Saudi Aramco Technology and Innovation
Modern-day oil exploration, production and utilization require oil companies worldwide to develop and employ the latest and most sophisticated technologies. Saudi Aramco is a leader in utilizing and developing technologies that efficiently and effectively, yet safely, maximize the extraction and use of oil and gas. The company relies on its state-of-the-art electronic network and its highly skilled workforce to keep it among the leaders in the oil and gas industries.
Seawater rushes through the intake channel at the Qurayyah Seawater Treatment Plant, the largest such plant in the world. From here, the treated water is pumped via pipelines to ‘Uthmaniyah where it is distributed to water-injection pump stations and injected into oil reservoirs to maintain pressure.Photographer: Shaikh Mohammed Amin
Computing Capacity
The computing capacity at Saudi Aramco’s Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center (EXPEC) has reached 34 teraflops, or 34 trillion floating point operations per second. This represents a 300-fold increase in computing capacity since 1999, and indicates the exponential rate of development of upstream technology as a whole.
The seismic processing environment in the EXPEC Computer Center (ECC) continues to grow. In 2006, the company completed the largest disk installation and seismic data migration in the center’s history, increasing computing capacity by 47 percent and storage by 46 percent.
Maximizing Ultimate Recovery
Saudi Aramco is widely recognized as an industry leader in using advanced technology throughout the company’s upstream operations. Today, Intelligent Well technology, Geosteering, Maximum Reservoir Contact (MRC) wells and the revolutionary i-Field (or Intelligent Field) concept are routinely applied in new crude oil developments.
Smart Well and Intelligent Fields
Smart Well systems and down-hole sensors are part of a larger strategy to develop Intelligent Fields, an approach that combines real-time monitoring and timely reactions to changing well and reservoir conditions to optimize production and reservoir management. A study conducted by Cambridge Energy Research Associates, in conjunction with oil and gas companies, suggests that the Intelligent Field concept could significantly improve recovery factors, reduce capital expenditures, and reduce downtime and operations costs.
POWERS
Saudi Aramco’s proprietary POWERS (Parallel Oil, Water and Gas Reservoir Simulator) software utilizes hundreds of computers running in parallel to create reservoir models. These processors operating in parallel reduce computational time from a few days to a few hours.
Modern wells turn at any angle and send out branches to tap pay zones over an area of several square kilometers far beneath the surface. Looking to boost productivity, Saudi Aramco scientists are taking multilateral drilling to extreme new horizons. Using wireless telemetry technology that allows for the number of laterals to triple, Extreme Reservoir Contact wells will send oil and hydrocarbons recovery rates skyrocketing.Intelligent Engineering Drawings
Saudi Aramco has more than 4 million engineering drawings representing the logical and physical design of all its facilities. These drawings are essential tools for engineers in performing daily operations at the plants. The company has begun implementing “intelligent engineering drawings,” a program to transform its massive file-based graphical data into information stored in databases.
Very Small Aperture Terminals
Saudi Aramco conducts exploration, drilling and marine activities in very remote areas in the Kingdom, including mobile operations. Communication needs for these activities can be met only with specialized satellite systems known as Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs). In order to meet the growing need for high-capacity communications links, Saudi Aramco has tripled the amount of bandwidth it leases, increasing the total from 72 to 216 megahertz, to provide robust communications to 300 remote sites and support powerful computing applications, such as real-time well log data and remote monitoring of seismic activities.
Batch Drilling
Saudi Aramco expanded the use of batch drilling to areas of higher geological uncertainty. Batch drilling involves drilling in succession the same hole section for each well on a given platform, rather than drilling each well individually.
Batch drilling allows the rig to use the same mud system, bit sizes, drilling tools and casing size for all the wells at one time. This improves drilling efficiency, equipment handling and logistics, saving time and money on expensive offshore drilling operations. For example, two platforms were batch-drilled in the Marjan and Safaniya offshore fields, with a savings of 36 and 28 days, respectively, per platform. Batch drilling eight platforms in these same areas will result in an estimated savings of $51 million.
Geosteering
Saudi Aramco has improved the placement of horizontal and multilateral wells in difficult geologic environments through Geosteering, using the latest technologies in directional drilling such as Logging While Drilling (LWD). Prudent application of this technology is increasing the net footage of wells placed in the reservoir and improving productivity and sweep efficiency.
In 2005, Saudi Aramco successfully geosteered a water injector well in the South Dome of the Qatif field. The well was drilled to a depth of 27,200 feet (8,291 m) and is the longest single horizontal the company has ever drilled. Additionally, 10,500 feet (3,200 m) of slanted horizontal section were drilled — a company record for the longest single horizontal section.
Under-Balanced Drilling
Equally important are the company’s water injection wells, which help maintain reservoir pressure and increase oil recovery rates. Saudi Aramco has adapted the process of under-balanced drilling to eliminate formation damage and improve injectivity, thereby eliminating the need for post-drilling acid stimulation. This technique is, simply, drilling while the well is flowing, which allows formation fluids to flow into the wellbore, thereby eliminating the formation damage mechanism. Other benefits include higher average initial injection rates, faster drilling times, and lower drilling and completion costs.
3-D Visualization Centers
Saudi Aramco’s 3-D Visualization Centers have undergone constant refinement since their inception. In 2005, the centers were upgraded to the latest digital technology. New visualization techniques were developed for exploration and production, including seamless data integration between processing and interpretation, and super large 3-D seismic volume interpretation.
The loading and unloading of tankers, the production and distribution of crude oil, gas and refined products and the production of electrical power – all are managed from the Operations Coordination Center (OCC) and viewed on the video wall, the largest in the industry. Twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year, OCC personnel monitor company operations using real-time computer systems connected through an extensive communications network to all the company’s plants, terminal and pipelines. Operations Coordination Center
Tracking the movement of oil, gas and refined products from wellhead to tanker is enormously complex, but made easier and more efficient with the state-of-the-art data video wall in Saudi Aramco’s Operations Coordination Center (OCC). Installed in 2005, the center’s video wall, a masterpiece of technology and the largest used in either the hydrocarbon or power industries, displays the company’s crude oil, refined products, gas and NGL networks, terminals planning and scheduling, and electrical power distribution grid, all in real time.
Research and Development
Saudi Aramco’s Research and Development Center reflects the company’s continuing commitment to stay at the leading edge of petroleum research and applied energy technology, and to facilitate economic development in the Kingdom. This facility enables scientists and engineers to affect a shift in focus from service orientation to a blend of specialized services and applied research.
Research is focused on both upstream and downstream operations, and emphasis is placed on work in material and analytical sciences. Advanced laboratory services provide company-wide advanced analytical support to organizations such as: Exploration, Producing, Manufacturing, Engineering & Operations Services, and area laboratories. Research and program coordination are provided by Saudi Aramco to academic institutions in- and out-of-Kingdom. The company’s Intellectual Asset Management organization was formed to protect and develop the company’s intellectual property. This team manages patents and markets newly discovered technologies and inventions.