Reservoir Description and Dynamics

The volume includes papers in the following areas:

• Reservoir Modeling
• Heavy-Oil Recovery
• Chemical EOR
• Unconventional Gas

Read the latest content at www.spe.org/go/speree.

Régis Kruel Romeu, SPE, Senior Consultant, Petrobras Research Center (CENPES)

Many reservoir engineers dislike the very idea of automatic history match- ing applied to real full-field studies. They believe there is no artificial substitute for experienced reasoning, deep understanding of the reservoir mechanisms, and atten- tion to real-life practical aspects of the problem. Some use terms such as art and intu- ition. For them, even if computers long ago learned to play chess, computers will never be able to perform real-case history matching on their own or at least they are still too far from this achievement. Very often, during technical sessions, immediately fol- lowing an advanced mathematical presentation on history matching, someone in the audience makes his or her point about the limits of automatic approaches. To avoid disputes, experienced speakers prefer less pretentious expressions such as assisted or semiautomatic history matching.

Mike Payne, SPE, Senior Advisor, BP

Exciting operations are ongoing on the shallow-water US offshore continen- tal shelf (OCS) that will influence the entire high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) community going forward. McMoran and their operating partners are actively drill- ing, evaluating, testing, and bringing to production several deep HP/HT plays. These prospects are named in the Treasure Island theme with identities such as Davy Jones, Blackbeard, and Lafitte. The Davy Jones 1 is in the completion phase, incorporating multiple Eocene Wilcox sands, and it represents the first 25,000-psi completion of its kind in the world. The Davy Jones 2 encountered confirmed pay and is progressing well. The original Blackbeard well was taken to 32,997-ft total depth, and operations on Blackbeard East have been permitted to 34,000 ft. As with Davy Jones, these wells represent substantial extensions to or step changes in current HP/HT technologies.

Enhanced Oil Recovery

142724 - The Role of Diffusion for Nonequilibrium Gas Injection Into a Fractured Reservoir
Y. Yanze and T. Clemens

143035 - Validation of Toe-to-Heel Air-Injection Bitumen Recovery Using 3D Combustion-Cell Results
M. Greaves, L.L. Dong, and S.P. Rigby

144234 - Thermally Active Polymer To Improve Sweep Efficiency of Waterfloods: Simulation and Pilot Design Approaches
R. Garmeh, M. Izadi, M. Salehi, J.L. Romero, C.P. Thomas, and E.J. Manrique

Carbon Capture and Sequestration

137313 - Storage of CO2 as Hydrate in Depleted Gas Reservoirs
O.Y. Zatsepina and M. Pooladi-Darvish

Reservoir Simulation

140935 - Gas Lift Optimization Using Proxy Functions in Reservoir Simulation
Q. Lu and G.C. Fleming

Formation Evaluation

128249 - Characterization of Sampling-While-Drilling Operations
S. Villareal, J. Pop, F. Bernard, K. Harms, A. Hoefel, A. Kamiya, P. Swinburne, and S. Ramshaw

132491 - High-Resolution Reservoir Monitoring Using Crosswell Seismic
A. Nalonnil and B. Marion

Tight Gas

138843 - Impacts of the Number of Perforation Clusters and Cluster Spacing on Production Performance of Horizontal Shale-Gas Wells
Y. Cheng

143666 - Probabilistic Production Forecasting for Unconventional Reservoirs With Stretched Exponential Production Decline Model
B. Can and C.S. Kabir

143990 - A New Analytical Method for Analyzing Linear Flow in Tight/Shale Gas Reservoirs: Constant-Rate Boundary Condition
M. Nobakht and C.R. Clarkson

Gerd Kleemeyer, SPE, Shell--Global Solutions Upstream

Following an increased investment in advanced seismic solutions, we have experienced some remarkable boundary shifts in seismic-data quality in recent years.

Renzo Angeles, SPE, Senior Engineering Specialist, ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company

The value of information has a ubiquitous and sometimes pervasive role in modern well testing. From exploration to field management to surveillance, well-test practitioners deal with a wide array of measurements (e.g., pressure, flow rates, temperature, and fluid analysis) that, more often than not, encompass large amounts of data. Yet what seems to be a relative abundance of data often is challenged by the complex environments in which we operate and by our need to assess its value against associated costs and business risks.

View the December 2011 issue

Pressure-Transient-Test Applications

149567-PA - Pressure-Pressure Deconvolution Analysis of Multiwell-Interference and Interval-Pressure-Transient Tests
M. Onur, Istanbul Technical University; and C. Ayan and F.J. Kuchuk, Schlumberger

125043-PA - Practical Solutions for Pressure-Transient Responses of Fractured Horizontal Wells in Unconventional Shale Reservoirs
M. Brown, SPE, and E. Ozkan, SPE, Colorado School of Mines; R. Raghavan, SPE, Phillips Petroleum; and H. Kazemi, SPE, Colorado School of Mines

149807-PA - Semisteady-State Productivity of a Well in a Rectangular Reservoir Producing at Constant Rate or Constant Pressure
Jacques Hagoort, Consultant

137062-PA - Interpretation of Immiscible WAG Repeat Pressure-Falloff Tests
B.A. Stenger, SPE, Oryx Petroleum Services; S.A. Al Kendi, SPE, A.F. Al Ameri, SPE, and A.B. Al Katheeri, SPE, ADCO

Robin Beckwith, Staff Writer JPT/JPT Online

With oil shale estimates vastly overshadowing those for crude oil, why does oil shale remain a scarcely touched resource?

Syed A. Ali, SPE, Research Advisor, Schlumberger

Revitalizing mature fields embraces multiple objectives, especially maximizing production while minimizing capital expense and reducing the inevitable decline rate and minimizing the operating expense. The collective approach to meet these objectives is application of practical and focused engineering and geology tied with the application of enabling technologies.