Andreas Hofmann and Willem van Strien, SGS, the Netherlands, discuss new technologies for reservoir characterisation and field and facility health monitoring.
T
he need for low-cost solutions and enhancing the sustainability of existing facilities and infrastructure in the oil and gas industry has promoted the development of numerous technologies for reservoir characterisation, production optimisation and the monitoring and preservation of well and facility integrity. In recent years, the development of laboratory analytical techniques has also resulted in an order-of-magnitude increase in resolution and precision. The commercialisation of techniques, which previously were only designed for academic applications, has triggered significant innovation in the oilfield services sector. High-tech analytical methods now allow for more reliable petrographical, petrophysical, geo-chemical and rock-mechanical analyses of rock fragment sizes smaller than even 0.1 mm. These developments in turn triggered a significant growth in the use of cuttings, a byproduct of the drilling process rarely used in the past. Apart from solid cores, drill cuttings are often the only tangible rock samples coming
from the subsurface. The routine application of these novel technologies to cutting material is set to lead to a reduction in core acquisition and subsequently have a substantial impact on the cost of drilling. In combination with wireline and measuring while drilling (MWD) logs, the data acquired from cuttings can be used for reservoir characterisation, geomechanical models and the detection of reservoir heterogeneities. It is not only geologists and petrophysicists who benefit from detailed mineralogical assessments of solids (e.g. rocks). High-resolution chemical and mineralogical analysis technologies also help production engineers and production chemists to analyse the chemical and mineralogical composition of scales, produced particles (e.g. sand) and the products of corrosion. The monitoring of contamination levels and the changes in the chemistry of the solids and fluids helps to detect potential plugging risks and erosion/corrosion processes at an early stage and to optimise mitigation programmes. Both corrosion and scaling are threats to the safe and economic operation of oil and gas assets.
| 25
