the official show daily of the international

2
DAY
T H E O F F I C I A L S H O W D A I LY O F T H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L P E T R O L E U M T E C H N O L O G Y C O N F E R E N C E
21 January 2014
IPTCDAILY
DOHA • QATAR
:: Sponsoring Organizations ::
U n l o c k i n g E n e r g y T h r o u g h I n n o v a t i o n , Te c h n o l o g y & C a p a b i l i t y
Prime Minister
Calls Technology
Key to Future
Abdelghani Henni,
JPT Middle East Staff Writer
Q
atar’s prime minister and interior minister,
His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah Bin Naser Bin
Khalifa Al-Thani, said during the inauguration
of the seventh edition of the International Petroleum
Technology Conference (IPTC) on Monday that Qatar
is eager to host and sponsor this event because of the
importance of the energy sector in the prosperity and
the development of the country.
Qatar holds the third largest gas reserves in the
world, and the prime minister said that this natural
wealth comes with responsibilities and obligations.
“We are keen to invest these resources to build a
modern and advanced country, and we also work hard
to preserve these reserves for future generations.”
Al-Thani said that the State of Qatar encourages all
initiatives and participation in activities that will help
in enhancing knowledge in science and technology
across all domains, mainly those related to the oil
and gas industry, because it will help in achieving the
2030 Qatar National Vision, which aims to transform
Qatar to a well-advanced country able to achieve a
sustainable development, and also will play a key role
on the global level.
Meanwhile, His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Bin
Saleh Al-Sada, minister of energy and industry,
Delegates and visitors listen to Qatar’s prime minister and interior minister, His Excellency Sheikh
Abdullah Bin Naser Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, during the opening session of the seventh International
Petroleum Technology Conference. Photo by Barchfield Photography.
said that Qatar’s success in developing its natural
resources and exploiting them wisely is mainly
because of the long-term strategy that involved the
development of infrastructure, a solid and diversified
economy, and a stable investment climate. “Added to
that the adoption of the best-in-class technologies and
joining hands with major energy sectors in the world,”
he said.
The theme of this year’s conference, Unlocking
Energy Through Innovation, Technology, and Capability,
highlights that IPTC has reached major milestone
in its history by focusing mainly on how technology
and innovation are helping solve the challenges that
the oil and gas industry is facing today. “Amid these
increasing challenges, we are obliged to constantly
renovate ourselves, and this can only be achieved
through innovation. That’s why technology is key
enabler in renovation and a means of promoting our
industry through innovation.”
A key characteristic of the industry is the way it
deals with changes and the number of success the
industry has achieved. “We are confident that this
conference and exhibition will contribute in achieving
the expected success and reach the best results to
promote the oil and gas industry to the level we are all
looking for,” the minister said. 
Shell’s Pearl GTL Wins Excellence in Project Integration Award
IPTC award
committee
chairman Mitchitaka
Ohta, left, presents
the Excellence in
Project Integration
award to Matthias
Bichsel, projects
and technology
director for
Shell Global, in
recognition of
the company’s
successful
commissioning
of the Pearl Gas
to Liquids facility
in Qatar. Photo
by Barchfeld
Photography.
Show Daily Sponsor & Principal Sponsor
Trent Jacobs, JPT Staff Writer
A
t Sunday evening’s IPTC awards
dinner, Shell was bestowed with
the conference’s highest honor
in recognition of its Pearl Gas to Liquids
(GTL) facility in Qatar.
Shell is the seventh recipient of the
Excellence in Project Integration award
and was singled out for its successful
implementation of what is widely
acknowledged as one of the world’s
most complex and capital-intensive
projects ever commissioned.
Mitchitaka Ohta, IPTC award
committee chairman and director
of project coordination for INPEX,
presented the award to Shell at Doha’s
St. Regis Hotel before representatives
of His Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin
Hamid Al Thani, emir of the State of
Qatar, as well as hundreds of executives
Host Organisation & Principal Sponsor
from both international and national
oil companies. “Over the years, the
award has been receiving increasing
interest from the industry, resulting in
establishing itself to be one of the most
prestigious forms of commendation
of those involved in the upstream
industry,” Ohta said.
Many of this year’s submitted
projects included world-first
introductions of new technology,
record-breaking achievements, and
outstanding efforts to maximize
production. To be considered, the
projects must have been completed
within the past 5 years and involve more
than USD 500 million in costs. The
criteria the committee used to select
the winner included strong examples
PLEASE SEE AWARD ON PAGE 3
Co-Host Organisation & Principal Sponsor
Exxon pg2 Day2.indd 1
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IPTCDAILY
3
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0730–1730
Qatar National Convention Center
Speaker Check-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0730–1800
International Young Professionals Competition:
World Energy … Gate to the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0830–1300
Room 102
Room 235
Exhibition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0830–1730
Industry Breakfast Session: New Partnership Models
Between NOC, IOC, and Service Companies:
Keys to Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0700–0930
Technical Sessions 8–15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0830–1000
Conference Hall
Halls 3, 4, 5
Panel Session 2: Fundamentals of the Natural
Gas Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1045–1215
Education Day: Energy 4All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0800–1400
he Theatre
Hall 2
Technical Sessions 16–22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1045–1215
International Education Week: Energy Challenges +
Education = Our Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0800–1600
Delegate Luncheon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1215–1330
Field Trip
Nontechnical Seminar: Introduction to Oil and Gas
for Nonengineers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0800–1300
Hospitality Suite 4
Roundtable Briefing: Participating in Qatar
Petroleum Tenders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0800–1300
Hospitality Suite 5
Hall 6
Panel Session 3: Natural Gas Revolution—Sustaining
Future Economic Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1330–1500
Technical Sessions 23–30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1330–1500
Technical Sessions 31–37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1545–1715
Future Engineers and Geoscience Parents Dinner . . . . . . . 1900–2140
Texas A&M University at Qatar Campus
AWARD FROM PAGE 1
of multidisciplinary integration, a
clear scope of work from discovery
to delivery, exceptional application of
technology, and exemplary performance
in regard to health, safety, and the
environment. This year, 16 nominations
were submitted, representing 11
companies in 11 countries, and, out
of those, the IPTC Awards Committee
selected three finalists.
Pearl GTL by Qatar Shell
The Pearl GTL facility in Ras Laffan
Industrial City, Qatar, is the world’s
largest GTL plant and, at full capacity,
produces 140,000 B/D of liquid fuels.
Read about the Pearl GTL project
on Page 12.
Manifa by Saudi Aramco
The USD-17-billion Manifa project is
Saudi Aramco’s chief accomplishment
for 2012 and demonstrated the
company’s ability to develop a
technically challenging resource with
exceptional considerations made in
regard to preserving the environment.
Production is projected to peak ahead
of schedule at 900,000 BOPD by the end
of this year. The field is producing 90
MMscf/D of sour gas and 65,000 bbl of
gas condensate.
Located off the northeast coast of
Saudi Arabia, the Manifa Bay heavy oil
field is estimated to be the world’s fifth
largest.
Saudi Aramco was faced with major
environmental challenges in developing
the field.
Using conventional offshore drilling
rigs would have required the dredging
of dozens of access channels that
meant destroying large swaths of coral
reef and irreparably endangering the
marine ecosystem that the local fishing
industry depends on.
Saudi Aramco’s Manifa project is expected to reach peak production of 900,000
BOPD by the end of the year. Photo courtesy of Saudi Aramco.
To develop the field without harming
the environment, Saudi Aramco devised
a radical plan to construct man-made
islands to serve as drilling platforms. In
all, 27 islands were built and connected
with 41 km of causeways from coast
to coast across the bay. The system of
causeways and 14 bridges allows the
ocean currents to flow into the bay,
bringing vital nutrients and oxygen that
will ensure the vitality of the bay.
