SUMMER / 2013
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E ditor’s Letter
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…the cycle of transformation begins with an egg. A caterpillar is hatched out of it. After a few days the creature freezes and gradually turns into a chrysalis. After leaving it, an insect’s wings are still soft and short. It takes a few hours to let them become hard and plastic. That way an adult butterfly is created.
It’s just a quote from an encyclopaedia. However, I think everyone will agree with me that the changes affect us all and do not overlook any aspect of our lives. The situation of YoungPetro is similar. The legendary founder, the first editor-in-chief, Wojtek Stupka goes into well-deserved retirement. As a result, the magazine changes hands. He hands it over to the young, committed and open to cooperation with people. The combination of different personalities, ideas and knowledge may result in changes. I assure you, that it will be a metamorphosis in the right direction! In this issue, we touch upon the subject of women. It’s hard to believe that delicacy, grace, sensitivity, which are the attributes of fair sex, find a place in the oil industry. Their role is much bigger than we think. Nowadays, women make up a significant percentage of the workforce in the industry. As life proves, they often do better than men - learn faster, treat their duties more responsibly, organise
their time better. The stereotype of women as mothers and wives is slowly disappearing thanks to the brave, strong women who are not afraid of oil eruptions or storms on an oil rig. They exchange curl-papers for a helmet, suits and dresses for work uniforms and high heels for heavy boots. Lipstick and powder lose their importance in favour of the spanners, drill pipes and drill bits. First aid and evacuation training are much more useful here than culinary knowledge and the latest fashion trends. Do women really have a chance to take over the global oil industry in the future? Is progressive feminisation the good sign for the development of the industry? This and other topics will be covered in the article “Wind of change” by Joanna Wilaszek. Besides, in this issue you will find: an interview with Karolina Głodek - MWD Engineer and the conference reports from the farthest corners of the world. Enjoy!
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Editor-in-Chief Michał Turek m.turek@youngpetro.org
Proof-readers Karolina Kmak Urszula Łyszczarz
Deputy Editor-in-Chief Jan Wypijewski j.wypijewski@youngpetro.org
Sales Anna Ropka
Editors Iwona Dereń Kamil Irnazarow Hubert Karoń Dominik Homer Skokowski Michał Solarz Piotr Tarczoń Gordon Wasilewski Maciej Wawrzkowicz Joanna Wilaszek Science Advisor Tomasz Włodek
Marketing Barbara Pach Jakub Szelkowski Logistics Dawid Wierzbicki Kacper Żeromski IT Maciej Kędroń Kacper Malinowski
Ambassadors Yurii Moroz - Ukraine
Art Director Marek Nogieć www.nogiec.org
issn 2300-1259
Published by An Official Publication of
The Society of Petroleum Engineers Student Chapter P o l a n d • www.spe.net.pl
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Wind of Change – Women Entering the Petroleum Industry 7 Joanna Wilaszek
How to Be a Woman on the Rig? 14 Barbara Pach, Joanna Wilaszek
Why Drill If You Can Dig? 17 Maciej Wawrzkowicz
Numerical Study on Accidental Gas Release 23 of Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines Qing Xu , Fan Zhang
Influence of Interconnectors on Transmission Operation System 33 Kacper Żeromski
Injectivity in Non-Newtonian Two-Phase Flow 38 Ciaran A. Latooij
Development of Gas Hydrate Reservoir in the Black Sea 45 Kostiantyn Ganushevych, Kateryna Sai
The Young at the Heart of Asia 51 Michał Turek
From the East to the West 54 Iwona Dereń
Those Were Four Amazing Days in China! 58 Dominik H. Skokowski, Jakub Jagiełło
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On Stream – Latest News Gordon Wasilewski
Oil companies suspected of price fixing in Europe
Another natural gas deposit discovered in Israel
From time to time oil and gas companies fall under suspicion of conspiring to set the prices for gasoline. This time European Commission raided some of the major O&G companies in the old continent, including Shell, BP and Statoil. Main accusation against listed firms is reporting false trade prices. Creating even small distortions of prices on the world market worth billions of dollars can cause huge disruption. Apart from O&G companies there was also price reporting agency that was raided – Platts. EC wants to look closer on its methodology of handling data from various disclosed transactions and transforming it into public announcements. Shell and BP are said to be cooperating with EC on the subject. There is no official information of whether there are any other companies included in the investigation.
Independent exploration and production firm Noble Energy announced on Wednesday that they made a new deep-water natural gas discovery off Israel. The company founded by Lloyd Noble is the operator of the license where the Karish well is located, about 20 miles northeast of the Tamar field in the Mediterranean Sea. Noble said the well encountered 184 feet of net natural gas pay. Discovered gross resources, combined with resources in an adjacent block, are estimated to range between 1.6 trillion and 2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the company said. The find marks the seventh consecutive field discovery for Noble Energy and its partners in the Levant Basin of the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
The United States to start fuelling the World
Lundin Petroleum look for profit from Johan Sverdrup field
Federal government authorities agreed on global export of American natural gas. This essential decision gets historic importance in energy market diversification. Freeport LNG, Texas may be the first facility eligible to become full played liquefying and shipping terminal in the United States as if Energy Department reviews its application. Terminal was built four years ago and now modified for total $10 billion. Freeport LNG’s management has already concluded preliminary agreements with Japanese Chubu Electric Power and Osaka Gas and also with BP. Initial overseas exports could start this Summer. Authorities set limit of 1.4 billion cubic feet daily shipping over the next 20 years. More than 10 companies by this time requested permission to export US-produced natural gas. Decision threatens European gas monopolist and might change everyday life of EU citizens.
Lukas Lundin, investment manager for his billionaire Swedish family, said the oil stock bearing their name should double in value in next 10 years after its biggest North Sea discovery. Lundin Petroleum, which is Sweden’s largest oil company has become the most expensive European explorer since it began trading in 2001. With value of $6.8 billion it may rise up to $16 billion now. Lundin family owns about 30 percent of Stockholm-based Lundin Petroleum. The company jumped in trading after discovering the Avaldsnes prospect in 2010 and Aldous in 2011, which were later renamed Johan Sverdrup. It holds about 3.6 billion barrels of oil under the seabed and it’s Norway’s largest field in almost four decades. Optimistic plans can be stopped by pressure of Norway’s government, which plans to change oil and gas taxation this year.
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Joanna Wilaszek
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Wind of Change – Women Entering the Petroleum Industry Joanna Wilaszek
Petroleum industry is still very quickly developing branch of world economy. It is also changing, not only in technological meaning, but also demographically. So far, this was considered to be a strictly masculine occupation, but nowadays more and more women are being hired in oil and gas companies, working not only on rigs and at refineries, but also joining the companies’ headquarters. They are strong, satisfied and happy, working with full professionalism and commitment, gaining respect from their colleagues.
The best job for women? Petroleum engineer! At the end of 2012 Laurence Shatkin, the author of “Best Jobs for the 21st Century” prepared a ranking of ten best jobs for women in the coming year. He took under consideration a wide range of aspects, like level of satisfaction, salary, projected growth and annual openings. After analyzing occupations with the highest ratings, he came to very interesting conclusions. It occurs that one of ten best jobs which a woman can take is becoming a petroleum engineer! Why? National Survey of College Graduates shows that 52% of women working in petroleum industry report very high level of satisfaction (the 7th place on the ranking list). In 2011 a median salary of woman working as petroleum engineer was $122,000 (the 1st place on the ranking list). What is more,
forecasted growth through 2020 comes to 17% (the 7th place on the ranking list). We may conclude that the main aspect which attracts women to choose a career of a petroleum engineer is salary. Women working in oil & gas companies had the highest earnings from all being analyzed in 2011. There is always very high level of satisfaction reported by women employed in oil companies. It may be surprising, as usually it is hard and dirty work. Laurence Shatkin believes that women, who so bravely oppose employment gender norms have a string personality fit and a big talent for this job. This contributes to high level of satisfaction.
Why are oil & gas companies interested in hiring women? Surely, many of you wonder why companies, which explore, produce and process oil and gas look for women employees. Most of the work is hard and requires physical strength, it is also considered as a non-family occupation. In spite of it, nowadays we can observe a growing number of women hired in E&P companies. According to preliminary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics of 3,900 positions added in oil and gas in the USA in the first quarter of 2013, almost half or 1,800, were occupied by women. The new jobs were not only in engineering, people
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were also hired to work on drilling rigs and pipelines and also for research, sales and marketing positions. What brings these changes? Specialists interested in this trend show us a few reasons. Firstly, this is because countries’ leaders pressure to bring more women into the oil sector in order to provide a gender balance. This is because they would like to limit discrimination and equalize the numbers of men and women being hired in this industry. Secondly, different perspectives, being represented by women may contribute to further development of companies, it usually brings new visions and positive changes for the industry. Differences in way of thinking and approaching the business make that after combining them we reach better solutions to problems and more effective working. A number of studies have shown clear correlation between gender diversity and higher profita-
Wind of Change
bility. "The companies want them, and when we start to discuss a recruiting relationship, they always want to know the statistics about women. The companies want to have a balanced workforce; it's a big societal issue," said Don Shields, director at Pitt's Center for Energy in the Swanson School of Engineering. Another reason is a demographical structure in the most of the oil & gas companies. The average employee in the oil patch is over 50 and a big percentage of the older workers will retire within a few years. It makes oil and gas companies have to recruit a lot of young, talented and bright people to fill the void – this large demand is a chance for women, because the industry saw they are worthy employees, having skills and big potential which can be used in many fields. Last, but not the least is technological development of petroleum industry. Computer-assisted exploration and advanced petroleum
Joanna Wilaszek
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engineering have diversified the profile of oil and gas workers, displacing an image of dirty roughneck toiling on isolated rigs. Nowadays, petroleum engineer uses more advanced and sophisticated technologies, which do not require physical strength. Other skills and knowledge, available both for men and for women are needed.
a positive working environment for women. Results were very positive for our branch, because among 50 top employers we can find 6 connected with petroleum industry. It means that oil & gas companies make the workplace hospitable for women and they are not afraid of discrimination, being able to develop their careers in positive working environment.
Do E&P companies provide a positive working environment for women?
What about a classic model of woman: wife and mother?
Each graduate dreams about working in a company, which provides friendly environment and many chances of personal and professional development. This is even more important for women, who would like to avoid discrimination in any meaning. This is the reason for which editors of “Woman engineer’ Magazine asked their readers to name the employers, both in the private and public sectors, for whom they would most like to work or that they believe would provide
For many years a lot of aspects and facts, remote working environments and hardly physical labour during long shifts contributed to discouraging women (especially these having family and children to take care of) from working for the industry. Once energy companies’ headquarters had seen women are good workers and their attitudes bring positive changes into the team, they began to prepare conveniences which enable women to balance work and family demands. Most of
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the companies offer many opportunities to encourage women to choose this career path, there are for example: ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ
Flexible work packages Parent-friendly work rosters Onsite childcare Extended maternity leave Comfortable working conditions Excellent pay rates Gender-inclusive work environments Breast-feeding facilities Couples on-site housing Female-appropriate uniforms
Wind of Change
agement is demographical structure of the average company in petroleum industry. As I mentioned before, there are many workers, who will retire within next decade and they have to be replaced by younger qualified staff. There is no reason now to leave management positions only for men, while this is job for white-collar workers, requiring mainly intellectual skills.
Women fighting for their rights
Many of the companies give a choice if you want to be a mobile worker and change locations often or stay at the same place for a long time. It all helps women to play both professional and life role.
All over the world we can find a lot of organizations, committees and societies, which were founded just in order to protect women engineers, fight for their rights and aiming to limit gender imbalance.
Women breaking glass ceiling at oil and gas companies
The biggest one is Society of Women Engineers, gathering over 20, 000 members, offering career center’s help, scholarships, courses and organizing international conferences. There are also some organizations and events created especially for women representing oil companies.
There many examples all over the world which prove the fact that nowadays women are not only workers of oil & gas companies, getting job on the field but also become managers and join companies’ boards. The main reason for this tendency is the fact that companies should be directed by the best professionals, having appropriate skills and predispositions. So it is completely normal that women hired in oil and gas sector, gaining knowledge and experience within years of work, move up the ladder and become managers. The only problem which may occur in this matter is connected with some stereotypes about women managing companies, which employees’ are mostly men. But even this is changing with time – women are being considered as worthy, competent workers, learning quickly and providing another approaching business matters. Another reason of this “revolution” in oil and gas companies’ man-
Some big conferences organize special panels and discussions giving an opportunity to discuss the matter of women’s position in petroleum industry. Participants often talk about ways of making it a hospitable place for women and limiting gender imbalance in this industry.
