Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
Nobuo Morita
Texas A&M University, USA
Keynote: New Casing Design Criterion for Reservoirs with High Porosity
Time : 10:00
Biography:
Nobuo Morita is a new Professor of Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering, Texas A&M University, Texas. He was a Professor of resources and environmental engineering department, Waseda University, Japan, for 20 years, with a rock mechanics and completion engineering lab. He was a research fellow, ConocoPhillips, for 13 years. He has formed Geomechanics Joint Industry Project and is monitoring various geomechanics projects such as sand control, well stability, causing problems and conventional and unconventional fracuring with laboratory experiments and numerical models.
Abstract:
The standard casing design is based on collapse, burst and tensile failures under simplified loading. However, if a casing or screen is cemented to a high porosity formation, complex stress state may appear in casing or screen. Multi-finger caliper logs obtained from the wells in the Gulf of Mexico and in the North Sea showed significant casing deformations, while they were still usable without losing integrity. The reason was that most of these casings were uniformly deformed without rupture or without kinks. The magnitude of elongation and compression of these casings were 3 to 5% while the strains at the yield strength were 0.3-0.5%. These observations indicate that casing design for high porosity reservoirs should include the steel properties beyond the yield strength while the API casing design criterion is strictly based on the steel properties up to the yield strength. Extension, compression and line load casing tests were conducted from H-40 to V-150 casings up to failure by using a 5000 kN loading machine. The tests showed the casings were uniformly deformed until the maximum load so that they were usable up to the maximum strength without significant distortion. In the past, casing failures were tried to be mitigated by increasing the casing grade, however, increasing the grade sometimes deteriorated the casing problems since a higher grade casing could not tolerate the significant stretch or compression once they exceeded the yield stress. Selecting a proper grade and thickness of casings is the key for mitigating casing failure.
- Drilling
Session Introduction
Nobuo Morita
Texas A&M University, USA
Title: New Casing Design Criterion for Reservoirs with High Porosity
Biography:
Morita is a new professor of Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. He was a professor of resources and environmental engineering department, Waseda University, Japan, for 20 years, with a rock mechanics and completion engineering lab. He was a research fellow, ConocoPhillips, for 13 years. He has formed Geomechanics Joint Industry Project and are monitoring various geomechanics projects such as sand control, well stability, casing problems and conventional and unconventional fracuring with laboratory experiments and numerical models.
Abstract:
The standard casing design is based on collapse, burst and tensile failures under simplified loading. However, if a casing or screen is cemented to a high porosity formation, complex stress state may appear in casing or screen. Multi-finger caliper logs obtained from the wells in the Gulf of Mexico and in the North Sea showed significant casing deformations, while they were still usable without losing integrity. The reason was that most of these casings were uniformly deformed without rupture or without kinks. The magnitude of elongation and compression of these casings were 3 to 5% while the strains at the yield strength were 0.3-0.5%. These observations indicate that casing design for high porosity reservoirs should include the steel properties beyond the yield strength while the API casing design criterion is strictly based on the steel properties up to the yield strength. Extension, compression and line load casing tests were conducted from H-40 to V-150 casings up to failure by using a 5000 kN loading machine. The tests showed the casings were uniformly deformed until the maximum load so that they were usable up to the maximum strength without significant distortion. In the past, casing failures were tried to be mitigated by increasing the casing grade, however, increasing the grade sometimes deteriorated the casing problems since a higher grade casing could not tolerate the significant stretch or compression once they exceeded the yield stress. Selecting a proper grade and thickness of casings is the key for mitigating casing failure.
Mohammed Jabbar Ajrash Al-Zuraiji
The University of Newcastle, Australia
Title: Impacts of natural gas explosion pressure waves in pipes on infrastructure in the petrochemical industry
Biography:
Mohammed Jabbar Ajrash Al-Zuraiji has completed his bachelor’s and master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Nahrain University, Baghdad, Iraq. He commenced his PhD program in Chemical Engineering in April 2014 under the supervision of Prof. Behdad Moghtaderi,. He has published more than 4 papers in reputed journals.
