2013–2014 SPE Distinguished Lecturer Program Unveiled

Twenty-eight peer-selected lecturers from various disciplines and professions share emerging trends, challenges, and technologies.

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Featuring 28 lecturers from various disciplines and professions from around the world, the 2013–2014 Distinguished Lecturer Program emphasizes emerging trends, challenges, and technologies. Speakers, who are nominated by their peers, share their expertise with SPE members through visits to local sections. Each section will receive three lectures. The 52nd lecture season will include 125 tours and 540 individual section stops. Subject areas and speakers featured in this year’s program are:

Extraterrestrial Drilling: How On Earth Can Martian Drilling Help Us?

Are we alone in the universe? Finding that answer will require the technology and techniques currently used in the petroleum industry. There is one place accessible to humanity that has the strongest possibility for answering that question: Mars. The various Mars missions to date have indicated that there are no organic materials on the surface of the planet; however, as on Earth, there could be a large biomass under the surface. The tools and techniques developed in the oil field and other related areas are the basis for this extraterrestrial subsurface access technology. What we learn from building and deploying extraterrestrial drilling technology will help us understand how to drill better here on Earth.

Alfred Eustes has 35 years of oilfield experience including 9 years with Arco Oil and Gas. He has advised the National Science Foundation regarding Antarctica ice coring and NASA on extraterrestrial drilling. Eustes has a BS in mechanical engineering from Louisiana Tech University, an MS in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado, and a PhD in petroleum engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

Arctic Petroleum Resources: Basis for Petroleum Activities in the 21st Century

The Arctic continental shelf is believed to be the area with the highest unexplored potential for oil and gas. Despite a common view that the Arctic has plentiful hydrocarbon resources, there are ongoing debates regarding the potential of this region as a future energy supply base. Driving forces for such discussions are geopolitics, environmental concern, assessment and delineation of Arctic resources, technology available for their successful development, and the market demand for energy supply. This lecture examines the future role of the Arctic region in addressing evolving energy demands.

Anatoly Zolotukhin is a professor at the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas. He serves as deputy chancellor on international affairs and is a director of the Institute for Arctic Oil and Gas Technologies. Zolotukhin earned an MS in applied mathematics and an MS and a PhD in petroleum engineering.

Understanding the Potential of Case-Based Reasoning in the Oil Industry

Case-based reasoning is a soft computing technology developed to address uncertainty, calculate approximate reasoning, and exploit knowledge domain. This simple and practical technique solves new problems by comparing them with the solutions of past problems, resulting in saved time and money. This lecture provides a general framework for case-based reasoning, describes the technique’s four-step cycle (retrieve, reuse, revise, and retain), and reviews two specific applications in which the technology was used in oilfield operations.

Andrei Popa is a technology adviser for applied reservoir management at Chevron. He teaches petroleum engineering courses at the University of Southern California. He holds an MS and a PhD in petroleum and natural gas engineering from West Virginia University.

A Step Change in Traditional Risk Assessment Techniques for Process Safety and Asset Integrity Management

The oil and gas industry has recognized process safety and asset integrity as key drivers for maximizing asset performance and preventing major accident hazards, which results in the preservation of human lives, the environment, and assets. This lecture discusses the possibility of overcoming limitations of standard risk assessment techniques with a new tool called BAseline Risk Assessment Tool (BART). The tool represents a step change in traditional risk assessment because it combines two mature methodologies, quality risk assessment and bow-tie analysis, to assess process safety hazards as well as analyze existing safety barriers and their contribution to risk prevention and mitigation. Basic process safety concepts will be presented to the audience, and the rationale and features of BART will be discussed and compared with existing techniques.

Annamaria Petrone works as a senior safety engineer for Eni E&P. She has 10 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. Her professional skills include risk assessment, process safety, and maintenance. Petrone holds an MS in civil engineering and a post-university master in reliability availability and maintenance.

Characterizing Shale Plays—The Importance of Recognizing What You Don’t Know

Understanding the uncertainty in individual well performance is particularly critical during the exploration drilling program where there are relatively few wells on which to base decisions. Key questions during the early phases include “How many wells do I need to drill before I have confidence in the results?” and “Does the well performance I’ve seen to date provide the encouragement needed to keep drilling?” Understanding the uncertainty in well performance, and planning for it will lead to more efficient exploration activity and better informed decision-making.

