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Journal of the

PETROTECHSociety


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Journal of the

Petrotech Society

June 2008

Volume VNo. 2


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Dear Patrons,

Yet another issue of the Journal of Petrotech Society is in your hands. With this issue, an attempt has been made to bring in a varied

mix of relevant articles on all aspects of hydrocarbon chain. We sincerely thank our expert contributors who have taken pains to focus

relevant ideas on the latest technology development both in upstream and down stream areas. As you may be aware, we are mid way

through the preparatory year of the forthcoming mega event viz PETROTECH 2009, the 8th International Oil & Gas Conference and

Exhibition being held under the aegis of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Indian Oil Corporation, the lead company organizing

this event on behalf of our Society, has constituted seven nodal committees under the leadership of all functional directors to continu-

ously review the progress and make midcourse corrections wherever necessary. The Conference has a very important theme Energy

Independence with Global Cooperation: Challenges and Solutions and call for papers related to the theme has already been sent by

technical committee. A countdown calendar released by Chairman during the 2nd Steering Committee held on 12th march 2008 is in

place for monitoring progress/milestones for the Conference. Major milestones achieved so far are :

Vigyan Bhawan has been booked as Conference venue and Hall No 14 &18 at Pragati Maidan has been booked for Exhibition.

M/s Reed Exhibition Ltd, UK has been selected as the Professional Exhibition Organizer for the above Exhibition.

The Parallel Track Event is being Organized by IndianOil alongwith BPCL and FICCI.

Honble Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas has kindly consented to be Patron-in-Chief for PETROTECH-2009.

Honble Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Secretary, MoP&NG have also agreed to be Patron and Conference

Chairman respectively.

Honble Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas has sent request letter to Honble Prime Minister of India for inaugurating the

Conference.

During the 1st Core Group Meeting held on 17th January 2008, Honble Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas & Patron-in-Chief,

PETROTECH-2009 had formally released the first Information Brochure and launched website of PETROTECH-2009.

For promotion & Marketing of the above event, PETROTECH 2009 Posters were displayed in International Aviation Conference held

on 21st-22nd February 2008 at Jodhpur; 5th Asia Gas Partnership Summit 2008, held on 14th-15th April 2008 at New Delhi & Made in

India Exhibition held in November 2007 at Cairo. A stall was set up during ISFL-2008, held from 9th -12th March 2008 at New Delhi.

The stalls would also be set up at 19th World Petroleum Congress being held from 29th June-3rd July 2008 at Madrid, Spain.

While the preparations of the above event are in full swing, the Society has been equally active on other fronts particularly in organizing

several programmes for the benefit of industry and academia. As informed earlier, the Society had organized 2nd R&D Conclave along-

with Indian Oil Corporation, R&D Centre at Goa from 9th-11th January 2008. Similar preparations are through for 3rd Summer School

Programme Petroleum Refining and Petrochemicals which is being organized with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd from 23rd-28th June 2008

at IIPM, Gurgaon and also 4th seminar on Modern Practices in Petroleum Exploration alongwith ONGC being organized on 22nd-27th

September 2008 at Dehradun. For the first time, Society joined hands with National Institute of Personnel Management to organize a

Pre Conference-Panel Discussion Linking Management, Industry and Education: Challenges during NatCon08 under the leadership

of Dr A K Balyan, National President, NIPM & Director (HR), ONGC, It was a live debate between academia and industry experts on 7th

February 2008 at Vadodara and telecast by NDTV Profit on 27th February 2008. Similarly, Petrotech Society also associated itself with

Directorate General of Hydrocarbon during International Conference on Gas Hydrates held from 6-8 February 2008 at Radisson MBD

Hotel, Noida. A programme on Hydrocarbon Industry Growth - Prospects & Challenges in North East on April 24-25th 2008 was also

organized for the first time in north-east at Guwahati alongwith IndianOil Guwahati Refinery. As many as 58 participants from academia

and industry from north-east region participated. Again for the first time, an industry education tour to Alberta is being organized bythe Society alongwith its MoU partner, University of Alberta for experts of different member organizations. As part of Industry Aware-

ness Programme, the Society has embarked on organizing industry expert visits to different Universities for imparting basic hands-on

type knowledge to senior under/post graduate students. Several universities and institutions have responded very favourably to the

programme. Draft Vision/Mission statement has been debated with senior experts and their views are being incorporated before final-

izing the same. Two new Corporate Members viz Lubrizon India Pvt Ltd & British Gas India Pvt Ltd have joined Petrotech during the

month of February & March 2008 respectively in addition to 27 Corporate members and 11 Institutional Members. Student Chapters are

active at UPES, Dehradun, ISM Dhanbad and MIT Pune and the initiative is continuing with other Universities. The Society is planning to

hold firstever seminar on Technology Advancement in South India alogwith Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd during later half of the

year. The Secretariat is trying to keep updated its esteemed members through regular monthly activity highlight reports and it is hoped

that all members are receiving this regularly. With this issue, a focal write up on various universities imparting Petroleum Engineering

Courses in India and abroad, is proposed to be started, starting with exposure on University of Alberta, our MoU Partner.

J L Raina

Secretary General & CEO

Editorial


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Message

By the time the next Petrotech Journal would be in

your hand we would be about the finish Petrotech

2009 which is to be held January 11-15 in New Delhi.

Countdown has already begun and everybody is lookingforward for the Petrotech 2009 which we hope will be class

apart from any other oil and gas conference and exhibition.

Energy Independence with global Cooperation: Challenges

and Solutions probably the most suitable theme for the

conference, will generate interesting debate and address

some of the most critical concerns of modern day problem

Energy Security.

The Petrotech Journal is carrying forward the good work of

sharing knowledge and providing technological update to

hydrocarbon industry professionals.

With crude prices in the range of $140 a barrel, we can only

speculate what would be the future of crude prices, But

thats for sure sole dependency on fossil fuel can be decisive

for any country like India which imports three quarter of theenergy needs. Future lies in conservation and optimum use

of energy sources that too on a global scale.

I again wish all the best for all the stakeholders who are

putting their best efforts to make Petrotech 2009 show a

grand success.

(Naresh Kumar)

MD Jindal Drilling and Industries Ltd.

President, Petrotech Society


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JOURNAL OF THE PETROTECH SOCIETY

C O N T E N T S JANUARY 2008

Diamonds are Forever, Oil is Not... 6

by R S Sharma

Polyolefin Materials and Catalysts: An Introduction 10

G S Kapur, D K Tuli, R K Malhotra, Anand Kumar

Revival of Non-Flowing wells and production enhancement through 17

implementation of Hydrofracturing Technology in Geleki field of Assam Asset

Shri J G Chaturvedi

Sustainable Development Key issues and steps for oil industries 23

A B Chakraborty, Shantanu Dasgupta

Surface Exploration Techniques for Hydrocarbons: An Overview 26

R R Singh

Energy Beyond Oil - Underground Coal Gasification 34

R K Sharma

Ethanol from Lignocellulosic Biomass: Prospects and Challenges 39

M P Singh, D K Tuli, R K Malhotra and Anand Kumar

Bacterial biosurfactant in enhancing solubility of petroleum hydrocarbons 45

B K Konwar and N K Bordoloi

Flow Measurement Applications in the Oil & Gas 53

Industry Different Technologies for Different Applications

Dieter Huller

PETROTECH Activities 60

Advisory Board

Dr Hari Narain

Former Director, NGRI

N B Prasad

Former Chairman, ONGC

Dr Avinash Chandra

Former DGH

Dr S Varadarajan

Former DG, CSIR

Dr A K Bharnagar

Former Director (R&D), IOC

Dr T S R Prasad Rao

Former Director, IIP

Dr M O Garg

Director, IIP

Dr S Ramanathan

Former Member Personnel ONGC

P K Mukhopadhyay

Former Director (R&D) IOC

Dr D M Kale

ED (R&D) ONGC

Editorial Board

J L Raina

Editor

Secretary General & CEO,

PETROTECH Society

G Sarpal

Secretary

Suman Gupta

Manager

The views expressed by the authors are their

own, and do not neccessarily represent that

of the Petrotech Society.

Printed and published by

Petrotech Society at Core 8, Scope Complex,

3rd Floor, New Delhi - 110 003 India


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Is the writing on the wall? Ageingfields, tight supplies, rising demand,soaring oil prices. Oil which ruled the

20th century seems like its shortagewill rule the next few decades of the

21st century.

Oil, unquestionably has driven the

globe predominantly since middle of

the last century. It is critical for almost

every important function of modern life.

No other existing energy source can

match its versatility and convenience.

The demand for oil is not waning, not

even at the current prices which has

breached USD138 (June 6th 2008) froma mere USD10, barely a decade earlier.

It is expected to grow exponentially fu-

elled by rising demand from developing

nations, led by China.

Will the supply sustain the risingdemand?

Evidences point to the contrary; that

our tank may not be able to last long

at the current rate of extraction or at

the rate at which it is predicted to be

extracted in future.

Though, the debate is on; whether we

have reached the peak or not? Many

argue that peak lies within the very

near future, if not already reached.

However, few others feel that the peak

is still some decades away and would

be a bumpy plateau. But it is quite clear

that the peak in world production will

happen soon and after it oil produc-

tion will start its terminal decline. For

our economy to grow, a plateau would

be disastrous, let alone a decline in oil

production.

Quoting officials from The International

Energy Agency (IEA), The Wall Street

Journal online on May 22, 2008, men-

tioned that the IEA which earlier had

been predicting that supplies of crude

and other liquid fuels will arc gently

upwards and keep pace with rising

demand crossing 116 million barrels a

day by 2030 from the current level of 85

million barrels per day, has been forced

to rethink. The agency now feels that

companies could struggle to surpass100 million barrels a day over the next

two decades. The Energy Information

Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Energy

Department also has started casting a

gloomier picture; that it will be tough

to push global fuel supplies over 100

million barrels a day by 2030.

The decision to rigorously survey sup-

ply, instead of just demand as was done

in the past by these and many other

agencies is a grim reminder of the factthat supply is not on the same track

as demand.

These fears are also echoed in the avail-

able production data. Our past optimism

stemmed from the reserves and produc-

tion capacity of the Middle East and the

Russians despite slumps in production

from other major producers viz: the

USA, North Sea, Mexico, Venezuela etc.

Former Soviet Union countries (FSU)

had recorded a massive growth of 34%

in the last 5 years (ending 2007; Source

: BP Statistical Review of World Energy

2008) while OPEC production grew by

18% over the same period. These two

contributed significantly to increase in the

global oil production which has recorded

a growth of 10% during this period.

However, while OPEC did grow during

2002 to 2004, its growth in later years

has been stunted and in fact registered

a negative growth in 2007. OPECs aver-

age annual production growth declined

from 8% in 2004 to 3% in 2005 and

finally to (-)1% in 2007. Similarly, though

oil production in FSU countries are still

growing, its average annual production

growth had dipped from 9% in 2004 to

4% in 2005 and remained almost statictill 2007. Global oil production, following

a trend similar to OPEC, grew with an

average annual growth of 4% in 2004,

but there after started its downward

slide to finally register a negative growth

of (-)0.2% in 2007.

To add to the woes, Cambridge Energy

Research Associates (CERA) in a recent

report (Sept2007) titled Finding the

Critical Numbers: What Are the Real

Decline Rates for Global Oil Production,has drawn a conclusion that the deple-

tion rate of the world's 811 largest fields

is around 4.5% a year. At that rate, oil

companies have to make huge invest-

ments just to keep overall production

steady. But if the projections of various

other agencies, which say the depletion

rate could be higher still, the situation

may well be hardly redeemable.

IEA researchers have warned that even

if there is enough oil under the ground,

which are probable, supply barriers

may not be surmountable due to lack

of sufficient investments in surface

facilities and equipment.

Diamonds are Forever, Oil is not

R S Sharma

CMD, ONGC

Mr R S Sharma,is the Chairman &

Managing Director

of Indias fl agship

Navratna Publ ic

Sector Undertaking,

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. He

is a Fellow Member of the Institute

of Cost & Works Accountants of

India and an Associate Member of

the Indian Institute of Bankers.Mr Sharma is also the Chairman

of Mangalore Refineries and Pet-

rochemicals Ltd., ONGC Videsh

Ltd., and other group companies

of ONGC.

Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of6 JUNE 2008



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The growth of OVL (ONGC Videsh Lim-

ited), the wholly owned subsidiary and

the foreign arm of ONGC has been phe-

nomenal. From a single equity till 2001,

it has now truly turned global acquiring

38 projects spanning 18 countries. In

fact it has become the second highest

hydrocarbon producer in India after its

parent, ONGC.

The other initiative, the Improved OilRecovery (IOR) / Enhanced Oil Re-

covery (EOR) scheme implemented in

2000-01 to enhance recovery, has been

the major contributor in augmenting

production and arresting production

decline from mature fields. These IOR/

EOR schemes enabled arrest of over-

all production decline of around 21%

(CAGR : -4.5%) that set in between

1995-96 and 2000-01 and if continued

with the same rate, would have resulted

in production of only 18.09 MMt in2007-08. Instead we produced 25.95

MMt in 2007-08 (over 43% more).

The recovery factor (RF) of the 15

major fields accounting for 80% of

ONGC oil production and where these

schemes were implemented, went

up from 27.5% in 2000-01 to 30.5%

in 2005-06. Though, it is difficult to

draw comparison as reservoir char-

acteristics and the drive mechanism

differ across the reservoirs, however,

the average range of global RF has

been statistically estimated between

27% and 35% by several agencies/

literature.

In fact we have acquired a high degree

of competence in arresting decline

of mature fields through IOR/EOR

schemes and the In-Situ-combustion

(ISC) project, one of the high point

of ONGCs successes in IOR/EOR

schemes. ONGC expertise has spe-

cifically been sought by PDVSA, the

Venezuelan state oil company for con-

ceptual mining of their 80 API heavy

crude. IOR/EOR schemes have alreadybeen implemented by ONGC in Sudan

and are currently being sought by Oman

as well. ONGC has also developed an

ingenious and cost effective Microbial

EOR (MEOR) technology in collabora-

tion with The Energy and Resources

Institute (TERI). After successfully pilot

testing in few sick wells, ONGC is now

planning to roll out MEOR technique

on field scale.

These technologies and the finds likethose in Brazil have given us hope

that ever evolving technology and the

men behind them can squeeze out

additional barrels of oil from exist-

ing reserves and even unearth a few

more prospects that are as yet un-

discovered. Notwithstanding the dire

predictions of the Peak Oil school of

thought, we can draw comfort from

CERA that has consistently maintained

that the remaining global oil resource

base is three times (3.7 trillion barrels)

as large as estimated by the Peak

Oil proponents (1.2 trillion barrels).

Even United States Geological Survey

(USGS) in its last estimate in 2000

31.63

25.0625.95

ONGC Oil Production (MMt)

1995-96 1997-98 1999-00 2001-02 2003-04 2005-06 2007-08

predicted that a large pool still lay

undiscovered.

While we are hovering around the

practical limits of Recovery Factor

using present technology, new-age

technology may yet be on the horizon

that could enhance the global Recovery

Factor even further. This would add

substantially to the currently estimated

resource base.

However we can not play Ostrich and

assume that oil is going to last for

ever. All our resources and technol-

ogy are bounded by the finiteness

of the reserves and our extraction

capability.

Therefore, we must try to manage oiljudiciously. Demand-side management

is vital for economies that shield con-

sumers from market driven oil prices

through subsidies.

We would also need to discover and

exploit the bridge fuel, i.e. gas, in all

its manifestations viz.: natural gas,

CBM, UCG, Gas hydrates etc. Fuel

diversification, use of bio-fuel, use

of waste products for energy, fuel ef-

ficient vehicles, energy saving buildingand devices, wide use of Mass Rapid

Transport system etc. would not only

conserve energy but in turn add extra

units of energy for consumption for

longer period. But, above all, for a

sustainable future, we need to de-

velop alternate source(s) of energy. A

smoother transition to new energy era

will depend on our ability to develop

abundant, economical and sustainable

alternative source(s) of energy. Earnest

effort to discover alternate sourcesmust start now itself, lest it becomes

too late.

Lord Oxburgh, the former CEO of Shell

in September 2007 had reminded us

about the danger, we are just about to

enter hot water. And the danger is that

we sit there blissfully like the frog in the

pan of water gently heating on the stove

until it wakes up to find itself dead.

While oil will certainly be with us for

some time yet, it is opportune to

commit resources to development of

alternatives now lest Lord Oxburghs

prediction comes true.

Live as it you were to die to-day. Learn as if you have to live forever M Gandhi8 JUNE 2008



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Introduction

Petrochemicals and Polymers

(Polyolefins)

Petrochemical industry has become the

largest part of global chemical industry

by virtue of its importance in the day-

to-day modern living. Petrochemicalsare chemicals, obtained by refining or

processing petroleum and are used in

many manufacturing fields. The indus-

try is built in a small number of basic

commodity chemicals, also known as

basic building blocks such as ethylene,

propylene, butadiene, benzene, toluene

and xylene. Ethylene, propylene and

butadiene are commonly refereed to as

olefins, while benzene, toluene, xylene

are known as aromatics. Together, they

form the basis of all petrochemical

production. Manufacturing involves a

whole range of chemical reactions to

convert base chemicals into either inter-

mediate petrochemicals, such as vinyl

chloride and styrene monomer (usedin the production of polyvinyl chloride

and polystyrene respectively), or directly

into downstream end products, such as

polyethylene and polypropylene.

Polymers/plastics are the most impor-

tant component of the petrochemical

industry. Today, it is not possible to

Polyolefin Materials and Catalysts: An Introduction

G S Kapur, D K Tuli, R K Malhotra, Anand Kumar

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Research and Development Centre, Sector-13, Faridabad, Haryana, India ([email protected])

Figure 1: A generic manufacturing process sequence for various petrochemical products

is depicted below: Figure 2: Low Density PE (LDPE)

0.915-0.030 g/cc

Figure 3: High Density PE (HDPE)

0.940-0.965 g/cc

Figure 4: Linear Low Density PE (LLDPE)

Dr R K Mal-hotra, did hisMechanical Engi-

neering from IT,

BHU and Ph .D .

from IIT, Delhi.

He has 30 years of experience in

the application and testing of Fuels

and lubricants, engine / vehicle

testing, vehicular emissions andalternative fuels.

He has published more than

50 research papers on fuels,

alternate fuels, lubricants and

emissions and has 4 international

patents to his credit. He has been

member of several national com-

mittees for formulation of fuel

quality and emission norms in

India and is closely associated

with the Expert Committee onAuto Fuel Policy headed by Dr.R.

A. Mashelkar.

Dr. Malhotra is Secretary in the ISAS

India Board and Chairman of ISAS

India Northern Section. Presently

he is Executive Director (R&D) of

IndianOil Corporation Ltd.

Dr G S Kapur, ispresently working as

Senior Research Man-

agerPetrochemicals

and Polymers at the

IndianOil R&D.

He did his M.Tech. and Ph.D. from

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

in the area of synthesis and char-

acterization of polymers. After that,he carried out postdoctoral work

at Institute of Macromolecular Sci-

ence, Prague and at the University of

Leipzig, Germany. He is a recipient

of prestigious international fellow-

ships like Alexander Von-Humboldt,

Germany and UNESCO. He has 4

patents and more than 60 research

papers to his credit, published in

International peer reviewed Journals

and presented more than 35 papers

in various National/internationalconferences.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter010 JUNE 2008



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imagine life without polymers, the won-

der materials found in such a large va-

riety of products that they have shaped

the modern world. Polyolefins, which

is the generic term used to describe a

family of polymers derived from a par-

ticular group of base materials known

as olefins, are the worlds fastest grow-

ing polymer family. Polyolefins, such as

polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene

(PP), are commodity plastics found in

applications varying from house hold

items such as grocery bags, contain-

ers, carpets, toys and appliances, to

high-tech products such as engineering

plastics, industrial pipes, automotive

parts, medical appliances, and even

prosthetic implants.

Polyolefins are very attractive materials

in terms of cost-performance. Modern

day Polyolefins cost much less to pro-

duce & process, than other plastics and

materials they tend to replace. Besides,

there has been a continuous improve-

ment in strength & durability, which

enables to use less of them in various

applications. For example, weight of a

super market bag was reduced from

23 grams in 1982 to merely 6 grams

in 1990.

Besides, these are highly versatile

material and come in many varieties.

Some are tough & rigid materials for car

parts, outdoor furniture applications,

whereas, others are used as soft &

flexible fibers for babies' diapers. Some

have high heat resistance (microwavefood containers), while others melt

easily (heat-sealable food packaging).

Some are as clear as glass, whereas,

others are completely opaque.

The base monomers, ethylene and

propylene are gases at room tem-

perature and getting the monomers

to link together is achieved through

polymerization in the presence of a

catalyst system. All the above varied

properties coming from same set ofraw materials is a result of advances in

catalyst and reactor technology lead-

ing to tailor made polyolefin materials.

Without these powerful, sophisticated

and remarkable catalysts systems,

production of polyolefins and hence the

polyolefin success story would simple

be not possible.

Basic structure of polyolefins can be

represented as follows, which also

place these materials into differentcategories. Polyethylene, for example,

can be placed in three broad cat-

egories like; low density polyethylene

(LDPE), High-density polyethylene

(HDPE), linear low density polyethyl-

ene (LLDPE)

Propylene being slightly more complex,

could attach itself to the growing poly-

mer chain in one of the three different

ways, resulting in different alignment of

the backbone (grey) and pendant methyl

groups (red), as shown in figure 5:

Main PP products consist of the following

types, dominated by homopolymers:

PolymerTypes

Grade Market Coverage

HDPE

Film gradeBlown films with paper like quality, suitable for counter

bags, carrier bags & wrapping films

Pipe grade Pipes PE-80/100 class, drinking water & gas pipes, waste

pipes & sewer pipes-their fittings etc

Large BM gradeUniversal container grade, vol. appx 1-500 lit; heating oil

storage tanks, transport containers

Small BM gradedisinfectant bottles up to 2 lit, tubes for cosmetics,

containers from few ml upto 10 lit

Raffia gradeStretched films & tapes for production of high strength

knitted & woven sacks /bags/ nets etc

Injection Molding For transport & stacking crates, particularly bottle crates

LLDPE

FilmsGarment bags, grocery sacks, liners, blends, trash bags,

cast like film diapers etc

Roto MouldingLarge industrial parts used indoors, large industrial /

agricultural tanks, shipping drums, toys etc.

Injection MouldingHouse wares, crates, master batches, pails, food

containers etc

PP

Homopolymer

Injection moulding (Battery cases, crates, furniture, house

ware, luggage, sports/toys), Blow moulding, Sheets, Tape/

Raffia, FIBC, TQPP/BOPP films (food packaging, bottle

labels etc), Extrusion coatings etc.

Random Copolymer

Thin walled Injection moulding, Low heat seal & high

transparency films, Blow moulding, Packaging parts,

Automotive parts etc.

Impact Copolymer-

Automotive parts (bumper, exterior trims, instrument

panels, interior trims), Appliances, House wares, Rigid

packaging, Thermoforming etc.

Table 1: Polyethylene/Polypropylene-Market Coverage

Figure 5

An honest man never fears to eyes of strangers JUNE 2008 1111



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Global Scenario

Today, Polymer industry is worth morethan 180 Billion US$. Global polymer

consumption (including Thermoplas-

tics, Thermosetting and others) in 2007

has estimated to reach almost 235-240

Million tons from 225 Million tons in

2006. Out of which, 183 Million MT is

the market for thermoplastic polymers.

Demand for commodity Polymers;

Homopolymers (HPP) - 78% market

share

Impact Co-polymers (ICP) 16%market share

Random Co-polymers (RCP) 6%

market share

Figure 6: Breakup-World Major Thermoplastics Demand Estimate -2007(183 Million MT)

Figure 7: Per Capita consumption (Kg) of Plastics in 2005- 06

Polymer (KT) (KT)

Polyolefins Total 3950

LDPE/EVA 325

LLDPE 750

HDPE 1100

PP 1775

PVC 1480

Others (PS/EPS, ABS,

SAN, PET, Acrylates, PU

and other thermosets)

1440

Total 6790

Table 2: Polymer Consumption Estimate

of India in 2007

Company

Products (in KTA)

PPLLDPE/

HDPE LDPE

Reliance Industries Ltd 1665 850 205

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd 300 560 -

Gas Authority of India Ltd - 310 -

Total 1965 1720 205

Table 3

made up of LDPE, LLDPE, HDPE, PP

& PVC, was estimated at 148 Million

MT during 2007.

Demand for Global Thermoplastics is

dominated by Polyolefins (PP & PE).

They represent over 60 % of all the

commodity resins consumed on an

annual basis. PE is the largest category

including LDPE, LLDPE & HDPE. PP

represents the single largest category

at 24 %. Global Per capita consump-

tion for PE is about 10 Kg while PP is

about 6 Kg.

In 2007, the global capacity of poly-

ethylene was 78 Million tones and

consumption crossed 68 Million tones.

Whereas, global capacity of PP was

49 Million tones and demand was 44million tones.

Indian Polymer Industry

The total consumption of polymers for

plastics application in India in 2007

was of the order of 6.5-7.0 million tons.

Polyolefins consumption in 2007 was

around 4 million tons and thus contin-

ues to account for more than 60% of

total polymer consumption. With 4.2

Kgs per capita consumption of poly-mers annually the scope of growth is

tremendous when compared to global

average of 25 Kgs, with the developed

nations having it as high as 100 Kgs on

a per annum basis.

Aggregated consumption of PE, PP and

PVC in India crossed 5 Million tones

in 2007-08, registering an impressive

growth of 15%.

Domestic Suppliers

There are three domestic suppliers of

polyethylene and polypropylene, with

total production capacity of around 3.9

Million tones of PE and PP.

