The State of Intelligent Operations in Oil and Gas

Article | April 14, 2020

Downhole fluid build-up coupled with a drop in reservoir pressure can lead to the rapid decline of gas production rates, and can ultimately result in a well ceasing production. While there are many ways to deliquify a well to maximise production, chemical foamers can be incredibly effective and well worth considering. In this blog post, Kevin Lonie shares some of the benefits of using chemical foamers, and provides insights and advice around how best to use them… “Foamers are a much cheaper option than alternative solutions, such as mechanical lifts, and there is very little risk associated with their usage. If a foamer doesn’t work, it won’t make the well worse - so often we see clients giving them a go before opting for more expensive methods, in the hope that they produce the desired results. And we have seen their success over and over again.”

Article | April 14, 2020

Legislation and pressure from stakeholders are forcing the chemical industry to find efficiencies and urgently seek out ways to reduce environmental impact, such as implementing low-carbon initiatives, maximizing energy and water efficiency and developing new innovative products and processes. Last month’s World Economic Forum added further urgency as shareholders and investment groups added new sustainability criteria to their investment considerations. As the pressure to improve sustainability rises, organizations like SusChem, the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry, are gaining visibility and traction.

Article | April 14, 2020

Recyclers have developed state-of-art separation techniques to safely treat a wide diversity of waste streams and recover valuable materials, hence directly contributing to the circular economy. The Brochure published by Euric on ‘Sound Management of Waste & Chemicals Requirements’ highlights the main issues derived from the lack of interface between chemicals, product and waste legislation, and identifies simple solutions to boost the transition towards a more circular economy. Christer Forsgren, Chair of the Euric’s Waste & Chemicals Task Force, Environmental & Technical Director at Stena Metall AB (Sweden), and Adjunct Professor in Industrial Material Recycling at Chalmers Technical University in Gothenburg, emphasized the key role that Europe’s recycling industry plays by reducing Europe’s dependency on primary materials and by saving massive amounts of CO2 and energy.

CHEMICAL MANAGEMENT

Article | April 14, 2020

TEN YEARS AGO, fellowblogger Paul Hodgesand Ifirst highlighted the leading rolethat changing demographics would play in reshaping petrochemicals supply and demand. We have been emphasising the importance of demographics ever since. Demographics have, of course, always been a critical shaper of economies throughout human history. But during the last 70 years, there have been such major changes in demographics that the study of demographics must be at the very heart of your company’s strategy. The Babyboomer generation in the West led to a surge in demand as the rapid increase in babies born in the 1950s and early 1960s joined the workforce from the 1970s onwards. This helps explain high levels of inflation during that decade because too much demand was chasing too little supply. Another driver of inflation was the Middle East embargos against oil exports to the West because of the West’s support for Israel. Then came the 1990s and first the integration of Eastern Europe into the global economy. This helped dampen inflationary pressures because of the plentiful supply of workers in the east willing to work for low wages in export-focused factories. This reduced the cost of finished goods in the West. Next came Deng Xiaoping’s critically important“southern tour”in the early 1990s and China’s gradual integration into the global economy. China increasingly leveraged its very youthful population to again make cheap goods to export to the West. Hundreds of millions of young people were willing to migrate from the countryside to China’s coastal cities to work in export-focused manufacturing plants. The world began to talk about the “China price” and how it was further depressing global inflation.