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Summer 2011
Bit Design
Downhole Conveyance
Source Rock Geochemistry
Environmental Advances
Oileld Review
41615schD1R1.indd 1 8/17/11 10:24 PM
11-OR-0003
41615schD1R1.indd 2 8/17/11 10:24 PM
The rst patent for the rotary rock bit, issued in 1909,
marked the birth of the modern drillbit industry. At that
time, bits were designed with two cones of interlocking
milled teeth, and drilling a few feet was considered a good
run. It wasnt until the 1950s that engineers designed three-
cone bits that more closely resemble those currently in use.
Today, demands on drill bits are more exacting. While
xed cutter and roller cone bits were originally designed to
be run to destruction, they are now expected to not only
exceed drilling performance expectations but also to end
the run in pristine condition. The modern drill bit must be
able to drill fast, provide good steerability for directional
control and last an extended period of time downhole in
even the most extreme environments.
Though bit costs typically represent less than 1% of total
well construction cost, the right bit can improve drilling
performance immensely and in so doing deliver millions of
dollars in operator savings. Indeed, the advent of polycrys-
talline diamond compact (PDC) bits in the early 1970s,
along with ongoing improvements to roller cone compo-
nents, has played a major role in reducing overall well
costs for our customers. These renements also afford
todays engineers the ability to plan the complex well tra-
jectories that are critical to oil company protability in
increasingly complex reservoirs.
At rst glance, it can be difcult to see the differences
between a premium engineered drill bit and one that would
drill at half the rate of penetration or lack the steerability.
Indeed, without considerable understanding of the design
complexities and materials engineering involved, it is dif-
cult to appreciate the amount of technology incorporated
into modern drill bits or the scientic approach applied to
current bit design and selection methods.
Today, vast improvements in materials engineering,
design software and manufacturing processes deliver drill
bits that are custom designed for every application. These
designs are quickly validated in the virtual world of com-
puter modeling and sent to production in a matter of days.
This is in stark contrast to the trial-and-error approach
used by early bit manufacturers. This new methodology
allows the right solution to be delivered with the rst
design iteration, making it possible for our customers to
capture savings immediately instead of after costly and
time-consuming eld trials.
As someone who has been involved in the drillbit indus-
try for 15 years, I am delighted that this edition of Oileld
Review features an article explaining just a few of the
drillbit technologies currently used by the industry (see
Bit DesignTop to Bottom, page 4).
From Bit to Rig Floor: An Integrated Systems Approach to the BHA
1
But whats next? Drillbit design and improvements to
diamond materials will no doubt continue to evolve.
Materials engineering is what drives drillbit advancement,
and we are rapidly escalating investment in that discipline.
Future PDC bits will be able to drill harder rock than has
been possible in the past, and the one-bit-per-interval goal
will be achieved more frequently.
The long-term goal, however, is considerably more ambi-
tious than drillbit evolution. Our aim is to engineer the
entire bottomhole assembly as a single system rather than
as discrete components. While the speed of rock destruction
will always be of signicant importance to drillers, overall
system reliability and optimal well placement are equally
important facets of truly efcient drilling operations.
Therefore, we believe the next step change in drilling
performance will come via an integrated systems approach
to the engineering and design of the complete BHA, includ-
ing the drill bit, drilling tools and drilling uid, as well as
the directional drilling, measurement-while-drilling and
logging-while-drilling toolseverything from the bit to the
rig oor. The broader range of products and services now
within our portfolio will enable the product development
that is necessary to achieve this performance and reliabil-
ity improvement.
Greater understanding of the technical issues and mitigating
risks in advance of a drilling program will help our customers
realize major cost savings and performance improvement. To
be able to deliver these cost savings, we are signicantly
increasing our investment in both short- and long-term R&D
projects. And we are employing unique approaches to problem
solving that will attract the next generation of engineers and
materials scientists to the E&P industry.
The industry will always strive for continuous improve-
ment. As a service provider to oil and gas operators around
the world, Schlumberger undertakes this challenge with
responsibility and passion.
Guy Arrington
President
Bits and Advanced Technologies
Schlumberger
Guy Arrington, who since 2010 has been President, Bits and Advanced
Technologies, a Schlumberger company, has been in the drilling industry for
24 years. He spent 14 years in the drillbit business, working in manufacturing,
field engineering and business development in the US and internationally, and
later in product and field engineering management. He joined the Schlumberger
Drilling and Measurements segment in 2001, first as business development
manager and later as vice president for Europe, Central Asia and Africa. Guy
was vice president of deepwater operations before managing the Smith Bits
and Advanced Technologies integration team during the Schlumberger-Smith
merger. He has BS degrees in industrial engineering and mechanical engineer-
ing from Texas A&M University.
41615schD2R1.indd 1 8/19/11 11:54 PM
www.slb.com/oilfieldreview
Schlumberger
Oilfield Review
1 From Bit to Rig Floor: An Integrated Systems Approach to the BHA
Editorial contributed by Guy Arrington, President, Bits and Advanced Technologies, Schlumberger
4 Bit DesignTop to Bottom
The right bit plays a key role in optimizing ROP, minimizing rig
costs and shortening the time between project commissioning
and first production. At one time, engineers designed bits
based on little more than rough estimates of the characteris-
tics of the rock to be drilled. Today, however, the emergence of
high-speed computers has made it possible for bit designers to
consider the bit and the entire drilling system in far more
detail and in a far more holistic manner than ever before.
18 ConveyanceDown and Out in the Oil Field
Evaluating, perforating and performing mechanical services
on horizontal and high-angle wells present challenges for
operators and service companies. This article reviews some
of the methods used to convey equipment and logging tools
downhole for cased hole and openhole operations; the article
also describes conveyance options for logging in high-angle
and horizontal wells.
Executive Editor
Lisa Stewart
Senior Editors
Matt Varhaug
Rick von Flatern
Editors
Vladislav Glyanchenko
Tony Smithson
Contributing Editors
Ginger Oppenheimer
Rana Rottenberg
Mark Andersen
Design/Production
Herring Design
Mike Messinger
Illustration
Chris Lockwood
Tom McNeff
Mike Messinger
George Stewart
Printing
RR Donnelley-Wetmore Plant
Curtis Weeks
Oilfield Review is published quarterly and
printed in the USA.
Visit www.slb.com/oilfieldreview for
electronic copies of articles in multiple
languages.
2011 Schlumberger. All rights reserved.
Reproductions without permission are
strictly prohibited.
For a comprehensive dictionary of oilfield
terms, see the Schlumberger Oilfield
Glossary at www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com.
About Oilfield Review
Oilfield Review, a Schlumberger journal,
communicates technical advances in
finding and producing hydrocarbons
to employees, clients and other oilfield
professionals. Contributors to articles
include industry professionals and experts
from around the world; those listed with
only geographic location are employees
of Schlumberger or its affiliates.
On the cover:
A laboratory technician at Smith Bits, a
Schlumberger company, performs a test
to quantify bit cutter forces and cuttings
as a function of rock failure mechanisms
and rock removal rates. These data are
used for bit design analysis. Virtual sce-
narios are run to determine parameters
such as the optimal bit profile, blade and
cutter count, gauge length, bottomhole
bit pattern and force balance on tricone
(inset, left) and PDC (inset, right) bits.
2
41615schD3R1.qxp:ORSPR04_TOC_01 8/23/11 9:03 PM Page 2
Summer 2011
Volume 23
Number 2
ISSN 0923-1730
53 Contributors
56 New Books and Coming in Oilfield Review
59 Defining Exploration:
The Search for Oil and Gas
The second in a series of articles introducing basic concepts of the E&P industry
3
32 Basic Petroleum Geochemistry for
Source Rock Evaluation
The pursuit of prospects in increasingly complex plays is giv-
ing E&P companies a renewed appreciation for one of the
fundamental principles of exploration: The viability of any
prospective reservoir depends on an effective source rock.
Petroleum geochemistry is proving its value in helping oper-
ators evaluate source rocks and quantify the elements and
processes that control the generation of oil and gas.
Geochemistry is also an important tool for reducing uncer-
tainty inherent in exploration and production of frontier
basins. This article explores basic geochemical techniques
used to evaluate new prospects.
44 Technology for Environmental Advances
In recent years, the E&P industry has improved many tech-
nologies and practices to remove or mitigate detrimental
effects on the environment. These improvements have been
introduced throughout the life cycle of fields. Many of those
new technologies also demonstrate improved performance
over technologies they replaced.
Dilip M. Kale
ONGC Energy Centre
Delhi, India
Roland Hamp
Woodside Energy Ltd.
Perth, Australia
George King
Apache Corporation
Houston, Texas, USA
Richard Woodhouse
Independent consultant
Surrey, England
Alexander Zazovsky
Chevron
Houston, Texas
Advisory Panel
Editorial correspondence
Oilfield Review
5599 San Felipe
Houston, Texas 77056 USA
(1) 713-513-1194
Fax: (1) 713-513-2057
E-mail: editorOilfieldReview@slb.com
Subscriptions
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Clients can obtain additional subscrip-
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addresses at www.slb.com/oilfieldreview.
Paid subscriptions are available from
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Distribution inquiries
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E-mail: DistributionOR@slb.com
41615schD3R1.qxp:ORSPR04_TOC_01 8/15/11 11:31 PM Page 3
4 Oileld Review
Bit DesignTop to Bottom
Individual bits are one of the least expensive pieces of hardware used in drilling
operations, yet the return on millions of investment dollars often depends as much
on bit performance as on any other single component of todays complex drilling
systems. Spurred by that reality, engineers today are bringing powerful, high-speed
computers and the latest in modeling and simulation
software to the science of bit design.
Prabhakaran Centala
Vennela Challa
Bala Durairajan
Richard Meehan
Luis Paez
Uyen Partin
Steven Segal
Sean Wu
Houston, Texas, USA
Ian Garrett
Brian Teggart
Tullow Oil plc
London, England
Nick Tetley
London, England
Oileld Review Summer 2011: 23, no. 2.
Copyright 2011 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Guy
Arrington, Ashley Crenshaw, Diane Jordan and Chuck
Muren, Houston; and Emma Jane Bloor, Sugar Land, Texas.
DBOS, IDEAS, i-DRILL, ONYX and Spear are marks of
Schlumberger.
Bit choice has long been viewed as a key to suc-
cessful drilling operations. The right bit plays a
leading role in optimizing rate of penetration
(ROP), which helps minimize rig costs and short-
ens the time between project commissioning and
rst production. In eld development programs,
predictable ROP is critical to efcient allocation
of rigs, personnel and materiel. Operators are
drilling increasingly complex, extended-reach
wells in which a bit poorly matched to the forma-
tion, drilling parameters, BHA or downhole tools
may introduce unwanted dynamics or create
forces that cause the well path to stray from the
planned trajectory.
On the other hand, a correctly designed bit
delivers a more in-gauge hole and a less tortuous
well path. These wellbore characteristics allow
engineers to more easily log the hole and then to
install the tubulars, tools and instrumentation
required for the planned completion.
At one time, engineers designed and selected
bits based on little more than rough estimates of
formation hardness, interval depth and hydrau-
lics. However, as with many aspects of drilling and
production, in recent years, the science of bit
design has evolved at an accelerated pace.
Options within the general categories of xed cut-
ter and roller cone bits have grown from a select
few to a wide variety differentiated by manufac-
turing material, processes and function.
1

41615schD4R1.indd 4 8/12/11 7:53 PM
Summer 2011 5
While bits have never been designed in total
isolation, todays high-speed computers have
made it possible to consider the entire drilling
system in far more detail and in a far more holis-
tic manner than ever before. Designers are also
able to better match the bit to the formation and
thus avoid low ROP or excessive nonproductive
time (NPT) caused by trips to replace worn bits.
The most damaging result of poor bit design is
the creation of excessive downhole shocks and
vibrations. Vibrations can cause anything from
slow ROPinduced by premature bit wearto
damage and ultimate failure of complex and
costly downhole electronics. Vibrations are
caused primarily by often-linked drilling phe-
nomena known as bit bounce, stick-slip, bending
and whirl (above).
Bit bounce most frequently occurs when drill-
ing vertically through hard formations, usually
with a roller cone bit, but it may also occur with a
xed cutter bit. The cutting action of tricone
roller bits tends to create lobes on the bottom of
the hole, which causes the bit to be axially dis-
placed three, six or even nine times per bit
revolution, changing the effective weight on bit
(WOB) and repeatedly lifting the bit off and then
slamming it back to bottom. The resulting axial
vibrations damage bit seals, cutting structures,
bearings and BHA components and also reduce
ROP and destroy downhole sensors.
One operator has said stick-slip accounts for
about 50% of on-bottom drilling time.
2
Stick-slip,
a function of the rotary speed of the BHA, occurs
when the bit stops turning due to friction between
the bit and the formation. Once torque within the
drillstring becomes greater than these friction
forces, the bit releases from the wellbore wall
and is spun by the unwinding of the long drill-
string at very high angular velocities, causing
destructive lateral movement.
Bending is caused by placing too much down-
ward force on the drillstring. This can create lat-
eral shocks when the drillstring is deformed
enough to make contact with the wellbore.
Another operator has estimated that 40% of
footage drilled worldwide is adversely affected by
bit whirl.
3
Whirl creates severe lateral movement
at the bit and the BHA. A drilling imbalance
brought on by a poorly selected bit or negative
bit-BHA interaction pushes one side of the bit
against the wellbore wall, creating a frictional
force. When drilling a gauge hole, the bit rotates
about its center. But during whirl, the instanta-
neous center of rotation becomes a cutter on the
face or gauge of the bit, the same way a turning
axle moves the instantaneous center of rotation
of a cars tire to the road. As a consequence, the
bit tries to rotate about this contact point.
Because the bits center of rotation moves as
the bit rotates, one result of whirl is an overgauge
hole. Motion within this hole may force the cut-
ters to move backward (relative to the surface
rotation), or laterally, causing the bit to travel lon-
ger distances per revolution than in a gauge hole.
These actions create high-impact loads on the bit
and BHA. Whirl also creates a centrifugal force
that pushes the bit toward the wall, increasing the
frictional force, which in turn reinforces whirl.
4
1. For more on bit types and manufacturing: Besson A,
Burr B, Dillard S, Drake E, Ivie B, Ivie C, Smith R and
Watson G: On the Cutting Edge, Oileld Review 12, no. 3
(Autumn 2000): 3657.
2. Xianping S, Paez L, Partin U and Agnihorti M:
Decoupling Stick-Slip and Whirl to Achieve
Breakthrough in Drilling Performance, paper IADC/SPE
128767, presented at the IADC/SPE Drilling Conference
and Exhibition, New Orleans, February 24, 2010.
3. Xianping et al, reference 2.
4. Brett JF, Warren TM and Behr SM: Bit WhirlA New
Theory of PDC Bit Failure, SPE Drilling Engineering 5,
no. 4 (December 1990): 275281.
>
Vibration sources. Axial motion, or bit bounce, has a characteristic frequency whose value is a function primarily of the type of bit, mass of the BHA,
drillstring stiffness and formation hardness. Torsional oscillations, or stick-slip, result from an excessive amount of torque in the drillstring. This type of
motion also has a frequency dependent on the mass of the BHA, torsional stiffness of the drillstring and dogleg contact points. Stick-slip often results in
transients of extreme lateral vibrations. Lateral shock refers to sideways bending of the BHA, and is often chaotically coupled to axial and torsional motions.
BHA whirl is the bending and precession of the drillstring center around the borehole. This eccentered movement can be either forwardthat is, in the
same rotational direction as the pipeor backward. Forward whirl is very common and is induced by centrifugal forces caused by any slight imbalance in
the drill collars. Backward whirl results when the frictional forces between the drill collar and the borehole are sufcient to cause the drillstring to move
backward along the borehole wall.
Bit bounce Stick-slip Bending Whirl
Axial motion
Fast
Slow
Backward
Forward
Torsional oscillations Lateral shock Eccentered drillstring
41615schD4R1.indd 5 8/12/11 7:53 PM
6 Oileld Review
Traditionally, the driller must change WOB or
pipe rotation speed to counter drilling dysfunc-
tions such as bit bounce, stick-slip, whirl and
bending. Increasing WOB may induce stick-slip
and raising the rotation speed may invite whirl.
Restraining both may reduce all four types of
vibrations but result in unacceptably low ROP.
The third choice is to nd an optimized combi-
nation of the two variables, which may be done only
when the bit, BHA, drillstring and hydraulics pro-
gram are integrated as part of a drilling system
rather than as isolated components. Engineers have
long known how to model the complete system.
However, the volume of calculations to do so has
historically required an investment of time that
made the task economically untenable. Additionally,
the parameters calculated were valid for only a sin-
gle instance in a specic formation in a well.
These limitations have been overcome in
recent years by the proliferation of fast, powerful
computers that have allowed designers to model
the performance of drilling systems for specic
applications. The result has been an increased
ability to minimize axial and lateral vibrations by
determining the optimum range of WOB and rpm.
Even more important, engineers are able to
design systems before they are manufactured.
This article looks at the tools available for
modern bit design including simulation, model-
ing and nite element analysis programs. Case
studies from offshore West Africa, Peru and the
US will demonstrate the impact increased com-
puter power is having on drilling operations.
Drillstring Design as an Iterative Process
The aim of drillbit design is creation of a bit,
which, when matched to the correct BHA, down-
hole tool, formation to be drilled and drilling
parameters, will perform optimally as dened by
the following:
ROP
durability
stability
steerability
versatility.
Each of these metrics is weighted by the oper-
ator according to the specics of the section to be
drilled. For example, if fast ROP is the primary
driver in a given interval, it may require sacric-
ing bit durability for faster drilling, resulting in
faster bit wear. Similarly, if steerability is of pri-
mary concern, the operator may be forced to use
a less aggressive bit and slow the ROP.
Guided by operator objectives and the charac-
teristics of the formations to be drilled, bit
designers consider many options for each facet of
the bit. The bit designer must rst choose
between a roller cone or xed cutter bit (above).
On roller cone bits, the cones turn indepen-
dently as the BHA rotates on bottom. Each cone
has cutting structures of hard-faced steel or
tungsten-carbide inserts. By design, they wedge
and crush like chisels, or gouge and tear like
shovels, depending on formation hardness.
>
Drillbit designs. Selection begins with a choice between a bit whose cutting mechanism is xed to the bit body or on roller cones. A selection
of xed cutters (left) may be further rened, based on formation hardness, by opting for PDC or natural diamonds, which are on cutter blades or
impregnated into the bit body. Roller cones (right) consist of milled-tooth cutting structures or inserts.
Fixed cutter
Fixed cutter Roller cone
Roller cone
Drill bits
Polycrystalline diamond
compact (PDC)
PDC Milled tooth Insert Natural diamond Impregnated diamond
Diamond
Natural diamond Impregnated diamond
Milled tooth Insert
41615schD4R1.indd 6 8/12/11 7:53 PM
Summer 2011 7
By contrast, xed cutter bits, or drag bits,
have integral blades that turn together. Their
steel cutting structures may include natural dia-
monds suspended in the blade matrix. The body
of the xed cutter bit is a cast of tungsten-car-
bide matrix or machined steel. Composed of man-
made polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC),
xed cutters shear the bottom of the hole.
5
Historically, bits and BHAs were chosen
through a process of elimination. For a given
drilling program, engineers rst chose a bit based
on offset well data. The amount and value of the
data vary according to location, but of special
interest to drillers are bit records that include bit
type and design used, ROP, footage drilled per bit
and an accurate International Association of
Drilling Contractors (IADC) bit grading. Based
on this information, a specic bit type is chosen
and run. When the driller decides the bit is no
longer effectivefor example when the ROP
slows below a predetermined ratethe drill-
string is pulled and the bit inspected. This empir-
ical bit selection process continues in many
drilling programs today.
The bit is then analyzed for cutting structure
wear and breakage. Historically, drillers learned
through experience how to examine a used bit,
called a dull, to determine what type of bit to run
next or what changes to make to the bit type. In
the 1950s, the industry established general
guidelines for relating typical bit wear patterns
to possible causes.
6
In 1961, responding to a need
for a common vocabulary and standard reporting
method, the American Association of Oilwell
Drilling Contractors (AAODC) established the
rst dull-bit grading system. It graded teeth and
bearing wear on a 1 to 4 scale in which a 4 was a
missing or totally at tooth or a missing or locked
bearing. Soon after, the system was expanded to
a 0 to 8 scale with added detail.
7
In March 1985, the IADC, successor to the
AAODC, recognized that the system was again in
need of updating. Bits had evolved since the last
system update, most signicantly with the inclu-
sion of journal bearings and tungsten-carbide
inserts.
8
The new system was adopted in March
1986. In addition, a xed cutter dull grading sys-
tem, created in 1987, was revised in 1991 and was
presented to the industry in 1992 (above right).
9
With this standardization of wear analysis
and reporting, it became possible to create bit
records that could be used to select bits and drill-
string components for similar wells. Smith Bits, a
Schlumberger company, initiated a Drilling
Record System (DRS) in 1985. Today this data-
base of nearly three million drillbit runs includes
records from every oil and gas eld in the world.
However, as exhaustive as these records are, they
contain an element of subjectivity, which can
impact bit life and performance from one well to
the next. Additionally, bit performance may be
impacted by signicant lithology variation within
a eld.
In past efforts to improve drilling perfor-
mance, engineers have used the dull grading
chart to make changes to the bit design, the BHA
and drilling parameters after each run. As each
new conguration was run, engineers analyzed
bit performance, graded the bit and made changes
>
Grading dulls. Using a linear scale from 0 to 8, engineers assign a value to cutters in the inner and
outer rows of bits to indicate amount of wear. Grading numbers increase with amount of wear, with 0
representing no wear. Eight indicates that no usable cutter remains. PDC cutter wear is also measured
in a linear scale from 0 to 8 across the diamond tablethe diamond section atop the cutting
structureregardless of the cutter shape, size, type or exposure. Today, the dull grading system
adopted by IADC includes codes to dull grade both xed cutter (left) and roller cone (right) bits. The
engineer assessing bit damage uses a chart that includes eight drillbit factors. The rst four items on
this chart (top) describe the cutting structure. The third and seventh spaces are for noting dull
characteristics of the bit, which are the most prominent physical changes relative to its condition
when manufactured. The fourth space, location, indicates the location of the primary dull
characteristics noted in the third space. For xed cutter bits, one or more of four prole codes is used
to indicate the location of the noted dull characteristic. The fth item, labeled B, refers to bearing seals
and does not apply to xed cutter bits. This space is always marked with an X when xed cutter bits
are graded. The sixth item, G, refers to gauge measurement. The gauge space is used to record the
condition of the bit gauge. If the bit is still in gauge, the letter I is placed here. Otherwise, the amount
by which the bit is undergauge is recorded to the nearest one-sixteenth inch. The last two spaces,
remarks, are used to indicate other dull characteristics and the reason the bit was pulled.
Inner rows Outer rows Location Bearing seals Gauge
1
16 in.
Cutting structure B G Remarks
Reason pulled Dull characteristic Other characteristic
Roller Cone Bits
IADC Bit Dull Grading Code
Fixed Cutter Bits
0
0
1
2
3
Inner rows Outer rows
4
5
6
7
Cone 1
Cone 2
Cone 3
Inner cutting structure
(all inner rows)
Outer cutting
structure
(gauge row only)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
5. Besson et al, reference 1.
6. Bentson HG and Smith HC: Rock-Bit Design, Selection
and Evaluation, paper API 56-288, presented at the
Spring Meeting of the API Pacic Coast District, Division
of Production, Los Angeles, May 1956.
7. Hampton SD, Garris S and Winters WJ: Application
of the 1987 Roller Bit Dull Grading System, paper
SPE/IADC 16146, presented at SPE/IADC Drilling
Conference, New Orleans, March 1518, 1987.
8. Hampton et al, reference 7.
9. Brandon BD, Cerkovnik J, Koskie E, Bayoud BB, Colston F,
Clayton RI, Anderson ME, Hollister KT, Senger J and
Niemi R: First Revision to the IADC Fixed Cutter Dull
Grading System, paper IADC/SPE 23939, presented at
the IADC/SPE Drilling Conference, New Orleans,
February 1821, 1992.
Brandon BD, Cerkovnik J, Koskie E, Bayoud BB, Colston F,
Clayton RI, Anderson ME, Hollister KT, Senger J and
Niemi R: Development of a New IADC Fixed Cutter Drill
Bit Classication System, paper IADC/SPE 23940,
presented at the IADC/SPE Drilling Conference,
New Orleans, February 1821, 1992.
41615schD4R1.indd 4 8/19/11 10:56 PM
8 Oileld Review
to the system accordingly before drilling the next
section or next well. The process was repeated in
successive attempts to incrementally improve
ROP or bit life.
In some cases, these changes resulted in little
progress from one well to the next, and the driller
had to restart the process. More commonly, the
iterative method enjoyed at least partial success
as ROP was increased or the bit was able to drill
more footage before it had to be replaced. Still,
well histories abound in which little improve-
ment was seen even after many iterations, or, if
the iterative process was successful, it was only
after many such trial-and-error cycles. An itera-
tive approach is particularly handicapped when
the rst well includes little offset data or the
drilling program includes only a few wells.
The iterative process for developing optimal
bit and BHA congurations is also hampered by
several factors inherent in the process. Engineers
of differing experience draw different conclu-
sions from essentially the same wear patterns;
some engineers, for example, may arrive at the
cause of a particular wear pattern after making
false assumptions. The most common of these
assumptions is that drillstring weight is ef-
ciently transferred to the bit. WOB directly
impacts ROP. An engineer may assume that poor
bit selection is hampering ROP when in fact
WOB, which is a function of BHA design, is actu-
ally less than calculated.
10
Conversely, when WOB
is too high, the drillstring and BHA may bend,
leading to an overgauge hole and destructive lat-
eral vibrations as the angled bit engages and cuts
away the borehole wall.
In 1987, efforts were made to correct this pos-
sible pitfall with the introduction of BHAP, a BHA
performance prediction computer program. BHA
design decisions include the type, placement,
shape and size of all components above the bit.
Before the introduction of BHAP, engineers
relied on mathematical models that used descrip-
tions of the BHA components to predict WOB.
These models were two-dimensional, used a con-
stant wellbore curvature and were static.
11
Although designed to be simple to minimize
computer run time, BHAP was an improvement
over previous practices that tended to view bit
performance in isolation. More complex model-
ing awaited the arrival of computing power that
could, at reasonable speed and cost, handle mas-
sive volumes of data and calculations.
An Elemental Answer
When BHAP was introduced, engineers had at
their disposal a powerful tool for creating a more
comprehensive and more accurate description of
the drillstring. In the 1940s, scientists and math-
ematicians seeking to analyze vibrations in com-
plex machinery had introduced the world to
nite element analysis (FEA). FEA involves 2D
or 3D modeling and uses a complex system of
nodes to create a grid called an FEA mesh. This
FEA mesh is populated with the material and
structural properties that dene how the system
will react to loading conditions. Throughout the
material, the density of the nodes depends on
the anticipated stress levels of a particular area.
To concentrate computer power where it is
needed, regions receiving large amounts of
stress usually have a higher node density than
those experiencing little or no stress. From each
node, a mesh element extends to each of the
adjacent nodes (above).
12
By the 1970s, FEA was commonly used by
mechanical engineers, although its application
remained limited to a few users who could afford
the necessary computing power. As a conse-
quence, most drilling optimization computations
>
FEA mesh. An FEA mesh represents a modeled bodyin this case a drillstringwith mesh elements that
connect at the nodes (black lines) to critical components affecting drilling performance. This mesh is used
in the IDEAS program to optimize bit cutting structures (black cylinders). In this instance, red and green
patches indicate that side forces on the bit during this simulation are being imposed on the gauge of one
blade (red), more so than on the other ve (green).
41615schD4R1.indd 8 8/12/11 7:53 PM
Summer 2011 9
relied predominantly on offset well data rather
than FEA techniques to plan wells. These pro-
grams attempts to assess and predict drillstring
and bit behavior were restricted to static or steady-
state analysis designed to understand a specic
part of the system at a particular moment. These
assessments were most useful as postmortem
descriptions of drilling system failures and identi-
ed only a fraction of the problem.
13
To optimize bit and drillstring component
selection and placement, engineers needed to
understand the dynamic interaction of all com-
ponents as drilling progressed. This nally
became feasible when high-powered, fast com-
puters became widely available in the 1990s.
Engineers began, relatively quickly and at rea-
sonable cost, to digitally recreate and analyze
drilling systems and their behavior over time.
Rather than performing expensive, time-con-
suming eld trials, engineersnow armed with
dynamic modeling capabilitiesbegan to pin-
point the cause of drilling system failure and
then test solutions using a virtual prototype.
Dynamic models may be run to analyze the
behavior of individual components, such as the bit
or BHA, or they may address the entire system. The
net forces and moments acting on a bit are
obtained from vector sums of the contributions of
individual cutters. Fixed cutter bit forces are
obtained from laboratory test data; roller cone
insert forces are based on simple crushing and
shearing models. The equations of motion are inte-
grated using a variable-timestep procedure.
14
Six
degrees of freedom (DOF) are allowed for the bit
body: three translations and three rotations. For
roller cone bits, DOF functions may be toggled off
to simulate a seized cone.
15
Dynamic Modeling
Engineers rst applied dynamic modeling to
drilling operations to improve efciency and pro-
tect expensive downhole components from
destructive toolstring vibrations. This method
included planning, real-time monitoring and
detailed postjob analysis.
During planning, engineers identify likely
dynamic dysfunctions that cause bit bounce,
stick-slip and bit- and BHA-whirl. Mathematical
models are then used to design BHAs based on
directional control and desired ROP and to coun-
ter expected dysfunctions. Downhole and surface
sensors monitor dysfunction-related vibrations.
Based on measurements from the sensors, model
results and prior experience drilling in the eld,
engineers adjust drilling parameters to optimize
ROP and minimize destructive vibrations.
16
Usually, bit dynamic stability is ascertained
through laboratory tests that determine the ROP
or WOB that will force the bit to become unstable
at a given rotary speed. Bit-dynamics modeling
allows the manufacturer to eliminate poor
designs before bits are built and to determine
optimal rotary speed ranges for a given design
and downhole environment.
Drillstring-dynamics simulations are based
on nite element methods. Like bit-dynamics
models, each node of the BHA model has six DOF
and the equations of motion are integrated using
a variable-timestep procedure. When drillstring
and bit-dynamics models are coupled, dysfunc-
tions that hinder drilling performance can be
predicted and avoided.
In the 1990s, Smith scientists introduced a
comprehensive FEA program aimed at accurately
modeling the total drilling system. The IDEAS
integrated dynamic engineering analysis system
predicts drillbit performance as part of a total
drilling system (above). Based on laboratory-
derived drilling mechanics and physical input
10. Williamson JS and Lubinski A: Predicting Bottomhole
Assembly Performance, paper IADC/SPE 14764,
presented at the IADC/SPE Drilling Conference, Dallas,
February 1012, 1986.
11. Williamson and Lubinski, reference 10.
12. Introduction to Finite Element Analysis, http://www.
sv.vt.edu/classes/MSE2094_NoteBook/97ClassProj/num/
widas/history.html (accessed February 8, 2011).
13. Frenzel MP: Dynamic Simulations Provide Development
Drilling Improvements, paper OTC 19066, presented at
the Offshore Technology Conference, Houston,
April 30May 3, 2007.
14. Algorithms using a variable-timestep procedure
continuously monitor the accuracy of the solution during
the course of the computation, and adaptively change
the timestep size to maintain a consistent level of
accuracy. The step size may change many times during
the course of the computations; larger time steps are
used when the solution is varying slowly, and smaller
steps are used when the solution varies rapidly.
15. Dykstra MW, Neubert M, Hanson JM and Meiners MJ:
Improving Drilling Performance by Applying Advanced
Dynamics Models, paper SPE/IADC 67697, presented
at the SPE/IADC Drilling Conference, Amsterdam,
February 27March 1, 2001.
16. Dykstra et al, reference 15.
>
Cutter design. Bit design engineers begin with an initial cutting structure
layout (black cylinders) modeled within the IDEAS program. Each cutter on
each blade is analyzed using force vectors (green and red lines) representing
components of the cutting force. Vector length represents relative force
magnitude. Color represents depth of cut according to the scale. Engineers
use this information to position each cutting structure in terms of height above
the blade surface, its radius from the bit center, the back rake and side rake
angles, the size of the cutter and its prole angle. Back rake is the angle of
cutter face in reference to bottomhole, and side rake refers to its angle
relative to the radius of the bit face.
Low
Depth of cut
High
41615schD4R1.indd 9 8/12/11 7:53 PM
10 Oileld Review
data, it uses equipment that accurately charac-
terizes the cutting structures interactive
mechanics during crushing and shearing across a
broad range of rock samples.
These input data, captured from a series of
indentation and scrape tests, are acquired under
laboratory-controlled pressures to replicate the
dynamic interaction between a bit cutting struc-
ture and a specic rock sample (above). The
experiments quantify actual cutter forces and
cuttings generated in terms of magnitude and
orientation as a function of both rock failure
mechanisms and rock removal rates. These data
are then used for the design analysis in litholo-
gies comparable to the specic eld application.
In some cases, these tests are conducted on
actual core samples from offset wells near the
new well. The simulation model can incorporate
either roller cone or xed cutter bits.
Also in the early 1990s, Smith developed the
DBOS drillbit optimization system, which allows
engineers to characterize each target interval in
terms of the unconned compressive strength
(UCS) of the rock, an abrasive index and an index
of the rocks impact on cutters. Based on this
assessment, the system then denes the appro-
priate bit type and features with which to drill
each interval of depth change. Over the years,
Smith has built a database of DBOS studies,
which includes bit types and formations drilled.
The DBOS formation characterization database,
coupled with the IDEAS simulations, enables
engineers to select the appropriate rock test les
for a given application.
The rock and cutter mechanics data from the
IDEAS laboratory are imported into a virtual
drilling environment along with information
about the specic drill bit to be evaluated. This
assessment includes the following elements:
precise location, material properties and
dimensions of cutters
bottomhole component dimensional data and
the physical characteristics of each BHA element
geometry of the proposed wellbore
planned operating parameters.
17
Bit performance can then be examined in a
conned environment during initial design devel-
opment. The process also predicts bit performance
while considering the BHA, well geometry, drilling
parameters and lithology variations. All of this is
done in a dynamic simulation that considers inu-
ences on the bit that are as close as possible to
those it will encounter while drilling.
The resulting outputs enable designers to
match projected bit performance with drilling
objectives, such as ROP, footage drilled per bit
and specic directional characteristics. Designers
use the IDEAS software as an interactive tool to
test the effects of iterative changes to bit fea-
tures on overall performance in specic applica-
tions. The modeling programs reveal how subtle
changes in a cutters position and orientation
signicantly affect drilling performance and
dynamic stability of the bit and BHA. The engi-
neer can quickly optimize design and then use
the modeling process to certify the performance
capabilities of each bit through a dynamic simu-
lation and modeling methodology.
18
Looking for Trouble
In 2004, Smith commercialized the i-DRILL engi-
neered drilling system. This engineering service
uses the IDEAS program platform to quantita-
tively identify the forces, vibrations and ROP for
a specic complex drilling system over time. The
system tests the dynamic effects of bit type, BHA
design, drive mechanism and drilling parameters
as a function of hole size and formation charac-
teristics. This FEA drilling simulation model uses
more than one million lines of code to accurately
describe the total drilling system.
The simulation is created by combining a bit-
rock cutting model, based on extensive labora-
tory testing, with FEA of the bit and drillstring.
Design engineers then evaluate the behavior of
various combinations of drill bits, drillstring com-
ponents and congurations, surface parameters
and overbalance pressures. The dynamic behav-
ior of the entire drilling system can be analyzed
through multiple geological formations of varying
compressive strength, dip angle, homogeneity
and anisotropy to gain optimal drilling perfor-
mance through formation transitions.
>
Scrape and indentation tests. A roller cone insert (top) scrapes a sample rockCarthage marble
herewith 3,000-psi [20.7-MPa] unconned compressive strength (UCS) at various depths-of-cut
(DOCs). In the graph (bottom) measured vertical force (red) and DOC (green) are recorded for various
cutter angles. This information is then loaded into the IDEAS application as a rock le, which is
specic to this rock and cutter combination.
V
e
r
t
i
c
a
l

