Latest Trends in Pig Detection System

Pig detector plays an important role in the Commissioning and handover of Pipelines project. This paper addresses the latest trends in Pig Detectors. In addition, this paper covers the commissioning challenges and mitigations in major Offshore Brownfield Project involving new pipelines with 80 nos of Pig Detectors and accessories. Pipelines represent a considerable investment on behalf of the End User and can often prove strategic to countries and governments. Pipelines are generally accepted as being the most efficient method of transporting fluids across distances. Pipelines transport various kinds of fluids viz. oil, gas, multiphase, water. Pipeline pigging is an important operation for enhancing reliability and durability of pipeline, adopted worldwide. It has a major impact on the operational and technical integrity of a pipeline. Pigging Operation is high-risk activity in-terms of process safety. The Pigging can be safely initiated only when safe operating conditions are maintained at both ends of pipeline. Pigging involves human intervention and thus increasing personnel risk. Pipeline pigging operations is performed during pre-commissioning, start-up, normal operations and integrity assurance.

Generating Value from Mature Gas Fields by Quantifying Well Integrity Assurance with a Critical Analysis of Multiple Logs & Retrieved Tubular Surface Inspection

Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC) operates 4 onshore gas condensate reservoirs of which 3 are very mature consisting of 50+ wells producing corrosive hydrocarbons for over 30 years. The integrity of these legacy wells is frequently questioned before any development is conceptualized, thus making it critical to evaluate the well integrity. The cost associated with pulling completions for their evaluation and running logs in all wells is significant and the availability of various emerging technologies for corrosion analysis in the market makes it challenging to choose the most reliable one. This paper focuses on the detailed analysis and comparison of electromagnetic thickness logs run in 10% of the well stock from 2016 to post-workover surface inspection of the downhole recovered tubing's in 2020/21. It also quantifies how correlating different logging technologies for well integrity increases the reliability of the electromagnetic technology applied on offset wells. The paper also showcases a comparison between mechanical and electromagnetic thickness evaluation of the production casing in-situ. Data from all the available logs from past 5 years was compiled for 6 wells. On recovery of the downhole completion tubings via a hydraulic workover, an ultrasonic (UT) inspection was performed on them at surface. Both sets of results (logs and surface inspection) were analyzed on the same logging track to give a comprehensive comparison of actual observation on surface vs the measurement by in-situ logging. Another multi-barrier corrosion and caliper log were run in the production casing to analyze their outcomes alongside older results. The final step was a comparison of all available data to create a broad well integrity profile. It was observed that the remaining production tubing metal thickness detected by electromagnetic tool (logs) and surface ultrasonic measurements were in good conformance (+/-10%). In the corrosion evaluation of the production casing, the electromagnetic tool matched extremely well with the caliper log results. This shows a large reliability of this technology to quantify corrosion in offset wells. The correlation of logs with surface inspection results across wells in the same reservoir did not indicate a strong presence of external corrosion. The study enables the management to make critical business decisions on utilizing the well stock for the future. This work is the first time a comprehensive and critical analysis on the electromagnetic thickness logging technology has been done, comparing their results of remaining wall thickness to various technologies in-situ and on surface. The analysis not only compares technology from various providers, but also mechanical vs electromagnetic measurements along with their respective advantages in quantifying well integrity assurance. The paper also gives an idea on the condition of L-80 tubulars under service for 30+ years.

OCTG Connection Testing Aiding in the Integrity of Multi-Fractured Horizontal Wells

With the increase in shale oil and gas activity and complexity, companies deploy new solutions to safely and efficiently drill, complete, and produce wells in unconventional plays. These include Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) connections, which must withstand installation, stimulation, and production loads specific to this application. Industry available standards provide manufacturers and operators a framework for quality founded on best practices and testing. In some instances, existing testing protocols may not be adequate (e.g. insufficient or overconservative) to assess connections’ performance for this application. For this reason, the American Petroleum Institute established an expert working group to develop Technical Report 5SF (TR 5SF) intended to evaluate casing connections performance in multi-fractured horizontal wells. The objective of this paper is to present a set of verified testing protocols applicable to casing connections used in the most common shale plays, complementing the existing body of knowledge. We discuss testing elements and parameters tailored to the conditions of various shale plays. Based on the operations planned for the life of a well, the testing procedure is adjusted to resemble the expected conditions and loads in the correct order. This includes make-up, high-cycle fatigue associated with the casing string installation, thread compound degradation under temperature and time, and mechanical load cycles generated by stimulation. Specimen sealability is confirmed under production loads, after which failure testing is performed. Some of the inputs to build the testing protocol are: maximum internal pressure, axial load, dogleg severity, number of cycles, temperature, and fluid type. Since connections play a crucial role in the integrity of a well, a testing procedure to ensure their performance is shown. Testing protocols for Multi-fractured Horizontal Wells (MFHW) applied to two connection types are presented, highlighting how tailored testing protocols and robust engineering improve product reliability and well integrity assurance. We compile a set of testing inputs for the most relevant shale plays worldwide, together with the testing elements, sequence, and acceptance criteria. This should help end users validate and benchmark products’ performance while improving industry knowledge of connections capabilities.

