New Ways in Research and Education:Clausthal University of Technology joins industry in field trials to increase the recovery of old oil fields

K.M. Reinicke and L.Ganzer

Institute of Petroleum Engineering (ITE), TU Clausthal, Germany

Abstract

The Institute of Petroleum Engineering (ITE) of the Clausthal University of Technology cooperates with ExxonMobil (EMPG) to improve its academic education and provide new impulses for its research in an area important for the state of Niedersachsen: the improvement of recovery from old and even abandoned oil fields.

In the context of this cooperation between EMPG and ITE, the world’s largest petroleum company opens its files to give ITE access to data of some of its oil fields in the area of Steimbke/Rodewald, some 20 km east of Nienburg. For the fields, production licenses have been granted by the Landesbergamt (mining authority), allowing their re-development.

Using the real field data, the students learn how an oil field is explored, evaluated, modeled developed and produced. Students will generate plans on how to re-develop the abandoned fields with modern technology to get more oil out of the ground. The real data are also meant to provide decisive impulses for ITE research, in particular in the area of drilling technology and Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).

Introduction

The petroleum industry faces significant challenges. More brain per barrel is needed to satisfy the ever increasing demand because the “times of easy oil” are over. The trend is clearly towards unconventional oil and gas in the form of heavy oil and oil shales, tight gas, shale gas, coal bed methane and gas hydrates often found at remote locations and in hostile environment. But there are also significant oil resources left in maturing and even abandoned oil fields. Worldwide, oil fields are only exploited by approx. 35% on average.

The challenge for the oiland gas industry comes in the midst of a generation change. According to the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the averageage of a petroleum worker is 51 years old. Nearly 60% are 45 or older. This represents a significant peak in the profile of existing workers and suggests that around 40% of the workforce will be lost over the next ten years, Taylor (2009).

To meet the challenges the oil and gas industry needs bright and well educated engineers with global competence and transnational mobility, Global Engineering Excellence Team (2009). In addition to the basic skills for a petroleum engineer,

  • Mathematics, physics, and chemistry,
  • Geology;
  • Well drilling technology;
  • Formation evaluation;
  • Oil and gas production technology;
  • Properties of reservoir rocks and fluids;
  • Fluid flow in porous media;
  • Reservoir analysis and management.

there is an increasing expectancy in industry that young professionals should be better prepared for “the real world”, to work in interdisciplinary teams, exercise leadership, deal with business issues including risk and economic analyses,master reporting and presentation needs and implement policies that will contribute to corporate success and profitability. Notions related to ethics, health, safety and environment are also essential, Cunha and Cunha (2008).

In meeting their staffing requirements, the globally operating oil and gas industry will recruit from those universities which provide the best talents. This puts the universities into a global competition for the best and the brightest students and funds for education and research.

The challenge to educate the next generation of engineers for the oil and gas industry must be met against the background ofthe tarnished image this industry has. This image, as unjust as it may be, clearly is present in many segments of our society keeping the young bright minds from considering a career in the oil business attractive. Moreover, there is also the fact that exploration and production of oil and gas is frequently seen as an uncharmed, dull activity, Cunha and Cunha (2008). In addition, there is fear that there is no future for a career in petroleum engineering because of the many publicized (peak oil) studies indicating the end of the oil era for the next few years, even though there are serious studies indicating that the oil and gas industry will be the major producer of energy for decades to come.

Three challenges are posed to universities with petroleum engineering programs that compete for the best pool of talents

  • Attracting students for a career in the oil and gas business
  • Offering a program in line with the needs of the “real world”
  • Creating an exciting, creative, demanding and empowering environment for students, Lohmann (2008)

Petroleum Engineering at the Clausthal University of Technology

In 2004 the Clausthal University of Technology abandoned its German speaking Diploma curriculum and introduced a five year Bachelor-Master program in petroleum engineering. The Bachelor program “Energy and Raw Materials”, offered jointlywith the Mining Institute and taught in German and English language, is followed by a Master program “Petroleum Engineering” taught solely in English. Three areas of specialization are available in the Master program: Reservoir Management, Drilling and Production and Gas Supply. Since its introduction, the demand for the approx. 30 positions in the master program at the Institute of Petroleum Engineering (ITE) has been growing steadily with currently more than 200 applications.

The contents of the Bachelor program are basic science and engineering courses, petroleum engineering courses, and courses in economics, law and communication. The Master program focuses on engineering and petroleum engineering contents, but also offers courses in management, economics, law and communication

In designing the program, emphasis was placed on internationality, practice orientation, and collaboration, Reinicke and Pusch (2004, 2005, and 2007).

