Oilfield Review

Winter 2012/2013

Downhole Debris Recovery

Asphaltene Science
Fishing Techniques
Carbon Capture and Storage

13-OR-0001

The Future of CCS

Widely recognized in some quarters as a means to reduce
carbon dioxide [CO2] emissions to the atmosphere, the
practice of carbon capture, utilization and storage remains
largely unfamiliar to the general public. The utilization
component of the technology is familiar to those who have
worked in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations, but the
concept of deep-well injection and storage of dense-phase
CO2 is unknown to many regulators, elected ofcials and
the population at large. In addition, these practices present many unanswered questions, including those addressing how such practices affect the environment and
personal property or whether current understanding of the
science also predicts future CO2 storage behavior.
As a consequence, the road to popular acceptance and
widespread use of carbon capture and storage (CCS), independent of the oil eld, requires that demonstration eld
tests be performed over time. It is also imperative that
ndings from those tests be presented honestly and clearly
to the community. Proving the capacity for safe CO2 storage and containment and the effectiveness of geologic reservoirs and seals may be accomplished through the
development of test projects that are scalable to the volumes of CO2 emitted from commercial power plants. Early
projects such as those in Japan, Germany and Australia
injected up to about 100,000 metric tons [110,000 tonUS]
of CO2 using truck or pipeline delivery.
However, larger demonstration projects require pipeline
delivery of CO2 to an injection well at rates of about 0.25 to
1 million metric tons [0.28 to 1.1 million tonUS] or more
per year. The objective of these larger projects is to create
a CO2 plume in a target formation that may be monitored
effectively through well logging, chemical sampling, pressure and temperature monitoring, geophysical surveying
and other means.
In the US, the US Environmental Protection Agency
under the Underground Injection Control program, is promulgating regulations and associated guidance for the new
Class VI operational classication. The US Department of
Energy has had a program of multiple eld tests and demonstrations in place since 2003 under the Regional Carbon
Sequestration Partnership program, with several demonstration projects currently underway, including the 1 million metric ton demonstration at Decatur, Illinois, USA,
described in this issue (see CO2 SequestrationOne
Response to Emissions, page 36).
Regional geologic screening followed by careful site
characterization and selection constitute the foundation of
safe and effective CO2 storage. The objectives in this exploration process are to nd a porous and permeable reservoir
and a competent reservoir seal. Geophysical tools provide

the initial look at a subsurface volume, while drilling,

logging and coring conrm expectations of a suitable
reservoir-seal system.
Project operators and technical staff members have
gained considerable knowledge from the demonstration
projects underway today and have shared much of this
knowledge through conferences and peer reviews.
However, as regulators ask future-oriented questions about
reservoir simulation, groundwater ow modeling and other
predictive approaches, the industry will need a comprehensive knowledge-sharing framework that will answer
such questions and allow larger, commercial-scale projects
to proceed.
The public also has a role in the future of CCS, but in
some instances, project developers have not gained the
communitys condence. There is an ongoing need for open
and complete communication with the general public in a
way that understandably conveys the technical basis for
CCS. This consideration should not be overlooked during
project development and operation.
Although the portfolio of projects is not as diverse
today as may have been envisioned ve years ago, the
next generation of projectsassociated with hydrocarbon production, power generation and natural gas processingis being developed now. Implementation of CCS
in saline reservoirs is still in its infancy, but the results
to date are encouraging.
Oil and natural gas production industry technologies and
the experience of its personnel are essential for the success of CO2 injection and storage projects. Successful demonstration projects will apply and even advance oileld
industry technologies, and knowledge acquired during
project development and ongoing monitoring must be
transparent to the public. This transparency will gain the
condence of stakeholders outside the industry and is key
to ensuring the popular understanding that CCS is a viable
tool for climate change mitigation.
Robert J. Finley
Director, Advanced Energy Technology Initiative
Illinois State Geological Survey
Champaign, Illinois, USA
Robert J. Finley is a Director of the Advanced Energy Technology Initiative with
the Illinois State Geological Survey in Champaign, Illinois, USA. He has worked
in reservoir development for unrecovered oil and natural gas, with coalbed
methane and tight gas sandstone reservoir development in Texas and the Rocky
Mountains in the US and in reservoir development for carbon sequestration in
the Illinois basin. Robert earned a BS degree from City University of New York,
an MS degree from Syracuse University, New York, USA, and a PhD degree in
geology from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA.

Schlumberger

Oilfield Review
www.slb.com/oilfieldreview

Executive Editor
Lisa Stewart
Senior Editors
Tony Smithson
Matt Varhaug
Rick von Flatern

The Future of CCS

Editorial contributed by Robert J. Finley, Director, Advanced Energy Technology Initiative,

Illinois State Geological Survey

Editor
Richard Nolen-Hoeksema
Contributing Editors
David Allan
Ginger Oppenheimer
Rana Rottenberg
Don Williamson
Design/Production
Herring Design
Mike Messinger
Illustration
Chris Lockwood
Tom McNeff
Mike Messinger
George Stewart

Specialized Tools for Wellbore Debris Recovery

Wellbore completion operations often generate downhole

debris, including sand, perforating gun residue and metal
particulates. In addition, drillers frequently discover assorted
nuts, bolts, tools and other materials that have been accidentally dropped in the wellbore. Unless these materials are
removed, optimal well productivity may be compromised.
This article describes new tools and techniques for efcient
wellbore debris recovery.

Printing
RR DonnelleyWetmore Plant
Curtis Weeks

14 Revealing Reservoir Secrets Through

Asphaltene Science

On the cover:
Carbon sequestration is one approach
to managing greenhouse gas emissions.
Here, a derrickman handles drillpipe as
a rig captures cores of the Maquoketa
Shale in Illinois, USA. The shale is a
containment barrier within the Illinois
BasinDecatur Project carbon sequestration verication well. During construction
of a verication well in the nearby Illinois
Basin Carbon Capture and Sequestration
project (small inset), all casing strings
are cemented to the surface. Verication
wells are equipped with monitoring
systems to track carbon dioxide as it is
being injected underground during carbon
sequestration operations.
Rig photographs by Daniel Byers for
the Midwest Geological Sequestration
Consortium.

By combining downhole uid analysis with advances in

asphaltene science, oil companies are gaining a better
understanding of reservoir architecture. Downhole analysis
of asphaltenesthe heaviest components of petroleum
can help geoscientists determine asphaltene concentration
gradients, which in turn, can help operators ascertain the
presence of sealing barriers and assess the communication
and equilibrium of uids in complex reservoirs. Examples
from the Gulf of Mexico and the Middle East show how companies are using asphaltene gradient techniques to learn
more about reservoir connectivity and uid distribution.

About Oilfield Review

Oilfield Review, a Schlumberger journal,
communicates technical advances in
finding and producing hydrocarbons to
employees, customers and other oilfield
professionals. Contributors to articles
include industry professionals and experts
from around the world; those listed with
only geographic location are employees
of Schlumberger or its affiliates.

Oilfield Review is published quarterly and

printed in the USA.
Visit www.slb.com/oilfieldreview for
electronic copies of articles in English,
Spanish, Chinese and Russian.

2013 Schlumberger. All rights reserved.

Reproductions without permission are
strictly prohibited.
For a comprehensive dictionary of oilfield
terms, see the Schlumberger Oilfield
Glossary at www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com.

Winter 2012/2013
Volume 24
Number 4
ISSN 0923-1730

Advisory Panel

26 Landing the Big OneThe Art of Fishing

Hani Elshahawi
Shell Exploration and Production
Houston, Texas, USA

Second only to blowouts, one of the worst situations a

driller may encounter is the loss of equipment downhole.
Fishingthe art of recovering lost, damaged or stuck objects
from the boreholedraws on the experience, imagination
and innovation of the shing expert. This article describes
tools and strategies developed for dealing with items lost in
the wellbore.

Gretchen M. Gillis
Aramco Services Company
Houston, Texas
Roland Hamp
Woodside Energy Ltd.
Perth, Australia
Dilip M. Kale
ONGC Energy Centre
Delhi, India
George King
Apache Corporation
Houston, Texas

36 CO2 SequestrationOne Response to Emissions

One response to concerns that human activity is inuencing
climate has been to remove the CO2 from emissions created
when carbon-based fuels are burned and sequester it deep
underground. Upstream oil industry experts are uniquely
qualied to manage the selection, construction and monitoring of these complex injection projects.

49 Contributors
51 Coming in Oilfield Review
52 New Books
54 Defining Testing:
Well Testing Fundamentals
This is the eighth in a series of introductory articles describing basic concepts of the E&P industry.
56 Annual Index

Editorial correspondence
Oilfield Review
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Oilfield Review is pleased to welcome

Hani Elshahawi to its editorial advisory
panel. Hani is Deepwater Technology
Advisor at Shell in Houston. Previously,
he led FEAST, Shells Fluid Evaluation
and Sampling Technologies Center of
Excellence, where he was responsible
for the planning, execution and analysis
of global high-profile formation testing
and fluid sampling operations. With more
than 25 years of experience in the oil
industry, he has worked in both service
and operating companies in more than 10
countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East
and North America and has held various
positions in interpretation, consulting,
operations, marketing and product
development. Hani has lectured widely
in various areas of petrophysics, geosciences and petroleum engineering, holds
several patents and has written more
than 100 technical papers. He was the
20092010 president of the SPWLA
and a distinguished lecturer in 2010
and 2011. Hani attained a BS degree in
mechanical engineering and an MS
degree in petroleum engineering from
The University of Texas at Austin.

Specialized Tools for

Wellbore Debris Recovery

In the late 1700s, Giovanni Battista Venturi, an Italian physicist, described a

reduction in pressure when uid ows through a restriction. Now, engineers
are using this principle to design specialized wellbore cleaning systems capable
of performing critical debris recovery operations in some of the worlds most
challenging subsurface environments.

Brian Coll
Graeme Laws
M-I SWACO
Aberdeen, Scotland
Julie Jeanpert
Ravenna, Italy
Marco Sportelli
Eni SpA E&P Division
Ravenna, Italy
Charles Svoboda
Mark Trimble
M-I SWACO
Houston, Texas, USA
Oileld Review Winter 2012/2013: 24, no. 4.
Copyright 2013 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Kenneth
Simpkins, M-I SWACO, Houston.
FRAC-N-PAC, PURE and QUANTUM are marks of
Schlumberger.
HEAVY DUTY RAZOR BACK CCT, MAGNOSTAR, RIDGE BACK
BURR MILL, WELL PATROLLER and WELL SCAVENGER are
marks of M-I SWACO LLC.
1. Milling is the process of using a downhole tool to cut,
grind and remove material from equipment or tools in the
wellbore. Successful milling operations require selection
of milling tools, uids and techniques that are compatible
with the sh materials and wellbore conditions.
2. Connell P and Haughton DB: Removal of Debris from
Deepwater Wellbores Using Vectored Annulus Cleaning
Systems Reduces Problems and Saves Rig Time, paper
SPE 96440, presented at the SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition, Dallas, October 912, 2005.

Debris removal is a vital step in assuring the success of drilling or completion operations. Debris
removal involves the extraction of junk and
unwanted materials from a borehole or completed wellbore. Junk typically consists of small
pieces of downhole tools, bit cones, hand tools,
wireline, chain, metal cuttings from milling operations and an array of other debris. Although not
generally considered junk, sand and other materials used during completion, stimulation and
production operations often require removal
from the wellbore prior to production.
Because there are many types of debris, engineers have developed a variety of tools and techniques to facilitate debris removal from a
wellbore. This article focuses on the postdrilling
phase of well construction and issues related to
ridding the borehole of relatively small fragments
of debris such as metal cuttings, perforating gun
debris, small hardware and sand. The article
begins with a discussion on the sources of small
debris and then reviews various techniques available to remove these materials from the wellbore.
Case studies demonstrate how operators are
applying these new technologies in a variety of
completion environments to reduce risks, minimize downtime and improve well productivity.
Sources of Small Debris
The drill oor is a busy place, providing numerous opportunities for small items to inadvertently
fall into an open hole. In deepwater operations,
the surface opening at the riser pipe may have a
diameter of 1 m [3 ft], creating opportunities for
larger items to fall to the depths.

Wear pad

Grinding
face

> Typical junk mill. Junk mills are designed to grind

any type of material encountered downhole,
including bit cones, drillpipe, bridge plugs or
other objects. Wear pads provide stabilization
while the mill is grinding. Drillers deploy a variety
of grinding faces or tool congurations,
depending on the type of material to be milled.

Debris is also generated downhole by various

well operations. Often, drillers must mill hardware such as packers, liner tops and equipment
within the wellbore (above).1 Metal cuttings from
these operations are among the most common
type of debris found downhole. Circulation of
drilling, milling or completion uid transports
much of the metal debris to the surface. However,
some metal cuttings may still be left in the hole,
frequently in locations that cause problems during the completion or production process.2

Oileld Review

Winter 2012/2013

Perforating gun

New
perforations

Sand

Temporary packer

Open
perforations

> Protecting open perforations. To isolate open

perforations, which may be damaged by debris
from ongoing well operations in zones above the
perforations, drillers place sand on top of a
temporary packer. After operations in the upper
zone are completed, the sand and debris from
uphole are removed from the top of the packer;
the packer is then released and retrieved from
the wellbore.

During well completion, cased wells may be

perforated using an array of specialized explosive charges mounted on perforating guns.
When perforating guns are red, shaped charges
pierce the casing, cement sheath and formation.
A shot density of 33 shots/m [10 shots/ft] across
a producing zone may create hundreds of perforation tunnels; this perforation process generates a considerable amount of metal and
formation debris that needs to be cleared from
the wellbore.
Historically, fragments from explosive
charges, the casing, the cement and the formation were left in perforation tunnels, which may
cause a reduction in production efciency.
Postperforation analysis often showed that many
perforation tunnels were plugged and nonproductive. Developments in perforating technology, such as the PURE perforating system for
clean perforations, in conjunction with shaped
charges that generate minimal debris, allow
engineers to reduce this type of perforation tunnel damage.3 Although less debris remains in the
perforation tunnels using these techniques,
more debris may be deposited in the wellbore,
potentially fouling latching mechanisms on
retrievable bridge plugs or impeding the performance of completion hardware.
Certain materials are sometimes deliberately introduced into the wellbore, only to be
removed during subsequent cleanout operations. Stimulation operations typically use sand
to cover the top of temporary packers and open
perforations to protect them from damage while
drillers work in other locations within the wellbore (left). Once these operations are complete,
the sand must be removed before production
can commence. Other stimulation activities,
such as those used in conjunction with the
FRAC-N-PAC proppant exclusion system, intentionally place sand and synthetic proppant in
the wellbore to aid production.4 In all cases,
excess sand and proppant must be removed
prior to producing a well.
Regardless of precautions taken to keep a
wellbore and associated production equipment
free of debris, unwanted materials often nd
their way to problematic locations and increase
the risk of damaging completion equipment,
reducing production efciency and jeopardizing
the long-term viability of a well.5

Complexity of Design
Oil and gas wells are becoming more complex
and expensive to construct. To drill wells characterized by remote locations, deepwater settings or great drilling depths, operational
spread rates often reach US$ 1 million per day.
In the face of such increasing complexities and
to hold costs down, operators must make critical drilling and completion decisions. Risk analysis costs, as a result, are now considered on a per
minute basis, rather than per day.
With wellbore geometries and completion
designs becoming increasingly sophisticated,
engineers recognize that risk management,
improved efciency and optimized production
may require removal of debris that might have
once been considered inconsequential. Even
small amounts of debris have the potential to
limit production and cause completion failure.
Junk and small debris may create difculties
when operators run long and complex completion assemblies in deep and deviated wellbores.
In advanced completion designssuch as those
with production sleeves that selectively isolate
producing intervalssmall debris, including
metal fragments and sand, may plug or otherwise render production sleeves difcult to access
or operate.
Wells with tortuous trajectories are hard to
clean using conventional methods. Determining
optimal circulation rates is difcult when engineers must consider varying deviation, equivalent
circulating density (ECD) limitations, telescoping casing sizes and pump capacity limitations
(next page, top left). Even modest circulation
rates, in combination with viscous uids, risk lost
circulation from elevated ECDs. These complex
well environments demand new approaches.
3. Berss K, Stenhaug M, Doornbosch F, Langseth B,
Fimreite H and Parrott B: Perforations on Target,
Oileld Review 16, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 2837.
4. Gadiyar B, Meese C, Stimatz G, Morales H, Piedras J,
Pronet J and Watson G: Optimizing Frac Packs,
Oileld Review 16, no. 3 (Autumn 2004): 1829.
5. Haughton DB and Connell P: Reliable and Effective
Downhole Cleaning System for Debris and Junk
Removal, paper SPE 101727, presented at the SPE Asia
Pacic Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, Adelaide,
South Australia, Australia, September 1113, 2006.
6. Visual Physics, School of Physics, University of Sydney,
Australia: Fluid Flow, Ideal Fluid, Bernoullis Principle,
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/teach_res/jp/uids/
ow3.pdf (accessed September 16, 2012).

Oileld Review

Casing size

Suction

36 in.

Cement

28 in.

Pressure
drop area
Fluid
input

Fluid
output

Jet

Flow
22 in.

> Venturi effect. As uid passes through a ow constriction at high velocity,

it generates a localized pressure drop, thus creating suction, which can be
harnessed to vacuum debris.

Casing shoe

18 in.

Increasing hydraulic diameter

16 in.

13 5/8 in.

113/4 in.

9 5/8 in.

7 5/8

in.

, Annular ow rate and cleaning capacity. Most

wells use consecutive strings of casing, with
each subsequent string smaller in diameter than
the previous one, creating a telescoping effect.
In offshore deepwater wells, multiple strings of
casing are required to control subsurface
pressure and formation stress. The ability to
move debris from the bottom of the hole to the
top by circulation alone is a function of the uids
carrying capacity and is directly affected by the
uids annular velocity and viscoelastic
properties. However, as the uid moves uphole,
its velocity slows with each increase in casing
size and effective hydraulic diameter. This places
greater demand on the viscosity characteristics
of the uid to carry debris. Compensating for loss
of carrying capacity by increasing the viscosity
or velocity of the carrier uid may result in
increased equivalent circulating density, which
places greater hydraulic force on the formation
and may promote lost circulation. Achieving
satisfactory carrying capacity uphole while
keeping the well within ECD limitations downhole
is the drillers challenge. Because of this
problem, debris removal by conventional
methods can be difcult.

Open hole

Old ConceptNew Application

One approach to overcoming the risks of high
circulation ratesthe venturi vacuumhas
existed for centuries. In the late 1700s, Giovanni
Battista Venturi, an Italian physicist, described
the effect that came to be named after him. He
and Daniel Bernoulli, a Swiss mathematician
who worked in uid mechanics, are known for
discoveries that led to the development of the

Winter 2012/2013

venturi vacuum pump. Engineers and developers have used the venturi vacuum pump design
in many applications, from uid mixing systems
to health care and home maintenance equipment such as the common garden hose sprayer.
Today, engineers are applying this fundamental
principlethe venturi effectto design specialized wellbore cleaning systems capable of
performing debris removal operations in difcult subsurface environments.

The venturi effect can be described as a jetinduced vacuum. The laws of uid dynamics
described by Venturi and Bernoulli dictate that
ow velocity increases with a constriction of the
ow path diameter, satisfying the principle of
continuity, while a corresponding decrease in
pressure occurs, satisfying the principle of conservation of mechanical energy. A concurrent
drop in localized static pressure creates a vacuum (above).6
Venturi vacuum systems have numerous
advantages over conventional mechanical pumps.
Conventional mechanical vacuum systems typically have moving parts that can be troublesome:
Valves may become stuck, intake lters may
become clogged and motors are subject to failure.
Venturi pumps, by contrast, have few or no moving
parts and thus require little maintenance.
Debris from the Deep
Recently, engineers have used venturi vacuum
pumps to remove debris from difcult-to-reach
and problematic areas of wellbores. Multiple
designs have been developed, each with unique
features to meet an array of operational requirements. Several service companies, including
M-I SWACO, a Schlumberger company, offer
downhole debris recovery tools based on the venturi effect; some are congured to be used on
coiled tubing and others to be used on conventional workstrings.
The WELL SCAVENGER tool offers a modular
design that provides application exibility. The
upper module contains a single-nozzle uiddriven engine designed on the venturi principle.
Pressure from surface pumps generates an efcient, localized reverse-circulation ow that
achieves optimal lifting velocities without high

Engine

Jet

Conventional
flow

Low pressure
area generated by
the venturi effect

Engine module

Mixed
flow

Normal circulation
reversed
down the tool

Reverse
flow

Filtration
screen
Debrisscreening
module

Magnet
assembly

Debris
collection area

> WELL SCAVENGER tool module conguration.

Fluid owing through the WELL SCAVENGER
engine (top left) takes the following path:
Fluid owing from the surface through the jet
(downward green arrow) generates a lowpressure zone. The vacuum effect resulting
from this localized pressure drop causes
uid and debris to be pulled up through the
WELL SCAVENGER tool and then through the
center of the engine (upward red arrow). The
uid passes around the perimeter of the engine,
reverses direction proximal to the jet (curved red
arrows) and then ows out of the tool (black
arrows). Upon exiting the tool, a portion of the
uid travels up the hole to the surface (upward
green arrows), while the remainder travels back.
Prior to reaching the engine, debris-laden uid
passes through the lower collection chamber
(right). Once inside the tool, moving debris
interacts with the tools deector elements,
promoting settling into collection chambers.
When one chamber is full, the debris ows to
subsequent chambers. As debris-laden uid
passes up through the WELL SCAVENGER tool,
not all debris settles in the collection chambers.
Some debris passes on to the screening module,
where a magnet assembly attracts and collects
ferrous materials; the uid then passes through a
lter that removes residual nonferrous materials.

Debris
deflector

Debris
collection area
Debris
collection
modules
Lower debris
collection chamber
Debris
collection area

Debris and
fluid flow path

pump rates. This reverse ow causes debris to

ow up the inside the lower tubular and into the
collection chambers before it reaches the ferrous
collection chamber and then ows through the
ltration screen (left). The basic three-module
system can be augmented with an array of ancillary tools such as the MAGNOSTAR magnet
assembly, WELL PATROLLER downhole lter
tool, RIDGE BACK BURR MILL device and single
action bypass sub (SABS) to expand the scope of
work (next page).
Because debris removal tools are often
deployed in brine uids that inherently have limited solids carrying capacity, conventional techniques typically require high circulation rates or
viscous carrier uids to lift debris into capturing
baskets or chambers. These measures are not necessary with the WELL SCAVENGER tool. When
perforations are open and subject to lost circulation or damage, when pressure sensitive downhole
hardware is in place or when surface equipment
limitations make it impossible to achieve high
pump rates, the newer generation tools, such as
the WELL SCAVENGER device, offer engineers a
signicant advantage. M-I SWACO engineers use
proprietary ow regime software to determine the
surface pump rate required to recover the
expected debris without affecting downhole hardware or open perforations.
Depending on the volume of debris anticipated, engineers congure one or more debris
collection modules at the lower end of the workstring. Each module is designed with a debris collection area, a ow diverter and an inner ow
tube equipped with an internal centralizer to
provide strength and stability. The inner ow
tube provides the path for the reverse ow, and
the diverter encourages debris to fall out of the
uid and into the collection area as the uid
ows through each chamber.
The screening unit is tted above the debris
collection modules and below the engine. Fluid
ows up through the tool, passes over a magnet
assembly and then through a lter before exiting
the tool. The screen and magnet assemblies are
internally centralized for stability in deviated
wells. After cleanup, or when the system becomes
lled or plugged, the SABS tool can be opened,
allowing higher annular circulation rates, which
help clean residual debris located above the tool.
The WELL SCAVENGER tool is able to remove a
wide variety of debris types from wellbores,
including milling debris, bit teeth and cones,
sand, small hand tools and debris from perforating guns.

Oileld Review

MAGNOSTAR
tool

WELL PATROLLER
tool

RIDGE BACK BURR MILL

tool

SABS
tool

Fluid
flow
path

Vane
Fluid
diverter

Stabilizer
sleeve

Retractable
milling
ribs
Magnet
assembly
Filter

Circulating
ports

Actuation
ball

Ports closed

Ports open

> Wellbore cleanup tools. The MAGNOSTAR tool is a magnet assembly that collects ferrous debris as the debris stream passes the
tool. The vanes on the magnet assembly housing create a ow area for uid bypass around the tool while providing standoff from
the casing wall. The WELL PATROLLER tool is a downhole lter device that runs in the cleanup string. This device helps clean the
wellbore when running in the hole. The tool then lters any remaining debris from the annulus through a wire screen lter as the
assembly is pulled from the hole. The RIDGE BACK BURR MILL tool is a casing cleanup tool for perforated casing or liners. The tool
removes perforation burrs to ensure unrestricted passage of completion equipment downhole. Users have the ability to turn off the
RIDGE BACK BURR MILL after the milling and cleaning operation is complete. The driller circulates an actuation ball down to the
tool; the ball shifts an internal support sleeve to remove the expanding force on the milling ribs. The single action bypass sub (SABS)
allows drillers to boost the ow velocity in a casing string above a liner or casing crossover. The tool is run in the hole with its
circulating ports in the closed position (second from right). The driller drops an actuation ball to open the circulating ports (right).
This action redirects and reverses uid ow from down the toolstring to bypass the string, thus removing ow restrictions, allowing
an increase in pump rate and establishing higher annular velocity. To close the ports, the driller drops a second actuation ball.

At the surface, safe handling of the recovery

tools loaded with debris is essential, especially
when they have been exposed to zinc bromide
and other completion uids characterized by
elevated HSE risks. To address these concerns,
the WELL SCAVENGER tool modules are tted
with sealed lifting caps designed to contain
recovered materials during tool extraction at
the surface.

Winter 2012/2013

Sand and Gun Debris Removal

Operators typically set temporary bridge plugs
above productive zones while performing operations such as reperforating upper zones. In addition, sand or ceramic proppant is typically placed
on top of temporary plugs to provide additional
protection to upward facing latching mechanisms
that release and retrieve the temporary plugs.

