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Top 8 Researches and Projects in Petroleum Industry


1) NANOTECHNOLOGY
THE SCIENCE OF MINI BUT MIGHTY…



Though nanorobots may sound as futuristic as flying saucers or teleportation, Oil & Gas industry is known for making the impossible happen!!

In June 2010, Saudi Aramco carried out the industry’s first field test of reservoir nano-agents, successfully demonstrating their applicability.  EXPEC ARC has analyzed 850 core plugs from the Arab-D reservoir in Ghawar and mapped the distribution of the pore throat sizes.

Nano-robots or ‘Reservoir-robots’ (resbots) are the most capable devices to independently & smartly analyze the reservoir properties, while also continuously transfer this information in real-time to the surface computers & engineers. These nanobots can be inserted into the mud system & be circulated via polar bonds between them & the particles in mud; or can be constructed in such a manner so that they posses sensors, on board driving mechanism & micro computers as well as an interface mechanism. Thus they can be maneuvered by engineers at the surface via “joysticks”, instructing them to propel or stop at will! On reaching the reservoir, these nanorobots may help to delineate the extent of the reservoir, map fractures and faults in the rock, recognize and define pathways of higher permeability, identify the bypassed oil locations in the field, optimize well placement, design & generate more realistic geological models of the asset. They may also be used to target delivery of chemicals deep into the reservoir to recover more oil and gas.

Nanorobots can also be designed to store the information in an on-board massive memory & astoundingly… a single nano-structured data storage device, measuring a volume of about the size of a single human liver cell, can store an amount of information equivalent to a standard library!!

Transmission to surface can be done by means of electro-magnetic waves & detected by means of probes on the surface. They facilitate wireless communication & real time surveillance. Thus in comparison to the conventional logging, they can save rig hours & provide real time information which is more accurate & precise as compared to the presently used techniques such as LWD & MWD.

Imagine ten years from now, you go for an interview to a petroleum company and the first question the interviewer asks happens to be …”How good are you at video games?!” 



2) BUGS & BEETLES ARE FRIENDS!!



Next time before swashing a bug, ponder over. You might be harming a worthy Production Engineer!

With over 1.25 million known species & an estimated five hundred thousand still to be classified, earth’s ‘Bugs’ outnumbered all the other animals combined. They make up 95% percent of all the planet’s species & an astounding 40% of the planet’s biomass!

But why are we eulogizing bugs in this blog!? For two worthy reasons:

REASON NO 1: There are lots of bugs & scorpions near rigs. So you should get used to their ubiquity in nature…
REASON NO 2: Maersk Oil Company has discovered a way to use bugs to prevent pipelines from freezing in the Danish North!!

Scandinavian beetles & cold water fishes produce special kind of proteins to prevent themselves from freezing in the icy cold environments they live in. Tremendous amount of research is being done to investigate whether this mechanism can be replicated and used as a hydrate inhibition tool to stop ice formation inside pipelines and wells. Although the imagination does turn riot with the news of beetles potentially coming to aid freezing pipelines, the concept is sound.

Maersk Oil Company has entered into a collaborative 4 year project that aims to boost IOR and prolong North Sea operations by using bio technology to create new solutions & overcome the challenges of mature field production. The company has also announced a US $100 million investment over the next ten years in a new research facility at the Qatar Science & Technology Park in Doha.


Hence, next time when you watch “The Bug’s Life”, I am sure you will feel more reverence.



3) BIONIC WELLS 
MIMICKING MOTHER NATURE...



A tree root seeks the wet area in soil, extending a branch of roots to that zone & cuts off the branch once that area dries up, growing another branch to a different moist area. Bionic wells mimic trees, but follow oil rather than water! Once the vertical segment of the well is drilled, the well is left to drill laterals on its own. A smart lateral extends to a non drained oil-bearing zone, cuts off that lateral once the zone gets ‘dried out’ & extends another lateral to a different zone & so on…

Though this concept may seem too futuristic, the industry has achieved much of that dream. What has happened to date in Saudi Aramco’s Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center - Advanced Research Center (EXPEC ARC), gives us a clear preview of the future well technology development & built-in high-level artificial intelligence. In various pilot study experiments, starting with the vertical wells (like root of a simple tree), horizontal wells were drilled (a more sophisticated root system), and then multilaterals were drilled (similar to tree roots with several branches). Thereafter, smart downhole-control valves were added that could choke specific laterals & effectively cut off those branches (the way a natural root system cuts off its branches); then downhole monitoring (ICVs) & surface controls were added that enabled analyzing the reservoir-fluid properties & predict the onset of water (similar to the root deciding when a zone has dried up). All this is a reality now!
The remaining technology is advancement in drilling that would allow the well to “drill for itself”. Admittedly, this goal is not easy, but techniques such as coiled-tubing drilling & drilling by fluid jetting exist, while others such as laser drilling are being researched upon!



