JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY • www.spe.

org/jpt FEBRUARY 2015

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 5 • V O L U M E 6 7, N U M B E R 2

OFFSHORE
­FACILITIES DRILLING TECHNOLOGY
JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY

WELL TESTING
FORMATION DAMAGE

FEATURES

Implications of Lower Oil Prices

Multiphase Flow Modeling
Safe Disposal of Waste Water
Reassessing Uncertainty Assessment

Feb 15_JPT_Cover.indd 1 1/16/15 7:02 AM

 Oilfield Review

Everything we know. Everywhere you go.

Oilfeld Review, one of the industry’s leading technical journals, communicates advances in fnding and
producing hydrocarbons to oilfeld professionals. And now it’s conveniently available on your phone or tablet.

With the Oilfeld Review app, you have easy access to articles, animations, and videos, as well as our
extensive archive of back issues, no matter where your career takes you.

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*Mark of Schlumberger. © 2015 Schlumberger. Other company, product, and service names are the properties of their respective owners. 14-OR-0008
Volume 67 • Number 2

20 G
 UESTEDITORIAL•NEWPRICES,OPPORTUNITIES
INNEXTWAVEOFUNCONVENTIONALRESOURCE
DEVELOPMENT
The precipitous drop in global oil prices has added another key question
to the mix of economic sustainability: At what price do unconventional
plays cease to be economically sustainable? The industry can maximize
profitability by using brainpower rather than horsepower.

40 B
 EYONDTHEHEADLINES•CANWASTEWATERBE
DISPOSEDOFSAFELY?
The safe disposition of waste water is an industry priority especially
because of the widely reported past missteps in Pennsylvania. It is
completely feasible and, in fact, is being broadly practiced today.

49 B
 ATTLEFOROILMARkETCONTROLCOULDHAVE
ALASTINGIMPACT
The decline in crude prices was caused by a large oversupply of oil that
could linger. OPEC leaders say they want to squeeze excess production
off the market, but US and Canadian companies are sticking with their
Cover: A wellhead desander installed growth plans.
as part of a spar topside sand-
management system on a dry-tree- 56 LOWOILPRICESMAkEINNOVATIONAPRIORITY
unit facility in the Kikeh field offshore Low oil prices present opportunities for the oil and gas industry to
Malaysia. Solid-fines production innovate and strengthen its base in preparation for the next phase of
in this deepwater environment industry development, panelists said at the International Petroleum
necessitated the development Technology Conference held in Kuala Lumpur.
of a unique system to optimize
production. Photo courtesy of 62 THENEWPATHWAYSOFMULTIPHASEFLOWMODELING
eProcess Technologies. The modeling technology that enabled the industry to safely and
economically build deepwater production facilities is being refined
to address hydrates and other challenges. Programs are also being
created to help design horizontal wells and optimize production from
6 Performance Indices
shale developments.
10 Regional Update
70 SAUDIARAMCOTAkESA“SMART”APPROACH
12 Company News The Saudi Arabian oil company’s upstream strategy aims to implement
14 President’s Column the intelligent field concept in all of its upstream operations by 2016–2017
18 Comments so it can better understand reservoirs and improve efficiency.

24 Technology Applications 72 M
 ANAGEMENT•INDUSTRYNEEDSRE-EDUCATION
30 Technology Update
IN UNCERTAINTYASSESSMENT
The oil price slide has the potential to move industry performance
44 E&P Notes from below expectations to below profitability. If we do not change the
133 SPE News corporate culture and incentives regarding uncertainty assessment, chronic
underperformance will persist for decades.
135 People
136 Professional Services
139 Advertisers’ Index
140 SPE Events

Printed in US. Copyright 2015, Society of Petroleum Engineers. An Official Publication of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
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TECHNOLOGY Rhino RHE
DUAL-REAMER RATHOLE
ELIMINATION SYSTEM

78 Drilling Technology

hino RHE is a mark of Schlumberger. © 2015 Schlumberger. 14-DT-0171

Mike Weatherl, SPE, Deepwater Consultant, Apache
79 Drilling of Multilateral Wells in Kuwait Aided With
Geochemical Analysis
84 Managed-Pressure-Drilling Technology in Offshore HP/HT
Gas/Condensate Fields
87 Unique System for Underbalanced Drilling Using Air in the
Marcellus Shale
90 Advanced Technologies and Solutions for Challenging
Drilling Applications

94 Offshore Facilities
Ian G. Ball, SPE, Technology Adviser and Project Manager, Intecsea
95 Mars-B Development: An Evolution of Traditional Well, Rig,
and Facility Design
100 Moorings Replacement and Hookup for a Damaged
North Sea FPSO
i-DRILL system design ensures
104 Upgrade of Spar Topside With Comprehensive reamer placement does not interfere
Sand-Management System with RSS directional capabilities.

108 Well Testing

Angel G. Guzmán-Garcia, SPE, Independent Energy Consultant
109 Modeling Transient Wellbore Temperature During Diagnostic Dual-reamer system
Fracture Injection Tests enlarges rathole, avoids
112 Creating Value With Permanent Downhole Gauges in Tight a run, and saves 16 hours
Gas Appraisal Wells
116 Tactics for Use of Diagnostic Fracture Injection Tests in on a deepwater rig.
Unconventional Reservoirs

120 Formation Damage

Niall Fleming, SPE, Leading Adviser, Well Productivity and
Stimulation, Statoil
121 Improving the Interpretation of Formation-Damage Laboratory Tests
126 Modeling Formation Damage and Completion Geometry in
the Gyda Reservoir
129 Fines Migration in Fractured Wells: Integrating Modeling With
Field and Laboratory Data

Read the case study at

slb.com/RhinoRHE
The complete SPE technical papers featured in this issue are available
free to SPE members for two months at www.spe.org/jpt.
 ASSURING
WELL INTEGRITY

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The story behind the number

A Williston Basin client failed to meet top-of-cement regulations
in nine wells based on a low-frequency cement bond log.
We depoloyed the high-frequency UltraView™ technology, which
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Formation Evaluation | Well Construction | Completion & Stimulation | Production


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 PERFORMANCE INDICES
SPE Bookstore
wORlD CRuDE OIl PRODuCtION+ ‡

tHOuSAND BOPD
OP EC 2014 APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP
Algeria 1420 1420 1420 1420 1420 1420
Angola 1770 1710 1690 1690 1740 1770
Ecuador 560 554 555 558 558 551
Iran 3230 3230 3230 3230 3230 3230
Iraq 3300 3325 3325 3195 3205 3515
Kuwait* 2650 2650 2650 2650 2650 2650
libya 210 230 235 435 530 785
Nigeria 2420 2320 2470 2470 2520 2470
Qatar 1573 1573 1573 1583 1583 1583
Saudi Arabia* 9690 9690 9690 9840 9740 9640
uAE 2820 2820 2820 2820 2820 2820
Venezuela 2300 2300 2300 2300 2300 2300

TOTAL 31943 31822 31958 32191 32296 32734

tHOuSAND BOPD

Available in Digital Version Only NON-OPEC 2014 APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP

Argentina 515 528 530 525 529 540

Advances in Well Control Australia 340 328 369 356 350 338
Azerbaijan 837 872 852 845 840 834
This edition of the SPE reprint series focuses
on recent advances in well control over the last Brazil 2146 2189 2246 2267 2326 2358
few years and provides a comprehensive list of Canada 3476 3397 3457 3509 3447 3867
technical studies covering a diverse category
China 4132 4181 4259 4084 4118 4175
of topics.
Colombia 935 950 1008 971 1028 992
Contents Denmark 163 172 109 159 173 165
• New kick etection techniques Egypt 486 483 480 477 474 471
• Kick-control proce ures Eq. Guinea 248 248 248 248 248 248
• A vancements in pressure control equipment Gabon 240 240 240 240 240 240
• Deepwater operations India 772 761 778 757 728 758
• Blowout control an contingency planning Indonesia 790 800 800 800 800 800

The entire collection, which includes 35 papers, Kazakhstan 1644 1564 1517 1641 1646 1559
provi es a well-balance combination of Malaysia 590 587 586 560 562 568
technical stu ies an in ustry best practices Mexico 2518 2530 2476 2427 2455 2430
to be implemente in the fiel .
Norway 1603 1376 1452 1605 1541 1548
Oman 924 936 957 957 953 958
Russia 10083 10083 10095 10003 10056 10079
Sudan 261 260 259 258 257 257
Visit our online bookstore at
www.spe.org/go/books to purchase. Syria 23 23 23 23 23 22
uK 820 869 753 706 468 747
uSA 8436 8586 8599 8650 8696 8864
Vietnam 301 297 305 288 304 288
Yemen 123 121 127 129 128 126
Other 2459 2480 2582 2517 2537 2527

Total 44865 44862 45106 45003 44927 45760

Total World 76808 76684 77064 77194 77224 78494

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

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 PERFORMANCE INDICES

HENRy Hub GulF COASt NAtuRAl GAS SPOt PRICE*‡

6

Behind
4

every
2 uSD/Mil. btus

DEC

2014
JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV
winner WORlD CRuDE OIl PRICES (uSD/bbl)‡

is a
108.12 94.62 108.90 100.82 107.48 100.80 107.76 102.07
2014 JAN FEB MAR APR

great 109.54
MAY
102.18 111.80
JUN
105.79 106.77
JUL
103.59 101.61
AUG
96.54

nomination 97.09
SEP
93.21 87.43
OCT
84.40 79.44
NOV
75.79 62.34
DEC
59.29

Brent WTI

WORlD ROtARy RIG COuNt†

2014
R EG I O N JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
uS 1861 1876 1904 1930 1925 1925 1882
Canada 240 350 399 406 424 421 375

latin America 398 407 410 402 393 375 369

Europe 147 153 143 148 148 149 148
Middle East 425 432 406 396 390 403 403
Africa 123 137 125 117 125 142 138
Asia Pacific 251 253 255 260 252 255 255

TOTAL 3445 3608 3642 3659 3657 3670 3578

Nominate a colleague for
outstanding work in the E&P industry. WORlD OIl SuPPly AND DEMAND 1‡
Now until 15 February, the MIllION bOPD 2013 2014
Society of Petroleum Engineers is
Quarter 4th 1st 2nd 3rd
accepting nominations for
outstanding work in the E&P industry. SUPPLY 90.79 90.94 91.56 92.27
Visit www.spe.org/go/NomAwards DEMAND 91.29 90.25 90.86 92.35
for more information on nominating
a colleague today. INDICES KEY
+ Figures do not include NGLs and oil from nonconventional sources.
* Includes approximately one-half of Neutral Zone production.
1 Includes crude oil, lease condensates, natural gas plant liquids, other hydrocarbons for refinery feedstocks, refinery
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.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

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 REGIONAL UPDATE
AFRICA
◗◗ Eni finished a production test on its
Minsala Marine 1 NFW well, located in
Marine XII block, 35 km offshore The
Republic of the Congo. During the test,
the well delivered natural flow in excess
of 5,000 B/D of 41 °API crude and
14 MMcf/D of natural gas from a 37-m
opened section of the discovery’s 420-m
column. Eni (65%) is operator, with state-
owned partner SNPC (25%), and New Age
(African Global Energy) Limited (10%).
ASIA
◗◗ CNOOC started natural gas production
from the Panyu 34-1/35-1/35-2 project at
the Pearl River Mouth basin in the South
China Sea. Main production facilities
for the three gas fields include one
comprehensive platform, two sets of
underwater production systems, and 13
producing wells. Two wells are producing
a total of 21 MMcf/D of gas. The project
is expected to reach peak production of
150 MMcf/D. CNOOC is operator and holds
100% interest.
AuStRALIA
◗◗ Santos discovered wet gas at its
Varanus South-1 well on PEL 513 of
Australia’s Cooper basin. The well was
drilled to a total depth of 3154 m, and
after preliminary interpretation of wireline
logs was found to contain an aggregate
best estimate of 18 m of net gas pay over a
gross interval of 365 m in the Patchawarra
formation. An additional net 9 m of
hydrocarbon pay was detected in the
Tirrawarra formation over a gross interval
of 37 m. Santos (60%) is the operator with
partner Drillsearch (40%).
◗◗ tAG Oil’s Cheal-E-JV-6 well, located in
New Zealand’s Taranaki basin, intersected
a net 9 m of hydrocarbon-bearing sands
in the Mt. Messenger formation. The well
was drilled to a total depth of 1939 m and
is being cased and suspended for future
testing and possible production, pending
results. TAG (70%) is operator with partner
East West Petroleum (30%).
◗◗ Logging data acquired during the
drilling of Origin Energy’s Speculant-1
exploration well—located 3 km offshore
southern Victoria, in permit VIC/L1 of
10
the Otway basin—indicated gas within
sands in the Waarre formation. Wireline
formation-pressure data confirmed the
presence of a gas column of approximately
145 m within the Waarre C formation.
Further evaluation of secondary targets is
under way. Origin is operator of the permit
and holds 100% interest.
◗◗ OMV started producing oil from the
Maari Growth Project at Maari field,
80 km offshore south New Zealand. The
campaign includes drilling of five wells
into producing and new reservoirs and will
represent a USD-205-million investment
by the time it reaches its conclusion in the
first half of 2015. The first well, MR-8A was
sidetracked out of an abandoned injection
well and drilled horizontally into the Moki
formation. It is estimated that MR-8A will
achieve a 4,500-B/D peak flow rate. OMV
(69%) operates the project with partners
todd Maari (16%), Horizontal Oil (10%),
and Cue taranaki (5%).
EuROPE
◗◗ Palomar Natural Resources spudded
the Rawciz-12 appraisal well in Poland’s
southern Permian basin, in the Rawciz
concession. The well is targeting a
natural gas accumulation in the Permian
Rotliegendes sandstones and will be
drilled to a total depth of 1900 m. Palomar
(65%) operates the concession with
partner San Leon Energy (35%).
MIDDLE EASt
◗◗ Marathon Oil KDV—a wholly owned
subsidiary of Marathon Oil—discovered
multiple stacked oil- and gas-producing
zones at its Jisk-1 exploration well in the
Harir block of Iraq’s Kurdistan region. The
well reached a total depth of 15,000 ft
and encountered Jurassic and Triassic
reservoirs. Drillstem testing yielded
6,100 B/D of oil and nonassociated gas
flowing at a rate of 10–15 MMcf/D. The well
was cased and suspended as a potential
producer. Marathon (45%) operates the
block with partners total (35%) and the
Kurdistan Regional Government (20%).
NORtH AMERICA
◗◗ Cuttings from Linc Energy’s Pata
1 exploration well—located in Alaska’s
Arckaringa basin—showed evidence
of oil in the Stuart Range formation,
starting below 1039 m. Fluorescence was
found in a siliceous siltstone with minor
fine-grained sandstone and increased
with depth from approximately 10% at
the top of the unit to 90% at the base
of unit. The cuttings were sent to a
laboratory in Brisbane, Australia—where
the company is based—for more testing.
Linc is operator and holds 100% interest
in PEL 121.
◗◗ Chevron started producing oil and
natural gas from the Jack/St. Malo
project in the US Gulf of Mexico, which
is estimated to promise peak production
of 94,000 B/D and 21 MMcf/D. Oil and
gas from the Jack and St. Malo fields,
which lie approximately 25 miles from
each other, are transported to an export
pipeline and then to the Green Canyon 19
Platform which connects with refineries on
the coast. Chevron operates the two fields
and the host facility. Statoil, Maersk Oil,
Petrobras, Eni, and ExxonMobil each
participate at different levels within some
or all of the three joint ventures.
SOutH AMERICA
◗◗ Karoon Gas Australia detected
five separate oil-bearing zones at
its Kangaroo-2 well, offshore Brazil
in the Santos basin. Pay zones were
encountered in Paleocene- and
Maastrichtian-aged formations, each
with a separate oil/water contact. The
gross oil column totals 250 m with no
gas cap. Karoon will conduct wireline
logging and drill a possible sidetrack for
coring, depending on log results. Karoon
(65%) is operator of block S-M-1165 with
partner Pacific Rubiales (35%).
◗◗ Ecopetrol discovered the presence of
oil at its Nueva Esperanza-1 exploratory
well in block CPO-9, Meta, Colombia.
After being drilled to a total depth of
12,056 ft, an eight-day flow test was
conducted using an electrical submersible
pump. The result was a stabilized daily
910 B/D of 8 °API crude with less than
2% water cut. Nueva Esperanza-1 is the
second oil discovery by Talisman and
Ecopetrol in block CPO-9, following
the discovery of hydrocarbons in the
Akacia structure. Ecopetrol (55%)
is operator with partner talisman
Energy (45%). JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
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 COMPANY NEWS
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
◗◗ Bellatrix Exploration acquired assets
in the Alder Flats area of west central
Alberta, Canada, from an unnamed
producer for approximately USD 118
million in cash. The acquisition increases
the buyer’s output by approximately
2,200 BOEPD (80% natural gas, 20%
liquids). The transaction increases Bellatrix’s
net working interest within the Mannville
formation by 57.3% (to approximately
96.9%) over 10 gross sections.
◗◗ Southwestern Energy signed an
agreement to purchase oil and gas assets
in the Marcellus shale from WPX Energy
for USD 300 million. The deal includes
46,700 acres in northeast Pennsylvania,
with daily production of about 50 MMcf/D
from 63 operated gas wells. As part of the
transaction, Southwestern will assume
transportation capacity of 260 MMcf/D
of natural gas, predominantly on the
Millennium pipeline. The deal is expected
to close in the first quarter of 2015.
◗◗ Carnarvon Petroleum agreed to
sell its remaining 20% interest in assets
in Thailand’s Phetchabun basin to The
Berlanga Group for a cash consideration
of approximately USD 58.2 million, which
includes working capital of approximately
USD 8.2 million. The sale is expected to
close in the first quarter of 2015.
◗◗ BG Group sold its wholly owned
subsidiary QCLNG Pipeline to Australia’s
APA Group for USD 5 billion. QCLNG
Pipeline owns a 543-km underground
pipeline network that links BG’s natural gas
fields in southern Queensland to a two-
train liquefied natural gas export facility
at Gladstone on Australia’s east coast. The
transaction is expected to close in the first
half of 2015.
◗◗ Apache sold its 13% stake in the
Wheatstone LNG terminal in Western
Australia and 50% interest in the Kitimat
liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in
northern British Columbia to Woodside
Petroleum for USD 2.75 billion. Under the
terms, Apache will sell its equity ownership
in Apache Julimar, through which it
owned the Wheatstone stake and a 65%
interest in WA-49-L block, which includes
the Julimar/Brunello fields off Western
Australia. Apache will also receive an
12
additional USD 1 billion to reimburse its net
expenditure in both projects.
◗◗ Shell Petroleum Development
Company of Nigeria completed the sale
of its 30% interest in Oil Mining Lease
24 and related facilities in the East
Niger Delta to Newcross Exploration
and Production for a cash price of
approximately USD 600 million. The lease
covers an area of around 430 km2 and
includes the Awoba, Awoba Northwest,
and Eukalama fields and facilities. The
divested infrastructure includes three oil
flow-stations and three gas-processing
plants, in addition to various oil and gas
pipelines. The divested fields produced
around 13,000 BOEPD during the first
half of 2014. Total E&P Nigeria (10%) and
Nigeria Agip Oil Company (5%) have also
sold their interests in the lease, ultimately
leaving Newcross with a 45% interest.
COMPANy MOvES
◗◗ Oil and gas safety company Secorp
opened a new office in Hobbs, New Mexico.
The location will offer a wide range of
services, including H2S protection, gas
detection, confined space and high-
angle rescue equipment, fall protection,
emergency shower trailers, cooling trailers,
and safety training seminars. The office
will allow for dispatch of rapid-response
teams to clients operating in the northern
Permian Basin.
◗◗ Riser and conductor engineering firm
2H Offshore has relocated to larger office
spaces in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and
Perth, Australia. Both offices have improved
facilities, additional meeting rooms, and
enhanced conference rooms.
CONTRACTS
◗◗ Electromagnetic Geoservices
won an approximately USD-27-million
contract from BG Group to provide
3D electromagnetic data acquisition in
Uruguay. The services will be conducted
using the vessel EM Leader and are
expected to take 3.5 months to complete.
◗◗ Icon Offshore Group was awarded
multiple contracts, with a combined
value of approximately USD 12.3 million,
to provide offshore support vessels in
Malaysia. Icon will supply a straight supply
vessel to EQ Petroleum Production
Malaysia and received contract extensions
to provide one utility supply vessel and
one anchor handling tug/supply vessel to
unnamed operators. The new contract has
a firm period of two years with option for a
one-year extension.
◗◗ UK-based ground engineering specialist
Keller Group won a USD-177-million
contract to supply and install precast piles
in the Caspian region. Mobilization will start
immediately and the initial phase of work,
valued at USD 25 million, is scheduled to be
completed in the first half of 2015.
◗◗ BP awarded a USD-750-million
contract to Wood Group PSN for
delivery of engineering, procurement,
and construction services to six UK
continental shelf offshore upstream assets
and the Forties Pipeline System onshore
midstream facilities in Grangemouth, UK.
The contract includes options for two,
one-year extensions.
◗◗ Ennsub was awarded a contract worth
USD 2 million by marine geotechnical
survey company Benthic to design and
build a portable launch and recovery
system for its remotely operated survey
vehicles. The system will feature active
heave compensation and 3000-m
deployment capability and will be
configured to allow the mobilization of
Benthic’s portable, remotely operated
drilling units on a wider range of vessels
than was previously possible. The
equipment is estimated to take around
eight months to design and build. It
will undergo detailed commissioning in
the second half of 2015 and commence
operations later in the year.
◗◗ Bumi Armada Berhad’s wholly owned
subsidiary Bumi Aramada Offshore
Holdings was awarded a contract worth
about USD 1.18 billion—together with joint
venturer Armada Gema Nusantara—to
supply and operate a floating production,
storage, and offloading vessel for Husky-
CNOOC Madura Limited. The vessel will be
used at the Madura BD field, approximately
10 miles south of Madura Island, offshore
Indonesia. The contract has a firm charter
period of 10 years with options for
five annual extensions. Operations are
expected to start in the fourth quarter
of 2016. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
 Mangrove
ENGINEERED STIMULATION DESIGN
IN THE PETREL PLATFORM

PetroChina Changqing beats previous-best

horizontal well production by more than 50%.
PetroChina Changqing used Mangrove* workflow in the Petrel* E&P software platform to capture the complexities
of the Ordos basin. The engineered fracturing design helped improve reservoir-to-wellbore connectivity while
cutting fracturing fluid consumption and pressure drawdown in half. Three months after the wells were completed,
sustained production rates were 50% higher than the previous-best ofset horizontal well.

Read the case study at

slb.com/Mangrove
 ENERGY 360 SPE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OFFICERS
2015 President
Helge Hove Haldorsen, Statoil

Listening Loudly to Our 2014 President

Jeff Spath, Schlumberger

Members and Our Industry

2016 President
Nathan Meehan, Baker Hughes

Vice President Finance

Helge Hove Haldorsen, 2015 SPE President Janeen Judah, Chevron

REGIONAL DIRECTORS
SPE is unique by design. It is global, it is not-for-profit, it exists AFRICA
for the benefit of its large and diverse membership of 143,000 Anthony Ogunkoya,
TBFF Upstream Oil and Gas Consulting
and the technical content of SPE’s programs is developed by its
CANADIAN
members. Hence, SPE is an organization in which the prima- Darcy Spady, Sanjel
ry beneficiaries—the workers and the customers are the same EAStERN NORtH AMERICA
people—the members! SPE’s mission and vision (see boxes) Bob Garland, Tetra Technologies

provide us with a world of opportunity to serve our members GulF COASt NORtH AMERICA
Bryant Mueller, Halliburton
and the exploration and production (E&P) industry as a whole.
MID-CONtINENt NORtH AMERICA
At any time, there are hundreds of new initiatives that SPE could consider in delivering Michael tunstall, Halliburton
an improved value proposition to our members and the E&P industry we serve. MIDDlE EASt
The SPE Board of Directors, elected as global representatives of the members, al- Fareed Abdulla, Abu Dhabi Co. Onshore Oil Opn
locates SPE’s resources across a portfolio of member services in alignment with SPE’s NORtH SEA
approved strategic plan and the more specific strategic objectives. The Annual Techni- Carlos Chalbaud, GDF Suez E&P UK

cal Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) in October 2014 in Amsterdam gave us the op- NORtHERN ASIA PACIFIC
Ron Morris, Roc Oil (Bohai)/Roc Oil (China)
portunity to hear from two important groups: senior industry executives and young
ROCky MOuNtAIN NORtH AMERICA
professionals (YPs). We wanted to hear their ideas, desires, and concerns for improv- Mike Eberhard, Anadarko Petroleum
ing SPE’s value proposition from their vantage point. RuSSIA AND tHE CASPIAN
Initiated about 7 years ago, the Industry Advisory Council (IAC) is an interna- Anton Ablaev, Schlumberger

tional group of senior E&P executives. The IAC meets annually during ATCE. The SOutH AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN
Anelise Quintao lara, Petrobras
Amsterdam venue allowed for greater participation by representatives of European
SOutH ASIA
companies, along with US and Middle Eastern participants. John Hoppe, Shell
The IAC strongly recommends that SPE continues to focus on its core mission. In SOutH, CENtRAl, AND EASt EuROPE
doing so, SPE provides timely, objective E&P context for its members (e.g., E&P costs Matthias Meister, Baker Hughes
are too high, the industry’s competitiveness is being eroded, communities expect more SOutHERN ASIA PACIFIC
Salis Aprilian, PT Pertamina
of us, our field forecasts are often too optimistic, and more than 80% of project risks
are nontechnical risks). The Society also provides sharing of the latest relevant tech- SOutHwEStERN NORtH AMERICA
libby Einhorn, Concho Oil & Gas
nology, tools, and the best practices with members quickly to improve health, safety,
wEStERN NORtH AMERICA
security, environmental, and social responsibility (HSSE-SR) practices and the indus- tom walsh, Petrotechnical Resources of Alaska
try’s overall value creation.
The IAC also noted that if SPE continues to listen to our industry’s and our mem- TECHNICAL DIRECTORS
bers’ needs, the Society’s sharing arenas and conferences will be preferred by the E&P DRIllING AND COMPlEtIONS
David Curry, Baker Hughes
industry because of its spot-on relevance. The IAC
HEAltH, SAFEty, SECuRIty, ENVIRONMENt,
would further like to see more focus on the impor- AND SOCIAl RESPONSIBIlIty
tance of the integration of disciplines and field trey Shaffer, Environmental Resources Management

development teamwork through sessions with MANAGEMENt AND INFORMAtION

more case study focus. I say: Let us make 2015
the year of massive cross-discipline collabo-
ration. E&P value creation is a jigsaw puzzle
with many pieces to offer. The role of the
J.C. Cunha, Chevron
PRODuCtION AND OPERAtIONS
Shauna Noonan, ConocoPhillips
PROJECtS, FACIlItIES, AND CONStRuCtION
Howard Duhon, Gibson Applied Tech PF&C

project “integrator” is to orchestrate ways RESERVOIR DESCRIPtION AND DyNAMICS

Olivier Houzè, KAPPA Engineering
of getting great pieces (ideas) from all dis-
ciplines such that we end up with the best DIRECTOR FOR ACADEMIA
looking field development picture we can Dan Hill, Texas A&M
in terms of value creation and forecasts (of
AT-LARGE DIRECTORS
khaled Al-Buraik, Saudi Aramco

liu Zhenwu, China National Petroleum Corporation

To contact the SPE President, email president@spe.org.

14 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

schedule, cost, production, reserves, and similar) actually re-
sembling actuals. The industry needs better integrators or peo-
ple with a good understanding and links to all parts of the busi-
ness, thus making them understand the totality of the challenge
and opportunity. SPE’s recent Leadership Academy is an early
response to this need. Further, if a person’s competence profile
is a T and the stem of the T is a member’s core professional or
discipline competence, the IAC would like to see SPE increas-
ingly help members develop the bar of the T, which represents
the various key nontechnical skills in the E&P industry, such as
HSSE-SR, project management, teamwork, decision analysis
and great communication skills.
The IAC appreciates the Society’s continued focus on qual-
ity in everything we do and pointed out that growth does not al-
ways have to be our goal.
One particular area in which the IAC would like to see SPE’s
role grow is public awareness: communicating facts about our in-
dustry to the public. While all agree that SPE should not be a lob-
bying organization, there are valuable things that SPE can do. As
regulation and government action are driven by public opinion,
the IAC suggested that a top priority for SPE’s 143,000 members,
wherever they live, is to become E&P ambassadors. The Society
should provide its membership with clear, simple, factual, and
science-based messages to share with the public along the lines
of: This is how we help supply energy to 7.2 billion people every
day in a sustainable manner. We are a key part of the solution,
not the problem, and we are very proud of our achievements.
As the world’s population grows to 9 billion by 2040, “all of the
above” energy sources will be needed to supply the world with
the energy required (including the 1.3 billion people today with-
out electricity) in a sustainable and affordable manner.
The final IAC recommendation was for SPE to really pri-
oritize YPs as they are the future of the industry. Later, during
ATCE week in Amsterdam, we did just that.
Expanding our work on public awareness was part of
SPE’s Strategic Plan (http://www.spe.org/about/strategicplan.
php). We already have launched a hydraulic fracturing website
with nontechnical information (http://www.energy4me.org/
hydraulicfracturing/), introduced a “Beyond the Headlines”
column in JPT, and are working on developing additional ma-
terials to equip our members to help us in educating the public.
On 30 October, following ATCE, a small group of Board and
staff members had the opportunity to meet with a very differ-
ent constituency: a group of 22 YPs from around the globe. Rec-
ognizing that most of our Board members have been in the in-
dustry for 20 years or more, we wanted to get the views of YPs
on what they would like to see in SPE 2.0: The SPE of the Future.
We structured the day’s activities as an innovation event,
gathering ideas around things that SPE can or should do to ad-
dress future trends and respond to the needs of our next gener-
ation energy professionals. During the first portion of the day,
the participants quickly generated nearly 300 individual ideas
for new SPE programs and services, and changes to existing
ones. Next, the participants looked for common themes among
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
the ideas and began focusing on the most valuable changes that
SPE could make from the viewpoint of YPs.
The group selected five areas it fleshed out in greater de-
tail. They are:
◗ Personalization (SPE4Me). YPs want a much more
personalized experience on the SPE website and in
communications that are tailored to their specific
interests and giving them a greater control over the
process.
◗ Volunteerism. By better articulating volunteer
opportunities and recognizing those who do, SPE will
grow and be enhanced and gain company support for
members who want to volunteer. There was a clear
sentiment that SPE can better explain and convey
the amazing value proposition inherent in an SPE
membership, especially in the direction of potential
SPE members with nonpetroleum engineering
background in the geosciences, financial analysis, risk
analysis, project management, and HSSE-SR areas. In
the process, SPE could be creating a bigger “tent” and
create more cross-discipline collaboration as stressed
by the IAC.
◗ Member Engagement and Loyalty. Concepts around
engaging our members throughout their career journey
from student through retirement and beyond.
◗ Skill Development. To help YPs develop their skills, SPE
should offer nontechnical skill courses and technical
training. Competency management and assessment
(such as the new system launched at ATCE) is a valuable
resource to help YPs take charge of their own career.
◗ Gender and Diversity. YPs perceive a gap in the
treatment of women, particularly those with children,
in the industry. The group worked on defining what
SPE could do with networking and other approaches to
support them.
SPE’s Board committees will be taking the input received
during the YP innovation session and determine how we can
implement suggestions. In many cases, we can tweak an exist-
ing program. For those that require new initiatives, we will need
to evaluate how they fit with the other suite of possible pro-
grams and services that SPE could provide.
When asked about the challenges facing SPE and the in-
dustry in the next 5 to 10 years, YPs were a bit more attuned to
social media and the possibilities that new technology and in-
creased connectivity offers (leading to new business models for
old businesses such as Uber and airbnb) than Board members
and the IAC might be. Generally, however, their major concerns
mirror those of others in the industry, such as:
◗ Oil price instability
◗ Rising development costs and the high break-even of
new barrels
◗ Sufficiently rapid dissemination of tools, technology,
experience, and best practice
15
 ENERGY 360
◗ The competitiveness of oil and gas vs. other energy
sources
◗ Generational shifts (“the big crew change”)
◗ Regulations on carbon emissions
◗ Maintaining quality and avoiding SPE “mission creep”
(SPE cannot be everything to everyone)
◗ Operating safely, responsibly, and sustainably
◗ The public’s view of the industry and maintaining
the public’s trust through strong, local stakeholder
engagement
SPE’s Board welcomes the input of the membership as we
fulfill our obligations to determine how SPE should constantly
renew and adapt to “stay fit” in the view of its members and the
industry by allocating its available resources to programs and
services that will benefit them. We will systematically be review-
ing our portfolio of offerings with a critical eye to member “bang
for the buck” while listening loudly for your input. When the fa-
mous Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky was asked why he
was so good he said, “Because I go to where the puck is going to
be before it goes there.” Henry Ford said, “If I asked people what
they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” While SPE is
coming up with incrementally “faster horses,” we also need to
look for cars that can radically improve the SPE value proposi-
tion for our members utilizing the e-latest and e-greatest to bet-
ter and more quickly and more precisely inform, communicate,
innovate, form arenas, networks and special interest groups.
As I write this column in January 2015, I believe we may
have a new “normal” both short and long term in the E&P in-
dustry. Brent and West Texas Intermediate oil prices are now at
or below USD 50/bbl (more than 50% less than the June 2014
price) and most analysts forecast that the oil oversupply situa-
tion (currently around 1.8–2 million BOEPD) could last for quite
a while and that oil prices as a consequence could stay lowish
most of 2015 and into 2016 as cutbacks and drilling and natural
decline reduce supply. Further barring geopolitical mega events
affecting oil supply, they do not see us returning to a USD 100–
125/bbl oil price band anytime soon. This outlook spells a need
for serious adaptation, creative deconstruction and cost reduc-
tions across the board for a margin business like E&P. Activist
SPE MISSION
To collect, disseminate, and exchange technical knowledge
concerning the exploration, development, and production of
oil and gas resources, and related technologies for the pub-
lic benefit; and to provide opportunities for professionals to
enhance their technical and professional competence.
SPE VISION
Enable the global oil and gas exploration and production
industry to share technical knowledge needed to meet the
world’s energy needs in a safe and environmentally respon-
sible manner.
16
investors say that E&P should stop thinking they are so spe-
cial—you should think of yourself as safely “manufacturing” oil
and gas in a low-cost manner, learning supply chain from other
manufacturing businesses. They also suggest we X-ray our com-
panies for bad or nice to have costs (in departments we do not
really need) and become more competitive by cutting. CERA
Week 2014 concluded that “100 is the new 20” and now ana-
lysts see us having to make a satisfactory return for investors
with only USD 75–80/bbl being the new 20. Remember though,
that the best cure for a low oil price is a low oil price—so we are
already taking the medicine. While I certainly cannot and will
not predict what oil prices will be as you read this in February
2015, I do believe it is important to discuss how SPE is address-
ing the low oil price situation. We will be listening loudly for
your input.
Last August, when prices were still above USD 100/bbl,
SPE’s staff leadership team undertook a planning exercise on
how to respond should oil prices fall to USD 65/bbl. At the time,
no one knew how imminent such a situation might be. As the
staff team considered how lower oil prices would affect SPE’s
business (e.g., reduced number of exhibits, fewer sponsorships,
less advertising, and reduced meeting attendance), it also pro-
posed principles to guide SPE’s reaction to a short-term (1- to
2-year) price drop:
◗ We are here to serve the industry and our members,
whether the industry is doing well or not.
◗ We are more concerned about helping our members
than preserving revenue or profit.
◗ We will explore growth opportunities that may be
presented by a downturn (such as purchasing an event
from a commercial provider).
◗ We will position ourselves for the recovery by taking
a long-term view, while also preparing in case the
downturn is prolonged.
SPE has healthy financial reserves that allow us to take a
long-term view. SPE staff and the SPE Board will be scrutiniz-
ing and prioritizing SPE’s budget for its fiscal year 2016 (1 April
2015–31 March 2016). We believe that we do not have to take
immediate drastic actions beyond showing much more fiscal
discipline and restraint. I am pleased to be leading an organiza-
tion that can establish guiding principles like those above, and
I know that SPE will be able to continue delivering value to its
members even if oil prices remain low for a while.
In my book, the best response to a downturn is to attend SPE
arenas to get fresh innovative ideas for boosting revenues and
smartly reducing bad costs rather than building a moat around
your company and staying away from all the good ideas you could
capture, adapt, and apply at home. Ask: Can we afford not to go
(and miss out on all the good ideas) rather than can we afford to
go! Just one great idea from an SPE meeting can mean millions
on the bottom line of your company when implemented at home.
For my part, the key is to continue to listen loudly to our mem-
bers and the industry we serve, since we are in this together. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
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 COMMENTS EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Syed Ali—Chairperson, Technical Advisor,
Schlumberger
Francisco J. Alhanati, Director, Exploration
& Production, C-FER Technologies
William Bailey, Principal Reservoir Engineer,
Schlumberger

Just Another Cycle? Ian G. Ball, Technical Director, Intecsea (UK) Ltd
Luciane Bonet, Reservoir Engineering Manager,
Petrobras America Inc.
John Donnelly, JPT Editor Robert B. Carpenter, Sr. Advisor – Cementing,
Chevron ETC
Simon Chipperfield, Team Leader Central Gas Team/
Gas Exploitation, Eastern Australia Development,
One question raised about the sharp slide in global crude oil Santos

prices is whether this is just another cycle in a volatile business Nicholas J. Clem, Engineering Manager, Baker Hughes
Alex Crabtree, Senior Advisor, Hess Corporation
that has certainly seen its share of ups and downs, or a more Jose C. Cunha, Technical Training Leader,
significant shift in the relationship between producers, namely Chevron ETC
Alexandre Emerick, Reservoir Engineer,
OPEC, and consuming countries. The current situation has been Petrobras Research Center
painted as a battle over market share between Saudi Arabia and Niall Fleming, Leading Advisor Well Productivity
& Stimulation, Statoil
North American operators that have achieved enormous success Ted Frankiewicz, Engineering Advisor, SPEC Services
ramping up the output of unconventional supplies in places such Emmanuel Garland, Special Advisor to the
HSE Vice President, Total
as North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and south Texas.
Reid Grigg, Senior Engineer/Section Head, Gas
Similarities between the current state of the oil market and the mid-1980s cannot Flooding Processes and Flow Heterogeneities, New
Mexico Petroleum Recovery Research Center
be avoided. Then, Saudi Arabia’s oil policy change that was intended to keep or gain mar- Omer M. Gurpinar, Technical Director, Enhanced Oil
ket share sent prices plummeting. It took approximately 2 decades for prices to recover, Recovery, Schlumberger
A.G. Guzman-Garcia, Engineer Advisor,
which led to more streamlined operations by operators and a rash of major mergers and ExxonMobil (retired)
acquisitions. It also led, in part, to a significant shift in how industry research and devel- Robert Harrison, Global Business Leader,
Reserves & Asset Evaluation, Senergy
opment and technology innovation occurred, as major operators ceded that function to Delores J. Hinkle, Director, Corporate Reserves,
the large service companies, which became the chief drivers of innovation. Marathon Oil (retired)
John Hudson, Senior Production Engineer, Shell
Since the 1990s, Saudi Arabia has been the industry’s “swing supplier,” adding or
Morten Iversen, Completion Team Leader, BG Group
subtracting supplies to the market to keep supply/demand and prices in balance. For Leonard Kalfayan, Global Production Engineering
OPEC members, heavily dependent on current and future oil revenue, a stable oil price Advisor, Hess Corporation
Tom Kelly, Systems Engineering, FMC Technologies
and surety of demand are paramount. Saudi Arabia Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi has said Gerd Kleemeyer, Head Integrated Geophysical
that he believes that higher-cost non-OPEC production, including US tight oil, will be Services, Shell Global Solutions International BV
Jesse C. Lee, Chemistry Technology Manager,
driven out of the market if low oil prices persist. The effect of this is already occur- Schlumberger
ring as oil prices have fallen by roughly half to around USD 50/bbl, and could go lower. Casey McDonough, Drilling Engineer,
Chesapeake Energy
Wells have been shut in, rig counts are down sharply, and operators and service com-
Cam Matthews, Director, New Technology Ventures,
panies have announced layoffs. C-FER Technologies
What is untested is the ability of unconventional supplies to be quickly turned on Badrul H Mohamed Jan, Lecturer/Researcher,
University of Malaya
and off, a difference from the mid-1980s, and what the clear break-even price is, if there Lee Morgenthaler, Staff Production Chemist, Shell
is one. Tight oil has shorter lead times and cheaper initial costs than most conventional Alvaro F. Negrao, Senior Drilling Advisor,
Woodside Energy (USA)
development, which means it could become the new swing supplier in the global mar- Shauna G. Noonan, Staff Production Engineer,
ket, wresting that ability from OPEC members. Unconventional production, in proj- ConocoPhillips
Karen E. Olson, Completion Expert,
ects such as the prolific Eagle Ford Shale, is also becoming more efficient and the price Southwestern Energy
decline promises to further increase efficiency. Analyst Wood Mackenzie predicts that Michael L. Payne, Senior Advisor, BP plc
Mauricio P. Rebelo, Technical Services Manager,
in the current environment, costs in the Eagle Ford will fall by 20% for drilling and 10% Petrobras America
for completions, making sub-USD 50/bbl viable. Also untested is the resolve of OPEC Jon Ruszka, Drilling Manager, Baker Hughes
(Africa Region)
members to stay together. While countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE Martin Rylance, Senior Advisor,
have publicly pledged a commitment to the current policy of driving down global prices, GWO Completions Engineering
Jacques B. Salies, Drilling Manager,
less wealthy OPEC members have tough days ahead with their oil revenues down by half. Queiroz Galvão E&P
For major producers such as Saudi Arabia, there are other things to worry about. Otto L. Santos, Sênior Consultor, Petrobras
Higher oil prices drive interest in competitors to hydrocarbons such as alternative Luigi A. Saputelli, Senior Production Modeling
Advisor, Hess Corporation
fuels. As concerns about climate change become more widespread and a global UN cli- Sally A. Thomas, Principal Engineer, Production
mate change conference, whose objective is to achieve a legally binding and universal Technology, ConocoPhillips
Win Thornton, Global Projects Organization, BP plc
agreement on climate from all nations, looms this year, some hydrocarbon produc- Erik Vikane, Manager Petroleum Technology, Statoil
ers fear additional regulations. Al-Naimi, a frequent attendee of global climate talks, Xiuli Wang, Director, Minerva Engineering
expressed fear about what may be on the horizon. “All of these are good for human- Mike Weatherl, Drilling Advisor, Hess Norge AS
Rodney Wetzel, Team Lead, SandFace Completions,
ity,” he said about efforts to improve climate change policy, “but they will be definitely Chevron ETC
a threat to oil demand in the future.” JPT Scott Wilson, Senior Vice President,
Ryder Scott Company
Jonathan Wylde, Global Head Technology,
Clariant Oil Services
Pat York, Global Director, Well Engineering & Project
To contact JPT’s editor, email jdonnelly@spe.org. Management, Weatherford International

18 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

WELL INTERVENTION UNCONVENTIONALS MATURE FIELDS

SUBSURFACE INSIGHT
THROUGH COIL

REAL TIME DATA THROUGH FIBER OPTICS

Make booth 711 at the Coiled Tubing & Well Intervention Conference and Exhibition
your key stop for insights, input, and information. Halliburton Production Solutions,
an acknowledged industry leader in well intervention, will be showing how their
CoilComm SM Service provides real-time fiber optic depth, pressure, and temperature data
from inside and outside the coil to optimize treatments and decrease the number of runs.
Plus, hear how greater efficiencies and safer land operations can be achieved with
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See display models and engage with our team at Booth 711, March 24 and 25 at
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Solving challenges.™

© 2015 Halliburton. All rights reserved.

