6/13/16 2:57 PM

July16_JPT_Cover.indd 1
J U LY 2 0 1 6 • V O L U M E 6 8 , N U M B E R 7 JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY
 ResFlow CV CHECK-VALVE ICD

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ResFlow CV full page for JPT June 16-CO-145466 AD.indd 1 5/9/16 4:17 PM
CONTENTS
Volume 68 • Number 7

14 GUEST EDITORIAL • AIMING FOR A BETTER OIL PRICE

As an example of an open system, the oil and gas market is a
function of several external forces. Free market supply and demand
may not yield a sustainable equilibrium price, but the deferral
of capital projects will result in a lack of global supply in just a
few years.

27 BREAKING FROM THE NORM TO REACH MARGINAL

OFFSHORE FIELDS
A number of companies are pushing for alternative approaches
to offshore development that seek to access marginal reservoirs.
Their differing and unique ideas call for a departure from the usual
playbook, but share a common goal of slashing capital costs.

34 BOPs BECOME THE FOCUS OF DATA-DRIVEN

SCRUTINY
Well control is built around huge steel machines, but the future
of the business is digital. Data have become a critical asset as A computer illustration shows
a standalone drilling tool being
operators and services companies work to increase the safety lowered into the subsea. Still under
and reliability of their products and operations. development in Norway, the tool is
designed to lower the cost of drilling
40 INCREASING EFFICIENCY, SAFER OPERATIONS KEY exploration wells by eliminating the
THEMES AT OTC need for a rig. Image courtesy of
Badger Explorer.
Coverage of the 2016 Offshore Technology Conference held in
Houston. Conference sessions covered new offshore technologies
and advances in existing technologies that reduce costs and
improve safety.

51 SPE ATCE TO FOCUS ON INDUSTRY DEPARTMENTS

TRANSFORMATION
The SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) 6 Performance Indices
from 26 to 28 September in Dubai will examine the theme of 8 Regional Update
transforming and shaping the future of E&P. It will be the first ATCE 10 President’s Column
held in the Middle East. 12 Comments
16 Technology Applications
53 MANAGEMENT • SOLVING THE CASING-WEAR
PUZZLE USING STIFF-STRING MODEL 20 Technology Update
Precise casing-wear prediction is important for improving well 22 Young Technology Showcase
integrity and longevity. This article proposes a new modeling 24 E&P Notes
method for casing-wear prediction which aims to reduce the 93 People
uncertainties in downhole wear estimation. 94 SPE News
94 SPE Events
95 Professional Services
96 Advertisers’ Index

An Official Publication of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Printed in US. Copyright 2016, Society of Petroleum Engineers.
TAM-189_Corporate_Ad_051016_outlines.indd 1 5/10/16 11:58 AM
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
We give
you the
56 RESERVOIR SIMULATION
William J. Bailey, SPE, Principal, Schlumberger-Doll Research superpowers
57 Project Tests High-Performance Cloud Computing for Reservoir
Simulations you’ve
60 Modeling of a Complex Reservoir Where the Normal Modeling Rules
Do Not Apply always
63 Use of Emulator Methodology for Uncertainty-Reduction Quantification
65 Simulation Analysis With Association-Rule Mining Plus High-Dimensional
dreamed of.
Visualization Introducing the world’s
first X-Ray technology
67 ARTIFICIAL LIFT for oil wells.
Mike Berry, SPE, Independent Artificial-Lift Consultant
VISURAY’s revolutionary VR90 ®
68 Evaluation of Intermittent-Flow Behavior Upstream of Electrical not only finds downhole blockages
Submersible Pumps
faster, it lets you see 2D and 3D
70 Run-Life Improvement by Implementation of Artificial-Lift-Systems reconstructions of the obstruction.
Failure Classification We’ll illuminate the problem, you’ll
72 Methodology Evaluates Artificial-Lift Requirements Amid High eliminate the problem. Better yet,
Uncertainty you’ll eliminate downtime and
increase profitability.
74 NEW-FRONTIER RESERVOIRS I
Simon Chipperfield, SPE, Chief Production Engineer, Santos
Contact us for a
75 A Flexible “Well-Factory” Approach to Developing Unconventionals
demonstration
visuray.com
78 A More-Rigorous Development Framework for Unconventional Reservoirs
80 Production Performance in the In-Fill Development of Unconventional
Resources

84 CO2 APPLICATIONS
Sunil Kokal, Principal Professional, Saudi Aramco

85 Chemical-Looping Combustion: An Emerging Carbon-Capture Technology

87 Viscosity and Stability of Dry CO2 Foams for Improved Oil Recovery
89 A Portfolio of Commercial-Scale Carbon-Capture-and-Storage
Demonstration Projects

91 CO2-Based Enhanced Oil Recovery From Unconventional Reservoirs

VISURAY ION
X-RAY VIS

The complete SPE technical papers featured in this issue are available
free to SPE members for two months at www.spe.org/jpt.
p opl
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The power of our resources means
nothing without the energy of our
people. Their focus and expertise make
our energy more dependable, more
sustainable, and more useful.

We are looking for experienced

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 archerwell.com/point
SPE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OFFICERS SOUTH AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN
Anelise Quintao Lara, Petrobras
2016 President
SOUTH ASIA
Nathan Meehan, Baker Hughes
John Hoppe, Shell
2015 President SOUTH, CENTRAL, AND EAST EUROPE
Helge Hove Haldorsen, Statoil Matthias Meister, Baker Hughes

2017 President
Janeen Judah, Chevron

Vice President Finance

SOUTHERN ASIA PACIFIC
Salis Aprilian, PT Badak NGL

SOUTHWESTERN NORTH AMERICA

Barrier
Roland Moreau, ExxonMobil Annuitant

REGIONAL DIRECTORS
Libby Einhorn, Concho Oil & Gas

WESTERN NORTH AMERICA

Andrei Popa, Chevron
failure is
AFRICA
Adeyemi Akinlawon,
Adeb Konsult

CANADIAN
TECHNICAL DIRECTORS
DRILLING AND COMPLETIONS
David Curry, Baker Hughes
certain.
Darcy Spady, Broadview Energy HEALTH, SAFETY, SECURITY, ENVIRONMENT,
AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
EASTERN NORTH AMERICA Trey Shaffer, ERM
Bob Garland, Silver Creek Services
MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION
GULF COAST NORTH AMERICA J.C. Cunha
J. Roger Hite, Inwood Solutions
PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS
MID-CONTINENT NORTH AMERICA Jennifer Miskimins, Barree & Associates
Michael Tunstall
PROJECTS, FACILITIES, AND CONSTRUCTION
MIDDLE EAST Howard Duhon, GATE, Inc.
Khalid Zainalabedin, Saudi Aramco

NORTH SEA
RESERVOIR DESCRIPTION AND DYNAMICS
Tom Blasingame, Texas A&M University
Well integrity
Carlos Chalbaud, ENGIE

NORTHERN ASIA PACIFIC

Phongsthorn Thavisin, PTTEP
DIRECTOR FOR ACADEMIA
Dan Hill, Texas A&M University
is at a tipping
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NORTH AMERICA
Erin McEvers, Clearbrook Consulting AT-LARGE DIRECTORS point.
RUSSIA AND THE CASPIAN Khaled Al-Buraik, Saudi Aramco
Anton Ablaev, Schlumberger Liu Zhenwu, China National Petroleum Corporation

Most integrity surveys only

evaluate barrier condition.
Archer’s new Point® system
JPT STAFF The Journal of Petroleum Technology® magazine is a
registered trademark of SPE.
evaluates barrier performance
SPE PUBLICATIONS: SPE is not responsible for any
Glenda Smith, Publisher statement made or opinions expressed in its publications. to locate leaks and flowpaths
John Donnelly, Editor
EDITORIAL POLICY: SPE encourages open and objective
discussion of technical and professional subjects per-
efficiently, accurately and
Alex Asfar, Senior Manager Publishing Services

Pam Boschee, Senior Manager Magazines

tinent to the interests of the Society in its publications.
Society publications shall contain no judgmental remarks
comprehensively.
or opinions as to the technical competence, personal
Chris Carpenter, Technology Editor character, or motivations of any individual, company, or Better well integrity means
group. Any material which, in the publisher’s opinion,
Trent Jacobs, Senior Technology Writer
does not meet the standards for objectivity, pertinence, improved profitability and
and professional tone will be returned to the contribu-
Anjana Sankara Narayanan, Editorial Manager
tor with a request for revision before publication. SPE reduced integrity risk.
Joel Parshall, Features Editor accepts advertising (print and electronic) for goods and

Stephen Rassenfoss, Emerging Technology Senior Editor

services that, in the publisher’s judgment, address the
technical or professional interests of its readers. SPE
It’s time to talk to Archer.
reserves the right to refuse to publish any advertising it
Stephen Whitfield, Staff Writer
considers to be unacceptable.
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use. This permission is in addition to copying rights grant-
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 PERFORMANCE INDICES

WORLD CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION1+‡ HENRY HUB GULF COAST NATURAL GAS SPOT PRICE‡

THOUSAND BOPD
6
O PEC 2015 JUL AUG SEP OCT
Algeria 1370 1370 1370 1370 5 USD/million Btu
Angola 1890 1910 1800 1810 4
Ecuador 538 537 539 538
3
Iran 3300 3300 3300 3300
Iraq 4375 4275 4425 4275 2
Kuwait* 2550 2550 2550 2550
1
Libya 400 360 375 415

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

2016
JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY
Nigeria 2270 2320 2320 2370
Qatar 1537 1537 1537 1537
Saudi Arabia* 10290 10290 10190 10140
UAE 2820 2820 2820 2820 WORLD CRUDE OIL PRICES (USD/bbl)‡
Venezuela 2500 2500 2500 2500

TOTAL 33840 33769 33726 33625 2016

OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY
Brent 48.43 44.27 38.01 30.70 32.18 38.21 41.58 46.85
THOUSAND BOPD WTI 46.22 42.44 37.19 31.68 30.32 37.55 40.75 46.83
NON-OPEC 2015 JUL AUG SEP OCT
Argentina 532 529 529 535
Australia 361 360 335 330 WORLD ROTARY RIG COUNT†
Azerbaijan 867 867 867 872
Brazil 2466 2547 2395 2406 2016
REGION NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY
Canada 3821 3912 3412 3581
US 760 714 654 532 478 437 408
China 4263 4278 4317 4259
Canada 178 160 192 211 88 41 42
Colombia 947 968 1009 1030
Latin America 284 270 243 237 218 203 188
Denmark 154 157 154 157
Europe 108 114 108 107 96 90 95
Egypt 524 511 510 509
Middle East 419 422 407 404 397 384 391
Eq. Guinea 250 250 250 250
Africa 90 91 94 88 91 90 91
Gabon 215 215 215 215
Asia Pacific 208 198 193 182 183 179 190
India 754 768 757 758

Indonesia 801 777 800 801 TOTAL 2047 1969 1891 1761 1551 1424 1405

Kazakhstan 1592 1593 1594 1595

Malaysia 599 591 652 619
WORLD OIL SUPPLY AND DEMAND2‡
Mexico 2308 2291 2306 2314
Norway 1611 1599 1581 1685 MILLION BOPD 2015 2016
Oman 1001 990 985 980 Quarter 2nd 3rd 4th 1st
Russia 10200 10180 10150 10140
SUPPLY 95.40 96.40 96.49 95.61
Sudan 257 254 255 257
DEMAND 93.32 94.97 94.08 94.22
Syria 30 30 30 30
UK 838 788 862 912
USA 9433 9407 9460 9347 INDICES KEY

Vietnam 343 307 348 333 + Figures do not include NGLs and oil from nonconventional sources.
* Includes approximately one-half of Neutral Zone production.
Yemen 22 22 22 22
1 Latest available data on www.eia.gov.
Other 2496 2479 2517 2509 2 Includes crude oil, lease condensates, natural gas plant liquids, other hydrocarbons for refinery feedstocks,
refinery gains, alcohol, and liquids produced from nonconventional sources.
Total 46685 46670 46312 46446
† Source: Baker Hughes.
Total World 80525 80439 80038 80071 ‡ Source: US Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration.

6 JPT • JULY 2016

 REGIONAL UPDATE

AFRICA (2C) resources to 4.48 billion BOE, an will be restored to its former state. Should
increase of 83 million BOE, following two results be favorable, additional consent and
Z Cairn Energy reported that the first-quarter discoveries offshore Myanmar. plan approval will be needed for further
SNE-4 appraisal well offshore Senegal The company announced the discovery of activity such as testing. InfraStrata is the
encountered a gross oil column of 328 ft. 105 ft of net gas pay in the Block A-6 Shwe operator with a 20% interest in the well with
Drilled as part of an appraisal campaign Yee Htun-1 exploration well—an increase of seven other companies holding stakes of
over the SNE field, which was discovered 56 ft from an earlier estimate—and 203 ft 9% to 16%.
in 2014, the well confirmed the correlation of net gas pay in the Block AD-7 Thalin-1A
and presence of principal reservoir units exploration well. Woodside’s early success MIDDLE EAST
between each of the wells across the in Myanmar establishes the petroleum
entire field. The 32 °API oil recovered to the system credentials of the Rakhine Basin, Z Circle Oil has produced oil from the
surface was similar to that seen elsewhere where the company is one of the largest AASE-24 well on the North West Gemsa
in the field, according to initial indications. acreage holders with interests in six blocks. field in Egypt. Drilled as part of the field’s
Cairn, the operator, has a 40% interest in 2016 infill campaign, AASE-24 recorded an
the well with the other interests held by Z Santos has spudded the AAL-4X average gross output rate of 1,714 B/D of
ConocoPhillips (35%), FAR (15%), and appraisal well in the Northwest Natuna oil and 3 MMcf/D of gas through a 40/64-in.
Petrosen (10%). Production Sharing Contract (PSC) offshore choke. The rate is being lowered to protect
Indonesia. The company-operated well is the field’s long-term production capability,
Z Eland Oil & Gas said that the company being drilled in 236 ft of water to a planned the company said. Circle has a 40% interest
and operator Nigerian Petroleum maximum 4,042-ft true vertical depth in the field, which is operated by NPIC,
Development Corporation (NPDC) have from mean sea level. The well targets the a subsidiary of Zhen Hua Oil (50%). The
completed re-entry work and boosted G Sand reservoir, which is estimated to remaining stake is held by SDX Energy.
production at the Opuama-3 well on hold 36 million bbl of gross recoverable oil
the OML license in Nigeria. Workover resources. Santos and AWE each have a NORTH AMERICA
operations included the perforation of 50% interest in the PSC.
two new intervals and production logging Z EOG Resources’ Chairman and Chief
runs in both strings. The combined flow Executive Officer Bill Thomas told investors
AUSTRALIA/OCEANIA
from the two strings was tested for 1 hr on on 6 May that the company has the ability
a 48/64-in. choke and produced at a rate Z Empire Oil & Gas reported encouraging to post strong returns with oil prices at
equivalent to 10,584 B/D of dry crude. test data from its solely owned Red Gully approximately USD 40/bbl and would post
NPDC holds a 55% interest in the license North-1 discovery well in permit EP 389 in triple-digit returns should prices spike to
with the remaining share held by Elcrest Western Australia. Test results from the USD 60/bbl. The Houston-based company
Exploration and Production Nigeria, Cattamarra C and Upper D intervals yielded is considered one of the most efficient US
Eland’s joint-venture subsidiary. an estimate of 7.5 PJ (1.2 quadrillion BOE) drillers. EOG is also successfully boosting
of contingent gas resources, which recovery from existing wells with relatively
are potentially recoverable but sub- low new investment, particularly in south
ASIA
commercial because of business and/ Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale. These projects “will
Z SapuraKencana Petroleum reported or technological hurdles. Testing of the get more efficient as we move forward, and
May 31 that it had discovered gas in a Lower D interval indicated a sandstone lower cost,” Thomas said.
three-well 2015 drilling campaign in of very low permeability that is unable
production sharing contract (PSC) SK408 to flow commercial quantities of gas and SOUTH AMERICA
offshore Sarawak in Malaysia. The Jerun-1 condensate. The Cattamarra C and Upper D
well, which is 3.1 miles north of the 2014 sands are being isolated from a high-water Z LGO has started production from a
Bakong discovery, is a multi-Tcf discovery zone and retested. new interval on well GY-671 in its solely
with an interpreted gross gas column of owned Goudron field in Trinidad. A total of
approximately 2,625 ft in the primary EUROPE 208 ft of perforations were added to the
target reservoir. The Jeremin-1 well well’s Upper C-sand reservoir following
encountered a gross gas column of 341 ft, Z InfraStrata has spudded the Woodburn the isolation of the zone with a packer.
and the Putat-1 prospect was a dry hole. Forest-1 well in County Antrim in Northern The interval had never been completed in
SapuraKencana is the exploration operator Ireland, the United Kingdom. With a the various surrounding wells. After initial
with a 40% working interest in the PSC. planned well depth of 6,561 ft, the drilling cleanup operations, the well flowed at rates
Petronas Carigali and Shell each hold targets three conventional sandstone of up to 240 B/D of oil before being choked
30% interests. intervals. P50 prospective resources back to a natural stabilized rate of 80 B/D.
targeted by the well are estimated at The additional production will complement
Z Woodside Petroleum has increased the 25 million bbl of oil. After drilling, the well a base field rate that averaged 403 B/D
company’s best estimate of contingent will be plugged and abandoned and the site in March. JPT

8 JPT • JULY 2016

 Stormy weather, seasoned team:
It’s time to make optimal decisions
about your reservoirs

More than ever, it is time to make the right decisions: develop production in the
short term, increase reserves, improve economics, update Field Development
Plans, implement adequate IOR/EOR strategy, prepare for the rebound.
Make sure your decision is supported by the best available expertise. Contact Beicip-Franlab.

• Green and brown field development • Multidisciplinary expertise at its best:

• Production enhancement - Geology
• Reserves, resources - Geophysics
• Clastics/carbonates, non conventional - Reservoir engineering
• IOR/EOR - Production engineering
• Optimal economics

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232, avenue Napoléon Bonaparte - BP 213
92500 Rueil-Malmaison Cedex - France
Phone: +33 1 47 08 80 00 - Fax: +33 1 47 08 41 85
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 IMPROVING PEOPLE’S LIVES

Minimizing Impact
Nathan Meehan, 2016 SPE President

Last December I had the pleasure of Manifa’s history can be contrasted with that of Prudhoe Bay
returning to the Kingdom of Saudi Ara- in Alaska. While specific reserve estimates for Manifa are not
bia and touring the giant Manifa oil field. public information, both fields are very large. The Prudhoe Bay
Manifa produces a heavy, sour crude oil field was discovered in 1968 and did not begin production until
from six, long (up to 40 km), stacked res- 1977. Prudhoe production peaked at about 1.5 million BOPD in
ervoirs in shallow water (Arukhe 2014). 1989. Prudhoe Bay crude averages 27.6 °API and had a signifi-
The shallow waters have abundant sea cant domestic market to serve. Manifa crude is 26–31 °API and
grasses and corals and are teeming with has from 2.8% to 3.7% sulfur content (Croft and Patzek 2009),
marine life. Shrimping and fishing are important parts of the with less of a market at the time. It is fairly astonishing that
local economy. The development of the Manifa field is a fas- roughly comparable fields would go down such radically differ-
cinating story showing how creative solutions can minimize ent paths.
impact on the environment. Manifa would remain mothballed until 2006. Saudi Aramco
Manifa was discovered by Saudi Aramco in 1957. The discov- redeveloped the field consistent with a very long life produc-
ery well targeted both the shallower formations productive in tion time horizon for its large reservoirs (Saudi Aramco 2016).
the large Safaniya coastal field and the deeper Arab formations But the old way of approaching shallow offshore fields would
so productive onshore. Neither zone was productive; however, not be acceptable.
the discovery found excellent productive layers in between, in- The use of jackup rigs in these shallow waters would have re-
cluding three that were only produced in small volumes on- quired excessive dredging, and the size of the reservoir elimi-
shore and three that had never before proved productive. The nated the possibility of effective development from the shore. A
heavy, sour crude was similar to Khursaniyah, one of the three new approach to development would be needed. A creative plan
major types of crude present in large quantities in the King- to develop man-made islands connected by a causeway would
dom. Demand was less for this crude than for Safaniya and Arab allow conventional onshore rigs to be used to develop this off-
crudes but the market for heavy sour crudes was improving shore field.
(Aramco World 1963). The first development was in 1962, and A long causeway was considered, but early designs would
the field was brought on stream in 1964. The field produced for have decreased water circulation vital to distributing nutrients
20 years before being mothballed in 1985 because of low de- and oxygen vital to marine life. With more than 4 million man-
mand (Aldossary 2015). hours of work in the design phase, a solution was developed to
build 27 man-made islands connected by 41 km of causeways.
To ensure needed water circulation, the causeway does not go
all the way across the bay and 14 bridges were built into the
causeway to further improve circulation (Aldossary 2015). Pro-
duction commenced in 2012 ahead of schedule and under bud-
get in a development that earned a UNESCO Environmental Re-
sponsibility Award nomination.
It is an impressive development of which Saudi Aramco
is rightly proud, with eventual production capacity of
900,000  BOPD or more. As our helicopter approached the
massive processing facility, I looked at the three large flare
stacks. There was nothing being flared. Was the field shut in?
No, the design and normal operations of the field use all of the
The design and operations practices of the Manifa oil produced gas and creative operations practices mean that al-
field enable high production with minimal environmental most no gas is flared. Excess electricity produced by the facili-
impact. ties goes into the power grid.

To contact the SPE President, email president@spe.org.

10 JPT • JULY 2016

 Walking to the edge of the offshore islands I looked into References
the crystal blue-green waters. They were much clearer than Aldossary, G. 2015. Manifa Oil Field Development Program–Onshore
the waters at the Pacific island resort I had come from a and Offshore Shallow Water Development. Presented at the
few days earlier. I was struck at how small the impact of a 2015 Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, Texas, 4–7 May.
900,000-BOPD facility could be. OTC-25663-MS. http://dx.doi.org/10.4043/25663-MS.
This production volume is comparable to the individual Aramco World. 1963. Manifa–Profile of a Decision. 14 (6) 18–21.
Eagle Ford, Bakken, and Permian Basin unconventionals. Not http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/196306/manifa-profile.
a fair comparison to be sure, but the contrast was striking. As I of.a.decision.htm.
have flown over the Fort Worth/Dallas area, the vastness of the Arukhe, J. 2014. Environmentally Friendly Manifa Field
surface impact of more than 16,000 wells is notable. Major Development—The World’s Largest. Presented at the International
unconventional plays cover huge areas and most wells to date Petroleum Technology Conference, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
have not been drilled from multiple-well pads. 10–12 December. IPTC-17833-MS. http://dx.doi.org/10.2523/
Individual well productivities and reserves for unconven- IPTC-17833-MS.
tionals are far lower than the Middle East, or even Alaska, re- Croft, G.D. and Patzek, T.W. 2009. The Future of California’s Oil
quiring orders of magnitude more wells to develop compara- Supply. Presented at the SPE Western Regional Meeting, San
ble reserves or production. In 2014, the combined production Jose, California, 24–26 March. SPE-120174-MS. http://dx.doi.
of the Bakken/Three Forks (North Dakota) and Eagle Ford org/10.2118/120174-MS.
(south Texas) plays was more than 2.4 million BOPD, with Energy Information Administration (EIA). 2015. U.S. Crude Oil and
proved reserves of just under 11 billion bbl of oil (EIA 2015). Natural Gas Proved Reserves, 2014. US Department of Energy,
These reserve estimates are likely to grow, perhaps one day Washington, DC. https://www.eia.gov/naturalgas/crudeoilreserves/
equaling or exceeding Prudhoe or Manifa. Subsequent drill- Saudi Aramco. 2016. Oil Recovery. http://www.saudiaramco.com/
ing will need to minimize impact through techniques such en/home/our-business/worlds-leading-supplier-of-energy/oil-
as these: recovery.html (accessed 17 March 2016).
◗ Making better use of pad drilling to decrease surface
impact
◗ Minimizing traffic
◗ Optimizing the use of flowback and produced water for
subsequent hydraulic fracturing operations
◗ Eliminating fugitive methane emissions and flaring
Close cooperation with regulators is one step forward. As
regulators use both “carrot” and “stick” approaches to reduc-
ing impact and maximizing economic and technical recover-
REGISTER NOW
ies, operators should be able to see clear priorities for subse- URTeC.org
quent developments. With current prices, activity levels and
capital investments have dropped dramatically. This decrease
in activity provides us a chance to carefully analyze our own
performance and identify ways of improving performance
when prices recover to acceptable levels.
A significant number of unconventional wells drilled have
not proved commercially viable. How can we either find ways
to improve their performance—through better geosteering,
alternative completion approaches, or otherwise—or elimi-
nate their drilling? The well that is not drilled has the least
1-3 AUGUST 2O16
environmental and economic impact of all! Some production HENRY B. GONZALEZ CONVENTION CENTER » SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

logs have indicated that a significant number of hydraulic

fracture stages contribute very little to wellbore inflow. These
logs may be misleading, or perhaps those apparently non-
producing stages helped to increase the production at subse-
quent stages. But guessing is not good enough. Existing inte-
grated natural fracture, hydraulic fracture, geomechanical,
geological, and reservoir flow models continue to have incom- The integrated event for unconventional
plete physics. Now is the time to solve these problems and find resource teams
ways to produce the massive unconventional fields in North
America more safely and economically, with minimal environ- Sponsoring Organizations: Supporting Organizations:

mental impact, and to make unconventional fields around the

world more viable. JPT

JPT • JULY 2016 11

 COMMENTS EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Bernt Aadnøy, University of Stavanger

Syed Ali—Chairperson, Consultant

Tayfun Babadagli, University of Alberta

Growth in Renewables William Bailey, Schlumberger

Mike Berry, Mike Berry Consulting

John Donnelly, JPT Editor Maria Capello, Kuwait Oil Company

Frank Chang, Saudi Aramco

Simon Chipperfield, Santos

The renewable energy sector is showing strong global growth, Nicholas Clem, Baker Hughes

especially wind and solar power, but oil shows no sign of los- Alex Crabtree, Hess Corporation
ing market share in the global energy mix, particularly after the Gunnar DeBruijn, Schlumberger
steep drop in oil prices over the past 2 years. Mark Egan, Retired
Investment in renewable energy reached an all-time high in
Mark Elkins, ConocoPhillips
2015, with developing countries spending more than developed
Alexandre Emerick,
countries for the first time. Spending on renewable energy hit Petrobras Research Center
USD 286 billion last year, 3% higher than its previous record
Niall Fleming, Statoil
spend in 2011, according to data from the United Nations Environment Program and
the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. That is in sharp contrast with the Ted Frankiewicz, SPEC Services

steep cuts in capital spending in oil and gas projects since the drop in hydrocarbon Stephen Goodyear, Shell
prices began, although spending in renewables overall pales in comparison with oil Omer M. Gurpinar, Schlumberger
and gas capital expenditure (capex). More than USD 150 billion was cut from oil and A.G. Guzman-Garcia, Retired
gas capex in 2015, with additional cuts evident this year.
Greg Horton, Consultant
Investment in new solar and wind projects rose 50% last year. The growth came
John Hudson, Shell
in developing countries, more than offsetting a decrease in renewable spending in
Europe and North America. Renewable investment in developing countries totaled Morten Iversen, Karachaganak Petroleum

USD 156 billion, according to the UN/Frankfurt School data, an increase of 19% from Leonard Kalfayan, Hess Corporation
the year before. Investment in developed countries equaled USD 130 billion, a drop Tom Kelly, Retired
of 8%. China spent roughly two-thirds of the developing country total (USD 103 bil- Thomas Knode, Statoil
lion), while India spent USD 10 billion and Brazil, USD 7 billion. China spent most of
Sunil Kokal, Saudi Aramco
the money on solar photovoltaic, onshore wind, and nine large offshore wind projects.
Marc Kuck, Eni US Operating
Renewables are making particular progress in power generation but have not been
able to make solid inroads in the transportation sector, a mainstay of hydrocarbon use. Jesse C. Lee, Schlumberger

Spending on biofuels has declined since peaking in 2007. Silviu Livescu, Baker Hughes
The annual Renewables Global Status Report and the annual BP Statistical Review of Shouxiang (Mark) Ma, Saudi Aramco
World Energy, both released in June, confirm the growth in renewables. “Renewables John Macpherson, Baker Hughes
are now established around the world as mainstream sources of energy” because of
Casey McDonough, American Energy Partners
increasing cost competitiveness, policy initiatives, better access to funding, and ener-
Stephane Menand, DrillScan
gy demand growth in developing regions, said the Renewables report, published by
REN21, an organization that works with governments, nongovernmental agencies, Badrul H Mohamed Jan, University of Malaya

and academia to monitor and promote renewable energy use. Michael L. Payne, BP plc
But the BP report points out that a new consumption record was set for oil in 2015 as Zillur Rahim, Saudi Aramco
well, underscoring the worldwide thirst for energy in a variety of forms. Global crude Martin Rylance, BP GWO Completions
production grew another 2.8 million B/D in 2015, with the US accounting for 1 mil- Engineering
lion B/D of that. OPEC increased output by 1.6 million B/D last year, according to the BP Robello Samuel, Halliburton
report. Including crude oil, shale oil, and natural gas liquids, the US is the world’s larg- Otto L. Santos, Petrobras
est oil producer at 12.7 million B/D with Saudi Arabia second at 12 million B/D.
Luigi A. Saputelli, Frontender Corporation
Due to its cheaper price, oil’s share in the global fuel mix rose for the first time since
1999. Total global energy consumption rose 1%, weaker than its decade average of Sally A. Thomas, ConocoPhillips

1.9% per year, with coal the only major fuel in decline. Global oil production rose 3.2% Win Thornton, BP plc
while demand rose only 1.9%. Renewable energy was 2.8% of world energy consump- Xiuli Wang, Baker Hughes
tion, up from 0.8% a decade ago. JPT Mike Weatherl, Well Integrity, LLC

Rodney Wetzel, Chevron ETC

Scott Wilson, Ryder Scott Company

Jonathan Wylde, Clariant Oil Services

To contact JPT’s editor, email jdonnelly@spe.org.

12 JPT • JULY 2016

 GUEST EDITORIAL

Aiming for a Better Oil Price

Abdul Jaleel Al Khalifa, Chief Executive Officer, Dragon Oil

The debate among leaders in the oil and ects have been canceled or deferred. ics, it means that value is preserved and
gas industry originally was about the Many small- to medium-sized com- can only be transformed. Resources are
longevity of the down cycle: Would it be panies have declared bankruptcy. Hun- transformed into goods and then into
V-shaped or U-shaped, or would prices dreds of drilling rigs are stacked. Many utilities. In other words, wealth is trans-
stay low for a longer period? When it students have decided to change their formed but cannot be created. This law
became clear that lower prices were here major away from petroleum engineer- states that supply and demand yield an
to stay, the debate shifted to its impact. If ing. Shareholders, including investors equilibrium sustainable price.
the down cycle is healthy and beneficial, and oil-producing countries, have lost But this law assumes that people
it should be allowed to take its course. trillions of dollars. Indeed, some gov- behave rationally; that is, their decisions
But if it is seen as a tragedy, it should trig- ernments have approached the Interna- are based solely on their self-economic
ger urgent mitigation. tional Monetary Fund, World Bank, and interest and not on ulterior motives such
A down cycle is healthy, some believe, the bond market for rescue. This cycle as hatred or altruism. According to this
because commodity cycles are supply severely impacted unconventional, deep- law, the balanced price between supply
and demand driven. Down cycles trim the water, and other renewable resources. and demand is equivalent to the cost of
fat, boost competition, and differentiate The petroleum industry has suffered an goods or services that meets the demand
those who are fit to survive. These are the immense loss, with far-reaching conse- of the customers plus a reasonable mar-
rules of the free market economy, lead- quences that likely will result in oil price gin of profit to make the business sus-
ing to cost efficiency, higher productiv- spikes in the future. This is a summary of tainable. This also assumes that all play-
ity, and greater economic development. this camp’s position. ers work under same circumstances.
Emotions aside, the oil price is deter- In his classic book, The Origin of But both the assumptions are not
mined by the equilibrium of supply and Wealth, Eric D. Beinhocker explained valid. Suppliers are sometimes driven by
demand, and the consequences of such the evolution of economics, strange- motives other than their self-economic
cycles are realities that the industry must ly enough, by reviewing the basic laws interest. In addition, suppliers may not
bear. After all, a free market economy is of thermodynamics. Economic theories be working on a level playing field; listed
a package deal, and one should expect to were developed concurrently alongside companies are often influenced by mar-
see casualties in this journey. The current the progress of laws of physics. ket forces and, hence, pursue short-term
down cycle will not be the last, and the Traditional economies were based on quarterly results, unlike national oil com-
industry will keep going and continually the first law of thermodynamics (ener- panies that are able to better pursue long-
get healthier over the years. This is the gy is neither created nor destroyed). term strategic interests.
opinion of this camp. This applies to a closed system where the This shortcoming of traditional eco-
It is a tragedy, others believe, because boundaries of the system do not allow nomics gave birth to complexity econom-
so far approximately 350,000 employ- exchange of energy or matter with the ics, coinciding with the introduction of
ees have lost their jobs and about outside. A good physical example is the the second law of thermodynamics: The
USD  350  billion worth of capital proj- whole universe. If applied to econom- entropy of a closed system, which is a
measure of disorder, is always increasing.
Most systems are open, where boundar-
Abdul Jaleel Al Khalifa, SPE, has been chief executive officer of ies exchange energy or matter with the
Dragon Oil since May 2008 and an executive director on its board
outside, creating order inside but export-
of directors since September 2008. Al Khalifa has more than 25
ing entropy to the outside. A house is
years of leadership and technical experience. His technical skills
span exploration, reservoir characterization and development, an open system. While cooling is done
and well testing. Al Khalifa served as 2007 president of SPE. He inside, heat and pollution are exported
holds a doctorate in petroleum engineering from Stanford outside. The economy is an open system,
University. a social system consisting of people, mat-
ter, energy, and information. It is an open

14 JPT • JULY 2016

 system where agents interact and gener- Unfortunately, OPEC meetings since try. The current cycle is a mix. There
ate continuous change. late 2014 have not established a work- was a huge increase in unconventional
The oil and gas market is an exam- ing mechanism to correct oil prices, and supplies from North America, but glob-
ple of an open system comprising many the 2016 Doha meeting failed to freeze al demand has continued to grow and
open systems. It is a function of external oil output to boost prices. The decline spare capacity is only 2–3 million bbl.
forces such as economic growth, politi- in rig counts, lower production from the These internal industry fundamentals do
cal tension, energy policies, and trends. US, and the disruption of Nigerian and not lend themselves to an organic cycle.
Within, there are many open systems at Canadian supplies have nudged prices Indeed, the limited spare capacity can be
work such as the physical market, futures higher, but they are still much below the wiped out quickly through political dis-
market, stock and inventories, and spare marginal cost needed to secure barrels ruptions. But even if political stability is
capacity. Supply is not based entirely on for future supply. This is not sustainable. secure, the deferral of capital projects
pure economic interest among all play- The deferral of capital projects will result will accelerate natural decline, leaving
ers so free market supply and demand in a lack of global supply in just a few growth in demand to consume current
forces may not yield a sustainable equi- years. Rigs, services, and people will not spare capacity.
librium price. be readily available to meet the next wave The current cycle needs only the hearts
Historically, this market dynamic has of demand. and minds of producers to meet, and the
led to many attempts to regulate the Market cycles can be categorized as price will immediately rebound as it has
industry. The US Supreme Court broke organic or inorganic depending on the no anchor to remain low. It is time produc-
up the Standard Oil Company monop- root causes. The root cause of the 1980s ing countries agreed on a production ceil-
oly in the early 20th century. The Rail- down cycle came from within the indus- ing that will ensure a price of USD 60/bbl
road Commission of Texas played a major try and therefore can be seen as organ- by year end. That would be barely suf-
role in rationalizing oil production and ic. There was a clear structural change ficient to maintain existing producing
influencing oil prices between the 1930s in demand patterns and spare capacity fields as well as fund some new develop-
and 1960s. OPEC was intended to stabi- had swollen to more than 10 million bbl. ment projects that will ensure that the
lize crude prices, while the International The short 2008 down cycle was inor- global economy will continue to have an
Energy Agency was formed to help con- ganic, since the root cause was the glob- affordable, sustainable supply of energy
sumer countries. al financial crisis external to the indus- resources in the near future. JPT

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 TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS

Chris Carpenter, JPT Technology Editor

Casing-Exit Software penetration, pressure, and flow rate, nature of the technology, whereby a
and Consulting Service which enables forecasting and compre- standard optical fiber acts as a huge
The QuickCut Pro service from Weath- hensive planning for any contingencies sensor array. The Constellation fiber
erford enables reliable, precise before they happen, effectively manag- is engineered to provide bright scatter
casing-exit operations by combin- ing risk for clients. The real-time com- centers along its length to capture and
ing field-proven downhole tools, the munication and consultation aspects reflect more light back to the interro-
AccuView real-time downhole-data- of the service bring together field and gator. This is achieved without intro-
gathering system, and support from support experience and expertise, pro- ducing significant loss to the forward-
experienced subject-matter experts viding reliability, shaving off nonpro- propagating laser pulses. It is possible to
(Fig. 1). The QuickCut casing-exit sys- ductive time, and reducing the num- achieve the massive coverage of distrib-
tem offers operational flexibility with ber of milling trips. This service greatly uted sensors without having to compro-
multiple anchor options for either high- increases the probability of a single-trip mise on sensitivity. This change in per-
or low-side casing exits, making it suited casing exit. formance is most acute in applications
for any type of casing in any environment ◗ For additional information, visit with low acoustic-signal levels such as
and for a wide range of operations. The www.weatherford.com. leak detection and production monitor-
AccuView system securely captures and ing, where acoustic information can be
transmits real-time data to the field oper- Sensing System present at, or below, the inherent sys-
ator on the rig floor and, simultaneously, Silixa has introduced Carina, a versa- tem noise floor of the current technol-
to Weatherford technical experts off-site tile fiber-optic sensing system compris- ogy and therefore can be difficult to
to facilitate a precise casing-exit angle ing an advanced optoelectronics inter- detect. Borehole seismic applications
and placement through effective com- rogator and sensing cables, which are stand to benefit from greatly reduced
munication. The system displays casing equipped with the new family of engi- source effort required to achieve high-
exits on a foot-by-foot basis, similar to neered Constellation fibers that gain quality, densely sampled seismic data,
directional-drilling software, there- two orders of magnitude more sensi- leading to significantly reduced operat-
by improving accuracy and helping the tivity over that achieved with standard ing time and costs.
entire team to see the big picture. The fibres. Applications such as borehole ◗ For additional information, visit
data-gathering system can also calcu- seismic, well production profiling, pipe- www.silixa.com.
late hypothetical scenarios on the basis line leak detection, and perimeter secu-
of real-time well data, such as rate of rity have benefited from the inherent Knife Gate Valve
Victaulic introduced the Series 795
Knife Gate Valve, the industry’s first in-
line maintenance knife gate valve. The
new valve simplifies installation and
maintenance, reduces downtime, and
improves worker safety. The Series 795
Knife Gate Valve is ideal for fluid lines
containing solids or abrasive materi-
als common in wastewater treatment,
hydroelectric power generation, min-
ing, and other industrial settings with
applications such as lines for slurry and
tailings or cyclones. It alleviates a long-
standing industry challenge: the time-
consuming, labor-intensive process of
removing the entire valve from the pipe-
line to facilitate maintenance, rebuild-
ing, and repair. The new valve’s design
can reduce maintenance downtime by
up to 95% and generate up to 60%
Fig. 1—The QuickCut Pro service from Weatherford increases the probability of savings in annual maintenance costs
a single-trip casing exit. (Fig. 2). Victaulic developed technology

16 JPT • JULY 2016

 with heavy chains and pulleys swinging Wellhead Outlet
over the heads of maintenance crews. Downhole monitoring equipment is
Fig. 2—Victaulic’s
◗ For additional information, visit changing; new power requirements exist
Series 795 Knife www.victaulicknifegate.com. and more well data are being transmit-
Gate Valve. ted to the surface, and multiconductor
Cutting-Operations cables are becoming increasingly preva-
Steel Envelope lent to serve this equipment. The 7-Pin
Building on the field-proven ThinJack I-Wire Penetrator System smart-well
technology of safe, fast, rigless sepa- feedthrough from ITT BIW is the first
ration of seized well flanges, the com- wellhead penetrator that offers up to
pany’s research and development efforts seven contacts to serve multiwire cables
have resulted in PowerPad—the first (Fig. 4). These electrical outlets are usu-
hydraulically inflatable, millimetric- ally placed on top of the wellhead bonnet
thin steel envelope for supporting and and serve as a seal to connect downhole
maintaining the height of the gap dur- monitoring equipment to the surface.
ing a cutting operation (Fig. 3). This The cables are connected at both ends
pad prevents objects from collapsing in of the pressure barrier, allowing for
on the cut gap and trapping and break- safe transmission of electric power to
ing the diamond wire, thereby caus- the downhole gauges, and data from the
ing delays, and meets a need to deliver equipment back to the surface to aid in
productivity in engineering safe asset- well management. With the smart-well
reduction techniques in the decommis- feedthrough, customers now will be able
sioning sector. It permits faster and to connect their most advanced monitor-
safer operations cutting through con- ing equipment without having to perform
crete assets and, with the addition of complicated workovers on the cabling,
sensors and software, can also be used which involves maintenance costs and
that encloses all wear parts into a single either simultaneously or consecutively potential safety tradeoffs. This is a prod-
seat cartridge kit, which greatly sim- to determine the weight, load require- uct that wellhead operators will want to
plifies maintenance. The design allows ments, and center of gravity of heavy use because it covers their pressing need
the valve to remain installed through items being removed. With the capa- for an electric infrastructure that can
ongoing maintenance cycles. One Mon- bility to calculate the center of gravity handle greater data transmission,
tana mining company beta-testing the before the lift of the upper, cut-off part allowing them to manage
Series 795 saw maintenance that once of the asset, PowerPad permits widen- their ˆwells ˆin
required hours of downtime reduced to ing the range of vessels that may be used a smarter
minutes. The new valve also improves for topside disconnection and thereby way.
worker safety because only one compo- can contribute toward decreasing costs,
nent has to be replaced, vs. removing with a range of structure sizes.
the entire valve from the pipeline. This ◗ For additional information, visit
design eliminates the need for rigging www.thinjack.co.uk. Fig. 4—The 7-Pin
I-Wire Penetrator
System smart-well
feedthrough from
ITT BIW.

