Oil And Gas Technology And Humans

The oil and gas industry is going through a major technological shift. This is particularly true of the Norwegian continental shelf where new work processes are being implemented based on digital infrastructure and information technology. The term Integrated Operations (IO) has been applied to this set of new processes. It is defined by the Centre for Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry as 'work processes and technology to make smarter decisions and better execution, enabled by ubiquitous real time data, collaborative techniques and access to multiple expertise'. It's claimed that IO is efficient, optimises exploration, reduces costs and improves safety performance. However, the picture is not as clear-cut as it may appear. On the one hand, the new work processes do not prevent major accidents: IO-related factors have been identified in recent events such as the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. On the other hand, IO technology provides improved decision-making support (such as access to real-time data and expertise), which can reduce human and material losses and damage to the environment. Given these very different properties, it's vital that the industry has a detailed understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of IO, which this book sets out to do from a multidisciplinary point of view. It analyses Integrated Operations from the angles of statistics, management science, human factors and resilience engineering. These varied disciplines provide a multifaceted understanding of IO that better informs risk assessment practices, as well as explaining new techniques and methods and provides state-of-the-art guidance to risk assessment practitioners working in the oil and gas industry.

Oil and gas are important to every aspect of our economy, yet the oil and gas industry is distinguished by its combination of increasing demands and decreasing discovery volumes--and it is an industry shrouded in an environment of extremely volatile pricing. Although the profits enjoyed by the oil and gas industry are enormous, the industry remains one of the most capital-intensive in a world where rising expenses continue to threaten to squeeze profit margins. Geopolitics may continue to be the most important variable in maintaining existing assets and in successfully achieving new discoveries and carrying out their subsequent development. But finding new oil and gas reserves is becoming more challenging and the places where hydrocarbons are being found are more remote. Thus technology advances are also a key variable to enable exploration, drilling and development to become economically feasible in some of these more difficult operating environments. For the last century oil and gas additions have exceeded demand but has this industry now reached a "peak oil" situation? Some experts argue we are on the cusp of maximum oil production while others suggest we are still about a decade away. Natural gas demand however, is rising at a slightly faster rate than oil. Natural gas may be the immediate replacement fuel for oil as a source of clean and efficient electric power generation. Three out of the top ten Fortune 500 companies were oil/gas companies in 2011. This short introduction to the oil and gas industry will focus on history, operations, major companies, outside market forces, regulation and the current challenges the industry faces. Such factors as finite natural resources, the environment, economics, geopolitics, and technology will all come into play in the narrative. The book will demonstrate how the leaders of this industry, former champions of progress, are now coming under scrutiny and being depicted as the biggest culprits of environmental degradation. Yet the industry is likely to continue to grow until some form of alternate fuels is developed. The oil and gas industry will continue to have an enormous impact on life on the planet.

Delves into the core and functional areas in the upstream oil and gas industry covering a wide range of operations and processes Oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) activities are costly, risky and technology-intensive. With the rise in global demand for oil and fast depletion of easy reserves, the search for oil is directed to more difficult areas – deepwater, arctic region, hostile terrains; and future production is expected to come from increasingly difficult reserves – deeper horizon, low quality crude. All these are making E&P activities even more challenging in terms of operations, technology, cost and risk. Therefore, it is necessary to use scarce resources judiciously and optimize strategies, cost and capital, and improve business performance in all spheres of E&P business. Optimization and Business Improvement Studies in Upstream Oil and Gas Industry contains eleven real-life optimization and business improvement studies that delve into the core E&P activities and functional areas covering a wide range of operations and processes. It uses various quantitative and qualitative techniques, such as Linear Programing, Queuing theory, Critical Path Analysis, Economic analysis, Best Practices Benchmark, Business Process Simplification etc. to optimize Productivity of drilling operations Controllable rig time loss Deepwater exploration strategy Rig move time and activity schedule Offshore supply vessel fleet size Supply chain management system Strategic workforce and human resource productivity Base oil price for a country Standardize consumption of materials Develop uniform safety standards for offshore installations Improve organizational efficiency through business process simplification The book will be of immense interest to practicing managers, professionals and employees at all levels/ disciplines in oil and gas industry. It will also be useful to academicians, scholars, educational institutes, energy research institutes, and consultants dealing with oil and gas. The work can be used as a practical guide to upstream professionals and students in petroleum engineering programs.

In social science terms, the `Arctic' is a relative, not an absolute concept, relating to several dimensions, such as constitutional and geographic status, remoteness, socioeconomic status, and demographic/anthropological factors. There is only one sovereign state with all its territory situated in the Arctic (Iceland), but many other areas of the globe have shared characteristics (Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, areas of Norway, Sweden and Finland north of the Polar Circle, Greenland, the Faroes). Remoteness has to do with distance from the centre as well as accessibility, transportation and communication. Socioeconomically, the Arctic is characterised by a low population density, a fragile natural environment, and overwhelming economic dependence on one or a few resources, often coupled with income transfer. Demographically, the region has a large number of indigenous peoples, heavy immigration from the South (albeit only seasonal), minority problems, immigrant majorities, high infant mortality, low expected lifespan. The present book is the first to present a large number of articles on the contemporary social, economic and political development in the Arctic, written by social scientists from Russia and the western world, many of whom live and conduct their research in the region. The book thus presents a much more complete picture of the modern world of the Arctic, offering a unique opportunity to compare what is happening in the different parts of the region.