 GUEST EDITORIAL
New Prices, Challenges, and Opportunities
in the Next Wave of Unconventional
Resource Development
Hans-Christian Freitag, Vice President of Integrated Technology, Baker Hughes
Hans-Christian
Freitag is vice
president of
integrated technology
in the Global Products
and Services
division at Baker
Hughes. He joined
Atlas Wireline Services in 1989 and has
worked in operations, geoscience, and
management positions around the world.
In 2002, he moved to Baker Hughes
INTEQ and oversaw the development and
market introduction of advanced logging
while drilling technology. From 2005 to
2008 he was responsible for formation
evaluation in North America. From 2008
to the end of 2013 he held a number
of senior and executive management
positions with Baker Hughes in the
Middle East and Asia Pacific. Before
assuming his current role, he was
vice president for the Unconventional
Resources Business Unit for the Eastern
Hemisphere. Freitag holds an MSc
degree in geophysics and a BSc degree
in physics from Technische Universität
Berlin and Technische Universität
Clausthal in Germany.
20
A few months ago, discussions about sustainability in the oil and gas industry focused
on the environmental effects of shale oil and gas development. While technology had
enabled the “first wave” of the unconventional resource revolution that swept North
America and propelled it toward energy independence, concerns about the usage of
water and chemicals and the environmental effect of large numbers of wells signaled
the need for new thinking to address these concerns.
How quickly times have changed! While safety and environmental sustainabil-
ity remain at the top of operational considerations, the precipitous drop in global oil
prices has added another key question to the mix: At what price do unconventional
plays cease to be economically sustainable? Basin-related, break-even prices are now
top agenda items at planning and budgeting meetings. No longer are we discussing
efficient well delivery, improving completion effectiveness and fracturing designs, and
increasing estimated ultimate recovery as changes we should make. These are chang-
es we now must make to boost production, ensure sustainable cash flow, and increase
booked reserves during the “next wave” of unconventional resource development.
The high oil prices of the past several years shielded the industry from inefficien-
cies that were “built in” to the first wave of unconventional development. Of the hun-
dreds of thousands of shale wells that have been drilled and hydraulically fractured,
many have been significantly less productive than expected, delivering typical recov-
ery factors below 10%. Despite these less-than-optimal recovery factors, efficiency
remained our industry’s key focus of innovation in the unconventional plays. In fact,
factory drilling of a large number of wells and geometric fracturing along the later-
al continues to represent the most popular approach to developing unconventional
assets. But with oil prices below USD 50/bbl, is drilling and stimulating more wells
at lower cost really the solution for long-term economic sustainability of unconven-
tional plays?
As an industry, it is critical that we start thinking about these unconventional
assets differently. Large numbers of unconventional wells drilled in the past 5 to 7
years are now reaching the low end of the production curve and are ripe for rejuvena-
tion. And the industry has already seen some positive results from rejuvenation efforts
including wellbore cleanup, installation of artificial lift, and restimulation. Many of
these projects have been effective at generating production rates that equal or even
exceed the well’s initial production with less rapid decline rates.
But we can still do better. By using brainpower rather than horsepower.
Embracing an approach to unconventional rejuvenation that is grounded in
science and fact will let us drive production and efficiency simultaneously. The key
is developing a workflow that creates value through enhanced understanding of the
reservoir rock and the reasons behind poor well performance, and then executing on
that workflow.
With thousands of potential rejuvenation candidates in North America, we must
be able to rapidly and reliably identify the wells with the greatest production poten-
tial; diagnose each individual well’s condition and specific rejuvenation needs; and
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
 GUEST EDITORIAL
then prescribe and deliver the rejuvena-
tion treatment efficiently and effective-
ly to achieve the highest possible return
on investment.
Selecting the Best Candidates
The first step in this workflow is screen-
ing and selecting the best rejuvenation
candidates. Today, we have more data on
these wells than ever before. And, while
the sheer volume of data—from well loca-
tions and completion types to proppant
volumes and production histories—can
sometimes seem overwhelming, modern
data-mining tools and techniques allow
us to quickly sort through large volumes
of information. This, in turn, facilitates
the development of new, efficient work-
flows to screen a large number of wells,
a focus on those capable of delivering the
most additional production, and avoid-
ing those with limited prospects.
Once we know which wells have pro-
duction left to offer, we have to gain an
intimate understanding of the uncon-
ventional reservoir surrounding the well
and diagnose what is needed to unlock
its full potential. We also need to under-
stand whether there are any factors in
the existing well that might compromise
our ability to implement a specific reju-
venation solution. This will necessitate
a deeper dive into the well’s historical
record to review all available formation
evaluation data and production logging.
In some instances, it may be necessary
to gather additional data to fill any gaps.
Other activities in the diagnostics stage
include confirming the well’s technical
integrity and cleaning up the wellbore
in advance of any rejuvenation efforts.
This data assessment and detailed under-
standing of the well’s current state make
it possible to effectively forecast each
well’s production potential.
Proper Rejuvenation Treatment
After we have identified the wells we
want to target and diagnosed what chal-
22
lenges need to be overcome, it is time to
determine the best rejuvenation solu-
tion for a specific well. In some cases,
we have seen that cleanouts alone have
proven effective at restoring produc-
tion to levels at which no further reju-
venation efforts are required. In other
instances, a cleanout coupled with the
installation of artificial lift offers the
most cost-effective means of improv-
ing production. In recent years, many
North American operators have experi-
enced good success with electrical sub-
mersible pumps (ESP) purpose-built
for the lower production rates com-
monly found in mature unconven-
tional wells, boosting production by
more than 40% with lower operating
expenses compared with traditional
rod-lift operations.
If the workflow determines that the
optimal solution for boosting produc-
tion is additional stimulation, refrac-
turing programs can be designed to
stimulate previously untreated zones,
restimulate underperforming intervals,
or re-establish wellbore connectivity
through pre-existing fractures. Because
this workflow has already investigated
the well’s mechanical integrity, and for-
mation evaluation data have been gath-
ered, we can design an effective and effi-
cient restimulation program that meets
the well’s technical, production, and
economic objectives.
Furthermore, if multiple wells in a
field are targeted for rejuvenation, then
microseismic and real-time downhole
pressure monitoring during the treat-
ment, as well as post-refrac produc-
tion analysis, are critical to refining and
enriching reservoir models for the next
restimulation operation. That is because
there are always new discoveries to be
made and more understanding to be
developed. As an industry, we are still
working to fully understand the phys-
ics of fracture propagation in tight rock
and the flow of fluids through fractures.
The acquisition of more—and better—
subsurface data will drive that improved
understanding and enable more pre-
dictive, and more reliable, modeling
and simulation.
Next Wave of Unconventional
Redevelopment
Proper targeting and techniques can
rejuvenate existing unconvention-
al wells to drive meaningful additional
cash flow and improve ultimate recov-
ery—and thus reserves—by provid-
ing an avenue to economic sustainabil-
ity. It simply requires a new, hard look
at what we thought were the “truths”
about unconventional plays and a will-
ingness to embrace new concepts. For
the future, the pathway to success may
be “refrac-ready” wells based on learn-
ings from current and upcoming reju-
venation projects. This next wave in the
development of unconventional reser-
voirs will be key to generating a higher
return on investment for a longer peri-
od of time.
In the end, it may be overly opti-
mistic to say that the current oil price
situation is an opportunity in disguise,
but it does present both a warning and
an opportunity to the industry that we
must refocus our thinking from “busi-
ness as usual” to new, more effective—
and more sustainable—ways of devel-
oping unconventional resources.
With an approach leveraging new
workflows for rejuvenating existing
wells, the industry can achieve produc-
tion and recovery levels needed to sus-
tain unconventional plays in an envi-
ronment of lower oil prices. We can
also achieve the efficiency we have been
seeking by drilling longer, cheaper
wells. In this instance, we are replacing
more wells with more productive wells.
We are replacing field experimentation
with analysis and planning.
We are replacing horsepower with
brainpower. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
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Learn more about making your fracturing more effcient and
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environmentally friendly at watersure@weatherford.com.

Formation Evaluation | Well Construction | Completion & Stimulation | Production

 TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS
Chris Carpenter, JPT Technology Editor
Fluid-Control Valve
Flowrox introduced its slurry-knife-gate
product designed to enhance current
pipeline equipment and processes. The
new SKW (slurry knife wafer) valve was
developed for use where abrasive or cor-
rosive slurries, powders, or coarse sub-
stances are processed. The main ben-
efit of its full-bore design is that the
SKW valve itself becomes an integral
part of the pipe and allows it to pro-
cess the same fluids in the harshest of
conditions. In addition to its strength
and resistance to aggressive slurries,
the SKW valve is designed as a full-port
fluid-control device that allows a more-
efficient process, requiring less pumping
energy to operate. The SKW valve fea-
tures a cast single-piece body that elimi-
nates any potential leak paths from the
Fig. 1—The SKW valve from Flowrox
features resistance to aggressive
slurries and reduced pumping-energy
requirements.
24
body and offers a versatile tower con-
struction that will accept manual, elec-
tric, hydraulic, or pneumatic forms of
actuation (Fig. 1). When in the open posi-
tion, the SKW valve’s rubber ring sleeves
are the only parts in contact with the
medium, as a way to reduce any poten-
tial corrosion or deterioration caused by
wear and tear from even the most abra-
sive slurries. The valve also features load-
distribution rings embedded into the
rubber ring sleeves, a feature that avoids
situations in which tight piping toler-
ances have caused the compression and
destruction of rubber sleeves.
◗◗For additional information, visit
www.flowrox.com.
High-Build Rotary-
Steerable System
Baker Hughes released its AutoTrak
eXact high-build rotary-steerable system
designed to help operators drill complex
3D wells with improved directional con-
trol and superior borehole quality. The
AutoTrak eXact system combines high-
Fig. 2—Baker Hughes’ AutoTrak eXact
high-build rotary-steerable system
is designed to help operators drill
complex 3D wells.
buildup-rate capability with advanced
logging-while-drilling (LWD) services,
enabling optimized completions, improv-
ing drilling efficiency, and maximizing
production potential. Using proprietary
and proven closed-loop steering control,
the AutoTrak eXact system delivers pre-
cise wellbore placement with high bore-
hole quality in all applications for easier
casing runs (Fig. 2). The system has the
ability to drill shorter curve sections up
to 12°/100 ft, compared with convention-
al systems that offer 5–6°/100-ft build
rates. This maximizes reservoir exposure
and helps avoid costly directional work
in troublesome formations. Compatible
with the Baker Hughes’ advanced suite of
LWD services, the AutoTrak eXact system
also provides access to real-time forma-
tion evaluation and reservoir data to help
geosteer wells and optimize placement in
the reservoir.
◗◗For additional information, visit
www.bakerhughes.com.
Compliance-Requirement-
Management Software
Designed and developed to eliminate
wide-ranging compliance-management
failures, ACS Engineering’s Matrics
regulatory-management system offers
ease of learning, reduced workload, sim-
plified user training, and streamlined
production efforts. The software uses a
simple system of implementation and
maintenance and addresses key site-
specific requirements such as air, water,
waste, and safety (including ongoing sys-
tem maintenance) for a fixed monthly
fee with no added charges. Additional-
ly, besides covering all typical scheduled
tasks, Matrics’ electronic functionality
includes unscheduled tasks that have
caused violations when not physically
checked. Submittal requirements accom-
pany each specific task enumerated by the
software, eliminating guesswork about
processes. Converting requirements into
easily monitored action items can be per-
formed easily by individually marking
Task or Checklist in the Matrics system.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
®
 TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS

The software keeps all requirements cur-

rent, tracking changes daily and auto-
updating new requirements, including
new wording, task revisions, and current
frequency. The scope of these updates
includes not only permits, plans, manu-
als, and contracts, but any items some-
times overlooked manually.
◗◗For additional information, visit
www.acsengineering.com.

Spill-Containment System
As regulations for spill management grow
increasingly stringent, oil and gas opera-
tors require new technologies that will
reduce contamination risks, improve on-
site safety, and minimize overall project
costs. Newpark Mats and Integrated Ser-
vices (NMIS) introduced the DURA-BASE
DEFENDER linerless spill-containment
system. The new system provides drilling
and completion crews with a faster and
more efficient way of achieving total site
containment of spills, adhering to envi-
ronmental requirements while reducing
overall costs of operation. The DEFEND-
ER system incorporates NMIS DURA-
BASE mats into a fully integrated struc-
ture for total site containment (Fig. 3). As
an all-in-one solution, DEFENDER pro-
tects the environment while eliminat-
ing the operator costs associated with
transport, repair, and disposal of liners.
The system features NMIS’s DX4 sealing
technology, a key component designed to
keep spills in check, limiting them to the
surface of mats for fast and easy clean-
up. The DEFENDER system’s enhanced
cellar-protection system, coupled with
DX4 sealing technology, reinforces the
critical cellar region with a third layer
of security. The proprietary cellar-
protection system is custom-fitted for
any cellar, on any site. The fully inte-
Fig. 3—Newpark’s DURA-BASE DEFENDER linerless spill-containment system.
grated wall berms and drive-over berms
improve work site safety by easing access
to the work platform, and minimize the
environmental impact to surrounding
areas with additional splash protection.
◗◗For additional information, visit
www.newpark.com.
High-Performance Motor
Scientific Drilling International (SDI) in-
troduced the TiTAN22 high-performance-
motor solution. The TiTAN22 is engi-
neered to support the most demanding
drilling environments while delivering
reliability and durability across a wide
range of applications. The motor design
features SDI’s Ti-Flex titanium flex
shaft, and supports the highest torque
power sections and highly robust bear-
ing assemblies, providing optimal drill-
ing performance in all sections of the
well (Fig. 4). The TiTAN22 delivers con-
fidence and reliability through enhanced
weight-on-bit capacity for increased
rate of penetration, a rugged driveline
for ultrahigh-torque applications, full
rotational capacity in any section of
the well, a short bit-to-bend for direc-
tional versatility, and a robust design
for optimal polycrystalline-diamond-bit
performance. The TiTAN22 is ideal for
drilling extended-reach laterals, for use
in laminated formations, and for factory
drilling in shale reservoirs.
◗◗For additional information, visit
www.scientificdrilling.com/TiTAN22.
Conductor-Cementing-
Support System
It has become increasingly common for
operators to install a jacket and batch
set the platform conductors so that the
topside can be installed at a later date.
The operator brings a rig over the jacket
and uses it to run a conductor and then
to hold the conductor in place while the
cement cures. Claxton Engineering Ser-
vices has developed a new conductor-
cementing-support system (CCSS) that
has typically saved 12 to 18 hours of rig

Power Section Bearing Assembly

Ti-Flex
Titanium Flex Shaft
Fig. 4—The TiTAN22 high-performance-motor solution from Scientific Drilling.

26 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

Breaking with
Conventional Practise

InterFrac
Provision of reservoir engineering:
- ensuring pin point fracturing design
- optimum production performance

Interventionless frac sleeve:

- improved reservoir recovery
- accelerated production
- operational efciency
- reduced well count

www.interwell.com
 TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS

time per conductor waiting for cement

to cure. The Claxton CCSS secures the
conductor with a hydraulic jack-and-
clamp mechanism that holds the weight
of the conductor while the cement cures
(Fig. 5). This means that the rig no lon-
ger has to hold each conductor and can
therefore move to the next slot and begin
running another conductor. The CCSS
has a holding capacity of 135–160 t and is
suitable for conductor diameters of 24 to
30 in. However, the design can be scaled
to any conductor size on request and the
footprint and weight-handling capacity
tailored to specific slot or jacket configu-
rations. The new system has a compact
design and can be repositioned easily
without a crane.
◗◗For additional information, visit
Fig. 5—Claxton’s CCSS saves rig time for operators and features custom-design www.claxtonengineering.com.
capabilities for size, footprint, and weight-handling capacity.
Articulating Rotational Mast
STEP Energy Services introduced the
STEP-ARM articulating rotational mast,
designed as part of a new coiled-tubing
system. The unit was designed to reduce
on-site safety risks and increase the effi-
ciency of coiled-tubing operations on
multiwell-pad locations, an increasingly
common drilling practice. The unit is able
to service multiple wells without having
to move any equipment, greatly reduc-
ing the amount of time required to move
from well to well (Fig. 6). It also pro-
vides increased safety for professionals
working on a job site. The reel trailer is
designed to carry a maximum payload of
coiled tubing on the road. High-strength
steel is used extensively in the unit to keep
weight down, for road restrictions and
regulatory requirements. The injector
features an auto-leveling system, and the
unit’s dual-boom design features a con-
trol system that keeps the booms timed
and matched within 10 mm of one anoth-
er at their tips. Once the three-piece sys-
tem arrives on location, operators will
spot the reel trailer up to the wellhead
or multiple wellheads before setting up
the STEP-ARM, which passes the injector
unit from the back of the reel trailer to the
ARM. The ARM lands atop the wellhead.
Fig. 6—The STEP-ARM rotational mast from STEP Energy Services allows the ◗◗For additional information, visit
servicing of multiple wells without the need to move equipment. www.stepenergyservices.com.

28 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015


Fig. 7—Energy Recovery’s VorTeq hydraulic-pumping system extends the life of
high-pressure pumps.
Flush-Joint Elevator
The Weatherford flush-joint elevator (FJE)
uses four slips—two hydraulically actu-
ated slips and two passive slips—to clamp
onto joints as they come into the vee-
door. As each joint arrives at the vee-door,
rig personnel lift and secure the elevator
around the joint by triggering the actuat-
ed slips. The elevator then lifts the joint to
the derrick by topdrive, where it is made
up to the string. Once the joint is threaded
securely, the slips are deactivated and the
elevator can be opened easily to release
the joint and move on to the next sec-
tion. Although this tool is similar in use
to a single-joint elevator, the FJE has addi-
tional capabilities. It enables operators to
run flush joints without threading lift nub-
bins in and out. The FJE also can be used
on strings with a mixture of standard and
flush joints, which helps operators avoid
switching between two elevators when
running in and out. By eliminating the
need for lift nubbins, the FJE enables rig
personnel to make up and run flush joints
as if they were standard-drillpipe joints.
◗◗For additional information, visit
www.weatherford.com.
Hydraulic-Pumping System
The maintenance challenges associated
with pumping large volumes of proppant
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
FRACMAX
The power of CnF®
right at your fngertips
at high pressures and rates are an accept-
ed part of day-to-day operations. Ener-
gy Recovery introduced the VorTeq
hydraulic-pumping system, engineered
to increase run time and reduce main-
tenance costs by rerouting abrasive
fracturing fluid away from existing
hydraulic-fracturing pumps. VorTeq
reroutes proppant-filled fluid away
from high-pressure pumps on fractur-
ing sites so these pumps process only
fresh water and therefore last signif-
icantly longer. VorTeq channels the
abrasive fluids and sends them down Come experience FracMax
the wellbore. The core of the VorTeq
system is Energy Recovery’s pressure- for yourself at the
exchanger technology, which is already
in use in more than 15,000 desalina- 2015 Hydraulic Fracturing
tion installations worldwide. The sys- Technology Conference
tem handles up to 110 bbl/min, with a Booth 514
treating pressure up to 15,000 psi.
The system is designed with only one
moving part, and made from tungsten
carbide, which is 1,000 times more
abrasion-resistant than steel (Fig.  7).
With VorTeq, hydraulic-horsepower
pumps will not be exposed to the
abrasive-slurry mixture of proppant
and water, the source of most main-
tenance issues. JPT
◗◗For additional information, visit
www.energyrecovery.com.
www.ftkfracmax.com
713.849.9911
 TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
MPD Widens Offshore Drilling Capabilities
Don Hannegan, PE, SPE, Weatherford
The second of a two-part series, this
article presents an update on several
managed-pressure drilling (MPD)
technologies in use offshore.
Approximately one-half of all offshore
conventional oil and gas resources are
known or thought to be undrillable with
conventional, open-to-atmosphere circu-
lating fluids systems for safety, economic,
and/or technical reasons. In deeper water,
pressure on exposed formations creat-
ed by a tall column of annulus returns in
marine risers grossly overbalances many
reservoirs, resulting in a higher propor-
tion of undrillable prospects.
Many offshore drilling programs
experience a slow rate of penetration and
instances of stuck pipe, kicks, and lost
circulation, which collectively account
for about one-third of all the nonpro-
ductive time on drilling projects. As
the elapsed time increases, so does the
cost per foot drilled and the probabil-
ity of other things going wrong, creat-
ing a temptation for taking short cuts to
save time and money. If drilling difficul-
ties lead to the use of excessive casing
strings, the result may be reaching total
depth with too small a hole for a produc-
tive well.
An inherent weakness associat-
ed with the hydraulics of conventional
circulating fluids systems has become
more troublesome. In the face of unex-
pected downhole pressure environments
and wellbore instability, the only way
to influence the wellbore pressure pro-
file as drilling progresses is to change
the circulating rate (mud pump speed),
which influences the equivalent mud
weight (EMW). The only means of apply-
30
ing backpressure to increase the well-
bore pressure profile is to close the blow-
out preventer (BOP). Consequently, the
primary well-control barrier is limited
to the hydrostatic pressure applied to
exposed formations.
The root concepts of the hydraulics
of conventional drilling were founded in
the Spindletop field in Beaumont, Texas,
circa 1901. The “Spindletop gushers”
were initially a time of celebration. How-
ever, resulting wasted resources, fires,
and lawsuits prompted a need to drill
into the reservoir without experiencing
a blowout. The solution was to drill with
weighted fluids, literally mud from a cat-
tle pond at the time. Although drilling
fluids technology has come a long way,
conventional offshore drilling programs
still view the hydraulics of the circulating
fluids system essentially the same way—
and we still commonly refer to drilling
fluid as mud.
The root concepts of managed-
pressure drilling (MPD) offer an alterna-
tive with several variations, each appli-
cable to different types of challenges to
conventional drilling methods. They are
◗ Constant bottomhole pressure
(CBHP) for drilling in narrow,
shifting, and/or relatively
unknown downhole pressure
environments
o Applied surface backpressure
with rotating control device
(RCD) and choke
o Continuous circulation
devices for maintaining
circulation during
connections
◗ Pressurized mud cap drilling
(PMCD) for drilling in the
presence of severe to total
loss circulation zones
◗ Dual gradient drilling (DGD)
for reducing annular fluids
column pressure on relatively
depleted formations and
simplifying casing programs
◗ Returns flow control
(RFC-HSE), applicable on
otherwise conventional mud
programs for health, safety,
and environmental (HSE)
considerations only
This article addresses developments
associated with the practice of the CBHP,
PMCD, and RFC-HSE variations of MPD
on offshore rigs.
Offshore MPD
A state-of-the-art kit for practicing these
variations of MPD incorporates drill-
string nonreturn valves, a program-
mable logic controlled (PLC) automat-
ic choke system, and RCD designs that
enable a closed and pressurizable sys-
tem on all types of offshore rigs. EMW
is maintained at a level greater than for-
mation pressure by using a combination
of mud weight hydrostatic head pres-
sure, circulating annular friction pres-
sure, and surface backpressure. EMW,
rather than hydrostatic head pressure
alone, may be viewed as the primary
well-control barrier.
Beyond MPD’s namesake of drill-
ing in challenging downhole pres-
sure environments to deeper depths,
including wells previously considered
“undrillable,” its practical operational
capabilities have grown to include an
impressive suite of drilling hazard mit-
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
suite results

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©2014 Honeywell International, Inc. All rights reserved.
 TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
Fig. 1—A sample screen shot is used to validate calculated vs. measured friction losses for surface equipment on a
deepwater well, right, being drilled with managed-pressure methods. Image courtesy of Weatherford.
igation and optimization techniques.
These include
◗ Early kick-loss detection by
means of precise mass flow in/out
measurements
◗ Real-time quantification of
formation and fracture pressures
◗ The ability to distinguish losses
from wellbore ballooning and
well flow from wellbore breathing
◗ The ability to conduct dynamic
formation integrity tests and
leakoff tests more frequently
to verify and quantify pressure
containment capability
◗ The ability to circulate out
an influx of known volume
and intensity, providing
under controlled/appropriate
circumstances a safer and more
efficient alternative to shutting
in and circulating out
◗ Closed-loop cementing
32
◗ Managed-pressure wellbore
strengthening
◗ Mitigating the risk of a kick
advancing past the subsea BOP
into the riser on a deepwater rig
◗ Facilitating the hazard
identification/hazard and
operability process with a well-
specific MPD operations matrix,
clearly defining the operational
limits and the point at which to
revert to conventional secondary
well control
This technology provides bet-
ter control over the wellbore’s pres-
sure profile and is progressing toward
standard procedure on challenging off-
shore wells in which the need to increase
recoverable reserves and operation-
al safety is paramount. This is particu-
larly true in deepwater and ultradeep-
water. Nevertheless, the experience to
date has identified opportunities to fur-
ther enhance PLC automated choke sys-
tem software capabilities.
New Microflux Software
Weatherford is introducing an enhanced
version of the Microflux PLC automated
choke system software. The new soft-
ware platform merges engineering, oper-
ations, and reporting in a user-friendly
way, enabling increased productivity
with enhanced well control. Real-time
live well displays of the wellbore and
automated data analysis reduce the risk
of human error, contributing to the time-
liness of well-control and drilling optimi-
zation decision making when practicing
MPD on complex wells. Onsite and off-
site documentation of planned and unex-
pected occurrences is thereby enhanced.
By employing real-time models
such as hydraulic, well control, swab/
surge, and drilling optimization torque
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
 ORR Safety_JPT 8-125 x 10-875_10-15-14.pdf 1 10/15/2014 3:44:18 PM

CM

MY

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 TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
Fig. 2—The continuous flow system offers wellbore protection and control in
challenging environments by means of a perpetual circulation of drilling fluids.
Image courtesy of Weatherford.
and drag, the system displays the infor-
mation from different perspectives and
aids in understanding the real opera-
tional limits. Where prior systems have
focused on drilling hydraulics, this new
capability includes kick tolerance calcu-
lations updated at will, identification of
the weakest link in the circulating fluids
system, and suggestion of the most appli-
cable well-control actions.
For example, although early kick
detection has been a hallmark capabil-
ity of drilling with a state-of-the-art MPD
34
kit, the enhanced Microflux software
system and the visualization of critical
parameters can provide answers to the
very important questions that immedi-
ately follow detection, including
◗ What is the kick volume on the
bottom vs. what it will be at
the surface?
◗ What is the kick fluid
composition?
◗ What will be the length of
the kick column and the total
resultant pressure changes in
different well sections (e.g., open
hole, cased hole, and inside the
riser)?
◗ How much of the kick content,
if any, is dissolved in the returns
path and if it is, what is the
bubble point pressure?
◗ What are the expected pressures
at critical points through the well
(the casing shoe, the riser, and
known weak formations) and at
the surface?
◗ What is the best well-control
method to apply, based on the
surface equipment, the casing
or formation limitations, and
is secondary well control best
implemented by closing the BOP
or circulating out the kick with
the MPD kit?
The system not only identifies events
and provides warnings in real time, but it
also can run “what if ” simulations to
predict possible drilling optimization or
well-control consequences.
Visualization is an important feature
of the new software platform, improv-
ing the ability to make timely decisions
with minimum effort. Selected measure-
ments, wellsite information transfer
specification data, and calculated data
are shown, as are time- or depth-based
graphs, on live well displays.
Other visualizations enabled are
◗ Indications of excessive
overbalanced or underbalanced
conditions
◗ The real-time flow paths of
dissimilar fluids, including kicks,
spacers, pills, lost circulation
materials, and fluids used
for wellbore strengthening
cementation, and certain
other purposes
◗ Critical observation points with
key information
Taken together, the visualization
capabilities help the user to understand
more fully what is happening in the well.
Views can also be customized, including
2D, 3D, and zooming options.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

In addition, surface equipment visu-
als such as the screen shot shown in
Fig. 1 are provided to simplify routine
tasks such as inputting the system setup
information and entering maintenance
records and notices of approaching limi-
tations of equipment. Piping and instru-
ment drawings illustrate actual surface
equipment configurations and specifica-
tions. Related calculations, such as fric-
tional loss or fluid velocity through each
component of the circulating fluids sys-
tem, can be displayed at will.
Continuous Flow Sub System
A technology related to CBHP MPD is
Weatherford’s recently introduced
SteadyState continuous flow system
(CFS) as shown in Fig. 2. Rotary drill-
ing with jointed pipe requires stop-
ping and restarting circulation of drill-
ing fluid to make connections, resulting
in significant fluctuations in EMW and
mud rheology.
The implementation of CFS enables
continuous circulation that eliminates
connections-related pressure spikes,
keeps downhole tools cooler, and
decreases the risk of cuttings beds form-
ing in long horizontals.
Early Kick and Loss Detection
Fairly significant rig modifications may
be required to accommodate a state-
of-the-art MPD kit on offshore rigs.
For cases in which the only objective
is early detection of flow abnormalities,
Weatherford is introducing a system that
requires minimal rig modification.
On fixed offshore rigs, a fit-for-
purpose RCD is configured within the
rig’s existing marine diverter. Returns are
positively diverted to a flowmeter, and a
simplified mass flow-in vs. flow-out PLC
readout indicates or gives an alarm about
kicks or losses in real time. The system
is also useful when drilling with a closed
diverter system, as a means of prevent-
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
ing risks such as a shallow gas kick reach-
ing the rig floor before the crew has time
(detection plus reaction) to implement
well-control procedures.
On floating rigs, a gyro accelero-
meter is added to measure rig heave
magnitude and frequency. The data from
these measurements calibrate flowmeter
output for heave swab/surge, enabling
the detection of kicks or losses of much
smaller quantities than the significant pit
gain that may be otherwise required. This
potentially can reduce the frequency of
false positive kick alarms.
Conclusion
A decade ago, most operators’ offshore
business units practiced MPD for the first
time on prospects thought or known to
be undrillable for safety, economic, and/
or technical reasons with a convention-
al circulating fluids system. The CBHP
and PMCD variations of MPD were most-
ly used to handle the types of drilling
hazards that each addresses, thereby
increasing recoverable reserves in the
process. To date, there have been no
reportable well-control incidents on such
challenging wells attributed to the tech-
nology itself or the failure of its special-
ized equipment.
Today, the technology is applied to
optimize operations safety and efficiency
on prospects that could be drilled with
conventional open-to-atmosphere sys-
tems. Where CBHP and PMCD variations
have been applied for drillability reasons,
it is anticipated that the RFC-HSE varia-
tion will see broader global application
in the future because it can more pre-
cisely manage the wellbore pressure pro-
file on otherwise conventional fluid and
well construction programs. Early kick
detection and the associated benefit of
reducing the frequency of false positive
kick alarms will likely be primary drivers
for future applications of this variation
of MPD. JPT
N
EW
Carbon Dioxide Capture,
Utilization and Storage
(CCUS) Technical Section
SPE has formed a Technical Section to
give members the opportunity to focus on
Carbon Dioxide Capture, Utilization and
Storage (CCUS), an area of interest for
petroleum engineers worldwide. Industry
interest in CCUS as a way to reduce
emissions and for sequestering or storing
carbon dioxide, has increased over the
past decade. In response, SPE has stepped
up programming in this area.
Carbon dioxide capture, utilization and
storage (CCUS) involves capturing CO2
emissions from large point sources such
as power plants and either reutilizing or
storing the emissions to keep them from
entering the atmosphere.
Expanded Career Opportunities for
Petroleum Engineers
Possessing the know-how for evaluation,
selection, and monitoring of underground
storage sites garnered through decades
of experience in the fields of CO2-
enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and gas
storage operations, the E&P segment of
the oil and gas industry is anticipated to
play a major role in the advancement
of CCUS including broader application
of CO2-EOR.
Moreover, lessons learned in the
ongoing commercial activities within
the oil and gas disciplines of underground
gas storage and CO2-EOR are directly
transferrable to CCUS, thus expanding
career opportunities for petroleum
engineers.
Join the CCUS Technical Section
This SPE group seeks to bring the
above-mentioned activities together
in one place for those interested in
this developing subject. You will have
opportunities to deepen your learning
and share your insights through online
discussions, web events, virtual meetings,
forums, and workshops, and enjoy the
benefits of at least one face-to-face
meeting a year.
Join now at connect.spe.org/ccusts.
 TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
Directional Hybrid Drill Bit
Pushes Performance Standards
Alan Holliday, SPE, Baker Hughes
It is inspiring to look back to 1909 when
Howard Hughes Sr. and Walter Sharp
introduced the roller-cone bit. The
invention was the foundation for the dis-
covery of vast amounts of oil in medium-
and hard-rock formations, oil that many
drillers suspected was there but was
nearly impossible to reach with the bits
of that day.
The roller-cone bit changed the
industry, but we may forget why its
immediate predecessor, the fish-tail bit,
was such a burden on drillers as they
strived to probe deeper targets. Often 24
hours would not go by without a twist-off
occurring, and rig hands were constantly
changing bits and “fishing” parts out of
the hole. For drilling anything other than
loose formations near the surface, it had
proved impractical.
In a century’s time, the industry
has made tremendous progress. But the
limitations of physics continue to chal-
lenge the dynamic performance of the bit
and bottomhole assembly (BHA) in the
demanding downhole environments of
today’s wells.
Tools come equipped with features
such as torque reducers, depth-of-cut con-
trols, and more flexible assemblies, to
mention a few. The inherent problem of
controlling the reactive torque between the
bit and formation, while achieving optimal
performance to reduce the number of drill-
ing days, has remained a challenge.
The introduction of the hybrid drill
bit in 2011, which combined roller cones
and fixed cutters, was a catalyst to revisit
these basic principles and better under-
stand the benefits and efficacy of smooth
drilling. The bit excelled in controlling
torque fluctuations and exceeded the
36
durability of fixed-cutter bits and the
penetration rates of roller-cone bits.
The hybrid bit soon became the stan-
dard bit for drilling in hard and interbed-
ded formations, such as those in certain
Oklahoma and Canadian plays, because
it enabled drillers to reduce the number
of curve runs needed. The use of the bit
expanded globally, helping to improve
drilling results in interbedded applications
that historically have met with mixed suc-
cess when medium-set roller cone or fixed-
cutter bits have been used. As results con-
tinued to improve, interest in stretching
the capability of the technology increased.
New Bit Design
Limitations were experienced in these
first-generation hybrids when drilling
carbonate, anhydrite, and salt forma-
tions. Although dynamics were excellent
compared with conventional polycrystal-
line diamond compact (PDC) bits, high
weight requirements limited the ultimate
performance of the drilling system.
This led to the introduction of the
Baker Hughes Kymera FSR hybrid drill
bit. With a frame designed for aggressive
drilling, the bit features lower back-rakes
and maximum cutter spacing for opti-
mal efficiency, along with sharper roller-
cone structures. Combining these tech-
nologies in this form has enabled the new
bit to maintain smooth drilling ability
while yielding a far more efficient cutting
method in challenging carbonates, com-
pared with five- and six-blade PDC bits.
The new bit displays a very low
change in aggressiveness through a range
of drilling parameters, compared with its
PDC bit counterparts. This translates into
lower reactive torque and has allowed the
directional drillers to maximize tool per-
formance by increasing motor differen-
tial pressure. In some cases, operators
have increased the motor differential by
up to 1.5 times in a slide section, result-
ing in a near doubling of the rate of pen-
etration (ROP).
The bit was initially tested in the
Wolfcamp formation of the Permian
Basin in Texas. Its use has since expand-
ed to multiple basins across North Amer-
ica. To date, there have been 154 runs in
five basins, and operators continue to
expand and push the boundaries for the
use of these bits.
Field Experience
An operator drilling curved wellbores
through the Eagle Ford Shale, Austin
chalk, and Anacacho formations contin-
ued to experience difficulty controlling
directional orientation and often experi-
enced tool failure. The PDC bits created
high torque fluctuations that sent the BHA
off its planned trajectory, requiring at least
two trips and two bits to drill through the
curve. In addition, the high torque fluctua-
tion forced the operator to reduce weight
on bit (WOB), limiting the potential ROP.
The operator used the Kymera FSR
directional hybrid drill bit for lower tool
face fluctuations and the ability to toler-
ate more WOB for faster drilling.
The directional bit was used to drill
curves in three wells with fast, single-
bit curves achieved in each well over an
average curve distance of 789 ft (241 m)
as shown in Fig. 1. One well was drilled
in 22 hours at an average ROP of 36 ft/hr
(11 m/h), a speed record for the operator
for drilling the curve in that field. A sub-
sequent well was drilled faster, reaching
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
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 TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

total depth (TD) in 17 hours with an aver- Time (hr)

age ROP of more than 46 ft/hr (14 m/h). 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
11700
The hybrid bit showed exceptional Kymera FSR Well 1
tool face control and enabled more WOB 6-b Kymera FSR Well 2
lad
eP

5-
for the fastest drilling through the curve Kymera FSR Well 3

bl
11900 DC

ad
achieved to date. The smooth drilling Competitor Well 1

e
PD
Competitor Well 2
also mitigated bit and motor failure. All TC

C
I
curve runs were completed with one bit, 12100

Depth (ft)
which had not been achieved previous-
ly on this well pad. By using the bit, the

5-b
12300

Ky
operator was able to reduce the cost per

6-
m

lad
bl
er
foot in the curve by at least 36%.

eP
ad
a
FS

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In another case, an operator in the

DC
PD
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12500

C
Wolfcamp pay zone of the Permian Basin
wanted to optimize drilling operations
through the curve, a section that consis- 12700
tently proved very challenging because
of the formation rock. The curve pass- Fig. 1—A comparison of drilling the curve with the Kymera FSR bit and
es through Wolfcamp shale sections and tungsten carbide insert (TCI) and polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits
the more challenging Third Bone Spring in the Eagle Ford Shale.
sand, which has a rock strength that var-
ies between 10,000 psi and 20,000 psi. 9000
This section has proved difficult to drill
in the curve, typically requiring several
bits to reach TD. 9500

Kymera FSR
Depth In/Depth Out (ft)

10000
Offsets (Average)

10500

11000

11500

12000
Add JPT to your iPhone 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
ROP (ft/hr)

1 Fig. 2—The performance of the Kymera FSR bit in drilling the curve in the
Enter Wolfcamp formation compared with curve drilling in offset wells.
www.spe.org/jpt
in browser
When drilling the Wolfcamp field To address the difficulties, the
2
with PDC bits, it is necessary to increase Kymera FSR bit was used. The drill-
Tap Share button the WOB to optimize ROP. This results in ing effort achieved a consistent build-
in Safari toolbar increased reactive torque downhole and up rate of more than 14° per 100 ft on
leads to stick-slip and poor directional a 2.12° adjustable kickoff and an ROP of
control, which adversely affects ROP. The 38.8  ft/hr (11.9 m/h), more than double
3
vibration from the reactive torque also the field average, and finished the curve in
Tap Add to causes downhole motor failures, bore- one run (Fig. 2). The reduction in torque
Home Screen
hole quality concerns, and subpar bit and smooth directional control of the
performance. With these problems, sev- bit saved the operator 18 hours of drill-
eral bit trips are often required to com- ing time, and it has consistently achieved
plete the curve. similar time savings in the field. JPT

38 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

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 BEYOND THE HEADLINES
Can Waste Water Be Disposed of Safely?
Vikram Rao, Executive Director, Research Triangle Energy Consortium
Editor’s note: Professionals in the oil
and gas industry often receive questions
about how industry operations affect
public health, the environment, and
the communities in which they operate.
Of particular concern today is the
impact of hydraulic fracturing on
the environment. In this new column,
JPT is inviting energy experts to put
those questions and concerns about
industry operations into perspective.
Additional information about the oil
and gas industry, how it affects society,
and how to explain industry operations
and practices to the general public is
available on SPE’s Energy4me website
at www.energy4me.org.
Shale oil and gas wells use a lot of water
in fracturing operations. Each well may
use up to 8 million gallons, and as much
as 35% of this can return as flowback
water. Safe disposition of this waste
water is an industry priority especially
because of the widely reported past mis-
steps in Pennsylvania. Safe disposition is
completely feasible and, in fact, is being
broadly practiced today.
The Nature of Flowback Water
Even if fresh water is used as the base
fracturing fluid, what returns to the sur-
face is salty. This is because the water
found in association with hydrocar-
bons has high salinity. Shale oil and gas
flowback water salinity typically range
from 16,000 parts per million (ppm) to
more than 300,000 in some instances.
For comparison, sea water runs around
35,000 ppm. The chemicals introduced
into the fracturing fluid will also be pres-
ent in some proportion. These will be low
40
in concentration because even the origi-
nal fracturing fluid contains only up to
about 0.5% chemicals.
Finally, one could also encounter
species present in subterranean rock.
These could include aromatic com-
pounds (such as benzene) and radio-
active species. Some state regulations,
such as the ones pending in North Car-
olina, prohibit the use of aromatics in
fracturing fluid so, if present, they could
only have come from the subsurface.
The same holds for radioactive species.
In most instances, subterrestrial bac-
teria will also be present. All of these
render the flowback water unsuited for
direct discharge.
Re-use of Flowback Water
Flowback water may be reused to formu-
late fracturing fluid for the next oper-
ation. But since only about a third of
injected water returns, additional water
is needed (makeup water). In the early
going, reuse was rendered costly due to
the need to desalinate down to fresh
water. However, more recently, all ser-
vice companies have announced that
they can tolerate salinities in excess of
250,000 ppm.
To accomplish this they had to
invent substitutes for certain chemicals.
In particular, these were the cross-link-
ers (for thickening the gel in the fluid to
fracture the rock more effectively) and
the breakers (the chemical that breaks
down the cross-linked gel to thin it for
removal at the end of the operation).
This salt tolerance suggests that even the
makeup water could be a salty water of
convenience rather than fresh. Brackish
water is ubiquitous in shale oil and gas
operations and yet few companies use
it. Not using fresh water would go a long
way toward community acceptance of
the operations.
While salinity per se may not be a
bar to reuse, some treatment may be
required. The operator may choose to
remove divalent ions. These tend to form
scale and radioactive elements, and tend
to concentrate in the scale even though
the concentrations in the water may
be too low to be a concern for person-
nel safety. Manual descaling operations
could constitute an operational hazard if
radioactive elements were present. Most
operators would also attempt to remove
the bacteria in some way. But these oper-
ations are straightforward. Divalent ion
removal is known as water softening,
found in many homes using well water.
Deep Discharge of Waste Water
One of the most cost-effective methods
for disposal of wastewater is discharge
into selected subsurface zones. This is
done in wells specified by the EPA and
known as UIC Class II injection wells.
They are further monitored by state envi-
ronmental protection agencies. In the
best situations the cost can be as low as
$0.25 per barrel. The costs can be high-
er and some geologies are unsuited for
this type of activity. Most of the Mar-
cellus and Utica falls in this category. In
such areas reuse is the dominant prac-
tice. However, at some point disposal is
needed and in these areas the wastewater
can be trucked considerable distances for
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
disposal in available UIC Class II wells, flowback water in areas such as the Mar- the reject brine. One is to directly inject
sometimes in a neighboring state. cellus, where the starting point is often into UIC Class II wells. The other is to
While an effective disposal in UIC in excess of 50,000 ppm. However, for treat it a bit before doing so. This can be
Class II wells have been associated with lower salinity produced waters this is accomplished by evaporating some of
earthquakes, with the right measures still the technique of interest. In such the water. The residual brine is targeted
the earthquakes are avoidable. However, situations, there are two outcomes for to be in the vicinity of 200,000 ppm and
these measures are as yet not in place in
the regulatory scheme.
Production & Extreme Service Chokes | Compact Ball & Check Valves
Treating for Discharge API Piping Accessories | Pressure Relief Valves | Valve Manifold Packages
One of the errors reportedly made in the www.u sc o r te c .com
Marcellus was the dispatching of flow-
back water to municipal water treatment
facilities. These facilities rely on benefi-
cial bacteria to do the cleanup of munic- Performance Tested
Quality Assured
ipal wastewater. These bacteria do not
survive in high salinity. Consequently,
operations were affected. Desalination is
a key step toward any disposition.
The workhorse method for desali-
nation is reverse osmosis, commonly
abbreviated RO. The salty and fresh sides
are separated by a specially designed
membrane that allows only small mol-
ecules such as water to go through. Ordi-
narily, osmotic pressure will cause the
fresh water to migrate across to the
salty side. This is because water on the
fresh side is in a higher energy state and
wants to migrate to a lower energy state,
much as water flows downhill. This is not
the desirable outcome because we are
attempting to produce fresh water from CORTEC products are
engineered and tested to meet
the salty side. This is accomplished in RO your project needs.
by applying pressure up to 1200 psi. The
pressurized salty side now has water at
a higher energy state and so water mol-
ecules migrate through the membrane to
the fresh side.
This migration of water due to
The Standard
induced pressure has limits. Above a in Non-Standard Valve Production
certain pressure the energy expended is
not economical. Consequently, it is not CORTEC is a leading manufacturer of high quality valves
cost effective to continue to desalinate and flow line equipment for production, drilling and service
applications in the global oil and gas industry. Main product
after the salty side concentrates to about lines include Production and Extreme Service Chokes,
80,000 ppm. This residual brine has to Compact Ball and Check Valves, Pressure Relief Valves,
Valve Manifold Assemblies and an extensive range of
be disposed of. In areas near the ocean API Flow Line Components. CORTEC is an
where seawater is being desalinated American manufacturing company that is
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the brine is distributed into the ocean,
although that is meeting some resistance CORTEC proudly designs, manufactures, assembles, and tests all products in the USA.

