Dr. Ali Ghalambor: An overview on the oil and gas well drilling process

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Ever wondered how the process for drilling oil and gas wells work? This Dr. Ali Ghalambor article will enlighten you about the basics of this process, which is a vital aspect in the oil and gas industry.

In the complex world of the petroleum industry, drilling is just a part of what it takes to extract petroleum fluids from beneath the surface of the earth. It entails many elements which will require much planning, studies and research before the actual execution of such operations. A team of geologists, scientists, engineers, and other industry experts works to formulate strategies on how to properly source out oil and gas.

Finding the source of oil is of course the first step to drilling a well. Geologists are said to be primarily responsible in locating the right conditions for an oil trap, which includes the source rock, reservoir rock, and entrapment. Some of the things that they consider in finding oil trap are surface rocks and soil types.

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Dr. Ali Ghalambor has co-authored various handbooks about drilling, production and well completion in exploiting petroleum bearing formations. These handbooks are useful reference for industry movers and those who aspire to work in the petroleum field.

After the site selection, further studies are made particularly on the boundaries and environmental impact of the process. Permits and agreements are also ironed out. In preparing the land, several holes are dug around the area, and a rectangular pit or cellar serves as the workspace around the hole.

Once the rig is set, the drilling operations may start. From the starting hole, experts drill the surface up to the pre-set depth. The pre-set depth is located just above the oil trap. A cemented casing must be placed into the section of the hole to avoid it from collapsing. After several casings, the drilling would continue until it reaches the final depth, wherein there are several tests such as well logging, drill-stem testing, and core samples done. Once the final depth is reached, a perforating gun is lowered into the well. The gun creates the necessary holes in the casing wherein the oil will flow.

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Dr. Ali Ghalambor has over 35 years of academic and professional experience in the field of petroleum engineering. For more about him, follow this Facebook page.

Ali Ghalambor: Energizing the production of oil and gas field development wells

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Dr. Ali Ghalambor, who has served as a consultant to more than 50 petroleum production and service companies, finds that these companies can do so much more with additional information on how they can further energize the production of oil and gas in their field development wells.

There have actually been various changes in the activities related to the petroleum industry that have been implemented over the years. These activities have been made more and more efficient through advancements in research and technology. However, there is still an obvious need for improvements to keep up with the global demand, and lowering the cost.

Along with his colleagues Boyun Guo and Kai Sun, Dr. Ali Ghalambor has published the “Well Productivity Handbook,” Gulf Publishing Co. (ISBN: 1-933762-32-2), 334 pages and has done research on various topics pertaining to modeling oil and gas production wells. They have gone back to reviewing crucial engineering issues and have touched on topics such as petroleum fluid properties, wellbore flow performance, reservoir deliverability, and the productivity of intelligent well systems.

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The data collected are a promising herald of more innovations to come as both seasoned engineers and students are able to understand and apply these to their own work, which will give rise to more improvements in best practices. Reservoir simulation is crucial to the design of effective systems that affect oil and gas field development well operations, and regularly updating modeling methods is seen as the key to energizing the rest of the activities that follow.

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Dr. Ali Ghalambor is the recipient of various awards from the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the American Petroleum Institute. Learn more about his pursuits to contribute to the still-growing petroleum industry by visiting this Facebook page.

Ali Ghalambor: Pioneering offshore pipeline texts

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Before Ali Ghalambor decided to co-write Offshore Pipelines, there was a marked dearth in the academic literature that was available for this area of study. As a matter of fact, there were very few books about offshore petroleum engineering, and no one dared to tackle the challenging topic of offshore pipelines.

In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of offshore pipelines, mainly due to its safety, environmental, energy, maintenance, and reliability benefits. With this trend, the subject of offshore pipelines has become all the more important in the study of petroleum engineering.

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This is the reason why the book on offshore pipelines written by Ali Ghalambor, Boyun Guo, and Shanhong Song has been regarded as an edgy and up-to-date contribution to the study of petroleum engineering. First published in 2005, it has proven to be one of the most useful references for engineers and developers who are accorded the challenging task of bringing oil and gas onshore.

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Through this book, pipeline design engineers will learn about designing low-cost pipelines that allow long-term operability and safety. Moreover, pipeline operation engineers and management personnel will be able to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills in the cost-effective operation of pipeline systems.

The book also contains a section that deals with deepwater pipelining, a relatively new technology that has been developed in the past ten years and is swiftly increasing in practical use.

Learn more about the books authored by Ali Ghalambor by visiting this Facebook page.

Ali Ghalambor: A look at the roles and responsibilities of petroleum and natural gas engineers

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Seasoned petroleum engineers, like Dr. Ali Ghalambor, are well aware that the process of making petroleum products available in large quantities to sustain the industrial economy and maintain the standard of living is considerably demanding. It is but fitting for petroleum engineers to be completely trained to face these challenges and carry out processes in ways that are friendly to the environment. They must also be versatile enough to be able to cover the different aspects of petroleum engineering. As complex as it is, petroleum engineering involves a diverse set of processes; the more reason to employ experts of different sorts like the following:

With over 32 years of experience in the oil and gas sector, Dr. Ali Ghalambor is the editor and a major author of “The Frac-Packing Handbook,” a comprehensive collection of materials discussing different issues on frac-pack completion operations.

