Society Of Petroleum Engineers Research Articles

Optimizing Production Well Geometry in the Utah FORGE Geothermal Project Using Machine Learning and Fluid Flow Modeling

This study addresses the critical challenge of optimizing well placement in Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), specifically within the framework of the Utah FORGE geothermal project, as part of the 2023 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Geothermal Datathon. Effective well placement is essential for enhancing geothermal production efficiency and maximizing resource utilization. We employed a discrete fracture network (DFN) modeling approach, utilizing the Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) algorithm from the Scikit-Learn library to analyze microseismic event location data. Through rigorous simulations conducted in the open-source GeoDT fluid flow simulator, we identified an optimal production well configuration characterized by a spacing of 400 m, an injection rate of 0.03 m³/s, and alignment parameters that significantly improve thermal recovery. The results indicate a projected net present value (NPV) of $75 million over a 20-year operational horizon, underscoring the economic potential of optimized well placement strategies. This study offers valuable insights for the operation of the FORGE geothermal site. More importantly, it exclusively utilizes open-source tools, enhancing accessibility and adaptability for the broader geothermal community.

Field-split preconditioned active-set reduced-space algorithm for complex black oil reservoir simulation at large-scale

Accurate black oil reservoir simulation is important for the understanding of underground resources in hydrology and petroleum reservoir engineering. The success of fast prediction relies on a robust and scalable black oil simulator, which can handle the complex subsurface fluid dynamics with coupling several different physical processes, and meanwhile run efficiently on distributed memory parallel computers. In this work, we introduce a highly parallel simulator to accurately compute the reservoir flow coupling with wells, including some adaptive fully implicit schemes for the temporal discretization, the improved active-set reduced-space algorithm for the nonlinear algebraic system, and several types of field-split methods for preconditioning. This parallel simulator is applied on the domain decomposition framework, which is designed to overcome the computational issues of traditional simulators implemented for personal computers or small workstations. High-resolution reservoir simulation results on the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) comparative solution project or real-field cases are obtained and analyzed, and the parallel performance of the algorithm is studied on a supercomputer with scaling up to 27440 processor cores. The numerical experiments indicate that the proposed black oil simulator is capable of accurately predicting the highly complex physical processes and interactions between wells and the reservoir for full field scale simulation.

Data Science Has Exploded Across the Industry Over the Past 75 Years

In 1957, the Journal of Petroleum Technology published an article titled “Application of Large Computers to Reservoir Engineering Problems.” That was the first reference in JPT to what became known as supercomputers. The high-speed computers used in the 1957 article were capable of performing 60 million operations in about 3½ hours. They were proposed to analyze the thorny problem of multiphase flow. “It presently appears that the large computer will be required to investigate multiphase flow and to predict the flow behavior of oil and gas reservoirs considering two- and three-space dimensions.” Now, 67 years later, supercomputer speeds are measured in trillions of operations per second, and investigating multiphase flow is just one of the many uses. This extreme growth in speed has given rise to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), which has found its way into almost every corner of the petroleum industry. The Society of Petroleum Engineers and JPT has kept up with the digital advances in the industry, holding countless conferences, symposia, and other meetings centered on the digital aspects of the industry and recently creating the Data Science and Engineering Analytics (DSEA) technical discipline. In 2019, SPE launched the Data Science and Digital Engineering in Upstream Oil and Gas online publication. Four leaders in the oil and gas digital space shared their views on the current state of data science in the industry and the future of the discipline. Sushma Bhan, currently on the board of directors for Ikon Science, is SPE’s Technical Director for DSEA. Before joining Ikon, she worked for Shell for 32 years, eventually rising to the role of chief data officer for subsurface and wells. “My journey in the oil and gas industry began in 1988, when I joined Shell’s Production Computing Assisted Operations team as a programmer analyst,” Bhan said. “During my time there, I gained valuable exposure to field production operations and developed a deep understanding of real‑time data.” Jim Crompton, who claims he is mostly retired, is an associate professor of petroleum engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, a faculty fellow at the school’s Payne Institute for Public Policy, and director of Reflections Data Consulting. “My academic career started out in exploration geophysics, so my first introduction to engineering analytics came from processing seismic data at Chevron Geophysical Company in Houston,” Crompton said. “I studied earthquake seismology in graduate school, but, when I graduated, I learned the oil and gas industry paid a lot more than the USGS did, so my career goals changed.” Shahab D. Mohaghegh is a professor at West Virginia University and the president of Intelligent Solutions. “Since I started working for the petroleum industry throughout the world using artificial intelligence in 2000, I was able to work with actual data (field measurements) that has been saved by all the companies,” Mohaghegh said. “Working with actual data using AI provided several technologies that have been incredibly fantastic compared to what we have done in the past.” Pushpesh Sharma, the chair of the DSEA Technical Section, holds a PhD degree in chemical engineering from the University of Houston and is senior product manager for Aspen Technology. “Till a few years ago, the focus was on proving the efficacy of data science/machine learning methods for energy use cases,” Sharma said. “However, in recent years, the concerns are around large-scale deployment, maintenance, and the black‑box nature of ML models. Because of that, I started seeing increased focus on the deployment, explainability, and trust of ML models.”

