International Conference and Expo on Oil and Gas November 16-18, 2015 Dubai, UAE

Seham Ali Shaban has completed his PhD at the age of 41 years from Ain Shams University and postdoctoral studies from Egyptian Petroleum Research institute. He is the Member of Catalysts Characterization Laboratory. He has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute.

As conventional energy sources deplete, the need for developing alternate energy resources becomes more imperative and environment friendly. Used vegetable oils are attracting increased interest in this purpose. The methanolysis of used vegetable oil to produce a fatty acid methyl ester (FAME, i.e., biodiesel fuel) was catalyzed by commercial ionic liquid. The imidazolium chloride ionic liquid has been selected for the synthesis of biodiesel. The imidazolium tetrachloroferrate [bmim][FeCl4] ionic liquid was prepared by direct combination between imidazolium cation and FeCl3. The imidazolium chloride and imidazolium tetrachloroferrate ionic liquid were characterized by using FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, DSC, TG and UV. The factors affecting the transesterification process include: reaction time, reaction temperature, weight of ionic liquid catalyst, methanol:oil molar ratio and reusability of the ionic liquid catalyst were studied. The yield was reached to 99 wt.% under the optimum conditions of (1:8.33 catalyst to used vegetable oil weight ratio, 12:1 methanol:oil molar ratio, reaction temperature of 55ºC and reaction time of 8 h). Under these optimum conditions, the produced biodiesel is nearly the same as the commercial biodiesel with 7.8 Cp dynamic viscosity, 0.8925 g/cc density, 120oC flash point, -6oC pour point and 125 Iodine value. Operational simplicity, reusability of the used catalyst for 7 times at least, high yields and no saponification are the key features of this methodology.

Professor A.Y. Zekri received his B.Sc., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Southern California. He has spent more than two decades in the petroleum industry. Professor Zekri worked as a consultant to the management committees of Waha Oil Co., and Agip Oil Company. He has authored and/or co-authored more than 90 papers on new developments and technical issues in the areas of improved oil recovery, flow through porous media, and environmental aspects of petroleum production, petroleum contracts, and Enhanced Oil Recovery. He has edited and refereed technical papers in widely respected journals. Prof. Zekri has completed a number of research projects in the area of IOR/EOR to UAE and International Petroleum Industries. Professor Zekri is currently working as Coordinator of Oil and Gas Technologies, Emirates Center for Energy and Environment Research and Professor of petroleum engineering at the United Arab Emirates University.

The effect of injection brine salinity on the displacement efficiency of low water salinity flooding was investigated using sea water at 35,000 ppm, and two field injection waters, namely, Um-Eradhuma (UER) at 171,585 ppm and Simsima (SIM) at 243,155 ppm. The salinity of the employed waters was varied from original salinity to 1000 ppm and used in the displacement of oil in selected core samples. The results of this set of experiments revealed that UER salinity of 5000 ppm is the optimum system for the candidate reservoir. Um-Eradhuma original water and its optimum water were then used in this project as the high and low salinity waters in the CO2-WAG flooding experiments. Displacement efficiencies were evaluated under three injection modes: carbon dioxide WAG miscible flooding (CO2-WAG, 1:1, 2:1, and 1:2), continuous CO2 injection (CCO2I), and waterflood (WF). The WAG performance parameters, such as secondary and tertiary displacement efficiencies, CO2 flood utilization factor, and CO2 performance during different WAG flood cycles were determined. To insure miscibility condition between the injected gas and the employed oil, all of the flooding experiments were conducted at 3200 psia (which is 300 psia above the minimum miscibility pressure of CO2 & used oil) and 250 °F. Experimental results indicated that core length is a critical parameter in determining the optimum WAG process, and that a minimum core length of 29 cm is required to insure the generation of miscibility before breakthrough in CO2-WAG flooding experiments. On the other hand, core length had no effect on the performance of the low salinity flooding experiments. Using single core flooding low salinity CO2-WAG of 1:2 flooding produced an improvement in the displacement efficiency of 29% over the high salinity system. Also, composite core flooding experiments showed that the high salinity CO2-2:1 WAG achieved a displacement efficiency of 98%. These results indicate that achieving miscibility at the reservoir conditions is the dominant mechanism and that low salinity will have no major effect on the displacement efficiency of CO2-Miscible WAG flooding. Results also indicate that oil recovery during different CO2-WAG cycles is a function of WAG ratios.

Farshad Varaminian has received his PhD from Tehran University in 2001. He is a professor of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical, Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Semnan University. His main research interest is gas hydrate, kinetics and thermodynamics and has published more than 37 papers in reputed journals.

Natural gas hydrates are considered as a challenging problem for oil and gas industry since they plug pipelines requiring costly remedies. The studies related to the problematic side of gas hydrates are attempting to find the methods for gas hydrate inhibition. Kinetic hydrate inhibitors (KHIs) are now a most widely used low dosage hydrate inhibitor, which are water soluble polymers designed to delay hydrate nucleation and growth. The inhibition performance of KHI polymers often improve with added synergists. This study investigates the hydrate inhibition performance of three polymers, polyethylene glycol (PEG), Polyacrylamide (PAM) and Hydroxyethyl Cellulose (HEC), with a well-known kinetic inhibitor, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), for retarding the hydrate onset as well as decelerating the crystal growth rate of methane hydrate. A high-pressure reactor with experimental operation conditions of temperature of 275.15 K, initial pressure of 6 MPa and stirring speed of 900 rpm has been utilized. A short induction time of 1000 s has been found for the pure water system, while it increases up to 3000 s in the presence of PVP. It is observed that the addition of PEG, PAM and HEC to the PVP solution enhances its inhibition efficiency, so that a more increase is shown respectively about 5, 6 and 8 times in the induction time and hydrate growth rate become slower than that of 0.5 wt% PVP solution. At the same concentrations of additives, HEC solution has showed the highest induction time and PAM solution has showed the lowest crystal growth rate.

Wang Yazhou graduated from the China University of Petroleum-Beijing in 2009, where he studied many courses about petroleum engineering. Then he became a senior petroleum engineer at SINOPEC in 2012. His expertise is in the field of reservoir engineering and numerical simulation of thermal recovery in heavy oil reservoirs. He has published more than 10 refereed journal papers.

Oil production largely decreases when it gets to high cycles of steam stimulation in heavy oil reservoirs. Most wells are at a state of low production. In this article, aiming at low efficiency wells of steam stimulation, we researched its classification standards and improvement measures. Visual experiments of high temperature were employed to analyze effective improvement measures during steam injection in shallow heavy oil reservoirs. According to the results of numerical simulation and oilfield statistics, a diagram was established to choose effective measures for low efficiency wells during steam stimulation. The results showed that a new parameter ( ) was presented to quantitatively classify low efficiency wells of steam stimulation involving three types, such as, high recovery, steam channeling and dual factors. Injection of Nitrogen or Nitrogen and viscosity reducer along with steam can further expand swept area of steam. High temperature gel can effectively block steam channeling to improve productivity of steam stimulation. The values of ( ) were taken as the boundary to divide the diagram of choosing measures into 4 parts, such as, nitrogen injection, foam injection, gel injection (or simultaneous steam stimulation) and invalid zone.