f
o
r
c
e
,

l
b
f
D
O
C
,

i
n
.
12,000
10,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
0
0 60 120
Cutter angle, degree
Variation of vertical force with increases in DOC
180 240
0.18
0.20
0.14
0.16
0.10
0.12
0.06
0.08
0.04
0
0.02
41615schD4R1.indd 10 8/12/11 7:53 PM
Summer 2011 11
The i-DRILL process integrates offset well data,
surface and downhole measurements and knowl-
edge of available products and applications as part
of the design process. It also considers detailed geo-
metric input parameters and rock mechanics data.
These inputs enable engineers to simulate a specic
drilling operation and thus evaluate and, through
dynamic analysis, correct root causes of inefcient
and damaging BHA behavior. The i-DRILL system
creates dynamic drilling simulations that help engi-
neers visualize the downhole environment prior to
drilling; this is in contrast to engineers having only
static analyses, which provide just a small slice of
data for a xed point in time.
The i-DRILL modeling process begins by
using the available offset well data to calibrate
the simulation software for each application. The
dataset may include the following:
details regarding the physical characteristics
of the entire drillstring, the BHA and the drill bit
directional surveys and caliper logs to charac-
terize the hole geometry
surface and downhole operating parameters
such as WOB, torque and rpm
mud log and wireline log data to evaluate the
formations being drilled.
Designers use this information to build a com-
puter model of the offset drilling assembly, the
formations and the wellbore (above). The program
simulates the operation of the drilling assembly as
a function of time. Because it allows analysis of the
specic target lithology and the behavior of each
BHA component, any suspect behavior is identi-
ed, quantied and illustrated using the systems
advanced graphics capabilities. Simulation video
clips accurately illustrate what would occur down-
hole. The process identies damaging and ef-
ciency-reducing dysfunctions such as high rotary
steerable system (RSS) contact forces, bit whirl
and excessive bending moments.
Once the underlying causes of undesirable
drilling characteristics are identied, the engi-
neer can recongure the modeled drilling assem-
bly and use simulation analyses to correct the
problems. Corrective actions can include switch-
ing to a different drill bit, exchanging stabilizers
for reamers, repositioning individual BHA com-
ponents, changing operating parameters or com-
binations of changes that will produce signicant
performance improvements.
Last, the software generates a comprehensive
report documenting the ndings and analysis
process, which designers can then present to the
operator. It contains the results of each simula-
tion, identifying all potential changes that could
be made to the drilling assembly and the effect
that each would have on drilling performance.
The operator can then select the best option to
meet drilling objectives, minimize problems and
improve performance.
19
Dynamic modeling systems allow engineers
to process a multitude of simulations represent-
ing any combination of drillbit options, drilling
assembly components, drillstring design, compo-
nent placement and operating parameters.
Because the method is highly accurate, engi-
neers are able to quantitatively evaluate various
scenarios and then choose a solution in which a
specied performance will be achieved in the
drilling operation. The method helps identify
operational technical limits, which avoids NPT,
and eliminates inefciencies resulting from
operating too far below the technical limits. It
also helps the operator avert needless trips to
change bits and BHAs that are the result of using
>
Modeling milled-tooth bit operation. This view of a milled-tooth bit application generated by i-DRILL software includes
displacement and contact forces at the rotary steerable system (RSS) pads (blue rectangles, top left). In this case, a
cross-sectional view of the RSS oriented along the drillstring axis shows the tool to be centered in the hole. This
indicates that there is no contact force on the pads, which means the wellbore trajectory is not being changed at the
instant the data are captured. The pattern made by the bit on the bottom of the hole is shown (bottom left) as are critical
BHAwellbore wall contact points along the BHA (red lines, right).
17. Garrett I, Teggart B and Tetley N: FEA Modeling
System Delivers High-Angle Well Bore Through Hard
Formations, E&P 83, no. 9 (September 2010): 6871.
18. Garrett et al, reference 17.
19. Garrett et al, reference 17.
41615schD4R1.indd 11 8/12/11 7:53 PM
12 Oileld Review
trial-and-error methods to solve particular drill-
ing challenges.
Dynamic modeling was used in 2007, after
Tullow Oil plc drilled successful exploration
wellsMahogany-1, Mahogany-2 and Hyedua-1
offshore Ghana, West Africa, which resulted in
the discovery of the Jubilee eld. Results from
three appraisal wells drilled in 2008 conrmed
that the eld is a continuous stratigraphic trap.
The Jubilee eld is one of only a few deepwa-
ter developments in the world containing hard
and abrasive formations through the reservoir
sections. Engineers identied these challenging
formations while drilling the rst four wells in
the region. With log data from the rst three test
wells, a rock mechanics program quantied the
formations UCS between 6,000 psi and 10,000 psi
[41.4 MPa and 68.9 MPa] with turbidite stringers
as high as 25,000 psi [172 MPa] (above).
Due to the difculties encountered on the
rst four wells, the operator commissioned a full
i-DRILL study based on all the available data.
This study recommended an initial seven-bladed
PDC bit to drill to a planned core point. After cor-
ing, a more durable nine-bladed PDC bit was rec-
ommended. When the operator drilled the rst
appraisal wellHyedua-2the rst bit wore
quickly once it began to penetrate the reservoir,
further conrming the abrasive nature of the res-
ervoir.
20
The more durable bit was run below the
cored section, but after it drilled only a short dis-
tance, it was pulled in response to low ROP. Once
retrieved, it too was found to be badly worn. The
i-DRILL process successfully predicted which
bits would yield a stable system; this allowed
engineers to turn their attention more speci-
cally to bit durability.
Using an FEA-based dynamic modeling sys-
tem, engineers then began a series of virtual tests
to identify a PDC bit optimized for the reservoir
section. While engineers analyzed the results of
the Hyedua-2 well and developed an improved bit
and cutter design, the operator drilled three more
development wells and tested several bit designs.
An optimized bit was manufactured in 2009.
At the same time, Smith developed the proprie-
tary, highly abrasion-resistant ONYX PDC cutter,
which was incorporated into the optimized bit.
On its rst application in the J-02 well, it drilled
the entire hard and abrasive 12
1
/4-in. section in a
single run. Further bit renement improved per-
formance. Engineers then turned their attention
to the BHA design in an effort to reduce high
vibration levels that were causing LWD tool fail-
ure, which in turn forced the operator to run
time-consuming wireline logs.
>
Jubilee eld well logs. Interpretations of sonic and gamma ray logs of four 12
1
/4-in. sections of Jubilee wells drilled at different depths were used to
determine lithology and UCS. The rst track, lithology, includes shale (green), sandstone (red) and marl (blue). The second track shows UCS (dark blue line)
with porosity (aqua shading).
3,300
psi 30,000 0
UCS
Depth,
m
Hyedua-1 Odum-1 Mahogany-1 Mahogany-2 J-02
3,350
3,400
3,450
3,500
3,550
3,600
3,650
3,700
3,750
3,800
2,100
2,150
2,200
2,250
3,500
3,550
3,600
3,650
3,700
3,750
3,800
2,500
3,600
3,650
3,700
3,750
3,800
3,850
3,900
3,950
4,000
4,050
4,100
4,150
4,200
2,550
2,600
2,650
2,700
2,750
2,800
2,850
2,900
2,950
3,000
3,050
3,100
3,150
3,200
3,250
3,300
3,350
3,400
2,300
2,350
2,400
2,450
2,500
2,550
2,600
2,650
2,700
2,750
2,800
2,850
2,900
2,950
3,000
3,050
3,100
3,150
3,200
0 50 % % % % %
Porosity
Depth,
m
Depth,
m
Depth,
m
Depth,
m
psi 30,000 0
UCS
0 50
Porosity
psi 30,000 0
UCS
0 50
Porosity
psi 30,000 0
UCS
0 50
Porosity
psi 30,000 0
UCS
0 50
Porosity
41615schD4R1.indd 12 8/12/11 7:53 PM
Summer 2011 13
They approached the problem by studying the
most recent offset well, the J-02, in a follow-up
i-DRILL study with a focus on stick-slip and lat-
eral vibrations. Engineers rst identied condi-
tions within the well that led to stick-slip and bit
whirl and then replicated those conditions in a
simulation. After they better understood the drill-
ing dynamics of the well, engineers ran simula-
tions using varying BHA, WOB and rotation speed.
From these results they recommended
changes in BHA conguration and optimized
operating ranges for WOB and rotation speed;
they recommended the same bit, but with a
motor to assist a push-the-bit RSS. This was used
successfully on the next three wells, J-05, J-11
and J-12. Further bit optimization efforts focus-
ing on drilling parameters allowed engineers to
maintain these successes using RSS only.
These recommendations were applied to the
J-05 well, which required a tangent section with
a 49 inclination before reaching TD at 4,192 m
[13,753 ft]. The results include an ROP improve-
ment from 8.9 to 21.1 m/h [29.2 to 69.2 ft/h]
and commensurate savings in rig time of about
US$ 1 million/day. When retrieved, the bit, LWD
tool and RSS were in good condition due to
reduced vibration levels compared with those in
J-02. Drilling performance from the three offset
wells showed that the new PDC bit drilled 165%
more footage with a 122% increase in ROP while drill-
ing the reservoir interval in a single run (above).
21
This system was used on the next two wells,
J-11 and J-12. Further bit optimization efforts
focusing on drilling parameters allowed engi-
neers to maintain these successes using RSS only.
Since July 2009, with optimized BHA and
parameters, the operator has used bits of the
same design to drill all but one 12
1
/4-in. section in
a single run.
Special Needs Cases
Some drilling scenarios are inherently more dif-
cult to optimize than others. For example, deep
wells often present drillers with a particularly
challenging scenario in which the initial hole
must, while it is being drilled, be enlarged, or
opened, beyond the size of the bit. To accomplish
this, the BHA often includes an underreamer
hole opener tool located above the bit (below).
Once drilling commences in a hole section to be
20. Murphy D, Tetley N, Partin U and Livingston D:
Deepwater Drilling in Both Hard and Abrasive
Formations; The Challenges of Bit Optimisation,
>
Run details in the 12
1
/4-in. section. Compared to the averages from offset wells (brown), the newly designed PDC bit run in J-05, J-11 and J-12 (green) drilled
165% more footage with an ROP increase of 122%. The bit was in good condition when pulled.
Well name Number Spud date Bit type Out, m Drilled, m Hours ROP, m/h Inclination, degree BHA I O C L #1
Bit Grade
#2 #3 G O R
Hyedua
Hyedua
Hyedua
Jubilee
Jubilee
Jubilee
Jubilee
02
02
02
02
05
11
12
Oct. 25, 2008
Oct. 25, 2008
Oct. 25, 2008
Apr. 11, 2009
July 22, 2009
Aug. 08, 2009
Aug. 31, 2009
TCI = tungsten carbide insert. Bit grading code: I = inner cutting structure; O = outer cutting structure; C = cone; L = location; S = shoulder; A = all areas; #1, #2, #3 = bearing; E = seals effective;
X = no bearings; G = gauge; O = other dull characteristics; LT = lost cutter; NO = no dull characteristics; WT = worn cutters; RO = ring out; R = reason pulled; CP = core point; PR = penetration rate;
TD = total depth, casing point.
PDC 6
PDC 4
TCI 527
PDC 5
PDC 5
PDC 5
PDC 5
3,393
3,565
3,663
4,215
4,192
4,213
4,292
996
57
98
1,135
1,702
1,481
1,349
56.0
18.5
48.5
126.6
80.5
90.5
71.1
17.8
3.1
2.0
9.0
21.1
16.4
19.0
14
Vertical
Vertical
38
49
40
44
BHA 8
Rotary
Rotary
BHA 8
BHA 12
BHA 12
BHA 12
2
1
5
3
1
2
3
8
2
4
4
2
3
8
RO
WT
BT
WT
WT
WT
WT
S
S
A
A
S
S
S
X
X
E
X
X
X
X
X
X
E
X
X
X
X
X
X
E
X
X
X
X
1
1
2
1
1
1
2
LT
NO
WT
CT
NO
NO
RO
CP
PR
TD
TD
TD
TD
TD
>
Underreamerhole opener. An underreamer is designed so that its cutting
structure may be expanded to a size greater than the diameter of the pilot bit
once they have both exited the casing shoe and entered the interval to be
opened. This concentric reamer includes a one-piece cutter block and
extension mechanism design. The tongue-and-groove actuation system
traverses beneath the PDC formation cutting structure blocks and opens it to
a preselected diameter maintained by the simultaneously opened stabilizer
gauge pad. At the same time, three backreaming cutting structures are
locked in place to allow the reamer to open the hole while tripping out, if
required. The blocks are locked in place by the tools hydraulic system. The
single-piece body design increases the tools torque and load-carrying
capacity, ensuring it can efciently handle the heavy weight of the rotary
steerable system BHA.
Backreaming
cutting structure
Stabilizer
gauge pad
Formation
cutting structure
Z-drive
tongue-and-groove
actuation
paper SPE 128295, presented at the SPE North Africa
Technical Conference, Cairo, February 1417, 2010.
21. Murphy et al, reference 20.
41615schD4R1.indd 13 8/12/11 7:53 PM
14 Oileld Review
enlarged, engineers send a signal that expands
the underreamers blades, creating a cutting tool
of larger diameter than the internal diameter of
the previous casing string. The object of the
operation is to forestall reduction of wellbore
diameter as numerous, successively smaller cas-
ing strings are installed across transitional zones
encountered while drilling deep wells. This
strategy is also employed extensively in deepwa-
ter operations in which many casing strings
must be used to control drilling uid losses as
the pore-pressurefracture-gradient window
quickly narrows. A larger diameter wellbore also
addresses the challenge of small drilling win-
dows through reduced friction pressures in the
annulus, creating a lower equivalent circulating
density (ECD). The intended result is a suf-
ciently large internal clearance through the pro-
duction casing string to accommodate all
necessary completion equipment.
Underreaming while drilling may be problem-
atic in some situations. In combination with
downhole motors or rotary steerable assemblies,
the reamer must be strong enough to hold the
added weight of the steering assembly hung
below it and yet remain sufciently pliant to
deliver a quality wellbore through sometimes
acute trajectory changes. Perhaps greater chal-
lenges to the BHA and bit designer, however, are
difculties that arise when the reamer and bit are
drilling in formations of differing hardness. This
difference may cause them to drill at different
speeds, generating torsional and lateral vibra-
tions in the drillstring.
In the Pagoreni eld, operator Pluspetrol was
experiencing vibration problems, which were
resulting in unacceptably low ROP and the
destruction of expensive downhole measurement
tools. The Pagoreni eld is located onshore in a
folded Andean thrust belt in the southern portion
of Perus Ucayali river basin. Pluspetrol began
developing the eld in May 2006. The deviated
Pag1001D well reached 10,300 ft [3,139 m] MD
about 1 mi [1.6 km] southeast of the surface loca-
tion and conrmed the presence of commercial
quantities of wet gas in the Upper Nia formation.
This led the operator to launch a six-well devel-
opment program aimed at recovering the elds
estimated 3.5 Tcf [99.1 billion m
3
] of proven and
probable recoverable reserves.
The vibration problems developed in the rst
three wells while the operator was drilling a
10
5
/8-in. pilot hole that was opened to 12
1
/4-in.
using an expandable underreamer. In these
wells, the problems were stick-slip and high
axial and lateral vibrations while the tangent
sections were being drilled. Trial-and-error
approaches to BHA changes provided some
relief from the axial and lateral vibrations but
exacerbated stick-slip severity.
22
The troublesome section included the follow-
ing stratigraphic sequence:
Vivin Formationhard, fne- to very fne-
grained, friable quartz sandstone of 11,000-psi
[75.8-MPa] UCS
Chonta Superiorsoft calcareous shale and
clay of 5,000-psi [34.5-MPa] UCS
Chonta Inferiorhard limestone layers of
14,000-psi [96.5-MPa] UCS.
Unable to overcome the drilling dysfunctions
through iterative processes, the operator requested
that the i-DRILL engineering group at Smith opti-
mize the BHA design, including PDC bit selection,
for its fourth well, the Pag1004D. The team began by
organizing offset data and information on drilling
practices from the three previous problem wells
Pag1001D, Pag1002D and Pag1003D.
These offset data were input into the BHA
modeling program. The model included the PDC
bit, RSS, LWD, expandable reamer and drillstring
to the surface drive system. All drillstring dimen-
sions and materials from offset wells, as well as a
hole caliper measurement from offset wells, were
incorporated into the model. The model was then
calibrated using other offset data, including rota-
tion speed, WOB, surface torque and hook load,
as well as data from downhole measurements.
Simulations were run and adjusted repeat-
edly until the offset conditions were duplicated
to within a statistical match. The simulations
allowed engineers to view the interaction of the
previous systems and the boreholes and deter-
mine the root cause for poor drilling perfor-
mances in the rst three wells. The resulting
virtual model was then tested to predict the
effects of different bit types, BHA designs, drive
mechanisms and operating parameters as a func-
tion of hole size and lithology.
A series of virtual cases was run to determine
the optimal PDC bit prole, blade and cutter
count, gauge length, bottomhole patterns and
force balance on four bits. Laboratory tests
helped determine the most appropriate cutting
structures in terms of aggressiveness when used
in combination with the 12
1
/4-in. bit with 13-mm
[0.51-in.] cutters. Smith technicians were able to
make this determination using the IDEAS labora-
tory to simulate the conning pressure of the spe-
cic formations to be drilled. ROP potential was
then calculated using an FEA model that consid-
ers precise dimensions and properties of the cut-
ting structure, rock hardness, or UCS, lithology
and conned pressure based on laboratory tests.
Engineers modeled BHA components to test
various scenarios aimed at reducing vibrations.
For the Pagoreni feld, the i-DRILL team identi-
ed four critical scenarios with vibration-
inducing potential that could be encountered
>
Four critical scenarios. Engineers identied four critical situations encountered while drilling the
tangent section through the Vivin, Chonta Superior and Chonta Inferior formations with a 12
1
/4-in.
reamer and 10
5
/8-in. pilot bit. The critical scenariosduring which damaging vibrations are most likely
to occurare while the bit and reamer are in Vivin (1), the reamer is in Vivin while the bit is in
Chonta Superior (2), the bit and reamer are in Chonta Superior (3) and while the reamer is in Chonta
Superior and the bit is in Chonta Inferior (4).
Vivin
Formation
11,000-psi UCS
Chonta
Superior
Formation
5,000-psi UCS
Chonta
Inferior
Formation
14,000-psi UCS
Reamer
Bit
1
Reamer
Bit
2
Reamer
Bit
3
Reamer
Bit
4
M
e
a
s
u
r
e
d

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e
p
t
h
41615schD4R1.indd 14 8/12/11 7:53 PM
Summer 2011 15
while drilling transition zones between the
Vivin, Chonta Superior and Chonta Inferior for-
mations (previous page). These include the fol-
lowing situations:
bit and reamer in Vivin
reamer in Vivin, bit in Chonta Superior
bit and reamer in Chonta Superior
reamer in Chonta Superior, bit in Chonta Inferior.
To better understand the dynamics involved
in the four scenarios, engineers conducted ve
in-depth virtual analyses using the four candi-
date bits in combination with the underreamer:
weight distribution (WOB and weight on
reamer) versus ROP
lateral vibration (bit and reamer) versus ROP
torque vibration (bit and reamer) versus ROP
average torque (bit and reamer) versus ROP
risk of stick-slip versus ROP.
Based on these analyses, engineers concluded
that the most critical scenario occurred when the
bit was in the soft Chonta Superior Formation
and the reamer in the hard Vivin Formation.
That was also the section in which the reamer
was least efcient. The worst case for the bit,
however, occurred when the reamer was in the
Chonta Superior and the bit was in the harder
Chonta Inferior (above right).
23
Overall, the opti-
mal method to balance the requirements of maxi-
mum ROP and reduced vibration through the
four challenging scenarios was to use a rotary
steerablecompatible six-blade bit design.
Shale Gas Drilling Challenges
Massive gas reserves are being discovered in
shale formations around the world. Because they
are of extremely low permeability, these shale
reservoirs are accessed using long horizontal
wellbores, usually drilled with tungsten-carbide
PDC bits. The formation is then opened through
multiple hydraulic fractures.
In the Marcellus shale of the northeastern US,
operators found that drilling long lateral wells
with conventional PDC bits resulted in premature
bit failures and short runs because of bit balling,
poor directional behavior and loss of toolface con-
trol. Balling was causing plugged bit nozzles and
packed bit bodies (right). Cuttings were not being
carried back up the annulus but instead were
accumulating around the bit, creating a potential
for stuck drillpipe. All this dramatically reduced
ROP and increased drillstring stick-slip.
Because the Marcellus shale is a relatively
new play, engineers at Smith had to design a bit
while having little offset data at hand. Available
history indicated numerous operators with differ-
ing drillstring and BHA and bit confgurations,
making analysis diffcult. Drawing on the IDEAS
system, however, engineers at Smith offered a
design that did improve ROP but did not fully
address toolface control and nozzle plugging.
>
Transition drilling conclusions. Based on their analysis, engineers concluded that scenario 2, when
the bit is in the relatively soft Chonta Superior Formation and the reamer is in the hard Vivin
Formation, is the most critical of all scenarios. Scenario 2 is also the least efcient for the reamer. The
worst scenario for the bit is when the reamer is in the soft Chonta Superior and the bit is in hard
Chonta Inferior. Based on the resulting scores, the modeling suggested the best bit for each scenario.
The study was based on a normalized results equation in which each selected drilling parameter was
assigned a specic weight according to the operator importance. In this specic project, an equal
weight distribution was made for average ROP, bit, reamer and surface stick-slip, bit and reamer
lateral vibration and the change in downhole rotation rate.
Reamer
Bit
1
Reamer
Bit
2
Reamer
Bit
3
Reamer
Bit
4
Worst scenario for bit
Worst scenario for reamer
Vivin
Formation
11,000-psi UCS
Chonta
Superior
Formation
5,000-psi UCS
Chonta
Inferior
Formation
14,000-psi UCS
M
e
a
s
u
r
e
d