Perdido by Shell Netherlands
Perdido is a record-breaking
deepwater project operated by Shell
Netherlands in the Gulf of Mexico,
approximately 220 miles offshore Texas.
The Perdido spar is the world’s deepest
operating offshore platform, producing
from the deepest offshore fields in
the world. In 2011, Perdido began
production from the world’s deepest
well, at a depth of 2824 m. The platform
is moored at a depth of almost 2450 m
and has a production capacity of 100,000
BOPD and 200 MMcf/D of natural gas.
First oil from Perdido was achieved
on 31 March 2010, and, since then,
the host facility has been producing
with 22 subsea wells from three ultradeepwater fields; Great White, Tobago,
and Silvertip.
Shell initially considered a safe and
successful development of the fields,
discovered between 2002 and 2004, to
be technically impossible. In addition
to the extreme water depth, other
challenges Shell faced in completing
the project involved a rugged seafloor
terrain and low-pressure reservoirs
that would require the use of unique
separation, boosting, and pumping
technologies. The realization of the
Perdido project involved more than
11 million man-hours of work, all
completed without a single worker
missing a day of work because of a
safety accident. 
Shell’s Perdido project in the Gulf of
Mexico required more than 11 million
man-hours of work. Photo courtesy
of Shell.
IPTCDAILY
IPTC Daily is the official show daily of the seventh
International Petroleum Technology Conference.
Inquiries? Contact iptc@iptcnet.org
IPTC Daily Editor
Adam Wilson
Director Magazines and Web Content
John Donnelly
Senior Manager Publishing Services
Alex Asfar
SHOW DAILY STAFF
Pravin Bajaj
Keefe Borden
Rajiv Gopalan
Abdelghani Henni
Trent Jacobs
Laurie Sailsbury
Mary Jane Touchstone
Published for the International Petroleum Technology
Conference (IPTC). The opinions and content expressed in this
publication do not necessarily reflect the opinions of IPTC or
its sponsoring organizations.
Copyright 2014 International Petroleum Technology Conference.
4
IPTCDAILY
Plenary Session Focuses on Technology of Future Resources
Trent Jacobs, JPT Staff Writer
A
t Monday’s ITPC plenary session,
panelists described a world
where the conventional wisdom
of yesteryear has been supplanted with
a new outlook for the future, ushered
in by a wave of new technologies. The
speakers, representing six international
and national oil companies, spoke
about the challenges facing the industry
with optimism based on the industry’s
increasing success in tapping into
complex resources to produce them
safely and more efficiently.
“From the dawn of the modern
petroleum industry up to this
moment, not only has technology been
fundamental to ultimately finding,
producing, and using oil and gas, it has
time after time redefined and reinvented
our destiny,” said Amin H. Nasser, vice
president of upstream for Saudi Aramco.
“When it comes to the big questions
about energy, from security, to supply, to
sustainability, and all points in between,
technology has always had the last
word.”
Saudi Aramco is focused on highimpact technologies to address specific
challenges the company is facing.
Nasser said that his company’s highest
priorities include finding new ways
to quadruple the amount of seismic
data acquired while cutting acquisition
time in half. In regard to petroleum
engineering, the company hopes
advancements in enhanced oil recovery
technologies can increase its recovery
T:21 cm
rate by 20%.
Matthias Bichsel, project and
technology director for Shell Global,
used Qatar as an example to highlight
the importance of new natural gas
technologies that are being used to
supply the world’s growing appetite for
the cleaner burning fossil fuel. “Not
only are Qatar’s gas resources vast, but
the scale and sophistication of its gas
projects are unrivaled,” he said. “Qatar
has embraced technologies that allow it
to deliver its natural gas to customers
in a wide variety of forms—LNG
[liquefied natural gas], GTL [gas-toliquids] products, to petrochemicals.”
Bichsel said that a decade ago Qatar
was exporting less than 20 million
tonnes of LNG when the volume of
globally traded LNG was about 130
Oxy-operated PS-1 complex, offshore Qatar
T:29.7 cm
PARTNERS
IN PROGRESS
Oxy has been an active investor in the Middle East
region for more than four decades. Oxy has oil and
gas assets in Bahrain, Iraq, Libya, Oman, Qatar, the
United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
www.oxy.com
10889 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90024
Tel: (310) 208-8800
Fax: (310) 443-6690
Navigation Plaza, C-Ring Road
P.O. Box 22611, Doha, Qatar
Tel: +974 4445-9459
Fax: +974 4445-9555
million tonnes and the country had no
GTL production. “Today, Qatar is the
world’s largest LNG and GTL producer
and North America is preparing to join
the export market for LNG in a world that
already handles over 240 million tonnes
of that commodity,” Bichsel said.
He stressed that the changes in
the energy landscape, especially the
North American shale gas boom, were
brought on by continued development
and application of new and existing
technological innovations, as well as
the will power and know-how to apply
them successfully. The resurgence of
North America as a leading energy
producer was brought on in large part
by the marrying of two long-existing
technologies—hydraulic fracturing and
horizontal drilling.
“These technologies were both
available well before 10 years ago,” he
said. “But they were incremented at
scale and in combination for the first
time in early 2000s, and we all know the
result. The shale gas portion of total
North American natural gas production
increased from 4% to almost 40% within
that 10-year period.”
Jakob Thomasen, chief executive
officer of Maersk Oil, said his company
is developing new technologies and
methods to increase the overall
energy efficiency in its exploration and
production operations, a reflection
of the global effort to reduce energy
consumption and lower carbon
emissions.
In a joint venture with Qatar
Petroleum, Maersk Oil is producing
300,000 BOPD from the Al Shaheen field
with technologies that have reduced its
environmental footprint and eliminated
nearly all flaring of associated gas
at the field by routing it to onshore
facilities for domestic consumption.
The company is working on a
potentially even more environmentally
friendly system that would be capable
of using any type of gas, from clean
dry gas to sour gas for energy use.
Thomasen said that, together with
partners Siemens and Clean Energy
Partners, Maersk Oil is developing
this emerging zero-emission power
technology.
“Try to imagine burning gas,
generating power and there is no CO2
being emitted into the environment,” he
said. The technology is called Tri-Gen
and involves using a turbine to combust
the gas at a low temperature, resulting
in pure water and clean CO2 that can
be used for reinjection for enhanced oil
recovery operations.
“We ought to be able bring that
technology into operation in 2015, and,
right now, we are finding the right
places to go for the start,” Thomasen
said. “There is almost no limit to how
this technology can revolutionize
power generation in a highly energy
efficient and emission free way.” Other
companies represented at Monday’s
session were the China National
Petroleum Corporation, India’s Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation, Total, and
Qatar Petroleum International. 
QatarPet placement and crop.indd 1
1/14/14 12:12 PM
6
IPTCDAILY
Shell Looks Toward Continued Cooperation, Innovation
A
ndrew Brown has been upstream
international director for Shell
since April 2012. He joined Shell
in 1984 after completing his degree in
engineering science from Cambridge
University. In 2002, Brown was chosen to
head up the Pearl Gas-to-Liquids (GTL)
project in Qatar. He became executive
vice president for all of Shell’s activities
in Qatar in 2009. In 2012, Brown was
selected as upstream international
director for Royal Dutch Shell and a
member of the executive committee.
Q: What are the major projects that
you’re currently involved in?
Brown: We have a rich array of projects
ongoing across the world, which play
to our technological strengths. I’ll
highlight just a few that fall into our
upstream operations.
In deepwater development, we
are building Mars B and the recordbreaking Stones project, both in the
Gulf of Mexico. Stones will host the
deepest production facility in the world
at 2896 m and Shell’s first FPSO [floating
production, storage, and offloading
vehicle] in the region. In Malaysia, also
in deepwater, we have the GumusutKakap project.