Brad Berg is the reservoir engineering manager for US onshore exploration at Anadarko Petroleum. He has been instrumental in developing the methodologies and tools that his company uses to evaluate unconventional resource plays.

Sustainability in the Oil and Gas Industry: Reporting Responsible Performance

Oil companies are tasked with delivering reliable energy resources in a safe, environmentally sound, and socially responsible manner while stakeholders increasingly demand more information and input. Sustainability reporting offers a clear way to communicate performance to a broad range of stakeholders. The Oil and Gas Industry Guidance on Voluntary Sustainability Reporting, 2nd edition, created by the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA), provides a structured framework that furnishes direction on report content and describes the benefits of reporting, methods of engaging stakeholders, a six-step reporting process, and a full range of key issues and indicators. This presentation discusses the challenges of sustainability for the industry along with a high-level review of IPIECA’s Guidance and the Global Reporting Initiative’s Oil and Gas Sector Supplement.

Charlie Curlee worked for more than 30 years at Marathon Oil in various health, environment, and safety roles and helped establish a corporate social responsibility function in the company. He chaired IPIECA’s Reporting Task Force, overseeing the publication of the Guidance, 2nd edition, and has spoken at several SPE workshops and conferences. Curlee earned a BS and MS in environmental biology from the University of Colorado.

Design of Experiment as a Vehicle for Reservoir Studies—Lessons and Best Practices

From its beginnings in an agricultural research station near London in the 1920s, the design of experiment concept has found universal industrial applications. Today, it is recognized as the most efficient way to conduct an experiment because it offers a structured way to gain the most information about a system from the least number of experimental runs. Unfortunately, not much is written about the growing pains and practical challenges of applying this technique in a reservoir study. This lecture addresses this shortcoming by using lessons learned and best practices at each stage of a design of experiment work flow to describe how to correctly navigate the many twists and turns encountered in a typical reservoir study.

Chidi Amudo is a fellow of Engineers Australia. He has more than 25 years of experience in academia and E&P fields. In the past 22 years, Amudo has practiced petroleum engineering worldwide on a diverse range of projects. Currently, he works on unconventional resources in Chevron’s Mid-Continent Business Unit. Amudo earned a BS in engineering and a MS in chemical engineering.

Hydraulic Fracturing Myths, Reality, and Environmental Stewardship Through Better Chemistry

Education is the key to overcoming preconceived notions, prejudice, and a general lack of knowledge. Oil and gas companies must demonstrate their commitment to responsibly developing and supplying energy by sharing their technical accomplishments, concerns for environmental stewardship, and processes for continuous improvement. This lecture will address common concerns encountered during routine completion and stimulation operations of oil and gas wells, focusing primarily on hydraulic fracturing fluid chemistries. Key topics are (1) responsible oil and gas development beginning with proper well construction and zonal isolation, (2) continued chemical development with a focus on reducing environmental, human, and physical hazards, and (3) the importance of education and openness to the oil and gas industry and public perception.

Dan Daulton is the director of environmental conformity for the production enhancement and pressure pumping product line at Baker Hughes. He has 34 years of experience in the energy industry. Daulton earned a BS in Earth sciences from the Northwest Missouri State University.

Fracture Networks: Reservoir’s Friends or Foes?

While fractures can enhance the recovery of hydrocarbons from tight formations, the highly permeable conduits that they form can also lead to a premature breakthrough of gas or water. Accurate simulation requires precise modeling of the existing heterogeneities in the field; hence, understanding the effects of fracture networks and flow boundaries will lead to better reservoir management. This lecture addresses the following queries: What do you need to consider in modeling fracture systems? How is it done? Will the power of numerical solutions help improve our understanding? Is an integrated work flow, ranging from reservoir testing to reservoir simulation, a “must”?

Faisal AlThawad has been a consultant for pressure transient analysis for Saudi Aramco since 1996. He has extensive experience in exploratory testing operations with a focus on complex well geometries and faults/fractures modeling. He earned a BS in petroleum engineering from King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals and an MS in petroleum engineering from Heriot-Watt University.

