Petroleum Industry | HSE – Concepts | Health - Safety - Environment

If you are interested in presenting a talk at the conference ( World Congress on Petrochemistry and Chemical Engineering ), please submit a copy of your abstract here Abstract Submission

Petroleum industry makes use of many different activities in all the sectors of the business cycle: from upstream to downstream.

Oil and services company’s management apply HSE policies to all levels of operations and in all sectors.

Health, Safety, Environment are separate issues, each with its own technology, but they are often combined in the same functional groups within the oil companies.

These three subjects are of paramount importance to the petroleum industry and adherence to HSE guidelines is a requirement for operators worldwide and is also dictated by internal policies of most corporations.

It is fundamental to have and implement an HSEMS (Health, Safety, and Environmental Management System) which defines the principles by which operations are conducted and control the risks in the whole industry cycle.

Health

The health function typically deals with the well-being of the employees as they live and work in their environment.

It deals with the conduct of activities in such a way as to avoid harm to the health of employees and others, and to promote, as appropriate, their health.

Typically, the health function focuses on the effects of oil field chemicals and oil field physical environment on employees.

Safety

The safety function focuses on protecting the employee from the risk involved during any type of operation and duties.

It is related to the principle that all injuries should be prevented and actively promote amongst all those associated with their activities the high standards of safety consciousness and discipline that this principle demands.

The safety function seeks to minimize these risks and monitor the effectiveness of the minimization activities.

Environment

The environmental function focuses on the effects that petroleum activities have on the natural resources.

The environmental issue pursuit the progressive reductions of emissions, effluents, and discharges of waste materials that are known to have a negative impact on the environment, with the ultimate aim of eliminating them.

It aims to provide products and services and advice which will not cause injury or undue effects on the environment.

It promotes the protection of environments which may be affected by the development of petroleum activities and seek continuous improvement in the efficiency of use of natural resources and energy.

All petroleum activities are subject to a declaration of environmental compatibility issued by the competent Authorities after in-depth studies of the possible environmental impact. These studies include

• Identify sensitive environmental issues
• State possible environmental impact
• Provide a description of the technology and methodology necessary to reduce the risk of damage

The declaration of environmental compatibility is then issued on the basis of a synthetic evaluation which is the cornerstone for conclusions on how acceptable the environmental risk is in terms of chemical pollution, noise pollution, visual impact, smells and, more generally, of any other element which may interfere with the environment.

Oil Companies are constantly researching technology which will allow them to reconcile their operations with the protection of the environment and local ecosystems.

Occupational health and safety issues should be considered as part of a comprehensive hazard or risk assessment, including, for example, a hazard identification study [HAZID], hazard and operability study [HAZOP], or other risk assessment studies.

The results should be used for health and safety management planning, in the design of the facility and safe working systems, and in the preparation and communication of safe working procedures.

The following environmental issues should be considered as part of a comprehensive assessment and management program that addresses project-specific risks and potential impacts:

• Air emissions
• Wastewater/effluent discharges
• Solid and liquid waste management
• Noise generation
• Terrestrial impacts and project footprint
• Spills

During the transport of petroleum, safety and environmental issues are well studied, assessed and continuously implemented to avoid any type of problem which could affect the people involved and the environment which can be very sensitive (land and marine).

The marine transport of oil has increased during the years and the spills are not an occasional consequence of oil traffic.

The environmental impacts of petroleum refinery industry are both direct and indirect:

• Indirect impacts are connected with the final use of petroleum products and pertain not so much to the environmental management of a refinery, as to its overall configuration and to the integration of the various processes that determine the ecological quality of the products
• Direct impacts are generated by processing units and by the activities carried out within the refinery.

The industry’s adoption of more stringent restrictions concerning environmental safety does not always mean increased costs in the long-run, but can also provide an opportunity for improving the overall efficiency of productive activity as well as create conditions of greater competitiveness.

Credits: Oil and Gas portal

Oil and Gas- Offshore Drilling Rigs

Modern and advanced drilling techniques and methods have increased Companies’ ability to find hydrocarbons and the speed at which their projects are developed.

There are technology advances for exploration and development, better control of environmental impacts, increased efficiency, and improved understanding of the marine environment.

The techniques and equipment for drilling offshore wells (offshore drilling) are very similar to those used for onshore drilling.