Here in the Middle East, we are
ramping up production in the Majnoon
field in Iraq. And, in Abu Dhabi, Shell
FOOTBALL-AD-2667X1905+BLEED.pdf
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was chosen by Abu Dhabi National Oil
Company (ADNOC) to participate in a
30-year joint venture to develop the Bab
Sour Gas project.
In LNG [liquefied natural gas],
we have a portfolio of both large and
small projects. We are constructing the
world’s first floating LNG (FLNG) facility,
which will tap the Prelude gas field,
200 km off Australia’s northwest coast.
We believe FLNG is complementary
to onshore LNG—and, at times, even
a competitive alternative—and we see
potential for its use in many other
regions in the world.
On a smaller scale, we are deploying
Shell’s Moveable, Modular, Liquefaction
System, which is an innovative
liquefaction plant design that converts
natural gas into LNG. Shell is already
setting up LNG transport corridors in
Canada and the USA and is looking at
others opportunities around the world.
Q: What are your company’s major
accomplishments in terms of
upstream technology development?
Brown: I’m proud to say that there are
many that I could mention worldwide.
But, looking here in the Middle East,
where we have a long history and
technology development has been
a key differentiator, I would like to
highlight Pearl GTL and the application
11/26/13
4:28 PM
of enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
technologies in projects in Oman.
Pearl GTL, developed in partnership
with Qatar Petroleum, is the
culmination of 4 decades of research
and development, which have yielded
some 3,500 patents related to gasto-liquids technology. The scale and
complexity of the engineering and
project management challenges were
unprecedented. Pearl GTL is capable of
producing 140,000 bbl of GTL products
each day, as well as 120,000 BOE/D of
natural-gas liquids and ethane.
In Oman, in partnership with
Petroleum Development of Oman, we are
leading the way in EOR implementation.
It won’t be news to the expert reader
that only about 30–35% of the oil in a
reservoir can normally be extracted.
EOR can help to extract a further 5–20%
of the oil in place. Depending on the
reservoir, total recovery levels up to 50–
70% are possible. EOR is not something
new; it has been in use for decades.
However, technology application and
evolution has been a hallmark of that
history and will continue to be so for the
future.
Q: What are the major engineering
challenges you faced since you
joined the company, and how did
you overcome them?
Brown: As an engineer myself, I think
my most significant challenge was the
execution of Pearl GTL here in Qatar.
This project was launched in 2006 and
started up in 2011. Its construction
required 500 million hours of work,
executed at peak by 52,000 workers. The
project utilized Shell’s world-leading
GTL technology and achieved many
records in terms of scale. But most
significantly, the project was executed
safely ..., setting new standards in
worker welfare, through the groundbreaking Pearl Village that we built
for the workers. These achievements
would not have been possible without
the excellent support we received from
Qatar Petroleum throughout.
Q: What will be your main focus
in IPTC?
Brown: At Shell, our main focus
will be continuing to strengthen our
partnerships with the region’s NOCs
through open dialogue and collaboration.
The way that NOCs choose to work
with international oil companies varies
significantly across the Middle East/
North African region. However, we at
Shell approach all these relationships in
the spirit of aligned partnership; we are
here for the long term, and so we ensure
we align our business objectives with the
priorities of the NOCs. 
IPTCDAILY
7
Session Examines How Innovation Enhances Megaprojects
Keefe Borden, Oil and Gas Facilities Assistant Editor
O
il and gas professionals who
attend the seventh International
Petroleum Technology Conference
(IPTC) will hear multiple presentations
describing the ongoing evolution of
technology needed to develop the
world’s resources. One of these
presentations, the technical session
Projects and Facilities—Enhancing
Megaprojects Through Innovations, will
be held in Meeting Room 236–238 today.
Roald Rijnbeek, manager of frontend projects at Shell, will open the
panel on megaprojects with the paper
Subsea Compression at Ormen Lange.
The Ormen Lange is a natural-gas field
120 km offshore in approximately 1000
m of water in the More basin in the
southern part of the Norwegian Sea. Its
potential is huge, with approximately
300 billion sm3 of recoverable gas
reserves. At its peak, the Ormen Lange
is expected to produce 20% of the UK’s
natural gas demand, he said.
The first phase of the Ormen Lange
was the construction of an onshore
processing plant and the installation
of the first two subsea production
templates. The third template was
installed in 2009 and the fourth in
2011. Today, 19 wells produce from the
four templates in place. In early 2013,
the operators decided to expand the
plant’s processing capacity to 84 million
sm3/d to accommodate third-party
gas from elsewhere on the Norwegian
continental shelf.
Today, production from the field has
fallen to less than 65 million sm3/d,
down from its peak of 70 million sm3/d.
“To maximize production on it, we
need to put compression on the field,”
Rijnbeek said. “Onshore compression
will not maximize the production … . We
look forward to the application of the
technology on the Ormen Lange.”
The subsea natural-gas compression
is a unique configuration and poses
its own challenges. The system
includes an electric motor compressor
system, which includes a separator,
compressor, pump, control system,
electrical components, transformer, and
variable-speed drives for the pump and
compressor, all on the seafloor. “This
doesn’t exist anywhere else,” he said.
“We’ve built the technology, and we are
in the process of running the tests.”
William Bacon, a representative from
RasGas, is scheduled to follow Rijnbeek
with his paper Barzan Gas Project:
Clean Source of Energy Supporting
Qatar’s Vision. RasGas is building the
Barzan Gas Project on behalf of Qatar
Petroleum and ExxonMobil Barzan.
The project includes two of the largest
natural-gas processing trains in the
world and is expected to provide
Qatar with natural gas and associated
liquids. At its peak, more than 30,000
people from more than 40 nations
will execute this project in a safe and
environmentally sensitive manner,
he said.
Qatar’s North Field, the world’s
largest nonassociated gas field, will
be produced at a rate of 1,900 million
scf/D by Barzan Gas Project offshore
facilities. RasGas will operate three
unmanned wellhead platforms, two
subsea pipelines and two onshore
gas processing trains. Barzan will
produce natural gas, ethane, and field
condensate for the domestic market
and will export liquefied petroleum gas,
sulphur, and plant condensate, he said.
The development of the Barzan
Gas Project will be used to transform
Qatar into prominence on the world
stage, Bacon said. Natural gas from the
field will fund the country’s long-term
development plans, Bacon said.
Salem Al Attas, a representative
from Gasco, is scheduled to present his
paper Safe Execution of a World-Class
EGR Facility in Abu Dhabi—The Elixier
Session 21: Projects and
Facilities—Enhancing
Megaprojects Through
Innovation
1045
Paper 17649: Subsea
Compression at Ormen Lange
1115
Paper 17317: Barzan Gas
Project: Clean Source of
Energy Supporting Qatar’s
Vision
1145
Paper 17627: Safe Execution
of a World Class EGR Facility
in Abu Dhabi—The Elixier
Mirfa Project
Mirfa Project. Abu Dhabi needs natural
gas for electrical energy and to develop
its oil and gas fields. Pressure on gas
fields is usually maintained through
water and hydrocarbon gas injection.
Habshan is one of the first sites using
an alternative approach: the injection
of 600 million ft3/D of nitrogen into the
Thamama F reservoir, he said.
Nitrogen injection improves gas
recovery with only a very limited
reduction on condensate recovery.
ADNOC and Linde formed a joint
venture called “Elixier” and started
two major air-separation plants to
produce nitrogen in Mirfa and transport
it through a pipeline to Habshan,
he said. 
Bringing energy to life
Qatar, 6:30 am. Abdulla’s heritage is linked to his future.
RasGas is there.
RasGas supplies Europe, Asia and the Americas with liquefied natural gas,
one of the world’s most climate-friendly fossil fuels.
From Qatar, one of the world’s largest and most reliable sources.
