M A R C H 2 0 1 6 VO LU M E 6 8 , N U M B E R 3

JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY

2/11/16 3:11 PM

March16_JPT_Cover.indd 1

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CONTENTS
Volume 68 Number 3

14 GUEST EDITORIAL HOW TO THRIVE IN A DOWNTURN

The industry is in one of its periodic downturns in which previous business
or career plans may no longer be viable. But there are still ways to go from
surviving to thriving in the current price environment.

20 TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
Gas-handling capability is one of the most complex and challenging issues
in artificial lift. When gas pockets enter the wellbore and cause system
interruptions, the effectiveness of an electrical submersible pump can be
undermined. A multiphase encapsulated production system mitigates gas
interference in the pump, stabilizes the production rate, and eliminates
downtime associated with pump cycling and gas-lock conditions.

32 ELECTROMAGNETIC IMAGING OFFERS FIRST LOOK

AT THE PROPPED ROCK
Understanding how much rock is being stimulated and propped is
critical for unconventional producers. New imaging methods using
electromagnetic energy or acoustic microemitters could represent a
milestone in understanding what is left behind after fracturing.

42 INDUSTRIAL-SIZED CYBER ATTACKS THREATEN

THE UPSTREAM SECTOR
The oil and gas industry is experiencing a higher frequency of cyber
attacks than other industries, second only to the power and utilities sector.
As the sophistication of the attacks increases, the industry is working on
multiple fronts to address the vulnerabilities. But experts say it will be
years until adequate safeguards are in place.

Production platforms in Vietnams

Bach Ho (White Tiger) field, which
has been a mainstay of the countrys
oil production since the late 1980s.
Photo courtesy of Petrovietnam.

52 VIETNAM STILL HOLDS MUCH E&P OPPORTUNITY

Vietnam holds substantial opportunities because of its resource potential,
expanding economy, surging internal energy demand, and the diverse
group of oil operators active in the country. Petrovietnams interest in
expanding partnerships with international players will help in bringing in
more investment and expertise to its fields.

56 MANAGEMENT MANAGING PROJECT UNCERTAINTY:

THE DELPHI METHOD
Decision making in uncertain environments is key to the successful delivery
of oil and gas projects. Identifying, understanding, and clearly articulating
project uncertainties so that appropriate management strategies can be
put in place is important for the successful outcome of the project.

An Official Publication of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.

DEPARTMENTS
6
8
10
12
18
22
26
96
99
100

Performance Indices
Regional Update
Presidents Column
Comments
Technology Applications
SPE Events
E&P Notes
People
Professional Services
Advertisers Index

Printed in US. Copyright 2016, Society of Petroleum Engineers.

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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
60 HYDRAULIC FRACTURING

Zillur Rahim, SPE, Senior Petroleum Engineering Consultant,

Saudi Aramco

61 An Improved Model for Predicting Hydraulic-Fracture-Height Migration

64 Novel Proppant Surface Treatment for Enhanced Performance and
Improved Cleanup

66 New Stimulation Method Significantly Improves Hydrocarbon Recovery

70 Rod-Shaped-Proppant Fracturing Boosts Production and Adds Reserves
72 PRODUCTION MONITORING/SURVEILLANCE

Marc Kuck, SPE, Drilling and Completions Engineering Manager, Eni

73 New Improvements to Deepwater Subsea Measurement

75 Achieving Well-Performance Optimization Through Work-Flow
Automation

78 Distributed Acoustic Sensing for Downhole Production and Injection

Profiling

80 HEAVY OIL

Tayfun Babadagli, SPE, Professor, University of Alberta

81 Chemical EOR for Heavy Oil: The Canadian Experience

84 Solvent-Enhanced Steamdrive: Experiences From the First Field Pilot
86 Pilot Tests of New Enhanced-Oil-Recovery Technologies for Heavy-Oil
Reservoirs

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88 SEISMIC APPLICATIONS
Mark Egan, SPE, Retired

89 Near-Surface Velocity Model To Enhance PSDM Seismic Imaging of

Dukhan Field

92 Broadband Seismic Acquisition: Implications for Interpretation and

Reservoir Models

94 High-Fidelity Microseismic-Data Acquisition in the Midland Basin

Wolfcamp Shale Play

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Volunteering looks good on you.

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As a volunteer for SPE, you provide the energy that makes our Society work. Giving back
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SPE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

OFFICERS
2016 President
Nathan Meehan, Baker Hughes

SOUTH AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

Anelise Quintao Lara, Petrobras

SOUTH ASIA
John Hoppe, Shell

2015 President
Helge Hove Haldorsen, Statoil

SOUTH, CENTRAL, AND EAST EUROPE

2017 President
Janeen Judah, Chevron

SOUTHERN ASIA PACIFIC

Vice President Finance

Roland Moreau, ExxonMobil Annuitant

SOUTHWESTERN NORTH AMERICA

REGIONAL DIRECTORS
AFRICA
Adeyemi Akinlawon,
Adeb Konsult

CANADIAN
Darcy Spady, Broadview Energy Asset Management

EASTERN NORTH AMERICA

Bob Garland, Silver Creek Services

GULF COAST NORTH AMERICA

J. Roger Hite, Inwood Solutions

MID-CONTINENT NORTH AMERICA

Michael Tunstall, Halliburton

MIDDLE EAST
Khalid Zainalabedin, Saudi Aramco

NORTH SEA
Carlos Chalbaud, ENGIE

NORTHERN ASIA PACIFIC

Phongsthorn Thavisin, PTTEP

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NORTH AMERICA

Libby Einhorn, Concho Oil & Gas

WESTERN NORTH AMERICA

Andrei Popa, Chevron

TECHNICAL DIRECTORS
DRILLING AND COMPLETIONS
David Curry, Baker Hughes

HEALTH, SAFETY, SECURITY, ENVIRONMENT,

AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Trey Shaffer, ERM

MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION

J.C. Cunha

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS

Jennifer Miskimins, Barree & Associates

PROJECTS, FACILITIES, AND CONSTRUCTION

Howard Duhon, GATE, Inc.

RESERVOIR DESCRIPTION AND DYNAMICS

Tom Blasingame, Texas A&M University

DIRECTOR FOR ACADEMIA

Dan Hill, Texas A&M University

RUSSIA AND THE CASPIAN

Anton Ablaev, Schlumberger

Khaled Al-Buraik, Saudi Aramco

Liu Zhenwu, China National Petroleum Corporation

JPT STAFF

The Journal of Petroleum Technology magazine is a

registered trademark of SPE.

Glenda Smith, Publisher

SPE PUBLICATIONS: SPE is not responsible for any

statement made or opinions expressed in its publications.

Pam Boschee, Senior Manager Magazines

Chris Carpenter, Technology Editor
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AT-LARGE DIRECTORS

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Matthias Meister, Baker Hughes

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Alex Asfar, Senior Manager Publishing Services

See Wells

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PERFORMANCE INDICES
WORLD CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION1+

2015 JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

Algeria

1370

1370

1370

1370

Angola

1890

1910

1800

1810

538

537

539

538

Iran

3300

3300

3300

3300

Iraq

4375

4275

4425

4275

Kuwait*

2550

2550

2550

2550

400

360

375

415

Nigeria

2270

2320

2320

2370

Qatar

1537

1537

1537

1537

10290

10290

10190

10140

UAE

2820

2820

2820

2820

Venezuela

2500

2500

2500

2500

33840

33769

33726

33625

Saudi Arabia*

TOTAL

THOUSAND BOPD
NON-OPEC

2015 JUL

AUG

SEP

Argentina

532

529

529

535

361

360

335

330

Azerbaijan

867

867

867

872

2466

2547

2395

2406

Canada

3821

3912

3412

3581

China

4263

4278

4317

4259

Colombia

947

968

1009

1030

Denmark

154

157

154

157

Egypt

524

511

510

509

Eq. Guinea

250

250

250

250

Gabon

215

215

215

215

India

754

768

757

758

Indonesia

801

777

800

801

1592

1593

1594

1595

599

591

652

619

2308

2291

2306

2314

Norway

1611

1599

1581

1685

Oman

1001

990

985

980

Russia

10200

10180

10150

10140

Sudan

257

254

255

257

30

30

30

30

Kazakhstan
Malaysia
Mexico

Syria
UK
USA
Vietnam
Yemen
Other

2016
JAN

DEC

NOV

OCT

SEP

AUG

JUL

MAY

JUN

WORLD CRUDE OIL PRICES (USD/bbl)

2016
JAN

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

Brent

61.48

56.56

46.52

47.62

48.43

44.27

38.01

30.70

WTI

59.82

50.90

42.87

45.48

46.22

42.44

37.19

31.68

OCT

Australia

Brazil

APR

Libya

USD/million Btu

2015
FEB

Ecuador

O PEC

MAR

THOUSAND BOPD

HENRY HUB GULF COAST NATURAL GAS SPOT PRICE

838

788

862

912

9433

9407

9460

9347

343

307

348

333

22

22

22

22

2496

2479

2517

2509

Total

46685

46670

46312

46446

Total World

80525

80439

80038

80071

WORLD ROTARY RIG COUNT

REGION

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

2016
JAN

US

866

883

848

791

760

714

654

Canada

183

206

183

184

178

160

192

Latin America

313

319

321

294

284

270

243

Europe

108

109

109

108

108

114

108

Middle East

391

393

396

403

419

422

407

Africa
Asia Pacific
TOTAL

94

96

96

93

90

91

94

212

220

218

213

208

198

193

2167

2226

2171

2086

2047

1969

1891

WORLD OIL SUPPLY AND DEMAND2

MILLION BOPD
Quarter

2015
1st

2nd

3rd

4th

SUPPLY

94.60

95.50

96.38

96.00

DEMAND

92.74

93.19

94.90

94.24

INDICES KEY
+

Figures do not include NGLs and oil from nonconventional sources.

* Includes approximately one-half of Neutral Zone production.

1 Latest available data on www.eia.gov.
2 Includes crude oil, lease condensates, natural gas plant liquids, other hydrocarbons for refinery feedstocks,
refinery gains, alcohol, and liquids produced from nonconventional sources.
Source: Baker Hughes.
Source: US Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration.

JPT MARCH 2016

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management system can be deployed in conventional or extended-reach wells, in two or more sections, or across any
number of lateral junctionsall with a single control line. Using the Manara system to monitor and control previously
unattainable zones, operators can now immediately identify problematic areas, pinpoint the cause, and make the
necessary adjustments to maintain the well at optimal production.
Find out more at

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*Mark of Schlumberger. Copyright 2016 Schlumberger. All rights reserved. 15-CO-87356

Temperature

REGIONAL UPDATE
AFRICA
Z Eni started production from the West
Hub development projects Mpungi field
in Block 15/06 offshore Angola. The
startup follows the projects first oil from
the Sangos field in November 2014 and
the Cinguvu field last April. Mpungi will
rampupWest Hub oil production to
100,000 B/D in the first quarter from a
previous level of 60,000 B/D. The project
also includes the future development
of theMpungi North, Ochigufu, and
Vandumbu fields. Eni is the block
operatorwith a 36.84% stake. Sonangol
(36.84%) and SSI Fifteen (26.32%) hold
theotherstakes.
Z Bowleven said that its extended flow test
program at the Moambe and Zingana wells
on the Bomono Permit onshore Cameroon
is complete. The company said that the
results to date continue to support its plans
for an initial supply of between 5 MMscf/D
and 6 MMscf/D of natural gas for power
generation, under a development program
established with partners Actis and Eneo.
The initial program focuses on production
from the shallower gas-prone sands on
the permit. Bowleven has a 100% equity
interest in the permit.

ASIA
Z Sinopec struck high yields of oil and
natural gas in a test well offshore Beibu
Bay in southwestern China. The Wei-4
well, 68 miles southwest of the city of
Beihai, identified oil-bearing layers almost
328ft thick. The well tested a first layer
at rates of more than 9,200 B/D of oil
and 2.53MMcf/D of gas and a second
layer at more than 8,600 B/D of oil and
2.68MMcf/D of gas. The offshore discovery,
in which Sinopec has a 100% interest, is
rare for the company, which mainly drills
onshore prospects.
Z OGDCL found natural gas at Thal East
Well No. 01 in Block 2769-15 in the Sukkur
District of Sindh Province in Pakistan.
Drilled to a 14,659-ft depth, the well
found hydrocarbons in the Basal Sand of
the Lower Goru formation and produced
23.5MMscf/D of gas through a 36/64-in.
choke at wellhead flowing pressure of

3,280psig. OGDCL has a 100% interest in

the block.
Z Rosnefts RN-Uvatneftegaz subsidiary
began commercial oil production at the
Zapadno-Epasskoye field,which is part
of the Uvat project in the Ust-Tegussky
license area of Russias Tyumen Region.
Hydraulic fracturing treatments at two of
the fields seven wells have enabled the
production of more than 2,950 B/D of oil.
The field continues to produce a combined
16.6 Mcf/D of natural gas. Recoverable oil
reserves at the field amount to more than
121 million bbl, the company said.
Z Roxi Petroleum reported that Well
143 in the BNG Contract Area of western
Kazakhstan is flowing strongly after
encountering oil shows late last year.
Average daily flow rates were 520 BOPD
with a 3-mm choke, 675 BOPD with a 5-mm
choke, and 815 BOPD with a 7-mm choke.
The improved flow rates have resulted from
the perforation of five additional intervals.
The well, which lies in the Pre-Caspian Basin,
was drilled to a 9,022-ft total depth. Roxi
has a 58.41% interest in the contract area,
which is about 25 miles southeast ofTengiz.

AUSTRALIA/OCEANIA
Z Buru Energy found oil at the Ungani
Far West 1 well in production license L21
in Western Australia. An oil sample taken
at a 5,118-ft depth from the top of the
Anderson formation, and pressure data
interpretation, indicate that the well holds a
potential oil column of at least 45 ft and net
pay of about 16 ft. Buru, the operator, and
Diamond Resources (Fitzroy), a subsidiary
of Mitsubishi, each hold a 50% equity
interest in the well.

EUROPE
Z Total said on 21 January that first gas
production from Britains Laggan-Tormore
gas condensate fields off the Shetland
Islands in the North Sea was expected to
flow in the coming weeks. Peak production
of 494 MMcf/D is expected. Production had
been slated to start more than a year ago
but encountered delays. Total, the operator,
has a 60% stake in the project. Dong E&P
and SSE E&P each hold 20% stakes.

MIDDLE EAST
Z Gas Plus Khalakan (GPK) reported
that it had produced 65,000 bbl of oil
over 180days from the Shewashan-1
discovery well in Iraqs Kurdistan Region
before increased water production caused
it to be shut in. The discovery on the
Khalakan Block tested at a maximum rate
of 2,850B/D of light oil in 2014. The well
will either be worked over, sidetracked, or
converted to water disposal if necessary,
the company said. GPK has spudded
the Shewashan-2 development well and
plans to drill a third development well
immediately afterward. GPK is the operator
of the Khalakan production sharing contract
with an 80%interest.

NORTH AMERICA
Z Anadarko produced first oil at the
Heidelberg field in Green Canyon Block
859 in the US Gulf of Mexico. The sister
spar project to Lucius, the Heidelberg
spar can produce 80,000 B/D of oil and
80 MMcf/D of natural gas and operate in
5,300 ft of water. Lucius, which started up
last year, and Heidelberg were constructed
with a design one, build two strategy
that streamlined and economized several
processes and enabled Heidelberg to come
on line 6 months sooner than otherwise.
Operator Anadarko has a 31.5% interest.
Other participants are Cobalt International
Energy (9.375%), Eni (12.5%), ExxonMobil
(9.375%), Freeport-McMoran (12.5%),
Marubeni (12.75%), and Statoil (12%).

SOUTH AMERICA
Z Premier Oil recently redrilled its
Isobel Deep well (No. 14/20-2) in the
North Falkland Basin and confirmed the
oil discovery made at the well last May.
New hydrocarbons were also found, the
company reported. Situated on license
PL004A, the redrilled well reached its
9,890-ft target depth and found oil-bearing
zones in several sandstone reservoirs
between 8,400 ft and 9,385 ft. The lower
depth is the base of the Isobel Deep sand.
Operator Premier has a 36% interest in the
license, with the remaining interest held
by Rockhopper Exploration (24%) and
Falkland Oil and Gas (40%).JPT

JPT MARCH 2016

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IMPROVING PEOPLES LIVES

Social License To Operate

Nathan Meehan, 2016 SPE President

You dont get your social license by going

to a government ministry and making an
application for one, or simply paying a
fee. It requires far more than money to
truly become part of the communities in
which you operate.
Pierre Lassonde, President of
Newmont Mining Corp., 2003
There is widespread acceptance that extraction industries
including oil and gasimprove peoples lives and enable the
economic growth of countries. However, at the project level,
this acceptance is neither automatic nor unconditional.
The concept of a social license to operate (SLO) has been applied to extraction industries and has been defined as a communitys perceptions of the acceptability of a company and its local
operations by Thomson and Boutilier (2011). Community can
be very broadly defined to include stakeholders and interested
parties well outside the immediate areas of operations, or any
group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organizations objectives (Mitchell et al. 1997).
SLO is deemed to exist when a project has ongoing approval
of the community. For any project to have SLO, it is necessary
to earn and maintain the supportand ultimately trustof
the community. We have seen ample evidence, including in our
own industry, that failure to do this can lead to conflict, delays, added costs, or even prohibition of projects. Because it is

Psychological
Identification
Approval

Trust
Boundary

Credibility
Boundary

Acceptance

Withheld/Withdrawn

Legitimacy
Boundary

Fig. 1Measuring social license to operate. Source:

Thomson and Boutilier, 2011.

rooted in beliefs and perceptions, SLO is intangible. Beliefs and

perceptions are subject to change with new information; SLO
is nonpermanent. This presents challenges for companies who
want to know the status of their SLO and what they need to do
to maintain or improve it.
Thomson and Boutilier developed a framework to measure
beliefs, perceptions, and opinions that impact social license in
the mining industry and published quantitative assessments of
their framework. Fig. 1 represents their model and serves as a
useful starting point for a discussion of SLO in the upstream oil
and gas industry.

Measuring Social License

According to the Thomson and Boutilier framework, SLO exists
in a four-level hierarchy, with withholding or withdrawal at
the lowest level, followed by acceptance, approval, and coownership, or psychological identification. To advance in the
hierarchy, the project must meet criteria of legitimacy, credibility, and trust.
At the lowest level, SLO does not exist, and projects cannot
proceed; the community perceives them as illegitimate. To be
considered legitimate, an extraction operation must contribute
to the well-being of the community, respect existing traditions
and lifestyles, and be conducted in a manner the community
considers fair. If the extraction project is not considered legitimate, the community either withholds or withdraws access
including legal licenseto essential resources. Drilling permits
fall under this category, as do restrictions prohibiting hydraulic
fracturing imposed by a government. The social license to operate also can be withheld or withdrawn by removing essential
financing, workforce availability, markets, etc. Examples of social licenses that have been withheld in our industry are the development of the Marcellus Shale in New York and development
of unconventional resources in France. The driver for these licenses failing to rise to the level of acceptance is not primarily
the complaints of local residents who could be directly affected
by activity, but a larger concern at state or national levels arising from fears about hydraulic fracturing.
The next-higher level of social license is acceptance. This is
the most common level in the SLO hierarchy. It may be granted
grudgingly or reluctantly by parts of the community. Importantly, this level is just one level above the social license being
withdrawn. While acceptance implies tolerance, there may
be lingering or recurring issues, the presence of outside nongovernmental organizations, and watchful monitoring.

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

10

JPT MARCH 2016

While legitimacy and credibility lead to acceptance of a project, it is important for operators to be perceived as credible by
the community at-large to rise to the level of approval. This level
of license requires that operators and their contractors communicate openly and honestly with the community, deliver on the
actions they promise, and provide benefits to the community.
The hallmarks of the approval level are support for the project
and participating companies, perception of the companies as
good neighbors, and pride in collaborative achievements.
The highest level of social licensepsychological identification, or co-ownershipcan only occur when a high level of
trust is present throughout the community. Building that level
of trust requires consistency in communications and execution.
Once it is established, project participants and the community
engage in real dialogue. A substantial portion of the community
and other stakeholders incorporate the project into their collective identity. The community often becomes an advocate or defender of the project since its members consider themselves to
be co-owners and emotionally vested in its future. This level of
social license should be industrys objective.

Gaining Social License

Because SLO is intangible and dynamic, conflicting ideas among
stakeholders can impact the level of license that is granted.
Community members may have very low levels of trust for operators in general, yet be much more willing to believe individual
employees whom they know and trust. Similarly, each community has specific issues and interests that form the basis for relationship building between it and the project operator. As a prerequisite for SLO, the operator should map and understand the
social structure, issues, and vision of the various individuals,
groups, and organizations that form the community.
Confidence in the status of a social license requires measuring it periodically and using the results to modify practice to
improve the quality of the relationship between the project and
the community. Uwiera-Gartner (2013) discussed some of the
issues associated with communicating how hydraulic fracturing
operations can be used in a way that protects the environment.
Some early industry communication efforts emphasized pointing out flaws in public perception and media accounts instead of
addressing a variety of public concerns. Uwiera-Gartner demonstrated that open and honest communication is essential to
maintaining the social license.
Olawoyin et al. (2012) quantitatively illustrated the increasing number of potential violations of best practices that could
result in environmental impacts associated with increased drilling activity. They emphasized the importance for operators to
implement mitigation practices and focus on flawless execution. An industry reputation can suffer enormous damage when
environmental damage or personnel injuries or fatalities occur.
Beliefs, opinions, and perceptionsand social license to operateare subject to change as new information is acquired.
It is important for the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)
members to be familiar with the many facets of the industry
so they can communicate factual information. SPEs website
energy4me.org is an excellent source of such information.

JPT MARCH 2016

Understanding the communities where we wish to work,

conveying factual information, communicating honestly and
openly, and acting in ways that build credibility and trust will
help our industry and the companies that comprise it strengthen and maintain the quality of relationships to earn and maintain the highest level of social licenseand the benefits that
accompany it.JPT

References
Lassonde, P. 2003. What Shade of Green Are You? Presentation to
the Melbourne Mining Club. https://www.ausimm.com.au/content/
docs/minclub130803.pdf.
Thomson, I. and Boutilier, R.G. 2011. Social license to operate. In
SME Mining Engineering Handbook, ed. Darling, P., 17791796.
Colorado, US: Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration.
Mitchell, R.K., Agle, B.R. and Wood, D.J. 1997. Toward a Theory of
Stakeholder Identification and Salience: Defining the Principle of
Who and What Really Counts, The Acad Mgmt Rev, 22(4): 853886.
Uwiera-Gartner, M. 2013. Groundwater Considerations of Shale
Gas Developments Using Hydraulic Fracturing: Examples,
Additional Study, and Social Responsibility. Presented at the
SPE Unconventional Resources Conference, Calgary, Canada,
57November. SPE 167233. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/167233-MS.
Olawoyin, R., Wang, J.Y., and Oyewole, S.A. 2012. Environmental
Safety Assessment of Drilling Operations in the Marcellus-Shale
Gas Development. SPE Drill & Compl 18(2): 212220. SPE 163095.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/163095-PA.

A simple cost-effective
solution to the common
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Sub-Ez
www.subez.com.au

11

COMMENTS

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Bernt Aadny, University of Stavanger
Syed AliChairperson, Schlumberger
Tayfun Babadagli, University of Alberta

Long vs. Short Term

John Donnelly, JPT Editor

William Bailey, Schlumberger

Ian G. Ball, Intecsea (UK) Ltd
Mike Berry, Mike Berry Consulting
Maria Capello, Kuwait Oil Company
Simon Chipperfield, Santos
Nicholas Clem, Baker Hughes

ExxonMobils latest long-term energy outlook paints a generally robust picture for oil and natural gas despite the steep fall
in hydrocarbon prices and cuts in capital spending. The outlook predicts that the oil and gas share of the energy market
will grow and that renewable energy sources will remain only a
small share of the total picture.
Oil will continue to be the worlds largest energy source, with
demand for oil and other liquids growing by 20% from 2014 to
2040, according to ExxonMobils The Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040. Coal, which
is currently the globes second-largest fuel, will decline from providing 25% to 20%
of total energy demand as industry uses more fuels with lower CO2 emissions. Natural
gas use will increase as it replaces coal as second in consumption.
The outlook belies shorter-term predictions for the oil and gas market, which continue to forecast a tough year ahead. IHS CERA believes North American independents
will need further capital spending cuts to align spending with cash flow. An analysis
of 44 North American E&P companies shows that those firms need to cut spending by
another USD 24 billion, or 30%, to maintain a healthy fiscal balance. E&P companies
cut their 2016 spending budgets sharply from the previous year, but the price of oil has
fallen sharply since the fourth quarter of 2015.
Consultancy Wood Mackenzie predicts another volatile, uncertain, complex, and
ambiguous year with only the most robust or strategically important projects going
forward. It projects that exploration spending will be only half of its 2014 peak. The
lack of new investment and aging, high-cost fields in some regions will be a challenge
for operators, but there are some bright spots for potential investment, especially offshore Mexico and Iran.
Wood Mackenzie offered several predictions and milestones to watch for during the
rest of the year.
Meaningful increases in production from Iran are not likely as the country
offers new contract terms for upstream projects. Crude exports should increase
to about 400,000 B/D as shut-in wells are brought back on stream. Saudi Arabia
will maintain current production levels so as not to lose market share to Iran.
Declines in spending will hit Africa hard. Output will stagnate in Angola and
Nigeria due to its aging fields, high production costs, and lack of investment.
North Sea activity also will decline because of lower spending. Rationalization
is likely as well as merger and acquisition interest. But production in Russia will
maintain current levels of 10.7 million B/D despite the drop in oil prices.
In North America, the inventory of drilled but uncompleted wells is at an all-time
high. Wood Mackenzie predicts that the draw down on these wells will remain
flat compared with 2015 through the first part of this year but will increase
significantly in the second half. US Gulf of Mexico deepwater production will
reach a new high with an additional 250,000 BOE/D coming on line. This reflects
projects that have been in development for years.
Mexicos deepwater bidding round of 10 blocks primarily in the Perdido fold belt
will be successful. The acreage prospectivity and favorable contract terms will
contribute to its most successful bid round to date. JPT

Alex Crabtree, Hess Corporation

Gunnar DeBruijn, Schlumberger
Alexandre Emerick,
Petrobras Research Center
Niall Fleming, Statoil
Ted Frankiewicz, SPEC Services
Emmanuel Garland, Total
Stephen Goodyear, Shell
Reid Grigg, New Mexico Petroleum Recovery
Research Center
Omer M. Gurpinar, Schlumberger
A.G. Guzman-Garcia, ExxonMobil (retired)
Greg Horton, Consultant
John Hudson, Shell
Morten Iversen, BG Group
Leonard Kalfayan, Hess Corporation
Tom Kelly, FMC Technologies
Gerd Kleemeyer, Shell Global Solutions
InternationalBV
Thomas Knode, Statoil
Marc Kuck, Eni US Operating
Jesse C. Lee, Schlumberger
Silviu Livescu, Baker Hughes
Shouxiang (Mark) Ma, Saudi Aramco
John Macpherson, Baker Hughes
Casey McDonough, Chesapeake Energy
Stephane Menand, DrillScan
Badrul H Mohamed Jan, University of Malaya
Lee Morgenthaler, Shell
Michael L. Payne, BP plc
Zillur Rahim, Saudi Aramco
Jon Ruszka, Baker Hughes
Martin Rylance, GWO Completions
Engineering
Otto L. Santos, Petrobras
Luigi A. Saputelli, Hess Corporation
Sally A. Thomas, ConocoPhillips
Win Thornton, BP plc
Xiuli Wang, Minerva Engineering
Mike Weatherl, Well Integrity, LLC
Rodney Wetzel, Chevron ETC
Scott Wilson, Ryder Scott Company
Jonathan Wylde, Clariant Oil Services
Pat York, Weatherford International

To contact JPTs editor, email jdonnelly@spe.org.

12

JPT MARCH 2016

Wellbarrier IIlustration Tool

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Use our software solution to document the robustness of the

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Make sure there is a common understanding by providing high
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Collect your well barrier information in one shareable solution
that is easy to use and access. Be prepared make well
barrier illustrations throughout the lifecycle of all types of wells.

www.wellbarrier.com

GUEST EDITORIAL

How To Thrive in a Downturn

J. Roger Hite, Consultant, Inwood Solutions, and C. Susan Howes, Consultant

The industry is in one of its periodic

downturns. Jobs are uncertain or scarce.
Profitability is challenged. Bankruptcy
looms. Projects are being canceled. Deals
are dropped or delayed. It seems there
is bad news everywhere. So how do we
survive in this environment? And, more
importantly, how do we go from surviving to thriving?
The leadership of the SPE Gulf Coast
Section (GCS) has launched a new initiative called Members in Transition with
the aim of providing support, advice, and
best practices for thriving in a downturn.
The key principles are the following:

1. Be innovative. Plan A is often not

available these days. We have to look for
alternatives. As an individual, whether
you are a prospective graduate with an
ambition to work for a major producer or
a service provider, or have just lost your
job, consider all alternatives.

In addition to your first choices,

also look for jobs in marketing,
finance, regulation, midstream,
or downstream. Your expertise is
in the petroleum industry, as well
as in petroleum engineering. Your
skills are much broader than you
might think.
Extend your education by taking
advanced courses or by earning
a new degree. This will be time
well spent preparing for the
future. Explore the educational
opportunities available from your
SPE section.
Start your own business. This
could create a rewarding new
career path. In partnership with
the Houston Technology Center,
the SPE GCS is establishing an
Ideas Launch Pad program to
match members ideas with angel
investors. Entrepreneurs will need

J. Roger Hite is a petroleum engineering consultant with Inwood

Solutions in Houston and part owner of a production company
with property in Louisiana. He has published a number of papers
and articles, primarily on various aspects of enhanced oil recovery
management. Hite is an SPE Distinguished Member and a recipient
of the International Management and Information Award. He is
currently Regional Director for the Gulf Coast North America
Region. He holds a BS degree in chemical engineering from
Tulane University and a PhD in chemical engineering from Princeton University.
C. Susan Howes is a reservoir management consultant in Houston.
She was formerly a reservoir management consultant at Chevron,
with a prior role as learning and organizational development
manager at Anadarko. She has coauthored several papers and
articles on the topics of uncertainty management, risk
management, and talent management for SPE conferences and
publications. Howes is chair of the SPE Soft Skills Committee,
previously served as Regional Director for the Gulf Coast North
America Region, is a recipient of the SPE Distinguished Service Award, and is an SPE
Distinguished Member. She holds a BS degree in petroleum engineering from the
University of Texas.

14

realistic financial projections

and need to be able to tell the
business story in a convincing way
to potential investors. Employers
value entrepreneurial skills. These
business skills will serve you well
if you eventually decide to move to
a corporate role. Creating a great
business story (Fisher 2014) for
investors will help you develop
skills that are useful for moving
projects forward when you are
hired by a company in the future.
As a company, your previous business plan may no longer be viable in
the current price environment. Take a
clean sheet of paper, throw out all past
preferences and prejudices, and start
afresh. Develop a new plan that works in
todaysenvironment.
Now is the time to explore new
technologies and new processes that
improve performance. In the January
issue of JPT (Rassenfoss 2016), the SPE
technical directors talked about innovations needed for Doing Better in
BadTimes.
2. Be curious. To come up with new ways
of doing things, you need new ideas.
To get new ideas you need imagination.
This is a good time to look for ideas from
otherindustries.
3. Cut costs. When prices are low, it is
important to cut costs, whether you are
an individual or a company. Now is the
time to be diligent, even ruthless, with
cutting costs. In the end, you will be more
secure and better prepared when good
times return.
Lean Six Sigma techniques can be
applied to streamline workflows. Work
roles may need to be expanded or con-

JPT MARCH 2016

NDF-10695.jpt.Global.Reach.Ad.indd 1

1/4/16 3:20 PM

solidated. There may be opportunities to develop collaborative relationships between and among companies.
Explore every avenue to cut costs and
improveperformance.
4. Work hard. This is a bad time to be sitting around waiting for something good
to happen. If you are employed, commit yourself to being a valued employee.
Think like an ownerthis keeps you
aligned with your employer and helps
you add value. Being the best performer
is a good thing.
Look for resources to find help. Many
SPE sections offer Distinguished Lecturer talks, monthly technical meetings,
short courses, and soft skills workshops
to upgrade your competencies. Additional opportunities are offered by SPE at
regional and internationalconferences.
Individuals create more value by discovering their strengths (Buckingham
and Clifton 2001) rather than trying to
address their weaknesses. Personality
profiles help users to categorize their
strengths, and then put their strengths to
work at three levels: for their own development, for their success as a manager,
and for the success of theirorganization.
5. Keep your enthusiasm. Many of us
have been through downturns in the
business before. We know we can get
through them, just as we have done in
the past. A good spirit helpsdoom and
gloom do not.
Remember, life does not move in
straight lines. There are good times and
bad times, sunshine and rain, whether
you are in this industry or any other. We
all have to manage our lives prudently in
the down times, confident that the good
times will return. In the meantime, avail
yourself of SPE resources and talk with
others in SPE.
Career transition experts tell us that
face-to-face engagement with professionals in our industry is the best way to
work through a transition, rather than
spending all our time at our computers.
Engagement in a professional society
such as SPE will improve your outlook on
the future, particularly if you take advantage of the resources and networking
that SPE provides.

