Oil and gas industry interest is surging in using remote survey technologies for more cost-efficient, safer, and lower-carbon certification, verification, and inspection of assets and operations. Amid COVID-19 travel restrictions in 2020, DNV GL has conducted more than 4,000 remote surveys for the sector. These have provided the supply chain with the assurance it needs to keep projects and operations running safely and on schedule. Remote surveys involve fixed and mobile cameras (e.g., smartphones) giving customers instant access to DNV GL experts worldwide for verification, classification, and certification of assets, verification of materials and components, inspection, and marine assurance. The growing track record for remote survey technology could soon make it the method of choice for inspections in some places and circumstances, according to a senior expert at one leading oil and gas exploration and production company.

You must log in to edit PetroWiki. Content of PetroWiki is intended for personal use only and to supplement, not replace, engineering judgment. SPE disclaims any and all liability for your use of such content.

Liquid load issue is commonly found in the gas condensate reservoir. In this regard we consider a novel workflow consisting: (i) CO₂ capture from fossil fueled power plants, (ii) inject the captured CO₂ into the well and (iii) investigate the effects of CO₂ injection in well health. This communication reports, the issue identification and verification, as well as the effects of high purity CO₂ on surface tension, minimum miscible pressure (MMP) and well productivity.

ScCO₂ will be obtained from a chemical-looping combustion (CLC) integrated power plant. The novel CLC method includes the application of a solid oxygen (O2) carrier to supply O2, instead of air, to carry out the fuel combustion, thereby almost pure CO₂ can be delivered without any energy penalty for separation. The captured CO₂ needs to be brought in ScCO₂ condition before injection. A mathematical workflow model was developed to identify and verify liquid loading issue. In addition, surface tension, and density were measured at high pressure and temperature to analyse the influence of supercritical CO₂ in recovery and liquid loading.

As indicated above, this study comprises with three major aspects (i) captured/compressed of CO₂ from a power plant and (ii) use of ScCO₂ in gas condensate reservoirs and (iii) impact of pure CO₂ in the well health. In CO₂ capture, a thermodynamic parametric models analysis has been conducted using natural gas as fuel, and nickel oxide as a solid oxygen carrier.

The influence of temperature in fuel and O2 ratios are examined by the Gibbs free energy method to determine the combustion product composition. It reveals that CO2 is purified up to 99.5% in the fuel combustion cycle which is nickel (Ni) based O2 carrier. The result is agreed with the experimental studies.

The workflow model identified and varied liquid loading in an active well. Surface tension (ST) between Arabian condensate and ScCO₂ was measured and found that ST continued to decrease with increasing pressure. Dynamic miscibility value was determined at high pressure and temperature.

The focus on digitalization and how to reap the benefits from it, is increasing in the oil and gas industry. To make this happen subsea by using machine learning and neural networks on mechanical products, we need to understand how we can digitize them.

In this paper we will show how we can generate a true digital twin that could enable the step change in how we monitor and understand the mechanical products placed out of reach for normal preventive maintenance.

We look at the industry’s current information philosophy regarding mechanical products; from idea to development and testing to installation and operation. Where the products are currently designed to end up with a nominal 3D model, test components and the verification that they are fit for purpose is made through a test scope simulating certain scenarios defined by the industry. The products are then installed, and their condition is assumed to be fine until evidence of the opposite is apparent, and the time window to perform mitigative intervention is gone.

Creating true digital twins of mechanical products will require more data. In recent tests we have focused on generating data points to understand the response/behaviour of the products in multiple scenarios and utilized this data to describe the behaviour accurately and numerically; from this we can generate a digital representation of what state the products are in.

The results are based on recent work in developing a digital twin for mechanical products. In this work we have proven through documented testing and quantitative analysis that we can generate a validated numerical model for mechanical products. This will form the basis for understanding the state of the products and predict when intervention/maintenance is imminent for the operator. Using this model and method, condition monitoring of the mechanical products can now be enabled with relative few datapoints extracted in time intervals, and through the use of its numerical representation, establish an actual condition history of the product itself.

Further this model would enable a deeper understanding of the actual operational effects, to which the product is exposed during its lifetime, leading to more precise and cost-efficient industry requirements and system knowledge.

PWC is now a field proven method for restoring cemented isolation in casing annuli and has been successfully applied to casing exit repairs, zonal isolations as well as side-track and permanent abandonments. It is a viable alternative to section milling or cutting and pulling casing, with field history also demonstrating that it offers more reliable results than simple ‘perf and squeeze’. It is now accepted in many regulatory locations and is used by a large number of major operators around the world, but it is important to understand the limits of its application.