Assisted Upscaling of Miscible CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery Floods Using an Artificial Neural Network-Based Optimisation Algorithm

Due to the high computing cost of the fine-scale compositional simulations needed to effectively model miscible CO2 flooding, upscaling techniques are needed to approximate the behaviour of these fine-scale grids on more realistic coarse-scale models. The use of transport coefficients to better represent small-scale interactions, such as the time-dependent flux of the components within the hydrocarbon phases (molecular diffusion), and the pseudoisation of relative permeabilities to ensure the matching of large-scale effects, such as the volumetric fluxes of the phases, are two of these procedures. Most times, a mismatch between the phase fluxes of the integrated fine-scale and that of the coarse-scale is observed. By adjusting or calibrating some of the generated coarse-scale pseudo functions, such as the transport coefficients, absolute permeability, or relative permeability endpoints, the accuracy of the upscaling results can be improved. This procedure can be treated a reservoir history matching problem which is typically computationally expensive. In this study, we provide a framework for representing the dynamics of small-scale molecular diffusion and macro-scale heterogeneity-induced channelling related to miscible CO2 displacements on upscaled coarser grid reservoir models. The method used was based on the pseudoisation of relative permeability and transport coefficients and was applied to two benchmark reservoir models from the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). Our results demonstrated that using effectively calibrated transport coefficients improved the upscaling results, so that the calculated pseudo-relative permeability functions can be ignored. We proposed a unique approach to upscaling miscible floods that utilised a genetic algorithm and a neural-network-based proxy model to minimise the associated computing cost. The data-driven approximation model considerably decreased the computing cost associated with the assisted tuning technique, and the optimisation algorithm was used to reduce the error between the predictions of the upscaled models. In conclusion, the methodology described in this study effectively captured the small- and large-scale behaviour related to the miscible displacements on upscaled coarse-scale reservoir models while reduced associated computational costs.

