Revista E&P - Noviembre 2011

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M B E R 2 0 1 1

illing Automationand Control

Flow Assuranceand Sand/Water

Management

Passive andMicroseismic

Technology

DeepwaterIntervention

ImprovingOperatingEfficiency

Regional Report:Middle East

EuropePowered by Norwegian gas

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illing Automationand Control

Flow Assuranceand Sand/Water

Management

Passive andMicroseismic

Technology

DeepwaterIntervention

ImprovingOperatingEfficiency

Regional Report:Middle East

E P M A G . C O M

M B E R 2 0 1 1

DOF delivers intelligence And integrAtion

TRANSFORMATiONt o a d i g i t a l a g e

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78REGIONAL REPORT:MIDDLE EAST

IMPROVING OPERATING EFFICIENCY

Air drilling improves efficiency inchallenging well bores

Expert evaluations are essential in shale oil plays

North Sea production platform gets vibrationmonitoring control upgrade

PASSIVE & MICROSEISMIC TECHNOLOGY

Microseismic data: Understandingthe uncertainty

Imaging breakthrough promises more reliableSRV calculations

DRILLING AUTOMATION & CONTROL

New software removes guesswork fromdirectional applications

Get readyThis is not a drill

FLOW ASSURANCE &SAND/WATER MANAGEMENT

Hybrid elastomers deliver the best of both worlds

Pipe-in-pipe riser system, bends overcomeHP/HT challenges

DEEPWATER INTERVENTION

Bar set higher for deepwater, complexwell interventions

IndustryPULSE:Preaching to the anti-choirThe IPAA has been joined by locallandowners in shale plays to separate factfrom fiction.

EXPLORATION & PRODUCTIONW O R L D W I D E C O V E R A G E

NOVEMBER 2011VOLUME 84 ISSUE 11

A HART ENERGY PUBLICATION www.EPmag .com

COVER STORY

30

Transformationto a digital age

As oil and gas resources become more difficultto find and produce, the industry has turned itsfocus to technologies that allow better real-timedecision-making, more automation, andimproved collaboration.

6

WorldVIEW: Energy plays

major role in World historyHart Energy speaks with Daniel Yergin,chairman and co-founder of IHSCambridge Energy ResearchAssociates (CERA).

10

Unconventional: WoodfordOklahomas back yardturns up world-class resource

Source of the deepest active shale play in the US deliversliquids-rich pay.

40

44

46

50

5 4

58

60

56

62

64

69


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AS I SEE ITThe frac water debate: Putting a resource in perspective 5

MANAGEMENT REPORTCultural change delivers drilling performance improvement 14

DIGITAL OIL FIELDReal-time data can be turned into wellsite answers 19

EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGYThe ears of the ocean 25

WELL CONSTRUCTIONCan wells talk? What do they say? 27

PRODUCTION OPTIMIZATION

From surface to seafloor 29

TECH WATCHThey came from outer space 72

TECH TRENDS 76

INTERNATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS 82

ON THE MOVE/INDEX TO ADVERTISERS 85-86

LAST WORDEnvironmental concerns stymie NY shale development 88

E&P (ISSN 1527-4063) (PM40036185) is published monthly by Hart Energy Publishing, LP, 1616 S. Voss Road, Suite 1000, HoustonPeriodicals postage paid at Houston, TX, and additional mailing offices. Subscription rates: 1 year (12 issues), US $149; 2 years (24 issues),copies are US $18 (prepayment required). Advertising rates furnished upon request.POSTMASTER: Send address changes to E&P, PO Box 5020, Brentwood, TN37024. Address all non-subscriber correspondence to E&P, 1616 S. Voss Road, Suite 1000, Houston, Texas 77057; Telephone: 713-260-644inquiries should be addressed to E&P, 1616 S Voss Road, Suite 1000, Houston, TX 77057; Telephone: 713-260-6442 Fax: 713-840-1449; cu

gy.com. Copyright Hart Energy Publishing, LP, 2011. Hart Energy Publishing, LP reserves all rights to editorial matter in this magazine. Nduced or transmitted in whole or in parts by any means without written permission of the publisher, excepting that photocopy is granted to users registered with Copyright Clearance Center/0164-8322/91 $3/$2. Indexed by Applied Science, Technology IndexInc. Federal copyright law prohibits unauthorized reproduction by any means and imposes fines of up to $25,000 for violations.

DEPARTMENTS AND COMMENTARY

ABOUT THE COVER The industry has moved to embrace the conceptsof intelligent energy and integrated operations. Today, these concepts arebeing applied much more broadly than ever before under the umbrella ofthe digital oil field. (Photo courtesy of Saudi Aramco; cover design byLaura J. Williams)

COMING NEXT MONTH Find out what the future has in store for oil and gas operationsin 2012 with E&Ps December cover story, Experts Predict, featuring a look ahead by analystsat Infield Systems and members of the E&PAdvisory Board. While these industry experts lookforward, the editorial team takes a look back at 2011 milestones in exploration, drilling, and

production. Be sure to read the Offshore feature for December, which presents developmentsin oil and gas E&P in the dynamic India market, as well as the shale focus for the month,Arkansas Fayetteville. As always, while youre waiting for the next copy of E&P, remember to

visit www.epmag.com for news, industry updates, and unique industry analysis.

The Low PRESSURE AUTOCHOKE

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W hen interest in the Eagle Ford shale took off, South Texas residents beganquestioning whether the region would have enough water for hydraulic frac-turing, and groundwater districts in the area were called upon to provide guidance.The problem was that these regional boards did not know enough about fracing tobe confident in providing answers.

Dr. Darrell Brownlow, principle, Intercoastal Inland Services LLC, has been aboard member on groundwater districts in the area and a member of the SouthCentral Texas Regional Planning Group. He also is a rancher and landowner withinthe Eagle Ford play, which places him in a unique position to examine the waterissue.

When Eagle Ford became front and center and people began questioning whether well have enough water, the first question was, How much water will weneed? he said. I looked at the water supply because I heard a lot of ridiculousclaims, rumors, and half truths.

The State of Texas does a good job in water planning and water supply usage,Brownlow said, but nobody had a firm grasp of what this new demand on waterresources would mean.

An important fact to place on the table is that the area has significant groundwater resources, he said. Millions of acre/feet of water are used for such things asmunicipal usage, steam electricity, industry, and agriculture. The volume of waterthat likely would be employed for fracing in the Eagle Ford would not make up alarge piece of the pie.

Brownlow determined that approximately 15 acre/feet of water are used for a typ-ical frac job. He used this figure to draw some comparisons. The groundwater dis-tricts permit two acre/feet per acre of land for agriculture purposes, he explained.So the 15 acre/feet of water used for fracing is equal to water used for 7.5 acres of agricultural production.