RG_Ad_Qatari_PORTRAIT_266x190_2013.indd 1
10/27/13 11:20 AM
8
IPTCDAILY
Unconventional Resources Need Unconventional Techniques
Keefe Borden, Oil and Gas Facilities Assistant Editor
T
he participants in the seventh
International Petroleum and
Technology Conference (IPTC) are
expected to hear detailed information
about unconventional resources at a
technical session titled Unconventional
Resources—Unconventional Drilling and
Completions. The session is scheduled
for today in Meeting Room 239–241.
Ahmed M. Gomaa is scheduled
to present his paper New Insights
Into Hydraulic Fracturing of Shale
Formations. Current shale-fracturing
practices and technologies are
mainly based on simulation models
and experience from conventional
formations. This paper presents an
experimental setup to measure the
hydraulic breakdown pressure for
fractures in shale cores and to study the
effects of different parameters such as
fluid types and characteristics, injection
rate, shale bedding, and acid injection.
The study evaluated cores from the
Mancos shale outcrop. Experiments
showed the breakdown pressure in
shale formations are related to the fluid
viscosity, where higher fluid viscosity
increased the breakdown pressure. The
injection of hydrochloric acid reduced
the breakdown pressure of the shale
formation. Increasing the contact time
with the acid also reduced breakdown
pressure, he said.
Additives designed to improve the
flow of fracturing fluid in microfractures
tend to reduce the breakdown pressure
and enhanced fracture complexity.
Fracture complexity increases with
reduced viscosity and increased
acidity. Nitrogen gases will maximize
fracture complexity.
Charles Edouard Cohen, senior
engineer of modeling at Schlumberger,
is scheduled to give a presentation
based on a paper he and other
engineers completed recently.
The paper, titled Parametric Study
on Completion Design in Shale
Reservoirs Based on Fracturing-toProduction Simulations, will describe
Session 22: Unconventional
Resources—Unconventional
Drilling and Completions
1045
Paper 17594: New Insights
Into Hydraulic Fracturing of
Shale Formations
1115
Paper 17462: Parametric
Study on Completion Design
in Shale Reservoirs Based
on Fracturing-to-Production
Simulations
1145
Paper 17439: Emerging
Technologies and the Future
of Hydraulic Fracturing
Design in Unconventional Gas
and Tight Oil
advances in horizontal drilling and
how they have changed practices in
hydraulic fracturing.
Completion and stimulation still face
serious challenges from the physics of
hydraulic fracturing. Insight is sought
into how hydraulic fractures interact
with natural fractures, stress shadow
effects, and the transport of proppant in
complex fracture networks. “One of the
main questions is how to optimize the
number of stages and the placement
of perforation clusters accounting for
these complex physical phenomena and
the wells’ economics,” Cohen writes.
Ernesto Fonseca, team leader
for unconventional gas and tight oil
completion and stimulation research
and development at Shell, will follow
with a presentation of the paper
titled Emerging Technologies and the
Future of Hydraulic Fracturing Design
in Unconventional Gas and Tight
Oil. Current research on hydraulic
fracturing design tends to focus on the
identification of novel approaches that
can lead to more effective practices in
the future.
Fonseca will describe emerging
technologies for hydraulic fracturing
design in multistage horizontal wells.
His paper proposes application of
these technologies and describes
future industry practices. “This paper
describes emerging technologies
within the building blocks of hydraulic
fracturing design for multistage
horizontal wells and proposes how
application of these technologies can
lay a foundation for the development
and evolution of future industry
practices,” he said.
The current debate on designing
hydraulic fracturing revolves around
a perceived need for more powerful
software tools that can capture complex
fracture geometries. Rather than
focus on the ability of the software to
replicate complex fracture geometries,
Fonseca recommends a higher-level
and integrated review of hydraulic
fracturing design.
Fonseca is also expected to
describe how emerging technologies
within are evolving and how the
industry is making progress in
new and relevant engineering
choices in the design of hydraulic
fractures. Fonseca said the expertise
required of hydraulic fracturing
includes subsurface diagnostics and
modeling capabilities. 
IPTCDAILY
9
ExxonMobil Examines Energy Environment of the Future
E
ach year, ExxonMobil releases
The Outlook for Energy: A View
to 2040, its global perspective
of energy demand and supply. The
report’s conclusions guide ExxonMobil’s
business decisions and help inform
a broader audience about the issues
shaping the world’s energy future.
William Colton, Exxon Mobil
Corporation’s vice president of
corporate strategic planning, leads the
team of economists and energy experts
that produces the Outlook.
Q: Where does ExxonMobil see
global demand for energy during
the period covered by this year’s
outlook report?
Colton: As economies and populations
grow and living standards improve for
billions of people, the need for energy
will continue to rise. By 2040, the end of
our current Outlook period, we expect to
see 2 billion more people on the planet
and a global economy that has grown
by 130%. Those two factors will help
contribute to about a 35% increase in
global energy demand. Obviously, there
are a lot of other smaller contributing
factors behind that projection. For
example, we discuss urbanization a
great deal in this year’s Outlook.
As we have seen in developed
economies over the past century, an
important fundamental of demand
is the migration of people from rural
to urban areas. Expansion of urban
infrastructure will naturally create a
greater demand for energy-intensive
goods and services, and cities also
attract and support industries that
require a lot of energy. By 2040, the
number of people living in urban
settings in countries that are not part
of the Organisation for Economic CoOperation and Development (OECD) is
projected to increase by about 60% from
45% in 2010. Demand for energy in nonOECD nations will grow by about 67%.
Q: How do you break that demand
projection down into the needs for
certain types of fuel?
Colton: Natural gas will be the world’s
fastest-growing major energy source
through 2040. We expect that demand
will increase by nearly 65%, enabling
gas to surpass coal as the secondlargest energy source by 2025. Half of
the demand growth for natural gas is
being driven by the need for electricity,
which is expected to increase by 90%.
Through 2040, the largest source of
energy demand will be for fuels used to
produce electricity.
Demand for oil is projected to
increase by about 25%, led by increased
commercial transportation activity. Over
the next few decades, energy demand
for commercial transportation, such
as trucks, planes, ships and trains, is
expected to rise by 70% as economic
activity increases along with the
movement of goods and freight.
We expect fuel demand for personal
vehicles, met almost exclusively by
oil, will increase slowly over the next
decade before gradually trending
downward over the remainder of the
Outlook period. This shift in demand
won’t be because of fewer vehicles in
the world. In fact, from 2010 to 2040,
the number of light-duty vehicles is
expected to more than double to about
1.7 billion as the global population
grows and more people in developing
economies are able to afford cars. The
mileage, or efficiency, of cars will be
much higher in the future, and this will
slow the growth in fuel demand for
this sector.
Q: As a global operator, how does
ExxonMobil determine where to
invest in resource development?
What are the ideal circumstances
for a multinational firm to be
successful?
Colton: First, all regions of the
world can benefit from access to the
global market and expanded trade
opportunities. These benefits can be
enhanced by trade rules and policies
that facilitate open markets, support
infrastructure development, and
promote international cooperation.
Success in creating value only comes
as a result of innovation, cooperation,
and sound execution. The world will
depend on partnerships between
international oil companies and
national oil companies to access new
energy supplies, apply technologies,
and manage safety and environmental
risks. The world’s energy markets will
be shaped by those who understand
the importance of sound energy policy
in allowing these partnerships to be
formed and succeed.
Qatar is an excellent example.
Qatar is the world’s largest producer of
liquefied natural gas (LNG). It supplies
LNG to markets all over the world and
brings diversification to the world’s
energy portfolio. Qatar is perfectly
positioned to meet growing needs
for natural gas for power generation
in Europe and Asia. Qatar is a model
for other resource owners as it has
pursued stable and sensible policies
that facilitated development of a
world-class natural gas industry. As its
partner, we believe our joint success
demonstrates what is possible when
national and international energy
companies work together. 
10
IPTCDAILY
General Information
Exhibition Hours
The exhibition is open to delegates and visitors during the
following hours:
Monday
1000–1730
Tuesday
0800–1730
Wednesday0800–1730
Coffee Breaks
Coffee breaks will be served daily on the exhibition floor.
