Petroleum Engineering Commons^™

Steam Flooding Screening And Eor Prediction By Using Clustering Algorithm And Data Visualization, Na Zhang

Masters Theses

"Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques are vitally important in the oil industry because these techniques could not only extend the life of wells, but also produce 10% to 30% additional oil from the reservoir. However, selecting the most suitable EOR techniques for unknown reservoirs is not easy for decision making. Based on literature, EOR screening criteria could help to find the best candidates for unknown projects, which is classified into two categories: conventional EOR screening and advanced EOR screening. In this research, an artificial intelligent (AI) method, hierarchical clustering algorithm, is adapted to analyze both steam flooding projects and worldwide …

Survey And Data Analysis Of Polymer Flooding Pilot And Field Applications In China, Yandong Zhang

Masters Theses

"Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes are regarded as important methods to recovery remaining oil after primary and secondary recovery. It is significant to select the most appropriate EOR process among the possible techniques for a candidate reservoir. EOR screening criteria has been created using available EOR datasets and served as the first step to compare the suitability of each EOR method for a particular reservoir. Most of these datasets are collected from EOR surveys published by Oil & Gas Journal. This study proposes a comprehensive study of a dataset including 55 pilot and field polymer flooding applications in China. Statistical …

Multiscale Modeling Of Particle Transport In Petroleum Reservoirs, Layne Bryan French

LSU Master's Theses

Modeling subsurface particle transport and retention is important for many processes, including sand production, fines migration, and nanoparticle injection. In this study, a pore-scale particle plugging simulator is concurrently coupled with a streamline reservoir simulator to predict the behavior of particles in the subsurface. The coupled simulators march forward in time together. The automated communication between the two models enables the prediction of spatially and time dependent parameters that control the particle transport process. At each time step, the reservoir simulator provides the inlet velocity and particle concentration of the fluid suspension to the pore-scale model which outputs the permeability, …

Modelling Of Channelization In Unconsolidated Formations Due To Liquid Injection, Juan Felipe Bautista Barake

LSU Master's Theses

Fluid injection has been increasingly implemented in oil and gas producing fields to optimize hydrocarbon production in both young and mature oil fields across the globe. This situation arises from the realization that early planning of second and tertiary recovery methods may improve project economics significantly. Injectors are then intended to perform at high injection rates with low bottomhole flowing pressures for as long as possible. In the case of injectors drilled in unconsolidated formations, deficient performance often times seems to be the norm. With a majority of these fields being offshore developments in which capital expenditures are high, a …

Application Of Computational Fluid Dynamics To Near-Wellbore Modeling Of A Gas Well, Oscar Mauricio Molina

LSU Master's Theses

Well completion plays a key role in the economically viable production of hydrocarbons from a reservoir. Therefore, it is of high importance for the production engineer to have as many tools available that aid in the successful design of a proper completion scheme, depending on the type of formation rock, reservoir fluid properties and forecasting of production rates. Because well completion jobs are expensive, most of the completed wells are usually expected to produce as much hydrocarbon and as fast as possible, in order to shorten the time of return of the investment. This research study focused on the evaluation …

Post-Treatment Assessment Of Hydraulic Fracturing With Integrated Modeling Of Natural Fracture Distribution, Ping Puyang

LSU Master's Theses

Hydraulic fracturing has been serving as the principal reservoir stimulation technique for decades to improve production capacities of low permeability formations. On the other hand, through core and outcrop studies, advanced logging tools, microseismic fracture mapping and well testing analysis, it has been further revealed that many of the shale gas formations are naturally fractured. The presence of natural fractures and their interactions with hydraulic fractures must be taken into consideration while designing fracturing treatment. Although most natural fractures are cemented by precipitations during diagenesis, they may be reactivated during hydraulic fracturing and serve as weak paths for fluid flow …

Transition States And Modeling For Co9s8/Mos2 Catalysis, Gabriel Angel Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Transition state computational studies of the sulfur removal from dibenzothiophene (DBT) molecule have herein been performed considering the Co9S8/MoS2 interface existing on unsupported Co/MoS2 catalysts. The linear synchronous transit (LST) and quadratic synchronous transit (QST) methods integrated in a density functional theory (DFT) program such as Dmol3 were used for the calculations of energy barriers of the transition states. Three different configurations present on the Co9S8/MoS2 interface have been envisaged as possible catalytic sites: sulfur-sulfur (S, S) sites, and molybdenum-sulfur (Mo, S) and molybdenum-molybdenum (Mo, Mo) edge sites. This study revealed that the (Mo, Mo) edge site is the most …