In simple comparative economic terms, the benefit from 80 to 100 oil wells is US$2.5 billion as opposed to $200,000 to $300,000 for corn. Using the water for frac-ing is 13,000 times as beneficial economically, he said.

Though revenue is not the sole determinant of value, it carries weight in the finaldebate. Fortunately, the governing bodies in the area are willing to listen to what Brownlow has to say.

Were a water savvy area. We have a thriving and viable water planning community that is starting to work on thisissue. Its not too late to ensure the mechanisms are inplace to plan and do things right. The horse is not out of the barn.

As ISE E IT

1616 S. VOSS ROAD, STE 1000HOUSTON, TEXAS 77057

P: +1 713.260.6400 F: +1 713.840.0923www.EPmag.com

The frac water debate:Putting a resourcein perspective

5

Read more commentary atEPmag.com

JUDY MURRAY

Editor [email protected]

Editor JUDY [email protected]

Senior Editor RHONDA [email protected]

Senior Editor TAYVIS [email protected]

International Editor MARK THOMAS

[email protected]

Associate Editor NANCY [email protected]

Corporate Art Director ALEXA SANDERS

Senior Graphic Designer LAURA J. WILLIAMS

Production Director& Reprint Sales JO LYNNE POOL

Senior Editor/Manager,

Special Projects JO ANN DAVYExecutive Editor Online RICHARD MASON

Director of Business Development ERIC ROTH

Group Publisher RUSSELL LAAS

Editorial Advisory Board

CHRIS BARTONSr. VP Business Development, Oil & Gas., KBR

KEVIN BRADYVP, Sales & Marketing,Verdande Technology Inc.

MIKE FORRESTExploration Consultant, formerly with Shell

JOHN M. GILMORE JR.

Director of Global Industry Solutions UpstreamOil & Gas, Invensys Operations Management

CHRIS JOHNSTONVP & Managing Director, North America, Ensco

ULISSES T. MELLOManager, Petroleum & Energy Analytics, IBM

DONALD PAULExecutive Director, University of Southern

California Energy Institute

EVE SPRUNTBusiness Development Manager,Chevron Energy Technology Co.

MANUEL TERRANOVASr. VP Regional Operations & Global Sales,

Drilling & Production, GE Oil & Gas

RONNIE WITHERSPOON

Sr. VP of Marketing & Business Development,Nabors Drilling USA LP

DENNIS A. YANCHAKSr. Geosciences Advisor, Apache Corp.

Vice President, Digital MediaRONS DIXON

Senior Vice President, Consulting GroupE. KRISTINE KLAVERS

Executive Vice President & CFOKEVIN F. HIGGINS

Executive Vice PresidentFREDERICK L. POTTER

President & Chief Executive OfficerRICHARD A. EICHLER

E P


8/91

W hat the world does not understand about shale gasdevelopment could fill vast libraries. Ignorancealone is not a problem, but ignorance combined withalarming misinformation rapidly leads to headachesfor producers.

Typically the industry has dealt with landowners andgovernmental bodies in its attempts to find reserves.But, given the fact that some of the biggest shale playsare in urban and suburban areas, the general public isnow involved. With some of the misinformation that isbeing picked up by the general media, pressure ismounting on governments to step in and mitigate imagi-nary problems.

The industry has fought a poor public image for years without any obvious success in battling back. With somany constituents and not much central organization,

it has been left to a few independent entities to try tospread the message while the battle rages.

Recently there has been positive movement, partly because industry groups are educating themselvesabout their oppositions tactics. The IndependentPetroleum Association of America (IPAA), for instance,has launched Energy In Depth (EID), a website thatnot only provides factual information about the

industry but actively looks for misinformation andcorrects it. The media and the public are starting totake notice.

A need for speedEID was developed in response to a document calledDrilling Down that was presented to Congress Oct. 31,2008. We call it the Halloween hearing, said Jeff Eshel-man, vice president, public affairs for IPAA. The docu-ment was basically a wish list from groups like the NationalResources Defense Council to regulate the oil and gasindustry.

The then-Democratic congress was, he said, showingsome willingness to adopt it. Concerned about theimpact this could have on the countrys independents,IPAA and some of its coordinating associations decidedthat a response was needed. The response became Project BRIEF (bring real information on energy forward).

Project BRIEF also got attention, partly for the eco-nomic impact that Drilling Down would have on theindustry and the US:

204,272 oil wells shut in (first year alone); 150,202 natural gas wells shut in; 183,000 b/d of lost oil production; 670 MMcf/d of lost gas production; US $602 million in foregone royalties; $285 million in foregone state severance taxes; $505 million in foregone state income taxes; $1.2 billion in foregone federal income taxes; and $10 billion in industry compliance costs in the first year alone.

Project BRIEF quickly developed into EID, a full-scalecommunications and outreach program that acts as aclearinghouse and message center for information onenergy. Its not just external, Eshelman said. Its alsoan internal campaign to be sure the industry is on mes-

November 2011 | EPmag.com 6

industryPULSE

Preaching to the anti-choirThe IPAA has been joined by local landowners in shale plays to separate fact from fiction.

Rhonda Duey , Senior Editor

Step-by-step1. Anticipate the threat before it hits2. Identify and attract credible partners and

supporters dedicated to the cause

3. Carry out extensive research and identifythe competition

4. Arm spokespeople and stakeholders withthe necessary materials (i.e. talking points,fact sheets, presentations, contact lists, etc.)

5. Target key audiencesLawmakers/regulatorsIndustryMediaCoalition partners

6. Continually monitor the issue and rapidresponse

7. Anticipate the next line of attackEnergy InDepths strategy; courtesy of IPAA


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sage and has the correct facts. We dont want ourspokespeople caught off guard.

One of the key targets for education is the generalmedia. EID is a product to keep us in constant contact with news reports, he said. It establishes our organiza-tion as a go-to source. We need to be proactive.

With media going digital, it is much harder to keeptabs on what is being written, blogged, and tweeted.Theres less accuracy, he said. We need to be ready

with a rapid response, and that has been one of the pro-grams strong points.

Eshelman and his counterparts do not rely solely onthe EID website to spread the word. Prior to the FRAC

Act that was introduced in 2009, they began to call on

media contacts. We called hundreds of reporters, really pounding the phone, he said. They were asking us,Why are you calling about something weve never heardof? We told them there was going to be a firestorm of leg-islation hitting Washington. It worked.

