Commercial applicators

Chapters are always introduced by pointing out the commercial application of the subject in order to clarify its relevance to the overall business. 

Introduction and Commercial Application This section provides an overview of the activities carried out at the various stages of field development. Each activity is driven by a business need related to that particular phase. The later sections of this manual will focus in some more detail on individual elements of the field life cycle. 

Introduction and Commercial Application This section will firstly examine the conditions necessary for the existence of a hydrocarbon accumulation. Secondly, we will see which techniques are employed by the industry to locate oil and gas deposits. 

Introduction and commercial application Safety and the environment have become important elements of all parts of the field life cycle, and involve all of the technical and support functions in an oil company. The Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea in 1988 has resulted in a major change in the approach to management of safety of world-wide oil and gas exploration and production activities. Companies recognise that good safety and environmental management make economic sense and are essential to guaranteeing long term presence in the industry. 

Introduction and Commercial Application The objective of reservoir geology is the description and quantification of geologically controlled reservoir parameters and the prediction of their lateral variation. Three parameters broadly define the reservoir geology of a field ... 

Introduction and Commercial Application JUe objective of performing appraisal activities on discovered accumulations is to reduce the uncertainty in the description of the hydrocarbon reservoir, and to provide information with which to make a decision on the next action. The next action may be, for example, to undertake more appraisal, to commence development, to stop activities, or to sell the prospect. In any case, the appraisal activity should lead to a decision which yields a greater value than the outcome of a decision made in the absence of the information from the appraisal. The improvement in the value of the action, given the appraisal information, should be greater than the cost of the appraisal activities, otherwise the appraisal effort is not worthwhile. 

Introduction and Commercial Application The reservoir and well behaviour under dynamic conditions are key parameters in determining what fraction of the hydrocarbons initially in place will be produced to surface over the lifetime of the field, at what rates they will be produced, and which unwanted fluids such as water are also produced. This behaviour will therefore dictate the revenue stream which the development will generate through sales of the hydrocarbons. The reservoir and well performance are linked to the surface development plan, and cannot be considered in isolation different subsurface development plans will demand different surface facilities. The prediction of reservoir and well behaviour are therefore crucial components of field development planning, as well as playing a major role in reservoir management during production. 

Introduction and Commercial Application Section 8.0 considered the dynamic behaviour in the reservoir, away from the influence of the wells. However, when the fluid flow comes under the influence of the pressure drop near the wellbore, the displacement may be altered by the local pressure distribution, giving rise to coning or cusping. These effects may encourage the production of unwanted fluids (e.g. water or gas instead of oil), and must be understood so that their negative input can be minimised. 

Introduction and commercial application Investment opportunities in the exploration and production (E P) sector of oil and gas business are abundant. Despite areas such as the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico and the North Slope in Alaska being mature areas, there are still many new fields under development in those regions, and new areas of business interest are opening up in South America, Africa and South East Asia. Some fields which have a production history of decades are being redeveloped, such as the Pedernales Field in Venezuela. 

Introduction and Commercial Application The production decline period for a field is usually defined as starting once the field production rate falls from its plateau rate. Individual well rates may however drop long before field output falls. This section introduces some of the options that may be available, initially to arrest production decline, and subsequently to manage decline in the most cost effective manner. 

Introduction and Commercial Application Eventually every field development will reach the end of its economic lifetime. If options for extending the field life have been exhausted, then decommissioning will be necessary. Decommissioning is the process which the operator of an oil or natural gas installations will plan, gain approval and implement the removal, disposal or re-use of an installation when it is no longer needed for its current purpose. 

Having examined the properties of alkenes and introduced the elements of polymers and poly merization let s now look at some commercial applications of ethylene and propene... 

Kuhni contacters (Eig. 15e) have gained considerable commercial application. The principal features are the use of a shrouded impeller to promote radial discharge within the compartments, and a variable hole arrangement to allow flexibility of design for different process applications. Columns up to 5 m in diameter have been constmcted (176). Description and design criteria for Kuhni extraction columns have been reported (177,178). 