Ras Fanar oil field located on the western margin of the Gulf of Suez. It is situated offshore in water depth of about 115 ft. The distance from Ras Gharib shoreline is approximately 3.5 Km towards the East. Ras Fanar field is producing from the Middle Miocene Belayim Carbonate Reservoir. Also, this study is looking for add new additional reserve of oil accumulation which trapped in shallow horizons in the South Gharib and Zeit Formations laying conformably over Belayuim Formation. In the base of South Gharib some dolomite stricks also Zeit sand member within the Zeit Formations (secondary targets). These thin reservoirs below the seismic resolution are usually difficult to detect while drilling because thickness ranging from 5-15 feet and also pinched out. This study show important way and steps to detect Missed Pay Zones of sand and carbonate reservoirs while drilling by using chromatographic data analysis of Mud-Gases by multiple methods, Graphical and mathematical, it gives good indication to select the interesting interval to run Logs or Perforation. In Carbonate reservoirs, the petro graphical and petro physical data in addition to micro facies associations and digenetic examination were used to follow up the development history and reservoir characterization. Test results and production data of the drilled wells are also used to develop a better understanding of reservoir dynamics and to improve the depositional model of the reservoir. This shows how you can integrate all available data before, while and after drilling to Make Future Plan to drain oil reserve from this sand and carbonate at the same time.

Mahmoud NADIR has reached the engineering degree in 2006 in mechanical engineering (option: metal construction) at the university of Boumerdes-Algeria and his magisterium degree in advanced energetic systems at the same university in 2009. In 2010 he has obtained a postgraduate degree specialized in industrial engineering awarded by “l’Ecole des Mines” of Nantes-France. Currently he is preparing his PhD defense which will take place around November of 2015. He has five years of experience in teaching and scientific research at the university. The focal areas of his work are: gas turbines and combined cycles aerodynamic design and thermo-economic optimization, renewable energy integration for power generation and substituting natural gas by hydrogen.

Today, the combined cycle (CC) is an attractive technology in the field of oil and gas industry, it can be used for both mechanical drive and electricity generation. Their bottoming steam cycle provides about 30-40 % of the overall power generated. Any improvement could be done mainly through optimizing HRSG according to some manufacturing specifications, or costumer economic requirements, contrary to gas turbines which are mass manufactured and not allowing imposing the suitable design parameters. The literature has shown that most of previous studies addressed the optimization of one or several HRSG types intended to work with a specific gas turbine (consequently a well defined TOT) and no study optimizes several HRSG configurations for a wide range of TOT. Thus, this paper presents, for a TOT range of 350-650 °C, a thermodynamic optimization of three HRSG configurations namely: HRSG with one pressure level with reheat (1P), two pressure levels with reheat (2P) and three pressure levels with reheat (3P). Concerning the optimization method, one of the most recent methods, which is the PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) is used in this study. The results show that adding another pressure level allows achieving a higher pressure at the inlet of high pressure turbine, producing more steam quantities, destroying less energy and finally producing more specific work independently of TOT. For a given value of 600 °C representative of TOT of recent gas turbines, an addition of a pressure level is shown to increase the specific work of about 17 kJ/kg, representing a benefit of about 10% for the steam cycle, whereas a third pressure level results in 8 kJ/kg increase in the specific work, corresponding to 4% in the steam cycle.

Kang Kai has completed his PhD from Beijing Institute of Technology. He has engaged in string dynamic mechanical analysis of oil-gas wells perforating job for 4 years.

The technologies of high charge perforator and high density perforator are widely used in domestic and international oil-gas wells perforating job, which leads to the increase of the explosion load intensity, resulting in more string damage accidents, and seriously affects the normal production of oil and gas. The software of LS-DYNA was used to measure the dynamic response of the perforating gun under four types of perforation conditions. It analyzes perforating gun head’s forms and characteristics of output load under different working conditions, and also analyze the impact on perforating gun’s structural strength under different axial and radial load. These conclusions provide an important theoretical reference for reasonable arranging the perforating technology, improving perforation safety and reducing the well perforating accidents.

Farshad Varaminian has received his PhD from Tehran University in 2001. He is an Associate professor of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical, Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Semnan University. His main research interest is gas hydrate, kinetics and thermodynamics and has published more than 37 papers in reputed journals.

