Petroleum Engineering Commons^™

Removal Of Chlorine From Chlorine-Nitrogen Mixture In A Film Of Liquid Water, Sarwan S. Sandhu

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

In industry there are many examples of absorption of a gas with or without chemical reaction in the liquid phase. In physical absorption, a particular gaseous component is removed from a gas mixture due to its larger solubility in the liquid phase solvent. The removal of butane and pentane from a refinery gas mixture by a heavy oil in the liquid phase is an example of physical absorption. In absorption with chemical reaction, the gaseous component to be removed transfers across the gas-liquid interface due to a difference in the bulk chemical potentials or concentrations in the two phases. The …

Sedimentology Of The Bedford-Berea Sequence (Early Mississippian), Williams Field, Michigan, David Alan Balthazor

Masters Theses

The Berea Sandstone has produced in excess of 1.6 million barrels of oil in the Williams field since discovery in 1980. Seven lithofacies are identified from conventional core in the Bedford-Berea sequence. These facies are interpreted as deltaic deposits comprising prodelta (Bedford Shale), delta front, destructive marine shale, abandoned distributary channel-fill, interdistributary bay-fill, transgressive marine sandstone, and marine shale (Sunbury Shale) facies. Passive channel-fill facies truncate reservoir sandstone bodies and compartmentalize the field NW-SE across the trend of the northwestplunging anticline.

The two reservoir facies in the Williams field are the delta front and transgressive marine sandstones. The sandstone framework …

Tests For Positive Jumps In The Intensity Of A Poisson Process: A Power Study, Max Engelhardt, James M. Guffey, F. T. Wright

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Tests are considered for the hypothesis of a constant intensity against the alternative of an intensity which increases with time in a nonhomogeneous Poisson process. Attention is focused on step-function alternatives and tests designed for such alternatives. One application is testing for abrupt changes in equipment following scheduled overhauls. The authors recommend the order-restricted likelihood-ratio test over an ordered chi-square test for such situations, provided the points at which jumps can occur are known. Otherwise, they recommend the test based on the Laplace statistic. The performance of these tests is evaluated for smooth alternatives, with the result that the smallest …

The Fractal Dimension As A Measure Of The Roughness Of Rock Discontinuity Profiles, Y. H. Lee, J. R. Carr, David J. Barr, Charles J. Haas

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An important factor in the analysis of deformation and failure of rock masses along discontinuities is the roughness of the jointing surfaces. The fractal dimension is proposed as a method of objectively quantifying the roughness profile of such discontinuities. With this method much less engineering judgement and experience are required in determining the surface roughness,sb than is required for other methods such as the widely used joint roughness coefficient (JRC) suggested by the International Society for Rock Mechanics [1] (Int. J. Rock. Mech. Min. Sci. & Geomech. Abstr. 15, 319-368, 1978). The fractal dimension, suggested by Mandelbrot [2] (Fractals-Form, Chance …

Improved Streamline-Generating Technique That Uses The Boundary (Integral) Element Method, Daopu Thompson Numbere, D. Tiab

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The boundary element method (BEM) has been used to generate streamlines for homogeneous and sectionally homogeneous reservoirs having irregular boundaries. This technique is superior to earlier methods that use 'image wells' to simulate the reservoir boundary, especially for cases where the reservoir boundary is irregularly shaped. It has wider applicability to different kinds of reservoirs and eliminates the need for trial-and-error solutions. The errors caused by discretization and numerical approximation arise on and adjacent to the boundaries only, therefore the pressures and pressure gradients on which the streamlines are derived can be calculated with very high accuracy in the interior …

Paraffin Deposition Property Measurement Using Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Kevin Lynn Thornsberry

Masters Theses

Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) has been used in past studies to identify the cloud points of diesel fuels, lube oils, jet fuels etc. and it has been assumed that its application extends to all paraffinic hydrocarbons. To verify this and to investigate the possible application of Differential Scanning Calorimetry to the production phase of the petroleum industry, the onset of wax crystallization is compared with ASTM cloud point for a number of paraffinic mixtures including a variety of crude oils. Results show cloud point can be determined for crudes using DSC. Additionally, wax content can be found on a known …

Performance Predictions For Oil Reservoirs Under Water Influx, Briareus Mitchell Wilkinson

