Miskimins

As Executive Editor of the SPE Production & Operations journal, I am frequently asked: "How do I get my paper selected for peer review publication?" SPE has done a good job of outlining answers to this question and similar ones on the "Papers/Publications/Authors" tab of the society’s website. However, I thought I’d review five key points that make a paper a good candidate for peer review from SPE's standpoint.

The first key requirement is the paper’s relevance to the technical scope of the journal to which it is submitted. SPE has seven peer-reviewed journals, so submitting authors should review the topics covered by each of the journals and submit their work accordingly. This area also acknowledges that the paper should be relevant to the professional interests and activities of the readership. The second key area is innovation. Papers submitted for peer review should present new knowledge or technology or provide a new way to analyze previously known facts or technologies. Some people have told me that they didn’t think their case study qualified for peer review because it wasn’t "new." However, case studies and review papers can be suitable if they provide new insights, techniques, or deductions.

Next on the list is technical detail. As a general observation on my part, this third area seems to present problems for many peer-review candidates. In the area of technical detail, authors should keep in mind that not only should the paper’s logic be sound, but it should also provide sufficient detail to the reader to allow them to replicate the work and apply it in other situations to aid the reader in their own work. People read journals such as SPEPO to learn from others. Being able to apply the technology in their situations is a key benefit.

The fourth criterion is presentation and documentation. There are several components to this requirement, and I encourage you to review them in detail on the website. However, in general, this requirement asks authors to present their work in a well written, logically organized format with adequate documentation for their claims. The final requirement is professional conduct. This requires that papers not be commercial in nature and not contain plagiarism. Ideas and materials from others need to be correctly attributed and referenced, and substantial portions of the text or data cannot have been previously published.

I hope this brief review of peer-review criteria has helped not only the potential authors out there, but also you, the reader, in understanding why certain papers appear in this and the other SPE journals. Now, on to our content for the May edition of the SPE Production & Operations journal.

In this issue of SPEPO, nine papers cover the areas of case studies, hydraulic fracturing, intelligent wells, and liquid loading. Three papers fall under case studies, including Technical Evaluations To Support the Decision To Reinject Produced Water, which discusses the reinjection of produced water supplemented by seawater. It discusses associated modeling performed to evaluate scaling and souring potential. Well-Integrity Assessment and Assurance: The Operational Approach for Three CO₂-Storage Fields in Italy reviews a step-by-step approach taken by the operating company to evaluate three fields and the associated wells in preparation for CO₂ sequestration projects. The use of reservoir simulation to diagnose well production inefficiencies in coalbed methane fields in the San Juan basin is the topic of Well-Production Challenges and Solutions in a Mature, Very-Low-Pressure Coalbed-Methane Reservoir.

Modeling the Dynamic Pressure Response of Ball-Actuated Stimulation Sleeves is the first paper about hydraulic fracturing. It discusses the use of surface pressure signals to determine downhole events such as sleeve shifting and fracture initiation. Stress interference in multiple fractured horizontal wells modeled in 3D is the subject of Optimizing Fracture Spacing and Sequencing in Horizontal-Well Fracturing. Investigation of Effect of Fracturing Fluid on After-Closure Analysis in Gas Reservoirs provides guidelines for the analysis of mini-frac data when different fluid systems are used. The paper documents case studies where this analysis technique is used. New Correlations of Acid-Fracture Conductivity at Low Closure Stress Based on the Spatial Distributions of Formation Properties discusses extensive numerical modeling that resulted in correlations to better predict the primary coefficient in the Nierode-Kruk acid-fracture-conductivity correlation.

From the area of intelligent wells, Economic Comparison of Intelligent Wells in Simultaneous Production of Oil and Gas Reserves From Single Wellbore describes the use of intelligent multilateral wells to produce oil and gas simultaneously from a thin-oil reservoir using one wellbore. The final paper in this edition discusses a liquid loading topic. Gas Well Liquid Loading From the Power Perspective provides information on modeling a synthetic gas well and the study of the synthetic energy necessary for production optimization throughout the life of the well.

On behalf of the numerous editors who contribute to SPEPO, I hope you enjoy the selection of papers presented in this edition of the SPE Production & Operations journal.