16

SPE Resources
SPE cares about each and every member and is doing everything it can to
help. SPE Chief Executive Officer and
Executive Vice President Mark Rubin
(2015) listed SPE initiatives in an earlier
JPTarticle:
SPE e-Mentoring Program
(www.spe.org/ementoring).
Finding the right mentor can make
a world of difference, particularly
for young professionals.
SPE Job Board (www.spe.org/
industry/jobs). In partnership
with Oilpro, SPE has developed
acomprehensive jobs search
engineto help members find
thelatest opportunities in their
field.
SPE Web Events (webevents.spe.
org). SPE web events include live
webinars and on-demand online
training courses and videos.
SPE Competency Management
Tool (www.spe.org/training/
cmt). The SPE Competency
ManagementTool is a free
onlinemember benefit that
allows you to assess your current
professional capabilities against
one of 41 key exploration and
production job competency
models.
SPE Insurance (www.speinsurance.
com). The SPE Insurance Program
is a unique group insurance
program designed to meet the
specific needs of petroleum
engineering professionals. The
SPE plans offered can continue
to protect you even if you change
jobs or no longer have a corporate
insurance program.

Network To Build Relationships

If you are unemployed or want a change,
develop your networking skills. Jeffrey
Gitomer (2006) wrote in his book All
things being equal, people want to do
business with their friends. If you are
planning to start a business, your first
clients will likely be colleagues who
know you and trust you to get the job
done. Consider four connection questions to unlock the answer to growth
and success:

Who do you know?

How well are you connected?
Do you know how to make a
connection?
Who knows you?
The skills that you develop during
your job search, i.e., networking, finding leads, making phone calls, and getting meetings, translate well to becoming
a successful rainmaker for your business
(Fox 2006). The most important of the
various job search techniques is networkingjust plain talking to people will
always help in a job search. Use networking to tap into the hidden job market,
those jobs that are not posted online.
The majority of the job market falls into
the hidden category. There is less competition in applying for hidden jobs than
when applying for open posted positions online.
The best ways to thrive in a downturn
include being innovative, cutting costs,
working hard, keeping your enthusiasm,
and networking to build relationships.
Increasing your engagement in SPE will
provide you with numerous opportunities to accomplish these objectives. JPT

References
Buckingham, M. and Clifton, D. 2001.
Now, Discover Your Strengths. New York:
The Free Press.
Fisher, B. 2014. The Six Secrets of
Raising Capital: An Insiders Guide
for Entrepreneurs. San Francisco:
Berrett-Koehler.
Fox, J.J. 2006. Secrets of Great Rainmakers:
The Keys to Success and Wealth. New
York: Hyperion.
Gitomer, J. 2006. Jeffrey Gitomers
Little Black Book of Connections:
6.5 Assets for Networking Your
Way to Rich Relationships. Austin,
Texas:Bard Press.
Pierson, O. 2006. The Unwritten
RulesoftheHighly Effective Job
Search: TheProven Program Used
bythe WorldsLeading Career
ServicesCompany. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Rassenfoss, S. 2016. Doing Better in Bad
Times, J Pet Technol, 68(1): 3841.
Rubin, M. 2015. SPE Provides Support
During Industry Downturn, J Pet Technol,
67(5):22.

JPT MARCH 2016

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Oil and Gas Professionals

The power of our resources means nothing without the energy of our people. Their focus and expertise make
our energy more dependable, more sustainable, and more useful.
We are looking for experienced oil and gas professionals in Upstream, Downstream, Human Resources,
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Apply now.
www.aramco.jobs/jpt

TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS
Chris Carpenter, JPT Technology Editor

Mechanized Stabbing Guide

The new Weatherford mechanized stabbing guide remotely guides tubulars to
facilitate hands-free stab-in. The guide
incorporates four axes of motion that
are run by remote control in an automatic sequence, which removes the need
for a rig hand to enter the red zone at
the rotary table. It can be installed on
platform, jackup, and semisubmersible
rigs in any environment (Fig. 1). Bolted directly onto a flush-mounted spider,
the guide moves from horizontal to vertical while the spider base remains stationary. The mechanized guide aligns to
the pipe and adjusts to accommodate
different pipe thicknesses and threaded-box heights. Operational flexibility is
further increased by the guides compatibility with a wide range of casing and
coupling sizes. The tool also includes
polyurethane clamping elements that
eliminate metal-to-metal contact during stabbing, to protect sealing surfaces.
When used in conjunction with Weatherfords OverDrive casing-running and
drilling system, the mechanized stabbing
guide enables the entire casing-running
process to be executed without manual
handling. The full system removes personnel from high-risk zones on the rig
floor, thereby enhancing safety.

Fig. 1Weatherfords mechanized stabbing guide enables automated stab-in of

tubulars, which removes personnel from high-risk zones on the rig floor.

For additional information, visit

www.weatherford.com.

Pipeline Connector
Spirax Sarco introduced the PC3000
and PC4000 pipeline-connector range.
This range has been developed to satisfy
the needs of modern process industries,
significantly simplifying installation
and reducing maintenance time. Traditional steam-trapping assemblies often
require the plant to be shut down for new
traps to be installed, taking significant
time and reducing production output.
The PC3000 and PC4000 pipeline connectors, with single or double isolation,
allow steam traps to be installed without need for process shutdown (Fig. 2).
These pipeline connectors are ideal for

18

Fig. 2The PC3000 and PC4000 pipeline-connector range from Spirax Sarco
is designed to allow steam-trap installation with minimal process interruption.

JPT MARCH 2016

Fig. 310% active solution of PQ

Corporations EcoDrill S45 without
setting agent (left) vs. 10% active
solution of EcoDrill S45 with setting
agent and set for 4 hours at room
temperature (right).

the oil and specialty-chemical industries

and are suitable for manifold applications where steam traps are used on tracing and main-line drainage. Some of the
ranges features and benefits include an
American Society of Mechanical Engineers 600-rated forged body suitable for
use on lines up to 800F, a fully shrouded piston-valve stem that reduces the
potential of corrosion, and a standard fitted strainer that protects the steam trap
from debris entrained in the condensate.
A universal steam-trap connection allows
the safe fitting of the complete range
of steam traps without interruption to
existingprocesses.
For additional information, visit

www.spiraxsarco.com.

Water-Shutoff Chemical
PQ Corporation introduced the EcoDrill
S45, an environmentally friendly chemical treatment for water control and profile modification. EcoDrill S45 uses new
technology that enhances traditional
benefits associated with sodium silicate
chemistry. EcoDrill S45 is an alkaline,
low-viscosity, aqueous solution consisting of nanosized presilica-sols. The silica
species are converted into a highly durable silica gel with the addition of a setting agent. The choice and concentration
of setting agent allow for flexible gelation times ranging from seconds to days
within the reservoir. These silica species
in solution are produced with a lower
charge density that allows for morecontrolled gelation times while using sig-

JPT MARCH 2016

Fig. 4Two units of the HY-OPTIMA 2700 Series hydrogen-specific process

analyzer from H2scan.

nificantly less setting agent (Fig. 3). Once

set, the silica gel shows much greater
dimensional stability. EcoDrill S45 can be
formulated to suit a wide range of watercontrol and carbon dioxide problems. It
effectively treats near-wellbore challenges such as fractures, or it can be placed
deeper in the reservoir to combat high
water/oil ratios, fingering, coning, and
early breakthrough during waterflooding. Excellent safety and environmental characteristics provide the option for
use across freshwater zones. Operational
temperatures range from 10 to 250C.

Fiber-Optic
Data-Management Service

The HY-OPTIMA 2700 Series hydrogenspecific process analyzer from H2scan

uses a solid-state, nonconsumable sensor. H2scans proprietary thin-film technology provides a direct hydrogen measurement that is not cross sensitive to
virtually every other gas. The analyzer
is ideal for use anywhere hydrogen is
produced or consumed, such as refinery, natural-gas, petrochemical, and
industrial-gas applications, where realtime measurements can enhance processplant efficiencies, improve diagnostics,
and reduce maintenance requirements
(Fig. 4). The analyzer is easy to install
and use, providing analog and serial outputs for accurate, real-time hydrogen
measurement in multicomponent or even
varying processstreams.

Combining fiber-optic distributedtemperature-sensing (DTS) data with

other surface and downhole information can provide the insight oil and gas
operators need to enhance production
and make more-informed operational decisions. But current practices to
manage this information are complex,
costly, and time-consuming, making it
difficult to extract the full value of the
data. The Baker Hughes AMBIT fiberoptic data-management service helps
operators simplify data integration and
improve productivity and performance.
The secure, cloud-based AMBIT service
is designed to reduce the workload and
cost of data management compared with
traditional services that require costly
and complicated systems, programs, and
licenses. Deployed through a softwareas-a-service model, the AMBIT service
enables users to access their data in real
time through a web interface, to make
more-efficient and -effective operational
decisions. The management of large volumes of data is simplified by incorporating production mark-up-language DTS
standards, enabling easy integration with
applications and devices across multiple
vendors. This allows transmission of data
in a common format, enabling users to
share the data quickly and easily with the
capability of tracking metadata and saving multiple versions of processed data
without compromising any raw data in
the process. JPT

For additional information, visit

For additional information, visit

www.h2scan.com.

www.bakerhughes.com.

For additional information, visit

www.pqcorp.com/pc.

Hydrogen-Specific
Process Analyzer

19

TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

Encapsulated ESP Handles Multiphase Flows

To Extend Run Life and Boost Oil Recovery
Jonathan Nichols and Nathan Holland, Baker Hughes

Electrical submersible pump (ESP) systems are critical to achieving the maximum production rates and reservoir
pressure drawdown that improve ultimate recovery. But when gas pockets
enter the wellbore and cause system
interruptions, the effectiveness of a traditional ESP can be undermined.
Gas-handling capability is one of the
most complex and challenging issues in
artificial lift. Production in unconventional wells varies significantly, depending on the evolution of the reservoir. In
a typical scenario, the well begins producing with high liquid rates and some
gas. Over a period of a few months, oil
production rates fall and gas production rises.
While many wells can produce with
small quantities of gas, the presence of
large gas volumes precludes the use of
conventional pumping equipment. The
gas-handling challenges are exacerbated
by the long horizontals and multiphase
flow of oil and gas that are common in
unconventional oil plays.
Most horizontal wells are not perfectly horizontal. The wells lateral portions
have undulations that cause the accumulation of water in the low spots and gas
in the high spots. During the production phase in unconventional plays,
higher levels of natural
gas are usually

released from the pay zone as reservoir pressure depletes. This gas typically enters the horizontal wellbore and
accumulates in the high side of the lateral, creating large gas slugs that cause
low-flow or no-flow conditions in an ESP
system as they move up the wellbore.
The resulting cycling and gas-lock conditions affect system reliability, which can
interrupt production and limit ultimate
reservesrecovery.
In challenging downhole conditions,
operators often choose to install an ESP
system below the perforations. This scenario is particularly useful in wells with
high gas content in the fluid stream and
in highly productive wells, where operators want to maximize the pressure
drawdown to release additional reserves
from the reservoir. Placing the ESP below
the perforations separates the gas from
the fluid, eliminating issues associated
with gas entering the ESP.
However, reliability becomes a concern because fluid does not flow past
the motor at the appropriate velocity to ensure motor cooling. To overcome this issue, the ESP motor
can be encased in a
shroud,

but using a shroud can limit the size of

the ESP system and, therefore, production rates.

Encapsulated System
To mitigate these problems, Baker
Hughes developed the Cenesis Phase
multiphase production system (Fig. 1)
that encapsulates the entire ESP in a
shroud to separate gas naturally from the
production stream before it can enter the
pump. The multiphase encapsulated production system includes the FlexPumpER
extended-range pump, which enables
production over a wide flow range and
eliminates costly system changeouts as
production declines. Wide vane openings
in the pumps mixed-flow pump stage
designs help mitigate the impact of natural gas on the system.
The shroud provides a reservoir of
fluid that allows the lighter natural gas to
rise up the annulus while the heavier
liquids enter the shroud
to be produced

Fig. 1The Cenesis Phase multiphase production

system overcomes multiphaseflow challenges in
unconventional wells by encapsulating the entire electrical
submersible pump (ESP) system in a shroud to separate
gasnaturally from the production stream before it can enter the
pump. Graphics courtesyof Baker Hughes.

20

JPT MARCH 2016

through the ESP system. It also enables the ESP system to continue operating when gas slugs displace fluid in the wellbore to
create low-flow or no-flowconditions.
Mitigating gas interference in the pump stabilizes production rates, im-proves efficiency, and eliminates reliability issues
and downtime associated with pump cycling and gas-lock conditions. The shrouded system design is also beneficial during
the installation, protecting the ESP components as they pass
through the deviated sections of a horizontal wellbore.

Recirculation Extends Reliability

The system design features a patented, integrated recirculation
system that extends ESP longevity and reliability by ensuring
adequate motor cooling. The recirculation system continuously redirects fluid flow past the motor to prevent overheating.
Thus, it provides mechanical protection for the motor lead
extension during installation in deviated or horizontal wellbores and from downhole pressure changes.
Additionally, the recirculation system can be used to deliver a
chemical treatment to the area directly below the ESP motor to
treat the entire ESP in wells where there are scale or corrosion
concerns. The chemical treatment is pumped through the recirculation pump, which mixes the chemicals with well fluid before
they come in contact with the ESP system metallurgy. This premixing minimizes any impact on theequipment.
In wells with sand production issues, sand management
devices can be incorporated to keep sand from entering the ESP
or falling back into it during ashutdown.

Case Study: Kansas

Deploying the multiphase encapsulated production system
recently helped an operator in Kansas increase production
by 346% compared with a gas lift system, and improved ESP
system run life by 440% vs. a traditional ESP design (Fig.2).
The operator had completed a well using 7-in. casing, and during the first year of production installed two separate standard
ESP systems and a gas lift system in an attempt to maximize
production. However, each system produced disappointingresults.
Gas lift was unable to draw down the bottomhole pressure,
which limited production. The standard ESPs experienced frequent shutdowns and high motor temperatures, resulting in
deferred production and reliability problems.
Each conventional ESP system produced for several months
but began to have gas interference when the pressure in the
wells declined, which led to an increased number of gas slugging incidents. The increased gas volume in the wellbore caused
frequent gas locking of the ESP, which resulted in little to no
liquid flowing past the motor and through the pump. Fluid flow
is necessary to maintain an adequate operatingtemperature.
Gas-locking events ultimately led to short runs of 144 days and
102 days, respectively, for the two original ESPs. Following the
short runs, the operator tried gas lift. The gas lift system eliminated shutdowns caused by gas interference. However, production was extremely constrained, never exceeding 4 BOPD vs. an
average of 66 BOPD and 59 BOPD for the two ESP systems. The

JPT MARCH 2016

2012

2014

2013

Free
ESP
Gas Lift
ESP
Flowing 144-Day Run 113-Day Run 102-Day Run

Oil

Gas

2015

Cenesis Phase
780-Day Run

Water

Water + Oil

Gas-to-Liquid Ratio

Pump Intake Pressure

Fig. 2Using a multiphase encapsulated production system, an operator in Kansas increased production by 346%,
compared with a gas lift system, and improved ESP run life by 440% vs. a traditional ESP.

limited oil production achievable with gas

lift made the well uneconomic.
After evaluating the performance of
the previous artificial lift methods, a
5-in. multiphase encapsulated produc-

tion system for 7-in. casing was used

to decrease nonproductive time and
increase the reliability and run life of the
ESP system. The encapsulated system
eliminated temperature-related shut-

downs and maximized production and

run life. At case history publication time,
the system had run 790 days, compared
with 144 days for the the longest-runningESP that it replaced. JPT

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22

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E&P NOTES

Hess Pilots Automated Drilling Rig

in the Bakken
Trent Jacobs, JPT Senior Technology Writer

A pilot project carried out by Hess Corp.

demonstrates just how quickly automated drilling technology is able to take a rig
from the bottom of the pack and push it
to the top.
In November 2014, the company
selected a rig from its Bakken Shale fleet
that had been in the bottom quartile
in terms of performance for more than
2years. But over the course of a 16-well
program, the rig became the second fastest Hess had working at the time. Year-toyear comparisons showed the automated
rig had improved its drilling footage per
day by 24% compared with the fleet average of 17% over the same period.
Despite the apparent success of the
project, the industry downturn forced
the company to lay down the rig last year.
Details of the pilot were discussed at a
meeting of the SPE Gulf Coast Section in
January in Houston. The technical paper
summarizing the results will be presented at the IADC/SPE Drilling Conference
and Exhibition this month in Fort Worth,
Texas (SPE 178870).
The system, supplied by National Oilwell Varco, used a downhole automation
system that controlled the auto-driller
system on the rig. Wired pipe delivered
high-speed data between these systems
and tools that measured key parameters, including downhole weight-on-bit,
torque, and vibration. Matthew Isbell,

a drilling optimization adviser at Hess,

noted that the wired pipe delivered so
much information that it was a challenge
to handle it all.
The data fire hose overwhelmed us,
both in terms of analyzing the run as it
was happening as well as at the end of
each well and trying to figure out what
we should modify on the system for the
next well. He added that one of the goals
of any future automated pilot is to come
up with a way to better visualize the data
to make the process of understanding it
more efficient.
Keith Trichel, a drilling engineering
adviser at Hess, said the original plan for
the pilot was to simply turn the system on
and observe how it functioned without
asking the rig crew to take action on the
real-time data streaming out of the well.
But to our surprise, the rig crew and the
folks involved in the drilling process really quickly grasped what they were seeing
and started reacting to it, he said.
With the ability to see what was taking
place downhole, the rig crew began using
the automated equipment as a learning
tool. This enabled them to use the data
to run on-the-fly experiments to achieve
performance improvements and see
problems sooner.
One key discovery the crew made
was that they could speed up the rotation from the standard 4550 rev/min to

90rev/min. By speeding up the rotation,

the drillstring became more stable and
allowed the vertical section to be drilled
in one run vs. the usual two. Other Hessoperated rigs in the area followed their
lead and made similar performancegains.
The pilot also showed that as certain
gains are made, unexpected problems
may be introduced. The major issues
Hess faced involved increased wear on
the bits due to the rate of penetration
and the bottomhole assemblys tendency
to drop, which occurs when bit force is
placed on the low side of the well while
drilling the curve.
The pilot had aimed to generate enough
time savings to break even on the cost of
the automated system but achieved this
on only six of the wells drilled while six
other wells missed the target by less than
USD 100,000. The overruns on the other
four wells were chalked up to trouble
time in the curved sections and time lost
trying out different bottomhole assembly
units to address dropping issues.
The downturn had other unexpected
effects on the project. Isbell said the drilling team had wanted to limit variables as
much as possible. But because of industry unrest and turnover, the automated
rig had three different drilling superintendents, four different drilling engineers,
and six different company men come and
go over the course of the project.

Payoff Still Possible in Refracturing Conventional Wells

Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor
There has been a lot of talk about refracturing recently, but the percentage of wells
fractured more than once is a small fraction
of the 35% rate from the 1950s to 1970s.

26

That statistic came from a recent

presentation by Anton Babaniyazov, a staff production engineer for
ConocoPhillips, who used it to begin

a talk for the SPE Gulf Coast Sections

Permian Basin Study Group about
a successful fracturing campaign in
west Texas.

JPT MARCH 2016

The wells were in conventional reservoirs in the Permian Basin, some dating
back to the mid-century years he referred
to as when far fewer wells were fractured
but a significant number were refractured, often multiple times. The point
was that there is money to be made on
the oil left behind in reservoir rock that
is of far higher quality than the unconventional rock layers, which have gotten far more attention and investment in
recent years.
With the growing numbers of aging
wellbores, rework in the existing zones
such as refracturing helps to reduce temporarily abandoned well counts, increase
production rates, and often reserves,
he said, adding, the rework inventory
remains high and economically attractive for Permian Basin operators.
A campaign in 2010 and 2012 covering more than 70 wells yielded an
80% success rate, which Babaniyazov defined as a production gain that
allowed payback on the investment within 6 months to a year. The cost varied
because the nature of the work ranges
from acidizing to refracturing or deepening the well. While the latter options
cost more, they also offer higher potential gains.
The price collapse has put the program on hold at a time when spending has been slashed, and the outlook
is uncertain because prices for oil and
services are so hard to predict. When

I was involved, it was USD 50/bbl and

now it is what, 29 a barrel? he said
during a presentation in mid-January. USD 30/bbl is not the same as
USD 50 bbl.
ConocoPhillips campaign was started because it had a significant number
of wells dating back as far as the 1960s,
when production had dwindled to the
level at which the company needed to
spend to increase the output or plug and
abandon the wells.
A way was lacking to identify which
of the wells would be candidates, and
rank which offered the greatest potential payoff. There was limited industry experience to draw on. Industry
reports on refracturing tend to focus
on successes, with little data available about the ones that had failed and
the causes.
The answer to the question was complicated. Based on the slides shown during Babaniyazovs presentation, screening required answering many questions.
At the top of the list: Are there significant volumes of good quality reservoir that have not been tapped. He
said a study showed wells in the Permian in which 30% of the reserves had
beenbypassed.
The condition of the steel casing
and cement around it is also critical. A
cement bond log estimating that 95% of
the cement is sound leaves enough room
for a channel that can divert fluid and

undercut the effectiveness of the fracturing work.

The targets were a mix of new and
old. Some aimed at hitting newer reservoir rock in higher-pressure zones,
others were designed to improve the
output from older reservoir sections in
which flow assurance was often a problem. Refracturing could open production pathways where there has been
degradation of fracture conductivity
over time.
The success of the program required
cooperation among a wide range of
exploration professionals, from geologists seeking out untapped rock to fracturing engineers considering the best
way to divert fluid so it reached the
targeted areas. Success also depended on training the field staff to gather
the critical information, such as doing
mini-frac tests to measure localized
pressure levels, which are needed to
evaluate the local formation pressure
levels required to assess the potential
refracturingyield.
The system may still be of use in what
will be a period of extended low prices,
but that will have to be verified.
You have time to go back to the drawing board, Babaniyazov said. Technical
and economic success will require using
this analysis to determine the risks and
rewards of refracturing, ensure the well
is sound, and identify which diversion
techniques are the best options.

Drawdown Management Critical to Mitigating EUR Losses

in Shale Wells
Stephen Whitfield, Staff Writer
The increase in production from hydraulic fracturing operations in recent years
has had a dramatic effect on the oil and
gas industry. However, as shale plays
have taken up a larger percentage of the
overall market, annual decreases in estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) values
for shale wells is now a major concern
foroperators.
At a presentation hosted by the SPE
Gulf Coast Section, Ibrahim Abou-Sayed
discussed how the adoption of drawdown management strategies have

JPT MARCH 2016

helped mitigate and reduce these losses.

Abou-Sayed, the founder and president
of i-Stimulation Solutions, also spoke
about the elements of drawdown management that have been found to have
the most significant impact on shale
wellproductivity.
In the presentation, titled Shale Well
Drawdown Management and Surveillance to Avoid EUR Loss and Impact on
Refracturing, Abou-Sayed listed several
parameters that affect production management strategies. Among them were

the permeability of the formation and

various types of pressures, such as the
initial reservoir pressure, the pressure
at the safety relief valve, and the closure
pressures on the hydraulic fracturing
proppant and unpropped fracture surfaces. Abou-Sayed said downhole flow
pressure, reservoir pressure, and choke
size are the parameters over which operators can exert the greatest control.
When you are locating the reservoir
or reducing the downhole pressure, you
are putting more closure pressure on the

27

proppant, and you are closing the nonpropped fracture, he said. You have to
take all of that into consideration, otherwise you will see your productivity go
way down very quickly.
Abou-Sayed discussed the Haynesville
Shale Development Program. Launched
by Exco Resources in March 2008, the
program sought to increase production
in the Haynesville Shale reservoir located in east Texas and northern Louisiana.
The Haynesville shale was determined to be soft and friable, potentially supporting proppant embedment and
negatively impacting production. As a
result, the company implemented a controlled drawdown strategy in the wells
early lives. The methodology involved
the development of a maximum drawdown limit based on well depth, reservoir pressure, bottomhole flowing pressure, and critical closure stress on the
proppantpack.
After initial testing on some of its vertical wells, Exco applied a finalized drawdown method to every vertical well and
an additional horizontal well, which was
produced with increasing choke sizes
to help maximize early water recovery
while maintaining the drawdown below
the maximum limit. Production from the
horizontal well was shown to be similar

to the vertical wells, but the horizontal

wells pressure profile was significantly higher and declined at a slower rate.
Exco concluded that this was because it
could maintain sufficient backpressure.
Abou-Sayed said it is important, but
not critical, to find an accurate bottomhole pressure when determining the
maximum drawdown level.
Its not going to kill you immediately,
he said. What we have seen with many
companies is that theyll have different
drawdown criteria from the first week to
the second week, and from the second
week to the third week.
As shale formations are fractured
under local conditions, the maximum
drawdown level is not measured from the
initial reservoir pressure. Abou-Sayed
said operators should observe reservoir
pressure at three times: at the time of
perforation, on the day the well is opened
up to fracture, and during the first stage
of production. Tighter formations often
create higher pressures.
Abou-Sayed said the drop in EUR values is in part due to low effective system
permeability and the design and implementation of ineffective completion
and stimulation strategies. In addition,
he said physical deformations sometimes cause excessive fracture conduc-

tivity loss. This leads to a lost connection between the well, the fracture, and
theformation.
Another physical deformation that
is of particular concern for operators
is the gradual downslope movement of
shale formations under the direct influence of gravity and the weight of wells
and other facilities. This downslope
movement, known as rock creep, can
ultimately lead to a reduction in fracture conductivity.
Abou-Sayed said that creep is an
important factor to consider in devising production management strategies
because it is an inevitable consequence of
shale operations.
Creep will happen irrespective of
what you do, Abou-Sayed said. You
cannot stop it, but you have to live with
it. The lower the pressure, or the lower
the load you put into your well, the longer the creep will take before it actually
hits your fracture. Its a learning process. Its a continuing stage.

For Further Reading

SPE 144425 Haynesville Shale Development
ProgramFrom Vertical to Horizontal by
I.S. Abou-Sayed, i-Stimulation Solutions;
M.A. Sorrell, R.A. Foster, E.L. Atwood et al.,
Exco Resources.

DNV GL Launches Initiatives To Reduce Cost of Qualifying

Composite Materials
Stephen Whitfield, Staff Writer
As offshore projects continue to grow
in size and scope, the oil and gas industry is looking for new ways to lower
costs. To help in that effort, DNV GL has
launched a pair of initiatives focused
on the use of composite components in
offshoreapplications.
Last September, it announced the
formation of a joint industry project
(JIP) to investigate affordable composite components in the subsea sector.
In December, the company released a
recommended practice on thermoplastic composite pipes (TCP) that allows
companies to use TCPs in place of
steel or traditional flexible material in
offshoreoperations.

28

The JIP aims to replace large-scale

testing of composite components for
subsea activities with a process it calls
certification by simulation. The idea
behind the process is to use the results
from numerical simulations during qualification and certification. The JIP will
attempt to validate advanced material
models by experimentation, focusing
primarily on predicting chemicalaging.
Jan Weitzenbck, a principal engineer
at DNV GL, said certification by simulation has several benefits. Operators
can lower costs by reducing long-term
testing. DNV GL estimated that a typical qualification campaign for a subsea
composite component can cost between

NOK 10 million and NOK 100 million

(approximately USD 1.1711.7 million).
By adopting certification by simulation, operators can potentially save
4050% on the certification and qualification of subsea composite components,
along with an extra NOK 16 million
(USD 18.9 million) in savings for the
recertification of existing components.
In addition, Weitzenbck said the process can help save time requalifying and
recertifying previously qualified components for new applications. It will also
allow for a faster transfer of information
between projects.
Information and test results can
more easily be reused in other projects,

JPT MARCH 2016

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Fig. 1A joint industry project led by DNV GL is investigating the use of composite components on subsea equipment
such as a subsea processing unit.

and the modeling approaches may also

be applied in early design to select materials, he said.
The JIP consists of seven companies
in addition to DNV GL: Statoil, Petrobras, Petronas, Nexans, GE, Aker Subsea,
and Airborne Oil and Gas. The Research
Council of Norway is also funding two
PhD scholarships at the Norweigan University of Science and Technology in
Trondheim on this topic. Weitzenbck
said the JIP members met twice in 2015
and work is well under way to delivering
the first draft procedures by thissummer.
DNV GL also plans to develop processes to accept mathematical material models in the certification process, which
will be documented in a revised edition
of the DNV GL offshore standard for
compositecomponents.
The recommended practice for TCP,
DNVGL-RP-F119, was developed through
an 18-company JIP led by DNV GL that
included polymer producers, TCP manufacturers, and operating companies.
Intended to target operators, contrac-

30

tors, and other entities seeking acceptance to use TCP, it provides technical
provisions and recommended acceptance criteria to prevent failure in
response to combinations of cross-sectional forces, internal pressures, and
external pressures. It accounts for casespecific issues related to use and integration when the TCP is part of a larger
system and requires that a system risk
assessment is performed.
Per Anker Hassel, a principal engineer of polymers, fibers, and composites at DNV GL, said TCP is a cost-effective option because it is lightweight and
spoolable. This could allow operators to
use smaller vessels during the installation of a pipeline or a riser and during
the decommissioning phase of an offshore project.
However, companies looking to use
TCP face some barriers, most of them
coming from a lack of familiarity with the
product and its qualification. Hassel said
a barrier is that there was previously no
standard to qualify TCP for offshore use.

Also, despite the increased use of TCP in

the last decade, the in-service experience
from offshore application and installation is limited.
Hassel said traditional riser configurations might not be an optimal application
for TCP risers and, because it is a more
recently developed technology, companies are not used to working withit.
As with all new technology, there is
a barrier due to a lack of experience
with the new technology. For example, the [TCPs] low weight in water is a
huge benefit, but it is also a challenge for
deepwater riser systems with respect to
dynamic behavior due to floater motions,
wave, and current loading. JPT

For Further Reading

Torp, C. 2015. New RP on Thermoplastic
Composite Pipes Offers Cost Savings.
DNVGL Oil and Gas News, 14 December
2015, https://www.dnvgl.com/news/newrp-on-thermoplastic-composite-pipesoffers-cost-savings-51433 (accessed
08February 2016).

JPT MARCH 2016

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Electromagnetic
Imaging Offers
First Look at the
Propped Rock
Stephen Rassenfoss,
JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor

Carbo Ceramics created this image of a propped fracture

using specially coated proppant stimulated by electromagnetic
energy. This image of the heel stage of a ConocoPhillips well in
the Delaware Basin is the first use of this method in a working
well. Proppant injected: 230,000 lb; maximum length, height,
and width: 440 ft, 330 ft, and 240 ft, respectively; propped
reservoir volume: 1.4 MMcf. Images courtesy of Carbo Ceramics.

series of images that look like

yellow lumps on a line are the
first-ever images of the area
around the wellbore where fractures have
been propped open using specially coated proppant stimulated by electromagnetic (EM) energy.
The images created by Carbo Ceramics
could represent a milestone on the journey to find an answer to a critical question facing unconventional producers

32

how much rock is being stimulated and

propped with grains of sand or ceramic
for maximum production?
People see the value in this area; they
are starved for this, said Terry Palisch,
global engineering adviser for Carbo,
who described what is seen in the images
as the propped reservoir volume.
Four groups of researchers are seeking a direct way to visualize what is left
behind after fracturing. Three of the

projects involve getting images by using

proppant specially treated to be visible
when stimulated by EM energy.
Microseismic images currently used in
the industry to show fracturing results
are based on the popping sounds of
rocks rubbing against each other, like
fingers snapping, but not the quiet, productive work of opening fractures and
pumping in proppant to ensure they
stay open.

JPT MARCH 2016

Cutaway views of the first (left) and last (right) perforation cluster show a gap in the earlier one, and a lighter area
indicating lower proppant density at the edge of the later stage. Source: SPE 179161. Image courtesy of Carbo Ceramics.

