Guest Editorial: The Engineer of the Future

Abstract

Recently, at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, I was asked a question about the ‘engineer of the future.’ As we take a pause to turn the page to next year, I believe now is a prescient time to contemplate what’s next for petroleum engineering. Throughout my career, I’ve been able to witness great change in our industry as the shale revolution took hold making horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing commonplace, diagnostic and modeling tools improved in access and cost, and data became more timely and readily available. This led to a tremendous period of US energy supply growth and decades-long productivity improvements. Looking forward, I believe there are three trends that engineers should consider: 1) applying “new” tools to solve “old” problems, 2) connecting the dots via hybrid engineering, and 3) organizing, directing, and inserting data predictions into their workflow. These are not only my views but also the views of Devon’s talented engineers. Old problems will meet new solutions. The past decade has been dominated by unconventional horizontal development that was first pioneered in the Barnett Shale for natural gas and shortly thereafter transitioned into oil-focused development in the Bakken and Eagle Ford. Today, the Permian Basin continues to grow in total supply as the stacked pay is developed. Engineers should take stock of the tool set we have acquired during this era with a mindset to deploy these methodologies to tier II unconventional extensions, previously developed or bypassed conventional formations, offshore and international opportunities, enhanced recovery projects such as EOR and refracturing, and new energy opportunities like geothermal. To make these future opportunities competitive and meet the global demand for energy, we will likely need a combination of price, technology, and cost improvements. Engineers are critical to the latter two. To better illustrate these points let’s utilize examples. Drilling rig specification improvements have been coupled with material science and design improvements in bottomhole assemblies. The outcome is improved topdrives and mud pressure systems to power more durable and efficient downhole motors and bits, thus reducing failures, enhancing the efficiency of a rig’s daily footage, and enabling longer laterals. If we pivot to the completion space, our diagnostics for frac geometry have gone from limited and costly to a menu of options that provide fit-for-purpose diagnostics and costs. Devon deployed its first permanent fiber diagnostics in unconventional shale in 2012. Today, the same system is readily available but for a much lower cost. However, more frequently Devon has supplemented this tool with dip-in fiber and a proprietary methodology called sealed wellbore pressure monitoring to gather more frequent data points for frac geometry and design. As our team conducted, in cooperation with the US Department of Energy (DOE), a novel Eagle Ford project capturing horizontal core and completion diagnostics, we recognized that our designs have tremendously improved in efficiency but still have potential to capture more of the resource via initial and secondary fracturing efforts.