The main differences consist in the arrangement of the drilling rig and of the equipment and in certain particular methods of carrying out the operations, which have to be adapted to the requirements dictated by far more difficult and often extreme environmental conditions.

This entails considerably higher costs, which must also be added considerable investments to provide the facilities and plants for subsequent field development.

An offshore drilling rig has to create the same working conditions as for onshore rigs which can move from one point to another without any difficulty, and they have several additional features to adapt them to the marine environment, including:

Heliport

• a large deck area that is placed high and to the side of offshore rigs;
• It is an important feature since helicopters are often the primary means of transportation.

Living quarters

• usually comprise bedrooms, a dining hall, a recreation room, office space, and an infirmary.

Cranes

• used to move equipment and material from workboats onto the rig and to shift the loads around on the rig.

Risers

• used to extend the wellhead from the mudline to the surface.

These conditions increase the complexity of the offshore rigs and justify their higher daily rate compared with an onshore drilling rig of the same capacity.

From an operational point of view, offshore drilling may be subdivided into two main categories, depending on the water depth.

1.  Bottom supported drilling rigs

• The safety equipment, i.e. ordinary Blow-Out Preventers (BOPs) located permanently above sea level and accessible from the supporting structure;
• drilling operations are identical to those carried out in onshore drilling.

2.  Floating drilling rigs

• The wellhead and the subsea BOPs are placed on the seabed and are not therefore directly accessible from the supporting structure.
• Drilling operations differ from onshore ones, as the rig floats, subjected to the action of the wind, currents, and waves, which cause it to make small horizontal and vertical movements.

The use of floating rigs is necessary for exploratory drilling in water depths of more than 100 m (this refers solely to exploratory drilling operations, and not to the subsequent development drilling).

Exploration Drilling Rigs

1.  Bottom supported rigs

Barges

• They are designed to work in shallow water (less than20 ft deep).
• The rig is floated to the drill site, and the lower hull is sunk to rest on the sea bottom.
• The large surface area of the lower hull keeps the rig from sinking into the soft mud and provides a stable drilling platform.

Drilling Barge

Submersibles

• They are barge that is designed to work in deeper water (to 50 ft deep);
• They have extensions that allow it to raise its upper hull above the water level.

Submersible Drilling Rig

Platforms

• Platforms use a jacket (a steel tubular framework anchored to the ocean bottom) to support the surface production equipment, living quarters, and drilling rig.
• Multiple directional wells are drilled from the platform by using a rig with a movable substructure.

Offshore Drilling Platform

Jackups

• Backups are similar to platforms except that the support legs are not permanently attached to the seafloor – The weight of the rig is sufficient to keep it on location.

Jack Up Drilling Rig

2. Floating drilling rigs

They are not attached or resting on the ocean bottom and have special features to facilitate this:

                    (i)  They are held on location by anchors or dynamic positioning
                    (ii)  The drill string and riser are isolated from wave motion by motion compensators.

There are two categories of drilling floating rigs

Semi-submersible rigs

• They consist of a large triangular, rectangular or pentangular platform, connected with submerged hulls by means of large columns which vary in number from 3 to 8, according to the shape of the vessel
• They are kept vertical over the site by means of mooring or dynamic positioning systems
• Semis are subjected to wave motion, their drilling apparatus is located in the center where wave motion is minimal.

Drill ships

• Drilling ships are used for operating in deep waters, often under extreme environmental conditions, such as drilling in arctic areas
• Drilling ships represent an optimal solution of drilling exploratory wells in remote areas, far removed from supply points, as it can carry all the material necessary for drilling even a particularly difficult well.
• Drilling ships are kept in a vertical position over the well by means of mooring or dynamic positioning systems

Drilling Ship

Offshore drilling operations

• Drilling starts after the rig has been positioned vertically over the well, by means of mooring or dynamic positioning systems.

Subsea BOPs

• In offshore drilling, BOPs have the same function as those used in onshore wells but are connected in a single complex (the BOP stack) before being mounted on the wellhead, so as to reduce assembly times at the sea bottom.
• They are lodged in a square-section cage structure with female columns at the apexes, into which the male tubular columns of the permanent guide structure fit.
• The BOP stack is lowered and fastened to the wellhead by means of a hydraulically controlled connection, ensuring hydraulic sealing.

