4321 results about "Petroleum oil" patented technology

A petroleum reservoir production modeling apparatus and method is disclosed which incorporates a complete (from reservoir to wellhead) production systems analysis system for the evaluation of petroleum reservoir production performance, using industry accepted techniques of analysis. A computer generated model facilitates the determination of well and formation properties in a computerized methodology, efficiently, reliably and accurately, thereby facilitating subsequent changes in wellbore properties to maximize well production. The method includes a rigorous analytic reservoir inflow performance model for a variety of well types and reservoir outer boundary conditions and drainage area shapes, and uses industry accepted production analysis techniques. These techniques accepted in the industry include material balance, decline curve analysis, and non-linear minimization procedures. Field-recorded production data is evaluated to obtain estimates of the well or formation properties. Statistical techniques are used to minimize or eliminate the effects of outlier (i.e. noise) points in the data.

The invention provides apparatus and methods for monitoring and controlling hydrocarbon production wells and / or injection wells from a remote location. The apparatus for monitoring and controlling one or more hydrocarbon production wells or injection wells from a remote location comprises one or more surface control and data acquisition systems; one or more sensors disposed in communication with the one or more control and data acquisition systems; one or more downhole flow control devices disposed in communication with the one or more control and data acquisition systems; and one or more remote controllers disposed in communication with the one or more control and data acquisition systems. Preferably, the remote controller comprises a computer having an internet access disposed in communication with the one or more control and data acquisition systems through a communication device comprising an internet web site server. The method for monitoring and controlling a downhole hydrocarbon production well or an injection well comprises: transmitting data collected by a downhole sensor module to a control and data acquisition system; evaluating downhole operating conditions and optimizing downhole operating parameters utilizing an optimization software program disposed in communication with the control and data acquisition system; and transmitting signals between the control and data acquisition system system and a remote controller utilizing a satellite communication system, the remote controller comprising a computer and an internet browser control access adapted to display operating conditions and parameters and to accept instructions to change operating parameters.

Disclosed is a method of determining the extent of recovery of materials injected into a oil well comprising the steps of: a) preparing a material to be injected into an oil well; b) admixing therewith a chemical tracer compound at a predetermined concentration; c) injecting the admixture into an oil well; d) recovering from the oil well a production fluid; e) analyzing the production fluid for the concentration of the chemical tracer present in the production fluid; and f) calculating the amount of admixture recovered from the oil well using the concentration of the chemical tracer present in the production fluid as a basis for the calculation. Fluorinated benzoic acids are disclosed as a preferred tracer.

The invention relates to a method for the catalytic hydro-processing of a petroleum feedstock of the gas oil type and of a biological feedstock containing vegetal oils and / or animal fats, in a catalytic fixed-bed hydro-processing unit, said method being characterised in that the petroleum feedstock is introduced into the reactor upstream from the biological feedstock. The invention also relates to a catalytic hydro-processing unit for implementing said method, and to a corresponding hydro-refining unit.

The present invention generally relates to a method and a composition useful in restoring the permeability of a porous underground petroleum containing formation. Restoring permeability to the formation enhances the injectivity thereby accelerating petroleum recovery. The method of the invention comprises treating said formation with a composition which comprises a combination of at least one nonionic compound, preferably an alkoxylated alcohol, with at least one cationic compound, preferably a quaternary ammonium compound, in an amount effective to improve the permeability of the formation. The composition may also optionally contain an alkyl glycoside.

A petroleum well has an electronic module and a number of sensors which communicate with the surface using the tubing string and casing as conductors. Induction chokes at the surface and downhole electrically impede AC flow through the (tubing or casing if so configured) with the resulting voltage potential useful for power and communication. A high bandwidth, adaptable spread spectrum communications system is used to communicate between the downhole electronics module and a surface master spread spectrum modem. Downhole sensors, such as pressure, temperature, acoustic and seismic sensors accurately assess downhole physical conditions. In a preferred form, the electronics module and sensors are wireline insertable and retrievable into a side pocket mandrel in the tubing string. Permanent downhole sensors that can communicate with the surface allow such diverse applications as optimizing well and field performances, monitoring and assessing the geophysics of the fomrations around the well, assessing well and reservoir reserves, assessing reservoir conditions.