Abstract:
Pressrue waves are an important parameter in characterising the potential damage of explosions on plant infrastructure. The development of chemical plants is established in accordance with safety standards. Understanding the consequences of explosions, however, contributes to increasing safety standards in process industries. A large scale detonation tube has been built at University of Newcastle, Australia. The setup is 30 m long with 0.5 m diameter with66 pressure transduces and photodiodes mounted along the diameter of detonation tube to measure the flame and pressure wave development. Natural gas was injected in four different configurations which were: 3 m, 6 m, 12 m and 25 m reactive section lengths. The initial ignition was delivered via an explosion of stoichiometric methane air mixture in the first section of the detonation tube. The strenght of the pressure wave was exptrapolated by meassuring of dynamic pressure, which has accomplished by employing two pitot tubes at the end of the detonation tube. The results indicated that the length of active section is a pivotal factor in determining the expected level of damage. An explosion of 9.5% methane in a 3 m active section had potential to cause total building destruction. However, the explosion of 9.5% methane concentration at 6 m, 12 m and 25 m active section lengths had potential expose to direct blast effects, which are responsible for 1-99% of explosion related fatalities. Finally, it is expected that a steel frame buildings will distort and pulled away from foundation from explosions of 5% to 15% methane concentration.
Amjed Mohammed Hassan
King Fahd University of petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia
Title: A Numerical Study of Temperature Profile by Coupling Memory-based Diffusivity Model with Energy Balance during Thermal Flooding
Biography:
A.M Hassan is a PhD student at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), department of Petroleum Engineering, Saudi Arabia. He earned his M.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from KFUPM. Mr. Hassan is working at University of Khartoum and PetroEDGE Company, Sudan. He has authored and co-authored several scientific articles in area of reservoir simulation, numerical analysis and thermal oil recovery processes. Mr. Hassan received two awards from Schlumberger Company for the best academic performance in petroleum engineering and for the best graduation project.
Abstract:
Accurate estimation of the temperature distribution within a reservoir undergoing a thermal recovery operation is a key factor in process design, reservoir management and production forecasting. The thermal and rheological properties of the reservoir rock and fluids play significant roles in the heat transfer between the formation matrix and flowing fluids. The memory-based diffusivity equation is implemented as a momentum-balance to present continuous alteration of rock and fluid properties and to investigate the temperature propagation during thermal flooding process. This model is coupled with recently developed energy balance equation to investigate the different parameters that influence the temperature profile. Numerical solution of the coupled mathematical model is presented for the case of equal rock and fluid temperature. It is assumed that the rock attains the fluid temperature instantaneously, that is, the rock and fluid temperatures are assumed equal throughout the reservoir. Matlab 7.10 program is used to carry out the computation and provides temperature profiles. Results show that, coupling the memory-based diffusivity model with energy balance leads to more reasonable temperature profiles during the thermal flooding. The distribution of reservoir temperature with respect to time and distance can be estimated by coupling the memory-based equation and the mathematical tool which were developed by Hossain et al., in addition, it can be concluded that, the fluid velocity, time and the rheological properties, have important effects on the temperature distributions throughout the reservoir. In future, the results of the numerical solution can be integrated with lab experiment results to predict performance of thermal flooding process and better understanding of reservoir management.
- Oil Prices
Session Introduction
Seema Narayan
RMIT University, Australia
Title: A comparative study of the link between real exchange rate of ASEAN countries and fossil fuel prices
Biography:
Seema Narayan completed her PhD from the Monash University. She is Associate Professor of Economics at the RMIT University. She has published more than 80 papers in reputed journals and is ranked in the top 10 per cent of female economists in the world by RePEC.
