JPT Setembro 2013

JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY www.spe.
org/jpt
SEPTEMBER 2013
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 VO LU M E 6 5 , N U M B E R 9
DRILLING
MANAGEMENT
AND AUTOMATION
RESERVOIR PERFORMANCE
AND MONITORING
COMPLETIONS TODAY
FEATURES
JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY
2014 SPE President Jeff Spath

Drilling in Space
Dry Tree Semisubmersibles
An Incubator for Startups
University R&D
Sept13_JPT_Cover.indd 1
8/16/13 12:16 PM
Volume 65 Number 9
16 G
UEST EDITORIAL:
CREATING A COMMON SAFETY CULTURE
The oil and gas industry can enhance safety practices by developing
shared guidelines for work control, isolation standards, risk assessment,
and safety observation programs.
32 2
014 SPE PRESIDENT JEFF SPATH
The incoming SPE president shares his goals and strategy with SPE and
its members for the coming year.
42 S
PE STRATEGIC PLAN IDENTIFIES FOUR PRIORITIES
The new 5-year Strategic Framework will prioritize capability development,

knowledge transfer, professionalism and social responsibility, and public
education about the profession and industry issues.
56 D
RILLING IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS:
SPACE DRILLING AND THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY
Drilling in extreme environments is helping drive advances in the oil and

gas industry and presents analogs that can be mined for insight.
Cover: National Oilwell Varcos hardware-
in-the-loop drilling simulator supports

drilling automation. Photo courtesy of
National Oilwell Varco.
70 D
RY TREE SEMISUBMERSIBLES:
THE NEXT DEEPWATER OPTION
Offshore engineering companies are taking existing technologies and

lessons learned from floating rigs to create a new platform design that
will allow drilling in deeper waters.
78 E
&P SOFTWARE: THE NEXT GENERATION
New ventures supported by Surge Accelerator, a company that offers

financial support, training, and advice from mentors, are creating software
to improve oil and gas operations.
86 S
audi Aramco Production Hits Historic Highs
6
Performance Indices
10
Regional Update
12
Company News
14
Comments
18
Technology Applications
24
Technology Update
50
Young Technology Showcase
167
People
169
SPE News
171
Professional Services
175
Advertisers Index
176
SPE Events
Printed in US. Copyright 2013, Society of Petroleum Engineers.
ContentsSept13.indd 1
The discovery of additional unconventional resources, new oil recovery

techniques, and more university collaborations have led to Saudi
Aramcos record performance and increased technical capabilities.
88 I NDUSTRY/RESEARCH COLLABORATION
ADVANCES OIL AND GAS TECHNOLOGIES
Universities are working on some of the oil and gas industrys most
challenging hurdles to develop new technologies and techniques to meet
the increasing global demand for energy.
102 M
ANAGEMENT: TOP TRENDS IN THE OIL AND GAS SECTOR
Deloittes fourth annual Oil & Gas Reality Check presents five trends
affecting the oil and gas industry globally and discusses the direction
these trends may follow.
166 L
EGION OF HONOR
SPE welcomes 83 members with 50 years of consecutive membership

into the Legion of Honor.
An Official Publication of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
8/13/13 7:06 AM
TECHNOLOGY
108 Reservoir Performance and Monitoring

Erik Vikane, SPE, Production Manager, Statoil Oseberg East
109 New Time/Rate Relations for Decline-Curve Analysis of

Unconventional Reservoirs
114 Instilling Realism in Production Forecasting Decreases Chances

ofUnderperformance
118
Conformance Control and Proactive Reservoir Management Improve
Deepwater Production
123
Distributed Microchip System Records Subsurface Temperature
andPressure
126
Completions Today
Paul Cameron, SPE, Senior Well-Engineering Adviser,
Global Wells Organization, BP
127
Advancements in Completion Technology Increase Production
intheWilliston Basin
130 North American Completion Technologies Unlock the Amin Tight

GasFormation
136
Intelligent-Well Completion in the Troll Field Enables Feed-Through
Zonal Isolation
140
Evaluation of Established Cleanup Models in Dynamic
UnderbalancedPerforating
146 Drilling Management and Automation

J.C. Cunha, SPE, Drilling Manager, Ecopetrol America
147
Design of an Automated Drilling-Prediction System
152
Management Strategies Optimize Drilling and Completion Operations
156
Integrated-Technology Approach Enables Successful Prospect
Evaluations in Malaysia
160
Real-Time Analysis for Remote Operations Centers
The complete SPE technical papers featured in this issue are available
free to SPE members for two months at www.spe.org/jpt.
8/13/13 12:55 PM
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8/12/13 12:47 PM
PERFORMANCE INDICES
world crude oil production+
THOUSAND BOPD
OP EC
2012 NOV
DEC
2013 JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
Algeria
1483
1485
1490
1490
1490
1510
Angola
1770
1790
1840
1790
1840
1855
504
503
505
506
504
516
Iran
3000
3100
3200
3200
3200
3200
Iraq
3225
3125
3075
3075
3075
3175
Kuwait*
2650
2650
2650
2650
2650
2650
Libya
1450
1350
1350
1400
1350
1450
Nigeria
2280
2520
2460
2420
2445
2400
Qatar
1200
1200
1200
1200
1200
1200
Saudi Arabia*
9540
9240
9140
9140
9140
9440
UAE
2820
2820
2820
2820
2820
2820
Venezuela
2300
2300
2300
2300
2300
2300
32222
32083
32030
31991
32014
32516
2012 NOV
DEC
2013 JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
Argentina
533
546
534
534
536
592
Australia
379
371
282
309
328
341
Ecuador
TOTAL
THOUSAND BOPD
Non-OPEC
Azerbaijan
866
916
910
903
892
886
Brazil
2045
2105
2054
2017
1853
1923
Canada
3281
3427
3327
3537
3637
3637
China
4232
4224
4168
4146
4164
4174
Colombia
970
984
1010
998
1013
1007
Denmark
202
200
187
197
193
183
Egypt
551
551
548
547
545
543
Eq. Guinea
297
297
282
282
282
282
Gabon
240
240
240
239
239
238
India
774
773
763
767
777
773
Indonesia
Kazakhstan
Malaysia
848
850
834
834
840
827
1564
1545
1564
1583
1588
1572
550
557
546
552
536
544
Mexico
2622
2606
2609
2602
2562
2564
Norway
1567
1517
1558
1545
1502
1498
Oman
947
950
939
944
934
910
Russia
10048
10018
9995
9990
9995
10002
Sudan
Syria
UK
USA
Vietnam
Yemen
90
101
106
106
112
115
131
136
131
133
91
71
864
923
913
826
1041
805
7052
7095
7047
7145
7177
7353
362
357
345
355
337
359
162
169
162
162
140
119
Other
2444
2455
2434
2453
2451
2445
Total
43570
43953
43475
43663
43761
43833
Total World
75792
76036
75506
75654
75775
76349
Perf_Indices_Sept.indd 6
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/19/13 10:41 AM
PERFORMANCE INDICES
Henry Hub Gulf Coast Natural Gas Spot Price*
5
4
3
2
JUN
APR
MAR
FEB
2013
JAN
DEC
NOV
OCT
SEP
AUG
2012
JUL
MAY
USD/Mil. BTUs
world crude oil pRICES (USD/bbl)

102.62
87.90
113.36
2012 JUL
109.06
112.86
AUG
86.53
109.49
NOV
108.47
94.13
102.25
MAR
111.71
SEP
87.86
112.96
DEC
92.94
94.51
OCT
94.76
116.02
2013 JAN
92.02
102.56
APR
89.49
95.31
FEB
94.51
102.92
MAY
95.77
JUN
Brent
WTI
WORLD ROTARY RIG COUNT

REGION
2013
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
US
1757
1762
1756
1755
1767
1761
1766
Canada
503
642
464
153
128
183
291
Latin America
414
427
437
429
424
423
418
Europe
134
135
133
136
124
138
139
Middle East
379
350
336
354
362
389
379
Africa
115
113
115
125
124
133
128
Asia Pacific
237
250
247
257
249
250
241
3539
3679
3488
3209
3178
3277
3362
TOTAL
world OIL SUPPLY AND DEMAND 1

MILLION BOPD
Quarter
2012
2013
3rd
4th
1st
2nd
SUPPLY
89.03
89.33
88.60
89.79
DEMAND
89.27
89.82
89.15
89.54
INDICES KEY
+ Figures
do not include NGLs and oil from nonconventional sources.

approximately one-half of Neutral Zone production.
Includes crude oil, lease condensates, natural gas plant liquids, other hydrocarbons for refinery feedstocks, refinery
1
gains, alcohol, and liquids produced from nonconventional sources.
Source: Baker Hughes.
* The US Dept. of Energy/Energy Information Administration discontinued its reporting of US Natural Gas Wellhead
Prices, replacing them with Henry Hub Gulf Coast Natural Gas Spot Prices.
Source: US Dept. of Energy/Energy Information Admin.

Includes
*
Perf_Indices_Sept.indd 8
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/19/13 10:41 AM
REGIONAL UPDATE
AFRICA
Salamander Energy (23.4%) and Orchid

Kutai (22%).
A discovery was made at the Ogo-1 well

offshore Nigeria. The well reached a total
depth of 3206 m and encountered a gross
hydrocarbon section of 524 ft with 216 ft
of net stacked pay. Optimum Petroleum
Development (60%) is the operator in
partnership with Afren (22.86%) and
Lekoil(17.14%).
ASIA
Drilling has begun on the Lukut
Updip1exploratory well on Brunei Block
L in Brunei. It has a planned true vertical
depth of 2431 m targeting deltaic and
baseslope sand deposits of Middle
Miocene age. AEDSoutheast Asia (50%)
is the operator in partnership with Kulczyk
Oil Brunei (40%) and a private Brunei
company (10%).
Salamander Energy has begun its

multi-well exploration program in Block
G4/50 off the Gulf of Thailand. The group
plans to drill six exploration wells this year
followed by further exploration drilling next
year. The block covers 2,239 sq miles and
contains five sub-basins. Salamander holds
a 100% operating interest.
Oil was discovered at the Parit Minyak-2

exploration well located onshore north
Sumatra in Indonesia. The well was drilled
to a total depth of 2812 m, during which
several oil shows were noted within the
Eocene/Oligocene Pematang group.
From the interval of 2480 m to 2539 m,
the well flowed 37 API oil at a rate of
200 to 400 B/D with no water. Pacific
Oil & Gas (Kisaran) (55%) is the operator
in partnership with Pacific Oil & Gas
(Sumatera) (22.5%) and New Zealand Oil
&Gas (22.5%).
from a deep reservoir at the Adam X-1

exploration well in Block 2568-13 in the
Hala field in Pakistan. During testing, the
well flowed at 14.3 MMcf/D of gas and
125BOPD (condensate) at a 40/64in.
choke. Pakistan Petroleum (65%) is
the operatorin partnership with Mari
Petroleum (35%).
10
RegionalUpdateSept.indd 10
development drilling program with the

spudding of the Shaikan-10 development
well in Iraq. The well is a modular
design with a production capacity of
20,000BOPD. It will be followed by a
minimum three-rig development and
production drilling program, which will
begin early next year.
Drilling began on Hooper-1, an
Drilling has begun on the East Lusk
exploration well in PEL 92, in the Cooper

basin in South Australia. The well will be
drilled on a 3D seismic defined anticline in
the northwest section of PEL 92 and has a
planned total depth of 1820 m, targeting
Namur Sandstone. Beach Energy (75%) is
the operator in partnership with Cooper
Energy (25%).
15 Federal #3 horizontal well in Lea

County in New Mexico. The planned
depth is 2896m vertically and 1219 m to
1524 m laterally. FieldPoint Petroleum
(43.75%) is the operator in partnership
with Cimarex (37.5%) and other unnamed
partners(18.75%).
The Vicksburg deepwater well in
EUROPE
the presence of hydrocarbons in the Kobbe
formation in production license 535 in
the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea.
Drillstem tests to assess the quality of
the reservoir and the volume potential
in the northeastern part of the Norvarg
closure will be performed. Total (40%)
is the operator in partnership with Det
norske (20%), North Energy (20%), Valiant
Petroleum (13%), and Rocksource (7%).
Seismic data acquisition has begun in

the Fedynsky and Central Barents license
areas in the ice-free part of the Russian
sector of the Barents Sea. The 2D survey
is planned to take place over 6,100 miles.
Rosneft holds 66.67% of the joint venture,
while Eni holds the remainder (33.33%).
The Tayum-1 exploration well

encountered approximately 49 vertical ft
of net gas pay from multiple sandstone
intervals within the Miocene and Pliocene
section. The well is located in the Kutai
production sharing contract offshore
Kalimantan in Indonesia. KrisEnergy
(54.6%) is the operator in partnership with
Gulf Keystone has commenced its
NORTH AMERICA
Production has begun on the offshore

Wenchang 8-3E oil field in China. The field
is located in the western Pearl River Mouth
basin in China and has an average water
depth of approximately 110 m to 120 m.
China National Offshore Oil Corporation is
the operator with a 100% interest.
MIDDLE EAST
AUSTRALIA
The Norvarg appraisal well confirmed

Gas condensate was discovered
basement. Statoil Petroleum (40%) is the

operator in partnership with Petoro (30%),
Det norske oljeselskap (20%), and Lundin
Norway(10%).
Drilling began on the 16/2-18S

exploratory well in production license 265
in the North Sea. Located in the Cliffhanger
North prospect, the well has a planned
total depth of 1970 m and will test the
presence of the Jurassic reservoir and
the quality of fractured and weathered
the Gulf of Mexico encountered more

than 500 ft of net oil pay after being
drilled to a depth of 8042 m. Located
in the DeSoto Canyon Block 393, the
Vicksburg A discovery is estimated to
contain recoverable resources of more
than 100million BOE. Royal Dutch Shell
(75%) is the operator in partnership with
Nexen(25%).
Drilling has begun on the Stalder Pad

site located in eastern Monroe County
in Ohio. The pad has been designed
and permitted to drill up to 18 wells (10
Marcellus and 8 Utica). Triad Hunter (50%)
is the operator in partnership with Magnum
Hunter Resources (50%).
SOUTH AMERICA
Oil and gas reserves were discovered at
the Chercn 1 well located on the Flamenco
block in Chile. The well was drilled to a
total depth of 2066 m and flowed at a
rate of approximately 4 MMcf/D of gas
and 35 BOPD through a choke of 8 mm.
GeoPark Holdings (50%) is the operator
in partnership with Empresa Nacional de
Petroleo de Chile.JPT
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 12:59 PM
COMPANY NEWS
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Chesapeake Energy will sell its assets
in the northern Eagle Ford Shale and
Haynesville Shale to EXCO Operating,
a subsidiary of EXCO Resources, for
USD 1billion. The acquisition covers
approximately 55,000 net acres from
Zavala, Dimmit, La Salle, and Frio
counties in Texas, which includes 120
producingwells.
GE Oil & Gas bought Lufkin Industries

for approximately USD 3.3 billion. Lufkin
has more than 110 service centers and nine
manufacturing facilities for artificial lift
equipment globally.
Cameron and Schlumberger received

all required regulatory approvals for
their joint venture, OneSubsea, which
will manufacture and develop products,
systems, and services for the subsea
oil and gas market. Cameron will hold
a 60% interest and Schlumberger the
remaining40%.
Cimarex Energy and Chevron will jointly
develop Cimarexs combined Permian
Basin acreage in Texas spanning 104,000
acres. Chevron will pay USD60million to
secure a 50% stake in the Cimarex-built
Triple Crown gas gathering and processing
system and wells drilled on the acreage.
Costain acquired EPC Offshore,

Chesapeake Energy sold a 50%
undivided interest in approximately
850,000 acres in northern Oklahoma for
USD 1.02 billion to Sinopec International
Petroleum Exploration and Production.
Assets associated with the transaction
produced approximately 9,600 B/D of
liquids and 54 MMcf/D of natural gas
during the first quarter of the year.
Schlumberger bought Gushor, a

Canadian-based petroleum geochemistry
and fluid analysis company that provides
production and exploration solutions for
heavy oil and oil sands.
resulting in the launch of Costain

Upstream, a new divisional operation. The
new company will have more than 350
employees and will provide services across
the life cycle of upstream offshore oil and
gas assets.
Prime Energy as part of its major

expansion drive in the Middle East. Prime
Energys team will form part of Xodus
subsidiary based in Dubai, which will be
renamed Xodus-Prime DMCC.
Petronas Carigali incorporated a

new wholly owned subsidiary, Vestigo
Petroleum, to focus on development
andproduction activities from small,
marginal, and mature fields in Malaysia
and abroad.
Vietnam and China have extended

an agreement to jointly explore for oil
and gas in the Gulf of Tonkin until 2016.
The new agreement expands the area
covered from 1541 km2 to 4076km2 under
the initial arrangement. The operational
responsibilities and costs will be split
evenly. The joint exploration is led by
Petrovietnam and China National
Offshore Oil Corporation.
12
CompanyNewsSept.indd 12
Nido Petroleum Philippines, a wholly

owned subsidiary of Nido Petroleum,
was awarded a 12-month extension of
Sub-Phase 6 of Service Contract 54A
by the Philippine Department of Energy.
The contract will allow the SC 54A joint
venture time to complete engineering and
field development studies offshore west
Philippines before making a decision to
enter Sub-Phase 7.
2H Offshore, an Acteon company,

ALS Global acquired Reservoir Group
for USD 533 million. The transaction
includes operational infrastructure in
approximately 40 sites globally and
900employees.
COMPANY MOVES
Schlumberger announced the official
Xodus Group bought Dubai-based
tube umbilicals for hydraulic control fluids,

chemicals, and electrical power signals
in early 2015 to operate and monitor the
subsea wells and manifold. A subsidiary
of McDermott International will carry
out an engineering, procurement, and
construction contract including six subsea
wells, one six-slot manifold, two umbilicals,
six jumpers, two flowlines with two steel
catenary risers, two subsea pump modules,
and topsides support equipment beginning
in the second quarter of 2015.
opening of its Schlumberger Reservoir

Laboratory in Chengdu, China. The
32,000ft2 facility offers an integrated
suite of petrophysical and geomechanical
services to help customers improve
hydrocarbon recovery and maximize
production throughout the life of
theirreservoirs.
Petronas announced it has begun

construction on its first floating liquefied
natural gas (LNG) facility in Malaysia in
June. The facility will be located in the
Kanowit gas field in Block SK306, which is
112 miles offshore Sarawak and will have
the capacity to produce 1.2MTPA of LNG.
CONTRACTS
ExxonMobil awarded two contracts for
work in its Julia field development in the
US Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Walker Ridge
block. Oceaneering International will
supply 14 miles of electro-hydraulic, steel
was awarded a contract by Total

for the delivery management of the
tension leg platform top tensioned
riser (TTR) systems for its Moho Nord
field development offshore Congo. The
company will be responsible for the riser
delivery management, including design
finalization, procurement management,
and inspection services for 17 production
and water injection TTRs and one highpressure drilling riser.
Aker Solutions won a contract from

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine
Engineering (DSME) to supply a drilling
equipment package a production platform
at the Mariner field in the North Sea. The
contract includes a complete topside
equipment package and support services
to DSMEs shipyard in South Korea.
Delivery of the contract is expected to be
completed in 2015.
Wison Offshore & Marine, a subsidiary

of the Wison Group, was awarded a
contract from China Oilfield Services
to supply one 3,000 hp modular drilling
rig for use on the Tsimin field in the
GOM. Wison will perform the project
management, procurement, production
engineering, fabrication, load out, offshore
installation, and commissioning of the
modular drilling rig. JPT
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 3:29 PM
COMMENTS
Looking Ahead
John Donnelly, JPT Editor
Initial forecasts for 2014 predict continued growth in global
oil supply, relatively moderate demand, and a potential softening of oil prices. International events could change that picture
overnight but, for now, the industrys three leading forecastersthe International Energy Agency (IEA), the US Energy
Information Administration (EIA), and OPECare in agreement about what to expect next year.
The boom in oil productionprimarily from North American unconventionalsshould lead to another year of global surplus, with supply outstripping world
demand. Global demand will actually rise next year, but at a lesser rate than nonOPEC oil supply. In addition to the US, supplies are expected to increase from Canada,
Brazil, and Kazakhstan. ExxonMobils Kearl project will boost Canadian output, while
the startup of the Kashagan project in the Caspian Sea should add 250,000BOPD in
production in Kazakhstan.
The IEA believes that non-OPEC output will rise by 1.3 million BOPD next year,
annual growth that has occurred only once in the past 20 years. The largest increase
will come from the US, with that countrys production rising 500,000 BOPD. In July,
US crude production increased to 7.5 million BOPD, the highest monthly level of production since 1991. The EIA forecasts that US total crude oil production will average
7.4 million BOPD this year and 8.2 million BOPD in 2014.
Total global demand is forecast to rise 1.3 million BOPD next year, to more than
90 million BOPD, according to the IEA, with OPEC slightly less optimistic with a forecast of a 1 million BOPD rise. Global oil demand has grown approximately 7 million
BOPD since 2005. OPEC member countries will meet in December to formalize strategy for 2014.
Meanwhile, OPEC is coming to grips with the US shale boom. At its meeting
in July, OPEC ministers conceded that the world will need less of its crude even
though world demand will grow at its healthiest pace since 2010. The organization said that demand for OPEC crude will fall by 300,000 BOPD to 29.6 million
BOPD. Production from OPEC leader Saudi Arabia is healthy, as output has grown to
historic levels.
Differences exist among these three major forecasts. The EIA is more optimistic about global demand and supply growth while OPEC is the most pessimistic. All
three forecasters predict that OECD demand will decline, although at a slower rate,
while non-OECD demand growth will continue to increase. China is something of
a wild card. The EIA predicts a slight rise in Chinese demand growth next year to
389,000BOPD from 360,000 BOPD this year. But OPEC sees that demand growth
relatively flat. JPT
To contact JPTs editor, email jdonnelly@spe.org.

14
CommentsSept.indd 14
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Syed AliChairperson, Technical Advisor,
Schlumberger
Francisco J. Alhanati, Director, Exploration &
Production, C-FER Technologies
Mohammed Azeemuddin, Geomechanics and Pore
Pressure Team Lead, Chevron
Baojun Bai, Associate Professor/Graduate Coordinate
Petroleum Engineering, Missouri University of Science
and Technology
Ian G. Ball, Technical Director, Intecsea (UK)
Luciane Bonet, Reservoir Engineering Manager,
Petrobras America
Paul D. Cameron, Senior Well Intervention Discipline
Advisor, BP plc
Robert B. Carpenter, Sr. AdvisorCementing,
Chevron
Simon Chipperfield, Team Leader Central Gas Team/
Gas Exploitation, Eastern Australia Development,
Santos
Gerald R. Coulter, President,
Coulter Energy International
Martin V. Crick, Chief Petroleum Engineer,
Tullow Oil plc
Jose C. Cunha, Drilling Manager, Ecopetrol America.
Alexandre Emerick, Reservoir Engineer,
Petrobras Research Center
Martyn J. Fear, General Manager Drilling &
Completions,Husky Energy
Niall Fleming, Leading Advisor Well Productivity &
Stimulation, Statoil
Emmanuel Garland, Special Advisor to the
HSE Vice President, Total
A.G. Guzman-Garcia, Engineer Advisor,
ExxonMobil
Robert Harrison, Global Technical Head of Reservoir
Engineering, Senergy Oil & Gas
Delores J. Hinkle, Director, Corporate Reserves,
Marathon
George W. Hobbs, Director, Strategic Chemistry
John Hudson, Senior Production Engineer, Shell
Gerd Kleemeyer, Head Integrated Geophysical
Services, Shell Global Solutions International BV
Gregory Kubala, Global Chemistry Metier Manager,
Schlumberger
Jesse C. Lee, Chemistry Technology Manager,
Schlumberger
Cam Matthews, Director, New Technology Ventures,
C-FER Technologies
Casey McDonough, Drilling Engineer,
Chesapeake Energy
Stephane Menand, Managing Director,
DrillScan US
John Misselbrook, Senior Advisor for Coiled Tubing,
Baker Hughes
Badrul H Mohamed Jan, Lecturer/Researcher,
University of Malaya
Alvaro F. Negrao, Senior Drilling Advisor,
Woodside Energy (USA)
Shauna G. Noonan, Staff Production Engineer,
ConocoPhillips
Karen E. Olson, Completion Expert,
Southwestern Energy
Michael L. Payne, Senior Advisor, BP plc
Mauricio P. Rebelo, Technical Services Manager,
Petrobras America
John D. Rogers, Vice President of Operations,
Fusion Petroleum Technologies
Jon Ruszka, Drilling Manager,
Baker Hughes (Africa Region)
Hisham N. Saadawi, VP Engineering,
ADCO (Abu Dhabi Co. Onshore Oil Opn.)
Jacques B. Salies, Drilling Manager,
Queiroz Galvo E&P
Helio M. Santos, President, Safekick
Otto L. Santos, Snior Consultor, Petrobras
Luigi A Saputelli, Senior Production Modeling
Advisor, Hess Corporation
Brian Skeels, Emerging Technologies Manager,
FMC Technologies
Sally A. Thomas, Principal Engineer, Production
Technology, ConocoPhillips
Win Thornton Global Projects Organization,
BP plc
Erik Vikane Manager Petroleum Technology, Statoil
Scott Wilson, Senior Vice President,
Ryder Scott Company
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 2:45 PM
GUEST EDITORIAL
Creating a Common Safety Culture

Bob Keiller, CEO, Wood Group
Bob Keiller became

chief executive
officer (CEO) of the
John Wood Group
in November 2012.
Previously, he
was CEO of Wood
Group PSN and CEO of Production
Services Network before its acquisition
by Wood Group. He has also served as
chairman of the Offshore Contractors
Association, the UK Helicopter Issues
Task Group, the Entrepreneurial
Exchange, and cochair of Oil and
Gas UK. Awarded the Aberdeen
Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006 and
2008, he was also named Scottish
Businessman of the Year in 2007 and
Grampian Industrialist of the Year
in 2008. Keiller received a master of
engineering degree from Heriot-Watt
University and is a chartered engineer.
16
GuestEdSept.indd 16
Most people who work in the oil and gas industry know what a permit to work is. A
blue permit indicates that it covers cold workwork with no potential to create a
naked flame, hot surface, spark, or explosion. Having a permit ensures that the job site
is safe for the team to do its work, that the team understands the potential risks of the
work it is planning to do, and that it agrees to put suitable controls in place.
I spoke recently at the Piper 25 Conference, a 3-day event held in Aberdeen to
mark the 25th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster that killed 167 people on board
the oil platform in the North Sea. On display at the conference was a copy of Cold Work
Permit 23434. The tattered paper was found in the accommodation module that was
recovered from the seabed. The permit was for the replacement of a relief valve on the
B condensate pump. It was this work that was at the heart of the initial release and
explosion when the operators tried to start the pump even though it was not ready.
The rest, tragically, is history.
It begs an obvious question and a supplementary one: Could something similar
happen again and, if so, can we do anything to reduce the chances of it happening?
The oil and gas industry has made huge advances in safety management over the
past 25 years. The goal-setting regime, safety cases, and verification schemes have
been hugely beneficial.
We have greater collaboration and everyone now talks about safety as being important and most people genuinely believe it. However, the industry is still experiencing
too many serious events which, if we are unlucky, could easily result in anothertragedy.
We are a global industry in which good practices are shared across our operations. The loss of life in any country has to be as unacceptable as a tragedy on our
owndoorstep.
Over the past 25 years since Piper Alpha, there have been more than 25 multifatality accidents in our industry. In June, two people died in an accident on a gas
platform in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. Last year, three died in an explosion
in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and 11 died in the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the
GOMin2010.
Can we do anything to make these situations less likely? Are we controlling the
risks to our people in a joined-up way?
Recommendation 67 of Lord Cullens Report on the Piper Alpha disaster called
on the industry to institute common systems for alarms and warning lights. Unfortunately, at the time, the industry could not reach this position voluntarily and legislation was needed to create new regulations.
Surely that would not happen today because we have a unified approach with
strong, clear leadership across the industry that understands the benefit of common
systems and approaches and are not hung up on insisting that only their corporate
systems will do. We are happy to agree on common standards for survival training, we
have a common system for tracking people traveling offshore, and we have agreed on
standards for use of personal locator beacons on helicopter flights.
These are all good. But we are not so good at agreeing to common standards in
other areas, such as work control, isolation standards, risk assessment, and safety
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 3:30 PM
observation programs. We are good at

creating guidelines, but are reluctant to
make any hard-and-fast safety rules for
the step change safety club because few
clubs allow membership to choose which
rules to follow.
Why not introduce a common permit to work? A common job safety assessment? Common observation programs?
Common isolation standards? What a signal it would send to the offshore workforce about our genuine commitment to
their safety.
Who Gets the Learning?
More contractor personnel get hurt offshore than operator personnel because
there are more of them and fewer work
in offices or control rooms. So when an
accident happens and a contract worker
is injured, you might think that the contractor company has at least as much to
learn as anyone else, yet often the company does not hear about the accident
straight away, is refused access to participate in the investigation, and does not
see the findings unless the operator is
faulting the contractor.
The right to be informed of any and
all accidents, the right to participate in
investigations, and the right to see all
findings should be part of the industrys
standard contracting terms. We all have
a legal duty to take care of our employ-
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
GuestEdSept.indd 17
ees and a legal obligation to cooperate in

ensuring the safety of others affected by
our activities. So it is not unreasonable
to check the work site where our staff
may be working, yet many operators take
offense at being asked to demonstrate
workplace safety.
Leadership Is the Key
So what can we do about this?

Although we can have better systems, more competent people, higher
standards, and better training, the key
and common ingredient is leadership.
There are hundreds of books on
leadership and a thousand different
modelseach one has merits and many
have evidence to support them. So if we
cannot get a common idea of leadership,
what is the chance of obtaining a common idea of safety leadership?
Leadership shapes culture, culture
shapes behavior, and poor behavior is
the common factor that can undermine
competent people, good design, and
strongprocesses.
It comes down to three basic building blocks.
Things you need to know. A safety leader needs to be informed about what is
happening in the business, and be aware
of any and all accidents and near misses. To know these things, you need to
ask and checkall the time. You need to

know the bad news, the concerns, and
the complaints and have a culture that
does not filter these out.
You also need to know the risks
faced by your people, as well as contractors, subcontractors, vendors, and other
specialists. You need to know that all of
these people are competent. You need
to know that risk controls are in place
and are effective. And you also need to
know that people will do the right thing
in anemergency.
Things you need to say and not say. It
is said that the primary role of leadership is about setting the tone. It is more
than that; it is about repeatedly providing clear and direct messages that
reinforce a commitment to safety. Being
clear is far from easymessages need to
be repeated, received, credible, and not
drowned out or undermined.
Things you need to do and not do.
Actions need to match the good words.
People see actionsoften they do
not hear the words. If actions do not
match the words, then credibility disappears in an instant. Safety leaders
need to be aware that their actions, and
sometimes their inactions, are visible
and send a bigger message than all the
wordscombined.JPT
17
8/19/13 9:52 AM
TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS
Chris Carpenter, JPT Technology Editor
Electrical Wellhead Outlet
AnTech Limited unveiled its new TypeC,

the smallest model in the companys
extensive range of wellhead outlets that
continuously monitor downhole pressure and temperature in permanent
completions (Fig. 1). The Type C uses
a threaded wellhead connection in linking the downhole cable to the surface
telemetry system and is attached to
Fig. 1AnTechs Type C wellhead

outlet.
the wellhead to provide a safe connection between the cables and seal against
downhole pressure. The configuration
ensures that the integrity of the wellhead is maintained and electrical connections are secure, even if the downhole cable is flooded. The Type C uses
pressure-testable cablehead technology that requires few connections to be
made up. The Type C is certified for use
in hazardous areas, meets with corrosion standards, and has been successfully pressure-tested in keeping with
American Petroleum Institute requirements. It operates to 15,000 psi and
in temperatures as high as 160C. The
Type C is available in models that are
compatible with single, dual, and triple conductors, and can be supplied in
-in.configurations.
For additional information, visit
www.antech.co.uk/antech/product-list/
wellhead-outlets.
Drilling-Fluid System
Baker Hughes has announced the

availability of its MPRESS drilling-
fluid system, which can improve drilling economics by enabling operators
to manage circulating pressure more
efficiently (Fig. 2). The system allows
operators to reduce their standpipe
pressure and apply more horsepower
to the bottomhole assembly and drill
bit, thereby increasing rates of penetration and decreasing nonproductive
time. MPRESS also reduces viscosity in
the drillstring while optimizing viscosity in the annulus for more efficient cuttings transport. The pressure saved in
the drillstring can be used to increase
flow rate, provide more power to motors
and bits, and save wear and tear on surface equipment. The system features
elevated ultralow-shear-rate viscosity
and a shear-thinning rheological profile
with a rapid-set/easy-break gel struc-
Fig. 2The MPRESS drilling-fluid system from Baker Hughes.
18
TechAppsSept.indd 18
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 1:29 PM
Silica Technology
Fig. 3PWAs Osorb silica floating in a flask after absorbing more than 99% of
all dispersed oil in a produced-water sample.
ture that minimizes the cuttings in the

vertical section of the wellbore settling
into the curve during connections and
trips. Both the elevated viscosity and
the rapid-set gels help keep the well-
bore clean and minimize torque and

drag associated with cuttings beds in the
lateralsection.
www.bakerhughes.com.
Produced Water Absorbents (PWA) has

commercially launched its Osorb media
technology, an organically modified silica for the treatment of oilfield water and
gas streams (Fig. 3). The silica medium is
hydrophobic and does not absorb water,
but can remove more than 99% of free,
dispersed, and soluble hydrocarbons and
toxic contaminants from water and gas
streams. The technology is applied in
both onshore and offshore applications
for the purposes of discharge, chemical
enhanced oil recovery, reinjection, beneficial reuse, prevention of membrane
fouling, air-emission controls, and offshore excursions. No permanent chemical bonds are formed between the medium and the contaminants during these
processes because the medium is both an
adsorbent and an absorbent. This lack of
permanent bonding enables the repeated regeneration and reuse of the media
while also recovering the captured contaminants. Regeneration can be achieved
by use of various processes that typically maximize resources available on site,
such as gaseous purge.
www.pwasystems.com.
Pressure Sensors
Fig. 4The Model 425 and 427 pressure sensors from Honeywell.
20
Honeywell Sensing and Control has

introduced two new additions to its
Wing Union/Hammer Union line of pressure sensors, with potential applications
in oil and gas drilling, mud pumps and
mud logging, fracturing and cementing, acidizing, wellhead measurement,
and standpipe stimulation. Model 425 is
available in two accuracy levels, while the
Model 427 provides a wide and shallow
sensing port that facilitates an effective
flow of more viscous media blends. Built
on the Wing Union one-piece design with
stainless-steel construction (Fig. 4),
both models provide accurate and reliable data for detection of small changes in pressure, allowing the operator to
quickly adjust media flow pressure during drilling operations. This helps drilling operators optimize oil-withdrawal
rates and profile potentially dangerous
conditions to increase safety of drilling
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 1:29 PM
(Fig.5). The World Diamond will be the
first PSV in the new series to be delivered to launching customer WWS (Norway). Damens current Offshore Series
includes PSVs ranging from 1500 to
6500 deadweight tonnage; Fast Crew
Suppliers from 19 to 67 m in length, featuring the slamming-reducing Sea Axe
bow; Anchor-Handling Tug Suppliers
with 75 to 200 t of bollard pull; the
Offshore Heavy-Lift Vessel 1800; the
Ro-Ro Deep Dredge; various standby
and multipurpose support vessels; and
the new Damen Offshore Carrier 7500,
featuring a 2300-m2 deck area.
www.damen.com.
Fig. 5The World Diamond PSV 3300 from Damens Offshore Series of vessels.
personnel. Both models offer multiple

electrical connections and are designed
for quick field installation, offering
resistance to torque stress at hammerup with field-adjustable zero and span
for reliable long-term performance.
https://measurementsensors.
honeywell.com.
Telescopic Gangway
Offshore Solutions BV has released

its Offshore Access System, a 21-m,
The first of six Damen 3300 platform hydraulically operated telescopic gangsupply vessels (PSVs), the World Dia- way fitted with an active heave-
mond, has been delivered to Norwe- compensation system (Fig. 6). It is the
gian offshore support company World only heave-compensated gangway sysWide Supply (WWS). The 400-t-deck- tem that can maintain a permanent concapacity PSV 3300 is the result of exten- nection. The gangway comprises a pedsive design work in close cooperation estal, operator cabin, telescopic boom,
with the client and full tank testing and gripper platform. With continu-
Platform Supply Vessel
Fig. 6The Offshore Access System telescopic gangway from Offshore Solutions BV.
22
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/14/13 7:18 AM
Fig. 7Halliburtons XBAT LWD service.
ous 24-hour connection and operating

capability, it incorporates a motion-
reference unit in its active hydraulic system, which, when engaged, maintains
the walkway tip at a constant height
relative to the horizon. This allows the
gangway to be connected safely to a
fixed offshore installation in unstable
sea conditions when mounted onboard
a suitable vessel. Once connected, the
heave compensation is disengaged and
the gangway is allowed to float between
the vessel and the installation. The walkway is robustly connected and automatically compensates for the six movement
planes of the vessel motion.
www.offshore-solutions.nl/en/.
Logging-While-Drilling Service
Halliburton has introduced its XBAT

azimuthal sonic and ultrasonic loggingwhile-drilling (LWD) service (Fig. 7).
The XBAT LWD service delivers accurate acoustic measurements in a wide
range of formations through sensors
and electronics that are less sensitive to
drilling noise and have a wide frequency
response. The result is a greater signal/
noise ratio that enables better measurements even in noisy drilling environments and poor hole conditions. The
XBAT LWD service has delivered accurate measurements in formations across
the globe and has been tested extensively in the challenging environments of
the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.
The XBAT LWD service uses four discrete transmitters and four azimuthally spaced receiver arrays. Each receiver
is sensitive across a broad range of frequencies and is isolated from the collar to eliminate bit and mud-circulation
noise. Using results from a broad range
of frequencies, the XBAT LWD service
provides a 3D image of the velocities
around the wellbore.
www.halliburton.com.
Swellable Elastomer
TAM International has launched a new

line of FastSwell elastomers (Fig. 8).
The elastomers provide a fast, controlled swell time at lower temperatures
and high salinities. The FastSwell product line was developed specifically for
current challenging water-swell conditions in the Permian Basin and Russian fracture markets, but both waterswell and oil-swell elastomers are now
available worldwide. The elastomers
perform well for fracture applications
between 80 and 120F. The technology reduces production delays for well
operators working in low bottomhole
temperatures because it allows hydraulic-fracturing operations and comple-
Fig. 8The FastSwell elastomer from TAM International.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
tion activities to commence more quickly. FastSwell does not rely on protective
coatings to prevent premature swelling during the trip in the hole; reliable
prediction of swell times is designed
into the numerous compounds developed specifically for various global wellenvironment applications.
www.tamintl.com.
Metal-Capturing Tool
for Wellbores
The 5D Oilfield Magnetics Open Hole

Net (OHN) catches metal dropped into
wellbores (wrenches, chain, shackles,
bolts, nuts, washers, tong dies, and
hand tools). The OHN also catches metal
coming out of the wellbore and allows
captured materials to be retrieved or
measured (Fig. 9). The OHN is a system
of specially designed magnets that take
the place of the bell nipple when the discharge is built into the unit. The system
is designed to take the magnetic field
out of the internal diameter of the OHN
when operations that could be affected
by a strong magnetic field, such as measurement-while-drilling, LWD, or wireline logging tools, are executed in a well
program. The OHN is installed by the rig
crew, and no power source or operator
is required. JPT
www.5doilfieldmagnetics.com.
Fig. 95D Oilfield Magnetics Open

Hole Net metal-capturing device.
23
8/12/13 1:29 PM
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
Storing Oil on the Sea Bottom

to Improve the Bottom Line
Trent Jacobs, JPT Technology Writer
The growing desire of offshore operators

to speed up subsea field development
while reducing costs has fostered many
compelling innovations. Among those
systems under development to meet this
demand, and one with broad applications, is a subsea storage unit (SSU) created by Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technologies.
The SSU employs the new concept
of a flexible bag protected by a dome
for oil storage on the seafloor (Fig. 1).
Depending on field conditions, the dome
can be made of concrete, fiberglass,
or steel. The system offers oil companies a safer, more cost-effective method
of developing subsea fields in extreme
weather zones or in the Arctic where
ice floes are prevalent. The SSU is also
being qualified for extended well testing
(Fig. 2) and early production startup, and
it may enhance the economics of fields
with insufficient reserves to support full
field development. Furthermore, the SSU

could be used in place of subsea storage
cells, fixed platforms, floating storage
units (FSUs), and pipelines.
It is an alternative to existing storage facilities and could also potentially
commercialize the development of marginal fields, said Astrid Russ Kristoffersen, a subsea systems product and
technology manager at Kongsberg. The
[SSU] will increase profitability of marginal fields, because the oil can be stored
subsea. And then, using small shuttle
tankers for more frequent offloading
will precipitate the cash flow and reduce
operational costs.
Ideally, two or more SSUs could be
used to maximize the allowable output
volume that could be uploaded into a
tanker. As production increases, SSUs
could be added to the cluster. Kongsberg
is considering standardizing the dimen-
Fig. 1The technology being developed by Kongsberg

uses a subsea storage unit with a flexible bag inside a
protective dome to store oil on the seabed at any depth.
24
TechUpdateSept_Art1.indd 24
sions of the SSU to fit different needs,

with the largest version on the drawing
board being 131 ft (40 m) in diameter
with a capacity of 120,000 bbl of oil.
Subsea storage technology has been
used before in limited applications, but
never has the design used a collapsible
bag to store the oil. The bag is partly
made of a polyester woven yarn that is
coated with an impermeable layer on
both sides to eliminate the possibility
of seawater and oil mixing. Were that to
happen, an emulsion layer could form,
leading to bacterial growth that could
cause corrosive damage inside steel pipelines and valves.
Subsea Storage Unit Operation
Openings at the base of the SSU allow

seawater to flow in and equalize the
pressure. So there is no need to design
against pressure and the unit can be
Fig. 2A computer rendering shows how three subsea

storage units could store oil during an extended well test
involving a jackup rig and shuttletanker.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 1:03 PM
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
deployed to any water depth. The bag
can then expand and contract as the volume of oil inside increases and decreases. Depending on the type of soil, a combination of weights, suction anchors,
and piles could be used to secure the SSU
to the seabed.
The SSUs intake valves allow the
product to flow inside, and once the bag
is filled to capacity, the oil can be transported to a tanker through a standard
flowline and offloading system. If an
operator wishes to use the SSU for chemical storage, the unit would work in the
same fashion. Only the source of fluids
entering the SSU and the final export
flow destination would differ.
If the internal sensors detect a leak
inside the bag, they will shut off the
intake valves while alerting the operator to the problem. The SSUs design creates a double barrier that protects the
environment from exposure to hydrocarbons. In case the bag should rupture, the
outer dome is capable of collecting all the
source fluids, preventing spillage into the
sea, Kristoffersen said.
With the dome serving as the second containment layer, the leaked oil
can be safely extracted to a sister SSU
or discharged to a shuttle tanker on
the surface. A removable hatch atop
the SSU provides access to the bag and
allows easy retraction when replacing
the bag.
The SSUs weight will depend on
field conditions and hydrostatic uplift
forces from the stored oil and other fluids. In its base configuration, the SSU
is designed to float so that a wide vari-
26
ety of vessels can perform the installation work, which eliminates the need
for heavy lift vessels.
Expected Service Life
The dome and shell of the SSU will typically have a service life of 25 years and the
bag is being qualified for a life span of 10
years. Kongsberg is looking for ways to
extend the bags life.
The inspiration for the SSU arose
from Statoils quest to eliminate the need
for surface production systems and put
the entire factory floor directly on the
seabed. This is one piece of that puzzle,
said Kristoffersen, who added that the
SSU also provides a measure of safety for
operators who are aggressively seeking
new ways to eliminate hazards.
Currently a lot of oil is stored on
FSUs and [floating production, storage,
and offloading units], and there is always
the risk of collisions with a tandem-loading shuttle tanker. So by storing it subsea,
you eliminate that risk, he said.
During a fire or an onboard explosion, the oil stored in the SSU will not
continue to feed the fire. Additionally, if
an operator uses several SSUs instead of
a floating or fixed storage facility, operating costs will be greatly reduced because
subsea storage removes the need for a
manned crew or helicopters and boats
that provide supplies and transport.
Instead, the SSU can be integrated into
a remotely controlled subsea production
system or a topside production facility
that removes the water and gas before
transferring the raw crude into the storage unit.
System Flexibility
The flexibility to suit the operators field

needs is another advantage of the SSU
over traditional storage systems because
each SSU can be picked up from the seafloor and be redeployed to another field.
If used for extended well testing, the
SSU provides another economic incentive by allowing the operator to collect
first oil rather than burning off the
product. Compared with traditional surface storage, the SSU in operation has a
considerably lower environmental footprint because the system requires no routine vessel or aircraft support that would
emit greenhouse gases.
The SSU technology is being developed for use in the North Sea and is
supported by Norwegian oil companies
Statoil, Lundin Petroleum, and Det
Norske Oljeselskap, and by the Norwegian Research Council. Kongsberg will
start laboratory tests in 2014 after which
the company plans to begin a pilot program that would include the subsea
installation of a full-scale SSU.
The SSU is being designed to meet
the requirements of Norways offshore
regulations and is to be qualified for the
North Sea. However, Kristoffersen said,
The SSU is providing a global solution
for storing stabilized oil on the seabed.
Because the SSU is a new design,
Kongsberg is offering studies to show the
feasibility and concept of subsea storage for specific fields, including the studies of risers, subsea manifold systems,
interconnecting pipes, and the control
system logic required for SSU operation
and process integration with specific offshoreinfrastructure. JPT
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/19/13 10:46 AM
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
Offset Bow Centralizers Meet

