Saudi Arabian Oil Company

Adrian Cesar Cavazos Sepulveda

Damian Pablo San Roman Alerigi

Sameeh Issa Batarseh

Jose Oliverio Alvarez

Timothy Eric Moellendick

Subhash Chandrabose Ayirala

Ali Abdallah Al-Yousef

Abdulkareem AlSofi

Abdulwahab S Al-Johar

Ahmed Gmira

Amjad O Shaarawi

Ziyad Kaidar

Mutlaq Saad Alotaibi

Mishaal Elaiwy

Thamer Zahrani

Systems and methods include a laser tool for ablating solid materials in a wellbore. The laser tool includes a housing having a first end and a second end opposite the first end; a laser head attached to a side of the housing between the first end and the second end. The laser head is optically coupled to a laser source and includes optical elements configured to focus a laser beam to ablate the solid materials. The laser tool includes a packer adjacent to the first end of the housing configured to form a seal between the housing and interior surfaces of the wellbore; and a fluid having a lower optical absorption at a wavelength of the laser source than an optical absorption of fluids in the wellbore, the fluid configured to surround the laser head, contact the packer, and permit the laser beam to propagate to ablate the solid materials.

Ablating materials in a wellbore

The disclosure relates to methods of irradiating a gas containing hydrogen sulfide (HS) with high energy light to photolytically cleave some of the hydrogen sulfide in the gas to form sulfur-containing reactive species. The sulfur-containing reactive species act as autocatalysts that react with some of the remaining hydrogen sulfide in the gas to generate hydrogen gas and one or more sulfur-containing products. The methods remove hydrogen sulfide from the gas and produce hydrogen gas. The methods can be implemented in a component of a hydrocarbon producing well (e.g., a wellhead, a flow line, a production casing, a production tubing), a component used to transport the gas mixture produced by the well (e.g., a transportation pipeline), a gas treatment system (e.g., a tail gas treatment system), a borehole and/or an underground formation.

Hydrogen sulfide dissociation using reactive sulfur species

An apparatus, method, and system for monitoring wellbore deformation is disclosed. The apparatus includes an expandable annular cylindrical packer and a plurality of assemblies mounted on an exterior circumferential surface of the packer. The plurality of assemblies are configured to be pressed against a wellbore surface by the packer. Each of the assemblies includes at least one fiber-optic coil embedded in a sheet of deformable substrate, a tray-shaped receptacle formed from a low thermal conductivity material and attached along the rim to an edge of the sheet with a pressure tight-seal, and an optical coupler configured to couple the fiber-optic coil to a fiber-optic cable. The assemblies further include a pressure-tight compartment containing a high-pressure inert gas that is formed by the receptacle, the sheet, and the seal.

Distributed fiber sensing in a packer for permanent casing and formation deformation monitoring

A system for monitoring a composition includes: an electromagnetic source that emits a beam; one or more evanescent field sensing element inside a tubular structure, arranged in series along a flow direction of the composition, and configured to be in direct contact with the composition; a waveguide that directs at least a portion of the beam to the evanescent field sensing element as an incident beam; and a detector configured to obtain a spectral distribution of the fingerprint beam. The evanescent field sensing element provides partial or total internal reflection of the incident beam at an interface between the evanescent field sensing element and the composition, and the incident beam interacts with the composition to form a fingerprint beam.

In-situ monitoring of chemical fingerprints in oilfield applications

Methods are disclosed for synthesizing ionic liquid formulations using non-stoichiometric hydrophobic or hydrotropic ionic liquids, including aprotic or protic ionic liquids, to create emulsions, microemulsions, or nanoemulsions. Additionally, the provided ionic liquid formulations may be used to make surfactant-free or detergentless microemulsions or nanoemulsions that may be used as additives for aqueous or oil-based solutions. Methods for introducing an ionic liquid in an injection fluid into a reservoir via an introduction well area also provided. The injection fluid intermingles with reservoir fluid and the intermingled injection fluid and reservoir fluid is retrieved via a production well. Methods for introducing an ionic liquid in an injection fluid may be used for CO2 sequestration within a reservoir. The CO2 may be introduced concurrently or by alternating injections of CO2.

Method and applications of nonstoichiometric ionic emulsions

A method for subsurface hydrogen storage and hydrogen retrieval. The method includes identifying a subsurface formation, wherein the subsurface formation is selected from one or more of a depleted wet reservoir, depleted dry reservoir, salt cavern, excavated cavern, natural formation, isolated aquifer, or a reservoir designated as a contingency or marginal field. The method further includes selecting a liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) feed compatible with the subsurface formation. The LOHC feed includes a mixture of one or more completely or partially hydrogenated LOHCs. The LOHC feed is injected into the subsurface formation for storage. Later, when needed, the LOHCs are recovered from storage, optionally separating a recovered water/brine phase and off gas from the LOHCs from storage in a separator configured to produce a stream of recovered LOHCs. The LOHC is then dehydrogenated to form a H2 product and dehydrogenated LOHCs in a dehydrogenation unit process.

