Research Center Gets Advice from World's Best
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Author: Saudi Aramco News
Released 27 February 2008
DHAHRAN, February 27, 2008 -- You don’t create a world-class research facility without help and guidance. For EXPEC Advanced Research Center (EXPEC ARC), some of that help comes from the ARC International Advisory Council, composed of leaders in the global scientific community.
The committee has five members of different disciplines from leading universities and research organizations. It meets every six months to give advice on the strategic direction of EXPEC ARC, provide feedback on its research portfolio, recommend new and emerging technologies that meet the needs of Saudi Aramco, make recommendations about the best research talent and help recruit top researchers.
Panos G. Kelamis, left, talks to EXPEC ARC advisers Dr. Stephen Holditch and Dr. Luciano Maiani.
The council held its third meeting Feb. 2-4 in Dhahran, reviewing a broad sampling of EXPEC ARC’s activities, including the 2008 research plan, the research portfolio, industry collaboration and the growing role of women at EXPEC ARC.
“The council would describe 2007 as a year of milestones in EXPEC ARC with impressive accomplishments both technically and operationally,” the council said in its final report.
Dr. Farouk El-Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University and a contributor to the Apollo 11-17 missions, did not attend because of medical reasons, but the committee’s other four members said they were impressed with the development, motivation and morale of the employees and their pride.
“Dr. El-Baz has said how much pride he takes that at least one company in the Arab world would develop such capabilities that are comparable with the best that exist anywhere and that surpass many others,” said Dr. M. Nafi Toksoz, a world-renowned geophysicist and founder of the Earth Resources Lab at MIT.
That development has an immediate effect on technology and use of resources, he said, “but there is also a psychological uplift that this organization can do it and doesn’t have to rely on any others. Saudi Aramco is bringing in lots of young, capable people and motivating them. I think this is one of the best things that could happen to this organization.”
‘Leveraging New Technologies’
“I’ve been impressed with the EXPEC managers looking for better ways to run the Advanced Research Center so they can get better results,” said Stephen A. Holditch, chairman of the petroleum engineering faculty at Texas A&M University. “They’re looking at personnel issues and project management and leveraging new technologies,” he said. Some changes are already in place from topics discussed in previous meetings.
“We come over here and give advice and then leave,” he said, “but they’re making progress.”
EXPEC ARC advisers are joined by EXPEC ARC leaders and chief technologists on a recent visit to the center. They are, front row, from left, Mohammad H. Hattab, chief technologist, Drilling Technology Team; Nabeel I. Al-Afaleg, chief technologist, Strategic Technology Analysis Division; Ibrahim A. Al-Ghamdi, chief technologist, Geology Technology Team; adviser Dr. Stephen Holditch; adviser Dr. Luciano Maiani; Abdulaziz O. Kaabi, chief technologist, Reservoir Engineering Technology Team; Panos G. Kelamis, chief technologist, Geophysics Technology Team; and Nabeel S. Habib, chief technologist, Production Technology Team; and back row, from left, Ali H. Dogru, chief technologist, Computational Modeling Technology Team; manager Muhammad M. Al-Saggaf; adviser Dr. M. Nafi Toksoz; adviser Dr. Sidqi Abu-Khamsin; and Khalid M. Al-Arfaj, chief technologist, Operations Services Division.
“I’ve always been impressed with Saudi Aramco’s openness when it comes to research, and you can see there’s a keen interest in advancing petroleum science,” said Dr. Sidqi Ahmad Abu-Khamsin, a professor in the Petroleum Engineering Depart-
ment at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM).
“They invite outsiders to investigate their problems and collaborate on solutions,” he said. “The company has been very generous to universities inside and outside the Kingdom - especially at KFUPM, where we always try to support the company in general, and there is a very strong spirit now of collaboration with EXPEC ARC.”
“I am very pleased to see the amount of attention this organization pays to the young people,” said Dr. Luciano Maiani, former president and director general of CERN, the world’s largest particle physics lab and birthplace of the World Wide Web. “It’s very rewarding to see the efforts being made to spot good talent and then to drive them through the value stages of education until they become independent research-
ers, technicians or engineers.”
Holditch said the changes in petroleum engineering in the last 20 years are largely computer-driven. “What we used to have to make assumptions about and figure out with slide rules has been replaced with actual field data, which is leading to a better understanding that would have been unimaginable a few years ago.”
New Approaches Pay Off
New approaches to challenges also are paying off for EXPEC ARC.
“Geophysics today, especially geoseismic, plays an important role in the discovery of new fields,” Toksoz said.
Collaboration also plays a greater role, he said. “It used to be that geophysics was a silo. Geologists looked at an area; geophysicists would get their data; then drillers came in and engineers took over and started production. These were so interdependent, and now all of these things are moving together with very good results. EXPEC ARC has all of these things in house, so it is no longer separated. I think it will pay off well.”
“The biggest advancements in petroleum engineering are in imaging,” including geoseismic imaging, Holditch said. Scientists can go into a laboratory and get almost all the oil from a core, he said.
“The problem in real life is that reservoirs are very complicated. … By using seismic imaging to place the horizontal well bores and sometimes the multilateral well bores and control where the fluids are injected and where the fluids are produced, you can improve recovery by improving the sweep efficiency. That’s large-scale imaging.”
Tools inside the bore holes also provide part of the picture. “I think the whole field of imaging has really improved the application of petroleum engineering concepts in oil and gas recovery. I think Saudi Aramco fully understands that and has processes in place to improve that technology.”
Saudi Aramco Executive Board member James Kinnear once observed that the transformation of Saudi Aramco from a foreign-run company to a Saudi-run company may be the greatest transfer of technology in the history of mankind. Council members agreed.
“I think it’s quite amazing what has been done here in the last 20-30 years,” Holditch said. “This was more or less an expat-run organization, and now that’s totally changed where it’s all run by Saudi nationals.”
“About 60 percent of the management of the Petroleum and Engineering business line of Saudi Aramco are petroleum engineering graduates of KFUPM,” said Abu-Khamsin. “I think that says it very clearly.”
(Article by Stephen L. Brundage)