Petroleum Operations Research Articles

Taming the East Texas "Black Giant": Ernest O. Thompson and Illusions of Independence, 1930–1935

Taming the East Texas "Black Giant":Ernest O. Thompson and Illusions of Independence, 1930–1935 Matthew Ware Coulter* Click for larger view View full resolution Ernest O. Thompson. Courtesy of Texas State Library and Archives Commission, 1972/115-368B. [End Page 292] Ernest O. Thompson retired from the Texas Railroad Commission (TRC) in 1965 after more than thirty-two years in office. In reporting the event, the Tulsa Daily World called Thompson a "world-recognized oil conservation expert who tamed the wild burst of Texas oil development during the 1930s." The headline for the story identified Thompson as the "Tamer of Texas Oil." The East Texas oil field formed the epicenter of the "wild burst," and it affected the entire nation. A complex and coordinated effort between the national government and oil-producing states eventually established a framework to bring regulation and stability to petroleum operations in East Texas, and in building the new system Thompson probably played a more important role than any other individual.1 In developing the framework, national and state government officials, as well as industry leaders, grappled with questions of federalism. Thompson established himself as a proponent of state authority and challenged those who called for national government controls over the oil industry. In the state of Texas, the legislature had assigned to the Railroad Commission responsibility for the regulation of oil industry operations. The TRC "quickly translated the controversy into one over states' rights," according to historians Diana Davids Hinton and Roger M. Olien, with Thompson serving as the commission's "most eloquent spokesman" and its "dominant [End Page 293] member." The purpose of this study is to consider how Thompson's views on states' rights, and more specifically, Texas's rights, evolved and became more nuanced as he worked to tame the East Texas "Black Giant."2 When Texas Governor Ross Sterling appointed Thompson to the Railroad Commission in June 1932, the East Texas field had 5,800 oil wells, all drilled within the prior twenty-one months, an average of over nine new wells every day. This explosion of activity had begun one year after the 1929 stock market crash when the Daisy Bradford No. 3 well struck oil on the edge of the field in October 1930. Soon after, two other wells struck oil in the region and it quickly became apparent that all were tapping the same pool. With little effective regulation, efforts to extract and sell this valuable resource skyrocketed. There had been oil field booms in Texas before, starting in Corsicana in 1894 and more notably at Spindletop, near Beaumont, in 1901. In the earlier booms, shortages of skilled workers had been a problem, but in East Texas the onset of the Great Depression and rising unemployment meant that tens of thousands of laborers flooded into the area. Towns in the region felt the impact, with Longview's population rising more than 170 percent in the 1930s while Tyler's went up by 65 percent. With little housing available, many of the migrant workers lived in tents and shacks set up in the region's piney woods. The situation quickly drew attention from the national government through President Herbert Hoover's Committee on Unemployment Relief, which noted that the "influx of transients to the East Texas oil area requires immediate attention, otherwise we are liable to have a very serious epidemic this coming winter."3 The prodigious field also drew attention from oil companies and speculators of various kinds who sought leases for drilling rights from landowners. Sinclair Oil Company sent Wesley Gish into the field in February 1931, and the veteran oil man quickly found that "every feature both pleasant and unpleasant ever introduced into an oil play is here in a modified and magnified form." In order to secure drilling rights for his company, Gish found himself paying expenses to bring a "crazy woman from Wichita Falls to Rusk for appointment of guardian to clear the 140 acre lease offsetting our Cherokee County block." Such measures were called for because Gish and Sinclair were competing with the Humble Oil Company, the Texas Company (now better known as Texaco), and the Magnolia Petroleum...

Duties in Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Wealth and Resources and Petroleum Development in Nigeria: Towards Efficient Government Institutions and Greater Social Responsibility in the Country

A previous study of the author on the need to domesticate benchmarked international standards and practices associated with Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Wealth and Resources (PSNWR) in Nigeria, in the course of petroleum and other extractive industrial operations, as aspects of PSNWR, ended by stating that a follow-up study would be embarked upon. That follow-up study would, on the premise of actual performances and/or performance indicators of relevant government institutions established on the basis of their respective enabling laws, examine the efficacy of these institutions and overall government social responsibility (GSR) associated with petroleum development in the country. From the background of global and other benchmarked international sustainable development-oriented regulatory standards and practices and existing Nigerian legal and institutional frameworks associated with PSNWR, the study evaluates the effectiveness of laws and government institutions in the context of the significant and inevitable roles of governments, in the course of petroleum development in Nigeria. Keywords: Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Wealth and Resources (PSNWR), Petroleum Development Operations, Government Social Responsibility (GSR), Good Governance (GG) and Sustainable Development (SD). DOI : 10.7176/JLPG/92-08 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