Fig. 3—ThinJack’s PowerPad hydraulically inflatable steel envelope.

JPT • JULY 2016 17

 HEAL Vortex
Separator

HEAL
Seal

Fig. 5—Baker Hughes’ DrillThru solution offers a customized approach to Fig. 6—The HEAL System from
overcoming trouble-zone challenges. Production Plus Energy Services.

Additionally, this new outlet incorpo- shale. Drilling and laying liner simulta- enced a material improvement in produc-
rates a safety indicator that provides a neously prevented the wellbore from col- tion and reserves, on the order of 30% or
visual warning if high pressure is detect- lapsing, and enabled access to previously more, over the remaining life of the well.
ed within the outlet housing, preventing bypassed reserves. This solution deliv- ◗ For additional information, visit
disassembly in unsafe conditions. ered an additional 758 ft of pay-zone con- www.pdnplus.com.
◗ For additional information, visit tact, boosting recovery by an estimated
www.ittbiw.com. 350,000 bbl of oil. Injection and Fracturing Valve
◗ For additional information, visit GEODynamics introduced its QuickStart
Trouble-Zone Drilling Solution www.bakerhughes.com. Inject and Frac Valve product line. The
Operators are looking to extend the prof- results of field testing yielded complete
itable life of their fields, which often Artificial-Lift System successful toe-stage openings in more than
requires drilling through problemat- A new technology from Production Plus 120 wells in the United States. The Quick-
ic environments, or trouble zones. To Energy Services offers a solution for oper- Start Inject and Frac Valve is the value
enable safe, efficient, and economi- ators to reduce lifting costs and increase offering within GEODynamics’ broader
cal drilling through these zones, Baker production in horizontal wells. The Hor- patented SmartStart Plus Time Delay Test
Hughes introduced the DrillThru solu- izontal Enhanced Artificial Lift System, and Frac product line. The reliability of
tion, which offers a proven, comprehen- or HEAL System, complements existing the QuickStart Valves and SmartStart Plus
sive work flow to overcome the challenges artificial-lift systems, settling the messi- are the result of extensive engineering-
associated with trouble zones. The work- ness of horizontal flow, reducing fluid development efforts and patented TORQ
flow process starts with gathering and density, and lifting fluids higher in the Thru and Port Jetting technology. Opera-
contextualizing reservoir and field data vertical section where a pump can operate tors have reported that QuickStart valves
so that all potential threats are identi- most reliably. Sluggy, inconsistent flow using Port Jetting technology have great-
fied and interpreted through geomechan- in horizontal wells means poor run time, ly improved their ability to inject into the
ical models (Fig. 5). The service com- excessive workover costs, and inadequate toe stage of their wells. The SmartStart
pany then designs a customized well path drawdown. The HEAL System delivers Plus product line allows customers to meet
and a detailed plan to construct the well smooth flow to the pump that is placed the most stringent regulatory and safe-
through any potential trouble zones. Each shallower in the vertical section, to allow ty test requirements, while in the current
solution prescribes the most-appropriate the pump to work more reliably and effi- challenging economic environment, the
remedies for addressing identified trou- ciently, ultimately reducing operating and QuickStart Inject and Frac Valve reduces
ble zones. In one recent application, the capital costs while enhancing production cost, increases reliability, improves safety,
company designed and implemented a (Fig.  6). Suitable for both existing and and maximizes toe-stage injectivity. Quick-
solution in the North Sea for an operator new wells, HEAL allows natural flow dur- Start Valves are the best option for opera-
that needed to accommodate an unstable ing the early part of the life cycle, and tors currently using standard toe valves
shale formation protruding into the pay then integrates, with minimal expense, and seeking to improve injection rates and
zone. The service company developed into artificial-lift systems once they are efficiency at the well site. The Port Jetting
a solution that could capture additional required. For some operations, the HEAL technology has been proven in thousands
reserves without risking wellbore integ- System can fill the lifting gap and elimi- of wells as a superior technique to achieve
rity. A steerable drilling liner was com- nate the need for intermediate lift sys- connection with the formation. JPT
bined with careful fluid management to tems such as gas lift. Operators who have ◗ For additional information, visit
directionally drill through the unstable installed the HEAL System have experi- www.perf.com.

18 JPT • JULY 2016

 Is your company
developing a
brilliant new
Brilliance can technology?
change life Showcase it to the industry
at ATCE in Dubai on the
as we know it. exhibit floor theater.
Demonstrate your commitment to the
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Nikola Tesla
 TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

New Tool and Sealant Technology

Expedites Annular Isolation Tasks
Bengt Gunnarsson, SPE, Sven Harald Tønnesen, and Eugen Olsen, CannSeal, and Yuting Leong, SPE, Maersk Oil

Annular isolation issues are frequently Shell, Statoil, Eni, Total, and the Research ◗ Emergency release features
discussed in well asset forums worldwide Council of Norway. A field trial was per- When located at the precise target
with a focus on improved oil recovery/ formed in 2012 with Shell Appalachian in depth in the well, a three-hole perfora-
enhanced oil recovery applications or Pennsylvania (United States) with partial tion process is activated, which allows
annular well integrity challenges. Con- success, but revealed the need for further access to the entire circumference of the
ventional methods to repair annular iso- design improvements. ConocoPhillips, annulus. The sealant is injected and dis-
lation typically involve coiled tubing (CT) Maersk Oil, and BP contributed financial- placed exclusively into the annulus in a
operations or heavy workovers, where it ly to support considerable reengineering single operation without sealant spilling
is necessary to pull the well tubing. These and rigorous testing. Eventually, Maersk into the tubing (Fig. 1). The sealant will
are high-cost procedures that are some- and BP spent resources on the final tool also seal the perforated holes without the
times deferred. qualification processes to ensure that the subsequent need for patching. If the seal-
We discuss herein the CannSeal tech- equipment was ready for downhole oper- ant is injected into a cement matrix for
nology, a well intervention tool that con- ations. In late 2015, the tool was suc- microannulus repair, a pumping differ-
veys and accurately places a proprietary cessfully run at Maersk’s Halfdan field ential pressure of 200 bar is achievable.
epoxy sealant into an annulus at a pre- in Denmark. The proprietary sealant is designed
defined location in the well. The tech- The technology concept consists of with rheology properties that allow it
nology enables a level of precision in the an electrical-wireline- or electrical-CT- to be injected into an open/cased-hole
placement of annular sealant that has not (e-CT-) operated tool that incorporates annulus with possible crossflow of water
previously been possible. Considerable the epoxy sealant. The sealant is pre- or into a gravel pack or cement matrix.
savings in rig time can be achieved, com- mixed in the workshop and transferred The epoxy plug solidifies under well tem-
pared with alternative methods. to a steel container/canister within the perature conditions.
Operators can use the technology to tool assembly.
isolate and improve the response to res- The tool incorporates an advanced Prefield-Trial Testing
ervoir issues such as high water cuts and telemetry communication system that Maersk and CannSeal have collaborated
thief zones and efficiently repair and provides the tool operator at the surface closely since 2011 to establish acceptance
re-establish well barriers. As a result, full control of criteria for the proprietary epoxy sealant
well recompletions can be postponed ◗ Position, using the integrated casing and tool parameters to match those of
or avoided. collar locator (CCL) downhole operations in the Halfdan field.
The results of a field trial are included ◗ All tool functions Halfdan injection wells are completed
in this discussion. ◗ Perforation with long horizontal CAJ (controlled acid
◗ Pumped sealant volume jetting) liners with no cement or prein-
The Technology ◗ Sealant injection rate and pressure stalled annular isolation devices. In some
The technology was patented in 2005, ◗ Tool and well pressures and wells, stimulation or water injection has
following a joint industry project between temperatures unintentionally caused direct connec-

Fig. 1—Injected sealant forms an annular isolation barrier. Fig. 2—An example is shown of isolation plugs placed on
Images courtesy of CannSeal. either side of a connection.

20 JPT • JULY 2016

tions to neighboring wells. These become general terms describes the CannSeal ◗
Acquire operational experience
thief zones that allow direct communica- portion of the operation. When perform- without time constraint, as no epoxy
tion between the injector and the produc- ing the risk assessment during the late was used
er. In the areas planned for annular plug planning phase, it was decided to use ◗ Obtain an understanding of run-in-
placements, potential crossflow was con- e-CT instead of a well tractor because of hole time to total depth (TD), using
sidered an issue. So one of the first tests the poor liner condition. e-CT
was to verify that the epoxy sealant would In addition to revealing the condition ◗ Acquire well temperature readings
stay in place during the injection. of the CAJ liner, the diagnostic work pro- with the tool as a baseline for
The test setup included an annular vided potential location information for the pot life of the sealant over
cell of 7-in. outer-diameter pipe inside possible annular placement of the plugs consecutive runs
a 9.5-in. inner-diameter (ID) pipe. The on either side of the fracture connection. ◗ Obtain a correlation sequence using
setup was capable of allowing a water The operation comprised the follow- new downhole tools (the integrated
crossflow rate of up to 330 B/D with ing steps. CCL and a CT compensation-sub)
a maximum differential pressure of ◗ Diagnostic work such as distributed ◗ To set the injection pads and
0.2 bar. Under crossflow conditions, the temperature surveying, production conduct pressure testing against the
sealant was successfully injected into the logging, water flow logging, and liner wall at several locations to help
annulus to shut off the crossflow. The test caliper applications determine the best spots for plug
proved the annular isolation concept by ◗ Installation of the CannSeal plugs placement
using a highly viscous epoxy paste. ◗ Straddling the CannSeal plugs with For the entire operation, nine runs to
More than 100 operating hours of tool CoilFlate1 packers and pumping of TD were performed. Three runs were
testing were performed in a horizontal ThermaSet2 through CT into the made to get an understanding of the
pressure and temperature (P&T) cell in fracture connection. The CannSeal well and liner condition, three runs were
relevant well conditions. The next step plugs served as a base/foundation to related to challenges with the CannSeal
was to repeat the same operation in the channel the conformance material perforation system, and three runs were
CannSeal vertical test well (40 m deep) (ThermaSet) into the fracture made to perform the needed operations.
with full pressure and temperature integ- ◗ Removing the upper packer, milling The perforation issues were related to a
rity. In addition, the complete tool sys- residual ThermaSet in the liner, and challenging space limitation in the perfo-
tem was run in the Altus Well Academy removing the lower packer ration assembly and poor assembly pro-
test well to acquire operational training ◗ Surveillance to confirm the results cedures in loading the guns offshore.
and experience, and to ensure that the of the conformance operation These issues were clarified offshore in
tool could be run in combination with The operation was given a high focus close dialog with onshore expert teams.
the Altus well tractor (although it was not by Maersk during the planning phase, The final three runs were per-
used in the Halfdan operation). This test- as this was the world’s first conformance formed successfully, which resulted in
ing also included emergency release of the treatment of this type. Engineers from all one plug set downstream of the frac-
tool with subsequent successful fishing. parties involved took part in the evalua- ture connection and two upstream of the
The final test before releasing the tool tion of plans and designs, testing, qualifi- fracture connection.
for operational use was to build an annu- cation, program writing, risk assessment During placement of all three plugs,
lar cell with the same wellbore geometry analyses, and coordination of the inter- accurate injection pressures, epoxy flow
as the Halfdan well set for intervention. face between personnel and equipment. rates, and other tool readings were mon-
The annular cell was integrated with the For the operation, CannSeal mobi- itored (in real time), making it user-
horizontal P&T test cell. The tool, which lized six epoxy canisters, each of which friendly for Maersk and CannSeal to
included a 14-m sealant canister (70 L were filled with 70 L of epoxy. For an in- observe the critical injection period. With
epoxy), was installed inside the test cell. gauge 8.5-in.-ID wellbore, 70 L of epoxy an average injection rate of 0.5 L/min,
The cell was filled with water and heat- would have created a 6-m plug. How- injection and placement of each plug
ed to 80°C, at a constant pressure of ever, because the well was stimulated took about 2 hours. The entire operation,
100  bar, before the sealant was injected with acid, the actual ID of the wellbore including tool string makeup, running in
into the annular cell. was unknown. To allow for the uncertain- hole, preparing for and placing the plug,
ty, plugs were placed on either side of the pulling out of hole, and tool string break-
Field Trial connection (Fig. 2). down, took about 24 hours per plug.
The overall objective for the Halfdan well With the complexity of the operation, The operation was considered a success
operation was to isolate a fracture thief using new technology and expecting the by Maersk, and future applications of the
connection in a water injector, which had CAJ liner to be in poor condition, it was annular isolation technology could hold
short-circuited the injection stream to decided to execute an initial dummy run significant value for the industry. JPT
a producing well. This article does not into the well for the trial and testing of the
describe all the diagnostic work required equipment in hole. The main objectives of 1A Schlumberger technology.
by Maersk before the operation, but in the dummy run were to 2A WellCem product.

JPT • JULY 2016 21

 YOUNG TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE

Top-Down Modeling: A Shift in Building

Full-Field Models for Mature Fields
Shahab D. Mohaghegh, Intelligent Solutions

Description of the Technology data, well tests, seismic, and production/ traditional approaches to reservoir mod-
Models are needed to develop and oper- injection history—e.g., choke settings) eling. In this new paradigm, current
ate petroleum reservoirs efficiently. Data- into a full-field reservoir model by use of understanding of physics and geology is
driven reservoir modeling [(also known artificial-intelligence technologies. Intel- substituted with field measurements as
as top-down modeling (TDM)] is an ligent Solutions, as the inventor of TDM, the foundation of the model. This char-
alternative or a complement to numerical has recently released software application acteristic of TDM makes it a viable mod-
simulation. TDM uses the so-called “big- “IMagine” for TDM development. eling technology for unconventional
data” solution (machine learning and TDM is a full-field model wherein pro- assets, where the physics of hydrocarbon
data mining) to develop (train, calibrate, duction [including gas/oil ratio (GOR) production is not well-understood.
and validate) full-field reservoir models and water cut] is conditioned to all mea-
on the basis of measurements rather than sured reservoir characteristics and oper- Role of Physics and Geology
solutions of governing equations. ational constraints. TDM matches the First-principles physics of fluid flow is
Unlike other empirical technologies historical production and is validated not formulated explicitly within TDM,
that forecast production, or only use pro- through blind history matching, and it but forms the framework for the assim-
duction or injection data for its analysis, is capable of forecasting a field’s future ilation of the spatiotemporal database
TDM integrates all available field mea- behavior on a well-by-well basis. as its foundation. TDM is built by cor-
surements (well locations and trajectories, The novelty of TDM stems from the relating flow rate at each well/timestep
completions, stimulations, well logs, core fact that it is a complete departure from to a set of measured static and dynam-
ic variables. Static variables (such as
porosity, thickness, initial water satura-
Water Saturation (%)

80
70
TDM Field Measurements
tion, and formation top) are considered
60
50 History Match Blind Forecast as follows:
40
Sw History Match ◗ At and around the well
30 ◗ The average from the drainage area
20
10 of the offset producers and injectors
4 ◗ The average from the drainage area
Static Pressure (psi)

PR The dynamic variables are considered

3.5
at appropriate timesteps:
3 ◗ Wellhead pressure or choke size at
timestep t
2.5
◗ Completion modification (inflow-
2 control valve and squeeze-off) at
3
qo timestep t
Oil Rate (bbl/yr)

2.5
◗ Days of production at timestep t
2
1.5 ◗ GOR, water cut, and oil production
1 of the well at timestep t and for the
0.5 offsets at timestep t–1
0 ◗ All injections at timestep t
Dec-73 May-79 Nov-84 May-90 Oct-95 Apr-01 Oct-06 Apr-12 Sep-17 The data incorporated into TDM
Time (Date) demonstrate its distinction from other
empirically formulated models. Once the
Fig. 1—TDM history match, blind simultaneous history match, and forecasting
for Well #C0x41 for time-lapse water saturation (top), static reservoir pressure development of the TDM is completed,
(middle), and oil production (bottom). Red squares in all three plots indicate its deployment in forecast mode is com-
field measurements, while lines indicate TDM results. putationally efficient (running in sec-

22 JPT • JULY 2016

 1980 1990 2000 2010
Fig. 2—Map of water saturation (blue is Sw=1.0) as a function of time in Unit A. All measured values of water saturation
throughout the history of the field are honored in this map. Where and when field-measurement values were not
available, TDM results have been substituted at the well locations and then geostatistics have been used to populate
the map.

onds). The small computational footprint tion behavior successfully (Fig. 1). Its ervoir (Fig. 2). This is accomplished by
makes TDM an effective tool for reser- deliverables include forecast of oil pro- deconvolving the effect of operation-
voir management, uncertainty quantifi- duction, GOR and water cut of exist- al issues from reservoir characteristics
cation, and field-development planning. ing wells, location of sweet spots, field- on production.
Development and deployment costs of development planning, and in-fill drilling. TDM is applicable to fields with a
TDM are a small fraction of the cost of When TDM is used to identify the commu- certain amount of production history
numerical simulation. nication between wells, it generates a map as long as the physics of the flow does
of reservoir conductivity that is defined not change dramatically. It needs to
Other Considerations as a composite variable that includes mul- be updated (retrained) with new mea-
TDM can accurately model a mature tiple geologic features and rock charac- surements that reflect the new fluid-
field and forecast its future produc- teristics contributing to flow in the res- displacement mechanism. JPT

THE RIGHT PROPPANT CAN

REDUCE
YOUR COST
PER BOE
GET THE WHOLE STORY AT
FMSA.COM/REDUCECOST2
 E&P NOTES

Small Bubbles, Big Rewards for Separation

Technology
Trent Jacobs, JPT Senior Technology Writer

Reminiscent of the song made famous Bland, calls “fluffy water” that causes “This stuff is just sludge,” Bland said
by late Hawaiian crooner Don Ho, tiny suspended solids to fall and oil to float of the produced water quality being pro-
bubbles are the focal point of a new inno- to the top where it is easily skimmed off. cessed at the site that is mostly coming
vation aimed at transforming produced “If you want to put it in technical from the bottom of settling tanks and
water from a costly byproduct into a terms,” he said, “we change the specific the washout from trucks used to haul the
valuable asset. gravity of the liquid so that it enables the water to and fro.
Termed nanobubbles, they are sever- oil that is stuck in the water to rise.” Before it is run through the nanobub-
al times smaller than a human red blood Bland went on to explain that because ble system, the water has already been
cell, which allows them to play with the the bubbles are so small, significantly through multiple conventional separa-
physics of how dissolved gas interacts higher levels of dissolved gas in water can tion processes but “at the end of the
with liquids, according to Nano Gas Tech- be achieved than under normal temper- day, they still have this dirty water that
nologies. The suburban Chicago-based atures and pressures. For instance, tap they are putting into their disposal
startup says its technology is capable of water tends to have a dissolved oxygen well, potentially clogging up that well,”
cheaply producing these nanobubbles to concentration of about 5 ppm. Nano Gas Bland said.
treat produced wastewater that is among says its technology generates concentra- He noted that despite such problems,
the “worst of the worst.” tions more than 10 times that figure. injecting produced water deep under-
The technology works by pushing gas, Founded in 2013, the company is hop- ground is still the most affordable option
either oxygen or nitrogen, through a noz- ing the industry will take notice of its first for nearly every operator around the
zle head that shoots the tiny bubbles into unit that it began operating last year for world. But the company believes its sys-
a treatment tank. The result is what the a disposal well company in the Permian tem makes water handling cheaper, and
company’s chief executive officer, Len Basin town of Seminole, Texas. possibly profitable, by enabling com-
panies to recover the oil that typically
represents 0.5% to 3% of injected fluids.
The company designed its business
model to introduce as little risk to the
client as possible. Instead of charging
a per barrel fee, renting, or selling the
equipment as many other treatment ser-
vices do, the company retains ownership
of its system and makes money by split-
ting the sales of the recovered oil with the
disposal well operator.
After processing, any revenue derived
from the sale of the treated water is also
shared. Bland said the end product is of
a good enough quality that it can be sold
back to an oil company that may be look-
ing to reduce the amount of fresh water
used in hydraulic fracturing.
Because many oil producers operate
A nanobubble-based wastewater treatment system operating for Permian a sizeable portion of their own disposal
Disposal Services in Texas. The system’s developer says it is treating about
11,000 B/D day of produced water and enabling the operator to recover
wells, Nano Gas believes the payoff would
nearly all of the 2–3% of oil (by volume) that is mixed in with the water. be substantially greater for them since
Photo courtesy of Nano Gas Technologies. they could recover more of their own oil

24 JPT • JULY 2016

 √ Zonal isolation √ Well Integrity √ Support to P&A

3D & Layout: Render.no

Place your annular plug in
a single wireline operation

cannseal.com
A norwegian based technology company
 and not have to pay a third party for the But because oxygen is itself corro- exposed to the formation long after the
recycled water. sive, nanobubbles containing nitrogen initial treatment.
The company reports that it has suc- gas are introduced into the treated pro- The microscopic size of the nanobub-
cessfully clarified tank bottom water duced water to displace the oxygen- bles gives them stability and an average
without any upfront treatment pro- containing nanobubbles. The final prod- half-life of 15 days—meaning that after
cesses. Such demonstrations are hoped uct is a nonreactive water that could that period, half of the bubbles remain
to show that the technology can work help extend the lifespan of disposal wells intact and in solution. Large bubbles,
under nearly any circumstances and that prone to skin and plugging issues caused such as those generated by other water
capital costs can be further reduced by by the extremely poor quality of the treatment and separation technologies,
eliminating the need for equipment such injected fluids. tend to burst in seconds which Bland said
as  heater-treaters, centrifuges, and set- The nitrogen-infused water could also wastes up to 90% of the energy and gas
tling tanks. be beneficial to waterflooding opera- used to create them. Nano Gas believes
The company also says that when tions since the gas is known for reduc- that its bubbles are two orders of magni-
oxygen-nanobubbles are injected into ing the interfacial tension of residual tude smaller than what anyone else in the
produced water, a chemical reaction oil trapped in mature reservoirs. Build- oil and gas industry uses.
takes place that knocks out hydrogen sul- ing on this advantage, the company The company’s research found at least
fide (H2S), a toxic chemical that is so cor- claims its nanobubbles are long-lasting. 50 other industries that might bene-
rosive it easily eats through thick steel. This characteristic not only keeps oil fit from nanobubbles, including waste-
The oxygen also acts as a biocide, killing and water separated for weeks, but water treatment and poultry farming—
harmful bacteria that could cause further in a waterflood scenario, the nitrified the oxygenated water may help chickens
downhole damage. bubbles should also remain intact and grow faster.

Search for Flight MH 370 Shows Durability of AUVs

Trent Jacobs, JPT Senior Technology Writer

The unprecedented search effort for out to be blocked in the side-scan opera- units were the same, which allowed the
Malaysian Airlines flight 370 has yet tion, either by the steep slopes or other data to be seamlessly integrated.
to achieve its main goal of locating the types of data anomalies,” Saade said. Saade discussed many other details of
vanished aircraft and the 227 persons “We would preprogram the AUV, launch the search effort which has taken place in
on board. However, it has served as an it and it would do its thing for about one of the most remote and unexplored
endurance test of sorts for offshore sur- 24–28 hours and very effectively fill in all areas of the planet.
veying systems such as the autonomous the gaps.” He said the initial seabed survey
underwater vehicle (AUV), which just a In the future, he suggested that it may revealed that the actual water depths in
couple of years ago was considered an be possible to use a larger number of some areas were more than a mile shal-
emerging technology with a small track AUVs and deploy them from multiple lower than what existing ocean maps
record. Edward Saade, president of the points to carry out such large surveys. suggested. This proved to be a criti-
ocean surveying firm Fugro Pelagos, the But the limits of today’s AUV technology cal data point in helping Fugro select
company contracted by the Australian meant covering the 120,000 km3 of Indi- which sensors to use and it also meant
government to carry out much of the an Ocean that make up the search area— the operations would be a little easier
search operation, said he knows of no roughly the size of New Zealand—would to perform.
other commercial project where AUVs have taken about a decade. When investigators turned to Austra-
have been successfully deployed for such “I have completely bought in to the lian satellite operators to look for any
an extensive period of time. AUV approach,” Saade said. “So going to sign that the aircraft’s communications
Speaking at the 2016 Offshore Tech- a deep-tow approach almost seemed like system sent locating information up to
nology Conference in Houston, Saade a step backward, but it turned out to be space, the companies all said that they
said that to cover large swaths of sub- the exact right approach for something use the area in question for downtime
sea terrain as quickly as possible and on this massive scale.” and maintenance.
capture high-resolution data, Fugro first The AUV that Fugro used in the proj- And despite the “hellacious seas” that
deployed vessels equipped with conven- ect is the Kongsberg-Hugin 100 model, are common during the winter months
tional deep-tow side scanning sonar. which was selected because of its techno- in this part of the Indian Ocean, Saade
Then starting in January of last year, the logical abilities, and since there are many noted that the project has incurred very
AUV vessel was deployed from Perth. in production, replacements or spare little downtime, most of which was
“The purpose of the AUV was to try parts would be readily available. The sen- due to crew illnesses and not equip-
and get into all those areas that turned sors on both the AUV and the deep-tow ment failure. JPT

26 JPT • JULY 2016

 The last few years of offshore
megaprojects have produced
CONFERENCE REVIEW some of the worst margins in
the oil and gas industry. To
achieve long-term profitability
in the subsea world, some argue
that oil companies must begin
thinking smaller.

BREAKING
From the Norm
To Reach Marginal
Offshore Fields
Trent Jacobs, JPT Senior Technology Writer

O
ne could argue that now is not As the challenges continue to mount, ervoir and then monitor it for several
the time to discuss how mar- a number of technology developers are years afterward.
ginal or stranded offshore fields hoping to rewrite the offshore playbook. Others are pushing for simpler solu-
can be effectively monetized. After all, Much of their work is focused on devel- tions that have less to do with emerging
even in the good times the offshore sec- oping cheap ways to access the mar- technology and instead center on per-
tor showed that it had little appetite for ginal assets that often lie just beyond suading oil companies to change how
small-scale developments; their risk- the reach of existing facilities. Some of they develop their subsea properties.
reward ratio is usually not viewed as the more radical ideas involve devel- Among them is a call to build deepwater
worth the effort. oping futuristic and nimble technolo- floating facilities with spare capacity to
On the other hand, going big has not gies that could drastically reduce the handle unplanned field expansions. A
exactly worked out for the offshore sec- physical capital required for green- proposal for shallow water argues that
tor in recent years. Too many headline field projects. operators should use fixed-leg platforms
projects have suffered major cost over- A company in Norway thinks it can do that can be floated away and reused in
runs or missed production targets. this by drilling record-long wells from multiple fields.
And thanks to low oil prices, most aging platforms for a fraction of the While these ideas do not answer all of
of the recently completed projects that cost it takes to use floating rigs or sub- the problems facing the offshore sector,
managed to stay on budget are now oper- sea production systems. Another Nor- nor do they apply to every type of field,
ating at a significant loss. On top of all wegian-born firm is working on a stand- they address the primary sources for spi-
that, the number of commercially viable alone drilling robot that will burrow raling costs. Using far less steel and far
offshore discoveries has been shrinking thousands of feet into the subsurface fewer people could allow subsea assets to
each of the past few years. where it will appraise a prospective res- start delivering positive earnings.

JPT • JULY 2016 27

 Going Longer For Less involved, which means the entire drill- to control managed pressure drilling
It sounds counterintuitive, especially ing operation is a one-way journey to and continuous circulation will also
for those familiar with how expensive the pay zone. Hence the name of the be needed.
offshore wells can be, but one way to startup company IRIS spun off to com- The technologies listed above are rel-
save money might be to drill the world’s mercialize the technology, Hole-in- atively proven and will not require much
longest wells. This “Long Reach Well One Producer. more maturation to apply in the long-
Concept” involves drilling wells up to Stokka said the ambitious project’s reach scenario. However, there remains
30  km long (18.5 miles), about twice paramount objective is to achieve a very one big piece of technology that needs
the length of the current record-holding high level of reliability. “That’s the chal- more work: the tractor system made
wells drilled by ExxonMobil offshore lenge,” he said. “We can’t take it out, and up of 200 expandable rubber packers
Sakhalin Island, Russia. it needs to be reliable enough to com- that will move the extra-long drillstring
The idea was presented at the recent plete the whole well.” through the wellbore.
SPE/IADC Drilling Conference and Exhi- Completion-while-drilling technolo- Located at 100-m to 150-m intervals,
bition in Fort Worth, Texas by the Inter- gies are a must have. Each component— the packers will move like a caterpillar,
national Research Institute of Stavanger and there are many on a well this long— pulling and pushing the entire string
(IRIS), whose researchers are develop- must work together as a system. They along one meter or two at a time. Con-
ing the remaining bits of technology must also work for extended periods trolled by a computer, the packers will
needed to carry out such an extended since the entire operation could take allow for stable drilling by expanding
drilling operation. weeks to complete. Stokka said that the and locking into position.
The system is being designed to use rate of penetration is expected to be As the drill bit moves forward, the
technology from existing offshore plat- between 5 m and 10 m per hour. packers will retract and also move for-
forms and target otherwise stranded Though this is a snail’s pace com- ward with the help of a piston-like
reservoirs. Sigmund Stokka, a research pared with conventional drilling prac- hydroelectric mechanism conjoined to
director at IRIS, said this approach tices, the slow drilling will reduce the each packer unit. This process is repeat-
might be a quarter of the cost required vibrations that cause wear and tear on ed over and over again until the well
for a floating rig and about a third the downhole assemblies. It will also allow reaches its target.
cost of a subsea production spread. for a single, yet robust, bit to be used Made from pure rubber, the packers
The investment requirements for a to drill the entire well length. Stokka have been tested to verify that they can
long-reach well are further reduced if described it as “more like machining” expand and retract hundreds of times
an existing well can be used to get a than drilling. without failure. They will also pull dou-
head start. “The first phase is just to And in more ways than one, the ble duty as the well’s primary zonal iso-
make a well longer—start with a well long-reach concept is a perfect fit lation element, eliminating the need to
that is 10 km and make it 10 km longer,” for automated drilling technologies. cement the well. The next steps for the
Stokka explained. Because the operation is methodical- project are focused on proving that the
Tripping in and out of the well is ly paced, pipe handling could easily be packer-tractor system will work in the
not an option because of the distances done by a robot. Automated systems real world.

0
24½-in.-Casing diameter
500
Depth (meters)

1000
20 in.
1500

14 in. 2000

2500
9⅝ in. (10¾ in.)
3000

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 11000 12000
Lateral Length (meters)

In one drilling scenario, researchers see an opportunity to extend a lateral well from its pre-existing depth to access
virgin reservoirs just beyond the horizon. Graphic courtesy of the International Research Institute of Stavanger.

28 JPT • JULY 2016

 The drill bit of a prototype drilling
system that is designed to complete
a one-way journey into hydrocarbon-
bearing formations. Photo courtesy of
Badger Explorer.

As it drills to the target depth, the

drill cuttings are to be moved through
the inside of the tool. When the cuttings
reach the top end of the tool they will
be pressed tightly by a compaction unit.
This should seal the borehole to pro-
vide wellbore stability and isolation as
required by environmental regulations.
Tests run on a traction unit prototype (top) have shown that the necessary Larsen said the company believes
friction to provide wellbore stability and zonal isolation can be achieved. the Badger will also enable a new way
Researchers have also tested a PDC drill bit (bottom) to verify that the traction to conduct seismic surveys. By using
system provided enough weight-on-bit and torque to move through cement.
some of the tools as the seismic source,
Photos courtesy of the International Research Institute of Stavanger.
and others as the receiver, he said com-
panies could get an unprecedented
Badger Explorer nating most of the capital needed to drill cross-view of the formation that would
Another IRIS spinoff company founded an exploration well. be unaffected by the distortions created
about a decade ago, Badger Explorer, is “With the Badger, you would be able by the sea and the seabed during con-
working on a much different technology to drill many more exploration wells for ventional surveys.
that seeks to redefine offshore explora- the same cost” as a single one, Larsen Tethering the tool to the outside world
tion operations. In spite of funding cuts explained. “You don’t need the rig, the is a combined power and fiber-optic
due to the ongoing downturn, Chief Exec- helicopters, or all the people.” cable that will spool out of the back end
utive Officer Øystein Larsen said his start- The entire exploration program connect to a seabed manifold that pro-
up is perhaps 3 years away from “build- could be done by a service vessel used vides power. The company is currently
ing a robot that will drill down into the to launch the tool, or probably several exploring ways to use the fiber to moni-
underground and search for oil and gas.” tools to form an array. The badger is then tor pressure and acoustics.
Named after the company, the badger guided down and locked into its drilling The data will be streamed beyond the
tool is essentially a 100-ft-long bottom- position by a remotely operated vehicle. manifold and up to a satellite buoy to
hole-assembly package that is designed Each tool will be installed with various enable operators to monitor and readjust
to reach subsurface depths of 3000 m. logging and sonar systems to analyze its drilling parameters—the one thing
The technology promises offshore pro- geological conditions and monitor the Larsen said the operators can control
ducers the tantalizing prospect of elimi- prospective reservoir. once the tool has burrowed itself into

JPT • JULY 2016 29

 Offshore Development Slump Likely To Cause Long-Lasting Pain
Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor

Those waiting for the offshore exploration sector where future investment will be affected by whether
to come back should expect delays. “We are at the it can break from its reputation for high costs.
bottom of the cycle,” Julie Wilson, research director Deepwater producers have made progress in cost
for global exploration at Wood Mackenzie, said during cutting. Despite the drop in hydrocarbon prices since
a presentation at the 2016 Offshore Technology 2013, the gap between the value of what has been
Conference (OTC) that showed deepwater spend discovered and the cost of finding and appraising those
declining through 2020, with no upturn in sight. fields has narrowed. But the deficit remains significant.
The problem is that an oil price of USD 50/bbl is “Hammering the service sector will not make projects
still short of the price needed to profitably develop viable again,” Wilson said. While service companies and
deepwater fields. An oil price of USD 60/bbl is the suppliers cannot afford further discounts, savings are
break-even cost for 70% of the proposed deepwater possible because, she said, “there is huge waste across
projects, she said. the industry.”
The energy information company predicted a For example, projects to build the trains used to
growing backlog of postponed projects in the coming liquefy natural gas have had huge cost overruns.
years, totaling USD 150 billion by 2020, in a sector Those high-development prices combined with
depressed prices for natural
gas worldwide led to the
Deepwater Capex (USD billion)

50 deferral of USD 43 billion

Control Line Pipeline Platform
45 in deepwater projects in
Single Point Mooring Subsea Completion Australia, and USD 37 billion
40 in Mozambique.
35 Lowering offshore
costs, though, will require
30
more than better project
25 management. The rising costs
also reflect rising numbers of
20
dry holes. The drilling success
15 rate dropped from 40% to
10 35% between 2012 and 2015,
as the industry went after
5 prospects in increasingly
0 complex formations.
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Some discoveries have
proven too costly to develop
Capital spending is expected to continue falling in the near term. Graphic because the fields were in
courtesy of Wood Mackenzie. remote areas where the cost

the subsurface. Otherwise, the tool will cutting-transport-system and the com- with their checkbooks include Exxon-
remain on autopilot as it heads to its tar- paction technology. Mobil, Chevron, and Wintershall.
get depth. Moving the drill cuttings to the top of The only original sponsor currently
Badger Explorer wants its robotic the unit was a challenge because there committing funds to Badger Explorer
drilling unit to achieve a lifespan of is no way to use drilling mud in such a is Norwegian state-owned oil company
nearly 15 years to offer time-lapse res- system. Once moved to the top, those Statoil. “We are in continuous dialogue
ervoir monitoring, also known as 4D cuttings must be packed so tightly that with the other partners, and we have
seismic. To help it achieve that critical they retain their original porosity. This reason to believe they will come on
capability, the company recently teamed ensures that any hydrocarbons encoun- board again, but it is much harder to get
up with Honeybee Robotics, an engi- tered while drilling cannot freely escape funding now than it was 2 years ago,”
neering firm that designed many of the the wellbore and reach the surface. Larsen said.
drilling tools found on the long-lived But before this innovation becomes a
Mars rovers. reality, Larsen said much work remains. Plan For More, Spend Less
So far, two prototypes have been built He also noted that in the wake of the If oil companies use a bit of foresight
and tested onshore where Larsen said current downturn many of the backers and at the same time are willing to make
two of the most critical components were of the program have put their funding some compromises, then they stand to
successfully demonstrated: the drill- on hold. Those companies who have left improve their field economics in a num-

30 JPT • JULY 2016

 of installing production facilities was too high, or there production with infill wells at its Lucius Field in the
were problems to solve, such as high-temperature/high– Gulf of Mexico, according to the presentation.
pressure reservoirs. Brownfield investments, such as enhanced
Even if oil prices rise above USD 60/bbl long enough oil recovery (EOR), are also likely to become an
to alter industry expectations about future price trends, increasingly significant source of added barrels. In a
those fields will be competing with development presentation at OTC, BP talked about why it sees a
alternatives such as onshore unconventional plays. payoff in large technology development investments
For example, Chevron’s Buckskin/Moccasin offshore in low-cost EOR as well as improved seismic imaging,
project in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to produce which can highlight remaining opportunities in
oil for about USD 62/bbl, while the company’s best older fields.
unconventional wells in the Permian Basin deliver at “By applying the best technology in the best
about USD 40/bbl, and do not require the long-term giant fields you can add a lot of value in the next
commitments of deepwater field development. 25 years,” said Ahmed Hashmi, global head of upstream
Offshore exploration is also competing with technology for BP.
investment in older fields. For example, Anadarko
estimated it would earn a 34% return by adding Others
UK 12
8
Indonesia
10
Full-cycle value creation Angola
US GoM
76
17

Nigeria
29

Mozambique
37
Australia
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 43

The value of discoveries has been less than the Deferred capital expenditure by country
cost of exploration and appraisal costs since in USD billion. Graphic courtesy of Wood
2013. Graphic courtesy of Wood Mackenzie. Mackenzie.

ber of ways, Cobie Loper, vice president He explained that facility contrac- designed it with 2,000 tons of spare
of business acquisition at SBM Offshore, tors tend to be more optimistic on the capacity, which enabled a recent expan-
told attendees at the Offshore Technol- production potential of an area and are sion of its maximum production from
ogy Conference in Houston in May. SBM therefore less likely to underestimate 45,000 B/D to 60,000 B/D.
is a global contractor of floating produc- production needs. When SBM plans for The deep-draft semisubmersible came
tion facilities including two of the Gulf of a floating facility, it draws a 30-mile cir- on stream in 2009 with Murphy Oil as
Mexico’s most notable, Thunder Hawk cle around the parent field and looks for the primary operator. Then in 2012 and
and the Independence Hub. what else might be developed. 2013, Noble Energy discovered two sub-
Loper said offshore producers that For producers who buy into the con- sea fields between 7 and 18 miles from
build their own facilities run the risk of tractor model, which involves them pay- Thunder Hawk. Three new wells were
missing original production expectations ing a per-barrel handling fee, Loper said drilled which meant a new gas lift, chem-
or too often fail to build enough capacity the benefits can include a smaller upfront ical injection, and flowback control sys-
to handle potential satellite fields. “One investment, earlier first production, and tems were added to the floater’s topsides.
of the key development solutions” to this a significant reduction in decommission- After all that, there remains enough
problem, he said, “are hubs where you ing liabilities. space left over for Noble to install a water
share multiple assets with one produc- Using Thunder Hawk as the prime injection system to support production
ing unit.” example, Loper explained how SBM as its wells mature.

JPT • JULY 2016 31

 Once in the ground and drilling, the Badger tool will conduct a series of logs and seismic surveys to enhance an
operator’s understanding of an appraisal site. Graphic courtesy of Badger Explorer.

The option to use the facility as a cant margin, but requires the clients to hoped to produce an additional 65 mil-
hub enabled Noble to bring on the wells stick to the plan. lion bbl over the life of the development.
using subsea tiebacks between 2 and “Everybody wants a unique system,”
3 years from discovery—less than half Loper said as he warned that focusing on Suction Piles to the Rescue?
the time that it takes to achieve first oil unnecessary specifications can increase For shallow-water stranded reservoirs,
from wells requiring new facilities. For costs by 30-40%. “If you have a system the trick to making them profitable may
Noble, using tiebacks to produce from that is working and producing effectively, not involve new technology or the expan-
existing facilities is the norm; all but we don’t really see the value in changing a sion of existing facilities. Rather, it might
one of its Gulf of Mexico projects involve lot of those details.” be as simple as picking a platform up and
this strategy. He noted that while today most tie- moving it a few miles away to the next
Wesley Johnson, a Gulf of Mexico backs are within 10 to 15 miles from closest field.
asset manager for Noble, said using the the hub, he expects advances in engi- This is the idea that Thomas Span-
hub approach to develop the two fields neering to make using longer tiebacks jaard, a tender manager at SPT Offshore,
reduced the size of its initial investment more feasible. The current tieback championed in an SPE paper present-
while helping double its Gulf of Mexico record is 43  miles for oil and 93 miles ed earlier this year at the OTC Asia con-
oil production in just one year. “In this for gas. ference in Kuala Lumpur. The linchpin
case, it’s a clear example of what can be Oil companies that build and oper- to this concept involves a rather simple
done at any price environment with sub- ate their own facilities can also benefit technology that has been around since
sea tiebacks,” he said. from using flexible designs that allow for the 1980s: suction piles.
Loper said SBM is in talks with a num- expansion. Following the conclusion of Mostly used as a mooring or anchor-
ber of operators to build a second Thun- a 3-year refurbishing project, BP recent- ing device on floating facilities, suction
der Hawk “just as is.” By using the exist- ly announced that it has turned on a piles are placed over the seabed and then
ing design he said the company could newly installed water injection system water is sucked out to generate the nega-
build and deploy the next facility in to enhance production at its mammoth tive pressure that secures them in place.
28  months, about 4 months less time 250,000 B/D capacity Thunder Horse This process is easily reversed by forcing
than the original required. This factor platform. The platform came on stream water back into the suction pile, releasing
alone would help lower costs by a signifi- in 2008 and its new injection scheme is it from the seabed.

32 JPT • JULY 2016

A three-legged suction pile platform being towed into position. This reusable design could help offshore producers
drive down the lifting costs of shallow reservoirs. Photo courtesy of SPT Offshore.

Using suction piles instead of the nology, yet he estimated that only about Spanjaard said he is not aware of any
more commonly used driven piles, which 20 fixed platforms use them around the other cases where this has been done, but
require much more installation work, world and even fewer were designed to in his paper he noted there is great poten-
companies could redeploy the same plat- be relocated. tial elsewhere.
form, topsides and all, over and over “What we commonly see is that com- In particular, he explained that off-
again. “By doing that, you can spread panies do not fully understand the risks shore Malaysia there are more than 100
your capex over several fields, instead and mitigations that can be used for such marginal fields that could benefit from
of only on one, and that could be the a technology,” he said. “But once these this strategy. The Malaysian fields are
key to unlocking certain marginal fields,” are understood, we think those com- each found in similar depths, and have
Spanjaard said. panies become a real sponsor—they see more or less the same seabed soil qual-
Removing a suction pile takes only the benefits.” ity which he said “makes this solution
a few hours he said and relocating the Spanjaard said early stage engi- tailored for that market.” JPT
facility not only delays decommissioning neering represents another barrier.
costs, but lowers those costs because the Because suction piles are rarely used For Further Reading
process requires none of the special tools as a platform foundation, they are not SPE 178859 Long Reach Well Concept
or lengthy operations used to take apart often taken into account in the original by Sigmund Stokka, International
pile-driven platforms. designs, which become hard to change Research Institute of Stavanger,
Perhaps the most important consider- once accepted. et al.
ations involved with this concept are the The most notable exceptions to the
OTC 26611 How Can Suction Pile
foresight required to optimize the plat- industry’s lack of interest in this area is
Foundations Help to Maximise
form for multiple fields and that the relo- found in the North Sea where German-
Profitability of Marginal Fields?
cation operation takes only 2 or 3 days operator Wintershall has deployed three
by Thomas Spanjaard and
to avoid issues related to weather and platforms designed to be relocated using
R.H. Romp, SPT Offshore
sea conditions. suction piles. SPT performed the design
The concept is not one that has been review of the platforms and performed OTC 27167 Turning FPU’s Into Hubs:
widely accepted yet. Spanjaard said suc- the suction pile operation for both the Opportunities and Constraints
tion piles are considered a mature tech- original installation and the relocations. by Ricardo Yoshioka, SBM Offshore

JPT • JULY 2016 33

 BOPs Become the Focus
of Data-Driven Scrutiny
Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor

Technicians working at the control desk of BP’s real-time offshore drilling monitoring center in Houston can draw from
25 screens with data and images showing operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Photo courtesy of BP.

N
OV’s pressure control research The box is a tangible sign of the indus- all working on developing digital tools
and development (R&D) labora- try’s growing appetite for data as it seeks to address pressing problems facing cus-
tory is in a tall factory building ways to reduce risk, increase efficiency, tomers. An issue for some is the well con-
with a row of large, thick-walled booths and pare costs. For Brown, it represents trol rule from the US Bureau of Safety
used to test how blowout preventers a big change from how things were done and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE),
(BOPs) perform at extreme temperatures just 5 years ago, when the only data avail- which requires deepwater operators to
and pressures. able often were just printouts of spread- gather real-time data from the BOP con-
During a tour, NOV’s R&D Lab Man- sheets and graphs of pressure test data trol system and come up with a way to
ager Roger “Dale” Brown made a point stored in a file folder. do real-time monitoring where offshore
of stopping to open a small electrical Having a deep pool of data is “like a data can be observed by expert advisers
box. Nearly all of the 24 slots inside were different set of glasses,” he said, add- on shore.
filled with cartridges, each about the size ing that, “I am asking questions I never “One of the things we are pushing for is
of a deck of cards. The circuits inside asked before.” an extra set of eyes onshore, the ability to
them allow engineers to gather what- At a time when sales of stacks of subsea bring expertise from other areas and pro-
ever sort of data they need from BOP well control equipment as tall as an office vide technical support as issues arise,”
tests and send it along to NOV’s central tower are all but dead, BOP makers such said Doug Morris, chief of the office of
data recorder. as Cameron, GE Oil & Gas, and NOV are offshore regulatory programs for BSEE.

34 JPT • JULY 2016

 The value of monitoring programs will toring to create a plan to create a secure, part of a deal where GE gets paid only
depend on the quality of information that reliable system to gather and share data if the equipment performance meets
can be extracted from a growing flow of on the state of the BOP, as well as on certain standards.
data, and the ability of those onshore fluid flows and downhole conditions, While this is similar to leasing jet
to build relationships with drillers who with onshore personnel. This requires engines to airlines, in the offshore oil
trust that the advice is useful. creating a secure connection sending business the drilling company normally
Data use by Shell, which was a pio- data from an offshore drilling rig to an works closely with the oil company that
neer in real-time monitoring, evolved onshore observer who does not have to plans the well and pays the bills.
over time. It was initially “used for post- be in a central location. “Honestly, it has been a big learning
mortem analysis, and people realized Cameron is running a pilot project on experience. It (a leaseback) has not tra-
there is value if we get out ahead of this,” an upgraded system that collects data ditionally been done in this space,” said
using early warning signs to avert poten- at a higher resolution; compresses, Bob Judge, director of product manage-
tial problems, said Lt. Kyle Carter, a transmits, and stores data; and enables ment for drilling at GE Oil & Gas. Col-
technical adviser at the US Coast Guard’s remote, real-time monitoring on displays lecting data over long periods of time
Outer Continental Shelf National Center like those used on the rig. marks a significant change in a business
of Expertise. Security is also an essential element in where “we have no historical record of
Carter studied real-time monitoring these systems. GE’s control and data col- how BOPs are operated. We do not know
while he was a graduate student at lection systems are designed to isolate how many times it was used, and what
the University of Texas at Austin (SPE critical well control equipment, so data happened yesterday, and what happened
170323). His comments reflect his can flow out but unauthorized users can- before it failed.”
thoughts and research, and should not be not get in and take control.
taken as representing the official views of These extra sets of eyes must be mar- Blowout Drives Change
the Coast Guard, whose responsibilities ried to more analytical brains to turn the The Macondo blowout in 2010 that
include regulating aspects of oil and gas data into useful insights. destroyed Transocean’s Deepwater Hori-
operations offshore. “The BSEE well control rule is viewed zon rig pressed BP into a role at the fore-
While BSEE’s mission is to reduce as a catalyst that will drive remote, real- front of this industrywide change. The
threats to safety and the environ- time monitoring of the BOP control sys- company created a real-time monitor-
ment, the future of deepwater explora- tem, which will normalize the practice ing center tracking drilling with experts
tion depends on finding ways to sharply and will lead to more intelligent sys- elsewhere following other offshore oper-
reduce costs. tems,” said Zach Hrabak, product line ations. Other groups in BP helped devel-
The potential financial rewards for manager for Cameron, who is work- op a well control condition display with
investments in monitoring and analy- ing on condition-based monitoring sys- NOV that uses a stop light format, and it
sis include designing and manufacturing tems. “Collection of data and analysis will has been using data to closely track the
more reliable equipment, reducing the reduce unplanned downtime and drive health of BOP systems and using those
time lost due to equipment failures by equipment design optimization with the reports to reduce drilling time lost due to
more accurately predicting when parts ultimate goal of reducing nonproductive equipment problems.
will fail, and reducing maintenance costs time for our customers.” Since 2012, BP’s program to identify
by moving from time-based repair sched- Drilling is following a path traveled and address the causes of BOP-related
ules to systems based on actual wear. by other industries. For example, GE’s downtime allowed it to reduce the num-
“We are at start of a data revolution in drilling division is drawing on the expe- ber of drilling days when equipment was
the oil and gas industry,” said Eric van rience of the company’s jet engine divi- pulled for repairs from 600 days in 2012
Oort, a professor of petroleum engineer- sion, which is constantly tracking the to 150 days in 2015, said David Eyton,
ing at the University of Texas at Austin. condition of its engines on jets around group head of technology for BP.
“We now see that we have data, need the world. “Now we know if it is not 100 percent,
more data, and have a bunch of data Data-sharing is a common practice that brings a lot of pressure to bear on
issues we need to take care of.” for airlines, but not for rig owners who the manufacturer” to resolve costly prob-
The professor who established a net- generally consider it proprietary infor- lems, he said.
work of real-time offshore drilling con- mation. GE worked around that barrier Jose Gutierrez, director, Technology
trol centers when he worked for Shell with a deal that is unique in the oil busi- and Innovation for Transocean, said the
is now advising regulators on how they ness giving it control of the BOPs used results of sophisticated mathematical
can do their jobs more efficiently, such as by a drilling contractor. Under the con- analysis must be grounded in an under-
observing offshore testing at a real-time tract with Diamond Offshore, GE bought standing of how machines perform
monitoring center on land, rather than back eight BOP stacks, then leased them while drilling.
flying out to a rig. back to the offshore driller. The ser- “What we need to measure are those
Satisfying the rule requires companies vice agreement gives GE access to the right moments and right values,” he said.
that do not already have real-time moni- data and equipment maintenance as The data can be used to track the likely

JPT • JULY 2016 35

 failure is likely so it can be replaced
during scheduled downtime.
Other data points are being consid-
ered. NOV is tracking the gallons of
fluid flowing through valves to see if
that is a good wear indicator.
Another regulation in question is the
requirement that users test BOPs every
14 days, which is based on an API stan-
dard. The test requires drilling to stop
so the rams can be closed, adding wear
on the equipment. Other methods may
make it possible to tell if the equipment
is ready to go without having to close
the rams.
“That (data analysis) might indicate
more confidence in the capability of
that equipment,” Morris said. “It might
reduce the need to stop drilling activ-
Students at the University of Texas at Austin have use of a real-time
ity and do pressure testing as the pri-
monitoring center, which was started by Eric van Oort, a professor there mary way to determine the health of
who helped create Shell’s monitoring centers. Photo courtesy of the University the equipment.”
of Texas at Austin. Another possibility is using data-
based methods to demonstrate that
life span of parts using established meth- dict failures before they happen and key equipment complies with regu-
ods. “That is not analytics. It is common act accordingly.” lations, reducing the number of off-
engineering logic.” shore inspections, “which are highly
NOV uses a stream of data from BP and Maintenance by the Numbers disruptive events for operators,” van
others to build more reliable products. BOP maintenance schedules are nor- Oort said.
The company has a team of data scien- mally based on the time the BOP has This does not mean the end of off-
tists working closely with its engineering been in service. The BSEE well control shore inspections. Those writing and
experts to study product performance. rule requires owners to “break down commenting on monitoring say that
Their priorities are based on a list rank- the entire BOP system every 5 years inspectors will need to see how things
ing the problems based on how much for recertification.” These inspections, are done offshore, but more data could
they cost users. which can be done in stages, require help focus their attention to critical
One of their projects is a database each part to be inspected and worn spots in these complex operations.
gathering all of the data related to each of ones replaced. But rapid change is not likely. NOV
its elastomer products from the day these Equipment makers point out that got started early on monitoring, with
critical rubber parts are made at the NOV there is little evidence supporting the a couple years of data from Ensco Rigs,
plant. It will also include product testing need for this costly system, and that tak- and the number of rigs it monitors is
results and how each part performs over ing a complex machine apart and putting growing. One thing the company has
its lifetime. it back together can cause problems. learned is that BOPs generally do not
BOP makers are also working on bet- “There is nothing behind the 5 years lead eventful lives. “You do not have
ter software to detect early signs of pos- (schedule) except that it is an industry failures every day, so it takes years,”
sible problems while drilling. “The [BOP] accepted rule of thumb,” Judge said. GE Staudacher said.
function logger is morphing into an and others are working to change that The pressure readings by a data sci-
onboard diagnostic system,” said Lance by building a case for standards based entist often require a close look at the
Staudacher, electrical controls manager on how fast parts actually wear out. hardware to see if an observation is an
for NOV Rig Systems. The companies are creating software indication of something that will cause
The early results have been encour- that counts cycles on their equipment— trouble, or just bad data. An early anal-
aging. “The improvement that has hap- the number of times each component is ysis from a GE analytical pilot program
pened. It is pretty remarkable,” said used. The goal is a dependable estimate showed multiple issues in the electri-
Frank Springett, vice president and of how many cycles their parts are like- cal system on one BOP stack, but none
general manager for the pressure con- ly to last, under specific conditions. on its twin. The odds of that happening
trol group at NOV. “What we see as the This could allow warnings when a part randomly are impossibly high, Judge
next step is gaining the ability to pre- is nearing the number of cycles where said. To figure out why, an engineer

36 JPT • JULY 2016

with expertise in subsea electrical sys-
tems was assigned to figure it out.
“What we found is we need to have a
subject matter expert alongside a data
scientist and let them ask questions,”
he said.
An early target for NOV’s team of sci-
entists and engineers was pressure reg-
ulators. The device, which manages the
pressure of the hydraulic fluid as it goes
from the supply line to the BOP, was at
the top of its list of costly problems for
owners of BOP stacks.
The project began with a course on
how regulators work for the data sci-
entists, who also “took them apart to
see how we designed them,” Staudacher
said. They needed to understand the
inner workings of the machines to sift
through years’ worth of data and distin-
guish telling details from bad data.
The result was two algorithms based
on data patterns that can indicate poten- Displays show drilling in progress at BP’s real-time monitoring center in
tial future trouble. One was based on Houston. Photo courtesy of BP.
data showing a change in the normal
pattern of pressure changes at one valve. to you unless you had a workflow pro- ted onshore—data from the BOP con-
The team observed that the variations cess, and you have the people that can trol system, drilling fluid flow rates,
appeared to be correlated with changes make the changes in the field instigated and drilling data from the bottomhole
down the line that could be an indication by the data analysis.” assembly—and BSEE must be given
of a failure ahead. A study by NOV analyzing why some access upon request.
The data scientists and engineer- parts fail early concluded that “there is The regulation said real-time moni-
ing experts worked together to gath- a percentage of (failures due to) manu- toring is to be used “to assist rig person-
er physical evidence that showed that facturing defects, but more are due to nel in identifying and evaluating abnor-
the pressure change could be predic- installation issues,” Staudacher said. malities and unusual conditions before
tive. Now when a change in the pat- The next step is understanding what they become critical issues.” But it is up
tern is observed, a note is sent to engi- happens during installation, and finding to the companies to figure out how they
neers who decide whether to pass the a cost-effective way to change that. One can best do so. The possibilities include
advisory on to clients, who may or may option under consideration is creating creating a monitoring system connecting
not act. training videos on the information page experts at various locations, rather than
“The algorithm is relatively new. We for each component. building a center.
have fairly high confidence. We need Changing habits is hard, but the pay- One approach that is not like-
to build confidence in customers, who off for doing so can be large. For exam- ly to work is trying to manage drilling
may decide to let it run its course,” ple, by analyzing data generated while remotely. Drillers do not want someone
Staudacher said. installing casing, BP created software to onshore following along with a com-
track casing runs that it said has elimi- puter screen telling them what to do,
Motivating Change nated instances of stuck casing, saving Carter said.
The value of data-driven drilling ideas more than USD 200 million in the 2-year “Those in a real-time center … are not
depends on the willingness of people period ending in mid-2015, said Ahmed there to drill the well, but to help the
and organizations to do what it takes to Hashmi, global head of upstream tech- drillers drill the well more efficiently
apply them. nology for BP. and safely,” he said. Those in the drill-
“Remember, getting data and building BSEE’s rule requires all companies ing chairs are looking at increasingly
nice displays and nice visualization pro- drilling wells in deep water or in high- crowded displays as more drilling data
grams is the easy part,” said van Oort. “I pressure/high-temperature formations are added, and can benefit from skilled
can show you nice plots analyzing drill- to have a plan for doing real-time mon- onshore advisers filling in the gaps.
ing data, and how many days of rig time itoring that supports those operations. “The great thing in this is they can
you can save. That would mean nothing It specifies what must be transmit- provide context over time for a trend. A

JPT • JULY 2016 37

 driller may be focused on that stand of mental and occupational health at the During its rule-making procedure,
pipe,” Carter said. He likened the adviser Texas A&M University Health Science BSEE received multiple comments about
role to the people who work in the Coast Center in College Station is looking at the dangers of drillers being distracted
Guard’s Vessel Traffic Service who track what it takes to create effective BOP mon- by too much advice and the dangers of
the course and speed of commercial ves- itoring displays that deliver critical infor- moving decision making off the rig. BSEE
sels in busy harbors. When a vessel strays mation to decision makers. responded in the final rule by saying “it
from its intended course, someone from BP’s and NOV’s display that uses a stop does not intend that onshore person-
the traffic service will contact them to light format to highlight the status of key nel monitoring the real-time monitoring
deal with the potential problem. As older BOP systems is now being used on two data would have operational control over
hands retire, an expert in a center can rigs drilling for BP, and the company said the rig based on the data.”
support several less-experienced drill- it is looking at expanding the pilot pro- BSEE does not want to try to define
ers, he said. gram. Color-coded warnings are intui- that evolving relationship. “That is up to
What has been done by majors to tive, but the question remains: Will drill- the operator. Some companies do pro-
establish real-time monitoring will need ers, like automobile drivers, tune out vide a little more authority onshore” to
to be adapted as companies with differ- the dashboard? subject matter experts, Morris said. “It is
ent levels of staffing and cultures estab- “If they are staring day after day at totally up to the industry to decide about
lish their own centers. Service com- screens full of stop lights, you have to the operating decision-making process.”
panies or partnerships may play a role worry that at some point they will stop
in monitoring. paying attention,” van Oort said. For Further Reading
A study for BSEE by DeepStar, an With more and more people able to fol- SPE 170323 Improved Regulatory Oversight
industry deepwater research group, is low drilling in progress—some of these Using Real-Time Data Monitoring
looking at which data need to be collect- data feeds can be displayed on a smart- Technologies in the Wake of Macondo
ed and transmitted. phone—there is also the concern that by K. Carter and E. van Oort, University
Another project for BSEE by Camille it will dilute the authority of those on of Texas at Austin, and A. Barendrecht,
Perez, an assistant professor in environ- the rig. Genesis RTS.

Rethinking the Blowout Preventer

B OP Technologies has designed a

blowout preventer (BOP) that it
says is simpler, more efficient, and, most
he is looking forward to it, adding, “I
can’t wait.”
While BOP Technologies is talking
ing over the past 3 years on a new-
generation BOP control system, said
Jose Gutierrez, director, technology and
importantly, can deliver enough power to about its ideas as it seeks backers, Shell innovation for Transocean.
shear anything that goes into a well. and Transocean have quietly been work- “This is an opportunity to attack the
After 3 years of work, the small Hous- status quo,” said Gutierrez, adding that
ton company is showing off models and the control systems available now are
pictures of a new compact, cylindrical unreliable, resulting in much lost time
design that it says can drive a shearing during drilling. “It removes value from
ram with 5 million pounds of force— the system,” he said.
more than 60% greater than what is The process used by Shell and Trans-
now available—and that will be able to ocean relies on methods regularly
cut through drill collars that cannot be employed by industries such as aero-
cut by currently available BOPs. space to develop reliability-centered
“It delivers the power. That is where designs, which allow systems to con-
they come up short,” said Jay Read, the tinue working even when parts fail,
inventor of the device and founder of Gutierrez said, but said he could not
BOP Technologies. provide further details.
The big problem now facing BOP In the wake of the blowout of the
Technologies is “we have got to prove Macondo field in 2010, which destroyed
it,” Read said. The company needs to Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon rig,
raise millions of dollars to build a BOP regulators have focused on reliability
big enough to show what it can do to The new blowout preventer design and pushed for a BOP able to shear
does not have arms extending from
actual steel tubing. But based on his its body, normally a standard feature
whatever was inside it.
long experience building BOPs for the for these well control devices. Photo While that remains a goal of the US
biggest makers in the industry, he said courtesy of BOP Technologies. Bureau of Safety and Environmental

38 JPT • JULY 2016

High-pressure fluid flows in the BOP Technologies blowout The expanding piston can magnify the pressure in the
preventer (blue line below) filling a chamber which intensifier 10-fold, which is used to drive the piston.
expands, compressing fluid in the smaller intensifier Illustration courtesy of BOP Technologies.
chamber (red square) above. Illustration courtesy of BOP
Technologies.

Enforcement (BSEE), which is tracking interest in” his BOP design but he has on the description: circular intensifi-
efforts like BOP Technologies, the off- yet to secure project financing. er ram blowout preventer. When the
shore regulator has not set a deadline The thinking behind the BOP Tech- BOP is fired, that pressure can be used
to reach that goal. In BSEE’s recent- nologies design began after Read left to drive the rams, applying millions of
ly released well control rule, it calls Cameron and was working at a small pounds of force without arms the size of
for BOP stacks with two shear rams to think tank considering inventive oilfield oil drums.
ensure that if one cannot sever what is ideas. He said that being away from an This approach requires a hydrau-
inside, the other will be able to do so. established BOP maker for the first time lic supply line operating at 4,000 psi,
In the rule-writing process, a time in his career freed him from the limits compared with 7,500 psi for other
limit was considered for development that come with designing products for high-capacity deepwater BOPs, reduc-
of a BOP that can sever anything, but a company with a successful product ing the pressure on the line as well as
it is not in the final rule because such where fundamentally changing things the pressurized fluid stored in accu-
equipment “probably doesn’t exist” has significant consequences. mulator bottles at the wellsite. It also
now, though BSEE is still seeking a prac- “We went in it with a different has about a third fewer parts than a
tical way to reach that goal, said Doug approach to create the ultimate shearing conventional design.
Morris, chief for the office of offshore BOP,” he said. One obvious difference is Another difference in the design is
regulatory programs for BSEE. that the device does not have long arms the lack of nuts and bolts in sight. This
Adding to the difficulty for equipment holding the pistons driving the shear- makes it easier to service, Read said,
makers is a market where demand for ing rams. Instead it uses an “intensifier and those connectors are not exposed
well control equipment has disappeared piston.” Pressurized hydraulic fluid fills to salt water.
with the deep slump in offshore explora- a larger piston that pushes up, shrink- The case for doing something differ-
tion and production. ing the area inside the smaller inten- ent is persuasive until one considers the
While Gutierrez acknowledged that sifier piston. The compression of the obstacles facing a tiny startup compet-
in this market, “you see blood on the fluid in the intensifier piston turns the ing with the biggest oilfield service com-
floor,” he is hopeful because there is also 4,000-psi stream of fluid flowing into panies at a time when the business is in a
“more focus on inventiveness, efficien- the larger piston to generate 40,000 psi. deep slump. But Read is optimistic, say-
cy, and cost.” The round shape of the intensi- ing, “I have no doubt in my mind that
Mark Alley, chief executive officer of fier assembly is reflected in the BOP this will eventually be used. When it will
BOP Technologies, said “there is serious brand name, Cirbop, which was based is a big question.” JPT

JPT • JULY 2016 39

 Increasing Efficiency,
Safer Operations Key
Themes at OTC

D
espite the downturn in the oil and Subsea Processing “It is not as dead as you think,” said
gas industry, more than 68,000 Panel sessions covered a variety of indus- Don Underwood, director of subsea pro-
experts and leaders gathered try issues, including the value of subsea cessing for FMC Technologies. “We are
from across the world in Houston for the operations. Moving oil/water separation in a world where, perhaps, operators
2016 Offshore Technology Conference equipment from platforms to the seabed cannot go forward with greenfield proj-
(OTC) in May. The number of attendees, looks inevitable, but based on the cur- ects,” but still need to find ways to add
from 120 countries, put this year’s OTC rent rate of adoption, it may require a production to make up for declines in
among the top 15 in attendance in its long-term outlook. Out of the 5,000 wells older wells.
48-year history. with subsea completions, only five have As for what will turn the inevitable
“As it has since 1969, the world came used some variety of separation, whether technology into a practical option, the
to OTC to make critical decisions, share it is separating water from oil, gas from one-word answer is cost. Statoil, which
ideas, and develop business partnerships liquids, or treating seawater before it is has been a major supporter of moving
to meet global energy demands,” said Joe injected into a reservoir. operations subsea, has said that a 50%
Fowler, 2016 OTC chairman. The confer- A panel made the case for why sepa- cost cut is needed, while Petrobras has
ence included 11 panel sessions, 24 exec- rators are a better option in deep water put that number at 30%.
utive keynote presentations, and more than lifting water a mile or more, pro- “There has been significant movement
than 325 technical paper presentations. cessing it, and pumping it back down to in that direction,” Underwood said. “For
Increasing efficiency while ensur- the bottom for injection into the ground. one, prices have been lowered dramati-
ing safe operations was a key theme at “It is going to happen,” said Jeff Jones, cally,” while designs have shifted from
this year’s conference. Sessions covered senior subsea systems consultant for huge units to “lower-cost, compact tech-
new technologies that not only reduce ExxonMobil. “We will get back to it.” nologies” that can be added as a cheaper
costs to the operator but enhance the Jones referred to subsea separation in alternative to drilling.
overall safety of the operations; cost- the past tense because it has been a while “Drilling these wells will be so expen-
effective advances in well cementing since the five projects, eight if you include sive, but tying back to existing hosts
technologies; and use of RFID to precise- some smaller units used for pilots, have would help us squeeze every last barrel
ly track drillpipe. gone into service. we have,” Jones said, noting that drilling

40 JPT • JULY 2016

 Jeff Jones, senior subsea systems
consultant at ExxonMobil, talks about the
company’s effort to incorporate subsea
separation to make it easier to lift oil
from the seafloor.

costs represent 50-80% of the cost of exceeded the energy required to pump ment to deal with such problems, he
offshore projects. water to the surface, process it, and send pointed out the methods are likely to
So far the company’s only experience it back down. be drawn from what is now down above
with subsea separation is as a partner Turning subsea separation into a tool the surface.
with Total on its Pazflor project off West used as widely as pumps will require FMC has addressed one of the prob-
Africa, which is operated by Total. There, executives to show their support for lems nagging subsea operators—the
gas is removed from the oil to ease lift- doing something new, and make it clear hard-to-separate emulsions of water
ing. But Jones said the technology could that project managers are not risk- and oil that stymie processes—with its
be used on its developments off New- ing their career if they choose to use InLine ElectroCoalescer, which earned
foundland to increase the output from subsea processing. it an OTC Spotlight on New Technol-
tiebacks—eliminating the need to build The heightened attention on the ogy Award. The device uses electrical
lines to carry both water and oil as well risk of using subsea processes may be currents to cause oil to form droplets
as reducing flow assurance issues—and adding to the complexity, which is an that can be easily removed from water.
processing seawater used for injections obstacle to adoption. One of the tough- It is not a new idea, but it is a compact
to enhance production. est challenges is removing sand from solution to emulsions, which separa-
Removing the water and disposing it the production stream because it can tion methods using forces such as grav-
saves the cost of lifting water, which is shorten the life of these devices. But ity cannot solve. “You cannot depend on
then pumped back down to the bottom to that could introduce the complexity- separation for that,” Underwood said.
be injected into the formation. As fields driven risks. “Emulsions could take days to break
age, and when the water cut far exceeds “If a pump can, in theory, fail because down on their own.”
the oil, operators must either expand of sand, we create a sand system that The industry needs to create other
processing capacity on the platform or is 10 times more complicated than the compact, standard models that can be
live with limited output. pump,” said Rune Fantoft, chief executive added as needed to increase processing
“Adding a pump is sometimes not the officer of Fjords Processing, a Norwegian capacity, according to the panel. But, so
most efficient answer, but it is easier,” firm working on separation. While he far, the experience of the five projects
Jones said, noting that the comfort factor recognized the need for improved equip- shows subsea processing methods work.