Monday
0900–1100 and 1500–1545
Tuesday
1000–1045 and 1500–1545
Wednesday
1000–1045 and 1500–1545
Luncheons
Luncheons will take place in Hall 6 at the following times:
Monday
1300–1500
Tuesday
1215–1330
Wednesday1215–1330
Conference Proceedings
A copy of the conference proceedings is included in the full conference
registration fee. One-day attendees can purchase the conference
proceedings for USD 200 for members and USD 300 for nonmembers.
Additional copies can be purchased from the registration desk.
Conference proceedings can be collected at IPTC Stand Number A1 in
Hall 3.
Delegate Bags
Conference delegate bags can be collected from the desks outside
Hall 6.
Business Center
The business center is on Level 1, next to registration in the
central foyer.
IPTC Organizers Office
The organizers office is on Level 2 in Room 232.
Medical Assistance
A professional medical team will be located on the mezzanine level in
Exhibition Hall 5. A fully equipped ambulance will be on site in case of
emergencies.
Prayer Rooms
Prayer rooms are located next to the reflection pool on Level 1.
Press Room
The press room is on Level 2 in Room 201.
Shuttle
A complimentary shuttle bus will run between selected hotels in Doha
and the QNCC on each day of the conference. Full schedules and
information are available at registration.
Travel and Transportation Desk
Travel and transportation assistance is provided by Gulf Adventures.
Find more information at the registration and information desks.
Lucky Draw and Closing Session
Drop your business card at the entrance to the closing session for your
chance to win a lucky draw prize at the Closing Session on Wednesday
at 1715 in Auditorium 3. Participants must be present to win.
Technical Zones
The IPTC Technical Zones are new for the seventh IPTC. Visit the
dedicated zones covering the following technical disciplines:
• Drilling and completions
• Gas processing
• Geoscience and reservoir
• Health, safety, and environment
• Projects and facilities
Technology Theatre
The IPTC Technology Theatre will showcase the latest technologies
in the oil and gas industry. This feature will help visitors discover
opportunities to innovate and remain at the cutting edge of the industry.
The Technology Theatre is at Stand Number F71 in Hall 4. 
14IPTC_pgs10_SD2.indd 10
1/17/14 7:23 AM
HBKU pg11.indd 1
1/14/14 12:10 PM
12
IPTCDAILY
Largest GTL Project, Pearl Fully Integrates Gas Value Chain
T
he Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL)
project is the world’s largest
GTL plant and one of the
world’s largest, most complex, and
challenging energy projects ever
commissioned. From its origins with
Shell GTL technology nearly 40 years
ago, to its first commercial debut in
Shell’s Bintulu GTL plant in Malaysia
in the early 1990s, to the creation of
the world’s GTL capital in Qatar today,
the delivery of GTL on such a vast
scale as Pearl GTL is an integrated
development. It has involved all aspects
of the gas value chain, incorporated
some innovative technologies, and
created value locally as well as globally.
It has also demonstrated excellence
in project implementation and, above
all, delivered all of this while achieving
outstanding HSE performance.
Pearl GTL is a fully integrated
upstream/midstream/downstream
greenfield development. It captures
in one project an extended gas value
chain starting from offshore subsurface
development, moving through
onshore gas processing to natural
gas, the conversion of natural gas to
hydrocarbon liquids, and the refining
to finished products and storage,
and ending with the dispatching and
worldwide marketing of GTL products.
The dimensions of Pearl GTL were
so massive that no single contractor
could manage it. As a result, the
project was subdivided into 12 major
elements, with an average cost of
USD 1 billion–2 billion. Each element
was its own megaproject.
Pearl GTL covers 250 hectares and
took more than 500 million hours to
design and build. At peak, more than
52,000 workers were employed in
building the facility. Some 2 million t
of freight were shipped and imported
through a dedicated berth constructed
by the project at Ras Laffan port.
A total of 750 000 m3 of concrete
was poured, enough to construct
eight Wembley Stadiums or two Burj
Khalifas. Approximately 300,000 t of
pipe and steel structures were erected,
enough to build 40 Eiffel Towers. At
peak, the structures were erected at an
equivalent rate of one Eiffel Tower every
12 days. Twenty-four large synthesis
reactors were installed, each weighing
1,200 t, and each with tens of thousands
of tubes filled with almost 5,000 t
of catalyst.
Pearl GTL converts up to
1.6 billion ft3/D of wellhead gas from
22 offshore wells in Qatar’s huge
North Field using Shell’s proprietary
Shell Middle Distillate Synthesis
(SMDS) process, built on some 40
years of development and involving
approximately 3,500 patents. From
this, a range of high-performing GTL
products is created, including gasoil
to be used as diesel fuel, kerosene
to be used as jet fuel, base oil to be
used for high-quality lubricants, and
naphtha and normal paraffin for the
petrochemicals industry.
The integration challenges were
many and complex and span the
entire breadth of the project. This
integration is perhaps best illustrated
by highlighting a few of the many
diverse elements making up this
complex undertaking.
Upstream (Subsurface, Offshore)
Elements
• The design, drilling, completion,
and hook-up of 22 production wells
used a ground-breaking approach
called simultaneous operations
(SIMOPS). The SIMOPS approach saved
more than 600 days of drilling time
compared with previous performances,
resulting in considerable cost savings.
• Drilling for the 22 wells was
finished in early 2010 and was
completed in an average of 45 days,
with the fastest well taking just 28 days.
Previously, the industry standard for
completing a production well on the
North Field was 75 days.
• Two offshore production platforms
were designed and implemented.
• Two 30-in. pipelines were
designed and implemented to bring the
multiphase wellhead fluids to shore.
Midstream Elements
• Two onshore gas plants were
designed and implemented to process
the wet, sour wellhead fluids to
produce clean, dry natural gas and
All off- and onshore facilities for Pearl GTL are controlled from one common,
central control room. Photo courtesy of Shell.
The Pearl GTL project is the largest in the world and covers 250 hectares.
Photo courtesy of Shell.
other upstream products—treated
condensate, butane, propane, ethane,
and sulphur.
Downstream Elements
• Two onshore GTL plants were
designed and implemented to convert
the natural GTL hydrocarbons on the
basis of the Fischer-Tropsch process.
• Two refining units were designed
and implemented to upgrade the liquid
hydrocarbons to finished GTL products.
• Eight air separation units were
designed and implemented to supply
the pure oxygen required by the
GTL plants.
• Water treatment plants required to
treat the (“synthetic”) water produced
in the GTL plants were designed and
implemented to allow this water to be
fully reused in the plant.
• Integrated control systems were
designed and implemented to control
all off- and onshore facilities safely and
efficiently from one common, central
control room.
The downstream elements
also included the development of
all necessary logistics facilities,
agreements, and capabilities to
effectively market the finished GTL
products worldwide, which derived
benefits from the use of Shell’s existing
global hydrocarbon logistics, shipping,
and trading capabilities.
GTL technology provides an
alternative route for natural gas
monetization, thus complementing
other options, such as gas by pipeline,
and liquified natural gas (LNG) as
already deployed on a grand scale in
Qatar. For Shell’s partner in Pearl GTL,
the State of Qatar, GTL technology has
allowed for diversification, transforming
decades’ worth of gas reserves into
economic progress by opening up new
markets and opportunities and by
allowing liquid hydrocarbon products
to be sold into the vast and entirely
fungible global oil products markets,
thereby offering full upside to higher
oil prices. In the case of Qatar, Pearl
GTL has helped cement the country’s
position as the GTL capital of the world.
Products from Pearl GTL are shipped
to customers across the world—for
example, gasoil to Europe, naphtha
and normal paraffin to east Asia, and
base oils to the US, Europe, and China.