Maritime financial instability and supply chain management effects

The paper investigates the offshore crisis 2015–2017 and its impact on central international offshore oil and gas related maritime cluster, the Blue Maritime Cluster, located at the North-Western coast of Norway.This complete maritime cluster, heavily involved in offshore petroleum operations, it experienced an almost devastating blow, as it lost almost one-third of its employees as its value added contracted by 39 percent.When the crises is basically seen as a result of falling of oil prices and lower activity and squeezed profit margins, this paper investigates the crisis in the light of financial instability and reactions down the maritime supply chain. By collecting data from the Blue Maritime Cluster and the Norwegian central company register one is able both to trace the fall in the activity due to the crisis and measures of financial strength. The study approaches the data by using a structural time series analysis in order to map cycles as deviations from polynomial trends.The findings ascertain that financial instability was dominant within the Blue Maritime Cluster during its boom before the crisis. Debt ratios and thereby gearing (leverage) were high. Thus, the companies could not meet their obligations when the crisis hit.The paper also finds that narrow focused supply chain management made the cluster fall deep into the abyss. Companies with a more diversified portfolio were able to meet the hard years better than others.

The effects of vandalism in the oil industry in Sudan and how to reduce it in power sector Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co. Ltd (NEEM Field Sample)

The effects of vandalism in the oil industry in Sudan and how to reduce it in power sector Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co. Ltd (NEEM Field Sample)

Ensuring Environmental Accountability in Nigeria through the Liberalisation of the Locus Standi Rule: Lessons from some Selected Jurisdictions

Oil pollution has become something of a daily occurrence in Nigeria, despite the existence of laws regulating petroleum operations. This is partly due to the cost of accessing judicial justice. Apart from cost issues, a plaintiff must satisfy that they have the standing to petition the court for the act complained of, which sometimes leaves the polluter without responsibility. This is against the notion of environmental accountability. It is the challenges posed by the strict interpretation of the standing rule in Nigeria on environmental accountability that forms the basis of this article. The article explores the lessons that can be learned from the development of standing rules in three different jurisdictions – the UK, Australia and South Africa.

Sulfur and nitrogen compounds in wet atmospheric deposition on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from 2003 to 2015

The Gulf of Mexico region has important sources of acid rain precursors, located in all of the countries; U.S., Mexico and Cuba, and so it is very important to study the chemical composition of the wet atmospheric deposition in all coastal areas. For many years along the U.S. Gulf Coast, acidic precipitation has been measured. Measurements along the Mexican Gulf Coast were begun in 2003. The aim of this study was to evaluate pH, sulfate, nitrate and ammonium concentrations in wet atmospheric deposition, collected daily from 2003 to 2015 at La Mancha (LM), Veracruz and compare the values with the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) sampling sites located along the U.S. coast of the Gulf of Mexico.The annual Volume Weighted Mean (VWM) pH in wet deposition at La Mancha site ranged from 4.81 to 5.40, which is similar to the U.S. Gulf sites. Additionally, the annual VWM SO42- concentration was from 15 to 31 μeq/L, which is higher than the U.S. sites. Annual VWM NO3- concentrations were from of 3.5 to 15 μeq/L, which is lower than all the U.S. sites. At the Mexican site, the SO42-/NO3- ratio was 4.90 and higher than all of the U.S. sites, which were between 1.03 and 2.38. For LM, the median NH4+/NO3- ratio was 0.77, similar to the Florida sites (0.53–0.91), and below the values measured for Louisiana and Texas (1.07–1.5). The Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model (HYSPLIT) was applied in order to identify the emission sources for the pollutants seen at LM. Trajectories showed an important transport to LM from the East (open water) during the rainy season. The region located East of La Mancha shows offshore petroleum operations as sources of acid rain precursors and deposition of acidifying and nitrogen containing compounds. It is important to consider the sulfur dioxide emission sources in the Mexico Gulf region, and to extend the atmospheric deposition sampling to other sites along the Mexican Gulf coast and Cuba.