JPT • JULY 2016 41

 Deepwater Future Tied to Technology Innovation
Joel Parshall, JPT Features Editor

The economics of deepwater development are more initially been commercialized in food and consumer
challenging than ever in today’s low-price environment. product packaging. A video created for a 2012 MIT
While technology innovation faces economic headwinds entrepreneurship competition, showing ketchup sliding
for the same reason, it also remains the key to future out of a LiquiGlide-coated plastic bottle, went viral
deepwater projects and will be essential to their and received worldwide attention. Varanasi pointed
competitive sustainability through market downturns. to a number of applications in which these coatings
In a session on the energy outlook and the future could benefit the industry, such as flow assurance, tank
of innovations for deepwater in a cost-competitive interiors, separation systems, and reduction in water use.
environment, panelists emphasized the need for scalable Tom Moroney, vice president of wells and facilities
technology, the standardization and simplification technologies in projects and technologies at Shell, said
of projects, patient capital investment in innovation, that the industry must find a new way to approach
greater collaboration, and new perspectives coming technology development. “We need to innovate
from outside the industry. innovations,” he said. Moroney called the Deepwater
“Fossil energy sources will continue to be a main Horizon disaster in 2010 a “forcing moment” for the
component of our energy mix out to 2050 and beyond,” industry and the current fall in commodity prices
said Robert Armstrong, director of the MIT Energy coupled with climate change another such moment.
Initiative. “By 2050, fossil fuels will still account for “We need to think differently about how we innovate
about 75% of our primary global energy supply. and deliver the solutions we need and scale them up
“How do we continue to take advantage of these rapidly for the business,” Moroney said. His company
fossil energy heat sources and at the same time start has a number of “innovation vehicles,” he said, and
driving down carbon emissions?” noted one called Shell TechWorks, a group of 50 to 70
people from outside the industry, which the company
Mission Innovation established in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Armstrong noted the Mission Innovation commitment “They are scientists; they are researchers from
announced by 20 developed and developing countries medical, from defense, from high-tech,” Moroney said.
at the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference to double “They are entrepreneurs; they’re from startups. They
basic clean energy research and development budgets have brought in a whole new way of thinking about
by 2020. innovation and matching up deep science with getting
“Basic energy research is the beginning stage of the the needs out to the field quickly.”
innovation chain,” Armstrong said, [but] “how do you Olivier Le Peuch, president of completions at
get innovative ideas to come out of basic research; how Schlumberger, said that technology innovation to
do you get that into commercial practice? And that’s improve efficiency is essential if deepwater development
a particularly difficult thing to do in the energy sector is to remain sustainable. The industry must reduce risk,
because the amounts of capital required are quite large complexity, contingencies, and the need for downhole
and the time scales are quite long, compared with what, trips. He mentioned two new technologies that are
say, the venture capital community is dealing with.” helping in these areas, a high-pull wireline system and
An initiative addressing that problem, likewise electric flow control systems.
announced at the Paris conference, is the Breakthrough Derek Mathieson, vice president and chief technology
Energy Coalition. It is a group of private investors who and marketing officer at Baker Hughes, said that
committed to picking up projects coming out of the industry thinking needs to move away from an “either/or
Mission Innovation countries’ research—“providing constraint,” such as focusing on “either new technology
the kind of patient capital necessary to move them or low cost” or “either rapid commercialization or
from the laboratory and into commercial practice,” risk reduction.” Instead of treating such objectives as
Armstrong said. alternative choices, they should be viewed as achievable
simultaneously. “How do we make that transition from
Changing Paradigms or to and?” he said.
“Basic science research helps to change paradigms,”
said Kripa Varanasi, deputy associate professor of Investment Continuing
mechanical engineering at MIT. “It really helps us to Ram Shenoy, principal at Innovation Impact, a business
move beyond where we are, but at the same time we strategy consultancy, said that industry technology
need to be thinking about scalability.” He discussed a investment is continuing in the current climate in focus
technology that he and a co-researcher have developed areas such as reducing rig time, increasing production,
and commercialized with the help of the university’s and improving recovery rates.
programs for bringing innovations to the market. Shenoy noted that deepwater and onshore
LiquiGlide is a liquid-impregnated coating that acts as a unconventional developments often involve similar
slippery barrier between a surface and a viscous liquid. price tags over project life cycles but that deepwater
Varanasi and research partner David Smith were investment is front-loaded with slow cost recovery, while
interested in developing a coating to prevent the investment in unconventionals is spread evenly with
buildup of ice on airplane surfaces and methane speedy cost recovery. Deepwater cash flow profiles need
hydrate in oil pipelines. However, LiquiGlide has to become competitive with unconventionals, he said.

42 JPT • JULY 2016

Reducing Project Complexity
Complexity is the central challenge of IHS: Markets Will Begin to Balance
executing deepwater major capital proj-
ects, and the industry must find ways
Next Year
to reduce it for future projects to be Trent Jacobs, JPT Senior Technology Writer
viable, Chevron’s General Manager of
Facilities Engineering Mick Kraly told
a luncheon audience during the confer-
ence. “Major Capital Projects Yesterday,
Today, and Tomorrow: Is There a Need
for Change?” was his topic.
Kraly said companies must prove
capable of finding, developing, and
maintaining the competencies needed
to carry out these projects and over-
coming various performance gaps that
have become increasingly evident. The
industry must commit to increasing
standardization across multiple proj- It may not come as a shock to anyone, but the next couple of years for
the oil and gas industry are likely to be defined by mediocre prices. That
ects, come together to address major
was the message driven home by Atul Arya, senior vice president of IHS
technological challenges, and take full Energy, in a talk at OTC.
advantage of joint industry projects “It is going to take a long time to get back to the good old days,”
and the work of industry committees, he said. “We are in an oversupplied market and, for a change, the
he said. fundamentals are working, but it will take us probably all of next year
Deepwater projects are inherently to balance the market.”
complex because of the increased reser- Arya discussed at length the many factors affecting prices, and aside
from weak demand in China due to its slowing economy, the bigger
voir recovery necessary to justify their
issues he emphasized involve the role that the Organization of the
economics. “We’ve got to have the abil- Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is playing.
ity to do further technology deploy- When prices headed south, OPEC responded by pumping out more
ments to be successful,” Kraly said. Proj- oil, which “has never really happened in the history of OPEC,” he said.
ects involve seafloor pumps, may also Much of that added production came from Saudi Arabia, which many
use in-well and electrical submersible saw as taking up a defensive position to preserve its market share from
pumps, and can incorporate waterflood- higher-cost producers. Many have also seen this decision as a key factor
in prolonging the downturn as it deluged an already flooded market.
ing, which may be followed by enhanced
And while some OPEC member nations are seeing declining
oil recovery. “Each of these adds a layer production, such as Venezuela, IHS believes the stronger members will
of complexity,” he said. more than fill the gap as they add another 2 million B/D of “really low-
Kraly presented a major consultant’s cost oil” to the market in the coming years.
analysis of a large number of deepwater The bulk of those new barrels will come from the Arab bloc that
installations that showed widespread includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq. But
performance gaps in the industry’s proj- the major unknown remains Iran, which Arya said is still having issues
accessing financial markets months after the US and European Union
ect executions in the areas of meet-
removed sanctions that stifled oil and gas production in the country.
ing schedules, keeping within budget- “What happens to Iran over this year and next year is going to be
ed costs, and attaining targeted startup hugely important in terms of supply,” he added.
production. Only 18% of projects met Another cause for pessimism involves the estimated 3 billion bbl of
both their schedule and cost goals, and oil in storage around the world. Arya said before a price recovery takes
a mere 8% met schedule, cost, and pro- hold, that oil must begin coming out of storage and into the refineries.
duction attainment goals. “If we don’t On the short list of things that are helping prices normalize is the
decline in US oil production. IHS estimates that US production peaked
change, obviously in this low-price envi-
at around 9.7 million B/D last year and will flatten out at around
ronment many projects are not going to 8.6 million B/D over the next few years. The declines are almost
be viable,” Kraly said. exclusively coming from shale production, which Arya said needs a
At the same time, the necessary tech- price point of approximately USD 50/bbl to stabilize.
nical capabilities for these major proj- “It’s a little bit of a chicken and egg situation,” he explained. “If the
ects are not always available to the price doesn’t go up, then we don’t see production going up. But the
extent desired. Chevron is addressing price has to stay down for that production to go down because of the
reactivity of [shale] barrels to price.”
these needs internally with a focus on
three areas:

JPT • JULY 2016 43

 Don Underwood, director of
subsea processing for FMC
Technologies, speaking at a
panel session in Houston. ◗ Preservation of project materials
from purchase through final
installation.
◗ Shifting the management of single-
point inspections to an in-house
responsibility and redefining
the meaning and scope of these
inspections.
◗ Quality management of engineering,
procurement, and construction
(EPC) contractors, expanding the
level of it, and shifting it upward in
the project cycle to bring more of it
into the front-end engineering phase.
Increasing the industry standardiza-
tion of future projects is critical to their
successful execution, Kraly said. “We try
to simplify processes, workflow process-
es as well as engineering standards as
well as executional standards,” he said.
“We are challenging ourselves to stop

Wind Could Be Pushing Offshore Oil Production

Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor

Wind power could be used to pump oil from remote the cost of long lines for electricity and seawater for
offshore fields in the way windmills were once used to injection from the host.
pump water from wells in arid West Texas. The offshore The study concluded that the capital expenditure
wind idea was offered by DNV GL, which did a study required for wind would be 39% lower than a
showing that the wind offshore Norway is strong and conventional electric generator in the case studied,
steady enough year round to provide the electric power Sandberg said. On the other hand, the cost of
needed to inject 45,000 B/D of water into a remote maintaining a huge, 6-MW floating turbine is greater
offshore field in water 200 m deep. than the fuel cost of running a turbine. But the upfront
The study, which is the product of a seven-company saving on capital expenditure advantage far exceeded
joint industry project (JIP) created by the Norwegian the operating expense difference.
classification and standards setting body, examined While the study is focused on a single installation,
ways to move the source of power close to where it plenty of wells also have long tiebacks, making building
is needed. It is a natural idea for the offshore Europe an umbilical out to them an expensive option, and more
region, a leader in the growth of offshore wind capacity, are expected in the future.
which is rising 37% a year. Offshore wind power has become a huge growth
“Wind on floating structures is developing rapidly industry in the waters off northern Europe, but this
and we see a need for lower costs in oil and gas,” said study appears to be a first effort to use it to serve
Johan Sandberg, segment director for floating offshore nearby platforms. At current prices, Sandberg said it
wind, DNV GL. The JIP is now talking to oil producers is attracting industry interest.
about working with them on the next stage, which While this may well be possible elsewhere, there
will move from a tabletop test using available data are limits—oil production added from water injection
to laboratory testing with a goal of preparing for an would need to be large enough to offer a return on
offshore test. an investment of about EUR 75 million. Water depths
The results presented at OTC suggest that there exceeding 1000 m would likely not be economic because
are places where floating turbines can significantly of the high cost of anchoring the unit to the seabed.
reduce the cost of powering injection pumps. The One of the biggest concerns going into the study
results reflect the reality in a single field, located 33 km was whether the wind was sufficiently strong year
away from its host platform and from land. The JIP round. While the wind varies by season, and blows
considered the cost of floating an unstaffed structure, strongest during winter, the study showed that in no
with a water processing plant on board treating the month did the process fall short of the goal of injecting
water for injection. The floating wind turbine saves both approximately 44,000 B/D of water, he said.

44 JPT • JULY 2016

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 doing this on an ad hoc basis and actual- of wellheads, casing liners, and blowout are looking for any way to save costs. One
ly implement these as part of our overall preventers, and new HP/HT technologies way to achieve cost savings is through
work stream. We have to take advantage must be developed and qualified to oper- efficient planning in the construction
of standardization in the ability to deliv- ate in 20,000-psi settings. Internation- and conversion of floating production,
er things more repeatedly as well as more al oil companies, EPC contractors, sup- storage, and offloading (FPSO) units.
cost-effectively.” pliers, and regulators are sounding the In a technical session, “Practical Steps
He recommended that companies same message for this need. Toward FPSO Cost Reduction,” a series of
across the upstream industry and regu- “Let’s do this together,” Kraly said. industry experts discussed the strategies
lators work together to enable the indus- “Let’s just make sure that we have these organizations may take.
try to move forward, and cited high- controls and standards and qualifica- Bryan Kendig outlined the opportu-
pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) tions. Let’s make sure that the 20,000-psi nities organizations have to lower costs
technology as an area that could benefit opportunities are done in the best way.” in purchasing oil and gas production
especially from such an initiative. equipment and services for major off-
Recent discoveries in the Gulf of Mex- Cost Savings for FPSOs shore projects as described in OTC paper
ico present downhole environments that With the oil and gas industry facing an 27009. Kendig is a supply chain manag-
will exceed the current 15,000-psi limits uncertain financial future, organizations er at SBM Offshore. In the paper, Kendig

How Mexican Energy Reforms Have Affected the Service Sector

Trent Jacobs, JPT Senior Technology Writer

Of all the attention generated over the opening of the In Iraq, many contracts awarded were based on a
Mexican oil and gas sector to the outside world, one cost-recovery system that typically rewards service
consideration has been largely left out of the discussion: companies on a fee-per-barrel rate. Cook said this
What does it all mean for service companies? system creates more risk for service companies and
The energy reforms that became law in 2013 did not leads to less technology deployment.
specifically address how service companies will run their By contrast, when Brazil opened up its offshore
businesses. And unlike the exploration and production sector to international companies to tackle the
sector, which was monopolized by Pemex for more than challenges associated with tapping into pre-salt
75 years, the service sector in Mexico has long been reservoirs, many of the contracts were production-
open to many foreign and domestic companies. sharing agreements. Cook said this approach resulted
However, the mere fact that there are now a number in more capital and more technology being used and
of new exploration and production companies coming very little risk for the service company.
to Mexico means change to the service sector is also Sergio Aceves, vice president of business
coming. Iain Cook, vice president of secure drilling development at Mexican service company Diavez,
services at Weatherford, spoke on a panel at OTC said one challenge for companies such as his will
that addressed what impact the reforms may have be overcoming the growing pains associated with
on service companies such as his. transitioning into a business that owns and operates
Cook struck an optimistic tone with regard to the fields outright. Diavez is one of a number of Mexican
size of the prize in Mexico and was especially upbeat companies who have worked for Pemex for years and
about the deepwater arena, which is seen by many as were awarded onshore fields to operate last year.
virgin territory with the most potential. Aceves also noted that Mexican service companies
“If you draw a comparison between the US Gulf of once wholly reliant on Pemex must find ways to
Mexico and what has been drilled offshore Mexico, adapt to their new ecosystem, which will involve
there are more deepwater and ultradeepwater wells building relationships with new partners who have
drilled in the US waters compared to all offshore different expectations.
wells in Mexico,” he said. “So there is a tremendous And now that operators can effectively own and sell
opportunity for the deepwater drillers, a tremendous Mexican-produced hydrocarbons, they will press service
opportunity for the service companies, and a companies to drive down costs in order to achieve
tremendous opportunity for technology implementation wider margins than what may have been acceptable in
as we go forward.” the Pemex-monopoly era.
The panel discussion also focused on contracting Luis Escalante, director and general manager of FMC
schemes and how they might change. Cook said Technologies’ Mexico business, said during his remarks
operators in Mexico, both foreign and domestic, could that the reforms represent an opportunity for service
draw on some of the lessons learned in Iraq and Brazil— companies to expand their locations to serve more
two countries that have undergone similar transitions customers, optimize their supply chain strategies, and
as Mexico. develop a “culture of innovation.”

46 JPT • JULY 2016

and co-author Jim Wodehouse, vice pres- that it is not realistic for companies to spective,” he said. “Let’s pull some things
ident of technology management at SBM expect vendors to reduce their budgets out we can repeat from one project to the
Offshore, recommended strategies orga- by significant margins. next project. I would really like to see this
nizations should take to maximize cost “Energy is feeling a transition, espe- stick to the wall. I’ve been in the indus-
reductions on future projects. cially offshore,” he said. “We’re the first try for 27 years. I’ve seen the ups and the
One recommendation is to use the ones to feel the brunt. But, some of our downs. The ups come around, and we
procurement department in a strategic vendors are catering to other markets, so tend to forget the things we were trying
manner. Kendig and Wodehouse said the 50% reduction isn’t there for those to do [during the down periods].”
organizations should devote a sufficient vendors. I can tell you from previous Kendig was one of seven speakers to
internal budget that is independent of a experience putting together proposals present a paper at the technical session.
client’s project budget so that procure- that it’s been a long time since I’ve seen In another presentation, Kees van Roos-
ment methodologies can be developed gross margins from vendors that were malen, a managing director at Nevesbu,
and implemented. more than 20%.” discussed the lessons learned from his
Other recommendations focus on Technology development was another company’s experiences engineering FPSO
standardization. Kendig and Wodehouse focus of Kendig’s presentation. In their conversions. In OTC paper 27053, van
suggested that the standardization of paper, the authors recommend that proj- Roosmalen said thorough preparation is
equipment, specifications, documenta- ect developers, vendors, and EPC con- key to cost-effective ship conversion.
tion, and working processes are good tractors should collaborate to iden- “FPSO conversion requires that you
economic practices, and organizations tify and develop the technologies that know what you’re going to do when you
should utilize them on offshore projects. will lead to cost reductions prior to the start doing it,” van Roosmalen said. “You
They also recommended that any major awarding of the EPC contract. need to have phased growth. You need
cost reduction decisions with regards Kendig said he wants to see the indus- to know what you’re going to do in what
to equipment or key vendors should be try approach cost reduction in the sequence. You need to have good prepa-
made in a collaborative fashion, with a same manner in which it approaches ration and good [front-end engineering
team of stakeholders representing an technology development. He suggest- design]. You need to manage your sub-
appropriate cross-section of functions ed the development of a joint-industry contractors and vendors because many
within the organization. program targeting things like the cre- of them are delivering projects tailored to
Kendig said vendors should play a crit- ation of standards for documentation the FPSO you are looking at.”
ical role in identifying cost-reduction and certification.
opportunities. However, he also de- “I am very passionate about improving JPT staff Stephen Rassenfoss, Trent
scribed the process of working with costs and seeing what we can do with- Jacobs, Joel Parshall, and Stephen
equipment vendors as “scattered” and in the industry from a supply chain per- Whitfield contributed to this report.

Disruption on the Horizon: OTC d5 Presents

Thought-Provoking Visions of the Future
Trent Jacobs, JPT Senior Technology Writer

W e are living in an age of disruption.

If you question that assertion, just
reach into your pocket. In less than a
And this is only the beginning. The
disruption these consumer-friendly
technologies are causing to the retail
Wadhwa was the keynote speaker at
SPE’s second annual d5 event on the
Friday after OTC. Held at Rice Univer-
decade, a combination of the Internet, and service sectors will pale in com- sity in Houston, the meeting featured
smartphones, and the myriad of apps parison to the changes coming to ener- speakers with various backgrounds in
developed to run on them have obliter- gy supply and the entire global econo- digital technology and oil and gas who
ated a growing number of once-lucrative my. This prognostication comes from shared their ideas on how to challenge
business models. Vivek Wadhwa, a renowned tech- the status quo.
Countless brick-and-mortar music nology researcher and a fellow at Wadhwa’s message to the audience of
stores have been replaced by iTunes Stanford University. oil and gas executives from around the
and Spotify. Kodak has been replaced “Every industry will be disrupted,” he world was that technology development
by Instagram. The global taxi trade is said. “As technology advances, it becomes is on an exponential path, and that there
being redefined by Uber. Expensive long- more powerful, it becomes smaller, and it is no turning back.
distance phone calls and over-priced text becomes cheaper. It democratizes so that Over the next few years, he said the
messages are now free thanks to Whats- anyone, anywhere can now use it to build world will witness the rapid maturation
App, Viber, and Skype. world-changing solutions.” and convergence of robotics, 3D printing,

JPT • JULY 2016 47

 Larry Tesler Vivek Wadhwa

low-cost sensors, artificial intelligence, those in the fossil fuel business, the out- stressed the importance of not letting
and high-performance computers. There look may be a little nerve-wracking. good ideas go to waste even if the prod-
will be unprecedented benefits, but also “We’re headed into an era of unlimited, uct line they were initially dreamed up
plenty of upheaval to go around. clean, and almost-free energy—this is a for was a flop.
For instance, Wadhwa is an investor in reality whether we believe it or not,” he “Identifying the next big thing may
an Indian-based startup that makes an said. “By 2020, it will cost half as much to take several tries,” he cautioned. “If
affordable and portable computer capa- store energy and half as much to capture you do something too early, then it’s
ble of running a battery of medical tests energy than it does today. In 2025, it will not going to be high-performing. If you
that typically require a visit to the clinic cost an eighth as much.” do it too late, your competitors will get
or hospital. What does all that mean for the oil and there first.”
Comparing it to the fictional tricorder gas industry? According to Wadhwa, just When a technology fails upon launch,
device made famous by Star Trek, he said one word: “toast.” There will still be some companies should identify its most suc-
the new invention will not only revolu- need for oil and gas in the decades to cessful elements and then find new ways
tionize health care in the poorest parts come, but he believes the era of demand to leverage them. Two ideas Tesler pro-
of the world, but it will also present an destruction has already begun and will posed were to license the technology to
attractive alternative to patients in rich be accelerated by electric, driverless cars others and to spin off the team that devel-
countries frustrated by long wait times and solar power generation. oped it into a startup to allow investors to
that end with an examination by a doctor The cost of solar power has been driv- share the risk.
that lasts an average of only 7 minutes. en down dramatically in recent years and Tesler drew on personal experience
On the flip side, when robotics-based Wadhwa said that with each 20% drop, from the time he worked at Xerox’s
manufacturing takes hold next decade, the number of installations around the research facility in Palo Alto, Califor-
Wadhwa predicted that China’s economy globe doubles. He noted that many gov- nia, to talk about the do’s and don’ts of
will collapse as companies in the US and ernment subsidy programs ended last managing corporate research. He was
elsewhere relocate factories back to their year, yet solar power remains “an unstop- among only a few people in the room
home countries. He said China is unable pable force” and may supply 100% of US when the company’s cutting-edge com-
to avoid this future despite a billion- electricity demand in 40 years. puter technology was demonstrated for
dollar initiative to build “zero-labor” fac- Apple cofounder Steve Jobs in the win-
tories that use robots instead of human Recycle the Research ter of 1979.
workers. “The problem for them is that A discussion led by Larry Tesler, the The meeting has become a fixture
their robots are no harder working than inventor of the cut, copy, and paste com- in the pantheon of Silicon Valley folk-
ours are,” he explained. mand on personal computers, merged lore because it is where Jobs was pre-
But for many of those in the room, the the topics of management and technol- sented with, and then appropriated, the
most relevant piece of Wadhwa’s remarks ogy. Tesler, who has held various leader- computer mouse and the window-based
was his forecast for the energy sector. For ship roles at Apple, Yahoo, and Amazon, graphical user interface. Months later,

48 JPT • JULY 2016

From
evolution to
revolution
Cut more,
weigh less,
last longer.
Find out how at
nov.com/beyond20K

To learn more about NOV 20K, download GO NOV

from the App Store or Google Play.

© 2016 | National Oilwell Varco | All rights reserved

 Larry Tesler speaks at Rice
University in Houston where
he explained to oil and gas
professionals how their
companies can find value in
technologies that failed to
have commercial success.

Jobs would also lure Tesler away from in engineering organizations, and never Vincent also recommended that
Xerox to join Apple. was close to a research organization, will companies look for innovative ways to
Fast forward to today, Xerox is merely have expectations that are just not real- improve internal communication and
a footnote in the history of personal com- istic. But vice versa, the research people encourage employees to give their feed-
puting and Apple is the world’s largest have to understand that what they are back and submit more of their own ideas.
computer company by revenue. doing won’t make a difference unless it One example she provided was a com-
Tesler said there were a number of turns into a product.” pany that uses television monitors in
other factors behind Xerox’s failure to its common spaces to play short videos
take advantage of its own innovations. Diversify and Conquer of different employees describing their
One was the company’s refusal to redirect The importance of engagement was also accomplishments at work.
resources from its copier business to sup- a central theme in a presentation given “I know that can be very logistically
port the growth of its computer busi- by Gindi Vincent, an author and coun- hard to manage and that the bigger the
ness. This resulted in Xerox’s personal sel at ExxonMobil. Citing recent studies, organization the more challenging it can
computers costing 13 times more than she said only 30% of the American work- be, but the more critical it is the bigger
the competition. force feels engaged with their job. the organization is,” she said.
“Disrupt or be disrupted,” is the lesson Part of the problem is that too many She also spoke about the tough times
to be learned here, Tesler said. “Put it that companies are focused on financial goals many upstream oil and gas companies
way, and maybe you can sell your company alone, which Vincent explained is not a are going through as they manage a
on going in and taking some big risks.” top priority for the average worker. “It’s nervous and dispirited workforce. Her
Tesler said Xerox made many of the not the money, but the mission” that advice on keeping morale up is to estab-
same mistakes years later when it missed drives most people, she said. lish short-terms goals for employees
the chance to capitalize on the low-end As a student of the brave leadership to reach for and to “tout the wins” as
laser printing market. He hinted that philosophy, Vincent said managers need they come.
things may have turned out differently to stop surrounding themselves with peo- One thing companies should avoid
had there been better communication ple who look like them and start building trying is to improve morale with office
between Xerox’s headquarters in Connect- diverse work teams made of individuals perks, which she said do not work. “Giv-
icut and its research center in California. with different backgrounds and perspec- ing someone a cappuccino bar is not what
“The research center and corporate tives. This improves creativity which she is going to engage the workforce,” she
have to be engaged with each other,” said is one key to staying relevant for the said. “It is going to be driven by person-
he said. “Someone who has only been long term. ality and by leadership.” JPT

50 JPT • JULY 2016

CONFERENCE PREVIEW

SPE ATCE To Focus on Industry Transformation

Joel Parshall, JPT Features Editor

SPE will hold its Annual Technical Con-

ference and Exhibition (ATCE) from
26  September through 28 September at
the Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai,
United Arab Emirates (UAE). Transform- Al-Adsani Al Jarwan Al-Qahtani Breuillac
ing and shaping the future of the explora-
tion and production (E&P) industry will
be the theme of the meeting. It will be
the first time in the 92-year history of the
ATCE that the event has taken place in the
Middle East.
The conference will provide an unpar-
alleled opportunity for learning and col- Craighead Kibsgaard Lesar Sarraf
laboration at workshops and training
courses, while the concurrent exhibi- panelists for the sessions: Nizar Moham-
tion will showcase the latest technologies mad Al-Adsani, deputy chairman and
from around the world. More than 250 chief executive officer (CEO) of Kuwait
companies and organizations are expect- Petroleum; Ali Al Jarwan, executive
ed to exhibit. Oil and gas professionals advisor at Abu Dhabi Marine Operating
from at least 70 countries are expected to Company; Mohammed Y.A. Al-Qahtani,
attend the ATCE. senior vice president of upstream at Taib Yakovlev
A high-quality slate of 58 technical ses- Saudi Aramco; Arnaud Breuillac, presi-
sions is scheduled covering all aspects of dent of exploration and production at 2.0—Reinventing the E&P Industry. The
the upstream oil and gas industry. More Total; Martin Craighead, chairman and panel sessions conclude on 28 September
than 450 peer-selected papers will be CEO of Baker Hughes; Paal Kibsgaard, with Successful Strategies for Mitigat-
presented, which were chosen from more chairman and CEO of Schlumberger; ing the Effect of Boom and Bust; and The
than 2,100 abstracts submitted. David J. Lesar, chairman, president, and Next Generation (YP 2.0): Talent Man-
Two plenary sessions, six panel ses- CEO of Halliburton; D.K. Sarraf, chair- agement for Future Energy.
sions, and 13 special sessions are on the man and managing director of Oil and
program, focusing on short- and long- Natural Gas Corporation; Datuk Anuar Special Sessions
term challenges affecting areas such as Taib, executive vice president and CEO A robust slate of 13 special sessions is
business strategies, project management, of upstream at Petronas; and Vadim scheduled, including
innovation, young professionals’ devel- Yakovlev, deputy chairman of the man- 26 September
opment, academia, and mature fields. agement board and first deputy CEO of ◗ Big Data, Analytics and Impact
Gazprom Neft. ◗ Increased Water Cut—How to
Plenary Sessions Handle
On the 26 September agenda are two Panel Sessions ◗ Processes and Technologies
plenary sessions, the first in the morn- Six panel sessions are scheduled 27 September
ing and the second in the afternoon. throughout the conference, begin- ◗ How is Academia Managing in
Both will examine the conference theme ning on 26 September with Radical New a Cyclic Environment?
“E&P 2.0—Transforming and Shaping Ideas: Innovation Beyond the Limits. On ◗ The Way To Move Forward is
the Future.” 27  September, panels will discuss Proj- To Look Back
A diverse group of global E&P industry ect Management: Getting It Right; Boost- ◗ Women in Leadership: The Value
chief and senior executives will serve as ing Efficiency in E&P; and Collaboration of Gender Diversity in Leadership

JPT • JULY 2016 51

 ◗ Unconventional and Tight Gas SPE technical sections will also hold ber. For those unable to attend, the work-
Reservoirs meetings, including shop will be repeated on 28  September.
◗ Human Capital and the Impact 25 September Students will work in small groups to
of Low Oil Prices ◗ Drilling Systems Automation hone their networking abilities, refine
◗ Local Content and Diversity Technical Section symposium their communication skills, and build
◗ Managing the Oil Industry Cycles: 26 September up a toolkit of essential knowledge for
Employee, Student, and Employer ◗ Projects, Facilities, and Construction their careers.
Perspective Technical Section dinner The Student Awards Luncheon will
28 September ◗ Multisection dinner (Digital Energy, take place on 27 September. SPE will
◗ Getting the Most From Mature Petroleum Data-Driven Analytics, honor outstanding student chapters and
Fields and R&D technical sections) the winners of the student paper contests
◗ New Technologies and People 27 September and PetroBowl.
Competencies for Integrated Flow ◗ R&D Technical Section topical A Career Pathway Fair with Career
Assurance Solutions luncheon Breakout Sessions will be held on 27 Sep-
◗ Exploration 2.0 ◗ Wellbore Positioning Technical tember. Students will meet with spe-
Section luncheon cialists from multiple disciplines in the
Annual Events industry to gain insight into different
◗ On 26 September, a breakfast will be Other Events career paths, how those paths fit into the
held honoring the SPE Distinguished ◗ The ATCE Welcome Reception industry, and what it is like to work in a
Lecturers and members of the will take place at the JW Marriott particular discipline. In an informal set-
25-Year Club. Marquis Hotel on 25 September. ting, students and graduates will have
◗ On 27 September, the Annual Dubai’s traditional arts and culture the opportunity to speak with young pro-
Reception and Awards Banquet will be showcased. fessionals and more experienced indus-
at the JW Marriott Marquis will ◗ Attendees wishing to improve try hands.
recognize significant contributions their ability to submit papers A Young Member Reception will take
of members to the industry, SPE, can participate in a session titled place in the evening on 27 September.
and the greater community. A “How To Write a Good Technical SPE’s energy education outreach pro-
reception will precede the banquet. Paper” on 26 September. gram Energy4me has invited 50 UAE
◗ On 28 September, the President’s ◗ Soft skills workshops on high-school-level science teachers to a
Luncheon and Annual Meeting leadership, strategic tools for free 1-day energy education workshop on
of Members will be held. The career success, marketable team 27 September. The teachers will receive
luncheon showcases 2016 SPE skills, and strategic planning will hands-on training by qualified SPE facil-
President Nathan Meehan’s be held on 27 September. itators, listen to a presentation from a
presentation on new achievements ◗ ENGenious, a JPT-sponsored prominent keynote speaker, and tour
at SPE and upcoming initiatives. showcase of young technology, will the ATCE exhibitions. In addition, the
SPE’s newly elected Distinguished be held throughout the conference. teachers will receive a variety of free
Members, notable volunteers, instructional materials to take back to
and outstanding SPE sections will Students and Young their classrooms.
also be recognized. Attendees Professionals On 28 September, approximately
will be able to meet SPE Board A Student Meet and Greet event will take 150  UAE high school students will see
members and 2017 SPE President place in the afternoon on 25 September. firsthand the opportunities the indus-
Janeen Judah, who will receive the Special activities will help attendees meet try has to offer. The free program spon-
presidential gavel and officially and network with fellow students. sored by Energy4me will include a scav-
begin her term. The 15th annual PetroBowl will be held enger hunt of the technology exhibits
on 26 September. Teams from around and hands-on energy lessons led by qual-
Training Courses and the world will take part in a tourney-type ified SPE facilitators. The students will
Technical Sections contest that will challenge their knowl- also have the opportunity to meet indus-
Ten professional training courses will edge of the oil and gas industry and SPE. try professionals and ask questions about
be held covering a variety of technical A reception will follow. careers in the E&P industry.
disciplines, including four 2-day courses The International Student Paper Con-
on 24–25 September, a 1-day course on tests will take place on 27 September. SPE Pavilion
25 September, and five 1-day courses on Winners of regional contests will com- At the SPE Pavilion, staff members will
29 September. Participants will receive pete for prizes at the undergraduate, be available to answer questions about
1.6 continuing education units (CEUs) graduate, and PhD levels. membership, publications, continuing
for 2-day courses and 0.8 CEUs for A Student Communication Workshop education programs, sections, and stu-
1-day courses. will be held in the morning on 27 Septem- dent activities. JPT

52 JPT • JULY 2016

MANAGEMENT

Solving the Casing-Wear Puzzle Using

Stiff-String Model
Robello Samuel, Aniket Kumar, and Adolfo Gonzales, Halliburton, and Sylvester Marcou and
Anne Mette Rød, Statoil

Precise casing-wear prediction is impor- The proposed model has been validat- WV=Wf ×SFtj×π×Dtj×RPM
tant for improving well integrity and ed using measured wear-log data from an ×60×t×Ltj /Lp . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(1)
longevity, while simultaneously making offshore well in the North Sea. The value
casing designs more cost-effective. Cur- of the maximum wear-groove depth, SFtj=SFft×Lp /Ltj . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(2)
rently, there are no known and com- along with its respective azimuthal loca-
monly accepted guidelines available in tion at that casing cross-section mea- Torque-and-Drag Models:
the industry. Several studies have been sured using the wear logs, were com- Soft-String vs. Stiff-String
presented in literature over the past cou- pared with the simulated values for the Equations 1 and 2 for wear modeling
ple of decades that proposed various entire logged-casing section. clearly suggest that the key to successful-
methods for estimating the downhole ly predicting the downhole casing wear
wear in casings. However, the results of Casing-Wear Model lies in being able to accurately estimate
all such efforts have been mixed. Pre- This modeling approach has been slightly the normal contact load or side forces
dicted values of casing wear using wear modified while being applied to address acting between the tool joints and the
models failed to accurately match the the different kinds of operations that are inner casing wall.
wear logs from the wells when scaled performed to successfully drill a well. The soft-string torque-and-drag
up to the field level. This has led to a Five major operations are considered in model, which is often considered as the
perception in the industry that existing this analysis—drilling, backreaming, industry standard, has been convention-
casing-wear prediction methods lack the rotating off-bottom, sliding, and recipro- ally used for all wear-modeling purposes.
desired accuracy. cation. This study focuses on wear caused This model is considered to represent
Many of these suspicions are unwar- only by the above operations, which can the real drillstring behavior by neglecting
ranted and have emerged because of be performed in different sequences to the bending stiffness of the string com-
inconsistencies in accurately apply- reach the target depth. Other possible ponents so that the entire length of the
ing the casing-wear model. Kumar and reasons for downhole wear, such as ero- string behaves as a cable or chain. It also
Samuel (2015) have previously present- sion while fracturing, corrosion, or any assumes that the drillstring trajectory
ed a comprehensive treatise on all the other mechanical wear during produc- is the same as the wellbore trajectory to
uncertainties involved in casing-wear tion, are not considered in this analysis. solve the wellbore contact problem, and
analysis and the underlying modeling For the drilling and backreaming oper- the contact is further assumed to be con-
method and parameters. This article ations, Eq. 1 has been applied for analy- tinuous along the wellbore.
proposes a new modeling method for sis. The drilling or backreaming opera- Even though these assumptions work
casing-wear prediction using stiff-string tion starts from a given measured depth, well for conventional torque-and-drag
analysis, aiming to reduce the existing and the drill bit progresses farther down analysis, they fail to fulfill the underly-
uncertainties in downhole wear esti- (drilling) or up (backreaming) the hole ing requirements for accurately model-
mation. In addition to estimating more to reach the target end depth for that ing casing wear. The wear groove predict-
accurate side forces, the stiff-string operation. As a result, the tool-joint con- ed using the soft-string model is assumed
model also predicts the contact posi- tact with the inner casing wall varies as to be concentrated only at one particular
tion of the drillstring at any given depth the drillstring moves down or up the location on the low side for any casing
in the casing. These contact positions, hole. The last factor in Eq. 1, the ratio of cross-section, which does not corrobo-
at any given casing depth cross-section, tool-joint length over drillpipe length, is rate the field observations of worn-out
are used to model the development of applied to account for this contact result- casings. Hence, to overcome these exist-
multiple wear grooves around the cross- ing from tool joints only. The average ing challenges, a more comprehensive
section, as various wellbore operations side force supported by the tool joints stiff-string model has been applied for
are conducted through the casing. Fur- is calculated using Eq. 2, assuming that wear analysis in this study.
ther details of this modeling method the entire load is taken solely by the tool Mitchell and Samuel (2009) have pre-
have been presented in this study. joints and there is no pipe-body contact. sented a detailed background on the