In 2011, Eni SpA used QUANTUM gravel-pack

BA packer plugs to carry out multizone gravelpack completion operations in a series of wells in
the Adriatic Sea offshore Italy. After the plugs
were set, drillers spotted sand on top of each one
to protect the plugs from gun and formation
debris generated while perforating the zone
above. On completion of perforating operations,

Zone

Depth, top

Depth, base

Zone length

Shots

1,782 m [5,846 ft]

1,794 m [5,886 ft]

12 m [39 ft]

472

1,640 m [5,381 ft]

1,648 m [5,407 ft]

8 m [26 ft]

315

1,522 m [4,993 ft]

1,546 m [5,072 ft]

24 m [79 ft]

964

1,471 m [4,826 ft]

1,480 m [4,856 ft]

9 m [30 ft]

354

> Intervals perforated in an Adriatic Sea well.

the WELL SCAVENGER tool was run in the hole

and successfully cleaned the sand and the gun
debris from the top of each packer.
M-I SWACO engineers in Aberdeen worked
with Schlumberger engineers in Ravenna, Italy,
to carefully plan each completion. The operator
used 1.3 g/cm3 [10.8 lbm/galUS] of calcium
chloride [CaCl2] completion uid in the wellbore
and spotted 20 liters [5.3 galUS] of 2.7-g/cm3
[22.5-lbm/galUS] ceramic proppant on top of
each temporary packer prior to perforating shallower zones. The rst well, which was vertical, was
perforated with 39 shots/m [12 shots/ft] (above).
After each zone was perforated, the driller ran
a WELL SCAVENGER tool and washover shoe in
the hole to remove excess ceramic proppant and
clear the packer retrieval latching mechanism.
On the rst run, the top of the debris was
located with the WELL SCAVENGER tool; no circulation was initiated, thus allowing the washover shoe to slide over the debris and land on the

packer plug. The sand and debris were successfully removed and the temporary plug retrieved
without incident. However, to reduce the risk of
the tool becoming stuck in the sand or damaging
the packer, engineers chose to initiate circulation approximately 30 m [100 ft] above the anticipated top of the sand pill on future runs.
In each well, after positioning the washover
shoe on the packer plug, the driller circulated
one and one-half to three annular volumes to
assist in overall debris cleanout. The WELL
SCAVENGER tool cleared each sand pill in an
average of 25 minutes. Based on total nonferrous debris recovery, 16 kg [35 lbm] wet weight,
or approximately 65% of the ceramic sand, was
pumped through the lter screen and out of the
wellbore. Gun debris and larger sand particles
were retained in the collection chambers, and
ferrous materials were collected on the lter
module magnet assembly (below). The crews
handled, cleaned, inspected and prepared

> Collecting wellbore debris in the Adriatic Sea. The WELL SCAVENGER magnet assembly attracts
ferrous debris, which has circulated up through the WELL SCAVENGER tool (A). Ceramic debris (B)
and perforating gun residue (C) were recovered from the debris collection chambers.

10

debris chambers for rerun in subsequent bottomhole assemblies (BHAs).

Similar operations were conducted on two
subsequent wells; the third well was deviated
24. Using the WELL SCAVENGER tool, drillers
successfully removed the sand and the gun
debris in all 12 runs, allowing each packer to be
retrieved without incident.
Debris in Pressure Sensitive Areas
Accumulations of sand and other small debris
on top of packers can make the packers difcult
to retrieve. Similarly, these materials can interfere with the operation of other downhole
mechanical hardware such as formation isolation
valves (FIVs). Because these valves are pressure
activated, debris removal techniques must
ensure minimal localized pressure changes. The
WELL SCAVENGER single-nozzle venturi engine
provides debris removal at low circulation rates,
thus minimizing pressure changes near an FIV. In
a typical FIV cleanup operation, the BHA comprises WELL SCAVENGER system components
and one or more complementary wellbore
cleanup tools such as the MAGNOSTAR tool and
the WELL PATROLLER tool (next page, left).
In 2012, a major international operator in the
UK sector of the North Sea planned a targeted
cleanup above an FIV. Conventional tools that
require high ow rates may cause problems
when they clean the area near the FIV. These
conditions increase the risk of accidental valve
actuation or damage to components of the completion assembly.
For optimal tool performance, the bullnose on
the bottom of the WELL SCAVENGER tool should
be placed 0.3 to 1 m [1 to 3 ft] above the FIV actuation ball. In this case, a 7 1/8 -in. landing sub
achieved this spacing, thus reducing the risk of
damage to the FIV from accidental contact.
In this operation, the WELL SCAVENGER
tool was run in the hole until the bullnose was
approximately 6 m [20 ft] above the FIV actuation ball. The driller began pumping at a predetermined rate of 4 bbl/min [0.6 m3/min] while
slowly running the tool in the hole. When the
bullnose was approximately 0.75 m [2.5 ft]
above the FIV actuation ball, the engineer
increased the pump rates slightly to 6 bbl/min
[0.95 m3/min], which ensured optimal cleaning
around the FIV ball area without risking damage
to the downhole hardware.
After pumping for 30 minutes, the rig crew
retrieved the tool to the surface. The debris chambers had collected a total of 11.8 kg [26 lbm] of

Oileld Review

Workstring

SABS tool

MAGNOSTAR
tool

WELL PATROLLER
tool

WELL SCAVENGER
engine and debrisscreening module

Debris collection
chambers

No-go
locator
Wash pipe
Mule shoe

> Conguring the WELL SCAVENGER tool for

formation isolation valves debris removal. Tools
may be congured to clean in sensitive areas
near FIVs. In this case, a WELL PATROLLER tool,
MAGNOSTAR magnet assembly and SABS tool
were run above the WELL SCAVENGER tool to
ensure debris removal from the wellbore. A
no-go locator limits downward movement of the
workstring into the completion assembly.

Winter 2012/2013

assorted nonferrous debris consisting mainly of

sand and small pieces of rubber. Crews recovered
an additional 0.91 kg [2 lbm] of ferrous debris
from the internal magnet section of the tool.
The operator originally intended to operate
the FIV within a relatively short period after
cleanup. However, the well was temporarily suspended. Although nal conrmation of cleanup
cannot be veried until the valve is operated, the
successful placement of the WELL SCAVENGER
tool close to the FIV, combined with the amount
of debris recovered, implied a successful operation. The company intends to return to this well
in the near future.
Gravel-packed wellbores, particularly those
with low reservoir pressure and that are subject
to lost circulation, may also be easily damaged by
debris removal techniques. Sand and other small
debris may accumulate inside the gravel-pack
screens and impede production. In recompletion
operations, operators often need to remove these
materials from the inside of delicate screens to
improve production rates.
For completion engineers, the inability to circulate completion brine in low-pressure reservoirs limits debris recovery options. One of the
unique features of the WELL SCAVENGER tool is
its ability to recover downhole debris at low circulation rates, making it an ideal solution for
these difcult applications.
This was precisely the situation in 2012, when
an operator working on the North Slope of Alaska,
USA, needed to recomplete an openhole gravelpacked well that began experiencing production
declines. Engineers theorized that sand building
up inside the gravel pack screens was choking off
production. But when the well was reentered, low
reservoir pressures resulted in loss of returns
as workover crews attempted to circulate with
1.02-g/cm3 [8.5-lbm/galUS] ltered water. Engineers
at M-I SWACO recommended cleaning the 9 5/8-in.
casing to the top of the gravel-pack assembly at
around 4,300 ft [1,300 m] and then running the
WELL SCAVENGER assembly into the openhole
gravel-pack assembly to clean out debris to a total
depth of approximately 5,000 ft [1,500 m].
To protect the openhole gravel pack while
cleaning and logging the upper 9 5/8-in. casing, a
temporary packer was placed just above the
lower completion assembly. Next, 1,000 lbm
[454 kg] of sand was placed on top of the packer
to protect the release mechanism from falling
debris during upper casing cleanout. After the
casing was cleaned and the well logged, the sand
was circulated to the surface and the temporary
packer was successfully retrieved.

Workstring

SABS tool

WELL SCAVENGER
engine and debrisscreening module

Debris collection
chambers

21 joints
of workstring

Mule shoe

> Cleaning the inside of gravel-pack screens. The

WELL SCAVENGER assembly is congured to run
inside gravel-pack screen assemblies. Four debris
collection chambers and 21 joints of workstring
are assembled below the engine; these
components are small enough to be inserted
inside the gravel-pack screen assembly. In this
case, the engine and debris collection chambers
sit above the top of the gravel-pack screens during
debris removal. After the tool removes the debris,
the driller pulls the tool assembly to the liner top
and the SABS tool is opened, which allows
increased annular circulation rates and ensures
that any residual debris in the annular space is
removed to the surface.

The M-I SWACO crew ran WELL SCAVENGER

tools in the hole at 3 ft/min [1 m/min] while
pumping at 4 bbl/min [0.6 m3/min] (above).
Surface pump rates were maintained at the low

11

end of the tools optimal range, minimizing loss of

returns. After the driller circulated down each
stand, the pump rates were increased to 7 bbl/min
[1.1 m3/min] for ve minutes. The tool reached
the targeted depth in one run. The workover crew

Recovered Debris

recovered 14.5 lbm [6.6 kg] of formation sand,

rubber and metal debris from the gravel-pack
screens (below). Following successful debris
recovery from inside the gravel-pack screens, the
operator continued well recompletion operations.

Close-Up View

> Assorted debris removed from the depths. Drillers sealed the WELL SCAVENGER debris chambers as
the tool was removed from a well on the North Slope of Alaska. When opened later at the M-I SWACO
facility, the four collection chambers contained various materials, including a mix of formation sand,
rubber pieces and ferrous material. A pen, not retrieved from the hole, illustrates relative size.

12

Milling Debris Removal

Drillers use milling techniques for various well
operations such as cutting windows in casing,
smoothing burrs and edges on the top of tools and
grinding plugs and packers into small pieces so
that they can be circulated out of the wellbore.
In 2010, a major operator working in the Gulf
of Mexico planned to remove a cast-iron bridge
plug (CIBP) from the wellbore. Before the CIBP
could be milled, the operator had to remove 200 ft
[60 m] of cement that had been placed on the top
of the plug. The driller ran into the hole with an
8 1/2-in. roller cone bit and located the top of the
cement at approximately 800 ft [240 m]. During
drilling operations, a bit cone was lost in the hole.
The driller pulled the damaged bit from the hole
and then ran back in with a mill but was unable to
grind up the errant bit cone. To minimize additional
lost rig time, the operator sought a solution that
could remove the bit cone and mill the CIBP in a
single trip. M-I SWACO engineers recommended
the WELL SCAVENGER tool with a special BHA to
meet the companys objectives in a single trip.
The BHA comprised two pieces: a washover
shoedressed with a smooth exterior, rough
interior and rough leading edgeand a wash
pipe extension dressed with two rows of nger
baskets. Cable ngers were inserted to help capture the bit cone. The BHA allowed 16.5 ft [5 m]
between the bottom of the WELL SCAVENGER
tool and the leading edge of the shoe.
The driller tripped into the hole and located
the top of the CIBP, broke circulation and began
milling the plug. Operating the mill at 80 rpm,
the shing supervisor milled the CIBP in about
ve hours with 1,000 to 6,000 lbf [4,450 to
26,700 N] of weight on the tool and 1,000 to
3,000 lbf.ft [1,356 to 4,067 N.m] of torque. When
the total interval of 2.0 ft [0.6 m] was milled, the
rig crew pulled the BHA to the surface. The tool
had collected between 12 and 15 lbm [5.4 and
6.8 kg] of metallic debris. Larger items that could
not enter the WELL SCAVENGER tool were found
inside the cable ngers and below the nger basket. These included the bit cone, cone rings,
packer rubber and other CIBP components.
Based on the amount of accumulated material,
technicians determined that most of the debris
had been removed from the wellbore.
Despite the inferior lifting properties of the
seawater-base drilling uid used in the wellbore,
the WELL SCAVENGER debris recovery system
removed the bit cone and debris associated with
milling the CIBP. Drillers successfully tripped
into the hole and retrieved the remaining tool
elements with no interference from debris or
junk, thus avoiding the cost of additional trips.

Oileld Review

A nal run made with the three MAGNOSTAR

tools yielded an additional 145 lbm [66 kg] of ferrous debris. After clearing most of the debris
from the wellbore, the driller was able to run in
the hole with a polish mill to clean the lower
packer bore. M-I SWACO tools removed a total of
1,817 lbm [824 kg] of ferrous and nonferrous
debris from the wellbore.

> Recovering ferrous debris. The vanes of the MAGNOSTAR tool are covered with ferrous debris,
which has been recovered from the well after milling operations. Debris removed from the tool (inset)
is laid out for inspection on the drill oor. A ruler, not recovered from the borehole, shows the scale of
the debris.

Removing Stuck Packers

Drillers and engineers make every effort to minimize operational risks. Despite these efforts,
drillstrings become stuck, completion assemblies
fail to reach their objectives and junk winds up in
the wellbore. A major operator working on the
North Slope of Alaska recently experienced such
an event.
While the operator was running a packer in
9 5/8-in. casing, the packer set prematurely at
8,184 ft [2,494 m]. Previously, the operator had
set a packer with a stinger assembly attached at
approximately 10,100 ft [3,078 m]. Once the
stuck packer was drilled out, the wellbore had to
be cleaned down to the top of the deeper packer
before the driller could resume further recompletion operations.
Debris removal was complicated by the wells
80 deviation from approximately 2,500 ft [762 m]
to total depth. After a competitors boot basket
retrieval tool yielded very little debris in two
runs, engineers from the M-I SWACO specialized
tools group in Alaska and Houston recommended
a specially modied BHA combined with the
WELL SCAVENGER tool and several highcapacity MAGNOSTAR tools.

Winter 2012/2013

The BHA included 90 ft [27 m] of wash pipe, a

HEAVY DUTY RAZOR BACK CCT casing scraper,
the MAGNOSTAR tools, the WELL SCAVENGER
tool and the SABS circulating sub. After the tools
reached a depth of 6,200 ft [1,890 m], a large
accumulation of debris on the lower side of the
wellbore hindered progress. Through continuous
circulation and near-constant pipe movement,
the driller was able to push the tool assembly to
6,280 ft [1,914 m]. The tools were then pulled
from the hole. Once the tools were on the surface,
technicians recovered 184 lbm [83 kg] of ferrous
debris from the MAGNOSTAR tools (above).
While technicians cleaned the MAGNOSTAR
tools, the driller ran back into the hole with a competitors boot basket shing tool and magnet
assembly. When the tool was pulled from the hole,
technicians recovered a packer slip and 20 lbm
[9 kg] of ferrous debris. A second run of the
WELL SCAVENGER assembly included three
MAGNOSTAR tools. This run yielded an additional
287 lbm [130 kg] of ferrous debris on the
MAGNOSTAR tools and 1,033 lbm [469 kg] of sand
and silt along with 168 lbm [76 kg] of ferrous
debris recovered from the WELL SCAVENGER tool
collection chambers.

Rapidly Evolving Tool Development

Complicated completions, complex borehole congurations and high rig-time costs are leading
engineers to identify new applications for the
WELL SCAVENGER assembly and associated
debris removal tools. Because of new debris
recovery tools and techniques, drillers are now
better able to remove materials intentionally
placed downhole or items accidentally lost in the
wellbore. Tool combinations are evolving to
address a broader array of completion and debris
recovery needs. The evolution in debris recovery
tool designs is reducing risks, cutting costs and
improving well productivity.
Ongoing design work further enhances the
range and scope of debris recovery tools used at
great depths. Given the increasing cost of rig time,
especially in deepwater settings, engineers are
focusing on the development of systems that allow
debris recovery to be combined with other well
operations in a single tool run. For example, eld
tests have shown that debris recovery and milling
tools can be combined with packer retrieval hardware to deburr casing perforations, recover the
generated debris and remove a temporary packer
all in a single tool run, thus improving operational
efciency and reducing costs. Other developments are underway to help operators recover
debris in low-pressure, lost circulation environments, setting the bar for successful completions
in increasingly challenging situations.
DW

13

A. Ballard Andrews
Oliver C. Mullins
Andrew E. Pomerantz
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Revealing Reservoir Secrets Through

Asphaltene Science

Chengli Dong
Hani Elshahawi
Shell Exploration and Production
Houston, Texas, USA

Downhole uid analysis of the heaviest components of petroleum can help unlock

David Petro
Marathon Oil Corporation
Houston, Texas
Douglas J. Seifert
Saudi Aramco
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

information about reservoir structure. Understanding how asphaltenes associate in

oil columns permits scientists and engineers to use asphaltene concentration
gradients to determine the presence of sealing barriers. Production results have
conrmed the validity of this approach, which is being extended to address the
structure and dynamics of uids in complex reservoirs.

Murat Zeybek
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Oileld Review Winter 2012/2013: 24, no. 4.

Copyright 2013 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to John Mainstone,
The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
InSitu Fluid Analyzer, LFA and MDT are marks of
Schlumberger.
INTERSECT is a joint mark of Schlumberger, Chevron
and Total.
1. Yen TF and Chilingarian GV (eds): Asphaltenes and
Asphalts, 2. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science BV,
Developments in Petroleum Science, 40B, 2000.
2. Kabir CS and Jamaluddin AKM: Asphaltene
Characterization and Mitigation in South Kuwaits Marrat
Reservoir, paper SPE 80285, presented at the SPE
Middle East Oil Show and Conference, Bahrain,
February 2023, 1999.
3. Allan D and Davis PE: Rening ReviewA Look Behind
the Fence, Oileld Review 19, no. 2 (Summer 2007): 1421.
4. Elshahawi H, Mullins OC, Hows M, Colacelli S,
Flannery M, Zuo J and Dong C: Reservoir Fluid Analysis
as a Proxy for Connectivity in Deepwater Reservoirs,
Petrophysics 51, no. 2 (April 2010): 7588.
5. This classication is typically labeled a SARA
analysissaturates, aromatics, resins and asphaltenes.
For more: Akbarzadeh K, Hammami A, Kharrat A,
Zhang D, Allenson S, Creek J, Kabir S, Jamaluddin A,
Marshall AG, Rodgers RP, Mullins OC and Solbakken T:
AsphaltenesProblematic but Rich in Potential,
Oileld Review 19, no. 2 (Summer 2007): 2243.
6. Black oil is used in reservoir modeling to describe oil in
place. The conventional black oil model uses three
components: water, oil and gas. For more on black oil
modeling: Huan G: The Black Oil Model for a Heavy Oil
Reservoir, paper SPE 14853, prepared for presentation at
the SPE International Meeting on Petroleum Engineering,
Beijing, March 1720, 1986.
7. Mullins OC: The Physics of Reservoir Fluids. Sugar Land,
Texas, USA: Schlumberger, 2008.
Zuo JY, Freed D, Mullins OC, Zhang D and Gisolf A:
Interpretation of DFA Color Gradients in Oil Columns
Using the Flory-Huggins Solubility Model, paper
SPE 130305, presented at the CPS/SPE International
Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, Beijing,
June 810, 2010.

14

Long before scientists grappled with the heaviest

component of petroleumasphalthumans
were putting it to use. In the ancient world,
Babylonians used asphalt as mortar, and
Egyptians employed it for mummication.1
Asphalts ability to preserve and bind has been
carried through the intervening centuries to a
host of current applications that include paving,
roong, waterproong and insulation.

In the oil eld, the utility of asphalt is less

clear. Asphaltenes, the primary component of
asphalt, tar or bitumen, can create ow assurance problems in the formation, production tubing and pipeline.2 Additionally, crudes with high
asphaltene levels are less valuable on world markets; their hydrogen deciency limits their yield
of liquid hydrocarbons and their sulfur and metal
content creates problems for rening.3

Bubblepoint
Dewpoint
Formation conditions
Critical point

500

Increasing
composition
gradients

400

Pressure, bar

Julian Y. Zuo
Sugar Land, Texas

300

200

Liquid

Two-phase region

Vapor

100
0
100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Temperature, K

> Reservoir gradients. Measurements on a condensate oil from a reservoir

in Norway show that the formation pressure and temperature at the gas/oil
contact zone lie on an equation of state (EOS)generated bubblepoint line
dividing the liquid and two-phase regions. Composition data on reservoir
uids from this eld show large gradients. Composition gradients in the
reservoir depend on uid conditions, and as the reservoir temperature and
pressure approach the bubblepoint line and critical point, large
composition gradients develop.

Oileld Review

The high cost of offshore operations and the

trend toward deeper wells worldwide have
renewed the imperative for understanding reservoir uids at a molecular level. Operators can no
longer afford to view reservoirs as homogeneous
tanks of oil and gas. In addition to knowing uid
composition, they must also be able to assess reservoir connectivity, particularly when costs dictate a limited number of wells. Imaging and
pressure surveys are often insufcient to completely assess oil drainage patterns, so operators
are turning to downhole uid analysis (DFA) and
asphaltene science to better understand reservoir structures.4
In the recent past, operators characterized
oil in reservoirs with a few parameters such as
specic gravity, gas/oil ratio (GOR) and a simple
chemical classication of the bulk oil.5 However,

Winter 2012/2013

DFA measurements on oil columns from around

the world reveal that reservoir uids present a
much more complex picture, both vertically in
the oil column and laterally across the eld. Such
results, coupled with decades of analytical
research, are yielding a more complete picture of
asphaltene physical forms in the reservoir. These
research advances explain how and under what
conditions asphaltenes associate with each other
and allow all components of the reservoir uid
mixgas, liquids and solidsto be described by
equations based on thermodynamic principles.
The end result of this work enables use of predicted and observed asphaltene concentration
gradients to conrm or disprove uid drainage
connectivity in an oil column.
This article focuses on new asphaltene science and covers its origins, development and
uses. Cases from deepwater Gulf of Mexico and

Middle Eastern elds illustrate how these developments are helping oileld scientists and engineers learn more about connectivity in reservoirs
and the distribution of gases, liquids and solids in
the uids contained therein.
Reservoir FluidsA Complex Picture
A beaker of petroleum on a laboratory bench or
an open hatch on a stock tank presents a deceptively simple view of underground uidsthat an
entire reservoir consists of only black oil and gas.6
Fluid property gradients, where present because
of reservoir conditions, may appear to affect only
the GOR. However, this view is inaccurate
because at actual reservoir conditions, composition gradients can exist not only for the GOR, but
also for asphaltenes and the individual components of the oil (previous page).7

15

Asphaltenes in petroleum have been a focus

of study by oileld engineers and scientists for
decades. Much about asphaltenes has seemed
complex and inconclusive. Interest in these
compounds has taken on several dimensions
over time. In the early years of the industry,
downstream research was centered on optimizing uses for the asphalt by-products from rening operations. In the last half of the twentieth
century, that focus turned toward efcient conversion of heavy ends and their asphaltene component as reners sought to maximize the
production of transportation fuels. In upstream
exploration and production, the focus on
asphaltenes has almost always been on mitigating and avoiding their negative impacts. These
impacts include formation plugging because of
precipitation and the effects of high viscosity
during production and transportation (below).8
However, new science developed over the last

Asphaltenes,
deasphalted oils
Pal-Rhodes
viscosity model
109

Viscosity, Pa.s at 60C

108
107
106
105
104
103
102
101
0

10

20

30

40

50

Hexane asphaltenes, wt %

> Asphaltene viscosity. In 1927, researchers at

The University of Queensland, Australia, heated
a sample of pitch, or asphalt, and placed it in a
funnel that was subsequently sealed (inset). The
asphalt was allowed to settle for three years at
room temperature before researchers cut the
funnel stem. Since that date, the asphalt has
dripped from the funnel, averaging one drop
every nine to ten years. In 2002, the ninth drop
was starting to form. While the viscosity of
heavy oils is not nearly as high as that of
asphalt, viscosity rises sharply with increasing
asphaltene content. Data on asphaltenes and
deasphalted oil from several crudes show a
rapid increase in viscosity with rising hexane
asphaltene content that spans six orders of
magnitude in viscosity. These data are
represented by a Pal-Rhodes viscosity model.
(Photograph courtesy of JS Mainstone, The
University of Queensland).

16

Property

Reported Values, 1998 Reported Values, 2009

103 to 106 g/mol

750 g/mol

Number of PAHs per asphaltene

1 to 20

1 dominates

Number of fused rings per

asphaltene PAH

2 to 20

7 (average)

unknown

Mean asphaltene molecular weight

Number of PAH stacks

in a nanoaggregate

> Asphaltene properties. During the past decade, advances in analytical

science have allowed a more consistent picture of asphaltene structure to
emerge. Estimates for the mean asphaltene molecular weight have been
reduced by several orders of magnitude and are now about 750 g/mol, and
the range is signicantly tighter. Similarly, scientists now know the median
number of fused rings per asphaltene polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is
about seven, with one PAH per molecule dominating. In addition, the
number of PAH stacks in an asphaltene nanoaggregate, unknown a decade
ago, is one. All of these developments have allowed researchers to
establish consistent physical models regarding asphaltene molecules and
to show how they associate with one another in reservoir uids.

decade has shown that asphaltene gradients in

the reservoir can provide valuable insights
about reservoir structure.
Asphaltenes found in reservoir uids are a
complex molecular mixture of particles colloidally suspended in oil that have no single chemical identity. They are usually dened as a solubility
classthat is, those molecules that are insoluble
in n-heptane but soluble in toluene. Asphaltene
molecules are typically condensed aromatic rings
that can contain heteroatoms such as nitrogen
and sulfur as well as metals such as nickel and
vanadium. Almost every chemical property of
asphaltenes has been the subject of signicant
debate, except for their elemental composition.
An early controversy centered on the nature of
the covalently bound chemical groups versus
those that are associated in noncovalent aggregates.9 The wide range of molecular weights
obtained at that time1,700 to 500,000 g/mol
8. Mullins, reference 7.
Edgeworth R, Dalton BJ and Parnell T: The Pitch Drop
Experiment, European Journal of Physics 5, no. 4
(October 1984): 198200.
9. Dickie JP and Yen TF: Macrostructures of the Asphaltic
Fractions by Various Instrumental Methods, Analytical
Chemistry 39, no. 14 (December 1967): 18471852.
10. Mullins OC: The Modied Yen Model,
Energy & Fuels 24 (January 2010): 21792207.
11. Creek J, Cribbs M, Dong C, Mullins OC, Elshahawi H,
Hegeman P, OKeefe M, Peters K and Zuo JY:
Downhole Fluids Laboratory, Oileld Review 21, no. 4
(Winter 2009/2010): 3854.

was attributed to varying aggregate sizes. Over

the last decade, research on asphaltenes has
encompassed multiple branches of analytical
chemical science to produce a much clearer picture of asphaltene properties and how individual
asphaltene molecules associate to form larger
particles (above).10
Downhole Fluid Analysis
Downhole uid analysis helps scientists and engineers examine reservoir uids in their native
environment. The DFA concept has evolved from
a technique for uid identication via openhole
sample acquisition to a means of analyzing reservoir uids and their spatial variations at formation conditions in real time. The concept is
simple: Following drilling, a cylindrical sampling
and analysis module is lowered into a well on
wireline, and uids are collected from the formation. This tool, the MDT modular formation
12. Optical density, measured by MDT spectroscopy, is
calculated from the degree of absorption in the visible
and near-infrared portion of the frequency bandfrom
wavelengths of about 400 to 2,000 nm. Components of
reservoir uids, such as asphaltenes, have
characteristic absorptions in this range that reect their
molecular structures. Optical density gives a
dimensionless numerical value to the color
characteristics of these uids. For more on downhole
optical density applications: Creek et al, reference 11.
13. Mullins OC, Andrews AB, Pomerantz AE, Dong C, Zuo JY,
Pfeiffer T, Latifzai AS, Elshahawi H, Barr L and Larter S:
Impact of Asphaltene Nanoscience on Understanding
Oileld Reservoirs, paper SPE 146649, presented at the
SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition,
Denver, October 30November 2, 2011.

Oileld Review

Sample modules

InSitu Fluid Analyzer

system

Pump 1

Focused probe

LFA live fluid

analyzer system

Pump 2

> Modular formation dynamics tester. The MDT tool (above) contains a complex array of
instrumentation for downhole sampling and analysis. In a typical conguration (right), the MDT tool
components include a section for storing samples in addition to an InSitu Fluid Analyzer system and
LFA live uid analyzer system for real-time downhole uid analysis. Reservoir uids enter the tool at
the formation probe and are pumped in two directionsupward toward the InSitu Fluid Analyzer tool
and downward toward the LFA module. The InSitu Fluid Analyzer tool contains two spectrometers and
a uorescence detector for analysis of hydrocarbons, CO2, pH and uid color; it also contains
instruments for measuring density, resistivity, pressure and temperature. Reservoir uid from the
sampling probe that is pumped downward passes through the LFA module. This device employs an
absorption spectrometer to quantify and monitor the amount of reservoir and drilling uids that are
present. A gas refractometer (not shown) in the tool differentiates between gas and liquids.