Microseismic doesnt really tell us

where the proppant has gone. It shows
where failure events are occurring, said
Mukul Sharma, a petroleum engineering
professor at the University of Texas (UT)
at Austin. He heads the Hydraulic Fracturing and Sand Control Joint Industry
Project (UT Fracturing JIP) at UT, which
is leading one of the projects mentioned
earlier. What matters is where the proppant is. In many rocks, the propped part
of the fracture is the primary contributor to well productivity. That is the main
advantage of electromagnetic (visualization) over microseismic.
Imaging the area that has propped
fractures is a starting point for multiple investigations into how to efficiently extract more than 10% of the oil in
unconventional plays. It can define the
length and height of propped fractures,
offer more accurate measures of the productive rock for modeling, and tell engineers how to space wells to effectively
stimulate the reservoir without hitting
nearby wells.
There are several E&P (companies)
that are very interested in that because
finally we will be able to tell, Are we effectively stimulating these rocks and should
we have our well spacing at X, Y, or Z,
or in between? Gary Kolstad, president
and chief executive officer of Carbo, said
in a recent call with stock analysts. Now
you can take a look and say, Am I really
spending my capital how I should?
A fourth project for visualizing fracturing is aimed at adding proppant location

JPT MARCH 2016

information to microseismic imaging by

pumping in tiny sound emitters, which
produce a distinct noise when the microdevices are lodged in a fracture.
Depressed oil and gas prices, which
have made most unconventional development unprofitable, add pressure to find
tools to understand why so many fractures are not productive. Bjrn Paulsson,
chief executive officer of Paulsson Inc.,
which is developing the in-well receivers, pointed out that 80% of production
comes from 20% of fractures, wasting a
vast majority of the fracturing cost.

Electromagnetic Testing
The microseismic approach is aimed
at creating a 3D array showing points
where proppant is present, but it will be
years before the partners on that project
have built the equipment needed for its
first test. EM-based methods are already
being tried in the ground.
A technical paper by Palisch et al.
(SPE 179161) presented at the 2016 SPE
Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference was a first look at what is possible in a producing well. The imaging
involved using 230,000 lb of proppant
covered with an electrically conductive coating, which made it visible when
stimulated by electromagnetic energy from the well casing in an 8,000-ft
deepwell.
Multiple new technologies were
required for this method, including
development of the conductive coating,
a transmission method to send out a

strong EM field using the steel casing,

and new algorithms for processing.
When Carbo did the test last summer
in the ConocoPhillips well in the Delaware Basin, it was not sure what, if anything, it would get. When we did the first
test the number 1 goal was, Can we pick
out an EM signal from all the noise?
Palisch said. We were looking at a needle
in a haystack.
The test was the product of years of
development work aimed at creating the
strongest possible signal and the most
effective way to record and process the
data. We removed as much hay as we
could, and did what we could to make the
needle as big as possible, Palisch said.
The system worked in a shallow test,
and when an opportunity arose to try it
again, they took a larger-than-expected
next step.
The result was an image, and a long list
of things to work on. In January, Carbo
was still working though the large body
of data gathered to reduce the noise in
hopes of improving the image. After the
injection of the 180,000 lb of white sand,
230,000 lb of treated ceramic proppant was injected through four perforations in the last stage fractured. One
unknown is what the propped area would
have looked like if all the proppant had
beenconductive.
The company has been refining its
image-processing method to sharpen the
resolution from 25-m grid blocks to a
fraction of that measure. Over the next
year, the largest maker of ceramic prop-

33

Seeing Where the Proppant Goes

Three projects are developing ways to use specially
treated proppant and electromagnetic (EM) energy
to create images of where proppant is concentrated
in fractures, and a fourth is working on a microseismic
alternative.

First Test in Well

Funding: Carbo Ceramics
Involves: ConocoPhillips, Sandia National Laboratories,
GroundMetrics, Weatherford
Method: A proppant coating containing a metal that is
an electric conductor is stimulated using an EM device
in the well. The activated proppant is monitored by
an array of surface receivers, and data processing and
imaging are done by Carbo Ceramics.
Status: A successful test in a west Texas well showed it is
able to observe where the proppant has gone.
Next: More tests are planned this year to image larger
areas and increase the ability to observe smaller details.
For more information:
SPE 179161 Recent Advancements in Far-Field Proppant
Detection by Terry Palisch, Wadhah Al-Tailji, Carbo
Ceramics, et al.

Models Verified in the Ground

Funding: Advanced Energy Consortium at the University
of Texas at Austin
Involves: Multi-Phase Technologies, FRx, Clemson
University, Duke University, and University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill
Method: EM energy is used to stimulate conductive
proppant to image it in the ground. Physical evidence is
gathered to verify testing results.
Status: Early testing using EM imaging to observe the
location of grains made of steel shot or petroleum coke
showed it could accurately image fractures in six shallow
test plots, each covering a 10 m10 m area.
Next: Seeking to do a test in a 100-m deep well.
For more information:
SPE 179170 Remote Imaging of Proppants in Hydraulic
Fracture Networks Using Electromagnetic Methods:
Results of Small-Scale Field Experiments by Douglas La
Brecque, Russell Brigham, Multi-Phase Technologies, et al.

Logging Tools and Electrodes

either a logging tool in an uncased hole or electrodes

installed inside the casing.
Status: Tool components, software, and processing
systems are being built and verified.
Next: In-ground testing outside of Austin later this year
and, if that is successful, in a commercial well in the
Marcellus Shale.
For more information:
SPE-168606 A New Method for Fracture Diagnostics
Using Low Frequency Electromagnetic Induction by
Saptaswa Basu and Mukul M. Sharma, University of Texas
at Austin.
Search online for:
Fracture Diagnostics Using Low Frequency
Electromagnetic Induction and Electrically Conductive
Proppants. DE-FE0024271

Microseismic and Micropoppers

Funding: US Department of Energy, Research
Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA)
Involves: Paulsson Inc., Fluidion, Southwestern Energy,
RPSEA.
Method: Sound created by the collapse of tiny devices
called acoustic microemitters is recorded by an
ultrasensitive fiber-optic seismic sensor array inside a
nearby wellbore for mapping fractures and propped
areas.

Funding: Hydraulic Fracturing and Sand Control JIP at

the University of Texas at Austin and the US Department
of Energy

Status: The equipment and method are being built and

tested.

Involves: University of Texas, Gearhart Companies, and

an unnamed electronics maker

Search online:

Method: A proppant made of electrically conductive

material that can be stimulated using EM energy from

34

Electric transmission lines and a saltwater disposal

site at this location are examples of noise that can
interfere with electromagnetic proppant imaging.
Photo courtesy of Carbo Ceramics.

Next: Testing when equipment is ready in a couple years.

Injection and Tracking of Microseismic Emitters
To Optimize Unconventional Oil and Gas (UOG)
Development. DE-FE0024360

JPT MARCH 2016

Ambient_Seismic-JPT-FINAL.pdf

2/11/16

2:46 PM

9
4.5

Electrode
Core Location
(Fracture Present)

Core Location
(Fracture Not Present)

Injection Well

0 meters

Vertical Electrode
Array
2m

meters

4.5

0.1 Conductivity Difference

50

4 meters

Depth of Observed
Fracture within the
cross-section
2m

9.58 meters
0.1 Conductivity Difference

50

Two images show a fracture propped with conductive grains of coke breeze.
Top image: The colors show the level of conductivity, with the red zone around
the well having the strongest response, which declines toward the end of the
saucer-shaped fracture. Bottom image: A cross-section of the test which is
1.5m below ground. Source: SPE 179170.

pant will be doing more well tests. It is

seeking to expand the number of stages
covered, and to significantly reduce the
cost and effort required for testing.
Those working on EM proppant imaging methods need to convince skeptical reservoir engineers that these images
created using methods based on esoteric
physics and mathematics represent reality in the ground.
A priority for the EM proppant imaging project put together by the Advanced
Energy Consortium (AEC) is gathering physical evidence to see if its mod-

36

els provide useful information of the

extent and basic properties of fractures,
which can be relied on, said Douglas La
Brecque, chief scientist for Multi-Phase
Technologies. The company is providing
the EM technology for the effort by the
AEC, which is part of the Bureau of Economic Geology at UT. The project also
involves other universities and institutions (SPE179170).
While there is value in knowing the
height and length of the propped fracturesfrequently measures of fracture
lengths are too high, leading to exagger-

ated production estimatesthere is a

limit to what operators will pay and how
much time and effort they will commit
to answering these questions.
The US Department of Energy
summed those limits up in a statement of goals for its proppant imaging
research when it said it is seeking a new
method that will have a very significant impact on fracture diagnostics, as
it is cheap, repeatable, and fairly simple
to run.
At this early stage, the cost of EM
proppant imaging is comparable to
another widely used diagnostic test:
collecting and analyzing core samples.
Palisch said the next step is to reduce
the cost so that it is comparable to
microseismic, and reduce it from there.
Ultimately, I would like the price of
EM proppant detection to be like logging, which is low enough to be done on
nearly every well, he said.

Visible Grains
Microseismic interpretation of fracturing requires judgment calls. It is common to detect seismic events thousands
of feet from the wellbore the moment
pumping begins to increase the pore
pressure, said Mark Wilkinson, who
worked for a microseismic company before becoming the vice president
of unconventionals and geophysics at
GroundMetrics, an EM-based company
that worked on the Carbo test.
No one interpreting that initial distant event would relate it to the fracture, but where do you draw the line?
he said, adding more direct measure
should create a better understanding.
The company has provided surface
monitoring services for Carbo, and is
working on a research project for the
US Department of Energy to track the
flow of a high-contrast formulated fracturing fluidhighly conductive brine
during fracturing.
Imaging fluid or proppant requires
a chemical makeup that creates a
sharp contrast to the background rock.
Because reservoirs are also somewhat
conductive, a good target must be really
conductive, on the order of 1,000 times
to 10,000 times more than the surrounding rock, La Brecque said.

JPT MARCH 2016

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In this brutal business environment,

Palisch is wary of the price rising as the
technology is developed. Even a seemingly small increase in the cost per ton
can be a significant negative because the
proppant is such a large part of the completion cost, he said.

Distant Sensing

An illustration of the area covered by an inductive logging tool being built by

Gearhart Companies. The tool will transmit and receive an EM signal used to
create a 3D image of proppant in fractures around a wellbore. Image courtesy
of the Hydraulic Fracturing and Sand Control JIP, University of Texas at Austin.

Multiple electric and magnetic reactions happen when an EM field stimulates a conductive proppant. Research teams are looking for which
of those effects offers the best signal
for imaging.
The sand and ceramic normally used
for propping is a poor conductor, so the
three groups are all looking for alternatives. A durable, cheap material is
required because large quantities of conductive proppant are required to create
a strong enough signal to be detected at
a distance.
The only EM project that has disclosed what materials it is using is the
AEC-backed group, which tested grains
of steel shot and a conductive form of
carbon known as Loresco coke breeze.
Both were used to create images of shallow tests in South Carolina, where fractures were created in 10 m10 m plots.
The unconsolidated rocky soil allowed
them to use hand tools to observe the
fracturescreated.
Later this year, the coke will be used
on the next test in a well that is 100 m
deep. But in a producing well, a stronger material will be required to stand up
to the pressures at greater depths, said

38

Mohsen Ahmadian, a project manager

for the Bureau of Economic Geology.
Carbo and the UT fracturing consortium group did not disclose what
materials they are using to create conductive proppant. When Palisch was
asked, he referred to Carbos patent
application, which covers a wide range
ofpossibilities.
Sharma said the UT fracturing consortium plans to make proppant from a commonly available material that costs more
than sand but less than the bauxite used
to make ceramic grains. Lab tests indicate this unnamed substance is strong
enough to ensure good fracture conductivity even at high stresses, he said.
While Carbos initial test was comparable to the high cost of core testing, Palisch sees savings ahead because
it will not have the one-time expenses
associated with a first use.
GroundMetrics, which has been using
EM for tracking carbon dioxide (CO2)
flows for enhanced oil recovery, has
reduced its cost to less than the level
common for microseismic by applying
what it has learned from CO2 tracking to
cut the time required to do the jobs by
50%, Wilkinson said.

The idea of searching for oil by identifying differences in electrical resistivity goes back to first use of the method for subsurface mapping by the
Schlumberger brothers 100 years ago.
The electromagnetic method is one of
the earliest forms of geophysics. It has
been around forever, Wilkinson said.
What is new are the ways electromagnetic energy is injected into the reservoir and the receiver technology used to
observe its impact.
In the Carbo test, power was sent
down a cable to a point at the heel of a
horizontal well where it was put in contact with the well casing, making the
steel pipe a source of electric and magnetic fields that stimulated the specially
preparedproppant.
Using casing as an antenna for EM
has not been around long. It is used
widely by GroundMetrics, which was
hired to deploy 20 of its EM receivers for the Carbo test to gather data
from the stimulated proppant. The
image was created by comparing the
difference between the data gathered
during 30-minute periods before and
after fracturing.
The new-generation receivers, developed with support from the US military, measure changes in the electrical potential in the ground. Wilkinson
said they are more reliable than galvanic devices, whose readings fluctuate significantly, and the older receiver designs are more difficult to install
and maintain.
At this early stage, no one is wedded
to any particular combination of EM
source and receiver. Multiple projects
are likely to yield a variety of options
that may be mixed and matched by
future users based on the requirements
of the job.
The UT fracturing JIPs technology program, which is funded by the US

JPT MARCH 2016

New Technology Seeks To Give Voice to Proppant

A pair of inventive companies are working on a way to
allow microseismic tests to visualize the otherwise silent
process of propping fractures.
The project brings together a French creator of a microdevice designed to create a distinct sound when the hollow structure collapses after reaching its destination
Fluidionand an inventor in California who created an
ultrasensitive in-well seismic receiver array, which is the
only one capable of recording and locating that faint
popBjrn Paulsson.
We believe that with our sensorwe can more precisely
locate where microfracturing is happening and where the
proppant is going, said Paulsson, founder and chief executive officer of Paulsson Inc.
The joint effort is one of several research efforts backed
by the US Department of Energy to develop improved
ways of measuring the impact of fracturing. While others
are working on using electromagnetic imaging to show
the volume of propped rock, this project is aimed at mapping fracturing by locating points of sound from tiny
devices collapsed by natural pressure, like squeezing the
bubbles in a protective wrap.
The microdevices, which Fluidion calls acoustic microemitters, will be mass-produced using 3D printing techniques in large sheets, which are then cut into tiny bits.
Each emitter has a hollow core and includes a tiny version of a water clock that is activated when the device has
been exposed to reservoir pressure. The microelectromechanical device delays the collapse long enough to ensure
it reaches its destination in the ground before imploding.
Testing verified that the vast majority of the emitters could
survive a trip through a pump, Paulsson said.
The plan is to create emitters in two sizes: about 2 mm
across or 4 mm across, each of which will produce a different sound. The number to be used per test is under consideration, but a working estimate is about 1,000 acoustic microemitters per stage, he said. That would create

Department of Energy, is working on two

approaches that work within the well.
One is a low-frequency induction logging
tool for openhole completions, and the
other is permanent contact electrodes
that serve as EM transmitters and receivers for cased wells.
Its partner on the induction logging
tool is Gearhart Companies, which is
applying EM experience gained developing directional survey tools. The UT fracturing JIP is working with E-Spectrum

JPT MARCH 2016

40/70 Proppant vs. Acoustic Microemitters

40/70 Proppant
aka
Arkansas River Sand

4 mm 2 mm

(cm)

The black squares are acoustic microemitters, which

come in two sizes. At reservoir pressures, the hollow
structures collapse, making a distinct sound that
can be monitored to track where they travel in the
ground. Photo courtesy of Paulsson Inc.
a cloud of these microemitters and we could listen to
them and locate where they are in space, Paulsson said.
The different sounds of the large and small microemitters
could help identify the fracture size, as well as their extent
andorientation.
If all components meet specifications, the plan is to
place the receiver in an idle well in the middle of a sixwell pad, and observe the sounds in the other five as they
arefractured.
A couple of years of work are expected before inground tests are possible, he said. The time is required
for building a protective steel shell for the 2,500 ft-long
string that will house the 100-level receiver array, and to
develop the system needed to dependably mass-produce
themicroemitters.

Technologies for the hardware for cased

holes, Sharma said.
The electrodes can cover an area that
is a few hundred feet, he said. This
installed series of coils for transmitting
and receiving could also be used to measure other geological features, such as
fractures, and how they change. The tool
from Gearhart has undergone laboratory testing and Sharma said they are
aiming for a field test in a shallow well
thissummer.

Long Term
Carbo has seen the power of a picture.
Its first image of the propped reservoir generated support, ranging from
permissions from ConocoPhillips to
add its name to the SPE paper, to companies interested in backing future inwell imaging tests.
While the fracturing business is in a
deep funk, these projects are moving
forward. There is a good bit of interest
in it. I think in the next 4 or 5 years there

39

In this test for the

Advanced Energy
Consortium, a fracture
filled with sand
and coke breeze
was excavated
to determine the
accuracy of the
software used to
predict where it
traveled based on EM
imaging. A close-up
(left) shows how the
coke was concentrated
along the walls. Photo
courtesy ofAEC.

will be some kind of commercial deployment, Sharma said.

While Palisch said Carbo wants to
reach the market much sooner, there
will be plenty of room for future development work. The process draws on
advances in a range of disciplines
from material science to geophysics. When Carbo began looking for a
way to image where proppant goes, it
sought help from a government research
lab, Sandia National Laboratories,
Palisch said.
It chose one of their suggestions,
which coincided with work done by
a Carbo researcher Lew Bartel. Since
then, David Aldridge, a research geophysicist at Sandia National Laboratories, has advised Carbo on issues, such
as how to interpret EM data over a long
wellbore where it will be affected by
the irregular and unpredictable geologicconditions.
In a presentation made at the Society of
Exploration Geophysicists annual meeting last fall, he described that his project was adapting equations used by electrical engineers to model such things as
the electromagnetic fields around power

40

lines to predict the energy fields created

when the steel casing within a vertical
borehole is used as an antenna. Since
then, he has been working on adapting these equations to model horizontal wells surrounded by irregular rock
and fluids.
One of the most difficult aspects of
proppant imaging is developing the
inversion methods used to isolate and
image that needle of useful EM data,
and remove the noise added by electric
fields around the wellsite. While seismic
is based on a different sort of signal
sound wavesboth methods require
sophisticated algorithms to turn huge
amounts of data into a useful image.
Seismic inversion has occupied geophysicists for the past 50 years, Sharma
said. We are just starting out. Our work
is just scratching the surface. We are at
the beginning of this road.
The pace of onshore fracturing
work requires quick, low-cost processing. A progress report filed late
last year by the UT fracturing JIP said
that its method used to solve the
equations is computationally intensive and efforts are under way to

speed up the simulations by an order

of magnitude.
For the AEC project, the processing
side of things is a priority. One of the
deliverables is the best inversion software validated by physical evidence,
Ahmadian said.
To validate the code, the team carefully excavated the area fractured in its
first test. The site was shallow enough
to excavate to test our prediction, he
said, adding they were happy to see,
our code was very good.
The next step will be a UT test well,
where coring will be used to observe
if the imaging matched the fractures
found at a much deeper depth than its
initialtest.
Over time the goal of these teams will
be to find a lower-cost way to observe
the propped fractured area in much
greaterdetail.
We know we can get the length and
the orientation, of the fractured area,
Sharma said. We think we can get the
distribution. A test of how good we are
is whether we can model the geometry of
the fracture. It is a nontrivial problem telling where the proppant islocated.JPT

JPT MARCH 2016

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Industrial-sized Cyber Attacks

Threaten the
Upstream
Sector
Trent Jacobs, JPT Senior
Technology Writer

Malware designed
to infect operational
networks that control
oilfield machinery is on
the rise, and security
flaws make addressing
the situation difficult.
Image courtesyElbPresse.

he oil and gas

industry is coming to terms with a cyber threat landscape that has expanded beyond data breaches and the
theft of intellectual property. The latest battlefront is in the field
where critical drilling and production assets are at risk of being
disrupted or destroyed, thanks to their highly vulnerable control systems.
The industry has experienced only a few cases of these socalled cyber-to-physical attacks but the US Department of
Homeland Security predicts that by 2018 cyber attacks against
oil and gas infrastructure around the world will cost almost

USD 1.9 billion. One of the most

dire warnings comes from the multinational risk adviser and insurance
firm Willis Group, which in 2014 reported that a major energy catastrophe, on the
same scale as Piper Alpha, Phillips Pasadena,
Exxon Valdez, or Deepwater Horizon, could indeed be
caused by a cyber attack. The company noted in its report
that insurance providers generally will not cover such events.
The concern over control systems has come to the forefront
because of the widespread use of digital oilfield technology
that began about 2 decades ago. Driven by significant gains in
efficiency and production, companies eagerly moved to tether nearly every facet of operational networks to the Internet,
either directly or through corporate networks. On the plus side,
the industry gained invaluable real-time data, various operations became automated, and engineers working in office buildings could remotely control offshore operations.
But the computer hardware that makes all of this possible
was never designed to be connected to the Internet. Known col-

lectively as Industrial Control Systems (ICS), they were built

to run in isolation and thus have no security measures that
guard against run-of-the-mill malware, let alone a targeted
cyber attack launched by a sophisticated hacker.
Security was not important for anyone; what was important was to have those systems operational, said Ayman Al
Issa, chief technologist and senior adviser of industrial cyber
security at Booz Allen Hamilton. He added, Based on our
experience, it is easy to attack those systemsit is easy to
attack thousands of them.
Al Issa explained that the control systems are used not
only in the oil and gas industry but in nearly every industry
and utility sector around the world. Recent attacks on control systems in Europe prove that the digital oil field is at risk.
The long list of assets using these exposed control systems
includes drilling rigs, subsea wellheads, flowmeters, production facilities, pipelines, and artificial lift installations.
The industry is working on multiple fronts to address vulnerabilities, but cybersecurity experts working in the industry say it will be years before adequate safeguards are in place.
Until then, oil and gas companies must face the reality that
the hacker community has the advantage.

Drilling Standards Coming

Siv Hilde Houmb, chief technology officer of the oil and gas
cybersecurity firm Secure-NOK, confirmed that a hacker with
remote access to a rig would have little difficulty manipulating
its drilling controls or the dynamic positioning systems used
to keep the rig directly above a subsea well.
Since there isnt any protection on the control systems,
its sort of wide open and probably the biggest challenge the
industry is facing over the next 5 years, in terms of advancing
automation in the oil field, she said. In addition to that, you
have a lot of people coming and going on the helicopters, a lot
of engineers with laptops that are not necessarily completely
updated with antivirus and malware protection. So its a little
messy to be honest.
To prevent attacks, the industry is moving to secure remote
connections, she said. But it is the above-mentioned scenario
with employees and contractors unwittingly initiating a nontargeted attack on a rigs network that she and other cybersecurity experts say represents the highest risk and easiest way
to harm a rig. There are a few known instances that highlight
how crippling these events can be.
One highly publicized case involved a newbuild rig heading from South Korea to Brazil in 2010. It is believed that malware was introduced from a workers laptop and then spread
throughout the rigs various networks and control systems,
including the blowout preventer computer. The rig was forced
to shut down for 19 days until cybersecurity personnel, who
had to be flown in, repaired the networks. There are other
similar reports, including a drilling rig working offshore West
Africa that found itself tilting to one side after being infected
with malware.
In 2013, another offshore drilling rig operating in the Gulf
of Mexico lost control of its dynamic positioning systems,

WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

Facility sabotage/shutdown
Equipment damage
Production disruption
Product quality (poor oil and gas separation)
Undetected spills and compliance violations
(i.e., pollution)
Safety violations (death or injury)

Source: ERPScan

forcing it to shut in the well and move off station. What happened was that various operators on that [mobile offshore
drilling unit] were using the very same systems to plug in
their smart phones and other devices to access other materials on the Internet, which introduced malware and that
resulted in a drive off, said Paul Zukunft, a US Coast Guard
commandantadmiral.
To help drillers understand the wide spectrum of risks,
Houmb is serving as the Cybersecurity Subcommittee Leader (part of the Advanced Rig Technology Committee) of the
International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC),
where she and a committee of nearly 50 others have created
the first set of cybersecurity guidelines for drilling assets. The
guidelines focus on risk assessment and are expected to be
published this month after more than a year of work. Houmb
said with much of the research and analysis on best practices now complete, subsequent guidelines on how drillers can
build more secure networks will come sooner. As guidelines
and standards become available, it will be up to individual
companies to incorporate them into their operations.

Obsolete Systems

What makes control systems difficult to work with is that

they were built to survive beyond 20 or 30 years, and many
systems in place may have memory capacities of less than
2 MB. However, You might find that the security solution
needs 2 GB or 3 GB of memory, so you cannot bring the security solutions of today and install it in those old systems,
said Al Issa.
They are also running obsolete operating systems such as
Windows XP. Microsoft stopped supporting and issuing malware patches for Windows XP in 2014, leaving it open to new
attacks or even simple bugs that may cause a software failure.
There are companies that will continue to provide technical
support and custom security patches for Windows XP, but it is
expensive and even this option brings new challenges. Replacing outdated control systems with newer ones built with more
security features might seem like a good idea, but Al Issa said
such a project would probably take most oil and gas companies 2 to 3 years to complete.
To work around these limitations, cybersecurity experts
have proposed a number of ideas. Some are telling companies to establish cybersecurity centers to monitor per-

43

SPE Cybersecurity Efforts

This month, SPE will be hosting a symposium on Cybersecurity and Business Resilience for the Oil and Gas Industry. To be held in Dubai from 2931
March, the symposium will address the range of cyber challenges facing
oil and gas companies and how different organizations are managing their
efforts. Additionally, the SPE Digital Energy Technical Section (DETS) has
established a Cyber Security Committee to further the industrys ability to
protect intellectual property and assets. The committee serves as a collaborative forum for the following areas:
Promote the education and expand the skills of members in
intellectual property and information security
Serve as a sounding board and forum for exchange of security
techniques, approaches, and problem solving
Keep members abreast of emerging technologies and current events
in cybersecurity
Promote information technology and digital systems thought
leadership through workshops and conferences
Sponsor projects involving expert resources to identify and create
value through information technology

formance anomalies in control system

networks and detect when an unauthorized intruder might be affecting their
stability. These centers could use lowcost devices called smart taps that would
allow them to monitor traffic and install
security devices without interrupting
the control network. Another idea is

to abandon off-the-shelf operating systems altogether and design specialized

ones to address the unique needs of
controlsystems.
Even as updates and patches become
available for older control systems,
companies must be selective in choosing which ones to accept. Cris DeWitt, a

senior manager of cybersecurity engineering and analysis at the American

Bureau of Shipping, said on a modern
offshore drilling rig there are likely to be
as many as 500 devices that manage up
to 7,000 different sensors or data points.
This network of systems is responsible
for controlling everything from power
management and propulsion to drilling
and well control.
Taking the most critical systems
offline every time a new software patch
is released would represent a major safety risk. DeWitt explained that companies
must consider if the introduction of a
patch creates more problems with the
system than the vulnerability it is seeking to address.
Aside from the power management
systems, he added that the lack of sufficient redundancy in a typical control system does not allow for one to be taken out
of service for an update. The reason is
that these systems were built to be unbelievably reliable, he said. We talk about
rebooting our computer every week, but
there are [control] systems out there that
havent been rebooted inyears.

The Arrival of Stuxnet

In 2010, the cybersecurity community
woke up to the news of a new type of mal-

To protect control systems, cybersecurity experts say companies should invest more in operations centers that can
watch for anomalies and signs that they may be under an attack. Photo courtesy US Department of Homeland Security.

44

JPT MARCH 2016

Programmable logic controllers (PLC) like this Siemens S7-300 system were
specifically targeted in the Stuxnet attack. PLCs allow industrial processes to
be automated but because they have gaping security holes, they are especially
vulnerable to being taken over by malware. Photo courtesy of Palatinatian/
Wikimedia.

ware called Stuxnet, the most sophisticated malware code ever seen at that
time. Developed as a cyberweapon by the
US and Israel, Stuxnet successfully disrupted Irans uranium enrichment program at its Natanz nuclear facility.
Stuxnet is thought to have been introduced into the nuclear facilitys network through a USB drive brought in by
a worker. It then gained access to several thousand of the control systems
running the enrichment centrifuges
and commanded them to operate outside of their normal parameters, eventually destroying them. All the while,
the displays on the operators computer screens showed that the centrifuges
were performing normally. The malware
even phoned home to tell its creators
how it was doing.
Stuxnet has since been found to be
lurking inside computer networks all
across the world, including those belonging to oil and gas companies. Chevron
announced that it found the malware on
its systems but that it had not caused any
harm. But when the code was made public, it became clear to everyone that the
security technology for control systems
was at least a decade behind what is used
to protect corporate networks.
The attack community paid a lot of
attention to that code and learned a lot

46

of lessons from it, and you are starting

to see some of those techniques pop up
in other places, said Franklin Witter, a
principal industry consultant for cybersecurity at the software analytics company SAS.

He added that with this newfound

ability to infect industrial systems, hackers started a concerted research effort
to understand how control systems can
be manipulated. One of their most useful tools in this quest is a search engine
called Shodan that lists almost every
type of Internet-connected control system from traffic lights to the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) found on
offshore rigs. The search engine also
revealed that many control systems rely
on easily defeated default passwords
(e.g., 1234) and are accessible by anyone
using a web browser.
While working at Symantec a couple of years ago, Witter reviewed the
companys annual war game that tested the vulnerability of control systems
used in various oilfield applications. The
exercise showed these control systems
were using obsolete protocols no longer used in the corporate network space,
he said.
We were amazed at how little thought
was put into the security of those devices, he said. I think there was just this
assumption that these things will be put
in an environment where an attacker

Study Reveals Risks Besides

Control Systems
Last November, researchers from ERPScan, a firm specializing in SAP and
Oracle systems, issued a report that analyzed risks not directly related to
control systems that could disrupt an oil and gas companys entire business.
The researchers noted that 70 million B/D of oil is produced by companies
using SAP technology, equivalent to about 75% of the worlds total output.
Their findings focused on two specific examples of how hackers could
infiltrate oilfield operations: fiscal metering and burner management systems. For burner systems, used for separation on offshore production facilities and in refineries, the researchers demonstrated how hackers could
easily send operators false temperature or pressure data through an assets
management software to cause an explosion.
The metering exploits they described would allow hackers to launch a
fraud attack that would involve sending out false information about the
amount of oil a company is storing and transferring to a buyer. It suggested that a large enough attack would result in a global scandal and financial
losses that could result in a companys bankruptcy. Imagine what would
happen if a cyber criminal uploads a malware that dynamically changes oil
stock figures for all oil and gas companies where SAP is implemented, the
researchers said. In case of a successful attack, cyber criminals can control
about 75% of total oil production.

JPT MARCH 2016

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hackers who may have been acting upon

the countrys geopolitical interests.

Raising Awareness

Hackers targeting the Ukrainian power sector last December used Microsoft
Word in a Trojan horse attack to move through various networks and cause
a blackout. When the document file was opened it asked the user to enable
macros to view it, which released the malware. Image courtesy of SecureList.

could never get to them, and then all

of a sudden people started connecting
their SCADA [supervisory control and
data acquisition] infrastructure and
control infrastructures to the Internet, or into networks that were connected to the Internet, and not properly
securingthem.
Before news of Stuxnet broke, what
may be the first major control system
attack caused an explosion of a crude oil
pipeline owned and operated by a consortium of shareholders led by BP and
the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan. The
event took place in the Republic of Georgia in 2008 and was initially reported as
a temporary disruption. Later, details
emerged that indicated hackers gained
access through an Internet connected
security camera and then disabled safety
measures before intentionally over-pressurizing the pipeline.
The most recent control system attack
happened in December in Ukraine. Officials said a highly sophisticated attack
caused a blackout that affected an estimated 800,000 people. Barak Perelman, cofounder and chief executive
officer of the control system-security
firm Indegy, said upstream companies

48

should be paying close attention to the

Ukraineevent.
The industrial controllers, the ones
that are managing drillers, are the same
industrial controllers that also manage
the turbines in a refinery and generators in a power plant, he said. It is the
same equipment, so the same hacking
technologythe same malware technologyis needed in order to hack into the
upstream industry.
It is believed that the attack began
when a utility employee opened an email
containing a Microsoft Word file that
appeared to be sent from a Ukrainian
political party. The malware, named
Black Energy, then moved laterally
through the utilitys corporate network
and into the control system and operational network. Once it found its targets,
a series of ICS units used to run turbines,
it allowed the hackers to cause circuit
breakers to trip.
The hackers also flooded customer
service phone lines using a distributed denial of service attack to delay any
realization by the operators that their
systems were down. Both the Georgian
pipeline explosion and the Ukrainian
blackout have been linked to Russian

As awareness of cyber threats builds

throughout the industry, major oil and
gas companies are bringing more security and information technology analysts
into the board room. Perelman said he
has seen this change take place among
his clients over the past year and that it
demonstrates how exectuives are starting to fall into line.
If no one in the organization is in a
position that both cares about cybersecurity and can tell or ask industrial engineers to do something, then there is no
way to move forward with securing the
[control system] networks. It is a necessity, he said.
Many still say that oil and gas
companies need to step up efforts to
work together and share information,
especially regarding the threat of control system attacks. Collaboration is a
difficult problem, said Philip Hurlston,
the leader of the oil and gas special interest group at InfraGard in Houston, a
not-for-profit organization funded by the
USFederal Bureau of Investigation.
The group bills itself as a partnership for protection that opens the lines
of communication between the agency
and industries the government considers to be responsible for the countrys
criticalinfrastructure.
Hurlston said oil and gas companies
are reluctant to disclose cyber attacks
because it would likely invite negative
attention from the media, investors, and
regulators. Very little of it makes the
news in terms of hearing about attacks
in the industry, but these companies are
constantly targeted and really do struggle to stay ahead of the game, he said.
To encourage industry stakeholders
to provide threat intelligence, InfraGard
members can report attacks anonymously, which then allows the FBI to warn other
companies that may suffer from the same
attacks. So far, this concept appears to
be taking hold. Membership in the organizations Houston oil and gas group has
grown from about 20 to almost 350 in just
over 2 years and there are several other oil
and gas groups across thecountry.