JPT • JULY 2016 53

 like well path, survey frequency, multiple
wear factor distribution along the cas-
ing or the drillstring, operation parame-
ters like weight-on-bit or revolutions per
minute, and the downhole wellbore con-
ditions. Variation or inaccuracies in any
of these input parameters would in turn
influence the final predicted wear.
The model over-predicted the amount
of wear when compared with the wear log
in the low-wear zone between the depths
of 11,400 ft and 16,540 ft. This zone was
further examined to investigate any pos-
sible underlying causes that may have
contributed to this over-prediction. After
careful analysis, it was considered that
the comparison between the model and
the wear log had limitations when the
measured and calculated wear was below
the pipe tolerance limit. This may have
resulted from a lack of a base log to iden-
tify the actual casing inner diameter to
run the wear simulations or some limita-
Fig. 1—Remaining casing-wall thickness comparison with ultrasonic log for the tions on the logging tool.
high-wear zone. The other important parameter that
has been used for validation and compar-
drawbacks of the soft-string model and from the ultrasonic log have been com- ison between the wear log and the model
have developed a more comprehensive pared with the minimum remaining wall is the azimuthal location of the worst
stiff-string model that accounts for the thickness estimated from the modeling wear groove at any casing cross-section
bending stiffness of the components and approach proposed by this study. in the logged zone. Such comparisons
accurately estimates drillstring contact Investigation of this wear-log compari- between the measured azimuthal loca-
points in the wellbore rather than assum- son with the model was divided into two tion of wear grooves and modeled loca-
ing continuous contact. This model is parts—the high-wear zone between the tion of wear grooves have not been per-
considered more appropriate for depths of 9,445 ft and 11,400 ft and the formed before for casing-wear analysis
advanced wear analysis. The stiff-string low-wear zone between 11,400 ft and in the industry and will help to further
model estimates more accurate side forc- 16,540 ft, which was the bottom of the understand the accuracy of the underly-
es, particularly for high-dogleg wells, logged section. The wear-log compari- ing modeling method.
as the soft-string model has limitations son of the high-wear zone has been more Fig. 2 shows the wear-groove posi-
in such scenarios. Estimating multiple closely highlighted in Fig. 1. Here, the tion comparison between the modeled
wear-groove locations using stiff-string peaks of the ultrasonic wear log lying wear grooves and the ultrasonic wear
modeling is also expected to reduce the outside the manufacturing tolerance log. Out of the multiple wear grooves
over-prediction of wear, which has been limit correspond well with the wear dis- modeled using the proposed method, the
one of the major drawbacks of the soft- tribution for this zone predicted using azimuthal location of the worst groove
string model. The detailed method of the model. Estimated wear percent for having the maximum groove depth has
modeling multiple wear grooves can be the worst groove at any casing cross- been compared with the log. The high
referred to in the paper SPE 178833. section falling in the high-wear zone side of the wellbore is considered to be
varied from a minimum of 10% wear to 0° in the used convention, and the cas-
Well Log Comparison a maximum of 26% wear. ing cross-section is traversed in a clock-
and Validation The slight variations in wear between wise direction to model multiple grooves.
The results of the modeling simulation the measured log values and the estimat- The logged location of the wear grooves
were compared with the ultrasonic wear ed values using the model are attributed using the ultrasonic log again correlate
log run in an offshore deviated well from to some of the underlying uncertainties very well with the location of the worst
the North Sea. Only the 9⅝-in. casing in the input parameters that we used for groove, as estimated by the model. It
section was logged between the depths modeling. As suggested by Kumar and should be noted that the entire logging
of 9,445 ft and 16,540 ft. The values of Samuel (2015), total wear predictions depth lay in the deviated section of the
the minimum remaining wall thickness are heavily influenced by parameters wellbore; hence, maximum wear was

54 JPT • JULY 2016

caused on the low side of the casing. Both Groove Position (°)
the measured and the predicted values 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
9,000
in Fig. 2 further confirm this observa-
tion, as most of the groove locations fell
on either side of 180°, which represented 10,000
the low side.
Fig. 3 shows the multiple wear grooves
estimated at a particular depth of the 11,000
casing section—at 10,400 ft, where we

Depth Along Casing (ft)

observe one of the peaks of the logged
casing section. This depth lies in the devi- 12,000
ated section of the well, and, convention-
ally, one single wear groove should have 13,000
been expected in the low side. However,
the azimuthal contact locations predict-
ed using the stiff-string model show that 14,000
the wear was distributed between mul-
tiple wear grooves lying between 90° and
180° of the casing cross-section based on 15,000
the clockwise convention specified ear-
lier. This location of the maximum wear Model
16,000
groove has been marked here with an
Wear Log
orange pointer. The location of the worst
wear groove predicted by the model at 17,000
this depth correlates very well with the
azimuthal location of the groove as mea- Fig. 2—Wear-groove position comparison with ultrasonic log.
sured by the ultrasonic log at the depth of
10,400 ft. This comparison can be clearly using the advanced stiff-string torque- SFtj =Side force acting on the tool
drawn from Fig. 2. and-drag model has been proposed joint, lbf
to estimate the development of multi- t =Operation time, hr
Conclusion ple wear grooves for any casing cross- Wf =Wear factor, E-10/psi
This study focused on providing a solu- section. Wear resulting from any of the WV =Wear volume, in.3/ft
tion to the casing-wear problem that has five different operations, namely drill-
perplexed the industry for more than a ing, backreaming, sliding, rotating off- References
couple of decades. A new, more compre- bottom, and reciprocation, has been Kumar, A. and Samuel, R. 2015. Casing
hensive casing-wear modeling approach modeled and presented. The sequen- Wear Factors: How do They Improve
tial combination of any of these opera- Well Integrity Analyses? Presented at
0°
tions performed has also been accounted the Society of Petroleum Engineers/
for while predicting the total downhole International Association of Drilling
casing wear. This proposed method is Contractors Drilling Conference
expected to reduce the over-prediction and Exhibition, London, UK, 17–19
73°
of wear that was commonly observed March. SPE 173053. http://dx.doi.
when using the conventional soft-string org/10.2118/173053-MS.
270° 90° model, because the wear is now dis- Mitchell, R. and Samuel, R. 2009. How
tributed among multiple wear grooves Good Is the Torque/Drag Model? SPE
to more accurately simulate the actual Drill & Compl 24 (1): 62–71. http://dx.doi.
downhole conditions. JPT org/10.2118/105068-PA.
Samuel, R., Kumar, A., Gonzales, A. et al.
Nomenclature 2016. Solving the Casing Wear Puzzle
188° 180°
Dtj =Tool-joint outer diameter, in. Using the Stiff String Model. Presented
Lp =Length of drillpipe, ft at the International Association of
Fig. 3—Casing cross-section looking Ltj =Length of tool joint, ft Drilling Contractors/Society of Petroleum
downhole, showing multiple wear-
RPM =Rotary speed of drillstring, Engineers Drilling Conference and
groove predictions at the depth
of 10,400 ft. The location of the rev/min Exhibition, Fort Worth, Texas, USA,
maximum wear groove is marked SFft =Side force per ft of drillpipe, 1–3 March. SPE 178833. http://dx.doi.
with an orange pointer. lbf/ft org/10.2118/178833-MS.

JPT • JULY 2016 55

 TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Reservoir Simulation
William J. Bailey, SPE, Principal, Schlumberger-Doll Research

Reservoir-simulation-model inputs are Multiscale, which has been al schemas (numerical scale). This mul-
numerous, and uncertainty is perva- tifaceted multiscale concept may offer a
sive—before, during, and after devel- the subject of ongoing means to construct an accurate coarser-
opment. On top of that, there is always study over the past decade, scaled model, one honoring the attributes
pressure to deliver quality results as of the fine-scale heterogeneous geologi-
quickly as possible. This gives rise to
knits together geometrical cal data from both numerical and spatial
a simple question, one that has yet to quantities (dimensional standpoints. This method class computes
find a simple answer: How refined is scale) with tailored local basis functions for the solution vari-
refined enough and how coarse is too ables, to construct a smaller (coarse) sys-
coarse? I run the risk of oversimplifica- computational schemas tem for computing an approximate solu-
tion here, but it seems we are faced with (numerical scale). tion on the original simulation grid.
a classic dichotomy, one that is exacer- While it is too early to say whether this
bated by the pull of advances in high- broader notion of multiscale (numerical
performance computing that permit Dimensional scale represents just one and geometrical) will provide a single,
ever-greater model refinement, while, aspect of the term “multiscale,” which I unifying, model for engineers, it is possi-
simultaneously, we have the push of have mistakenly taken to mean just the ble that this, or some other such method,
(possibly stochastic) sampling of uncer- juxtaposition of, essentially, geometrical may strike that elusive balance between
tainty, thereby encouraging the devel- scale within a single model (such as that refinement (accuracy) and surrogacy
opment of simplified (or surrogate) found in coupling a simulation grid and (speed). For those interested in reading
models that can run hundreds, even the wellbore). The large ratio associat- up on this topic, the peer-reviewed SPE
thousands, of times. The question is one ed with domain size, and the resolution papers SPE 119183 and SPE 163649 pro-
of striking the right balance between of the geological data, is usually man- vide more detail and clarify the status of
two apparently contradictory approach- aged by upscaling. However, so-called some ongoing research. JPT
es to simulation. The adage “horses for multiscale methods represent a new ave-
courses” is not particularly helpful in nue of research, one that may provide a
itself, even though it is probably appro- bridge between the aforementioned push Recommended additional reading
priate. Does one have two distinct mod- and pull of refinement resulting from at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
els with roughly commensurate scal- the needs of different decision makers.
ing, or can we build a single all-purpose Multiscale, which has been the subject of SPE 169063 Application of Multiple-
Mixing-Cell Method To Improve Speed and
model with different scales within it ongoing study over the past decade, knits Robustness of Compositional Simulation
that is both fast and accurate with multi- together geometrical quantities (dimen- by Mohsen Rezaveisi, The University of
scale grid? sional scale) with tailored computation- Texas at Austin, et al.
SPE 177634 Multiscale Geomechanics:
How Much Model Complexity Is Enough?
William Bailey, SPE, is a principal at Schlumberger-Doll Research, by Gerco Hoedeman, Baker Hughes
Cambridge, Massachusetts. His primary technical interests lie in SPE 174905 Experimental Design or
reservoir engineering, multiphase flow in conduits, and optimiza- Monte Carlo Simulation? Strategies for
tion of expensive functions. Bailey has contributed to more than Building Robust Surrogate Models by Jared
50 articles (almost half peer-reviewed) and holds 10 patents. He Schuetter, Battelle Memorial Institute, et al.
holds MEng and PhD degrees in petroleum engineering and an SPE 169357 Reduced-Order Modeling
MBA degree. Bailey has held various positions in SPE, including in Reservoir Simulation Using the
technical reviewer for various SPE journals, and currently serves Bilinear Approximation Techniques
on the SPE Books Development Committee and the JPT Editorial Committee. He can by Mohammadreza Ghasemi, Texas A&M
be reached at wbailey@slb.com. University, et al.

56 JPT • JULY 2016

Project Tests High-Performance
Cloud Computing for Reservoir Simulations

I n the upstream oil and gas

industry, cloud computing is very
immature because the industry has
25

20
always been challenged by storage
and computational capability. 15
However, there is recent evidence for
considering high-performance cloud 10
computing (HPCC) because of the
promise of benefits such as flexibility, 5
accessibility, and cost reduction. HPCC
may create an opportunity for small 0
to midsized upstream companies 1 2 4 8
that do not want to invest in the
Number of CPUs
infrastructure needed for evaluating
scientific applications.
Internal Cloud

Project Overview
The target of this project was to prove Fig. 1—Relationship between CPU time and wall-clock time of calculations
the concept of running simulation soft- done internally and on cloud servers.
ware in a high-performance comput-
ing cloud and use the findings to design ◗
HP_ICLOUD_8 on the ECL server Assuming that this linear scaling
a framework or methodology enabling with eight CPUs persists when adding more than eight
companies to pursue business oppor- The four cases showed identical re- CPUs and extrapolating from this ob-
tunities iteratively while learning along sults for oil-production rate and cumu- servation, it is hypothesized that, for
the way. The outcome of the method- lative oil for the duration of the field larger jobs, the performance of the
ology is a dynamic tactical and stra- history, as expected. cloud servers would increase signif-
tegic roadmap that leverages trends The case with a single CPU was com- icantly compared with what can be
in HPCC. pleted in approximately 20 hours. The achieved internally.
run times with four and eight CPUs were
Calculations and Results 7.7 and 5.7 hours, respectively. Overall Setup
The following cases were run on a local Fig. 1 shows that wall-clock time de- The goal of the overall design was to
cluster at an early stage for the purpose creased as more CPUs were added, both simulate a real-life corporate network
of run validations: for calculations performed internally within a cloud scenario. Therefore, a
◗ HP_ICLOUD on reference and for those performed on the cloud virtual private cloud (VPC) was first
workstation with one central servers. It was also observed that inter- set up in the cloud server’s data cen-
processing unit (CPU) nal calculations stagnated at more than ter to act as the corporate network.
◗ HP_ICLOUD on the Enterprise four CPUs (i.e., sublinear scaling). On Next, a second VPC was set up in a
Cloud (ECL) server with one CPU the other hand, close to linear scaling separate data center to serve as the
◗ HP_ICLOUD_4 on the ECL server was observed when calculations were cloud network.
with four CPUs run on the cloud servers.
Network Setup
A major challenge was how to connect
This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
the physical Universal Serial Bus (USB)
of paper SPE 167877, “Reservoir Simulations in a High-Performance Cloud-Computing dongle to a virtual server. This was re-
Environment,” by Morgan Edward Eldred, Asma Aboubakr, Ahmed Abubakr solved by the use of a USB network de-
Al-Emadi, Thomas James O’Reilly, Nedal Barghouti, and Abdollah Orangi, vice server placed within the demilita-
Maersk Oil, prepared for the 2014 SPE Intelligent Energy Conference and Exhibition, rized zone (DMZ) behind the firewall.
Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1–3 April. The paper has not been peer reviewed. This enabled the mapping of the USB

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • JULY 2016 57

 10.00 opportunity has on the current
architecture and landscape and if
9.00
the opportunity is feasible. This
8.00
would also include what license
Hourly Cost (USD)

7.00 restrictions are put forward by

6.00 the vendors.
5.00 ◗ Determine legal and regulatory
Break-Even Point feasibility: Determine the security
4.00
requirements for the data that
3.00
will be used and set up the cloud
2.00
according to the region. If data
1.00 requirements specify that a specific
– country or region is outside of the
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 provider’s offering, then this is a
Utilization (%) no-go.
◗ Determine economic feasibility:
Internal Cloud Determine the break-even point
for using a high-performance cloud
Fig. 2—Illustrative cost model for comparing HPCC and internal infrastructure. vs. the deployment of internal
infrastructure.
port to a virtual server over the net- Furthermore, the initial setup time for ◗ Plan: Determine and plan how
work. The USB port on the device serv- the HPCC would be considerably less, many jobs and scenarios need
er was mapped to a server licensed to approximately 1 work week, compared to be run and then calculate this
use the simulation software in the DMZ with on-premise purchase procedure, against the break-even point.
and configured with a public Internet hardware installation, software installa- ◗ Execute: Implement the HPCC
protocol address. It was also config- tion, and end-user access and training. technology model
ured in the firewall to allow traffic be- Depending on the level of computing ◗ Realize: Run computing jobs on
tween the cloud server and the licensed power required, an analysis would be the infrastructure.
server in the DMZ. One limitation that needed to ensure that HPCC would be ◗ Evaluate: Evaluate performance
was encountered was that the licensed able to service the various simulations, and document lessons learned.
server must be on the same subnet as with the variables being horizontal or Use new knowledge to assess new
the USB device server, so it was not vertical software scalability and data ca- opportunities.
possible to place the licensed server pacity and transfer speed. Additionally, By iteratively identifying, implement-
in the cloud. a user interface for HPCC provisioning ing, and evaluating business opportu-
would need to cater to the needs of the nities to leverage HPCC, the organiza-
Cost Model end user as well as align with the simu- tion will continually grow a portfolio of
Fig. 2 shows an illustrative cost model lation software specificities. HPCC initiatives. The Evaluate step is
that calculates the break-even point Developing a repository of HPCC- especially important because it will help
of using HPCC vs. an internal infra- optimized simulation scenarios, with an the organization learn how to excel in
structure. As seen in the figure, it is fa- optimal user interface for end-user self- the HPCC discipline.
vorable to use the HPCC when its use service, would be the ultimate goal, re-
over a long period of time is low. In moving the need for on-premise com- Conclusion
the case that this is kept high, using puting. If policies do not allow for this, a HPCC environments provide an oppor-
infrastructure might be more benefi- hybrid modal approach would work, but tunity to leverage technology enhance-
cial economically. it would need to be integrated into the ments. While it is technically possible to
same end-user provision portal. run reservoir simulations in the cloud,
Further Discussion there are still challenges with the licens-
Having provided the findings in the re- Framework ing models of existing software.
sults as an operationally viable solu- The proposed framework is as follows: The framework provided is an agile
tion for an alternative to on-premise ◗ Determine business opportunity: method for determining if the business
computing, further development into Determine if a business opportunity is ready for cloud comput-
a user interface for end-user self- opportunity exists to leverage ing and if it offers a significant opportu-
service is needed. This would reduce an HPCC environment, such nity for pushing high-performance com-
setup time and ease the workload on as moving from a scenario- puting further down the supply chain.
the information-technology (IT) staff based modeling approach to a Cloud computing is very agile,
and eventually minimize cost, pushing probabilistic approach. with recent technology being easier
commodity IT services further down the ◗ Determine architectural feasibility: to use and having low capital invest-
supply chain. Determine what effect the ment costs. JPT

58 JPT • JULY 2016

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 Modeling of a Complex Reservoir Where
the Normal Modeling Rules Do Not Apply

W ith the easy conventional oil

in Argentina having been
produced, one remaining way to find
new oil in existing fields is to convert
fields from primary or secondary
production to secondary or tertiary
production, respectively. For the
Cerro Fortunoso field, the high costs
required to develop the field, combined
with an ambiguous log response that
suggested that sand was predominantly
disconnected, resulted in secondary Fig. 1—(a) The location of the Cerro Fortunoso field in Argentina, with
production not being implemented. productive and nonproductive basins. (b) Satellite image of its location.
To reduce the risk, a waterflood
pilot was necessary to demonstrate and then to determine if waterflooding ◗ Preserving the zone thickness
that waterflooding has potential would, in fact, be economically viable. within correlated cycles
and to provide water-injection and ◗ Modeling of complex thrust faults
production data to constrain the history- Structural-Model Construction and stratigraphic repetitions
matching process. Usually, the first step in the construc-
tion of a structural model is to extract a The Simulation Model
Introduction surface from a seismic marker. Unfortu- Cerro Fortunoso posed a unique chal-
Fig. 1 shows the location of Cerro Fortu- nately, in Cerro Fortunoso, the presence lenge for simulation because of the large
noso in Mendoza province, approximate- of a significant thickness of igneous rock number of cells needed in the vertical
ly 1200  km southeast of Buenos Aires. and high-angle flanks causes high noise dimension to model the 1- to 2-m-thick
Most large fields in Mendoza province and attenuation, respectively, on exist- sands that make up the productive inter-
were exploited by waterflood decades ing 2D-seismic data and makes complet- vals of the field. All 17 correlated zones
ago. For waterflooding not to be initiated, ing a 3D survey a fruitless exercise. With- were shown to contain potentially pro-
the nature of the reservoir had to be un- out 3D seismic, the structural model was ductive thin sand intervals, so it was not
clear or the capital expenditure required constructed on the basis of data from possible to increase the cell thickness in
had to be high. In the case of Cerro For- both surface outcrops and subsurface any of the productive zones. In addition,
tunoso, a substantial investment is re- well data. This was a challenge because to history match the waterflood pilot,
quired to cover the cost of drilling infill Cerro Fortunoso is in a complex struc- it was necessary to ensure there were
wells and for the construction of a pipe- tural environment and the fold geometry at least two cells between each injector/
line to provide injection water from a was shown to vary significantly along the producer pair. Because the well spacing
river 15 km away. strike of the field. in the field is 150  m in some cases, this
To minimize the risk associated with The complex structural model was meant that the horizontal dimension of
converting the field to waterflooding, captured successfully in the static the cells was restricted to an average of
an integrated study was sanctioned that model. Specific challenges successfully 30 m. A full-field static model, therefore,
aimed to characterize the field initially met included: would be either very slow or impossible
to simulate. Consequently, it was neces-
sary to consider simulating sectors of the
This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
field only. Structural interpretation and a
of paper SPE 169369, “Integrated Modeling of a Highly Structural and Complex
variation in deepest oil suggest that Cerro
Reservoir Where the Normal Modeling Rules Do Not Apply—Cerro Fortunoso,” by Fortunoso is separated into individual
Anthony Thompson, SPE, Abel Garriz, Gaston Manestar, SPE, Griselda Vocaturo, blocks that could be simulated separate-
Vanesa Consoli, and Pablo Giampaoli, YPF, prepared for the 2014 SPE Latin ly. It was decided initially to simulate
American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference, Maracaibo, Venezuela, only the northeast block, which included
21–23 May. The paper has not been peer reviewed. the waterflood pilot.

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

60 JPT • JULY 2016

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 Fig. 2—Simulation of water saturations in the northeast bock in 2038 with the existing waterflood (left) and an
expanded waterflood (right).

Gas Cap. The reservoir has a 95% car- at the water saturations modeled initially static model, the saturation in the field
bon dioxide gas cap from volcanic activ- by the averaged J-function in the dry oil was populated.
ity. However, it was decided to model the sands. ( J-function refers to the classical
gas cap as a conventional hydrocarbon expression relating water saturation and Pressure Data. Because most of the field
gas cap. capillary pressure.) has been developed exclusively by prima-
ry depletion, there were limited water-
Simulation Time Optimization. To im- Saturation Modeling. The productive breakthrough data to history match, and
prove the running speed of the model, features on Cerro Fortunoso are thin these were available only after the ini-
it was necessary to run the model con- sands dispersed stratigraphically be- tiation of the waterflood pilot. However,
strained by reservoir volume rate initial- tween massive dense beds. The effect of there were significant repeat-formation-
ly. If run on the more typical liquid rate, this was that, even in the center of a res- tester (RFT) data available. Because the
wells unable to make their liquid-rate ervoir bed, well logs would be reporting field is in an area where the surface is sig-
constraint reduced their flowing bottom- partly the log response from either the nificantly above sea level, the RFT data
hole pressure to the minimum allowable overlying or the underlying dense for- were critical in determining the equili-
pressure of 1 bar. If these wells were lo- mations. For both porosity and resistiv- bration conditions.
cated near the gas cap, this resulted in ity, this meant that, if the log response The first wells in each block showed
the subsequent production of large quan- was interpreted directly, the properties equilibrium and constant gradients.
tities of gas and, hence, simulation in- would be underestimated. For porosity, Subsequent wells, as could be expected,
stability. By limiting the amount of gas this would affect the material balance. showed varying levels of pressure deple-
produced by use of the reservoir-fluid However, the greatest effect on the histo- tion. This demonstrated that there was
history-matching constraint, the vol- ry match came from the saturation mod- pressure communication between wells.
ume of gas produced in the simulation eling. When log-derived saturations were In addition, pressure data demonstrated
is restricted. used in the model, a high level of water depletion of varying levels from all indi-
production was predicted even though vidual reservoir zones. This meant that
Relative Permeability. A number of ex- production history had shown negligible no zones could be discarded for history
perimental relative permeability curves water production away from the aquifer. matching, thus slowing run times.
were available. Some of these were re- This was interpreted as being caused by
garded as being of doubtful quality, with the saturations in the productive sands Results
endpoints inconsistent with the expect- being estimated as lying in the transition As a result of the integrated modeling
ed range for this type of oil viscosity and zone of the relative permeability curve, project, a development plan for expand-
reservoir permeability. Directly using resulting in simultaneous production of ing the existing waterflood has been pro-
relative permeability based on experi- oil and water. In reality, the saturation posed for the whole field. However, to
mental data, even the relative permea- in the reservoir rock was at initial water date, forecasts have been limited to the
bilities that are regarded as being more saturation, which obviously results in the northeast sector. Fig. 2 shows the simu-
reliable, resulted in high levels of simu- production of dry oil. lated water saturation in the MK-150 zone
lated water production early in field life J-function values were calculated for in 2038. The left-hand side shows water
while, in fact, water production in the the controlled-relative-permeability saturation after the continuation of the
field was initially negligible. Applying water-saturation points and were en- existing pilot waterflood, and the right-
the J-function saturation, with its initial tered into the simulation oil/water rela- hand side shows water saturation after an
water saturations that were lower than tive permeability table. The surface ten- expansion of waterflooding to cover the
the resistivity indicated, still resulted in sion for Cerro Fortunoso between the entire block. The reduction in oil satura-
an excessive simulated water production. oil and water systems is 25  dynes/cm. tion with the expansion of the waterflood
To solve this, the critical water saturation With these data and the permeability is especially apparent in the southern re-
was increased so that water does not flow and porosity data obtained from the gion of the northeast block. JPT

62 JPT • JULY 2016

Use of Emulator Methodology
for Uncertainty-Reduction Quantification

M ost simulation models go

through a series of iterations
before being judged as giving an
adequate representation of the physical
system. This can be difficult because
the input space to be searched may
be high dimensional, the collection
of outputs to be matched may be
very large, and each single evaluation
may take a long time. Because the
uncertainty analysis is complex
and time consuming, in this paper,
a stochastic representation of the
computer model, called an emulator,
was constructed to quantify the
reduction in the parameter input space.

Introduction
Reservoir simulators are important
and widely used in reservoir manage-
ment. They are used in reservoir-
performance prediction and for de-
cision making. These simulators are Fig. 1—Process to perform uncertainty-reduction quantification.
computer implementations of high-
dimensional mathematical models for the history matching: deterministic and the collection of outputs to be matched
reservoirs, where the model inputs are probabilistic approaches. may be very large, and each single evalu-
physical parameters and the outputs are The deterministic approach involves ation may take a long time.
observable characteristics such as well- running the initial simulation model with To deal with the large number of itera-
pressure measurements and fluid pro- different input values to obtain one sim- tions and high computational resources
duction. Uncertainties are always present ulation model between many probable commonly encountered in the probabi-
in the reservoir-characterization pro- matches to the field data. listic approach, proxy models are used.
cess; thus, input parameters are usually In a probabilistic approach, in which Because history matching and
uncertain and so is the simulator output. several reservoir-model scenarios are uncertainty-reduction quantification
The procedure to calibrate the considered, the uncertainty analysis pro- are complex and time consuming, this
reservoir-simulation model is called his- cedure is used. Identifying the input pa- work shows the work flow used to quan-
tory matching. On the basis of observed rameters for which the simulation out- tify the reduction in the parameter input
data, a set of possible input choices for puts match the observed data can be a space from production data over differ-
the reservoir model is identified. Two dif- difficult task because the input space to ent production periods. This work flow
ferent procedures can be used to perform be searched may be high dimensional, comprises the construction of a proxy
model called an emulator. This tech-
nique was applied to a synthetic reser-
This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
voir simulation model that was built to
of paper SPE 169405, “Use of Emulator Methodology for Uncertainty-Reduction represent the region of an injector and
Quantification,” by C. Ferreira, Universidade Estadual de Campinas; I. Vernon, related producers.
Durham University; D.J. Schiozer, SPE, Universidade Estadual de Campinas; and
M. Goldstein, Durham University, prepared for the 2014 SPE Latin American and Proposed Methodology
Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference, Maracaibo, Venezuela, 21–23 May. The work flow used to construct the
The paper has not been peer reviewed. emulator was designed to quantify the

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • JULY 2016 63

 reservoir-simulation-model uncertainty Input-Data-Set Sampling. The input- Nonimplausible-Inputs Evaluation. The
reduction from production data. The ob- data-set sampling is an important stage nonimplausible input parameters ob-
jective was to identify the inputs of a in creating an adequate emulator. Dif- tained at the end of the process represent
reservoir-simulation model within a pos- ferent sampling methods exist and have the input parameters of the reservoir sim-
sible input-parameter space, whose out- been applied in reservoir simulations. ulation whose outputs match the hypo-
puts match the hypothetical historical The Latin hypercube design (LHD) is an thetical historical production data. These
production data. Fig.  1 shows the work efficient design and was selected as a parameters are evaluated to identify how
flow. Each stage is described as follows. sampling method for this work. Scenar- much the production data improved the
ios were generated on the basis of the reservoir-model understanding.
Input- and Output-Parameter Defini- input-parameter space and sampled with While carrying out this analysis con-
tion. In reservoir simulation, uncertain the LHD. The selected scenarios were sidering different production periods,
inputs are physical parameters deter- simulated with commercial simulation it is possible to evaluate the effect of
mined through an uncertainty analysis software to obtain the production out- the production period on the reservoir-
performed on the base model. The out- puts. The sampled input parameters and uncertainty reduction.
puts of the model, for a given choice resulting simulation outputs were used to
of inputs, are observable characteristics construct the emulator. Conclusions
such as well bottomhole pressure, water A work flow to determine the input pa-
rate at production wells, and water- Emulator Estimation. The emulator is rameters whose output values match his-
saturation maps. The input-variable se- an approximation of the existing numer- torical data using emulation techniques
lection depends on the underlying prob- ical reservoir model. It should be able was presented. The work flow was ap-
lem and the knowledge of the engineer. to replicate the response of the simula- plied successfully to a five-spot synthetic
The physical state of the reservoir un- tion model. For a reservoir-simulation case that was built to represent the re-
certainty varies because of the amount of model, it is infeasible to evaluate the gion of an injector and related produc-
information available and the production simulator at enough choices to search ers. The uncertainty reduction of a res-
period. In this study, the analysis is being the input space exhaustively. Therefore, ervoir model because of new information
performed in the field-development a representation of the output uncer- acquisition for different production pe-
phase and the uncertainty of the appro- tainty at each input choice must be con- riods was quantified. The field produc-
priate choices of the input parameters for structed. This representation is termed tion data used were obtained by consid-
the reservoir model is high. an emulator. ering a hypothetical reality among all
possible scenarios because the analysis
Emulator Diagnostics. Emulator diag- was performed at the development stage
One Stop for nostics is the process of assessing an em- and used a synthetic model. Two pe-
ulator’s prediction accuracy and quality. riods of production were evaluated: at
Everything JPT The response values predicted by the em- an early production stage (1,000 days)
Get all your online JPT ulator must comprise the results of the and at an intermediate production stage
content in one place at full numerical simulation for the input (3,500 days).
www.spe.org/jpt data set. The results obtained showed the
importance of using emulators in
Responsive Design Implausibility Analysis. The implausi- uncertainty-reduction quantification and
SPE members can access bility analysis is performed to obtain the history matching. The number of input
the latest issue of JPT input parameters whose outputs match parameters considered nonimplausible
from any of their devices. the hypothetical historical data. The hy- was a small set of the initial input space.
Optimized for desktop, pothetical historical data are derived At an early stage, it was possible to re-
tablet, and phone, JPT is from a hypothetical reality selected from duce the uncertainty by identifying the
easy to read and browse all possible scenarios generated in the hypothetical real field permeability and
anytime you are online. uncertainty analysis. Moreover, these in- identifying possible values for channel
puts are obtained to improve the emula- positioning. However, other important
tor reliability and to evaluate the uncer- physical features were not identified,
tainty reduction at the end of the process. such as the channel permeability, width,
Offline Access The maximum-acceptable-implausi- and length. At an intermediate stage, the
bility-value cutoff determines whether uncertainty reduction was higher. How-
Download PDF versions an input-parameter vector is viewed as ever, some important physical features
of 180+ issues dating nonimplausible or not. This value can be that affect production prediction, such
back to 1997 for reading defined on the basis of various consider- as channel permeability and width, still
online or when an ations, but, often, the cutoff used is equal were not identified; therefore, further re-
Internet connection is to the critical value of some appropriate search will test the application of the em-
not available. distribution (for example, the standard ulation technique with 4D-seismic data
normal distribution). to reduce uncertainty. JPT

64 JPT • JULY 2016

Simulation Analysis With Association-Rule
Mining Plus High-Dimensional Visualization

C
Shoreface
omputational advances in reservoir ing predictive capability to capture the

Downdip
simulation have made possible the range of uncertainty related to geologi- RF

Progradation Direction
0.54
simulation of thousands of reservoir cal uncertainty remaining after data as-
cases in a practical time frame. This similation. However, little attention has
0.50
opens a new avenue to reservoir- been paid to qualitative analysis of the ef-

Updip
simulation studies, enabling exhaustive fect of geological features on simulated
Fault K 0.46
exploration of subsurface uncertainty production performance. LMH L

Cross dip

coverage
and development/depletion options. One obvious reason for the under-

Barrier
M
However, analyzing the results of a large utilization of the model ensemble for Fault density
0.42
H M L H
number of simulation cases remains understanding reservoir sensitivity is Low Mid High
challenging. This paper presents a the lack of efficient methods to visual- Aggradation Angle
new method that enables the efficient ize simulation results in such a way that
analysis of massive reservoir-simulation interaction among multiple uncertain- Fig. 1—Dimensional-stacking image
from 243 reservoir cases from the
results by discovering interesting ty parameters and simulated production
SAIGUP data set. L=low, M=mid, and
patterns of relationships among response can be revealed rapidly. This H=high.
variables in large data sets. The method paper presents a novel methodology that
uses association-rule mining together serves this purpose by coupling a well- force sampling (exhaustive sampling from
with high-dimensional visualization. known data-mining algorithm, called everywhere in high-dimensional space)
association-rule mining, with an existing from eight-dimensional parameter space,
Introduction high-dimensional visualization method focusing on structural and sedimentolog-
Ensemble-based approaches for reservoir called dimensional stacking. ical uncertainty anticipated in a shallow-
modeling and simulation have been inves- marine depositional environment.
tigated for decades. The majority of the Data Set
methods are designed to explore a high- The Sensitivity Analysis of the Impact Association-Rule-Based
dimensional space spanned by uncertain- of Geological Uncertainty on Produc- Dimensional Stacking
ty parameters and find a set of reservoir tion (SAIGUP) project was an interdisci- To illustrate association-rule-based di-
models that reproduce historical produc- plinary reservoir-modeling project con- mensional stacking, simulation results
tion performance. Once an ensemble of ducted from 2000 to 2004. The project from a small subset of the SAIGUP data
history-matched models is obtained, the aimed at studying the influence of geol- set were used. This small subset, consist-
effect of subsurface uncertainty on pro- ogy on oil recovery from progradational ing of 243 models, corresponds to brute-
duction forecast is evaluated quantita- shallow-marine reservoirs, which repre- force sampling from five-dimensional
tively by simulating flow performance on sent North Sea assets, by investigating uncertainty parameter space.
individual members of the model ensem- peripheral-water-injection performances
ble. Exploration of the parameter space simulated on synthetic reservoir cases. Dimensional Stacking. Dimensional
during the model calibration is conducted The synthetic reservoir models built and stacking is a high-dimensional visual-
with various stochastic algorithms. Major simulated during the course of project ization technique. Fig. 1 illustrates an
research efforts on these approaches are add up to more than 35,000. example of dimensional stacking that
devoted to achieving efficient sampling This study used a suite of 9,072 syn- visualizes recovery factor (RF) of oil sim-
from the parameter space and obtain- thetic reservoir models created by brute- ulated from 243 reservoir cases sam-
pled from five-dimensional parameter
space. Each of the pixels in the figure
This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
represents a single simulation. The pixel
of paper SPE 174774, “Using Association Rule Mining and High-Dimensional
color indicates the value of the RF. The
Visualization To Explore the Impact of Geological Features on Dynamic Flow Behavior,” pixels are arranged in a single 2D view
by Satomi Suzuki, SPE, and Dave Stern, SPE, ExxonMobil Upstream Research using a nested loop structure in such a
Company, and Tom Manzocchi, SPE, University College Dublin, prepared for the 2015 way that the pixels cycle at the slowest
SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Houston, 28–30 September. The over the outermost axis parameters; in
paper has not been peer reviewed. each window, cycle faster over the inner

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • JULY 2016 65

 Shoreface The Apriori algorithm first finds the of data in each level becomes equal,
RF combinations of items that occur fre- in order to avoid statistical bias.
Low quently in the data set and then generates ◗ Mine rules from discretized data
0.54
Barrier Coverage

the rules from the discovered frequent set using the Apriori algorithm by
0.50 item sets through binary partitioning of limiting left-hand-side items of
Mid

the item set. Confidence of a rule is the the rules to axis parameters and
Agg. angle 0.46 conditional probability of occurrence of right-hand-side items of the rules to
LMH D direction the right-hand side of the rule given the production responses.
Prog.
High