Comments: New Year Marks JPT’s 75th Anniversary

We’re excited to begin the year with the commemoration of JPT’s 75th anniversary. This issue launches our special features dedicated to JPT’s reporting of technology and practices over the past 7½ decades. Emerging Technology Senior Editor Stephen Rassenfoss and Senior Technology Editor Trent Jacobs penned this month’s articles highlighting innovations in drilling, completions, and reservoir engineering. Each month, our editors will dive into the archives to round up milestones of industry advancements and achievements as reported in JPT. Since its inaugural issue in January 1949, JPT has remained true to its mission of reporting the technological and scientific learnings and advancements in the global oil and gas industry. Built upon a strong technical foundation, it continues to draw upon the expertise and knowledge of industry experts to disseminate up-to-date, relevant information to SPE members from all disciplines. JPT’s evolution began with The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME), founded in 1871 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It was one of the first national engineering societies established in the US. In subsequent years, AIME was joined by four other engineering founder societies—The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (now the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers [IEEE]), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)—and formed the United Engineering Foundation. (US President Herbert Hoover, a mining engineer, served as AIME’s president in 1920.) As AIME itself continued to grow, it decentralized and formed four independently operated member societies: SME (Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration); TMS (The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society); AIST (Association for Iron & Steel Technology); and SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers). AIME had as part of its membership a small, but growing, number of petroleum engineers. These members had specific technological issues far removed from their peers in the older, more-established engineering disciplines. The AIME Petroleum Branch Executive Committee (whose members represented companies such as The Pure Oil Co., Dowell Inc., Humble Oil and Refining Co., and the Texas Co.) determined that the best way to meet this group’s needs was to develop a “publication so dominantly petroleum as to secure wide reader interest,” one that would “rapidly gain the respect of the industry.” Over the years, that goal was achieved. JPT came to be recognized worldwide as the source for authoritative technical information in the petroleum industry. JPT’s first issue included four technical papers, one of which was “A Hydraulic Process for Increasing the Productivity of Wells.” The paper’s author, J.B. Clark, noted, “To date the process has been used in 32 jobs on 23 wells in 7 fields, resulting in a sustained increase in production in 11 wells.” The hydraulic fracturing techniques for well stimulation that he discussed have been responsible for the subsequent recovery of billions of barrels of oil. Also, bear in mind that the world’s total crude oil production in 1949 was about 3.8 billion bbl, less than the projected total US annual production in 2023—4.7 billion bbl. Other articles related to the oil and gas business were “Private Financing of Oil-Producing Properties” and “Middle Eastern Oil and Its Importance to the World.” Interestingly, although the content is outdated, both topics remain relevant today, 75 years later. Join us each month to explore our rich history and follow us on LinkedIn. All issues of JPT from 1949 to date are available in OnePetro. Even a cursory glance at the titles of the papers will show the remarkable evolution of technology over the years. We wish you the best in 2024, both in your professional and personal lives.

IADC Code Upgrade: Interpretation of Surface and Downhole Data to Support Drilling Forensics

Summary This paper establishes drilling surveillance interpretation and monitoring techniques for digital drilling data which can be used to support drilling forensics and improve drilling performance. One significant advancement in the last 20 years has been the widespread availability and use of sensors to monitor all aspects of the drilling process. The majority of sensors will take surface and downhole data at several hundred samples per second, process the data, and store a record at one sample per second. The data from these sensors are collated and processed using some form of electronic data recording (EDR) system. The information is subsequently displayed in real time and stored for off-site transmittal. This paper extensively evaluates the impact on drilling performance due to how data from such sensors are collected and processed and the information is displayed. A number of observations are investigated, analyzed, and explained identifying how data quality, consistency, frequency, sensor errors, and data artifacts can skew the displayed results. This can critically impact the drilling forensic analysis and subsequent interpretation. Failing to account for these data quality issues in real time may mask drilling dysfunction, causing accelerated damage to the drill bit and drilling assembly. This paper also aims to highlight techniques for displaying and interpreting drilling data to enhance drilling performance as well as diagnose dysfunction during reviews of historic wells. Understanding these limitations in advance and incorporating them in a team’s surveillance strategy can help with the diagnosis of drilling dysfunction and aid performance improvement. These recommended practices have been developed to offer a foundation for drilling surveillance, interpretation, and monitoring as well as training for the industry. They have been created such that they can grow organically and may be used for developing subsequent industry publications. The work described in this paper is part of a joint International Association of Drilling Contactors (IADC)/Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) industry effort to revise the IADC dull-grade process.

Symposium Review: Dialogue on the future of energy: SPE/AAPG/SEG Energy in Transition Symposium in Washington, D.C.

In February 2023, the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), together with the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and SEG, conducted a one-day symposium on the energy transition. The invitation-only event, hosted by the Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C., was designed to inform and engage policymakers and the policy community in the U.S. capital from the perspective of the engineers and geoscientists who currently work to supply 60% of the world's energy.

Implementing SRMS in the North Perth Basin: challenges and practical solutions

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) published the CO2 Storage Resources Management System (SRMS) in 2017 to provide a CO2 Storage Resource classification. Guidelines for its application were published in July 2022. In this paper, Molyneux Advisors (MA) has used these principles to classify and categorise potential CO2 storage resources of Deep Saline Formations (DSFs) and Depleted Oil & Gas Accumulations (DOGAs) in the North Perth Basin (NPB). A subsurface inter-disciplinary approach was taken, integrating supporting data and interpretations in calculating storage volumes. Key challenges exist in: classification of storage resources for four DSFs which jointly constitute more than 90% of potential CO2 storage resources in the NPB; quantifying accessible and Inaccessible Storage Resource volumes; and determining the low-, base- and high-case estimates based upon the uncertainty ranges of inputs. Furthermore, approval of any CO2 storage development is yet to be granted by the Western Australian State Government.

IADC Code Upgrade: PDC Bit and BHA Forensics Using Rig-Based Photographic Documentation Practices

Summary This paper establishes uniform recommended industry practices for photo documentation of polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits and bottomhole assemblies (BHAs). These recommended practices were developed by a subcommittee of the joint International Association of Drilling Contactors (IADC)/Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) industry in an effort to upgrade the IADC dull grading practices. Effective field photographic documentation and training to identify the causes of damage enables the team to modify parameters used and make other immediate changes in the BHA/drilling system with a higher degree of confidence that they will increase drill rate or extend bit life. The field documentation also provides the basis for more detailed post-drill shop grading and extensive redesign, if needed. The recommended photographic documentation consists of a specific set of photos of each blade, a top view, a side view, and views of each contact point in the BHA (i.e., kick pads, stabilizer blades, and reamers). It is common for rigsite teams to take photos of bits pulled, but these have not historically provided the detail required to distinguish one potential cause from another. There are proven changes in practices or BHA configuration that can be made to mitigate each type of dysfunction, but this cannot occur unless the cause is identified correctly. Appropriate photographic documentation, when coupled along with an understanding of the different PDC cutter and bit damage mechanisms which may occur, enables the rigsite team to identify the dysfunction and implement the changes needed. While other data sources, such as digital drilling data, should be analyzed to estimate the event timing and confirm the cause, the damage that is observed in the photographic documentation plays a critical role in directing the actual redesign effort. For example, downhole accelerometer data may indicate the presence of BHA whirl, but whether this damages the bit in a given situation is dependent on formation hardness and other factors. Whirl may not be the priority of redesign unless the photographic documentation shows a pattern of damage that is known to be specifically due to BHA whirl. These photographic documentation practices were developed specifically to support drilling forensics. The guidelines were compiled from the practices of multiple operators, bit manufacturers, and service companies with significant experience in utilizing similar photographic documentation to support timely rigsite decisions. The photographic documentation is not complex and experience has shown that within a short period of training and daily discussions, the collection of high-quality photos becomes a routine, sustainable practice. To obtain the greatest value from photographic documentation, operators must also develop training for field personnel in how to recognize the dysfunction that caused the damage. This document is intended to both standardize field photographic documentation practices and provide training material appropriate for field personnel on how to suitably document bit and BHA components using photos.

Workshop Review: Recent Injection Induced Seismicity Workshop marks a decade of learnings

The 6th Injection Induced Seismicity Workshop, hosted by SEG and the Society of Petroleum Engineers, was held 7–9 June 2022 in Austin, Texas. The workshop series has provided the opportunity for important dialogue among induced-seismicity practitioners and subject-matter experts. The Austin workshop was no exception. The venue location underscored the importance of the increasing occurrence of induced seismicity in the Permian Basin.

