Oil & Gas - Maximising Recovery Programme (formerly SHARP) IOR Views

Base Development Case

The seminar was held at the Grampian Hotel in Aberdeen and attracted around 70 delegates. The delegates came from a cross-section of the major operators, as well as from a number of the newer players who hold Promote licences relating to Heavy Oil accumulations. The service sector was also well represented.

The principal theme of the day was "Improving the Base Development Case". In the morning there was an introduction by Simon Toole, Director of LCU-LED discussing the various DTI initiatives to encourage further development of the UKCS, followed by Colin Cranfield, DTI-NNS Field Team who addressed the base development case challenge. Although there are techniques available which will, in principle, increase recovery factor (such as hot water and steam injection), in the first instance the (base) development would need to rely on conventional recovery techniques such as cold water injection or aquifer support. The challenge is to make a base case economic, and this is the issue that needs tackling. Delegates split into break-out groups to consider possible solutions and then reported back. The findings will be included in a note of the outcomes from the seminar which is in preparation and will be made available soon on the DTI UKCS Heavy Oil Matters website (http://heavyoil.senergyltd.com/).

Delegates Discussing a Possible Solution to Achieving an Economic Base Case during the Break-Out Session

There then followed a session on marketing and downstream issues. Colin Birch of Purvin & Gurtz discussed the outlook for crude oil supply and demand, and the pricing issues associated with heavy oil. At a time of high demand a high proportion of the increase in supply is met by heavy oil, but there is a bigger discount in the price (both as a proportion and in absolute terms) compared to the lighter crudes. Paul Jennings of Nautical Petroleum talked about the markets for acidic heavy oil crudes. One possibility, as discussed by Peter Dodd of Quadrise, is to process the heavier fractions into an emulsion called Multiphase Superfine Atomized Residue (MSAR), similar to Orimulsion, and burn this in converted oil fired power stations. Britain has a number of these which are currently only used for peak shaving. An environmental benefit would be that, compared to burning coal, CO2 emissions are reduced by about a third.

Peter Dodd of Quadrise Shows MSAR, an Emulsion Created from Heavy Oil which can be Burned in Power Stations

New Technologies

The afternoon session kicked-off with a number of presentations in the area of "new technology". Mauro Tambini of ENI spoke about a technique that ENI had developed to create a dispersion of heavy oil in water. This reduces the effective viscosity easing the pressure drops along pipelines. Peter Blom of Mare Corp discussed Mare's development of a low motion semi-sub which would allow the use of "dry trees". Oil would be exported by shuttle tankers to a proposed new upgrader facility at Teeside. Tianxiang Xia of Total Geoscience Research Centre presented work on in situ combustion as a technique for recovering heavy oil. In the past gravity override and the effect of heterogeneities had resulted in poor sweep from the process. However, new thinking has produced a well arrangement which allows the movement of the combustion front to be controlled. Simulations of this "toe-to-heel" air injection technique showed that recovery factors could be very high.

The seminar concluded with a discussion of the opportunities for sharing and collaboration. David Hughes ran through the information that can be found on the DTI UKCS Heavy Oil Matters website, one vehicle through which information can be exchanged. Other ideas from the floor for sharing information were to establish a quarterly newsletter and to hold an SPE Seminar on Heavy Oil. Creating a "Centre of Excellence" within academia was another suggestion which might help focus research.

As noted above, a note of the outcomes from the seminar is in preparation and will be made available soon on the DTI UKCS Heavy Oil Matters website (http://heavyoil.senergyltd.com/) together with the PowerPoint presentations used on the day.