From one extreme to the other? Many organizations fighting for women rights in masculine environments have caused plenty of positive changes in oil and gas companies, making them more hospitable for women. But unfortunately we can observe also negative aspects of their activity.
Joanna Wilaszek
There are some surprising ideas, like creating parities, which could guarantee some percentage of women being hired in oil companies. Many specialists are afraid of such solution, arguing that it may cause employing more women, even these less qualified than men which could also apply for the same position.
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It would cause some kind of paranoia, which is hard to be understood. We will see what future brings us. For sure we will face up many further changes, some positive, some negative – but we can promise you one thing – we will never be bored with petroleum industry!
What is your opinion? What do you think about women employees in oil and gas companies, being bigger and bigger part of petroleum industry? Is it a step in the right direction? Share your opinion with us on our website or contact us by e-mail. We are waiting for your messages!
Pictures ÈÈ http://arabianbusiness.com ÈÈ http://www.forbes.com
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summer / 2013
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How to Be a Woman on the Rig?
INTERVIEW | with Karolina Głodek
How to Be a Woman on the Rig? Barbara Pach, Joanna Wilaszek It’s true that still more men than women work in the petroleum industry. It’s claimed that it has become a “tradition” proved by the history of this industry. So where’s the place for a woman there? As editors of the petroleum magazine and future potential female employees in oil & gas industry, we wanted to know what is female point of view on this issue. We were talking to Karolina Głodek, Measurement and Drilling Field Engineer (MWD Engineer) working offshore in the North Sea UK sector in Schlumberger. We have asked her several questions to find out how it is to be a woman on the rig. YoungPetro: Karolina, why have you chosen a career in the petroleum industry? Karolina Głodek: The simple answer for this question is: why not? I am young, opened to experience the world, keen to gain new knowledge. We have one life so if you have a chance just take advantage of it. Working in this though, dirty, manlike world is also a kind of challenge. This industry is a specific environment with its own procedures, restrictions, rules and if you do not follow them you won’t feel good here. It turned out that not only can men become petroleum engineers, but women are professionals in this field as well. Apart from amazing work, oil & gas industry provided me with the opportunity to travel around the world, meet foreign people and learn more. YP: So what’re your responsibilities as a petroleum engineer? Tell us more details
about your job. What is your typical workday like? KG: I am Measurement and Drilling Field Engineer (MWD Engineer) working offshore in the North Sea UK sector. First of all, you have to know that if you work offshore, you reach the installation by chopper/helicopter which is dependent on the weather conditions, availabilities of the heliport services etc. If everything is going right, you are on the rig, after safety inductions and pre-job briefing, handed over to you by the colleagues from the previous team. The typical working pattern for me is 2 or 3 weeks offshore, where shifts are 12 hours long, from 6 AM to 6 PM (on the semi-sub rigs) or from 7 AM to 7 PM (on the platforms). We work in pairs: MLWD Engineer and Directional Driller (DD) day and night shift. Then you go through normal stuff like: checking and answering the e-mails, preparing reports every midnight, controlling parameters, checking depth from our sensor with pipe telly from the driller, communicating with DD, Com Man and informing them what is happening. Before drilling the well/sections, we need to prepare tools (that weight 1ton and are 12 meters long with electronics inside). Then we check if their response is fine and there are no issues. In this stage of preparation a lot of physical job is involved, especially when we load batteries into the tools, taking off the saver subs for programming. Alongside with these checks most of our job focuses on the IT staff, software and electronic devices. All our technologies help us improve the services and deliver them to client in more efficient ways. When we reach the Total Depth of the section (TD),
Barbara Pach, Joanna Wilaszek
we prepare logs (the graphical way of requested measurements taken while drilling). When our shift is over, we go to the accommodation, eat, go to gym or watch TV and sleep. YP: It sounds really interesting. You’ve told that you have to reach the installation by chopper/helicopter. What are the other differences between working onshore and offshore? KG: The main difference is that onshore you are away but not isolated from the world. But when you work offshore you do not have many ways to spend your free time. You can’t do sightseeing, you spend less money. Working onshore probably is less stressful than drilling offshore. Here, the whole rig activity depends on the weather conditions and the boat supplies as well as on the decisions made onshore, which sometimes can be changed minute after minute and we have to be prepared for such situations. Of course, there are also good sides of it. When you work offshore, you can save some money and gain experience. YP: Have you had a moment while you were thinking: „No, I won’t deal with it” and you wanted to give it up? What’s the most difficult thing in your work? KG: I don’t think there are so many difficulties, probably I can say that I’ve got used to it and take it as it is now. At the beginning when I had just joined the company there were a few moments when I was thinking that it is maybe not for me but after some time I really enjoyed it. Now I am happy that I have the
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kind of job which is different, not ordinary in many ways. YP: We’ve already heard several advantages and disadvantages of your profession. But what do you like most about your job? What would you change if you had such a possibility? KG: Changes, challenges… It is never boring, there is so much to learn and become good at what you do. So far, I have not been twice on the same rig. Sometimes, it is quite annoying and frustrating because you have to learn about the rig, the equipment and people again but from the other side it is amazing to see new things, different drilling problems, technologies etc. It is also very enjoyable to learn new languages, to have all those opportunities that help become more sophisticated and to work with young, multicultural crew– people that later become our friends. One thing which could be improved is the plan of the rotation, that would be nice to have it. YP: „Work in petroleum industry is not for everyone”. What’s your opinion about it now while you have some experience in the petroleum industry? KG: It is 100 % true, it’s not for everyone. Among the Scottish crew, there is a saying: “swim or sink” which perfectly describes if you can fix into the offshore life, if you can adapt it or not. It takes a lot of sacrifice and dedication. I think that the important part plays the person’s attitude and mentality, it depends on how fast you can get along in working environment. It’s hard and though
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but gives a lot of satisfaction when you can cope with all the issues that had occurred. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. YP: It’s claimed that women are treated worse than men by their employers – rarely do they become managers, they earn less than males, have fewer possibilities. Have you ever noticed such trends in your surrounding? KG: Not really, we are treated in the same way as male engineers . But I’ve noticed that women want to get faster to office from the field where there are plenty of different job opportunities. YP: That’s really good news. But have you ever felt discriminated because of being a woman? KG: So far, I haven't. It has happened once or twice that some of the members of the rig crew or client representatives were surprised that I am working as Field Engineer. Slowly, the North Sea is changing from male working environment into more balanced, but still during some of my offshore trips I was the only one on the rig. YP: What piece of advice would you share with girls who want to start a career in petroleum industry? KG: Go for it! As I said it is not for everyone, but if you are ready for not ordinary work
schedule, it will turn out that making lifestyle change in a place you would not even think of, is worth a try. From my experience I know that staying/working offshore is good for few years, but not for a longer period of time. Later on, you can find something else somewhere else to do. As soon as you start you will be more experienced. Probably, many of you are worried about language barriers, but you should not as you will learn language easily when you will have to use it. YP: Thank you for these advices! At the end of our conversation, we would like to ask about your plans for further development of your career. KG: The closest plans are to go for my training of advanced tools, which I will be running afterwards. Later on I will see, there are plans in the back of my head which are of course connected with oil & gas industry YP: Karolina, thank you for the conversation. We believe that your experience will be useful for each women reading our magazine and it will help girls develop their careers in the field of petroleum industry. Last advice from YP: Girls remember, if you are interested in the petroleum industry just follow that way of career and you will succeed! It’s not true that there’s no place for women on the rig. Be hard working, full of passion and confident – sooner or later your dreams will come true!
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Become an Ambassador of YoungPetro magazine in your country and make the future now! Who are we looking for? ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ
Creative, open-minded, full of energy person, Interested in broadly taken petroleum industry, With excellent interpersonal skills and acquaintance of academic environment, Speaking English fluently, Willing to gain new experiences.
What are we expecting from Ambassador? ÈÈ
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Promotion and distribution of YoungPetro among the student society in ambassador’s country and during international conferences, Co-running YoungPetro profile in social media, Translation of ‘About us’ section on YoungPetro website into ambassador’s native language, YoungPetro magazine presentation in front of Members of ambassador’s SPE Chapter, New papers acquisition, Availability (once in month video conference required), Direct collaboration with the whole editorial board.
What do we offer to Ambassador? ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ ÈÈ
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Work in fantastic atmosphere of international team, Meeting new people, Possibility of your own article publication, Attractive note in CV, Editorial board membership in the position of the YoungPetro Ambassador of your country, Gaining new experience, Possibility of your language skills improvement, Your SPE Chapter advertisement in one of the YoungPetro issues, Being on time with news from petroleum world, E-mail account on YoungPetro domain.
Don’t waste more time! Contact us now! Your application should consist of short cover letter and be sent to: ambassador @ youngpetro.org
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Why Drill If You Can Dig? Slightly More About Unconventional Oil Reserves
Why Drill If You Can Dig? Slightly More About Unconventional Oil Reserves Maciej Wawrzkowicz
What is the difference between oil and… oil? Following the definition, unconventional oil is petroleum produced or extracted by using techniques other than the conventional method. Unconventional oil reserves are characterized by disadvantageous parameters of reservoir fluid and rock where they are trapped. In comparison with heavy oil, light or "conventional" oil flows naturally and can be pumped without being heated or diluted. In that case, It is not necessary to use specific method of extraction. Considering crude, heavy oil, the process of automatical flow is impossible. This is why we use some methods which "help" our petroleum flow on the surface.
Types of unconventional oil reserves Relaying on technology of extraction we can categorize unconventional oil reserves and distinguish three basic types of them. Oil sands Oil sands which are called also as ‘tar sands’ due to its similar appearance, odour and colour, consist of sand (83%), bitumens (10%), clays (3%) and water (4%). Oil occurs here as a dense, heavy emulsion and before refinement demands heat treatment. Because of
this form of occurrence, usually the only way of its exploitation is application of strip mine methods. One of the biggest open-pit mines where oil sands are exploited is Athabasca deposit, located across 54,000 square Miles in Alberta province in south-west Canada. The Canadian province of Alberta contains 81 percent of the world’s known recoverable bitumen. Production of oil there accounts for about 1,3 mln barrels per day. Extracting the oil from the oil sands was considered an economic impossibility about 50 years ago, but innovation overcame those barriers. Depending on depth of the reserves, producers used to deploy one of two methods of production oil from tar sands: Surface Mining and In Situ drilling. First of them is using when oil sands reserves are close to surface. Huge mining shovels dig into formation, then transport sandy mixture to large trucks. During the transport, bitumen begins to separate from the sands and other formations. Finally, the bitumen is removed and transported to refinery. If reserves are deeper than 250 feet, the use of mining shovels is unprofitable. In that case, producers use second method called In Situ Drilling. Average depth of single well drilled into the ground is about 1,300 ft. Bitumen oil is too heavy to flow automatically without being heated or diluted. Therefore, in majority of in situ operations, steam is injected into the well to liquefy the bitumen, which is pumped to the surface through another well. To major ‘In situ’ methods belong inter alia:
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Maciej Wawrzkowicz
Vapour recovery extraction (VAPEX), Toeto-heel injection (THAI) and Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). Nowadays, even the use of geothermal energy is being explored for potential use in ‘in situ’ projects. It may relay on the heated layer in earth’s crust that could be used to heat the water to generate the steam used to get the bitumen flowing. It’s worth to say that technology of production petroleum from oil sands is still being developed. As the evidence of that we may present Alberta companies which have spent more than half a billion dollars on research in recent year. Heavy Oil The formation of heavy oil, like other forms of petroleum, derived from plants which had
lived millions years ago. When the plants and small organisms like plankton that fed on them died off, the sediments containing their remains were buried at the bottom of inland seas. In a highly simplified explanation, over time, the heat and pressure converted the carbohydrates into hydrocarbons. Heavy oil characterizes lower content of light than heavy hydrocarbon’s fractions. Typically is the high content of paraffines and asphaltenes. Because of relatively large mass of heavy oil, the mobility in reservoir rocks is bounded. Heavy crude oils have a density approaching or even exceeding that of water. This is the reason for all of the problems associated with heavy oil exploitation. To the most popular methods of extraction heavy oil from reservoir rock belong: The steam and Gas Push (SAGP), Basal Combustion (BS) and the same methods used in the case of "In situ" drilling in oil sands: Va-
Sample of tar sand: thick, dense bitumen trapped In the space between grains of sand. Photo: Tumblr.com
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Why Drill If You Can Dig? Slightly More About Unconventional Oil Reserves
Illustration of sagd process. Source: rigzone.com pour recovery extraction (VAPEX) and Toe-toheel injection (THAI) . Furthermore, Some of companies deploy additionally method that is some modification of the SAGD process called as Expanding Solvent-SAGD (ES-SAGD). This way of extraction relies on injecting not only steam but also, low concentrated light hydrocarbons in the form of the solvent. Those hydrocarbons, condensed and heated, flow and dissolve heavy oil comprised in reservoir rock affecting to its viscosity.
ganic bitumen material. Formation like this, is characterized by disadvantageous parameters of rock permeability. Usually, deposits of shale oil occurs on relatively low depths. Due to that, It is possible to exploit them using mining methods. In order to extract oil, there is need to perform heat treating of kerogen trapped in reservoir rock. In result of com-
The largest known extra-heavy oil accumulation is Venezuela's Orinoco heavy oil belt. The reserve boasts 90 percent of the world's extra-heavy oil when measured on an in-place basis. Shale oil Humans have used oil shale as a fuel since prehistoric times, since it generally burns without any processing. Shale oil is type of oil deposit which is accumulated in porous rock which contains trapped recoverable kerogen, it means or-
Combustion of oil shale. Source: US Department of Energy
Maciej Wawrzkowicz
bustion kerogen in temperature about 500°C engineers aquire exploitable oil. The most notable methods of extraction petroleum from oil shale reveals picture below. As the example of the European country which exploits its oil shales is Estonia. In 2005, this country was the largest shale oil producer in the world although it is expected that as of 2007, China has taken that position.