d
e
p
t
h
>
Nozzle plugging. A common problem in extended-reach shale drilling is the tendency for cuttings to
collect in front of the bit face because the drillstring is idle while rig workers are making connections
and the pumps are off. If the design of the body and junk slots does not allow for efcient movement of
cuttings past the bit when circulation resumes after pumps are turned back on, a buildup of cuttings
can occur and push into and plug the nozzles (left). Cuttings can likewise be pinched between the hole
and the bit gauge, which prevents proper hole cleaning (right).
Nozzles
Junk slots
Bit face
Cuttings bed
Bit face
Bit body
Cutting
structures
Horizontal borehole wall
22. Cassanelli JP, Franco M, Perez J, Paez LC, Pinheiro C
and Frenzel M: Dynamic Simulation: Solving Vibration/
Stick-Slip Issues Achieves Record ROP, Pagoreni Field,
Peru, presented at the Sixth International Seminar on
Exploration and Exploitation of Hydrocarbons (INGEPET)
Lima, Peru, October 1317, 2008.
23. Cassanelli et al, reference 22.
41615schD4R1.indd 15 8/12/11 7:53 PM
16 Oileld Review
The initial attempt created a baseline from
which engineers could design a second bit. This
second iteration met steerability requirements of
directional drillers and produced an acceptable
ROP through the build section. This made it eas-
ier, quicker and less costly to create a curve in
the well path at the desired angle, azimuth and
build rate.
However, ROPs through the 2,000- to 3,000-ft
[610- to 914-m] lateral sections, which repre-
sented the greatest portion of drilling expense,
were less than satisfactory. Engineers knew that
drilling with rigs typically available in North
America was being slowed by poor hole cleaning
due to low hydraulic energy at the bit, which is
common when drilling horizontal wells in shale
formations. Design iterations that reoriented
and repositioned bit nozzles did little to allevi-
ate the problem.
Technicians at the Smith IDEAS laboratory
could not obtain actual samples of the eld rock
to be drilled but were able to use DBOS analysis
to match the Marcellus rocks with the Wellington
and Mancos shales stored in their library. Their
design aim was for good steerability through the
curve to maintain good toolface control and
fewer course corrections while delivering build
rates of 8 to 12 per 100 ft [30 m]. They also
sought a signicant ROP improvement in the lat-
eral sections. IDEAS tests indicated that cutting
structures with atter proles provide lower
resistance to inclination changes; these were
adopted in the design. They also settled on
0.43- to 0.51-in. [11- to 13-mm] diameter cutters
because tests showed they had less depth-of-cut
(DOC) compared to the larger 0.63- to 0.75-in.
[16- to 19-mm] cutters. Greater DOC creates a
higher instantaneous torque response, which can
cause loss of toolface control and so hinder direc-
tional response. Upgrades were also made to the
hardfacing materials of the drill bits to better
protect the steel from erosive drilling uid.
Designers concluded that cuttings were not
being carried away from the bit because the ow
areas between cutter blades to the annulus,
known as junk slots, were too narrow. To increase
this ow area, engineers could increase the
height of the bit blades while reducing their
width, but that presented a problem. Current bit
matrix designs are limited by the aspect ratio
(blade height/blade width) because the tungsten-
carbide matrix is relatively brittle and blades
that exceed a certain ratio often break upon
impact with the formation. Over time, the bits
that were formerly made of steel had been
replaced by tungsten-carbide bits, which enabled
the bits to withstand the erosive forces created
by abrasive formation sand and drilling uids
owing past the bit body. As a consequence, steel
PDC bits are rarely considered for use today,
except to drill relatively short, low-cost sections.
A solution was found in previous practice.
Because shale is characterized by low abrasive-
ness, steel is sufciently durable to drill these
formations without erosion worries. And, because
steel is less brittle than tungsten-carbide matrix,
the blades may be extended farther from the bit
body with much less potential for breakage due
to impact (left). By increasing the height and
decreasing the width of the blade, the ow area
between the bit body and the borehole wall was
dramatically increased and drill cuttings were
able to pass more freely into the annulus and
away from the cutting structure. Fresh rock was
exposed and ROP increased.
Using steel, designers could streamline the
bit body to make it easier for cuttings to sweep
away from the center of the bit toward and into
the junk slots. The body diameter of the bit could
also be reduced, increasing the distance between
the borehole and the bit body at the junk slot.
Fluid dynamics were calculated to simulate
the at-bit ow regime. This allowed nozzles to be
placed and oriented to minimize recirculation at
the bit face, ensuring efcient cuttings removal
and elimination of balling and plugging. Blade
contour angles were also designed to optimize
>
Bit solution for the Marcellus shale. Since bit body erosion is of less
concern while drilling shales than while drilling more abrasive sands, the bit
body could be made of steel. This allowed the designers to use a more
streamlined body (top right) because the less brittle steel blades could be
made longer and thinner without being subject to failure due to impact
breakage. Steel also permits construction of a shorter bit (bottom right) than
is possible with a matrix-body bit (bottom left), which enhances its ability to
drill through extreme angle changes using a drilling motor.
Matrix body
Junk slots
Makeup length difference
Steel body
41615schD4R1.indd 16 8/12/11 7:53 PM
Summer 2011 17
uid ow at, along and above the bit to minimize
steel erosion from drilling mud carrying cuttings
(left). The resulting hydraulics at the bit face
also increased stability and reduced vibrations,
which improved ROP and steerability.
This newly developed Spear steel PDC drill-
bit, optimized for use in shale, has been used
successfully in the Bakken, Barnett, Marcellus
and Eagle Ford shale formations of North
America. In the Marcellus application, the tar-
get ROP goal for drilling the horizontal leg with
an 8
3
/4-in. bit was 50 ft/h [15.2 m/h]. The Spear
bit achieved ROPs in excess of 65 ft/h [19.8 m/h].
In the Marcellus area, a 6
3
/4-in. Spear bit has
consistently drilled the horizontal section in
one run with ROPs 10% to 20% faster than the
best offset well performance.
Future Perfection
Where once the preoccupation of the oil and gas
industry was to nd hydrocarbons in economic
amounts, today much of its attention is focused
on producing remaining and unconventional
reserves. That may entail minimizing a surface
footprint while drilling horizontally to reach tar-
gets kilometers away and hundreds of meters
beneath populated or environmentally sensitive
areas. Or the challenge may simply be to drill
through complex lithology with an ROP that does
not destroy project economics.
Regardless of the motive, reaching many of
todays potential oil and gas reservoirs requires
improved drilling efciencies to maintain eco-
nomic viability. Much of what stood in the way of
better drilling practices is being eroded by the
revolution in gathering, organizing and imple-
menting vast amounts of data quickly. The limita-
tions imposed by human inability to use the
immense volumes of data available from many and
dissimilar sources have been largely overcome by
recent quantum leaps in computing power.
FEA may be one of the most visible of these
new tools for improving drilling efciency, but
there are others on the horizon. For example,
while the means are in place to accumulate great
amounts of data about drilling operations, opera-
tors may not always know the best way to lever-
age the data to improve drilling performance in
future wells. One effort currently underway and
now enjoying success in eld trials addresses this
need by using computer neural networks to learn
how to best drill formations in a given eld. The
rst step of this process is to train the neural net-
work with offset data, then use a process that
includes interval characterization. The system
would then present the driller with real-time pre-
dictions about WOB and rotation speed that
would maximize bit life.
The drilling industry has long discussed auto-
mated drilling. Under that general category, drill-
ing operations have seen piecemeal innovations on
the rig oor in the form of iron roughnecks and
automated drawworks to perform tasks once done
less efciently by hand. But a truly automated
drilling system will be one able to understand and
react in real time to the complex, dynamic interac-
tions between bit, BHA, drillstring and the forma-
tion. That may be possible soon, but will be of
signicantly less value if it does not begin with a
properly designed bit. RvF
>
Fluid ow paths. Once engineers selected the optimal Spear bit design for drilling the Marcellus shale, a computational uid dynamics program was
used to determine how the face of the cutting structure was cleaned and cooled, how effectively the hole was cleaned and how cuttings were
evacuated from the bit area and passed up along the annular space. Each color represents the ow path from a specic nozzle. Modeling of uid ow
over the face of the bit (left) indicated good total coverage with no dead spots. A side perspective (right) indicated ow directed cuttings away from the
bit rather than recirculating them around the bit body. A computational uid dynamics program is used to adjust the nozzle count, size, location and
orientation until an optimized design is achieved.
41615schD4R1.indd 17 8/12/11 7:53 PM
18 Oileld Review
ConveyanceDown and Out in the Oil Field
Well productivity can be greatly enhanced by drilling high-angle wells or by
directing the wellbore into multiple targets. In such wells, traditional methods for
conveying evaluation, remediation and intervention tools are no longer practical.
In response to the challenges presented by complex well trajectories, service
companies have developed numerous innovations for accessing and evaluating
these complicated wellbores.
Matthew Billingham
Roissy-en-France, France
Ahmed M. El-Toukhy
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Mohamed K. Hashem
Saudi Aramco
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Mohamed Hassaan
Doha, Qatar
Maria Lorente
Todor Sheiretov
Sugar Land, Texas, USA
Matthew Loth
Clamart, France
Oileld Review Summer 2011: 23, no. 2.
Copyright 2011 Schlumberger.
Blue Streak, EcoScope, FMI, Litho-Density, MaxTRAC,
Multi Express, SFL, TLC and TuffTRAC are marks of
Schlumberger.
IntelliServ is a mark of National Oilwell Varco.
You cant push a rope. Many a frustrated wireline
engineer has uttered those words when logging
tools failed to reach the bottom of a well, espe-
cially in high-angle wells. But the source of that
frustration has been overcomeat least in some
respectsby the introduction of new convey-
ance methods. These developments enable evalu-
ation, completion and remediation not only in
high-angle wells but also in long horizontal
wellbores, environments that previously pre-
sented insurmountable challenges to traditional
logging methods.
In the days when most wells were vertical,
delivering logging tools to total depth and back
was a relatively straightforward task. A truck-
powered winch containing a spool of cable ran
the tools in and retrieved them from the well. The
tools were pulled to the bottom of a well by grav-
ity. The cable was also used to communicate with
the tools, provide power and send information
about the downhole environment back to the sur-
face. This method of conveyance sufced for
openhole logging, cased hole evaluation and run-
ning mechanical services, which included perfo-
rating. But today, gravity is not the only means of
getting tools to the bottom of the well, and cables
are not the only means of delivering data to the
surface; tool delivery, data transmission and
equipment deployment methods abound.
This shift in techniques and methodology has
developed in large part to meet the needs of
wells drilled at high angles. Whereas TD once
implied the deepest point in the Earth reached
by a well, the measured depth of horizontal wells
often far exceeds their true vertical depth
(TVD). In 2010, more than 16,000 horizontal
wells were drilled worldwide.
1
This number does
not include thousands more wells drilled direc-
tionally to reach targets far from the surface
entry point or reach multiple zones separated by
great lateral distances.
With todays technology, drilling engineers
can create such complex wellbore geometries
that delivering downhole tools to a targeted
formation becomes a challenge. These wells
require evaluation information when they are
drilled, and they will also require some means to
access the reservoir for future evaluation and
intervention.
2
A number of technologies have been devel-
oped to address the difculties created by com-
plex wellbore trajectories. Whereas in the past,
the primary consideration was simply which
tools to run, today, engineers must also consider
how to optimally evaluate, access and perform
remedial work for the life of a well. Fortunately,
the restrictive reliance on gravity to pull logging
tools attached to a cable has been replaced by
an expanding battery of methods, equipment
and techniques. Petrophysicists and engineers
now have a plethora of choices. This article
reviews some of these methods and also looks at
recently introduced technologies that offer
greater exibility in data acquisition choices.
1. Drilling and Production Outlook. Spears & Associates:
Tulsa (June 2011): 17.
2. For more on horizontal drilling practices: Bennetzen B,
Fuller J, Isevcan E, Krepp T, Meehan R, Mohammed N,
Poupeau J-F and Sonowal K: Extended-Reach Wells,
Oileld Review 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 415.
41615schD5R1.indd 18 8/12/11 8:02 PM
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Summer 2011 19
41615schD5R1.indd 19 8/12/11 8:02 PM
20 Oileld Review
Getting to the Bottom
Conveyance consists of more than the mecha-
nisms of pulling and pushing tools downhole. Its
greater purpose is to address the challenges cre-
ated by wellbore environments. These challenges
include deploying tools at the surface, overcom-
ing frictional forces, maneuvering past obstacles
and adapting to unforeseen downhole conditions.
Flexibility and adaptability are important factors
that engineers consider when deploying tools
downhole, but their tool choices often dictate the
method of conveyance.
Conveyance methods can be grouped into two
basic types: cable conveyed and pipe conveyed
(above). Within both categories are variations
and hybrid solutions that blend elements of the
other. The various methods come with trade-offs,
strengths and weaknesses, so there is rarely a
perfect solution.
Cable-conveyed tools have a long history. The
rst electric log, acquired at Pechelbronn eld in
Alsace, France, on September 5, 1927, was run on
a cable. The survey instrument was lowered 300 m
[980 ft] into the well, and subsurface measure-
ments were plotted by hand as the tool was slowly
retrieved using a manually operated winch (next
page, top right). For the next 50 years, the logging
industry remained tethered to a cable, even as log-
ging tools evolved to include extremely complex
measurements that demand high data rates.
3

Surface units used for acquisition also became
more and more sophisticated. But the well logging
landscape experienced its most dramatic transfor-
mation in the 1980s with the introduction of
logging-while-drilling (LWD) tools.
LWD tools are an integral part of the drill-
string bottomhole assembly (BHA). In the early
days, measurements were fairly basic; they
included gamma ray and resistivity, followed by
the addition of porosity measurements. The tools
communicate via a series of pressure pulses
transmitted through the circulating drilling mud
to convey commands downhole and deliver data
to the surface. These pressure pulses are encoded
with data about well conditions, the status of the
BHA and the formations encountered by the bit.
Mud pulse telemetry transmits data at rates
that are several orders of magnitude lower than
those achieved using logging cables; but, given
the time required for drilling operations, this
method has generally proved to be sufcient.
Other transmission methods are available; for
example, electromagnetic telemetry is used as an
alternative to mud pulse telemetry in air or foam
drilling. And more recently, wired drillpipe,
which can send data using an imbedded trans-
mission cable, has been introduced.
Wired drillpipe promises high data rates:
57,000 bits per second compared with 10 bits per
second with mud pulse telemetry. Commercial
transmission systems, such as the IntelliServ
Broadband Network, are currently available,
although this technology has yet to replace mud
pulse telemetry as the method of choice for ser-
vice companies and operators.
Whichever method is used, the ability to
acquire real-time data from near the bit not only
offers a substitute for wireline logging, but also
has led to a revolution in the application of rotary
steerable drilling systems, ushering in a new age
of horizontal and extended-reach drilling.
4
Using
real-time information provided by LWD tools,
directional drillers can remotely steer and guide
the bit to specic targets, making precise correc-
tions in wellbore trajectory.
As well trajectories shifted from vertical to
horizontal, LWD data, in many cases, supplanted
traditional wireline logging for formation evalua-
tion. Meanwhile, the quality and scope of LWD
data have improved, and sophisticated tool offer-
ings are now available while drilling. For instance,
the EcoScope multifunction LWD service offers
resistivity, porosity, azimuthal density, ultrasonic
caliper, capture spectroscopy and azimuthal
Advantages Disdavantages
Wireline-
gravity
conveyance
Downhole
tractors
Slickline
Coiled tubing
conveyance
Drillpipe-
LWD
Drillpipe-
wireless
Pumpdown
conveyance
Drillpipe
combined
with wireline
Gravity dependent

Vulnerable to hole irregularities
Not suitable for every well
Primarily a cased hole service
Retrieval risks with horizontal
intervention
Expensive downhole equipment
Primarily cased hole
intervention
Gravity dependent
Limited tool offerings
Primarily cased hole and
producing well intervention
Limited reach due to
helical lockup
Large footprint and crew
requirements compared with those
of other intervention methods
Not suitable for cased hole or
intervention in producing wells
Expensive
Smaller selection of tools
compared with wireline
Not suitable for producing wells
Time-consuming
Limited reach in very difficult
conditions
Not suitable for fragile tools
Complications due to presence
of logging cable
Limited tool offering
Limited logging time
Relatively slow
Expensive downhole equipment
Requires a return or exit path
for the fluid
Limited applicability
Suitable for both formation
evaluation and production services
Largest selection of tools
Fast
Highest operational efficiency of
all conveyance methods
Low cost
Suitable for a variety of logging,
stimulation, perforating and
mechanical services
High success rate
Ability to access horizontal and
deviated wells
Highest chance of success in
difficult conditions
Gravity independent
Maintains well control
Highest success rate in difficult
conditions
Gravity independent
Supports most conventional
formation evaluation tools
Highest temperature and
pressure rating
Maintains well control
High success rate in difficult
conditions
Gravity independent
Highest efficiency among
drillpipe conveyance methods
Maintains well control
High success rate
High operational efficiency
Low cost
Compatible with wireline, slickline
and coiled tubing conveyance
Highest operational efficiency for
horizontal intervention
Requires minimal number of field
personnel
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. Table 1
ORSUM11-CONVY Table 1
C
a
b
l
e

c
o
n
v
e
y
e
d
C
a
b
l
e
-
p
i
p
e

c
o
n
v
e
y
e
d
P
i
p
e

c
o
n
v
e
y
e
d
>
Conveyance methods.
41615schD5R1.indd 20 8/12/11 8:02 PM
Summer 2011 21
gamma ray measurements in one compact tool
(below right).
5
Instead of a chemical radioactive
source for neutrons, the tool uses a pulsed neu-
tron generator powered by a turbine, which is
driven by circulating mud. The tool also includes
a variety of sensors that provide information to
improve drilling operations.
Logging companies can perform advanced
services such as seismic, acoustic and magnetic
resonance logging while drilling. Pressure mea-
surements and sampling, which have long been
exclusively in the wireline logging domain, can
now be carried out with LWD tools as well.
Engineers developing log evaluation pro-
grams, however, have more to consider than mea-
surement technology when deciding on which
services to run. For example, temperature and
pressure limits are generally lower for LWD tools.
And there are size limitations because LWD tools
are designed for specic ranges of borehole
diameters, whereas wireline tools can be used in
a much broader range. There are also higher
costs associated with deploying LWD equipment
for long periods of time during the drilling pro-
cess compared to logging with wireline tools.
Although the gap between wireline and LWD
offerings continues to narrow, there are some
services that are not available while drilling.
These include high-data-rate services, such as
the FMI formation microimager tool, tools requir-
ing high power, such as sidewall coring tools, and
other technologies that have yet to migrate to
LWD platforms.
Eventually, the rig moves on to drill the next
well, and LWD tools can no longer be used for
data transmission. Even if they were available,
LWD tools were not developed to perform cased
hole services. Wireline tools are needed to evalu-
ate and access the reservoir, although getting
them to the bottom of horizontal and high-angle
wells is problematic. Thus, alternative means of
conveyance have been developed to deliver
these tools.
Holding on or Cutting the Wire
Drillers can negotiate high-angle and difcult
wellbores because drillpipe is stiff and heavy.
This is not the case with tools at the end of a wire-
line. In the past, when TD could not be reached
with logging tools because of well conditions,
engineers developed and attempted various
methods to get past obstructions. Operators have
welded chains to the bottom of tools hoping that
the chain would pile up on a ledge and eventually
fall off and pull the tool downhole. Weight
bars, friction-reducing wheels and rollers have
3. For more on advances in cable-logging systems: Alden M,
Arif F, Billingham M, Grnnerd N, Harvey S, Richards ME
and West C: Advancing Downhole Conveyance,
Oileld Review 16, no. 3 (Autumn 2004): 3043.
4. For more on rotary steerable drilling: Williams M: Better
Turns for Rotary Steerable Drilling, Oileld Review 16,
no. 1 (Spring 2004): 49.
5. Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation
(JOGMEC), formerly Japan National Oil Corporation
(JNOC), and Schlumberger collaborated on a research
project to develop LWD technology that reduces the need
for traditional chemical sources. Designed around the
pulsed neutron generator (PNG), EcoScope service uses
technology that resulted from this collaboration. The PNG
and the comprehensive suite of measurements in a single
collar are key components of the EcoScope service that
deliver game-changing LWD technology.
>
Birth of an industry. The rst logging operation, which used a hand-
operated winch similar to the one shown, was performed in 1927 at the
Pechelbronn eld in Alsace, France. Using a spool of cable containing a
conductor wire, operators lowered a survey instrument into the well and
recorded resistivity measurements at the surface. Hand-plotted data were
presented versus depth, and this rst well log launched a new industry.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 1
ORSUM11-CONVY 1
>
Logging-while-driling tools. The EcoScope multifunction LWD service is a reection of the advances
that have taken place in drillpipe-conveyed logging services. This compact tool provides the basic
measurements of a wireline triple-combo logresistivity, density porosity, neutron porosity and gamma
rayplus neutron capture spectroscopy. Using neutrons produced from a pulsed neutron generator
(PNG), capture spectroscopy provides crucial information about lithology and mineralogy. Formation
evaluation data are acquired as well as information about drilling operations, including shock, vibration,
annular pressure while drilling and tool inclination.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 2
ORSUM11-CONVY 2
Azimuthal natural
gamma ray
Azimuthal density
and photoelectric
factor
Porosity
Sigma
Spectroscopy
Neutron gamma density
Inclination
Three-axis
shock and vibration
2-MHz and
400-kHz resistivity
Ultrasonic caliper
Annular pressure
while drilling
41615schD5R1.indd 21 8/12/11 8:02 PM
22 Oileld Review
>
Carrier conveyed logging. Special logging tools
can be conveyed inside a protective carrier and
run in hole on drillpipe (left). Once the desired
depth is reached, the tools are ejected through
the bottom of the drillpipe (right). The tools then
acquire data, which are stored in memory, as the
drillpipe is pulled out of the hole. At surface, data
are read and merged with a depth-time reference
log. Conventional depth-based logs are generated
from the merged data. The tools must have small
diameters to t inside the carrier; one example,
the 2
1
/4-in. Multi Express service provides a
triple-combo toolstring plus a sonic tool option.
This carrier conveyance system permits uid
circulation and pipe rotation while running into
the well and while logging.
Connection
to drillpipe
Before
Deployment
After
Deployment
Ejector
Deployment
head
Deployment
head
Multi Express
tools
Multi Express
tools
Concentric
housings
Receiver
and shoe
Receiver
and shoe
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 4
ORSUM11-CONVY 4
been developed to facilitate tool movement.
Schlumberger engineers even designed an articu-
lated bottom nose that could be manipulated
from the surface to locate the wellbore path
when the tools stopped on ledges or where the
hole exhibited large washouts. These attempts to
overcome geometry and borehole irregularities
typically met with limited success.
However, before the widespread acceptance
of LWD tools, methods existed for conveying con-
ventional openhole logging tools at the end of
drillpipe. Among them was the TLC tough logging
conditions system. Logging tools, minus the
cable, were attached to the end of the drillpipe
and pushed to the bottom of casing. Next, a spe-
cially designed connector, attached to the logging
cable, was pumped down through the inside of
the pipe (above left). A wet-connect device
latched onto the downhole toolstring to provide
power and communication to the tools. The drill-
pipe then pushed the tools into the open hole and
on to the bottom of the well.
A modied technique, logging while shing
(LWF), uses a concept similar to the TLC system.
Should a conventional wireline logging tool
become stuck in the well while logging, a cut-and-
thread shing operation is performed to engage
the stuck tool with a grapple attached to the end of
drillpipe. The severed cable is reconnected at sur-
face to provide power and communication to the
downhole tools, and then data are acquired as the
pipe and tools are pulled out. This operation has
been performed when crucial data were needed
but hole conditions made logging impossible.
Both TLC and LWF methods are still in use
today, offering the capability to acquire informa-
tion that would otherwise be unobtainable.
However, the process of running in the hole and
logging can be slow. Perhaps more signicant,
the operator has little control over the tools at
the end of the drillpipe during TLC operations.
Drillers must also take precautions to avoid dam-
aging the exposed logging cable and the tools
while running them in the hole. Compared with
drillpipe and BHAs, the relatively fragile logging
tools can be easily crushed or damaged. Engineers
have designed specialized hardware and protec-
tive equipment as accessories to protect the
tools, but a risk associated with pushing exposed
tools through open hole remains.
>
Tough logging conditions. Before LWD tools were widely available, the
TLC system conveyed wireline tools via drillpipe. Logging tools are attached
to the drillpipe using a crossover adaptor with a wet-connect device. Tools
are run in the hole to the bottom of casing, and a mating connector,
attached to the logging cable, is threaded through a side entry sub and
pumped down the drillstring until it engages the downhole connector. Once
communication and power are established, the tools are pushed out into
open hole and down to the bottom of the well. Because the cable is exposed
above the side entry sub, it is not allowed to exit the bottom of casing for
fear of damage to the cable, and extreme care must also be exercised while
running in the hole to avoid crushing the cable. The logging tools, which are
at the end of the drillpipe, are also at risk of being damaged in open hole.
Most wireline logging tools can be run using this system.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 3
ORSUM11-CONVY 3
Cable clamp
Logging cable
setup in CSES
Cable side
entry sub
(CSES)
Packoff seal
assembly
Check valve
Logging string
Casing shoe
Horizontal openhole section
Drillpipe
Logging cable
outside
drillpipe
Logging
cable
inside
drillpipe
Logging truck
Wet-connect adaptor
41615schD5R1.indd 22 8/12/11 8:02 PM
Summer 2011 23
Even with protective hardware, openhole log-
ging tools may encounter ledges, bridged sec-
tions of open hole and large washed-out
wellbores, making it impossible to push the tools
to bottom. Drillers often attempt pipe rotation to
get around obstructions, which is not an option
when tools are attached with TLC operations.
A recent adaptation of the TLC concept has
been developed that uses drillpipe to convey log-
ging tools. The main differences are that the tools
are protected inside a carrier while they are being
run in the hole and no logging cable is required
(previous page, top right). Once the drillstring
reaches the logging depth, the eld engineer uses
an ejection mechanism to deploy battery-powered
tools. Extended beneath the bottom of the drill-
pipe, these tools acquire downhole data, which are
stored in memory while the drillpipe is being
pulled out of the hole. Pipe movement is recorded
versus time during retrieval. At surface, the time-
based data from downhole are recovered using a
laptop computer and then merged with the depth
data from pipe movement to generate conven-
tional depth logs. A logging truck is not required.
Because they are deployed inside drillpipe,
the tools must have a smaller diameter than
conventional logging equipment. The recently
introduced Multi Express slim, multiconveyance
formation evaluation platform is an example of a
set of tools that can be deployed using the protec-
tive drillpipe carrier. With a 2
1
/4-in. [5.7-cm] diam-
eter, these tools t inside the 5-in. [12.7-cm] OD
carrier with enough clearance to circulate mud
downhole. The ability to circulate is an important
feature for running drillpipe into the well, espe-
cially in long horizontal openhole sections in
which cuttings can accumulate.
The Multi Express platform includes induc-
tion, Litho-Density, thermal and epithermal neu-
tron porosity and array acoustic tools (above).
The induction tool acquires data at two depths of
investigationdeep and medium resistivity
and an optional tool section can acquire shallow
SFL spherically focused resistivity data. The
density tool has an articulated pad and caliper to
provide good borehole contact. The compact
telemetryneutrongamma ray section can
acquire both thermal and epithermal neutron
porosity data. It includes a casing collar locator
for depth correlation, which can be used with
cement bond logging. The sonic tool can be run
in openhole mode for borehole-compensated
sonic data or in cased hole mode for cement
bond logging.
While developing this tool platform, engi-
neers focused on minimizing tool length and
weight. A triple-combo toolstringinduction,
density and neutron toolsconsists of three
devices of approximately 3 m [10 ft] each and is
9.75 m [32 ft] long when fully assembled. The
4.3-m [14.4-ft] sonic tool can be included as well.
The Multi Express family of tools was designed to
be handled by one person; the heaviest tool
weighs 40.8 kg [90 lbm].
The Multi Express tools are ideal for logging
small wellbores, shallow wells and air-lled
holes. The platform includes the tools mentioned
above plus an audio-temperature tool, which sup-
plies important measurements in coalbed meth-
ane and shallow air-drilled tight gas wells. These
>
Multi Express platform. The compact, lightweight Multi Express platform offers gamma rayneutron (thermal and epithermal),
Litho-Density, sonic, audio-temperature, spherically focused resistivity and induction resistivity tools. The sonic tool includes a
cement bond logging option and the telemetry cartridge includes a casing collar tool.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 5
ORSUM11-CONVY 5
Sonic Tool
Length 4.3 m [14.4 ft], weight 40.8 kg
Audio-Temperature Tool
Length 2.0 m [6.5 ft], weight 20.4 kg [45 lbm]
Spherically Focused Resistivity Tool
Length 3.8 m [12.5 ft], weight 30.4 kg [67 lbm]
Induction Resistivity Tool
Length 4.9 m [16.0 ft], weight 40.8 kg
TelemetryNeutronGamma Ray Tool
Length 3.1 m [10.2 ft], weight 33.1 kg [73 lbm]
Litho-Density Tool
Length 3.1 m [10.2 ft], weight 40.8 kg [90 lbm]
41615schD5R1.indd 6 8/19/11 11:05 PM
24 Oileld Review
types of wells can be difcult to evaluate with
conventional logging units because the wells
have small drilling pads and the rigs move quickly
from wellsite to wellsite.
Logging engineers can access wells for both
openhole logging and cement bond logging using
t-for-purpose logging trucks with integrated
masts, such as the Blue Streak high-efciency unit
(left). Drilling and workover rigs are not required
when engineers use these small, self-contained
logging units. Monocableslogging cables with a
single conductorare generally used instead of
multiconductor cables that are common with con-
ventional logging tool systems.
With the memory recording option, the
Multi Express tools can also be run with cables
that have no conductor. This adds the capability
of using slickline units for openhole logging,
although there is no surface readout using this
method. Data acquisition and quality are con-
rmed after the tools have returned to the sur-
face and the stored information is retrieved.
Smart Iron
Conveyance at the end of pipe is not limited to
LWD and TLC operations; pipe-conveyed methods
include coiled tubing (CT) logging (below left).
This proven system of tool deployment, intro-
duced in the mid-1980s, is often used for produc-
tion logging (PL) and perforating. CT units may
include a cable inside the tubing to provide
power to downhole tools and relay real-time mea-
surements to the surface. In the absence of an
integrated wire, logging can be performed in
memory mode using tools that store data for
retrieval once they return to the surface.
Perforating, as with conventional tubing-
conveyed perforating (TCP) operations, can be
initiated with surface-applied pressure to acti-
vate guns, but the integrated wire gives greater
control and offers engineers the option of send-
ing power from surface to re guns sequentially.
A major limiting factor in using CT is that it
ceases to make progress, or locks up, beyond
about 900 m [3,000 ft] of horizontal section.
Lockup occurs because the tubing assumes a
helical shape as it comes off the reel, resulting in
increased friction between the casing and the
tubing. When frictional forces reach a critical
point, more tubing can be injected into the well,
but the end of the string cannot be pushed
deeper into the wellbore. Several options can be
employed to extend this limit: CT straighteners
reduce residual bend and friction, lling the tub-
ing with nitrogen can provide added buoyancy,
friction reducers may extend length capability
>
Fit-for-purpose conveyance. The Blue Streak logging truck is a self-contained unit with its own mast,
cable and acquisition system. Conventional openhole logging units commonly use large cables with
multiple conductors to provide power, control downhole tools and acquire logging data. The Multi Express
tools can be run with a smaller monoconductor cable, which allows a smaller winch and spool. The
memory logging mode of the Multi Express tools, utilized with the drillpipe-carrier method, can also be
used with slickline units (inset), allowing logging without the need for surface-supplied power.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 6
ORSUM11-CONVY 6
>
Coiled tubing unit. A CT unit is made up of four basic components: a reel to store and transport
the coiled tubing (diameter ranging from 1 in. to 3.25 in.), an injector head designed to drive the CT
downhole and retrieve it from the well, a control cabin and a power pack. The tubing may include a
monoconductor cable for wireline logging and perforating.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 7
ORSUM11-CONVY 7
Power pack
Control cabin
Tubing reel
Injector head
41615schD5R1.indd 24 8/12/11 8:02 PM
Summer 2011 25
and larger diameter tubing can often go deeper
but requires much larger surface equipment.
6
ExxonMobil, in developing the Sakhalin Island
land-based offshore Chayvo eld in Russia, tested
a hydraulically actuated CT tractor to extend the
reach of operations.
7
The eld is located offshore,
but drilling and production facilities are located
on land. To access their wells, ExxonMobil engi-
neers needed to increase the CT range beyond
that possible with existing hardware. Although
much of the equipment was standard for CT units,
engineers made several modications to accom-
modate a 35,006-ft [10,670-m] reel of 2
3
/8-in. OD
coiled tubing.
This hydraulic CT tractor was powered and
controlled by differential pressure between the
tubing and the annulus. The assembly was tested
prior to job commencement and had 9,700 lbm
[43,148 kg] of pull and nominal operating speed
of 950 ft/h [290 m/h]. During the job, a 31,938-ft
[9,735-m] well was successfully logged with PL
tools and 1,050 ft [320 m] was perforated with
3
3
/8-in. [8.57-cm] casing guns.
8
Although the operation was a success, engi-
neers discovered that using coiled tubing for fre-
quent PL runs was not viable. Excessive wear
experienced by the coil, high cost and poor data
quality at low ow rates led to the eventual aban-
donment of the CT technique for PL logging in
the eld.
9
For routine operations, the industry
needed an alternative to logging with a CT unit.
Going Around the Bend
In 1988, Elf Aquitane made one of the rst
recorded attempts to log a cased horizontal well
with PL tools.
10
The operator was developing the
Rospo Mare pilot project offshore Italy to pro-
duce viscous oil trapped in a karst formation. The
company drilled three pilot wells: a vertical, a
high-angle deviated and a horizontal well. The
vertical and deviated wells penetrated approxi-
mately 30 m [100 ft] of formation. The horizontal
contacted more than 600 m [1,970 ft] of the
reservoir. The surprisingly high productivity
obtained in the horizontal well compared with
that in the conventional wells led to a pressing
need to discover the drainage mechanism. A
proper understanding of the production prole
would greatly impact future development plans
for the eld.
Elf engineers, in conjunction with eld opera-
tions staff from Schlumberger, designed an elab-
orate method to run a PL tool across the
producing interval and generate a ow prole. A
dual-tubing completion string was installed to
allow uid circulation in one string and to pro-
duce the well through the other. The PL tools
were attached to a stiff upper sectiona
stingerouttted with swab cups for locomotion
(above). Pressure applied to the top of the stinger
forced the tool out the bottom of the tubing until
it reached the end of the horizontal section. A
600-m [1,970-ft] stinger was necessary to ensure
the PL tool reached TD while the top of the
stinger remained inside the tubing. After a trial
run in an onshore horizontal test well, the tech-
nique was successfully applied to Elfs offshore
well and provided essential information for fur-
ther eld development.
The complex nature of the design required to
run the PL tool underscores the challenges of
evaluating, completing and performing remedia-
tion of wells with horizontal and high-angle tra-
jectories. Few operators have the luxury of
running dual tubing strings just to acquire pro-
duction logs, but in the late 1980s there were not
many alternatives.
This dearth of options for accessing horizon-
tal wells was rst addressed with the introduc-
tion of wired CT units. As ExxonMobil discovered
in the Chayvo eld, PL logging on coiled tubing
can be expensive, and data quality can suffer.
Downhole wireline tractors, developed in the
1990s, provided an alternative to CT units, adding
exibility, efciency and cost savings to cased
hole evaluation and intervention in horizontal
wells. Within 10 years of Elfs pumpdown logging
experiment, operators were routinely using trac-
tors for the majority of their well interventions in
horizontal and high-angle wells.
11
6. AL-Amer AA, AL-Dossary BA, AL-Furaidan YA and
Hashem MK: TractoringA New Era in Horizontal
Logging for Ghawar Field, Saudi Arabia, paper SPE
93260, presented at the 14th SPE Middle East Oil
and Gas Show and Conference, Manama, Bahrain,
March 1215, 2005.
7. Moore NB, Krueger E, Bloom D, Mock PW and Veselka A:
Delivering Perforation Strings in Extended-Reach Wells
With Coiled Tubing and Hydraulic Tractor, paper SPE
94208, presented at the SPE/ICoTA Coiled Tubing
Conference and Exhibition, The Woodlands, Texas, USA,
April 1213, 2005.
8. Moore et al, reference 7.
9. Fitz DE, Guzmn-Garcia A, Sunder R, Billingham M and
Smolensky V: Pushing the Envelope for Production
Logging in Extended Reach Horizontal Wells in Chayvo
Field, Sakhalin, RussiaNew Conveyance and Flow
Proling Approach, paper SPE 103589, presented at the
SPE Russian Oil and Gas Technical Conference and
Exhibition, Moscow, October 36, 2006.
10. Joly EL, Dormigny AM, Catala GN, Pincon FP and
Louis AJP: New Production Logging Technique for
Horizontal Wells, paper SPE 14463, presented at the
SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition,
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, September 2225, 1985.
11. Hallundbk J, Haukvik J, stvang K and Skeie T:
Wireline Well Tractor: Case Histories, paper OTC 8535,
presented at the Offshore Technology Conference,
Houston, May 58, 1997.
>
Horizontal production logging. A production log (PL) can provide a ow prole of horizontal wells and
identify producing zones. But, in the 1980s, getting tools to TD in a horizontal well was a problem. One
early scheme used a dual completion to circulate and ow the well through one string. The other string
was used to pump tools down to the bottom of the well. A stiff stinger was attached to the tool and
uid pressure was applied to the swab cups at the top of the stinger to provide locomotion. Although
the necessary data were acquired, this type of operation is not feasible in most wells. (Adapted from
Joly et al, reference 10.)
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 8
ORSUM11-CONVY 8
Cable
Tubing
string
Tubing
string
Pumpdown
side
Return
side
Swab
cup
Stinger
Casing
Casing shoe
Centralizers
7-in. slotted liner PL tool
41615schD5R1.indd 8 8/19/11 11:07 PM
26 Oileld Review
Pulling a Rope
Although earlier attempts were recorded, down-
hole tractors successfully arrived in the oil eld
in the mid-1990s. In 1996, a device to access hori-
zontal boreholes performed the rst tractor ser-
vice on a well in Norway.
12
Developed to perform
well interventions without the high cost associ-
ated with CT services, downhole tractors dramat-
ically changed the way North Sea operators
planned and managed their elds.
13
Prior to 1996, interventions had been per-
formed almost exclusively by CT units. By 2009,
approximately 80% of the interventions performed
by one operator had shifted to wireline tractors.
14