The interest from customers comes
in part as a result of the fundamental
hydrocarbon composition of the GTL
products, which is different to that of
crude-oil-derived products because
it is composed almost exclusively of
saturated paraffins. This results in
unique products performance, such
as during combustion. Furthermore,
because GTL products are derived
from pure methane, they are free of
impurities such as aromatics, sulphur,
or metals. GTL products, therefore,
burn cleanly and with less emission
than conventional crude-oil-derived
products, such as in diesel and jet
engines.
Despite the massive number of
workers involved and the complexity
of Pearl GTL’s construction, a strong
safety culture helped the Pearl GTL
project break industry records. In
2010, the project achieved 77 million
hours worked without a single lost
time injury (LTI) and an overall LTI
frequency of 0.04 LTI/million manhours, corresponding to approximately
one-tenth of the industry average. Pearl
GTL also set new standards with the
creation of Pearl Village, a radically new
approach to contractor accommodation,
emphasizing worker welfare and
specialized training to help drive safety,
productivity, and quality.
Applying technology on this huge
scale and investing so heavily in a single
project does not happen everywhere
in the world. It needs an enabling
environment, and that enabling
environment exists in Qatar. Not only
is the country blessed by abundant
gas resources but it also possesses
strong leadership, fast decisionmaking, and an absolute drive to deliver
transparency in all business dealings.
Today, Pearl GTL is hardwired to
the largest gas field in the world and
delivers GTL products to customers
in all corners of the world, lubricating
and fueling cars and aeroplanes,
generating feedstock for plastics and
detergents, and helping the world to
grow. The delivery of Pearl GTL is an
integrated development involving all
aspects of the gas value chain and
represents a ground-breaking project
leveraging one of Shell’s key strengths:
bringing innovative solutions to the
energy challenge. 
IPTCDAILY
13
Total Supercomputer Takes Spot as Industry’s Most Powerful
T
he International Petroleum
Technology Conference (IPTC)
once again will welcome many
of the top decision-makers from
France’s oil and gas major Total, but
human capital will not be the only
company asset on show in Doha. Also
taking the stage will be Total’s newest
supercomputer, Pangea, the most
powerful machine ever owned by the oil
and gas industry.
Capable of 2.3 million billion
operations per second, or 2.3 petaflops,
the futuristic mainframe is helping
to unlock the potential of ever-morecomplex oil and gas reservoirs around
the world.
Installed at Total’s global
headquarters for exploration and
production (E&P) technologies
in southwest France in January
2013, Pangea can process in hours
complex geological equations that
once took previous generations of
megacomputers weeks.
At the Total booth at IPTC, a
dedicated interactive exhibit will provide
visitors an intriguing glimpse of the
USD-60-million machine’s unique
features. These include a novel cooling
system that pipes water directly onto
the computer’s processing cores,
increasing space and energy efficiency.
With the combined strength of
27,000 personal computers, Pangea
allows Total’s geologists to generate
seismic images of oil and gas reservoirs
with increasing accuracy and to do so
more quickly. This helps save costs,
enhance health and safety, and improve
environmental safeguards out in
the field.
Approximately 15 times more
powerful than Total’s previous
supercomputer, Pangea is made up
of 110,000 processing cores fed by
120 km of fiber-optic cable and has a
storage capacity equal to 1.75 million
DVDs. It consumes a staggering 2.8
megawatts of electricity and generates
enough heat to supply the entire
complex of the Centre Scientifique
et Technique Jean Féger, Total’s E&P
technologies hub.
Pangea, Total’s new supercomputer, is capable of 2.3 million billion operations
per second, or 2.3 petaflops. Photo courtesy of Total.
Pangea is named after the
supercontinental landmass that made
up the Earth’s surface 300 million years
ago, a fitting label considering its epic
computing strength.
“Pangea is one of the largest
supercomputers of its type in private
industry and is evidence of our
significant and ongoing investment
in technological leadership in the
E&P domain,” said Arnaud Breuillac,
Total’s newly appointed president for
exploration and production.
“Designed to run off the latest
algorithms, Pangea is helping teams
in the field make decisions more
swiftly and reliably. This complements
our strategy to bring what we do in
cutting-edge research and day-today operations closer together and to
ultimately expand our capabilities in
frontier hydrocarbons.” 
Qatargas Implements CSR Initiatives To Boost Communities
Q
atargas wants to have a positive
effect on the communities
in which it works, and it has
created corporate social responsibility
(CSR) initiatives to meet that goal. The
company’ CSR initiatives are spread over
four broad areas covering education,
environment, health and safety, and
community development.
Qatargas says it is committed to
making positive, lasting contributions.
Consequently, in the course of the
company’s CSR work, it looks for
sustainability of investment and
opportunities to promote transparency
and accountability.
The company says it strongly believe
in capacity building at the local level
and recognizes that engagement with
the community is not dependent on the
measure of visibility.
Rather, the company says, what is
inspiring is the potential found in social
investments and their power to add
value to the Qatar National Vision 2030
objectives.
In regard to the education aspect
of the initiatives, Qatargas has a
long-standing relationship with Qatar
University. Qatargas and Qatar university
have been sponsoring a Research
Engineering Chair with the objective
of promoting genuine research in the
field of gas-processing technology.
Qatargas is also supporting several
other educational initiatives from the
university, such as the Gas Processing
Centre Consortium, the Gasna
competition, a plant design contest,
seminars, workshops, and symposiums.
All of these efforts are organized by the
university. Qatargas also extends its
support to other educational initiatives.
For example, the company sponsors a
technical annex at the Qatar Independent
Technical School.
In regard to the health and safety
aspect of the CSR initiative, Qatargas
has sponsored a number of events,
including the second Qatar Petroleum
Occupational Health Congress, which
was organized by the Medical Services
Department of Qatar Petroleum.
Qatargas also has conducted a series of
blood donation drives in cooperation with
the Hamad Medical Corporation.
The company is also a long-term
sponsor of the Dream and Promise
Awards Benefit, which is organized by
the US-based Children’s Brain Tumor
Foundation, and various road safety
awareness campaigns organized by
the ministry of interior’s Road Safety
Campaign.
With respect to the community
development aspect of the CSR initiative,
Qatargas is an integral member of
the Ras Laffan Community Outreach
Program, working closely with
companies in Ras Laffan Industrial City
to develop the northern areas of Qatar.
The company also cooperates with
charity organizations such as Qatar Red
Crescent, Qatar Charity, Sheikh Abdullah
Bin Thani Humanitarian Foundation,
and the Sheikh Eid Charitable Society
to extend all possible support to
communities inside Qatar and abroad.
Qatargas also extends its support
to various games and sports teams
inside the country. The company is a title
sponsor of a variety of tournaments,
such as the Qatargas League (Second
Division League) of the Qatar Football
Association, Qatargas Open Chess
Tournament of Qatar Chess Association,
and the Qatargas Open Badminton
Championship, which is organized by
the Qatar Badminton Association. The
company also supports the Qatar Minor
Ice Hockey Team, Doha Oilmen’s Golf
Tournament, AmCham Golf Tournament,
Junior Golf Program of the Doha Golf
Club, and the QP Chairman’s Cup
Football and Cricket.
Qatargas also organizes various
sports activities for its employees and
families during the National Sports Day
every year. Recently, Qatargas sponsored
the prize money for the top three
teams of the 2014 West Asian Football
Federation Championship, which was
held in Doha from 26 December to
7 January. 
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14
IPTCDAILY
QP Celebrates 40 Years, Expects Continued Growth
T
his year, Qatar Petroleum
(QP) is marking 40 years since
its establishment in 1974.
The national oil and gas company
entrusted with harnessing Qatar’s
hydrocarbon resources, QP has worked
to transform Qatar into a knowledgebased society while maintaining a
link with Qatar’s plans for sustainable
social, economic, human, and
environmental development.