More recently the EID crowd has made Josh Fox, pro-ducer of the documentary Gasland, a pet project.When he debuted Gasland, we started really chasingthe Fox, he said. We went wherever he would go, and it really frustrated him. This included calls to the produc-ers of Dylan Ratigans show on MSNBC and The Daily Show, where Fox was scheduled to be interviewed.

Apparently he was furious after the Dylan Ratigan show,Eshelman said. I think were getting on his nerves.

The national program has proven so successful that IPAA has been asked to take it local. Already there is EIDMarcellus.org , and a site for the Utica shale in Ohio was announced in late September.

The program also is paying off with the people in theregions who are most directly affected by shale develop-ment. There are people in Pennsylvania who like what theyre seeing, he said. But the opposition is so well-organized and vocal. Theyre effective in putting a pro-gram together on the ground.

Happy landownersTo the outside observer, it sometimes seems like every res-ident of Pennsylvania and New York is attending endlessrallies defending their right to clean water. According toone New York landowner, the truth is rather different.

Bryant La Tourette owns about 120 acres of land nearOxford, NY. He attended a recent rally in Dimock, Pa.,the epicenter of the polluted water outcry, wherethree residents have filed suit against Cabot Oil and Gasclaiming that its fracing operations have sullied their

water wells.

There was a well-publicized rally to protect Dimocks water, La Tourette said. Thats an important statement.

When we got there, there were about 15 people at the rally to protest this. I asked how many of them werefrom Pennsylvania. All the hands went up. I know that six of them are from New York. See that right off thebat we start with misinformation.

He compared this to a rally against a proposed toxic waste dump in his hometown, at which 50% of the resi-dents showed up in force. If there had been 700 peopleat the Dimock rally, it would have changed my mindinstantly.

La Tourette is not exactly an EID convert he saidmost landowners in the area became converts whenthey realized they were sitting on top of one of the

worlds largest hydrocarbon reserves. But despite localefforts to organize coalitions, the landowners in favor of development found themselves up against a very well-organized opposition and reporters who would inter-

view them but not give them ink or air time.The EID has been fantastic because they were able to

put together a group of generalists who have been ableto take the false stories and debunk them, he said.

La Tourette is part of a group of about nine shockbloggers who seek out the negative sites and go afterthe falsehoods. All we do is ask them questions, andthey back themselves into a corner, he said. Were at this every day.

For more information, visit Energyindepth.org .


industryPULSE

A recent rally to protect Dimocks drinking water in Dimock,

Pa., had only a handful of participants. (Image courtesy of

Energy In Depth)


11/91

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Energy plays major role in World historyHart Energy speaks with Daniel Yergin, chairman and co-founder of IHS Cambridge EnergyResearch Associates (CERA).

F rom his office in the nations capital, and from CERA headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Yergin sur- veys the world its history, geopolitics and storied moversand shakers, the economy, corporate strategy and therole energy plays in all of these.

As he says, I like the way energy is involved with every-

thing: the frontiers of exploration, frontiers in technicalinnovation, making economies work, geopolitical strategy I find that continually stimulating.

Whenever a government needs to know more about energy, Yergin is there. He is a member of the US Secre-tary of Energy Advisory Board, a board member of theUnited States Energy Association, and a member of theUS National Petroleum Council (NPC). He was vicechair of the much-praised 2007 NPC study, Hard Truths,and is vice chair of the new NPC study of North Ameri-can natural gas and oil resources. He also chaired theUS Department of Energys Task Force on Strategic

Energy Research and Development. Yergin currently chairs the Energy Security Roundtable at the BrookingsInstitution, where he is a trustee, and he is a member of the advisory board of the MIT Energy Initiative.

No stranger to the energy press, Yergin is also a frequent commentator in national newspapers and cable TV shows,and is CNBCs global energy expert. He is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power . His new book, The Quest:

Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World , waspublished in September 2011 and at press time, enteredThe New York Times bestseller list at No. 4. It picks up

where The Prize left off, to dissect the past 20 years of energy history, and it looks to what the future may bring innew fuel alternatives.

About his new book, Yergin said, The Prize was a chronol-ogy, but The Quest is about a series of energies and how they

will interact, the future of innovation and whats going tobe the car of the future. You know, Thomas Edison com-peted with Henry Ford by building an electric carbut by about 1910, the race was over. Now, its on again.

Hart Energy had an opportunity to sidetrack Mr. Yerginduring his latest book tour. The following is an excerpt from our interview:

You have always spoken of

how important scenario planning is to governments and companies. But could anyone have foreseen the

Arab Spring scenario? We (IHS CERA) had a very good call in 2008 about the financial crisis; the scenarios really worked well back then. We did not have a scenario for the Arab Spring. But we do know that the top people running the governments in the region are getting very old and there is a youth bulge of unemployed and underemployed young

people with expectations. We knew that something combustible could happen. The real question now is, What happens next?

Doesnt this adversely affect OPEC? Not yet. Obviously, Libya is a member, but not one of the major oil exporters. Part of the strategic balance that underpins the Middle East has been upended and there are a lot of questions about how the geopolitical scene will work itself out. Irans nuclear program is still a big shadow overhanging the whole region as well.

At their last meeting, OPEC members could not agree on muchof anything. Do you feel OPEC is in disarray? I wonder if that meeting was so overtaken by (political) events that it wont matterremember that that meeting had several

peculiarities including that the Iranian oil minister who attended had just been appointed and had no experience. OPEC certainly has new challenges ahead. The increase in output that is coming

from the US, Brazil, and Canada adds up to being a significant factor in the world oil market. Countries in the Middle East need more money for social investment and to aid other countries in the region. You know, Egypt is going to need a lot of help.

You mentioned all the new oil production that is coming on stream. Will that really change the geopolitics of oil?It is striking what has been happening with technology. These

Daniel Yergin, chairman

and co-founder of IHS

Cambridge Energy

Research Associates.

(Image courtesy

of CERA)

Leslie Haines , Editor, Oil and Gas Investor


worldVIEW


13/91

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worldVIEW

innovations that started with the shale plays will continue to be applied in more plays in the US and soon, all around the world.New production from tight oil above the shale reflects enormous

change coming from innovation. This was not counted on a decade ago. It was only in 2008 that the natural gas industry really woke up to what it had it is a classic case of the way innovation changes our thinking. This has taken off to a degree

few expected. We dubbed it the shale gale in 2009. I think people thought then that we were being too optimistic, but thats turned out not to be true. If anything, we were too cautious.

How does the European economic crisis play into your thinking? This is an unfolding story, but I think the risks of a sovereign debt crisis or bank crisis are high, and well recognized. The last

time we had a global economic crunch it triggered consolidation among the majors into super-majors, but I dont think that will happen this time. In fact, we are seeing just the opposite, a dis- integration. But the fate of the oil industry and oil prices is very much tied up with the global economy.