when coral are present. An important

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it cannot be used for the vast majority of

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 41

SPE/CSUR
Unconventional
Resources
Conference
Call for
Abstracts!
The program committee for the
SPE/CSUR Unconventional
Resources Conference, held
20–22 October 2015 at the
BMO Centre in Calgary,
invites you to submit an
abstract and contribute to this
renowned event.
Visit www.spe.org/go/urcjpt
for abstract submission
deadline, instructions, and
general guidelines.
Additional speaking
opportunities are available
for this conference. To be
considered for an invited
presenter spot, please contact
us at info@csur.com for
more information.
BEYOND THE HEADLINES
can now be deep injected. Where deep Aside from desalination, waste­
injection is not feasible, some opera­ water may have to be treated for remov­
tors choose to evaporate the water to al of other constituents depending upon
the point of crystallizing the salts. These the final purpose. Standard processes
salts are sometimes used for road deic­
ing in winter.
are available for the removal of volatile
organic compounds, heavy metals, radio­
Forward osmosis (FO) is a newer
technique. The freshwater side of the
active elements, and bacteria. Generally
these functions, as well as the desalina­
membrane has a constituent added that tion, will be performed in special treat­
reduces the energy of the water por­ ment facilities permitted for the purpose,
tion. The water molecules on the salty not municipal water facilities.
side now migrate across to a perceived
lower energy state. Eventually the spe­ Conclusion
cial constituent is removed in some fash­ Flowback water and other produced
ion, leaving behind fresh water. Finally, water can be disposed of in an environ­
one of the newest technologies is that of mentally secure fashion. Flowback water
membrane distillation. Here the mem­ is most advantageously reused for frac­
brane is designed to allow only vapor to turing because doing so is cost effective
get across. Heat is applied to the salty and reduces the need for fresh water.
side and water vapor traverses the mem­ Unusable waste water can be disposed of
brane on to the fresh side. One feature safely in deep injection wells. It can also
is that waste heat can be used to effect readily be treated for surface discharge
the transfer. or some other purpose. JPT
Vikram Rao is executive director of the Research Triangle
Energy Consortium (www.rtec­rtp.org), a nonprofit founded by
Duke University, North Carolina State University, RTI
International, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. Its mission is to illuminate US national energy priorities,
and those of the world by extension, and to catalyze research to
address these priorities.
Rao advises the nonprofit RTI International, venture
capitalist Energy Ventures AS, and firms BioLargo Inc., Global Energy Talent
Ltd., and Integro Earth Fuels Inc. and serves on the Science Council of Royal
Dutch Shell. He retired as senior vice president and chief technology officer of
Halliburton in 2008. He also serves as chairman of the North Carolina Mining and
Energy Commission. His book, Shale Gas: the Promise and the Peril, was released
in 2012 by RTI Press and can be found at www.rti.org/shalegasbook. Written for
general audiences, it is intended to inform the debate on fracturing for shale gas.
Rao holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology in Madras, India, and a master’s degree and doctorate in engineering
from Stanford University. He is the author of more than 50 publications and has
been awarded 40 US patents and foreign analogs.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
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 E&P NOTES
The Gravity of Oil and Gas Exploration
Trent Jacobs, JPT Technology Writer
A Cold War technology invented to
stealthily guide the United States Navy’s
nuclear submarine fleet is now serving a
much more peaceful purpose: aiding in
the search for oil and gas deposits. Far
removed from the ocean depths, grav-
ity gradiometry has evolved to become
an increasingly sophisticated aerial tech-
nology that has been used to rapidly ana-
lyze the subsurface of every continent in
the world.
Since its introduction to the oil and
gas industry in the 1990s, airborne grav-
ity gradiometer (AGG) technology has
become an increasingly popular green-
field exploration tool because of its abil-
ity to analyze wide areas onboard air-
planes for a fraction of the cost of 2D
and 3D seismic surveys. The Falcon sys-
tem from geoscience firm CGG has been
improved so it can be used with heli-
copters which provides higher resolu-
The latest advancement in aerial gravity gradiometer technology allows it to
be attached to a helicopter so it can be flown close to the ground to generate
high-resolution subsurface imagery. Photo courtesy of CGG.
44
tion data by bringing the unit closer to
the ground.
Late last year, CGG wrapped up a
28,000  km2 (10,810 sq mile) survey
in an unexplored region of Papua New
Guinea using its latest gravity gradiom-
eter technology called Falcon AGG. The
company, which acquired the technolo-
gy from Fugro in 2012, said that the Fal-
con AGG delivers the highest resolution
and lowest noise/data ratio of any such
system in use today.
AGG works by measuring the differ-
ences in the gravitational pull of nearby
geological formations. Denser rocks will
have a higher pull than those that are less
dense and aerial surveys give explorers
the ability to interpret the density vari-
ations as they relate to hydrocarbons.
“With that, it will help you understand
the rock types, structures, and any other
anomalous material, be it a sinkhole or
oil,” said Chris van Galder, an AGG advis-
er at CGG.
The geologic structural information
collected by AGG aids operators in the
interpretation of the 2D target area and
fills in other gaps. It can also be used to
locate optimal shot points and receiver
points for a 3D seismic survey.
Compared with 2D or 3D seismic
surveys, van Galder said AGG surveys are
an order of cheaper and faster magnitude
and can optimize 2D or 3D survey opera-
tions by giving exploration companies a
better idea of where to look for oil and
gas. “If we can help them carve out areas
where there is no need to [acquire] seis-
mic data, not only have they gotten a bet-
ter picture of the overall area, they have
saved significant costs in their explora-
tion budget,” he said.
Exploration companies deploy
this technology to remote places such
as Papua New Guinea, where the ter-
rain is rough and covered by dense veg-
etation, because ground-based surveying
technology would be “next to impos-
sible to actually acquire any data,” said
van Galder.
In the 1970s, the gravity gradiom-
eter was once a secret technology devel-
oped for the Navy’s most sophisticated
nuclear submarines as a silent alter-
native to sonar navigation. It became
declassified and later commercialized,
when the technology was unwittingly
thrown into the public domain through
its reference in the classic Cold War
film, The Hunt for Red October.
Van Galder said the Falcon AGG
differs from other AGG systems in that
it was designed to greatly diminish the
effect of turbulence, which has result-
ed in lower-level noise being intro-
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
 between ranges of 35 m and 150 m. Also
important is the helicopter’s ability to fly
slower. “With the slower speeds, you get
more data,” he said.
For each operation, CGG devel-
ops a flight plan that outlines the alti-
tude and spacing needed to get the
best results. The flight paths are grid-
ded, meaning that the helicopter will
Images of geologic data acquired through the use of aerial gravity fly in tightly spaced lines in one direc-
gradiometry can be used to complement 2D and 3D seismic surveying tion and then fly perpendicular to those
operations and identify potential hydrocarbon resources rapidly and cheaply. lines with wider spaced lines that pro-
Image courtesy of CGG.
vide control points, which help level
the survey data together. Once the heli-
duced into the data. The new digital rugged terrain while maintaining quality copter touches down and the data is
version is smaller than previous analog signal acquisition, CGG said. The com- downloaded, the gravitational numbers
designs, allowing it to be used in a twin- pany has two HeliFalcon units and is are interpreted.
engine helicopter. Most other AGG sys- expecting the delivery of a third later CGG said much of its focus for the
tems are adapted from the early subma- this year. future development of this technolo-
rine-based technology and because of Van Galder said the propeller tur- gy is on improving the resolution and
their size can only be flown on a fixed- bine airplanes that CGG uses for the the interpretation software. In addi-
winged aircraft. larger analog systems operate at rang- tion to oil and gas, AGG technology is
Dubbed HeliFalcon, it offers the es between 80 m and 500 m compared used to find minerals, diamonds, and
advantage of being able to closely follow with the helicopter-based units that fly fault structures. JPT

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 45

 E&P NOTES
Mexico Receives a Cautious Endorsement for Investment
Jack Betz, JPT Staff Writer
Despite shallow-water, conventional
areas being some of Mexico’s most prom-
ising plays for international operators in
the short term, the economic factors sur-
rounding them are “not robust,” even at
higher oil prices.
During a December presentation at
the Petroleum Club in Houston, Alan Cun-
ningham, technical director at Gaffney,
Cline & Associates, said that assuming an
oil price of USD 80/bbl and a 50/50 pro-
duction-sharing agreement with the Mex-
ican government, the firm’s pro forma
model projected that a generic, shallow-
water, light oil discovery of 50 million bbl
would yield a 12.4% return. Even at the
model’s designated oil price, which is sig-
nificantly higher than the current price,
Cunningham stated that a 10% swing in
any of its variables could destroy econom-
ic viability.
Despite the model’s marginal projec-
tions, conventional plays in general are
likely to contain impressive finds, Cun-
ningham said. “We are so far along the
maturity curve in the US versus where
Mexico is that the size of prospects in the
conventional areas is going to be attrac-
tive to investors,” he said. And because
Mexico’s national oil company Pemex has
operated in onshore and offshore con-
ventional plays for decades, the pipeline
in place could drive shorter lead times,
depending on the location.
Deepwater and unconventional
agreements resulted in not far-off rates of
return; each was below 12% when mod-
eled. However, less work has been done
in these plays by Pemex, making them
harder to gauge. Blocks in the Chicon-
Steel Pipe May Offer A Window Into Reservoirs
Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor
Add a new possible use for downhole cas-
ing: It can serve as broadcast antennae.
Saudi Aramco recently reported that it
has successfully tested a method for map-
ping oil and water underground using
46
tepec area offer little access to pipelines
and there is none in Mexico’s Eagle Ford
or deepwater blocks.
While each of these three play types
was projected to produce only mod-
est returns, Cunningham reminded the
audience that Mexico’s roughly 75%
take in these models is not an unheard
of amount internationally. In countries
such as Indonesia, the government often
enjoys an 85% after-tax take, which is
even higher without cost recovery, a prac-
tice in which a contractor is reimbursed
by its government partner for some
operational expenses.
The key variables that operators will
have to grapple with when negotiating
contracts will be the agreed upon mini-
mum investment and profit split. Favor-
able negotiations on these two factors
could give operators more leverage and
security. “That economic bid variable is
where you are going to win it or lose it,”
said Cunningham.
Contract challenges aside, companies
that choose to enter Mexico face an over-
all favorable environment, according to
the consulting firm. The three determin-
ing factors are resource potential, fiscal
regime, and nontechnical risk.
Resource potential comes first in
determining value. “That’s something you
can’t change with smart business strategy
or good negotiating tactics,” Cunning-
ham said. The firm scored Mexico posi-
tively in this area, citing the 120 billion
bbl in crude reserves that Mexico claims
as an attractive enough number to merit
interest. It places Mexico in fifth place in
the Americas, ranking below only the US,
electromagnetic waves generated by run-
ning an electrical current through the
steel casing in a well (IPTC 17845).
The method could represent a
cost-saving step forward for the Saudi
Canada, Brazil, and Venezuela, all coun-
tries known for robust reserves.
Aside from reserves, the other part
of evaluating resource potential is how
easy or difficult it is to participate in
auctions and understand how to place
competitive bids on the kinds of acre-
age that oil companies are interested in
developing. Mexico receives good marks
here, too.
The fiscal regime in Mexico, as it
applies to international operators, is
so far untested. However, Cunningham
said that the Mexican government has
demonstrated transparency and that tax
structure, land fees, and royalties should
be familiar to operators. The govern-
ment has pledged to release model con-
tracts that will help familiarize operators
with the blocks available for bidding in
Round One.
The last factor is nontechnical risk,
or cultural and environmental factors spe-
cific to operating within the border of a
particular nation. The firm rated 10 pos-
sible risk factors as red, yellow, or green
for high, medium, or low concern. Half
of them were marked green; experience/
capacity, regulator gaps, service company
presence, and water/infrastructure limi-
tations were yellow; and internal security
was red.
Cunningham said that many of the
yellow areas are of marginal concern and
stand a good chance of turning green after
more experience on the part of the Mexi-
can government and companies operating
in the region. Security remains a serious
issue in some parts of Mexico, especially
in the Eagle Ford Shale area. JPT
Arabian national oil company’s long-
term effort to monitor changing fluid
flows in its reservoirs with electro-
magnetic energy to study how water
injected into its fields is sweeping
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
 Counter Distant counter Distant counter Distant counter Distant counter
Transmitter electrode electrode electrode electrode
electrode Wireline to Transmitter
at the downhole connected directly
surface electrode to the borehole casing

Path of
electric
current flow
Borehole within the
with Casing Earth (typ.)
Paths of Paths of
electric electric
Source current flow current flow
electrode within the within the
(a) at depth (b) Earth (typ.) (c) Earth (typ.)

Saudi Aramco researchers have tried three approaches to creating electromagnetic images by running a current from an
electrode in the well to a second on the surface. The first two, (a) and (b), require putting an electrode at the bottom
of the well, which sends a current to an electrode on the surface. The company is now testing a method of creating the
electromagnetic field by running a current through the casing (c). Graphics courtesy of Saudi Aramco.

out the remaining oil, and see what it
is missing.
Previously, Saudi Aramco created
the electromagnetic field needed for this
imaging method by using electrodes deep
in the well to send an electrical current to
electrodes on the surface. Arrays of up to
1,000 field sensors as far as 4 km away
from the well gather data on how fluids in
the reservoir respond to the energy field.
Water and oil respond differently
when stimulated by an electromagnetic
field. The high salinity water in Saudi res-
ervoirs is an electric conductor, while oil
is not. The difference in resistivity shows
up in images, which also note differences
in induced polarization caused by elec-
tromagnetic energy.
The goal is to map fluid distribution
and how it changes over time “to iden-
tify and describe zones of hydrocarbons
bypassed by water injection. This could
be used to increase recovery factors and
avoid premature water breakthrough,”
said Alberto Marsala, a petroleum engi-
neering specialist for Saudi Aramco pro-
duction research and development. He
presented the paper at the recent Inter-
national Petroleum Technology Confer-
ence in Kuala Lumpur.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 47

 E&P NOTES
Using methods and equipment
from two US companies, GroundMetrics
and Berkeley Geophysics Associates, the
new method creates a similar electro-
magnetic field by running a relatively
low electric current from a connection
to the casing at the surface, avoiding the
need to insert an electrode in the well.
The approach is promising because
“this allows a similar way to convey elec-
tromagnetic signals with a big advan-
tage on cost,” Marsala said.
If this method proves able to pro-
duce useful images, it could reduce the
cost and production interruptions asso-
ciated with inserting equipment into a
well, thus enabling the wider use of the
method, which has been used in Russia
and China. Using a casing to create an
ExxonMobil Report Sees North America as Net Exporter
of Oil and Gas in 5 Years
Jack Betz, JPT Staff Writer
North America is expected be a net
exporter of both oil and natural gas
by 2020, according to ExxonMobil’s
“Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040”
report, which was released in December.
The report sees Latin America, Afri-
ca, Russia, and the Middle East joining
the US as net oil exporters while Europe
and Asia will remain net importers. By
2040, unconventional sources will pro-
vide approximately 45% of oil and liq-
uids production around the world. Tight
oil will make up the largest share of
unconventionally sourced liquids, fol-
lowed by oil sands.
As North America achieves gas
exporter status, Russia, the Middle
East, and Africa will remain net export-
ers. Latin America will fall short of
being a net exporter by 2020 as gas
demand in the region increases by
48%. Europe and Asia will continue
to import gas. In North America and
Asia, unconventional natural gas pro-
duction will grow, while conventional
sources continue yielding the majority
of the remaining world’s gas according
48
electromagnetic field is also easier to do
in horizontal wells where tractors must
be used to pull devices to the bottom of
the hole.
Recent tests did not reveal any
practical barriers to the new method.
The tests of the casing-based meth-
od found that the 40 Amp current used
creates a voltage that appears predomi-
nantly at the surface electrodes. Mar-
sala said “it is safe to hold the casing
during transmission.”
While electric currents can speed
corrosion, shortening the life of the
pipe, the test concluded that this appli-
cation would cause only minor metal
loss, allowing long-term monitoring.
As for imaging, the paper said the
top-hole casing method, like the previ-
to the report, a widely watched indus-
try benchmark.
ExxonMobil projects that global
energy demand will rise by 35% between
2010 and 2040, a figure which assumes a
significant increase in energy efficiency.
Without accounting for worldwide prog-
ress on efficiency, the report projects
that energy demand would increase by as
much as 140%. The increase translates
to a roughly 28% growth in oil demand
and a 63% growth in natural gas from
2010 to 2040.
Consumption will be driven by what
the Brookings Institution sees as a more
than a doubling of the world’s middle
class population, from 2 billion start-
ing in 2010 to almost 5 billion in 2030.
Gains in income in non-Organization
of Economic Cooperation and Develop-
ment (OCED) nations will drive further
electrification, improved infrastructure,
and more personal transportation, all of
which bring an increased expenditure
of energy.
The global fuel mix will shift slightly
from 2010 numbers, but by 2040, oil, gas,
ously development approaches, has “the
potential to detect fluid movements in
hydrocarbon reservoirs using sensors
deployed on the surface.”
A large-scale field test was planned
for early this year, Marsala said. Elec-
tromagnetic testing would add to the
data sources used by Saudi Aramco for
reservoir modeling. The company is
working on others, including a seismic
method for tracking fluid flows, and
downhole gravity measures that are sen-
sitive enough to distinguish the differ-
ence between oil and water. The barri-
er to in-well gravity testing is creating
an affordable tool that is slim enough
to fit into wells and perform reliably
in hot places where it is likely to be
banged around. JPT
and coal will still continue to dominate as
the top three preferred fuels. Oil and coal
will both lose market share to natural gas
as it becomes the second most-used fuel.
Although natural gas usage (26% of total
energy by 2040) is expected to outstrip
coal (19% of total), ExxonMobil projects
that demand for coal will stay strong in
developing countries such as China until
2025, after more industrialization has
taken place and the country embraces a
cleaner fuel mix as many OECD members
have done historically.
Transportation demand for natural
gas increases sevenfold between 2010
and 2040, yet gas will only increase its
market share in this category from 1%
to 5%. Oil’s transportation market share
falls from 93% in 2010 to 88% in 2040,
but worldwide demand for oil increas-
es by 28%, the outlook said.
Renewable power generation meth-
ods other than hydroelectricity and wind
will have nearly doubled their market
share to 7%, but will still remain far
behind nuclear which triples its 2010
share of 5% by 2040. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
GLOBAL OIL PRICES
Battle for Oil Market Control
Could Have a Lasting Impact
Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor
Expectations of continued USD 100/bbl
of oil were shattered by a sharp price
drop last year that eventually halved the
prices of benchmark crudes. Prices were
still sinking at the start of the year to lows
not seen since 2009 due to a global over-
supply of oil.
The US has gone from the world’s
best import market for oil to a market
moving producer, and a large and grow-
ing exporter of refined products. Total
US output rose from 5 million B/D in
2008 to 9.2 million B/D in December,
according to the US Energy Information
Administration (EIA), which predicts
9.3 million B/D by the end of this year.
While the magnitude of the drop
rivals the one in 2009, the cause of it
resembles the longer-lasting downturn
that began in the 1980s, after a run of
high prices rapidly expanded oil supplies,
creating a glut.
The rise of oil flowing from US shale
formations has sparked a battle for con-
trol of the market with OPEC, which
has been unwilling to reduce its pro-
duction to prop up prices because that
200
Dollars per barrel
150
100
50
0
1986 1988 1990 1992
Cushing, OK WTI Spot Price FOB
After the mid-1980s energy bust, the price of the benchmark US crude (West Texas Intermediate) remained relatively
steady until the year 2000. This is the second sharp price drop in less than 10 years. Source: Thomson Reuters/EIA
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
would further erode its share of a mar-
ket where production outside OPEC rose
by 2 million B/D in 2014, according to
the EIA, which said demand was up by
900,000 B/D.
OPEC’s goal is to ­ ultimately
reduce production by forcing out-
put reductions by what Saudi A ­ rabian
Minister of Petroleum and Mineral
Resources Ali al-Naimi has described as
“inefficient producers.”
The strategy, which allowed the
price of a barrel of oil to drop to less
than USD  50 early this year, appears
aimed at the independent c­ompanies
producing millions of barrels a day
from tight, unconventional formations,
where the cost of extracting oil is far
more expensive than Saudi Arabia’s
world-class reservoirs.
So far the news suggests this could
be a slow-moving process. The large,
public US producers have announced sig-
nificant reductions in planned explora-
tion and production (E&P) budgets, but
still predict greater production in the
year ahead.
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006
In mid-December, when al-Naimi
was asked if OPEC would act to
reduce supplies, he said, “As a policy
for OPEC—and I convinced OPEC of
this ... it is not in the interest of OPEC
producers to cut their production, what-
ever the price. Whether it goes down to
USD 20, USD  40, USD 50, USD 60, it
is irrelevant.”
Around the time that comment was
reported from a conference in the Mid-
dle East, a story from Bloomberg quoted
Harold Hamm, chief executive officer of
Continental Resources, as saying that US
producers can lower their price of pro-
duction more than OPEC countries can,
and calling the organization a “tooth-
less tiger.”
Both sides have reason for tough
talk—many US independents like Conti-
nental have staked their future on shale,
and OPEC countries see that growth
reducing their export income and ability
to influence oil prices.
Armed with world-class reservoirs
and a deep cash reserve, Saudi Arabia
can afford to live on less. The EIA pre-
2008 2010 2012 2014
49
 GLOBAL OIL PRICES

2.0
Forecast US ImportS ShrInk
Million barrels per day

1.5
The United States is importing
1.0 less, and exporting more fuel
0.5 and chemicals made from locally
produced hydrocarbons. The result
0.0
is a rapid decline in net imports.
–0.5
–1.0
Net Oil and
Year Quarter Liquids
–1.5
2013 2014 2015 1 6.56
OPEC countries North America Russia and Caspian Sea 2 6.64
2013
Latin America North Sea Other Non-OPEC
3 6.46
4 5.30
Oil production changes by region. Source: EIA
1 5.38
2 5.18
dicts oil at USD 68 would mean a 35% enzie’s recent global outlook said, “Chi- 2014
3 4.98
reduction in OPEC oil export revenues, na’s economy is evolving and the nature 4 4.18
and oil prices have dropped significant- of its energy demand growth is chang- 1 4.11
ly from there. The Saudis face pushback ing. A more rapid than expected shift 2 4.27
2015
from OPEC members, such as Venezu- to consumption-led growth could slow 3 4.30
ela, which lack the low-cost production energy demand.” 4 3.59
and cash reserves. They have asked for For independents, discussions of Source: US Energy Information Administration
an emergency OPEC meeting to consid- how long they can hold out in this test of
er production cuts, but Saudi Arabia has wills commonly comes back to the ques-
blocked any meeting before the next reg- tion: What is the break-even price for bankruptcies and forced sales of weak-
ularly scheduled one in June. US shale producers? The goal is a price er companies are expected in a business
Moves by OPEC to raise prices would where the losses will force them to shut that grew by borrowing hundreds of bil-
reduce the pressure on unconventional in wells. lions of dollars.
producers, who are feeding a boom in US So far that question has remained Forcing US producers to significant-
refinery construction, which could fur- unanswered. Based on statements from ly cut production could require years of
ther increase exports, reducing demand US companies and analysts, lower pric- low prices. A study of production from
from refineries around the world for es will slow the growth of US shale plays North Dakota’s Bakken formation found
OPEC crude. and be a severe financial stress test for that if the price paid to producers there
And to make matters worse, China, E&P and oilfield service companies. drops to USD 35—about USD 5 below the
the world’s largest importer, is working Aggressive cost reduction moves have price paid in the state in early January—
to limit its future demand. Wood Mack- already begun, including layoffs, and production will slow by July to 1.03 mil-

1,000

900

800
Billion USD (real, 2013)

700 USD 703

600
500
USD 446
400

300 December
Short-Term
200 Energy Outlook
forecast
100
0
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

OPEC has had declining export revenues because of declining volumes, and revenue is expected to drop further with
falling oil prices. This prediction assumes oil at USD 68/bbl. Source: EIA.

50 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

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predictable propped volume.

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 GLOBAL OIL PRICES
“We have seen almost across-the-
Oil sands grOwth
board cuts” in E&P spending, but compa-
The output from the Canadian oil
sands is expected to rise as projects nies continue to project growing output,”
under construction come on line. But Dukes said. If they succeed, oil prices at
new projects will not begin until oil “USD 75 in 2015 might provide the same
prices rebound. opportunities at USD 90 in 2014 as com-
Oil Sands Production
panies lower costs and hone in on the
Year (1,000 B/D) best areas.”
While the growth rate will slow, drill-
2005 974
ing new wells to more than replace rapid-
2006 1,119 ly declining output from old ones is going
2007 1,190 to require aggressive cost reductions.
2008 1,201 “Everything we see is operators cut-
ting budgets. Some 20% to 50%, some
2009 1,340
60%. The norm is in the 20% to 30%
2010 1,470 range,” said Christopher Robart, director
2011 1,619 of Energy Insights at the energy infor-
2012 1,797 mation firm IHS. “At the same time, most
operators are currently forecasting sin-
2013 1,945
gle-digit growth in production for 2015.”
2014 2,106 In the short run, operators can focus
2015 2,272 on prime prospects in areas where they
have learned how to optimize produc-
*Actual and projected amounts from a June
tion. Keeping production rising over the
2014 report
Source: Canadian Association of Petroleum longer haul will ultimately require invest-
Producers ment in new areas with higher costs dur-
ing early development periods.
Low prices are expected to limit
lion B/D from 1.2 million B/D, according future growth in the Canadian oil sands
to the North Dakota Department of Min- where producers are expected to com-
eral Resources. If that price persists until plete announced expansion projects,
mid-2017, the loss is expected to be less increasing the output of the tarlike bitu-
than 500,000 B/D. men to 2.27 million B/D in 2015, up from
“For the last 3 months, I have left 1.95 million B/D in 2013, according to the
every meeting with an international Canadian Association of Petroleum Pro-
company or US company telling them I ducers’ 2014 annual forecast.
wouldn’t make a business decision based Oil production in Canada has more
on US production being less important than doubled over the past decade and
from an oil standpoint in the future,” said is expected to rise, even with lower
R.T. Dukes, senior analyst at the energy oil prices.
research firm of Wood Mackenzie. The price challenge is magnified
because heavy oil sands crude sells at
More for Less a discount due to higher shipping and
The answer to the widely asked question refining costs. But that is not likely to
about the break-even price for US shale shut down current operations, or con-
production is that it varies widely and struction in progress, said Andrew
is likely to change over time. Those who Leach, a professor at the University of
follow unconventional producers say the Alberta. “With oil sands, existing pro-
cost of producing a barrel of oil from duction is fairly robust. Some have oper-
shale differs from play to play, company ating and sustaining capital costs under
to company, and well to well. And the USD 20/bbl. But the new stuff is what’s
number will likely change this year as at risk,” Leach said. “Unlike a shale
unconventional producers push hard to play, you would not need the same
cut costs and increase productivity. level of reinvestment to keep produc-
52
tion constant (in an oil sands project),
but you’d need a lot of investment to
grow production.”
This could slow oil sands growth
because proposed projects cannot meet
the profit threshold required for financ-
ing a project when prices are down. “I
think it’s likely that, unless things get
a lot worse, you’ll see most of the proj-
ects under construction completed, but
I doubt anyone’s going to announce new
capacity beyond that,” Leach said.
Shale developments do not carry the
enormous up-front costs of an oil sands
project, but it takes significant money
and time to lease acreage and to fig-
ure out how to profitably produce oil in
an area.
Until now, bankers and investors
have been willing to lend money, often in
the form of high-risk debt known as junk
bonds, and buy stock to help companies
through this period of negative cash flow.
The big drop in the value of E&P stocks
and bonds suggests that those sources of
funding are going to be tough to come by
for some time.
The Big If
This year, unconventional producers,
such as Continental Resources, will need
to prove they can produce considerably
more oil for significantly less cost. It
added to the pressure to do so by clos-
ing out its hedging positions last fall,
which had previously locked in higher
prices for oil sold, even as the markets
declined. The widely publicized move
paid it USD 433 million, but exposed Con-
tinental to the risk of falling prices.
Reducing the company’s break-even
costs will require a combination of lower-
operating and materials costs, as well as
more productive wells.
For example, Continental released
a revised 2015 E&P budget in Decem-
ber, chopping its expected spending
to USD 2.7 billion, which is 10% less
than it spent last year and far less than
its original 2015 budget. It predicted
that production would rise from 16%
to 20%.
On the cost-reduction side, its bud-
get called for a 15% reduction, lower-
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
 3.0
Saudi Arabia
try. Break-even levels in 12 areas of North
Dakota ranged from USD 29 to USD 77,
Million barrels per day

Kuwait
2.5
Iraq according to the department. The lowest
Nigeria were reported in three areas clustered
2.0
Libya
Iran
in southwestern North Dakota where
1.5
the break-even ranged from USD  29 to
1.0 USD 41. (Break-even is defined as a price
allowing a 20% internal rate of return).
0.5
Drilling fewer wells in formations
0.0 known for rapid production declines
Jan 2011 Jul 2011 Jan 2012 Jul 2012 Jan 2013 Jul 2013 Jan 2014 Jul 2014 would seem to guarantee a lower out-
put, but in 2009, during the last oil price
A significant variable in global oil supplies is the large amount of OPEC swoon, that did not happen. Back then,
production that cannot be exported. For example, Libya and Iran may produce
the Baker Hughes rig count in North
more or less oil, depending on whether their problems become better or
worse. Source: Short-Term Energy Outlook, December 2014. Dakota sunk from 89 rigs in November
2008 to an average of 35 in May 2009.
ing the number of drilling rigs running day when the West Texas Intermedi- While Bakken production slipped early in
from 50 to 31 as it focuses on its best ate price was flirting with USD 55/bbl, 2009, by December it was up 45% from
acreage in the Bakken, and to a lesser Robart said US shale exploration com- the same month in 2008.
extent on newer plays in western Oklaho- panies would “be ecstatic at USD 70 to That showed how companies can
ma. On the production side, the compa- USD 80.” improve young technologies. But back
ny said it planned to rapidly apply what then, prices and the rig count were
it has learned from field tests last year The Bakken Test recovering by year’s end, which may not
that indicated it could increase its esti- Bakken production this year could be a be the case this time around. Also this
mated ultimate recoveries (EUR) from telling indicator. Among the three big-
approximately 600,000 BOE per well to gest US shale plays, which also include
800,000 BOE. the Eagle Ford and the Permian Basin When oil prices plunged in late
In its second quarter earnings in Texas, it is said to be the tough- 2008 the number of rigs drilling
report last year, Continental said that it est case. dropped, but production continued
to rise. The average number of rigs
had been able to achieve increases on Break-even prices there are gener-
working in North Dakota dropped
that scale by varying its fracturing fluids ally considered higher because the for- from 68 in 2008 to 50 in 2009.
with formulas using little or no gel. That mation requires relatively deep wells,
approach is a break from what had been which cost more to drill. Also, the price North
common practice in the Bakken. It also paid has consistently been lower than Dakota
Rigs
reported promising results from using the benchmark because shipping the Year Month Working B/D
two and three times as much proppant oil is more expensive as much of it
2008 July 69 76,424
injected using shorter stages. It is also must be shipped by rail due to limited
Aug. 73 83,072
testing whether to add fracturing stag- pipeline capacity. Sept. 74 94,287
es, from 30 to 40 per well, and the ideal It is an example of how hard it is to Oct. 78 109,929
spacing for them. find a break-even price in an enormous Nov. 89 122,054
But those projections were made play. “People want us to say the Bakken Dec. 83 112,784
when oil at more than USD 70/bbl was is economic or not,” Dukes said. “It is 2009 Jan. 68 100,904
still a fresh memory, and few were pre- not great is some areas in the Bakken Feb. 63 106,040
dicting it would go down to less than and really good in others, and the same Mar. 50 111,219
USD 50. is true in all the other plays.” Apr. 43 114,106
May 35 123,427
With oil prices so volatile, projec- North Dakota drilling rig counts June 36 132,882
tions of spending and production from began declining in December, and that is July 41 146,783
unconventional formations have been just the start. The rig count in the Willis- Aug. 44 151,522
in flux. Some producers had not offered ton Basin, which includes the Bakken, “is Sept. 47 157,970
E&P spending budgets in December set to fall rapidly during the first quar- Oct. 51 161,239
Nov. 56 165,719
because of the level of price uncertainty ter of 2015,” according to the monthly Dec. 62 164,578
while others put out revisions. newsletter from Lynn Helms, director of
Sources: Baker Hughes and North Dakota
Benchmark prices near USD 50/bbl the North Dakota Department of Miner- Department of Mineral Resources.
have altered price perceptions. On a al Resources, which regulates the indus-

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 53

 GLOBAL OIL PRICES
time, far more barrels a day need to be
added to sustain more than 1 million B/D
of production.
Difficult Conversations
A sharp drop in prices and the number
of rigs working should speed the transi-
tion to new rigs able to drill wells faster,
and allow operators to choose from the
best remaining workers. Companies will
focus on well-known areas where they
have learned how to produce most effi-
ciently and have paid for the infrastruc-
ture to do so. Customers have already
begun squeezing service providers for
cost concessions.
“I have been forwarded a number of
pricing decreases from operators seek-
ing discounts from providers from 20%
across the board to 30% requests,” from
companies doing completions, Robart
said, adding, those are “just a start-
ing point for negotiations. We expect
Low Oil Prices and Stiff Competition
Causes of Anxiety for Graduates
Jack Betz, JPT Staff Writer
The largest-ever class of petroleum engi-
neering students in the US is graduat-
ing into a job market that was weakening
under its weight even before oil prices fell
below USD 90/bbl in early October.
Since the mid-
2000s, enthusiasm
about shale and
increased produc-
tion in the US has
flooded universities
with students drawn
hill by the promise of
high-paying jobs. Now that the number
of students pursuing these degrees in the
US has exceeded the record levels of 1982
and oil prices have fallen sharply, com-
petition for jobs has increased, accord-
ing to Dan Hill, head of the department
of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M
University and SPE Director of Academia.
54
price concession for hydraulic fractur-
ing services in the range of 5% to 10%
for 2015.”
Based on what he observed while
gathering data about the hydraulic frac-
turing sector for PacWest Consulting,
which was acquired in November by IHS,
many pressure pumping companies may
have little to give. Making money in shale
oil production has required a constant
effort to grind down costs.
“There is a lot of equipment that
has been worked really hard and needs
to be replaced. A lot of it has been work-
ing past its recommended life cycle,” he
said, adding, “As prices fall, some com-
panies are really struggling. In the next 3
to 6 months I expect some consolidation
and some fire-sale acquisitions of small-
er players.”
Although some acquisitions and lay-
offs have been announced, it is still early
in the process.
While many Texas A&M students
receive job offers by the end of their final
fall semester as a result of internships,
there is normally 15% to 20% of the class
still looking for permanent employment
in the spring. “The rest of the class that
is left without a job is certainly facing a
more challenging job market than a year
ago,” said Hill.
Texas A&M SPE Student Chapter
President Jennifer Wisler noticed a slow-
down in recruitment in September, dur-
ing a job fair, months before the oil price
decline accelerated.
“I think that there
were a few com-
panies that started
to predict the fall in
prices,” said Wisler.
“And when we had
WiSlER our career fair,
One big acquisition occurred early,
when Halliburton agreed to take over Baker
Hughes. While the two companies work
through the long process to close the deal,
Halliburton has been readying itself for a
slowdown, with 1,000 layoffs announced
in its Eastern Hemisphere operation, and
more are expected this year.
More deals are expected as finan-
cially strong companies seek out low-
priced reserves or equipment in the take-
over market. But it is hard to get two
sides to agree on a deal when the expect-
ed future price of oil covers a wide range.
Acquisitions are not expected to
begin until later this year, when the oil
markets are less volatile and it is possi-
ble to better predict future prices. “Sell-
ers do not want to sell based on USD 70
oil, and buyers do not want to buy
assuming USD  90,” Dukes said. “Usu-
ally it takes more time for both sides to
get more comfortable with prices.” JPT
there were way more internships being
offered than full-time positions.”
Twenty-eight companies attend-
ed the chapter’s fall career fair, and
nine of them, or less than a third, made
full-time job offers, which was a sig-
nificant drop compared with previous
years, Wisler said. Many of the com-
panies that offered full-time jobs only
had one or two positions open, and to
make matters worse, some offers were
later retracted.
Wisler said that a dire need for more
recruiting led the chapter to organize a
second job fair, which will be held in Feb-
ruary. Normally, the chapter holds one
job fair per year, in addition to the univer-
sity’s general engineering job fair.
Aziz Rajan, president of the SPE stu-
dent chapter at the University of Houston
(UH), also noticed a lack of recruitment at
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

his university’s job
fair and said that oil
prices are only part
of the problem. “I
think a major prob-
lem for not only
University of Hous-
RAJAN ton, but other uni-
versities as well, is our size,” said Rajan.
Despite being only 5 years old, UH’s
petroleum engineering program already
has more than 900 students.
In the months before the slide in
prices, Rajan noted that more UH petro-
leum engineering alumni were taking
jobs further away from the wellhead. “We
see it now with new graduates. They’re
not necessarily practicing petroleum
engineering. Many are going into less
technical careers, like sales,” he said.
The Way Ahead
While the current job market is affect-
ing students around the world, Hill said
graduates in the United States will likely
be hit the hardest for two reasons.
Firstly, it is less complicated for US
operators to slow down in many of the
country’s key plays than it is for opera-
tors in other locations. “For many places
overseas, oil and gas developments are
very large, long-term projects, for exam-
ple, deepwater activities offshore Brazil,”
he said. “And these types of things can’t
be turned on and off nearly as easily as
drilling wells in the Permian Basin.”
Secondly, national oil companies,
which are prevalent outside the US, offer
cushioning for some countries’ graduates
because they are less likely to lay off large
numbers of workers when oil prices drop.
In order to improve their chances of
finding jobs, Cindy Reece, SPE Technical
Director for Management and Informa-
tion from 2012 to 2014, suggested that
students keep their career options open
and have flexible goals, especially dur-
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
RESOURCES
ing slower periods. For example, even
though many students may have their
sights set on jobs with operators, there
are significant benefits to taking more Semiannual
hands-on positions, such as those with
Water & Wastewater: Issues,
service providers, she said.
“At the operator level, you are doing Challenges, Solutons, and
more design and oversight of work,” said New Technologies
Reece. “And you miss a lot if you don’t go
through that hands-on stage. By doing Helping operators , engineers and
management enhance their
so, you know what you’re asking people
understanding of water treatment
to do and how best to do it.”
technologies
Student chapters also play an
important role in boosting graduate April 8-9, 2015
College Staton, Texas, USA
placement, which students seem to be
Texas A&M University Campus
recognizing, said Wisler and Rajan, who
Richardson Petroleum Engineering
both reported an uptick in chapter activ- Building
ity during the fall 2014 semester. J.C. www.gpri.org
Cunha, SPE Technical Director for Man-
agement and Information, stressed the Registraton is now open!
importance of student members tak-
ing advantage of technical talks, Dis-
tinguished Lecturer visits, and chap-
ter events, which provide visibility and Cooperatve agreement with Texas A&M Petroleum
Engineering and the Environmentally Friendly Drilling program
networking opportunities. sponsored by Houston Advanced Research Center
In the long term, SPE is constant-
ly taking steps to improve student pre-
paredness and consequently enhance
their job attractiveness to employers.
For example, the “2020 Foresight—
Ensuring Educational Excellence for
Upstream Engineering Resources”
forum, which was chaired by Reece in
2013, allowed SPE leaders to discuss
with members of academia the kinds of
skills that petroleum engineering gradu-
ates need to achieve success.
One major obstacle to preparing
graduates for their careers is the increas-
ingly unbalanced student-to-professor
ratio, which Reece said is becoming so
critical in some places that it threatens
to take a toll on the quality of education.
To alleviate the problem, SPE continues
to offer awards and grants to encourage
more engineers to become professors
and academic researchers. JPT
55
 CONFERENCE REVIEW

Low Oil Prices Make Innovation a Priority

Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor, and Abdelghani Henni, JPT Middle East Editor

A sharp decline in oil prices is push-
ing oil and gas companies to innovate to
increase efficiency and prepare to meet
the world’s long-term energy needs, pan-
elists said at the International Petroleum
Technology Conference (IPTC) held in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in December.
Under the theme of “Innovation and
Collaboration: Keys to Affordable Ener-
gy,” the IPTC attracted an attendance
record 10,318 industry professionals
from 68 countries. Hosted by Malaysian
state oil company Petronas and cohost-
ed by Shell and Schlumberger, the con-
ference featured a ministerial session,
high-level plenary and panel sessions, a
comprehensive multidisciplinary techni-
cal program, an exhibition, a young pro-
fessionals workshop, and various educa-
tional activities.
The 3-day conference was opened
by Dato’ Sri Abdul Wahid Omar, a min-
ister in the Office of the Prime Minis-
ter of Malaysia, who delivered the key-
note speech about the paradox of energy
affordability. One side is positive, with
more affordable prices for those buy-
ing oil and gas, thus aiding consumers
and the economy. The other side is nega-
tive for oil producing countries such as
Malaysia, whose collections on produc-
tion represent more than half of govern-
ment revenues.

Dato’ Sri Abdul Wahid Omar, a minister in the Office of the Malaysian Prime Minister, spoke at the opening ceremony of
the eighth International Petroleum Technology Conference.

