#20 Digital Energy Journal - September 2009

8/9/2019 #20 Digital Energy Journal - September 2009

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September 2009 Issue 20

BP: value fromconnectivity

Can seismic beimproved?

Robots in the well

Associate Member


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September 2009 Issue 20

September 2009 - digital energy journal

Digital Energy Journal is a magazine for oil and

gas company professionals, geoscientists, engi-

neers, procurement managers, IT professionals,

commercial managers and regulators, to help

you keep up to date with developments with

digital technology in the oil and gas industry.

Subscriptions: Apply for your free print or elec-

tronic subscription to Digital Energy Journal on

our website www.d-e-j.com

Digital Energy Journal213 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9FJ, UK

Digital Energy Journal is part of Finding Petroleum

www.findingpetroleum.com

www.digitalenergyjournal.com

Tel +44 (0)207 510 4935

Fax +44 (0)207 510 2344

EditorKarl Jeffery

[email protected]

Consultant editorDavid Bamford

Technical editorKeith [email protected]

Finding Petroleum London ForumsOctober 20th - Russia, the Arctic / subsalt, ridges

November 17th - Kurdistan / Iraq


Social networknetwork.findingpetroleum.com

Advertising and sponsorshipAlec EganTel +44 (0)203 051 [email protected]

1

Cover photo - Modelling salt: a model of a saltdome made using Paradigm SeisEarth, a tool

which can analyse seismic data from a prospect

scale to a basin scale in 2D or 3D. Being able to

view data in a basin scale changes the nature of

an interpreters questions, Paradigm says eg

instead of asking where are the hydrocarbons in

this prospect? the question can be elevated to

Where are the prospects in this basin? Or, Why

isnt there a producing field here?

David BamfordConsultant Editor, Digital Energy Journal

Gravity and cheaper 3D -transformational technologies?

Much is made of the fact that the oil & gas resources of our planet will last many decades

yet: this is evident if one digs into the most recent BP annual Statistical Review of World

Energy (www.bp.com/productlanding.do?categoryId=6929&contentId=7044622). It is also

true that much of this petroleum still needs to be found, whether in new discoveries or up-

grades of existing discoveries or increases in the recovery factor of currently producing

fields or even in the resurrection of currently abandoned fields.

Finding Petroleum in the future will take us to tougher areas, more complex geology,

more difficult reservoirs and, unless we are very smart, much higher Finding Costs. It wouldbe wrong, ironic and a great shame if, as companies increased expenditures coming out of

the current downturn, they find less barrels and molecules due to tough problems and ram-

pant oil field service prices!

Know How, including the smart application of technology, is the key. Although the

oil & gas industry is perceived as deeply conservative, nonetheless it has given birth to, and

matured, some truly transformational ideas and technologies. As a geophysicist, Id think for

example of the shift from analogue to digital technologies, from explosives to air-guns and

vibrators, from 2D to 3D seismic. I guess I started working in the industry a few years be-

fore the first postage stamp 3D surveys were shot over producing fields in the North Sea:

when I moved to Aberdeen in 1986, I was stunned to learn that it took up to two years to

move from planning a 3D to having a 1st Pass interpretation.

Subsequently Finding Petroleum was revolutionized during the 1990s by the availabil-ity of exploration 3D covering huge offshore areas at low unit cost and, eventually, with

much shortened plan-through-to-complete interpretation cycle-times. Of course there was

huge customer pull led by the Majors but if I had to single out one decisive contributor

it would be PGS who introduced their RamForm vessels, towing multiple streamers, and

transformed 3D marine acquisition technology overnight.

If I had to choose one potentially transformational technology of today, unusually for

me I would look away from the seismic world to gravity gradiometry, especially airborne,

systems. Such systems measure changes to the gravity vector components, the gradients or

spatial rates of change, in the gravity field. Unlike a conventional gravimeter, which meas-

ures only the magnitude of the gravity field, these systems acquire data from all directions.

Gravity gradiometry may well prove invaluable onshore as a relatively inexpensive though

not cheap - reconnaissance tool that allows subsequent, more expensive, seismic to be well

focused and seems (to me) to be a world away from the vague and ambiguous offerings of

conventional gravity and magnetics. ArkEx and Bell Geospace are leading the charge.

Linked with both of the above, my desired technology of the future is easy to articu-

late onshore and transition zone 3D seismic that has similar unit costs and cycle-times to

marine 3D. As the unit costs for a difficult onshore 3D can be an order of magnitude more

than those for a straightforward marine survey, I have to admit that these words are easier to

articulate than to deliver! But in a UK Government-like surge of optimism, I can see green

shoots! My impression is that such a technology transformation is most likely to be led by a

relatively new player (as PGS were, and ArkEx and Bell Geospace are) rather than one of

the big boys.

Perhaps thats inevitably true of any technology, in any industry? Perhaps the big, es-

tablished players have so much invested in their current offerings, including emotional and

intellectual investment if they developed their current technology themselves, that they findit difficult to think outside the box and/or spend more of their energies trying to keep new

players out of their market?

Nevertheless, if we could have gravity gradiometry and cheap, rapid 3D everywhere,

that would really help Finding Petroleum.

David Bamford is a non executive director of Tullow Oil and a past head of exploration with BP


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The 5th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTEGRATED OPERATIONS IN

THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY, TRONDHEIM, NORWAY 2930 SEPTEMBER 2009

Established by the Research Council of Norway

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Partners in the Center for Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry:

Cooperating academic partners:

Intelligent petroleum fields and integratedoperations for better productivity and safety

eFieldsSmart FieldsDigital Oil Fields

Fields for the Future

Sessions

IO 09 will highlight aspects of the technologies and work processes for better productivity and safety.

1. Intelligent petroleum fields and IO in a low price scenario

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4. Roadmap for green fields and brown fields IO solutions and IO compliance

5. Pushing the boundary of integrated modeling

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7. Industrial gaming applications for IO in the oil and gas industry

8. Pushing wired pipe smarter well solutions and reservoir optimization

9. Operation management through integrated planning and optimized maintenance

10. Digital platform for the next generation IO a prerequisite for the high north

Sponsoring organization: The conference is organized by the Center for Integrated Operations hosted by the

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in cooperation with SINTEF and the Institute for Energy

Technology (IFE). The IO Center was established in 2006, by leading international oil companies, system suppliers,

academic institutions and the Research Council of Norway, with the objective to undertake research, innovation andeducation on integrated operations. www.ntnu.no/iocenter

International meeting place for business and science: www.ioconf.no

35 speakers from international oil and gas companies, service industry, R&D companies and universities

Young Professional Program, Poster Session Area, Exhibition Area and Excursions to IO facilities

SME Innovation Forum October 1st: Integrated Environmental Technologies for improved competitiveness

and newbusiness opportunities. Registration and hotel reservation: www.ioconf.no

Jennifer Okimoto

Social computing,

IBM

Eduardo Salas

University of Central

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Laurent Coudert

Program Director,

Electricit de

France, France

Dan Lejerskar

COO, EON Reality,

California, USA

Svein Ivar Sagatun

Head of Corporate

Initiative Integrated

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Roy Rus

Petoro, Vice

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Technology ICT,

Petoro


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Contents

Can seismic be improved?Theres no better tool than seismic for finding oil. But can it be done any better? The fourth

OilVoice / Finding Petroleum Forum, in London in June 24 2009 looked at some of the possibleways

Future of energy debate GroningenA debate about the future of energy, including climate change and security, was held at a

conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Groningen gas field with speakers from

ExxonMobil, Solar Century, Shell, Schlumberger and Texas A+M University, together with

electronic audience voting, chaired by Rien Herber, vice president exploration for Shell in

Europe

Paradigm upgrades its softwareOil and gas software company Paradigm has launched a new suite of software covering the full

range of subsurface tasks, including geophysics, geology, petrophysics and drilling engineering,

called Rock & Fluid Canvas 2009.

