An Analysis of Reserves Enhancement in Petroleum Reservoirs with Horizontal and Multi-Lateral Wells

Some of the important petroleum reservoirs accumulate beneath the seas and oceans. Marine seismic reflection method is the most efficient method and is widely used in the petroleum industry to map and interpret the potential of petroleum reservoirs. Multiple reflections are a particular problem in marine seismic reflection investigation, as they often obscure the target reflectors in seismic profiles. Multiple reflections can be categorized by considering the shallowest interface on which the bounces take place into two types: internal multiples and surface-related multiples. Besides, the multiples can be categorized on the interfaces where the bounces take place, a difference between long-period and short-period multiples can be considered. The long-period surface-related multiples on 2D marine seismic data of the East Coast of the United States-Southern Atlantic Margin were focused on this research. The seismic profile demonstrates the effectiveness of the results from predictive deconvolution and the combination of surface-related multiple eliminations (SRME) and parabolic Radon filtering. First, predictive deconvolution applied on conventional processing is the method of multiple suppression. The other, SRME is a model-based and data-driven surface-related multiple elimination method which does not need any assumptions. And the last, parabolic Radon filtering is a moveout-based method for residual multiple reflections based on velocity discrimination between primary and multiple reflections, thus velocity model and normal-moveout correction are required for this method. The predictive deconvolution is ineffective for long-period surface-related multiple removals. However, the combination of SRME and parabolic Radon filtering can attenuate almost long-period surface-related multiple reflections and provide a high-quality seismic images of marine seismic data.

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A Study on the Main Parameters That Affects the Reliability of Fatigue Failure in a Marine Drilling Riser

10.1115/omae2021-63125 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Bruno Luiz Barbosa das Chagas ◽

Celso Kazuyuki Morooka

Keyword(s):

Fatigue Damage ◽

Fatigue Failure ◽

Petroleum Reservoirs ◽

Offshore Drilling ◽

Deepwater Drilling ◽

Sea Bottom ◽

Reliability Method ◽

Drilling Operations ◽

Maritime Operations ◽

Sea Currents

Abstract Advances in subsea exploration in the oceans to discover new petroleum reservoirs and sometimes different kind of minerals at the seabed in ultra deepwater, continuously introduce new challenges in offshore drilling operations. This motivates the development of increasingly safe maritime operations. In offshore petroleum, a marine drilling riser is the pipe that connects a wellhead at the sea bottom to a drillship at the sea surface, as an access to the wellbore. It serves as a guide for the drilling column with the drill bit and conductor to carry cuttings of rock coming from the wellbore drilling and its construction. Drilling riser is constantly exposed to adversity from the environment, such as waves, sea currents and platform motions induced by waves. These elements of the environment are prevailing factors that can cause a riser failure during deepwater drilling operations with undesirable consequences for the environment. In the present work, key parameters that influence the probability of fatigue failure in a marine drilling riser are identified, and a parametric evaluation with those parameters are carried out. Dynamic behavior of a riser is previously calculated and fatigue damage is estimated. Afterwards, the First Order Reliability Method (FORM) is applied to determine the probability of fatigue failure on the riser. Fundamentals of the procedure are described, and results are illustrated through the analysis for a typical riser in deepwater drilling operation. Parametric evaluations are done observing points considered as critical along the riser length, and looking to the sensitivity of key parameters in the process. For this study, the SN curve from API guidelines is applied and accumulated fatigue damage is estimated from simulations of the stress time series and applying the Palmgren-Miner’s rule. Finally, the influence of each parameter in the reliability of fatigue failure is verified and discussions given.

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High-Purity, CO2-Free Hydrogen Generation from Crude Oils in Crushed Rocks Using Microwave Heating

10.2118/206341-ms ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Qingwang Yuan ◽

Xiangyu Jie ◽

Bo Ren

Keyword(s):

Microwave Heating ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

High Purity ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Hydrogen Generation ◽

Petroleum Industry ◽

Petroleum Reservoirs ◽

Crude Oils ◽

Hydrogen Yield ◽

Free Hydrogen

Abstract While the demand for hydrocarbon resources has been continuously increasing in the past 150 years, the industry is, however, criticized for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and concomitant global warming concerns. The oil and gas industry also face growing pressures in the ongoing energy transition. Generating and producing hydrogen (H2) directly from petroleum reservoirs has the potential to mitigate environmental impacts while revolutionizing the traditional petroleum industry and enabling it to become a clean hydrogen industry. This paper proposes a novel approach to generate high-purity, CO2-free hydrogen from the abundant oil and gas resources in petroleum reservoirs using microwave heating. In this work, laboratory experiments were conducted to validate this scientific proof-of-concept and examine the roles of crushed rocks, catalysts, and water/oil ratio in hydrogen generation from crude oils in a reactor. A maximum of 63% ultimate hydrogen content is obtained in the generated gas mixtures, while the original CO2content in all experiments is negligible (<1%). Catalysts can promote hydrogen generation by accelerating rate and locally enhancing microwave (MW) absorption to create ‘super-hot spots'. Water also participates in reactions, and additional hydrogen is generated through water-gas shift reactions. The water-oil ratio in porous rocks affects the ultimate hydrogen yield. Overall, this research demonstrates the great potential of using MW heating to generate high-purity, CO2-free hydrogen from in situ petroleum reservoirs. Further research and wide application of this technology would potentially transform petroleum reservoirs to hydrogen generators, thus mitigating the environmental impacts of traditional petroleum industry while meeting the increasing demand for clean hydrogen energy. This technology would also benefit the safe transition towards a decarbonized society.

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