U
0.42 occurrence of left-hand side of the same ◗ In the example presented in the
Fault density
H M L X rule. The support count is the number of complete paper, the authors
Low Mid High transactions that support a given rule. create dimensional-stacking
Fault Permeability
The lift is the ratio of confidence to prob- images separately for multiple
Fig. 2—Dimensional stacking image ability of occurrence of the right-hand environments of deposition (EODs)
from 243 reservoir cases from the side of the rule. In other words, the lift in- (e.g., shoreface, wave-dominated
SAIGUP data set generated using
parameter ordering different from that
dicates the extent to which the left-hand delta, fluvial-dominated delta)
of Fig. 1. L=low, M=mid, and H=high. side of the rule elevates the probability of because the interpretation becomes
occurrence of the right-hand side of the more intuitive in such a manner. In
axis parameters; and, further in each of rule from its marginal probability. order to do so, rules obtained from
the subwindows, cycle fastest over the Rules are efficiently mined by specify- the second step were subdivided into
innermost axis parameter. If the data ing thresholds for minimum confidence separate EOD groups in accordance
are sampled from higher-dimensional and minimum support. Typically, high with the levels of curvature that
space, the nested loop continues. numbers of rules are obtained and more appear in the left-hand side of
Dimensional stacking is a power- than 99% of them are redundant or not the rules.
ful tool to visualize how production re- interesting. The rules that are not statis- ◗ Conduct the following steps for each
sponse varies in the high-dimensional tically significant can be eliminated by EOD:
parameter space. However, the difficulty specifying a threshold for minimum lift. o Eliminate insignificant or
lies in how to determine the order of axis The redundant rules can be removed by redundant rules from the rule set.
parameters to arrange the nested loop. eliminating the rules that are a superset o Score individual axis
Fig.  2 depicts a dimensional-stacking of other rules and show equal or lower lift parameters on the basis of
image created from exactly the same compared to their subset rules. the remaining rules. Using
data as in Fig. 1 using a different order the score, automatically rank
of axis parameters. As shown, the sen- Using Association-Rule Mining axis parameters in accordance
sitivity pattern is not visible at all if the for Dimensional Stacking with their power to segregate
“wrong” ordering of parameters is used. Although association-rule mining was production response in high-
Finding the “right” ordering of axis pa- originally proposed for solving market dimensional parameter space.
rameters on a trial-and-error basis usu- basket problems, it can be used to dis- Some parameters contribute to
ally is prohibitive because the number of cover interesting relationships between the segregation of production
possible arrangements of axes increases variables of any large data set sampled response by their own effects,
dramatically as dimensionality of param- from high-dimensional parameter space. while some parameters contribute
eter space increases. By inspecting the discovered rules, engi- to the segregation by enhancing
This paper presents a novel approach neers can rapidly extract knowledge from the effect of other parameters
to order the axis parameters automati- the large data set and use it to assist in through parameter interaction.
cally by directly using knowledge about in-depth analysis to achieve an optimum The ranking is designed to
the parameter/response relationship and combination of development options. account for both contributions.
parameter interaction. To obtain such The method presented in this paper o Arrange the coordinate of the
knowledge automatically, a well-known proposes using the set of discovered rules dimensional-stacking image on
data-mining method, association-rule to determine the ordering of axis param- the basis of the result of ranking
mining, was used. eters for dimensional stacking to obtain in such a way that, the higher
the best visualization result. the rank of the parameter, the
Association-Rule Mining. Association- The step-by-step procedure to im- outer-more the axis to which the
rule mining was originally proposed for plement dimensional stacking using parameter is assigned. Generate
solving “market basket” problems to association-rule mining is as follows: the dimensional-stacking image.
analyze the purchase behavior of cus- ◗ Convert continuous variables, if The whole process can be executed
tomers by mining transaction records any, to categorical variables. The automatically on the full SAIGUP data
collected at points of sale. It aims at dis- recommended conversion is to set (9,072 models) in less than 10 sec-
covering hidden patterns in big data by discretize data into multiple levels onds without user intervention, thanks
finding rules that occur frequently in the (e.g. low, medium, and high) in such to the computational efficiency of the
given set of transactions. a way that frequency of occurrence Apriori algorithm. JPT

66 JPT • JULY 2016

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Artificial Lift
Mike Berry, SPE, Independent Artificial-Lift Consultant

It has been a year since my last lecture/ not know with certainty what the res- emotional buy-in to their projects and
rant about corporate shortsightedness. ervoir properties are outside of near- often feel that their career depends upon
I am sure my concerns were taken to wellbore regions. We use algorithms to the project going forward.
heart and everyone was able to spend come up with grid properties, but we are What we should do is use error analy-
the last year working on training, docu- really just making educated guesses. sis and statistical methods to define
menting best practices, tracking failure What are we to do? The most com- uncertainty. The propagation of uncer-
root causes and costs, and optimizing mon approach is to plug in our best- tainty through mathematical equations
lift efficiency. This allows me to focus guess data  and use the results as truth. can be calculated. It was required in
on a problem unique to the extraction New engineers feel a sense of accom- my physical-chemistry lab almost 40
industries. This problem arises because plishment for a job well done. More- years ago. We can calculate statistically
we work at the transition from unbound, experienced engineers hope for the best. expected results. It is nothing new and
heterogeneous nature to bound, homo- Old codgers like me hope nothing catch- is well-understood. We just do not apply
geneous controlled environments. es on fire. it to our own uncertainty. As engineers,
Our problem is that we are deal- We see the results of this uncer- we should demand or create software
ing with multiphase, multicomponent tainty all around us. Wells do not pro- that allows input data to be defined as
fluids whose compositions change spa- duce as expected, equipment runs are either a value and uncertainty or a range
tially and temporally inside imperfect- inconsistent, reserves estimates are and distribution. Results should be given
ly understood heterogeneous reservoirs constantly revised. either a measure of the uncertainty or
whose characteristics also change spa- A better approach is to recognize that a distribution.
tially and temporally. When a black-oil we are working in a world of uncertainty. I selected these papers because the
correlation comes with the caveat that At a minimum, create a worst case, a best authors have recognized, embraced,
the results are ±20%, they are not kid- case, and a most-likely case. Many do and accepted uncertainty. The papers
ding. And when they specify a range of this, but they do not always appreciate describe how they addressed uncertainty
validity that we blithely exceed, all bets that the only thing for certain is that the to find a solution for their problems. JPT
are off. When we take Darcy’s law for most-likely case will not happen. With
linear flow of water through a homo- any luck at all, the results will fall some-
geneous sandpack and manipulate it to where between the worst and best cases. Recommended additional reading
apply to multiphase flow through a het- A bigger problem is the temptation to at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
erogeneous multilayer reservoir, we have seize upon the best case because it is the
to make assumptions. Sure, we can break only one that will meet the fiscal require- OTC 24799 A New Model for the Accurate
Prediction of Critical Liquid Removal
the reservoir into a grid and assign val- ments for the project. It is easy for me to Based on Energy Balance by Xiao-Hua Tan,
ues to each grid, but the truth is we do tell you to just say no, but people have Southwest Petroleum University, et al.
SPE 175310 Improving the Electrical
Submersible Pump’s Operational Time
Mike Berry, SPE, is an independent artificial-lift consultant. Now by 50% Using the Six-Sigma Procedures
approaching 40 years in the petroleum industry, he has worked by M. Ahmad, Kuwait Institute for Scientific
as a roustabout standing knee deep in crude and as a research Research, et al.
scientist testing state-of-the-art equipment in what was one of
the world’s premier multiphase-flow test loops. Berry has served SPE 176194 The Success Story of
the Light-North Area of Roger Block:
on numerous SPE committees and occasionally serves as a Continuous Exertion To Increase Electrical-
PetroSkills instructor. He holds a BS degree in petroleum engi- Submersible-Pump Performance Through
neering from the University of Oklahoma and is a licensed pro- Rectifying Design Process To Resolve
fessional engineer. Berry serves on the JPT Editorial Committee and can be reached MDSS Problem by Cintani Kusuma Dewi,
at michaelrberry@sbcglobal.net. Chevron Pacific Indonesia, et al.

JPT • JULY 2016 67

 Evaluation of Intermittent-Flow Behavior
Upstream of Electrical Submersible Pumps

T his work experimentally

investigates the behavior of an
intermittent multiphase liquid/gas
Metering holes

flow that takes place upstream of an ID (mm) Quantity

electrical submersible pump (ESP). On
36
the basis of the results and associated 1.0
interpretation, a flow-homogenizer 72
device was designed, built, and tested.
Classical ESPs, which, in essence, 1 9
2.0
are composed of a series of radial/ 18
centrifugal impeller/diffuser pairs, are
not tailored to work in scenarios with
high gas-void-fraction (GVF) values. The
apparatus was assembled to avoid the
development of intermittent flow.

Introduction
In the oil industry, multiphase flow oc-
curs during the production and trans-
port of oil and gas at wells and in the
lines that connect wells to platforms. Fig. 1—Experimental apparatus and dimensions of the filter to work with water
During well production, the flow from and air. ID=internal diameter.
the reservoir to the production plat-
form undergoes depressurization. Con- flow. In this flow pattern, the liquid in The use of an ESP pump mounted on
sequently, a portion of the liquid hydro- the pipe is nonuniformly distributed axi- a skid is an artificial-lift concept for the
carbon dissociates and becomes gaseous ally. Plugs or slugs of liquid that fill the application of submerged centrifugal
during production. pipe are separated by gas zones, which pumping technology through the devel-
Multiphase flows are characterized by contain a stratified liquid layer flowing opment of a subsea pumping system in-
the existence of several flow patterns. along the bottom of the pipe. The liquid stalled on the seabed. The advantages
When gas and liquid flow in a pipe at the in the slug may be aerated by small bub- of this system include the reduced costs
same time, several flow configurations bles, which are concentrated toward the of pump-installation and -retrieval op-
may exist. These patterns depend on op- front of the slug and the top of the pipe. erations because the pump module can
erating variables—namely, the velocity The intermittent pattern is usually sub- be installed by a light-intervention ves-
of the liquid and gas, fluid properties, divided into slug and elongated-bubble sel instead of a drilling rig. Also, cost
and some geometrical aspects such as patterns. In principle, the flow behav- is reduced by the continuity of produc-
pipe diameter and angle. Hydrodynamic iors of slug and elongated-bubble flow tion through a bypass line during main-
aspects of the flow change dramatically appear to be the same, with regard to the tenance. This application scenario is di-
as each flow pattern prevails. flow mechanism; therefore, there is no rected for horizontal and near-horizontal
Despite the large number of flow pat- particular advantage in distinguishing flow (5°).
terns, this work focuses on intermittent between them. This system can be useful in instances
of low gas/liquid ratios, situations that
require single-phase pumping systems
This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
outside of the producing well, or sys-
of paper SPE 173958, “Experimental Evaluation of Behavior of Intermittent Flow in tems that are coupled with a gas/liquid-
Scenario of Application of Electrical Submersible Pump,” by Roberto da Fonseca separation system.
Jr., Paulo Vinicius S.R. Domingos, and Diogo Cunha dos Reis, Petrobras, prepared Because of their intrinsic transient
for the 2015 SPE Artificial Lift Conference—Latin America and Caribbean, Salvador, nature, slug flows can cause severe prob-
Brazil, 27–28 May. The paper has not been peer reviewed. lems in processing and transport equip-

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

68 JPT • JULY 2016

ment because of the intermittent load-
Liquid-level measurement Metering holes
ing that is imposed on structures. Also,
in hydrocarbon-production lines, even
in cases in which the average gas/liquid
ratio expected is approximately 20% be-
cause of the flow configuration, instan-
taneous results can raise this ratio to 60 Inlet
or 80% and, consequently, shut down
the pump.
Once the risks involved in the use of
this concept for oil production were
mapped, the idea was to evaluate exper-
imentally the performance of a proto- Outlet
type built to redistribute the liquid and
gas phases in the flowline, remaining Liquid-level measurement
as close as possible to homogeneous or
stratified flow patterns and, thus, elimi- Fig. 2—Experimental apparatus to work with oil and gas.
nating the risk of major fluctuations in
gas fraction. count were considered. The prototype tent flow. For all the analyzed tests, by
is shown in Fig. 2. For these tests, a placing the equipment in Position 3, it
Experimental Apparatus differential-pressure gauge was in- was possible to observe a homogeniza-
Water and Air Experiments. Initially, stalled and the liquid level inside the tion of the flow.
tests were carried out with water and air. equipment was measured. In general, it can be said that the goal
On the basis of field data, an experimen- of obtaining a homogeneous flow was
tal apparatus with tubing that had an in- Data-Acquisition System. To evaluate met with this proposed apparatus. The
ternal diameter of 19 mm was assembled the intermittent flow behavior, an elec- next step was to conduct tests with oil
to work with water and air. tronic circuit was used to measure the and natural gas.
The homogenizer concept adopted in electrical impedance of the mixture of
this project is illustrated in Fig. 1. This gas and liquid. It is possible, by means Oil and Natural-Gas Loop. The next
equipment receives the multiphase flow of the measured electrical impedance, to step was to build a prototype and con-
(marked as “1” in Fig. 1), and a pipe with detect the occurrence of gas and liquid duct tests using oil and natural gas. At
metering holes was installed inside it so phases and their volume fractions, infer this stage, two flow-rate scenarios were
that the flow is forced to pass through the flow pattern, and even estimate the considered (400 and 500 m3/d), increas-
the interior, stimulating the mixture of volumetric flow of the phases. ing the GVF from 10 to 40%.
liquid and gas. Assuming a previously Tests conducted at field scale in the
calculated scale factor, the internal diam- Results presence of oil and natural gas showed
eter of the apparatus was 84.50 mm and Water and Air Loop. Pressure-Drop that the experimental apparatus provid-
height was 188 mm. For performance- Measurement. For comparison, four ed more-homogeneous flow downstream
evaluation purposes, the influence of different settings for the filter installed of the equipment when exposed to inter-
both the number and the diameter of within the homogenizer were studied. mittent flow at the entrance.
the holes was studied by measuring the Tests were performed for 40 minutes for
pressure drop of the homogenizer. For each configuration, and the average and Conclusions
that, a differential-pressure gauge was standard deviation of the pressure drop This study aims to show the efficacy
installed between the input and output of generated by the homogenizer were cal- of a novel device for use upstream of
the equipment. A pressure gauge also was culated. It was observed that the values ESPs deployed on slightly inclined sea-
installed on the homogenizer. were stable over time. bed skids, under intermittent liquid/gas
As expected, increasing the equivalent multiphase flows in offshore petroleum
Gas and Oil Experiments. In the sec- area resulted in a reduction in pressure production. Instantaneous fluctuations
ond step, experiments were conducted drop in the system. of gas fraction inherent to intermittent
with oil and natural gas. The dimen- Influence on the Flow Pattern. The flow were avoided by using the device,
sions of the testing system and equip- study compared configurations in which consequently enlarging the operation-
ment were increased. A flowline with an the sensor was positioned before the ho- al envelope of such ESP use. The data
internal diameter of 3 in. was used; the mogenizer inlet (Position 2) and down- already acquired in the experimental
homogenizer has an inner diameter stream of the homogenizer (Position 3). phases will contribute to the next phase,
of 200  mm and a height of 750  mm. When the impedance sensor was wherein the best combination of orifice
For testing purposes, four different placed in Position 2, it was possible to size, hole count, and distribution will
configurations of diameter and hole characterize the occurrence of intermit- be sought. JPT

JPT • JULY 2016 69

 Run-Life Improvement by Implementation
of Artificial-Lift-Systems Failure Classification

T his paper describes a methodology

for classification of artificial-lift-
system (ALS) failures and addition of
a commonly used root-cause failure
classification. This methodology was Colombia Venezuela
applied to different ALSs such as beam
pumps (BPs), progressing cavity pumps Barrancabermeja
(PCPs), electrical submersible pumps
(ESPs), and electrical submersible
progressing cavity pumps (ESPCPs).
The starting point was the definition of
the boundaries of each system. Then, La Cira–Infantas
each job in the well was defined as
(1) a failure, (2) a failure, non-ALS, or (3)
no failure, in order to look for ways to
improve run life. Fig. 1—La Cira-Infantas field location.

Introduction Failure Analysis Data Collection for RCFA. Data are

La Cira-Infantas oil field is in the Middle The root-cause failure-analysis (RCFA) collected for analysis, such as well me-
Magdalena Valley in Colombia (Fig. 1). process used in La Cira-Infantas has the chanical conditions and reports of
The vast majority of the wells are com- objective of finding the real cause of a equipment sizing, assembling, testing,
pleted with 7-in. production casing and given failure and identifying effective so- and installation.
perforated with 5 shots/ft with no sand- lutions to prevent a recurrence of the fail-
control completion in place, and then the ure. The steps for the RCFA are as follows. Equipment Dismantling and Inspec-
ALS is installed. tion. The ALS is dismantled in special-
Initial Diagnosis and Failure Confir- ized service shops. Before dismantling,
ALS in La Cira-Infantas mation. When an ALS ceases to lift the ex- each ALS section and all connections,
From the beginning of the activity in pected production, specific procedures shaft plays, and settings are evaluat-
La Cira-Infantas, almost 100 years ago, are performed to try to restart the sys- ed and measured. During the disman-
several ALSs have been used to produce tem. If production is not re-established, tling process, the condition of each part
fluids from the wells. Since 2005, the a downhole failure is confirmed. is evaluated.
field has offered different conditions, de-
pending on the mature state of the water- Pulling Equipment From the Well. Findings Discussion. On the basis of
flooding—high water percentage, high Mechanical and electrical tests are per- all the previous data, the failed parts
and low flow rates, free gas, and corro- formed to determine ALS condition. are selected and their condition is de-
sive fluids. Tubing is tested for leaks. As equipment termined precisely. The conditions and
Currently, ALSs such as BPs, PCPs, is pulled, each part of the ALS is inspect- actions that affected these failed parts
ESPs, and ESPCPs are used for producing ed carefully and qualitative measure- are evaluated.
the total fluid of the field. ments are taken.
Failure Analysis and Determination
of Root Cause. After a complete analy-
This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
sis of the sequence of events that led to
of paper SPE 173913, “Run-Life Improvement by Implementation of Artificial-Lift-
the failure and the failure mechanisms,
Systems Failure Classification and Root-Cause Failure Classification,” by Edward the most probable root cause is selected.
Rubiano, José Luis Martin, Jesus Prada, Manuel Monroy, Laura Labrador,
Jonathan Celis, and Jahir Gutierrez, Oxy, and Michel Bohorquez, Ecopetrol, Identification of Effective Actions To
prepared for the 2015 SPE Artificial Lift Conference—Latin America and Caribbean, Prevent the Failure. Effective actions
Salvador, Brazil, 27–28 May. The paper has not been peer reviewed. and solutions are identified that will pre-

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

70 JPT • JULY 2016

vent recurrence of the failure, be within Definition of No Failure. The system is on failures, root-cause classification, and
the team’s control, and meet the goals removed from the well for reasons other implementation of action plans, improve-
and objectives. than a failure, such as ment was seen with these critical wells.
◗ Pulling and abandonment
Follow-Up of Action Plans for Contin- ◗ High water cut Conclusions
uous Improvement. The recommenda- ◗ Low well production The implementation of this methodol-
tions for improving ALS performance ◗ Workover ogy helps to organize and focus effort on
are implemented and followed up. ◗ Well suspension the critical failures in ALSs. Continuous
follow-up on the implementation of ac-
Information Management and Sta- KPIs tion plans is also a key element of success.
tistics. The ALS team continuously In order to track performance improve- The proper definition of the failure
evaluates the performance of the in- ments in the implementation of this root cause and its precise classification
stalled ALSs and maintains a data- methodology, KPIs are used, such as are essential for determining effective
base of the field life and monthly year- ◗ Failure index—The frequency with action plans to prevent recurrence of
to-date statistics of key performance which the ALS fails, expressed the failures.
indicators (KPIs). as a fraction, calculated in 1-year It is not a good practice to track just
periods. one KPI; it is important to have different
Failure Classification ◗ Pulling index—The frequency with KPIs because all of them show different
The objective of this process is to estab- which the ALS is changed in a well results and their analysis is a good way to
lish a common terminology for ALS fail- intervention, expressed as a fraction understand ALS performance over time.
ure classification divided into three dif- and calculated in 1-year periods. Artificial-lift failures are based on the
ferent categories—ALS failure; failure, ◗ Recurrence index—The frequency boundaries proposed under this method-
non-ALS; and no failure. of each well failing. The idea is to ology; these boundaries can be custom-
In order to start this process, it is im- have a recurrence index of unity— ized for each location.
portant to have a clear definition of the that is, to have a maximum of one Failures, non-ALS, are based on whole-
boundaries of the ALS. failure per well in a calendar year. process failures such us data validation
The ALS boundary typically is estab- ◗ Average run time—The run time (e.g., oversized or undersized), improper
lished by the downhole pump (including is the cumulative time of the ALS operation of facilities, or injection wells
accessories), components used for power currently running in the well. that generate higher drawdown in some
transmission, and wellhead accessories, Downtime during installation is wells, and some sanded wells. JPT
with no inclusion of surface equipment. discounted from the total value. The
The exclusion of surface equipment in average run time corresponds to
this classification is mainly because a the average value of run time of all
well intervention is not required for cor- ALSs in a specific field currently in
rective maintenance. operation.
◗ Average run life—Uses the same
Definition of ALS Failure and Fail- definition as run time; however, it
ure, Non-ALS. A failure is the condition corresponds to all systems pulled
where the ALS system does not meet its from the well. Average run life
objective to produce fluids to surface. It corresponds to the average value of
is divided in two conditions. run life of all ALSs in a specific field
ALS Failure. The system does not per- currently pulled or failed.
form the required function because of
a mechanical or electrical failure of the Examples of Run-Life
ALS components. Improvement
Failure, Non-ALS. The system does Controllable Failures. Once imple-
not perform the required function be- mented in 2012, this methodology was
cause of one or more of the following: used to select some of the critical or
◗ Failure of items not included in the most-common root causes of failure,
ALS boundaries which were called controllable failures.
◗ High sand production With continuous follow-up, the imple-
◗ Redesign (upsizing or downsizing) mentation of action plans for every
of the ALS failure was possible in order to create
◗ External plugging, occurring when year-over-year improvements.
the ALS is plugged with scale,
paraffin, or asphaltenes Critical Wells. All wells with more than
◗ Fish (e.g., completion equipment one failure per year were called criti-
has dropped into the hole) cal wells. With a continuous follow-up

JPT • JULY 2016 71

 Methodology Evaluates Artificial-Lift
Requirements Amid High Uncertainty

W hen evaluating artificial-lift

requirements, sometimes
data present uncertainties at the
Typically, artificial-lift evaluation
comes after the reservoir has a good
model and a defined exploitation scheme.
bubblepoint, reservoir pressure, GOR,
water cut, and time profiles, would be
provided later. The preliminary frame-
initial planning stage. This is the In this case, the selection of the artificial- work was used in the artificial-lift
case for a field that had 10 wells lift method dealt with high data uncer- screening procedure. Initially, no nat-
drilled but only four of them tainty associated with reservoir pressure, ural flowing condition was supposed,
producing after 6 years, at which gas/oil ratio (GOR), and water-cut pro- which simplified the process by discard-
point operations were suspended. files because of the reservoir’s complexity ing some methods.
The high-level plan was to exploit and pressure/volume/temperature (PVT)
and abandon the reservoir as soon properties. To overcome the uncertainty Sucker-Rod Pump (SRP). To produce
as possible. This paper presents and advance the study concurrently with 500 B/D at 10,000-ft true vertical depth
the integrated and structured an ongoing reservoir-simulation study, is beyond the capabilities of SRPs. Be-
methodology that was used to deal the following approach was adopted: sides, the hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and
with the high-uncertainty conditions. ◗ Understand and demonstrate how carbon dioxide would corrode the rods,
uncertainty in ABC affects artificial- necessitating too-frequent well inter-
Introduction lift selection. vention. Also, the stuffing box at surface
ABC is a small field that has 10 wells, ◗ Perform a preliminary artificial- is a potential leak point, which is unac-
out of which only four produced from lift-method screening for a matrix ceptable with high H2S concentrations.
1993 to 1999 while the remaining six covering a range of reservoir
were shut in after few months of produc- pressures, GORs, water cuts, and Progressing-Cavity Pump (PCP). A PCP
tion. Subsequently, the operations in ABC wellhead pressures in order to also uses a rod and stuffing box, with the
were suspended and the surface facili- discard some methods and focus same corrosion and leaking problems as
ties were mothballed. Because of attrac- on possible solutions. SRPs. Additionally, light oil will attack
tive remaining reserves along with high ◗ Build a matrix to determine the the PCP elastomer and damage the pump
reservoir pressure, and considering that conditions under which the wells quickly. Consequently, PCPs—both rod
this field is in an urbanized area, a plan flow naturally and those under and submersible-motor-driven types—
was requested that would deplete and which artificial lift is required. were eliminated.
abandon the reservoir as quickly as pos- ◗ Determine the probability of the
sible. Because of the adjusted time frame scenarios in relation to the results Continuous Gas Lift (CGL). Where gas
for the project, developing and planning of reservoir-simulation work. lift surface facilities are readily available,
this task required a preliminary analy- CGL would be a preferred method. The
sis using the available data acquired dur- Preliminary Screening option to install gas lift surface facilities
ing the 6 years of operation and some of Artificial-Lift Methods was discarded by the development team
complementary reservoir studies. Be- The existing information and prelimi- for economic and implementation-time
cause ABC is a complex reservoir with nary analysis collected during working considerations. This decision is support-
natural fractures and varying condensate sessions provided a preliminary initial ed by the fact that there is no high-
composition, the reservoir-model uncer- framework to advance the artificial-lift pressure gas source at the location.
tainties were difficult to minimize with selection. The remaining and validated
data from only four wells and 6 years data required for proper artificial-lift Intermittent Gas Lift (IGL). Besides
of history. design, including productivity index, having the same issues as CGL in the
ABC project, IGL is unable to handle
the target rate of 500 B/D. In addition,
This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
IGL is usually applied for very low rates
of paper SPE 177436, “A Systematic, Integrated Approach To Evaluate Artificial-Lift after reservoir pressure has been de-
Requirements While Dealing With High Uncertainty,” by S. Caicedo, C. Montoya, pleted with CGL, which would be the
J. Abboud, and S. Tiar, Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operations, final, or abandon, condition requested
prepared for the 2015 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, by management. Therefore, IGL makes
Abu Dhabi, 9–12 November. The paper has not been peer reviewed. no sense for ABC.

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

72 JPT • JULY 2016

Jet Pump (Closed Loop). The typical quire artificial lift, and then only within a ervoir pressures, when the water cut is
configuration, in which the production certain envelope. below 90%, no artificial lift is required
liquids are separated and used as power in most cases. Paradoxically, once the
fluid at the wellhead, cannot be applied Nodal Analysis wells stop flowing naturally, ESPs cannot
because its application implies con- for Sensitivity-Matrix Ranges be applied to most of the cases because of
structing fluid-handling and -separation The preliminary artificial-lift screen- the high free gas into pump. On the other
facilities at the wellsite and implement- ing assumed no natural-flow condition hand, when water cut reaches 90%, ESPs
ing special logistics for several wells, because of the lack of information in can be applied only if the GOR is lower
all of which involves cost and risks the initial framework. However, deter- than 1,500 scf/bbl.
associated with handling high H2S in mining which wells require artificial lift,
the area. and when and under what conditions, Reservoir-Simulation Scenarios
is a task to perform once the reservoir The results and conclusions are based
Jet Pump (Open Loop). This uncom- model is matched. In order to advance on well-inflow and outflow nodal analy-
mon configuration uses an external in the evaluation, after the data valida- sis representing steady-state conditions.
water source as the power fluid to drive tion was completed, the artificial-lift ex- However, dynamic reservoir simulation is
the jet pump. Preliminary simulations perts agreed with the reservoir and sur- necessary to predict in which wells these
showed that, for ABC wells, the injec- face engineers on some possible ranges scenarios are likely to occur and when
tion rate of the power fluid is approxi- or sensitivity matrices that covered the these conditions are going to happen.
mately three times the rate of the pro- values and uncertainties reported in the Reservoir modeling and PVT analysis
duced reservoir liquid. The combined preliminary data relying on four well- showed that, essentially, ABC is a con-
produced fluids must be pumped to and production profiles. densate reservoir with an expected av-
separated at capacity-constrained facili- All possible combinations of GOR, res- erage GOR greater than 10,000 scf/bbl,
ties. Modifications to handle extra fluids ervoir pressure, water cut, and flowline with a minimum of 7,000 scf/bbl. The
would require investment and engineer- pressure were considered. Nodal analy- expected average water cut was approxi-
ing that did not pass economic evalu- sis was performed to evaluate the matrix mately 50%, and the highest predicted
ation; therefore, open-loop jet pumps natural-flow condition. before abandonment is 85%. The cur-
were ruled out. The evaluation demonstrated that rent reservoir pressure is 3,400 psi, and
◗ For flowline pressure of 100 psi, the abandonment reservoir pressure is
Continuous Nitrogen Lift (CNL). relying on a multiphase surface approximately 2,500 psi, with an associ-
CNL was technically feasible from an pump and water cut less than ated abandonment rate between 50 and
artificial-lift point of view because it is 50%, the wells will flow naturally 100 B/D.
equivalent to CGL. To reduce the costs for all the values of GOR when the Using the nodal-analysis results and
of transfer lines, ABC would require a reservoir pressure is greater than identifying the scenarios predicted by
continuous-nitrogen plant at the loca- 2,500 psi. reservoir simulation, the final artificial-
tion, which is not suitable for an urban ◗ For a wellhead pressure of 700 psi lift evaluation is obtained as follows:
area because of the footprint and noise. (no multiphase pump at surface), ◗ The wells are capable of natural
the wells will require artificial lift flow at the required flow rates and
Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP). when the reservoir pressure is less drawdown to a reservoir pressure
Because of projected high gas/liquid than 2,500 psi and GOR is less than of 2,500 psi and wellhead pressures
ratio, only the most advanced ESP gas- 10,000 scf/bbl. of 350 psi.
handling technology, which uses axial ◗ Artificial lift is required when the ◗ As the gas/liquid ratio in the
gas-handling pumps, was considered water cut reaches 90%, especially wells increases, ESPs are not
feasible. Axial impellers can handle 60% if GOR is below 3,000 scf/bbl. suitable and cannot be considered
free gas at the modeled pump-intake For cases in which nodal analysis for contingencies or to boost
pressures. Furthermore, for higher reli- showed artificial lift to be required, the production.
ability and to reduce intervention cost, ESP option was selected and modeling ◗ Surface multiphase pumps could
high-temperature ESP technology was was conducted. Advanced gas-handling be used for the following cases:
considered. Typically, the motor tem- ESPs that deploy axial fluid compres- o To boost production and
perature rating is 500°F and the mod- sion in addition to centrifugal pumps accelerate reservoir depletion.
eled motor internal operating temper- were considered. With natural flow, o To ensure production when
ature is 350°F. Standard ESPs would the nodal analysis showed that the liq- conditions are at their limits.
operate outside the design envelope of uid rate ranges from 500 to 1,500 B/D. o When water breakthrough is
20% gas/liquid ratio and internal motor In the case of no flow, the target rate sooner than expected because of
temperatures of 350°F. for ESPs was expected to be 500 B/D to natural fractures in the reservoir.
Because of all the subsurface- and re-establish production. ◗ Some unloading procedures may
surface-related issues, only ESP ad- The nodal analysis of natural flow and be required, which can be achieved
vanced technology was considered as the ESP design demonstrated that, as a with nitrogen lift, made easier by
a valid option for ABC if the wells re- consequence of high GOR and high res- using gas lift mandrels. JPT

JPT • JULY 2016 73

 TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

New-Frontier Reservoirs I
Simon Chipperfield, SPE, Chief Production Engineer, Santos

With the current changes in the indus- [A]re we seeing the fracture stimulations; alternative prop-
try, are we seeing the demise of uncon- pant; and recycling more completion
ventional reservoir development? Let us demise of unconventional fluid. In other regions of the world,
review several recent industry indicators. developments? No, clearly where unconventionals are more imma-
Numerous 2016 published outlooks ture, such as Argentina, Saudi Arabia,
still forecast unconventional production
not. The unconventional and China, appraisal and exploration
to increase from 10% in 2016 to greater industry is adapting also continue for the most-attractive
than 25% by 2035 from sustained growth to deliver the energy unconventional plays.
in North America and China. By 2040, So, are we seeing the demise of uncon-
it is also expected that unconventional demands of the future ventional developments? No, clearly not.
supplies will account for nearly 90% of despite the low oil price. The unconventional industry is adapt-
North American gas production. This ing to deliver the energy demands of the
increase in unconventional-gas demand future despite the low oil price. The key
is expected to be driven by a fundamen- frontiers or challenges for the unconven-
tal global requirement for energy in the well costs have reduced by 45% below tional industry to grow are technological,
medium term that is affordable, abun- their 2014 average, with 50% of these geographical, commercial, and geologi-
dant, clean, and available. savings as a result of new technolo- cal. This feature highlights some of these
Are these forecasts still realistic in the gies. Shell is highlighting similar well- key frontiers being explored around
shorter term, when we are faced with cost reductions of 30% year on year. the world to ensure that the unconven-
a low oil price? I would argue that they The cost savings arise from many areas. tional industry does not just survive
are still realistic because, although the These include new drill-bit technolo- but thrives. JPT
industry is contracting, it is quite clear gy; replacing diesel with cleaner and
that companies are rapidly adapting to less-expensive natural gas for rig fuel;
the oil-price drop. Apache, for exam- pad drilling; fracture-stimulation opti- Recommended additional reading
ple, is quoting that unconventional- mization, including fewer and smaller at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
SPE 174754 Proving the Concept of
Unconventional Gas Reservoirs in Saudi
Simon Chipperfield, SPE, is chief production engineer at Santos. Arabia Through Multistage-Fractured
During the past 20 years, he has held positions in petroleum Horizontal Wells by Ali Al-Momin,
engineering (drilling, completions, and stimulation), production Saudi Aramco, et al.
engineering, and reservoir engineering. Chipperfield previously
OTC 25739 Offshore Methane Hydrates
worked for Shell International Exploration and Production. He in the Gulf of Mexico: A Study in Economic
was awarded the 2007 SPE Cedric K. Ferguson Medal. Viability by Jaeger Wells, Kiewit Energy
Chipperfield has held a number of leadership positions and has Group, et al.
authored or coauthored more than 20 technical publications in
SPE 176260 Unconventional Resources:
the areas of hydraulic fracturing, reservoir engineering, completion technology, and
The Next Generation—Assessing Coal
sand control. He holds a petroleum engineering degree with honors from the to Liquids, Oil Shale, Underground Coal
University of New South Wales. Chipperfield serves on the JPT Editorial Committee, Gasification, Microbial Coal Conversion,
serving as the hydraulic fracturing feature editor from 2006 to 2011, and on the SPE and Other Technologies With the SPE-
International Awards Committee and has served as a reviewer for SPE Production & PRMS by Douglas Peacock, Gaffney, Cline,
Operations. He can be reached at simon.chipperfield@santos.com. and Associates, et al.

74 JPT • JULY 2016

A Flexible “Well-Factory” Approach
to Developing Unconventionals

Case Study:
I n order for operators to grow
production and maintain profit
margins in unconventional-
quickly made that can affect the ulti-
mate recovery of wells and therefore
diminish overall economic return from
Rex Field, Permian Basin
The Wolfcamp asset, like many
resource plays, a “well-factory” the wells. A one-size-fits-all approach unconventional-resource plays, has
or “manufacturing-based” style of with standardized designs and strict widely been deemed a “statistical play”
development is often used. This work processes can lead to suboptimal requiring a well-factory approach to drill
paper will analyze differing well-factory economic development plans and erode and complete hundreds (or thousands)
approaches to unconventional assets, the value of oil projects. of wells in a standardized manner to de-
with examples from the Wolfcamp velop the resources most effectively. The
unconventional oil play in the Permian Flexible and Adaptable case study presented here showcases
Basin. An emphasis is placed on using Factory Model the economic results achieved when
a well-factory model that enables To date, the development philosophy of applying a more-strict well-factory
flexibility for project-execution teams many operators in the unconventional model vs. a flexible well-factory model
to optimize, while maintaining the space has been to drill as many identi- to a project involving two packages
efficiency and execution speeds that cal wells as possible as quickly as pos- of 12 wells.
a classical factory model provides. sible. These metrics of speed and cost Development of the Rex field initial-
have had the desired result of enabling ly began in 2012. After promising ini-
Introduction production growth for the develop- tial results, a well-factory approach was
With the relatively recent boom in ment area. However, operators are not- put into place with an inventory of more
unconventional-resource plays, the con- ing that such a method often results in than 180 drillable locations with four
cept of manufacturing has been widely many underperforming wells and more rigs in operation.
proposed and applied to the upstream surprises during the execution phase. From a geological standpoint, the Rex
industry. Many companies across the Practitioners are finding that subsurface field is relatively complex; this inherent
globe have adopted well-factory models environments can change dramatically subsurface heterogeneity creates chal-
and a manufacturing-based approach over hundreds of feet, and that simply lenges for a classical well-factory ap-
in developing large-acreage positions drilling more of these wells in the same proach. The multiple reservoir targets
in unconventional plays. A common fashion will lead to value erosion and that exist in the Rex field include
theme across industry literature is the production inefficiencies. Another mis- ◗ Upper Bend interval comprising
claim that a manufacturing approach to conception with these resource plays is two distinct porous bedding
unconventional-resource development the notion that gathering of data—such packages
leads to greater efficiencies with re- as openhole logs—is not important. ◗ Lower Bend limestone/siliciclastic
gard to drill days and well costs. These It is important that a factory model section
improvements are largely attributed to provide sufficient flexibility to enable ◗ Two Wolfcamp B intervals
supply-chain and contract optimiza- operators to modify plans to prevent comprising organic shales and
tion, logistical efficiencies, and materi- poor economic performance of invest- stacked deepwater carbonate-rich
als management. A common theme in ments. There is a balance to be made fan deposits
literature devoted to the well-factory between use of this adaptive and flex-
approach, however, is the lack of dis- ible approach and maintenance of the Well Package 1. Package 1 comprised 12
cussion concerning well recoveries and efficiencies and economies of scale vertical wells, all drilled and complet-
maximizing reserves. By focusing only provided from a well-factory style ed with the same design. The execution
on costs and cycle times, decisions are of development. strategy was to drill all wells in the same
fashion in sequential order, with the aim
of minimizing rig moves between suc-
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights cessive wells. The wells were complet-
of paper SPE 175916, “The ‘Well-Factory’ Approach to Developing Unconventionals: ed by plug-and-perforate multistage-
A Case Study From the Permian Basin Wolfcamp Play,” by Jarrad Rexilius, Chevron, hydraulic-fracturing treatments and
prepared for the 2015 SPE/CSUR Unconventional Resources Conference, Calgary, were put on production immediately
20–22 October. The paper has not been peer reviewed. following completion.

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • JULY 2016 75

 Package 1 Execution Strategy

Weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Drilling Well 1 Well 2 Well 3 Well 4 Well 5 Well 6 Well 7 Well 8 Well 9 Well 10 Well 11 Well 12

Completions Well 1 Well 2 Well 3 Well 4 Well 5 Well 6 Well 7 Well 8 Well 9 Well 10

1 Month of
Production
Well 1 Well 2 Well 3 Well 4 Well 5 Well 6 Well 7

Fig. 1—Package 1 execution strategy.

