Technical Section Research Articles

When Talking Automation, Mind the Algorithms

Drilling Automation The word “automation” is a catchall for a detailed set of levels of control; 10 in fact. And each will be applied in a different way. As each system climbs the scale, one rung at a time, pushing it up will be increasingly accurate algorithms and computer models. According to robotics pioneer Thomas Sheridan’s levels of automation, at the most base level, systems are simply advisers with no control whatsoever. Toward the middle of the scale, humans take on more of a supervisory role, or as some phrase it, “are kept in the loop.” The highest level involves automated systems that ask for no help from humans while doing their tasks, and actually ignore them, with the exception of override systems to initiate emergency shutdowns. “Once we get to the point where there is full automation, there are going to be some exciting and radical new changes that take place,” said John Hedengren, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Brigham Young University, who leads a research team on drilling automation and works with SPE’s Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section (DSATS) on data quality assurance for automation. Hedengren underscores his optimism for what is yet to come by citing Moore’s Law, which has astutely predicted the exponential improvements seen in computer processing over the past half century. In the last 15 years, Hedengren said computing speed has increased by 1,000 times, while in the same time span, some of the algorithms for drilling optimization have also improved by 1,000 times. “If you put those two together, it is actually a million times faster to run some of the same problems that we were running just 15 years ago,” he said. For automation, it means what was impossible to do even 5 years ago is achievable today by the convergence of advanced computing technology and advanced measuring devices that feed drilling information into the models for constant readjustments.

The Savvy Separator Series: Part 1. Design of Cyclone Separators: Internals and Liquid Levels

The SPE Separations Technology Technical Section launches ’The Savvy Separator,’ a series of articles that will present helpful design know-how, lessons learned, and solutions for separation problems. In this inaugural article, the interdependency of cyclonic inlets, cyclonic mist eliminators, and liquid level is highlighted.

Better Survey Management Makes Wells Safer and More Productive

Wellbore Positioning Do you know where your wellbore is? The question is not rhetorical, but one the SPE Wellbore Positioning Technical Section (WPTS) strives to ensure that well operators can answer with high accuracy. The ability to do so is central to safe drilling operations, optimum production, and maximum recovery of reserves. And knowing the answer depends on good wellbore survey management, a practice that frequently is deficient among drilling operations managers. It is a problem that the WPTS is trying to remedy. Obtained by means of gyroscopic systems or magnetic systems such as measurement-while-drilling (MWD) and logging-while-drilling (LWD) tools, a wellbore survey provides essential depth and directional data as a well is drilled. The use of data from properly designed surveys enables operators to ensure that a well will have a safe pathway to its target and avoid a collision with another wellbore. Survey information is also crucial in preparing to drill a relief well, should it be necessary. In addition, surveys provide geoscience staff and government regulators with important data, play a significant role in forensic investigations, and aid in estimating reserves. Operators also sometimes obtain post-drilling surveys to achieve an enhanced accuracy of wellbore locational data. Safety and Economic Benefits Because the highest priority is to drill wells safely, conducting a wellbore survey is first and foremost a safety practice. However, the WPTS believes that many people in the industry fail to recognize the full economic benefit that good survey practice adds to drilling projects by reducing the uncertainty of achieving the intended well path. Thus, they underestimate the economic cost of inadequate survey practice. The growth of pad drilling, in which multiple wells are drilled from the same location and spaced closer together, accentuates the need for good wellbore survey practice for safety and economic reasons. “If you don’t know where your well is, how do you know what your reserves are?” asked Robert Wylie, product line director of Dynamic Drilling Solutions at National Oilwell Varco. Reflecting this theme, Wylie moderated a WPTS topical luncheon titled “Why Did Your Reservoir Just Move?” at the 2014 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE). Good survey management drives increased value for wells, reservoirs, and companies, he said.

