TCP is a strong, noncorrosive, spoolable, lightweight technology which is delivered in long lengths, resulting in a reduction of transportation and installation costs. TCP is installed using small vessels or subsea pallets, significantly reducing CO2 emissions. It is also 100% recyclable. Strohm secured a contract with Total and ExxonMobil for a qualification-testing program for a high-pressure, high-temperature (HP/HT) thermoplastic composite pipe (TCP). The qualification project will create a foundation for further development of this TCP technology for riser applications.

Production has started on the Mahani field in Concession Area B of the Sharjah Emirate, the first startup from a new discovery onshore Sharjah in 37 years. Italian energy major Eni and the Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC) made the announcement on 4 January, less than 2 years from contract signature and 1 year since announcing the partnership’s first onshore discovery. Eni said it will continue its commitment on Sharjah exploration in operated area A and underexplored area C, with the aim of securing further resources for the Sharjah Emirate. Field production is expected to increase progressively with the connection of wells to be drilled this year and next. A strategy update from Eni said the Mahani would produce 18,000 BOED gross in 2022, giving it an equity share of 9,000 BOED.

ExxonMobil announced today a list of new steps it will take to lower the oil and gas company’s emissions footprint in support of the climate goals established in the Paris Agreement. By 2025, the Irving, Texas-based company’s aim is to slash methane emissions by up to half while curbing overall upstream greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by up to 20%. ExxonMobil also expects to cut its flaring intensity by 35 to 45% during this same timeframe before falling in line with the World Bank initiative that has called for the elimination of routine flaring by 2030. These goals involve Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions from the company’s operated assets. ExxonMobil said it will begin reporting its Scope 3 emissions, those stemming from the combustion of its products, each year starting in 2021, but cautioned that the newly shared figures “does not ultimately incentivize reductions by the actual emitters.”

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) completed the first phase of its large-scale multiyear predictive maintenance project to improve asset efficiency and integrity across its upstream and downstream operations. Announced in November 2019, the project is being implemented over four phases as part of the company’s digital acceleration program to embed advanced digital technologies across its operations. Phase 1 covers the modeling and monitoring of 160 turbines, motors, centrifugal pumps, and compressors across six ADNOC Group companies. All phases of the project are expected to be completed by 2022 and will enable monitoring of up to 2,500 critical machines. Using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies including machine learning and digital twins, the company’s predictive maintenance platform helps with equipment stoppages, reduces unplanned equipment maintenance and downtime, increases reliability and safety, and is expected to deliver maintenance savings up to 20%.

UAE Has Become World's Newest Producer Of Unconventional Gas The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become the latest country to prove that the unconventional oil and gas sector is becoming firmly an international one. This comes as the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and its French partner Total announced today the first delivery of unconventional gas from a jointly operated onshore field in the UAE. ADNOC said the gas delivery represents a major advance toward the company’s goal of producing 1 Bcf/D by 2030, enough to meet all the UAE’s domestic natural-gas demand. The shale-gas field where ADNOC and Total hope to accomplish this is known as the Ruwais Diyab Unconventional Gas Concession and is located almost 125 miles from Abu Dhabi. The companies said they used a fast-track approach to expedite the midstream components needed to move the gas from the greenfield to existing processing facilities.

ADNOC onshore recently tested HPHT sour gas reservoirs with +30% H2S, +10% CO2 to evaluate the reservoirs and well potential as part of the efforts in supplying additional gas for meeting country's growing energy needs. Developing these massive HPHT sour gas reservoirs is essential for providing a sustainable source of energy for years to come.