Underreamed Well Challenges
Marius Boncutiu, SPE, and Richard Berry, SPE, Centek Group
Underreamed wells are among the toughest challenges to using a centralizer, a

device that keeps the casing or liner in
the center of a wellbore. Underreaming,
the technique of enlarging of a wellbore
beyond its originally drilled size, is a
drilling method widely used to increase
the openhole size, which may be required
for various reasons.
Some well planners believe it is safest to drill unknown shallow formations
with a small diameter bit and enlarge
the pilot hole if no gas is encountered.
Underreaming may also be performed if a
small additional amount of annular space
is desired, for example, if a liner must be
run to protect against surge pressures.
A fundamental problem with underreamed wells is achieving effective casing
centralization in the underreamed section. The job of the centralizer is to center

the casing to improve run in hole (RIH),
allow easier pipe rotation, and to enable
the cement column to circulate freely
around the tubular and produce a robust
cement seal to ensure zonalisolation.
Mud displacement is vital to achieving a good cement bond. The more central the pipe, the more efficient the mud
displacement will be. In deviated and
horizontal wells, if the tubular is not centralized, it will lie along the low side of
the borehole and make cement circulation and the achievement of a uniform
cement sheath difficult.
Poor centralization can also impair
the cement bond by causing channeling,
which can lead to various live annulus
Fig. 1Undamaged centralizers were pulled twice from a well at 40 m above

total depth and then run successfully for a third time to the target level.
28
problems. Like any fluid, cement will take

the easiest route in the annulus, and this
can result in an inadequate seal if the casing or liner is not centralized. In addition,
if the annular clearance is restricted in
some sections, backpressure may result
that requires a much reduced flow rate
during cementation to avoid fracturing
the formation and thereby losing fluid.
Offset Bow Centralizer
The Uros offset bow centralizer developed by Centek is designed for use in
underreamed or washed-out well sections. The device significantly reduces
initial insertion forces and drag when
running through previously set casing.
Once through this compressed stage, the
offset bow centralizer will revert to its
designed outer diameter in the open hole
and thus maximize standoff without additional drag. The device achieves a reduction in drag compared with other centralizers because of its patented bow design,
in which the high points of the bows are
offset alternately without reducing the
strength of the unit or its capacity to centralize the casing in the open hole.
An oilfield service and product supplier operating offshore Norway has
specified the use of the offset bow centralizer in underreamed and deviated wells since August 2011. Even when
using two centralizers per pipe joint, the
company has consistently been able to
reach target depth while maintaining the
desired standoff in the open hole. The
company is running the device in several
fields and has expanded its use to normal
wells, because of the fluid and cement
displacement benefits that it allows.
Offset bow centralizers are increasingly used in Norwegian offshore well
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 1:05 PM
Case Studies
A well operator offshore Norway ran

7-in.9-in. offset bow centralizers
through 9-in. 53.5-lbm/ft casing into
an 8-in. open hole with a total depth of
3600 m. Twice the operation reached a
depth of 3560 m before it was necessary
to pull the liner. Both times the liner was
partially rotated in the open hole on the
way in and was rotated for about 12 hours
at 20 rev/min in the cased hole on the way
out. The centralizers also had to be run
through a whipstock window.
Each time after pulling the liner, the
drilling and cement teams inspected all
the centralizers and stop collars (Fig. 1).
The only visible damage was some bending of the set screw sockets. The operator was able to run the same centralizers again and eventually install them at
target depth. The offset bow centralizers
were run through the whipstock window
on five occasions without snagging or
packing out on the edges. By comparison,
an oversized conventional bow spring
centralizer would have exhibited considerably more drag during pullout.
The offset bow centralizers are
also being used in various Latin American operations. In an Ecuadorean well,
7-in.9-in. centralizers were run
through previously set 8.535-in. inside
diameter casing into a 10.4-in. average diameter open hole. The installed
centralizers achieved a standoff higher
than the customers requirement of 70%
along the target zone. In addition, there
was less risk of differential sticking, an
even annular flow of fluid, and a good
well cleanout, with an improved cement
job ultimately achieved. The centralization was defined using an analysis of
openhole logs, standoff calculations, and
liner tally. Centralizers were distributed
two per joint along M1 sandstone.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
Liner Production: Drag

0
100
Casing Shoe Measured Depth, m
operations. These wells often have a high

risk of washed-out sections, i.e., openhole sections that are larger than the
original hole size, which are generally
caused by soft or unconsolidated formations. However, even in gauge holes, offset bow centralizers are used to ensure
high standoff.
Slackoff weight, lbf
200
Pickup weight, lbf
300
Static weight, lbf
400
500
600
Running by its
own weight
17,150 lbf
700
800
900
1,000
Traveling Assembly
Weight
1,100
96,000 lbf
Pickup
70,000 lbf
Slackoff
1,200
40,000
80,000
60,000
100,000
Hookload, lbf
Fig. 2The drag calculation results were close to the real values while running
the casing.
It is necessary to understand the

insertion forces and the cumulative running forces, as both affect the RIH performance because the bows are squeezed
while passing through the smaller inner
diameter of the previously set casing. If
needed, the first few joints can be prefilled with mud to increase the strings
weight and enable it to be run in under
its own weight from the beginning when
less weight is present. This makes it
possible to overcome the initial insertion and running forces without pushing thepipe.
In the Ecuador case, when all the
casing was run and the liner hanger was installed, the pickup weight was
100,000 lbf and the slackoff weight was
70,000 lbf, which indicated 30,000 lbf
of drag. Fig. 2 shows the drag calculation
results, which are close to the real values observed while running the casing.
In this case, the running force for each
centralizer was approximately 1,000 lbf.
There was no restriction while running the liner through the open hole,
and the bottom was reached without
problems. During circulation, there was
no indication of debris accumulation
caused by drag. According to the circulation parameters, the well showed a good
cleanout. By having acceptable drag conditions when passing through the previously set casing, low drag conditions in
the open hole, and maximizing standoff
in an enlarged annulus, the offset bow
centralizers proved to be a major aid to
reaching bottom and obtaining a good
cement job in the Ecuadorean well.
Summary of Benefits
Offset bow centralizers result in greatly reduced torque and drag losses, and
because they are heat treated, abrasive
wear caused by running to depth and
rotating the tubular is eliminated. Reducing torque ensures that casings can be
rotated without wear in cased and open
holes at deeper levels than would otherwise be possible. The ability to rotate
a pipe can also greatly assist in mud
removal. Typically, a rotational speed of
6 to 10 rev/min is all that isneeded.
The centralizers are individually
designed to fit each wellbore, rather than
generally designed for specified gauge
holes. Secure stop collars prevent centralizer movement on run in or pullout.
29
8/19/13 9:59 AM
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
The choice of a centralizer depends on
a number of factors such as the expected flow by area, the desired standoff, the
strength and geometry of the formation,
the required zonal isolation, the centralizer flexibility needed to traverse known
30
formations, and the estimated start and

running forces.
Ensuring a lasting, effective annular
seal in the wellbore is vital to maintaining oil and gas production. Preventing
water inflow is extremely important and
requires good zonal isolation. Achieving

a long-term annular seal is difficult, especially in long extended reach wells. The
use of offset bow centralizers can aid the
cementing process in underreamed and
conventional extended reach wells. JPT
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/19/13 9:59 AM
2014 SPE President
Jeff Spath
John Donnelly, JPT Editor
Jeff Spath is a member

of the Schlumberger
executive management
team as vice president
of industry affairs and is
the 2014 SPE President.
He will take office during
the 2013SPE Annual
Technical Conference and
Exhibition,to be held
30September2 October
in New Orleans.
PresInterview.indd 32
8/13/13 9:24 AM
Previously, he was president of the Schlumberger

Reservoir Management Group and was
president of Data and Consulting Services.
He began his career with Flopetrol-Johnston
Schlumberger asa field engineer conducting
well tests onshoreandoffshore Louisiana
and has workedfor 30 years invarious global
positions inreservoir engineering, research,
andmanagement.
Spath is a recognized leader in the development
and application of reservoir engineering and
production enhancement techniques, including
well testing, reservoir simulation, and nodal
analysis. He is the author or coauthor of nearly
30peer-reviewed publications and holds
14patents.
What are your goals as SPE president?

One goal would be to further globalize the Society. There is
no doubt that SPE has made huge strides internationally from
what was once a predominantly North American member society in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, more than half of our members reside outside North America. We have to continue to follow the upstream oil and gas business to the new frontiers, the
new basins, and the new regions of exploration such as Greenland, east Africa, and the Caspian. Not just for the sake of member growth, but to make SPE more local and more relevant by
adding professional sections and student chapters so critical to
achieving successboth for industry and for individualsin
these new regions.
Secondly, we need to increase the degree to which SPE
engages and collaborates with other organizations. We all
accept that reservoirs are becoming more challenging to discover and produce. They are smaller, more complex, and they
exist in increasingly hostile terrains under more difficult temperatures and pressures. Not to mention the challenges created
by nano-perm shales and ultraheavy oil.
No single company, university, or government has all the
expertise required. So we need to collaborate in all directions,
including with other industries, such as the aerospace, automobile, and medical industries. SPE has an incredible reputation as
a professional society and I want to capitalize on this reputation
by taking the lead in fostering collaboration with other industries, other societieswhich we are already doing quite well
and with trade associations.
Also, I hope members are aware of the new SPE Strategic
Plan that the SPE Board of Directors put together under the
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
An SPE member since 1983, Spath has served on

many SPE committees and in many sections around
the world. He was a Distinguished Lecturer during
19992000 and served as Technical Director of
Management and Information during 20052008. He
was elected an SPE Distinguished Member in 2011.
Spath also currently serves on the Management
Committee of the International Association of Oil &
Gas Producers; the petroleum engineering advisory
boards at Texas A&M University, the Colorado School
of Mines, and the Natural Petroleum Council; and on
the United Nations Global Energy Board.
Spath earned BS and MS degrees in petroleum
engineering from Texas A&M University and a
PhDdegree in reservoir engineering from the Mining
University of Leoben in Austria.
guidance of my two predecessors. I am in the fortunate position now to oversee the implementation of this strategy that
will further grow and strengthen SPE, and this will occupy much
ofmy time.
What is the best way for SPE to continue to pursue
globalization?
Historically, SPE has followed the industry. After a significant
number of operators and service companies have located in a
region and universities have staffed up, SPE establishes a presence. What I would like to do in places such as east Africa and in
Myanmar, for example, is to be there, not necessarily first, but
in parallel with the building of the industry.
Myanmar is a great example of a country in which SPE can
bring significant value to individuals and to companies both,
proactively, as they begin upstream development. Trade sanctions have just been removed, and Myanmar has had huge, very
successful lease sales recently with operators such as Chevron,
Petronas, PTTEP, Total, and others entering the mix.
I had an interesting experience on my last visit there when
I toured the technical universities, recently reopened, after
decades of being closed by the government. Schlumberger supports universities around the globe by donating computers,
software, bandwidth, etc., and so I offered these things but they
said, No, no, we need buildings, we need faculty. They dont
even have buildings and faculty and are trying to start a petroleum engineering program. This is where SPE should beon
the ground, early, where the operators and service companies
are going and initiating new operations, disseminating the
technology, and sharing the expertise.
33
8/13/13 9:24 AM
SPE PRESIDENTS INTERVIEW

You mentioned the importance of the SPE Strategic Plan.
What does it stress?
The new plan refocuses the Society on what will be its most
important functions over the next several years while reinforcing its mission and vision (see article on the SPE Strategic Plan
beginning on Page 42). First, let me say that the strategy is a
verification of our original and fundamental purposethat of
serving our members in the dissemination of quality, trusted
technical information. To this end, members can expect to see
additional methods of obtaining information about technology,
through online journals, mobile devices, and other means.
Beyond this, though, there are a few specific strategic
intents that will be important to ensuring the continued success of the industry, our profession, and SPE. One of my personal favorites is the strategic intent of increasing the attraction and retention of petroleum engineering faculty. The shortage of faculty at petroleum engineering schools is having a
significant effect on the growth of our industry and, by correlation, our Society. Universities and industry both recognize this, and SPE is in an opportune position to help coordinate a solution. This issue is, to a certain extent, global, and is
Only two countries graduate more

petroleum engineers than they can employ:
Venezuela and China. Everywhere else in the
world, theindustry is screaming for more
petroleumengineering graduates.
particularly challenging in North America. It does no good to

attract more young people to our profession and then accept
less than 10% of petroleum engineering applicants due to lack
of sufficientfaculty.
SPE has spent a lot of time and effortwell-spent time and
effortgoing in to secondary schools to educate teachers and
students on the wonders of our industry. So, on the one hand,
we are encouraging all of these young bright students to enter
our profession, but then we have to turn them down at the university level because we do not have enough faculty.
Only two countries graduate more petroleum engineers
than they can employ: Venezuela and China. Everywhere else in
the world, the industry is screaming for more petroleum engineering graduates. And the reason there are not more petroleum engineering graduates is not a lack of people who want
to be petroleum engineers, but because we do not have enough
people to teach them.
Many companies hire mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, chemical engineers, and civil engineers and turn them
into petroleum engineers through internal training. The industry would love to hire 100% petroleum engineers but it cant
34
because they are not there. I have worked with a lot of university
deans in trying to solve this problem and I believe it is solvable.
But what is happening now is that you have Schlumberger trying
to solve it with Texas A&M, Chevron trying to solve it with the
University of Southern California, and so on. There is a lack of
coordination. Coordination will be the role of SPE.
If you have a choice between being a teacher or working
for an operator or service company that does really
interesting work and pays a higher salary, you might
choose that company over teaching.
That is the crux of the problem. Like nowhere else in the world,
US universities graduate PhDs but dont keep them. They all go
to industry. Or they go back to their country of origin.
A possible solution, and where SPE could help, is to take
the 50-plus-year-old employees that do not have a PhD and put
them into the universities as they finish their careers. I have
worked with the deans at Texas A&M, the University of Texas,
and the Colorado School of Mines and convinced them that they
need to drop the PhD requirement for teaching undergraduate
education. If a petrophysicist, for example, has been interpreting well logs for 35 years, he or she can probably teach undergraduates how to interpret well logs. We call them professors
of practice.
Our company has taken another step along that path with
a program called Schlumberger Professor Emeritus. We just did
this for Colorado School of Mines. We took a world-class petrophysicist who was 60 years old and loved teaching. We kept him
on our payroll to simplify benefits and he teaches at the university, which reimburses us 50% of his salary. We win because
we want him there readying students for hire and he is a good
ambassador for our company. The university wins because it is
getting for half price a world-class petrophysicist who has interpreted logs and geologies all around the world.
The only way to make a program such as this work is to do
it in volume and that is how SPE can help, by coordinating such
a program. This is a passion of mine, and it happens to be part
of the strategic plan.
How will individual members be affected by the
strategicplan?
One of its emphases will be the bread and butter of SPE, which is
the dissemination of technical information. We have identified
ways SPE can be more relevant to members, such as bringing
technology to people on the go. That is another element of the
plan that I have a personal passion for: knowledge building and
capability development. SPE will continue to provide options
in training and competency assessment in an effort to reduce
the time to autonomous decision makingone of the banes of
ourindustry.
Two things cut horizontally across everything SPE does
technical quality and volunteerism. Volunteerism originally
was one of the intents of the strategic plan, but the board concluded that it does not really fit as a strategic intent because
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 9:24 AM

crew change. I have talked to members of operating companies
who used to be responsible for 10 wells in the Permian Basin in
Texas and now they are responsible for 100 wells in the Permian and three new wells being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico. And
you want them to volunteer? I mean, the guy hasnt seen his
kids in 2 weeks. It is up to SPE to think of ways to help members volunteer, such as reducing the burden of administrative
tasks associated with reviewing technical papers or setting up
Distinguished Lecturer tours. We need to emphasize the value
of volunteering and get better at recognizing the effort.
volunteerism is part and parcel of everything SPE does. But one

thing members around the world will notice about the strategic
plan throughout is the renewed focus onvolunteerism.
SPE is going to improve the volunteer recognition program, and we are going to help industry professionals volunteer by helping with some administrative details that volunteers deal with. Here is a great example from west Texas: when
a small section wants to have an SPE Distinguished Lecturer
come speak, someone from the section has to volunteer time
to book a hotel room, make sure somebody picks the lecturer
up at the airport, etc. We need to make better use of our volunteers time and to support them so that they can add the most
value to SPE.
Volunteerism is fundamental to our success, so we want to
develop ways to improve volunteerism. We need to continually
re-emphasize volunteerism because people are getting busier
and busier and the volunteers that SPE traditionally relies on
outside of young professionals are mid-career employees.
Engineers and managers both are doing more with less.
I am not saying it was ever easy to balance workload, family,
and volunteering, but it seems to me that the workload for
many has dramatically increased. Mid-career professionals do
the bulk of the volunteering today. Unfortunately, mid-careers
are the exact demographic that is being challenged by the big
36
What else should SPE emphasize in the near term?

If SPE is to continue to grow as rapidly as it has in the past
decade, the organization needs to better emphasize the advantages of being a member, and here I am talking simply about
marketing what it can provide, both to existing and potential
members. I have talked with members who have never been to
the SPE website and seen the valuable links and information it
provides. One of the most valuable assets the Society offers, the
OnePetro library of 150,000 technical papers, is never accessed
by some members.
Perhaps one of the most important initiatives SPE has
embarked on fairly recently, and one in which we must increase
our emphasis, is educating the public about our industry and,
more importantly, our profession. We need to proactively, honestly, factually, rationally, openly, and not defensively discuss
the good our industry brings to society, and SPE must be the
trusted, independent source of facts around issues that worry
the public. This theme of energy education, now professionally delivered through the Energy4Me initiative, is essential to
SPEs mission and I will build on the work of my predecessors
in this effort.
What is the best way to educate the public about energy?
Let me start by saying we got off on the wrong foot. When the
movies came out about hydraulic fracturing and the rhetoric
got hot and heavy, what did the oil and gas industry do? We, as
we typically do as engineers, said, Thats not right, here are
the facts, you guys are wrong, and we got defensive. And guess
what? They found one well out of a million in Pennsylvania
somewhere, which for completely different reasons, was leaking gas. And critics said, Engineers, youre not so smart. Here
is an example. So we have to level with the public. We have to
agree with them, first of all, that there are potential hazards
involved in producing oil and gas, as with any form of energy.
And we have to prove to them that we are addressing those
potential hazards.
There is a consortium of companiesincluding Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, the other pressure pumpers, and the operatorsthat are involved in an initiative called
FracFocus, a website whose primary purpose is to provide the
public access to information on chemicals used for hydraulic
fracturing in their region. For example, a service company will
go out and take a baseline measurement of methane, noise,
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 9:24 AM

CO2 in the atmosphere, and any groundwater contaminants in
the area. Then after the well is fractured, the same measurements are taken and the before-and-after results are published
along with details about exactly what was pumped, chemical by
chemical. A landowner, an environmentalist, or whomever can
go to this website and get facts. So that is one way that we have
disseminated factual information, and it is working. This has
been so successful in the US that the International Association
of Oil & Gas Producers, of which I am on the board, is doing
something similar for Europe and elsewhere.
Are there other ways in which SPE can become more
valuable to the industry?
SPE has an extraordinary record of adding value to its members and to our industry in general; I doubt anyone would question that. This value will increase as our services and our global
footprint continue to grow. SPE has the ability and opportunity to help the industry as a whole by leveraging the strengths
of its global reach, its more than 110,000 members, its technology library, its independence, and its financial strength to
achieve solutions to significant issues that may not be possible
Now I come to my central point on how SPE

can become more valuable to the industry:
It is the coordination of solving complex
technology challenges through integration
andcollaboration.
to achieve by companies working alone, or by individual companies working with individual universities. Solving the faculty shortage problem I mentioned earlier is one example of
an industry problem that SPE can work across companies and
across universities tomitigate.
And now I come to my central point on how SPE can
become more valuable to the industry: It is the coordination
of solving complex technology challenges through integration
andcollaboration.
By providing seminal, member-written white papers and
providing the forum to showcase technical challenges and sharing potential solutions through the new Summit program, SPE
can facilitate and accelerate the solving of industrywide technical challenges. Each individual company can do that, or SPE can
pave the way and coordinate thecollaboration.
We are already adding significant value around integration
by partnering with AAPG and SEG, for example, in various conferences and workshops to facilitate the bringing together of
ideas, domains, and data. The feedback on these types of joint
conferences has been very positive so we need to think about
how to expand this. A great example is the Unconventional
38
Resources Technology Conference recently held in Denver. We

cohosted this with AAPG and SEG because we know that the
understanding of shale gas requires geologists, geophysicists,
and engineers. In the future, we need to also invite geochemists
and mathematicians.
How does collaboration benefit the oil and gas industry?
As I mentioned before, the technical challenges we face today
are often too difficult for any one organization to solve. Take
the challenge of dramatically improving recovery factors, for
example. Schlumberger has gotten serious in improving EOR
techniques and measurements. However, while we are really
good at measurements and understanding the subsurface, we
do not possess the best chemistry labs in the business. So we
partnered with Shell. Now, neither Schlumberger nor Shell has
world-class imaging at a nanoparticle level, so we partnered
with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who does. We
now have a three-pronged alliance with seven successful EOR
research projects.
This is the value of collaboration. And of course it doesnt
need to end with collaboration within our industry. There are
a lot of exciting developments happening outside of the E&P
world that can have a huge impact on our businessfrom nanotechnology to advanced robotics. As disruptive technologies
evolve in other industries, we need to get smarter and quicker at
adopting them into our industry. To a certain degree it requires
a culture shift, and SPE can lead the way by fostering and coordinating the necessary relationships.
Can SPE continue to grow at the same pace that it has
for the past few years?
SPE has doubled membership in the past 10 years, and it can
repeat this in another 10. There are two modes of growth. One
is old-fashioned geographical expansion, where you grow your
footprint in areas that are emerging. Places such as the Arctic,
east Africa, Greenland, Myanmarthose are places in which
we have not yet stepped foot.
A second mode of growth is where SPE has a presence but
has yet to achieve the level of acceptance desired. One is Mexico and another is Russia. In Russia, I have already talked to the
heads of Lukoil, Rosneft, and Gazprom and received positive
feedback. We need to follow up now with the employees. Another area for growth, of course, is China. There are obstacles in
language and in culture but we are solving these.
How will your career experience inform your presidency?
To my knowledge, there is not a job description for being SPE
president, nor a list of required qualifications, but I would like
to think I am well prepared, and naturally hope my peers will
agree. Two strengths I have that I feel will serve me well are a
strong technical background and a varied, global career that
has allowed me to work among many different cultures, value
systems, business philosophies, and operating environments.
One advantage I think I have from working for a global ser-
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 9:24 AM
vice company for 30 years is the experience of interacting with

all walks of the upstream life: from the largest IOCs and NOCs
to the smallest independents. Finally, while I have worked
for the same company my entire career, I have held positions
from field engineer to salesman, from R&D to executive management, so I think I can relate to people in various parts of
thebusiness.
So this gives me the breadth of understanding of how
Anadarko, for example, works differently than Petrobras. And
they both work differently than, say, ExxonMobil. Each of these
groups of companies, not to mention each individual company, has a unique culture and I have seen it in practice. I know,
for example, there are companies that just love SPE and they
encourage their employees to write papers and go to conferences and travel halfway around the world for an SPE training
course, because they know it will be worthwhile. And I have
seen the opposite, where a company I will not mention recently told me, We dont need SPE. There is a spectrum out there
and I think my experience in knowing how different companies
and different cultures extract value from SPE differently will be
anadvantage.
40
Where do you see technology taking the industry in the

next 5 or 10 years?
Quite a few exciting developments are going on now in the
industry. If I had to pick one or two that I think are most promising, the recent advances in drilling, specifically around rig automation, would be among the top in terms of improving our efficiency, safety, and bringing overall well costs down. The combination of a dramatic increase in measurements along the drillstring and bottomhole assembly with computerization (thus
optimization) on the rig floor and the designed integration of
rotary steerable motors with the optimal bit and the optimal
fluids is creating a huge impact on the operators bottom line.
A second growing trend in the industry addresses the
integration of disparate measurements and data to reduce
uncertainty and manage risk. This is not a new concept by
any means, but the extent to which we are now combining
seemingly unrelated data from different domains is making
the industry much more confident in our subsurface interpretations and improving our ability to optimize production and maximize ultimate recovery. Think about the recent
developments made in geomechanics, for example. Today, we
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 9:24 AM
are taking advanced, in-situ measurements of geomechanical properties and routinely integrating them into everything we do; a decade ago, that was unheard of by many. Who
thought 10 years ago that we would be integrating seismic
dataacquired, processed, and interpreted while drilling
to guide the bit around hazards to the most productive part
of the reservoir? Or to help us understand fracture propagation in shale? Integration is one trend we will definitely
seecontinuing.
You have written quite a few technical papers during your
career. What is the value of writing technical papers, for
the individual, the company, and the industry?
It benefits all three. Fundamentally, a good engineer should
be a good writer; you have to be able to express your thoughts.
Writing technical papers enriches an individuals career. At Schlumberger, it isnt just encouraged, it isnt just rewarded, its a
requirement for promotion. We have a formal technical ladder,
like a lot of companies, and if you want to go from one rung on
that ladder to the next, there is a concrete list of criteria. One of
them is how many technical papers the person has written. So if
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
somebody comes to me and says, I think I am ready to become

an advisor, I will say, Have you published 10 SPE papers? And
they might say, No, but I have written nine, and I will say, OK,
come see me when you get that next one and we will discuss it.
It is a requirement for promotion.
Why do we do that? It takes away some of the subjectivity
for technical promotions, but we know that there is value for
the company. When somebody picks up an SPE journal and sees
a paper on simulation from Schlumberger, we may gain a simulation customer.
But you cannot insist that employees write papers without
giving them the time to do that and the time to go to conferences and learn from others presenting papers. It has to be part of
the culture of the company.
Lastly, it benefits SPEs mission of communicating technical information; papers are the lifeblood of SPE. Without them,
what are we? I certainly think it is the place for SPE to start a
campaign re-emphasizing the fundamentals of writing papers
and the importance of writing papers, from section to section
and chapter to chapter, giving advice on how to do it. Yes, thats
another thing Ill push.JPT
41
8/13/13 9:24 AM
STRATEGIC PLAN
SPE Strategic Plan Identifies Four Priorities
Editors note: The SPE Board

of Directors approved the SPE
Strategic Plan 201317 in March
2013. The SPE Strategic Planning
Steering Committee consisted of
Ganesh Thakur, SPE 2012 President
and Steering Committee Chair;
MarkRubin, SPE Executive Director;
Egbert Imomoh, SPE 2013 President;
Ken Arnold, SPE 2012 Vice President
Finance; Janeen Judah, SPE 2013 Vice
President Finance; Alain Labastie,
SPE 2011 President; and Jeff Spath,
SPE 2014 President-Elect. Consultant
and facilitator was Susan S. Meier,
Principal, Meier andAssociates.
Since its inception 55 years ago, SPE has

remained constant in its mission to collect, disseminate, and exchange technical knowledge and to provide opportunities for professionals to enhance
their technical and professional competence. SPE is increasingly aware of
the impact a changing environment and
global influences may have on its ability to be effective in serving an increasingly diverse membership in a highly
complexindustry.
By all objective measures, SPE is
a highly successful organization. SPE
has seen dramatic growth in membership globally (Fig. 1) and in the number of meetings offered (Fig. 2) to serve
these members. At the same time, SPE
has added new programs, expanded the reach of its programs and services, opened new offices to serve its
global membership, and worked with
120,000
other organizations to create greater value for members and the industry
as a whole.
One SPE
Throughout this period of strong

growth, SPE has strived to operate in a
manner consistent with a set of One SPE
Guiding Principles adopted by the Board
in September 2001:
The Society of Petroleum
Engineers is a diverse
community of professionals
that provides valuable
knowledge and services to
thoseprofessionals and to the
industry in varied forms.
The concept of One SPE
reflectsthe goal that each
function and activity of the
Society should serve the
broadermembership while
160
140
100,000
120
80,000
100
80
60,000
60
40,000
40
20,000
20
Fig. 1Growth in SPE membership.
42
StrategicPlan.indd 42
Student Members
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2012
2008
2004
2000
1996
1992
1988
1984
1980
1976
1972
1968
1964
1960
Professional Members
2001
Conferences, Exhibitions, Workshops and Forums

Fig. 2Number of meetings.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 1:12 PM
STRATEGIC PLAN
addressing local needs,
supporting technical and
professional excellence, and
making wise use of Society
resources.
The voluntary donation
of timeand talent by SPE
membersis our most vital
asset and the creative
energy ofvolunteers must be
encouraged and supported by
theSociety.
Threats to SPEs Success
While SPE has achieved great success,

several factors could affect its ability to
sustain this success.
Oil and gas price volatility. The
price of oil and gas is a key
external factor that can affect
SPE activities, including meeting
attendance, membership, and
participation in other programs.
While SPE cannot influence
the price of oil and gas, it can
develop contingency plans for
how to adapt the business to
a sharp and sustained decline
inprices.
Technical quality within SPE
programs. Rapid growth in SPE
programs has led to concern
that the quality of programming
could be affected. To sustain
its success, SPE must ensure
that technical quality is not
compromised.
Volunteerism. The changing
demographics of SPEs
membership mean that more
members come from areas that
lack a tradition of volunteerism.
Coupled with the pending
retirement of many of SPEs
longtime active volunteers, SPE
could face a significant challenge
to following its traditional
volunteer-driven path to
programming.
At the same time that SPE pursues
its strategic priorities, it must consider
ways to manage or mitigate the potential
impact of these threats to its business.
44
Developing a New
Strategic Plan
SPE leaders determined that it was time

to reassess and either confirm or recalibrate its direction and core strategies
to ensure its continued long-term success. In June 2012, SPE launched a strategic planning process to look at the
direction the industry is moving and
to develop a new SPE Strategic Framework for the next 5 years. The initiative,
led by Ganesh Thakur, SPE President;
Mark Rubin, SPE Executive Director;
and a Steering Committee comprising
five board members, was organized in
threephases:
Phase I was to gather data
andbest thinking from
multiplesources both within and
outside the organization: leaders
in the field, SPE members, SPE
Board Members, and SPE staff.
The data collection findings
included 85 responses to a
strategic planning survey, 13
one-on-one interviews with
industry leaders, and a July
senior staff leadership team
workshop.
Phase II of the process was
a 1-day facilitated Strategic
Planning Workshop for the
SPE Board of Directors and the
SPE staff who work with Board
Committees.
Phase III engaged the Steering
Committee and SPE staff
leadership team in combining
and advancing the workshop
discussions and creating a
high-level 5-year Strategic
Plan to guide SPE decision
making and priority setting
through2017.
This process led to the identification of four key strategic priorities. SPEs
Board Committees and work groups
will examine these priorities and develop specific initiatives to address them
over the next 5 years. SPE should also
evaluate whether it has the appropriate
infrastructure (governance and staff) to
ensure its long-term success.
Strategic Priorities
SPE identified four key areas of focus to

advance the Society over the next 5 years.
1.Capability development (to support
industry in dealing with the big crew
change)
Areas of challenge or opportunity associated with this strategic priority that SPE
may choose to address include:
Accelerate competency
development. Those coming
into the industry will have to
gain skills and be prepared to
take on responsibility quickly
as retirements accelerate.
New professionals will need
mentoring, training and other
resources to fill the gaps in their
knowledge. While technical
skills are crucial, the full skill
set required for success must be
addressed through a combination
of technology and soft skills
training to accelerate competency.
Support faculty development and
retention. Universities struggle
to recruit, develop, and retain
faculty because of the numerous
opportunities available in the
private sector. This has created
a zero sum game in which
universities recruit faculty from
each other without increasing
the total pool of educators.
Universities face a crew
change of their own, which will
exacerbate the staffing challenge.
Fill faculty gap with experienced
professionals. The number of
future industry professionals
is limited by the availability of
faculty. There may be several
ways to address this, including
the creation of opportunities for
qualified industry professionals
to teach in universities. This
could be something that
companies would support for
their technical leaders and might
also be attractive to experienced
professionals transitioning to
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/19/13 10:03 AM
retirement. Universities would

need ways to identify those who
will make good educators.
Facilitate life-cycle learning
strategies (for any career stage).
For professional development and
advancement, individuals at all
stages of their career have a need
to master new areas of expertise,
equip themselves for new
responsibilities, and keep their
technical knowledge current.
Assess competency. Both
companies and individuals need
measures for competencyways
to demonstrate that certain
skills have been acquired and
can be put to use. Availability of
competency assessment tools
could encourage members to
train themselves in new areas
and be used to show prospective
employers that they are ready for
a particular assignment. Within
companies, assessment methods
are necessary to measure whether
competency development has
been successfully accelerated.
An additional benefit could be to
communicate to the public that
engineers have demonstrated
certain levels of professional
competence.
2. Knowledge transfer
This priority offers many opportunities,
along with some challenges that SPE may
be able to address:
Maintain and enhance technical
quality within SPE programs.
With the rapid growth in SPE
meetings and other programs,
questions have been raised
whether that growth may have
negatively affected the timing of
knowledge delivery to members,
quality of papers, and other
program elements. Ensuring that
the technical content offered
through its programs remains of
the highest quality is crucial to
SPEs success.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
Address volunteerism issues.

SPE relies heavily on member
volunteers for its programs and
especially to provide technical
expertise. Volunteerism is not
common in many areas outside
the United States and western
Europe. As membership from
these areas grows, SPE will be
challenged to apply its traditional
model successfully. The Society
must explore ways to make
volunteering for its programs
more efficient, effective, and
attractive to its members.
Make knowledge available on
demand and in user-friendly
ways. Technology has enhanced
member expectations for the
delivery of technical knowledge
when, where, and in the format
needed. Offerings must be easy to
use and provide the features that
members expect.
Address language issues. While
English remains the language
of the oil and gas industry, SPE
has a growing membership
with limited English skills.
Determining to what extent
that translation is appropriate
or needed and how to fill any
gaps will be an important aspect
of serving these members and
the growing membership in
certainregions.
Take full advantage of
communications technologies.
New technologies open the
possibility for new types
of events, new methods of
content delivery, and new ways
for members to network and
communicate. For continued
success, SPE must explore the
potential of these technologies
and deploy those that enhance
the value of what is offered or
support volunteer participation
in SPE activities.
Enable identification and closure
of technology gaps. As R&D has
become more dispersed across
the industry, it can be challenging
to know whether technical gaps

are being addressed. Better means
for identifying the technical
capabilities required for the
development of world oil and gas
resources are needed. SPE may be
in a unique position to facilitate
discussions and exchange of
information regarding gaps
in existing technologies and
whether other industries may
have applicable technologies that
couldbe deployed.
Complete and promote use
of PetroWiki. PetroWiki has
the potential to become an
invaluable technical resource
for industry through member
contributions. It will serve as a
vehicle for both capturing and
sharing the technical knowledge
of SPEs members. Making
PetroWiki content available
publicly increases transparency
and supports SPEs image as an
independent technical resource.
Serve as a curator of content. The
volume of information available
continues to increase and can be
overwhelming. Sorting through
vast quantities of content and
identifying the material of
greatest value or relevance for
members will enhance SPE value.
Determine future of peerreviewed journals. The value of
peer-reviewed content is clear
and peer-reviewed journals
are crucial to the academic
community. Yet, like many
publishers, SPE has seen declining
subscriptions to its journals.
Submissions for peer review have
declined as the industry becomes
busier and oil companies have
reduced the amount of research
they perform. Reconciling these
trends is important to supporting
industry academics who educate
future engineers.
Facilitate mentoring. The
retirement of experienced
professionals disrupts the
informal mentoring that occurs
45
8/19/13 10:03 AM
STRATEGIC PLAN
on the job with new engineers.
The knowledge transferred in
these interactions covers both
technical and corporate skills.
As retirements increase, filling
the mentoring gap may provide
opportunities for SPE to address
this need.
3.Promoting professionalism and
social responsibility
Several opportunities that SPE should
consider in this area are:
Emphasize SPEs professional
code of conduct. There is a
growing trend for government
organizations to require that
professional engineers be
part of an organization that
emphasizes accountability for
professionalism (as an alternative
to the government setting up
its own mechanisms). Although
SPE has long had a Guide for
Professional Conduct, it has not
emphasized accountability and
should evaluate to what extent
that is an appropriate path
forward for SPE. Developing a
common global understanding of
professional behavior is another
area to be addressed.
Incorporate ethics and ethics
education in SPE programming.
The growing interest in ethics
and need for ethics education
should be addressed by SPE.
Provide certificationboth
general and discipline specific. As
the pool of available talent grows
in nontraditional areas, companies
need ways, such as certification, to
ensure that the technical training
received by those individuals is
sufficient to meet their needs.
Even for professionals with
industry experience, knowledge
that the individual meets
certain competency standards
in a discipline has value to both
employers and prospective
employees. Government agencies
46
are also showing interest in

knowing that certain industry
positions are filled by individuals
with demonstrated expertise,
which could necessitate
certifications in specific areas of
knowledge.
Promote safety and
environmental protection as high
priorities with our membership.
Over the past 2 decades, industry
has become far more cognizant of
the far-reaching environmental
and social consequences of its
activities. While many companies
have very strong safety and
environmental programs,
several recent incidents
have reinforced public and
government skepticism of the
industrys focus on these issues.
SPE should emphasize safety, the
environment, and sustainability
to its members as a complement
to current corporate efforts.
Ensuring that environmental
and social responsibilities are
part of SPE programming may
provide opportunities to improve
awareness and perception.
Maintain integrity and
independence of SPE. As an
individual membership society
that emphasizes technical
knowledge, SPE is viewed as
credible and independent of
corporate influence. As SPE
evaluates future opportunities,
it is crucial to retain its integrity
and independence. Sharing this
emphasis with local sections
to inform their activities is
alsoimportant.
4.Public education about petroleum
engineering profession and
industry issues
Communicating industry activities publicly yields several challenges and opportunities that SPE may choose to address:
Attract young people to the
industry. Public perception of the
oil and gas industry is poor in the

US and western Europe, thereby
increasing the challenge to
attract young people to industry
careers. Enhancing energy and
science, technology, engineering,
and math (STEM) education in
schools helps to counter those
perceptions, and there may be
other ways that SPE can help to
make the industry an attractive
careerchoice.
Develop public awareness
programs based on technology.
The technology used by the oil
and gas industry is complex and
not easily understood by the
general public. This makes public
perception subject to inaccurate
interpretations of technical
information. Making technical
information accessible and
enhancing awareness based on
that information is a possible role
for SPE.
Serve as a technical authority/
trusted source of unbiased
information. SPE may be able
to leverage its reputation
for integrity and technical
excellence to provide white
papers, case studies, and other
factual, technical information
to governmental organizations
and the public. These materials
can help both industry and the
public by explaining technologies,
technical issues, best practices,
and challenges in meeting the
worlds energyneeds.
Leverage membership to
provide expertise on technical
issues. As SPE works to leverage
its technical reputation to
expand public information, it
is important to position the
Society as an organization
of technical experts. When
expertise is required to assist
a government organization, or
speak publicly, SPE should have
a process to identify members
with appropriate expertise to
serve in that role. JPT
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/19/13 10:03 AM
YOUNG TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE
Intelligent Inflow Tracers Obtain

Information With Less Risk, Cost
Brock Williams and Vinicius Carvalho, Resman
Todays field developments are increasingly characterized by complex wells in

demanding and costly operating environments. Not only are individual wells
challenging, but most are part of a complex reservoir network that must be managed over an extended period.
The high cost and risk of acquiring reservoir surveillance information
using conventional technology, such
as production logging tools, is forcing
operators to manage these fields without knowledge of the inflow distribution
across the reservoir interval. In addition, permanent reservoir surveillance
solutions based on optical or electronic
sensors require major modifications of
the completion design and installation
procedure. Consequently, a significant
amount of complexity and risk are added
to the project, making the use of such
technologiesprohibitive.
Intelligent chemically based inflow
tracer systems are an emerging technology that consist of engineered polymers
and chemical compounds combined into

a product that resembles strips of plastic. The tracer system is designed to
react to either oil or water. For example, when a water-sensitive tracer system is contacted by water, the tracer system releases its unique chemical identification (inflow tracer) at a prescribed
release rate, irrespective of the flowing
conditions. The water-sensitive tracer
system is dormant when contacted by
oil, gas, or air. The oil-sensitive tracer
system behaves similarly as the tracer is
released only when it comes in contact
with oil.
Strips of the tracer system are readily integrated into almost any completion
configuration including conventional
sand screens, inflow control device (ICD)
sand screens, multistage fracturing systems, pup joints, and intelligent completions. Additionally, the tracer system can
be cemented behind casing and perforated through, providing contact between
reservoir fluids and the intelligent tracer
Inserting tracer systems into a sand screen.
50
YoungTechSept.indd 50
strips. In summary, the intelligent tracer strips can be deployed in almost any
well type without affecting the installation process.
Samples of produced fluid are analyzed for the concentration of each intelligent tracer. Tracer concentration data,
combined with model-based interpretation techniques, enables the operator to understand where oil is entering
the well, where water influx is occurring, and relative oil contributions of
monitoredzones.
The technology has been deployed
onshore and offshore in locations such
as Alaska, the North Sea, Australia, west
Africa, and the US Gulf of Mexico. Operators have benefited from this technology by gaining insight into inflow distribution without having to run a production logging tool (PLT) log or needing
to perform complex and risky completion design modifications to accommodate electronic or optical sensors across
thereservoir.
Intelligent tracer carrier mandrel
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/14/13 7:34 AM
Key benefits of the technology include the following:

Minimum implementation
risk: It does not require cables,
connections (wet mates), or well
intervention. Additionally, there
is minimum impact to existing
completion design.
Cost efficiency: There is no
additional rig time or personnel
required on site to run the
completion. This is because the
system integration is done ahead
of time during manufacturing or
where the inventory is located.
Health, safety, and environmental
(HSE) compatibility: The
technology does not use
radiation and is HSE-compatible
for water discharge in extremely
low concentrations (down to
parts per trillion).
Examples of insight that intelligent tracers have provided include the
following:
Multizone fracture analysis that
showed some zones were not
producing and behind-pipe flow
was occurring in other zones
Location of water influx as it
changes over time
Evidence of flow contribution
from the toe of a long horizontal
well
Poor contribution from one
lateral of a multilateral well
No flow coming from intervals
thought to be productive
Flow detected from downhole
sliding sleeves thought to be
closed
No flow from sliding sleeves
thought to be open
Assurance that remotely
activated sleeves actuate as
expected
Fig. 1Tracer locations.
mation for improved management of

thereservoir.
Intelligent inflow tracers can prove
useful in this application. They are
designed to release their unique chemical compound only when contacted by
water. This feature allows the life of the
water tracer system to be significantly
extended as none of the tracer is being
released during the time the tracers are
in contact with oil.
Fig. 1 illustrates an example of using
intelligent inflow tracers for water breakthrough detection. In the figure, each
vertical line represents the location of a
joint of screen that contains intelligent
tracer. Each color represents a unique
chemical compound contained in the
tracer system.
If water is produced from one of
these intervals, it will contact the tracer
system in the screen, causing the chemical compound to be released.
Samples of the produced water are
analyzed and the concentration of the
tracers provides insight into where water

production has occurred along the reservoir interval.
Fig. 2 shows a plot of the water tracer concentration data for samples taken
over 3 months. The colored lines correspond to the colors of the intelligent
tracers in Fig. 1. The grey dashed line
is the water cut during the time period
measured from a multiphase flow meter
and is plotted against the right axis.
Point A in Fig. 2 identifies the point in
time when a sharp rise in the concentration of the tracers occurred, designated by the blue color. A corresponding change in the slope of the water cut
is also observed. The conclusion is that
the rise in water cut at this point in time
occurred in the blue zone.
Point B identifies a sharp rise in the
concentration of the green tracer. A corresponding rise in the water cut curve is
also detected.
The location of water breakthrough
information is used to improve the
Location of Water Influx
It is common for a well to start producing

water at some point during its life. Knowing the location in the well where the
water is coming from is valuable infor-
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
Fig. 2Plot of water tracer concentration vs. time.
51
8/12/13 1:11 PM
Fig. 3Relative inflow assessment.
understanding of the overall flow dynamics in the reservoir and also to verify that
the multiphase meter is calibrated to provide accurate information. This information can be used to improve recovery by
modifying future well-location, completion-technique, or waterflood operational strategies. Wells can be designed such
that intervention operations can shut off
water-producing zones remotely or by
intervention operations.
Inflow Distribution Assessment

Using the Flush-Out Model
Fig. 3 illustrates a technique in which

the tracer system strips are integrated into an ICD-style sand screen during the screen manufacturing process.
The screens are installed in the well as
normal practice and positioned across
the reservoir section. When the tracer
system strips come in contact with oil,
tracer molecules are released from the
tracer system.
52
During a shut-in period, the tracer system continues to release the tracer even when there is no flow. The oil
immediately surrounding the tracer system strips acquires a high concentration
of the tracer chemical. When the well
is turned on, the oil with the high concentration of tracer is flushed out of the
screen and into the main flow stream of
the well.
An analysis of samples taken at regular intervals at the surface will detect
the rise and fall of tracer concentration
as the oil that contains the high tracer
concentration is produced to the surface. The shape of this plot is indicative
of the productivity of the interval being
monitored. The response is best when
isolation packers are used to ensure the
response is from the zone of interest.
The rate of rise and fall in concentration
is compared among all the monitoring
locations. The more prolific zones will
flush out the ICD faster and will there-
fore, exhibit a sharper rise and fall in

concentration when compared with the
less prolific zones.
The example shown in Fig. 3 illustrates this behavior. The character of
the curves indicates that Zone 1 is the
most prolific contributor. Zone 2 is a
minorcontributor.
This behavior has recently been
studied in a flow loop using full-scale
completion components. This testing is
being performed at a multiphase flow
facility operated by the Institute for
Energy Technology in Norway. The testing is being conducted as part of a joint
industry project that includes two North
Sea operators.
The results of the flow loop testing have verified the validity of the tracer decline rate as a direct indicator of
inflow compared with the decline rate of
other zones in the well. The accuracy of
a proprietary mathematical model that
converts the decline rate of tracer con-
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 1:11 PM
Fig. 4Tracer carrier locations in a multilateral well.
centration to percentage of total well

flow also has been confirmed, thereby
providing a quantitative inflow analysis
of each zone.
The accuracy of this method is
dependent on good displacement efficiency; therefore, the best results will
be obtained when single phase fluids are
present. Significant amounts of water or
gas will alter the effectiveness of the flush
out. The effect of multiphase fluids on the
tracer decline is the focus of ongoing flow
loop testing and research and development work.
It should be noted that even in situations when inflow conditions are not
ideal for quantitative analysis, there are
54
rarely any viable alternatives for acquiring across-the-reservoir surveillance

information. Intelligent tracer technology will still provide qualitative insight
into each zones performance.
With this knowledge, the operator can assess potential reasons for the
difference in production and feed this
insight into the reservoir simulator to
improve reservoir understanding.
The Tracer Shot Model
As described earlier, the tracer system

releases the tracer chemical when it
comes in contact with its target fluid,
oil, or water. When the well is static, the
concentration of the tracer increases in
the fluid in the immediate vicinity of

the tracer system. The previous example
illustrated how this effect can be used
to determine relative inflow distribution
when the tracer system is placed in an
annular area that is connected to the
main flow stream.
Another technique is to deploy the
tracers in the main flow stream instead
of an annular area.
The oil that is on the inside of the
mandrel develops an increased concentration of the tracer during shut-in
periods. When the well is turned on,
this oil is displaced directly to the surface. By deploying several carrier mandrels containing unique tracers at various locations in the well, the difference in produced volume between the
arrivals of these slugs of fluid (referred
to as tracer shots) is used to determine the inflow distribution. Fig. 4 illustrates the location of tracer carriers in a
multilateralwell.
During a brief shut-in period the
intelligent tracer shots are developed
at each carrier location. The well was
turned on and sampled at a frequency of
4 samples per hour during the few hours
that the tracer shots were expected to
arrive at the sample point.
The tracer shot arrival technique
does not use the decline rate of the tracer
concentration, only the produced volume
when each peak of tracer concentration
arrives at the sample point. To facilitate
determination of when the peak concentration arrived at the sample point, the
tracer concentration data is normalized.
Fig. 4 shows the normalized concentration data of each of the tracers plotted
against the produced volume associated
with each sample. The spacing between
the concentration peaks is a function of
the inflow distribution across each lateral. A simulator is used to work out the
inflow distribution that would create this
arrival pattern.
Fig. 5 illustrates the good correlation achieved by the simulator after several iterations were performed to match
the actual arrival of each peak with the
simulators predicted arrivals, which are
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 1:11 PM
represented by the dashed lines. The

inflow distribution that creates this correlation is shown in the upper portion of
the figure as a percentage of total flow.
This analysis indicated several interesting features including the observation that 43% of the flow is originating from the toe of the upper lateral.
Knowledge of the inflow distribution of
each lateral is useful in designing the
placement and design of future wells to
optimizerecovery.
Conclusions
Fig. 5Actual vs. predicted arrivals.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
The management of reservoirs

is made more challenging by the
difficulty in obtaining reservoir
surveillance information from
complex wells in high operating
cost environments. In many
cases, there is no across-thereservoir inflow distribution
surveillance information
obtained for the life of
the field.
Intelligent tracer technology can
be deployed in a variety of forms
and methods that have a minor
impact on completion design
and effectively no additional
riskto the overall success of
thewell.
Intelligent tracers have shown
the ability to provide inflow
distribution information in
a variety of situations that
otherwise would have proved
impractical to obtain.JPT
55
8/19/13 10:05 AM
Drilling in
extreme
environments:
Space Drilling and the
Oil and Gas Industry
Robin Beckwith, Senior Staff Writer
An artists concept illustrates what the Mars rover Curiosity looks like on
the Red Planet. Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.
he oil and gas industry is today drilling in

environments that 50 years ago were viewed as
extreme. Drilling fluids and equipmentincluding
pipe, bits, motors, batteries, collars, MWD/LWD toolsas well
as jars, fishing tools, wireline tools, cement, and hydraulic
fracturing fluids, routinely tackle bottomhole temperatures
up to 180C, pressures of 10,000 to 15,000psi and more,
depths greater than 25,000 ft, and matrix permeabilities
in the range of 100 nanodarcies. The oil and gas drilling
environment remains inherently extreme, with dangers
attached to managing flammable liquids and volatile gases
under high pressure. However, huge leaps in knowledge,
experience, science, and technology have increased safety
through procedures and automation, increased certainty
through modeling and real-time sensing, and increased
reliability through research and development leading to
sophisticated testing and ruggedized materials.
But while many fields today are drilled, re-drilled,
or stimulated within the industrys conquered range,
the frontiers keep expanding. However, there are other
56
Drilling in Space Sept.indd 56
environmentsincluding space, geothermal, and deep Earth

scientific drillingwhose frontiers have always been more
extreme. Humankinds desire to push physical limitations
has led it to delve more deeply into outer space and within
our planet. Drilling in these extreme environments is helping
drive advances in the oil and gas industry and/or presents
analogs that can be mined for insight. One such type of
drilling is extraterrestrial drilling.
Designing Curiositys Actuator Electronics

According to the technical article, Engineering Systems
for Extreme Environments, by Guy V. Clatterbaugh, Bruce
R. Trethewey Jr., Jack C. Roberts, Sharon X. Ling, and
Mohammad M. Dehghani, most of whom are members of
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
(APL), Extreme environments in general can typically
be categorized as involving abnormally high or excessive
exposure to cold, heat, pressure, vacuum, voltage, corrosive
chemicals, particle and electromagnetic radiation, vibration,
shock, moisture, contamination, or dust, or extreme
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 2:08 PM
fluctuations in operating temperature range. The authors

point out that These situations are made more extreme
when, upon deployment, the system is no longer available for
maintenance or repair.
The article, which appeared in Johns Hopkins APL
Technical Digest, Volume 29, Number 4, details the approach
used in material characterization and environmental testing
of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Mars Science
Laboratory Curiosity rover actuator electronics. This is the
very same electronics system used to actuate Curiositys
robotic arm, the part of the rover responsible for completing
two exploratory drilling milestones from the Martian surface
this year, one on 8 February (a borehole named John Klein)
and the other on 19 May (a borehole named Cumberland).
The careful, detailed approach APL used may help
inform analogous characterization and testing efforts in the
oil and gas industry.
Mars is indeed an extreme environment where
there is little a priori knowledge about how the system will
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
function. To obviate failures occurring on the expensive

Curiosity mission, the authors discuss important testing
andsimulation that took place to mitigate system risk,
assure system performance, and improve system reliability.
For programs operating in extreme environments,
identifying and being prepared to address risk at the
earliest stages of concept development is imperative, the
authorsstate.
One of JPLs main reliability concerns involved the
chip-on-board assemblies (i.e., printed wiring boards with
integrated circuits that have been removed from their
plastic packages). Curiosity was designed with a heated
compartment to protect its computer and most of the
electronics from the extremes of Martian temperatures.
However, the electronics that actuate the motors on the
arm and wheels are located far from the heated body and
must operate at temperatures that fluctuate from 127C
to +30C, the maximum daily temperature range on Mars.
They are thus more susceptible to failure than Curiositys
protected computer.
57
8/12/13 1:24 PM
DRILLING IN SPACE
At center is the hole in a rock call John Klein, Curiositys

first sample drilling on Mars. Curiositys Mars Hand Lens
Imager took the image on 6 February, the missions Sol
182 (Mars days are called sols). Courtesy of NASA/JPLCaltech/MSSS.
The article asserts that JPL sought APLs assistance

in material characterization and environmental testing. APL
says, One pitfall to be aware of when designing the system
is to watch for a critical element on which the entiredesign
may depend. If this element poses some risk,the fallback
position would necessitate an entireredesign.
For example, say the authors, quite often in
electronic packaging of spacecraft electronics, the choice
of a connector will determine the arrangement of boards
in a chassis, the size of the boards, and even the chassis
configuration itself. If the connector proves to be unreliable
and there is no equivalent fallback connector, the entire
chassis and the electronic subassemblies would have to
be redesigned and possibly remanufactured. Such design
dependencies or linchpins should be avoided if possible to
reduce system risk.
The Physics-of-Failure Method

APL opted to use what is termed the physics-of-failure
method, which is a science-based approach that uses
modeling and simulation to design in reliability. The method,
if not already in use, might prove valuable to the development
of materials and electronics for use in extreme oil and gas
environments. This approach, say the authors, models
the root causes of failure, such as fatigue, fracture, wear,
radiation, or corrosion. They cite computer-aided design
(CAD) tools that have been developed to address various
failure mechanisms.
According to the authors, the physics-of-failure
approach involves the following:
Identifying potential failure mechanisms (chemical,
electrical, physical, mechanical, structural, or thermal
process leading to failure), failure sites, and failure
modes
58
Cumberland, drilled by Curiosity on Sol 279 (19 May),

will check results from John Klein, located about 9 ft
away. Image also taken by Curiositys Hand Lens Imager.
Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.
Identifying the appropriate failure models and their input

parameters, including those associated with material
characteristics, damage properties, manufacturing flaws
and defects, and environmental and operating loads
Determining the variability for each design parameter
when possible
Computing the effective reliability function (e.g., Weibull
function) (Note that a significant amount of testing
is typically required for computing such a reliability
function, and in many cases a simpler go/no-go test
may be preferred. However, many existing reliability
functions for electronic systems are available in the
literature.)
Accepting the design, if the estimated time-dependent
reliability function meets or exceeds the required value
over the required time period
The authors state further, The most common
simulation techniques for physics-of-failure modeling in
electronic systems include finite element calculation of
temperature, stresses/strains, random shock, vibration,
buckling, thermal stress, creep, fatigue, mass transport, and
electromechanical reaction rates. Statistical methods using
Monte Carlo simulations and Arrhenius-based models are
also commonly used.
APLs desire to use a physics-of-failure approach to
addressing the extreme environment on Mars led to a further
collaboration with the University of Marylands Center for
Advanced Life Cycle Engineering.
Before APL designed the temperature cycling testing
plan, all potential failure sites were identified using the
physics-of-failure methodology:
Substrate fracture
Substrate bond pad lifting
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 1:24 PM
DRILLING IN SPACE
data over this extended temperature
range and the cost associated with
failure made the duration of this test a
prudent measure.
APL then carried out a material
characterization study to measure
the coefficient of thermal expansion
Section View of Curiositys Drill Bit
(CTE), Youngs modulus, and yield
strength as a function of temperature
for a variety of materials. Four testing
Chamber 2
methods were used:
1.The dynamic mechanical
analysis technique (DMA)
The DMA testing method
is particularly well suited
Exit to
CHIMRA
to flexible materials
such as silicone glob-top
encapsulants and the flexible
conductive die-attach
Chamber 1
adhesives.
2.Uniaxial tensile testing
apparatusThis is used for
Sample path
obtaining yield strength
Contact Sensor/
for the rigid epoxies and
Stabilizer
encapsulants.
Top View of
3.The interferometric strain/
Curiositys Drill
displacement gage method
This was assembled at APL
These schematic drawings show a top view and a cutaway view of a section of
the drill on NASAs Curiosity rover on Mars. Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.
for measuring millimeter- and
micrometer-scale materials in
cases where bulk properties
Wire breakage, wire thinning, and ball shear
were not valid.
Adhesive failure at the die/substrate interface
4.A flat-plate dilatometerThis was used to measure
Encapsulation cracking
the CTE of candidate materials as a function of
temperature.
Temperature Cycling Testing, Life Test, and
Material Characterization
The APLs testing and characterization efforts also could find

application in developing electronics used in extreme oil and
gas environments.
The temperature cycling testing was carefully designed
to properly test all the critical failure points.
Three failure modes were observed after extensively
testing various materials and careful inspection, using X-ray
tomography, of the effects of the testing. All failures were
either wire failures or substrate pad lifting failures. Based
on the testing and inspection outcome, a combination of the
polyimide substrate, an 84-1 die attach adhesive, and a 4402
glob top was selected.
Additional test coupons were constructed and
subjected to a life test performed for a period of more than
a year, with a daily temperature cycle between -125C and
+80C without a failure. The authors state, Performing an
environmental test without using an acceleration factor is a
bit unorthodox, but the lack of sufficient existing reliability
60
The next step was to create an optimized wire bond

analytical model. APL personnel attempted to optimize the
shape of a wire bond by minimizing its strain energy. We
used the principle that the lower the initial strain energy, the
more likely it is that the wire board can sustain deformations
without a loss in structural integrity, the authors state.
The approach taken here was to develop an optimized wire
bond shape that was the least susceptible to strains caused
by deflections in the glob-top material.
The finite element method (FEM), which facilitates
the use of nonlinear, time-dependent, and temperaturedependent analysis methods, was used by APL personnel
to analyze an encapsulated 2-mil gold wire bond for
the Curiosity rover actuator electronics. According to
the authors, The nonlinear FEM was a one-quarter
symmetric model and simulated the stresses resulting
from a wirebonded chip cooled from the cure temperature
(150C)down to 125C. A coupled thermomechanical
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 2:13 PM
DRILLING IN SPACE
This full-resolution image from NASAs Curiosity shows the

turret of tools at the end of the rovers extended robotic
arm on 20 August 2012. Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Prototype Mars2020 rotary percussive core drill, called

RoPeC, designed to autonomously drill, shear, and
capturea rock sample. See http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=_-hOO4-zDtE. Courtesy of Honeybee Robotics.
finiteelement analysis with temperature-dependent

materialproperties was used. The analysis confirmed
thatthe globtop encapsulant chosen for the actuator
electronics would not produce an overstressed
conditioninthe assembly, confirming the results of
the cycling tests.
APL cited good correlation between the testing
andevaluation (T&E) and the modeling and simulation
(M&S)results. The authors state, It is important to
emphasize the link between T&E and M&S. We stated
previously that M&S results should guide testing, but
the reverse is also true: Good test data should be used to
refinemodels and simulations. This is often an iterative
process requiring several M&S and T&E cycles to refine
system models.
Because the Curiosity actuator electronics program
produced such good results, the authors are hopeful that
long periods of expensive testing can be replaced with
relatively inexpensive short-duration simulations for future
Martian missions.
However, extraterrestrial drilling has also taken

place on the moon. Those cores are the only ones returned
to Earth, collected by US Apollo mission astronauts (late
1960s and early 1970s) and Soviet Luna program robotic
spacecraft (early to mid-1970s) on the lunar surface. The
moon, of course, is much closer to Earth than the planets,
at a distance of (only) 384,400 km. Mars is a little less than
1,500 times farther away. But, unlike the moon, Mars may
have been capable of supporting life.
By the time Curiosity conducted its second drilling
operation, 19 May, named Cumberland, the results of
the first drilling revealed that ancient Mars was likely
capable of supporting microbial lifegroundbreaking if it
is corroborated. According to NASA officials, The science
team expects to use analysis of material from Cumberland to
check findings from John Klein.
Curiositys Actuated Drilling Arm in Action

Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral 26 November
2011 aboard the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft.
Following the 563,000,000-km journey and after a rather
torturous descent (dubbed the 7 minutes of terror),
Curiosity, divested of the spacecraft, landed safely on Aeolis
Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on 6 August 2012.
On 6 February 2013, Curiositys actuated arm-mounted
percussive drill hammered a borehole, dubbed John Klein,
6.4 centimeters deep into a Martian outcrop. This is the
first time any robot, fixed or mobile, has drilled into a rock to
collect a sample on Mars, Louise Jandura, sample system
chief engineer for Curiosity at NASAs JPL in Pasadena,
California, told reporters.
62
Extraterrestrial Drilling Constraints

Missions like the Curiosity stretch the bounds of drilling in
an extreme environment, yet at the same time present many
constraints that limit their operation. A number of these are
noted in SPE Paper 111126, Drill Automation for the Space
Environment: Lessons Learned, by K. Zacny and G. Paulsen,
Honeybee Robotics, and G. Cooper, University of California
at Berkeley. In addition to simply surviving the journey
from Earths surface to the surface of an extraterrestrial
destination, the following parameters also must be observed
in order to accomplish drilling in outer space:
Electric PowerCuriosity has a radioisotope thermoelectric
generator. Heat given off by the decay of an isotope, in
this case Curiositys 4.8-kg of plutonium-238 dioxide, is
converted into electricity by thermocouples. The power
source generates 2.5 kWh each day. Waste heat is used via
pipes to warm systems, freeing electrical power to operate
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/15/13 10:39 AM
the vehicle and its instruments. Two rechargeable lithium-ion

batteries are charged from the generator, which enables the
power subsystem to meet Curiositys peak power demands
when demand exceeds the generators steady output level.
Each batterys capacity is about 42 amp-hours. The rovers
average traveling speed is about 30 meters/hr.
In oil and gas drilling on Earth, a typical rig generator
set has a nameplate rating of about 1,100 kW, with
larger (around 3,500 kW) and smaller (around 550 kW)
unitsavailable.
MassThe maximum weight-on-bit (WOB) that can be
applied to the drill is limited by the mass of the rover
multiplied by the acceleration due to gravity. The case given
in the paper is for an 850-kg rover (Curiosity is actually
899kg), where the maximum WOB may not exceed850 kg
* 3.68 m/s2=3,100 Newton (equivalent to 300 kg on Earth).
This assumes the drill is placed along the rovers center of
gravity. In Curiositys case, the drill is deployed from the
robotic arm, making allowable WOB muchlower.
The mass is constrained by several factors, including
cost of the launch, the size of the launch vehicle, and landing
technologies for extraterrestrial bodes (landing on the moon
is easier than on Mars, because of the lower lunar gravity).
WOB during drilling into the Earth can reach 30,000 to
50,000 lbf. On Earth, mass of the drilling rig is constrained
more by its purpose than anything else, with widely different
sizes and types of rigs used in a range of operations,
including oil and gas well drilling, mining, water well drilling,
making subsurface installations, mineral-deposit sampling,
or testing rock, soil, or groundwater physical properties.
Temperature, Thermal Fluctuations, Atmosphere, and
PressureThese parameters place physical constraints
on the design of all materials and mechanisms, whether
used in oil and gas drilling anywhere within the Earth or in
extraterrestrial drilling.
Mars: The maximum daily temperature range on Mars
fluctuates from 127C to +30. Mars atmospheric pressure
averages about 0.087 psi, about 0.6% of Earths mean
sea level pressure of 14.69 psi (equivalent to 120,000ft
above Earths surface). Mars atmospheric mass is about
25 teratonnes, compared to Earths 5,148 teratonnes, and
it consists of carbon dioxide (95%), nitrogen (3%), argon
(1.6%), and traces of other gases.
Earths Moon: There is no significant atmosphere on
the moon, so it cannot trap heat or insulate the surface.
Daytime on one side of the moon lasts about 13 Earth
days, followed by 13 nights of darkness. When sunlight
hits the moons surface, the temperature can reach 123C.
The moons dark side can have temperatures dipping to
153C. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a NASA robotic
spacecraft launched mid-2009 and currently orbiting the
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
moon, measured temperatures of 238C in craters on the

moons south pole and 247C in a crater on its north pole.
Venus: The surface temperature of Venus is about
480C and its atmospheric pressure is about 900 Newtons
per square centimeter (1,300 lb/in.2). Its atmosphere
consists of about 95% carbon dioxide, with the remainder
mostly nitrogen. A thick layer of clouds is thought to be
largely composed of sulfuric acid droplets. None of the
several Russian spacecraft of the Venera series lasted
more than an hour on the planets surface. Earlier Venera
probes parachuted into the Venus atmosphere and were
crushed byit before reaching the surface. Although the
European Space Agencys Venus Express spacecraft,
launched in November 2005 and arriving within Venus orbit
in April2006,has supplied images and data from its orbit,
nomission since Venera has attempted to land on the
planets surface.
Venus DrillTemperature and Pressure: A Venus drill
is discussed in chapter 6, Extraterrestrial Drilling and
Excavation, in the book, Drilling in Extreme Environments,
edited by Yoseph Bar-Cohen and Kris Zacny (Wiley-VCH,
2009). The benefit of high-temperature motors is that
they can drive a sampling drill or a grinder, robotic arm, or a
deployment stage on the surface of Venus and thus allow for
sample acquisition, transfer, and analysis.
The authors note that high temperature is a much
more problematic issue to deal with than high pressure. [A]
high-temperature application either requires components
to withstand this temperature or necessitates some kind
of an active (or passive, depending on the time of exposure)
cooling system. [An] active cooling system is very expensive
and many proposed sample return missions from, for
example, asteroids, which had to keep samples cool, could
not fit within the mission cost cap. On the other hand, a
solution to [the] high-pressure problem can be solved by a
pressure vessel, which is a passive system (does not require
any power to work).
FluidsTemperature and Pressure: According to
SPE Paper 111126, In terrestrial oil well drilling, cuttings
removal is often done by circulating a fluid such as water,
a mud slurry, or air. In most extraterrestrial setting (moon,
Mars, and asteroids), the use of a fluid is not the first choice
because of low pressure and/or low temperature conditions.
At these conditions, a fluid either freezes or sublimes directly
to vapor. Note also that even if a low freezing point fluid were
available, the launch cost in excess of USD 20,000/kg would
make sending drilling fluid prohibitively expensive. For this
reason, most extraterrestrial drills use an auger with helical
fluting to convey cuttings to the surface. This makes the
drilling process more inefficient.
Communications DelayOf all the constraints, the delay in
communication is probably the single most important factor
63
8/19/13 10:09 AM
human involvement, even with regard to monitoring and

decision-making.
There was no real-time monitoring of Curiositys drilling
operations but computer command sequences were altered
based on the drilling campaign at John Klein. On 5 June, the
JPL reported that, For the drill campaign at Cumberland,
steps that each took a day or more at John Klein could be
combined into a single days sequence of commands. We
used the experience and lessons from our first drilling
campaign, as well as new cached sample capabilities, to do
the second drill campaign far more efficiently, said sampling
activity lead Joe Melko of JPL. In addition, we increased use
of the rovers autonomous self-protection. This allowed more
activities to be strung together before the ground team had
to check in on the rover.
Lecture Series and Workshop Spark Dialog
The Autogopher is a wireline drill, powered by a rotaryultrasonic system, that enables reaching great depths
with low system mass. See http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=CSjfKhF5Vys. Courtesy of Honeybee Robotics.
that determines the level of autonomy in drilling on planets

like Mars, states SPE Paper 111126.
Curiosity is equipped with an X band transmitter and
receiver that can communicate directly with Earth (at speeds
up to 32 KB/sec) and a UHF Electra-Lite software-defined
radio for communicating with Mars orbiters. The orbiters
have more power and larger antennas, allowing for faster
transmission, and thus are relied on as Curiositys main
means of communicating. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
and Odyssey orbiter can communicate with Curiosity for
about 8 minutes/day, with data transfer rates that can reach
2 MB/sec and 256 KB/sec, respectively. An average of 14
mins, 6 secs is required for signals to travel one way between
Mars and Earth. Information from Earth to Curiosity has to
follow the same path in reverse, with the same time delay
and window of opportunity constraints.
This constraint alone dictates the need for fully
autonomous robotic operation throughout most of an
extraterrestrial drilling operation beyond the moon. This
is quite different from the concept of automated drilling
on Earth. As chapter 6 in Drilling in Extreme Environments
states, In the commercial realm, automation and remote
control mean the capability to watch values and open
and close valves with a mouse click in a control room, as
opposed to sending out a human with a wrencheliminating
direct hand contact other than joysticks and touchscreens.
In space, these definitions imply minimal or no direct
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
Dr. Alfred Eustes, a professor within the Petroleum

Engineering Department at the Colorado School of Mines,
was selected as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer for the 2013
14 program. His lecture topic is Extraterrestrial Drilling:
How on Earth Can Martian Drilling Help Us? Eustes is
convinced that What we learn from building and deploying
extraterrestrial drilling technology will help us understand
how to drill better here on Earth.
For example, he continued, think of the development
of autonomous drill systems for Martian deployment and
how applicable those techniques could be here. How about
the development of sensor technology for detecting life,
assumed to be carbon based just as hydrocarbons are here
on Earth? Could those be used here to find oil? And what of
material development and machine design for those extreme
environments? The X-15 research aircraft was an extreme
machine for an extreme environment. And it paved the way
for the routine jetliners we use today.
In further pursuit of dialog between the oil and gas and
space communities, a workshop on Planetary Drilling and
Sample Acquisition was held 68 May at the NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Several members
of the oil and gas-related community participated, from
companies such as Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Atlas Copco,
and National Oilwell Varco, as well as from universities,
NASA, and other companies such as Honeybee, QMI, and ATK
(AlliantTechsystems).
Workshop co-organizer, Dr. Michael New, astrobiology
discipline scientist at the Planetary Science Division, NASA,
said, The drill used on Curiosity is the best we have. But
we want to go deeper. Because, for example, the Mars
surface is bathed in ultraviolet radiation, everything gets
chemicallymodified.
He explained that the Curiosity arm is equipped with a
brush that sweeps away the superficial layer of Martian red
dust. A meter or 2 will get you below most of the radiation
damage, he said. If you want to go deeper10s or 100s of
65
8/19/13 10:09 AM
DRILLING IN SPACE
metersthis is in the realm of a multisegmented drillstring,
with borehole stabilization (casing) required. This is really
not possible in space at this time.
New said he has been hampered as the manager of
an instrument development program. He receives many
proposals for sample acquisition devices such as drills and
corers, but wanted focused, strategic guidance on which
applicationsand therefore technologiesare highest
priority. Participants in the workshop helped develop
scenarios of the timeframe and feasibility of drilling on
extraterrestrial bodies such as comets, Earths moon, Venus,
Enceladus, and Europa.
As an example, the European Space Agencys Rosetta
is the first mission (currently in hibernation until January
2014 on its way to rendezvous with the comet 67P/
Churyumov-Gerasimenko) designed to orbit and land on
a comet. According to New, it has a small drill on it. The
problem, he explained, is that a comet has almost no
gravity, so theres the necessity to bolt down a drill. Then
theres the problem of no weight-on-bit.
New cited the tension between the constraints of
drilling on an extraterrestrial body and the drive to push the
frontiers of knowledge. In a short paper he coauthored with
Dr. Brian Glass from NASAs Ames Research Center, Drill and
Sample Acquisition Testing Using Planetary Analogs, the
results of the workshop were discussed: Future missions
requiring subsurface samples will require lightweight, lowmass planetary drilling and sample handling. As discussed
in the workshop, unlike terrestrial drills, these future
exploration drills will likely work dry (without drilling muds or
lubricants), blind (no prior local or regional seismic or other
surveys), and weak (very low downward force or weighton-bit, especially on small bodies, and perhaps 100W of
poweravailable).
The paper talks about the merits of using drilling analog
sites (such as Arctic and Antarctic permafrost, desert, and
basaltic sites) here on Earth:
They provide a relevant environment for testing technical
maturity, and for pushing prototypes and beta versions
harder, more unpredictably, and with higher overall
fidelity than in laboratory bench tests.
They tend to flush out buried assumptions about
durability, connectors, vibrations, and component failure
rates at far less expense than on-orbit tests.
They are valuable for testing and developing new
operations concepts. For example, given their natural
66
strata and outcrops, analog sites give a more widely

varied set of inputs for drill automation training than
laboratory bench tests.
The Future: Mars 2020 and Beyond

On 1 July, a 154-page report was issued that had been
prepared by the Mars 2020 Science Definition Team (SDT),
appointed by NASA in January to outline scientific objectives
for the mission. The mission will send another rover to
Mars,which should look for signs of past life, collect samples
for possible future return to Earth, and demonstrate
technology for advancing toward human missions to
theRedPlanet.
The Mars 2020 mission concept does not presume
that life ever existed on Mars, said Jack Mustard, chairman
of the Science Definition Team and a professor of the
geological sciences at Brown University in Providence, Rhode
Island. However, given the recent Curiosity findings, past
Martian life seems possible, and we should begin the difficult
endeavor of seeking the signs of life. No matter what we
learn, we would make significant progress in understanding
the circumstances of early life existing on Earth and the
possibilities of extraterrestrial life.
Drilling again will be a challenge. A drilling device
will be crucial for the sampling system. The report states,
[T]he 2020 mission must have the capability to acquire
a core from rock/outcrop. The ability to acquire a regolith
[extraterrestrial unconsolidated solid material covering a
planets bedrock] sample would be highly desirable.
SDTs Finding 6-1 defines the Mars 2020 mission
drilling depth parameter: The minimum threshold depth for
coring into rock is 50 mm. The baseline depth for sampling
into rock is >50 mm. Sampling strategies (e.g., fresh
bedrock exposed by impact) may provide opportunity to
sample deeper than 50 mm where organic material may be
preserved from ionizing radiation.
The importance of drilling and coring to this mission
cannot be overstatedand the oil and gas industry has
the opportunity to provide insight and analogs into drill
development as well as coring operation design. Samples
collected and analyzed by the rover will be essential in
helping inform future human exploration missions to Mars.
As laid out in a speech delivered 15 April 2010, US President
Obama provided a blueprint that includes a manned trip to
Mars orbit and back in the 2030s. A landing on Mars will
follow, he said. And I expect to be around to see it.JPT
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/19/13 10:09 AM
Dry Tree
Semisubmersibles:
The Next Deepwater Option
Trent Jacobs, JPT Technology Writer
The Octabuoy dry tree semisubmersible, shown at a shipyard in Qidong, China, is the first of a new type of floating
drilling and production platform under construction and is owned by ATP Oil and Gas. Photo courtesy of Moss Maritime.
o commercialize some of the worlds most challenging

T
deepwater fields, offshore engineering companies are
developing a new class of drilling and production platform
known as the dry tree semisubmersible (DTS). The challenge
involves taking existing technologies and lessons learned from
previous floater designs to create an alternative platform for
waters too deep to cost-justify the use of tension-leg platforms
(TLPs) and fields too large for spar platforms.
Dry trees, also known as Christmas trees, are wellhead
devices installed during the completion stage of a wells life and
give the operator control over production. Used on onshore
wells, dry trees have been used extensively on shallow water
fixed platforms, TLPs, and spars, but never on a deepwater semisubmersible because that platforms motions are too
extreme to support a dry tree system.
As the DTS concept awaits introduction into the deepwater market, multiple designs are under evaluation by major offshore oil companies and the Norwegian classification society
Det Norske Veritas (DNV).
70
Dry Tree Semis.indd 70
The chief advantages of using a DTS are that operators can drill, complete, and carry out intervention operations on multiple wells from the same platform in depths
below 6,000 ft. This saves the operator significant resources that otherwise would be spent over the life of the field on
contracting mobile offshore drilling units or purpose-built,
well-interventionsemisubmersibles.
Going Deeper With a DTS
A TLP typically uses four columns to support a large topside

facility and is secured to the seafloor with mooring lines that
allow the floating platform to move from side to side, but not up
and down. Operating at a water depth of 4,674 ft, ConocoPhillips Magnolia TLP in the US Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is the deepest
structure of its kind in the world. Next year, Chevron hopes to
begin first production from its Big Foot TLP, also to be located in
the GOM, at a depth of approximately 5,200 ft. Beyond 6,000 ft,
TLPs become impractical because of the amount of steel needed for the tendons that moor the platform to the ocean bottom.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 2:25 PM
A spar platform supports drilling, production, and storage operations and achieves stability from the deep draft of the
vertical column on top of which the topside sits. Spars have virtually no water depth limit and are designed specifically as a
dry tree unit. However, their size is limited by their cylindrical
hulls, which constrain the available deck space, thereby pushing designers to stack the decks vertically. When scaled up to
increase the deck area comparable to that of a TLP and to add
the payload capacity required for a deepwater drilling rig, the
hull of a spar introduces tremendous challenges for transportation and installation. Measuring 555 ft in length, Shells Perdido spar is the deepest in the world, operating at a depth of
7,844 ft in the GOM. Because the deep draft of spars exceeds the
water depth near a fabrication yard and create too much drag
to wet tow vertically, they must be transported on their side,
then upended on location, and have the topside installed onto
the hull at sea.
Operators are increasingly seeking to avoid this type of offshore integration because of the risk and cost involved, especially for large topside decks. The safer and more cost-effective
option that the DTS allows for is quayside integration of the hull
and topside, where sea motions are minimal and the need for a
heavy lift vessel is eliminated.
A conventional semisubmersible platform offers the optimum amount of deck space for safer operations and payload flexibility that a spar cannot, but it has too much vertical
motion for a dry tree to operate safely. Several semisubmersibles operate in depths exceeding 6,000 ft; however, all of them
use subsea trees. Unlike subsea trees that are installed at the
seabed and deliver hydrocarbons to a surface platform through
a flexible production riser or a metallic riser such as a steel catenary riser (SCR), a dry tree uses a rigid riser system known as
a top tensioned riser (TTR) that is locked onto the subsea wellhead at the seafloor and to the dry tree at the platform deck,
thereby making it very sensitive to movement.
Another difference is that when using a DTS, the rigid risers dictate that the wells be drilled directly beneath the platform in comparison to semisubmersibles, which use subsea
trees that can span large distances between each other. On a
DTS, each well has its own riser, whereas in a subsea tree scenario, depending on the rate of production, multiple wells can
tie into a single riser.
Short Stroke vs. Long Stroke
Although the DTS hull is designed to reduce motion caused by

ocean forces, it is the motions that move the platform up and
down that are of the highest concern. To compensate for excessive vertical motion current, DTS concepts are relying on proven riser tensioner technology. Riser tensioners have been used
on TLPs and spars for nearly 3 decades and are connected to the
uppermost segment of a TTR at the platform. Like the shocks on
a car, riser tensioners absorb the vertical heave motion caused
by ocean waves, allowing the riser to move up and down in a
controlled manner without over or under tensioning the riser.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
Aker Solutions dry tree tensioner technology is based

on the tensioning system shown being used on a drilling
rig. The tensioner compensates for the heave, or bobbing,
movements of a dry tree semisubmersible. Photo courtesy
of Aker Solutions.
A key difference in some of the DTS concepts is the stroke

length that the tensioners need to compensate riser motions
vertically. In modified DTS hull designs with deep drafts or
additional dampening devices, conventional short-stroke riser
tensioners are used to compensate for the heave. In conventional hull designs, longer stroke riser tensioners are needed
to compensate for a greater heave movement. The required
maximum safe range of the tensioner stroke is largely dependent on field conditions and can be as short as 25 ft in severe
environments. To be qualified for global field development
applications, each DTS concept must be designed to survive a
1,000-year hurricane in the GOM. In some designs, the riser
tensioners must have a stroke length of up to 45 ft.
A driver for the modified hull DTS with a deep draft is the
preference that operators have shown for a short-stroke tensioner length within the range of 30 ft to 35 ft (Fig. 1). However,
as the length of the columns grows to mitigate heave, so does
the cost of the hull. Another construction issue that will need to
be addressed is whether to dredge quayside at the shipyard to
accommodate a substantially deeper draft platform or complete
the hull and topside integration offshore.
71
8/12/13 7:46 AM
DRY TREE SEMISUBMERSIBLES
Fig. 2The Octabuoy has a deeper draft than a

conventional semisubmersible and can be deployed to
multiple fields over its expected 50-year service life. The
platforms unique column and octagonal buoyancy pontoon
minimize the effects of heave, pitch, and roll motions which
allow it to support dry tree wellheads at any depth. Image
courtesy of Moss Maritime.
Fig. 1SBM Offshores 35-ft range riser tensioner system

allows its dry tree semisubmersible to move vertically
while ensuring the integrity of the dry tree system located
on the tensioner. Image courtesy of SBM Offshore.
In addition to supporting TTRs, the DTS concept is being

evaluated for its applications in subsea tiebacks of satellite wells
using flexible or steel catenary risers (SCRs). Connected to subsea pipelines and subsea trees, SCRs are flexible metallic risers
that bend in a catenary shape as they deliver oil and gas to a production platform. Over time SCRs become susceptible to fatigue
as the host platform sways, thereby weakening the steel at the
point closest to the seafloor known as the touchdown zone.
With the improved motions of a DTS hull, SCR performance
could be enhanced, thus extending its service life.
Octabuoy: The First DTS
Moss Maritime says its Octabuoy (Fig. 2) is the worlds first DTS
concept to be purchased by an oil company and has gained certification from the American Bureau of Shipping and DNV, and
validation by a number of other operators as a dry tree unit. In
72
2008, Moss Maritime sold the license to build the Octabuoy to

ATP Oil and Gas, which has completed the construction of the
hull in China but has yet to commission the unit for service. The
ATP Octabuoy was designed to produce up to 175,000 B/D of oil
in the North Sea using subsea trees and for the deeper waters of
the GOM using dry trees.
The Octabuoys four conical columns are connected to
the octagon-shaped pontoon for which the platforms name is
derived from. The columns, which can be used for oil storage,
have a profile with a variable water line and dimensions that
minimize platform motions. This grants the platform superior
motion characteristics compared with a spar and the transport
and installation simplicity of a semisubmersible.
Weve placed the columns on the outside of the pontoon
ring to give us greater stability, said Roberto Noce, general
manager of Moss Maritime. Now youre able to integrate a deck
with a footprint as large as needed, and once you put in a bigger deck, you can spread your equipment out more efficiently
and safely, because you can keep hazardous areas away from
the livingquarters.
The conical shape of the columns does not present fabricators with any significant challenges, Noce said, proving
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 7:46 AM

that the design adheres to conventional construction methods and semisubmersible technology. Moss Maritime has
completed multiple field-specific testing
and engineering studies on the use of the
Octabuoy for Chevron, Petrobras, Shell,
and Statoil.
Paired Column
Semisubmersible
Fig 3Houston Offshore Engineerings paired column semisubmersible is

capable of accommodating a drilling rig with a 2-million-lbm hook load in
water depths up to 8,000 ft. Image courtesy of Houston Offshore Engineering.
Houston Offshore Engineerings paired

column semisubmersible (PCS) (Fig. 3)
uses four large outer columns and four
smaller inner columns to achieve the
stability required in using existing tensioner technology. The inner columns
support the topside decks and the outer
columns provide motion stability.
By increasing the size of the columns, or by changing the distance
between the outer and inner columns,
the PCS can accommodate varying deck
payloads. Pairing the columns in this
configuration cancels out surge and sway
motions. The paired column concept has
shown that it can reduce what are known
as vortex-induced motions (VIMs) caused
by the loop current in the GOM. VIMs
are a major contributor to the fatigue of
SCRs and eliminating this type of motion
would increase their service life. In June,
the PCS underwent tank testing to evaluate its VIM performance and the results
were better than expected.
The VIM motion is actually significantly less than the single column (semisubmersibles) which gives us a big advantage in regards to mooring line fatigue,
said Jun Zou, manager of naval architecture at Houston Offshore Engineering,
He added that his companys design
is compatible with a short-stroke tensioner system capable of a 28-ft range
for use in the most severe GOM environments. The PCS is designed to process
100,000 B/D of oil and the company has
completed a study to increase the design
capacity to 150,000 B/D.
Conventional Semisubmersible
Solutions
The paired column semisubmersible during tank testing earlier this year. Photo
courtesy of Houston Offshore Engineering.
74
Another approach is to use a conventional deep-draft semisubmersible platform and incorporate long-stroke riser
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 7:46 AM
tensioners to compensate for the greater

heave motion. Kvaerner Field Development and Aker Solutions are both developing DTS concepts that feature a ring
pontoon with four corner columns supporting the topside.
The Kvaerner DTS (Fig. 4) is based
on prior in-house semisubmersible designs and uses a long-stroke tensioner
with a range of 35 ft. The hull is deeper
than a conventional semisubmersible but
within the limits that allow for quayside
integration and commissioning.
The hull itself looks a lot like a
conventional semisubmersible except the
draft of the underwater portion, the column, is deeper, because of the riser performance requirement, said Jack Zeng,
director of engineering and technology
for floaters at Kvaerner.
The Aker DTS (Fig. 5) concept is
based on the companys existing semisubmersible designs that have been used
to build offshore units already in service. The Aker design has been modified
only slightly in regards to the configuration of the drilling rig and well bay to
accommodate for tensioner stroke and
deepercolumns.
The Aker DTS will use the same riser
tensioner technology used on the companys drilling rigs, but the stroke length will
increase by a few feet from the current
maximum range. For use in the GOM, the
Aker DTS will have a riser stroke range
of 35 ft to 45 ft as dictated by storm survival requirements. Aker is studying the
use of smaller stroke riser tensioner in
areas where stroke requirements are less
extreme because of calmer seas, such as
off west Africa and in southeast Asia.
This is being looked at to use around
the world so that we find fields that are
really perfect for a DTS with the right
depth and right field conditions, said
Rolf Eide, manager of hull and marine
engineering at Aker. The Aker DTS is in
the final stages of qualification with DNV
and Chevron.
SBM Offshore is following the same
path as Kvaerner and Aker in developing
its own version of a DTS (Figs. 6 and 7)
by using the design of two semisubmersibles operating in the GOM. Compared
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
Fig. 4The Kvaerner DTS, shown in an illustration being towed to sea, uses
a deck box-type structure made up of a double bottom-type lower deck and
an upper deck with enough vertical separation to accommodate drilling and
production modules. Image courtesy of Kvaerner.
Fig. 5Aker Solutions dry tree semisubmersible design is based on its

previous semisubmersible designs and uses riser tensioner technology already
in use on its drilling rigs. Image courtesy of Aker Solutions.
75
8/12/13 7:47 AM
Fig. 7A computer illustration of a riser tensioner

system layout in the well bay of SBM Offshores dry tree
semisubmersible design. Image courtesy of SBM Offshore.
Fig. 6SBM Offshores DTS is designed to house 12 top

tensioned risers and produce 100,000 B/D of oil and 50
MMscf/D of natural gas. Image courtesy of SBM Offshore.
with its two other deep draft semisubmersibles, SBMs DTS concept would be more than twice the weight with 50% more draft.
Weve extended the draft another 50 ft in our design
beyond what we did for the Independence Hub and Thunderhawk, Randy Jordan, vice president of floating production systems at SBM Offshore, said.
Independence Hub is the deepest operating semisubmersible in the world at approximately 8,100 ft in water depth and
it processes 1 Bcf/D of natural gas. The SBM Offshore DTS has a
150-ft draft and is designed for depths up to 8,000 ft. Based on
results from a wave basin model test completed in April, Jordan
said its DTS design is ready to be used for field development in
west Africa, Brazil, and southeast Asia. The company will reveal
the results of its recent testing at OTC Brasil in October.
Challenges Remain for Adoption
The riser tensioner technology that the DTS concept relies upon
has been proved on drilling rigs, but not on floating production
76
platforms. Because drilling rigs are required to enter dry dock

for inspection every 5 years and floating production facilities
are designed to operate at sea for decades without coming to
port, operators are seeking a high level of certainty on the longterm integrity of the riser tensioner systems.
Other safety issues that are under review include outlining the contingencies for a riser tensioner or supporting system
failure and the safest way to arrange the well bays so as to protect the integrity of the riser tensioner system.
Consideration must also be taken in the designs regarding
how to safely conduct drilling and production operations simultaneously in a well bay crowded with multiple riser tensioners.
And because no DTS has been field proven in deep water, the
concepts cost-effectiveness has yet to be determined. JPT
For Further Reading:
OTC 23912 A Project Oriented and Technology Robust Dry Tree
Semi Concept by Jack Zeng, Kvaerner, et al.
OTC 23919 Dry Tree Semi Technology ReadinessPerspectives of
Operator and Classification Society by Jenny Yan Lu and Ming-Yao Lee,
DNV/Chevron, et al.
OTC 23926 An Evaluation of Strength, Fatigue, and Operational
Performance of Dry Tree Semisubmersible Riser Tensioning

Equipment by Jun Zou, Houston Offshore Engineering, et al.
OTC 23958 A Robust and Flexible Dry Tree Semisubmersible

Drilling and Production Platform by Roberto Noce, Moss Maritime, et al.
OTC 24148 Dry Tree Semisubmersibles for Gulf of Mexico
by Steve Leverette, SBM Offshore, et al.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 2:27 PM
INCUBATOR FOR STARTUPS
E&P Software: The Next Generation

Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Editor
A handful of entrepreneurs are out to

disrupt the daily routines of workers in
oil exploration and production (E&P) by
applying digital technologies.
The entrepreneurs are members of
a generation of digital natives who grew
up expecting constant online contact and
information, so their ideas are typically
a version of how they expect the world
to work.
RunTitle wants to cut the number
of days spent in courthouses searching title records to find the owners of
mineral rights by creating a national
onlinedatabase.
The Global Material Exchange
(Gmex) is creating an online marketplace
for the millions of tons of steel products

now bought and sold using phones, faxes,
and email.
Skynet Labs plans to replace spreadsheets and manual calculations by drillers with applications that can be used on
smartphones or tablets, and ultimately with a cloud-based system offering
greater computing power and the ability
tocollaborate.
Secure Nok is going about drilling
rig security from a different angle, looking for signs of trouble by closely analyzing machine performance.
Waveseis seeks to create better seismic images of formations otherwise
obscured by thick layers of salt.
Kirk Coburn, the managing director of Surge Accelerator, speaks in front of

entrepreneurs who made their pitch to investors at the event put on by the
Houston business accelerator that picks and promotes ventures seeking to
change the energy and water businesses.
78
StartupsSept.indd 78
They are among the 12 companies

in the second class of startups nurtured
by the Surge Acceleratora 2-year-old
Houston venture created to use techniques developed in the technology sector to jump-start early-stage companies
in energy. About half the business plans
are based on software to improve oil and
gas operations.
Surge was founded on the premise
that the energy industry is ripe for a digitally driven change that has transformed
business sectors such as finance and
manufacturing. They (plans of Surge
companies) are all focused on collecting
data, managing data, analyzing dataall
in real timeand providing actions on
top of that, said Kirk Coburn, managing
director of Surge, who summed it up as
true real-time intelligence.
Initially, Surge was investing only
in software for energyincluding alternative energy and electricitybut its
investment committee has added hardware. The group includes Dynamo Micropower, which makes a simplified turbine that can be powered by wellhead
gas to generate power. Water has also
been added because it is so critical in
thisrealm.
If these ideas turn into profitable enterprises, Coburn and the other
Surge backers have a chance to profit from it. The accelerator gets a 6%
stake in the companies in exchange for
financial support, training, mentoring,
and connections to potential investors
and users during a 3-month program
in Houston.
Of the 23 companies backed by
Surge over the past 2 years, 21 are still
in business, Coburn said. In the world
of technology startups, failures are a
givensuccess often comes only after
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 7:54 AM

music shows, with short pitches playing
up a problem and a solution. The lineup
offered an interesting sample of the digital opportunities in E&P.
RunTitles Chief Executive Officer
Reid Calhoon pitched his business by saying: We are wasting our time driving out
to courthouses and researching titles. To
limit the outlay, the company is creating a
digital marketplace for the reports owned
by oil companies and regional companies
in the report business. It is raising money
to hire software developers and salespeople to expand this resale market.
All these businesses are after niches
that require limited capital. Compared
with the enormous scale of the oil industry, the money backing the Surge startups
is tinythe amount raised by the first
class of companies was hardly enough to
drill and complete two shalewells.
To support the 12 ventures in Surges
second class of startups, the programs
backers put up USD 1.2 million, with onethird of the money covering the operation
and the rest supporting the companies
it pays for them to live in Houston for 3
months and to work together in an open
space where each startup has a cubicle.
The goal is to create a supportive environment offering useful information, advice,
and inspiration through what can be a
lonely process of starting a business.
Improving the Odds

Ariel Sella, a Surge alumni starting a business accelerator in Israel, talked at
Surge Day about the opportunities created by the growing number of sensors
transmitting data over the Internet.
many triesand an idea that does not

work often inspires another. Ariel Sella,
the founder of one of the Surge startups
that stopped, was inspired to create an
accelerator called Azimpo in Tel Aviv,
Israel, to support entrepreneurs working to help a range of industries operate
moreefficiently.
While he is not targeting the energy
industry, there is a common link. Both
accelerators see opportunities in the
exploding number of devices connected
over the Internetmany of which have
sensorsknown as the Internet ofthings.
80
The challenge for those picking

ideas is finding ones offering the upside
that comes with disrupting the status
quo, but there is a limit to the pace of
change. Sometimes being early is the
equivalent of being wrong, Coburn said.
Raising Money
During Surge Day in late May, members

of the class made their pitch to investors gathered in an auditorium in the
House of Blues in downtown Houston.
The production made full use of the lighting and sound system normally used for
Surge is modeled after similar ventures

in tech centers such as Californias Silicon
Valley. The goal is to improve the odds for
new ventures by offering support, training, and advice from experienced mentors, some of whom are investors and
many working for major oil companies.
The process often leads to changes in
plans, sometimes complete changes in
their direction, which is known as apivot.
Among the mentors is Gene Ennis,
best known as the chief executive officer of Landmark Graphics during a rapid
growth period for the innovative seismic
software company that was acquired by
Halliburton. He was involved in several
startups and knows the odds.
Based on data gathered in the venture capital (VC) business, out of every 10
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 7:54 AM
THE INTERNET OF THINGS

The number of devices connected to the Internet has surpassed the number of people globally and is rising rapidly,
according to a study by the network equipment company, Cisco. It predicted more than 6.5 connected devices per
person in 2020, ranging from smartphones to oilfield sensors.
Year
World Population
(billion)
Connected Devices
(billion)
Connected Devices
Per Person
2003
6.3
0.5
0.08
2010
6.6
12.5
1.84
2015
7.2
25
3.47
2020
7.6
50
6.58
Source: Cisco 2011.
startups backed by investors, one will be a

home run, Ennis said, adding, It might
be one in 20 depending on the economy
and other things we cannotcontrol.
These entrepreneurs were looking for investments from venture capital
firms that have become more selective.
If you look at the ones VCs out there
today are doing what they are doing in
a much more conservative way than 20
years ago, Ennis said.
On Surge Day, the goal for nearly
all the members of the class was raising
money. The one exception was Waveseis.
The two-person company is built on an
algorithm created by Mark Roberts, a
former BP research geophysicist. That
formula is the basis for a program
designed to create more accurate images
showing oil and gas targets beneath thick
salt layers.
So far, Waveseis business plan has
required a huge investment of Roberts
time, but not much cash. Mark plans
to use this to get into the business, said
Ennis, who is advising the venture. The
goal is to use revenue from the first program to pay for a series of improved seismic processing software designed with the
needs of a select group of clients in mind.
What Roberts lacks is access to the
field data to demonstrate he can create more accurate images of reservoirs
below salt layers. So far, the evidence is
limited to images created with synthetic
data sets simulating conditions found in
the ground. Roberts knows from experi-
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
ence that they are always clearer than the

real data.
Getting the data he needed to create the image and verify its accuracy
was more difficult because Roberts also
needed permission to show the results to
potential customers. It is always a challenge to get oil companies to show their
data outside their walls, he said.
Oil and Software
The Surge portfolio ranges from monitoring the health of drilling equipment to
creating online markets.
Secure Noks business plan is based
on a different way of sniffing out malicious software (malware). Its focus is
machine performance, analyzing the data
seeking early indications that a drilling rig
control system has been compromised.
Most defense programs are designed
to block incoming threats by identifying
programs with code associated with malware. Malware creators can stay ahead
of those defenses by changing the code
used, with programs now able to reside
unnoticed for years beforeattacking.
The monitoring and detection part
of Secure Noks programs looks for trouble in a different wayby comparing its
current performance with data gathered
during tests of the machines, as well as
performance expectations learned from
on-the-job performance as observed by
an artificial intelligence program.
Basically, our solution does not
look for known attack patterns and sig-
natures, which is the common way used

in existing monitoring solutions, said
Siv Hilde Houmb, chief executive officer of Secure Nok. Our solution evaluates the machine behavior to determine
whether it is normal or potentially
abnormal based on observations during testing, which is updated in the field
using artificial intelligence methods to
better observe and evaluate behavior.
This diagnostic program is at the
heart of Secure Noks incident-handling
tool that advises operators on how to
handle potential problems in a way that
is supposed to minimize interruptions,
Houmb said.
The drilling market is our first
focus, as we have partnerships and experience in this space, Houmb said. She
said the company is collaborating with
an equipment maker on pilots with a
goal of building its software into the
companysequipment.
RunTitle is looking to change the
way companies buy mineral rights, with
an online market for title information.
Based on their experience working as
landmen, the companys two founders
created what they hope will be the online
market for reports previously done to
identify mineral rights owners.
The goal is an easy-to-use database
covering all the significant unconventional oil and gas plays in the US, offering data for a fraction of the cost of hiring someone to go to a courthouse and
do a title search. The reports are from oil
81
8/19/13 10:12 AM
11000
Distance, m
10500
11000
3400
Depth, m
3400
3800
3600
4000
4000
3800
Depth, m
10000
3200
3000
Distance, m
10500
3600
10000
3200
3000
Waveseis RIT image
RTM image
To demonstrate what its seismic processing software can do, Waveseis created these two seismic images. The one on
the left was processed using a program that removes noise and distorts images beneath thick layers of salt. The one on
the right used reverse time migration. It is seeking actual data to prove that its images are more accurate.
companies and regional title databases

seeking to resell old research.
As of June, the company said it had
exclusive rights deals covering 15 million
acres, or about 10% of its goal. While
the reports are often several years old,
updating those is far less work than starting from scratch.
When 50 people have done this
title search before, there is no reason
for me to go back to 1830, said Charlie Wohleber, chief operations officer
forRunTitle.
Similar thinking went into the creation of the online metals exchange,
known as Gmex. Jeremy Chapman said the
idea for the company goes back to his time
working as a metals buyer in the oil industry spending his days making one-on-one
contacts with suppliers to fill orders.
Gmexs goal is a widely used competitive online market in which approved
vendors bid on orders from industrial users. The challenge is to generate
enough volume, so buyers and sellers
can rely on it for a wide range of orders,
which will justify the fees it needs to support the business. While in the Surge
82
program, Chapman said they worked to

make it more user-friendly, inspired by
the car sales website Autotrader.com.
Skynet Labs is seeking to use cloud
computing and the Internet to provide
people in oil and gas with simple mobile
ways to analyze data, said Tim Duggan,
chief executive officer of Skynet.
The first products for the company
were applications used by drillers built
on widely used American Petroleum
Institute formulas. The products include
security to ensure this work cannot be
viewed by network hackers, Duggan said.
To grow, he is looking at sources of more
widely used industry formulas, such as
widely used ones in SPE papers, which
Skynet can turn into an app in a relatively
short period of time.
The company is working to move
beyond a single-user customer base of
engineers to operators and service companies by offering a cloud-based system.
Now in testing, this system will allow
multiple users to log in and view each
others work in a secure online space
where access is controlled and the work
is saved.
Tim Duggan, chief executive officer of

Skynet Labs.
An early inspiration for Duggan was

seeing how his father, a drilling engineer, would do calculations using a personal computer or paper, pencil, and a
calculator. Duggan said, The oil and
gas drilling industry is drowning in
Excel spreadsheets.JPT
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/19/13 10:12 AM
PRODUCTION RECORD
Saudi Aramco Oil and Gas Production

Hits Historic Levels
Abdelghani Henni, Middle East Writer
Saudi Arabian state oil company Saudi

Aramco released its annual report in
July, noting that it produced more oil
and gas last year than ever before, and
also raised its technical capabilities to
new heights as part of it 2020 strategy to be a fully integrated energy and
chemicalscompany.
The companys annual production
exceeded 3.4 billion bbl of oil, equal
to an average of 9.5 million BOPD. In
2012, we produced 3.479 billion bbl of
oil, about one in every eight bbl of the
worlds crude oil production and the
most we have produced in a single year
in our history, Saudi Aramco said in its
annual report.
During 2012 at Saudi Aramco, we
responded to market conditions by producing crude oil at the highest level in our
companys history, said Khalid Al-Falih,
president and chief executive officer of
Saudi Aramco.
The companys recoverable crude oil
and condensate reserves have reached
260.2 billion bbl, while gas reserves
reached 284.8 Tcf. Our maximum daily
sustainable crude oil production capacity remained at 12 million BOPD during
the year. Our gas plants now have a gas
processing capacity of 13.23Bscf/D, the

report said.
Gas production has also reached historic levels, as the company reported an
8.3% increase in output in 2012 compared with 2011 at about 3.924 Tcf/yr,
the highest in Saudi Aramcos history.
The company also said that it produced
482 million bbl of natural gas liquids
including 82 million bbl ofcondensates.
Crude oil exports increased 100million bbl in 2012 to 2.52 billion bbl, with
53.2% exported to the Asia Pacific region
followed by 16.5% to the United States,
7.4% to the Mediterranean region, and
5% toEurope.
In 2012, Saudi Aramco focused on
exploring frontier areas in the Red Sea
and complex reservoirs onshore and
offshore. Discoveries included one oil
fieldAslafand two gas fieldsShaur
and Umm Ramilbringing its total oil
and gas field discoveries throughout its
history to 116. Shaur was its first discovery in the marine portion of the Red Sea.
Unconventionals Advance
Through exploration for unconventional resources, Saudi Aramco determined that substantial shale and tight gas
Table 1crude oil production in 2012

Year
Annual Production
(billion bbl)
Daily Production
(million BOPD)
2008
3.27
8.92
2009
2.89
7.91
2010
2.89
7.91
2011
3.31
9.07
2012
3.48
9.51
Source: Saudi Aramco
86
SaudiOilSept.indd 86
deposits exist in Saudi Arabia, and made

its first foray into the unconventional gas
arena. The Unconventional Gas Initiative will contribute to our strategic intent
in many ways. Saudi Arabias supplies
of unconventional gas will supplement
its supplies of conventional gas resources and help meet the kingdoms energy
demand, the annual report said.
The company appraised three prospective areas for unconventional gas: the
northwest, South Ghawar, and condensate-rich shale gas in the Rub al-Khali.
These efforts were aimed at acquiring
the data needed to help us make the
right decisions as to where and how to
invest in order to accelerate the delivery
of commercial production of unconventional gas, Amine N
asser, senior vice
president for upstream at Saudi Aramco,
said during a recent industry conference.
These projects are part of our wider
Unconventional Gas Initiative, which
became fully operational in 2012 when
multidisciplinary teams, made up of
Saudi Aramco professionals and industry
experts with extensive experience, began
appraisal drillings.
The report said that although the
cost of delivered unconventional gas is
higher than most conventional gas, it
is an important strategic and economic choice for the company. Unconventional gas will serve as a substitute for
higher value liquid fuels such as diesel,
residual fuel oil, and crude oil that would
otherwise be used to fuel the electric
power and water-desalination needs of
the kingdom.
Boosting Tech Capabilities
Saudi Aramco knows that further developing its fields, increasing recovery
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 3:44 PM
rates, and exploring unconventional

resources will require significant technological advancement. Saudi Aramco
is boosting technological capabilities as
part of its 2020 strategy, aimed at ensuring the long-term sustainability of its
production. It is investing more in developing new technologies as well as investing globally in startup and high-growth
companies with technologies of strategic
importance to Saudi Aramco.
The company inaugurated a new
research and development center last
year at Delft University of Technology
in the Netherlands. The center, a part of
Aramco Overseas Company, concentrates
on geophysics research in near-surface
characterization and data-driven seismic
processing, and is one of two research
groups closely aligned with auniversity.
The second research group, at King
Abdullah University of Science and Technology, undertakes projects related to
biocapture, robotics, fuel technology,
chemicals, membranes, and advanced
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
SaudiOilSept.indd 87
Table 2Production in 2012

Crude
Production
3.5 billion bbl
Daily Crude
Production
9.5 million BOPD
Annual Gas
Production
3.9 Tcf
Daily Gas
Production
10.7 Bcf/D
Proven Crude
Reserves
260.2 billion bbl
Proven Gas
Reserves
284.8 Tcf
Source: Saudi Aramco
materials. The company is also opening

several centers around the world in 2013.
In 2012, Saudi Aramco also reviewed
all of its reservoirs, meticulously identifying the crude oil mix that it will be
able to deliver in the short and long term.
Going forward, we will rely on this information to help us continue to introduce
new best-in-class reservoir management

principles for optimal development and
production, it said.
Saudi Aramco was granted 58 patents last year, a record for the company.
Examples of the innovations include
technologies involved in locating and
plugging lateral wellbores, flare stack
and combustion apparatus, automated real-time reservoir pressure estimation, advanced petrophysical algorithms
fostering the shift from well-centric to
model-centric workflows, and an illuminated directional wind speed indicator.
New technologies were enablers for
the redevelopment of the Manifa field,
the fifth-largest oil field in the world,
in which five patents were filed, including one for the ILOOP that has potential
international application for enhanced
environmental cleanup. The company
said it reduced sulfur dioxide emissions
from its facilities by almost 70% between
2005 and 2012, despite the ongoing
expansion of its operations. JPT
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Industry/Research Collaboration Advances

Oil and Gas Technologies
Mika Stepankiw, JPT Staff Writer
Universities are working hard to anticipate the demand for new technologies and techniques as oil and gas
exploration delves into deeper waters, harsher climates, and unconventional fields. Numerous universities
are teaming up with the industry on projects such as modeling software, heavy oil technologies, fines
migration, drilling technologies, and foam to enhance oil recovery and production. Through these research
collaborations, more efficient methods are being developed to meet the increasing global consumption of
oil and gas.
Petroleum Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, US

The Petroleum Engineering Department at the Colorado
School of Mines has a large undergraduate and graduate
enrollment and a healthy mix of multidisciplinary research
efforts including the Unconventional Natural Gas and Oil
Institute; the Marathon Center of Excellence for Reservoir
Studies; the Fracturing, Acidizing, Stimulation Technology
Consortium; the Energy Modeling Group; the Unconventional
Reservoir Engineering Project; and the Physics of Organics,
Carbonates, Clays, Sands, and ShalesConsortium.
One area of focus is the Routes to Sustainability for
Natural Gas Development and Water and Air Resources
project in the Rocky Mountain Region. For this project, the
Petroleum Engineering and the Civil and Environmental
Engineering departments are working with their sister
school, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and seven
other institutions in a Sustainability Research Network
(SRN) funded by a 5-year grant from the US National Science
Foundation. The mission of the SRN is to provide a logical,
science-based framework for evaluating environmental,
economic, and social trade-offs between the development
of natural gas resources in the Rocky Mountain Region and
the protection of water and air resources. The SRN plans
to give the results of these evaluations to the public in a
way that will improve policies and regulations governing
oil and gas exploration. Our goal is to find the balance
between maximizing the development of natural gas and
oil resources for the benefits of short-term reduction of
CO2 emissions from power generation and transportation,
national energy independence, and national job growth,
while minimizing damage to water and air resources and
risks to human health, said Joseph N. Ryan, faculty director
of the researchproject.
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The departments first task in the SRN is to assess the

isolation of aquifers from gas- and oil-producing formations.
The department is evaluating the possibility of losing isolation
because of damage to the cement sheath from pressure
testing, casing integrity tests, and other operations during
the production cycle of an oil or gas well over a life cycle
of up to 50 years. Using finite element analysis, the SRN is
assessing the effects of the change in the in-situ stresses acting
upon a cemented wellbore to determine the improvement or
degradation of the annular seal during the wells life cycle.
The second task is to estimate the probability of casing
and cement sheath failure in production, intermediate,
and surface casing strings. As part of this task, the SRN will
review the consequences of failures, including volumes and
nature of gases and fluids released into an aquifer. They will
focus on black swan eventsunlikely, worst-case scenarios
and the possible effects of such an event.
The third task is to examine the possibility of fracturing
into aquifers using fracture modeling software in addition
to finite element modeling. The modeling will involve
combinations of casing, formation barriers, and annular
cement to determine if fractures could propagate into
freshwater aquifers under a variety of conditions. The fourth
task is to evaluate procedures used by various operators
and service companies for green vs. nongreen well
completions. The results will determine the best practices for
green completion operations.
The broader impacts of this effort include improved
public understanding of the effects of natural gas
development on water and air resources and better decision
making regarding the local effects as well as regional and
national benefits of natural gas development.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 3:46 PM
Institute of Drilling Engineering and Fluid Mining,

Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany
The Institute of Drilling Engineering and Fluid Mining
High-pressure/high-temperature return
at the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg was
permeability tests and drilling fluid management
established in 1962 within the Faculty of Geosciences,
Energy fluid storage in salt caverns and porous
Geoengineering, and Mining. The university offers a
reservoirs
German diploma, which is equivalent to a master of
Stimulation technologies
science, in petroleum engineering. The curriculum covers
CO2 storage in porous reservoirs
engineering fundamentals and advanced subjects in
Enhanced oil recovery (e.g., microbial, thermal, and
drilling and production engineering as well as renewable
acoustic wave stimulation)
and sustainable energy, including geothermal energy
andunderground storage of hydrocarbons, hydrogen,
Other major research interests include geothermal
andCO2.
reservoirs and unconventional reservoirs, such as shale gas
The institute has strong ties with the oil and gas industry and submarine hydrate reservoirs.
through its association with oil, gas, and
service companies and SPE chapters in
Europe and around the world. Before
joining the institute, faculty members
work for a number of years to gain
real-world experience in the industry.
They maintain their connection with
the industry by consulting, working on
joint researchprojects, and teaching
shortcourses.
The institutes laboratories
are fully furnished with the latest
equipment and software. They have
specialized equipment and advanced
experimental setups for research in
drilling fluids, oilwell cementing,
data transmission in boreholes, and
enhanced oil recovery. In particular,
the laboratories have sophisticated
equipment (Fig.1) to measure the
permeability of very tight rocks, such
as caprock and rock salt, which are
harder or more resistant rock types
that often lay over a less resistant
rocktype. In 1919, the university took
over the Reiche Zeche mine, which
consists of 14 km of passageways
at depths up to 230 m. The mine
provides unique opportunities for
research projects that require these
specificconditions.
Current R&D projects include the
following:
Ultrahard materials for drill bit
bodies and cutters
Seismic prediction while drilling Fig. 1The laboratories in the Technical University Bergakademie
Freiberg in Germany are furnished with the latest equipment and
Hydraulic and acoustic highsoftware. The equipment, shown above, can determine the tightness of
speed telemetry systems
a rock in unsteady-state conditions to simulate field environments.
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Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, UK
Research activities at the Institute of Petroleum Engineering at Heriot-Watt
University span from exploration, through reservoir appraisal and development,
to production technology. Within this broad spectrum, the institute is divided
into 12 distinct research themes, each represented by an interactive grouping
of academic/research staff and postgraduate research students. These themes
include carbon capture and storage; enhanced hydrocarbon recovery; petroleum
geoscience; and gas hydrate, flow assurance, and pressure/volume/temperature.
The Gas Hydrate, Flow Assurance, and Phase Equilibria Pressure/Volume/
Temperature Research Group consists of approximately 20 staff and students
with expertise in chemical engineering, petroleum engineering, geology, and
physics. The research team seeks to address various aspects of flow assurance
and gas hydrate development, including kinetic hydrate inhibitor evaluation;
avoiding gas hydrate, wax, and asphaltene problems in petroleum production
and transportation; design and testing of low dosage hydrate inhibitors, hydrate
monitoring, and early warning systems; and the natural occurrence of hydrates
in sediments.
The research groups activities are supported by the Centre for Gas Hydrate
Research, which was formed in 2001, and the Centre for Flow Assurance Research,
which was formed in 2007. The research group collaborates with the industry
through four joint industry projects and receives support from 25 companies.
Current research is being developed through five ongoing projects: gas hydrates
and flow assurance; reservoir fluid studies; low dosage hydrate inhibitors;
hydrate safety margin monitoring and early detection systems; and impact of
common impurities on CO2 capture, transport, and storage (a collaborative
project with Mines ParisTech). Research activities have resulted in generating new
understanding, novel experimental data, and extensive test facilities including five
well-equipped laboratories and have led to more than 200 papers published in
peer-reviewed journals and presented at technicalconferences.
To address the increasing industrial demand for technical support,
Hydrafact, a Heriot-Watt University spin-off company, was formed in 2006.
The company is based in the Heriot-Watt University Research Park and has
eight full-time and seven part-time staff members. Results of studies by the Gas
Hydrate, Flow Assurance, and Phase Equilibria Pressure/Volume/Temperature
Research Group have led to the development of three tools that are being
commercialized by Hydrafact under license from the university: HydraFlash,
HydraChek, and HydraSens.
HydraFlash consists of comprehensive software capable of modeling a wide
range of scenarios in reservoir fluid systems. It can be used by chemical, process,
reservoir, and production engineers for a variety of phase equilibrium calculations,
covering systems with and without gas hydrates. The software is currently
being used by a large number of oil, gas, and service companies. HydraChek
and HydraSens are being developed as joint industry projects. HydraChek
monitors hydrate safety margins by providing the actual concentration of hydrate
inhibitor and salt through downstream analysis of produced water samples. This
information can be combined with operating parameters to allow the operator to
continuously monitor and optimize inhibitor injection rates. HydraChek has been
successfully deployed in many fields around the world, and an online version
is being developed by Hydrafact with support from Total E&P UK and Statoil
Petroleum. HydraSens detects early signs of hydrate formation in hydrocarbon
production systems by analyzing compositional changes in produced gas to
detect small amounts of hydrate forming.
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Petroleum Engineering Program, Petroleum Institute,

Abu Dhabi
Although the Petroleum Engineering Program at the Petroleum Institute is
relatively new in the region, it has become regionally and internationally
known because of its staff, undergraduate and graduate students, and
state-of-the-art laboratories. Accredited by the Accreditation Board for
Engineering and Technology, the program offers master of science and master
of engineering degrees and has plans to offer a doctoral program in the
nearfuture.
The program offers a wide range of technical courses with a focus on
applied engineering and decision-making tools to prepare students for global
challenges in the energy sector. It benefits from direct access to real field
data and examples through its strong affiliation with Abu Dhabi National Oil
Company (ADNOC), and other companies, including Shell, BP, Total, and Japan
Oil Development.
The program has several major projects with industry collaboration,
one of which is the Smart Water Flood Project funded by Abu Dhabi Company
for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) and led by Hemanta Sarma. The aim
of this project is to increase oil recovery by altering formation wettability
through modification of the chemical composition of injected water in the
reservoir. A second project is the Transition Zone Project led by Hadi Belhaj.
Also funded by ADCO, the project focuses on investigating variation of oil
saturation distribution in a complex reservoir and determining the optimum
well completion mechanism. Funded by ADNOC and Total, Ali AlSumaiti leads
a project on digital rock physics in collaboration with Mohammed Sassi from
Masdar Institute. The main objective of the study is to develop a digital rock
physics database for Abu Dhabis reservoirs to be used as a tool to generate
accurate, fast, and cost-effective special core analysis properties. This tool
will ultimately support reservoir characterization and simulation models.
The program also collaborates on projects with partner universities, notably
Stanford University, the Colorado School of Mines, The University of Texas at
Austin, and Rice University.
Continuous global growth in the demand for oil and gas has ignited the
drive to explore new opportunities and develop new technologies to meet the
demand. Carbonate reservoirs in the United Arab Emirates are categorized as
high-pressure/high-temperature with great heterogeneity and high acidity. As
a result, ADNOC, in conjunction with the institute, will build a new research
and development (R&D) center called the Petroleum Institute Research Center
with the aim to solve these issues. The advanced laboratories have been
designed to meet all technical challenges and health, safety, and environmental
compliance. The research center is expected to be complete by the end of 2014.
With this addition, the institute expects that the number of funded projects
will increase rapidly as will the number of scholars with extensive industry and
academic experience to work on these projects.
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Australian School of Petroleum, University of Adelaide, Australia
The Australian School of Petroleum at the University of
Adelaide offers education, training, and research in the
upstream petroleum industry. The program integrates
petroleum engineering, petroleum geoscience, and business
decision making in one school. Its current research
interests are
Reservoir characterization, modeling, and
simulation
Unconventional resources, completion, and
production techniques
Fundamentals of flow in porous media, enhanced
and improved oil recovery, formation damage, and
geomechanics
Sedimentology and stratigraphy
CO2 sequestration
Economic evaluation
Decision making and risk analysis
The school has well-established links with
the petroleum industry and related government
organizations. It is a node of the Cooperative Research
Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies, a collaborative
research organization focused on CO2 capture and
geologicalsequestration.
One of the schools key research projects involves fines
migration-assisted technologies for oil and gas recovery.
Very small particles called fines can drift and block the
permeability of the well. This process, known as fines
migration, may result from an unconsolidated or unstable
formation or from using an incompatible fluid that frees
the fines. This is the most common formation damage
mechanism that often challenges the economic viability

of a petroleum development project and is often found in
production and injection wells, drilling, waterflooding, and
pressure depletion with watersupport.
Although the current theory of fines migration in
petroleum reservoirs predicts a delay in the permeability
response, laboratory tests demonstrate an instant response.
A new theory developed at the school involves the maximum
fines retention function and drift velocity for fines that
model fines mobilization and allows for laboratory coreflood
test interpretations, well impairment history analysis,
and well behavior prediction. Laboratory and field case
studies validate the new approach. The reservoir studies
use corefloods, tests with rock fragments and cuttings,
Z-potential, and scanning electron microscope data along
with well history for reliable prediction, prevention, and
mitigation of productivitydecline.
Traditionally, fines migration has been avoided
because of its potential for having a harmful effect on
reservoir permeability. However, research suggests that
the permeability decline effect provides a relatively simple
method for water mobility control. The university proposes
deliberately freeing natural reservoir fines by injecting
low-salinity/high-pH water, which results in a decline in
the reservoir permeability and a subsequent deceleration
of the injected or invaded water. Laboratory and field data
cases demonstrate a threefold to fourfold reduction in
produced water and a 5% to 10% increase in the recovery
of oil and gas (Fig. 2), indicating that natural or deliberately
induced fines migration may significantly assist in oil and
gasproduction.
Recovery Factor
50%
SPE9, Water Injection

SPE9, Polymer Injection
5-Layer Reservoir, Induced Fines
SPE9, Induced Fines
25%
5-Layer Reservoir, Water Injection

5-Layer Reservoir, Polymer Injection
0%
0.2
0.4
0.6
Pore Volume Injected

Fig. 2A new approach to fines migration by the University of Adelaide in Australia shows an improvement in oil
recovery and water mobility control when fines are deliberately freed.
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Center for Petroleum Studies, State University of Campinas, Brazil
(e.g., geometry of bodies and architecture) scale, which
includes the petrographical characterization of field rock
samples and outcrop analogs; field investigation of electric,
radioactive, and magnetic properties; and diagenesis, the
study of chemical and physical changes to sedimentary rock
after formation.
Research in well engineering covers basic and
applied aspects of wellbore stability, directional wells
and new techniques for drilling, well control and safety,
operability of ships and drilling rigs, and production
in harsh environmental conditions. Computational
geophysics research involves the development and
application of methods and algorithms linked to wave
propagation. Seismic processing algorithms, such as image
reconstruction and inversion of seismic data, are being
studied to better understand reservoirs.
Oil and gas production research facilities, such as
CEPETROs multiphase flow lab, focus on new techniques and
technologies that improve production and flow assurance
in onshore and offshore fields, while reducing cost through
intelligent production management (Fig. 3). The main
research projects in oil and gas production cover artificial
lift, separation of gas/liquid/solid, use of intelligent systems,
and the production and transportation of heavy oils.
CEPETROs research in reservoir engineering involves
characterizing rocks from basic and special core analysis
with a focus on fluid displacement mechanisms and their
effect on reservoir rocks. Analysis is conducted through
CEPETROs reservoir characterization research focuses laboratory assessments of the rock fluid properties as well
on investigating reservoirs from the microscopic scale (e.g., as reservoir modeling through deterministic and geostatistic
petrophysical features) to the macroscopic and megascopic
techniques. Reservoir simulation research is a primary
focus, covering topics ranging from
history matching core displacement
studies to field production data.
In the study of subsea systems,
operability issues in offshore rigs,
subsea operations, and information
processing during the drilling and
intervention phases are studied.
CEPETRO aims to investigate and
develop techniques related to
subsea production systems, subsea
equipment, subsea pipes, and
production risers. CEPETROs previous
R&D projects have included the
design and installation of template
manifolds, floating production systems
with dry completion, numerical and
experimental analysis of hybrid riser
Fig. 3The multiphase flow laboratory at the State University of
system dynamics, and the life of steel
Campinas in Brazil is used for research on improving oil production and
catenary risers.
flow assurance and reducing cost in onshore and offshore fields.
The Center for Petroleum Studies (CEPETRO) was founded
in 1987 in a partnership between the State University of
Campinas and Petrobras to address an increasing demand
for R&D in the oil and gas industry. With this partnership,
the Department of Petroleum Engineering in the
Mechanical Engineering College was also created along with
a masters-level petroleum engineering program.
CEPETRO facilitates collaboration between academic
and industry professionals to find new knowledge and
technologies for the sector and to contribute to the scientific
and technological development of the oil and gas area in
Brazil. During its 25 years of existence, CEPETRO has carried
out more than 300 applied research projects and has had
approximately 390 masters and doctoralgraduates.
Research is the flagship of CEPETRO activities. The
center currently has 140 researchers with expertise in
oil and gas involved in 65 financed research projects.
The centers infrastructure includes six laboratories on
its premises and another 13 laboratories in institutes
and colleges around the campus. Current research is
concentrated in six fields in
Reservoir characterization
Well engineering
Computational geophysics
The production of oil and gas
Reservoir engineering
Riser systems
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Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate Studies and Research in Engineering,
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Historically, the Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate
Studies and Research in Engineering (COPPE) program at
the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) has had a
strong R&D emphasis on petroleum engineering. The first
joint effort between Petrobras and UFRJ was formed in 1977;
this was invigorated by the discovery of huge deepwater
reserves along the Brazilian coast and more recently in the
pre-salt layers. These efforts have led to the creation of jobs
and consulting projects as well as the production of several
scientific articles. This year marks the 10th anniversary
of the installation of the worlds largest ocean basin
laboratory, which was designed and built by COPPE. The
COPPE petroleum interdisciplinary program draws upon
talent from several departments and laboratories including
petroleum systems, offshore systems and structures,
structural integrity, materials, dynamic positioning,
submarine robotics, and computationalsystems.
Petrobras America, a subsidiary of the Brazilian state
oil company, has been operating the Cascade and Chinook
fields in the US Gulf of Mexico. The company deployed one
of the worlds deepest floating production, storage, and
offloading (FPSO) facilitiesthe BW Pioneer FPSO facility.
During the review of these field developments, what was
then known as the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management,
Regulation, and Enforcement required the continuous
monitoring of mooring tension in the mooring system. To
meet these requirements, Petrobras America contracted a
primary monitoring system to directly measure mooring
system tensions using gauged pins. However, an alternate
monitoring system was also required to indirectly determine

tensions by measuring the FPSOs turret.
For this, Petrobras contracted COPPE/UFRJ to help
develop the alternate system. Calibrated numerical models
were created to represent the mooring system, which were
then analyzed by the numerical solver SITUA/Prosim, which
was developed by COPPE and the Laboratory of Computer
Methods and Offshore Systems in partnership with
Petrobras (Fig. 4).
Considering the platform would incorporate a
supervisory system to collect and store measured data
(e.g., positions, tensions, sea states), the tasks assigned to
COPPE/UFRJ included adapting the analysis software for
offshore use and real-time processing of the measured data
to calculate and record the line tensions.
The most critical task was building an accurate
model of the existing mooring system. The tension data
from the primary monitoring system was unreliable, so
alternative calibration procedures were devised. Remotely
operated vehicles were employed to provide position
data for selected points along the lines, and this data was
post-processed into an accurate representation of each
mooringline.
Because it needed to operate continuously and without
supervision, the alternate monitoring system had to also
be fault-tolerant. Currently, the system is operational
and working without interruption. The model can also be
recalibrated and updated with new data from surveys or
direct monitoring of the mooring systemtension.
Fig. 4The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro developed a numerical model to monitor
tension in mooring systems for floating production, storage, and offloading facilities.
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Department of Petroleum Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

The Department of Petroleum Engineering at Delft
University of Technology joins its fellow geoscience
disciplines (geology, geophysics, petrophysics,
geoengineering, and resource engineering) in the
Department of Geoscience and Engineering. The petroleum
engineering group has seven staff members, 25 to 30
doctoral and postgraduate students, and approximately 50
masters-level students.
The department collaborates with subsurface
disciplines, mathematics, and mechanical and chemical
engineering. Cross-disciplinary research efforts include
the close integration of geology, data assimilation, and
reservoir engineering in reservoir characterization and
the use of geophysics to monitor recovery processes and
production from unconventional hydrocarbon resources.
The department emphasizes innovation and complex
experimental studies through its large and well-staffed
laboratory. The department focuses on optimization and
control theory applied to reservoir management, enhanced
oil recovery, numerical methods of reservoir simulation,
well productivity, and fundamental fluid and transport
properties in porous media.
The department has been a pioneer in the
development of concepts and techniques for closedloop reservoir management also known as smart fields
(Fig. 5). This involves optimization under uncertainty,
data assimilation, and model order reduction. Two
of the programs key innovations in this field are the
introduction of adjoint-based, robust, and two-level
techniques for smart well optimization and of model
reduction techniques. Moreover, we have established
fundamental insights in controllability, observability, and
identifiability of reservoir flow, which serve as the basis for
better algorithms for data assimilation and model-based
production optimization, said Jan Dirk Jansen, professor
of reservoir systems and control.
In the field of enhanced recovery, foam piques the
interest of Delft University researchers. The complex
fundamental properties of foam make it an excellent
candidate for improving sweep of injected gas and
production of oil during injection of gas for enhanced
oil recovery, said Bill Rossen, professor of reservoir
engineering and chair of the petroleum engineering
program. Foam research is divided into two themes:
(1) developing improved experimental methods for its
characterization and (2) improving modeling of the process
based on insights from the characterization methods.
Researchers develop more sensitive techniques for
displacement experiments with foam using computerized
tomography (CT) scans (Fig. 6). A new way to interpret
CT data compared with prior techniques reduced the
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Fig. 5The algorithm for model-based production

optimization developed by the Delft University of
Technology in the Netherlands shows an improved net
oil production while yielding significantly less water.
estimate of the flowing gas fraction in foam by a factor

of 70. Researchers also explore the effect of oil on
foam in oil recovery. Chemically enhanced oil recovery
research includes experimental studies and modeling
of polymer flooding, alkali-surfactant polymer, and
alkali-surfactantfoam.
As part of a major CO2 storage research program in the
Netherlands, the department focuses on transportation,
reactions, phase changes, and petrophysics as well as how
they affect the feasibility of CO2 sequestration in aquifers
and depleted oil and gas fields. Micro-CT visualization
revealed that during CO2 injection, salt precipitates at
discrete locations distributed throughout the porous
sample. Precise measurements of contact angles show that
CO2 replaces water as the wetting phase on coal and some
other minerals at high pressure.
Fig. 6Students
prepare for
a coreflood
analysis using
a computerized
tomography
scanner to
study foam for
enhanced oil and
gas recovery
at the Delft
University of
Technology in
the Netherlands.
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Department of Petroleum Engineering, Curtin University, Australia
Located in Perth on the west coast of Australia, Curtin
Universitys Department of Petroleum Engineering is at the
hub of Australasian oil and gas production. The department
offers bachelors, masters, and doctoral programs in
petroleum engineering and will begin a new 2-year master
of subsea engineering program in 2014.
Closely aligned with the oil and gas industry, the
department has a number of research projects with
international companies including Chevron, Shell,
Woodside Petroleum, and Apache as well as local
Australian companies including Buru Energy and
NorthWestern Energy. The department also works
alongside the government, mostly with improving CO2
geosequestration (retention and wettability issues) and
future drilling technologies. Curtin has four main areas of
research in
Reservoir engineering for understanding pore

fluidflow
CO2 geosequestration
The geomechanics of fracture systems associated
with shale gas
High-speed, low weight-on-bit drilling technologies
In association with Deep Exploration Technologies