Worldwide Unconventional Oil Reserves Resources of unconventional oil are not stated precisely. It’s known that these reserves are considerably bigger than conventional deposits. Chart below presents comparison of these kinds of resources.
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Percentage comparison of two types of geological petroleum reserves In recent years we can observe growing demand to liquid fuels like oil. It’s certain that exploitation of unconventional petroleum reserves is able to satisfy this demand in the years to come. This is the reason why interest of unconventional oil deposit’s type are getting more and more in contemporary petroleum business. Reserves are often labeled "technically recoverable" or "non-technically recoverable." This just means that technically recoverable reserves are known or estimated to exist and technologies exist to recover them. Non-technically recoverable heavy oils are those that are known to exist but require more advanced technologies to remove the oil than currently exist. Picture underneath presents world-
Oil shale extraction overview. Source: U.S. Department of Energy
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Why Drill If You Can Dig? Slightly More About Unconventional Oil Reserves
30% 70%
Resources of oil shale occur in many countries, but only 33 countries possess proven deposits of possible economic value. Estimates of global deposits range from 2.8 to 3.3 trillion barrels of recoverable oil. The most notable, well-explored deposits of shale oil, potentially classifiable as reserves, include the Green River deposits in the western United States, the Tertiary deposits in Queensland in Australia, deposits in Sweden, Estonia and the El-Lajjun deposit in Jordan.
Unconventional Conventional World-wide arrangement of unconventional oil reserves wide arrangement of unconventional resources of petroleum. Heavy oils are found around the world, with an estimated 69 percent of the world's technically recoverable heavy oil and 82 percent of the technically recoverable natural bitumen located in the Western Hemisphere. The Eastern Hemisphere, however, contains an estimated 85 percent of the world's light oil reserves. Among the more notable unconventional oil reserves are: Venezuela's Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt, Canada's Athabasca Oil Sands, Russia's Volga-Ural Basin, Brazil's offshore Campos Basin, Alaska's Prudhoe Bay and China’s Luda field in Bohai Bay.
Conclusion In case of unconventional oil reserves, despite they didn’t exploited in the past for big scale, their evaluated quantity may indicate to gradually growing their role in contemporary exploitation of oil, also in countries where holdings are not as big as in major owners of them, like Canada, U.S. and Venezuela. In perspective of far future, economists claims that the biggest role will be acting by oil shale reserves which the peak petroleum production in year 2084 and will accounts for 88×106 bbl per day. However, It’s certain that we shouldn’t focus only at unconventional oil reserves but on conventional oil deposits due to profitable economical ratings of production petroleum from them.
References 1. Alboudawarej et al.: Highlighting Oil, Oilfield Review, Summer 2006 2. US Natural Gas: the Role of Unconventional Gas, Energy Bulletin 2008, http://www.energybulletin.net/node/44389 3. IEA ETSAP – Technology Brief P02, www.etsap.org , May 2010 4. Shale oils of the World: Their Origin, Occurrence, and Exploitation by Paul L. Russel and UNITAR Heavy Oil& Oil Sands database 5. "Bibliographic Citation: Non-synfuel uses of oil shale", United States Department of Energy 6. Rychlicki S. "Niekonwencjonalne złoża ropy naftowej", Przemysł naftowy w Polsce 2011 7. Mohr S. H., Evans G.M.: Long term Prediction of Unconventional Oil Production, Energy Policy, Vol. 38, Issue 1, Jan 2010 8. "Environmental Challenges of Heavy Crude Oils", Battelle Memorial Institute, 2003
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Numerical Study on Accidental Gas Release of Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines Qing Xu , Fan Zhang
A study of accidental gas release from long-distance natural gas transmission pipeline into open atmosphere has been conducted. The influences of wind conditions on gas release have been investigated. Two models are established to simulate different kinds of leaking process. Grids system is achieved by Gambit and the process of gas release is studied numerically by using Fluent. Time-dependent gas diffusion region and safe region after the leakage has been investigated. The results show that wind has little effect on the concentration of released gas close to the ground, but the effect will be enhanced gradually with the increase of height.
eration. [5] When they are damaged, natural gas within the pipes will be released through breaks or leaks, resulting in a hazardous situation developing from possible explosion, fire, injury and damage. Accordingly, the study of accidental gas release in long-distance gas transmission pipelines plays a key role in the overall integrity management for a pipeline system.
Introduction
Gas Release Model
Natural gas has been more and more widely used around the world due to its cleanness and substantial deposits. Although coal still makes up a large proportion of China’s domestic energy consumption at this stage, natural gas consumption is rising rapidly with increasing environmental pressures. China’s total natural gas consumption is predicted to exceed 21 billion cubic meters by 2020.[7]
Gas inside the pipeline will exceed the limit of pipe wall and seep into the earth through the leak after the damage.[3] When the leak in the pipeline is relatively small, gas released from the pipe cannot directly carve its own path to the air. The gas leakage will diffuse into the earth and then into the air.[2] When coming to the complete break of a pipeline, the high-pressure released gas, which is able to form a tubular channel in the overlaying soil above the pipeline, has enough impulse to push away the overlaying soil and thrust directly into open atmosphere. [10] The leakage and diffusion process of natural gas is complex and can be influenced by many factors, such as the shape of gas-leaking hole, physical properties of soil, surface terrain and wind velocity.[4,8]
Pipeline has proven to be one of the easiest and safest ways to transport fluid fuels such as natural gas. By the end of 2011, the total length of long-distance gas transmission pipelines in China was over 20,000 kilometers. However, gas pipelines are often subjected to interference from third parties, corrosion, accidents, human misoperation, etc. during op-
**China University of Petroleum ÞÞChina rheology@126.com University Country E-mail
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Numerical Study on Accidental Gas Release of Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines
Open Atmosphere
Overlaying Soil
Overlaying Soil
Open Atmosphere
Overlaying Soil
Overlaying Soil
Natural Gas Transmisson Pipeline
Natural Gas Transmisson Pipeline
a) Tubular diffusion model
b) Permable diffusion model Fig. 1 – Two Different Gas Release Model
Tubular diffusion model When the leak in the pipeline is relatively large, that is, the pipeline is completely broken, the jet of high-pressure gas inside the pipe has enough impulse to push away the overlaying soil and thrust into open atmosphere.[10] The jet will form a tubular channel in the overlaying soil. The diffusion of released gas above the ground is a typical process of free jet. For convenient calculation, the tubular channel formed by the gas jet is reduced to a channel which is perpendicular to the ground. The width of the channel equals to the diameter of the leak. The simplified model is shown in Fig. 1.a.
The released gas can only spread slowly through soil cavities to the surface of earth and then into open atmosphere.[4] The simplified model is shown in Fig. 1.b. Due to soil resistance, velocity of the gas release will decrease dramatically during its diffusion from soil cavities to open atmosphere. Diffusion of the released gas in open atmosphere is similar to what presents in the tubular model, but the leakage will become driven by wind and buoyancy faster due to its low initial velocity. The assumptions of calculations are as follows: ÈÈ
Typically, more than 90 percent of the flowing gas in transmission pipelines is methane, so the physical parameters of natural gas mixture that were used in the calculations are considered to be the physical parameters of methane.
ÈÈ
In order to reduce the computer-time, heat exchange between natural gas and environment has been ignored. In other words, the process of gas release from transmission pipelines to open atmosphere can be considered as thermally insulated.
Permeable diffusion model When the leak in the pipeline is relatively small, the impulse of the leakage is not strong enough to push away the overlaying soil.
Due to soil resistance, velocity of the gas release will decrease dramatically during its diffusion from soil cavities to open atmosphere.
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Qing Xu , Fan Zhang
a) Local refinement of grids around the leak
b) The grids system
Fig. 2 – Grids System for Tubular Diffusion Model
Grids System and Numerical Calculations In this section, both tubular diffusion model and permeable diffusion model are established for physical problems involving different gas-leaking process. Gambit is applied to obtain the grids system, while Fluent is employed to simulate the gas-leaking process. Tubular diffusion model A buried natural gas pipeline is taken as an example to achieve the process of gas release involving tubular diffusion model. The length and diameter of the pipeline is 4000m and
a) Grids around the leak
1.0m respectively and the depth of the buried pipeline is 1.5m. The diameter of the leak is 0.2m. In order to study whether the leaking process of natural gas is symmetrical or not, for convenience, the origin of the coordinate system is set to be the center of the leak. To enhance the accuracy of the simulation, local refinement is employed for grids near the leak, which can be seen in Fig. 2.a, and finally the grids system is obtained, as shown in Fig. 2.b. The total number of the grids is 0.7 million, which is dense enough to get the grid-independent solution. Permeable diffusion model In permeable diffusion model, the leak in the pipeline is relatively small and the dif-
b) The grids system
Fig. 3 – Grids System for Permeable Diffusion Model
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Numerical Study on Accidental Gas Release of Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines
fusion region of natural gas leakage is very confined. Thus, to accelerate the computation and convergence, the computational domain is narrowed compared with what in tubular diffusion model. A buried natural gas pipeline is also set as an example with the length of 300m, while other geometric and computational parameters are the same with those in the tubular diffusion model. The grids system is shown in Fig. 3.
Results and discussion The operating pressure of the transmission pipeline is set to 5.0MPa while atmospheric pressure is the standard atmospheric pressure. Soil cavities and open atmospheric are considered to be filled up with air. Only two components including oxygen and nitrogen are considered in the air, where the volume fraction of the oxygen is 21% and the volume fraction of the nitrogen is 79%. The infiltration coefficient of clay soil is 0.1m/d, the internal resistance coefficient is 864000 and the inertial resistance coefficient is 0. The temperature of natural gas and atmosphere are considered to remain constantly at 15°C during the calculations. In addition, the influence of the gravity on the diffusion process is taken into account with gravitational acceleration at 9.8m/s2. Tubular Diffusion without Wind When tubular diffusion takes place in gas transmission pipeline without the influence of wind, high-pressure natural gas within the pipe will spurt from the leak and form an airflow which is perpendicular to the ground. Due to the resistance of still air, at a certain height, the diffusion region expands as the speed of released gas decreases gradually. The explosion limits of natural gas in air are 5%–15%, so the safe region can be obtained
through calculating the area overlaying by the 5% concentration curve.
After 60 seconds of gas release, the leakage continues to go upward and forms an air mass at the height of 120m
As shown in Fig. 4, when the leakage occurs, high-speed jet appears and high-pressure gas expands rapidly under large pressure difference. The velocity of gas flow near the leak exceeds the velocity of sound. Because of the high-speed jet, the gas leakage diffuses fast and reaches a height of 40m after 10 seconds of pipeline damage while the diffusion distance in horizontal direction is less than 10m. After 20 seconds of gas release, the leakage reaches a height of 50m in vertical direction. After 40 seconds of gas release, the leakage reaches a height of 80m in vertical direction and a width of 10m in horizontal direction. The safe region at this moment is the domain where x < −10 m, y<30 m and x > 10 m, y < 30 m. After 60 seconds of gas release, the leakage continues to go upward and forms an air mass at the height of 120m while the diffusion range in horizontal direction is 20m. After 300 seconds of gas release, gas leakage at 5% concentration reaches 350m in height and 120m in width in horizontal direction. After 300 seconds of gas release, the high point of the 5% concentration curve hits 350m in vertical direction and exceeds 120m in width in horizontal direction. After 600 seconds of gas release, the high point of the 5% concentration curve hits 460m in height, 120m in width in the upstream direction and 210m in the downstream direction. Thus the safe region at this moment is the domain where x < −50 m, y<150 m and x > 80 m, y < 150 m.
