Pillars of the Industry

An R&D Career in the

Energy Industry
Brant Bennion, Weatherford Laboratories
I appreciate the invitation by SPE to share a few thoughts on my experiences over
the last 30 years as a research scientist in the energy industry. It has been a very
rewarding career for me, and I hope that the following insights will be of benefit to
those who might be considering a career in research and development, or R&D.

A career in R&D is certainly not for

everyone. But for those to whom it has
appeal, there are many different niches
that I have seen over the years into
which someone can fit their personal
interests, talents, and strengths. There
are currently three major venues for a
career in R&D in the energy industry:
1. University or technical institution
academic programs that are working
primarily on fundamental research
2. Oil- or gas-operating-company or
government-sponsored research
centers or institutes that are
working on a combination of both
fundamental and process- or fieldspecific applied research studies
3. Commercial research institutes
or service-company-affiliated
laboratories that are working on
mostly applied or field-specific/fit-forpurpose research studies or projects
on a for-profit or cost-recovery basis
Each of these venues has particular
advantages and disadvantages. Although
my personal experience has primarily
been in the third category, I have had
the opportunity over the years to have
close association with many individuals
in the first two categories as well.
University or Technical
Institution Research
This is the perfect location for the
scientist who is interested in a high
degree of freedom to research new
methods and technologies that interest
them the most. In general, an advanced

18

degree (DSc or PhD) would be required

for this career selection. I have found
that students who thrive in the university
research lifestyle, while obtaining
their advanced degree, are those most
suited to this career path. Usually, some
teaching, tutorial, and graduate-student
responsibility may also be involved in
these positions, as well as fundraising
for certain projects. It is important that
all these factors be considered in the
selection of this career path. Those who
choose the academic research path often
base their decision on lifestyle: greater
research freedom and a high level of
professional respect, in exchange for
a lower financial compensation than
could be earned in the commercial
sector as a whole. But for many, the
choice is a clear and easy one. Although
I have worked primarily as a research
engineer at a commercial service
company, I have had the opportunity
to be a part-time professor at the
University of Calgary for many years as
well, and have found the combination of
teaching and interaction with students,
combined with my mainstream research
activities, to be very rewarding.
Government or Oil and
Gas Operating Company
Research Centers
In the 1970s and 1980s, most major
oil and gas operating companies had
their own research centers where a
combination of some pure, but mostly
applied researchfocused on the
companys producing assetswas

conducted. Many innovative and

exciting technologies were developed
at companies such as Marathon, Arco,
Conoco, Sohio, and others. With industry
consolidation in the latter part of the
1980s and 1990s came downsizing or
closure of many of these operatingcompany research centers. Although
some major multinational oil and
gas companies still have research
centers (Total, ExxonMobil, and Eni,
for example) the relative availability of
positions in this category has dropped
significantly, and much of the work
has shifted to contract-type research
centers and to service companies.
Government-sponsored research
institutes have had greater durability,
and most countries with significant oil
and gas producing assets often have
one or more government-sponsored
energy research agencies.
Working in this type of environment
often results in a focus on developing
specific technologies to exploit oil
or gas reserves that may be present
in the operating companys portfolio
or within the countrys boundaries,
and less time spent on fundamental
research. Although there may be less
freedom in selecting the subject of
research, the lifestyle can still be highly
rewarding because in general, funding
restraints may be less restrictive than
an academic institution. Also, one can
avoid the distractions of teaching,
administrative matters, and fundraising
that may be unappealing to some.
One is also able to see the full-scale