Cooperative Research Centre concepts, the department
anticipated that a future need of the industry is for a fast but
inexpensive, high-technology drilling rig that can later be
applied to shale gas fields and conventional oil and gas fields.
The rig would need a small footprint to initially support rapid
hole drilling to 2 km in the hard rock industry. To meet this
need, Curtin developed a concept using a high-speed (6,000
to 8,000 rev/min), low weight-on-bit coiled tubing rig with
a high-speed downhole turbine driving a
diamond impregnated bit. The coiled tubing
is made of a light composite material and
has imbedded sensors along its length for
logging while drilling. The rock is inserted
into a true triaxial cell that takes a maximum
of 1 cu ft of rock to provide realistic
downhole stress conditions (Fig.7).
A CO2 storage project funded by the
Australia National Low Emission Carbon
Scheme seeks to better understand the
effects of supercritical CO2 on the reservoir
and shales for long-term storage of CO2. Of
particular significance to carbon storage
is the issue of imbibition and wettability,
which allows improved reservoir simulation
of the process. In parallel with this project,
a second project seeks to understand the
dehydration effects of CO2 when in longterm contact with impervious shale. The
shale is exposed for 3 months or longer
and then studied with micro CT scans (and
other microscopy methods). This makes
it possible to see if there are any changes
in their mineralogy. Linked with this
project is the National Geosequestration
Laboratory, which gathers data from a
test well 2 hours south of Perth close to
Harvey, known as the Collie-South West
CO2 Geosequestration Hub. Curtins hope is
to turn the Collie-SW Hub into an industrial
geosequestration site in a number of years
Fig. 7The initial high-speed laboratory test rig at Curtin University in
provided that tests of the reservoir and its
Australia is used for conducting experiments in coiled tube drilling by
seal prove it is a suitable site for long-term,
using a high-speed downhole turbine, a diamond impregnated 2-in.
industrial CO2 storage.
bit, and low weight-on-bit characteristics.
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School of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, University of Alberta, Canada
Strong support of industry and government funding for
petroleum engineering research in the School of Mining and
Petroleum Engineering at the University of Alberta enables
researchers to work on real-world, diverse problems faced by
the oil and gas industry. These problems include oil recovery
from tight and shale environments by nonaqueous methods
such as electromagnetic heating, thermodynamics, and
multiphase behavior as applied to numerical modeling of
thermal oil recovery; mature field development; formulating
improved data-driven modeling approaches based on
artificial intelligence and fuzzy logic for the design and
optimization of thermal recovery processes; and use of
nanometal particles in steam and solvent heavy oil recovery.
Tayfun Babadagli, professor of petroleum engineering
and industrial research chair in unconventional oil
recovery at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Council, is leading the Enhanced Oil and Gas Recovery
and Reservoir Characterization research group to develop
ecologically viable technologies for extracting or tapping
unconventional oil reserves and resources (Fig. 8).
Although Albertas oil sands contain an estimated 1.84
trillion bbls of crude bitumen, only about 9% (168.7billion
bbls) is recoverable using current technology. While
proven technologies are successfully applied in surface
extraction of mined oil sands, in-situ recovery of heavy
oil and bitumen is still a considerable challenge due to
the technological and economic problems. Through the
development of advanced and optimal in-situ recovery
techniques under this research program, the potential to
recover the remaining reserves is within reach.
The program is designed to deal directly and
extensively with ways to improve the efficiency of the
depletion of heavy oil and bitumen from sands and
carbonates by proposing and testing new methods and
materials that do not exist in Canada. The research
program has gained industry support from Schlumberger,

Canadian Natural Resources, Suncor Energy, Statoil, Husky,
Petrobank Energy and Resources, Sherritt International,
Apex Engineering, and Pemex.
The program is twofold. First, it focuses on improving
existing technologies through experimental and
computational modeling and visualization. Fundamental and
applied research is conducted to understand the underlying
mechanisms and physics of heavy oil and bitumen
recovery processes, namely, thermal and solvent injection
techniques. This leads to identifying the reasons for low
recovery and inefficiency of these applications, including
advanced techniques such as microscale (e.g., pore) to
gigascale (e.g., field) experimental and numerical modeling
studies. Second, the program tests new materials, tools,
and techniques to improve the efficiency of the thermal
and solvent processes with a focus on fluids/materials that
respond electrostrictively and magnetostrictively, and react
to changes in temperature or pressure. Under the research
program, new techniques also include nonclassical modeling
approaches such as random walk, particle tracking, and
other types of pore or larger scale stochastic techniques.
The school also collaborates with German scientists
through the Helmholtz-Alberta Initiative program.
This project aims to assess the feasibility of obtaining
geothermal energy for oil sands extraction and processing
in the Fort McMurray area of Alberta. A hot dry rock
system in granitic basement rock needs to be developed
by hydraulic fracturing at a depth of 4000 m to 5000 m
and injecting cold water to generate 60C hot water for oil
sands extraction for a period of a few decades at the rate
of 50 L/sec. This research involves understanding fracture
development in granitic rocks and optimizing the depth and
injection rate to minimize cost while maintaining a given
production temperature and hot water rate.
Fig. 8The Enhanced Oil and Gas Recovery and Reservoir Characterization research group at the University
of Alberta in Canada is working on ecologically viable technologies for extracting crude bitumen from
Albertas oil sands. The team is led by professor Tayfun Babadagli, front center.
100
RD Roundup.indd 100
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 3:48 PM
Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Department, Middle East Technical University, Turkey
The Middle East Technical University created the Petroleum
and Natural Gas Engineering Department in 1964. The
department has six full-time and eight part-time faculty
members as well as 10 research assistants. Four laboratories
are available for training and research: Core Analysis
and Sample Preparation Laboratory, Pressure/Volume/
Temperature Laboratory, Drilling Fluid Testing Laboratory,
and Enhanced Oil Recovery Laboratory. The departments
research interests include
Drilling fluids models
The environmental effects of drilling and production
activities
Reservoir characterization using CT scans
Underground storage of natural gas
CO2 storage
Natural gas hydrates
While natural gas hydrates and CO2 storage have been
studied independently for a long time, the department
combined these two topics in one research project that
focuses on the interaction between methane hydrates and
CO2. The project aims to replace methane trapped in hydrate
cages with injected CO2 to produce methane without affecting
the stability of the hydrate structure. Other suggested
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
RD Roundup.indd 101
methane hydrate production techniques are based mainly

on the dissociation of hydrates by reducing the pressure or
increasing the temperature; however, these techniques add
the risk of uncontrolled dissociation, which could lead to
instability in the hydrate-bearing sediment.
Deep sea sediments have suitable conditions for the
formation of hydrates. The Black Sea is one of the major
identified natural methane hydrate regions of the world and
may be a good candidate for CO2 storage in hydrate form. To
determine the interaction of CO2 and methane hydrates and
the sealing efficiency of methane hydrates, the department
performed various tests including methane hydrate formation
in both bulk conditions and within sand particles. A geological
structure must contain an impermeable barrier to store huge
amounts of CO2. Because of this, the department studied
the sealing efficiency of methane hydrates and the longterm fate of the CO2 disposal under the methane hydrate
zone by measuring the permeability of unconsolidated sand
particles for several values of methane hydrate saturation
and by injecting CO2 into the methane hydrates. The results
suggest that the presence of hydrates sharply decreases the
permeability of the unconsolidated sand system, while hydrate
saturations greater than 50% may act as an impermeable layer.
101
8/12/13 3:48 PM
MANAGEMENT
Top Trends in the Oil and Gas Sector

Adi Karev, Global Head Oil and Gas, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
The past 12 to 18 months witnessed the

oil and gas sector drifting away from
the rule of certainty and the return of
uncertainty. Uncertainty required more
focus, deeper analysis, and operational
determination. Deloittes fourth annual
Oil & Gas Reality Check identifies five
trends and delves into the fundamental
characteristics of each trend: the supply, demand, macroeconomic, regulatory, cost, price, and competitive behavior factors.
Given the rise of shale gas resources and with new countries entering the
ranks of net energy exporters, some are
proclaiming that a global revolution is
at hand with fundamental shifts in energy geopolitics because of newly found
energy independence. A closer examination of the development progress of
countries with major shale gas resources reveals a vastly different picture.
Countries that can commercially produce unconventional and conventional gas seek higher returns by exporting
or planning to export liquefied natural
gas (LNG) to Asia Pacific countries that
have historically agreed to long-term
purchase contracts at oil indexed prices.
The expected increase and diversity of
LNG supply is spurring transition away
from oil price indexation, and the rise
of gas hub and hybrid price indexation.
The discovery of new resources
across various geographies coupled with
the technical challenges of developing
those resources are softening governments resource policiesan indicator
of the degree of resource nationalism.
As production efficiency rates and capabilities improve, will resource nationalism surge or will it pale in comparison
102
ManagementSept.indd 102
with the competitive rise of national

oil companies (NOCs)? How companies
react to and deal with this uncertainty is
changing the notion of a singular business model and giving rise to different
business models.
Each of these questions and the five
trends are discussed below:
1. Shale gas: A global or
regional resource?
The success of North American shale
gas has created interest in duplicating the results in other countries. An
April 2011 study by the US Energy
Information Administration estimated
that world shale technically recoverable resources outside the United States
were 5,760 Tcf, sparking widespread
interest in international shale. However,
the presence of shale gas in the ground
does not guarantee the unearthing
of a fortune.
Given the greater technical challenge of shale gas and higher development costs, exploitation of shale
resources is not easily replicable in other
markets. While some countries are making progress, over the next 1 to 3 years it
will remain a largely regional resource
with an uncertain impact on the global market beyond this timeframe. Four
countries with major shale gas reserves
are representative of the distinct phases
of resource development:
Poland is struggling to maintain
its nascent shale industry
because of a recent reduction
in the estimated size of its shale
resources, as well as declining
company interest resulting from

poor initial results.
China is working diligently
to provide an investment
environment conducive to
shale development, but given
rising domestic demand and
a challenging exploration
environment, it is unlikely to
become a shale exporter.
Argentina experienced positive
production results and is aiming
to scale up production, bringing
new shale basins online.
The United States is home to the
shale gas revolution and poised
to globalize its shale resources
through exports of LNG,
assuming favorable exporting
regulation and permitting.
The US shale gas revolution was 3
decades in the making with incremental progress through multiple stages of
development. Although other countries
want to replicate this success, there is a
long road ahead before they can begin
to see the gas volumes and supporting
infrastructure needed to dramatically
lower domestic natural gas prices and
create export opportunities.
While countries may enter into
partnerships with shale-experienced
companies, limitations such as low
reserves per capita and steep demand
curves can constrain countries from
becoming shale exporters. Apart from
the US pending exports of LNG, the
reality is that shale will continue to
be a regional resource with limited
impact on the global market over the
shortterm.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 7:52 AM
USD/MMBtu
MANAGEMENT
24.00
22.00
20.00
18.00
16.00
14.00
12.00
10.00
8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030
Brent price parity
Henry Hub
Japan LNG (spot price)
UK NBP
Source: Deloitte MarketPoint analysis, April 2013 reference case.
Fig. 1Projected prices vs. oil price parity (real 2012 USD/MMBtu).
2. LNG pricing: The end of oil

indexation?
The prospect of the US globalizing its
shale gas resources through LNG exports
has many observers (especially in Asia)
hopeful that US LNG indexed to Henry
Hub prices will also be exported, eroding the hold of long-term LNG contract price formulae indexed to crude
oil. Anticipation has been heightened
in light of recently announced Henry
Hub-linked contracts, which could see
Japans import prices in the range of USD
10 to USD 12 per MMBtu compared with
USD 14 to USD 16 per MMBtu for oillinked contracts. Rather than signaling
a complete switch from oil to gas hub
indexation for long-term LNG contracts
in Asia Pacific, these recent developments reflect a transition toward a pricing spectrum in which oil indexation is
one of several pricing mechanisms used.
As diverse supplies enter the LNG
market over the next 12 months and
beyond, the dynamics of supply competition will drive transition away from
contracts purely indexed to oil prices
and at high oil-price parity in the Asia
Pacific region. There will likely be a
mixture of contract pricing approachesprices set lower from oil price parity, hybrid indexation, and full gas hub
104
indexation. Oil indexation will likely remain the predominant pricing

approach because of concerns over gas
and oil price volatility risk, and also
because suppliers are able to offer value
through nonprice terms, such as quality
flexibility, supply security, and equity
stakes in upstream projects.
US LNG exports will be a major
catalyst for the transition away from
oil price indexation. It is important to
stress that not all US-sourced LNG will
be indexed to Henry Hub prices, and
pricing will be dependent on project
economics, buyers price sensitivity, and
the relative competitive landscape. On
the other hand, even limited US LNG
export volumes indexed to Henry Hub
will be sufficient to spark competitive
pricing among existing and up-andcoming LNG suppliers (Fig.1). For Asia
Pacific buyers, supply competition and
diverse pricing approaches are welcome
new developments.
3. Resource nationalism:
Entering a period of low tide?
The recent discovery of new resources and burgeoning demand in developing countries have produced a new crop
of supply and demand centers, making
industry players sensitive to a poten-
tial rise in resource nationalism. We

define resource nationalism through
types of government resource policies
and fiscal regimes. A countrys resource
policy is either protective (no equity
participation to low equity stakes in
production sharing contracts) or open
(concessioncontracts).
Our analysis highlights the partnership opportunities between international oil companies (IOCs) and NOCs,
moving beyond the adversarial aspects
that colored IOC/NOC relationships in
the past. Not only are we seeing beneficial, mutually dependent relationships between IOCs and NOCs, but
NOCs themselves are playing a quasigovernmental role in terms of infrastructure development and transference
of technical expertise to smaller players in the value chain. This interplay
has, in some cases, benefited IOC partners by deepening relationships in the
countries where they operate and better assist them to withstand resource
policychanges.
Resource nationalism should
diminish in the short term until producing countries advance in resource development, bringing a rise in restrictive
resource policies in the long term.
The US, Canada, and Australia
leading the development of unconventional oil and gas resourceswill con-
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 7:52 AM
MANAGEMENT
tinue with concession contracts and a

stable taxation regime in the near term,
but are already indicating a future direction of restrictions on exports and foreign directownership.
China, Argentina, and Brazil seek
foreign partnerships to support development of newly found resources, balanced with the need to build local technical capacity and capabilities. The
countries will likely change contracting terms to extract a higher share from
their resources, as new technologies
mature and infrastructure is built.
Traditionally dominant producing
countries, such as Russia, Libya, and
Nigeria, will seek foreign investment
and expertise to reverse declining rates
of production in the short term, but they
will likely shift toward majority government ownership as economic production and cash flow improve in the
longterm.
4. NOCs: Capturing the
playing field
The rise of NOCs as competitors of IOCs
is a persistent narrative. NOC acquisitions reached an all-time high of
USD 112.6 billion in 2012, representing
225% year-on-year growth, and constituting 45% of total exploration and
production (E&P) mergers and acquisitions by value. NOCs are taking larger
risks by buying undeveloped acreage
and fields and initiating large acquisitions in countries such as the US, Canada, and Mozambique, showing that
NOCs are taking the long view and globally expanding for local resource development and technical capacity building.
A deeper look shows that NOC
expansion is differentiated by oil vs.
gas. Oil has been the predominant target
of investment and E&P efforts, but this
will shift to gas in the long term because
of changes in end-use demand, resource
availability, and price. Understanding
how NOC expansion is differentiated by
oil vs. gas will help define how IOCs and
NOCs compete and collaborate.
106
In the short term, NOCs will continue to dominate production in the

conventional oil sector, and in the long
term will increase investment in the gas
sector, especially in offshore gas, shale
gas, and LNG. Not only do these developments impact IOCs, but also oilfield
services majors that are emerging as
important partners for NOCs, even as
some NOCs are starting their own oilfield service subsidiaries. Overall, the
industry will benefit as NOCs continue
to invest heavily in research and development, expand in services capability,
and transfer technical expertise to local
development ofresources.
5. Managing market
complexity: Revolution of the
play, evolution of the player
It is no secret that, in recent years, oil
and gas companies have been forced
into more challenging operating environments and become subject to more
volatile and complex market conditions,
rendering the term business as usual
obsolete. Vertical integration was traditionally seen as the winning business
model, but the industry has become
more fractured with diverse business
models and nontraditional players,
debunking the notion of a singular winning business model.
The types of business models
employed by oil and gas companies also
differ between sectors. The gas sector,
which is dominated by growth in unconventional resources and LNG, is facing
greater vertical integration, while the oil
sector is undergoing disintegration and
specialization for smaller players.
In the past few years, four US integrated companies announced or completed spin-offs of their downstream
businesses; supermajors saw profit increases in their downstream segments because of asset rationalization
and growth in chemicals; and NOCs
continued to expand their global refining capacity. These varying paths show
that vertical integration as the win-
ning business model in the oil sector

is far from becoming a market certainty. Instead, vertical integration largely
depends on aligning company strengths
and strategy with local and global market conditions.
In the gas sector, marked by growth
in unconventional resources and LNG,
the entrance of nontraditional players,
downstream players moving upstream,
and large integrated companies expanding throughout the value chain seem to
show that vertical integration is the winning business model. In the oil sector,
vertical integration works for companies with significant economies of scale
especially considering the high capital
intensity for unconventional E&P and
LNGprojects.
Overall, the industry has evolved to
where market complexity is best managed through diversification of companies, partnerships, and flexible businessmodels. JPT
The full report that served as the
basis for this article can be found at
www.deloitte.com/energy.
Adi Karev is the global head of oil and

gas at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. He
has more than 25 years of advisory
experience, including many years in
Asia and multicountry advisory work
for international energy and resources
clients. Karev is responsible for the
strategy, objective, execution, and
operational management of Deloitte
Touche Tohmatsus Global Oil and Gas
Practice. His advisory work is focused on
executive-level problem solving, including
large strategic and transformational
initiatives involving cultural, economic,
and operational challenges of mergers
and global expansions, and other major
external events.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 2:51 PM
TECHNOLOGY
Erik Vikane, SPE, is

production manager
for Statoil Oseberg
East. He has 22
years of diverse
experience in the
upstream business.
Starting as a well-intervention engineer,
Vikane then moved to reservoir
engineering and has held various
positions within reservoir management,
early-phase development, exploration,
and business development. His areas
of interest include reservoir and asset
management, reservoir performance
and monitoring, and integrated
uncertainty studies. Vikane holds an
MS degree in petroleum engineering
from the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology. He serves
on the JPT Editorial Committee and
the SPE Reservoir Management 2020
ForumCommittee.
Recommended additional reading
at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
OTC 23949 In-Well Distributed FiberOptic Solutions for Reservoir Surveillance
by Juun van der Horst, Shell, et al.
IPTC 16866 Uncertainty Assessment of
Production Performance for Shale-Gas
Reservoirs by Jiang Xie, Chevron, et al.
IPTC 16505 Joint Inversion of
Time-Lapse Crosswell Seismic and
Production Data for Reservoir Monitoring
and Characterization by Lin Liang,
Schlumberger, et al.
108
1RPMFocusSept.indd 108
reservoir
performance
andmonitoring
All models are wrong, but some are useful.
This famous quote by George E.P. Box illustrates both the challenge and the
appreciation of building models. Models are needed to predict future performance of
an oil or gas field, but, at the same time, models are often biased and inaccurate.
Most investment decisions rely on our ability to predict and to plan the future,
and, in that regard, nothing is more important than accurately modeling future well
performance. Consequently, three of the four chosen papers address different aspects
of this topic.
The first paper deals with ways to improve the accuracy of our predictions. It
offers readers a rigorous checklist of questions to ask when developing reservoir models to guide them toward less-biased forecasts.
The second paper deals with how we develop reservoir-prediction tools for asset
management. Active reservoir management addresses the almost impossible task of
maximizing short-term production while optimizing ultimate recovery. However, to
evaluate the different reservoir-drainage mechanisms, one needs good models, and
the more advanced the drainage mechanism is, the more crucial the model is. As an
illustration, it is much easier to model a pressure-depletion scheme than to try to predict a secondary- or tertiary-recovery process. Assessing and quantifying uncertainties as part of the modeling are becoming increasingly common, and this practice
improves the ability to develop a sound decision basis.
The development of unconventional shale resources has further challenged the
ability to predict performance. Prediction of such unconventional resources does
not necessarily require new tools but rather new assumptions and new experiencebased calibration methods. More than 40% of the papers I reviewed for this issue
dealt with prediction of production and ultimate recovery of shale gas, which clearly illustrates the increasing interest in this topic and the current challenges faced by
todays petroleum engineers. The lack of history and of good analogs further adds to
the uncertainty. I am sure that more research and the availability of more production data will enable us to develop better models and, hence, increase the accuracy
of our predictions. The third paper provides great insight into our understanding
ofunconventionals.JPT
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 2:37 PM
New Time/Rate Relations for Decline-Curve

Analysis of Unconventional Reservoirs
his work presents a workflow

that can be used to analyze and
forecast time/rate data of wells in lowand ultralow-permeability reservoirs.
The key component of the workflow
is the application of diagnostic plots
to guide the analysis and obtain
model parameters for a given time/
rate relation. Once model parameters
are obtained, the production profile
is extrapolated to yield the estimated
ultimate recovery (EUR) at a specified
time limit or abandonment rate.
Introduction
The starting point for any discussion of

decline-curve analysis for unconventional reservoirs must be an understanding
that no simplified time/rate model can
accurately capture all elements of the
performance behavior. In addition, no
time/rate model can be expected to provide a completely unique forecast of future performance or prediction of EUR.
It is important to be both realistic and
practical when attempting to characterize production performance from systems where the permeability is on the
order of 10500 nd, the reservoir flow
system is complex, and, although the
induced-hydraulic-fracture system enables (and dominates) the production
performance, there is only the most rudimentary understanding of the flow structure in the fracture systems.
It is essential that these conditions
be established as a starting point. Not
doing so will inevitably lead the analyst
to interpretations based on incorrect assumptions as well as significant bias. The

authors assert that reasonable production forecasts and predictions of EUR can
be made, but not in isolation, not solely
looking at the data and the selected time/
rate model. The analyst must consider
the nature of the resource and the significant uncertainty in the ability to apply
simple time/rate relations to a very complex reservoir system.
As an attempt to better represent the
general character of time/rate production data for a multistage-fractured horizontal well in an ultralow-permeability
reservoir, numerous authors have developed time/rate relations using certain
specific bases to represent a particular
scenario. These developments include
the following time/rate relations:
Power-law exponential model
Stretched exponential model
Logistic growth model
Duong model
Each relation has its own strengths,
and, at this time, each of these models can be described only as empirical;
there is no direct link with reservoirengineering theory other than through
analogy. For example, the stretched exponential model is essentially an infinite
sum of exponentials, so the concept of
adding the rigorous exponential decline
to some limit could be thought to define this model. The power-law exponential model is essentially the same as the
stretched exponential model (except for
a constraining variable). At this point, we
This article, written by Editorial Manager Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper
SPE 162910, Practical Considerations for Decline-Curve Analysis in Unconventional
ReservoirsApplication of Recently Developed Time/Rate Relations, by V. Okouma,
SPE, Shell Canada Energy; D. Symmons, Consultant; N. Hosseinpour-Zonoozi,
SPE, and D. Ilk, SPE, DeGolyer and MacNaughton; and T.A. Blasingame, SPE, Texas
A&M University, prepared for the 2012 SPE Hydrocarbon Economics and Evaluation
Symposium, Calgary, 2425 September. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
must assume that the proposed models

are essentially empirical in nature, and
generally center on a particular flow regime or characteristic behavior.
Field-Case Data
The complete paper focuses on three different shale-gas plays in North America.
Field A is a formation composed of siltstone and dark gray shale, with dolomitic siltstone in the base and fine-grained
sandstone toward the top. The formation of interest is a highly unusual, approximately 400- to 500-ft-thick package
of continuous gas-charged siltstone with
very small clay content. The formation is
slightly overpressured, with pressure gradients of approximately 0.500.65 psi/ft.
Time/Rate-Analysis Relations
The basic definitions and diagnostic

functions for time/rate analyses and a
complete summary of the time/rate-
analysis relations are given in the complete paper.
These relations are formulated as diagnostic relations and are used to make
long-term rate projections and predictions of EUR. As a matter of process,
any given relation is calibrated against
the historical rate and cumulative data
by use of a diagnostic approach and the
model extrapolations are made only
from the end of the data (not the body
of the data). This approach ensures
that all extrapolations/projections are
based on the actual (not model-based)
cumulativeproduction.
Diagnostics and Characteristic

Time/Rate Behavior
This section presents characteristic time/

rate performance from six wells from
Field A. The primary objective of this effort is to demonstrate time/rate behavior
of the wells with diagnostic plots without performing analysis corresponding
to the play. Diagnostic plots used are
For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
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109
8/12/13 2:13 PM
Diagnostic Plots: Field A (All Wells)

Production-Rate vs. Time Plot (Log-Log Scale)
Gas-Flow Rate, qg, Mscf/D
100
105
101
102
103
Data Functions
Well A.1
Well A.2
Well A.3
Well A.4
Well A.5
Well. A.6
104
103
102
100
104
105
104
103
101
102
103
102
104
Time, days
(Gas-Flow Rate/Gas Cumulative Production), qg /Gp, 1/days
Fig. 1Production-rate/time plot for all wells (Field A).

(Gas Rate/Gas Cumulative Production) vs. Time Plot (Log-Log Scale)
100
100
101
102
103
Data Functions
Well A.1
Well A.2
Well A.3
Well A.4
Well A.5
Well. A.6
101
104
100
101
102
102
103
103
104
100
101
102
103
104
104
Time, days
Fig. 2Diagnostic plot: Gas-rate/gas-cumulative-production vs. time plot for

all wells (Field A).
the reciprocal of the loss ratio (D) and

time (t), Arps decline exponent (b) and t,
beta function () and t, and production
rate/cumulative gas production (q/Gp)
and t. Diagnostic plots have significant
importance in our applications because
these plots provide direct insight into our
understanding of decline behavior.
110
RPM162910.indd 110
For example, a straight-line trend of

the continuously evaluated D-parameter
[i.e., D(t)] vs. t on log-log scale could indicate power-law behavior that would yield
the power-law exponential (or stretched
exponential) function when the ordinary
differential equation is solved for the rate
function. Furthermore, from the contin-
uous evaluation of the b-parameter, it is

possible to verify the hyperbolic behavior. A constant b-parameter trend [i.e.,
b(t)=constant] suggests hyperbolic ratedecline behavior; as such, it is possible
to establish the value of the b-parameter
in the hyperbolic equation. In addition,
a constant -derivative trend verifies
power-law flow regimes such as linear or
bilinear flow. These diagnostic functions
involve differentiation of time/rate data,
and, therefore, errors and inconsistencies associated with the data are amplified in the derivative functions, which
may prevent the analyst from establishing a unique interpretation.
The diagnostic plot of q/Gp and t
provides significant diagnostic value because it does not include any numerical
differentiation and it serves as a complementary diagnostic tool to the other diagnostic plots.
From another point of view, diagnostic plots are particularly useful while
performing time/rate analysis. Each
time/rate relation has more than two
model parameters, and it is generally
difficult to establish the values directly
from production-rate data. In particular, the log[D(t)] vs. log(t) plot is used to
establish the power-law exponential and
stretched exponential model parameters
because these parameters are related to
the slope and intercept values on this
log-log plot.
The general procedure for time/rate
analysis is to use the diagnostic plots and
calibrate the parameters of each model
simultaneously until an optimum (visual) match is achieved. This procedure ensures consistency in the analysis and prevents the nonuniqueness associated with
simply matching a single variable.
Fig. 1 presents the time/rate behavior of six wells producing in Field A.
Shallower decline behavior and dominantly power-law-type flow regimes are
observed throughout the production history. When data are plotted on the log[qg/
Gp]-vs.-log(t) plot (Fig. 2), almost all
wells exhibit almost identical behavior.
The log[D(t)]-vs.-log(t) data are presented in Fig. 3 (left axis), and it is observed that certain (but not major) differences exist in the slope values of these
wellswhich could be related to production characteristics. The log[b(t)]-vs.log(t) data are presented in Fig. 3 (right
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 2:13 PM
101
though some of the conclusions are qualitative, the diagnostic analysis of multiple
data functions ensures a degree of impartiality in the data analysis and helps at
least qualify the uncertainty in the data,
which will likely ensure that the relevant
time/rate models are isolated and that
analyses/interpretations are not attempted that are not justified by the quality or
nature of the given production data. It is
critical that data diagnostics always be
performed as part of the data analysis.
102
Application of the Time/

Rate Models to Long-Term
Production Data

Computed D- and b-parameters vs. Time Plot (Log-Log Scale)
100
100
101
102
103
104
101
b-parameter
D-parameters, 1/days
101
102
103
104
100
100
D-parameter
Data Functions
Well A.1
Well A.2
Well A.3
Well A.4
Well A.5
Well. A.6
101
102
103
103
104
Time, days
Fig. 3Diagnostic plot: Computed D- and b-parameters vs. production time for
all wells (Field A).

-derivative vs. Time Plot (Log-Log Scale)
-derivative, dimensionless
100
101
101
102
103
Data Functions
Well A.1
Well A.2
Well A.3
Well A.4
Well A.5
Well. A.6
100
101
102
100
104
101
100
101
101
102
103
102
104
Time, days
Fig. 4Diagnostic plot: -derivative vs. production time for all wells (Field A).
axis), and these data suggest that the hyperbolic relation could be applicable to
model time/rate data because the b(t)
trend exhibits a very gradual decrease
with time and a constant b-value in the
23 range could reasonably be assumed.
Fig. 4 presents the log(-derivative)-vs.log(t) trend, and a stabilization of data
with time is seen, which suggests that
112
RPM162910.indd 112
power-law-type flow regimes are being established. In conclusion, the diagnostic interpretation of time/rate behavior of wells
in Field A was concluded with the remark
that time/rate behavior is being dominated by power-law-type flow regimes.
It is vitally important that the analyst realize that the diagnostic analysis of
production data is a necessary step. Al-
This section presents a (relatively) longterm production-data example to investigate the model behavior of the rate-
decline equations considered in this
paper. This field example consists of a
tight gas well from east Texas (permeability values are estimated to be approximately 7.0 d) with more than 7 years
of production. For this case, we demonstrate our diagnostic interpretation procedure for matching data and performing forecasts.
All of the matches of production
data with each of the time/rate models
are performed simultaneously by calibrating model parameters. Each of the
models matches the data for the entire
production history. In particular, when
the log[qg/Gp]-vs.-log(t) plot is used, the
models can approximate the data trend
to a considerable extent (this rendering
tends to force the impression of a linear
relationship, which may not be the case).
Therefore, the differences in EUR will be
dictated by the long-term model behavior. This is where the differences between
the time/rate models begin to emerge.
Duongs model is based on the linear
behavior of the (qg/Gp)-vs.-t data trend
(on a log-log scale), whereas the powerlaw exponential, the stretched exponential, and the logistic growth models exhibit nonlinear behavior. This difference in
behavior dictates that the EUR estimates
from Duongs model should (almost always) be higher than those for the other
models. On the other hand, when a terminal decline is imposed on the modifiedhyperbolic relation, deviations from
the linear trend are readily evident. The
modified-hyperbolic and power-law exponential have specific terms that limit
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 2:13 PM
the overestimation of EUR; the Duong

model does not. It is worth noting that,
for methods that use a terminal decline,
the prescribed value of the terminal decline is generally an arbitrary number
and is often based on a companys policies or the analysts experience.
In the log[D(t)]-vs.-log(t) and
log[b(t)]-vs.-log(t) data trends for this
case, very strong linear behavior of the
computed log[D(t)]-vs.-log(t) trend is
observed, confirming the applicability
of the power-law exponential time/rate
model. It can be argued that the latesttime data are affected by the numericaldifferentiation algorithm and, therefore,
can be considered as artifacts. Nevertheless, each of the models matches the data
trends in its own fashion. The b(t) trend
does appear to be decreasing with time
(with the noted artifact near the endpoint); and an average b-value can be inferred from the data behavior.
Time/Rate Analyses
This section presents the time/rate

analyses for each well from a given shale
play using each of the models specified in
this study. It is worthwhile to note that
each of the matches produced in this
study are based uniquely on the authors
interpretation of the model behavior. Different matches with different EUR values
can be obtained with similar probability.
It can be suggested that wells in
Field A exhibit power-law-type flow regimes. The basis for this observation is
mainly the signature on the time/rate
plot and the near-constant character (at
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
RPM162910.indd 113
intermediate and late times) exhibited by

data on the log[(t)]-vs.-log(t) plot. And
almost all of the models match the entire
production history. Differences in model
behavior are observed at late times in the
forecasts. Generally, EUR values from the
power-law exponential and stretched exponential relations are very similar (as
should be expected). These models, along
with the results from the logistic growth
model, tend to provide conservative estimates across all wells. The Duong model
and the modified-hyperbolic model always yield the highest EUR predictions.
A 5% terminal decline rate is used for the
modified-hyperbolic relation.
In this particular case, the logistic
growth model appears to provide the
most conservative EUR values (quite
comparable to those of the power-law
exponential and stretched-exponential
time/rate models).
the power-law exponential model and the

logistic growth model shows the EUR predictions to be similar, with the exception
of a single case. The next comparison considers the power-law exponential model
and the modified-hyperbolic model. Some
consistency in predicted EUR values is
seen, but a couple of outliers suggest that
the modified-hyperbolic relation will always predict higher EUR values compared
with the power-law exponential model.
Finally, a comparison of the power-law
exponential model and the stretched exponential model reveals essentially identical results, somewhat as expected because these relations have essentially the
same mathematical formulation. Almost
identical results are seen because these
two equations are essentially the same relations, and wells in Field A are not (yet)
in the boundary-dominated flow regime
after only a few years of production.
Interpretation of Results
Conclusions
The authors interpretation of results

is provided by presenting comparison
plots of the EUR values predicted by
each model. The power-law exponential
model results were chosen as the reference results, and EUR values from different models were compared with respect
to those from the power-law exponential model. This approach should identify
any correlations or inconsistencies that
might exist between models.
For Field A, the EUR values from
the Duong model are consistently higher
than the results from the power-law exponential model. A comparison between
The D/t-and-b/t diagnostic plot

should be the primary diagnostic
used to establish the well/
reservoir character.
The qg/Gp-vs.-t diagnostic plot
is an excellent data check, and
should be incorporated into
diagnostic analyses; however, the
expectation of a completely linear
trend is optimistic.
The -derivative/t diagnostic
plot is useful for establishing
the existence of power-law
flowregimes. JPT
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8/19/13 10:15 AM
Instilling Realism in Production Forecasting

Decreases Chances of Underperformance
cross the exploration-andproduction (E&P) industry, several

projects were found to underperform
compared to the promises made at the
time of project approval. Investment
decisions on upstream projects rely,
to a large extent, on the robustness of
the predicted ultimate recovery and
production forecast associated with
the chosen development concept.
The challenge for the E&P industry is
to ensure that project approvals are
based on realistic forecasts. This paper
is intended to increase awareness
among the forecasters and the decision
makers about pitfalls associated with
productionforecasting.
Introduction
Recently, an industry benchmarking

consortium concluded the sixth of a series of long-term production-attainment
studies, which reviewed the production profiles of 59 major development
projects from different hydrocarbon-
producing regions. For the majority of
projects, the forecasted production was
not achieved.
Long-term production forecasts
drive company strategies, portfolio
choices, sales contracts, and shareholder promises. Too-optimistic forecasts result in underdelivery of projects, with
often far-reaching consequences. Too-
pessimistic forecasts, on the other hand,
may lead to undervaluation of assets.
The value of an E&P company is
determined by the projects in its port
folio. Some projects in the portfolio are
mature, with a high likelihood of progressing to the execution phase. Some

projects are immature, with a possibility of not reaching the execution stage
(Fig. 1). For each project, it is important to have a realistic expectation of
costs and production because this is the
basis for business decisions. In addition, for immature projects, it is equally important to estimate the likelihood
that they will be executed. At the portfolio level, this probability of maturation will lead to an appropriate expectation of expenditure and production and
will facilitate the making of higher-level
business decisions. Fig. 2 shows how
to combine realistic forecasting at the
individual-project level and at the portfolio level.
Pitfalls of Production
Forecasting
Despite considerable efforts to prepare

production forecasts, gaps between the
forecast and the actual production are
found in the majority of cases. Analysis of these gaps for a large number of
E&P projects led to the following generic issues.
Unrealistic Forecast Assumptions. The
assumptions used for dynamic modeling are frequently either optimistic or
lack realism, resulting in over- or underprediction of the production profiles.
Project schedules often assume flawless
execution and ignore or underestimate
the potential for delays and unexpected events. In reality, however, there is a
high probability of activity slippage dur-
This article, written by Editorial Manager Adam Wilson, contains highlights of

paper SPE 155443, Instilling Realism in Production Forecasting: Dos and Donts,
by Avnish K. Rajvanshi, SPE, Robert Gmelig Meyling, and Danny ten Haaf,
SPE, Petroleum Development Oman, prepared for the 2012 SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas, USA, 810 October. The paper has
not been peerreviewed.
ing drilling, hookups, construction, and

startup of new facilities.
Forecasters quite often assume that
operational efficiency will be 100% during the life cycle of the project. However,
significant deferments are seen because
of operational constraints of various facilities during the production cycle.
Human Bias. Forecasters and decision
makers tend to be optimistic about their
capability to judge outcomes of uncertain situations. They may underestimate
uncertainty and have positively biased
expectations about the consequences
of their actions. They may ignore risks
or underestimate the effect of risks on
theforecast.
A tendency toward overconfidence
may lead to overlooking certain realities.
If a forecaster interprets data with a bias
to confirm preconceived notions, it may
result in an unrealistic outcome.
Reservoir-Modeling Limitations. Numerical simulation models approximate
the production mechanisms of complex
hydrocarbon accumulations. They suffer from inherent limitations in capturing the physical properties of reservoirs,
wells, and process facilities. Simplified models can overpredict production because actual geology and physics are often more complex than can
be captured realistically in a numerical model.
Instilling Realism
in Production Forecasts
The following suggestions are useful for

instilling realism in forecasts.
Realistic Forecast Assumptions. A
base-case forecast should be founded on realistic assumptions about reservoir performance, project schedule,
equipment availability, and production-
system constraints.
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RPM155443.indd 114
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
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Appraisal
Project I
Project G
Development
Planning
Immature
Execuon
Operaon
Project D
Project C
Project F
Project H
On Stream
Project E
Project A
Project B
Mature
Realistic forecasting for individual projects
Adjustment
represents
unmodeled risks
and uncertainties
Unrisked volume
Realisc forecast for porolio management

Fig. 1Representation of an E&P companys portfolio. For
each project, a realistic forecast must be prepared. For
immature projects, a probability of maturation is applied
to achieve a realistic forecast at portfolio level. Note the
size of the blue rectangle with increasing probability of
maturation.
Forecast Reality Check. One should

compare the forecasts with actual production on a regular basis. Reasons for
significant deviations from forecasted
performance should be investigated.
When comparing forecasts with actual
production, the essential first step is to
understand any deviation in the implementation of the plan.
Forecast assumptions and uncertainty ranges should be adjusted, taking into account the latest production
data, drilling results, and study outcomes. In the case of project slippage,
116
RPM155443.indd 116
Risked Volume (P50)
Maturity
Realisc forecast for the individual project
The base-case-activity schedule should not assume flawless execution across all project stages. Benchmarking the proposed schedule either
against an actual project track record
or against a schedule of analogous projects should guide timelines for facility
project completion, well delivery, and
production ramp up. When selecting a
base-case schedule, forecasters should
examine whether the project is realistically achievable in the defined period
and whether there is a 50% chance to
beat the assumed schedule.
Neither perfect operational performance nor high initial uptimes for major
new facilities should be assumed.
Maturation Risk
represents the probability that a
project will not be executed
Realistic forecasting for portfolio management
Investment
Decision
Exploraon
Unadjusted volume
Fig. 2Forecasting at individual-project and portfolio
levels. The full rectangle represents the unadjusted
forecasted volume from the forecasting tool. An
adjustment is made for elements of uncertainty, which are
not explicitly modeled. A further reduction is applied in
the case of immature projects to represent the risk that
the project will not be executed.
the forecast should be shifted toward

the future.
Adjustment of Production Forecasts.
Despite extensive technical work, production may be over- or underpredicted, particularly when forecasts are generated from dynamic models. Most of
the time, it is overpredicted. Therefore,
there is a requirement to adjust the simulation output to enhance the reliability
of the forecasts. In the majority of cases,
this adjustment will be a downward revision of the model forecast. However,
there may be instances where an upward
revision is needed.
Ideally, known uncertainties and
risks should be captured in the dynamic model. Downward adjustment should
address any residual risks and uncertainties that could not be covered in
themodeling.
Model-derived forecasts can be conditioned by use of one or more of the following techniques.
Calibration Against Historical Performance. Model predictions
should always be benchmarked against
available field-performance data to ensure that production forecasts are realistic. Appropriate adjustment factors can be estimated from the gaps
between simulation forecasts and actualperformance.

