Congratulations to Imperial College London graduate and SPE London member, Percy Obeahon, winner of this year’s OPC Well Test Analysis Award, proudly sponsored by Oilfield Production Consultants (OPC) Ltd.
A lot of people dream of receiving a big cheque, but for recent graduate Percy, in November it became a reality! The annual Well Test Analysis Award of £500 is offered by OPC to the Imperial College MSc Petroleum Engineering student whose thesis most impresses Department Chairman Professor Alain Gringarten and OPC.
Percy, now a Reservoir Engineer at Shell Exploration and Production Companies in Nigeria, focused his thesis on history matching for the heavily-faulted Egret Field, in the North Sea. In recent times, fault seal breakdown is seen to have significant impact on recovery. The ability to predict these impacts on well productivity is critical to optimal well placement, reservoir management and field development decisions, particularly for HP/HT deep water developments.
Percy’s thesis fills the knowledge gaps in dynamic fault seal modelling by presenting a new concept on how to characterise the sealing nature of reservoir boundaries and achieve history matches in reservoirs where seal factors change dynamically. This was achieved using pressure transient analysis, production analysis and the deconvolution method. The report demonstrates that using well test interpretation results and a systematic approach to fault seal analysis results in a history-matched model that explains how fault seal breakdown can be constructed.
Piers Johnson, OPC Managing Director, said: “I have a long-standing relationship with Professor Gringarten, as we’ve been doing well testing all our lives. OPC is pleased to continue to offer this prestigious prize and we wish to congratulate Percy, whose thesis was chosen as being a significant contribution to reservoir characterisation from well test interpretation.”
Professor Gringarten, Director of the Centre for Petroleum Studies at Imperial College, added: “We are grateful to OPC for their continuing support. They are an example of what companies can do to encourage and reward excellence at universities.”