56 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

Energy correspondent Eithne Treanor, left, moderated the Executive Plenary Session. Matthias Bichsel, formerly of Royal
Dutch Shell, center, and Raoul Jacquand, executive vice president at CGG, right, were two of the panelists.
“Against the backdrop of weaker oil
prices, companies are becoming cautious.
Expenditures are cut as they optimize
costs. It raises question about the viabil-
ity of certain high-cost projects,” he said.
A development slowdown could
magnify the impact of lower prices on
the economy of oil producing countries.
“It is the only industry where a change in
the business environment carries a great
impact not only on individual compa-
nies, but also on entire countries,” Abdul
Wahid said, noting that advanced explo-
ration and production (E&P) methods
in places such as North America have
added production that he said is “flood-
ing the market.”
In Malaysia, Petronas has begun
reducing spending on projects to expand
production, which is a decision being
faced by producing countries around
the world that have seen oil prices drop
approximately by half from more than
USD 100/bbl.
“The daunting task facing oil pro-
ducers is ensuring that energy output is
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
continued,” Abdul Wahid said during his
opening address. He talked about how
the Malaysian government has worked
to diversify its economy, allowing it to
“ride out the current disruption in oil
prices” without disrupting its economic
programs to raise the living standards of
its people.
At an international meeting high-
lighting the accomplishments of Malay-
sia’s energy sector, “the elephant in the
room is the oil price,” said Dato’ Wee Yiaw
Hin, executive vice president and chief
executive officer of upstream at Petronas.
“After 4 to 5 years of stable oil prices, it is a
pity we are facing these problems again.”
Wee said the “major disruption” in
prices will lead the industry to “look at
how innovation and technology can help
us face this challenge.” More efficient
operations can sustain long-term proj-
ects that will be needed to supply a world
in which the growing population and ris-
ing living standards will ultimately create
the demand that will boost prices again,
he said.
Do Not Panic
Meanwhile, the consensus among pan-
elists at the Executive Plenary Session
was that the industry should not panic
because of lower oil prices and should
take the opportunity to strengthen its
base to prepare for the next phase of oil
and gas industry development.
Speakers at the panel agreed that
companies need to learn from past
price declines, which showed the value
of spending on continued research and
development and to hold on to staffers
with valuable skills.
Matthias Bichsel, former direc-
tor of projects and technology at Royal
Dutch Shell, said that lower oil prices
are not something to panic about, refer-
ring to his long experience in the indus-
try, during which he has witnessed a
lot of panic. “Our industry is a cyclic
industry, and this cyclicity of the busi-
ness needs to be managed through col-
laboration and innovation,” he said.
“Low prices are a great opportunity to
work together.”
57
 CONFERENCE REVIEW
At the opening session of the International Petroleum Technology Conference
Dato’ Wee Yiaw Hin, executive vice president and chief executive officer of
upstream at Petronas, said falling oil prices had become “the elephant in
the room.”
Because of the nature of the busi-
ness, the industry seems to be worried
about the ups and downs rather than
looking for ways to deal with the cycles.
“Instead of panicking, we should have
thought of how to manage this business
through the cycle. How can we create
and narrow the band within which we
can operate through innovation and col-
laboration?” Bichsel said. “This period
is a great opportunity for the industry
to work better and reshape its way of
doing business.”
The leaders of oil companies need
to realize that even in a difficult environ-
ment, innovation can be the most afford-
able option. “Affordable means within
the boundaries that oil companies will
operate, which also means a wakeup call
for us to work on game-changing tech-
nologies that will allow us to go through
this challenging period,” said Raoul Jac-
quand, executive vice president at CGG.
Cost overruns were a problem
before commodity prices dropped. Over
the past 10 years, capital expenditures
are up 400% while production is up
15%, said Jeff Spath, vice president of
industrial affairs at Schlumberger and
58
2014 SPE President. “Cost escalation is
one of the most widely acknowledged
issues facing upstream today,” he said.
It was clear that the problem was
coming,” said Patrick Schorn, president
of operations and integration at Schlum-
berger. “The lower oil price makes things
a bit acute, which means there is a lot we
need to do as an industry. And, with a
low oil price, we need to do this faster.”
Among the things the industry
needs to do is develop newer technolo-
gies, which may include extra costs. But,
Schorn said, companies need to think
about these technologies as an efficien-
cy driver. “There are many technologies
that have been developed recently focus-
ing mainly on how we can operate effi-
ciently,” he said. “If we look at the fail-
ure rate of our industry, which could be
due to tools or procedures, there is a lot
more that we can do to improve this.”
Technology is supposed to lower
overall costs, but the opposite can hap-
pen. Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Shahril Sham-
suddin, president and group chief exec-
utive officer of SapuraKencana, said,
“We should set ourselves a benchmark
of prices, which will allow us to innovate
in terms of services, business model, and
also our own financial situation.”
That raises the question of who sets
the price. As oil prices increased, differ-
ent participants decided to take a cut,
which pushed prices higher, he said. “The
solution is to set the target in a low-cost
environment, and certain technologies
need to be commoditized,” he said.
Technology developers at the ses-
sion did not agree on the idea of com-
moditizing oil and gas technology. “New
technology has a higher price because
people need it. If they don’t need it, it will
be cheap,” Schorn said.
Shamsuddin said that commoditiz-
ing oil and gas technology is possible
given that the top four innovative com-
panies right now are technology compa-
nies. “Why not in the oil and gas sector?”
he said.
Meanwhile, Bichsel said that pric-
es are set by expectations in the market,
and he urged the industry to collaborate
and be more transparent about the basis
for costs. “Lowering cost is essential,”
he said.
Datuk Mohd Anuar Taib, senior vice
president of upstream Malaysia at Petro-
nas, said that a lot of innovation comes
from competition. “Collaboration needs
to have a sort of competition so the busi-
ness environment can flourish,” he said.
Time to Experiment
Falling oil prices offer an opportunity
for companies to look for new ways to
slash costs. This reversal represents a
shift in what looks risky. When oil was
selling for more than USD 100/bbl, the
fear was that something might fail and
reduce returns. However, when profits
take a hit, there is a hunger for trying
something better, particularly if it can
lower costs.
“In my 35 years in the industry,
I have seen innovation acceptance go
through cycles,” said Rustom Mody, vice
president of technology at Baker Hughes.
“The introduction of new technology is
quite different for the unconventional
market and conventional market.”
Independent companies with lim-
ited resources in the middle of the cost-
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
ly process of figuring out difficult shale
formations are willing to try new things,
he said. But, in conventional formations,
particularly in deepwater markets, “it
is like pushing a rope” when prices are
good. Sharply lower prices could change
that complacent attitude.
“Our role is not to regulate the oil
price or second-guess it but to adjust our
operations to it,” said Zied Ben Hamad,
vice president of the Marketing and Tech-
nology Production Group at Schlumberg-
er. “It is a competitive business. There are
always losers and winners.”
Lower prices, which he sees linger-
ing for months or perhaps years, high-
light a problem that did not just pop up
late in the year. “Costs were too high when
the price of oil was pretty high,” he said.
In the spring, he was hearing complaints
about rising costs and rising onshore pro-
duction making deepwater development
uneconomical. “Now, technology needs
to make it economical,” he said.
A chart of the cost of projects by
Total showed that cost inflation over the
past decade roughly doubled the cost
of projects. The company’s responses to
that include an effort to make R&D a
weapon in the fight against rising prices.
“We reshaped our research and
development activities,” said Dan-
iel Plathey, vice president of technolo-
gies for E&P at Total. The company has
narrowed the focus on current devel-
opments, reduced its research part-
nerships based on the most productive
ones, and is now measuring the readi-
ness of the technology it is investing in
to increase the odds of a relatively short
trip to market.
Still, the goal is developing tech-
nology that offers significant gains. The
downside is the risk that they will never
be used. That makes research vulnerable
during downturns.
“The first inclination is let us cut
research. Research is looked on as a lux-
ury,” Plathey said. He explained, “Invest-
ment in research is not like a light switch.
You cannot turn it off and come back 9
months later and turn it back on.”
Convincing operators that they need
to make a significant change requires
getting their feedback and involvement
with technology development. Mody said
innovation is understanding the need,
looking systematically for the best solu-
tion, and tying it all together to create
tangible rewards.
For national oil companies in Saudi
Arabia and China, research efforts are
critical because they are aimed at the
unique challenges in countries where
there are powerful social and econom-
ic motivations to maximize the amount
of oil and gas produced. Saudi Aramco’s
expansive work includes partnerships
with research institutions and service
companies, such as Schlumberger and
Baker Hughes—both tenants in a Saudi
Arabian research park established to

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 CONFERENCE REVIEW
allow more face-to-face collaboration— imize its production from its fields. On
and long-term work seeking ground- Saudi Aramco’s priority list are
breaking results. ◗◗Smart waterflooding using
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imaging methods, but are based on daily is manipulated to improve
concerns in the country working to max- output
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◗◗Deep diagnostic methods giving
it an unprecedented view of
rocks and fluids in the ground
between wells and how they
change over time
◗◗Pore-scale physics to analyze
oil production on the most
basic level
“We are seeking new technology
for advancement from the bottom up,”
said Abdulaziz Al-Kaabi, manager of
Saudi Aramco’s Exploration and Petro-
leum Engineering Center’s Advanced
Research Center.
China is also working on ways
to image reservoirs so it can see even
thin pockets of remaining oil and use
enhanced oil recovery methods to
increase output.
“It is not an easy job for us. Most reser-
voirs in China are either marginal or come
into high water cut,” said Liu Yuzhang,
vice president at the China National Petro-
leum Corporation’s Research Institute of
Petroleum Exploration and Development
(RIPED). The company has a research
budget exceeding USD 1 billion a year and
employs about 3,000 researchers.
Its other major research goal is eco-
nomically producing oil and gas from
extremely tight reservoirs. The challeng-
es include formations in mountainous,
highly populated places that are far more
complex than US shale gas and oil reser-
voirs. Liu said he visits the sites regularly
to monitor the progress in a place that he
described as “beautiful but difficult.”
“Unconventionals (in China) are
now at the beginning stage,” he said.
“Radical innovation is needed.”
Drawing Lessons From US Shale
As the industry is facing a challenging
time, conventional oil and gas producers
have to draw lessons from success stories
in the US shale and apply them to their
conventional oil fields because of the
similarities, according to panelists at the
session titled “What’s So Unconventional
About Unconventional Oil and Gas?”
Speakers said that the oil and
gas industry has to build efficiency in
operations through technology appli-
1/16/15 8:49 AM
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
cations and good project and supply ing data-driven decisions, maximizing the costs to improve economics has a limit,
chain management. production outcome from every dollar and every operator knows how to do
Matt Vanderfeen, vice president of spent,” he said. “Apply disciplined, inte- that,” he said. “True differentiation is in
petroleum consulting at Weatherford, said grated process to appraisal, maximizing maximizing well productivity through
the industry has failed to do things dif- risk, and accelerating first production.” optimum use of technology, and that can
ferently during the downturn, where he Overall, every play requires differ- have a much greater and long-lasting
urged the industry to draw lessons from ent technical solutions. “Simply cutting impact on economics,” he added. JPT
the US shale market. “The surge of pro-
duction in the US from unconventional
resources has demonstrated that alterna-
tives to conventional plays do exist and it is
time to apply the lessons learned from the
North America shale market not only to
other shale basins around the world, but
Why
also to more conventional wells,” he said.
While there are many differences
just
between conventional and unconvention-
al oil and gas in terms of geology, tecton-
Hardband
ics, and many other aspects, there are sev-
eral similarities between the two. “When it...
it comes to well construction, production,
and operations, the challenges are the
same,” he said. “We have to understand
the stress regime, how to minimize no
productive time to mitigate risk, and how

when you can

to effectively drill hole section to eliminate
or reduce the incidents. All these things
are part of the normal process of uncon-

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Vanderfeen called on the industry to
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in wrong zone or poorly completed,” he
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tions in the US shale don’t produce.”
Montaron said that while geology is
important, decisions also matter because www.hardbandingsolutions.com
companies need to get the subsurface
hbs250@hardbandingsolutions.com
team ahead of operations through tech-
nology and training. “Be effective by mak-

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 61

 MULTIPHASE FLOW
The New Pathways of Multiphase
Flow Modeling
Trent Jacobs, JPT Technology Writer
In the realm of enabling technologies,
multiphase flow modeling has proven to
be one of the most important to the oil
and gas industry. Without it, nearly all
subsea wells would be too costly or dan-
gerous to develop. While working to fine-
tune its offshore capabilities, developers
are also busy expanding the technology’s
application areas to include shale field
development, hydrate remediation, and
heavy oil extraction.
In the 1960s, when the industry
began studying how to model multi-
phase flow, which is the science of how
liquid and gas interact inside wellbores
and pipelines, little was known about the
complex physics involved. Back then, an
engineer’s ability to predict flow behav-
ior was strictly limited to what could be
observed at the wellhead.
Over the years, the industry invent-
ed devices that could accurately calculate
flow rates, velocities, and volume frac-
tions, along with downhole temperatures
and pressures. Armed with these tools,
engineers and scientists had the mea-
surements they needed to marry com-
putational science and fluid dynamics.
More than anything else, this advance-
ment is what has allowed offshore oper-
ators to extend their reach beyond the
The separation of the oil and water phases is shown in the tail of a
hydrodynamic slug. The modeling fluid and gas behavior in wellbores and
pipelines is one of the chief technologies that has expanded the industry’s
capability to produce oil and gas. Photo courtesy of Schlumberger.
62
shallow-water fields and into those thou-
sands of feet deep.
“What we have done is to make it
possible for the industry to live with
the complex multiphase flow problems
that face them on a daily basis,” said
James Brill, a multiphase flow expert who
recently retired as a research professor
of petroleum engineering at the Univer-
sity of Tulsa. “When the industry first
moved offshore, they were afraid to go
with multiphase flow pipelines because
they did not know what was happening
inside of them, or what kind of facilities
they would have to have at the outlet end
in order to handle the fluctuating rivals of
gas and liquid.”
In lieu of a complete understand-
ing of multiphase flow, Mack Shippen, a
product champion for one of Schlumberg-
er’s top multiphase modeling programs,
said early offshore explorers were forced
to make conservative design decisions
when building a production platform.
That meant using larger than need-
ed processing equipment and pipelines
to compensate for what they did not
know about the behavior of the mul-
tiphase flow. “So yes, you had a safe
design but you did not have one that in
today’s world would be economic,” he
said, explaining that, “if it is overde-
signed, then essentially money has been
wasted on equipment that is more than
what is necessary.” If an operator can
reduce the diameter of a subsea pipeline
by just 1 in. or 2 in., “the difference can
be on the scale of millions of dollars in
capital investment,” he said.
On the other hand, Shippen, who is
also involved in the scientific research of
multiphase flow with universities in the
United States and the United Kingdom,
said there have been offshore projects
where companies selected separation
equipment, pumps, and compressors
that were undersized, which prevented
them from realizing the field’s potential
production volume and value.
Modeling the Shale Revolution
One of the new directions for multiphase
flow modeling appears to be into the pro-
lific shale fields of Texas, North Dakota,
and beyond. With this technology, pro-
ducers could better mange their shale
fields that are developed at a much faster
pace than conventional reservoirs. In the
US, tens of thousands of new shale wells
have been brought on line each of the
past few years.
A downside of the shale operators’
continuous efforts to reduce the time it
takes to drill and complete the wells, is
that it has in many cases outpaced their
transportation network’s ability to move
the product. Oftentimes, when a well
comes on stream, the pressure from it
and neighboring wells can be too much
for the pipeline network to handle.
“If you are bringing on newer, stron-
ger wells, then you may have to choke
those back to allow the older wells to
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

Using a steady-state multiphase flow modeling program such as Pipesim,
operators can build virtual pipelines and facilities on a computerized map
that takes into account elevation data that might affect the flow of oil or gas.
Image courtesy of Schlumberger.
produce,” which can prevent the field’s
overall production from increasing, Ship-
pen said.
With Schlumberger’s steady-state
multiphase flow simulator, Pipesim,
Shippen said operators are able to identi-
fy the pipeline bottlenecks on a computer
screen and then relieve them by using a
precise calculation that shows how much
production needs to be choked back from
new wells. This allows the operator to
ensure the optimization of production
throughout the production network.
Steady-state models produce a snap-
shot in time of a proposed or operat-
ing production system based on differ-
ent design scenarios. The technology
enables companies to plan for the life of a
field before they invest much capital and
then manage it once it is online.
“When operators are looking at
designing production systems, and this
includes the well itself and essentially
the entire flow path from the reservoir,
they need to be designed to ensure the
production system is able to deliver what
the reservoir is capable of producing,”
explained Shippen.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
er rate than production growth. So
Shippen suggested that steady-state
modeling could be used between the
operator and a midstream compa-
ny to accurately predict the future line
needs of the field before the bottle-
necks form.
Many unconventional shale oil
wells must go on pump a year or so after
first production and steady-state model-
ing can be used for these events as well.
Schlumberger has developed Pipesim to
allow producers to compare the well-
bore hydraulics of different artificial lift
systems and determine the one likely to
offer the best performance for a partic-
ular well, which may sometimes include
multiple options.
“We are seeing cases where dif-
ferent lift systems are used at differ-
ent points in the life of a well,” Ship-
pen said. “For example, you may use
an electrical submersible pump (ESP)
that can be operated with a variable
speed drive for a certain range of pro-
In many shale fields, operators con- duction, and when the production
trol only the wells and not the trans- declines to the lower end of that range,
portation network, which is often why oftentimes that ESP is replaced with a
pipeline capacity increases at a slow- rod pump.”
The Mother of Flow Assurance
The non-Newtonian phenomena involved in multiphase flow can render many
people in the industry a bit glassy-eyed. And even for petroleum engineers,
well-versed in advanced mathematics, multiphase flow modeling can be a
bit of a mystery. “Much of it is beyond the scope of what you can teach in an
undergraduate class in petroleum engineering. It is too complicated,” said James
Brill, a recently retired research professor from the University of Tulsa.
Nevertheless, as younger engineers are tasked with managing complex oil
and gas fields reaching deeper into the cold oceans and involving the tying
together of multiple wellstreams into a single pipeline, he believes it is more
important than ever that they have a greater understanding of the theories and
technologies in use today.
Brill and a former graduate student-turned-professor at the University
of Kuwait are trying to simplify the topic for the next crop of undergraduate
engineering students with a new textbook on multiphase flow and flow
assurance in oil and gas production. The book is being published by SPE
and will debut at the Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Houston
in September.
Borrowing a phrase from a colleague at Chevron, Brill said he wants
production engineers to realize that “multiphase flow is the mother science of
flow assurance. You really cannot address the flow assurance issue unless you
have a pretty good knowledge of how multiphase flow works in pipes.”
63
 MULTIPHASE FLOW

Plenty of Room for

Improvement
One area for general improvement with
the modeling and simulation of large
unconventional developments involves
the behavior of fluids entering the well-
stream. Brill said that many current
models he has worked with are “not that
good” when it comes to predicting pro-
duction in unconventional wells. Part
of the problem is that for most of the
50-year history of multiphase flow mod-
eling technology, when it comes to well-
bores, developers have focused largely
on vertical and directional holes.
While fluid behavior in a conven-
tional vertical well has been understood
and studied for some time, unconven-
tional wells and their long lateral sec-
tions present different conditions that
have not been scrutinized for nearly as
The University of Tulsa’s Fluid Flow Project was founded by James Brill in 1973 long. As liquid and gas enter a later-
and is regarded as one of the leading facilities for the study of multiphase flow al section, which are a mile or more in
in pipelines. Photo courtesy of James Brill. length in many cases, the temperature

PipeFractionalFlow is among the newest multiphase flow models to be developed for the oil and gas industry. It is
targeting a wide array of applications including high-pressure/high-temperature production and horizontal shale wells.
Image courtesy of Anand Nagoo.

64 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015


can remain about the same while the
flow rates increase with each perforat-
ed section from the toe of the well to
the heel.
Once the liquids and gases reach
the vertical section, Brill explained,
they begin to behave as they would in a
conventional well, where temperatures
and pressures begin to drop as fluids
make their way to the surface. Tying
this series of events together is what
researchers still need time to perfect.
“We know what has to be done, but you
have to have some experimental data to
know that the models are working prop-
erly,” Brill said, adding that, “We are not
there yet.”
On the other side of the spectrum is
heavy oil. The issue with modeling the
production of this type of crude is that
the process is so different from conven-
tional light oil production. Heavy oil
wells involve smaller volumetric flow
rates, higher pressure drops, and dif-
ferent flow patterns because of the high
viscosity, and a significantly more diffi-
cult separation process.
“You use the models developed
for lighter oils and try to get them to
work on heavy oils and it does not take
long before you realize that there are
some significant problems involved,”
Brill said. “The flow patterns look dif-
ferent, there is less gas trapped in
liquid slugs, and the fluids are what
we quite often call non-Newtonian
in behavior.”
The upside for developers to invest
their time and money in heavy oil mod-
eling is the large amount of reserves
found all over the world. When reli-
able modeling technology is devel-
oped for heavy oil, Brill said it would
be a very welcomed development for
its producers.
New Kid on the Modeling Block
Before he founded his startup multiphase
flow modeling company, Pipe Fractional
Flow, Anand Nagoo teamed up with his
professors at the University of Texas
at Austin to build from the ground up
an entirely new multiphase flow model.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
Fuel for
The program, which shares the name of
the company PipeFractionalFlow, began
Thought
as a research project more than 7 years
ago when Nagoo was an undergradu- Energize your career with
ate student studying simple-to-compute training courses from the
analytical multiphase flow principles Society of Petroleum Engineers.
that could connect and unify past and
current observations. The program is in Get up-to-date industry knowledge
the final stages of being commercialized from the people who wrote the
and will be available later this year for book on E&P. Courses are ofered at
use by companies. multiple locations around the world.
His quest to develop a new multi- Learn more at www.spe.org/training
phase flow theory began with the ana- where you can browse the schedule
lytical fractional flow theory used in res- and register for courses that meet
ervoir modeling, based largely on basic your interests.
laws of physics. Applying this highly test-
ed theory to a pipe made perfect sense to
Nagoo. “The media does not matter, what
matters is the conservation laws that you
are imposing on the media,” he said.
“The conservation of mass, momentum,
and energy.”
Nagoo then set out on a research
mission to study the multiphase flow
theories produced by various indus-
tries including mining, chemical, nucle-
ar power, geothermal, aerospace, and
of course, petroleum production. After
forming a theory, Nagoo said he validat-
ed it against published control experi-
ments from these industries. The out-
come of the effort is the world’s largest
searchable database of published data
relating to multiphase flow modeling,
which he named Anna.
Unlike previous work in multiphase
flow modeling, Nagoo said his develop-
ment efforts focused on how to simpli-
fy and connect the forces and concepts
involved with flow vs. breaking each
apart, which complicates the existing
models. “What we were doing different-
ly was we were looking not at the indi-
vidual specific problems, such as bub-
ble flow or stratified flow,” he said. “We
were looking at the interrelationships
between phenomena, the connectivity
between different things.”
The resulting body of work, he said,
represents the first unified analytical and
mathematical theory of multiphase flow.
Called pipe fractional flow theory, Nagoo
said it has been tested and validated
 MULTIPHASE FLOW

Olga: A Subsea Evolution

Created by the Institute for Energy
Technology in Norway in 1979, Olga was
the oil and gas industry’s first transient
multiphase flow model. A source of national
pride, the program has been declared one of
the country’s most important innovations in
recent decades. Transient models simulate
what may happen to a production system
over any given length of time, be it minutes,
days, or years. This allows operators to plan
for events, such as shutdowns and restarts,
for nearly the whole life of an offshore
facility. Olga is also used in engineering
design, operator training, and real-time
production monitoring.
Dag Biberg, a Schlumberger advisor
who works on the Olga modeling program, Schlumberger’s Olga multiphase flow model was partly developed
estimated has been used on thousands based on experiments carried out at the the Multiphase Flow
of pipelines and offshore wells. Olga is Laboratory at Tiller, Norway that features a main flow line loop and
credited as a key enabler for the economic 60m high riser tower. Image courtesy of SINTEF (The Foundation for
development of many fields, including the Scientific and Industrial Research).
Shell-operated Ormen Lange subsea gas
field, where the wellstream is transported over uneven Schlumberger has also launched an initiative to meld
and steeply inclined terrain by two pipelines to an onshore its modeling technologies into a single stream, whereby
processing facility in Norway. engineers can look at how fluids move from the reservoir
Biberg said the development of Olga, acquired by all the way through the end of the production system to
Schlumberger in 2012, has come through many small steps identify a host of potential problems as early as possible.
spanning decades of research and development. “Only Every once in a while, developers will find discrepancies
occasionally do we have real step changes,” he said. between what Olga predicts and the field and lab data. To
One example, he said, occurred more than 20 years ago fix these problems, they launched the Olga Verification and
when the technology advanced from modeling two phases Improvement Project (OVIP), which Schlumberger said often
(oil and water combined, plus gas) to being able to model all leads to improvements in the model’s reliability. Several
three phases of the production stream. Another crucial leap major oil companies have partnered to form OVIP and many
forward for offshore operators, which happened about 20 of the investigations are decided by a vote between those
years ago and continues to be developed, was slug tracking. member companies.
This allows operators to simulate what would happen to Currently, the joint venture group is focusing on
their production systems as the slugs of gas and liquid gas condensate flows and liquid accumulation points
move through their system. and Schlumberger said the work has already yielded
Modeling technology for managing liquid slugs in gas improvements in Olga.
condensate pipelines is especially critical. When these liquid Among the improvements accomplished through
buildups occur and move through a pipeline, operators OVIP are
rely on large tanks known as slug catchers located at the ◗ Gas/condensate pipelines (1998–1999 and
receiving end of the pipeline. By using a transient model 2007–2008)
such as Olga, operators can simulate these liquid slugs or ◗ Heavy oil slug flow (1998 and 2009–2012)
surges over a given period of time during pigging of the ◗ Slug lengths and frequencies (1999–2003)
pipeline or increases in production to prevent a separator to ◗ Pressure drop in slug flow (1999–2003)
be operated without flooding the slug catcher. ◗ Oil and water holdups in three-phase slug flow (2000)
“Our most recent step change is the introduction of ◗ Downward inclined flow (2001–2002)
the high-definition stratified flow model,” said Biberg. He ◗ Vertical annular flow (2002–2003)
explained that this latest advancement allows engineers ◗ Riser slugs (2002–2006)
and operators to use the improved predictions associated ◗ Slug flow correlations (2007–2009)
with a 3D flow description without suffering a serious ◗ Oil and water accumulation in gravity-dominated flows
penalty in execution time. (2010–2012)

66 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

using recent data and data dating back is not how we as industry work now; we eling specifically designed to under-
to the 1940s. are compartmentalized and partitioned.” stand the effect of the formation of gas
A special application area for Pipe- hydrates on multiphase flow in pro-
FractionalFlow involves well planning for Hydrates are Hard duction lines. Hydrates are essential-
horizontal wells. Nagoo believes his pro- At the Colorado School of Mines, ly bits of frozen water that contain
gram will be the first of its kind to enable researchers are in the early stages of light gases such as methane, ethane,
companies to make informed decisions developing a new multiphase flow mod- propane, or carbon dioxide. They not
on wellbore trajectory for shale drilling.
He said one of the biggest problems with
other multiphase flow models is their
inability to tell a driller or a petroleum
engineer what degree of inclination or
declination should be for the horizon-
tal section of an unconventional well,
otherwise known as drilling toe-up or
toe-down.
US-Manufactured Lightweight Ceramic
What is missing in the most pop-
ularly used models, he said, is the
accountability for the role that friction-
al pressure and volume fraction play
in a horizontal well section that trends
downward. Nagoo said he compared his
model with others and then used empir-
ical evidence from the field, industry
reports, and published lab data to con-
firm his finding that his model worked
better in this regard.
Terminal
“It just takes a very slight down-
ward decline for the gas to be held up
and a very sharp change in your volume
fraction gradient, and therefore, your Terminals
pressure gradient,” he said. “A slightly
inclined phenomena in multiphase flow
directly impacts the production capabili- Terminal
ty of horizontal wells in the real world via
the sole effect of inclination.”
The modeling program has found
Plant
that under certain conditions it only International
Transload
takes 0.2° to 0.5° of sloping in a horizon- Plant
Terminals
tal well to alter the holdup behavior of
fluids and create a choke point, Nagoo The Woodlands, TX
said. He noted that the key to solving this US Headquarters
Terminal
problem will be getting oil and gas com-
panies to open up the lines of communi- Terminal
cation between the various disciplines of
unconventional field development and
integrate more modeling into well design
to improve well performance.
“How you decide to drill your wells
has a profound effect on the rest of the
Tel : (832) 442-2600
events that are to follow, namely, com-
pletions and production, and then arti- www.imerys-oilfieldsolutions.com
ficial lift down the road,” he said. “That

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 67

 MULTIPHASE FLOW

only constrain flow; if they build up
too much, they put a pipeline at risk
of rupturing.
“[Hydrate formation] is the main
issue that all offshore companies deal
with on a daily basis, but as they go
into even harsher environments, it will
of course be more prominent,” said Ama-
deu Sum, an associate professor and the
leader of this research project. “If you are
going to live with hydrates, you need to
know how they are forming, where they
are, how much you have, and how they
are affecting the flow,” he said.
To live with the problem thus far
the industry has developed numerous
technologies to remediate hydrate for-
mation inside flowlines and pipelines,
such as pipe insulation and expensive
hydrate-inhibiting chemicals. But Sum
said that there has been less empha-
sis placed on developing models to fig-
ure out the nature of hydrate formation,
which happens in nearly all subsea flow-
lines and places onshore such as Alaska,
where much of the production comes
from north of the Arctic Circle. The sim-
ple reason hydrate modeling has not
been a major focus for multiphase mod-
eling research because it is very complex
and hard to do.
Sum compared hydrate modeling
with modeling sand in pipes, which has
been successfully done, to illustrate why
it is so difficult. “Hydrates are quite dif-
ferent from sand, especially in terms of
the density and in that hydrates aggre-
gate, whereas sand will just either remain
dispersed in the fluid or depending on
the flow rate, settle,” he said. In other
words, where sand can flow through a
production system or form small depos-
its, hydrates can form and accumulate
at a much higher and, therefore, danger-
ous rate.
To take the research further, Sum
said he is working to establish a first-
of-its-kind experimental laboratory that
can test his team’s multiphase flow and
hydrate models at the same time. He said
he knows of no lab in the world that cur-
rently can do both in the same experi-
ment. The current research is partial-
ly funded by a hydrate consortium at
the Colorado School of Mines; Sum said
more funding will be needed to contin-
ue the progress. Details of the research
project will be presented at the Offshore
Technology Conference in Houston
in May. JPT

Faculty Position in Petroleum Engineering

School of Chemical Engineering • Oklahoma State University
The Petroleum Engineering Program seeks nominations and applications for a tenure-track Assistant/Associate/Full Professor. Candidates shall
have an earned doctorate in Petroleum Engineering or closely related area and display a strong interest in undergraduate and graduate education.
The successful applicant is expected to build a sustainable research program in an area that augments the OSU research portfolio and has strong
potential to attract extramural funding.Industrial experience is considered an asset.The primary areas of interest are reservoir engineering, well
completions including fracturing and rock mechanics, and midstream operations, but strong candidates in other petroleum areas will be considered.
Applicants seeking a position of Associate or Full Professor must have a record of achievement that merits appointment at that level.
The Petroleum Engineering Program at OSU has grown quickly based on strong support from industry and the central administration. Four
petroleum engineering positions have been flled in the past three years. Three hold endowed chairs. There are four other endowed energy
chairs held by chemical engineering faculty. At present, the combined petroleum and chemical engineering faculty totals 14. The strategic plan
for the college calls for an increase to 20 over the next 2-3 years.
Based on industry input, we offer an undergraduate petroleum engineering minor to enhance the preparation of traditional engineering disciplines
to work in the oil & gas industry. The petroleum minor requires traditional core petroleum engineering and petroleum geology courses. There are
currently 100 students in the program with substantial growth expected. We have established an interdisciplinary petroleum engineering research
program with research at the M.S. and Ph.D. level being performed. The process of establishing a M.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering is
underway with subsequent plans to create a Ph.D. degree in Petroleum Engineering.
Oklahoma State University is geographically well positioned in one of the most active exploration areas in the country. The college has strong
support from local and national oil and gas companies. There are many opportunities for collaboration and funding from our industrial partners.
Formal applications must be submitted online at https://jobs.okstate.edu. Search for Chemical Engineering Faculty – Requisition/Listing 11216.
Screening of applicants will begin as applications arrive and continue until the position is flled, contingent on available funding.
To accelerate the screening process, applicants are encouraged to email the following materials directly to the Search Committee Chair –
(i) a one-page cover letter, (ii) a curriculum vita, (iii) a statement of teaching interests and goals, (iv) a statement of research interests and goals,
and (v) contact information of fve references. Questions may be addressed to:
Dr. Peter Clark, Chair, Petroleum Faculty Search Committee,
Phone: (405) 744-5280, E-Mail: peter.clark@okstate.edu
Oklahoma State University is an AA/EEO/E-verify employer committed to diversity. All qualifed applicants will receive consideration for employment
and will not be discriminated against based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. OSU-Stillwater is a
tobacco-free campus.