Molecular dynamic simulations have been performed to investigate thermodynamic and structural properties of methane/water system at two different conditions: away from hydrate formation and threshold it. One of the main motivations to study the methane/water system is related to formation of gas hydrates. Gas hydrates are crystalline inclusion compounds consisting of water molecules forming cages via a hydrogen-bonding network and enclosing small guest molecules such as methane, ethane, CO2, etc. Methane gas hydrates studies are more noteworthy because of future energy source and the problems they pose to the petroleum industry during the production and transportation. The results that compare the two conditions have been discussed in terms of the surface tension, mean square displacement (MSD), diffusion coefficient, radial distribution function and thermodynamic functions. Investigation over a timescale of 500 ps demonstrated that the thermodynamic functions at 275 K (at hydrate formation threshold) are smaller than that of at 298 K, implying that the hydrate formation threshold is more stable. An increase in the system pressure and temperature leads to a decrease in surface tension because of the decrease in the intermolecular attractive forces. The comparison of oxygen-oxygen, carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen radial distribution functions at temperatures of 275 and 298 K has been indicated that all distribution peaks decrease due to increasing the temperature demonstrating that the system become more stable at threshold of hydrate formation. MSD and self-diffusion coefficient of methane molecules are sensitive to the temperature and pressure of system.

Objectives/Scope: The role of pressure on reservoir performance and management has been introduced by conventional diffusivity equation. However, only accurate measure of pressure response can lead to better reservoir management. Introducing the memory-based diffusivity equation enables to better understanding of pressure response based on rheological characteristics of the formation rock and fluid. This is because of the complexity of rock structures and fluid rheologies which depend on formation history, and types. Ultimately, this history provides the quantitative and qualitative measures of fossil fluids in the reservoir. Methods, Procedures, Process The memory-based diffusivity equation has been solved using numerical methods. To account the non-local aspects of the rock and fluid memories, the fractional derivative is used as memory formalism. A heterogeneous reservoir with synthetic porosity and permeability values is used to investigate the effect of reservoir heterogeneity on the pressure distribution using memory-based diffusivity equation. Results, Observations, Conclusions: A comprehensive study on different reservoir parameters such as formation porosity and permeability are thoroughly investigated to capture the influence of reservoir heterogeneity on the pressure distribution. Results show that, the memory-based diffusivity equation can be used to model the flowing of fluid through heterogeneous reservoir. In addition, the reservoir heterogeneity has a significant effect on the pressure distribution and therefore controls the reservoir performance. The effects of reservoir heterogeneity increases with time around the wellbore and decreases toward the outer boundary. Novel/Additive Information: The finding of this research will support the using of memory concept on heterogeneous reservoirs to predict the reservoir performance and to improve the reservoir management.

Elham Nafarieh is studying Geology at Tehran university in PhD level.She is paleontologist at Exploration Directorate of the National Iranian Oil Company. She has worked in Exploration Directorate of the National Iranian Oil Company since 2010. She has also published 6 papers in journals and presented 3 oral papers.

In this research a thick succession of the Jahrum Formation at the Kuh-e Kurdeh, interior Fars of the Zagros Basin, southwest Iran was studied and compared with the Jahrum Formation in kuh-e Gach, southeast of Lar area. The Jahrum Formation is one of the most important petroleum reservoirs in the Zagros Basin in Iran. The purpose of this article was to study the benthic foraminifera and introduce assemblage zones for this formation. Based on the occurrence of 26 genera and 37 species of benthic foraminifera, two faunal assemblages of benthic foraminifera is introduced and assigned to the Eocene age.