development and implementation of the

research as it is taken from conceptual
design in the laboratory to real-world
application in the field, which can be
immensely satisfying. This sector has
in the past been subject to fluctuations
in staffing levels, as changes in the
relative health of the energy industry
or government funding levels occur,
so the potential long-term job security
may be less than that at an academic
institutioneven though remuneration
would likely be appreciably higher.
Commercial Research
Institutes or Service Company
Research Institutes
More than 30 years of my career has
been spent primarily in this area.
From 1978 to 2004, along with several
partners, I worked as an engineer
and ultimately owner of Hycal Energy
Research Laboratories, a private,
contract-based research center based in
Calgary. We sold this company in 2004
to Weatherford International, where it
has been incorporated into a worldwide
portfolio of research and analytical
laboratories. I am still employed
as the director of flow-in-porousmedia research and as a worldwide
technology adviser for Weatherford.
Working in this area is perhaps the
most restrictive in terms of ability to
choose the types of research project one
works on, as the company operates on
a fee-for-service basis (or to promote
and exploit the market for its products,
if it is a service company). The majority
of the work centers on applied research
studies that are requested by clients
to solve certain challenges that they
face with their oil or gas producing
assets. However, the work also allows
exposure to a tremendously wide
range of applications, as one deals
with companies operating around
the globe that have a wide variety of
reservoirs and associated challenges.
I have had the opportunity, over the
last 30 years, to work on a very large
array of applied research projects in
areas such as formation damage during
drilling and completion operations,
heavy-oil thermal and nonthermal
recovery, cold production of heavy oil
and foamy oils, gas-miscible flooding,
chemical and microbial enhanced-oilrecovery methods, carbon capture and

sequestration, numerical simulation,

equation-of-state modeling, mathematical
modeling of flow in porous media, and
production engineering. A number of
these projects have spawned in-house
or other applied research projects,
and this has provided fertile ground
for numerous technical publications
(more than 250), often done jointly
with the operating companies who
sponsored the research and patents

When industry
activity levels are
low, companies
spend more time and
resouces on applied
R&D to optimize and
more cheaply exploit
their existing asset.

on the basis of the work conducted in

these areas. Once again, the health
of this sector depends to a certain
extent on the health of the industry,
but my experience has been that when
activity levels are low, companies
spend more time and resources on

applied R&D to optimize and more

cheaply exploit their existing asset.
My experiences in this area are
obviously somewhat biased, since
for the majority of my career I have
been principal/owner of the research
institute at which I was employed.
This has imparted a higher degree
of control over my destiny than some
others might enjoy in a similar capacity.
However, my experiences with other
professionals with whom I have worked,
in our own company and within other
service company research institutes,
show similar levels of satisfaction
in this sector, owing in part to the
opportunities for a diverse scope of
projects and international travel (for
those who may be interested in that).
These are opportunities one may not
find in the other two career streams.
Whatever the career path that
you choose, there continues to be
tremendous activity in the R&D area
for oil and gas exploitation, especially
as the industry moves to development
of more challenging reservoirs in
ultralow-permeability gas shales,
unconventional oil and gas reserves,
and new ultrahigh-temperature and
-pressure deep reservoirs. I have
no hesitation in stating that longterm career potential in the industry
continues to exist in the R&D field
for the next several decades at a
minimum, so there is no shortage of
opportunities for individuals wishing
to make their own mark in R&D. TWA

Brant Bennion has more than 30 years of experience in

the research areas of multiphase flow in porous media,
formation damage, phase behavior, drilling, completions,
and enhanced-oil- recovery operations. Bennion has been a
Distinguished Lecturer for both the SPE and the Petroleum
Society of Canada (now SPE Canada) on formation damage.
He lectures as an adjunct professor at the University of
Calgary, is the author/coauthor of approximately 250
technical papers and has lectured extensively in more than 40 countries in recent
years. He is employed by Weatherford Laboratories (formerly Hycal Energy
Research Laboratories) and currently is director of the flow-in-porous-media group.
Bennion is a registered professional engineer with the Association of Professional
Engineers, Geologists, and Geophysicists of Alberta and holds BSc and PhD
degrees in chemical and petroleum engineering from the University of Calgary.