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Qing Xu , Fan Zhang
a) 10s without wind
b) 10s with wind
c) 60s without wind
d) 60s with wind
e) 600s without wind
f) 600s with wind
Fig. 4 – Tubular diffusion range after 10s, 60s, and 600s of gas release with and without wind
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Numerical Study on Accidental Gas Release of Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines
a) 10s without wind
c) 300s without wind
e) 900 swithout wind
b) 10s with wind
d) 300s with wind
f) 900s with wind
Fig. 5 – Permeable diffusion range after 10s, 300s, and 900s of gas release with and without wind
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Qing Xu , Fan Zhang
a) 10s after gas release with soil infiltration of 0.1m/d
b) 10s after gas release with soil infiltration of 10m/d
c) 600s after gas release with soil infiltration of 0.1m/d
d) 600s after gas release with soil infiltration of 10m/d
Fig. 6 – Diffusion ranges after 10s and 600s of gas release with soil infiltration of 0.1m/d and 10m/d Tubular diffusion with wind The surface of earth is always exposed to certain environmental conditions such as wind, which has a direct effect on the diffusion of natural gas leakage in air. In this section, the tubular diffusion is simulated with wind at 10 m/s blowing from the left of the calculation area to the right. After 10 seconds of gas release, the natural gas leakage reaches a height of 35m in vertical direction while the maximum upstream and downstream diffusion distance reach to 5m and 10m respectively as a result of wind. After 20 seconds of gas release, the vertical diffusion height of leakage climbs to 45m. After 40 seconds of gas release, the diffusion height
remains at 45m, but the upstream diffusion distance decreases while the downstream one increases rapidly and reaches 25m. Thus the safe region at this moment is the domain where x < 0 m and x > 30 m, y < 30 m and . After 60 seconds of gas release, the leakage continues to go upward to form a new air mass up to 70m high, far below the 120m in the tubular diffusion simulation without wind. However, the downstream diffusion distance is over 70m, which is considerably further than that in the tubular diffusion without wind. After 300 seconds of gas release, the high point of the 5% concentration curve hits 175m in height and the maximum diffusion distance in horizontal direction reaches 200m. After 600 seconds of gas release, the high point
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Numerical Study on Accidental Gas Release of Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines
of the 5% concentration curve hits 250m in height and 300m in width in the downstream direction. After 900 seconds of gas release, the high point of the 5% concentration curve hits 330m in height and the maximum diffusion distance in horizontal direction reaches 350m. Thus the safe region at this moment is the domain where x < −10 m. Permeable diffusion without wind When the leak in the pipeline is relatively small, the impulse of the gas leakage is not strong enough to push away the overlaying soil. The released gas can only spread slowly through soil cavities to the surface of earth and then into open atmosphere. The diffusion of gas in soil can be influenced by soil resistance. The kinetic energy of the gas release can be significantly reduced and the diffusion range is much smaller than the results in tubular diffusion simulations. Fig. 5 shows the simulation results of permeable diffusion after 10s, 40s, 90s, 300s, 600s and 900s of gas release without wind. After 10 seconds of gas release, the gas leakage gas just filled up the cavities of the overlaying soil above the leak. The diffusion distance in vertical direction and horizontal direction is 5m and less than 5m respectively. After 40 seconds of gas release, the natural gas leakage reaches a height of 15m in vertical direction and 10m in horizontal direction. The whole diffusion range is symmetric about the center of gas-leaking hole. After 300 seconds of gas release, the high point of the 5% concentration curve hits 175m in height. The maximum diffusion distance in air in horizontal direction is 30m and maximum diffusion distance in soil is 15m. After 600 seconds of gas release, the high point of the 5% concentration curve hits 340m in height and the maximum diffusion distance in horizontal direction reaches 120m. The safe region at this moment is the domain where x > 50 m, y<150 m and x < −50 m, y < 150 m.
Permeable diffusion with wind Fig. 5 shows the simulation results of permeable diffusion after 10s, 40s, 90s, 300s, 600s and 900s of gas release with wind from left to right. The results show that the gas leakage holds a jet state within the height of 20m and can be less affected by wind. The impact of wind gradually increases with the increase of altitude above 20m. After 10 seconds of gas release, wind has little effect on the diffusion of released natural gas because the gas leakage have just filled up the cavities of the overlaying soil above the leak. After 40 seconds of gas release, the natural gas leakage reaches a height of 15m in vertical direction. Because of the wind, the diffusion region is the area where is on the upper right of the leak. The gas diffusion region in horizontal direction is the domain where x > 50 m, y < 150 m. After 90 seconds of gas release, the gas leakage starts to spread in the form of an air mass, and diffuses towards upper right under the influence of wind instead of moving right above. The concentration of the center of air mass starts to decrease, and the released natural gas starts to diffuse at a slower pace. A whirlpool begins to appear in downwind direction. After 300 seconds of gas release, the high point of the 5% concentration curve hits 100m in height. The diffusion distance in air in horizontal direction is significantly increased. The maximum diffusion distance in horizontal direction is 80m. After 600 seconds of gas release, the high point of the 5% concentration curve hits 300m in height. The maximum diffusion distance in upstream and downstream direction is 5m and 160m respectively. After 900 seconds of gas release, the high point of the 5% concentration curve remains at the height of 300m. The maximum diffusion distance in
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Qing Xu , Fan Zhang
upstream and downstream direction is 5m and 250m respectively. The safe region at this moment is the domain where x < −5 m, and x > 150 m, y < 150 m. The influence of soil infiltration on permeable diffusion Long-distance natural gas transmission pipelines often cross different regions with various soil types and environmental conditions.[6,1] Different soil types with different soil infiltrations can have great influence on the diffusion of natural gas leakage in soil. In this section, two typical cases are conducted with the soil infiltration of 0.1m/d and 10m/d respectively. The results are shown in Fig. 6. After 10 seconds of gas release, the leakage both reach the earth’s surface with a lower soil infiltration (which is 0.1m/d) and a higher soil infiltration (which is 10m/d). Gas that spreads through soil cavities with a higher soil infiltration diffuses further and reaches a higher altitude in air, but its diffusion region in soil in horizontal direction is narrowed as compared to the gas that spreads through soil with a lower soil infiltration. After 60 seconds of gas release, gas that spreads through soil cavities with higher and lower soil infiltration reaches the height of 40m and 30m respectively. After 600 seconds of gas release, although gas that spreads through soil with different infiltrations both reaches 240m in height and 120m in width, the air flow patterns formed by the gas leakage are quite different. There are various reasons for that. At the beginning of leakage, the residual velocity of gas release after the spread through soil layer determines the diffusion height, range and air flow pattern. After a period of diffusion, the resultant force of gravity and buoyancy plays a decisive role in the diffusion of gas leakage. The post-diffusion ranges are basically the same due to same gas release rate.
Conclusions Two different gas release models of natural gas transmission pipeline leakage are proposed in this paper. The geometric model is achieved by Gambit and the process of gas release is studied numerically by using Fluent. Several conclusions can be drawn from the calculation results.
The diffusion of gas release in air can be seriously influenced by the velocity of wind.
The gas release can spread into open atmosphere and gradually expand into air mass, which will continue to diffuse to higher altitude under the influence of buoyancy after the long-distance natural gas transmission pipeline leakage. The diffusion of gas release in air can be seriously influenced by the velocity of wind. The gas diffusion distance in the horizontal direction is very short without wind disturbance, but the downwind diffusion range can be significantly increased when wind roils. The downwind gas diffusion region will be close to or even will reach the ground when wind speed increases to a certain extent, and only the upwind area of the leak is safe by then. At the beginning of leakage, the residual velocity of gas release after spread through soil layer determines the diffusion height, range and air flow pattern. After a period of diffusion, the resultant force of gravity and buoyancy plays a decisive role in the diffusion of gas leakage. The post-diffusion ranges are basically the same due to same gas release rate. Soil infiltration plays a very important role in gas diffusion in soil. A compact structure of soil means a low infiltration which is difficult for the leakage diffuse into the cavities of soil.
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Numerical Study on Accidental Gas Release of Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines
Reference 1. Anna Sun, Changgui Duan, Wei Zhou, etc. Diffusion Analysis of Leaked Gas during Accident of Underground Gas Pipeline[J]. Coal & Heat, 2007, 27( 1):17- 20. 2. Hongxi Yu, Zhenlin Li, Jian Zhang, Yongxue Zhang. Numerical Simulation of Leakage and Dispersion of Acid Gas in Gathering Pipeline[J]. Journal of China University of Petroleum(Edition of Natural Science), 2008, 38(2):119-123. 3. Jianlan Xiao, Baohe Lv, Mingxian Wang, etc. Study of Progress on Leakage Model for Gas Pipeline[J]. Gas & Heat, 2006, 26(2):7-9. 4. Jianmin Fu, Guoming Chen, Yuan Zhu, etc. Effects of Closure Delay for ESD Valve on Leaking Process of Natural Gas Pipeline[J]. CIESC Journal, 2009, 160(112):3178-3183. 5. Rui Liang, Chunyan Zhang, Feng Jiang, Guiren Wang. Comparative Analysis of Evaluation Models for Explosion Consequence Caused by Leakage of Natural Gas Pipelines[J]. China Safety Science Journal, 2007, 17(8): 131-135. 6. Shuqian Wang, Rongxian Qiu, Yuehua Zhong, Zheyi Xiao. Numerical Simulation of Pressure Influence on Diffusion of Natural Gas Due to Pipeline Failure[J]. Sichuan Chemical Industry, 2009, 12(6):34-37. 7. Wenyan Zhang, Anlin Yao, Youlv Li, etc. Study on Wind Influence on Gas Diffusion Process during Gas Pipeline Leakage Emergency[J]. Natural Gas Industry, 2006,26(12):150-152. 8. Yabo Xu, Xinming Qian, Zhenyi Liu. Quantitative Risk Analysis on the Leakage of Compressed Natural Gas Pipeline[J]. China Safety Science Journal, 2008, 18(1):146-149. 9. Youlv Li, Anlin Yao, Yongjie Li. Study on Diffusion Model of Gas Pipeline Leaking[J]. Natural Gas Industry, 2004,24(8): 102-104. 10. Yuan Zhu, Guoming Chen. CFD Modeling of High Sulfur-containing Natural Gas Pipeline Leak and Dispersion Process[J]. Journal of System Simulation, 2009, 21(20):6613-6616 .
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Kacper Żeromski
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Influence of Interconnectors on Transmission Operation System Kacper Żeromski
Nowadays the economic situation, market conditions and geopolitical agenda force industry to apply interconnectors to ensure the security of gas supply. European Union as well as large part of Asia are facing the problem of lack of sufficient interconnection of gas systems. Their constructions and operations could create place for completely new ways of using the gas network, the diversification of gas suppliers and allow for implementation of different approaches to the issues related to the storage of gas. This could effect in more efficient storage management based on the demand. This option also gives a new meaning to the use of alternative methods for the transport of gas, for example, in the form of LNG. That kind of investment pulls together a number of activities in the technical, logistic and financial areas. Changes are related to the way of supplying gas, directions and intensities of flow in the transmission system, modifications of existing network elements and the construction of new ones. The paper explains effects of interconnectors implementation on gas transmission system based on case study. The study is focused on the potential problems that could arise during the modification of the network and their solutions. It explains the need for the construction of new network elements and their impact on the operation and a number of opportunities offered by the interconnection of gas networks.
**AGH Univ. of Science and Technology ÞÞPoland k.zeromski@yahoo.com University Country E-mail
Introduction Natural gas as a clean fuel has been used in industry and municipal sector for many years. Each country has developed and continues to develop its distribution network to allow greater access to this resource. The current, stable political situation and strife for the development of the free market enables increased use of interconnectors. Interconnector is a gas pipeline that connects two gas transmission systems (transmission zones), what allows to transport gas in both directions. The first of this type of gas transmission pipelines were built in the late '90s–Interconnector–linking the UK and Belgium. It allowed inter alia storage of natural gas in the reservoirs located on the continent during the summer and in the winter importing gas from storages towards the United Kingdom. Due to its length (235km) it has a large storage capacity. Today, as a result of lower natural gas production volume, United Kingdom often uses the pipeline to import from other suppliers. Currently, many countries in the world decide to build such connections following the var-
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Influence of Interconnectors on Transmission Operation System
Fig. 1 – Location of the Interconnector–the first interconnection between the UK and Belgium. [6] ious reasons and taking into account many different aspects. According to the SWOT analysis technique that is used in the evaluation of the project to build an interconnector should be juxtaposed with all their information considered in the particular case, talking about Strengths and Weaknesses as well as the Opportunities and Threats. This information during the project of construction of the interconnector often turns out to be universal because of the situations faced by stakeholders, who are allowed to evaluate the construction and operation of an interconnector per se.
