Phillips Petroleum Research Articles

Exxon loses major patent suit

A judge in Houston has ruled that Exxon Corp.'s '800 patent, a major piece of the company's metallocene catalyst intellectual property that has been cited in a number of recent suits, is invalid. The ruling, written by District Court Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, exonerates Phillips Petroleum of Exxon's allegations that it infringed on Exxon's patent when it made and used metallocene catalysts and made, used, and sold linear low-density polyethylene prepared with metallocene catalysts. We remain convinced that the patent is valid and infringed by Phillips, Exxon said of the judgment. We will move prompdy to have the ruling set aside and are confident that it will be reversed. The paper trail leading up to the granting of Exxon's U.S. patent No. 5,324,800 is tortuous. Over the course of nine years, Exxon filed and abandoned patent applications, canceling and adding claims to the applications ...

Design Strategies For Improved Conformance Using Polymer Gels

Abstract The possibility of using polymer gels for improved conformance in the treatment of producer wells has been evaluated using computer simulation. A radial model was built and used to test a variety of immiscible displacement conditions. The tests included water influx in a layered clastic reservoir with and without segregation between layers, simultaneous water and gas coning in a uniform carbonate reservoir, and simultaneous water and gas channelling in a fractured carbonate reservoir. The gel placement was modelled by altering the permeability, or the relative permeability, of the affected blocks according to experimentally determined values. Reverse coning was also evaluated for the case of simultaneous water and gas coning. This preliminary design work has proved that utilization of polymer gels in producers is favoured in clastic reservoirs when there is segregation between layers. It also proved that gels have little value when implemented in a uniform carbonate reservoir producing under high water/oil ratio. Gel placement extended production well life by significantly reducing water/oil ratios and gas/oil ratios, but cumulative oil production did not increase in proportion to well life. Injection of a plugging agent around the perforations can be detrimental to oil production if the plug is too large. Finally, reverse coning was found to be more effective than gel placement for the case of simultaneous water and gas coning. Introduction The concept of increasing conformance through the injection of polymer gels has been the topic of extensive research and numerous reviews. Water coning in oil wells has been the main focus of earlier research but gas coning is becoming of increasing interest. Recently, water coning in gas wells has also attracted attention. Although the problem focusses on producer wells, most of the successful treatments documented in the literature were applied on injectors. Reservoir conditions, gel properties and placement protocols influence how effectively gel treatments reduce water coning(1, 2). Although success has been demonstrated both in the laboratory and in the field, no one is in a position to claim a good understanding of why gels work so well in some situations and not in others(2). The majority of gels used today are either polyacrylamides(3, 4) or polysaccharides. However, simple polymer injection was considered for controlling water influx in horizontal wells placed in heavy oil reservoirs(5). Other technologies include use of nitrogen(6), starch biopolymers(7), silicates(8), surfactant and alcohol Blends(9), small particle cement(10), to name only a few of the recent applications. Of particular interest is the work that aims at selective relative permeability alteration so that water influx to the production wells is hindered. The technology can be applied to both oil and gas wells(11, 12). Recently, the combination of foams and gels seems to provide hope for extended use of gel technology(13, 14). Coupled with the laboratory findings, extensive field results have been presented by Marathon Oil(4), Phillips Petroleum(15), etc., where the effectiveness of gel technology has been mainly demonstrated for treatment of injector wells in waterflood scenarios of fractured reservoirs.

