E&P Notes (June 2015)

Abstract

E&P Notes “Regulatory Compliance Just One Reason for Groundwater Sampling” The US Department of the Interior encourages the practice of baseline groundwater sampling before drilling, according to its recently released hydraulic fracturing regulations. Although the practice will not be legally required across all federal lands, there are additional reasons to conduct groundwater sampling, said Ryan Leatherbury, client service manager at environmental engineering firm Weston Solutions. The most obvious reason for sampling is for use as a form of “cheap insurance” against water contamination claims, said Leatherbury, who spoke at a recent SPE Gulf Coast Section Waste Water Management Study Group meeting. “Argentina Expands Research on Shale and Mature Fields” Although Argentina is home to what is probably the largest shale formation in South America, the country remains a net importer of oil and gas, according to the US Energy Information Administration. To produce more hydrocarbons from the Vaca Muerta shale and increase recovery in other domestic plays, the country’s majority state-owned oil company YPF, created a separate research organization called YPF Tecnologia (Y-TEC) in 2012. At present, the research company’s main location is in La Plata, Argentina, 70 km south of Buenos Aires. The construction of a 129,000-ft2 laboratory complex in nearby Berisso will be completed before the end of the year, said Gustavo Galliano, manager of communications and knowledge management and technology liaison at Y-TEC. “A New Map for Composite Design and Testing” Researchers at Rice University in Houston are hoping their new theory on composite properties may help the oil and gas industry reduce the time it takes to develop and test new materials. After 3 years of work, the researchers have created a design map that predicts strength, stiffness, and toughness of different materials when they are layered onto one another. Applications for this theoretical map may include pipes, downhole tools, and marine drilling risers, and especially those that are exposed to high-pressure/ high-temperature environments. To develop the map, the research team looked to nature. Rouzbeh Shahsavari, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice, said that designing composites that are strong, tough, and lightweight is a big challenge for the materials science world. “Wastewater Recovery a Common Challenge for Aerospace and Oil Industries” While wastewater reuse is an option for oil and gas operations, it is an imperative for space travel. With payload weight at a premium, recycling is the only way to provide potable water for journeys longer than a few days, said Mark Jernigan, executive director of Rice Space Institute at Rice University and associate director, exploration systems development, human health and performance directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC). “The desire for NASA is to reclaim water so we don’t have to bring so much,” said Jernigan, who spoke at a meeting of the SPE Gulf Coast Section’s Waste and Water Management Study Group.