Welltec robots in the wellDanish company Welltec is making good progress with its robotic tools which can go into a

well and make perforations, clean sand or scale, set barriers and open valves, says Jrgen

Hallundbk, founder and CEO

Linking SCADA development with operational needsJim Fererro, vice president of automation consultancy GlobaLogix, gives his advice on the

best way to get the information you need from your field by starting with the end in mindwhen creating SCADA automation systems in oilfield equipment, and bringing operators into

the design phase

How you implement technologyCompanies have got very good at choosing technology but maybe lose value by their lack

of attention to choosing how the technologies will be implemented, and measuring the

likelihood of its success, says Dutch Holland

Using massively parallel processing databases?The use of massively parallel processing (MPP) databases could assist with production

surveillance and optimization, drilling and completions optimization, supply-chain and

materials-management optimization, and oilfield equipment reliability and maintainability.

Mike Brul, a consultant in E&P information management, explains how

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Production

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Leaders

Gravity and cheaper 3D - transformational technologies?Finding Petroleum in the future will take us to tougher areas, more complex geology, more difficult reservoirs

and, unless we are very smart, much higher Finding Costs, says David Bamford, Consultant Editor Digital Energy

Journal

BP using connectivity to drive productivityBP has installed real time monitoring systems on 80 per cent of its high rate wells along with 2 million datatags and 2,000km of fibre but theres plenty further it can go, said David Latin, vice president of E&P

Technology, speaking at a recent OilVoice / Finding Petroleum London forum

Exploration

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Leader

digital energy journal - September 2009

BP using connectivity to driveproductivityBP has installed real time monitoring systems on 80 per cent of its high rate wells along with 2 milliondata tags and 2,000km of fibre but theres plenty further it can go, said David Latin, vice president of E&P

Technology speaking at a recent OilVoice / Finding Petroleum Forum in London.

David Latin, vice president of E&P technol-

ogy with BP, says he believes that connec-

tivity is the grease that drives productivity at

BP, speaking at the recent OilVoice / Find-

ing Petroleum Forum (London, April 22nd).

Digital technology has helped us do

things more efficiently, more effectively and

at lower cost, he says.

So far, BP has fitted 80 per cent of itshigh rate wells, and 40 per cent of its wells

in total, with technology for real time moni-

toring, he said.

It has already installed over 2m data

tags and has 2,000km of fibre connecting its

facilities.

The company has around 30 in house

staff and 70 consultants working directly on

its Field of the Future project; it also has

a staff member in each of its business units

helping to roll it out, looking at change man-

agement aspects and application of the tech-nology locally.

In a sense, everybody in the entire com-

pany has been involved in the project at

some point, he said.

We think we've delivered something

like 80,000 barrels a day of extra production

as a consequence of using this technology to

date and saved more than 100m dollars of

capital expenditure, he said.

This is a much cheaper way to increase

production than to drill more holes, he said.

This is very low cost.

The financial value works out at be-

tween $3 and $6 a barrel, which is is similar,

or better, to doing well workovers, he said.

BPs digital oilfield strategy started

with its largest and most complex oilfields

where it has a lot of money tied up.

For example, an early target was its

Gulf of Mexico Thunderhorse platform

which produces 350,000 barrels of oil per

day from 7 wells. We need to manage them

carefully and ensure we get maximum val-

ue, he said.

Digital oilfield allows you to manageyour fields more effectively and more effi-

ciently, he said. Its about reducing capital

costs and reducing operating costs and mak-

ing people more efficient in what they do day

to day.

The main benefits are being able to take

real time measurements of oil, water and gas

production, quickly optimise the complex

production systems, and feed the data

straight into reservoir models.

FutureBut there is still a lot further to go.

If you think of a future where infor-mation flows freely and easily to individuals

wherever they are, and its been filtered so

they're only getting what they need, and as

much as possible its automated, so it does-

n't need to go to an individual unless they

need to make a human decision, and its ap-

plied across the whole value chain, I would

say we're miles away from being done, he

said. We're all in the infancy really.

Another challenge is working out how

to use it viably in low rate onshore wells. It

requires different types of thinking and dif-ferent solutions.

In North America a lot of the issues

are to do with people driving large distances

to gather data or do maintenance.

There is plenty more progress to be

made in how the data is used to improved

reservoir management, he said; there is also

new nano technology being developed which

might be able to revolutionise what we can

do with reservoir engineering, he said.

BP is making efforts to protect its tech-

nology investments. The market is quite

immature and we think we're quite far ahead

of where the market is and that adds value

to us, he said. I think this will ultimately

separate winners and losers in the future.

Three layersBP sees the digital oilfield in 3 layers data

infrastructure and architecture at the bottom,

then a middle layer where that data is turned

into information, then a top layer when you

try to work out if you can do with the data

to optimise what you are doing.

That's how we think of digital oilfield- and it really applies to everything from the

oil in the ground through to our terminals -

and we apply it to our refining as well. IT re-

ally touches every part o f he business, he

said.

Fibre cableIn the Gulf of Mexico, BP has laid a 1300km

cable which connects all of its platforms.

The cables provide 2,500 times the band-

width of a satellite connection.

The cable has proved particularly use-

ful in hurricanes, he says. We have 20:20

vision of what goes on in the platforms, he

said. We're down manned, but we can still

see everything, we know everything. We

know if anything has happened and we can

start to plan a recovery. We're the only com-

pany that has that capability in the Gulf.

The system is very helpful for people

actually working on the platforms. You can

use software and it downloads instantly, he

said.

Remote drillingIn Indonesia, drilling engineers in Jakarta

watch real time drilling data from the fieldoperation 2,000 miles away in West Papua.

Having this real time connected-ness

between the field team and experts in the of-

fice really does improve how people work

together, he said.

"Connectivity is the grease that drives

productivity" - David Latin, vice president ofE&P technology with BP


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Leader


eters and try to analyse in real time what

your drilling parameters are and try to pre-

dict when the bit might fail, and then choose

when you trip out of the hole rather than let

it happen to you.

Data analytics could be useful to

analyse data from neighboring wells and try

to work out how they might be connected

underground.

PeopleThe biggest challenges with this kind of

technology is usually connected to people.

Its 80 per cent about people, 15 per cent

about processes and 5 per cent about tech-

nology, he said.

When you have a brownfield - eg for-

ties field that's been running for a long time

people have been working on it for a certain

time in a certain way - the behavioural

change aspects to that are far greater than for

when you have a new field in a new environ-

ment with a new workforce and they start

working like that from day 1, he said.

This means that it can be easier to in-

stall digital oilfield technology on new fields

rather than older ones.

This particular team think they have

saved something like something like 7 days

of non productive drilling time on the 2nd

well.

They had a well control issue - they

solved it something like a week faster than

they would have done without this kind of

connectivity. It also saves a lot on travel

costs as well.

InstrumentationThere is nothing new about installing tem-

perature and pressure equipment in wells,

but what is new is using this information to

calculate flowrates and production from the

well.

Oil companies always calculate what

each field is producing for management and

regulatory purposes, but they havent histor-

ically measured the production from individ-

ual wells.Historically it has been done by test-

ing wells at intervals - they can be quite big

intervals - between those intervals you won't

know what a well is producing. There's typi-

cally an allocation error of between 15 and

20 per cent in a normal oilfield, he said.

However from the continuous tempera-

ture and pressure measurements, it is possi-

ble to measure the flowrate to an accuracy

of +/- 5 per cent, including flowrates of oil,

gas and water.

If youre managing a reservoir, youneed to know where your oil gas and water

are coming from and going to, he said. If

you have a 20 per cent error - that will result

in poor reservoir management and low re-

covery.

It is also possible to measure the pro-

duction from different intervals within a sin-

gle well.

In Azerbaijan, we run fibre down our

wells - it collects distributed temperature da-

ta, and that can be converted into informa-

tion about flowrates, real time, he said.

It shows where the flow is coming

from in those layer intervals. It can show you

where you want to add water, he said.

Combined with 4D seismic, it gives

you a clear view about which zones are pro-

ducing.

Production optimisationA good example of how the technology has

been used to optimise is in the Schehallion

field, West of Shetland, where a new system

was implemented to reduce slugging by

changing gas injection and throttling the pro-duction line.

