DTI IOR Research Dissemination Seminar, 24 June 2003 , Aberdeen

The DTI's annual IOR research dissemination seminar was held at the Exhibition and Conference Centre in Aberdeen on 24 June 2003 . Here David Hughes (david.hughes@senergyltd.com), editor of the SHARP IOR eNewsletter, reviews the day's proceedings.

65 delegates attended the DTI's annual IOR research dissemination seminar in Aberdeen on 24 June 2003 . Only 14 of the delegates came from operating oil companies. Are some companies missing out on the latest initiatives in the UK 's IOR and EOR drive? We are exploring ways of making this seminar more attractive to operating companies and their partners next year. Any suggestions are welcome.

Welcome

The morning got underway with Simon Toole Director of LCU-LED at the DTI welcoming delegates. He emphasised that the DTI is firmly committed to maintaining the viability of the UK sector of the North Sea , and the targets set by the PILOT initiative (http://www.pilottaskforce.co.uk/docs/AnnualReport12-06-03.pdf). However, based on current forecasts, PILOTs vision of keeping production above 3 million BOE/d by 2010 shows a small shortfall. To fill this gap is the challenge to the IOR and EOR community. To exceed the PILOT vision would be a bonus.

Figure 1: Forecast UKCS Production as of March 2003 (Source UKOOA/Prof Alex Kemp)

Keynote Address

Olivier Gosselin of Total E&P UK plc gave the invited opening keynote address giving the Total perspective on IOR and EOR. He said because of the ambitions production targets set by managements and governments there was a renewed push to exploit EOR processes particularly any synergies with the technology-based IOR techniques. Worldwide, Total has participated as operator or partner in 45 EOR projects covering all processes (Figure 2); of these 17 projects are active in 2003.

Figure 2: Total Has Worldwide Experience of EOR

To assess under performing parts of reservoirs with potential for IOR, Total evaluate production indictors from historical well data and plot these on maps. Evaluation of risk and uncertainty from multiple realisations using a Monte Carlo approach is helping to optimise exploration. On R&D, Total is researching the management of residual gas, steam-assisted gravity drainage for heavy oils and the use of 4D seismic. Olivier has provided an article on 4D seismic work at Total for this issue.

Progress on JIPs

For the rest of the morning in parallel sessions, the universities reported back on progress on JIPs where the DTI SHARP programme contributes funding. These presentations were as below (click on titles to view PDFs of the submitted papers):

• New Advances in Processing P Waves and S Waves for a Shared-Earth Model, Prof Anton Ziolkowski, Edinburgh University
• Studies on Uncertainty and Upscaling in Reservoir Management, Mike Christie, Heriot-Watt University
• Streamline-based Simulation of Fractured Reservoirs, Ginevra Di Donato, Imperial College
• Water Alternating Gas Injection Studies - Phase 2, Dabir Tehrani, Heriot-Watt University
• Gas Condensate Recovery Studies, Ali Danesh, Heriot-Watt University
• Well Test Analysis in Gas Condensate and Volatile Oil Reservoirs, Alain Gringarten, Imperial College
• Flow Assurance: Micro and Macro-Scale Evaluation of Low Dosage Hydrate Inhibitors, Bahman Tohidi, Heriot-Watt University
• Phase Behaviour and Properties of Reservoir Fluids, Fatosh Gozalpour, Heriot-Watt University
• Depressurisation of Waterflooded Reservoirs - Phase 2, Dabir Tehrani, Heriot-Watt University

During lunchtime delegates continued discussion from the morning sessions and took in the poster presentations (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Poster Session - Hannah Chambers (Imperial College) Discusses Her Poster on CO2 Sequestration with Eugene Balbinski (ECL Technology)

In the afternoon there were sessions on "CO2 EOR and Sequestration" and on "Mining Oil Field Data" where industry experts and academics made presentations on their current lines of research.

CO2 EOR and Sequestration

Nick Riley of BGS (Figure 4) began by giving an overview of where CO2 capture for EOR and storage is going in the UK . The move to cut CO2 emissions is especially affecting the coal-power electricity generation industry. Initiatives are underway to implement clean coal technology and where possible exploit the captured CO2 by using it for EOR, thereby maximising sustainable benefit. However, a not insignificant number of research challenges lie ahead if this is going to take off.

http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/coal/cfft/co2capture/index.shtml

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/nascent/home.html

Figure 4: Nick Riley (BGS) Presents an Overview of Initiatives for CO2 Capture, EOR and Storage on the UKCS

David Hanstock of Progressive Energy presented a power industry perspective of CO2 capture for EOR and storage. His company is developing integrated gasification combined cycle projects in the UK positioned to provide a low cost CO2 and hydrogen capture. There is an emerging "hydrogen economy" and CO2 would be directed to EOR.

David Puckett of BP, substituting for Tony Espie, spoke about the use of CO2 for enhanced oil and gas recovery from a North Sea perspective. Depleted oil and gas reservoirs offer more secure long term storage of CO2 than saline aquifers because of the high integrity of the seal. A recent study showed that additional oil could be recovered from Forties but the economics is unfavourable. Compared to land based projects, offshore operations show higher opex, adaptation of facilities to prevent corrosion is expensive and the delayed response reduces IRR. The time taken to reduce the cost of CO2 capture and storage to economic levels may also mean that the limited window of opportunity for the North Sea is missed. Note, however, that no account is taken of the value of sequestering the CO2; the situation could be transformed once carbon trading is implemented.

Putting CO2 back into gas fields is potentially interesting. However, incremental gas production benefits are probably small. There is a high assurance of gas tight seals, large potential storage volumes and the process is less capital intensive than EOR.

Mining Oil Field Data

The final session was an eclectic mix of presentations with the common theme of "data mining". During the nearly 40 year history of data gathering on the UKCS an enormous amount of subsurface information has been accumulated. The challenge is to identify, preserve and make accessible the most useful of these data. Once made accessible the information can be "mined" for a variety of purposes.

Malcolm Fleming of Common Data Access Ltd, spoke about the PILOT data life cycle initiative . Bob Shelley of Halliburton Energy Services in Houston discussed how artificial neural network modelling can be used to identify opportunities. Data mining to identify how reservoir performance is affected by stress-sensitivity was presented by Brian Smart of the Institute of Petroleum Engineering at Heriot-Watt University . Robin Westerman, also from Heriot-Watt, presented his proposal to use data mining for deterministic reservoir modelling. Finally, the application of knowledge technologies (capture, modelling, use/reuse, retrieval, maintenance) to the oil industry was discussed by Derek Sleeman of the University of Aberdeen (http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~sleeman and http://www.ktechc.com).

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