The magazine explaining the oil and gas industry

al manhal
Number Three 2003

A f o u n t o f k n o w l e d g e

Breaking ground
to increase production
9 THE SAGA OF OIL & GAS 14 A DAY IN THE LIFE OF...
“We urge our youth to take advantage of the
opportunities available to acquire
knowledge... We always call for the
development of... the people’s scientific
capabilities, technical skills and technological
expertise in order to meet society’s urgent
requirements and needs...”
His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said

Managing Editor
Nutayla al Kindy

Design consultants
SAZCOMM, Muscat

Translation & Editing

Petroleum Development Oman

Printer
Mazoon Printing Press

Advisory Board
Moza al Adawi, Ministry of Oil & Gas
Lynda Armstrong, Petroleum Development Oman
Mundhir al Barwani, Petroleum Development Oman
Frits Eulderink, Petroleum Development Oman
Prof. Anton McLachlan, Sultan Qaboos University
Yousef al Malahi, Ministry of Education
Amran al Marhubi, Petroleum Development Oman
John Burton, Petroleum Development Oman
Prof. Michael Pegg, Sultan Qaboos University
Dr. Amer al Rawas, Sultan Qaboos University

Address editorial correspondence to:

Nutayla al Kindy at nutayla.nm.kindy@pdo.co.om
or
al manhal, HXM/21, PDO, P.O.Box 81
Muscat 113, Oman

© 2003 Petroleum Development Oman

Articles from al manhal may be reprinted without specific permission on condition that: the
text be neither edited nor abridged; the magazine and Petroleum Development Oman be
credited; and a copy of the reprinted article be provided to al manhal’s managing editor.
 CONTENTS

14 12

2
16 9

2 Breaking ground to increase production

Hydraulic fracturing is a well-stimulation technique that causes oil
and natural gas to flow more freely from the rocks where they are
held to the producing well that brings them to the surface.

9 The saga of oil & gas

The origin of crude oil and natural gas is an eventful story about
an escape from the heat and pressure of a kitchen and a capture
in a trap set by nature. Read all about it.

12 Produced-water treatment and disposal

Oil and water may not mix, but they quite often come out together
from the underground. Indeed, some oil wells produce more water
than oil. What happens to the oil-tainted water?

14 A day in the life of...

PDO Production Technologist Maryam al Touqi.

16 Trapped!
A look at how hydrocarbons accumulate in underground reservoirs.

>>
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2

HYDRAULIC FRACTURING

BREAKING GROUND
TO INCREASE PRODUCTION

al manhal number three 2003

 3

Hydraulic fracturing is a well-stimulation technique that

causes oil and natural gas to flow more freely from the
rocks where they are held to the producing well that
brings them to the surface.

>>

al manhal number three 2003

HYDRAULIC FRACTURING

Reaching the hut through this

dense forest is a hard task. A
task similar to that of the oil
and gas when it needs to flow
to the well.

WHAT IS IT?
For the past 50 years hydraulic fracturing
has helped to stimulate the production of an
oil or gas well by increasing the
permeability of the underground rock
formation that contains the hydrocarbons,
thereby allowing the hydrocarbons to flow
more quickly to the well bore. The
permeability is increased by creating small
cracks in the formation that act as pathways
through which the gas or oil flows.
To see how this works, imagine a group
of people spread throughout a dense forest.
Their task is to try to reach a hut at the
edge of the forest, but none of them has a
map or compass to help them. If each one
has to make their way to the hut by pushing
through the undergrowth and crawling
through the areas that are least dense, it
will take them all a very long time. And
some may not find their way to the
hut at all.
However, if there were a wide
path leading from the hut deep into the
forest, with narrower paths branching
off at certain points, then all that the
people would have to do is find a path
and follow it to the hut. Hydraulic fracturing
follows the same principle by breaking a
path through the rock formation to allow
the gas or oil to flow to the well quickly
and easily.

