Data & Analytics

Robotic submarines, capable of operating by themselves thousands of feet underwater for months or perhaps years at a time, are under development as the vanguard of tomorrow’s subsea oil and gas fields.

Unmanned aircraft are finding their place in the oil and gas industry by providing aerial geologic modeling to address reservoir-related challenges and making inspections safer.

The smart-field concept is deployed through disseminating elements of tools and infrastructure integrated to bring a level of smartness that can improve the performance of an oilfield asset in a sustainable way.  How this is accomplished can vary widely depending on the field.

Not only are individual wells challenging, but most are part of a complex reservoir network that must be managed over an extended period.

Statoil, operating the Troll field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, wished to run a deep sidetrack from the main bore in a multilateral well that would exit through the liner in the reservoir. Several zonal-isolation methods had been evaluated, but on the basis of previous experience Statoil decided to use swellable-packer technology. Testing revealed that th…

The steam-assisted-gravity-drainage (SAGD) process along with an efficient steam-use process can reduce production costs and increase the oil-recovery rate. The use of real-time downhole monitoring is an effective approach to achieve this optimization.

I recently attended an internal conference in my company where one of the major topics was unconventionals. I have followed at some distance the business and technical trends that have shaped this still-­emerging opportunity set, but this was my first exposure to behind-the-scenes experiences.

This paper describes an all-in-one system that combines nodal-analysis and numerical-simulation models to calculate the effect of intelligent-completion components—such as swell packers, internal control valves, and inflow-control devices—on lateral production profiles.

The smart multilateral well has assisted in addressing premature water breakthrough, has enhanced water-free oil production, and has facilitated uniform depletion, which results in improved hydrocarbon recovery.

Silixa’s iDAS (intelligent Distributed Acoustic Sensor) offers a solution for permanent and continuous downhole production monitoring and reservoir monitoring by overcoming the cost and technology challenges encountered with traditional point sensors.