Strengths and Opportunities A key argument in deciding to submit the evaluations of this project is to increase the energy security of the regions or countries linked by the interconnector. It results from the agreements concluded between involved countries, willing to cooperate and implementing common policy about economy of energy resources. Often, this situation opens up new possibilities, for example the usage of gas from inaccessible suppliers so far via the connection with the network of another country. Such investment may also affect the
energy security of countries through which the transmission pipeline with interconnector connected to a network of different countries that are not located in the immediate vicinity. This allows you to use the network to transfer fuel gas to a greater distance, which is the driver behind to support investment by neighboring countries also interested in receiving or sending gas. The aim of these activities is to diversify natural gas supply that provides increased energy security in the region. This effect was very visible during the Ukrainian-Russian gas crisis, in which the reduction of gas supplies from the eastern Greece imported LNG and neighboring Bulgaria could not buy gas, since it was not possible to send it their way (lack of suitable infrastructure–despite the fact that there are connection by pipeline between the two countries was not possible to send the gas to Bulgaria). With increasing number of potential suppliers, better preparation of the conditions for the growth of investment in industry, which is the recipient of gas follows. The greater guarantee of lack of supply disruptions and shortages of gas resource are giving the possibility of free-market competition and favorable conditions to starting new projects. The Construction of an interconnector could allow for major overhaul of entire parts of the transmission network in industrialized areas. There are cases in which such investment may not take place because of the recipients. As example shows, there might be a situation where the glassworks is the recipient of the natural gas. Due to the nature of the process of glass manufacturing, interruptions must be kept to a minimum so the renovation of gas supply fragment of the network is difficult or impossible. Otherwise happens in the case when the supply of gas can be ensured from another supplier, in a safe manner, without neglecting the needs of other customers and the maintaining appropriate network parameters.
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Kacper Żeromski
Fig. 2 – Major existing and planned natural gas pipeline from Russia to Europe [7]
Often, the plans of increasing the country's security are based on complex multi level solutions. The building of a transmission corridor seems to be a modern solution for this situation. This construction allows simultaneous connections of gas and energy systems of the concerned countries, which may affect the lower cost of these investments than made separately. Countries deciding to build an interconnector need to face many problems.
Weaknesses and Threats Natural gas transmission system can be compared to the blood system. It extends to
the entire country in such a way that supplies gas into strategic places thanks to gas pipelines, nodes, compressor stations and other network elements. Interconnectors were not planned in the long-term development of the network. With increasing distance from the source the diameter of the pipeline reduces which results the smaller streams. This can be a problem in the case where an interconnector with a larger diameter would be connected to an existing network pipeline of smaller diameter. This will result in limited possibilities of transmission, as well as higher pressure drops. The solution would be to modernize the existing segments or build a new pipeline which in both cases results in increased costs. Another expense is the construction of new compressor stations, measuring stations and infrastructure.
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Influence of Interconnectors on Transmission Operation System
Very often, the borders of countries run along natural boundariesâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;a river or a mountain range which in itself become a hindrance. Crossing the river is carried out very often, but mountain range is an issue forcing the other way plan of the network connections between the two countries. Another problem arising from the fact that investment in interconnectors was not taken into consideration in the long-term extension plan of the network may be inconsistent provisions in force in the all concerned countries. The European Union seeks to unify standards for different areas of the industry, but today many countries have different guidelines for maintaining the pressure in the network, the parameters used in the construction of the pipeline as well as many other aspects. An example would be the type of measurement equipment used. Polish law does not allow the use of ultrasonic gas meters for billing, while the Czech Republic allows. Legal arrangements for transmission easement, approaches to issues of interaction with the environment during the project or a settlement amount of gas transported during the time changes from winter to summer. The Usage of
der the common understanding in such a way that the connection will be consistent and ensures the safe transportation of gas. It should also be determined in which way will shape the transmission tariff. Moreover, in investments like this, there is always political pressure. Monopolist does not want to lose their market. They are reluctant to agree to such a move by exerting pressure on the countries concerned or luring by offering conditions better than ever. It seems that these two factors have the greatest impact on the realization of investments such as interconnectors.
Interconnectors and LNG Construction of interconnectors reshapes the LNG market. With the construction of LNG terminal in Swinoujscie (Poland) it is possible to receive liquefied natural gas for example from Kuwait, which thanks to the construction of the future expansion of interconnections will be able to reach to countries located further in the continent. This opens up the possibility of gas that can be exported
Fig. 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Interconnector Poland-Czech Republic
other solutions in the field of measurement and telemetry can be a problem also. The biggest problem, however, remains a matter of financing. As a result of long negotiations is the division of costs between partners, is announcement of the tender un-
from countries that do not have access to the sea or the ocean by providing their own gas, condense it and send in gas carrier. This is equivalent to allowing the development of infrastructure related to the LNG market in the region. Well planned how to
Kacper Żeromski
put interconnector may indirectly affect the development of other methods of transportation of gas, and a whole sector of the economy connected with it.
Conclusions Compiled strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats indicate an investment profitability in the case where in the region there is a clear willingness to cooperate between the countries concerned. The efforts should be made to promote the interests of a common energy security of the country and to create better conditions for new investments. The stable political situation in the region, together with the wise decisions made during contacts with current suppliers promotes diversification of natural gas. It Should be remembered that after the transmission systems connection in the interest of both countries is mutual assistance in achieving stable operation of both systems. Independence from one supplier ensures lower gas
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prices. Each of these types of investments must be carefully planned from the side of business, political, technical, formal and legal, including the impact on the environment and the social reaction. The investment of this kind entails high costs. Care should be taken during planning because interconnector should be used efficiently and profitably for both parties. For several years it may happen that countries dependent on one gas supplier are not able to develop in a satisfactory manner. However, the combined gas systems of many countries which can change the percentage of individual suppliers and customers will provide greater energy security, and will significantly affect the development of the entire region. Increasing number of countries around the world takes up the challenge of building interconnectors, making the whole continent can be compared to a body with well-developed cardiovascular system providing blue fuel in an efficient manner wherever it is needed.
References 1. A. Zawisza, "Czas gazowych interkonektorów", Gazeta Finansowa, nr 28-29, 2011 2. M. Radetzki, "European natural gas: market forces will bring about competition in any case", Energy Policy 27 (1999) 17-24, Elsevier 3. M.Futyan, "The Interconnector Pipeline. A Key Link in Europe's Gas Network" Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, 2006 4. A. Neumann, B.Siliverstovs, "Convergence of European Spot Market Prices for Natural Gas? A Real-Time Analysis of Market Integration using the Kalman Filter" econstor.eu 2005 5. Zandcee, April 2010 6. Samuel Bailey, 15 listopada 2009
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Injectivity in Non-Newtonian Two-Phase Flow
Injectivity in Non-Newtonian Two-Phase Flow Ciaran A. Latooij
Injectivity is a key factor in the economics of foam EOR processes. Poor injectivity of low-mobility foam slows the production of oil and allows more time for gravity segregation of injected gas. The conventional Peaceman equation, when applied to a large grid block, makes two substantial errors in estimating injectivity: it ignores the rapidly changing saturations around the wellbore and the effect of non- Newtonian mobility of foam. When foam is injected in alternating slugs of gas and liquid ("SAG" injection), the rapid increase in injectivity from changing saturation near the well is an important and unique advantage of foam injection. Foam is also shear-thinning in many cases.
Introduction Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes employing gas injection (miscible and immiscible solvent or steam injection) can be very efficient in recovering oil where the gas sweeps. Unfortunately, gas injection has poor sweep efficiency (Lake, 1989) because of geological heterogeneity, density differences between gas and oil or water, and viscous instability between the gas and the oil or water it displaces. Foam can address all three causes of poor sweep efficiency (Schramm, 1994; Rossen, 1996).
Simply injecting a very-low-mobility fluid can force a reduction in injection rate to avoid fracturing the injection well.
**Delft University of Technology ÞÞNetherlands ciaranlatooij@hotmail.com University Country E-mail
The economics of any EOR process depends on maintaining sufficient injectivity. Injectivity is especially problematic in foam EOR (see e.g., Namdar Zanganeh and Rossen, 2013). Simply injecting a very-low-mobility fluid can force a reduction in injection rate to avoid fracturing the injection well. Unintended fracturing of the injection well has plagued some foam applications in the field (Martinsen and Vassenden, 1999; Kuehne et al., 1990). Moreover, injection rate is crucial to the ability of foam to overcome gravity override of injected gas (Rossen et al., 2010). The good injectivity of a SAG process, in which gas and surfactant solution are injected as alternating slugs, is a major advantage for this injection method in overcoming gravity override (Shan and Rossen, 2004; Faisal et al., 2009; Kloet et al., 2009). In principle, the best foam process for overcoming gravity override is a SAG process with one large slug of surfactant solution followed by one large slug of gas.
Foam dries out and collapses abruptly as water saturation falls below a certain value Sw*
Two issues complicate the correct prediction of injectivity in SAG foam EOR processes in
39
Ciaran A. Latooij
reservoir simulation, and in particular injectivity of the gas slug. The first one is the reaction of foam to changing water saturation close to the well. Foam dries out and collapses abruptly as water saturation falls below a certain value Sw* (Khatib et al., 1988; Rossen and Zhou, 1995; Alvarez et al., 2001). This "dry-out effect" means that the mobility of gas increases enormously near the injection well and this greatly increases injectivity. The second one concerns the fact that gas in foam is a non-Newtonian fluid, at least in some circumstances (Hirasaki and Lawson, 1986; Falls et al., 1989; Alvarez et al., 2001; Xu and Rossen, 2004). Its shear-thinning properties reduce the pressure gradient near the well, which increases injectivity.
Saturation varies with position and time near the well, and mobility at each position may be a non-Newtonian function of superficial velocity at that position
The Peaceman equation used to describe injectivity in reservoir simulators (Computer Modeling Group, 2006; Schlumberger, 2010) misses both these effects as it assumes a uniform water saturation in the grid block containing the injection well and Newtonian mobility at that saturation:
Pw − Pre =
r [1] Q ln e 2π Hk λrt rw
where Q is injection rate, H formation thickness, k horizontal permeability, and total relative mobility λrt is determined by:
krw ( S w ) krgf ( S w ) [2] + µ µ g w
λrt =
where water and gas relative permeabilities are assumed to depend only on Sw, not shear rate, and w and g are constant.
Lake (1989) gives an equation for injectivity of non-Newtonian power-law fluid at uniform saturation, but this equation is not commonly implemented in simulations. Sharma et al. (2010) describe how to adjust the parameters of the Peaceman equation on an ad-hoc basis to account for non-Newtonian mobility in the near-wellbore region. In reality, both effects occur simultaneously: saturation varies with position and time near the well, and mobility at each position may be a non-Newtonian function of superficial velocity at that position. This paper focuses on the effect of non-Newtonian viscosity on injectivity; Leeftink et al. (2013) also consider the effect of dry-out near the well.
Effect of Non-Newtonian Viscosity Rossen et al. (2011) describe a method for modeling 1D dynamic two-phase displacements with non-Newtonian phase viscosities using the method of characteristics (MOC). For non-Newtonian fluids the characteristics are curved, and computation of the velocity of the shock front at the leading edge of the foam bank is complex. Rossen et al. show that, for SAG injection, a simple numerical solution using the MOC is possible behind the shock front, i.e. in the near-wellbore region. Although the method employs a numerical solution of equations derived from the MOC, these equations can be solved to an arbitrary level of precision, much more accurately than is feasible with conventional simulation. To simplify the model and focus on non-Newtonian effects, Rossen et al. (2011) excluded the effect of water saturation on foam stability, specifically the abrupt collapse of foam at a limiting water saturation Sw* described in Leeftink (2013). Thus their study includes the simultaneous effects of changing water saturation and non-Newtonian viscosity, but it excludes by far the largest effect of changing
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Injectivity in Non-Newtonian Two-Phase Flow
water saturation in a SAG process, the dryout effect. In a SAG process foam is in the "high-quality" regime dominated by dry-out; rheology in this regime can be non-Newtonian (Alvarez et al., 2001), but modeling this effect would require making Sw* a function of superficial velocity. This is allowed in the current STARS foam simulator (Coombe, 2012) but is not frequently used in simulation.
meabilities of water and gas on water saturation. Values of mobility below correspond to the "effective viscosity" of foam (inverse mobility relative to that of water in single-phase flow) of 24 to 530 cp. Our focus is not on the magnitude of injection pressure-rise, which is extraordinary given the low mobility of the foam here, but on the effect of non-Newtonian foam behavior on it. Details of the foam model are in Appendix A.
