Petroleum Science Trends and Industry Efforts

Posted on: November 20, 2019

The oil and gas industry is one that is constantly experiencing new trends and technologies. Having a broad scope of the current information in a field is essential for any professional. Emerging topics such as natural gas, shale, hydraulic fracturing, asphaltene deposition and more are gaining popularity within energy and fuel professionals. Our Freebook embraces all aspects of petroleum science and provides a holistic view of these emerging trends by discussing different perspectives such as historical and legal, as well as deliberating the pros and cons. Below are the topics that are discussed in the Freebook.

For more articles and information on the oil & gas industry, be sure to visit our Oil, Gas & Mining Articles page for frequent updates.

Crude Oil and Asphaltene Characterization

Crude oil is one the most important substances used by modern society, and probably, the least understood. However, what it is known is that its behavior can be related to its chemical composition and physical properties. Asphaltenes consist primarily of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulphur, as well as trace amounts of vanadium, nickel and other metals. Asphaltene deposition is one of such obstructions which can significantly decrease the rate of oil production.

Characteristics of Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources

As the shale revolution continues in North America, unconventional resource markets are emerging on every continent. In the next eight to ten years, more than 100,000 wells and one- to two-million hydraulic fracturing stages could be executed, resulting in close to one trillion dollars in industry spending. This growth has prompted professionals experienced in conventional oil and gas exploitation and development to acquire practical knowledge of the unconventional realm.

Petroleum Data Analytics

The realization that much value can be extracted from the data routinely collected during drilling, completion, stimulation, workover, injection, and production operations in the upstream exploration and production industry has resulted in a growing interest in the application of data-driven analytics in the industry. Petroleum data analytics is the application of data-driven analytics and big data analytics in the upstream oil and gas industry. Data mining has been able to attract the attention of many in the fields of scientific research, business, the banking sector, intelligence agencies, and many others from the early days of its inception. Data mining is used in the banking sector for credit card fraud detection by identifying the patterns involved in fraudulent transactions. It is also used to reduce credit risk by classifying a potential client and predicting bad loans.

Engineering the Fluid

The selection of a proper fracturing fluid is all about choices. It begins with choosing the pad volume where one must consider what and how much pad is required to create the desired fracture geometry. This is followed by choosing how much viscosity the fluid needs to have to provide sufficient fracture width to ensure proppant entrance into fracture, provide a desired net pressure, provide carrying capability to transport proppant from the wellbore to the fracture tip, and control fluid floss.

This article was cited from 'Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources: Exploitation and Development', edited by Usman Ahmed and D. Nathan Meehan (2016); 'Hydraulic Fracturing' by Michael Berry Smith and Carl Montgomery (2015); 'Asphaltene Deposition: Fundamentals, Prediction, Prevention, and Remediation' by Francisco M. Vargas and Mohammad Tavakkoli (2018); 'Data-Driven Analytics for the Geological Storage of CO2' by Shahab Mohaghegh (2018)