68 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

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 INTELLIGENT FIELDS
Saudi Aramco Takes a “Smart” Approach
Abdelghani Henni, Middle East Editor
Saudi Aramco’s upstream strategy aims
to implement the intelligent field con-
cept in all of its upstream operations by
2016–2017 so it can better understand
reservoirs and improve efficiency.
Going by the names of intelligent oil
field, smart oil field, and digital oil field,
the concept is an array of interactive
and complementary technologies that
enable companies to gather and ana-
lyze data throughout the job site. Intelli-
gent wells provide constant data through
fiber-optic sensors in the drilling appa-
ratus about the well and its environment,
which enables operators to respond to
changing circumstances in real time. The
intelligent field is where operators, part-
ners, and service companies seek to take
advantage of improved data and knowl-
edge management, enhanced analytical
real-time systems, and more efficient
business models.
In the Middle East, Saudi Aram-
co currently has 19 intelligent fields in
operation, which enables the company to
monitor reservoirs and intervene imme-
diately in case of any damage because of
the real-time monitoring system.
Saudi Aramco’s first use of intel-
ligent fields started with its Haradh III
Increment project, which included mul-
tilateral wells, all equipped with smart
completions and real-time data. Haradh
I was developed exclusively with verti-
cal wells, whereas horizontal comple-
tions provided the primary configura-
tion for producers/injectors in Haradh
II. Haradh III was developed by rely-
ing mainly on smart maximum reser-
voir contact (MRC) completions with-
in an intelligent field framework.
Total Haradh production capacity is
900,000  B/D, with equal contributions
70
from the three respective subsegments
of I, II, and III.
The Haradh III development at the
southern tip of the Ghawar oil field, com-
pleted in 2006, has been portrayed by
Saudi Aramco as the turning point in the
battle between geological adversity and
engineering prowess. The poorest res-
ervoir rock in Ghawar has succumbed
to the latest in well and drilling technol-
ogy. Aided by 3D seismic images showing
fracture locations, wellsites were opti-
mized and drills were guided by remote
control from Dhahran.
MRCs were fitted with monitoring
electronics and valves on individual lat-
erals so they could be throttled back as
needed to minimize water encroachment.
Testing was done, adjustments were
made as needed, and everything rolled
out ahead of schedule. Goals for individ-
ual well productivity of 10,000 B/D were
met, and projections indicated a smooth
sailing for 10 years or more.
Haradh III became the first Saudi
Aramco development project to be devel-
oped exclusively with MRC wells with
downhole inflow control valves for flow
control. Average well production rates
were targeted at 10,000 B/D, com-
pared with 3,000 B/D and 6,000 B/D
for Haradh I and II, respectively. Smart
completions were necessary to ensure
production sustainability in the face of
premature water encroachment through
fault/fracture systems. Saudi Aramco
said that the well requirements and rela-
tive unit costs would have been consider-
ably higher had vertical or convention-
al single-horizontal wells been selected
instead of MRC wells for Haradh III.
After the Haradh field develop-
ment, all incremental developments
became smart fields including Abqiq and
Khurais, which is the largest increment
in the world with production capacity of
1.2 million B/D.
For example, at the Manifa field, the
company receives the data of the pres-
sure before it put the wells in production.
“Manifa contains the largest number
of extended-reach wells (ERW) as two-
thirds of the wells in the field are ERWs
by industry standards, some with a total
depth of 37,000 ft, departing beyond
26,000 ft from surface locations,” said
Shadi Hanbzazah, supervisor at the
Manifa production engineering unit.
After seeing the benefits from
Haradh, company management decided
to set up an intelligent field center for
real-time operations, which was followed
by the establishment of the drilling opera-
tions center. Then, the company started a
geosteering center. The role of geosteer-
ing as an enabling technology became
more pronounced at Haradh III because
accurate placement of multilaterals with-
in the Arab-D reservoir (and integrity of
hole trajectories) was necessary to achieve
desired target rates of 10,000 B/D.
Greenfields and Brownfields
Saudi Aramco now plans to have all fields
using smart technology by 2017. The
development of several fields, including
the Abu Hadriya, Fadhili, and Khursani-
yah fields, involve transforming mature
and remote fields into state-of-the-art
intelligent fields, equipped with proper
handling facilities for oil, water, and gas.
The three oil fields had been moth-
balled but were revitalized after extensive
drilling workover programs. The latest
downhole production technologies were
installed in all oil production and water
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
injection wells. Furthermore, the project
called for the construction of new oil and
gas processing and water injection facili-
ties, all linked to their respective wells via
an elaborate fiber optic communication
network for optimum control and sur-
veillance capabilities in real-time mode.
The production and injection strategies
were further optimized making use of
permanent downhole monitoring sys-
tems, smart well completion multiphase
flowmeters, single phase flowmeters,
pressure and temperature sensors with
specialty tailored monitoring, and simu-
lation software.
In the Southern Reservoir Area,
which includes brownfields such as
Ghawar, Khurais, and Abqiq, the imple-
mentation of intelligent field technology
required a strategic surveillance program
different from that used in greenfields.
For example, Ghawar, the largest field,
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
has approximately 5,000 wells with
some of them already depleted. The team
working on the field had to find a stra-
tegic location to measure the health of
the reservoir.
The technologies used in these
fields allowed the company to remote-
ly control key parameters and moni-
tor vital equipment in real time to opti-
mize the flow of hydrocarbons from
the fields to processing facilities. It also
minimized human interaction associat-
ed with field operations in a sour crude
producing environment.
The implementation of the smart
field concept in the Khurais increment
project, the world’s largest oil increment
development, has proven to be a neces-
sity rather than an upgrade, as it enabled
a higher level of control over the reser-
voir and precision in achieving reservoir
management targets. JPT
For Further Reading
Al-Mulhim, W.A., Al-Faddagh, H.A.,
Al-Shehab, M.A., et al. 2010. Mega I-Field
Application in the World. Paper SPE
128837 presented at the SPE Intelligent
Energy Conference and Exhibition,
Utrecht, the Netherlands, 23-25 March.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/128837-MS
Al-Khamis, M.N., Al-Hamzani, H.J., and
Al-Adel, M.F. 2009. Revamping Old Fields
Using I-Field Technologies. Paper SPE
123540 presented at SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans,
Louisiana, 4-7 October. http://dx.doi.
org/10.2118/123540-MS
71
 MANAGEMENT
Industry Needs Re-Education
in Uncertainty Assessment
Duane McVay, Professor, Texas A&M University
It is clear the oil and gas industry rec-
ognizes the large uncertainty in which
it operates. A search in the OnePetro
technical paper database using the key-
words “uncertainty” or “risk” returns
more than 53,000 conference and jour-
nal papers. Yet, it is also clear that the
industry does not know how to reliably
assess uncertainty and that this inability
negatively affects industry performance.
Capen (1976) described the difficulty
of assessing uncertainty. He pointed to
massive capital overruns and low indus-
try returns due to an almost universal
tendency to underestimate uncertainty.
Brashear et al. (2001) and Rose (2004)
later documented the dismal perfor-
mance of the industry in the last 10 to 20
years of the 20th century due to chronic
bias and evaluation methods that do not
account for the full uncertainty.
Although industry profitability
may have improved in the past decade
because of high oil prices, Neeraj Nan-
durdikar in an October 2014 JPT article,
“Wanted: A New Type of Business Leader
Fig. 1—An incorrect estimated distribution due to
overconfidence and optimism.
72
to Fix E&P Asset Developments,” showed
that the oil and gas industry continues
to perform significantly below estima-
tions and expectations. He cited three
ways that assets erode value, all of which
relate to unreliable assessments of uncer-
tainty: (1) production and reserves esti-
mates are overestimated, (2) capital costs
are underestimated, and (3) development
times are underestimated. And these do
not include price estimations; the sur-
prising oil price slide at the time of this
writing has the potential to move indus-
try performance from below expecta-
tions to below profitability.
While project evaluations can be
affected by many different types of bias-
es, these can be reduced fundamentally
to two primary biases: overconfidence
and directional bias.
Overconfidence is underestimation
of uncertainty; i.e., our estimated dis-
tributions of uncertain quantities, such
as reserves, are too narrow. They are
too narrow because we do not consid-
er all the possible outcomes. There is
1.0
Observed Frequency
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 0.2
Fig. 2—A calibration chart for a set of forecasts that are
both overconfident and optimistic (red).
considerable evidence in the literature,
both inside and outside the petroleum
industry, of our general human tendency
for overconfidence.
Directional bias results when the
subset of possible outcomes considered
is shifted in either the optimistic or pes-
simistic direction. There is also evidence
that we are usually optimistic in our over-
confidence; i.e., we fail to consider some
possible negative outcomes, or we give
greater weight to possible positive out-
comes than possible negative outcomes.
As a result of the two primary biases, we
make decisions with incorrect estimated
distributions rather than true distribu-
tions (Fig. 1).
Unreliable estimation of uncertain-
ty has serious consequences. Portfolio
modeling by McVay and Dossary (2014)
indicated that moderate, typical levels
of overconfidence and optimism can
result in average portfolio disappoint-
ment (estimated net present value (NPV)
minus actual NPV) of 30% to 35% of esti-
mated NPV. Greater amounts of overcon-
0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Assessed Probability
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
fidence, optimism, and disappointment
have been experienced in the industry,
e.g., throughout the 1990s. Nandurdi-
kar (2014) indicated that over the past
15 years, the average exploration and
production (E&P) development deliv-
ered only 60% of the value promised
at sanction.
Lookbacks and Calibration
Key to Solution
Persistence of unreliable uncertainty
assessment over several decades indi-
cates that we need a step change in the
way we assess uncertainty. Improved
project evaluation methods can go only
so far in correcting the problem. This is
because a primary contributor to over-
confidence and optimism is unknown
unknowns—those unknowns we don’t
even think to include in our evaluations.
The only way to measure overconfidence
and optimism and account for unknown
unknowns is to perform lookbacks and
calibration, i.e., keep track of probabilis-
tic forecasts and compare actual results
with the forecasts over time.
Reliability of probabilistic forecasts
can be represented in a calibration chart
in which the frequency of outcomes is
plotted against the assessed probability
of outcomes (Fig. 2). Reliable probabi-
listic forecasts that quantify the “true”
uncertainty will fall on the unit-slope
line; e.g., the actual value is less than the
P10 estimate 10% of the time and the
actual value is less than the P90 estimate
90% of the time (for a cumulative dis-
tribution function convention in which
the P10 is the low number and the P90
is the high number). Fig. 2 shows the
calibration for a set of forecasts that are
both overconfident (slope less than 1)
and optimistic (shifted upward). Note
that this figure applies to value-based
forecasts; optimistic cost-based forecasts
would be shifted downward.
A knowledge of overconfidence and
optimism from calibration charts can
then be used to improve future assess-
ments. Estimated distributions of uncer-
tain quantities can be adjusted as needed
to eliminate overconfidence and opti-
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
mism, which will widen the distributions
and shift them in the appropriate direc-
tion. Tracking of forecasts, comparing
them with actual results, and using them
to improve future forecasts should be a
continuous process over time.
Re-Education Needed
Persistence of unreliable uncertainty
assessment also indicates that we need
to change the way we educate engineers
about uncertainty, and it needs to start
no later than their undergraduate edu-
cation. Most formal education is focused
on getting the “right” answer. Under-
graduate engineering students tradition-
ally have been taught to solve problems
deterministically, and traditionally have
been motivated, through grades, to get
the single right answer. I teach senior
design courses in which there is com-
monly no single correct answer, and stu-
dents are often noticeably uncomfort-
able when I cannot tell them the single
correct answer.
It is the same when students are
asked to quantify the uncertainty in
their knowledge about a topic. They
are uncomfortable because quantifying
uncertainty is an alien concept to them.
We are all subject to many biases and
quantifying one’s uncertainty does not
come naturally, which is why humans
are poor at it. Assessing uncertainty, i.e.,
assessing how much you know about
something, is a different skill, separate
from petroleum engineering or other
knowledge areas.
Accordingly, the ability to assess
uncertainty in a particular area does not
necessarily come with increased knowl-
edge in that area. Evidence in the litera-
ture suggests that despite their advanced
knowledge, experts can be just as poor
at assessing uncertainty as nonexperts.
Although assessing uncertainty is a dif-
ferent skill, it can be taught and learned.
Teaching Uncertainty
Assessment
We consider uncertainty assessment to
be a vitally important skill for students in
the Petroleum Engineering Department
at Texas A&M University. So much so that,
in addition to the 11 Accreditation Board
for Engineering and Technology student
outcomes (a-k) for which we are required
to document achievement by our bach-
elor of science graduates for accredita-
tion, we added a 12th student outcome
specific to uncertainty assessment.
We have two required undergradu-
ate courses that have significant con-
tent related to uncertainty. The first is
Petroleum Project Evaluation, which
includes uncertainty quantification in
project evaluation and investment deci-
sion making under uncertainty. The sec-
ond is Integrated Reservoir Modeling,
which includes geostatistical modeling
and quantifying uncertainty in dynamic
reservoir simulation.
We do not believe uncertainty
assessment should be isolated only in
courses focused on uncertainty quantifi-
cation and decision analysis. Biases and
uncertainty pervade all aspects of petro-
leum engineering, so they should be
addressed throughout the curriculum.
Probabilistic assessments can often be
easily incorporated into existing assign-
ments, projects, or exams. Assessments
can be requested for either continuous
distributions (e.g., provide P10, P50,
and P90 values on a distribution for  x)
or discrete distributions (e.g., provide
probabilities for the choices in a multi-
ple-choice question rather than select-
ing one answer). We include uncertain-
ty assessment in several other courses,
including the capstone design course,
but we still have work to do in the rest of
the curriculum.
To be truly effective, however, uncer-
tainty has to be more than just taught; it
must be experienced by students. You
can teach students about biases and how
to do probabilistic assessments, e.g., geo-
statistics and Monte Carlo simulation.
However, you do not address the funda-
mental problems of unknown unknowns,
overconfidence, and optimism until you
force students to assess their own uncer-
tainty and demonstrate their overcon-
fidence to them. Because uncertainty
assessment is a separate skill indepen-
73
 MANAGEMENT
dent of knowledge area, the ability to
assess uncertainty can be assessed with
general knowledge questions or forecasts
in addition to questions related to petro-
leum engineering.
Furthermore, just as overconfi-
dence and optimism can be measured
and corrected only with lookbacks in
industry, students can learn to recognize
and correct their biases only by obtain-
ing feedback on the calibration of their
probabilistic estimations and forecasts.
I regularly request a variety of engineer-
ing-related and general knowledge prob-
abilistic assessments, including week-
ly football game score predictions, and
provide feedback on students’ calibra-
tion throughout the semester. The vast
majority of students exhibit typical high
amounts of overconfidence early in the
semester and many learn to widen their
ranges with the feedback they receive
over the semester.
It is my observation that student
interest and improvement in uncertainty
assessment increases significantly when
there is something riding on it. The pri-
mary motivator for students is grades,
which can affect job offers and future
income. It is possible to grade proba-
bilistic multiple-choice questions with
scoring rules that measure both knowl-
edge of the subject area and the student’s
ability to assess his or her uncertainty in
the subject area. Overconfidence exhib-
ited by assigning too-high probabilities
to incorrect answers can result in signifi-
cant grade penalties. When grades are
affected, most (but not all) students learn
to be less overconfident over time.
Provide Continuing Education
Improvements in undergraduate and
graduate education in uncertainty quan-
tification are necessary, but insufficient,
to correct the industry’s persistent prob-
lems with overconfidence and optimism.
Education in uncertainty quantification
needs to continue beyond formal educa-
tion for several reasons.
Firstly, many, if not most, current-
ly practicing professionals do not know
how to reliably quantify uncertainty. Sec-
74
ondly, reliable quantification of uncer-
tainty is not easy, as evidenced by several
decades of industry underperformance.
If it was easy, more would have mas-
tered it. Based on observations of stu-
dents, treatment in higher education
will be a good start but will not yield
mastery for life. Thirdly, the fields we
develop, the technology we use, and the
world in which we operate change with
time. Thus, the uncertainties we will face
change with time as well. Learning to
quantify uncertainty reliably is a lifelong
learning process.
Continuing education on uncertain-
ty quantification can be accomplished
through participation in conferences,
workshops, and short courses. A cover-
age of topics such as debiasing, proba-
bilistic modeling, and decision analysis
can be quite helpful. However, the key to
reliable uncertainty assessment is look-
backs and calibration, so this should be
a primary emphasis in continuing edu-
cation. The full uncertainty will never
be assessed, regardless of the sophisti-
cation of the probabilistic methodology,
if unknown unknowns are not includ-
ed in the assessments. Simpler proba-
bilistic methods combined with reliable
assessments of uncertainty derived from
lookbacks and calibration will be supe-
rior to sophisticated probabilistic meth-
ods combined with overconfident and
optimistic uncertainty assessments that
apparently are the norm today.
While coverage of these concepts
in formal continuing education efforts
will be valuable, the most important
education may be self-education that
comes through simply keeping track of
one’s predictions and comparing them
with actual results over time. This is
not a new concept; it was suggested by
Capen (1976).
Call for Change in Incentives
Disappointment and industry under-
performance have persisted for decades
because lookbacks and calibration, and
the learning and subsequent forecast
improvements that derive from these
calibrations, are rarely practiced. There
are a few pockets of practice, but they are
apparently the exception. Of the thou-
sands of SPE publications that mention
uncertainty or risk, very few mention
lookbacks and calibration. Why is this?
There is a host of reasons.
Firstly, many companies still use
deterministic methods. Although these
methods do not strictly preclude the
use of lookbacks and calibration, their
potential value is reduced significantly if
forecasts are not probabilistic. Secondly,
until recently, there has been little quan-
titative evidence in the literature to show
that the cost of chronic overconfidence
and optimism is high, which has likely
contributed to the lack of appreciation
for the importance of lookbacks and cali-
bration. Thirdly, many of the forecasts
made in the oil and gas industry are long
term; it can take years and sometimes
decades to obtain the actual values need-
ed to compare with the forecasts in order
to check calibration. Finally, there is a
lack of tools for tracking and calibrating
forecasts over time. These are significant
challenges, but they are surmountable.
The biggest reason, however, has to
do with incentives. In most companies,
employees are not incentivized to gen-
erate estimates and forecasts that are
well calibrated probabilistically. They
are incentivized to do the opposite. In
order to win bids, compete for budget,
get projects approved, avoid disappoint-
ing superiors by telling them the project
will take longer and cost more—i.e., in
order to do things that get attention and
reward—people are naturally encour-
aged and incentivized to be overconfi-
dent and optimistic.
To compound the problem, there
is virtually no accountability for proj-
ect failures and consistent underperfor-
mance, as pointed out by Nandurdikar
(2014). Often, the analysts and deci-
sion makers have moved on by the time
the problems are realized. Even when
they are still around, there is often lit-
tle consequence. Because lookbacks and
calibration are seldom performed, the
problems are attributed to “unforeseen
circumstances” rather than overconfi-
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
 MANAGEMENT
dent and optimistic forecasts. Incentives
in the wrong direction plus no account-
ability for unreliable forecasts make a
recipe for chronic overconfidence, opti-
mism, disappointment, and underper-
formance. No wonder these problems
have persisted for decades.
If you want to change human behav-
ior, you have to change their incentives. If
you want employees to generate well-cal-
ibrated probabilistic forecasts in order to
maximize profitability, then you have to
incentivize employees to generate well-
calibrated probabilistic forecasts. This
means you must have a systematic pro-
cess for tracking forecasts and subse-
quent actual values and for generating
calibration reports. This should be done
at all levels: individual, group, division,
and corporate. Then there needs to be
appropriate accountability. You cannot
judge the reliability of a single probabi-
listic forecast because of the uncertainty
in outcomes, which can include both suc-
cess and failure. You can judge the reli-
ability of only a group of probabilistic
forecasts. Thus, the accountability has to
be provided at some frequency less than
on a per-project basis.
If accountability is provided on a
single-project basis, analysts may be
overly conservative to avoid failure,
which can result in missed opportunities.
Tracking should include as many proba-
bilistic forecasts as possible for statisti-
cal significance. These should obviously
include the more significant forecasts,
e.g., reserves, time to first production,
initial rate, development costs, and oil
prices. They can also include business
forecasts, e.g., quarterly earnings, and
less significant forecasts, e.g., time esti-
mate to produce a report for the boss,
both to generate sufficient numbers for
statistical significance and to instill a
corporate culture of reliably quantifying
uncertainty in virtually everything.
Just as students are more motivat-
ed to reliably quantify uncertainty when
their grades are affected, professionals
76
will become more motivated to produce lysts’ forecasts are not well calibrated,
reliable probabilistic forecasts if some- they can use calibration results to exter-
thing is riding on the quality of their nally adjust the forecasts themselves to
probabilistic calibration. If you want to improve forecast reliability.
really change incentives and behavior, Decision making and profitability
include probabilistic calibration in annu- will be optimal in the long run only when
al performance reviews at all levels, and probabilistic forecasts are well calibrat-
make it a factor in deciding compensa- ed: P10s are true P10s, and P90s are true
tion, bonuses, promotions, and the like. P90s, and so forth. Changing corporate
Nothing short of this is likely to have culture to produce well-calibrated prob-
much of an impact. abilistic forecasts will require educating
In addition to providing account- the current workforce and the next gen-
ability, a system for tracking and cali- eration of engineers on the importance
brating forecasts can be used to edu- of lookbacks and calibration, as well as
cate both analysts and decision makers changing business processes and incen-
and improve probabilistic forecast qual- tive structures.
ity and business performance over time. If we do not change corporate
Some engineers complain that decision culture and incentives regarding uncer-
makers prefer to make decisions based tainty assessment, overconfidence and
on gut or instinct because they are either optimism and consequent chronic un-
overconfident or do not understand performance will persist for sever-
probabilistic analyses. However, it may al decades. JPT
also be possible that decision makers do
not trust analysts’ probabilistic forecasts References
because they suspect, from experience, Capen, E.C. 1976. The Difficulty of Assessing
that the forecasts are unreliable. Uncertainty. J. Pet Technol 28 (8): 843–850.
Calibration feedback over time Rose, P.R. 2004. Delivering on Our E&P
can help analysts improve their fore- Promises. Leading Edge 23 (2): 165–168.
cast quality by either internally adjust- Brashear, J.P., Becker, A.B., and Faulder, D.D.
ing their methodology or by external- 2001. Where Have All the Profits Gone?
ly modifying forecasts made using the J. Pet Technol 53 (6): 20–23, 70–73.
same methodology. If it can be shown Nandurdikar, N. 2014. Wanted: A New Type of
to decision makers that analysts’ fore- Business Leader to Fix E&P Asset Develop-
casts are probabilistically reliable, deci- ments. J. Pet Technol 66 (10): 15–19.
sion makers can learn to trust and use McVay, D.A. and Dossary, M. 2014. The Value
analysts’ forecasts in decision making. If of Assessing Uncertainty. SPE Econ & Mgmt
decision makers have evidence that ana- 6 (2): 100–110.
Duane A. McVay is the Rob L. Adams ’40 Professor in the
Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University.
His primary research focus is on uncertainty quantification,
particularly in production forecasting and reserves estimation in
oil and gas reservoirs. He joined Texas A&M in 1999, after
spending 16 years with S.A. Holditch & Associates, a petroleum
engineering consulting firm. McVay is a Distinguished Member
of SPE and will serve as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2015-16. He received BS,
MS, and PhD degrees in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
 TECHNOLOGY
Mike Weatherl,
SPE, is a deepwater
consultant for
Apache. He holds a
degree in petroleum
engineering from
The University of
Tulsa. Weatherl started his career as a
production engineer with Chevron in
New Orleans. Over the next 25 years,
his career with Chevron included a
variety of positions in production
and drilling. Since 2004, Weatherl
has worked primarily on deepwater
projects, first as a drilling adviser
at Chevron before moving over to
Hess Corporation in November 2007.
He is a board-certified professional
engineer in Texas and a 25-year SPE
member. Weatherl has authored
several papers and has served as a
technical editor for SPE Drilling &
Completion. He is a member of the
JPT Editorial Committee.
Recommended additional reading
at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
SPE 166456 Newtonian Fluid in
Cementing Operations in Deepwater
Wells: Friend or Foe? by Polina Khalilova,
Schlumberger, et al.
SPE 166166 Casing While Drilling
Using Rotary-Steerable Technology
in the Stag Field—Offshore Australia
by Kyle S. Graves, Apache, et al.
OTC 24189 Taking the Proper Action to
Gas Influx During Constant-Bottomhole-
Pressure Technique of Managed-Pressure
Drilling by Ali Karimi, The University of
Tulsa, et al.
SPE/IADC 170550 Novel Lubricant/
Bridging-Agent Combination Cures
Differential-Sticking Problems in
High-Pressured North Kuwait Wells
by M.S. Al-Muhailan, Kuwait Oil Company,
et al.
78
DRILLING
TECHNOLOGY
I have been a witness to the evolution of drilling technology during the past 33 years,
and being part of this industry has been a great privilege and an adventure. Nowhere
else are these new and evolving technologies more accessible or better documented
than in SPE media. In this Drilling Technology feature, a few example papers from
recent industry events have been selected to highlight new ways extreme challenges
are being addressed and solutions are being applied to deliver game-changing break-
throughs in the way wells are being delivered.
Geosteering of multilateral wellbores in mature reservoirs in Kuwait using geo-
chemical analysis is an example of the kind of cross-discipline interaction that has
become a hallmark of successful well delivery. Drilling engineers are dedicated as a
part of the core team early in the project-planning phase. Here, Earth scientists and
engineers develop effective communication and working relationships and become
fluent in the languages of other disciplines.
As is often said, all of the easy reserves have been produced. Long gone are the
days when low-risk, low-cost wells were drilled, completed, and put on production for
a quick payout. Today, to extract value from complex reservoirs with ever-increasing
cost and risk, using innovative techniques and new ideas is the name of the game.
Seamless, multidiscipline work flows and imbedded integrated teams continue to
present significant opportunities within the industry and will for many years to come.
The application of managed-pressure drilling (MPD) and underbalanced drilling
(UBD) has evolved across the spectrum of offshore, onshore, new-field, and mature
developments in recent years. Experienced teams report with increasing frequency
that they were able to deliver wells and reserves using MPD/UBD that otherwise would
have been undrillable. Considering the narrowing pore-pressure and fracture-gradient
windows over the life of the field, with increasing depletion and reinjection, applica-
tions for these technologies are expected to continue to expand. Two related articles
are featured showing dramatic geographic and well-type diversity: MPD offshore Viet-
nam and high-pressure/high-temperature UBD onshore US in the Marcellus shale. Two
very different case histories share a common element: a departure from conventional
drilling fluid, well control, and overbalanced drilling. A review of recent SPE papers and
presentations at industry events indicates applications of MPD/UBD technologies are
widespread. On the other hand, looking at the fields where these strategies have not yet
been implemented, one gets the feeling that perhaps these are still early days.
Finally, evolution in drillstring design is detailed in a paper addressing recent tech-
nology advancements and practical considerations associated with extreme deepwater
drilling applications. Once again, ever-increasing well complexity, depths, pressures,
and temperatures demand new materials, new procedures, and aggressive innovation.
Mechanical integrity and reliability under extreme static and dynamic loads will con-
tinue to dictate systematic design, manufacturing, and testing to deliver well objectives.
These are but a small sample of the many excellent papers recently generated. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
Drilling of Multilateral Wells in Kuwait
Aided With Geochemical Analysis

T he Burgan reservoir consists

of vertically stacked channel
sands along with a fault network
Oil production with
no evidence of water Oil associated with
at the heel of the water production
connected to the aquifer and contains horizontal section through faults connected
highly viscous reservoir fluid. This (no faults) to the aquifer
dramatically enhances the water
mobility and results in severe
premature water breakthrough,
bypassing zones of oil. This paper
describes the use of real-time
geochemical analysis to support
geosteering of a smart multilateral well
located in one of the highest-potential- Fig. 1—Seismic coherence map along a horizontal section of a Burgan producer
flow areas of Kuwait. is used to locate areas of faulting. The coherent beige areas in the cross
section show no faulting. All other colors (incoherent areas) show faulted
areas ranging through dark blue, yellow, orange, and red colors (less faulting
to more faulting, respectively).
Introduction
The Minagish field in Kuwait was dis-
covered in 1959 and is located in the located at approximately 5,500-ft true the upper part of the reservoir has an
southwestern part of the country. It vertical depth subsea. edgewater-drive system. The reservoir
contains several reservoir intervals in contains high-permeability sands on the
its stratigraphic column, varying from Burgan Reservoir. This reservoir is order of a few darcies associated with
Early Jurassic to Late Cretaceous. The informally divided into the upper and active faults and has highly viscous res-
field is situated 12 km northwest of lower Burgan sections. Lower Burgan ervoir fluid (approximately 40 cp at res-
the west Umm Gudair field. The field sands are more extensive and blocky ervoir conditions). This heterogeneous
has been penetrated by more than 180 in nature, with few variations in their nature of the reservoir accelerates water
wells, to contact not only the middle properties. The lower Burgan reservoir movement inside the reservoir and re-
and lower Minagish reservoirs of the section lies above the oil/water con- sults in premature water breakthrough
Lower Cretaceous but also other shal- tact (OWC) and is of significance from in the existing vertical wells and in hori-
low reservoirs such as the Mishrif/ a hydrocarbon-bearing perspective. zontal wells, in spite of maintaining the
Rumaila carbonates and the Wara/Bur- Upper Burgan sands are mainly in the highest standoff from the OWC.
gan sandstone. The Minagish field struc- form of channel sands, ranging in thick-
ture of the Wara and Burgan formations ness from a few feet to nearly 45 ft, Scope of Work. Located in the crest-
is a closed elongated asymmetrical an- and they have extensive lateral facies al part of the Minagish field, the Bur-
ticline oriented in a north/south direc- variation. The lower part of the Burgan gan reservoir offers limited surface lo-
tion. The top of the Burgan structure is has active bottomwater drive, whereas cations for drilling many vertical wells
to deplete the reservoir effectively. Be-
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of cause of the nature of the reservoir and
paper IPTC 16617, “Drilling of Multilateral Wells Aided With Geochemical Analysis, its oil quality, horizontal wells or multi-
Kuwait,” by Taher El Gezeery, Abdul Aziz Ismail, Khalaf Al Anezi, Monirah Al lateral wells are viable options. The
upper part of the Burgan reservoir con-
Jeaan, Jeevan Kumar Silambuchelvan, and G.S. Padhy, Kuwait Oil, and Atul Wasnik
sists of complex laminated thin channel
and Ahmed Al Shoeibi, Geolog International, prepared for the 2013 International
sand, and interchannel silts and shale
Petroleum Technology Conference, Beijing, 26–28 March. The paper has not been that are associated with fault networks
peer reviewed. pose several drilling and geosteering
challenges (Figs. 1 and 2). Also, geo-
Copyright 2014 International Petroleum Technology Conference. Reproduced by steering in the upper Burgan sand, with
permission. lateral facies changes associated with

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 79


Fig. 2—The production log shows incoherent areas on seismic having a very
high potential for water coning. This zone is interpreted as a fault zone
connected with the aquifer. The water coning is mainly caused by a very high
mobility ratio and oil-wet reservoir characteristics.
faulting and with deformation or drag,
is a major challenge. The multilateral
well was drilled by integrating logging-
while-drilling and X-ray-fluorescence
(XRF) data and petrophysical interpre-
tations in real time to geosteer the hori-
zontal well successfully in the zone of in-
terest with maximum possible reservoir
contact. However, in the current paper,
only the XRF component of Well MN-A
(multilateral) is highlighted. After suc-
cessful implementation of the work flow
in the lower lateral (LAT-0) placed in the
lower Burgan, the same work flow was
used to geosteer the upper lateral (LAT-1)
in the upper Burgan.
In the current work scope, the pre-
job modeling consisted of a geochem-
ical model based on XRF analysis of
core chips from offset wells. For a dis-
cussion of prejob modeling, including
geochemical and petrographic analysis
and an offset-well study, please see the
complete paper.
Multilateral-Well-Location
Optimization
The well locations for smart multilateral
wells are optimized by integrating data
from multiple disciplines, from the mac-
roscale (seismic) through the microscale
(petrography). Furthermore, data from
seismic, geology, petrophysics, reservoir
engineering, and well surveillance were
incorporated into the predrill charac-
terization program. The lower lateral,
LAT-0 (main bore) of the smart multilat-
eral well, is placed in the lower Burgan,
consisting of a braided river system with
80
stacked sand bodies. The sediment rang-
es from fine to coarse grain sizes, with
the porosity ranging from 20 to 30% and
with permeability values on the order of a
few darcies. The bottom part of the mas-
sive, thick sand bodies is connected di-
rectly to the bottom aquifer.
The upper lateral, LAT-1 of the
smart multilateral well, is targeted in
the upper Burgan reservoir, which rang-
es from silt to medium sands. The po-
rosity is relatively low (between 15 and
18%), and the permeability values are
on the order of 100 md because the
reservoir still retains its fluvial-sand
character. Shaly sediments between the
lower and upper Burgan can act as a per-
meability barrier or baffle for vertical
migration of fluids. This complex chan-
nel geometry makes these reservoirs
very challenging for implementation of
smart multilateral wells.
Real-Time Geosteering Aided
With Geochemical Analysis
High-resolution 3D-seismic-data inter-
pretation has enabled refining of the geo-
logical model in terms of faults and res-
ervoir boundaries. Real-time geosteering
is performed by use of advanced and
innovative technologies, including high-
resolution XRF geochemical analysis, to
identify “geochemical proxies” and to
allow geochemical steering. In the pres-
ent scope of work, near-real-time XRF
geochemical analysis complemented
with log-based petrophysical evaluation
was used to better geosteer the wellbore
in the zone of interest and to maximize
the reservoir contact. The authors pres-
ent the details of an integrated inter-
pretation based on a real-time data set
for the LAT-0 and LAT-1 sections of Well
MN-A (multilateral).
Multilateral-Junction Considerations.
A crucial aspect in designing the smart
multilateral well was the selection of an
appropriate multilateral junction. After
a complete screening of various multi-
lateral junctions, the Level-4 junction
was selected. During the well-trajectory
optimization, the multilateral-junction
depth was selected across excellent com-
pact shale at the base of Wara layers to
ensure junction stability during drill-
ing and well completion, and to ensure
junction integrity during long-term pro-
duction. The high-resolution-XRF analy-
sis shows a high-argillaceous siliciclastic
zone on the basis of chemical behavior.
XRF-Aided Chemosteering in Lower
Burgan Sand (LAT-0). The geochemical
model built with offset-well data guided
the chemosteering of the well, in inte-
gration with other information. In the
absence of resistivity data, XRF-analysis
data identified a fault at 7,340 ft, which
was not observed by the near-bit gamma
ray log. Elemental changes, supplement-
ed with lithological changes, confirm
the faults encountered at 7,490, 7,950,
8,450, and 8,700 ft. Cl could be used
as a good marker before encountering
the fault. The findings of XRF analysis
are further confirmed, while drilling,
from interpretation of azimuthal den-
sity images. Chemosteering thus aided
in changing the well path on the basis of
elemental analysis, helping to maximize
the reservoir contact.
Identification of Faults/Fractures. Azi-
muthal lithodensity images were inter-
preted while drilling not only to un-
derstand the formation dip but, more
importantly, to identify clusters of frac-
tures/faults. Four fault zones were iden-
tified through the LAT-0 section of Well
A, and these were quite evident from
XRF analysis. Though the real-time den-
sity images were not of high confidence,
they still were able to provide infor-
mation about formation dip and helped
guide the geosteering process in the
upper and lower Burgan reservoirs.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
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Fault
7,940 ft
Landing
Fig. 3—Superimposed seismic section with key elemental markers.
During geosteering, in the LAT-0 of
Well A in the lower Burgan reservoir unit,
increments of K, Al, Ti, and Zr are ob-
served, indicating dirty sands. The target
is to keep these elements at a minimum
to ensure contacting good sand, there-
by retaining a higher value of silica (Si).
XRF geochemical analysis showed a clean
sand/sandstone over the drilled interval,
with Si values between 18 and 35% and
minimum concentrations of Al, Fe, K, Ti,
S, Zr, Co, and arsenic.
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82
Areas of concern
Fault
8,450 ft
XRF-Aided Chemosteering in the
Upper Burgan Sand (LAT-1). During
landing of the well at the top of the
upper Burgan sand, XRF geochemical
analysis based on elemental signature
showed a sharp positive increment of Si;
heavy minerals Ti, Zr, Al, Fe, and K had
a downward trend, with other elements,
such as Cl, Mo, Cr, Ag, Co, and Sn reach-
ing zero values at the top of the Bur-
gan sand. These proxies are considered
excellent markers and had very good
correlation with the offset well MN-X.
The Si values decreased after displacing
the oil-based mud (OBM) with calcium
carbonate mud because of the contami-
nation and high percentage of Ca. The
correlation with MN-X degraded, and
other elements were selected for cor-
relation. There are 10 proxies with el-
emental signatures in clean-sand lobes
of the upper Burgan. While geosteering
in the sweet zone, an increase in heavy-
mineral contents (Ti and Zr), particularly
in the middle part of the main clean-sand
channel, then an increase in Mg con-
tent, has been noticed while penetrat-
ing downstructure, followed by Fe and
Al maximum elevated values while mov-
ing further down at the lowest part of the
Burgan, indicating dirty sand and shaly
sections. The evidence of faulting in the
upper lateral (LAT-1) showed elemental
changes, supplemented with lithologi-
cal changes, very similar to the faults en-
countered in the Lower Burgan lateral
section (LAT-0). The pilot XRF model
and offset Well MN-X were used with
high confidence to steer the well on the
basis of clear geochemical fingerprints
and markers associated with Burgan sub-
layers. This technique has resulted in
successful chemosteering in the clean-
sand lobe with less than 10-ft thickness
and has maximized the reservoir con-
tact, even with the structural complex-
ity associated with faults and significant
dip changes.
Collaborative Work Flow:
A Key to Success
The current work scope was a success
because of the merger of independent
data sets from different analyses through
a collaborative approach, extracting the
right information at the right time. The
first data to be gathered were seismic
data, providing a vital reference frame-
work—such as identifying the most like-
ly faulted sections and the type of disloca-
tion they can cause. The seismic image in
Fig. 3 shows the horizontal-well section
superimposed by an abundance of main
elemental markers obtained through
XRF analysis. Clear changes in the abun-
dance of these elements are associated
with the main features of the well sec-
tion. Al also provided an early indication
of the approaching fault, showing an in-
crease at the start of the disturbed sec-
tion at 7,836 ft.
Similarly, elemental markers are
also matched with the measuring-while-
drilling azimuthal-tool response. Al
began to increase with the first minor
fault and peaked at 7,940 ft. It remained
high until 8,100 ft, where its values low-
ered. Ti had similar behavior, with the
difference that it appeared significantly
only when the main fault was encoun-
tered at 7,940 ft. The indication from
Al is particularly important because it
came as an early sign of the fault. The
azimuthal information arrived later and
confirmed that a fault had dislocated the
well trajectory, which was corrected as
a consequence.
However, the use of chemical ele-
ments measured in real time with high-
density points is not the only applica-
tion of this technology. In fact, the same
data can be used during the production
phase to isolate the faulted interval. In
the case outlined in the complete paper,
Al concentration was used as a proxy
along with permeability measurements
to mark and isolate zones of potential
trouble that would be very detrimental
for water production. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
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 Managed-Pressure-Drilling Technology
in Offshore HP/HT Gas/Condensate Fields

T he paper discusses two gas/

condensate-development
projects offshore Vietnam that
tegrated into the rig on a flexible “plug-
and-play” basis.
The Cuu Long JOC wells, drilled
ily identified when the MPD system
was used.
Challenges were encountered on the
deploy managed-pressure-drilling from a cantilever jack-up over the plat- Bien Dong wells with rotating-control-
(MPD) technology. Bien Dong POC form, had somewhat different drivers, device (RCD) rubber-element-life dura-
in 2010 commenced planning for given that a number of wells in this tion because of drillstring-alignment is-
the Bien Dong 1 high-pressure/high- field had previously encountered chal- sues and high temperature (up to 85°C
temperature (HP/HT) gas/condensate- lenges that MPD could mitigate. These on the return flow) when the mud cooler
development project. The Bien Dong included low rates of penetration and was not in operation. The hydrogenated
1 development is a complex HP/HT fracture-induced losses because of the nitrile rubber elements, which rigor-
project ranking as one of the most equivalent-circulating-density (ECD) ous testing had indicated were the best
difficult and challenging projects of effect. Managing the ECD became the choice for high temperatures and oil-
its kind in the Asia Pacific region. The main driver as experience was gained based mud, proved to be inadequate in
second project covered by this paper with MPD. the field and thus were exchanged for
is the gas-condensate development for natural rubber for a trial well.
Cuu Long JOC. Implementation of MPD Figs. 1 through 4 illustrate equip-
in Bien Dong POC Well 1 ment rig up for this project.
MPD with early kick detection was de-
Introduction ployed in five Bien Dong wells. The Planning and Prejob
The Bien Dong drilling team decided major objective of using MPD was to en- Engineering of MPD
to deploy MPD technology in the plan- sure that the wells could be drilled safe- in Bien Dong POC Well 2
ning phase of the development drilling ly without encountering any unplanned MPD with constant-bottomhole-
and mobilized it for the first well drilled well-control events. Ballooning events pressure (CBHP) drilling and early
in the project. This decision was made were identified by the MPD system dur- kick detection by use of a proprie-
because of the very low kick-and-loss ing pump-off periods, which had in- tary control system was deployed.
margin and potential for ballooning and duced microfractures in the overpres- The main objective for using MPD for
kick events, given the very high pore sured formation, and the return drilling this well was to eliminate the risk as-
pressure. The frequency of well-control fluid was flowed back into the wellbore sociated with drilling this complex
incidents can be higher in HP/HT wells; as the fractures closed. The resultant HP/HT formation.
MPD enables easier control of kicks with flowback can often be confused with With the MPD system, wellbore
the automated choke manifold. influx. Failure to recognize ballooning pressure fluctuations can be identified
A semisubmersible tender assist rig vs. well control is a common mistake quickly in both static and dynamic con-
is being used to drill all the current de- made in drilling operations. While drill- ditions; in response, annular backpres-
velopment wells; it is the largest of its ing, the entire MPD system was able sure can be manipulated precisely to off-
type in the world and incorporates a to detect a number of gas-at-surface set downhole pressure variations and to
quad mast. The MPD equipment was in- events. Moreover, the events were eas- stay within the drilling window. Having
the MPD system in place allows finger-
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights print pressure behavior during connec-
of paper SPE 171429, “The Deployment of Managed-Pressure-Drilling Technology tions and pipe movements, to determine
To Assist in the Development of Offshore HP/HT Gas/Condensate Fields in Vietnam: whether a kick is being swabbed in or if
the well is statically underbalanced.
Planning, Engineering, and Implementation,” by Ben Gedge, Tan Chai Yong, Jordan
Rao, Harpreet Kaur Dalgit Singh, Joseph Oracion, and Bao Ta Quoc, Weatherford;
HP/HT Transients. Mud weight should
Nguyen Viet Bot, PVD Well Services; Nam Hong Tran, Tri Le Tran Minh, Richard always be a few pressure points above
Buitenhuis, and Lich Tran Dai, Bien Dong POC; and Alan E. Wittry, Peter Malpas, the pore pressure to account for both
Aldric Beaugeois, Nhieu Nguyen Huu, and Nguyen Van Que, Cuu Long JOC, temperature and potential swab effects.
prepared for the 2014 SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, This makes it more complicated to de-
Adelaide, Australia, 14–16 October. The paper has not been peer reviewed. sign the mud gradient in HP/HT wells

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

84 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

Fig. 1—MPD choke manifold rigged up on the main deck. Fig. 2—RCD and accessory valves hooked up on the
surface blowout preventer (BOP).

where there usually is a very small pore-
pressure/fracture-pressure margin. On
the basis of the modeled temperature
plots for drilling the 12¼-in. section
from the 14½-in.-casing shoe to sec-
tion total depth (TD), drilling with lower
pump rates reduces the effective heat
transfer between formation and drill-
ing fluid.
The effect of temperature on mud
weight in static conditions (pump off) is
significantly higher compared with dy-
namic conditions. The mud weight seen
at surface will not be the same as the mud
weight at TD in the wellbore because the
geothermal temperature increases as the
well drills deeper; thus, a more pronounced
reduction in mud weight will be seen.
The computation of equivalent stat-
ic density (ESD), when the drilling fluid
is not circulated in the wellbore and no
surface backpressure (SBP) is being held,
indicates that the selected mud weight
would lead to a statically underbalanced
condition. SBP is recommended to be ap-
plied to compensate for the loss of annu-
lar friction in static conditions.

Fig. 3—RCD stack installed on the surface BOP. Fig. 4—BOP-stack arrangement and work platform.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 85

 ECD/ESD-Management Plan for MPD
Operations. The flow behavior during
MPD/CBHP application was simulated
to define the circulating parameters that
will be used while drilling. These param-
eters will maintain the dynamic down-
hole pressure within the operational
window, which is bounded by the for-
mation pore pressure and the fluid-loss
fracture pressure. This will be evaluat-
ed as the drilling progresses by adjust-
ing the pressure on surface by using the
MPD choke.
Preliminary analysis of the in-
formation reveals that the well can be
drilled safely by “walking the line” just
above the pore-pressure values. From
the hydraulic model, it can be seen that
with MPD, stopping the pumps during
connections will not prevent maintain-
ing a CBHP marginally greater than the
pore pressure while not fracturing the
formation. This is achieved by holding
a backpressure while circulating across
the well with the MPD choke.
MPD in Cuu Long JOC Wells:
CBHP Drilling in an HP/HT
Overpressured Formation
Three initial wells for Cuu Long JOC
were drilled successfully with the pro-
prietary control system, an automated
choke manifold. The fourth well, which
was recently concluded, used a semi-
automatic choke manifold. The decision
to change from the automated choke
system to a semiautomatic choke system
was made mainly because the well pro-
files were already known and there was
already much confidence in the drill-
ing team to drill the well with a simpli-
fied MPD system. In the last well, SBP
being applied every time the circulation
stopped was the main driver of having
the MPD system installed. In this way,
the ECD could be managed as needed.
The main objective of installing the MPD
is to drill the 8½- and 6-in.-hole sec-
tions by applying SBP to maintain CBHP
when pumps are off as well as during ce-
menting operations.
On the fourth well with MPD ap-
plication, the most interesting section
where MPD has been mostly applied
is the 8½-in.-hole section, where the
86
highest formation pressure was en-
countered. This hole section was drilled
from 3505-m measured depth (MD) to
4594-m MD and has a formation pres-
sure ranging from 10.2 to 13.7 lbm/gal
in the upper part of the section, then re-
ducing from 13.7 to 12.8 lbm/gal and fi-
nally to 11.8 lbm/gal at TD.
With the use of MPD, the hole sec-
tion can be drilled to TD with a single mud
weight. In the hydraulics simulation per-
formed, the ECD of 12.8 lbm/gal and flow
rate of between 500 and 600  gal/min
are sufficient to stay overbalanced at the
highest anticipated pore pressure. How-
ever, when pumps are stopped for a con-
nection, 750- to 800-psi SBP is required
with the MPD choke manifold to replace
the frictional losses while circulating. By
choosing the highest pressure in the hole
section as the pivot point for the MPD
application, the entire hole section can
be drilled successfully and safely with a
single mud weight.
Operations. The MPD equipment was
rigged up after the 13⅜-in. casing was
set and cemented. After the rig up was
completed, the MPD system was pres-
sure tested to check the integrity of
the whole system. The MPD fingerprint-
ing exercise was then conducted before
drilling the 12¼-in.-hole section. The
RCD bearing assembly was initially in-
stalled at 3145-m MD to drill through
the first pressure-ramp zone to 3505-m
MD TD.
For the 8½-in.-hole section, the
MPD application started with per-
forming the fingerprinting exercises.
For the first 500 m (3505 to 4004-m
MD), the RCD bearing assembly was in-
stalled but SBP was not applied. Drill-
ing of the remaining 8½-in.-hole sec-
tion from 4004-m MD to section TD
of 4594-m MD continued, applying up
to a maximum of 800-psi SBP during
connections, to maintain an equivalent
mud weight of 14.0 lbm/gal; 150-psi
SBP during back reaming after drill-
ing standdown; and 150-psi SBP during
measurement-while-drilling downlink-
ing. After circulating the hole clean,
the mud in the hole was displaced to
14.1  lbm/gal with no losses noted dur-
ing circulation. With a maximum ECD
of 15.03 lbm/gal, the option to conduct
MPD cementing was no longer required.
To mitigate the risk of swabbing gas dur-
ing pulling out of hole (POOH) of the
8½-in. bottomhole assembly, SBP of
170 psi was applied. The 7-in. liner was
run in hole and cemented with the 7-in.-
liner shoe set at 4591-m MD.
For the 6-in.-hole section, the
RCD was installed during drilling, but
with no SBP applied. SBP was applied
only during back reaming after drilling
standdown and a wiper trip to the shoe
to mitigate swabbing. The biggest ad-
vantage of having the MPD system in-
stalled for this hole section was during
the well-control situation. The RCD was
used to strip back to the bottom of the
hole in order to control the kick and cir-
culate it out. Stripping into the hole with
a casing pressure averaging 1,200 psi for
3250 m proved very successful and miti-
gated the use of the rig’s annular blow-
out preventer.
MPD Cementing. As previously men-
tioned, MPD cementing has become part
of the contingency planning for wells
drilled in this HP/HT field. It was imple-
mented successfully in one of the four
wells drilled previously, where losses
were encountered during the running of
the 7-in. liner with 13.9-lbm/gal mud in
the hole. Before cementing operations,
the mud in the hole was reduced by
0.3 lbm/gal to reduce the ECD and there-
by mitigate the losses. While the pump
was shut down after the spacer was dis-
placed, a 150-psi SBP was applied to
compensate for frictional losses. The
150-psi SBP was maintained until the
cement slurry was completely pumped,
and was released when the rig started to
pump fluid to displace the cement slur-
ry. When the top plug was completely
bumped and circulation stopped, the
SBP was then increased to 150 psi and
was held at this value until the liner
packer was set successfully.
For a discussion of applied SBP dur-
ing POOH and the wiper trip, and strip-
ping through the RCD during a well-
control event for this project, please see
the complete paper. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
Unique System for Underbalanced Drilling
Using Air in the Marcellus Shale

A ir drilling has become popular

in the Marcellus and Utica shale
reservoirs because of its higher rate of
Single-Phase

Fluid-System Type
penetration (ROP) and less resulting
formation damage. A unique drilling
Two-Phase
system incorporating the use of
downhole mud motors, electromagnetic
Foam
(EM) measurement-while-drilling
(MWD), and air hammers has been
Gas/Mist
specifically designed and ruggedized
to address downhole shock and
vibration encountered in air drilling.
2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5
Use of this system has resulted in
Pore-Pressure Gradient (kPa/m)
significant reduction of nonproductive
time (NPT). Fig. 1—Types of fluids used to address various pore-pressure regimes.