QP aspires to be a world-class oil
and gas corporation with roots in Qatar
and a strong international presence.
The company aims to ensure that Qatar
receives maximum benefit from its oil
and gas resources. The company plans
to accomplish this by contributing to the
national wealth of Qatar and focusing
on the country’s national vision through
the safe, efficient, and environmentally
acceptable exploration and production
of hydrocarbon resources.
Qatar National Vision and QP’s
Sustainable Development Goals
Qatar’s proposed route to sustainability
is contained within the Qatar National
Vision 2030 (QNV) and the National
Development Strategy 2011–2016 (NDS).
These national-level frameworks are
based on the four pillars of human,
social, economic, and environmental
development and aim to harness
Qatar’s current rapid economic
growth in a way that ensures future
A Qatari PhD student tests rock cores
at the Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre.
generations can prosper and enjoy a
higher quality of life based on social
and environmental harmony.
A key enabler of the QNV and NDS
is the QP-led Sustainable Development
TOTAL, PROUD PARTNER
OF YOUR ENERGY
Total principal sponsor of
total.com
Industry Reporting (SDIR) plan under
the leadership of Mohammed bin
Saleh Al-Sada, minister of energy
and industry. The SDIR is the first
of its kind in the region and collects
sustainable development initiatives
and performance for each year from
35 major operators in the oil and gas
sector and consolidates it into an
industry report. It is the sector vehicle
for demonstrating progress and
compliance with Qatar’s sustainability
ambition. Each year’s sustainable
development industry report focuses
on issues relevant to Qatar. The focus
in 2012 was health, energy, and water
management. Guidance on these topics
is provided to standardize and improve
reporting approaches. The SDIR
program has established a platform
for stakeholder engagement, baseline
company and sectorwide reporting, and
awards for best performance. These
are all elements of the envisioned
sector framework for sustainable
development that will also include a
forum for collective policy alignment
and input, sector strategy development,
and performance assessment. The SDIR
initiative remains the cornerstone for
advancing the Qatar energy and industry
sector’s performance and leadership
on sustainable development and a key
enabler of the QNV and the NDS.
Innovation and Technology
© Total /
E-Motion International FZ LLC /
All rights reserved
QP has made substantial investments
in research and development
(R&D) of environmentally friendly
technologies, including carbon capture
and storage, enhanced oil recovery,
and implementation of best available
technology and international practices.
The Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre (QCCSRC) is
a USD-70-million, 10-year research
partnership between Qatar Petroleum,
Shell, Qatar Science and Technology
Park, and Imperial College London.
The program addresses the key science
and engineering challenges for the safe
and permanent storage of CO2 in Qatari
carbonate reservoirs.
It is providing Qatar with state-ofthe-art predictive reservoir carbon
storage capabilities and enhanced
understanding of its subsurface
reservoirs. QCCSRC is increasing
Qatar’s expertise and research
capacity and will develop local talents,
capabilities, and skills in geoscience
and engineering.
Key accomplishments of the
QCCSRC include:
• An improved fundamental
understanding of the geological history,
depositional environment, and digenetic
processes that led to the formation of
the carbonate reservoirs
• The characterization of previously
unknown thermophysical properties of
CO2 brine/hydrocarbon systems under
reservoir conditions
• Observations of CO2 injection
into carbonate rocks under reservoir
conditions (temperature/pressure/
brine salinity) at multiple scales to
characterize the flow and chemical
reaction within the reservoir 
IPTC_Annonce_A4.indd 1
13/12/13 10:24
IPTCDAILY
15
Around the Exhibit Floor
A roundup of technology being showcased at IPTC
Software, Integration Help
Realize the Digital Oilfield
The digital oilfield is now a reality as
industry experience and new technology
drive results aimed at addressing
multiple challenges, including asset
management, reaction time to dynamic
well environments, production, and
safety. Weatherford’s automation
approach to building digital oilfields
employs a suite of specialized software
tools and integrated systems. These
enabling technologies include OmniWell
production and reservoir monitoring,
comprehensive artificial-lift systems
monitored by WellPilot surface
optimization controllers, and RedEye
MP water-cut meters and multiphaseflow control. All lift types can be
fitted to this operational paradigm
on the basis of field requirements.
Field Office production software for
process automation and real-time
analytics provides the data for better
workflows and decision making. This
production software suite works with all
major industry hardware and existing
infrastructure.
Low-Friction Chock Liner
Reduces Wear, Increases Safety
The move from steel wire to highmodulus polyethylene (HMPE) as
a mooring-line material has given
significant benefits to industry, mainly
in terms of safety. HMPE mooring
lines have good strength-to-weight
ratio, ease of handling, and low risk of
injury to personnel. However, HMPE
mooring lines are prone to damage
through abrasion in steel mooring
chocks, and the rope jackets can tear.
Nylacast’s low-friction chock liner
offers a solution to these challenges.
With years of comprehensive field
research showing no wear is present
on the ropes through the use of
Nylacast’s chock liner, more than 450
of these technological components
have successfully been deployed
worldwide on a range of vessels,
particularly liquefied-natural-gas
carriers. The use of Nylacast’s lowfriction chock liner will eliminate any
wear on the HMPE mooring line and
will stop tearing of the jacket. Better
equalization of mooring-line loads is
also achieved, eliminating any snatching
and jerking as the line moves in the
Nylcast’s low-friction chock liners
help increase the longevity of highmodulus polyethylene mooring lines.
Photo courtesy of Nylcast.
liner. Importantly, the use of Nylacast
chock liners results in no need for
regular maintenance because there
will be no issues with corrosion, and
no additional greases or lubrication
are needed because of the low-friction
material used.
Production Chokes Improve
Automation Performance
Lancaster Flow Automation’s
production chokes feature an operating
torque 90% less than those of typical
commodity-style designs, allowing
simple choke adjustment. In addition,
the chokes offer metallic bonnet seals
(several different types of bonnet
seals, both metallic and nonmetallic,
are offered), and no elastomers are
in direct contact with wellbore fluids.
Standard seal temperature range is
from –40 to 325°F. Single bonnet and
trim configuration may be used for
manual, linear pneumatic piston or
diaphragm, linear hydraulic, or rotary
electric actuation. Converting between
needle-type trim and cage type requires
the replacement of only the stem, seat,
and orifice indicator. A stainless-steel
micrometer-style position indicator
provides precise readout of the orifice
size. The entire surface of the orifice
indicator is always visible and displays
trim-design details and open/close
directions. An adjustable stainless-steel
pointer provides for easy reading of the
choke-orifice size. With only 27 lbf/ft
of torque required for closing the stem
against 15,000 psig downstream of the
orifice, a small 17-lbm electric actuator
(drawing 2.6 amps at these conditions)
is all that is required for automation.
The unit may be operated using solar
power and is easily removed while the
choke is in service and under pressure.
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IPTCDAILY
Drilling-Optimization Service
Promotes Improvement of Data
TDE Group’s proNova drillingoptimization service enables
organizations to monitor and organize
their global drilling activities and
rig-fleet performance accurately and
efficiently. The service uses rig-sensor
data, typically available on most rigs,
to generate an objective description
of the drilling process automatically
using a patented Automatic Operations
Recognition System. ProNova uses
sensor data for automated reporting,
allowing clients to analyze the drilling
process with a high level of detail that
complements traditional morning
reporting. The proNova operationsrecognition system has the potential
to reduce drilling time significantly
by setting standardized and objective
benchmarks in order to identify
nonproductive or invisible lost time.
The service provides a flexible and
modular infrastructure along with the
relevant services required to integrate
third-party well and drilling-process
data, apply quality control, and process
the data collected in order to facilitate
a step change in an organization’s
TDE Group’s proNova service uses rig-sensor data to automatically generate an
objective description of the drilling process. Image courtesy of TDE Group.
drilling performance. It measures rig
performance and enables a continuous
improvement process from rig floor
to drilling management. Operation
duration can be optimized through crew
and rig comparisons, and performance
trends can be monitored on a daily,
weekly, or quarterly basis. Users may
define customizable reports using
proNova’s Web-based reporting and
analysis service.