The Road Map to Automation

Drilling Automation John de Wardt, president of De Wardt & Company and program manager of the Drilling Systems Automation Roadmap cross-industry initiative, has been working for the past few years with other experts to develop a comprehensive technology road map for automation. He is also a board member of SPE’s Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section (DSATS), formed to drive the development of automated well construction technologies. Based on his work with these groups, he expects that a series of breakthroughs in the next few years will lead to a full embrace of automated drilling systems in the next decade. “It is easy to look at it and say it is a nice pipe dream. But then when I discuss with people what is actually happening out there, I see data points that verify this is a realistic vision,” said de Wardt. The road map is a guide that companies in the industry may follow to go from automated components, or subsystems, such as bottomhole assemblies or weight on bit controllers, to a fully automated drilling system. While it may be a slow piecemeal approach, de Wardt said such a plan is needed to coordinate the complex ecosystem of companies involved with well construction. The industry reality is that it takes an amalgamation of equipment manufacturers, rig contractors, and service companies to drill wells for operators. A few majors, such as Shell, national oil companies, and integrated project management companies that own rigs may have such prowess but they are the exceptions. “I think it will go both ways because there will be some integrators that are going to see the value in doing it from the top down,” he said. “But independents are not going to go out and spend big on this; they are not going to go out and fund such a change like that.” One stop on the road map involves standardization. Using the Internet as an example, de Wardt said different automated systems need a common protocol so they can “talk” to each other and a control system, regardless of who made them. For instance, the work that DSATS is undertaking and the application developed by NOV using an open platform.

금융소비자의 문제경험 요인의 탐색을 위한 융복합적 접근 연구 - 기술적 정보특성과 주관적 역량을 중심으로

Abstract In the modern society, as development innovative technology consumers could access various information. It make consumers empower in the market, and information asymmetry problem were solving more and more. In the technical information, however, there are still information asymmetry because technical information is very difficult to understand , and those are related with professional knowledge such as financial information. This study used the dataset which was collected to track Korean consumers consumption index by KCA(Korea Consumer Agency) which included consumer’s problem experience at financial field. The results are followings. Firstly, consumers want to get exact and important information to decide purchase or not and comparative information in technical information area. Secondly, age is the influence variable to experience more problems in technical information section. Thirdly, consumer’s subjective financial competency is major influence factor to reduce problem experience.

E&P Notes (May 2015)

E&P Notes Lessons From the Aviation Industry on Automation Trent Jacobs, JPT Senior Technology Writer One of the defining features of the 21st century will undoubtedly be the changing relationship between humans and automated machines. The aviation industry has long been a champion of automation and in March, three experts from this field offered their insights to oil and gas professionals about how the technology continues to be qualified and adopted. The presentations were made in London at the SPE’s Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section (DSATS) and IADC Advanced Rig Technology symposium, which is held each year on the eve of the SPE/IADC Drilling Conference and Exhibition. Faster Recognition Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor A project to predict how much carbon dioxide injected into an oil field is likely to remain there forever set off the US Department of Energy (DOE) on a search for faster data analysis methods. Speed matters because making projections going out as far as 1,000 years using a probabilistic model (Monte Carlo) will require long computing times, which are costly. DOE is trying to limit the total time by seeking quicker, lower-cost ways to generate the required data inputs by finding reasonably accurate methods that are faster than multiple processing runs of a full-field reservoir simulation model. Tough Tracers Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor A new miniature pressure/temperature sensor comes packaged inside a tough small ball capable of traveling to the bottom of a well while drilling and returning with data on board. The outer shell of the ball allows electrical components printed on a circuit board to survive a trip in the drilling mud to the bottom of the well, survive a close encounter with the drill bit, and return with readings along the way that can be wirelessly downloaded. Creators of the balls are seeking a lower-cost alternative to logging tools located behind the drill bit. The tracer was created by a company started by Mengjiao Yu, an assistant professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Tulsa, with backing from Saudi Aramco. Corrosion Prediction Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor There are oil fields in Saudi Arabia with many, long-lived wells and not enough inspection equipment to frequently check all the pipes for corrosion damage. “With a limited number of corrosion logging tools, we cannot cover all of them in 1 or 2 years,” said Mohammed AlAjmi, a production engineer for Saudi Aramco, who estimated that it would take 5 years with the available equipment in a presentation at the SPE Digital Energy Conference and Exhibition in The Woodlands, Texas. To reduce the risk of undetected corrosion damage inside and outside the casing, AlAjmi developed a method to predict which wells were at the highest risk of damage using data-driven models and artificial intelligence methods.

Technology Focus: Offshore Drilling and Completion (April 2015)

Technology Focus To the casual observer of completions and hydraulic fracturing, it might appear that multifractured horizontal wells are a relatively recent concept that materialized just as we required them for unconventionals. However, those in the know will recognize that the marriage of fracturing and stimulation operations with horizontals was forged almost 30 years ago in an environment far removed from unconventionals. In fact, it was the high-cost, limited-well, offshore environment that drove the need for higher production rates from single wellbores and indeed from horizontals and high-angle wells because of the limitations imposed by platform footprint and achievable step-out geometry. Substantial progress in multifractured horizontal wells was made in the 1990s by operators such as Maersk on the Dan field and BP on the Valhall field, in addition to onshore experiences with various operators such as UPRC in the Austin chalk and Arco in Alaska (the North Slope operational reality being effectively similar to offshore). Therefore, it is with great satisfaction that this month’s technical section includes papers demonstrating technologies from unconventionals that are beginning to be used to develop these offshore opportunities further. This month’s selections highlight a number of such applications, including open hole and cased hole, ball-drop actuated, and proppant plug staging. Most of the tools and approaches developed (onshore) for high efficiency in low-permeability propped fracturing are not currently wholly applicable to higher-permeability (offshore) environments because they typically depend on overdisplacement by design. However, these technologies are a fast-moving target, with highly cost- and time- efficient coiled-tubing (CT) underdisplacement techniques emerging now across unconventional plays. This means that we should see articles here very soon on these CT-deployed propped-fracturing approaches as they move offshore. As these innovations gain widespread acceptance, I would expect that the application of offshore fracturing will become a more attractive proposition once again. However, in all cases, the most critical aspects to achieving success will be that the technologies selected not only be fit-for-purpose but also reflect the formation quality and completion philosophy, rather than trying to fit square pegs into round holes. JPT Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE 170773 Flushing Away the Profit: The Potential Misapplication of Unconventional Fracturing Technology on a Global Scale by M. Rylance, BP, et al. OTC 24179 Drilling and Completing Cascade and Chinook Wells: A Design and Execution Case History by Flavio Dias De Moraes, Petrobras, et al. OTC 25321 Ultrahigh-Strength Proppant Developed for Deep, Offshore Completions by Terry Palisch, Carbo Ceramics, et al.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF YIELD AND ANATOMICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF SIX FLAX GENOTYPES

two field experiments were conducted at Giza Agric. Res. Station Farm, Agric. Res. Center during the two successive seasons 2012/2013 and 2013/2014. The main objective of this study was to evaluate six flax genotypes for yield and its components, study also anatomical manifestation in the flax main stems at two regions (the middle and at the top of technical stem length) and the transverse sections in seeds. The obtained results can be summarize as follow: The flax variety Giza 10 achieved highest estimates in total plant height, technical stem length , upper branching zone length , straw yield/plant as well as per fad., fiber yield for either per plant or fad., fiber percentage , fiber length and fiber fineness. While, Sakha 3 ranked second in most economic straw traits, the two flax strains i.e., S.402/2 and S.22 were the latest in this case. The strain 22 occupied the first position and surpassed all the five genotypes in no. of capsules/plant , capsules set % , no. of seeds/plant , seed oil percentage , seed yield/fad. and oil yield/fad. The flax variety Giza 8 ranked second in most of seed characters , but the fewest one was Giza 10. Correlation coefficient (r) values were highly significant and positive between total plant height and each of technical stem length, straw yield/plant, fiber yield/plant, fiber percentage and fiber length. While r values were only positively significant with no. of basal branches, fiber fineness and seed yield/plant. Relation between no. of capsules/plant and each of capsules set % and seed yield/plant were highly significant and positive, but it was only significantly positive with no. of seeds/plant and seed oil percentage. Giza 10 variety achieved maximum fiber area/cross section and fiber index estimates (fiber per plant in volume) at either the middle or the top region of flax stem, while S.22 was the lowest in this respect. The majority of different tissues in the transverse section were greater in middle region of stems than in the top of technical length section, except with the cortex area for Sakha 1, Sakha 3 and Giza 10 which took the opposite direction. The flax strain 22 seeds performed highest cotyledons area % per the corresponding total cross section area, the descending arrangement in this case was Giza 8, Sakha 1, S.402/2 , Giza 10 and Sakha 3.

