Emerson Exchange 365

Activity

Reassessing the Gas Processing Market

Jim Cahill

Author: Chuck Miller Recently, we’ve seen many changes in the gas processing marketplace, moving us quickly from a time where we built all forms of infrastructure to a more thoughtful focus on efficiency, reliability, productivity, and reducing operational risks. Our industry is, therefore, experiencing many operational challenges from producing vast natural gas resources in remote and hostile environments, to transporting…
- 28 Jun 2016
Natural Gas Liquids Mass Measurement

Jim Cahill

Natural gas liquids (NGLs) are composed of many hydrocarbons including ethane, propane, butane, pentane and natural gasoline. Measuring the volume of this hydrocarbon mixture required for its sale is challenging because of the impact of pressure, temperature and how the different-sized molecules pack together. Emerson’s Dean Minehart has written a whitepaper, Natural Gas Liquid Measurement: Direct and Inferred Mass…
- 22 Jun 2016
Midstream Oil and Gas Sector Trends

Jim Cahill

Natural gas processing facilities, terminals, pipelines and other forms of petroleum product transport are part of the midstream oil & gas sector. Operating these midstream operations safely, efficiently and reliably has proven to be an ongoing challenge. