Successful Implementation of Low-Pressure Operations LPO Projects: Delivering Low UTC Incremental Oil in Low Oil Price Market

Southern Oman has several high pressure (500-1000 bar), deep (3-5 km) and critically sour oil fields (H2S/CO2 up to ~10%/25%). Most of these reservoirs are carbonate stringers encapsulated in salt lacking any natural aquifer support. Field Development strategy for most of the reservoirs in the cluster is primary depletion followed by miscible gas injection. No artificial lift mechanism is installed in these fields, as gas flood is expected to provide the necessary energy later. Many of these fields are depleted and reached lift-die out conditions due to high backpressure from the station. To extend the depletion production life, the team came with Low-Pressure Operation (LPO) project for these fields. This concept was successfully implemented in various fields across the 3 production stations in the cluster. LPO concept is a novel, pragmatic and cost-effective solution to continue production from previous lift die-out wells which is first of its kind in the company. This approach helped to utilize the existing infrastructure and ullage available in the facilities and eliminate the need for installing expensive and complex artificial lifts (e.g. ESP) or depletion compressor systems. This resulted in incremental production at very low UTC and low CAPEX requirements during the low oil price period.

Development of Transfer-Assisting Robot System Using Posture-Supporting Wear and Support Robot

When assisting a care receiver to transfer from one plane to another, a caregiver needs to hold up and move him/her. As a caregiver has to support the weight of one person, transfer assistance imposes a heavy physical burden on the caregiver. Particularly, in Japan, with an increasing elderly population and a decreasing young population, there are a few caregivers to assist numerous care receivers to transfer. In this scenario, it is an extremely vital issue to develop methods to reduce the burden of the caregivers when assisting care receivers to transfer. In this study, by focusing on the clothes that care receivers wear, we developed a transfer-assisting robot system by combining a dedicated posture-supporting wear and a mobile robot based on a lift mechanism.

Development of an Intelligent Standing Wheelchair with Reclining Characteristics

The widespread of motor neurone weakness has become a major concern as a result of accidents, ageing, birth defects and other hereditary diseases. A huge number of paraplegics can barely do activities for themselves without assistance from helpers. This study seeks to develop an intelligent wheelchair that has an assistive lifting and multi-posture reclining mechanisms to help in elevating the user from sit to stand posture as well as recline the seat for angles between 90 and 180 degrees through use of hydraulic linear actuators. The design would incorporate strain gauge sensors on the lower back area of the seat to enable the user to stand by merely leaning forward; thereby decreasing the strain on the lower back seat to trigger the lift mechanism until the required height is attained. While pressing the sit button on the console would enable the lowering of the user to a sitting position. The wheelchair development would also enable intelligent mobility through use of ultrasonic sensors to detect obstacles and assist in the braking effort by the user. An economic analysis was done to assess the feasibility viability of the design for local production. Some user requirement validation was undertaken to establish the extent to which the design would satisfy the key requirements of the intended beneficiaries.

GAS LIFT OPTIMIZATION OF A MATURE WELL IN NIGER DELTA, NIGERIA USING INCOMPLETE DATASET: A CASE STUDY

Well DEF, a well located in Niger Delta region of Nigeria was shut down for 7 years. On gearing towards re-starting production, different options such as installation of gas lift mechanism, servicing and installation of packers and valves were evaluated for possibility of increasing well fluid productivity. Hence, this research was focused on optimizing well fluid productivity using PROSPER through installation of continuous gas lift mechanism on an existing well using incomplete dataset; in addition, the work evaluated effect of gas injection rates, wellhead pressure, water cut and gas gravity on efficiency of the artificial lift mechanism for improved well fluid production. Results of the study showed that optimum gas injection rate of 0.6122 MMscf/day produced well fluid production of 264.28 STB/day which is lower than pristine production rate (266 STB/day) of the well. Also, increment in wellhead pressure resulted in decrease in well production, increase in water cut facilitated reduction in well fluid productivity while gas gravity is inversely proportional to well fluid productivity. Based on results obtained, authors concluded that Well DEF does not require gaslift mechanism hence, valves and parkers need to be re-serviced and re-installed for sustained well fluid.

Potential Impacts of Deep-Sea Mining on Ecosystems

Deep-sea mining pertains to underwater minerals such as polymetallic nodules, ferromanganese crusts, and hydrothermal sulfides that are considered as alternative sources for metals such as Cu, Ni, Co, Pb, Zn, Cd, Mn, Fe, and rare earths that could be exploited in the future by developing suitable technologies. Many of these deposits occur in international waters in which several “contractors” have staked claims over large tracts of the seafloor under the United Nations Law of the Sea, whereas attempts are also being made to develop the deposits within the Exclusive Economic Zone of some countries. However, several concerns have emerged over potential impacts of mining these deposits, leading to regulations being framed as well as measures being devised for conserving the marine ecosystems. The likely sources of environmental impact of deep-sea mining include those from the mining ship where handling of ore, machinery, oil will take place; the lift mechanism that would transfer the minerals from the sea bottom to the surface through the entire water column; as well as the mining machine that would actually scrape the seafloor for minerals. This article describes the likely impacts that could be caused due to mining of three different types of deep-sea minerals, viz. polymetallic nodules, hydrothermal sulfides and ferromanganese crusts. It further shows the estimation of impacts in terms of mining area, volume and weight of associated substrates; and goes on to suggest mitigation measures to minimize the potential impacts of deep-sea mining. Finally, the national and international environmental regulations for deep-sea mining have been discussed.

A CO2-Driven Gas Lift Mechanism in Geyser Cycling (Uzon Caldera, Kamchatka)

Here, we report on a new geyser (named Shaman) formed in the Uzon caldera (Kronotsky Federal Nature Biosphere Reserve, Russia) in autumn 2008 from a cycling hot Na-Cl spring. The geyser is a pool-type CO2-gas lift driven. From 2012 to 2018, the geyser has shown a rather stable interval between eruptions (IBE) from 129 to 144 min with a fountain height up to 4 m, and the geyser conduit has gradually enlarged. In 2019, the Shaman geyser eruption mode significantly changed: cold water inflow from the adjacent stream was re-directed into the geyser conduit and the average IBE decreased to 80 min. We observed two eruptive modes: a cycling hot spring (June 2019) and a cycling geyser (after June 2019). Bottom-hole temperature recording was performed in the geyser conduit to understand its activity. The TOUGH2-EOS2 model was used to reproduce the obtained temperature records and estimate geyser recharge/discharge parameters in both modes. Modeling shows that a larger cold inflow into the conduit causes a switch from cycling geyser to hot cycling spring mode. It was also found that the switch to cycling geyser mode corresponds to a larger mass of CO2 release during the time of the eruption.

High-Lift Mechanism Motion Generation Synthesis Using a Metaheuristic

This paper proposes an approach to synthesize a high-lift mechanism (HLM) of a transportation aircraft. Such a mechanism is very important for generation of additional lift to an aircraft wing during take-off and landing. The design problem is minimization of error between the motions of a four-bar mechanism for controlling a flap to the target points. The optimum target points are positions and angles of flap at the take-off and landing conditions, which are designed based on maximizing the lift to drag ratio. Design constraints include the conditions of four-bar mechanism to work properly, limiting positions and workplace of the mechanism. A optimizer used in this study, is in a group of metaheuristics (MHs). The results show the optimum mechanism can generate flap motion fulfilling the design targets, thus, the proposed technique can be used to increase the performance of HLM.