al manhal number three 2003


The economic argument in favour of
fracturing is strong. Hydraulic fracturing
can increase a well’s productivity by as
much as a factor of 10 for a modest
additional cost. In fact, fracturing a
reservoir is often the only way to ensure
economic levels of production.
HOW IS IT DONE?
To fracture a reservoir, a water-like fluid is
injected into the well at high pressure using
powerful hydraulic pumping machines at
the surface. The fluid flows down the well,
where a chemical reaction causes the liquid
to become temporarily more viscous and
jelly-like. The constant injection of the fluid
at high pressure pushes the gel into the
pores between the rock grains of
the reservoir.
Eventually, the pores of the reservoir
cannot take any more fluid. The intense
pressure pushing the fluid into the reservoir
will then crack the rock, creating – in hard
sandstone such as that found in Oman –
very narrow but long fractures that quickly
become filled with fluid.
If the pumping pressure were then
reduced, the underground pressure
would push the rock formation back
together very quickly. So, once the cracks
have been formed in the reservoir, a
proppant is added to the fluid and forced
into the fractures. As its name implies, the
proppant props open the cracks, so that the
pressures exerted on the rock cannot close
the fractures.
The proppant consists of a hard
granular substance, usually sand, whose
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
Reaching the hut through
this forest is much easier
because of the various
paths to reach it. This is
how hydraulic fracturing
helps the oil and gas to
flow to the well easily, by
opening paths through the
rock formation.
grains are large enough to hold open the
crack but small enough to allow the
hydrocarbons to flow around them. Even
though a fracture may be full of proppant, it
is still much more permeable and easier for
the hydrocarbons to travel along the
fracture than through the sandstone. To
return to the example, even if the paths
through the forest were strewn with rocks,
it would still be easier to travel along them
than fighting through the undergrowth.
In Oman, PDO often uses a material
called bauxite as the proppant. Bauxite has
two and a half times the density of sand,
making it much stronger and better able to
withstand the high stresses in the country’s
tight sandstone formations.
The jelly-like property of the fluid not
only helps it to force the rock apart without
al manhal number three 2003
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING

Powerful hydraulic pumping

machines are used by
injecting water-like fluid into
the well at high pressure.

leaking away too easily, but it also helps
the fluid to carry the proppant into the far
reaches of the fracture. A lower-viscosity
fluid, such as water, would not hold the
proppant in suspension long enough for it
to reach the end of the fracture. Instead, the
proppant would settle near the well, thereby
failing to hold open the fracture and
potentially blocking the well.
The proppant-carrying capability of
viscous fluids can be shown if one puts
a spoonful of sand into a jar of honey
and a spoonful of sand into a jar of water.
Mix the two sand mixtures well, then set
them down. The sand in the water will
settle to the bottom instantly, whereas the
sand in the honey will be held in
suspension for some time because of the
honey’s higher viscosity.
A fracturing fluid should therefore be
viscous during the creation of the crack
and during the transport of the proppant.
But when the fracturing is completed, the
viscous fluid needs to be removed from the
reservoir or it will block the pathways and
stop the oil or gas from flowing. For that
reason fracturing fluids are designed not
only to thicken when they reach the
bottom of a well but also to break down
and return to a water-like consistency after
the job is done.
In Oman a typical fracturing fluid
consists of short-chained polymers linked by
borate. After thickening downhole, it returns
to its low-viscosity form after about two
hours. It can then pass back through the
propped fracture into the wellbore. Once
the well is allowed to produce
hydrocarbons, the low-viscosity fracturing
fluid is “back produced” and pumped
to the surface.
LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE
The extent of the fracture is controlled by
the characteristics of the fluid, the pumping
pressure and the geological formation. The
fracture will grow if the operator continues
to pump fluid at higher rates, or if the
operator pumps a more viscous fluid into
the formation. Whether the fracture grows
higher or longer is determined by the
surrounding rock properties.
In Oman most hydraulic fracturing takes
place about 5 kilometres underground.

al manhal number three 2003


Coiled tubing unit
above well head
However, it is not simply a case of pumping
in the fluid and creating the optimum
desired fracture geometry. In between
sandstone layers are shale layers, which
stop or limit the fracture spreading. These
shale layers therefore effectively define the
top and the bottom of a fracture.
To overcome the problem posed by
shale layers and to allow greater exposure
to the reservoir, fracturing is carried out at
different levels in the wellbore. Fractures are
created at the bottom of the well first, and
this section of the well is then isolated with
a proppant plug. The well is cleaned up to
the right level, then the formation is
fractured again at a higher level. On
average, it will take four to five fractures
per well to cover the whole reservoir height.
Despite many years of practice in
Oman and extensive geological
information, well engineers cannot be
completely sure where the fractures will go.
They only know that the fracture will always
take the path of least resistance.
While experience gives engineers a
reasonable idea of where fractures are
probably going, differential depletion – the
loss of pressure in the sand shale layers –
means that each fracture design is different.
The engineers thus learn from every
fracturing job.
For each well they are going to work
on, the fracturing team designs a plan,
executes it, learns from it and redesigns
again. It is a continuous process as
information is gathered about the properties
of each field.
ACID FRACTURING
Acid fracturing is a variant of hydraulic
fracturing that is currently being considered
for the carbonate formations in Harweel in
southern Oman. In the same way as
conventional hydraulic fracturing, gelled
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
Overview of
hydraulic fracturing
set up.
Pumps
Proppant storage
Water storage
water is forced into the formation at
extremely high pressure to cause a fracture.
However, this time the gel carries acid
instead of proppant. The acid reacts with
the surfaces of the formation. When the
pressure is relieved and the fracture
surfaces have moved back together, they
are no longer a perfect fit, because the acid
has etched a series of channels through
which the hydrocarbons can flow.
Acid fracturing results in a better
overall permeability than proppant-based
hydraulic fracturing, because the
hydrocarbons do not have to flow around
proppant and there is no danger of back
producing proppant. However, it only works
on carbonate rock, which dissolves in the
acid, and it is more expensive than the
normal hydraulic fracturing.
al manhal number three 2003
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING

Close up of pump and

manifold where pump
out-flow are combined.

DEFINITIONS

BAUXITE
An ore of aluminium that is
ground and pelletised for use as
FAST FACTS ON FRACTURING proppant. Australia, Guinea and
Before undergoing a fracture treatment, a typical gas well in central Jamaica are the world’s major
Oman would produce 200,000 - 300,000 cubic metres of gas per day.
producers of Bauxite.
After fracturing it may produce two to three million cubic metres per day.

PERMEABILITY
Before the main fracture is created, a mini-fracture, or test fracture, is
The property of a solid describing
often made. The data from the test fracture will reveal the characteristics
of the reservoir rock, especially its leak-off factors. After analysis of the how easily fluids flow through it.
data on the mini-fracture, the main fracturing job can begin.
PORES
Special equipment is needed to fracture the well and to maintain the The voids between the mineral
pressure while the proppant is injected. In most gas-well fracturing jobs grains of a rock. Hydrocarbons
eight big pumps work together, injecting more than 130 litres per second. in underground formations are
contained in the pores of
PDO is the biggest fracturing company associated with the Shell Group of reservoir rock.
Companies. As a result, PDO has become a centre of excellence for
fracturing for the whole Shell Group. RESERVOIR
A hydrocarbon-bearing rock
Because sand is commonly used as a proppant in hydraulic fracturing formation. There may be more
work, PDO has become the biggest importer of sand into Oman. The than one reservoir in a field.
Company imported 8,000 tonnes alone for the fracturing of the wells
supplying the gas to Oman Liquefied Natural Gas.  Thanks to Rob Langedijk for his
help in preparing this article.

al manhal number three 2003

 ORIGIN OF HYDROCARBONS
9

THE SAGA OF
OIL & GAS

Crude oil and natural gas are hydrocarbons:

compounds consisting of molecules composed mostly
of hydrogen and carbon atoms. The simplest of
these is methane gas, which fuels power stations;
the most complex is bitumen, which paves our
roads. But long, long before they are burned in
power stations or are spread out on roads,
hydrocarbons have to cook in a kitchen, travel
underground and get caught in traps.