Package 2 Execution Strategy

Weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Drilling Well 1 Well 2 Well 3 Well 4 Well 5 Well 6 Well 7 Well 8 Well 9 Well 10 Well 11 Well 12

Signpost Signpost Signpost Signpost

Data Gathered
While Drilling

Completions Well 1 Well 2 Well 3 Well 4 Well 5 Well 6 Well 7 Well 8 Well 9 Well 10

1 Month of
Production
Well 1 Well 2 Well 3 Well 4 Well 5 Well 6 Well 7

Ready-to-Drill Well 1 Well 2 Well 3 Well 4 Well 5 Well 6 Well 7 Well 8

Wells Available

Fig. 2—Initial Package 2 execution strategy.

The drilling rig typically completes the next two wells were strong perform- and economical returns could have been
three or four wells before production ers. After that, there is a mixture of achieved if a modified approach had
comes on line for the first well in the high- and low-NPV wells and then sev- been employed for this 12-well package.
package. Moreover, at least a full month eral poorly performing wells at the end
of production is needed to obtain a rep- of the package. A detailed data analy- Well Package 2. Using the learnings
resentative initial production rate. As sis suggests that the reservoir quality from Package 1, the Rex field team
shown in Fig. 1, with the fast pace of ex- was superior on the western part of the looked at opportunities to improve
ecution and quick cycle times, the drill- acreage. This explains the difference in execution performance. Package 2 is a
ing program is near completion when incremental NPV seen throughout the 12-well project with characteristics very
the production from the first handful package. Toward the end of the package, similar to those of Package 1. The proj-
of wells is sufficient to make a deci- the results even began to erode value, ect is located in a similar area of the
sion on continued execution and well with successive wells drilled in a poor field, has equivalent subsurface proper-
optimization. This is a challenge the area of the field. Because no signposts ties and reservoir quality, uses the same
industry faces for unconventionals were used to make changes to the execu- well design, and targets the same forma-
in general. tion plan, no attempt was made to alter tions at the same depths. During execu-
Package 1 was executed with a clas- drilling plans or completion practices tion planning, the team implemented
sical well-factory model, and no well on the basis of information acquired three key changes to achieve improved
data were used to drive decisions or during execution. economic performance compared with
make changes to the execution plan. The Package 1 is an example of an un- Package 1:
drilling order was such that rig moves conventional development in which a 1. Used data gathering during drilling
were minimized to enhance efficiency strict well-factory model results in de- and completions to drive decisions
and cost. In considering cumulative net sired low-cost and fast-cycle-time wells throughout execution
present value (NPV) from the Package but does not deliver optimal value from 2. Created a series of signposts and
1 project, it can be seen that the initial an overall economic standpoint. It is used a modified well-factory
two wells had poor performance, while claimed that superior value creation model that enables changes in the

76 JPT • JULY 2016

 execution plan to be implemented quickly on the basis
of the signposts
3. Planned backup ready-to-drill locations to provide the
team with the flexibility to adjust drilling plans on the
basis of signposts and continuous data analysis
Fig. 2 shows the initial drilling plan for Package 2, with the
addition of signposts and a series of backup well locations.
The flexible well-factory approach applied in Package 2 result-
ed in a shift in mindset within the team, which became focused
on quick decision making and decisiveness when key sign-
posts were revealed during execution. In planning for Pack-
age 2, subsurface signposts were created on the basis of infor-
mation acquired from mud-log data, openhole-log data, and
nearby-production-well production data.
After drilling the first four wells, data acquired suggest-
ed that the key reservoir target was of poor quality on the
northwestern part of the area, and of better quality toward
the southeast. The team was also able to use the acquired log
data to optimize fracturing designs to suit the observed rock-
mechanical properties. This resulted in two important chang-
es to the execution plan:
1. A change in the drilling order was implemented whereby
wells were to be drilled on the southeastern part of the The University of Utah offers an M.S. degree in petroleum
area only, and several backup well locations were now engineering designed for working professionals and
planned for execution. The northwestern locations were engineering graduates. The curriculum gives participants
removed from the drill plan. the up-to-date tools and expertise they need to stay on
2. The fracturing design for each well was modified to top of the oil and gas industry.
optimize production from the wells on the basis of the
reservoir characteristics.
• Program can be taken in 16 to 36 months through
In the actual drilling plan for Package 2, six backup wells
online-distance education or on campus.
were used, while six of the original planned wells were
not drilled.
• The 33-credit hour degree includes a work-related
When considering NPV from the Package 2 project, it can
design project or a master’s thesis.
be seen that the first and third wells had poor performance,
while the second and fourth wells were strong performers.
• Offers unique two-week field study in Utah and
This was the result of the geological changes observed across
Wyoming covering petroleum geology and
the field. The team regrouped after the first four wells and
operations.
conceived a revised execution plan. Wells 5 and 6 on the origi-
nal plan were drilled because they were located in the favor-
• Course work in drilling, geology, seismic, reservoir
able geological area. The remaining six wells, however, were
characterization and evaluation, production, mid/
dropped from the drilling plan because of their suboptimal
downstream, as well as in social and environmental
locations and were replaced with six backup wells that were in
issues.
higher-priority subsurface locations.
After the first four wells were executed in each package, the
• Taught by experts from the University of Utah’s
cumulative NPV is almost identical for Package 1 and 2. Like-
Department of Chemical Engineering and the
wise, after six wells, the NPVs are similar for both drilling pro-
Energy & Geoscience Institute (EGI) with 150 years of
grams. However, the final six wells executed for each package
combined industry and academic experience.
diverge significantly in regard to economic returns. At the end
of the 12-well program, Package 2 shows more than twice the
cumulative NPV achieved in Package 1.
A key factor in the success of Package 2 was the gathering
(and analysis) of important data during execution to enable
optimization of drilling and completion tactics on subsequent
wells without slowing down the factory. JPT

For more information

visit www.che.utah.edu/pe
or contact pe@che.utah.edu
JPT • JULY 2016
 A More-Rigorous Development Framework
for Unconventional Reservoirs

M ajor oil companies have been

struggling as they attempt to
make the unconventional business a
the other, the incremental production is
also associated with a huge increase in
the average number of fracturing stages
profitable one. Indeed, the strategy of per well.
building an unconventional portfolio by Few attempts were made to optimize
means of mergers and acquisitions is wells and fracturing-stage placement by
not providing a satisfactory return on applying a more-scientific approach. In-
investment. This paper describes how deed, many sources estimate that only 40
seismic reservoir integration, advanced to 60% of fracturing stages contribute
production analysis, and accurate to well production when they are placed
nanoscale and 3D full-field simulations on the basis of an equal-spacing strategy.
may address profitability issues and help
oil companies to be more efficient in Technology as Driver for Fig. 1—Schematic of pad layout.
developing unconventional portfolios. Unconventional Development
The application of advanced technologies more-accurate reserves estimation. With
Introduction is already providing interesting results in such an approach, interesting observa-
While, from approximately 2008–2011, mature plays. To avoid overdrilling and tions on the authors’ own asset were de-
independents were building and devel- overstimulating the play, the following rived, and then a revision of the develop-
oping their US unconventional port- topics need to be addressed and investi- ment strategy was implemented.
folio, majors were trying to enter the gated at early developmental stages: shale- All producing wells were duly ana-
same business by means of multibillion- gas production mechanism at nanoscale, lyzed, obtaining the following param-
dollar mergers and acquisitions. The sweet-spot identification, proper fracture eters: linear-flow parameter (LFP), area
majors were not fast enough to be able placement and treatment, and reliable full- of the stimulated rock volume (SRV),
to repay the premium for this endeav- field simulation of fractured wells. and gas in place (contacted at the time
or as a consequence of the combination In unconventional reservoirs, even if of analysis). In particular, the LFP, con-
of a low-margin-profit type of business thousands of wells are drilled, only a few sidered as an indicator of hydraulic-
and hydrocarbon-price evolution. Ma- of them have a complete data set. Avail- fracture-job effectiveness, was correlated
jors tend to be essentially process-driven able data are often not sufficient to pro- with other geological or well parameters
organizations; therefore, they are not vide a comprehensive understanding of to obtain a better field characterization.
structured for rapid-decision-making the area. Production data show high vari- The first investigation concerned the
approaches. Furthermore, they quickly ability even within pilot-well patterns. SRV area from the flowing material bal-
align to the general concept of thinking To overcome this low spatial resolution, ance (FMB). It is important to empha-
about unconventional plays as if they are a seismic inversion may be applied in size that, because of the long time need-
statistical ones. Their initial main effort order to characterize geological and geo- ed to reach boundary-dominated flow in
was essentially made for unit cost reduc- mechanical properties better. shale gas, the contacted portion of the
tion, whereas technology innovation has SRV evolves with time; therefore, the es-
become a principal focus currently. Advanced Production Analysis timation is time-dependent. A theoreti-
Key plays have experienced an impres- Shale production data can provide addi- cal drainage area is defined for each well
sive production growth. If, on one hand, tional key information useful to define on the basis of the lateral length and well
the system is improving its efficiency, on the best exploitation strategy and give a spacing. The general development pat-
tern consists of two different landing tar-
gets within the same formation, referred
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
to as Lower and Upper (Fig. 1).
paper SPE 171913, “From a Standard to a More-Rigorous Development Framework for The estimated SRV area from FMB vs.
Unconventional Reservoirs,” by I. Colombo, E. Spelta, D. Giamminonni, S.D. Russo, the theoretical one is plotted for each
F. Rotelli, and M. Rotondi, Eni, prepared for the 2014 Abu Dhabi International well and grouped for the different land-
Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, 10–13 November. The paper has ing points. A higher number of the Upper
not been peer reviewed. wells compared with the Lower ones

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

78 JPT • JULY 2016

show a contacted SRV area greater than intersected by 14 wells: 10 were spaced The organic geochemistry group at
the theoretical value. at 250 ft, while the remaining four were Kiel University has developed a unique
Because there are no significant geo- spaced at 500 ft. experimental setup, the “expulsion sim-
logical differences between the two for- The degree of interwell interac- ulator,” to simulate oil and gas genera-
mations, this behavior was interpret- tion at different spacing was then used tion and expulsion under near-natural
ed as a production issue because of the to investigate optimal development conditions. The fluid components gen-
competitive drainage between Lower scenarios (see Fig. 1 for typical pad lay- erated and expelled at a certain maturity
and Upper wells. This is confirmed by out). The wells producing under tighter level need to be removed by primary and
microseismic data that show a complete spacing are characterized by a sharp- secondary migration from the artificial
superposition between the different er production decline compared with reservoir/carrier bed of the system, to
SRVs. This issue is a direct consequence higher-spacing wells; this is caused by a avoid reactions that would render closed
of the tight spacing that leads the Lower stronger interference. pyrolysis unsuitable to resemble natu-
wells to produce fracturing fluids from Another kind of interference occurs ral generation and expulsion. Secondary
the Upper wells. where the stabilization in production de- alteration of newly formed and released
Subsequently, the LFP was used as an cline between 200 and 400 days was products is thus minimized, and oils ex-
indicator of the fracture effectiveness. caused by a shut-in of a nearby well. pelled at various stages of the experiment
The LFP seems to grow with well length In addition, higher water production resemble results of a natural maturation
until the latter reaches a value of approx- caused by more-aggressive fractur- and expulsion sequence.
imately 6,000 ft, after which LFP is no ing jobs in higher-spacing wells was ob- After performing this experiment, the
longer affected. This suggests that com- served. This is another clear indication of intact rock samples can be retrieved and
pleting longer laterals may not be effec- play overstimulation. studied with respect to changes in rock
tive in terms of hydraulic fracturing. matrix and kerogen composition by use
Accurate Understanding of microscopic petrophysical techniques.
3D Full-Field Simulations and Modeling of Shale-Gas This will allow investigation of the influ-
In this study, two sectors were extract- Production Mechanisms ence of rock matrix on retained oil and
ed from the geological model to achieve at Nanoscale gas amount, composition, and flow prop-
a clear understanding of well-to-well The identification of sweet spots can be erties. By means of this apparatus, out-
interaction and optimal drainage area. achieved only if effort is expended to un- crop samples are used to generate artifi-
Then, by integrating information from derstand key production contributors. cial samples representing the evolution
microseismic survey and advanced pro- The production from shale is the out- of the same source rock up to different
duction analysis, a dynamic model for come of different types of release pro- levels of maturation, characterizing also
each sector was built with the so-called cesses: advection, diffusion, and desorp- the generated hydrocarbon.
Single Porositylike model. The approach tion. Neglecting even one of these flow
involved the modeling of complex hy- mechanisms may result in an underesti- Realistic Simulation
draulic fractures (HFs) and SRV through mation of the productivity. of Complex Fractured Wells
logarithmic local grid refinement. The main differences in fluid mechan- The combination of full-field reservoir
Both sectors were used to match the ics between micropores (conventional simulators with well-scale modeling
historical gas and water production, im- reservoir) and nanopores (unconvention- tools has been demonstrated to be re-
posing bottomhole pressures as con- al resources) are related to noncontinuum liable in defining work flows used to
straints. The history matches (HMs) effects and the dominant surface interac- model unconventional wells. One crucial
were useful in catching some key issues tive forces. These two effects are negli- step in improving the predictivity is to
of the field. gible when the size of the pores is large; properly model HF and natural-fracture-
In the first sector (16 wells), the water- therefore, a simplified equation, such as network interactions, keeping the well
production match was not achieved ini- the Darcy equation, results in a reason- geometry close to reality. This implies
tially. Thus, the possibility of a local com- able prediction for such systems. a coupled approach with regard to geo-
munication between the stimulated vol- Modeling gas production, and thus mechanical and dynamic modeling. Fur-
ume and the aquifer was investigated. making predictions, in shale formations thermore, the complex fluid-flow mech-
Microseismic survey was not helpful in is still a challenging task. To understand anisms and interactions with rock pores
understanding fracture extension to- the typical physical processes associat- increase the challenges regarding the
ward the aquifer. However, the evidence ed with shale, it is extremely important physical and chemical description and
of a higher-brittleness region below the to describe the shale’s inner structure the subsequent equations to be imple-
Lower target supported the idea of a local and unique properties. In recent years, mented. Effects related to the extremely
communication between well and aqui- great advances have been made in the low permeability and severe heterogene-
fer. The HM was finally obtained by using understanding of matrix geometry and ity, such as osmotic pressure, slip flow,
an analytical aquifer. its petrophysics, thanks to the progress Knudsen diffusion, and adsorption/
The HM in the second sector was used in high-resolution diagnostic-imaging desorption, are believed to strongly af-
to demonstrate the interaction between methods, advanced numerical methods, fect hydrocarbon storage/production
wells at different spacing. This sector is and computational speed. and SRV creation. JPT

JPT • JULY 2016 79

 Production Performance in the In-Fill
Development of Unconventional Resources

Bakken System
D ata now show that the behavior
of unconventional wells to
in-fill drilling varies significantly
Parent-Well Modeling
Petrophysics. The Middle Bakken mem-
breakdown pressure would enable multi-
ple perforating clusters within a stage to
break down, especially when high pump
across basins. A key influence may ber was divided into three main facies. rates are used. When parent-well sliding-
be changes in pore pressure and Petrophysical evaluation indicates that sleeve (SS) treatments were modeled, a
saturation (saturation history). average porosity and average water satu- large single dominant fracture was ob-
This paper presents results from ration were 8 and 50%, respectively, for served. When parent-well PP treatments
the analysis of the effect of in-fill the Middle Bakken. Average Klinkenberg were modeled in the same area, propaga-
drilling on parent-well performance, permeability for the entire Middle Bak- tion of multiple fractures was confirmed
and describes a simplistic ken is approximately 0.02 md. Mercury- by both fracture and production mod-
approach to understanding the injection capillary pressure curves indi- eling. Fracture modeling indicated that
effect of the quest for operational cate that irreducible water saturation is two dominant fractures were propagat-
efficiencies and economic cycles on between 30 and 40% for rock with po- ing, and, because some uncertainty exists
development strategies. rosity between 1 and 7%. Residual oil is in the history-matching process, a distri-
between 30 and 40%. Accordingly, the bution of fracture lengths and conductiv-
Methodology moveable fluid is low (20–40%), and hy- ities was provided for production-history
This study focuses on two unconven- draulic fracturing was recommended to matching. The PP individual geometries
tional plays, the Eagle Ford and the stimulate more production. were approximately 60% smaller than
Bakken. The objective was to model the The Three Forks formation was divid- those of the SS treatment.
well performance of the parent wells ed into five facies. Petrophysical evalua-
with the aim of matching and pre- tion suggests that the upper part of the Production Modeling. As operators
dicting in-fill-well performance. Be- Three Forks, Facies TF 23, has oil poten- transitioned to PP in the Bakken, job
cause the two assets are at two sig- tial. Most facies are strongly affected by sizes were also reduced. This resulted in
nificantly different portions of the calcite and dolomite diagenesis, which the creation of a large surface area with
development cycle  (Eagle Ford is very allows alternating porosity development reduction in fracture length. Four years
early in its cycle), the Bakken data in some cases. In this area, the Middle of daily production and pressure history
set has the luxury of modeling and and Lower Three Forks have higher water was matched, and forecasting was per-
matching the performance of the par- saturation, with very-low-permeability formed. Flowing-bottomhole-pressure-
ent and in-fill, whereas the Eagle Ford streaks (less than 0.007 md). gauge data were used to constrain the
portion of this study focuses on for- history match (long-term compac-
ward modeling and optimizing in-fill- Fracture Modeling: Middle Bakken. tion). The early time of production and
well completions. Analysis on the Bakken wells in the pressure was matched with core and
The methodologies used in this study study area indicated high (greater than proppant-conductivity/effective-stress
(parent-well modeling, petrophysical 1,500  psi) net pressures and low break- relationships. High confidence was
models, geomechanics, fracture mod- down pressure. This indicated that a placed in the early-time data because
eling, production modeling, and in-fill- plug-and-perforate (PP) completion of offset flowing-bottomhole-pressure
well/depletion modeling) are discussed methodology could yield success. In this gauge data. Compaction curves from
in detail in the complete paper. study area, the high net pressures and low core and proppant were used to model
degradation of proppant conductivity
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights and rock compaction. Additional dam-
age had to be added after 2 years of pro-
of paper SPE 175963, “Production Performance in the In-Fill Development of
duction to match the fluid-level mea-
Unconventional Resources,” by Bilu V. Cherian, Sanjel; Matthew McCleary, Samuel
surements. It was concluded that the
Fluckiger, Nathan Nieswiadomy, Brent Bundy, and Sarah Edwards, SPE, SM damage mechanism observed was scale.
Energy; and Rafif Rifia, Kristina Kublik, Santhosh Narasimhan, James Gray,
Olubiyi Olaoye, and Hamza Shaikh, Sanjel, prepared for the 2015 SPE/CSUR Fracture and Production Modeling:
Unconventional Resources Conference, Calgary, 20–22 October. The paper has not Three Forks. Fracture modeling in the
been peer reviewed. Three Forks indicated that the SS treat-

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

80 JPT • JULY 2016

ments connected into the Middle Bak- scale-treatment history of a study well
ken because of the creation of a large resulted in the hypothesis that the rela-
single dominant fracture. Production tively fresh water from the fracture treat-
modeling confirmed this and indicat- ments dissolved the scale in the parent
ed that the connection to the Middle well. Numerous cases of in-fill interfer-
Bakken was stress-sensitive and dete- ence have been reported in the basin over
riorated within the first 3 months of the past few years. To date, the effects of
production. A separate set of compac- interference on the parent well have been
tion curves was created for connectivity primarily related to additional stimula-
into the Middle Bakken as represented tion. Modeling results indicate that it is
by the fracture geometry from com- unlikely that sufficient amounts of prop-
pletions modeling. Flowing bottomhole pant would travel those distances, even
pressure and water cut indicated that a under asymmetrical conditions. Thus,
well under study was connected to the scale dissolution may also be contribut-
Middle Bakken for a significantly longer ing to the sustained production enhance-
time than expected. This SS Three Forks ment of the parent wells.
well had a permeability of less than
0.005 md, fracture half-lengths ranging Eagle Ford System - or -
from 100 to 150 ft, and a dimensionless Parent-Well Modeling
conductivity greater than 10. In the PP Work flows and procedures for the char-
Three Forks treatments, connectivity acterization and testing (calibration re-
to the Middle Bakken was poor because quirements) of rocks that are both the
of the addition of multiple clusters per source rock and the reservoir have
Time Shift™ Technology
stage (by PP) and subsequent reduction evolved significantly from those used in
in job volume per fracture propagating conventional plays.
in a stage.
Petrophysics. Petrophysical evaluation Time Delay for reliable
Optimization With No Parent-Well In- indicates that average porosity and aver- multiple actuations
fluence. Once the multidomain iteration age water saturation were greater than
was complete and models with quanti- 9% and less than 18%, respectively. The
fied uncertainty ranges were built, pre- petrophysical-model results show that Port Jetting™ Technology
dictive (optimization) modeling could the permeability ranged from 100 to
begin. For the fracture-length and 900 nd. Modified permeability relation-
number-of-stages optimization, the ships were built for the organic portions TORQ Thru™ Technology
bounding wells were used to ensure ac- of the reservoir.
curate forecasting on long-term perfor-
mance of the middle well. Fracture and Production Modeling.
Withstands burst pressure in
Forward-modeling (optimization) A modeling work flow was used to un-
excess of 20,000 psi
runs indicated that a hybrid-cluster ap- derstand fracture geometry and con-
proach could be used to maximize strain production history-match param-
fracture-propagation success. Optimal eters. High net pressures in the Eagle
job-size volumes, fracture-treatment Ford enabled the breakdown of mul- Advance Port Jetting™
rates, and stage count were determined tiple clusters. Modeling indicates that Technology
for the Middle Bakken and Three Forks. It some optimization opportunities still
was indicated that the maximum produc- exist within the multicluster-fracturing
tion is obtained by increasing the number scenarios, because only 30–50% of Time Delay Settings of 15, 30,
of fractures in a well by a factor of four. the fractures within a stage can be- 45, or 60 minutes
If a PP approach is used, fracture model- come dominant fractures. The integra-
ing has demonstrated the pump rates re- tion of high-tier-log and core data was
quired to propagate two to five clusters used to guide the production-history SmartStart Plus® Time Delay + Frac Valve
and the resulting job-size requirements. match. Production-history matches QuickStart® Inject + Frac Valve
honored the relative change in fracture
Competitor
Bakken System In-Fill-Well/ half-lengths within a stage. Productive-
Depletion Modeling fracture half-lengths varied from 50 to
Production matching of the in-fill drill- 200  ft, and permeability ranged from
ing and interference of a parent well 70 to 500 nd. More than 2 years of pro-
confirmed that scale was the damage duction history was matched on two
mechanism. This observation and the parent wells.

JPT • JULY 2016

2016 SPE
Deepwater Drilling
and Completions
Conference

14–15 September 2016

Moody Gardens
Convention Center
Galveston, Texas, USA

Fig. 1—Example of depletion profile from asymmetric propagation and fracture

geometry (from large-job-size design) as a result of the in-fill drilling between
two parent wells in the Eagle Ford.

The importance of layering effects On the basis of the forward models,

in most unconventional plays is lead- in-fill treatments were designed to mini-
ing operators to realize that draining mize asymmetrical effects and direct in-
a thick reservoir column with multi- terference with the offset wells (Fig. 1
ple laterals can improve production shows the effect of large design; opti-
performance significantly. mized design is not shown).

Eagle Ford System In-Fill-Well/ Conclusions

Depletion Modeling ◗ With long-term production
This study and others have shown that lengths making up less than
the effect of the interference is a function 10% of hydraulic lengths, it
of the size of pressure drop that exists, of becomes evident that minimizing
how far this pressure sink extends into asymmetry is critical.
the reservoir, and of the reservoir fluids. ◗ Parent-well modeling is critical
Overestimation of vertical connectivity to understanding which
can result in the underestimation of the wells are within the region of
depletion sink. interference.
Once production-history matching ◗ The success of the in-fill design
was performed on the parent well, the is determined by the ability to
new stress state was recomputed to characterize the current production
model the effect of fracture propaga- system in order to understand the
tion between two parent wells. Poros- extent of depletion.
ity, permeability, and saturations were ◗ Observation of the potential
updated in the depleted area. Frac- challenges and redesign of the
Explore new technologies ture modeling indicates that produc- completion program has resulted
and practices to meet tion from the upper benches can cre- in significant success.
current challenges ate improved containment and create ◗ Fracturing wells from the east/
weak points that result in height growth west end of a unit and sensitizing
in deepwater basins. that would not be observed under vir- the location of the parent well
gin conditions. Direct interference is on either end of the unit results
observed when laterals are in the same in differences in production
Register Now! landing interval, and indirect interfer-
ence is observed when the laterals are ◗
lengths.
The introduction of a model-based
www.spe.org/go/16DDC not in the same landing location. This approach to improve decision
indirect interference is hypothesized to making will reduce the cycle time
be a result of the interaction of the new between the initial wells drilled
hydraulic-fracture system with the ex- and the optimal development
isting hydraulic fractures. strategy. JPT

JPT • JULY 2016

 Interwell’s solution saved the client
over 14 months of workover time

VERIFYING
BARRIER
INTEGRITY
WITH BVS
A client in Central Europe needed to recomplete a gas
cavern, but were limited by available techniques
and regulations. The traditional method required removal
of gas by flooding the cavern with water, replacing the
completion, then removing the water; a total operation
taking approx. 16 months.

Instead, a solution to install a dual barrier and verify

integrity by Barrier Verification System (BVS), was
presented to and approved by the authority.

• Two High Expansion (HEX) plugs installed

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000081_Annonse_BVS_0516_1.indd 1 10.06.16 13.37

 TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

CO2 Applications
Sunil Kokal, Principal Professional, Saudi Aramco

Carbon dioxide (CO2) has been in the We know our reservoirs, we securely into them. Supercritical CO2
news a lot. We have all heard about is an excellent solvent, especially for
global climate change. Chances are your have produced from them, lighter crude oils. If it were free, or
child in elementary school has also and we can ensure that CO2 as low in cost as water, we would be
heard about it. It has been center stage injecting CO2 instead of water for its
in all local, national, and international
can be sent back safely favorable properties.
political and environmental debates. I and securely into them. So how can we help? There are many
am not going to talk about it here. What areas and applications of CO2 in the
I am going to articulate here is what oil and gas industry. CO2 enhanced oil
we can do about it in our own way. By CO2 first has to be separated from nitro- recovery (EOR) is the bedrock and the
“we,” I mean we as individuals, we as gen, then compressed, and finally piped mainstay in our application portfolio. A
SPE members, and we as oil and gas and pumped into a subterranean reser- lot has been published in that area. At
industry professionals. voir for oil recovery or storage. All of present, there remain several challeng-
First, the bad news: Indeed, there are these steps are expensive. es with CO2 EOR. These include grav-
a lot of challenges with CO2. It is a stable Now the good news: It can be done. ity override, poor sweep efficiency, and
compound and does not readily disin- And we, as petroleum engineers and economic factors. Considerable work
tegrate. The biggest challenge perhaps Earth scientists, are best suited to do it. and research are ongoing to address all
is the cost of capturing CO2. Most of We know our reservoirs, we have pro- of these challenges. The papers that fol-
the anthropogenic CO2 is available from duced from them, and we can ensure low address some of them: an example
fixed sources such as power plants. The that CO2 can be sent back safely and of chemical-looping emerging technol-
ogy in a bid to reduce CO2-capture costs;
CO2 foams for improved oil recovery;
Sunil Kokal, SPE, is a principal professional (senior adviser) and commercial-scale demonstration proj-
a focus area champion of enhanced oil recovery in the Reservoir ects; and use of CO2 in tight gas and
Engineering Technology team at the EXPEC/Advanced Research unconventional resources. JPT
Center at Saudi Aramco in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Since joining
Aramco in 1993, he has been involved in applied research proj-
ects on enhanced/improved oil recovery, reservoir fluids, hydro-
carbon phase behavior, crude-oil emulsions, and production- Recommended additional reading
related challenges. Currently, Kokal is leading a group of scien- at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
tists, engineers, and technicians to develop a program for CO2 enhanced oil recovery SPE 169039 Development of Small-
and to conduct appropriate studies and field demonstration projects. He has written Molecule CO2 Thickeners for EOR and
more than 100 technical papers and authored the chapters on Crude Oil Emulsions Fracturing by J.J. Lee, University of
and Reservoir Fluid Sampling for the revised edition of the SPE Petroleum Pittsburgh, et al.
Engineering Handbook (2006). Kokal has served as associate editor for the Journal
SPE 169022 Experimental Investigation
of Petroleum Science and Engineering and SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering. of Enhanced Recovery in Unconventional
Earlier, he served on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Liquid Reservoirs Using CO2: A Look Ahead
Technology. Kokal received the 2012 SPE DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal, the to the Future of Unconventional EOR
2011 SPE Distinguished Service Award, the 2010 SPE Regional Technical Award for by Francisco D. Tovar, Texas A&M University,
Reservoir Description & Dynamics, and SPE Distinguished Member status (2008) for et al.
his services to the society. He also served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer during SPE 171692 Carbon Capture and Storage
2007–08. Kokal holds a PhD degree in chemical engineering from the University of for Enhanced Oil Recovery: Integration
Calgary and a BS degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of and Optimization of a Post-Combustion
Technology. He is a member of the JPT Editorial Committee and can be reached at CO2-Capture Facility at a Power Plant in
sunil.kokal@aramco.com. Abu Dhabi by A. Reichl, Siemens, et al.

84 JPT • JULY 2016

Chemical-Looping Combustion:
An Emerging Carbon-Capture Technology

CLC
I n chemical-looping combustion
(CLC), oxygen is transferred
from an air reactor to a fuel
CLC is a relatively new combustion tech-
nology that can be applied as a power-
At the heart of CL technology is the
oxygen carrier, which is indispensable
for transferring the oxygen to the fuel.
reactor by means of a solid production technique with inherent sep- A major part of current research efforts
oxygen carrier. Direct contact aration of CO2, and it is among the least is devoted to critical issues for upscal-
between air and fuel is avoided, costly technological options for the cap- ing of the oxygen-carrier-fabrication
resulting in an undiluted carbon ture of CO2. The technological concept technology. For fluidized-bed applica-
dioxide (CO2) exhaust stream. was first developed in the 1980s to pro- tion, the spray-drying technique ap-
As such, CLC has been identified duce CO2 and was identified only recent- pears to be very well-suited. Spray-dried
recently as a high-potential carbon- ly as a high-potential capture technology. oxygen-carrier particles are character-
capture-and-storage technology. The term chemical looping (CL) is com- ized by a high sphericity, good free-
While initial focus has been on monly used to describe cycling process- flowing and fluidization properties, and
storage projects, CO2 is increasingly es in which oxygen is transported by a homogeneity on the microscale. Promis-
considered as a valuable chemical solid material, referred to as an oxygen ing materials are nickel-, copper-, iron-,
substance for enhanced-oil-and-gas- carrier. For combustion processes, the or manganese-based. Some of these ma-
recovery projects as well as for the oxygen-depleted carrier can be regener- terials release oxygen at typical combus-
production of chemicals, polymers, ated by reaction with air or water. Such tion temperatures. This property is high-
or building materials. processes are known under the general ly desirable because it contributes to the
term CLC. Several variations of CL pro- full conversion of fuel.
Introduction cessing are possible for combustion of The first generation of spray-dried
Carbon capture, transport, use, and gaseous or solid fuels. Two specific pro- oxygen carriers was nickel-based, and
storage (CCTUS) form an important cess modifications are SR-CLC, in which upscaling of these oxygen carriers was
aspect of many national and global steam reforming is integrated into the demonstrated successfully with spray
strategies to combat climate change. CLC process, and CL reforming (CLR), drying. However, because of the cost
A main challenge regarding capture of of which the primary products are H2 and toxicity of nickel, a search for nick-
CO2, especially for high volumes, is its and CO. el-free oxygen carriers was initiated.
separation from other gases. The CLC process can be configured as Manganese, iron, or copper oxide, or
Three primary approaches are con- two coupled fluidized-bed boilers, but combined oxides, were used as main
sidered technologically feasible for CO2 packed-bed configurations, with the pos- active components; alumina and zir-
capture at large point sources: post- sibility of pressurizing, are also being conia were used as inert supports for
combustion capture, precombustion considered. To transfer oxygen from the increased strength and reactivity. The
capture, and oxy-fuel combustion. For combustion air to the fuel, oxygen car- complete paper discusses the influence
each approach, various technologi- riers are used. This avoids direct contact of the different steps in the manufactur-
cal solutions have been developed, and between air and fuel, and, after conden- ing process on the CLC performance of
small- and medium-scale evaluations sation of water, relatively pure CO2 is ob- oxygen carriers for a selection of calci-
have proved their feasibility. However, tained in a separate exhaust stream from um manganate materials with perovskite
integrated operation on a commercial the fuel reactor. Thus, energy-consuming crystal structure.
scale remains to be demonstrated. flue-gas separation is avoided.
Experimental Setup
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights Oxygen-carrier particles were produced
with good free-flowing properties, high
of paper SPE 177561, “Chemical-Looping Combustion: An Emerging Carbon-Capture
sphericity, and homogeneity using com-
Technology,” by Frans Snijkers, Flemish Institute for Technological Research; Dazheng
mercial raw materials by spray drying.
Jing, Chalmers University of Technology; Marijke Jacobs and Lidia Protasova, Organic additives were used to disperse
Flemish Institute for Technological Research; and Tobias Mattisson and Anders the powder mixture of inorganic ma-
Lyngfelt, Chalmers University of Technology, prepared for the 2015 Abu Dhabi terials in demineralized water. Plane-
International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, 9–12 November. The tary ball mills or horizontal attrition
paper has not been peer reviewed. mills were used to homogenize suspen-

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • JULY 2016 85

 rial needs to be replaced by addition of
new particles.
In this work, the CaMn0.9Mg0.1O3–δ
composition was selected. The mechani-
cal strength of the final product can be
tuned by parameters such as milling and
sintering conditions. The milling time
was varied, as well as sintering time and
temperature. All sinter treatments have
been performed in air. After sintering, the
particle-size distribution was found to be
within the specification of 100–200 µm.
No problems related to defluidization
and agglomeration were found during
the reactivity testing. In summary, the
calcium-manganite-based perovskite-
type material shows very promising re-
sults in terms of mechanical properties
and performance for CL.
SEM pictures allowed the morphol-
Fig. 1—Spray-dry plant (left) and two-fluid nozzle configuration (right). ogy of spray-dried particles to be ex-
amined. Comparing the fresh samples,
sions for small quantities or for larger tion and attrition in a real fluidized-bed it is noted that the particles are less po-
amounts, respectively. CLC application. Evaluation of the CLC rous after a prolonged period of mill-
Water-based suspensions were stirred performance of oxygen-carrier materials ing. Similarly, longer calcination times
continuously with a propeller-blade was carried out. All materials were char- can result in a smoother particle surface
mixer while being pumped to the two- acterized and tested either in a small- (i.e., less porosity). Increasing the calci-
fluid spray-dry nozzle, positioned in the scale batch reactor or by thermogravi- nation temperature also had an effect on
lower cone part of the spray drier (Fig. 1). metric analysis. Prospective materials particle morphology.
Air-in temperature was 220°C; air-out were selected for tests in small, continu- The materials show a high methane
temperature was 210°C. An air flow of ously operating CLC units, and the most- conversion at 950°C. Activity data could
210 kg/h was maintained. promising materials were tested further not be obtained for particles that showed
After spray drying, the fraction with- under continuous operating conditions. a low crushing strength and were tested
in the required particle-size range was in fluidized-bed conditions. These experi-
separated from the spray-dried prod- Results and Discussion ments, which were carried out in a batch
uct by sieving. To obtain oxygen-carrier A critical aspect of CLC processes is fluidized-bed reactor, used an oxygen/fuel
particles with sufficient mechanical oxygen-carrier performance, which has ratio of 57kg/MW. With respect to this bed
strength, sintering was performed in a strong effect on the economic viabil- inventory, the rates of reaction are very
air at top temperatures in the range of ity of the technology. Parameters such as high and are comparable with those of
1100 to 1350°C for 4 to 16 hours with particle size, density, porosity, strength, the baseline nickel-based oxygen carrier.
high-temperature furnaces. attrition resistance, reactivity, and con-
The chemical composition and pos- version efficiency, along with environ- Conclusions
sible phase formations in the oxygen mental aspects and cost, define the per- The fabrication of porous granules by
carriers were investigated after the sin- formance of the oxygen carrier. Besides spray drying is a well-established man-
tering process with X-ray powder diffrac- the conversion efficiency, the mechani- ufacturing method for a wide range of
tion. The X-ray analysis was performed cal (crushing) strength of the particles products and industries. It is demon-
on oxidized fresh samples and reduced is extremely important because it de- strated that this technique is also highly
samples after the reactivity tests. The termines the resistance to attrition and suitable for the production of spherical
shape and morphology of the oxygen car- hence the operational-use hours (life- oxygen-carrier particles for CLC oper-
riers were studied with optical micros- time) of the particles. In general, 10,000 ated in coupled fluidized-bed reactors.
copy and scanning electron microscopy hours is a minimum targeted lifetime. In this work, results are presented for
(SEM). The force needed to fracture the The relationship between attrition re- CaMn0.9Mg0.1O3–δ oxygen-carrier ma-
particles (i.e., the crushing strength) was sistance and the crushing strength is not terials fabricated by spray drying, spe-
measured. The resulting value is an aver- straightforward, yet a crushing strength cifically with respect to some impor-
age of the values obtained for fractured greater than 1 N is considered to be a tant production parameters. Changes
particles. The crushing-strength test good indication for acceptable attrition to one of the parameters can affect the
gives an indication of how resistant the resistance. Attrition leads to fines, which properties of the oxygen-carrier mate-
oxygen carrier will be toward fragmenta- are filtered off; the fines-state lost mate- rial dramatically. JPT