JPT MARCH 2016

As Attacks Rise, Prime Target Remains IT Networks

Second only to the power and utility sector, the oil and gas industry is experiencing a higher frequency of cyber attacks
than any other industry. The vast majority of penetrations are in the information
technology (IT) networks that run a companys daily business.
Timothy Nguyen, the chief information security officer of BHP Billitons
petroleum division, said there is no question that the industry is facing a tremendous amount of cybersecurity attacks
these days. He pointed to a study by
PricewaterhouseCoopers that showed
that the number of reported industry
cyber attacks in 2013 topped 6,500an
increase of 179% from the previous year.
Similar figures for 2015 are unavailable; however, a survey carried out last
November indicates that the rate of
attacks remains on an upward trajectory. Commissioned by cybersecurity
firm Tripwire, the survey polled IT professionals working in the energy sector
across the US.
More than 80% of those working for
oil and gas companies said the number
of attacks continues to increase year over
year. About half said the rate had jumped
by 50% to 100% in just the past month
alone. Highlighting the sophistication
of recent attacks, most of those polled
also said that they were not confident
in their companys ability to detect all
thecyber attacks.
Tim Erlin, director of security and IT
risk strategy at Tripwire, said the survey results show that as the number of
successful attacks increases, detection
rates keep falling. Thats a combination
that is particularly dangerous, he said.
When you feel like you cant see what
is going on in your networkthat you
dont have the tools to gather datayou
clearly cant protect everything like you
would like to.
What the survey did not explain are
the number of unique challenges facing
the industry when it comes to cybersecurity. Philippe Flichy, senior digital oilfield
adviser at Baker Hughes, pointed out that
unlike other global industries, in each
oil and gas project there may be a very

JPT MARCH 2016

When you feel like you

cant see what is going
on in your networkthat
you dont have the tools to
gather datayou clearly
cant protect everything like
you would like to.
large number of companies and vendors
working together and sharing confidential information.
Making sure every company is securing their piece of the data pie has become
a complex task. And because cybersecurity is an expensive operation, smaller firms tend to be at a disadvantage.
The current downturn has also seen a
fair number of IT professionals leave the
industry which has increased the workload of those who remain. I am quite
optimistic that the oil and gas industry
is moving in the right direction, Flichy
said. At the same time, its tough because
there are less people on deck.

More than double

Less
than 10%

10%20%
50%100%
20%50%

An industry survey showed there was

a sharp increase in successful attacks
from October to November 2015.
Source: Tripwire

What They Want

Estimates range between an average of
200 to 220 days from when a companys
system is breached to when it becomes
aware of the breach. This gives attackers more than enough time to move
through a network and carry out their
objectives, which vary depending on
their motives.
Starting at the lowest end of the risk
profile are the relatively unskilled individuals called script kiddies who take
publicly available bits and pieces of malware code from other hackers and launch
them against companies to test their
ownabilities.
Then there are more skilled criminal
hackers who have tailored their skills
for financial thievery and the extortion
of companies and employees. Some are
looking to suck up thousands of personnel files containing financial information that can be sold on the black market.
Criminal hackers are also fond of holding data or access to personal computers
hostage by using malware to encrypt files
until a ransom is paid.
The so-called hacktivists groups
involve a collective of hackers focused
on making political or social statements.
The most popular such group is known
the world over as Anonymous, which
has for the past few years launched an
annual attack against various oil companies called Operation Petrol. There
are growing fears that cyber terrorism
may use similar strategies to cause widespread disruptions.
Then you have the nation state,
Nguyen said. They want to know what
oil and gas companies are up to and what
companies are doing. He explained that
state-sponsored efforts are after intellectual property and gathering intelligence for future cyber attacks against
critical infrastructure. Attacks are now
politically motivated and between two
countries rather than directly against the
company, he said.
Companies are able to deduce that the
cyber espionage is state-sponsored partly because of how the codes are written and partly due to their sophisticated

49

A snippet of the Shamoon malware code that wiped the hard drives of an
estimated 35,000 computers at Saudi Aramco in August 2012. Image courtesy
of SecureList.

nature that suggest they took a lot of time

and resources to create.
The security community has identified several sophisticated cyber espionage campaigns in recent years that have
targeted hundreds of oil and gas companies worldwide. The malware involved in
these cases have been given names such
as EnergeticBear, DragonFly, DUQU, and
Flame. Each iteration is more evolved
than the next.
To strengthen its defenses, Nguyen
noted that BHP Billiton has developed
several strategies that include investing in new network monitoring tools
and mandatory cyber safety training programs for employeeswho are
often considered a firms biggest cyber
riskfactor.
BHP Billiton has joined efforts started by the American Petroleum Institute and SPE to collaborate with others
when sensitive information is involved.
The framework is modeled after what
the financial and insurance industries
have adopted. The company is also
sharing threat intelligence information
with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security. Many other oil companies
have taken similar steps to protect
their networks.

Many Wake-Up Calls

On its website, ExxonMobil reports,
On average, our cybersecurity screening programs block more than 70 million emails, 140 million internet access
attempts, and 150,000 other potentially malicious actions each month. That
amounts to more than 2.5 billion blocked
actions ayear.

50

Unfortunately, it only takes one malicious email to get through and there is
no shortage of examples of what can
happen next. Headlines were made in
2008 when servers at ExxonMobil, BP,
Shell, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil, and
Baker Hughes were accessed by hackers reportedly acting on behalf of China.
According to various reports, the hackers accessed seismic data, bid and lease
information, and intellectual property
that took years to aquire and was worth
millions of dollars.
A few years later, Saudi Aramco was hit
hard by one of the most infamous malware codes called Shamoon. The 2012
attack infiltrated and deleted data from
at least 35,000 computers, estimated to
be 75% of the companys total. Shamoon effectively halted business operations fordays.
Weeks later, the same malware infected the IT networks at Qatars RasGas.
The security community attributed these
attacks to actors in Iran. And in 2014,
hackers hit at least 250 companies in
Norway, including Statoil and about 50
other oil and energy related organizations. That attack is considered the worst
of its kind in the nations history.

Lessons To Learn
Chris Kubecka, a cybersecurity consultant and researcher who helped lead the
recovery efforts of Saudi Aramcos Shamoon attack, has spent the last few years
speaking about what companies should
learn from the event.
What has tied together so many of the
attacks against the industry, including
Shamoon, is the fact that they were initiated when an employee clicked open

a malicious email. The tactic is known

as spear phishing and increasingly, the
spam filters meant to protect against
such a threat are being beaten.
Kubecka said hackers have become
proficient at testing the limits of the filters and are finding their way past them
by customizing emails to meet the intended victims personal or business interests, a practice called socialengineering.
Social engineering in and of itself is a
really hard thing to combat because the
emails are written in such a way that they
look real. You want to open that email, or
click that link, she said. It is a very, very
big problem and it amazes me to this day
why more companies do not have, at bare
minimum, phishingexercises.
Spear phishing campaigns often use
Trojan horse viruses contained in Microsoft Excel or PDF files. One phishing
strategy that oil and gas professionals
should be particularly aware of involves
malicious emails that appear to be sent
by a legitimate conference organizer.
Kubecka said oil and gas companies
should not only train their employees to
be on the lookout for these threats, but
teach them to forward suspicious emails
to their IT teams so they can be examined rather than just deleting them upon
receipt. She also advises oil and gas companies to come up with a playbook to follow when one slips through and they are
facing a cyber attack.
One of the things that completely
failed with the attack of Shamoon was
that they were not prepared at allabsolutely not prepared, she said, adding
that cyber-related threats need to be
treated much in the same way the industry has come to address health and safety matters. Companies are also being
warned against letting cybersecurity fall
off the radar once they have recovered
from a serious episode.
You might have a lot of focus just after
an attack, but a year or two later suddenly its just not viewed with the same
type of importance anymore, she said.
The staff that may have been hired on
just after the attack starts dwindling in
numbers because the perceived necessity
is no longer there. Unfortunately, attacks
against the industry are increasing every
single year. JPT

JPT MARCH 2016

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Vietnam
Still Holds Much E&P Opportunity
Joel Parshall, JPT Features Editor

Gas and condensate production facilities in

the Hai Thach-Moc Tinh field of the Nam Con
Son Basin. Photos courtesy of Petrovietnam.

s oil companies struggle with

the collapse in crude prices
and industry upheaval, assessing the future of exploration and production (E&P) in specific countries requires
a longer term vision of a market in which
prices will have stabilized and rebounded
to a level yet undetermined. Seen in this
lengthier view, Vietnam holds substantial
E&P opportunity because of its resource
potential, its expanding economy and
surging internal energy demand, the
diverse group of global operators active in
the country, and the interest of national oil
company Petrovietnam in expanding partnerships with international E&P players.
At the same time, a limitation on this
upside lies in the dispute between Vietnam
and China over territorial waters, which
is affecting international investment in
some E&P prospects. While sporadic tensions have arisen between the countries,
Vietnam and China remain in discussions
over the disputed areas. A peaceful resolution could benefit both countries and
the oil and gas industry. Notably, well to
the north of the disputed waters, Petrovietnam and China National Offshore Oil

52

Company have a joint exploration agreement covering the Gulf of Tonkin.

In the decades since the end of the Vietnam War, exploration and development in
Vietnam have grown by leaps and bounds.
With 4.4 billion bbl of oil reserves, the
country now ranks No. 3 in the Asia-Pacific
region, trailing only China and India.

Nam Con Son and Song Hong basins and

elsewhere. Petrovietnams Ky Lan 1X gas
discovery in the Song Hong Basin late
last year is one example. That success
has piqued interest among other companies. Eni and KrisEnergy have recently
acquired exploration blocks in the vicinity.

Bach Ho Proves a Tiger

Always an Interest
Vietnam has always been an interest
among international oil and gas companies, said Suraya Tulot, Vietnam EP
upstream researcher at IHS. It is an
opportunity that companies are looking
at, especially the independents.
Almost all of Petrovietnams domestic
upstream activity has been offshore in
shallow water. From the beginning, the
Cuu Long Basin has been the center of
Vietnamese E&P. However, activity has
spread to the Nom Con Son, Song Hong,
Phu Khanh, Phu Quoc, and Malay-Tho
Chu basins, as well as others, and deepwater development is getting under way.
Vietnam is relatively underexplored,
Tulot said. While the focus has been on
Cuu Long, there are opportunities in the

Oil and gas E&P activity in Vietnam began

in the 1960s in the onshore Hanoi Trough
formation. Attention later shifted to offshore prospects. The first major success
occurred in 1986 with the discovery of
oil at the Bach Ho (White Tiger) field in
the Cuu Long Basin by Vietsovpetro, a
joint venture (JV) formed in 1981 between
Zarubezhneft of the former Soviet Union
and Petrovietnam. Initial production
flowed from a Lower Miocene structure.
However, deeper drilling into fractured
granite basement rock yielded a much
larger discovery, which was brought into
production in 1988.
Granite basement rock is nonsedimentary and usually not associated with oil
and gas accumulations. However, in some
cases this rock can hold hydrocarbons

JPT MARCH 2016

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in which Petrovietnam holds interests. By

itself, the company generates about 25%
of Vietnams gross domestic product.

Many Global Companies

A producing platform operating in

the Dai Hung oil and gas field of the
Nam Con Son Basin.

that have migrated from nearby source

rock. While fractured granite basement
reservoirs have low permeability, migrated hydrocarbons can accumulate in the
natural fracture networks. But these reservoirs are challenging to understand
because of their heterogeneity, and drillers in the past had typically avoided them
in favor of less-complicated targets.
The success at Bach Ho put the Vietnamese oil industry in the position of
learning how to produce from a fractured granite basement, and the Cuu
Long Basin has an abundance of these
reservoirs. Bach Ho became a prolific
field, peaking at more than 260,000 B/D
of production in 2001, and it is still producing 75,000 B/D.
The Vietnamese industry has become
the global authority on producing oil
from fractured granite basement rock,
and more than 1.7 billion bbl of oil have
been produced from the countrys granite basement reservoirs through last year.
Although basement production will not
contribute as much in Vietnams future,
it will still play an important role in the
countrys E&P activities for years to come.
Since the early success at Bach Ho,
Vietnamese production has greatly
expanded. Petrovietnam, including JVs,
now produces oil and/or gas from almost
40 fields in granite basement and sedimentary reservoirs. That number takes
in several international fields in Malaysia, Russia, Algeria, Peru, and Venezuela

54

Approximately 30 operating companies

from all parts of the world are active in
Vietnam, with companies representing
the United States, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Australia,
Japan, Malaysia, and other East Asian
and Middle Eastern countries. Among
the companies are ExxonMobil, Murphy,
Repsol (through its recent acquisition of
Talisman), Soco, Gazprom, Rosneft, Santos, Mitsui, and Petronas.
In a number of cases, Petrovietnam
has formed JVs with international E&P
firms to operate certain projects. The oldest and largest of the JVs is Vietsovpetro.
More than 25 international service companies and equipment suppliers are also
active in the country.
Vietnam has become very welcoming of international partners to help
with upstream opportunities, said Joe
Knierien, executive director at Globalinx
Group, a business development firm that
is very active in Vietnam. The Vietnamese are very interested in the latest technology to help them achieve their goals,
and experience such as that of the US
companies in deepwater development
will be especially beneficial as Vietnam
moves into some of those projects.

Production Increases
Vietnams oil production (including condensate) has increased modestly over the
past 3 years to 339,800 B/D in 2015.
However, with an expanding and industrializing economy that grew by nearly
7% last year, refined product demand
was the equivalent of 476,800 B/D of
crude oil. The country made up the difference by importing products. Although
Vietnam exports some oil, it is a net
importer because its exports are more
than offset by the imported product barrels. The excess of product demand over
oil production is expected to continue.
Natural gas production in Vietnam has
been rising over the past 4 years and
last year amounted to 1.03 Bcf/D. The
countrys reserves of 23.9 Tcf are ranked
fourth in East Asia behind China, Indo-

nesia, and Malaysia. Vietnamese production is expected to increase in the next

5years as major field developments come
on line. All of the countrys gas production goes to domestic consumption.
Petrovietnam has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and frontend engineering and design contract
with Tokyo Gas for the construction of a
liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Thi Vai near Ho Chi Minh City and
is considering building additional LNG
import facilities.
The countrys oil production is projected to decrease slightly this year and next
because of declines at some major fields
and the effects of reduced exploration,
according to Petrovietnam Vice President
Nguyen Quoc Thap. There were five exploration wells drilled last year (not including appraisal wells), compared with 12 in
2014. However, with planned output from
the Ca Rong Do (Red Emperor) deepwater
project, the Su Tu Trang (White Lion)
field, and potentially some smaller fields,
production is expected to resume growth
in 2018 and 2019, Thap said.

Assessing the Variables

After 2019, more variables come into
play if Vietnam is to be able to sustain
or increase current levels of production.
Prices will play a major role and probably already have had an impact by scaling back the exploration activity typically needed to offset depleting reserves
from producing fields. Only two exploration blocks were awarded by Vietnam in
last years offshore licensing round, well
below awards in previous rounds during
recent years.
Vietnams deepwater prospects represent a small part of the countrys offshore
acreage but could hold the key to sustaining production. The prospects lie mainly
in the Phu Khanh and Tu Chin-Vung May
basins and parts of Nam Con Son.
Oil prices will be critical to future
investment. Industry analysts estimate
that Vietnam has a breakeven oil price
of about USD 55/bbl for new small-tomedium projects in shallow water. New
deepwater oil projects would target much
larger reserves but likely require a higher
price forecast to justify a final investment
decision(FID).

JPT MARCH 2016

Moving Forward
Looking ahead, operator Repsol is developing the Ca Rong Do oil and gas condensate field in Block 07/03 of the Nam
Con Son Basin. In more than 1,100 ft of
water, it will be Vietnams first deepwater
project and feature the countrys first
tension-leg platform.
First production from Ca Rong Do is
slated for October 2018. At its peak, the
field will produce 30,000 B/D of oil and
50MMcf/D of sales gas. Estimated recoverable reserves are 50 million bbl of oil
and 2 million to 4 million bbl of condensate. In addition to Petrovietnam, Pearl
Oil (a unit of Mubadala Petroleum), and
Pan Pacific are participating in theproject.
Other projects in progress are:
First-phase expansion of the Su
Tu Trang gas condensate field in
Block 15-1 of the Cuu Long Basin,
scheduled for completion in the
fourth quarter. Gas production of
50 MMcf/D will be increased to
150MMcf/D, with 100MMcf/D
injected into the reservoir to boost
current condensate production of
7,000 B/D to 20,000 B/D. Operated
by the Cuu Long Joint Operating
Company, Su Tu Trangs participants
are Petrovietnam, Perenco, ONGC
Videsh, and Korea National Oil
Corporation.
The Thien Ung gas development
in Block 04-3 of the Nam Con Son
Basin. First gas is expected in the
third quarter, with production to
peak at 65 MMcf/D of sales gas.
Operated by Vietsovpetro, the
participants are Petrovietnam and
Zarubezhneft.
The Southwest Gas development
in Block B, 48/95 and 52/97, of
the Malay-Tho Chu Basin, with
estimated probable recoverable
reserves of 3.8Tcf. Production is
expected to start in 2020 and peak
at 575MMcf/D of sales gas. Operated
by Phu Quoc Petroleum Operating
Company, the participants are
Petrovietnam, PTTEP, and Mitsui.
The Ca Voi Xanh (Blue Whale) gas
project on Blocks 117119 of the
Song Hong Basin. Estimated to hold
between 5.67 Tcf and 12.57Tcf of
natural gas in place (with estimated

JPT MARCH 2016

A Petrovietnam jackup rig drilling in the Dai Hung field.

recoverable reserves of 3 Tcf to

8 Tcf), Ca Voi Xanh represents
the biggest gas discovery in
Vietnams history. ExxonMobil
and Petrovietnam are partners in
the project, with ExxonMobil the
operator. The two companies signed
an MOU July of last year to move
forward with development plans
but an FID has not been made. If
sanctioned, the project would be
anticipated to produce first gas
in2023.
New marginal developments will also
be important to Vietnams oil and gas
future, as a number of potential projects exist. Vietnam may need to enhance
development incentives, possibly through
changing project tax treatment and/or
adopting new models for production
sharing contracts.
Petrovietnam is also investigating the
potential of shale and coalbed methane
development in the Hanoi Trough. Joint
exploration studies with Eni, Arrow, Keeper, and other companies are inprogress.

A Lot Going for Vietnam

Despite some question marks, Vietnams
oil and gas industry has a lot going for it
because of its strong technical capability and the countrys prospects for robust
economic growth and hunger for energy.
On a net basis, Vietnam will continue to
need every barrel of oil and cubic foot
of gas that it can produce. Petrovietnam will likely approach that goal with

vigor, as its willingness to boost production by participating in foreign E&P

projectsattests.
The company also is building a refining
and petrochemical complex at Nghi Son,
which will be the countrys largest. A joint
investment of Petrovietnam, Kuwait Oil,
Idemitsu, and Mitsui, the USD 9 billion
facility will start up in 2018. With a crude
oil processing capacity of 200,000 B/D,
the complex will supply 40% of Vietnams refined product demand. While
the combined output of Nghi Son and
Vietnams sole other refinery at Dung
Quat will fall well short of meeting the
countrys surging product demand, the
new complex will facilitate the further
industrialization and modernization
of Vietnam.
Whats driving the need for more
energy right now is the upcoming TransPacific Partnership agreement between
12 countries (including Vietnam) that is
expected to be signed this year, Knierien
said. So there is a tremendous amount
of growth in anticipation of the new trade
agreement. Looking farther ahead, the
country needs more power, more energy, and more fuel to provide electricity,
to develop more manufacturing capacity,
the roadways, the pipelines, and all the
infrastructure it needs.
In short, oil and gas will continue to
be a top priority for Vietnam, and global
companies seeking to invest their funds
and expertise in the countrys E&P opportunities will be most welcome. JPT

55

MANAGEMENT

Managing Project Uncertainty:

The Delphi Method
Lakshan Saldin, Matthew Healey, and Kate Parker, Agilis KLM

Decision making in uncertain environments is key to the successful delivery of oil and gas projects. By definition, however, uncertainty is ambiguous
andunpredictable.
Uncertainty does not necessarily
imply risk; the two are separate concepts. Economist Frank Knight made a
clear distinction between the two as far
back as 1921. Risk can be measured and
quantified and is well suited to the analytical techniques used in project risk
management; uncertainty defies quantitative expression. Items with the quality of uncertainty often surface during
risk-assessment exercises but tend to be
categorized as issues and are neither
captured nor addressed by traditional
risk-management processes.
Donald Rumsfelds infamous quote
highlights the difficulty of articulating
uncertainty. However, the statement is
rooted in sound cognitive and sociological theory and makes an important point
about the perils of taking our individual
and shared perceptions for reality. The
philosopher Slavoj iek (2006) suggests
that there may also be a fourth category of

There are known knowns;

there are things we know
we know. We also know
there are known unknowns;
that is to say, we know
there are some things we
do not know. But there are
also unknown unknowns;
the ones we dont know we
dont know.
US Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld, 2003

unknown knownsthose things that

we intentionally refuse to acknowledge
due to, for example, the social stigma
around dissent. While we may feel confident dealing with known knowns and
known unknowns, how can we hope to
discover the unknown unknowns and
uncover the unknownknowns?

Lakshan Saldin is a founder and director of Agilis KLM, a consultancy specializing in

helping clients execute projects and programs in uncertain environments. He has 20
years of experience in engineering and oil and gas projects. He has spent the last 10
years in a variety of senior operational and project management positions. Saldin is
a chartered engineer and a fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, and holds
degrees in chemical engineering and project management.
Matthew Healey is a founder and director of Agilis KLM and has 20 years of
experience in oil and gas and large infrastructure projects. He has worked in several
management and advisory roles in Australia and Western Europe, with a focus on
commercial and technical risk.
Kate Parker, SPE, is a founder and director of Agilis KLM and has 20 years of
experience across a wide range of oil and gas projects including technical,
management, and consultancy roles on a number of projects and industry firsts. She
is a chartered engineer and a member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.

56

These problems can be effectively

addressed using a Delphi-based workshop methodology. The process presented in this article discusses how to work
collaboratively to develop a common
understanding of a project and achieve
alignment on issues and uncertainties.
This allows managers to gain a better
understanding of the critical uncertainties running through the project and
implement appropriate strategies.

Delphi Methods
Delphi is a structured communication
technique that was developed as part
of the United States response to global uncertainty during the Cold War.
Since then, the process has been used
across many different industries worldwide (Linstone and Turoff 2002). Delphibased methods are able to draw out the
tacit knowledge held by project members
and assess it in a structured manner.
Delphi methods allow a diverse group
of individuals to work as a whole when
dealing with complex problems and
include these features:
Individual contributions of
information and knowledge
Assessment of the group judgment
or view
Opportunity for individuals to
revise views
A degree of anonymity for the
individual response
Delphi methods are particularly beneficial when one or more of the following apply:
The problem does not lend itself to
precise analytical techniques (e.g.,
due to complexity) but can benefit
from subjective judgments.
The individuals who need to
contribute to the examination of

JPT MARCH 2016

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Introduction

Introduction by
Project Leader

Issues Evaluation

Outcomes

Keyword

Knowledge Sharing

Scoring

Understanding of
Issues

Discussion
Overview of
Workshop Process

Alignment
Consensus

(15 minutes)
Next Keyword
(2 hours)

Summary
(prepared by leader
or facilitator,
6 working hours)

Fig. 1The Delphi workshop method.

a broad or complex problem do

not have a shared history; may
nothavehad time to establish
adequate communication; and may
represent diverse backgrounds
with respect to culture, experience,
or expertise.
More individuals are needed
than can effectively interact in
an unstructured face-to-face
exchange.
Long-term group co-location is
infeasible.
Disagreements among individuals
are potentially severe or
politically fraught requiring the
communication process to be
refereed and/or anonymous.
The heterogeneity of the
participants must be preserved
to assure validity of the results,
i.e., avoidance of domination by
majority opinion or by strength
ofpersonality.
The authors have adapted Delphibased approaches to complement and
enhance typical engineering and oil and
gas management processes. A Delphi
workshop takes the form of a facilitated, guideword-led meeting. The workshop typically takes 13 hours, does
not require any preparation work from
participants, and the full results can be
made available within 24 hours. It is
appropriate for groups from 3 to up to
20participants.

58

The purpose of the workshop is to

identify, understand, and clearly articulate important project uncertainties so
that appropriate management strategies can be put in place. The outcome is
an integrated overview of the project,
a summary of its key risks and issues,
and alignment across all disciplines. The
basic workshop procedure is described
in Fig. 1.
A comprehensive keyword list of more
than 300 prompts has been developed.
Within the groupings, the keywords are
arranged alphabetically. This dissociates
a keyword from the preceding one and
allows each keyword to create its unique
discussion space. The list is designed
to cover all areas, and can be adapted,
shortened, or lengthened to best fit the
project at hand. Participants receive no
further guidance as to the meaning of
a keyword and are free to make their
ownassociations.
Participants are issued scorecards
with numbers from the Fibonacci
sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc.) As each
keyword is read out, participants play
their cards simultaneously based on
their view of the magnitude of issues
associated with that keyword. No guidance is given on which criteria constitute
a high value vs. a low value. Participants
are free to determine their own internal
view of what the numbers mean.
If all participants award identical or
similar low scores, the group may agree

to quickly move on to the next keyword.

If there is a wider spread of scores, or an
outlier score, then the participant with
the highest score begins a discussion on
that subject. The discussion is continued until a consensus is reached. Participants are not required to score items
outside their area of expertise.
The choice of a nonlinear scoring
sequence reflects the increasing uncertainty associated with larger scores
(Cohn 2006). It forces participants to
rank issues in accordance with the difference in scoring magnitudes, while
freeing them from getting hung up on
assigning an exact number to each one.
Notes taken of the discussion are displayed on a large screen during the meeting as a means of focusing the discussion
and verifying agreement. This ensures
issues are articulated fully, clearly, and to
the satisfaction of all participants. This
also has the added benefit of integrating the first review cycle into the meeting. Participants are able to take the raw
workshop output with them at the end
of the meeting ahead of the issue of the
formal report, which is typically delivered one day after the workshop. Only
the discussion relating to the keyword
is recorded. The scores assigned by the
participants are deliberately not recorded to avoid the potential for an anchoring cognitive bias developing for either
the participants or for onward readers
of the report.

Benefits of the Approach

To date, the authors have applied this
process on several projects. The method provides the following benefits in comparison to traditional riskmanagementmethods:
Knowledge sharing. The process was
able to take advantage of private information held by each of the participants.
Participants diverse knowledge, experience, opinions, and eccentric perspectives allowed the collaborative discovery
and articulation of areas of concern not
being consciously addressed by the project as a whole.
Challenging held assumptions. The
introduction of additional perspectives

JPT MARCH 2016

to project issues led to the downgrading of certain interesting but ultimately trivial issues that had until then been
receiving significant attention. This was
largely through the introduction of mitigating information provided by participants who had not been involved
in the initial prioritization and subsequent management of these issues. Conversely, the introduction of these new
perspectives also led to the escalation
of a number of issues that had previously been seen as of low criticality or
lowpriority.
Sense making. Open-ended and unguided input was successful in uncovering
and aggregating information, enabling
the discovery or crystallization of issues
only partly understood by project participants. The process gave participants
freedom to express concern with respect
to nagging doubts and gut feelings.
The flexibility of the process allowed
subjective issues/risks to be expressed in
a rich, contextualized form. This led to
the emergence of patterns and a deeper
understanding of project issues and their
potential mitigations.

Consensus building and alignment.

The process drove consensus within
the group. This set the basis for future
collaborative efforts in resolving the
issuesraised.

Conclusions
The Delphi-based approach allows a
group of individuals with varying perspectives and expertise to develop
a robust understanding of a complex
problem. The collaborative process
addresses many of the shortcomings of
traditional risk-management approaches applied to industry projects and
allows discovery of complex project risks
and uncertainties that might otherwise
remainunexpressed.
This approach provides management
with an integrated and in-depth project understanding that enables them to
react early and confidently to unfolding
situations. The method provides an efficient means of running a workshop, has
the ability to reinvigorate existing issueand risk-management frameworks, and

ensures project resources are focused on

the most relevant risks and issues.JPT

References
BBC. 2003. Rum Remark Wins Rumsfeld
an Award. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/
hi/3254852.stm (accessed 25 June 2015).
Cohn, M. 2006. Agile Estimating and
Planning. Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey, USA: Pearson Education.
Knight, F. 1921. Risk, Uncertainty, and
Profit, Boston, Massachusetts, USA:
Houghton Mifflin Co.
Linstone, H.A. and Turoff, M. (Eds.) 2002.
The Delphi Method: Techniques and
Applications. Newark, New Jersey, USA:
New Jersey Institute of Technology.
http://is.njit.edu/pubs/delphibook/
(accessed 19 June 2015).
iek, S. 2006. Philosophy, the Unknown
Knowns, and the Public Use of Reason.
Topoi, 25(1): 137142. http://www.
egs.edu/faculty/slavoj-zizek/articles/
philosophy-the-unknown-knowns-andthe-public-use-of-reason/ (accessed
25June 2015).

Time effectiveness. The meeting

was fast and easy to organize. A typical workshop lasts 2 to 3 hours and
international participants are able to
arrive on a morning flight and depart in
theevening.
Collaborative fixation/participant independence. The tendency to provide
input that conforms to ideas suggested
by other participants was largely eliminated. This led to an increase in the quality and quantity of issues raised during
the meeting.
Attention and personality management. The short duration and the
planned pace kept the participants
engaged throughout the workshop. The
scorecards created independence in participants engagement, and the keywords
introduced an element of gamification.
Nonverbal scoring helped in managing
the effect of dominant personalities and
ensured everyones views were integrated into the consensus.

JPT MARCH 2016

59

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Hydraulic Fracturing
Zillur Rahim, SPE, Senior Petroleum Engineering Consultant, Saudi Aramco

With the significant drop in oil price

and slowing down of the world economy, one might think many petroleumrelated technology items will stall
or fade out. Although it may be true
for those technologies that are good
to have but not essential, the oileconomy downturn will not affect the
areas where research, development,
and application of novel technologies
are absolutely necessary for the commercialization of hydrocarbon. When we
look at world statistics, we find hydraulic fracturing being used as a key operational technique and enabler in the
majority of oil and gas wells to produce
them economically with long-term stabilized rates. Any major cut in fracturing
or stimulation technology will severely affect world production outlook and,
consequently, world energy and therefore is unlikely to happen.
Because of the success achieved
through hydraulic fracturing, the industry strives relentlessly to maintain the
cutting edge in development of novel and
innovative technologies and their field
applications. Major progress has been
made in well completions to accommodate well-stimulation treatments. These
include multistage-fracturing (MSF)
completions, both openhole and cased;
screen tubulars to prevent proppant and

sand flowback; and disintegrating dropdown isolation balls and in-tubing plugs,
all of which have contributed to fracturing efficiency and cost-effectiveness. A
stimulation item worth mentioning is the
energized fracturing processes with liquid carbon dioxide (CO2). If the economics works out, the technology is particularly helpful in treating partially depleted
reservoirs where natural flowback after
fracturing is difficult. For such reservoirs,
when fractured with conventional fluids,
nitrogen (N2) -assisted lift is needed for
the initial startup, resulting in additional
time and expense. Liquid CO2 can eliminate or curtail the use of water and simultaneously provide both the hydrostatic
head and the energy to clean and lift the
well without N2 intervention.
One main challenge faced in the development of tight and ultratight reservoirs
is the ability to fracture the formation
and produce at commercial rates. The
challenge occurs particularly in deep reservoirs exhibiting high fracture gradients. In openhole MSF, the placement of
isolation packers and fracturing ports
is important to pump a successful treatment. In plug-and-perforate MSF, the
proper location of perforations and clusters is important. In either completion
system, if the induced fractures are not
initiated in the right place, very high

Zillur Rahim, SPE, is a senior petroleum engineering consultant

with Saudi Aramcos Gas Reservoir Management Department. He
is responsible for hydraulic-fracturing and well-completions technologies in the Saudi Arabian nonassociated-gas reservoirs. An
active member of SPE, Rahim has authored more than 90 technical papers and has participated as cochairperson, session chairperson, technical committee member, discussion leader, and
workshop coordinator for various international SPE events. He
also serves on the JPT Editorial Committee. Rahim holds a BS degree from the Institut
Algrien du Ptrole, Boumerdes, Algeria, and MS and PhD degrees from Texas A&M
University, all in petroleum engineering.

