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CONTENTS
Volume 72 • Number 2

12 GUEST EDITORIAL • WHY SHOULD SPE MEMBERS

BE INTERESTED IN CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE?
Carbon storage is perhaps the only viable option for reducing carbon
to the levels that many governments have agreed are important, and
EOR is the only proven technology that can be made ready in the time
and at the scale required to accomplish this reduction worldwide. SPE
members excel at solving technical challenges and are uniquely qualified
to approach this as an opportunity.

24 EFFECTIVE TREATMENT AND HANDLING

OF PRODUCED WATER
Produced water is an inevitable byproduct of oil and gas production.
The use of online oil-in-water monitors plays an important role in the
management of produced water.

26 MAN VS. DRILLING MACHINE CAN

BE A PRODUCTIVE THING
Hess is testing whether it can drive drilling improvement by combining
Hess’ Bakken play has become a test
drilling rigs equipped with automated functions and humans determined site for using six drilling rigs with
to find a way to beat the programmed drilling. many automated functions to drive
a process improvement program.
30 WITH DRILLING AUTOMATION IN HAND, Source: Hess.
DRILLERS DEMAND A RAISE
Rigs drilling faster earn less money per foot because they are contracted
by the day. But at least they are still working. Now service companies are
developing new rigs with more automated functions, and want increased
rates based on the productivity gains achieved. However, in a shrinking
US market, customers are just saying no.
DEPARTMENTS
32 LIFE AFTER 5: HOW TIGHT-OIL WELLS GROW OLD
Production data from the oldest horizontal wells in the three largest oil 6 President’s Column
plays in the US show that annual decline rates remain relatively high for a 10 Comments
long period of time. This challenges assumptions held about production
14 Technology Applications
after 5 years of operation and directly affects reserve and ultimate
recovery estimates. 16 E&P Notes
76 SPE News
38 WANT MORE PRODUCTION? TRY TAKING A BREAK 77 People
Oil companies are considering whether shutting in a well for a month or 78 Advertisers’ Index
so may mean stronger production later by allowing more time for water
79 Professional Services
to soak into the rock, which gets it out of the way of the oil and gas.
But this is not always effective, and additional work is needed to predict
80 SPE Events
where it will be.

An Official Publication of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Printed in US. Copyright 2020, Society of Petroleum Engineers.
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 Content from SPE’s
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS Recent Journals
To view these papers go to OnePetro
and search by title or paper number,
or navigate to the journal.

44 DRILLING INNOVATION
Michael H. Weatherl, SPE, Engineering Consultant and President, SPE JOURNAL
Well Integrity SPE-194384-PA — A New
45 Real-Time Measurements Improve Managed-Pressure Operations Mechanistic Model To Predict
in HP/HT North Sea Well Boosting Pressure of Electrical
Submersible Pumps Under
48 Real-Time Data From Wired Drillpipe Leads to Improvement High-Viscosity Fluid Flow with
in Drilling Performance Validations by Experimental Data

50 Artificial Intelligence-Driven Timelines Help Optimize Well Life Cycle SPE-191318-PA — Performance
of Silica Nanoparticles in CO2
Foam for EOR and CCUS at Tough
52 WELL TESTING Reservoir Conditions
Jordan Mimoun, SPE, Well Testing Team Lead, ExxonMobil

53 Field Applications of Constrained Multiwell Deconvolution

SPE DRILLING
& COMPLETION
56 Sensor Array Enables Accurate Profiling of Produced Fluids During SPE-194555-PA — Automated
Drillstem Tests Pressure Control for UBD
58 Insights From Interval Pressure Transient Tests Derive Key Operations: Case Study and
Fracture Parameters Field Validation
SPE-194240-PA — Wellbore
60 DRILLING SYSTEMS AUTOMATION AND MANAGEMENT Cleanout in Inclined and
John Macpherson, SPE, Senior Technical Adviser for Drilling Services, Horizontal Wellbores: The Effects
Baker Hughes of Flow Rate, Fluid Rheology, and
Solids Density
61 Semantic Framework Aligns Real-Time Drilling-Management
SPE-193585-PA — Carbonic Acid
and Control Applications
Resistance of Hydroxyapatite-
63 Addressing Challenges in Rig-Based Drilling Advisory System Deployment Containing Cement

65 Intelligent Drilling Advisory System Optimizes Performance

SPE PRODUCTION
& OPERATIONS
68 FORMATION DAMAGE SPE-197061-PA — Produced-
Niall Fleming, SPE, Specialist, Production Technology, Equinor Water Reinjection in Deep
Offshore Miocene Reservoirs,
69 Diagnostic Tool Identifies Factors in Well-Productivity Decline Block 17, Angola
71 Test Methodology Optimizes Selection of Fluids for Gasfield Development SPE-194329-PA — Use of
Far-Field Diverters To Mitigate
73 Integrated Approach Identifies Formation Damage in Unfavorable
Parent- and Infill-Well-Fracture
Conditions
Interactions in Shale Formations

The complete SPE technical papers featured in this issue are available
SPE RESERVOIR EVALUATION
& ENGINEERING
free to SPE members for 2 months at www.spe.org/jpt. SPE-191407-PA — A New
Technique for Quantifying
Pressure Interference in Fractured
ADDRESS CHANGE: Contact Customer Service at 1.972.952.9393 to notify of address change Horizontal Shale Wells
or make changes online at www.spe.org. Subscriptions are USD 15 per year (members). JPT
JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECH­NOLOGY (ISSN 0149-2136) is published monthly by the Society SPE-198906-PA — Value-of-
of Petroleum Engineers, 222 Palisades Creek Drive, Richardson, TX 75080 USA. Periodicals Information Analysis of a Fracture
postage paid at Richardson, TX, and additional offices. Prediction Method
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to JPT, P.O. Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836 USA.
Volunteering looks good on you.

As a volunteer for SPE, you provide the energy
that makes our Society work. Give back by
• Influencing SPE programs and activities
with your knowledge and experience.
• Meeting and working with other members
near you and around the globe.
Call for Volunteers!
Express your interest in volunteering
for a wide variety of short and long
term service opportunities at
go.spe.org/CallforVolunteers

• Sharing or enhancing your leadership skills.

Engage. Support. Volunteer.
 SPE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OFFICERS
2020 President
Shauna Noonan, Occidental Petroleum
2019 President
Sami Alnuaim, Saudi Aramco
2021 President
Tom Blasingame, Texas A&M University
Secretary
Mark Rubin, Society of Petroleum Engineers
REGIONAL DIRECTORS
AFRICA
Omowumi Iledare, University of Cape Coast
ASIA PACIFIC
Nasir Darman, Petronas
EUROPE
Jean-Marc Dumas, Aedes Energy
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Cesar Patino, Ecopetrol
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Qasem Al-Kayoumi, ADNOC
Faisal Al-Nughaimish, Saudi Aramco
NORTH AMERICA
Steve Cheung, SteveIOR Consultants
Zachary Evans, WSP
Barry Hanson, Sproule
RUSSIA AND THE CASPIAN
Aizhana Jussupbekova, ExxonMobil
SOUTH ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Tapas Kumar Sengupta, ONGC (Ret.)
JPT STAFF
Glenda Smith, Publisher
John Donnelly, Editor
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Motivate
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COMPLETIONS
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DRILLING
David Reid, NOV
Nominate
HSE AND SUSTAINABILITY
Johana Dunlop, Sponsored by Schlumberger
MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION Do you have colleagues who
Birol Dindoruk, Shell
are authorities in their fields and
PRODUCTION AND FACILITIES
Robert Pearson, Glynn Resources experienced public speakers?
RESERVOIR If you do, consider nominating
Erdal Ozkan, Colorado School of Mines
one or more of them for the
DIRECTOR FOR ACADEMIA Society of Petroleum Engineers
Ramona Graves, Colorado School of Mines (Ret.) Distinguished Lecturer Program.
Learn more about the program
at www.spe.org/go/NomDL.
Nominations are accepted
until 15 March.
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 SPE STRONG: STRENGTHENING OUR CORE

The Influential Yet Delicate Balance

of Mentoring
Shauna Noonan, 2020 SPE President

“The delicate balance of mentoring Thank you, Don Patterson (retired Chevron), for mentoring
someone is not creating them in me through my years of supervising workover rigs in northern
your own image, but giving them the Alberta. You were tasked with mentoring all the young engi-
opportunity to create themselves.” neers who were supervising rigs in northern Alberta, and phon-
—Steven Spielberg ing in our morning reports to you was often the most anxious
part of our day. After looking back, your critiques were the nec-
One of my focus areas as SPE President essary constructive feedback we needed. Fred Brownlee (retired
is strengthening the feedstock of incom- Chevron) and John Patterson (retired ConocoPhillips) were two
ing talent into our industry. In my January column, I talked of my most influential mentors, both in helping me grow my
about industrywide initiatives under way to attract and retain technical skills and for connecting me with industry peers. Mike
this talent. This month, I want to engage with our members Mooney (retired ConocoPhillips) taught me how to be a great
on the importance of effectively mentoring these bright, manager, how to conduct employee performance assessments
young minds. properly, and how to set my focus on value-adding goals. Karen
While I reflected upon setting my goals for the new year, Draper (retired S&N Pump) and Carol Magney Grande (Mag-
I began to think about all of the important people in my ca- ney Grande) provided mentorship on how to succeed in this in-
reer who not only helped me set high goals, but also provided dustry as a working mother, and also gave me my first oppor-
support and guidance in achieving those goals. Some people tunity to serve on an SPE committee. Finally, I must thank Dr.
were assigned to be my mentor, while others did it informally Jeff Spath (SPE 2014 President). He became my mentor when
by providing advice during oppor- I first served on the SPEI Board as
tune moments. Truthfully, it does a Technical Director and has con-
not matter how they became my tinued to provide critical guidance
mentor. The key point is that they and constructive feedback since.
were. Coaching a young profes- Without his help, I would not be
sional in a technical position is writing this column as your 2020
critical to their success, but devel- SPE President.
oping a person to have the inter- While these individuals seem dif-
personal skills to navigate this in- ferent, they all had common attri-
dustry is equally important. butes that made them such great
For 2020, my goals include mentors. For one, they had an in-
being both a mentor and men- terest in making me successful.
tee. While I believe I have much to In addition, they listened to and
contribute to our younger mem- guided me, rather than dictating.
bers, I also have much to learn. They shared their advanced indus-
I want to encourage more of our try knowledge and challenged me
members to set goals around men- to realize my full potential. Many
toring and want to make this the other individuals have been incred-
month where we take time to rec- ible mentors to me that I will also
ognize and thank those who have be recognizing this month.
had a positive impact on us as Shauna Noonan with one of The relationship between men-
her mentors, John Patterson.
our mentors. tor and mentee is symbiotic. The

Who has been your most influential mentor and why? Please send your response to president@spe.org.
To hear Shauna’s President’s Column via podcast, please go to www.spe.org/en/podcasts.

6 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

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 Shauna Noonan enjoying a “coachable moment” with
2014 SPE President Jeff Spath, center, at the International
Petroleum Technology Conference in Kuala Lumpur.
At right is SPE Chief Operations Officer Stephen Graham.
mentor must be able to provide constructive criticism, and the
mentee must be open to receiving it, willing to make neces-
sary changes, and be committed to taking the actions required
to change.
“You can’t push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing
to climb himself.” —Andrew Carnegie
Being a mentor or mentee can either be a short- or long-
term commitment. Personally, I get the highest satisfaction
as a mentor from witnessing the growth in my mentees, so
I commit to the period needed for that to occur and to en-
sure that they stay pointed in the right direction. One of my
most rewarding experiences as a mentor was being the lead-
er of a local Girl Scout troop. That is where I honed my skills
around encouraging others to get out of their comfort zone,
learn new skills, and work with others as a team. Trust me, if
you can guide a group of young teenagers to stay focused on
a task and work well together, you will be well-prepared to
mentor anyone.
I believe that it is important to get different opinions and
perspectives when seeking mentors. I always recommend hav-
ing several mentors, like a personal advisory board made up of
individuals who are in the positions that interest you and pos-
sess behaviors you want to emulate. It can be beneficial to have
a mentor who interacts with you in your work environment
and to witness those “coachable moments” first hand. The SPE
eMentoring program is a great tool to find that industry col-
league to get a different perspective from a distance.
The eMentoring program allows participating SPE members
to communicate around the world at their convenience. It en-
ables members to contribute to the future of the E&P industry
by sharing their professional insight and practical career advice
with young professionals. Mentors also give guidance to univer-
8 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
sity students in academic direction and career choices. Young
professionals have a unique opportunity to be mentored or to
serve as a mentor to students to help ease their transition into
the working world.
It’s an easy 6-month partnership, communicating 1–2 times
per month via the eMentoring messaging system, email, Skype,
face-to-face, or other forms of social media that have been mu-
tually agreed upon. Partnerships can be extended 6 months at
a time with the mentor’s approval. Mentors can mentor up to
three mentees at a time while mentees can be connected to one
mentor at a time.
To learn about the matching process of mentors and men-
tees in SPE’s eMentoring program, please check out the website
at www.spe.org/ementoring. Currently, this program has 1,356
total members from 71 countries participating.
“Mentors have a way of seeing more of our faults than we
would like. It’s the only way we grow.” —George Lucas
In summary, there is so much satisfaction to be gained from
investing in someone’s career development as a mentor. There
is also much to be gained from investing in yourself and seeking
out being mentored. This month, I plan to focus on strengthen-
ing my relationships with my mentors and my mentees to en-
sure that my investments in both areas will realize maximum
gains for all. I am grateful to those individuals who provided
constructive criticism and thankful for their support as I imple-
mented needed change. Being a member of SPE has enabled me
to seek out the right mentors throughout my career by provid-
ing opportunities to meet and connect with them. I encourage
my fellow SPE members to reach out and become a mentor or
mentee. If we help one another to become better contributors
and innovators, we not only elevate our society but the indus-
try overall. JPT
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 COMMENTS EDITORIAL BOARD
Barbara Pribyl—Chairperson, Santos
Bernt Aadnøy, University of Stavanger
Tayfun Babadagli, University of Alberta

Engineering for Good William Bailey, Schlumberger

Mark Burgoyne, Santos

John Donnelly, JPT Editor Maria Capello, Kuwait Oil Company

Frank Chang, Saudi Aramco
Simon Chipperfield, Santos

This month is the deadline to nominate someone for one of Alex Crabtree, Consultant
SPE’s numerous international awards. The deadline for nomina- Gunnar DeBruijn, Schlumberger
tions for regional awards is 1 March. The awards are designed Galen Dino, Dino Engineering
to recognize individual contributions to the oil and gas industry Mark Egan, Retired
and to the petroleum engineering profession.
Alexandre Emerick,
The awards depend on nominations from colleagues familiar Petrobras
with an individual’s professional, technical, or service accom- Niall Fleming, Equinor
plishments. The most well-known awards include honorary
Stephen Goodyear, Shell
member, the highest honor that SPE presents to an individual and which is limited
to 0.1% of the SPE total membership; distinguished member; Anthony F. Lucas Gold Subodh Gupta, Cenovus

Medal, noting achievement in the identification and development of new technology; Omer M. Gurpinar, Schlumberger
John Franklin Carll Award, honoring contributions to the application of engineering Birger Velle Hanssen, OneSubsea
principles to petroleum development and recovery; and the Lester C. Uren Award, Greg Horton, Retired
recognizing distinguished achievement in the technology of petroleum engineering. Morten Iversen,
Other awards, such as the Public Service Award, honor distinguished public service Karachaganak Petroleum Operating
through leadership, service, or humanitarianism. These awards highlight the good Leonard Kalfayan, Hess Corporation
works that members do around the globe on a volunteer basis and without public- Thomas Knode, Kirby Corporation
ity. Winners of the award over the past 6 years show the variety of contributions that
Sunil Kokal, Saudi Aramco
members have made.
Douglas Lehr, Baker Hughes
◗ Last year, Pascal Breton, deputy vice president E&P communications with Total,
was cited for his work with an organization in the Philippines. In 1998, Breton Silviu Livescu, Baker Hughes
took a sabbatical year to launch ANAK-Tnk, a Manila-based nongovernmental Shouxiang (Mark) Ma, Saudi Aramco
organization (NGO) that supports the Philippines capital city’s most impoverished John Macpherson, Baker Hughes
children. He then created French and international branches of the NGO and still R.V. Marathe, Consultant
serves as its president. Stéphane Menand, DrillScan
◗ In 2018, David C. Baldwin was recognized for his work with the disabled. He
Graham Mensa-Wilmot, Chevron
created Pursuit, whose mission is to support individuals with intellectual and
developmental disabilities (IDD) and encourage collaboration among IDD Jordan Mimoun, ExxonMobil

supporting organizations. Along with his wife, Baldwin has volunteered more Rohit Mittal, Boston Consulting Group
than 25 years in support of disabled persons and, in 2016, completed a cross- Badrul H. Mohamed Jan, University of Malaya
country bicycle ride that raised $13 million for the cause. Keshav Narayanan, BHP Billiton
◗ In 2017, Saka Matemilola was honored for helping found and establish the Center Ehsaan Nasir, Baker Hughes
of Excellence in Geosciences and Petroleum Engineering at the University of
Ardian Nengkoda, Saudi Aramco
Benin in Nigeria.
Yagna Oruganti, Baker Hughes
◗ In 2016, Richard J. Murphy, retired from Marathon, was noted for volunteer work
at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, helping with the institute’s Patient Zillur Rahim, Saudi Aramco

Family Center and providing high school math tutoring services. He also created a Martin Rylance, BP
volunteer in-class chemistry and physics tutoring program at a high school. Robello Samuel, Halliburton
◗ In 2015, Richard D. Folger was recognized for work that led to him receiving the Otto L. Santos, Louisiana State University
National Multiple Sclerosis Society Hope Award honoring service and leadership. Luigi A. Saputelli, Frontender Corporation
◗ In 2014, Nathan Meehan, who was 2016 SPE President, was honored for
Pallav Sarma, Tachyus
missionary work. He took a sabbatical to coordinate his church’s humanitarian
Greg Stephenson, Occidental Petroleum
activities in Asia. He trained volunteers and administered millions of dollars’
worth of humanitarian projects, including the provision of clean water and Rosa Swartwout, Baker Hughes
sanitation, medical services, and emergency relief. Mike Weatherl, Well Integrity
Award recipients are announced in July and they receive their awards at the SPE Scott Wilson, Ryder Scott Company
Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. For more information on nominating Jonathan Wylde, Clariant Oil Services
someone, see the article on page 76 or visit www.spe.org/awards. JPT Robert Ziegler, Weatherford

To contact JPT’s editor, email jdonnelly@spe.org.

10 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

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 GUEST EDITORIAL

Why Should SPE Members Be Interested

in Carbon Capture and Storage?
Robert Balch, Director, Petroleum Recovery Research Center, New Mexico Tech

As chairperson of the SPE Carbon Cap- Dome in Colorado, Bravo Dome in New
ture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) Mexico, and Jackson Dome in Mis-
Technical Section, I have frequently seen sissippi. More than 100 current CO2
and heard the debate about CO2 and cli- EOR projects are located in the Perm-
mate change at conferences, meetings, ian Basin and Gulf Coast as a result.
and in SPE Connect forums, often very These projects were not initiated to
vigorous, deep into the nuts and bolts save the planet or to sequester CO2;
of climate science, and with passion- they were created by brilliant engineers
ate discussions both pro and con. From and scientists trying to squeeze addi-
a purely cynical point of view, I could tional resources from declining reser-
make the argument that the debate is voirs, and they continued because they
already over, as it is largely political, it were economical and extended the
doesn’t matter what we think, we are lives of fields.
stuck with results that can significantly CO2 EOR in miscible or near-miscible
impact our industries, and we should do floods can revitalize mature fields,
what we can to minimize the damage. with a typical tertiary response on
However, I prefer to look at this more the order of the secondary recovery
as an opportunity, a way to advance our efforts in both duration and volumes.
social license, and as a series of tech- In the past, projects have been limited
nical issues that members of SPE are by chemistry, CO2 supply, and infra-
uniquely qualified to address. structure. According to a report by
Since the first commercial CO2 proj- the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Man-
ect in Scurry County, Texas, in 1972, agement, only about 3–4% of poten-
more than 150 additional CO2 EOR proj- tial US CO2 EOR sites—that is, those
ects have been put in place worldwide. with proper pressure, temperature,
These projects initially depended on and permeability for miscible flood-
natural CO2 and were located near three ing—are currently under flood. The
large natural CO2 resources: McElmo remaining sites are awaiting available
Robert Balch, SPE, is director of the Petroleum Recovery
Research Center located on the campus of New Mexico Tech.
During his 23 years at the center, he has been principal investi-
gator on a range of enhanced oil recovery, intelligent systems,
and environmental projects. Balch is also principal investigator
of the Southwest Partnership on Carbon Sequestration, which is
currently performing a US Department of Energy-funded dem-
onstration project in which 1 million metric tons of anthropo-
genic CO2 are being injected into a mature waterflood in north Texas for combined
storage and enhanced oil recovery. Balch has published more than 48 papers, is a
frequent invited speaker, and has presented his research at more than 100 meetings
or events. He was a 2017 SPE Distinguished Lecturer on the topic of CO2 storage
during enhanced oil recovery. He is also the former oil conservation commissioner
for the State of New Mexico.
CO2, and, perhaps more important-
ly, favorable economics compared to
other investment opportunities, such as
unconventionals, where Permian shale
oil is being produced for as low as
$25 per barrel.
Over 1 Bcf of natural CO2 is injected
into the Permian Basin every day, and
estimates are that between 800 mil-
lion and 1 billion metric tons of CO2
have been stored during the past 45
years of CO2 EOR development in the
region, more or less incidentally to the
primary goal of producing incremen-
tal oil. This is very significant, because
you are looking at numbers, which are
on at least the same order of magni-
tude that the Paris Climate Agreement
says we need to store over the next 20
years, and it has been done voluntari-
ly, with existing technology, and with
many more fields available for poten-
tial development.
For every pass of a CO2 molecule
through a reservoir, there is a chance
it will become entrained in immobile
water or oil and become trapped, and
eventually mineralized. Over the course
of development of an EOR project, CO2
storage approaches 95% or more as
this CO2 is “lost.” Since the large natu-
ral sources are fully utilized, addition-
al projects have looked to capture as a
solution for CO2 supply. This includes
capture from Exxon Mobil’s Schute
Creek gas plant in Wyoming, which feeds
14 EOR projects in the Rocky Moun-
tains, and efforts in the Mid-Continent
that capture CO2 from cement, fertil-
izer, and ethanol plants to support six
projects in North Texas and Oklahoma.
These are all viable projects that use
captured CO2 and are economical as
they stand.

12 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

 Approximately 37% of projects
worldwide use captured CO2. EOR plays
a key role in viable geologic storage of
carbon because of in-place infrastruc-
ture and economic motive—something
most of the rest of the world is missing
when it comes to carbon sequestration,
as proposed projects are often designed
to capture CO2 at large point sources
such as coal plants, at costs approach-
ing $100 per metric ton. Storage in
aquifers generates additional costs. As
a result, governments have not moved
quickly on carbon storage. The costs are
simply not absorbable for pure storage
without dramatic changes to lifestyles
and economies.
The interest of governments in
sequestering CO2 has, however, result-
ed in a closer look at incidental stor-
age during EOR, most recently in the
United States, where changes to the 45Q
tax credit (up to $35 per ton of CO2
stored in EOR sites, and $50 per ton for
storage in other sites) have potentially
enabled much greater supplies of CO2, at
costs less than that similar to naturally
“mined” CO2, which is already at its pro-
ducible limits, and then only available
regionally. This opens up the opportu-
nity for CO2 EOR projects, especially
with companies that can’t compete for
land in the Permian and other basins
where the majors again dominate. Not
that the majors aren’t already doing CO2
EOR as well, with Chevron at Vacuum
field, Exxon at Means field, Occidental
at Hobbes, and Statoil in the North Sea,
among others.
So, what does this mean for
SPE members, and why should we
be interested?
Opportunity. North America has domi-
nated CO2 EOR with large natural sourc-
es proximal to favorable geology. How-
ever, CO2 sources are widely distrib-
uted. Wherever there are people, there
are point sources such as power plants,
cement plants, gas processing, fertiliz-
er plants, ethanol generation, and oth-
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
ers. More than 80% of power used by
humans is based on fossil fuels, and
many chemical and industrial process-
es generate CO2 as a waste stream. As
a result of climate change concerns,
new techniques for the capture of CO2
have been enabled and intensely stud-
ied. With carrots such as 45Q and sticks
such as carbon taxes, it is becoming
more appealing worldwide to store rath-
er than emit carbon. CO2 EOR provides
an additional motive in incremental oil
production. As SPE members, we know
how inexpensive energy has altered the
world, and the myriad uses for the prod-
ucts of our efforts.
Social License. In recent years, the
ability to maintain a social license to
operate has become an important dis-
cussion among SPE leaders, members,
and supporting companies. As scien-
tists and engineers, we know that what
we do provides great social benefits,
but it is also important to understand
and assuage concerns of those who
live in the communities in which we
operate, and in the markets in which
our products are sold and used. Major
companies have taken stands on cli-
mate change, on more environmental-
ly friendly operations, and on sustain-
ability. Companies can benefit from the
proximity of capturable CO2 to mature
production, and can improve econom-
ics with extended field life through
incremental production. They also can
benefit from tax credits, or avoid car-
bon taxes, and thus maintain stable,
economically successful and more sus-
tainable operations. Since CO2 EOR
inherently stores CO2, they can also
benefit from improved public percep-
tion about their projects and the oil
they generate.
Technical challenges. SPE members
excel at solving the technical challenges
that face a rapidly evolving, technologi-
cally intense, and critically important
industry. For decades, we have worked
at understanding CO2 EOR for econom-
ic reasons, and we understand how to
make the most of sometimes limited
resources and aging infrastructure. Car-
bon storage is perhaps the only viable
option for reducing carbon to the lev-
els that governments have agreed are
important, and EOR is the only prov-
en technology that can be made ready
at the scale of billions of tons over the
period in which we are supposed to
accomplish this reduction worldwide.
Every technical discipline within SPE
can address challenges associated with
dramatically increasing CO2 EOR and
the incidental storage of carbon in those
projects. Moreover, SPE members have
already generated, and have been prac-
ticing, in economically successful ways,
the technologies needed to address
carbon storage. Technology transfer,
knowledge sharing, and improving the
world through access to inexpensive
energy are already in SPE members’
DNA. We should share our experience
and shape the evolution of carbon stor-
age, rather than let the world dictate to
us what we must do, to sustain the ener-
gy the world needs.
Mature fields around the world are
the best site for storing the carbon
promised by world leaders and formal-
ized in the Paris Agreement. Approxi-
mately 100,000 new CO2 injection pat-
terns are needed to store the required
20 billion metric tons of CO2 that gov-
ernments are asking for by 2040. This
is perhaps the only way to achieve this
goal in that time period because of exist-
ing transportation infrastructure and
available point source CO2 that can be
effectively captured proximal to produc-
tion. Around the world. SPE members
can provide an immense wealth of tech-
nical knowledge and experience, and
are, in my opinion, uniquely qualified
to meet this challenge. Public percep-
tion, regulatory policy and economics
of CO2 EOR are likely to improve dra-
matically in coming years. We should
be ready.  JPT
13
 TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS

Chris Carpenter, JPT Technology Editor

Gyro-While-Drilling System
Gyrodata introduced the Quest gyro-
while-drilling (GWD) system, which is
powered by the company’s solid-state
gyroscopic technology, SPEAR. Quest
addresses industry needs for more-
accurate, more-precise wellbore place-
ment. Solid-state gyroscope technol-
ogy incorporates a Coriolis vibrating
element, allowing a sensor package to
determine the earth’s rotational rate as
well as true inclination, azimuth, and
orientation of a well (Fig. 1). Quest GWD
overcomes the typical challenges of
spinning-mass gyroscopes by being sig-
nificantly more robust and taking surveys
in a much shorter timeframe. Operators
using Quest GWD can expect various ben-
efits depending on the situation, includ-
ing decreased risk of wellbore collision Fig. 2—CGG’s JumpStart packages provide a comprehensive resource of easily
in complex drilling projects, real-time accessible data for evaluating petroleum systems. Source: CGG.
reductions in the ellipse of uncertainty,
and enhanced ability to hit hydrocar- Geoscience Evaluation Package of the prospectivity of these two high-
bon-rich production target zones. Quest CGG has completed multiclient geosci- potential regions, allowing the assess-
Lite GWD, also recently introduced, is ence packages for the North West Shelf ment of new plays. JumpStart is a pro-
designed for use in low-angle hole sec- of Australia and the Banda Arc in the gram of multiclient geoscience projects
tions of up to 40° inclination. Asia Pacific region using its JumpStart designed to accelerate industry under-
◗◗For more information, visit technology. Both packages are now standing of petroleum systems and sup-
www.gyrodata.com. available and enhance understanding port exploration efforts (Fig.  2). The
package provides a comprehensive
resource of easily accessible data for
evaluating petroleum systems, integrat-
ing the full suite of CGG’s geoscience
capabilities with acquisition and imag-
ing. The programs integrate all avail-
able data in a specific geographical area
and frame the data within a geologi-
cal context. Clients can access direct-
ly, in one place, the reviewed, validat-
ed, calibrated, and interpreted data set
in a consistent, accessible, and ready-
to-use format. Seven JumpStart pro-
grams are near completion, with more
in the pipeline.
◗◗For more information, visit
www.cgg.com.

