Technical Sessions

Session 1: Reservoir Management in the New Landscape of the Future

Session Managers: Geoff Warren, Shell; Nigel Jenvey, Maersk

Reservoir management is not a new concept, but the future landscape for reservoir management is changing. New technologies are emerging and technologies that we cannot imagine today will play unforeseen roles in the future.

Session one sets the scene for the Forum by first discussing the question ― What is different about the reservoir management of today compared to where we were 10-15 years ago? The session will cover a broad spectrum of reservoir environments from frontier through unconventional to highly mature reservoirs. Differing drivers for reservoir management will be discussed from the view points of NOCs, IOCs, and Independents. The impact of government regulations will be aired. And finally, we will discuss the technologies and resources that have played a key role in the past to see if we can extract any clues as to what the future holds.

Session 2: Back to the Fields of the Future – What New Strategies are Required?

Session Managers: Francis Boundy, Hess; Chris Cook, Statoil

The era of "easy oil" is over and yet the worldwide average oil recovery factor is still only estimated at 35%.  The Fields of the Future will be deeper, tighter, more heterogeneous and more remote. What new challenges will these fields pose for reservoir management?  Increasing recovery for both the existing and fields yet-to-be-found in the frontier areas will require holistic planning to incorporate proper and new technologies that are economically viable. What new strategies are required to meet the next generation of reservoir management?  What and how will we gather key information to meet geological uncertainties that stand in our way of reaching economic oil recovery factors of +60%?

Session 3: Monitoring Technologies & Reservoir Surveillance

Session Managers: Tim Whittle, BG; Tor Bjornstad, Institute of Energy Technology

Some impressive monitoring and surveillance technologies have been developed in the oil and gas industry over the last thirty years but many are still optional extras: Why is that? This session will seek to identify the reservoir monitoring technologies and surveillance techniques that in future will or perhaps should become standard practice and others that are currently in development. A key question to be asked is: what is the value of the information obtained from permanently installed subsurface sensors given that the cost and technical challenge of intervention in modern complex wells can be daunting.

Session 4: Are we Getting the Most Out of Real-Time Data?

Session Managers: Tom Thrasher, ConocoPhillips; Tim Whittle, BG

Over the years, engineers have been asking for acquisition of real-time surveillance data from production/injection wells. Now that our wish has been largely addressed, the challenge has become the management of, access to, and organisation of the data, as much the data analysis itself. The easier it is to access the data, the more likely the engineer will choose to look at it.

Once the data are visible, the opportunities for analysis become more transparent. In general, the underlying theory of analysis has not changed radically over the years, perhaps with the exception of deconvolution and rate-transient analysis. Rather, it is the efficient and easy application that is essential to the future of real-time data analysis. Methods need to be fit-for-purpose and semi-automatic, while still allowing directional steer from the engineer. This session will review some of the emerging real-time analysis methods that will allow the engineer to do more analysis with more data with less effort.

Session 5: Assuring Flow From Reservoir to Export

Session Managers: Abul Jamaluddin, Schlumberger; Birol Dindoruk, Shell

Impediment to flow caused by either fluid phase behaviour coupled with the dynamics of flow and/or production-chemistry-related issues in the wellbores and flow lines has long been identified in onshore or offshore shallow-water environments. These events became more severe in deepwater environment as the intervention is very challenging from both technical and cost considerations. Naturally, this situation demands careful considerations of fluid phase behaviour, fluid dynamics and production chemistry aspects at the design phase of field development. This session attempts to address the future of handling and understanding of transient-fluid flow, production chemistry, and monitoring and control.

Session 6: The Future of Reservoir Management, Integrated-Asset Management

Session Managers: Stan Cullick, Halliburton, P.K. Pande, Anadarko

With the evolution of reservoir-surveillance technologies, operators have the ability to obtain data that can be characterized as "wide in breadth and tremendous in quantity," including real-time data in all key areas of a producing system: subsurface, (pressures, 4D seismic, tilt-meters, satellite imagery, pressures), wellbores and surface-producing system (multiphase flow rate, temperature, and pressure at any point).  Effective reservoir managers in the future will need to integrate, and then react quickly to optimize production and recovery. Work processes and technology will have to evolve for seamless cooperation and integration of the wide range of disciplines that are needed across the entire project.  Future challenges explored in this session: 1) enable semi-automated control of complex systems with high-frequency streaming data; and 2) integrate significant quantities of data on demand, enabling optimal use of existing wells and infrastructure.

Session 7: Are we Getting Our Money’s Worth With Surveillance?

Session Managers: Bertrand Brun, Total, Bjorn Kvanvik, Petoro

This session will explore the value of surveillance. Surveillance often competes with other capital and work activities; therefore, our challenge is to convincingly demonstrate the value of information (VOI) to make a tangible difference in production operations. New methods need evolving to establish the value of surveillance and it may include systems, processes, and people.

How do we estimate the value of certain observations stemming from data that we did not even expect? Is there a hierarchy of importance of data when we integrate them in various reservoir-management workflows? Do we have the right tools for data archival/retrieval/analysis? What is the right data at the right time? Why monitor pressure at milliseconds and flow rates per month? Permanent cables for 4D seismic are seldom used because it is less expensive to engage a seismic boat when needed; is the VOI being considered in this context? There have been successful pilots of wired pipe, but few field applications. How could we use that data to create more value?

Session 8: How is the future for Reservoir Management? What Obstacles Lie Ahead?

Session Managers: Bertrand Theuveny, Schlumberger; Arvid Østhus, ConocoPhillips

This session discusses the needs and justifications of Reservoir Management (RM) as the industry moves into more challenging reservoirs and different commercial drivers. The future might bring special technical issues, in addition to resource and organizational issues that could impact the way we do RM. How do we make a business case for RM in this new environment? What are the challenges of change management implementation that lies ahead? How do we fund the implementation? How do we sustain its long-term needs? What are the skills requirements for the next generation RM?  How do we evaluate its successes?

Session 9: Path to Adoption

Session Managers: Shah Kabir, Hess; Tore Blaker, Statoil

This session synthesizes nuggets from preceding sessions. In particular, we will explore how reservoir management for hydrocarbon exploitation can be used far more efficiently in the future than what is practiced today. We will review the obstacles, challenges, and above all explore ways to make a business case for reservoir management in assets of various economic environments. We will attempt to illuminate on some of the key ideas, leading to the path to adoption.