Masters Theses

"The intent of this thesis is to develop a program that will give reasonable recovery predictions for oil reservoirs under water influx. The main advantage is to avoid the massive storage and computational requirements of numerical simulators while achieving roughly comparable results. There are many methods already in existence that have not received their full benefit, mainly because they were developed prior to the recent advances of the computer age. This thesis therefore brings some already proven methods together with new techniques in a program which, with the aid of the computer, stimulates new life in these methods. The main …

Statistical Analysis Of A Compound Power-Law Model For Repairable Systems, Max Engelhardt, Lee J. Bain

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Conclusions - A compound (mixed) Poisson distribution is sometimes used as an alternative to the Poisson distribution for count data. Such a compound distribution, which has a negative binomial form, occurs when the population consists of Poisson distributed individuals, but with intensities which have a gamma distribution. A similar situation can occur with a repairable system when failure intensities of each system are different. A more general situation is considered where the system failures are distributed according to nonhomogeneous Poisson processes having Power Law intensity functions with gamma distributed intensity parameter. If the failures of each system in a population …

Phase Equilibria From Pvt Measurements For Carbon Dioxide, Water And N-Decane, Michael Nduka Okafor

Doctoral Dissertations

"Phase equilibrium properties for the carbon dioxide - water - n-decane system were determined from pressure-temperature-volume (PVT) measurements. PVT properties were also obtained for pure carbon dioxide and water, and the binary mixtures of carbon dioxide - water and carbon dioxide - n-decane. The experiments were conducted at temperatures of 313.17, 353.15 and 393.15 Kelvin, and at pressures from 37 to 416 bar. Measurements for the mixtures were terminated when complete miscibility was observed.

The Perturbed-Hard-Chain (PHC) equation of state developed by Gmehling et al. (1979) was chosen to correlate the measured data because of its ability to handle the …

Swelling Pressure Studies Of Shales, S. L. Huang, N. B. Aughenbaugh, John D. Rockaway

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A swelling model was developed to predict the swelling pressure which occurs within shale or shale material when it is immersed in water. This model is also capable of estimating the magnitude of shale swelling when subject to humidity changes. The model was developed on a basis of the moisture susceptibility of the shale and the initial humidity of the ventilated mine air. The Moisture Activity Index (IRH) was selected to describe the susceptibility of shale to moisture because of its close association with the other physical properties, its strong correlation with the swelling of the shale, and because it …

On The Mean Time Between Failures For Repairable Systems, Max Engelhardt, Lee J. Bain

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Much of the recent work on modeling repairable systems involves Poisson processes with nonconstant intensity functions, viz, nonhomogeneous Poisson processes. Since times between failures are not identically distributed when the process is nonhomogeneous, it is not clear what concept should take the place of the mean time between failures in assessing the reliability of a repairable system. A number of alternate concepts can be found in the literature. We investigate the relationship between two of the most frequently considered alternatives: the reciprocal of the intensity function, and the mean waiting time from t until the next failure. Theorem 1 states …

A Two-Dimensional, Three-Phase Reservoir Simulator Using The Impes Formulation, Ralph Ross Roesler

Masters Theses

"A numerical model for two dimensional, three-phase fluid flow has been developed using the IMPES formulation. Reservoir heterogeneities have been included, such as areal variations in porosity, permeability, thickness, and depth from a reference point. The model can also solve the problem of variable bubble points.

To check the accuracy of the model, a comparison was made with the Buckley-Leverett technique of predicting waterflood performance. The reservoir in the comparison is a 40 acre five spot with an initial gas saturation of 15 percent. The study shows that the two models are in good agreement, except for differences due to …

A Purchase Estimator For Oil And Gas Reserves, Ronald Ernest Robbins

Masters Theses

"A computerized means for analyzing the profitability and purchase potential of producing oil and gas properties was developed. LOTUS 1- 2-3, a computerized spreadsheet package, was utilized in this development. The basic input data required for the implementation of the purchase estimator (BUYOUT) are the forecasts of production, price, and expense. BUYOUT itself is composed of three separate, but interactive, parts: and the system macro. the profitability model, the acquisition table,

A before federal income tax cash-flow model and several economic indicators constitute the profitability model. The profitability model is then fully interactive with an acquisition table which contains six …

