In the future, end users might be able to make producing wells act like sockets in the wall-plug in and receive energy directly, doing away with surface facilities and the need to transport unrefined hydrocarbons over hundreds of miles. So says Shell Oil Co.'s Pieter Kapteijn, global implementation manager for smart wells. He says the speed at which smart-well technology is advancing might surprise everyone. Shell also is working on downhole separation and processing, as opposed to bringing the hydrocarbons to the surface for treatment. Fiber optics are a key to this effort. If only the desired fluids are produced to surface, this will reduce the need for surface facilities and speed up the time from production to end-user. Austin-based Object Reservoir, started in 1995, is headed by Gene Ennis, one of the founders of Landmark Graphics several years ago. "Our mission is to figure out how petroleum engineers can add to ultimate recovery-industry always leaves two-thirds of the oil and gas in the ground," he says. The company's technology creates a 4-D fluid flow model that is so precise it can predict how a reservoir will behave, rather than analyze what it has done in the past. It's called dynamic reservoir characterization (DRC). It gives visibility beyond 3-D seismic, allowing a company to more fully understand how big a field may be, its fluid properties and how to develop it. "The first time we used DRC was at West Boomvang Field in the Gulf of Mexico," says David Kihneman, reservoir engineering advisor for Kerr-McGee. "A well began making water sooner than expected and we were at a loss. We used DRC and gave them actual production data from before the well started making water-and they came back and said 'your reservoir is smaller than you think and will start making water by such and such a date'-and they nailed it." Reggie Spiller, president of Frontera Resources, says, "We think this is a breakthrough technology. It takes engineering data that typically don't result in images, and shows them. You combine data from existing wells to predict how the field will behave later in its life." Frontera is using DRC to analyze several underdeveloped fields in the Caspian region prior to additional drilling. Consulting firm SAIC says the next-generation oil field will combine technologies such as these with a different way of working, to transform traditional work flows, says Angela Minas, head of the oil and gas practice in Houston.