Electromagnetic-Based Tool Allows In-Situ Inspection of Multiple Metallic Tubulars

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 194269, “An Advanced Technique for Simultaneous In-Situ Inspection of Multiple Metallic Tubulars,” by Yanxiang Yu, William Redfield, SPE, Nicholas Boggs, Kuang Qin, Marvin Rourke, SPE, and Jeff Olson, SPE, GOWell International, and Mosunmola Ekije, Fluor Federal Petroleum Operations, prepared for the 2019 SPE/ICoTA Well Intervention Conference and Exhibition, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, 26–27 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed. A new pulsed-eddy-current (PEC) electromagnetic (EM)-based tool called an enhanced pipe-thickness-detection tool (ePDT) has been introduced for the corrosion inspection of multiple pipes. The tool can measure the metal wall thickness of five concentric pipes with a maximum outer diameter (OD) of up to 26 in. This capability, along with the tool’s unique configuration, provides an advanced downhole solution for tubular evaluations of production, injector, and storage wells. Introduction As hydrocarbon production and storage wells age and new production and storage wells are exposed to elevated concentrations of corrosive fluids, well-integrity monitoring is gaining more attention. These factors have influenced well-performance, safety, and environmental concerns. Early, periodic monitoring of tubular corrosion and other defects can reduce the risks of serious leaks or well failures in a cost-effective way. Historically, the continuous sinusoidal-signal-based far-field eddy-current (FFEC) technologies have been developed and deployed for multiple-concentric-pipe average-thickness measurements. However, FFEC is adversely influenced by the strong interference of direct excitation signal transmission coupling and the EM skin effect; this reduces the pipe response because of a decreasing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that does not allow quantitative evaluation of more than two concentric pipes. In contrast, the PEC-excited EM signal contains wideband frequency components from kilo-Hertz to sub-Hertz range. The low-frequency EM signals penetrate concentric metal pipes effectively. The induced PEC on each tubular has different initial amplitude and decay rates because of a combination of OD, thickness, and EM parameters. After excitation, magnetic-field changes triggered by a combination of mutual inductive interactions among the pipes, eddy-current diffusion, and damping are picked up by the receiving coil during the acquisition window. Research and field applications have proved that the PEC method is more reliable for average thickness detection in multiple pipes. In previous studies by the authors, three pipes with up to 17-in. OD can be detected by magnetic tools. However, because of the combination of high signal dynamic range, inadequate SNR, extraneous tool motion, and troublesome interference of pipe magnetization, it has proved difficult for these tools to quantify thicknesses of outer pipes reliably in the presence of more than three concentric tubulars or at ODs greater than 17 in.

Depth effect on sandstone strength properties

Abstract The present article focuses on the study of different physical-mechanical parameters; it presents the results of a preliminary investigation aimed at experimental characterization. To simulate the mechanical behavior of the rock, a reference material needs to be chosen. The reference material selected is Sandstone, which is commonly used in this field of study. The behavior of sandstone from the region of Hassi Messaoud, which is well known for its petroleum operations, deals mainly with different mechanical sandstone properties and their varying strengths. The relationships between different depths and both of the mechanical sandstone properties were evaluated. As a result, useful relationships were found for different depths and the following properties: uniaxial compressive and triaxial test, Young's modulus and Poisson ratio.

Risk frames and multiple ways of knowing: Coping with ambiguity in oil spill risk governance in the Norwegian Barents Sea

The opening of new areas for offshore drilling in the Arctic is highly controversial. As ice cover in the region is melting at an alarming rate, new areas have been opened for petroleum industry in the Norwegian Barents Sea. Our qualitative analysis examines risks related to the petroleum operations in the newly opened areas and provides insight into the complex and socially constructed nature of the risks. With the use of visual influence diagram- based mental modelling approach, we demonstrate the multiple ways in which the risks are understood and defined. We also analyse the type of knowledge that the risk frames are based on. The influence diagrams present the risk frames in a clear, visual, form. The study indicates that the existing governance framework fails to treat the ambiguity around oil spill risks: the current risk assessments and risk management do not reflect on the multiple ways in which the participants in this study 1) frame the problem situation, 2) how they identify different measures to manage risks, and 3) what are considered as key knowledge needs and knowledge producers by the participants. We suggest that social learning and collaborative knowledge production are needed to move towards developing shared understanding of the problem situation. Finally, we suggest that the rigorous examination and the unveiling of ambiguity may help developing deliberative risk governance measures and moving towards sustainability transformations.