With emphasis on unconventional resources, do you see a rise of a new kind of super-major? The shale gale is very recent and as it continues, it will change

the competitiveness among various fuels, and thus, it changes strategies. We are still in the early days to see how it might change corporate strategies. You go back four years and the discussion was all about importing LNG.

In closing, Yergin used the overall theme of hisnew book to draw attention to the modern energylandscape.

The underlying question that runs through all thechapters of The Quest is this: We now have a $65 trillion world economy. Will we have the resources required tokeep that growing, what kind of investments will be made

as globalization shows up in growing demand? For thefirst time, technical solutions will be carried out on aglobal scale. The US is still the heart of the innovationmachine, but that, too, is shifting. We cant take anythingfor granted.

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The oil and gas industry is under continual pressure todeliver greater returns at the lowest possible overallcost. From the perspective of drilling, that goal is real-ized by delivering the best performance when creatingthe well bore to deliver the highest-value well.

In this competitive market, oil companies need to berecognized as being the best at developing the assetsthey have while continually outperforming their peers.The increasing use and development of performancestudies, such as the Rushmore review where informationis shared among operators, provides greater trans-parency and accessibility to performance comparisons,reinforcing the imperative to achieve the highest levelsof operational efficiency.

Another trend within the marketplace that is drivingthe pace of improving drilling performance is that thereare fewer opportunities than in previous years for merg-

ers or acquisitions to expand portfolios. Also, companies

that were previously more active in trading assets andnow have fewer opportunities are dedicating moreresources to developing the organizational capabilitiesrequired to work the assets they hold. The productivity of organizations in this environment must continually improve and at the same time be capable of maximizinga projects value while creating savings in capital expen-diture.

Tackling the problemOptimizing the drilling operation to deliver the highest performance and simultaneously develop and deliverthe well design that has the highest value has many facets. Complexity is further increased with the many different well construction requirements around the

world.One essential factor in achieving the required levels of

efficiency is a close working relationship between opera-tors and service providers and the development of a cul-ture that encourages collaboration across disciplines

with the free exchange of information.It has been estimated by some operators that up

to 90% of the hours spent planning and executingdrilling projects are accounted for by the servicecompany, with the success of many projects beingdirectly attributable to detail of the upfront plan-ning and design work. The service company selected for a job has to be able to deliver all ofthe required services to a specific location and hasto understand the drilling process from the sameperspective as the operator. This means the com-pany has to be able to recognize the relationshipsand dependencies among all of the elements of service delivery so the best recommendations canbe made to the operator. Successfully developingthis level of knowledge and the capability to workin this manner is only achievable if a collaborativeculture is created within an organization.

Changing the approachUnfortunately, traditional behaviors often run con-trary to the development of this capability. Whenservices are contracted for a single project frommultiple vendors or service companies, they are

Cultural change deliversdrilling performance improvementCollaboration across disciplines increases efficiency.

Jeremy Greenwood , Halliburton


managementREPORT

To continually improve drilling performance, it is essential that people,

processes, and technologies work together efficiently. (Images courtesy

of Halliburton)


17/91

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regarded as suppliers of equipment, fluids, and software, not as partners. In this situation, the competitivedrivers of the business preclude direct and unrestrictedinformation sharing and the ability to collaboratefreely. This approach also places the operator in therole of integrator among competing parties.

To continually improve drilling performance, itis essential that people, processes, and technologies

work efficiently together. Performance gains cannot

be achieved or maintained without a detailed under-standing of the drilling challenges, the capability toidentify all of the limitations to performance, andthe ability to design a drilling system that overcomesthese limitations. Obtaining services from the sameservice supplier removes the restrictions to free com-munication among technical experts so the full detailof the dependencies and interactions throughout thedrilling system can be established.

Given the realities of market segmentation and dif-ferent market requirements, a service provider alsomust have flexibility in the scope and type of its service

offerings if the required level of alignment is to beachieved. This alignment can present a challenge tosome service companies given the complexity of themarket segmentation and the requirements of different geomarkets. Only a fully integrated service company isable to transfer knowledge and capabilities globally andcan best adapt and respond to the divergent needs of the entire marketplace, a marketplace that includesearly to late technology adopters; national oil compa-nies; major integrated oil companies; and large,medium, and small independents.

Achieving performance gains requires not onlysetting in place processes and behaviors that encouragecollaboration, but also establishing trust, both techni-cally and commercially, between the operator and ser v-ice supplier in regard to the recommendations andservices provided. A service provider that understandsthe importance of accuracy in modeling and analysisand continually develops the capabilities of its engineer-ing staff, including both focused technical skill setsand the ability to understand and interact with otherengineering disciplines, has an important advantage.These measures improve the service providers abilityto examine the drilling system and make performance

improvements with a balanced technical and procedural

approach, even when there are no perceived problems.Many operators now recognize that the lack of incen-

tives or misalignment of performance with traditionalcommercial terms comes at a price. Commercial trust isachieved through setting mutually beneficial perform-ance measures that create a sense of ownership regard-ing the overall success of the project. Historically,commercial terms typically were structured around day rates, rentals, or bulk purchase of chemicals and offeredlittle or no incentive to improve performance. However,the market is steadily changing as performance incen-tives have become more clearly understood and effectivekey performance indicators have become established.

Halliburton understands all of these needs andhas worked to create a culture that delivers drillingperformance improvement by continually developingorganizational effectiveness. Being able to recognize andunderstand how to integrate the many discrete workflowsis central to developing this level of organizational effec-tiveness, and it is an ongoing activity. The organizationthat effectively aligns internally and externally with eachcustomers operating culture helps ensure that objectivesare shared, trust is developed, and continual improve-ments in drilling performance are fully realized.


managementREPORT

Being able to recognize and understand how to integrate

many discrete workflows is central to developing a high level

of organizational effectiveness, which in turn improves the

service providers ability to examine the drilling system andmake performance improvements.


19/91

For your next play,whether traditionalor shale, Keen EnergyServices delivers high-end drillingvalue and reduced cycletimes. Keen's fleet of technicallyadvanced drillingrigs andloyal employees, managed withmore than a century of drillingexperienceprovidecustomers withmaximum wellsitevalue.

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EPmag.com | November 2011

digitalOIL FIELD

Integration into the DOCBefore the introduction of this technology, the DOC was collecting data

using various rig sensors. The data were fed to a WITSML server and thento a data aggregation service in preparation for display. The process func-tioned as it was designed and worked fine for anticipated problems anddirect issues. But it was not providing the answers to situations that weremore complex and harder to diagnose, such as those requiring input frommultiple parameters and variables.