• Drilling engineers. - Drilling engineers develop, plan, schedule, and supervise the operations involved in drilling oil and gas wells. From well designing and testing to completion and abandonment, drilling engineers are there to oversee the operations. They may be deployed on land, offshore platforms, or on mobile drilling units.

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• Production engineers - Also called process engineers, they are involved in an assortment of research and development responsibilities dealing with fabrication, evaluation, internal fixtures, and other processes.

• Reservoir engineer - Reservoir engineers commonly use technology and their expertise in geology and fluid mechanics to determine the location and amount of fuel in underground reservoirs. Additionally, they work with advanced equipment, such as computer modeling and imaging programs, to locate reserves of oil and natural gas.

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Find out more about Dr. Ali Ghalambor and the oil and gas sector by visiting this Facebook page.

Ali Ghalambor: Frac pack stimulation in deepwater reservoirs

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Dr. Ali Ghalambor is a petroleum engineer specializing in areas that involve such complex processes as frac-packing and drilling.

Over the past few decades, deepwater reservoirs have become a major sector for the oil and gas industry. Although its importance has dwindled in recent years, the sector continues to be one of the leading growth areas in the fuel business.

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The cost to develop deepwater reservoirs today can be tremendously high with rig rates exceeding several millions of dollars. With recoverable reserves requiring efficient and reliable completion techniques, frac packing stimulation has become the most utilized process in accumulating huge quantities of high-quality hydrocarbons, delivering cost-effective production from high permeability wells.

 Dr. Ali Ghalambor is the author of the Frac-Packing Handbook, a comprehensive collection of system guidelines published by the Society of Petroleum Engineers. It covers the most fundamental to the most highly advanced issues in frac-packing operation.

Stimulation treatments are the most crucial components of a completion project because these processes largely enhance the connection between the wellbore and the reservoir, making the well financially viable. A completed frac pack treatment results in a highly conductive fracture that extends from the wellbore through the undamaged reservoir.

Oil well stimulation plays an essential role in production operations. With oil prices constantly breaking records, it is imperative from an oil company’s perspective and the consumer’s viewpoint that as much as possible, hydrocarbons are carefully extracted from the reservoir.  

For more information about Dr. Ali Ghalambor, read updates on this Facebook page.
 

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Ali Ghalambor: Well production testing

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Ali Ghalambor is known for his notable contributions in the oil and gas sector. Aside from working with prestigious universities and organizations, he has served international organizations including the United Nations.

While this article talks about Dr. Ghalambor, it also explores the purpose of testing in the clean-up and commission of the well preceding connection to the permanent production facility.

Over the years, there has been a dramatic change in the way well testing is viewed by the industry. This is due to the onset of computer-generated analyses and derivatives which comprise tools including well performance indicators and heavy-duty reservoir-characterization mechanisms.

Ali Ghalambor co-authored the Well Productivity Handbook.

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Well testing is a complex and technical matter with regard to the assessment and exploitation of reservoir architectures and frontier assets. This is the reason why countless challenges ranging from ultra-deep wells to subsea subsalt developments confront the industry. Added to that is the rise of environmental issues that go up against well production and related processes.

Testing of production wells concerns in-line testing that measures oil, water, and/or gas contents from individual wells. Non-stop production measurements result to reduced costs, non-interference with normal production, and improvement in reservoir appreciation and knowledge. The need for accurate well test results is on the rise since crucial production decisions are based on them. Quality well tests also have implications on safety and accuracy to sustain the life of the well or reservoir.

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Ali Ghalambor: How Nigerian wells benefit from single-trip perforate and frac-pack completion

The Bonga development, a deepwater oil field in Nigeria, comprises a single-trip perforate and five frac-pack treatments operating in a porous medium. Petroleum engineers like Ali Ghalambor see the operation as a high-efficiency process that, when coupled with salt-tolerant fracture fluid, can substantially reduce pump rates and horsepower requirements. This in turn, will save more time and money, and produce better quality crude oil.

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Frac-packing is the accelerated process of extracting oil or natural gas from a fractured rock layer. Perforating, on the other hand, involves the drilling of small holes in a petroleum-carrying rock to advance the flow of fluids.

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The Frac-Packing Handbook, published by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, is a comprehensive collection of system guidelines that covers the fundamental to the highly advanced techniques in frac-packing operations. Co-written by Dr. Ali Ghalambor, the book discusses frac-pack treatments that compare different techniques with cost savings and well performance standpoints based on field applications. The authors detail the design, execution, and evaluation of the treatments and discuss the fluid system that will best suit the needs of a certain operation.

All treatments in the Bonga development were performed from a stimulation vessel, with some of the treatments using the conventional two-trip technique and others working on a single-trip perforating and frac-packing technique. The single-trip system reduced completion time by 1 to 2 days as compared with the extended time using a conventional system.

From Ali Ghalambor

Dr. Ali Ghalambor’s Frac-Packing Handbook contains specific discussions such as Candidate Recognition for High-Permeability Fracturing, Frac-Pack Mechanisms, Frac-Pack Fluids, Calibration-Test Design and Analysis, Post-Frac-Pack Treatment Analysis, and the Value of Frac-Packing. For more details, visit Dr. Ghalambor’s Facebook page.