A drilling ship and a subsea BOP stack

A semisub drilling rig and a subsea BOP Stack

                        

Credits: Oil and Gas portal

Oil & Gas- Drilling Technologies

Oil well drilling is a complex operation and the drilling industry engages the services of personnel and a complicated array of machinery and materials to drill an oil/gas well to depths greater than 6000 meters, The drilling industry has seen technological progress, however, these advances have not changed the fact that, besides the use of complicated machinery, successful drilling is a result of tremendous team effort. Numerous personnel from the operating company and several service companies work together to drill and complete an oil/gas well. A drilling rig is used to drill a hole, and this requires qualified personnel, different types of equipment the application of a great variety of techniques.

When a drilling project is commenced, two goals must be achieved:

• To drill and finish the well in a safe manner (personal injuries, technical problems) and according to its purpose;
• To complete the project with minimum cost.

The overall costs of the well must be optimized and this optimization may influence where the well is drilled (onshore – extended reach or offshore above reservoir), the drilling technology applied (conventional or slim-hole drilling), as well as the evaluation procedures, run to gather subsurface information for future drilling projects. Rotary drilling is the most efficient technology applied in the oil and gas industry. It is a drilling technology that relies on the continuous circular rotation of the bit to break rocks, while drilling fluids circulate through the bit and up the wellbore to the surface, making it possible to drill safely and efficiently the well.

Rotary drilling rig

The drilling rig consists of a set of equipment and machinery located on the so-called drilling site and normally the rig is not owned by the oil company but by drilling service companies, which hire out the rig complete with operators and which construct the well according to the client’s specifications.

Drilling Rig Systems

A drilling rig is composed of different systems:

1. The hosting system

• It the set of equipment necessary for handling any material inside the well(drill string and the casing);
• It consists of a structural part (Derrick/mast and substructure), the complex of the crown and traveling block, the draw works (hoist) and the drilling line;
• The substructure is the supporting base for the derrick, the draw works, and the rotary table, and constitutes the working floor for operations, or drilling floor.

The Hosting System

2. The rotating system

• The rotating system allows the rotation of the drill string, and it consists of the rotary table, the Kelly, and the swivel;
• In modern rigs, top drive groups together the functions of the above three items of equipment.

   

                                                  

The Kelly System                                                               The Top Drive System

3. The circulation system

• The circulation system consists of mud pumps, distribution lines, and the mud cleaning and accumulation system;
• It is the closed hydraulic circuit which allows the mud to flow from the surface to the bottom of the hole, inside the drill string, and subsequently back to the surface, in the drill string borehole annulus;
• The mud from the hole has to have the cuttings removed before being reinjected to the bottom of the hole and the mud pumps supply the energy necessary for circulation;

Drilling fluids are subdivided into three major classes:

1. Water-based muds;
2. Oil-based muds;
3. Air-based muds (used to reduce bottom hole pressure, to avoid circulation losses in surface layers, or to limit damage to productive formations).

The Circulating System

4.  The power generation system

• A power generation system is needed to run the machines driving the main components of the rig and it is provided by diesel engines, diesel-electric engines;
• Power is transferred from the engines to the different rig systems by belts, chains, and driveshafts on a mechanical rig, or by generated DC electrical power on an electric rig and it is distributed to the rotary table and mud pumps and to the draw works.

Drilling Rig Power Generation System

5.  The drill string

The drill string is an assemblage of hollow pipes of circular section, extending from the surface to the bottom of the hole.

It has three functions:

• it takes the drilling bit to the bottom of the hole while transmitting its rotation and its vertical load to it;
• it permits the circulation of the drilling fluid to the bottom of the hole;
• it guides and controls the trajectory of the hole.

                    

 Drill String                                   An Insert Tricone                                           Bit A PDC Bit

6.  Casing

• The casing is a steel tube that starts from the surface and goes down to the bottom of the hole and is rigidly connected to the rocky formation using cement slurry, which also guarantees hydraulic insulation.
• The casing supports the walls of the hole and prevents the migration of fluids from layers at high pressure to ones at low pressure.

Casing Strings

7.  Cementing

Cementing is the operation of pumping a cement slurry between the casing and the formation, and can be performed by injection into the annulus from inside the casing.

The cementing (primary cementing) serves to rigidly connect the casing to the formation and to guarantee the hydraulic insulation of the various formations, preventing the migration of the fluids from layers at high pore pressure to those at low pressure.