The software was introduced into the DOC for an initial 30-day trial and was manned by Verdande Technology personnel. During this trial, drills wererun to better understand system response and identify benefits the technol-ogy could provide to Swift personnel to improve decision-making.

The primary objective of the trial was to demonstrate the utility and func-tionality of the DrillEdge system. It was important that Swift personnel have

full confidence in the systems ability to deliver relevant information whenchallenging drilling situations arose related to nonproductive time (NPT)-causing events.

After a successful initial trial, a second phase of testing is under way. Cur-rent operations are running the system without vendor oversight, which hasreduced the number of people in the DOC and increased the confidenceSwift personnel have in the technology. An ongoing training process pre-pares engineers to interpret cases and develop new ones as situations war-rant, with the goal of improving overall system response.

Further efficiency is anticipated with rig personnel receiving alerts basedon cases appearing on the systems radar screen. Enabling the drillers freesDOC engineers to look at more wells using fewer screens, which allows them

to focus efforts on the situation or well that requires dedicated attention.

Escalation process A key aspect to the performance of the expert system is response. Once a caseis on the radar, there must be a process in place for resolving the situation.

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when problematic situations are identified and remedial actions (based onexperience and company best practices) are presented by the technology.

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from the rig personnel to the DOC superintendent andon-call engineer.

If changes are made that improve the situation, the

information is entered into the log, and monitoringresumes until the case exits the radar. Otherwise thecycle continues, and other remedies are applied untilthe situation is resolved. DrillEdge captures all of thisinformation for reference the next time similar condi-tions occur.

Diagnostic support A similar process of matching events to problems isbeing explored to provide diagnostic support. In thisapplication, observed events lead to the identificationof a current problem.

For instance, fluctuations in standpipe pressureexhibit an identifiable fingerprint that can indicate a

washout in the drillstring. The appearance of such acase on the radar notifies the driller so action can betaken immediately to prevent a possible twist-off.

The system has been trained to recognize conditions rel-evant to drillstring washouts, and it will immediately pres-ent a succession of events. In real time, the pressure loss

and a washout event on the radar screen would ultimately cross an escalation threshold, and a response would be ini-tiated in time to prevent a twist-off from occurring.

In addition to drillpipe washouts, this diagnostic capa-bility is being examined in regard to several other appli-cations involving downhole tools, including drill bitsand mud motor stalls that lead to failure.

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wellCONSTRUCTION

B razil hosted its first annual OTC conference thefirst week of October 2011. The turnout was fair,and much like the Houston show, discussions on inno-

vative technology were everywhere.The technical session, Drilling Operations and

Engineering, held October 4, focused on several topics,but big news involved recent developments in managed

pressure drilling (MPD) and its potential to impact future well designs.

With Brazils deepwater potential, MPD is fast becom-ing the method of choice for offshore exploration wells.

According to Muarizio Arnone, drilling hazard mitiga-tion specialist, Weatherford, There are a number of providers bringing managed pressure drilling technology to the market, and at the end of the day, all of these sys-tems are achieving positive results.

Arnone compared MPD technology to theearly stages of horizontal drilling. The paral-lel exists in the fact that this technology

came at a premium during its infancy,but improved production, increasedsafety, and lowered overall drilling costsproved this method to be worth theinvestment. Simply put, MPD savestime and money and increases safety,

Arnone said.In conventional drilling, parameters

often are set at surface. Drilling typically pro-ceeds with little or no change in bottomhole pres-sure, and any problems that do arise often are mitigatedthrough slight variations in the original well plan. The

old guys tell us, the well talks to you. Conventionally, weneed to listen, Arnone explained.

The easy wells are gone, Arnone added. Globally,most new exploration takes place in deep to ultra-deep

water where pressures and temperatures can increaserisk and have higher rates of failure. Newer exploration

wells are predominantly HP/HT, Arnone said. Mock well plans from the surface do not always apply to theseenvironments.

HP/HT conditions change the pressure window asfluids come into contact with higher pressures and tem-

peratures. The official point of view on MPD is that these systems precisely control the annular pressure pro-file, ascertain the downhole pressure, and manage theannular hydraulic pressure profile accordingly.

Because MPD operates in a closed-loop system, it provides an additional variable beyond pressure and tem-

perature. The application of back-pressure isapplied automatically and can be controlled

to mitigate fluctuations in hydrostatic andbottomhole conditions.

Arnone discussed Weatherfords MassBalance Technique, which uses pri-mary control algorithms to identify influxes and losses on a real-time basis,and it uses a choke at surface to apply

back-pressure to maintain well controlat all times. The companys microflow

control system is based on measuring flow-in and flow-out of the well. If flow-in and flow-

out diverge, something is wrong, Arnone said. According to Arnone, the mass balance technique

allows a well to be drilled in the true drilling window.This may offer a more precise view of drilling condi-tions compared to a drilling window designed aroundpredicted values. MPD stands out because of its capac-ity to precisely monitor changing downhole conditions.

MPD can detect flow out differences of one tothree gallons, and the lowest ever recorded change

was one-quarter of a gallon, Arnone said. This level ofmeasurement is not possiblein a conventionaltank system.

Can wells talk? What do they say?Managed pressure drilling is moving from a high cost, high end featureto a standard practice that saves time and money when it comes to HP/HTdrilling environments.


TAYVIS DUNNAHOESenior Editor

[email protected]

EPmag.com | November 2011 27

Thereare a number of

providers bringingmanaged pressure drillingtechnology to the market,and at the end of the day,

all of these systemsare achieving positive

results.


30/91

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The vision of subsea factories on seabeds around the world is one that is slowly becoming reality. Althoughthe jigsaw of competing technologies needed to give anoperator a field development toolbox it can work with iscomplicated, it is now increasingly achievable.

The importance of having such options at their dis-posal whether for subsea separation, boosting, or com-pression clearly is recognized by all the industrysmajor players.

The rewards can be dramatic when the business caseis right. It is generally accepted that boosted wet treedevelopments can deliver between 5% and 20% higherrecovery rates than dry tree developments, for example.

Statoil has made no secret of its goals for advancingsubsea processing technologies to improve recovery from existing fields. On its Gullfaks South field, thecompany has worked with Framo Engineering since2008 developing technology for compressing wet gas onthe seabed. The fields current recovery rate is already 62%, and the combination of subsea compression andconventional low-pressure production in later phases

could lift the total recovery rate to an outstanding 74%,according to Statoil, which would increase productionby 106 Bcf (3 Bcm) of gas an additional 6%.

The standard industry solution has been to supply compression from a platform or onshore, but the closercompression is placed to a well, the more gas can beextracted. Thats why companies like Statoil want to placethe compressor on the seabed nearer to those wells.