The digital era

The digital era

S1510101 安心安全ロボット・メカトロニクスの現状と課題

The current society confronts various complex issues including the aged society with rapid increasing seniors, the recovery from the big natural disaster, and the increase in the number of old infrastructures. Robotics and mechatronics are expected to play important roles and to provide effective solutions in settling those issues. The Technical Section on Dependability-Conscious Robotics & Mechatronics was set up in the JSME in December 2006 in order to survey the current status on various issues related to Safety-Security-Dependability and to look for proper collaborations among universities, industries and governments. In this manuscript the safety recovery and the mind safety issues will be focused and surveyed.

Tyre Volume and Pressure Effects on Impact Attenuation during Mountain Bike Riding

Exposure to impacts and vibrations has been shown to be detrimental to cross country mountain bike performance and health. Therefore, any strategy aimed at attenuating such exposure is useful to participants and/or industry. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of tyre size and tyre inflation pressure on exposure to impacts. Participants completed nine trials of a technical section (controlled for initial speed and route taken) including nine separate conditions involving three tyre sizes and three tyre inflation pressures normalised per tyre. Performance was determined by time to negotiate the technical section while triaxial accelerometers recorded accelerations (128 Hz) to quantify impact exposure and the subsequent effects on soft tissue response. Increases in tyre size within the range used improved performanceP<0.0001while changes to tyre inflation pressure had no effectP=0.6870on performance. Larger tyre sizes and lower tyre inflation pressures significantlyP<0.0001reduced exposure to impacts which could be augmented or negated due to an interaction between tyre size and inflation pressureP<0.0001. It is recommended that mountain bikers use larger tyres, inflated to the moderate pressures used within this study, in order to increase performance and reduce the risk of overuse injuries.

F081001 湿り蒸気流量計測研究会の活動紹介

F081001 湿り蒸気流量計測研究会の活動紹介

W221001 マイクロ・ナノ医療デバイスに関する研究会の紹介

W221001 マイクロ・ナノ医療デバイスに関する研究会の紹介

E&P Notes (December 2014)

E&P Notes (December 2014)

우리나라 근로자들의 업종별 뇨중 N-methylformamide 분석 및 N,N-dimethylformamide 노출관리 대책

Objectives: This study is aimed to describe the current situation about urinary biomarker N-methylformamide(NMF) for workers exposed to N,N-dimethylformamide(DMF) according to industrial classification. Materials: Special health examination records of the workers who had undergone urinary biological monitoring in 2013 were collected. The numbers and percentage of workers, whose urinary NMF values were above the limit of detection(LOD) and above the biological exposure index(BEI) were calculated. Health relatedness with DMF as judged by their doctors was also described. All description was classified according to the <TEX>$9^{th}$</TEX> Korean Standard Industrial Classification(KSIC). Results: It appeared that most workers exposed to DMF belong to manufacturing section(80.7%). The geometric mean(GM) values of urinary NMF were 6.25 mg/L, 3.54, and 3.86 for the manufacturing section, professional, scientific and technical activities section, and for the construction section respectively. In detail, it seemed that division of textiles(except apparel) (GM 7.51 mg/L), division of leather, luggage and footwear(11.59 mg/L), and division of rubber and plastic products(6.89 mg/L) were highly exposed to DMF with a high percentage of workers with urinary NMF values above BEI. This was probably due to the effect of skin absorption that the division of leather, luggage and footwear showed the highest urine NMF GM. Conclusions: It seemed that workers in manufacture industries such as textile, leather, luggage, footwear, rubber and plastic products were highly exposed to DMF. So, efforts should be focused on those industries in order to effectively diminish worker's exposure. Further studies to compare DMF air-monitoring with bio-monitoring according to industrial classification should be considered.

New Gyro While Drilling Technology Delivers Accurate Azimuth and Real-Time Quality Control for All Well Trajectories