Not only did this reduce costs, it expanded both
the frequency and scope of interventions.
>
Tractor types. Service companies have developed many different topologies for downhole tractors. Continuous drive units (left) have wheels, tracks and even
corkscrew drives. Reciprocating units (right) use locking devices and imitate an inchworms motion with an anchor, extend, release and re-anchor movement.
Tracks Corkscrew Mechanical Hydraulic Wheels
Continuous Drive Reciprocating Drive
>
Climbing the borehole. Engineers designed the reciprocating, gripping mechanism of the MaxTRAC tractor based on rock-climbing
gear. The cams located on the extended arms (inset) rotate into position and grip the inside of the casing or borehole. Once the cams
are securely locked, the tractor can move forward, but backward movement is nearly impossible.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 10
ORSUM11-CONVY 10
41615schD5R1.indd 26 8/12/11 8:02 PM
Summer 2011 27
Service companies offer a variety of downhole
tractors. They include tractors with rotating
wheels, motorized tracks and corkscrew designs
(previous page, top). In a departure from these
systems, Schlumberger engineers developed a
reciprocating gripping mechanism for the
MaxTRAC downhole well tractor system (previous
page, bottom). This 2
1
/8-in. [5.4-cm] diameter tool
has a maximum pull of approximately 4,448 N
[1,000 lbf] while exerting 13,335 N [3,000 lbf]
maximum force on the casing or borehole wall. It
can advance at 670 m/h [2,200 ft/h] while pulling
2,224 N [500 lbf] and operates in hole sizes that
range from 2.44 in. [6.20 cm] to 11.3 in [28.7 cm].
It has the ability to log in forward direction or, with
some specic limitations, in reverse while being
retrieved by wireline.
The reciprocating grip system uses cams to
grip the inside of the casing or borehole. This
design is similar to devices used to secure ropes
during rock climbing: Once the cam is in position,
backward pull causes it to expand and lock more
securely in place. It can easily be pushed forward,
but it is almost impossible to pull backward. The
tractor requires at least two gripping sections,
but more can be added as needed. With each
power stroke, the tool moves forward in inch-
worm fashion (above). The MaxTRAC tractor
has been deployed in a number of openhole and
cased hole applications and, with the TuffTRAC
cased hole services tractor, holds a number of
12. Hallundbk J: Well Tractors for Highly Deviated and
Horizontal Wells, paper SPE 28871, presented at the
SPE European Petroleum Conference, London,
October 2527, 1994.
13. Schwanitz B and Henriques K: The Development of
Wireline-Tractor Technology, The Way Ahead 5, no. 2
(2009): 1820.
14. Schwanitz and Henriques, reference 13.
>
Inchworm movement. The MaxTRAC reciprocating system uses a minimum of two synchronized tractor sections, but up to four sections can be
combined. Locomotion is achieved when the rear gripping section locks (red) and pushes the tool forward until it is fully extended as the forward anchor,
which is free (black), moves into position and locks in place (red). The rear anchor then releases and the front section pulls the assembly forward. After the
tractor advances, the rear section again locks in place, and the toolstring is pushed forward. These actions are repeated until the tool reaches TD or the
desired depth.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 11
ORSUM11-CONVY 11
Rear anchor locked
Anchor locked, cycle repeats
Anchor locked
Forward anchor free
Anchor free
Tool moving forward
As tool moves forward, front anchor moves into position.
Rear anchor moves into forward position.
Tool moving forward
41615schD5R1.indd 27 8/12/11 8:02 PM
28 Oileld Review
operational records (above). Should the tool ever
lose power, the arms with the gripping cams auto-
matically return to a retracted position for ease
of tool retrieval.
Loss of power to the tool is not the only con-
cern when engineers design a tractor job. With
continuous forward motion, the equipment can
eventually reach a point that exceeds the capa-
bility of the logging unit to retrieve the tool using
the cable. To ensure successful return to surface,
the eld engineer can model the downhole forces
with job-planner software (below). Using infor-
mation that includes deviation, pushing force,
friction and job variations, modeling software
provides a gono-go determination (next page,
top right). The planner also determines the num-
ber of drive sections needed and helps establish
the weakpoint for cable release in the event the
tool becomes stuck downhole. The eld engineer
can ne-tune the model with real-time data.
Although downhole tractors were originally
developed for cased hole intervention, operators
have used the MaxTRAC tractor system to run a
variety of openhole services. For instance, the
FMI tool is often combined with the tractor sys-
tem for fracture identication. Horizontal wells
drilled through fractured reservoirs are difcult
to evaluate with LWD services alone because of
the high data density required for imaging the
factures. The FMI tool can help identify the opti-
mal intervals for production along the horizontal
section. The MaxTRAC tractor has also been used
in openhole completions to deploy PL tools and
to deploy Multi Express tools in both open and
cased wells.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. Table 2
ORSUM11-CONVY Table 2
Worlds longest openhole
tractor pass
4,238 m (13,904 ft)
Two descents for a total of
8,476 m (27,808 ft)
8,650 m (28,380 ft)
85,987 m (282,109 ft)
Worlds deepest PL
on tractor
Most cumulative distance
traversed using a tractor
in a single well
>
Prejob planning. From well data, tractor job planner software provides operational limitations and critical gono-go analysis before the job commences.
The planner can then be updated with downhole data while the tractor is operating. The well prole data (top left) includes deviation and dogleg severity
a measure of how rapidly the wellbore trajectory is changing per unit of distance. Modeled cable tension at the surface indicates whether tension will
exceed safe operation limits (top right). The forces acting on the tractor are also modeled (bottom left) to ensure the limitations of the tractor are not
exceeded. A pseudo-3D prole, created from client-provided deviation and inclination data, helps visualize borehole geometry (bottom right). The wellbore
path (red) is presented versus TVD (blue), surface location (magenta) and north departure (green).
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 12
ORSUM11-CONVY 12
D
o
g
l
e
g

s
e
v
e
r
i
t
y
,

d
e
g
r
e
e
/
1
0
0

f
t
T
r
a
c
t
o
r

f
o
r
c
e

r
e
q
u
i
r
e
d

t
o

g
o

d
o
w
n
,

l
b
f
T
V
D
,

f
t
W
e
l
l
b
o
r
e

d
e
v
i
a
t
i
o
n
,

d
e
g
r
e
e
6
4
2
0
0
0
0
5,000
5,000
5,000 0 5,000
10,000
0
5,000
10,000
10,000
500
1,000
0 10,000
0
20
40
60
80
W
e
l
l
b
o
r
e

d
e
v
i
a
t
i
o
n
,

d
e
g
r
e
e
0
20
40
60
80
Depth, ft
Dogleg Severity as a Function of Measured Depth
Tractor Force Pseudo-3D Well Profile Projections
0 10,000
Depth, ft North, ft
E
a
s
t
,

f
t
T
e
n
s
i
o
n
,

l
b
f
W
e
l
l
b
o
r
e

d
e
v
i
a
t
i
o
n
,

d
e
g
r
e
e
0 10,000
0
2,000
4,000
0
20
40
60
80
Cable Tension at Surface
Maximum safe pull on cable
Maximum force available from tractor
Depth, ft
Dogleg severity
Wellbore deviation
Tractor force
Wellbore deviation
Cable tension, retrieving
Wellbore deviation
Cable tension, moving forward
>
MaxTRAC-TuffTRAC records.
41615schD5R1.indd 28 8/22/11 12:19 PM
Summer 2011 29
Tackling a Giant
Saudi Aramco has been instrumental in develop-
ing tractor technology.
15
For the Ghawar eld, the
largest onshore oil eld in the world, engineers
have increasingly turned to horizontal, extended-
reach and multilateral wellbores as part of the
ongoing development program. The expense of
using CT units, as well as the difculty of access-
ing complex completion geometries for conveying
diagnostic and surveillance tools, has led Aramco
to investigate alternatives.
16
Aramco, which extensively tested various
downhole tractors, views them as an enabling
technology for intervention services. The com-
pany has determined that tractors can effectively
log horizontal wells, far exceed the reach of con-
ventional CT units, provide signicant cost bene-
t and offer safer operations compared with
complex CT mobilization and deployment.
17
However, Aramcos earlier experience with
openhole logging, starting in 2004, was not as
positive as with cased hole tractor operations.
Aramco and Schlumberger engineers determined
that the cams used with the MaxTRAC system
could successfully grip in formations with uncon-
ned compressive strength (UCS) greater than
5,000 psi [34.5 MPa]. Below that cutoff, the cams
would dig into the formation and lose gripping
force. Engineers working with eld operations
staff developed an add-on kit to distribute the
force more uniformly, which maximized the grip-
ping force in soft formations (below right).
18
The newly designed gripping assembly was
rst tested in a 6
1
/8-in. wellbore completion in a
formation with a high UCS. A 5,072-ft [1,546-m]
horizontal openhole section was successfully
logged with a PL toolstring. Eight more openhole
wells in high UCS formations were successfully
logged before engineers attempted operations in
a soft formation. The soft formation candidate,
with a 7,553-ft [2,300-m] lateral section, was then
logged with PL tools to determine oil entry points
and establish a ow prole along the lateral sec-
tion. The job was successfully completed and the
well evaluated using the new design.
Openhole tractors are not suitable for every
well, particularly those with long washed-out sec-
tions or irregularly shaped boreholes. However,
Aramco determined that the use of openhole
tractors can deliver signicant cost savings over
conventional CT logging. Tractors have a much
longer reach than CT units and require fewer per-
sonnel and less hardware on location. Today,
openhole tractors are in use not only in Saudi
Arabia but also in several other locations in the
Middle East.
>
Critical decisions. In this plot from the job planner, the MaxTRAC tractor
can travel forward with tensions (red curve) that are well below the
maximum safe pull (dashed green line). However, the cable tension while
retrieving the tool (purple curve) approaches unsafe conditions beyond
about 2,000 m [6,560 ft]. Should the tool exceed the maximum safe pull limit,
it may not be possible to break the weakpoint and release the cable from
the tool should the tool become stuck. The alternative is to not advance all
the way to TD but to keep the tension within the safe operating margin. The
software provides a high and low range for modeled tensions based on
data uncertainty, and downhole data can be used to improve the model as
the tool approaches the critical safety point.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 13
ORSUM11-CONVY 13
T
e
n
s
i
o
n
,

l
b
f
0
5,000
10,000
W
e
l
l
b
o
r
e

d
e
v
i
a
t
i
o
n
,

d
e
g
r
e
e
0
20
40
60
80
0 1,000 2,000
Depth, m
Maximum safe pull on cable
B
r
e
a
k

w
e
a
k
p
o
i
n
t
Well deviation
Force to go forward
Force to retrieve
>
Openhole tractor logging. The MaxTRAC tractor gripping mechanism lost traction in soft formations.
Saudi Aramco and Schlumberger engineers collaborated on an improved design that could deploy
openhole logging tools. An added bowspring with a saddle and wedge (inset) distributed the gripping
force more evenly; the tractor was able to successfully navigate in wells with formations that had UCS
less than 5,000 psi.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 14
ORSUM11-CONVY 14
Gripping action
Grip geometry
locked
Wedge
Formation
Saddle
Bow springs
Direction of
grip motion
15. AL-Amer et al, reference 6.
16. AL-Amer et al, reference 6.
17. AL-Amer et al, reference 6.
18. Hashem MK, Al-Dossari SM, Seifert D, Hassaan M and
Foubert B: An Innovative Tractor Design for Logging
Openhole Soft Formation Horizontal Wells, paper
SPE 111347, presented at the SPE North Africa
Conference and Exhibition, Marrakech, Morocco,
March 1214, 2008.
41615schD5R1.indd 29 8/12/11 8:02 PM
30 Oileld Review
When the Going Gets Tough
Logging is not the only operation that takes place
in horizontal wells. Initial completion operations
often use drilling or workover rigs to run TCP
guns, which can traverse extremely long inter-
vals. However, after the rig has moved on, reme-
dial perforating in horizontal wells can be
difcult to perform. CT units are an option for
this task but they have depth limitations. Tractor
tools have been used to run and position perfo-
rating guns, but the shock that the downhole
equipment can receiveup to 20,000 g
n
can
damage sensitive electronic and mechanical
components.
Recognizing the need for a more robust trac-
tor for perforating services, Schlumberger engi-
neers designed the TuffTRAC cased hole services
tractor. Tool movement is accomplished using
mechanically powered wheels (above). The
TuffTRAC tool is bigger and stronger than the
MaxTRAC tractor and has a much simpler design;
it has minimal downhole electronics. Maximum
running speed is 975 m/h [3,200 ft/h] and maxi-
mum pulling force is 10,676 N [2,400 lbf]. It is
designed primarily for perforating and cement
evaluation. The TuffTRAC system also offers trac-
tion control, which dynamically adjusts the grip-
ping force while the tractor is in forward motion.
The TuffTRAC equipment is currently the only
tractor qualied for perforating that can reverse
out of the well. This has proved benecial in hori-
zontal well sections where guns were trapped by
debris in the wellbore. On at least one occasion,
surface-applied tension was not sufcient to free
the guns because the high angle of the well pro-
hibited pulling force from being transmitted to
the tools. By moving in reverse, the tractor was
able to free the guns, which were then retrieved
without a costly shing operation.
Although perforating can damage electronics
and mechanical components, the TuffTRAC ser-
vice has demonstrated that properly engineered
solutions can mitigate some of the effects of high
explosives (left). Tested to extreme limits, this
new tractor design has been eld qualied. In
one North Sea well that had initially been com-
>
TuffTRAC pulling power. The TuffTRAC tractor can use up to eight drive wheels (right). In the maximum pull conguration, it has 106,757 N [24,000 lbf] of
pulling capacity. For comparison, the pickup truck shown has a towing capacity of 44,927 N [10,100 lbf].
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 15
ORSUM11-CONVY 15
Pickup Truck TuffTRAC (8 drives)
2,560 kg [5,645 lbm] 277 kg [610 lbm] Weight of unit
0 4,448 N [1,000 lbf] per wheel Additional radial force
640 kg [1,411 lbm] 522 kg [1,152 lbm] Weight per wheel
76 cm [~30 in.] 7.6 cm [3 in.] Size of wheel
44,927 N [10,100 lbf] 106,757 N [24,000 lbf] Towing capacity
4,448 N [~1,000 lbf] 10,676 N [2,400 lbf] Towing force
>
Qualication testing. The TuffTRAC tractor was designed to withstand the
rigors of perforating. The tool was attached to loaded casing guns, which
were red at the surface, shown here, without signicant damage to the
tool. The design-for-purpose and qualication testing resulted in a robust
system that has been proved in the eld.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 16
ORSUM11-CONVY 16
41615schD5R1.indd 30 8/12/11 8:02 PM
Summer 2011 31
pleted as a commingled oil producer from two
separate zones, only water was being produced.
Engineers ran the TuffTRAC system to set two
plugs, ran 73.1 m [240 ft] of 2
7
/8-in. high shot den-
sity guns in four runs and made six trips to retro-
t sand screens. For this single intervention, the
tractor traversed 22,500 m [73,819 ft] without
incident. The procedures resulted in resumption
of oil production without a costly workover and
recompletion.
In another North Sea horizontal well, an oper-
ator needed to perforate approximately 1,250 m
[4,100 ft] of reservoir section for a water injec-
tion project. One objective was to achieve a par-
ticular perforation hole size in heavy-wall 6
5
/8-in.
liner with one shot every 7 m [23 ft]. The plan
called for perforating in two phases across sepa-
rate intervals (above). The two phases included
90 holes per interval for a total of 180 shots.
Because of logistics and cost, it would have
been difcult to justify perforating with TCP guns
using a CT unit180 shots would have required
at least 1,250 m [4,101 ft] of gun stock. For lim-
ited-entry perforation operations such as this,
engineers at Schlumberger Rosharon Completions
Center (SRC), in Texas, USA, have developed an
addressable-switch perforating system that uses
radio-safe detonators and allows up to 40 single-
shot carriers to be run in a single descent. The
system requires surface power to communicate
with and detonate each shot. Because the
TuffTRAC tractor is combinable with the address-
able-switch system, eld engineers were able to
run as many as 20 single-shot carriers per descent
to perforate the Phase 1 interval and as many as
33 single-shot guns for the Phase 2 interval.
During the execution of the job, the tractor tra-
versed a total of 8,670 m [28,450 ft] in the course
of 12 descents.
Although CT perforating was an option, using
more than 1,250 m of gun stock to perforate 180
holes was neither cost-effective nor an efcient
use of resources. Another option would have been
multiple runsperhaps as many as 60with a
conventional switched-gun system. The applica-
tion of this new technology greatly reduced the
number of runs, equipment wear and the time on
location for personnel.
Change Brings Opportunity
Game-changing technology often creates a
bridge to better methods of operation and offers
a wider range of choices. For instance, in many
developing countries, telephone service provid-
ers are investing in cellular phone systems
rather than traditional landline infrastructures.
The benets to consumers include smart phones
and wireless internet access, which go far
beyond eliminating the inconvenience of being
tied to a telephone cord.
In a similar fashion, LWD tools have changed
the way operators approach drilling. Memory
logging has changed the way data acquisition is
carried out while simultaneously offering a
broader range of opportunities. In the near
future, wired drillpipe promises to provide even
greater opportunities.
Wireless downhole communication may
become more readily available to the oil and gas
industry, and there are already commercial sys-
tems that communicate with downhole tools via
radio waves. Depth and data limitations for wire-
less systems exist at present, but controlling
downhole devices and receiving data without the
use of cables and wires open new possibilities
and applications for operators and service
companies.
LWD tools, coiled tubing and downhole trac-
tors create opportunities in drilling, completions
and production that previously did not exist. The
oil and gas service industry continues to develop
new methods that reduce costs, decrease equip-
ment requirements and minimize the number of
personnel on location.
As conveyance techniques evolve, they intro-
duce opportunities to improve production and, in
general, function more efciently than earlier
methods. If you cant push a rope, you may be
able to pull it. Or perhaps, in the future, it may be
easier just to cut the rope completely. TS
>
Well prole for North Sea injector. The operator perforated this well in two stages. Together the
stages covered approximately 1,250 m. Holes were spaced approximately 7 m apart across the
intervals. A total of 180 shots were attempted. Only one shot failed to re. During the course of
12 descents, the tractor tool traversed 8,670 m.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
Conveyance Fig. 17
ORSUM11-CONVY 17
T
V
D
,

m
MD, m
20
30
40
XX,400
XX,000 XX,250 XX,500 XX,750 XY,000 XY,250 XY,500 XY,750
XY,400
XX,600
XY,800
XY,600
XX,800
XY,000
XX,200
XY,200 50
60
70
80
90
100
I
n
c
l
i
n
a
t
i
o
n
,

d
e
g
r
e
e
Well profile
Phase 2 perforation
Phase 1 perforation
Inclination, degrees
41615schD5R1.indd 31 8/12/11 8:02 PM
32 Oileld Review
Basic Petroleum Geochemistry for
Source Rock Evaluation
As the search for oil and gas prospects grows increasingly complex, more E&P
companies are turning to geochemistry to evaluate a component that is central to the
success of each well: the source rock.
Kevin McCarthy
Katherine Rojas
Houston, Texas, USA
Martin Niemann
Roissy-en-France, France
Daniel Palmowski
Aachen, Germany
Kenneth Peters
Mill Valley, California, USA
Artur Stankiewicz
Clamart, France
Oileld Review Summer 2011: 23, no. 2.
Copyright 2011 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to
Nicholas Drenzek, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
FLAIR is a mark of Schlumberger.
Rock-Eval is a mark of the Institut Franais du Ptrole.
Rock-Eval 6 is a mark of Vinci Technologies SA.
Every oil or gas play originates from source rock.
The viability of each playconventional or
unconventional, oil or gasdepends on its
source rock. Without this source of petroleum, all
other components and processes needed to
exploit a play become irrelevant.
A source rock can be broadly dened as any
ne-grained, organic-rich rock that is capable of
generating petroleum, given sufcient exposure
to heat and pressure. Its petroleum-generating
potential is directly related to its volume, organic
richness and thermal maturity.
1
Although its
volumea function of thickness and areal
extentmust not be discounted, this article
focuses on the other two characteristics. Organic
richness refers to the amount and type of organic
matter contained within the rock. Thermal matu-
rity refers to a source rocks exposure to heat over
time. Heat increases as the rock is buried deeper
beneath successive layers of sediment. It is the
thermal transformation of organic matter that
causes a source rock to generate petroleum.
1. In this article, the term petroleum refers not only to
crude oil, but also to the uid in either its liquid or
gaseous state. Also, the term hydrocarbons, which
tends to be used casually in the oil industry, will be
treated as a loose equivalent to petroleum.
2. Kerogen is the particulate organic matter disseminated
within sedimentary rocks that is insoluble in common
organic solvents. Bitumen is a thermally degraded
derivative of kerogen, but is soluble in organic solvents.
The exact relationship between kerogen, bitumen and the
hydrocarbons that evolve during heating of organic
matter is still a subject of investigation. For more on these
components: Peters KE, Walters CC and Moldowan JM:
The Biomarker Guide, 2nd edition. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press, 2005.
3. Magoon LB and Dow WG (eds): The Petroleum System
From Source to Trap. Tulsa: The American Association of
Petroleum Geologists, AAPG Memoir 60, 1994.
>
Petroleum systems. A conventional petroleum system requires four components: source rock, reservoir
rock, trap and sealand two processes: petroleum generation and migration. Timing between petroleum
migration and creation of the reservoir, trap and seal is also critical. Unconventional systems require, at a
minimum, the deposition of source rock and sufcient overburden to achieve thermal maturity.
Vertical drilling
Vertical drilling
Coalbed methane
Extended-reach drilling
Conventional
structural trap
Conventional
stratigraphic trap
Seal
Gas in tight sand
Nonassociated gas
Associated gas
Sandstone reservoir
Shale source rock
Oil
41615schD6R1.indd 32 8/12/11 8:17 PM
Summer 2011 33
alteration as heat increases; these changes, in
turn, result in an evolution of the petroleum com-
pounds that are subsequently generated. Further
heating converts the kerogen, yielding bitumen
and petroleum.
2
The kerogen becomes more
depleted of hydrogen as it gives off petroleum.
Increasing maturity also causes initially complex
petroleum compounds to undergo structural sim-
plicationtypically starting with oil, then wet
gas and ending at dry gas.
This basic model is integral to one of the
most fundamental concepts of oil and gas explo-
ration: the petroleum system.
3
This concept
accounts for the generation, expulsion, migra-
tion and accumulation of oil and gasand
source rock lies at its foundation (previous
page). In conventional petroleum systems, over-
burden rock buries the source rock to depths
where petroleum is generated. Petroleum gener-
ated by thermally mature source rock is expelled
into a porous and permeable carrier bed and
The mechanisms by which oil and gas are gen-
erated vary from basin to basin depending on
sedimentary facies, burial history, tectonics and
other geologic processes; however, the general
model is fairly straightforward. Following deposi-
tion of organic-rich sediments, microbial pro-
cesses convert some of the organic matter into
biogenic methane gas. Greater depths of burial
are accompanied by increases in heat in accor-
dance with the basins geothermal gradient. This
heat causes the organic matter to gradually
transform into an insoluble organic matter
known as kerogen. The kerogen continues its
41615schD6R1.indd 33 8/12/11 8:17 PM
34 Oileld Review
then migrates into a reservoir rock, where it
becomes structurally or stratigraphically trapped
beneath an impermeable seal.
4
However, the requi-
site processes of petroleum generation, expulsion,
migration and trapping are not always carried to
completion, as evidenced by the myriad of dry
holes drilled into clearly delineated traps.
Ongoing advances in production technology
are opening new plays to exploration and devel-
opment. Resource plays, exemplied by the boom
in shale gas production, are founded on uncon-
ventional petroleum systems, where source rock
also serves as reservoir and seal. Petroleum gen-
erated in this self-contained petroleum system
does not migrate but remains trapped within the
micropores and fractures of the low-permeability
source rock.
5
Oil shales are yet another variation
on the resource play; operators who exploit these
source rocks must apply heat to produce the oil.
6
The worlds remaining oil and gas resources
are becoming more challenging to nd and
develop. As the industry targets these resources,
the need to thoroughly understand and character-
ize all components of prospective petroleum
systems becomes more acute. Thus, in addition to
assessing the reservoir, trap and seal of their
prospects, E&P companies must evaluate the
petroleum-generating capacity of the source rock.
Petroleum geochemistry is improving the ef-
ciency of exploration and production through
characterization of the elements and processes
that control the richness and distribution of
petroleum source rocks, thus providing valuable
input for basin and petroleum system modeling.
This article describes basic geochemical princi-
ples and techniques used by geoscientists to eval-
uate source rock quality, quantity and maturity.
Source Rock Fundamentals
Source rocks result from a convergence of
physical, biochemical and geologic processes
that culminate in the formation of ne-
grained sedimentary rocks containing carbon-
and hydrogen-rich organic matter. The amount
and type of organic material incorporated into a
source rock are controlled, in part, by environ-
mental and depositional conditions. Source rocks
form where environmental conditions support
biologic activities that produce large quantities
of organic matter, where depositional conditions
concentrate this matter and where postdeposi-
tional conditions permit its preservation.
7
Organic content is controlled largely by bio-
logic productivity, sediment mineralogy and oxy-
genation of the water column and sediment.
Biologic contributions to organic content range
from hydrogen-poor woody fragments to hydrogen-
rich algal or bacterial components. From these, a
variety of organic compounds may be created.
Within the water column, organic matter may
exist in solution, in colloidal form or in particulate
form, the highest concentrations of which are
found near the waters surface.
8
The route from the
water surface to its eventual incorporation into
the sediment varies for each form (left). The
organic matter is subjected to various chemical
and biologic processes as it descends through the
water column to the water/sediment interface.
Oxygen in the water column supports bio-
logic productivity of organic matter but also pro-
motes biodegradation and oxidation. The matter
can also be altered by physical abrasion or chem-
ical changes in water Eh and pH.
9
Once this mat-
ter settles to the bottom, bacteria, worms and
other bottom feeders take in what they can
metabolize, converting some of it to simple mol-
ecules. The net result of biodegradation and oxi-
dation is a reduction in organic richness, leaving
only relatively resistant organic materials to be
incorporated into the sediment.
>
Organic matter in the water column. Organic matter in solution may be
adsorbed onto clay particles that sink slowly through the water. Colloidal
organic matter occulates before it settles. Particulate matter may simply
drop to the bottom. (Modied from Barker, reference 8.)
High concentration of organic matter
Sea level
Sunlight and oxidation
Dissolved matter
Particulate matter Clays
Shells,
skeletons
Colloidal matter
Flocculates to
particulates
Sediment
Bottom feeders
4. For more on petroleum systems: Al-Hajeri MM,
Al Saeed M, Derks J, Fuchs T, Hantschel T, Kauerauf A,
Neumaier M, Schenk O, Swientek O, Tessen N, Welte D,
Wygrala B, Kornpihl D and Peters K: Basin and
Petroleum System Modeling, Oileld Review 21, no. 2
(Summer 2009): 1429.
5. It is not unusual for source rocks that are exploited for
their shale gas to also be effective sources of
conventional hydrocarbons in other parts of the basin.
6. For more on oil shales: Allix P, Burnham A, Fowler T,
Herron M, Kleinberg R and Symington B: Coaxing Oil from
Shale, Oileld Review 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011): 415.
7. Jacobson, SR: Petroleum Source Rocks and Organic
Facies, in Merrill RK (ed): Source and Migration
Processes and Evaluation Techniques. Tulsa: AAPG
(1991): 311.
8. Barker C: Organic Geochemistry in Petroleum
Exploration. Tulsa: American Association of Petroleum
Geologists, AAPG Course Note Series no. 10, 1997.
9. Jacobson, reference 7.
Eh is a measure of the oxidation-reduction state of a
solution; pH is a measure of its acidity or alkalinity.
10. Demaison GJ and Moore GT: Anoxic Environments and
Oil Source Bed Genesis, AAPG Bulletin 64, no. 8
(August 1980): 11791209.
11. Jacobson, reference 7.
12. Palacas JG: Characteristics of Carbonate Source
Rocks of Petroleum, in Magoon LB (ed): Petroleum
Systems of the United States. US Geological Survey
Bulletin 1870. Washington, DC: US Government Printing
Ofce (1988): 2025.
13. Jones RW: Comparison of Carbonate and Shale Source
Rocks, in Palacas JG (ed): Petroleum Geochemistry
and Source Rock Potential of Carbonate Rocks. Tulsa:
The American Association of Petroleum Geologists,
AAPG Studies in Geology 18 (1984): 163180.
14. Macerals are microscopically recognizable constituents
of organic matter found in coals and kerogen, analogous
to mineral constituents in a rock.
15. Tissot B, Durand B, Espitali J and Combaz A:
Inuence of Nature and Diagenesis of Organic Matter
in Formation of Petroleum, AAPG Bulletin 58, no. 3
(March 1974): 499506.
16. Klemme HD and Ulmishek GF: Effective Petroleum
Source Rocks of the World: Stratigraphic Distribution
and Controlling Depositional Factors, AAPG Bulletin 75,
no. 12 (December 1991): 18091851.
17. Vandenbroucke M: Kerogen: From Types to Models
of Chemical Structure, Oil & Gas Science and
TechnologyRevue de lInstitut Franais du Ptrole 58,
no. 2 (2003): 243269.
18. Tissot et al, reference 15.
41615schD6R1.indd 34 8/12/11 8:17 PM
Summer 2011 35
Within this depositional setting, oxygen and
energy levels are perhaps the most critical aspects
controlling the concentration and preservation of
organic matter in the sediment. Oxygen-depleted,
or anoxic, sediments provide the best media for
preserving organic matter. Low oxygen levels
create a reducing environment that shelters
organic material from oxidation while also
restricting the activity of bottom feeders. Anoxic
conditions are evidenced by source rocks that
have minute laminations, or varves (above).
These features are indicative of persistent, stag-
nant anoxic water above the sediment, as well as
an absence of bioturbation, thus implying a hos-
tile environment for sediment-churning bottom
feeders that graze on organic matter.
10
These con-
ditions are also closely linked with low-energy
depositional environments.
Because quiet waters reduce the exchange of
oxygen and organic matter, they create an envi-
ronment in which anoxic conditions can exist.
These low-energy environments permit the depo-
sition of ner-grained sediments as well. Thus,
there is a relationship between grain size and
organic content in source rocks. Source rocks do
not form in high-energy environmentssuch as
beaches or sand barswhere sands are typically
deposited.
11
Wave action oxygenates the deposit
and ushes clay-sized materials and small parti-
cles of organic material away from the sands then
deposits them together in quieter waters. Sands,
therefore, generally contain only small amounts
of organic matter relative to shales.
Mineralogy also plays an integral role in
source rock development. Minerals, transported
and precipitated in the sediment, can react with
organic compounds and ultimately dilute the rel-
ative concentration of organic matter within the
sediment. This dilution may affect a source rocks
capacity to generate and expel petroleum.
Although many organic-rich source rocks are
argillaceous, carbonates (typically marls) can
also make excellent source rocks and reservoirs.
Some carbonates may contain as much as 10% to
30% total organic carbon (TOC), unlike shales,
which may contain less than 5%.
12
In general, quality source rockswhether
carbonate or shaleshare a number of common
characteristics. They form in anoxic, or highly
reducing, environments, are generally laminated,
have moderate to high TOC and contain organic
matter exemplied by atomic hydrogen/carbon
ratios exceeding 1.2.
13
Although deposited under anoxic conditions,
these ne-grained, organic-rich sediments are
still missing a critical component: thermally
mature kerogen. The formation of mature kero-
gen requires heat.
Thermal Transformations
Sediment slowly cooks as pressure and tempera-
ture increase with burial depth. Given sufcient
heat, pressure and time, the sediment lithies
and the organic matter contained within trans-
forms into kerogen. Kerogen can be classied
into four types, based on provenance, as indi-
cated by specic macerals (above right).
14
It can
also be classied on the basis of hydrogen, car-
bon and oxygen content. Each type has a dis-
tinct bearing on what kind of petroleum, if any,
will be produced.
15
Type I kerogen is generated predominantly
from lacustrine environments and, in some cases,
marine environments. It is derived from algae,
plankton or other matter that has been strongly
reworked by bacteria and microorganisms living
in the sediment. Rich in hydrogen and low in oxy-
gen, it is oil prone but, depending on its stage of
thermal evolution, can also produce gas.
Responsible for less than 3% of the worlds oil and
gas reserves, Type I kerogens are not common.
16