As mature reservoirs continue to be produced, drilling activities become more and more challenging. Risks are mainly posed by large variations in pressure gradient, while having intercalated high- and low-pressure zones adds to the complexity of the operation. High mud weigh is often used for well control and hole stability; however, it may result in lost circulation, differential sticking or wellbore collapse. On the other hand, increasing depletion may further cause compaction, and therefore instability. Wellbore trajectory and deviation may be extra factors increasing the hazard likelihood. In such circumstances, stuck pipe, which is one of the main drilling problems worldwide, seems like an imminent risk that generally is addressed on a reactive basis, amounting to 25% - 40% of the well budget, according to industry literature. Furthermore, the presence of radioactive sources, necessary for measuring and recording density / neutron petrophysical data, in the LWD (Logging While Drilling) string while drilling across such reservoirs augments the severity of the potential risks. This paper aims to present the significant gains obtained by incorporating the Logging While Tripping (LWT) technology in the standard operational practices, while meeting the drilling, formation evaluation and data acquisition requirements.

Data from three sample wells were analyzed: In Well A, the 8.5" section was drilled in two runs: - Run-1 - RSS (Rotary Steerable System) + Triple Combo LWD above the high overbalance zone X. Run-2 - RSS only till section TD (Total Depth). In Well B, the 8.5" section drilling was attempted in a single run, leading to stuck BHA (Bottom Hole Assembly) with expensive LWD tools and radioactive source, and eventually leaving the total BHA in the hole and sidetracking the well. In Well C, the 8.5" section drilling was again attempted in a single run, but only with GR-RSS for landing inside the reservoir. Formation evaluation data was acquired using LWT technique, which requires negligible additional rig time, and virtually eliminates the risk of losing expensive LWD tools and radioactive sources in the well, as the logging tools are protected inside the pipe and retrievable at any time.

Rig time, cost and risk were evaluated and compared for the three cases. Results show 1.85 days rig time reduction and 23% cost savings in Well C compared to Well A, while statistics of Well B showcase the risk magnitude, which can be effectively diminished by implementing the methodology used in Well C. A quantified matrix has been utilized to contrast the approximative cumulative risk per well. The use of LWT in 8.5" deviated hole sections has become part of the best operational standard practices for the operator while drilling across depleted and deeper reservoirs, as it leads to optimal time - cost - risk balance.

Carbonate reservoirs show huge variations in petrophysical properties resulting from leaching/dissolution, fracturation, cementation and or dolotomization. Permeability anisotropy is one property which if understood properly, helps at different stages of reservoir development especially in cases of substantial density difference between fluids; primary production below the bubble point, gas cycling, gas/or water coning etc. Where the anisotropy is severe, it can also influence fluid injection and production rates. For carbonates, microporosity and fractures make it very challenging to relate porosity and lithofacies to permeability. In addition, thin bedded layers that can enhance production maybe unidentifiable because of the coarse nature of conventional logs, at least using Logging While Drilling (LWD) in wells drilled with Oil base muds (OBM) until recently.

The recently introduced LWD dual physics (ultrasonic and resistivity) imaging service with a resolution of 0.2 inch now opens the door to capture heterogeneity using high definition images at very fine scales in OBM that was not possible earlier. High definition borehole images are used to isolate and quantify secondary porosity features like vugs. The density of the vugs per unit length is plotted and correlated to pretest mobility which is a direct indicator to flowrate.

The vug density shows a positive correlation with pretest mobility. The high-resolution images also show intervals where the mobility is enhanced as a result of the influence of thin bed boundaries or where the mobility is lowered because of dense features like stylolytes. The vug density-mobility (vd-m) plot completes a picture of pretest mobility trends limited by the distance between pressure points stations. With the vd-m, more refined facie analyses are possible, together with a better understanding of the permeability distribution across a well.

The effectiveness of a more refined picture of the permeability heterogeneity is seen in the Lower Cretaceous carbonates in an offshore Middle East well. Known porosity variations from core analysis and petrographic images attest to the heterogeneity seen in the vd-m correlation logs. The resolution of vd-m is helpful in understanding the productivity and injection capabilities of such carbonate reservoirs, for example, for optimizing ICD design. Further integration with other data (advanced mud gas analysis) and work processes (geosteering) provide a way of identifying fluid changes in wells, identifying different litho-types and aid in justifying critical geosteering decisions.