A process for producing a nano-scaled graphene plate. The material comprises a sheet of graphite plane or a multiplicity of sheets of graphite plane. The graphite plane is composed of a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice of carbon atoms and the plate has a length and a width parallel to the graphite plane and a thickness orthogonal to the graphite plane with at least one of the length, width, and thickness values being 100 nanometers or smaller. The process for producing nano-scaled graphene plate material comprises the steps of: a). partially or fully carbonizing a precursor polymer or heat-treating petroleum or coal tar pitch to produce a polymeric carbon containing micron- and / or nanometer-scaled graphite crystallites with each crystallite comprising one sheet or a multiplicity of sheets of graphite plane; b). exfoliating the graphite crystallites in the polymeric carbon; and c). subjecting the polymeric carbon containing exfoliated graphite crystallites to a mechanical attrition treatment to produce the nano-scaled graphene plate material.

Methods and systems for low emission power generation in hydrocarbon recovery processes are provided. One system includes integrated pressure maintenance and miscible flood systems with low emission power generation. An alternative system provides for low emission power generation, carbon sequestration, enhanced oil recovery (EOR), or carbon dioxide sales using a hot gas expander and external combustor. Another alternative system provides for low emission power generation using a gas power turbine to compress air in the inlet compressor and generate power using hot carbon dioxide laden gas in the expander. Other efficiencies may be gained by incorporating heat cross-exchange, a desalination plant, co-generation, and other features.

Methods for accurately assessing the condition of a petroleum reservoir and designing and implementing a plan of action to increase production and recovery of petroleum from the reservoir. Information is gathered using a unique set of metrics and information gathering techniques and analyzed in a targeted fashion by properly weighting the data in the context of the particular reservoir and goals of the producer. A reservoir rating is generated using asymmetric analysis of metrics and then used to formulate a plan of action. Production architecture (e.g., number, location and manner of constructing oil and injector wells) is then constructed according to the plan of action. Reservoir performance can be continuously monitored and used to verify production and recovery goals and / or provide triggers or alarms to alter production equipment.

It is a purpose of this invention to accurately measure the properties of petroleum and petroleum fractions from a small volume of sample oil in a short period of time with less cost and energy for the analysis by vaporizing and distilling the respective components contained in the sample to be measured by a distillation apparatus. The components in the sample oil are first separated and vaporized by the distillation apparatus and the boiling point distribution of the respective components is measured. The property estimation means is equipped with a property estimation model for evaluating the property estimate value outputted from the property estimation model. The method is incorporated into standard or otherwise any distillation test apparatus to provide accurate measure of the thermodynamic and transport properties of undefined multicomponent mixtures such as crude oil, petroleum fractions, gas condensates and the like.

An aqueous slurry composition for use in industries such as the petroleum and pipeline industries includes a particulate, an aqueous liquid and a chemical compound that renders the particulate surface extremely hydrophobic. The slurry is produced by rendering the surface of the particulate extremely hydrophobic during or before making the slurry.

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for remotely analyzing and affirmatively notifying appropriate personnel of problems and events associated with an oil recovery system—comprising hundreds of oil rigs over a vast geographic area. The results of selected Health Checks, which are run on each oilrig, are reported to a central server. The central server populates a data base for the oil recovery system, displays a red / yellow / green color coded electronic notification and status for an entire oil recovery system and affirmatively alerts appropriate personnel of actions required to address events associated with an oilrig in an oil recovery system. The diagnostics run at each oilrig are configurable at the individual rig. The present invention provides a dynamic oilrig status reporting protocol that enables population and display of a tree node structure representing an entire oil recovery system status on a single screen at a top level. Detailed information is available by drilling down in to other screens, enabling rapid visual evaluation of a system Health Check.

This invention is of a drilling fluid composition containing a liquid thixotrope, which thixotrope is free of solvents or any other diluent, and is in easily usable, liquid form, pourable at ambient temperatures, and which provides effective and efficient rheological properties when used at low levels in such compositions. In a specific aspect, the invention provides an oil or oil invert emulsion drilling fluid composition containing one or more organoclays, and in addition contains a additive which comprises the reaction product of an alkoxylated nitrogen containing compound or a diamine, and one or more polycarboxylic acids in a specified equivalent ratio.

The method of the invention is applicable to oil production to obtain the impact of technical and economic uncertainties on the economic profitability of a reservoir and / or to optimize the position of a new well in order to meet a development strategy. The invention includes in stage 1, uncertain technical parameters having an influence on the reservoir production are selected; in stage 2, an analytic model expressing the reservoir production in the course of time is determined as a function of the parameters selected in stage 1, from production values obtained by means of a flow simulator; and in stage 3, a model expressing the economic profitability of the reservoir is determined as a function of the technical and economic parameters, from the analytic model determined in stage 2.