Method for subsurface hydrogen storage using liquid organic hydrogen carriers

Systems and methods include a computer-implemented method for analyzing rock samples. Rock and oil electromagnetic baselines are determined for rock samples in at least a section of an electromagnetic spectrum ranging from ultraviolet to long terahertz radiation. An aging process is conducted on each rock sample, initially starting with the rock and oil electromagnetic baselines. The aging process is repeated using spectrometry on the rock sample and measured wettabilities of the rock sample until changes in spectra are less than a predetermined threshold. Aging information including the spectra and wettabilities are stored in a machine learning database. Spectra are obtained from an unknown rock sample. The spectra are mapped to clusters in the machine learning database. Wettability ranges are determined for the unknown rock sample based on a mapping of the spectra of the unknown rock sample to clusters in the machine learning database.

Contactless measurement of rock wettability by photonic techniques

A solution for injection to a formation containing hydrocarbons includes an ionic liquid and a brine having a salinity of at least 60,000 ppm total dissolved solids (TDS). The ionic liquid is configured to lower an interfacial tension between the solution and the hydrocarbons in the formation.

Reuse of hypersaline brine with ionic liquids

A method of electrochemically treating a hydrocarbon-bearing formation is provided. The method includes electrochemically treating an aqueous fluid to provide a first fluid having a first electrochemical potential and a second fluid having a second electrochemical potential. The first electrochemical potential the second electrochemical potential have opposite signs. The method then includes introducing an amount of the first fluid into the hydrocarbon bearing formation, and then an amount of a spacer fluid is introduced into the hydrocarbon-bearing formation. An amount of the second fluid may be optionally introduced into the formation. The steps of introducing the fluids are repeated until an end point is reached. A system for electrochemically a hydrocarbon-bearing formation is also provided.

System and method for electrochemical treatment of aqueous fluid for oilfield applications

A sensing system for monitoring a composition of a downhole fluid in a well, where the sensing system includes: a light source, an optical waveguide, an evanescent field sensing element that is indirect contact with a downhole fluid, and a detector. The light source is operable for emitting a beam and includes a frequency comb generator configured to modify at least a portion of the beam into a sensing comb beam. The evanescent field sensing element provides attenuated internal reflection of the sensing comb beam at the interface between the evanescent field sensing element and the downhole fluid, and the portion of the sensing comb beam interacts with the fluid to form at least a portion of an interacted beam. The detector obtains a spectral distribution of the interacted beam.

4D chemical fingerprint well monitoring

A monitoring device monitors deformation of a casing installed in a wellbore and housing a production tubing, and includes: a packer installed within an annulus between the casing and the production tubing; a deformable substrate that is disposed at an outer side of the annulus and contacts an inner surface of the casing to deform along with casing deformation; a light source that is disposed on the deformable substrate and emits light towards an inside of the annulus; an imaging device that is disposed in the packer to be opposite to the light source across the annulus and detects the light emitted from the light source; and a processor that produces a signal from the detected light, processes the produced signal, and transmits the processed signal to a surface control device that monitors the deformation of the casing based on the signal.

Deformation monitoring mechanism with multi-pixel angle-sensitive laser ranging

A method includes introducing a drill string including a bottom hole assembly into a wellbore, wherein the bottom hole assembly includes a mounted 3D printing sub-assembly. A wellbore is drilled with the bottom hole assembly, and at least a portion of a casing is printed with the 3D printing sub-assembly while drilling the wellbore. A related system includes a drill string having a length of drill pipe and a bottom hole assembly disposed at a distal end of the length of drill pipe. A 3D printing sub-assembly is mounted on the bottom hole assembly, wherein the printing sub-assembly includes a printer housing and a 3D printing head mounted at the printer housing. A control guides the 3D printing head to print at least a portion of a casing at a location radially away from the central longitudinal axis of the drill string.

Methods and apparatus for printing a wellbore casing

Methods of evaluating a surfactant may include ultrasonicating a mixture of oil, water, and the surfactant to form at least one of the following: a sub-macroemulsion, a macroemulsion phase or a combination of the aforementioned; separating the sub-macroemulsion from the macroemulsion phase; introducing the sub-macroemulsion into a foam container; performing a first automated phase identification of the sub-macroemulsion; introducing a gas into the sub-macroemulsion to generate a column of foam, where the column of foam has a height in the foam container; performing a second automated phase identification of the sub-macroemulsion; and measuring the height of the column of foam in the foam container. In these methods, the first and second automated phase identifications may be configured to quantify one or more liquid phases and a foam phase in the column.

Method of evaluating foaming agents and surfactants

Systems and methods include a computer-implemented method for providing a photonic sensing system to perform an automated method to characterize displacement of equipment surfaces and monitor changes in real-time. A three-dimensional (3D) point cloud of one or more objects is generated by an analysis and presentation system using light information collected through structured light illumination by an array of structured-light sensors (SLSes) directed toward the one or more objects. Generating the point cloud includes defining points of the 3D point cloud that are relative to reference points on the one or more objects. Real-time contactless 3D surface measurements of the one or more objects are performed using the 3D point cloud. Changes in one or more parts of the one or more objects are determined by the an analysis and presentation system by analyzing the real-time contactless 3D surface measurements.

Growing community of inventors

Nuevo Leon, Mexico

Adrian Cesar Cavazos Sepulveda