An example of Type I kerogen is found in the
Green River Formation of the western USA.
Type II kerogen is typically generated in
reducing environments found in moderately deep
marine settings. It is derived primarily from the
remains of plankton that have been reworked by
bacteria. Rich in hydrogen and low in carbon,
this kerogen can generate oil or gas with progres-
sive heating and maturation.
17
Renowned exam-
ples of Type II kerogen include the Kimmeridge
Clay of the North Sea and the Bazhenov
Formation of Siberia. Certain depositional envi-
ronments promote increased incorporation of
sulfur compounds, resulting in a variation known
as Type II-S kerogen. This variation is seen in the
Monterey Formation of California, or the La Luna
Formation of Venezuela. The signicance of this
type is that generation of oil starts much earlier,
thought to be caused by kinetic reactions involv-
ing sulfur-bearing compounds.
Type III kerogen is derived primarily from ter-
rigenous plant debris, which has been deposited
in shallow to deep marine or nonmarine environ-
ments. Type III kerogen has lower hydrogen and
higher oxygen content than Types I or II; conse-
quently, it tends to generate dry gas. Most coals
contain Type III kerogens.
Type IV kerogen is derived from residual
organic matter found in older sediments that have
been reworked after erosion. Prior to nal deposi-
tion, this kerogen may have been altered by sub-
aerial weathering, combustion or biologic
oxidation in swamps or soils. This type of kerogen
has high carbon content and is hydrogen poor.
Considered a form of dead carbon, Type IV kerogen
has almost no potential for generating oil or gas.
18
>
Undisturbed sediments. Fine laminations, or
varves, in this core sample denote successive
deposits in quiet waters with no disturbance from
bottom dwellers.
7 cm
>
Kerogen types. Kerogen can be classied by its source material.
Kerogen
type
General environment
of deposition
Source material
I
II
III
IV
Mainly algae
Mainly plankton, some contribution from algae
Mainly higher plants
Reworked, oxidized material
Lacustrine setting
Marine setting
Terrestrial setting
Varied settings
41615schD6R1.indd 35 8/12/11 8:17 PM
36 Oileld Review
In general, hydrogen-rich kerogens are respon-
sible for generating both oil and hydrocarbon gas;
those with lesser amounts of hydrogen will gener-
ate mainly hydrocarbon gas. After hydrogen is
depleted from the kerogen, generation of hydro-
carbons will cease, regardless of the amount of
available carbon.
19
As temperature and pressure increase during
burial, organic materials emit oil and gas. Overall,
this thermal maturation process produces a
series of progressively smaller hydrocarbon mol-
ecules of increasing volatility and hydrogen con-
tent, culminating with methane gas. And, as the
kerogen evolves through thermal maturity, its
chemical composition progressively changes,
transforming it into a carbonaceous residue of
decreasing hydrogen content.
20
The thermal maturation process can be
divided into three stages (above).
Initially, the sediment is subjected to diagene-
sis. In its broadest sense, this term encom-
passes all natural changes in sediments occurring
from the moment of deposition until just before
the onset of signicant thermal alteration pro-
cesses.
21
For source rocks, however, this stage is
characterized by alteration of organic matter,
typically at temperatures below about 50C
[122F].
22
During diagenesis, oxidation and
other chemical processes begin to break down
the material. If deposited under anoxic condi-
tions, this material may be converted by methan-
ogenic bacteria into dry gas.
23
With increasing
temperatures and changes in pH, the organic
matter is gradually converted to kerogen and,
in lesser amounts, bitumen.
The source rock matures with increasing heat,
and it undergoes catagenesis. During this
stage, petroleum is generated as temperature
increases to between 50C and 150C [122F
and 302F], causing chemical bonds to break
down within the kerogen.
24
Within this oil win-
dow, Type I and II kerogens produce both oil
and gas, while Type III kerogens produce
mainly hydrocarbon gas. Further increases in
burial depth, temperature and pressure force
the source rock into the upper part of the gas
window, where secondary cracking of the oil
molecules produces wet gas containing meth-
ane, ethane, propane and heavier hydrocarbons.
25
Metagenesis marks the fnal stage, in which
additional heat and chemical changes convert
much of the kerogen into methane and a car-
bon residue. As the source rock moves farther
into the gas window, late methane, or dry gas, is
evolved, along with nonhydrocarbon gases such
as carbon dioxide [CO
2
], nitrogen [N
2
] and
hydrogen sulde [H
2
S]. These changes take
place at temperatures ranging from about
150C to 200C [302F to 392F].
26
These stages have a direct bearing on source
rock maturity. Thermally immature, or potential,
source rocks have been altered by diagenesis but
have yet to be exposed to sufcient heat for ther-
mally generated petroleum. Thermally mature, or
effective, source rocks that are (or were) in the
oil window, have been subjected to thermal pro-
cesses necessary to produce petroleum and are
actively generating petroleum. Thermally post-
mature, or spent, source rocks have entered the
gas window and have already generated petro-
leum; in so doing they have exhausted all hydro-
gen necessary for further oil or gas generation.
27
Although maturation is largely related to
increasing burial depths caused by continual
sedimentation within a basin, it can also be
locally or regionally inuenced by heat ow aris-
ing from crustal tectonics, proximity to igneous
bodies and natural radioactive decay within the
crust. The geologic processes that control subsid-
ence and uplift also affect maturation within a
basin. Maturation can be interrupted if the basin
is subjected to uplift, only to continue when sub-
sidence resumes.
At the depths drilled by E&P companies, the
petroleum-generation process is often incom-
plete, leaving the source rock with a degree of
generating potential.
28
Thus, rock samples
obtained from the subsurface may contain gener-
ated hydrocarbons along with organic matter
that is reacted incompletely. Some of these reac-
tions can be observed and measured in the labo-
ratory, where pyrolysis of organic matter parallels
changes in the subsurface and provides a useful
technique to characterize organic matter.
Basic Source Rock Analysis
Some petroleum compounds within source rock
are released at temperatures lower than those
needed to break down the kerogen. By monitoring
the compounds released during a steady increase
in temperature, geochemists can determine the
amount of generated petroleum relative to a
rocks total potential. In addition, the tempera-
ture corresponding to the maximum evolution of
gas gives an indication of source rock maturity.
Geoscientists employ a variety of techniques
to evaluate the hydrocarbon-generating capacity
of source rocks. Geochemical testing of outcrop
samples, formation cuttings, sidewall cores and
conventional cores can help determine the
amount, type and thermal maturity of organic
matter present in the rock.
29
The results help
geoscientists ascertain whether, how much, when
and what kind of petroleum might have been
generated as well as determine what secondary
processes may have occurred following the expul-
sion of hydrocarbons from the source rock.
Carbon is an essential element of any organic
compound, and one way to assess the organic rich-
ness of a rock is to measure its carbon content.
30

Because the oil or gas potential of a formation is
related to its carbon content, the TOC measure-
ment is a priority in source rock assessment. This
initial carbon assessment is followed by other
screening procedures such as pyrolysis and vitrin-
ite reectance analysis. These tests allow rapid
evaluations for large numbers of rock samples and
may be supplemented by more extensive test
methods.
TOC values can be obtained using a direct-
combustion technique that requires only 1-g
[0.0022-lbm] samples of rock.
31
The samples are
>
Thermal transformation of kerogen. The
generation of hydrocarbons in source rocks is
controlled primarily by temperature as the kerogen
content evolves from reactive carbon to dead
carbon. Gas is given off during early diagenesis,
primarily through biologic activity. Catagenesis
takes place with further burial, during which oil
and gas are given off. With increasing depth and
temperature, any remaining oil is cracked during
metagenesis, initially giving off gas, followed by
simpler forms of dry gas. The process varies
somewhat from one kerogen type to another.
(Modied from Tissot et al, reference 15.)
B
i
o
m
a
r
k
e
r
s
Oil
Wet gas
Dry gas
Hydrocarbons generated
Biogenic methane
I
n
c
r
e
a
s
i
n
g

d
e
p
t
h

a
n
d

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e
M
e
t
a
g
e
n
e
s
i
s
C
a
t
a
g
e
n
e
s
i
s
D
i
a
g
e
n
e
s
i
s
I
m
m
a
t
u
r
e

z
o
n
e
O
i
l

w
i
n
d
o
w
G
a
s

w
i
n
d
o
w
41615schD6R1.indd 36 8/12/11 8:17 PM
Summer 2011 37
>
Pyrolyzer. This Rock-Eval 6 pyrolysis analyzer records gases evolved from the source rock during a
programmed heating process. (Photograph courtesy of Vinci Technologies SA.)
pulverized and treated to remove any carbon
found in carbonate samples, or other contami-
nants. They are then combusted at 1,200C
[2,192F] using a high-frequency induction
furnace. Carbon contained in the kerogen is
converted to CO and CO
2
. The evolved carbon
fractions are measured in an infrared cell,
converted to TOC and recorded as mass weight
percent of rock.
32
The TOC measurement assesses three compo-
nents. Carbon from extractable organic matter
(EOM) is derived mostly from the thermal crack-
ing of kerogen. This carbon is found within the oil
and gas that the rock has generated but has not
yet expelled. At the other extreme is residual car-
bon, which makes up that portion of kerogen hav-
ing no oil- or gas-generating potential because its
highly condensed chemical structure contains so
little hydrogen. Convertible carbon contained
within the kerogen represents the remaining
petroleum-generating potential of a rock. The
capacity to generate petroleum depends largely
on the chemical composition of this convertible
carbon fraction.
33
The TOC measurement is the rst screen for
quantifying organic richness. TOC values provide
only a semiquantitative scale of petroleum-gener-
ating potential. TOC indicates the quantity, but
not the quality, of the organic matter. If this ini-
tial screening test demonstrates sufcient
organic content, the rock should undergo addi-
tional tests to ascertain organic matter quality
and maturity.
One of these tests was developed by the
Institut Franais du Ptrole, whose Rock-Eval
pyrolysis analyzer has become an industry stan-
dard in source rock assessment.
34
A major break-
through in petroleum geochemistry, this
programmed pyrolysis technique subjects rock
samples to high temperatures, enabling research-
ers to obtain results that would have taken mil-
lions of years in a sedimentary basin. This
technique requires only 100 mg [0.00022 lbm] of
pulverized rock and can analyze a sample in a
matter of minutes (above right). The latest ver-
sion of the Rock-Eval apparatus uses both pyroly-
sis and oxidation ovens to heat samples in a
programmed series of stages ranging from 100C
to 850C [212F to 1,562F].
35
Sample analyses
are automated, and results are computed before
they are tabulated and output to a log.
During Rock-Eval pyrolysis, samples are
heated under an inert atmosphere of helium or
nitrogen. A ame ionization detector (FID)
senses organic compounds emitted during each
stage of heating. Sensitive infrared (IR) detectors
19. Baskin DK: Atomic H/C Ratio of Kerogen as an Estimate
of Thermal Maturity and Organic Matter Conversion,
AAPG Bulletin 81, no. 9 (September 1997): 14371450.
20. Hood A, Gutjahr CCM and Heacock RL: Organic
Metamorphism and the Generation of Petroleum,
AAPG Bulletin 59, no. 6 (June 1975): 986996.
21. For more on diagenesis: Ali SA, Clark WJ, Moore WR
and Dribus JR: Diagenesis and Reservoir Quality,
Oileld Review 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 1427.
22. Peters et al, reference 2.
23. Rice DD and Claypool GE: Generation, Accumulation,
and Resource Potential of Biogenic Gas, AAPG
Bulletin 65, no. 1 (January 1981): 525.
24. Peters et al, reference 2.
25. Cracking is a process in which high temperature and
pressure act upon large, heavy hydrocarbon molecules,
causing them to split into smaller, lighter components.
Under such conditions, oil can be transformed into a gas.
26. Peters et al, reference 2.
27. Peters KE and Cassa MR: Applied Source Rock
Geochemistry, in Magoon LB and Dow WG (eds):
The Petroleum SystemFrom Source to Trap. Tulsa:
The American Association of Petroleum Geologists,
AAPG Memoir 60 (1994): 93120.
28. Barker C: Pyrolysis Techniques for Source-Rock
Evaluation, AAPG Bulletin 58, no. 11 (November 1974):
23492361.
29. Fresh cores work best; outcrop samples tend to be
degraded through weathering and are less desirable.
30. By denition, organic compounds are those that contain
carbon (with the exception of carbides, carbonic acid,
carbonates, carbon oxides and cyanides). Within the
realm of geochemistry, carbon is divided into a number
of classes. Geochemists dene organic carbon as that
which is derived from biogenic matter, whereas
inorganic carbon is derived from mineral matter. For
more on the organic carbon model: Jarvie DM: Total
Organic Carbon (TOC) Analysis, in Merrill RK (ed):
Source and Migration Processes and Evaluation
Techniques. Tulsa: AAPG (1991): 113118.
31. For a description of other techniques used for measuring
TOC, see Appendix C of Peters and Cassa, reference 27.
32. A TOC of 1% means there is 1 gram of organic carbon in
100 grams of rock.
33. Jarvie, reference 30.
34. Pyrolysis involves heating of organic matter in the
absence of oxygen. In this application, pyrolysis causes
hydrocarbons to crack into simpler, lighter compounds.
For more on this technique: Espitali J, Madec M,
Tissot B, Mennig JJ and Leplat P: Source Rock
Characterization Method for Petroleum Exploration,
paper OTC 2935, presented at the Ninth Annual Offshore
Technology Conference, Houston, May 25, 1977.
35. Other variations on this method use different
temperature ranges and heating times. For more on the
Rock-Eval 6 technique: Lafargue E, Espitali J, Marquis F
and Pillot D: Rock-Eval 6 Applications in Hydrocarbon
Exploration, Production and in Soil Contamination
Studies, Oil & Gas Science and TechnologyRevue de
lInstitut Franais du Ptrole 53, no. 4 (JulyAugust 1998):
421437.
41615schD6R1.indd 37 8/12/11 8:17 PM
38 Oileld Review
measure CO and CO
2
during pyrolysis and oxida-
tion. A thermocouple monitors temperatures.
These measurements are recorded on a chart
known as a pyrogram (above). The results help
geochemists characterize the type of organic mat-
ter in a source rock and determine the thermal
evolution of a sample and its residual hydrocar-
bon-generating potential.
36
Rock samples are heated in stages, initially
held at a constant 300C [572F] for several min-
utes, followed by programmed heating at 25C
[45F] per minute to a peak temperature of
about 850C [1,562F]. During the rst stage, any
free oil and gas previously generated by the bitu-
men are distilled and released from the rock.
During the next stage, hydrocarbon compounds
are generated through thermal cracking of the
insoluble kerogen. As temperatures rise, the ker-
ogen releases CO
2
in addition to hydrocarbons.
37

This controlled heating program is illustrated by
a series of peaks on the pyrogram.
38
The rst peak, S1, corresponds to free oil and
gas that evolve from the rock sample without
cracking the kerogen during the rst stage of
heating at 300C. These hydrocarbons were gen-
erated in the subsurface but came to be expelled
from the rock only during pyrolysis. S1 represents
how many milligrams of free hydrocarbons can be
thermally distilled out of one gram of
the sample.
39
The second peak, S2, corresponds to the
hydrocarbons that evolve from the sample during
the second programmed heating stage of pyroly-
sis. These hydrocarbons result from the cracking
of heavy hydrocarbons and from the thermal
breakdown of kerogen. S2 represents milligrams
of residual hydrocarbons in one gram of rock,
thus indicating the potential amount of hydrocar-
bons that the source rock might still produce if
thermal maturation continues. This reading can
have important implications for the evaluation of
oil shales.
The Rock-Eval technique yields a variety of
CO
2
measurements. The S3 peak corresponds to
CO
2
that is evolved from thermal cracking of the
kerogen during pyrolysis, expressed in milligrams
per gram of rock. Following pyrolysis, residual
organic carbon is oxidized in a separate oven to
produce the S4 peak. The S4 measurement can
be broken down into carbon dioxide and carbon
monoxide components to yield the S4CO
2
and
S4CO peaks. A separate CO
2
peak, designated S5,
reects carbon dioxide derived from decomposi-
tion of carbonate minerals in the sample.
Pyrolysis temperatures are also recorded and
produce a T
max
peak that corresponds to the
pyrolysis oven temperature during maximum
generation of hydrocarbons. T
max
is reached dur-
ing the second stage of pyrolysis, when cracking
of the kerogen and heavy hydrocarbons produces
the S2 peak.
40
Knowing the amount of heat nec-
essary to create various chemical compounds in
the rock can help geochemists understand the
history of the rock and the extent of thermal
maturation it has already undergone. T
max
should
not be confused with geologic temperatures, but
it can be useful in characterizing thermal evolu-
tion of the organic matter.
>
Programmed pyrolysis results. Free hydrocarbons are measured by the S1 peak, and residual
hydrocarbons are measured by the S2 peak. T
max
of 472C [882F] corresponds to the temperature
recorded when the S2 peak was achieved. CO, CO
2
and mineral carbon components of the S3
measurement are also displayed. CO
2
is proportional to the amount of oxygen present in organic matter
and provides input for calculating an important index used in determining maturity and kerogen type.
Pyrolysis results are computed to determine amounts of pyrolyzable carbon, residual carbon, mineral
carbon and TOC. (Illustration courtesy of Vinci Technologies SA.)
T
max
S2
S1
S3CO2
S4CO2
S5
S3CO S4CO
S3MINC
F
I
D

a
n
d

I
R

s
i
g
n
a
l
s
Temperature, C
556 639 389 472 300 300 405 605 672 472 538 738 850 805 851
Hydrocarbons (FID) CO
2
(IR) CO (IR) Temperature programming
Oxidation Pyrolysis
Vaporization
decomposition Carbonate decomposition
Residual carbon Mineral carbon Pyrolyzable carbon
>
Source rock evaluation criteria. Evaluation of source rock potential must be based on the appraisal
of multiple factors.
None
Poor
Fair
Good
Very good
< 0.5
0.5 to 1
1 to 2
2 to 5
> 5
< 2
2 to 3
3 to 5
5 to 10
> 10
Source rock quality TOC, % Pyrolysis S2, mg hydrocarbons/g rock Hydrocarbons, ppm
< 0.05
0.05 to 0.1
0.1 to 0.2
> 0.2
< 200
200 to 500
500 to 800
> 1,200
EOM weight, %
Gas
Gas and oil
Oil
50 to 200
200 to 300
> 300
Product type Hydrogen index
Onset of oil
Type I kerogen
Type II kerogen
Type III kerogen
Onset of gas
~445C
~435C
~440C
~460C
Stage T
max
41615schD6R1.indd 38 8/12/11 8:17 PM
Summer 2011 39
Important Indices
Taken together, these pyrolysis measurements
provide insight into the chemical makeup and
maturity of the organic matter contained within
the source rock (previous page, bottom left). The
relationship between these components forms
the basis for various indices used in the interpre-
tation of rock characteristics.
41
The hydrogen index, HI, is derived from the
ratio of hydrogen to TOC; it is dened as
100 2 S2/TOC. The HI is proportional to the
amount of hydrogen contained within the kero-
gen, and high HI indicates a greater potential
to generate oil. Kerogen type can be inferred
from this index as well.
The oxygen index, OI, is derived from the
ratio of CO
2
to TOC; it is dened as
100 2 S3/TOC. The OI is related to the amount
of oxygen contained in the kerogen and can be
useful in tracking kerogen maturation or type.
The production index, PI, is derived from the
relationship between hydrocarbons generated
during the rst and second stages of pyrolysis;
it is dened as S1/(S1 + S2). This relationship
is used to characterize the evolution of the
organic matter because PI tends to gradually
increase with depth for fne-grained rock. It
also tends to increase with source rock matura-
tion prior to hydrocarbon expulsion, as ther-
mally degradable components in kerogen are
converted to free hydrocarbons. Anomalously
high values of S1 and PI can also be used to
identify petroleum accumulations or stained
carrier beds.
The petroleum potential represents the maxi-
mum quantity of hydrocarbons that a suf-
ciently matured source rock might generate;
it is defned as the sum of S1 + S2. It therefore
accounts for the quantity of hydrocarbons that
the rock has already generated (S1) and those
that the rock could still produce if maturation
continues (S2). It is expressed as kilograms of
hydrocarbons per metric ton of rock.
These indices are particularly useful in track-
ing kerogen type and maturation. When plotted
on a Van Krevelen diagram, Type I kerogens have
a high HI and low OI (right). Type III kerogens
are characterized by low HI and high OI. Between
these two extremes lie the Type II kerogens.
During maturation, the OI tends to decrease
while HI initially remains nearly constant. As the
kerogen enters the oil window, HI decreases. PI
tends to increase with burial depth.
42
This type of
information provides geochemists with valuable
clues for evaluating a rocks potential for oil and
gas generation by determining the quantity, type
and maturation of organic matter.
The power of Rock-Eval and TOC analyses in
wellbores is a direct function of close sample
spacing, thus requiring samples at every 10 m
[33 ft] of depth, regardless of lithology.
43
However,
pyrolysis is not intended for use without support-
ing geochemical analysis. For critical samples,
interpretations from pyrolysis results should be
veried by other methods.
>
Kerogen maturation. A modied Van Krevelen diagram shows
changes to kerogen brought on by increased heat during burial. The
general trend in the thermal transformation of kerogen to hydrocarbon
is characterized by generation of nonhydrocarbon gases; it then
progresses to oil, wet gas and dry gas. During this progression, the
kerogen loses oxygen primarily as it gives off CO
2
and H
2
O; later, it
begins to lose more hydrogen as it evolves hydrocarbons.
1.5
H
y
d
r
o
g
e
n

i
n
d
e
x
1.0
0.5
Type I
Type II
Type III
Type IV
Oxygen index
Dry gas
Increasing
maturation
CO
2
, H
2
O
Oil
Wet gas
No hydrocarbon
potential
Products given off
from kerogen maturation
0 0.1 0.2 0.3
36. Espitali J and Bordenave ML: Rock-Eval Pyrolysis,
in Bordenave ML (ed): Applied Geochemistry. Paris:
ditions Technip (1993): 237261.
37. Peters KE: Guidelines for Evaluating Petroleum Source
Rock Using Programmed Pyrolysis, AAPG Bulletin 70,
no. 3 (March 1986): 318329.
38. Early papers sometimes referred to these peaks as P1,
P2 and P3. For example, Espitali et al, reference 34,
distinguished between the P1, P2 and P3 peaks and the
area beneath each peak, designated as S1, S2 and S3,
respectively. However, modern pyrolysis analyzers
automatically calculate these areas and annotate them
on the pyrogram, and the peaks are now commonly
referred to as S1, S2 and S3.
39. Espitali et al, reference 34.
40. Peters and Cassa, reference 27.
41. Espitali et al, reference 34.
42. Espitali et al, reference 34.
43. Peters and Cassa, reference 27.
41615schD6R1.indd 39 8/12/11 8:17 PM
40 Oileld Review
Other Evaluation Methods
Vitrinite reectance is a key diagnostic tool for
assessing maturation. Vitrinite, a maceral formed
through thermal alteration of lignin and cellulose
in plant cell walls, is found in many kerogens
(above). As temperature increases, vitrinite
undergoes complex, irreversible aromatization
reactions that increase reectance.
44
Vitrinite
reectance was rst used to determine the rank,
or thermal maturity, of coals. This technique is
now used to help geochemists evaluate kerogen
maturity over temperatures corresponding to
early diagenesis through metamorphisma
range spanning the sequence of petroleum gen-
eration, preservation and destruction in rocks.
45
Reectivity (R) is measured by a microscope
equipped with an oil-immersion objective lens
and photometer.
46
Vitrinite reectance measure-
ments are carefully calibrated against glass- or
mineral-reectance standards, and reectance
measurements represent the percentage of light
reected in oil, designated as R
o
. When a mean
value of vitrinite reectivity is determined from
multiple samples, it is commonly designated
as R
m
.
As indicators of thermal maturity, R
o
values
vary with the type of organic matter. And because
the temperature range of the gas window extends
beyond that of oil, R
o
values for gas will show a
corresponding increase over those of oil. Thus,
high maturation values (R
o
> 1.5%) generally indi-
cate the presence of predominantly dry gas; inter-
mediate maturation values (1.1% < R
o
< 1.5%)
indicate gas with a tendency toward oil genera-
tion at the lower end of the range. Wet gas can be
found still lower in the range (0.8% < R
o
< 1.1%).
Lower reectivity values (0.6% < R
o
< 0.8%) indi-
cate predominantly oil, while R
o
< 0.6% points to
immature kerogen.
By themselves, R
o
values can sometimes be
misleading and should be weighed with other
measurements. Some of these measures of matu-
rity are based on the color of ancient pollens and
plant spores, or on the color of tiny fossilized
teeth. Due to the prevalence of vitrinite reec-
tance, these indicators are often correlated to R
o

values. Because vitrinite is present only in sedi-
ments younger than the Carboniferous age,
which experienced the onset of woody plants, the
maturity of older kerogens relies on the presence
of bitumen to derive a vitrinite reectance equiv-
alent (VRE).
The thermal alteration index (TAI) is deter-
mined through microscopic examination of spore
color.
47
Carbonization causes a change of color in
palynomorphs such as spores and pollen.
Thermally immature palynomorphs are yellow
but change to orange or yellow-brown during dia-
genesis. With increased heat, they change to
brown during catagenesis and then to black
during metagenesis.
48
The TAI has ve alteration
ratings (below left).
The conodont alteration index (CAI) is based
on color changes seen in fossil teeth.
49
Conodonts
are tiny fossilized dental remains of eel-shaped
chordates. These fossils contain trace amounts of
organic matter. Their small size and carbonate-
apatite composition make them highly resistant
to weathering and metamorphic temperature
regimes; they have even been recovered from
marbles and garnet-mica schists.
Their color alteration follows a sequence that
can be reproduced by laboratory heating experi-
ments. Conodont color alteration is time and
temperature dependent, and is progressive,
cumulative and irreversible, thus making it a
good correlation tool for maximum tempera-
tures.
50
Unweathered conodonts are pale yellow;
>
Vitrinite in bituminous coal. The amount of light reected
by vitrinite macerals is a key test for determining the
thermal maturity of a rock. The intensity of light reected
from a sample is measured at hundreds of points along a
microscopic sampling area, then a statistical analysis
determines the amount of vitrinite in the sample and its
thermal maturity. This photograph was taken in incident
white light, with the sample in an oil immersion.
[Photograph courtesy of the US Geological Survey Energy
Resources Program: 2011 Photomicrograph Atlas,
http://energy.usgs.gov/Coal/OrganicPetrology/
PhotomicrographAtlas.aspx (accessed July 7, 2011).]
Vitrinite
20 m
>
Thermal alteration ratings. Maturity of source rocks can be ascertained through changes in the color
of spores and pollen contained in the rock. (Modied from Staplin, reference 47.)
1: none
2: slight
3: moderate
4: strong
5: severe
Yellow
Orange to brownish yellow
Brown
Black
Black, with additional evidence of metamorphism
Liquid hydrocarbons to dry gas
Liquid hydrocarbons to dry gas
Liquid hydrocarbons to dry gas
Dry gas
Dry gas to none
Thermal alteration index Color of organic matter Associated hydrocarbons
41615schD6R1.indd 40 8/12/11 8:17 PM
Summer 2011 41
with heat they change progressively to light
brown, then dark brown, black, opaque white and
crystal clear. Alteration from pale yellow to black
is thought to result from carbon xing within the
organic matter contained in the fossil structure.
The color changes with carbon loss and release of
water from the crystal structure. Experimental
data show that color alteration begins at about
50C [122F] and continues to about 550C
[1,022F]. The CAI can be determined by com-
paring samples against a set of laboratory-pro-
duced conodont color standards to estimate a
temperature range. Conodont color alteration
has been correlated with other optical indices
and with percent xed carbon (above right).
Another screening method measures the
composition and concentration of light hydrocar-
bons released from drill cuttings.
51
Fine-grained
formation cuttings, typical of those produced by
source rocks, may retain hydrocarbons even after
they arrive at the surface, making good samples
for this type of analysis. This technique, known as
gas chromatography, can be carried out at the
wellsite or under strictly controlled conditions at
a laboratory (right).
>
Conodont alterations. Conodonts change color with heat; their color can be linked to vitrinite
reectance. (Data from Harris, reference 50.)
1
1.5
2
3
4
5
< 50 to 80
50 to 90
60 to 140
110 to 200
190 to 300
300 to 400
< 0.80
0.70 to 0.85
0.85 to 1.30
1.40 to 1.95
1.95 to 3.60
> 3.60
< 60
60 to 75
65 to 73
74 to 84
84 to 95
> 95
Conodont alteration index Conodont temperature, C Vitrinite reflectance Percent fixed carbon
>
Formation cuttings analysis. At the well, cuttings are collected from the drilling mud after circulating
to the surface (red arrows) and passing over the shale shaker. In the mud logging unit, the cuttings are
evaluated under a microscope, and mud gas is analyzed by an FID and gas chromatograph. Gas from
the cuttings may also be analyzed in a laboratory. For transport to the laboratory, the cuttings are
sealed in sample jars containing water. Gas expelled from the cuttings will accumulate above the liquid
surface. This gas is commonly referred to as headspace gas. At the laboratory, the gas is drawn from
the container then injected into the sampling port of a gas chromatograph. As the gas passes through
the chromatographs capillary column, it splits into separate compounds, with each compound taking a
little longer to move through the system than its predecessor. Each compound exits the column
individually, to be analyzed by an FID or other detector. The results are recorded on a chart known as a
chromatogram (bottom right).
FID gas unit
Shale shaker
Mud logging unit
Laboratory
Sampling manifold
Chromatograph
Sample
chamber
Chromatogram
T
o
t
a
l

