ABSTRACT
The second phase of Johan Sverdrup came on stream in December 2022. This paper focuses on the execution of Johan Sverdrup phase 2 and describes the assessments and investments for improved oil recovery (IOR) from one of the largest oil fields in Norway. The Johan Sverdrup field development has been called Equinor's ‘digital flagship', and this paper includes the proof of concept for the digital initiatives after more than three years of operation. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic Johan Sverdrup phase 2 has been able to deliver on schedule, under budget, and with an excellent safety record. The paper includes experiences from the concept development and engineering phase to the global contracting strategy, through the construction on multiple building sites in Norway and globally, and until the end of the completion phase offshore Norway. Johan Sverdrup is the third largest oil field on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), and with recoverable reserves estimated at 2.7 billion barrels of oil equivalents, has the resources to be a North Sea Giant. Start-up of the Johan Sverdrup phase 2 extends and accelerates oil and gas production from the NCS for another five decades. This paper aims to highlight what it took to make Johan Sverdrup a true North Sea Giant, fit for the 21st century: a safe and successful execution of a mega-project, with next-generation facilities adapted to a more digital way of working, with an ambition to profitably recover more than 70% of the resources, while limiting carbon emissions from production to a minimum. In many ways the Johan Sverdrup development has set a new standard for project execution in Equinor. The impact of different variables made during the execution of the project, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, market effects, procurement strategies, value improvement initiatives, execution performance and reservoir characteristics is addressed, as well as describing assessments and investments for improved oil recovery (IOR). Data acquisition, Permanent Reservoir Monitoring (PRM), fibre-optic monitoring of wells, innovative technologies, and digitalization, as well as new ways of working are included. Equinor ´s digital strategy was established in 2017, and Johan Sverdrup was highlighted as a digital flagship at that time and a frontrunner in applying digital solutions to improve safety and efficiency from the development to the operational phase. What has been implemented so far together with experiences will be shared. © 2023, Offshore Technology Conference.
ABSTRACT
40% of the world gas reserves are located in in the Middle East, of which most contain high amounts of corrosive gases H2S and CO2, this with other environmental factors exerts stress on metallic and nonmetallic materials. For Baker Hughes to address these challenges, one answer was to establish local competencies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a H2S lab and materials science focused team, ultimately targeting the reduction of total expense of corrosion, and to tap into the research capabilities and expertise available in the ecosystem. H2S gas is a major health and safety challenge to deal with, as it is a lethal, flammable, corrosive. The analysis to design the lab was supported by methods of Asset Integrity Risk Management looking on barriers, process, and industry standards. The human factor was considered to ensure competency, mindset & culture. Among others, OSHA standards were followed to develop the Chemical Hygiene Plan (CHP) and respiratory protection program and Emergency Response and Operations Plan (EROP). An unexpected challenge arose during the COVID-19 pandemic where measures were taken to limit infection while maintaining lab operation. The lab started operation with a narrow scope to focus on critical lab operational skill development, successive new competencies and workflows are added following a Management of Change (MOC) process. Current developments leverage the labs growing competence to address arising challenges on ultra-high H2S, CO2 for CCUS, and hydrogen for the energy transaction. Copyright © 2022, International Petroleum Technology Conference.
ABSTRACT
Water heating in Pakistan and its neighboring countries predominantly relies on inefficient, natural gas-wasting water heaters whose mechanical design has remained largely unmodified since their inception in the 1960s. The inefficiency of these water heaters has added much to the woes of depleting gas reserves of the region, leading to a widening demand-supply gap. Pakistan is facing its worst ever natural gas crisis due to a COVID-19 hit economy that cannot carry the burden of expensive imports, especially during the Russo-Ukrainian conflict that has sent the gas prices soaring in the international market. We respond to this challenge with a sense of urgency by proposing a solution that minimizes the wastage of natural gas in water heating, which consumes about half the gas supplied to residential consumers in the country. Our solution replaces the mechanical control of the water heater with an IoT-inspired, electrical retrofit design combining hardware and software for smart control through user-defined schedules or machine learning, while solving several challenges that arise from replacing a mechanical control system with an electrical one. Empirical results demonstrate 70% reduction in consumption. © 2022 ACM.
ABSTRACT
Natural gas will play more and more important role in the sustainable low-carbon development mode characterized by low energy consumption, low pollution and low emission. It has been and will continue to be the focus of attention. The 28th World Gas Conference (WGC2022) was held on May 23-27, 2022 in Daegu, South Korea. The conference summarized the progress of world natural gas in the past four years, analyzed and judged the future development trend, and reached seven consensuses: (1) Natural gas is not only a transitional fuel, but also a basic fuel for future development. (2) Supply and demand value chain of natural gas has high flexibility and adaptability, and supply diversification has become a development advantage. (3) With the effect of the rapid increase of oil and gas price, the reversal of natural gas to coal has intensified the rapid growth of global carbon emissions. (4) Structural tension is emerging in the global LNG market, and the number of long-term agreement contracts will show an increasing trend. (5) The coordinated development of natural gas and hydrogen will accelerate the arrival of the low-carbon era. (6) Methane monitoring and leakage measurement technology in the natural gas industry will become the next important innovation. (7) Governments of various countries have continuously raised the minimum level of underground gas storage, and successively issued incentive policies to increase gas reserves and production. Based on the experience, the following suggestions are put forward for the development of China's natural gas: (1) Continue to highlight the important position of the natural gas industry, increase exploration and development, and improve supply capacity and voice;(2) To adapt to the new setup of international natural gas supply caused by the COVID-19 and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and to formulate overall strategies for natural gas import and export trade;(3) Attach importance to LNG business, scientifically arrange the construction of LNG import supporting facilities, and take the initiative to cooperate with natural gas resource countries;(4) The whole industrial chain of natural gas and hydrogen business should be planned and deployed together, and hydrogen and natural gas infrastructure construction should be linked up effectively;(5) Increase policy support, strengthen infrastructure construction such as underground gas storage and LNG terminal, reserve more energy to develop confidence, and build a strong defense line for energy security. © 2022 Natural Gas Industry Journal Agency. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The depleting fossil fuel reserves, rising air pollution, technology transformation threat, and most recently, global economic slowdown by the COVID-19 pandemic, led the internal combustion engine-based automotive industries in a critical condition. The development of improved biofuels to meet stringent emission norms is a promising solution. Higher alcohols possess the fuel properties better than lower alcohols to blend with diesel and biodiesel. The miscibility and higher viscosity is the issue. Preheating can help the vaporization and atomization of fuel. The present study investigates the engine characteristics of moderately preheated ternary fuel using 20 to 40% blends of 1-hexanol, waste cooking oil biodiesel, and diesel. The study found that moderately preheated ternary fuel blends showed a drop in brake-specific fuel consumption, HC, CO, and smoke emissions with improvement in peak cylinder pressure, heat release rate, and brake thermal efficiency. A multi-layer neural network model is developed to prognosticate the engine characteristics. Backpropagation algorithm-based neural network with single hidden layers using Levenberg–Marquardt training function gave the best results. The mean square error of the network was 0.00028517 and the correlation coefficient was 0.99944, 0.99945, and 0.99923 for training, validation, and testing respectively. The mean absolute percentage error was found below 4%. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd