Reservoir Nano Technology - 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 transferring 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 to help 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?!”
WRITTEN BY: BATOOL A. HAIDER.
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Tags:
computers,
electromagnetic waves,
micro,
nanorobots,
oil,
oil and gas industry,
optimize oil production,
petroleum,
reservoir,
RESERVOIR NANO TECHNOLOGY,
storage device
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