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STIPINST-Stipendiatstillinger i instituttsektoren

Stipendiatstilling 1 NR (2020-2023)

Awarded: NOK 4.1 mill.

During drilling for Oil and Gas, the goal is to hit the reservoir at the planned entry point and land the well correctly in the reservoir as much as possible. To achieve this goal, high-precision instruments are used to accurately navigate the well into the reservoir. This navigation process is called geo-steering. The geo-steering tools provide a series of resistivity measurements that contain information about the formation around the well-bore. These measurements need to be processed with statistical inversion methods to produce an image of the surrounding rocks several meters away from the well-bore. In this PhD work, we will provide a reproducible procedure to extract valuable information from resistivity data that can be used in a realistic drilling situation. Current inversion methods do not account for prior knowledge about the geologic environment. Our research will investigate the advantages of including geological constraints during the inversion which can result in an efficient method for the future field of geo-steering. This will provide a robust methodology for steering the drilling process and ultimately enhancing recovery from the well. That way we can reduce the total number of wells needed to deplete a reservoir while keeping the environmental impact to the minimum. Oil and gas still play an important role in solving the worlds growing energy demand. However, with the threat of global warming, the ethical dilemma regarding research towards non-renewable energy sources is still present. On the other hand, improving the drilling efficiency and enhancing the recovery from each well drilled will result in greater socioeconomic dividends, and can further drive the development of renewable energy.

Funding scheme:

STIPINST-Stipendiatstillinger i instituttsektoren