海角社区 PETE Faculty, ExxonMobil URC Study Gas Migration at PERTT Lab
August 3, 2022
BATON ROUGE, LA 鈥� ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company (URC) has joined forces with
海角社区 Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering (PETE) faculty to conduct
gas migration experiments as part of a financial grant from ExxonMobil URC. The one-year
project is meant to improve safety and operational efficiencies in oil and gas while
also making advancements in academia and industry.
海角社区 PETE Professional in Residence Mauricio Almeida is the principal investigator on the project, with 海角社区 PETE Assistant Professors Jyotsna Sharma and Yuanhang Chen and 海角社区 PETE Professional in Residence Otto Santos working on the project as well.
Gas migration occurs when gas enters a well and migrates up the wellbore towards the surface, which can lead to potentially dangerous situations if unchecked.
鈥淲hen we鈥檙e drilling a well offshore, we have the possibility of exposing formations where we have gas or oil,鈥� Almeida said. 鈥淔or safety, we don鈥檛 allow gas to enter the well. However, sometimes it happens. We call it a 鈥榢ick.鈥� Once gas enters the well, we have techniques to get the gas out of the well in a safe manner. If we don鈥檛 do that, we could get into an uncontrolled situation where the gas can go to the surface and result in a well blowout.鈥�
Almeida says that the problem is not having all of the answers on how to control the kick. Understanding how this phenomenon happens is important in order to find answers. One technique used today called managed pressure drilling allows workers to control the well with gas inside, but knowing if the pressure is building up is critical so it doesn鈥檛 overcome the limit of the surface equipment.
It鈥檚 also important to know how the gas behaves while in the well to determine when they may want to pump the gas back down.
鈥淚n order to understand how the gas behaves, we have a theoretical approach, which involves developing mathematical models that can give an idea of what happened,鈥� Almeida said. 鈥淏ut, the models are not always 100% precise and need to be validated against real data to see if the modeling is working. That鈥檚 where our facilities and wells come into play.鈥�
海角社区鈥檚 Petroleum Engineering Research, Training & Testing (PERTT) Lab provides Almeida鈥檚 team and ExxonMobil URC with an industrial-scale facility with full-scale equipment and instrumentation for conducting research related to petroleum technology.
鈥淭he reason we approached 海角社区 for this project is because we were looking for a test facility where we could do gas migration tests in synthetic-based mud in a real test well with downhole instrumentation,鈥� ExxonMobil URC Senior Research Engineer Sai Rao said. 鈥淭he 海角社区 PERTT well is unique in the nation鈥攁 fully-instrumented 5,000-ft. well with downhole pressure and temperature gauges. Further, it has a fiber optic measurement system in the well, which sets it apart. These capabilities together with the expertise of the 海角社区 faculty, lab staff, and graduate students, created the perfect ecosystem to solve this challenging problem and advance the fundamental science of downhole gas migration for the entire industry.鈥�
鈥淲e are excited about the collaborative research program with 海角社区 PERTT and faculty in petroleum engineering,鈥� said Paul Gupta, team lead, ExxonMobil URC. 鈥淲ith the unique test well at PERTT and the faculty expertise in well control and downhole instrumentation including fiber optics, we are studying the behavior of gas deep down in drilling scenarios. This is a first of its kind study and comes as close to being able to 鈥榮ee鈥� downhole in real time without a camera. This work will benefit our industry in better planning of drilling operations, conserving resources, and improving safety. There will likely be other non-drilling applications related to gas behavior in wells.鈥�
The first phase of the project is complete, and the team is currently planning the next phase.
鈥淓ven when this project is complete, this topic is something that will still be worked on,鈥� Almeida said. 鈥満＝巧缜� hopes to work with ExxonMobil URC again on similar projects in the future.鈥�
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