g
a
s
M
e
t
h
a
n
e
E
t
h
a
n
e
P
r
o
p
a
n
e
44. Peters and Cassa, reference 27.
45. Senftle JT and Landis CR: Vitrinite Reectance as a
Tool to Assess Thermal Maturity, in Merrill RK (ed):
Source and Migration Processes and Evaluation
Techniques. Tulsa: AAPG (1991): 119125.
46. The terms reectance and reectivity tend to be used
interchangeably, with the former being more common.
However, reectance is a ratio of the light reected from
a surface to the light directed onto that surfacethe
ratio of reected radiation to incident radiation. This
value can change, up to a point, depending on the
thickness, and hence, opacity, of a surface. If that
surface is thick enough to prevent light from being
transmitted through the surface, then reectance
reaches a maximum. This is the reectivity of a surface.
47. The TAI is set forth in Staplin FL: Sedimentary Organic
Matter, Organic Metamorphism, and Oil and Gas
Occurrence, Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology 17,
no. 1 (March 1969): 4766.
48. Anders D: Geochemical Exploration Methods, in
Merrill RK (ed): Source and Migration Processes and
Evaluation Techniques. Tulsa: AAPG (1991): 8995.
49. Found in Late Cambrian and Triassic formations,
conodonts were long suspected of being fossilized
teeth. In the early 1990s, this supposition was veried
through the aid of electron microscopy. For more on
conodont research: Zimmer C: In the Beginning Was
the Tooth, Discover 14, no. 1 (January 1993): 6768.
50. Harris AG: Conodont Color Alteration, An Organo-
Mineral Metamorphic Index, and Its Application to
Appalachian Basin Geology, in Scholle PA and
Schluger PR (eds): Aspects of Diagenesis. Tulsa: Society
of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, SEPM
Special Publication 26 (1979): 316.
For the seminal paper on CAI, see: Epstein AG,
Epstein JB and Harris LD: Conodont Color Alteration
An Index to Organic Metamorphism, Washington, DC:
US Government Printing Ofce, US Geological Survey
Professional Paper 995, 1977.
51. Noble RA: Geochemical Techniques in Relation to
Organic Matter, in Merrill RK (ed): Source and
Migration Processes and Evaluation Techniques.
Tulsa: AAPG (1991): 97102.
41615schD6R1.indd 41 8/12/11 8:17 PM
42 Oileld Review
A gas chromatograph evaluates gas liberated
during the drilling process and records individual
peaks for methane (C
1
), ethane (C
2
), propane
(C
3
), isobutane (iC
4
) and normal butane (nC
4
); a
single peak is typically recorded for pentanes
(iC
5
and nC
5
) and heavier hydrocarbons (C
5+
).
Determining the composition and concentration
of these gases helps geoscientists evaluate the
types of hydrocarbons that may be produced
within a prospective reservoir.
Gas chromatography (GC), when supple-
mented by mass spectrometry (MS), can provide
a detailed analysis of organic compounds found
in trace amounts (above). Geochemists com-
monly use this technique, referred to as GCMS,
for identifying the masses and relative concen-
trations of organic compounds known as biologi-
cal markers. Biomarkers constitute molecular
fossils and are synthesized only through biogenic
processes.
52
Their organic structures can be clas-
sied into basic groups, which, in turn, contain
members having variations of the same basic
structure. These groups can be related to certain
types of organisms and can help geochemists
ascertain the environment in which such an
assemblage might have been deposited.
Biomarker compositions reect the type of
organic matter incorporated into the sediment as
well as chemical changes that occurred subse-
quent to deposition. The combination of precur-
sor molecules and their chemical reactions varies
from one basin or eld to another, producing a
biomarker distribution that can be unique to a
particular location. By comparing oil to samples
of potential source rock, this chemical nger-
print can help link oil to its source.
53
Because
biomarker patterns tend to change systemati-
cally with respect to time and temperature, they
can help geochemists infer maturation trends.
When potential source rocks have not been
encountered in a basin, indirect correlations
between oil and source rock may be obtained
through source-related biomarker ratios.
54
These
biomarker ratios help geochemists infer source
rock thermal maturity, lithology, depositional
environment, organic matter input and age. For
example, the biomarkers contained in a specic
crude oil might indicate that its source rock was
a marginally mature, clay-poor marine carbonate
of Devonian age that contained algal and bacte-
rial organic matter deposited under anoxic
conditions. Biomarkers can also supplement
maturity indicators such as vitrinite reectance
and spore coloration.
55
Beyond the Basic Toolkit
Though source rocks have been studied exten-
sively for the past 50 years, the recent move to
exploit plays centered on gas shales and oil shales
has spurred a resurgence of geochemical research
and development. This resurgence has prompted
expanded utilization of established techniques as
well as the development of new tools.
The past decade, in particular, has seen a
renaissance in petroleum system modeling tools.
Source rock kinetics, a key input for these models,
characterizes the chemical reactions and petro-
leum compounds generated during thermal matu-
ration of a rock. Two pyrolysis techniques that have
proved useful in simulating maturation processes
are microscale sealed vessel and gold tube con-
ned pyrolysis.
56
Using these techniques, scientists
are able to scrutinize processes such as oil-to-gas
cracking (OTGC), in which application of temper-
atures greater than 150C causes existing oil to
break down into gas. OTGC investigations have, in
turn, led to the tracking of thermally resistant car-
bon molecules, known as diamondoids, for deter-
mining how gas is generated from oil under
high-temperature conditions.
57
>
Biomarker analysis. Biomarker carbon structures are directly related to precursor molecules of specic
biological substances. The smallest markers are found at a molecular level and can only be determined
through GCMS. With this method, separate compounds are drawn through the gas chromatograph capillary
column then pass to an ionizer. There, a metallic lament ionizes each compound. The quadrupole analyzer
lters the ions based on their mass/charge ratio. The electron multiplier detects every ion of the selected
mass ltered through the quadrupole analyzer.
Compound separation
Gas chromatograph
Sample injector
Capillary column
Ionization Ion separation Ion detection
Ion source Quadrupole analyzer Electron
multiplier
Mass spectrometer
52. Noble, reference 51.
53. This type of geochemical ngerprint can also be used to
compare one oil to another; it has proved useful in
tracking mystery oil slicks at sea to the vessels
responsible for discharging oil wastes.
54. Peters KE and Fowler MG: Applications of Petroleum
Geochemistry to Exploration and Reservoir
Management, Organic Geochemistry 33, no. 1
(2002): 536.
55. Noble, reference 51.
56. Horseld B, Disko U and Leistner F: The Micro-Scale
Simulation of Maturation: Outline of a New Technique and
Its Potential Applications, Geologische Rundshau 78,
no. 1 (1989): 361374.
Hill RJ, Tang Y, Kaplan IR and Jenden PD: The Inuence
of Pressure on the Thermal Cracking of Oil,
Energy & Fuels 10, no. 4 (1996): 873882.
57. Dahl JE, Moldowan JM, Peters KE, Claypool GE,
Rooney MA, Michael GE, Mello MR and Kohnen ML:
Diamondoid Hydrocarbons as Indicators of Natural Oil
Cracking, Nature 399, no. 6731 (May 6, 1999): 5457.
41615schD6R1.indd 11 8/19/11 11:18 PM
Summer 2011 43
The analysis of stable isotopes of carbon and
other elements such as hydrogen, oxygen or sul-
fur is also seeing increased application in organic
geochemistry. Recent observations of ethane car-
bon isotopes have led to interesting correlations
between dry gas and overpressured zones within
gas shales. Isotope plots show a rollover, or rever-
sal, in maturity that runs contrary to trends nor-
mally tied with depth. The origin of these
reversals is unknown, but a trend toward high
production rates has been observed in wells that
exhibit rollover.
Scientists are also focusing on the physical
structure of kerogen within the mineral matrix of
source rocks. The formation of secondary perme-
ability and porosity in organic-rich shales during
in situ maturation is believed to be a key enabler
for production of shale gas in many source rocks
(above). Organic petrography, utilizing basic and
advanced microscopy techniques to focus on
organic matter, is therefore seeing a revival in
kerogen evaluation.
Beyond the laboratory, new techniques for
monitoring gases encountered during drilling
are helping geoscientists determine the compo-
sition of hydrocarbons, locate uid contacts and
aid in the identication of compositional gradi-
ents in reservoirs. The FLAIR uid logging and
analysis service extracts gas from drilling mud
under constant pressure, ow, volume and tem-
perature conditions. Part of the Schlumberger
Geoservices suite of mud logging services, the
FLAIR system rst samples gas that has been cir-
culated to surface then separates it into individ-
ual components to provide a quantitative analysis
of gases from C
1
to C
5
and semiquantitative infor-
mation on the C
6
to C
8
components. Isotope
analysis can provide information regarding the
origins and characteristics of the hydrocarbons
encountered during drilling. Using
13
C/CH
4

ratios, which are originally related to petroleum
generation,mud logging analysts can provide
E&P companies with preliminary information
concerning the source rock, including its kero-
gen type and thermal maturity.
While operators devote much of their explora-
tion efforts to studying the depositional and
structural characteristics of a prospect, many are
also concerned with the processes that control
the formation of oil and gas. Geochemical reac-
tions and the conversion of organic matter are
integral to petroleum generation; the character-
ization of organic matter, in turn, is becoming
increasingly critical for the development of new
plays. These tools are proving instrumental in
opening new frontiers of exploration. MV
>
Scanning electron microscope with a backscatter image of a Barnett Shale sample at 1,000 magnication. In the shale sample (right), amorphous
organic matter (dark gray), consisting primarily of kerogen is seen as large continuous lenses or small, nely dispersed packets interwoven in a complex
mineral matrix (lighter gray components). Pyrite, a product of shale thermochemical maturation, is also present (small white crystals). Pores of varying size
and shape (small black spots) can be seen in both the kerogen and mineral components, but are more prevalent in the former. The sample was milled using
an argon ion polisher then imaged using a scanning electron microscope (left) to reveal the complex organic-mineral-pore architecture characteristic of
such mudrock deposits. (Graphic courtesy of Nicholas Drenzek, Schlumberger-Doll Research Center and Natasha Erdman, JEOL USA, Inc.)
Mineral
grains
Pores
Pyrite
Pyrite
1 m
Kerogen
Kerogen
Mineral grains
41615schD6R1.indd 43 8/12/11 8:17 PM
44 Oileld Review
Technology for Environmental Advances
New technologies play key roles in helping the E&P industry nd and produce
hydrocarbons more efciently and effectively. Many recent advances in technology
also help the industry work with greater care for the environment.
Wasim Azem
Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia
John Candler
Joanne Galvan
Mukesh Kapila
M-I SWACO
Houston, Texas, USA
Johana Dunlop
Paris, France
Andrey Fastovets
Singapore
Adun Ige
Rosharon, Texas
Ed Kotochigov
Gatwick, England
Cristina Nicodano
M-I SWACO
Aberdeen, Scotland
Ian Sealy
Sugar Land, Texas
Paul Sims
Clamart, France
Oileld Review Summer 2011: 23, no. 2.
Copyright 2011 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Diana
Andrade, Aberdeen; Kamel Bennaceur, Paris; Kayli
Clements, M-I SWACO, Houston; Harald Fosshagen,
M-I SWACO, Fyllingsdalen, Norway; Paul Handgraaf,
Thermtech, Bergen, Norway; David Harrison and Theresa
Winters, Sugar Land; Tony McGlue, Gatwick, England; and
Rene Vollebregt, Barendrecht, the Netherlands.
Opening image (AS17-148-22727_2 from http://eol.jsc.nasa.
gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=AS17&roll=
148&frame=22727) is courtesy of Earth Sciences and Image
Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston.
CleanPhase, ClearPhase, EcoLibrium, EverGreen,
FlexSTONE, FUTUR, IRMA, Maximus, Monowing,
PhaseTester, ProMotor, Q-Marine, Q-Marine Solid, REDA,
SmartWeir, SpeedStar 519 SWD and WhaleWatcher are
marks of Schlumberger.
AQUALIBRIUM, CLEANCUT, ISO-PUMP, RECLAIM and
HAMMERMILL are marks of M-I L.L.C.
RPA and TORR are marks of ProSep Inc.
TCC is a mark of Thermtech.
X-BOW is a mark of the Ulstein Group.
Stewardship of the Earths resources is vital
today. Practices that fail to maintain the
Earths natural environmentwhether deli b-
erate or unintentionalhave now become
unacceptable. Companies in many industries
have developed new technologies to mitigate
environmental impacts.
The oil and gas industry is viewed by many
with suspicion, particularly with regard to envi-
ronmental impact management. The Hollywood
image of oil discoveries that are signaled by well
blowouts is still imprinted in many peoples
minds, and major events such as the Macondo
disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, although rare,
renew those impressions. However, enormous
strides have been made by the oil and gas industry
to improve environmental stewardship, and the
pace of green developments in the industry has
increased dramatically over the past few years.
The industry has found ways to reduce its need
for resources by more efcient use of those
resources. By adopting smaller surface footprints,
lower emissions and more-benign chemicals,
companies are reducing adverse impacts on the
ecosystem. Throughout the process of hydrocar-
bon exploration and production, industry actions
have reduced the volumes of waste materials such
as liquids or drill cuttings and found better ways
to process and dispose of those materials it does
use. While no single technology solves all environ-
mental problems, even small improvements help
reduce impact on the environment.
Development of new products and services
may be driven by a desire both to meet or exceed
compliance limits and to discontinue or decrease
a negative environmental impact, but in many
cases, the fundamental performance characteris-
ticssuch as noise levels in a seismic streamer
are also improved in the process. By incorporating
a holistic view of the purpose of a technology and
its environmental impact, engineers applying
fundamental scientic and engineering princi-
ples often discover better solutions. For example,
rather than building a large, centralized waste-
water treatment center to treat owback water
in shale plays, M-I SWACO, a Schlumberger com-
pany, examined the footprint of the entire opera-
tion and realized the impact of trucks moving to
and from the centralized plant could be avoided.
This led them to develop onsite water-recycling
technologies.
As an oileld service company, Schlumberger
has developed many products and services that
help mitigate environmental impact in E&P
activities. Operating companies and others in the
industry can tell of similar activities. This article
follows the exploration and production cycle to
highlight some technologies and practices that
have made notable advances in mitigating envi-
ronmental impact.
Exploring in the Environment
The rst operationally intensive E&P activity in a
prospective area is typically a seismic evaluation.
Today, environmental awareness by geophysical
companies is a key feature of both marine and
land surveys.
1
41615schD7R1.indd 1 8/12/11 8:27 PM
Summer 2011 45
The environmental footprint from marine
seismic acquisition surveys can be broken into
four categories of emissions: acoustic, uid, gas-
eous and solid. These sources can come from the
vessel itself or from the acquisition process. By
addressing each of these issues, the industry can
eliminate or mitigate their impact.
2
Det Norske
Veritas (DNV), an independent foundation with
the mission of safeguarding life, property and the
environment, has developed a CLEAN-DESIGN
class notation whose stipulations reduce a ships
environmental impact due to air emissions, sea
discharges and accidental damage to the ships
hull.
3
In 2009 and 2010, WesternGeco launched
six new vessels with the DNV CLEAN-DESIGN
notation, giving it the largest eet of seismic ves-
sels of this type.
WesternGeco also uses high-quality marine
gas oil (MGO) despite its substantially higher cost
because it has distinct environmental advantages
over the heavy fuel oil (HFO) used by many other
seismic vessels. A seismic vessel using HFO emits
approximately 9% more greenhouse gases than
vessels using MGO and about 800% more sulfur
oxides, which are major contributors to acid rain.
New legislation from the International Maritime
Organization has introduced much more stringent
requirements for future sulfur content in fuels.
WesternGeco manages marine fuel consump-
tion to decrease greenhouse gas emissions
through state-of-the-art route design. During
transits between surveys, the routers take into
account seasonal and regional ocean current
regimes and weather. Other efforts include main-
taining hydrodynamic efciency by polishing
1. Gibson D and Rice S: Promoting Environmental
Responsibility in Seismic Operations, Oileld Review 15,
no. 2 (Summer 2003): 1021.
2. Fontana PM and Zickerman P: Mitigating the
Environmental Footprint of Towed Streamer Seismic
Surveys, First Break 28, no. 12 (December 2010): 5763.
3. DNV Managing Risk: CLEAN-DESIGN, http://www.dnv.
com/industry/maritime/servicessolutions/classication/
notations/additional/clean-design.asp (accessed
June 7, 2011).
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
ENVIRONMENT Fig. Opener
ORSUM11-ENVRMT Opener
41615schD7R1.indd 2 8/12/11 8:28 PM
46 Oileld Review
ships propellers to optimize propulsion, painting
vessels hulls to deter marine animals from
attaching to them and proactive inventory man-
agement to reduce weight onboard.
A modern 3D seismic acquisition vessel can
deploy 12 or more streamers, each up to 8 km
[5 mi] long (above). To maintain crossline sepa-
ration between the streamers, diverters are
deployed ahead of the seismic spread; use of
Monowing deectors signicantly increases the
energy efciency of operations. A vessel equipped
with this technology consumes 6,000 to 8,000 L
[1,600 to 2,100 USgal] less fuel per day than a ves-
sel with conventional diverter technology.
4
In
addition, the advanced streamers used with the
Q-Marine platform have reduced draglargely
because they have a smaller diameter than con-
ventional streamerswhich also contributes to
reduced fuel consumption.
A seismic survey may include about 30,000
sensors using Q-Marine single-sensor technol-
ogy. These hydrophone sensors are encased in a
strong, watertight polyurethane skin for protec-
tion from the marine environment and from
stresses incurred during deployment and
retrieval. To maintain neutral buoyancy between
6 and 8 m [20 and 26 ft] below the surface of the
water, the streamers are lled with a kerosene-
base uid.
The streamers are occasionally damaged in
use, most often because of shark bites, interac-
tion with commercial shing gear and streamer
collisions with submerged objects. The average
lifespan of a streamer skin is about three years.
In 1991, the WesternGeco manufacturing facil-
ity in Bergen, Norway, found a new supplier of the
plastic skins that was able to recycle the skins
when they were damaged beyond repair. Most of
>
Seismic acquisition. While acquiring a seismic survey, a vessel tows a wide array of streamers. During a wide-azimuth seismic survey, several vessels
operate together (inset). Each vessel is towing ten 8-km long streamers. The WesternGeco Magellan, in the inset foreground, features an X-BOW vessel
design, which has better fuel efciency during transits.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
ENVIRONMENT Fig. 1A
ORSUM11-ENVRMT 1A
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
ENVIRONMENT Fig. 1A
ORSUM11-ENVRMT 1A
>
Solid-lled streamer. A seismic crew member onboard a WesternGeco marine seismic vessel
deploys a Q-Marine Solid cable.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
ENVIRONMENT Fig. 1
ORSUM11-ENVRMT 1
41615schD7R1.indd 3 8/12/11 8:28 PM
Summer 2011 47
the damaged skins can be refurbished once for
their original use, giving them an additional
three-year average life as a streamer. The second
time a skin is sent for recycling, it can usually be
converted to other uses, such as boat or pier fend-
ers. This repurposing extends the useful life of the
material another 8 to 10 years, potentially making
a 16-year lifespan for the polyurethane.
One potential consequence of puncture dam-
age for a streamer skin is that the ballasting uid
can leak into the ocean. Even though the chemi-
cal formulation of this uid enables fast evapora-
tion and minimal exposure to the environment,
all incidents of leakage are immediately reported
to respective regulatory bodies. Nonuid stream-
ers have advantages of zero-spill characteristics
together with elimination of noise from bulge
waveswaves of pressure associated with longi-
tudinal oscillation of uid along a tube. The
Q-Marine Solid seismic streamer system, devel-
oped by WesternGeco, produces no uid dis-
charge if the skin is punctured. In addition to this
environmental advantage, the solid system has
distinct operational benets:
Consistent pressure and streamer buoyancy
give improved acoustic performance.
The system is less susceptible to water ingress
and electrical problems when punctured. The
results are less technical downtime and a
reduced number of small boat operations to do
repairs, reducing exposure of the eld crew to
hazards.
The solid gel properties contribute to easier
streamer construction.
The solid-streamer material is a proprietary gel
developed by WesternGeco and Schlumberger
Cambridge Research in England specifcally for
use in streamers. The gel has been extensively
tested and qualied for use in the most sensitive
environmental areas, including the Arctic. It is a
liquid when heated, but forms a gel upon cooling to
ambient temperature. In addition, the gel is self-
healing and robust under stresses that occur when
seismic crews deploy and retrieve the streamers
(previous page, bottom). It is chemically stable,
and does not trap air during manufacture or repair.
Compared with other solid-flled streamers, these
attributes improve its noise characteristics.
When deployed, the Q-Marine Solid streamers
deliver results consistent with the high standards of
Q-Marine technology. Single-sensor recording tech-
nology and customized noise attenuation using
those single-sensor data, or digital group forming,
used with Q-Marine Solid acquisition enable out-
standing signal-to-noise performance. Q-Marine
technology has also been expanded to another area:
detection of nearby marine mammals.
Marine seismic acquisition uses airguns to
emit an acoustic signal, but to marine life, airguns
are simply a source of noise. In many parts of the
world, regulations have been established to mini-
mize disturbance to marine life during seismic
surveys. Dedicated observers are posted on the
vessels to spot marine mammals. However, human
observers can see the animals only if they surface,
which occurs at irregular intervals. This behavior
makes tracking them difcult. In addition, the
observers effectiveness is limited by weather and
daylight, and they can provide only an inexact
estimate of the distance to the sighting.
To address these challenges, WesternGeco
developed a technique for cetacean detection
that is integrated into the seismic acquisition
system.
5
WhaleWatcher passive acoustic monitor-
ing technology allows remote observation during
seismic operations. The cetaceans use high-
frequency clicks for echolocation and a middle-to-
low-frequency range for communication. These
sounds overlap the sensitivity range of the hydro-
phones and of sensors in the IRMA positioning
systemwhich uses intrinsic ranging by modu-
lated acousticslocated along the streamers.
Frequency analysis of these data identies the
distinctive calls from various species (above).
>
Detection of a whale. Cetacean species have distinct frequency
signatures to their calls, such as one from a whale (top). During seismic
acquisition, acoustic signals from both the seismic and IRMA positioning
arrays are analyzed continuously to check correlation with these acoustic
spectra. By using beamforming, which creates constructive interference
from the arrays aligned with the azimuth of the signal and destructive
interference elsewhere, the WhaleWatcher system can triangulate the
sounds to obtain the distance to and bearing to the animal. In this case, a
whale was detected 5 km [3 mi] from the vessel at a depth of 30 m [98 ft] in
water 250 m [820 ft] deep.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
ENVIRONMENT Fig. 3
ORSUM11-ENVRMT 3
Triangulation,
correlation
and inversion
Frequency, Hz
Whale call
0
0
50
50
100 100
150
150
200
200
250
0.5
1.0
2.0
1.5
2.5
A
zim
uth, degree
A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
,

P
a
GPS
Seismic hydrophone
IRMA hydrophone
4. WesternGeco: Environmental Excellence in Marine
Operations, http://www.westerngeco.com/services/
marine/ecomarine.aspx (accessed June 7, 2011).
5. Groenaas HSG, Frivik SA, Melboe AS and Svendsen M:
A Novel Marine Mammal Monitoring System Utilizing
the Seismic Streamer Spread, paper D047, presented at
the 73rd European Association of Geoscientists and
Engineers Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria,
May 2326, 2011.
41615schD7R1.indd 4 8/19/11 11:23 PM
48 Oileld Review
An animals distance and azimuth can be
determined accurately because of the large areal
spread of the detector arrays in a seismic opera-
tion. The signal analysis is enabled by the single-
sensor conguration of the Q-Marine point-
receiver seismic acquisition system. Mammal
locations are presented on navigation displays
throughout the ship in real time, providing a con-
tinuous and reliable means of detecting and
tracking the cetaceans during limited visibility
periods. When marine animals are getting close
to the exclusion zone around the seismic
sourcetypically 500 m [1,640 ft]marine mam-
mal observers can use information from the
WhaleWatcher system to make necessary opera-
tional decisions, including shutdown.
On land, the long-term impact of seismic
acquisition is often on vegetation. This can be
alleviated by using brush cuttersrather than
bulldozersthat leave roots undisturbed, result-
ing in a more rapid return of the vegetation. In
addition, fragile dunes in deserts must be pro-
tected, and in the Arctic great care must be taken
to avoid damage to permafrost.
6
In these and
other fragile environments, careful planning is
required to minimize the potential for damage.
A highly restrictive land seismic survey was
recently completed on Barrow Island, a nature
reserve 50 km [31 mi] offshore Western Australia.
This reserve is home to several species of animals
found nowhere else. The island and its surround-
ing waters, including coral reefs, are important
nesting and spawning grounds. It also sits above
the Greater Gorgon gas elds. That gas will be
converted to liqueed natural gas to take to mar-
ket, generating CO
2
in the process.
The Gorgon project, operated by Chevron,
includes injection of the CO
2
into a saline reser-
voir deep beneath the island. The monitoring plan
for this carbon storage project includes 4D seis-
mic surveys.
7
Although the baseline survey
obtained in 2009 covered 135 km
2
[52 mi
2
], the
government permit allowed use of only 25 ha
[0.25 km
2
or 0.1 mi
2
] of surface area for the acqui-
sition footprint; this is a factor of 10 less area than
would be typical for a survey of this size.
WesternGeco worked with the operator to
mobilize seismic equipment and to complete the
survey. All equipment was fumigated before
shipment to the island to avoid inadvertent
introduction of alien species. A helicopter moved
equipment to shot hole locations on the island,
and the survey party walked to 13,284 receiver
points, covering in aggregate about 42,000 km
[26,000 mi] to deploy, by hand, about 200,000 kg
[440,000 lbm] of seismic equipment. Drilling
rigs for shot holes and other equipment were
placed on stilts to minimize disturbance of
the vegetation.
The survey was acquired successfully and had
an excellent safety record. During the survey, the
crew had even less environmental impact than
allowed by permit, disturbing less than 19 ha
[0.19 km
2
or 0.07 mi
2
] of vegetation.
8
Drilling with Less Impact
The E&P industry has also been successful in
reducing the footprint of activities while drilling,
the next major activity in the cycle of eld devel-
opment. Through application of advanced tech-
nology and innovative practices, companies are
taking proactive measures to minimize environ-
mental impacts from drilling. At the heart of
these advances is the recognition by operators
that the objective of efciently nding and pro-
ducing oil and gas resources is complementary to
that of reducing their environmental footprint.
Ongoing advances in drilling uids and waste-
management techniques have created more
options to minimize or recycle waste and to
reduce onsite and offsite impacts. Additional pro-
grams to address biodiversity protection and to
prevent invasive species migration also support
the goal of minimizing the footprint of explora-
tion and production operations.
Because drilling uids and drill cuttings typi-
cally account for the largest volume of waste
from drilling, they have long been the focus of
waste-management efforts. Drilling uids and
solids-control equipment are coordinated to ef-
ciently remove drill solids from the wellbore. As
the drilling uid becomes loaded with cuttings
nes, its efcacy degrades, so either the amount
of nes in the drilling uid has to be decreased
or the uid has to be disposed of and replaced,
both of which ultimately increase the amount of
waste material generated. To reduce the source
of waste, high-performance drilling uids can
reduce the degradation of cuttings as they travel
to the surface and, at the same time, increase
rate of penetration and reduce nonproductive
time and hole washout.
Recycling is another important approach to
waste management of drill cuttings and excess
drilling uids. Typical solids-control equipment
cannot remove these ne solids. In the past,
there were two options: dispose of the nes-
loaded uid or dilute the used uid with addi-
tional base uid. New recovery technology
designed instead to reuse water from water-base
muds (WBMs) after nes have been removed can
result in closed-loop systems and elimination of
mud storage in pits.
Building on the success of handling ne solids
in WBM, M-I SWACO developed the RECLAIM
treatment unit. It uses a chemically enhanced
solids-removal process to remove most of the
nes from nonaqueous uids.
9
The process uses
surfactants to weaken the drilling uids emul-
sion, allowing occulating agents to agglomerate
the ne solids into larger bodies. Those bodies
are removed using conventional centrifugal tech-
niques. The RECLAIM process allows reuse of the
base uid, which achieves both economic and
environmental objectives.
Another approach to uid recovery is the use
of thermal technology to treat the drilling uid
coated solids to remove and recycle the base
uid. By removing base uid from the cuttings,
>
Thermal mill. The TCC HAMMERMILL system removes contaminating liquids from solid material by
frictional heating. The cuttings, or other waste, are fed into a process mill. A series of rapidly rotating
arms (rotors) forces the material against the inside wall of the mill. Hammers at the ends of the arms
heat the waste by friction. The waste is the hottest part of the system. The oil and water vaporize
within seconds and are vented to condensation cells, where the liquids are captured. The solid
material, which remains in the mill for several minutes, is clean by the time it exits the processing mill.
Cuttings
inlet
Cuttings bed
Vapor outlet Vapor outlet
Solids outlet Solids outlet
Rotation
Rotor
End View Side View
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
ENVIRONMENT Fig. 4
ORSUM11-ENVRMT 4
41615schD7R1.indd 5 8/12/11 8:28 PM
Summer 2011 49
thermal technology reduces the potential envi-
ronmental impacts from the cuttings. The TCC
HAMMERMILL system vaporizes oil coatings
from solids without degrading the organic frac-
tion of the drilling uid.
The process mill within the system is a drum-
shaped chamber about 1 m [3.3 ft] in length and
diameter. A rotating shaft with a series of ham-
mer arms generates frictional heat in the solid
material (previous page). Prior to starting
cleanup, the process operator feeds sand into the
chamber and energizes the rotating shaft. The
particles are forced by the hammer heads against
the inner wall of the chamber, where friction
heats them. Once the sand is hot, drill cuttings
are injected. The uids in the cuttings vaporize
and vent to condensation cells for recovery.
After treatment, the cuttings are clean
enough for disposal or for use as construction ll.
In addition to cleaning drill cuttings, the TCC
HAMMERMILL system can also clean soil and
sludge from the bottom of storage tanks. The oil-
on-cuttings level after treatment is less than 1%
total petroleum hydrocarbons.
Another recycling and reuse approach for
WBM and synthetic-base mud is to convert the
cuttings into a soil amendment through soil-
management techniques and bioremediation.
10