Connecting Multilayer Semantic Networks to Data Lakes: The Representation of Data Uncertainty and Quality

SummaryDrilling oil and gas wells is a complex process involving many disciplines and stakeholders. This process occurs in a context where some pieces of information are unknown, or are often incomplete, erroneous, or at least uncertain. Yet, during drilling engineering and construction of a well, drilling data quality and uncertainty are barely addressed in an auditable and scientific way. Currently, there are few or no placeholders in engineering and operational databases to document uncertainty and its propagation. The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) has formed a cross-disciplinary technical subcommittee to investigate how to describe and propagate drilling data quality and uncertainty. The subcommittee is a cooperation between the drilling system automation, wellbore positioning, and drilling uncertainty prediction technical sections. As the topic is vast and complex, a systematic method was adopted, where multiple user stories or pain points were generated and ranked with the most compelling user story analyzed in detail. From this approach, a series of multidisciplinary workflows (drilling data generators) can now be captured and described in terms of data quality and propagation of uncertainty. The paper presents details of one user story focused on capturing the description of the quality and uncertainty of depth measurements. Multiple use cases have been extracted from this single user story exemplifying how multiple stakeholders and disciplines manage, communicate, and understand the notion of wellbore depth and its relative uncertainty. Current data stores have the main objective of recording the results of processes but have very limited capabilities to store how the interdisciplinary processes generated and cross-related these results. The study explores the use of semantic networks to capture those multidisciplinary data relationships. A minimum vocabulary has been created using just a few tens of concepts that has sufficient expressiveness to describe all the extracted use cases, showing that the semantic network method has the potential to describe a broad range of complex drilling-related processes. The study also demonstrates that use of a multilayered graph, employing other notions that do not expressly refer to the processes that generated the data, can capture the description of how uncertainty propagates between each of those concepts.

Technology Focus: Coiled Tubing (June 2022)

As I write the introduction to this year’s Coiled Tubing feature, I am reflecting on a couple of recent events in my SPE life. The first was the announcement that the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists are no longer pursuing a merger. It wasn’t the merger notification that caught my eye but the drop in SPE membership from 99,175 in 2015 to the current total of 66,020. In addition, a point was raised in the announcement about attracting and retaining young members. The second event was being fortunate enough to attend the SPE/Intervention and Coiled Tubing Association (ICoTA) Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, in person following a 2-year in-person hiatus. There was an energy about the conference, where people were glad to be spending time with one another and simply networking, sharing ideas, and catching up and not through a computer screen. The Intervention Technology Award, presented by ICoTA each year, had 22 submissions with four finalists. I will leave the reader to research the winner. This is the largest number of submissions in the history of the award. Engineers enjoy solving problems and developing solutions. These submissions reflect 22 problems, or challenges, addressed and solved by bringing new solutions to bear. So, my reflection on these two events raises the question: does one of these provide insight about the other? In this year’s feature are two case histories and an equipment-development paper, all of which are, by accident rather than design, from operations undertaken in the Gulf States. Each, in its own way, exemplifies the engineering decisions and balances that must be weighed to provide the best solution within limiting parameters and the considerable effort this may take. These are not compromises, as is often talked about. Compromise implies that something has been given up or sacrificed, but, to me at least, that is not the case when a solution is found that achieves the objective while working within limitations. The case histories are for different types of operations, but the engineering similarities are clear. Much in line with previous years, papers in the recommended additional reading list are on coiled tubing material performance. Please all continue to stay well and safe. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE/ICoTA 208996 - Coiled Tubing Premature Failure—The Effects of Pressure and Strain by Jorge Martin Bunge, Tenaris, et al. SPE/ICoTA 209019 - Wellbore Abrasion Comparison With High-Strength Coiled Tubing—A Case Study by Garry McClelland, Global Tubing, et al.