X,200
X,300

Vertical depth, m

dynamics tester, contains a probe for sampling

reservoir uids and an array of sensors for analyzing the sampled uids on a real-time basis
(above). An MDT tool congured for DFA can provide a long list of reservoir data ranging from general properties such as GOR and pressure and
temperature at depth to specic attributes such
as density, composition and miscible sample contamination by nonaqueous drilling uids.11 In
addition to determining GOR and other properties, the MDT tool uses spectroscopy to measure
optical densityessentially oil colorwhich is
directly proportional to asphaltene concentra-

Winter 2012/2013

tion.12 Fluid property variations interpreted from

DFA measurements made at several depth stations in a well can sometimes indicate nearby
sealing barriers (right).13
Identifying compartments in a reservoir is not
as challenging as assessing oil drainage connectivity within those compartments, especially
before production. Static pressure surveys may
fail to nd hard-to-image sealing barriers before
production starts because pressure equilibrium
and composition equilibrium are achieved over
different time scales. Composition equilibrium is
achieved slowly, and the difference between the

X,400

Possible sealing barrier

X,500
X,600
X,700
X,800
1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

GOR, ft3/bbl

> Sealing barriers. Using DFA to reveal the

presence of uid density inversions can
sometimes help identify sealing barriers in a
reservoir. GOR data for two depth zones in an oil
column illustrate this concept. Using GOR as a
proxy for density in this column, scientists found a
low-GOR, high-density uid at Point A (left), above
a high-GOR, low-density uid at Point B (right).
This nding indicates the possible presence of a
sealing barrier between the two zones.

17

109
108

Pressure
Fluid density

Time to reach equilibration, years

107

Methane
106

Heavy fraction

105
104
103
102
101
1
0

Black oil

Volatile oil Condensate

Gas

> Reservoir equilibration. Reservoir modeling gives insight to the time

required to reach equilibration. Modeling of a tilted sheet reservoir
with a low-permeability zone in the center shows that uid composition
equilibrationmeasured by density, methane or heavy fraction
is seven to eight orders of magnitude slower than the corresponding
pressure equilibration.

time to reach pressure equilibrium and that to

reach composition equilibrium for the heaviest
fraction of crude can be several orders of magnitude (above).14 Massive uid migration in the reservoir is required to achieve compositional
equilibration, and for this to occur, there must be
good reservoir connectivity. In contrast, pressure
equilibration can be achieved with very small
mass transfer, which can occur through leaky
seals. Consequently, pressure equilibration is a

Molecule

necessary but insufcient condition to establish

connectivity in the reservoir.
Nearly equilibrated asphaltene concentration
gradients between two zones are indicative of
connectivity. However, before that concept can
be implemented on a practical basis, it is necessary to have a model for asphaltenes that
accounts for their thermodynamic characteristics and how they associate with each other deep
in the reservoir.

Modeling Asphaltenes
Since 2000, advances in analytical instrumentation and science have allowed a much clearer
picture of asphaltene structure to emerge. Such
advances have narrowed the knowledge gap
about their properties and have led to a more
rened description of asphaltene science as
embodied in the modied Yen model.15 This
model was later renamed the Yen-Mullins
model.16 It envisions asphaltenes in crude oil as
existing in three distinct and separate formsas
asphaltene molecules, as nanoaggregates of individual asphaltene molecules and as clusters of
nanoaggregates (below). The number of analytical methods employed over the last decade to
resolve the molecular weight, size and aggregation parameters in this model is extensive and
includes time-resolved uorescence depolarization and laser-based mass spectrometry for
molecular and aggregate size and weight determination. For most model parameters, such as
asphaltene molecular weight, scientists must
apply several techniques to reduce the
uncertainty.
The asphaltene molecule is at the rst level of
the Yen-Mullins model. The typical asphaltene
molecule consists of several fused aromatic rings
with peripheral alkane substituents, often with
scattered sulfur and nitrogen heteroatoms.
This molecule has a mean molecular weight of
750 g/mol with most of the population ranging
from 500 to 1,000 g/mol and a length of about
1.5 nm. In this model hierarchy, the asphaltene

Nanoaggregate

Cluster

~ 2 nm

~ 5 nm

~ 1.5 nm

> The Yen-Mullins model of asphaltene nanoscience. At low concentrationstypical in condensates and volatile oils
asphaltenes are predicted to exist as a solution of molecules that measure about 1.5 nm (left). At higher concentrationsfound
in black oilsasphaltenes are dispersed as 2-nm nanoaggregates (center). At still higher concentrations, such as those found in
mobile heavy oils, asphaltenes are dispersed as clusters of 5 nm (right).

18

Oileld Review

nanoaggregate is the next structure in size. These

particles represent an aggregation of about six
asphaltene molecules in a single disordered
stack about 2 nm in size. The asphaltenes in
nanoaggregates are tightly bound, and exterior
alkanes on the nanoaggregate particle project
outwardly. The largest particle in the Yen-Mullins
model is the cluster, which represents a group of
about eight nanoaggregates. Clusters, which are
loosely bound, are about 5 nm in size.
Although all of the forms envisioned by the
Yen-Mullins model may occur in any oil column,
the specic form depends largely on the asphaltene concentration. In wells that produce volatile
oils and condensates with high GOR, the asphaltene concentration will be less than 0.5 wt % and
the asphaltene particles will be 1 to 1.5 nm in
size. At higher asphaltene concentrations, such
as black oil columns with moderate GOR values,
the asphaltene concentration will usually be less
than 5 wt % and the asphaltene particles will be
principally 2-nm nanoaggregates. In even higher
asphaltene concentrations, as seen in mobile
heavy oils that have low GOR, asphaltene levels
will range from 5 to 35 wt %, with 5-nm clusters as
the primary asphaltene particle.
Tar mats may occur in formations with signicant levels of mobile heavy oil and are areas of
nearly immobile asphaltenes usually found at the
base of an oil column near the oil/water contact.
There are two predominant forms of tar mats.17
One type occurs at the base of a mobile heavy oil
column as a result of seemingly continuous
extension of a large asphaltene concentration
and viscosity gradient. The other type of tar mat
occurs at the base of a lighter oil column and is
discontinuous in asphaltene concentration.
The rst type of tar mat results from a subtle
destabilization of asphaltenes at the top of the oil
column followed by transport of asphaltenes to
the base of the oil column to form a mat. The second type of tar mat may occur when there is a signicant gas charge into the top of a reservoir
containing black oil. As the gas diffuses down the
column, the GOR increases and causes asphaltene molecules and nanoaggregates to form clusters. These clusters descend ahead of the diffusive
gas front, which moves lower in the column with
time. When the gas front reaches the bottom of
the column, the asphaltenes are expelled from
the oil to form the tar mat (above right).18

Winter 2012/2013

Seal
Methane
charging updip

Black oil
column
Aquifer

Aquifer

D
Methane
diffusing downdip
Tar mat
Aquifer

Aquifer

Tar

> Tar mat formation. One mechanism for tar mat formation (top) envisions a
stable black oil column (A) in which biogenic methane moves beneath an
upper seal (B). As the methane slowly diffuses down the oil column, large
GOR and asphaltene gradients are formed (C). These gradients can become
large enough that a dense, asphaltene-rich tar mat may form at the bottom
of the column (D). A thin section from a tar mat formed at the base of a highGOR column shows tar on the grains of a cemented sandstone (bottom).

14. Pfeiffer T, Reza Z, Schechter DS, McCain WD and

Mullins OC: Determination of Fluid Composition
Equilibrium Under Consideration of AsphaltenesA
Substantially Superior Way to Assess Reservoir
Connectivity than Formation Pressure Surveys, paper
SPE 145609, presented at the SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition, Denver, Colorado, USA,
October 30November 2, 2011.
15. Mullins, reference 10.
Mullins et al, reference 13.
16. Sabbah H, Morrow AL, Pomerantz AE and Zare RN:
Evidence for Island Structures as the Dominant

Architecture of Asphaltenes, Energy & Fuels 25, no. 4

(2011): 15971604.
17. Mullins OC, Zuo JY, Dong C, Andrews AB, Elshahawi H,
Pfeiffer T, Cribbs ME and Pomerantz AE: Downhole
Fluid Analysis and Asphaltene Nanoscience for
Reservoir Evaluation Measurement, Transactions of the
SPWLA 53rd Annual Logging Symposium, Cartagena,
Colombia, June 1620, 2012, paper CCC.
18. Zuo JY, Elshahawi H, Mullins OC, Dong C, Zhang D,
Jia N and Zhao H: Asphaltene Gradients and Tar Mat
Formation in Reservoirs Under Active Gas Charging,
Fluid Phase Equilibria 315 (February 15, 2012): 9198.

19

OD ( h 2 (
OD ( h 1 (

a (h 2 (
a (h 1 (

Fluid color

= exp

Gravity term

OD ( h i (

optical density at depth h i

a ( h i (

asphaltene concentration at depth h i

va

asphaltene molar volume

oil phase molar volume

gravitational constant

va g (h 2 h 1 (
+
RT

va
v

h2

va
v

va ( a (h 2 ( a (h1

h1

Entropy term

RT

Solubility term

density difference between asphaltenes and oil phase

temperature

ideal gas constant

asphaltene solubility parameter

oil phase solubility parameter

> Asphaltene equation of state (EOS). The Flory-Huggins-Zuo EOS (top) predicts asphaltene gradients in an oil column. Optical
density at two depths is predicted as an exponential function of three termsgravity, entropy and solubility. The gravity term
depends primarily on asphaltene particle size and depth. The entropy term is a measure of molecular randomness and depends
on molar volumes. The nal term in this equationsolubilitydepends on GOR, density and composition.

Correctly modeling asphaltenes requires a

two-pronged approach. The Yen-Mullins model
provides the solution to the rst challengea
useful framework for the asphaltene particles
that form in an oil column along with estimates of
particle size and molar volume. The second part
of the problem is to mathematically describe the
asphaltene concentration gradients for the various asphaltene physical states as predicted by
the Yen-Mullins model.
In thermodynamic systems, a state variable is
a parameter such as temperature, pressure or
volume, which depends on the state of the system
but not the path used to get to that state. The
mathematical equation that relates state variables is called an equation of state (EOS). In
1834, Benoit Paul mile Clapeyron, a French
engineer and physicist, developed the ideal gas
law, an EOS that relates pressure, volume and
temperature. The ideal gas law is a rst-order
equation that ignores molecular volumes and
forces and is accurate only for weakly interacting
gases at moderate conditions. In 1873, van der
Waals developed a cubic EOS that approximates
the behavior of gases and liquids by taking into
account molecular forces and the size of molecules. Since that time, many variants of the classic cubic EOS have been developed, and these

20

equations have been used for decades to model

uid behavior in oil columns. However, using
these equations for black oil modeling in reservoirs containing signicant levels of asphaltenes
is not satisfactory. Because asphaltenes lack a
gas phase or a critical point, they must be treated
as a pseudocomponent and handled empirically.
Although this approach is adequate to model
hydrocarbon gas-liquid equilibria and determine
parameters such as GOR, it is inadequate for
modeling molecular and colloidally suspended
particles such as asphaltenes, asphaltene nanoaggregates and clusters of nanoaggregates.
The need to model solution behavior of mixtures containing solvents and large molecules
such as asphaltenes has existed for decades.
Much research in the 1940s focused on the thermodynamics and solution behavior of polymer
compounds and resulted in the Flory-Huggins
theory.19 More recently, the Flory-Huggins approach
has been used to examine asphaltene instability.20 Recognizing the need for a rst principles
approach to describe asphaltene concentration
gradients in oil columns, scientists have developed the Flory-Huggins-Zuo EOS for this purpose.21 This equation incorporates a gravity term
for asphaltenes using their known size. This gravity term is essential for modeling asphaltene

gradients. The equation was developed starting

with the free energy of a mixture of asphaltenes
and solvent as a function of the free energies
associated with gravity, solubility and entropy of
mixing. At equilibrium, the derivative of the free
energy sum is zero, and the solution of the resulting partial differential equations yields the FloryHuggins-Zuo EOS. In its original form, this
equation expresses the asphaltene concentration
gradient as a volume fraction of asphaltenes at
various depths in the oil column. Since oil color is
directly proportional to the asphaltene concentration, the optical density ratio is usually substituted for the volume ratio for a more practical
measurement. The resulting equation gives the
asphaltene concentration in terms of optical density and is an exponential function of several
parameters (above).22
The rst term in the Flory-Huggins-Zuo EOS
accounts for the effect of gravity and is the
most signicant term for asphaltenes in an oil
column for low-GOR oils (next page, top right).
Gravitational effects cause asphaltenes to accumulate at the base of a column, although thermal
energy counteracts gravity to some extent. This
rst term expresses gravitational effects as the
buoyancy of an object in a liquidthe gravity
effectdivided by a function of the tempera-

Oileld Review

Winter 2012/2013

1.5-nm molecules
2.0-nm nanoaggregates
5.0-nm clusters

Vertical depth, m

20

40

60

80
100
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

Asphaltene concentration at depth

Asphaltene concentration at 100 m

> Gravity effects. The effect of gravity depends on which asphaltene

physical form predominates in the well. For a 100-m [328-ft] oil column
containing mostly asphaltene clusters (black), gravity effects are large, as
evidenced by the dramatic increase of asphaltene content with depth. The
intermediate size nanoaggregates (blue) show a much more gradual
change, while the asphaltene molecules (red) show only a small change
from top to bottom of the column.

particle size cannot be determined directly

from the downhole data, but there are other
ways to nd it. The rst method is to tune the
unknown size of the asphaltene particles to
match the downhole uid color data from
measurements at different depths. This size is
then checked against the Yen-Mullins model
particle types to ensure it is within the boundaries described by the model. The second method
is to assume that heavy ends in the oil column

are either asphaltene molecules, nanoaggregates or clusters. In this case, the assumed size
is used to predict the downhole asphaltene gradients in the oil column, which can be checked
against the actual data. If there is consistency,
then the data can be used to assess connectivity
and other reservoir properties. Analysis of the
data may not always suggest a single asphaltene
particle type because multiple particle types
may be involved (below).

X,X50

DFA data
EOS models
X,Y00

Nanoaggregates
and clusters

Oil column

19. Flory PJ: Thermodynamics of High Polymer Solutions,

Journal of Chemical Physics 10, no. 1 (January 1942):
5161.
Huggins ML: Thermodynamic Properties of Solutions of
Long-Chain Compounds, Annals of the New York
Academy of Sciences 43, no. 1 (March 1942): 132.
20. Buckley JS, Wang J and Creek JL: Solubility of the
Least Soluble Asphaltenes, in Mullins OC, Sheu EY,
Hammami A and Marshall AG (eds): Asphaltenes,
Heavy Oils, and Petroleomics, New York: Springer
Science+Business Media (2007): 401438.
21. Zuo JY, Mullins OC, Freed D, Elshahawi H, Dong C and
Seifert DJ: Advances in the Flory-Huggins-Zuo Equation
of State for Asphaltene Gradients and Formation
Evaluation, Energy & Fuels (in press).
22. Freed DE, Mullins OC and Zuo JY: Theoretical Treatment
of Asphaltene Gradients in the Presence of GOR
Gradients, Energy & Fuels 24, no. 7 (July 15, 2010):
39423949.
Zuo et al, reference 21.

Vertical depth, m

turethe thermal effect. For large physical

forms of asphaltenes, such as clusters found in
heavy oils, the gravity term is signicant and
gives rise to high concentrations of asphaltenes
near the base of the oil column.
The remaining two terms in the new asphaltene EOS are similar to the original FloryHuggins terms for entropy and solubility. The
entropy is stated in terms of ratios of molar volumes of asphaltenes and solvent at two depths.
The entropy effect tends to randomize the
asphaltene distribution and counteract gradients, but is usually not large for asphaltenes in
crude oils. The other factor in the Flory-HugginsZuo EOS that essentially corresponds to the
original Flory-Huggins work is the solubility
term. For asphaltene gradients, this term is
expressed in solubility parameters that are calculated from GOR or mass densities. This term
accounts for changes of asphaltene solubility in
the liquid phase and is important for high-GOR
oil that produces a low-density liquid, rich in
parafnic alkanes that decrease asphaltene
solubility. For low-GOR oils, however, the solubility term is usually not signicant.
The end result of this new equation of state
for asphaltenes is the prediction of asphaltene
concentrations, directly proportional to uid
color, at any depth in the oil column. Almost all of
the parameters may be measured or estimated
from downhole uid analysis results of the bulk
oil at various depth stations. Those parameters
not directly measuredsuch as the solubility
parametersmay be obtained from correlations
of known properties.
The only adjustable parameter in the FloryHuggins-Zuo EOS is the asphaltene molar volume, which is related to particle size. The

X,Y50

Nanoaggregates

X,Z00

X,Z50
0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

Optical density

Nanoaggregate

Cluster

> Multiple particle types. A black oil column that was subjected to a late gas
and condensate charge shows evidence that more than one asphaltene
particle type is present in the column. Analysis of DFA data using the
Flory-Huggins-Zuo EOS indicates that nanoaggregates alone would not
account for the increase in asphaltene concentrationas measured by
optical densitywith depth (left). In this example, the late gas charge
destabilized the asphaltenes, causing clusters to form; these clusters settled
toward the bottom of the oil column because of gravity (right). The presence
of large viscosity and asphaltene gradients characterized this oil column,
and production of this well proceeded with no signicant problems.

21

Fluid GOR, ft3/bbl

1,000

1,100

1,200

Stock-tank oil density, g/cm3

1,300

0.85

0.86

0.87

0.88

0.89

Formation pressure, psi

0.90

X,200

X,275

X,350

X,000
X,050

X,100

Vertical depth, ft

X,150

X,200

X,250

X,300

X,350

X,400

X,450
X,500

Well 5

Well 1

Water

> Fluid properties and formation pressure in a eld in the Gulf of Mexico. DFA data on GOR (left) and density (center) from two wells
in Sand A show variability that lies either within or very close to the measurement error bands; scientists can draw no denitive
conclusions about connectivity. Data on formation pressure (right) show a difference between the two wells, suggesting a potential
for a sealing barrier. However, since the pressure measurements on the two wells were conducted on different wireline runs, and
the runs used different pressure gauges, assessment of connectivity using pressure was also inconclusive.

Downhole uid analysis, the new Yen-Mullins

model and the Flory-Huggins-Zuo EOS can be used
together to model asphaltene gradients in actual
oil columns. The rst step is the use of DFA to give
experimental data on asphaltene concentration
via uid color, GOR and other physical parameters
at several depth stations in a well. The Yen-Mullins
model then provides a physical picture of the
asphaltene entities that may be present and allows
the operator to make reasonable assumptions on
particle size. That size is then used in the FloryHuggins-Zuo EOS to predict the asphaltene concentration gradient in the well. If this gradient
matches the experimental data, it can be used to
further assess reservoir connectivity. This analysis
is not a mere curve-tting exercise. The matching
of sizes computed by the new EOS and the YenMullins model gives the operator condence that
the system is in equilibrium.
Asphaltene Science and Complex Reservoirs
An example from a complex eld in the Gulf of
Mexico illustrates how asphaltene science is
used in answering practical questions. This eld,
operated by Marathon, included an area produc-

22

ing intermediate-GOR black oil that consisted of

six sand layers spanning 1,000 ft [300 m] of depth
and intersected by multiple wells.23 The challenge for the operator was to develop an accurate
description of reservoir uid properties and
understand connectivity among the various sand
layers. The reservoir uids were analyzed by multiple methods. DFA was employed using the MDT
tool both to gather real-time information and
obtain samples for further PVT analysis in the
laboratory. Using advanced gas chromatographic
analysis, the operator also performed geochemical ngerprinting on collected samples. Although
the data covered multiple wells in the area of
interest, not all analyses were performed at all
depth stations; the most complete dataset came
from two wells in one of the sands. These data
and their analyses show how connectivity questions can be viewed through the lens of the new
asphaltene science.
Prior to use of asphaltene gradients to give
clues to connectivity in a reservoir sand layer,
operators often used data from bulk oil sampling

tank oil density and formation pressure from the

two Marathon wells spanning about 500 ft
[152 m] of depth in Sand A show differences that
suggest barriers to connectivity. In particular, the
pressure gradients from the two wells do not
appear to coincide, which is indicative of a sealing barrier. However, these differences may
reect either measurement imprecision or differences in the way the data were collected (above).
23. Dong C, Petro D, Latifzai AS, Zuo J, Pomerantz AE and
Mullins OC: Evaluation of Reservoir Connectivity from
Downhole Fluid Analysis, Asphaltene Equation of State
Model and Advanced Laboratory Fluid Analyses, paper
SPE 158838, presented at the SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas, October
810, 2012.
24. Resins are a solubility class similar to asphaltenes and
are typied by polyaromatic hydrocarbon molecules.
25. Elshahawi H, Ramaswami S, Zuo JY, Dong C, Mullins OC,
Zhang D and Ruiz-Morales Y: Advanced Reservoir
Evaluation Using Downhole Fluid Analysis and
Asphaltene Flory-Huggins-Zuo Equation of State,
prepared for presentation at the SPWLA 54th Annual
Logging Symposium, New Orleans, June 2226, 2013.
26. The ability to absorb light and then uoresce is
characteristic of some light oils. Like optical density,
uorescence intensity is dimensionless. For more:
Creek et al, reference 11.

and formation pressure at several depths to make

judgments on connectivity. Data on GOR, stock-

Oileld Review

Optical density
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

X,000
X,050
X,100

Vertical depth, ft

X,150
X,200
X,250
X,300
X,350
X,400

The operator had to contend with three

issues: Describe the compositional variation of
the bulk oil in terms of GOR and other parameters, identify the gradient of the heavy components in the volatile oil and decide if the
production zone was connected. To answer these
questions, Shell obtained DFA data at ve depth
stations from the top to the bottom of the oil column. GOR and other properties were analyzed
using a traditional cubic EOS in conjunction with
established correlations. Results from this work
were tuned to experimental data to give a satisfactory t. Shell engineers found it difcult, however, to quantify optical characteristics of the oil
in this column to answer questions about the
heavy-end gradient and connectivity.

In most crude oils, optical densities offer good

sensitivity for measuring the relative concentration of heavy ends. However, for nearly colorless
oils, such as this Shell light oil, optical density is
not sensitive enough, especially at very high GOR
levels and low heavy-end concentrations. The difference between colorless oils that have 100%
light transmission and almost colorless oils that
have 99% light transmission is difcult to discern
using only optical density. Fluorescence intensity, however, is applicable to this type of sample
and may be correlated directly to the fraction of
heavy resin or asphaltenes.26 In this case, both
optical methods were used to give a complete
color description of the resin concentration gradient with depth (below). Because of the small

X,450
X,500

Well 5

Well 1

Water

EOS model

> Fluid optical density in Sand A. The operator

obtained reservoir uid optical density
measurements at several DFA depth stations for
wells that penetrated Sand A. These data, which
showed a smooth increase with depth, t the
Flory-Huggins-Zuo EOS prediction using 2-nm
nanoaggregates as the asphaltene particle state.

Winter 2012/2013

0.04

0.08

0.12

0.16

0.20

0.24

0.28

Fluorescence intensity
Optical density
EOS model

340

Vertical depth, m

Using these data, Marathon engineers found it

difcult to determine whether Sand A is hydraulically connected between Wells 1 and 5.
In addition to these uid properties and formation pressures, the operator also obtained
downhole optical density measurements at several depth stations for the two wells in Sand A
(above). The agreement with the Flory-HugginsZuo EOS model indicates that the asphaltenes
in the two wells are in equilibrium as 2-nm
asphaltene nanoaggregates; this analysis predicts connectivity in Sand A between the two
wells. Similar analyses of other sand layers in
this eld did not show equilibrium in some
cases, prompting the operator to conclude that
there was no connectivity between those sands.
Actual eld production data conrmed all
asphaltene analysisbased predictions regarding connectivity between sands.
The new science on asphaltenes can also be
useful in analyzing lighter oils and even condensates that contain essentially no asphaltenes but
have heavy resins.24 A well in the Gulf of Mexico,
operated by Shell, illustrates this concept.25 The
light oil column from this well has virtually no
asphaltenes and a large GOR variation: from
4,000 ft3/bbl [720 m3/m3] at the top of the column
to 2,600 ft3/bbl [463 m3/m3] at a depth 440 ft
[134 m] below it.

Optical density
0

380

420

460

500

540
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

Fluorescence intensity

> Optical gradients in a light oil column. Shell engineers used uorescence intensity and optical
density to measure the concentration of heavy molecules in an oil column from a well in the Gulf of
Mexico. Application of the Flory-Huggins-Zuo EOS to these DFA data with a 1-nm particle size is a
good t and indicates the heavy resin molecules in the column are in equilibrium. The color
characteristics of this light oil are similar to those observed in prior work in which the source of the
blue color was identied as the ve-ring PAH perylene (inset). If the properties for perylene are used
in the EOS for these data, the calculated size of the heavy resin is 0.96 nm, suggesting that the source
of the color in this oil column is perylene-like molecules.

23

The combination of the detailed DFA data on

asphaltene concentrations and viscosity, coupled
with the agreement with the asphaltene science,
is important in describing this complex reservoir.
These data on viscosity, connectivity and location
of the tar mat have a signicant impact on production planning for this eld.
Determining oil drainage patterns and connectivity in a specic area is an important outcome but is only the beginning for asphaltene
science. Going from black oil, characterized by a
few simple properties, to oil columns and reservoirs with detailed compositions is one part of
that frontierbut there are other possible directions as well.

Well
Black oil
Heavy oil
Tar mat
Water

> Downhole uid analysis testing. Characterization

of this Middle East reservoir was accomplished
by analysis of samples from eight wells around
its periphery. DFA and oil samples provided
useful data on the black oil and mobile heavy oil
zones, while data on the tar mat zone were
obtained through core analysis.

1-nm resin particle size, the gravity term in the

Flory-Huggins-Zuo EOS is also small, and the
expression is dominated by the GOR effect on the
solubility term. The equilibrium distribution of
resin molecules indicates that this oil column is
connected, as conrmed by subsequent production data. These results suggest that this
approach is useful not only for black oils but also
light oils and rich gas condensates. Extending
this methodology to mobile heavy oil in a large
Middle Eastern eld completes the picture.
A large anticlinal oil reservoir operated by
Saudi Aramco has proved challenging to describe
by conventional modeling.27 The low GOR oil column in this eld is stratied and is characterized
by black oil at the crest and mobile heavy oil
below it, with a tar mat above the oil/water contact at the bottom. Although the black oil portion
is manageable from a production viewpoint, the
asphaltene concentrations in the mobile heavy
oil increase sharply with depth, and the oil
reaches a viscosity of about 1,000 cP [1,000 mPa.s]
just above the tar mat. Conventional PVT modeling does not account for these viscosity gradient
observations, and the existence of these discrete
zones represents major challenges in developing

24

production plans. Saudi Aramco engineers

turned to asphaltene science to help them understand and model the compositional gradients in
this reservoir.
DFA and laboratory data on the different composition zones in this reservoir were obtained
from eight wells around the circumference of the
eld (above). The data show that the top and
majority of the column is black oil with less than
5 wt % asphaltenes and little concentration gradient with depth. This is consistent with an interval
containing mostly 2-nm nanoaggregates. The
next portion of the column is mobile heavy oil
with an asphaltene content ranging from 5 to
35 wt % asphaltenes. Using the Yen-Mullins model
as a guide, scientists determined that mobile
heavy oil with this range of asphaltenes should
exist primarily as 5-nm clusters (next page). The
tar mat with an asphaltene concentration greater
than 35 wt % is at the bottom of the oil column.
Asphaltene concentrations in the tar mat are
irregular with depth, indicating that this zone is
not equilibrated. The tar mat and heavy oil sections of this reservoir resulted from gravitational
accumulation of asphaltenes at the base of the oil
column, possibly from a late gas charge.