This technology has been applied in several
locations using a variety of techniques such as
farming, composting and vermiculture.
11
Responsible treatment and disposal options
work in concert with other waste-management
strategies. Such disposal frequently requires ef-
cient and safe transportation to centralized
waste-management facilities. The CLEANCUT
cuttings-handling system keeps the solids ow
stream isolated from the environment during
transfers and storage. Drill cuttings are
transferred pneumatically from the shakers into
ISO-PUMP storage and transfer pressure vessels.
Shipping cuttings from offshore to shore for
treatment and disposal can be costly, so compa-
nies have turned to injection of cuttings into for-
mations assessed as acceptable for containment
and capacity or into the anks of oil or gas elds.
12
In addition to upgrading technologies that
handle drilling waste products with less environ-
mental impact, the industry is improving the envi-
ronmental quality of the uids themselves, which
contain a wide variety of chemicals, each serving
a specic purpose within the drilling-uid compo-
sition. In recent years, many uids used in drilling
and throughout a wells life have been changed to
those that perform their operation better while
also reducing environmental impacts.
Green Chemistry
Green chemistry is based on a philosophy of
encouraging the design of products and pro-
cesses that replace chemicals having a higher
hazard with others that pose a lower hazard,
while achieving the same function. In many
cases, improving the environmental performance
of a product also reduces the potential for associ-
ated occupational health hazards.
The rst priority of green chemistry is target-
ing components that are hazardous in the envi-
ronment and, when used, are discharged into the
environment. The second priority is to achieve a
high level of environmental performance in the
areas of biodegradability, bioaccumulation and
bioconcentration, and toxicity.
Biodegradability is a measure of the degree to
which an organic substance will be broken down
by the action of living organisms. Bioaccumulation
is a general term for the accumulation of organic
chemicals in organismssuch as shthrough
their respiration, food intake, skin contact or
other means. Bioconcentration refers to the
uptake of substances into the organism from
water alone. Toxicity is the degree to which a sub-
stance can cause harmful effects to a species.
Developments in green chemistry have been
employed on a global scale for many years, and
discoveries in one discipline to meet a specic
performance goal are quickly shared with other
areas. In the mid-1980s the US Environmental
Protection Agency added an acute toxicity limit
for the discharge of water-base drilling uids.
The new, lower limit generated a rapid progres-
sion of shale inhibitors and lubricants; these
replaced traditional products that did not meet
the toxicity limitation.
In the North Sea, a signicant part of the E&P
business is built around chemicals that are inher-
ently benign to the environment. This has been
achieved through performing an environmental
assessment as a rst step in the product develop-
ment process. In addition to its own develop-
ments, Schlumberger works closely with all major
chemical suppliers for the development of
greener chemicals. As a user rather than a manu-
facturer of chemicals, Schlumberger set a goal to
switch to chemicals that not only conform to high
environmental standards, but also perform as
well as or better than the products they replaced
(above). Although there is a popular conception
>
Progress in replacing chemicals. For Norwegian North Sea E&P operations, chemicals are classied
as green (posing little or no environmental risk), yellow (acceptable), red (generally not allowed to be
discharged into the sea) and black (banned). Since 2000, the number of chemicals classied as red and
black used in Schlumberger operations has declined signicantly due to ongoing efforts to use less-
hazardous materials. The remaining additives in the red category are used to prevent cement failure; set
in cement, the risk of their entering the marine environment is minimal. A slight increase in 2010 of the
number of additives in the black category was due to a reclassication of chemicals; replacements are
being sought that will bring these additives back into compliance with the lower-risk categories. (The
status data are from the beginning of each year listed.)
N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

a
d
d
i
t
i
v
e
s
2000
0
25
50
75
100
2001 2002 2003
Year
Green
Yellow
Red
Black
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Additive
Classification
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
ENVIRONMENT Fig. 5
ORSUM11-ENVRMT 5
6. Bishop A, Bremner C, Laake A, Strobbia C, Parno P
and Utskot G: Petroleum Potential of the Arctic:
Challenges and Solutions, Oileld Review 22, no. 4
(Winter 2010/2011): 3649.
7. Scott KC, Parker DJ, Cairns A and Clulow B: Setting
New Environmental, Regulatory and Safety Boundaries:
The 2009 Gorgon CO
2
3D Seismic Baseline Survey,
Barrow Island, Western Australia, paper SPE 132931,
presented at the SPE Asia Pacic Oil and Gas
Conference and Exhibition, Brisbane, Queensland,
Australia, October 1820, 2010.
8. Scott et al, reference 7.
9. Geehan T, Gilmour A and Guo Q: The Cutting Edge in
Drilling-Waste Management, Oileld Review 18, no. 4
(Winter 2006/2007): 5467.
10. Soil amendments are additives such as fertilizer or
compost that farmers use to improve soil quality and
grow better crops.
11. Vermiculture is the use of various species of worms to
decompose organic waste.
12. Geehan et al, reference 9.
41615schD7R1.indd 6 8/12/11 8:28 PM
50 Oileld Review
that environmentally improved chemical prod-
ucts do not work as well as the products they
replace, the EcoLibrium line of oileld chemi-
cals, which resulted from this effort, successfully
maintains high performance standards.
Handling Cleanup Fluids
After an operator drills and completes a new well,
debris and uids remain in the wellbore, perfora-
tions and producing formation. The debris and
uids are often removed by temporarily producing
the well. The ow rate of produced uids and
gases may be measured at the same time to deter-
mine the production and reserve characteristics
of the well and reservoir. Materials produced dur-
ing this process can contain large volumes of
brine, oil and gas, which must be treated to mini-
mize their environmental impact. Exploration
and appraisal wells typically do not have access to
permanent infrastructure for disposal of these
materials, so portable systems are required.
Several technologies can now be combined in
a customizable system that can be used for both
cleanup and well testing. The heart of the system
is a CleanPhase well-test separator. This separa-
tor can handle either large aqueous-phase ow
during cleanup or large oil-phase ow during the
reservoir test by optimizing the height of the oil
layer using SmartWeir phase separation technol-
ogy.
13
In addition, a PhaseTester portable unit can
accurately and continuously evaluate simultane-
ous ow of water, oil and gas during cleanup and
well testing. When it is possible to reinject the
uids, either in the same or another formation,
the well production rate can be tested without
discharge to the environment.
14
Produced water can be further treated to
meet discharge standards by using a ClearPhase
mobile testing discharge unit (left).
15
This treat-
ment system can reduce oil-in-water from
20,000 parts per million (ppm) by volume to less
than 20 ppm even at ow rates up to 5,000 bbl/d
[794 m
3
/d]. This meets or exceeds water-
discharge requirements of most countries in
which oil companies operate. If local regulations
demand levels beyond the capability of the unit
at expected ow rates, the efuent can be sent to
a second treatment unit to achieve the environ-
mental standard. The coalescing media used
inside the ClearPhase unit are reusable, so there
are no by-productssuch as ltersfrom the
water treatment.
Often during cleanup and testing, oil and gas
must be ared for a brief period when there is no
access to a production line. Burner design can
minimize the environmental impact generated
during aring by enabling complete combustion
of the hydrocarbons, eliminating fallout and
smoke. For example, the EverGreen efuent
burner is a single-head, 12-nozzle oil burner used
for onshore and offshore well testing and cleanup
with minimal environmental impact. Complete
combustion is achieved because the nozzle array
optimizes air inux to reach the heart of the
ame. The ingested surrounding air provides 60
times more oxygen to facilitate combustion com-
pared to that provided by compressed air feeding
a burner. The head is also tted with an auto-
matic shutoff valve that prevents oil spillage at
the beginning and end of a burning run. The
EverGreen burner efciently burns all types of
oil, including most heavy and waxy oils. It can
also operate effectively with up to 25% water cut,
which makes it ideal for cleanup operations.
Efcient Production
A major part of any well is the cement sheath
around the outside of the casing. Filling the
space around the casing with cement provides a
barrier, not only between the wellbore and
adjacent formations, but between strata in the
subsurface. The cement sheath prevents hydro-
carbons and saline water from migrating along
the wellbore to other formations, particularly to
freshwater aquifers hundreds, or more commonly
thousands, of feet above producing formations.
Although well cementing has long been standard
industry practice, service companies continually
develop new cements and cementing practices to
improve zonal isolation. This is particularly true
for gas-storage wells.
>
ClearPhase unit. Water with residual oil content enters the ClearPhase treatment unit (top) after
exiting a three-phase test separator. The water goes through a series of RPA reusable petroleum
absorbent beds, which use TORR de-oiling technologylicensed from ProSep Inc.to coalesce
small droplets of oil in water. Within the beds, the oil forms larger drops, which are detached on the
downstream side of the bed as ow passes through the vessel. These larger oil drops more easily
separate from the water and oat to the top in the next settling chamber. The water goes through ve
RPA beds, each removing more oil. The capacity of the unit to treat water depends on the amount of
oil initially present in the water and the ow rate (table, bottom). The numbers in the boxes indicate
average oil-in-water concentration (in ppm by volume) at the outlet.
14 20,000
12,000
8,000
1,000 2,500 4,500
5,000
14 20
13 19
13
12
O
i
l
-
i
n
-
w
a
t
e
r

a
t

i
n
l
e
t
,

p
p
m
Flow rate, bbl/d
Send to second stage
At limit, caution
Within 20-ppm limit
12 <10
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
ENVIRONMENT Fig. 6
ORSUM11-ENVRMT 6
Prefiltered
oil-water
mix input
Oil outlets
RPA beds
Treated water
outlet
41615schD7R1.indd 7 8/12/11 8:28 PM
Summer 2011 51
Natural gas is becoming more in demand as a
resource, in part because burning it produces
less CO
2
than burning other fossil fuels. However,
gas is more difcult to store than oil because of
the lower energy density of gas. The large volume
needed for gas storage is available underground
in depleted reservoirs located close to gas-
consumption centers.
16
The wells serve for both
injection and production, so they cycle between
high and low pressure, as does the storage forma-
tion. In addition, the life of a gas-storage unit can
be much longer than that of a eld producing gas.
Thus, the cement surrounding the well must be
able to withstand extreme pressure and tempera-
ture cycles, and must do so for a long time.
FUTUR active-set cement provides a more secure
solution than conventional cements.
17
The FUTUR
blend includes a component that, when exposed
to hydrocarbon, generates a self-healing sealant
that swells to close gaps or ow paths in the
cement, assuring the sheaths integrity.
In many formations, fracturing is necessary
for the wells to economically produce oil or gas.
One such formation is the Marcellus Shale in the
US, which is an unconventional gas play. Wellbore
fracturing uses large quantities of water, much of
which ows back to surface at the end of the
operation. Fracturing ve Marcellus wells per
week, one operator used an average of 150,000 bbl
[24,000 m
3
] of water for each job. The company
recovered about 125,000 bbl [20,000 m
3
] of water
weekly from these operations. The operator was
committed to reusing this water to conserve
freshwater resources and decrease local truck
trafc moving water to and from wellsites.
M-I SWACO provided this operator with the
AQUALIBRIUM water management service to
remove suspended solids from the owback u-
ids. After pilot testing several types of equip-
ment, M-I SWACO designed a system that met the
operators specications for water conditioning.
Equipment placed at two locations in the eld
treated about 1,800,000 bbl [286,000 m
3
] of water
during eld development, avoiding the need to
obtain this water from local supplies.
Once wells are on production, companies
strive for efcient operations to improve econom-
ics; in many cases, there is an added environmen-
tal benet. For example, many wells require some
form of articial lift to bring liquids to the surface,
because the formation pressure has declined, the
water cut has increased or both. Improving the
efciency and extending run life of electric sub-
mersible pumps (ESPs) decreases both the
amount of energy needed to produce the liquids to
surface and the frequency of well workovers,
which minimizes negative environmental impact.
For example, a well in the Nizhnevartovsk
region in Russia was producing with a third-party
ESP at only about 650 m
3
/d [4,100 bbl/d], much
less than its ow potential. It experienced fre-
quent ESP failures and workovers. That pump
was replaced with a REDA Maximus ESP with
an integrated ProMotor system (below). The
ProMotor unit is assembled and lled with a
high-dielectric-capacity oil at a factory, saving
the operator time needed to install an ESP at the
rig and eliminating any potential error resulting
from human intervention at the wellsite.
Furthermore, lling Maximus motors, protectors
and integrated ProMotor units at the factory
improves system reliability and simplies ESP
system installation. This is advantageous in the
extreme cold conditions common for Siberian
winters or in any other adverse ambient condi-
tions that can negatively affect the quality of the
installation. The ProMotor unit was deployed
with a high-efciency REDA factory-shimmed
compression pump. This novel design extends
pump longevity by transferring all the axial thrust
generated by pump stages to a high-load protec-
tor bearing, and, unlike conventional compres-
sion design, does not require setting the shafts
during assembly at the wellsite.
Production from the well increased to
1,100 m
3
/d [6,900 bbl/d], a 70% increase over
results from the previously used pump. After
890 days of stable production, the unit was pulled
for a selective workover operation but showed
minimal wear on both the motor and the pump.
The unit was rebuilt, serviced with new oil, and
installed in another well in the eld. The
increased production and longer run life of this
ESP system mean more energy is harvested with
less environmental exposure than with use of the
previous pump system.
>
Improved lift in Nizhnevartovsk. A third-party brand of ESP was replaced several times, after 92, 457
and 61 days of operation. The REDA Maximus unit, installed (red dot) after the third failure, produced
uids at signicantly higher levels. After operating for 890 days, the unit was pulled for a scheduled
maintenance shutdown. Inspection showed minimal wear, so the unit was serviced and returned to
operation in another well in the same eld.
Oilfield Review
SUMMER 11
ENVIRONMENT Fig. 7
ORSUM11-ENVRMT 7
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1,400
457 days 92 days 61 days 890 days
Date
T
o
t
a
l

p
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
o
n
,

m
3
/
d
Aug.
2004
Feb.
2005
Sept.
2005
Mar.
2006
Oct.
2006
Apr.
2007
Nov.
2007
June
2008
Dec.
2008
July
2009
13. Sims P: The Next-Generation Separator: Changing the
Rules, Oileld Review 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 5054.
14. Hollaender F, Filas JG, Bennett CO and Gringarten AC:
Use of Downhole Production/Reinjection for
Zero-Emission Well Testing: Challenges and Rewards,
paper SPE 77620, presented at the SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas, USA,
September 29October 2, 2002.
15. Arnold R, Burnett DB, Elphick J, Feeley TJ III,
Galbrun M, Hightower M, Jiang Z, Khan M, Lavery M,
Luffey F and Verbeek P: Managing WaterFrom
Waste to Resource, Oileld Review 16, no. 2
(Summer 2004): 2641.
16. Bary A, Crotogino F, Prevedel B, Berger H, Brown K,
Frantz J, Sawyer W, Henzell M, Mohmeyer K-U, Ren N-K,
Stiles K and Xiong H: Storing Natural Gas Underground,
Oileld Review 14, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 217.
Brown K, Chandler KW, Hopper JM, Thronson L,
Hawkins J, Manai T, Onderka V, Wallbrecht J and
Zangl G: Intelligent Well Technology in Underground
Gas Storage, Oileld Review 20, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 417.
17. For more on FUTUR cement: Bellabarba M,
Bulte-Loyer H, Froelich B, Le Roy-Delage S,
van Kuijk R, Zeroug S, Guillot D, Moroni N, Pastor S and
Zanchi A: Ensuring Zonal Isolation Beyond the Life of
the Well, Oileld Review 20, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 1831.
41615schD7R1.indd 8 8/19/11 11:25 PM
52 Oileld Review
Efciency of wells with articial lift has also
been addressed by development of a variable-
speed drive that matches the pumping speed to
reservoir deliverability. The SpeedStar 519 SWD
low-voltage variable-speed drive (LVD) uses an
integral sine-wave output lter. This system helps
the motor operate more efciently, at lower tem-
perature and with less vibration, resulting in a
longer run time for the downhole system. The
near-unity input power factor also ensures higher
efciency than a typical LVD.
18
Higher efciency,
and therefore lower cost for production, helps
extend the life of wellsproducing additional
energy resources without the cost and environ-
mental impact of drilling more wells.
At the end of its productive life, a eld is
decommissioned. Local regulations vary around
the world, but the principle is to prevent a well-
bore from providing a path for contamination of
the surface or of freshwater aquifers.
19
This is
accomplished by lling the borehole with cement.
For example, FlexSTONE cement is a long-term
zonal isolation solution.
20
It is engineered to resist
cracking under changing stress conditions in a
eld, such as occur as pore pressures equilibrate
after production ends. It can also be designed to
expand when setting, eliminating bulk shrinkage
that might lead to a loss of isolation.
The wellsite also requires remediation to
return it to a natural state. Offshore, regulations
in some locations, such as the US Gulf of Mexico,
allow toppling of platforms to create articial
reef habitats for marine life. In other locations,
such as the North Sea, regulations require plat-
forms be removed and decommissioned at the
end of the elds life.
The Future Power Picture
Many efforts are underway to develop renewable
energy such as solar and wind power and fuels
from biomass. However, the timeline for those
technologies to generate sufcient energy to
meet world demand extends decades into the
future. In the intervening years, fossil fuels will
remain the primary sources for energy.
Greenhouse gases, in particular carbon dioxide,
that are generated from use of fossil fuels, will
continue to need to be captured and stored.
Depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs and deep
saline aquifers are among the most likely storage
media. The technologies to inject carbon dioxide
into these formations, as well as the monitoring
methods to assure it doesnt migrate, are well-
known by the E&P industry.
Technologies similar to those used in hydro-
carbon operations are needed for production of a
huge potential source of energy: geothermal
energy. Hot-water sources are already a valuable
energy resource in many parts of the world.
21

Research is underway to overcome remaining
technical obstacles for another geothermal
source: deep, hot, dry rocks. This resource also
requires methods commonly used in the oil eld
(above left). Deep wells are drilled, rocks frac-
tured, and water injected and produced. The
heat from the water is then harvested and the
water is treated and reinjected.
22

Continued research and understanding of
potential environmental impacts from E&P prac-
tices are critical to progress and development of
new technologies. Many signicant advances
have been made to eliminate the use of recog-
nized hazardous constituents and reduce the
overall impact on the environment. E&P engi-
neers are striving to achieve environmental
goals using basic technologies and will continue
to nd means to recover and reuse by-products.
The continued success of E&P as a pathway of
energy development will rely on ongoing com-
mitment by the industry to the principles of
reducing the environmental footprint and
minimizing waste. MAA
>
An engineered geothermal system in hot, dry rocks. Heat is harvested from
below surface by drilling into a section of deep, crystalline rocks. Water
injected into a well (blue) fractures the deep reservoir. Production wells (red)
are drilled into the fractured zone. Injected water absorbs heat as it ows
from the injection well to the production wells. The heat is recovered at
surface, and after treatment, the water is reinjected in a continuous cycle.
AUT09RVF10
5
0
0

t
o

1
,
0
0
0

m
500 to 1,000 m
4
,
0
0
0

t
o

6
,
0
0
0

m
C
r
y
s
t
a
l
l
i
n
e

r
o
c
k
s
S
e
d
i
m
e
n
t
s
Production
well
Injection
well
Power
generation
Heat
distribution
Stim
ulated
fracture
system
Cooling
Makeup water
reservoir
Heat
exchanger
Central
monitoring
18. Power factor is the ratio of the real power used by an
AC device and the apparent power, which is the product
of the circuit current and voltage. Reactive loads in
the circuit affect the level of nonproductive power in
the system.
19. Barclay I, Pellenbarg J, Tettero F, Pfeiffer J, Slater H,
Staal T, Stiles D, Tilling G and Whitney C: The
Beginning of the End: A Review of Abandonment and
Decommissioning Practices, Oileld Review 13, no. 4
(Winter 2001/2002): 2841.
20. Abbas R, Cunningham E, Munk T, Bjelland B,
Chukwueke V, Ferri A, Garrison G, Hollies D, Labat C and
Moussa O: Solutions for Long-Term Zonal Isolation,
Oileld Review 14, no. 3 (Autumn 2002): 1629.
21. For more on geothermal energy: Beasley C, du Castel B,
Zimmerman T, Lestz R, Yoshioka K, Long A, Lutz SJ,
Riedel K, Sheppard M and Sood S: Mining Heat,
Oileld Review 21, no. 4 (Winter 2009/2010): 413.
22. Beasley et al, reference 21.
41615schD7R1.indd 9 8/12/11 8:28 PM
Guy Arrington, who since 2010 has been President,
Bits and Advanced Technologies, a Schlumberger com-
pany, has been in the drilling industry for 24 years. He
spent 14 years in the drillbit business, working in man-
ufacturing, field engineering and business develop-
ment in the US and internationally, and later in
product and field engineering management. He joined
the Schlumberger Drilling and Measurements segment
in 2001, first as business development manager and
later as vice president for Europe, Central Asia and
Africa. Guy was vice president of deepwater operations
before managing the Smith Bits and Advanced
Technologies integration team during the
Schlumberger-Smith merger. He has BS degrees in
industrial engineering and mechanical engineering
from Texas A&M University.
Wasim Azem, based in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, is
Schlumberger Testing Services GeoMarket* Manager
for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. He is responsi-
ble for delivering service quality with no injuries in
operations with one of the biggest oil producers in the
world. He joined Schlumberger in 2001 in Kalimantan,
Indonesia, and later worked in deepwater areas off-
shore India supervising high-pressure, high-tempera-
ture jobs. He was a manager in Qatar and Yemen, and
a regional quality manager for UAE, Oman, Pakistan
and Yemen, before taking his current position in 2010.
Wasim won a Silver Performed by Schlumberger award
in 2010 for multizone testing in an extremely high
hydrogen sulfide environment. He obtained a BSc
degree in chemical engineering from the American
University of Sharjah, UAE, and is studying to obtain
an MSc degree in petroleum engineering from Heriot-
Watt University, Aberdeen.
Matthew Billingham, based in Roissy-en-France,
France, is Schlumberger Global Slickline Perforation
and Remedial Services Domain Champion. He is cur-
rently working on solutions for a safe and efficient
remedial and explosive service for telemetry-enabled
slickline. He began his career in 1994 in Great
Yarmouth, England, as a wireline and testing field
engineer and has held several positions in a number of
locations including Scotland, Norway, Saudi Arabia
and Algeria. While serving as tractor, conveyance and
mechanical services product champion, he was instru-
mental in commercializing the MaxTRAC* service and
is responsible for the launch and development of
TuffTRAC* tractors and the mechanical services tools.
Matthew received a BS degree in electrical engineer-
ing from the University of Leicester, England, and is
currently working on an MS degree in management of
the oil and gas industry from Heriot-Watt University,
Edinburgh, Scotland. He holds or is joint holder of
seven patents in the field of well intervention.
John Candler is Manager Environmental Affairs in
Houston for M-I SWACO, a Schlumberger company. His
responsibilities include managing a bioassay labora-
tory and a greenhouse gas research laboratory and
overseeing management of environmental compliance
of regional Health, Safety and Environment managers
around the world. He joined the industry in 1984 as a
sales and service representative scientist at IMCO
Services Inc., a predecessor of M-I SWACO. John
received several Presidents Awards from M-I SWACO
and a BP Breakthrough Award. He earned a BS degree
in civil engineering from Louisiana State University in
Baton Rouge, USA.
Prabhakaran Centala, based in Houston, is Director
of Engineering with Schlumberger. He began his
career as a production engineer for quality control in
1984. Since then, he has worked as a lecturer in instru-
mentation design and numerical control programming
at Bangalore University, Karnataka, India, and has
held various research and design engineering posi-
tions. Prabhakaran received his BS degree in mechani-
cal engineering from University Visvesvaraya College
of Engineering in Bangalore. He holds two MS degrees:
one in production and manufacturing systems and
another in mechanical engineering from University of
Maryland, Baltimore County, USA. He has a PhD
degree in mechanical engineering in theoretical and
experimental mechanics from University of Maryland,
Baltimore County. He has authored and coauthored
numerous industry technical papers and holds numer-
ous patents pertaining to drill bits and drillbit design.
Vennela Challa is an Engineer III in research and
development with Schlumberger in Houston. Her
responsibilities include investigating field problems
using the IDEAS* drillbit design platform, establishing
standard processes and analyses definitions and sup-
porting the global i-DRILL* operations group.
Previously, she had been a field engineer in training
and an i-DRILL engineer with Smith International.
Vennela has coauthored numerous technical papers
and presentations. She earned a BTech degree in
mechanical engineering from Gayatri Vidya Parishad
College of Engineering, Andhra Pradesh, India, and a
PhD degree in mechanical engineering from Clarkson
University, Potsdam, New York, USA.
Johana Dunlop is the Global Citizenship Advisor for
Schlumberger, Ltd., working in Paris. She oversees the
Schlumberger Global Citizenship framework, which
focuses on issues relating to the companys socioeco-
nomic and environmental footprint, the technology
solutions Schlumberger brings to bear on sustainabil-
ity issues and on community outreach programs. In
1992, she joined Geco-Prakla, later a part of WesternGeco,
as a risk manager. She took a sabbatical year in 1997 to
volunteer in Armenia with Solidarit Protestante
France-Armnie, an aid agency financing and operat-
ing a range of emergency aid, socioeconomic develop-
ment and cultural programs. After returning to
Schlumberger, she became manager of communica-
tions and development for Schlumberger Excellence in
Educational Development (SEED), Inc., and subse-
quently set up the Global Citizenship domain and
managed the Schlumberger Foundation, where she
started the Faculty for the Future program. Johana
received a BA degree (Hons) in French and classics
from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and an MSc
degree in management from Boston University,
Massachusetts, USA. She is an Associate of the
Institute of Risk Management in the UK.
Bala Durairajan, based in Houston, is an Engineering
Manager with Smith Bits, a Schlumberger company.
He joined Smith Bits in 2003 as a project engineer and
has since held various positions with the company
including project engineer, design engineer and super-
visor of design engineering, all involving bit design.
Bala holds a BS degree in mechanical engineering
from the University of Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu,
India, and an MS degree in mechanical engineering
from Wichita State University, Kansas, USA.
Ahmed M. El-Toukhy began his career with
Schlumberger in 2000 in Libya, where he worked as an
openhole logging engineer. He held several operations
and management positions in Scotland, Egypt, Canada
and the US, including wireline instructor at the Egypt
Training Center. From 2009 to early 2011, he was the
wireline product champion for tractors and mechani-
cal intervention and is currently based in Perth,
Western Australia, Australia, as the Wireline
Operations manager for Australia, New Zealand, Papua
New Guinea and East Timor. Ahmed received a BSc
degree in mechanical engineering with a major in
materials and manufacturing engineering and a minor
in business administration from The American
University in Cairo, Egypt.
Andrey Fastovets is Product Champion Submersible
Pumps and Cable in Schlumberger Artificial Lift. He
started with Schlumberger in 2003 as a field engineer
and since then has held various positions in artificial
lift operations and in sales and marketing. Andrey is
currently responsible for new electric submersible
pump (ESP) stages and REDA Maximus* ESP system
development, as well as other projects within the
conventional ESP application domain. He earned BS
and MS degrees (Hons) in petroleum engineering
from Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas
in Moscow.
Joanne Galvan, Global Chemical Regulatory
Compliance Manager, began her career in 2004 work-
ing for M-I SWACO. She has been in Houston for most
of her career, with a two-year assignment in Aberdeen.
Joanne manages the Global Chemical Regulatory
Compliance group in Schlumberger and is responsible
for development, implementation and management of
programs and procedures used to maintain regulatory
compliance for chemical development and use world-
wide. She obtained a BS degree in biology from the
University of Texas, San Antonio, USA, and an MS
degree in biology and environmental science from the
University of Texas, Brownsville.
Ian Garrett, based in London, is Senior Drilling
Engineer supporting Ghana deepwater drilling opera-
tions for Tullow Oil plc. Ian began his career in 1997
with BP Chemicals as an area mechanical engineer
based in Baglan Bay, South Wales. From 1999 through
2008, he was a drilling engineer and senior operations
drilling engineer for the North Sea, Algeria and Angola
deep water with BP Exploration and Production. Ian
received a BS degree in engineering and science tech-
nology and a diploma in industrial studies from
Loughborough University, Leicestershire, England. He
is a chartered engineer and member of the Institution
of Mechanical Engineers, UK.
Summer 2011 53
Contributors
41615schD8R1.qxp:41615schD8R1 8/20/11 12:32 AM Page 53
Mohamed K. Hashem is a Senior Petroleum
Engineering Consultant at Saudi Aramco, Dhahran,
Saudi Arabia. He began his career in 1975 as a pro-
duction engineer for GUPCO-Amoco in Egypt and left
the company as head of the wireline department to
join Saudi Aramco as a production engineer in 1981.
He earned a BS degree in petroleum engineering
from Cairo University, Giza, Egypt. Mohamed has
authored several publications in well stimulation,
scale mitigation, LWD logging, production logging and
logging tool conveyance.
Mohamed Hassaan has been Schlumberger Marketing
and Sales Manager in Doha since 2008. He began his
career in 1996 as a wireline field specialist in Egypt
and moved to Libya in 2001 where he was a field engi-
neer. In 2004, he moved to Saudi Arabia where he
served as field service manager and cased hole opera-
tions manager before transferring to Qatar. Mohamed
has a BS degree in electrical engineering and com-
puter science from the Higher Technological Institute,
10th of Ramadan City, Egypt. He holds a patent for a
conveyance aid kit used with downhole logging tools.
Adun Ige is Schlumberger Product Champion for
Surface Equipment and Downhole Gauges in
Rosharon, Texas. She is responsible for global product
marketing requirements and leads the development
and introduction of new products. In 1999, she joined
Schlumberger as a well testing engineer in Baku,
Azerbaijan, and since has worked at several locations
in the US and in Trinidad and Tobago. Adun spent two
years as a field engineer recruiter in the US. She
obtained a BS degree in electrical engineering from
the University of Lagos, Nigeria, and an MBA degree
from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus
University, the Netherlands.
Mukesh Kapila is Director of Environmental Solutions
Applied Research for M-I SWACO in Houston. He is
responsible for the research, development and engi-
neering of process-based solutions for the treatment
and recovery of valuable products from waste gener-
ated by oil and gas activities. He began his career in
1985 as a production engineer and worked for several
companies, then for several years he was vice presi-
dent and owner of SCC Environmental, all in Canada.
The focus of his company was development of thermal-
based technologies for the remediation of hazardous
soils and recovery of oil from drill cuttings. Mukesh
joined M-I SWACO in 2000, when he became global
manager of mixing technologies before assuming his
current position. He received a BEng degree in chemi-
cal engineering from the University of Saskatchewan,
Saskatoon, Canada.
Ed Kotochigov, Marketing Manager for Marine
Products in WesternGeco, is based in Gatwick,
England. His main responsibilities include understand-
ing industry trends and technology positions and intro-
duction of new products. He joined Schlumberger in
1998 as a marine seismic acquisition engineer, working
on several seismic vessels and in London and Houston.
In 2003, Ed was cross-trained as a reservoir stimulation
engineer, and in this role he was a DESC* design and
evaluation services for clients engineer for Chevron
and BP in Houston. He returned to WesternGeco in
2006 as operations manager in the Arctic and in South
America. Ed holds an associates degree from the
American Institute of Business and Economics,
Moscow, and an MS degree in geology and geophysics
from the Lomonosov Moscow State University.
Maria Lorente, located in Sugar Land, Texas, is
Wireline Product Champion for new-generation
nuclear tools. She began her career at the
Schlumberger Riboud Product Center, Clamart,
France, in 2001, working with engineering on the
EcoScope* logging-while-drilling service project and
then moved to wireline field operations in 2004. She
has had various assignments in a number of locations,
including Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador
and the US. Maria earned a BS degree in electrical
engineering from Universitat Politcnica de Valncia,
in Spain, and an MS degree in electrical engineering
from cole Suprieure d'lectricit (Suplec), Gif-sur-
Yvette, France.
Matthew Loth, based in Clamart, France, is a
Schlumberger Product Champion for various products,
including testing acquisition software, new pressure
gauges and, most recently, the EnACT* wireless
telemetry system. He joined Schlumberger in 1996 as a
testing field engineer based in Australia and then
China. In 2001, he became instructor for Testing
Services based in Pau, France. From 2004 to 2006,
Matthew was field service manager in Aberdeen,
responsible for surface and subsea testing operations.
He holds a BSc degree in mechanical engineering
(Hons) from The University of Queensland, Brisbane,
Australia.
Kevin McCarthy, who joined Schlumberger in 2008, is
focused on reservoir water characterization and mod-
eling. Based in Houston, he currently heads the
Schlumberger efforts to increase the water analysis
business. He earned a graduate degree in aqueous geo-
chemistry from the University of South Florida, Tampa,
USA. Prior to graduation, he worked as an environmen-
tal scientist focused on hydrogeology and water quality
issues on various projects in Florida. Kevin has experi-
ence on both ends of the altitude spectrum: deepsea
hydrothermal research with Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, where he
conducts hydrogeologic studies on board the sub-
mersible Alvin to depths exceeding 3,700 meters; he
was also part of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) Phoenix Mars Lander mission,
analyzing meteorite samples retrieved from Mars dur-
ing NASAs search for water on Mars.
Richard Meehan joined Schlumberger Cambridge
Research, Cambridge, England, in 1985 to work on the
physical properties of shales, drillstring vibrations,
borehole seismic studies and while-drilling telemetry
systems. In 2000, he moved to Sugar Land, Texas, as a
section manager for drilling interpretation products.
He subsequently became product line manager for
drilling software for Schlumberger information
solutions in Houston. In 2006, he began as product
development manager for drilling software at
Schlumberger Beijing Geoscience Center, China. He
returned to the US in 2008 as the integration manager
for K&M Technology Group in The Woodlands, Texas.
Richard is now the Drilling Answer Products Manager
for the drilling group. He received a BS degree in
mechanical engineering from the University of
Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, and an MS degree in
thermal power from the Cranfield Institute of
Technology in Bedfordshire, England.
Cristina Nicodano is Vice President of
Environmental Solutions, Process and Emerging
Technologies at M-I SWACO in Aberdeen. She started
with Dowell Schlumberger in 1994 as a cementing
engineer in Aberdeen and later transferred to Port
Harcourt, Nigeria. After working for Terra Expro
International Ltd. in Lagos, Nigeria, she joined
M-I SWACO, working in Port Harcourt, Dubai and
Aberdeen in the Environmental Solutions group.
Cristina has a degree as an engineer of industrial
technologies, with specialization in technology man-
agement, which she earned at Politecnico di Milano,
Italy. She also has a masters degree in management
of technological innovation and innovative firm devel-
opment from a joint program at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management,
Cambridge, and Politecnico di Milano.
Martin Niemann, based in Roissy-en-France, France,
is the GeoSciences Group Leader in the Schlumberger
Geoservices segment. His work focuses on isotope log-
ging and fluid evaluation while drilling, incorporating
geochemical and geologic parameters. Other projects
address the application of Geoservices technologies in
unconventional resource plays and the incorporation
and interpretation of advanced cuttings analyses data
for conventional and unconventional reservoirs. He
joined Geoservices in 2006. Martin obtained an MSc
degree in geosciences from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Universitt Hannover, Germany, and a PhD degree in
geochemistry from the University of Victoria, British
Columbia, Canada.
Luis Paez is a Drilling Analysis Manager with
Schlumberger and is based in Houston, where he over-
sees processes for i-DRILL drilling dynamics, DBOS*
drillbit optimization system and DBOS real-time appli-
cation. Luis joined Smith Bits in 1997 as a bit run
supervisor. Since then, he has held various technical,
engineering and sales positions within the company.
He earned a BS degree in petroleum engineering from
the Universidad de Amrica, Bogot, Colombia. He has
coauthored numerous technical papers and holds a
patent for methods for evaluating and improving
drilling operations.
Daniel Palmowski is a Senior Geologist for
Schlumberger, currently working as a Petroleum
System Analyst for Client Consulting in Aachen,
Germany. Daniel has a masters degree in geology from
the Technische Universitt Braunschweig, Germany,
and a PhD in geology from The University of
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Uyen Partin, based in Houston, is an Engineering
Project Manager with Schlumberger. Before joining
Schlumberger, Uyen was an engineering supervisor
with Smith and, previous to that position, was a con-
sultant with Quorum Business Solutions in Austin,
Texas. She has coauthored numerous SPE papers.
Uyen obtained a BS degree in mechanical engineering
from The University of Texas at Austin.
54 Oileld Review
41615schD8R1.qxp:41615schD8R1 8/12/11 8:31 PM Page 54
Kenneth Peters is Science Advisor for Schlumberger,
based in Mill Valley, California, USA. He has 33 years of
experience working for Chevron; Mobil; ExxonMobil; the
US Geological Survey; University of California, Berkeley;
Stanford University and Schlumberger. He is principal
author of The Biomarker Guide (Cambridge University
Press, 2005) and leads the Basin and Petroleum System
Modeling Industrial Affiliates Program at Stanford
University, California. Ken is the 2009 recipient of the
Schlumberger Henri Doll Prize for Innovation. He is also
the 2009 recipient of the Alfred E. Treibs Award, pre-
sented by the Geochemical Society to scientists whose
contributions have had a major impact on organic geo-
chemistry. He holds BS and MS degrees in geology from
the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a PhD
degree in geochemistry from the University of
California, Los Angeles.
Katherine Rojas joined Schlumberger in 2002 after
receiving a doctorate degree in petroleum geochem-
istry from Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
England. She is currently a Reservoir Fluids Domain
Champion at a phase behavior laboratory in Houston
where she is involved in setting up commercial reser-
voir geochemistry services. Previously, she spent time
in operations as a well testing field engineer and as
geochemistry team lead in the Schlumberger DBR
Technology Center, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Katherine received a BS degree in geology from the
University of Leeds, England, and an MSc degree in
petroleum geochemistry from Newcastle University.
Ian Sealy, Schlumberger Environmental Manager in
Sugar Land, Texas, is responsible for environmental
management systems and environmental programs
throughout the Schlumberger organization. He joined
Schlumberger in 1979 as a wireline field engineer and
worked in field and operations management assign-
ments in Europe and Africa. He then moved to the
Health, Safety and Environment organization where he
worked in Europe and North America. Ian earned a
bachelors degree in electronic engineering from
University College London. He is in a PhD program at
the Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of
Surrey, England, doing research in environmental and
sustainability management systems.
Steven Segal, based in Houston, is the Schlumberger
Marketing and Technology Manager for Bits and
Advanced Technologies, a position he has held since
August 2010. Prior to this, he served as the North
America marketing manager for Schlumberger Drilling
and Measurements. He joined Schlumberger in 1991 as
a field engineer in Aberdeen. Over the past 19 years,
he has held numerous field, technical and managerial
roles in directional drilling in the US, Abu Dhabi,
North Africa, England, Venezuela and Canada. Steven
obtained a BS degree in engineering from the
Universit Paris-Sud 11, Orsay, France, and an MS
degree in electrical engineering from the University of
Nottingham, England.
Todor Sheiretov is Conveyance Systems Architect at
the Schlumberger Conveyance and Surface Equipment
Center in Sugar Land, Texas. He began his career with
Schlumberger in 1997 and has worked as development
engineer and project manager of downhole tractor pro-
jects, including MaxTRAC and TuffTRAC tools, and
drillpipe conveyance systems for wireline tools. Before
that, he was a mining equipment design engineer for
the state-owned Bulgarian ore-mining industry and
then worked as an assistant professor at the University
of Mining and Geology in Sofia, Bulgaria. Todor earned
MS degrees in mechanical engineering from both the
University of Mining and Geology in Sofia and the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. He
also holds PhD degrees in mining engineering from the
University of Mining and Geology in Sofia and mechan-
ical engineering from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
Paul Sims is a Schlumberger Product Champion based
in Clamart, France. He is responsible for leading new
product development and the introduction of surface
testing and memory gauge technology. He joined
Schlumberger in 2004 as a field engineer in Australia
before becoming field service manager there and then
location manager for East Malaysia, Brunei and the
Philippines. Paul received bachelors degrees in petro-
leum engineering and in finance, both from the
University of Western Australia in Perth.
Artur Stankiewicz, based in Clamart, France, is
Schlumberger Reservoir Fluids Domain Head and
Advisor for Reservoir Fluids and Geochemistry. Prior
to joining Schlumberger in 2010, he worked 12 years
for Shell in various positions, most recently as subsur-
face manager in Abu Dhabi. He previously served as a
Shell expert in geochemistry fluid properties and flow
assurance. At Shell, he led the development and
implementation of asphaltene technology while also
pioneering an interdisciplinary focus on hydrocarbon
fluid properties via the foundation of the fluid evalua-
tion and sampling technologies (FEAST) team. He
worked on numerous R&D projects in the US, the
Netherlands and UAE. He has written many articles,
books and conference abstracts, and has been an
invited lecturer, organizer and chair of numerous
international meetings and symposia. Artur is a
Treasurer and the Chair-Elect of the European
Association of Organic Geochemists (EAOG), a mem-
ber of SPE and AAPG, and is an SPE Distinguished
Lecturer for 2011/2012. He holds an MSc degree in
geology from the University of Wrocaw, Poland, and a
PhD degree in geology and organic geochemistry from
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA.
Brian Teggart, based in London, is Tullow Oil plc Well
Engineering Manager, Ghana Deep Water. He began
his career in 1980 as a drilling engineer with Britoil
plc, later purchased by BP, where he progressed to
drilling manager. He joined Phillips Petroleum as a
senior drilling engineer in 2000. From 2001 to 2006,
he worked as drilling engineering supervisor and then
drilling superintendent for BHP Billiton in Iran,
Australia deep water, Algeria and the UK. From 2006
to 2007, Brian worked for BP as senior drilling engi-
neer at the Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan. He
obtained a BS degree in mechanical engineering from
City University London, where he also earned a
diploma in management studies. He also is a char-
tered engineer and member of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, UK.
Nick Tetley, based in London, is a Global Accounts
Manager with Schlumberger. Since joining Smith
Technologies in 1994 as a field engineer based in
Aberdeen, he has held various management positions
in Europe and Algeria. Nick has authored numerous
technical articles and holds a BS degree in chemistry
and geology from the University of Exeter, Devon,
England, and an MS degree in petroleum engineering
from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
Sean (Xianping) Wu, who leads the i-DRILL North
America team, is a Schlumberger Engineering
Manager. Previously, he was a research engineer with
ExxonMobil in Annandale, New Jersey, USA, where he
investigated drilling vibrations and advanced materi-
als in high-pressure, high-temperature conditions. He
then joined Smith International as engineering advisor
before moving to his present position. Sean has coau-
thored numerous professional papers and delivered
lectures on BHA modeling. He has a BS degree in
mechanical engineering from the University of Science
and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China. He
earned a PhD degree in materials sciences and engi-
neering from Drexel University, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, USA.
Summer 2011 55
An asterisk (*) is used to denote a mark of Schlumberger.
41615schD8R1.qxp:41615schD8R1 8/12/11 8:31 PM Page 55
Oileld Review 56
NEW BOOKS Coming in Oileld Review
Modular Intelligent Completions.
The true value in intelligent wells
which were originally conceived as a
means to avoid costly well interven-
tionsis as a powerful reservoir
management tool. Historically, the cost
and complexity of this technology
have limited its use to remote, high-
cost or high-risk wells. An innovative
approach that produces smaller, less
complex, less costly modular intelli-
gent well systems promises to
broaden the technologys application
signicantly.
Gas Shale Revolution. Producing
natural gas from organic-rich shales
began as a North American phenome-
non, driven by tenacity, technology and
an increase in commodity pricing.
Success beyond the initial Barnett
Shale development piqued global
interest in this unconventional
resource, especially in Europe and
Asia. Identifying reservoir-quality rocks
for completion is the goal of an indus-
try faced with logistical, technical and
political concerns. The article reviews
the current state of gas shale global-
ization as well as the methods used to
evaluate gas shale reservoirs and
includes case studies integrating
diverse aspects from seismic acquisi-
tion to stimulation.
Open-Channel Fracturing.
Conventional fracturing treatments
create a fracture and then prop it
open with a continuous matrix of
proppant that preserves the produc-
tion pathway. A fundamental
advance in the art of reservoir stimu-
lation creates a network of open
channels throughout the proppant
pack, improving fracture conductivity
by orders of magnitude. This article
describes the development efforts
behind the approach and presents
case histories that demonstrate the
signicant production improvements
achieved by applying this technique.
Bioturbation. Bioturbation is the
disturbance of sediments or soil by
living things. Petroleum geologists
are interested in bioturbation
because it can affect rock porosity
and permeability. Geologists also
use it to recognize key sequence
stratigraphic surfaces and infer char-
acteristics of the depositional envi-
ronment. Field examples show that
the effects of bioturbation, usually
identied in core samples, can have
signicant impact on hydrocarbon
production.
A Cubic Mile of Oil: Realities
and Options for Averting the
Looming Global Energy Crisis
Hewitt D. Crane, Edwin M.
Kinderman and Ripudaman Malhotra
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue
New York, New York 10016 USA
2010. 297 pages. US$ 29.95
ISBN: 978-0-19-532554-6
The authors, who introduce the volu-
metric measure cubic mile of oil
(CMO), estimate that the worlds
current annual energy consumption is
3 CMOsfrom all energy sourcesand
project that by midcentury, the world
will consume from 6 to 9 CMOs. The
book takes an inventory of the worlds
various energy sources and how we use
them and projects energy development
needs to reach that goal. The authors
also look at ways to improve efciency
and conservation measures to reduce
future energy demand and suggest that
the use of a common measurethe
CMOwill help create meaningful
dialogue among those having to make
critical energy policy choices.
Contents:
Introduction
Energy Use: Historical Energy
Development and Future Dilemmas;
Energy Today; Energy Needs to
2050
Energy Resources: Our Energy
Inheritance: Fossil Fuels; Our
Energy Inheritance: Nuclear; Our
Energy Income: Geothermal, Wind,
Solar and Biomass
The Path Forward: Energy
Efciency and Conservation;
The Path Forward
Index
Visualizing energy resources,
production, consumption rates, and
future energy demands by utilizing a
cubic mile of oil (CMO) as a base unit
gives [the authors] . . . a comprehen-
sible measure for national- and
global-scale energy relationships. . . .
The authors estimate that maintaining
affordable energy will require dedi-
cated research to develop four to ve
CMO per year for the next 50 years.
Although they expertly explain tech-
nologies related to current energy
exploitation, they perhaps unfairly
dismiss hydrogen as an energy carrier
requiring energy input equal to
energy output. Overall, this book
makes an important contribution and
is a very compelling read. Highly
recommended.
Ferguson RM: Choice 48, no. 6
(February 2011): 1115.
Physics of the Future: How
Science Will Shape Human
Destiny and Our Daily Lives
by the Year 2100
Michio Kaku
Doubleday, a division of
Random House, Inc.
1745 Broadway
New York, New York 10019 USA
2011. 416 pages. US$ 28.95
ISBN: 978-0-385-53080-4
Kaku interviewed more than 300
experts, scientists and researchers,
including 12 Nobel laureates, to offer a
glimpse into the next 100 years. Kaku
discusses a variety of developments in
elds such as medicine, computers,
articial intelligence, nanotechnology,
energy production and astronautics.
Basing his predictions on known
physics and technology prototypes that
currently exist, Kaku extrapolates to his
vision of the future.
Contents:
Introduction: Predicting the
Next 100 Years
Future of the Computer: Mind
over Matter
Future of AI: Rise of the Machines
Future of Medicine: Perfection
and Beyond
Nanotechnology: Everything from
Nothing?
Future of Energy: Energy from
the Stars
Future of Space Travel: To the Stars
Future of Wealth: Winners
and Losers
Future of Humanity: Planetary
Civilization
A Day in the Life in 2100
Notes, Recommended Reading,
Index
However bold his view of the
future, Mr. Kaku may be treading too
carefully. His problem is that techno-
logical prognostications sound
credible only if underpinned by
physics known today. Yet many tech-
nologies now taken for granted would
have been impossible but for relativity
and quantum mechanics, two theories
that upended human understanding of
the universe early in the 20th century.
If history is any guide, thinking that
no such revolution will be wrought
again is complacentand probably
wrong. On the other hand, scientic
theories cannot be predicted; they
must be formulated and conrmed.
Call it the futurologists paradox.
Suspension of Disbelief, The Economist 398,
no. 8724 (March 12, 2011): 9899.
Do not rage against the machine.
Embrace the machine. That is the core
message of Michio Kakus Physics of
the Future. Despite its title, the book
is not so much about physics as it is
about gadgets and technology. . . .
Much of the terrain Mr. Kaku surveys
will be familiar to futurists, but less
technically oriented readers are likely
to nd it fascinatingand related
with commendable clarity. The
changes that Mr. Kaku expects range
from the readily foreseeable to the
considerably more esoteric. . . . The
future belongs to those who show up.
Mr. Kakus description of that future
is an appealing one. But will we
show up?
Reynolds GH: Lets Hope the Robots Are Nice,
The Wall Street Journal (March 23, 2011),
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527487
04433904576213683603852312.html?mod=
WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion (accessed
April 4, 2011).
41615schD9R1.indd 1 8/15/11 11:28 PM
Summer 2011 57
Cycles of Time: An
Extraordinary New View
of the Universe
Roger Penrose
Alfred A. Knopf, a division of
Random House, Inc.
1745 Broadway
New York, New York 10019 USA
2011. 304 pages. US$ 28.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-26590-6
Penrose, a mathematician, explores
new views on three of cosmologys most
profound questions: What, if anything,
came before the Big Bang? What is the
source of order in our universe? What is
its ultimate future? He looks at the
basic principles that underlie the
behavior of the universe and describes
various cosmological models, the role of
cosmic microwave background and the
status of black holes.
Contents:
Prologue
Part 1: The Second Law and Its
Underlying Mystery
Part 2: The Oddly Special Nature of
the Big Bang
Part 3: Conformal Cyclic
Cosmology
Epilogue, Appendices, Notes, Index
. . . Eminent Oxford mathemati-
cian Penrose . . . nds a profound
oddness underlying the Second Law
of Thermodynamics and the very
nature of the Big Bang theory of the
universes origins. In response, he
proposes tweaking the old theory to
answer these questions. Armed with
some fairly hairy math (logarithms,
tensor calculus), Penrose argues that
increasing entropy, a natural conse-
quence of the Big Bang, supports
space-time models in which an
increasing number of hungry black
holes should yield matter-spewing
white holes as well. . . . Although
Penrose makes provocative arguments
for his challenging new theory (rel-
egating his denser mathematical
explorations to the appendixes),
readers will need a solid grounding in
college-level math and physics to
wade through this intriguing work.
Publishers Weekly: Nonfction Review,
(March 28, 2011), http://www.publishersweekly.
com/978-0-307-26590-6 (accessed July 6, 2011).
Mr. Penrose does not write books
that are, by any measure, easy to
read. . . . The early chapters just about
anyone should be able to follow, and
much of the explanatory content is
visual, embedded in wonderful draw-
ings drafted in Mr. Penroses own
hand. But by the end, even experts
will have trouble keeping up. . . .
Readers should be forewarned that
what they have in their hands is
un-refereed research of a sort that may
very well not pan out and convince
other scientists.
A surprising and unorthodox work
disguised in the jacket of a popular
science book, Cycles of Time
should prove both deeply enlightening
and just as deeply mystifying for
anyone who dares to follow along.
Woit P: The Wall Street Journal, In the End Is the
Beginning, (May 27, 2011), http://online.wsj.
com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576317
072124312488.html?KEYWORDS=Cycles+of+
Time%3A+An+Extraordinary+New+View+of+the
+Universe (accessed June 22, 2011).
For the Love of Physics:
From the End of the Rainbow
to the Edge of TimeA
Journey Through the Wonders
of Physics
Walter Lewin with Warren Goldstein
Free Press, a division of
Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10020 USA
2011. 320 pages. US$ 26.00
ISBN: 978-1-4391-0827-7

