The challenging conditions faced in today’s oil and gas market has increased the focus on cost effective, sustainable operations. Operators are faced with the decision of extending or ending offshore production asset life and pre-decommissioning planning has emerged as a key challenge for the industry. Mitigating uncertainty, enabling decision making and justification as to whether to end or extend asset life, as well as detailed knowledge of asset conditions is crucial. In this blog, we will discuss how a range of Diagnostics services can be used to provide this detailed knowledge throughout late life operations.

Topics: pipeline integrity, Flow assurance, chemical tracers, reservoir, reservoir characterisation, NORM, NORM Management, Decommissioning, Flooded Memeber Inspection, Subsea Inspection, Subsea Integrity, water inflow, inflow measurement, pipeline life extension

In this blog post we will highlight and discuss, the top five questions we are asked about a Tracerco™ Interwell Study.

Topics: chemical tracers, reservoir, reservoir analysis, interwell, reservoir characterisation, tracers, smart tracers, tracer technology, well development

Selection of the stimulation target in unconventional shale formations is an important factor that impacts well productivity. In thick unconventional formations, it is essential that operators quantify the production of each stage of hydraulic fracturing executed in the well, in order to establish the most productive rock. It is also important for operators to be certain that every section of the stimulated well is effectively contributing to overall well production and clean-out of all stages has been achieved. In addition, other development challenges include optimal spacing between perforation clusters, stages and wells, allowing operators to optimize drilling and completion costs and maximize enhanced ultimate recovery (EUR).

This Blog describes the application of chemical tracers in a multi-stage horizontal well to gain insight on stage productivity in order to plan an optimal field development strategy.

Topics: chemical tracers, unconventional wells, reservoir, fracking, reservoir characterisation, tracers, unconventional oil and gas, smart tracers, tracer technology, frac wells, shale, shale production, well development

Tracerco, patented, pioneered and continues to enhance technology that enables the measurement of individual gas, oil, and water stage production along the length of a wellbore, without well intervention. This inexpensive technology provides confirmation that a wellbore is open to flow, identifies and quantifies stage flow contribution of each phase, and provides measurement of drainage area connectivity - simply by adding small amounts of unique chemical tracers to each stage’s stimulation fluid.

Topics: chemical tracers, unconventional wells, reservoir, fracking, reservoir characterisation, tracers, unconventional oil and gas, smart tracers, tracer technology, frac wells, shale, shale production, well development

A customer wanted to test two different lithologies and compare the performance of both, in the gas window of the Neuquén Basin, in Argentina. For that reason, a slanted two-horizon target well was drilled, distributing 10 stages in the upper zone, and 10 stages in the lower zone. The intermediate zone, which was not considered a main target, received one stage.

21 unique organic gas and water tracers were added to each of the different stages of the well during stimulation. The injection was controlled and care was taken to tag all stages in the same way, ensuring that the tracers would penetrate deep into the fracture structure and make contact with formation hydrocarbons. Subsequent flowback and sample analysis for the presence of the injected tracers allowed relative gas and water flow from the different stages to be evaluated.

Topics: chemical tracers, unconventional wells, reservoir, fracking, reservoir characterisation, tracers, unconventional oil and gas, smart tracers, tracer technology, frac wells

In any deep water field development it is important to monitor oil and water production from all wells in order to manage fluid movement and maximize hydrocarbon output. The use of Smart Tracers integrated into a lower completion, alongside the use of waterflood tracers, provides a number of advantages over traditional oil and gas inflow measurement technologies, at a fraction of the cost.

Topics: chemical tracers, reservoir, reservoir characterisation, fluid inflow, oil inflow, water inflow, oil production, inflow measurement, smart tracers

Understanding zonal contribution is imperative when developing stacked plays where a primary appraisal objective is to quantify zonal productivity to determine which layers of the formation to target. One proven evaluation method is the use of chemical-based tracer technology. In this blog post we will provide a real case example of where chemical tracer technology was used to determine zonal contribution and assist in the planning of future well and field development. 

Topics: chemical tracers, unconventional wells, reservoir, fracking, reservoir characterisation, unconventional oil and gas

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In the challenging market conditions that we face today, reducing lift costs is paramount. One area where this can be achieved is through stimulation optimisation, ensuring reduce spend on stimulation activities and maximum  oil or gas flow for a particular field. 

In this post we examine five steps to achieving savings of as much as 20% in reservoir stimulation costs by using accurate flow data to optimise stage stimulation in individual wells and development of unconventional fields.

This is based on our vast experience across numerous fields and the insights and figures are taken from real projects conducted over the last few years.

 

Topics: unconventional wells, reservoir, reservoir analysis, reservoir characterisation, drilling, technology enabling cost savings, reservoir stimulation

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In this blog post we will highlight and discuss the top five questions we are asked with regard to our controlled release tracer technology.  

Topics: reservoir, controlled release, reservoir analysis, reservoir characterisation, fluid inflow

The oil and gas industry is faced with difficult trading times and low oil prices are predicted to continue. Operators and service companies are faced with lower margins and less capital available when making decisions on reservoir production strategies. Working with reduced resource is difficult enough, but production targets still must be met.

In order to meet these challenges a number of different innovative technologies have been developed and tested in the field that assist with reservoir production optimisation at reduced costs when compared to conventional methods. As an example, the use of speciality chemical technologies can eliminate the need to carry out costly production logging and gain critical data on fluid flow which in turn can be used to optimise development plans.

The technologies can measure clean out efficiency, pinpoint areas of fluid flow, and ultimately log production rates from various zones. All of this data can be obtained throuhg reservoir tracers without the need for intervention the cost of which can run into the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars when looking at a sub-sea development. What’s more, this data can be taken on-stream and over several years, saving on rig time as the technology is integrated  down hole when running the lower completion into the well.

Below we will examine the steps you can take applying this alternative technology to make significant savings on rig time.

Topics: reservoir characterisation, technology enabling cost savings, fluid inflow, reservoir production modeling, tracers