The production system is very compli-

cated, with gas injection, production through

long horizontal wells, producing oil, gas and

water, gathered at an FPSO.

Its a very complex system and can be-

come very unstable, he said. One of the

things you'd like to do is stabilise that sys-

tem and increase overall production rates

from it.

One of the biggest problems is slugs

where liquid or gas builds up in the well and

comes out suddenly instead of a continu-

ous flow of liquid and gas mixed together,

which is much easier to handle.By manipulating the choke valve at the

top of the riser according to the computer

model, BP was able to keep the flow of oil

and gas coming smoothly through the well

and avoid slugs. This mechanical calcula-

tion actually worked, he said.

Data analyticsA growing area is data analytics services.

These are already being used in oil re-

fineries, to try to predict when components

will fail, he said. But it is in its infancy in

terms of reservoir.

That's an area that will really take off

in the next few years.

There's a tsunami of data coming now,

how does one manage one's way through that

smartly?

One of the things we're doing that we

find very valuable is using data about histor-

ical performance to bound future perform-

ance and to make business decisions, he

said.

So for example, we can look at our

pipeline and how measurements of wallthickness over time and how corrosion takes

place - and use that to make empirical

physics calculations as opposed to theoreti-

cal physics calculations.

Another type is to use drilling param-

You can watch Mr Latins full presenta-

tion in video on the Finding Petroleum

website:


click on half day forums (top left), click

on "the digital oilfield" (top left), scrolldown to "The Digital Revolution and BP's

Field of the Future Program", then click

on "Click here to View the David Latin

Presentation"

BP has fitted 80 per cent of its high rate wells, and 40 per cent of its wells in total, withtechnology for real time monitoring


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Exploration


Can seismic be improved?Theres no better tool than seismic for finding oil. But can it be done any better? The fourth OilVoice /Finding Petroleum Forum, in London in June 24 2009 looked at some of the possible ways.

Ian Jack, a past subsurface R+D manager at

BP and instigator of its life of field seismic

project, believes that the best way to improve

seismic is to increase the speed seismic sur-

veys are done.

If seismic surveys could be done faster,

they could be done cheaper; and both the in-

creased speed and lower price would make it

easier to approve decisions to undertake a

survey. So more surveys would be done, and

both oil companies and vendors would be

happy.

One relatively easy way to increase the

speed of land surveys, he suggests, would beto get rid of the cables between data recorders

which are spread out over the field. This

would mean much less weight to carry

around (so a much faster survey) and a low-

er capital cost for the overall equipment.

With the cables, there can be 20 to 60

tons of equipment that has to be moved in a

day, he says. So overall costs can be reduced

by 35 to 40 per cent by using lighter equip-

ment.

The recorded data can either be sent

wirelessly, or just stored it together with thedata recorder and downloaded it later.

Meanwhile Stuart Papworth, global ac-

count manager with WesternGeco looking af-

ter BP and Shell, believes that the most im-

portant thing is to drive efficiencies over the

whole process of gathering and processing

seismic data, and how the data is communi-

cated in the field (cables, wireless or stored

in receivers and downloaded later) is of sec-

ondary importance.

WesternGeco has managed to make

enormous improvements to the overall seis-

mic process by reducing noise, and can get

the same quality of signal from 4-8 receivers

as can normally be achieved with 12-48 re-

ceivers.

Current successIt is important to acknowledge that many

parts of the world are currently seeing as-

tounding success rates with the current tech-

nology. For example, BP and its partners

have had successes for 18 out of its past 19

wells drilled in DW Block 31 in Angola, said

conference chairman David Bamford (a pasthead of exploration with BP), and in its one

failure, they kind of ignored the regional ge-

ological message. Similarly, Tullow Oil in

deepwater Ghana had had 8 out of 8 success-

es, he said.

The story is not so exciting in the North

Sea, he said, where oil companies are cur-

rently seeing a success rate of around 23 per

cent.

However the North Sea success rate did

increase from 15 per cent to 35 per cent over

the period 1996 to 2000, a factor Mr Bam-

ford mainly attributes to the increasing use

of 3D seismic. Clearly, oil companies would

love to see a new technology which could get

North Sea success rates back to 35 per cent

again.

Meanwhile there is a growing gulf be-

tween marine and land seismic surveys be-cause doing 3D surveys at sea has (so far)

proved much easier than 3D surveys on land.

Selling equipmentA crucial factor with new seismic technology

is that the companies who rent out seismic

equipment or do seismic surveys dont nec-

essarily have an incentive to spend millions

of dollars on new equipment, particularly if

it hasnt been tested.

It is easy to believe that if you invent

new, better technology there will always be abig market for it, because this is how the con-

sumer goods market works. But it isnt nec-

essarily true.

Some oil companies are starting to pur-

chase equipment themselves rather than wait

for their contractors to buy it. I think that's

brilliant, said I-Seis Mr Heath.

Jack Caldwell from Oyo Geospace said

the thought that the costs of marketing new

technology and getting it accepted are so high

there will probably only be 2 or 3 wireless

seismic suppliers by the end of it.

Mr Caldwell said he thought that now

many oil companies have closed their re-

search centres, it gets very hard to find some-

one at oil companies you can talk to about

new technology. Its difficult to find some-

one to talk to, he said.

Cutting the costsThere was a discussion about how the costs

of seismic equipment can be cut. The most

important components batteries, memory,

microchips, have been steadily (or rapidly)

decreasing in cost.Ian Jack said he thought reducing the

number of wireless seismic equipment sup-

pliers would be a good step to reducing the

costs of wireless seismic, because the more

products individual companies were manu-

facturing, the lower the manufacturing costs

should be. There should be just 2 suppliers,

he said. Volume is the key.

The land seismic market needs some-

one similar to Anders Farestveit, he said. Mr

Farestveit, as managing director of Norwe-

gian seismic company Geco in 1972 to 1992,

can take a lot of the credit for making marine

seismic surveys viable, by getting the first

vessels specially built for seismic surveys, re-

placing vessels which were not very suited

for the task expensive and unreliable.

Mr Jack said he has heard that any mi-

crochip can be manufactured for $5 each, nomatter how complicated it is, so long as there

are enough of them being made.

Mr Jack asked if it might be possible to

use more off the shelf products in seismic

equipment, for example, microchips for con-

sumer audio equipment are made for $5 and

can handle 24 bit audio.

These chips would not work for seismic

equipment because people want a dynamic

range of more than 100 decibels, said i-Seiss

Mr Heath.

One obstacle to getting the costs downis that customers expect to see a complex list

of specifications for new products and this all

costs money to make. If you try to sell a sys-

tem that doesn't have them, the door can get

stuck in your face, Mr Heath said. But we

don't need a huge series of specifications.

Mr Jack said he believed efforts were

currently underway to reduce the costs of 4D

seismic with receivers on the ocean bottom.

The current costs of this technology is a

big obstacle, he says, because it is normally

paid for out of an asset managers budget, al-

though the rewards for it dont come for

many years, when someone else will proba-

bly be in the job.

Getting rid of cablesBob Heath, technical marketing manager

with International Seismic Corporation (I-

Seis), a wireless seismic data company set up

by Seismic Source Company, believes that

seismic exploration will be cheaper, safer and

more environmentally friendly if it is done

without cables.

If you were inventing land seismic to-day there is no way you would use cables.

But that's not what's happening, cables

haven't gone away, and cable free systems are

not really yet successful, he said. The

largest crews are with cable. The cable sys-


10/28

tems do rule, but I don't think its OK.

Cable manufacture and disposal, not in-

cluding transportation before, during and af-

ter use, is responsible for 250,000 tonnes of

CO2, he said. The biggest cost with a cabled

system is the plastic and copper that goes in-

to the system.

The biggest problem is actually chang-

ing your attitude getting you to accept the

new technology, he said, addressing the au-

dience. We'll solve it only if you encourage

it more.

Youre all addicted to cables and you

don't admit it, he said. You like the feeling

of security with cables, be honest. And youre

probably not worried about the maintenance

cost and downtime.