New Frontiers
Few compounds among the thousands found in
crude oil have evoked as much interest and avoidance as asphaltenes. In the past, asphaltenes
often meant operating problems for producers
and difculties for reners because of their high
molecular weight, high viscosity, plugging characteristics and high levels of molecular contaminants. Scientists and engineers, long fascinated
by these heavy molecules, have persevered in
their attempts to understand and characterize
them. The result is a new branch of asphaltene
chemistry that is changing the ways in which scientists view connectivity of oil columns within
the same reservoir. Through the use of advanced
sampling and analysis techniques such as DFA,
scientists are able to extend these new ways of
looking at asphaltenes from single wells to adjacent wells and reservoirs. The next step is to
extend that view across entire producing basins.
Proper incorporation of diverse phenomena,
such as large GOR variations, pressure gradients,
asphaltene gradients and the presence of tar
mats, will aid operators in eld development and
planning. At the current stage, these analyses
apply to oil columns and reservoirs at equilibrium. Extending this type of analysis to the factors causing a reservoir to be out of equilibrium
allows the theory to be applied to a wider range of
situations, as has been shown in deepwater wells
in the Gulf of Mexico.28
27. Seifert DJ, Zeybek M, Dong C, Zuo JY and Mullins OC:
Black Oil, Heavy Oil and Tar in One Oil Column
Understood by Simple Asphaltene Nanoscience, paper
SPE 161144, presented at the Abu Dhabi International
Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE,
November 1114, 2012.
28. Zuo et al, reference 18.
29. Edwards DA, Gunasekera D, Morris J, Shaw G, Shaw K,
Walsh D, Fjerstad PA, Kikani J, Franco J, Hoang V and
Quettier L: Reservoir Simulation: Keeping Pace
with Oileld Complexity, Oileld Review 23, no. 4
(Winter 2011/2012): 415.

Oileld Review

X,700
X,750

Laboratory data
EOS model

Black oil

X,800

Vertical depth, ft

X,850
X,900
X,950
Y,000
Y,050

Mobile heavy oil

Y,100

Tar mat
Y,150
Y,200
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Asphaltene, wt %

> Mobile heavy oil characterization. Application of the Flory-Huggins-Zuo EOS for asphaltenes to the mobile heavy oil
data (left) yields a cluster size of 5.2 nm, conrming the expected size of 5 nm. For this mobile heavy oil zone, EOS
gravity is the only term needed to describe the six-fold variation in asphaltene content over the periphery of this eld.
The photograph shows a mobile heavy oil in the laboratory.

In addition to advancements in understanding equilibrium, ascertaining connectivity and

predicting oil column gradients, the new asphaltene science has spawned unexpected and potentially useful applications for other areas such as
enhanced oil recovery. For some time, scientists
and engineers have known that asphaltenes have
certain interfacial characteristics that are similar to those of naturally occurring surfactants.
For example, asphaltenes can alter the balance
between oil-wet and water-wet zones in a reservoir. Because mixed wettability zones may
contain nearly one half of eld reserves in
large Middle East reservoirs, the capability of
asphaltenes to change wettability could result in
large increases in recovery.
Another branch of work on asphaltenes
applies to viscosity and its prediction. Large viscosity gradients are a natural consequence of the
asphaltene concentration gradient. The ability to
predict gradients in asphaltenes and viscosity for
oil columns brings up an interesting possibility.

Winter 2012/2013

Advanced reservoir simulatorssuch as the

INTERSECT reservoir simulatornow use clusters of parallel computers to solve the thousands
of equations necessary to model and predict the
properties of an entire eld.29 These equations
simulate the material, energy and property balances for small cubic reservoir sectionscalled
cellsas a function of time and position in the
reservoir. Cell size in these simulators has continued to decrease as computational power has
increased, and modern simulators now handle
cells as small as 50 m [164 ft] in the large reservoirs of the Middle East. Geoscientists hope to
merge the new asphaltene science and gradient
predictions with reservoir simulation so that
asphaltene and viscosity predictions are made for
the entire eldvertically and horizontally.
These new reservoir simulators not only model
eld composition and properties but also include
modules for eld management and facilities
planning. The ability to make good predictions
for asphaltene gradients would be an additional
step in optimizing eld development.

Future possibilities for applying fundamental

knowledge about asphaltenes abound. Knowing
more about property and asphaltene gradients
throughout oil elds will not only aid operators in
making better decisions about eld development,
but may yield benets in areas as diverse as reservoir connectivity, viscosity gradients and
enhanced oil recovery.
DA

25

Landing the Big OneThe Art of Fishing

Drillers often refer to tools and equipment left in the borehole as lost. In reality,
these items have been misplaced thousands of feet below the surface. Removal
of these objects from the wellbore has challenged drillers since the earliest days
of the oil eld.

Enos Johnson
Hobbs, New Mexico, USA
Jimmy Land
Mark Lee
Houston, Texas, USA
Robert Robertson
Stavanger, Norway
Oileld Review Winter 2012/2013: 24, no. 4.
Copyright 2013 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to
Michael Muhlherr and Eric Wilshusen, Houston; and
Torodd Solheim, Stavanger.
FPIT is a mark of Schlumberger.
1. Short JA: Prevention, Fishing, and Casing Repair. Tulsa:
PennWell Publishing, 1995.
2. A dogleg is an abrupt turn, bend or change of direction in
a wellbore and can be quantied in degrees or degrees
per unit of distance.
3. Drilling uid pressure can erode a wellbore to create a
washout and it can erode drillpipe to create a hole, which
is also termed a washout.

26

In the oil eld, a sh is any item left in a wellbore

that impedes further operations. This broad denition encompasses every variety of drilling, logging or production equipment, including drill
bits, pipe, logging tools, hand tools or any other
junk that may be lost, damaged, stuck or otherwise left in a borehole. When junk or hardware
blocks the path to continued operations, these
items must rst be removed from the hole
through a process known as shing.
The origins of this term are attributed to the
early days of cable-tool drilling, in which a cable
attached to a spring pole repeatedly lifted and
dropped a heavy bit that chiseled away at the
rock to create a wellbore. When the cable parted,
drillers attempted to retrieve the cable and bit
from the bottom of the hole using an improvised
hook lowered on a length of new cable hung from
the spring pole. Experts in the art of retrieving
junk from the subsurface became known as shermen. Over the years, their services have
become highly sought after, and the art of shing
has grown to ll a specialized niche within the
well services industry.
All manner of equipment may fail, become
stuck, need replacement or otherwise require
retrieval from a wellbore. Fishing operations may
be needed at any point during the life of a well
from drilling through abandonment. During the
drilling phase, most shing jobs are unexpected
and are often caused by mechanical failure or by
sticking of the drillstring. Sticking may also occur
during wireline logging or testing operations.

Later, during the completion phase, operations

may be thwarted by a variety of problems, including stuck perforating guns, prematurely set packers or failed gravel pack screens. After a well has
been put on production, shing operations may
be scheduled as part of the overall process of
maintaining, replacing or recovering downhole
equipment and tubulars during workover or
abandonment procedures. In many elds, the
workover process entails cleanout or retrieval of
tubing that has sanded up after years of production, thus prompting a shing job at the outset of
operations. During abandonment, operators
often try to salvage downhole tubulars, pumps
and completion equipment before plugging the
well. Even the shing equipment may become
stuck, necessitating revision of the original shing strategy. In the oil eld, no operation, it would
seem, is exempt from the possibility of shing.
Statistics from the mid-1990s indicate that
shing operations accounted for 25% of drilling
costs worldwide.1 These days, shing can frequently be avoided or sidestepped using other,
more cost-effective options. For instance, modern drilling technology, such as rotary steering, is
creating a shift in shing strategies by inuencing the economics used to determine whether to
sh, to buy the stuck equipment, known as the
sh, and sidetrack, or to junk and abandon (J&A)
the hole.
Each shing situationplanned or unplanned,
openhole or cased, coiled tubing or wirelineis
unique, and each presents its own set of conditions

Oileld Review

and problems for which a retrieval solution must

be adapted. Within this wide-ranging topic, this
article focuses primarily on shing techniques
used during drilling; variations on these techniques have been adapted for cased hole, coiled
tubing, wireline and workover applications. The
article outlines common processes that may lead
to the loss of equipment downhole and describes
some of the tools and techniques devised in
response. It also discusses strategies for deciding
how long to pursue shing operations and closes
by discussing a program that trains new shing
personnel in the skills needed to continue the
recovery of lost items from the wellbore.
Root Causes
Most shing jobs may be traced to one of three
basic causes: human error, faulty equipment or
wellbore instability. Nearly everything that goes
into the hole can become a sh. Under the wrong
circumstances, any object smaller than the bowl
diameter of the rotary table master bushing
can be lost downhole (right). Hand tools, chains
and ashlights have made their way from the drill
oor into the wellbore, as have pieces of tongs,
slips and other items that can junk a hole.
Fortunately, most drilling crews are alert to such
dangers, which are preventable through scrupulous attention to housekeeping and maintenance
practices on the drill oor.
Downhole, mechanical failure of the drillstring can turn a routine drilling operation into a
shing job. Modes of failure are manifold.
Tubularsdrillpipe, casing or tubingmay collapse, burst, part or twist off (right). The drill bit
may break apart. A tool joint may simply come
unscrewed from the drillstring, or the pipe may
become stuck. Each case produces a different
type of sh, which in turn dictates how the shing job will be conducted.
Although pipe failure may not be common,
avoiding this problem ranks as a top priority for
drillers. Pipe collapses as a result of excess external pressure, bursts from too much internal pressure, parts when subjected to excess tension or
twists off because of too much torque. The industry
has instituted various practices to reduce the risk
of drillstring failure, beginning with inspection of
tools, pipe and threads for wear and corrosion
before they go into the hole, followed by careful
use of pipe handling equipment and avoidance of
excess torque during makeup.
In todays high-angle wells, pipe wear can be
accelerated by sharp changes in trajectory. Sharp
turns impose alternating bending stresses on the
pipe as it works through a dogleg.2 In addition,

Winter 2012/2013

Bowl

> Master bushing. The master bushing transmits power from the rotary table
to the kelly bushing to spin the drillstring. The master bushing lies ush with
the drill oor (photograph), and any item that passes through its bowl may
become a sh.

high-angle wells are often beset by hole cleaning

problems. To prevent cuttings from packing off
around the drillstring, the driller may resort to
high rotation and circulation rates to clean the
wellbore. Such practices, however, increase the

likelihood of creating a hole, or washout, in the

drillstring itself.3 When a drillstring washout
develops before the well has been cleaned out,
the operator must choose between continuing to
circulate the wellbore clean or attempting to trip

> Drillstring failure. Excessive torque can cause

a drillstring to part downhole. Here (left), the
drillpipe has twisted off beneath the tool joint.
Even thick-walled drill collars may be subjected
to wear and fatigue (above).

27

> Bit components. Bit cones, nozzles and other

pieces of junk are typically small enough to be
retrieved by a magnet or junk basket.

out of the hole. Continuing to circulate runs the

risk of enlarging the washout and weakening the
drillstring; pulling out before the wellbore is
clean runs the risk of sticking the pipe.4
To prevent pipe collapse, drillers keep the
pipe lled with mud to offset external hydrostatic
pressure of the mud in the annulus. They monitor
makeup torque, hydraulics, rotary speed, weight
on bit and hook load to avoid exceeding drillstring design limits. When tubulars do fail, they
often produce a jagged, irregular length of pipe,
which the shing expert must contend with.
The drill bit is another common sh. Bits are
engineered to withstand the rigors of weight, torsion and abrasion; nevertheless, drillers must be
attentive to weight on bit, rotary speed, drilling
uid hydraulics, solids control, formation characteristics and time on bottom to prevent excessive
bit wear and associated problems. Occasionally,
a bit may seize up and break apart, leaving
bit cones, bearings and teeth downhole (above).
Although small, these components are hard and
robust, and typically must be recovered to prevent damage to new bits or other equipment subsequently run in the hole.
Tool joints sometimes back off, or come
unscrewed, from the drillstring. This development may occur when insufcient torque is
applied as one joint of pipe is made up to
another, or when the drillstring spins counter to
its normal clockwise rotation. However, worn or
4. Eck-Olsen J and Foster BM: Backing Off a Free
Drillstring: Planning and Execution on a World-Class
ERD Well, paper SPE/IADC 104478, presented at the
SPE/IADC Drilling Conference, Amsterdam,
February 2224, 2007.
5. Ditch magnets are strong magnets placed in the owline
to collect metallic debris from the drilling uid as the mud
is circulated to the surface.
6. Ali A, Blount CG, Hill S, Pokhriyal J, Weng X,
Loveland MJ, Mokhtar S, Pedota J, Rdsj M, Rolovic R
and Zhou W: Integrated Wellbore Cleanout Systems:
Improving Efciency and Reducing Risk,
Oileld Review 17, no. 2 (Summer 2005): 413.

28

damaged pipe threads may also be a culprit;

this problem can be avoided in part through
careful handling of tool joints during makeup on
the drill oor and by monitoring vibration and
rotary speed while drilling to minimize stress on
the drillstring.
Sometimes, the fault is traced back to manufacturing controls, as one operator discovered.
Having set a liner, the driller ran the bit to the top
of cement. Although the topdrive stalled several
times while drilling out the liner shoe, the driller
was able to continue some 150 m [490 ft] beneath
the shoe before observing erratic torque readings
at the drill oor console. Later, approximately
5.5 kg [12 lbm] of steel shavings, circulated to
surface in the drilling uid, were recovered from
the shale shaker screens and ditch magnets, providing conrmation to the driller that there was a
problem downhole.5
As the driller pulled out of the hole, the operator ordered junk baskets and a junk mill dispatched to the wellsite. (Upon its arrival, the
junk mill was rejected for lack of proper inspection certication; the operator chose not to risk
compounding the problems downhole.) The
driller ran in the hole with a bit and junk basket,
drilling slowly for 3 m [10 ft] before readings of
normal parameters conrmed that the hole was
free of junk. Several more kilograms of metal cuttings were recovered when the basket was pulled
out of the hole, along with more at the ditch magnets. Further investigation revealed that the pipe
threads on the liner shoe connection were not
designed to withstand the same torque loads as
those on the liner string. The operator concluded
that back torque produced by stalling of the topdrive probably caused the left-hand thread of the
liner shoe to break loose.
A large number of shing jobs are instigated
by sticking of the drillstring (next page). Many
such incidents are caused by unstable formations; others are related to drilling practices:
Loose or unconsolidated formation sands or
gravels can collapse into the borehole and pack
off the drillstring as supporting rock is removed
by the bit. Schists, laminated shales, fractures
and faults also create loose rock that caves into
the hole and jams the drillstring.
In regions where tectonic stresses are high, rock
is being deformed by movement of the Earths
crust. In these areas, the rock around the wellbore may collapse into the well. In some cases,
the hydrostatic pressure required to stabilize
the hole may be much higher than the fracture
initiation pressure of exposed formations.
Mobile formationstypically salt or shalecan
behave in a plastic manner. When compressed

by overburden, they may ow and squeeze into a

wellbore, thereby constricting or deforming the
hole and trapping the tubulars.
Overpressured shales are characterized by formation pore pressures that exceed normal
hydrostatic pressure. Insufcient mud weight
in these formations permits the hole to become
unstable and collapse around the pipe.
Reactive shales and clays absorb water from the
drilling uid. Over timeranging from hours to
daysthey can swell into the wellbore.
Drillstring vibration may cause caving of the wellbore. These cavings pack around the pipe, causing
it to stick. Downhole vibration is controlled by
monitoring parameters such as weight on bit, rate
of penetration and rotary speed, which can be
adjusted from the drillers console.
Differential sticking presents a common problem downhole. It happens when the drillstring is
held against the wellbore by hydrostatic overbalance between the wellbore pressure and the
pore pressure of a permeable formation. This
problem occurs most commonly when a stationary or slow-moving drillstring contacts a permeable formation, and where a thick ltercake is
present. Depleted reservoirs are the primary
culprit for differential sticking.
Keyseating takes place when rotation of the
drillpipe wears a groove into the borehole wall.
When the drillstring is tripped, the bottomhole
assembly (BHA) or larger-diameter tool joints
are pulled into the keyseat and become
jammed. A keyseat may also form at the casing
shoe if a groove is worn in the casing or the casing shoe splits. This problem normally occurs
at abrupt changes in inclination or azimuth,
while pulling out of the hole and after sustained periods of drilling between wiper trips.
Wireline logging tools and cables are also susceptible to keyseating.
Undergauge holes may develop while drilling
hard, abrasive rock. As the rock wears away the
bit and stabilizer, the bit drills an undergauge,
or smaller than specied, hole. When a subsequent in-gauge bit is run, it encounters resistance in the undergauge section of hole. If the
string is run into the hole too quickly or without
reaming, the bit can jam in the undergauge section. This problem may occur when running a
new bit, after coring, while drilling abrasive
formations or when a PDC bit is run after a
roller cone bit.
Cement blocks can pack off the drillstring
when hard cement around the casing shoe
breaks off and falls into the new openhole
interval drilled out from under casing.

Oileld Review

Unconsolidated Zone

Fractured or Faulted Zone

Mobile Formation

Geopressured Zone

Reactive Formation

Drillstring Vibration

Differential Sticking

Keyseating

Undergauge Hole

Cement Problems

Collapsed Casing

Junk

Poor Hole Cleaning

Wellbore Geometry

> Sticking mechanisms. The driller must avoid or contend with a variety of potential problems in order to reach TD.

Uncured, or green, cement may trap a drillstring after a casing job. When the top of
cement is encountered while tripping in the
hole, a higher than expected pressure surge
may be generated by the BHA, causing the
cement to set instantaneously around the BHA.
Collapsed casing occurs when pressures exceed
the casing collapse pressure rating or when

Winter 2012/2013

casing wear or corrosion weakens the casing.

The casing may also buckle as a result of
aggressive running practices. These conditions
are typically discovered when the BHA is run in
the hole, only to hang up inside the casing.
Hole cleaning problems prevent solids from
being transported out of the wellbore. When
the cuttings settle at the low side of deviated
wellbores, they form layered beds that may

pack around the BHA. Cuttings and cavings

may also slide down the annulus when the
pumps are turned off, thus packing around the
drillstring. These problems are frequently
caused by low annular ow rates, inadequate
mud properties, insufcient mechanical agitation and short circulation time.6

29

Indications that a sh might be lost downhole

are usually seen on the drill oor as sudden
changes in drilling rate, mud pressure, hook load
or rotary torque; these changes typically spur a
trip out of the hole. The condition of the last joint
of pipe to clear the rotary table tells the drilling
crew most of what they may have already suspected. A jagged joint of pipe, paired with an
accurate pipe tally, tells the driller not only that
the pipe has parted, but also how much pipe
remains in the hole. By contrast, a damaged bit
indicates that a few small metal pieces remain in
the hole.
Tools of the Trade
The type of sh and the downhole conditions dictate the shing strategy. Numerous innovative
tools and techniques have been developed for
retrieving pipe, downhole components and miscellaneous junk from the wellbore. Most shing
tools t into one of ve categories:
Junk baskets catch small objects or pieces of
debris that are too heavy to circulate out of
the hole.
Milling tools grind down the upper surface of
an object.
Cutting tools sever pipe.
External catch tools retrieve sh by engaging
the outer surface of the sh.
Internal catch tools engage the inner surface of
the sh.
The solution to any shing problem depends
on where the sh is, how it came to be there, its
condition, its dimensions and its orientation

Lead insert

> Impression block. If there is any uncertainty

about what type of object must be retrieved, the
operator may rst run an impression block in the
hole. This device uses an insert of soft lead,
which provides a surface on which to obtain an
impression of the top of the sh.

30

within the wellbore. The orientation and size of

the borehole are also critical; these parameters
can limit the type and diameter of the retrieval
equipment and restrict the space available for
maneuvering retrieval equipment over the sh. A
large-diameter wellbore, however, may make it
difcult to locate the top of the sh.
To devise a shing program, the operator
must know the exact size and shape of the sh.
Lack of correct dimensional data can doom a
shing job. For this reason, company representatives require each item that goes into the hole to
be accurately drawn, then strapped with a measuring tape for length and calipered for breadth.
If the driller is not sure what type of junk
must be retrieved, the drilling crew may run an
impression block in the hole to ascertain the
position and shape of the top of a sh (below
left). Impression blocks have a short, tubular
steel body tted at the lower end with a block of
soft materialtypically a lead insert. The tool is
lowered on the end of the shing string until it
makes contact with the obstruction. Some
impression blocks have a circulation port for
pumping drilling uid to clean the top of the sh
before the block sets down on it. The weight of
the shing string helps press the lead against the
top of the sh, creating an impression; the driller
or shing expert carefully studies this impression
when the block reaches the surface. This preliminary information helps the operator determine
the depth of the sh and the type of shing equipment to deploy. Impression blocks can also be
run on slickline, which is much faster than running in on drillpipe; however, there are weight
and size limitations for this method.
Small pieces of junk or debris, such as hand
tools, bit cones or pipe-tong dies, can be
retrieved with a junk basket or junk magnet.
Junk baskets are available in a variety of congurations, each taking a different approach to
recovering lost items.
To retrieve small pieces of junk from the bottom of a well, shermen sometimes use a coretype junk basket. By slowly cutting a core from
the formation, this device recovers the junk along
with the core. This operation is often employed in
soft to medium-soft formations.
Boot baskets, used in drilling and milling
operations, catch debris that is too heavy to be
circulated out of the hole. These baskets are run
as close as possible to the bit or mill and are
sometimes run in tandem to increase junk
retrieval capacity. The boot basket is used at the
bottom of the hole and relies on circulating mud
to carry the junk off-bottom. Because the annu-

Basket opening

> Boot basket. Circulation of drilling uid lifts the

junk off-bottom. Beneath the tool joint, mud
velocity decreases as the annulus grows wider.
This decrease in mud velocity allows the junk to
settle into the basket opening.

lus is wider above the junk basket, the annular

mud velocity decreases, and as a result, the junk
settles out of suspension and lands inside the
basket (above).
A jet junk basket produces a circulating force
that is capable of lifting stubborn items such as
chain from the bottom of the hole. These baskets
use ports near their base to produce a reverse
circulation that forces the material up through
the center of the basket. The jet junk basket can
be run in cased or open hole to retrieve small
debris from the wellbore and is effective in vertical or horizontal applications (see Specialized
Tools for Wellbore Debris Recovery, page 4).
Junk magnets are used to retrieve ferrous
debris such as bit cones, bearings, milled cuttings and pins that may be hard to retrieve using
other methods (next page, top left). These tools
have a highly magnetized internal pole plate
within a nonmagnetic body. Junk magnets are
also typically run in advance of diamond bits to
remove debris that could damage the bit.
If the junk is not fully recovered, the operator may elect to run a used bit and attempt to
drill and wash past the sh. Should this strategy
fail, the junk can be broken into smaller pieces
using a junk shot or a mill. A junk shot is a
shaped charge, designed to direct its energy

Oileld Review

Taper Mill

Pilot Mill

Magnets

> Junk magnet. This type of magnet is used to

retrieve small pieces of ferrous material from
the hole. Some junk magnets have circulating
ports that enable cuttings to be washed away
from the junk.

downward to break up the object. A more conventional approach is to grind the object using a
concave mill (below). The concavity of the mill
helps to center the junk beneath a thick cutting
surface of tungsten carbide that breaks the junk
into smaller pieces, which can then be washed
or circulated for capture by junk baskets above
the mill.
Mills are available in a range of congurations for use in various applications (right). They
are often used to dress the top of the sh to
accommodate a shing tool, but some are also
used to grind oat collars, bridge plugs and
retainers. The debris produced through milling is
then picked up by magnets or junk baskets or circulated from the well.

> Junk mill. A slight concavity to the face of the

mill helps to center the junk beneath the cutting
surface so it can be ground into smaller pieces.

Winter 2012/2013

String Taper Mill

> Downhole milling tools. Mills come in a variety of sizes and congurations.
The taper mill (top) is designed for milling through tight spots and cleaning out
collapsed or deformed tubulars. A pilot mill (center) may be employed to mill
sections of tubular junk or to dress casing prior to installing a casing patch. The
larger milling blades are guided by the small central pilot at the front of the tool.
The string taper mill (bottom) may be used for cleaning out damaged tubulars
and is also recommended for removing keyseats in open hole. Tapering at the
top and the bottom of this mill allows it to ream in both directions.

Techniques for Larger Fish

Retrieving large sh, such as drillpipe or collars,
requires a different approach. Many of these jobs
start with the assumption that any pipe left in the
hole will likely become stuck. With no mud circulating around the sh, cuttings can settle around
the pipe or the formation might pack off, which
will restrict further movement. Thus, when a
drillstring gets stuck, twists off or backs off, the
recovery plan typically involves freeing the sh.
When shing for pipe, the basic strategy
involves running jars and an overshot into the
hole, latching onto the sh, jarring the pipe free
and then pulling the sh out of the hole. However,
no shing job is typical and no job is that easy;
the top of the sh may be damaged, requiring a
mill to dress the sh, or the sh may be difcult
to engage, requiring several attempts to latch
onto it.7 Furthermore, each of the basic steps above
encompasses a number of procedures.

When a drillstring becomes stuck, the driller

usually activates downhole jars to free the pipe
through percussive force.8 In the case of differential sticking, the operator typically orders a pill
a special blend of surfactants, solvents or other
compoundsto be pumped downhole to help
free the pipe from differential sticking. The
driller pumps this spotting uid downhole to penetrate and break up the ltercake along the pipe
and reduce the area of pipe subjected to sticking.
This helps decrease the force required to move
the pipe and free the drillstring. The likelihood
that this approach will remedy the problem
decreases rapidly with time, so once a drillstring
7. Adkins CS: Economics of Fishing, Journal of Petroleum
Technology 45, no. 5 (May 1993): 402404.
8. For more on jars: Costo B, Cunningham LW, Martin GJ,
Mercado J, Mohon B and Xie L: Working Out of a Tight
Spot, Oileld Review 24, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 1623.

31

is stuck, it is essential to spot the uid as quickly

as possible. While the spotting uid is working,
the operator usually starts planning the shing
job and mobilizing equipment and personnel.
If the spotting uid does not free the pipe, the
operator may elect to sever the pipe and pull out
of the hole to prevent sticking farther up the
hole. The goal is to part the drillstring at the
greatest depth possible and thus recover the
maximum amount of pipe. The rst step in this
process, however, is to determine the uppermost
depth at which the pipe is stuck. In accordance
with Hookes law, when a drillstring is subjected
to pull or torsion within its elastic limits, the pipe
deforms linearly. Such behavior can be used to
calculate how much free pipe remains above the
stuck point.
The operator typically calls for an FPIT freepoint indicator tool to precisely measure pipe
stretch and torque. The FPIT device is lowered
on wireline through the center of the drillpipe,
then anchored in place as a given amount of force
is applied to the pipe. FPIT strain gauges sense
changes in torque and tension as the drillstring is
subjected to rotation or pull, respectively. The
stretch produced by this force is a function of the
length of free pipe, the elasticity of the steel and
its cross-sectional area. The tool should detect no
tensile load or rotation when positioned below
the stuck point.
If circulation is established, the FPIT device
may be pumped down the center of the drillpipe;
otherwise, the operator might resort to coiled

> Box tap. This device is designed to externally

engage and retrieve tubulars that cannot be
rotated. It uses a tapered wicker thread sized to
t over the top of the sh.