Rechargeable-Battery
Power Supply
Fig. 1—Gyrodata’s Quest gyro-while-drilling system offers enhanced ability to Transneft Diascan has introduced a
hit hydrocarbon-rich production target zones. power-supply system for in-line inspec-

14 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

tion (ILI) tools based on rechargeable batteries. After more
than 2 years of development, the company has manufactured
batteries, chargers, and spare parts for battery installation;
assembled the chassis; and tested the battery as component of
ILI tools. Flaw detectors performing inspections of trunk-oil,
gas, and oil pipelines now can obtain energy from recharge-
able batteries. Previously, ILI tools used power supplies that
required disposal after a single use. The new power-supply
system reduces the cost of ILI and increases the reliability of
tools because there is no need to open the battery sections
during maintenance.
◗ For more information, visit en.diascan.transneft.ru. ADIPEC 2020
TECHNICAL CALL FOR PAPERS
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JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

 E&P NOTES
Guyana Hits New Milestones
First oil has begun flowing ahead of
schedule from the Stabroek block off-
shore Guyana, a milestone from one of
the world’s most promising basins.
The production occurred fewer than 5
years after the first discovery of hydro-
carbons and underscores Guyana’s emer-
gence as a major oil producer. Output
from the first phase of the Liza field soon
will reach 120,000 B/D, with the first
cargo of oil set to be sold early in 2020,
according to operator ExxonMobil.
“This historic milestone to start oil
production safely and on schedule dem-
onstrates ExxonMobil’s commitment to
quality and leadership in project execu-
tion,” ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO
Darren Woods said in a statement. “We
are proud of our work with the Guyanese
people and government to realize our
shared long-term vision of responsible
resource development that maximizes
benefits for all.”
Tackling Carbon Emissions on a Grassroots Level
As industries and governments struggle
on a global scale to stop carbon emissions
and accelerate progress toward the 2°C
path set out in the Paris Agreement, efforts
are also growing to tackle emissions and
climate change on a grassroots level. In
Alberta, for example, a $35-million chal-
lenge to turn CO2 emissions from a waste
stream into valuable products for the
Canadian province has led to the com-
mercialization of two new technologies
that could deliver greenhouse gas (GHG)
reductions of almost 2 million metric tons
per year by 2030—that’s equal to GHG
emissions from 424,628 passenger vehi-
cles driven for one year or carbon seques-
tered more than 33 million tree seedlings
grown for 10 years.
As co-winners of Emission Reductions
Alberta’s (ERA) Grand Challenge: Innova-
16
The Stabroek Block is estimated to
hold recoverable resources of more than
6 billion BOE. ExxonMobil’s Esso Explo-
ration and Production Guyana Limited
operates the block and owns 45%. Hess
Guyana Exploration owns a 30% share
and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana
owns 25%.
The Liza Phase 1 development uses the
Liza Destiny floating, production, stor-
age and offloading (FPSO) vessel located
120 miles offshore and supports 17 wells.
“We are proud to be a partner in the
development of this world-class resource
and look forward to continuing to work
with the government of Guyana and the
Guyanese people to realize the remark-
able potential of the Stabroek Block,”
Hess CEO John Hess said.
The partners also announced on
23  December that they made their 15th
discovery on the Stabroek block. The
Mako-1 encountered 164 ft of high-
tive Carbon Uses, Mangrove Water Tech-
nologies and CarbonCure Technologies
each received $5 million to help commer-
cialize their technologies to capture and
use CO2 to deliver environmental and
economic benefits in Alberta and around
the world. The two companies were the
final winners of ERA’s 5-year, $35-million
challenge, which was designed to accel-
erate unique, promising, and impact-
ful technologies to convert CO2 emis-
sions into new carbon-based products
and markets.
Mangrove Water
Technologies—From Waste
Brines to Value Generators
Mangrove Water Technologies com-
bines fuel-cell and electrodialysis-based
technologies to convert salts into valu-
quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoir.
Mako-1, drilled in 5,315 ft of water, is
about 6 miles southeast of the Liza field.
“New discoveries in this world-class
basin have the potential to support addi-
tional developments,” said Mike Cousins,
senior vice president of exploration and
new ventures at ExxonMobil. “Our pro-
prietary full-wave seismic inversion tech-
nology continues to help us better define
our discovered resource and move rapid-
ly to the development phase.”
ExxonMobil said that at least five
FPSOs will be producing more than
750,000 B/D from Stabroek by 2025. The
second FPSO, Liza Unity, is under con-
struction and will be capable of produc-
ing up to 220,000 B/D in the Liza Phase
2 development. Front-end engineering
design is under way for a potential third
FPSO to develop the Payara field pending
government and regulatory approvals,
the company said.
able chemicals and desalinated water
for onsite use in oil sands, mining, and
other industrial process facilities that
require waste brine disposal or that
have brines that need to be converted
to chemicals such as hydroxide, acids,
and others.
“Our solution allows plants to reduce
water consumption while recovering
water to be used on the plant, and emis-
sions are reduced by not having to pro-
duce and truck chemicals,” said Man-
grove Cofounder and Chief Executive
Officer Saad Dara. The solution reduces
operational costs, water consumption,
wastewater generation, and carbon foot-
print by eliminating the need to trans-
port chemicals to sites and similarly
eliminating the need to haul water away,
according to Dara.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
 Dara describes Mangrove Water Tech-
nologies as a “bolt-on, end-of-tailpipe
solution” that doesn’t interrupt or need
to be integrated into any processes. “We
can show up with skid-mounted equip-
ment that sits at the site, accepts water
and brine, and provides water and chem-
icals,” he said. “It’s very diverse and
flexible in its application,” he contin-
ued. “It takes not just sodium chloride
brines, but different salts within the
system, including lithium chloride and
sodium sulfate.”
Mangrove will commercially deploy its
technology at scale at an oil sands min-
ing site in Alberta. If adopted widely,
the company estimates an annual value
of $450 million for its services in the oil
sands mining sector and the potential to
reduce 1.4 million metric tons GHG per
year by 2030.
CarbonCure Technologies—
Making Concrete More
Sustainable
Concrete is the world’s most abundant
man-made material and its most impor-
tant and widely used construction mate-
rial. Unfortunately, the process of mak-
ing cement—the key ingredient that
gives concrete its strength—accounts
for approximately 7% of the world’s
GHG emissions. CarbonCure Technol-
ogies is working with the cement and
concrete industries to reduce the car-
bon footprint of ready-mixed concrete
by using CO2 as a beneficial material in
its production.
The CarbonCure process injects re-
cycled CO2 from industrial emitters,
including oil and gas operations, as
an admixture in concrete production.
Once injected, the CO2 chemically con-
verts into a mineral that becomes per-
manently sequestered in the concrete.
The mineralization process improves
the concrete’s compressive strength, so
producers can adjust cement content
while maintaining its quality.
Reducing the cement content also
delivers material cost savings that offset
the cost of the technology, according to
CarbonCure Senior Director of Sustain-
ability Christie Gamble.
“Our system helps make concrete
products more competitive with other
building products, including wood,”
said Gamble. “There is a perception that
wood is more sustainable than concrete,
and that has impacted market share,
but this is based on limited under-
standing of the full lifecycle impact.
There is much more to be understood,”
she said.
Since being introduced commercially
in 2015, approximately 3.3 million cubic
meters of concrete have been produced
with the CarbonCure system, achiev-
ing material savings and avoiding more
than 50,000 metric tons of CO2 emis-
sions, says Gamble. With broad market
adoption, the technology portfolio could
provide an estimated 530,000  metric
tons of CO2 savings per year by 2030 in
Alberta alone.
ERA, which began operations in
2009, works with government, indus-
try, and innovators to help Alberta tran-
sition to a lower-carbon future with
a stronger, more diversified econo-
my. The organization recently began
accepting applications for a new,
$50-million Natural Gas Challenge. Eli-
gible technologies can come from any-
where the world, but projects must be
piloted, demonstrated, or deployed
in Alberta.

Shell’s Well Pad of the Future Is Open for Business

A defining feature of the oil and gas
industry’s ongoing digital transfor- What Shell Says Is New and Novel About The
mation is that it has never been done iShale Pilot
before. That means every company is
◗ Wireless controls and process automation to reduce well pad
allowed to have a different playbook on
construction and instrumentation costs
how to carry it out.
◗ Digital reporting to optimize vendor communications and reduce
For its unconventional assets, Shell’s
inefficient reporting during development and construction operations
plan was to build a team to seek out and
◗ Multiphase meters on well pads to minimize work required for routine
mold emerging innovations to match
well tests, and reduce HSE exposure
the rigorous needs of its production
◗ Simplified well pad design to remove pad separators and enable
assets. Launched in 2017, this program
separation at central processing facilities
is known as iShale and its first major test
◗ Multifunction central processing facility to reduce site storage
is underway in the Permian Basin where
requirements at central processing facilities
the international major operates nearly
◗ Remote sensors and analytics to minimize production deferment and
500 oil wells.
remotely detect incidents
In November, Shell brought online
◗ Exception-based ways of working for efficient operator routes and
two pads with a total of eight wells at
surveillance
the East Slash Ranch in west Texas. Each
◗ Mobile personal productivity tools for faster decision making and work
are connected to multiphase gathering
efficiency
systems and a “mini-modular” process-
◗ Failure analysis and advanced analytics to enable system-wide
ing facility. The multi-well project rep-
optimization and reduce cost
resents a “kitchen sink” approach to
digital technologies and aims to find out

JPT • FEBRUARY 2020 17

 if combining several of the latest inno-
vations all at once will reduce over all
development costs, cycle times, and car-
bon footprints.
So far, Shell reports that it delivered
the wells and facility systems using
40% less in-field construction hours
and with 20% reduction of its base-
line costs. The expectation is that the
project will also reduce typical green-
house gas emissions by 60% compared
with its traditional pads and gather-
ing facilities.
Devon Sells Barnett Asset to Thai Venture Firm
for $770 Million
After spending most of the year looking
for a buyer, Devon Energy announced
this week the sale of its entire stake in
the Barnett Shale to Banpu Kalnin Ven-
tures (BKV) for $770 million.
“Devon’s transformation to a US oil
growth business is now complete,” said
Dave Hager, the president and chief
executive of Devon. He added in a state-
ment that the divesture of the north
Texas property combined with its earli-
er sale of its Canadian assets has netted
$3.6 billion.
“The Barnett Shale has been a corner-
stone asset for Devon over the past two
decades,” said Hager. “With this change
in ownership, it is great to see our talent-
ed and innovative employees supporting
this high-quality gas asset transition to a
world-class company like Banpu.”
The deal, expected to close some-
time next year, includes 320,000 acres
Total to Gain Blocks, Extend Production Licenses
Offshore Angola
Total has agreed to acquire interests in
two blocks in the offshore Kwanza Basin
from Angola’s state-owned Sonangol and
has received an extension on its offshore
Block 17 production licenses.
In the acquisition from Sonangol, the
French major will add a 50% interest in
Block 20/11, located in 300–1,700 m of
water in the central Kwanza Basin. Part-
18
Shell also highlighted that it is incor-
porating technologies used primarily in
the deepwater sector “where space is
limited, and efficiency is critical.” These
include high- and low-pressure separa-
tion units which eliminate the need for
storage tanks on location. Multiphase
flow meters—rarely used in the onshore
sector due to their historically high
cost—have also been installed to replace
pad level separation and metering.
To realize the project, Shell tapped
legacy service firms such as Technip-
and 4,200 producing wells, making
BKV the largest gas producer in the
Barnett. BKV is backed by its parent,
Banpu Pcl, a Thailand-based coal and
power firm.
Net production from Devon’s Bar-
nett wells averaged 597 MMcf/D in the
third quarter of this year. BKV also has
stakes in shale gas assets in Pennsylva-
nia’s Marcellus Shale. With the Barnett,
the company’s gross production will rise
to 780 MMcf/D.
Devon publicized its plans to exit
Canada and the Barnett in Febru-
ary. At the time, the company noted
that it was trending toward becom-
ing a majority tight-oil producer.
Removing the Barnett from the port-
folio was estimated to lower the com-
pany’s gas production by around 43%
while the Canadian heavy-oil dives-
ture reduced its overall oil produc-
ners Sonangol and BP hold 20% and
30% of the block, respectively.
Total will also add an 80% interest in
Block 21/09, located in 1,600–1,800 m of
water in the south-central Kwanza Basin.
Sonangol holds the remaining interest.
Four discoveries have been made
on the blocks, where Total envisions a
new development hub and has commit-
FMC, Emerson, and Schlumberger along
with smaller startups Rebellion Pho-
tonics and Flutura Decisions Sciences
& Analytics.
There are no plans to immedi-
ately scale up the iShale project to
Shell’s other unconventional assets
in North America or Argentina.
The operator said it needs time
to acquire learnings and assess the
limitations and advantages of the
suite of technologies that have just
been deployed.
tion by nearly half, according to com-
pany reports.
A new $1 billion stock buyback was
also announced by Devon executives,
bringing the firm’s total repurchasing
program up to $6 billion. So far, the com-
pany has repurchased 30% of its publicly
traded for $4.8 billion.
Earlier this month, Devon agreed to
sell half of its working interest in more
than a hundred undrilled well locations
in Oklahoma’s STACK shale play to the
chemical company Dow. The joint ven-
ture features a $100-million drilling
carry over during the next 4 years.
Devon became one of the early leaders
of the shale revolution after it acquired
Mitchell Energy in 2002, the compa-
ny led by George Mitchell who is often
credited with being the first to com-
bine horizontal drilling with slickwater
hydraulic fracturing.
ted to explore for additional resourc-
es. As part of the agreement, Total will
become development operator before
establishing an operating company
with Sonangol 3 years after the start
of production.
Total will pay $400 million at closing,
adding $100 million at final investment
decision and further payments along the
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

Total’s CLOV floating production, storage, and offloading vessel on Block 17
offshore Angola. Source: KBR.
life of the project depending on produc-
tion and crude oil prices.
In a separate agreement, Total has
received an extension from Sonangol and
Angola’s National Agency of Petroleum,
Gas and Biofuels (ANPG) on its operated
Block 17 production licenses.
As part of the deal, Sonangol will
acquire a 5% interest in the block on the
effective date and another 5% interest in
BP Confirms Further Gas Potential Offshore Mauritania,
Senegal
BP said its recent three-well drilling cam-
paign offshore Mauritania and Senegal
has further confirmed the world-class
scale of the gas resource in the region.
Three appraisal wells drilled this
year—GTA-1, Yakaar-2, and Orca-1—
targeted nine hydrocarbon-bearing
zones, encountering gas in high qual-
ity reservoirs in all zones and yielding
a combined 160 m of net pay. The cam-
paign was completed 40 days ahead of
schedule and $30 million under budget,
said the British major.
Most recently, the Orca-1 well on
Block C8 offshore Mauritania, encoun-
tered all five of the gas sands original-
ly targeted. The well was then further
deepened to reach an additional target,
which also encountered gas.
“This is an exciting result as it proves
that our seismic data is identifying
20
2036. The consortium also will pay some
production bonuses to Angola along the
life of the license and spend $20 million
for social programs.
Located 150 km off the Angolan coast
in 600–1,400 m of water, Block 17 has
produced almost 3 billion bbl of oil
since 2001 through four floating pro-
duction, storage, and offloading (FPSO)
vessels: Girassol (2001), Dalia (2006),
hydrocarbon reservoirs deeper than
we had previously thought,” said How-
ard Leach, BP’s head of exploration.
“We have identified a large prospec-
tive area with considerable resource
potential in Southern Mauritania. We
will now conduct further appraisal
drilling to help inform future develop-
ment decisions.”
The Yakaar-2 and Orca-1 results could
underpin future developments, includ-
ing a possible new development in
Yakaar-Teranga in Senegal and in the
Bir Allah/Orca area in Southern Mau-
ritania, the company said. The tim-
ings of both potential future devel-
opments will depend on the level of
appraisal required, supporting com-
mercial development plans, and
integrated gas master plans in the
host nations.
Pazflor (2011), and CLOV (2014). The
block is currently producing around
440,000 BOE/D, with an estimated 1 bil-
lion bbl yet to be extracted, Total said.
Three short-cycle brownfield proj-
ects—Zinia Phase 2, CLOV Phase 2,
and Dalia Phase 3—are currently under
development on Block 17 in an effort to
add 150 million bbl of resources, and
other brownfield projects for extending
the production of Pazflor, Rosa, Girassol,
and Dalia are under study. Two explora-
tion wells are also planned for 2020.
With the entry of Sonangol, Block 17
interest owners consist of Total, 38%;
Equinor, 22.16%; ExxonMobil, 19%; BP,
15.84%; and Sonangol, 5%.
Total has been present in Angola since
1953. Its equity production averaged
211,000 BOE/D in 2018 from its operated
Blocks 17 and 32 and from nonoperated
assets 0, 14, 14K, and Angola LNG. Total
accounts for close to 45% of Angola’s
operated oil production.
Total is also operator of Block 17/06 in
the Lower Congo Basin, Block 16 where
the Chissonga discovery has been made,
and Block 48 in an emerging ultra-deep
offshore play still being explored.
BP in December 2018 sanctioned
its operated Greater Tortue Ahmeyim
Phase  1 development on the maritime
border of Mauritania and Senegal, the
first major gas project to reach a final
investment decision in the basin. It
involves an offshore floating liquefied
natural gas facility.
In Mauritania, BP is operator of
offshore Blocks C-6, C-8, C-12, and
C-13 with a 62% interest. Partners
are Kosmos Energy with 28% and
Societe Mauritanienne Des Hydro-
carbures et de Patrimoine Minier
(SMHPM), 10%.
In Senegal, BP is operator of the off-
shore Saint-Louis Profond and Cayar
Profond blocks with a 60% stake. Part-
ners are Kosmos with a 30% interest
and Societe des Petroles du Senegal
(Petrosen), 10%.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
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 Superior Energy Becomes Latest Service Firm to Abandon
Pressure Pumping
Superior Energy Services has announced
plans to eliminate its entire US pressure
pumping business unit, becoming the
second oil field service firm to make
such a decision this month.
In November, Superior laid off
more than 100 people in the Perm-
ian Basin and is anticipating a write-
down of $45  million and will use
any proceeds from asset sales to pay
down debts.
The Houston-based service provid-
er has an international footprint and
also offers drilling and production
product lines.
A week ago, smaller rival Basic Energy
Services said it hoped to raise between
$30–45 million by selling off most of its
pressure pumping equipment.
At the start of this year, Rystad ranked
Superior as the 13th largest pressure
pumper in the US. As of the divesture,
the firm owned 13 fracturing fleets with
about 650,000 hydraulic horsepow-
er, said a Reuters report while citing
US Sets New Records for Proved Oil and Gas Reserves
The US in 2018 posted record highs in
proved reserves for crude oil and natu-
ral gas, which were respectively up 12%
and 9% year-over-year, according to
a report from the US Energy Informa-
tion Administration (EIA). The increas-
es were driven by strong oil and gas
prices, the agency said.
Proved oil reserves totaled 43.8 bil-
lion bbl at year end, topping the previ-
ous year’s record, as US crude and lease
condensate production surged 17%
year-over-year. The annual average spot
price for West Texas Intermediate crude
at the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub
increased 29% in 2018 to $65.66.
Producers in Texas added 2.3 bil-
lion  bbl of crude and lease condensate
proved reserves, the largest net increase
of all states in 2018, thanks to higher
prices and development in the Perm-
ian Basin. New Mexico also benefited
22
Primary Vision, a fracturing-focused
market research firm. By comparison,
Basic held 11 spreads with 500,000
hydraulic horsepower.
Both companies are moving away
from hydraulic fracturing as the US
shale sector moves deeper into an activ-
ity slump that began in June of this year.
That month, C&J Energy Services and
Keane Group announced plans to merge
and become the third-largest pressure
pumper in the US. The combined com-
pany was recently renamed NexTier
Oilfield Solutions.
Driven by a decline in Permian activ-
ity, the US fracturing spread count
moved down from 340 to 335 this week,
according to data from Primary Vision.
The firm said most other shale plays are
holding flat, while the “Mid-Con” region
is the only one showing a sustained
increase in fracturing activity.
The firm also highlighted in a recent
note that proppant loadings have
slipped to a 5-year low and that shale
from Permian drilling, which helped
give the state an additional 750 mil-
lion bbl in crude and lease condensate
proved reserves. North Dakota ranked
third among the states, adding 422 mil-
lion bbl.
Louisiana, down 32 million bbl, took
the largest net decline in crude and lease
condensate proved reserves in 2018.
Proved gas reserves amounted to
504.5 Tcf at year-end 2018, also sur-
passing the previous record set in
2017, as US gas output rose 12% year-
over-year. The annual average gas
spot price at Henry Hub, Louisiana,
increased by 12% year-over-year to
$3.35/MMBtu.
As with previous years, the increase
was primarily driven by shale, with
proved gas reserves from shale plays
accounting for 68% of total US proved
gas reserves, up from 66% a year earlier.
producers are reducing inventory of
drilled-but-uncompleted wells as they
stack drilling rigs.
“The proppant data shift in the Perm-
ian supports the decline in completion
crews, and shows the extent of the slow
down,” wrote Mark Rossano, an ana-
lyst with Primary Vision. “The fact that
completion crews in the area contin-
ue to be released means the proppant
loadings will shift lower into year-end.
This will keep pressure on pricing and
remain a headwind well into the middle
of next year.”
US production growth is project-
ed to slow down next year to just
440,000  B/D compared with 2019’s
year-over-year growth figure of about
1 million B/D, according to a recent
report from IHS Markit. The mar-
ket intelligence firm said that accel-
erating production declines in exist-
ing wells coupled with new capital
constraints will see this growth stall
out by 2021.
Higher prices and increased develop-
ment in the Permian’s Wolfcamp/Bone
Spring shale play resulted in Texas also
adding the most proved gas reserves,
22.9 Tcf, during the year. The next larg-
est net gains were in Pennsylvania,
14.2  Tcf, thanks to development of the
Marcellus shale play in the Appalachian
Basin. The Wolfcamp/Bone Spring shale
also helped boost New Mexico’s proved
gas reserves by 4.2 Tcf.
Looking ahead to 2019, lower oil and
gas prices and a precipitous decline
in drilling are expected to result in a
drop in US proved oil and gas reserves,
EIA said.
Proved reserves are volumes of oil and
gas that geological and engineering data
demonstrate with reasonable certainty
to be recoverable in future years from
known reservoirs under existing eco-
nomic and operating conditions.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
BP Makes $625 Million Exit From North Sea Assets.
BP has agreed to sell several properties
in the UK North Sea to Premier Oil for
$625 million.
The assets set to change hands include
the BP-operated Andrew area and its
non-operating interest in the Shearwater
field. The deal, expected to close later
this year, is part of BP’s plan to divest
$10 billion by the end of 2020.
“BP has been reshaping its portfolio
in the North Sea to focus on core growth
areas, including the Clair, Quad 204, and
ETAP hubs,” said Ariel Flores, the North
Sea regional president at BP. “We’re add-
ing advantaged production to our hubs
through the Alligin, Vorlich, and Seagull
tieback projects.”
BP operates five fields in the Andrew
area: Andrew (62.75%); Arundel (100%);
Farragon (50%); Kinnoull (77%). Located
about 140 miles northeast of Aberdeen,
the Andrew asset also includes associated
subsea infrastructure and the Andrew plat-
form that all five fields produce through.
First oil was achieved in the Andrew
area in 1996 and as of 2019 aver-
age production was between 25,000–
30,000  BOE/D. BP said 69 employees
will transfer to Premier Oil to operate the
Andrew assets.
BP also holds a 27.5% interest in the
Shell-operated Shearwater field, which is
140 miles east of Aberdeen and produced
around 14,000 BOE/D in 2019.
Located west of Shetland, the Clair
field is being developed in phases. BP,
which owns a 45% stake in the field,
said first oil from the second phase was
achieved in 2018 and is targeting a total
of 640 million bbl with a peak production
of 120,000 B/D.
Also west of Shetland, the Quad 204
projects involves the redevelopment of
two existing assets—the Schiehallion
and Loyal fields. Quad 204 produces
from a floating, production, storage, and
offloading unit and involved the replace-
ment of subsea facilities along with new
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wells. First oil from the redeveloped field
was achieved in 2017.
Additionally, BP is completing a major
installation program of subsea tiebacks,
which eliminate the need to construct
new production platforms to develop
otherwise, marginal reservoirs:
◗ The Alligin tieback in the Greater
Schiehallion area west of Shetland is
expected to produce 12,000 BOE/D
sometime this year.
◗ Vorlich will be tied back to Ithaca
Energy’s floating production unit
in the central North Sea and is
targeting 20,000 BOE/D.
◗ Seagull is to be connected to BP’s
ETAP (Eastern Trough Area Project)
in the central North Sea and is set
to produce 50,000 BOE/D when it
comes on line next year.
◗ A final investment decision is
expected soon on the Murloch
development which may also be tied
back to the ETAP hub. JPT
 Effective Treatment and Handling
of Produced Water
Ming Yang, Principal Consultant, TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory

P roduced water is an inevitable by-

product of oil and gas production.
It is estimated that for every barrel
Editor’s Note: The oil and gas in-
dustry is under public scrutiny like
including reservoir engineers, produc-
tion engineers, production chemists,
and environmental engineers. It would
of oil produced worldwide there are never before on a host of health, also require an integrated approach,
roughly four to five barrels of water co- safety, and environmental issues. taking into consideration the differ-
produced. As it contains a wide range These concerns are already affect- ent options, as well as production his-
of contaminants, the discharge of pro- ing how companies operate and tory and profile. Often water produc-
duced water could potentially cause interact with the public. This series tion becomes a limiting factor for
harm to the environment, and there- is intended to shed light on how continuing oil production economi-
fore should be monitored closely. the industry is actively confronting cally for a specific field. How to best
For the offshore oil and gas industry, these challenges or how it should manage produced water in oil and gas
approximately 75% of the produced address them going forward. production will therefore have a sig-
water is treated and then discharged nificant impact economically, socially,
into the ocean, with the rest being re- and environmentally.
injected. While onshore, roughly 90% operators’ corporate environmental The key to produced water man-
of this water is reinjected, with the policy. Of course, to calculate the total agement is to prevent water getting
rest being treated and reused or dis- amount of oil that is discharged via pro- into the wellbore, and to minimize the
charged. With the rapid development duced water, the volume of that water water being brought to the surface. Fail-
of shale oil and gas, and the demand must also be measured accurately. Mea- ing this, produced water must then be
for water for hydraulic fracturing, there surement of the oil in produced water treated, reinjected, and/or discharged
is an increasing emphasis on flowback is also important for the control of the or reused.
and produced water reuse. water treatment process itself.
The measurement of oil in produced Management of produced water var- Using Online Oil-in-Water
water is vitally important, for both reg- ies with operators, geographical loca- Monitors
ulatory compliance monitoring and tions, and field history. Good pro- The use of online oil-in-water monitors
data collection for the development duced water management practice can play an important role in the man-
of future government regulations and should involve different disciplines, agement of produced water. There are
many benefits in using online continu-
ous oil-in-water monitors, but particu-
larly as they provide continuous infor-
Ming Yang is principal consultant at TÜV SÜD National
mation on a minute-by-minute basis,
Engineering Laboratory. Since joining TÜV SÜD in 1998, he
if not more frequently. Thus, not only
has participated in numerous conferences related to produced
can one spot process upset conditions
water, oil-in-water measurement, and multiphase separation.
quickly and take actions to rectify the
He has also initiated and led several joint industry projects,
situation, but such monitors can also be
and has presented and chaired produced water-related events.
used for process optimization, such as
He was one of two authors who originally drafted the UK
chemical dosing.
guidance notes on sampling and analysis of produced water and other hydrocar-
The use of online monitors will also
bon discharges. Previously, he worked at Heriot-Watt University, where he was
significantly reduce the number of sam-
involved in research projects related to produced-water characterization and
ples taken for laboratory analyses, and
reinjection. He also conducted research projects related to production chemi-
therefore reduce the use of solvents
cals  and multiphase separation at the University of Manchester. He received a
normally required for laboratory oil-in-
BS  degree in chemical engineering from South China University of Technology
water analyses. Furthermore, deploy-
and an MSc degree and PhD in chemical engineering from the University
ment of online monitors can potentially
of Manchester.
lead to more accurate oil-in-produced-

