainty. The first presenter will focus on deepwater wells, and the second will discuss onshore, horizontal drilling. The interactive, case-history-based presentations will demonstrate the wide range of objectives, the issues and technologies involved, and the contrasting perspectives of major and independent operators.
Speakers
- Jennifer McCarthy, Drilling Engineer, Alta Resources
- Colin Leach, President, Argonauta Drilling Services
Reservoir Engineering: Heavy Oil and Tight Gas
Heavy oil and tight gas are two major unconventional hydrocarbon resources which are gaining a larger share of the world energy supply. This special session will address reservoir and well behavior and the engineering techniques required to evaluate these important assets. The first presenter will focus on the evaluation of heavy oil reservoirs and the second will discuss tight gas reservoirs. The objective of this session is to present problems which are specific to these unconventional resources. The presentations will discuss the mechanics of how to solve a problem, give insight into the available methods, and highlight the pitfalls, assumptions, and the thought processes that one goes through to solve a problem. Interactive discussion is encouraged.
Speakers
- Edward Hanzlik, Petroleum Engineering Consultant, Chevron
- George Petrosky, Staff Reservoir Engineer, ConocoPhillips
Well Completions
The well completion is the vital connection between the reservoir and the well system. An optimized well completion maintains wellbore integrity throughout the life of the well, while providing as little restriction to fluid entry into the well as possible. This special session will illustrate how the performances of various well completion types (openhole, cased and perforated, slotted or perforated liners, gravel packs, frac packs, and hydraulically fractured) affect the overall behavior of wells. The first presenter will present a straightforward analysis procedure that can be applied to predict or evaluate the performance of any completion type. The second presenter will illustrate the profound importance of proper completion practices with a series of case studies.
Speakers
- Dan Hill, Robert L. Whiting Chair in Petroleum Engineering, Texas A&M University
- Carl Montgomery, Senior Technical Advisor, ConocoPhillips