32

tubing or a wireline tractor to convey the tool

downhole.9 Once the free point has been established, the same conveyance method is used to
lower any tools needed to sever the pipe. Parting
the drillstring involves either unscrewingbacking offthe drillpipe downhole or cutting it.
Backing off the pipe is the least drastic measure and leaves a threaded pipe connection at
the top of the sh. Before unscrewing the pipe
downhole, the driller must apply left-hand torque
to the drillstring. The torque is worked downhole
by reciprocating the pipe as the torque builds up.
A string shot, consisting of a length of detonation
cord, is lowered through the drillpipe to the
depth opposite a tool joint above the free point.
Upon detonation downhole, explosive pressures
enlarge the thread in the box end of the tool joint
and the left-hand torque unscrews the threaded
connection to back off the pipe. The process may
be repeated to force the pipe loose.
If the pipe cannot be unscrewed, a variety of
methods may be employed to cut the pipe. A
chemical cutter is a wireline tool that utilizes a
propellant and reactant to create a series of
closely spaced holes in the pipe. The holes
weaken the pipe sufciently to pull it apart. This
method requires no application of torque on the
drillstring and produces little burring and swelling of the pipe, thus obviating the need for milling. Another wireline device, an explosive cutter,
sends out a 360 radial explosive jet to sever the
pipe. Some explosive cutters leave a smooth cut,
but others produce a ared edge that must be
dressed with a mill to accommodate subsequent
retrieval operations. A third method uses
mechanical pipe cutters, which are lowered on
washpipe to the desired depth. Hydraulic pressure forces the cutter arms against the inside of
the pipe. The cutting surfaces are dressed with
crushed tungsten carbide to sever the pipe as the
tool rotates slowly inside the pipe.
Having separated free pipe above the stuck
point, the driller trips out of the hole. The shing
expert will be on the drill oor to examine the
last joint of pipe when it is brought to surface.
The condition of that joint dictates the course of
the ensuing shing job.
Catching On
The two methods most commonly employed to
retrieve a sh are the external catch and the
internal catch. The dimensions of the sh and its
orientation with respect to the wellbore determine which approach is used.
The external catch is provided by a box tap or
an overshot. The box tap uses a tapered thread
to screw over the top of the sh (left). Typically

Top sub

Bowl
Grapple

Guide

> Overshot. The overshot is divided into three

segments. The top sub connects the overshot to
the workstring. The bowl has a tapered helical
design to accommodate a grapple, which holds
the sh in place. The guide helps position the
overshot onto the sh.

used to engage ragged, parted pipe, this tool is

slowly rotated as it is lowered onto the sh. The
bottom lip of the tool is often dressed with hard
metal or crushed tungsten carbide to aid in cutting a thread into the surface of the outer diameter of the sh.
The overshot is designed to engage, pack off
and retrieve parted drillpipe or drill collars
(above). A tapered helical bowl within the overshot houses a grapple used to grip the outside of
the sh. As the overshot is lowered toward the
top of the sh, the driller circulates mud while
reciprocating the shing string to clean the top of
the sh and ush out the inside of the overshot.
Before engaging the sh, the driller records
shing string weight and torque. After washing
over the top of the sh, the driller slowly lowers
the overshot until a slight reduction in weight
indicates it has landed on top of the sh. The
overshot guide slides over the top of the sh as
the driller slowly lowers and rotates the overshot.
By turning to the right, the grapple opens to
engage the sh. Upward pull, with no rotation,
will cause the grapple to retract inside the
tapered bowl, thus constricting around the sh.
With the top of the sh gripped rmly inside the
overshot, the driller pulls the shing string and
sh out of the hole.
9. For more on downhole conveyance methods:
Billingham M, El-Toukhy AM, Hashem MK, Hassaan M,
Lorente M, Sheiretov T and Loth M: Conveyance
Down and Out in the Oil Field, Oileld Review 23, no. 2
(Summer 2011): 1831.

Oileld Review

Drillpipe

> Wall hook guide. If the hole size is much greater

than the sh diameter, the overshot may pass
alongside the sh, rather than engaging it. This
condition forces the shing specialist to install a
wall hook guide to ensure alignment of the sh
with the overshot.

Drill collars

Jar

Bumper sub

Overshots can be tted with a variety of grapples, control packers and accessories, with some
strong enough to accommodate backoff and jarring operations. A common accessory is a mill
guide, installed at the base of the overshot to
grind away ared or jagged edges of the sh to
permit passage into the grapple. The mill accessory makes it possible to dress off and engage the
sh in one trip. Fishermen deploy another basic
but useful device when the wellbore is enlarged
or washed out near the top of the sh. The wall
hook guide is attached to a bent joint of pipe or a
hydraulic knuckle joint to sweep a washed-out
section of hole (above). Once the overshot has
passed the top of the sh, the string is slowly
rotated until the rotary torque indicates that the
sh has been hooked. The torque is held while
the string is elevated. When the torque
decreases, the sh slips into position for engagement by the overshot.
Although the basic overshot has changed very
little over the past few decades, it continues to be
used to great effect. An operator in New Mexico,

Winter 2012/2013

Overshot

Twistoff

Drill collars
Bit

> Fishing string. A basic shing string, with jar and overshot, was used in
a well in New Mexico to retrieve a sh after it twisted off from the rest of
the drillstring.

USA, had to contend with a downhole pipe failure

in a well. During drilling of a 7 7/8-in. hole, a joint
of 6 1/8-in. drill collar twisted off, leaving behind a
parted drill collar and the BHA. While pulling out
of the hole, the operator called on Schlumberger

shing services to retrieve the remaining drillstring from the hole. The shing expert made up
a shing string consisting of drillpipe, drill collars, a jar, a bumper sub and an overshot (above).
The driller ran the shing string in the hole and

33

Fishing Spear

Pin Tap

Taper Tap

Grapple

with no further rotation, wedges the grapple

against the pipe as the driller retrieves the workstring and sh from the hole. Some spears come
with accessories such as mills, which are placed
at the base of the spear to grind away jagged
edges or other obstructions.
Another basic tool deployed inside tubulars
may need to be run to open the way for further
shing. The casing swage is used to restore
dented, buckled or collapsed casing to nearly its
original shape and diameter (below). The swage
relies on mechanical force supplied by downhole impact equipment such as a bumper sub or
drilling jar to open casing obstructions.
Incremental sizes allow swaging to repair various degrees of casing collapse. This tool is frequently run before production equipment is
deployed to ensure that tools will pass cleanly
through the casing.

Bullnose
nut

> Internal catch devices. Pin taps (left) are used to make up to a box tool joint
when retrieving a tubular sh that is restrained from rotation. One-piece taper
taps (center) are constructed with a ne thread form that enables the tap to
work as a threading tool. Flutes in its threading give it a cutting edge to assist
in tapping into the sh. The shing spear (right) provides engagement over a
large area of pipe to minimize distortion of the sh.

succeeded in reaching the top of the sh. After

the overshot engaged the twisted off collar, the
sherman noted an increase in weight as the
driller slowly pulled on the shing string. Once
the shing specialist was assured that the overshot had latched onto the sh, the driller tripped
out of the hole and laid down the sh for examination on the pipe rack. There, the operator
attributed the problem to pipe fatigue.
If the orientation or condition of the sh will
not permit use of an overshot, then the sherman must resort to an inside catching device to
engage the sh. Variations on the inside catching device include the pin tap, taper tap and
spear (above).
A pin tap is used with a sh that has been
backed off from the string of pipe. This leaves a
box tool joint facing upward so it can be engaged
by the tap.

34

A taper tap provides an internal catch on

tubulars that have a restricted internal diameter.
It has a long tapered prole and is used to cut
new thread while screwing into the top of the
sh. This tool is run in the hole to the top of the
sh and then rotated to engage the threads. It is
normally used in conjunction with a safety joint,
which provides a means of detaching the workstring from the sh in the event that the workstring becomes stuck.
A spear uses an internal grapple, or slip, that
expands to grip against the inside wall of the pipe
as the driller pulls out of the hole. The tool is
made up on the end of the workstring then lowered through the top of the sh. When the shing
expert determines that the spear is positioned
deep enough within the sh, the workstring is
rotated to engage the grapple. A straight pull,

> Casing swage. The conical shape of the swage

enables operators to restore deformed casing to
nearly its original size and shape.

Economic Considerations
The decision to shor notmust be weighed
against a need to preserve the wellbore, recover
costly equipment or comply with regulations.
Each choice is fraught with its own costs, risks
and repercussions. Before committing to a specic course of action, the operator must consider
a number of factors:
Well parameters: proposed total depth, current
depth, depth to top of the sh and daily rig
operating costs

Oileld Review

 Lost-in-hole costs: the value of the sh minus

the cost of any components covered by tool
insurance
Fishing costs: daily fee for shing expertise and
daily rental charges for shing tools and jars
Fishing timetable: time spent mobilizing shing tools and personnel, estimated duration of
the shing job and the probability of success.
Cost usually dictates the maximum duration of
the shing job. Thus, a shallow hole with little rig
time and equipment invested will probably warrant a minimal expenditure in shing time. By
contrast, when the lost equipment represents a
large capital investment, more time and expense
are justied. Some operators mandate that once
shing costs reach about half the cost of kicking
off and redrilling, then shing operations should
be abandoned in favor of sidetracking.10
Various formulas and proprietary programs
have been developed to help operators determine
how much time should be spent trying to retrieve
a sh (above right). Experience has shown that
the probability of successful retrieval diminishes
rapidly with time. This conclusion tends to provide an incentive for starting shing operations
as soon as possible, with the assurance that
beyond a certain point, the chances of catching
the sh become nil. When it comes to shing for
stuck pipe, for example, many operators draw the
line at four days, including time spent working
the pipe or spotting pills.
If the decision is to abandon the sh, the
operator must then decide whether to J&A the
hole, complete the well above the sh or sidetrack around it. In the case of junking and abandoning the well, the operators geoscientists
may be able to nd value in the data obtained
from the well, which may inuence subsequent
decisions regarding whether or not to drill an
offset well.
Some wells encounter productive horizons on
their way to deeper pay zones. If reserves in shallower horizons are sufcient to justify completion, the operator may decide to forgo pursuit of
deeper pay when faced with a shing job; instead,
the company can abandon the deep hole and set
pipe in the shallower pay. This option will be
impacted by the replacement cost of the equipment left in the hole, the probability of its recovery, the cost of the shallow completion and the
amount of reserves in the shallow zone.
10. Muqeem MA, Weekse AE and Al-Hajji AA: Stuck Pipe
Best PracticesA Challenging Approach to Reducing
Stuck Pipe Costs, paper SPE 160845, presented at the
SPE Saudi Arabia Section Technical Symposium and
Exhibition, Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, April 811, 2012.

Winter 2012/2013

Df = (Vf + Cs) / (Cf + Cd) ,

where
Df = number of days allocated for fishing
Vf = value of the fish
Cs = estimated cost of sidetracking the well
Cf = daily fishing tool rental and personnel charges
Cd = daily rig operating cost.

> Basic shing equation. This formula is used to

determine the optimal number of days to sh,
based on economics.

Another option is to sidetrack. In addition to

accounting for the cost of equipment left in the
hole, the operator should weigh the following:
the cost and time required for shipping a whipstock, drilling motor or other equipment used
to sidetrack the well
the cost of setting cement plugs down to the
kickoff point, setting time and tripping in preparation to sidetrack
the cost of drilling from kickoff point to TD
the probability of getting stuck in the same
interval again.
In certain areas, an operator may nd that shing is more expensive than sidetracking, or that
the latter may have a more reliable outcome. For
openhole jobs, setting a cement plug and whipstock may be an attractive alternative to days of
nonproductive time. This option is not popular in
all regions, however, and demand for shing may
actually see a resurgence in some areas.
Training for the Future
Fishing expertise is hard won, gained primarily
through on-the-job exposure to a myriad of challenging operational situations in difcult wellbores.
Currently, the great crew change is sweeping a
number of experienced shing hands into retirement, thus reinvigorating the imperative to train
more shing specialists. In response, Schlumberger
has instituted a training program for shing crews.
The curriculum is designed to develop students
shing skills and sharpen their technical knowledge; the curriculum is supplemented by actual
eld operations to strengthen prociency.
The program provides progressive exposure to
a wide range of tools and shing techniques. With
a prerequisite that ensures all trainees are familiar with the tools used in their region of operations, the rst-level course provides eld
specialists and eld engineers with hands-on

training that concentrates on shop assembly and

disassembly, supplemented by classroom instruction and rig-site training.
The trainees are then assigned to the eld to
a number of shing, wellbore departure and well
abandonment jobs before they become eligible
for the next step in their development. These jobs
are carried out by experienced personnel with
the trainee assisting.
The second level of training goes into greater
depth on shing techniques and is supplemented
by case studies. The trainees conduct job planning
exercises based on actual shing jobs. They design
a complete BHA for the job and present their plans
to the class for evaluation and brainstorming.
Following this class, the trainees continue their
eld training and conduct a number of solo jobs
before moving on to the next level.
The nal level of training focuses on the managerial side of shing and remediation to train
personnel for supervisory roles. Such training is
vital to the future of the oil patch, because as
long as downhole equipment or wellbores fail,
shing expertise will be in demand.
MV

35

CO2 SequestrationOne Response

to Emissions

Ahsan Alvi
Eric H. Berlin
Jim Kirksey
Champaign, Illinois, USA

That human activity is having a deleterious effect on the Earths natural heating and

Bill Black
David Larssen
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

the eld scale around the worldcarbon capture, utilization and storageremoves

cooling cycle is widely accepted by the scientic community. However, how humans
can and should respond is far less certain. One approach now being demonstrated at

carbon dioxide from emissions sources and seals it beneath the Earths surface.

Michael Carney
Houston, Texas, USA

Scott Marsteller
Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Scott McDonald
Archer Daniels Midland Company
Decatur, Illinois
Ozgur Senel
Sugar Land, Texas
Valerie Smith
Westerville, Ohio, USA
Oileld Review Winter 2012/2013: 24, no. 4.
Copyright 2013 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Tony
Booer, Abingdon, England; Robert J. Butsch, Houston;
Daniel Byers and Scott Frailey, Illinois State Geological
Survey, Champaign, Illinois; Marcia Couslan, Calgary;
Lori Gauvreau, Oslo, Norway; and Dwight Peters, Sugar
Land, Texas.
ECLIPSE, EverCRETE, Petrel, RSTPro, RTAC and Westbay
are marks of Schlumberger.

tions in the atmosphere to between 445 and

490 parts per million (ppm) CO2 equivalent. At
the end of 2010, concentrations had grown from
preindustrial concentrations of about 270 ppm
to 390 ppm.3 However, limiting GHG concentrations by focusing on the sourcecarbon-fueled
human activitypresents signicant challenges.
According to the IPCC data, emissions from existing infrastructure account for 80% of the CO2
allowed by the cap.4 Therefore, as the worlds
population and carbon fuelbased economies

400

0.6

380

0.4

360

0.2

340

Temperature

0.0

320
300

0.2

CO2

280

0.4

260

0.6

240
0.8

220
200
1850

Global temperature anomaly, C

Robert J. Finley
Hannes E. Leetaru
Illinois State Geological Survey
Champaign, Illinois

Most scientists have concluded that Earths natural temperature uctuations are distorted by
man-made greenhouse gases (GHGs), particularly carbon dioxide [CO2]. These greenhouse
gases enter the atmosphere as a by-product
of industrial activity (below).1 In 2010, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) set a target to limit global temperature
increase to 2C [3.6F] above the preindustrial
average.2 The panel proposed to accomplish this
goal by limiting the growth of GHG concentra-

Atmospheric CO2, concentrations, ppm

Ethan Chabora
Richmond, California, USA

1.0
1870

1890

1910

1930
Year

1950

1970

1990

2010

> Emissions and temperature. Anthropogenic CO2 emissions (blue) have substantially increased during
the past 160 years, leading to a signicant increase in atmospheric concentrations of the gas.
Associated with this increase have been higher than expected annual positive temperature anomalies
(red) leading to higher temperature increases than would be projected using historical mean
temperatures. [Adapted from Global CCS Institute: The Global Status of CCS: 2011, http://cdn.
globalccsinstitute.com/sites/default/les/publications/22562/global-status-ccs-2011.pdf (accessed
August 23, 2012).]

36

Oileld Review

CO

Greenhouse gas emissions

CO2 capture
ap
ptt

En
h
re anc
co ed
ve oi
ry l

Food products

Cement and steel refineries

Gr
ee
nh
ou
se
ga
se
mi
ss
ion
s

Electricity generation

Industrial users

Ethanol plants
ns
io
ss
i
em
as
g
se
ou
nh
e
e
Gr

CO2

CO2

Seal

Oil

CO2 displaces methane from coal.

Seal
CO2 is stored in depleted oil and gas reservoirs.
CO2 displaces trapped oil for enhanced oil recovery.

Seal
CO2 is stored in saline formations.

Seal

continue to grow, many consider capping emissions to be synonymous with capping economic
growtha trade-off few political leaders are willing to make.

Staying below the CO2 cap through the use of

alternative energy sources alone has thus far
proved an unlikely solution. Today, solar, wind
and other renewable sources are able to supply

only a small fraction of the worlds energy

demands. Nuclear energy, while technically
mature and economically viable, has become
politically unpalatable worldwide since a 2011

1. For more on consensus among leading scientic bodies

on global climate change: Union of Concerned Scientists:
Consensus on Global Warming, http://www.ucsusa.org/
ssi/climate-change/scientic-consensus-on.html
(accessed August 17, 2012).
2. The IPCC sets the beginning of the industrial age at
around 1850 as fossil fuel usage began to rise
dramatically and fossil fuel quickly became the most
commonly used fuel.

3. Moomaw W, Yamba F, Kamimoto M, Maurice L, Nyboer J,

Urama K and Weir T: Renewable Energy and Climate
Change, in Edenhofer O, Pichs-Madruga R, Sokona Y,
Seyboth K, Matschoss P, Kadner S, Zwickel T,
Eickemeier P, Hansen G, Schlomer S and von Stechow C
(eds): IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources
and Climate Change Mitigation. New York City: Cambridge
University Press (2011): 161207.

4. International Energy Agency: World Energy Outlook.

Paris: International Energy Agency, 2011.

Winter 2012/2013

37

30

Number of projects

25
20
15
10
5

Identify

Evaluate

Define

Execute

Operate

Total

United States

25

Europe

21

Australia and New Zealand

Canada

China

Middle East

Other Asia

Africa

Total

28

24

74

> Overview of large-scale injection projects (LSIPs) around the world. According to the Global CCS
Institute annual survey undertaken in 2011, 74 LSIPs around the world are in varying stages of planning
and completion. LSIPs are dened as those that involve the capture, transport and storage of CO2 at a
scale of not less than 800,000 metric tons (Mg) [882,000 tonUS] of CO2 annually for a coal-based power
plant and not less than 400,000 Mg [441,000 tonUS] of CO2 annually for other emission-intensive
industrial facilities such as natural gasbased power generation. Projects in the rst three columns
denote LSIPs in planning stages. The Identify column represents those on a developers short list of
options that are undergoing concept and site screening studies. Those in the Evaluate column are
further rened and in prefeasibility, cost and site assessment studies. Those in the Dene column are
being examined for technical and economic viability. Projects in the two columns on the right are
active projects. Those in the Execute column are in the nal stages of design, organization,
construction and commissioning. Those in the Operate column are in full operation mode per
regulatory compliance requirements. [Adapted from the Global CCS Institute: The Global Status of
CCS: 2011, http://cdn.globalccsinstitute.com/sites/default/les/publications/22562/global-statusccs-2011.pdf (accessed August 23, 2012).]

earthquake and tsunami destroyed a nuclear

power plant in Fukushima, Japan. Consequently,
the vast majority of the worlds growing appetite
for energy in the foreseeable future will be satised by traditional fossil fuel sources.
Given this reality, it is clear that the worlds
demand for energy and its environmental concerns are not likely to be reconciled through
reduced emissions alone. One solution to this
apparent impasse may lie not in reducing emissions, but instead in preventing the most signicant GHG componentCO2from entering the
atmosphere by removing it from emissions as
they are created.
The process of carbon capture, utilization and
storage (CCUS) removes CO2 gas from emissions,
dehydrates and puries it and compresses it to a
liquid state. The liquid CO2 is then transported to
wellheads or other locations for use in enhanced

38

oil recovery projects, injected deep into the Earth

to be stored for millennia or utilized as feedstock
in chemical manufacturing.5 For the upstream oil
and gas industry, the transport and storage segment of the process is a familiar one. For decades,
engineers have been designing subsurface injection systems for formation pressure maintenance, gas storage, enhanced oil recovery and
disposal. This article examines how upstream
oileld expertise, methods and technologies are
being applied to CO2 geologic storage.
Resource
Governments worldwide are concerned with capturing CO2, separating it from stationary point
source emissions and storing it (above). To that
end, they are seeking realistic estimates of potential carbon dioxide storage resources. In the US
and part of Canada, these approximations are

supplied by the US Department of Energy (DOE)

through the creation of Regional Carbon
Sequestration Partnerships (RCSPs).6 The DOE
sought to determine available underground space
for CO2 sequestration by considering three types
of formationsoil and gas reservoirs, saline
formations and unminable coal deposits.
The resulting resource estimates represent
the fraction of pore space volume in sedimentary
rocks that is accessible to injection and available
for CO2 storage. Potential resources were screened
using the following criteria:
isolation from shallow groundwater, producible
hydrocarbons, other strata, soils and atmosphere
gravity segregation
maximum allowable injection pressure
caprock or seal capillary entry pressure
displacement efciency.7

Oileld Review

Engineers assessed oil and gas reservoirs at

the eld level based on the volume of oil and gas
that has been or can be produced and based on
the assumption that the volume could be replaced
by an equivalent volume of CO2. Saline formations and unminable coal deposits were assessed
at the basin level.8
Saline formations consist of brine-saturated
porous rock capped by one or more regionally
extensive low-permeability rock formations.
Saline formations assessed for storage by the US
DOE and the RCSPs were restricted to those with
the following characteristics:
pressures and temperatures able to keep the
CO2 in a dense liquid phase
a suitable seal system able to limit vertical ow
out of the reservoir
hydrogeologic conditions able to isolate the CO2.
Unminable coal deposits were limited to
those areas containing water with a total dissolved solids concentration greater than 10,000
ppm. Depending on the geothermal and geopressure gradients in a coal formation, gaseous CO2
adsorption may be possible down to a depth of
only about 900 m [3,000 ft].9 At greater depths,
liquid-phase CO2 may enter the solid coal and
change its properties, swelling the coal matrix,
and causing injectivity problems.10 Additionally,
injection may cause closure of coal cleats, reducing permeability.11
The methodology developed for the estimation process for all three types of environments is
based on volumetric methods, in situ uid distributions and uid displacement processes. Such
methods assume an open system in which in situ
uids are displaced from the formation by the
injected CO2. The primary constraint on pore
space available for CO2 is based on displacement
efciencies rather than on pressure increases.
There is a great degree of uncertainty associated with US DOE estimates of storage volume
available in saline formations because of the
sparsity of well data. In the oil and gas industry,
the designation of a formation as a resource indicates a lack of data and a level of uncertainty
about the presence, size or recoverability of specic hydrocarbon deposits. As more data are
gathered through exploratory and delineation
wells, increased certainty allows the operator to
change the play classications from possible to
probable to proved developed producing (PDP)
reserves. These well-dened classications are
used globally, including by the US Securities and
Exchange Commission, to assess company assets
for public accounting purposes.

Winter 2012/2013

E&P Resource Classifications

Proposed CCS Resource Classifications

Implementation
Reserves

Storage Capacity

On production

Active injection

Approved for development

Approved for development

Justified for development

Justified for development

Site Characterization

Contingent Resources

Contingent Storage Resources

Development pending

Development pending

Development unclarified or on hold

Development unclarified or on hold

Development not viable

Development not viable

Exploration

Prospective Resources

Prospective Storage Resources

Prospect

Potential subregions

Lead

Selected areas

Play

Qualified site(s)

Prospective Storage Resources

Evaluation process

Project subclass
Potential subregions

Site screening

Selected areas

Site selection

Qualified site(s)

Initial characterization

> Proposed classication system. In an effort to establish a common

framework for dividing CCS resources into classications, scientists have
suggested adapting analogous ones used by the E&P industry. The proposed
framework is divided into three phases that correspond to resource classes:
the exploration phase (bottom), in which prospective resources are
comparable to prospective storage resources; site characterization (center),
in which contingent resources are comparable to contingent storage
resources and an implementation phase (top), in which reserves are
comparable to storage capacity. Each resource class is then further divided
into project status subclasses to show project maturity. For example, the
exploration phase is divided into subsets that include comprehensive
evaluation processes for classication comparable to those performed by
E&P engineers for site screening, site selection and initial characterization
processes. (Adapted from Rodosta et al, reference 12.)

Engineers evaluating porous and permeable

zones may use a similar system to classify a carbon capture and storage (CCS), or sequestration,
resource (above).12 Moving a resource from the

PDP classication to storage capacitythe CCS

equivalent of reservesrequires greater certainty about formation properties. The operator
must determine the rate at which the formation

5. Although the term storage is often used to denote the

possibility the CO2 will be retrievable for future use and
the term sequestration is used to indicate permanent
isolation of the gas, the two terms are often used
interchangeably.
6. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has created seven
regional partnerships made up of state agencies,
universities, private companies, national laboratories
and nonprot organizations to establish technology,
infrastructure needs and regulations for CCS.
7. Bachu S: CO2 Storage in Geological Media: Role, Means,
Status and Barriers to Deployment, Progress in Energy
and Combustion Science 34, no. 2 (2008): 254273.
8. Litynski J, Deel D, Rodosta T, Guthrie G, Goodman A,
Hakala A, Bromhal G and Frailey S: Summary of the
Methodology for Development of Geologic Storage
Estimates for Carbon Dioxide, Appendix B, in US DOE
National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) (ed):
Carbon Sequestration Atlas of the United States and
Canada, 3rd edition, Washington, DC: US DOE NETL,
(November 2010): 136159.

9. Bachu S, Bonijoly D, Bradshaw J, Burruss R, Holloway S,

Christensen NP and Mathiassen OM: CO2 Storage
Capacity Estimation: Methodology and Gaps,
International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 1, no. 4
(2007): 430443.
10. Metz B, Davidson O, deConick HC, Loos M and Meyer L
(eds): Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press (2005), http://www.
ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_and_data_
reports.shtml (accessed July 10, 2012).
Injectivity is the maximum rate and pressure at which
uids can be pumped into the formation without
fracturing it.
11. Coal cleats are natural fractures in coal beds.
12. Rodosta TD, Litynski JT, Plasynski SI, Hickman S,
Frailey S and Myer L: US Department of Energys Site
Screening, Site Selection, and Initial Characterization
for Storage of CO2 in Deep Geological Formations,
Energy Procedia 4 (2011): 46644671.