24 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

water discharge data, when compared
to taking manual samples and analyz-
ing them daily.
Preliminary studies have also indicat-
ed that there is a large uncertainty asso-
ciated with oil-in-water data obtained
using existing laboratory-based meth-
ods, whether gravimetric or infrared
absorption-based, or gas chromatog-
raphy and flame ionization detection
based. This uncertainty may be as high
as ±50% (at 95% confidence level).
The use of online oil-in-water moni-
tors, particularly those installed inline,
could potentially reduce the uncertain-
ties associated with the current sam-
pling and analysis practice.
Technology Options
There are a significant number of tech-
nologies available on the market for
online continuous oil-in-water measure-
ments. UV fluorescence-based technol-
ogies are probably the most commonly
used. Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF)
technology has been gaining acceptance
and market share. This is due to the
availability of LIF-based probes, which
can be inserted directly into the pro-
cess pipeline. Additionally, LIF-based
monitors from the leading suppliers are
equipped with ultrasonic cleaning capa-
bility, which helps mitigate fouling on
the sensor optical windows.
It is worth noting, however, that all
fluorescence-based monitors are affect-
ed by oil droplet size and the ratio
of aromatic to total hydrocarbons in
the produced water. Microscopy image
analysis-based monitors offer the ad-
vantage of providing both concentra-
tion and size of oil droplets and solid
particles and are therefore popular for
produced water re-injection operations.
Since it is possible to view the particles/
droplets present during measurement,
the images produced in microscopy
image analysis are being increasingly
used for produced water treatment pro-
cess optimization. Light scattering is a
quick and robust process, and is well
used in the shipping industry and is cur-
rently finding its way back for produced
water applications.
However, industrywide acceptance
of using online oil-in-water monitors
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
faces several challenges. Historically, The Future of Produced Water
online continuous oil-in-water moni- Measurement
tors are perceived to be unreliable and Produced water is an inevitable by-
have poor performance. When it comes product of oil and gas production, but
to reliability, like all online measure- its discharge could potentially harm the
ment devices, oil-in-water monitors environment. Management of produced
require a good calibration and sched- water is therefore critically important
uled regular maintenance to ensure for the safe and economical production
high-quality performance. These in- of oil and gas, which must involve mul-
struments are not a type that one can tiple disciplines and use an integrated
fit and forget. However, one of the key or holistic approach. With increasing
issues related to reliable operation of water production from mature fields
these devices is fouling of the optical and the move toward deep water, chem-
window. Consequently, new technolo- ical enhanced oil recovery, heavy oil,
gies have been developed to mitigate and unconventional oil and gas pro-
this problem, e.g., ultrasonic cleaning duction, the oil and gas industry is
being incorporated into LIF devices, or facing a significant number of chal-
a hydrodynamic mechanism being built lenges to minimize the potential harm
into a light-scattering sensor. Some that can be caused by the discharge of
of the instruments also use a high- produced water.
pressure jetting mechanism to miti- The uses of online oil-in-water moni-
gate fouling. tors can play a significant role in pro-
Evidently, there is a large uncertain- duction process control and optimiza-
ty associated with oil-in-water figures tion, injection water quality monitoring,
obtained by sampling and laborato- and discharge reporting, and we will see
ry analyses. It is quite possible that their increased use for the management
the perception of poor performance of produced water in the future. JPT
of online oil-in-water monitors might
be linked to the way with which we
assess their performance, by com-
paring results from the online moni-
tors to those from using sampling and
laboratory methods. With a relative-
ly large uncertainty related to labora-
tory results, it is entirely possible that
the performance of the online moni-
tors might therefore have been wrongly
judged in the past.
Online oil-in-water monitors have
been predominantly used for process
trending and optimization purposes for
surface-manned installations, but there
is now a strong desire from the oil and
gas industry to utilize them for pro-
duced water discharge reporting pur-
poses. To achieve this, there is a need
to develop new guidelines and/or new
approaches to be confident in their use
for this application.
For unmanned and subsea appli-
cations, without a reliable and accu-
rate online oil-in-water measurement
instrument, discharge and/or rein-
jection of produced water from these
installations would be extremely diffi-
cult, if not impossible.
25
 Man vs. Drilling Machine
Can be a Productive Thing
Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor
A new automated drilling program on
a rig sets off a battle of wits. Drill-
ers first focus on learning to use it, and
then figure out the underlying logic of
the software.
“The people learn from that and it’s
not too long before they have ideas that
can be put into practice that can improve
whatever the operation is,” said Matt
Isbell, drilling engineering advisor for
Hess. The oil company uses six Nabors
rigs, equipped with digitally controlled
systems to drill in the Bakken.
That conflict is good for Isbell, but not
for everyone. “In terms of the design-
ers of these automated systems, they’re
always disappointed when people try
to beat them, and do successfully beat
them,” said Isbell.
The tension is required because
the value of the Nabors’ rig automa-
tion, developed in partnership with
Hess, depends on finding new ways to
improve drilling.
While the word automation is associ-
ated with machines replacing humans,
payroll reduction is not their goal. “Peo-
ple are still critical. Machines do not
learn by themselves. People learn. We
are still counting on people to be the
leaders of this,” he said.
Drilling productivity improvements
are likely required to meet Hess’ aggres-
26
sive plans to increase production and
profits in the Bakken.
In its recent third quarter report, the
company reported an 8% drop in drill-
ing and completion costs since the first
quarter, to $6.7 million per well.
A big reason for that was a shift to
plug-and-perf completions. Changing
old habits, such as fracturing using slid-
ing sleeves, is part of a drive to create a
leaner drilling operation.
“Through the continued application
of lean manufacturing, we expect to
achieve further cost reductions as we
progress toward our targeted drill-
ing and completion cost of $6 mil-
lion per well,” said Gregory Hill, chief
operating officer and president of
worldwide exploration and produc-
tion for Hess, during its third quarter
earnings call.
Drilling productivity has been syn-
onymous with drilling wells faster. A
chart in a recent paper showed how
Hess has roughly halved the average
time required to drill a well since 2012,
and narrowed the difference between its
fastest and slowest jobs (SPE 195818).
“Shave off longer delivery wells, you
generate improvement—there is still a
little inconsistency there in flat (non-
productive) time and drilling time. We
are hard at work at that,” Isbell said.
Doing what they are doing now even
faster is not an option. “If we contin-
ue to compress these activities, expect-
ing machines or people to do them fast-
er… the physics does not support that,”
Isbell said.
Hess does see an opportunity to use
automation to build more and better
quality wells. During that recent call, the
company said it plans to use its fleet of
six rigs to push Bakken production up to
200,000 BOE/d by 2021. Then it will use
four rigs to sustain that output in a play
where rapid decline rates are a given.
This plan is expected to result “in mate-
rial, free cash flow generation across a
range of prices,” said John Hess, chief
executive of Hess during the call with
financial analysts.
That bit of financial jargon represents
the current Holy Grail for shale produc-
ers. It means consistent profits that are
high enough to satisfy investors, even
when oil and gas prices are low, which is
what shareholders are demanding.
Same Every Time
The Hess paper on its drilling improve-
ment program outlined the ongoing
process that has combined increas-
ingly automated drilling machines and
people looking for more productive
ways to do it.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
 Hess plans to use six Nabors drilling rigs
to significantly increase production in the
Bakken by 2021, then sustain it using only
four rigs. Source: Hess.

Hess calls it drilling operations auto-
mation, because there are digital control
systems for key tasks, without a central
computer coordinating it all.
Nabors is competing with other drill-
ers, such as Precision Drilling, and ser-
vice companies that have developed
systems. Those include Schlumberger,
which has developed a central control
system to coordinate subsystems, such
as the one adjusting the weight on bit and
rotation speed to maximize performance
as conditions change.
The value of programmable systems
depend on their ability to facilitate pro-
ductive change. Hess and Nabors do not
want to automate the status quo. The
goal is to create programmable machine
tools that generate good data that fos-
ters ideas for how to do things better.
Those innovations that prove useful
can be quickly programmed into all the
Nabors rigs.
These drilling machines have the
advantage of sticking with the program.
If there is any question about the source
in variation during drilling, Isbell said,
“I am happy to say it is people.”
Grading the Curve
The prime measure of success has always
been time saved drilling, and that has
not changed.
The digital control system used to
control sliding—the act of chang-
ing the well path by turning the curved
mud-motor housing just long enough
to make a planned course change—
saves time. Longer than needed slides
are inefficient because sliding is slower
than drilling ahead. More precise con-
trol can also limit the time spent get-
ting a well back on course if slides are
poorly executed.
Hess reports that automated sliding
control saves it about 4.5 hours per lat-
eral, assuming there are about 45 slides,
which adds up to significant money in a
year of drilling. Harder to measure is the
payoff for drilling wells that are closer
to the original design, allowing others
to effectively complete and produce the
well for years to come.
Isbell said that the ability to “more
tightly manage and control our opera-
tional execution of a well” will make it
possible to improve well designs, adding
value to those spaces.
In the near term, the goal is better
hole quality. Engineers describe that as
eliminating flaws, such as tight “dog-
leg” curves that can make it hard to run
casing, or lead to destructive contacts
between tubing and sucker rods.
But this numbers-driven industry has
not agreed on a way to quantify it. “Qual-
ity metrics are an interesting one for me
because it really is what you define it to
be,” Isbell said.
Hess is measuring quality based on
the degree the wellbore diverges from
the straight lines and curves of the well
plan, which is known as tortuosity.
The line between acceptable well-path
variations when drilling fast through
unpredictably changing rock, and exces-
sive tortuosity, is based on input from
those completing and producing Hess
wells, Isbell said.
Those specifications also include
inputs from drillers because “the unfor-
tunate reality is that these objectives are
often at odds,” the paper said. For exam-
ple, many short slides will reduce tor-
tuosity, but their use means it will take
more time to drill the well.
The value of a better well is harder
to estimate than the cost of a few hours
more of drilling time, but “the produc-
tion side is where you make money. The
drilling side is a sunk cost,” Isbell said.
Still, the goal is “delivering higher
quality wells at a lower cost” he said.
To get beyond drilling spending
decisions based on a single measure,
Hess decisions makers judge the value
of automation using a formula based
on improved well delivery, quality, and
safety, which define the cost.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2020 27

 55
50
45
40
35
Days
30
25
20
15
10
2012 2013 2014 2015
Fig. 1—The average time between when the rig is set up on site and when it is
released has gone down since 2012, and the range of times from the best to
the worst rigs working for Hess in the Bakken has shrunk. Source: SPE 195818.
Some benefits are easy to measure.
For example, controlling drilling set-
tings to avoid excessive stress that dam-
ages a bottomhole assembly (BHA)
saves on time lost for unexpected,
costly repairs.
“As you have better control of the drill-
ing process we will see an improvement
in the life of the BHA,” Isbell said, add-
ing, “That’s where most current activi-
ties are focused.”
Other benefits are hard to figure. Drill-
ers have struggled to answer the ques-
tion: What is the dollar value of drill-
ing limits that prevent an accident from
happening? It is also difficult to know
how the undulations of a wellbore look
inside the casing, which tends to smooth
the path. It is also hard to locate the low
spots most likely to accumulate water
and slow production.
Hess management has remained com-
mitted to the long-term drilling automa-
tion program during a tough period in
the shale business when many compa-
nies have slashed technology develop-
ment budgets.
“If we decided to do something else,
management would be against it because
this is the path we are on,” Isbell said.
Customer Driven
Automation can facilitate changes, if all
the people involved “think of this differ-
ently,” Isbell said.
28
2016 2017 2018 2019
“If we can manage a system this way,
it impacts the design of everything from
your MWD (measurement while drilling)
to the way we train our people,” he said.
The people driving drilling improve-
ment are inside and outside Hess. Isbell
says customer input from well users is
critical. This is a different use of the
word customer in drilling. It normally
describes the oil company hiring a drill-
ing contractor.
Anyone who has talked to completion
and production engineers about hole
problems soon sees they are demand-
ing customers. Given the importance of
improved well performance, they have
influence. “One thing that we learned
early on is that business-led projects tend
to gain traction faster,” Isbell said.
The customers also include those in
charge at drilling contractor and ser-
vice companies. They are in control
on the drilling sites, which is the hub
for innovation.
There are many voices to consider, and
they sometimes offer conflicting advice.
“Automating drilling requires many high-
ly detailed discussions about the drilling
and operations practices. That is kind of
where we are today,” Isbell said.
While Hess is seeking input from
more people, those on the rig still
have influence.
“The rig manager and the company
man are really the ones that are in charge
of judging how well these systems work,”
Isbell said, adding that, “It has to make a
driller’s life easier or they will turn it off.”
Working Relationships
Before automated systems were added
to rigs, Hess started changing where,
and how, the people guiding directional
drilling worked.
In 2016, Hess moved directional
drillers to a remote operations center
where two advisors would monitor
three wells each, with the assistance
of advisory software providing drillers
turn-by-turn directions.
“Directional drillers are optimizing
how they use their time. Going from one
rig to six made them a lot busier,” Isbell
said. Hess had learned that three wells
per person was the maximum number
per person, and found that they learned
faster when tracking multiple wells.
Digital controls can outperform
humans at tirelessly calculating the ideal
settings for a slide, which include adjust-
ing multiple rig components to ensure
the weight on bit and rotations per min-
ute are at the right level while sliding.
There are still situations in these
unpredictable formations that demand
human input. Directional drillers are
still required while drilling the lateral
because the path through most produc-
tive rock has to take an unexpected turn.
For that reason, directional drillers are
located near geosteering advisors who
interpret logging data to determine if
the drill is penetrating the most produc-
tive rock.
If the logging data show that a fault has
shifted the productive zone down 15  ft,
those experts must deal with their con-
flicting priorities. The geosteering advi-
sor’s goal is maximizing the time in the
pay zone while the driller needs to avoid
an abrupt turn that would add tortuosity.
Over time, data from digitally con-
trolled equipment will identify new prob-
lems to solve.
“As you get the ability to more tightly
manage and control your operational exe-
cution of a well, then you have the ability
to improve the well design, which accu-
mulates more value. And you can also tie
that better information into your comple-
tions and production,” Isbell said. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
 With Automation in Hand
Drillers Demand a Raise
Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor
D rilling automation advances now
appearing on rigs would seem to
offer a great opportunity for service
companies to demand a raise. The like-
ly answer from oil companies, though,
remains no.
The argument that oil companies
need to pay for much needed technol-
ogy advances collides with a ­ brutal
North American onshore rig market
where shrinking demand keeps a lid
on fees, according to drilling and ser-
vice company experts on a panel at the
recent SPE Annual Technical Conference
and Exhibition.
The cost-cutting pressure has been on
since the oil price crash that started in
30
2014. In this survival-of-the-­fittest mar-
ket, high-efficiency, modern rigs have
won out. While the number of rigs work-
ing in the Permian Basin is down 20%,
the number of wells and feet drilled is
little changed. As a result, the bottom
line for drilling contractors has suffered
because the survivors are reducing the
number of days of pay per well.
Drilling rigs with digital control sys-
tems that can consistently drill a curve
faster, and smoother than a directional
driller can, are an example of digitally
controlled systems appearing on rigs.
New contract terms rewarding service
companies for delivering those efficiency
gains are not part of that advance.
“There is so much focus on supply
chain savings,” said Duane Cuku, vice
president of sales for Precision Drill-
ing. As a result, “The operator is real-
ly accustomed to f­lying first class on a
coach ticket.”
Drillers would like to break this down-
ward spiral by negotiating better terms
for the next leap in drilling technology—
programmable digital control systems
capable of consistently executing com-
plex programs to efficiently increase the
penetration rate, change the well path,
or run casing.
Rather than a hardware advance, like
the top drive, the combination of digi-
tal controls and data analysis provides
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

Hess’ Bakken play has become a
test site for using six drilling rigs
with many automated functions
to drive a process improvement
program. Source: Hess.
flexible, programmable tools that allow
improving performance over time. Mak-
ing the most of these tools requires
cooperative efforts by operators, drill-
ers, and service companies.
“Digital technologies are progressing
and we are at the cusp of a tipping point.
Automation and digitization will allow
the future of well construction,” said
Kevin Neveu, president and chief execu-
tive officer for Precision Drilling.
Digital tools tested onshore will even-
tually migrate offshore. Matt Isbell,
drilling optimization advisor for Hess,
said the company expects to use what
it is learning about drilling better holes
onshore to help it improve its perfor-
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
mance when drilling with the more
complex well designs  used offshore.
Measures of Success
The panelists said that increasing auto-
mation is becoming the norm on rigs,
but the conversation kept coming back
to being paid for new technology.
“I am here to talk about money, not
technology,” said Lars Olesen, vice pres-
ident for product management at Pason
Systems. The company made a name for
itself selling data storage, but now cus-
tomers in this competitive sector expect
them to “do more with my data.”
Drillers saw their pay per well decrease
as they drilled faster, and payoff for auto-
mation that reduces headcounts appears
limited. Reducing costs has some value.
Olesen estimated that if a digital innova-
tion takes one person off the job site that
“gets 1/10th of the value of a saving.”
Far more valuable are more produc-
tive wells due to better hole quality. Engi-
neers talk about the cost of badly drilled
wells, but Olesen said persuading an oil
company to pay for a wellbore that was
well done “is an enormous effort and you
have to do it every well and it becomes
impossible thing to do.”
Offshore, Maersk Drilling used high
volume downhole data in the North Sea
to improve the stability of the holes
drilled, cuttings clearing, and fluid
losses. Other benefits included great-
er drilling and completion efficien-
cy plus better wellbore placement,
said Morten ­Norderud-Poulsen, senior
director of technical organization at
Maersk Drilling.
What is lacking is a way to measure the
value of those gains. “Paying for perfor-
mance requires measuring key perfor-
mance indicators (KPI) agreed to by all
parties, and it is not clear how to calcu-
late KPIs,” he said.
Among the barriers are the short-term
contracts that make it difficult to tap into
the value of software that allows incre-
mental improvements over time based
on the experience gained from drilling
many wells. Safety can also be a benefit,
but how do you measure it? “It is hard
to put a value on the mistake that does
not happen because there are procedural
limits in place,” Cuku said.
An example of a working ­automation-
technology partnership has been Hess’
multiyear relationship with Nabors,
which has included customer sup-
port for Nabors automation develop-
ment program.
While the speakers at the panel ses-
sions talked about new contract mod-
els that share risks and rewards among
operators, drillers, and service compa-
nies, Isbell said the company’s deal with
Nabors is pretty basic.
“What is in our contract would not
be surprising to anyone,” Isbell said. It
does include rewards for top-quartile
performance, which is common in its
service contracts.
The partnership is part of a drilling
improvement program that has integrat-
ed Nabors rig leaders into the process.
“We have made some investments, (and)
we have some skin in the game on key
metrics going forward,” Isbell said.
Payment Options
While service companies want to
be paid for improved performance,
some of the ideas offered for doing so
are unpalatable.
One is the fixed-priced turnkey deal.
That approach rewards a service provid-
er willing to take the considerable risk
of cost overruns if they are confident
they can do the job cheaper.
Schlumberger has invested ­ heavily
in automation and discovered ways
to improve performance. Based on its
experience, Schlumberger engineers
have some different ideas about what
drilling parameters to use.
“If we are using a performance model,
let’s have a conversation on (drilling)
limits,” said Rodrigo Gallo, drilling
automation champion at Schlumberger.
The problem was, when Schlumberger
said it needed to set the drilling param-
eters, the operator responded, “No, no,
no, that is my well,” he said.
A long-term deal that locks in a rate
formula based on the current low day
rates is also a problem. “Given the low
rates now it is a weird time to lock in
rates,” Cuku said.
Despite the low pay, Olesen said:
“Automation technology will continue
moving forward no matter what.” JPT
31

Life After 5:
How Tight-Oil Wells Grow Old
Trent Jacobs, JPT Digital Editor
T ight-oil production in the US set
new records in 2019, but the ban-
ner year ended with an important cave-
at: more than two-thirds of crude pro-
duction from shale plays flowed from
wells drilled in the past 2 years. The fig-
ure reflects the fast-paced life of hor-
izontal wells while also highlighting
32
that older assets are not contributing as
originally expected.
Wells brought online since the start
of 2019 represented 45% of total US
onshore production—3.5 million B/D
out of an all-time high 7.74 million B/D.
As more late-year production data flows
in, the 2019 wells might represent closer
Source: Getty Images.
to 50% of the total, according to infor-
mation from Shale Profile, an analytics
firm that aggregates public data from US
oil and gas regulators. Another 25%, or
about 1.9 million B/D, came from wells
that started producing in 2018.
The remainder of US onshore sup-
ply came mostly from the 93,000 wells
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
that were completed between 2010– ed to produce economically for 30 or ness of long-term production shortfalls
2017. The importance of this older more years. is also considered to be the driving
stock of horizontal wellbores is com- As a result, shale producers are now force behind a new wave of mergers
ing into focus as the early-time-decline advised to not use conventional wells and  acquisitions that has left con-
rate of new wells accelerates, prompt- as a guide, or else run the risk of over- strained operators seeking to combine
ing upstream analysts at IHS Markit to stating and overvaluing unconventional with peers holding proportionally large
forecast that US tight-oil production will assets (URTeC 432). The sector’s aware- positions of undrilled acreage.
peak in 2021.
Unconventional wells in the most pro-
lific shale plays tend to see decline rates
of more than 50% in their first year, and
another 30% in their second. One of the
key assumptions that justified the eco-

ENGINEERED
nomics of such production profiles held
that, after about 5 years, those steep
declines would transition to the mod-

to PERFORM
est 5–10% annual drops seen in con-
ventional wells, and remain there for
many years.
The most recent production data
reveal that tight oil wells are not living
up to this standard. CRAFTED FOR CONFIDENCE
At 5 years of age, horizontal wells in
the Permian Basin and Williston Basin’s
Bakken Shale share average terminal
decline rates of around 17%. The figure
for wells of the same age in the Eagle
Ford Shale is 23.5%. On average, it takes
8–10 years for these wells to fall below
an annual decline threshold of 10%.
These terminal decline rates rep-
resent a clear challenge for current
reserves and ultimate recovery esti-
mates from wells that were expect-

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your specific needs and made to order with a faster
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JPT • FEBRUARY 2020 33

 Permian Basin Terminal Decline Rates
◗◗ At 5 years of age, horizontal wells in the Permian
see decline rates fall to an average of 16.7% and will
produce just under or about 30 B/D. This is based on
information from more than 5,800 wells.
◗◗ Average daily production of a 5-year-old Permian well
jumped more than 41% as activity in the play matured.
Lateral lengths have nearly doubled since horizontal
drilling began while average proppant loadings
soared. A 2013 Permian well used about 800 lbs per
foot compared with an average 2017 horizontal oil
well that used 1,800 lbs per foot.
◗◗ At 5 years of age, the 2014 group of Permian wells
show a higher decline rate than wells drilled in
2012 or 2010 did at the same point. But 2014 wells
Williston Basin Terminal Decline Rates
◗◗ The average 5-year-old horizontal well in the Williston
Basin, which encompasses the Bakken and Three Forks
shales, shows an annual decline rate of 17%. This is
based on data from more than 10,5000 wells.
◗◗ At the 5-year mark, these wells average 49 B/D—
the highest such figure of the three major tight-
oil plays in the US. However, the 2014 grouping
produced an average of 48 B/D at age 5 compared
with 2010 and 2011 well groups that averaged 54 B/D
at age 5.
◗◗ As is also seen in the Permian, annual decline rates do
not necessarily stay on a downward trajectory. While
maintaining roughly the same number of well counts
year over year, the 2010, 2011, and 2013 well groups
both saw late-life upticks.
34
showed stronger initial production, which lifted
their 5-year cumulative production compared with
earlier vintages.
◗◗ This translates to an average production of 37 B/D for
a 5-year-old 2014 well vs. an average of 25 B/D for
the 2012 well group. Over the life of a well from the
two groups, the difference in cumulative production
is respectively about 148,000 bbl per well compared
with 102,000 bbl per well.
◗◗ Between 7 and 8 years of age, decline rates begin to
fall to around 10%—however, as demonstrated by the
2010 group, average decline rates in shale wells can
bounce back up. There are about 2,100 horizontal
wells in the Permian 7 years old or older.
◗◗ The sharpest drop from year 5 to year 6 occurred in
the 2012 group, which recorded a decline rate of 9%
year over year.
◗◗ Average decline rates for the 2014 group of wells,
which just turned 5, was nearly 4% higher than the
figure for the 2013 group.
◗◗ Because initial production rates were higher in 2014
wells, their cumulative output is stronger than the
older vintages, although modestly. The 2014 wells
recovered about 10% more oil than 2012 wells, but
performed similarly to 2013 wells.
◗◗ At 5 years, the 2012 group averaged a cumulative
production just shy of about 175,000 bbl. The figure
improved to 190,000 bbl for the 2013 group and then
194,000 for the 2014 group.
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 Eagle Ford Shale Terminal Decline Rates

◗◗ The average decline rate of horizontal wells in the
Eagle Ford Shale at age 5 is about 23.5%—the highest
such figure of the three major onshore oil plays in
the US.
◗◗ At age 5, the average well in the play produces
28 B/D. A comparison of the daily output of 2010
wells at age 5 vs. that of the 2014 well group shows
a 10% improvement.
◗◗ The 2010 well group represents the smallest sample
size and also features the most inconsistent trend in
decline rates. In 2010, only 358 wells were reported
as being completed in the Eagle Ford.
◗◗ At around 5 years, the 2014 group averaged
a cumulative per-well output over 171,000 bbl
compared with the 155,000 bbl that flowed out
from the 2013 group after 60 months. This 10%
bump in cumulative production corresponds to a
period when operators began stepping up from
about 750 lbs of proppant per foot of wellbore to
about 1,200 lbs per foot.

Permian Basin Decline Rates Have “Increased Dramatically”

Amid Ongoing Slowdown
The so-called production “treadmill” is
moving faster than ever for shale pro-
ducers in the Permian Basin—which
means only an unlikely increase in drill-
ing activity will stave off a major drop
in output.
This is according to a new report
from IHS Markit, which found that base
decline rates of more than 150,000
­producing wells in the Permian rose
from 34% in 2018 to 40% this year.
These figures represent a contraction of
1.5 million B/D.
“Base decline is the volume that oil
and gas producers need to add from
new wells just to stay where they are—
it is the speed of the treadmill,” said
Raoul LeBlanc, vice president of the
unconventional oil and gas unit at IHS.
“Because of the large increases of recent
years, the base decline production rate
for the Permian Basin has increased dra-
matically, and we expect those declines
to continue to accelerate. As a result, it
is going to be challenging, especially for
some companies with cash constraints,
just to keep production flat.”
When the year began, Permian pro-
duction was 3.8 million B/D—repre-
senting a year-over-year increase of
1 million B/D. But by 2021, the declines
in the Permian will translate to an over-
all halt of US production growth. Next
year, IHS expects US output to climb by
just 440,000 B/D before stalling out.
A period of modest growth could come
in 2022 but the bounce back would “be
in stark contrast to the boom levels of
recent years,” said LeBlanc.
IHS noted that conventional wells
in the Permian historically showed
a 13%  annual decline in production.
The newest multistage hydraulically
fractured wells in the region often see
first-year production declines between
65%–85%, according to IHS.
LeBlanc pointed out that shale pro-
ducers that are top heavy with younger
wells have sharper declines than peers
with a better balance of young and older
wells. This also means that those opera-
tors with the most production growth
also suffer from the highest declines.
“However, these high initial decline
rates of individual shale wells become
shallower over time, with older wells
showing annual declines of 20% or
less,” he added. “So, the key here is
that older wells in an operator’s inven-
tory help offset the rapid declines of
newer wells.” LeBlanc also emphasized
“that capital markets have closed” for
many tight-oil producers which is driv-
ing them to slow production growth and
attempt to moderate base declines.
The argument that a ceiling is form-
ing for Permian production, and overall
US onshore production, is further sup-
ported by the recent drop in active rigs.
The latest Baker Hughes rig count shows
that the number of oil-focused rigs has
fallen for seven straight weeks to 663. In
the Permian, there are 399 rigs drilling
for oil compared with 489 rigs this time
last year. JPT

36 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

Industry
icons
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 Three post-doctoral fellows at the
University of Alberta, (from left) Sara
Eghbali, Ali Habibi, Mahmood Reza
Yassin, investigate the impact of
shut-in time and flowback strategies
on enhanced oil recovery methods.
Source: Hassan Dehghanpour.

Want More Production?

Try Taking a Break
Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor

A pache found something positive to

say about its huge gas-producing
play in the Permian at a time when gas is
selling at rock-bottom prices.
When it shut in a 14-well pad on its
Alpine High play for 60 days, gas and
condensate production surged. It was a
rare test of whether a production break
can allow water in rock near the fracture
face to soak in deeper, allowing gas and
liquids to flow more freely.
“The gas rate came back above the
pre-soak rate and it’s actually holding in
pretty flat, so it shows there was some
impact and the condensate rate came
in higher than the pre-soak rate,” said
Dave Pursell, executive vice president
of planning, reserves and fundamen-
tals, during the company’s third quarter
earnings call.
The wells were on the huge Blackfoot
pad, which Apache had highlighted a
year ago as a major test of the industry
trend toward concentrating many wells
at a single location to reduce develop-
ment costs. In mid-2018, the company
said the pad was producing 99 mm ft3/d,
and 200 B/D of oil from 12 wells.
Based on the comment during the
call, production since then has been
disappointing.
“We thought, let’s take advantage
of low commodity prices and initiate
a 60-day soak to really understand
whether it is a relative permeability
issue or what is the mechanism for the
underperformance,” Pursell said.
The price of doing the test was a sig-
nificant decline in Alpine High produc-

38 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

tion—Apache said the shut-in was a
prime reason for a 30% drop in produc-
tion there. But with gas prices so low, the
expected upside apparently justifies the
revenue delayed.
During that earnings call, Apache also
said it would reduce the number of rigs
working in the Alpine High play from
five to two so it could concentrate on
Permian Basin acreage.
Stories about the benefits of soaking
have been around for a long time. As
has talks about its downsides. In those
cases, production was not an option,
often due to lack of pipeline access or
processing facilities.
Apache tried soaking on the big pad
because, “a significant amount of water
was pumped into a small area of the res-
ervoir, which may have impacted well
productivity,” Pursell said.
To answer that question and others,
Pursell said Apache has “a team of folks
working on the Blackfoot and all the
multiwell pads we drilled and complet-
ed to date.”

Is It Worth It?
Apache is getting in the middle of an
argument over whether soaking is worth
the production days lost. While it often
does cause a production spurt, the gains
can quickly fade and skeptics argue that
Robert Hawkes, a completions
advisor and SPE Distinguished
Lecturer, suggests a three-step
process for maximizing early
production:
◗ Fast-back—start by rapidly
flowing the well for a few
days to unload water in the
fractures allowing oil and gas
production to begin
◗ Soak-back—a shut-in period
to allow the water near the
fracture face to soak in a bit
deeper
◗ Slow-back—when production
begins, choke the well back
to reduce the risk of damage
due to a rapid pressure drop
After soaking, a well in the Woodford Shale produced 30% more gas than
a similarly completed horizontal well 1,000 ft away, and produced a bit less
water. Source: SPE 196611.
soaking can cause clay-rich rocks to
swell, causing damage.
Robert Hawkes, general manager
at Abra in Canada and an SPE Distin-
guished Lecturer, has long advocated
soaking. He said the industry needs to
realize that water’s impact goes beyond
fracturing rock and delivering sand to
prop fractures.
“Water cannot be damaging or we
would not be pumping so much water
today. So if water is not damaging,
is there a way to have water be your
friend? And we are saying yes. It’s called
soak-back,” said the long-time Canadian
completions analyst.
Soak-back is the middle step in a
three-step routine for early well produc-
tion. Hawkes said it begins with a short
period of rapid production, called fast-
back, followed by soaking, or soak-back,
and then production at a rate slowed
by choking to manage gas pressure
loss—slow-back.
During the shut-in period, dry, clay-
rich rock sucks in water-saturated
rock near the fracture face, increasing
the relative permeability so that more
hydrocarbons will flow. That period also
gives additives in the fracture fluid time
to get into the ultralight tight rock and
begin to work.
The fact that only a fraction of the
water pumped into productive wells
comes back argues that reservoirs
are capable of taking in a lot of fluid.
But soaking drew little notice during
the years when the formula for pro-
ducing more was simply pump more
water and sand and produce as fast
as possible.
What’s the Formula?
Lately Hawkes said he has been get-
ting some soaking questions, includ-
ing one from an international oil com-
pany asking for equations it can use to
model whether soaking will improve the

JPT • FEBRUARY 2020 39

 ­ erformance of its unconventional wells
p “Soaking will work only if the ini-
in Canada.
Unfortunately, Hawkes had to tell
them there are no widely accepted for-
mulas that consider all the variables that
go into answering questions such as:
What is the most cost-effective shut-in
period for soaking?
A technical paper based on Apache’s
research work delivered at the recent
Unconventional Resources Technology
Conference said the company launched
the project because there was not much
data on the effect that soaking had on
gas production from tight formations.
“The selection of soaking time is still
arbitrary” (URTeC 393).
When advising pressure-­ pumping
customers, Hawkes felt the need
to offer a more specific answer than
it depends.
Hawkes settled on 22 days. That was
chosen because “it was longer than
seven days and I knew if I said a month
they would call me a heretic.”
That pat answer does not satis-
fy Hawkes, who wants answers based
on petroleum engineering r­ ather
than customer psychology. He also
saw other questions about how water
affects reservoir rock that need to
be answered.
To fill those gaps he supported
research at the University of Alber-
ta by Hassan Dehghanpour, a petro-
leum engineering professor there who
is also an SPE Distinguished Lecturer.
His talk highlights his work on uncon-
ventional rock fluid interactions, with
a focus on using surfactants during
fracturing, and using soaking time to
increase imbibition.
Despite years of experience showing
that much of the water pumped dur-
ing fracturing stays in the reservoir,
­Dehghanpour said it still can be hard to
convince experts that water can soak a
few inches into tight rock.
“Some people do not even believe that
water can imbibe” in shale, he said.
At a recent SPE event, one prominent
petroleum engineer said, “I know the
field data. It looks like water is going
somewhere and producing hydrocar-
bons, but I cannot believe that in this
nanodarcy rock.”
40
The parameters in the Apache
algorithm:
◗◗ Soaking time—longer shut-ins
generally increase the benefit,
but other variables were more
significant
◗◗ Gas-specific gravity—
thermally mature reservoirs
with high gas levels required
◗◗ Initial water saturation—rock
with extremely low water
concentrations required
◗◗ Water salinity ratio between
formation and frac fluid—
one of the least significant
variables
◗◗ Pressure gradient of the
formation—a high level is
needed to drive production
Source: URTeC 393.
He said petroleum engineers often
miss two additional driving forces for
water suction—the force applied by dry
clay-rich rock, and osmosis when there
is a large differential between the salin-
ity of the fracturing and reservoir fluid.
Hawkes is certain that reservoir rock
imbibes water and that can increase
production, but he is not going to
­promise the gains will always justify the
­production hit during the shut-in.
“Is soaking damaging? No. Is soaking
going to make me more money? I can-
not say that from a universal point of
view,” he said.
Possible Answers?
Apache is trying to answer those ques-
tions by analyzing reservoir and pro-
duction data from multiple wells.
An early effort, which is not based on
Blackfoot data, was the URTeC paper
offering a formula for modeling the
impact of soaking on a wells’ ultimate
recovery. Predictions are based on a
handful of variables, some related to the
reservoir’s ability to imbibe fluid, and
others related to the force available to
drive productivity.
tial water saturation is low. As a result,
the formation will adsorb fracturing
fluid during the shut-in period. The best
shale met this condition in the Marcel-
lus and Eagle Ford” where the water
saturation is near zero, the URTeC
paper said.
Dry rock with a water saturation
of 10% or less—is likely to imbibe.
If the water saturation is high—40%
or more—“soaking will have a nega-
tive effect on 50% of the wells,”
according to a second Apache paper
(SPE 196611), delivered at the SPE East-
ern Regional Meeting.
The formula also favored forma-
tions likely to offer the pressure need-
ed to sustain production based on high
gas content and high pressure to drive
production. The salinity ratio between
the fracturing fluid and the formation
appears less significant.
Strong numbers in key variables can
outweigh weaker numbers in others. For
example, the formula favors wells with
high thermal maturity—mostly produc-
ing gas—less mature rock holding oil
can be a candidate.
“Yes, we can soak an oil well based
on other parameters like pressure and
water saturation and clay content,” said
Ahmed Farid Ibrahim, the lead writer
who works in engineering research and
development at Apache.
Only Oil Please
Production from an oil well in the
­Montney surged 700% after the Cana-
dian well was shut in for seven months,
according to a University of Alberta
paper (SPE 194363).
While both the oil and gas flowing
from the well jumped after the shut-in
ended, the oil flow then sunk at a bit
faster rate than before, Dehghanpour
said. This disappointing result is an
example of how, in enhanced oil recov-
ery studies, “you can change the initial
rate but it is really hard to change the
decline rate.”
While gas gains were more durable,
that is not an industry priority.
“In that particular case I showed it
to one operator and said you would be
producing more gas but no more oil,”
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
20
20 LAUNCH
PRODUCTS
IN Q1 5
PERFORATING
GUN TIERS 4
EPIC
SWITCHES 3
WIRELINE
RELEASE
TOOLS
2
COMPREHENSIVE
TOOL STRING
1
NEEDLE MOVERS WELCOME AT HFTC #815
©2020 GEODynamics, Inc.

t 2=1 day
t 4 =14 days
Oil began accumulating on the surface of a core that was soaked in produced
water in a test at the University of Alberta. Source: Hassan Dehghanpour.
Dehghanpour said. “The producer was
not impressed by the gas gain, saying,
‘We don’t care, we want oil.’”
While that soaking test result did not
deliver lasting gains, it is too soon to say
if soaking can improve oil production
based on scant data.
Explanations for why soaking
effects wear off include water remain-
ing near the fracture face, called
“phase trapping”—a blockage cre-
ated by a buildup on gas liquids—to
the fact that big liquid molecules are
simply harder to produce than tiny
methane molecules.
Dehghanpour was happy to have field
data, which companies are reluctant to
provide, but it was not easy to tease
out the soaking impact from a tangled
knot of facts.
The rock in the producing zone was
dry enough for soaking, but it was below
a porous water zone that was the source
of a lot of produced water.
Production began with 33 days of
flowback followed by a two-month shut-
in, five months of production on a jet
42
t 3=7 days
t 5=2 months
pump, a seven-month shut-in for sur-
face construction, and finally produc-
tion with a gas-lift system.
During the analysis, the gas inject-
ed for gas-lift from the production was
removed, but is it is hard to know what
impact that had on the liquid output
it was supposed to help produce. The
pressure drop during the initial five
months of production reduced the drive
behind oil production and increased the
gas produced.
Another variable was an additive—a
micro-emulsion surfactant that prom-
ised to free more oil by flipping oil-
wet surfaces, attracting oil—into ones
that are water wet. It was also formu-
lated to facilitate more flow through
tight pores by reducing the high inter-
facial tension.
Its actual impact depends on wheth-
er there was still micro-emulsion in the
reservoir after eight months of produc-
tion. One reason Hawkes offers for shut-
ting in a well early is it gives additives
time to work into the rock before pro-
duction pulls them out.
Net Present Value
Dehghanpour is working with one com-
pany to develop a method to estimate
how various soaking times will affect the
net present value of a well.
More data are required to create
a method capable of delivering valid
predictions on a broader basis. Soak-
ing a core in a jar shows the impact
water can have, but fluid in the
ground does not have the same access
to the rock.
Those tests show injected water with
a low level of salinity can be drawn
into high-salinity pores by osmosis and
expel oil trapped inside.
Another set of tests plus model-
ing showed that the shut-in might
allow more oil to flow out by signif-
icantly increasing the relative per-
meability on the fracture face, likely
because soaking removed water blocks
the hydrocarbons.
A University of Alberta study mea-
sured how much water was imbibed by
a core sample in a lab test and con-
cluded the process could be a “viable
mechanism for water loss during soak-
ing.” The intake is higher in rock with
a high clay content, which can cause
cracking, which might add flow paths
(SPE 167713).
A Penn State core study concluded,
“Formations with greater clay content
are more vulnerable to damage from
leak-off and are less likely to recover
with increased soaking time. In fact,
soaking time may exacerbate damage in
very tight shales” (SPE 178640).
The lead writer on the paper, Nirjhor
Chakraborty, who was then a gradu-
ate student at Penn State, said soak-
ing can work in the right rock. “We
believe that the soaking time can be
a powerful tool, but one that can be
quite harmful if not applied carefully
and appropriately.
“My understanding is that most
unconventional wells being drilled today
target low clay, and relatively higher-
perm rock (microdarcies or higher).
Siltstones and tight gas rather than true
shale in the geologic rather than engi-
neering sense. It may be that soaking is
beneficial in these reservoirs.”JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
 Principal Titanium
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 TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Drilling Innovation
Michael H. Weatherl, SPE, Engineering Consultant and President, Well Integrity

Summer jobs working on drilling rigs One need not look A focus on drilling innovation reveals
in western Oklahoma and California in no shortage of SPE papers that exem-
1980 and ’81 were great adventures.
to outer space plify these exciting trends. Without
High oil and gas demand meant major to imagine the extent  exception, the featured articles reflect
and independent operators used some of breakthroughs to come increased volumes of surface and down-
of the latest, state-of-the-art rigs to hole data that are being captured and
probe deep into high-pressure reser- in the not-too-distant future. analyzed to enable deep learning,
voirs. Planning and executing wells back improved efficiency, safety, and value.
then was a manual process with expe- As noted in paper OTC 29487, oil and
rience, horsepower, pencil, and calcu- reach full fruition. Experts agree this is gas companies are creating layers of
lator. My adventures continued after I just the beginning. Jensen Huang, chief digital knowledge enabling a new gen-
graduated from college in 1982. Ever- executive officer and founder of Nvidia, eration of AI-driven applications. New
evolving drilling, completion, and sub- highlighted this during a CNBC inter- insights into mitigation of drillstring
surface technology characterized the view in November. “We are at the begin- vibration, well-control events, and rate-
years that followed. ning of the AI revolution, one of the of-penetration optimization follow.
Fast forward to February 2020. “The most powerful technological forces of all Managed-pressure drilling remains a
more things change, the more they stay time,” he said. “We’ve created the ability persistent trend that continues to evolve
the same,” the old-timers might say. In for computers to understand the code of across onshore, offshore, and geograph-
many field locations today, old-school human knowledge. All industries will be ical boundaries, opening new frontiers
machinery and processes remain in transformed.” Huang, an AI visionary, once seen as out of reach. One need not
place. However, we see artificial intel- showed a 4D simulation of an unmanned look to outer space to imagine the extent
ligence (AI), data analytics, machine Mars landing craft on final approach of breakthroughs to come in the not-
learning, and related advancements going from 12,000 mph to zero in 6 min- too-distant future. JPT
transforming our industry. These devel- utes. Such visionaries are also working
opments have been headlines for sever- in upstream exploration and production
al years now but will take more time to to achieve remarkable advancements. Recommended additional reading
at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
SPE/IADC 194535 Nitrogen-Cap
Michael H. Weatherl, SPE, is an engineering consultant and presi- Drilling: A Managed-Pressure-Drilling
dent of Well Integrity in Scott, Louisiana. He holds a BS degree in Alternative for Highly Fractured
petroleum engineering from The University of Tulsa and has been Carbonate Reservoirs by Alexey Podust,
a registered petroleum engineer in Texas since 1993. Before start- Tengizchevroil, et al.
ing Well Integrity in August 2014, Weatherl worked as a drilling SPE 196166 Standardization: Successful
and completion team leader for Hess’ New Ventures Unit in Implementation of Driving Consistency in
Houston following assignments in Norway and offshore Americas. Deepwater Operations by Daniel A. Durey,
Before Hess, he worked for 25 years for Chevron, including in a Shell, et al.
number of positions in production and drilling in Louisiana and Texas. Weatherl is a
SPE 197942 Innovative Digital Well-
member of the JPT Editorial Committee and serves on the SPE Deepwater Drilling and Construction-Planning Solution Enhances
Completion Conference Committee. He has been a member of SPE for more than 30 Coherency and Efficiency of the Drilling-
years, has authored several papers, and served as a technical editor for SPE Drilling & Design Process by Waldemar Szemat-
Completion from 1991 to 2013. Weatherl can be reached at weatherlsr@yahoo.com. Vielma, Schlumberger, et al.

44 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

Real-Time Measurements Improve Managed-
Pressure Operations in HP/HT North Sea Well

T his paper describes how new

technology was implemented
and deployed through a downhole
and external pressure measurements,
along with other downhole measure-
ments, independently of traditional
visualization of equivalent circulating
densities (ECDs) at the shoe, bit, and
weak zones in the well at depths beyond
acoustic network through a sequence mud-pulse telemetry in the drilling as- the acoustic tools themselves. These
of runs in complex North Sea wells sembly, to provide real-time distributed data were used to manage the BHP with-
under managed-pressure conditions. pressure data essential to understand- in a 300-psi mud-weight window to en-
The authors demonstrate how ing the downhole conditions regard- able the well to be delivered ultimately
measurements and real-time solutions less of circulation, even under severe to planned TD.
evolved over the course of the wells to losses or during tripping and cement- The tool and calculations helped ver-
exceed the originally perceived value ing operations. ify managed-pressure connections and
of top-of-fluid under severe losses. As subsequent pump ramp-up and -down
a result of this deployment and the Network Operation operations to minimize pressure fluc-
lessons learned, the acoustic telemetry The downhole measurement and acous- tuations in the well. The data was also
network will now be used on upcoming, tic telemetry network was deployed on used during dynamic formation integ-
equally challenging wells, and its several wells through multiple hole sizes rity testing and to measure and calcu-
range of operations will be expanded for loss management, liner running, and late ECD at various positions along the
to include drilling, tripping, and liner- cementing operations. The initial pri- drillstring and casing when downhole
cementing operations. mary purpose was to monitor the top pressure-while-drilling measurements
of the mud at all times, even in signifi- were unavailable.
Introduction cant loss situations. The network con-
Several mature fields in the North Sea sisted of inline tools that picked up and Interval ECDs
experience significant challenges relat- handled like drillpipe. A surface sensor Traditionally, during managed-pressure
ing to high pressures and temperatures, was deployed and attached to the quill operations, it is assumed through mod-
accompanied by the infill drilling chal- of the top drive. This surface receiver eling that the BHP has remained con-
lenge of very narrow margins between then transmitted through a wireless stant throughout operations. These
pore and fracture pressures. To navigate network to a decoding laptop in a safe models have been constrained by down-
these narrow mud-weight windows, un- area. Once there, the data were integrat- hole measurements taken generally at
derstanding the bottomhole pressure ed with other downhole data from the the bottomhole assembly (BHA). How-
(BHP) is critical. However, in instances traditional measurement-while-drilling ever, this data are only available when
of fractured formations above the tar- string and with surface data from the rig a full mud column exists and when the
get zones, severe losses can be encoun- floor and sensor measurements from rigs are pumping over a certain flow
tered during drilling and cementing op- the managed-pressure-drilling (MPD) threshold. These situations often are
erations, often leading to the inability to equipment. This process is described not attained in wells with significant
maintain a full mud column at all times more fully in the complete paper. losses and not at all connections, or
and even threatening the ability to reach As real-time data were acquired, it when tripping in or out of the well, and
total depth (TD). became apparent that the data could not at all during conventional cement-
To address these issues, the oper- also be used in real time to help quan- ing operations. Furthermore, in nar-
ator investigated an acoustic teleme- tify actual downhole pressures. New row mud-weight windows, the flow rate
try system that could provide internal calculations were designed for simpler often can be restricted heavily when dis-
placing to a balanced tripping mud after
having reached section TD using man-
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Judy Feder, contains highlights of paper
aged pressure, resulting in no downhole
SPE 195767, “Using Real-Time Downhole and Along-String Measurements During
data when the risk of losses is increased.
Drilling and Cementing Operations To Improve Managed-Pressure Operations in a The use of the acoustic telemetry net-
Complex High-Pressure/High-Temperature North Sea Well,” by Tom Brian, Total, work allowed downhole and distribut-
and Andy Hawthorn and Duncan Groves, Baker Hughes, prepared for the 2019 SPE ed pressures to be transmitted through
Offshore Europe Conference and Exhibition held in Aberdeen, 3–6 September. The all operations, improving the efficiency
paper has not been peer reviewed. and safety of the activities significantly.

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2020 45

 2.1 1

0.8
2.05
ST12 intECDASBP
0.6
ST1 ECDASBP
0.4
2
0.2 ST2 ECDASBP

1.95 0
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00
11 March 2019
2.1 20
ST12 Liner Top ECD
2.05 15
10 ST12 Shoe ECD
2
5
MPD Shoe ECD
1.95 0
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00
11 March 2019
80 40 ST21 Synthetic
60 30 Standpipe Pressure
40 20
10 Standpipe Pressure
20
0 0
LAFPD
–10
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00
11 March 2019
50 2000
ST0 bore-annulus
40
1500
30 MPD Surface Back
1000 Pressure
20
10 500 Mud Flow ln (LPM)
0 0
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00
11 March 2019

Fig. 1—Calculated ECDs around the system, at both the shoe and the liner top, compared with actual rig operations
where surface backpressure is being increased.

The interval ECDs calculated from
the distributed tool pressure data were
used to monitor the along-string condi-
tions and the actual mud weights when
there was no flow. Initially, these ECDs
were calculated manually, but as the
wells progressed, algorithms were de-
veloped such that interval ECDs could
be presented graphically as part of the
real-time displays. The interval ECDs
were then used to develop a projec-
tion ahead of the tools to the BHA and
the shoe. In later wells, the actual fric-
tional pressure drop along the drill-
string and in the annulus was measured
through distributed measurements.
These frictional pressure drops were
used in conjunction with an internal-
to-external differential pressure to cal-
culate annular frictional pressure drop
around a liner.
Interval ECD was also identified on
one well as a means of early kick detec-
tion. In the event of gas entering the
well in solution within the drilling fluid
and, subsequently, breaking out when
farther up the annulus, the interval ECD
would indicate a reduction despite no
change in flow rate or fluid density at
the surface. This technique, although
not used, was available to the drilling
team as an indicator.
Connection Monitoring Using
Downhole Pressure
One of the key challenges during
­managed-pressure operations is know-
ing what is actually happening down-
hole during connections. Under these
conditions, rig pumps typically are cy-
cled down and then back up, and surface
backpressure is applied in an attempt to
maintain constant BHP. Discrepancies
can occur between what is perceived to
be happening and what is actually hap-
pening downhole. Thus, in extremely
tight-margin wells, the pressure down-
hole may either exceed the fracture
gradient or fall below the formation
pore pressure.
In an example illustrated in the com-
plete paper, real-time data analyzed
over a connection revealed a change in
revolutions per minute before the con-
nection, which also caused a change
in the actual ECD. The data from the
downhole measurement and acoustic
telemetry network were used to ensure
smoother ramp-up and -down of the
backpressure during subsequent con-
nections on the same BHA run to avoid
stressing the formation.
Projecting Pressure
Around a Liner
As confidence in the downhole and dis-
tributed pressure measurements grew
during the deployment, algorithms were
developed to compute a frictional pres-
sure drop along the drillpipe and an-
nulus. These measurements are repre-
sented graphically in Fig. 1. They were
then applied during a liner running op-
eration, where traditionally there have
been no downhole measurements at

46 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

all, and where, at various points of the
downhole assembly, there will be very
differing bore and annular pressures
and, hence, ECDs.
The top strip chart shows the inter-
val ECDs as the well team moves from
a static mud to a lighter, managed-
pressure mud, which corresponds to the
ramp-up in the MPD surface backpres-
sure. This ramp-up can be seen in the
bottom-most strip chart. From calculat-

Behind
ing the frictional pressure drop along
the annulus and bore of the drillpipe,
the team can look at the differential
measurement from the tools at the top

every
of the liner and calculate a liner-annular
frictional pressure drop.
Adding all the measured—and,
hence, calculated—frictional pressure

recipient
drops around the system generates a
synthetic standpipe pressure, which
can then be compared with the surface
standpipe pressure. In the figure, these

is a
appear to be a good match, showing that
the interval measurements add up to the
total system measurement as measured
by the standpipe pressure at surface.

great
These calculations need a plurality of
along-string pressure measurements—
not just a surface pressure or a single
downhole pressure—to be successful.

nomination
Additionally, they need to be integrat-
ed with different density fluids around
the system.

Conclusions
◗ A distributed measurement and
acoustic telemetry system was
deployed in a sequence of runs in
complex wells under managed-
pressure conditions in the
North Sea.
◗ Work flows and real-time
algorithms were developed to help
the efficiency and safety of the
MPD and liner running operations,
especially during connections
and where traditional mud-pulse Excellent work should be recognized everywhere.
telemetry was not viable. Visit www.spe.org/awards for more information.
◗ Future work will include the use
of real-time, along-string pressure International Award deadline is 1 March.
measurements during liner running
and cementing operations where
Regional Award deadline is 15 March.
no downhole data are currently
available and where it is well-
understood that traditional surface
models are almost completely
unreliable. JPT

JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

 Real-Time Data From Wired Drillpipe
Leads to Improvement in Drilling Performance

T his paper shows how high-

frequency, real-time drilling
data from wired drillpipe has helped
optimization of drilling performance and
achievement of additional improvements
in the New Mexico Delaware Basin.
The real-time downhole data provided
increased understanding of the
occurrence and mitigation of common
drilling dysfunctions such as torsional
vibration, whirl, axial vibration, motor
microstalls, and pipe buckling. Both the
data explaining downhole performance
and the successful practices that resulted
from the data analysis are discussed
in the complete paper. The data and
results have contributed to improved
performance in this area of high activity
and are useful for other areas with
similar drilling practices.
Background
Since 2012, on-bottom drilling perfor-
mance in the New Mexico Delaware Basin
has improved steadily through insights
gained from downhole memory data and
a series of bit and BHA design modifica-
tions. Parallel to this, in 2015, Occiden-
tal initiated a global campaign to recog-
nize and mitigate drilling dysfunctions
through the use of mechanical specif-
ic energy (MSE). Although performance
has improved through these initiatives,
uncertainty in rock strength, tool reli-
ability, proper drilling parameters, and
general downhole conditions makes op-
timization a time-consuming and some-
times ambiguous process.
To accelerate the learning process and
to help tailor parameters, BHAs, and bits
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Judy Feder, contains highlights of
paper SPE/IADC 194093, “Performance Impact of Downhole Data From Wired
Drillpipe and Downhole Sensors,” by Molly Giltner, Linsay Earle, and John
Willis, Occidental Petroleum, et al., prepared for the 2019 SPE/IADC International
Drilling Conference and Exhibition, The Hague, 5–7 March. The paper has not been
peer approved.
to ensure maximum performance, more
information about the downhole drilling
environment was required. The interme-
diate sections in this area require drilling
through eight formations with various
rock strengths. Drilling dynamics change
through the different rock types, and a
configuration that works best in one for-
mation may not work well in another.
The same goes for drilling parameters
and potential autodriller dysfunction.
High-speed drilling-dynamics data ac-
quired through wired drillpipe can pro-
vide real-time insight into bit and forma-
tion interactions that are not available
otherwise. This information is used to
determine the root cause of lower-than-
expected rate of penetration (ROP) or
unusual surface parameter fluctuations.
Through real-time data display, rig crews
can diagnose dysfunctions quickly and
correct them immediately. Simultane-
ously, the engineering staff can plan a re-
design if needed.
The data allowed the team to use a de-
terministic approach and physics-based
principles to improve performance. The
learnings gained from using wired drill-
pipe were expanded to adjacent rigs
using nonwired pipe. Furthermore, in-
sights gained through the abundant data
have been used to train the drilling team
and build their confidence in the applica-
tion of MSE methodology.
Project Definition
Wired drillpipe telemetry can transmit
data at rates up to 57,600 bits per second,
enabling massive amounts of data to be
transferred to surface in real time. Wired
drillpipe has been employed with bi-
directional communication to direction-
al tools to achieve faster measurement-
while-drilling and logging-while-drilling
telemetry rates and instantaneous down-
linking to rotary steerable systems in
land operations in California and in off-
shore operations in the North Sea. The
telemetry has also enabled fully integrat-
ed automation, in which high-frequency
downhole data feed into the control sys-
tem to optimize drilling operations and
ensure consistency. Other projects have
validated the use of active stick/slip mit-
igation technologies, optimized BHA
drive systems, reduced inefficiency, and
identified and redesigned performance
limiters to improve drilling performance.
The application discussed in this
paper is the use of high-speed drilling-
dynamics data acquisition to recognize
and mitigate dysfunction in real time,
and to understand true performance lim-
iters in order to improve BHAs, drilling
parameters, and surface control devices.
The operator collected downhole data in
the past; however, the data were stored in
memory and could not be processed and
analyzed until the BHA was pulled out of
the hole. The real-time (2.5-second in-
terval) display of downhole weight on bit
(WOB), torque, revolutions per minute
(rev/min), equivalent circulating density,
and lateral and axial vibrations enables
the visualization of drillstring dynamics.
These direct measurements facilitate a
deep understanding of the actual drilling
environment and reduce the uncertainty
that can accompany drilling operations.
The rollout of the drilling-improvement
initiative saw an emphasis on ROP-limiter
identification. An ROP limiter is an im-
mediate obstacle preventing the efficient
increase of WOB or rev/min. Limiters may
be bit-related, as is the case with certain
drilling dysfunctions, or non-bit-related,
such as mechanical limits on equip-
ment, directional control, data rates,

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

48 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

and even risk-averse behaviors. Some-
times, the limiter-identification process
can be complicated, with presumed lim-
iters and an inclination to be conserva-
tive. Through direct downhole measure-
ments, common misconceptions such as
“more WOB will damage the bit” or “sur-
face stick/slip control systems are mask-
ing downhole rev/min oscillations” could
be clarified, and true limiters identified.
Because six other rigs in the operator’s
fleet drill in the surrounding area, the re-
designs applied and tested on the rig with
the wired drillpipe can be applied to the
other rigs in a similar manner.
The data gathered have helped edu-
cate the field and office drilling staff on
the identification of dysfunctions such
as stick/slip, whirl, and pipe buckling,
as well as the correlations of these dys-
functions to the surface parameters. The
drilling team reviewed and studied these
observations and distributed the out-
comes to all field and office staff. The
dissemination of this information im-
proved the training materials and vali-
dated previous assumptions and corre-
lations, such as the linear relationship
between WOB and ROP, the use of MSE
to diagnose dysfunction, and the use of
differential pressure as an indication of
weight-transfer efficiency.
Execution
The initial testing of the wired-drillpipe
project occurred on a four-well pad. The
similarity of these wells allowed drill-
ing crews, drillsite managers, and engi-
neers enough time to familiarize them-
selves with the technology and develop
work flows to use the streaming data. In
past wired-drillpipe projects, a common
challenge had been the resources and
time required to analyze post-run data.
To ensure project resources did not be-
come a limiter in itself, the drilling team
defined project goals, expectations, and
team roles clearly at the outset. The proj-
ect priority was to use the real-time data
to optimize drilling parameters and iden-
tify the performance limiters encoun-
tered in each foot of drilled hole. The lim-
iters identified would then be the focus of
the team’s efforts. The team performed
post-run data analysis as it applied to un-
derstanding and redesigning only those
limiters. Any further analysis was outside
the scope of this project.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
Wired Pipe Rig
2,600
2,400
ft/day
2,200
2,000
ft/day
1,800
1 2
Well Number
Fig. 1—Feet-per-day improvement and cost-per-foot reduction on the wired-
pipe rig.
For the initial rollout, the team held a
training class with all project stakehold-
ers to ensure a basic level of understand-
ing and to communicate expectations for
the project. By focusing on very specific,
high-effect situations, the team could
concentrate all efforts on mitigation
plans and redesigns of the encountered
limiters. Then, those learnings could be
distributed to other rigs to improve per-
formance across the fleet. Focusing on
the primary performance limiters was
difficult because of the number of in-
teresting observations and behaviors,
such as a frequent variation in minimum
and maximum WOB, a loss of weight-­
transfer efficiency when drilling some
formations, and persistent lateral and
axial vibrations. The intention was not to
forget those other events, but to focus on
the high-effect dysfunctions first, then
address the other situations if they be-
came performance limiters themselves.
To identify performance limiters ac-
curately and ensure the maximum ben-
efit to performance while the BHA was
in the hole, the rig crews were engaged
actively in monitoring real-time data
and correcting the dysfunctions en-
countered. The field team was empow-
ered to make parameter changes with-
in the mechanical limits of the BHA on
the basis of dynamics data and the spe-
cific drilling situation. Field personnel
were responsible for limiter identifica-
tion, with support from the engineer-
ing staff as needed. At the conclusion
of each hole section, the engineering
team documented and consolidated ob-
servations, made design changes if re-
quired, and provided any necessary data
to the rig crew to make improvements in
the next interval. Constant communica-
tion between the field and office ensured
$45
Pro Forma Cost/ft
$40
$35
$30
cost/ft
$25
3 4 5
proper documentation of performance
limiters and a clear understanding of
mechanical limitations.
The team developed a limiter roadmap
to help rig personnel, drillsite managers,
and engineers identify and document
performance limiters and dysfunctions as
they were observed. The complete paper
provides an example of a roadmap for a
9⅞-in. intermediate section. The com-
plete paper also discusses observations
and redesigns and how the campaign
mitigated torsional oscillations, whirl,
axial vibrations, motor microstalls, and
WOB and pipe buckling, before present-
ing the performance results (Fig. 1).
Conclusions
◗◗ The rig with wired pipe reduced the
number of BHAs used by 33% and
reduced drilling time in a particular
hole section by 25%.
◗◗ After a five-well campaign, the
performance on an adjacent rig
improved at an even higher rate
than seen in the rig with the
wired drillpipe, demonstrating
that lessons learned from wired-
drillpipe data can enable improved
understanding of surface data,
allowing transfer of lessons to rigs
not using wired drillpipe.
◗◗ The common dysfunctions and
mitigation actions were compiled
into a document that was
distributed to other rigs in the fleet.
◗◗ A base level of understanding
of the drilling behavior in each
formation has been established,
and performance limiters have
been identified. Future efforts will
focus on engineering redesigns
to mitigate known performance
limiters. JPT
49
 Artificial Intelligence-Driven Timelines
Help Optimize Well Life Cycle

A rtificial intelligence (AI) and

machine-learning algorithms can
enable energy companies to digitally
reconstruct well histories using both
public and company-specific historical
well data. This paper discusses how
oil and gas companies are using a new
generation of AI-driven applications
powered by computational-knowledge
graphs and AI algorithms to create
a digital knowledge layer for oil and
gas wells that provides a timeline
of significant well events such as
drilling problems, blowout preventer
tests, bottomhole-pressure (BHP)
measurements, and well interventions.
The authors explain how they train
the application’s machine-learning
algorithms to read hundreds of
thousands of historical reports to
harvest knowledge about the well and
store the extracted knowledge in a
digital knowledge layer.
Introduction
Even small improvements in upstream
operations efficiency can result in dra-
matic savings. One way to improve ef-
ficiency is through better and faster
decision-making, enabled by tools that
provide seamless access to both the cur-
rent state and the full history of wells.
Wells’ productive lives can span decades.
Their data are scattered across dozens of
databases and millions of documents and
operational comments. Immeasurable
knowledge also lives only in the heads
of thousands of experts, many of whom
may have retired or will retire soon. It
has been estimated that the amount
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Judy Feder, contains highlights
of paper OTC 29487, “AI-Driven Well Timelines for Well Optimization,” by Jeff
Dalgliesh, Allen Jones, and Arulmozhi Palanisamy, Maana, et al., prepared for
the 2019 Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, 6–9 May. The paper has not
been peer reviewed. Copyright 2019 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced
by permission.
of data oil companies handle doubles
every 12–18 months, resulting in an ever-
growing data-volume and knowl-
edge problem.
Integrating all relevant information for
a well is a lengthy and complex process be-
cause of both technical and organization-
al challenges. Well history is maintained
across multiple teams and is encoded in
a wide range of documents, drilling com-
ments, and complex semistructured data
sources such as drilling reporting sys-
tems and well databases. The longevity of
many wells means that technologies used
to collect this data have changed over the
years, leaving decades of data trapped
in silos created by legacy technologies.
Wells acquired from partnerships or ac-
quisitions can be even more difficult to
integrate because of differing standards
and conventions for writing, storing, and
naming information.
This paper introduces the approach
of computational-knowledge graphing
(CKG) for wells. The concept of CKG en-
ables companies to create a powerful and
flexible digital knowledge layer for wells,
a process that involves encoding the ex-
perience of subject matter experts and
combining it with years of well data.
The complete paper proposes an ap-
proach to using and enriching this
knowledge layer continually to create
timelines of events that reconstruct the
digital history of a well in a way that is
recognizable immediately and intuitive
conceptually for users; flexible and ex-
tensible in the kinds of data it models
as events; and able to serve as a founda-
tion of high-quality, event-centric knowl-
edge on which to build higher-level AI
solutions that offer advanced decision-
support capabilities such as recommen-
dations and predictions.
Using the digital knowledge layer in
the context of digital well timelines,
decision-makers can combine years
of fragmented, well-related data from
other  experts, databases, documents,
and operational comments to accomplish
the following:
◗ View the timeline of a well to
understand its full history
◗ View a timeline of an event type
◗ View a timeline of a concept,
action, or entity
◗ Explore the temporal and
geospatial relationships between
wells and the other important
aspects of day-to-day work,
including people, lithologies,
equipment, vendors, and drilling
problems
Events, Entities, and
Relationships
The authors’ approach is based on
events, entities, and relationships that
are modeled using an event-centric view
of the world. The authors define an
event as “a thing that has happened,”
with the only requirement being that
the thing that has happened has been
documented somewhere. Being “docu-
mented” could mean having a rich, un-
structured document about a well; a
structured record such as a drilling com-
ment or BHP test in a well database; or
a media file such as a wellsite photo of a
pulled bit.
The approach is governed by a pro-
cess called event engineering, which de-
rives and enriches events from a range
of documentation sources and is de-
picted in Fig. 1. The process begins
with event extraction or generation—
extracting or summarizing relevant
text fragments from larger bodies of

The complete paper is available for purchase at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.

50 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

text using natural language processing
(NLP) techniques. The algorithms act
like translators that convert technical
data stored in databases or sensor out-
put into events that are more readable
by people who may not have the back-
ground to make sense of the data in its
original structured form.
After an event has been created, it is
enriched using a variety of techniques,
and connections are made from the event
to related entities such as wells, rigs, or-
ganizations, equipment, people, actions,
and problems that exist in the knowledge
graph. These connections model the rela-
tionship between the event and the enti-
ties. The entity is either a primary subject
of the event or something that has been
referenced by the event.
The authors have adopted a very broad
definition of an entity as “a thing with
distinct and independent existence.”
Rather than encompassing the entire oil
and gas domain, the following types of
entities have been assembled with the in-
tent of allowing users to understand the
connections between entities and events:
◗ General real-world entity types
such as people, organizations,
equipment, and lithology
◗ Concepts specific to the oil and gas
domain such as casing size, hole
size, mud weight, well problems,
and equipment problems
When the algorithm discovers entities
in an event that do not currently exist in
the knowledge graph, these events are
added. As the algorithm processes more
events, the knowledge graph increases
incrementally in completeness and value.
The techniques used for entity detection
and extraction are discussed in detail in
the paper.
Regardless of the source, a rich set
of events follow a consistent yet ex-
tensible schema eventually that is the
same regardless of what type of event
is being stored. The event schema al-
lows for a model with the ability to store
the  following:
◗ When the event happened (and
when it ended, if relevant)
◗ Who the event is about.
Generally, an event is about the
well fundamentally, but other
participants could be included
in the event, such as equipment,
people, fluids, and companies.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
Fig. 1—The event-engineering process. BOP=blowout preventer.
◗ What the event is about—a
problem, an action, or a certain
type of document. An event can
also be associated with arbitrary
name or value pairs, quantities,
and facts.
◗ Where the event happened (and
where it ended, if relevant)
Finally, the events are indexed to fa-
cilitate search and retrieval capabilities,
allowing the ability to generate complex
timelines efficiently containing many
thousands of events, and support ap-
plication integration through access to
event timelines.
Once the events have been created
and connected to the correct entities,
users interact with the knowledge graph
through a user interface (UI) designed
specifically to support the timeline and
event-centric model. The authors pres-
ent two examples based on the dataset
released publicly by Equinor for its Volve
field, which was in production from
2008 to 2016, to illustrate how the UI
provides the user with a searchable and
filterable digital history for a well viewed
as a timeline.
Identifying and Extracting
Entities
Drilling comments, the main source of
unstructured text in the AI-driven well
timeline system, present a problem in
that they are generally composed of short,
incomplete sentences that are full of
domain-specific jargon and abbrevia-
tions. Spelling mistakes and grammatical
errors also are common. The authors dis-
cuss an NLP pipeline used to identify and
extract entities from drilling comments.
They also discuss data labeling, which is
needed to enable the algorithm to learn
to recognize new entities even though
the system has not specifically been told
what those entities are.
Conclusions
◗ Giving users access to data that
is stored in multiple systems in a
variety of formats is challenging and
time-consuming. By redefining data
as events, enriching these events
using AI, and storing the results
in a knowledge graph, timelines
for wells and other entities can be
reconstructed.
◗ Applying these timelines to
understanding the history of an
asset is valuable when making
decisions because a user can quickly
obtain an understanding of the
events that took place. This, in
turn, might explain why there was
a problem.
◗ Such knowledge can lead to changes
in the next well design, intervention,
or abandonment.
◗ By processing millions of events and
enriching them as described, users
can leverage the knowledge captured
in the events to build AI systems that
can reason about wells and answer
advanced questions, such as why an
event occurred. Recommendations
could be developed, and predictions
made, to further assist users in
decision-making. JPT
51
 TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Well Testing
Jordan Mimoun, SPE, Well Testing Team Lead, ExxonMobil

In my inaugural column as editor of the epitomize the virtuous circle of service
Well Testing Technology Focus feature, I company research and development tai-
want to shine a light on the notable trend lored to meet the needs of operators,
among operators of seizing on the tre- who, in turn, test these systems and help
mendous untapped potential that explo- build a track record. Issues and failures
ration and appraisal wells represent are part of the game of innovative tech-
for far-field reservoir characterization nologies, improving robustness and add-
and connectivity. ing features, job after job.
The concept is straightforward. Upon The value proposition is undoubted-
reaching total depth and running a suite ly appealing. The marketing around it
of logs and tools (which may or may not is compelling but rarely dwells on the
include a well test), gauges are installed implications of installing such systems.
as part of the plug-and-abandonment What will it take to yield a conclusive
phase, thus turning an otherwise throw- test? Two common pitfalls are the false
away reservoir penetration into a long- negative and false positive. The former
term observation well. Brilliant! The misleadingly suggests no connectivity
gauges communicate wirelessly by elec- when the signal is merely not strong
tromagnetic telemetry, cleverly capital- enough or is not given enough time.
izing on the well’s casing. Well tests con- With the latter, an unrelated response
ducted elsewhere in the field then can be is misconstrued for evidence of con-
monitored from these gauges, thereby nectivity. Successfully designing and
providing valuable insight into reservoir interpreting an interference test amid
connectivity, interwell average proper- subsurface unknowns, tidal effects, and
ties to further calibrate geologic/reser- gauge drift, to name but a few, remains
voir models, and in-place resources (or an engineering feat.
at least a minimum connected volume). While compartmentalization is often
This is not new; however, the technol- flagged as an uncertainty in field-
ogy has become more powerful and reli- depletion plans (and as a fatal flaw in
able, now lasting longer and withstand- some instances), only after start-up is its
ing more-challenging environments. severity revealed—for example, produc-
Fast forward to 2020. These systems tion falling off plateau early or producer/
are remarkably seamless add-ons to an injector pair not in communication.
exploration well design. The advances Early dynamic data collection from well
Jordan Mimoun, SPE, is a reservoir engineering subject-matter
expert and well testing team lead at ExxonMobil. He and his
team oversee ExxonMobil’s worldwide exploration and appraisal
testing (including design and planning, onsite operations super-
vision, and data interpretation and integration), while support-
ing pressure transient analysis for producing assets. Mimoun
recently served on the steering committees of the SPE Applied
Technology Workshops on well testing, as chairperson in 2017
and session chair in 2014. He is the ExxonMobil representative to WinCubed’s
Welltesting Network. Mimoun holds an MS degree in petroleum engineering from The
University of Texas at Austin and a diplôme d’ingénieur degree from École Centrale
de Lille, France. He is a member of the JPT Editorial Committee and can be reached
at jordan.g.mimoun@exxonmobil.com.
tests paired with such long-term sys-
tems may help minimize or circumvent
this altogether. This enabling technol-
ogy truly gives a whole new meaning to
“data wells.”
This month’s feature illustrates the
vitality of our discipline. Deconvolution
is being extended to multiwell applica-
tions, opening the door to its use in pro-
duction. Temperature is measured con-
tinuously from top to bottom of a test
interval to determine zonal contribution
over time, sans production logging inter-
vention. Interval pressure transient tests
are used for the consistent characteriza-
tion of fractured carbonates. The diversi-
ty of original concepts and technologies
is a reminder that well testing is far more
than just pressure transient analysis.
Check out as well the additional-
reading suggestions. Take a look
back with a service company’s review
of 40 years of operational best prac-
tices. Peruse an operator’s case study
taking a formation tester to new lim-
its. Look ahead to the elusive perme-
ability log from an audacious joint
industry project. JPT
Recommended additional reading
at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
IPTC 19369 Innovative Mini-DST and
Production-Evaluation Approach at
Challenging HP/HT Conditions for the
KeShen Tight Gas Reservoir: A Case
Study at Tarim Basin by Shichen Shuai,
PetroChina, et al.
SPE 193195 Successful Well-Test
Operations in Complex Reservoir Fluids:
Lessons Learned and Best Practices Over
40 Years of Worldwide Operations
by Yakov Shumakov, Schlumberger, et al.
SPE 196116 Permeability Logging
Through Constant Pressure Injection Test:
In-Situ Methodology and Laboratory
Tests by Sivaprasath Manivannan, Ecole
Polytechnique, et al.

52 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

Field Applications
of Constrained Multiwell Deconvolution

T his paper applies a new constrained

multiwell deconvolution algorithm
to two field cases: a gas reservoir with
No datum correction was applied be-
cause the vertical distance between the
pressure gauges in the two wells was
time were considered a regression
parameter with no constraint
applied. The same procedure was
two producers and an oil reservoir only 10  m and the correction would used for the interference derivatives
with three producers and one injector. be negligible. except that the first nodes were set
Responses given by the constrained at 0.1 hours.
multiwell deconvolution are compared Data Selection. Because the field case ◗ All deconvolved derivatives were
with simulations from history-matched involves dry gas, pressure was converted constrained to converge to a unit
reservoir models. By extraction of well into single-phase normalized pseudo- slope straight line at late times
and interwell reservoir signatures, pressure using pressure/volume/tem- because the two wells are in
multiwell deconvolution, the theoretical perature data. Depletion is moderate, communication and the reservoir is
background of which is discussed in so use of material balance pseudotime closed. The deconvolved derivatives
detail in the complete paper, allows to account for changes in gas properties were extended by 1.5 log cycles
identification of compartmentalization was unnecessary. beyond the test duration, and the
or unanticipated heterogeneities very Pressure data to be used for multi- constraint of convergence was
early in field life, making adjustments well deconvolution had to be selected applied from 22,000 hours.
possible for field-development plans with care. Flowing pressures are usually ◗ The interference derivatives were
and future well locations. too noisy, so buildup data are preferred. constrained to remain below the
Linearity is enforced by only consider- deconvolved derivatives of the
Introduction ing buildups with similar pressure de- individual wells.
Permanent downhole pressure gaug- rivatives. If these differ at early times, ◗ The initial pressure was considered
es are installed routinely in most new because of changing wellbore and skin a regression parameter with no
wells. In theory, they provide invaluable effects, a buildup of reference is select- constraint applied. As a result, the
data for monitoring well productivity ed, with elimination of early-time data algorithm returned different initial
and formation pressure in real time and in all other buildups. Derivatives of the pressure estimates for each well.
for calibrating the reservoir-simulation selected buildups, however, may also ◗ Default weight parameters were
model. In practice, however, the result- differ at late times because of inter- used except for the curvature, where
ing large data sets are usually under- ference between wells. These late-time a weight of 0.001 was applied to the
exploited, mainly because extraction of data must be kept because they contain main responses and 0.005 to the
meaningful information from interfer- information on interwell connectivity interferences. These values were
ing wells with conventional well-test- and are necessary to recover constant selected by trial and error to limit
analysis techniques is nearly impossible. rate interference responses from multi- the contribution of the curvature
well deconvolution. constraint.
Field Case 1
A sandstone dry gas reservoir has been Multiwell Algorithm Setup. The fol- Quality Check of the Multiwell Decon-
developed with two horizontal wells lowing parameters were selected for the volution. When the deconvolved deriva-
(Wells 9 and 10) with lengths of approxi- deconvolution process: tives for Wells 9 and 10, and the corre-
mately 400 m that are 1.6 km apart. The ◗ The first nodes of the well main sponding calculated pressure histories,
production data set spans 19,800 hours responses were set at 0.01 hours. were compared with actual data, a very
(approximately 2 years and 3 months). The derivative slopes before that good match was achieved.
The initial pressure values estimated
by the algorithm can be used as a last
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
validation test. Because the two wells are
paper SPE 195516, “Field Applications of Constrained Multiwell Deconvolution,” by in communication and their pressure
V. Jaffrezic, SPE, Total, K. Razminia, SPE, Imperial College, J. Cumming, Durham gauges are almost at the same depth,
University, and A.C. Gringarten, SPE, Imperial College, prepared for the 2019 SPE their initial pressures should be the
Europec featured at the 81st EAGE Annual Conference and Exhibition, London, same. Indeed, the two calculated initial
3–6 June. The paper has not been peer reviewed. pressure values are in close agreement:

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2020 53


1,000 m
10,000
Pressure (psia)
8,000
Well 2
6,000
Well 0
Liquid Rate (STB/D)
Injector 1
20,000
0
Well 1
–20,000
0 10,000 20,000
Time (hr)
Fig. 1—Schematic of well reservoir map (top) and production data (bottom) for Field Case 2.
1,823.7 psi for Well 9 and 1,824.4 psi for fied, multi­well 2D numerical model of
Well 10, a negligible 0.7‑psi difference. the field history-matched against the
same data set. The reservoir-­simulation
Comparison With Reservoir- model was rerun with only one well pro‑
Simulation Model. The multiwell de‑ ducing at constant rate while the other
convolution results were compared well was shut in, to yield the constant
with simulations that used a simpli‑ rate main and interference responses.
Multiwell deconvolution and simula‑
tions were reasonably close. The dis‑
An SPE Bookstore crepancies observed at middle times
New Release (between 100 and 1,000 hours), and, to
a lesser extent, at late times, are in part
the result of an imperfect history match
between the simulation model and the
field data.
Field Case 2
This case involves a highly heteroge‑
neous carbonate oil reservoir with
sparse production data extending to al‑
most 60,000 hours (approximately 6
years and 10 months) (Fig. 1). All pres‑
Hydraulic sure data were converted to a common
datum using the wellbore fluid density.
Fracturing Before field development, an extend‑
Fundamentals and ed well test was conducted on Well 0.
Advancements This was followed with the drilling of
Jennifer L. Miskimins, Editor three additional wells—two produc‑
Preview and order your ers (Wells 1 and 2) and one injector
book today at go.spe.org/ (Inj 1)—which were tested before the
spebks_HydraulicFracturing start of production. Well 2 was tested
by injection. Inj 1 was put into produc‑
tion for cleanup and then shut in for
pressure buildup. Following this clean‑
up phase, an injection test was per‑
formed followed by a pressure falloff.
54
--
Well 0 ed
Well 1
Well 2
Injector 1
30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000
The field production started with only
Well 1 online (at approximately 50,000
hours). Pressure recorded in Well 0 dur‑
ing that period showed clear interfer‑
ence effects. Well  0, Well 2, and Inj 1
were put into stream 2 months after
Well 1. The production platform was
shut down for more than 2 months,
10 months after first oil (approximately
57,000 hours).
Data Selection. The same procedure
was followed as was used in Field Case 1,
with a careful selection of buildup and
falloff pressure data and the elimination
of early-time data affected by changing
wellbore conditions as required. Early-
time data were missing from the first
buildup of Well 2 and the sixth falloff of
Inj 1 because of the very low pressure-
sampling frequency.
Multiwell Algorithm Setup. Settings
were similar to the ones used for Field
Case 1 except that the first nodes of
the interference responses were set at
1  hour and the convergence constraint
to a common unit slope at late times was
applied from 65,000 hours. As before,
the weight of the curvature constraint
was adjusted by trial and error to 1 and
10 for the main and for the interference
responses, respectively.
Quality Check of the Multiwell De-
convolution. When considering the
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
constant rate responses from multi-
well deconvolution, the deconvolved
derivatives converge to the same unit
slope at late times, indicating a closed
reservoir system. The pressure-match
error is small, with a maximum value
of 58  psi, and the matches with the
reference buildups are excellent. Ad-
ditionally, initial pressures estimat-
ed by the algorithm for the differ-
ent wells are within 3  psi of the initial
reservoir pressure measured by use
of a wireline-formation tester at the
same datum.
When the deconvolved derivatives of
the interference responses at Well 0
are compared with the constant rate re-
sponse of this well, the same late-time
convergences are observed except for
the interference between Well 0 and
Well 1, which is still not achieved after
60,000 hours. However, the match of
the interference test performed be-
tween Well 0 and Well 1 at the start of
field production suggests that the inter-
well connectivity is captured reasonably
by the multiwell deconvolution.
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Comparison With Reservoir-
Simulation Model. The constant rate
responses from multiwell deconvolu-
tion are compared with those calculat-
ed using a reservoir-simulation model
history-matched to the same data set.
The agreement is very good for Well 0
and Well 1 except at times earlier than 10
hours, which is to be expected, because
a reservoir-simulation model is not de-
signed to capture such early transients.
The match is not as good for Well  2,
but the comparison with the reference
buildup derivative suggests that multi-
well deconvolution might be more cor-
rect than the simulation model.
Conclusions
The algorithm has demonstrated suffi-
cient robustness to noise and inaccura-
cies inherent to field data. In these two
cases, reconstruction of constant rate
derivative responses of individual wells
as if they were producing alone in the
reservoir has been possible.
Constant rate interference respons-
es appear to be more challenging to re-
cover, in particular at early times when
the interference signal is small com-
pared with the main responses. A care-
ful design of the well startup sequence
that incorporates interference tests be-
tween pairs of wells may help to remove
this limitation.
Constrained multiwell deconvolution
provides a powerful tool to analyze
data from permanent downhole pres-
sure gauges. The reconstructed con-
stant rate responses can then be inter-
preted using standard well-test-analysis
techniques to identify field heteroge-
neities and compartmentalization. In
addition, it can accelerate the history-
matching process of the reservoir
model by matching constant rate re-
sponses instead of complex produc-
tion history.
A strong assumption behind decon-
volution is that the system response is
linear and does not change with time.
When this is not the case, pressures,
and possibly time, must be replaced
with pseudofunctions to make the sys-
tem linear. JPT
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RF LINER
 Sensor Array Enables Accurate Profiling
of Produced Fluids During Drillstem Tests

T his paper describes the use of a

downhole temperature-sensor
array during a commingled drillstem
highlighted different fluid interfaces in
detail that would remain hidden if the
pressure gauges were relied upon solely.
tervals higher in the wellbore pro-
ducing at a lower temperature than
deeper producing intervals. The higher-
test (DST) to determine the density of temperature contributions from the
produced fluids accurately. In a typical High-Resolution deepest producing intervals will flow
DST that uses only downhole pressure Temperature Measurement up the wellbore while losing some heat
gauges, any fluid contacts between the During DST Operations to the colder wellbore. The rate of cool-
pressure gauges would be missed and The deployment of the downhole ing is dependent on the flow velocity.
the produced-fluid density calculated temperature-sensor array during DSTs The shallower producing intervals con-
would be erroneous. The complete provides an in-depth look into reservoir tribute at a lower temperature than the
paper demonstrates the importance characteristics that go beyond tradition- mixture and will cool down the mix-
of taking fluid properties into account al downhole pressure-gauge measure- ture. This method is detailed in the
when determining the zonal flow- ments. The temperature sensors, con- complete paper.
rate contributions using the mass- tained within steel tubing and clamped Pressure gradients between downhole
enthalpy method. to the outside of the tubing-conveyed pressure gauges are used typically to de-
perforating guns, cover the three perfo- termine the density of the produced flu-
Introduction rated intervals in this case study. ids in the wellbore. In a multizone in-
Downhole temperature-sensor-array Two temperature sensor arrays were terval, the accuracy of this method to
data provide accurate fluid con- run, each with a sensor spacing of 0.6 m determine not only the density of the
tact depths during buildup periods of and offset with an effective sensor spac- fluids but also the fluid contacts them-
the DST that typically cannot be ob- ing of 0.3 m. Throughout the DST, the selves depends on use of an appropri-
served in pressure gradients. Determi- readings from the temperature sen- ate number of downhole pressure gaug-
nation of these fluid contacts permits sor arrays were recorded on downhole es. During the well test, however, it is
the calculation of individual produced- memory devices at 1-minute intervals. common for gauges to be placed only
fluid densities. The temperature measurement cov- above and below the total perforated
In a case study described in the com- ered the entire perforated interval. interval and not between the perforat-
plete paper, the deepest perforated zone High-resolution pressure gauges are ed intervals. The accuracy of the fluid-
produced a fluid with a higher density placed above and below the perforated density calculation using pressure gra-
than that seen in shallower perforated interval and above and below the tester dients, therefore, is reduced.
intervals. The higher density of the pro- valve. Using an acoustic communication
duced brine caused the wellbore fluids system, real-time temperature and pres- Formation-Fluid Temperature
to slug during the flow periods with a sure data were available during the DST Temperature increases with depth in
measurable response in pressure and so that observations across the entire the Earth, and the rate of temperature
temperature data. If this difference in test could be made. increase is dependent on the type of
the fluid properties is not taken into ac- formation and its thermal conductivity.
count, zonal-allocation flow rate will be Zonal Allocation Generally, the geothermal gradient can
in error because it relies on density and of Produced Reservoir Fluids be found by recording the temperature
specific heat capacity. Qualitative as- From Mass-Enthalpy Balance of the well in the static region below the
sessment of the temperature-array data The mass-enthalpy method of calculat- perforations; however, this is not ap-
identified producing zones and clearly ing zonal contributions relies on in- plicable for temperature measurements
taken during DSTs because the wellbore
temperature has not reached thermal
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
equilibrium with the formation. This is
paper OTC 29749, “Determining Produced-Fluid Properties for Accurate Production because the near-wellbore region has
Profiling During a Drillstem Test Using Thermal-Imaging Technology,” by David been cooled down by the circulation
Lavery and David Fyfe, Metrol, and Abu Rashid Hasan, SPE, Texas A&M University, of fluids during drilling and is still in
prepared for the 2019 Offshore Technology Conference Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 29–31 the process of thermal recovery dur-
October. Copyright 2019 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission. ing the DST.

