Drilling
Drilling is the mechanical process which achieves access to a geological target from a surface location. It requires detailed planning to take account of the physical properties of the rock to be penetrated and the geometrical path required to reach the objective. To be successful, the process requires technical knowledge of the equipment required and of the hydraulic processes essential to enabling rock removal, with many disciplines working together to achieve well construction objectives. Analysis of well operations, equipment, technologies, fluids, as well as digitalization and automation, allow operators to improve systems, processes and well site execution.
Well Completions
Showcasing case histories, new technologies and processes to help the industry work through the challenging aspects of Well Completions all the while keeping the health, safety and environment as the top priority.
Well Stimulation
This session will examine recent technologies and techniques to stimulate conventional and unconventional reservoirs. Lab scale research to field studies are welcome to present challenges and offered solutions from technical to environmental aspects.
PFC
SPE's Projects, Facilities, and Construction (PF&C) discipline covers processing, flow assurance, corrosion and sand management; production monitoring; data measurement, process control and automation; maintenance operations: applications of unmanned systems, site decomissioning and remediation, management of capital projects, facilities design, construction, and comissioning for onshore, offshore and subsea systems. Technology development for facility design and operations to achieve low carbon and net zero including carbon capture and storage, geothermal, hydrogen, application of renewable energy technologies in upstream operations will also be considered in PFC.
HSE & Sustainability
HSE & Sustainability discipline accepts submissions on innovative topics based on four emerging Health, Safety, Environment (HSE) and Sustainability themes as follows:
a) Methane Emissions, Climate Change & Air pollution including but not limited to:
- Methane Abatement Technologies & integration with Renewable Energy
- Methane Emissions Management & energy storage integration with Oil & Gas facilities
- Climate Change & Air Pollution
- Carbon, Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) including subthemes: CO₂ Enhanced Hydrocarbon Recovery, Underground storage, Storage site monitoring and risk assessment, CO2 transportation, CCUS economics and policy
b) New AI/ML techniques for sustainability business challenges including but not limited to:
- AI/ML/Deep Learning to solve HSE problems in drilling, well completion, PFC etc.
- AI/ML/Deep Learning for sustainability and ESG performance review
- Decarbonisation, Sustainability & Climate Finance
- Mitigating social & environmental impacts of Oil & Gas activities inl. decommissioning
c) Health & Safety in the era of Pandemics including but not limited to:
- Health in upstream oil and gas industry – managing pandemics and other disasters
- Safety in the oil and gas value chain – human factors, personnel & process safety
- Diversity and Inclusion of community/stakeholders in O&G Health & Safety
- Ergonomics, HSE Management and Leadership
d) SPE Gaia and the planetary environment including but not limited to:
- Stakeholder Engagement - Listening and Communicating
- Nature-Based Solutions, Natural Capital and Regeneration
- Waste to Value and Circular Economy
- Measuring what Matters – integrating planetary boundaries in our daily decisions
- People-centred transition, Transformative energy / Just transition / responsible energy transition / energy diversity inside planetary boundaries
Management
Business decisions ultimately drive the economic outcomes that are encountered and anticipated from energy resource management. The Managements submission topics addresses the strategic interplay between innovation, the energy transition, pricing uncertainty, and other factors critical to delivering value to successful organizations.
ETP
The Educational Training and Professionalism (ETP) subcommittee is formed to discuss new approaches to improve and enhance petroleum engineering education, to discuss and evaluate existing and newly proposed methods of learning for workforce development and is concerned about maintaining high standards of professionalism in the oil and gas industry to fulfill the future energy demand and sustainability needs.
DSEA
The DSEA technical section will serve as knowledge sharing and learning forum for all SPE members, from varied disciplines, interested in value creation from data and information leveraging Computing, Data, and Predictive Analytics sciences. The SPE DSEATS is intended to accelerate and enhance the digital asset life cycle management, given the current business dynamics and enable the future strategic energy transformation aspirations.
The DSEA Technical Section will drive activities focusing on the already established key arenas (refer: SPE Petrowiki taxonomy), namely:
Data Science & Engineering Analytics
I. Information Management and Systems
Knowledge Management, Data Integration, Data Security, Data Mining, Metadata Management, Artificial Intelligence, Neural Networks
II. Research & Development and Emerging Technology Program
New Technology Deployment, New Technology Valuation, New Technology Funding
Well Operations
Well operations activities are the core of the oil and gas business, therefore, there is a continuous process of searching for more efficient, safer, and more economical fields developments. These sessions will be devoted to showcasing a wide spectrum of best practices being applied and shared case studies that address the main challenges in well operations. Including and not limited to, currently applied and new technologies for:
- Artificial lift, sand control, water management, stimulations, chemical treatments, production surveillance, flow assurance, risk mitigation and so forth;
All of these for producing and injection wells in both offshore and onshore conventional and unconventional operations.
Production Monitoring and Control
Integrated Asset Modeling and Optimization: This area focuses on production optimization using new downhole technologies, data analytics, and simulation-based system integration. Field demonstrations of advanced downhole flow control devices and non-intrusive sensing and monitoring methods to solve complex flow optimization problems in artificially lifted wells are presented. Digital twins prove to be a valuable tool for dynamic optimal control of productions systems. The use of digital twins as a valuable tool for dynamic optimal control of production systems is also highlighted.
