Schlumberger’s new family of wireline services provides quantitative fluid measurements at reservoir conditions, in real time.

Land system boosts channel count

At the recent Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) annual meeting, WesternGeco unveiled UniQ, an integrated point-receiver land acquisition and processing system.

The new seismic system combines extreme channel count point-receiver technology with support for advanced simultaneous source techniques.

The key benefits of UniQ include flexibility, efficiency, and reliability, building upon the fidelity provided by the broad-bandwidth Geophone Accelerometer point-receiver. UniQ can support up to 150,000 live channels at a 2-millisecond sample interval. With its continuous recording capabilities and ability to support simultaneous source techniques, UniQ can be used for dense reservoir characterization projects as well as for sparse, fast-moving exploration surveys. The system is effective in challenging noise environments and in areas of complex geology and can address land seismic challenges in a multitude of environments from desert to the Arctic.

Integration is the key to developing a 150,000 channel capable system. The field planning software, source and recording control systems, and camp data-processing facilities are designed to work in unison to enable efficient equipment layout and optimized handling of the huge data volumes produced. The integrated system ultimately will reduce the time from shot to processed deliverable. www.westerngeco.com/uniq

Minimizing risk, maximizing profit

Geotrace, a Houston-based reservoir services company, has developed a sophisticated technology called RockRes that performs digital drilling and provides 3-D pay volume using 3-D seismic, geology, and production information. This technology allows E&P teams to learn more about the subsurface geology and helps lessen expensive drilling costs.

Oil and gas searches must go beyond conventional reflectivity seismic, and teams need to understand rock and fluid properties prior to drilling to reduce the risk of a dry well. RockRes applies technology that transforms prestack seismic data into various 3-D volumes of pseudo-downhole log measurements of rock formation and pore fluid.

Traditionally, the industry has used amplitude vs. offset, two-term prestack inversion, and elastic impedance inversion for lithology and fluid prediction. By using simultaneous three-term prestack inversion, the technology allows for more accurate estimation of rock and fluid properties, capitalizing on today’s seismic acquisition with longer offset, better inversion algorithms, and great computation power.

The most significant benefit of three-term pre-stack inversion is that it inverts simultaneously and independently the prestack seismic data into P-wave velocity (sonic log), S-wave velocity (dipole sonic), and density (formation density log). Well selection and drilling decisions become more absolute as log properties can be used for petrophysical analysis and can be transformed into other elastic parameters for further rock and fluid analysis, reservoir description, and risk management. www.geotrace.com

Ultrasonic flowmeter market to exceed $700 million by 2012

The ultrasonic flowmeter market remains the fastest-growing market of any flowmeter type, according to a new market study from Flow Research: The World Market for Ultrasonic Flowmeters, Third Edition. The study shows the worldwide ultrasonic flowmeter market at US $440 million in 2007, up from $255 million in 2002, with a projected compound average growth rate of 9.8% through 2012. The study also finds that the number of companies entering the ultrasonic flowmeter market is rising and predicts even more companies will enter.

The single most important factor in the growth of ultrasonic flowmeters has been the explosive growth in the market of multipath ultrasonic meters for custody transfer of natural gas. Approvals from industry organizations in Europe and the US boosted wider use of multipath ultrasonic flowmeters. At the same time, the demand for natural gas, and the need to measure it, is increasing substantially. Ultrasonic flowmeters are also being more widely used to measure process gas and flare gas.

In addition, technological improvements have increased the accuracy of ultrasonic transit time flowmeters, which has led to broader use in a wider variety of conditions. Ultrasonic flowmeters now account for more than 10% of the revenues generated by the entire worldwide flowmeter market. FlowUltrasonic.com

New downhole fluid measurements introduced?

Schlumberger has released the InSitu Family reservoir fluid measurements. These measurements are acquired with the InSitu Fluid Analyzer system, which delivers the next generation of measurements for real-time downhole fluid analysis (DFA). The InSitu Family portfolio comprises products that measure:
• hydrocarbon fluid composition;
• reservoir fluid gas-oil ratio;
• reservoir fluid CO2;
• reservoir fluid density;
• reservoir fluid color;
• reservoir fluid fluorescence; and
• reservoir fluid pH.

Quantitative fluid measurements that were previously unachievable from wireline technology are now possible downhole and in real time. By investigating fluids at the reservoir, a deeper insight to fluid composition and distribution is gained for improved reservoir understanding.

“Operators no longer have to wait for samples to be returned to the surface for analysis,” said Zied Ben Hamad, marketing and technology manager, Schlumberger Wireline. “This real-time information helps operators confirm assumptions on reservoir compartmentalization and make informed decisions on completion and surface facility design.”

Fluid Profiling analysis with InSitu Family measurements gives further insight to reservoir fluid distribution and variation. This is made possible with the Schlumberger Quicksilver Probe focused fluid extraction tool that acquires reservoir fluid with ultra-low or no contamination for InSitu Fluid Analyzer DFA. Characterization of the reservoir fluid system is extended from a single well to multiple-well (field-based) applications, allowing field personnel to quantify compositional gradients and identify zonal connectivity. In development for five years, the InSitu Family portfolio has been field tested worldwide. www.slb.com/insitu

Novel corrosion assessment technology debuts

Avantium Technologies has introduced a novel technology to measure corrosion. This technology has broad potential in the oil and chemical industry, where corrosive effects of crude oil, oil fractions, and chemicals can have devastating effects on pipelines, refineries, and chemical plants.

Based upon its proprietary nanoflow technology, Avantium has developed a new tool that allows the quantitative analysis of corrosion of liquids on metals. The most distinctive feature of the company’s corrosion measurement equipment is that it combines the use of a short residence time of the liquid at elevated temperatures with a closed-loop system.

The main advantages of the technology, in comparison with the standard batch-coupon methodology, are that smaller quantities of liquids are needed and that degradation of corrosive species (e.g., organic acids) at elevated temperature is decreased.?In addition, the metal is continuously in contact with fresh feed, and the evaluation can be conducted in a parallel fashion, which has a significant positive effect on productivity. www.avantium.com

— Rebecca Torrellas, Managing Editor