Mobility depends on water saturation weakly because of the dependence of foam-free relative permeabilities of water and gas on water saturation.
Rossen et al. (2011) note that an important implication of this model is the effect on injectivity, but do not calculate injectivity. In this paper we use the results of Rossen et al. for water saturation as a function of time and radial position to determine injectivity for shear-thinning foam in a SAG process.
In the foam model of Rossen et al. (2011), gas mobility is reduced by foam by a factor that is independent of water saturation but depends on total superficial velocity like a power-law fluid with power-law exponent ½. Mobility depends on water saturation weakly because of the dependence of foam-free relative per-
Assumptions The following assumptions are made for the Method of Characteristics:
Water saturation around the well at dimensionless time tD = 10, long after the shock has passed beyond the region of interest; 10m wide grid block
r/re 0,26 0,25 0,24
Sw
0,23 0,22 0,21 0,2
0
0,2
0,4
0,6
0,8
1
Figure 1. Water saturation around the well at dimensionless time tD = 10, long after the shock has passed beyond the region of interest; 10-m-wide grid block.
41
Ciaran A. Latooij
1. All phases are incompressible, as is the reservoir, and components are soluble in only one phase. 2. The reservoir has isotropic and uniform permeability. 3. The surfactant concentration Cs is uniform and constant in the region of interest. 4. There are only two phases flowing, though a third, immobile oil phase may be present. Oil saturation So is uniform and constant. For simplicity, we assume here So = 0. 5. The well radius is rw. Well skin factor is zero. 6. The reservoir is of uniform height H; the vertical injection well penetrates the entire interval. 7. There are no chemical or biological reactions affecting any of the components. 8. The effect of gravity is negligible in the region of interest. 9. Fluids (in this case, gas) are injected with a constant total volumetric rate Q regardless of injection pressure. 10. Foam properties immediately take their steady-state values corresponding to the local water saturation. 11. The 1D cylindrical reservoir extends from inner radius rw, where the fluids are injected, to open outer boundary re. Injectivity depends on Darcy's law in radial flow and the variation of water saturation Sw with radial position. 12. Dispersive processes, including fingering, capillary diffusion and dispersion are negligible. To obtain the rise in injection pressure we integrate for pressure around the well numerically using the positions of the characteristics at the given time:
∂P −Q = ∂r 2π rHk λrt
[3]
with λrt dependent on both Sw and position r. Details of the calculations are in Latooij (2012). We express dimensionless time in terms of grid-block pore volumes of gas injected, and dimensionless pressure rise relative to that for water injected into a formation with Sw = 1, for which total relative mobility λrt = 1/w = 1/(0.001) (Pa × s)-1:
tD =
Qt [4] π re2 H ϕ
PD =
Pw − Pre ( Pw − Pre )S
= w =1
1000 [5] λrt (r , S w )
The wellbore radius is 0.1 m, and the outer radii are either 5 or 50 m. For a radius of 5 m, Fig. 1 shows water saturation around the well at a dimensionless time tD = 10.
Results We compute injectivity at two times, one shortly after the shock at the leading edge of the foam bank has left the region of interest (tD = 1), and again at ten times this time (tD = 10). For a 10-m wide grid block (outer radius 5 m), at tD = 1,the dimensionless injection pressure PD is 87, reflecting the extremely strong foam assumed in this section (Appendix A). If however one used the Peaceman equation with the total relative mobility equal to that at r = 5 m at this time, the dimensionless rise would have been 210, i.e. 2.41 times larger. Ten times later, at tD = 10, the dimensionless rise in injection pressure is 83, again reflecting an extremely strong foam. If however one used the Peaceman equation with the total relative mobility equal to that at r = 5 m, the dimensionless rise would have been 190, i.e. 2.29 times larger. We distinguish the effects of shear-thinning rheology and changing water saturation at the well as follows. First we examine the ef-
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fect of non-Newtonian (shear thinning) rheology alone. In this case we allow that the effective viscosity changes with radial distance, but assume Sw is uniform throughout the entire region and is equal to its value at the well, i.e. 0.2. The total relative mobility λrt then depends only on radial position (Eq. A3). At the well (xD = 0) we find that λrt = 42.23 (Pa s)-1 (an effective viscosity of 23 cp) whereas at the outer radius λrt = 5.97 (Pa s)-1 (effective viscosity 167 cp). The total relative mobility is a factor of 7 lower at the wellbore compared to that at r = 5 m. As shown above, the result is injectivity over twice as large as that estimated using the mobility at the outer radius. Next we allow for nonuniform water saturation but not non-Newtonian rheology. At tD = 1, at r = 5 m Sw = 0.31 and at the wellbore Sw = 0.2. Excluding the non-Newtonian effects, the difference in total relative mobility at these two saturations is only 25%. At tD = 10, the difference in mobilities is about 13%. Thus, in this case, with foam dry-out excluded, the effect of changing water saturation near the well is much less important than shear-thinning viscosity. These results show that although the changing water saturation does have an impact on injectivity in this model (13 to 25%), the effect of shear thinning-rheology on injectivity is much greater (i.e., by a factor of more than 2) and is therefore the more important effect. Moreover, as grid-block size increases, the effect of shear thinning on injectivity increases.
Injectivity in Non-Newtonian Two-Phase Flow
For a 100-m wide grid block (outer radius 50 m), at tD = 1 dimensionless rise in injection pressure is 183. If however one used the Peaceman equation with the total relative mobility equal to that at r = 50 m, the dimensionless rise would have been 618, i.e. 3.38 times larger. At tD = 10, the dimensionless rise in injection pressure is 177. If however one used the Peaceman equation with the total relative mobility equal to that at r = 50 m, the dimensionless rise would have been 576, i.e. 3.26 times larger. As for the 10-m wide grid block, the effect of Sw alone in this case is much smaller: about a 17% difference in mobility at tD = 1, and 9% at tD = 10. The total relative mobility at the injection wellbore is 22 times greater than that at 50 m for both tD = 1 and 10. Although in this case the effect of dry-out is much greater than that of non-Newtonian mobility, the effect of non-Newtonian mobility is still significant; ignoring it would lead to significant errors in computed injectivity.
Conclusion Non-Newtonian foam mobility is important to foam injectivity. In the example shown, the actual injectivity is about 2.3 and 3.3 times lower than that which would be estimated using the Peaceman equation and the mobility at the outer radius, for 10-m and 100-m grid blocks, respectively. If one excludes the dryout effect, then the effect of changing saturation on this result is relatively small.
References 1. Alvarez, J. M., Rivas, H., and Rossen, W. R., "A Unified Model for Steady-State Foam Behavior at High and Low Foam Qualities," SPE Journal 6 (Sept. 2001), 325-333. 2. Cheng, L., Reme, A. B., Shan, D., Coombe, D. A. and Rossen, W. R., "Simulating Foam Processes at High and Low Foam Qualities," paper SPE 59287 presented at the 2000 SPE/DOE Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery, Tulsa, OK, 3-5 April. 3. Computer Modeling Group, STARS User's Guide, Version 2006, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 4. Coombe, D. A., personal communication (2012).
Ciaran A. Latooij
43
5. Faisal, A., Bisdom, K., Zhumabek, B., Mojaddam Zadeh, A., and Rossen, W. R., "Injectivity and Gravity Segregation in WAG and SWAG Enhanced Oil Recovery," SPE 124197 presented at the 2009 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition held in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 4–7 October 2009. 6. Falls, A. H., Musters, J. J. and Ratulowski, J., “The Apparent Viscosity of Foams in Homogeneous Bead Packs”, SPE Reserv. Eng. 4 (May 1989), 155-164 7. Hirasaki, G. J., and Lawson, J. B., "Mechanisms of Foam Flow Through Porous Media–Apparent Viscosity in Smooth Capillaries," SPE J 25, 176-190 (1985). 8. Khatib, Z. I., Hirasaki, G. J. and Falls, A. H., “Effects of Capillary Pressure on Coalescence and Phase Mobilities in Foams Flowing through Porous Media”, SPE Reserv. Eng. 3 (August 1988), 919-926. 9. Kloet, M. B., Renkema, W. J., and Rossen, W. R., "Optimal Design Criteria for SAG Foam Processes in Heterogeneous Reservoirs," SPE 121581 presented at the 2009 SPE EUROPEC/EAGE Annual Conference and Exhibition, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 8–11 June 2009. 10. Kuehne, D. L., Ehman, D. I., Emanuel, A. S., and Magnani, C. F., "Design and Evaluation of a Nitrogen-Foam Field Trial," J. Petr. Techol. 42, 504-512 (1990). 11. Lake, L. W., Enhanced Oil Recovery, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA (1989). 12. Latooij, C. A., "Injectivity in Non-Newtonian Two-Phase Flow," BSc thesis BTA/PE/12-18, Delft University of Technology, 2012; available at http://repository.tudelft.nl/. 13. Leeftink, T. N., "Injectivity errors in simulation of foam EOR," BSc thesis BTA/PE/13-05, Delft University of Technology, 2013; available at http://repository.tudelft.nl/. 14. Leeftink, T. N., Latooij, C. A., Rossen, W. R., "Injectivity errors in simulation of foam EOR," presented at the 17th European Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery, St Petersburg, Russia, 16-18 April 2013. 15. Martinsen, H. A. and Vassenden, F., “Foam-Assisted Water Alternating Gas (FAWAG) Process on Snorre,” presented at the 1999 European IOR Symposium, Brighton, U.K., 18–20 August. 16. Namdar Zanganeh, M., Kam, S. I., LaForce, T. C., and Rossen, W.R., "The Method of Characteristics Applied to Oil Displacement by Foam," SPE Journal 16, 8-23 (2011). 17. Namdar Zanganeh, M., and Rossen, W. R., "Optimization of Foam EOR: Balancing Sweep and Injectivity," accepted for publication in SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering (2013). 18. Orr, F. M., Theory of Gas Injection Processes, Tie-Line Publications (2007). 19. Pickup, G. E., Jin, M., and Mackay, E.J., "Simulation of Near-Well Pressure Build-up in Models of CO2 Injection," paper B34 presented at the European Conference on the Mathematics of Oil Recovery, Biarritz, France, 10-13 September 2012. 20. Rossen, W. R., "Foams in Enhanced Oil Recovery," in R. K. Prud'homme and S. Khan, ed., Foams: Theory, Measurements and Applications, Marcel Dekker, New York (1996), pp. 413464. 21. Rossen, W. R., van Duijn, C. J., Nguyen, Q. P., Shen, C., and Vikingstad, A. K., "Injection Strategies to Overcome Gravity Segregation in Simultaneous Gas and Water Injection Into Homogeneous Reservoirs," SPE Journal 15, 76-90 (2010). 22. Rossen, W. R., Venkatraman, A., Johns, R. T., Kibodeaux, K. R., Lai, H., and Moradi Tehrani, N., "Fractional Flow Theory Applicable to Non-Newtonian Behavior in EOR Processes," Transport in Porous Media 89(2), 213-236 (2011). 23. Rossen, W. R., Zeilinger, S. C., Shi, J.-X., and Lim, M. T., "Simplified Mechanistic Simulation of Foam Processes in Porous Media," SPE Journal 4, 279-287 (Sept. 1999). 24. Rossen, W. R. and Zhou, Z. H., "Modeling Foam Mobility at the Limiting Capillary Pressure," SPE Adv. Technol. 3, 146-152 (1995).
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25. Schlumberger, ECLIPSE* Reservoir Simulation Software, Version 2010.2, Technical Description, 2010. 26. Schramm, L. L. (ed.) Foams: Fundamentals and Applications in the Petroleum Industry, ACS Advances in Chemistry Series No. 242, Am. Chem. Soc., Washington, DC (1994). 27. Shan, D. and Rossen, W. R., “Optimal Injection Strategies for Foam IOR,” SPE Journal 9, 132150. 28. Xu, Q. and Rossen, W. R., "Dynamic Viscosity of Foam in Porous Media," Proc. EuroConference on Foams, Emulsions and Applications, Delft, The Netherlands, 5-8 June 2000. 29. Zhou, Z. H. and Rossen, W. R,. "Applying Fractional-Flow Theory to Foam Processes at the 'Limiting Capillary Pressure'," SPE Adv. Technol. 3, 154-162 (1995). Appendix A. Foam Model Used in NonNewtonian Injectivity Calculations
This corresponds to a foam with extremely large mobility reduction (by a factor of 55,000, which is similar to the model fit of Cheng et al. (2000) to laboratory data without oil) at a radial distance of 500 m, and with the mobility reduction scaling like a power-law fluid with exponent n for shorter distances. We assume a power-law exponent of ½. Thus at the wellbore radius of 0.1 m gas mobility is reduced by a factor of 6,540 and at a distance of 1 m by a factor 11,631. The relatively small value of power-law exponent n here (½) is similar to behavior observed in the “low-quality" foam regime (Alvarez et al., 2001) i.e., far from the dry conditions of foam collapse. Like Rossen et al. (2011) we assume a particularly simple foam model here to illustrate the effects of shear-thinning rheology without the other complications of foam behavior.