The complete paper is available for purchase at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.

56 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

 Establishing the geothermal gradient,
a process discussed in detail in the com-
plete paper, is important for analysis of
the distributed temperature across the
reservoir and ensuring that the reser-
voir model is robust. In this particu-
lar case study, the bottomhole forma-
tion temperature was determined to be
248°F; therefore, the geothermal gradi-
ent was established at 0.108°F/m.
The drilling process greatly alters the
temperature field of the formations sur-
rounding the wellbore. In theory, the
drilling process affects the temperature
field of formations at very long radial
distances, although there is a practical
limit to this distance known as the ra-
dius of thermal influence. This cooling
effect caused by the drilling process in
this case study can be seen in the fact
that approximately 15°F difference in
the wellbore temperature exists com-
pared with the geothermal gradient be-
fore perforating and flowing the well.
The temperature in the wellbore is
measured before it has undergone full
thermal recovery to the original geo-
thermal formation temperature. This
must be taken into account when com-
puting zonal contributions and is an
additional complexity when measuring
temperature profiles during DSTs.
Using Distributed
Temperature to Determine
Wellbore-Fluid Properties
Determination of the wellbore-fluid
contacts from the pressure gradients
enables the density of the fluids to be
calculated using simple fluid-mechanics
techniques. As mentioned previously,
the pressure gauges are placed in the
DST string above and below the perfo-
rated interval as well as above and below
the tester valve. At the contact between
two fluids in the wellbore, the pressure
at the interface must be equal; other-
wise, a static gradient would not exist.
By using a normal hydrostatic pressure
regime gradient (0.45 psi/ft), the fluid
contacts in the reservoir can be deter-
mined. When the well is shut in for the
main buildup period after the perforat-
ing and main flow period, this technique
can be used to determine properties of
the produced fluids. For two-phase flow,
the calculation of the fluid densities
from this method allows the mass flow
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
rate to be attributed to each zone prop- extrapolated from the pressure gauge
erly and also permits a more-accurate below the perforation guns to the fluid-
determination of the Joule-Thomson co- interface level between the denser fluid
efficient. In this particular case, how- and the completion fluid. With pres-
ever, more than one fluid contact across sure and depth at each of the interface
the reservoir existed because the deep- depths known, the density of the denser
er perforations produced a higher- fluid could be calculated. This process
density fluid. was repeated for each of the three build-
up periods to ensure that fluid proper-
Using Temperature-Array Data ties were consistent. In this case study,
To Determine Fluid Interface the zonal-inflow contributions were
and Fluid Properties determined from the mass-enthalpy
After the flowing test periods, the well method, taking into account the differ-
was shut in and the fluid column in the ences in the fluid density and specific
wellbore was static. The temperature heat capacity.
profile during the buildup period in-
dicated differing rates of cooling back Conclusion
to the geothermal gradient. This varia- High-resolution temperature-array
tion in the rate of temperature change measurements were used to identify the
is attributed to the fluids in the wellbore presence of a denser fluid being pro-
having different specific heat capacities, duced from the deeper set of perfora-
with the temperature data clearly show- tions. The identification of the dens-
ing the interface depth between the flu- er fluid meant that the mass-enthalpy
ids. The temperature sensors below the equation could be updated to reflect
fluid interface in the buildup periods the differing inflow-fluid properties and
exhibit a slower cooling rate than those therefore provide a more-accurate rep-
above the fluid interface. resentation of zonal contributions. JPT
Without the temperature data, the
fluid interfaces would not have been ap-
preciable from the pressure gauge data
alone because of the standard gauge
configuration; as such, determina-
tion of the fluid properties would be
subject to high uncertainty. Because
of the slugging nature of the produc-
tion from the deepest perforated zone,
the depth of the interface between the
produced oil and the produced water
was different in each of the shut-in pe-
riods. Temperature profiles from the IADC/SPE International Drilling
temperature-array data can be used to Conference and Exhibition
obtain the well’s inflow profile—both 3–5 March 2020
the locations and the relative rates of Galveston Island Convention Center
Galveston, Texas, USA
the inflow.
Determination
of Produced-Fluid Properties REGISTER NOW!
The pressure gradient of the produced- Visit go.spe.org/2020Drilling.
oil phase is determined directly from the
measured gradient between the pres-
sure gauges below the tester valve and
above the perforating guns. Extrapolat-
ing this gradient to the fluid-interface
depth as measured by the temperature
array between the denser liquid and
the oil allows for the determination of
the interface pressure. The pressure
gradient of the completion fluid was
57
 Insights From Interval Pressure Transient
Tests Derive Key Fracture Parameters

T he complete paper describes the

shortcomings of traditional well
testing methods and the methodology
tion of near-wellbore heterogeneities,
including fractures. To prove their hy-
pothesis, they used a next-generation
wells’ expected and real productivity in-
dices are all indicators of the presence
of fractures in a reservoir. Well testing
and results of applying wireline- wireline testing tool to investigate the provides the means for dynamic charac-
conveyed IPTT in a light-oil reservoir applicability of IPTT for characteriz- terization and is an area that has shown
offshore Norway. The study focuses on ing fractured reservoirs, using detailed significant progress in recent years.
cases in which fractures are present numerical simulations models with ac- The industry standard model for well
in the near-wellbore region but do curate wellbore representation to gen- test interpretation in naturally frac-
not intersect the wellbore. The study erate synthetic IPTT responses. The tured reservoirs (NFRs) was devel-
included parameters such as fracture effect of the different fracture scenar- oped in 1963. This model assumes a
densities and conductivities, distance ios on the pressure transient tests was geometrically idealized system where
between fractures and wellbore, and recorded as characteristic signatures flow occurs only in the fractures, which
the vertical extension of the fractures on diagnostic plots, which the authors have uniform properties, while the ma-
across geological beds. call IPTT-geotypes because they can trix is stagnant and only recharges
be used to assist the interpretation of the fractures. Such a system normally
Introduction IPTT responses. does not represent real fracture net-
Fractures can be first-order controls on The paper includes a field exam- works. Features such as fracture geom-
fluid flow in hydrocarbon reservoirs. ple of  an IPTT case that was analyzed etry, density, and connectivity cannot
Understanding fracture characteris- using  the concept of geological well be derived from the purely mathemati-
tics  such as aperture, density, distribu- testing. Information from petrophysi- cal description.
tion, conductivity, and connectivity is cal logs and the IPTT-geotypes was in- Multiple interpretation models at-
key for reservoir engineering and pro- tegrated to assist the calibration of a tempting to achieve more generalized
duction analysis. reservoir model developed to represent and accurate representations of NFRs
Well testing plays a key role in frac- the geological setting of the tested res- can be found in the literature. Many
ture characterization, particularly in ervoir interval. The results provided a of these focus on alternative forms for
fractured reservoirs. New advances in sound interpretation of the reservoir quantifying matrix/fracture flow func-
pressure transient analysis (PTA) have geology and quantitative estimation of tions. However, these approaches did
enabled the interpretation of produc- the matrix and fracture parameters. not address more-fundamental issues
tion data such that the resulting geolog- such as the fact that fractures can
ical scenarios are in better agreement IPTT Methodology exist as networks or discrete features.
with fracture patterns observed in out- Static characterization of fracture sys- More-recent work has dealt with more-
crop analogs. tems, which can be key controls on res- realistic fracture scenarios and repre-
Traditionally, drillstem-test (DST) ervoir performance, rely on analog out- sents major contributions in the un-
data have been the primary source of crop observations, seismic, image logs, derstanding of the pressure transient
information for well testing. However, and core analysis. behavior of NFRs.
the authors hypothesized that wire- Direct observations in cores; image All these studies, however, were fo-
line-conveyed tools designed for inter- logs; a sudden increase in mud filtra- cused on DSTs. IPTTs, also known as
val pressure transient testing (IPTT) tion during drilling; and, at later stag- mini-DST, possess interesting technical,
could yield a more-thorough descrip- es, substantial differences between the financial, and environmental advantag-
es compared with conventional DSTs.
From a technical perspective, IPTTs may
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Judy Feder, contains highlights
enable a more-detailed characterization
of paper SPE 195435, “Macro Insights From Interval Pressure Transient Tests:
of the near-wellbore area, in both the
Deriving Key Near-Wellbore Fracture Parameters in a Light-Oil Reservoir horizontal and vertical directions.
Offshore Norway,” by Alfredo Freites, SPE, Patrick Corbett, SPE, and Sebastian The complete paper investigates the
Geiger, SPE, Heriot-Watt University, et al., prepared for presentation at SPE application of an IPTT for fracture-
Europec featured at the 81st EAGE Conference and Exhibition held in London, system characterization. First, the au-
3–6 June 2019. thors expand the discussion on some

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

58 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

 Plain View
Well Z
8m
48 m
Fig. 1—Interpreted geometry of the fractures surrounding the case study well offshore Norway.
fundamental issues related to PTA in
fractured reservoirs and highlight im-
portant differences between their work
and some others available in the litera-
ture. Next, they introduce the concept
of geological well testing (GWT), which
they used extensively in their study.
This methodology is particularly use-
ful for providing a geological frame-
work to well-test analysis and has been
used effectively in the past for PTA in
NFRs. Then, they describe the detailed
numerical models developed through
their study and systematically investi-
gate synthetic IPTT responses in cases
in which fractures are present in the
near-wellbore area but do not inter-
sect the wellbore. They present sen-
sitivities in the well-testing signatures
for different fracture properties such
as density, conductivity, distance to the
well, and vertical extension, which they
call IPTT-geotypes. They also present a
comparison between the industry stan-
dard model developed in 1963 and these
new curves. Finally, they present a field
study in which the GWT work flow was
applied to generate one possible inter-
pretation of the reservoir geology and
quantify key parameters—permeabil-
ity, fracture conductivity, density, dis-
tance from the well, and extension—for
both the matrix and fracture systems,
in both horizontal and vertical direc-
tions (Fig. 1).
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
Section View
Well Z
Gas/Oil Contact
High-Conductivity Fractures
Conclusions
◗ This study investigated the
application of IPTT for the
characterization of the near-
wellbore matrix/fracture system
in cases in which the fractures do
not intersect the wellbore. High-
resolution numerical simulations
with accurate representation of
the wellbore were used to simulate
complex geological settings
beyond the reach of analytical
models.
◗ It was demonstrated that
particular features of the fracture
networks will have a recognizable
effect on the pressure derivative
signatures (i.e., diagnostic plots)
obtained from IPTT.
◗ Geological-type curves called
geotypes were developed that are
associated with different fracture
conductivities, densities, distances
between well and fractures, and
vertical extensions. These geotypes
assist the interpretation of IPTT
cases run with next-generation
wireline tools but can also be
useful in dual- or straddle-packer
tests.
◗ Particularly relevant from the
IPTT-geotypes analysis is the effect
of the vertical extension of the
fractures on the pressure transient
data. Well tests in formations with
Low-Conductivity Fractures
fractures that cross geological beds
may not reflect the vertical matrix
permeability as the fractures
become the preferential channels
for fluid flow in that direction.
Bed-bound fractures, on the other
hand, can be affected severely by
the ratio of permeability in the
vertical direction to permeability
in the horizontal direction of the
individual layers. In extreme cases,
an additional flow period can
emerge that can be confused with
the formation radial flow if the test
is not long enough.
◗ A field example was presented in
which key reservoir parameters in
a geologically complex formation
were analyzed using IPTT data and
IPTT-geotypes. The application
of the GWT work flow assisted
in providing a more-sound
interpretation of the reservoir
geology. The resulting geological
concept for the reservoir includes
the presence of bed-bound
fractures as the first-order control
for pressure transient behavior
observed in the test. The geometry
and conductivity of the fractures,
their position with respect to the
well, and their vertical extension
could be estimated readily
using the IPTT data and IPTT-
geotypes. JPT
59
 TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Drilling Systems Automation and Management

John Macpherson, SPE, Senior Technical Adviser for Drilling Services, Baker Hughes

Drilling systems automation (DSA) is
moving into commercial activities
on a broad front. Equipment suppli-
ers are delivering automated drilling-
control systems, and everyone (equip-
ment suppliers, service companies,
drilling contractors, operators) is deliv-
ering systems-automation applica-
tions. These players are cooperating
to deliver the degree of interoperabil-
ity needed to make DSA function in this
multicompany environment.
Among this year’s chosen papers, the
authors of paper SPE 194110 address
interoperability of drilling sensor net-
works and describe a semantic system
that allows a third-party application to
discover types and classes of rig sen-
sors and tailor them to the need of the
application. The initial portion of the
complete paper is an extremely read-
able peeling of the layers of symptoms
around a diagnosis. The layers peel with
each discovered sensor, until the final
step indicates why low-latency data
delivers robust systems diagnosis (and
hence automation).
Automation also involves
organizational change,
and managing that change
is a challenge.
We are seeing commercial automation
systems deployed in three modes: shad-
ow mode, advisory mode, and closed-
loop mode. In shadow mode, the systems
run in parallel with drilling operations
but do not interface with operational
controls or people. This mode gener-
ally generates confidence in functional-
ity and reliability. In advisory mode, the
systems deliver advice in real time to
users at the rig site or in remote centers
and users may take that advice in con-
trolling equipment or processes. Finally,
in closed-loop mode, the systems con-
trol hardware directly and the user (typ-
ically the driller) has acceptance and
override authority.
Several of the papers presented
this year deal with systems operat-
ing in the advisory mode. Automation
also involves organizational change,
and managing that change is a chal-
lenge. Paper SPE  194184 is a case his-
tory on successfully managing change
when introducing an advisory sys-
tem onshore. It explains, using some
memorable written images, why the
introduction of automation com-
ponents needs careful training and
human involvement.
Another advisory system is the sub-
ject of paper IPTC 19269. This is a well-
written account, led by an operator, on
the development of a hybrid physics-
based and data-driven model for drilling
optimization. It is a case study into the
development of advisory systems and
their deployment in front of the drill-
ing crew.
The suggested additional-reading
papers provide additional insight into
developing topics: an operator’s DSA
roadmap and experiences thus far, a
call for open-source models and data,
and the use of a digital twin of the
drilling process. JPT

John Macpherson, SPE, is senior technical adviser for drilling ser-

vices for Baker Hughes. He has been in the oil and gas industry for Recommended additional reading
more than 40 years, much of that time with Baker Hughes in the at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
upstream sector. Macpherson spent the first 7 years of his career SPE 195818 What Drilling Automation
in operations in South America before transitioning to applica- Can Teach Us About Drilling Wells
tions research. His technical interests include measurement-while- by Matthew Ray Isbell, Hess, et al.
drilling (MWD) systems, drilling measurements (especially drilling SPE/IADC 194082 Creating
dynamics), signal processing, MWD telemetry systems, enhanced- Open-Source Models, Test Cases,
geothermal-system technologies, and drilling systems automation. Macpherson has and Data for Oilfield Drilling Challenges
held various research-and-development management posts, has published extensively, by Paul Pastusek, ExxonMobil, et al.
holds several patents, and has been a committee member for SPE conferences. He is a SPE 197465 Automatic Real-Time
past chairman of the SPE Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section and was an Monitoring of Drilling Using Digital-
SPE Distinguished Lecturer. Macpherson holds a BS degree in geology from the Twin Technologies Enhances Safety
University of Glasgow. He is a member of the JPT Editorial Committee and can be and Reduces Cost by Rolv Rommetveit,
reached at john.macpherson@bakerhughes.com. eDrilling, et al.

60 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

Semantic Framework Aligns Real-Time
Drilling-Management and Control Applications

R eal-time signals exchanged

during drilling operations are
in constant evolution, provided by
multiple stakeholders that have
distinct perspectives on the drilling
process. To achieve improved drilling
management and control, the seamless
exchange of real-time drilling data,
without the necessity of any human
intervention to configure software
applications, is desirable. The complete
paper presents a drilling semantic
framework that allows software
solutions to achieve automatic and
versatile self-configuration. However,
the data-exchange performances are
compatible with the requirements
of high-end applications involved
in the management and control of
drilling operations.
Motivation
Many data providers are involved in
the well-construction process. Their
number and role change throughout the
drilling process as a function of the dif-
ferent activities that are executed. A
typical activity lasts between 1 day and
2 weeks, and, consequently, the constel-
lation of real-time data providers, in the
most extreme scenarios, may evolve at
the same pace. Furthermore, the drill-
ing system is not static in nature. Typ-
ically, new downhole measurement
tools are used for every drillstem that is
run in hole.
Either because of a different setup
of data provider companies or as a re-
sult of a modification of the drilling sys-
tem, the number and nature of real-time
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights
of paper SPE 194110, “Toward Seamless Interoperability Between Real-Time Drilling
Management and Control Applications,” by Eric Cayeux, SPE, Benoît Daireaux,
Nejm Saadallah, and Sergey Alyaev, NORCE, prepared for the 2019 SPE/IADC
Drilling Conference and Exhibition, The Hague, 5–7 March. The paper has not been
peer reviewed.
drilling signals that are active during
the well-construction process change
almost daily. For any application that
needs access to such real-time data
feeds, a manual reconfiguration of the
system inputs is both cumbersome and a
potential source of error. It, therefore, is
desirable that applications can automat-
ically and seamlessly expose, discover,
and choose the signals that are relevant
for the management and control of the
drilling process.
In the complete paper, to illustrate
how automatic discovery and interpre-
tation of the semantics of signals can
provide seamless interoperability and
improve the quality of service, the au-
thors proceed step by step through an
example centered on anomaly detec-
tion and characterization. The data con-
sumer application is a data-driven sys-
tem that detects abnormal hookloads
and attempts to characterize the cause
of the anomaly. This synopsis will dis-
cuss the theoretical underpinnings of
the authors’ approach rather than out-
line the example detailed in the com-
plete paper.
Class Hierarchies
To Capture Specialization
and Generalization
In computer science, and more specifi-
cally in object-oriented programming,
entities that share the same properties
and behavior (i.e., functions or pro-
cedures, also called methods) are de-
scribed by a class. A class defines prop-
erties and methods that are common
to a group of objects. A realization of a
class is called an instance of the class
and can have its own specific values for
each of its properties. It is possible to
define subclasses that inherit proper-
ties and behavior from the parent class-
es, but that, in addition, can define new
or specialized versions of the proper-
ties and methods compared with the
parent class. Most object-oriented lan-
guages support single inheritance (i.e.,
a given class can only be a subclass of
a single parent class). This defines a di-
rected hierarchical structure of class-
es, in which classes deeper in the tree
structure are more specialized than
the shallower ones, or, to put it dif-
ferently, shallower classes are gener-
alizations of the deeper ones. A class
hierarchy is well-suited to describe a de-
composition of a domain that needs to
be adjusted rarely.
Strongly Typed Relations
To Define a Semantic Network
Single inheritance can lead quickly to
the necessity of duplicating properties
and methods in a class hierarchy when
a similar behavior shall be described for
classes that do not directly inherit from
the same parent class. For instance, a
specific behavioral property could be
the dependence of the physical quantity
on pressure and temperature. Such a be-
havior is relevant for mass densities of
materials; rheological behavior of vis-
cous fluids; and specific heat capacity
and thermal conductivity of solids, liq-
uids, or gas. Yet each of these physical
values is associated with classes that
are on distinctive branches of the phys-
ical property class hierarchy. On the
other hand, defining such a property
at a common ancestor level in the class
hierarchy, in order to benefit from in-
heritance, would require disabling the
inheritance for any other physical val-
ues that do not depend on pressure and
temperature conditions.

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2020 61

 To solve this problem, some program-
ming languages support multiple in-
heritance (i.e., a class can inherit from
several classes), allowing the reuse of
behavioral code across classes. Other
languages solve this problem with the
notion of interfaces. An interface only
specifies that a set of properties and
methods shall be implemented for class-
es that inherit from that interface. How-
ever, implementations of these inter-
faces are not inherited and genericity
must be used if implementation is to be
shared across multiple classes. Because
different programming languages have
various approaches to solving the ge-
neric problem of multiple inheritance,
the portability across multiple program-
ming languages of a semantic definition
of drilling real-time signals could easily
be restricted.
A simple way to address both the
problem of multiple inheritance and dy-
namic semantic description is to use the
concept of a semantic network. The au-
thors define two top class hierarchies,
one named Node and one named Re-
lation. A Relation has two properties
of type Node: “from” and “to.” There-
fore a Relation establishes a directional
link between two Nodes. A Node rep-
resents a concept, and a Relation de-
notes a relationship that exists between
two concepts. The triplet (Node 1, Re-
lation, Node 2) can be interpreted as
a sentence wherein Node 1 is the sub-
ject, Relation is the verb, and Node 2 is
the object—the classical subject/verb/
object (SVO) structure used in natural
language typology. By grouping multiple
triplets, it is possible to define directed
graphs of Nodes and Relations that de-
scribe complex relationships between
concepts. The specialization of Nodes
and Relations in their respective class
hierarchies permits the capture of spe-
cialized meaning.
A semantic network can be creat-
ed at runtime and therefore allows for
dynamic semantic descriptions of no-
tions that have not been considered be-
forehand. Multiple inheritance is ad-
dressed simply by linking a Node to
62
multiple other Nodes through differ-
ent relations. Through an example of
this methodology detailed in the com-
plete paper, the authors describe two
signals that share the same physical
quantities and yet have two different
meanings, one being a physical proper-
ty of a material while the other is a pres-
sure gradient.
Networks of Logical Positions
To Represent a Drilling System
It is possible to distinguish the nature
of two different signals having the same
physical quantities by constructing se-
mantic networks using only a few num-
bers of Nodes and Relations. However,
it is not possible to know from where
those two signals originate. To solve
that problem, the authors introduce an-
other network, this one representing a
logical description of the drilling sys-
tem from a hydraulic perspective. By
logical description, the authors mean
a depiction that allows the capture of
various logical functions of the drilling
system. This is to be contrasted with a
physical description that would have
detailed every single physical element
of the drilling system, even if some of
those components would have had no
direct effect on the logical behavior of
the drilling system.
A semantic network description may
focus on a subset of the hydraulic logi-
cal circuit. If the new semantic defi-
nition necessitates modification of the
existing hydraulic logical circuit, then
the modification is made within a trans-
action in order to avoid concurrent
modifications leading to inconsistent
results. If the result does not respect
the cardinality of the inlets and out-
lets defined for each element in the hy-
draulic circuit, or if hydraulic state ob-
jects are lacking, then the transaction
is rolled back; otherwise, the change
is committed.
There are two other logical descrip-
tions of the drilling system. One is the
mechanical perspective, and the other
one corresponds to the heat-transfer
perspective. The reason for these mul-
tiple logical views is simply that some
logical elements may exist in one per-
spective and not in others. For in-
stance, the mud pumps, shakers, and
pits do not play any role from the me-
chanical viewpoint of the drilling sys-
tem but are essential elements from
the hydraulic perspective. Similarly,
most of the logical details of the hoist-
ing system are irrelevant from the hy-
draulic perspective.
Semantic Network
and Semantic Rules
A semantic network allows the expres-
sion of facts as SVO triplets. There-
fore, each Node in the semantic graph
can be both the subject of several SVO
triplets and the objects of other SVO
triplets. As with natural languages, it
is unlikely that all possible combina-
tions of SVO sentences, sharing the
same word, make sense. For this reason,
the authors supplement the semantic
network with another level of seman-
tics that focuses on allowed or neces-
sary combinations of SVO triplets that
start (i.e., the Node is taken as a sub-
ject) or end (i.e., the Node is consid-
ered as an object) from a specific Node.
This semantic level is expressed as a
set of rules.
Conclusion
◗ A methodology to express the
semantics of drilling signals has
been described.
◗ A semantic network that relies
on exposing facts as SVO triplets
defines a first level of semantic
description.
◗ This system is complemented
by a set of semantic rules that
ensures that the combination of
different facts stays coherent.
◗ The semantic description relies
on a certain number of general
principles.
◗ It is not a static description
and, therefore, allows for the
characterization of a large variety
of existing and future real-time
drilling signals. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
Addressing Challenges in Rig-Based
Drilling Advisory System Deployment

S ophisticated drilling-analysis
software can help drillers set and
modify weight on bit (WOB), rev/min,
and other drilling parameters, but
achieving acceptance of these software-
based recommendations by a driller is
complicated. Additionally, acceptance
of changes to drilling techniques and
modified work flows by a driller on one
test rig is insufficient. The challenge
is to scale buy-in across a mixed rig
contractor fleet. Many projects fail
when the change-management process
is not properly executed. The complete
paper presents a process used to
successfully implement a rig-based
drilling advisory system (RDAS) across
a mixed group of rig contractors. The
paper documents the direction and
effort taken to implement change from
the rig site to the office, along with
management support.
Change-Management Process
Many drilling performance projects fail,
not because of technology, but because
of factors such as the lack of consider-
ation given to how the project will be per-
ceived by those it affects (stakeholders),
and the lack of thought given to the proj-
ect’s scalability. To address these issues,
change-management principles must be
applied consciously.
The list of stakeholders may include
drillers, wellsite supervisors, drilling
contractors, drilling engineers, manag-
ers, and others. Once this list has been
compiled, mapping of the stakehold-
ers on a grid that gauges their influence
and interest is beneficial. Stakeholder
management involves determining how
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Judy Feder, contains highlights of paper
SPE/IADC 194184, “Change-Management Challenges Deploying Drilling Advisory
System,” by Michael Behounek, SPE, Blake Millican, and Brian Nelson, Apache,
et al., prepared for the 2019 SPE/IADC Drilling International Conference and
Exhibition, The Hague, 5–7 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
best to engage individual stakeholders
to move them to the high-interest side of
the grid. High levels of interest and en-
gagement from stakeholders lead to good
feedback, which, if incorporated prop-
erly into the system, leads to even high-
er interest and subsequent permanent
adoption of the technology.
The best way to ensure permanent
change is to ensure that each stakeholder
has benefitted from the project in some
way, a goal accomplished through contin-
uous monitoring and tracking of stake-
holder interest level.
RDAS Overview
To address shortcomings in existing in-
dustry approaches to using both low- and
high-frequency data to improve drilling
performance, and to achieve a scalable,
economic drilling advisory system,
Apache developed an RDAS that is agnos-
tic to any high-frequency data stream—
surface or downhole—including those
from rig-control systems. The RDAS con-
sists of data-acquisition hardware and
scalable off-the-shelf software, with an
open API layer and a plug-and-play back-
end software that runs both physics- and
data-based analytical models at the rig
site on reasonable computing power.
The RDAS displays new advisory in-
formation in the driller’s cabin, run-
ning real-time pattern recognition algo-
rithms to detect drilling dysfunctions.
When a drilling dysfunction is encoun-
tered, a change in drilling parameters is
suggested. Additionally, drilling param-
eters from offset wells are made available
automatically for the driller’s use on the
drilling screen. Through this process, the
operator entrusts field personnel with a
slightly higher level of technical respon-
sibility. The team has improved the sys-
tem iteratively using feedback from drill-
ers who used the RDAS.
The complete paper focuses on the
adoption of a new addition to the RDAS
with a human/machine interface (HMI)
touch screen mounted near the driller’s
chair on the rig floor. The HMI allows the
driller to easily view and assess informa-
tion presented by the system. The user
interface (UI) allows the driller to direct-
ly interact with the RDAS to adjust set-
tings and access features. Drilling data
are automatically analyzed to enable the
driller to view current drilling parame-
ters against parameters from offset wells,
and to determine the presence of drill-
ing dysfunction and to recommend cor-
rective action. The offset well-drilling-
parameters comparison feature reduces
or eliminates the engineer’s need to pro-
vide a drilling-parameters roadmap be-
cause the driller is now equipped with the
pertinent information to make the most
informed choices.
Operator’s Change-
Management Strategy
Much of the complete paper discuss-
es the operator’s change-management
strategy to ensure successful adoption
and scaling of its expanded RDAS. The
team understood early on that change
management has much to do with stake-
holder identification and management.
The team divided the process into four
key steps—goal identification, stake-
holder identification, stakeholder man-
agement, and tracking and monitor-
ing—that were not meant to be rigid
or followed on a specific timeline, but
to serve as guidelines of which the ex-
ecution team had to be aware as they
changed the process. A conscious proce-
dural method was followed to maximize
the probability of success.

