Published by the DTI Oil & Gas Directorate for the reservoir engineering and IOR community in the UK.
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Review of ITF Activity during 2001

Duncan Anderson, Chairman of the Subsurface Technical Working Group, reviews the activities of the ITF during 2001. (d.anderson@oil-itf.com)

During ITF's first year of operation, most activity was concerned with promotion of novel concepts and ideas on a one-off basis. For 2001, in addition to continuing to work with developers on innovative 'one-off' ideas, ITF began to work towards a more proactive and targeted theme-based approach.

This approach began with meetings of ITF's member oil companies and other stakeholders to identify clear business needs and technology gaps, initially in the subsurface area. Two themes were established - Seismic Reservoir Characterisation & Structurally Complex Reservoirs. The R&D community was then invited to develop innovative solutions to tackle these needs and submit brief proposal outlines to ITF.

Proposal assessment was a two stage process, undertaken by industry experts. It began with a shortlisting based on the brief outlines received. More detailed proposals were then invited for the second stage of assessment. The overall objective was to establish a number of parallel projects which individually address different aspects of the business needs and technology gaps originally identified.

This process has proved to be a successful route to developing innovative, funded R&D programmes and has gained broad support from across the UKCS operating companies. Two programmes, under the titles of Seismic Reservoir Characterisation & Structurally Complex Reservoirs have now been established. Each will last for three years and together they consist of nine interlinked projects led by major UK and overseas universities, with active participation from the SME sector. They will be funded by a consortium of ten oil companies and the DTI with a total commitment of £4 million over the period.

The Structurally Complex Reservoirs Programme was established to promote technology advances in the areas of detection and prediction of geological faults and fractures, and their properties. Improvements in these areas will yield real business benefits in terms of optimising reserves, well targeting, eliminating development surprises and improving exploration success.

The Seismic Reservoir Characterisation Programme was established to promote technology advances in the areas of seismic resolution and rapid prediction of reservoir performance from seismic data. The benefits of this programme will include better placement of wells, better definition of reserves and where they are to be found, and improved day to day well and reservoir management.

The projects will be led by Heriot Watt University, Imperial College, University of Edinburgh, University of Leeds, University College Dublin and Colorado School of Mines.

Following the success of the 2001 subsurface programmes, ITF plans to continue the thematic approach through 2002 and beyond. The current themes agreed with ITF member companies are listed in the table below.

Full details of all ITF activities are available on www.oil-itf.com. Registration of interest in any of the themes can be done through the form on the website or by e-mail to itf@oil-itf.com.

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