Abstract:
This paper examines the influence of the prices of fossil fuel (oil, coal, and gas) on real exchange rates of the ASEAN countries against the US. We tackle modeling issues such as serial correlation, endogeneity and heteroscedasticity, and account for other determinants of real exchange rates to find overwhelming evidence that a short-term increase in the prices of oil, gas, and coal leads to a depreciation of local currency of the ASEAN countries against the US dollar. Out of the three fossil fuels, the influence of natural gas price is found to be strongest. We also find that oil and coal effects are weaker during financial crises than non- financial crises periods. Gas price effects are stronger during financial crises. In the long-run, higher energy prices depreciate several countries’ currencies, with Vietnam showing the converse with respect to some energy prices. For each nation, we compare their competitiveness against their energy mix and against other ASEAN members. We explain our results and provide policy implications.
Fei Yang
China University of Petroleum, China
Title: Inorganic nanoparticles facilitate pour point depressing ability of polymeric pour point depressants
Biography:
Fei Yang has completed his PhD at the age of 27 years from Shandong University. He is now the associated professor of China University of Petroleum. His main reserch interests focus on the rheology of crude oils, flow improvers of crude oils, crude oil emulsions and wax deposition of crude oil pipleines. He has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as reviewer of many reputed journals.
Abstract:
Polymeric pour point depressants (PPDs) have been widely used in many waxy crude oil pipelines. However, tranditional PPDs still have some defects such as unsatisfactory pour point depressing ability for crudes, poor thermal and shearing resistibility. Enlightened by the advantages of polymer/inorganic nanocomposites, we developed nanohybrid PPDs by dispersing nanoparticles into polymeric PPD matrixes to prepare nanocomposite PPDs in order to enhance the performance of traditional PPDs. Firstly, spherical nano-silica was chosen to prepare polyacrylates/hydrophilic silica nano-hybrid particles and it was found that the hybrid particles could modify the morphology of the wax crystals precipitated from model waxy oils, thus further decreasing the gelation point, viscosity, yield stress of the waxy oils. However, the efficency of the hybrid particles decreases greatly with rest time to pure efficency of PPDs in the end. It is deduced that the compatibility between the oleophilic PPDs and the hydrophilic nano-silica is not good. In order to strenghen the compatibility between PPDs and nano-particles, the plate-like nano-clay was organically modified by quaternary ammonium surfacant and then dipersed into polymeric PPDs. Compared to an identical content of PPDs, addition of polymer/clay nanocomposite PPDs to waxy crude oil improves the rheological properties while elevating the wax appearance temperature of the oil. Polarized microscope observation shows that polymer/clay nanocomposites provide wax nucleation sites upon which wax molecules assemble and precipitate. Addition of polymer/clay nanocomposite PPD results in larger and more compact crystal morphology, thus inhibiting the formation of a network structure, and further improving rheological properties of waxy crude oil
Johnson Kakeu
Morehouse College in Atlanta, USA
Title: Do recursive preferences better explain the evolution of oil prices? theory and empirical test
Biography:
Dr. Johnson Kakeu is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Before joining Morehouse College, he taught at Georgia Institute of Technology (USA). He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from University of Montreal, and a Master’s in Statistics and Economics. His research interests include Oil Markets, Macroeconomics, Sustainability and Capital Markets. He has published papers in Energy Economics, the BE journal of Macroeconomics, Environmental and Resource Economics, Dynamic Games and Applications, etc.
Abstract:
This empirical paper derives and estimates a new recursive-pricing rule for oil prices. We use a novel econometric methodology to estimate the determinants of the behavior of oil prices. We show that factors including production technology, expectations about the future prospects, and oil reserves are important factors that determine the behavior of oil prices. Policy implications for the oil industry are discussed
- Oil Production
Session Introduction
Akbota Adilbekova
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan
Title: Thermochemical demulsification of the crude oil emulsions by some nonionic surfactants
Biography:
Akbota Adilbekova has graduated from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in 1995. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Analytical, Colloid Chemistry and Technology Rare Elements. She has published more than 35 papers in different journals and conference proceedings. Her research area includes surface science, surfactant complex formation at the liquid interfaces, disperse systems, formation and destabilizationof oil emulsions.
Abstract:
Water-in-oil emulsions form during production of crude oil which is often accompanied by mixing with underground water. Under the production conditions, a proportion of this water is dispersed throughout the crude oil as small droplets. In order to minimize the production problems related to crude oil emulsions and prevent corrosion processes of oil pipelines, it is necessary to break down these emulsions. The presence of water in crude oil is undesirable and can increase the cost of transportation because of chloride salts content in aqueous phase of emulsion. The aim of our research is to study the influence of nonionic surfactants based on alkoxylatedalcholos on the thermochemical dehydration of oil from North-West Konys field of Kazakhstan. The bottle test was carried out on the model emulsion with different water content (30-60%). Thermochemical dewatering was investigated at temperature from 40°C to 60°C. The commercial nonionic surfactants – block copolymers of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide – BASAROL PE 6100, BASAROL RPE 3110, BASOROL PE 6400 (“BASF”, Germany) and Tween 20, Tween 80 were used as demulsifiers. Nonionic surfactants do not produce counter ions because of neutrality, therefore there is no corrosion effect at using them. According to the results Basorol PE 6400 shows better demulsifying effect, dewatering degree equals to 82.01% (T=600C). The demulsifying action is connected with their interfacial adsorbing capability according to their hydrophilic-lypophilic balance. The addition of benzene solvent favored the growth of destabilization at low temperature, W=80% at 400C.
Shi-Zhong Yang
East China University of Science and Technology, China
Title: Fast Hydrolysis for Determination of Lipopeptides on Solid Surface
Biography:
Shi-Zhong Yang received his PhD from East China University of Science and Technology. He is the full-time professor and supervisor of PhD and MD candidates. He has published more than 40 papers in peer review journals.
Abstract:
Lipopeptide is a kind of important biosurfactant which has been employed in oil production as an ingredient in oil-flooding formula and have potential application in many other industry fields. Its determination is helpful in their studies and applications. However its hydrolysis is a time-consuming process. A hydrolysis method of lipopeptide on solids surface was proposed to greatly shorten the analysis time. Firstly, the lipopeptide in organic solution was stained on the bottom of a glass vials and was hydrolysized in an atmosphere of HCl and water steam in a sealed Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene)-lined reactor. Then the released main amino acid, leucine, was labeled with Dansyl Chloride and determined by HPLC equipped fluorescence detector. The results showed that the lipopeptide could be hydrolysized completely at 150ºC in an atmosphere of 10mL concentrated HCl per atmosphere liter for 4 h. This hydrolysis method dramatically reduced the lipopeptide hydrolysis time to 4 h from 24 h and the post-treatment, needed in solution hydrolysis, was omitted. The target amino acid might not be decomposed under the hydrolysis condition. In addition, produced fatty acids after hydrolysis did not hinder the amino determination. The response of integrate area of labeled Leu in HPLC to the lipopeptide quantity was in good linear relationship. It indicated that the hydrolysis method for lipopeptide could be used to determine lipopeptide quantitatively in a shorter time.
Zhang Guoying
China University of Mining & Technology, China
Title: A New Interface Detection Method Based on Heat Transfer Rate of Oil and Water
Biography:
Zhang Guoying work in China university of mining & technology (Beijing) mechanical and electrical and information engineering college of computer science. She has published more than 40 academic papers and published a academic works . She got the seven patents of invention as the first inventor.
Abstract:
The detection of interface between water and oil is of great significance for the heavy oil exploitation. However, the existing detection techniques suffer from some problems such as low efficiency and poor accuracy. A new interface detecting method based on the heat transfer rate between oil and water is proposed. Heat transfer model and Heat transfer rate model which include heat conduction and heat convection have been established in the paper. Experiments of the thermal conductivity of oil and water were carried out under constant temperature condition and heat transfer rate was calculated by difference method Results shows that the heat transfer rate of water is much greater than that of heavy oil at different temperatures which are consistent with the proposed model, demonstrating that detection of oil-water interface position can be realized by measuring the difference of heat transfer rate between oil and water.
Jin-Feng Liu
East China University of Science and Technology, China
Title: The influence of sulfide on the viscosity of HPAM used in oil recovery and the concerning mechanism
Biography:
Jin-Feng Liu received his PhD from East China University of Science and Technology. He has published more than 15 papers in peer review journals.
Abstract:
Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) flooding plays an important role in enhancing oil recovery by increasing the viscosity of flooding fluid containing it. However, the viscosity of HPAM solution is found to be influenced significantly by sulfide. To better understand this phenomenon, the rheological behavior, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and 1H NMR analysis were conducted to evaluate the influence of sulfide on viscosity of HPAM solution. The results showed that sulfide ions, even at 3 mg/L, reduced the viscosity of HPAM solution by a factor of more than 90%. The network structure of HPAM in water was apparently destroyed and the hydrodynamic radius decreased by the treatment with sulfide ions. More interestingly, the viscosity reduction could not be recovered by dialysis and the oxidizing products of sulfide ions by H2O2 could not significantly reduce HAPM viscosity. Furtherly, 1H NMR spectra indicated that the chemical environment of some protons in methyne group connected to the amide group in HPAM molecules were changed by sulfide ions. These results imply that sulfide ions reduce hydrodynamic radius and destroy three dimensional network structure of HPAM in solution by binding two side chains intra-/inter- HPAM molecules and consequently decrease the viscosity of its solution. The present studies are of referential value in researches on the interaction between sulfide and HPAM. Also, as sulfate reducing microorganisms universally inhabit in oil reservoirs, these results are important in guiding the way to promote the efficiency of HPAM flooding by reducing sulfide in oil reservoir via inhibiting SRB production activity.
Fei Yang
China University of Petroleum, China
Title: Inorganic Nanoparticles Facilitate Pour Point Depressing Ability of Polymeric Pour Point Depressants
Biography:
Fei Yang has completed his PhD from Shandong University. He is at present the associated professor of China University of Petroleum. His main research interests focus on the rheology of crude oils, flow improvers of crude oils, crude oil emulsions and wax deposition of crude oil pipelines. He has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as reviewer of many reputed journals.
Abstract:
Polymeric pour point depressants (PPDs) have been widely used in many waxy crude oil pipelines. However, traditional PPDs still have some defects such as unsatisfactory pour point depressing ability for crudes, poor thermal and shearing resistibility. Enlightened by the advantages of polymer/inorganic nanocomposites, we developed nano-hybrid PPDs by dispersing nanoparticles into polymeric PPD matrixes to prepare nanocomposite PPDs in order to enhance the performance of traditional PPDs. Firstly, spherical nano-silica was chosen to prepare polyacrylates/hydrophilic silica nano-hybrid particles and it was found that the hybrid particles could modify the morphology of the wax crystals precipitated from model waxy oils, thus further decreasing the gelation point, viscosity, yield stress of the waxy oils. However, the efficiency of the hybrid particles decreases greatly with rest time to pure efficiency of PPDs in the end. It is deduced that the compatibility between the oleophilic PPDs and the hydrophilic nano-silica is not good. In order to strengthen the compatibility between PPDs and nano-particles, the plate-like nano-clay was organically modified by quaternary ammonium surfactant and then dispersed into polymeric PPDs. Compared to an identical content of PPD’s, addition of polymer/clay nanocomposite PPDs to waxy crude oil improves the rheological properties while elevating the wax appearance temperature of the oil. Polarized microscope observation shows that polymer/clay nanocomposites provide wax nucleation sites upon which wax molecules assemble and precipitate. Addition of polymer/clay nanocomposite PPD results in larger and more compact crystal morphology, thus inhibiting the formation of a network structure, and further improving rheological properties of waxy crude oil.
Changchun Yang
China University of Petroleum,P. R. China
Title: Synthesis and performance evaluation of high-temperature and high-salinity tolerance polymer microspheres
Biography:
Changchun Yang has completed his Master's degree from Xi’an Shiyou University and is a Doctoral candidate in China University of Petroleum-Beijing. He participated as mentor of National Key Scientific and Technological Project (Grant No.2011ZX05009-004) and National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Grant No.2011CB707305). He has published more than 10 papers in reputed journals. His main research direction was about enhanced oil recovery and oil chemistry.
Abstract:
Various technical problems are currently encountered in using regular plugging agents. The performance of these agents in terms of high temperature and salinity tolerance is poor. The cross-linking reaction time is difficult to control and the valid period of the operation measures is short. This study system of deep profile control and water shutoff was researched for high-temperature and high-salinity reservoirs. The microstructure of divinylbenzene-co-acrylamide microspheres were designed according to the principle of deep profile control and water shutoff. Scanning electron microscopy tests, showed that the interior of the microspheres was hollow and that the shell had a nanoporous structure. The basic performance of the microspheres was evaluated, including their suspension, temperature resistance, thermal stability, expansion, and plugging effect at 115°C. Results showed that the sedimentation rate of microsphere solution was 0.005 mL/min. The temperature tolerance of the microspheres was reached 300°C by thermal gravimetric analysis. After 180 days, the microspheres did not appear to be carbonized. The microspheres showed weak expansion and could migrate into deep reservoirs. The residual resistance coefficient of the injection and anti-injection experiments was still greater than 2. Only microsphere plugging slug was used. The amplitude of enhanced oil recovery reached 7%. Domestic oil field tests showed that, by increasing the amount of oil by 5.11t each day after profile control, the general water percentage decreased from 64.11% to 32.08%.
Yongbin Cui
Synfuels China Technology Co., Ltd., China
Title: Multistage Liquefaction Technology for Lignite and Heavy Oil Upgrading
Biography:
Yongbin Cui has completed his PhD from The University of New South Wales. He is the Deputy Chief Engineer of Synfuels China Engineering Ltd. Synfuels China is a technology provider for Fisher-Tropsch synthesis and product upgrading technologies for coal-to-liquids and gas-to-liquids and heavy oil upgrading, and provide EPC services to its clients.
Abstract:
Synfuels China is a technology provider. A novel multistage liquefaction technology has been developed by Synfuels China, in order to improve the efficiency of liquefaction for low-rank coals and heavy oil residuals. The multistage coal liquefaction process consists of two sub-processes. Low-rank coals or heavy oil residuals are first hydrolyzed in hydrogen atmosphere in a slurry-bed reactor under 4.0-5.0 MPa and 420-460oC by mixing the feedstock with certain high activity catalyst in a solvent with high hydrogen-donor ability. The residues from the hydro-pyrolysis process is then gasified to produce syngas. After being purified, the syngas is converted to liquid fuels using synfuels China proprietary High-Temperature Slurry Fischer-Tropsch Process (HTSFTP) technology, which has been successfully applied in two 4000 BPD CTL demonstration plants, running at full load for more than five years in China. Synfuels China has carried out comprehensive R&D work on the hydrogen-pyrolysis process, including studies on high-performance catalysts, hydrogen transfer mechanism, and the properties of feedstocks as well. For a typical heavy oil with a API of 9.9 and IBP of 211.4oC, the oil yield can be improved from the initial 35.8% (< 520oC) to ~85% (< 520oC) after the heavy oil feedstock is processed via the multistage liquefaction process (once-through only). For a typical brown coal, its conversion rate can reach 88-92%, and oil yield is up to 60.0% after the hydrogen-pyrolysis at ~4.0 MPa. This technology has been verified in our pilot plant with a capacity of 80 BPD.
Guo Jixiang
China University of Petroleum, China
Title: Study on performance and application of compound viscosity reducer aim at ultra-heavy oil
Biography:
Guo Jixiang has completed his PhD at the age of 39 years from China University of Petroleum, Beijing. She is a professor and doctoral supervisor major in enhancing oil recovery. She has presided over several China's major scientific research projects. She has published more than 40 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member.
Abstract:
In view of the problem of mining ultra-heavy oil is very difficult A new compound viscosity reducer SDG-2 is discussed in this paper. Emulsification effect, droplet size distributions, interfacial tension, emulsion morphology and field test were investigated to better show the advantages of compound viscosity reducer compared with oil-soluble and water-soluble viscosity reducer by FM200 high speed homogenizer, interfacial tensiometer, interfacial rheometer and optical microscopy and so on. The results showed that the SDG-2 can emulsify ultra-heavy oil (1.81×105 mPa•s) which cannot be emulsified by commercial water-soluble viscosity reducers, the average droplet size of the stable emulsion was 2.415um and demulsification was not influenced. Much lower oil-water interfacial tension with SDG-2 than that with oil-soluble viscosity at the same concentration. And the research results showed that the SDG-2 was more effective than commercial oil-soluble viscosity reducer. The rate of viscosity reduction can reached 99% at 50℃ and 95% at 90℃ with SDG-2 while 95.6% at 50℃ and 90.3% at 90℃ with oil-soluble viscosity reducer. In addition, it also has characteristic of broad applicability which is suitable for ultra-heavy oil viscosity ranged from 2.0×104 mPa•s to 1.0×105 mPa•s. Field tests of the newly developed compound viscosity reducer was carried out in Tahe oilï¬led in China, and the results showed that 66.6% less light oil was needed to dilute the heavy oil to achieve the needed viscosity and enhance the ultra-heavy oil recovery rate by 22.5%. We have interest to see its remarkable economic and social benefits.
Biography:
Fawzi Banat is a Professor and Chair of Chemical Engineering Department at the Petroleum Institute (PI). After obtaining his chemical engineering Doctorate at McGill University, Canada, in 1995, he taught at several universities before joining the PI in 2011. He has published over 120 papers in reputed journals and served in many scientific committees.
Abstract:
Over half of the original oil in place (OOIP) is retained in a reservoir after the implementation of primary and secondary production schemes. Hence implementation of chemical stimulation techniques such as surfactant flooding as tertiary-stage recovery method for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is inevitable. An important element of oil recovery based on surfactant flooding is the lowering of the interfacial tension between the aqueous and oil phases. The availability of a large number of surfactants helps in conducting a systematic study of the relation between surfactant structure and its efficacy for oil recovery. Addition of an alkali such as sodium carbonate aids in generating surfactants in-situ and significantly reduces surfactant and co-surfactant adsorption onto the rock during injection and chromatographic separation of the same during co-injection. In addition to reduction of interfacial tension to ultra-low values, surfactants and alkali can also alter the wettability of the rock surfaces to enhance oil recovery. Though, chemical-based EOR techniques have never been responsible for significant enhanced oil production worldwide, surfactants are increasingly implemented as chemical well stimulators, wettability alteration agents and foam generators in several EOR projects. This is an active research area for researchers throughout the world. This study reviewed and assessed some of the recent advances and prospects of surfactant flooding process in oil recovery in the petroleum industry along with its limitations and future prospects in maximizing oil recovery.
Nilesh Chandak
Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (TAKREER), Abu Dhabi
Title: Pilot plant experimentation to optimize the use of re-generated CoMo catalyst to process atmospheric and vacuum gas oils
Biography:
Nilesh Chandak has completed his master in chemical engineering from Pune University and is having 20+ years of experience in applications and operations in oil & gas research area. He is the Head of Pilot Plant Operations at Takreer Research center (ADNOC Group Company) in Abu Dhabi. He having publications in various reputed journals and his areas of research are in refining processes viz. Atmospheric and vacuum distillations, hydrotreating, hydrocracking, reforming, isomerization etc.
Abstract:
TAKREER Research Centre (TRC) has conducted a feasibility study on regenerated CoMo catalyst for various possible re-use viz. for naphtha hydrotreating, Kero and ULSD production. This paper focus on the pilot plant testing of regenerated CoMo catalyst for ULSD production by processing LVGO & HGO blends at various ratios for re-use in another hydrotreater unit of refinery. Regenerated catalyst, which was unloaded from commercial hydrotreater after its turnaround, was evaluated using four different blends of LVGO & HGO. During entire experimentation, process conditions viz. 0.5 h-1 LHSV, 57 bar pressure and 300 Nm3/m3 H2/Oil ratio, were unchanged while feed & temperature were variable parameters. Based on the pilot study results we anticipated processing LVGO with HGO blend feed needs 5 °C to 10 °C higher activity comparing with full HGO feed. Estimation of hydrogen consumption & cycle life cycle of the catalyst along with detailed experimentation has been discussed. Details of hydro processing pilot plant design, operation and data analysis are mentioned in which operating conditions were tuned to commercial unit. The experimental results have shown the effective techniques to validate the regenerated CoMo catalyst testing at pilot scale for optimized re-use in commercial refinery
Hector Ngozi Akangbou
University of Salford, Uk
Title: Proactive control of water and gas coning in the Laboratory
Biography:
Hector Ngozi Akangbou is a 28 years old PhD candidate at the University of Salford and a member of the spray research group and petroleum technology research group at the School of Computing Science and Engineering, University of Salford.
Abstract:
Water and gas coning occurring simultaneously is a well-known reservoir problem that negatively affect the overall recovery efficiency of oil reservoirs and early shut-in of wells. Coning is known to occur when viscous and gravitational forces are imbalanced in the reservoir due to high pressure drawdown. Coning, being a naturally occurring phenomenon cannot be completely avoided. However, in this study a physical model is used to investigate the efficiency of an electromagnetic-valve in controlling production of effluents from a homogeneous, non-fractured reservoir. The technique involves the use of a solenoid gate-valve mounted with an adjustable timer at the outlet of the horizontal well. This idea is based on the principle of density segregation and breakthrough times for water and gas aimed at boycotting the production of effluents as much as possible, especially at the early stage of oil production. The lowest calculated breakthrough time for water or gas will be preferred and pre-set on the solenoid gate-valve but slightly lower to ensure neither water nor gas is produced. The solenoid gate-valve will close almost immediately at the set-time thereby shutting oil production temporarily, causing the water and gas height levels to recede by gravity and density. The process will be repeated until no more oil can be produced. The oil recovery efficiency of this technique at different GOC, WOC, bottom water and gas drive intensities will be presented, analysed and compared with a similar physical simulation, in terms of Water-Oil-Ratio without an electromagnetic gate-valve but at same production time-step.
Vikas Prakash
Great Lakes Institute of Management, india
Title: Oil Glut – Will India Shun Oil or Run on Oil?
Biography:
Prof Vikas Prakash is Director of the PGPM Energy at Great Lakes Insitute of Management, Gurgaon, India. He has MBA in Energy from University of Houston, USA. He is PhD from UBS, Panjab University Chandigarh and was selected for Doctoral Student Program of European Commision under EU-India Program. He has more than a two decades experience in academics and research. He has particpated in many international conferences and published many articles. He has conducted around 25 management development programs for energy sector companies like Shell, Cairn, Indian Oil, Oil India and HPCL etc.
Abstract:
Oil has continuously lost its share in the global energy basket since the first Oil Shock in 1973, when It commanded almost 50% share. Quest for alternative energy sources and energy efficient technologies accentuated with the Second Oil Shock. The share of oil had come down to 40% by 1980. During 80s and 90s it maintained its share around 40%. OECD oil demand fell. By 2009, Non-OECD demand, buoyed by China and India, surpassed the OECD demand. By 2014, share of oil had declined to near about 33 per cent. 2014 saw China slowing down with GDP growth rate of about 7%. Energy intensive industries like steel, iron and cement showed very sharp drop in growth. One may not see the Chinese energy demand rising significantly. With lower oil revenue available, even Saudi Arabia may find it difficult to finance its developmental push. This leaves India as a major hope for the oil glut global economy. Low price of crude oil has enabled the country to rein in inflation and current account deficit. Interest rates have been lowered, triggering expectations of spurt in economic activity. Initiatives like ‘Make in India’, ‘Start Up India Fund’ and ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’ are expected to boost the oil demand. Interestingly, emphasis on renewable energy (175 GW by 2022); Smart Cities; Record coal production (550 MT this year); LNG re-gasification terminals and environmental concerns may lead to curtailing of demand. Will India prove to be ‘Brutus’ in oil’s misery or become savior by raising demand?