For increased internationality, English was chosen as language, a mix of nationalities is aimed for each academic year with an approx. 67% share of EU nationals in the Bachelor and a 50% share in the Master program, and a foreign semester at one of more than 10 partner universities worldwide was made mandatory. Joint programs with other universities, such as the European Gas EngineerTM, Heilmann et al. (2008) and Double degree program are offered.

For increasedpractice orientation, 8 weeks industry internshipwas made mandatory in the Bachelor program, a dual study program is offered for the Master program, selected courses were reserved for industry lecturer, and last but not least a group project is required in addition to the normal thesis work.

For increased competitiveness collaboration was sought with partner universities to exchange lectures by exchanging staff and/or by using interactive teleteaching technology or by taping lectures and making them available on the video server of the university.

In addition, to meet the first challenge: “Attracting students for a career in the oil and gas business”, the Institute initiated or was actively involved in various public-relations activities of which some of them are listed below:

  • Continuous updates and improvements of Institute’s home page
  • Maximizing presence in newspapers, TV and radio
  • Newspaper adds to recruit new students
  • Participation in open career days and open house initiatives of the German petroleum industry
  • Joint projects with High Schools
  • Participation in research projects with high interest of general public (CCS, Geothermal Energy, …)

To meet the second challenge: “Offering a program in line with the needs of the real world”, the following actions were taken:

  • Strategic alignment with industry through Advisory Board for the institute consisting of German E&P industry leaders
  • Contents of Master study program designed in cooperation with industry
  • Participation of industry in education of fast developing subjects through lecturers recruited from distinguished industry experts
  • Periodic feed back sessions with industry lecturers on performance
  • Dual Study program with periodic performance reviews

To meet the third challenge: “Creating an exciting, creative, demanding and empowering environment for students”.

  • Offers in areas of drill-well based subsurface uses, which are perceived to have a longer future, e.g. gas storage, geothermal energy
  • Course supplementation by laboratory training in areas like properties of reservoir fluids, fluid flow, wellbore fluids and cements often with support from industry
  • “Hands-on teaching” by involving components of well equipment, models for wellbore processes (e.g. multiphase pipe flow)and wellbore videos from industry
  • Field trips to operation sites, production and field processing plants and service company facilities
  • Participation of studentsin conferences (including own organized student conferences), seminars and technical presentations
  • Group projects and theses on real industry problems with real industry data.

Group Project

Today’s work practices in the petroleum industry are characterized by team work, in which professionals from various disciplines work close together to solve problems such as a field development in an integrated fashion. The group project is meant to provide students with the appropriate foundation for this work practice. The educational goals of a group project are to teach students how to work well with others, how to plan and execute a complex project, and how to apply their theoretical knowledgeto a real life problem.

The group projects offered by the ITE since 2006are interdisciplinary full time team efforts by approx. 6-8 students over approx. 8 weeks. Group projects have real industry problems as content, e.g., a field/storage development or re-development, a long haul transport, a gas grid optimization or a design project. When executing a group project, students address technical, economic, and environmental aspects, carry out economic evaluations, choose the best option and develop a plan. In executing the project students assume clearly defined roles and responsibilities. The project is to teach solving real problems by combining theory, communication, and use of modeling and simulation softwareand to report and present findings.

In the context of the group projects, courses like „Interpersonal Skills“ and „Reservoir and Projekt Management“ are offered. These courses prepare students for working in an interdisciplinary team and provide basic information to translate the „project contract“ into a „project plan“with work packages, milestones and (Gantt) bar plans.

Figure 1: Field Development

The groups have a sponsor in the person of a professor and a coach in the person of one of the scientific staff members of the institute. The groups meet at least once a week with their coaches to report progress and discuss problems. Experts from industry – either active or retired personal – support the groups, make their historic (field) knowledge available, provide input on technology and costs, and act as sounding boards for developed ideas. The groups conclude their work by presenting their findings to a panel including representatives from industry.

ITE carries out group projects since 2006. Problems addressed include field development projects, appraisal drilling, geothermal energy recovery, and multiphase low loop design. Field data to carry out these projects were provided by ExxonMobil, GDFSUEZ, MHH Hannover, and Palatina.

Field Trials to Increase the Recovery of Old Oil Fields

In a 2007 group project, the re-development of an oil field was investigated, which was plugged and abandoned in the mid nineties. Only publically available data could be used at the time. Economic evaluations, which lead to the abandonment of the field assumed a continuation of the then existing operations without cost intensive modifications and were based on oil price scenarios in the order of 15 $/bbl.Group project results suggested that an economic re-development of the field may be possible at 60-80 $/bbl. In the aftermath following the group project significantly higher oil prices were achieved. This prompted more work on the subject “Mature Oil Field Recovery”.