Analysis of the difference between China Classifications for Petroleum Resources/Reserves 2020, SPE-PRMS 2018 and a China oil company’s overseas oil reserves standard

China oil company’s overseas petroleum assets and reserves belong not only to the company itself, but also to resource countries or joint venture companies. The adoption of reserves classification standards needs to meet the needs of different levels and resources / assets management. China Classifications for Petroleum Resources/Reserves (CCPR) divides reserves into three classes: geological, technical recoverable and commercial recoverable reserves, with three categories of proved, probable and possible reserves. The object of CCPR management is the physical volume of petroleum, with geological reserves as the focus of evaluation, and the deterministic method is mainly used for reserves evaluation. Society of Petroleum Engineers - Petroleum Resources Management System (SPE-PRMS) divides the remaining recoverable reserves into reserves and contingent resources based on commercial and sub-commercial. The terms low/best/high forecasts are used to estimate 1P/2P/3P quantities. It takes petroleum assets as the evaluation object, and the determination of evaluation parameters focuses on commercial recoverable reserves and value evaluation. In China oil company’s overseas oil reserves standard (company standard), geological reserves and recoverable reserves are clearly divided into P and C classes, which are subdivided into P1\\P2\\P3 and C1\\C2\\C3 categories. It takes oil reservoirs, traps, wells and company assets as the evaluation object. It not only emphasizes the commercial opportunities, development feasibility, and uncertainty, but also emphasizes the resources attributes of geological reserves, geological characteristics, reservoir parameters, and production performance. When China oil company acquires overseas petroleum resources, geological reserves need to be included in the national reserves statistics to serve the national energy security strategy, resource management and development planning. CCPR need to be adopted; When conducting assets transactions, communicating with resource countries and joint venture partners, SPE-PRMS need to be adopted; When conducting company exploration and development, operation, preparation of development plans, etc., company standard need to be adopted. The adoption of the three reserves standards can generally take into account the needs of the international, national, and company levels, as well as the management of petroleum resources and assets.

Modelling oil and gas flow rate through chokes: A critical review of extant models

Oil and gas metering is primarily used as the basis for evaluating the economic viability of oil wells. Owing to the economic implications of oil and gas metering, the subject of oil and gas flow rate measurement has witnessed a sustained interest by the oil and gas community and the academia. To the best of the authors' knowledge, despite the growing number of published articles on this subject, there is yet no comprehensive critical review on it. The objective of this paper is to provide a broad overview of models and modelling techniques applied to the estimation of oil and gas flow rate through chokes while also critically evaluating them. For the sake of simplicity and ease of reference, the outcomes of the review are presented in tables in an integrated and concise manner. The articles for this review were extracted from many subject areas. For the theoretical pieces related to oil and gas flow rate in general, the authors relied heavily upon several key drilling fluid texts. For operational and field studies, the authors relied on conference proceedings from the society of petroleum engineers. These sources were supplemented with articles in peer reviewed journals in order to contextualize the subject in terms of current practices. This review is interspersed with critiques of the models while the areas requiring improvement were also outlined. Findings from the bibliometric analysis indicate that there is no universal model for all flow situations despite the huge efforts in this direction. Furthermore, a broad survey of literature on recent flow models reveals that researchers are gravitating towards the field of artificial intelligence due to the tremendous promises it offers. This review constitutes the first critical compilation on a broad range of models applied to predicting oil and gas flow rates through chokes.

Review of Python Applications in Solving Oil and Gas Problems

Python has grown in popularity throughout various industries, corporations, universities, government, and research groups. Its true potential to automate various processes while increased predictability capabilities have been noticed in various industries. The petroleum industry is at the beginning phase of applying it to solve oil and gas problems. The rise in its popularity in the oil and gas industry is due to the digital transformation such as sensors and high-performance computing services that enable artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), big data acquisition, and storage in digital oilfields. A quick search on the number of publications in the oil and gas industry with the Society of Petroleum Engineers (OnePetro) in the past few years attests to this fact. Hence, it has proven to be a promising application that can bring about a revolutionary change in the oil and gas industry and transform the existing features for solving oil and gas problems. This will help the production and reservoir engineers to better manage the production operation without any need for expensive software. It will also reduce the overall operating cost and increase revenue.