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2020 63

 High
Keep Satisfied
Power / Influence
Monitor (Low Effort)
Low
Low Interest / Engagement Level
Fig. 1—Stakeholder mapping at the start of the project.
The goals of the project were as follows:
◗ Have drillers use RDAS through
the HMI to make better real-time
model- and data-driven decisions
by themselves.
◗ Reduce time and effort spent
by both engineers and wellsite
supervisors to constantly monitor
and advise the driller.
◗ Improve the ability and knowledge
level of the driller though RDAS-
supported training.
◗ Allow engineers and wellsite
supervisors more time to investigate
ways to further improve drilling
performance.
Stakeholders were identified and
mapped onto a Power/Influence and In-
terest/Engaged grid. Three main stake-
holders were identified as the drilling
engineer, the wellsite supervisor, and
the driller.
Making RDAS available in the drill-
er’s cabin changes the traditional task of
drilling engineers in disseminating drill-
ing parameter information to the rig.
They now have to perform minor upfront
work to choose offset wells for rig person-
nel. Some drilling engineers embraced
the data-driven approach to drilling-
parameter selection and the ready avail-
ability of the information to the field.
Others believed the program would over-
shadow their engineering efforts, and
preferred methods of identifying optimal
drilling performance themselves.
Wellsite supervisors often deem them-
selves the foremost experts in drilling
performance through observation and
experience gained through years of rig
operations. Because of the amount of in-
64
Drilling
Engineer
Manage Closely Wellsite
Supervisor
Driller
Keep Informed
High
fluence the wellsite supervisor has over
the operation, obtaining his or her buy-
in to the plan is crucial. If the wellsite su-
pervisor does not believe in the system
or does not see the benefits from using it,
the drillers may not be compelled to use
it and may even prevent its use. For this
reason, a relationship needs to be estab-
lished with all wellsite supervisors early
in the process.
The driller was identified as the pri-
mary stakeholder for the project because
the system implementation effects him
or her substantially more than the other
stakeholders. This dynamic not only
changes the standard work flow for the
drillers, but also brings with it a more
technical approach to drilling, with new
concepts for both experienced and new
drillers. Before RDAS was introduced,
drillers relied heavily on input from the
wellsite supervisor, not making changes
to the drilling system unless told direct-
ly to do so. Drillers with more experi-
ence may be given leeway with a window
of parameters to operate within, but still
needed verification and oversight from
the wellsite supervisor when drilling was
not ideal.
The problem with wellsite supervisors
giving the key directive in this situation
is that they are not always available to
provide guidance. They may be manag-
ing other aspects of the operation that
prevent them from being involved direct-
ly with the drilling parameter selection,
leaving it up to the drillers to use their
best judgment with limited information.
The implementation of RDAS solves this
problem by providing the driller easy ac-
cess to information necessary for bet-
ter decision-making. With this increase
in information also comes an increase in
responsibility for drilling performance.
This rise in responsibility, coupled with
the fact that the driller is directly manip-
ulating the rig, makes the driller critical
to the successful operation and imple-
mentation of RDAS. Keeping drillers ac-
tively engaged and working to increase
use of RDAS is a high priority.
Fig. 1 provides an approximate rep-
resentation of where the three catego-
ries of stakeholders stood at the start of
the project. The strategy of moving the
stakeholders to the high-interest grids
was a conscious effort, and necessary
for the success of the project. The first
task was to identify the major steps crit-
ical to the successful deployment and
adoption of the system’s driller-specific
feature. In addition to the four-part
change-management method, the strat-
egy included planning for the resourc-
es needed. Talent, knowledge, and atti-
tude of the team driving the change was
deemed critical, as was ensuring that
appropriate hardware, fast software up-
dates, and training were in place.
Two rigs were selected to test how
drillers and wellsite supervisors use the
system. Feedback from these rigs re-
vealed the need for customization on a
well-by-well basis. With the help of drill-
ing engineers on the test rigs, modifi-
cations were then made to the system
to address the onsite team’s needs and
preferences. For example, a wellsite su-
pervisor wanted the system to ignore
mild stick/slip in a short drill section in
which a rigid system with no customiza-
tion could not provide an adequate solu-
tion. Being adaptable improved accep-
tance as the driller began to see the RDAS
as a support tool.
Agile software development was criti-
cal to success, and the rig personnel ap-
preciated the quick modifications to the
system. Comparison of drilling perfor-
mance from wells before and after de-
ployment provided a way to quantify ben-
efits. Seven total systems were deployed
over a 5-month period. To date, the oper-
ator has moved 50% of the stakeholders
from the low-Interest/Engaged section
of the grid to the high-Interest/Engaged
section. The operator will continue to de-
ploy to additional rigs until all active rigs
are covered. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
Intelligent Drilling Advisory System
Optimizes Performance

I n the current work, a rig advisory

system is developed to continually
improve rate of penetration (ROP) Potential performance
and drilling performance. An Region 3: Founder
intelligent drilling advisory system 1. Bit balling
(IDAS), based on a soft closed-loop 2. Bottomhole balling
3. Vibrations
solution with multiple regression
analysis—called optimum parameters Performance is enhanced
global retrieval—has been established. by redesigning to extend
ROP

As an effective tool for further the founder point

achieving the optimal depth of cut
(DOC), the control system led to
satisfactory outcomes that overcame
Region 2: Efficient bit
drilling challenges in Saudi Arabia and
China, thereby serving as a step toward
automated drilling operations.
Region 1: Inadequate depth of cut

Introduction
Energy
The IDAS was developed to inform drill-
ers of optimal weight on bit (WOB), Fig. 1—Relationship of ROP and energy input.
rotary speed, and mud-flow rate to
penetrate rock and achieve higher ROP ◗ A combination of evaluation uses probability distributions to
and longer bit runs. Optimized drilling factors [such as DOC and drilling determine whether the incoming
parameters are calculated and updat- specific energy (DSE)] that may data stream falls outside of a
ed using a soft closed-loop solution, be advantageous to drilling specified estimated probability-
which monitors the ROP and energy performance. Simple optimization distribution-significance level.
input to the bit in real time by means for ROP improvement may not An outlier in comparison with
of a mud logger and topdrive system achieve maximum potential drilling the probability distribution space
controller on the rig site, and calculates performance given current drilling may indicate a change in drilling
parameters by maintaining an opti- technologies and geology, and the conditions, allowing the driller
mal relationship between the ROP and consideration of ROP over all other to detect environmental changes
energy input. If the ROP is under factors generally leads to serious periodically during drilling.
expectation, it automatically evalu- bit wear.
ates new conditions and updates op- ◗ The system and solutions are Optimization Mechanism
timal parameters by maintaining capable of recommending and Work Flows
a proper relationship between the operational changes during drilling The relationship between ROP, DSE, and
ROP and energy input. The following operations while the limiter DOC creates three regions in any rock.
features of the IDAS improve drill- occurs (referred to as a “founder As shown in Fig. 1, Region 2 is a highly
ing performance: point”). The limiter identification effective cutting region; the other re-
gions produce inadequate or excessive
potential cutting performance. Tracing
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights
parameter deviation, lithology-change
of paper IPTC 19269, “Optimization of Drilling Performance Based on an Intelligent
plots and limiters such as bit balling
Drilling Advisory System,” by Mahmoud Abughaban, SPE, and Amjad Alshaarawi, and vibrations can be identified in real
SPE, Saudi Aramco, and Cui Meng, Guodong Ji, and Weihong Guo, CNPC, prepared time during drilling operations. More-
for the 2019 International Petroleum Technology Conference, Beijing, 26–28 March. over, the parameters are updated in an
The paper has not been peer reviewed. Copyright 2019 International Petroleum optimal direction to maximize potential
Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission. performance in line with Region 2.

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2020 65


Fig. 2—Lithology change in the
formation.
At the start of drilling, the system
gathers data related to the drilling pa-
rameters. Meanwhile, an information
prompt is triggered that tells the driller
to scan the overall drilling-parameter
space designated in the drilling pro-
gram. The specific process normally is
to check whether the quantity and qual-
ity of the drilling parameters are suf-
ficient for the subsequent statistical
analysis. The requirements include at
least two controllable parameters and
at least one uncontrollable parameter
such as bit torque to characterize down-
hole environment changes. Generally,
the system gathers data over a certain
interval depending on ROP. When the
data-window length lies within some
threshold amount, global optimization
is triggered. Once optimal results are
recommended, a decision tree is run to
validate the recommendation. Once val-
idation is passed, the result is displayed.
If the validation fails, the downhole
environment-detection engine is
launched to check whether the bit has
encountered a substantial formation
change, in which case the data win-
dow is refreshed and global optimiza-
tion may be restarted. Alternatively, the
local retrieval process may be triggered.
Finally, the optimal operating parame-
ters are derived by the system.
Drilling Optimization Models
The complete paper discusses several
models in detail, including the following:
Drilling-Performance-Evaluation
Models
◗ Rock-breaking efficiency
evaluation model
66
◗ Torsional vibration
evaluation model
◗ Drilling performance
evaluation model
Global and Local Retrieval Models
for Optimal Parameters
◗ Global retrieval model
◗ Downhole-environment
detection model
◗ Local retrieval model
IDAS Architecture
Real-Time Data-Gathering Module
◗ Provides real-time data for
drilling surveillance and
optimization
◗ Acquires real-time source data
in accordance with the wellsite-
information transfer-specification
format and stores them in the
database
◗ Automatically detects information
regarding communications and
operational status
◗ Provides diagnostic alarms
in the form of an indicator; a
continuously blinking indicator
shows that the system is in
communication with the data
provider
Rock-Breaking Monitoring Module
◗ Calculates minimum mechanical
specific energy (MSEmin), DOC,
and DSE and correlates drilling-
performance measurements in
real time
◗ Displays parameters on the driller
interface as curves to analyze the
drilling process in real time
◗ Provides value-added benefits
including timely DSE and DOC
values
◗ Uses MSEmin as optimization
criteria to evaluate drilling
efficiency
◗ Uses data trends to alert the
driller of changes in formation
or other drilling conditions such
as bit balling, bottom balling,
and vibrations
Vibration-Strength Estimate Module
◗ Simulates working stress and
side loads on the bottomhole
assembly (BHA) before drilling
begins
◗ Calculates critical speeds to avoid
on the basis of the BHA and drilling
conditions, preventing vibration
damage
◗ Designs fit-for-purpose downhole
tools
◗ Estimates vibration strength in
real time to ensure that ROP is
free from critical vibrations
Drilling-Advisory Module
◗ Optimizes distribution of ROP
and DSE and recommends optimal
operating parameters for drillers
◗ Provides “Configuration”
menu item that includes well
information, communication setup,
and formation-data load
◗ Provides “Model Selection” menu
item that allows for selection
of drilling methods including
mud-motor drilling, gas-hammer
drilling, and reaming
◗ Provides “Parameter Monitor”
for a primary view of real-time
drilling parameters along with
real-time display and calculation-
parameter drop list
Field Test Cases
IDAS was applied successfully in the
MX009-H9# Southwest oil and gas
field in China from 7 to 22 May 2018.
The bit run was 459 m from a measured
depth of 3538 to 4037 m.
Performance-Evaluation Strategy. To
evaluate the performance of IDAS com-
pared with that of conventional meth-
ods, the hole section was drilled con-
ventionally during the daytime from
0800 to 2000 while the hole section
was drilled with IDAS guidance, using
the same bit, BHA, mud properties, and
formation at night from 2000 to 0800.
Critical-Vibration Identification and
Mitigation. From 3500 to 3610 m, the
formation is composed of mudstone.
The initial WOB was increased from
80 to 120 kN, and the rotary speed
was 50  rev/min. In IDAS, the stick/slip
strength curve increased, showing the
occurrence of critical stick/slip and bit
bounce. As the parameters were adjust-
ed in IDAS, energy consumption imme-
diately declined below 500 MPa, with
stick/slip strength mitigation.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
 Lithology-Change Identification. As
the bit ran from 3980 to 3996 m, the
MSEmin curve increased significantly
to approximately 300 Mpa. The IDAS
indicated the formation change, tell-
ing the driller to increase WOB and ro-
tary speed or flow rate. The lithology
changed from limestone to black mud-
stone, as shown in Fig. 2. According to
actual field records, the geology chang-
es at a depth of 3987 m. After parameter
adjustment, the DSE curve decreased, as
did drilling time per meter.
Bit-Wear Identification. From a depth
of 4010 m, the geology changed, but, to
achieve higher ROP using the same pa-
rameters, the driller did not follow the
recommendations from IDAS. Although
higher ROP was achieved, as a result of
neglecting WOB and rotary speed, it had
exceeded thresholds, and critical vibra-
tion destroyed the cutters. The degree
of wear was greater than 50% when the
bit was pulled out of the hole. Vibration
18–19 March 2020 | Calgary, Alberta, Canada | BMO Center at Stampede Park
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data verified that excessive ROP does
not improve rock-breaking efficiency
but, on the contrary, generally comes at
the expense of bit life.
Application Results. For one geolo-
gy division, 121 m was drilled using
IDAS guidance, with a penetration time
of 27.58 hrs and an ROP of 4.39  m/h.
By contrast, 78 m was drilled conven-
tionally, with a penetration time of
21.44  hrs and an ROP of 3.64 m/h.
Meanwhile, for another geology di-
vision, 52 m was drilled using IDAS
guidance, with a penetration time of
6.47 hrs and an ROP of 8.04 m/h, while
69  m was drilled conventionally, with
a penetration time of 10.44 hrs and an
ROP of 6.61 m/h. Moreover, the rock
strength in both mauve mudstone and
limestone was approximately 200 to
250  MPa. The average energy used to
break the rocks was approximately
400 MPa for the IDAS guidance section,
and the variation was less than 10%,
SPE Canada Heavy
Oil Conference
indicating efficient cutting. However,
the energy applied in the conventional
sections varied more, with an average
value of 560 MPa, nearly three times
the rock strength itself. IDAS guid-
ance showed 24.59% gains in average
ROP compared with the convention-
ally drilled sections, and average DSE
decreased 33.1%.
Conclusion
IDAS is an effective, convenient smart
tool for ROP enhancement through
monitoring bit performance. The field
pilots have received impressive drilling-
performance improvements in compar-
ison with conventional drilling prac-
tices. According to pilot feedback,
overwhelming ROP may induce critical
vibration, sacrificing bit life and wast-
ing input energy. The effective recom-
mendations provided by IDAS are able
to mitigate downhole vibrations and
achieve the optimal correlation between
ROP and energy input. JPT
 TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Formation Damage
Niall Fleming, SPE, Specialist, Production Technology, Equinor

One of the frustrating aspects of well- rizes the conundrum when he said that
productivity analysis is identifying the it was “the impairment of the invisible.”
causes of lower-than-expected produc- A further complication is the situation
tivity index (PI) during initial well life- where two or more damaging mecha-
time. We are presented with a well that nisms are operating concurrently. For
has a higher initial skin than expected example, the previous examples of mud
with concomitant lower PI. Our task losses to the formation combined with
is to evaluate the multivariate aspects screen plugging can contribute in the
of well design, drilling and completion same well to lower the PI and increase the
fluid design, geological characteris- skin. However, we have no way of identi-
tics (e.g., clay mineral type and abun- fying which of these is the most signifi-
dance), permeability variation, net-to- cant factor in explaining the observed
gross ratio, and kh product among many well productivity or, in fact, if they are
other variables. The data are plotted, contributory factors in the first place.
and we attempt to identify trends, if any. Inference is the only tool we have, and
Out of all of this, we eventually come to even that is fraught with inaccuracy.
the most-likely damaging mechanism Coreflooding can be used to deter-
(e.g., significant mud losses to the for- mine the potential causes of formation
mation because of a poorly designed damage by replicating the fluid sequence
particle-size distribution or ineffective used in the damaged well. However, it is
wellbore cleanup). nonquantitative with regard to simula-
Alternatively, the completion can be tion of damaging effects along the pro-
damaged, the most common mecha- duction interval, especially if these are
nism of which, in a well completed with not uniformly distributed within a het-
screens, is plugging. The key expression erogeneous reservoir (i.e., in such cases,
here is “likely damaging mechanism,” a coreflood represents a specific point
because we have no actual way of going along the production interval rather than
downhole and identifying at close range representing the entire length).
the actual damaging mechanisms. Brant Reduced well productivity during
Bennion’s definition of formation dam- later well lifetime is generally a result
age, which I like to quote, aptly summa- of a different set of damaging mecha-
Niall Fleming, SPE, is a specialist in production technology with
Equinor in Bergen, Norway. He has worked previously as a produc-
tion geologist, chemist, and engineer. During the past few years,
Fleming has worked as a leading adviser for well productivity and
stimulation and as lead production engineer for the North
Komsomolskoye project in Siberia. His main interest is within the
area of formation damage from drilling and completion fluids and in
wells under production. Fleming holds a PhD degree in geology
from Imperial College London. He has authored several SPE papers, is an associate editor
for SPE Production & Operations, serves on the JPT Editorial Committee, and has been a
member of the organizing committees for several SPE conferences and workshops. In
2015, Fleming was awarded the SPE A Peer Apart award, and he is a four-time recipient
of SPE’s outstanding technical editor award. He can be reached at nfle@equinor.com.
nisms than those seen in initial pro-
duction. Damaging mechanisms typical
for mid- to late-life wells include fines
mobilization, scale, and asphaltene for-
mation. A few years ago, I was involved
in a mud-acid stimulation intervention
where we were convinced that the expla-
nation for reduced productivity in this
well was fines mobilization (kaolinite).
Many corefloods had been performed
on this particular formation that showed
kaolinite could mobilize under scaled-
down reservoir flow rates. For the par-
ticular candidate well, we pumped die-
sel to see if we could flush kaolinite from
the near wellbore and saw an increase
in productivity for a few days before
the PI returned to its previous value.
Corefloods were performed to qualify
mud acid and showed positive results.
The intervention was planned thorough-
ly and executed as expected. However,
when the well was started, the PI was the
same as before the intervention. Forma-
tion damage can be so frustrating.
Enjoy the papers I have selected,
some of which touch on the comments
I have made. JPT
Recommended additional reading
at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.
SPE 197974 Raising the Bar of
Productivity Improvement in an
Abnormal and Distinctive Pressure and
Temperature Environment: Niger Delta
by Oyeintonbra Imbazi, Shell, et al.
SPE 189562 Laboratory Preparatory
Work of Cased-Hole Cleanup as Part of
an Entire Remedy Program in Removing
Damage Attributed to Oil-Based Mud
by Hideharu Yonebayashi, INPEX, et al.
OTC 28666 Completion-Fluids-Induced
Formation Damage in High-Temperature
Gas Wells: Causes and Mitigation
by Bilel Hamzaoui, Saudi Aramco, et al.

68 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

Diagnostic Tool Identifies Factors
in Well-Productivity Decline

W ells in deepwater reservoirs

show significant rate decline
with time as the result of various causes.
A diagnostic tool for quantification of
factors influencing well-productivity
decline is presented in this paper. The
diagnostic tool helps identify well-
stimulation candidates and potentially
can help increase production. The
work flow presented provides a tool for
monitoring well-productivity changes to
identify the main causes of productivity
decline and to quantify effects on the
normalized productivity index (PI).
Introduction
Most current and future deepwater res-
ervoirs are in structurally deep, high-
pressure environments in which reser-
voir and rock mechanisms that affect
long-term well productivity are poor-
ly understood. PI trends derived from
field production and pressure data re-
flect the composite effects of wellbore
damage along with changes caused by
multiphase-flow and pressure-depletion
effects on fluid properties and perme-
ability. However, only PI decline caused
by wellbore damage should drive well-
stimulation decisions because only stim-
ulation can improve the permeability of
the near-wellbore region. In addition,
reservoir simulation input PI multipliers
used to match well performance should
be adjusted appropriately to ensure that
the resulting simulated output PI trends
are consistent and reliable and to avoid
duplication of reservoir and fluid effects
that are already captured in the simula-
tion model.
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of
paper SPE 195331, “Identification of the Decline in Well-Productivity Index Caused by
Wellbore Damage Through the Removal of Fluid and Formation Effects,” by Samiha
Morsy, SPE, Yan Pan, and Usman Lari, Chevron, et al., prepared for the 2019 SPE
Western Regional Meeting, San Jose, California, USA, 23–26 April. The paper has not
been peer reviewed.
Effect of Reference Pressure
on Well PI Calculations
PI theoretically is estimated with the av-
erage reservoir pressure; however, av-
erage reservoir pressure may not be
estimated accurately for fields where res-
ervoir size and shape are highly uncer-
tain. In cases where the average reservoir
pressure is not available, initial reser-
voir pressure, or the buildup pressure at
1 hour after shut-in, have been used by
different operators to estimate well PI.
A need exists to understand how these
different reference pressures can affect
the reliability of the estimated well PI.
Equations used to derive well PI, includ-
ing under pseudosteady-state (PSS) flow
conditions, are presented in the com-
plete paper.
Effect of Using Different
Reference Pressures on PI
Estimation: Synthetic Cases
A numerical synthetic case is generat-
ed to investigate the effect of the refer-
ence pressure on well PI. The case rep-
resents a circular reservoir 50,000 ft in
radius and 30 ft thick. The fluid viscos-
ity is 3.6  cp, and the formation volume
factor is 1.1  RB/STB. The reservoir po-
rosity is 10%, and the permeability is
300 md. The skin is increasing with time.
The flow rate is constant at 1,000 STB/D,
and the well is shut in for 21 periods. PI
is calculated at each buildup using a ref-
erence pressure from each recognized
flow regime. PI using the initial reservoir
pressure was also estimated. The first
reference pressure is chosen from the
wellbore storage flow regime period at
0.01 hours, while other reference pres-
sures are chosen from the infinite act-
ing radial flow (IARF) regime. The PI
is calculated finally using the average
reservoir pressure during transient and
PSS conditions.
The synthetic case results show that
using a reference pressure during the
wellbore storage flow regime would pro-
vide a misleading PI trend. PI should be
declining from Buildup 1 to Buildup 21
as the skin increases over time; however,
the PI estimated using 0.01 hours shows
an increase in PI at 500 hrs before the
start of the PSS followed by a flat trend
toward 5,000 hours and then ended by
a gentle decline compared with the true
decline using the average reservoir pres-
sure. Although using any reference pres-
sure during IARF should result in the
same PI trend as would be seen when
using the average reservoir pressure, the
end of the IARF reference pressure pro-
vides the most-accurate estimate of PI.
On the other hand, the initial reservoir
pressure provides a pessimistic PI trend
during PSS conditions because of reser-
voir depletion.
The results of the presented study
provide more understanding of which
reference pressure should be used to
estimate PI. The complete paper dis-
cusses in detail a work flow for remov-
ing fluid-properties changes and multi-
phase and rock-compaction effects from
PI calculations.
Validation of the Proposed
Method Using Synthetic Data
A two-phase (oil/water) numerical syn-
thetic case was generated to test the va-
lidity of the proposed work flow. The res-
ervoir is circular with a 3,000-ft radius
and is 100 ft thick. The reservoir features
two wells, the oil producer at the center
of the reservoir and the water injector
1,000 ft from the producer. The oil pro-
ducer began 3 years before the water in-

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2020 69

 1.2
Compaction and Multiphase-Effect
Corrected Analytical Solution, Average
Compaction, PVT, and Multiphase-Effect
0.9 Corrected, Observed, 12 Hours
Normalized PI
PVT and Multiphase-Effect Corrected,
Observed, 12 Hours
0.6
0.3
0.0
0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000
Time (days)
Fig. 1—Validation case: Normalized PI before and after multiphase-, PVT-, and
compaction-effect removal.
jector. The reservoir porosity is 23%, and Dynamic PI Diagnosis. Three main pro-
the permeability is 400 md. The perme- ductivity-decline causes affect the oil-
ability compaction correlation is imple- producer PI: skin, PVT and multiphase
mented in the reservoir simulation. The effects, and compaction. The proposed
skin in the oil producer is increasing with work flow is used to quantify the con-
time; there are eight buildups during the tribution percentage of each cause. The
production history of the oil producer. normalized PI decline resulting from
The end of the radial flow regime is each cause is quantified, and its percent-
within 12 hours on the basis of reservoir age out of the total decline is plotted vs.
and fluid properties. Therefore, the pres- time at each buildup. PVT changes affect
sure at 12 hours after shut-in is chosen as PI positively when a single phase (oil) is
the reference pressure for the observed produced as the oil viscosity decreases
PI calculations. Given the reservoir size with depletion, and the reverse is hap-
and shape, with the fluid and rock prop- pening when the average reservoir pres-
erties, the analytical normalized PI is es- sure is increasing because of injection.
timated at each buildup using the average On the other hand, PVT and multiphase
reservoir pressure. affect PI negatively because of relative-
The pressure/volume/temperature permeability and oil-viscosity changes
(PVT) and multiphase effects are re- with pressure.
moved from the observed normalized
PI at 12 hours. A good match is achieved Field Application
between the normalized PI using the end The work flow is applied in a deepwater
of the IARF at 12 hours and the one esti- Gulf of Mexico field at water depths of
mated using the average reservoir pres- more than 5,000 ft. The subject well is
sure. The effect of oil viscosity alone be- a horizontal producer completed in two
fore water injection improves the well PI layers of an unconsolidated sandstone.
as the oil viscosity decreases with deple- The reservoir has an average permeabil-
tion. That uplift in PI could be interpret- ity of approximately 700 md and a total
ed mistakenly from field data as a reduc- net thickness of 225 ft. The initial reser-
tion in wellbore skin. After the reservoir voir fluid viscosity is 8 cp, and the for-
pressure increases because of water in- mation volume factor is 1.15 RB/STB. The
jection, the combined effects of PVT and well gradually was ramped up over a long
multiphase effect reduce the well PI at period and achieved a peak production
almost 1,200 hours. Similarly, the com- rate of 5,000 STB. Water breakthrough
paction effects are also removed from occurred in the eighth month after first
the observed normalized PI at 12 hours production. Significant productivity de-
after PVT and multiphase effects are re- cline is observed throughout the produc-
moved (Fig. 1). ing life of the well.
70
A buildup of a minimum of 30 hours
is needed to estimate reservoir horizon-
tal permeability from the late radial-flow
regime. The estimated horizontal per-
meability is then used to estimate the
vertical permeability using the early
radial-flow-regime results. Three main
buildups are identified to be used in
the work flow to determine the effect
of PVT, multiphase, and compaction on
well productivity.
The diagnostic plot of the three main
buildups shows negligible change of the
horizontal permeability deep into the
formation away from the wellbore (all
buildups are on top of each other at the
late radial-flow regime). However, the
early time of the three main buildups
is shifted upward with time, indicat-
ing either that the effective horizontal
length was decreasing or the effective
permeability around the wellbore was
decreasing with time. The diagnostic
and history plots of the three buildups
are matched using an increase in skin,
a reduction in effective well length, and
a reduction in the effective permeabil-
ity around the horizontal well. The PVT,
multiphase, and compaction effects are
removed using the proposed work flow.
PVT and multiphase factors affect the
well productivity decline by up to 20%.
Rock-compaction effects result in an
additional well-productivity decline of
up to 51%.
Conclusions
◗ The developed work flow can
be used to identify major well-
productivity decline causes and
quantify their contribution over
time.
◗ The work flow is applied to field
cases, including vertical and
horizontal wells, to improve
well-productivity monitoring
and forecasting.
◗ The compaction effect on the field-
case well-productivity decline is
well-aligned with the field reservoir
simulation study using a laboratory
rock-compaction table.
◗ The resulting PI trend obtained
from the developed work flow is
incorporated in the field reservoir
simulation to ensure that the
PI multiplier is not duplicating
reservoir and fluid effects. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
Test Methodology Optimizes Selection
of Fluids for Gasfield Development