The weight of equipment per channel is

just 3kg if there are no cables, compared to

6.5kg per channel if it is cabled, he said.

Meanwhile there is a steady increase inthe number of channels being used in seis-

mic survey (for the same number of crew)

Mr Heath reckons that over the past 40 years,

the number of channels per crewmember has

roughly doubled every four-five years.

Tough seismic nutsIan Jack, a past subsurface R+D manager at

BP and instigator of its life of field seismic

project, talked about the range of difficult

problems which are often encountered doing

seismic surveys in shallow waters and onland, or as he put it, tough nuts to crack.

For shallow waters, towed streamer sur-

veys are not very practical with potential

damage to both the cable and the seabed.

Making a source for the seismic wave set-

ting off explosives in shallow water is not

very easy. Shallow water surveys are slow

and expensive, he said.

On land, the sources are normally vibra-

tor trucks, which are generally slow, heavy

and expensive, he said. But they can be half

the cost of explosives which need to be

drilled into the ground, requiring the trans-

portation of drilling equipment to the loca-

tion.

BP has an interesting project to improve

the efficiency of vibration trucks where the

receivers are kept recording all day, and the

drivers autonomously go to the different lo-

cations and set off shots, without co-ordinat-

ing their shots with the other trucks, which

slows everything down. He noted that West-

ernGeco recently announced a world record

of 13,315 vibrator points in one day while

conducting a survey for BP in Libya.Sothings are improving.

There are plenty of other challenges

with land seismic. Mr Jack told stories of

when explosives set off in a rainforest caused

tree kangaroos to fall out of trees; when a

bridge was built across a river in Papua New

Guinea for a survey, which enabled two tribes

who had never spoken to each other to meet,

leading to various cultural problems.

WesternGecos UniQStuart Papworth, global account manager

with WesternGeco, looking after BP and

Shell, talked about WesternGecos UniQ seis-

mic survey system. Analysis from potential

exploration projects in North Africa show

that the system could be used to cover in ex-

cess of 30 km2 per day using a combination

of point-receiver super-spreads and simulta-

neous source techniques that use multiple vi-

brator groups shooting simultaneously at dif-

ferent locations

One of the key requirements to fast and

efficient acquisition is enabling the deploy-

ment of huge spreads with low sensor densi-

ty. The UniQ acquisition system enablesequivalent noise reduction with between 1/3

and 1/6 the sensor density of a conventional

acquisition and processing approach. This is

achieved by processing developed specifical-

ly for individual point-receivers.

WesternGeco calls the initial processing

for noise suppression and signal preservation

on point-receiver data Digital Group Form-

ing (DGF). The high channel capacity of

UniQ, combined with an overall reduction in

sensor density, provides the perfect platform

for large spreads within which simultaneoussource techniques can be used effectively.

A typical UniQ exploration scenario

has 4-8 sensors distributed over each 50 m of

receiver line. Combining the data from 4-8

receivers with DGF will give you an equiva-

lent data to a conventional geophone array

with 12-48 geophones, he said.

The system is equally good for doing

both full-azimuth high-resolution reservoir

surveys (with higher sensor density) and fast

and efficient exploration surveys (with a low

receiver density), he said. The 150,000 chan-

nels capacity makes the acquisition of full-

azimuth point-receiver surveys a commercial

reality.

The sensors are managed within an ac-

quisition grid rather the traditional linear

arrangement. The data can take any route

through the grid to the recording truck. So if

any part of the cable is cut, the data has an

alternative path to the recording truck. Hav-

ing such multi-path capabilities also enables

flexible deployment to get around obstacles.

These features ensure that such a high chan-

nel count system can be used reliably.However, its not all about channel ca-

pacity and efficiency, the system also uses the

latest WesternGeco broadband sensor and

source technology to get low and high fre-

quency data, which are important for resolu-

tion, deep imaging (low frequencies) and re-

liable inversion to rock properties.

So what about cables vs. cable-less?

The system uses cables, as this was seen as

the most effective way of handling both the

required data capacity and point-receiver dis-

tribution. Its all about deciding on the de-

sired geophysical approach to solving tough

seismic problems, both in terms of quality

and efficiency, and then selecting the most

appropriate technology to support it. Its not

about selecting a technology and then tryingto figure out what you can do with it, he

said.

Oyo store but dont communicateJack Caldwell from Houston seismic instru-

mentation company Oyo Geospace talked

about a new system his company has devel-

oped for seismic data recording, called Geo-

space Seismic Recorder (GSR) which just

has a geophone, a data recorder and a battery

so the seismic data is not communicated at

all from the recorder, until it is stored and col-

lected at the end of the survey.

The data recorder has a GPS system in-

side, so it can record its exact location and

keep accurate time. It can also keep accurate

time for several hours if it loses communica-

tion with the GPS.

It can store 4 gigabytes of data on each

channel (up to 4 channels). This gives it 740

hours or 1480 hours of recording time (de-

pending on the size of battery used).

The devices can communicate critical

data a short distance for example to a truck

or helicopter, so you can drive or fly aroundthe survey area periodically to check that

they are all functioning properly and the bat-

teries are charged.

The recorder uses one highly sensitive

geophone, instead of using 6 geophones and


Exploration

The UniQ Geophone Accelerometer (GAC) canbe part of a network of up to 150,000channels and provides an improved lowfrequency response and an essentially

perfectly flat response curve throughout thenormal range of seismic frequencies


11/28

Embedding Energistics open standards into

our E&P products allows Landmark to reduce

R&D costs and enhance connectivity with our

global customers.

Paul Koeller

President Landmark Software & Services, Halliburton


12/28

Authority and the Ugandan Army on the proj-

ect.

Combating the threat of disease was a

big challenge, with cholera outbreaks being

reported twice close to where crew were

working.

The oil reservoirs were at depths of 500

to 1200m, so they could be drilled really

quickly, he said.The seismic survey team worked very

closely with the companys geological and

geophysics groups, with software tools which

could enable them to look at the same im-

ages.

One project, the initial seismic survey

did not show up a fault, although it was

known to be present. The company was very

keen to find out more about where the fault

was, so it did not end up drilling through it.

A closer look at the seismic data was neces-

sary.

The company thought it would be bet-

ter to process the seismic data in house. It

would be hard to ask a seismic contractor to

just process the central bit first, he said.

Tullow modelled the ray paths where

they were bouncing from the surface rock,

then up to where the fault was thought to be,

and up to the surface; and as a result got a

much better image. This work was made over

a period 9 months from May 2008 to March

2009.

case with mesh radio networks, he said.

The system has a highly accurate time

clock, so can still keep recording for a few

hours even if it loses connection to the clock

from the GPS (GPS lock). It has the option

to use GPS time retransmission for where

GPS lock may be marginal, and is about to

offer its SynchroSeisTM technique for the Sig-

ma system meaning no radio communica-

tions at all is required to provide timing to re-

mote ground units, allowing units even to be

submerged.

Along with Sigmas Smart Harvest

techniques, the Sigma system solves the three

major issues associated with first generation

able free systems (shootblind, timing distri-

bution, and intelligent downloading) making

Sigma a much more universal acquisition

system.

Finally, given Sigmas parentage, Bob

Heath states that source controllers are hav-ing to change to cope with the new ways in

which land data can be acquired using sec-

ond generation cablefree systems.

John Doherty, Tullow OilJohn Doherty with Tullow Oil, talked about

his companys experience exploring for oil

in Uganda using seismic.

The company has acquired license

blocks in the Albertine Graben, much of

which is under Lake Albert in Uganda. It has

12 oil fields discovered in the past 3 years. Itis comparable in size to the South Viking

Graben in the North Sea, which has over 50

fields. Its a new and exciting frontier

province weve opened up, he said.

The area has been a target for oil explo-

ration for many years, because there are

abundant oil seeps coming to the surface.

Licenses to explore for oil were held by

the Anglo Persian company (which later be-

came BP) as far back as the 1920s.