>>
al manhal number three 2003
ORIGIN OF HYDROCARBONS

10

The origin of hydrocarbons is thus an This simplified cross section

shows the source rock,
eventful story of past times. It can be said to
reservoir rock and seal. Folded
have begun hundreds of millions of years layers provide a perfect
ago, when plants, animals, bacteria and structural trap where migrating
algae died and settled at the bottom of oil and gas accumulate. Where
there is no barrier in the rock
prehistoric lakes and seas. Over many
sequence, hydrocarbons can
millions of years, layers of sand and mud escape to the surface.
accumulated on top of these animal and
plant remains. The pressure from the thick
overlying layers, together with heat from
below the earth’s crust gradually changed
the sand and mud into rock into which
organic matter from the remains was
embedded. Further increases in heat and
pressure essentially ‘cooked’ the organic
matter, chemically transforming it into oil
and gas. (The metaphor is apt, since the
depth at which this happens–between 2000
and 3000 metres–is referred to by
petroleum geologists as the ‘kitchen’.)
The rock in which the organic matter
was transformed into oil and gas is called
source rock. Nearly all the oil and gas in
Oman comes from the Pre-Cambrian
source rock of the Huqf geological
formation, which is more than 540
million years old. In fact, Oman’s source
rocks are some of the oldest in the world.
They are unique because their organic
components are chiefly of bacterial and
algal origin. (Land-based plant life only
became profuse in what is now Oman
some 100 million years after the rocks of
the Huqf formation were created.)
Density differences control
the vertical distribution of
MIGRATION
oil and gas. Oil and gas
Once formed, oil and gas have a natural are much less dense than
tendency to move upward through the water and sit on top of the
permeable overlying rock layers, water within the pores of
the rock layer.
percolating up through microscopic cracks
and interconnected pores in the rock. They
also can migrate along large fractures and
faults, which may extend for great
Hydrocarbon migration is a slow or liquid. The oil seep near Saiwan in
distances. Hydrocarbons will continue to
process; oil and gas travel perhaps only a Oman is an example of such an escape.
move upward until they reach an
few kilometres over millions of years. But in (It should be pointed out that liquid oil
impermeable rock layer, called a seal.
the course of hundreds of millions of years seeps are comparatively rare; most oil
When the vertical movement of
huge amounts of hydrocarbons have becomes viscous and tarry near the
hydrocarbons is hindered by a seal, they
managed to rise to sea floors and land surface as a result of oxidation and
will start moving laterally until they find
surfaces around the world, escaping as gas bacterial action.)
another vertical pathway.

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 ORIGIN OF HYDROCARBONS

11

the water that normally fills the pores of

underground rock. As a result, when a
hydrocarbon trap is drilled from above, the
first fluid encountered is usually natural gas.
The gas is underlain by oil, when it is
present; water, the densest reservoir fluid,
is found in the rock pores at the bottom of
the structure.
Several types of hydrocarbon traps can
be found in Oman. Some are structural in
nature: the deformation of rock layers has
Folds and fault
resulted in reservoirs being overlain by a
blocks control the
distribution of dome-like seal. Many structural traps in
Oman’s oil and Oman, such as those of the Yibal and the
gas reserves. Qarn Alam fields, are formed above pillars
These structures
of salt. Because it has a lower density than
must be clearly
understood before most sedimentary rocks, salt–like
the hydrocarbons hydrocarbons–naturally rises through
can be produced. overlying rocks, forming pillars. The action
of the rising salt deforms surrounding rock
layers, quite often creating nice structural
traps. Other traps, such as those of the
Fahud field, are formed when a reservoir
and seal have been juxtaposed by the
action of a geological fault. A third type of
trap–known as a stratigraphic trap–is
formed when the thin edge of a wedge of
reservoir rock becomes sandwiched
between two impermeable layers.
Regardless of its type, a trap will not
Various types of hold hydrocarbons if it is formed after the
salt formations
hydrocarbons have migrated past it. Hence,
can also serve as
structural traps. traps must exist before the hydrocarbon
migration from the kitchen ceases. All oil
and gas fields are thus the result of a
chance combination of events that produced
the right sorts of source rock and overlying
rocks and the right types of trap
structures–all at the right time. And that’s
quite a story.

TRAPS and the suitably shaped reservoir/seal

Occasionally, however, the oil and gas do
not manage to reach the surface. Their
migration is barred by seals of such size
and shape that the hydrocarbons merely
accumulate underground. Such
accumulations are referred to as reservoirs,
combinations are known as hydrocarbon
traps (see page 16).
Density differences control the vertical
distribution of oil and gas in the pores
throughout a reservoir. Gas is much less
denser than oil, which is less denser than
 Special thanks for their help in
the preparation of this story go to:
Jan Schreurs, Mia Van Steenwinkel
and Nashwa al Ruwehy
(all from PDO).

