The presence of natural fractures in reservoir rock can significantly enhance gas production, especially in tight gas formations. Any general knowledge of the existence, location, orientation, spatial density, and connectivity of natural fractures, as well as general reservoir structure, that can be obtained prior to active seismic acquisition and drilling can be exploited to identify key areas...

Control of well drilling operations poses a challenging issue to be tackled. The loss of well control could lead to the occurrence of blowout as a severe threat, involving the risk of human lives and environmental and economic consequences. Conventional proportional-integral (PI) controller is a common practice in the well control operation. The small existing margin between pore pressure and f...

Conversion of native winter range into producing gas fields can affect the habitat selection and distribution patterns of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). Understanding how levels of human activity influence mule deer is necessary to evaluate mitigation measures and reduce indirect habitat loss to mule deer on winter ranges with natural gas development. We examined how 3 types of well pads with...

Natural gas is often associated with nitrogen and heavy compounds. The Heavy components in the natural gas not only can feed downstream units, owing to the low temperature process may be formed solid as well. Therefore, heavy components separation can be a necessity and produce useful products. Virtually, all natural gases are containing nitrogen ​​that would lower the heating value of natural ...

The change from steerable motor to rotary steerable system has been both technically and commercially successful in Lybia. Through these case histories the paper will demonstrate benefits resulting from the use of rotary steerable systems that have led to a step change in overall drilling performance in the Middle East. This paper describes the successful introduction and application of a rotar...

Directional drilling and hydraulic-fracturing technologies are dramatically increasing natural-gas extraction. In aquifers overlying the Marcellus and Utica shale formations of northeastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York, we document systematic evidence for methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas extraction. In active gas-extraction areas (one or more gas wells with...

In this work, we address the functional-unit based life cycle optimisation of the design and operations of shale gas supply chain networks considering both the economic and environmental performance. The system covers the well-to-wire life cycle of electricity generated from shale gas, consisting of a number of stages including freshwater acquisition, shale well drilling, fracking, and completi...

A new method for improving the efficiency of laser drilling has been developed. Two synchronized free-running laser pulses from a tandem-head Nd:YAG laser are capable of drilling through 1/8-in-thick stainless-steel targets at a standoff distance of 1 m without gas-assist. The combination of a high-energy laser pulse for melting with a properly tailored high-intensity laser pulse for liquid exp...

hydrogen is seen as one of the important energy carriers of the future with potential to reduce local as well as global warming. the main by-product of the combustion of hydrogen in air is water vapor and trace quantities of oxides of nitrogen. an experiment was conducted to study the impact of hydrogen/natural gas blends on performance, thermodynamic efficiency and exhaust gas emissions in a r...