Walter Lewin, a pioneer in the eld of
X-ray astronomy and a professor of
physics at The Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT), came to be known
beyond the classroom through his
online MIT lectures. In this part
memoir, part physics lecture, he brings
his joy of learning physics and passion
for science to the page. Lecture mate-
rial includes links to his online videos.
Contents:
From the Nucleus to Deep Space
Measurements, Uncertainties, and
the Stars
Bodies in Motion
The Magic of Drinking with a Straw
Over and UnderOutside and
Insidethe Rainbow
The Harmonies of Strings
and Winds
The Wonders of Electricity
The Mysteries of Magnetism
Energy ConservationPlus
a Change . . .
X-Rays from Outer Space!
X-Ray Ballooning, the Early Days
Cosmic Catastrophes, Neutron
Stars, and Black Holes
Celestial Ballet
X-Ray Bursters!
Ways of Seeing
Appendices, Index
MITs Lewin is deservedly popu-
lar for his memorable physics lectures
(both live and on MITs Open Course
Web site and YouTube), and this
quick-paced autobiography
cum-physics intro fully captures his
candor and lively teaching style. . . .
As joyful as Richard Feynmans
Lectures in Physics (but without the
math), this text (written with the aid
of University of Hartford historian
Goldstein) glows with energy and
should please a wide range of readers.
Publishers Weekly: Nonfction Review,
(March 14, 2011), http://www.publishersweekly.
com/978-1-4391-0827-7 (accessed July 6, 2011).
A pioneer in the eld of X-ray
astronomy, the author has been
teaching three core physics courses at
MIT since 1966, when he rst came to
the United States from Holland. . . .
The lecture material covered in the
bookfrom Galileo to rainbows to
sound waves to electromagnetismis
accompanied by online links to videos
of his classroom lectures. In the last
third of the narrative, he gives a
fascinating account of his own experi-
mental work. A delightful scientic
memoir combined with a memorable
introduction to physics.
Kirkus Reviews: For the Love of Physics,
(March 15, 2011), http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
book-reviews/non-fction/walter-lewin/
love-physics/#review (accessed May 19, 2011).
Remembering Einstein:
Lectures on Physics and
Astrophysics
B.V. Sreekantan (ed)
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue
New York, New York 10016 USA
2010. 148 pages. US$ 35.00
ISBN: 978-0-198-06449-7
In 2005, UNESCO celebrated the World
Year of Physics, commemorating the
100th anniversary of Albert Einsteins
publication of the papers that marked a
watershed between classical and
modern physics. The Nehru Centre,
Mumbai, offered a series of lectures
that year to mark the anniversary. This
book is a compendium of essays based
on those lectures.
Contents:
Albert Einstein: His Annus
Mirabilis 1905
Einstein and Light Quanta
Einstein and Cosmology
Role of Relatively in Astronomy
and Astrophysics
Cosmology and Dark Energy
Einsteins Dream and String Theory
Space and Time: From Antiquity to
Einstein and Beyond
Why Einstein (Had I Been Born
in 1844!)?
Bose-Einstein Condensation:
When Atoms Become Waves
Contributors, Index
The rst essay begins with a
mention of the literary origin of the
phrase annus mirabilis and its
connection with Isaac Newtons own
annus mirabilis in 1665. It then
presents a . . . summary of Einsteins
ve publications in 1905. This
essay alone makes the book worth
having. . . . On the whole, this book
is a very readable discussion of
Einsteins early contributions to
modern physics that will be treasured
by physics students, professionals,
and others who wish to learn more
about the ideas that originated in
those ve 1905 papers. Highly
recommended.
Spero A: Choice 48, no. 5
(January 2011): 944945.
41615schD9R1.indd 2 8/15/11 11:28 PM
Oileld Review 58
The Strangest Man: The
Hidden Life of Paul Dirac,
Mystic of the Atom
Graham Farmelo
Basic Books, a member of
The Perseus Books Group
387 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10016 USA
2011. 560 pages. US$ 18.99
paperback
ISBN: 973-0-465-01992-2
Although considered one of the giants
of 20th-century physics and a Nobel
Prize recipient for physics with Erwin
Schrdinger, Paul Dirac has been a
virtual unknown. Farmelo brought this
many-faceted man to life through an
exploration of both his science and his
well-known taciturn nature. Farmelo
describes Diracs breakthrough theories
of quantum mechanics as well as his
extremely introverted and quirky
naturethe author speculates that
Dirac may have been autisticand
places Diracs insights in the context of
the great age of physics.
Contents:
Prologue
The Strangest Man
Notes, Bibliography, List of Plates,
Index
This biography is a gift. It is both
wonderfully written . . . and a thought-
provoking meditation on human
achievement, limitations and the
relations between the two. Here we
nd a man with an almost miraculous
apprehension of the structure of the
physical world, coupled with gentle
incomprehension of that less logical,
messier world, the world of other
people. . . . The science writing in The
Strangest Man isnt glib, but neither
does it require problem-solving on the
part of the reader. . . . [The] complexi-
ties and unresolvably cubist perspec-
tives make, paradoxically, for the most
satisfying and memorable biography I
have read in years.
Gilder L: Quantum Leap, (September 8, 2009),
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/books/
review/Gilder-t.html?pagewanted=1 (accessed
May 18, 2011).
The Climate War: True
Believers, Power Brokers, and
the Fight to Save the Earth
Eric Pooley
Hyperion
114 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10011 USA
2010. 481 pages. US$ 27.99
ISBN: 978-1-4013-2326-4
Looking at the intersection of science,
business and politics, the author
examines the ecology-versus-economy
debate and how US climate policies
affect every corner of the globe. Pooley
describes the personalities, strategies
and intrigue of climate politics by going
to every source: environmental leaders
and radical activists, a coal-company
CEO, media personalities, lobbyists,
policy makers and politicians.
Contents:
Part One: Bali, December 2007
Part Two: The Deniers Convention
Part Three: True Believers
Part Four: An Uneasy Alliance
Part Five: Breaking the Veto
Part Six: Disaster Training
Part Seven: Repower America
Part Eight: Save the Planet?
Save the Economy!
Part Nine: The Path
Epilogue: Copenhagen,
December 2009
Sources and Selected Reading,
Notes, Index
The science behind climate
change is solid. Al Gore made that
point clear in his 2006 lm An
Inconvenient Truth, and virtually all
mainstream scientists accept it.
However, achieving progress in the
ght against global climate change is
entirely another matter, and the real
role of Gores lm may have been to
begin the erosion of corporate
Americas single-minded opposition
to action on this critical issue. . . .
This book is not about the science. It
is a fascinating, well-researched,
behind-the scenes account of the
political twists and turns and efforts
of corporate bosses and climate
activists. Pooley (editor, Bloomberg
Business Week) puts a human face
on the topic and writes a gripping
accountwhether one reads it
cover to cover or consults individual
chapters in any order. . . . Highly
recommended.
Lovejoy DA: Choice 48, no. 6
(February 2011): 1115.
The Weather of the Future:
Heat Waves, Extreme Storms,
and Other Scenes from a
Climate-Changed Planet
Heidi Cullen
HarperCollins
10 East 53rd Street
New York, New York 10022 USA
2010. 329 pages. US$ 25.99
ISBN: 978-0-06-172688-0
Climatologist Cullen predicts global
warming scenarios for seven locations
around the world through the next
four decades. The author uses climate-
model projections to forecast the
weather, describes solutions that several
entities have already taken to confront
climate change and offers various
suggestions to implement now to avoid
future catastrophe.
Contents:
Part I: Your Weather is Your
Climate: Climate and Weather
Together; Seeing Climate Change
in Our Past; The Science of
Prediction; Extreme Weather
Autopsies and the Forty-Year
Forecast
Part II: The Weather of the Future:
The Sahel, Africa; The Great
Barrier Reef, Australia; Central
Valley, California; The Arctic, Part
One: Inuit Nunaat, Canada; The
Arctic, Part Two: Greenland;
Dhaka, Bangladesh; New York,
New York
Epilogue: The Trillionth Ton
Appendix 1: United States Climate
Change Almanac
Appendix 2: New York Statistics
Appendix 3: The Worlds Most
Vulnerable Places
Notes, Index
. . . Using a conversational mode,
the author makes a case for the
reliability of climate models. . . .
Cullen, a senior research scientist, . . .
predict[s] global warming effects
worldwide on a timescale covering
the next 40 years. . . . She makes the
case that extreme weather events will
become even more frequent and
devastating. . . . Cullen explains
concepts and terms simply but effec-
tively. . . . Current scholarly research
documented in footnotes supports her
statements. Though she does not
discuss the arguments made against
the consensus views held by the
scientic community, her presentation
is thoughtful and reasonable. Highly
recommended.
Zipp LS: Choice 48, no. 5 (January 2011): 929.
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Summer 2011 59
The second in a series of articles introducing basic concepts of the E&P industry DEFINING EXPLORATION
The Search for Oil and Gas
Oileld Review Summer 2011: 23, no. 2.
Copyright 2011 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Ian Bryant, Houston.
Lisa Stewart
Executive Editor
The earliest users of petroleum did not have to search for it. Most likely
they stepped in gooey tar and it stuck to their feet. These rst encounters
with petroleum were at seeps, where oil and gas, which are less dense than
water, rise from subsurface rock formations to the Earths surface. Over
time, people found practical applications for petroleum, such as weaponry,
waterproong, lighting and medicine.
When surface supplies became scarce, people dug into the ground near
the seeps to nd more, just as they dug wells near springs to nd water.
Eventually hands, picks and shovels gave way to drilling methods that today
can access much deeper resources.
Over the years, petroleum geologists learned to look for hydrocarbons
not only where they had been found before, but also where conditions were
similar to those of earlier discoveries. For example, they noticed that oil and
gas were sometimes found in anticlines, where rock formations that were
once at had been folded into an arched structure. Geophysical techniques,
such as seismic surveys, were developed to help detect such structures in
the subsurface. However, not all anticlines contain hydrocarbons, and
hydrocarbons can accumulate in other structures.
To organize their knowledge about the occurrence of oil and gas discov-
eries, explorationists dened the petroleum system as the geologic ele-
ments and processes that are essential for the existence of a petroleum
accumulation:
Trapa barrier to the upward movement of oil or gas
Reservoirporous and permeable rock to receive the hydrocarbons
Chargeincluding
Source rocka rock formation containing organic matter
Generationtemperature and pressure conditions to convert the
organic matter into hydrocarbon uids
Migrationbuoyancy conditions and pathways for the uids to move
from the source rock into the reservoir
Sealan impermeable cap to keep the uids in the reservoir
Preservationconditions that maintain the nature of the hydrocarbons.
When these elements and processes occur in the proper order, chances are
good that a petroleum accumulation exists (right).
To nd promising exploration targets, experts deploy various technolo-
gies to quantify the likelihood that all these conditions are met. Exploration
integrates the efforts of all types of geoscientistsgeologists, geophysicists,
petrophysicists, paleontologists and geochemistsinto a coherent evalua-
tion of how the petroleum systems in a basin have evolved.
The exploration team interprets data from a multitude of physical mea-
surements made at a wide range of scales. Geologists study outcrops to
determine the types of rocks that may be present at depth in the basin. They
review aerial photography and satellite imagery to nd folds, faults and
seeps. From well logs, geologists can characterize the nature of subsurface
formations and correlate formations from one well to another, creating
maps and 3D models of sedimentary basins. Cores, or samples of rocks taken
from boreholes, provide ground truth readings on a ne scale.
Geophysicists interpret seismic, magnetic and gravimetric surveys per-
formed on land and at sea to identify trapping structures and potential
hydrocarbon indicators. By correlating seismic data with information from
wells, geophysicists can determine the depth of a prospective structure.
Petrophysicists analyze well log data to determine the volume and types of
sediments and uids present and the ability of the rock to produce hydro-
carbons. Paleontologists examine fossils to assign ages and depositional
environments to rock sequences. Geochemists assess the potential of the
source rock to generate petroleum.
>
Requirements for a petroleum accumulation. Sediment deposition in the
past (top) may lead to hydrocarbon discoveries in the present (bottom). If the
geologic elementstrap, reservoir, charge and sealare present and the
processes occur in the proper order (trap formation followed by hydrocarbon
generation, migration and accumulation), a hydrocarbon reservoir may
exist. In this case, the reservoir contains gas (red) and oil (green).
Oilfield Review
Summer 11
Exploration Fig. 1
ORSUM11-EXPLRTN Fig. 1
Effective
source rock
Heat
Burial
Reservoir
Seal
Structural
trap
Oil and gas
migration
Potential source rock
Aquatic plants and animals
Land plants and animals
Mud
Sand
41615schD10R1.indd 1 8/12/11 8:34 PM
Oileld Review 60
DEFINING EXPLORATION
The results of these studies can be put into computer simulations called
petroleum system models that determine potential accumulation locations,
volume and content, along with information that will be used to judge their
chances of success.
Typically, exploration geologists focus on a particular region to develop
a play, or collection of potential petroleum prospects with similar geology.
They use the characteristics of previous discoveries to predict the occur-
rence of similar but undiscovered accumulations. After collecting and inter-
preting the available data, geologists identify leads, or features of interest,
on which to focus additional data-collection and interpretation efforts.
Leads that have been investigated and found to be potential traps for hydro-
carbons are designated as prospects.
Once the prospects in a region have been identied, exploration experts
rank them according to risk and reward. To optimize their assets, oil and gas
exploration and production companies strive to maintain a balanced portfo-
lio of projects with outcomes ranging from high risk, high reward to lower
risk and reward.
A key challenge is to understand the range of potential outcomes in a
prospect, since there are rarely sufcient data for a rm estimate of how
much oil or gas might be in an undrilled structure. Geologists calculate a
range of volumes of hydrocarbon reserves by combining information on the
areal extent and thickness of prospective reservoir rock, the expected
porosity of that rock and the types of hydrocarbon present in the trap
(above). Detailed 3D seismic surveys can provide images of the subsurface
to improve these estimates, but only by drilling a well can an exploration
company conrm a structures content.
Some companies have new-venture teams that are always on the lookout
for new basins to explore. Exploration teams frequently begin investigating
an area once the host country announces an upcoming licensing round. A
country offers acreage for lease to exploration companies in return for a fee,
royalties and an obligation to perform additional work, such as acquiring
seismic data or drilling wells. The company with the highest bid typically
wins the right to explore that lease area. Before bidding, exploration teams
attempt to evaluate lease offerings using all available data. If the bid is suc-
cessful, the company commissions further data-collection campaigns. Then,
the exploration team integrates the new data with their previously gathered
information to design a drilling program to test the prospect.
An exploration well drilled in a new area is known as a wildcat. A well
that encounters signicant amounts of petroleum is a discovery. If it does
not encounter commercial quantities of petroleum, it is a dry hole, which is
usually plugged and abandoned. Once a discovery has been made, appraisal
wells may be drilled to dene the extent of the eld.
E&P companies are continually testing new ideas in petroleum explora-
tion. Recently, prolic reservoirs have been discovered in deep ocean
basins, where water depths exceed 3,000 m [10,000 ft]. Oil and gas accumu-
lations have been found beneath salt layers hundreds of meters thick.
Companies have also discovered they can tap into source rocks to produce
oil and gas before these uids are expelled. The secrets to success in all
these exploration endeavors are talented people and advanced technology.
>
Mapping the chance of success using a play-based exploration methodology. The top of the reservoir-quality sand (left) features four prospects (white
outlines) dened by structural highs on a depth map generated by contouring data from four wells (black dots) and ve seismic lines (straight black lines).
The deepest closing contour denes the limit of each of the prospects. For each of these structurally dened traps, the probability of reservoir, charge and
seal must be established. For example, sand thickness is an indicator of reservoir presence. An isopach map, or thickness map, (middle) is generated by
contouring sand thicknesses taken from well logs and extended using a geologic conceptual model that assumes the sands were deposited along an
ancient shoreline. Where the sands are thin, there is a low probability of the reservoir being present; where they are thicker, there is a high probability.
This information is used to convert the thickness map to a chance of success map for reservoir presence (right) scaled in probability units (0 to 1). The
larger prospects A, B and C have a low probability that the reservoir is present (red); the smallest prospect D has the highest chance of success (green).
Geoscientists construct similar maps for each element of exploration risk then multiply them together to assess the overall risk for each of the prospects.
Oilfield Review
Summer 11
Exploration Fig. 2
ORSUM11-EXPLRTN Fig. 2
300
150
0
T
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s
,

m
0 km 20
0 miles 20
0
0.5
1.0
P
r
o
b
a
b
i
l
i
t
y
D
e
p
t
h
,

m
4,000
5,000
6,000
Structure Map: Depth to Top of Formation
A
B
C
D
Isopach Map: Reservoir Thickness Probability of Reservoir Presence
A
B
C
D
A
B
C
D
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