Journal of Petroleum Technology

Home / Issues / 2012-12

Featured this monthDepending on Guar for Shale Oil and Gas DevelopmentGuar has risen in importance during the last few years as the source of a significant ingredient that makes high-viscosity hydraulic fracturing as effective and cost-effective a process as it is.

Features

Guest Editorial The United Kingdom is attempting to recreate the unconventional gas bonanza that has transformed the United States from a nation with an energy industry in its sunset era to one rich in energy resources.

Young Technology Showcase A corrosion/erosion monitor that has been successfully used in topside installations is now available for subsea applications.

Russia Considers Its Unconventional Options Some of the biggest oil companies in Russia, and the world, are trying to figure out how to increase production at the potentially prolific Bazhenov field in western Siberia.

Management The cost and complexity of exploration and production technology are growing, increasing the difficulty for any one company to support an aggressive research and development agenda on its own. The convergence of these forces gives rise to an important question: How does innovation happen in the E&P industry?

Coiled Tubing Advances Improve Extended Reach Drilling Operations Fast setup and depth-specific capabilities make coiled tubing the fastest growing technology in the oilfield services industry.

Unconventional Resources Headline SPE Annual Conference Best practices in developing unconventional resources was one of the main themes during the 2012 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, held in San Antonio in October.

Technology Focus

Bit Technology and Bottomhole Assemblies

Martyn Fear, SPE, Vice President of Drilling and Completions, Husky Energy

The oil and gas business continues to migrate toward deeper plays, less drillable geology, and more tortuous directional objectives, all within a cost framework that sustained high oil prices are driving upward.

Guide to Borehole-Enlargement-Tool Selection Borehole enlargement (BHE) has become commonplace. Still, it can be very demanding from planning and execution points of view, particularly in deepwater basins. To address the needs of challenging applications, a variety of tools has been developed. The two primary BHE methods use either eccentric or concentric tools. Depending on the type of well that [...]

Geosteering With Sonic-Log Data Azimuthal variations with sonic logs have been observed in wireline and logging-while-drilling (LWD) data. Basic reactive-geosteering methods have been used, including drilling until a real-time sonic log detected a change in formation velocity then altering the wellbore trajectory. Taking sonic geosteering a step further has been proposed by providing real-time azimuthal images that show the velocities [...]

With Functionalization, Nanodiamonds May Increase Durability of PDC Cutters With downhole conditions shifting toward more challenging conditions, nanoparticles have been explored for more demanding applications. As a result of their inherent extremely high surface energy, these very small particles tend to attract each other or exist as clusters. Thus, nanoparticles can exist as micrometer-sized clusters, exhibiting overall micrometer features instead of nanometer characteristics. To [...]

New Model of Bit Whirl Takes Into Account Boundary Conditions at Bit/Rock Interface Previous analytical models of bit whirl considered bottomhole assembly (BHA) mass imbalance to model bit whirl. The model presented here takes into account the history-dependent boundary conditions at the bit/rock interface. Within this model, the geometry of the bit is characterized by three dimensionless parameters. The results show that, depending on the value of these parameters, the [...]

Production and Facilities

Hisham Saadawi, SPE, Vice President of Engineering, ADCO

Commissioning and startup of major oil and gas projects is a project in its own right, running in parallel with the main project. It requires years of advance planning. The management and detailed planning of this phase are crucial to the smooth transition from construction to operation. There are several reasons that, in recent years, the commissioning and startup phase is becoming more challenging.

Schoonebeek Heavy-Oil Redevelopment Requires Complex Chemistry Management The production chemistry management process undertaken during the design, commissioning, and startup of the Schoonebeek redevelopment faced challenging separation issues, saline water, and a multitude of other process conditions that resulted in a complex application portfolio. Chemical selection was conducted in adherence to health, safety, security, and environment (HSSE) directives and focused on unique produced [...]

Installation, Hookup, and Commission Phase of Ghana’s Fast-Tracked Jubilee Project The Jubilee Field Development, 60 km offshore Ghana, began Phase 1 production just 3.5 years after field discovery. Here is highlighted the successful execution of the in-country installation, hookup, and commissioning (IHUC) phase of the project in conjunction with operations readiness and assurance activities to bring the production system safely to an on-time ready-for-startup (RFSU) condition. [...]

Dukhan Field Major Projects See Benefit From Early Inclusion of Operations Team Qatar Petroleum (QP) involved its operations team from the early stages in two of its major projects implemented in the Dukhan field and experienced successful implementation of the projects by meeting the project schedule and cost, smoothly handing over the facility, and achieving the intended objectives with adequate safety and operational flexibility. QP-Dukhan’s operations team [...]

Startup of Pazflor Giant Offshore Angola Tackles Challenges From Two Reservoirs The Pazflor development includes four reservoirs in Block 17 deep offshore Angola, which produce to a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit through one Oligocene subsea loop and three Miocene lines connected to subsea separation units (SSUs) and subsea pumps, with associated-gas and water-injection facilities (Pazflor facilities). The startup of the Pazflor field required a [...]

Reserves / Asset Management

Delores James Hinkle, SPE, Director of Corporate Reserves, Marathon Oil

While preparing for this month’s feature on reserves and asset management, I had the privilege of reviewing more than 100 abstracts from papers presented on the topic over the past year at SPE workshops and conferences. Interestingly, more than 10% of those abstracts addressed risk in some fashion. Integration was another common topic. Finally, I was a bit surprised by the number of abstracts that contained the word "practical" in their title.

Correlating the Returns of Oil-Producing Projects Realistically Portfolio theory has been an important tool for economic-risk management. There are only three input parameters: mean return, standard deviation of return, and correlation between pairs of such things as assets, projects, and prospects. Although the model is simple, a problem with it is estimating the correlation because there are no historical data. Alternatively, correlation [...]

Fluid- and Rock-Property Effects on Reserves Estimation Precise reserves calculation is fundamental for production forecasting. Great efforts are made to obtain fluid and rock properties such as porosity, permeability, saturation, rock and fluid compressibility, viscosity, fluid gravity, gas z-factor, saturation pressure, reservoir pressure, and temperature. There is always uncertainty regarding the information because of instrument sensitivity and limitations, measurement error, environmental effects, [...]

Effective Completion and Reservoir Management With Well Logs Simulation history matching is a time-consuming task with many unknowns, and it yields several plausible answers. Scale differences in the data frequently obscure results, precluding effective application in completion strategies. Good history matching does not guarantee accurate production forecasts. Reliable predictions, required for well planning, depend on the ability to reduce uncertainties and to find [...]

Manage Fields With Intelligent Surveillance, Production Optimization, and Collaboration Asset professionals in Shell use advanced technologies and processes for field management and optimizing production performance. Real-time monitoring of wells and compressors has become the norm, delivering higher uptime and increased production. Wells and facilities with events or deviations (i.e., exceptions) are highlighted, enabling staff to focus on fixing critical wells and facilities. The information [...]