Known within the oil and gas industries as an exploration and production powerhouse and manager of mega-projects, Saudi Aramco is also increasingly recognised for its engineering excellence and its utilisation of breakthrough technologies.
Starting with the ideas of geologists and physicists and moving through the entire industrial chain of events - prospect generation, drilling and reservoir management, production, process engineering, storage, transportation, product manufacturing and distribution - at every step along the way, Saudi Aramco analysis has invested heavily in advanced technology.
Moreover, the company is increasingly involved in strategic technologies and improvements that position the company to compete and succeed.
A good example of new technological tools now at the disposal of company explorations, planners and engineers is the Integrated E&P Geographic Information System (GIS). All company E&P operations take place in a geographical setting, and this new system allows users to integrate satellite and aerial imagery, surface and sub-surface geological studies, well locations and existing infrastructure into a detailed map overlay for viewing and analysis.
Saudi Aramco has developed several high-resolution reservoir simulation models using the company’s proprietary Parallel Oil, Water and Gas Reservoir Simulator (POWERS). These models typically have more than 1 million cells, with the largest being the 9.6 -million-cell Ghawar regional model.
These advanced models were also used for the Qatif field development, the Ghawar producing strategies, the Shaybah gas disposition scenarios and for gas reservoir development, and they have proved to be indispensable tools for optimising field development and production strategies, with significant cost savings.
Advanced 3D visualisation has also become an indispensable tool in the interpretation of 3D seismic information, allowing for increasingly fruitful collaboration between geophysicists and engineers, who must understand reservoir assets, handle optimisation of reservoir utilisation and continuously update their geological models.
The company-developed GeoMorph tool uses logging-while-drilling data directly from the rig to the visualization centers and enables experts to analyze the results within minutes of reservoir penetration. The GeoMorph technology has been identified as an intellectual asset by the company for patent protection and potential commercialisation. Saudi Aramco patented its Seismic Sort Technology in 2003. This technology enables the company to sort seismic data with unprecedented speed, a critical feature in handling the vast quantities of data utilized by E&P applications.
To date, 44 patent applications have been filed with international patent offices, with another 13 in the pipeline at the close of 2003. In addition to the seismicsort technology, the company also patented its hydrogen-permeation probe technology, as well as its high-speed corrosion-resistant rotating cylinder electrode system, both important tools for measuring corrosion and preventing pipeline and equipment failure.
In May, the company commercialised its pyrolitic oilproductivity index (POPI) technology, the first such inhouse intellectual property to be licensed on a worldwide basis. Another company innovation with patent now pending Edge-Preserviong Smoothing (EPS) technology, plays a major role in the success of DETECT, a company-developed coherency package (also patent-pending) that has gained worldwide attention for its ability to use remote sensing data to sharpen seismic images.
The use of advanced geo-steering technology to steer the drill bit in real time precisely along its horizontal path through the most productive parts of a reservoir formation has become a standard practice at Saudi Aramco. By keeping the well path continuously in contact with the best reservoir rock, geo-steering technology has improved reservoir exposure and quality with reductions in production costs.
In 2003, the total installed data storage at the EXPEC Computer Centre reached 1.2 Petabytes (i.e. about 1,200 Terabytes or 1.2 million Gigabytes) and for the first time was able to mirror general purpose data at a remote location for greater disaster recovery capability. This achievement is an important step in being able to resume critical ESP operations quickly as envisioned in the company’s disaster recovery plan.