This paper is centered on providing a view, with an end to satisfy the investment needs of producing oil and gas companies in offshore gas fields such as; improvement on recovery, minimal investment cost, maximum returns, safety and technological legacy through the use of subsea gas compression. These needs which also doubled as the driving force, consequently enhanced our chances of getting more fluid from the reservoir system than predicted. In gas production, pressure losses in a completion assembly is a well-known fact that inhibits production rate from maximum capacity. In response to this, production variations with regards to the reduction in one of the components that constitutes pressure losses – wellhead pressure, was analyzed in this paper through which conclusions were drawn and an excel solver was developed. The choice for a Subsea Gas Compressor (SGC) was because the desired wellhead pressure could not be achieved even when the chokes were fully opened! Hence the need for a subsea gas compression - SGC solution. It was hence observed that a reduction in wellhead pressure increased flow rate and prolonged the life of the field even when it should ordinarily be considered a dead well! By also taking the compressor closer to the wellhead brought about improvement on minimum flow rate, suction pressure and a reduction in the compressor power requirement. It was therefore concluded, that an SGC has a key role to play in improved offshore gas field productivity.

Mohammad Parvazdavani obtained his B.S. degree in Mining Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology, Iran (IUT) in 2009 and his M.S. degree in Petroleum Engineering from Sharif University of Technology (SUT) in 2011. Currently, he is Ph.D. candidate of Petroleum University of Technology in common with Sharif University of Technology. He works in Research Institute of Petroleum Industry related to NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company) and his interested field is EOR study.

Water injection is conventional method for pressure maintenance or enhanced oil recovery in oil reservoirs. Mineral scale deposition in near wellbore regions of injection wells is one of the main challengeable issues during the water injection process which magnify the importance of robust model in predicting the amount of mineral scale deposition due to super-saturation of salts. One of the main defects in previous models is related to wrong procedure and value in estimation of first kind/value of precipitant contributed in scaled exposition reactions as well as inconsistent temperature/pressure dependent coefficients of model. The objective of this study is to develop a model that can accurately predict the formation and amount of mineral scales in multicomponent aqueous systems by three major tools; utilization the best temperature and pressure dependent thermodynamic interactive ion coefficients (MSE Model: Pitzer), developing our _ne-tuned iterative mathematical solver and verification the results of model by large number of accurate experimental data ranging from infinite dilution to the fused salt limit. This model is based on an iterative procedure for scale precipitation calculation in mixed-solvent electrolyte solutions. The results showed that at the optimum value of precipitant (10%) in scale deposition reactions and by defining the best temperature and pressure dependent coefficients, we can attain the best accuracy in prediction of mineral scale deposited amount (less than 3 percentages as relative error comparedto commercial software by more than 18 percentages underestimation).

Seyed Ehsan Eshraghi is an MSc student at Institute of Petroleum Engineering of Tehran University. His current interest include reservoir modeling using a special fast simulation technique, called Capacitance-Resistance-Model (CRM), and investigating on the (heavy) oil recovery and asphaltene concerns, particularly in the presence of nanoparticles, which are demonstrated by several publications. Ehsan is also a member of EAGE.

A profitable water-flooding scenario needs to have a proper injection strategy based on the reservoir history. Commercial reservoir simulators need a huge amount of rock and fluid properties data, much time and expert engineers hence, fast simulators could be good alternatives. Capacitance-Resistance Model (CRM) is developed based on a mass balance through a control volume. Defining production-injection data of the history makes it possible for CRM to tune two parameters of time-constant and well-pair connectivity which are necessary for it to predict the reservoir performance. However, this might cause error to some extent since considering this parameter for entire the reservoir life is not a good assumption. In this research, authors have tried to find a reliable method to improve CRM calculations accuracy. To this end, it has been attempted to distinguish a relationship between injection profile and time-constant of each production well according to the history. On this account, time-constant has been changed from a constant parameter to a dynamic one therefore a new parameter called Dynamic-Delay-Response (DDR) has been developed with the same physical meaning and the same application with time-constant. In total, it has been shown that dynamic CRM calculations would result in a water flooding scenario which enhances oil recovery in comparison with its old versions. This achievement leads us towards the conclusion that dynamic optimization of CRM parameters would improve the performance of future injections more precisely the outcome of dynamic CRM calculations is more produced oil with the same amount of injected water.