A Commentary on the Applications of Python in Resolving Issues Concerning Energy and the Ecosystems

The energy industry is just getting started with applying it to problems with energy and ecosystems so they can find solutions. Python's popularity has increased across a variety of sectors, including businesses, academic institutions, government agencies, and research organizations. The true potential it possesses to automate a variety of processes while simultaneously increasing the capabilities of various industries to predict outcomes has been observed. Because of the digital transformation, such as sensors and high-performance computing services, which enable artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), big data acquisition, and storage in digital oilfields, its popularity has been on the rise in the industry that deals with energy and ecosystems. This is one of the primary reasons why. This can be easily verified by conducting a quick search for the number of publications that have been produced in the field of energy and ecosystems by the Society of Petroleum Engineers over the past few years. Without having to invest in pricey software, the production and reservoir engineers will be able to better manage the production operation thanks to this development. In addition to this, it will lead to a decrease in the overall operating costs and an increase in revenue. As a result, it has been demonstrated to be a promising application that has the potential to bring about a revolutionary change in the industry of energy and ecosystems and to transform the features that are already in place for the purpose of resolving issues related to energy and ecosystems.

Data-driven based investigation of pressure dynamics in underground hydrocarbon reservoirs

The process of storing natural gas in geological formations involves applying pressure to force the gas into and out of the porous and permeable reservoir. In response to gas extraction/withdrawal and storage/injection, the reservoir compresses and expands as a major consequences of fluid pore pressure variations. The major challenge associated with this type of energy systems is learning the pore pressure variations within the grid as fluid is being injected and/or withdrawn. As such, it is essential to identify a realistic model that accounts for the pore pressure variations at any point in time. In this paper, we present a data-driven technique called Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) to investigate the pressure dynamics of an underground hydrocarbon reservoir model in relation to natural gas injection/storage. For demonstration purpose, we first implement a hydrocarbon reservoir model using a benchmark data of the first Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE1) Comparative Solution Project. Applying DMD to a pressure field data of the simulated reservoir model, we show that DMD is capable of approximating the average reservoir pressure change and pore pressure variations within the reservoir grid over time with up to 99% accuracy. Given that depleted reservoirs are already developed hydrocarbon reservoirs, we conclude that DMD could serve as a reliable tool for fast evaluation of pressure dynamics of underground natural gas storage given its low complexity and insignificant loss of prediction accuracy.

SPE Technical Directors’ Outlook - The Industry’s Transformation in 2020 and What It Means for the Future

For an industry in which terms like “first ever,” “unparalleled,” “unprecedented,” and “novel” are often over-used to the point of losing their meaning, 2020 hit hard with the true meaning of those words as the COVID-19 pandemic exploded onto the world and disrupted almost everything about life as we knew it. The oil and gas industry, which had begun showing signs of recovery from a generational downturn, was hit particularly hard. Jobs were lost, companies shuttered, and supply chains upended. But the same combination of audacity and ingenuity that has driven the industry for over a century took hold quickly. Oil and gas people love - and need - to network, share ideas, transfer and apply technology, and gather intelligence. So, when in-person conferences, workshops, and tradeshows were suddenly canceled or indefinitely postponed, entities such as the Society of Petroleum Engineers scrambled to use digital technology to take those events online and make them virtual. While not a perfect replacement, virtual online events offer some unique advantages, as SPE technical directors pointed out in their annual roundup. Digitalization, long a controversial topic among many in the upstream sector, is now being called essential by the directors across the six SPE technical disciplines they lead. Automation is mentioned frequently in the directors’ comments as a growing contributor to efficiency and risk reduction. Capital discipline, balance sheet management, and cash flow are seen as crucial, as are collaboration (both internal and external) and value - ranging from core values to value-driven data, to provable, value-based outcomes. Agility and the ability to comply with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria have taken on new importance. So has work - how and where we do it, and how we balance it with other aspects of life. Knowledge dissemination is considered more important than ever. Uncertainty continues to characterize the upstream sector, even more so than before the pandemic, but at least one thing is certain: The work of the industry, and the way in which people who comprise it work, is forever changed. The SPE technical disciplines and the directors who lead them are as follows. Completions - Terry Palisch, CARBO Ceramics Data Science and Engineering Analytics - Silviu Livescu, Baker Hughes Drilling - David Reid, NOV HSE and Sustainability - Annamaria Petrone, Eni Production and Facilities - Robert Pearson, Glynn Resources Reservoir - Erdal Ozkan, Colorado School of Mines Here, they reflect on a truly unprecedented year and share their outlooks for their disciplines going forward.