4) PASSIVE SEISMIC MONITORING 
LISTENING TO WHAT THE RESERVOIR IS SAYING…


Thousands of induced earthquakes occur frequently, during various phases of drilling & production, that have very faint magnitudes of −1, −2 & lower and have no tangible effect. Their signals cannot be recorded by normal means. Ideas are being developed to research on a new technology, which is capable of sensing these natural signals, so as to get extremely accurate real time information of even the deepest secrets of the reservoir.

Passive-seismic monitoring involves recording of this faint  seismicity (sometimes called microseismicity) at the reservoir level to infer the distribution of faults and fractures around the wellbore & between the wells and thereby map the flow conduits away from the well location. This monitoring is accomplished without active seismic sources such as vibrators or dynamite. This approach enables monitoring the reservoir in real time rather than time-lapsed (as with 4D seismic), and it has the potential of introducing a new method of analyzing and monitoring fluid migration through the reservoir, pushing the effectiveness of reservoir management to a new plateau! Though this technology is still in its infancy, it is growing at an explosive rate and it holds promise to revolutionize how seismic data are gathered and exploited.

Several countries of the world have deployed research groups that are zealously researching on it. Among these are USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Indonesia and even India! A recent passive-monitoring symposium was oversubscribed, and received attendees from more than 50 countries. This covered PSM applications ranging from fault characterization & monitoring stimulation jobs, to deducing the effect of production and injection. Microseismic activity has been successfully detected and located in rocks ranging from unconsolidated sands, to chalks and crystalline rocks.




5) ARCTIC DRILLING & ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION...



Alaska's outer continental shelf has a starkly beautiful ecosystem populated by polar bears, bowhead whales and arctic seabirds...And it is also a bonanza for oil companies. According to government estimates, up to 23% of the oil and 21% of the natural gas remaining in the U.S. might be found here. This is attracting oil companies from around the world to launch their adventurous projects in this region. However, these ambitious entrepreneurs are not the only ones with interest in the Arctic land. Several environmentalists & wild life protection agencies too have launched various anti-drilling campaigns in the Arctic region, thus forcing oil companies to take several measures to protect Arctic’s environment, in an attempt to convince the “nature’s centuries”.

ICE ROADS AND DRILLING PADS

One such technique is to build ice structures! Instead of building a gravel pad for exploration drilling & bitumen roads for transportation, companies are now building temporary pads of ice, which disappear after the exploration well has been drilled. Temporary ice roads have long been used to support winter exploration drilling on the North Slope. These vanish in the summer season without leaving a trace!


RESEARCH ON MICROBES THAT ‘EAT SPILLS’


Any oil spill will biodegrade more slowly in the Arctic Ocean than it would in warmer seas. "For every 10 °C decline in temperature, the rate of biodegradation decreases by a factor of two," says Ronald Atlas, professor of biology at the University of Louisville. An oil spill will degrade perhaps one-fourth as quickly in the Arctic, where sea temperatures hover between 5 to 10 °C, than in the Gulf of Mexico, where water temperatures can average 25 °C” he says.


Hence, Oil companies have launched several research projects on environment protection, in case of a spill. Mr. Kostka, a scholar of marine microbiology says, that while some cold- loving microbes are unique to the Arctic, researchers have shown that many of the microbial species there, are the same as in the Gulf of Mexico. These microbes, such as ‘Alcanivorax’, oxidize petroleum hydrocarbons during respiration. "They just do it more slowly up there because respiration is a temperature-dependent enzymatic process," Kostka says.

Several studies have been done by a research team from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and NewFields at the Barrow Arctic Research Center (BARC) located on the North Slope of Alaska on the coast of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. During the planning and execution of this research, a technical advisory committee comprising of an international group of experts and resource agency personnel, provided recommendations for the research design. The results of the research will be presented by PhD student, Kelly McFarlin, on Sunday May 22nd at the 111th General Meeting American Society for Microbiology in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Seawater containing natural microorganisms was collected off the coast of Barrow, Alaska, and experiments were conducted in a temperature-controlled laboratory. Water collected in fall and winter was tested under natural temperature conditions, which ranged from -1 to +2°C (30-36°F). Crude oil from the Alaska North Slope was added to bottles of seawater. The biodegradation of oil was measured over time in two different ways: by measuring the amount of oil remaining in containers of seawater and by measuring the amount of oxygen used by the microbes. Oil remaining in seawater was measured chemically using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks team’s next goal is to identify the arctic oil-eating microbes using cutting edge DNA sequencing technology. The group is also assessing the toxicity of chemically dispersed and non-chemically dispersed oil to Arctic juvenile and larval fish (cod and sculpin) and marine invertebrates (copepods).




6) WONDERS OF DRILLING ENGINEERING...




The most important oil well ever drilled was in the middle of quiet farm country in northwestern Pennsylvania in 1859. This was one of the first successful oil wells that were drilled for the sole purpose of finding oil. Little did man realize where his journey would carry him to…

SNAKE WELLS-

The Champion West Field provided companies with an extremely difficult challenge. This field was characterized by numerous elongated fault plugs, each containing about 100 reservoirs, isolated by shale layers! Conventional wells failed to produce the fields economically in this complex geology. The answer was to a drill well that literally ‘weaved’ these reservoirs together in a snaky pattern. This well, that could pass through the multilayered highly dipping reservoirs, hence creating multiple drainage voids in each sand zone, was thus called the Snake Well!
This well proved to be so successful & lucrative, that today Brunei Shell Petroleum (idea initiator) is operating 14 Snake Wells!

