Who Should Attend?
Petrophysical Engineers, Reservoir Engineers, Completions Engineers, Geochemists, Flow Assurance Specialists

Speakers
Dr. William D. "Bill" McCain Jr, Texas A&M: "The Five Reservoir Fluid Types and their Associated Phase Behavior Patterns"
At the very core of fluids analysis is the determination of the phase behavior of the fluid, that is, the determination of how the different or physically distinct parts of the system change and interact with changes in pressure and temperature. The behavior of a reservoir fluid during production is determined by the 'type' of fluid and the shape of its associated phase diagram. Fluid types and behavior should be determined early in the life of the reservoir, as it is the deciding factor in many of the decisions which must be made regarding the reservoir. The method of sampling, the types and sizes of surface equipment, reserve calculations, plan of depletion and selection of EOR methods are all dependant on the type of reservoir fluid present. This presentation will cover the 5 reservoir fluid types and their associated patterns of phase behavior.

Dr. Dave Bergman, BP: "Investigating the Effects of Oil-Based Drilling Mud on Fluid Phase Behavior"
Contamination of fluid samples from Formation Test Tools by oil-based drilling mud is a fact of life in today's deepwater sampling environment. Hydrocarbon-based mud filtrates become dissolved in the naturally occurring hydrocarbons and thus affect the chemical and physical properties normally analyzed in typical PVT and fluid testing. An understanding in the chemical and physical makeup of the pure filtrate base is the first step in correcting contaminated oil properties to more meaningful, uncontaminated properties. This presentation will investigate both the chemical and physical nature of oil-based drilling fluids and provide insights on how they affect the phase behavior of reservoir fluids.

Dr. Lloyd Brown, ConocoPhillips: "Flow Assurance - A Pi Cubed Discipline"
Flow assurance is production operation that generates a reliable, manageable, and profitable flow of fluids from the reservoir to the sales point. Flow assurance is critical for economical production in deep water. The significant access limits to seafloor infrastructure in deep water (>1,200-ft. water depth) transform operational problems in shallow-water production into economic and life-limiting events for deepwater assets. Integration of discipline interfaces is a key success factor to the diverse and comprehensive responsibilities of the flow-assurance discipline. It requires the inclusion of all people involved in the value chain of an asset from operations support, to contractor, to the scientist. The flow-assurance discipline drives a new perspective in the approach to reliable production operations. Its vision goes from reservoir to sales and from concept design to operations. This presentation introduces a multi-faceted approach to the task of solving flow assurance issues.

Dr. John Zumberge and Dr Kevin Ferworn GeoMark Research: "Integration of Geochemistry and Reservoir Fluid Properties including PVT and Flow Assurance"
The relative quality of newly discovered petroleum is an important variable with regard to the ultimate quantity produced from a reservoir, the type and maintenance of production and transport facilities, the net price obtained for the oil, and environmental costs associated with petroleum production. The quality of petroleum hydrocarbons are governed by different geochemical / geological processes including source rock type, thermal maturity and post-emplacement issues such as biodegradation or mixing. Recent studies have shown that integrating geochemical groupings and parameters in traditional engineering correlations significantly improve predictive accuracy

For more information regarding the technical program, please contact Toddy Guidry with Pencor/Core Laboratories at 337-839-9060, or e-mail tguidry@corelab.com.

About the Speakers

Dr. William D. "Bill" McCain, Jr.
Dr. William D. (Bill) McCain, Jr. has been a Visiting Professor in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University since 1991. McCain started his engineering career with Esso (now Exxon) Research Laboratories in 1956, where he assisted in research on surface processing of petroleum fluids. He was Professor and Head of the Petroleum Engineering Department at
Mississippi State University fro 1965 to 1976 and taught at Texas A&M University from 1984 through 1987.

McCain was a consulting petroleum engineer with Cawley, Gillespie & Associates from 1987 until 1991. He was with S. A. Holditch & Associates from 1991 until 2000, retiring as Executive Vice President and Chief Engineer. He currently has his own consulting firm, McCain Engineering. He wrote two editions of the widely-used textbook, The Properties of Petroleum Fluids, holds U. S Patents, and has numerous publications in the field of petroleum engineering. He holds a B.S. degree from Mississippi State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology, all in Chemical Engineering.

Dr. Kevin Ferworn
Kevin Ferworn is a petroleum engineer with GeoMark Research in Houston. He graduated with BSc., MSc. and PhD. degrees in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering from the University of Calgary in Canada. Kevin previously worked for DB Robinson Research and PENCOR, specializing in PVT and Flow Assurance studies. With GeoMark, Kevin manages the online Reservoir Fluid Database program and also oversees a new service (PVTMod) that integrates PVT and geochemistry analyses to conduct real-time fluid property modeling.

Dr. Dave Bergman
Dr Bergman is a 30 year veteran of the oil industry. He received a BS in Chemical Engineering from Michigan Technological University and his MS and PhD degrees from The University of Michigan. He began his career in 1973 as the primary researcher for the American Gas Association Project, U. of Michigan. In 1976, he joined Amoco Research in Tulsa. During his tenure with Amoco, he was involved in research into improved viscosity correlations, low-temperature equilibrium ratios, design of PVT and lab equipment, QA of internal and external fluid studies and became the Instructor for internal EOS and PVT courses. Dr Bergman is also the co-author of several published correlations, including the development of chromatographic methods for C7+ characterization. In 1999, upon the merger of Amoco with BP, his studies focused on the development of EOS descriptions for reservoir modeling and QA for outside testing laboratories. Professionally, he is a member of SPE and the Gas Processors Association.

Dr. Brown has worked for Conoco since 1992. His present work location is in Houston as a member of the Process Engineering group, which is part of ConocoPhillips' Upstream, Infrastructure, Engineering, and Project Management Team. Prior to this, Lloyd worked in Conoco's Upstream Produced Fluids group in Ponca City. He has also worked as a member of Arco's Plano Research group in support of North Slope operations, and DuPont Engineering as part of the computer-aided-engineering team. Lloyd has a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering, an MS degree in Mechanical Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Material Science from the University of Texas, Austin. Lloyd is a member of SPE, ASME, AIChE, NACE, and ECS.