Flow Assurance: Evaluation Remediation and Control: This area focuses on technology advancements in flow assurance including real-time monitoring asphaltene removal, evaluation of the impact scale deposition on electrical submersible pump performance, prediction of hydrate formation and dual functional chemical inhibitors for hydrate and corrosion control, and model-based sand production.
Advancements in Flow Measurement and Profiling: This area focuses on robust surface and downhole flow measurements using physical and virtual flow metering systems, active production monitoring with new methodologies and technologies, ability of determining phase flow rates and zonal contributions in multizone wells to better monitor, control, and optimize production.
Well Performance Diagnostics and Control: This area focuses on advances in production logging and production log data integration and interpretation to detect sand infiltration zones or to control production of unwanted fluid, production and injection allocations based on geochemical fingerprinting and smart completions, model-based diagnosis of production abnormalities in tight gas wells, distributed temperature sensing methods for detection of wellbore integrity, and improving flow assurance with controlled performance of asphaltene inhibitor.
Recovery Mechanisms & Flow in Porous Media
The recovery mechanisms & flow in porous media theme is focused on fundamental mechanisms and associated scientific and engineering problems in multiphase flow within various subsurface reservoir types, and a variety of recovery mechanisms to produce hydrocarbons from reservoir to surface. The porous media that contains hydrocarbons in place includes different reservoir types from shale, sandstone, and carbonate rock etc., each with different flow characteristics and require or give rise to different recovery mechanisms. In this theme, we address these recovery processes from large scale mass balance to microscale molecular phenomena. Along with the maturity of reservoir production, secondary and tertiary enhanced oil recovery technologies are introduced to maximize recovery and economic return.
Formation Evaluation
Formation evaluation is the process of analyzing subsurface formation characteristics, such as porosity, saturation, lithology, net pay, heterogeneities, and permeability, and their geomechanics interaction, to evaluate wells for potential hydrocarbon reservoirs and the volume of economics hydrocarbon accumulations, as well as mechanical properties of the rock penetrated by a well. Formation evaluation utilizes a combination of geologic information, well logs, core and fluid analysis by a variety of interpretation techniques to reduce subsurface risks and uncertainties and impact on investment decisions throughout reservoir characterization, engineering, management, and monitoring. Formation Evaluation is also the focus of physical and chemical characterization of rock and fluid for an integrated subsurface modelling in understanding the rock properties and flow behaviour for hydrocarbon, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), geothermal, and other subsurface opportunities for the energy transition.
Reservoir Engineering
Reservoir engineering continues to transform the enterprise of subsurface energy exploitation and pivots centrally in the drive to a sustainable energy future. From advancing our understanding of flow dynamics to providing insight into the efficient development of new energy frontiers, reservoir engineering is poised to contribute materially to attaining the world’s energy goals. Our focus for ATCE 2023 is to reflect this theme; hence we welcome proposals targeting the engineering of conventional and unconventional resources, improved oil recovery, applications in low-carbon solutions, well forecasting and transient analysis, and reservoir simulation and characterization. Case studies on reservoir engineering applications and new technologies will also add tremendous enrichment to our repertoire. We look forward to working with you to transform your submissions into valuable industry contributions.
Reservoir Geology and Geophysics
The domain encompasses various themes of geology and geophysics, pertinent to comprehension and characterization of a myriad of reservoirs. The domain invites original research on such topics that provides insights into why and how a reservoir produces or holds potential. Authors are encouraged to seek knowledge from observations, measurements as well as reservoir performances and provide an integrated solution that paints a unified picture. Discussions should also address scalar limitations of these solutions and any other probable constraints on universal applicability.
Topics of interest, though not limited to a specific line of work, should be from the broader themes of Petrology, Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Structural Geology, Petroleum Systems and Sequence Stratigraphy
Applicability of the research, though not limited to, should fall under the broader interest of exploration and development geology, reservoir characterization, geologic modeling as well as seismic processing, interpretation, and modeling
Both classical and modern problems on these domains, that may have renewed and/or enhanced understandings are welcome to be presented. Research with unique problems that are yet to be fully understood and seek guidance either from the technical community or unpublished observations, are also welcome.
Reservoir Monitoring
Reservoir monitoring is one of the key disciplines in the management of not only conventional and unconventional oil & gas resources but also emerging carbon capture and sequestration applications. Reservoir monitoring enables engineers to perform either direct or indirect surveillance to gather the required data, in other words, the continuous process of generating opportunities for improving reservoir performance. The reservoir monitoring theme encompasses methods/applications such as 4D seismic data analysis, DAS/DTS/DPS sensing, time-lapse logging, INSAR/electromagnetic/gravity surveys, well pressure/rate surveys, and other novel measurement and data analysis technologies. Real-field applications enrich the knowledge of surveillance practitioners. Accessibility of various surveillance technologies and associated economic considerations are also of significant interest to the discipline. Emerging monitoring technologies and recent R&D developments open a window toward the future of reservoir monitoring.
