Total Research Centre-Qatar (TRC-Q) held one-day training in reservoir engineering with more than 40 participants from Qatar Petroleum, Qatargas, Dolphin Energy and Total attending the course.
During the training, lectures were delivered by Bernard Faissat and Andre Fil, two of the most experienced scientists in reservoir
simulation.
The title of the training course was “Reservoir
Simulator of the Future”.
A reservoir simulator is a very complex software, which allows to mimic and to predict the behaviour of an hydrocarbons field.
To achieve such an objective, one first needs to describe and represent the heterogeneities and the physical properties of the geological reservoirs.
The flow of the fluids (oil, gas, water) inside these reservoirs is then simulated, allowing to better understand the production mechanisms and to predict the future production of oil or gas, which is, extremely
important.
As reservoir simulators become more and more complex, Total defined a project in its headquarter to determine the characteristics of the simulators of the future.
In the training course, the main technological “reservoir simulation” challenges in the next 10 to 20 years were presented: integration of very complex physics to take into account advanced hydrocarbons recovery mechanisms, use of very large models allowing a more detailed representation of oil and gas reservoirs, which implies to use more powerful high performance computers.
The challenges also pushes geoscientists, reservoir engineers and production engineers to work together as early as possible during the appraisal and development phases of the
hydrocarbons fields.
Dr Philippe Julien, director, TRC-Q, welcomed the participants during the training and reminded them of the three main research activities in the centre.
TRC-Q is currently focusing on some of the challenges of Qatar, including production of carbonate reservoirs (geochemistry, acid stimulation of wells), metrology (smart metering of hydrocarbons production, measurement of the air quality) and petrochemicals.
In acid stimulation, a joint Qatar Petroleum and Total research team works in the TRC-Q premises.
Total is primarily involved in oil and gas research and development at Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP) because there are still a lot of technical challenges related to the
petroleum industry.
By sharing knowledge and skills, within very high-level training courses, Total clearly wants to support the development of a knowledge-based economy in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the role of the Qatar Foundation.
“The goal of the TRC-Q is to carry out very innovative research and to share it with our industrial partners - Qatar Petroleum, Qatargas and Dolphin Energy,”
Dr Julien added.