Investigating New Accident Causation, Risk Assessment, And Mitigation Strategy Selection Tools In The Petroleum Industry, Mohammad A. Alkazimi

Doctoral Dissertations

"The inherent complexity of the processes and the volatile nature of petroleum products compel the petroleum industry to continually seek and develop tools and techniques to identify, evaluate, and mitigate potential risks that can negatively impact their process operations. Additionally, government agencies and nonprofit professional societies guide the petroleum industry with regulatory guidelines, standards, and recommended best practices. The industry and these agencies and societies work to improve operational management, to ensure safe working conditions, and to minimize risk of all kinds, so that if failures occur, damage is contained within tolerable limits (Health and Safety Executives, 2013).

The currently …

Numerical And Field Data Analysis Of Drill Stem Vibration, Mohammed Fayez Al Dushaishi

Doctoral Dissertations

"Drill stem vibration is a major cause of premature failure of drill stem components and drilling inefficiency. In severe cases, drill stem vibration may lead to wellbore instability that could lead to increased operational cost. Drill stem vibrations are affected by design decisions and the drilling environment. Examples are; bottom hole assembly configurations, selection of operational parameters, and frequent changes in lithology. Vibration modeling, analysis of vibration data, and specialized vibration reduction tools are methods in use to prevent and mitigate severe vibrations.

A drill stem vibration model was created using nonlinear strain formulation which couples the axial, lateral and …

Investigation Of Lost Circulation Materials Impact On Fracture Gradient, Mortadha Turki Alsaba

Doctoral Dissertations

"Lost circulation is a challenging problem to be prevented or mitigated during drilling. Lost circulation treatments are widely applied to mitigate losses using a corrective approach or to prevent losses using preventive approaches, also known as "wellbore strengthening". The disagreement among the different wellbore strengthening theories and the lack of understanding the strengthening mechanism resulted in the absence of a standardized method to evaluate the effectiveness of lost circulation materials (LCM) for wellbore strengthening application.

An extensive experimental investigation was performed by constructing a high pressure LCM test apparatus to investigate the effects of different parameters on the sealing efficiency …

Analysis Of Production And Pressure Data To Characterize The Performance Of Oil And Gas Reservoirs, Abuagila Ramadan Elgmati

Doctoral Dissertations

"Production data analysis is an important tool for estimating important reservoir parameters. In particular, determining the average reservoir pressure (p_av) and tracking its change with time is critical to analyzing and optimizing reservoir performance. The traditional method for determining p_av involves pressure buildup tests. A direct method for estimating (p_av) from flowing pressures and rate data is available. However, the method is for an idealized case that assumes constant production rate during pseudo steady-state (PSS) flow, which is not generally true for real wells. This research extends that approach so that it can …

Flow Mechanisms And Numerical Simulation Of Gas Production From Shale Reservoirs, Chaohua Guo

Doctoral Dissertations

"Shale gas is one kind of the unconventional resources which is becoming an ever increasing component to secure the natural gas supply in U.S. Different from conventional hydrocarbon formations, shale gas reservoirs (SGRs) present numerous challenges to modeling and understanding due to complex pore structure, ultra-low permeability, and multiple transport mechanisms.

In this study, the deviation against conventional gas flow have been detected in the lab experiments for gas flow through nano membranes. Based on the experimental results, a new apparent permeability expression is proposed with considering viscous flow, Knudsen diffusion, and slip flow. The gas flow mechanisms of gas …

Growth And Properties Of Carbon Microcoils And Nanocoils, Muneaki Hikita, Robyn Bradford, Khalid Lafdi

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Various types of coiled carbon filaments have been synthesized using chemical vapor deposition and other methods. These carbon filaments exhibit unique electrical and mechanical properties due to their versatile shapes and structures. To form coiled shapes, different types of catalyst compositions and reactive gases have been explored. Generally, coiled carbon filaments are classified by coil diameter and shape (e.g., microcoil and nanocoil). In this review, coiled carbon filaments are classified into three growth mechanism categories:

(1) bidirectional double helical growth;

(2) bidirectional twisted growth; and

(3) tip single helical or twisted growth.

Next, their synthesis methods and hypothetical growth mechanisms …

Slow Release Of Ions From Internalized Silver Nanoparticles Modifies The Epidermal Growth Factor Signaling Response, Kristen K. Comfort, Elizabeth I. Maurer, Saber M. Hussain

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Due to their distinctive physiochemical properties, including a robust antibacterial activity and plasmonic capability, hundreds of consumer and medical products contain colloidal silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). However, even at sub-toxic dosages, AgNPs are able to disrupt cell functionality, through a yet unknown mechanism. Moreover, internalized AgNPs have the potential to prolong this disruption, even after the removal of excess particles. In the present study, we evaluated the impact, mechanism of action, and continual effects of 50 nm AgNP exposure on epidermal growth factor (EGF) signal transduction within a human keratinocyte (HaCaT) cell line. After AgNP expose, EGF signaling was initially obstructed …

An Economic Analysis Of Small-Scale Biodiesel Production: Implementation Of Ethyl Ester Production In A Job Shop Setting, Scott Haase, Benjamin Craig

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Biodiesel is becoming a demanded consumer automotive alternative fuel used in diesel vehicles today. An emerging trend is toward small-scale biodiesel production performed by the final consumer. A limited source of commercially available production systems exists and has resulted in many systems being designed and built by the user. Preliminary research conducted by the authors has shown biodiesel to be the least-cost alternative to petroleum diesel after as few as 8 months of system use. This study examines the economic viability of building and producing biodiesel using a small-scale production system versus buying consumer petroleum diesel. During production, measurements were …

Catalysis In Petroleum Coking, Robert Khakimov, Anya Heinimann, Enrico Martinez, Hyun-Tae Hwang

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The petroleum industry is challenged with the processing of present heavy crudes caused by high composition of sulfur and metals, which lead to a higher yield of unfavorable bottom product as vacuum residue. Vacuum residue is the least valuable fraction of four, such as saturates, aromatics, resins and asphaltenes. However, it can be upgraded to recover more valuable products such as light hydrocarbons. The Delayed Coking process is going to be used to transform the vacuum residue at different experimental conditions. First of all, the behavior of the vacuum residue needs to be analyzed with no additions in feedstock. Secondly, …

The Catalysis Of Delayed Petroleum Coking, Anya M. Heinimann, Robert Khakimov, Hyun-Tae Hwang, Enrico N. Martinez

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Due to the decreasing crude oil quality (heavier crudes and increasing contaminant concentrations) methods for upgrading residues from the refining process, such as coking, are becoming increasingly important. Delayed coking, a method by which residues are thermally cracked (large heavy molecules broken into smaller lighter molecules), produces liquid products and solid coke which can both be sold for further profit. In order to increase the amount of liquid products produced since they are the most value added product of the coking process catalysts (platinum on 0.5% alumina and nickel (skeletal),molybdenum promoted (1 wt%)) were tested to see how they would …

Hydraulic Fracturing Water Recycle Through Optimal Ultrafiltration And Nanofiltration Membranes System Design, Long Tran

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Innovations in hydraulic fracturing technology have created opportunities for petroleum and natural gas production. This technology injects water, sand, and additives to create fissures in rock formations and discharge oil and gas to the surface. The average amount of water used per well is approximately 4.4 million gallons. The large water demand and the complexities involved in wastewater treatment make this process very expensive and not sustainable as far as water use is concerned. Flexible membrane technology has not been developed to process fracking water for re-use across the U.S. The objective of this project is to compare and analyze …

Experimental Investigation Of Injectivity In Unconsolidated Formations, Callie Pritchett

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Phase Transformations In Calcium Substituted Lanthanum Ferrite, Patrick M. Price

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Increasing world energy demands are still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. To meet these demands, crude oil is increasingly being extracted from remote locations where natural gas pipelines do not exist. It is not profitable for oil and gas companies to transport natural gas by ship or truck from these remote locations so it is combusted on site in the form of gas flares. Critics oppose this practice due to the environmental impact from pollution and carbon emissions created during the flaring process. Oil and gas companies are eager to find profitable ways to eliminate natural gas lines in order …