Actual production achieved for recent wells is generally an excellent
benchmark when forecasting initial rates
and ultimate recoveries for future wells.
Analogs. It is impossible to create a
100% accurate single deterministic reservoir model. Uncertainties in the production forecast will remain even when
an excellent history match is obtained.
Analogs can assist in estimating
well productivity and ultimate recovery for reservoirs with limited data.
When comparing recovery efficiencies predicted from a simulation study
with that of an analog, it is important
to identify those factors that control
reservoir behavior. Specific reservoir
classes can be inspected for possible
analogs, such as carbonate reservoirs
under waterflood.
Sensitivity Analysis. Sensitivity analysis is used to determine which
model parameters have the largest effect on the history match as well as
on the predicted production and recovery. Some sensitivity parameters
may have little effect during the historical period but have considerable
effect on long-term predictions. This
knowledge is valuable in estimating a
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/19/13 10:16 AM
range of uncertainty for the predicted

reservoirperformance.
Most likely, there are multiple parameters causing uncertainty in the forecast.
The following steps are recommended:
Identify the parameters
that have the largest effect
on the forecast. Check
whether these parameters are
interdependent. If parameters
areinterdependent, then a
simple product cannot be
applied and only the parameter
having the greatest effect should
be chosen.
Estimate forecast-adjustment
percentage for each of these
(independent) parameters. For
example, Adjustment 1=-20%,
Adjustment 2=-15%.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
RPM155443.indd 117
The total adjustment will

bethe individual adjustments
applied in succession. Using
the preceding example, the
total adjustment will thus be
calculated from (1-20%)
(1-15%)=68%, implying a
total adjustment of -32%.
Summary
To enhance the reliability of a production forecasts, the following suggestions

are offered:
Be realistic in assumptions.
Be aware of reservoir-modeling
limitations.
Carry out regular forecast reality
checks.
Adjust the simulation-derived
forecast by use of some of the
practical techniques explained

in this paper.
Get an external review of the
forecasts.
Do not use simulation output
without considering appropriate
adjustments. Never treat
simulation models as accurate
predictors of reservoir
performance.
Avoid bias in sharing
information, during analysis,
and when selecting and
reporting.
No arbitrary factor should
be applied to adjust the
forecasts.JPT
117
8/19/13 10:16 AM
Conformance Control and Proactive Reservoir

Management Improve Deepwater Production
he K field is one of the more

developed deepwater fields
currently going through development
in Malaysia. It has an excellent data
set from which to optimize future
development activities. In hindsight,
it is clear that much more complexity
exists than initially thought. As a
result, uncertainty does not necessarily
diminish at the start of production
and a comprehensive collection and
analysis of dynamic performance
data are required in order to optimize
recovery further.
Field Background
and Geological Setting
The K field is a deepwater development

located in 1330-m water depth offshore
Sabah, Malaysia. The field was discovered by the K-1 well drilled to a depth of
3600 m on 30 July 2002 and marked the
start of deepwater development in Malaysia. Five years after first oil, the field
has more than 30 active wells including
producers and injectors.
The K field is located in Block K
(Fig. 1) and comprises the outbound tract
of a major northwest/southeast-trending
foreland fold-thrust belt that extends
from Brunei to the Philippines and forms
the margin of the North Sabah trough.
Block K is dominated by fold-thrust
structures. The reservoir section of the
K field is dominated by mass-transport
SB-301
Kota Kinabalu
K Field
Sabah
Labuan Island
Fig. 1K field location in Malaysia.
deposits with interspersed complex

r eservoir-bearing turbidite deposits.
Subsurface
Development Challenges
The deepwater fields under development

and study phases in Malaysia are usually considered to have more or less similar subsurface complexities and uncertainties. Among these uncertainties are
level of heterogeneity, thinly-beddedto-blocky sands, compartmentalization,
fault intensity and behavior, reservoir
connectivity, pressure and flow communication across the field, injection requirement from early production time,
sand/fines production and reactive shale,

paper IPTC 16702, Deepwater Production Improvement Through Proactive Reservoir
Management and Conformance Control, by Rahim Masoudi, SPE, Hooman
Karkooti, SPE, Shlok Jalan, SPE, Anndy Arif, Keng S. Chan, SPE, and Mohamad
B. Othman, SPE, Petronas; and Steve Burford and Philip Bee, Murphy Sabah Oil,
prepared for the 2013 International Petroleum Technology Conference, Beijing, 2628
March. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
Copyright 2013 International Petroleum Technology Conference. Reproduced by
permission.
wellbore stability, and commonly inadequate available data at the time the development decision is made.
The typical type log in the K field
shows the reservoir has been subdivided into eight distinct reservoir packages
labeled H110 through H150. In this example, the gross reservoir thickness (h)
is 492 m with a net sand thickness of
50 m, giving an overall net/gross ratio
of 0.102. Apparent from the type log is a
large percentage of thinly bedded reservoirs, characterized to be beds that are
less than 30 cm thick.
Core data indicate that the thin beds
ranging from 2 to 30 cm in thickness have
porosity and permeability (k) comparable to those of the thick beds, an observation further supported by well-test kh
comparison with log-derived kh and numerous production-logging tool logs that
have been run in the field.
The initial field-development-plan
strategy was to develop the reservoir in
three packages (H110H115H120, H130
H136, and H140H145H150) with updip
production and downdip water injection.
Despite being in 1330-m-deep
water, reservoir horizons are as shallow
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JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
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Objectives:
Production
Issues:
Maximize
Production
Rates
Sand Management
Effective Reservoir Management
Maximize
Ultimate
Recovery
Achieve Downhole Sand Control
have always been and will remain a major

source of uncertainty in this deepwater
field development.
Injection-Performance Analysis
For analyzing water-injector performance,

the Hall plot and modified Hall plot in
combination with other plots such as the
MDT Pressure Fluid Tracers,
Surveillance Daily Production Testing
Hall-plot derivative, well-performancePTA
DHG Monitoring
and Drilling
Production Logging
Tools:
analysis plot, and injectivity index were
Data (Sw)
used. Because all the wells were equipped
Success of Wells:
P*/Pbar
VRR Targets Interference
Pressure and Rate Prediction,
with downhole gauges as part of the
Performance
Skin
GOR Limits Responses
Breakthrough Timing
Indicators:
reservoir-monitoring plan, the Hall plot
FBHP
(PTA and DHG)
Simulation History Match
was generated on the basis of both tubingOptimize Development
Operational
head pressure and bottomhole pressure.
Rate (Production/ Intervention/
Infill Drilling
Plan/Well Locations
Responses:
Injection)
Stimulation
The Hall plot is a diagnostic tool for
During Implementation
monitoring water-injection-well perforShort Term
Long Term
mance. Hall-plot analysis is conducted
by plotting cumulative water injected vs.
Fig. 2Reservoir-monitoring and -management workflow. DHG=downhole
cumulative injection pressure, either botgauge; VRR=voidage replacement ratio; GOR=gas/oil ratio; FBHP=flowing
tomhole pressure or tubinghead presbottomhole pressure; PTA=pressure transient analysis; MDT=modular
sure. A straight line with constant slope
formation dynamic tester.
indicates the well is injecting consistentas 2400-m true vertical depth subsea. timing of water breakthrough was one ly. Any deviation from the straight line
The development strategy had to employ of the key uncertainties because of un- indicates plugging or fracturing effects.
multiple drill centers to access the oil, known thin-bed extension and poten- In order to look at the Hall plot more
including wells drilled from the dry-tree tially uneven injection. The earlier-than- closely, a derivative of the Hall plot vs.
unit or spar, and required subsea mani- anticipated water breakthrough in some cumulative water injection was also genfolds for both production and injection.
wells caused sand/fines instability and erated. For a well performing consistentsevere sand production, which led to cat- ly, the derivative of the Hall plot will be
Production- and Injectionastrophic well failures and production a horizontal line, and any change in this
horizontal line vs. cumulative water inloss after Phase 1.
Performance Evaluation
The field has a comprehensive data-
Another event that added more jection indicates plugging or fracturing.
On the basis of well-by-well injectormonitoring system and reservoir- complication to the dynamics of the field
management strategy (Fig. 2). All wells was out-of-zone water injection, which performance analyses during the life of the
have downhole pressure and tempera- happened in several injectors. Although injection well, decreased injectivity was obture gauges with real-time data access corrective measures were taken instant- served in some of the water injectors after
provided back to the office. The early ly, the extent of the healing process is un- prolonged shut-in or after being choked
interference detected in the downhole- certain and some crossflow might result back. One possible reason for this kind of
gauge data proved invaluable in con- within the field.
behavior is flowback of sand/fines during
firming producer/injector connectivConsidering high-pressure depletion shut-in, which would block the pores at the
ity, particularly in the blockier sands. and the unexpected-water-breakthrough sandface and reduceinjectivity.
The reservoir-management strategy was pattern observed in some areas in the
The kh distribution in three reserbased on the full voidage replacement by field partly because of heterogeneity, voirs was predicted to be quite even;
waterflooding and gas-cap gas injection subseismic geological features, water- however, the observed water-injection
(only in H150).
injection distribution, and thin-bed ex- rate into the H110H115H120 reserThe implementation of the tension, the connected sand volumes in voirs did not follow the ratio of the kh.
reservoir-management strategy has the initial models were proved to be over- This is thought to be primarily because of
been based on weekly reviews including estimated. Many examples now exist in fracturing performance in the early part
production, subsurface, and operations the field where sands disappear or thin of the injection life of the well. The waterteams. The reviews incorporate voidage or thicken dramatically within 100 m of injection split and distribution sensitivcalculations, production performance, well control. On the basis of the observa- ity to the injection rate raises questions
well-test data, and dynamic-model tions so far, the classic view that uncer- regarding the water-injection distribuhistory-match updates as available.
tainties will decrease through time with tion in commingled sands on the basis of
The actual field performance after more wells and dynamic data does not kh data. This kind of problem potentially
Phase 1 and during Phase 2, however, necessarily hold for all deepwater turbi- can be addressed by using selective and
was not completely in line with the ini- dite fields. The extension of the thin beds smart water-injection schemes, which
tial 3D dynamic-model predictions. The and the dynamic complications thereof are being considered currently.
Subsurface
Challenges:
120
RPM16702.indd 120
Manage Geological Risk
Sweep and Zonal Conformance
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
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Eu
N
E:
Sm
Pr
18178
Production-Performance
Analysis
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
RPM16702.indd 121
Base Case
Aug-07
Oct-07
Dec-07
Feb-08
Apr-08
Jun-08
Aug-08
Oct-08
Dec-08
Feb-09
Apr-09
Jun-09
Aug-09
Oct-09
Dec-09
Feb-10
Apr-10
Jun-10
Aug-10
Oct-10
Dec-10
Feb-11
Apr-11
Jun-11
Aug-11
Oct-11
Dec-11
Feb-12
Apr-12
Jun-12
Aug-12
Oct-12
Because of the uncertainties and unexpected events in the field, different

production-performance-analysis techniques were applied to provide a range
of predictions of future field production.
This analysis was also used to complement and sense-check the dynamic 3D
simulation-model results. Production-/
injection-well performance analysis and
decline-curve analysis (DCA) were performed on a well-by-well basis.
Wells with sufficient production history were considered in the category of
existing wells. DCA for each well was
evaluated by two methods: log (water/oil
ratio) vs. cumulative oil and oil rate vs.
cumulative oil.
Wells with little or no production
history were considered in the category of new wells. Carrying out DCA for
these wells is not as straightforward as
for those with sufficient production history; therefore, a customized DCA was
carried out.
For existing wells, a correlation was
generated between measured oil rate and
the capacity (kh) of the well. Capacity of
wells in the new-well category was estimated from the reservoir properties
from static/dynamic models and by use
of the previously mentioned correlation,
and initial oil rates were estimated for
the new well. To cover the range of uncertainty apart from the most likely initial oil rate, low and high values also were
estimated from the correlation. For estimating the production on plateau and
decline factor for new wells, statistical
analysis of the DCA of the existing wells
was used. To estimate the production
on plateau, a cumulative distribution
function of cumulative production as a
fraction of estimated ultimate recovery
(EUR) for each well was prepared.
On the basis of the productionperformance analysis (DCA), the EUR
is lower than the most likely figure of
the field prediction based on the 3D dynamic model. This has been translated
to an average 8% lower ultimate recovery factor (up to 50 million STB) compared with the reported value from the
3D dynamicmodel.
The next stage of development is
likely to focus on identifying, screening, and ranking missed opportunities,
Optimized Case
Fig. 3Short-term production profile after optimization efforts in different

disciplines.
in terms of either unswept or unsupported oil. The use of smart injection wells is
being considered to optimize injection
conformance and focus pressure support
on the known areas of unswept oil.
Smart-Well-Design
Methodology
The K field is moving into the brownfield

stage, and a Phase-3 redevelopment review is under way. As a consequence of
the geological and stratigraphical compartments, more producers might be
needed; however, improving the reservoir conformance and sweep efficiency
may also assist in optimizing the number
of wells. From the operational point of
view, it makes more sense to free up the
spar slots for producers and relocate injectors to subsea templates. This would
serve to create better access to producers for possible interventions or chemical
treatments for reducing skin.
On the basis of the subsurface feasibility studies, the following objectives
were defined:
Improve reservoir conformance
and reservoir sweep.
Delay water breakthrough in new
wells.
Reduce/eliminate well
intervention for subsea wells to
reduce operational expenditures.
Accelerate and increase oilproduction rate, and maintain or
improve reserves.
A comprehensive subsurface-
opportunity-framing and well/zonescreening study was performed to arrive
at candidate selection for the first field
trial. Consequently, a study was conducted on smart-well-completion design on
the basis of the performance data and
subsea-wellhead configuration and taking
account of surface-facility considerations.
The following solution was proposed:
Implement multizone selective
subsea water injectors.
Allocate the required water
injection into selected zones
by means of choking intervalcontrol valves.
Considering all the operational and development challenges in this field,
the project team successfully adopted various technical initiatives and fitfor-purpose solutions in different disciplines such as drilling, completion
strategy, sand-
control methodologies,
selective smart injection, and proactive
reservoir-monitoring and -management
planning. Fig. 3 shows the short- and
long-term production and additional-
reserves gains in this field as a result of
this study. In addition, the study shows
that there is a potential of achieving a
4% incremental recovery factor through
increasing the well water-cut limit
from 95 to 98%. This will be pursued
by enhancing the topside facilities and
water-handling capacity.JPT
121
8/19/13 10:17 AM
Distributed Microchip System Records

Subsurface Temperature and Pressure
microchip system capable of

measuring temperature and
pressure over the entire wellbore was
developed and tested in the field. When
used in the field, tracers will be injected
together with the drilling fluid. As the
tracer travels through the wellbore,
it will measure the temperature and
pressure throughout the wellbore and
store the data in the on-chip memory.
Tracer
Injector
Initiator
Control
Computer
Alternating
Valve
Tracer-Injection
Pump
Magnetic Tracer
Separator
Mud
Return
Data
Collector
Mud Pump
Prototype
The prototype of the instrument system

is shown in Fig. 1. The instrument system developed in this work includes two
major components: the surface devices
(Fig. 1) and the tracers (Fig. 2). A tracer
(approximately 7.5 mm in diameter) consists of a small system-on-chip integrated
circuit (SOC IC), which includes sensors,
microcontroller, memory, transmitter
and receiver circuits, and d
ensity-control
material (hollow spheres), all encapsulated in a protective-chemical-coating shell.
The surface devices include an initiator to reset the circuit on the tracer before the tracer is injected into the wellbore, and a data collector to retrieve data
from the tracers on-chip memory when
the tracer is carried back to the surface
by the drilling fluid. The initiator and
data collector will use wireless communication to reset the circuit and download data from the tracer, respectively.
A magnetic tracer separator (see Fig. 1)
will be installed after the data collector
to recycle the tracers. A lithium cell (battery) used in the tracer contains stainless
Magnetic
Ring
Wellbore
Tool Joint
Tracer
Drillstring
Fig. 1Schematic of the instrument system.
steel, which can enhance the separation

of tracers from the drilling fluid in the
magnetic tracer separator.
When used in experiments or in the
field, tracers will be injected together
with the drilling fluid. Before a tracer
is injected into the flowline, it passes
through an initiator, which will reset the
circuit for recording data. As the tracer travels through the wellbore, it will
measure the temperature and pressure
throughout the wellbore and store the
data in the on-chip memory at a sampling rate set by the initiator. When the

paper SPE 159583, A Distributed Microchip System for Subsurface Measurement,
by Mengjiao Yu, Sufeng He, Yuanhang Chen, Nicholas Takach, SPE, and Peter
LoPresti, The University of Tulsa; and Shaohua Zhou, SPE, and Nasser Al-Khanferi,
SPE, Saudi Aramco, prepared for the 2012 SPE Annual Technical Conference and
Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas, USA, 810 October. The paper has not been peer
reviewed.
tracers are carried out of the borehole by

the drilling fluid, they will pass through a
data collector (controlled by a computer)
through which the tracer will communi7.5 mm
Sensors
-Controller/Memory
Transmitter/Receiver Circuit
Power Supply
(Lithium Cell)
Protective
Coating
Hollow
Spheres
0.5 mm
Fig. 2Schematic of the tracer.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
RPM159583.indd 123
123
8/12/13 2:18 PM
tached at the end. Tracers were injected

into the flow loop by the tracer-injection
system. Injected tracers traveled through
the flow loop and then passed the drillFiber-Optic Sensor. Currently, fiber- bit nozzles at the end of the loop. Results
optic sensors are commercially available show that the tracer injection functions
that are capable of measuring pressure well and a controllable tracer-injection
and temperature up to 15,000 psi and rate can be achieved. In addition, all trac1,000C, respectively, using a variety of ers passed the drill-bit nozzles without
methods. However, current realization any difficulties.
of these sensors, including packaging,
is not suitable for the current applica- Temperature-Sensor Test. Changes in
tion. The focus, therefore, is the adap- the temperature of mineral oil in which
tation of proven sensor concepts to the the tracer was immersed were recordunique environment and operating lim- ed every 20 seconds. At the same time,
its of thetracer.
measurements by the tracer were taken
One potential sensor technology is at the rate of one sample per second.
based on a Fabry-Perot-interferometer The integrated circuit was programmed
(FPI) structure. FPI-based sensors can to take a total of 500 data points. Therebe made small, having a cross-sectional fore, the measurement took 8 minutes
area not much larger than the fiber dia and 20 seconds to complete. After the
meter (125 m) and lengths on the order test was completed, data collected by
of 1 mm. Both the extrinsic FPI and the the tracer were transmitted to the datafiber FPI configurations will be investi- acquisition system wirelessly. The tracer
gated. Both configurations can measure output is inversely related to the actual
temperature or pressure with minimal temperature change. These two curves
crosstalk from the other measurement, were in a good agreement in terms of
with proper design.
slope, response time, and curve trend.
The built-in lithium battery is rechargeable, allowing the tracer to be used
manytimes.
Fig. 3The first three tracers to be

deployed in the wellbore.
cate with the surface devices to send the

data stored in its on-chip memory.
Fiber-optic temperature and pressure sensors for harsh environments (up
to 15,000 psi and 250C) have been used
in the field successfully during the last
10 years and will be integrated into the
instrument system in this project. Other
sensors can be integrated into the system
when they are readily available.
When used in the field, magnetic
rings can be placed on the tool joints
(glued to the surface of the pin). An onchip magnetic sensor can be fabricated on the SOC IC. As the tracer travels
through the borehole, it could sense the
weak magnetic field around each tool
joint along the drillstring. This information can be recorded in the on-chip memory and used to determine the real-time
location of the tracer in the wellbore.
SOC IC and Surface Devices. The device
used in the initiator and the data collector is the same, a surface-device reader
and writer module. The surface-device
reader/writer and the tracer communicate through the wireless magnetic
channel. The system can work in fully
duplex mode or in half-duplex mode. In
duplex mode, both the reader/writer and
the tracer can transmit and receive simultaneously at different frequencies. In
half-duplex mode, the reader/writer and
the tracer transmit and receive at different time slots. Half-duplex mode can
lead to simpler implementation at the
expense of slightly slower communication rate in this particular application.
Each tracer has its own identification, and thus can be logged separately.
124
RPM159583.indd 124
Protective Chemical Coating. Tracers

need to be protected against harsh downhole conditions. This can be achieved by
encapsulating the stress-sensitive electronic parts of the tracer into a protective shell. The specific objectives of
this protective shell are to shield the
electronic parts of the tracer from highpressure (up to 15,000 psi) downhole
conditions, chemical attack, impact, and
abrasion of the drillstring. The shell also
plays a crucial role in reducing the effect of temperature variation on the integrity of the electronic parts. In addition, the density of the protective coating
should be low enough to ensure the mobility of the tracer. A literature review of
chemical-coating materials reveals that
special types of porcelain, ceramic, thermoset, and composite materials have the
potential to meet the required properties.
Laboratory Testing
Validation of Tracer Passing Through

Bit Nozzles. One of the major concerns of
the tracer is whether it can pass through
drill-bit nozzles. In order to prove that
the tracers can do this, they were tested
on a flow loop with a tricone drill bit at-
High-Pressure/High-Temperature
Survival Test. Tracer samples were
placed in a chamber, and then pressure
and temperature were applied to simulate harsh downhole conditions. Tests
were conducted up 12,000 psi and 100C.
Results show that tracer samples can
withstand 12,000 psi and 100C without undergoing any structural problems.
Tracer-Mobility Test. Another major
concern about the tracer system is tracer mobility. Tracers might travel a long
distance in a wellbore and then have to
flow back to the surface. In order to prove
that the tracer can be transported by the
drilling fluid, a tracer-mobility test was
conducted on a full-scale flow loop. The
full-scale flow loop had a 100-ft-long
84.5-in. annular test section. Tracers
were injected from one end of the flow
loop by use of the tracer-injection system
developed in this study. After injecting the
tracers, one can see that the tracers travel
at a very fast speed in the testsection.
Field Test
The first field test was conducted in an

onshore field in Saudi Arabia. Before in-
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 2:18 PM
jecting tracers into the well, a tracerretrieval system consisting of magnetic

strips on the shale shakers was installed
on the rig. In addition to the magnetic
strips, an aluminum mesh basket was installed at the end of the discharge line.
The aluminum mesh basket serves as the
last point to trap the tracers.
Testing Well Information. For the first
field test, the main goal was to validate
the concept and find out if the tracers
can be carried out of the wellbore by the
drilling fluid and then be retrieved on
the shale shaker. To simplify the test procedure so that we can focus on the major
functionality of the microchip system,
the tracer-injection system developed in
this study was not used for the first field
test. The tracers were deployed by directly dropping them into the drillpipe
during the pipe connection. Fig. 3 shows
the first three tracers to be placed into
the drillpipe.
A stopwatch was started when the
tracers were dropped into the drillpipe
to record the time needed for the tracer
to return to the surface. Circulation of the
drilling fluid was started right after the
RPM159583.indd 125
pipe connection was completed, and a

flow rate of 500 gal/min was maintained.
It was estimated that the tracer should
return to the surface approximately 50
minutes after the circulation started.
After injecting 13 tracers, seven tracers were found that returned to the surface. Out of the seven returned tracers,
two tracers were intact and the other five
were damaged.
Post-Test Processing. The two intact
tracers were moved to the control room,
and data were downloaded from one of
them. During the download procedure,
the circuit of the second complete tracer
was found to be damaged. Pressure and
temperature readings were downloaded
from the on-chip memory of the intacttracer circuit. It was observed that all the
broken tracers had fractures on the plane
where either the battery or the circuit
board is located, which means that, by
manufacturing the tracer in three layers,
the integrity of the tracer was reduced.
It is more difficult to make the tracer
in one step, but, for greater mechanical
strength, one-step manufacturing of the
tracers may be required in thefuture.
Conclusions
The concept of the microchip

wasproved successfully.
Operations such as initiation,
deployment, fluid capability
to carry the tracers back to
surface, and retrieval methods
were tested and proved to be
successful.
The prediction of time for
thetracer to return to the
surfacecalculated by the
simulator was close to the
recorded time.
Two intact pieces were retrieved
out of 13 pieces deployed. In
addition, five broken pieces
were retrieved at the surface.
By improving the fabrication
process, the survival rate should
be improved.
No plugging of drill-bit nozzles
occurred during the tests.
Therefore, more pieces can be
deployed in the future to increase
the retrieval rate.
The overall return rate was
greater than 50%, much better
than expected. JPT
8/12/13 2:18 PM
TECHNOLOGY
Paul Cameron,
SPE, is a senior wellengineering adviser
in the Global Wells
Organization at BP.
He is responsible
for developing
and implementing well-engineering
practices and building global
discipline capability in the area of wellintervention engineering. Cameron
has 30 years of experience in the
industry, including holding a variety of
engineering and leadership roles in the
discipline areas of drilling, completion,
and well-intervention engineering.
He has worked in engineering and
operations roles in Aberdeen and
Alberta and, for the past 10 years,
has worked in a global functional role
and in leading technical communities
of practice. Cameron serves on the
JPT Editorial Committee and the SPE
Europe Regional Training Advisory
Committee. He holds a First Class BEng
(Hons) degree in chemical engineering
from the University of Bradford.
SPE 163290 Third-Generation GlassBarrier Technology: Improving WellCompletion Integrity and Reliability
by Rune Gimre, TCO, et al.
SPE 160160 Production Array Logs
in Bakken Horizontal Shale Play
Reveal Unique Performance Based on
Completion Technique by Robert Boyer,
ConocoPhillips, et al.
SPE 165141 Impact of Charge Type Used
in Perforation on the Outcome of Matrix
Acid Treatment in Carbonate Formations:
Comparative Study by Ahmed I. Rabie,
Texas A&M University, et al.
SPE 163344 Optimization of Cleanup
of Limestone Production Zones: New
Observations by Eric Davidson, Halliburton,
et al.
126
2CTFocusSept.indd 126
completions today
Achieve more with less. This is the rallying cry as our global energy journey plays out,
whether in the onshore shale developments, in the deepwater basins, or in the frozen lands and waters of the Arctic. Two important levers for achieving this goal are
improvements in well reliability and well productivity. Our industry needs to build and
operate wells that deliver their design well productivity for their design life and do it
consistently. Technology has a vital role to play to help deliver theseimprovements.
I began working in this industry exactly 30 years ago to the month. As a keen
young petroleum engineer, I recall being amazed by the level and complexity of the
technology deployed in our wells at the timefrom the heavy iron at the wellsite to
the mainframe computers filling a disproportionate amount of space in our suburban
office block. Looking back, I could barely have dreamt about many of the technology
solutions that we are using so routinely in our wells today.
Sometimes, solutions have come from an unlikely placerooted in our operating challenges. For years, we knew that downhole elastomers in subsurface tools were
affected adversely by exposure to hydrocarbons. As a result of some innovative thinking, this undesirable reaction has been successfully turned around to serve our needs
in the form of engineered swellable elastomers. These are now being used extensively
for zonal isolation and conformance management in horizontal multistage fracturing,
as a core component of intelligent completions, and as a remedial solution to provide
hydraulic isolation in various downhole components.
Fiber-optic technology is now transforming our ability to visualize the subsurface and manage well performance, including multiphase-flow monitoring through
distributed temperature sensing. A related technology, distributed acoustic sensing,
is providing advanced downhole monitoring that enables us to better understand sand
production and improve the effectiveness of hydraulic-fracturing operations and wellintegrity management.
In the area of perforating technologies, improvements in the understanding
of dynamic underbalance perforating and integration of abrasive-jet perforating in
hydraulic-fracturing operations are helping us to optimize well productivity from
theoutset.
I hope you enjoy reading more about how these and other technologies are positively affecting the reliability and performance of our completions today. We have
come a long way in the past 30 years. I would like to close by particularly welcoming all the newly recruited engineering and wellsite staff to our exciting industry.
Your vision and innovative thinking will shape our continuing journey to achieve
morewithless.JPT
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 7:08 AM
Advancements in Completion Technology

Increase Production in the Williston Basin
ver the years, hybrid systems

have been installed in horizontal
wellbores to increase the number of
compartmental sections for hydraulic
fracturing because of the limitations
of ball-actuated fracture sleeves.
Experimenting with hybrid systems
provides operators with the ability to
optimize spacing of fracture stages
along the horizontal section when
sleeve technology alone does not allow
for the desired number of stages.
The costs are higher for operators to
perform a hybrid-type completion,
however, and this has driven enhanced
sleeve technology to allow for allsleevecompletions.
MANITOBA
SASKATCHEWAN
Member Extents:
Upper Shale
Middle Member
Lower Shale
Nesson Apt
Elm
Bakken Type Log
Coulee
Antelope
ctio
-Se
ss
Cro
Overpressured
Area
NORTH
DAKOTA
WILLISTON
BASIN
MONTANA
SOUTH
DAKOTA
Introduction
The Bakken shale located in the Williston basin covers an area that includes
portions of North Dakota and Montana
in the US and Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada (Fig. 1). An unconventional reservoir, the Bakken formation is
one of the last giants to be discovered in
North America. The US Geological Service estimates that the undiscovered US
portion of the Bakken formation holds
3.65 billion bbl of oil, 1.85 Tcf of associated gas, and 148 million bbl of naturalgas liquids.
Advances in horizontal drilling of
extended-reach wells and in completion
techniques have increased the amount
of recoverable oil and gas. Wells drilled
in the Bakken are typically drilled horizontally across two 640-acre sections,
with laterals that can extend more than
Schematic Structural Cross-Section

Elm
Cou
lee
Nesson Anticline
Area
Three
Forks
(D
ev)
Lo
Antelope Field
iss)
le (M
po
dge
s
Fork
hree
v)
(De
Fig. 1Location of the Bakken shale in the Williston basin, with a structural
cross section.
9,000 ft. Two completion methods

known for cost-effectiveness and high
well efficiency that are used in these wells
are the openhole-packer system and the
sleeve one-trip system.
Openhole-Packer and
Sleeve Completions
Openhole completions performed in the

Bakken are commonly run as a one-trip
system on drillpipe containing the fol-
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights
of paper SPE 159586, Advancements in Openhole-Completion Technology Increase
Efficiencies and Production in the Williston Basin, by John Paneitz, Whiting
Petroleum, and C. Christopher Johnson, Matthew White, and George Gentry, Baker
Hughes, prepared for the 2012 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, San
Antonio, Texas, USA, 810 October. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
lowing equipment: a hydraulic or mechanical running tool, liner-top packer or

liner-hanger system, openhole packers,
fracture sleeves, and float equipment.
Once the system is in position, the appropriate fluid is displaced, and the linertop-packer is set; the running tool is disconnected from the system and removed
from the well. The openhole packers provide compartmental isolation along the
horizontal wellbore with fracture sleeves
placed at each stage, forming a pathway
for stimulation fluid and the production
of hydrocarbons.
When the pumping equipment is
mobilized, a series of balls is dropped
(in order of smallest to largest) that will
land on corresponding ball seats starting
at the toe of the well, isolating previous-
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
CM159586.indd 127
127
8/13/13 7:19 AM
Liner Hanger System
Casing Section for

Plug and Perforation
Openhole Frac Float Float

Packer Sleeve Collar Shoe
Fig. 2Illustration of an openhole-packer/sleeve hybrid completion.
ly fractured sections and shifting open

the fracture sleeves. After the pumping is
completed, the well can be placed on production. During the production phase,
the balls that were pumped down the
wellbore and used to open the fracture
sleeves will flow off the ball seats and
back up the wellbore.
Components placed in the open hole
are specifically developed for multistage
applications. The openhole packers are
manufactured with a swellable elastomer, which reacts to oil-based fluids (diesel) and expands out to the wellbore, creating zonal isolation.
Fracture sleeves contain specifically designed ball seats that are pinned
closed using shear screws when installed
in the well. Through the use of fracture
balls, a differential pressure is created
across the ball seat, allowing for an increase in tubing pressure that shears the
shear screws, shifting the sleeves open
to expose the fracture ports. The pump
rates and types of fracture fluid need to
be known before the fracture sleeves are
installed to allow for the correct number
of shear pins to be placed in the sleeves.
A differential pressure is created across
the seats from the high flow rates in
the wellbore. In some cases, the smallerinternal-diameter fracture sleeves placed
closest to the toe of the well will require
a higher actuation pressure than those
placed toward the heel of the well to compensate for the forces created during the
fracturetreatments.
The positive impact realized from a
faster hydraulic-fracture process is a localized wellsite benefit. On a larger scale,
the operator realizes monetary benefits
as well. The wellsite impact from spending fewer days on location during the
hydraulic fracturing is considered from
both a health, safety, and environmental standpoint and an operational-risk
and cost-reduction standpoint. A short-
128
CM159586.indd 128
er fracture time minimizes disturbances to local populations and lowers the

amount of CO2 emissions. The operator experiences more-effective use of
companypersonnel.
Fracture sleeves have proved to be
reliable and conserve water and time between fracture stages. The cycle time between wells and the additional number
of wells that can be completed from the
reduced number of days spent on location allow operators to increase production across the field by bringing more
wells on line.
Recent Advancements
in Technology
In 2007, a new packer technology was

combined with existing fracture-sleeve
capabilities to provide the necessary
components for a multistage, one-trip
completion in the Sanish field. This new
packer technology was a swellable elastomer wrapped and bonded to casing
joints. Depending on the choice in elastomer, the reaction will occur in either oilor water-based solutions. It is common
in the Williston basin to use elastomers
that react with oil to swell and create annular seals.
The initial fracture-sleeve application was deployed in November 2007.
Upon reaching the target setting depth
with the completion, diesel was displaced
along the horizontal section containing
the openhole packers. Behind the diesel,
a ball was pumped to a ball seat for setting the liner-top packer and releasing
the running tool from the bottomhole assembly. With the completion in place, the
rig was moved from location and preparations for hydraulic fracturing began.
Downhole temperature for this well was
210F, requiring 3 days for the packers to
form a seal against the formation.
The hydraulic-fracturing operations
began by opening the pressure sleeve.
A pressure of 4,000 psi was applied to

shift the pressure sleeve. The first stage
of the fracture was pumped through this
sleeve. The remaining seven stages were
pumped through ball-actuated fracture
sleeves. The entire fracturing treatment
was completed in less than 12 hours.
Fracture specifics included the use of
1,800,000 lbm of natural-sand proppant
and 18,000 bbl of water pumped at rates
of 30 to 40 bbl/min.
The initial production for this well
was 1,323 bbl of oil and 2 MMcf of gas
during a 24-hour flow test. During the
next 30 days, the well averaged 818 B/D
of oil production and 828 Mcf/D of gas
production. In the winter months, the
use of conventional perforating guns and
composite plugs would have caused the
completion process to take a minimum
of 4 days.
Throughout 2008, the number of
stages in the one-trip openhole-packerand-sleeve completions increased to
10. Engineers realized that production
could be increased if the spacing between sleeves/packers (stages) could be
reduced. In 2009, this was accomplished
by creating and deploying hybrid completions consisting of two technologies:
the use of fracture sleeves for the toe
section of the wellbore and the use of
composite fracture plugs for isolation
and perforating guns for communicating with the formation during the remaining stages (Fig.2). The installation
of the hybrid completion was relatively unchanged. For the sections of the
wellbore that were to use a plug-and-
perforation method, openhole packers
were spaced out with casing joints. The
operator would be able to benefit from
the fracture-sleeve efficiencies during
the first 10 stages, but would then need
to pump down composite fracture plugs
and perforate each section for the remaining stages.
In October 2009, new fracturesleeve technology was deployed that increased the number of stages in a onetrip openhole-packer/sleeve system
to 24. In 2010, the hybrid-system approach was expanded to include more
stages as the optimal spacing in different parts of the Sanish field was evaluated. During this time period, additional components of the wellbore
evolved with industry-adopted pressure-
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 7:19 AM
Monitoring Multistage
Fracturing
Fig. 3Microseismic image of Sanish-field Bakken drainage area.
integrity-verification requirements and

with longer-lateral drilling. Liner-toppacker- and liner-hanger-system choices
are reviewed on the basis of vertical or
horizontal tool settings, pressure-rating
requirements (pressure-integrity-test
requirements), and combined loading
of installed equipment during hydraulicfracturing operations. Software models
are generated, and separate calculations
are performed to determine resultant
loading conditions from pressure-testing and hydraulic-fracturing operations.
Recloseable Fracture Sleeves. These
sleeves have been designed to shift open
and lock into the open position. During
the life cycle of an unconventional reservoir, there are opportunities to refracture
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
CM159586.indd 129
complete wells or wellbore sections to

re-establish production. In June 2009, a
packer/sleeve completion system was installed with recloseable fracture sleeves.
The proposal included hydraulicly fracturing the well to produce hydrocarbons
before returning to the well for in-field
refracture development. The ball seats
would need to be milled out before shifting the fracture sleeve to the closed position and isolating the fracture ports.
This would provide the full-bore internal
diameters required to install composite
fracture plugs and refracture each section by use of the plug-and-perforation
method. Since the installation, additional
information has been gained in regard to
required spacing between compartments,
and the refracturing has not occurred.
Proper spacing of the compartments created by openhole packers along the horizontal section is determined through
analytical methods. One such method uses microseismic tools, where geophone arrays monitor shear failure
along pre-existing natural fractures on
the basis of acoustic signatures. Monitoring of the fracture propagation provides data that can be used to verify decisions made regarding spacing changes
between compartments and wells across
lease sections (Fig. 3). A more-complex
configuration, which provides additional data regarding the reservoir and hydraulic fracturing, includes the use of
downhole flow and temperature sensing. This type of monitoring can be
achieved with distributed-temperaturesensing (DTS) or permanent-downhole-
monitoring (PDHM) systems, which are
either electrical- or fiber-optic-based. In
April 2010, a 10stage openhole-packer/
sleeve system was installed with DTS and
PDHM systems. Afterward, pressures
and temperatures were monitored during the fracture of surrounding wellbores,
real-time monitoring occurred during the
fracturing, and post-fracture monitoring
was available to validate the performance
of the openhole systems, providing data
needed for drilling plans in the Bakken
and Three Forks formations. Other methdevelopment
ods applied during field-
planning include drillstem testing, core
analysis, and implementation of logs to
characterize thereservoir.JPT
129
8/19/13 10:23 AM
North American Completion Technologies

Unlock the Amin Tight Gas Formation
he careful planning and successful

execution of a multistage-fracturestimulation completion in one of the
first horizontal wells (KZN-F) drilled
in the Amin formation in north central
Oman instigated a step change in
initial production rate and long-term
deliverability from this tight-gassandstone reservoir. The operator and
service company worked as a team,
modeling the fracturing program after
North American practices.
100 km
Introduction
Most of the natural gas in the Amin formation is locked up in low-permeability,

extremely hard sandstone formations in
very deep reservoirs. Drilling times of 3
to 4 months are typical for vertical wells,
and fracture stimulation is necessary.
BP acquired the concession from
the Sultanate of Oman in 2007 to engage in an appraisal of the block (shown
in Fig. 1). Following appraisal, a full
field-development license may be granted to develop the block. The objective
of the appraisal project is to evaluate
the delivery potential of gaseous hydrocarbons from four reservoirs: Barik,
Miqrat, Amin, and Buah. There were
two wells drilled by BP that tested the
Amin formation in the field before this
investigation. The KZN-C well was stimulated with a conventional crosslinkedgel fracture treatment, and the KZN-E
Amin well was stimulated by use of a
hybrid technique. The only other fracturing technique that had not yet been
Fig. 1An image of north central Oman, illustrating the location of the block
and surrounding fields. Also visible are the various dune seas and the Hajar
Mountains along the northern part of the Sultanate of Oman. (Background
digital-elevation model from ASTER.)
introduced to the Amin formation was

a high-rate water fracture (HRWF),
also known as a slickwater fracture.
This technology, widely used in North
America, had originally been planned
for use in the Amin reservoir and had
already been used successfully in the
Miqratreservoir.
Pumping and chemical costs are
lower for an HRWF than for crosslinkedgel fracture treatments.
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
paper SPE 164008, Adopting North American, Multistage Fracturing and Horizontal
Completion Technologies Starts To Unlock the Amin Tight Gas Formation in the
Sultanate of Oman, by Robert Clark, SPE, BP, and Kevin Mullen, SPE, and Stevanus
Kurniadi, Schlumberger, prepared for the 2013 SPE Middle East Unconventional Gas
Conference and Exhibition, Muscat, Oman, 2830 January. The paper has not been
peer reviewed.
Challenges and Solutions
Zone Selection. Six target intervals

were selected for flow testing in the
KZN-F well, with the goal of evaluating
the efficacy of different reservoir-access
and stimulation technologies, as well
as determining which formation conditions would contribute to flow. These
intervals were identified by use of a
combination of mud logs, conventional
openhole logging, and a microimaging
log. Gamma-ray, resistivity, and porosity logs were used to differentiate zones
in the Amin reservoir that might present
more-promising targets. The microimaging log proved to be valuable for identifying fractures in the reservoir that
could be targeted for stimulation. Fractures were categorized as faults, natural
fractures (cemented or uncemented), or
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CM164008.indd 130
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DrillingInduced
Fractures
Open
Conductive
Fractures
BedBoundary
Breakout
Fig. 2Example of drilling-induced natural fractures and breakout at bed

boundaries in a horizontal borehole in the Amin formation.
drilling-induced fractures on the basis

of their appearance on the log. Fig. 2 illustrates some of the data available from
the microimaging log used to target key
wellbore objectives.
Reservoir Access for Stimulation. The
liner was cemented in place with five
fracture sleeves preinstalled to provide
multiple access points for possible stimulation. These were conventional fracture sleeves designed to be operated in
either uncemented or cemented completions using a ball to shift the sleeve to an
open position for stimulation. However,
in this case, a backup method for operation was used, implementing a shifting
tool, run on coiled tubing (CT), to activate the ports. These sleeves were placed
in approximate positions in the liner to
target zones with increased evidence
of fracturing. Overall, three reservoiraccess technologies were planned for
this well: sliding sleeve, explosivejet (shaped-charge) perforating, and
abrasive-jet perforating.
Fracture Interference. One of the objectives in drilling a horizontal well, especially in low-permeability reservoirs, is to
facilitate conducting multiple transversefracture stimulations along the lateral
section. However, each fracture may be
subject to fracture interference.
In the KZN-F well, because there
were other considerations used to select
the perforations, perforation clusters
were spaced in a single fracture interval
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CM164008.indd 132
between 27 and 53 m apart, depending

on the interest of the zone. The overall
interval of each fracture stage was approximately 100 m, simulating typical
North American operations.
At every fracture interval planned
with multiple sets of perforations,
HRWF treatments were executed successfully. The actual perforation set
that does eventually fracture within a
given fracture interval may be influenced strongly by reservoir quality at
that particular depth (e.g., by the stress
or fracture gradient at different perforation clusters within a given interval).
This tends to support the theory that
multiple sets of fractures are unlikely in
a fracture interval if that length is less
than the fracture height.
Wellbore Access. Both CT and electricline-tractor technologies were evaluated in the KZN-FH2 well after considering which options for achieving
wellbore access were practically and
financiallyfeasible.
CT intervention is already wellknown as a robust method of conducting
intervention operations. This method
holds advantages such as rapid mobilization and rig up/rig down, live-well intervention, and the ability to perform
nearly all intervention services except
real-time electric logging. The disadvantages of this method are depth accuracy,
which is especially important during the
appraisal phase of a project, and high
daily costs.
Electric-line tractors use two to six

drive sections, operated by electrical
power from the surface, to move the
tractor into the wellbore. Perforating,
logging, and setting bridge plugs can be
performed with an electric-line tractor
while being monitored from the surface.
This method has the advantage of excellent depth correlation, but it has limited ability to put significant force downhole, and it is also very expensive. The
electric-line-tractor method was shown
to have the best ability to perforate and
set plugs at the preferred depth, but
leftover fracture sand in the tubulars
caused several major delays during the
operation. In electric-line-tractor operation, the cause of the problem is the
downhole force limitation of the tool.
Zone Isolation. There are two conventional methods that industry adopts in a
cemented-liner completion in a horizontal well to achieve zone isolation: sand
plugs and bridge plugs. In North America, the most common method used
today for isolation in cemented completions is bridge plugs run with pumpdown guns. A bridge-plug method for
zone isolation was planned for KZN-F
to avoid intervention delays while running the electric-line-tractor. Six bridge
plugs were set inside the wellbore. All of
them demonstrated the ability to withstand fracturing pressures during operation. Apart from six that set perfectly,
two more bridge plugs were not run successfully. One bridge plug was set while
running in the hole, which required a
milling operation. A second plug was accidentally set in the riser before running
in the hole. Analysis of that event determined that the tension on the gripper
elements was too low, which probably
contributed to setting the first bridge
plug accidentally.
Depth Accuracy. Compared with CT, an
electric-line tractor offers much better
control of depth accuracy. The operator
can perforate, log, or place bridge plugs
with excellent accuracy with a tractor.
Furthermore, a tractor-set bridge plug
provides excellent depth correlation for
CT operations. If the bridge plug can be
placed using electric-line measurement,
the CT can tag that plug with reasonable accuracy. This was demonstrated
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 7:19 AM
in the abrasive-jet perforations in Stage