Air drilling provides a significant Types of Fluid Regimes

Introduction
While seeking alternatives to increase
ROP and reduce drilling costs, a few op-
erators in the northeastern US imple-
mented batch-drilling practices from pad
locations. This provides an attractive al-
ternative by allowing multiple wells to
share the same surface location, effec-
tively reducing footprint and environ-
mental impact. Common well design uses
streamlined well construction, where
low-cost rigs can drill the tophole sec-
tions and larger, more-expensive rigs
drill the curve and lateral sections. The
typical well plan incorporates surface,
intermediate, curve, and lateral sections
that, combined, may exceed 18,000 ft.
The lateral sections are the most critical
and range between 2,000 and 8,000 ft,
depending on formation and well geome-
try. The goal for close-proximity-well de-
sign is to minimize well-to-well interfer-
ence and maximize reservoir exposure.
decrease in hydrostatic pressure over
common mud types, resulting in an in-
creased ROP. Additionally, significantly
better hole cleaning can be achieved be-
cause of the high air velocities used to
drill the well. Finally, mud- and cuttings-
handling costs can be reduced because
there are no chemicals to absorb and no
cuttings-cleaning requirements on virgin
formations. Early tests of this applica-
tion proved it to be a viable option for the
Marcellus and the Utica fields. Initially,
hammer bits were used for air drilling,
but significant challenges involving di-
rectional control emerged as well-plan
trajectories became more advanced. The
development of ruggedized mud motors
and MWD tools capable of handling these
challenges, and the use of specialized
fluid-control systems, eventually allowed
more-conventional bottomhole assem-
blies (BHAs) to be successful when used
for air drilling.
Drilling fluid and its circulation system
are used to clean the borehole, stabi-
lize rock, control pressures, and enhance
drilling rates in all phases of a drilling
program. Drilling fluids allow for suffi-
cient cooling, lubrication, cuttings re-
moval, and adequate transference of
hydraulic energy to the bit and other
downhole tools. Though rheology var-
ies, circulation systems focus on oper-
ating under specific pressure ranges in
relation to formation and reservoir pore
pressures. Fig. 1 illustrates how various
fluid systems are applied over the range
of formation-pore-pressure gradients.
Types of fluid regimes include the follow-
ing, and are discussed in greater detail in
the complete paper:
1. Overbalanced drilling
2. Managed-pressure drilling
3. Underbalanced drilling
4. Two-phase and foam drilling
5. Misting and dry-air drilling

Why Use an Air-Drilling

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights
System?
of paper SPE 171024, “Unique System for Underbalanced Drilling by Use of Air in the Directional drilling in a dry-air appli-
Marcellus Shale,” by Chris Maranuk, SPE, Ali Rodriguez, SPE, Joe Trapasso, SPE, cation is widely used in the northeast-
and Joshua Watson, SPE, Weatherford, prepared for the 2014 SPE Eastern Regional ern US for tophole sections of wells.
Meeting, Charleston, West Virginia, USA, 21–23 October. The paper has not been The benefits previously discussed be-
peer reviewed. come compounded as the batch-drilling

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 87

 process becomes more commonplace.
The reduction in drilling days, drilling-
fluid costs, and cuttings-handling ex-
penses makes batch drilling with air eco-
nomically more viable.
The simplest application of conven-
tional air drilling is used for nondirec-
tional applications and involves nothing
more than a tricone or polycrystalline-
diamond-cutter (PDC) bit. Other straight-
hole or nondirectional applications
use downhole air hammers or straight-
housing air motors. These nondirection-
al assemblies can be run in several differ-
ent BHA configurations, ranging from a
semistabilized to a fully stabilized or slick
configuration. The most common meth-
od of straight-hole air drilling is to stack
the BHA with additional drill collars to
create a heavy vertical hanging effect that
helps maintain a vertical wellbore.
A motorized air-hammer BHA con-
figuration is not used as widely but is
equally effective. This configuration con-
sists of an air hammer positioned at the
end of a bent air motor. This BHA is run
with an EM MWD tool and a shock sub.
An air-bypass sub is used in this con-
figuration to divert a certain percentage
of air above the motor, preventing over-
spinning. This added governor aids in
hammer control and increases the lon-
gevity of a hammer bit. While directional
control is possible in this configuration,
care must be taken when selecting not
only the bit-to-bend distance but also the
bend angle of the motor. Too much angle
does inhibit the flat-striking impact of
the hammer and can cause damage to the
hammer bit, shortening its life. In addi-
tion to maintaining a vertical hole, the
heavy BHA mentioned previously main-
tains a downward impact of the air ham-
mer, preventing the BHA from bouncing.
The most-common and -reliable air
directional BHA is a bent-housing air
motor with a tricone or PDC bit. This
BHA is used with an EM MWD system set
above the motor, with a shock sub set be-
tween it and the motor.
Air-Drilling System
An EM MWD telemetry system offers
several advantages over standard mud-
pulse-telemetry systems and is the pre-
ferred method of transmitting data from
a downhole tool to surface during un-
derbalanced operations. The key advan-
88
tage over mud-pulse tools is that the EM
MWD system can be used with compress-
ible fluids such as aerated liquids or air.
However, the use of air as a drilling fluid
is particularly challenging for any MWD
tool or mud motor because of the ex-
treme levels of axial and crossaxial vi-
brations generated by the lack of a liquid
fluid regime.
A few operators recognized the po-
tential benefit of drilling with dry air
to increase ROP in the area. But be-
cause of congested pads with a great
number of wells, the need for direction-
al measurement and control was rec-
ognized. Unfortunately, these early
adaptors experienced a high num-
ber of failures when drilling with MWD
and mud motors because of the harsh
air-drilling environment.
To mitigate damaging vibration ef-
fects, studies were conducted to identify
BHA changes and operational practices
to improve reliability of the air-drilling
system. A number of common operation-
al practices were identified as exacerbat-
ing lateral shocks and vibration. Imple-
mented procedures limited off-bottom
rotation, initiated staging compressors,
and stopped the practice of drilling off
weight on bit. While differences were
seen between BHA configurations, it be-
came best practice to remove all string
stabilizers and use a ¼-in. undergauge
stabilizer on a bent-housing motor with
a bend setting no greater than 1.5°. Un-
fortunately, the effect on service reliabil-
ity was not as substantial as anticipat-
ed. As such, a new system was required
to withstand these conditions and oper-
ate without failures downhole. This up-
grade included a modified air-drilling
motor, a ruggedized EM MWD tool, a
shock sub, and, in certain instances, a
fluid-bypass sub.
The EM MWD tool was ruggedized
by introducing more-robust electron-
ics and alternatively designed shock ab-
sorbers, to mitigate vibration. The MWD
mounting technique was converted to
hold the tool in tension while using re-
designed centralizers that allowed other
parts of the tool to move with the vibra-
tion instead of trying to eliminate it. The
placement of the centralizers was mod-
eled and engineered to eliminate drill-
ing harmonics that could cause damage
to the MWD tool. The antenna of the EM
tool was re-engineered to withstand the
high levels of vibration generated by the
air injection. The overall length was in-
creased by a factor greater than four to
dampen damaging vibration successfully
and prevent vibration concentration on
critical, small-cross-section parts. The
high-rate lithium batteries were labora-
tory tested extensively and then modified
to operate in this environment.
The drilling motor was modified for
the air environment by making modifica-
tions that successfully reduced the nec-
essary lubrication for the bearing pack.
With the changes, the motor requires
only 5 gal/hr of oil to extend its operating
life successfully. Additionally, a series of
self-lubricating dynamic sleeves was in-
corporated to support side loading and
reinforce the bearing pack, leading to
added longevity and better performance.
A shock sub was designed and used
as a vibration dampener within the
BHA. The new design is able to absorb
a large quantity of both axial and lat-
eral vibrations generated by the mud
motor. The tool successfully dampens
high-frequency vibration that induces
excessive shock to the MWD electronics
and sensors.
When air hammers are employed,
a bypass sub is used to minimize the
amount of air pumped through the BHA.
This bypass sub helps protect the ham-
mer bits, which are sensitive to the high-
er air-flow rates required for successful
hole cleaning.
Once the engineering phase of the
project was completed, field trials were
initiated. The new system has since
drilled more than 400,000 ft with a suc-
cess rate exceeding 98%.
Early Case Study
An operator was drilling a series of wells
near Washington County in southwest-
ern Pennsylvania. The target reservoir
was the Marcellus shale. Because this is a
populated area, drilling surface locations
have to be as small as possible. In order
to make drilling economical, as many
wells as possible needed to be drilled
on a single pad. The case-study pad was
designed to drill up to nine complex 3D
wells (see Fig. 2).
A typical well plan includes drill-
ing from the surface to approximately
800 ft and setting 13⅜-in. casing. From
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
 50
25
9
North Offset (ft)
0 6
8
–25
–50
–75
–75 –50
East Offset (US ft) (Scale: 25 US ft/in.)
Fig. 2—Spider plot of the case-study pad near Washington County in
southwestern Pennsylvania.
surface casing, a hammer bit without di-
rectional measurements is used to drill to
approximately 4,500 ft. The directional
air-drilling system is used to drill from
approximately 4,500 ft to approximately
7,000 ft. Finally, a rotary-steerable tool is
used to drill the curve and lateral. Wells
typically reach total depth at approxi-
mately 14,500 ft.
The first five wells were drilled
with a low-angle nudge up to approxi-
mately 30°. The significance of Well 6
is that this well used the directional air-
drilling system to drill a complex 3D well
from 4,600 ft to approximately 7,200 ft
with an inclination greater than 62°. Al-
most 70% of the curve was drilled with
the directional air-drilling system. That
would not have been possible in an air
environment without the use of this sys-
tem. Previously, the customer would use
an expensive rotary-steerable system
(RSS) to drill this intermediate section.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
≈70% of build section
completed with dry air
5
7
1
4 WCS Training Centers
Home • Office • Rig or Job Location
2
-LEARNING
DRILLING
Last Chance to Complete
IADC WellCAP®
–25 0 25 50 75 Certification
All Drilling Levels
Course Must Be Completed
By March 31, 2015
Once they picked up the RSS, they had to IADC is discontinuing WellCAP ®
change to a liquid-based drilling system, certification through e-learning
which increased mud cost and reduced platforms for all drilling levels. Future
ROP significantly. certifications must be completed in
Well 6 was drilled with air at a rate instructor-led classes.
of 3,800 scf/m while injecting 22 gal/min
of water. The 2,565-ft section was drilled Check our Web site for new and
in 34.33 hours. The profile of this well improved e-learning courses.
kicked off from 0° at approximate-
ly 4,600 ft (measured depth), built a
30° tangent at a 60° azimuth, and then
turned to a 340° azimuth while building
the curve to 62°. Through this section, the
MWD tool was able to remain in its lowest
power-transmission setting, maximizing
tool-battery life and the potential time
the tool can remain downhole. Achieving
this amount of build while drilling with
air reduced the time spent drilling the
curve to less than 12 hours. The average
drilling time to build a curve section by
use of conventional methods in the Mar-
cellus is between 21 and 26 hours. JPT
FOLLOW US ON
TM
+1.713.849.7400
www.wellcontrol.com
 Advanced Technologies and Solutions
for Challenging Drilling Applications

T his paper provides a review of

recent technology advancements
and addresses practical considerations
Thread 1

associated with drillpipe and drillstem

Third-generation

Second-generation
components for extreme drilling

DSC-585
applications. Recent developments

DSC-57
and enhancements in these connection
designs, including new higher-strength
materials, advanced thread forms, and
associated improvements in torsional
strength and fatigue performance, are
presented. The paper discusses the
engineering solutions implemented to Thread 2
overcome the high forces, slip-crushing Approximately 4 revolutions Approximately 13 revolutions
concerns, and material-strength and
toughness considerations for these Fig. 1—Illustration comparing scale figures of a third-generation DSC and a
second-generation DSC. The double-start-thread form reduces revolutions
critical applications. from stab to makeup by 50%. Changes in thread taper and pitch further reduce
revolutions in total from 13 to 4.

Third-Generation
Double-Shoulder Connection Design Philosophy. One of the prima- design objective. In addition, makeup
Since the introduction of the second- ry philosophies underlying the develop- torques can be excessive, at times sur-
generation double-shoulder connection ment of third-generation DSCs was the passing the capacity of the rig equip-
(DSC), the industry trend has continued concept that “one design does not fit all.” ment. Design parameters must be bal-
toward deeper and longer-reach wells, This philosophy suggests that a thread anced to reduce the makeup torque and
which has dictated the need for drill- form optimized for 6⅝-in. drillpipe may improve hydraulic performance.
pipe connections with enhanced me- not be optimal for 2⅜-in. drillpipe. In
chanical and dimensional character- fact, optimized thread forms for each of Connection Design. Third-generation
istics coupled with improved makeup/ these sizes differ substantially. DSCs differ from first- and second-
breakout speeds. 5- to 5⅞-in. drillpipe sizes repre- generation DSCs in several ways. One of
Consequently, a project was com- sent common sizes for offshore, deep- the primary differences is the addition
missioned to design, analyze, laborato- water, and higher-profile programs such of a dual-start, twin-lead, or double-start
ry test, and field trial the industry’s first as extended-reach drilling. Connection thread (Fig. 1). The design components
third-generation DSC. A key objective designs focused on speed of makeup and listed in this subsection are discussed in
of the project was to improve connec- more-streamlined connections for in- greater detail in the complete paper. In
tion makeup/breakout speeds signifi- creased hydraulic performance. addition to double-start threads, these
cantly. Mechanical and hydraulic gains For the large 6⅝-in. drillpipe size include the following:
were also dictated on the basis of the in- commonly run in elevated-spread-rate 1. Dual-Radius Thread
dustry’s trend toward deeper and longer- projects such as deep and ultradeep Form. Thread-root radius
reach wells. water, speed of makeup is a primary is lengthened and radically
improved with the dual-radius
thread form in third-generation
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
DSCs.
paper SPE 170566, “Advanced Technologies and Practical Solutions for Challenging 2. Optimized Taper. Taper
Drilling Applications,” by M.J. Jellison, SPE, NOV Grant Prideco, and A. Chan, defines the cross-sectional
Workstrings International, prepared for the 2014 SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology area at the secondary shoulder
Conference and Exhibition, Bangkok, Thailand, 25–27 August. The paper has not been providing the improved
peer reviewed. torsional strength and controls

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

90 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

 Reduced tool-joint diameter for
reduced makeup-torque
requirements
Extended-length, thicker-wall slip section for
increased slip-crushing capacity
Double-
diameter-box
tool joint
Increased elevator
diameter for increased
hoisting requirements
High-strength-grade
tube of reduced wall
thickness
Fig. 2—Components of a state-of-the-art landing string.
the stabbing depth of the pin to
the box, affecting makeup and
tripping speeds.
3. Material Strength. American
Petroleum Institute (API)
tool joints are produced with
specified minimum yield
strength (SMYS) of 120,000 psi.
During development of third-
generation DSCs, a program
was commissioned to develop
130,000-psi-SMYS tool
joints to meet the stringent
toughness requirements of many
proprietary manufacturing
specifications.
Primary benefits of third-generation
DSCs include time and cost savings, in-
creased torque capacity, larger equiva-
lent hydraulic inner diameters, improved
clearance and fishing ability, reduced
failure risk, and extended life.
Landing-String Development
Deepwater- and ultradeepwater-well
designs continue to drive the require-
ment for higher-tension-capacity land-
ing strings. Water depth and total depth
are increasing, and stepouts are being
extended. This, combined with the often
narrow margin between pore pressure,
mud weight, and fracture gradient, is
causing well designers to set more in-
termediate casing strings and in turn is
pushing large-diameter, heavy casing
strings to deeper setting depths in order
92
Internal and external upset
Tungsten-carbide-free
hardbanding to protect
riser/casing
Pin-wall thickness to provide
connection tensile capacity
to maintain hole size and reach the in-
tended hydrocarbon targets.
Initially, casing, liners, and offshore
casing strings set in subsea wellheads
were simply run on the drillpipe that
was used to drill the well. As setting
loads increased, however, initial fit-for-
purpose solutions were developed with
increased load capacities targeted to-
ward anticipated running loads for spe-
cific areas or projects. During this pe-
riod, landing strings built from casing
were also used. It quickly became appar-
ent that drillpipe landing strings offered
significant advantages:
◗◗Rotary-shoulder connections are
rugged and robust.
◗◗Conventional drillpipe-handling
equipment can be used.
◗◗A drillpipe landing string can
incorporate connections with
tensile capacity that exceeds that
of the pipe body.
As ultrahigh-capacity landing
strings were developed, slip crushing was
quickly identified as a major design and
manufacturing obstacle. With the slips
currently available, the slip-crushing re-
sistance for the pipe body is less than
its axial tensile capacity. To address this
issue, a special thick-walled section was
provided in the slip-gripping area. Dual-
diameter tool joints were used to increase
elevator capacity.
To achieve a lifting capacity of
2.5  million lbm, a state-of-the-art
l­anding-string assembly is required
(Fig. 2).
Pipe Body
The tensile capacity of the pipe body
is defined as the pipe-body yield at the
SMYS, or grade, times the pipe-body
cross-sectional area. There is benefit
from matching the landing-string-pipe
diameter to the drillpipe diameter used
on the rig, where possible.
Early landing-string-pipe bodies
were commonly produced from materi-
al of S-135 grade. Now, there are proven
high-strength proprietary grades avail-
able with SMYS of 140, 150, and 165 ksi.
Use of these grades provides increased
lifting capacity of up to 22%.
For 6⅝-in.-diameter V-150 pipe,
1.125-in. wall thickness is required for
the pipe-body tensile rating at 90%
remaining-body-wall to meet the
2.5‑­million‑lbm rating. By using a
165,000-psi-SMYS pipe, the wall thick-
ness can be reduced to 1.000 in., result-
ing in a 5% decrease in string weight.
Development of UD-165. A drillpipe
grade with minimum yield strength
of 165 ksi was developed to meet the
needs of both high-capacity landing
strings and high-capacity drillstrings
required for drilling ultradeep wells,
and the needs of high-strength-to-
weight drillstrings required to reduce
tensile and drag load in ultraextended-
reach wells.
Heavy-Walled Slip Section (HWSS).
Slip-crushing capacity can be the pri-
mary design factor for landing strings
because it is less than the tube tensile ca-
pacity. In the deepwater Gulf of Mexico,
some slip-crushing failures have result-
ed in catastrophic events involving the
loss of casing strings to the seafloor. One
way to increase slip-crushing capacity is
through the pipe design. The HWSS pro-
vides a thicker wall in the slip-contact
area (Fig. 3).
Weld Strength. For the 2.5-million-lbm
landing string, the expected weld yield
strength would be 125,000 psi or high-
er. The required weld yield strength cal-
culates to 122,657 psi, which is below
the 125,000-psi minimum and is
therefore acceptable.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

Thick-Walled Slip-Proof Section
Fig. 3—The HWSS provides increased wall thickness in the slip-contact area for
increased slip-crushing resistance.
Design of a safe and functional
2.5-million-lbm landing string was ac-
complished, although it pushed manu-
facturing capabilities to their limits.
First Fully Sulfide-Stress-
Cracking-Resistant System
As the severity of sour-drilling applica-
tions has increased, the need for drill-
stem materials resistant to sulfide stress
cracking (SSC) has become acute. Sour-
service drillpipe has been available for
some time, and though the metallurgy
is not specifically controlled by Nation-
al Association of Corrosion Engineers
International standards, these tubulars
and tool joints are often evaluated in
accordance with those standards. The
friction welds joining the upset tubu-
lars and tool joints were not resistant
to SSC and were not evaluated. This has
been acceptable for many sour-drilling
applications because the weld is not
the mostly highly stressed region of the
drillpipe joint and because the opera-
tor has a certain degree of control over
the environment through the drilling-
fluid properties and additives. As more-
severe environments with higher hydro-
gen sulfide (H2S) concentrations were
identified for exploration and develop-
ment, it became apparent that a fully
SSC-resistant drillpipe system, includ-
ing the friction welds, was necessary.
Sour-Service Drillpipe
SSC caused by the presence of H2S gas
in downhole drilling environments
has led to the development of sour-
service drillpipe, which is engineered
to have resistance to SSC. The weld area
of sour-service drillpipe has not been
SSC tested in the past, and there have
been no documented SSC failures in
the weld zone of sour-service drillpipe.
There are several factors that make an
SSC failure in the weld zone of sour-
service drillpipe unlikely. The region on
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
both sides of the weld has a cross sec-
tion much larger (1.5 to 2.0 times) than
that of the tube. This larger weld-area
cross-section means that the stress ex-
perienced in that area is less by the
same proportion. Also, it is generally
possible during drilling operations to
control the well environment and help
prevent SSC failure of the drillpipe and
weld zone.
On the other hand, the operating
environment for some critical sour ap-
plications cannot always be controlled,
and direct and prolonged exposure to
H2S can occur. Consequently, it became
apparent that an SSC-resistant fric-
tion weld was required for these critical
sour applications.
Friction-Type Welds
and SSC Resistance
During friction welding, heat is generat-
ed by mechanical friction between a ro-
tating tool joint and a stationary upset
tube. At forging temperatures, a later-
al force is applied to displace and fuse
the components plastically. The weld
area is effectively forged, resulting in a
high-strength weld. The weld area is then
austenitized, quenched, and tempered
to produce a final tempered martens-
ite microstructure. Careful weld-process
control and heat treatment are required
to produce weld-area SSC resistance in
friction-type welds.
For a discussion of SSC-testing pa-
rameters, as well as tensile-test and
bend-testing results, please see the com-
plete paper.
Downhole-Heating Failures
Downhole-friction-generated-heating
failures are another problem experi-
enced in a number of deepwater drill-
ing applications. Directional drilling fol-
lowed by long, potentially high-angle,
deviated sections can create conditions
conducive to downhole heating.
The consequences of downhole
heating can be severe, often resulting in
axial separation of the drillstring, creat-
ing potential well-control safety issues
and need for costly fishing jobs and other
remedial efforts.
Three conditions are required for
the production of friction heating: side
loading, rotation, and a sufficient coef-
ficient of friction between the surfaces.
These conditions are met in several ways,
including, but not limited to, rotating in
an excessively severe dog-leg, continued
rotation while in a stuck situation, drill-
ing in an interval that has a high number
of wellbore-trajectory corrections, and
drilling when there is formation slough-
ing or insufficient mud flow that fails to
remove cuttings (packing off).
Identification Features. Field observa-
tion assisted by magnetic-particle in-
spection, if available, can identify down-
hole heating as a likely failure cause.
Metallographic- and microscopic-image
analyses are not possible in the field;
however, they are necessary to deter-
mine conclusively that failure was the
result of downhole heating. Below is a
checklist, for use in the field during a
failure analysis, of the main features of
downhole-heating failure:
1. Smooth, shiny surfaces from
friction wear.
2. Blackened and charred inner
surfaces near the location of the
failure or thick blackened sludge
formed by burning of drilling
fluids.
3. Exaggerated necking and
elongated necking of the region
near the failure.
4. Flat fracture faces.
Downhole-overheating failures
typically occur in or near the transition
area between the tool joint and drillpipe
upset or heavyweight-drillpipe tube (18
or 35° shoulder area) because this area
can be caught by a ledge, key seat, or
other wellbore obstruction during drill-
ing operations.
A case history involving an ex-
treme example of downhole-friction-
generated heating in 5-in. 19.50-lbm/ft
Z-140 drillpipe is covered in the
complete paper.  JPT
93
 TECHNOLOGY
Ian G. Ball, SPE,
is technology
adviser and project
manager with
Intecsea, focusing
primarily on
deepwater subsea
field development and technology
application. Previously, he was with
Reliance Industries as senior adviser
for deepwater challenges in opening
the Krishna Godavari basin off the
east coast of India. For most of his
career, Ball was with Shell, where he
specialized in deepwater subsea and
floater-based field development, with
assignments in Brunei, Norway, UK,
and the US Gulf of Mexico. He holds
a BS degree from the University of
Manchester Institute of Science and
Technology. Ball was co-chairperson
of the 2008 and 2009 SPE Annual
Technical Conference and Exhibition
Program Committees and serves on
the JPT Editorial Committee. He is also
chairperson of the editorial committee
for Oil and Gas Facilities.
Recommended additional reading
at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
OTC 25354 Espirito Santo: Operational
Feedback on the Use of Steel Risers on a
Turret-Moored FPSO by Andrew Newport,
SBM Offshore, et al.
OTC 24834 Concept Evaluation of
Concrete Floating Liquefied Natural Gas
by A. Nezamian, WorleyParsons, et al.
SPE 170696 Upstream-Offshore-
Facility Weight-Growth Study by Ray Rui,
Independent Project Analysis, et al.
94
offshore facilities
Last year’s Offshore Facilities Technology Focus (February 2014) highlighted the slow-
down of new-project approvals that the inflated cost of doing business in the oil and
gas sector had already brought about. That slowdown has continued throughout the
past year, although the high cost of goods and services has been replaced as the driver
by the much lower revenues now attainable from the oil and gas produced. In many
cases, the currently required capital investment cannot be justified.
Of course, the cost of goods and services will gradually moderate as the demand
from operators temporarily wanes, but the project activity will really pick up again
only when the value of the hydrocarbons recovers to a point where confidence in
longer-term economic viability is restored. Meanwhile, we risk witnessing yet another
cycle of layoffs and redundancies, even while the wailing over resource shortages for
the tasks ahead still echoes around the upstream corridors of power.
One of the phenomena examined in this year’s feature is the destabilizing escala-
tion in weight, and hence cost, of offshore facilities that has been an increasingly com-
mon feature of our industry after project sanction at a given commitment level. This
is clearly something the industry has to get a proper grip on before confidence can be
restored fully.
We also continue to highlight a theme that has appeared in each of the last four
editions of the Offshore Facilities feature, namely the critical importance and benefits
of effective collaboration at all levels and between sectors of our industry in honing the
efficiency with which development objectives are achieved.
Availability and application of new ways of tackling tough development chal-
lenges remain key components of this collaborative quest for ever-better operation-
al efficiency. We delve into several recent examples of how this has been achieved,
using new technologies, methods, and materials. It is hoped that these might serve
as a timely reminder to avoid temporary layoffs by encouraging instead a redeploy-
ment of resources temporarily liberated by the current lull in field-development
activity. Many of these could, and perhaps should, be tasked with qualifying the next
tranche of new approaches that will benefit the eventual resumption of unfettered
field-development activity.
Innovation is the life-blood of any high-tech industry, and the operators are the
primary beneficiaries of its application. If we do not take advantage of opportunities
such as those currently presented, to focus liberated resources onto developing and
qualifying the innovations needed for enabling the next set of challenges to be over-
come, then we will have only our collective selves to blame. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
Mars-B Development: An Evolution of
Traditional Well, Rig, and Facility Design

T he Mars-B project is the operator’s

sixth Gulf of Mexico (GOM) tension-
leg-platform (TLP) development. The
West Olympus Mars A East

Mars-B project is aiming to unlock

resources over the next 50 years through
the deployment of a new 24-slot TLP
structure [the Olympus direct-vertical-
access (DVA) TLP] and additional subsea
infrastructure for the west Boreas and
south Deimos fields. The Olympus rig Salt
is a novel platform drilling rig designed
specifically to meet the execution
Salt
requirements of complex well designs.
A high-level overview of the design Deimos
Development
challenges and the resulting surface-
(Deep Mars)
equipment requirements of this project
is discussed in this paper.
Fig. 1—Seismic cross section of the Mars and Deimos reservoirs.

Introduction The Mars and Deimos reservoirs are higher shut-in surface pressure of ap-
The operator discovered the Mars field located at depths ranging from 10,500- proximately 11,000 psi. The well trajec-
in the Mississippi Canyon Area Block 763 to 25,000-ft true vertical depth (TVD) tories range from near-vertical to high-
in 1989, located 130 miles southeast of and are predominantly Upper Miocene in angle extended reach, through sediments
New Orleans in approximately 3,000 ft age, with only the shallowest parts of this and through salt penetrations. See Fig. 1
of water. The Mars-B project made its succession extending into the Pliocene. for a seismic cross section. Modifications
final investment decision in September These reservoirs have typically culmi- to the traditional TLP and DVA rig design
2010 to expand the existing Mars opera- nated in the construction of slope aprons practices are essential for successful ex-
tion with a new 24-slot TLP structure and and fans, the deposits of which now form ecution of these complex DVA-well de-
additional subsea infrastructure for the the more than 50 stacked reservoir tar- signs. The traditional approach of fitting
west Boreas and south Deimos fields. The gets for the Olympus-TLP wells. well designs within the limit of a conven-
Olympus TLP is located approximate- The Olympus DVA wells are catego- tional/available rig is no longer viable be-
ly 1 mile southwest of the existing Mars rized into two pressure regimes depen- cause of the complex nature of the Olym-
TLP and represents the first brownfield dent on the depth of the reservoirs: the pus well designs.
development of a deepwater field in the shallower Mars sediment sands and the
GOM. It will enable production of an ad- deeper subsalt Deimos sands. The Mars Olympus Host-Platform
ditional 1.1 billion BOE over the approxi- sediment targets have a shut-in surface Drilling Requirements
mately 700 million BOE that has been pressure of approximately 7,000 psi, and The Olympus topside facilities are con-
produced today with the Mars TLP. the deeper Deimos discoveries have a figured into four main modules: drilling
module, power module, process module,
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights and living quarters. The drilling mod-
ule consists of the DVA-rig structure,
of paper OTC 25437, “Mars-B Development: Well Challenges and Solutions—An
the bridge structure, and the drilling-
Evolution of Traditional Well, Rig, and Facility Design,” by Arno L.M. van den Haak,
support module (DSM), with an estimat-
Wylie J. Cameron, Lisa S. Grant, Nor Janiah H. Japar, and Deandre R. Reagins, ed dead-weight load of 5,115 tons (Figs. 2
Shell, prepared for the 2014 Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, 5–8 May. The and 3).
paper has not been peer reviewed. The DSMs incorporate five sub-
modules (i.e., the electrical, mud-pump,
Copyright 2014 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission. mud-mixing, and mud-tank modules and

The complete paper is available for purchase at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 95


Platform North
True North
Drilling Module
Bridge Module
DSM
Fig. 2—General arrangement of the drilling module (DVA-rig structure, bridge
structure, and DSM).
the bulk/cement module). The designs imum equipment ratings. Historically,
were based on the requirement that nor- operating equipment near or at 100% of
mal drilling and completion activities equipment ratings increases rig-related
are performed at 70% or less of max- nonproductive-time events.
Fig. 3—Bridge structure connecting the DVA rig to the DSM.
96
Basic Layout of the DVA Rig
Facility and Slot Configuration
The DVA rig has the ability to skid over
all 24 slots and can be made storm-safe
to withstand a 1,000-year storm. The
bridge module incorporates both a riser
and a general catwalk on the upper level.
The upper level of the bridge module in-
corporates the horizontal bucking ma-
chine where tubulars will be staged to be
lifted to the drill floor. The bucking ma-
chine is designed to handle tubular sizes
from 3½ to 18 in. and deliver a maxi-
mum torque of 160,000 ft-lb. Tubulars
can be staged and prebucked into 90-ft
stand lengths and moved to the rig floor.
The same bridge can handle 21¾-in. riser
joints up to 65 ft in length.
The lower level of the bridge module
acts as the linkage between the DVA-rig
structure and the fixed DSM and TLP fa-
cility through a series of mechanical junc-
tions. These junctions tie the DSM sup-
port functions to the DVA-rig structure in
different skid configurations. Each of the
24 slots has a dedicated set of valves and
connectors assigned.
The subsea template is not an exact
mirror of the surface slot layout. The
mudline locations have been spaced as
far apart as possible without introducing
significant bending moments on the ris-
ers and wellheads.
The newly designed wellheads were
chosen for size and pressure rating as
well as a fatigue-life-design require-
ment that exceeds the 50-year field life.
The installation of the 24 Olympus top
holes was performed riserless and had
to be completed before the arrival of the
TLP structure.
The slots are designed to be inter-
changeable to allow for future flexibility;
however, the current development plan
estimates that only approximately one-
third of the wells require designs to be
rated in excess of 10,000 psi. Currently,
the Deimos high-pressure wells have lim-
ited placement options and are required
to be in the outer slots of the subsea tem-
plate. This limitation is imposed by the
size of the existing 15,000-psi-rated cap-
ping stack and is not a consequence of
drilling restrictions or preference.
Derrick Design
The derrick is almost 200 ft tall with a
maximum static hookload of up to 2 mil-
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
lion lbf, almost doubling the hookload of
the existing Mars TLP rig. This allows for
the installation of deep, long, heavy cap
and containment strings. Normal drill-
ing loads are anticipated to be close to
1.2  million lbf. The requirement of han-
dling the weight of heavier cap and con-
tainment strings on existing TLP facili-
ties leads to riskier installation methods
such as casing floating or liner-tieback
configurations because of limited capac-
ity. The availability of a greater overpull
capacity on the Olympus DVA rig reduces
the number of one-way trips. It also in-
creases the probability of initiating rota-
tion of casing and liners. This is viewed
as a critical requirement for the suc-
cess of landing strings at planned depth
and achieving successful zonal isolation
through novel cementation techniques.
Fluids Management
and Solids Control
Because of the various formation types to
be encountered and the requirement for
specialty fluids during cementation, mul-
tiple complete-well displacements are
anticipated. Active and reserve pits were
designed to work either in parallel or in
series, allowing for ultimate flexibility in
managing the surface volumes while op-
timizing available storage space.
Four slugging pits with 100-bbl ca-
pacity each were also specified as a re-
quirement to ensure sufficient volume
capacity and to provide the capability to
mix a variety of lost-circulation material
(LCM). Because of different levels of de-
pletion in the Mars reservoirs, use of a
variety of LCMs is anticipated.
The shakers are configured to have
the flexibility to be operated in parallel or
in series. Flexibility exists to bypass units
from the primary solids-removal flow
stream. The specialty design and con-
figuration allow for one of the shakers to
be used as a scalper in the LCM-recovery
process. This is essential to maintain the
high levels of LCM that are foreseen for
drilling the highly depleted sections.
Managed-Pressure-Drilling
(MPD) -System Configuration
MPD will be used on the majority of hole
sections in order to manage wellbore
stability by reducing the number of bot-
tomhole stress cycles that are tradition-
ally induced when making conventional
connections. On connections and other
pumpoff events, the bottomhole pres-
sure is kept near the same pressure as
when circulating by accurately applying
annular pressure. To streamline MPD
operations and take best advantage of
the technology, the Olympus DVA de-
sign has incorporated a dedicated MPD
choke manifold into the rig design. Sys-
tem modifications were made to the tra-
ditional MPD piping design, size, and
choke configuration, reducing the ex-
pected surface losses to 20 to 30  psi at
rates greater than 1,000  gal/min. An
MPD rotating head with an 18¾-in.-
inner-diameter (ID) pass through was
designed to match the drift of the
blowout-preventer (BOP) system.
Pressure-Control Systems
Surface BOP. The well systems are de-
signed to operate with a surface-BOP
system. The surface BOP is an 18¾-in.
BOP with four rams rated to a 15,000-psi
working pressure. The BOP contains two
doubles, each with a shear-ram/variable-

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DEPARTMENT CHAIR, PETROLEUM ENGINEERING AND GEOLOGY
Marietta College invites applications for the position of Chair of the Department of Petroleum Engineering and Geology at
Marietta College. The Petroleum Engineering program at Marietta is accredited by the EAC of ABET. The full-time faculty of
the Department consists of seven engineers and five geologists. Marietta College admits approximately 90 undergraduate
petroleum engineering students per year. The class of students offered admission for the 2015-16 academic year has an
average incoming high school GPA of 3.94 and an average composite ACT of 29.7. The Department also offers two different
minors in the area of energy systems. There are approximately 380 undergraduate students in the program and a total of
1,250 undergraduate students on campus. The Geology program has approximately 60 majors as well. Graduate degrees
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JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 97

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bore-ram (VBR) pair. Shear rams, VBRs,
closing pressure, and accumulator size
were chosen on the basis of the proposed
drilling-pipe program and required shut-
in pressures for both drilling and com-
pletions. Drillpipe in the different pro-
posed weights, sizes, and grades was
actually sheared for validation. The high-
est estimated shearing pressures calcu-
lated were for a 6⅝-in. 50-lbm/ft S135
drillpipe. The large ID allows subsea-­
wellhead hangers to pass through the
surface BOP, which reduces the require-
ment to abandon the well temporarily be-
fore such activities.
Dual-Bore Drilling-Riser System. This
system has three main components:
◗◗21¾-in. high-pressure drilling
riser
◗◗16-in. high-pressure inner
drilling riser
◗◗14-in. high-pressure inner
drilling riser
The choice of configuration is de-
pendent on whether there are hydrocar-
bons present with flow potential, on the
drift required through the riser, and on
the exposed-formation shut-in pressure
with a full hydrocarbon column.
The 21¾-in. outer high-pressure
drilling riser is deployed for drilling in-
tervals well above known hydrocarbon
zones with flow potential, and a second
high-pressure inner riser will be used
when flow-potential hydrocarbon zones
are expected. This provides two barriers
once hydrocarbons with flow potential
are exposed.
Hopping of 21¾-in. High-Pressure
Drilling Riser. The Olympus drilling
riser is designed to be suspended below
the skid platform, enabling the rig to
move off the slot without pulling the
drilling-riser systems. This functional-
ity allows for “riser parking” and “riser
hopping” rather than having to recover
the riser once the drilling phase has been
completed. Riser parking does not allow
for unlimited access to all the slots from
one central location, but rather access
to all slots in a six-slot quadrant because
the drilling riser is suspended from a
central slot within this quadrant.
Subsea Wellhead and Connector. The
21¾-in. high-pressure riser seals on
the connector. This is the same connec-
tion that is used by a subsea-BOP low-­
pressure marine-riser configuration.
Both inner risers seal within the 18¾‑in.
wellhead. The addition of the inner riser
provides two true independent mechani-
cal barriers at the mudline. If the con-
nection to the 21¾-in. high-pressure
riser were to leak or become disconnect-
ed, the high-pressure inner riser would
remain in place, maintaining a conduit
to the surface. When the inner and outer
drilling risers are both installed, the ris-
ers function as pressure barriers.
In a single-bore-riser system, a leak
in the riser could result in the reduc-
tion of bottomhole pressure to a level
lower than formation pressures because
of a drop in the weighted fluid column
as well as loss of the pressure conduit.
Thus, the dual-bore-riser system is con-
sidered to be a true two-independent-
barrier system.
Fatigue-Design Considerations. The
inner and outer risers have to be de-
signed for fatigue because riser pipe
is subject to movement in the water
column. Replacement of joints in the
21¾‑in. high-pressure riser is consid-
ered to be less frequent, so the fatigue-
life requirements for the design are
significantly more stringent in compar-
ison with those for the 16- and 14-in.
inner drilling risers. The 21¾-in. high-­
pressure riser is designed for a 20-year
service life and a 200-year minimum fa-
tigue life.
For a description of the project’s
production-riser systems, please see the
complete paper. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
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 Moorings Replacement and Hookup
for a Damaged North Sea FPSO

I n a North Sea storm during February

2011, the Gryphon Alpha floating
production, storage, and offloading
(FPSO) unit broke four of its 10 mooring
lines and moved partially off station,
resulting in damage to subsea assets.
Following the incident, the FPSO was
taken to dry dock for replacement of
the damaged subsea infrastructure
and moorings. This paper describes
the measures put in place so that the
mooring system could be replaced
and the FPSO reconnected on an
efficient schedule.
The FPSO
In September of 1993, the Gryphon Alpha
became the first purpose-built long-
term-moored FPSO to be installed in the
North Sea. The unit is located 175 miles
northeast of Aberdeen in a water depth
of 112 m. Gryphon has a somewhat un-
usual layout in that the turret is located
forward of midships (Fig. 1). Five fully
azimuthing thrusters—two forward and
three aft—are used to provide heading
control. Each mooring line has its own
windlass and azimuth swiveling-gypsy-
wheel assemblies provided at the base
of the turret. It is therefore relatively
easy to adjust mooring-line tensions and
lengths compared with other turret de-
signs. A drag chain is provided for fluid
transfer from the wells. This means rota-
tion of the FPSO is limited to 270°, either
clockwise or counterclockwise from the
vessel’s neutral heading of 225°. During
the original installation, the FPSO was
provided with 10 all-chain mooring lines
consisting of 84-mm studded chain at-
tached to 35-t drag-embedment anchors.
Background to the Event
Gryphon sustained damage in a severe
storm on 4 February 2011 when one
mooring line failed and the vessel lost
heading control, causing it to turn par-
tially beam-on to the weather, resulting
in failure of a further three mooring lines.
The FPSO’s partial movement off station
caused considerable damage to the sub-
sea architecture.
Because of the length of time re-
quired to reinstate the subsea equipment,
it was decided that the FPSO should be
removed from the field for shipyard work
that would involve inspections; repairs;
and upgrades of the structure, vessel
equipment, and process equipment.
New-Mooring-System Design
and Fabrication
A number of potential mooring-line-
design solutions were considered; from
these, it became evident that using a
weighted section of chain in the mooring
line reduced the dynamic tensions. The
new design was optimized further to pro-
vide installation and maintenance pref-
erences (e.g., a change was made from
the original 84-mm studded to 84-mm
studless chain). For the weighted-chain
section, 120-mm studless chain was used
to allow the chain to be supported by
a number of available anchor-handling
vessels (AHVs) working in the North Sea.
The inclusion of 6.6-m-long, 120-mm-
chain tails enabled support of the trisec-
tion during installation when connecting
the 84-mm chain.
With an outline design selected, a
dynamic frequency-domain analysis
was carried out for all the intact and
single-line-failure cases required. The
thruster-failure cases were matched with
a review of the overall station-keeping
ability added to the intention to operate
the switchboard on an open bus, giving
three independent thruster groups and
hence triple redundancy on power loss to
all thrusters. Time-domain analysis was
carried out to confirm the results of the
frequency-domain analysis.
Only a few manufacturers could
meet the company’s time-frame and qual-
ity requirements for the chain and acces-
sories. One of the requirements was the
use of advanced ultrasonic technology to
find defects within the core of the chain.
Traceability of the chain was improved
by adding radio-frequency-identification
tags to the chain-locker-studded chain
lengths and to each of the accessories.
Additional mechanical tests across the
weld area were also a requirement to
quantify grain size, hardness, and tensile
properties. In parallel, structural analysis
of the windlasses, fairleads, turret bear-
ing, and turret was carried out.
For details about the complex multi-
disciplinary planning, coordination, and
storage involved in the project, please see
the complete paper.

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights Mobilization for
New-Moorings Prelay
of paper OTC 25322, “Gryphon Alpha FPSO: Experience Gained During Moorings
Preparations for FPSO-moorings pre-
Replacement and Hookup,” by Fred J. Toal and John G. Martin, Maersk Oil, and
lay commenced during the last quar-
Martin G. Brown, Ian M. Lindsay, and Robert Sinclair, GL Noble Denton, prepared ter of 2011. An important element in
for the 2014 Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, 5–8 May. The paper has not the preparation of the mooring was the
been peer reviewed. makeup of the trichains, which involved
careful chain selection and placement.
Copyright 2014 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission. Placing the shortest chain in each tri-

The complete paper is available for purchase at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.

100 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

Fig. 1—Gryphon Alpha: Schematic showing the turret forward of midships.

chain at the center provided the best

assurance that each trichain would re-
main horizontal  when tensioned up to
operating tension.

Stage 1: Moorings Load Out and Pre-

lay. Load out of the single 120-mm and
84-mm chain was carried out from
the quayside into the AHV chain lock-
ers, and the anchors were landed on
deck (Fig.  2). The prelay comprised a
35-t anchor, 250×120-mm chain, and
587×84-mm chain. Before connection
to the trichain, it proved necessary to
carry out the prelay operation in two
stages. In addition, space constraints on
the AHVs limited the number of anchors
and chains to three per vessel, requiring
two trips for the two AHVs to prelay and
perform test tensioning on the Stage-1
components of all 10 moorings.
The first stage of the prelay opera-
tion involved a survey-equipped work-
class remotely operated vehicle (WROV)
monitoring and recording setdown of
each anchor. This was followed by the
lay of the 250×120-mm chain and the
587×84-mm chain within carefully de-
fined corridors before applying an em-
bedment pull of 200 t followed by test
tensioning each anchor to 430 t for 15
minutes. Once the test-tension exercise
was approved by the attending surveyor,
the end of the 587×84-mm chain was set
down on the seabed using a grommet,
which was maintained above the seafloor
by a subsurface spring buoy to facilitate
later recovery. A seabed survey was car-
Fig. 2—Anchors on deck (Stage 1).
ried out before prelay to check for ob-
structions and seabed features.
Applying a classification-society-
specified test-tension load of 430 t to
each anchor for 15 minutes was beyond
the bollard pull capability of a single
AHV, so it required the use of two AHVs
in formation. A lesson learned from this
operation was that, because of apparent
variations in seabed density and vessel
motions during test tensioning, the dy-
namic load applied to the anchors varied
fairly significantly around the required
mean value. This resulted in all anchors
dragging in to some extent and a few an-
chors becoming deeply embedded (the
deepest of which was measured to have
embedded approximately 14 m below
the surface).
Stage 2: Trichain Load Out and Prelay.
Because the trichain sections (approxi-
mately 100-t weight per trichain) were
fully assembled onshore, it was not pos-
sible to locker the trichains, so one tri-
chain was spooled directly onto the AHV
working drum (Fig. 3); a further two tri-
chains were stored on deck and drawn to
the side so as not to impede the deploy-
ment of the first trichain.
Even though the selected AHVs
are among the latest-generation mod-
els, with large-capacity winches and
aft deck gantries (Fig. 4), certain mod-
ifications were required to make the
trichain-spooling operation possible
(see the complete paper for details).
Once the trichains were loaded, the
vessels sailed for the Gryphon location

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 101


Fig. 3—Trichain loading (manual spooling) onto the AHV.
Fig. 4—Gantry available to traverse the complete aft deck of the AHV.
Connected trichain and 84-mm single chain over the stern roller.
to recover from the seabed a selected
84-mm chain end installed in Stage 1.
Once the chain was recovered and on
deck, its length was adjusted to take ac-
count of the anchor position followed
by connection to the trichain section
spooled onto the work winch. Deploy-
ment of the trichain section was con-
trolled by the work winch; however, be-
fore laying the trichain on the seabed,
it was necessary to induce a lay-back
bight into the 84-mm mooring chain.
It should be noted that the entire sub-
sea infrastructure had been installed
before the installation of the moorings.
Once the required lay-back had been
achieved, the trichain was set down in
a designated corridor and the inner tail
chain was fitted with a grommet and
subsea spring buoy for later recovery
when connecting to the FPSO moorings.
102
For a discussion of the prepara-
tion and execution of the FPSO sail-
away from Rotterdam, please see the
complete paper.
Prelaid-Moorings Connection
to the FPSO
On arrival at the location, the FPSO con-
nected to four dynamic-positioning
Class-2 AHVs in a star-shaped forma-
tion. Once all four vessels were connect-
ed, station-keeping trials took place, and
there was a short delay while waiting on
the requisite weather window. The FPSO
was then moved into position over the
field turret center (FTC) by the four AHVs
and was maintained at FTC (with an aver-
age accuracy of ±5 m) for the entirety of
the mooring-connection operation.
Once the FPSO was at FTC and sta-
tion keeping was being maintained to the
required degree of accuracy, mooring-
connection operations commenced with
the lowering of a selected feeder chain
from the FPSO. On two mooring lines, it
was found that, with minimum weight
on the outboard chain tail, debris that
had gathered at the bottom of the hawse
pipe during the transit was sufficient for
the chain not to pay out freely as expect-
ed. This was overcome by paying out and
heaving in on the winch a few times until
the debris was displaced and the chain
could be lowered.
Moorings connection involved low-
ering a 26-mm nonrotational wire fitted
with a 40-t ROV hook that was grasped
by the manipulator of the WROV and en-
gaged into the end link of the lowered
feeder chain, which was then recovered
onboard the AHV while being paid out
from the FPSO.
Once onboard the AHV, the
300×84-mm mooring-chain section was
connected to the FPSO feeder chain by
use of a slimline 84-mm link, which en-
abled passing through the FPSO fairlead-
er wheel. The connected chain was paid
out while the AHV maneuvered above the
trichain location on the seabed. The tri-
chain was recovered on deck by means
of an 84-mm work chain connected
into a 640-t pennant fitted with an ROV
hook. Once the trichain tail chain was
engaged, it was connected into the FPSO
300×84-mm mooring chain by means
of a 120-mm/84-mm H-link (Fig.  4). On
completion of the connection, the moor-
ing chain was lowered to the seabed while
the FPSO recovered the mooring chain.
Once all 10 moorings were connect-
ed, the next stage in the operation was to
tension the moorings to the design oper-
ating tension of 85 t at the ballast draft.
Correct pretension was achieved by ad-
justing the payout on the windlasses until
the touchdown points and the elevation
of the delta plate were at predetermined
positions. The presence of a naval archi-
tect ensured that all moorings were ten-
sioned acuurately, with the FPSO in the
correct position.
No safety-related incidents or in-
juries occurred during the entire
mooring-reconnection operation, de-
spite the operation being carried out
during the  end  of September, when
less-favorable weather conditions are
typically experienced. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
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 Upgrade of Spar Topside With
Comprehensive Sand-Management System

A deepwater field located offshore

Sabah, east Malaysia, features a
spar dry-tree unit (DTU) and multiple
subsea-hub tiebacks to a floating
production, storage, and offloading
vessel (FPSO). In early 2011, several of
the wells began producing solid fines
that affected production. It was decided
that a long-term solution would be
to recomplete the affected wells with
enhanced downhole sand control on
the lower completions. The short-term
solution consisted of installing a topside
sand-management system on the spar
and sand-sparging equipment on the
FPSO separators.