Reliance Industries Ltd. including

Vadodara Manufacturing Plant (erst-

while IPCL)

Haldia Petrochemi-

cals Ltd.

Gas Authority of In-

dia Ltd

Most of the suppliers men-

tioned in table 3 are en-

hancing their capacities to

meet the growing demand

To forget your troubles remember GOD212 JUNE 2008



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Implemented Under Implementation Planned

MTBE 38 KTA

(CD Tech)

Naphtha Cracker (ABB Lummus)

857 KTA of Ethylene / 600 KTA of

propylene

Liquid Cracker (PDRP-Phase-II)

1-Butene 15 KTA

(IFP/Sulzer)

MEG - 320 KTA

(Scientific Design)

HDPE /LLDPE, LDPE

(PDRP-Phase-II)

LAB - 120 KTA

(UOP)

Swing LLDPE/ HDPE - 350 KTA

(Nova-SCLAIRTECH)-Solution

PP 680 KTA (PDRP-Phase-I)

(Basell-Spheripol

PX - 360 KTA

(UOP)

HDPE - 300 KTA

(Basell-Hostalen) SlurryPX (PDRP-Phase-I)

PTA - 553 KTA

(Invista)

PP - 600 KTA

(Basell-Spheripol) Bulk/Gas

MEG (PDRP-Phase-II)

Styrene 600 KTA (PDRP-Phase-I)

(ABB Lummus)

Table 4

Figure 8

of polymers. With the new 900 KTA ca-

pacity expected to come on stream by

Reliance, the companys total capacity

will increase to 2.7 Million tones. Thisexpansion will take Reliance from current

7th largest producer of PP to 3rd largest

producer globally.

In addition to the existing suppliers,

Indian Oil Corporation is also setting up

plants for production of HDPE, LLDPE

and PP, with a total capacity of 1.25

Million tons per annum. A summary

of the Petrochemicals and Polymers

plants of IOCL, already implemented

and/or under implementations, using

world class technologies are shown

in table 4.

Catalysts for polyolefins

At the heart of all polyolefin manufac-

turing processes is the catalyst system

used to initiate polymer chain growth.

Technology Drivers for Polyolefin

Catalysts

There are various technology drivers

for Polyolefin catalysts, both at resin

level and at end-use level, as depicted

in figure 8.

Polyolefin Catalysts Family

There are four major families of cata-

lysts used for olefin polymerization:

Ziegler-Natta,

Phillips (Chrome)

Metallocene and

Late-transition metal catalysts.

The main characteristics, with some

representative examples, of these cata-

lyst systems are given in table 5.

The first two categories; Ziegler-Natta

and Chrome are so called Conventional

Polyolefin catalysts, whereas, Metal-

locene and Late-transition metal based

catalysts are termed as Non-convention-

al or single site catalysts (SSCs). This

is so because these catalysts producepolymers with much more uniform prop-

erties than the ones made with Phillips or

heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts.

Today, more than 90% of the commercial

catalysts are Conventional Catalysts

(Ziegler-Natta based systems and

Chrome), whereas, more than 90% of

the research efforts are focused on the

development of single site catalysts

(SSCs).

Conventional PO Catalyst

Catalysts for Polyethylene

There are two main types of the con-

ventional catalysts systems for polyeth-

ylene used widely in the industry:

Ziegler*

Chrome on silica (Philips Catalysts)

The term Ziegler and Ziegler-Natta

catalysts will be used interchangeably

in this article. Karl Ziegler successfullyprepared linear polyethylene in 1953,

whereas, Giulio Natta prepared

polypropylene in 1954.

Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta shared

the Noble prize in chemistry in 1963.

However, the federal courts decided

that Robert L. Banks and J. Paul

Hogan of Phillips Petroleum Company

were in fact the first to discover these

catalysts and, the composition-of-

matter patent on PP was awarded to

Phillips in 1983

Phillips and Ziegler-Natta catalysts,

discovered in the 1950s, were the first

catalysts systems to be used for olefin

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16/68

Type State Typical Examples

Ziegler /

Ziegler-Natta

Heterogeneous

Homogeneous

TiCl3, TiCl4/MgCl2

VCl4, VOCl3

Philips (Chrome) Heterogeneous CrO3/SiO2

MetalloceneHomogeneous

Heterogeneous

Cp2ZrCl2

Cp2ZrCl2/MgCl2

Late-transition

metal absedHomogeneous

Ni, Pd, Co, Fe with

diimine, and other

ligands

Table 5

Figure 9

polymerization. They created a revolu-

tion in the polyolefin industry; they are,

to this day, the dominant catalysts for

polyolefin production.

Ziegler

Ziegler-Natta catalysts can be ho-

mogeneous i.e. soluble in the reac-tion medium, or heterogeneous. The

most common type of heterogeneous

Ziegler-Natta catalyst today is TiCl4

supported on MgCl2, while one of

the first types was crystalline TiCI3.

Homogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts

are generally (but not exclusively)

vanadium-based. Contrary to their

heterogeneous counterparts, soluble

vanadium-based Ziegler-Natta cata-

lysts have only one site type and

synthesize polyolefins with uniformproperties. They make polymers with

uniform microstructures: narrow MWD

and CCD, and polydispersity indices

(PDI) close to 2.0.

Co-Catalysts

Both homogeneous

and heterogeneous

Ziegler-Natta catalysts

must be activated by

a cocatalyst(s). Most

commonly used Co-

catalysts are; alky l

aluminum compounds

such as trimethyl alumi-

num (TMA) and triethyl

aluminium (TEAL), Diethyl aluminium

chloride, Di-ethyl aluminium ethoxide

etc.

Salient features of the Ziegler Catalysts

can be described as follows:

Products: LLDPE & HDPEProcesses: Gas-phase and Solution

End use demand drivers:

LLDPE (AAGR ~ 7.8%)

- Film (Major growth area)

- Wire & cable

- Injection moulding

HDPE (AAGR ~ 5%)

- Film

- Injection moulding

- Rotational moulding

Bimodal HDPE (AAGR ~ 7.2% )- Film

- Pipe (Major growth area)

Chrome on Silica (Philips Catalysts)

Phillips catalysts are always heteroge-

neous. Phillips catalysts are based on

Cr (IV) supported on Si02. Most of the

existing chromium-based catalyst po-

lymerization technology employs oxo-

chromium systems; organochromes

like silylchromate derived catalyst are

also extensively used for commercial

PE manufacturing. These catalysts

systems are different from Ziegler-Natta

catalysts in the following respects:

No co-catalyst is required

MWD is regulated by the character-

istics of the support;

The catalyst needs to be treated at

high temperatures to be active;

long induction times are very com-

mon andHydrogen, the usual chain transfer

agent for Ziegler-Natta, Metallocene,

and late transition metal catalysts, is

not effective for Phillips catalysts.

As Phillips catalysts also have lower

reactivity ratios toward a-olefin incor-

poration, they are not used to produce

LLDPE and polypropylene. However,

they are excellent catalysts for HDPE

and dominate the market for this resin.

HDPEs made with Phillips catalystshave a very broad IMWD, often with

PDls of 10 or higher.

Salient Features of Chrome Catalysts

are:

Work-horse catalyst for Slurry Pro-

cesses for producing HDPE (Cant

be used for making LLDPE and

polypropylene)

Key resin attributes : Broad MWD,

Long chain branching

Process technology: Slurry andGas-Phase

End use demand drivers (AAGR ~

5 %)

- Blow molding applications (major

growth Area)

- Pipe and Conduits

- Blown films

- Thermoforming

Global PE Catalysts Market

Chrome-on-Silica Catalysts continue

to be the major catalyst for HDPE

Ziegler catalysts find extensive

use in LLDPE production, and in

injection molded (and other grades

requiring narrow MWD) HDPE

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Figure 10

Figure 11

In summary, the global PE Catalysts Mar-

ket (2006) can be depicted as in figure 9:

Catalysts for Polypropylene (PP)

The history of the development of Ziegler-

Natta catalysts for polypropylene is truly

fascinating. Since G. Nattas discovery in

1954 for preparing highly Isotactic-PP,

with TiCl4, and later with TiCl3 along

with AlR3/AlR2Cl as co-catalysts, the

development of more stereo specific,

efficient and sophisticated catalyst has

been relentless, even today.

The original catalysts had relatively

lower activity and poor stereo-selec-

tivity, requiring the removal of both

atactic polypropylene and catalyst

residues (deashing; from the isotacticpolypropylene product). Whereas,

Polypropylene made with latest gen-

eration catalysts, has an insignificant

amount of catalyst residues because of

their very high activity and practically

no atactic content. For this reason,

modern processes do not require post-

reactor purification. Some catalysts,

such as the ones used in the Spheripol

process of Basell (now LyondellBasell)

are capable of producing large spheri-

cal polypropylene particles with con-trolled morphology, and may not even

require pelletization.

The phenomenal development in PP

catalyst systems, resulting in different

Generations of the catalyst systems,

is mainly driven by; the discovery of

MgCl2 as an ideal support for TiCI4,

and the development of appropriate

Lewis bases, called internal donors

(Di) and external donors (De)electron

donors. The donors are used to controlstereoregularity by selectively poisoning

or modify aspecific sites responsible for

the formation of atactic polypropylene.

Aromatic esters (Ethyl benzoate) can

be used as internal donors, whereas,

aromatic esters, alkoxysilanes and

hindered amines can be used as ex-

ternal donors.

Non-Conventional Catalysts

Metallocene catalysts

Metallocene catalysts are single-site

catalysts. They produce polyolefins

with unimodal and narrow Chemical

composition distribution (CCD) and

narrow MWD with PDls close to 2.0.

Under some conditions, usually when

supported, they may make polymer

with broader distributions. Metallo-

cenes had a very large impact in the

polyolefin industry when they were

discovered in the 1980s because,

for the first time, polyethylene and

polypropylene could be produced

under conventional industrial condi-

tions with uniform and well controlledmicrostructures.

Structurally, Metallocene catalysts

are called sandwich compounds

because they are composed of a

transition metal atom sandwiched

between two rings and the rings

may be connected through different

bridges to vary the angle between the

two rings.

Another important type of Metallocene

catalyst i.e. monocyclopentadienyl

complexes are called constrained ge-

ometry catalysts (CGC) or half-sandwich

catalysts. Their most important property

is a very high reactivity ratio toward a-

olefin incorporation, allowing the easy

copolymerization of ethylene with long

a-olefins (1-hexene, 1-octene).

Metallocenes can be used directly in

solution processes but need to be sup-

ported (SiO2) to be used in slurry and

gas-phase processes.

Structures of some of the commercial

Metallocene catalyst are shown in

figure 10.

Metallocene Catalysts are still used

primarily in-house by the catalyst

technology developers to produce

differentiated products.

The global Metallocene market demand,

sector wise is shown in figure 11.

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18/68

Global demand for m-polyolefins in

2006 was of the order of 2,700 KT,

and Metallocene based Polyolefins are

expected to grow at an AAGR ~ 12.5%

The drawback of Metallocene catalysts

is that they are unable to polymerize

polar molecules, such as acrylics or

vinyl chloride. Introduction of a polar

monomer into reaction system kill the

catalyst activity to almost zero.

Co-Catalysts for Metallocenes

Bulky non-coordinating anions such as

methylaluminoxane (MAO) can activate

and stabilize metallocene catalysts, re-

sulting in a highly active, stable catalyst.

MAO is an oligomeric compound with de-

gree of oligomerization varying approxi-mately from 6 to 20. In general, a large

excess of MAO is needed to achieve

high activity, and ratios of 1000 aluminum

atoms (or hundreds, in case of supported

catalysts) to transition metal atoms are

common for solution polymerization.

Other co-catalysts used with Metallo-

cene catalysts are tris(pentafluorophenyl)

borane (TPFB), which has the advantage

of being required in nearly stoichiometric

amounts.

Late-transition Metal Catalysts

The above limitation of Metallocene

catalyst forced polymer scientist to

search for new types of single site

catalysts, using metals from all over the

periodic table. This led to the discovery

of late transition metal compounds

(Group 6 and higher). These catalysts

being much less sensitive to polar com-

pounds can be used, to copolymerize

olefins with polar monomers such asacrylates and methylacrylates. By

varying the polymerization temperature

and monomer pressure, it is possible to

make polymers with densities varying

from those of HDPE to LLDPE, VLDPE,

ULDPE etc. A typical late-transition

metal catalyst is shown below:

Catalyst Attributes

While developing a catalyst system

suitable for production of a particular

grade of polyolefin depends upon many

factors. In summary, following catalyst

attributes determine the suitability of a

catalyst system, apart from cost con-

siderations:

Activity: unit polymer/unit catalyst

obtained in the polymerisatio

Fouling tendency: propensity for

polymer formation on reactor walls

Fines: propensity for catalyst or

polymer fines to form, related to line

choking problems

Bulk density: bulk density of the poly-

mer in the reactor and transfer lines

Catalyst quality: lot-to-lot consis-

tency and catalyst performanceProduct breadth: ability of catalyst

to make wide range of density,

MI (polymer with varied molecular

weights)

Melt Index (MI) floor: related to the

ability of catalyst to make high MW

product

H2 response: Reflects ability of

catalyst to respond to Hydrogen

to control molecular weight of the

polymers

H2 response differential: ability ofcatalyst to make polymers with high

and medium molecular eight

Comonomer incorporation: ability

of catalyst to incorporate comono-

mer (i-hexene, 1-octene) in different

concentration

Catalyst life: kinetic lifetime of the

catalyst, especially in presence of

Hydrogen

Application/product focuses and

process technology used, determinethe desired balance/combination of

catalyst attributes.

Summary

Out of 183 million tonnes of thermoplas-

tic consumption globally, polyethylene

(HDPE, LDPE and LLDPE) constitute

around 38%, followed by polypropylene

(PP) at 24%. Combined global demand

for PE and PP was estimated at 113

million tones during 2007, with China

and India contributing significantly to the

global demand. Aggregated consump-

tion of Polyolefins in India was around

4 million tones, witnessing domestic

demand growth for PE at 17% and PP

at 16% during the year 2007-08.

Technology advances continue to re-

shape the competitive landscape glob-

ally despite Polyolefins being introduced

over 60 years ago. Catalyst technology

has tremendous influence over the type

and quality of Polyolefin resins being

produced today. Conventional Ziegler-

Natta catalyst are robust, cheap and ver-

satile systems that are still going strong,

more than 55 years after their discovery,

thanks to the development of advanced

Donor chemistry. Even today, more than

90% of the commercial catalysts are

Conventional Catalysts (Ziegler-Natta

based systems and Chrome), whereas,

more than 90% of the research efforts are

focused on the development of single sitecatalysts (SSCs). Metallocene Catalysts

are still used primarily in-house by the

catalyst technology developers to pro-

duce differentiated products.

General References/Source of Infor-

mation:

Chemical Market Resources (CMR)

Inc., USA

www.dow.com

www.mitsuichem.com

www.plastmart.comReliance Industries Limited, Annual

Report, 2007-08, and www.ril.com

www.gailonline.com

www.haldiapetrochemicals.com

Proceedings, Workshop on Ad-

vances in Polyolefins 2007), CA,

USA, Sept, 2007

The opinion/data expressed in the ar-

ticle are ascribed to authors only and

not to the organization they belong to.

Illustrations shown in this article are forrepresentation purposes only only.

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Geleki field in Assam Asset of ONGCwas discovered in 1968 and puton commercial production in 1974. The

reservoir is sandstone and multi-layered,

with composition of sand and silt. The

Tipam Sands are the main oil bearing

sands. Among the various Tipam Sands,

TS-4B and TS-5A are very tight andhydraulic fracturing provides a viable

alternative for production from these

sands. Despite the intention for hydro-

fracturing since 1980s, success could

be attained only in 2006 after meeting

all the constraints like high breakdown

pressures, surface/sub surface comple-

tion restrictions, procurement of sintered

bauxite etc. All the constraints were

overcome by meticulous planning,

coordination of Assam Asset with other

Well Stimulation Services (WSS) units ofONGC and re-completion of wells with

higher grade tubings, 10,000 psi differ-

ential pressure permanent packer etc.

The frac job design was carried out

on 3-D Frac Simulator FRACPRO and

validated after analyzing the minifrac

job in each well. The frac fluid formula-

tion was done after ensuring that it is

able to carry sintered bauxite, which

is heavier than conventional proppant,

into the fracture created deep inside the

reservoir and to break in time, so as to

allow better flowback and also minimize

damage to formation.

The equipments required like 2250 HPfrac pumpers, blender, sand dumper,

tree-saver etc were mobilized from all

over ONGC in addition to chemicals

and sintered bauxite. The renowned

WSS Base of ONGC at Ahmedabad

alongwith IOGPT (Institute Of Oil and

Gas Production Technology) of ONGC

at Navi Mumbai with assistance of WSS

Karaikal/Rajahmundry and operational

support of WSS, Sivasagar carried out

the hydro-fracturing. The pre-HF well

preparation and post-HF well comple-tion/activation was done as per require-

ments by meticulous planning and

execution by Workover and Geleki Sub

Surface Team of Assam Asset.

The start of hydro-fracturing was with

Phase-I in which 6 wells namely GLK#

23, #44, #76, #77, #233 & #272 were

fractured in March 2006. Though teeth-

ing problems were encountered dur-

ing this Phase, satisfactory fracturing

was completed. In view of technology

breakthrough achieved, three (3) more

Phases i.e. Phase-II, Phase-III and

Phase-IV were also taken up in the

Geleki Field. 12 (twelve) more wells

were covered under these three (3)

Phases, thus completing a total of 18(eighteen) wells till Jan08.

An MDT was constituted in the Asset

with representatives of different sec-

tions like surface, subsurface, workover,

WSS, Civil, logistics, chemistry and

WSS, Ahmedabad. The regular interac-

tion and close coordination with detailed

planning led to successful implementa-

tion of HF Jobs in the Geleki Field.

It was also worked out with WSS, Ahmedabad that HF jobs are imple-

mented in Phases and the wells are

prepared accordingly. This will help

in smooth coordination and better

execution.

Keeping in view of the above fact, the

next three Phases were implemented

during April07, Oct07 and Jan08

respectively. Phase wise implementa-

Revival of Non-Flowing wells and production enhancement

through implementation of Hydrofracturing Technology in Geleki

field of Assam Asset

Shri J G Chaturvedi

Executive Director, Assam Asset, ONGC, Nazira, Assam

J G Chaturvedi,Executive Direc-tor, Assam Asset,

ONGC has an ex-

perience of more

than 30 years in

ONGC and has worked in various

positions. These positions include

Basin manager, Chief HR and

now as Asset Manager. During his

tenure in ONGC he has worked

on number of projects leading

to major gains of ONGC. He wasinvolved in mapping of Geleki field

where fracturing has been carried

out during last two (2) years.

Figure 1: Number of wells covered for HF in Geleki field.

Nobody can become perfect by merely ceasing to act Bhagwad Gita JUNE 2008 1717



20/68

tion approach helped in organizing the

resources in an organized way and

WSS, Ahmedabad team took up the

challenge in batches. Following fig-

ure has given the details of the wells

taken up for fracturing during different

Phases: Refer Fig-1.

Geleki field

Geleki field, the second largest oil fieldof ONGC in Assam, located towards the

southern fringe of Upper Assam valley,

was discovered in 1968. It covers an

area of about 25 sq km. Trial production

from this field began in August 1970

and regular production started from

August 1974. Commercial oil produc-

tion has been established in Tipam of

Miocene age, Barails of Oligocene age

and Kopilis of Eocene age.

The main oil bearing formations in

Geleki field are Tipam sandstone of

Miocene age. Tipam sands in Geleki

field are interpreted as fresh water

sands deposited under complex braid-

ed river system. Braided river system

is characterized by multiple channels

flowing with relatively high energy and

changing their position rapidly leavingbehind thick pile of coarser clastics. At

the terminal part of depositional cycle,

energy is depleted and thin layers of

finer sediments such as silts and clays

are deposited. So Tipams sands are

heterogenous and tight in nature

Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic fracturing is widely used to

stimulate oil and gas production from a

reservoir. This technique improves well

productivity by removing near well bore

damage and by increasing conductiv-

ity in low as well as high permeable

formations. A hydraulic fracture is a

superimposed structure that remains

undisturbed outside the fracture,

however, thus effective permeability of

reservoir remains unchanged by this

process. The increase of productivity

results from an increase of the well bore

radius, because after hydro fracturing

there will be a large contact surface

between the well and reservoir.

Hydraulic fracturing fluids are used to

initiate and propagate fracture, as well

as transport proppant into fracture tocreate a conductive path to enhance

production. Proppant are sand grains

or other granular substances that are

injected into the formation to hold

or prop open formation fractures

that have been created by hydraulic

fracturing. Proppants wedged within

the fracture serve to increase the con-

ductivity which promotes liberation of

hydrocarbon from the reservoir rock

and thereby enhanced production. The

fracturing fluids injected through thefractures and into the wellbore. Refer

Fig-2. The Design of Frac Unit opera-

tion layout is referred in Fig-3.

Hydraulic Fracturing MethodologyAdopted

Selection of Candidate Wells

HF wells were selected based on sub

surface position with respect to nearby

water injectors, production history ofwell and block, oil saturation, logs,

reservoir characteristics, CBL-VDL

and completion of well. As the tech-

nology was tried for the first time, the

non-flowing wells were identified for

fracturing in the field.

Pre-HF Work Over of Wells

These wells were required to be com-

pleted for Hydrofracturing and this re-

quired lowering of P-110 new tubing in

the well. Following job was involved:

The Old completion strings were

pulled out and Well bore was cleared

and if required, the desired interval

It is not the mountain ahead that wears you out. Its the grain of sand in your shoe818 JUNE 2008



21/68

was opened up by zone transfer or

cement squeeze. The Casing her-

miticity was tested at around 250

ksc and injectivity improvement,

if required, was carried out in the

interval of hydro-fracturing. Solvent

jobs were taken up in identified wells

against the perforations for remov-

ing organic deposition.All the wells were completed with

permanent packer of 10,000 psi

differential pressure, new 2 7/8, 8.7

PPF tubing together with seal-bore

assembly so that the old casings are

not exposed to fracturing pressures.

The wells were tested at 4000 psi

with respect to casing and tubing

integrity.

Hydro-fracturing job design &

ExecutionThe job execution strategy was

prepared after detailed delibera-

tions and a tentative job design

was prepared for the wells with the

aid of latest 3-D Frac

Simulator FRACPRO

based on the known

parameters. Further,

the hole probing /

acid / xylene job was

carried out by CTU

prior to HF so as to

ensure clear forma-

tion and no obstruc-

tion is available. The

mini frac Job was

carried out by hooking up all equip-

ments, installation of tree saver,

pressurized annulus and applied

pressure through tubing to achieve

formation break down. 2% KCI

formulation was used for carrying

out the mini-frac job. An analysis

of mini-frac data was taken up with

design improvement which wasfollowed by main HF job. The esti-

mated and designed quantity of sin-

tered bauxite was placed as on line

job monitoring was carried out.

The wells were flowed back with

bean.

A typical frac chart can be seen

below in Fig- 4 .

Post-HF Work Over of Wells

Most of the wells require installation ofArtificial Lift and the wells required to

be worked over for the same. Prior to

installation of A/Lift the well bore was

cleaned upto bottom by CTU to lift out

any excess proppant. The higher grade

tubings pulled out through workover rig

and activation carried out for checking /

improving productivity. Wells were com-

pleted with GLV through Gas lift design.

Well Production

As most of the wells had water / gel of

about 150-200 m3 it required knocking

out of same through compressor appli-

cation. Post activation of wells required

consistent application of compressor

and gas through intensive efforts. In

some of the wells the rate of influx was

found to be poor and it required hole

clearing / acid / stimulation job carried

out through CTU. This helped in acti-

vation of wells and thus leading to the

production from wells.

Chemicals used in Hydrofracturingjob execution

The fracture fluid formulation was fi-

nalized on the basis of the laboratory

studies carried out on the chemicals

proposed for use, at the known forma-

tion depths and temperatures. The field

is having high fracture gradient and

generally wells have high skin around

well bore. The fluid had to carry thesintered bauxite into the fracture and

break for flow back. The frac fluid for-

mulation also plays a crucial role in the

success of the frac job. The candidate

wells in Geleki field are deep (about

2800 meters), which could contribute

to high pressure during fracturing. An-

other typical parameter in these wells

is low formation temperature (70-75C),

which makes breaking of fracturing fluid

during post-frac flowback very crucial.

Following chemicals/ liquid were usedfor the fracturing job:

1. Treated Water

2. Gelling agent (GD-II/III Guar poly-

mer)

Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment JUNE 2008 1919



22/68


23/68

G#76, G#178, G#20, G#60

& G#55)

TS-5A - 9 wells (G#233, G#23,G#22 , G#70 , G#104 ,

G#127, G#63 & G#130

Total 18 wells

An analysis of pressures shows that

in TS-3A sand break down pressures

vary from 6300 to 8000 psi. TS-4B sand

has witnessed a maximum breakdown

pressure of 9450 psi & minimum being

7300 psi.

Further, deeper sand i.e. TS-5A sawthe minimum pressure as 5600 psi

while maximum breakdown pressure

was 9500 psi.

Fig-6. (Fracturing Pressure Graph)

The wide variation of pressure occurred

due to location of wells in different

blocks and different geological charac-teristics. The analysis of Frac Pressures

is shown in Fig.6.

Job size in different sands

The maximum job size in the well was

40 tons and four (4) wells were fractured

with 40 tons of sintered bauxite. These

wells were G#128, G#60 G#70 & G#23.

The minimum size of the job was 10

tons in wells no G#272 which was ter-

minated due to operational problems.The remaining 13 wells witnessed a job

size of 20 to 30 tons as shown below.

The Phase wise implementation ap-

proach helped in planning for the opti-

mum job size through design and data

analysis with continuous improvement.

(refer Fig-7)

Production from HF Wells

Out of 18 (eighteen) numbers of wells

fractured. 16 (sixteen) wells were non

flowing prior to Hydrofracturing and

only one (1) well was flowing i.e. G#128.

One water injection well i.e. G#317 was

also fractured resulting in enhancement

of water injection through this well.

Most of the non-flowing wells have now

been brought in the flowing category

as shown below thus enhancing the

production from these wells which were

closed for more than a decade.

A cumulative production of more than

27000 Tons has been taken from these

wells thus generating a revenue of

about 55 Crores of rupees till Feb2008

(refer Fig-8)

The success of fracturing has opened

up a new dimension of production in

Geleki field and has become a favoured

option for better recovery from the tight

sands of Geleki. It has been an actual

field based learning experience for As-sam Asset with different section and

working as a team approach.

Current status of Hydro-fractured

Geleki wells:

Costing of Hydrofracturing

A detailed cost analysis of Hydrofrac-

turing jobs has been carried out by the

Asset team which includes pre & post

HF workover, HF job execution along-with chemical cost, site preparation and

activation cost. It has been calculated

that a total expenditures of Rs. 28

crores has been made inclusive of all

the above cost components and aver-

age cost works out to be following:

Field implementation and resultsThe hydro-fracturing jobs in Geleki

field were planned and executed for

six non flowing wells (G#23, G#76,

G#44, G#77, G#233 & G#272) of TS-

4B and TS-5A sands in Phase-I. The

jobs were executed in March 2006.

With the success of Phase I,

further HF was done in four wells

Figure 7: HF Jobs size in different phases.

It is not the weathercock that changes; it is the wind JUNE 2008 2121



24/68

A new lease of life has been given

to the non flowing wells as a result

of a meticulous planning and careful

execution of mini-fracturing followed

by main-fracturing job.

Conclusions1. Six (6) nos. of Hydraulic fracturing

jobs in Phase-1, on R&D basis,

have technically proved success-

ful which led to implementation

of a total of four (4) Phases ofHydrofracturing in Geleki cover-

ing 18 (eighteen) wells.

2. Dedicated team effort, focused

attention and coordination at the

highest level enabled Assam

Asset with WSS Team to achieve

this technological breakthrough

despite several challenges.

3. The success of hydro-fracturing

in Geleki field has again proven

the abilities of the in-house WSS,

Ahmedabad, ONGC alongwith

other Sections.

4. The reliabil ity of Surface and Sub

Surface well completion hard-ware used (especially the X-mass

tree saver of 15000 psi rating) in

high pressure situations has been

validated.

5. Post-job production and eco-

nomic analysis are in favour of

hydraulic fracturing jobs. This

technique can be applied on a

routine basis to enhance produc-

tion in Assam Asset.

6. Total oil production from these

non flowing wells till Feb08 hasgenerated a revenue of more

than Rs. 50 crores with a cumu-

lative expenditure of about Rs.

28 crores including all the cost

components.

(G#22, G#70, G#128 and G#178)

under phase-II, in April 2007. Out

of these four wells two wells (G#128

& G#178) are presently flowing and

two other wells (G#22 & G#70) have

produced water.

After technological break through of

hydro-fracturing, this campaign was

taken up in a structured manner and

third Phase of HF was executed in

October 2007 in two non flowing

wells (G#20 & G#130).The fourth Phase was completed in

January 2008 in six (6) wells. Out of

six (6) wells one (1) water injector

has also been hydro-fractured for

the first time in Assam.

Sl. No. PhaseNo of

WellsWell No Sand

Date of

Non-flowing

Pre HF

Well Status

Oil Rate (M3/

day)

Gas Rate (M3/

day)

1

Phase-I

( March'06 -

April'06)

6

G # 77 TS-4B Mar'98 NF 10 450

2 G # 272 TS-4B Mar'02 NF Poor influx Nil

3 G # 233 TS-5A1 Mar'02 NF 13 2850

4 G # 76 TS-4B Apr'04 NF 12 19950

5 G # 23 TS-5A1 Mar'97 NF 6 1430

6 G # 44 TS-5A1 Mar'02 NF 1 Negligible

7Phase-II

( April'07-

May'07)

4

G # 22 TS-5A1 Dec'06 NF Water Only Nil

8 G # 70 TS-5A Jun'87 NF Water Only Nil

9 G # 178 TS-4B Feb'99 NF 4 3570

10 G # 128 TS-3A Flowing before HF F 7 1320

11Phase - III 2

G # 130 TS-4B+5A Oct'05 NF 4 20000

12 G # 20 TS-4B Mar'98 NF 6 Negligible

13

Phase - IV

( Jan'08)6

G # 104 TS-5A No Yield NF

14 G # 63 TS-5A Jul'98 NF

15 G # 60 TS-4B Jan'04 NF

16 G # 55 TS-4B Dec'94 NF

17 G # 127 TS-5A NF 18 G # 317 TS-3A Water injection W I

Current status of Hydro-fractured Geleki wells:

Cost summary of HF Jobs (in Lakhs): Phase I to Phase - IV

Cost component Phase-I Phase-II Phase-III Phase-IV Total

Hydraulic Fracturing (A) 187.00 112.00 56.02 256.82 611.84

Civil work (B) 9.30 10.00 9.37 19.40 48.07

Workover (C ) 235.00 416.00 165.92 303.28 1120.20

Well Completion (D) 242.52 180.00 90.00 270.00 782.52

Activation (E) 36.40 40.00 12.00 60.00 148.40

Manpower (F) 20.00 20.00 20.00 20.00 80.00

Total cost 730.22 778.00 353.31 929.50 2791.03

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This article is a treatise of the sus-tainable development and the waysto develop a sustainable development

business model in an oil industry. With

global warming threatening the basic

survival of the living beings, the greatest

challenge today is to synergise the eco-

nomic development with environmental

sustainability and social development.

This calls for the concept of sustainable

development.

Introduced in the UN charter way back

in 1987, sustainable development is

a concept of an all encompassing

development for the present without

jeopardizing the future. To actually

project sustainable development into

actionable programme, measurement

of the resource utilization is the most

important step.

In an energy intensive industry as oil

industry, energy is the main resource.

Thus sustainable development in fact

connotes measurement of energy

usage, which in turn implies measure-

ment of CO2( GHG) emission. Thus

sustainable development in the oil

industry is synonymous to Carbon

management.

Carbon management has two aspects,

Accounting and Management. This

article has dealt various steps involved

in accounting and management with

reference to an oil industry. The article

concludes that sustainable develop-

ment in an oil industry can be devel-

oped as a viable business model.

Scenario-An introduction

World has witnessed rapid economic

growth after industrial revolution in

1740. Post World War II, the economic

growth has been unprecedented. As

per the Earth Policy Institutes report on

Eco Economic Indicators 2005, World

output of goods and services increased

from $7 trillion in 1950 to $56 trillion in

2004, while annual income per person

grew from $2,835 to $8,753 during this

time1. It is estimated that the growth will

continue which seems inevitable consid-

ering the increasing population.

Economic growth so far is closely asso-

ciated with increased usage of energy.

In its World Energy Outlook 2006 report,

the International Energy Agency pointed

out that the economies and population

of developing countries were growing

faster than those of the wealthier na-

tions, shifting the centre of gravity of

global energy demand. It estimated

that more than 70 % of the increase in

global primary energy demand between

now and 2030 would come from the

developing countries2. India needs toincrease its primary energy supply 3 to

4 fold over 2003-04 level to sustain a

continuous 8-10% growth for next 25

years, which is absolutely crucial to

eradicate poverty.

Energy, till date, is mostly sourced

by fossil fuel. As per an estimate, the

fossil fuel dependence scenario will

remain unchanged at least for another

300 years unless a viable alternative

source is established. Fossil fuel burn-ing generates CO2, the most significant

Green House Gas accounting for more

than 60% of the total atmospheric

concentration of GHG. Increased us-

age of energy will thus increase the per

capita GHG emission. Increased eco-

A. B. Chakraborty,Group General Manag-

er, is currently heading

the Carbon Manage-

ment Group in ONGC.

He is responsible for

the development of ONGCs CDM

Projects, Climate Change & Sustainable

development activities. Being the proj-

ect proponent of ONGC CDM Projects,

four projects have been registered by

UNFCCC so far & many more projectsare under development. Since joining

ONGC in June 1975, he has worked

in different areas; Quality control,

Workshops, Maintenance, Operations,

Drilling, HSE, CDM, Climate Change

& Sustainable development. He has

considerable experience in the area

of Carbon Management, HSE, and

development of procedures, guide-

lines & regulations besides addressing

HSE organizational issues. He has also

initiated M2M program with US EPA in

ONGC. He has presented 7 papers in

the SPEs HSE international conferences

& few on Carbon Management, as well.