Coreflooding experiments were conducted with the objective of evaluating near miscible surfactant alternating CO2 injection and the effect of surfactant concentrations on gas-oil and water displacements in porous media. The core samples provided from a low permeability mixed wet oil reservoir at 156oF and 1900 psia. In addition, there have been the very little studies of surfactant adsorption on carbonate minerals. Hence, the surfactant adsorption on carbonate rock was determined by core flooding and crushed tests. It has been found that for the crushed rock, the required equilibrium time is approximately five hours while it is more than four days for the flow-through tests. Hysteresis effects demonstrated that the irreducible water saturations were 5 to 10 percent higher than the initial connate water saturation after drainage cycles during 5000 ppm surfactant solution. Furthermore, near-miscible surfactant alternating CO2 injection process led to an increase between 4 to 17 percent in the recovery factor in comparison to water alternating gas process.

Klinkenberg permeability is an important parameter in tight gas reservoirs. There are conventional methods to determine it but these methods depend on core permeability. Cores are few in number but well logs are usually accessible for all the wells and provide continuous information. In this regard, regression methods have been used to achieve reliable relations between log readings and klinkenberg permeability. In this research, Multiple Linear Regression, Tree Boost, General Regression Neural Network and Support Vector Machines have been used to predict klinkenberg permeability of Mesaverde tight gas sandstones located in Washakie basin. Results show that all four methods have acceptable capability to predict klinkenberg permeability but support vector machine models exhibit better results. Errors of models were measured by calculating three error indexes: Correlation coefficient, average absolute error and standard error of the mean. Analyses of errors show that Support Vector Machine models perform better than other models but there are some exceptions. Support Vector Machine is a relatively new intelligence method with great capabilities in regression and classification tasks. Here, Support Vector Machine was used to predict klinkenberg permeability of a tight gas reservoir and the performances of four regression techniques were compared. Result reveals applicable performance of all methods and excellent capability of Support Vector Machine in predicting klinkenbearg permeability.

Objectives: Planktonic and benthic foraminifera were studied in a section, south of Iran in order to assign paleobathymetry and the changes through sedimentation course of the Gurpi formation. Here P/B data and benthic foraminiferal distribution patterns from a deep deposited formation and discuss their application to paleobathymetry and sequence stratigraphy. Materials & Methods: A total of 213 marl samples were collected and washed through a 63 μm sieve. The calculated quantitative paleodepth was according to planktonic/planktonic+epibenthic ratio and the regression equation (D=e (3.58718+ (0.03534×%P)). Percentage of hyaline, agglutinated calcitic and non-calcitic also epifaunal and infaunal were calculated for the benthic foraminiferal tests. It is believed that selective dissolution plays an important role. The effects of resedimentation could also be especially important thus these transects removed from the data set. Results & Conclusions: Here, author review benthic foraminiferal distribution patterns and planktonic/benthic foraminiferal rations in the context of their use as proxy to reconstruct paleobathymetry. The formation consists of 213 m marl with intercalation of limy marl with two formal members and was deposited from middle campanian through late Paleocene according to the planktonic foraminifera recorded. Study of material from the Gurpi formation shows that a depth of over 800 m was assigned for most parts of the formation. Study of depth indices benthic foraminifera also confirms the depth gained by the regression equation. Sequence startigraphical studies accompany with paleontological evidence especially foraminiferal ones and P/B ratio curve indicate five complete sequence and two system tract (TST & LST) that are common with Pabdeh formation. All sequence boundaries differentiated are of type-II which deposited during a period of one to 10 million years and therefore those are 3-order sequences. The relative sea-level curve resulted in from this study is well in accord with the existing eustatic curves indicating the great effect of eustasy on relative sea-level changes against the other factors. Additive Information: There are many problems in investigation of sequence stratigraphy and basin analysis in deep sedimentary settings. Quantitative and relative paleobathymetry is a powerful tool for these studies and that is done in this study in the Gurpi formation.