Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Fundamentals

This intensive 2-day course will provide participants with a solid all round grounding in the technologies, concepts, methods and language used in upstream oil and gas projects.

The technical and commercial building blocks of oil and gas projects will be examined, and how a venture progresses; from the point of acquiring a license, through exploration, appraisal, concept selection and the development phase, into production, late field life and finally decommissioning.

The link to downstream is bridged with a discussion on refining and the LNG business.

Participants will learn to appreciate the impact of geological and reservoir uncertainty on concept selection and production management, and how the right combination of technology,business processes and decision making can improve project value.

Towards the end of the program, the critical roles of the many different disciplines and stakeholders involved in upstream projects will be discussed.

The commercial aspects of how oil and gas fields are evaluated and which profitability indicators are used to screen and rank projects will be analysed.

For more information and discounts, please contact Sushil on 02 9080 4395 or email us at [email protected]

Global energy context: oil and gas supply and demand

• Main producing countries and regions – OPEC vs. non OPEC
• Main consumers now and in future – can we deliver?
  – Money and muscle – the increasing power of the national oil companies
  – The exploration and production value chain – an overview of the asset management cycle

The petroleum system

• Basins, basin formation, plate tectonics
• Components of oil and gas accumulations – source, seal, reservoir, trap
• Petroleum provinces of the world – geological framework
• Gaining entry: exploration license types and agreements
  – Production sharing contracts vs. tax and royalty systems

Exploration methods

• Gravimetry
• Magnetometry
• Seismic – 2D and 3D onshore and offshore
• How much oil or gas to be found?
• Valuing a prospect – risked volumes and expected monetary value
• Outcrops and analogues
• The environmental impact of exploration (EIA)
• Practical activity: Country entry problem – to go or not to go

Drilling systems & techniques

• Types of drilling rigs – onshore and offshore
• The rotary system – conventional, top drive, rotary steerable
• Drilling fluids, types and functions
• Automated rigs
• Well planning considerations
• Site preparation
• Drilling a well
• Casing and cementing
• Things that can go wrong – stuck pipe, overpressures, lost circulation, kicks
• Well control
• Mud logging

Reservoir description

• Reservoir rock types
• Depositional environments – the role of heterogeneity
• Structures – faults, folds, fractures
• Diagenesis and reservoir property modifications
• Reservoir fluids and composition
• Drive mechanisms – how does a well flow
• Volumetric estimates and reserves classification
• Well testing and reservoir surveillance – data gathering activities
• Reservoir modelling and simulation

Field appraisal

• Role of appraisal and uncertainty
• More data vs. a more flexible concept
• Appraisal planning
• The value of information
• Practical activity: Designing an appraisal strategy

Concept selection and field development planning

• Defining requirements and specifications
• HSE requirements in field development
• From reservoir to surface – well completions and artificial lift
• Basic processing equipment
• The process flow scheme – from well head to refinery
• Facilities options and concepts – onshore/offshore
• Evacuation options

Petroleum economics

• Elements of a project cash flow and commercial indicators
• Discounting
• Production profiles into revenue
• Commercial risks, uncertainties and opportunities
• Oil vs. gas
• Profitability indicators used for oil and gas projects
• Project screening and ranking
• Economics vs. strategies – publicly traded companies vs. national oil and gas companies

Managing production

• Managing the subsurface
• Managing surface facilities and maintenance
• De-bottlenecking
• Managing the external factors

Managing field decline

• Infill drilling
• Workover activities
• Facilities and process integrity issues
• Enhanced oil recovery techniques
• Incremental projects and near field opportunities

Refining and LNG

• Review how crude oil is refined via a short movie
• Understand the physical separation of crude via fractionation into the main fractions required for market ie gases, gasoline, diesel, kerosene, residue/heavy fractions
• The LNG business; basic plant/process, separation into gas components and contaminants, and commercial impacts

Decommissioning

• Legislation
• Economic vs. technical lifetime
• Decommissioning funding
• Decommissioning methods

Professor Peter Moore is a senior oil and gas executive and has over 30 years of industry experience in large operating companies, including ExxonMobil and Woodside Petroleum Ltd.

He is a successful explorer, being involved in numerous hydrocarbon discoveries throughout Australia and overseas, with the most famous being the giant Pluto gas discovery that resulted in a $15B LNG development and the giant Calliance discovery that will underpin the planned floating LNG development of Woodside’s Browse fields (both while VP Exploration Australia at Woodside).

Professor Moore was the Executive Vice-President for Exploration from 2009 to 2013 for Woodside Energy Ltd (Australia’s largest dedicated oil and gas company) where he led the company’s worldwide exploration efforts with an annual budget of roughly $0.5B. Prior to Woodside, he was head of Global Studies for ExxonMobil in Houston.

Professor Moore joined the Curtin Business School (CBS) in April 2014 & works part time as Professor & Executive Director Strategic Engagement. As part of his role at the Curtin Business School he is involved in reviewing the Faculty’s strategic plans, as well as developing CBS’s relationships and partnerships with key interest groups including industry, government and research bodies both in Australia and overseas. With Professor Moore’s prior experience, he is also helping guide Curtin University’s strategy around oil & gas.