60

breakdown pressures may be encountered that can exceed completion limitations. On the other hand, when perforations are placed in nonsweet intervals,
the production may suffer even when
fractures can be induced. Industry statistics have shown that, many times, more
than 50% of the perforation clusters are
nonproductive because of poor placement of perforations, thereby reducing production efficiency significantly.
Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to
perform a complete assessment and evaluationfrom drilling to production
to ensure well placement; landing point;
azimuth; trajectory; and, most importantly, packer and perforation/port locations. A model that fully integrates drilling dynamics, real-time geomechanics,
geosteering, completion placement, production forecast, and rate sustainability
is an essential tool for successful fracturing operations.JPT

Recommended additional reading

at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
SPE 174026 Impact of Remaining
Water in Hydraulic Fractures on Well
ProductivityField Examples From Saudi
Arabian Sandstone Reservoirs byZillur
Rahim, Saudi Aramco, et al.
SPE 174060 Application of
Microproppant To Enhance Well
Production in Unconventional Reservoirs:
Laboratory and Field Results by Jeff Dahl,
Devon Energy, et al.
SPE 177953 How To USE HydraulicFracture Interference To Improve
Unconventional Development by Basak
Kurtoglu, Citibank Global Energy, et al.
IPTC 17731 A Rigorous Correlation for
Quantification of Skin in Preanalysis of
Hydraulic Fracturing by Rizwan Ahmed
Khan, King Fahd University of Petroleum
and Minerals, et al.

JPT MARCH 2016

An Improved Model for Predicting

Hydraulic-Fracture-Height Migration

hile many factors may influence

fracture-height evolution in
multilayer formations, the consensus
is that the so-called equilibrium
height belonging to a certain treating
pressure provides an upper limit,
at least for nonnaturally fractured
media. The authors have revisited
the equilibrium-height problem,
and their theoretical and numerical
investigations led to a new model that
fully characterizes height evolution
amid various formationproperties.

fracture-height growth were investigated. The full height profile with very
large top and bottom formation thicknesses showed the ultimate trend of
fracture-height migration. Two threelayer pseudoproblems were constructed to create an outer and inner height
envelope for any multilayer-formation
problem, to assess the potential effects
of reservoir-parameter uncertainties on
height profile. The occurrence of a second solution pair and its analytical solutions were presented, to avoid misleading results in the 3D models.

Introduction
Solutions for the equilibrium-height
problem have been known since the
1970s, and several models have been
developed for calculating hydraulicfracture height. However, because of the
complexity of the algebra involved, the
equations used in these early models
were overly simplified and gave unreliable results.
The authors developed an improved,
mathematically rigorous model that,
for the first time, solves the equilibrium height under various formationproperty conditions and fluid properties. The authors started from the
definition of fracture toughness, incorporated the effects of hydrostatic pressure, and considered nonsymmetric
variations of layered formation properties. The model was applied to the classic three-layer problem and then extended up to six layers.
With the new model, the effects of
fracture toughness, in-situ stress, fluid
density, and their interactive effects on

An Improved
Equilibrium-Height Model
Derivation of the Model. By use of
an established algebra software, the
authors modeled hydraulic fractures
in a multilayer formation. They started
with the integration form of the stressintensity factorKI+ and KI (as lowerand upper-tip stress-intensity factor)
taking hydrostatic fracturing-fluid
pressure intoconsideration.
For each layer, the integration for KI+
was applied. First, the normalized form
of KI+ was calculated. Then, the authors
added the results and multiplied the
sum by the square root of fracture halflength to obtain KI+. Equations necessary for this methodology are provided
in the complete paper.
After integration of KI+ and KI, the
authors equated them to KICi in the layers where the fracture tips are located.
That is the criteria/definition of equilibrium height. Then, the team implicitly solved for the locations of fracture

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
paper SPE 173335, An Improved Equilibrium-Height Model for Predicting HydraulicFracture-Height Migration in Multilayer Formations, by Songxia Liu, SPE, and
Peter P. Valk, SPE, Texas A&M University, prepared for the 2015 SPE Hydraulic
Fracturing Technology Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, 35 February. The
paper has not been peer reviewed.

lower and upper tips with the software. The tip locations are functions of
formationproperties.
This methodology was applied to
three- to six-layer, asymmetric formation problems with varying formation
properties, especially abruptly higher or
lower in-situ stress and fracture toughness in the underlying and overlying
layers than what is found in the perforated layer. By this derived new model,
the effect of these properties on the
fracture-height profile was shown. The
improved model can detect and stop
the calculation if tips touch the top or
bottom boundary, or if tip-growth sensitivity to pressure is infinite. This new
model can rapidly and reliably calculate
the theoretical maximum equilibrium
fracture height in layered formations
with various rock and fluid properties in
a few seconds. The equilibrium height
can be used to provide input data for
2D models, to improve 3D-model governing equations, and to determine the
net pressure needed to achieve a certain
height growth.

Height Profile for Base Case

On the basis of the five-layer input data
to accommodate a general situation,
the top layer was split into two. The
equilibrium-height profile (i.e., fracture
upper- and lower-tip locations vs. net
pressure) was calculated. The reference
depth was set at 9,255 ft and the specific
gravity of fracturing fluid as 1.1.
For any multilayer problem, when the
thickness of the top and bottom layers is extended to large enough values
of the input data, the full height-profile
trend is apparent until the sensitivity of either tips growth with respect
to net pressure is infinite. The calculation stops because the lower tip drops
very quickly because of a small pressure increase. In other reservoir conditions with small upper barrier forces, it

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
JPT MARCH 2016

61

8,600

work will be performed in the future

to find the conditions in which the second solution pair will occur for generalized multilayer models. In the numerical simulation, the constraints can be
set to avoid this second solution pair
by using the solution from the previous solution pair under the previous
net pressure.

Original problem
Outer envelope

8,800

Inner envelope

Depth (ft)

9,000
9,200
9,400

Conclusions
9,600
9,800
10,000
0

500

1,000

1,500

Pnet (psi)
Fig. 1Outer and inner height-profile envelopes for a specific multilayer
formation.

may be the upper tip that loses stability. The lower tip drops abruptly from
the fourth layer through the sixth layer
near 800psi, because the fifth layer has
much lower in-situ stress5,800psi
compared with 7,350 and 8,200 psi in
the neighboringlayers.
For a detailed discussion of the influence of rock and fluid properties (i.e.,
in-situ stress, fracture toughness, and
fluid density) on equilibrium-height
migration and their interactive effects on height growth, please see the
completepaper.

Outer and Inner

Height-Profile Envelopes
It is advantageous to know the outer and
inner envelopes of the height profile of a
specific multilayer formation. The outer
envelope is determined by selecting
the minimum in-situ stress, and fracture toughness, in each of the overlying and underlying layers to establish a
pseudothree-layer problem. Similarly,
the inner envelope is determined by selecting the maximum in-situ stress, and
fracture toughness, to establish another
pseudothree-layer problem (Fig. 1).
From Fig. 1, it is apparent that the
outer envelope stopped calculation at
55-psi net pressure, because the lower
tip drops down in an unlimited man-

62

ner; the inner envelope stopped calculation at 1,610-psi net pressure, because
the upper tip reached the boundary; and
the original six-layer problem stopped
calculation at 1,000-psi net pressure,
because the upper tip lost stability. The
inner envelope gives the maximum net
pressure that may be needed to fracture
the formation, and the outer envelope
provides the minimum net pressure that
may be needed. The difference between
them can be hundreds of psi; therefore,
the reservoir properties should be determined as precisely as possible, to
avoid an invaliddesign.

Second Solution Pair

Mathematically, there is a second solution pair of the tip locations above a certain net pressure. To avoid confusion to
the design job from this mathematical
but impractical solution pair (discussed
in detail in the complete paper), one
must determine when it will occur.
The two solution pairs join when the
lower tip of the second solution meets
the condition
Pnet
=0, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1)
hd
whose terms are defined in the complete paper. This is the situation for the
simplified three-layer formation. More

The authors developed an improved

model for calculating the equilibrium
height that rapidly (in seconds) and rigorously solves for equilibrium height
under various formation properties and
fluid densities.
Decreasing in-situ stress will induce tip jump/instability at the boundary, whereas decreasing fracture toughness will not cause tip jump, but rather
smooth growth. Increasing these will
hinder the fracture growth, or even keep
tips stable at the layer boundary. Therefore, tip jump is caused by low in-situ
stress; stability is imposed by high fracture toughness or high in-situ stress.
For the base case, when fluid density is not considered [specific gravity
(SG)=0], the upper tip starts to grow in
an unlimited manner first; when SG=1
and 2, the lower tip grows in an unlimited manner first. Fluid density should
not be ignored.
A full height profile with very large
top and bottom formation thicknesses shows the ultimate trend of
fracture-height profile when the sensitivity of fracture-tip growth to net pressure isinfinite.
The improved model will detect the
phenomenon and stop the calculation,
if tips touch the top or bottom boundary, or if tip-growth sensitivity to pressure isinfinite.
The outer and inner envelopes of
the height profile can be useful tools
to assess the potential effects of
parameteruncertainties.
A second solution pair in the threelayer problem was investigated numerically and analytically, to determine the
start and endpoints of this second solution pair, thus avoiding misleading results in the 3D models. JPT

JPT MARCH 2016

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assurance technologies

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As a result, well maintenance requirements and LOE are significantly reduced.
By utilizing ceramic proppant as the chemical-delivery mechanism, the treatment
safeguards the entire production system without impairing fracture conductivity.
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Novel Proppant Surface Treatment for

Enhanced Performance and Improved Cleanup

his paper describes the

development and testing of a
new proppant designed to exhibit a
neutrally wet surface. The modified
surface does not have a preferential
affinity for oil, gas, or water and
therefore will not promote the
preferential entrapment of any phase
within the proppant pack. This
proppant technology and the results
described in this paper should be useful
for completions, production, and the
work of reservoir engineers dealing
with hydraulically fractured wells,
particularly in oil- and condensaterich reservoirs that are particularly
challenged by multiphase flow.

Introduction
A new proppant technology has been developed whereby a thin chemical coating is permanently applied to the ceramic proppant surface. The coating is
very thin, approximately 0.13 m, or
less than 1% of the thickness of the
resin on a standard resin-coated proppant grain. The coating is applied to
every grain, after the manufacture of the
base substrate. It can be applied to any
size and type of ceramic proppant, including low-, intermediate-, and highdensity ceramic proppant.
The key attribute of the coating is its
ability to modify the surface wettability of the proppant grain to a neutral
state. Because the coating is applied to
every proppant grain, the entire proppant pack exhibits a neutral-wettability
surface. When a surface is neutrally wet,
the contact angle of the wetting fluid is

Fig. 1Visual capillary demonstration test. When a tube of standard 40/80

LDC proppant is submerged in blue-dyed water (left), water is drawn into the
tube by capillary forces. When the same proppant, with the neutral-wettability
coating, is submerged, no water is drawn into the tube (right).

90. For this contact angle, the capillary

pressure in the proppant pack is eliminated. A visual test was performed to illustrate the impact of eliminating capillary forces in the presence of the new
coating (Fig. 1). Tubes of the 40/80 lowdensity ceramic (LDC) proppant were assembled with screens at the bottom that
would allow water to enter while keeping the proppant in place. When the tube

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
paper SPE 175537, Novel Proppant Surface Treatment Yields Enhanced MultiphaseFlow Performance and Improved Hydraulic-Fracture Cleanup, by Terry Palisch,
Mark Chapman, and Joshua Leasure, SPE, Carbo Ceramics, prepared for the
2015 SPE Liquids-Rich Basins ConferenceNorth America, Midland, Texas, USA,
23September. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

containing uncoated standard proppant

was placed in the water, the capillary
forces in the proppant pack caused the
water to be drawn up into the tube. However, when the same process was repeated with surface-modified proppant,
the water level was not drawn up inside
thetube.
The coating also has been tested and
exhibits several additional attributes.
The coating itself has been qualified at
up to 400F. In addition, testing has
been performed to ensure that the coating is both durable and permanent.
Surface-modified LDC proppant was
placed in a roller oven at 65, 100, and
200F along with various fluids, including fresh water, 2% potassium chloride

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
64

JPT MARCH 2016

(KCl), 10% hydrochloric acid (HCl), and

10% sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The
roller oven was allowed to tumble, and
the coating effectiveness for each temperature and in the presence of each of
the fluids was observed after 24 hours,
72 hours, and 1 week. No loss of coating
was observed for any fluid or any length
of time at 65 or 100F. At 200F, no coating loss was observed, except in the case
of the NaOH and HCl, where less than
15% coating loss was observed at 1 week.
No coating loss was detected for these
fluids at 24 or 72 hours, however. Finally, fluid-compatibility testing was performed in a standard 40-lbm/1,000 gal
guar borate-crosslinked system at various shear rates, and no impact on the
fluid performance was observed. To
date, the coated proppant has been used
in the field on many stimulation treatments with various pumping companies
and fluid systems, with no noticeable impact on the fluid properties.

New-Proppant Performance
Before first placement in the field, laboratory testing was performed to demonstrate the benefits of placing a neutralwettability surface on ceramic proppant.
The first test consisted of a
multiphase-flow test performed at a
third-party laboratory. In this test,
both coated and uncoated 20/40 LDC
proppant were loaded in a Cooke conductivity cell between Ohio-sandstone
cores at 2 lbm/ft2. In this test, a 2%
KCl, silica-saturated solution was circulated at 50 mL/min while nitrogen was
pumped at various rates. Testing was
performed at 2,000-psi stress and at
180F, and 300-psi backpressure was
held on the system. The pressure drop
was measured across the conductivity
cell at each nitrogen rate tested. The
proppant with the neutral-wettability
coating exhibited a 20 to 50% reduction
in pressure drop depending on nitrogen
rate when compared with standard uncoated ceramicproppant.
Another test was conducted at the
same laboratory in which wet nitrogen
gas was circulated at various rates. In this
test, a conductivity cell was loaded that
was similar to the previous one: 2 lbm/ft2,
180F, and 300-psi backpressure, while
2,000-psi stress was placed on the cell.
A constant gas/liquid ratio was main-

JPT MARCH 2016

tained throughout the test. In this test,

the neutral-wettability ceramic proppant
exhibited a 3555% increase in system
permeability over the standard uncoated
ceramic proppant.
Finally, a standard permeability test was performed to measure the
permeability difference to oil. In this
test, a 30/50 uncoated LDC proppant
and a 30/50 LDC proppant with the
neutral-wettability coating were loaded into a Cooke conductivity cell at
2 lbm/ft2. The stress was increased to
2,000 psi, and the proppant pack was
saturated with silica-saturated 2% KCl.
The cells were then circulated with mineral oil, and after 24 hours, a standard
conductivity/permeability measurement
was performed. At 2,000 psi, the coated
LDC proppant exhibited a 25% increase
in oil permeability. The stress was increased to 8,000 psi, and another test
was performed with the mineral oil. At
this higher stress, the oil-permeability
benefit of the coated LDC proppant increased to 45% over standard uncoated
ceramic proppant, confirming that, as
the pore throats decrease (and capillary
pressure increases), the benefit of this
technology increases. It also suggests
minimal breakage of the ceramic proppant, indicating that the application of
this technology to lesser-strength particles may be problematic.

Field Results
This new proppant technology has been
used in several locations, including
north Louisiana, south Texas, and the
PermianBasin.
One of the first trials was implemented in two wells located in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana. These wells were part of
a recompletion program in which existing wells were being reperforated in an
uphole zone and then hydraulically fractured to access additional reserves. The
two wells were chosen because they were
in close proximity to each other, had similar depth and net pay in the recompleted
zones, and had similar producing characteristics before the recompletion.
Additionally, both wells were recompleted at similar times and were planned
for similar recompletions. The control well was planned for four stages vs.
three stages for the coated proppant test
well; however, both wells were sched-

uled to receive a similar mass of proppant. Upon implementation, the control

well screened out early on the second
stage, leading to the control well receiving 20% less proppant placed compared
with the test well. Both wells exhibited similar fracture gradients, further
suggesting that the recompleted zones
weresimilar.
Both wells were flowed back at the
same time and in a similar flowback/
choke program and were monitored
daily. After more than a year, several
positive observations were made from
the well production. First gas was produced from the well containing treated
proppant after just 38 hours, as compared to the well containing untreated proppant, which took 60 hoursan
80% improvement. This is likely because of the higher permeability relative
to hydrocarbons caused by the neutralwettability surface.
After 6 days, the treated well had produced 5.6 MMcf, 80% more than the untreated well (3.1 MMcf). After 13 months,
the treated well has produced more than
40 MMcf of incremental gas (+13%)
and nearly 1,000 bbl of incremental oil
(+45%) compared with the untreated
well, generating nearly USD 200,000 in
incremental revenue. In addition, results
indicate that the condensate yield of the
treated well is nearly 30% higher, suggesting that the neutral-wettability surface is affecting the relative permeability
to hydrocarbons positively.

Conclusions
Laboratory testing at various stresses
and flowing conditions in a standard
Cooke conductivity cell has shown the
coated proppant to
Reduce the multiphase-flow
pressure losses in the proppant pack
by 20 to 50%
Increase the wet-gas permeability of
the proppant pack by 35 to 55%
Increase the permeability to oil in
the proppant pack by 25 to 45%
The critical benefit, however, will be
realized in the long-term increase in recovery. Increasing load recovery as well
as decreasing the flowing-pressure losses in the proppant pack will increase the
effective drainage area of the fracture.
This is expected to lead to an effective
increase in hydrocarbon recovery. JPT

65

New Stimulation Method Significantly

Improves Hydrocarbon Recovery

s a result of the creation of a

hydraulic fracture, transient
geomechanics forces are exerted on
the formation, which modify the stress
landscape near the wellbore and the
fracture plane. It has been observed
that the potential exists for temporary
reversal in the minimum-stress
direction, enabling a brief time interval
in which a second hydraulic fracture
can be created in a completely different
direction. This provides hydraulicfracturing connectivity to previously
unattainable locations in the formation.
This paper presents a computational
validation of this multioriented
hydraulic-fracturing (MOHF) process.

Overview of PinpointFracturing Techniques

Pinpoint fracturing, also known as pinpoint stimulation, is a general term used
in the industry to refer to fracturing
processes that specifically target individual treatment intervals in a multipleinterval completion. More than 20 different pinpoint-stimulation techniques have
been developed for coiled-tubing- (CT)
or drillpipe-deployed jetting tools. Although several mechanically actuated or
explosive-perforation pinpoint methods
have been developed, the most widely
used pinpoint methods are hydrajet coupled stimulation procedures. This paper
focuses only on the hydrajet methods and
discusses how pinpoint fracturing can be
applied to achieve an MOHF stimulation.
The length of the wellbore being treated
per stage of the operation is usually much
smaller than it is with conventional stim-

ulation techniques. Conventional methods, either sliding-sleeve or plug-andperforate, generally treat 15 m to more
than 60 m of the wellbore at a time. In
contrast, with pinpoint methods, only one
fracture is being initiated by the hydrajets
per treatment stage; therefore, more stages are generally used than with the plugand-perforate method. The spacing between fractures is designed to be directly
related to the expected drainage potential of each fracture and may also be influenced by the unique geological features in
the area. This allows for a significant flexibility in terms of the treatment design. A
summary of operational benefits of pinpoint stimulation is provided in the complete paper, but they include the following:
Large number of treatment intervals
with only one trip into the well
Reduced time to complete each
treatment interval
Reduced downtime between
treatment intervals
Fracture placement designed for
each individual fracture, rather than
in large treatment intervals
Optimized stimulation-fluid system,
pressure, and rate for every fracture
As with other processes, there are
some drawbacks with pinpoint stimulation compared with conventional methods. If the stimulation treatment will
be tubing-conveyed, a rig or hydraulicworkover (HWO) unit would be required
on location. Most pinpoint methods also
require two separate pumping sources to
be available (one for the tubing flow and
one for the annulus flow). Therefore, additional surface flow piping and valves

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
paper SPE 177061, A New Stimulation Method To Significantly Improve Hydrocarbon
Recovery by Use of Temporary Beneficial Changes in Stress Anisotropy, by B.J. Lewis
and J.B. Surjaatmadja, Halliburton, prepared for the 2015 SPE Latin American and
Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference, Quito, Ecuador, 1820 November. The
paper has not been peer reviewed.

are necessary; however, both pumping

sources contribute to the total-treatment
fluid-flow rate.
Hydrajet-Assisted Fracturing (HJAF).
The pinpoint hydraulic-fracturing process most likely to be successful in terms
of accomplishing an MOHF stimulation is
the HJAF process. HJAF relies on the Bernoulli principle to provide dynamic-fluid
isolation of the treatment intervals during
stimulation rather than mechanical separation, such as fracturing plugs. According to the Bernoulli principle, the high
velocity of the jet exiting the hydrajetting
tool creates a low-pressure region that
draws fluid from the annulus toward the
jet (e.g., a jet pump). In this way, the hydrajet first perforates the casing and formation, and then provides the additional
localized pressure condition to help ensure that the treatment fluid enters the
perforation currently beingstimulated.
To create the dynamic isolation successfully, relatively high flow rates are
necessary from the hydrajets. The standard CT diameters available in most regions are insufficient for such flow rates,
or larger CT sizes may not have adequate
length on the reel to reach an extended wellbore depth. Therefore, largerdiameter tubing or drillpipe must be
used, which requires an HWO unit or
drilling rig to manipulate.
As in any hydraulic-fracturing treatments, the bottomhole pressure
must be maintained above the local
formation-closure stress to open a fracture and allow it to extend. The dynamic
pressure at the stagnation point of the jet
is significantly higher than the annulus
pressure, which expressly aids fracture
initiation and early extension. However,
once a fracture begins to extend from
the jet tip, the annulus pressure and flow
rate must supply the necessary energy
to maintain fracture growth. Therefore,
because the perforating phase is often

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
66

JPT MARCH 2016

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evolution to
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last longer.
longer.
Find
Find out
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performed in circulation, the casing perforation and fracture initiation can sometimes be achieved by simply choking the
annulus flowback to maintain the bottomhole annulus pressure above the fracture gradient, but then fracture growth
must be supported by additional fluid
from annulus injection. As such, a second
high-pressure pumping source is necessary at the surface to supply fluid to the
annulus, although the annulus-pumping
pressure will be significantly less than the
tubing-pumping pressure supporting the
large pressure drop across the hydrajets.
The HJAF process is the only stimulation method with the ability to perform
hydraulic-fracturing operations reliably in linerless-openhole, uncementedliner, and slotted/perforated-liner completions. All other hydraulic-stimulation
methods, either conventional or pinpoint, require a solid casing or liner completion. This ability is arguably one of the
most economically and operationally advantageous aspects of the HJAF method.
Hydrajet-Assisted Fracturing With
Hydrajet Anchor (HJAF-HJA). In the
case where the dynamic-fluid isolation
from the hydrajet velocity is insufficient
to support the variance in bottomhole
treating pressure between various treatment intervals, a hydrajet-anchor (HJA)
bottomhole assembly (BHA) can be
added to the tool string below the jetting
sub. The HJA acts as a mechanical isolation device to assist zonal fluid isolation.
HJAF, HJAF-HJA, or any other
pinpoint-stimulation process can also
be coupled with chemical- or polymeradditive diverting-fluid systems such
as those used in traditional hydraulicfracturing services. For the MOHF process, use of an HJA or a diverting agent
could be highly beneficial. Geomechanics simulations show that a higher breakdown pressure is likely in the second
hydraulic fracture because of the extra
transient compression on the formation
from the first hydraulic fracture and that
the second fracture will be placed in very
close proximity to the first fracture.

Proposed
Operational Procedure
for the MOHF Treatment
The procedure for performing an MOHF
treatment with the HJAF method will

68

vary slightly between vertical and horizontal wells. In a vertical well, or deviated well, the stimulation plan will be
designed on the basis of the height of
the formation layer being stimulated.
If one assumes a producing formation
layer that is relatively thin (i.e., only one
hydraulic-fracturing stage would normally be used to treat it), then the hydrajet tool will first be placed a short
distance below the centerline of the formation layer. The first hydraulic fracture will be placed by use of the normal
HJAF procedure. After completing the
first fracture, the hydrajet tool will be
pulled up a short distance to the other
side of the formation-layer centerline.
The second fracture will then be placed
per the normal HJAF procedure, with
the dynamic pressure isolation from the
hydrajet acting to divert the treatment
fluid to the second fracture. If the two
fracture-initiation points are too close
to one another, it will be challenging to
achieve dynamic-fluid isolation. As a result of the transient local stress modification from the first hydraulic fracture,
the second hydraulic fracture will be
reoriented into a new direction, ideally
perpendicular to the first fracture. If additional formation layers are to be treated, the tool will then be repositioned at
the next zone, and the process repeated.
For a horizontal well, the procedure is
slightly more complicated. The expected fracture length and height must be
computed for each hydraulic fracture because this information will be necessary
to place the next fracture properly. The
hydrajetting tool will be repositioned following each treatment stage such that the
next fracture-initiation point is within
the stress-reoriented zone, and the fracture to be extended from that point, with
its new orientation, must also remain in
the stress-reoriented zone. In the case of
MOHF, fracture crossing, at the extents
of the fractures, would be considered
ideal fracture placement.
Exploratory field experience, as well as
the transient hydraulic-fracturing simulations, has shown that the time interval
between treatment stages for a successful MOHF stimulation must be less than
30 minutes. When stimulating with longer time intervals, the transient stresses
in the rock that make MOHF possible will
decline quickly.

Expected Post-MOHFStimulation Production Results

As a result of the MOHF process, the
total stimulated reservoir volume connected to the wellbore will increase significantly. This is not only a result of placing more hydraulic fractures in the well,
but, because of the multiple orientations
of the fractures, previously unconnected
and unstimulated portions of the formation have now been reached. Therefore,
it would be reasonable to assume that a
substantial increase in production would
be observed over that expected from a
traditional stimulation treatment.
In the case of an exceptional MOHF
success, reliable formation simulators
show that a production increase of more
than a factor of four is not unreasonable
in certain circumstances. Because of the
extensive depth and lateral reach of modern hydrocarbon wells, it is improbable
that the wellbore will intersect with the
best-producing, high-permeability section of the formation. If the wellbore
is drilled in the lower-permeability section of the formation near a permeable
channel, then the well will likely require
hydraulic fracturing to achieve an economic rate of hydrocarbon return. It is
commonly believed that the hydraulic
fractures will then connect the wellbore
with these permeable channels where
the hydrocarbons are more abundantly stored and more easily extracted.
However, the physics of the hydraulicfracturing process disagrees with this
assumption. Because of the differences
in rock properties between the permeable channel and the surrounding area,
the local minimum-horizontal-stress
direction will be toward the channel.
The lower compressive strength of the
higher-permeability rock will ensure that
this is the case. Therefore, the hydraulic fracture will propagate parallel to the
permeable channel. However, the MOHF
process has the potential to temporarily
compress the rock between the wellbore
and the permeable channel, thus modifying the local stress landscape such that
the second fracture might propagate perpendicular to the channel and intersect
the hydrocarbon-rich high-permeability
zone. Such a scenario would easily result
in a fourfold increase over the production observed from only the first hydraulic fracture. JPT

JPT MARCH 2016

Register Now
www.spe.org/events/ctwi/2016/
NEW LOCATION!

George R. Brown Convention Center

Houston, Texas, USA
2223 March 2016

www.icota.com

Rod-Shaped-Proppant Fracturing Boosts

Production and Adds Reserves

n a fracturing campaign of three wells

at Field X, a new unconventional
proppant technologya rod-shaped
proppantwas used. The rod-shaped
proppant is a high-strength ceramic
proppant with an unconventional rod
shape that has the unique benefit of
delivering increased proppant-pack
conductivities, higher and cleaner
fracture length, and improved proppantflowback control. After 6 months of
production, all fractured wells in which
the rod-shaped proppant was used
delivered, on average, 25% higher oil
per net pay compared with offset wells
fractured with conventional proppant.

Introduction
Field X is a mature-waterflood field in the
Central Sumatra basin. Currently, production is approximately 17,000 BOPD;
most production comes from Formation Y, and a much smaller contribution
comes from the shallower, but tighter,
Formation X1 (reservoir characteristics
are provided in the complete paper). A
reservoir study for further field development of Formation X1 in Field X was conducted in 1999. On the basis of this study,
it was determined that the recovery factor of Formation X1 was low (single-digit
recovery). Given this low recovery factor,
several options were considered to develop the remaining reserves better. The
implementation of hydraulic fracturing
was evaluated as one of the options to increase the oil recovery of the reservoir.

From 2006 to mid-2008, 21 fracturing

jobs were performed to stimulate the X1
B sand; the jobs resulted in an average oilproduction gain of 80 BOPD per well, and
the overall success rate was 71%. Since
that time, the operator has performed
approximately 20 hydraulic fractures per
year in Field X.

Fracturing Challenges
and Treatment Evolution
One of the main challenges while fracturing in Field X, Formation X1, is achieving
enough fracture half-length to increase
the reservoir contact. As a typical lowpermeability formation, its post-fracture
productivity is driven by the effective
fracture length created during the fracturing job. Post-treatment evaluations
from several of the wells indicated that
the lack of stress contrast between the
target zone and the adjacent barriers has
led to the creation of short fractures.
The rod-shaped proppant increased
the conductivity of the proppant pack,
which led to a better post-treatment fracture cleanup. Having better and earlier fracture cleanup increases the effective fracture length, which is essential
when fracturing low-permeability formations. Besides providing much higher
conductivity than intermediate-strength
proppants (ISPs), the packing of rodshaped proppant causes the rods to
mechanically interlock to form a wellconsolidated proppant pack that limits
the proppant-flowback tendency without

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
paper IPTC 18086, Novel Rod-Shaped-Proppant Fracturing Boosts Production and
Adds Recoverable Reserves in Indonesia During Hydraulic-Fracturing Field-Revival
Campaign, by L. Soetikno and P. Artola, Schlumberger, and C. Guimaraes, Chevron,
prepared for the 2014 International Petroleum Technology Conference, Kuala Lumpur,
1012 December. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
Copyright 2014 International Petroleum Technology Conference. Reproduced by
permission.

Rod -Shaped
Proppant

ISP

Fig. 1Shape comparison between

rod-shaped proppant and ISP.

need of chemical surface modification to

fosteradhesion.

Rod-Shaped-Proppant
Technology
A novel rod-shaped proppant was developed to improve fracture conductivity.
The shape difference between rod-shaped
proppant and ISP is shown in Fig1. The
theory that proppant packs with cylindrical pellets have larger pores and higher
porosity than packs with conventional
spherical ones was confirmed by extensive laboratory testing that showed that
the retained conductivity of the rodshaped proppant packs was significantly
higher when compared with an ISP pack
of the same mesh size (12/20 or 12/18).
In addition to the higher retained conductivity, laboratory tests using nuclearmagnetic-resonance imaging showed the
initial cleanup in the rod-shaped packs
to be significantly higher compared with
that of the spherical packs.