Unlike ECF, direct fluorination does not alter the carbon backbone preparation of isomerically pure acids is possible (18). Both direct fluorination and ECF permit a great variety of stmctures to be made, but each method is better at certain types of stmctures than the other. Ether acids are produced in good yields, by direct fluorination (17), while ECF of ether-containing acids is fair to poor depending on the substrate. Despite much industrial interest, the costs and hazards of handling fluorine gas have prevented commercial application of this process. 

The TPX experimental product of Mitsubishi Petrochemical Ind. (221) is an amorphous, transparent polyolefin with very low water absorption (0.01%) and a glass-transition temperature comparable to that of BPA-PC (ca 150°C). Birefringence (<20 nm/mm), flexural modulus, and elongation at break are on the same level as PMMA (221). The vacuum time, the time in minutes to reach a pressure of 0.13 mPa (10 torr), is similarly short like that of cychc polyolefins. Typical values of TPX are fisted in Table 11. A commercial application of TPX is not known as of this writing. 

As a pharmaceutical, methyl salicylate is used in liniments and ointments for the relief of pain and for rheumatic conditions. As a flavor and fragrance agent, it is used in confectioneries, dentifrices, cosmetics, and perfumes. Other commercial applications for methyl salicylate are as a dye carrier, as a uv-light stabilizer in acrylic resins, and as a chemical intermediate. The May 1996 price was 5.50/kg (18). 

CO, and fermentation of glucose from wet milling of com (165). None of these methods has found commercial application. 

Chromium is able to use all of its >d and As electrons to form chemical bonds. It can also display formal oxidation states ranging from Cr(—II) to Cr(VI). The most common and thus most important oxidation states are Cr(II), Cr(III), and Cr(VI). Although most commercial applications have centered around Cr(VI) compounds, environmental concerns and regulations ia the early 1990s suggest that Cr(III) may become increasingly important, especially where the use of Cr(VI) demands reduction and incorporation as Cr(III) ia the product. 

Miscellaneous Commercial Applications. Dimer acids are components of "downweU" corrosion inhibitors for oil-drilling equipment (see Petroleum Corrosion and corrosion inhibitors). This may account for 10% of current dimer acid use (71). The acids, alkyl esters, and polyoxyalkylene dimer esters are used commercially as components of metal-working lubricants (see Lubrication). Dimer esters have achieved some use in specialty lubricant appHcations such as gear oils and compressor lubricants. The dimer esters, compared to dibasic acid esters, polyol esters and poly(a-olefin)s, are higher in cost and of higher viscosity. The higher viscosity, however, is an advantage in some specialties, and the dimer esters are very stable thermally and can be made quite oxidatively stable by choice of proper additives. 

Wet-dry coohng towers incoi porating these designs are being used for large-tower industrial applications. At present they are not available for commercial applications. 

Pulsed Spray Columns Billerbeck et al. [Jnd. Eng. Chem., 48, 183 (1956)] applied pulsing to a laboratoiy [3.8-cm- (1.5-in-) diameter] column. At pulse amplitude 1.11 cm 6 in), rates of mass transfer improved slightly with increased frequency up to 400 cycies/min, but the effecl was relatively small. Shirotsuka [Kagaku Kogaku, 22, 687 (1958)] provides additional data. There is not believed to be commercial application. 

TABLE 22-11 Commercial Applications of Supercritical Fluid Separations Technology... 

Liquid membranes are a specialty, either adsorbed in capillaries or erniilsiFied. Thev are much studied, but little commercial application is Found. 

Ceramics Ceramic microfilters for commercial applications are almost always employed as tube-side feed multitube monoliths. They are also available as flat sheet, single tubes, discs, and other forms primarily suited to lab use. They are used for a few high-temperature applications, in contact with solvents, and particularly at very high pH. 

TABLE 25-46 Full-Scale Commercial Applications of Fluidized Bed Process... 

ANSI/IEEE 446/1995 Recommended practice for emergency and standby power systems for industrial and commercial applications. (IEEE Orange Book) ... 

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