In this case we take the relative permeabilities used by Rossen et al. (2011), i.e.
S − 0.2 krw = 0.2 w 0.6
4.2
[A1]
1.3
0.8 − S w k = 0.657 0.6 o rg
[A2]
where the superscript o indicates that this is the relative permeability in the absence of foam. Water and gas viscosities in the absence of foam are 0.001 and 0.00002 Pa s. Foam does not affect water relative permeability or viscosity, but does greatly affect gas mobility. It is equivalent to describe this effect as an effect on relative permeability or viscosity. Described as an effect on gas relative permeability we use
krgf =
o rg
k (Sw ) r 55000 500
(1− n )/ 2
1.3
krgo ( S w )
r 000 500
(1− n )/ 2
1.3
0.8 − S w 0.657 0.6 = (1− n )/ 2 r 55000 500
0.8 − S w [A3] 0.657 0.6 = (1− n )/ 2 r 55000 500
45
Kostiantyn Ganushevych, Kateryna Sai
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Development of Gas Hydrate Reservoir in the Black Sea Kostiantyn Ganushevych, Kateryna Sai
Abstract The importance of natural gas extraction from the most prospective gas hydrate reservoir in the Black Sea is scrutinized. It is pointed out that such an energy resource development is really beneficial to Ukrainian economy. The examination of formation mechanism and geological conditions of the considered gas hydrate deposit with various forms of its existence is carried out. The short review of possible gas recovery technologies based on various forms of gas hydrate deposits existence is given. Special attention is paid to the technology of CH 4 exchange by CO2 within the gas hydrate deposit. General conclusions and basic tasks requiring further research are given at the end.
Importance The most importcant task in the modern world is search for both alternative and addition-al sources of energy. One of the most prospective additional energy sources is a natural gas being in a gas hydrate state. When talking about gas hydrate deposits in the Black Sea, it certainly can be stated that this type of fuel is the biggest future treasure, whose recovery will allow to solve the issue of energy provision not only in Ukraine but also in all countries bordering the Black Sea.
**National Mining University ÞÞUkraine kosganush@gmail.com kateryna.sai@gmail.com University Country E-mail
A remarkable property of gas hydrates is that 1 m3 of this compound releases more than 160 m3 of methane in gaseous state.
There are nearly 15 deposits located in the sea. Potential gas reserves in them are esti-mated to be 50×1012 m3 of methane [1]. Methane resources of gas hydrate deposits close to Crimea peninsula are calculated to be 20-25×1012 m3. Fair amount of these deposits is allocated to Ukraine and Romania, less – to Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia and Georgia [2]. Fig. 1 shows one of the most prospective gas hydrate deposits. Its depth is around 2000 m [3]. The thickness of the gas hydrate layers of the Black Sea is, in average, equal to 300 m [2]. The density of deposits saturation with natural gas hydrates increases with depth. Water tem-perature below seasonal fluctuations increases with depth as well and makes up +7…+8ºC at 400-500 m depth, and at 2000–
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Development of Gas Hydrate Reservoir in the Black Sea
Fig. 1 – Map-scheme of gas-bearing zones suitable for hydrates formation in the Black Sea trough: 1 – highly perspective zone of gas hydrate formation; 2 – Western Black Sea trough; 3 – Eastern Black Sea trough; 4 – The outline of the Black Sea trough 2200 m: +9…+9.5ºC. Pressure values are within the range of 5–20 MPa.
Types of Gas Hydrate Deposits There are four possible ways of gas hydrate formations in sea sediments: scattered cement components, thin interlayers (nods), veins and massive solid layers (Fig. 2). In addition, there are two mechanisms of gas hydrates creation in the pore space of sedi-ments. First, gas hydrates are formed at the points of contact between rock grains (Fig. 3). In that case, hydrates play cementing role in sedi-ments. According to the second mechanism, the formation of gas hydrates occurs in pores outside the points of contact between grains, and hydrates have practically no effect or no effect at all on rock particles cohesion which reduces the porosity of sediment. There are two mechanisms of gas hy-drates creation in the pore space of sediments. First, gas hydrates are formed at the points of con-
tact between rock grains. In that case, hydrates cement sediments. According to the se-cond mechanism, the formation of gas hydrates occurs in the pores outside the points of contact between grains, and hydrates have particularly no effect or no effect at all on joint-packing, which reduces the porosity of sediment. Existing technologies. The selection of suitable technology of gas extraction is fully based on the geological conditions and properties of gas hydrate deposits. At present only two basic methods for gas extraction from a hydrate layer are taken into account: heating hydrate-bearing formations above equilibrium temperature and inhibitors introduction into the gas hydrate layer. They are based on dissociation – a process during which a compound decomposes into more simple components: gas and water. Heat carrier introduction method is based on heat delivery inside the gas hydrate crystal lattice to increase the temperature and speed up the dissociation process. During the heating process an exothermal catalytic reaction
47
Kostiantyn Ganushevych, Kateryna Sai
dispersed cement
nods
veins
massive layers
Fig. 2 – Possible ways of gas hydrate formations occurs with specific heat liberation exceeding solid gas hydrate dissociation heat (Eq. 1). CH4(H 2O)n → CH 4 + n × H 2O × Hf = 54.49 [Eq. 1] But, as the the results of the studies show, heat influence through the borehole face is low efficient [4]. It is connected with the fact that gas hy-drate dissociation process is followed by heat absorption with high specific enthalpy 0.5 MJ/ kg (for example, ice melting heat makes up 0.34 MJ/kg). As the dissociation front moves away from the borehole face more and more energy is spent to heat up host rocks hence heat influence zone on hydrate is calculated by the first meters [5]. When an inhibitor is introduced inside the gas hydrate its composition changes. In mul-tiple works it is established that a definite con-centration inhibitor injection into gas
hydrate leads to hydrates formation equilibrium condi-tions shift, notably to equilibrium temperature shift leading to the dissociation and methane release. In this case, the notion of “inhibitor” denotes not only a matter that slows down any process but also a matter that can actually speed it up. Concentration is what plays the major role in establishing an inhibitor influence behavior. The use of inhibitors has many disad-vantages: high toxicity (due to the harmful effects of vapors, contact with skin and internal body organs), high flammability risk. In the authors’ opinion, the most pro-spective method of methane recovery from a solid gas hydrate is an injection of CO 2 under a definite pressure and, as a result, the replace-ment of CH4 and its capture on the surface. The scholars of underground mining de-partment have developed a technology of me-
Cementation
water film on grains surface clathrates in pores centers
Filling of Pores
hydrate shell around the grains
cement at the grain contacts
Fig. 3 – Mechanism of gas hydrates formation in porous medium
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Development of Gas Hydrate Reservoir in the Black Sea
thane recovery from natural gas hydrate deposits and received patent on the technology №65280 (Fig. 4). It is a known fact that lower pressure and higher temperature is enough for CO 2 hydrate formation [6]. It is substantiated by com-position and physical properties of these
gases: carbon dioxide density is 1.97 kg/m³ that is three times higher than methane density – 0.66 kg/m³. Molar mass of CO 2 is almost 3 times higher than that of methane. In addition, the intensity of CO 2 gas hydrate accumulation is higher than CH4 gas hydrate that is explained by higher reactionary capability of CO 2 compared to methane.
Laboratory Researches At present, scholars of the department have been conducting researches on artificial gas hydrates on a new laboratory unit NPO-5 (Fig. 5). Unit NPO-5 serves as a laboratory base of gas hydrates creation and research for their stable existence under certain values of pressure and temperature. Formation conditions of methane hydrates and equilibrium parameters of their stable existence received by experimental way under are presented in Table 1 and in Fig. 6. Currently the authors have been conducting the experiments focused on CO 2 injection into the preliminary created methane hydrate in order to model the gases swapping process together with technological parameters such as exchange rate, pressure of carbon monoxide jet, its temperature, water pressure and temperature, time factor, etc.
Fig. 4 – Technological scheme of methane extraction from natural gas hydrate via carbon dioxide injection: 1 – reservoir for recovered methane 2 – reservoir for carbon dioxide 3 – floating platform 4 – pipe for methane extraction 5 – pipe for carbon dioxide injection 6 – gas hydrate dissociation zones
Temperature,°C
Pressure, MPa
-10
1,8
-7
2,1
-2
2,4
0
2,7
+5
4,8
+9
6,8
+13
9,8
Table 1 – Equilibrium parameters (P-T) of methane hydrate
49
Kostiantyn Ganushevych, Kateryna Sai
Conclusions Development of gas hydrate deposits located in marine sediments of the Black Sea is a prospective way to increase Ukraine’s hydrocar-bon crude volume. It is necessary to continue studying this body of water in order to develop maximally suitable technology of 20 Temperature,°С
15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
gas hydrate extraction, considering its conditions; Geological conditions and forms of gas hydrate existence in the Black Sea together with consideration of possible technologies of natural gas recovery are under examination; In the authors’ opinion, the most effective and prospective technology of natural gas extraction from gas hydrates is carbon dioxide injection into the deposit with methane gradual removal on the surface. This method allows not only to recover methane but to fight global warming caused by CO 2 emission.
Pressure, MPa
Fig. 6 – Pressure and temperature correlation of gas hydrate formation
Fig. 5 – Laboratory unit NPO-5 for gas hydrate receiving,where: 1 – tank with methane; 2 – tank tap; 3 – reduction gear; 4 – high-pressure manometer; 5 – low-pressure manometer; 6 – fitting for methane injection; 7 – fitting for water injection; 8 – cylinder transparent glass; 9 – shaft transparent glass; 10 – LED cluster; 11 – shaft; 12 – coupling bolts with screws; 13 – battery; 14 – water pressure manometer; 15 – tap for water injection control; 16 – shaft of water pressure unit; 17 – cylinder of water pressure unit; 18 – water; 19 – rigid frame; 20 – shaft of hydraulic jack; 21 – body of hydraulic jack with pressure up to 5 MPa; 22 – guidance flange; 23 – climatic thermal unit; 24 – vessel of gas hydrates formation; 25 – unit for water pressurized injection
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Development of Gas Hydrate Reservoir in the Black Sea
References 1. Duchkov, A., Sokolova, L., Ayunov, D., & Permyakov, M.: “Assessment of potential of West Siberian permafrost for the carbon dioxide storage”. Trofimuk Institute of petroleum and geophysics SB BAS, 2009, №9, P. 20-24. 2. Eliasson, B., Riemer, P., & Wokaun, A.: “Greenhouse gas control technologies”. Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, Pergamon, 1999, may. 3. Korsakov, O., Biakov, Y., & Stupak, S.: “Gas hydrates of the Black Sea trough”. Magazine Soviet geology, 1989, №12, P. 4-10. 4. Makogon, Y.: “Gas hydrates: Research history and development perspectives”. Magazine Geology and mineral deposits of the World Ocean, 2010, №2, P. 5-21. 5. Matveyeva, T., Solov’yev, V., & Mazurenko, L.: “Method of gas recovery from marine accumulations of gas hydrates”. International industrial portal, 21.12.2011. 6. Schnyukov, E., & Ziborov, A.: “Mineral resources of the Black Sea”. Kiev: Scientific issues of NAS of Ukraine, 2004, 280 p.
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The Young at the Heart of Asia
CONFERENCE | Youth Oil and Gas Forum
´´ The Young at the Heart of Asia Michał Turek The rising sun lit the highest peaks of the TianShan Mountains and shortly after that its rays warmed faces and houses of Almaty residents. Awakened nature eagerly grasped every bit of heat in order to get rid of the morning dew as soon as possible. The heart of Asia, Kazakhstan's largest city, was coming to life ...
periences, achievements and observations in the field of petroleum industry for two days.
