Steam generation for the purposes of thermal recovery includes facilities to treat the water (produced water or fresh water), generate the steam, and transport it to the injection wells. A steamflood uses high-quality steam injected into an oil reservoir. The quality of steam is defined as the weight percent of steam in the vapor phase to the total weight of steam. The higher the steam quality, the more heat is carried by this steam. High-quality steam provides heat to reduce oil viscosity, which mobilizes and sweeps the crude to the producing wells.

The single well chemical tracer (SWCT) test can be used to evaluate an Improved oil recovery (IOR) process quickly and inexpensively. The one-spot procedure takes advantage of the nondestructive nature of the SWCT method. The single-well (one-spot) pilot is carried out in three steps. First, Sor for the target interval is measured (see Residual oil evaluation using single well chemical tracer test. Then an appropriate volume of the IOR fluid is injected into the test interval and pushed away from the well with water.

The electrical submersible pump, typically called an ESP, is an efficient and reliable artificial-lift method for lifting moderate to high volumes of fluids from wellbores. These volumes range from a low of 150 B/D to as much as 150,000 B/D (24 to 24,600 m3/d). Variable-speed controllers can extend this range significantly, both on the high and low side. The ESP's main components include: The components are normally tubing hung from the wellhead with the pump on top and the motor attached below. There are special applications in which this configuration is inverted.

Dynamic data is information that changes asynchronously as the information is updated. Unlike static data, which is infrequently accessed and unlikely to be modified, or streaming data, which has a constant flow of information, dynamic data involves updates that may come at any time, with sporadic periods of inactivity in between.[1] In the context of reservoir engineering, dynamic data is used during the creation of a reservoir model in conjunction with historical static data. When modeled accurately, any sampling from the conditional distribution would produce accurate static and dynamic characteristics. When a permanence of ratio hypothesis is employed, the conditional probability P(AǀB,C) can be expressed in terms of P(A), P(AǀB), and P(AǀC).

The drilling-fluid system--commonly known as the "mud system"--is the single component of the well-construction process that remains in contact with the wellbore throughout the entire drilling operation. Drilling-fluid systems are designed and formulated to perform efficiently under expected wellbore conditions. Advances in drilling-fluid technology have made it possible to implement a cost-effective, fit-for-purpose system for each interval in the well-construction process. The active drilling-fluid system comprises a volume of fluid that is pumped with specially designed mud pumps from the surface pits, through the drillstring exiting at the bit, up the annular space in the wellbore, and back to the surface for solids removal and maintenance treatments as needed. The capacity of the surface system usually is determined by the rig size, and rig selection is determined by the well design.

A prime objective in all drilling operations is to minimize safety and environmental risks, while maintaining drilling performance. Operators and service companies alike take a proactive stance to reduce the potential for hazardous incidents, and to minimize the impact of any single incident. The health, safety, and environmental (HSE) policies of many companies are more stringent than those required by national governments and the various agencies charged with overseeing drilling operations. All personnel who take part in the well-construction process must comply with these standards to ensure their own safety and that of others. On most locations, a "zero-tolerance" policy is in effect concerning behaviors that might endanger workers, the environment, or the safe progress of the operation.

Many oilfield processes normally employed on the surface may be adapted to downhole conditions. Examples include phase separation, pumping, and compression. Sometimes the design specifications for downhole processes may be looser than surface processing because control is more difficult. Partial processing, in which fluids are separated into a relatively pure phase stream and a residual mixed-phase stream, are most common. Downhole separation technology is best suited for removing the bulk (50 to 90%) of the gas or water, with downstream surface or subsea equipment being used to "polish" the streams for complete separation.

As with most technology, proper candidate selection is key to success. The economics are often determined by the number of and locations of the wells and by the overall geographical development plan. It is important to recognize that downhole processing is not a substitute for prudent profile control of wells through workovers, gel polymer treatments, cement squeezes, and so on. The following discussion applies to both gas/liquid and water/oil processing, followed by sections that discuss screening criteria specific to each. From an equipment standpoint, gas/liquid separation is much easier than oil/water separation. This generally means that it is a more robust application. All separation and pump equipment has an expected lifetime that is typically much shorter than the lifetime of the well. The cost of replacing or repairing the equipment must be considered as well as the initial capital cost.

There are two types of pumps used in hydraulic pumping for artificial lift purposes. These are reciprocating pumps and jet pumps. The pump end of a hydraulic downhole pump is similar to a sucker-rod pump because it uses a rod-actuated plunger (also called the pump piston) and two or more check valves. The pump can be either single-acting or double-acting. A single-acting pump closely follows rod-pump design practices and is called single-acting because it displaces fluid on either the upstroke or downstroke (but not both). An example is shown schematically in Figure 1. Figure 1 shows a double-acting pump that has suction and discharge valves for both sides of the plunger, which enables it to displace fluids to the surface on both the upstroke and downstroke.

DNA fingerprinting (also called DNA typing) involves isolating and creating images of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) sequences. In the context of reservoir characterization, DNA samples from microorganisms found living in crude oil are examined.[1] The process for creating a DNA fingerprint consists of first obtaining a sample of cells containing, extracting the DNA from the sample, and purifying the DNA. Fragments of different lengths are produced then sorted by placing them on a gel and subjecting the gel to an electric current in a process called electrophoresis: the shorter the fragment, the more quickly it will move toward the positive pole (anode). After electrophoresis, the sorted, double-stranded DNA fragments are subjected to a blotting technique in which they are split into single strands and transferred to a nylon sheet.