April/May 2010 Highlights
May 19, 2010
Curtin University
Using advanced computer modelling technology, Curtin University
of Technology researchers have assisted in understanding flow
distribution issues at BP’s oil refinery in Kwinana.
A team led by Curtin’s Centre of Process Systems Computations
(CPSC) Co-Director, Associate Professor Vishnu Pareek, with BP
Global FCC Advisor Michael Glenny and the University of Newcastle’s
Professor Geoffrey Evans, used advanced computer modelling to
improve the refinery’s performance without interrupting
production.
Funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant, the
team developed a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model showing
how different designs and operating conditions could affect the
refinery’s operations.
“Our primary goal was to develop a CFD model based on the complex
interactions between gases and solids within the refinery’s FCC
catalyst strippers.”
Associate Professor Pareek said it was the first time such a model
has been developed for this kind of catalyst stripper.
“Previously, it has taken weeks of computer time to simulate only a
few seconds of real-time in the catalyst stripper,” he said.
“This project used innovative techniques to achieve realistic flow
predictions with the least amount of computational effort
required.”
Mr Glenny said the revamp, conducted at BP’s Kwinana refinery in
December 2008, has realised many benefits including saving the
company hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in steam
usage.
“This modelling improved our confidence in the proposed hardware
modifications for the refinery and decreased the time taken to
implement them,” he said.
The University of Western Australia
In an Australian first, researchers have observed the generation
of internal waves flowing hundreds of metres beneath the ocean
surface on the North West Shelf.
The research - carried out by The University of Western Australia
(UWA) and funded by the Western Australian Marine Science
Institution (WAMSI) with support by Woodside Energy and the
Australian Research Council - will benefit the design and safety of
oil and gas infrastructure.
"Internal waves can affect the thousands of kilometres of oil and
gas pipelines on the North West Shelf," research leader Professor
Greg Ivey, UWA's Winthrop Professor of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics,
said.
"They are similar to surface waves but instead of travelling along
the top of the water they travel beneath the surface and occur when
cold water from the bottom of the ocean is pushed up the
continental slope by tides.
"They can be up to 80 metres high in water columns where the total
water depth is only 120 metres. As they travel inshore they
steepen, which results in large near-bottom currents and energetic
turbulence - a benthic storm," he said.
Professor Ivey was able to confirm that the internal waves
originated at a depth of 400 metres and took 30 to 40 hours to
travel the 70 kilometres to reach Woodside Energy's North Rankin
platform.
"Experiments have taken place offshore from Ningaloo Reef and the
new mooring instrument system is now being deployed in the
Kimberley Browse Basin region," he said.
"We will be able to calculate the travel time, wave strength,
turbulent response and other factors associated with the moving
waves at different locations on the North West Shelf.
"It will be of huge interest to marine managers, the offshore
industry, coastal developers, aquaculture business owners,
fisheries managers and the tourism industry."
CSIRO
CSIRO has released an updated version of PressureDB, a quality
controlled database of geological data for petroleum wells across
Australia and its territorial waters. In collaboration with the
Geological Survey of Queensland, data for 153 representative
Queensland petroleum exploration wells have been added. The
addition of these new wells, predominantly from the Bowen/Surat and
Cooper/Eromanga basins, brings the total number of wells in the
database to 1743.
PressureDB is the only formation pressure database of its kind for
Australian data. The data includes pressure, temperature, salinity,
lithology and stratigraphy and related geological information and
now covers over 67,000 pressure, 16,000 temperature and almost
5,000 salinity data points which have been quality assessed using
CSIRO’s PressureQC system. This data is now being used in a variety
of research programs and collaborations for petroleum exploration
and carbon dioxide geological storage.
In collaboration with CSIRO, the Geological Survey of Queensland
will use the data to investigate the potential of key aquifers in
Queensland basins for carbon dioxide geostorage. Preliminary
2D conceptual flow models for key reservoirs and seals in the Surat
Basin have already been successfully produced using the database
information in conjunction with groundwater data.
PressureDB is also currently being used in a research partnership
with the Victorian Department of Primary Industries, to
characterise and explore Victorian sedimentary basins for new oil
and gas reserves and potential geological storage sites for carbon
dioxide. The CO2CRC for Greenhouse Gas Technologies uses the
database as part of its research and CSIRO is also working with the
WA Geothermal Centre of Excellence to use and develop the database
to identify possible sources of geothermal energy.
The entire database, including the new wells, and PressurePlot (the
software package to analyse and display the data) can be downloaded
free of charge from www.pressureplot.com
CGGVeritas
CGGVeritas announced the successful completion of the
acquisition phase of a first continuous land 3D
SeisMovie(tm) project conducted for Shell Canada in the
Peace River region, Alberta, Canada. The project is a joint
technology trial with Shell Canada; data acquisition spanned 90
days of continuous operations and was completed with Zero HSE
Incidents.
SeisMovie is a patented* reservoir monitoring technology that is
particularly applicable to steam-assisted heavy oil production. On
this project, multiple permanently buried SeisMovie sources were
continuously and simultaneously activated over a period of three
months to collect up to 1 TB of raw data daily. After real-time
in-field automatic processing, a daily stack was produced. These
data are currently being analyzed, in a collaborative effort
between Shell and CGGVeritas, to extract a time-lapse reservoir
signal.
Jean-Jacques Postel, Executive Vice President, Land Acquisition
Product Line, CGGVeritas, said: "SeisMovie is the only 4D seismic
acquisition solution of its kind in the world. Its deployment
enables companies to effectively monitor reservoir changes over
long periods of time while minimizing human intervention and
environmental impact. It is a safe, long-term solution for
autonomous real-time monitoring of reservoirs. SeisMovie offers our
clients the ability to see and utilize time-lapse effects to better
understand the evolution of reservoir production and ultimately
enhance recovery rates."
*patent rights jointly owned by CGGVeritas, IFP and GDF SUEZ