A Simple Classification of Wellbore Integrity Problems Related to Fluids Migration

This work classifies in a simple form the wellbore integrity problems that cause fluids migration in oil and gas wells. This paper updates the categorization provided by Santos (Technology focus: well integrity. Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2015. https://doi.org/10.2118/0115-0100-JPT ), which classifies the wellbore integrity problems based on the time of manifestation. Santos (Technology focus: well integrity. Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2015. https://doi.org/10.2118/0115-0100-JPT ; Wilkins and Free A new approach to the prediction of gas flow after cementing. Society of Petroleum Engineers, 1989. https://doi.org/10.2118/18622-MS ; Bois et al. How to prevent loss of zonal isolation through a comprehensive analysis of microannulus formation. Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2011. https://doi.org/10.2118/124719-P ), and other researchers categorized the problems related to wellbore integrity similarly. These categorizations are found in multiple publications and are representative of most cements’ failures that may lead to fluids migration. However, the majority of these categorizations are too broad and do not clearly state and describe the wellbore failures. In addition, categorizing the failures based on the time of their appearance may not be enough to realize, recognize, and understand how connected the failures are. Well-integrity failures are continuously occurring and represent major issues in the oil and gas wells. Therefore, a new and simple classification that accounts for the potential locations of each failure, the causes of the failures, and methods to stop the failures is necessary. This paper aims to classify the failures that may occur in the wellbore into four main failures: (1) micro-annuli that form between the cement and its surroundings, (2) channels that create pathways through the body of the cement, (3) fractures/cracks in the cement sheath, and (4) cement chemical and mechanical degradation. Definition of these problems, causes of these problems, and solutions for those failures are summarized in this paper to clarify, understand, and provide a guideline to prevent and avoid such problems. Along with the classification, general considerations for the cement-testing methodologies against these failures are listed. This work also provides the oil and gas industry with some of the technologies that have been used to avoid oil cements failures.

Technology Focus: Coiled Tubing (June 2020)

As I think about this year’s Coiled Tubing feature, we are all in the midst of the effects of COVID-19 social distancing, an oil-price crash, and high levels of oil in storage. What will the world - and the oil industry, in particular - look like in a couple of months? Certainly, cash flow is going to be king among the various financial metrics. What can deliver results quickly and at a comparatively lower cash requirement? In many ways, these factors have played into the coiled tubing segment’s growth over the past couple of decades (i.e., delivering value). Will tomorrow be the same as just a few short months ago? In one sense - market size - no, but in another sense - as a segment that has always sought out and applied innovative, cost-effective solutions - yes. The papers summarized in this year’s feature demonstrate the application and versatility of coiled-tubing-based solutions to different phases of a well’s life-cycle, from exploration through production and, finally, to abandonment. In an exploration well, using coiled tubing to perform a drillstem test (DST) and potentially stimulate a zone of interest has long been a desire because it is perceived to be a cost-effect method over more-traditional methods. Paper SPE 199853 details the development and initial use of such a system that includes surface real-time readout, always desirable in a DST. Moving into the later days of a well’s production phase, artificial lift typically is used to overcome the limitations of falling bottomhole pressure. In paper IPTC 19930, a detailed overview of a coiled tubing gas-lift installation is given, together with some of the production analysis used to determine the installation’s configuration. This technique has been used for several years around the globe, and some useful insights are shared by the authors. Finally, coming to the end of a well’s life-cycle, is well abandonment. This is always a cost-sensitive lifecycle phase, even before today’s paradigm. The final paper of this year’s selection demonstrates how a coiled-tubing-based approach enabled a cost-effective plug and abandonment to be achieved while still meeting local regulatory requirements. Remember, you may need to distance physically but you can stay connected by making use of, and participating in, your Society of Petroleum Engineers. Stay well, everyone.