Tullow acquired 2D data in the area be-

tween 2001 and 2005. In 2006 it found oil in

two different blocks, which was very en-

couraging, he said. Lately, it has been suc-

cessful with 24 out of the last 27 wells

drilled.

The terrain has proven very challeng-

ing, with a big escarpment (cliff) leading

down to a level area of land, next to the lake.

All of the equipment for surveying and

drilling needed to be carried over the escarp-

ment.

Tullow had to build its own roads,

bridges, runways and jetties.

There were plenty of hazards to the seis-mic survey. The area being surveyed has 20m

high cliffs in it, and frequent bush fires in

summer. There are alligators and hippos.

There was also a firing range. Tullow needed

to work closely with the Ugandan Wildlife

summing the output from them (which is the

standard practise).

The system is designed to be easily

portable. A 1,000 channel system can easily

be handled by a 12 person crew, he said. You

can install 40 to 60 complete stations

(recorder, battery, and geophone) in a mini

pick-up truck. Equipment carried in a 20 foot

container can service 2,000 channels.

The unit has been tested at -40 degrees

C, under 3 feet of snow, and the GPS recep-

tion still worked fine, and the communica-

tions by line viewer worked fine, he said. It

has also been used in desert and brush. Units

have also been buried 6 to 8 inches deep and

worked fine it can be useful to bury them

to avoid the batteries getting stolen, he said.

I-SEIS - wirelessBob Heath, technical marketing manager

with International Seismic Corporation (I-Seis), a wireless seismic data acquisition sys-

tem company set up by Seismic Source Com-

pany, a manufacturer of seismic source con-

trollers, talked about his companys seismic

recorders, which communicate health in-

formation via a proprietary mesh radio net-

work using the 2.4 GHz radio band, but oth-

erwise store the data rather than immediately

sending it to the recording truck.

This can provide information that the

unit and geophones are still functioning prop-

erly, along with their location, the batteryvoltage everything you need to know to

know that it is working as a seismic system.

So you can quality control the data, although

youre not sending the data back to the

recording truck as it is being recorded.

The advantage of the 2.4 GHz radio

band is that no license is required to use it.

Many people have had bad experiences

with 2.4 GHz radio, he acknowledged; they

say that the data can get absorbed by foliage;

this can be true, but the data communications

is more reliable at lower bandwidth and when

it only needs to go a short distance, as is the


Exploration

You can watch a video and presentationsfrom the conference at:


click on half day forums (top left), tough

problems in geophysics (top left)

Storing seismic data with no cables using thei-Seis system

The I-Seis sigma seismic receivers

0


13/28

Exploration


Future of energy debate GroningenA debate about the future of energy, including climate change and security, was held at a conference tocelebrate the 50th anniversary of Groningen gas field with speakers from ExxonMobil, Solar Century,Shell, Schlumberger and Texas A+M University, together with electronic audience voting, chaired by Rien

Herber, vice president exploration for Shell in Europe.

As part of the celebrations for the 50th an-

niversary of Netherlands Groningen gas

field, a debate was held about climate

change, security of supply,

Participants included Jeremy B. Ben-

tham, vice president Global Business Envi-

ronment, Royal Dutch Shell; Hans Door-

nenbal, project manager GASH Euro-

pean Black Shale Database; Brad Corson,

chairman and production director ofExxon-

Mobil International Limited; Rien Her-ber, vice president exploration forShell in

Europe; Stephen A. Holditch, head, Petro-

leum Engineering Department, Texas A&M

University; Philippe Lacour-Gayet, senior

scientific advisor to the Chairman of

Schlumberger; David Lawrence, executive

vice president exploration forShell; Jeremy

Leggett, founder and executive chairman of

Solarcentury, founder and Chairman ofSo-

larAid, director of New Energies Invest

AG; David J. Scott, director of economic

development programs in the Earth SciencesSector ofNatural Resources Canada.

The audience participated through elec-

tronic voting.

Groningen gas field is 30 per cent

owned by Shell, 30 per cent by ExxonMobil

and 40 per cent by EBN (Energie Beheer

Nederland). The field is operated through

NAM, the 50/50 joint venture of Shell and

ExxonMobil. It is one of the top 20 fields in

the world.

The field will provide an estimated

2800 billion m3 (100 trillion cubic feet -

TCF) over its lifetime, and has produced

around 1800 billion m3 (65 TCF) so far. This

compares to an annual gas production for the

whole of the US of 20 TCF.

Its one of the largest gas discoveries

of all time, said David Lawrence, VP ex-

ploration of Shell, speaking at a conference

to celebrate the 50 years anniversary of the

field.

When efforts to produce the field start-

ed in the 1950s, we didnt expect what we

saw, said Mr Lawrence. The technology

used to discover Groningen was quite basiccompared to what we have today, he said.

There's a debate about if it was drillers

or geologists who wanted to drill deeper, he

said. One of the lessons of Groningen is

patience, persistence and confidence in your

plays.

Groningen

is one of the great

discoveries of the

20th century,

said Brad Corson,

VP of Europe and

Caspian with

ExxonMobil.

Climate changeShell estimates

that if we carry on

tackling the prob-

lem of reducing

carbon dioxide

emissions in a dis-

organised fashion,

with everyone fol-

lowing their own interests (a scenario it calls

scramble), we will end up with around

1000 parts per million carbon dioxide equiv-

alent in the atmosphere by 2100.Meanwhile if the world is organised

and makes a co-ordinated effort (a scenario

it calls blueprints), we will end up with 660

parts per million carbon dioxide equivalent

in the atmosphere.

Meanwhile many scientists have pre-

dicted that the maximum safe amount of car-

bon dioxide in the atmosphere is around 450

parts per million, in order to keep the maxi-

mum temperature rise to due global warm-

ing to under 2 C.

In a vote, 68 per cent of the audience

agreed or fully agreed that we are currently

following the scramble scenario rather than

the blueprints scenario, and 32 per cent dis-

agreed.

Jeremy Leggett, founder and executive

chairman of solar energy company Solarce-

ntury, says that what we really need is an ap-

proach he calls deep blueprints going

further than suggested in the Shell scenario.

Neither of these scenarios come anywhere

close to where we have to be. It has to be

more advanced than any of these scenarios,

he said.Mr Leggett said that if we are going to

avoid going over the 450ppm, we can only

extract about a third of the remaining known

reserves of coal, gas and oil (if we dont have

carbon capture) suggesting that looking for

new types of gas is maybe not such a good

idea.

Jeremy Bentham of Shell, who wrote

the scenarios, agreed that if were going toget closer to the advanced levels of environ-

mental impact, you need to go further than

the blueprints outlined. However he stressed

that the scenarios have been designed around

expected human behaviour. So in order to go

beyond them, you need unprecedented be-

haviour to meet where we should be.

We were either deluded or self-delud-

ing in some of these things we are talking

about.

Rien Herber, vice president exploration

for Shell in Europe, chairing the session, said

he felt very optimistic, using the example of

the recent increased increase in electric cars.

The technology used to discover Groningenwas quite basic compared to what we havetoday" - David Lawrence, VP exploration, Shell

Delegates at the conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary ofGroningen gas field

11


14/282

Exploration


A year ago electric cars in the Netherlands

was cloud cuckoo land. Now its in peoples

minds.

Public opinion is crucial, Mr NAM

said, because this is what politicians will fol-

low.

Mr Leggett acknowledged that progress

to date more fits the scramble scenario, al-

though there are exceptions for example,

the European Union commitment to a 20%

cut in emissions of greenhouse gases by

2020, compared with 1990 levels; a 20% in-

crease in the share of renewables in the en-

ergy mix; and a 20% cut in energy consump-

tion. Governments are taking this seriously

and thats encouraging, he said.

Philippe Lacour-Gayet, senior advisor

to the chairman of Schlumberger, said he

thought that it was unfortunate that climate

sceptics were often looked upon in a

derogatory fashion. Science needs scepti-cism to progress, he said.

In particular the phrase global warm-

ing is wrong and misleading because the

warming does not occur evenly around the

globe, but much more at the poles than at the

equator.

