Expanding Heavy Oil Frontiers With Innovative
Technology
We must "think outside
the box" to deal with the many challenges of producing heavy oil. We
must maximize the production from even marginal wells. A detailed
examination of problems and potential solutions in particular wells must
occur:
| “Like people, every well appears to behave
differently. The challenge is to understand what the well is telling
us. Only then can we begin to make sense and understand its
personality” |
While there are
many technical and scientific issues in regard to Heavy Oil, we must
remain aware of the human dimension in the oil patch. From this we
reach recommendations such as the following:
- How accurate and honest is the field data
- Communication is "job 1" – daily calls, weekly conference
calls, well review sit downs
- Discuss issues with contacts at all levels (operators, service
companies, consultants, engineers, geologists, scientists etc.)
- Decipher well issue(s) and develop a logical work flow to
resolve one at a time
- Understand how issues are inter-related
- Develop behavioural patterns to enable forecasting
- Understand the old to challenge past practices
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