Determining The Modified Derivative In Pressure Analysis, Scott Michael Frailey

Masters Theses

"The derivative type of curve technique of Bourdet for analyzing pressure tests requires calculating the derivative of the storage plot. Four numerical methods are used to evaluate the derivative: a five-point formula, Richardson's Extrapolation, a parabolic fit, and a central difference procedure. The parabolic fit and the central difference technique are good methods of determining the derivative. The effects of logarithmic s pacing of the data, using a central difference method, are studied. An investigation of the second derivative and the integral is conducted"-- Abstract, p. ii

A New Automated Pulse Testing Analysis Method Applying Inflection Point Theory, Jose Maria Donoso

Masters Theses

"This paper describes a new technique for pulse test analysis that combines the simplicity of the tangent method with the result repeatability of the iterative methods. Inflection points are used instead of time lag with the added advantage that they are calculated by a simple algorithm and are not subject to graphical misinterpretation. Charts are made for the calculation of transmissibility and storage for unequal pulse and shut-in periods from 0.1 to 0.9 relating inflection time to pulse response amplitude and dimensionless inflection time.

The graphs presented for this technique have the same dimensionless cycle period ranges (from 0.44 to …

Unsteady-State Spherical Flow With Storage And Skin., Jeffrey A. Joseph, Leonard Koederitz

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents short-time interpretation methods for radial-spherical (or radial-hemispherical) flow in homogeneous and isotropic reservoirs inclusive of wellbore storage, wellbore phase redistribution, and damage skin effects. New dimensionless groups are introduced to facilitate the classic transformation from radial flow in the sphere to linear flow in the rod. Analytical expressions, type curves (in log-log and semi log format), and tabulated solutions are presented, both in terms of pressure and rate, for all flow problems considered. A new empirical equation to estimate the duration of wellbore and near-wellbore effects under spherical flow is also proposed.

Automated Evaluation Of Reservoir Parameters Applying Pressure Transient Theory, Steven Robert Homoky

Masters Theses

"This study presents an investigation to automatically evaluate reservoir parameters using pressure transient theory. Methods will be introduced to numerically fit the well test data in the real (time) domain (specifically the pressure change as a function of test time). The numerical fit and known fluid, rock and well properties will be used to evaluate the dimensionless storage coefficient. The theoretical dimensionless pressure (being a function of skin factor, permeability, and dimensionless storage coefficient) is obtained by Laplace Inversion. The ability to evaluate the dimensionless storage coefficient thus reduces the parameters of the pressure equation by one. Varying the skin …

Approximate Tolerance Limits And Confidence Limits On Reliability For The Gamma Distribution, Lee J. Bain, Max Engelhardt, Wei Kei Shiue

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Evaporite Diapirs In The La Popa Basin, Nuevo Leon, Mexico., Robert C. Laudon

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Reconnaissance mapping and stratigraphic work in the La Popa basin of Neuvo Leon, northern Mexico, have revealed two large structural features with cores of gypsum and anhydrite at the surface. These features are interpreted to be the surface expression of evaporite diapirs. Geostatic loading is considered to be the most important mechanism for emplacement of the domes. -from Author

Unsteady-State Cylindrical, Spherical And Linear Flow In Porous Media, Allan Jeffrey Anthony Joseph

Doctoral Dissertations

"The general problem of unsteady flow phenomena in porous media as considered in this investigation. Emphasis was placed upon the short-term flow characteristics within cylindrical, spherical and linear reservoir geometries, and practical analysis methods were developed for each problem. Additionally, nonlinear unsteady flow behavior in infinite reservoirs was considered. Each solution obtained could optionally be implemented by hand or computer, and several FORTRAN subprograms were also presented.

At present, the only way to analyze pressure transient data prior to the development of the "semi log straight line" is by type curve matching techniques. However, this study indicated that a reliable …

Shear Characteristics Of Motor Oils Conforming To The American Petroleum Institute's 1981 Engine Service Classification, D. Joseph Clausen

Graduate Research Papers

The problem was to determine if shear (slipperiness) characteristics differ between various SF motor oils. Oils tested met SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) lOw-40 viscosity requirements, and API (American Petroleum Institute) engine service classification requirements for 1981 SF quality motor oils.

Four basic types of oil were tested: (a) mineral; (b) synthetic; (c) friction modified; and (d) extended drain. A gravity powered device was designed and used as a testing apparatus to measure force needed to pull a weight across a lubricated surface.