However Mr Lacour-Gayet said that if

people are not convinced about global warm-

ing science, they can also see the increasing

acidification of the ocean, and its effect on

coral, as evidence that man made carbon

dioxide emissions need to be reduced.Even if you have doubts about global

warming the acidity in the ocean is some-

thing people can relate to. Eg if youre a div-

er and you see the state of coral around the

world, he said.

If it is possible to do carbon capture at

industrial scale (capturing about 30 times as

much carbon dioxide as the 1m tonnes per

year pilot projects under development), then

it should be done, he believes.

Energy securityBrad Corson, VP of Europe and Caspian

with ExxonMobil, focussed his talk around

providing energy security providing ener-

gy which is available, affordable and reli-

able, and provided in a manner which takes

political and environmental considerations

into account. Energy security will forever

be a challenge, he said.

Both industry, government and con-

sumers have a big role to play in ensuring

energy security, he said.

Governments can help by opening ac-

cess and providing incentives to develop providing stable open markets where indus-

try can invest, he said.

Industry should press for energy effi-

ciency ensuring items are affordable, he

said. Consumers have a role too they must

ment funding if so the solar industry looks

a lot more attractive.

The next generation of reactor in Fin-land are 100 per cent over budget and 100

per cent behind schedule. This industry has

been out of practise for a long time, he said.

This industry has had half a century to get

it right and its failed to do it. And no-one is

going to invest in nuclear without any subsi-

dies.

The issue is how much collateral dam-

age this does to renewables. Nuclear indus-

try is saying to politicians renewables or

nuclear. Theyve kind of declared war on

us. David J. Scott, director of Economic

Development Programs in the Earth Sci-

ences Sector of Natural Resources Canada,

said that the fact that no-one wants nuclear

waste stored near their backyard is a formi-

dable obstacle. We need to move to a more

robust solution.

RecruitmentOne of the biggest potential constraints on

the oil industrys ability to meet the demand

for energy is staff recruitment.

In an audience vote, the audience was

asked whether the industry will be short of

young professionals in 5-10 years. 70 per

cent agreed or fully agreed, whilst 30 per

cent disagreed.

Steve Holditch from Texas A+M Uni-

versity said that the question was maybe

framed wrong. It is always possible for uni-

versities to find students, train them and

graduate large numbers of students. The

challenge is more to provide a stable job

market for them despite industry cycles

and particularly training someone who hasbeen in the business for 1-5 years to do the a

job which is normally done by someone with

15 years experience.

I think oil and gas industry is a grow-

ing industry we will produce more oil and

support industry and government in their ef-

fort and encourage efficient use of energy.

ExxonMobil strongly believes that

world energy demand will continue to grow

with China and India accounting for over

40 per cent of the increase in demand.

A lot of this increase in demand will be

satisfied with natural gas, Mr Corson be-

lieves. We expect natural gas to be the

fastest growing fuel source increasing by 50

per cent by 2030. Much of this growth in de-

mand will come from the power generation

sector, which is expected to increase gas de-

mand by 1.8 per cent per year.

Meanwhile Europes natural gas supply

will increasingly come from outside Europe.

By 2030, 70 per cent of Europe's gas sup-

ply will come from imports, particularly

LNG, he said.

On the subject of peak oil and alterna-

tive energy, Mr Corson agrees that oil andgas are limited reserves and other energy

will play a growing role.

But for the foreseeable future, oil and

gas will play a big role. There are substan-

tial resources left to be recovered, he said.

The big challenges for the future are

working out how to develop different types

of gas fields including extended reach

drilling and multizone simulation, Mr Cor-

son said.

Then it is important to develop ways of

moving the gas from field to market oneof the most important being by liquefying it

(LNG). New LNG liquefaction trains are 60

per cent larger than previous generations,

he said. New LNG vessels are 80 per cent

larger than 2 years ago, using 40 per cent less

energy to power the vessels per cargo ton

mile.

Nuclear powerIn an audience vote of whether nuclear pow-

er is an essential component in meeting en-

ergy demand, 61 per cent agreed or fully

agreed and 39 per cent disagreed or fully dis-

agreed.

Jeremy Bentham stressed that if no new

nuclear power stations are built, there will

be a big decline in energy supply due to ex-

isting nuclear power stations going out of ac-

tion.

However there are big challenges in re-

building the nuclear power industry includ-

ing construction, mining, waste management

and redeveloping and education.

It takes 10-15 years to develop new

plants, and there arent many that are readyto start, said one delegate.

Solar Centurys Jeremy Leggett said

that the nuclear industry is starting to posi-

tion itself as in opposition to the renewables

industry, if they are both fighting for govern-

"As soon as it hits someone in the bankaccount, [energy consumption] behaviourswill change" - David J. Scott, director ofEconomic Development Programs in theEarth Sciences Sector of Natural ResourcesCanada


15/28


16/28

gas going forward, he said. Its a good line

for young professionals to join our industry,

But we need industry to hire some of

our students to make sure they show up

again next year.

The oil and gas industry does need to

work out ways to train people faster, said Mr

Holditch. We cant do training like weve

always done it and hope to get there. We

have to come up with a new training system

that doesnt exist now. For example systems

that can spot the gaps in [someones] com-

petency. There are companies working on

that right now.

There might be less students applying

to work in the oil and gas industry from Cal-

ifornia, but there are still plenty of people

from other regions for example, Texas and

Egypt, Mr Holditch said.

Brad Corson from ExxonMobil ac-

knowledged that Texas A+M is a verystrong pipeline of strong talent coming into

ExxonMobil.

Its not about having enough new em-

ployees its ensuring we can capture the

knowledge of the people leaving the indus-

try, he said. Thats a great wealth of

knowledge and we need to capture that.

We also have a responsibility with chil-

dren in grade school and high school to show

them the opportunity that the technical pro-

fessions provide so they see the excitement

and want to pursue these career paths.Mr Lacour-Gayet from Schlumberger

said that the oil industry should never be in

the situation it is currently in, with the aver-

age age of its employees much higher than

the average age of working professionals,

because it means that the company gets out

of touch with society.

If your employees are older than your

society there are great difficulties in under-

standing new things coming, he said.

Young people play an important role in

bringing new things in.

Companies should continue recruiting

even though there is a downturn, he stressed.

I think, in a downturn, you have to make

room for young people.

New energy is often proving much

more attractive to employees than the old oil

and gas industry. When working as CEO of

Shell Hydrogen, Mr Bentham said he would

sometimes get several hundred people a

week applying for jobs. There was some-

thing about the area that attracted people to

work within it, he said.

Solar Centurys Jeremy Leggett saidthat the average age of many people work-

ing in cleantech companies such as his is in

their 20s, compared to the average age of

people in the oil and gas industry of around

49. We have defections from BP and Shell

cians are very confused with the possible ex-

ception of Denmark. They dont know where

to go and they need very good advice, he

said.

Another delegate said that politiciansmight solve the energy problems if they had

100 years to do it. If you have less time, in-

dustry has to do it, he said.

Mr Scott said that we might need gov-

ernment to make low carbon fuels viable.

Until there is a price on carbon that reflects

the lifecycle cost, there must be a stimulus,

he said.

Public responsibilityMany speakers emphasised the importance

of the general public taking responsibilityand getting involved in energy issues too

often, the only time industry comes into con-

tact with the public is where there are com-

plaints or someone doesnt want something

built next to them. The politicians ultimately

follow the publics will.

Schlumbergers Philippe Lacour-Gayet

emphasised the importance of the public as

the ultimate decision maker. Its very clear

that if the public doesnt buy the solution, it

wont work, as we see with nuclear power,

he said.


for Shell in Europe, chairing the session,

pointed out that the public will generally

look for the cheapest, rather than the most

environmentally friendly products.

However oil and gas isnt necessarily

cheap. I look at last summer when oil cost

$147 consumers took different choices

about their automobiles. As soon as it hits

someone in the bank account, behaviours

will change, said Mr Scott.

There is plenty of frustration in the in-

dustry about how much the public seems toend up obstructing development. I heard an

expression caveman which stands for citi-

zens against virtually everything, Mr

Holditch said.

in my company, he said.

Young people can see the trend with

companies struggling to replace their re-

serves or they replace them by merging

companies, then they cut jobs. It can be bru-

tal in the oil industry. Its much more attrac-

tive for many of these folks on the other side

of the fence.


for Shell in Europe, said that the company is

currently recruiting people directly from In-

dia and the Far East.

One young professional in the audi-

ence, working at ExxonMobil/Shell joint

venture NAM, said he often finds himself in

difficult situations, due to the fact that the

company has a huge gap in your structure

with a lot of very inexperienced people and

a lot of very experienced people. How are

we going to fill that middle bit? he asked.

The gap we have in the middle sectorcould be due to cycles in recruitment.

I hope that doesnt happen again, he

said.

Where will new technology comefrom?The audience was in strong agreement that

the energy solution of the future will be

found by technological ingenuity led by in-

dustry and less by politicians, with 73 per

cent agreeing / strongly agreeing and 27 per

cent disagreeing.As industry we are the legs of society

and get things done, said Shells Mr Ben-

tham. But we need the brains of society

government to provide direction.

Solar Centurys Jeremy Leggett said

that whilst historically it is always industry

rather than government that leads, in future

it is not obvious if the right new technolo-

gies will be developed without government

support, because of peoples lack of incen-

tive to change.

There have been studies showing that

no company has ever launched a product

which threatened its core product, he said

and so realistically but sadly, it is probably

unwise to expect BP and Shell to damage

their core fossil fuels business with invest-

ment in renewable energy.

So its very sad but understandable

that BP and Shell are now (after dabbling

with these new technologies) miles behind,

he said. Thats not to say that it cant be

done. Clean tech is highly disruptive tech-

nologies that can invade fossil fuel markets

very quickly.One delegate from the Technical Uni-

versity of Delft pointed out that whilst politi-

cians will never lead on technological break-

throughs, they have an important role; and

industry has a role in advising them. Politi-

"The big challenges for the future areworking out how to develop different types ofgas fields including extended reach drillingand multizone simulation" - Brad Corson, VPof Europe and Caspian with ExxonMobil


Exploration

4


17/2815

Exploration


The release has been in the making for about

four years and has been designed to respond

to the industrys requirement to explore, de-

velop, and produce in areas of increasing op-

erational and technical complexity.

It includes upgrades to 15 of Para-

digms anchor products and more than 100

add-ons and plug-ins. There are also en-

hancements to its infrastructure and interop-

erability framework (Epos), enabling geo-

scientists to carry out multi-disciplinary and

concurrent workflows.

This will be the largest synchronizedrelease of geosciences applications in Para-

digms history, says Duane Dopkin, Para-

digm senior vice president of technology.

The Rock and Fluid Canvas 2009 re-

lease provides geoscientists and engineers

the ability to carry out advanced workflows

without technology compromises.

The new software moves towards a full

client-server architecture with new and com-

prehensive data services for interpretation

and project /survey data.

These services facilitate and stabilisethe many data transactions that can take

place when working with data at the project

level and contribute substantially to the data

management capabilities of the system.

The client-server architecture was also

implemented so that the system can easily

scale from laptop to high performance com-

puting clusters, from small local operations

to global enterprise deployments, and from

prospect-scale to regional-scale investiga-

tions.

The services are complemented with

many new data model extensions that facili-

tate multi-survey operations, data queries,

and management of project and survey data.

In Rock & Fluid Canvas 2009 all inter-

pretation data, vertical function data, and

project/survey data are stored in SQLite

repositories. These public domain, self-con-

tained, hierarchical, and relational database

engines are highly suited for exploration and

production data transactions.

Optimized for each data type, the

SQLite repositories are ideal for efficient

handling and management of large numbers

of files.

The release also introduces new data

managers and applications (e.g. Web Asset

Manager) for performing global queries on

data distributed across multiple repositories

and for assembling data from multiple sur-

veys at the project level.

These infrastructure enhancements, inturn, enable geoscientists and engineers to

optimize their work process across the entire

exploration and production value chain.

Paradigm calls this cross-discipline en-

ablement Higher Order Workflow (HOW),

describing it as a collective, knowledge-

building process that reduces data loss or

simplification.

Todays geoscientists face exponential-

ly larger datasets, increasingly complex geo-

logical structures, and complicated, integrat-

ed operations. Yet, they are being asked tohandle all of this complexity in less time

with fewer people, the company says.

What was considered a special proj-

ect five years ago is now considered a rou-

tine project, says Mr Dopkin. Imaging

seismic data in the presence of anisotropy,

geosteering through naturally fractured

reservoir formations, modelling large and

complex salt structures, performing multi-

azimuth AVA inversion and analysis, corre-

lating hundreds or thousands of wells, and

integrating and modelling electrofacies and

seismic facies are handled quite efficiently

in the Rock and Fluid Canvas 2009 release.

Other themes of the Rock and Fluid

Canvas 2009 release include extending the

reach of seismic interpreters with common

interfaces, common data managers, and

common data models.

This theme has specific interest for

SeisEarth, VoxelGeo, and Stratimagic users

conducting regional to prospect scale inter-

pretation projects.

The Rock and Fluid Canvas 2009 re-

lease also supports data connectivity be-tween Paradigm interpretation and modeling

solutions. This connectivity enhances work-

flows that move data between Epos data and

Paradigms GOCAD and SKUA suites and

was specifically targeted at making inter-

preters better modellers.

The release has practical uses for de-

ployment and investigation throughout the

life cycle of oil and gas fields, including

opening of new plays to reversing produc-

tion decline in mature fields.

Some of the enhancements in seismic

processing and imaging, AVO, and seismic

inversion also should have a huge impact for

unconventional plays including heavy oil

and naturally-fractured gas reservoirs said

Mr. Dopkin.

The release has been vetted by Para-

digm early access partners and is scheduled

for general release in July 2009.

Paradigm upgrades its softwareOil and gas software company Paradigm has announced the launch of Rock & Fluid Canvas 2009, amajor upgrade of its suite of software that integrates applications for geophysics, geology, petrophysicsand drilling engineering.

What was considered a high end or specialproject 5 years ago is now being considered aroutine project - Duane Dopkin, Paradigmssenior vice president of technology

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18/28

Welltec robots in the wellOilfield service company Welltec is making good progress with its robotic tools which can go into a welland perform perforations, clean sand or scale, set barriers and open valves, said Jrgen Hallundbk,founder and CEO of Welltec.

Welltec designs and manufactures robotic

tools which can go into wells on a wireline

(electric cable) and perform jobs like remove

scale and sand, make perforations, set barri-

ers to isolate specific areas of the well and

do small clean up jobs, said Jrgen Hallund-

bk, founder and CEO (speaking at the re-

cent OilVoice / Finding Petroleum Forum in

London).

Applying Welltecs precision robotics

usually proves more cost-effective than oth-

er methods, such as using a well intervention

rig (snubbing) or coiled tubing, or pumpinghigh pressure chemicals down the well.

With Welltecs tools you can also get

the job done quickly, if you need to. We can

do really rapid response, Jrgen Hallund-

bk said. If that sort of urgency is within

hours its all completely feasible. In some

contracts we have equipment standing by -

we can be in the ground within a few hours -

solve the problem and get out again, he

said.

StatoilHydro has virtually stopped do-

ing interventions by snubbing, doing theminstead using electric wireline with equip-

ment like this, he said.

Welltec has about 500 tools in use and

does about 200 operations a month around

the world.

Welltec started off in 1994 with the

Well Tractor, a tool which can go into the

well pushing its wheels against the side of

the well to convey logging and other tools.

Wireline conveyance presents an alternative

to lowering tools in hole by relying on grav-

ity and is more effective when the well is

not vertical.

Since then the company has expanded

to offer a range of different precision equip-

ment, including the Well Stroker launched in

2003 with support from BP.

CostsStatoilHydro did a study to compare the

costs of increasing production from drilling

new wells or getting more out of existing

wells using equipment such as Welltecs.