This paper focuses on illustrating the application envelope for PWC in well abandonment. It will examine the trade-off of service costs versus saved duration, highlighting where a low rig spread rate may drive a decision towards choosing an alternative conventional approach. Furthermore, the paper features and discusses the well parameters such as casing sizes, hole angle, rig capability and annulus content which are key parameters when designing a PWC operation.

Operators and Service Companies have undertaken a large portfolio of Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) modelling of PWC operations and more than 70 operations have been subjected to verification by cement quality logging. The paper considers the options for PWC barrier verification and shares when and how CFD and historical cement quality logs from the track record to date has been used to provide confidence in, and verification of, subsequent operations.

The Gorgon Foundation Project (GFP) development comprises of the Gorgon and Jansz-Io gas fields located in offshore Western Australia. To maintain gas supply, the Gorgon Stage 2 (GS2) project will expand the existing infrastructure with additional subsea production wells. The Gorgon Stage 2 (GS2) well architecture is designed to deliver a 7 5/8 in. tubing × 7 in. production liner Cased Hole Orientated Perforation completion (CHOP).

An unsuccessful production liner primary cement job resulted in an area of uncemented wellbore -casing annulus and a sand containing mobile water exposed. This led to the unresolvable uncertainty of water crossflow into adjacent produced sands. Under the current flow assurance restrictions, the risk of produced water could reduce production rates or require the well to be shut-in. To mitigate water flow potential, cement plug annulus impediments (baffles) were installed. The objective of these plugs are for reservoir management, not abandonment barrier plugs. This allowed an optimized scope for verification and contingency operations planned and executed.

This paper provides an insight into the collaborative efforts made by the Subsurface, Drilling and Completions (Wells) teams and Service Partners to plan and successfully execute two (2) Perforate, Wash and Cement plug jobs. Operations include the use of Tubing Conveyed Perforations (TCP) and Closed Loop Cup Type Wash and Cement tool, a first for Chevron in Australia. The cement plugs were deployed from a semi-submersible in ~220 m of water and placed at depths of ~5,700 mMD and ~5,500 mMD respectively, at inclinations of 60° and in high static bottom hole temperatures up to ~157°C.

The key challenges and lesson are discussed including planning to optimize swab cup integrity in high temperature operations.

There will be future development of hydrocarbon fields with high CO₂ content in Malaysia. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is required in order to develop these fields, since venting and flaring of CO₂ to atmosphere is not allowed. Reducing CO₂ emission will impact to environments and climate change. On the storage part, integrated study needs to be conducted to ensure the field is suitable as storage site. The main objective of this paper is focusing on the important advanced analysis and assessments for maturing potential CO₂ storage sites, which is called Storage Development Plan (SDP).

The evaluations and analyses will cover 4 major areas, which are Storage Capacity/Injectivity; Containment; Well Integrity; and Monitoring, Measurement and Verification (MMV). These evaluations and analyses are conducted in order to assess the subsurface risk, reduce uncertainties and mitigation plan in maturing the fields as storage sites. Integrated screening and maturation assessments of potential storage sites must be conducted in order to identify the most suitable CO₂ storage sites.

The Storage capacity/injectivity analyses will cover estimation of CO2 storage capacity, optimum injectivity strategy, sensitivity on CO2 injection scenarios, and study on porosity-permeability changes, trapping mechanism and long-term fate study. Containment analyses will cover assessment of containment/seal integrity, possible leakage risk pathways, evaluation of compaction and subsidence to hold injected CO2 as long-term storage solution. Well Integrity analyses will cover the evaluation of well integrity and leakage assessments through existing wells, assessment of existing wells for conversion and propose cost-effective mitigation plan. Monitoring, Measurement and Verification (MMV) will cover monitoring and verification of CO2 injection performance and behavior consistent with prediction on capacity and injectivity, monitoring seal integrity, monitoring compaction and subsidence, and ensuring containment that address health, safety and environment. This advances analysis and maturation assessments provide solution to mature the best suitable storage sites for development of hydrocarbon fields with high CO₂ content.

This Storage Development Plan (SDP) would form a benchmark of advance analyses and assessments for maturing the CO₂ storage sites in Malaysia and elsewhere in the world. This will be integrated study consists of overburden, reservoir, laboratory, well integrity and MMV studies. This integrated study will reduce the subsurface uncertainty and mitigate the identified risk for any fields that are selected as storage site. This greatly aids to optimize and commercialize the future development of hydrocarbon fields with high CO₂ content.