F or the development of the Dvalin

high-pressure/high-temperature
(HP/HT) gas field in the Norwegian
Sea, a completion scheme using
standalone screens is planned.
To secure maximum cleanup and
productivity, even after long-term
suspension, comprehensive laboratory
testing was performed to evaluate
specific properties from drilling
and completion fluids at downhole
conditions. The complete paper
details the results of all test phases.
With the test methodology, several
proposed mud-system candidates were
disqualified at an early stage, thus
saving time and cost for subsequent
formation-damage testing and
complementary analytics.
Introduction
Formation damage is believed to have
caused difficulties in modular-dynamic-
tester sampling in the high-permeability
zone of Dvalin West. The damage mech-
anism has been investigated in a study
that revealed both fluid systems to have
good fluid-loss-control properties, as
observed in drilling operations. How-
ever, both systems showed damage po-
tential. The extent of damage is more
pronounced in Dvalin West.
The field-development plan calls for
four producing wells to be drilled (two
in each structure). Prevention or, real-
istically speaking, minimization of im-
paired production as a result of for-
mation damage has been identified as
a priority. A completion scheme with
standalone screens requires addition-
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights
of paper SPE 195601, “Systematic Selection of Drill-In and Completion Fluids
for Development of the Dvalin High-Temperature Gas Field,” by Oliver Czuprat,
SPE, Bjorn Olav Dahle, and Ulf Dehmel, DEA, et al., prepared for the 2019 SPE
Norway One Day Seminar, Bergen, Norway, 14 May. The paper has not been
peer reviewed.
al specific properties from drilling and
completion fluids at downhole condi-
tions. The production facilities will be
commissioned after the completion of
drilling, and there are no provisions
for handling cleanup flow through pipe-
line and topsides. Thus, all wells will be
cleaned up to a temporary test plant on-
board the drilling rig. The lag time be-
tween drilling the wells and cleaning
them will be 2–3 weeks, underlining the
necessity of a drilling mud that is stable
over a significant period of time while
retaining inherent mobility.
Six reservoir drill-in fluids (water-
and oil-based) were proposed by differ-
ent vendors, and samples thereof and
the corresponding screen fluids (if avail-
able) were provided. The systematic test
program consisted of a sequence of four
test phases, where only successful fluids
went to the next phase (Fig. 1). A de-
scription and application of equipment
and processes is provided in the com-
plete paper.
Data and Results
Phase I. The first test phase comprised a
set of simple screening laboratory tests.
The best-in-class drilling and comple-
tion fluids from the study were then
tested with regard to formation dam-
age (return permeability tests). Test-
ed qualities included density, particle
size distribution, rheology, mobility,
settling, emulsion stability, HP/HT fil-
tration and rheology, compatibility,
and production-screen testing. As de-
tailed in the complete paper, many of
the fluids demonstrated acceptable or
good performance in many of these as-
pects; nevertheless, on the basis of ob-
servations during Phase I, two out of six
fluid systems could already be excluded
as unstable for the application (Drilling
Fluids 1 and 6).
Phase II. For this test phase, the pro-
vided new batches of the four eligible
remaining mud samples were char-
acterized again regarding their basic
properties to ensure that the samples
were equivalent to the fluids assessed
in the first round as well to any upcom-
ing batches in the future. Additionally,
fluid properties after long-term aging
(14 days at 160°C) were characterized
for the first time. Whenever applica-
ble, current properties were compared
with previously reported results. Fur-
thermore, formation-damage tests on
outcrop material with properties com-
parable to those of the Garn formation
were performed.
Severe signs of temperature instabil-
ity upon the static aging period were ob-
served for Drilling Fluids 2 and 3. Only
Drilling Fluid 4 exhibited an excellent
temperature stability under the stat-
ic aging conditions, whereas Drilling
Fluid 3 almost completely lost its vis-
cosity, most likely from degradation of
the polymers.
Drilling Fluid 2 was too viscous after
aging to be filtrated. Drilling Fluid 3 did
not possess filtration-control proper-
ties anymore, thus exhibiting an infi-
nite filtration volume combined with
an undefined filter-cake thickness.
Formation damage was considered se-
vere to mild. In all fluids except Drill-
ing Fluid  3, if the near-wellbore area
could be cleaned up or bypassed, dam-
age would be considered mild. On the
basis of only return-permeability re-
sults, Drilling Fluid 4 consistently per-
formed better on both the medium- and
super-high-permeability lithology.

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2020 71

 Phase I Phase II
6 mud 4 mud
systems systems
Screening and rating of
proposed drilling fluids formation-damage testing on outcrop and core material
Fig. 1—Schematic of the selection and optimization test phases.
Drilling Fluid 3 saw the least improve-
ment in permeability after the removal
of the external operational fluid cake
and hardware compared with other
sequences. This suggested that the
formate-based Drilling Fluid 3 caused
the least barrier to flow at the interface
of the operational fluid cake and the
formation. Because of inadequate tem-
perature stability and observed severe
formation damage in Phase II, Drill-
ing Fluid 3 was disqualified from fur-
ther testing.
Phase III. For this phase, new batches
of the three remaining eligible mud
samples were quality-checked as deliv-
ered before the formation-damage and
return-permeability tests were con-
ducted. If available, the properties
were compared with those of the pre-
vious batches. In this phase, formation-
damage tests were conducted on actual
reservoir rock core samples (Garn) cov-
ering medium and low permeability.
Drilling Fluid 2 and its screen fluid
had slightly lower emulsion stabili-
ties compared with results in Phases I
and II but were still regarded as being
within specifications. With regard to
production-screen testing, only the
drilling/screen fluid pair of Drilling
Fluid 4 fully passed the screen. The time
for full outflow was between 3 and 4 sec-
onds, identical to results from Phase II.
Also, Screen Fluid 2 passed the screen
after aging 4 seconds, but its counter-
part, Drilling Fluid 2, only yielded a rel-
atively slow outflow, with fluid remain-
ing inside the cell. This is in accordance
with observations from Phase 1, where
this drilling-fluid system also caused a
plugging of the screen after 1 second.
72
Phase III Phase IV
3 mud 2 mud
systems systems
Long-term stability testing as well as
On the basis of the overall rating
in Phase III, Drilling Fluid 2 was dis-
qualified because the low performance
(plugging) of the statically aged fluid
(14 days at 160°C) in the production-
screen tester. Drilling Fluid 4 was cho-
sen for its long-term stability, superior
HP/HT rheology, and screen compat-
ibility, and it exhibited a return per-
meability of greater than 80%. At this
point, Drilling Fluid 5 was considered a
backup option.
Phase IV. To this point, long-term sta-
bility was only assessed by aging the
fluid samples statically at 160°C up to
14 days. For operational reasons, it
was valuable to know the stability for
even longer periods; therefore, select-
ed mud properties after static aging for
1 month also were evaluated and com-
pared for Drilling Fluids 4 and 5. Where-
as Drilling Fluid 4 remained mobile after
1  month of aging despite an increased
rheology profile, Drilling Fluid 5 be-
came too viscous and immobile for fur-
ther testing. As a consequence, Drilling
Fluid 5 (both drilling and screen fluid)
was disqualified.
Phase V (Optimization). In this phase,
the detailed formulation of the select-
ed fluid (Drilling Fluid 4) was varied
systematically and the effect on the re-
turn permeability recorded. The ob-
jective was to minimize the forma-
tion damage further, thus increasing
return permeability.
The final such variation for Drilling
Fluid 4 (Fluid 4.4) exhibited the high-
est return permeability at the first two
stages of the test sequence (i.e., 74%
after drawdown and 88% after remov-
Phase V,
Optimization
1 mud
system
Fine-tuning of mud
properties
al of hardware and operational fluids).
Because it represents the least impair-
ment of the reservoir, this is the fluid
formulation nominated as the reservoir
drill-in fluid for the Dvalin field de-
velopment. Fluid 4.4 also will be rec-
ommended for Dvalin East wells, es-
pecially with regard to the suspension
and bridging agent types and concentra-
tions as well as reduced primary emulsi-
fier concentration.
For all fluids, return-permeability re-
sults after spindown are greater than
90%, indicating that a significant cause
of damage is the result of either retained
filtrate or another cause (e.g., fines mi-
gration). However, this limited damage
may be considered acceptable.
Conclusions
The internal testing of drilling-fluid
systems proposed by different vendors
as a first stage allowed for live experi-
ence of the fluids and assessment of
key properties under operating condi-
tions. Normally, a service company has
too-limited capabilities to run extended
times for aging.
With the proposed methodology, sev-
eral mud-system candidates were dis-
qualified at an early stage, thus sav-
ing time and cost for subsequent
formation-damage testing and com-
plementary analytics. The test series
allowed selection of one mud and
completion-fluid system on the basis
of long-term stability, superior HP/HT
rheology, and screen compatibility. Fur-
thermore, the testing allowed for fur-
ther optimization of the optimal prod-
uct in cooperation with the vendor, thus
maximizing future productivity of the
production wells. JPT
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
Integrated Approach Identifies
Formation Damage in Unfavorable Conditions

T he success of water-conformance
operations often depends on
clear identification of the water-
TVDSS (m)
–3,200

production mechanism. Such

assessment can be complicated
significantly when formation damage –3,300
is also occurring. Coiled tubing Development Well
(CT) and distributed temperature 81㼻
2C 2C
sensing (DTS) were combined to 2B 2B
overcome challenging conditions –3,400 2A 2A
1B 1B
(high temperature, low injectivity, 1A 41㼻 1A
high deviation, long perforated Tight
Water Zone
intervals, and wellbore damage) 200 m
Appraisal Well
to identify damaged oil zones and –3,500

suspected water-bearing zones in

an onshore well in Japan. Fig. 1—Well correlation of the appraisal well and the development well.
TD=total depth; TVDSS=true vertical depth subsea.

Introduction In damaged wells with high water cut, water-bearing zones by integrating
Source and location affect the selection flow conditions can be unstable, with complementary information.
of water-shutoff techniques, which are drastic changes in flow regimes. Once The proposed operational procedures
either mechanical or chemical in nature the well can no longer sustain stable are similar to those used for the quantifi-
or a combination. No matter the oper- flow because of reservoir depletion or cation of fluid placement during acidiz-
ational approach, identification of the damage in the absence of an artificial- ing operations: injection of fluid to cool
water zone is a critical step for any sub- lift method, a PLT becomes impracti- down the formation and shut-in to mea-
sequent course of actions. cal. Furthermore, when wellbore condi- sure rate and amplitude of tempera-
One method for the identification tions are complicated by the presence ture recovery along intervals of interest.
of water-producing zones is the use of of debris or contaminants, data acqui- In the present case, brine was used as
production logging. Conventional pro- sition itself becomes difficult. Quanti- the injection fluid. Quantification of the
duction logging uses spinners and ca- fication of the damage profile and of damage and injection-rate profiles are
pacitance logs to detect water flow in water-producing intervals is of great im- achieved by temperature inversion; the
the wellbore. Production logging tools portance in proper planning for subse- measured DTS data are matched with
(PLTs) can be deployed into the wellbore quent operations. the simulated temperature response
using slickline, wireline, or CT. To en- To address these challenges, an al- given by combined flow and thermal nu-
able real-time evaluation of the acquired ternative approach was used where- merical models accounting for key for-
data, possible options include wire- in DTS obtained through fiber optics mation and near-wellbore parameters.
line, digital slickline, and CT equipped deployed with CT was used to quan- The subject well was suspected to
with either a conductor cable or tify damage profiles in severely dam- be severely damaged during the com-
fiber optics. aged wells and to identify suspected pletion phase and yielded a relatively
high water cut during flow test. This
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights case not only highlights the validity of
the proposed approach but also details
of paper SPE 194284, “Pushing the Limits of Damage Identification With Coiled
the work flow and analyses performed
Tubing in Extreme Conditions: A Success Story From Japan,” by Nozomu Yoshida,
to obtain meaningful data and to re-
SPE, Satoshi Teshima, SPE, and Ryo Yamada, INPEX, and Umut Aybar, SPE, and duce uncertainty of the interpretation.
Pierre Ramondenc, SPE, Schlumberger, prepared for the 2019 SPE/ICoTA Well The work also raises the importance of
Intervention Conference and Exhibition, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, 26–27 March. the integration of complementary data
The paper was peer reviewed and is scheduled for publication in SPE Production for a comprehensive understanding of
& Operations. well conditions.

For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.

JPT • FEBRUARY 2020 73

 Shut-in
1 Baseline DTS
Optical fibers
(inside CT)
Cold
3 Warmback
Fig. 2—Conceptual representation of the operational sequence.
Well Background
Well B was drilled as a development
well sidetracked from an appraisal well
(Well A). The target reservoir of the field
is a sandstone, and there have been two
oil producers in the field. Well A was
drilled in 2015 (Fig. 1), penetrating five
different oil-bearing intervals (1A, 1B,
2A, 2B, and 2C); pretest pressures im-
plied an oil gradient, and the formation
tester sampled oil at 2B while suggest-
ing lower pressures at the top and bot-
tom zones. Well B was sidetracked as a
highly deviated well (up to 81° inclina-
tion) to maximize wellbore exposure to
those five intervals, aiming to improve
productivity of the well by accounting
for the relatively tight nature of the for-
mations observed in the offset wells. All
the oil-bearing intervals except for 2C
were considered for perforation, while
2C was not perforated in Well B be-
cause of reservoir-management consid-
erations. Both Well A and Well B were
drilled using oil-based mud (OBM) to
improve drilling efficiencies, because
the offset wells suffered from borehole
instabilities during drilling when water-
based mud was used. After the success-
ful drilling of Well A, it was decided to
drill Well B with the same OBM.
Well B was completed with a ce-
mented liner and perforated using the
tubing-conveyed-perforation (TCP)
technique. Two issues were observed
during the cementing phase: drillout of
cement in the casing because of cement-
ing failure and unexpected contamina-
tion (tight emulsion) of OBM and com-
pletion brine. The well was planned to
be cemented for 7- and 5.5-in. liners;
during the cementing operation, the ce-
ment wiper plug was not successfully
pumped to the bottom of the well. The
well then required drillout operations
74
2
Bullheading
(injection to
CT-annulus)
Warm
of the cement in the liner, degrading
wellbore conditions and leaving metal
and other debris inside the wellbore.
Some metal debris was recovered at the
surface, stuck to the casing-collar lo-
cator tool in subsequent wireline op-
erations. Furthermore, the well experi-
enced unexpected contamination of the
OBM and the completion brine during
displacement of the wellbore fluid. This
left a significant amount of sticky mate-
rial and tight emulsion inside the well-
bore. To improve downhole conditions
for subsequent wireline operations and
the planned drillstem test (DST), the
well was cleaned out using scrapers con-
veyed on the drillstring. After the clean-
out operation, a cement-bond log was
obtained using a tractor. The recovered
tools were, however, covered by the con-
taminants. The wellbore was cleaned
out multiple times again by circulation
and scraper runs. The well was eventu-
ally perforated in underbalanced con-
ditions by replacing part of the comple-
tion brine for nitrogen during delayed
time of detonation through downhole
circulation valve of the DST string using
TCP for a total of 180 m (Sections 1A, 1B,
2A, and 2B). Phasing and shot density of
the perforators were 72° and 6 shots/ft.
After the detonation of the perforating
guns, the well was flowed back a short
time after the TCP job. During the DSTs,
the well showed some oil flow initial-
ly with a sufficient productivity index.
However, after the well was shut in mul-
tiple times, well productivity decreased
and oil flow was reduced. Ultimately, the
well unexpectedly flowed mostly water
(with a water cut greater than 80%),
and its productivity was degraded se-
verely to approximately 25% of the ini-
tial productivity index. Plugging of per-
foration tunnels by the contaminants
Injection
Contaminant
Large
Small
inside wellbore and some of inside and
near-wellbore damage by the emulsion
were suspected, but confident conclu-
sions could not be drawn from the avail-
able data. The well was then suspended,
and further diagnostics were run.
Issues that had to be addressed to es-
tablish commercial production of the
well included identification of water-
bearing and damaged zones and quan-
tification for remedial actions. All four
perforated intervals were considered to
be oil-bearing zones before perforation
on the basis of the openhole log inter-
pretations considering an analogy with
the two offset oil producers. Identifi-
cation of the water-bearing zones was
critical to subsequent remedial actions,
especially for the selection of diversion
methods to be used to avoid their stimu-
lation. In addition, because four differ-
ent, long layers were perforated, quali-
tative and quantitative damage profiling
was also key to a successful stimulation
design, considering selective stimula-
tions with the diversion methods. Well
diagnostics operations were planned
to address all issues simultaneous-
ly and optimize the subsequent water-
conformance operations.
After review of the available tech-
niques for well diagnostics, CT with DTS
was selected considering the following
operational constraints:
◗ Deployment method had to allow
conveyance through the high
deviation
◗ Risk of sticking because of debris in
the wellbore had to be mitigated
◗ Multilayered, long target interval
had to be logged
◗ Low injectivity was required to avoid
fracturing the formation
The majority of the complete paper
is devoted to a discussion of the field
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
case itself. Methodology is presented,
as well as the operational sequence,
for injection/warmback analysis using
CT equipped with fiber optics (Fig. 2).
Quantitative interpretation of measured
DTS data is provided, as well as quan-
titative injection profiling and sensitiv-
ity analyses, for both low- and high-
permeability cases.
Conclusion
The main conclusions of the field case
can be summarized as follows:
◗ DTS can be used as a reliable
alternative to production logging
when wellbore conditions are
not favorable.
◗ Injection through the CT-casing
annulus while keeping the CT
stationary at total depth allows
identification of the intake profile
in real time, which later enables
flexible optimization of operational
procedures.
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
◗ When injectivity of the well is
suspected to be extremely low
within the formation fracture
pressure limits, a feasibility study
should be performed before
operational execution to evaluate
under which conditions the
cooldown/warmback methodology
will be able to create enough
temperature variations that can
be detected with DTS and later
analyzed to provide a reliable
understanding of downhole
flow patterns.
◗ Real-time downhole measurements
play a vital role not only in the
optimization of the operational
procedure but also in the
acquisition of data that will
feature sufficient quality to
warrant reliable interpretation
after the operation.
◗ Quantitative analysis through
temperature history matching
can provide further insights about
critical reservoir parameters,
provided that a methodological
analysis of fixed and variable
parameters is carried out and
sufficient complementary data
is injected in the model to reduce
the nonuniqueness of the problem
to a strict minimum.
◗ A particularly important lesson
learned from this study is
that, beyond a certain point,
additional adjustments to
variable parameters (such as
the damage or permeability
profiles) do not necessarily
change the overall conclusion
of the analysis when considering
the intake profile.
◗ Both bottomhole pressure and DTS
history-matching efforts resulted
in the same conclusion in terms of
identification of water-bearing and
damaged zones. JPT
75
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tions to the petroleum engineering profession
and to the worldwide oil and gas industry. A list-
ing of the different categories and requirements
for these awards, as well as a nomination work-
sheet, are available on the SPE website at www.
spe.org/awards. Award recipients are announced
in July, posted on the SPE website, and published
in the Journal of Petroleum Technology (JPT). The
awards are presented during the SPE Annual Tech-
nical Conference and Exhibition, which in 2020
will be held 5–7 October in Denver, Colorado.
The deadline for nominating someone for a
regional award is 1 March. Regional awards recog-
nize members who contribute exceptional service
Pascal Breton, deputy vice president of communications E&P with
and leadership within SPE, as well as make sig-
Total, received the SPE 2019 International Public Service Award.
nificant professional contributions within their Pictured here with his award is Brenton, center, along with Arnaud
technical disciplines at the SPE regional level. Breuillac, president E&P Total, right, and Jean-Marc Dumas, SPE
Awards are presented at the appropriate SPE Regional Director for Europe, left. Breton was honored for his work in
region or SPE section meeting. More information launching a Manila-based nongovernmental organization that supports
impoverished children. He created French and international branches
about these awards is available on the website at
of the NGO and still serves as its president.
www.spe.org/awards.
A full listing of all of the 2019 award winners is
also available on the website.

TWA Accepts Nominations for “Energy Influencers”

The Way Ahead (TWA), SPE’s publication serving young pro-
fessionals, is accepting nominations for its “TWA Energy
Influencers 2020: Young Professionals Who ENERGIZE Our
Industry” recognition.
The selection is designed to shine the spotlight on young
professionals who are making significant contributions to the
oil and gas industry. Nominees should be under the age of 35
and have displayed excellence and integrity, or demonstrated
innovation, social responsibility, sustainability, and passion
for safety.
A nomination form is available at the TWA website at www.
spe.org/twa. Members can nominate a friend, colleague, or
employee. Both members and nonmembers can be nominated.
The TWA Editorial Committee will assess the submissions,
evaluate the quality of the work involved, and select a final list
of nominees. The selected list of candidates will be published on
the TWA website under the heading of “TWA Energy Influencers
2020,” with a short biography of the candidates and highlights
of their outstanding work. The list will be finalized during the
first quarter of 2020.

76 JPT • FEBRUARY 2020

 PEOPLE

Montage Resources Corp. appointed
RANDALL M. ALBERT, SPE, member of
the board of directors, as chairman of
the company board following MICHAEL
JENNINGS’ resignation from the position.
Albert will serve on the company’s Audit
Albert and Compensation committees. He was
previously a member of the board of Mon-
tage Resources’ predecessor (Eclipse Resources Corp.) since
2014 and was later elected lead independent director of
Eclipse Resources. Albert was the COO of the Gas Division
of Consol Energy from 2010 to 2014. From 2005 to 2010,
he  was  the operational leader of Consol’s gas business in
Northern Appalachia.
Albert is a member of the Wellsite Fishing and Rentals
board, advisory board member to Gas Field Services and
Black Bay Energy Capital, and served as a founding advisory
member of the board and chairman of the Marcellus Shale
Coalition. He currently serves on the advisory board for the
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia
Tech) mining engineering department. Albert is a regis-
tered professional engineer in Virginia and West Virginia
and holds a BS degree in mining engineering from Virginia
Tech, where he was inducted into the Academy of Engineer-
ing Excellence in 2016.
In Memoriam
This section lists with regret SPE members who recently
passed away. If you would like to report the passing of
a family member who was an SPE member, please write
to service@spe.org.
Sidney E. Duerr Jr., Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
Walter R. Mendes, Englewood, Colorado, USA
Colin K. Woodrow, Edinburgh, UK

SPE/ICoTA Well Intervention Conference and Exhibition

24–25 March 2020 The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel & Convention Center
The Woodlands, Texas, USA

Register by 4 March to save with early rates!

Further your knowledge with over 60 technical presentations on various aspects of well intervention.

Visit go.spe.org/Well_InterventionRegister for more information and to register.

ADVERTISERS IN THIS ISSUE
ADIPEC 2020 GEODynamics LEUTERT Rock Flow Dynamics
Page 15 Page 41 Page 25 Cover 2

AFGlobal Greatwall Drilling Company National Oilwell Varco Schlumberger

Page 2 Page 29 Page 37 Page 7

AMETEK Brookfield Hunting NCS Multistage SPE Volunteers

Page 75 Page 9 Page 35 Page 4

Cortec Fluid Control K+S Minerals and Nissan Chemical America TETRA Technologies, Inc.
Page 33 Agriculture GmbH Corporation (NCA) Page 19
Page 23 Page 11 The WellBoss Company
Enventure Global
Technology KAPPA Engineering OTC Asia 2020 Page 21
Page 55 Cover 4 Cover 3 WellData Labs
Cover 1 Tip-On

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Media Accounts Manager Media Accounts Manager Media Accounts Manager Director of Sales, America
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JPT • FEBRUARY 2020 79

 SPE EVENTS
WORKSHOPS
10–11  February ◗ Kota Kinabalu—SPE
Emerging Solutions to Offshore Asset
Integrity Challenges
12–13 February ◗ Kuala Lumpur—SPE
Petroleum Economics—Solution Provider
to Game Changer
18–19 February ◗ The Woodlands—SPE
Smart Integration in Production System
Modeling
26–27 February ◗ Abu Dhabi—SPE
Offshore Technology Advances and
Applications
16–17 March ◗ Abu Dhabi—SPE Tracer
Technology—Improving Asset Value
30–31 March ◗ Abu Dhabi—SPE Advances
in Acid Stimulation in Carbonate Reservoirs
30 March–1 April ◗ San Diego—
GRC/SPE High-Temperature Well
Cementing—Exploring Geothermal
and Oil and Gas Synergies
7–8 April ◗ Abu Dhabi—SPE Advances in
Technology and Solutions for Well Integrity
7–9 April ◗ Cairo—SPE Unlocking
the Potential of Low Quality Reservoir
in Brown and Green Field
14–16 April ◗ Galveston—SPE Rate/Pressure
Transient Analysis in Unconventional
Reservoirs—Solutions for Practical
Problems
16 April ◗ Denver—URTeC One-Day
Workshop
21–22 April ◗ Villahermosa—SPE Reservoir
Characterization of Mature Fields—The
Mexican Connection
CONFERENCES
19–21 February ◗ Lafayette—SPE
International Conference and Exhibition
on Formation Damage Control
3–5 March ◗ Galveston—IADC/SPE
International Drilling Conference
and Exhibition
9–11 March ◗ Muscat—The SPE Conference
at Oman Petroleum and Energy Show
Find complete listings of upcoming SPE events at www.spe.org/events.
80
17–19 March ◗ Bogotá—
Shared Venue
• SPE Latin American and Caribbean
Petroleum Engineering Conference
(LACPEC)
• SPE International Conference and
Exhibition on Health, Safety, Environment,
and Sustainability
18–19 March ◗ Calgary—
Shared Venue
• SPE Canada Heavy Oil Conference
• SPE Canada Unconventional Resources
Conference
24–25 March ◗ The Woodlands—
SPE/ICoTA Well Intervention Conference
and Exhibition
24–27 March ◗ Kuala Lumpur—Offshore
Technology Conference Asia (OTC Asia)
18–22 April ◗ Tulsa—SPE Improved Oil
Recovery Conference
21–22 April ◗ Denver—SPE/IADC Managed
Pressure Drilling and Underbalanced
Operations Conference and Exhibition
22 April ◗ Bergen—SPE Norway Subsurface
Conference
27 April–1 May ◗ Bakersfield—SPE Western
Regional Meeting
4–7 May ◗ Houston—Offshore Technology
Conference (OTC)
8–11 June ◗ Amsterdam—SPE Europec
Featured at 82nd EAGE Conference and
Exhibition
21–24 June ◗ Philadelphia—Congress on
Safety in Engineering and Industry
24–25 June ◗ Aberdeen—SPE International
Oilfield Scale Conference and Exhibition
29 June–1 July ◗ Port of Spain—SPE
Trinidad and Tobago Section Energy
Resources Conference
20–22 July ◗ Austin—SPE/AAPG/SEG
Unconventional Resources Technology
Conference (URTeC)
18–19 August ◗ Yangon—IADC/SPE Asia
Pacific Drilling Technology Conference and
Exhibition
SYMPOSIUMS
9–11 February ◗ Los Angeles—SPE North
America Student
19–20 February ◗ Muscat—SPE ESP
Journey to the Future
23–24 March ◗ Beirut—SPE Lebanon
Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration and
Development
15–16 April ◗ Manama—SPE
Unconventionals in the Middle East—
From Exploration to Development
Optimisation
20–22 April ◗ Abu Dhabi—SPE Reservoir
Management and Water Flood Excellence:
Present and Future
11–13 August ◗ Galveston—SPE Subsea
Well Intervention
13–15 September ◗ Buenos Aires—
SPE Argentina Exploration and Production
of Unconventional Resources
FORUMS
10–14 February ◗ Austin—SPE Unlocking
the Value from Digital across
the Full E&P Value Chain
27 April–1 May ◗ San Antonio—SPE Is
Cyclic Gas Injection EOR the Future for
Unconventional Resources?
CALL FOR PAPERS
SPE Russian Petroleum Technology
Conference ◗ Moscow
Deadline: 9 March
SPE International Hydraulic Fracturing
Technology Conference and Exhibition
◗ Muscat
Deadline: 26 March
SPE Subsea Well Intervention Symposium
◗ Galveston
Deadline: 26 March
JPT • FEBRUARY 2020
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