THE FISH HOOK WELLS



These are “Up-Side Down” wells! These are drilled from bottom to the top & completed from toe to heel. This well was drilled in the Syrian North flank Field. The well was first drilled vertically & then a deviation of 120 degrees upwards was done. This was to produce efficiently in the complex geology of the region.




MAXIMIUM RESERVOIR CONTACT MULTI-LATERAL   WELLS-

Multilateral-well technology is revolutionizing the way the reservoirs are accessed by wells. The ability to create wells with multiple branches that can target widely spaced reservoir compartments, provides engineers unlimited options in optimizing economic extraction of oil and gas. Along with this opportunity, however, also comes the inherent complexity of these wells’ architectures.
Due to its various technical & economical advantages, Haradh III field of Saudi Aramko, relied exclusively on such wells to produce 300,000 B/D from 32 smart MRC wells!

DESIGNER WELLS

Another innovation is the designer well! These wells are drilled with a high degree of precision to reach small oil targets or to reach through or around faults to isolated traps. This is made possible by the use of three-dimensional seismic, which allows reservoir engineers to plot the locations of faults and small oil traps within 100 feet of accuracy.

Tight turns in drilling are now possible, thanks to the advancement in technology. Drillers can now turn wells 55 degrees in 100 feet and 100 degrees, about a quarter circle, in 200 feet. Tighter turns, as tight as 100 degrees in 100 feet, too have been made, but it was in rocks that were solid enough to support "open hole" drilling, without a liner. Tight turns with a liner are a first for the North Slope drillers.
One designer well drilled earlier this year turned 270 degrees, almost a full circle. Another turned 180 degrees to tap four separate oil pockets, with a horizontal length of 5,800 feet.
A full-circle well, to be drilled 360 degrees, is planned for the near future in the Arctic.



7) SMART FLUIDS
 OVER COMING TOUGH CHALLENGES

Conventional drilling, completion & stimulation fluids used in drilling & production operations are extremely complex. They also have to be added with additives to meet the changes in the environments commonly associated with a suite of drilling hazards & in these environments conventional fluids often perform poorly.

Meet Smart fluids—A major advancement that can revolutionize our industry!
By sensing the environment & smartly tuning their particles’ properties accordingly, smart fluids can virtually adjust to any environment!

These fluids are capable of changing their chemistry & physical properties to produce the best result. As an example, such fluids can hydrate & swell in the presence of water, plugging the pores & preventing water movement, while shedding the water movement & dehydrating and contracting in the presence of oil; thus achieving rig-less shut in & saving expenditures in multitude! Tremendous amount of research is being done on the usage of smart fluids for smart diversion stimulation fluid for better zonal coverage, segregation of oil and water pathways, wettability alteration agents & so on. This technology is progressing swiftly due to relative permeability modifiers & smart emulsified gels

In the future, we shall eventually be able to deploy smart fluids deeper into the reservoir to change its properties on a much larger scale. These fluids will be custom-fit & will impart the desired behavior in the reservoir automatically. In other words, they could be bull-headed into the reservoir & left to their own means to work automatically, without requiring any sophisticated techniques, such as zonal isolation & coiled tubing.


8) ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS...


ExxonMobil is to use a technology developed in the Russian Arctic to boost output from the giant Upper Zakum oilfield, off the coast of Abu Dhabi- namely the Artificial Islands!

Artificial islands have been designed to create ‘lands’ on seas so as to do onshore drilling at the offshore! Building islands at the offshore, as compared to deploying extremely expensive offshore rigs & equipments, reduces the cost tremendously. In the Gulf, ExxonMobil's plan of using "extended reach" drilling from four artificial islands purpose-built for use as drilling platforms, will cut reduce the cost of expensive offshore drilling tremendously & increase the total volume of crude recovered from Upper Zakum to reach an exceptionally high, 70 per cent of oil in place, while raising the production capacity to 750,000 barrels per day (bpd), from about 550,000 bpd.
                                                        
Andrew Swiger, the senior vice president of ExxonMobil, said: "We didn't come up with the concept of an artificial island. This had been thought about by other people”. The  real challenge lies in making it work when it's a really big oilfield and to minimize the cost and the environmental footprint and ultimately drain the oil in the reservoir”
The answer lay in the engineering work the company had undertaken on Sakhalin Island, off the Pacific coast of Siberia, to improve the precision and length of the horizontal well bores it could drill to exploit hard oil reserves.



                                                                                WRITTEN BY: BATOOL ARHAMNA HAIDER
                                                                                Weatherford Oil Tool Ltd.
                                                                                 Middle East.
                                                                                 batool.haider@me.weatherford.com 
                                                                                          


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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

that's a treasure i found, awesome work! well researched!


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