The centralization of the casing is particularly important, as the geometry of the well is seldom regular, but tortuous and with a variable diameter.

Primary cementing

Credits: Oil and Gas portal

Software's used for Petroleum production optimization

Computer Simulations software provides geoscientists and engineers with insights into the behavior of the well under changing conditions. The simulations have moved on from their ‘run’ on time-consuming and expensive supercomputers to faster and cost-effective intelligent platforms. 

New systems provide more accurate results, a better understanding of extractable reserves enabling timely reactions to ever-changing market conditions and significantly lower total cost. The IPM suite Integrated Production Modelling – is developed by Petroleum Experts (Petex). IPM model is an oil or gas production system which includes reservoir, wells and the surface network.

Open Server Communication

IPM allows the integration with the reservoir simulation models – Eclipse, VIP, etc. to evaluate the impact on production. PIPESIM- SCHLUMBERGER  is a flow simulator that can create well models to help increase production and understand reservoir potential. PIPESIM simulator models multiphase flow from the reservoir to the wellhead and considers artificial lift systems, including rod pumps, ESP, and gas lift. PIPESIM enables to

(i)   design optimal well completions and artificial lift systems;
(ii)  diagnose problems that are limiting well production potential;
(iii) optimize production from existing wells by quantifying actions to increase flow rates.

SAND MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE – SCHLUMBERGER

Sand CADE is a gravel-pack design and evaluation software. Sand CADE software performs engineering calculations to assess the sand control treatment design and supports job execution and evaluation for open-hole and cased-hole gravel-pack completions.

Sand Advisor Software supports screen and gravel selection in open-hole applications by analyzing the formation of particle-size distributions.

Credits: Oil and Gas portal

New Technologies and Innovations used for well drilling

New technologies have also helped reduce the environmental impact of energy production by allowing more oil and gas to be produced with fewer wells. Well completion is the final step of the drilling process, where the connection to hydrocarbon-bearing rock is established. Advancements in drilling technology have also enabled the recent growth in production from shale and other unconventional oil and gas reservoirs in many parts of the world, using a combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal, extended reach drilling.

1. Horizontal Drilling

Horizontal drilling is a directional drilling process aimed to target an oil or gas reservoir intersecting it at the entry point with a near-horizontal inclination, and remaining within the reservoir until the desired bottom hole location is reached. Horizontal drilling provides more contact to a reservoir formation than a vertical well and allows more hydrocarbons to be produced from a given wellbore.

There are many kinds of the reservoir where the potential benefits of horizontal drilling are evident:

• in conventional reservoirs

Thin reservoirs; Reservoirs with natural vertical fractures; Reservoirs where water (and gas) coning will develop; thin layered reservoirs; heterogeneous reservoirs;

• in unconventional reservoirs

shale gas/oil, tight gas/oil, CBM, heavy oil, oil sands, etc

2. Multilateral Drilling

Sometimes oil and natural gas reserves are located in separate layers underground and multilateral drilling allows producers to branch out from the main well to tap reserves at different depths. A multilateral well is a single well with one or more wellbore branches radiating from the main borehole.

General multilateral configurations include:

Multi-branched wells, forked wells, wells with several laterals branching from one horizontal main wellbore, wells with several laterals branching from one vertical main wellbore, wells with stacked laterals, and wells with dual-opposing laterals.

Multilateral Well Configurations

• Multilateral wells configuration enhances productivity.
• In shallow or depleted reservoirs, branched horizontal wellbores are often most efficient, whereas, in layered reservoirs, vertically stacked drain-holes are usually best.
• In fractured reservoirs, dual-opposing laterals may provide maximum reservoir exposure, particularly when fracture orientation is known.

3. Extended Reach Drilling

Extended Reach Drilling allows producers to reach deposits that are great distances away from the drilling rig and this helps producers tap oil and natural gas deposits undersurface areas where a vertical well cannot be drilled, such as underdeveloped or environmentally sensitive areas.
The current world record (around 2013) for the longest measured depth ERD well is the Chayvo Z-42 well (Exxon Neftegas Limited, Sakhalin Island, Russia) with a measured depth of 41,667 ft. and a horizontal departure of 38,514 ft.

The objective of the hole- cleaning program in ERW is to improve drilling performance by avoiding stuck pipe, avoiding tight hole on connections and trips, maximizing the footage drilled between wiper trips, eliminating back reaming trips prior to reaching the casing point and maximizing daily drilling progress.