A self-supported riser system (100) for an Anticipated Production System (ASP) Test or a Long Duration Production (LDP) Test in a subsea petroleum production system, utilizing an ANM coupled to a wellhead and Floating Production Unit (FPU) is disclosed. The system includes a wellhead at the seabed, connected to an ANM (20) provided with a preventor (BOP of workover) (30). The preventor (30) is connected to a production riser (50) through a connection tool (40). The riser (50), mounted internally within a buoy assembly (60), is maintained under traction with the aid of a buoy assembly. The upper end of the riser (50) is provided with a Subsea Intervention Terminal (700), the Terminal being interlinked to the FPU by a flexible jumper (90) to carry the oil produced to the FPU. Two methods for installing the self-supported riser system (100) are also disclosed.

A method for determining the extent of recovery of materials injected or otherwise introduced into oil wells or subsurface formations is practiced using a portable device. The portable device can also be used to determiner the occurrence of a predetermined condition in an oil well such as water break through in a production zone, or the opening or closing of a sliding sleeve. When, for example, water breakthrough is detected, the zone producing too much water can be plugged, using, for example, a flow-through bridge plug, if there are other producing zones further downhole.

The present disclosure belongs to the field of offshore oil, and in particular relates to a method for assessing the safety integrity level of offshore oil well control equipment. The method for assessing the safety integrity level of the offshore oil well control equipment comprises three major steps: creating a safety instrumented function evaluation module and dividing the related devices for performing the safety instrumented functions into a sensor subsystem; a controller subsystem and an actuator subsystem, establishing a dynamic Bayesian network model for respective subsystems for calculation; and integrating, analyzing and optimizing the safety integrity data of the subsystems.

The pump and pump system of the present invention is designed to remove liquids, gas, sand and coal fines from gas and / or oil well bores. There is a need in the oil and gas industry to develop a more efficient operating pump that is capable of operating in wells that do not have enough bottom hole pressure to lift liquids to the surface causing the well to log off with fluids and if not economic, potentially be plugged prematurely. Additionally, this design will allow the producer the ability to conduct well bore maintenance such as acid flushes for perforation cleaning and scale batch treating for continued scale treatment.

A system for use in petroleum production at sea includes a guide frame for one or more riser pipes, on a semisubmersible production vessel. One or more main buoyancy member are arranged separately on at least one riser to carry the main part of the riser's weight. Each riser separately carries a Christmas tree on its top, near a main deck of the vessel. The guide frame comprises vertical main elements extending vertically downwards from the deck, through the splash zone and through the upper, more wave- and current-influenced zone of the sea. The guide frame also includes horizontal guide plates comprising vertically open cells formed of a horizontally arranged framework of beams. Lateral stabilization devices guide the risers' and the main buoyancy members' vertical movement relative to the vessel and restrict horizontal movement of the risers with respect to the guide frame. The guide plates are arranged in at least two levels on the guide frame. A lower guide plate is arranged at the lower ends of the vertical main elements', and a guide plate is arranged just below or near the splash zone. At least one main buoyancy member is held on the riser in level with, and guided by, lateral stabilization devices arranged in one or more guide plates below the upper, more wave- and current-influenced zone near the sea surface. The risers are without buoyancy elements through the splash zone, and thus are less exposed to the water forces in the upper zone of the sea.

An integrated process for production and upgrading of heavy and extra-heavy crude oil, comprising (a) reforming of hydrocarbons such as natural gas to produce hydrogen, CO2 and steam (b) separating the produced hydrogen from the CO2, steam and any other gases to give a hydrogen rich fraction and a CO2 rich fraction and steam, (c) injecting the steam alone or in combination with the CO2 rich fraction into a reservoir containing heavy or extra heavy oil to increase the oil recovery, and (d) upgrading / refining of the heavy or extra heavy oil to finished products by extensive hydroprocessing, comprising several steps of hydrocracking and hydrotreating (sulfur, nitrogen and metals removal as well as hydrogenation of olefins and aromatics), using the hydrogen rich fraction.

In the oil production industry one objective of the field operator is to streamline their oil pumping operations for the more efficient production. The current invention is a controller device used to continuously control and optimize oil production from a well. The current invention is used in conjunction with a precise well measuring device, i.e. a device that can precisely measure characteristics of a well at a moment in time, for generating real-time information to be used by the controller device to optimize the rate of oil production.

The present invention is directed to the upgrading of heavy petroleum oils of high viscosity and low API gravity that are typically not suitable for pipelining without the use of diluents. The method comprises introducing a particulate heat carrier into an up-flow reactor, introducing the feedstock at a location above the entry of the particulate heat carrier, allowing the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock to interact with the heat carrier for a short time, separating the vapors of the product stream from the particulate heat carrier and liquid and byproduct solid matter, collecting a gaseous and liquid product mixture comprising a mixture of a light fraction and a heavy fraction from the product stream, and using a vacuum tower to separate the light fraction as a substantially bottomless product and the heavy fraction from the product mixture.

There is a method for enhancing the recovery of oil from a reservoir. The method has the step of a) introducing a flooding fluid into the reservoir and b) extracting the oil through a wellbore at a location different than the point of introduction of the flooding fluid into the reservoir. The flooding fluid has water and an amount of one or more non-polymeric viscoelastic surfactants sufficient to provide an interfacial surface tension of about 1 mNm or less and a viscosity of about 10 cps or more. The one or more surfactants is selected from the group of one or more cationic surfactants, one or more zwitterionic surfactants, one or more amphoteric surfactants, one or more anionic surfactants, and combinations thereof.

The invention relates to an experimental method and a device for simulating the process that microcosmic remaining oil is extracted in a microcosmic simulation model under the condition of oil deposit high temperature and high pressure, researching feasibility of microorganism oil displacement technology in improving enhanced oil recovery after water drive, and carrying out visualized microcosmic oil displacement experimental research under the high temperature and high pressure experimental conditions, in particular to a high temperature and high pressure visual device for simulating microorganism oil displacement and a simulating method thereof. The device comprises a model clamp clamping a microcosmic visual model, a displacement system, a back pressure system, an annular pressure system, a pressure monitoring system, a temperature control system and an image collecting system. According to the device, temperature and pressure can be controlled easily, used space is small, safety performance is excellent, operation is simple, action mechanism of microorganism and petroleum hydrocarbon and starting mechanism of the microorganism on the remaining oil can be conveniently observed in a visualized condition, and the device has important significance on wide application and popularization of microcosmic experiments in oil industries.

A quantitative calculation method for oil (gas) saturation of fractured reservoir during petroleum exploitation is provided. The method comprises: obtaining the fracture porosity and calculating resistivity index at different depth of fractured reservoir with known full diameter core data and imaging logging data; establishing the percolation network model of matrix and fracture combination with known pore structure feature; calibrating the numerical simulation results obtained from percolation network model based on the data of core experiment and sealed coring analysis results, then obtaining the relationship between the resistivity index (I) and water saturation (Sw) at different fracture porosity; calculating the oil (gas) saturation of fractured reservoir through selecting an interpolation function. The oil (gas) saturation calculated with said method is 0.67, however 0.49 with common method in some fractured reservoir. The accuracy is improved by more than 0.18 in the studied fractured reservoir.

The present disclosure belongs to the field of marine engineering, and in particular relates to a method and system for guaranteeing the safety of offshore oil well control equipment. The method comprises: identifying the state of a main structure of the offshore oil well control equipment, identifying the state of a hydraulic control unit of offshore oil well control equipment, identifying the state of an electronic control unit of offshore oil well control equipment, predicting the state of the offshore oil well control equipment and making a real-time decision based on existing information; and the system for guaranteeing the safety of the offshore oil well control equipment comprises a state identification subsystem of a main structure, a state identification subsystem of the hydraulic control unit, a state identification subsystem of the electronic control unit and a state prediction and real-time decision subsystem.

Disclosed are strategies for the economical microbial generation of hydrogen, useful as an alternative energy source, from hydrocarbon-rich deposits such as coal, oil and / or gas formations, oil shale, bitumen, tar sands, carbonaceous shale, peat deposits and sediments rich in organic matter through the management of the metabolism of microbial consortia.

A process is provided that is directed to a steam pyrolysis zone integrated with a hydroprocessing zone including residual bypass to permit direct processing of crude oil feedstocks to produce petrochemicals including olefins and aromatics. The integrated hydrotreating and steam pyrolysis process for the direct processing of a crude oil to produce olefinic and aromatic petrochemicals comprises separating the crude oil into light components and heavy components; charging the light components and hydrogen to a hydroprocessing zone operating under conditions effective to produce a hydroprocessed effluent reduced having a reduced content of contaminants, an increased paraffinicity, reduced Bureau of Mines Correlation Index, and an increased American Petroleum Institute gravity; thermally cracking the hydroprocessed effluent in the presence of steam to produce a mixed product stream; separating the mixed product stream; purifying hydrogen recovered from the mixed product stream and recycling it to the hydroprocessing zone; recovering olefins and aromatics from the separated mixed product stream; and recovering a combined stream of pyrolysis fuel oil from the separated mixed product stream and heavy components from step (a) as a fuel oil blend.