In order to remain competitive, digital solution in upstream oil and gas industry "is not one of the option, it's the only option". Nowadays, many companies have embarked on the digital transformation journey, and striving to become a data-driven organization. Service providers and consultancy companies constantly propose their latest technology such as Advanced Analytics, Big Data and digital oil field (DOF), however, the success of these digital solution relies heavily on data quality, where companies have always struggled to ensure a high level of data quality and make their readiness towards digital transformation questionable.

Real time data has become an essential tool in production surveillance, monitoring and asset optimization, it provides the engineers a breadth of view on the operational behavior of their wells and facilities. However, multiple issues arise that hinders the right data before flowing into the system such as instrument failure, bad data, wrong mapping, duplication, misleading descriptions and inconsistence in naming convention. These discrepancies will lead to low quality data being fed into the system and ultimately affect the efficiency of any deployed digital solution. Therefore, for any organization to leverage the value of their data and to unlock new opportunities the real time data needs to be well managed, governed and provided in high quality.

In this paper, the approach of real time data cleansing and standardization will be addressed in detail from end to end based on an initiative conducted in one of the signature field in Peninsular Malaysia. A thorough cleansing was done from the verification of instruments onsite, P&ID to all sub systems (servers) and end up with reporting all the finding (Completeness, Validity, Uniqueness, Consistency, Timeliness, Accuracy…). Therefore, provide a real time master data management, this helped in a good understanding of the real time data flow and identifying the responsible parties.

This has resulted in the development of a robust workflow accompanied by a clear RACI that can be used during the replication in other fields as well as future developments. Author believes that other operators may benefit from the proposed cleaning strategy and standardization logics to prepare for digital transformation.

Two innovative concepts under the Multi-purpose Floating Structures (MPFS) project has been proposed recently. The two concepts are Floating Hydrocarbon Storage Facility (FHSF) and Modular Multi-purpose Floating Structures (MMFS). Both concepts are based on modular design and are proposed to utilize sea space for different purposes. The FHSF is aiming specifically to store different hydrocarbon products in the nearshore area, while the MMFS is developed to create "land on the sea" by connecting a few standardized modular units with rigid or flexible connectors. Both concepts can be extended to broader applications. For example, the FHSF can be extended as a floating fish farm and floating LNG system, while the MMFS can be used as a floating aggregate storage facility and floating flatted factory. The overall conceptual design of the two floating systems is described and compared in this paper. The innovation in these two concepts is highlighted. In addition to the conceptual design, extensive research studies have been conducted to verify the performance of both concepts to realize the concept in practice. The verified performance includes structural integrity, hydrodynamic behaviors under given sea conditions, ship collision, etc. In this paper, we mainly concentrate on their hydrodynamic performance.

To investigate the hydrodynamic performance of both concepts, experimental and numerical simulations have been conducted. In these studies, we followed a procedure that starts from local components to the global system. Based on this procedure, experimental and numerical studies are divided into different stages with different focuses. Three-stage experimental studies for the FHSF were carried out in the coastal basin of National University of Singapore (NUS) Hydraulic Lab, and in the ocean basin at SINTEF Ocean. Similar three-stage experiments on a model system of MMFS were performed. The model scale of 1:49 and 1:50 was adopted in the FHSF and MMFS tests, respectively. Decay tests, regular wave and random waves tests in the 1-year and 100-year storm at a particular coastal area were performed to evaluate their hydrodynamic performance. For the FHSF, the focus of the experiment is on the motions of single FHSF, the connection forces and the sloshing of the internal liquid. For the MMFS, the focus of the experiment is on the connection forces under various configurations and the reduction of motions of the modules.

Following the experimental studies, comprehensive numerical studies were conducted, and the numerical models were verified through experimental results. These numerical models are mostly based on both linear potential flow theory. According to the verified numerical model, the optimized design of the floating structures was further proposed. An additional numerical model is built to study the viscous effect induced by current by computational fluid dynamics. Very good agreements were found from the comparison of experimental and numerical results of both concepts. The comparison studies also demonstrate a very promising performance of the two concepts even in extreme sea conditions. The motions of the system are mild, and the hydrodynamic loads are small. These verify that the conceptual design of both the FHSF and MMFS is feasible in the practice.

This paper delivers an overview of the research work on the conceptual design of FHSF and MMFS and their hydrodynamic performance. The major findings through the numerical and experimental work may provide a useful reference for floating structures design in the nearshore region. In addition, we also found that the present numerical tools have limited capability to calculate the hydrodynamic responses of multi-module floating structures, especially when the body number becomes large, and a numerical tool with higher efficiency is under developing.