At the recent OTC Brasil show in Rio de Janeiro, thecompany stressed in a presentation that it sees subseaprocessing very much as an enabling technology forboth greenfield projects (mainly those in northern, Arc-tic, and deepwater areas) and brownfield developmentsthat may otherwise be abandoned without beingexploited to the maximum. New technology develop-ment remains the key to opening the door to innovative

ways of applying subsea processing. According to Simon Davies, Statoil project leader for

subsea technology and operations, the vision of a sub-sea factory could drive the application of more sophis-

ticated gas processing on the seabed (gas sweeteningand gas dehydration). Longer and more remote step-outs are driving interest in developing local, potentially renewable power generation concepts, he added.

Pumping and compression technology also will con-tinue to evolve, Davies said, with more robust and sim-plified systems becoming available that are capable of greater pressure boost while handling liquids without the need for upstream scrubbing. Separation systems

will become more sophisticated, and new materials including nanotechnology also will have an increasingrole in tomorrows systems.

As the industry finds and develops oil and gas reservesin deeper, more remote, and harsher environments, thetechnological challenges, qualification requirements,and technical risks of deploying subsea processing willincrease, Davies said.

However, the business upsides will also increase, andthere will almost certainly be areas wheresubsea processing becomes anenabling technology, without

which fields cannot be profitably developed, he concluded.

productionOPTIMIZATION

From surface to seafloorOperators are using subsea factories to move processing from topsides tothe seabed for greenfield and brownfield projects.


MARK THOMASInternational Editor

[email protected]

An artists rendering of the Snorre, Vigdis, and Tordis field oper-

ations. (Image courtesy of Statoil)


32/91

COVER STORY:INTELLIGENT OPERATIONS

30

A few years ago, the concept of intelligent operations was confined to assorted software programs andpieces of hardware, the most significant of which wereremotely controlled subsurface sliding sleeves that allowed greater production control.

From the recognition that installing pieces of equip-

ment could improve operations, the industry has movedto embrace the concepts of intelligent energy (IE) andintegrated operations (IO). Today, these concepts arebeing applied much more broadly than ever beforeunder the umbrella of the digital oil field (DOF).

Building on successPieter Kapteijn, director, Corporate Technology andInnovation, Maersk Oil, believes success of early pro-grams set the stage for DOF development and validation.Application of intelligent solutions has finally provedand confirmed the value we always knew was there, he

said. You fundamentally change the risk profile of oiland gas operations. The subsurface gains from improvedrecovery and more cost-effective development dwarf thegains from a more effective surface operation.

As evidence of how far the industry has come, Kapteijnpointed out, Statoil, Shell, Chevron, and Saudi Aramcoare designing in the intelligence from the outset. Forthese companies, he said, this is a strategic plan.

Julian Pickering, company director, Digital Oilfield

Solutions Ltd., considers the spread of DOF technolo-gies to national oil companies (NOCs) a notable devel-opment. NOCs are now jumping into DOF and areactively pursuing it, he said. Were going up an expo-nential curve in terms of uptake.

Steve Roberts, vice president of Field of the FutureFlagship Program Subsurface Technology at BP, pointedto some of his companys milestones as evidence that the DOF is delivering value for operators. Weve devel-oped solutions for remote monitoring and productionperformance management for over 600 of what BP con-siders key high-rate wells. A sense of scale in terms of the

November 2011 | EPmag.com

Transformationto a digital age

As oil and gas resources become more difficult to find and produce,

the industry has turned its focus to technologies that allow better real-timedecision-making, more automation, and improved collaboration.

By Judy Murray, Editor


33/91


data is that weve got more than 2 million data tags now covered by Field of the Future solutions.

Some of those solutions address production optimiza-

tion, minimizing riser slugging, and equipment monitor-ing. We have thousands of pieces of equipment tied toField of the Future solutions, Roberts said.

According to Derek Mathieson, president of Productsand Technology at Baker Hughes, IO is starting to under-pin a much broader array of products and services in themarketplace. I think the real beachhead was made in thedrilling operations world, Mathieson said, where wereally started to look at real-time technologies and how that changed the face of our interaction both on theoperating and service side.

What is surprising, he said, is a lot of the platforms

developed only two or three years ago already are wellpast their operating capacity. There are some new prod-uct lines moving into this landscape today just based onthe significant progress thats been made in the drilling

world, he said.As an industry, the biggest accomplishment has prob-

ably been getting away from the need to have hard andfast technical requirements for individual systems. Wehave more flexibility, and weve developed open stan-dards as a group. Standards like WITSML have really become the baseline to help some of the digital enable-ment we see in the marketplace today, he said.

Satish Pai, executive vice president, Operations,Schlumberger, believes a real step-change took place

with the ability to listen to the well being drilled,enabled through improvements in the gathering, pro-cessing, and utilization of all available data generatedduring operations.

Advances in drilling and production technologieshave enabled higher efficiency wellbores; however, theseadvances also have negatively impacted well planning.

Fewer wells spaced much farther apart means less offset well information critical for predrill risk identification at a time when it is needed most, Pai explained, notingthat for service companies such as Schlumberger, usingreal-time data has become critical in updating predrillmodels during the well construction process to predict and mitigate potential hazards while executing perform-ance management initiatives.

Moving from parts and pieces to field deploymentshas greatly changed the DOF according to Duncan

Junor, senior director of Digital Asset, Halliburton.Technology is only part of it, he explained. In the

past few years there has been a lot more discussionabout integrated operations.

For Halliburton, that means a focus on Digital Asset strategy and developing integrated workflows. We usethem to drive efficiency internally, Junor said. We arelooking for the gaps between service lines and processesto help customers and ourselves to be more efficient.

For Mike Hauser, global i-field manager based inChevron Energy Technology Co., one of the biggest achievements for the DOF is tangible progress in thearea of predictive analytics and diagnostics being ableto monitor, model, and analyze alerts to normal operat-

ing conditions is clearly transforming condition-basedmanagement of our key assets, starting with machinery.Because signal analyses can be so far in advance of a fail-ure, the industry is redefining real time, he said.

As the oil and gas industry wraps up the first decade of integrated operations, he said, There has been tremen-


This Schlumberger operation support center in Tyumen, Russia, is enabling new levels of consistency in field operations. The amount of real-

time data flowing through such centers at Schlumberger has more than tripled over the past three years. (Image courtesy of Schlumberger)


34/91


dous headway in areas like real-time data surveillance,access, and higher end collaboration that goes beyond

videoconferenceing into connecting the right people with the right information at the right time so the right experts are weighing in on decisions regardless of theirgeographic location and function or discipline.