4. Automated drilling

• Automated drilling is one of the oil industry’s most important innovation targets.
• The sources now being tapped, such as shale gas and coal-bed methane, require a very large number of wells, and automating the drilling process would be an obvious way to keep the costs under control, and also gets around a problem which many sectors of engineering are experiencing
• Automated drilling would be faster, more efficient, and safer, as it reduces the number of workers on site.

This technique would have a number of advantages:

• First, it reduces the amount of energy needed to drill the bore; wider bores need more energy because they have to displace more material, so for a given depth of bore, less rock has to be removed.

• It also uses less steel, less cement grouting, and less drilling mud; as well as a smaller drilling rig.

• It also allows for greater depths to be achieved.

Credits: Oil and gas portal

Measurement- While- Drilling (MWD)

Until the 1980s it was difficult for the drill operators to know what was going on with the drill bit as the hole was being dug. Even after the innovation of Seismic imaging operators are still facing the issues. This problem is overcome by Measurement – While -Drilling (MWD) technology.

MWD allows operators to receive real-time information on the status of drilling, as well as the ability to steer the well in other directions. It relates information such as gamma rays, temperature, and pressure, as well as the density and magnetic resonance of the rock formations. This serves a myriad of functions. It helps operators drill more efficiently while preventing blowouts and tool failures. It also helps operators show that they're not drilling into unauthorized areas.
What’s perhaps most amazing is how this information is transmitted up to the surface. Because it isn’t practical to string wire or cable down the well from the surface to the drill bit, MWD instead relies on mud pulse telemetry. A mud slurry that is sent down into the well to carry debris back up (through the outer column of the well) provides a convenient acoustic channel to send mud pulses up in a binary code that is decoded on the surface.

History of OIL

Before the discovery of oil, people used Wood and Coal. People burned wood for Cooking, Warmth and also used as a building material. Wood is reminded as a global fuel for centuries.
In the 18th century after the invention of Steam Engines coal comes into the picture. Steam Engines can be powered either by wood or coal. Comparatively, with wood, coal became the most preferred fuel because coal produced 4 times energy as much energy as the same amount of wood and was cheaper to produce, easier to distribute. Coal has massive growth in the scale of industrialization.                                                     
The oil had been discovered by Chinese in 600 B.C and transported in pipelines from bamboo. However, Colonel Drake's heralded discovery of oil in Pennsylvania in 1859 with a well drilled just 69.5 feet deep. The earliest exploration companies began seeking oil for refining into a newly invented lamp fuel called kerosene. This "rock oil" fuel was cheaper than Whale oil and far safer than the more popular but explosive fuel, camphene and the Spindle top discovery oil in Texas in 1901 set the stage for the new oil economy.
Early energy issues included the need for an infrastructure for producing, storing, transporting oil and natural gas. As discoveries grew, the rush for "black gold" resulted in complex economic issues on a national scale, including wasteful over-production, sudden collapses of oil prices, questionable stock promotions and frequent boom and bust cycles.

Offshore Drilling and ROVS(Remotly Operated Vehicle)

As the oil and gas industry moves to a more subsea environment, ROVs will become an even more important tool in drilling, development, and repair offshore. In fact, some ROVs are being built to work on specific subsea developments, with manipulators and tools designed for work on equipment in a precise field. In this case, as the subsea architecture is being designed, the ROV that will handle the subsea work is taken into account, as well, ensuring that all tasks at hand can be managed by the ROV.

One of the technologies that spurred the development of offshore drilling was ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle). In the 1970 Oil industry adapted ROV for drilling. Diving in deep water is dangerous for people. So the Military is using this ROV technology to retrieve the lost equipment underwater.

New "Smart material " that can respond dynamically to its environment

Researchers have developed new material by combining the graphene oxide with the hydrogels made
from a natural material seaweed-derived alginate. This new Smart Material is durable and can respond dynamically with its environment used in a variety of biomedical applications.
One Limitation in the use of alginate hydrogels is that they tend to fall apart under mechanical load or in low salt solutions.
The research shows that under the chemical treatments this smart material is capable of becoming more stiffer or softer. It means that this new smart material is able to react to its surroundings. In addition, the alginate-GO retains alginate the ability to repel oils, giving the new material potential as a sturdy antifouling coating.