E&P Notes (June 2017)

Abstract

E&P Notes With New Advance, Natural Gas Filtering Technology Moves Closer to Commercial Reality Trent Jacobs, JPT Digital Editor Researchers at Rice University in Houston have advanced their efforts to develop a low-cost and relatively simple-to-make filtering material for carbon dioxide separation and capture. Their aim is for this new material to be used at natural gas gathering facilities where it will absorb carbon dioxide from natural gas streams while allowing the methane product to pass through. JPT featured the work in 2014 and, since then, the researchers say they have figured out how to optimize their process to make the material, described as a porous-carbon sorbent, to address the different chemical makeups of natural gas sources. The project has received funding from US independent operator Apache Corporation. The latest details were published last month in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal, Sustainable Energy & Fuels. US Gulf of Mexico Hits Record Production Trent Jacobs, JPT Digital Editor Average oil production in the US Gulf of Mexico reached a new benchmark of 1.6 million B/D in 2016, topping the previous record set in 2009 by 44,000 B/D. January’s average production reached 1.7 million B/D, marking a fourth straight month of increases for the offshore region. These figures were published by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA), which predicts that crude output from the US Gulf will continue to rise into 2018. Last year, there were eight offshore projects commissioned in the offshore basin, including Shell’s 50,000 B/D Stones floating production facility that started up in September and Anadarko’s 80,000 B/D Heidelberg spar platform which achieved first oil in January. Seven more projects are slated to start up this year. Foamer Developed To Help Corrosion, Scale Inhibition Stephen Whitfield, Senior Staff Writer Wet-gas production in east and central Texas can often be a complicated process, as corrosive fluids in gas wells often lead to significant deposition of iron sulfide scale in production tubing. Speaking at the SPE Oil-field Chemistry Conference, Jonathan Wylde discussed the challenges in creating a chemical component to deliquefy gas wells while reducing corrosion and preventing iron sulfide scale. Wylde is the global head of application development at Clariant Oil Services. The gas wells are located in the Teague field in east central Texas. There are several producing reservoirs in the field, but the Upper Jurassic Bossier and Cotton Valley Lime reservoirs are the most prolific. Wylde said the gas produced by the two reservoirs has different characteristics, which indicates that they come from different source rock despite being in the same field. The Bossier Sands are a blend of centered gas accumulations and prograding deltaic channel systems with minimal formation water, and the Cotton Valley Lime is an oolitic shoal trend with higher porosity zones that can produce significant amounts of water and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). University Consortium Prepares for Spike in Decommissioning Eric van Oort, Director, Consortium for Decommissioning and Abandonment In the music world, a coda is the final section of a movement or composition. Appropriately, it is also the acronym for the Consortium for Decommissioning and Abandonment (CODA), a University of Texas at Austin (UT)-led initiative that is designed to bring together members of industry and academia to help operators efficiently orchestrate the final days of deepwater developments. The CODA is a response to the growing number of onshore and offshore wells, platforms, and infrastructure that are approaching the end of economic viability and soon must be plugged and removed. In the Gulf of Mexico deep water alone, for example, 2015 abandonment costs were estimated by IHS Markit to be about USD 2.5 billion. That number is expected to rise by more than 500% to USD 13.2 billion by 2040. Abandonment expenses are particularly onerous to operators because unlike other operating costs, plug and abandonment (P&A) operations offer no prospect for return on investment. The consortium is working to minimize the economic impact on operators and to ensure effective P&A operations through the development of innovative technologies. The approach replicates industry efforts over past decades to develop new technologies with which to drill and complete wells in various challenging environments around the world.