His core specialization includes Environ-

ment, Safety, Occupational health, CDM

& Sustainable development.

He has done M.Tech (Production Engg)

from IIT Delhi, MAM (Jamnalal Bajaj)

Mumbai, MSc (Environmental Science)from Kakatiya University Warangal be-

sides, PG Diplomas in Environmental

Management & Environmental Eco-

nomics from Hyderabad University

and Safety Management from British

Safety Council, London. He is Fellow

of the institute of Engineers India,

Chartered Engineer, Member SPE &

life member of the National institute

of Personal Mgt.

Shantanu Das-gupta, Superin-tending Chemist,

ONGC is workingwith the Carbon

M a n a g e m e n t

Group. Shantanu has 19 years

professional experience in ONGC in

different areas: drilling, production

and processing, R&D on process-

ing, training institute, and carbon

management. A gold medalist from

Ranchi University and a KS Krishnan

DAE research scholar, Shantanu

has also done his PG Diploma on

Ecology& Environment and Mastersin Business Administration. He has

published several papers in national

and international journals.

Sustainable Development Key issues and steps for oil industries

A B Chakraborty, Shantanu Dasgupta

Education is not only for earning a living but also for learning to live JUNE 2008 2323



26/68

nomic growth has therefore affected

the ecological balance adversely and

has caused unprecedented climate

change and global warming, as per

IPCC reports3.

Herein lays the importance of Sus-

tainable Development, a holistic de-

velopment of economy, society and

environment. The article is a treatise

on the concept of sustainable devel-

opment with special reference to oil

industries.

Concept of SustainableDevelopment

Sustainable development is a pattern

of resource use that aims to meet

human needs while preserving theenvironment so that these needs can

be met not only in the present, but in

the indefinite future. The term was used

by the Brundtland Commission in 1987

which coined what has become the

most often-quoted definition of sustain-

able development as development that

"meets the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of future gen-

erations to meet their own needs4

However, Sustainable Developmentdoes not focus on environment alone.

The UN 2005 World Summit Outcome

document refers to the "interdependent

and mutually reinforcing pillars" of

sustainable development as economic

development, social development, and

environmental protection 5.

Sustainable developmentIncontext of Oil industry

To project the concept of sustainabledevelopment into actual actionable

parameters in an industry, exact mea-

surement of the resource usage and

its management are of paramount

importance. Resource includes both

physical and intellectual resources.

The Oil industry is one of the most

energy intensive industries where all its

operation in up, mid and downstream

use energy to a substantial degree.

Thus energy becomes the most impor-

tant physical resource. The first step

of sustainable development therefore

amounts to measuring of energy us-

age or Carbon footprinting. Carbon

footprinting derives its term from the

word Carbon of CO2 which is one of

the most common Green House Gases.

Sustainable development in oil industry

is therefore closely linked to the Carbon

management.

Carbon Management in oilindustry

Carbon Management pertains to Ac-

counting & Management of Green

House Gases--commonly called GHG

Accounting & Management6. Thus the

entire process has two facets:

Accounting and Management

The Accounting is done based on spe-

cific standards, using Carbon foot print

assessment tools or GHG inventories. Various processes involved in GHG

accounting are as follows:

Carbon Mapping, where the total fuel

consumption related to all the opera-

tions of the organisation will be mapped

in terms of emission. The operations

typically for oil industry include op-

erations survey, drilling, workover,

production, transportation, process-

ing R&D( up and midstream),refining,

processing, distribution and marketing(for downstream), as well as usage of

energy in office and travels etc. This

carbon mapping is the basic inventory

of any oil company and will be reflected

as Carbon Disclosure in the Balance

Sheet.

Benchmarking, where the inventory will

be benchmarked against the industry

best practices. There may be areas

where a company is the best and thus

form the industry benchmark, theremay be areas, where a company will

need to improve its activities in terms

of energy consumption.

Various steps involved inmanagement are as follows

Developing Corporate Strategy: It is

about developing and implementing

a management tool to assess and ad-

dress the risks and opportunities that

climate change poses to the business.

Climate change is one of the more diffi-

cult and challenging issues for business

today. The scientific complexity, Gov-

ernment policy, international debate

and competitive pressure, all combine

to present an even more difficult and

challenging situation. Managing the

risk involves extensive exploration and

discovery of organizational potential,

business processes and options for

greenhouse gas abatement. Timing of

investment, technological investment

and place of investment are of distinct

competitive advantage. What is Com-

panys goal towards GHG emissions is

important i.e. Whether the Companys

long term objective is to become

Carbon Positive or Carbon neutral or

remain as it is. Carbon Strategy for

the Carbon Management is to address

tomorrows actions today.

Assessment of Risks and Opportu-

nity: Climate change poses regulatory,physical and other risks to business

all over the world. A smart corporate

strategy on GHG management can

help to convert these risks into com-

mercial opportunities and/or better

corporate risk management.There is a

need to enhance understanding of the

risks and opportunities that climate

change presents and to develop an

effective risk management strategy. For

example, a Company is looking at busi-

ness expansion in terms of Greenfieldprojects or Brown field acquisitions.

The expansions may be in the existing

facilities within the country or new / ac-

quired projects in other countries which

include developed (featuring in annex 1

of Kyoto Protocol) as well as developing

countries6. Accordingly, the likely com-

mitments in terms of GHG reductions

have to be factored in while arriving at

the business investment decisions.

Foot printing, to develop a corporatetarget. This foot printing will conform to

the corporate strategy on Sustainable

development. It may like to improve in

curtailing wastage in office usages but

may think otherwise about the business

trips. In any case, the company will

have to decide how it wants to improve

upon its energy consumption. This will

help develop the carbon foot printing.

It is absolutely essential, since a future

action plan will emerge from this foot

printing. It requires a proper cost ben-

efit analysis of every operation. This

foot printing should form the basis of

the future sustainability reporting. This

will form the annual target, as well.

Meditation is the way to a healthy heart424 JUNE 2008



27/68

Implementation of the target set in

the footprinting. Action plan has to be

developed in this regard. It is extremely

critical because a proper cost benefit

analysis is a must to consider the best

option. A company may mull over set-

ting up alternative energy sources to

offset the energy consumption. Another

may mull over developing green build-

ings or invest in social forestry, the

choices are many and hence caution

is required. The final aim is to limit the

GHG emission to a corporate decided

strategy. Once this has been achieved,

the programme has to be communi-

cated to everyone.

Sustainability reporting indicating the

initial target and the achievement. The

target must be in terms of limiting GHGemission which includes offsets if con-

sidered. This will be a publicly available

document.

Exploiting opportunities: Climate

change and its mitigation has opened

up a number of opportunities6 to an

oil company. The proper assessment

, coupled with carbon footprinting and

implementation will open up many

potential opportunities to explore. This

can be divided into two aspects:

Quantifying benefits: For example, if an

upstream oil company in a developing

nation decides to adopt a zero leak-

age norm and implements the strict

monitoring and maintenance practice

by detecting and arresting any leakage,

the company will be able to improve

its operational efficiency and its natu-

ral gas production. At the same time,

the company may derive benefits by

developing a potential CDM project.

Similarly, any energy efficiency initiative

after benchmarking the operations will

ensure less usage of energy and help

develop potential CDM. Such a project

developed by an oil industry in an An-

nex 1 nations( Kyoto Protocol) will help

them achieve the cap.

Monetising: In the above example,

monetising involves trading of the

emission reductions achieved by imple-

menting the emission reduction project

and also the additional natural gassaved. In some cases, the monetisation

may be notional.Similar project devel-

oped in an Annex 1 country will reduce

its dependence on the external source

and hence saves money. However, all

the money received/ receivable from

the project is reportable as additional

revenue.

Conclusions

It is evident from the above that Sus-tainable Development in oil industry

meets all criteria of good business

practices and can be developed as a

viable and sustainable business model

which synergizes economic develop-

ment with environmental and social

development.

Sustainable development will be suc-

cessful only when the we all are com-

mitted to it and proper communication

channels are established so that people

down below are adequately informed

about the imperatives and their reserva-

tions, if any, are properly addressed.

A word of caution, though. No business

model is a talisman or a change agent

unless it is properly practiced. Sustain-

able Development is no exception. A

model is as good as the sincerity and

commitment of the organization. In

short, Think Ahead, Think Fast and

Act Forward, the basic tenets of any

leader should be the mantra.

References1. Ec o Ec o n o m y i n d i c a t o r s

2005Earth Policy institute re-

sources on economic growth

2. World energy outlook 2006- Inter-

national Energy Agency

3. 4th Assessment Rep

journal june08 www.petrotechsociety

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