4, which were on depth within 0.5 m on
the basis of the known depth of the previously tractor-set bridge plug.
Technology-Comparison
Results
In North America, evaluating the optimum system to use by a trial-and-error

approach would involve trialing technologies in several wells. However, to shorten this process, several comparisons
were made in KZNF, which included fracturing technique, proppant treatment
volume, and reservoir-accesstechnique.
Fracturing Technique. To maximize the
stimulation treatment, a technique that
would maximize fracture half-length,
but would attempt to limit the height
growth, would be optimal for this formation. The potential for uncontrolled
height growth would most likely accompany a conventional crosslinked-gel
fracture treatment, so a hybrid fracturing technique or an HRWF has appeal.
A hybrid fracture, in this application,
refers to the use of a linear pad stage,
whereas the proppant-carrier fluid is a
fully crosslinked polymer gel. An HRWF
refers to treatment using water and friction reducer; proppant-carrying capacity highly depends on the pumping rate
and is not considered to be a significant
contributor to flow conductivity.
134
CM164008.indd 134
There were six fracture treatments

performed along the horizontal wellbore: one using a crosslink-gel fracture
(Stage 1), one using a hybrid technique
(Stage 5), and the rest using HRWF technology (Stages 2 through 4 and Stage
6). From a production standpoint, the
HRWFs performed significantly better
than the crosslinked-gel fractures, producing 12 MMscf/D vs. 0.5 MMscf/D.
Treatment Volume. Measuring proppant volume per net pay zone could give
an indication of fracture conductivity.
In the KZN-FH2 horizontal well, which
has the same formation properties along
the majority of the horizontal wellbore,
sensitivity to proppant volume can be
compared between Stage 2 and Stage
3 fractures. Stage 2 was treated with
287,600lbm of proppant, while Stage 3
received 196,600lbm of proppant. Both
were stimulated with an HRWF technique. Following a
commingled-flow
test, multiphase production logging
showed that there was no additional
production achieved by using larger
proppant mass. Stage 3 did have many
more clusters of natural fractures to target, as well as the interval with 50 bbl
of mud lost while drilling. Furthermore, Stage 6 produced approximately the same gas rate as Stage 2 despite
having zero proppant used throughout
the job.
Reservoir-Access/Perforation Technique. Three different access or perforation techniques were compared in

KZN-FH2: cemented fracture sleeves,
explosive-jet perforating, and abrasivejet perforating. Explosive-jet perforating demonstrated superiority to cemented fracture sleeves when Stage 1 and
Stage 3 were compared. Assuming the
same magnitude of tortuosity per stage,
Stage 1 had a total near-wellbore (NWB)
friction pressure of 2,400 psi at 36.5
bbl/min after acid-wash treatment. This
compares with Stage 3, which had total
NWB friction pressure of 2,200 psi at
64.5 bbl/min after shooting only four
sets of perforations, demonstrating a 28bbl/min increase in injection rate at the
same NWB friction pressure.
Stage 3 and Stage 4 were intended
to compare explosive-jet and abrasive-jet
perforation techniques. Both of the stages used four sets of perforations. There
might be a slight advantage with abrasive
jetting, in that it is more likely to cut a slot
or elongated oval shape instead of a hole.
In any event, Stage 4 measured NWB friction pressure of 2,250 psi at 73.2 bbl/
min, which is approximately the same
NWB friction pressure value as Stage 3,
but with a further 9-bbl/min increase in
rate. Depth control was much better for
Stage 4 because the nozzle was landed on
a bridge plug set just below the target interval by an electric-line tractor. JPT
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/19/13 10:26 AM
Intelligent-Well Completion in the Troll Field

Enables Feed-Through Zonal Isolation
tatoil, operating the Troll field in

the Norwegian sector of the North
Sea, wished to run a deep sidetrack
from the main bore in a multilateral
well that would exit through the liner
in the reservoir. Several zonal-isolation
methods had been evaluated, but
on the basis of previous experience
Statoil decided to use swellable-packer
technology. Testing revealed that this
type of completion would exceed the
necessary requirements. The installation
was performed from a semisubmersible
rig ahead of plan.
Introduction
The Troll field lies approximately 65 km

west of Kollsnes, near Bergen, Norway.
Although the field historically has produced large amounts of oil, it is now primarily a gas producer and contains approximately 40% of the total gas reserves
on the Norwegian continental shelf. The
gas reservoirs, which are 1400m below
sea level, are expected to produce for at
least another 70 years.
The massive Troll A platform produces gas, while Troll B, a floating process and accommodation platform with
a concrete hull, and Troll C, a floating
process and accommodation platform
with a steel hull, produce from thin oilbearing layers in the Troll West reservoir.
The thin oil layer is between 22 and 26 m
thick in the Troll West oil province and
is between 11 and 13 m thick in the Troll
West gas province. In order to recover oil
from the thin layer, it has been necessary
to develop advanced drilling and produc-
Fig. 1Illustration of swellable packer with cable-feed-through capability in an

intelligent-well configuration.
tion technology. All of the more than 110

production wells to be drilled are horizontal wells. This process requires twophase drilling.
The first phase drills down to the
reservoir, 1600 m beneath the sea bottom, and then the second phase drills to
3200 m in a horizontal direction through
the reservoir. Twenty-eight of the wells
are multilaterals that have two or three
horizontal laterals.
The well in question faced several challenges normally not seen in
Troll multilateral completions, including standalone-screen completion with
zonal isolation, well paths with doglegs
and a completion total depth (TD) of
more than 6000 m, top completion with
zonal isolation and zonal control for four
zones, and the need for dual pressure and
temperature monitoring for all oil zones.
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
paper SPE 160060, First Intelligent-Well Completion in the Troll Field Enables FeedThrough Zonal Isolation: A Case History, by Bjrn Olav Dahle, Statoil, and Peter E.
Smith, Geir Gjelstad, and Kristian Solhaug, Halliburton, prepared for the 2012 SPE
Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas, USA, 810 October.
The paper has not been peer reviewed.
The lower completion had been designed with specially developed inflowcontrol-device screens that had been designed to allow running of a 43in.
top-completion inner string. Consequently, the reservoir had to be drilled
with a 9-in. hole. Three 78-in.
swellable packers were designed for integration in the screen blank pipe, isolating the reservoir into three separate
oil zones and a separate gas gap. Screendrag simulations revealed helical buckling for a one-stage lower completion to
TD. Hence, a lateral-liner wash-down system (LLWDS) was adopted for a two-run
installation. Using the LLWDS, 1000m of
drillpipe-conveyed 6-in. screens could
be run to TD and dropped off in the
toe of the well. The remaining 3500 m
of screens and blank pipe with zonalisolation swellable packers could then be
strung into the openhole liner top, providing complete sand control.
The top completion was designed
with three dual gauges. Also, three
34-in. cable swellable packers
were spaced out in the top-completion
inner string in accordance with the
external lower-completion swellable
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CM160060.indd 136
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
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Fig. 2Test sample (2.875-in.4.2-in.0.1 m) and test units for swelling-speed testing.
ackers. Three 3-in. hydraulic flowp

control valves were integrated into the
top-
completion inner string to allow
individual-zone control inside the sand
screens. Additionally, a hydraulically operated six-position gas lift valve was installed below the production packer, allowing natural gas lift.
Feed-Through
Swellable-Packer Technology
Packer Design and Relevant Applications. Swellable-packer technology comprises standard oilfield tubulars with layered rubber chemically bonded along
their lengths. Once exposed to hydrocarbons, the rubber element swells to form
an effective annular seal through an absorption process known as thermodynamic absorption (Fig. 1).
The swellable-packer/cable system is an annular-isolation cable-feedthrough packer for both openhole and
cased-hole completions that improves
on the conventional approach to running feed-through lines through completion packers by completely eliminating
the requirement to cut, strip, and splice
in control and communication lines for

the feed-through process. Instead, the
swellable-packer/cable system is manufactured with custom molded grooves
through the element to fit the control
lines that will be run through it. A slit
is then cut in the element down to the
depth of the groove so that it can be accessed during the wellsite installation.
An engineered running tool is used at
the wellsite during installation, and the
control lines are fed continuously into
the element by the tool as the packer is
run through the rotary. The self-healing
properties of the swellable-packer rubber ensure sealing around the control
lines and against the casing as the packer
swells and seals downhole. This enables
the passage of individual control lines,
flatpacks for downhole monitoring, and
control devices through the packer.
Testing
Stage 1: Small-Scale Swelling-Speed

Testing. A standardized test sample,
2.875 in.4.2 in.0.1 m, with two layers of Type A delay barrier representing
the packer, was tested at well conditions
(65C crude oil) to verify swelling speed

(Fig. 2). The test showed that the time
to first seal for the packer in a 6.16-in.
hole would be approximately 24 days. A
3.55.78-in. SP OS packer was found to
reach 6.16 in. in approximately 24 days
at 65C.
Stage 2: Full-Scale Differential-Pressure
(DP) Testing. A full-scale test packer on
3-in. base pipe with an outside dia
meter (OD) of 5.78 in. and an element
that is 2 m in length with two 2312-mm
flatpacks and one 1111-mm controlline feed through (Fig. 3) was tested for
DP capacity in a 6.16-in.-inside diameter
(ID) test unit. The temperature was set
to 100C to speed up the process. After
4 days, the testing personnel noted that
the swellable packer had started to seal
the 6.16-in.-ID test unit, as DP over the
rubber element was observed. After 7
days, the swellable packer held the required 70 bar of DP, and Statoil agreed
to continue testing until failure of the
rubber element occurred. After 21 days,
the packer sustained a stable 202-bar
DP. The SP OS L was subjected to a maximum DP of 231 bar, at which point the element failed.
Results
Fig. 3SP OS L (3.5-in.5.78-in.2 m) before test start.
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CM160060.indd 138
Stage 1: Small-Scale Swelling-Speed

Testing. The standardized Stage 1 test
sample was prepared with L 2A design
(swelling delay as designed in the computer software program used to predict
swelling) before inserting it into the test
unit filled with well fluid. Temperature
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 3:18 PM
was held constant at 65C for the entire

test period. The test was run with an automatic display sensor and was monitored continuously.
The swell test showed that the
3.5-in.5.78-in.-OD packer with L 2A
design sealed the 6.16-in. hole within 24
days. The simulation provided a sealing
time frame of 19 days. The test results
and simulations were quite close up to
approximately 6 days. After 6 days, the
test sample swelled at a slower rate than
the simulation had anticipated. The deviation between simulated and test results is caused by a test effect, volume
dependence, often seen when testing in
crude oil. The results are similar when
the crude oil is fresh, but, in time, swelling will slow down as the rubber takes
up the lightest and fastest-swelling C-
components first. In a well, where there
are unlimited volumes available, a slowdown in swelling speed such as that seen
in the test will not occur. Therefore,
the swell test verifies simulated swelling speed for the first 5 days, and the
simulated curve should be used to derive
long-term swelling speed.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
CM160060.indd 139
The actual test results were significantly slower than the simulations after
56 days, which indicates that the lighter
components of the crude oil were used,
and that the test sample started swelling
more quickly when the heavier components in the crude became available. This
effect will not occur in a real well situation, where the swellable packer will have
a near-infinite amount of crude available.
Stage 2: Full-Scale DP Testing. After the
initial swell-speed test, a full-scale test was
prepared to show that the swellable packer had the capacity to seal at the 70-bar
DP required. To speed up the testing, there
was no delay barrier placed on the rubber
element, and the test temperature was set
to 100C. Testing showed that the packer
held 202 bar, which is approximately three
times the required pressure. The test result was 28% higher than the simulated
capacity of 157 bar for this design.
With elevated temperature and no
delay barrier, the packer started to seal
against the 6.16-in. test unit within 4
days. The 70-bar DP was reached within
8 days. After approximately 21 days, the
packer held a DP of 202 bar. Maximum

pressure observed before breaking the
element was 231 bar.
Case-History Installation
The operation in the Troll field was performed from a semisubmersible rig without the occurrence of any health, safety,
or environmental incidents. An average
drilling rate of penetration of 288 m/d
was achieved while drilling the 4440-m,
9-in. reservoir section. Drilling and
completion were completed by 9 September 2011, and the complete job was
performed within 32 days (8 days ahead
of schedule).
The entire swellable-packer installation, involving feed through of continuous control lines and cables, took only
45 minutes per packer. For comparative
purposes, standard hydraulic-set packers
requiring splicing and testing above and
below the packer will normally require at
least 12 hours per packer.
All downhole valves and gauges are
functioning properly. Zonal isolation has
been confirmed by selective closure of
the flow-control valves. JPT
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8/13/13 7:18 AM
Evaluation of Established Cleanup Models

in Dynamic Underbalanced Perforating
ynamic underbalanced (DUB)

perforating is a process that
creates a negative pressure differential,
or underbalance, causing fluid to
move toward the wellbore even in an
initial overbalanced static condition.
A DUB condition can be controlled by
understanding and carefully managing
the temporal pressure transients by use
of multiple methods within the wellbore
during and after gun-system detonation.
Recently, a series of instrumented
perforation experiments demonstrated
that existing cleanup models do not
accurately predict perforation cleanup
when perforating in a DUB condition.
Introduction
Underbalanced perforating methods

have been applied successfully since the
1950s, shooting both wireline and tubing-
conveyed perforating guns. As shapedcharge jet-perforator systems became
more advanced, using powdered metal liners, performance steadily improved. The
art of minimizing the compacted and damaged area surrounding the perforation
tunnel, commonly known as the crushed
zone (Fig. 1), began shortly afterward.
Much of the initial work involved shooting charges into prepared Berea sandstone
cores while documenting the effect of a
differential pressure toward the wellbore
upon perforation efficiencies. As the benefits of an underbalanced pressure differential were observed, extensive testing
established criteria for flow volumes and
differential pressures required to remove
or minimize the crushed zone created dur-
Cement
Casing
Damaged
Permeability, From
Drilling, Production,
or Injection, kd
Undamaged
Permeability, k
Open Perforation
Charge and Core Debris
Pulverization Zone
Grain-Fracturing Zone
Compacted Zone
With Damaged Permeability
From Perforating, kc
Fig. 1Perforation crushed zone surrounding the open perforation.
ing the perforating event. Specifically documented was the role of trapped atmospheric pressure inside a perforating gun
surrounding the shaped charge and components, known as free gun volume (FGV),
which enabled the formation pressure to
act as a differential and expel charge and
crushed formation into the gun.
As perforating research and field observations continued, a series of widely used and accepted formulas was established to document the magnitude of
differential pressure required to ensure
cleaned perforation tunnels. This paper
reviews the effectiveness of each of these
models, originally developed for a static
underbalanced condition before perforating, to predict cleaning and removal of the
crushed zone in a series of tests with a dynamic pressure differential. The test series
uses an advanced perforation-flow labora-
of paper SPE 159413, Evaluation of Established Perforation-Cleanup Models in
Dynamic Underbalanced Perforating, by Dennis Haggerty, G.G. Craddock, and
Clinton C. Quattlebaum, SPE, Halliburton, prepared for the 2012 SPE Annual
Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas, USA, 810 October. The
paper has not been peer reviewed.
tory to detonate an 11.1-g deep-penetrating

shaped charge. Each charge will perforate
a 24-in.-long, 7-in.-diameter Berea sandstone core with 3,950-psi applied pore
pressure; 9,950-psi simulated overburden
stress; and 4,900-psi wellbore pressure,
creating a static 950-psi overbalance. Although the initial static condition will be
overbalanced, a DUB condition will be established by wellbore and pore fluids filling the FGV upondetonation.
Testing Apparatus
The testing apparatus used to simulate

downhole perforating conditions for this
work is an advanced perforation-flow
laboratory at the Jet Research Center,
which is modeled after an API 19B Section IV test-vessel apparatus (Fig. 2). The
test setup uses a simulated gun module
that contains a single shaped charge, a
detonating cord, and a sufficient amount
of FGV that can be regulated relative
to the actual gun system being evaluated. FGV for an API 19B Section II or IV
test can be calculated by determining
the total system FGV and dividing by the
total number of charges, thus providing
the FGV on a per-charge basis. The FGV
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JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
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Core 09
Core 11
Simulated Formation
Simulated Wellbore
Gun Volume/Surge Chamber
Fig. 2The Jet Research Center perforation-testing apparatus.
can be increased to simulate the downloading of a gun system, the incorporation of surge chambers, or a variety
of other methods. The gun module is
set inside a simulated wellbore volume.
After detonation, the shaped charge penetrates the gun module simulating the
gun scallop; crosses a defined clearance
between the gun and casing wall through
the pressurized wellbore fluid; and then
penetrates the casing wall, cement, and
finally the pressurized target rock.
The FGV within the simulated gun
module can be modified by using inert
material, such as shatter-resistant steel
bearings. These can be placed inside the
void space around the shaped charge to
match the specific FGV relative to the system used downhole.
Rock cores used are dried to constant mass at 200F and then vacuum
saturated in odorless mineral spirits, enabling the gravimetric porosity value to
be calculated. Each core is then mounted
in the pressure vessel in which the overburden pressure is applied, and steadystate flow through the core is achieved to
determine permeability.
High-speed pressure sensors, capable of sampling at 115,000 data points
per second, are attached to the simulated
wellbore to measure the wellbore pressure response during and immediately
after detonation. The result is a profile
of the transient pressure in the wellbore
during the perforating event, capturing
the inherent or engineered DUB condition if created.
Laboratory Testing
An extensive testing program was conducted to evaluate the effect of FGV on

creating a DUB condition and the clean-
142
CM159413.indd 142
up of perforation tunnels. Observations

were made to determine whether established models for static underbalance
could predict perforation cleanup when
only a DUB condition is achieved. Fig. 3
presents a comparison of two test shots
from the series, each with different FGV.
As expected, the greater FGV created a
larger DUB condition. Core 09 was perforated using 241 cm3 of FGV, creating
a maximum dynamic underbalance of
2,280 psi, which resulted in only 3.30in.
of open perforation tunnel or 38% of
total-core penetration. Core 11 was perforated using 905 cm3 of FGV, creating a maximum dynamic underbalance
of 2,590 psi, which resulted in 8.10 in.
of open perforation tunnel or 100% of
total-core penetration. Immediately after
the perforation tunnel is created, the surrounding wellbore fluids enter the perforation tunnel in an attempt to equalize
the wellbore and pore pressures (overbalanced condition). However, the wellbore pressure decreases beyond the pore
pressure, thus establishing an underbalanced pressure differential where one
did not exist initiallya classic example
of the DUB condition.
Although Cores 09 and 11 were exposed to an underbalanced pressure
greater than the minimum required
by the presented models to achieve a
clean perforation tunnel, only Core 11
was cleaned sufficiently. Core 09 was exposed to a 2,280-psi underbalance and
was cleaned only partially. Fig. 5 in the
complete paper shows that the maximum
underbalance for Core 09 lasted for a
much shorter period of time than that for
Core 11, suggesting that there is a time
dependence to achieve cleanup not considered in the models evaluated. The re-
Fig. 3Perforated cores using

different FGVs, resulting in different
amounts of open perforation tunnel.
Low-melting-point-temperature
eutectic fills the open portion of
the perforation tunnel.
sulting DUB effect is related directly to

the amount of the FGV increase in the
simulated perforating gun in the experimental data.
Discussion
In a perforation event, a charge punches

a hole from the gun into water, through
casing, then into rock. This action is followed by a bubble of explosive mixed
with water, air, and other materials gathered along the way. The charge creates a
perforation tunnel filled mostly with explosive gas. This gas, along with the liner,
compresses the material on the tunnel
boundary. Because the pressure in the
perforation cavity is high, flow does not
occur until the gas relaxes in pressure.
Gun volume plays a role in the relaxation.
The bubble then escapes the tunnel. This
gas rush precedes any underbalance effects and will begin the underbalance
process as soon as the gas pressure is
below the pore pressure. Because the
gun is already at high explosive pressure,
the bubble of explosive gases will flow
into the region between casing and gun
or into the gun if the pressure is relaxed
quickly enough. As the cavity clears, the
pressure underbalance forces pore fluid
to migrate rapidly to the wellbore. The
first region to experience the effects of
the low-pressure wellbore fluid is near
the perforation-tunnel entrance.
Removal comes from two mechanisms. The first involves the flow through
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 7:18 AM
the crushed zone that then entrains and

removes lower-porosity particles. The
second mechanism entails the tip eroding away and then flow along the cavity
erodes material off the walls. These two
mechanisms can occur at the same time.
The tip effect would benefit from a rough
cavity wall. The uniform case is less sensitive to the rough cavity wall, but the
uniform case is more sensitive to particle size in the crushed zone. The first
region to experience the underbalance is
near the tunnel entrance; consequently,
cleanup can, in principle, occur at both
ends of the cavity: at the throat as a result of an early start and at the tip as a result of the weaker crushed zone.
Previous work has focused on solving the pressure equation and then populating a flow equation, such as the Darcy
equation. A rock-strength threshold
was used. First, the layer crushed-zone
thickness is estimated for an 11.1-g deeppenetrating charge by shooting into a
standard quality control setup with dry
sand as the target. The result showed a
high-density region around the tunnel
cavity of 0.2 to 0.5 cm. This result correlated with physical measurements made
144
CM159413.indd 144
of the perforated cores. A thin layer of

material is assumed along the conical
structure. A slab model is initially assumed, but the model can be extended
to a cylinder if necessary. Next, it is assumed that the flow moves a boundary
of material, which in turn alters the pressure gradient.
As the flow increases, instabilities
break up the flow; these instabilities
transition to eddies, which in turn transition to smaller eddies. This is the socalled cascade to smaller scales. Using
a tensile strength of 600 psi, the cleanup occurs quickly, starting at flows of
200 cm/s. The crushed zone is separated from the tunnel wall in approximately 300 microseconds, and the
flow pushes the now-free material out
of the perforation cavity in roughly a
few milliseconds.
Now, consider the case of the tip. In
this case, the tip of the perforation tunnel has the lowest tensile strength. The
flow then can predominate along the
length of the perforation tunnel. This
flow would clear the crushed material by
friction at the surface. This is a less-efficient mechanism than pushing through
the crushed material. For smooth-pipe

flow, the surface friction coefficient is
from the Blasius equation. The tip mode
of perforation operation begins with a
jet model. A jet will have an angle (from
centerline) of approximately 12.5. Inside the cone, the flow is fast. Outside
12.5, flow significantly decreases. Thus,
to optimize cleanup with this model, the
tip of the perforation cavity should have
a shallow angle.
Conclusions
1.The greater the FGV of a

perforating system, the greater
the DUB condition achieved.
2.FGV is a natural occurrence in
any perforating-gun system and
can be optimized to increase
DUB.
3.Established underbalance models
presented in this work do not
appear to accurately predict
perforation cleanup on the basis
of laboratory results.
4.Proposed models linking fluid
velocity to perforation cleanup
seem reasonable, but need
further study. JPT
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 7:18 AM
TECHNOLOGY
J.C. Cunha, SPE, is

drilling manager for
Ecopetrol America
in Houston.
Previously, he was
the well-operations
manager for
Petrobras America. A former associate
professor of petroleum engineering
at the University of Alberta, Canada,
Cunha has served on several SPE
committees and is currently chairman
of the SPE Technical Communities
Coordinating Committee. He holds a
civil engineering degree from Juiz de
Fora Federal University, Brazil; an MS
degree from Ouro Preto University,
Brazil; and a PhD degree from The
University of Tulsa, the latter two in
petroleum engineering. Cunha has
authored many technical articles,
including more than 30 SPE papers, and
has coauthored two recently published
SPE books, Advanced Drilling and
Well Technology and Fundamentals of
Drilling Engineering. He was a 201011
SPE DistinguishedLecturer.

SPE 163302 Intelligent Real-Time
Drilling-Operations Classification Using
Trend Analysis of Drilling-Rig Sensors
by A. Arnaout, TDE Thonhauser Data
Engineering, et al.
SPE/IADC 163510 Advanced Dynamic
Training Simulator for Drilling and Related
Experience From Training of Drilling
Teams With Focus on Realistic Downhole
Feedback by Sven Inge degrd, eDrilling
Solutions, et al.
drilling management
and automation
Recently, while preparing to present a seminar on deepwater-well-construction optimization, I tried hard to find a word or a phrase that could be seen as the secret
for a safe and optimized drilling performancesomething very simple that would
summarize what must be done to achieve success in an activity that, besides being
the most visible face of the oil industry, is also simultaneously the most vulnerable
andcriticized.
What I was trying to do was encapsulate what is a very complex task, the successful management of drilling operations, in just a few words. This proved to be a futile
exercise. After many hours of trying, I ended up not succeeding in obtaining my catchphrase. On the other hand, that helped me a lot in obtaining the main message for the
seminar. There are no quick fixes. The management of a large group of people operating very sophisticated equipment, under restricted conditions, and within a limited
space is a mission filled with complexity. But it is our mission, and we should strive
not only to succeed but also to improve our performance constantly. As I mentioned
in my last article, a flawless operation is a result not only of good management but also
of careful planning.
In the seminar, I ended up concentrating on a few pointsbefore, during, and
after the operationthat should be viewed as fundamental for the success of the job.
In the planning phase, make sure that you are aware of all details involved in the operation and what the risks and possible contingencies are. Then, while executing the
operation, be aware of all developments. Use your real-time data as an efficient tool to
verify what is going well and what needs to be corrected and to predict what is coming. Finally, after concluding the operation, make sure to capture the lessons learned.
This is at least as important as the planning process.
To emphasize the importance of using lessons learned, I would like to conclude
with one of my favorite quotes, attributed to Peter Drucker, widely viewed as the
inventor of modern management: A manager is responsible for the application and
performance of knowledge. JPT
SPE 163489 Operational Control and

Managing Change: The Integration of
Nontechnical Skills With Workplace
Procedures by J.L. Thorogood, Drilling
Global Consultant LLP, et al.
SPE/IADC 163515 Advances in RealTime Event Detection While Drilling
by R. Wong, Schlumberger, et al.
146
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JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 7:21 AM
Design of an Automated
Drilling-Prediction System
ata-mining processes are

fundamental in obtaining
the predictive benefits of real-time
systems and have been progressing
from descriptive to predictive
optimization methods. These
methods are enhanced by real-time
and historic data. Advancedsensor
technologies, improved data-quality
control, wellsite information-transfer
standard-markup-language (WITSML)
data advantages, and virtual real-time
drilling-optimization concepts have
been assimilated into the design and
implementation of predictionsystems.
Introduction
As technologies evolve and the WITSML

standard allows data exploitation by
many specialized applications, moreaccurate and reliable drilling data are
available at real-time operation centers
(RTOCs) to analyze and mitigate drilling
issues. This enhances and speeds up the
drilling-optimization process, and allows
a small group of highly skilled drilling engineers to support several wellbore constructions simultaneously.
However, the traditional tasks of
monitoring drilling parameters are still
constrained by the constant need for
human intervention. First, the particular field-operations knowledge gained by
RTOC monitoring engineers is very valuable but fragile, because it requires the
continued participation of team members. To ensure that nothing is overlooked, that knowledge should be gathered and used by an intelligent system.
Second, the status of a particular event or

well is constantly changing as key drilling factors change, and monitoring engineers must review all data in detail before manually defining the new status of
a system. Third, a complete update of a
general well-operations status report is
time consuming. The operations status
for a set of wells being drilled and monitored can change dramatically from one
minute to the next and therefore requires
the constant participation of an engineer.
Such a report should be automated to derive maximum benefit from the best realtime and historic data.
Drilling-Data Mining
The drilling industry is aware of the importance of pattern analysis and past
performance of correlation wells. It has
looked to similar drilling-well experiences to predict the probability of a particular event or drilling outcome. This has
been achieved effectively with human intervention, despite the fact that multiple
data families that needed to be taken into
account were difficult to access for different reasons.
As well complexity has increased,
computer data-processing technologies, telemetry instrumentation, and
real-time data-acquisition systems have
advanced, providing the ability to use
computer power to choose and examine
an increasing volume of more-complex
data. This has enabled discovery of previously undetected drilling patterns
from correlation wells and known potential events from ongoing drilling
programs, making real-time data expo-
of paper SPE 163709, Design of an Automated Drilling-Prediction System
Strengthening-While-Drilling Decision Making, by Samuel R. Prez Bardasz,
SPE, Edwin David Hernndez Alejadre, and Armando Almeida Len, Petrolink,
prepared for the 2013 SPE Digital Energy Conference and Exhibition, The Woodlands,
Texas, USA, 57 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
nentially more meaningful and more efficient for monitoring purposes. Because
real-time data are properly related to
drilling-program and well-correlation
data, it is possible to develop models for
predicting future outcomes through new
software systems that automatically relate, set apart, and announce a potential
drilling challenge.
Application of the Traffic-Light

Methodology
To reduce the time engineers invest deciding where to focus their attention
on conventional real-time consoles, the
event or well status is defined by intuitive
colors used on the system interface. They
are predefined as green for stable, or on
the program; yellow for alert, or near the
limits of the program; and red for critical,
or outside of the program. This applies to
a particular drilling aspect and to a general drilling-operations dashboard able
to reflect the status of several wells being
drilled concurrently.
The criterion and color definition
are automatically applied by the system
as new real-time values, and trends are
constantly renewed and compared with
relevant historic information. The status
can be modified manually by the monitoring engineers if necessary.
More-Accurate Alerts
Traditionally, alerts have been prepared

by monitoring engineers at RTOCs. However, most of them were triggered by engineers data visualization or alarms displayed by the real-time systems. This is
inefficient, because it demands significant time from monitoring engineers to
validate the accuracy of the alarm before
an alert is posted.
Therefore, alarms in the c omputerdriven system were automated under the
premise that all should be as accurate
and important as the data make possible. Hence, algorithms were developed
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
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147
8/13/13 7:23 AM
mum revolutions per minute; minimum/

This console is complemented with
maximum rate of penetration (ROP); a depth-based well-correlation panel
and minimum/maximum pump pres- that provides gamma-ray, resistivity, and
sure, flow rate, torque, type, diameter, lithology-column information that enand total flow area. These parameters hances the decision-making process to
are filtered, related into a database, and trigger an alert.
displayed on a console. If a real-time
Adding a degree of importance to
value is outside of the range defined by each one of the described-in-detail inthe program, the system will send au- formation tracks, it is possible to dedible and visible alarms. This is com- fine a general-parameter status by use
plemented and supported by a depth- of complex algorithms, resulting in a
based plot on which real-time data of traffic-light expression. Each data famROP, resistivity, and gamma ray are ily is used as a macro or rule that specivisibly compared.
fies how a certain input sequence should
This information is complement- be mapped to a replacement input seequipment quence, and how much impact it should
ed with downhole-drilling-
features if available, either from a have on the general well status. It is
conventional-motor or a rotary-steerable important to mention that other famsystem. The data taken into account are ily data such as trajectory or cementing
maximum tool temperature, hours of data can be taken into account for the
motor life, and motor brand and model. anticipation of drilling issues and fast,
An indicator of formation temperature accurate alertgeneration.
vs. motor temperature completes the inThereafter, two other well-status
formation immediately available to the screens enter the process: one that takes
monitoring engineer before an alert into account the set of events such as
isposted.
kicks, total loss, and friction and torque
Drilling-fluids aspects taken into issues that occurred on the correlaaccount include program values for tion wells; and one that takes into ac
density, plastic viscosity, yield point, count the current well-operation status.
salinity, water/oil fraction, filtration, These provide easy-to-read key informa

emulsion stability, equivalent circulat- tion to the monitoring engineer, who is
ing density, loss, and gasification. All now able to focus more on data-trend
program values are uploaded to the sys- analysis than on data validation and
tem, where specific algorithms are ap- data-trend identification. It is imporplied to compare them with real-time and tant to mention that the automated stanear-real-time fluid data. This results in tus can be edited manually by the mona display that quickly shows which pa- itoring engineers if the status shown
rameter requires attention; each has a is not what the operator or the rigsite
traffic-lightindication.
staff confirms.
Rock-formation and lithology-
column information can be compared General RTOC Dashboard
using the real-time data stream and static Ironically, RTOC status reports are not
data stored in the system. Data available commonly available in real time. Infrom correlation wells and from the drill- stead, this task is performed from time
Anticipating Events
ing program are matched with logging- to time, depending on the operator comwhile-drilling data and near-real-time panys interests, because it demands full
and Trouble Zones
The design of an automated drilling- lithology data, if available. The era, for- attention of monitoring engineers for
prediction system was started by cover- mation, and lithology description are re- significant periods of time. All real-time
ing drill-bit performance, fluid changes, lated to measured depth below the rotary plots must be reviewed by the monitorand varying rock formations. These three table, to true vertical depth below mean ing engineers around a specific time,
points have data in the form of a program sea level, and to measured depth and looking for deviation from the plan as
as well as in real time.
measured bed thicknesses. Once these trends change for the wells being moniDrilling performance has a direct static data are related with the real-time tored at the RTOC. Combining the three
relation to drill-bit efficiency. Therefore, data, a traffic light is displayed on the main statuses of all wells monitored at
drill-bit information is used to moni- console, indicating at least whether, for the RTOC into a unique automated dashtor the well, taking into account start/ a specific measured depth, the rock era, board makes the status-report update
end depth; casing-stage diameter; ini- formation, and lithology match those in an efficient task requiring almost no
tial/final weight on bit; minimum/maxi- the program.
humanintervention.JPT
specifically to assess a limited set of
the most recent data points for temporal trends, and to compare them with
those expected on the basis of the drilling program and correlation wells from
the WITSML database. This reduces the
number of false alarm emissions coming from data-point outliers that sometimes are part of a log curve or from a
data-transmission failure (such as noise).
Algorithms have been intentionally designed to avoid system alarms being triggered if the transmission system is missing family data at a certain time or depth
interval, if one value is outside of the program range, or if a block of received data
is outside of the range at a depth or time
where it is expected to be that way.
Alarms are triggered taking into account two data sources (real-time stream
and historic database). Thus, alerts represent warnings derived not only from
surface potential issues or imminent
downhole threats being identified in real
time, but also from potential wellbore issues identified through correlation wells
or as predefined in the drilling program.
Because this process requires data
to be compared by a unique computer
application, the drilling-data standard
WITSML was put in place, as well as a system of measurements for downhole and
surface parametersthe set of units that
operators use. Similarly, new features related to the fluids data displayed were developed for the pre-existing application.
All drilling-program data must be available in a standardized format to be uploaded to the system.
More-accurate automated alarms
maximize the decision value of the alerts
that are finally prepared by the monitoring engineers.
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JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/19/13 10:31 AM
Management Strategies Optimize

Drilling and Completion Operations
y 2010, all applicable drilling

solutions had seemingly been
applied to the Castilla field in
Colombia. But new problems were
identified, and a model of management
strategies was implemented to reduce
drilling and completion timing. During
the resulting optimization process,
the Castilla field became the model for
the rest of the fields in the company
portfolio. It is believed that this model
might also be applied successfully to
other fields.
Introduction
In a May 2010 evaluation, several facets

of Castilla field operations were assessed:
current processes, operations, and technologies; the state of drilling operations
by use of management indicators; nonproductive time (NPT); field characteristics; and roles and responsibilities of
personnel. The objectives were to prioritize processes by importance, create a
process guide, develop a new manpower
plan, improve communication, and apply
technologyefficiently.
Optimization Evaluation Results
Field Characteristics. The Castilla

field is 200 km from Bogot in the Llanos basin. This field has three formations of heavy oil (T2, K1, and K2) to
7,500, 8,000, and 8,500 ft in true vertical depth (TVD), respectively. Most of
the wells are drilled to approximately
9,500ft in measured depth. The majority of the wells are J-shaped, with inclinations from 30 to 70. The most common
operational problems in the field were to

be found at approximately 1,000-ft TVD,
at the shale formation found immediately above pay zones.
Optimization Model. The optimization
process had three principal stages: implementation, consolidation, and optimization excellence. The development
of each well had involved five steps during the drilling process: planning, implementation, control, feedback, and
optimization. The drilling engineer had
to plan the well; implement, explain,
and communicate the plan; control the
drilling while continuously monitoring parameters, ensuring compliance
with the plan and the application of
the lessons learned; catalog the lessons
learned; and apply these lessons to new
optimizationplans.
The working optimization model
was designed around several major
strategies, all developed on the basis of
technical limits related to health, safety, and environment (HSE): continuous
monitoring of indicators; establishment
of only one line of communication; application of short-, medium-, and longterm well vision; and organization based
onengineering.
During the measurement phase, new
indicators and methodologies, such as
the Boston Consulting Group matrix for
NPT classification by severity and frequency, were included. These methodologies were not only part of the initial
stage of the process, but over time they
also became tools for control and monitoring of trends. The initial evaluation
of paper SPE 165325, A Successful Optimization Case of Drilling and Completion
Operations Through Management Tools and Strategies, by Oscar R. Silva, Guden
O. Silva, and Luis I. Valderrama, Ecopetrol, prepared for the 2013 SPE Western
Regional and AAPG Pacific Section Meeting and Joint Technical Conference, Monterey,
California, USA, 1925 April. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
was focused on four main areas: management indicators, time to optimize,

human resources, and oilfield characteristics. The Boston matrix was used to
identify the severity and frequency of
NPT. Several technical and operational
tools were used to identify characteristics of the oil field, including maps of Castilla losses of drilling fluid and inflows of
northern and southern areas; geological
maps to identify formation-top depths,
faults, dipping layers, and drainage areas
of wells drilled; and existing geomechanical analyses.
Evaluation Results. A centralized type
of drilling engineering management was
developed in which well engineering was
applied from a central unit that served
several fields at the same time. Perhaps
this strategy might have worked in a stable operation, but with the high operational activity that Ecopetrol was carrying out (and taking into consideration
that its goal for production growth for
2010 was 12% over the previous year), it
was impossible for this strategy to work.
Growth was experienced in all business
areas: exploration, production, oil exports, and proven reserves.
The drilling program was a document of almost 100 pages. Too much
time was needed to read it, and still it offered little operational detail. As for roles
and responsibilities, it was noted that
drilling engineers, directly responsible
for the drilling operation, were spending most of their work time on receiving calls and only a small portion of their
work time on engineering tasks such as
planning and monitoring the well, resulting in important decisions being made
hastily by staff not seasoned in the Castilla field. Furthermore, service companies were making changes to engineering procedures or proposals without
the input of Ecopetrol. Because of this
post-event methodology, the field lead-
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JPT_S
Planning and Lessons Learned
Drilling Engineer and Leaders
Planning and Optimization

Engineer
Well Field Operations

Ecopetrol Rep (Night)
Rig Superintendents (Day)
No Drilling Surprises
NPT Reduction
HSE Planning
Risk Management
Technology
Contract Management
Completion Planning
Cost Management
Lessons Learned and Feedback
Office Operations
Field Operations
Fig. 1Information-flow model for improvement performance.
er was spending much of his time solving NPT problems. In addition, the direct
responsibility for HSE issues had been
handled by one person not working directly for Ecopetrol. Thus, there was no
strict monitoring of HSE issues. Finally,
a number of specific drilling problems
were identified, ranging from administrative (poor management of permits) to
technical (unnecessary wiper trips and
cementation)concerns.
Engineering-Based
Organizational Strategy
Although the drilling leader hired new

staff for the optimization process, the
same organizational structure was retained in the rigs. However, the leader
used an engineering-based strategy to
reorganize the roles and responsibilities
of all positions (Fig. 1). The most important change took place in the operations
engineer position of each rig. This position was retitled drilling engineer and
became a planning position, directly responsible for planning, monitoring, and
operations of the well. Some duties of
the operations engineer, including the
logistics of tools and personnel, were
delegated to assistant engineers.
The Ecopetrol representative in
charge of drilling operations in the field
kept his normal duties, but was expect-
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
DM165325.indd 153
ed to adhere to the plan previously established by drilling engineers. If they

wanted to change the plan, they were
required to call the operations center
in Bogot and provide an engineeringbased justification of their request.
Each service company must submit
its engineering products in advance for
review by the drilling engineer. Seven optimization engineers were hired, dedicated to supporting specific tasks such
as monitoring NPT, managing maps of
wiper trips and fluid loss, updating operations, implementing new technologies,
and performing several other activities
aimed at optimizing the operation.
Single-Communication-Line
Strategy
Many of the observed problems were

caused by a lack of specific responsibility. To ensure communication processes, tools were implemented by use of
all existing channels. Written communication was key, but it would be supplemented by audiovisual communication
andteleconferencing.
The wasteful and unproductive drilling program was replaced by an easy-toread document with strong engineering
content. In fewer than 20 pages, the main
well data were summarized. The drillingwell-on-paper scheme ensured the detail
of each operation, its parameters, time

limits, and lessons learned. This document was not made at the whim of site
leaders but instead was an important feat
achieved with the participation of all involved in the operation.
A regular video meeting was established in which the Bogot offices were
in conference with the personnel of six
drilling rigs. At 4p.m., every rig delivered
a report. A complete communications
room was implemented in the Bogot offices. Cameras were installed in the Bogot communications room and all rig offices to facilitate thesemeetings.
Each service company maintains
personnel within the same field, but it
is not necessary for these staff members
to remain in the same drilling rig. New
staff could not handle operations unless
they met adaptability and recognition
guidelines to stay in the field. Thus, the
dynamics of drilling, created over several months, could be guaranteed, and
the lessons learned during this time were
not lost.
This process notably improved the
working environment. Personnel confidence increased, and interdependence
was strengthened.
Vision Strategy for the Short,

Medium, and Long Term
When the Castilla optimization implementation began in 2010, many of the

targeted problems had their causes in
well planning, including construction of
negative and nudge sections, problems
of collision between wells, very short or
very long vertical sections for the angle
of arrival at the target, sudden changes
in the angle of arrival at the target, landpurchase issues for the cluster, problems with union strikes in certain sectors of the field, and flooding problems
in thefield.
A goal was therefore set for a single
well in advance (short term), a cluster in
advance (medium term), and well campaigns in advance (long term) as fundamental parts of the optimization between 2013 and 2016. By planning far in
advance, the planning of the next well
begins when starting to drill the current well. This allowed a reasonable
time to apply lessons learned and operational practices, and to adjust for-
153
8/19/13 10:34 AM
mation tops, directional profiles, and

bottomholeassemblies.
Likewise, when drilling began on
the first well of a cluster, the next cluster
was planned, which involved purchasing land, setting targets to optimize directional plans, monitoring civil works
for locations, acquiring permits from the
government (which required a minimum
of 30 days from the filing of documents),
154
DM165325.indd 154
and engaging in socially conscious interaction with the community, among

othertasks.
Results
The total drilling and completion time of

the Castilla field for 2010 was reduced
by 35%, from an average of 29 days to
19 days. The days/1,000 ft indicator was
decreased from 4.2 to 1.9. Completion
times were reduced by 40%, from an

average of 6.7 days to 3.7 days. The cost
savings was greater than USD 50 million for the campaign. The level of commitment, awareness, and knowledge in
HSE rose at all levels. The frequency of
HSE incidents did not rise despite the
man-hours in field operation increasing
by50%. JPT
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/19/13 10:34 AM
Integrated-Technology Approach Enables