al manhal number three 2003

 WATER TREATMENT

12

Oil & Water

When oil is first produced from a reservoir, it
contains little or no water. However, over time,
more and more water is produced with the oil.
This water–known as produced water–must be
Produced-water
treatment and disposal
treated and disposed of in accordance with
environmental regulations.
The main priorities in the management of
produced water are to minimise the volumes
produced and to re-use what is produced in
beneficial and cost-effective ways (FIGURE 1).
Most produced water requires treatment because
it contains traces of oil, heavy metals, boron,
corrosive fluids and other solids. It is also very
salty–often saltier than seawater. The treatment
and disposal of produced water is a significant
operating expense for oil and gas companies
(FIGURE 2). Water-handling costs include capital
and operating expenses, utilities and chemicals
for lifting, separating, de-oiling, filtering, pumping
and injection.
Produced water can be re-injected into the
reservoir from which it originally came, to help
maintain the reservoir pressure or to sweep the
oil to the producing wells. When produced water
cannot be used to enhance production, it should
be disposed off in deep, saline aquifers or put to
a good use at the surface. In Oman, water
discharge into shallow aquifers will soon be
phased out, making the injection of produced
water into deep aquifers standard practice.
However, Petroleum Development Oman is
exploring environmentally acceptable alternatives
for produced water such as reed beds,
desalination and crop irrigation (FIGURE 3).
Another option–downhole separation–has
recently been demonstrated in Oman (FIGURE 4).

A downhole oil–water separator reduces the costs
of handling produced water at surface by
separating oil and gas from water at the bottom
of the well. Most of the water is then injected into
another or the same formation, while the oil is
pumped to the surface. This method of
simultaneously separating water from oil and
injecting the water into a subsurface formation
minimises costs by removing the need to lift the
water to the surface and to treat it there. It also
reduces the risks of aquifer contamination.
1
Modern water management systems are designed to reduce
environmental impact. Operating companies can minimise water
production by using advanced reservoir technology to shut off
water zones from producing wells and by introducing new,
downhole separation methods. Any water that reaches the
surface should be cleaned and reused at surface or injected back
into the reservoir or deep disposal zones.

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 13

3
Once treated to high purity standards, a
proportion of the produced water may be
used in surface applications such as crop
irrigation or reed bed development.

Concentrate pump
Dehydrated oil
Emulsion pump Hydraulic power fluid

Motor Hydraulic pump

Water injection zone
of produced and
Hydrocyclone Horizontal power fluid
separator
Reservoir
inflow Packer

4
If oil and gas are separated from
formation water at the bottom of the
well, the water can be injected directly

2
Costs associated with treating produced oilfield water.
into an underground formation. This
reduces the costs associated with
managing produced water at surface.

 Thanks to Anton Sluijterman,

Mohamed al Lamki and Guy Young (all
from PDO) for their time and expertise.

al manhal number three 2003

 A DAY IN THE LIFE OF...

14

MARYAM AL TOUQI
PDO Production Technologist

7:57 a.m. 9:40 a.m.

Anticipating a busy day Diagnosing a problem well

For the past three years I have been working on the I suspect that the well’s problem arises from a part of the
Lekhwair field, in the north of Oman. Today, I will reservoir that previously produced oil but is now producing
be predicting next month’s production for the field. water. We need to decide the best way to shut off this watered-
I start the day with a review of field reports and out zone. I arrange a meeting with the operations department.
check my e-mails. This morning I receive another
report about an oil well that recently began
producing a lot of water.

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 15

Maryam al Touqi, who has a degree in mathematics, joined Petroleum Development Oman in 1995.
Her working day revolves around monitoring and optimising the production performance of oil wells.
One of her tasks is to identify and correct well problems before they harm oil production.

1:32 p.m. 3:29 p.m.

Developing a shut-off plan
We decide to use a mechanical shut-off device.
This will be a complex process that involves pulling
out the well completion, logging the well to check
and confirm the watered out zone, placing the
device in the well, and reinserting the completion.
Our water shut-off plans will be passed to field staff
and implemented over the next few days, once all
of the necessary equipment is in place at the well
site. Co-operation between the various departments
in PDO ensures that this remedial work is carried
out quickly and efficiently.
Reviewing acid-stimulation results
“Co-operation between
I examine new information from a well whose
production was stimulated with acid at the the various departments
weekend. Oil production from this well had
fallen, and it was taken off stream while the
reservoir area around the wellbore was exposed
in PDO ensures that the
to acid. It was hoped that this would increase
the flow of hydrocarbons. I see that the results of work is carried out
the acid stimulation are excellent. The oil rate
from the well has risen by almost 35%. It is a
good way to end the day.
quickly and efficiently.”

al manhal number three 2003