Findings indicated that friction modified oils (Pennzoil P-Z-L and Arcographite) were the most slippery. Other oils tested, …

Geotechnical Evaluation Of The Support Of Coal Pillars In Underground Coal Mines., John D. Rockaway, Richard W. Stephenson

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Study Described Was Accomplished through an Investigation of Both the Intact and Insitu Geotechnical Properties of the Sub coal Strata and through the Installation of Floor Movement Monitoring Instrumentation. the Method of Bearing Capacity Analysis Developed by A. S. Vesic Was Used to Define Pillar Stability. This Method Includes Provisions for Taking into Consideration a Two-Layer System Such as Assumed for Mine Conditions Where a Weak Underclay overlies Firmer Strata.

Sequential Probability Ratio Tests For The Shape Parameter Of A Nonhomogeneous Poisson Process, Lee J. Bain, Max Engelhardt

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Sequential probability ratio tests for the shape parameter of one or more nonhomogeneous Poisson processes, with power intensity functions, are provided. The tests can be performed when the scale parameter is an unknown nuisance parameter; the effective loss of not knowing the scale parameter is one observation per process. The resulting tests can be expressed in terms of the maximum likelihood estimators of the shape parameters for the usual fixed sample procedure. A further advantage of the present approach is that the scale parameters for different processes, in the multiple sample procedures, need not be equal. Approximations for the operating …

An Applied Approach To Automatic Pressure Transient Analysis., Jeffrey Allan Joseph

Masters Theses

"A generalized digital approach to pressure transient (well-test) analysis is developed. The model is rigorously applicable to flow tests (pressure drawdown or injectivity of Newtonian liquids), and to pressure buildup or falloff tests provided the f low time prior to shut-in is large compared to the total shut-in time. However, buildup or falloff data may s till be analyzed if the above conditions are not satisfied, using the principles of superposition/desuperposition.

When plotted on logarithmic coordinates, pressure transient data generally assume a characteristic shape, indicative of flow behavior. Accurate computer analysis of this data requires its representation in concise mathematical …

The Price Of Oil, R. W. Clack

UMR-MEC Conference on Energy / UMR-DNR Conference on Energy

An examination of major forces in the petroleum market with primary emphasis on the decade of the 1970s. The market force (s) responsible for the factor-of-ten increase in the price of crude oil is isolated, if not identified. The market's "message" is set forth for energy policy planners.

The Oil Industry And Antitrust Merger Policy, Pauline Weber

UMR-MEC Conference on Energy / UMR-DNR Conference on Energy

This paper examines the trends in merger activity in the petroleum industry in light of over-all merger activity and of the Justice Department's merger guidelines. Supreme Court precedents and economic conditions within the petroleum area are discussed. Some conclusions concerning the Justice Department's merger policy are included.

A Development Of Regression Models For Predicting Two-Phase Relative Permeability In Consolidated Rock, Mehdi Honarpour

Doctoral Dissertations

"The primary objective of this study was the development of prediction equations for the water-oil imbibition relative permeability and gas-oil drainage relative permeability from experimental data.

Laboratory relative permeability data along with the corresponding rock and fluid properties were collected, and stepwise linear regression analysis was applied. Relative permeability models were developed in terms of rock and fluid properties.

The prediction models were tested against laboratory values and previously published correlations. It was found that the models developed in this study yield results that are generally in better agreement with experimental values than the previously published correlations"--Abstract p. ii

Simplifying Lubricants For Farm Machinery, R A. Platt

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

All moving parts on machinery needs lubrication. With the rapid development in farm machinery and its attendant sophistifications, the stresses imposed on the lubricants have also increased.

This article looks at some of the changes in requirements and developments in lubricants available.

Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer Of Liquid Nitrogen From Plasma Deposited Polymer Coated Surfaces, Donald L. Warner, Efton Park, Kenneth G. Mayhan

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In certain cases, nucleate boiling heat transfer from polymerized tetrafluoroethylene coated surfaces was more than five times the rate of heat transfer found for uncoated surfaces at a given temperature difference. It was also found that for the polymer coated surfaces the transition from nucleate to film boiling was much slower than for uncoated surfaces. © 1978.

Recovery Of Oil From Oil Shale -- An Overall Technological Perspective, Abu Ahmad, Sayeed Hasan

UMR-MEC Conference on Energy / UMR-DNR Conference on Energy

The hydrocarbon content of oil shale can be converted into liquid oil which is a possible energy resource for the future. Different aspects of shale oil recovery is briefly discussed. The technology of modified in situ oil shale retorting, which is receiving increasing attention for commercialization, is discussed in a little more detail.