This year, the selection process was a major effort. A sizable pile landed on my desk. Going through the topics, I encountered very familiar subjects, subjects that I thought had already been dealt with and solutions made available. I cannot, of course, check all the papers for their innovative content, so there are several factors that could have influenced the process.
- The authors did not perform a literature search and reinvented the wheel.
- The process of approaching the solution is cumbersome and the incremental gain of knowledge is small.
- The authors need publications to survive; therefore, they release only a portion of what they already know to keep a reserve for future publications.
- I am not aware of how complicated the problem is.
With the easy and quick wins in the applications and the theory being already gone, the focus turns more and more to the hard parts and pieces. In comparison with the clastic reservoirs, the carbonates demand more care, diligence, and thinking. The pore system is no longer a single one. Matrix properties are easily accessible in laboratory measurements. But what everybody wants to know is how much is in the fractures and how easily the fluid will flow. However, especially these parameters hide behind other data. Put a condensate-fluid system into such a porous medium and the challenge is complete.
The engineers need to plan future production carefully. Therefore, attempts are increasing to improve the flow assurance and the surveillance of the wells. Permanent downhole devices produce more data than we can handle, which leads to another need: namely, data reduction. Further, there also are cases in which the well data and the production figures are scarce. The engineers will have to deal with both.
Available from the SPE eLibrary: www.spe.org
SPE 92060 - “Finding Natural Fractures and Improving Reservoir Performance in Western Venezuela: An Integrated Approach,” by Franco, A., Repsol YPF, et al.
SPE 93297 - “A Mechanistic Model To Evaluate Reservoir Souring in the Ekofisk Field,” by Burger, E.D., SPE, EB Technologies, et al.
SPE 94995 - “A Case History of Value Generation With Intelligent-Well Technology in a High-Productivity Thin-Oil-Rim Reservoir ,” by Elmsallati, S.M., SPE, Heriot-Watt U., et al.