The Blue Maritime Cluster Crisis: Financial Instability and Supply Chain Management Effects

The present paper investigates the offshore crisis 2015-2017 and its impact on one of the most complete maritime clusters, more precise the Blue Maritime Cluster, located at More og Romsdal at the North Western Coast of Norway. As this cluster is heavily involved in offshore petroleum operations, it experienced an almost devastating blow during the crisis. The cluster lost almost one third of its employees as its value added contracted by 39 percent. The crises is basically seen as result of the falling oil prices and, thus, lower activity and squeezed profit margins, particularly in marginal oil and gas fields. The paper does not dispute this. However, it also investigates the crisis in the light of financial instability and chain reactions down the maritime supply chain. By collecting data from the Blue Maritime Cluster and the Norwegian central company register one is able, both to trace the fall in activity due to the crisis and measures of financial strength. The study approaches the data by using structural time series analysis in order to map cycles as deviations from polynomial trends. The conclusions are that financial instability was dominant within the Blue Maritime Cluster during its boom before the crisis. Debt ratios, and thereby gearing or leverage was high. Thus, the companies could not meet their obligations when the crisis hit, due to low solidity and loss of financial stability. The paper also finds that narrow focused supply chain management, made the cluster fall deep in to the abyss when ship owning companies and shipyards were hit. Companies with a more diversified portfolio were able to meet the hard years better than others.

Knowledge Management Systems and Work Improvements: The Moderating Effects of Work Characteristics

Knowledge is regarded as an important source of competitive advantage in modern organisations, and the use of knowledge exchange systems to facilitate the storage, transfer, and reuse of existing knowledge has become common. Solutions beyond the technology are, however, important for the efficiency of such systems, and thus their ability to improve work performance. Based on the survey data collected from a large petroleum operator company and eight of its main contractors, this paper examines how work characteristics and job design affect the extent to which the use of knowledge exchange systems leads to work performance improvements. We find that behaviour formalisation, work autonomy, and changing/new work demands are significant moderators of this relationship. The study contributes to the theory and practice of knowledge management in general, and the use of knowledge exchange systems specifically.

How Oil Contracts Affect Human Rights

Since the beginning of the 19th century, we have assisted major proliferation of the oil and gas industry. This phenomenon of exponential growth is due to the fact that oil companies hold the world’s oil monopoly on the extraction, processing and commercialization. Therefore, as being one of the most influential sectors in the world, is crucial to strictly regulate how oil and gas contracts concerns the potential environmental and social impacts arising from the conduct of petroleum operations and how such behavior affects the human rights. As a matter of fact, the social issues field is an emerging area, and despite such importance, oil contracts do not often deal with them in great detail, corresponding to an actual emptiness of the human rights provisions. In terms of responsibly, oil companies, have an inalienable obligation to ensure that their actions do not violate human rights or contribute for their violation. This study aims to trace a detailed analysis of the impact of the oil and gas agreements in human rights. In order to fully comprehend the deep effects of this industry, we will examine, in detail, numerous of published oil and gas agreements, as well as, decode which are the real standards and practices accepted by this industry. We will use a deductive and speculative reasoning. We will try to demonstrate how incipient and short protection is given to human rights and what responsible conducts must urgently be developed.

Diagnosis of Water-Influx Locations of Horizontal Well Subject to Bottom-Water Drive through Well-Testing Analysis

Horizontal well (HW) has been widely applied to enhance well productivity and prevent water coning in the anisotropic reservoir subject to bottom-water drive. However, the water-cut increases quickly after only one or two years’ production in China while oil recovery still keeps at a very low level. It becomes a major challenge to effectively estimate production distribution and diagnose water-influx locations. Ignoring the effect of nonuniform production distribution along wellbore on pressure response may cause erroneous results especially for water-influx location determination. This paper developed an analytical method to determine nonuniform production distribution and estimate water-influx sections through well-testing analysis. Each HW is divided into multiple producing segments (PS) with variable parameters (e.g., location, production, length, and skin factor) in this model. By using Green’s functions and the Newman-product method, the novel transient pressure solutions of an HW can be obtained in the anisotropic reservoir with bottom-water drive. Secondly, the influences of nonuniform production-distribution on type curves are investigated by comparing the multisegment model (MSM) with the whole-segment model (WSM). Results indicate that the method proposed in this paper enables petroleum operators to interpret parameters of reservoir and HW more accurately by using well-testing interpretation on the basis of bottom-hole pressure data and further estimate water-influx sections and nonproducing segments. Additionally, relevant measures can be conducted to enhance oil production, such as water controlling for water-breakthrough segments and stimulation treatments for nonproducing locations.