Geomechanics and Fractured Reservoirs: Comforting, Confusing, or Scary?

Fractured reservoirs often exhibit interaction between production and effective permeability. Simple rules used to explain this relationship are based on assumptions that are physically impossible. Moving beyond this limitation requires a change of mind-set. By using simulation models and realistic conditions, where fractured rock masses and their contained fluids are suitably represented, the way in which coupled systems interact can be understood, leading to realistic upscaled responses. Many real-world fractured reservoirs may have fracture distributions and flow conditions that never raise any major surprises. However, in other parts of those reservoirs, confusing responses may appear because of the nonlinear geomechanics/fluid interactions, and some examples may demonstate seemingly unreasonable behaviors.

Gary Couples is a professor of geomechanics at Heriot-Watt University’s Institute of Petroleum Engineering, where he links geomechanical processes to their consequences. His research and teaching activities range from the pore scale to the reservoir scale and larger with an emphasis on predicting effective flow and other emergent phenomena. He earned a BS in geology from Texas A&M University followed by an MS from Rice University and a PhD from Texas A&M University.

Produced Water ReInjection: Flexibility vs. Efficiency

Handling increasing produced water is becoming a major concern in the oil industry. Water treatment and quality monitoring is an important issue. Produced water reinjection systems consume a huge percentage of overall upstream production facilities’ power requirements and operate at low energy efficiency (20% to 30%). To guarantee adequacy, designers and operators select oversized systems. A new approach was developed to effectively analyze produced water reinjection systems and evaluate alternatives to significantly improve their efficiency and guarantee adequacy. This approach evaluates the whole system from the suction of the reinjection pumps to the bottom of the disposal wells of multiple facilities, thus resulting in saved power.

Hani Al-Khalifa joined Saudi Aramco in 1997 where he is currently a senior process engineer. He earned a BS in mechanical engineering from the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in 1996. Al-Khalifa cochaired several SPE Applied Technologies Workshops and served on a subcommittee for ATCE from 2007 to 2009. He earned a BS in mechanical engineering from the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals.

Managing Human and Organizational Risk for Process Safety Management

Within safety critical industries, there is a consensus that human factors have caused or significantly contributed up to 90% of incidents and accidents. Human factors have been featured in a number of high-profile incident reports in recent years, including the Macondo blowout in 2010. Increasingly, regulators are requiring that operators and license holders take steps to address weaknesses in their process safety management systems that can lead to human and organizational failures. This lecture focuses on the integration of human factors and safety critical task analysis with formal safety analysis. It presents examples of human failure in safety critical tasks and illustrates how these can be represented in bow-tie diagrams along with technical safety elements. The lecture shows how risk assessment should demonstrate that safety is achieved and maintained through a combination of technical and human control measures that should work in harmony.

W. Ian Hamilton is the global head of human factors in Environmental Resources Management based in the UK with more than 27 years of experience. He has extensive experience with qualitative and quantitative risk assessment and the safety assurance regimes that apply in various regions around the world. Hamilton earned a BS in psychology from Northern Ireland Polytechnic and an MS in ergonomics from the University of London.

Unconventional Frac Jobs for Unconventional Reservoirs—What Should You Be Concerned About?

Unconventional reservoirs are just that—unconventional. Extrapolation of techniques that have been used in conventional reservoirs to unconventional reservoirs is dangerous and can prevent further development by providing poor results. In order to avoid such misapplications, unconventional reservoirs call for unconventional thought processes. There is no place this is more evident than in hydraulic fracturing in which a different mind-set has to be developed, not just for unconventional reservoirs in general, but specifically for each type of individual system. This presentation reviews the changing perspectives and design considerations. The main “takeaway” is that unconventional reservoirs have requirements very different and distinct from conventional reservoirs and designs can be improved by considering these unique requirements.

Jennifer Miskimins is a senior consulting engineer at Barree & Associates where she specializes in stimulation treatment design and analysis and teaches short courses. Before joining Barree, she was an associate professor at the Colorado School of Mines. Miskimins holds a BS, MS, and PhD in petroleum engineering.