Surgical management of recurrent stress urinary incontinence: A 12-year experience

Objective: The goal of the study was to evaluate the surgical procedures used to manage recurrent stress urinary incontinence in a tertiary referral center, to compare the procedures with respect to efficacy and failure rates, and to identify risk factors for failure. Study Design: The health records of patients who underwent surgical treatment of recurrent stress urinary incontinence performed by the senior author (H.P.D.) between 1984 and 1995 were reviewed. The objective cure rate was evaluated by means of urodynamic studies and physical assessment, and the subjective cure rate was determined by means of historical report. In light of our selection criteria, the time to failure, the number of previous anti-incontinence procedures needed to give the best cure rate, and the risk factors for failure of the 3 predominantly used surgical techniques were determined. The statistical methods used were the χ2 test with 95% confidence interval, the Cox proportional hazard model with logistic regression, and survival analysis. Results: One hundred ninety-eight female patients were surgically treated for recurrent stress urinary incontinence between January 1, 1984, and December 31, 1995. Four surgical techniques were used: (1) the combined abdominovaginal (2-team) polypropylene (Marlex; Phillips Petroleum Company, Bartlesville, Okla) sling (group 1, n = 70), (2) the modified urethral Marlex sling (group 2, n = 68), (3) Burch retropubic colpourethropexy (group 3, n = 49), and (4) suburethral Marlex sling (group 4, n = 11). The study population consisted of 118 patients. The rest of the original 198, including all the patients in group 4, were excluded. Objective and subjective cure rates of 69% and 89%, 66% and 96%, and 69% and 88% were calculated for groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. By 6 years after the operation 100% of the failures in groups 1 and 2 had occurred, and 88% of the group 3 failure occurred within 2 years after the operation. Cure rates of 77%, 73%, and 38% (P = .320) were achieved with the 2-team sling procedure (group 1) after 1, 2, and 3 previous anti-incontinence operations, respectively, whereas cure rates of 81%, 25%, and 0% (P = .001) were obtained with the Burch procedure (group 3) after 1, 2, and 3 previous anti-incontinence operations, respectively. This indicates that the Burch procedure should be avoided after >1 previous operation, whereas the 2-team sling can be used after ≥3 previous anti-incontinence procedures. Statistical significance could not be determined for group 2 because that procedure was not used to treat any patient with 3 previous operations. Age was a marginal risk factor for failure in group 1. No statistically significant risk factors were identified for group 2. The number of previous anti-incontinence procedures was the major risk factor for failure in group 3 when age, parity, gravidity, weight, hormone replacement therapy, number of previous anti-incontinence procedures, and urethral closure pressure were covariables. Conclusion: According to our data, both sling procedures and Burch retropubic colpourethropexy can be used to surgically manage recurrent stress urinary incontinence with selection criteria such as those that we used. In our opinion comparative prospective studies of different surgical techniques with similar selection criteria, long-term follow-up of ≥10 years, and the inclusion of urodynamic studies may be the most ethical way to determine the right operations for recurrent stress urinary incontinence. (Am J Obstet Gynecol 1999;181:1296-309.)

Phillips' first plastics

Prior to 1951, not many people had ever heard of Bartlesville, Okla. The name may still be unfamiliar, but the plastics invented in this little spot seemingly out in the middle of nowhere are known just about everywhere. Bartlesville has earned its place on the map—and in your medicine cabinet, your refrigerator, your garage, and your car. Hogan began a research collaboration that would soon make history. And on Nov. 12, the American Chemical Society recognized the historical significance of their work—and their laboratory—by designating the site as a National Historic Chemical Landmark. Hogan, who resides in Bartlesville, was on hand for the ceremony. Banks died in 1989. When Banks and Hogan began working together, World War II had come to a close, and with peace came the end of the escalated wartime demand for the oil needed to fuel the American war machine. Phillips Petroleum, searching for ways to expand its product line and ...

