Petroleum Industry

Petroleum industry production systems are highly automatized. In this industry, all functions (e.g., planning, scheduling and maintenance) are automated and in order to remain competitive researchers attempt to design an adaptive control system which optimizes the process, but also able to adapt to rapidly evolving demands at a fixed cost. In this paper, we present a multi-agent approach for the dynamic task scheduling in petroleum industry production system. Agents simultaneously insure effective production scheduling and the continuous improvement of the solution quality by means of reinforcement learning, using the SARSA algorithm. Reinforcement learning allows the agents to adapt, learning the best behaviors for their various roles without reducing the performance or reactivity. To demonstrate the innovation of our approach, we include a computer simulation of our model and the results of experimentation applying our model to an Algerian petroleum refinery.

Estudo transversal em 1.026 trabalhadores em distrito de perfuração de petróleo do Nordeste brasileiro mostrou prevalência global de doença do disco intervertebral lombar de 5%, variando de 1,8% (atividades sem manuseio de carga), 4,5% (manuseio ocasional) até 7,2% (manuseio habitual). Tal prevalência foi de 11,4% em operadores de sonda de perfuração de petróleo com mais de 40 anos de idade e de 10,5% naqueles com mais de 15 anos de empresa. A razão de prevalência (R.P.) à associação entre trabalho em operação de sonda e doença do disco foi 2,3 (I.C. 95%: 1,3, 4,0). Para minimizar o efeito sobrevivência do trabalhador sadio foram usadas informações retrospectivas acerca da exposição. A informação referente à ocupação atual em lugar do histórico ocupacional resultaria em RP subestimada de 1,1 (I.C. 95%: 0,6, 1,9). A regressão logística ratificou os achados da análise tabular. Não houve confundimento nem interação. O incremento da indústria de petróleo no país e as alterações na gestã...

Gasoline is the petroleum product whose price is most visible and, therefore, always under public scrutiny. Many claim there is an asymmetric relationship between gasoline and oil prices - specifically, gasoline price changes follow oil price changes more quickly when oil prices are rising than when they are falling. To explore this issue, Nathan Balke, Stephen Brown and Mine Yucel

Long-distance commuting (also called fly-in/fly-out or FIFO) is a system of labour-force provision for industrial operations in remote regions; e. g., at oil and gas extraction sites in the Russian Arctic. Employees  commute on a rotational shift basis of 14 days in and 14 days out (14/14) or on a 30/30 roster. This chapter is based on longterm ethnographic research in the northwestern Siberian Arctic. The theoretical considerations relate to coping strategies for the two main constraints inherent to this way of life: the separation of meaningful social spheres (home and on duty) and the ascription of deviance to this lifestyle. People who cope well with this multilocal and mobile way of life pursue two strategies: (1) the conscious integration of space through the simultaneous connecting and separation of the spheres in order to constitute an integrated, enlarged and meaningful social and geographical space and (2) a flexible process of normalisation which turns the ascription of deviance into potential.

http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0156-09764

Chemical process control requires intelligent monitoring due to the dynamic nature of the chemical reactions and the non-linear functional relationship between the input and output variables involved. CSTR is one of the major processing unit in many chemical, pharmaceutical and petroleum industries as well as in environmental and waste management engineering. In spite of continuing advances in optimal solution techniques for optimization and control problems, many of such problems remain too complex to be solved by the known techniques. Thus, a heuristic approach is often a viable alternative. Neural Network models offer the most unified approach to building truly intelligent systems, which can provide good optimal solution for many applications. In this work we propose a hybrid (KohKal) neural network algorithm which is being used to model and solve a continuous stirred tank mixer/reactor (CSTM/R) problem which is non-linear and stochastic in nature. This hybrid algorithm is robust...