Successful Prospect Evaluations in Malaysia
he central Luconia gas province

located offshore Sarawak houses
numerous carbonate reservoirs
(Fig. 1). Some of these reservoirs
are characterized by the presence of
karsts and fractures, contributing to
total mud losses. Implementing the
variant of managed-pressure-drilling
technology called pressurized mud-cap
drilling (PMCD) allowed targeted total
depths (TDs) to be reached on several
wells. However, reaching TD alone is
insufficient for conclusive evaluation.
Integration of technology applications is
paramount in increasing the success rate
of data delivery.
Introduction
Well-known for highly varying formation properties even within small sections of reservoir, the recently discovered
Malaysian carbonate formations present a risk of drilling-fluid losses. Conventionally, these wells were drilled with
overbalanced mud and losses were cured
with lost-circulation materials (LCMs) or
cement plugs to enable restoration of
overbalanced condition for future drilling. Drilling a multiple total-losses zone
conventionally proved to be highly uneconomical and likely to jeopardize the
safety of the operation. To mitigate this
inefficiency and associated safety risks,
the PMCD technique was implemented
and made ready for all of the operators carbonate drilling operations. Since
2010, PMCD equipment and personnel
Fig. 1Area of operations.
have been mobilized for 11 wells, but have

been used only in six wells.
Introduction to PMCD
PMCD is applied in the total-loss condition. Once sufficient loss rates are encountered, the annulus is displaced from
overbalanced drill-weight mud to underbalanced light annular mud (LAM). The
LAM is generally designed to be underbalanced to the formation pressure at
the topmost fracture by approximately
100 psi. This enables gas migration into
the wellbore to be monitored closely.
of paper SPE 164576, Integrated-Technology Approach To Explore Carbonate
Reservoirs in Malaysia Enhances PMCD Potential and Enables Successful Prospect
Evaluations, by M. Noreffendy Jayah, SPE, Intan Azian A. Aziz, SPE, Zulhilmi
Drus, SPE, Thanavathy Patma Nesan, Wong Han Sze, SPE, Abdel Aziz Ali Hassan,
and Pungut Luntar, Petronas, prepared for the 2013 IADC/SPE Managed Pressure
Drilling and Underbalanced Operations Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio,
Texas, USA, 1718 April. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
After casing pressure has increased to

a limit, LAM is injected into the annulus to bullhead the migrated gas back
into the formation. Upon each injection,
the casing pressure will be restored to
the original 100 psi. Drilling operations
are performed while injecting seawater
continuously down the drillstring and
intermittently injecting LAM down the
annulus. Drilled cuttings will be carried
by seawater and fed into the fractures.
Planning for successful PMCD operations not only revolves around equipment and engineering, but also depends
on well placement and architecture, well
engineering, rig equipment, training,
andlogistics.
Successful PMCD
Implementations
in the KUN2 Well
This well was drilled in August 2012 by

use of a semisubmersible drilling rig.
Upon drilling 11 m into the carbonate
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JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 7:34 AM
RCD
Riser
SSBOP
LAM
9 in.
SAC
Fluid
2
Drill to TD
in PMCD.
Strip out of
hole. Close BOP
to handle BHA.
4
Make up CBP.
RIH and set

CBP. Displace
kill mud. POOH.
Make up liner
and RIH to CBP.
Drill CBP.
Continue
running
liner to TD.
Fig. 2Running sequence for setting and drilling the CBP. RCD=rotating control device; SSBOP=subsea blowout
preventer; SAC=sacrificial fluid; RIH=run in hole; POOH=pull out of hole.
section, a total loss of drilling fluids

was experienced. Loss rate was recorded at approximately 1,200 bbl/hr. The
well was successfully drilled to TD in
PMCD mode. Once at TD, the bottomhole assembly (BHA) was stripped out
and a composite bridge plug (CBP) was
run into the hole and set inside the production casing (i.e., several joints above
the shoe). The well was then displaced
to kill fluid before the running tool was
retrieved to surface. A drill-in liner system was then run into the hole and used
to drill the CBP. The well was converted
back to PMCD mode once the CBP was
drilled out, and the liner was then run to
TD. The well was secured upon setting of
the liner-top packer.
Main Challenges
The main challenges faced in drilling carbonate exploration wells include determining the top of the carbonate to enable
the correct setting depth for production
casing, ensuring efficient PMCD operations, acquiring pore-pressure data, isolating the well after drilling to TD in
PMCD mode, and determining an optimum well-killing method after performing production testing.
158
DM164576.indd 158
Solutions
Optimization of Carbonate Prediction

With Seismic-While-Drilling (SWD)
Technology. To ensure successful PMCD
operations, a hole section has to be dedicated to the carbonate section. The presence of shale within this section will introduce borehole-stability risk once the
drilling operation is converted to PMCD.
To prevent shale exposure in the PMCD
section, determining the correct section
depth for the hole section before carbonate is of great importance.
To accomplish this goal, SWD was
used in the KUN2 well. During SWD runs,
vertical seismic profiles were initiated
during pipe connection and waveforms
were transmitted to the surface during
drilling operation. The result can be analyzed by the project geologist and geophysicist on site to produce an updated
top-of-carbonate depth prognosis while
the hole is being drilled. The accuracy
of the prognosis will increase as seismic is initiated deeper and closer to the
targetformations.
Ensuring Efficient PMCD Operations.
One of the main challenges in ensuring successful and efficient PMCD op-
erations is drilling in one bit run. This

will significantly minimize consumption
of LAM and eliminate the exposure to
well-control risk when the BHA has to
be tripped out of hole under a total-loss
condition in the middle of the operation.
From past experience, the main problem
hindering this goal is LWD failure caused
by vibration and drill-bit wear. While
the latter definitely requires a bit trip,
LWD failure during PMCD drilling also
mandates a trip out because LWD is the
only viable means of obtaining openhole
formation evaluation once total losses
areencountered.
Acquisition of Pore-Pressure Data in
Total-Loss Condition. Because of the
inability to perform openhole wireline
logging after converting to PMCD mode,
the operator deployed a formationpressure-while-drilling (FPWD) tool in
PMCD/total-loss mode. The challenge
of obtaining a good pressure point in
PMCD mode derives from the absence
of mudcake (with seawater being used as
drilling fluid) and from the potential existence of fracture lines across the borehole wall. In KUN2, borehole imaging
while drilling was included in the BHA
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 7:34 AM
to facilitate the selection of a good pressure point. Throughout the reservoir

section, 25 pressure points were taken,
with the majority failing to achieve good
seals. When the few valid points were
compared with data obtained from the
production test, it was found that the
measurements from FPWD were inconsistent with the production-test data.
Because there is higher confidence in
the reliability of data from production
testing, it was concluded that the FPWD
data were questionable, which could be
attributed to the abnormal and unconventional wellbore conditions observed
in PMCD mode.
Because of the challenges involved
in obtaining pore-pressure data when
the well is converted into PMCD mode,
an alternative measurement method is proposed in the KUN2 well using
annular-pressure-while-drilling (APWD)
measurements. In theory, the use of
pressure-while-drilling capability will enable estimations of pore pressure in the
reservoir section in PMCD mode. The idea
is to measure equivalent-static-density
data from the APWD tool during connections, when there is no LAM being
pumped into the hole. It is assumed that,
when left static for a sufficient time, the
fluid in the borehole will gravity segregate, with an LAM column fully supported
by the pressure at the topmost fracture.
Isolations of Wellbore Against Total
Losses. From past experience, repeated attempts to prevent losses with concentrated LCM pills of up to 120 lbm/bbl
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
DM164576.indd 159
will be unsuccessful, the key reason

being the nature of the loss zones themselves (i.e., cavernous/vugular). Cement
plugs were tried but demonstrated a
poor success rate, mostly achieving success only upon the seventh attempt or
even later. Because of the failure of these
methods, the gunk-plug option was explored. Gunk plugs, in theory, seemed
to have ideal characteristics, providing
temporary isolation while not plugging
the vugs. Though the first pilot test of
gunk plugs in early 2012 was largely unsuccessful, gunk plugs seemed to be a
likelysolution.
In addition, CBPs were used as an
isolation solution. CBPs are made of
substantially nonmetallic components,
usually composed of a fiber-and-resin
mixture such as fiberglass or of highperformance plastics. Because of the nature of the composite materials, the CBP
is drilled out easily in a single-pass operation. After the CBP is set, the well will
be displaced to kill fluid to overbalance
the pressure below the plug once it has
fully flipped to gas. Previously, the operator had twice used the CBP successfully as a temporary isolation method for
carbonate wells. In KUN2, the CBP was
not set after five attempts. On the last attempt, the string was turned and reciprocated as an attempt to clean the casing
wall, which eventually allowed the CBP
to be set successfully. (See Fig. 2 for the
CBP-runningsequence.)
A third solution, a drill-in linerhanger system, was used in KUN2
in combination with a premium high-
torque gas-tight connection and sixbladed drillshoes. In KUN2, a CBP was

drilled with LAM pumped through the
drillstring. After approximately 15 minutes of drilling, a total-loss condition occurred as the CBP was drilled through
and PMCD mode was activated again.
Fluid injection was switched to seawater,
and the liner was reamed down to TD.
After TD, the liner was set hydraulically.
Because of a persistent total-loss state,
achieving good cementation was almost
impossible. To ensure well integrity for
testing, the operator had practiced installing three floats for the liner and a tieback packer to provide seal redundancy
at the liner lap.
Well Killing After Production Testing.
This process is a major challenge. Experience has shown that even pumping
a massive volume of LCMs will not cure
the losses, so it has been agreed that no
attempt will be made to cure the losses
after a production-test operation. The
wellbore will only be isolated from the
losses zone with a mechanical device.
To date, the operator had implemented this strategy successfully in several
wells where an expandable bridge plug
had been run through the test string and
set above the perforation zone. Cement
plugs were then set above the bridge
plug with several dump bailer runs and
allowed to harden before being pressure tested. The well was then displaced
to kill fluid to allow retrieval of the testingstring. JPT
159
8/19/13 10:35 AM
Real-Time Analysis
for Remote Operations Centers
rilling, completion, production,

and general surveillance are all
areas that benefit greatly from remote
real-time analysis. However, several
challenges to remote services exist,
including communications issues, fear
of job loss, and working outside ones
comfort zone. What is considered an
important development goal for a
business might be regarded as a threat
to an individual, leading to reduced
development within remote services.
Traditional Manning
Personnel per Rig
Rig 1
Remote Ops and Remanning

Personnel per Rig
Rig 2
X-Training
2 X DD
2 x MWD
6x
ML/SC/Loggers
(1 x RPS)
2 x DDx
OPS Center Remote Ops Team

Global/Regional Ops Support
Remote-Operations
Business Model
A remote-operations business model removes geographic location and physical

distance in all phases of oilfield-service
delivery. It reduces the cost of delivering services, increases geographic reach,
and improves safety. Remote operations,
in essence, are real-time workflows that
integrate personnel at rigsites and at assembly and maintenance and overhaul
(AMO) facilities; at remote operations
centers; or at real-time operational centers (RTOCs) anywhere in the world.
Remote operations are the acquisition of sensor data from rigsite equipment and instruments, and the transmission and processing of those data
from remote locations. Monitoring,
alarm, or advisory services are delivered
in real time with global delivery models,
increasing the capability to move work
from the point of service to another lo-
Rig 2
Rig 1
24/7 Ops.Tech Support

LWD & DD Expert Advisory
Remote MWD / LWD Crew

Remote Dir. Drilling Crew
Applications Engineer
2x
ML/MWD
2 x SC/Loggers
on Demand
Global /Regional Ops Support

24/7 Ops. Tech Support
LWD & DD Expert Advisory
IO Drilling Engineer
Fig. 1Restructuring the traditional drilling services by introducing remote

centers and changing workflow and processes.
cation, where it can be performed more

safely, more quickly, and at a lower cost.
Infrastructure, while critical, is
only an enabler. The true sources of efficiency and competitive advantage come
from the organizational redeployment
of the workforce and the re-engineering
of workflows. Providing on-demand expertise enables service providers to deploy new technology faster and deliver
high-end services in areas with few local
qualified resources. Customers also benefit from bundled services, which require the integration of different disciplines and expertise that may be in
shortsupply.
of paper IPTC 16999, Remote Real-Time AnalysisA Game Changer for Remote
Operations Centers, by Erland Saeverhagen, Arve Thorsen, Jan Ove Dagestad, Nic
Spanovic, and Kate Cannon, SPE, Baker Hughes, prepared for the 2013 International
Petroleum Technology Conference, Beijing, 2628 March. The paper has not been
peerreviewed.
Copyright 2013 International Petroleum Technology Conference. Reproduced by
permission.
The Digital Oil Field
Improved connectivity through radio

link, fiber optics, and satellite systems
has opened a new world of opportunities
for operation optimization. Real-time operations monitoring occurs from any office, accessing data streams through Web
portals. New downhole tools and software have been developed on the basis of
these new abilities, and new service levels have resulted, leading to new and interesting jobs, improved well placement,
high service quality, and reduced nonproductive time (NPT).
Some of the most important contributions to drilling analysis include
real-time services as a function of new
downhole tool technology, improved telemetry, and fast access to near-real-time
downhole data; oilfield standardization
for data aggregation and transfer (WITS/
WITSML/PRODML); and new engineering software.
In the early stages, most real-time
monitoring was used only by field personnel. However, as real-time data
were displayed in the service-provider
160
DM16999.indd 160
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 7:34 AM
Data
Experience
Visualization
and
Set-Limit
Surveillance
Data
Analysis
and
Statistics
Physical
Models
Updated in
Real Time
Indexing and Active

Recall of
Human Experience
Data Communication and Storage

(WITSML Server)
Rig
Rig
Rig
Rig
Keyword
Search
Knowledge Management
Systems
Historical
Real-Time
Data
Best
Practices
Drilling
Reports
Other
Documents
Fig. 2Data flow for case-based reasoning.
or oil-company offices, new processes and services were established and

were conducted remotely in newly developed remote operations centers or
in both parties offices. Field personnel were remanned, and field job functions were integrated through specialized cross-trainingprograms.
A 24/7 operations cycle was implemented for key services in the operations
centers; specific field functions that were
conducted in front of a PC were physically reallocated from the field to the remote
center. The model provided the means
of reducing the number of field personnel significantly [especially for drilling
services, where measurement-while-
drilling (MWD)/logging-while-drilling
(LWD) and surface-logging services could
be conducted remotely].
The idea behind the model was to
reduce personnel at the rigsite and to
transfer the job tasks to a remote operations center. Fig. 1 shows the change in
personnel needed in the traditional work
model compared with multiple rigs with
remote personnel, and the reduction
in personnel that need to be transported to any rigsite. The increased support
level is also illustrated, and the expertise
level within the support organization is
alsoenhanced.
Remote Real-Time Analysis
The connectivity, real-time data display,

and reliable communication flow of fully
equipped remote operations centers and
RTOCs set the stage for the future of remote services. Important areas exist in
which oil companies and service provid-
162
DM16999.indd 162
ers can improve their operations significantly, such as prejob planning and drilling execution.
Achieving superior drilling performance requires more than merely selecting the appropriate drill bit and bottomhole assembly (BHA); recommendations
often relate to all aspects of the drilling
operation. Drill-bit design, BHA setup,
and the analysis of borehole geometry vs.
formation zones, hole cleaning vs. pressure, and fluid and vibration patterns all
form the drilling environment.
The drilling-optimization adviser
has a wide range of knowledge about
drilling practices, but without the correct
rock-property analysis, that knowledge is
insignificant. Measurements must be accurate and timely to ensure that adequate
changes are made as necessary. Verifying measurements is the first step in automated drillingthe input parameters
must be correct.
Remote automated drilling-advisory service, which recognizes potential
drilling problems before they occur, is an
additional tool for the drilling adviser/
engineer. The adviser/engineer provides
their best operational advice on the basis
of continual real-time surveillance and
interpretation of all available data in addition to the automated decision support
from the case-based reasoning software.
This integrated solution, built on the
premise that similar problems have similar solutions, delivers constant surveillance, interpretation, and advice within a
collaborative environment to reduce uncertainty, minimize NPT, increase safety,
and enhance efficiency.
Case-based reasoning software automatically identifies events and trends.

When the system identifies a potential
problem, it is brought to the attention
of the drilling adviser/engineer. The best
course of action is determined and necessary personnel are notified with recommendations for correction. Fig. 2 depicts
the case-based reasoningworkflow.
In addition to the remote drillingadvisory services, there are a number
of other tasks that can be conducted
remotely. In this context, it is important to mention real-time pressure or
equivalent-circulating-density management, pore-pressure prediction, and
wellbore stability as tasks that can be
performed continually from a remote operations center or clients RTOCs. Collecting and analyzing borehole cuttings
and evaluating possible cavings are tasks
that must be performed at the wellsite.
Proper use of photography and scales
enables the caving evaluation to be performed remotely, thus delivering a more
advanced scan of the caving.
Real-time data are also extremely
important in the planning phase for reviewing, improving, developing, and following up on field-specific best drilling
practices. All available data, including
real-time drilling-fluid parameters, are
used in this type of analysis, predicting
situations at any well depth with current
parameters. Advice is given to help avoid
stuck pipes, lost circulation, and hole collapse, and to stay within predetermined
operational envelopes.
Continuous operation monitoring
is required during tripping in and out,
where running speeds are estimated on
the basis of analysis of available real-time
and historical data. The reaction of adjusting the mud-weight window up or
down is dependent on the mode of failure interpreted from 1D geomechanical
analysis. By integrating drilling experiences, the geomechanical model can be
calibrated, providing an optimized geomechanical analysis.
Reservoir navigation is another
concern that has moved from the field
to remote operations centers without
problems. The reservoir-navigation supervisor primarily works from the clients
office; reservoir-navigation engineers
perform continuous drilling-
progress
and LWD-log-response analysis, updat-
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 7:33 AM
ing the Earth model while drilling. When

there are recurring differences between
the premodeled expected physical properties of the reservoir and the actual observed measurements, the objective is to
ensure that changes made are kept to a
minimum to maintain consistency with
otherdata.
Prejob modeling is required to provide road maps for what can be expected
during section drilling, where real-time
data and subsequent analysis dictate the
well path to be drilled. Discrepancies between a prejob Earth model and projections being made on the basis of real-time
data can immediately halt the drilling process; a thorough analysis of the
real-time data and the model determines
future actions. In some instances, the
model is altered, and drilling commences. In other cases, the discrepancy is accepted or leads to sidetracking, and new
well profiles must be drilled. The process
is labor intensive and requires a clear and
streamlined communicationsplan.
In production, significant achievements have been made in optimizing
electrical submersible pumps (ESPs),
such as improving pump life cycles and
detecting scaling and other problems.
Production is controlled remotely from
an operations center, where thousands
of pumps are monitored and operation
sequences are analyzed simultaneously
on the basis of real-time data. The automatic analytics determine the ESPs condition, and appropriate action is taken.
Automatic chemical injection of, for example, scale inhibitors is also conducted
remotely. The automated analytics and
alarms provided by the software enable
repair and workover field crews to be established in a controlled atmosphere.
The latest addition to the remoteoperations domain is the situationalawareness and operational-visualization
system, which triggers specific workflows to be followed. The system integrates data, visual feeds, and audio chan-
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
DM16999.indd 163
Fig. 3All sources of information are recorded by the situational-awareness

software, which immediately selects the appropriate sources of information
during an event, providing workflows for mitigating action and associated
procedures.
nels, providing operations traceability.

The system engages all operations participants, providing a comprehensive
view for coordinating actions and responses. It also contains recall and replay functions of all information sources for after-action review. All acquired
data are stored in a black box at the
rigsite in case of an unexpected event,
and are also displayed in real time in a
continuously manned RTOC or operations center. Fig. 3 shows one possible
remote-operations-center layout. Visual
information from the wellsite is shown
through cameras, and sound is transmitted through open-communication channels, avoiding phone calls as much as
possible. The circle is completed in the
operational environment, giving feedback to the real-time operationscrew.
Benefits and Challenges
For more than a decade, remote operations have been implemented in the oil
and gas industry, with significant progress made through workflow and process
design, enabling remote monitoring, execution, and control.
Drilling contractors have swiftly

implemented automation, with manual
work being replaced by machines and
smart software. In the service industry,
remote subject-matter experts have replaced field engineers. These initiatives
have contributed significantly to reducing operational cost and have improved
service quality and reduced NPT.
The challenge, however, is the
human capitalthe individual reaction to continuous change and where
jobs are being moved. Human nature resists change and prefers the known, and
therefore change processes are sometimes impeded by a workforce comfortable with the status quo. Key personnel
that would be the preferred candidates
for remote positions often prefer rotation cycles in the field. Therefore, intense
management focus is required to cause
the workforce to commit to the newly developed operations model. Communication and workforce inclusion in all stages
of the pre-engineering process are key
factors to success. JPT
163
8/19/13 10:36 AM
SPE HONOREES
Legion of Honor
SPE welcomes 83 members into the Legion of Honor, which celebrates 50 years of consecutive
membership in the Society. Each honoree becomes dues exempt and receives a certificate
marking the milestone. The honorees are listed below under their respective sections.
Austin
Denver
Los Angeles Basin
Pittsburgh Petroleum
Cleon L. Dunham
Don R. George
Robert C. MacDonald
Jack A. McCartney
Forrest M. Moore
James D. Walker
Richard D. Finken
Willis B. Wood Jr.
Robert G. Smith
Robert W. Watson
Balcones
East Texas
Mid-Continent
Salt Lake Petroleum
James H. Smith
Ronny G. Altman
James P. Brill
Alan W. Carlton
Charles A. Ellis
Oran L. Hall
E.L. Thomas
Donald C. Condie
John D. Boxell
William R. Locklear
Dan A. Magee
Thomas H. Yates Jr.
Calgary
Patrick D. O'Connell
John E. Squarek
Caracas Petroleum
Jesus A. Struve
Simon J. Antunez
Colombian
Jose C. Ferrer
Dallas
T.D. Badgwell
James H. Lyon
Milton D. McKenzie
John T. Moore
Avinash G. Nangea
A.W. Ritter
Tommy L. Sprinkle
Fred I. Stalkup
James C. Trimble
Delta
Charles V. Cusimano
Rex C. Hughey
166
LegionHonor.indd 166
Evangeline
Joy C. Cleveland Jr.
Michael J. Veazey
Gulf Coast
Walter W. Allen
Nathaniel G. Beard
Douglas H. Burgess
Nolan E. Cannon
Elmond L. Claridge
Fielding B. Craft
Joseph R. Harris
Edward D. Holstein
Clyde G. Inks
Robert L. Kennedy
K.T. Koonce
Herbert A. Lesser
Gary J. Mabie
William J. McDonald
David G. Nussmann
Charles R. Peck
Paul E. Pilkington
Frank H. Richardson
Wayne A. Schneider
Robert S. Singer
David K. Smith
Robert H. Steffler
Philip R. White
Saudi Arabia
Omar J. Esmail
Southwest Texas
National Capital
E.H. Herron
Joaquin V. Arredondo
Jerry F. Priddy
North Texas
Trans-Pecos
Edward W. Moran Jr.
Michael J. DeMarco
Ohio Petroleum
UnassignedEastern
North America
Leo A. Schrider
Oklahoma City
David W. Keefe
Neal Rudder
Charles F. Blackwood
Roy M. Knapp
Jeffrey B. Robinson
John D. Stacy
Rodney W. Ylitalo
Unassigned
Southwestern
North America
Permian Basin
UnassignedWestern
North America
Barry A. Beal
Billy J. Feagan
Adam Praisnar Jr.
Ron J. Byrd
Edward R. McDowell
Wyoming Petroleum
Norman R. Morrow
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 7:34 AM
PEOPLE
PATRICK ALLMAN-WARD, SPE, was

appointed chief executive officer of Dana
Gas. He has more than 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and has held
several senior level positions. He joined the
company in 2012 as the general manager of
Dana Gas Egypt. Allman-Ward began his
career with Shell where he gained experience in a wide range of
departments, including exploration; planning; business development; commercial negotiations; and health, safety, security,
and the environment. He earned a BS in geology from Durham
University and a PhD from the Royal School of Mines, University of London.
ROB BUCHAN, SPE, was appointed Aberdeen general manager at GDF SUEZ E&P UK
and will oversee the companys developments and operations across the UK. Before
joining the company in 2008, he worked
with Dowell Schlumberger on international
assignments and with BP for 24 years in
drilling and operations management roles in Aberdeen and
London. He earned a BS in geology from Aberdeen University
and an MBA from Robert Gordon University.
GREGORY K. GRAVES, SPE, was promoted to senior vice president at DeGolyer and
MacNaughton. He will continue to lead the
Houston office and direct a team that works
on projects in North America. Graves specializes in reservoir engineering and has a
geology background coupled with experience in investment banking, finance, and economics. Before
joining the company, Graves worked with a number of energy
companies, including Devon Energy, where he served as the
supervisor of international exploitation for the Middle East
and Asia regions. He is a licensed professional engineer in
Texas. He earned a BS in petroleum engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and completed post-baccalaureate
studies in microeconomics and macroeconomics at the University ofHouston.
JAY HOLLINGSWORTH, SPE, has joined
Energistics as its chief technology officer.
Hollingsworth has more than 20 years of
upstream oil and gas industry experience.
He held technical management positions at
Oracle, Schlumberger, Landmark, and Mobil
Oil. His experience includes a wide range of
data architecture and database engineering technologies as well
as knowledge of geosciences and engineering. Hollingsworth
earned a BS in chemical engineering from Tulane University and
a BS in computer science from the University of Texas at Dallas.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
PeopleSept.indd 167
DILHAN ILK, SPE, was promoted to vice

president at DeGolyer and MacNaughton.
He joined the company in 2010 and specializes in well performance evaluation and
forecasting. Ilk has written more than 30
articles in well test analysis, analysis/interpretation of production data, and general
reservoir engineering and has carried out field projects analyzing well performance data in fields in Venezuela and North
America. He earned a BS in petroleum engineering from Istanbul Technical University and an MS and a PhD in petroleum
engineering from Texas A&M University.
ARUN KHARGHORIA, SPE, was promoted
to vice president at DeGolyer and MacNaughton. He joined the company in 2009 and has
directed and contributed to projects in Russia, Algeria, Malaysia, Colombia, Ghana, and
the US. Before joining the company, Kharghoria worked for several oil and gas consultants in positions including reservoir engineering adviser and
senior reservoir engineer. He has carried out research assignments for Texas A&M University and the University of Tulsa.
Kharghoria earned a BS in technology from the Indian School of
Mines, an MS in petroleum engineering from the University of
Tulsa, and a PhD in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University. He was given an Outstanding Technical Editor award by
the SPE Editorial Review Committee in2008.
JAMES J. KLECKNER, SPE, was promoted
to executive vice president of Anadarko
Petroleum. Previously, he was the vice president of operations for Anadarkos Rocky
Mountain region, overseeing the companys
operations and development activities in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Kleckner has
more than 30 years of global technical and leadership experience.
He began his career in the oil and gas industry with Sun Oil and
has held management positions in the North Sea, South America,
China, the Gulf of Mexico, and the US. Kleckner earned a BS in
petroleum engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.
IGOR P. MOSKVIN, SPE, was promoted to
vice president at DeGolyer and MacNaughton. He joined the company in 2005 and
specializes in reservoir engineering and
simulation studies and estimating hydrocarbon reserves. His prior experience includes
working for Yukos in the Department of
Technological Project Appraisal at the Moscow Technology
Center and working for a major Russian oil and gas company on
an annual reserves update that included an analysis of 88 fields.
He earned a BS in petroleum engineering from the Tomsk Poly-
167
8/12/13 2:33 PM
PEOPLE
technic University and an MS in petroleum engineering from
Heriot-Watt University.
GARY C. ROBINSON, SPE, was promoted
to vice president at DeGolyer and MacNaughton. He joined the company in 2009
as a geologist who works on reservoir studies projects worldwide. Before joining the
company, Robinson worked for geophysical
companies, including Denver Geophysical,
CGG, RC Squared, and Veritas as well as oil and gas companies,
including Saudi Aramco and Eastern American Energy. He
Member Deaths
William D. Carson, Naperville, Illinois, USA
K.J. Feyhl, Billings, Montana, USA
J.V. Fredd, Plano, Texas, USA
Jesse P. Johnson, Richardson, Texas, USA
Leonard McCasland, Prosper, Texas, USA
coauthored 21 technical papers, holds two patents for seismic

applications, and was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. He earned a BS in geology
from Stanford University and an MS in geophysics from the University of Houston.
JAMES A. WATSON, SPE, will join ABS as
president and chief operating officer of its
Americas division. In his new position, Watson will oversee activities in North, South,
and Central America and the Caribbean.
Before joining ABS, he served as director of
the US Bureau of Environmental Safety and
Enforcement and as the director of prevention policy for
marine safety, security, and stewardship at the US Coast Guard.
Watson earned a BS degree in marine engineering from the US
Coast Guard Academy, MS degrees in mechanical engineering
and in naval architecture from the University of Michigan, and
an MS degree in strategic studies from the Industrial College of
the ArmedForces.
In Memoriam
GEORGE P. MITCHELL, SPE, a pioneer in
developing methods to produce shale gas
economically, died 26 July in Galveston,
Texas. He was 94.
Mitchell earned a BS in petroleum engineering with an emphasis in geology from
Texas A&M University. After graduation, he
worked for a few years at Amoco before serving as a captain in
the US Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. Afterward,
he joined a wildcatting company. He later bought out his partners, and the company evolved into Mitchell Energy and Development, which became one of the nations largest independent
oil and gas companies. In 2002, it merged with Devon Energy.
Mitchell is best known for his involvement in combining
hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling in the Barnett Shale
development that led to the current shale gas revolution.
Big oil companies knew the upside potential of shale gas,
and many were working to economically extract the gas from
the shale without much success, Mitchell said in an interview with The Economist magazine. Many people were trying to make hydraulic fracturing work better, but they were not
able to get the cells to give up the gas. We knew there was gas
in some of these shale fields. We would measure the volume
of gas in the reservoir and it was very high methane (25-40%
methane). You could get to the methane, but you could not
get it to leave the cells until you fractured it, and that was the
majorbreakthrough.
We invested approximately USD 6 million over a 10-year
period in the 1980s and 1990s to make fracturing an economi-
168
PeopleSept.indd 168
cally viable process. I never considered giving up, even when

everyone was saying, George, youre wasting your money.
As a result of his contributions to the oil and gas industry,
he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Gas
Technology Institute.
George Mitchell, more than anyone else, is responsible for
the most important energy innovation of the 21st century, said
Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of consulting firm IHS and a Pulitzer Prize winning author on energy. Before his breakthrough,
shale gas had another nameuneconomic gas. It was thought
that there was no way to commercially extract it. He proved
that it could be done. His breakthrough in hydraulic fracturing,
when combined with horizontal drilling, set off the revolution in
unconventional oil and gas that we see today. But it did not come
easily. It took a decade and a half of conviction, investment and
dogged determination. In the face of great skepticism and refusing to accept no as an answer, Mitchell dramatically changed
Americas energy position. As such, he also changed the world
energy outlook in the 21st century and set in motion the global
rebalancing of oil and gas that is now occurring.
Mitchell also led real estate and community development
projects. In 1974, his company developed The Woodlands, a
27,000-acre forested, master-planned community north of
Houston. He also founded the Houston Advanced Research
Center, a collaboration among eight universities and research
groups dedicated to sustainable development.
Mitchells wife, Cynthia, died in 2009. He is survived by
three daughters, seven sons, a sister, 23 grandchildren, and five
great-grandchildren.
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/12/13 2:33 PM
SPE NEWS
SPE SERVICE DIRECTORY

SPE Online www.spe.org
SPE Implements Staff

Reorganization
SPE recently implemented significant changes in its staff structure to maximize staff
resources for future growth in programs and services. The new organizational structure regroups and consolidates activities from functional departments as well as SPEs
regional offices to provide a more seamless global staff operation. The revised structure will enhance collaboration, effectiveness, and internal communications; provide
a more efficient leadership structure; and address operational challenges that have
emerged as a result of the Societys rapid growth in recent years.
Four members of the staff leadership team were named to new positions in the
reorganization, announced 15 July:
Georgeann Bilich, Vice President Communications
Steve Byrne, Chief Financial Officer
Roberto Chiarotti, Vice President Sales and Marketing
Stephen Graham, Chief Operations Officer (COO)
A fifth new position, Vice President Member and Information Services, will complete the new staff executive team reporting to Mark Rubin, now CEO and Executive
Vice President. That new position combines member services and information-technology services into a new division, where Jane Boyce and Walter Jacinto continue as
Director Member Services and Director Information Technology, respectively.
As COO, Graham leads SPEs global operations team, with emphasis on strategic
initiatives and execution of eventsconferences, exhibitions, workshops, and training
courses. Named to new positions in this group are:
Solange Ferreira, Assistant Director Latin America and the Caribbean
Ken Leonard, Assistant Director Global Training
Also part of this group are:
Waleed Refaay, Managing Director Middle East, North Africa, and India
Niki Thomas, Managing Director Russia and Sub-Sahara Africa
Cordella Wong-Gillett, Managing Director Asia Pacific
A new position for Managing Director North America has yet to be filled.
In additional changes, several senior managers were named to new positions:
John Donnelly, Director Magazines and Web Content. Donnelly will also
remain JPT Editor.
Holly Hargadine, Assistant Director Technical Activities
Suzette Lawniczak, Assistant Director Human Resources
Craig Moritz, Assistant Director Americas Sales and Exhibits
Glenda Smith, Director Innovation, Strategy, and Analytics
SPE last evaluated its staff structure in 2007 and implemented changes to meet
the changing landscape. Since then, the Societys growth has been dramaticdoubling
the number of staff positions, adding 37,000 new members, more than doubling revenue, and adding many new programs and activities. Additional organizational changes
within departments to streamline processes and responsibilities are under way.
Awards Program
Tom Whipple, twhipple@spe.org
Phone: 1.972.952.9452
Book Sales
Phone: 1.800.456.6863 or 1.972.952.9393
books@spe.org
Continuing Education/Training Courses
Chiwila Mumba-Black, cmumba@spe.org
Phone: 1.972.952.1114
Distinguished Lecturer Program
Donna Neukum, dneukum@spe.org
Phone: 1.972.952.9454
Dues, Membership Information, Address
Changes, Copyright Permission
Phone: 1.800.456.6863 or 1.972.952.9393
service@spe.org
Insurance/Credit Card Programs
Liane DaMommio, ldamommio@spe.org
Phone: 1.972.952.1155
JPT Professional Services
Evan Carthey, ecarthey@spe.org
Phone: 1.713.457.6828
JPT/JPT Web Advertising Sales
Craig Moritz, cmoritz@spe.org
Phone: 1.713.457.6888
JPT
John Donnelly, jdonnelly@spe.org
Phone: 1.713.457.6816
Peer Review
Stacie Hughes, shughes@spe.org
Phone: 1.972.952.9343
Professional Development Services
Tom Whipple, twhipple@spe.org
Phone: 1.972.952.9452
Section Service
Phone: 1.972.952.9451
sections@spe.org
SPE Website
John Donnelly, jdonnelly@spe.org
Phone: 1.713.457.6816
Subscriptions
Phone: 1.800.456.6863 or 1.972.952.9393
service@spe.org
Americas Office
222 Palisades Creek Dr., Richardson,
TX 75080-2040 USA
Tel: +1.972.952.9393 Fax: +1.972.952.9435
Email: spedal@spe.org
Asia Pacific Office
Level 35, The Gardens South Tower Mid Valley City,
Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: +60.3.2182.3000 Fax: +60.3.2182.3030
Email: spekl@spe.org
Canada Office
Eau Claire Place II, Suite 900521 3rd Ave SW,
Calgary, AB T2P 3T3
Tel: +403.930.5454 Fax: +403.930.5470
Email: specal@spe.org
Europe, Russia, Caspian, and
Sub-Saharan Africa Office
1st Floor, Threeways House, 40/44 Clipstone Street
London W1W 5DW UK
Tel: +44.20.7299.3300 Fax: +44.20.7299.3309
Email: spelon@spe.org
Houston Office
10777 Westheimer Rd., Suite 1075, Houston, TX
77042-3455 USA Tel: +1.713.779.9595
Fax: +1.713.779.4216
Email: spehou@spe.org
Middle East, North Africa, and India Office
Office 3101/02, 31st Floor, Fortune Tower, JLT,
P.O. Box 215959, Dubai, UAE
Tel: +971.4.457.5800 Fax: +971.4.457.3164
Email: spedub@spe.org
Moscow Office
Perynovsky Per., 3 Bld. 2
Moscow, Russia, 127055
Tel: +7.495.268.04.54
Email: spemos@spe.org
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
SPENewsSept.indd 169
169
8/13/13 9:30 AM
SPE NEWS
SPEs The Way Ahead Magazine Seeks Young Professionals

to Serve as Editors
Are you creative? Do you write English well? Are you passionate about the worlds
struggle to find and develop energy sources? Do you love to learn about different perspectives from all over the world?
SPEs unique and respected The Way Ahead magazine seeks enthusiastic young
professionals to commit to become a member of the magazines editorial committee. You would work from your home base with young professionals worldwide to
develop and deliver articles on a wide range of topics. You would plan an article, contact authors or interviewees, edit the article, give monthly progress reports, and be
responsible for making sure the work is carried out within the time allotted and to
high standards.
Here is how to apply for a position on The Way Ahead editorial committee:
Prepare a single-page rsum that includes SPE and other volunteer activities
that reflect your ongoing commitment to serve as a volunteer.
Write a concise, 200-word essay stating the main reasons that drive you to
apply to participate.
Then just send your application and any questions to editorTWA@spemail.org.
SPE Dallas Section 2013 Mid-Continent Regional Awards were presented in

June at the monthly section meeting at Brookhaven College in Farmers Branch,
Texas. Brian Chacka, left, accepted the Distinguished Corporate Support Award
on behalf of Denbury Resources, located in Plano, Texas. Michael Tunstall
(current Mid-Continent Regional Director) and Dan Auces both received Service
Awards; Brad Robinson received the Completions Optimization and Technology
Award; Kelly Blackwood received the Young Member Outstanding Service
Award; and Ricky Williams received the Production and Operations Award.
Also pictured is Terry Palisch, the Dallas Section Chair. PV (Suri) Suryanarayana,
not shown, received the Drilling Engineering Award.
170
SPENewsSept.indd 170
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/19/13 10:37 AM
SPE EVENTS
WORKSHOPS
2324 September Bogota
Petroleum and Unconventional Resources
Reserves: Understanding the Economic,
Technical, Environmental, and Regulatory
Aspects
1720 November LisbonBeyond Closed

Loop Integrated Monitoring
1820 November MumbaiDeepwater:
Promising PotentialDifficult Dynamics
1820 November BangkokYoung
Professionals Workshop
2426 September IstanbulEnergise

Your Future: Building Blocks for Future
Oppotunities
2427 November PhuketArtificial Lift

SystemsGet the Maximum from your
Wells
69 October Kota KinabaluChemical

EORIndustry Best Practices and Latest
Advancement
2527 November Larnaca

Unconventional Gas Fracturing: Integrating
Disciplines to Develop Regional Best
Practices
1618 October BanffProduction

Forecasting
2122 October DubaiPetroleum
Reserves and Resources Estimation and
its Impact on Business DecisionsPRMS
Applications Guidelines Document
2628 November TyumenWaterflood

Optimisation on Mature Fields
13 December Kuala LumpurSPE
Workshop on R&D
2223 October GalvestonWater

Lifecycle
25 December LisbonIntegrated Water

ManagementBrownfield to Greenfield
and Back Again
2730 October Ho Chi MinhReservoir

Modelling and SimulationChallenges and
Latest Development
811 December BaliInstitutionalising

Smart/Digital Fields Capability
2829 October Abu DhabiFlow

Assurance: Challenges and Integrated
Solutions for Mature and Green Fields
2829 October DohaEmerging Trends
in Corrosion ManagementStretching the
Envelope
2830 October DubaiAddressing and
Solving the Petrophysical Challenges
Specific to Middle East Reservoirs
57 November LisbonNorth Sea and
Europe Area Stimulation
67 November San AntonioHydraulic
Fracture Flowback
68 November DenverCollision
Avoidance and Well Interceptions
1314 November Oslo,Norway
Flow Assurance: Tackling Tomorrows
Challenges
conferences
30 September2 October New Orleans
SPE Annual Technical Conference
andExhibition
79 October DubaiSPE/IADC Middle
East Drilling Technology Conference
andExhibition
710 October Kuwait CitySPE Kuwait
Oil and Gas Show and Conference
1517 October MoscowSPE Arctic
and Extreme Environments Technical
Conference and Exhibition
2123 October AlexandriaCarbon
Management Technology Conference
2224 October JakartaAsia Pacific Oil
and Gas Conference and Exhibition
1214 November Rome

Real-Time Decisions While Drilling
2830 October DubaiIntelligent Energy

International Conference and Exhibition
1719 November BanffThermal Well

Integrity
2931 October Rio de Janeiro

OTC Brasil
1720 November Kota Kinabalu

Offshore Facilities
57 November CalgarySPE
Unconventional ResourcesCanada
1113 November BrisbaneSPE

Unconventional Resources Conference and
ExhibitionAsia Pacific
FORUMS
1318 October VilamouraAdaptive Well
Construction
2025 October VilamouraManaged
Pressure DrillingNiche Technology or the
Future of Drilling?
2025 October Rancho MirageArtificial
Lift in Deepwater
1922 January 2014 DohaInternational
Petroleum Technology Conference
16 21 February 2014 VilamouraZonal
Isolation to the Extreme
CALL FOR PAPERS

Improved Oil Recovery Symposium
Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
Deadline: 26 September 2013
SPE EOR Conference and Oil and Gas
West Asia
Muscat, Oman
Deadline: 5 October 2013
SPE International Oilfield Scale
Conference and Exhibition
Aberdeen, UK
SPE Hydrocarbon Economics
and Evaluation Symposium
Houston,Texas,USA
IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling
Technology Conference
Bangkok,Thailand
Deadline: 8 January 2014
Middle East Health, Safety, Environment
and Sustainable Development
Conference and Exhibition Doha, Qatar
Deadline: 6 February 2014
SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference
and Exhibition Adelaide, Australia
SPE Annual Technical Conference and
Exhibition Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Find complete listings of upcoming SPE workshops, conferences, symposiums, and forums at www.spe.org.
176
SPEEventsSept.indd 176
JPT SEPTEMBER 2013
8/13/13 9:26 AM

JPT Setembro 2013

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JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY www.spe.

2014 SPE President Jeff Spath

The new 5-year Strategic Framework will prioritize capability development,

Drilling in extreme environments is helping drive advances in the oil and

Cover: National Oilwell Varcos hardware-

in-the-loop drilling simulator supports

Offshore engineering companies are taking existing technologies and

New ventures supported by Surge Accelerator, a company that offers

Young Technology Showcase

Printed in US. Copyright 2013, Society of Petroleum Engineers.

The discovery of additional unconventional resources, new oil recovery

SPE welcomes 83 members with 50 years of consecutive membership

An Official Publication of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

108 Reservoir Performance and Monitoring

109 New Time/Rate Relations for Decline-Curve Analysis of

114 Instilling Realism in Production Forecasting Decreases Chances

130 North American Completion Technologies Unlock the Amin Tight

146 Drilling Management and Automation

TECHNICAL PAPER DOWNLOADS

SPE Publications: SPE is not responsible for any

Georgeann Bilich, Publisher

Editorial Policy: SPEencourages open and objective

John Donnelly, Editor

Copyright and Use: SPEgrants permission to make

JPT SEPTEMBER 2013

world crude oil pRICES (USD/bbl)

WORLD ROTARY RIG COUNT

world OIL SUPPLY AND DEMAND 1

do not include NGLs and oil from nonconventional sources.

JPT SEPTEMBER 2013

Salamander Energy (23.4%) and Orchid

A discovery was made at the Ogo-1 well

Salamander Energy has begun its

Oil was discovered at the Parit Minyak-2

from a deep reservoir at the Adam X-1

development drilling program with the

Drilling began on Hooper-1, an

Drilling has begun on the East Lusk

exploration well in PEL 92, in the Cooper

15 Federal #3 horizontal well in Lea

The Vicksburg deepwater well in

Seismic data acquisition has begun in

The Tayum-1 exploration well

Gulf Keystone has commenced its

Production has begun on the offshore

The Norvarg appraisal well confirmed

basement. Statoil Petroleum (40%) is the

Drilling began on the 16/2-18S

the Gulf of Mexico encountered more

Drilling has begun on the Stalder Pad

JPT SEPTEMBER 2013

GE Oil & Gas bought Lufkin Industries

Cameron and Schlumberger received

Costain acquired EPC Offshore,

Schlumberger bought Gushor, a

resulting in the launch of Costain

Prime Energy as part of its major

Petronas Carigali incorporated a

Vietnam and China have extended

Nido Petroleum Philippines, a wholly

2H Offshore, an Acteon company,

Xodus Group bought Dubai-based

tube umbilicals for hydraulic control fluids,

opening of its Schlumberger Reservoir

108 Reservoir Performance and Monitoring

109 New Time/Rate Relations for Decline-Curve Analysis of

114 Instilling Realism in Production Forecasting Decreases Chances

130 North American Completion Technologies Unlock the Amin Tight

146 Drilling Management and Automation