Future Events
22 - 26 Apr 2006, Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.
The SPE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium is the industry's leading forum for the exchange of information on new techniques and technologies related to enhanced and improved oil recovery. For more than 30 years, this symposium has attracted technical papers from some of the world's top research scientists and experienced reservoir managers, all pointing the way to better understanding of reservoir mechanics and various IOR and EOR projects. The theme of the 15th Symposium is “Old Reservoirs – New Tricks (A Global Perspective).”
17-18 May 2006, DEVEX 2006, 3rd European production and development conference on subsurface techniques for maximising recovery (incorporating DTI IOR Dissemination Seminar), Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, Scotland.
Presentations on production and development techniques that are designed to maximise the recovery of hydrocarbons, covering geoscience, petrophysics, reservoir/petroleum engineering and innovative drilling/completion techniques. Topics include:
- HP/HT fields
- Fallow discoveries, unlocking infrastructure
- Heavy oil development
- Brownfields
- Greenfields
- Field reactivations
- New technology
- Improved oil recovery
- Use of geophysical techniques to maximise recovery
- Near field exploration and satellite development
- Gas renaissance
- Novel drilling and completion techniques
- Reservoir modelling
- Chalk
12-15 June 2006, SPE Europec/EAGE Annual Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria.
Following the great response to the Call for Papers for the 2005 14th SPE EUROPEC conference, organized for the first time alongside the EAGE annual conference in Madrid, a repeat event is now scheduled on 12-15 June 2006 in Vienna.This will once again provide the opportunity for the geoscience and engineering community to meet and share in technical knowledge and learn from each others’ experiences across organizations and disciplines
25-30 June 2006, CO2 Capture and Storage--A Dual Benefit for the Oil and Gas Industry - Forum, Broomfield, Colorado, USA.
There are huge opportunities in the oil and gas industry to combine EOR with requirements for capturing and storing CO2. Demonstration projects around the world are showing that capture and sub-surface injection of CO2 from anthropogenic sources is feasible, including in trans-national projects, and that the CO2 taken from emission points can be used to enhance the production of oil fields. Large reservoir volumes may then become available for CO2 injection.
This forum will discuss the requirements for CO2 capture and storage to become a way of contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gases as well as enhancing the production of oil and gas fields. It aims at bringing together the practitioners, who are currently using CO2 in their EOR projects, the brownfield asset managers and geoscience experts, along with the technology developers and suppliers. The forum would also benefit from the participation of representatives from the power and downstream sectors.
25-30 June 2006, Enhanced Oil Recovery --- What's Next? - Forum, Broomfield, Colorado, USA.
As oil fields reach maturity and global demand increases, there
will be a shift in the balance from exploration and production
of new oil to the enhanced recovery of oil (EOR) that is known to exist.
This will become evident as the economics of EOR projects become
competitive with future exploration and development.
Although enhanced oil recovery processes have long been of interest
to the petroleum industry, low oil prices of the past decades
have made the application of some of these technologies challenging.
In spite of this, certain thermal and miscible flooding processes were
researched, developed and successfully applied, largely in the Americas.
Research and development from the upstream oil and gas industry has diminished but continues in academia. Is more R & D necessary on a larger scale in the future? Can miscible gas, chemical or thermal processes be applied to naturally fractured reservoirs? Can advancements in wellbore architecture be coupled with these processes in complex reservoirs? Can EOR be expanded beyond thermal and miscible gas processes?
Can these and other EOR processes be attempted globally? Most of the oil discoveries of the past 20 years have been offshore. What are the necessary conditions to make EOR feasible in these offshore environments? Can the limitation of raw materials in remote locations (e.g., CO2) be balanced with creativity to develop maturing oil reservoirs? For example, in-situ combustion via air injection may be applicable for deep, light-oil reservoirs at these locations.
Managing the risk of EOR projects (technology, oil price) must be balanced with efforts to get the oil to market in a timely manner. If these technologies are to be successful, what is next for the petroleum industry? Much of the industry’s EOR expertise has retired or left the industry. How do we regain the momentum to develop these reservoirs with the current workforce? How can EOR technology be used by smaller and financially strong independent companies around the world who control a large volume of reserves?