In the western Abu Dhabi, oil fields have been discovered from the Mishrif reservoir (Cenomanian/Turonian). These fields are found in shoal/reef related stratigraphic prospects and composed of grainstone or packstone around platform margin setting. Regional understanding believes that the in-situ Shilaif mudstone is not mature enough to source the overlain Mishrif. So, it is inferred that the Mishrif reserves were charged from Shilaif kitchen of regional syncline through over 100km lateral migration from south to north. However, this accumulation pattern seems presumptive as little solid evidence was reported and little geochemistry measurement have been done previously.

To enhance understanding of the Shilaif source characteristics and figure out Shilaif-Mishrif accumulation rules, cuttings, cores from Shilaif and oil samples from Mishrif & Tuwayil were taken. Subsequently, geochemistry assay, oil-source correlation and related research were carried out. The results shows the in-situ Shilaif has abundant organic content with high TOC, HI and bitumen "A" with low maturity. Tmax of Shilaif mudstone yields an average value of 430°C and calculated vitrinite reflectance about 0.6, which means an early oil generation for in-situ Shilaif source. Oil-source correlation indicates a higher maturity of crude oil in the Mishrif & Tuwayil than the in-situ Shilaif. Furthermore, similarities of biomarkers between Mishrif oil and the Ghurab syncline Shilaif source are proved. All these evidences reveal the lateral hydrocarbon migration and accumulation northwards.

For the migration pathway, it is inferred the regional unconformity of TopMishrif plays an important role to transfer the hydrocarbon. In Western Abu Dhabi, truncation or depositional hiatus around TopMishrif are not as pronounced as Eastern Mishrif platform, but obvious exposure as well as leaching evidence could be observed from uppermost Mishrif and Tuwayil through core investigation. Besides, almost all the oil shows in Mishrif concentrate around the interface, which further proves the role of the unconformity.

The study on Shilaif source characteristics and hydrocarbon migration mechanism enhances the insight into accumulation rules of Cretaceous Petroleum system in Western Abu Dhabi and would guide the further exploration activity.

"X-Mas Trees, Wellhead and Down Hole Safety Valves" are deemed as Well HSE critical Equipment in Abu Dhabi Oil fields (alike in many other countries round the world). Ensuring 100%, integrity of this critical equipment has always been a challenge in the industry due to equipment aging (above 25 years in operation) and lack of comprehensive international standard guidelines on this subject. Hence, a comprehensive methodology named as "100% Integrity Assurance approach" was implemented for this equipment in order to ensure sustainability and to prevent HSE incidents throughout the well lifecycle. This methodology in turn contributed significantly towards Life extension of the aging equipment by reducing its failure rates.

The 100% Integrity Assurance approach for Well HSE Critical equipment is a broad-spectrum continuous process involving collaboration among multiple disciplines of the organization such as "Well Integrity, Field Development, Field Production and Maintenance teams. The methodology consists of:

Introducing a risk based approach to standardize all requirements of Integrity Assurance activities for this equipment (e.g. frequency of activities to be performed, process, responsibilities, Allowable Leak Rates etc.).

Implementing this methodology resulted not only in improving performance visibility of Well HSE Critical Equipment to whole organization but it also observed to be contributing significantly to Life extension of the aging equipment by reducing failure rates. Based on last 6-years comprehensive data upto 60% Reduction was observed in the Failure rates of HSE critical equipment/X-Mas Tree Valves.

This unique approach involving multiple disciplines of the organization is new and quite fruitful to maintain the integrity of aging Well HSE critical equipment. The methodology is systematic and fulfils exiting gap in the Oil Field Industry, which lacks any comprehensive international guidelines to maintain or extend the life of aging X-Tree and DHSV equipment.