New technologies for mature fields
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
London
The Geological Society
Our March 16 London Forum presents exciting new technologies with promise to help revitalise mature fields and point the way to improving production. These include in-well automation tools; using fibre-optics in wells as listening devices; strengthening wellbores in older fields; figuring out which EOR technology will help on which of your wells, and a financial analyst’s view of profitability of EOR projects to date.
Introduction from conference chairman David Bamford: There is an old adage which runs "The best place to look for oil is in an oil field".
Forties Field in the North Sea is perhaps the best example of a mature field being kept going by innovative petrotechnical folk, armed with the right technologies.
When production from Forties commenced in 1975, it was predicted that the field would stop producing by the early 1990’s. In 1990, it was expected to be shut down by the year 2000. Yet now, over forty years since it was first discovered, the Forties Field is still producing, the recoverable reserves have increased by 35% since the start of production, even though the area of the field as defined by the oil-water contact has remained approximately the same. Plateau production of 500 Mbopd was reached in 1978, lasting until 1981, and progressively declining to 77 Mbopd in 1999. At this point the field had already produced 2.5 Bbo and still had nearly 60 producing wells. With production down to 35 Mbopd, BP sold the Forties field in 2003. It had been such an iconic field for UK North Sea exploration that some commentators likened this to ‘selling off the family silver’. The purchaser, Apache, initiated an intensive re-evaluation of the field and found a further 800 million barrels. By undertaking various efficiency measures and installing new equipment, it has brought new life to the field which is now producing 70 Mbopd and is expected to be still pumping oil for the next twenty years.
Broadly speaking, we can divide the technologies that can help other fields be similarly transformed into two, namely those to do with the reservoir and wells, and those to do with the top-sides:
Reservoir and Wells:
Themes include:
a) Recognising where there are reserves of undeveloped or unswept hydrocarbons - key technologies are reservoir monitoring (using 4D seismic/permanent seismic monitoring), production monitoring, reservoir simulation, history matching.
b) Mobilising these reserves towards the well bores - key technologies include fraccing, enhanced recovery mechanisms (WAG, water floods, CO2 floods etc).
c) Moving these mobile hydrocarbons into and along the well bores - completion, pumping and flow monitoring technologies are key.
Top-sides:
The broad themes are improving operational efficiency (including 'debottle-necking'), monitoring and improving operational integrity, safety and cost reduction.
The Digital Oil Field then provides an enabling framework in which these key technologies can be deployed for optimal efficiency and effectiveness - key technologies include automation and collaborative working environments.
This March 16th Forum is the first of a series that will focus on these themes.
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Talk Description
Introduction
By David Bamford |
David Bamford is well known around the oil & gas industry both as an explorer and a geophysicist. He holds a Physics degree from the University of Bristol and a Ph.D in Geological Sciences from the University of Birmingham.
Since 2004, he has been a non-executive director at Tullow Oil plc, being recruited for this position especially for his exploration knowledge. He serves on the Nominations and Remuneration Committees, and was chairman of the latter, and Senior Independent Director, for 3 years prior to his retire from the board at the end of April 2014.
He was on the board of Premier Oil from May 2014 to May 2016.
He retired from BP plc in 2003, his last four positions being Chief Geophysicist (1990-1995), Business Unit Leader (General Manager) for first West Africa and then Norway (1995-1999), and finally Head of Exploration until 2003.
He has served on the boards of Paras Ltd, a small exploration and IS/IT consulting company in which he held 22% equity, until its sale to RPS Energy in 2008 and Welltec a/s, a Danish well engineering company, as the nominee of the private equity investor Riverside.
From 2012 to 201 he was on the board of ASX-quoted Australia Oriental Energy as a non-executive director.
He was a founder of Richmond Energy Partners, a small oil & gas research house, and several media companies that focus on the oil & gas sector, and has served as an advisor to Alliance Bernstein, Opus Executive, the Parkmead Group plc, and Kimmeridge Energy LLP. Since retiring from BP, he has undertaken asset and company valuation projects for investment banks, hedge funds and small oil companies.
Finding Petroleum
Finding Petroleum was established to help the oil and gas industry network, and stay up to date on t
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Mr. Hallundbæk founded Welltec in 1994 – materializing a vision that since has transformed the way the oil and gas sector operates by introducing technology which enhances the recovery rate and least lowers the environmental risk and impact compared to traditional technology.
With great success Mr. Hallundbæk has developed the business from a minor subcontractor into a direct contractor to the world’s leading oil and gas companies.
Mr. Hallundbæk still plays an active role in the development of new technology and has authored many SPE papers.
The environment is highly prioritized by Mr. Hallundbæk, which is why he from the start has designed all Welltec’s technologies around principles that safeguard the environment.
Mr. Hallundbæk holds an MSc in Engineering, Naval Architecture from the Technical University of Denmark.
Welltec
Welltec design and manufacture advanced technology for both onshore and offshore wells. Welltec's te
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Fotech provides distributed acoustic data to the energy and security sectors. Based in the UK, USA
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Talk Description
A systematic top-down EOR screening methodology has been developed, which can be used to investigate the performance of different displacement process and reservoir combinations. The methodology incorporates binary, analytical and simulation screening, based on mechanistic subsurface models.
At each stage of the screening, any clearly non-viable processes are eliminated. Thus effort can be focused on the most promising EOR processes using successively more detailed models.
This methodology provides an efficient framework for the selection and ranking of suitable candidate fields for a range of enhanced oil recovery processes, leading to the detailed analysis and implementation of the highest ranking process and reservoir combination.
This presentation will describe part of the methodology concentrating on the initial EOR screening stage.
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RPS Energy provides a range of technical, commercial and project management support services to the
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Dr Clint joined Sanford C. Bernstein in 2004 and was part of the Energy Team with Neil McMahon covering the Global Integrated Oil sector.
Currently he is the Senior Research Analyst covering the European E&P and Russian Oil & Gas sectors. The Bernstein Energy franchise has become well known due to both the provocative commentary on the commodities and oil stocks, as well as the innovative research that forms the core of their frequent publications. Previously, he worked as an accountant and consultant for KPMG covering energy, gas, and chemical sectors. Dr Clint received his PhD in Geophysics from University College London where he specialised in sub-surface rock physics and is also a Chartered Accountant.
Bernstein Research
Sanford C. Bernstein is widely recognized as Wall Street's premier sell-side research firm. Their re
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