Horizontal and Complex-Trajectory Wells (November 2018)

Technology Focus With the arrival and development of rotary steerable systems (RSSs) in the late 1990s, the industry thought that drilling a perfectly smooth and controlled trajectory would not be an issue anymore. Two decades later, we’re still talking about wellbore quality, especially when drilling these long and complex horizontal wells where wellbore quality is even more important. Whatever definition is accepted for wellbore quality and associated tortuosity, we all know that drilling a perfectly smooth and gauged borehole is key for many aspects—for example, weight-on-bit transfer, vibrations, equipment fatigue and failure, torque and drag, buckling, quality of cement bond, completion or casing running, quality of logging, artificial lift, wellbore placement, and production. If the industry wants to drill 15,000-ft-and-greater lateral sections in the unconventional market, more attention should be focused on measuring and achieving wellbore quality. If it is well-accepted now that measuring inclination and azimuth every 100 ft or so is not enough, most of the time the actual hole size drilled is not known precisely because no caliper tool is generally run in the wellbore. This is a sector of the industry in which progress would be very valuable for drilling and completion optimization. One of the papers selected this month also illustrates that RSSs do not necessarily drill very smooth wellbores because tortuosity is inherent to the drilling process regardless of the directional system. Measuring wellbore quality accurately has enabled RSS manufacturers to improve the steering mechanism of these tools significantly to reduce the level of tortuosity and drill smoother wellbores. Directional-drilling companies and drilling contractors also have seen the benefit of better control of the conventional steerable assembly by using more automation at the surface to steer the wellbore more consistently and eventually drill a smoother borehole. Drilling of longer laterals has led to a surge in the use of various downhole tools to remove friction and ledges/rugosities, which has highlighted evidence of sometimes poor wellbore quality. Diverse oscillation tools are used almost systematically along the string to decrease drag by shaking the string, and reamers equipped with cutters are used along the bottomhole assembly to remove ledges and clean the wall of the wellbore. Regardless of which technology is used, remember that good drilling practices and good knowledge of the rock to be drilled (and its interaction with the drilling fluid for better wellbore stability) contribute significantly to better wellbore quality. Obviously, drilling a perfect and smooth wellbore might cost a little more by using this technology and optimization, but long-term savings should be guaranteed. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. IADC/SPE 189612 Anticollision Best Practices Developed for Horizontal Drilling Across Pre-Existing Horizontal Wellbores by E. Britton, Sundance Energy, et al. SPE 188509 Hydraulic Study of a Horizontal Well To Compare Dual Horizontal/Vertical vs. Single-Vertical Completion by Ahmed Alshmakhy, Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operations, et al. SPE 191850 Drilling a 3200-m-Lateral-Length Horizontal Well in the Vaca Muerta Formation by Jonatan Medina, YPF, et al.

Feasible analysis of reusing flowback produced water in the operational performances of oil reservoirs.

Water reuse is considered one of the most efficient and optimum ways in petroleum industries to address the water scarcity problem. The effluents which are made by the petroleum operations are supposed to be one of the hazardous materials when they are discharged to the environment. The objective of this study is to measure the volume of the required water for the operational performances of the studied oil field. To do this, the necessary water and the volume of provided treated water for the waterflooding, tertiary flooding, and hydraulic fracturing procedures are appropriately measured and by the utilization of photo-Fenton/flotation are administered to remove the oil droplets. According to the observational measurements, it is clarified that hydraulic fracturing has supplied approximately 93% of its required water by the treatment of flowback water and it virtually eliminated the necessity of fresh water from local or domestic water resources. Moreover, the total freshwater that has been saved in this oil field is investigated about 80% of the total required water for their performances. Consequently, the lower need of fresh water from local resources would reduce the unnecessary expenses to provide this volume of water and would save fresh water for about 2750 inhabitants for 1year to overcome the issue of water scarcity in the world.

PAHs contamination in edible gastropods from north Patagonian harbor areas

PAHs are persistent pollutants released into the environment by fossil fuels burning and leak during petroleum operations. Associated with suspended particles upon entering marine ecosystem are accumulated by benthic fauna. Human exposure occurs mainly from ingestion such as gastropods consumption. The objective was to determine PAHs in sediments and in the marine gastropod Buccinanops globulosus in sites with different maritime and urban influences. In sampling sites located 20 km from the harbor, PAHs were non-detected; while in harbor gastropods, the level of PAH4 was exceeded according to international normative. Level of dibenzo[a,h]anthracene in sediments was between the ISQG and PEL. Since these are the first results of PAHs in edible gastropods in South America, we concluded that PAHs can be dangerous for consumers according to ingestion frequency. Integrative studies are necessary to evaluate the interaction among pollutants in maritime areas and the incidence in human health due to shellfish consumption.