86 JPT • JULY 2016

Viscosity and Stability of Dry CO2 Foams
for Improved Oil Recovery

C arbon dioxide (CO2)/water foams

are of interest for mobility control
in CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
extended life span, and conformance of
the foams are crucial. In particular, these
high-quality stable foams have been de-
determine the temperature maintained
at the view cell. Finally, the foam flowed
through the high-pressure viewing cell,
and as energized fracture fluids or as veloped and tested at laboratory scale in where the macroscopic appearance of the
hybrid processes that combine aspects high-salinity and high-temperature con- foam could be observed. Foam-stability
of both processes. It is challenging to ditions to mimic the actual reservoir con- tests were conducted in a sapphire cell.
stabilize ultradry foams with extremely dition. These high-quality, highly stable To evaluate the field applicability of
high internal-phase gas fraction given foams have been generated and tested by the novel dry-foam systems that the au-
the high capillary pressure and the rapid use of sandpacks at the laboratory scale. thors developed, a 2D foam-injection-
drainage rate of the lamellae between In this work, a numerical simulation of simulation model has been developed.
the gas bubbles. However, the authors foam injection into a layered reservoir The model development starts with der-
demonstrate that these ultradry CO2- is performed. ivation of pressure and mass-balance
in-water foams may be stabilized with equations. The pressure equations form a
surfactants that form viscoelastic worm- Methods set of elliptical partial-differential equa-
like micelles in the aqueous phase. The apparent viscosity of CO2/water foam tions. Water and hydrocarbons were as-
was measured with flow experiments op- sumed as immiscible fluids. However,
Introduction erated under high temperature and pres- CO2 solubility in the aqueous phase was
In this study, the authors extend the study sure. Both the bead pack and capillary considered in the simulations. Transport
of ultradry CO2/water foams composed of tube were submerged in a water bath that of the stabilizing reagent in porous media
worm-like micelles to higher tempera- could be heated up to 90°C, and the sys- is simulated with a single-site colloid-
tures by adding an electrolyte, potassium tem was pressurized to 3,000 psia. Aque- filtration model. It was assumed that
chloride (KCl), and a cationic surfactant, ous solution of SLES, C10DMA, and KCl surfactants reside only in the aqueous
decyldimethylamine (C10DMA), to the was loaded into an accumulator contain- phase. Foam transport is simulated with
primary surfactant, sodium lauryl ether ing a piston. Before injecting CO2, approxi- a population-balance model.
sulfate (SLES). The continuous-phase vis- mately 10 pore volumes of solution (5 mL)
cosity and surface shear viscosity of this was pumped into the bead pack. Then, Results and Discussion
formulation were found to be approxi- both CO2 and surfactant solution were Foam Apparent Viscosity and Mor-
mately two orders of magnitude higher injected into the bead pack, which func- phology. The foam quality was defined as
when worm-like micelles were formed at tioned as a porous-media foam genera- volume fraction of gas in the foam. Here,
room temperature. The foam morphol- tor. Next, the foam passed through a cap- experiments and analysis were focused
ogy was measured at high pressure with illary tube. The pressure drop across the on ultradry foam with foam quality rang-
microscopy, and a long lifetime of foam capillary tube was measured, and the ap- ing from 0.9 to 0.98. The apparent vis-
bubbles was demonstrated. The mor- parent viscosity was calculated. The volu- cosity for a foam with 3.6% SLES along
phology of the worm-like micelles was metric flow rate of the foam was 0.5 mL/ with 2% KCl solution increased signifi-
also characterized by cryogenic trans- min, which was equivalent to a superfi- cantly when 0.4% C10DMA was added to
mission electron microscopy. cial velocity of 190  ft/D. Then, the foam the aqueous-phase solution, and, thus,
The authors have been able to manip- passed through the microscopy view cell, worm-like micelles were formed, clearly
ulate foam stability for various special- which, in turn, was connected to two car- demonstrating that worm-like micelles
ty applications such as EOR where low tridge heaters. The cartridge heaters were positively influence the foam apparent
water consumption, foam stability and connected to a temperature controller to viscosity. Moreover, when the tempera-
ture was raised to 90°C, the apparent
viscosity of foam remained high, which
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights suggested good thermal stability for this
of paper SPE 179690, “Viscosity and Stability of Dry CO2 Foams for Improved Oil surfactant formulation and the mainte-
Recovery,” by Chang Da, Zheng Xue, Andrew J. Worthen, Ali Qajar, Chun Huh, nance of the desired packing fraction for
Maša Prodanović, and Keith P. Johnston, The University of Texas at Austin, the worm-like micelles.
prepared for the 2016 SPE Improved Oil Recovery Conference, Tulsa, 11–13 April. The To understand the cause of the high
paper has not been peer reviewed. apparent viscosity better, the foam mor-

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • JULY 2016 87

 duced and, except for the topmost layer
filled with gas, the other layers all prog-
ress in the range of 25 to 40 gridblocks in
the x-direction. The decision was made to
analyze further the advantage of foam in-
jection in improving oil recovery.
The authors assumed a second case
in which vertical fluid transport is not
considered; however, the layers gradu-
ally become less permeable from the top
to the bottom of the reservoir. Earlier,
it had been shown that this is a success-
ful approach to visualize advantages of
foam injection into heterogeneous res-
ervoirs. In this case study, the layers are
Fig. 1—Foam-stability test in a sapphire cell, (a) upon foam generation at time assumed separated from each other, no
zero and (b) after 1 day. gravity effects are considered, and pres-
sure balance is solved only for the injec-
phology was determined with optical mi- strength to carry the proppant in any po- tion blocks. By controlling the confor-
croscopy. With only SLES, worm-like mi- tential fracturing applications. mance of the sweeping fluid, it is evident
celles were not formed and the bubble from the simulations that the foam devel-
size was large. Upon addition of the cat- Feasibility Simulation Results. A 2D res- ops a more-uniform front that enhanc-
ionic surfactant to lower the head-group ervoir was defined with 27 ft in the vertical es sweeping efficiency in regions with a
area of the binary surfactant system, (z) direction and 100 ft in the horizontal high degree of textural heterogeneity.
worm-like micelles formed and the bub- (x) direction, in order to evaluate the oil-
ble size decreased markedly, giving great- sweeping efficiency upon foam injection Conclusions
er stablization to the lamellae. Because into the reservoir. It is assumed that all High-internal-phase ultradry foams with
worm-like micelles viscify the aqueous la- gridblocks in the z-direction have a perfo- high apparent viscosities of greater than
mellae and reduce the drainage rate, rela- ration in the middle; therefore, sweeping 100  cp have been demonstrated for the
tively thick lamellae are maintained over fluid is injected uniformly through all lay- first time at elevated temperature. The
long times even for ultradry foam. ers at the constant flow rate of 0.365 pore surfactant-packing parameter was tuned
volumes/yr. Simulations were conduct- by adding electrolytes and cationic sur-
High-Pressure ed for 0.4-pore-volume injection of the factants to the anionic surfactant SLES
Foam-Stability Test fluid. In the first case study, the authors to form worm-like micelles, which aided
To verify the stability of the foams under assumed a homogeneous reservoir with stabilization of the ultradry foam. Specifi-
high-pressure conditions, they were gen- constant permeability of 1 darcy in the x- cally, the slow-drainage-rate viscoelas-
erated with the pressure loop and then and z-direction. tic lamellae maintained stability against
were collected in a sapphire cell at a pres- At the initial pressure and given tem- Ostwald ripening and coalescence. Fur-
sure of 2,000 psi, with 90% quality. Be- perature of the reservoir, the fluid is all thermore, the current study demon-
fore the injection of the foam, some prop- in oil phase. Without foam, water drains strates that this behavior could be extend-
pant sand grains were put on the bottom below oil and gas phases because of grav- ed even up to 90°C, at which the stable
of the sapphire cell. Once foam was gen- ity segregation and the gas phase mi- foams with small bubble sizes produced
erated, the sapphire cell was inverted grates to the topmost layer of the reser- a high foam apparent viscosity. High-
and images were taken of the sand set- voir and escapes at the production well. pressure foam-stability tests in a sapphire
tling. Within several seconds, sand par- On the other hand, when high-quality cell showed that, 1 day after starting the
ticles dropped to the middle of the cell foams are injected into the reservoir, a experiment, foam had not lost its texture
and, once trapped in the foam system, more-uniform front is formed, which sig- and the terminal velocity of sand parti-
their settling was stopped immediate- nificantly reduces water drainage and also cles in the foam system remained zero.
ly. Even after several days, the trapped slightly lowers gas escape from the top- Thus, the foam shows good stability in
sand particles in the foam system did most layer. In a comparison, it is obtained high-pressure conditions as well as good
not move. Fig.  1 shows the experiment that, in this particular case study, in the proppant-carrying properties.
results. Fig.  1a was taken at time zero, bottom layer, with no foam consideration, Simulations for the homogeneous
while Fig. 1b was captured after 1 day. As the water front moves for nearly 65 grid- reservoir with gravity considerations
shown in the images, foam structure did blocks, whereas the water front in upper showed that, in the foam case, the stan-
not visibly change and sand was trapped layers is retarded at 15 to 35 gridblocks. dard deviation of the water fronts (ex-
inside the foam. Thus, the presence of the With foam consideration, the standard cept for the topmost layer) was reduced
proppant grains does not affect the foam deviation between the water displace- by nearly 50% as compared with the no-
stability, and the dry foam has enough ments in various layers is significantly re- foam case. JPT

88 JPT • JULY 2016

A Portfolio of Commercial-Scale Carbon-
Capture-and-Storage Demonstration Projects

A major oil company is progressing

a portfolio of commercial-scale
carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS)
demonstration projects covering
an array of technologies that target
applications of relevance to the wider
oil and gas industry. A number of key Goldeneye
Platform
learnings have been obtained on the
technology-deployment and the critical- St. Fergus
project-development aspects of the Terminal
different project phases. This paper Peterhead
provides an overview of these learnings, Power Station
with a specific focus on the issues faced
by CCS-project developers.
Fig. 1—The Peterhead power station and project overview.
Introduction
Over the last decade, the company, with ◗ Operation of an existing gas turbine ◗ Storage in the depleted Goldeneye
its partners, has been helping to advance (GT 13) at the Peterhead Power gas reservoir at a depth of more
CCS through a series of CCS demonstra- Station in Aberdeenshire, Scotland than 2 km under the floor of the
tion projects. The operator’s CCS com- ◗ A new steam turbine dedicated to North Sea
mercial and project portfolio includes low-pressure steam generation The objective is that the power plant,
◗ The Quest project, which is the first ◗ Capture of approximately combined with the CCS chain, will oper-
CCS project of commercial scale in 1 million t/a of carbon dioxide ate as one integrated low-carbon power-
the heavy-oil industry (CO2) emissions, for a period of supply chain.
◗ The Peterhead CCS project, which, 10 to 15 years, from the flue gas in
if realized, could be the world’s first a large concrete absorber tower The Quest CCS Project
commercial-scale, full-chain project using the operator’s amine-capture CO2 management is also becoming in-
to demonstrate the feasibility of CCS technology creasingly important for manufacturing
at a gas-fired power station ◗ Regeneration of the amine in a tower and industrial sites or developments. This
This paper explores in detail the Quest using steam from the power plant is especially true for high-greenhouse-
project and the Peterhead project, the ◗ Compression and conditioning gas-intensity operations, such as those in
latter being currently in the front-end (oxygen and water removal) of Canadian oil sands.
engineering and design phase. the CO2 Quest is the world’s first commercial-
◗ Transport of the dense-phase scale CCS project in the oil sands, de-
The Peterhead CCS Project CO2 by an offshore pipeline signed to capture and permanently store
The company and a UK power provider approximately 100 km in length more than 1 million t of CO2 annually—
are developing the Peterhead CCS Project ◗ Injection of the CO2 with the adapted the equivalent of taking 250,000 cars
(Fig. 1). The scope of the project includes Goldeneye platform and wells off the road each year. It is an important
step toward producing oil-sands prod-
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights ucts with a lifecycle CO2 intensity on
par with the average crude oil refined
of paper IPTC 18469, “A Portfolio of Commercial-Scale CCS Demonstration Projects,”
in the US.
by W. Maas, M. de Nier, T. Wiwchar, and B. Spence, Shell, prepared for the 2015
The Quest project has been built on
International Petroleum Technology Conference, Doha, Qatar, 7–9 December. The behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Proj-
paper has not been peer reviewed. ect (AOSP) joint-venture owners and with
support from the governments of Canada
Copyright 2015 International Petroleum Technology Conference. Reproduced by and Alberta. The Quest facilities will cap-
permission. ture up to one-third of the CO2 emissions

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • JULY 2016 89

 at the operator’s Scotford Upgrader site station site. The resulting environmen- Institute on stakeholder engagement.
near Edmonton, Alberta. At this facil- tal statement and associated planning The institute has a strong focus on re-
ity, mined bitumen from AOSP’s Muskeg application were submitted to the local sponsible oil-sands development. This
River and Jackpine mines is upgraded to authority in March 2015 and received ap- partnership further developed discus-
produce up to 255,000  B/D of synthetic proval in June. sions with municipal leaders who were
crude. The upgrading requires hydrogen, Quest collaborated with the govern- closest to the landowners. Quest has
the production of which features CO2 as ment to establish CCS policy frameworks also established a community panel of
a byproduct. for Alberta, and for Canada in general. local leaders and stakeholders to review
The CO2 is captured directly from The experience gained from Quest was data from the MMV program regularly
a syngas stream in the hydrogen- used to develop regulations more tai- and to assist in sharing of information
manufacturing process by use of propri- lored to CO2 storage. A measurement, regarding the design and operation of
etary amine technology. This technol- monitoring, and verification (MMV) plan the project.
ogy is a widely applied process within and a carbon-accounting protocol have
gas processing and liquefied natural gas. been developed to ensure containment Cost Reduction
Subsequently, the CO2 is compressed and and conformance—the long-term effec- Assuming that it proceeds, the Peter-
dehydrated. The dry, dense-phase CO2 tiveness of CO2 storage—by demonstrat- head project will set a cost data point
is transported by a 64-km-long onshore ing that actual storage performance is for low-carbon gas power, determined
pipeline to the sequestration lease area consistent with expectations about injec- by the project specifics and constraints.
north of the Scotford facility. There, it is tivity, capacity, and CO2 behavior inside Like all first applications, it will be an
injected into a saline reservoir—the basal the storage complex. initial point on a learning curve that
Cambrian sands storage formation at the will be valuable for cost optimization on
base of the central portion of the western Communication, Public commercial CCS projects and for identi-
Canada sedimentary basin—for perma- Consultation, and Opportunities fication of focus areas for cost reduction.
nent storage. The Peterhead CCS project has focused Specifically, equipment standardization
resources to aid in informing and in- and simplification and supply-chain op-
Collaboration To Advance volving key stakeholders, including the timization have been shown to be prime
CCS Policy Frameworks communities closest to Peterhead, with areas for cost reduction in comparable
The Peterhead project, being the first full- respect to the objectives of the project energy industries. The UK CCS Cost-
scale CCS project in the UK, is focusing and its potential impact. A series of com- Reduction Task Force has reported the
particular attention on the establishment munication and consultation events has potential for gas CCS cost reduction and
and attainment of the necessary permits taken place since late 2013, focusing on the different elements required for its
to operate. Regular meetings with key different groups including community execution and has demonstrated an ex-
regulatory authorities and information organizations, high-school students, uni- pectation that future low-carbon gas
sharing between subject-matter experts versity academics, and field profession- power with CCS will be competitive with
are essential. als. Further engagement and education- alternative low-carbon energy sources.
For the benefit of the regulators, the al initiatives are planned as the project Quest managed to deliver the proj-
local community, and the general public, progresses in order to build on estab- ect cost effectively in a high-cost labor
onshore and offshore impact-assessment lished relationships. The project has market at the time of fabrication and
scoping reports were prepared in 2014. also attracted a significant amount of construction. This was made possi-
These established the scope of work to media attention. ble through an emphasis on modular-
be covered by the detailed Environmen- Quest met with individual landown- ization—the onshore-facility construc-
tal Impact Assessments (EIAs) describing ers along the pipeline right-of-way to tion was based on offshore standards.
potential environmental impact associ- discuss the impact of the pipeline. As a This delivered an integrated, tight de-
ated with the scope of work for the Peter- result of these discussions, the pipeline sign on a comparatively small plot
head CCS Project. route was adapted. All regulatory licens- availability by stepping away from the
The Offshore EIA covers a wide range ing needed for Quest was completed in traditional stick-build backbone with a
of topics, from the mean low-water mark face-to-face meetings, with communi- central pipe rack and units to the side.
(close to the Peterhead Power Station in cation opportunities afterward if ques- The modular construction considerably
Sandford Bay) to the offshore Golden- tions remained. Similar to Peterhead, the limited the amount of on-site construc-
eye reservoir, including all work on the Quest project team also holds sessions tion hours.
wells, the existing Goldeneye platform, in Alberta for engagement with the pub- Quest has demonstrated that cost can
and the proposed new section of pipe- lic. The first open house for Quest was be reduced further with scale; if more
line. An environmental statement was held in 2008, and many have followed CO2 sources can be tied into the Quest
submitted to the appropriate authorities throughout construction. concept, the cost per tonne of CO2 could
in January 2015. Furthermore, the project secured sup- be reduced further. To illustrate this idea,
An Onshore EIA was also completed, port and public praise from influential the pipeline has been sized for 3.0 mil-
covering all elements of the project to and credible external organizations. The lion t/a for CO2—with up to 1.2 million t/a
be constructed on the existing power- operator collaborated with the Pembina of CO2 currently used. JPT

90 JPT • JULY 2016

CO2-Based Enhanced Oil Recovery
From Unconventional Reservoirs

I n this study, detailed petrophysical

and geological field models focusing
on the middle and lower members of
The Bakken CO2 Enhanced Recovery
and Storage Project began in 2012 and
was completed in 2013. The objective of
porate both matrix and fracture proper-
ties into one set of reservoir properties.
Thus, the reservoir-permeability prop-
the Bakken Formation were developed this project was to use reservoir char- erty will include fracture flow up to 300
on the basis of field characterization, acterization and laboratory analytical times the values measured in the matrix
well-log interpretation, and laboratory data (e.g., core analyses, well logs, and alone. This model would be clipped down
core analysis by scanning-electron- oil analyses) coupled with state-of-the- to an optimized near-wellbore model and
microscopy, ultraviolet-fluorescence, art modeling to examine the viability of used for dynamic simulation. Because
and standard-optical-microscopy using CO2 for simultaneous CO2 stor- this single-porosity/-permeability model
techniques. A fine-scale model with a age and EOR in the Bakken. The ultimate combined the matrix and fracture prop-
pair of horizontal wells was extracted goal of the project was to have a Bak- erties, the sensitivity of two sets of rela-
from the initial model (Bailey area) to ken operator apply the knowledge gained tive permeability curves (matrix system
examine the potential effectiveness of from the laboratory, characterization, and fracture system) was analyzed to find
oil-recovery techniques based on carbon and modeling activities to a pilot-scale out the incremental oil on the basis of the
dioxide (CO2) injection. The results show field test of CO2 injection into a Bakken relative permeability changes.
that CO2 injection may play a significant or Three Forks reservoir. The presenta- To address the systems response to
role in increasing oil production. tion in this paper comprises a discussion CO2 injection for oil production, four
of the initial near-wellbore-modeling as- cases were proposed on the basis of
Introduction pect of the project. the near-wellbore single-porosity/
Small improvements in productivity -permeability model.
could increase technically recoverable oil Approach
in the Bakken by billions of barrels. While A two-stage approach was proposed for Geological-Modeling
the use of CO2 in conventional reservoirs petrophysical and static modeling of the Development
is a widely applied and well-understood Bakken reservoirs. The first step was to A single-porosity/-permeability geocel-
practice, its use for enhanced oil recov- design a single-porosity/-permeability lular model of the Bailey Field study area
ery (EOR) in tight oil reservoirs is a rela- model of the study area from the data was built on the basis of a database con-
tively new concept. The use of CO2 as an available. While this initial model was taining geophysical well logs, well in-
injection fluid may reduce the hydrocar- being developed, advanced laborato- formation, stratigraphy, routine-core-
bon viscosities in the reservoir and allow ry tests and fracture analyses were per- analysis data, X-ray diffraction, X-ray
additional trapped oil to be produced. formed in order to guide the construc- fluorescence, scanning electron micros-
Another benefit of CO2 injection is to tion of an unconventional dual-porosity/ copy, and ultraviolet fluorescence. The
mitigate climate change by storing CO2 -permeability model, which is not includ- study area comprises 38 sq miles and
in the reservoir. The Energy & Environ- ed in this paper. includes 72 wells. Thirteen key vertical
mental Research Center has conducted a The model was constructed with avail- wells were used in an MMPA and strati-
multidisciplinary research program with able data, which included geophysical graphic correlation of lithofacies. Three
the ultimate goal of providing industry well logs, routine core analysis, and stra- of the key wells had preserved subsur-
with insight regarding the potential to tigraphy derived from viewing subsur- face core, which was described and sam-
use CO2 for EOR in the Bakken and Three face core. A multimineral petrophysical pled for routine, special, and fracture
Forks Formations. analysis (MMPA) was designed to incor- core analysis.
The MMPA determines the overall
quantity and volume of different mineral
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights
components in the key wells from the log
of paper SPE 168979, “CO2-Based Enhanced Oil Recovery From Unconventional
responses. This mineral-volume calcula-
Reservoirs: A Case Study From the Bakken Formation,” by G. Liu, J.A. Sorensen, tion aids in determining the stratigraphy
J.R. Braunberger, R. Klenner, J. Ge, C.D. Gorecki, E.N. Steadman, and J.A. Harju, and the overall correlation from one well-
University of North Dakota, prepared for the 2014 SPE Unconventional Resources bore to another, thus describing the geo-
Conference—USA, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, 1–3 April. The paper has not been logic structure for property distribution
peer reviewed. in the 3D model. MMPA can also assist

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • JULY 2016 91

 Injection Rate Produced Oil Oil Change Incremental Stored CO 2 Net Usage
Case RPT CO 2 Recycle (Mscf/D) (bbl) (%) Oil (bbl) (Mscf) (Mscf/bbl)

1 Matrix No N/A 839 N/A N/A N/A N/A

2 Fracture No N/A 1,869 N/A N/A N/A N/A
3 Matrix Yes 10 1,323 58 484 11,213 23.17
4 Fracture Yes 10 2,680 43 811 4,750 5.86

Table 1— Results summary for all four cases. RPT=relative permeability curves (matrix or fracture systems).

in determining geochemical and geome- CO2-Injection Simulations gate oil production without CO2 injection.
chanical interactions of the bulk mineral In this study, a pair of existing horizon- Cases 3 and 4 introduced continuous CO2
volumes and CO2. tal wells with a spacing of 3,000 ft was injection to investigate the potential to
The model was divided into four dis- selected for the fine-scale, near-wellbore improve recovery compared with cases
tinct lithofacies that were evident by se- model on the basis of the connected vol- without CO2 injection. The bottomhole-
quence stratigraphy in understanding ume between wells that allows the fluids pressure maximum was set on the injec-
mechanical zones, ichnology, and bio- to communicate with each other. In this tion well not to exceed 20% more than
stratigraphic correlation among subsur- simulated case, Well A was designated as the initial reservoir bottomhole pressure.
face cores, MMPA, and fracture analy- a producer and Well B was designated as
sis. A structural model was built on the a CO2 injector. However, only an 1,800-ft Results and Discussion
basis of these four lithofacies and capped segment of the horizontal wells is mod- The results of the four cases, including
on the top by the upper Bakken shale eled. It is assumed that these results and oil production, CO2 storage, and net CO2
and on the bottom by the lower Bakken the percent increase can be extrapolat- use, are listed in Table 1. Net CO2 use was
shale. These six zones were represent- ed to the entire length of each well. On calculated by dividing the total stored
ed by a grid-cell size of 33×33 ft later- the basis of characterization results, two CO2 by incremental oil produced during
ally and an average of 0.5 to 1.0 ft verti- three-stage hydraulic fractures were in- the production periods. When compar-
cally. The study-area model has a total corporated in each of the 1,800-ft sec- ing the oil production, it is notable that
of 50 million cells. Well logs were up- tions. The hydraulic-fracture dimensions 58% more oil was produced with CO2 in-
scaled into the structural model, and a are 300 ft in length by 2 ft wide, and jection in Case 3 than without CO2 injec-
data analysis was performed to develop the permeability of the cells is 100 times tion in Case 1. This results in an increase
variograms for major, minor, and verti- higher than that of the surrounding cells. in the cumulative oil production from
cal ranges—6,300, 5,000, and 3 ft, re- The CO2-injection well and oil-production 839 bbl in Case 1 to 1,323 bbl in Case 3.
spectively. These small variogram ranges well were perforated only in the cells that The cases that used fracture relative per-
introduce strong heterogeneity into the passed through the hydraulic fractures lo- meability curves experienced a similar
model both laterally and vertically. cated in the middle Bakken zones. increase when CO2 injection was used,
Geostatistical methods were then used After the near-wellbore model had with oil production in Case 4 (2,680 bbl)
to populate the structural model with been prepared for simulation, the re- being 43% higher than that of Case 2
water saturation, effective porosity, and maining steps of the dynamic-modeling (1,869 bbl), which had no CO2 injection.
permeability. Pressure and temperature work flow (detailed in the complete When the three cases were compared
were determined on the basis of bottom- paper) were followed. on the basis of fracture or matrix relative
hole parameters derived from drillstem The fluid model used in the simulation permeability, the cumulative oil produc-
tests within the study area. system was calculated on the basis of lab- tion was two to three times higher from
A fine-scale, near-wellbore model was oratory oil-compositional analysis and a fracture relative permeability in Cases 2
clipped from the study-area model to swelling test. A total of 40 components and 4 than with matrix relative perme-
test CO2 EOR by performing numerical were combined into five components to ability in Cases 1 and 3. This explains the
simulation. The selection of the clipped generate the equation-of-state parame- resulting lowered net CO2 use of cases
model was based on a work flow to un- ters for the simulation. Two three-phase based on fracture when compared with
derstand connected volumes on the basis relative permeability curves were used, cases based on matrix.
of effective-porosity and -permeability one which approximates the matrix rela- On the basis of these results, CO2 in-
cutoffs and then to choose two wells that tive permeability and one that approxi- jection may play a significant role in
contain higher permeabilities from the mates the fracture relative permeability, EOR in Bakken oil reservoirs. Using
inclusion of natural-fracture properties to test the sensitivity for flow from each CO2 may produce 43 to 58% more oil
in the matrix model. The model size is on the model. The CO2 is also allowed to than the cases without any CO2. Oil-
6,800×1,800 ft laterally and 40 ft thick, dissolve into brine to mimic the nature of production results based on the model
with a grid cell size of 33×33 ft laterally the system. matrix relative permeability or model
and an average of 1-ft thickness for 50 To test CO2 recovery, four cases were fracture relative permeability are quite
layers. The total cell count for the near- designed to address the potential for CO2 sensitive, leading to a 100 to 170%
wellbore model is 610,000. EOR in the Bakken. Cases 1 and 2 investi- oil-production difference. JPT

92 JPT • JULY 2016

PEOPLE

KHALID AL-FALIH, SPE, was appointed SPE Flow Assurance Technical Section and was a chair of the
minister of the newly expanded Ministry of SPE Flow Assurance: Future State of the Art forum in 2015. In
Energy, Industry, and Mineral Resources 2013, he received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from
for Saudi Arabia, succeeding ALI AL- Andhra University College of Engineering in India and the SPE
NAIMI as the minister of petroleum and Faculty Innovative Teaching Award. Kondapi holds a PhD from
mineral resources. He was previously the Tennessee Technological University, and BS and MS degrees
Al-Falih minister of health for Saudi Arabia. Al-Falih from Andhra University, all in chemical engineering.
was appointed chairman of the board of di-
rectors for Saudi Aramco in 2015 and will continue to hold that JONATHAN LEWIS, SPE, was appointed
role. He has served as the chief executive officer (CEO) and CEO of Amec Foster Wheeler. He previous-
president of Saudi Aramco since 2009 and held several senior ly was senior vice president of the Comple-
management roles at the company over the years, including tions and Production Division at Hallibur-
executive vice president of operations business center and se- ton. His previous roles in the company
nior vice president of industrial relations. In 2001, he was ap- included senior vice president of Europe/
pointed vice president of gas ventures development and Sub-Saharan Africa region and the Drilling
played an instrumental role in the country’s natural gas initia- and Evaluation Division. Lewis joined Halliburton after 9
tive. He is a founding member of the board of trustees of the years in academia, where he was a NERC research fellow at the
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and has Royal School of Mines at Imperial College London, and Conoco
served on the board since 2008. Al-Falih holds a BS degree in lecturer in petroleum geology at Heriot-Watt University.
mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University and an He  was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 1996–97. Lewis
MBA from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. holds a PhD in reservoir characterization from the University
of Reading.
PHANEENDRA KONDAPI, SPE, was ap-
pointed director of subsea engineering for DOUGLAS PFERDEHIRT, SPE, was ap-
the College of Engineering at Texas A&M pointed president and CEO of FMC Tech-
University. He has more than 20 years of nologies, effective 1 September. Current
experience in the industry including with CEO and Chairman JOHN GREMP will re-
FMC Technologies and KBR in engineering main as chairman of the board until his re-
and consulting projects worldwide. tirement in 2017. In May, FMC and Technip
Kondapi has been recognized for his work in designing and Pferdehirt announced that the companies plan to
developing university-level curriculum in flow assurance and combine into a single entity to be called
subsea engineering and for his innovative teaching methods. TechnipFMC, and Pferdehirt will serve as the CEO of the new
As the KBR adjunct professor of subsea engineering at the Uni- company. The transaction is expected to close in early 2017,
versity of Houston, Kondapi helped develop the first subsea subject to regulatory approvals. After a 26-year career with
engineering program in the US. He is the chair of the Offshore Schlumberger, Pferdehirt joined FMC in 2012 as executive vice
Technology Conference Flow Assurance and Subsea Process- president and chief operating officer and became president in
ing steering committees and the SPE Faculty Innovative Teach- 2015. He holds a BS degree in petroleum and natural gas engi-
ing Awards Committee. He has previously been chair of the neering from Pennsylvania State University.

Member Deaths
Gene C. Bankston, Spring, Texas, USA James E. Goodson, Lewisville, Texas, USA Perry B. Morris, Dallas, Texas, USA
Lewis C. Beach, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA E.F. Gordon, Houston, Texas, USA Richard L. Murray, Bakersfield, California, USA
Robert M. Boone, Midland, Texas, USA Billy D. Griffin, Edmond, Oklahoma, USA Walter F. Muzacz, Houston, Texas, USA
Will E. Boyd, Austin, Texas, USA Derrel G. Gurley, Alvarado, Texas, USA Craig R. Norton, Sherman Oaks, California, USA
Charles O. Childress, Metairie, Louisiana, USA Ralph B. Hammond, Weleetka, Oklahoma, USA Lawrence K. O’Bert, Houston, Texas, USA
Roy T. Clayton, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA Robert L. Hansen, Beaumont, Texas, USA Charles J. Parker Jr., Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA
Francis R. Conley, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA Tom T. Jones, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA Thomas L. Pearson, Roswell, New Mexico, USA
David L. Dooley, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA Gregory J. Kuran, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Jan N. Pedersen, Austin, Texas, USA
Jack D. Duren, Arlington, Texas, USA Joseph S. Levine, Houston, Texas, USA Bill E. Rae, Edmond, Oklahoma, USA
Clifford W. Dye, Houston, Texas, USA Jacques H. Marchal, New York, New York, USA Maynard W. Russell, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
Alfred O. Fischer, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA J.G. McMillian Jr., Park City, Utah, USA Forrest Scearce, Sand Springs, Oklahoma, USA
Raymond E. George, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Paul Meadows, Franklin, Tennessee, USA Robert E. Turrentine III, Midland, Texas, USA
USA Douglas F. Middleton, Houston, Texas, USA J.E. Upton, Houston, Texas, USA
Oma K. Gilbreth Jr., Fort Collins, Colorado, USA Herbert D. Miller, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, William S. Wright, Dallas, Texas, USA
Richard Gillespie, Seminole, Texas, USA USA James George Wood, Kobenhavn K, Denmark

JPT • JULY 2016 93

 SPE NEWS

Former SPE President Publishes New Book

In May Praeger published 2006 SPE President Eve Sprunt’s win-win solutions. She incorporates the learnings from three
book, A Guide for Dual-Career Couples: Rewriting the Rules. SPE Talent Council surveys, a Society of Exploration Geo-
Her advice on ways for both individuals to achieve career suc- physicists survey, and other research studies, and conversa-
cess is based on a re-evaluation of traditional styles of work- tions about the issues with management and with members of
ing and focuses on productivity, flexibility, and negotiating dual-career couples.

The SPE Balcones Section recently held

a technical session on the “Current State
of the Energy Industry,” which included
a presentation by guest speaker Mark
Papa, a partner at Riverstone Holdings
and former chief executive officer of
EOG. The session attracted 108 people.
Pictured from left to right: Chris Cantrell,
membership chair; Elizabeth Cantrell,
section chairman; William Locklear, SPE
Legion of Honor member; Papa; Chad
Burkhardt, scholarship chair; Justin Stool,
program chair; and Kyle Dahlberg, Young
Professionals coordinator.

SPE EVENTS
WORKSHOPS CONFERENCES SYMPOSIUMS

19–21 July ◗ Colorado Springs—SPE 1–3 August ◗ San Antonio—SPE/AAPG/ 13–15 September ◗ Canton—SPE Eastern
Distributed Fiber-Optic Sensing SEG Unconventional Resources Technology Regional Meeting
for Wells, Reservoir, and Facilities Conference 29 November–1 December ◗ Banff—SPE
Management 2–4 August ◗ Lagos—SPE Nigeria Annual Thermal Well Integrity and Design
25–27 July ◗ Bangkok—SPE Artificial Lift International Conference and Exhibition
Systems for Optimised Production
15–18 August ◗ Kuala Lumpur—SPE
22–24 August ◗ Singapore—IADC/
SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology
CALL FOR PAPERS
Reserves, Resources, and Definition Conference and Exhibition SPE/ICoTA Coiled Tubing and Well
20–21 September ◗ Calgary—SPE Caprock 24–26 August ◗ Beijing—SPE Asia Pacific Intervention Conference and Exhibition
Integrity for Thermal Applications Hydraulic Fracturing Conference ◗ Houston
6–7 October ◗ Mumbai—SPE Deepwater: 6–8 September ◗ Aberdeen—SPE Deadline: 27 July
The India Opportunity—Innovate, Intelligent Energy Conference SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology
Collaborate, Accelerate 14–15 September ◗ Galveston—SPE Conference ◗ The Woodlands
10–13 October ◗ Kuala Lumpur—SPE Deepwater Drilling and Completions Deadline: 15 August
Reservoir Surveillance & Production Conference SPE Canada Heavy Oil Technical
Enhancement Through Cost-Effective 21–22 September ◗ Midland—SPE Liquids- Conference ◗ Calgary
Technology Integration and Operation Rich Basins Conference—North America Deadline: 19 August
Efficiency SPE Canada Unconventional Resources
26–28 September ◗ Dubai—SPE Annual
11–12 October ◗ Doha—SPE Reservoir Technical Conference and Exhibition Conference ◗ Calgary
Characterisation Deadline: 19 August
18–20 October ◗ Accra—SPE African
17–18 October ◗ Houston—SPE Deepwater SPE Oil and Gas India Conference and
Health, Safety, Security, Environment,
Asset Integrity and Field Life Extension Exhibition ◗ Mumbai
and Social Responsibility Conference and
Deadline: 15 September
Exhibition

Find complete listings of upcoming SPE workshops, conferences, symposiums, and forums at www.spe.org/events.

94 JPT • JULY 2016

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JPT • JULY 2016 95

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Archer Interwell Norway AS Brett O. Morgan
Advertising Sales Representative
Page 5 Page 83
(Americas, Asia Pacific, and
South Asia—Companies A-L)
Beicip-Franlab KBC Advanced Technologies Ltd. Tel: +1.713.457.6828
Page 9 Page 45 bmorgan@spe.org

Cameron, LEUTERT Dana Griffin

Advertising Sales Manager
a Schlumberger company Page 71
(Americas, Asia Pacific, and
Cover 4 South Asia—Companies M-Z)
National Oilwell Varco Tel: +1.713.457.6857
CannSeal Page 49 dgriffin@spe.org
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NCS Multistage, LLC Jane Bailey
Advertising Sales Manager
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(Europe, Middle East, Russia, and Africa)
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Rock Flow Dynamics jbailey@spe.org
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Saudi Aramco Assistant Director Americas
Sales & Exhibits
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96 JPT • JULY 2016

 Flow Control
Technology Leadership

High-pressure large-bore BOPs in the Gulf of Mexico

Drilling Technology Sets the Standard

The only large-bore BOPs rated 20,000 psi and 25,000 psi in the field today were designed, manufactured and installed by
Cameron in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, Cameron has the largest installed base of BOPs in the world. Today, Cameron offers
fully automated drilling technologies for onshore and offshore operations – all backed by full life cycle support, from conceptual
design to installation and commissioning.
Now, as part of Schlumberger, we look forward to extending our leadership in flow control technology.

Find out more at

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All referenced trademarks are owned by or licensed to Schlumberger. © 2016 Schlumberger. All rights reserved. CAM-1007