Wireline Tractor Simplifies
Operations in Challenging Wells
High-angle and extended-reach wells
have opened up new possibilities for
development, production, and recovery.
However, for wireline operations, they
present new challenges. To avoid the
additional time, cost, and operational
complexity of coiled-tubing or drillpipe
conveyance in these wells, some
operators forego logging advanced
measurements, or the so-called
tough-logging-conditions technique,
relying only on measurement-whiledrilling and logging-while-drilling
basic information. The UltraTRAC
all-terrain wireline tractor readily
conveys large payloads in challenging
borehole conditions and across highangle and extended-reach wells. The
UltraTRAC service provides the highest
tractor force available—combined with
traction control, reverse tractoring,
and higher efficiency—to simplify and
streamline wireline logging operations,
thereby reducing cost, time, and risk
in both open and cased holes. Since
commercialization, the UltraTRAC
wireline tractor has been used on more
than 180 jobs in 10 different countries
to convey every type of wireline
service. For example, a boreholeimaging service was conveyed using
the new all-terrain wireline tractor in
3,500-ft horizontal sections of three
Mississippian wells to obtain highquality image logs. In these particular
borehole conditions, the new all-terrain
wireline tractor was able to convey
toolstrings at up to 2,400 ft/hr. This
solution made it possible to obtain
all the requested data for formation
evaluation and completion operations
while saving 24 hours and USD 40,000
in rig costs per well, compared with
traditional drillpipe conveyance. To
learn more about the UltraTRAC
all-terrain wireline tractor, visit
Schlumberger at Booth C23.
Fluid-Capture System Reduces
Costs, Environmental Impact
Katch Kan works with industry oil and
gas companies and drilling contractors
to ensure access to tangible, efficient,
safe, and proactive solutions to prevent
the loss of drilling fluids and the
contamination of drilling sites. The
patented Zero Spill System (ZSS) not
only captures drilling fluids but also
assists in the prevention of the need
to go fishing for objects dropped down
“ We at Viking Services are committed to Integrated Service through
experienced personnel and modern equipment to execute North
American unconventional resource development in Turkey,
Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.”
Viking Services can provide
total oilfield solutions
Well Engineering & Design
Drilling Services
Energy Services
Geophysical Services
Civil Engineering
Transportation
FOR MORE INFORMATION: info@vikingservices.com
www.vikingservices.com
IPTCDAILY
the wellbore. The ZSS was designed
in response to industry feedback,
regulatory concerns, and environmental
stewards demanding an easier way
to contain production fluids and
drilling fluids from releasing into the
natural environment. The ZSS leads
to less water usage, less trucking and
emissions, and, consequently, a larger
return on investment. Because of the
recapture of the fluid, the well site is
minimally affected, operational costs
are reduced, and the rig runs more
cleanly, safely, and efficiently. Katch
Kan has been able to provide tangible
results regarding environmental
performance. Initial testing of the
ZSS included a positive return on
investment. It revealed that, not only
were operating companies reducing
long-term contamination liabilities, but
they were also able to recycle expensive
drilling fluids, thus leading to lower
operating costs with minimal effect at
the well site. Katch Kan products are
now exported to operators in more than
60 countries.
High-Definition Camera
Offers Versatility Downhole
Katch Kan’s drilling-fluid-capture
system prevents the loss of fluids and
the contamination of drilling sites.
Photo courtesy of Katch Kan.
EV has launched its Optis HD Electric
line camera to the well-intervention
market. The camera’s new technology
allows operators to stream color
video at up to 25 frames/second on
monoconductor cables with the use
of high-speed telemetry and videocompression techniques. It has been
designed for well-integrity inspection
and monitoring of downhole corrosion
and mechanical damage, including
those found in marginal conditions, and
it successfully completed a wide run
of 100 field-trial jobs in Canada before
becoming commercially released in the
North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, Saudi
Arabia, and Australia. The camera
features improved speeds and picture
quality compared with similar downhole
video cameras, allowing for advanced
inspection of oilfield subsurface
equipment for integrity issues. The
system tunes itself to a wide range of
cables so that the Optis HD Electric
camera works on virtually any cable
length or cable type. Its modular design
allows it to be run with downview,
sideview, or both. Deviation and internal
temperature are digitally transmitted
to a surface laptop, providing essential
information when viewing images.
Downhole Cable Protector
Offers Versatility, Toughness
HCL Clamping is launching its Smart
Protector, a new polymer-based
range of downhole cable protectors
developed in cooperation with Shell.
The new range was showcased at the
2013 SPE Annual Technical Conference
and Exhibition in New Orleans and
at the 2013 Abu Dhabi International
Petroleum Exhibition and Conference
in Abu Dhabi. The lightweight,
patented Smart Protector range can
be used for a variety of cable sizes and
configurations. It is the first product
of its kind capable of withstanding
temperatures of up to 250°C and fits
any tubing diameter while avoiding the
use of metals. The Smart Protector
can be used alongside HCL’s Smart
Tie range of high-strength straps. It
is also guarantees lower friction than
HCL Clamping’s Smart Protector
downhole cable protector is the
first of its kind able to withstand
temperatures of up to 250°C.
Photo courtesy of HCL Clamping.
do metal-based alternatives and can
be used for multiline installations;
additionally, it will not hang up in
the blowout-preventer stack. It is
lightweight (less than 100 g), and does
not suffer from galvanic corrosion. 
h
Qatar
Exclusively
E&P Focused on
Excellence
Since becoming an independent exploration and production (E&P) company in May 2012, we have
been focused solely on our core business of finding and producing oil and gas globally.
Our vision is to be the E&P company of choice by pioneering a new standard of excellence. This applies
to our financial and operational performance and also to the way we do business. ConocoPhillips has a
time-honored tradition of placing safety, health and environmental stewardship at the top of our operating priorities. Our technical capability, asset quality and scale, and financial strength are unmatched
among independent E&P companies and uniquely position us to compete anywhere in the world. Our
production includes light oil, heavy oil, oil sands, natural gas liquids, conventional natural gas, coal seam
gas, tight oil and gas, and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, ConocoPhillips employs more than 17,000 people around the world.
www.conocophillips.com
© ConocoPhillips Company. 2013. All rights reserved.
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IPTCDAILY
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company
(ADNOC) was established in 1971, to
operate in all areas of the oil and gas
industry and since then has steadily
broadened its activity establishing
companies and subsidiaries and creating
an integrated oil and gas industry in the
fields of exploration and production,
support services, oil refining and gas
processing, chemical and petrochemical,
maritime transportation and refined
products distribution.
The Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC),
chaired by H.H. Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al
Nahyan, President of the UAE, formulates
and oversees the implementation of Abu
Dhabi petroleum strategies and policies.
ADNOC’s efforts in the exploration and
production field have concentrated on
assessing undiscovered reserves and
optimizing hydrocarbon recovery by
improving the reservoir management.
Giving top priority to education, ADNOC
established a number of institutions
that train and develop a qualified UAE
cadre for energy sector. Glenleg School,
the Petroleum Institute, the ADNOC
Technical Institute, the Achievers’ Oasis
and other scholarship programs are but
a few examples of ADNOC’s educational
projects.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)
www.adnoc.ae
ADNOC pg19.indd 1
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The World’s Premier LNG Company
As the world’s largest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) company,
Qatargas has the capacity to deliver up to 42 million tons per annum.
Known for the expertise of our people, our operating excellence,
our spirit of innovation and our commitment to corporate social
responsibility, we are able to deliver LNG safely and reliably to our
valued customers around the globe.
www.qatargas.com.qa
QatarGas Day 2 cropped.indd 1
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