39

Depth, ft

5,600
6,000
6,400
6,800
7,200
7,600
8,000
8,400
8,800
9,200
9,600
10,000

INJ4B
INJ6B
INJ5B

2,220,000

INJ3B
INJ2B
INJ1B

2,230,000 2,240,000 2,250,000 2,260,000 2,270,000 2,280,000

State Plane Coordinate System 1927 (SPCS 27) location, ft

2,290,000

2,300,000

> Geocellular modeling. Geocellular models are used to simulate and predict well performance for
CCS injection projects. With limited data, engineers may be able to develop a simulation model of a
proposed CCS storage area. This model assumed only broad indicators, with the reservoir as a set of
dipping at layers (top). Engineers then may draw on petrophysical analyses of a proposed site, data
from nearby wells (INJ1B, INJ2B, INJ3B, INJ4B, INJ5B, INJ6B), seismic data and new surface
interpretations to develop a more realistic structural model. The engineers apply their ndings to an
advanced geostatistical prediction of the interpreted depositional facies model of an open marine to
nearshore uvialtidal deltashallow shelf distribution (bottom).

can accept injected CO2, the pressure necessary

for safe injection and the ultimate volume that
may be stored. To determine these parameters,
the operator must drill wells to obtain data on
the porosity and permeability of the formation
that is the target for CO2 injection. The equivalent of the oil and gas PDP classication for carbon storage may be thought of as proved
developed storage capacity.13
Before the wells are drilled, a site must be
selected using specic criteria that often differ
from oileld practices. Among the parameters
sought for CCS well injection sites is proximity to
the source, which may allow the operator to dispense with the cost of building pipelines. In contrast to the oil industry, CCS operators seek areas

40

with minimal penetrations into the zone of interest. Though this reduces offset well data that are
valuable to engineers for selecting oil and gas well
drilling sites, for injection purposes, a lack of wellbores through the storage formation minimizes
the potential for leaks through the caprock seal.
Similarly, geoscientists seek formations that are
below any other mineral- or hydrocarbon-bearing
zones to discourage future drilling through the
storage formation.
When considering potential CCS formations,
geoscientists favor formations with a combination of porous and permeable reservoirs, effective
trapping mechanisms and an overlying caprock
seal. They also look for indications that the targeted zone has experienced minimal prior tectonic activity, thus reducing the likelihood of

fault-induced pathways through which injected

CO2 may migrate from the injection formation.
As opposed to hydrocarbon reservoirs and gas
storage facilities, four-way closure for a potential
sequestration site is not a prerequisite. The ideal
reservoir may also be one with minimal regional
dip with low saline uid ow. Modeling has shown
that over long periods of timehundreds of
yearsCO2 migrates very slowly and stabilizes
over time in formations under these conditions as
new residual CO2 saturation is created and dissolution in brine occurs.
Capacity
Upgrading a resource to a capacity designation
may be difcult. CCS resources are often in
regions with little or no oil and gas activity or
may lack data with which to characterize the
formation. Conclusions about the proposed
resource are usually derived initially from logs,
core data and 2D seismic lines. In many cases,
the data pertain to offset wells that are many
kilometers away.
Early characterization of prospective injection
zones helps predict formation injection rates,
pressures and containment capacity. Geoscientists
rst interpret available seismic data to answer
questions about the formations seal, thickness,
porosity and optimal injection intervals and the
presence of faults. They also attempt to resolve
additional parameters such as the following:
location with respect to state borders, townships, nature preserves, local gas and oil elds,
potable water, porosity window and legacy wells
regional formation dip
appropriate depth for sequestration in a dense
phase
proximity of CO2 source to injection well
secondary seals and reservoir heterogeneity.
A product of the geoscientists efforts is often
a geocellular model of the reservoir (above left).
Reservoir engineers use these basic models to
run ow simulations to further understand a formations injectivity, reservoir capacity, potential
subsurface movement of injected CO2 and pressure response.
The knowledge gained from ow modeling
often generates a round of new questions for geoscientists, especially about the relationship
between CO2 plume migration and permeability.14
Modeling the migration of the CO2 once it enters
the formation is critical to accurately predict the
behavior of injection zones for both sequestration
and EOR projects. A key parameter for the model
is residual CO2 saturation in the brine-saturated

Oileld Review

rock.15 Prior to CO2 injection, engineers derive

this value in the laboratory by analyzing rock
properties and interactions between the formation uid and CO2 to build predictive equations.
Once injection has begun, engineers may use
time-lapse sigma logging measurements in both
injection and observation wells to determine reservoir saturation, lithology, porosity and borehole
uid proles.16 Such was the case for the Frio
Brine Pilot Project site near Houston, which is
managed by the Bureau of Economic Geology at
the Jackson School of Geosciences, The University
of Texas at Austin. The project engineers used the
RSTPro reservoir saturation tool on wireline to
verify laboratory-based CO2 saturation values.
Project engineers presented a Schlumberger
Carbon Services petrophysics team with two
challenges: measure the CO2 saturation in the
formation uid at its maximum level during injection and measure the residual CO2 saturation in
the reservoir after the plume had expanded
within the target injection formation. Wells available for taking measurements included an observation well and an injection well downdip 100 ft
[30 m] away.
Engineers ran a baseline log on both wells
before injection. Repeat logs were run immediately following breakthrough at the observation
well and then again two days after, one month
after and nine months after injection was halted.
The resulting data allowed geoscientists to compare in situ saturation measurements with laboratory and modeled measurements.17
Resource to Capacity
Numerous regions in the US and elsewhere have
been identied as having CCUS potential. In the
Illinois basin in the US, the Cambrian-age
Mt. Simon Sandstone was identied as a potentially suitable formation for CO2 storage. It is an
areally extensive saline reservoir that overlies a
Precambrian granitic or rhyolitic basement and
is overlain by the Eau Claire Shalea low-permeability formation comprising shale, siltstone
and tight limestone.18
The decision to develop the Mt. Simon
Sandstone in a demonstration of CCS technology
was made easier by the fact that Illinois has
some of the largest gas storage facilities in the
US. For more than 50 years, predominantly near
the large Chicago metropolitan area in the
northern end of the state, utility companies have
been using natural gas stored in the upper zones
of the Mt. Simon Sandstone, which extends
across nearly the entire state and parts of

Winter 2012/2013

Chicago

INDIANA

Champaign
Decatur
ILLINOIS

Mt. Simon Sandstone

thickness in feet
Less than 500
500 to 1,000
1,000 to 1,500
1,500 to 2,000
Greater than 2,000
Illinois basin outline

KENTUCKY

0
0

75
50

150 km
100 mi

> Mt. Simon Sandstone. The Mt. Simon Sandstone is the thickest and most
widespread saline reservoir in the Illinois basin. It covers two-thirds of the
state of Illinois, and extends into Indiana and Kentucky. The estimated CO2
storage capacity of the Mt. Simon Sandstone is 11 to 151 billion Mg
[13 to 166 billion tonUS]. Several layers of shale above and below serve as
impermeable caprocks to hold the CO2 in place. The upper sections of the
Mt. Simon Sandstone have been used for gas storage for many years. (Map
courtesy of the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium.)

Indiana and Kentucky (above). Consequently,

the overlying seal and the injectivity and reser-

voir continuity of the upper 200 to 300 ft [60 to

90 m] of the sandstone are understood. However,

13. Frailey SM and Finley RJ: Classication of CO2

Geological Storage: Resource and Capacity,
Energy Procedia 1, no. 1 (February 2009): 26232630.
14. Plume migration is the vertical and horizontal extent to
which the injected CO2 has spread through the formation.
15. As CO2 spreads through the connected pore space,
small droplets disassociate and become disconnected
from the main body of the CO2 plume. These droplets
become immobilized in the pores. This residual trapping
is a signicant mechanism in retaining CO2 in the
storage formation.

16. A pulsed neutron capture tool may be used to measure

the rate at which thermal neutrons are captured by the
formation. This measurement is called the macroscopic
capture cross section, or sigma.
17. For more on the Frio Brine Pilot Project: Bennaceur K,
Gupta N, Monea M, Ramakrishman TS, Randen T,
Sakurai S and Whittaker S: CO2 Capture and
StorageA Solution Within, Oileld Review 16, no. 3
(Autumn 2004): 4461.
18. US DOE NETL: Midwest Geological Sequestration
ConsortiumDevelopment PhaseLarge Scale Field
Test, http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/factsheets/
project/Project678_4P.pdf (accessed July 10, 2012).

41

Shallow water

Shallow water

Surface casing

Surface casing

Intermediate
casing

Intermediate
casing

New Albany Shale

2,088 to 2,214 ft

New Albany Shale

Maquoketa Shale

2,611 to 2,817 ft

Maquoketa Shale

St. Peter Sandstone

3,270 to 3,477 ft

Production
casing
Tubing

Quality
assurance
zone

Packer
mandrel

St. Peter Sandstone

Production
casing

Monitoring
zone

Measurement
port

Stainless steel,
tubing to TD
Pumping
port

Eau Claire Shale

5,047 to 5,545 ft

Eau Claire Shale

Packer
Production
casing
Mt. Simon Sandstone

5,545 to 7,051 ft

Mt. Simon
Sandstone

Packer

Casing shoe
at 7,219 ft
Precambrian

> CO2 injection well. The IBDP injection well was

constructed using engineering techniques that
are typical for such wells. All casing strings are
cemented to the surface. Additionally, specic
storage formations and intervals are selected
because they are bounded above and below by
impermeable zones. In the case of the IBDP
injection well, the caprock is the Eau Claire Shale
and the lower boundary is Precambrian rock. The
impermeable Maquoketa and New Albany shales
above the Eau Claire are considered secondary
and tertiary boundaries, respectively. The
injection well uses 20-in. surface casing, 13 3/8-in.
intermediate casing and 9 5/8-in. production
casing set through the sandstone and a 4 1/2-in.
injection tubing set into a packer above the
perforations. The bottom 1,947 ft [593 m] of the
production casing and all the injection tubing are
chrome to resist corrosion.

when a well was drilled deeper, to the basement,

the lower zones of the Mt. Simon Sandstone were
found to have porosity as high as 30% with

42

Precambrian

> Verication well. To monitor the progress of the CO2 plume though formations, CCS projects may
include a verication well (left). Engineers install monitors (not shown) at many levels along the
verication well borehole; this 3D array of measuring and sampling points accurately assesses where
injected uids are going. In the IBDP verication well, real-time temperature and pressure sensors
take measurements at 11 ported locations along the wellbore. Mandrels with sampling points are
collocated with these sensors; reservoir uids may be captured through these ports at reservoir
conditions and brought to the surface via a slickline tool (right). The well is completed with 13 3/8-in.
surface casing, 9 5/8-in. intermediate casing and 5 1/2-in. production casing, including 2,213 ft [675 m] of
chrome set into the Precambrian rock below the Mt. Simon Sandstone. A string of 2 7/8-in. tubing is
run from the surface to 4,747 ft [1,447 m]. To resist corrosion, 2 1/2-in. stainless steel tubing is set from
4,747 to 7,126 ft [1,447 to 2,172 m].

permeability up to 1,000 mD. The familiar upper

zones average around 100 mD. Additionally, the
Mt. Simon has at least three sealing formations
between it and the surface and is a continuous
1,500-ft [460-m] thick, clean sandstone.
To demonstrate the feasibility of long-term CO2
geologic storage, and to change the classication
of the Mt. Simon from resource to capacity, the
Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS), with funding from the US DOE to the Midwest Geological

Sequestration Consortium, is leading the Illinois

BasinDecatur Project (IBDP) with Archer
Daniels Midland (ADM) Company, Schlumberger
Carbon Services and other partners. The IBDP
started in December 2007 when funding was rst
received and began injection operations in
November 2011. The project captures CO2 from the
fermentation process, which is used to produce
ethanol at the ADM corn processing plant in
Decatur, Illinois. The compressed and liqueed

Oileld Review

CO2 is then transported to and injected into the

Mt. Simon Sandstone at depths of around 7,000 ft
[2,100 m]. The IBDP is one of a series of such projects within the US DOE RCSP program to demonstrate that CO2 can be successfully and securely
stored over extended periods using best engineering and geologic practices and that projects can be
performed in the best interests of local and
regional stakeholders.19
The IBDP site selection was the result of a
combination of suitable geology and relatively
low-cost CO2 supply, which have helped create
numerous projects in the area. A second projectthe Illinois Industrial Carbon Capture
and Sequestration (IL-ICCS) projectis also
in Decatur. IL-ICCS project partners are the
same as the IBDP partners with the addition of
nearby Richland Community College; the project is funded by the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.
Emissions from ethanol production at the
ADM plant are typically 99% pure CO2 saturated
with water vapor at 80F [27C] and just above
atmospheric pressure. Capturing CO2 is therefore
easier and less costly than when the process is
applied to more-complex emission compositions
such as those from coal-red plants in which the
cost of isolating CO2 using current technology may
reduce plant efciency by a quarter to one-third.
Additionally, the IBDP injection, monitoring and
verication wells are on ADM property at the project site in Decatur, which minimizes pipeline construction costs and allows implementation of
extensive environmental monitoring.
The IBDP captures CO2 at the ADM facility
and dehydrates and compresses it to 1,400 psi
[9.6 MPa] at the wellhead. The consortium began
injecting 1,100 tonUS/d [1,000 Mg/d] of this liquid-phase CO2 with a goal of injecting a total of
1.1 million tonUS [1 million Mg] over three years.20
Developing the IBDP
During project planning stages, using regional
geology, a 2D seismic line and logs from two wells
38 mi [61 km]northeast and 50 mi [80 km] south
of the intended injection well site, ISGS and
Schlumberger Carbon Services geoscientists created an initial geologic model with the Petrel
E&P software platform. From this model, reservoir engineers created a ow model using
ECLIPSE reservoir simulation software.
Schlumberger Carbon Services was responsible for managing the drilling and completion of
the injection, verication and geophone wells for
the project. Well completion design choices such

Winter 2012/2013

as perforation intervals, tubular and wellhead

size were based on the injection rate and pressures calculated by early reservoir modeling.
Because additional data to rene these models
could come only from drilling and testing wells
in the area, injection rates were estimated and
wells were designed with a signicant safety
factor.
Project engineers drilled an injection well in
2009 (previous page, left). Later that year, a 3D
seismic survey was conducted. In 2010, the verication well was drilled 1,000 ft [300 m] to the
north and petrophysical logs and core data were
acquired (previous page, right). A geophysical
well to monitor formations above the Eau Claire
Shale was completed with geophones cemented
outside the casing every 50 ft [15 m] along the
openhole section (right).
As part of the sequestration containment
process to prevent CO2 from breaching the caprock sealing formation, each casing section of
any well penetrating a storage zone must be
cemented all the way back to the surface. This
requirement creates challenges for drilling and
completion engineers. The hydrostatic pressure
created by a full column of cement in the production stringformation annulus may create
pressures along the wellbore, which may result
in lost circulation events.
This issue arose during drilling of the IBDP
injection well when engineers encountered a lost
circulation zone in a carbonate formation above
the Eau Clair Shale. Traditional lost circulation
countermeasures did not resolve the problem.21
When drilling conventional wells, engineers often
accept the loss of drilling uids to thief zones
long enough to drill past them and set pipe. In
this case, however, they knew that this practice
would not be a solution. While cement tops
behind casing are typically far below the surface,
each casing string of a CCS well must be
cemented to the surface. The lost circulation
zone, therefore, must be made strong enough to
support a full annulus of cement.
Engineers solved the lost circulation problem
by placing a dispersed cement slurry across the
weak zone, allowing some cement to enter and
set up in the formation matrix. They then drilled
through the newly created cement plug, leaving a
section of cement-lined wellbore across the lost
circulation zone that was able to withstand the
hydrostatic pressure created by a full column of
cement used for the production string.
A more daunting problem for CCS well construction is that CO2 can cause cement to

Shallow water
Surface casing

Tubing

Cement

Geophones
New Albany Shale

Maquoketa Shale

St. Peter Sandstone

> Geophysical well. A geophysical well includes

geophones cemented in place within the wells
tubing-openhole annulus. The bottom of the
geophysical well is shallower than the sealing
formation. With these geophones in a
geophysical well and an injection well, engineers
can use microseismic monitoring software to
locate subterranean sounds to within about a
90-ft [27-m] radius sphere. The well includes
9 1/4-in. surface casing and 3 1/2-in. tubing from the
surface to 3,498 ft [1,066 m] inside 3,500 ft
[1,067 m] of 8 1/2-in. open hole.

degrade through the process of carbonation,

which occurs when traditional portland cement
is exposed to CO2.22 To counter this threat, the
drilling team used EverCRETE CO2-resistant
cement. During laboratory experiments that
included exposing the cement to liquid-phase
CO2 under downhole conditions, the cement
showed no signs of failure. EverCRETE cement
was circulated down the injection string behind
19. Rodosta et al, reference 12.
20. US DOE NETL: Midwest Geological Sequestration
ConsortiumDevelopment Phase, http://www.netl.doe.
gov/technologies/carbon_seq/refshelf/project%20
portfolio/2009/Partnerships/Development/Midwest%20
Geological%20Carbon%20Sequestration%20
Consortium%20Phase%20III.pdf (accessed August 1, 2012).
21. For more on lost circulation: Cook J, Growcock F, Guo Q,
Hodder M and van Oort E: Stabilizing the Wellbore to
Prevent Lost Circulation, Oileld Review 23, no. 4
(Winter 2011/2012): 2635.
22. Carbonation occurs when carbon dioxide penetrates
the cement and alters its composition. For more on
carbonation of cement: Kayser A, Knackstedt M and
Ziauddin M: A Closer Look at Pore Geometry,
Oileld Review 18, no. 1 (Spring 2006): 413.

43

a lead slurry of standard portland cement. The

top of the EverCRETE cement was 750 ft
[230 m] above the intermediate casing shoe,
ensuring that CO2 would not come in contact
with the vulnerable conventional cement.
Measuring Progress
The verication well is equipped with a Westbay
multilevel groundwater characterization and
monitoring system. Developed for groundwater
monitoring, the system can measure uid pressure, collect uid samples and repeatedly perform hydraulic testing from multiple zones in a
single well. For the IBDP project, the system was
congured for deeper applications and for monitoring CO2 storage. It allows engineers to collect
uid samples at formation pressure and to monitor real-time pressure and temperature data
from multiple zones before and after CO2 arrives
at the verication well. At the IBDP well, engineers are using the recongured Westbay system
to monitor 11 intervals, and the data are used to
support simulation models of CO2 movement
through the Mt. Simon Sandstone.
The monitoring device consists of a multipacker tubing completion string installed inside
cemented and perforated casing. The tubing
string has 27 packers to isolate selected segments of perforated and blank casing. Each zone
has a measurement port that is accessed by a
wireline-deployed probe that measures uid
pressure and collects uid samples.
Thirteen probes measure pressure and temperature at 11 perforated zones, at one quality
assurance zone to identify any breaches of packer
integrity and at one zone to monitor internal tubing pressure. The probes are connected through a
common slim cable to a data logger interface at
the surface. Technicians remove the wireline
string of pressure probes from the tubing string
for sampling and then reinstall it to continue
monitoring until the next sampling operation.
Before a series of sampling operations,
engineers run a wireline RSTPro log to determine
which zones have CO2. Samples are collected
only from zones where CO2 has not arrived. The
sampling process includes a standard sequence
of steps that provides repeatability for later
time-series evaluation of uid-chemistry data. A
selected volume of uid is purged from the targeted sampling zone, and formation uid is collected using a sampler probe and canisters. The
canisters are sealed to preserve the uid at reservoir conditions and retrieved to the surface.
Laboratory technicians remove the uid from

44

the canisters using a pressure-controlling apparatus that preserves the integrity of the sample.
The chemical analysis typically includes dissolved anions, cations and gases.
The project is equipped with RTAC real-time
acquisition and control software that uses a
supervisory control and data acquisition
(SCADA) system for interfacing with numerous
tools and equipment. The RTAC system also
includes a secure web-based data visualization
and archive interface, which may be used in standard modules or customized for specic purposes. For the IBDP wells, the RTAC system is
congured to be accessible to project stakeholders who wish to remotely monitor injection and
other relevant well data (next page).
Injection began in November 2011 and geoscientists offered a wide range of predictions about
initial formation response. Engineers included
provisions for venting CO2 to the atmosphere in
the event the formation did not immediately take
the volumes of gas captured. Extra pump capacity
at the ADM plant was also available should injection pressure need to be higher than initially
predicted. However, neither contingency was
required because injection rates were higher and
pressures required were below those predicted
by the model.
Refining the Models
With wells drilled and injection underway, reservoir engineers and geoscientists obtained data to
update Petrel models and optimize the next step
in the operation. For example, to ensure injection
capacity and optimize plume geometry, engineers
designed the completions after drilling and logging the injector well. Using the updated models,
engineers then designed water injection and falloff tests that represented downhole conditions.
Data from those tests were used to calibrate the
models to reevaluate and verify the completion
strategy. After the verication well was drilled
and logged, geoscientists used the new data to
update predictive models.
A team of reservoir engineers, petrophysicists
and geoscientists identied the locations of sampling and measurement zones in the verication
well using information from the updated model.
Sensitivity analyses were carried out at different
stages to understand what new data were needed.
Engineers and geoscientists began to accumulate large amounts of data with the commencement of injection at the IDBP and began
studying the models in anticipation of the
IL-ICCS project. The injection operations are
scheduled to begin early in the third and nal

year of injection into the IBDP well. Spinner data

were used to detect ow distribution between
perforations in the injection well. RSTPro well
logs were used to gather CO2 saturation data
around the injection and verication wells. Data
from the IBDP well included the real-time injection rate and injection bottomhole pressure
(IBHP) using a downhole gauge placed about
600 ft [180 m] above the perforations. Data were
also gathered using the Westbay monitoring system, which measured real-time pressures at specic zones in the verication well located 1,000 ft
north of the injection well. Five of the 10 Westbay
zones were used for model calibrations.
Using ECLIPSE reservoir simulation software,
engineers ran reservoir simulations that included
the CO2STORE module, which was developed to
model CO2 storage in saline formations.23 Using
the model, engineers considered three phases: a
CO2-rich phase, an H2O-rich phase and a solid
phase. The static geologic model included the
entire Mt. Simon Sandstone and the overlying
Eau Claire Shale.
This model covers a 40-mi2 [104-km2] area and
was represented with a 1,298- 1,308- 534-cell
grid with average cell size of 150 ft 150 ft 3.5 ft
[46 m 46 m 1 m]. The horizontal cells of the
geologic model were downscaled from 150 ft to
50 ft [15 m] around the wellbore for better reservoir model resolution there. In the far-eld region,
horizontal cells were upscaled from 150 ft to
1,500 ft [460 m]. Vertical resolution of the geologic
model was maintained in the lower 700 ft [210 m]
of the reservoir where CO2 was expected to remain.
In the upper section of the model, the vertical
dimension of the cells was decreased to 75 ft
[23 m]. The resulting cellular model was represented by a high-resolution 143- 143- 143-unit
grid locally rened around the injector.
The porosity within the injection interval
ranges from 8% to 26%. The temperature and
pressure gradients of approximately 1F/100 ft
[1.8C/100 m] and 0.45 psi/ft [10.2 MPa/km] were
based on in situ measurements made after drilling the IBDP wells. The formation pressure gradient in the lower half of the Mt. Simon Sandstone
is slightly higher than a typical freshwater gradient because of the high-salinity water present in
this part of the reservoir, which ranges from
179,800 ppm to 228,000 ppm total dissolved solids
based on analysis of actual formation uid samples recovered during the drilling of the injection
well. Another governing parameter used in the
reservoir simulation was the fracture pressure
gradient of the lower Mt. Simon Sandstone, which

Oileld Review

50
45
40
35

Injection rate, Mg/h

. Real-time data. With RTAC real-time acquisition

and control software, project stakeholders were
able to monitor the injection rates measured
downhole (top). Real-time downhole pressures
recorded in the injection well (center) conrm
that targeted injection rates were achieved.
Westbay measurements from 11 perforated
zones along the verication well (bottom)
reported real-time downhole pressures. That
pressure changes are seen only in Zones 1, 2, 3
and 4, indicates that CO2 has not risen above
Zone 4.

30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Nov. 1
2011

Dec. 1
2011

Jan. 1
2012

Feb. 1
2012

Mar. 1
2012

Apr. 1
2012

May 1
2012

June 1
2012

July 1
2012

Aug. 1
2012

Sept. 1
2012

Nov. 1
2011

Dec. 1
2011

Jan. 1
2012

Feb. 1
2012

Mar. 1
2012

Apr. 1
2012

May 1
2012

June 1
2012

July 1
2012

Aug. 1
2012

Sept. 1
2012

Nov. 1
2011

Dec. 1
2011

Jan. 1
2012

Feb. 1
2012

Mar. 1
2012

Apr. 1
2012

May 1
2012

June 1
2012

July 1
2012

Aug. 1
2012

Sept. 1
2012

3,500
3,450
3,400
3,350
3.300

23. For more on simulations: Edwards DA, Gunasekera D,

Morris J, Shaw G, Shaw K, Walsh D, Fjerstad PA,
Kikani J, Franco J, Hoang V and Quettier L: Reservoir
Simulation: Keeping Pace with Oileld Complexity,
Oileld Review 23, no. 4 (Winter 2011/2012): 415.

Winter 2012/2013

Pressure, psi

3,250
3,200
3,150
3,100
3,050
3,000
2,950
2,900
2,850

3,600

3,400

3,200

3,000

Pressure, psi

was demonstrated by a step rate test in the injection well to be 0.715 psi/ft [16.2 MPa/km].
For the reservoir simulations, the bottomhole
injection pressure (BHIP) was allowed to reach
up to 80% of the fracture pressure in the IDBP
well. The BHIP in the IL-ICCS injection well will
be allowed to reach 90% because of its planned
higher injection rate. During the course of the
simulation, CO2 is injected into the IBDP well for
two years at 1,100 tonUS/d [1,000 Mg/d], followed
by one year of dual injection of 1,100 tonUS/d into
the IBDP well and 2,200 tonUS/d [2,000 Mg/d] into
the IL-ICCS well. Injection continues for four
years into the IL-ICCS well at 3,300 tonUS/d
[3,000 Mg/d]. At the end of this 7-year injection
period, a 45-year postmonitoring period was simulated to understand the long-term behavior of the
CO2 plumes and the reservoir pressure within the
injection zone.
In both wells, injection is conned to the
lower part of the Mt. Simon Sandstone because it
is the most porous and permeable. In the case of
the IBDP well, reservoir engineers used the existing perforated interval of 55 ft [16.8 m] in the
simulation. For the IL-ICCS well simulation, they
used the 330-ft [100-m] perforation interval of
the completion plan.

2,800

2,600

2,400

2,200

2,000

Zone 1
Zone 7

Zone 2
Zone 8

Zone 3
Zone 9

Zone 4
Zone 10

Zone 5
Zone 11

Zone 6

45

Injector Well Bottomhole Pressure Profile

3,800
IBDP injection well BHPSimulated

IBDP injection well BHPObserved

Pressure, psi

3,600

3,400

3,200

Dec. 1
2011

Jan. 1
2012

Feb. 1
2012

Mar. 1
2012
Simulated
Zone 2 Pressure
Zone 3 Pressure
Zone 4 Pressure
Zone 6 Pressure
Zone 7 Pressure

Verification Well Pressure Profile

Apr. 1
2012
Observed
Zone 2 Pressure
Zone 3 Pressure
Zone 4 Pressure
Zone 6 Pressure
Zone 7 Pressure

Pressure, psi

3,400

3,200

3,000

2,800
Nov. 14
2011

Nov. 29
2011

Dec. 14
2011

Dec. 29
2011

Jan. 13
2012

Jan. 28
2012

Feb. 12
2012

Feb. 27
2012

Mar. 13
2012

> Simulation validation. The data used for the IBDP bottomhole pressure calibration process were
obtained during the rst four months of injection. To calibrate the reservoir model, engineers fed the
observed injection rate into the simulator, which predicted injection bottomhole pressures. The
simulated pressures (top, black) were then compared to the observed pressures (green). Once the
injection bottomhole pressure was calibrated, simulated pressures at ve zones at the verication well
were ne-tuned by calibrating the vertical and horizontal permeability ratio (kv /kh ) of the tight sections
and compressibility of the reservoir rock (bottom). Zones 2 and 3 are in direct communication with
injection well perforations, thus show immediate pressure responses. Reservoir engineers have
determined that ow barriers between Zones 2 and 3 and between Zone 4 and the zones above it
prevent vertical ow. As a result, the matches between simulated and observed pressures in 4, 6 and 7
are more apparent than in Zones 2 and 3.

