Miskimins

After 3 years and 12 executive summaries, this is my final incarnation of this commentary. I am completing my 3-year appointment as the Executive Editor (EE) of the SPE Production & Operations journal and handing control over to the new incoming EE, Dean Wehunt. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as the SPEPO journal EE; but, if I’m being honest, I am looking forward to not having to login to ScholarOne Manuscripts on a daily basis!

It was evident to me from the first day in this position that I was going to need a lot of help and input from various people, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them. From the full-time SPE staff, I wouldn’t have survived this endeavor without the help and support of Stacie Hughes, who graciously handled my daily questions and concerns. Thanks also to Jeff Andrews, who final edits the SPEPO papers, for his sense of humor and forgiveness of my tardiness with deliverables such as this summary. Glenda Smith, Rebekah Stacha, and Chris Carpenter, thank you for your help and insight during the past 3 years.

From the technical side, thank you to all of the SPEPO Associate and Technical Editors. They are the ones who do the real work and are the reason SPEPO can provide the high-quality papers that it does on a quarterly basis. The Associate Editors for SPEPO include John Bagzis, Frank Chang, Craig Cipolla, Ian Collins, Joyce Holtzclaw, Shauna Noonan, Liang-Biao Ouyang, and Joseph Smith. I owe these eight people a great deal and want to thank them for their service and time and the commitment they’ve shown to the journal. It is through their individual efforts that the average time to publish in SPEPO is currently 85 days, down from 115 days in 2010 and well within the SPE Board of Directors goal of 112 days. Additionally, during the past 3 years, we have added more than 155 papers to the peer-reviewed literature in the area of production and operations. Although the Technical Editors are too numerous to mention here, their efforts are equally important in contributing to the quality of the journal, and I’d like to take this opportunity once again to thank them all for their efforts in this area.

Overall, I’d have to say that serving as the Executive Editor was a very enjoyable and rewarding experience for me personally, and I encourage you to consider adding your service to this journal (or one of SPE's other six peer-reviewed journals) as a Technical Editor or an author or in whatever capacity you find that suites your time and interests.

This edition of SPEPO contains nine papers for your review. We have three papers in the area of artificial lift. Review of Electrical-Submersible-Pump Surging Correlation and Models provides a review of both correlations and mechanistic model results for electrical-submersible-pump (ESP) surging behaviors and compares them to experimental results from a closed loop system containing a 24-stage ESP. Assessing Gas Lift Capability To Support Asset Design discusses a multidisciplinary approach to installing a gas lift system in certain Qatar fields that honors input from all potential stakeholders. The third artificial lift paper, World's Deepest Through-Tubing Electrical Submersible Pumps, discusses the deployment of the world’s two deepest through-tubing ESP installations that were installed inside 7-in. casing.

This edition contains one paper where coiled tubing is the main topic. Case History: Lessons Learned From Retrieval of Coiled Tubing Stuck by Massive Hydrate Plug When Well-Testing in an Ultradeep-Water Gas Well in Mexico provides a case study where a hydrate plus formed while the coiled tubing was being pulled out of the hole. The steps taken to free the coiled tubing are discussed, along with the best practices that resulted from the situation.

From the area of liquid loading, New Perspective on Gas-Well Liquid Loading and Unloading discusses how the conventional idea of droplet flow reversal does not describe reality, but that film-flow reversal does a better job of describing actual observations. On the basis of these observations, the benefits of hydrophobic tubing coatings are also reviewed.

Four papers in the area of stimulation are included in this issue. Surface-Area vs. Conductivity-Type Fracture Treatments in Shale Reservoirs provides guidelines for the integration of various data to aid in choosing between surface-area and conductivity-type hydraulic-fracturing-treatment designs in shale systems. A new hydraulic-fracture model that simulates complex hydraulic-fracture propagation in naturally fractured reservoirs and predicts whether the hydraulic fracture will cross or terminate at the natural fracture interface is the subject of Modeling of Hydraulic Fracture Network Propagation in a Naturally Fractured Formation. Experimental Evaluation of Guar-Fracture-Fluid Filter-Cake Behavior provides experimental results on the thickness of the polymer-gel filter cake deposited during the fracturing processes and the yield stress of the polymer-gel concentrate that accumulates in the fracture. The final paper in this edition, Damage Mechanisms in Unconventional-Gas-Well Stimulation--A New Look at an Old Problem, provides simulation results of damage effects in a low-permeability, unconventional reservoir and the impact these effects can have on production results.

In conclusion, I would like to thank you, the SPEPO reader, for your support of the journal during my tenure! I hope you find this edition of the SPE Production & Operations journal and the included papers beneficial in your everyday efforts.