Season 2015-2016 Kick-off at Nobel Prize Dinner Hall
Technical presentations:
Well Design and Integrity: Importance, Risk and Scientific Certainty, Brun Hilbert, Exponent Failure Analysis Associates, Inc.
Integrated Field Operation and Optimization, Why & How to Succeed: Field Case Histories, Professor Curtis Whitson, NTNU
Program Outline:
17:30 - 18:00 Reception and Ice-breaking
18:00 - 19:30 Presentations and Q&A
19:30 - 22:00 Dinner
22:00 - 23:30 Coffee & Avec - Networking
Well Design and Integrity: Importance, Risk and Scientific Certainty
Brun Hilbert
Exponent Failure Analysis Associates, Inc.
Abstract:
The term "Well Design and Integrity" has taken on added meaning as a result of intense media scrutiny and public interest regarding hydraulic fracturing and the tragic Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. The complexities and costs of well design have increased significantly to meet the challenges of ultra-deep wells exceeding 30,000 ft., ultra-HPHT wells (500F and 30,000 psi), and ultra-deepwater drilling (exceeding 10,000 ft.). As a consequence, the risk to companies designing wells for these applications has increased. As we know from recent events, the consequences of failures can be enormous, and minimizing the risk of such catastrophic failures is imperative. It is not simply coincidental that the engineering tools for well design have become ever more complex. Tools such as nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and multi-physics software are now commonly used. What are these tools and the input data required for output of dependable and accurate results? This presentation will summarize applications of these tools, exhibiting their input requirements, and output interpretation and quality. Applications will include threaded connection pressure integrity, cement and rock strength and deformation, formation-cement-casing interactions, all of which involve complex nonlinear material and interface behavior. I will discuss computational modeling of the temperature dependent, viscoplastic response of salt and "soft" porous rocks, and compactive behavior of high-porosity formations. Downhole tools may include stainless steels, elastomer and polymer components. Seal rings and inflatable packers are highly temperature dependent and exhibit significant creep behavior. Calibration of material model parameters is vitally important, but for non-metals can require a significant number of samples, which are difficult and expensive to acquire and test. The correct selection of a validated material model can be the key to success or failure in minimizing risk.
Biography:
Dr. L. Brun Hilbert, Jr. is a Principal Engineer in the Mechanical Engineering Practice at Exponent Failure Analysis Associates, Inc., and consults in mechanical and petroleum engineering. In his work, Dr. Hilbert analyzes the root cause of failures, and performs proactive consulting to assist clients in failure prevention, design improvement, and risk minimization. He has worked in the upstream petroleum industry for over 30 years and has been an SPE Member since 1982. He performed applied research in the Drilling & Completions Division of Exxon Production Research Company. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Rock Mechanics from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MS degree in Mechanical Engineering and BS degree in Mathematics from the University of New Orleans.
Integrated Field Operation and Optimization, Why & How to Succeed: Field Case Histories
Professor Curtis Whitson, NTNU
Biography:
Curtis Hays Whitson is a professor of petroleum engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Dept. of Petroleum Engineering & Applied Geophysics; he founded the international consulting company PERA in 1988, as well as Petrostreamz in 2006, a petroleum software company dealing with model integration and optimization. Whitson researches and teaches both university and industry courses on petroleum phase behavior (PVT), gas-based EOR, gas condensate reservoirs, integrated-model optimization, petroleum-streams management, liquid-loading gas well performance, and liquids-rich shale well optimization. He has co-authored two books: Well Performance (Golan and Whitson) and the SPE monograph Phase Behavior (Whitson and Brulé), co-authored some 100 papers, and has written three chapters of edited books.
Whitson consults extensively for the petroleum industry through PERA, a specialty consulting company he founded in 1988. PERA consults on compositionally-sensitive reservoir processes for most major oil companies worldwide. Whitson is also CTO at Petrostreamz which has developed the new-generation software Pipe-It for value chain model integration and optimization.
Whitson has a B.Sc. degree in petroleum engineering from Stanford University and a PhD degree from the Norwegian Institute of Technology (now NTNU). He is an distinguished member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), he received twice the SPE Cedric K. Fergusson award (as co-author with Øivind Fevang, 1997 and Lars Høier, 2001), and the AIME-SPE Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal (2011). He received the 2010 Excellence in Research Award from Statoil for his contributions to gas-based EOR and fluid characterization. Whitson was elected into the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences (NTVA) in 2012.
During 2012-2013 Whitson provided expert technical services to BP in connection with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (Macondo) blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, culminating in the Oct. 2013 Phase II trial of quantification of oil released required by litigation to assess penalties levied by the federal government [US Department of Justice civil suit against BP and other defendants for violations under the Clean Water Act in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, captioned United States of America v. BP Exploration & Production Inc. et al., Civ. Action No. 2:10-cv-04536]. Whitson’s contribution related to the fluid description of oil and gas from reservoir conditions to release at seabed, and in its further interaction with massive seawater volumes before reaching surface conditions where oil volumes were used to determine financial penalties levied by the U.S. Clean Water Act.