They found that the ratio of cost of in-

creasing production from a new well com-pared to from an existing well was some-

thing like 1:6.

The oil is 'practically free' compared

to the cost of drilling new wells, Jrgen

Hallundbk said.

In the past the approach was that you

had 40 well slots on a platform - and once

production started deteriorating you would

sidetrack to a new well and start producing

from there, he said.

But they realised from using Welltecs

technologies it paid off 6 times better by us-

ing these technologies - and then they still

have the drilling rig available on the plat-

form, he said.

Very often, problems are actually

caused by simple well issues, he said.

HSE benefitsThere are big environmental benefits to us-

ing Welltecs equipment rather than equip-

ment that requires a drilling rig in order to

function. For example, there is much less

equipment needed to be delivered to the

wellsite (and equipment can sometimes be

delivered by helicopter), which leaves a

much smaller carbon footprint than alterna-

tive methods.

As mentioned, the Welltec equipment

makes it easier to get more production outof your mature wells, so there is less need to

drill new ones, something that has a huge im-

pact on the environment.

You can also avoid pumping high pres-

sure chemicals into the well for further envi-

ronmental benefits.

There are also safety benefits the

equipment can normally be operated with

less people than if you need a workover rig.

As the equipment is remote controlled from

surface, as little as two people can perform

an operation miles away from the well. In

Norway, the equipment has even been run-

ning in offshore wells and operated from

shore.

We can even operate tractors from the

shore. We can remotely operate the wireline,

drum and tractors downhole. Some of the

jobs we are doing in Norway are remote con-

trol - via fibre optics, he said.

The company decided it would make

all of its tools 90 per cent recyclable from

the beginning. All the metals are scrapped

and recycled again, he said. And we have

an oiling system - a small can of oil - itsbrought back and recycled, which means that

we leave no mark.

Improved planningHaving the tools available also makes it pos-

sible to plan the well in a different way. In-

stead of putting a great deal of equipment

down the well when it is built to be ready for

future challenges, you can build the well

simply and add more equipment as required

using Welltecs tools.

A lot of wells have been designed to

be intervention free for their whole lifespan,

say 30 years, but we often see a few years

down the road something went slightly

wrong or didnt behave and it needs some

kind of intervention, he said.

Welltecs tools allow a different ap-

proach. You can start your reservoir with a

low capital expenditure and then change

your well as you realise your original as-

sumptions were not exactly what you

thought.

With our system - you can see as you'redoing the operation that it actually works -

Jrgen Hallundbk, founder and CEO of

Welltec


Production

Welltecs "Well Miller" tool will mill outobstructions in the well


19/28

Production

September 2009 - digital energy journal 17

valves. The tools can have a power of up to

1.5 kW, as much as a home hairdryer but

this is enough to mill through scale.

The tools are often used for sand re-

moval. A lot of oil wells create sand dunes

at the heel and then production sort of stops,

he said. Today, operators are willing to let

us engage in jobs where we do 50 runs of

sand removal. The reason is that despite the

many runs, the sand can be removed quick-

ly, safely and with a much lighter impact on

the reservoir.Recently, Welltec introduced a new sys-

tem that is able to both mill out obstructions

and also retrieve the cuttings generated dur-

ing the milling process to surface.

Previously, this could not be done in the

same run so with this new system cost can

be reduced by more than 2/3 compared to

coiled tubing or rig work-over operations.

When downhole obstructions are re-

moved from the well, full flow can be estab-

lished to increase production.

Forget smart wellsInstead of installing expensive smart wells

where a part of the well can be closed off

once it starts producing water and open an-

other part of the well, why not use Welltecs

equipment to block and perforate new areas

of the well as needed?

With smart wells, a large amount of

expensive equipment (also referred to as

jewellery) is put in the well at the begin-

ning, which might never be needed or if it

is needed, the valve might have seized shut

by the time it is needed.Most intelligent well systems have

manual override systems - we can go inside

a smart completion and manipulate the

valves inside if they fail, he said. But is it

necessary to build them that fancy [in the

The tools also make it possible to plan

well interventions in a different way. For ex-

ample, if a well intervention is needed but

you dont know how difficult it will be, you

can start using Welltecs tools and then bring

in heavier equipment once you are sure that

it is required. This results in both lower cost

and environmental benefits if the lightweight

tools can perform the same job as huge and

heavy equipment.

If a snubbing operation is not neces-

sary - why not start with something light and

move to the heavier operation when you

need it? he asks.

We can solve a lot of problems which

were solved 10 years ago by snubbing, he

said. Things which would have been impos-

sible in the past are being done on wireline

today.

Oil companies are doing more and

more well interventions, because it is be-coming much cheaper to look for ways to in-

crease production from the wells you have,

rather than look for new areas to drill. Some

mature fields have interventions done every

18 months. Its a massive amount of oil you

can produce from these well interventions,

he said.

Pressure pumpingWelltec often finds itself competing against

the $20bn oilfield pressure pumping indus-

try where chemicals are pumped into thewell at high pressure to do jobs like remove

scale.

These tasks could often be better done

using robotic tools, which can carefully mill

the shale away with keyhole precision, and

then polish the inside of the well so that

shale wont stick to it again.

There are examples of how the reser-

voir has been damaged from pressure pump-

ing. Often on depleted reservoirs, its not a

good idea to pump fluids down the hole -

you might mess up the reservoir and it won't

produce afterwards, Jrgen Hallundbk

said. You then spend an awful lot of time

stimulating the reservoir to try to get it back

again.

When working with liquids, a lot of

money is spent just pumping liquid out of

the well at the end. It's a major fluid col-

umn we have to remove, he said. We have

to bail it out or continuously well lift. It

might take 2-3 weeks to get the column bal-

anced again.

With our system - you can see as

you're doing the operation that it actuallyworks.

Establishing full flowThe Welltec systems can also clean scale

from equipment, such as downhole safety

first place]?

To put all that in the ground - you need

a big well head or a narrow production tube.

Instead, Jrgen Hallundbk suggests

that you start your well design very simply,

then as time passes by, you can repair your

field, put in flow control valves in existing

well bores, and they can be maintained and

de-scaled.

What is the right balance between how

many sensors, valves, how many permanent

things? he asks. Can some reservoirs bet-ter be drained with more simple completion

technology, allowing smaller wellheads and

smaller equipment in the ground? Its a dif-

ferent approach to slimhole drilling.

Well Tractors can be used to inflate bar-

riers downhole, which can control liquid

flow within the well.

So, for example, you can gradually

move the part of the reservoir you are pro-

ducing, by blocking the flow from one per-

foration and creating a new perforation. For

example, if the water level is steadily rising

in the well and you want to make sure you

are producing oil, not water.

Its a very simple, cost effective way

of producing from several zones - you can

produce from each zone [then move to the

next], he said.

How Statoil did well interventions 1992 to 2008 see the trends in its use for snubbing / rigassisted snubbing (RAS), coiled tubing, well tractor and Riserless Light Well Intervention

For more information about Welltec and

precision robotics, please visit

www.welltec.com

Welltec, Well Tractor, Well Stroker, Well Key,

Well Cleaner, Well Miller and Welltec ReleaseDevice are trademarks of Welltec A/S and

may be registered in Denmark and/or in oth-

er countries. All products are protected by

patents or patent pending.


20/28

Linking SCADA development withoperational needsJim Fererro, vice president of automation consultancy GlobaLogix, gives his advice on the best way to get

the information you need from your field by starting with the end in mind when creating SCADAautomation systems in oilfield equipment, and bringing operators into the design phase.

Developing a good SCADA system requires a

two-pronged approach: first defining what in-

formation is important, and then capturing the

data that feeds it.

Information management is the key to

developing the best possible SCADA system.

It is all about the data: the quality, quantity and

the timeliness of data, and how it will be used.

When companies skip the first compo-

nent, and focus just on capturing all the datathey can, they fail. This equates to answering

a

#20 Digital Energy Journal - September 2009

Documents

Transcript of #20 Digital Energy Journal - September 2009