EXPEC ARC Briefs Advisors on Tech Advances

DHAHRAN, September 28, 2009 --The EXPEC Advanced Research Center (EXPEC ARC) recently shared its latest technology milestones and new initiatives with its International Advisory Council (IAC) in London

The sixth IAC meeting was held at Saudi Aramco’s subsidiary company, Saudi Petroleum Overseas Limited (SPOL), with all five council members present: Nafi Toksoz, professor of geophysics and founder of the Earth Resources Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stephen Holditch, advisory council member and head of the Petroleum Engineering Department at Texas A&M University; Farouk El-Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University; Luciano Maiani, president of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, and former president and director general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN); and Sidqi Abu-Khamsin, chairman of the Petroleum Engineering Department at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM).

“We greatly value the relationship with these leading industry experts. During this two-day meeting, we were able to cover key technology topics in-depth as well as strategic initiatives to continue strengthening our department’s activities and plans,” said Samer AlAshgar, acting EXPEC ARC manager

Eight EXPEC ARC members representing all upstream disciplines presented technology milestones, strategic and optimization aspects, and other updates

The council shared the excitement with the technologists on many major advances, with Toksoz praising the efforts in the area of land seismic imaging.

Members commended the accomplishments in areas such as advanced completions and drilling technologies while expressing the importance of the Operations Services Division’s laboratory support.

Maiani provided feedback on computational modeling issues, and clay coating research received particular attention by El-Baz, who has investigated detailed aspects of sandstone and offered his insights.

The pursuit of injection water treatment for increased recovery was enthusiastically supported by the council, which was impressed with the initial lab experiments.

The council noted the industry value of collaboration and made suggestions for the Technology Quest that EXPEC ARC will hold in Houston during November 2009. The council highlighted the impact of such activity in attracting smaller technology developers to address upstream challenges.

In keeping with tradition, all five advisers made presentations on research topics they deemed useful for EXPEC ARC to consider.

Holditch shared his expertise in a few areas, including tight gas, saying, “As an industry, we have so far only scratched the surface in conventional resources, and there is more down there that is technically recoverable. Work in tight gas sands can be of enormous significance to the Kingdom.”

Upon conclusion of the IAC meeting, Holditch returned with the EXPEC ARC members to Dhahran and shared his latest research in tight gas at the department’s Technical Weekly Information Exchange (TWIX)

Holditch met with EXPEC ARC team members and Petroleum Engineering and Development professionals to discuss challenges and required technologies for tight gas reservoir development.