Field Trials
The field trial of the top three candidate
wells in Field X was initiated through
three steps: treatment design, treatment
execution, and treatment evaluation.
Treatment Design. The perforation geometry had to be customized for the
three field-trial wells. Different perforating guns available were assessed, and
finally a 4-in. casing gun with deep
penetration, 5 shots/ft, and 72 phasing
was selected. These were the first treat-

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
70

JPT MARCH 2016

ments pumped worldwide through perforations with diameter

less than 0.6 in.
When using rod-shaped proppant, it is necessary that the hydraulic-fracture width be greater than 6 mm to be able to place
high concentrations of proppant and avoid any bridging. To assess this, a hydraulic-fracture-width simulation was run for each
of the well designs in which fracturing with rod-shaped proppant
was planned; the hydraulic-fracture width was calculated for each
fracture-treatment stage. By the time that the first rod-shaped
proppant reached the fracture, the hydraulic width was greater
than 8 mm.
The fracture treatments were designed to achieve approximately 250ft of propped-fracture half-length for each well; this
is the same fracture length for which the conventional-proppant
wells were designed. Typically, conventional-proppant-fracture
designs included an average use of 160,000 lbm of 12/18 ISP.
The wells planned with rod-shaped proppant were designed
with average use of 135,000 lbm of proppant, 15% less proppant than was used in the conventional wells. The higher conductivity of the rod-shaped proppant allowed using less proppant to achieve much-higher-conductivity proppant packs and
the same fracture length.
Treatment Execution. Three types of injection test were executed before the main fracturing treatment in each well. They
were a mini-falloff test, step-rate and step-down tests, and a
mini-fracturing procedure. Results from these three specialized injection tests were used to update and refine the initial
fracturingdesigns.
The mini-falloff test was performed by injecting approximately 50 bbl of 2% KCl at a pumping rate of 5 to 6 bbl/min.
Pressure decline was monitored until pressure reached zero at
the surface. The main purpose for the mini-falloff test was to determine reservoir transmissibility and reservoir pressure.
The mini-falloff test was followed by step-rate and step-down
tests with 2% KCl. From the step-rate test, fracture-extension
rate and fracture-extension pressure can be obtained. Meanwhile, the step-down test helped to identify and quantify nearwellbore tortuosity and perforation friction.
The mini-fracturing treatment was performed before executing the main fracture treatment, using the same fracturing fluid
that was planned for the main job: 40 lbm of high-temperaturedelayed borate-crosslinked fluid. The pumping rates were between 18 and 20 bbl/min. Then, the treatment was shut in and
the pressure decline was monitored. The objective of the minifracturing test was to obtain estimated closure pressure, identify
the fluid-leakoff coefficient, and recognize any nonideal behavior.
Mini-fracturing interpretation indicated that there was significant fracture-height growth because of the lack of strong barriers,
which is a typical behavior when fracturing in the X1 formation.
The main fractures were pumped using high-temperature
delayed borate-crosslinked fluid with pumping rates of 18 to
20bbl/min. The average surface treating pressure was 2,100psi,
and the average bottomhole fracturing pressure was 3,400 psi.
Rod-shaped proppant was pumped as tail-in after 12/18 ISP from
5 to 7 lbm of proppant added per gallon. During the main fracturing job, the surface pressure decreased as rod-shaped proppant
(Continued on page 98)

JPT MARCH 2016

71

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Production Monitoring/Surveillance
Marc Kuck, SPE, Drilling and Completions Engineering Manager, Eni

Despite the market conditions during

the last year, our industry continued to
demonstrate further advances in the
monitoring and surveillance field and
to attest to the added value provided.
General trends from past years are still
being pursued to further our knowledge
related to the issues seen as most important for production optimization and
field management. Studies and methods
were shared regarding unconventional
development such as fracturing performance and analysis. New developments
for multiphase-flow-metering evaluation and verification continue to be a
leading topic. Additional studies were
shared in understanding flow regimes in
long horizontal wells using new methods
and combined data gathering. Downhole solutions providing data in horizontal and difficult wellbore trajectories
without intervention were further developed with tracers and other technology. New and novel methods for the use
of fiber optics continue to come forth
with advancements in strain and acoustic measurements that have been shown
to add value. Challenges regarding the
management of large data streams are

Case studies
are now being presented
for practical applications
of advanced technology and
optimization methodology
that were considered
only visions not that
many years ago.
still being discussed, although some
interesting practical applications incorporating multiple data streams managed
simultaneously in real-time scenarios
were shared during the past year.
Newer trends indicate further cooperation across the industry. Results
from multiple collaboration efforts were
released and discussed that involved
partners from government agencies,
operators, service providers, and various third parties working together to
solve problems for the future. Case studies are now being presented for practical applications of advanced technology
and optimization methodology that were

Marc Kuck, SPE, is a drilling and completions engineering manager

with Eni US Operating Company in Anchorage. He has worked
with major operators and service companies in the oil and gas
industry for 20 years, specializing in well operations and completions technology. Kuck holds several patents and has authored
multiple publications. He has worked in Alaska for the past
14 years and holds a BS degree in mechanical engineering from
the Colorado School of Mines. Kuck is a member of the JPT
Editorial Committee.

72

considered only visions not that many

years ago. It is very exciting for us to see
the results from the efforts that have
taken place over the past several years.
Success cases for fieldwide implementation of real-time data gathering combined with work flows, modeling, and
predictive analysis are becoming more
prevalent. Subsurface monitoring applications relating to kick detection and
managed-pressure drilling are gaining
more attention as we also push the limits on the drilling side of the surveillance
field. The technology initially developed
for production monitoring may be forging the way for wide applications across
oilfield operations.
The following is a selection of articles
to demonstrate the accomplishments
shared by the exceptional peers who
chose to publish their knowledge from
the last year. Additional reading suggestions are also provided.JPT

Recommended additional reading

at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
SPE 173452 Lessons Learned From
Worldwide Deployments of Model-Based
Real-Time Production-Optimization
Solutions by Amol Bakshi, Chevron, et al.
IPTC 17773 Real-Time Calculation of
Fluid Level Using Dynamometer Card of
Sucker-Rod-Pump Well by Yang Haitao,
PetroChina, et al.
SPE 172593 Combining Horizontal
Production-Logging and DistributedTemperature Interpretations To Diagnose
Annular Flow in Slotted-Liner Completions
by T. Ben Haoua, Schlumberger, et al.

JPT MARCH 2016

New Improvements to
Deepwater Subsea Measurement

n an effort to develop new

measurement technologies
for ultradeepwater oil and gas
production,the US Department
ofEnergys National Energy
Technology Laboratory under the
Research Partnership To Secure
Energyfor America (RPSEA) has
initiated a new project. This project,
titled More Improvements to
Deepwater Subsea Measurement,
has addressed those gaps that were
identified by an earlier RPSEA project
as the most pressing for multiphaseflow measurement.

Introduction
Approximately 15 years ago, as offshore
production in the Gulf of Mexico and
elsewhere moved off the continental
shelf and into truly deep water, it became apparent that methods of measuring the flow of oil and gas would
have to change in a significant manner. Not only did formidable technical challenges exist in performing production tests on wells that were many
miles away in 1000 m or more of
water, but the economics of installing
test lines to perform such tests simply
was not acceptable. Production from
many wells would be commingled, and
one of two alternatives would have to
be chosen: Either a clever way of testing well rates from the combined flow
would be developed, or each wells rate
of production would be measured beforecommingling.

Discussion
History. Past efforts of RPSEA and
others to research improving deepwater exploration-and-production operations are detailed in the complete
paper. At the conclusion of one such
RPSEA project, running from 2008 to
2011, several leaders in a joint-industry
project (JIP) that had supported that effort expressed an interest in a followup
RPSEA project to refine certain results
from the first project, and to investigate
those areas where it was felt there were
still questions needing answers. Consequently, a new proposal was submitted
for RPSEAs consideration, resulting in
the new RPSEA project: 10121-4304-01,
More Improvements to Deepwater Subsea Measurement. The following topics
wereidentified:
Deepwater fluid sampling
Deepwater meter-verification
technology
Early kick detection
Downhole differential-pressuresensor development
Virtual-flowmeter evaluation
Detection of meter fouling
Each of these topics could have qualified as a project on its own, but the fact
that the common thread of measurement ran through all, requiring the same
kind of expertise in investigators, suggested that grouping the various parts
under a single RPSEA project, managed
by those experienced in measurement,
made good sense. Therefore, this was the
approach taken once again.

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights
of paper OTC 25686, More Improvements to Deepwater Subsea Measurement:
Overview, by W. Letton, Letton Hall Group; J.M. Pappas, Research Partnership
To Secure Energy for America; and J. Shen, Chevron, prepared for the 2015
Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, 47 May. The paper has not been
peer reviewed.
Copyright 2015 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission.

Fig. 1Conceptual drawing of

an ROV-conveyed apparatus
for sampling at a deepwater
measurement point.

This JIP was organized somewhat differently from that formed in support of
Project 1301. Chevron, ConocoPhillips,
Statoil, and Total were retained from the
1301 JIP, and General Electric was added
as a fifth member. Each agreed to contribute a proportionate share of the costsharing portion required, totaling 20%
of USD 4.057 million, or approximately USD 810,000. Project 10121-4304-01
will conclude on 2 July 2015.
Overview of Results. Subsea Sampling and Sensor-Insertion Systems.
Two parts of the new RPSEA project
addressed the issue of fluid-properties
monitoring during the life of a subsea
well. In the first part, the RPSEA Task
5 effort, a system was developed to collect a fluid sample from a subsea flow
point, typically on the production tree,

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

JPT MARCH 2016

73

for the purpose of capturing the fluidproperties information required by the

multiphase meter. In earlier days, these
data could be collected topside from the
separator, but they are generally unavailable in deepwater systems because of
the extensive commingling of wells that
takes place. The new sampling system is
conveyed by a remotely operated vehicle
(ROV) to the receiving point.
In the sample-system development of
RPSEA Project 4304, considerable attention was paid to lessons learned from
testing of the 1301 equipment, especially
in addressing ROV operator-handling issues. This resulted in a smaller and considerably more maneuverable unit. Tests
for both sampling capability in the field
and ROV-operator handling in a largevolume tank were made to assess the
units operability and its ability to perform the sampling functions. In Fig. 1, a
conceptual drawing of an ROV-conveyed
apparatus for sampling at a deepwater
measurement point is shown.
In the second part of the fluidmonitoring effort, a methodology for
safely inserting or removing a probe sensor in a live production flowline was developed and tested. With few constraints
other than dimensional considerations,
individual sensors of ones choosing can
be inserted through a sophisticated series of valves by ROV, either horizontally
or vertically.
Clamp-on Subsea Multiphase
Meter. In RPSEA Project 1301, a first
attempt was made at using an ROV to
clamp another meter to a section of the
subsea pipework. Although the mechanical aspects of the clamping and sensor
orientation were demonstrated to work
well, the measurement technique selected was not sufficiently robust to be considered seriously for meter verification.
To find a multiphase measurement
robust enough to work in a clamp-on
mode, an unusual approach was taken.
Because the approach taken was to clamp
on to normal steel pipe, and because
the only known clamp-on metering sensors were those able to measure through
the steel, certain kinds of sensors were
ruled out, in particular those using electromagnetic (EM) methods for sensing the flowing fluid in the pipe. How-

74

ever, it was known that high-strength

nonmetallic tubulars were being developed and were in test, and thus consideration was given to EM methods.
A method of multiphase measurement
based on electrical-capacitance tomography (ECT) was chosen for development
here, with the goal of a laboratory demonstration of a clamp-on ECT meter operating around an EM-transparent pipe
in a saltwaterenvironment.
New Measurement Techniques for
Kick Detection at the Mudline. One
goal of RPSEA Project 4304 from the outset was to develop new methods for detecting a kick during drilling operations.
To this end, two different methods were
prototyped and evaluated experimentally. Incorporating a mud-density sensor at the mudline allows the monitoring of changes that could be caused by
oil and gas inflow, and allows the detection of such an event long before it can be
sensed topsideperhaps several hours
in advance of its arrival at the surface for
ultradeepwater wells.
The two techniques selected were (1)
observation of various ultrasonic propagation properties and (2) measurement
of the density of the mud using precision
differential-pressure (DP) sensing.
True Downhole Measurement of DP.
Measurement of downhole DP, in both
drilling and production applications, has
been an elusive goal for many years. The
primary problem is the difficulty one encounters in measuring a very small difference in pressure in the presence of
a very large background pressure. Bottomhole temperatures may be greater
than 200C, which presents a problem
for most DP gauges. Consequently, attempts to use the difference between
two absolute-pressure sensors have been
completely unsuccessful.
In this Project 4304 task, the micromachined silicon sensor developed for
RPSEA Project 1301 has been repackaged to meet the requirements for use in
a downhole gauge. It is designed to operate with a precision of 0.1% of full scale
at 15,000 psi and 250C, and there is not
another comparable gauge commercially
available. The overall measured uncertainty at 10,000 psi was well within the
specification of 0.1% of full-scale DP.

The packaged unit measures 0.95 in.

in diameter and is 1.13 in. in length. Subsequent to assessment at room temperature, calibrations were performed first at
250C and then at 10,000 psi; separate
calibrations for high temperature and
high pressure were necessary, because
there is no known facility that concurrently is capable of providing both.
In-Situ Detection of Subsea Meter
Fouling. When production meters are
subjected to contamination or fouling
as they are used, the effects on the quality of measurement can be disastrous.
These kinds of inaccuracies are possible as scale is deposited on the interior
meter surfaces. Similar effects in creating systematic errors in discharge coefficient, but in the opposite direction, are
observed when the fouling is attributable
to erosion rather than scaling.
Systematic errors from deepwater meters as significant as those described here
can be harmful in reservoir-management
applications but can be catastrophic in
those cases where meter outputs are
used for fiscal purposes (e.g., in production allocation). Given the possible
consequences of making such errors in
measurement, an obvious question is
whether one can detect the fouling conditions that are the root cause. This was
the goal of another dedicated RPSEA
Project 4304 task.
Seven possible directions to address
the problem were considered initially.
From this list, three were chosen as most
promising, one of which was eliminated because it required access to diagnostic parameters generated by todays
commercial multiphase meters, a need
that was not likely to be fulfilled for
these proprietary devices. The two remaining techniques were selected for
in-depthstudies.
The first was a look at innovative
ways to use DP to indicate the presence of fouling. The second implemented the method known as data validation and reconciliation, wherein certain
systems that are overspecifiedwhich
have more measurements than independent measurandscan be used to suggest which of the measurement devices is
most likely to be the source of any errors
in themeasurement. JPT

JPT MARCH 2016

Achieving Well-Performance Optimization

Through Work-Flow Automation

he Samarang field is located

offshore Sabah, Malaysia.
The fieldis undergoing a major
redevelopment project with
integratedoperations (IO). In order
toovercome a variety of challenges
andto improve field awareness,
several work flows were designed
anddeployedin order to achieve an
early milestone of providing realtime well-performance monitoring,
surveillance, and optimization.
The paper discusses how these
work flowswere implemented in an
integrated way to provide a modern
decision-support system for the
Samarang field.

Introduction
Samarang is an old oil field and thus
exhibits the characteristics of many
mature fields, including declining production. It has been in production for
more than 35 years from multiple, now
aging, platforms with insufficient metering and monitoring processes. Given
this situation, well status and uptime
is unknown for many days, causing delays in mitigation and rectification of
production issues. Most of the instrument measurements have been carried
out on an ad hoc basis; various facility readings were measured manually,
which subsequently deferred field review, causing loss of production. The
main technique implemented for production optimization has been ar-

tificial lift, with more than 80% of

wells and strings being gas lifted. It
was necessary to find a better way to
manage this production flow stream
efficiently with an improved assetmanagement strategy.

Solution Overview
For Samarang, the IO solution is designed in such a way that work flows
process data into actionable information, improve decision processes by leveraging technology, and equip people
with systems and tools enabling enhanced decision support. An IO field
creates value through enhanced asset
management by focusing on decisions
to improve reservoir drainage, production, and operations. As part of
Samarangs overall IO development
strategy, the wells and facilities were
equipped with the required instrumentation to support approximately 25
workflows.
Oil and gas asset activities and decisions span a range of time scales;
therefore, the work flows are divided mainly into three main categories:
fast-loop, medium-loop, and slowloop decision cycles. These are then
subdivided into seven different subdomain categories covering flowassurance, well-performance, facilitiesmonitoring, artificial-lift, productionplanning, enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR)
- surveillance, and optimization
workflows.

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
paper SPE 173578, Samarang Integrated Operations: Achieving Well-Performance
Monitoring, Surveillance, and Optimization Through Data- and Model-Driven WorkFlow Automation, by M. Zul Izzi Ahmad and Colinus Lajim Sayung, Petronas,
and Muzahidin M. Salim, M. Kasim Som, Lee Hin Wong, Shripad Biniwale,
Nur Erziyati, Kenneth Soh, Roland Hermann, Vo Tri Nghia, Lau Chong Ee, and
Muhammad Firdaus Hassan, Schlumberger, prepared for the 2015 SPE Digital
Energy Conference and Exhibition, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, 35 March. The
paper has not been peer reviewed.

The complete paper covers the first

two stages of IO implementation for
Samarang, in which the first five work
flows are designed, developed, tested,
and implemented. The work flows are
selected in a way that involves real-time,
data-driven well-level decision processes with fast-loop decision cycles, comprising activities with a decision span of
01 days (e.g., well status and uptime,
well-test validation, and rate estimation). The IO implementation also covers data- and model-driven work flows
in the optimization and artificial-lift
domain that cover medium-loop decision cycles typically involving activities with a decision span of 190 days
(e.g., gas-lift surveillance, diagnostics,
and optimization).

Solution Implementation
For the data-driven work flows, the
most critical process is to ensure the
quality, reliability, and accuracy of data.
Real-time, high-frequency well and facility data are automatically transmitted from a remote-terminal unit (RTU)
to data-history systems and all the way
up to the production-platform database.
Per the garbage-in, garbage-out concept, for automating the process and
logic, process-unintended, even nonsensical, input data (garbage in) can
produce undesired, often nonsensical,
output (garbage out). Therefore, it
was deemed necessary to implement
a thorough quality-check process for
data acquisition, aggregation, and validation. The data-quality funnel is depicted in Fig. 1.
Because data are the foundation of
these well-performance work flows,
to ensure data quality, data are traced
directly from their sources. Data tiein and commissioning begins after
instrumentation-testing, precommissioning, startup, and hand-over processes are completed successfully. Once

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
JPT MARCH 2016

75

Real-Time and High-Frequency Data

(Raw, Tag-Based Data)

Measurements
and Control
RTU
Historian
Database
Operational
Database and
Work-Flow Engine
Work-Flow
End Users

Calibration, Loop Check,

Functional Test

20%

RTU Loop Check,

Functional Check

40%

Data Aggregation, Loop Check,

Functional Check, Site-Acceptance Test

60%

Second-Level Aggregation,
Quality Rules, Outlier Removal,
Point-to-Point Test
Operational Quality Test,
Application Awareness Test

Instrumentation faults
detected and resolved

Historian data-quality and -reliability

issues detected and resolved

80%

Data mapping, work-flow functional

issues detected and resolved

100%
Sustaining data quality by continuous
monitoring and collaboration with operations

Aggregated, Reliable, Quality Data

(Relational Processed Data)
Fig. 1Data-quality funnel for Samarang IO data-driven work flows.

transmitters are installed, calibration

and testing are performed for all measurements by filling up the required
check sheets. RTU and data-historian
site-acceptance tests are performed,
and the first level of data aggregation
and quality check is performed. During later stages, some basic data-quality
rules and logic are applied to the raw
data and they are validated and approved. For this, a point-to-point check
procedure was applied as a part of the
commissioning process before aggregating the values for the engineering work flows. The confidence level
of data quality improves from 20 to
100% as data go through the quality
funnel. Swim-lane diagrams, together
with responsibility-assignment-matrix
charts, are used for clarity in defining
role andresponsibility.
The data-acquisition process is automated and is executed before the relevant work flows are executed. The data
here are not only referred to as the
physical-data types or parameters, but
are also used later as information, after
going through the work-flow cycle, and
are finally used as knowledge for the end
users. Because the work flows are interconnected and dependent on one other,
the data are processed and flow through
the series of work flows in the following sequence: well status, well-test validation, rate estimation, gas lift surveillance, diagnostics and optimization,
and operational back allocation (these

76

work flows are described in detail in the

complete paper).

Work-Flow Application
and Results
The work flows are implemented at the
Samarang Operations office in Kota
Kinabalu (KK). The main access to
these work flows is from the Samarang Smart View screens as a common
asset-decision-support system shared
byeveryone.
By having fully integrated work flows
in Samarang, engineers are able to acknowledge exact well status and accurate uptime continuously and perform
mitigation actions proactively. This also
assists in managing unplanned events
and prevents production and injection deferment by improving well uptime. Production trends are estimated
for active wells instantly when there
are changes in operating conditions.
Estimated production is also used in
operational back allocation and reservoir modeling, leading to better
fieldmanagement.
Because most of the wells in Samarang are gas lifted, continuous real-time
surveillance of gas lift systems provides
an excellent insight to determine if the
well is operating close to optimum conditions. The entire process is integrated and automated, from data collection to final outputs of visualization,
allowing management by exception by
means of warning and alarm notifica-

tion. The work flows are interrelated

and integrated, such that the results
and key performance indicators (KPIs)
of each work flow are analyzed in a
way that allows engineers from different domains to collaborate for better
fieldmanagement.
Work-Flow Operational Guidelines.
Operational guidelines (OGs) are a result of the process of work-flow operation after the work flow is implemented and commissioned. These
guidelines describe the details of various IO work flows, which include who
will be involved, how the work flow will
be used in day-to-day operations, and
how it can be useful for operational
decisionmaking.
These processes were implemented
by using visual representations of swimlane diagrams. OGs act as a guide to illustrate the use of the To-Be work
flow by the actors in day-to-day operations and do not represent the IO
system logic but rather the logic of
how people should be using the work
flow. This includes who should be involved (actors) for each phase of the
work-flow life cycle; the roles, guidelines, and boundaries of each actor; targeted Smart View screens for analysis;
and how the work flow can be used
more effectively.

(Continued on page 82)

JPT MARCH 2016

PROPEL SSP:
THE PROPPANT + FLUID SYSTEM THAT

PAYS OUT

IN LESS THAN

4 MONTHS
REDUCING COST PER BOE.
READ THE WHOLE STORY AT FMSA.COM/4MONTHS3

Distributed Acoustic Sensing for Downhole

Production and Injection Profiling

n the past decade, fiber-optic (FO)

-based sensing has opened up
opportunities for in-well reservoir
surveillance in the oil and gas industry.
Distributed-temperature sensing
(DTS) has been used in applications
such as steam-front monitoring in
thermal enhanced oil recovery and
injection-conformance monitoring
in waterflood projects. FO-based
pressure gauges are deployed
commonly. Significant progress also
has been made in maturing other new
FO-based surveillance methods such
asdistributed acoustic sensing (DAS).
In this paper, the authors present a
recent example of single-phase-flow
profiling with DAS.

Introduction
FO-based surveillance allows for a complete, instantaneous data set from the top
to the bottom of the well vs. traditional
logging methods that can consume many
hours to collect a single trace of a limited interval of the well. A recent development is the use of DAS, which converts
a standard fiber deployed over an entire
wellbore into a permanent array of microphones. DAS has proved its utility for
monitoring of hydraulic-fracturing (HF)
operations and for acquisition of verticalseismic-profile (VSP) surveys and microseismic. A third promising application
under development is that of measuring
downhole production or injection-flow
performance, where DAS can replace the
conventional production-logging-tool

Double-ended
1/4-in. control line

FCV 4

FCV 3

Zone 4

FCV 2

Zone 3

FCV 1

Zone 2

Fiber schematic

Zone 1

Fig. 1Schematic of the smart injector well with four isolated injection zones
with FCVs and a double-ended FO cable inside the -in. control line attached
to the outside of the tubing string.

(PLT) survey for a number of flow regimes and well types.

Because the same FO cable can be
used for different measurements by connecting the appropriate interrogation
unit to the cable, it is, for instance, possible to use DAS for first monitoring
the HF treatment during the initial well
completion, followed by time-lapse production profiling surveys to assess the
(change in) flow behavior for optimizing well inflow/outflow performance
or improving the completion design of
futureproducers.

FO-Based Injection Monitoring

DAS has the unique capability of visualizing, in real time, flow phenomena
along the entire wellbore, such as pro-

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
paper SPE 175211, Latest Developments Using Fiber-Optic-Based Well Surveillance
Such as Distributed Acoustic Sensing for Downhole Production and Injection Profiling,
by Juun van der Horst and Peter in t Panhuis, Shell; Nabil Al-Bulushi, Saudi
Aramco; Greg Deitrick, Daria Mustafina, Gijs Hemink, Lex Groen, and Hans
Potters, Shell; and Rifaat Mjeni, Kamran Awan, Salma Rajhi, and Goos Bakker,
Petroleum Development Oman, prepared for the 2015 SPE Kuwait Oil and Gas Show
and Conference, Mishref, Kuwait, 1114 October. The paper has not been peerreviewed.

duction inflow at the perforations and

different flow regimes developing along
the well trajectory. Because the DAS interrogator has the ability to read out
the different channels in the FO cable at
a very high sampling rate, it can identify the dynamics of both low and highfrequency acoustic events ranging from
less than 1 Hz up to several kHz. Depending on the choice of frequency band, one
can then zoom in on different types of
flowphenomena.
The example presented here involves
the combined application of DAS and
DTS for injection profiling in a long horizontal smart polymer injector. In this
example, a polymer-injection pilot was
started to prove the concept of polymer
flooding in high-permeability heavyoil reservoirs with strong bottomwater
drive before application in a full-field
development. The objective of the pilot
is to derisk various uncertainties associated with polymer flooding in this particular type of reservoir. The particular smart injector well (Fig. 1) in this
pilot is divided into four isolated injection zones, each equipped with a flowcontrol valve (FCV). The smart comple-

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
78

JPT MARCH 2016

tion includes a permanently installed

pumped-down double-ended optical
fiber in a -in. control line clamped to
the outside of the tubing string. Inflow
and conformance along the horizontal
injectors are two of the key uncertainties
to be derisked. DAS and DTS are considered to be the primary tools required for
continuous and real-time surveillance in
this project because a production log is
not feasible owing to the behavior of the
polymer and the difficulty of deploying
the tool in the horizontal section of the
well. Therefore, one of the key objectives
was to investigate the applicability of
DAS and DTS to determine injection conformance along the horizontal reservoir
section of the wells.
Four DAS/DTS surveys were performed
between July 2013 and June 2014 to monitor changes in injection conformance
of water and polymer (with various viscosities) over a prolonged period of time.
A single (multimode) fiber was shared
by the DAS and DTS surveys, and therefore no simultaneous measurement could
beacquired.
The different periods of water and
polymer injection and the types of data
acquired were:
Iwater injection
o July 2013: DAS
o AugustSeptember 2013: DTS
IIpolymer injection with different
viscosities
o SeptemberOctober 2013: DAS
o November 2013: DTS
IIIpolymer injection
o JanuaryFebruary 2014: DTS
o March 2014: DAS
IVwater injection, including
single-zone tests
o May 2014: DAS
o MayJune 2014: DTS
Three different methodologies were
used to extract information about the injection profile from DAS and DTS data:
1. DTS: warm-back testing
2. DAS: thermal-slug tracking
3. DAS: inflow-noise modeling
A warm-back test consists of a relatively short period (typically a couple of
hours, depending on the type of well and
reservoir) of water injection that is preceded by and followed by a longer (typically 1 to several days) period of shut-in
while monitoring the temperature distribution in the well. From the amount of

JPT MARCH 2016

time after injection that it takes for the

temperature to return to the temperature
before injection, the total injected volume and injection profile can be determined. For this purpose, a newly developed and improved method is used that
uses a finite-element model of fluid flow
and heat transfer. The warm-back test
that was performed in Period I (August
2013) indicates a relatively uniform injection profile, with all zones taking more or
less equal volumes of injection water per
unit length of injection zone.
The second method, the slug-tracking
technique, requires a sudden rate change
that creates a thermal disturbance in
the well that is manifested as a thermal DAS slug that travels down the well
into, or sometimes also across, the injection zones and that can be tracked.
The changes in the slug velocities when
propagating deeper in the well can, with
information about the cross-sectional
area, be converted to injected volumes
through the FCVs. This method was applied successfully during polymer injection in Period II (September 2013) and
Period III (March 2014), and the data
suggest that all zones are taking polymer. However, most polymer is entering Zone 4.
The inflow-noise modeling approach
converts the acoustic signal excited by
the flow through a restriction (in this
case, the FCVs) to the flow rate across the
restriction by use of the total surface injection rate for calibration. This gives the
zonal injection rates (through the FCVs)
as a function of time. This method was
applied to all DAS surveys conducted.
During polymer injection in Period III
(March 2014), which was the first data
acquisition after the loss of injectivity
that was observed in December 2013, a
mixture of polymer and water was injected at two different rates. After calibration of the DAS signal with the surface
data, a good match was obtained. The
relative DAS signals indicate that the majority of the injected liquids are flowing
through FCV 2 and FCV 4.
During Period IV, only water was injected, either through a single FCV or
through all FCVs and at different injection rates, which provided sufficient data
to calibrate the DAS inflow-noise model.
An increased signal was evident at FCV 2
and FCV 4, but much less so at FCVs 1 and

3, which matches the trend seen in the

previous DAS acquisition in March 2014.
After calibration with the surface
injection rate, a very good match was
found. Furthermore, the calibrated coefficients also could be applied to predict
the downhole contributions of FCVs 1
through 4. It is interesting to see that initially most of the injected water goes to
FCV 4, but later to FCV 3 and to a lesser
degree to FCV 1. When these contributions are averaged over the full time interval, a relative-inflow profile can be
derived. It shows that FCV 2 and FCV 4
each take between 30 and 40% of the injected water, FCV 1 takes approximately
20%, and FCV 3 takes the least, approximately 8%.
When the methods are applied to the
data sets in all four periods, then the DAS
and DTS data acquired before (Periods
I and II) and after (Periods III and IV)
show a change in conformance. Initially,
there was a relatively homogeneous injection profile, but after November 2013,
FCV 4 and FCV 2 show increased injection, whereas especially Zone 3 shows a
significant drop in injection rate. The injection at Zone 1 also reduces, but this is
less obvious from DAS. It is probable that
poor-quality polymer has plugged the
formation preferentially in Zones 1 and 3,
causing the change in conformance and
the loss of injectivity.

Conclusions
In this paper, the authors presented an
example of the use of DAS in combination
with an improved DTS warm-back application for flow profiling that shows that
it can be used to frequently monitor the
performance of individual zones without
well intervention.
Currently, it is difficult to determine
the holdup of the separate phases in
multiphase-flow situations using DAS
only, and therefore DAS cannot replace
the full functionality of a PLT. However,
many operators are currently developing brine-sensitive FO-based sensors
and more-advanced DAS evaluation
work flows that should fill this gap. On
the other hand, production and injection
profiling does not always require a complete and sophisticated PLT string. Also,
when it is not possible to run a PLT, DAS
is a very good alternative with unique additionalfunctionality. JPT

79

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Heavy Oil
Tayfun Babadagli, SPE, Professor, University of Alberta

The next few years will be quite challenging for costly heavy-oil production
because of the recent slump in oil prices. To sustain its current level, which
comprises roughly 1215% of total production, process efficiency should be
enhanced. Cost control is one of the
ways to achieve this. I selected a few
example papers on heavy-oil production
by improved waterflooding at a relatively low cost (SPE 169490 and SPE174491)
and on practical management applications to enhance the primary production (SPE 177914 and SPE 169396) as
additional-reading suggestions. An
alternative for improving the efficiency of flowable-heavy-oil recovery is
to use traditional chemicals (typically
polymer/surfactant/alkaline combinations). SPE 169715, as synopsized in the
next pages, covers the Canadian experiences of chemical applications.
Ongoing thermal applications cannot be stopped because of technical reasons, but they need to be optimized to
reduce the cost or be supported by auxiliary methods to improve recovery.
The use of chemicals is one method to
achieve the latter. SPE 176703 was select-

ed as an interesting field application of

steam-stimulation efficiency improvement by better sweep and water shutoff
using gels. There are, on the other hand,
cases that entail more-advanced and
-expensive applications. Without solventing or heating them, no production is possible to recover extraheavy oil
or bitumen.
Another work selected as a synopsis
paper for this issue (SPE 175414) reports
the pilot results of a solvent-enhanced
steam application. Despite its extreme
cost, this combination is inevitable in the
case of bitumen, especially in unfavorable
geologies such as carbonates. One of
the reading suggestions is SPE 169035,
which reports the initial observations on
a steam-heating pilot application in such
a geological environment.
Before closing, I would like to bring
your attention to two critical points as
we experience one of the more severe
economic downturns in the oil industry.
First, research on technology for heavyoil recovery must go on one way or another. A great deal of effort has been devoted
to new applications such as solvent use
with thermal processes, electromagnetic

Tayfun Babadagli, SPE, is a professor in the Civil and Environmental

Engineering Department, School of Mining and Petroleum
Engineering, at the University of Alberta, where he holds an
NSERC-Industrial Research Chair in Unconventional Oil Recovery.
His areas of interest include modeling fluid and heat flow in heterogeneous and fractured reservoirs, reservoir characterization
through stochastic and fractal methods, optimization of oil/heavyoil recovery by conventional/unconventional enhanced-oilrecovery methods, and carbon dioxide sequestration. Babadagli holds BS and MS
degrees from Istanbul Technical University and MS and PhD degrees from the University
of Southern California, all in petroleum engineering. He was an executive editor for SPE
Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering during 201013 and is a member of the JPT Editorial
Committee. Babadagli received SPE A Peer Apart status in 2013, was elected an SPE
Distinguished Member in 2013, and was an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 201314.

80

heating, and nanomaterials at the laboratory or field scale during the last decade.
They should be concluded for the next
expected cycle of higher oil prices. Second, cost-effective solutions should be
sought and materialized immediately to
sustain many ongoing heavy-oil (especially thermal) operations. One option
is to search for cost-effective chemicals.
Selection of these temperature-resistant
chemicals requires additional research
efforts to carry the results over to the field
for cost-effective applications as quickly as possible. Similar chemical-selection
processes may be considered to enhance
ongoing waterflooding applications for
relatively lighter heavy-oil cases.JPT

Recommended additional reading

at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
SPE 169035 Design, Implementation, and
Early Operating Results of Steam-Injection
Pilot in Already-CO2-Flooded, Deep,
Heavy-Oil, Fractured Carbonate Reservoir
of Bati Raman Field, Turkey by Secaeddin
Sahin, Turkish Petroleum Corporation, et al.
SPE 169396 Boscan FieldHighly
Deviated Wells To Avoid Water Production
in a Heavy-Oil Reservoir Influenced by an
Active Aquifer by R. Plaza, Petroboscan,
et al.
SPE 169490 Alkali-Metal Silicides: A
New Material for Heavy-Oil Production
Processes by Paul H. Krumrine, SiGNa
Chemistry, et al.
SPE 174491 Successful Application of
Hot-Water Circulation in the Pelican Lake
Field: Results and Analyses of the E29
Hot-Water-Injection Pilot by Kirk Duval,
Cenovus Energy, et al.
SPE 177914 Successful Chemical WaterShutoff Treatment in an Omani Field
Heavy-Oil Well by Guillaume Dupuis,
Poweltec, et al.

JPT MARCH 2016

Chemical EOR for Heavy Oil:

The Canadian Experience

hemical enhanced-oil-recovery
(EOR) methods such as polymer
and alkaline/surfactant/polymer (ASP)
flooding are generally not considered
suitable for oil viscosities greater
than 100 or 200 cp. However, this
perception is changing, in particular
because of field results from a number
of chemical EOR pilots or full-field
floods conducted in Canada in higherviscosity oil. The aim of this paper is
toreview some of theseprojects.

Introduction
Canada is well-known for its heavyoil and bitumen reserves. Most of the
bitumen reserves are exploited using
thermal methods, such as cyclic steam
stimulation or steam-assisted gravity
drainage, while heavy oil is exploited
mostly using cold production methods,
such as cold heavy-oil production with
sand. Cold production leads to recovery of less than 10% of original oil in
place (OOIP). Thermal methods are not
always applicable, in particular when
the pay is thin. In that case, alternatives
such as chemical EOR are required to
increase recovery. The two main chemical EOR processes are polymer and
ASPflooding.
In the past 10 years, several
chemical-flooding projects have taken
place in Canadian heavy-oil fields. The
most successful of these is the Pelican
Lake project, which is currently producing more than 60,000 B/D, much of
it through polymer flooding. But other
less-well-known projects such as the
Taber South project, the Mooney proj-

Fig. 1Map showing location of pools.

ect, and the Seal project are all interesting and worthy of discussion. For full descriptions of these fields, please see the
complete paper.

Projects
Pelican Lake Polymer Flood. The Pelican Lake field is approximately 250 km
north of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
(Fig. 1). The recovery factor for primary production remained low even after
the introduction of horizontal drilling.
Thus, a firstunsuccessfulpolymer
flood was attempted in 1997, after which
waterflood was also piloted. The waterflood managed to increase oil production but with high water cut. Thus, another polymer pilot was started in 2005.
Polymer injection started in May 2005.
The responses were excellent, with rates

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
of paper SPE 169715, Chemical EOR for Heavy Oil: The Canadian Experience, by
Eric Delamaide, SPE, IFP Technologies; Brigitte Bazin and David Rousseau, IFP
Energies nouvelles; and Guillaume Degre, Solvay, prepared for the 2014 SPE EOR
Conference at Oil and Gas West Asia, Muscat, Oman, 31 March2 April. The paper has
not been peer reviewed.

going from 18 to 232 BOPD in the first

well, from 9 to 364 BOPD in the central
well, and from 16 to 139 BOPD in the last
well. The water cut increased slowly and
moderately in all three wells. The operators estimate that polymer flooding
will increase the recovery factor to 20 to
30% of OOIP.
Mooney Bluesky A Polymer Flood. The
Mooney field is in northwestern Alberta
(Fig. 1). The operator considered polymer flooding as a way to improve sweep
efficiency and reduce water production.
A pilot composed of two injection wells
and three production wells, all horizontal, started in November 2008.
The polymer flood was able to increase
production and maintain a plateau for a
few months in the two wells closest to the
injection wells. However, water breakthrough occurred within 4 months in the
confined well and within 6 months in the
other well, and the water-cut increase
was very sharp.
Further modeling suggests that
polymer-flood recovery could vary between 17 and 25% of OOIP; the recovery

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
JPT MARCH 2016

81

in the central well of the pilot was approximately 12% of OOIP as of March2013.

cause of operational issues. It now appears to stand at 11.1%.

Production Monitoring . . .

Seal Bluesky Polymer Flood. The reservoir in the Seal area of the Peace River
oil-sands region in northern Alberta
(Fig. 1) has been developed with more
than 270 horizontal producers since the
pool was discovered in 2001. The wells
achieve good initial ratesgiven the
high oil viscosityof 100 to 200 BOPD
before declining.
A polymer-flood pilot with three injectors and four producers was initiated
in October 2010. Production responses
started in June and July 2011 in the two
confined wells, with oil rates increasing from approximately 30 BOPD to a
maximum of 135 BOPD in one well and
from approximately 50 BOPD to a maximum of 155 BOPD in the other. What is
more surprising is the water-cut evolution; it started increasing at the same
time as the oil rate or even slightly before and has been increasing very slowly
since then. In early 2013, it was at 40%
in one of the wells and still only 10%
in the other. Polymer apparently broke
through in the producers sometime in
late 2011 or early 2012.
At the end of November 2013, the recovery in the two confined producers
was approximately 5 and 6% of OOIP,
respectively; the estimated ultimate incremental recovery is 8.8% of OOIP,
which would bring the total recovery to
14.3%of OOIP.

Suffield Upper Mannville UU ASP

Flood. The Upper Mannville UU pool is
one of many similar pools in the Suffield
area (Fig. 1). The pool was developed
with initial production in 1996. Water
injection was initiated in 1998. When the
operator started considering ASP flooding at the beginning of 2006, oil production was approximately 300 BOPD, with
a water cut of 60%. Cumulative production at that point was 320,000 bbl, or
slightly less than 10% of OOIP.
Because of the small size of the pool,
there was no pilot, and the injection of an
ASP solution started in May 2007.
The response in terms of oil rate is
rather muted, although it could be argued that production would have declined had the ASP injection not taken
place. The picture is somewhat distorted in that one very good well, which was
producing more than 100 B/D 5 months
before the beginning of the injection, saw
its production fall suddenly to 10 B/D
when the injection started. This well later
went back to the same 100 B/D of production, but it is doubtful that this can be attributed to the ASP injection.
The recovery factor was 14.1% of OOIP
when the injection started; it is now almost 30% of OOIP. According to the operator, the expected recovery factor for
the primary recovery with waterflood
was 20% of OOIP and the incremental recovery from the ASP flood is greater than
10% of OOIP.

Success Cases

Taber South Mannville B ASP Flood.

This project (Fig. 1)the first fieldwide ASP flood in Canadastarted in
May2006.
In 200405, the cumulative production was 16.9 million bbl and the recovery was approximately 38% of OOIP.
There was no pilot, and the injection of
an ASP solution started in May 2006 in
the whole pool. At that time, estimated
pool recovery was 38.7% of OOIP.
The production response started in
November 2006, and the pool eventually
saw its production rise from 300 BOPD
to a maximum of 1,330 BOPD. At the
same time, water cut decreased from
98to 84%.
Estimated incremental oil recovery for
the project climbed as high as 16% of
OOIP but was reduced several times be-

82

Conclusions
A review of the five chemical EOR projects in heavy oil in Canadathree polymer floods and two ASP floodshas led
to the following conclusions:
Chemical EOR is a viable solution
toincrease production and recovery
in heavy oil.
For polymer flooding, the process
has proved to be efficient for
viscosities up to 10 000 cp.
For ASP flooding, the process
has not yet been tested at those
high viscosities but is efficient at
viscosities up to a few hundred
centipoise. There is no reason that it
would not be as efficient as polymer
flooding at higher viscosities. JPT

(Continued from page 76)

This section describes two successful

cases (more are provided in the complete
paper) that have been achieved through
successful data- and model-driven automated work-flow implementation that
allows faster, effective, and collaborative
diagnostic decision making and field implementation to gainvalue.
Success Case 1: A Collaborative Working Environment (CWE). During daily
video conferencing between the KK staff
in Samarang and headquarters in Kuala
Lumpur, engineers are able to discuss any
issue pertaining to the wells and to create
solutions. The Production Surveillance
team is able to analyze well performance
through gas lift optimization even at remote jackets. The CWE has enabled the
team to have effective meetings by having
real-time work-flow KPI visualizations
and reliable audio/videoconferencing.
Success Case 2: Enhanced Gas Lift Diagnostics. The value of a gas lift diagnostics and optimization work flow mainly
comes from automating most of the processes during this work flow that were
previously handled manually. In this particular case, the gas lift diagnostic work
flow raised an alarm that the well was
multipointing. On the basis of well-test
parameters and further gas lift diagnostics, multipointing was confirmed. This
was an opportunity to improve current
well-production performance. Engineers
executed the work flow and performed
detailed diagnostics to troubleshoot the
problem. KK engineers worked as a team
and, by running sensitivity studies on
operating conditions, achieved the single deepest injection point. Further diagnosis identified that the casing-head
pressure (CHP) was too high. The solution was to ensure the CHP to be approximately 650 psi for optimum injection depth. Production technologists in
KK advised offshore personnel to reduce
the CHP to optimize the well production.
This has led to reduced gas lift consumption, from 0.9 to 0.4MMscf/D, owing to
the achievement of single-point injection. By optimizing gas lift, the potential
gain is approximately 200 B/D. JPT

JPT MARCH 2016

VERSATILE COIL STEERING

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Coil Drilling Technologies services to complement its extensive coil tubing
offerings. The Coil Drilling Technologies delivers slim-hole directional services
in multibench and multileg horizontal applications that is economical, fast, safe
and less damaging to the formation. These versatile technologies do not require
special consideration for pressure deployment, have a short sensor-to-bit length
for increase directional control and can be deployed on a variety of e-coil reels
at various lengths and sizes. The tools are ideal for open-hole completions,
setting whipstocks for casing exits and navigating multilaterals for remedial well
intervention or stimulation operations.

For more information about Coil Drilling Technologies, visit us at www.cudd.com today.

Solvent-Enhanced Steamdrive:
Experiences From the First Field Pilot

n recent years, the addition of a

hydrocarbon condensate to steam
operations in heavy-oil and bitumen
reservoirs has emerged as potential
technology to improve not only oil
recovery but also energy efficiency. The
idea of solvent addition to a steamdrive
process has been extended and applied
for the first time in the Peace River
area in Canada. There, evidence was
obtained of oil uplift in the patterns
where solvent was injected. However,
piloting this new technology in a
brownfield had many challenges,
especially when evaluating its main
economic factors: production increase
and solvent recovery.

Introduction
Vertical-well steamdrive (VSD) is the
selected process to recover bitumen
from the Peace River Bluesky formation.
Solvent coinjection has been identified
as an economical method to improve
the efficiency of this process. In an early
phase of the steamdrive, a slug of hydrocarbon condensate (diluent) is coinjected with the steam. The solvent condenses at the cold steam/bitumen interface
to form a solvent bank. This bank has
the potential to accelerate bitumen production by viscosity reduction and to
improve ultimate recovery.
The efficiency of the diluent coinjection in a steamdrive process is expected
to be lower than that of liquid addition
to steam for enhanced recovery; however, the solvent recovery factors are
expected to be much higher. The solvent recovery, therefore, is a key factor

in the economic viability of the process.

The main objectives of the pilot were to
obtain a positive response in bitumen
production and accurate quantification
of the diluent recovery. An accurate assessment of the bitumen-production increase was not expected because of the
small size of the pilot and lack of control patterns; hence, the injection slug
size and concentration were designed to
obtain a significant and measurable bitumen response.

Pilot Design
The Peace River lease in Alberta,
Canada, has been subject to many welland recovery-technology trials in the
last 30 years. One of the technologies
tried is cyclic steam stimulation (CSS)
with multilateral horizontal wells. Pad
19 has been developed with so-called
soak radial wellsfour horizontal laterals in a cross pattern. Over a 9-year
time frame, bitumen has been produced
in seven to eight CSS cycles. With a recovery of less than 20% from the initial design, a part of the pad has been
converted to a pattern steamdrive to increase recovery to more than 50%. Vertical injectors and producers are drilled
to complete the 5-acre inverted-fivespot patterns. Vertical producers are
perforated over almost the complete interval, while steam injectors have been
completed with five limited-entry perforations (LEPs) to distribute the steam
evenly over the entire reservoir interval.
On the basis of the field-development
plan, the newly drilled vertical infill producers were subjected to two CSS cy-

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
of paper SPE 175414, Solvent-Enhanced Steamdrive: Experiences From the First
Field Pilot in Canada, by M.L. Verlaan, SPE, and R. Hedden, SPE, Shell Canada; and
O. Castellanos Daz, V. Lastovka, SPE, and C.A. Giraldo Sierra, Shell Chemicals
Americas, prepared for the 2015 SPE Kuwait Oil and Gas Show, Mishref, Kuwait,
1114October. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

cles to create communication between

injectors and producers. Infill injectors were not subjected to cyclic steam.
After that, the pad was intended to
be switched to a VSD with continuous
steam injection of 100 m3/d (cold-water
equivalent). The rate was to be tapered
down to 50 m3/d over the life span of
the steamflood.
The solvent-injection strategy that
determined in which injectors solvent
would be coinjected, for which period of
time, and at what concentration was designed in a two-stage process. In the first
stage, a simplified element-of-symmetry
model was used to screen a wide range
of options with respect to solvent concentration and start and duration of solvent coinjection. It was found that, on
the basis of the development scheme,
bitumen rates in VSD would be low for
a few months before mobilized bitumen would reach the producer, at which
point the rates would show a strong increase followed by a gradual decline.
Solvent addition increases bitumen mobilization and leads to a higher desaturation of the steam chamber because
of the formation of a solvent bank. This
leads to a more pronounced increase in
bitumen rates once the mobilized bitumen reaches the producer.
The effect of different solvent concentrations on the early bitumen rates and,
hence, on the bitumen-uplift signal is
shown in Fig. 1. After this period, injection conformance in the LEP injectors
would have stabilized so solvent would
be injected over the full height of the
pay zone.
In Stage 2, this solvent-injection strategy was tested in a full-field model that
had been history matched to the historical CSS cycles on a well-by-well basis. In
addition, the temperature data gathered
from logging the infill wells had been
used to scale the effectiveness of each
leg of the multilateral wells.

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
84

JPT MARCH 2016

Conclusions

35

No solvent

Net Bitumen Rate (m3/D)

30

5 wt%

25
10 wt%

20

15 wt%

15
10
5
0
2013

2014

2015

2016

Fig. 1Net bitumen rates in VSD as a function of solvent concentration

predicted by the element-of-symmetry model.

Pilot Operations:
Steam and Solvent Injection
After the second CSS cycle in the vertical infill producers, the downhole pumps
were installed and the steamdrive phase
of the project started in June 2014. Injectors 3, 5, and 9 could be operated at
the targeted injection rate of 100 t/d, but
Injector 7 had a maximum injection rate
of approximately 75 t/d at a tubinghead
pressure (THP) of 12.5 MPa. Because of
the high pressure drop over the LEPs,
the injectivity could not be increased by
fracturing or dilating the reservoir and
it was decided to operate this injector at
the maximum THP of 12.5 MPa. The continuous steam injection started 7 June
2014, and, after approximately 8 weeks
of steam injection, 15 wt% (cold) solvent was injected directly into the steam
at the wellhead in Injectors 7 and 9. The
injection was continued for 4 months
without major problems, achieving a
total of steam and solvent injected of
19,600 t of steam and 3,400 t of diluent. As supported by pressure/volume/
temperature calculations, the addition
of the solvent did not lead to a reduction
of the steam-injection capacity in the
LEP-constrainedwells.

Bitumen Production
One of the objectives of the pilot is to
demonstrate a significant bitumenproduction increase as a response to
solvent injection. The solvent-injection

JPT MARCH 2016

slug was designed to give a significant

bitumen-production increase in wells
surrounding the solvent injection. This
was clearly observed in the multilateral
Well P11, which has a horizontal leg that is
close to solvent Injector I9. After 1 month
of injection, the production rate of this
well more than doubled compared with
the baseline production of the steamdrive.
After this initial peak, which coincided
with solvent breakthrough, the rates declined but were sustained at a higher plateau for approximately 6months.

Conducting a recovery-technology
pilot in a small brownfield infill
development is challenging.
It requires a robust design for
expected signal and high-frequency
and redundant data acquisition to
obtain quantifiable results.
Well testing and water-cut metering
are a large source of error and
need to be checked thoroughly
and validated with independent
measurements.
New allocation algorithms were
developed and validated to be able
to allocate solvent and bitumen
accurately in a steamdrive process.
Bitumen uplift could be observed
positively in several wells; the oil/
steam ratio in the solvent patterns
on average was 0.1 higher than in
the patterns without solvent during
the first 10 months of the pilot.
Solvent recovery is faster than
expected. More than 50% of the
solvent had been recovered within
4 months of stopping solvent
injection. JPT

Solvent Recovery
Much attention was given to the accuracy of the diluent recovery in this pilot
because it is a key economic factor in the
solvent-injection process. The fact that
more than 75% of the recovered diluent
was produced through the casing-ventgas system helped because the measurement errors of the gas stream (e.g., rate
and composition) are much smaller than
those of the emulsion stream. The main
uncertainty comes from the calculation
method to allocate the hydrocarbons to
bitumen and diluent.
On the basis of the recovery so far and
the current rates, the project is expected
to achieve or even exceed the predicted recovery factor of 86% after 2 years.
At that mark, the incremental oil/lostsolvent ratio will be 5.2, which is economically favorable and compares well
with other solvent-coinjection processes.

85

Pilot Tests of New Enhanced-Oil-Recovery

Technologies for Heavy-Oil Reservoirs

hermal steam stimulation (TSS)

is considered the most effective
of current methods for heavy-oil
production. However, the method has
problems with low coverage by steam
injection and decreased efficiency at
later stages of development. This paper
presents the results of solving these
problems by combining thermal steam
and physicochemical stimulations and
using cold technologies involving
thermotropic gel-forming and oildisplacing systems.

Introduction
In Russia, the amount of oil reserves considered difficult to recover is constantly increasing. Active reserves account
for one-third of all prospected reserves,
and the difficult-to-recover oil reserves
account for 67%. High-viscosity oils are
13% of the difficult-to-recover oils, and
low-permeability formations account
for 36%. The amount of heavy and highviscosity oil is several times greater than
the amount of light and low-viscosity oil.
Therefore, the development of the deposits of heavy and high-viscosity oils is given
more attention. To develop heavy- and
high-viscosity-oil reservoirs effectively
and increase oil production, new, integrated enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) technologies are necessary. The new technologies
addressed here combine basic reservoir
stimulation by water or steam injection
and physicochemical methods, increasing
reservoir coverage and oil-displacement
factors and improving the development.
In recent years, thermal methodsoil
displacement with steam, cyclic steam in-

jection, and steam-assisted gravity drainagehave been the most widespread EOR
methods used in heavy-oil fields. One can
improve the efficiency of steam stimulation by combining it with physicochemical methodsin particular, using thermotropic gel-forming and oil-displacing
systemsthereby increasing the reservoir coverage by steam injection and providing additional oil displacement.

Integrating Physicochemical
Methods and TSS
This approach uses the concept that reservoir energy or energy from an injected
heat carrier can generate in-situ intelligent chemical systems (i.e., gels, sols,
surfactant solutions, and buffer systems
with controlled alkalinity). These systems remain for a long time and are
self-supporting in reservoirs with complex properties, making them optimal for
oildisplacement.
To increase oil recovery from heavyand high-viscosity-oil reservoirs at later
stages of development and to improve the
efficiency of thermal-steam and cyclicsteam stimulations, an EOR technology
has been created that alternates thermalsteam and physicochemical stimulations
by surfactant-based systems, which generate carbon dioxide (CO2) and alkaline
buffer solutions in situ. The application
of the technology at a stationary steaminjection site in the Usinsk oil field in
Russia decreased water cut by 1020%
and increased oil-flow rate by 40%. At
a cyclic-steam-stimulation site in the
Liaohe oil field in China, oil production
increased 1.82.3 times, the period of oil

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights of
paper SPE 176703, Pilot Tests of New EOR Technologies for Heavy-Oil Reservoirs, by
L.K. Altunina, V.A. Kuvshinov, and I.V. Kuvshinov, Institute of Petroleum Chemistry,
Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; and M.V. Chertenkov, SPE,
and S.O. Ursegov, Lukoil, prepared for the 2015 SPE Russian Petroleum Technology
Conference, Moscow, 2628 October. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

production was prolonged 35 months,

and oil viscosity decreased by three times.
The dominant technique in these new
stimulations is the use of gel technologies to increase reservoir coverage by waterflooding. Under surface conditions,
thermotropic gel-forming systems are
low-viscosity aqueous solutions. Under
reservoir conditions, they are converted
into nanostructured gels. Gelation occurs
because of thermal energy from the heat
carrier, without any crosslinking agents.
Field tests of the integrated technologies, combining thermal-steam and
physicochemical stimulations, were conducted in high-viscosity-oil fields in Russia and China. The increase in oil-flow
rate ranged from 3 to 24 tons/D per well.
Incremental oil production was 980 tons
per well treatment. Geophysical studies
conducted before and after injection of
the gel-forming system showed a redistribution of filtration flow and increased
reservoir coverage by TSS. After the injection of the systems into 41 steaminjection wells in the Usinsk oil field, the
oil-flow rate increased by 430 tons/D
and water cut decreased by 520%.

Gelled Oil-Displacing System

Using Surfactants With
Controlled Viscosity
To improve the areal injection of heat
carriers (steam or hot water) and cyclic
steam stimulations of production wells, a
gelled oil-displacing system using surfactants with controlled viscosity has been
created. This system is an extension of the
concept of using reservoir energy or that
of the injected heat carrier to generate insitu intelligent chemical systems. Compositions based on surfactants and alkaline buffer solutions last for a long time
and are self-supporting, which are optimal properties for oil displacement.
The systems use ammonium salt and
carbamide, which generate CO2 and ammonium buffer solutions in situ, provid-

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
86

JPT MARCH 2016

14 000

Oil-production rate

Average oil-production rate in 2014 before treatment

Water cut

Injection of gelled surfactant-based systems into steam-injection wells

85
84

12 000

10 000

82
81

8 000

80
6 000

79

Water Cut (%)

Oil-Production Rate (tons/month)

83

78

4 000

77
2 000
76
75

0
01/14 02/14 03/14 04/14 05/14 06/14 07/14 08/14 09/14 10/14 11/14 12/14 01/15 02/15 03/15 04/15

Month/year
Fig. 1Oil-production and fluid-flow rates before and after injection of the gelled surfactant-based system in the Usinsk
oil field.

ing the colloidal chemical properties of

the surfactants, optimal for oil displacement and preserved in a wide range of
concentrations, reservoir water salinities, and temperatures. This results in
reduced oil viscosity, interfacial tension,
and clay swelling as well as increased mobility of reservoir fluids, thereby increasing the oil-displacement factor.
Because of the introduction of gelling agents to the system, which provides
a controlled increase in viscosity, the
surfactant-based system becomes both
flow-deflecting and oil-displacing and
can be used to improve the efficiency of
the TSS because of increased sweep efficiency and oil-displacement factors.
From 15 June to 31 July 2014, the
gelled surfactant-based system was injected into five steam-injection wells in
the Usinsk oil field. The volume injected
ranged from 80 to 110 m3. Standard oilfield equipment was used to prepare and
inject the gelled system under field conditions. The effect was monitored, and
a positive effect was clearly defined 3
months after the injection (Fig. 1).

EOR From Heavy-Oil Reservoirs

Without Thermal Stimulation
To enhance oil recovery from highviscosity-oil reservoirs without TSS at

JPT MARCH 2016

temperatures between 20 and 40C, the

authors proposed using gels and sols
based on a low-temperature gel-forming
system as well as alkaline and acid oildisplacing systems based on surfactants,
an inorganic buffer solution, and polyol with controlled viscosity. These are
compatible with high-salinity formation
water and have low freezing points (between 20 and 60C).
To enhance oil recovery from highviscosity-oil reservoirs without the TSS,
the authors proposed the cold technology of cyclic reagent stimulation, which
is similar to cyclic steam stimulation. A
slug is injected into the production well
and followed by water injection, and the
well is closed for 714 days before being
put into operation. The oil is produced as
a low-viscosity emulsion. After the first
cycle of oil production, the next cycle
is performed: injection of slug and then
water followed by well shutdown and
then oil production.

Conclusion
All the technologies presented in this
paper have had their efficiencies proved
under field conditions and are recommended for further pilot projects and
commercial applications. One should
note the high processability of these sys-

tems because they can be prepared and

injected by standard oilfield equipment.
Flow-deflecting technologies based
on the use of the gel-forming and solforming systems for injection wells are
recommended for oil fields or areas
large enough to have significant effect.
Cold technologies intended to enhance oil recovery and intensify oil production from low-productivity wells
are considered promising technologies
because of good results from the pilot
tests as well as the potential flexibility and selectivity of their application
in the most appropriate wells. Moreover, these technologies are suitable
for cyclic application (cyclic reagent
stimulation, analogous to cyclic steam
stimulation but without heating the injected fluid).
Large-scale commercial application of these new integrated technologiescombining water or steam injection with physicochemical methods
that increase the reservoir coverage
will extend the profitable exploitation
of oil fields in later stages of their development and boost production at oil
fields with difficult-to-recover hydrocarbon reserves, including heavy- and highviscosity-oil reservoirs and deposits in
theArctic.JPT

87

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Seismic Applications
Mark Egan, SPE, Retired

From time to time, I am asked to address

general audiences. The mission is to
describe what we do in the seismic business. Typically, the first slide I show
is a prenatal ultrasound display of my
daughter. I explain that using reflected
sound waves to create such an image is
precisely what we do with the Earth. The
worlds first reflection seismic field tests
were conducted near Oklahoma City in
1921, and, ever since then, the industry
has endeavored to improve that seismic
imaging process.
So, indeed, one of the papers selected
for this Technology Focus section and
one of the papers recommended for additional reading deal with case histories
in which imaging is improved through
better velocity-model building. In the
first paper, integration of microgravity data, resistivity measurements, and
seismic is the key in the onshore case
history from Qatar. In the first
additional-reading paper, full-waveform
inversion of seismic travel times and
amplitudes is the key in the case history
from offshoreAustralia.
Advances in seismic applications are
not just confined to imaging, though. In

... [S]ome of the

more exciting advances
are actually arising
from the integration
of seismic with
other technologies ... .
another additional-reading paper, amplitudes are used for identifying porous
zones in an otherwise tight-sandstone
gas reservoir in Oman. And, in the third
additional-reading paper, the authors use
the amplitudes in 4D analyses for identifying new reservoir drive mechanisms in
a field offshore Brunei.
Both imaging and amplitude inversion
benefit greatly from broader-band data.
Therefore, this is the topic of the second
paper presented. In this example from
offshore Malaysia, the marriage of a new
acquisition technique with new processing algorithms yields broader frequency content, enabling more-accurate estimates of gas in place to be derived.
But even further advances in seismic applications are taking place now,

Mark Egan, SPE, retired from Schlumberger in January 2016. He

had worked for Schlumberger and its heritage companies since
1975, with his last position being global chief area geophysicist in
the Land Unconventionals Group within the WesternGeco segment. Egans previous postings with Schlumberger included positions as chief geophysicist in North America; Saudi Arabia; Dubai;
and Gatwick, England. He holds a PhD degree in geophysics, an
MS degree in acoustics, and a BS degree in physics and math.
Egan is a member of the JPT Editorial Committee.

88

especially in the world of unconventional resources. The authors of the third

selected paper discuss the integration
of miscroseismic data with 3D-seismic
attributes, well-log data, and completion data to understand the geomechanical rock properties in the Midland
basin of Texas. This information was
important for planning the spacing of
new wells.
I hope this journey is successful in
showing that substantial advances continue to be made globally in seismic
applications. But, perhaps even more
importantly, I hope the journey shows
that some of the more exciting advances
are actually arising from the integration
of seismic with other technologies and
that, while imaging may still be king in
seismic (and in some fields of medicine),
the applications of seismic to building
3D mechanical Earth models, for example, are gaining prominence.JPT

Recommended additional reading

at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
IPTC 17905 High-Resolution Anisotropic
Earth-Model Building on Conventional
Seismic Data Using Full-Waveform
Inversion: A Case Study Offshore Australia
by Bee Jik Lim, Schlumberger, et al.
SPE 177552 Seismic Reservoir-Quality
Prediction, Khazzan Field, Oman
by T. Chris Stiteler, BP, et al.
IPTC 18491 4D Seismic in Stacked
ReservoirsFrom Puzzles to Insights
on Production Drive Mechanisms
by Denis Kiyashchenko, BSP, et al.

JPT MARCH 2016

Near-Surface Velocity Model To Enhance

PSDM Seismic Imaging of Dukhan Field

ukhan field affords an opportunity

to assess alternative near-surface
velocity-modeling work flows that
specifically integrate microgravity
(MGR) and vertical electrical sounding
(VES). A pilot study of the Dukhan
seismic data demonstrates that
integration of MGR/VES into prestack
depth migration (PSDM) improves the
fidelity of seismic images and results in
an improved depth match. The resultant
MGR/VES PSDM pilot model improved
the velocity model between the surface
and top Simsima formation on the basis
of visible impact on the deeper structure
obtained from imaging and better fit
between the seismic depth horizons
andwell measured depths.

Oil and gas infrastructures

Surface geology

Hofuf
(Gravel Sand)
Dam
(Limestones)
U-Dammam
(Dolomites)
L-Dammam
(Shale)
Oil and gas
lines
Oil and gas
stations

Rus
(Limestone)
Sabkha

Sabkha

Sabkha
(outside
the survey)

3D Pilot Area

Introduction
The Dukhan field (Fig. 1) along the southwest coast of Qatar is an elongated anticline that has significant hydrocarbon
reservoirs in the Jurassic Arab and deeper formations. In 2007, Qatar Petroleum invested in a new full-field, land
and shallow-water 3D-seismic survey of
thearea.
Despite considerable and continuous
progress in seismic technology, obtaining an accurate, quantitative, well-focused
seismic depth image at reservoir level remains challenging. In land seismic, a poor
characterization of the near-surface geology is detrimental to the depth imaging of
underlying structures. The proper knowledge of the near surface to correct for its

Fig. 1Survey-location map (left), environmental overview (center), and

geological-context overview (right) of the Dukhan field.

perturbations onto the seismic wavefield

remains one of the main challenges to be
addressed. The near surface influences
the kinematics as well as the dynamics
of the source-generated seismic waves.
Knowledge of the near surface to correct
for its induced distortions is critical for a
reliable use of seismic images, structures,
and amplitude at reservoir level. The nearsurface lateral and vertical velocity variations often are not accessible with seismic

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
of paper IPTC 18293, Near-Surface Velocity Model of Dukhan Field From Multiphysics
Survey To Enhance PSDM Seismic Imaging, by K. Setiyono, Qatar Petroleum; S. Gallo,
C. Boulanger, F. Bruere, F. Moreau, and B. Rondeleux, CGG; and J. Snow, Qatar
Petroleum, prepared for the 2015 International Petroleum Technology Conference,
Doha, Qatar, 79 December. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
Copyright 2015 International Petroleum Technology Conference. Reproduced by
permission.

methods, even to the seismic refraction

survey, because their depth of investigation is limited to the top of the shallowest hard layer. In addition, rapid lateral
changes and large velocity contrasts are
unfavorable to seismic refraction.
An alternative approach, such as upholes, provides accurate local information but is difficult or impossible to interpolate geologically because of the
large separation between them. However,
these upholes have great value as anchor
points for the depth inversion of continuous longer-wavelength acquisition data.
Whereas the near surface is a major
issue for land seismic imaging (especially
on the usual 3D-seismic geometries with
too few exploitable near-offset seismic
records), additional, efficiently acquired
geophysical measurements help to fill the
seismic gap for near-surface characterization. These methods, most often involv-

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
JPT MARCH 2016

89

ing high-sensitivity/-resolution electric

and gravity potential fields, complement
seismic acquisition nicely.
To improve the near-surface velocity model of the Dukhan field, a dense
nonseismic microgravimetry (highresolution gravity) survey was implemented in combination with the VES
(resistivity) method using a phased approach. Initially, a pilot area (165 km2) was
acquired to evaluate how depth imaging
benefits from an improved near-surface
velocity model with the integration of additional geophysical measurements. On
the basis of encouraging results, the decision was made to extend the gravimetric
and electric acquisition over the onshore
portion of the Dukhan survey. Access to
resistivity vertical profiles over the entire area was of particular importance to
image the geoelectric layering of the area.
This profile was essential to perform a
geology-driven interpolation between
upholes data as well as to introduce geologic constraints to the gravimetry inversion. The objectives were for both static
correction and building of the medium-/
long-wavelength components of the nearsurface velocity model down to the Simsima level (the first visible seismic horizon at approximately 500-m depth).