For Baker Hughes, progress in collaboration has beendramatic. Going back only two and a half years, Math-

ieson said, we had three real-time drilling centersaround the world. We now have 25, and all slightly dif-ferent sizes and shapes. It really is something thats now fundamentally part of the way that we run our business.

Collaboration and remote monitoring are the corner-stones of IO in the High North, a joint industry project (JIP) being managed by Project Manager Frdric Ver-helst, DNV. A primary goal of the JIP is to carry out monitoring onshore so informed decisions can be madefor offshore operations.

There are fewer positions offshore, Verhelst said, which is a driver for better HSE performance. Compa-nies have to rely much more on the offshore/onshorelink being available all of the time. Now that the concept of collaboration centers has gained ground, the goal haschanged to creating more specialized onshore centers.

Samit Sengupta, managing director, Geologix Ltd.,said one of the most significant things about DOF appli-cation is the integration of real-time data with informa-tion gathered on site by experienced personnel.

A lot of people on the rig are making observations,and all of those kinds of observations traditionally wouldhave been included in a report that was completely out-side the real-time information coming in, he said. It

was not integrated in thereal-time system.

Within the DOF, Senguptaexplained, Observations are

being communicated in anon-time basis. Instead of being sent as a report, infor-mation is being sent using

the same system as data to recipients. That contextualizesall of the data being communicated.

Now, observations made by workers can be placed incontext, creating a richer set of information that improves the value for the operator because it leads tobetter decision-making.

The industry clearly has made great strides in imple-menting the DOF, and much more progress lies ahead

for the early movers. While some companies have madeenormous headway, however, there are many operatingcompanies (many of them on the smaller side) that havenot yet embraced IO. For those companies, Pickeringsays there is no time like the present.

Now, were in a position that smaller companies candetermine the true value to determine if application of the DOF is worth the investment.

Jay Crotts, vice president of IT services at Shell, agrees.Having planning analysis is very useful, he said, but

whats more useful is to start small with digital oil fieldsolutions and see incremental success and not try to solvethe most complex problems to begin with. The impor-tant thing is to test small ideas and fail fast. Failing fast isfine, he said, because it allows companies to quickly determine the most likely applications for success.

Crotts speaks from personal experience. From oursmart field to our smart well operations to even oursmart manufacturing, we follow an innovation process

where we have ideas and we do proof of concepts. Not all of them are successful. We back the things that lookas if they will be successful.

This type of prototype environment works well forShell according to Crotts. You can and should do a lot


Seeing fracture attributes

such as height, width, and

length and calculating stimu-

lated reservoir volume in real

time provide insight into howthe formation is responding to

stimulation treatment, which

helps reduce uncertainty and

improve effectiveness. (Image

courtesy of Halliburton)


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of analysis, he said, but eventually you have to try it tosee if it is going to pay out.

Pickering agrees. Now there is a squeeze on finances,

and on that basis, you need a much stronger businessmodel that addresses why the company should be doingthis, he said.

Taking on challenges According to Maersks Kapteijn, one of the issues theindustry has to contend with is a myopic approach tofield development in some cases.

We have assets that are producing for decades, hesaid, but a lot of the thinking and decisions in develop-ment projects focus on the short term. The people whomake decisions based on lifecycle considerations will not

see the results of those decisions. Another difficulty, according to Kapteijn, is the oil

and gas industry, despite spending billions on research,still faces a major challenge when it comes to integra-tion. Nearly 80% of work is contracted out from opera-tors to other companies, and resources belonging tosubcontractors could help move things forward morerapidly as could resources from universities and otherindustries. We do not get as much value out of the peo-ple we work with as we could, he said.

One of the challenges being addressed at BP is imple-menting DOF practices across the company and truly

changing the way employees work. Theres more todo on deployment, Roberts said. It isnt just about deploying technology; its changing working practiceon the ground.

Technology is the easy part, Junor said. Getting thechange management andgetting multidisciplineteams to work together isreally where the chal-lenge lies.

BP has an internal team working on this issue. As we review current solutions and how they are deployed,one of the things we want to address going forward is

the fact that some areas of the company are taking moreadvantage of the solutions than others. One of thethings BP did to address the challenge of deploying at scale was look at work processes. Support mechanismshave to go with deployment, otherwise it would tend todie on the vine, Roberts said.

According to Pickering, There sometimes isnt aproper match with the existing work processes within thecompany, or people just havent bought into the technol-ogy. Before you rush out and start building collaborationcenters, you need to clearly understand how people dotheir day-to-day jobs, how those jobs are going to be trans-

posed into this new collaborative environment, how peo-ple are going to work remotely because theyre not physically on the site, and how such a center couldimprove work process.

Hauser agrees. DOF gives us the ability to shorten thelearning curve for our early-career employees by givingthem access to expert mentoring and decision support.This strengthens our organizational capability to man-age global development, deployment, and support of solutions. What will be critically important is how we uti-lize our limited expert resources while developing new organizational capability to sustain our future.

Deployment of intelligent solutions across an enter-prise is not so much a technology challenge, as much asa change management challenge, according to Pai, whopointed to the adoption of drilling automation tech-nologies as an example. A majority of the drilling com-



Shells Perdido field in the

Gulf of Mexico was bornsmart. Before plans were

made for development, the

field was screened to evalu-

ate where smart field tech-

nology could be applied

best, and field-specific solu-

tions became part of the

development plan, which

looked beyond the objective

of putting the field onstream.

(Image courtesy of Shell)


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munity are reluctant to utilize automation enabled by real-time data, he said, noting, overcoming this resist-ance will be key, recognizing there must be balance

between automation and human control.Success will be determined by the implementation of

a top-down directive that establishes an industrialization

process with sound business models, standards, training,and clear objectives. Without such a formalizedapproach, any implementation is sure to endure false

starts, employee confusion, management frustration,and ultimately a short project life span.

Hauser added that the evolution over the past decadefrom concepts lauded by DOF Evangel-ists has matured to real value-addingsolutions. The key will be how we focusour efforts to successfully impact ourbusiness at scale across our global oper-ating organizations, he said.

One of the impediments of execut-ing such initiatives is limited person-nel resources, which is complicated by

the Big Crew Change a situation Pai views as much an opportunity as achallenge. Adoption of high-valueintelligent solutions can result inhigher personnel efficiency, Pai said,as Schlumberger has seen throughthe centralization of our domainexpertise, providing oversight acrossa broader range of operations.

