Magnetically Labelled Hybrid Nanosurfactant MLHNS for Upstream Oil and Gas Operations

Nanoencapsulation and targeted chemical delivery techniques have transformed many fields such as pharmaceutical drug delivery for medical treatment and diagnosis, and can similarly transform several upstream oil and gas operations. This paper describes the dual nanoencapsulation of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPOINs) and petroleum sulfonate surfactants to produce hybrid nanosurfactant (MLHNS) in high-salinity water (56,000 ppm) using an inexpensive, scalable, and straightforward synthesis protocol. This novel magnetically labelled nanofluid (NF) is designed to: 1) enhance the residual oil mobilization via altering the rocks wettability and reducing the interfacial tension, and 2) enable in-situ monitoring of injected fluids when combined with EM surveys. NFs encapsulating a petroleum sulfonate surfactant and three different concentrations of 5-nm SPOINs were prepared using a two-step nanoencapsulation method. Both colloidal and chemical stability of the prepared formulations were tested at 90 °C for over a year. Results showed that all the formulations exhibited remarkable long-term colloidal and chemical stability under these close-to-reservoir conditions. Transition electron microscopy (TEM) images confirmed the encapsulation of SPIONs. The SPOINs-NFs have successfully reduced the interfacial tension (IFT) between crude oil and water by more than three orders of magnitude (from ~ 25 mN/m down to ~ 0.01 mN/m). These IFT and stability results demonstrate a strong synergy between SPIONs and the petroleum sulfonate surfactant. It is worth mentioning that this novel encapsulation platform enables the encapsulation of a wide range of nanoparticles (NPs) to generate a library of multi-function NFs to support several upstream applications.

Large-Scale Controlled Experiment Demonstrates Effectiveness of Methane Leak Detection and Repair Programs at Oil and Gas Facilities

The importance of reducing methane emissions from oil and gas operations as a near-term climate action is widely recognized. Most jurisdictions around the globe using leak detection and repair (LDAR) programs to find and fix methane leaks. In this work, we empirically evaluate the efficacy of LDAR programs using a large-scale, bottom-up, randomized controlled field experiment across ~200 oil and gas sites in Canada. We find that tanks are the single largest source of emissions, contributing to nearly 60% of total emissions. The average number of leaks at treatment sites that underwent repair reduced by ~50% compared to control sites. Although control sites did not see a reduction in the number of leaks, emissions reduced by approximately 36% suggesting potential impact of routine maintenance activities to find and fix large leaks. By tracking tags on leaking equipment over time, we find a high degree of persistence – leaks that are repaired remain fixed in follow-up surveys, while non-repaired leaks remain emitting. We did not observe any significant growth in emission rate for non-repaired leaks, suggesting that any increase in observed leak emissions following LDAR surveys are likely from new leaks. Vent emissions reduced by 38% without a significant reduction in the average number of vents across control and treatment sites, showing the importance of both anomalous vents and temporal variations in vent emissions. Our results show that a focus on equipment and sites that are prone to high emissions such as tanks and oil sites are key to cost-effective mitigation.

Next Generation Oilfield on-Site Trace Chemicals Analysis by SERS

Accurate and precise monitoring of chemical additives in oilfield brine is an important aspect of oil and gas operations towards corrosion control and flow assurance. Many operators are required to monitor the residual concentrations of chemical additives in production systems at specific locations to monitor and troubleshoot factors affecting chemical deliverability and performance. However, residual measurements are extremely problematic due to many factors, including the surface active nature of the chemicals and high ionic strength of the brine. The error on residual measurements can often be over 100%. Residual measurement typically requires the collection of a water sample, which often needs to be transported to a centralized analytical laboratory. Analytical techniques used to measure residuals are based on several combinations of separation (e.g. chromatography, liquid-liquid extraction, etc.) and detection (e.g. various forms of spectroscopy). However, most of these methods lack portability and require tedious laboratory procedures located off-site. The current paper describes a nanotechnology-enabled Raman spectroscopy method developed and tested for monitoring chemical inhibitor residuals. Development of this technology with handheld instrumentation provides better detection and quantification of chemical additives in the field and reduces time and cost compared to sending samples to off-site laboratories for data collection.

Applications and Limitations of Quantifying Speciated and Source-Apportioned VOCs with Metal Oxide Sensors

While low-cost air quality sensor quantification has improved tremendously in recent years, speciated hydrocarbons have received little attention beyond total lumped volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or total non-methane hydrocarbons (TNMHCs). In this work, we attempt to use two broad response metal oxide VOC sensors to quantify a host of speciated hydrocarbons as well as smaller groups of hydrocarbons thought to be emanating from the same source or sources. For sensors deployed near oil and gas facilities, we utilize artificial neural networks (ANNs) to calibrate our low-cost sensor signals to regulatory-grade measurements of benzene, toluene, and formaldehyde. We also use positive matrix factorization (PMF) to group these hydrocarbons along with others by source, such as wet and dry components of oil and gas operations. The two locations studied here had different sets of reference hydrocarbon species measurements available, helping us determine which specific hydrocarbons and VOC mixtures are best suited for this approach. Calibration fits on the upper end reach above R2 values of 0.6 despite the parts per billion (ppb) concentration ranges of each, which are magnitudes below the manufacturer’s prescribed detection limits for the sensors. The sensors generally captured the baseline trends in the data, but failed to quantitatively estimate larger spikes that occurred intermittently. While compounds with high variability were not suited for this method, its success with several of the compounds studied represents a crucial first step in low-cost VOC speciation. This work has important implications in improving our understanding of the links between health and environment, as different hydrocarbons will have varied consequences in the human body and atmosphere.

Application of a Novel Analytical Technique to Monitor Corrosion Inhibitor Residual in Oilfield Samples

Accurate and in-time monitoring of corrosion inhibitor (CI) residual concentration is a key factor in asset integrity management for oil and gas operations. However, the natural variability of CI residual due to field conditions is usually convoluted with the error introduced by sampling and analytical techniques. In traditional analytical techniques, it is typical to encounter error of over 100%. Recently, a novel nanoscale technique (TrueDetect™, TD) was developed to accurately measure CI in the field. This technique is based on a proprietary spectrometry technique and allows quick and accurate analysis of CI residual at the ppm level. The portable instrument allows field samples to be analyzed on-site without the need for shipping them to a centralized laboratory. In the current study, the TD technique was applied to analyze field samples from various fields. Moreover, the TD technique was capable of analyzing CIs at low dosages and could be used as a method to qualify CI products in the lab and in the field.

Overcoming Lost Circulation Risks in Low Fracture Gradient Formations with a New Tailored Spacer System

In certain regions of oil and gas operations, lost circulation is a common occurrence, especially when a majority of the openhole exposed during primary cementing is carbonate-based formations. This can lead to lost circulation risks in most applications. To overcome lost circulation risks during primary cementing, a new tailored spacer system shows to improve the cement placement success. The manuscript discusses the quality assurance and performance testing with field cases demonstrating the value contributions of the spacer for achieving zonal isolation requirements as well as the top of cement objectives. The work efforts presented shows a spacer meeting and sometimes showing incremental wellbore strengthening in comparison to the published literature for existing available spacers used to overcome similar lost circulation risks.

Study proposal of the impact of gas flaring on health of communities in Delta state Nigeria

<p class="abstract">Gas flaring is the continuous discharge of gaseous fuel into the atmosphere during oil and gas operations. Over the past years, there has been an increased concern of the impact of gas flaring on the environment and recently on human health. The impact of gas flaring in Niger Delta, Nigeria is of local and global environmental concern. The uncontrolled and wasteful flaring of gas has caused negative impacts on the flora, fauna and human health and livelihood in the region. Reports indicate that gas flaring in Nigeria contributed more greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons to the atmosphere than the combined contribution of gas flaring on GHGs in the Sub-Saharan African countries. The GHGs emitted during gas flaring contribute significantly to global warming which may result in sea level rise and hasten the effects of climate change. Gas flaring, commonly carried out by oil exploration companies in Nigeria poses a hazard to the health of populations and environment by pollution, warming and release of GHGs. This study seeked to identify the risks associated with gas flaring in relation to human health in Delta region of Nigeria.</p>

Planning for Unknown in The New Age of Digital: A Paradigm for Offshore Oil and Gas Risk Assessment and Management