The introduction and rise of female entrepreneurs is believed to be ushering potential for economic growth as well as harnessing opportunities for female expression, emancipation and empowerment as stated by Kumar (2014). However, the encouraging statistics on the rise of female owned businesses in Zimbabwe and the global world, has raised concerns on the paltry involvement of women entrepreneurs in the downstream petroleum industry, with specific reference to the fuel retail sector. Given all the efforts made to lure female entrepreneurs in the fuel retail sector, one may wonder why the fuel retail industry is not attracting more female entrepreneurs. This ignited academic interest warranting a research on the phenomenon. The objectives of the study were focused on specific variables i.e. limited access to finance, cultural factors, business ethics and women's capabilities and skills in running the fuel service station stations. Conceptually, the study was delimited to issues impacting on female entrepreneurs in the downstream petroleum industry, with specific reference to the fuel service stations. Literature confirms that the establishment of female entrepreneurs in the fuel retail sector contributes to the economic development of any country as highlighted by Akubue (2001) when he posits that gender equality and female entrepreneurship are key factors in economic development. Chinomona and Maziriri (2015) state that women entrepreneurs face a myriad of challenges both in starting and in growing their business ventures implying that there are several issues that affect the women entrepreneurs in the fuel service station sector. The women entrepreneurs get limited access to finance due to two main interpretations which are the supply-side discrimination factors and the demand-side factors relating to women entrepreneurs' choices, preferences and motivations. The epistemology research philosophy was used mainly due to its significance in influencing how researchers frame their research in their attempts to discover knowledge by looking at The relationship between a subject and an object to explore thus allowing the researcher to inquire about the factors affecting women entrepreneurs in the fuel service station sector. Mixed methods approach, with attributes from positivism and naturalism, was used to analyse the factors which affect women entrepreneurs in the downstream fuel service station sector. The sampling of the fuel service station employees and clients was based on non-probability sampling techniques such as convenience and judgemental sampling. Findings were that issues affecting participation and performance of women entrepreneurs in the downstream Petroleum industry with specific reference to the Fuel Service Stations in Zimbabwe were lack of access to finances, socio-cultural factors, entrepreneurial ethics and lack of capacity and skills. Recommendations were that the regulatory body and financial institutions, in partnership with stakeholders in the petroleum industry had to design productive strategies to empower female entrepreneurs in the fuel service station sector.

“Big Data is the oil of the new economy” is the most famous citation during the three last years. It has even been adopted by the World Economic Forum in 2011. In fact, Big Data is like crude! It’s valuable, but if unrefined it cannot be used. It must be broken down, analyzed for it to have value.

Abstract This paper reviews on the soil condition for three rivers at Carey Island namely Air Hitam, Judah and Keluang River. The activities on the island such as palm oil industries are believed affect the soil. Thus a study was carried out to determine the parameters of pH value, total sulphates, chloride content, total organic carbon (TOC), inorganic carbon (IC) and nitrogen in soil. The tests that have been conducted are Moisture Content Test, Specific Gravity Test, Atterberg Limit Test, pH Test, Total Sulphates Test and Total Chloride ...

This article analyzes important changes in technological innovation in the upstream petroleum industry. It provides evidence that shifts in sectoral patterns of innovation over the petroleum industry's lifecycle from the 1970s up to 2005 were dependent on the dynamics of knowledge base complexity (KBC), a key dimension of an industry's technological regime. Accordingly, observed shifts in innovation patterns are understood to be the aggregated strategic response of industry innovators to changes in the technological regime. The article proposes a quantitative method for exploring KBC and Schumpeterian patterns of innovation, and interactions between the two at the industry level. As the industry evolved, its knowledge base moved to higher orders of complexity creating a shift in the Schumpeterian pattern of innovation. Increased KBC was found to alter Schumpe-terian patterns from Mark I toward a 'modified' Mark II. Instead of coming predominantly from 'traditional' established oil operators, technological innovation was increasingly triggered by a new class of emergent integrated service companies-'second tier' systems integrators of the upstream sector able to cope with increased KBC.

In this paper we formulate two new models of the production-transportation problem which can be described as follows. Let us suppose that there are several plants at different locations producing certain number of products and large number of customers of their products. Each plant can operate in several modes characterized by different quantities of products and variable production costs. The customers' demand for each product during the considered time period is known. We consider the problem of finding the production program for each plant as well as the transportation of products to customers for which the sum of the production and transportation costs is minimized given the condition that each customer can satisfy its demand for a given type of product from one plant only. We also formulate the problem as a bilevel mixed-integer programming problem. We solve the models for the available data from a petroleum industry and compare the results.