After the Dukhan 3D-seismic acquisition was complete, a PSDM was performed over the 3D pilot area (Fig. 1, center), covering approximately 165 km2. In
order to assess the effectiveness of MGR
and resistivity methods to help improve
depth imaging, through better characterization of the near-surface velocity
model, MGR/resistivity measurements
were acquired over the pilot area.

Near-Surface Gravity Model

To have an effect on seismic imaging,
quantitative velocity values must be derived from heterogeneous data sets.
Modeling steps for improved-velocitymodel creation included the deep
model building in order to focus MGR/
resistivity inversion on events localized
between the surface and the top Simsima (deep gravity effect must be modeled
and removed) and focus on the shallower
part of the model (0- to 500-m depth)
(creation of a resistivity structural model
down to the Simsima). The depth resistivity model is then converted into a
density model and is used as the initial
density model for gravity depth inversion. The final gravity model is converted
finally into an improved velocity model
for PSDM imaging.

Challenges

Near-Surface Resistivity Model

The challenge in the Dukhan field was

linked to the very complicated environmental context. First is the extensive infrastructure over the oil field (oil/gas lines,
stations), inherent to a production site,
and the electromagnetic noise. Fig. 1, center, displays the full oil and gas network
on the full field, showing the complexity
of this kind of environment. Second is the
surface geology, highlighting lateral lithological variations, the Dukhan oil field
being a gentle anticline with the Rus formation (Lower Eocene, in green) outcropping in the axis of the field (Fig. 1, right). A
large sabkha is also present in the north of
the survey (Fig. 1, outlined in yellow) occupying an area of approximately 207 km.

The second step in the near-surface modeling was focused on the description of
the resistive layering structure of the
shallow model (0500 m), from the inversion of DC resistivity data. A knowledge of the shallow layering is also valuable to steer the density inversion of
the MGR near-surface observations better. The a priori shallow layering structure was derived from seismic time horizons picked from the surface down to
the Simsima. The time horizons were
then depth converted by use of available wells and upholes. These horizons
delineate four major formationsRUS,
UER-1, UER2-3, and UER4A-4Bused as
the initial geological model for DC resistivity depthinversion.

Acquisition
Initially, during the Dukhan 3D-seismicsurvey acquisition, direct-current (DC)
resistivity data with VES were acquired
specifically to characterize the sabkha
area and determine its basement depth
and thickness.

90

Constrained Gravity/Resistivity
Inversion and ImprovedVelocity-Model Creation
Between the surface and approximately
100-m depth, velocities/densities from
upholes were maintained as fixed points

during the gravity-inversion process. A

priori density values for Rus and UER
formations (upper, medium, and lower
UER) are derived from resistivity as obtained by resistivity depth inversion and
resistivity-to-density conversions and
are based on observations that resistivities are correlated to densities/velocities. Dedicated modeling was performed
in the identified anhydrite areas. Dedicated electrical-resistivity-tomography
profiles were acquired on anhydrite
areas to identify anhydrite extension
and thickness. The positive gravity
anomalies in these areas were modeled
as near-surface karst bodies, consisting
of anhydrite (geologically mapped) with
increased density. Dedicated conversion
parameters were used for these particular areas, Gardner coefficients being different from the standard ones in these
anhydrites. Surface geology and geological horizons were also integrated in the
final inversion process as an initial geometrical model.
All available external geological data
for Dukhan field were used in the final
modeling work flow. The density model,
derived from resistivity, was finally updated by means of gravity inversion
and transformed into a velocity model
through the density-to-velocity conversion relationship. The final result was a
velocity model optimized to match the
electrical and gravimetric information.
The resulting fit from gravity inversion
was considered very good, with a root
mean square close to 0.050 mGal, indicating that a priori resistivity information does not contradict the gravity data.
Consequently, incorporation of resistivity data reduced the uncertainties in the
final solution.
The final result is a 3D velocity model
optimized to match resistivity and gravimetric data.

PSDM Imaging Work Flow

The near-surface velocity model was then
used in the pilot seismic PSDM work flow.
Introducing the velocity model had a visible effect on the deeper structure obtained by the imaging and resulted in a
better fit between the seismic horizons in
depth and well control. Structural changes and a better match to well information are observed after the near-surface
model is applied. JPT

JPT MARCH 2016

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2/4/16 3:41 PM

Broadband Seismic Acquisition: Implications

for Interpretation and Reservoir Models

his paper addresses the impact

of acquiring a new 3D broadband
seismic survey over an amplitudesupported, discovered gas field containing
legacy 3D conventional towed-streamer
seismic data. The new seismic data were
acquired in shallow water depths by use
of a dual-level streamer technique and
were processed through prestack depth
migration (PSDM). Five gas discovery/
appraisal wells existed before broadband
acquisition, and two wells were drilled
after acquisition was completed. These
seven wells serve as control points that
provide a valuable link between the
seismic and reservoir properties.

Introduction and Background

Seismic imaging of hydrocarbon reservoirs with small impedance contrasts relative to bounding lithologies is challenging. Ideally, an infinite bandwidth wavelet
would detect and resolve subsurface geology as observed in the resolution of a typical wireline log. Improvements in seismic acquisition and processing continue
to strive toward this ideal condition, and
recent advancements in seismic acquisitionnamely, the broadband acquisition
techniquehave attempted an approximation of the infinite bandwidth wavelet through the removal of the receiver
or source ghosts. This advancement is of
particular interest in oil and gas development areas where known thin or poorquality reservoirs that are difficult to detect on conventional seismic records have
been penetrated by previous wells.

The study area is located in the shallow

(less than 200 ft) waters off peninsular
Malaysia. Seven exploration and appraisal wells have targeted shallow and deep
reservoirs, although only three wells
have been drilled to deep targets. Generally speaking, seismic imaging of shallow
reservoirs is good, while deep targets are
more challenging to image.
The primary motivation for acquiring a
new broadband seismic survey stemmed
from imaging difficulties of thin (less
than 15 ft) deep gas reservoirs on conventional seismic data. Many of these reservoirs are vertically juxtaposed by coals,
which tend to mask the acoustic response
of the reservoir. Even after later reprocessing of legacy data through anisotropic PSDM, imaging difficulties remained.

Seismic Imaging Challenges

The study field consists of multiple,
stacked reservoirs. Coal and organic shale
layers are prevalent throughout the entire section. Although very thin (less than
10 ft), they have large impedance contrasts with bounding rocks and are usually detected on seismic. Often, the seismic
response from these layers overwhelms
the response from the gas-charged reservoir facies.
Adding further to the imaging complexity are three geophysical data-quality
issues common to the basin.
Natural amplitude and frequency
decayThe absorption of seismic
energy with depth has been welldocumented. In the study area, strong

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
of paper IPTC 18075, The Impact of Broadband Seismic Acquisition and Implications
for Interpretation and Reservoir-Model Building, by Carter Gehman and Andrew
Spedding, Hess, prepared for the 2014 International Petroleum Technology
Conference, Kuala Lumpur, 1012 December. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
Copyright 2014 International Petroleum Technology Conference. Reproduced by
permission.

frequency and amplitude decay

with depth is present in the seismic
record, having direct implications for
imaging deeper targets.
Shallow gasPockets of shallow
gas, ranging in thickness from 0 to
approximately 150 ft, are prolific
in the basin. They are generally
elongated and broad in map view
and can be up to 20 km in length.
Acoustically, they are very soft
because their velocities and densities,
which have been measured in
well logs, are very slow and low,
respectively. The bodies absorb
seismic signals, causing areas beneath
the gas to have both amplitude and
frequency loss, although this is
usually repaired deeper down as the
gas is undershot by farther offsets.
If the slow velocities of the shallow
gas bodies are not incorporated in
the velocity model, then structural
sags are observed beneath them.
Traditionally, it has been very difficult
to incorporate the shallow gas bodies
into the velocity model because of
low fold in the common depth point
gathers at very shallow times.
Fault shadowA third challenge to
imaging occurs in what are known
as fault shadows. A fault shadow is
generally expressed as a triangular
zone of distortion on the footwall
side of a normal fault. Usually, the
larger the fault, the more severe the
fault-shadow effect is. In the study
area, faults are most prevalent at the
crest of the structure where imaging
is most important. It is believed that
fault shadows are the result of not
fully capturing velocity differences
across the faults.

Seismic Acquisition, Processing,

and Stack Comparison
There are approximately 500 km2 of
full-fold seismic overlap and three wells

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
92

JPT MARCH 2016

Fig. 1Horizon slice amplitude extractions from legacy (left) and broadband (right) interpretations of the target
reservoir. The red dot is the well location. The red arrow points to the area within the fault shadow where the
broadband data are illuminating the reservoir all the way to the fault boundary.

common to the 2003 legacy survey and

the 2012 broadband survey. The general processing flows between the two
surveys are similar; however, important
differences in short-period multipleattenuation techniques, the handling of
Q attenuation, and velocity-model building exist between the two surveys.
In the cross-section view, the broadband section appears richer and of lower
frequency than the legacy data. Quantitatively, the actual frequency range at target depths is larger in the broadband data
because of the added low-frequency content. It appears that the legacy spectrum
contains stronger midrange frequencies.
However, signal/noise analysis suggests
that legacy noise levels are the highest in
the midrange frequencies; thus, the legacy midrange frequencies are interpreted
to be noise-dominated. Qualitative comparison of the two data sets under gas
clouds and fault shadows shows significant imaging improvement on the broadband data, although imaging challenges
still remain.

Interpretation Work Flow

and Results
Full geophysical evaluations were conducted on the legacy and broadband data
sets across the study area. Two static geological models (geomodels) were constructed with input from both of these
evaluations. In terms of the contribution
to the geomodel, the evaluation work flow
is twofold: structural interpretation and
stratigraphic assessment. The former
methodology consists of well ties, mapping, and depth conversion, resulting in
the depth surfaces that make up the model
framework. The latter method involves
investigating the rock properties from

JPT MARCH 2016

available well data, which provides a link

between the rocks and seismic-derived
attributes. When there is high confidence
that a specific attribute corresponds to the
presence of sand, for example, then that
attribute is used to condition the distribution of sand in the geomodel qualitatively.
Seven common seismic surfaces were
mapped in two-way time and subsequently transformed to depth by use of the
respective anisotropic PSDM velocity
calibrated to sonic and checkshot velocities measured in the wells. These surfaces cover a two-way time window of approximately 1.5 seconds and bound the
structural framework for the geomodel. In general, the broadband interpretation is more continuous and there is less
manual interpretation required for the
broadband surfaces, although manual interpretation is still required in highernoise areas beneath shallow gas bodies or
under fault shadows.

Comparison of Legacy
and Broadband Data
Considering the target reservoir previously used for 1D modeling (Fig. 1), the far
stack amplitude map for this particular
interval is indicative of gas reservoir and
is used by the geomodeler to condition
facies distribution. Similar stratigraphic features are observed on the legacyand broadband-data-set attribute maps.
There is an east/west-trending channel
geometry that contains amplitude anomalies against a set of faults to the east.
High-frequency noise contamination
is evident on the legacy map, while the
broadband map appears much smoother.
Outside of the main channel axis, amplitude anomalies associated with coal are
observed. However, on the broadband

map, there also appear to be additional

channels to the north, representing upside resources, which are not seen on the
legacy map. A likely explanation for this is
that the broadband signal is able to analyze reservoirs and distinguish them from
coal and organic shale when the two facies are in close proximity.
Seismic data contain signals and
some amount of coherent and random
noise. Signal/noise analysis at our study
area indicates that the broadband data
are cleaner overall and have a higher
signal/noise ratio relative to conventional streamer seismic. A high signal/
noise ratio enables the potential for highfrequency spectral shaping to try to enhance thin-bed resolution, especially if
the noise floor is low on the high end.

Conclusions
Broadband seismic acquisition is an improvement over conventional streamer
acquisition in terms of imaging complex,
fluvial/tidal geologic layers. Before acquiring broadband data, it is crucial to
understand what the specific problems
are for imaging. In this case, the main
causes for seismic-imaging problems
stemmed from shallow gas bodies, fault
shadows, coal seams, and the natural absorption of energy with depth. Synthetic
forward modeling is an excellent tool for
feasibility studies. In terms of frequency
content, the actual broadband data contain more lower and higher frequencies
than conventional data and have a higher
signal/noise ratio. These factors have resulted in better resolution and detection
of thin reservoirs in complex impedance
environments, which, in turn, have bolstered confidence in the reservoir model
used for field development.JPT

93

High-Fidelity Microseismic-Data Acquisition

in the Midland Basin Wolfcamp Shale Play

n the Permian Wolfcamp shale

formation in west Texas, density fields
of microseismic events were mapped
in four dimensions and variations
were noted in the geometry of the
hydraulic stimulation as well as in the
development of pressure away from the
perforations. In addition to aiding wellspacing decisions, these data were used
to study individual-well geometries and
compare variations in the microseismic
response between adjacent wells.

Results
The data sets demonstrate that highfidelity microseismic data can be acquired
by use of downhole tractored and multiobservational well-imaging techniques to
understand stimulations and the stress
fields better as indicated by microseismic
data. The data are called high-fidelity because, in general, they are excellent data
that are consistent and conform to standard understandings of stimulations. Beyond the robustness in event counts, the
data typically have a high signal/noise
ratio with high-quality waveforms for
picking and consistent hodograms across
the tools within the array. Additionally,
the P- and S-wave picks are orthogonal to
each other and often include the P amplitude and the horizontal (Sh) and vertical
(Sv) S amplitudes.
The data demonstrate
Clearly defined nodal planes
indicating good P- and S-wave
amplitude stability indicative of
uniform radiation patterns directly
related to the hydraulic mechanics
and fracture networks

Variations in observed complexity of

event clouds related to formations
Variations in event characteristics
related to stress shadows from
adjacent prior stimulations
Expanding on the first observation,
for a number of the data sets with an offset stimulation, P- and S-wave amplitude
ratios vary azimuthally with respect to
the observation well. Fairly uniform radiation patterns appear to be caused
by consistent failure mechanisms. These
composite P/Sh amplitude displays provide low-cost source mechanism information and highlight a common nodal
plane as imaged back to the observation well.
The amplitude ratios suggest a uniform mechanism that occurs during hydraulic stimulation that may be related to in-situ conditions of altered rock
within the formation or the hydraulic
stimulation itself. It is difficult to determine if the natural fractures are aligned
in a certain orientation or the propagation of stress and slippage is related to the developing fracture. The microseismic data suggest a dominance
of strike/slip failures because the log
of Sh/P changes with a 90 rotation. If
the data had plotted more as with a
180 rotation, two possibilities would
exist for interpretation, including a vertical dip/slip mechanism or a horizontal
bedding-plane slip. In the latter, the fracture opening is accommodated by shearing along the bedding planes as the fracture opens vertically.
The second key observation is that,
for a given stimulation design, a change

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights
of paper SPE 178715, High-Fidelity Microseismic-Data Acquisition in the Midland
Basin Wolfcamp Shale Play, by Robert Hull, Robert Meek, Brian Wright, Hallie
Meighan, Jake Lempges, and Austin von der Hoya, Pioneer Natural Resources,
prepared for the 2015 Unconventional Resources Technology Conference, San Antonio,
Texas, USA, 2022 July. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

in microseismic complexity can be recognized between two different formations. Fig. 1 shows one example in which
width of the microseismic fracture cloud
is approximately the same as the stage
width. However, when a similar stimulation design is pumped on a different formation, a much more complex generation of microseismic events associated
with the stimulation is seen. While it is
not too surprising to see differences in
stimulations between formations, it is reassuring to see such differences reflected
within the microseismic data acquired
to help test the positional accuracy of
the events. This example demonstrates
that the complexity is real in the second
formation and not a function of imaging issues.
The third key observation with the
microseismic data is that a fundamental change in the stimulations was seen
related to the order of the stimulation.
The acquisition of microseismic data on
the first single-well stimulation for a
pair of wells shows a general pattern of
some events progressing out of the perforations with a somewhat slow build
outward away from the clusters. When
the second well of a pair was stimulated,
however, a rapid development was seen
of event counts that are typically five
to seven times greater than in the first
stimulation. These events from the second stimulation have a magnitude shift
of 0.3 units higher, an increase in length,
and a noted height increase. The only
way to increase magnitude is to increase
the area or amount of slippage on the
second stimulation. The first stimulation
can be considered as occurring within
virgin rock, while the second stimulation
appears to be stimulating an altered rock
that reflects the change in stress conditions from the first stimulation. The increased events as well as the magnitudes
appear to provide an increase in fidelity
and consistency of the P/S ratio.

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
94

JPT MARCH 2016

Phones
Phones

Perforations

Fig. 1Highlight of the microseismic response for two different formations using somewhat similar stimulation
parameters. On the left, a long fracture wing is obtained in a higher-permeability zone, as compared with the
stimulation response on the right. While the acquisition geometry was different for these figures, vertical and horizontal
array effects were not the cause of these well-defined changes in the stimulation geometry. In fact, had a fracture wing
developed on stimulation on the right, the positioning from the horizontal array would have detected this geometry
better. This is because the accuracy in map view of the events is idealized using the moveout of the waveform across
the receiver array.

Beyond the key relationships previously noted, the following have also been
noted in the data sets:
Defined progression of the events
in time outward away from the
fracture indicates an ability to
image the pressure diffusion fronts.
The orientations of the geometry
of the stimulation are related to
geomechanical properties.
Single observational wells can
produce reasonable locations of
events that can be tested with
respect to dual monitoring as well
as colocation imaging solutions.
Consistent Gutenberg-Richter
magnitudes are achieved across
multiple jobs.
Moment magnitudes vary
with respect to stratigraphic
geomechanical properties.
Event barriers show good
agreement with changes in
Youngsmodulus and acoustic
impedance.
Different geometries are created in
the event clouds when fluid types
for stimulations are adjusted.
Reactivation of stress and geometry
changes are seen in areas of known
reservoir depletion from producing
vertical wells.
Geometries show a good definition
of lateral pinch-off points.
Key methods used to obtain these
high-fidelity data include

JPT MARCH 2016

Using tractored and coupled phones

deployed within 1,000 ft of the
stimulation and typically imaging
through a varying velocity field
Using a substantial imaging
aperture with array lengths of
1,100 ft and 12 three-component
tools
Using appropriate methods to
reduce and understand noise in
order to improve signal quality
Using dual monitoring as
appropriate to confirm positional
uncertainties
Using nearby highly accurate,
dipole sonic data for velocitymodel calibration
Working with the contractors to
design the appropriate acquisition
methodology and geometry
Managing microseismic acquisition
as a geophysical method while
reviewing data in real time within
a team environment to understand
completion and reservoir
interrelationships

input to high-value well-spacing decisions. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates that the data are robust in their
attributes, leading to key understandings
of geomechanical properties as well as
completionoptimization.JPT

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Conclusions
During the past few years, the industry has attempted to gain better understanding of the role microseismic
data can play in assessing completions
and quantifying their uncertainty. Microseismic data can be integrated with
other data sets to understand geomechanical properties as well as provide

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95

PEOPLE

TAM International has made changes to its

management team. MICHAEL BELEAU,
SPE, has been appointed business development director for TAM US. He joined the
company in 2014 as product line manager
for fracture systems. In his current role, he
will direct sales and launch new products in
the US markets. Beleau has a diverse background in the industry
and has held technical, sales, and operational roles at Halliburton and othercompanies.
MARTIN CORONADO, SPE, has been appointed engineering director at TAM. Previously, he was vice president of engineering
at Hydrawell US. Coronado has held engineering, research, and upper management
roles in Baker Hughes technology group
and has experience in inflatable packer systems, openhole and casedhole completions, well intervention,
liner systems, and sand control. He is a member of the SPE

Deepwater Drilling and Completions Conference Committee.

Coronado holds a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering
from the University ofWashington.
TIMOTHY DAVIS, SPE, has been appointed
global technical director at TAM. He will be
overseeing global technical support for operations, training, product line management, and marketing. Davis joined TAM in
2006 and was most recently the global
product line manager for cement integrity.
He also has experience in the wireline industry. Davis holds a BS
degree in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University.
TAM has appointed ARTHUR LOGINOV,
SPE, director of Latin America for western
hemisphere operations. He was previously
global technical manager responsible for
cement integrity, inflatable service tools,
and swellable technology. Before joining

In Memoriam
ARLIE SKOV, 1991 SPE president, died 23
December 2015. He was 87.
Skovs presidential year was marked
by the international expansion of SPE
during that decade and witnessed the
launch of several new initiatives. During
his term as president, the first SPE section in China was started in Beijing and the first section in
Russia was started the following year. In 1991, SPE became
a cosponsor of the International Meeting on Petroleum Engineering, which was held in Beijing in March 1992. SPE also
opened its London office in 1991. The first edition of the SPE
Health, Safety, Security, Environment, and Social Responsibility biennial conference was held in 1991 in The Hague,
The Netherlands.
Skov emphasized SPEs role in energy education and the
importance of sharing technical knowledge with governments to aid them in making informed energy policy decisions. As president, he visited numerous SPE sections. In the
October 2007 issue of JPT, he recalled going to countries in
the Middle East, Africa, China, Australia, and South America.
I visited a total of 33 sections outside the US as well as 22
within it, and I was perhaps the first SPE president to visit
that high a proportion of non-US sections. I am delighted
that SPE continues its international growth.
Before becoming president, Skov chaired the SPE Annual
Meeting Technical Program Committee in 1967 and 1971,
and was the chairman of both the Reprint Series and Lucas
Gold Medal committees. Skov held offices on the boards of

96

SPE and the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and

Petroleum Engineers (AIME) and was the vice president of
AIME. He was a Distinguished Member of SPE, and in 1998
was named Honorary Member by both SPE and AIME, the
highest honor these organizations bestow. He was also a recipient of the SPE Distinguished Service Award.
After his graduation from the University of Oklahoma
in petroleum engineering, Skov began his 36-year career
with Sohio Petroleum Company in Oklahoma City, and later
worked for subsidiaries of BP. A main part of his career was
focused on the development of the North Slope of Alaska
and the Prudhoe Bay oil and gas fields. He was manager of
production planning for the development of Prudhoe Bay,
technical adviser to the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation
System for the proposed Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline, and in
1981, became the manager of new technology development
responsible for developing cost-effective drilling, production, and transportation capabilities in arctic pack ice and
other environmentally hostile areas of operation. He then
became director of production technology for BPs research
and development and technical services in the US. For his
work on improved oil recovery, Skov was named an Enhanced Oil Recovery Pioneer at the SPE/US Department of
Energy Enhanced Oil Recovery Symposium in Tulsa in 1992.
After retirement from BP in 1992, Skov formed Arlie M.
Skov Petroleum Consulting, which remained active through
December 2000. He was a registered professional engineer
in Oklahoma and Texas and lived in Santa Barbara where he
and his wife moved in 1995.

JPT MARCH 2016

TAM, he was regional manager for Asia Pacific at Weatherford.

Loginov has 34 years of experience in casedhole and
openholecompletions.
PETER HOWELL, SPE, has been appointed
drilling and wells excellence manager for
the Oil and Gas Institute at Robert Gordon
University. He will be working toward
strengthening the connection between the
university and the oil and gas industry, focusing on the wells sector. Howell was previously wells manager at TAQA. He has experience in drilling, well
engineering, operations, supply chain, and business management in several countries from his previous roles, which include
vice president at Applied Drilling Technology International UK
and integrated services manager at Noble Drilling. A fellow of
the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, Howell has a bachelors
degree in mechanical engineering from the University
ofSouthampton.

Member Deaths
Berthangel Gonzalo Arrazola, Ciudad Del Carmen Campeche,
Mexico
Richard J. Aseltine, Rancho Palos Verdes, California, USA
Dario Balistrieri, San Donato Milanese, Italy
Theodore L. Barecky, Portland, Texas, USA
John David Boxell, Duncan, Oklahoma, USA
Joe B. Clifton, Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, USA
Howard F. Dekalb, Hilo, Hawaii, USA
William Livington DOlier, Bakersfield, California, USA
Vasco Da Silva Felix, Tunis, Tunisia
Francesco Guidi, San Donato Milanese, Italy
Wolfgang Herget, Essen, Germany
Kingdon R. Hughes, Addison, Texas, USA
John C. Kirby, La Canada, California, USA
Artur (Toni) A. Marszalek, Warszawa, Poland
Pieter Oudeman, Leiden, The Netherlands
Willem G. Riemens, Wassenaar, The Netherlands
J.D. Sere, Houston, Texas, USA
George W. Winter Jr., Euless, Texas, USA
Reece E. Wyant, Houston, Texas, USA

In Memoriam
DONALD RUSSELL, 1974 SPE president,
died 19 December 2015. He was 84.
Russell became president during a
turbulent time in the oil and gas industry. The OPEC oil embargo against the
US was in effect and the price of oil had
increased severalfold in a short span of
time. SPEs Dues Waiver program was first introduced in
1973 to support unemployed members. In spite of the difficult economic conditions, Russell successfully steered SPE
in the direction of technical knowledge dissemination and
individual member development, and SPEs annual membership grewsteadily.
Supported by the SPE Board of Directors and reflecting
the views of the majority of SPE members, Russell opposed
the unionization of professional employees in the oil business as well as SPE endorsing guidelines that would dictate
the relationship between employers and professionals. In his
column in the November 1973 issue of JPT, he wrote, [SPE]
must stick to its traditional role as a bulwark of professionalism and seek to be of greater value to the engineer/scientist and to the industry it serves. Russell also reiterated
the importance of educating the public and the government
about the industry. In the JPT October 2007 issue celebrating SPEs 50th anniversary, Russell said that he was proud
of speaking out for the oil and gas industry with facts and
that those energy education efforts paid off.
Russell made notable technical contributions to SPE and
the industry. He was awarded the Cedric K. Ferguson Medal
in 1962, recognizing an outstanding technical paper written
by an SPE member under 36 years of age. He received the
John Franklin Carll Award in 1980 and the DeGolyer Distin-

JPT MARCH 2016

guished Service Medal in 1987. He published several technical papers and, with C.S. Matthews, authored SPEs first
monograph, Pressure Buildup and Flow Tests in Wells in
1967, which is considered a classic today. He served on the
board of directors of both SPE and the American Institute of
Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) and
was president of AIME in 1990. He was an honorary member of both SPE and AIME. Russell was also part of the executive structure at SPE that spearheaded the formation of
the SPE Foundation.
Russell began his career with Shell Oil Company in 1955
as a petroleum engineering trainee, and in his 33-year career at Shell, held roles of increasing responsibility in production operations and exploration and production research. He was vice president of corporate planning in 1977
and vice president of production in 1980. He retired from
Shell in 1987 as president of Shell Development Company,
the companys research and development organization. He
became president and chief executive officer of Sonat Exploration Company in 1988 and led the companys growth
for more than a decade. In 1998, he founded Russell Companies, an independent oil and gas company based in Tyler,
Texas. For outstanding leadership at Sonat and Shell in the
development and application of new technologies, he was
recognized with the AIME Charles F. Rand Memorial Gold
Medal in 2000.
Russell graduated with a BS degree in mathematics and
physics from Sam Houston State University, which he attended on a music scholarship, playing trumpet in the Houstonians Jazz Band. He also held an MS in mathematics from
the University of Oklahoma. He was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 1982.

97

In Memoriam
HORACE RANDOLPH (RANDY) CRAWFORD, SPE, died 16 December 2015 at
age 87. He was a pioneer in fracture
treatment designs and products and was
honored as a JPT Legend of Production
and Operations in 2009.
After graduating with a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, Crawford joined Western Company as a research associate and
developed acidizing, cementing, and fracturing products
and treatment designs. One of his early papers, with other
coauthors, Carbon DioxideA Multipurpose Additive for
Effective Well Stimulation, was published in JPT in 1963.
After Western, Crawford worked for several other companies, including Westco Research (a Western Company
subsidiary), Lone Star Gas Companys Nipak Fertilizer, and
Sanitech and Enserch Exploration.
Crawford joined Conoco in 1979, and was tasked with increasing the production rate of the companys Gulf of Mexico oil wells. He prepared a well completion plan and developed in-house tools to teach the plan to others. The results
were successful and Conoco increased the production rates
and revenues from the first two platforms by approximately
USD 104 millionannually.

Hydraulic Fracturing . . .
(Continued from page 71)

started to be pumped in from the surface

because of the higher specific gravity of
the rod-shaped proppant. There was also
no pressure increase as an indication of
restriction from the perforations during
rod-shaped-proppantstages.
The three wells achieved a tip screenout
during the last proppant stages, increasing the net pressure by several hundreds
of psi. The net pressure gain attributable
to the proppant pack for the three wells
was between 300 and 400 psi when compared with the net pressure from the minifracturing treatment. The three fracture
treatments were pumped successfully,
without major operationalconstraints.
Treatment Evaluation. The treatment
evaluation consisted of first estimating
the fracture geometry by performing
pressure matching with the fracture simulator and then comparing the production
response against the production forecast
by use of the fracture geometries obtained
from the pressure match to identify any
discrepancy in the match of the simulated
and real production behavior. These processes are detailed in the complete paper.

98

He authored several technical papers, including methods

to calculate the dimensions of a fracture using the properties of the reservoir and fracture fluid. He authored six patents for technologies, including explosive charge assemblies, secondary recovery of petroleum, seismic methods,
and transmission of mechanical power.
The coal seam fracture treatments he helped design for
Consol Coal, Conocos sister company, is considered one of
his greatest contributions to the industry. Still being used
today, this technology allows engineers to fracture and produce the methane from coal seams before sending miners into the mine. This has made coal mining safer by reducing the methane content in the mine and released into
the atmosphere, and has reduced the operational cost. For
this contribution, Crawford received a Special Achievement
Award from Conoco.
Crawford was passionate about education. With his
wife, Louise Crawford, he established two scholarship
fundsthe Dr. H.R. and Louise Crawford Scholarship Endowment at Texas Tech University and the H.R. Crawford
Endowed Graduate Fellowship in Engineering for graduating engineering students at the University of Texas at
Austin. These have so far helped more than 100 students
attendcollege.

As part of the evaluation, the three

wells fractured with rod-shaped proppant were compared with offset wells that
were fractured with ISP. The rod-shapedproppant wells showed higher proppantpack conductivity and longer effective
fracture half-length; conductivity and
fracture half-length were the reasons for
the higher production rates and increased
recovery compared with rates and recovery in conventionally fracturedwells.

Field-Trial Production Results

The production behavior of the three
wells was closely monitored during the
6 months after the treatment. The three
wells clearly showed much higher production than the offset wells fractured
with conventional proppant. The offset
wells were fractured using on average
15% more proppant and using the same
type of fluid.
Well A had an initial production rate
from the fractured zone of 184 BOPD,
whereas the offset well fractured with
conventional proppant had an initial production rate of 155 BOPD. After 6 months,
Well A yielded 4,035 STB more cumulative production than the offset well, a difference of 24%.

Well B showed initially 143 BOPD; this

was a lower production rate compared
with the best offset well, which started
with 169 BOPD. Although the initial production was lower, after 45 days, the well
fractured with rod-shaped proppant presented higher production. Comparing the
cumulative production after 6 months,
the well fractured with rod-shaped proppant had 12% higher cumulative production than the offset well; this represented
1,800 STB.
Well Cs initial production rate was
152 BOPD, and the offset well fractured
with conventional proppant produced
92 BOPD initially. When comparing the
cumulative production from the two
wells after 6 months, the well fractured
with rod-shaped proppant produced
8,298STB more than the offset well fractured with conventional proppant.
All the wells fractured with rod-shaped
proppant have at least 12% higher cumulative production after 6 months when
compared with the best-performing offset well. The offset wells were just one or
two spacings away from the well treated
with rod-shaped proppant, so the reservoir properties and reservoir-pressure
levels were very similar. JPT

JPT MARCH 2016

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