A probabilistic method for structural integrity assurance based on damage detection structural health monitoring data

The value of using permanently installed monitoring systems for managing the life of an engineering asset is determined by the confidence in its damage detection capabilities. A framework is proposed that integrates detection data from permanently installed monitoring systems with probabilistic structural integrity assessments. Probability of detection (POD) curves are used in combination with particle filtering methods to recursively update a distribution of postulated defect size given a series of negative results (i.e. no defects detected). The negative monitoring results continuously filter out possible cases of severe damage, which in turn updates the estimated probability of failure. An implementation of the particle filtering method that takes into account the effect of systematic uncertainty in the detection capabilities of a monitoring system is also proposed, addressing the problem of whether negative measurements are simply a consequence of defects occurring outside the sensors field of view. A simulated example of fatigue crack growth is used to demonstrate the proposed framework. The results demonstrate that permanently installed sensors with low susceptibility to systematic effects may be used to maintain confidence in fitness-for-service while relying on fewer inspections. The framework provides a method for using permanently installed sensors to achieve continuous assessments of fitness-for-service for improved integrity management.

Foundational Leadership Theory: A New Ethical Approach to Reducing Knowledge-Hiding Practices Among Employees

Knowledge hiding is a destructive behavior that degrades organizational success. Knowledge hiding is the intentional withholding of information from another employee. It has been reported that 76% of U.S. employees hide knowledge from each other. The displaced aggression theory suggests that employees are more likely to hide knowledge from others in the presence of mistreatment by a leader. Therefore, there was a need to investigate new ethical theories that have been shown to influence organizational commitment and potentially decrease knowledge-hiding practices among employees. This research used foundational leadership theory (FLT) developed by Fuller in 2021 to examine the overall influence on knowledge hiding. The sample consisted of 306 full-time employees across various industries throughout the United States. The results indicated that FLT had a significant negative relationship (-0.64); regression analysis indicated that, as FLT increased, knowledge hiding decreased by 0.57. Therefore, leadership training programs that teach ethical leaders based on integrity, assurance, and pragmatism will likely reduce knowledge hiding tactics among employees and create a strategic advantage among competitors.

SlimChain

Blockchain technology has emerged as the cornerstone of many decentralized applications operating among otherwise untrusted peers. However, it is well known that existing blockchain systems do not scale well. Transactions are often executed and committed sequentially in order to maintain the same view of the total order. Furthermore, it is necessary to duplicate both transaction data and their executions in every node in the blockchain network for integrity assurance. Such storage and computation requirements put significant burdens on the blockchain system, not only limiting system scalability but also undermining system security and robustness by making the network more centralized. To tackle these problems, in this paper, we propose SlimChain, a novel blockchain system that scales transactions through off-chain storage and parallel processing. Advocating a stateless design, SlimChain maintains only the short commitments of ledger states on-chain while dedicating transaction executions and data storage to off-chain nodes. To realize SlimChain, we propose new schemes for off-chain smart contract execution, on-chain transaction validation, and state commitment. We also propose optimizations to reduce network transmissions and a new sharding technique to improve system scalability further. Extensive experiments are conducted to validate the performance of the proposed SlimChain system. Compared with the existing systems, SlimChain reduces the on-chain storage requirements by 97% ~ 99%, while also improving the peak throughput by 1.4× ~ 15.6×.

Transparency of Village Financial Management in Pulau Morotai Regency

This study aims to provide an overview of the transparency of village financial management in Pulau Morotai Regency, North Maluku Province, Indonesia. The sample in this study was taken by using a purposive sampling method, involving 440 respondents, and spread in 88 villages in Pulau Morotai Regency. Data processing techniques used descriptive statistics with a class interval approach. The results show that the indicators of clarity of roles and responsibilities, implementation of government affairs are still dominated by the head of the village who has the authority for village financial management. Indicators of budget disclosure show relatively the same as indicators of clarity of roles and responsibilities. The indicators of information availability indicate that the accessibility of public information in villages located in the subdistrict capital is relatively good. In contrast, the last indicator, integrity assurance, shows that data validity still being a problem in the village planning process. This study also discusses the implications as well as suggestions for future studies.