Project Overview Fig. 1—Photograph of Kikeh field surface layout showing the Seadrill West
Menang semitender contracted for well workover in the left foreground, the
The Kikeh field is located 120 km north- Murphy Kikeh spar DTU in the right foreground, and the Kikeh FPSO in the
west of the island of Labuan at approxi- background.
mately 1300-m water depth. The field
was developed using a standalone facil- The project goal was to install well- on the DTU solids-producing wells. The
ity, with hydrocarbons being produced head desanders on the DTU immediately fast-track project took approximately 30
from both subsea and dry-tree wells from downstream of the wellheads, which pro- weeks to complete, with an addition-
a spar/DTU facility. The oil is processed, vide protection for the DTU choke valves, al five wellhead desanders installed at a
stored, and exported from an FPSO. production headers, fluid-transfer lines subsequent stage.
Fig. 1 shows the layout of the field. (FTLs), and FPSO swivel and manifolds, Once the solids have been separat-
In December 2008, the Kikeh field and lessen the accumulation of solids in ed from the wellhead desander and col-
began to produce solids at varying rates, the FPSO process vessels. The objective lected from the accumulator unit, sub-
and by January 2010, after the failure was to remove to the highest possible de- sequent solids handling is required for
of a sand-screen completion on one of gree (and as soon as practicable) the pro- further processing. This project was exe-
the wells, the process facilities on the duced solids that reached the surface in cuted in two phases. Phase 1 initially con-
FPSO started to receive approximately the process flowlines. sisted of a rudimentary solids-handling
1 t/d of sand. Once it became apparent By March 2011, the solids- system for onshore disposal, and Phase
that solids production would be experi- production problems became worse, re- 2 included the installation of a sand-
enced  throughout the life of the field, a sulting in some of the wells being shut in. cleaning system for overboard disposal.
program had to be developed to address The situation led to a proposal to install The first five wellhead desanders
the challenge. five individual wellhead-desander units were coupled initially with the solids-
handling system because of the urgency
of the situation. The solids-handling sys-
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights
tem in this initial phase took collected
of paper OTC 24705, “Upgrade of Spar Topside With Comprehensive Facilities Sand-
solids from the accumulator units, which
Management System,” by Y. Loong, Murphy Sabah Oil, and H. Rawlins and D. Goo, were periodically dumped into pipe
eProcess Technologies, prepared for the 2014 Offshore Technology Conference Asia, headers with continuous flow of water,
Kuala Lumpur, 25–28 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed. and transferred the slurry to a liquid-
decanted container and solids bag. This
Copyright 2014 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission. specially designed permeable solids bag

The complete paper is available for purchase at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.

104 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

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 Clean
well fluids
Wellhead
Solids-laden
well fluids
Wellhead
desander
Solids
accumulator
Solids
discharge
Fig. 2—Schematic of wellhead-
desander installation, showing
primary vessels and valves.
drains off the liquid, and a diaphragm
pump transfers the decanted liquid to
the open-drain sump tank. The perme-
able bag and liquid-decant container are
located at the lay-down area where they
are accessible by platform crane, and the
solids are transferred to shore in contain-
ers for disposal.
Kikeh Sand Production
Sand-Control Options. The recom-
mended location for surface solids re-
moval is before the choke, which allows
protection of all downstream equipment.
Solids upstream of the choke are at the
highest temperature of the facility and
uncontaminated by most production
chemicals, rendering these solids easi-
est to clean once separated before the
choke. With specific regard to compact
separation devices, solids are most eas-
ily removed from multiphase streams as
the increased gas-void fraction (GVF) re-
duces the continuous phase viscosity and
density, permitting increased separating
velocity of the solids. A separating device
upstream of the choke also relieves the
pressure-drop burden on the choke bean,
lessening erosion and converting that
pressure into usable separation energy.
106
Cyclonic Technology for Multiphase
Flow. Cyclonic technology covers a class
of unit-process devices designed for
compact phase separation. Each device
converts the potential, or pressure, en-
ergy of a fluid into rotating kinetic en-
ergy using only the shape of the de-
vice to partition two or more phases in
that fluid into the respective number
of concentrated outlet streams. The ad-
vantage of cyclonic technology is that
it has the highest throughput/size ratio
of any partitioning device. Thus, for a
given flow rate, cyclonic technology will
have the smallest size and weight of any
device available.
The wellhead, or multiphase, de-
sander is a cyclonic device applied up-
stream of the choke to remove solids
from raw well flow. As with all cyclonic
devices, pressure energy is converted
to radial and tangential acceleration to
impart centrifugal forces to the con-
tained fluids. The increased forces ac-
celerate the separation of phases with
different densities. In the case of a mul-
tiphase desander, solids are separated
from the gas/liquid mixture. The sep-
arated solids collect in an accumula-
tor chamber for periodic isolation and
batch discharge while the well fluids
maintain continuous flow. Wellhead de-
sanders find use as service tools during
well-testing or workover operations and
as production tools for ongoing facilities
sand management.
Fig. 2 shows a schematic of the typ-
ical production wellhead-desander de-
sign. The system and its operation are
discussed in detail in the complete paper.
Wellhead-Desander-System Design.
Each wellhead-desander system is de-
signed for full shut-in and flowing condi-
tions of the producing wells. (Please see
the complete paper for a detailed discus-
sion of the wellhead-desander system
used in the Kikeh field.) The wellhead-
desander system is made up of three
main components: a desander unit, dou-
ble block and bleed-gate valves, and a
solids-accumulator unit. The accumu-
lator is supported by a foundation and
bracing, while a structural side support
is installed to secure the desander vessel.
A number of piping headers connects the
individual wellhead-desander units. The
piping headers are installed at the well-
bay area and are integrated with each de-
sander system.
During operation, the fluids from
each well flow into the corresponding
wellhead-desander system. The incom-
ing fluids are directed to the inlet noz-
zle of the wellhead-desander vessel,
then into the cyclonic insert. The in-
sert geometry and design, as well as
inlet pressure, accelerate the flow to
spin within the cyclonic insert. The vor-
tex flow pattern accelerates the heavi-
er sand particles to the insert inner
wall, where they spin down and out of
the insert apex opening. The solids fall
through the apex, through the wellhead-
desander-vessel integral-accumulation
chamber, through the double block and
bleed (DBB) valves, and into the solids-
accumulator vessel. The water in the ac-
cumulator vessel is displaced back to
the wellhead-desander vessel to report
to the clean-fluid outlet. The incom-
ing fluids discharge through the insert
vortex finder and then the wellhead-
desander-vessel outlet. These fluids are
then directed to the choke valve.
Once the accumulator vessel be-
comes full of sand, the DBB valves are
closed. The accumulator is vented to at-
mospheric pressure, and then the slurry-
discharge valve is opened. Clean water is
introduced into the top of the accumula-
tor to push the slurry from the accumu-
lator and into the slurry-transport head-
er. The slurry discharge is then closed,
and the accumulator is filled with clean
water. The accumulator is first repres-
surized with a 25-mm line connecting
the top of the accumulator to the side of
the wellhead-desander vessel. The DBB
valves are then opened to reintroduce
the accumulator to the process flow.
During the accumulator isolation-vent
flush/fill cycle, which takes an aver-
age of 15–20 minutes to complete, the
wellhead-desander vessel has sufficient
holdup volume beneath the insert to
hold the separated sand. In this manner,
the separation is continuous, with batch
discharge of the solids.
Project Detailed Engineering
The DTU platform had very little space
in the well-bay area, and the challenge
was to install not only up to 10 sepa-
rate wellhead-desander assemblies, but
to do so upstream of the chokes. With
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
the help of facility modeling and careful
planning, a feasible and flexible solution
was reached.
The wellhead desander was installed
into the flowline immediately down-
stream of the flexible jumper. This lo-
cation minimized the flowline portion
vulnerable to sand erosion and had a
sufficient footprint area for the custom-
ized desander components. The flowline
was cut and connected to the wellhead
desanders with a removable spool-and-
bypass line that was installed once the
equipment was no longer required
for production.
For a discussion of cyclonic-
insert-size selection, please see the
complete paper.
Collected-Solids-Handling System.
Each sand accumulator is designed to
store approximately 1000 kg of sand.
The accumulated sand is discharged at
approximately 4- to 6-hour intervals into
a common-slurry header, which trans-
ports the slurry to a central dewatering
and bagging station. Primary dewatering
is accomplished with urethane desilting
hydrocyclones, with the removed water
captured to the open drain system. The
concentrated slurry receives final de-
watering through reusable 1.0-m3 oleo-
phobic rapid-weep sand-filter bags, with
the filtrate sent to the closed drain sys-
tem. The dewatered sand is transported
in the filter bags to a transport skip, and
the skip is used to send the sand onshore
for landfill disposal.
Operation and Maintenance
The wellhead-desander operation is
relatively labor intensive and requires
dedicated manpower to flush the unit
frequently because of the high solids
loadings. The accumulator is usually
flushed one to four times in a shift and
before the vessel is half-filled. The flush-
ing frequency depends on the rate of
produced solids, while backflushing is
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
undertaken if the vessel is tightly packed.
This is an issue in the Kikeh field because Under the Patronage of
of the high concentration of clay-like His Royal Highness
particles in the solids load. Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa
Unexpected high sand concentra- Prime Minister of
tion (in the 2–5% range) at some wells
the Kingdom of Bahrain
led to premature insert failures. At one
well, the insert was eroded in less than 2
weeks because of very high sand concen-
trations. Different types of high-wear in-
sert material are now being used to over-
come this issue, to prolong the life of the
insert in these unusual conditions. After
a short shut-in period, an insert is easily
replaced. A well also can be choked back
to reduce flow and subsequently reduce
the sand volume.
Equipment Performance
Three aspects of equipment performance
were analyzed to determine the efficiency
of the system. The first was measurement
of separation size through sampling, the
second was the net effect on hydrocarbon
production, and the third was the lifetime
of cyclonic inserts in regard to material
selection. Of these three criteria—all dis-
cussed in detail in the complete paper—
the net effect on production is the most
critical, because it determines the re-
turn on investment for the facilities-
modification work. The primary goal
19th Middle East Oil & Gas
of each wellhead-desander  system is to Show and Conference
reduce the incoming  solids  loading to BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION
<0.05% solids content. AND CONVENTION CENTRE
The net operating effect of install-
ing wellhead desanders on six of the
wells was dramatic. Hydrocarbon pro- CONFERENCE: 8-11 March 2015
duction is increased because the well-
head desander allows for opening of the
choke until the 0.05% sediment value EXHIBITION: 9-11 March 2015
is reached. The total net oil increase is
an average of 1,000 B/D per well. The
amount of sand produced by each well
has a wide range, both within a single
well and across multiple wells. These val-
ues range from 130 to 1137 kg/d, with a
total sand production ranging from 400 CONFERENCE EXHIBITION
to 2741 kg/d for these six wells. JPT ORGANISERS ORGANISERS
fawzi@aemallworld.com
dubprog@spe.org
WORLDWIDE FAR EAST
COORDINATORS COORDINATORS
meos@oesallworld.com gerald@iemallworld.com
www.meos2015.com
 TECHNOLOGY
Angel G. Guzmán-
Garcia, SPE, is
an independent
energy consultant.
He holds a PhD
degree in chemical
engineering
from Tulane University. Guzmán-
Garcia spent more than 23 years with
ExxonMobil, where he held a variety of
positions: conducting research on the
response of resistivity tools in shaly
sands; investigating nuclear-magnetic-
resonance petrophysical applications;
conducting and interpreting production
logging; designing fluid-sampling
collection and pressure/volume/
temperature analyses; and designing,
executing, and interpreting well tests
in both siliciclastic and carbonate
environments. He is an instructor in
well testing, production logging, and
petrophysics and is a member of the
JPT  Editorial Committee.
Recommended additional reading
at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
OTC 25207 Innovative Positioning of
Downhole Pressure Gauges Close to
Perforations in HP/HT Slim Well During
a Drillstem Test by AbdulHakim Al-Nahdi,
Saudi Aramco, et al.
SPE 171686 Successful DST
Methodology Adopted in Highly Deviated
Deep, Sour, and HP/HT Exploratory Well:
A Case Study by Abdulla Al-Ibrahim,
Kuwait Oil Company, et al.
IPTC 16427 Mini-DST To Characterize
Formation Deliverability in
Unconventional Reservoirs
by B. Kurtoglu, Marathon, et al.
108
well testing
With the success of hydraulic fracturing in the US shale-gas plays, why are more oper-
ating companies not using energized fluids to minimize the use of water, decrease the
amount of proppant required, and (theoretically) enhance long-term productivity? It
appears that Canadians have been somewhat more receptive to the idea and are more
willing to use energized fluids, with apparently positive results. Perhaps it is too early
in the game to convince operators in the US to take another look at this technology
with an open mind. Allow me to start a dialogue in this area.
The perception that using energized fluids is more expensive to achieve the same
goal could be one hurdle keeping operators from using them. Nonetheless, let us take
a step back and think of some of the more obvious, readily understood benefits: mini-
mizing the use of water and decreasing the amount of proppant. Every operator knows
the vast quantities of water required in hydraulic fracturing. This is a commodity that
appears to be readily available, but it is not. And this problem will only be exacerbat-
ed with time. One of the insidious issues is that not all the water used during fractur-
ing is recovered when flowing back the well, and whatever water is recovered cannot
be used in subsequent fracturing stages. Hence, there are huge costs associated with
water alone. Proppant, the nice, homogeneous sand grains that keep the fractures
open and permeable, is also costly. Decreasing the amount required per stage is equiv-
alent to more money in the operator’s pockets. When one realizes that many countries
with enormous shale-gas plays do not have vast resources of readily available water,
then the game changes. This may even result in an excellent public relations opportu-
nity when the general public realizes that oil companies care about the environment
and the precious resources.
For this issue of JPT, it was quite difficult to select three articles because there
were so many excellent papers. I have attempted to narrow down the many papers
to three that provide a broad perspective and the astute use of well-test data to be
insightful to all readers. The interested reader will find many good articles on this sub-
ject in the OnePetro library. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
Modeling Transient Wellbore Temperature
During Diagnostic Fracture Injection Tests

D iagnostic fracture injection

tests (DFITs) have gained
widespread usage in the evaluation of
wellbore raises the internal energy of the
fluid and of the composite tubing/casing/
cement material. Please see the complete
rected pressures begins to diminish
with time because the change in densi-
ty or expansivity is counteracted by the
unconventional reservoirs. In typical paper for the quantitative expression. fluid’s compressibility.
field operations, pressure is measured
at the wellhead, not at the bottom of Field Example Analysis of Pressure and Temperature
the hole. The bottomhole pressure Modeling Temperature Transient Transients During Falloff Test. Fig. 4
(BHP) is obtained by adding a constant During Falloff Test. The pressure- exhibits the pre- and post-closure re-
hydrostatic head of the water column computation algorithm entails two sponses, where the fracture-closure time
to the wellhead pressure (WHP) at steps. First, the temperature is evaluat- of 13 hours is indicated. This plot com-
each timestep. One can question the ed as a function of time at various depths paring the BHP and WHP responses sug-
soundness of this practice because of throughout the wellbore. As expected, gests that the pressure-conversion issue
significant changes in temperature the temperature at well bottom will ex- becomes moot for the problem at hand
that occur in the wellbore, leading to hibit the largest excursion. Second, the because the two curves converge well be-
changes in density and compressibility fluid properties of density and compress- fore the closure time.
throughout the fluid column. This paper ibility are evaluated at each depth step The analysis of temperature tran-
offers an analytical model for estimating corresponding to the temperature pro- sients also suggests the dominance of
the transient temperature at a given file, leading to the BHP estimation at a linear flow because of the slow thermal-
depth and timestep, for computing given timestep. diffusion process. A fracture-closure
the BHP. Fig. 1 presents the falloff data mea- time of 12 hours is estimated from the
sured during a test. The rapid rise in tem- diagnostic plot, which is in good agree-
perature over the first 10 hours suggests ment with its pressure counterpart. The
Temperature Model potentially large changes in compress- authors surmised that the upward shift
During Pressure-Falloff Test ibility and density of water. Therefore, in the temperature derivative near the
After a well is shut in at the surface, after- if the fracture closure occurs within this 0.8-hour mark is a manifestation of noni-
flow at the sandface is negligible because time period, uncertainty in BHP estima- dealized fracture geometry. However, the
of low formation permeability. Upon ces- tion may affect analysis. Fig. 2 shows the smooth transition from the higher el-
sation of injection, the cold injection quality of match obtained for tempera- evation appears to be a reflection of the
water begins to gain heat from the sur- ture data with the square-root-of-time fracture closure.
roundings. Heat transfer during flowing model presented by the equations found
and shut-in conditions has been modeled in the complete paper. Analysis of Injection Pressure With
with an energy-balance equation, ac- Establishing time-dependent tem- Modified Hall Method. Analysis of in-
counting for various resistances to heat perature profiles with the equations jection data has faced uncertainty be-
transfer. The resulting differential equa- is a first step toward computing BHP cause of complex mechanisms of frac-
tions are solved numerically. However, from WHP. Thereafter, the fluid’s ex- ture initiation and propagation, variable
with robust assumptions, an analytical pansivity and compressibility are esti- fluid loss, and fluid efficiency that are
expression can be developed for tran- mated. Fig.  3 displays the temperature all in play over a short period of time.
sient fluid temperature during falloff. and density profiles. Note that the error The modified Hall approach can be used
The heat flow from the formation into the between the corrected and the uncor- to establish the formation-breakdown
pressure with injection data. The nu-
merical derivative is a good way to arrive
This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
at the breakdown pressure. The break-
of paper SPE 166120, “Modeling Wellbore Transient Fluid Temperature and Pressure
over point agrees closely with that of
During Diagnostic Fracture Injection Testing in Unconventional Reservoirs,” by the numerical derivative. As expected,
B. Nojabaei, SPE, The Pennsylvania State University, A.R. Hasan, SPE, Texas A&M neither the radial-flow model nor the
University, and C.S. Kabir, SPE, Hess, prepared for the 2013 SPE Annual Technical log-time derivative show any point of
Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans, 30 September–2 October. The paper has not inflection. Despite the new semianalyt-
been peer reviewed. ical formulation with linear flow, the

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 109

 10,000 230 230
220 220
8,000
210 210
WHP, BHP (psig)

6,000 BHP 200 200

BHT (°F)

BHT (°F)
190 190 Data
4,000 Model
180 180
170 170
2,000
WHP 160 160
0 150 150
0 50 100 0 25 50 75 100
Shut-in Time (hours) Time (hours)
Fig. 1—BHP, bottomhole-temperature (BHT), and WHP Fig. 2—Good agreement between the model and
data gathered during a falloff test. temperature data.

250 66.5 1,000

ρ, 0.5 hours ½-slope –½-slope
Preclosure After-Closure

Pressure Derivative (psi)

200 66.0 Linear Flow Linear Flow

Density (lbm/ft3)
100 ½-slope
150 65.5 WHP Radial Flow
T, 24 hours
T (°F)

Fracture-Closure Time=13 hours

100 T, 0.5 hours 65.0 Closure Pressure=8,485 psig
10 WHP
50 Initial T ρ, 24 hours 64.5

0 64.0
1
0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 0 1 10 100 1,000
Well Depth (ft) Shut-in Time (hours)

Fig. 3—Time-dependent temperature gradient affects Fig. 4—Estimating fracture-closure pressure and time.
wellbore-fluid density. T=temperature, r=density.

numerical derivative provides a clearer
picture of the breakdown pressure and
is, therefore, recommended.
Another interesting observation
emerges when the same modified-Hall-
method data are graphed on the log-log
plot. The expected half-slope response
emerges after the fracture breakdown oc-
curs but over a very short time span. The
earlier unit-slope line suggests that the
wellbore was being loaded with the in-
jection water, which may be construed as
wellbore storage, used in the context of
transient-pressure testing.
The authors note that the degree of
separation between the derivative of the
Hall-integral curve and the Hall-integral
curve is a measure of fracture conduc-
tivity in conventional formations. How-
ever, such separation cannot provide
clues about the pressure behavior dur-
ing the shut-in period. In fact, analysis
of injection data of several wells from
reservoirs of diverse geomechanical and
fluid-efficiency considerations suggested
that the short-duration linear flow fol- from the potential transient-temperature
lowed by the unit-slope response is the issue. Using Fig. 4 as a guide, one can sur-
norm. The authors speculate that the mise that, if the fracture closure occurs
dominance of the late-time unit-slope re- within the first log cycle (1–10 hours) or
sponse, preceded by the half-slope signa- earlier, one needs to consider running
ture, suggests that the fluid has not had a downhole gauge. Otherwise, wellhead
time to diffuse into the formation given measurements suffice. To that end, this
the high-rate injection over a short time study provides practical guidelines on
span in a very tight formation. pressure measurements.
Although the conventional modified-
Discussion Hall-method plot diagnoses the fracture-
The transient-temperature model and breakdown pressure quite well, graph-
the computational approach present- ing the same data on a log-log plot is
ed in the complete paper are primar- even more illuminating because it clear-
ily intended for the falloff test run in ly delineates both the early-time unit-
any DFIT in an unconventional setting slope and the late-time half-slope re-
to account for large changes in fluid sponses. The half-slope response is in
temperature at early times. As expect- accord with linear flow. However, the
ed, the early-time injection data for the derivative of the modified Hall formula-
modified Hall formulation also require tion on a log-log plot suggests that the
the linear-flow treatment in micro- and half-slope period is short-lived. The sub-
nanodarcy formations. sequent development of the unit-slope
Questions arise when downhole response is speculative in that it may
pressure measurements become a ne- be associated with fluid storage within
cessity to avoid any uncertainty arising the fracture. JPT

110 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

 Creating Value With Permanent Downhole
Gauges in Tight Gas Appraisal Wells

D ownhole instrumentation of the

Khazzan tight gas appraisal wells
provides a rare opportunity to quantify
reservoir pressure and temperature
dynamics. Several appraisal wells
were tested initially for 3–4 weeks and
subsequently shut in for approximately
1 year. The continuous downhole-gauge
recordings of the resulting pressure
buildups were then analyzed to
quantify understanding of stimulation
effectiveness, reservoir quality away
from the wellbore, total producible
connected gas, geomechanics, and
wellbore hydraulics. This paper
examines the pressure-transient
analysis (PTA) of one representative
well in the field.
Value of Permanent Downhole
Gauges in Tight Gas
Dual permanent downhole gauges
(PDHGs) were spaced approximately
100  m apart in the upper-completion
design, close to the perforations, to ful-
fill various surveillance requirements
and provide the ability to measure gra-
dients in the wellbore in real time. The
completion could be tested with PDHGs
and surface gauges. A considerable ef-
fort was made to ensure that the com-
pletions could withstand multiple high-
pressure fracture-stimulation jobs. This
included installing polished-bore pack-
ers and special-thickness tubulars. Pre-
planning of fracture designs using a
variety of friction factors and likely frac-
ture gradients was performed to narrow
options and design the completions.
This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
of paper SPE 164039, “Creating Value Through Permanent Downhole Gauges in Oman
Block A Tight Gas Appraisal,” by Badar Al Busafi, SPE, Robert A. Clark Jr., SPE, and
Imtiaz Adil, SPE, BP, prepared for the 2013 SPE Middle East Unconventional Gas
Conference and Exhibition, Muscat, Oman, 28–30 January. The paper has not been
peer reviewed.
Monobore completions were planned to
enable running various plugs to isolate
the pay intervals as required and to ease
the running of logs, tools, and coiled
tubing into the wellbore. The size of the
completions was optimized for fractur-
ing, not for fluid flow.
Monitoring Hydraulic-Fracturing-Job
Performance. PDHGs have proved to be
of considerable value in real-time mon-
itoring of downhole treating pressure
in stimulation jobs. For example, early
detection of screenout events (before
any indication of pressure problems was
identified on the surface) has been dem-
onstrated. In one case, a job was altered
while pumping and proppant injection
was halted before the wellbore actually
screened out (Fig. 1). The surface pres-
sure data did not reveal the pending
screenout. Only a very small amount of
proppant remained in the wellbore after
halting pumping operations.
Monitoring Well-Cleanup Perfor-
mance. The main objectives of the vari-
ous well tests are to determine the initial
flow rate after fracturing the reservoir,
to evaluate the efficiency of the frac-
ture job quickly, to obtain pressure/
volume/temperature (PVT) fluid samples
for full-field development planning, and
to clean up the well to enable the flow to
be placed into the extended-well-testing
facility, which has limited fluid-handling
capacity. A critical piece of surveillance
technology has been the installation
of two permanent downhole pressure/
temperature gauges. One of the more
valuable pieces of data is analysis of the
pressure gradient between the gauges.
The information from the gauges helps to
optimize the fracture job and well clean-
up. A typical flow test would be that fol-
lowing the Well-B Barik fracture job. This
well was opened to flow on a small choke
immediately after fracture closure. The
wellbore fluid, with entrained bauxite,
was produced through a pair of cyclone
sand separators until the flow was clean
enough to pass through a test separator.
The choke was opened further to increase
the gas-flow rate and lift fracturing water
out of the wellbore. However, as the well
was placed on a new choke size, the flow
was diverted to the separator, resulting in
loss of flowing test data.
To determine the maximum deliver-
ability of the well, the choke was opened
progressively, checking for sand produc-
tion, until a 1-in. choke was achieved.
Flow was again diverted to the separa-
tor. Gas and fluid samples were taken,
and the well was shut in for a short pres-
sure survey. Because a pair of permanent
downhole gauges are part of the comple-
tion, estimates of permeability-thickness
product, skin, bottomhole pressure, and
other parameters were obtained quick-
ly. The well was opened for a longer test
period with a multirate-flow test being
used to evaluate a likely stabilized flow
rate. Further PVT sampling was conduct-
ed at the various rates to see if there was
any rate dependency on condensate/gas
ratio and to evaluate longer-term flow
for evaluation of the fracture job and
possible future deliverability.
Analyzing Long-Term Pressure Build-
ups. It is unusual for an operator to
shut in a well for more than a year while
monitoring bottomhole pressure and
temperature. The opportunity to obtain
such long-term shut-in data in this tight
gas block is almost unique. Operators
typically cannot shut in a tight gas well

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

112 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

Certified Performance
Without The Wait
 PDHG indicates imminent screenout
• changed proppant schedule, called flush
Bottomhole Pressure (psi)
• avoided burst tubing, cut RA tracer
• still maximized sand volume
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
Treating Pressure (psi)
0
50
Fig. 1—Example of a typical fracture-treatment surveillance illustrating a screenout being prevented by timely shutdown.
long enough to observe pseudoradial
flow on well tests because of commer-
cial constraints, particularly in view of
the low flow rates and rapid production
declines exhibited by such reservoirs.
Critical objectives of PTA are res-
ervoir permeability, reservoir pres-
sure, boundaries, faults, layering/dual
porosity, fracture-stimulation perfor-
mance (skin), fracture length, and frac-
ture conductivity. These objectives also
apply in tight gas reservoirs and ap-
praisal projects, but the value tends to
be more important because of narrow
economic margins.
The use of PDHGs has proved valu-
able in providing information about
connectivity over an area exceeding
20  km2 around the wellbore. PTA of
pressure-buildup (PBU) data obtained
during 300 days of shut-in has dem-
onstrated that the fracture-stimulation
jobs have been highly effective.
PTA illustrates that a long period of
PBU was required to reach pseudoradial
flow. The time required to reach pseudo-
radial flow depends on the matrix per-
114
100 150 200 250
Time (minutes)
meability, with tight gas reservoirs often
never achieving this condition because
of the long times needed.
Reducing Uncertainties in PTA. Instal-
lation of PDHGs has played a critical role
in reducing uncertainties in PTA for tight
gas tests. Permeability in some poly-
gons of the block considered here can
be as low as 0.05 md. Because the sam-
pling points (a result of well spacing) are
very sparse during appraisal, there is a
very high chance that the 2800-km2 ap-
praised area is not a simple tank, with
the chance that there are subseismic iso-
lated blocks. Therefore, initial pressure
in each test has to be confirmed by the
well test itself and not rely entirely on a
well 5–10 km away.
The test of Well-A provides a classic
example on the range of uncertainty that
can be related to the duration of data col-
lected from PDHGs. Ultimately, this well
was tested with a PBU duration greater
than 1 year. If wireline gauges were used
instead, the duration of data would rely
on many factors, such as gauge stor-
40.0
16.0
Slurry Concentration (lbm/gal)
30.0
12.0
Slurry Rate (bbl/min)
20.0
8.0
10.0
4.0
0.0
0.0
300
age capacity (which is also related to
sampling frequency), the requirement
for removing wellbore obstructions to
subsequent operations, the temperature
limitation of the gauges, and the tim-
ing at which the data are required to
be analyzed.
Bottomhole-Pressure (BHP) vs.
Tubinghead-Pressure (THP) Inter-
pretations. It is very common in the
oil industry to use THP data to derive
BHP if this latter set is absent. This is
usually done to save cost because THP
is much less costly to acquire than BHP.
Such practice is problematical, espe-
cially in complicated wellbores and with
multiphase flow. For simplicity, BHP is
derived with a single gradient to the
desired depth. This can be approximate-
ly correct in single-phase flow with a
known gradient.
Well-B illustrates the risk in inter-
pretations that can result from such
practice. This well has been tested for a
long time, and the gradient is very con-
stant. If BHP data from this well were
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
absent, it would be derived with the in some wells for full-field
readily available THP data. The THP development.
derivatives are very noisy compared to ◗◗Installation of dual PDHGs in
BHP derivatives. Such noise may not be completion designs must be
observed in the pressure data. Interpre- planned carefully to decide
tations using THP data show different how far apart the PDHGs
features in derivatives (e.g., a boundary) should be and how close to
that BHP data did not show. It is vital to the perforations these gauges
think about the consequences of such should be. Separating the
interpretations during field appraisal gauges by 100–200 m is ideal
and development. for measuring intrawellbore
gradients that will help
Recommendations during the well-fracturing and
◗◗Decisions related to the -cleaning processes. The gauges’
installation of PDHGs should proximity to the perforated
be made early in the appraisal area is a function of the gauges’
stage. PDHGs have proved temperature limitations.
to be useful in a surprisingly ◗◗Duration of cleanup and PBU
wide variety of surveillance must be planned carefully
applications. to maximize the value of the
◗◗It is recommended to use data. Limited data in tight
different vendors offering gas environments can be
different types of gauges to costly. Experience shows that
test their performance in hydraulically fractured wells in
the early stage of appraisal. a 1- to 0.06-md environment
Such early tests help vendors require 3–4 weeks of cleanup
refine their suggestions if a and 6–18 months of PBU
decision is taken to use PDHGs data. The gradient between
gauges can be used to assess
how clean the flow is before
shutting in the well. Enough
volume must be extracted
to maximize the radius of
investigation. The effect of PBU
duration on PTA can be largely
reduced if the initial pressure is
constrained.
◗◗Not every well in a full-field
development must have PDHGs.
Early appraisal data can be
used to build a comprehensive
database to facilitate THP-to-
BHP conversion. Such data must
be a function of condensate/gas
ratio, water/gas ratio, and flow
rates.
◗◗THP data cannot always
substitute for BHP data.
This paper demonstrated
that completely different
interpretations can result from
THP and BHP data. It is critical
to think about the consequences
of such interpretations during
the appraisal and development
phases. JPT

Extrusion Process Engineer

Seeking Faculty Applications
The Petroleum Engineering Program in the Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering Department at the University of Houston invites applications for
two tenured/tenure-track faculty positions. We are seeking faculty candidates
with superior skills for effective teaching and pioneering research. The
successful candidates will lead an externally funded research program, mentor
graduate and undergraduate research, teach petroleum engineering courses, and
serve UH, the Houston community, and the petroleum engineering profession.
Application is open for candidates with any petroleum engineering research
interest. Special needs of the program include: drilling and well completions;
production engineering; and applications of novel technologies in petroleum
recovery and production operations, especially in deep water or for ultra-low
permeability reservoirs.
Appointment to our faculty requires a Ph.D. in Engineering, Physical Sciences
or a related field. Candidates at the Professor level must have demonstrated
records of scholarship.
You will need to provide your Curriculum Vitae, a detailed description of
research interests (not to exceed 10 pages), a teaching philosophy statement (2
pages), and the names and email addresses of three references whom we may
contact.
Applications should be submitted online via the following links:
1. Assistant/Associate/Full Professor: apply at
http://jobs.uh.edu/postings/23170
2. Assistant Professor: apply at http://jobs.uh.edu/postings/23160
Crafted Plastics, Inc, located in Sheboygan WI is seeking
an Engineer with strong background in extrusion
processing & plastic profile extrusion tooling design.
Primary responsibilities will include design and tuning of
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calibration tooling and other required downstream tooling
and fixturing. Engineer must be resourceful, familiar with
wide variety of materials, be able to solve complex
processing problems and communicate solutions; will also
perform general managing tasks and communicate with
customers; and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
Requirements: BS/MS degree in Mechanical Engineering
or related disciple from accredited university, would
consider 4+ years of profile extrusion tooling design and
tuning experience in lieu of degree. Exp. & courses related
to plastics extrusion tooling design, extrusion processing
and mechanics of materials. Strong computer aptitude
with working knowledge of CAD and Office software,
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Please direct inquiries for additional information to Thomas K. Holley, Ph.D., Submit resume, salary and plastic related work history
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The University of Houston is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer.
No phone calls please
Minorities, women, veterans, and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 115

 Tactics for Use of Diagnostic Fracture
Injection Tests in Unconventional Reservoirs

T o achieve optimal production from

unconventional reservoirs, it is
useful to determine the permeability,
pore pressure, and state of stress of
rock strata. An effective way to derive
this information is to conduct in-situ
pressure-transient tests. Because
injecting fluid into or withdrawing
fluid from the pore network of tight
rock is difficult, diagnostic fracture
injection tests (DFITs) have been used
to create an analyzable pressure-decline
response and to derive the minimum
horizontal stress through fracture-
closure identification.
Fig. 1—Typical DFIT pressure response.
Introduction
Well testing is the technique of establish-
ing fluid flow in the reservoir by e­ ither
producing from or injecting into a well
and then changing or terminating the
flow rate to create a transient event, usu-
ally by shutting in the well at the sur-
face. The resulting wellbore-pressure
response is then evaluated to derive res-
ervoir properties, such as transmissibil-
ity and initial reservoir pressure.
Creating a hydraulic fracture by-
passes wellbore damage and near-­
wellbore stress concentrations and con-
nects the wellbore to a significant portion
of the reservoir-layer thickness, enabling
a representative investigation of reser-
voir properties.
A typical DFIT sequence is shown
in Fig. 1.
Initially, the well is filled with water,
with care taken to purge the fluid column
of entrained air and gas.
This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains
highlights of paper SPE 163863, “Diagnostic-Fracture-Injection-Testing Tactics
in Unconventional Reservoirs,” by D.D. Cramer, SPE, and D.H. Nguyen, SPE,
ConocoPhillips, prepared for the 2013 SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology
Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, 4–6 February. The paper has not been peer
reviewed.
2
Breakdown
pressure
Stop
injection
3 Fracture
4
1 Pseudolinear flow
Fracture closure pressure
5
Instantaneous
shut-in pressure
Time
◗◗A surface pump establishes an
injection rate with water, and
the wellbore fluid is compressed.
The time of compression is a
function of wellbore volume,
injection rate, and breakdown
pressure. In low-permeability
reservoirs, little if any of the
injected fluid flows into the
reservoir during this time.
◗◗Eventually, formation-
breakdown, or breakover,
pressure is reached, signifying
that a hydraulic fracture is being
propagated into the reservoir
rock.
◗◗Water injection at the surface
is continued until wellhead
pressure stabilizes.
◗◗Then, surface injection is
stopped, resulting in an
Pressure
Injection
rate
Fracture
Well
6 Pseudoradial flow
Shut-in Period
instantaneous shut-in pressure,
which is the net of wellbore and
near-wellbore friction pressures,
from which net pressure at shut-
in can eventually be determined.
◗◗The shut-in well pressure is then
monitored for signs of fracture
closure.
◗◗The after-closure period is
evaluated for pseudolinear- and
pseudoradial-flow signatures.
Radial-flow solution methods are
used to derive transmissibility
and initial reservoir pressure.
Linear flow also can be evaluated
for reservoir pressure.
Test Planning and Strategies
Selecting Injection Rates and Vol-
umes. For DFITs in low-permeability
rock, minimizing fracture length is im-
portant to shorten the time to fracture
closure and then to pseudoradial flow,
the flow regime required to derive trans-
missibility and pore pressure.
Tactic. Minimizing the injection
volume and rate will hasten fracture clo-
sure, reduce fracture length, and mini-
mize residual fracture width at the onset

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

116 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

of closure, also speeding the arrival of
pseudoradial flow.
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entire wellbore volume is in communi- over 5,000 shots in natural formation cores.
cation with the perforations and forma-
tion. There are two methods to collect
data: either through a surface/wellhead
gauge or through a downhole (typically
wireline-conveyed) gauge. The surface-
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gauge data will be valid only if pres-
that deliver unmatched fow
sure at the top of the wellhead or wire-
and injectivity performance in
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the formation.
than zero. If the reservoir is subpres-
sured, meaning that the pore pressure
is less than the fluid pressure exerted
by the wellbore hydrostatic column, the
use of a surface gauge will be limited.
Eventually the wellhead pressure will
reduce to zero; in this case, a downhole
gauge is useful in obtaining accurate
bottomhole-pressure information.
For downhole shut-in, the well is ® Premium perforating charges
isolated downhole with a bridge plug engineered to deliver best-in-
or other device. In comparing the two class penetration and entry
shut-in methods, the downhole shut-in hole diameter.
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the surface shut-in. With subpressured
reservoirs, downhole is the preferred
shut-in method. As long as the down-
hole shut-in device is placed at a depth
where the hydrostatic head is less than
the reservoir pressure, then the only
pressure-falloff mechanism will be de-
pressurization, resulting in a much Perforating charges designed
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Tactic. Downhole shut-in is advan-
tageous for all reservoirs. It is often a re-
quirement in applications with subpres-
sured reservoirs.