The Big Crew Change is particularly challenging, according to Mathieson,because it brings a very different way

of thinking into the workplace.We live in a world where digital

immigrants, people who are stilllearning what the baselines are andhow to use the new tools, are beingforced to move from one way of work-ing to another. The new generation of

workers, digital natives, are used tothe social engineering tools, but they approach work in a completely differ-ent way. These two groups have to

work together to effect a rapid transfer

of knowledge from skilled workers who are retiring to younger workers with considerably less experience.

As part of the real crew changethats going on just now, there aresome fundamentally different behav-ior sets that were looking at in thecompany, and for companies likeBaker Hughes, and others that havebeen around for the best part of 100

years, the legacy training systems, the way that we look at wellsite readiness,

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needs to be part of the digital modernization process as we train a new generation of people to run operations.The battle were starting to face now is that these new

tools are working and really showing some differentialperformance, but getting from the 20% to the 80% isstill a big deal. Its forcing some real transformational

ways of looking across the whole business and creatingan extensive list of things we need to take care of tomove completely to a new way of working. And thatstough. For many big companies, it presents a pretty highcommercial hurdle to upgrade legacy best practices.

For Verhelst and IO in the High North, one of thefocuses today is on data and information models andcollecting information to allow workflows across organi-zational boundaries. Both drilling and production work-

flows are being examined, he said.Production workflows are centered around a produc-

tion support center created two and a half years agoin Stavanger, Verhelst said. Though the multi-assetsupport center can support asset teams in resolving

production challenges, he said, They need to be able tohook into all of the data systems available, which at themoment is very diverse. A very large project is targeting

creating a common interface that will allow a standard-ized way to tap into those.Resources are being allocated now on prototyping and

demonstrating workflows around the Production Sup-port Center and how external centers can be used indecision-making, he said.

Sengupta too sees workflows as a challenge. Unless your workflow works with the technology, you dont derive the full benefit of the technology, he explained.

When enormous volumes of data are collected and dis-tributed to everyone in real time, information overloadoccurs, and the decision-making process is compro-

mised. This means the specialist is not working at thebest of his or her capacity.

Defining opportunitiesOilfield virtualization is maturing today, Hauser said,


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and predictive analytics are being applied to new areas.The next horizon will be in the application of roboticsand the intriguing promise of nanotechnology. The key

to moving these technologies forward, he said, is cross-industry sharing.Pai agrees that technology transfer from other indus-

tries is one of the unexploited opportunities for theDOF. Schlumberger, a proponent of cross-industry col-laboration, has a history of building on best practicesfrom the automotive and aerospace industries to drivetechnology functionality and reliability, according to Pai.

The aerospace industry is by far the leader of onboard monitoring systems that provide continuousdiagnostic data streams for use in preventative mainte-nance and intervention processes, he said. Schlum-

berger engineering personnel interface routinely with aircraft manufacturers to further advanceson reliability systems. Additionally, our relationships

within the automotive industry provide the opportunity to sharemanufacturing discussions forfurther ruggedizing high-temper-ature electronics/sensors.

Another aspect of the DOF that is showing a marked improve-ment is the uptake of data.

Once the standards are estab-

lished, Pickering said, its a freemarket for everybody. Standardsmake room for more and smallerplayers.

As the Deputy Chairman of WITSML, Pickering works withEnergistics, an organization that facilitates global noncompetitive

vendor neutral infrastructure for collaboration aimedat developing and adopting open data exchange stan-dards. Were building up to offering accredited coursesin WITSML, Pickering said. The first accredited coursesshould be available by 1Q 2012.

The big drive for the course is to improve uptake, heexplained. Its good that were starting to develop pro-fessionalism in different aspects of the DOF because itsno longer a cottage industry. Its becoming fundamentalto the way companies are working.

Meanwhile, drilling and production automationare increasing dramatically. This aspect of the DOF,one Mathieson described as really blue sky a coupleof years ago, is now getting significant attention.

Some of the biggest players on the operating sideare seriously looking at how to automate certain por-

tions of the well construction and production business,he said. Theyre looking at critical decision systems,reducing operating footprint and step changes in effi-

ciency with the technologies emerging today. Theresgrowing momentum in this space and the first signs of practical applications emerging.

According to Sangupta, part of the impetus for thisis the lack of human resources. Automation is muchmore valuable to people who are resource constrained,he said. Were always trying to automate everything.

What we need to do is start automating processes farmore than weve done, Pickering said. Providers of automation are pushing. What we havent got within theindustry is the pull. We need the end customers to start identifying the needs for automation, and once the

demand is there, it becomes easier for suppliers to sup-ply the appropriate systems.

I dont think we will ever achieve a completely auto-mated field, Verhelst said, but one of the things we will achieveis automating some of the very predictive functions so peoplecan focus on anomalies andproblems.

The industry is investing heav-ily in DOF technologies, and that trend will continue strongly in

the coming years.Youre going to see an awful lot

more breadth of real-time opera-tions, Junor said. The key will beapplying the model, measure,optimize approach to makethose decisions and deliver scala-ble solutions. I think everybody is

recognizing that real time is an important way of closingthe loop. You can do as much modeling as you like, but unless you can measure in real time and then optimize

with a multidiscipline team, youre not able to make bet-ter decisions in the right timeframe to add a great deal of

value. Integrated workflows understanding the gaps,bringing multidisciplinary teams together, and helpinganalyze and make decision-making more effective arebecoming more recognized as a business practice ratherthan a futuristic goal.

According to Kapteijn, the next step for the DOF is toapply these concepts in the design phase. Weve only uncovered about 30% of the real value of these con-cepts, he said. The prize at the end of the rainbowlies in the subsurface. Thats where the value is. AndIO is what is going to get us there.



Integrated workflows understanding the gaps,

bringing multidisciplinary teamstogether, and helping analyze

and make decision-makingmore effective are becoming

more recognized as abusiness practice rather than

a futuristic goal.Duncan Junor, Halliburton


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DEVELOPING UNCONVENTIONAL GAS

Partici patingA Hart Energy we anticipated the need for aconference that presents the most up-to-dateinformation on the Eag le Ford shale p lay as it becamethe hottest unconventional gas p lay in the country.

To all the attendees , sponsors and exhibitors who havehel ped shape th i s conference , we say thank you foryou r par t i c ipation and support.

PRESENTED BY:

H A R T E N E R G YHOSTED B Y :

Please make p lans to join us in 2012 as we exploreintell igence about the move into other formations ,such as chalk and sandstone, as the Eag le Ford p laycontinues its growth.

The 3rd A n n u a l DUG Eag le Ford Conference andExhibition will take p lace on October 14 - 16 , 2012at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center inSan Antonio , Texas.

E P Invesior MIDSTREAwww.dugeag leford.com

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Revista E&P - Noviembre 2011

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