ABSTRACT: Chemical technologies play a vital role in all phases of hydrocarbon production, contributing to technical and economic performance in today's oil and gas industry.
Note: the article was originally published on 1999.
New cycles of chemical innovation are being pushed by three principal drivers: a need to contain capital and operating expenses; new technical challenges of producing from deep, complex reservoirs and in hostile physical environments; and increasingly stringent environmental constraints.
Opportunities to apply chemical science innovations from outside the oil field must also be included with these drivers. Each of these factors can render obsolete or inapplicable the "old ways of doing business", and is a source of qualitatively new challenges to profitability. Drilling and completion fluids.
The industry has a strong need for water-base muds that ensure borehole stability even in reactive shales.
In addition, maximizing the payoff from horizontal wells and open-hole completions requires fluids that result in acceptable levels of drilling damage and the highest possible well productivity (see "A new Slogan for Drilling Fluids Engineers", page 2).
Stimulation Challenges in fracturing and acidizing include achieving predictable and reliable productivity enhancements, and closing the gap between ideal post-treatment productivity and what is actually achieved in practice.
Gas/water shutoff. Some operators are already earning big returns by using polymer gels and other chemical agents to shut off water production down-hole.
Yet many important water production problems cannot be treated with current chemical systems-for example, water or gas coning in formations or wells in which the water-producing interval cannot be isolated during treatment.
Crude oil phase behavior. Oil lies at the heart of our business, but it is surprising how little we understand about the factors governing phase behavior.
Asphaltene, hydrate and paraffin deposition are emerging as increasingly critical production, facilities and pipeline issues.
Cost effective, reliable methods are needed to predict conditions under which they drop out, and to inhibit deposition. Ecocompatibility.
Requirements to reduce the environmental "footprints" of E&P operations are increasingly stringent and international in scope.
This greatly impacts disposal practices for solids and fluids produced during drilling and production operations, and ultimately, will require the substitution of new, more environmentally friendly chemical systems for many that are currently in use.
I hope I will not be accused of underestimating the resourcefulness of fellow oilfield chemists by expressing the view that these are ambitious objectives.
A trial-and-error approach may be appropriate to optimize or achieve incremental extension of existing technology, but many of the complex, new problems in oilfield chemistry will require innovative approaches (see "Specialty Chemicals in the Oil Field", page 26).
This is strong argument for adopting a hypothesis-driven, understanding-based approach. In this context, the plea for computer software that can guide the design and execution of down hole treatments will be satisfied only in cases where the relevant physical-chemical mechanisms are understood.
In light of the many chances that have taken place in the R&D technology chain over the past ten years, it is interesting to ask how and by whom these complex technical challenges will be met.
Many suggest that service companies will lead the way. But operators have a strong economic motivation to confront field-specific problems, and this will mandate their direct involvement through independent research, cooperative efforts and joint projects.
In any event, it appears certain that industry requirements for enhanced chemical technologies will occupy and challenge chemists for many years.
Source:E.N.I./Tech.
Author: Lockhart T.P.
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