Carbon Capture and Storage: What Are the Big Issues and Opportunities for the Petroleum Industry?

Carbon capture and storage can make significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and will need to be part of the development of future energy resources worldwide. Depleted oil and gas fields, which generally have proven geologic traps, reservoirs, and seals, are ideal sites for storing injected CO2. However, storage in saline aquifers, which rely on other trapping mechanisms such as solubility, residual, and mineral trapping, may be volumetrically more significant trapping mechanisms. Monitoring the behavior of the stored CO2 includes both direct and remote technologies that can be deployed on the surface and in boreholes. Carbon capture and storage will undoubtedly provide new challenges to the way we evaluate and monetize our future energy resources. Can these challenges be turned into opportunities? Successful deployment of carbon capture and storage will require top quality science, specific infrastructure, appropriate regulations, clarity on liability issues, and acceptance by the community.

John Kaldi is chief scientist at the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies and professor and chair of geosequestration at the University of Adelaide. Prior to academia, Kaldi spent 18 years in the petroleum industry in both technical and managerial roles at Shell, Arco, and Vico. Kaldi has authored and presented more than 150 journal articles and technical conference papers. He earned a BS and an MS in geology from Queens College, City University of New York and a PhD in geology from the University of Cambridge.

Shale Gas Water Management—Experiences From North America

Production of shale gas requires large volumes of water for preparing drilling and fracturing fluids. Following the completion of the fracturing job, some of the injected water returns to the surface as flowback and produced water and must be managed appropriately. This lecture discusses water availability for several major US shale plays and describes the types of water management technologies and practices used in North America for flowback and produced water.

John Veil is the president of Veil Environmental. He has written many reports and given numerous presentations on produced water, flowback water, hydraulic fracturing, and shale gas. Veil has 33 years of experience in water management. He earned a BA in Earth and planetary sciences from John Hopkins University and an MS in zoology and an MS in civil engineering from the University of Maryland.

Selective Water-Reduction Systems: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?

Selective water-reduction systems with consistent, sustained performance have been pursued by the oil and gas industry for many years. A few systems are currently reporting success and alternate application in other areas, such as additives to fracturing fluids, diverters for acidizing treatments, and leak-off control agents. This presentation discusses the mechanisms of selective water-reduction systems, case histories for both water reduction and alternate applications, and how this class of compounds and their applications could potentially be improved for increased success in the future.

Larry Eoff is a chemist at Halliburton in Houston. He is the author of more than 30 papers and holds more than 60 US patents. He holds a BS in chemistry from the University of Central Arkansas and a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Arkansas.

Can We Trust Acid Fracturing in Deep Hard Carbonate Reservoirs?

This lecture discusses acid fracturing stimulation in deep hard carbonates and etching patterns. Laboratory tests were performed to verify whether an acid-induced fracture can withstand the high effective normal stresses acting in such reservoirs. Many published results from small, wet sawed, and leveled carbonate rock samples support the claim that different acid etching patterns determine different conductivity behavior. However, hydraulic fractures are tensile fractures and they are naturally rough. Experimental results show that after the acid reaction, tensile fractures can have more, equal, or less roughness than before acid reaction.

Luis F. Neumann is the technical adviser for stimulation and sand control at Petrobras. He has more than 25 years of experience pumping wellbore fluids at fracturing pressures using hydraulic, acid fracturing, and frac-pack techniques in vertical, deviated, and horizontal subsea wells. Neumann earned a BS in chemical engineering and an MS in petroleum engineering from the University of Campinas.

Perforating for Inflow Performance in Natural Completions

Delivering well performance in tighter and more marginal reservoirs requires a greater degree of focus on the interface between the wellbore and the reservoir. Conventional perforated wells still represent a majority of completions, and optimizing the perforation by applying both relevant perforating technology and modeling can provide significant gains in net present value, ultimate recovery, and, in some cases, project cost. There have been significant changes in the way we measure and model charge and gun performance in recent years. These combined with several emerging technologies have made the process of perforating optimization both more valid and more useful. Technology and modeling tools now make it possible to identify the optimum perforating scheme. Take advantage of the new modeling tools, methods of measuring perforator performance, and the latest perforating technology to make perforations deliver.