Cumulative recovery from German oil fields to date is close to 300 Million tons. Assuming an average recovery of 30-35% the oil in place in German oil fields is close to 1.000 Million tons. Increasing the recovery by 10% would provide an additional 100 Million tons or the German consumption of mineral oil for one year.

To contribute to the realization of this recovery potential, ITE together with ITE Engineering Ltd. (ITEG) developed a concept to improve the education in petroleum engineering at the Clausthal University of Technology and to research and develop technology for an improved recovery of old and even abandoned oil fields. Central element of the ITE-ITEG concept is a holistic education at a real object and an application based and focused research and development to improve the recovery of old oil fields.The implementation of this concept requires access to real data.

ExxonMobil agreed to support the Clausthal University of Technology in implementing the concept and provide data for half a dozen abandoned oil fields. The data include seismic information, logs, cores and core data, fluid data, pressure and temperature information, production and injection data, abandonment information, well files and field reports.

Figure 2: Dr. Kalkoffen Chairman of the Board ExxonMobil Central Europe Holding GmbH Exxon Mobil and Prof. Reinicke, Clausthal University of Technology agree on the cooperation to increase the recovery of old oil fields

Within the Clausthal University of Technology ITE will use the data in student projects (seminar and term papers, group projects, and Bachelor- and Master Theses) under the guidance of scientific personal, to carry out applications oriented research and development work and – using Suderbruch as an example – to come up with concepts for a re-development of abandoned oil fields. Work will start with data validation and integration, the construction of geologic models using state-of-the-art modelling software, use of these models in simulation runs, development and evaluation of concepts for a re-development, and the design of wells and facilities observing health, safety and environmental restrictions.

The initial cooperation is limited to three years. During this time ITE will identify a best concept, document it, and provide the results to ExxonMobil including all elaborations on subsurface and surface facilities ad components. ITE will provide ExxonMobil also with a drill well proposal for a production well, to test the field development concept. During this time the project is supported by ExxonMobil financially with up to 250.000 Euro. The support allows ITE in particular to hire scientific staff to coordinate the development activities and guide the students in their projects.

In case the activities lead to a re-development and further exploitation of the fields, the cooperation will be extended by a further 10 years with a total financial support of 2 Million Euro. This will sustain the effort, allow students to follow the field re-development, to analyse and evaluate results, monitor performance and revise the original model and plan. In addition, it allows increasing the research and development effort for new technology, in particular on drilling technology and improved and enhanced oil recovery schemes.

Using the real field data, the students learn how an oil field is explored, evaluated, modeled developed and produced. Students will generate plans on how to re-develop the abandoned fields with modern technology to get more oil out of the ground. The real data are also meant to provide decisive impulses for ITE research.

The agreements were signed earlier this year in the presence of representatives from ministry, mining authorities, county,local communities, and universities. Field data were sourced in a professionally organized data room. Since February the student-groups work closely together to build reservoir models and on their basis develop plans for a re-development of the fields.

The project contract agreed with the group includes as “objective”: Analysis and integration of well and field data to model the reservoir system of the Suderbruch oil field, understand past production performance, and estimate remaining oil recovery potential; development of a conceptual plan for the re-development of the Suderbruch oil field and its economic evaluation. Agreed project “deliverables” are:

  • Static reservoir model to characterize the reservoir enabling the determination of oil-in-place
  • Dynamic reservoir model to “history match” past production performance, to locate by-passed oil or re-saturated areas, to characterize the current reservoir situation, to assess the remaining oil recovery potential, and to predict the future production behavior
  • Plan for the first phase of a re-development of the Suderbruch field (phase feasibility/ identification) with up to five well. The plan should address drilling and completion, stimulation, production and water disposal/IOR requirements, gathering, field processing and storage aspects on the basis of options for a development and their evaluation.
  • Value determination of the development.
  • Drill well proposal to verify obtained results.

Besides scientific staff from the Clausthal University of Technology the project is supported by a retired geologist, reservoir engineer, field engineer, facilities engineerand managers of the former field owners. Additional support is given by members of companies active in drilling, drilling fluid and cementing engineering, and surface facilities engineering.

Conclusion

The Reputation of a university is as good as the students it graduates. To graduate good students a university has to be able to attract good students, it has to offer an excellent program and it has to create an exciting, creative, adventurous, rigorous, demanding, and empowering environment.

The cooperation with ExxonMobil provides a unique selling point for the Clausthal University of Technology. The possibility to witness and actively contribute to the re-development of an oil field is an exciting proposition. The university has high hopes that this will attract new students. The work with real field data and problems will undoubtedly lead to a further improvement of the education offered.