Vol. 6 // No. 2 // 2010

19

Pillars of the Industry

A Crucial Foundation
R&D in the Petroleum
Industry
Hani Qutob, Reservoir Engineering Manager, Weatherford

The theme of this issue is research

and development, or R&D, and I am
delighted to share with you my 30-plus
years of experience in this field. New
technology and innovation will always
be key elements for the successful
development of oil and gas reserves,
andcontinued R&D activities are
essential to meet this objective.
My career in the oil and gas industry
started upon my graduation in 1976
from Baghdad University, College of
EngineeringPetroleum and Minerals
when I joined Abu Dhabi National Oil
Company. I worked as a junior petroleum
engineer in various departments, gaining
experience in drilling, production,
and water injection among others.
A crucial point in my career came
in 1978 when I was transferred to the
Reservoir Engineering department as
a reservoir engineer for Abu Dhabi
Company of Onshore Oil Operations,
or Adco. In my new job, I was in
charge of coordinating all reservoir
engineering activities to ensure
proper implementation of the fullfield-development plan designed to
maximize the fields ultimate recovery.
The successes I achieved provided
me with the platform to enter R&D in
reservoir engineering. In 1980, when
ADNOC decided to become a selfsufficient company in performing
reservoir simulation and modeling,
I was selected to be among the first
group of engineers to join Exxons
Production Research Center in Houston
for a 2-year, on-the-job training

20

assignment in reservoir simulation and

modeling. With the support of Exxon
senior simulation engineers, we built
the first full-field, 3D model for one of
Adcos largest reservoirs. That model
was used as a management tool to test
the reservoirs performance under
a variety of producing scenarios.
Building a reservoir simulation
model in those days was not an easy
task. Computer commands had to be
punched into cards, using punching
machines, and the cards were then fed
through card readers that submitted the
set of commands to a huge computer for
number crunching. Each run used to
take a few days, and then a few weeks
were spent reviewing and analyzing the
results. All this work, however, paid off
in the long run because extraction costs
were minimized and every reservoir
was fully used. Now, the same reservoir
simulations are run using laptops that
can be carried in your briefcase.
Since its beginning in the nineteenth
century, the petroleum industry has
been built on a foundation of large,
relatively shallow and high-quality
reservoirs that have provided the world
with oil and natural gas. With nearly all
of the low-hanging fruit or easy oil
gone, however, R&D has become of
paramount importance. Increasingly, oil
and gas exploration is focused on finding
resources in more geologically complex,
deeper, and lower-quality reservoirs.
As both the quantity and quality of
reservoir reserves diminishes, reservoir
characterization has become vitally

important for every aspect of exploration,

development, and production of the
worlds petroleum resources. New
technology has become increasingly
necessary to define the limits of the
reservoir boundaries and assist in
reducing the number of wells required
to develop these remaining resources.
The general consensus in the
industry is that the greatest technological
progress of the past 30 years has
come in the area of advanced seismic
technologies, along with huge leaps
in computing power and efficiency to
handle the vast amounts of seismic
data. In addition, R&D efforts have
led to many innovative technological
applications to enhance productivity
and optimize reservoirs, such as
extended-reach drilling, maximum
reservoir contact, smart wells,
intelligent fields, and real-time reservoir
monitoring systems, to name a few.
Downhole-measurement tools and
advanced structural and stratigraphic
modeling of the reservoir, faults, and
fracture systems (either natural or
induced) serve as important methods
to reduce overall costs and increase
success rates for exploration wells,
workovers, secondary-recovery efforts,
and finding and developing bypassed
production. Studies of rock-fluid
interaction, enhanced-oil-recovery
(EOR) imaging and control, and
advanced wellbore-seismic technology
also assist in better visualization and
prediction of subsurface conditions
necessary for the development of oil

and gas resources. Ongoing studies of

heavy oil are also expected to assist in
the recovery of this important resource.
As the demand for oil and gas
continues to grow, improved-oilrecovery (IOR) and EOR technologies
must be developed to meet that
demand. The progress in IOR/EOR
technologies includes the latest
advances in thermal, gas, and chemical
EOR methods; IOR/EOR selection
criteria; surveillance techniques for
locating remaining oil; and drivers and
challenges in implementing IOR/EOR.
In directional drilling, measurement
while drilling (MWD) has revolutionized
drilling operations. The first system to
transmit drill-bit location information
by sending pressure pulses through
drilling mud was developed in the
1970s. Today, as a direct result of
extensive R&D activities, we are
seeing the next revolution in telemetry,
as the new generation of MWD,
logging-while-drilling, and imagelogging technologies opens new
possibilities for data acquisition and
evaluation of deep and high-pressure/
high-temperature reservoirs.
While horizontal drilling technology
was developed to economically
recover hydrocarbons from tight, thin,
and complex reservoirs, formation
damage from conventional drilling
methods prompted the industry to
develop underbalanced drilling (UBD)
technology. The same UBD technology
that was developed primarily for
field redevelopment of depleted or
low-quality reservoirs is now being
applied to new reservoirs where
formation damage is a key issue.
In 2003, Weatherford coined the
term Controlled Pressure Drilling
(CPD), which is defined as an adaptive
drilling process that enables a more
precise control of wellbore pressures
through the use of engineered
equipment and processes. CPD
includes the following variations:

1. M anaged Pressure Drilling

(MPD) for Optimizing
the Drilling Process.
MPD is a step-change technique
that increases recoverable assets.
It represents an improvement in the

overall drilling operation, reducing

nonproductive time, enhancing safety
conditions, and reducing the total drilling
cost, compared with conventional
drilling practices. A data-acquisition
display is used for monitoring MPD
parameters in real time, which helps
in making real-time decisions.

Technology is
changing at an
incredible pace
and the power
of R&D to impact
this industry
is immense.

2. U BD for Maximizing
Reservoir Value.
UBD is defined as the intentional
reduction of the drilling-fluid density,
causing the hydrostatic pressure in
a wellbore to be lower than the pore
pressure within the formation and
thereby permitting reservoir fluids
to be produced while drilling.
It is important to note that properly

designed and executed UBD is still

the best way to significantly reduce
formation damage, prevent lost
circulation and differential sticking,
allow reservoir evaluation while
drilling, and improve productivity.
However, poor screening and planning
have led to an overenthusiastic
misapplication of this technology, and
possibly caused failures. Accordingly,
Weatherford developed a novel process
in partnership with industry experts
in reservoir engineering, formation
damage, and risk analysis to screen
reservoirs for suitability of UBD. The
process is designed to give engineers
the ability to quantify the technical
and economic value of applying UBD
techniques and is performed in two
phases: use of a reservoir-screening
tool and analysis of reservoir damage.
By means of this process, operators
can select the drilling method most
appropriate for the application at hand.
Technology is changing at an
incredible pace and the power of R&D to
impact this industry is immense. We are
bombarded with new information every
second. By harnessing technology, we
can make even bigger leaps in reservoir
engineering not only to enhance the
current state of oil production, but
to make this industry a challenging,
innovative, and exciting environment
for the next generation. I am proud
to have done my part, and I wish all
the best to those who elect to work
in this vitally important field. TWA

Hani Qutob is Reservoir Engineering manager for the

Weatherford Well Engineering Center of Excellence
Middle East and North Africa. Before holding this position,
he served as the principal adviser, Reservoir Engineering,
Weatherford Controlled Pressure Drilling & Testing.
Qutob has 32 years of diverse international experience
with ADNOC, Adco, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Weatherford. He
holds BSc and MSc degrees in petroleum engineering and
is a very active SPE member at the section, regional, and
international levels. Qutob has authored more than 20 technical papers and carried out
more than 50 reservoir studies worldwide. He has received many awards, including
the SPE Regional Service Award in 2001 and 2004 and the SPE Distinguished
Member Award in 2005. Qutob was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 200708.

Vol. 6 // No. 2 // 2010

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