Mark Brinsden is Shell’s global perforating lead with 34 years of experience in well technology. Brinsden is the chair of the API perforating committee and cofounder of the International Perforating Forum. He is also involved in the development of several new gun systems. He earned a BS in geology from the University of Edinburgh.

Unconventional Completions: A Paradigm Shift

The approach to the development of unconventional resources in North America was one born of the marriage of horizontal wells and hydraulic fracturing. While effective, under the right sets of conditions, few would disagree that the approach is typically far from optimal. However, innovation, being driven by challenging economics and other considerations, may yet see the holy grail of “openhole efficiency” with “cased-hole accuracy” being recognized.

Martin Rylance is the senior adviser and engineering team leader of fracturing and stimulation at the BP Global Wells Organization. He has worked for BP and its partner operations for more than 25 years, building delivery teams and managing E&P-related operations in a number of international locations. He earned a BS (Hons) in pure and applied mathematics from the University of Salford.

Fluid Profiling—A Modern Technique for Reservoir Characterization

An increasing number of reservoir- and production-management problems can be traced to a single root cause: an inadequate understanding of fluid properties and their variation through the reservoir. To complete more complex reservoirs, the industry must gain a better understanding of the nature of the fluids contained within. Modern wireline formation testers now provide an arsenal of sensors to accurately measure many properties of the reservoir fluid in real time in the downhole environment. Contemporary work flows fully integrate downhole fluid analysis to determine zonal connectivity, optimize the data acquisition, and test program and completion strategy. Fluid complexities can be determined at a very early stage in the exploration/appraisal phase, which leads to a more robust and economical field development plan.

Michael O’Keefe is a principal reservoir engineer at Schlumberger based in London. He has 22 years of international experience in wireline operations, log analysis, and new product development. O’Keefe is the author of more than 20 technical papers, numerous industry articles, and eight granted patents. He earned a BS in electrical and electronics engineering from the University of Tasmania.

Slugging in Pipelines: What You NEED to Know

For the unprepared, liquid slugs in multiphase pipelines can have disastrous consequences, including increased corrosion, production impairment, compressor damage, flooding of separators, and damage to process equipment. The key to avoiding problems with slugging in pipelines is to determine the type and magnitude of the slug now and into the future. This lecture will outline procedures for handling and modeling each of the four types of slug using both steady state and transient modeling tools. Once the kind and size of slug is determined, then the appropriate steps can be taken to avoid problems.

Mona Trick is a licensed professional engineer and an adviser for the SPT Group, a Schlumberger company. For the past 30 years, she has advised clients on handling slug flow and modeling and matching multiphase wellbore and pipeline pressure losses. She earned a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Calgary.

Technological Advancements to Meet Drilling Challenges in High Angle and Horizontal Wells

The framework of questions to be addressed for drilling horizontal wells includes “What are the present challenges?” and “What are the advancements in technologies needed to meet the challenges?” This lecture will draw upon the development of various advanced and improved technologies to meet the challenges. Although technology development has positively responded to the needs of horizontal drilling, its future advancement will include areas such as telemetry, sensors and data handling, and analytics. Highlights of this lecture will include the challenges of drilling horizontal wells and how the industry is responding to future needs.

Robello Samuel is a technology fellow at Halliburton and also an adjunct professor at the University of Houston and Texas Tech University. He has won several awards including the 2013 SPE Regional Drilling Engineering Award. He holds a BS and MS in mechanical engineering and an MS and PhD in petroleum engineering.

Understanding Reservoir Rocks Through Computerized Tomography (CT) Imaging

Computerized tomography (CT) has been used in the oil industry for characterizing cores and visualizing multiphase flow in rocks. Data are used to measure density, porosity, heterogeneity index, pore volume compressibility, major mineral contents, and fluid saturations. Recent trends in CT applications include calculating porosity and permeability from micro (and nano) CT-generated images of drilled cuttings using the Lattice Botzmann Method, which shows strong potential to be used for evaluating the shale gas/shale oil reservoirs.