The team calibrated the site model using data

obtained during the rst four months of the IBDP
injection period. The engineers input the IBDP
injection rate into the simulation to calculate the
pressures at ve zones at the verication well. The
simulated pressures were comparable to the
observed pressures. Engineers concluded that reservoir permeability and skin were the main parameters impacting injection pressure calibration,

46

thus were used as tting parameters. Engineers

used spinner data from a wireline production log
to determine the proportion of total CO2 injection
entering each of the sets of perforations in the
injection well. These data, along with the simulation, allowed engineers to ne-tune skin values at
respective perforations and calculate permeability
to match IBHP (above).

Engineers used RSTPro well logs to estimate

the location, saturation and thickness of the CO2
column around the injection and verication
wells. This information helped engineers netune the endpoints of relative permeability
curves, which govern CO2 and brine ow in the
reservoir. Using the calibrated model, engineers
ran a predictive simulation to evaluate the development of the plume and its pressure during the
course of the injection program.

Oileld Review

Winter 2012/2013

CO2 saturation, %

CO2 Plume Map View

IL-ICCS injection well

IBDP verification well

IBDP injection well
Pressure front

CO2 Plume Cross-Sectional View

Top of Eau Claire

4,400

4,800

6,000

CO2 saturation, %

5,600

IL-ICSS injection well

5,200

Top of Mt. Simon

IBDP verification well

IBDP injection well

CCS in the Long Term

When combined, the two projects at ADM will
have injected more man-made CO2 into geologic
storage than any project has pumped elsewhere
in the US. The lessons learned from these two
projects have signicant implications for treating
emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.
The two Illinois projects will help determine
how large amounts of anthropogenic CO2 behave
in the Mt. Simon Sandstone, which has the potential to hold billions of tons of CO2. Because the
formation stretches across three states beneath
some of the largest coal plants and industrial
installations in the US, and because it is in the
midst of coal-dependent Midwestern states, a sizable portion of CO2 generated in the US can be
transported to the region and stored there; these
advantages make CCS commercially viable in
the US.
The IBDP and IL-ICSS have been and are
being constructed to meet specications of the US
Environmental Protection Agencys newly created
Underground Injection Control Class VI injection
well guidelines. Under the new well classication,
operators must closely monitor how an underground CO2 plume moves in porous rock. To comply, scientists at the Illinois State Geological
Survey, in Champaign, are testing equipment that
has never been used with carbon sequestration;
such equipment includes seismic sensors to create a detailed image of the CO2 plume.
The two demonstration projects in Illinois will
answer numerous questions about the viability of
CCUS. Simultaneous injection of the two projects
will provide crucial information that will help scientists understand how two underground CO2

90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10

IL-ICCS verification well

Depth, ft

Based on the simulation, the CO2 plume

resulting from injection into the IL-ICCS well will
interact with the IBDP well plume. Because the
injection interval is near the base of the
Mt. Simon Sandstone, and CO2 is less dense than
the native brine, the CO2 ows upward from the
injection interval. As it rises, CO2 saturation
increases below the lower-permeability intervals
within the Mt. Simon Sandstone. This pooling
causes the CO2 to spread laterally beneath the
lower-permeability strata, which results in slow
growth of the plume. The lower-permeability
strata within the Mt. Simon Sandstone limit the
ultimate vertical migration of CO2 through the
injection zone. As a consequence, simulation
shows that after ve years of continuous injection
through the IL-ICCS well and 45 years of shut-in,
the CO2 is expected to remain well within the
lower half of the Mt. Simon Sandstone (right and
next page).

80
60
40
20

Plume
6,400

80,000

84,000

88,000
SPCS 27 location, ft

92,000

2,500

5,000 ft

750

1,500 m

96,000

> Year 1. Map view (top) and cross-sectional view (bottom) of the IBDP CO2
model-predicted footprints of the pressure front and the plume after one year
of injection into the IBDP well indicate that the CO2 remains at or near
perforation depth. The green bar represents the designed perforation interval
for the IL-ICCS injection well.

plumes interact with each other. This information

is important for the viability of future projects
because large power plants will require multiple
injection wells to manage the CO2 they generate.
Additionally, data from the Illinois projects
will resolve questions about geologic storage

safety and sustainable injection rates that have

caused government policy makers to hesitate
funding large-scale CCUS projects. If those questions can be addressed, the US will be able to
take advantage of storage capacity from 11 identied deep saline formations with an estimated

47

CO2 Plume Map View

CO2 saturation, %

CO2 saturation, %

90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10

90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10

CO2 Plume Map View

IL-ICCS verification well

IL-ICCS verification well

IL-ICCS injection well

IL-ICCS injection well

IBDP verification well

IBDP verification well

IBDP injection well

IBDP injection well

Pressure front

CO2 Plume Cross-Sectional View

5,200

5,600

Plume

80
60
40
20

Plume
6,400

6,400

84,000

88,000
SPCS 27 location, ft
0
0

2,500
750

92,000

96,000

84,000

88,000
SPCS 27 location, ft

92,000

2,500

5,000 ft

1,500 m

750

1,500 m

storage capacity for 100% of projected US surplus

CO2 from emissions for 100 years.24
24. Szulczewski ML, MacMinn CW, Herzog HJ and
Juanes R: Lifetime of Carbon Capture as a ClimateChange Mitigation Technology, Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences 109, no. 14
(April 3, 2012): 51855189.

80,000

5,000 ft

> Year 3. Map view (top) shows the predicted pressure fronts at the start of
the third and nal year of injection. The CO2 plume footprints of the IBDP
injection well remain deep in the Mt. Simon Sandstone (bottom). This
coincides with the rst year of injection into the IL-ICCS well where the
plume footprint also remains at perforation depth.

48

Top of Mt. Simon

6,000

6,000

80,000

IL-ICSS injection well

Depth, ft

80
60
40
20

IBDP verification well

4,800

Top of Mt. Simon

CO2 saturation, %

5,600

IBDP injection well

IL-ICSS injection well

5,200

IBDP verification well

IBDP injection well

Depth, ft

4,800

Top of Eau Claire

4,400

Top of Eau Claire

4,400

CO2 saturation, %

CO2 Plume Cross-Sectional View

96,000

> Year 18. Eighteen years after injection began into the IBDP well, models
predict the CO2 plume footprint, as seen in cross-sectional view (bottom),
will remain contained well below the base of the Eau Claire Shale.
Simulators predict the pressure front will dissipate in Year 8, measured
from the beginning of injection into the IBDP well.

Even as debate over anthropogenic climate

change seems to be waning, public concerns have
arisen about the environmental impact of CCUS.
Large-scale projects, such as the IBDP, the
IL-ICCS and others now underway may alleviate
some of those concerns. If so, CCUS technology

may offer at least a partial solution to governments caught in a seemingly irreconcilable position that, on the one hand, concedes that human
activities are indeed aggravating climate change,
but on the other hand, admits that curbing those
activities is politically difcult.
RvF

Oileld Review

Contributors
Ahsan Alvi has been a Project Manager with
Schlumberger Carbon Services in Champaign, Illinois,
USA, since 2011. Previously, he was a drilling optimization engineer. Ahsan received a bachelors degree in
civil engineering from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
A. Ballard Andrews, a principal scientist at
Schlumberger-Doll Research in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, USA, specializes in optics, photonics,
laser applications, infrared thermography, spectroscopy and asphaltene science. He earned a PhD degree
in condensed matter physics from The University of
Texas at Austin, USA, and conducted postdoctoral
research at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New
Mexico, USA. He later worked for Brookhaven National
Laboratory in Upton, New York, USA, on computational
scientic visualization and X-ray microtomography.
Ballard has published more than 50 articles in physics,
chemistry and energy journals and coauthored a chapter in Handbook of Physics and Chemistry of the Rare
Earths. He has presented at more than 35 conferences and has 16 patents granted or led. His current
interests include downhole gas compositional analysis.
Eric H. Berlin is a Project Manager with
Schlumberger Carbon Services in Champaign, Illinois.
He has held various positions with Schlumberger since
1981 in Illinois, California and Ohio, USA. Eric
attained a BS degree in geoengineering from the
University of Minnesota Institute of Technology,
Minneapolis, USA.
Bill Black is a Senior Hydrogeologist and Westbay*
Sales and Marketing Manager for Schlumberger Water
Services in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada; he has
worked with the Westbay system for more than 34
years. His technical interest lies in groundwater
behavior, and his current projects include demonstrating the value of Westbay technology for environmental
monitoring of unconventional resource developments
such as oil shale, oil sands, shale gas and coal seam
gas. Bill received a BSc degree in geological engineering from the University of British Columbia in
Vancouver, Canada.
Michael Carney is the North America Subsurface
Technical Manager for Schlumberger Carbon Services
in Houston; he leads a team of petrotechnical experts
in geology, geophysics, petrophysics and reservoir and
production engineering. He joined Schlumberger in
1991 as the district geologist for most of sub-Saharan
Africa in Port Gentil, Gabon, and was then the data
center manager in Luanda, Angola. In the US, he has
served in several positions, including management and
technology development. He has recently been focusing on production and reservoir optimization and permanent downhole sensing. He serves as a coleader of
the production and completions engineering community and of the Schlumberger sensor technology special interest group. Michael earned a BSc degree in
geological engineering from the Colorado School of
Mines, Golden, USA.

Winter 2012/2013

Ethan Chabora is a Reservoir Engineer for

Schlumberger Geothermal Services in Richmond,
California; his focus is resource assessment and reservoir optimization for clients such as geothermal power
operators and project investors. He began his career
with Schlumberger Wireline in 2000 as a eld engineer
and has since held the roles of general eld engineer,
engineer in charge and project manager with
Schlumberger Carbon Services. Ethan received a BA
degree in physics from Cornell University in Ithaca,
New York, and an MS degree in petroleum engineering
from Stanford University, California.
Brian Coll is the Business Support Manager for New
Technologies with M-I SWACO LLC, a Schlumberger
company. Based in Aberdeen, he works in the Wellbore
Productivity Segment with a focus on the WELL
SCAVENGER tool and other new tools under development. He joined the oil industry in 1997 as a eld engineer for Gyrodata Ltd, running gyroscopic and
magnetic measurement tools to obtain high-accuracy
directional wellbore surveys in Europe, North Africa,
the Middle East and Asia. He served as Gyrodata operations coordinator for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and
Bahrain followed by operations manager in
Kalimantan, Indonesia. Brian joined SPS International
in 2006 as product support engineer to oversee the
development of the CENTURION circulating valve,
which evolved into the WELL COMMANDER tool.
Following the acquisition of SPS by M-I SWACO in
2006, he became business development manager for
new technology and conducted market research, eld
trials, data collection and analysis and global introduction and offered training and support for the WELL
COMMANDER tool.
Chengli Dong is a Senior Fluid Properties Specialist
with the Shell FEAST (Fluid Evaluation and Sampling
Technologies) team in Houston. Before moving to
Shell, he was a reservoir domain champion for
Schlumberger. He has been a key contributor to the
development of downhole uid analysis (DFA) measurements and their applications in reservoir characterization. He conducted extensive spectroscopic
studies on live crude oils and gases and led the development of interpretation algorithms for the DFA tools.
In addition, he has extensive eld experience in
design, implementation and analysis of formation testing jobs. He has published more than 50 technical
papers, holds nine patents and nine led patents and
has one trade secret award. Chengli holds a BS degree
in chemistry from Beijing University and a PhD degree
in petroleum engineering from The University of Texas
at Austin.

Hani Elshahawi is Deepwater Technology Advisor at

Shell in Houston. Previously, he led FEAST, the Shell
Fluid Evaluation and Sampling Technologies Center of
Excellence, where he was responsible for the planning, execution and analysis of global high-prole formation testing and uid sampling operations. With
more than 25 years of experience in the oil industry,
he has worked in both service and operating companies in more than 10 countries in Africa, Asia, the
Middle East and North America and has held various
positions in interpretation, consulting, operations,
marketing and product development. Hani has lectured widely in various areas of petrophysics, geosciences and petroleum engineering, holds several
patents and has written more than 100 technical
papers. He was the 20092010 president of the SPWLA
and an SPWLA distinguished lecturer in 2010 and
2011. Hani attained a BS degree in mechanical engineering and an MS degree in petroleum engineering
from The University of Texas at Austin.
Robert J. Finley is a Director of the Advanced Energy
Technology Initiative with the Illinois State Geological
Survey in Champaign, Illinois. He has worked in reservoir development for unrecovered oil and natural gas,
with coalbed methane and tight gas sandstone reservoir development in Texas and the Rocky Mountains
in the US and in reservoir development for carbon
sequestration in the Illinois basin. Robert earned a BS
degree from City University of New York, an MS degree
from Syracuse University, New York, and a PhD degree
in geology from the University of South Carolina,
Columbia, USA.
Julie Jeanpert, based in Ravenna, Italy, began her
career in the oil industry in 1998 as a gas pipeline construction project engineer for Gaz de France. In 2001,
she joined Schlumberger as stimulation and sand control engineer. Currently, she is a Technical and Sales
Engineer for sand control and matrix acidizing in
Continental Europe. Her technical expertise is in sand
control pumping and downhole tools in cased hole or
openhole completions, matrix acidizing of sandstones
and carbonates, water shutoff and fracturing. Julie has
a degree in mechanical engineering from Ecole
Nationale Suprieure des Arts et Mtiers, Paris, and
obtained a masters degree in natural gas engineering
from Ecole Nationale Suprieure des Mines de Paris.
Enos Johnson is a District Manager in Hobbs, New
Mexico, in charge of Schlumberger shing and remedial services. He coordinates shing and reversing jobs
on drilling and workover rigs operating in New Mexico
and West Texas. Enos has worked in the oil eld since
1969; his career has taken him from the tool shop to
the rig oor and on to operations and sales.
Jim Kirksey has worked for Schlumberger for 31 years
and is currently Well Engineering Manager for Carbon
Services North America in Champaign, Illinois. He has
served in many management and technical positions.
Jim holds a BS degree in petroleum engineering from
Mississippi State University, USA.

49

Jimmy Land is a Business Director for Schlumberger

shing and remediation services. He has a background
in drilling and production support and more than 30
years of oileld experience, 20 of which was in senior
operations management. Jimmy has a BA degree from
McMurry University, Abilene, Texas.
David Larssen is a Geotechnical Engineer with
Schlumberger Water Services in Burnaby, British
Columbia, Canada. Before beginning his career with
Schlumberger in 1986, he was an engineering consultant specializing in hydrogeology. He has authored several publications on advanced groundwater
instrumentation and is the senior technical expert on
application of the Westbay system. David obtained a
BS degree in geotechnical engineering and hydrogeology from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Graeme Laws is the Director of the Specialized Tools
Technology Centre for M-I SWACO in Aberdeen. In
1975, he began as a cementing engineer in the North
Sea and held eld positions in various locations working with a range of downhole tool systems, including
drillstem testing, gravel packing and tubing-conveyed
perforating. He began his management career in
Brunei in 1983 working with Baker Hughes Sand
Control. He ran and managed liner hanger systems in
the North Sea with Nodeco Limited and then became
director of the company. Graeme joined SPS
International in 1999 and worked in various technical
management positions; he was a technical director
when M-I SWACO acquired SPS in 2006. He has contributed to the design of several downhole tools,
including the WELL SCAVENGER tool.
Mark Lee, based in Houston, is the Director for
Career Development and Training with Schlumberger.
He joined the company in 2009 and has been in the oil
industry for 38 years. Mark previously worked for
Weatherford International as the country business
manager of North Africa and for Baker Hughes as a
eld engineer. Mark has a BS degree in engineering
from Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, USA.
Hannes E. Leetaru is a Senior Petroleum Geologist at
the Illinois State Geological Survey in Champaign,
Illinois. His focus is the geology and geophysics of the
subsurface in relation to carbon sequestration activities at the Illinois BasinDecatur Project. He is also
the Principal Investigator for a US Department of
Energyfunded study on the carbon sequestration
potential of the Cambrian and Ordovician strata in
the Illinois and Michigan basins in the US. He has
worked as a petroleum geologist with Getty Oil
Company and Union Pacic Resources in Houston and
was involved in exploration and development projects
in the East and West Texas basins and the Hugoton
Embayment in Kansas, USA. Hannes, who has published numerous industry papers, received a BS
degree from the State University of New York at
Fredonia, an MS degree from Syracuse University,
New York, and a PhD degree from the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all in geology.

50

Scott Marsteller joined Schlumberger in 1989 as a

wireline eld engineer in south Texas. Since then, he
has held many positions in sales, marketing and operations management in the US. He recently served as the
Illinois basin projects manager in Champaign, Illinois,
managing the Illinois BasinDecatur Project from the
planning phase through CO2 injection. He is currently
a Marketing Manager for Schlumberger in Anchorage.
Scott attained a BS degree in mechanical engineering
from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre
Haute, Indiana, USA, and an MBA degree from
Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Scott McDonald is Director of Biofuels Development
for Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Company in
Decatur, Illinois. His responsibilities include identication and development of projects and novel product
applications that will expand the use of biofuels and
bio-based products into the marketplace. He leads the
biofuels technical services team. Prior to joining ADM,
he was the commercial trading manager for Total,
where his responsibilities included trading and risk
management for feed and nished product streams for
the companys US rening and petrochemical assets.
His 20-year career has included trading and risk management, business development, economics and planning, fuels formulation and unit process design,
startup and operation. Scott has a BS degree in chemical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.
Oliver C. Mullins, a chemist, is a Science Advisor to
executive management in Schlumberger. He is the primary originator of downhole uid analysis for formation evaluation. For this, he has won several awards,
including the SPE Distinguished Membership Award
and the SPWLA Distinguished Technical Achievement
Award; he has been a distinguished lecturer four
times for the SPWLA and SPE. He authored the awardwinning The Physics of Reservoir Fluids: Discovery
Through Downhole Fluid Analysis. Oliver also leads
an active research group in petroleum science. He has
coedited three books and coauthored nine chapters on
asphaltenes and 195 publications. He coinvented 81
allowed US patents, is Fellow of two professional
societies and is Adjunct Professor of Petroleum
Engineering at Texas A&M University, College Station.
David Petro is a Senior Technical Consultant at
Marathon Oil Corporation in Houston; he has more
than 32 years of experience in the oil and gas industry.
During the past 17 years, he has worked on reservoir
characterization and implementation of deepwater
Gulf of Mexico projects. David has coauthored many
papers on reservoir evaluation and performance.
Andrew E. Pomerantz is the Geochemistry Program
Manager at Schlumberger-Doll Research in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. His research focuses on
the development of novel techniques to characterize
the chemical composition of kerogen and asphaltenes,
including methods in mass spectrometry, X-ray spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy. That molecular
information is used to understand fundamental physical and chemical processes in petroleum such as
asphaltene compositional grading and storage and
transport in shales. Andrew, who has coauthored 40
publications, received a PhD degree in chemistry from
Stanford University, California.

Robert Robertson has been a Schlumberger Global

Product Engineering Advisor since 2011. Based in
Stavanger, he has more than 25 years of shing and
remedial experience as a shing tool supervisor, senior
well specialist, operations supervisor and operations
manager in every part of the world. In his current position, Robby is responsible for product development,
reliability and technical follow up of the shing and
remedial product line with an emphasis on global plug
and abandon technology.
Douglas J. Seifert is a Petrophysical Consultant with
Saudi Aramco in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He works as
the Petrophysics Professional Development Advisor in
the Upstream Professional Development Center, where
he oversees the Petrophysics curriculum and development of petrophysicists within Saudi Aramco. He
specializes in real-time petrophysical applications
and pressure testing and uid analysis. He previously
worked for Pathnder Energy Services, Maersk Olie og
Gas, Halliburton and Texaco. Doug is the President of
the Saudi Arabia Chapter of SPWLA and also serves on
the SPWLA Technology Committee. He holds a BS
degree in statistics and an MS degree in geology from
The University of Akron, Ohio.
Ozgur Senel has been a Reservoir Engineer with
Schlumberger Carbon Services in Sugar Land, Texas,
since 2008. He is responsible for analyzing eld data,
creating and calibrating reservoir models, simulating
CO2 injection, predicting and optimizing CO2 plume
development and optimizing well sizing, completions
and injection programs for carbon capture and storage
(CCS) projects in the US and Canada. In addition, he
manages surface facilitiesow assurance projects.
Ozgur has a BS degree in petroleum engineering from
the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey,
and an MS degree in petroleum engineering from
Texas A&M University, College Station, where he is a
PhD candidate in petroleum engineering.
Valerie Smith is a Reservoir Geophysicist with
Schlumberger Carbon Services in Westerville, Ohio.
Before obtaining her current position, she worked for
West Virginia University, Morgantown, USA, as a
research assistant. Valerie attained a BA degree in
physics from the State University of New York at
Potsdam, a BS degree in geology from West Chester
University of Pennsylvania, USA, and an MS degree in
geology from West Virginia University.
Marco Sportelli joined Eni SpA as a completion supervisor on offshore rigs in 1986. He then became Drilling
and Completion Superintendent and has held that
position since 1999. His expertise is in development
and workover in the depleted gas elds of the Adriatic
Sea. Marco has extensively used dual selective sand
control completions. He is based in Ravenna, Italy.

Oileld Review

Charles Svoboda is the Director of Business

Development for M-I SWACO wellbore productivity in
Houston. He began his career with Halliburton and
transferred to M-I SWACO, formerly IMCO Services, in
1984 and has held operational and technical positions
in the drilling uids and wellbore productivity segments since that time. His focus is on developing and
commercializing technologies pertaining to completion uids, reservoir drill-in uids, breakers, specialized tools and ltration. Charles received a bachelors
degree in civil engineering in 1982 from the University
of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Mark Trimble began in the oil industry as a roughneck on the drill oor and then progressed to a
driller position. In 1980, he joined Baker Oil Tools,
where he worked for 10 years as a eld technician
running downhole completion and remedial tools.
He left the industry for 18 years; when he returned in
2008, he started at M-I SWACO as a technical service
engineer focusing on designing, recommending and
writing procedures for downhole cleanup tools primarily in deepwater and extended-reach applications.
Since 2010, he has been a Business Development
Manager. Based in Houston, Mark promotes and conducts training and support for new technology for
cleanup tools worldwide.

Murat Zeybek is a Schlumberger Reservoir

Engineering Advisor and Reservoir and Production
Domain Champion for the Middle East area and is
based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. He works on analysis
and interpretation of wireline formation testers, pressure transient analysis, numerical modeling of uid
ow, water control, production logging and reservoir
monitoring. He is a member of the technical editorial
review committee for SPE Reservoir Evaluation and
Engineering and served as a committee member for
the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition.
He also served on the industrial advisory committee
for the petroleum engineering department at King
Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran.
Murat holds a BS degree from Istanbul Technical
University, Turkey, and received MS and PhD degrees
from the University of Southern California in Los
Angeles, all in petroleum engineering.

Julian Y. Zuo is currently a Scientic Advisor and

Interpretation Architect for a next-generation formation
testing and sampling tool at the Schlumberger Houston
Pressure and Sampling Center in Sugar Land, Texas. He
has been working in the oil and gas industry since 1989.
Recently, he has been leading the effort to develop and
apply the industrys rst simple Flory-Huggins-Zuo equation of state for predicting compositional and asphaltene gradients to address concerns such as reservoir
connectivity, tar mat formation, asphaltene instability,
ow assurance and nonequilibrium with late gas charging. He has coauthored more than 150 technical papers
for journals, conferences and workshops. Julian holds a
PhD degree in chemical engineering from the China
University of Petroleum in Beijing.
An asterisk (*) is used to denote a mark of Schlumberger.
A dagger () is used to denote a mark of M-I SWACO LLC,
a Schlumberger company.

Coming in Oileld Review

Well Placement and Completion Evolution. The
advent of new LWD tools and measurements has led to
changes in the way some operators approach drilling
horizontal wells. New tools are able to detect boundaries in the formation away from the borehole and in
front of the drill bit, resulting in an improvement in well
placement techniques. In addition, tools have been
developed that accurately image borehole details and
identify naturally occurring fracture networks. Engineers
use these data to create effective completion designs.
This article presents some of the technologies and processes that are making these changes possible.

Winter 2012/2013

Evaluation While Drilling. Motivated by environmental, health and security reasons, scientists have
spent years developing alternatives to radioisotopebased logging tools. Through the use of pulsed-neutron generators that have replaced chemical sources
in other logging tools, engineers have developed a
radioisotope-free gamma-gamma density measurement. This innovation allows operators to deploy a full
suite of LWD tools that have no chemical sources.

Wireline Formation Testing. Wireline-conveyed

uid sampling tools enable operators to capture and
analyze reservoir uids faster than ever before. Until
recently, however, use of these formation testers
was limited by some types of formations and the
ow regimes of certain uids or required an extended
period of time on station to capture clean samples.
A new design has overcome these challenges and,
in so doing, greatly expanded the realm of wireline
formation testing.

51

NEW BOOKS

The heart of Mr Helms book is an

examination of the economics of
renewable energy. . . . [R]eaders will
get a cogent account of how selfdefeating current global climatechange policies are turning out to be.
Climate Change: How to Fix It, The Economist
(October 20, 2012), http://www.economist.com/
news/books-and-arts/21564815-climate-changeneeds-better-regulation-not-more-political-will
(accessed January 14, 2012).

The Carbon Crunch: How

Were Getting Climate Change
Wrong and How to Fix It

An optimistically levelheaded book

about actually dealing with global
warming.

Dieter Helm
Yale University Press
302 Temple Street
New Haven, Connecticut 06511 USA
2012. 304 pages. US$ 35.00

Book Review, Kirkus (September 13, 2012),

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/
dieter-helm/carbon-crunch/ (accessed
January 4, 2013).

ISBN: 978-0-300-18659-8

In our commitment to understanding

climate change, Dieter Helm, professor
of energy policy at University of Oxford,
England, argues that we have failed to
tackle the issue of global warming and
advocates for a rethinking of energy
policies. Included in this argument is a
suggestion of a broad transition from
coal to gas to electrication with a
focus on the economics of new
technologies.
Contents:
Part One: Why Should We Worry
About Climate Change?: How
Serious Is Climate Change?; Why
Are Emissions Rising?; Who Is to
Blame?
Part Two: Why Is So Little Being
Achieved?: Current Renewables
Technologies to the Rescue?; Can
Demand Be Cut?; A New Dawn for
Nuclear?; Are We Running out of
Fossil Fuels?; A Credible
International Agreement?
Part Three: What Should Be Done?:
Fixing the Carbon Price; Making
the Transition; Investing in New
Technologies
Conclusion
Endnotes, Bibliography, Index
Helm superbly articulates why
some of the alternate energy sources
touted as solutions (such as wind
power) arent cost efcient, and how
countries claim to have reduced
harmful carbon emissions only by
increasing carbon imports that dont
add up to a net reduction. This
intelligent though depressing tome
should inform future debates.
Book Review, Publishers Weekly (September 3,
2012), http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0300-18659-8 (accessed January 14, 2013).