...and so were the participants of 10-th International Youth Oil and Gas Forum–"Offshore: Dive into the future"! The Forum took place on the 13th–14th of April 2013. It was organized by the Society of Petroleum Engineers Student Chapter under KazNTU named after K.I. Satpayev. This is the tenth time when students and the representative of the global and national societies from all over the world met at the Kazakh National Technical University
"This is the tenth time in the walls of the main technical university of the country. By the initiative of the Society of Petroleum Engineers Student Chapter under KazNTU named after K.I. Satpayev, the youth discuss the most relevant issues connected with the oil & gas industry, the development of education, participation in the scientific field of action put forward by the President of the country called Kazakhstan 2050".–said the rector of KazNTU, Zheksenbek Adilov, during the opening ceremony. The Forum was officially opened by both the rector and the President of the SPE Student Chapter, Almas Zhakulenov. For the next two days, Almaty has become the center of young petroleum engineers.
after K.I. Satpayev. Among those who were present, were the representatives of Romania, Egypt, Poland, Austria, Qatar, Ghana, Italy, Russia, who have been sharing their ex-
On the main stage of the university hall, we could watch, for instance, the struggle of participants in Oil Games. This form of rivalry was very popular and the game aroused a
Michał Turek
lot of emotions. What is important, not only registered teams joined the fun–also the audience got involved. At the same time, in the side rooms, the competitions of scientific works in more than seven categories were taking place. From each of these, three best works were selected and awarded prizes at the closing ceremony. Thanks to the organizers, every foreign participant had the opportunity to experience Kazakh culture. At the Forum, we were delighted with the dance of Puzzle Crew dancing group. It was also nice to see the girls who were welcoming visitors in the traditional national costumes. At every turn, you could feel the kindness and hospitality of the university hosts. The level of organization and care for the students were extraordinary. Thank you! A nice gesture from the university students was the organization of an artistic competition, which was attended by children from orphanages. Young artists present at the closing ceremony could feel rewarded, and gifts from the sponsors gave them a lot of joy. For slightly older participants of the congress, Petroleum Party was organized. On the last night of
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the Forum, everybody was socializing in one of the Kazakh dance clubs.
YP Magazine was a general media partner of the Forum. The newest issue was put into hands of almost all students and professionals. Certainly, many have published their works on its pages. During Exhibition 2013, YP presented its activity and the possibility of cooperation. Finally, the magazine was rewarded by the certificate. It was a great honor for us to be the media patron of this event. Congratulations to the organizers for the successful meeting and we wish you continued success!
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From the East to the West
CONFERENCE | East meets West 2013
´´ From the East to the West Iwona Dereń East Meets West 2013 International Student Petroleum Congress and Career Expo For almost four years the East Meets West Congress brand, created an idea of the AGH UST SPE Student Chapter and have attracted almost a thousand students and E&P industry's greatest minds from over 15 countries around the world. Technical Presentations, Paper Student Contest, Poster Session, Workshops focus on Oil and Gas exploration and production. Panel Sessions taking part simultaneously with Ca-
reer Exhibition and Recruitment Sessions, all beautifully culminated with social events rich in polish cuisine and culture, making the Congress one of a kind.
The Venue One of the first things that you notice about a conference is the venue that it's held in. Kraków–the heart of Europe–the former capital of Poland and the seat of former kings. The city was created by trade where the routes from the south to the Baltic converge with the
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routes from the East to the West. Krakow is undoubtedly among those historical metropolises, where heritage not only substantially determines contemporary life, but also settles the matter of the city’s position in Europe. The former Jewish quarter, Kazimierz has the charm of Montmatre in Paris and the endless, grey apartment blocks in the communist-built Nowa Huta have a climate taken straight from Orwell’s, ‘1984’. The AGH University of Science and Technology–one of the best technical universities in Central Europe was established on 20th October 1919, until 1949 known as the Academy of Mining. The university cherishes its traditions and educates its students to be honest and responsible people both at work and as members of society. According to its motto: “Labore creata, labori et scientiae servio”(Created in labour, I serve labour and science).
“I'm lucky because I have attended the EmW congress for two years in a row. EmW is a great chance for people to set up acquaintances with collegues from all over the world and open new opportunities for the future. I sincerely thank all the organizers for their hard work and I am grateful to all of the people that established, supported and developed this wonderful society(SPE) and the unforgettable memories of EmW...” Yurii Moroz, Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas
The Speakers The big thing that any good conference needs is good speakers, speaking on good topics. Now, when I say good speakers I mean distinguished guests like: Fredrico Justus – Area Manager – Continental Europe & Caspian, Germany for Weatherford, Guido Van Den Bos – Business Development Director
– Europe for National Oilwell Varco and Toni Marszalek – Chairman at Schlumberger – Poland. They had very inspiring, encouraging and motivating speeches, sharing their visions, wisdom and experience.
The Attendees Just as important as good speakers is good attendees, who make a conference more enjoyable. This year, 25-27th April in Krakow, the Congress attracted around 100 students from such countries as: Australia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Ukraine. The participants were really respectful–asking fantastic questions related to the presentations, had good and useful side conversations and overall made the experience much better. There was a very healthy mix of people from industry and students. The Congress gathered many professionals from different companies, such as ORLEN Upstream, Weatherford, National Oilwell Varco, United Oilfield Services and Schlumberger, who presented their latest technologies, explained the company policy, strategic plans and vision, mission goals.
Career Sessions and Career Expo Hall During the Conference, there were recruitment sessions conducted by the companies that wanted to attract the brightest and best students and also to have a diverse student population. Besides the technical aspects of the Career Sessions, they were the best source of information about the companies. At the same time, students and job-seekers had a chance to gather information about a career and training from the company representatives during the Career Expo Hall.
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Student Paper Contest and Student Poster Session 15 research papers were presented by the best young minds from all over the world. Participants had the chance to show their work in front of an interested audience, discuss it with established researchers and win the award.
“EmW is the result of AGH UST SPE Student Chapter's hard work. All things were considered. The organization team thought about everything from our accommodation to the scientific part of EmW and entertainment. It was one of the best conferences I have attended! Certainly, I have a great wish to be a part of East meets West'14!” Elizaveta Laputina, Tyumen State Oil and Gas University
From the East to the West
The student poster session provided an opportunity for students to share their research and receive feedback from both industry professionals and academic colleagues. Students had to use their research and conversation skills to convince the jury. The topics of presentations varied from geological and mineralogical issues, through consumption of energy, exploration and fracturing to the technical aspects of drilling
concerning equipment and safety rules. The awards for the best papers and posters were presented during the Official Closing Ceremony.
Social Events How to connect sightseeing with petroleum? The answer is: PETROSIGHTSEEING! This great idea connected people, that came to Krakow at least one day earlier. Participants had an opportunity to explore the won-
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derful city of Krakow with other students by solving science problems, show their manual skills and what is the most important, spending time in an international companionship. Every team had their own Polish caretaker, just in case of getting lost. Next, those who were still up to adventures, could take part in a Before Party, having fun on singing Karaoke and relaxing before the following days.
“I sincerely thank the organizers of this infinitely glorious event. Words cannot describe the emotions that we felt by becoming part of the EmW. Excitement, joy, inspiration, knowledge, friendship, love... EmW from year to year is becoming tradition which brings together young talented people. And I'm sure these people will do a lot of good things together which will remain in history. Guys, you are making history!” Stepan Shpakov, Tyumen State Oil and Gas University
The Opening Gala held place in the Park Inn. Everyone seemed to have a really good time, talking to each other, laughing, playing table games and enjoying the live musical performances and dancing. They say, Polish hospitality is the best. So on the next day in the evening our guests could taste a number of traditional polish delicacies and spend some time chatting in a place called ‘Pod Wawelem’ Restaurant. It appeared to be true that nothing unites people like delicious food does! Final Party took place in Diva Music Club to celebrate the end of a set of brilliant days. It was a chance to rest and relax after three days
of hard work, diligence, stress, new experiences and lots of various emotions.
The Organizers and Sponsors Good organization comes from smart and level headed people who are realistic about their expectations. According to feedback, the organizers did an absolutely tremendous job, creating a joyful community that fosters fun, togetherness, and personal growth through exchanging ideas.
"I'm very happy to have the opportunity to participate in EMW 2013 and find new friends from all around the world. I didn't expect such an arrangement for a conference organized completely by students. I would like to thank again from all the students putted effort and dedicated their times to make EmW 2013 an unforgettable time." Adel Mehrabadi, Politecnico di Torino
And at last, where would a conference be without sponsors? They not only made the Congress possible, but also made it enjoyable. They provided great educational, technical and social events. The sponsors had tables set up in the main area, and were more than willing to talk to students, but they never pushed the issue. I hope next year, we will meet again, with new fresh ideas and mindsets, generating and exploring new possibilities and options that extend beyond what we already know!
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Those Were Four Amazing Days in China!
CONFERENCE | Future Petroleum Engineers Forum
´´ Those Were Four Amazing Days in China! Dominik H. Skokowski, Jakub Jagiełło On the 15th day of May I took off from Kraków heading to Beijing with my mind full of thoughts about the days that will come. Though, when you fly for 10 hours and travel through 7 time zones, the natural thing to expect is to get some rest at the end. Well, not this time.
ture. I’ve got an impression that even the air smelled differently. The place was overwhelming, but it only strengthened the urge to learn and explore it. First of all, we had some Chinese food which is really delicious and brings people together – everybody eats from the same plate! Just after, our hosts took us for
We had landed up and then we were picked up by the volunteers, taken to the hotel just to leave the bags and then we immediately hurried to Changping to see the surrounding of the China University of Petroleum. First steps I took on Chinese soil made me feel dizzy. There were completely new language and cul-
a short trip around the town. After 30 hours without sleep it was a real accomplishment! Hopefully, about 12 hours in bed managed to get rid of jetlag. That’s how Future Petroleum Engineers Forum in Beijing began. And as things went, I
Dominik H. Skokowski, Jakub Jagiełło
already knew that this breakneck pace won’t slow down. On the first day of the Forum, there was SPE Chapters presentation in the morning that was connected with a brief introduction session between the participants during the round-table meeting. After some time designed to get everybody know each other, there was the opening gala where we met all the prominent representatives from the University and from the CUPB SPE Student Chapter. An outstanding Cultural Evening followed after. Our Chinese hosts showed us little of their culture, starting from an amazing art of origami and famous Chinese calligraphy, through the art of playing on the Chinese bamboo flute and the fine art of making Beijing Opera facial masks. This was the most amazing event of the day, and as I and my non-Chinese friends agreed, it really opened our eyes to the wonders of the East. The second day brought us a lot of joy and benefits. After a breakfast we headed to the Lobby of Zhoungyou Building at the Campus to learn about the sponsors of the Enterprise Culture Exhibition. There were about fifteen (15!) companies’ stands and we were able to talk freely with firm’s representatives about daily life in their companies or job outlook or hand in our CVs. Some of us took the chance to do so, others preferred to take part in Sports Culture Festival in the middle of the university campus. We could choose from Jianzi, jumping rope and tug of war. It made us really tired but brought huge smile on our faces as well. After a moment to catch a breath, one of the main events started – PetroBowl Contest – an international petroleum engineering knowledge competition. Over a dozen of teams, a lot of countries and universities–the only one winner. Three three-person teams from different universities simultaneously at the stage were competing against each other during multiple stages. Three teams made it to the final, two Chinese from China University of Petroleum and third, an intercon-
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tinental team "Roughnecks" from AGH UST Kraków, Poland (I was one of its members!) and Texas A&M, USA which won the game. This was definitely the most gripping part of the Forum. After all, nothing brings people together like good old rivalry! The workshop held by Karam Al Yateem – the representative of Saudi Aramco was the last event during that day. He gave us a lecture on "Innovative Aplication to Enhance the Performance of the Global Oil&Gas Industry" and a specific problem to solve in teams afterwards . Great fun, great integration and fantastic education.
The third day was really scientific to all of us. Some people were giving their speeches during Doctoral Forum, showing us the results of their research and others got a chance
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to participate in Giovanni Paccaloni’s Intrinsic Motivation Open Class. The Doctoral Forum was divided between two rooms and, also, the morning session and evening one. Those were quite some alternatives to choose from, but what was sad about it- we were unable to see all members of the interesting staff. Those, who have chosen Paccaloni’s class, could "investigate the roots of the huge amount of energy required to sustain the hard, yet highly rewarding journey toward excellence". The last day of the Forum, was so pleasant a day (for some of us even more exhausting than previous ones!). In the early morning we drove to the Great Wall of China. To say that it is huge would be an understatement, though I can’t think of a way to properly express on paper its hugeness. While going down those great stairs, we thought that making a race to
Those Were Four Amazing Days in China!
the top would be a great idea. Well, it wasn’t. Didn’t I say something about how huge is the Wall? We’ve painfully learned that it’s true not only to the length, but also to the height. Though, I must say that our climbing was worth the view from the top and some satisfaction we had afterwards. Nevertheless, the only thought we had in mind was "How could the guards do it every day in the ancient times?!" Later on we headed to the Olympic Sport Center and in the evening we could try to cook shrimps in our own hot pots! That was really a fantastic way to say good bye to us! For most of the participants, this conference, culture and people were quite exotic- the same for me. The only words that come to my mind since I’m back in Poland are: hospitality, joy, excellence, friendship and delicious food! Thank you people, I just regret that we had so little time together!
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