Shameem Siddiqui is a chief adviser for the Halliburton C&P Digital Solutions group based in Houston. He has experience in reservoir characterization and numerical simulation. He earned an MS and a PhD in petroleum and natural gas engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

What Have We Learned About Fracturing Shales After 12 Years of Microseismic Mapping?

The international proliferation of shale and other unconventional reservoir development has focused attention on effective hydraulic fracture stimulation in many different settings for environmentally sound economic hydrocarbon extraction. This lecture will describe lessons learned from microseismic imaging of complex hydraulic fracture networks in shales and its impact on the design of multistage stimulation of horizontal wells.

Shawn Maxwell is Schlumberger’s microseismic technical adviser. He has more than 28 years of experience performing and interpreting microseismic data. He holds a PhD in microseismology from Queen’s University in Canada.

Development of Mature Oil Fields: Enhanced Oil Recovery Option

With the decrease in the possibility of discovering new giant oil fields, mature fields become critically important for meeting future oil demands. Special attention is required for identifying the proper diagnostic techniques to determine the reason for and the location of the unrecovered oil and prudential reservoir management techniques for economically viable redevelopment applications. In this lecture, after discussing methods to estimate the amount and location of the residual oil, attention will be given to the most widely applied enhanced oil recovery methods to develop mature fields—primarily chemical and immiscible/miscible gas injection. After reviewing mid- and late-stage development options using these methods, proper reservoir management strategies for different size companies will be discussed.

Tayfun Babadagli is a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Alberta where he is a senior chair holder of Unconventional Oil Recovery at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. He earned BS and MS degrees from Istanbul Technical University and MS and PhD degrees from the University of Southern California. Babadagli is the executive editor of SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering.

Well Deformation in Unconventional Resources

Stimulation processes in unconventional resources impose extreme loads on both producing formations and the wells used to access them. This lecture will examine the range of issues emerging from these processes and how the responses can be measured to help address the challenges and improve the performance of projects. This lecture will also focus on deformation mechanisms of unconventional resource development and demonstrate root causes of several deformation mechanisms. The topic extends beyond the well and how the well can be an instrument to gain insight into formation response to these new processes.

Trent Kaiser is a principal consultant at Noetic Engineering in Canada. A primary focus of his work has been on strain-based design for extreme oilfield applications. He is a lead developer and presenter of numerous training courses for unconventional resources. Kaiser earned BS, MS, and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering and has numerous publications, including more than 30 patents.

Optimized Shale Resource Development: Proper Placement of Wells and Hydraulic Fracture Stages

Shale resource development technology has been improved and optimized over the past 5 to 7 years as the industry saw a sharp rise in activity throughout North America and other emerging areas. Despite improvements and optimization, the performance of these wells illustrates that not all wells are producing commercially and, for that matter, in wells that are producing commercially, not all hydraulic fracture stages are contributing. In this lecture, well-defined criteria will be identified and used to isolate the sweet spot location within a field for optimal well placement. The lecture will also cover vital formation/zone characteristics that can identify the placement for hydraulic fracture stages and thus move away from arbitrary geometric placement. Examples from three basins illustrate the practical application of the methodology.

Usman Ahmed is vice president of unconventional resources global market segment and chief reservoir engineer at Baker Hughes. Ahmed has more than 30 years of practical petroleum engineering experience and holds a BS and MS in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M University. He has more than 70 publications, textbooks, and patents.

Monetizing Natural Gas by Optimizing Transport

Most natural gas reserves are considered stranded because of a lack of adequate and diversified transportation. Gas can be transported with on-land pipelines, but it becomes very expensive with underwater pipelines. The main alternative is liquefied natural gas. Other options include compressed natural gas and gas-to-liquids. This lecture presents new information from recent experiences and attempts to provide a methodology of technical and economic optimization for the transportation of natural gas. Worldwide demand for natural gas is expected to force the issue because of massive new needs headed by China.

Xiuli Wang is vice president and chief technology officer of XGas and an adjunct professor at the University of Houston. She is the lead author of the book, Advanced Natural Gas Engineering, and a contributing author to Modern Fracturing—Enhancing Natural Gas Production. Wang holds a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Houston.