The petroleum industry is increasing its focus on the exploration of reservoirs in turbidite systems. However, these sedimentary environments are often characterized by very complex sand distributions. Hence, reservoir description based on conventional seismic and well-log interpretation may be very uncertain. There is a need to employ more quantitative seismic techniques to reveal reservoirs units in these complex systems from

In this paper, we review a suite of techniques for determination of in situ stress orientation and magnitude in deep wells and boreholes. As these techniques can be utilized in both vertical and highly deviated wells, they have had extensive application in the petroleum industry where knowledge of stress orientation and magnitude at depth is important for addressing a wide range of problems. The techniques we have developed for estimation of the maximum horizontal principal stress, SHmax, make extensive use of observations of non-catastrophic failures of the wellbore wall—both compressive failures (breakouts) and tensile failures (drilling-induced tensile fractures) as well as the stress perturbations associated with slip on faults cutting through the wellbore. The widespread use of wellbore imaging in the petroleum industry has been a critical development that makes utilization of these techniques possible. In addition to reviewing the theoretical basis for these techniques, we present case studies derived from oil and gas fields in different parts of the world. These case studies document the facts that the techniques described here yield (i) consistent stress orientations and magnitudes over appreciable depth ranges within and between wells in a given field (thus indicating that the techniques are independent of formation properties), (ii) stress magnitudes that are consistent with absolute and relative stress magnitudes predicted by Anderson and Coulomb faulting theories, (iii) stress orientations and relative magnitudes that are consistent with regional stress indicators and tectonics observed with other techniques at much larger scales and (iv) sufficiently well-constrained estimates of the full stress tensor that are useful in application to engineering problems such as wellbore stability.

Naphtha is a volatile commercial product which is obtained by the distillation process in petroleum refinery of coal tar. Petroleum naphtha is a name for the petroleum distillate which contains aliphatic hydrocarbons and boiling point higher than the gasoline and lower than kerosene. In the crude oil distillation the overhead liquid distillate is called virgin or straight naphtha. Heat is used to maintain viscosity of naphtha that is stored. As naphtha has a non-linear thermal property after distillation it is in the semi-fluid form. If the temperature drops the fluid changes from semi-liquid to semi-solid form and can cause considerable damage to the system and becomes difficult for further processing. Hence to avoid this heat pipes are inserted in pressure vessel from top to ensure efficient distribution of heat. In this project we will study the effect of thermal stress due the presence of embedded heat pipes and try to simulate the distribution of heat in the system using ANSYS.

This paper reviews the current understanding of electrocoalescence of water droplets in oil, highlighting particularly the mechanisms proposed for droplet–droplet and droplet–interface coalescence under the influence of an applied electric field, as well as various factors influencing the ...

Application considerations for fixed speed motors utilized in hazardous locations are not new to the electrical community, have been discussed previously and are relatively well known in the petroleum industry. Documented guidelines for these applications are currently established that are primarily centered on motor temperature rise limitations and the use of non-sparking fans in class 1 division 2 / zone 2 locations. However, there are additional considerations when motors and their associated loads are on inverter supply. Items such as the effect on motor temperature rise when operating at reduced speeds for units without independently powered blowers, the effect of non-sinusoidal supply at the motor terminals on motor temperature rise as well as rotor voltage related phenomenon are relevant items. This paper identifies and provides guidelines particular to inverter-fed applications for class 1 division 2 installations.

La reconstrucción de Venezuela como nación, luego del deterioro de la misma durante todo lo que va del siglo XXI, requiere de un esfuerzo en lo relativo a tres áreas fundamenta-les. En primer lugar la que tiene que ver con los aspectos políticos sociales y culturales, luego la relacionada con los servicios públicos, y finalmente, el de aquellas actividades generadoras de ingresos financieros para la nación. Dentro de la tercera de estas categorías se le concede particular importancia a la recuperación de la industria petrolera. Con relación a esta actividad es necesario considerar dos aspectos fundamentales: su factibilidad, y la posibilidad de generar, bajo las circunstancias actuales, los ingresos suficientes para fi-nanciar la diversificación de la economía del país.

This article explores the relationship between the oil industry’s representation of operating conditions in key sites of extraction and the constitution of oil futures markets. An analysis of Shell Oil’s recent Scenarios publications, the ‘Trilemma Scenarios to 2025’ and subsequent ‘Scramble and Blueprints Scenarios to 2050’, provides insight into both the (global) social construction of oil prices and the oil industry’s reaction to social resistance in its operating environment – whether in the form of movements for resource sovereignty or climate change activism. Examining the implications of these two Scenario publications for key sites of Shell investment, the Nigerian Niger Delta and the Canadian Tar Sands, the article demonstrates that understanding the discursive implications of ‘peak oil’ for the petroleum industry requires contextualizing discussions of ‘scarcity’ within business agents role in shaping oil futures markets, and private industry’s interest in the ongoing development of unconventional fossil fuel sources. While the role of deregulated futures trading receives little attention in the Shell Scenarios, speculative trading – and thus perception concerning supply among business agents – is central to shaping global oil prices and thus the social conditions of the oil market.