Major Oil and Gas operators and service companies look to undertake large scale digital transformations aimed at producing integrated, connected, and intelligent enterprises. These transformations require accelerating the journey to the cloud to modernize the entire application portfolio. By transitioning to the cloud, firms enjoy improved data analytics which allow for evolution to next generation digital work environment. This shift, however, comes with workforce challenges. Employees in all categories and at most levels will require significant cross- and up-skilling to take full advantage of the digital transformation. As vendors, suppliers, service companies, and operators move products and equipment around an expanding ecosystem of assets, security threats are likely to increase due to further geopolitical instability. Data based decision making, which enables the optimization of assets and automation of operations to minimize workforce risk exposure must be implemented with consideration of enterprise risk reduction (across the asset and workforce operational risk life cycle). As Oil and Gas operations become more geographically dispersed and diverse, they are exposed to new and evolving risk factors which can directly impact value. These risk factors make asset acquisition, development, management, and maintenance all more challenging. Analyses of risk in a digital foundation risk-based platform is most valuable at the earliest stages of asset development in determining whether to proceed with the planned development through to end-of-life decommissioning. Successful firms must create an end-to-end digital roadmap which delineates between technical and transactional activities and outlines effective stakeholder engagement at each project stage. The fundamental thesis of this paper is that although risk can be mitigated and reduced through the introduction of digital tools into oil and gas operations, it can never be completely removed. Furthermore, while industry research on the impact of digitalization usually rely heavily on cost savings, optimization, and health, safety, and environment (HSE) related cases, they typically fail to consider the contribution of digitalization on risk assessment and management. This paper argues that we need to move away from the focus on cost savings, process optimization, and HSE metrics improvement metrics. This paper sets up a mechanism for developing risk-based strategies for implementation of digital solutions.

Establishing zakat on oil and gas in Malaysia: a new insight

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to deliberate on the establishment of zakat (Islamic alms) on oil and gas in Malaysia. Being one of the five Islamic pillars, zakat contributes significantly to the country’s socio-economic development and prosperity. However, in Malaysia and other Islamic countries, there is not yet a proper mechanism for calculating zakat on extracted minerals. Similar to gold and silver, oil and gas are valuable minerals, which, upon extraction, are subject to zakat payment. In Malaysia, however, this is not the case. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a qualitative method. It presents a thorough review on the stipulation for paying zakat on minerals, specifically oil and gas. The deliberation is based on secondary data entailing a comprehensive content analysis of prominent books on the subject, current zakat rulings and legal acts on oil and gas. Findings Oil and gas are subject to zakat payment, as indicated in several Qur’anic verses and based on the academic reasoning of Muslim scholars. The zakat calculation for oil and gas entails the nisab (minimum threshold value of the assets) but not the hawl (the requirement for one full Islamic year of ownership for the assets), by analogy with zakat on agricultural produce. Despite the obligation to pay zakat on minerals under the zakat al-mal (alms due on wealth) category, oil and gas is yet to be fully subject to this practice in Malaysia, although the country is known as an oil-producing Muslim country. Several legislative acts covering the managerial and business side of oil and gas operations have long been established, but the provision on zakat remains unclear. Hence, comprehensive legislation is needed to fine-tune the Malaysian oil and gas system, particularly with regard to zakat. Research limitations/implications This study relies mainly on secondary data and literature without performing any empirical investigations. Practical implications In terms of academic implication, this study enriches the existing body of knowledge on zakat. Practical implications would include enhanced decision-making concerning zakat on oil and gas on the part of zakat institutions, policymakers and the government of Malaysia. Originality/value This study provides practical and academic contributions to the deep understanding of zakat on oil and gas, which has received very little attention in the existing body of literature. Despite being limited in literature, this is a breakthrough study that sheds light on zakat on oil and gas.

Mitigating injection-induced seismicity to reduce seismic risk

Over the past decade, parts of the central United States have experienced elevated number of earthquakes and seismic damage to buildings and infrastructure. These earthquakes are caused by underground injection of wastewater from oil and gas operations, which increases pore pressures, in some cases leading to slip on faults in the geologic basement. Mitigation strategies have been proposed or implemented to reduce these earthquakes, while minimizing impact on operations, but the effectiveness of these strategies in terms of seismic risk is not well understood. Here, we show that the most effective strategies for reducing earthquake occurrence may not be the best for reducing regional seismic risk in terms of economic loss. Well locations have a large impact on seismic risk, and increasing the distance between wells typically reduces risks, with the least interruption to injection operations. Results also quantify the dramatic decrease in risk achieved by locating injection operations farther from population centers. Decreasing injected volume reduces both earthquake occurrence and risk, but large reductions in volumes are needed to achieve significant reductions in risk. These findings can be used to inform design and selection of mitigation strategies that most reduce seismic risk.