Vertical vs. Horizontal Wells. For

many unconventional plays, reservoir ®
development is based on multistage-
fracture-stimulated horizontal wells.
This presents an opportunity to per-
form a DFIT on the first-stage perfora-
tions/ports before fracture stimulation.
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JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

 It is possible to acquire additional in-
formation on the reservoir from these
horizontal-well DFITs; however, they
­ pressure-falloff response can
must be set up properly to acquire useful
data results. In addition, there are ad-
vantages to planning vertical-well DFITs
in these same reservoirs.
The following are horizontal-well
considerations:
◗◗Usually, there is a limitation
of one test interval per well.
◗◗There is little to no control in
lithology selection.
◗◗With multiple perforation
clusters, questions arise on the
variability of the lithologies
being tested and number of
fractures being propagated. It is
beneficial to conduct the DFIT
through a single perforation
cluster.
◗◗There is test-height uncertainty
because of the inability to
measure fracture-height growth.
◗◗Fracture-plane orientation is
uncertain.
◗◗DFITs in horizontal wells are
prone to complex hydraulic-
fracture initiation, with
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118
longitudinal and transverse
components. Consequently, the
be complicated.
◗◗Maintaining an overbalance
pressure during the time
between perforating and
conducting the DFIT may
be difficult.
◗◗Using pressure-activated toe
valves can facilitate the DFIT.
◗◗Annular isolation may be
lacking, sometimes by design
(e.g., openhole completions
with sleeves).
◗◗In openhole/sleeve applications,
DFIT results are generally
improved by restricting the
potential flow area in the
annulus. This is achieved
by installing and activating
openhole packers on each side
and within several feet of the
sleeve ports.
The following are vertical-well
considerations:
◗◗Multiple potential pay targets
can be evaluated to compare
stress and permeability
characteristics.
◗◗Specific layers/lithologies can
be targeted.
◗◗Bounding rock layers can be
evaluated to assess fracture-
height-growth potential
throughout the gross interval.
◗◗Fracture geometry is less
complex and more certain
compared with that of
horizontal wells, with a lengthier
wellbore-to-primary-fracture
connection and less near-
wellbore flow-path tortuosity.
◗◗Fracture-height determination
is possible, though difficult.
Tactic. For horizontal-well DFITs,
understand and plan to deal with the is-
sues. Do not limit well selection to hori-
zontal wells only. The significant advan-
tages of DFITs in vertical wells mean they
should be considered as part of the well-
planning and data-collection process.
Multiple-Interval Projects. In vertical
wells, multiple intervals can be test-
ed to evaluate a variety of pay zones
and the overburden/underburden.
The DFITs can be conducted in series
or simultaneously.
Tactic. Multi-interval tests with re-
trievable bridge plugs significantly re-
duce the time required for acquiring
results from multiple low-permeability
intervals that require long shut-in times
for achieving pseudoradial flow and
sometimes even fracture closure.
Understanding Test Height. The
height of the test interval is often uncer-
tain. The following are methods to ob-
tain a better understanding of the thick-
ness of the interval under investigation.
Fracture Modeling. Fracture mod-
eling can be used to estimate fracture-
height growth and as an aid in selecting
test height for improved characteriza-
tion of reservoir permeability.
Radioactive Tracers. Add-
ing radio­active tracers to the DFIT in-
jection water, and then performing a
gamma ray spectroscopy survey by use
of slickline or wireline at the conclu-
sion of the testing, has been used to es-
timate test height and confirm fracture-
modeling results.
Temperature Surveys. Tempera-
ture surveys performed in conjunction
with DFITs can be useful for estimat-
ing test height and confirming fracture-
modeling results.
Hydraulic-Fracture Modeling
Hydraulic-fracture modeling is applied
primarily in planning and optimizing
large-scale hydraulic-fracture treat-
ments. It is rarely considered as an aid
in designing small-scale injection treat-
ments such as DFITs. However, this phi-
losophy has changed recently. Because
DFIT results have had an effect on well-
development planning in several uncon-
ventional plays, hydraulic-fracture mod-
eling of the DFIT process is now being
used to provide insight into fracture-
propagation characteristics of reservoir,
overburden, and underburden intervals
before, during, and after test execution.
Hydraulic-fracture modeling first
starts with the evaluation of open-
hole and cased-hole logs. Analyzing
log data will lead to characterization of
rock properties and fluid saturations
of the reservoir and bounding litho-
logic intervals, leading to the develop-
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
ment of a geologic/stress model for the
hydraulic-fracture model.
When the formations of interest are
identified, then preliminary perforation
height, injection rate, and injection vol-
umes can be selected.
Procedure/Execution
There are operational considerations to
address to ensure that the well is prop-
erly set up and conditioned for a DFIT.
Evaluating Cement-Bond Quality.
Final perforation location should be
contingent on cement-bond quality. It
will be necessary to plan for alternative
perforation intervals as a contingency in
case the selected interval does not have
adequate cement-bond quality.
Preparation for Low Ambient Tem-
perature. Frigid weather can result in ice
in wellhead and injection lines and inac-
curate surface-pressure-gauge readings.
Well Circulation. Before the DFIT, it is
common for the well to be circulated
with water as part of hole-cleanout and
well-conditioning operations. In these
cases, it is best to wait at least 24 hours
before starting DFIT injection to ensure
that temperatures in the well return to
the geothermal gradient.
Air/Gas Purging. All air or gas needs to
be purged to ensure that the wellbore
and peripherals, such as the wireline
lubricator, are completely filled with
water/test liquid.
Pressure Testing. Generally, the pres-
sure test for the maximum operating
pressure for the wellbore and wellhead
doubles for the pressure test of the DFIT.
It is advisable to conduct a second pres-
sure test at a reduced pressure, if appli-
cable, for evaluation of the rate of pres-
sure falloff at the expected DFIT shut-in
pressure condition.
Wellhead Management. For DFITs,
separate pressure gauges are used for
the wellhead and the injection pump.
Both data sets should be available in
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
order to evaluate the validity of the
test data.
Overbalanced Perforating. Overbal-
anced perforating is recommended for
preventing gas influx into the wellbore
before the DFIT injection.
Dynamic Downhole Shut-In. A best
practice usually is to shut in the well
dynamically to avoid changing the
wellbore-storage coefficient during the
shut-in period.
DFIT Termination, Surface Shut-In.
After shutting in the well for the re-
quired time, each surface shut-in test
should be concluded with a short bleed-
back of wellbore fluid to check the fluid
content and check for the presence of
gas at the top of the wellhead.
Spotting Hydrochloric Acid To Fa-
cilitate Breakdown. Occasionally, the
maximum allowable surface pressure is
reached during DFIT injection without
achieving breakdown and a stable injec-
tion rate. Hydrochloric acid is effective
in lowering breakdown pressure.
Conclusion
The guiding principles for implement-
ing DFIT tactics are
◗◗Understanding the fundamentals
of project planning
◗◗Understanding the fundamentals
of test concepts
◗◗Having available the necessary
reference points/data
◗◗Preparing and executing with
attention to detail
◗◗Organizing data and recognizing
patterns/anomalies through
multiple tests
◗◗Letting the data lead the analysis
With continued tests and analysis,
the data may corroborate past findings
or put into question prior conclusions.
With an open mind, DFIT tactics in un-
conventional reservoirs can be open
to revision and modification; thus, un-
derstanding of various phenomena and
anomalies continues to be refined. JPT
 TECHNOLOGY
Niall Fleming,
SPE, is the leading
adviser for well
productivity and
stimulation with
Statoil in Bergen,
Norway. He has
previously worked as a production
geologist, chemist, and engineer.
Fleming’s main interest is within the
area of formation damage from drilling
and completion fluids and from wells
in production. He holds a PhD degree
in geology from Imperial College
London. Fleming has authored several
SPE papers, is an associate editor for
SPE Production & Operations, serves
on the JPT Editorial Committee, and
has been a member of the organizing
committees for several SPE conferences
and workshops.
Recommended additional reading
at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
SPE 165092 Case-Study Analysis of
Formation Damage Induced by Brine
Workover Fluid on Burcioaia Reservoir
(Romania) and Research on Damage-
Removal Methods by A. Dragomir,
OMV Petrom, et al.
SPE 165169 Formation Damage and the
Importance of a Rigorous Diagnostic:
A Case History in Nigerian Deep Water
by Jean-Noël Furgier, Total, et al.
SPE 169435 Integrated Analysis
To Identify and Prevent Formation
Damage Caused by Completion Brines:
A Colombian Field Application
by M.G. Jaimes, Ecopetrol, et al.
120
formation damage
Brant Bennion, in the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology Distinguished
Authors series, titled his 1999 article on formation damage “The Impairment of the
Invisible by the Inevitable and Uncontrollable, Resulting in an Indeterminate Reduc-
tion in the Unquantifiable.” This is a brilliant definition of formation damage because
it reflects very well the lack of relevant data (in particular, permeability data) that
are essential for adequate design of drilling and completion fluids. In addition, the
opening sentence in Bennion’s article is as relevant today as it was in 1999: “For-
mation damage is a hot topic these days—with justifiable reason as we move to the
exploitation of more challenging oil and gas reservoirs in tighter, deeper, and more
depleted conditions.”
In order to avoid some of the detrimental effects of formation damage, a key
aspect is laboratory testing of representative core material under representative
downhole conditions. Thin sections, dry scanning electron microscopy (SEM), cryo-
genic SEM, and X-ray diffraction have been used for a number of years to identify
the main damage mechanisms, mechanical or liquid, contributing to the observed
returned permeability measurement from coreflooding. High-resolution images can
be obtained from dry and cryogenic SEM, but they offer only a limited view at any one
time. One technique that has been applied recently to identify and quantify potential
formation damage is that of microcomputed tomography (CT). This provides high-
resolution scans of whole plugs and allows, for example, the identification of changes
in pore structure because of fines mobilization, and the visualization of the filter cake
after cleanup, depth of mud solids, and filtrate invasion. The combination of micro-
CT with techniques previously used for formation-damage analysis is providing new
understandings in the interaction of drilling and completion fluids with core material.
One of the more frustrating aspects of coreflooding has been how to relate the
results obtained to potential well-inflow performance. Computational fluid dynamics
is one technique that appears to have bridged this gap. This technique incorporates
the data obtained from coreflooding into a model that recreates the actual well geo-
metry, depth of formation damage, mud thickness, and distribution of restrictions in
the tubing, such as safety valves. With this approach, production rates can be obtained
that provide useful insights into selecting appropriate drilling and completion fluids,
for example.
Enjoy the papers selected. Formation damage is still a “hot topic.” JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
Improving the Interpretation
of Formation-Damage Laboratory Tests

T he paper presents a new approach

that uses X-ray-microcomputed-
tomography (micro-CT) scanning
or no effect on the results of
testing
◗◗Understanding test results
require a representative untested sample
to be used as a base for comparison with
the post-test sample. Various fragments
to produce high-resolution data of through interpretive analysis of the tested sample are then analyzed
entire core samples. The images of to put laboratory-test results and compared with the untested sam-
core produced are superior to those into a field context ple. This approach has been highly suc-
produced by commonly used medical cessful, but two main limitations must
scanners and give insight into core For a discussion of current tech- be recognized:
properties as well as issues such as niques used to aid in core-sample in- ◗◗Experienced analysts and
drilling-mud-constituent infiltration, terpretation, such as scanning elec- databases of sample imagery
mudcake structure and thickness, and tron microscopy (SEM), thin-section allow reliable interpretations
alterations in the pore network. Through analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and to be made, but when subtle
a technique that the authors refer to as ­computed-tomography scanning, please or scattered changes are seen,
“difference mapping,” data sets captured see the complete paper. there can be differences of
before and after laboratory testing are opinion on the significance
compared to reveal the distribution of Micro-CT Scanning of mechanisms.
changes within samples. Micro-CT scanning uses a class of scan- ◗◗To perform the analysis in
ner that can rapidly capture a series of a timely and cost-effective
scans at high resolution; these scans can manner, a limited volume of
Introduction be reconstructed with software to create the core sample (typically
Formation-damage laboratory studies a 3D model of the object scanned. Reso- less than 5%) is selected to
aid in risk reduction when making im- lution of significantly less than 1 µm can undergo analysis. If damaging
portant well-design decisions, so reduc- be achieved on smaller subsamples, re- mechanisms are distributed
ing uncertainty surrounding test results ducing as the sample size and length in- unevenly, there is clearly an
is an important effort. creases. The time taken to capture a data element of chance introduced in
The major areas in which labora- set also decreases as the resolution low- terms of whether all damaging
tory testing can be influenced to pro- ers, so the selection of operational set- mechanisms are captured
vide the most meaningful (and there- tings is a balance of resolution vs. sam- during subsampling.
fore more valuable) information include pling times and data-set sizes. For scans
the following: of intact core samples, a maximum res- Difference-Mapping Technique
◗◗Performing tests at reservoir olution of 10–15 µm is achievable after Micro-CT scanning, in combination with
conditions of temperature taking into account sample size and sam- software manipulation of the data sets,
and pressure by use of pling time. offers an alternative approach. While in-
reservoir overbalance and While micro-CT scanning provides dividual slices do not offer the resolution
underbalance pressures and high resolution, to analyze entire core of SEM or thin-section analysis as previ-
real/representative fluids and samples nondestructively it does not ously mentioned, the data set as a whole
exposure periods approach the resolution seen in thin-­ captures a huge amount of information
◗◗Ensuring that the equipment and section analysis or SEM. Although offer- on the nature (density) of the sample.
procedures used have minimal ing a higher resolution, these techniques If all the data captured before and after
testing can be compared directly, then it
should be possible to visualize the differ-
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights
ences between the data sets, both in 2D
of paper SPE 165110, “Use of Micro-CT-Scanning Visualizations To Improve
planes and in 3D space. This visualiza-
Interpretation of Formation-Damage Laboratory Tests Including a Case Study tion has been achieved by the difference-­
From the South Morecambe Field,” by Justin Green, Ruaridh Cameron, and Ian mapping technique. In simple terms,
Patey, Corex, and Vishal Nagassar and Mark Quine, Centrica, prepared for the data are captured before the sample un-
2013 SPE European Formation Damage Conference and Exhibition, Noordwijk, The dergoes testing (before=B) and then
Netherlands, 5–7 June. The paper has not been peer reviewed. again after a test sequence (after=A).

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 121


A −
Unchanged
Fig. 1—Example of the difference-mapping technique applied to a 2D 5×5 grid.
A B
Fig. 2—Example of the difference-mapping technique applied to a tested core
sample. The post-test image (A) shows a mudcake attached at the top, which
is not present in the pretest image (B). Image B is subtracted from Image A,
leaving behind the change (C).
The data are then loaded into modeling
software, which, after alignment of the
two data sets, compares each point and
determines the difference: A-B=change
(C). Fig. 1 gives a binary example of this
technique: the left-hand image is the end-
point (A), the middle image shows the
start point (B), and the right-hand image
shows the result of difference mapping in
terms of changed and unchanged (C). On
this 2D plane, the differences between
the two images can be seen clearly in a
visual and unambiguous format. It is also
worth noting that the technique removes
the variable of the analyst. In the simple
images of Fig. 1, the human eye might
tend to exaggerate differences; for ex-
ample, the top end and the bottom-left
quadrant of the after image could seem
more different than they actually are.
The simple example in Fig. 1 has
only 25 points to compare, but each slice
122
B = C
Changed
C mensions rather than as a series of 2D
of micro-CT-scan data has tens of thou-
sands of points, which means that to ex-
amine an entire core sample in three di-
mensions, there will be many millions,
and potentially billions, to compare. The
visualization of differences within core-
sample data sets will therefore be more
complex and will require powerful com-
puters and software to produce good
data in a reasonable time. Fig. 2 shows
an example of real data and the result of
mapping the differences. Again, the left-
hand image is data captured after the
test sequence, the middle image is the
same area of the sample before testing,
and the right-hand image is the map of
the differences between the two. Here,
those points that are the same are in
black, with a grayscale showing intensity
of difference. Here, the greatest change
is where the mudcake has developed,
in the first 1–2 mm into the core sam-
ple; deeper in, there are scattered areas
of difference.
Micro-CT scanning in combina-
tion with software can therefore be used
to visualize changes in the samples fol-
lowing a test sequence. The 2D differ-
ence maps are a useful way of visualiz-
ing snapshots of differences at different
points: essentially thin sections of the
samples at lower resolution but with
vastly improved qualification of change.
The difference-mapping technique be-
comes most powerful, however, when
the differences are viewed in three di-
slices. The difference maps provide a
qualitative and visual indication of the
changes within core samples, but, be-
cause of the nature of the technique, do
not identify what has caused the chang-
es. Micro-CT-scanning data provide
the distribution of mechanisms with-
out the resolution or ability to visualize
specific mechanisms, while techniques
such as SEM provide the resolution and
means to visualize what has caused
the  changes. Currently used techniques
and the difference-mapping technique
can therefore be used to complement
each other.
Case Study: Morecambe Bay
For an upcoming well in the south More-
cambe offshore gas field in the east
Irish Sea, testing was required to look at
drilling-related damage. The well would
implement a cased-and-perforated com-
pletion, so the drilling mud was to be de-
signed to control both fluid and solid in-
filtration, to avoid deeper invasion and
damage. Understanding the distribution
of damaging mechanisms was therefore
of great interest, and the study was an
ideal opportunity to use micro-CT scan-
ning to augment the coreflood-test data
and geological techniques that could not
answer these questions fully. An addi-
tional aim was to use the laboratory-test
information to understand field re-
sponses. In the well, an openhole drill-
stem test (DST) would be carried out,
so the operator wanted to use the infor-
mation to subjectively calibrate in terms
of the amount of near-wellbore dam-
age that would be likely with the chosen
drilling-mud system and evaluate the
impact of near-wellbore damage on rate
and the interpretation of that DST.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
Microseismic_Monitoring-JPT-Interim-Press Ready-righthand X-1A.pdf 1 1/8/15 10:21 AM
 The study used representative core
(a) (b)
samples (cleaned and prepared to a base-
line saturation) of low (approximately
8 md), medium (approximately 300 md),
and high (approximately 7,000 md) per-
meability. After preparation, initial per-
meabilities were measured, and drilling-
mud tests were carried out by building
up a mudcake and then producing gas
100X 200 µm and measuring additional permeabilities.
The drilling muds examined were two
(c) (d)
candidate 10.5-lbm/gal water-based-mud
(WBM) formulations that varied in their
base brines. The first used a mixed so-
dium and potassium brine, with the sec-
ond using a saturated sodium chloride
(NaCl) brine. Samples were loaded to
reservoir temperature and pressure in a
coreflood-test rig, and the drilling mud
was applied by flowing it dynamically
500X 50 µm 500X 50 µm
past the wellbore face of the core sam-
Fig. 3—Further interpretive information gathered from currently used ples at 200-psi overbalance pressure for
techniques. Incomplete cleanup of the mudcake is seen in (a); shallow depth 48 hours. Following the dynamic appli-
of invasion in a cross section in from the wellbore face (marked as W) (b); cation, the drilling mud was exposed to
scattered drilling-mud constituents (c); and filtrate retention seen as an the core at 200-psi static overbalance for
increased saturation on grain surfaces (d).
48 hours; during the dynamic- and static-
application periods, filtrate-loss volumes
were recorded. Following drilling-mud
application, production was simulat-

Chair – Petroleum Engineering Department

The Petroleum Institute (PI)
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates


The Pet oleum Enginee ing Depa tment at The Pet oleum Institute invites applications/nominations fo the position of Depa tment Chai , sta ting Fall
Semeste 2015 o Sp ing semeste 2016. The Chai of Pet oleum Enginee ing se ves as the academic and administ ative leade of the Depa tment.
Conside ation will be given to only those who me it appointment at the ank of Full P ofesso and have a eco d of distinguished esea ch and
educational achievements.

The successful candidate will be expected to wo k closely with the Pet oleum Enginee ing faculty to develop a vision of the long-te m evolution of the
p og am and implement a st ategy to execute that vision. The Chai takes esponsibility fo the academic, esea ch, facilities and financial affai s of the
Depa tment; p ovides effective leade ship and di ection fo the Depa tment th ough a p ocess of sha ed gove nance; st ategic planning; management
of human, financial and physical esou ces, and supe vision of the P og am’s compliance with national (UAE) and inte national (ABET) acc editation
standa ds; att acts potential candidates fo the depa tment in the ank of distinguished/full p ofesso positions; assists the Dean of the College of
Enginee ing in ensu ing the continuous g owth, development and imp ovement of the College.

Requi ed qualifications of the candidate include: (1) PhD deg ee in Pet oleum Enginee ing o closely elated field suppo ted by elevant pet oleum
enginee ing academic o indust y expe ience; (2) Excellent eco d of teaching and schola ly achievement; advanced inte pe sonal ve bal and w itten
communication skills; and (3) Demonst ated ability to lead and successfully manage p ofessionals in an academic o ganization.

The position of Depa tment Chai offe s highly competitive compensation and benefits. The total compensation package includes a tax-f ee 12-month
base sala y, and a benefits allowance that cove s elocation, housing, initial fu nishings, utilities, t anspo tation (inte est-f ee automobile pu chase
loan), health insu ance, child( en) education, end-of-se vice benefit, confe ence t avel and annual leave t avel.

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vitae, a detailed desc iption of esea ch and teaching inte ests, and names and contact info mation fo five efe ences. Review of applications will begin
immediately and will continue until the position is filled. The deadline fo applications is 2 March 2 15. Only sho tlisted applicants will be notified.
Kindly apply di ectly to: https://ca ee .pi.ac.ae

124 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

ed by flowing humidified nitrogen gas
at increasing differential pressures, re-
cording flow rate, and measuring per-
meability at specific points. Permeability
measurements after mudcake removal
and spin down gave an indication of the
impact of the mudcake attachment and
fluid trapped within the sample.
Test results showed low filtrate-loss
volumes in all rock types, indicating that
the drilling mud was controlling losses
successfully. Very significant reductions
in permeability (greater than 80%) were
seen in all samples tested, with slight
improvements noted as the drawdown
pressure increased. After the final draw-
down, permeabilities were reduced by
70–90%. Removing the mudcake led to
very large improvements in permeabil-
ity (10–45% increase), and centrifuging
the samples removed mud filtrate and
again improved permeability significant-
ly (15–45% increase). Final permeability
measurements did not show significant
reductions in permeability, but these are
best-case measurements and the earli-
er data indicated that the nature of the
mudcakes after drawdown was impair-
ing productivity significantly. The two
drilling muds gave similar results, al-
though the pure-NaCl-based drilling mud
showed slightly lower reductions at the
final permeability stage.
Micro-CT scanning was carried out
to see the distribution of permeability
change. Two micro-CT-scan data sets
were captured per sample: the first after
the sample had been prepared to a rep-
resentative baseline saturation, and the
second after final drawdown but before
any removal of the mudcake. These data
sets were aligned, and the differences be-
tween the two sets analyzed and visual-
ized. In all samples, the differences were
seen to be concentrated in the region
very near the wellbore, with scattered
change throughout the remainder of the
sample length. The change at the well-
bore faces was concentrated in the mud-
cake attachments and the first few pores
into the samples; significant change was
not seen more than a few millimeters into
the samples. Some variation was seen
between samples, including the thick-
ness/nature of the remnant mudcakes
and some evidence of flow channelizing
along higher-permeability streaks within
core samples.
SEM, cryogenic SEM, and thin-­
section analysis were performed and tar-
geted to the areas of interest and change
in the micro-CT-scan data. They showed
that pores were blocked at the wellbore
faces because of incomplete drilling-
mud cleanup (Fig. 3a), shallow depth
of drilling-mud-constituent infiltration
(Fig.  3b and 3c), some fines migration,
and some retention of drilling-mud fil-
trate (Fig. 3d).
Combining the coreflood-test data
with current interpretive techniques, and
augmenting with micro-CT scanning,
helped reach the following conclusions:
◗◗The drilling mud caused
significant reductions in
permeability.
◗◗These reductions were
concentrated (but not
solely) in the region very
near the wellbore; if
perforation tunnels can
penetrate this 1- to 2-mm
zone, then the matrix is
relatively undamaged.
◗◗Base-brine selection did not
have a significant effect on
permeability. JPT

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY’S WILLIAM G. LOWRIE

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL & BIOMOLECULAR
ENGINEERING invites applicants for a CLINICAL
FACULTY position to support the department’s
efforts to introduce a PETROLEUM ENGINEERING
minor. Viable candidates will ideally have industrial
Be a part of the experience in the petroleum industry. The successful
candidate will be able to develop, maintain, and teach

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deadline: June 1, 2015.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 125

 Modeling Formation Damage and
Completion Geometry in the Gyda Reservoir

T his study concerns the mature

Gyda reservoir, where some
recent production wells have
Well A19A, some conclusions may be de-
rived from the present study that could
support the understanding of the pro-
1. Define modeling goals.
2. Identify the domain to model.
3. Design and create the grid. Steps
underperformed relative to equivalent ductivity behavior of Well A19A. for a general model creation are
initial wells. In particular, a sidetrack To achieve the objective, one CFD listed:
to an early successful well had very model of both wells was constructed. Dif- (a) Geometry creation: Creation
poor performance on initial startup. ferent completion options were provid- of basic 2D or 3D models on
Subsequently, the geometry of both ed, including the case of the hydraulically the basis of actual dimensions.
the original well and the sidetrack fractured well. Several sensitivity analy- (b) Mesh generation: Involves
was simulated. In the original well, ses were carried out in order to depict the mesh setting for different
an attempted hydraulic fracture was well potential. domains under consideration.
assumed to have failed. This assumption (c) Mesh-quality examination:
was challenged in the model. The model CFD Modeling Ensures mesh consistency
has enabled evaluation of old wells and, CFD is the science of predicting fluid across domains.
more importantly, design of new wells flow, heat and mass transfer, chemical (d) Boundary-zone assignment:
in this mature-reservoir development. reactions, and related phenomena by nu- Assigns boundary types for
merically solving the sets of governing domains in terms of pressure
mathematical equations (i.e., conserva- inlet (matrix)/outlet (well) and
Introduction tion of mass, momentum, and energy). defines continuum in terms of
Gyda is a mature oil development in Solvers used are based on the finite- solids/fluids.
the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. volume method:
The first production wells were drilled ◗◗Domain is discretized into a finite Solver-Execution Phase. The more im-
more than 20 years ago. Some recent- set of control volumes (cells). portant steps in this phase include the
ly drilled Gyda wells have not fulfilled ◗◗General conservation (transport following:
production objectives. A numerical 3D equations for mass, momentum, 1. Select appropriate physical
model was proposed in order to investi- and energy) is solved for each of model.
gate and understand the flow dynamics these control volumes. 2. Define material properties:
and the production potential from the ◗◗Partial-differential equations density, viscosity, fluid/ solid,
Gyda A19 and A19A wells. This modeling are discretized into a system of inertial resistance coefficient,
process includes a detailed numerical 3D algebraic equations. and permeability.
fluid-flow simulator based on computa- 3. Define boundary conditions at
tional fluid dynamics (CFD), which cap- All algebraic equations are then all boundary-zone assignments.
tures the reservoir, well, and completion solved numerically to render the solution Define pressure at the inlet and
geometry complexity. field. The modeling process includes sev- outlet.
The CFD simulations are used to de- eral basic phases, outlined in the follow- 4. Provide an initial solution
termine potential explanations for the ing subsections. (usually zero).
wells’ performance and lead to stimula- 5. Set up solver controls:
tion options and development of opti- Problem Identification and Prepro- convergence criteria.
mum drilling and completion for future cessing Phase. This phase comprises 6. Set up convergence monitors:
wells. Because Well A-19 is very similar to the following steps: continuity and velocities.
7. Compute and monitor the
solution (iterations that are
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights
required to reach a convergence
of paper SPE 165113, “Modeling Formation Damage and Completion Geometry in an solution). Convergence is
Old Well Enables Better Planning for New Wells: Gyda Development Case Study,” by reached when changes in
M. Byrne, SPE, and E. Rojas, SPE, Synergy, and V.B. Holst, SPE, Talisman Energy, solution variables from one
prepared for the 2013 SPE European Formation Damage Conference and Exhibition, interaction to the next are
Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 5–7 June. The paper has not been peer reviewed. negligible.

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

126 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015


Fig. 1—Full-model geometry.
8. Consider revisions of the model:
Are physical models appropriate?
Are boundary conditions correct?
Is mesh adequate?
Post-Processing Phase. In this phase,
the results are examined in order to re-
view the solution and extract useful data.
Assumptions
In order to construct the predictive
model, several assumptions were made.
As mentioned previously, two different
wells, A19 and A19A, were simulated;
however, these wells were located very
close to each other, so only one base
CFD model was built to represent both
wells, with different completion options
included. The CFD 3D numerical mod-
els used can incorporate a level of de-
tail that extends to the perforation-size
level (diameter and length). However,
because of the excessive number of cells
that would result, it is not possible to
generate a model that includes the en-
tire formation thickness and all perfo-
rations. In order to evaluate the produc-
tivity of the perforation case, two small
models (1-ft thickness) were construct-
ed to determine a productivity ratio be-
tween the well completed as an open
hole and the well completed as cased
and perforated.
The entire model (total net sand)
was built as an open hole consisting of
an undamaged reservoir zone, the well,
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
Fracture
Well
layers that represent the permeability geometry and conductivity, are provided
variability (whose thickness and perme- in Tables 1 and 2 of the complete paper.
ability were taken from the Well A19
completion report), and a damaged zone Results
(Fig. 1). The ratio representing the dam- Several sensitivity analyses were run in
age induced by the perforations was in- order to evaluate real-well performance.
cluded. A hydraulic fracture was includ- The sensitivities included scenarios with
ed, and sensitivity to the fracture size and and without fractures and the crushed
position was evaluated. zone around the perforation, as well as
The reservoir data input used to different drawdown conditions. Table 1
build the CFD model, and the assump- depicts the results of the sensitivities
tions made for the hydraulic-fracture for the different cases evaluated, while
Cases Rate (STB/D)
No Fracture
Openhole (no damage) at 110 drawdown 1,641
Openhole (no damage) at 300 drawdown 5,416
Cased and perforated (no damage) at 110 drawdown 1,639
Cased and perforated (no damage) at 300 drawdown 5,412
Simulation of Well A19A with perforations, crushed
Effectively no flow
zone, and perforations filled with mudcake
Cased and perforated + crushed zone at 110 drawdown
1,038
Crushed-zone permeability = 10% of original
Cased and perforated + crushed zone at 330 drawdown
2,427
Crushed-zone permeability = 10% of original
Fracture (No Damage)
168-m fracture length at 110 bar 5,123
168-m fracture length at 300 bar 17,567
46-m fracture length at 110 bar 3,839
46-m fracture length at 300 bar (upper zone) 8,973
46-m fracture length at 300 bar (middle zone) 13,161
46-m fracture length at 300 bar (lower zone) 12,448
Table 1—Results of sensitivities.
127
 Production in B/D a fracture, it is apparent that the posi-
Drawdown=110 bar tion of the fracture relative to the higher-­
6,000 permeability layers has a significant ef-
fect on well productivity.
5,000

Measured and Simulated

Oil-Flow Rate (B/D)

4,000
Production-Log-Test (PLT)
3,000
Comparison
A PLT was performed in January 1998
2,000 in Well A19. The results showed that
most (82%) of the production came from
1,000 4480- to 4486-m measured depth below
rotary table, which is the lowermost per-
0 foration and the only perforation of the
C&P (Damage) C&P (No Damage) Fracture (46 m) Fracture (168 m) A sand in the well. The top zone, B2, con-
Fig. 2—Production rates at 110-bar drawdown. C&P=cased and perforated. tributes 18%.
The simulated inflow profile, which
corresponds to the case of a 46-m frac-
Production in B/D ture length, 300-bar drawdown and frac-
Drawdown=300 bar
20,000 ture located in the middle zone, shows
good agreement with the measured PLT.
18,000
The flow rate obtained was 13,161 STB/D.
16,000 Most production (76%) came from the
14,000 perforations of the A sand, and the top
Oil-Flow Rate (B/D)

12,000 zone B sand contributes 24%. The rel-

10,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
C&P C&P
(Damage) (No Damage)
Fig. 3—Production rates at 300-bar drawdown.
Figs. 2 and 3 display the plots of the pro-
duction for each scenario evaluated.
The openhole and perforated cases
were run at the same drawdown condi-
tions; the results were almost identical.
The openhole case considers the entire
open interval, whereas the perforated
case considers only the zones that were
perforated. The cases with the crushed
zone around the perforations indicate
that this zone will have a significant ef-
fect on production, and underbalanced
perforation (in which the crushed zone
can be interpreted to be reduced) should
be beneficial. The crushed zone was ob-
served to result in a reduction in flow rate
of more than 35%.
The case using a fracture length of
168 m is a hypothetical case, but it does
enable comparison with the other case
Fracture Fracture Fracture Fracture
(46 m (46 m (46 m (168 m)
Top) Middle) Bottom)
(46-m fracture length). As expected, the
longer the fracture is, the more oil the
well will produce, which indicates that
the fracture length has a significant effect
on well productivity.
The case with the perforations dam-
aged with drilling fluid did not show
effective flow. This is the case used to
simulate the expected intial condition of
Well A19A, which was perforated at over-
balance in mud and then further surged
with mud into the perforations. The au-
thors’ interpretation is that the perfo-
rations will be filled with a very-low-
permeability mudcake, and the model
does not predict any initial flow. With
time, this oil-based-mud filter cake is
likely to degrade.
On the basis of the results obtained
from the different cases evaluated with
ative distribution between the zones
(20–80%) is maintained. This repre-
sents an excellent match between the
initial oil production and distribution of
flow in the well.
Conclusions
The model shows that the productivity
in Well A19 can be achieved only if a hy-
draulic fracture is connected to the well.
According to the model results, it ap-
pears that the flow rate from Well A19
came from the matrix as well as the frac-
ture. The case with the perforations dam-
aged with drilling fluid (Well A19A initial
conditions) did not show effective flow.
The productivity is almost identical for
the openhole-­completion option and the
cased-and-perforated option.
The crushed zone around the per-
forations had a significant effect on pro-
duction. CFD has been used effectively
to model productivity behavior of past
Gyda wells and to help define future stim-
ulation and completion strategies. The
authors suggest that the modeling per-
formed also can be used to evaluate
◗◗The effect on productivity of
underbalanced drilling and
underbalanced perforation
◗◗Multiple fractures in the same
well
◗◗Horizontal wells JPT

128 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

Fines Migration in Fractured Wells: Integrating
Modeling With Field and Laboratory Data

P roduction and drawdown data from

10 subsea deepwater fractured wells
have been modeled with an analytical
0.06

Rate
0.04 Model
model for unsteady-state flow with fines
Field
migration. The simulation results and
0.02
the field data indicated a good match, 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
within 5%. This paper describes the (a) Time
methodology used to integrate the
modeling predictions with field and 40
Drawdown

laboratory data to identify probable

causes for increasing skins and declining 20 Model
productivity-index (PI) values. Field
0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
Introduction (b) Time
Fines migration is a complex phenom- Fig. 1—Simulation results for Well 2 with an analytical model for well
enon that can challenge the economic productivity with fines migration. Blue stars correspond to well data. The
viability of a project because of well- model match is shown in hollow black circles.
productivity decline, lower-than-expected
hydrocarbon recoveries per well, large productivity data are well-matched with Treatment of Well Data
capital expenditures to drill and com- the mathematical modeling. Production and drawdown data from 10
plete additional wells, and high operat- subsea deepwater fractured wells were
ing costs from suboptimal facility de- Fines-Migration Modeling modeled with an analytical model for
signs. Excessive fines production may The traditional mathematical model unsteady-state flow with fines migration.
also result in equipment erosion and for fines migration assumes release in- The simulation results and the field data
corrosion, formation of hard-to-break tensity to be proportional to differenc- showed a good match, within 5%. Figs. 1
emulsions, and plugging of flowlines and es between the current and critical val- through 3 show the time dependency of
surface facilities, all leading to potential ues of velocity, salinity, pH, and stress. rate and drawdown for Wells 2, 4, and 6,
hazardous situations. The shortcomings of the classical model respectively. These wells have been se-
This paper describes a multidis- for fines migration have been discussed lected for discussion on the basis of their
ciplinary approach in which fines- in the literature. Another approach to completion and production history.
migration modeling has been integrated fines-mobilization modeling is use of the Well 2 is the best producer in the
with field and laboratory data to ascer- maximum-retention function. This ap- field with zero water cut and negative
tain whether fines migration may be as- proach was adopted in the current work. skin. The frac-pack completion was ex-
sociated with rapidly increasing skins Steady-state and quasisteady-state re- ecuted with precision, achieving a hard
and declining PI values observed in a gimes of flow toward wells are described tip screenout (TSO) with more than
subset of deepwater fractured wells. by analytical modeling. In the current 600-psi net pressure increase after TSO.
Laboratory studies exhibit fines re- work, the analytical model was devel- As shown in Fig. 1, there is a good match
lease and migration during coreflood- oped for unsteady-state fines lifting, mi- between the model and the well data
ing and stress testing; the field well- gration, and straining in fractured wells. (R2=0.996). Moreover, it is important to
note that the well drawdown (Fig. 1b) has
a small impact on the flow rate under cur-
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
rent conditions (Fig. 1a). This signature
paper SPE 165108, “Fines Migration in Fractured Wells: Integrating Modeling With response was also observed for Wells 1,
Field and Laboratory Data,” by M. Marquez, W. Williams, and M. Knobles, Chevron, 9, and 10. The good quality of the com-
and P. Bedrikovetsky, SPE, and Z. You, SPE, University of Adelaide, prepared for the pletion (i.e., wider, more-densely-packed
2013 SPE European Formation Damage Conference and Exhibition, Noordwijk, The fractures, and full annular packs) may be
Netherlands, 5–7 June. The paper has not been peer reviewed. the reason that this set of wells is able to

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 129

 0.05 of the well half-length. With this premise,
Model the radius of the fines-mobilization zone
Field was estimated to be in the range of 314 to
Rate

578 m, which also exceeds the fracture

half-length and validates the assumption
0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05 of axisymmetric flow. Another assump-
(a) Time tion of the analytical model is the condi-
200 Model tion of oil incompressibility in the drain-
age zone, which is reasonable given the
Drawdown

Field
100 negligible effect of oil compressibility on
fines migration.
0 For a discussion of the sensitivity
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05 analysis carried out to determine the im-
(b) Time pact of the model matching parameters,
please see the complete paper.
Fig. 2—Simulation results for Well 4 with an analytical model for well
productivity with fines migration. Blue stars correspond to well data. The
model match is shown in hollow black circles. Laboratory Assessment
of Fines Production
0.03 Model Laboratory experiments were conduct-
Field
ed to assess the potential for fines pro-
Rate

0.02 duction and permeability impairment

caused by reservoir depletion and near-
0.01 wellbore stresses at various flow condi-
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04 tions. It is important to note that conven-
(a) Time Model tional critical-velocity tests performed
100 Field on core material before field develop-
Drawdown

ment did not show evidence of fines mi-

50
0 images of the core material, showing rel-
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03 0.035 0.04
(b) Time
Fig. 3—Simulation results for Well 6 with an analytical model for well
productivity with fines migration. Blue stars correspond to well data. The
model match is shown in hollow black circles.
withstand higher drawdowns and the ef- crease in the flow equation, it calculates
fects of reservoir depletion. the initial areal distribution of released
As seen in Fig. 2, Well 4 experienced fines from an average well rate; there-
a rapid decline in productivity since the fore, those particles lifted by higher rates
start of production. Well 6 also under- early in the production history effective-
goes a fairly rapid drop in rate when ly arrive at the near-wellbore region later
the dimensionless time T equals 0.02 than predicted, causing an additional
(Fig. 3a), which coincides with a decision pressure drawdown over time.
to increase the well drawdown to arrest Given the good match achieved be-
production decline (notice the change in tween the well data and the model out-
slope in Fig. 3b at T=0.02). put, the analytical model can be used for
As illustrated in Figs. 1 through 3, long-term prediction of well productivity
the fines-migration model discussed here on the basis of the matched production
adequately captures the well data, ex- history. Moreover, a 2D numerical model
cept for a relatively small time interval at may be applied to history match the well
the end of the production period where data on the basis of the assumption of ra-
the modeling slightly underestimates the dial axisymmetric flow because the frac-
well drawdown. This can be explained ture half-lengths (18.0 to 29.4 m) are
by the reduced flow rate and the time significantly smaller than the drainage
dependency of fines transport from the radius (1500 m). Henceforth, the flow to-
reservoir to the wellbore. Although the ward the fracture can be assumed radial,
analytical model accounts for rate de- with the effective well radius equal to half
gration. Those results were supported by
X-ray-diffraction data and thin-section
atively low clay content and good cemen-
tation by tight grain-to-grain contacts.
One limitation of conventional
critical-velocity tests is that they do not
capture flow conditions in fractured
wells adequately, in particular the ef-
fect of multiple operational shutdowns/
restarts and pressure-buildup tests,
which can induce stress cycling and fric-
tional forces capable of breaking and
crushing in the formation and the prop-
pant pack, and releasing fine particulate
material therefrom. Changes in reservoir
stresses with depletion can intensify this
effect further, increasing the potential for
fines production, skin increase, and pro-
ductivity loss through the life of the well.
To address this gap, alternative methods
to test fines migration in the laboratory
were considered in this study.
The first set of tests involved
single-phase-flow experiments with
surging steps to simulate the effect of
multiple shut-ins and restarts of produc-
tion. A two-phase coreflow experiment
was also conducted with coinjection of
synthetic formation brine and treated
kerosene, starting with kerosene at irre-

130 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

ducible water saturation (Swi), and pro-
gressively increasing the water-cut ratio 200
10 mL/min
(oil/water ratios of 90:10, 75:25, 50:50)
to 100% synthetic formation brine. For 160

Permeability to Liquid (md)

a discussion of the procedure for con-
ducting single-phase and two-phase
coreflow experiments, please see the 120
complete paper.
Permeability to brine vs. cumula- k/k initial =52%
80
tive injected fluid in pore volumes (PV) at 30,000 PV
is plotted for each sample in Fig. 4. As
seen in the figure, approximately 50% of 40
the initial permeability for each sample is kair =283 md
lost after 30,000 PV of cumulative injec-
tion, regardless of flow rate. 0
Unlike conventional critical-velocity (a) 0 6,000 12,000 18,000 24,000 30,000 36,000 42,000
tests, in which fines production and per- Cumulative Fluid Injected (PV)
meability impairment are correlated
160
to a critical velocity for mobilization of
fines, the results in Fig. 4 suggest that the 140
amount of damage may be correlated to 100 mL/min
a critical cumulative volume of fluid in-
Permeability to Liquid (md)

120
jected through the sample, in this case
30,000 PV. 100
A possible reason that a number of k/k initial =48%
conventional critical-velocity tests do not 80
at 30,000 PV
show evidence of fines migration, despite
60
field evidence in support of it, is that
these tests often flow a limited volume of 40
fluid through the sample (e.g., a few hun- kair =294 md
dred PV). 20
To assess the impact of multiphase
flow and increasing water cuts on fines 0
production in the vicinity of the frac- 0 40,000 80,000 120,000 160,000 200,000
(b)
ture face and the annular pack—a re- Cumulative Fluid Injected (PV)
gion subjected to large volumes of fluid
Fig. 4—Single-phase coreflow tests with surging and constant flow rate.
flow—an extended two-phase coreflow Permeability to liquid vs. cumulative injected fluid in PV: (a) 10 mL/min; (b)
experiment was conducted by coinject- 100 mL/min. k=permeability; kair=air permeability; kinitial=initial permeability.
ing synthetic formation brine and treat-
ed kerosene, starting with kerosene at Swi 1.000
and progressively increasing the water ko at Swi Synthetic Formation Brine
Treated Kerosene
cut (oil/water-injection ratio=90:10, ko at Swi
Relative Permeability (fraction)

75:25, 50:50) until synthetic formation

brine at irreducible oil saturation (Sor) 0.100
was reached, as illustrated in Fig. 5. Care 75:25
90:10
was taken to remove drilling-fluid filtrate
from the sample while preserving the na-
kw at Sor
tive wettability of the sample.
0.010
Steady-state relative permeability 50:50
vs. water-saturation data for an extract-
ed sample, and a wettability-restored
kair =301 md
sample, are shown in Figs. 6a and
6b, respectively. 0.001
Direct comparison of Figs. 5 and 6 0 3,500 7,000 10,500 14,000 17,500 21,000 24,500 28,000 31,500 35,000

reveals a significantly-more-damaged Cumulative Fluid Injected (PV)

sample from the two-phase extended- Fig. 5—Relative permeability vs. cumulative fluid injected in PV for steady-
flow test (Fig. 5). For instance, the rela- state, native-state sample (extended two-phase coreflow test). kair=air
tive permeabilities to oil (Ko) at 75:25 permeability; ko=oil permeability; kw=water permeability.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 131

 N
Drilling

EW
1

Performance
38:62

Relative Permeability (fraction)

kw at Sor

Simulation and 0.1

97:3 75:25 krw kor

Prediction
(DPSP) 0.01

Technical
Extrapolated
50:50
kair=266 md

Section 0.001
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
(a) Water Saturation (fraction)
SPE has formed a Technical Section
for sharing technical knowledge,
1
experiences, best practices, and
38:62
solutions in Drilling Performance
kw at Sor
Relative Permeability (fraction)

Simulation and Prediction. This new

section seeks to promote awareness 75:25
0.1 97:3
of key industry challenges, work krw kor
with relevant SPE groups to develop
necessary training initiatives, identify
areas for collaborative problem-solving, Extrapolated
0.01
and address gaps between operators’ 50:50
requirements and available solutions.

Deepen your learning and share kair=266 md

your insights on the subject during 0.001

discussions at monthly virtual meetings, (b)
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

forums, and workshops. Water Saturation (fraction)

Enjoy the convenience of online
collaboration and the benefits of at
least one face-to-face meeting a year.
Learn more and join today at
connect.spe.org/dpsp.
Fig. 6—Steady-state relative permeability vs. water saturation for (a) extracted
sample and (b) wettability-restored sample.
oil/water-injection ratio are 0.3 for the
extracted sample in Fig. 6a and 0.4 for the
wettability-restored sample in Fig.  6b,
but only 0.1 for the sample subjected to
extended flow (Fig. 5). At 50:50 injec-
tion ratios, Ko ranges from 0.2 to 0.25
for the extracted and the restored sam-
ples, respectively, but it drops to 0.035
for the sample in Fig.  5. The permea-
bility to brine at Sor ranged between
0.25 and 0.45 for the extracted and the
wettability-restored samples (Figs. 6a
and 6b, respectively), but it was less than
0.05 in Fig. 5—an order of magnitude less
than the samples tested by conventional
relative permeability experiments. From
these results, it is evident that the sam-
ple subjected to extended flow (greater
than 30,000  PV) experienced some sort
of mechanical damage beyond the dam-
age normally associated with relative per-
meability changes. As in the single-phase
coreflow tests (Fig. 4), the cumulative
fluid injected through the sample appears
to be a critical variable when it comes to
assessing fines-production potential and
permeability impairment in the laborato-
ry. For a discussion of triaxial-stress tests,
please see the complete paper.
The integrated approach to evalu-
ating fines production discussed in this
study offers an advantage over con-
ventional critical-velocity experiments
in that it evaluates the impact of rock
stresses and various flow conditions, in-
cluding extended flow periods, thus ad-
dressing potential fines migration from
both native (i.e., movable silty/clayey par-
ticles present within the rock fabric) and
nonindigenous particulates generated by
the crushing and shearing of proppant
and formation-sand grains. JPT

JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

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134 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

PEOPLE

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Engineering within the university’s Cock- Reid T. Stone, Playa Del Rey, California, USA
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138 JPT • FEBRUARY 2015

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JPT • FEBRUARY 2015 139

 SPE EVENTS
WORKSHOPS
8–11 February ◗ Penang—SPE Deepwater
Development Workshop
8–11 February ◗ Miri—SPE Late Stage Well
Workover & Asset Retirement Workshop
10–11 February ◗ San Antonio—SPE
Final Commissioning and Initial Startup
Workshop
10–12 February ◗ Abu Dhabi—SPE/EAGE
Reservoir Life Cycle Management—An
Ever-Changing Perception of Reality
Workshop
11–12 February ◗ Accra—SPE
Understanding the Risk of Well Integrity in
a Diverse Environment Workshop
17–18 February ◗ Dubai—SPE Better Well
Control—How We Get There Workshop
17–18 February ◗ Austin—SPE/NACE
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8–11 March ◗ Kota Kinabalu—SPE Foam
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Developments—Pushing the Limits
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11–13 March ◗ Búzios—SPE Subsea
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15–18 March ◗ Phuket—Extended Reach
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Solutions  Operations Conference & Exhibition
15–18 March ◗ Kota Kinabalu—Managing
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Production & Ensuring Asset Integrity  Chemistry
18–20 March ◗ Geneva—SPE The
Economics, Financing, and Risk
Find complete listings of upcoming SPE workshops, conferences, symposiums, and forums at www.spe.org/events.
140
Management of Petroleum Projects
Workshop
24–25 March ◗ New Orleans—SPE
Production Chemistry and Chemical
Systems Workshop
30–31 March ◗ Abu Dhabi—SPE Ensuring
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31 March–1 April ◗ Dallas—SPE Production
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COnFeRenCeS
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Progressing Cavity Pumps Conference
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International Symposium on Oilfield
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22 April ◗ Bergen—SPE Bergen One Day
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27–29 April ◗ Anaheim—SPE Western
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27–28 May ◗ Salvador—SPE Artificial Lift
Conference: Latin America and Caribbean
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Life Rejuvenation
23–26 February ◗ Istanbul—
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22–26 March ◗ La Jolla—SPE Physics and
Chemistry of Nanoscale Rocks
17–22 May ◗ Bali—SPE Drilling Window
Prediction and Real-Time Management:
31 May–5 June ◗ Newport Beach—SPE
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Social Responsibility: The Role of the Oil
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Deadline: 20 April
JPT • FEBRUARY 2015
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