Integrated Team Approach to the Design, Construction, Start Up, and Operation of the World's Most Modern Drilling Rig

Summary This paper describes how an integrated team approach was applied to the design, construction, start up, and ultimately the operation of a high technology drilling rig. The rig was built to conform, wherever possible, to the stringent regulations in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The paper, which also contains a technical description of the rig itself, also addresses the issue of automation and it's effect on manning of a complex drilling unit and the importance of high quality training of the personnel selected to operate the rig. In 1994, Phillips Petroleum Company Norway, the operator of the Greater Ekofisk Area fields in the central North Sea, signed a contract for the construction of a state of the art, fit for purpose drilling rig to be located on the new Ekofisk 2/4 X wellhead production platform. The rig was an element of major importance to the Ekofisk II project, the redevelopment of one the largest fields in the North Sea. The start up of drilling on the 2/4 X platform was the first major milestone in the Ekofisk II project and the timely redrilling of the Ekofisk field wells from the new rig was vital to maintain production levels. On 26th October 1996, exactly on schedule, the first well on the 2/4 X platform was spudded. To date six wells have been drilled by the rig including the fastest well ever drilled in the Ekofisk field. The drilling program is currently on schedule and the rig has operated at an average availability of 98%. The success of this project can be attributed to a number of factors, however, one element stands clearly as the key success factor—a truly integrated team approach to all phases of the delivery of the rig! From the very beginning, representatives of the real customer of the product, the offshore drilling team, joined the rig supplier's design team to work shoulder to shoulder on the specification and preliminary design of the rig. As the design process moved forward, the customer representation on the team was strengthened. Ultimately, the customer participated in an active manner in all aspects of design, construction, commissioning, and start up of the rig. This paper will detail both the underlying philosophy and the practical process by which this state of the art rig was successfully built and put to work. The paper includes a description of the rig itself, a review of how the integrated team approached the various phases of delivery of the rig and an outline of how the project was managed. The paper then discusses the issue of whether an automated rig can lead to a reduction in manning levels and covers the unique way in which the rig crews rig were trained. Some equipment performance figures are included to demonstrate the successful operational capabilities of the rig, and finally some conclusions are drawn from the lessons that have been learned.

Multilateral-Project Design and Execution Improvement

This article is a synopsis of paper SPE/IADC 52870, "Continuous Improvement in the Design and Execution of Multilateral Projects in the Greater Ekofisk Area," by J.R. Berg, SPE, Phillips Petroleum Co. Norway, and G. Liland, SPE, Sperry Sun, originally presented at the 1999 SPE/IADC Drilling Conference, Amsterdam, 9-11 March.

Effective responses to public reviews: An environmental manager's perspective at Phillips Petroleum Company

Abstract The scrutiny of corporate performance has escalated with the advent of Internet communications and attention by third-party public interest groups to the three dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic and environmental performance. Despite the attention that Philips Petroleum has paid to developing an environmental management system that meets or exceeds ISO 1400 standards—and their participation as a lead company in developing the PERI (Public Environmental Reporting Initiative) standards—Philips found themselves at the tail-end of a ranking of oil refineries by the Council on Economic Priorities. In this article, Barbara Price, Vice President of Health, Environment and Safety (HSE) at Phillips Petroleum, describes a positive approach in communications strategy that works when the results from an external review process are unexpectedly negative.

Microseismic Logging of Ekofisk

This article is a synopsis of paper SPE 47276, "Microseismic Logging of the Ekofisk Reservoir," by S.C. Maxwell, R.P. Young, and R. Bossu, Keele U.; A. Jupe, SPE, CSM Assocs.; and J. Dangerfield, Phillips Petroleum Co., originally presented at the 1998 SPE/ISRM Eurock, Trondheim, Norway, 8-10 July.