Accelerating oil and gas investment and reserves by design

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence (Adams 1770). Some people unfamiliar with upstream petroleum operations, some enterprises keen to sustain uncontested land use, and some people against the use of fossil fuels have and will voice opposition to land access for oil and gas exploration and production. Social and economic concerns have also arisen with Australian domestic gas prices tending towards parity with netbacks from liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. No doubt, natural gas, LNG and crude-oil prices will vary with local-to-international supply-side and demand-side competition. Hence, well run Australian oil and gas producers deploy stress-tested exploration, delineation and development budgets. With these challenges in mind, successive governments in South Australia have implemented leading-practice legislation, regulation, policies and programs to simultaneously gain and sustain trust with the public and investors with regard to land access for trustworthy oil and gas operations. South Australia’s most recent initiatives to foster reserve growth through welcomed investment in responsible oil and gas operations include the following: a Roundtable for Oil and Gas; evergreen answers to frequently asked questions, grouped retention licences that accelerate investment in the best of play trends; the Plan for ACcelerating Exploration (PACE) Gas Program; and the Oil and Gas Royalty Return Program. Intended and actual outcomes from these initiatives are addressed in this extended abstract.

The Effect of Produced Water from Heglig Oil Field on Chemical Additives for Fracturing Fluids

Produced water is the water produced with oil or gas during well production as a result of different operations. Recently, many Sudanese oil fields suffer from the massive amount of water production; the most water production problems in Sudan were observed in Heglig oilfield. The Heglig oilfield is located in Muglad Basin in the southeast and middle of Block 2 in Sudan. The oil production from Heglig oilfield was reported to have peaked in 2006, however it has been declined now and the water cut was reached 95%. Due to many environmental impacts, several studies were conducted for treating the produced water from Heglig oilfield to be used in irrigation; no work was presented to study the effect of Heglig oilfield produced water on chemical additives for fracturing fluids. However, this work analyzes and treats the produced water from Heglig oilfield and evaluates the possibility of the treated water for the re-using in water base fracturing fluids. Samples were collected from two different ponds in the field and analysed according to the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the results were compared with (National Recommended Water Quality (EPA)) to identify the required treatments for the collected water. The analysis was done in Rheine Waal University of Applied Science-Kamp-Lint fort-Germany. In this study, the effect of produced water from Heglig oil field on fluid formulation was studied as management processes of produced water prior to reuse for petroleum operation (Hydraulic Fracturing and Injection) or to be safe in environment. The pH effect on fluids viscosity was investigated for (6, 7, 8, 9 and 10). The results showed that the cross-linking ability of the fracturing fluid presented that better cross-linking system were achieved with 0.48 g CMHEC at pH of 8 and temperature of 40°C for HEC and 60°C CMHEC.

Environmental control in petroleum operations

Environmental control in petroleum operations

Comparative histories of polycyclic aromatic compound accumulation in lake sediments near petroleum operations in western Canada

We examined the historical deposition of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) recorded in radiometrically-dated lake sediment cores from a small, conventional oil and gas operation in the southern Northwest Territories (Cameron Hills), and placed these results in the context of previously published work from three other important regions of western Canada: (1) the Athabasca oil sands region in Alberta; (2) Cold Lake, Alberta; and (3) the Mackenzie Delta, NT. Sediment PAC records from the Cameron Hills showed no clear changes in either source or concentrations coincident with the timing of development in these regions. Changes were small in comparison to the clear increases in both parent and alkyl-substituted PACs in response to industrial development from the Athabasca region surface mining of oil sands, where parent PAC diagnostic ratios indicated a shift from pyrogenic sources (primarily wood and coal burning) in pre-development sediments to more petrogenically-sourced PACs in modern sediments. Cores near in-situ oil sand extraction operations showed only modest increases in PAC deposition. This work directly compares the history and trajectory of contamination in lake ecosystems in areas of western Canada impacted by the most common types of hydrocarbon extraction activities, and provides a context for assessing the environmental impacts of oil and gas development in the future.