Summary In response to the increasing demand for a reduction in the uncertainty of wellbore placement to minimize drilling risks and potential liabilities, a new gyroscopic survey tool capable of operating at any attitude during the drilling process has been developed: an all-attitude gyro while drilling (GWD) tool. Gyro survey systems determine the direction of the survey tool in the wellbore, the tool azimuth, by use of measurements of the horizontal components of Earth's rotation in a process known as gyrocompassing or north finding. Current GWD systems are based on angular rate measurements taken about two axes only. These measurement axes are perpendicular to the direction of the wellbore and perpendicular to each other. Although two-axis systems provide accurate estimates of azimuth near vertical, this accuracy degrades as inclination increases, with the azimuth becoming indeterminate because of a mathematical singularity at 90° inclination. To overcome this, an additional rate measurement about the along-hole axis of the tool needs to be performed. Only gyroscopic instruments with three orthogonal sensitive axes, as adopted in the new tool, are capable of measuring the full horizontal Earth rate signal in all wellbore geometries. This paper describes a number of innovative technological developments that have allowed all-attitude GWD to become a reality, including a new gyroscope designed specifically for the downhole drilling environment, a new system mechanization to control gyroscope biases, a signal-processing technique known as continuous adaptive processing that estimates the g-sensitive bias errors at each gyrocompass station, and a more robust quality control scheme. The new high angle GWD system is well-suited to handle any wellbore-placement needs. These include high inclination kickoffs, infill drilling, relief wells, and the provision of improved accuracy in east/west wells. With the improved reliability of the data comes increased confidence that the resulting survey is representative of the true wellbore trajectory. The detection of gross errors can also be accomplished by comparing real-time GWD and measurement-while-drilling (MWD) data. Further, with the memory multishot capability that is available, reliable high accuracy surveys from section total depth (TD) to surface are generated, verifying both MWD and GWD performance on the trip out and eliminating the need for separate and rig-time-dependent gyroscopic surveys. Finally, a number of case studies are presented to illustrate the performance capabilities of the new gyroscopic system over a range of well trajectories and latitudes. The all-attitude GWD system not only allows the survey-reliability goals to become a reality in a cost-effective manner—as set out in the earlier quality control papers published in conjunction with the SPE Well Positioning Technical Section—but also does this in real time while drilling.

Mode de raisonnement des apprenants relatif à la conception des microcontrôleurs : cas des élèves tunisiens de classe terminale

This research aims at analyzing learners’ reasoning modes related to microcontrollers. In fact it is to study the process of conceptualization during the development of an algorithm and a program in order to implement it in the programmable circuit, microcontroller 16F84 among students in the final class of technical science section (17-18 years). The theoretical framework in which we tried to analyze the students' production is that of the theory of conceptual fields. To understand the origins of filiations and the breaks of this process, we proposed a questionnaire to analyze the schemes mobilized by students in terms of concepts - in-action and theorems-in-action. We interviewed 28 students in total. The analysis of students’ answers, we found that teaching and learning situations chosen by the teacher will be crucial for learning and planning may not be an obstacle.

Teneur: A LINUX based offline content management system

This technical section provides a brief synopsis about our offline content management system. The main purpose of this system is to manage the resources such as text files, images in a more synchronized manner. This system is also capable of administering over the messages send to and received from different users. The basic concept is that whenever a user signs up with his login id and password a new folder is automatically created with his id name. And then the user can access this area specified to him to store his belongings. The different operations that can be done can be divided into modules. The first module is TEXT. One can open his own files or may want to view some other user’s files. But he can do so only if he has the permission granted to him by the other user. This feature provides security to the contents. One may also add different text files within a specific file size limit. If enough memory is not present then he has an option to delete files either by his choice or the administrator will delete the most less frequently used files to accommodate the space for new files. The files will be stored in the folders specified by their extensions. The second module is IMAGE. All the above mentioned operations performed with text files can also be implemented on Image files. The third module is concerned about MESSAGES. Just like the e-mailing system a user can send and receive messages from other users. He can also search for messages by date or by sender’s name. An additional feature provided is that if a user wants to copy or transfer his contents or create a backup of his directory then he can do it easily by compressing his files in zipped format. The methodology section shows its functionality in details. Hence this system provides a comprehensive and efficient administration of annals so that manipulation and storage becomes easy.

W221001 マイクロ・ナノ医療デバイスに関する研究会の紹介([W22100]マイクロ・ナノ工学部門企画,マイクロ・ナノ医療デバイス)

W221001 マイクロ・ナノ医療デバイスに関する研究会の紹介([W22100]マイクロ・ナノ工学部門企画,マイクロ・ナノ医療デバイス)

December 2013: Instrumentation and Measurement for Petroleum Drilling [From the Editor's Bench

This issue of the IEEE I&M Magazine is a direct result of tutorials given during the International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC) 2012 held in Graz, Austria. One of the tutorial tracks consisted of presentations by the Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section (DSATS) of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), referred to as SPE-DSATS.