52

The Face of the Earth:

Natural Landscapes, Science,
and Culture
SueEllen Campbell with Alex Hunt,
Richard Kerridge, Tom Lynch, Ellen
Wohl and others
University of California Press
2120 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, California 94704 USA
2011. 334 pages. US$ 27.95
ISBN: 978-0-520-26927-9

Climate and Ice: On the Spot: Up

and Down the Himalaya; How the
Climate Works; The Ghosts of
Climates Past; Our Ice Age;
Landscapes Shaped by Ice; On the
Spot: In the Channeled Scablands;
Ice-Age Humans; On the Spot: On
the Arctic Tundra; The Little Ice
Age, Glaciology, and the Sublime;
On the Spot: Toward a Glaciers
Edge; The Story Now
Wet and Fluid: On the Spot: In the
Rocky Intertidal Zone; The Water
Cycle; On the Spot: Along a Rain
Forest Stream; The Moving Waters
of Rivers; The Dream of Water in
Deserts; The Slow Water of
Wetlands; On the Spot: At the Bog
on Cide Fields; Peat, Mires, Bogs,
Fens; On the Spot: At Wicken Fen;
Marshes and Swamps; Wet/Dry;
On the Spot: At the Billabong
Desert Places, Desert Lives: On the
Spot: Down a Desert River Canyon;
Dry, Hot, Windy, and Dusty; On the
Spot: In Jabal Aja; What We See;
On the Spot: In the Chihuahuan
Desert; Clever Plants; On the Spot:
In the Red Center; Clever
Creatures; On the Spot: In the
Negev Desert; The Human Desert
The Complexities of the Real:
Underfoot; On the Spot: In
Antarcticas Dry Valleys; Oceans of
Grass; The Shapes of Complexity;
On the Spot: On the Chalk Downs;
Evolving Together . . .; On the Spot:
In the Tallgrass Prairie; . . . And
Moving Apart; On the Spot: On the
Tibetan Plateau; Among Trees; On
the Spot: In a Eucalypt Forest;
Zooming In; Return to Wonder
Epilogue: In a High Flower
Meadow
Sources, Contributor Biographies,
Index

Author and editor SueEllen Campbell, a

professor of English, examines Earths
landscapes through both scientic and
cultural lenses by weaving science,
cultural myth, literary studies and
personal experience. Accounts by
Campbell as well as scientists and other
writers explore, explain and chart
humankinds interdependence with and
mark on the natural world.

Campbell and her colleagues

draw on a scholarship model that
employs the collaborative researchteam approach . . . typical of the
sciences. . . . The result is masterful:
a hugely ambitious, necessary,
articulate, and generous intellectual
undertaking, executed with scholarly
exactitude and lyrical beauty.

Contents:
Landscapes of Internal Fire: On the
Spot: Over a River of Lava;
Imagining the Interior; On the Spot:
At the Edge of an Overthrust Belt;
Mundus Subterraneus; On the Spot:
Among the Aeolian Islands; The
Globe, Tectonic Plates, and
Mountain Building; On the Spot:
Along the Disturbance Gradient;
Volcanoes and Their Eruptions; On
the Spot: Along the Chaitn
Volcano; Hot Springs and Geysers

. . . readers will encounter nature

writing that rivals Annie Dillards
ction, combined with personal
responses to the environmental state
of our earths natural landscapes and
practical suggestions that offer hope
in the face of overwhelming issues
like climate change.

52 Things You Should Know

About Geophysics
Matt Hall and Evan Bianco (eds)
Agile Libre
PO Box 336
Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia B0J 2E0
Canada
2012. 132 pages. US$ 19.00
ISBN 978-0-9879594-0-9

The editors, geoscience consultants who

specialize in subsurface problems,
pulled together a collection of one- to
two-page essays written by prominent
petroleum geoscientists. The essays
range from general philosophy to
detailed tips for interpreting seismic
data to career advice.
Contents:
Fundamentals: Basics; Mapping
Concepts: Geology; Analogs
Interpretation
Powertools: Attributes; Ninja Skills
Pre-Stack: Rock Physics; Pre-Stack;
Processing
Quantitative: Mathematics; Analysis
Integration: Teamwork; Workow
Innovation: History; Innovation;
Technology
Skills: Learning; Career; Managing
This is a short book full of wisdom
for both young and experienced
geophysicists. . . . The authors are to
be commended at attempting this
book and managing to get a distinguished list of contributors.
Bartel DC: Book Review, The Leading Edge 31,
no. 12 (December 2012): 1520.

Dodd E: Book Review, Ecozon@: European

Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment 3,
no. 2 (Autumn 2012): 212.

White K: Countering Crisis with Action: Voices

for the Earth, ForeWord Reviews 15, no. 1
(Winter 2012): 23.

Oileld Review

Parameter Estimation and

Inverse Problems, Second
Edition
Richard C. Aster, Brian Borchers and
Clifford H. Thurber
Academic Press, an imprint of Elsevier
225 Wyman Street
Waltham, Massachusetts 02451 USA
2012. 376 pages. US$ 99.95

To Forgive Design:
Understanding Failure

Ignorance: How It
Drives Science

Wild Hope: On the Front Lines

of Conservation Success

Henry Petroski
The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press
79 Garden Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 USA
2012. 432 pages. US$ 27.95

Stuart Firestein
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue
New York, New York 10016 USA
2012. 195 pages US$ 21.95

Andrew Balmford
University of Chicago Press
1427 East 60th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637 USA
2012. 264 pages. US$ 26.00

ISBN: 978-0-199-82807-4

ISBN 978-0-226-03597-0

The author posits that in science and

research, knowledge follows ignorance,
rather than the other way around.
Firestein argues that ignorance is the
force that propels scientists and
researchers. The book includes four
case histories that illustrate how
individual scientists use ignorance to
direct their research.

As the title suggests, Balmford offers

hope that our natural environment is in
recovery, not on its way to disaster.
Organized geographically, the book
highlights the people who are discovering and generating new ideas to make
conservation a success. Balmford
recognizes the difculties and challenges of conservation but offers
solutions and accounts of citizens,
governments and corporations working
together to implement such solutions.

ISBN: 978-0-674-06584-0

ISBN: 978-0-12-385048-5

This textbook explores classical and

Bayesian approaches to linear and
nonlinear inverse theory problems and
also looks closely at computational,
mathematical and statistical issues
related to their application to geophysical problems. A companion website
features computational examples for
the exercises in the book.
Contents:
Introduction
Linear Regression
Rank Deciency and
Ill-Conditioning
Tikhonov Regularization
Discretizing Inverse Problems
Using Basis Functions
Iterative Methods
Additional Regularization
Techniques
Fourier Techniques
Nonlinear Regression
Nonlinear Inverse Problems
Bayesian Methods
Epilogue
Appendices, Bibliography, Index
As is true of the original, the book
continues to be one of the clearest as
well as the most comprehensive
elementary expositions of discrete
geophysical inverse theory. It is
ideally suited for beginners as well as
a ne resource for those searching for
a particular algorithm that could be
brought to bear on a particular
inverse problem. . . . All examples in
the book are beautifully illustrated
with simple, easy to follow cartoon
problems, and all painstakingly
designed to illuminate the details for
a particular numerical method.
Treitel S: Review, The Leading Edge 31, no. 7
(July 2012): 860.

Winter 2012/2013

By surveying some of the worlds

infamous engineering failures, the
author reveals the interconnectedness
of technology and culture and explores
the larger context in which accidents
occur. Petroski explains how even
simple technologies are embedded in
cultural and socioeconomic constraints,
complications and contradictions and
demonstrates how dangers may emerge
from complexity.
Contents:
By Way of Concrete Examples
Things Happen
Designed to Fail
Mechanics of Failure
A Repeating Problem
The Old and the New
Searching for a Cause
The Obligation of an Engineer
Before, During, and After the Fall
Legal Matters
Back-Seat Designers
Houston, You Have a Problem
Without a Leg to Stand On
History and Failure
Notes, Illustrations, Index
Despite the books meanderings
and repetitions, there is much to learn
from it. . . . The most brilliantly
explained engineering failure
concerns the ocean-bed blowout
involving the Deepwater Horizon oil
rig in 2010. Petroskis exposition is
immensely detailed and benets from
being linear in its narrative. This
section of the book is exemplary in
its remorseless exfoliation of the
technical and commercial reasons
for the incident.
Merrick J: Book Review, The Independent
(May 19, 2012), http://www.independent.co.uk/
arts-entertainment/books/reviews/to-forgivedesign-understanding-failure-by-henry-petroski7763597.html (accessed September 5, 2012).

Contents:
A Short View of Ignorance
Finding Out
Limits, Uncertainty, Impossibility,
and Other Minor Problems
Unpredicting
The Quality of Ignorance
You and Ignorance
Case Histories
Coda
Notes, Suggested Reading, Index
An excellent read, Ignorance
would be a ne companion text for
potential scientists at the beginning of
their studies. . . . Firesteins short
account may even make you embrace
your ignorance, wearing it like a
badge of honor. You may gradually
become more and more ignorant as
you read, and you will enjoy the
journey. Ignorance in this telling is
truly bliss.
Cerf M: Known Unknowns, Science 336,
no. 6087 (June 15, 2012): 1382.

To show how scientists depend on

ignorance, Dr. Firestein has written a
short, highly entertaining book aimed
at nonscientists and students who
want to be scientists. . . . Dr. Firestein
. . . celebrates a tolerance for uncertainty, the pleasures of scientic
mystery and the cultivation of doubt.
Blakeslee S: To Advance, Search for a Black Cat
in a Dark Room, The New York Times (June 18,
2012), http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/
science/ignorance-book-review-scientistsdont-care-for-facts.html?_r=0 (accessed
December 27, 2012).

Contents:
The Glass Half Empty
Guarding the Unicorn: Conservation
at the Sharp End
Ending the Woodpecker Wars
Problem Plants, Politics, and
Poverty
Rewilding Goes Dutch
Seeing the Good from the Trees
The Greening of a Giant
Fishing for a Future
The Glass Half Full
Appendix: Stemming the Loss
(Or What We Can All Do to
Save Nature)
References
. . . there is a kind of genius in [the
books] opacity and simplicity that
sets it apart from bibliographic
congeners in the genre of conservation writing. Science plays a critically
important role in framing the dialogue for how and where we manage
ecosystems. Balmford makes this
clear. . . . Balmfords vague, but
sincerely impassioned, response
makes more neurons re in the region
of the heart than in the head.
Nonetheless, perhaps that is just the
muscle needed for protecting nature.
McCauley D: NatureHalf Lost or Half Saved?,
Science 337, no. 6101 (September 21, 2012): 1455.

53

DEFINING TESTING

Well Testing Fundamentals

Rick von Flatern
Senior Editor

Well and formation tests, which entail taking measurements while owing
uids from the reservoir, are conducted at all stages in the life of oil and gas
elds, from exploration through development, production and injection.
Operators perform these tests to determine whether a formation will produce, or continue to produce, hydrocarbons at a rate that gives a reasonable
return on further investments. Operators also use test data to determine the
limits of the reservoir and to plan the most efcient methods for producing
wells and elds.
During testing, operators measure formation pressure, characterize the
formation uids and reservoir and determine permeability and skindamage to the formation incurred during drilling or other well operations. Data
that indicate how the formation reacts to pressure increases and decreases
during a test can also reveal critical information about the reservoir.
Well and formation tests are also primary sources of critical data for
reservoir models and are the principal means by which engineers conrm or
adjust reservoir model parameters. Engineers use these models to understand how reservoir uids, the formation and the well interact and use that
knowledge to optimize completion and development strategies.
Operators assess the production potential of wells through several test
methods, singularly or in combination. They may choose to perform a production well test in which the well is owed through a temporary completion to a test separator (right). Or they may use a wireline formation tester
(WFT) to capture uid samples and measure pressure downhole at the zone
of interest. Engineers sometimes perform both types of tests.
During production well tests, technicians ow reservoir uids to the surface through a drillstring or a drillstem test (DST) string. Packers isolate
the zone to be tested while downhole, or surface equipment provides well
control. The well is owed at different rates through a choke valve that can
be adjusted to control the ow rate precisely.
Reservoir uids produced to the surface are sent directly to holding
tanks until test operators determine that contaminants such as drilling uids are eliminated, or at least minimized, from the ow stream. After
cleanup, ow is redirected to a test separator where bulk uids are divided
into oil, gas and water, and any debris, such as sand and other material, is
removed. The three uid phases are measured and analyzed separately.
Operators may opt to obtain additional reservoir and uid ow data by
simultaneously running production logging tools into the well on wireline.
These tools measure the downhole ow rate and uid composition and can
indicate which zones are contributing to the total ow.
During well tests, reservoir uids are produced to the separator at varying rates according to a predetermined schedule. These tests may take less
than two days to evaluate a single well or months to evaluate reservoir
extent. Test types include buildup, drawdown, falloff, injection and interference. For most tests, engineers permit a limited amount of uid to ow
from or into a formation. They then close the well and monitor pressures
while the formation equilibrates.
Buildup tests are performed by shutting in the well after some period of
ow to measure increase in bottomhole pressure (BHP). By contrast, for

Conventional Separator
Safety valve
Inlet breaker

Deflector plate

Gas line

Mist
Coalescing plates
extractor
Foam breaker

Effluent
inlet

Water-level
controller and float

Water line
Weir plate

Oil line

Oil-level
controller
and float

Vortex breaker

> Test separator. Separators are designed so that produced uids enter the
vessel, where they are retained long enough for the oil to separate and oat
to the top of the water. This process is enhanced by deector plates that
slow ow velocity and by coalescing plates that gather oil into large
droplets. Once the oil and water have separated, the oil then ows over a
weir into a separate section of the vessel while water remains in the original
compartment. Mechanical water- and oil-level controller arms, with
attached oats lifted by the rising uid, trigger valves (not shown) that
release oil and water along their respective owlines. When the uids reach
prescribed levels, the controllers cause the release of gas or air pressure
with actuation of pneumatic valves. Mist extractors remove oil droplets from
the gas phase before gas exits through a valve at the top of the vessel and
passes through an orice plate meter (not shown) for measurement. Safety
valves allow gas to escape into the atmosphere rather than overpressure
the vessel.

drawdown tests, engineers open the well after a specied shut-in period to
observe BHP decrease. During injection tests and falloff tests, uid is
injected into the formation, and BHP, which increases as a result, is monitored. The well is then shut in and the ensuing decreasing BHP is recorded.
Interference tests record the pressure changes in adjacent wells when the
test well pressure is changed. The time it takes for changes in the test well
to affect pressure at the observation well gives engineers an indication of
the size of the reservoir and ow communication within it.
Engineers analyze responses to pressure change schemes using pressure transient analysis, a technique based on the mathematical relationships between ow rate, pressure and time. The information from these
analyses helps engineers determine the optimal completion interval, production potential and skin. They can also derive average permeability,
degree of permeability heterogeneity and anisotropy, reservoir boundary
shape and distance, and initial and average reservoir pressures.
Engineers use specic variations on well buildup and drawdown tests to
evaluate gas wells. During a backpressure test, a well is owed against a
specied backpressure until its BHP and surface pressures stabilizean
indication that ow is coming from the outer reaches of the drainage area.
An isochronal test is a series of drawdowns and buildups. Pumping rates
vary for each drawdown, while subsequent buildups continue until the well

Oileld Review Winter 2012/2013: 24, no. 4.

Copyright 2013 Schlumberger.

54

Oileld Review

Quartz pressure
gauge
Packer assembly

Tool piston

Probe

Packer assembly
piston

> WFT sampling. Pistons are driven from one side of the WFT to force a
packer assembly rmly against the formation to be tested. At its center, the
packer includes a probe that is then extended into the formation to
withdraw wellbore uids. Formation uids (red arrows) ow into the probe
and into owlines. The uids are pumped into the wellbore until they are
sufciently free of contamination as determined by downhole uid analysis
(green and brown cylinders). Uncontaminated uids are directed into
storage bottles (orange) where the uids are kept at in situ conditions.
Multiple samples can be taken on one trip into the well. When all tests are
completed, the samples are brought to the surface and may be sent to
laboratories for advanced testing. A quartz pressure gauge measures and
records bottomhole pressures.

reaches its original shut-in pressure. A modied isochronal testin which

drawdown and buildup periods are of equal durationmay also be used.
Based on data from these tests, engineers are able to determine production potential, skin and absolute open ow (AOF)the theoretical rate at
which the well would ow if backpressure on the sandface, or the borehole
wall, were zero. Operators use AOF as the basis for calculations to determine the relationship between backpressure settings and ow rates of
the well.
Rather than use well tests, operators may opt to evaluate their wells using
WFTs that include a quartz pressure gauge and a uid sampling tool placed
across a production interval (above). During these formation tests, reservoir
uids are pumped or owed into the WFT through a probe inserted into the
formation or between packers set above and below the sampling site.
The reservoir uids, which may be contaminated with drilling uid, are
rst owed or pumped through owlines in the tool into the wellbore
while the contamination level decreases. Once engineers determine that the

Winter 2012/2013

formation is delivering minimally contaminated reservoir uids, they redirect ow to sample chambers within the tool. The chambers are retrieved to
the surface and transported to laboratories for analysis.
Scientists also use downhole uid analysis (DFA) to monitor the sampling process. Using optical spectroscopy, or the recorded light spectrum,
engineers identify in real time the composition of uids as they ow into the
tool; this method also reveals critical data about the reservoir without waiting for laboratory tests to be completed. Additionally, the DFA measurements conrm that the sample is uncontaminated and eliminate
uncertainties associated with uid transport and laboratory reconstruction
of in situ conditions necessary for uid analysis. Technicians also use DFA
data to identify gas/oil ratios, relative asphaltene content and water fraction in real time.
A variety of well and formation test schemes are performed throughout
the stages in the life of a well or eld. At the exploration stage, operators
may use well tests to simulate production after a well is completed to establish production potential and reserves estimates. In addition, capturing
large uid samples at the surface gives experts an opportunity to perform
laboratory measurements on the reservoir uids.
Well tests at the exploration stage also allow operators to determine if
low ow rates are affected by skin or are the result of natural permeability
of the reservoir. Armed with the knowledge of either situation, engineers
can then take appropriate actions, plan treatments that may be necessary
once production commences or decide to abandon the project for economic
reasons. For instance, well tests can be used to estimate reservoir size,
which allows operators to abandon a small reservoir that will not be economical despite high initial ow rates.
During the eld development stage, well tests help indicate wells that
may require stimulation treatments. Using well test data, engineers predict
induced or natural fracture length and conductivity. They can then estimate
productivity gains that may be realized from a stimulation treatment. In
addition, WFTs can be used for pressure testing to determine static reservoir pressures and to conrm uid contacts and density gradients. This
information helps analyze communication within the reservoir, tie reservoir
characteristics to a geologic model and identify depleted zones.
During the production phase, well tests are aimed at monitoring reservoirs, collecting data for history matchingcomparing actual production
with predicted production from reservoir simulatorsand assessing the
need for stimulation. These tests use a pressure gauge placed at formation
depth to collect data during pressure buildup and drawdown.
Well productivity usually diminishes over time, sometimes as a result of
formation damage from nes migrationthe movement of very small particles through the formation to the wellbore where they ll pore spaces and
reduce permeability. Engineers may perform formation tests to predict the
likely effectiveness of treatments to remove these nes. The effects of completion choices may also be assessed using formation tests to aid engineers
in planning required remedial operations.
Well and formation test data provide operators with information about
their new and producing wells that is critical to making near-term operational decisions. But the real power of well test data is their application to
construction or correction of reservoir models, which allow operators to
make better long-term decisions about their assets.

55

Oilfield Review Annual IndexVolume 24

ARTICLES
Basin to Basin: Plate Tectonics
in Exploration
Bryant I, Herbst N, Dailly P, Dribus JR,
Fainstein R, Harvey N, McCoss A,
Montaron B, Quirk D and Tapponnier P.
Vol. 24, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 3857.
CO2 SequestrationOne Response
to Emissions
Alvi A, Berlin EH, Kirksey J, Black B,
Larssen D, Carney M, Chabora E,
Finley RJ, Leetaru HE, Marsteller S,
McDonald S, Senel O and Smith V.
Vol. 24, no. 4 (Winter 2012/2013): 3648.
Drilling Automation
Aldred W, Bourque J, Mannering M,
Chapman C, du Castel B, Hansen R,
Downton G, Harmer R, Falconer I,
Florence F, Godinez Zurita E, Nieto C,
Stauder R and Zamora M.
Vol. 24, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 1827.
The Expanding Role of
Mud Logging
Ablard P, Bell C, Cook D, Fornasier I,
Poyet J-P, Sharma S, Fielding K, Lawton L,
Haines G, Herkommer MA, McCarthy K,
Radakovic M and Umar L.
Vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 2441.
Landing the Big One
The Art of Fishing
Johnson E, Land J, Lee M and
Robertson R.
Vol. 24, no. 4 (Winter 2012/2013): 2635.
Logging Through the Bit
Aivalis J, Meszaros T, Porter R,
Reischman R, Ridley R, Wells P,
Crouch BW, Reid TL and Simpson GA.
Vol. 24, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 4453.
MicrobesOilfield Enemies
or Allies?
Augustinovic Z, Birketveit , Clements K,
Freeman M, Gopi S, Ishoey T, Jackson G,
Kubala G, Larsen J, Marcotte BWG,
Scheie J, Skovhus TL and Sunde E.
Vol. 24, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 417.
Offshore Permanent Well
Abandonment
Abshire LW, Desai P, Mueller D,
Paulsen WB, Robertson RDB and
Solheim T.
Vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 4250.
Revealing Reservoir Secrets
Through Asphaltene Science
Andrews AB, Mullins OC, Pomerantz AE,
Dong C, Elshahawi H, Petro D, Seifert DJ,
Zeybek M and Zuo JY.
Vol. 24, no. 4 (Winter 2012/2013): 1425.
Seismic Detection of Subtle Faults
and Fractures
Aarre V, Astratti D, Al Dayyni TNA,
Mahmoud SL, Clark ABS, Stellas MJ,
Stringer JW, Toelle B, Vejbk OV
and White G.
Vol. 24, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 2843.

Sonic Logging While

DrillingShear Answers
Alford J, Blyth M, Tollefsen E, Crowe J,
Loreto J, Mohammed S, Pistre V and
Rodriguez-Herrera A.
Vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 415.

NEW BOOKS

Specialized Tools for Wellbore

Debris Recovery
Coll B, Laws G, Jeanpert J, Sportelli M,
Svoboda C and Trimble M.
Vol. 24, no. 4 (Winter 2012/2013): 413.

Bacteria: The Benign, the Bad,

and the Beautiful

Testing the Limits in Extreme

Well Conditions
Avant C, Daungkaew S, Behera BK,
Danpanich S, Laprabang W, De Santo I,
Heath G, Osman K, Khan ZA, Russell J,
Sims P, Slapal M and Tevis C.
Vol. 24, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 419.
When Rocks Get Hot: Thermal
Properties of Reservoir Rocks
Chekhonin E, Parshin A, Pissarenko D,
Popov Y, Romushkevich R, Safonov S,
Spasennykh M, Chertenkov MV and
Stenin VP.
Vol. 24, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 2037.
Working Out of a Tight Spot
Costo B, Cunningham LW, Martin GJ,
Mercado J, Mohon B and Xie L.
Vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 1623.

EDITORIALS
Drilling Automation: Generating
Greater Reliability and Profitability
Florence F.
Vol. 24, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 1.
Frontier Hydrocarbon Exploration:
The Importance of Tectonic Models
Tapponnier P.
Vol. 24, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 1.
The Future of CCS
Finley RJ.
Vol. 24, no. 4 (Winter 2012/2013): 1.

52 Things You Should Know

About Geophysics
Hall M and Bianco E (eds).
Vol. 24, no. 4 (Winter 2012/2013): 52.

Wassenaar TM.
Vol. 24, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 57.

The Carbon Crunch: How Were

Getting Climate Change Wrong
and How to Fix It
Helm D.
Vol. 24, no. 4 (Winter 2012/2013): 52.

Climate Matters: Ethics in a

Warming World
Broome J.
Vol. 24, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 62.

The Diffusion Handbook: Applied

Solutions for Engineers
Thambynayagam RKM.
Vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 54.

Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter:

Pop Culture and Modern Science
Weissmann G.
Vol. 24, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 61.

Eruptions That Shook the World

Oppenheimer C.
Vol. 24, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 62.

The Face of the Earth: Natural

Landscapes, Science, and Culture
Campbell S with Hunt A, Kerridge R,
Lynch T and Wohl E.
Vol. 24, no. 4 (Winter 2012/2013): 52.

Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer,

and Mass Transfer: Chemical
Engineering Practice
Raju KSN.
Vol. 24, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 58.

Free Radicals: The Secret Anarchy

of Science

Offshore Idle Iron: Remains of the

Past or Infrastructure of the Future
Hopkins H.
Vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 1.

Brooks M.
Vol. 24, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 60.

DEFININGINTRODUCING
BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE
E&P INDUSTRY

al-Khalili J.
Vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 53.

Defining Cementing:
Well Cementing Fundamentals
Nelson EB.
Vol. 24, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 5960.
Defining Perforating:
Detonation for Delivery
Smithson T.
Vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 5556.

The House of Wisdom: How Arabic

Science Saved Ancient Knowledge
and Gave Us the Renaissance

Parameter Estimation and Inverse

Problems, Second Edition
Aster RC, Borchers B and Thurber CH.
Vol. 24, no. 4 (Winter 2012/2013): 53.

The Philosophical Breakfast Club:

Four Remarkable Friends Who
Transformed Science and Changed
the World
Snyder LJ.
Vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 54.

Principles of Multiscale Modeling

E W.
Vol. 24, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 57.

The Quest: Energy, Security, and

the Remaking of the Modern World
Yergin D.
Vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 53.

Reinventing Discovery: The New

Era of Networked Science
Nielsen M.
Vol. 24, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 62.

The Story of Earth: The First

4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust
to Living Planet
Hazen RM.
Vol. 24, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 58.

To Forgive Design:
Understanding Failure
Petroski H.
Vol. 24, no. 4 (Winter 2012/2013): 53.

Turings Cathedral: The Origins of

the Digital Universe
Dyson G.
Vol. 24, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 61.

Volcanoes of the World,

Third Edition
Siebert L, Simkin T and Kimberly P.
Vol. 24, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 58.

Waking the Giant: How a Changing

Climate Triggers Earthquakes,
Tsunamis, and Volcanoes
McGuire B.
Vol. 24, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 60.

Wild Hope: On the Front Lines of

Conservation Success
Balmford A.
Vol. 24, no. 4 (Winter 2012/2013): 53.

The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the

Great Age of American Innovation
Gertner J.
Vol. 24, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 6061.

Ignorance: How It Drives Science

Firestein S.
Vol. 24, no. 4 (Winter 2012/2013): 53.

Defining Porosity:
How Porosity Is Measured
Smithson T.
Vol. 24, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 6364.
Defining Testing:
Well Testing Fundamentals
von Flatern R.
Vol. 24, no. 4 (Winter 2012/2013): 5455.

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Oilfield Review