The latest oil and gas well completion technologies and best practices Increase oil and gas production and maximize revenue generation using the start-to-finish completion procedures contained in this hands-on guide. Written by a pair of energy production experts, Modern Completion Technology for Oil and Gas Wells introduces each technique, shows how it works, and teaches how to deploy it effectively. You will get full explanations of the goals of completion along with detailed examples and case studies that clearly demonstrate how to successfully meet those goals. Modern production methods such as hydraulic fracturing, acid simulation, and intelligent well completions are thoroughly covered. Coverage includes: •Functions and goals of oil and gas well completion •Well completion fundamentals •Completion impact in near-wellbore region to inflow performance •Completions for fracturing •Completions for acid stimulation •Intelligent well completion: downhole monitoring and flow control •Completion designs for production and injection optimization

This edited volume discusses scientific and technological aspects of the history of the oil and gas industry in national and international contexts. The search for oil for industrial uses began in the nineteenth century, the first drills made in Azerbaijan and the United States. This intense search for a substance to become one of the most important energy sources was, many times, based on skill as well as luck, resulting in knowledge and the development of prospecting and exploration technologies. The demand for oil improved expertise in geological science, in areas such as micropaleontology, stratigraphy or sedimentology and informed different disciplines such as geophysics. These contributions made possible not only the discovery of new oil fields but also new applications and methods of exploration. Beyond the scientific and technological aspects, an industry that grew to such considerable size also impacted the political, economic, social, cultural, environmental and diplomatic issues in history. The book approaches these changes in different scales, countries, areas, and perspectives. This edited book appeals to researchers, student, practitioners in various fields from geology and geophysics to history. It is also an important resource for professionals in the oil and gas industry.

How is digitalization of the offshore oil industry fundamentally changing how we understand work and ways of knowing? Digitalization sits at the forefront of public and academic conversation today, calling into question how we work and how we know. In Digital Oil, Eric Monteiro uses the Norwegian offshore oil and gas industry as a lens to investigate the effects of digitalization on embodied labor, and in doing so shows how our use of new digital technology transforms work and knowing. For years, roughnecks have performed the dangerous and unwieldy work of extracting the oil that lies three miles below the seabed along the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Today, the Norwegian oil industry is largely digital, operated by sensors and driven by data. Digital representations of physical processes inform work practices and decision-making with remotely operated, unmanned deep-sea facilities. Drawing on two decades of in-depth interviews, observations, news clips, and studies of this industry, Eric Monteiro dismantles the divide between the virtual and the physical in Digital Oil. What is gained or lost when objects and processes become algorithmic phenomena with the digital inferred from the physical? How can data-driven work practices and operational decision-making approximate qualitative interpretation, professional judgement, and evaluation? How are emergent digital platforms and infrastructures, as machineries of knowing, enabling digitalization? In answering these questions Monteiro offers a novel analysis of digitalization as an effort to press the limits of quantification of the qualitative.

This book examines the trends and motivations of human capital flows from India into this region. Focusing in particular on Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, the book provides an analysis of Indian labour in a variety of sectors, including information technology (IT) sector, academia, banking, oil and gas. Based on empirical data, the book provides an analysis of current trends in the flow of human capital from India to Southeast Asia.

Gas and Oil Reliability Engineering: Modeling and Analysis, Second Edition, provides the latest tactics and processes that can be used in oil and gas markets to improve reliability knowledge and reduce costs to stay competitive, especially while oil prices are low. Updated with relevant analysis and case studies covering equipment for both onshore and offshore operations, this reference provides the engineer and manager with more information on lifetime data analysis (LDA), safety integrity levels (SILs), and asset management. New chapters on safety, more coverage on the latest software, and techniques such as ReBi (Reliability-Based Inspection), ReGBI (Reliability Growth-Based Inspection), RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance), and LDA (Lifetime Data Analysis), and asset integrity management, make the book a critical resource that will arm engineers and managers with the basic reliability principles and standard concepts that are necessary to explain their use for reliability assurance for the oil and gas industry. Provides the latest tactics and processes that can be used in oil and gas markets to improve reliability knowledge and reduce costs Presents practical knowledge with over 20 new internationally-based case studies covering BOPs, offshore platforms, pipelines, valves, and subsea equipment from various locations, such as Australia, the Middle East, and Asia Contains expanded explanations of reliability skills with a new chapter on asset integrity management, relevant software, and techniques training, such as THERP, ASEP, RBI, FMEA, and RAMS

Oil and gas are the most important non-renewable sources of energy. Exploring, producing and managing these resources in compliance with HSE standards are challenging tasks. New technologies, workflows and procedures have to be implemented.This book deals with some of these themes and describes some of the advanced technologies related to the oil and gas industry from HSE to field management issues. Some new technologies for geo-modeling, transient well testing and digital rock physics are also introduced. There are many more technical topics to be addressed in future books. This book is aimed at researchers, petroleum engineers, geoscientists and people working within the petroleum industry.