6 - Kuwait Oil Company

KOC DMD NK Hosnia Hashim addresses the audience.
and Andrew Dennant,
Emerson. Sellman, the
first speaker, discussed
the issue of improved
dehydration of heavy
crude oil with advanced
electrostatic process.
He maintained that the
dehydration efficiency
of heavy oils for both
treaters and desalters can
be reduced by several
physical parameters,
including the crude
oil conductivity, solids
content, Napthenates,
viscosity, water salinity
and solubility. He also
maintained that newer
electrostatic methods
have improved the
dehydration and desalting
of heavy oils by increasing
the electrostatic field
strength and improving
the vessel hydraulics.
Efficient vessel hydraulics
is essential to achieving
maximum dehydration
performance. Not only
is the oil distribution
critical but also the crude
oil collection is equally
important to maintaining
effective performance.
A new distributor, he
said, can increase the
vessel utilization from a
low 50% up to 95%.
The second speaker, Eissa
Al-Safran, is an Associate
Professor of Petroleum
Engineering and the Vice
Dean for Research and
Academic Affairs at the
College of Engineering
and Petroleum at Kuwait
University. He was also
the founder and director
of Kuwait University
Production Research
Center (KUPRC). Al-
Safran holds a Phd. in
Petroleum Engineering
and worked for KOC
as a reservoir engineer
from 1995 to 1997
and was a consultant
for KOC Research and
Technology Group
from 2007 to 2012.
During his talk, Al-
Safran discussed
how multiphase flow
technology is important
for the efficient, safe and
economical transportation
of hydrocarbon mixture
in wellbore and pipelines.
Heavy oil production and
transportation introduces
several flow assurance
issues due to the nature
of the produced fluids
and the heavy oil recovery
techniques. The flow
of very high viscosity
oils may impair the
economic deliverability
of wells due to complex
and poorly-understood
flow characteristics and
inaccurate predictions
using existing two-phase
flow models. In addition,
heavy oil, gas, water
separation presents a
serious challenge due
to high retention time
required for efficient
separation, which requires
significantly large vessels
with high costs and large
footprints. Therefore, new
separation methods and
technologies are required
for efficient separation
and further processing.
Al-Safran’s presentation
introduced the topic of
heavy oil multiphase flow
in pipes and separation
and presented the
challenges faced by the
oil industry today. In
addition, the presentation
aimed to shed light on
possible solutions for
current field issues and
future field challenges in
heavy oil multiphase flows
in production systems.
Brownfield
Redevelopment and
Well Stimulation:
In the fourth
session, which was
titled “Brownfield
Redevelopment and Well
Stimulation,” speakers
discussed how heavy
crude oil provides
particular challenges
for the oil and gas
industry, both in the
extraction phase as well
as in the processing
and dehydration phase.
Production analysis show
that the world average
crude oil API gravity is
dropping every year and
the majority of the long
term known reserves are
for heavy crude oil.
Speakers during this
session maintained that
the particular challenges
of heavy crude oil include
high oil density and
low gas/oil ration, high
crude oil viscosity and
transportation issues,
increased solids content,
low density difference
between crude oil and
formation water, high
crude oil conductivity,
increased crude oil
emulsion stability, low
FWKO separation
efficiency, less efficient
instrumentation.
The tradition remedy
to the aforementioned
challenges often leads
to high operating
temperatures, large
dosages of demulsifier
chemicals, equipment
fouling, production
upsets, and use of very
large treaters. This leads
to both higher operating
expenditure (OPEX) as
well as higher capital
expenditure (CAPEX).
Intelligent Fields
– Challenges:
The fifth and final session
included three speakers,
two of whom are from
KOC. The session,
titled “Intelligent Fields
– Challenges,” sought
to explain production
optimization as the
maximization of value
from hydrocarbon
assets which is mainly
achieved by improving
both recovery and flow
rates from wells. A key
technique for this is well
stimulation which involved
treating the near wellbore
region of the reservoir
in order to reduce
formation damage or
increase the inflow area.
In some cases, such as
shale gas development,
it is not possible to
economically produce
any hydrocarbons without
stimulating the well. There
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April - June 2013