Chalk exploration, the search for a subtle trap

Over 2 × 10 9 STB of oil and 8.9 × 10 12 SCF of gas have been produced from the chalk fields of the Greater Ekofisk area, more than 50% of that being produced from the giant Ekofisk Field. Phillips Petroleum Company Norway and the PL018 licence co-venturers have undertaken a comprehensive and integrated re-evaluation of the chalk exploration potential in Blocks 2/4 and 2/7 of the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Recent exploration models indicated the potential for significant untested reserves to exist in the chalk of Blocks 2/4 and 2/7. The Chalk Exploration Project (CEP) team was given the objective ‘to define the risked value of the remaining chalk exploration potential in licence PL018’. All major structures and significant amplitude anomalies at chalk level had been drilled by 1986, leaving only the subtle field flank and stratigraphic plays for evaluation. Although many studies had been completed in the chalk over the years since discovery of Ekofisk Field in 1969, most of these studies had been focused on a single field and no regionally consistent stratigraphic framework or depositional model had been developed. As part of this project, a robust regional model for chalk prospectivity was developed covering the whole chalk basin, based on a sequence stratigraphic analysis of regional seismic and well databases, together with petrophysical, hydrodynamic, geochemical and other key technical studies. Acquisition of 3D seismic data over the chalk fields since the mid 1980s demonstrated the power of 3D seismic analysis to define stratigraphic detail within the chalk, and by 1993 the entire licensed area of Blocks 2/4 and 2/7 was covered by 3D data, giving the opportunity to undertake a semi-regional, sequence stratigraphic 3D analysis of the chalk reservoir in PL018, and determine the remaining exploration potential.

Seismic Reservoir Monitoring: Leading-Edge Technologies

This article is a synopsis of paper OTC 8648, "Seismic Reservoir Monitoring: Application of Leading-Edge Technologies in Reservoir Management," by Scott C. Key and Brackin A. Smith, Phillips Petroleum Co., originally presented at the 1998 Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, 4-7 May.

Source Rock Distribution and Thermal Maturity in the Southern Arabian Peninsula

ABSTRACT Recent work by Phillips Petroleum in the Southern Arabian Peninsula has elucidated the source potential of the Palaeozoic strata. A group of newly drilled and older wells, together with exclusive and non-exclusive reports, have been used in order to develop improved maturation and migration models for emerging plays, and to gain a better understanding of the subsidence and maturation history of this large and diverse area. It has been possible to conduct comprehensive burial history modelling for a number of wells from Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This, together with the modelling of hypothetical wells derived from depth structure maps, has improved our understanding of oil- and gas-prone source rocks in the Cretaceous, Jurassic and Palaeozoic strata. The resultant maturity distribution has been developed with the aid of a more detailed structural model for the Southern Arabian Peninsula. In tandem with this study, available cores and cuttings were analysed to measure source rock total organic carbon, maturity and richness parameters and summarised using proprietary techniques. It is concluded that the Jurassic Hanifa Formation is less mature and not source facies to the south and west of the Rub’ Al-Khali. The oil and gas mature source facies is present in the north and east of the Rub’ Al-Khali and in the Western Emirates. In addition, it is concluded that the oil mature Silurian source facies is confined to the narrow southern and western margins of the Rub’ Al-Khali. Outside this area the overmature area is in the core of the Rub’ Al-Khali extending northeast to the United Arab Emirates. The remaining area is modelled as gas mature in western Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Antisuit Injunctions and Preclusion against Absent Nonresident Class Members

In this article, Professor Monaghan addreses an issue of pressing concern in class action litigation today, namely, the extent to which a trial court's class judgement can bind -- either by preclusion or injunction -- unnamed nonresidnet class members, thus preventing them from raising due process challenges to the judgement in another court. After placing the antisuit injunction and preclusion issues in the context of recent class action and related developments, Professor Monaghan discusses the Supreme Court's 1985 decisions in Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Shutts and its applicability to these issues. In particular, Professor Monaghan criticizes reading Shutts' "implied consent" rationale as turning entirely on a class members' failure to opt out of the class action, and using that failure as a basis for an antisuit injunction against non-resident class members. Absent minimum contact, Shutts requires, inter alia, adequate representation at all times in order to establish in personam jurisdiction over nonresident class members. That issue can always be raised in another forum. In a class action universe that includes races to judgement and reverse auctions, this rule is desirable. In the absence of a legislative reform, Professor Monaghan concludes that non-party, non-resident class members must remain free to challenge, on due process grounds, otherwise preclusive judgments in a forum of their choosing.

Performance of Fluid-Loss-Control Additives in Acid-Fracturing Treatments

This article is a synopsis of paper SPE 39581, "Do Fluid-Loss-Control Additives Perform as Claimed in Acid-Fracturing Treatments," by Naim A. Mumallah, SPE, Phillips Petroleum Co., originally presented at the 1998 SPE International Symposium on Formation Damage Control, Lafayette, Louisiana, 18-19 February.

Optimized Reservoir Management: Mixed Linear Programming

This article is a synopsis of paper SPE 37963, "Optimized Reservoir Management Using Mixed Linear Programming," by J.C. Currie, SPE, and J.F. Novotnak, Phillips Petroleum Co., and B.T. Aasboee, SPE, and C.J. Kennedy, Phillips Petroleum Co. Norway, originally presented at the 1997 SPE Hydrocarbon Economics and Evaluation Symposium, Dallas, 16-18 March. The paper from which the synopsis has been taken has been peer reviewed and published full length in SPE Computer Applications (August 1997 Page 103).

China captures more petrochemical investments

The lure of double-digit growth continues to draw U.S. chemical companies to China. Last week, petrochemical giants Exxon and Phillips Petroleum each announced plans for new chemical complexes expected to begin supplying the huge Chinese market by early next century. Exxon China, an affiliate of Exxon, will be joined by Saudi Arabia's Aramco in a feasibility study with Fujian Petrochemical Co. (FPC) to build a refinery and petrochemical complex in Fujian Province of central China. The project involves the expansion of an existing FPC refinery and the addition of a 1.3 billionlb- per-year ethylene cracker, a 1 billionlb- per-year polyethylene facility, and a 660 million-lb-per-year polypropylene facility for completion in 2003. When the project was first announced in August, Exxon was to be an equal partner with FPC (C&EN, Aug. 11, page 15), but the Exxon portion will now be shared with Aramco, which will provide the crude oil feedstock for the facility. At a ...

5591689 Preparation of isomerization catalyst composition: Wu An-hsiang; Drake Charles A; Melton Ralph J Bartlesville, OK, United States assigned to Phillips Petroleum Company

5591689 Preparation of isomerization catalyst composition: Wu An-hsiang; Drake Charles A; Melton Ralph J Bartlesville, OK, United States assigned to Phillips Petroleum Company

5565396 Catalyst systems and polymerization processes: Frey Krisztina; von Massow Gabriel; Alt Helmut G; Welch M Bruce Bayreuth, Germany assigned to Phillips Petroleum Company

5565396 Catalyst systems and polymerization processes: Frey Krisztina; von Massow Gabriel; Alt Helmut G; Welch M Bruce Bayreuth, Germany assigned to Phillips Petroleum Company

5587348 Alkyne hydrogenation catalyst and process: Brown Scott H; Zisman Stan A; Kimble James B Bartlesville, OK, United States assigned to Phillips Petroleum Company

5587348 Alkyne hydrogenation catalyst and process: Brown Scott H; Zisman Stan A; Kimble James B Bartlesville, OK, United States assigned to Phillips Petroleum Company

Reservoir Compaction: Well Design

This article is a synopsis of paper SPE 36621, "Reservoir Compaction Well Design for the Ekofisk Field," by G.H. Schwall, SPE, Phillips Petroleum Co. Norway; M.W. Slack and T.M.V. Kaiser, Center for Engineering Research Inc., originally presented at the 1996 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Denver, Colorado, 6-9 October.

5543374 Isomerization catalyst and use thereof in alkane/cycloalkane isomerization : Wu An-hsiang Bartlesville, OK, United States assigned to Phillips Petroleum Company

5543374 Isomerization catalyst and use thereof in alkane/cycloalkane isomerization : Wu An-hsiang Bartlesville, OK, United States assigned to Phillips Petroleum Company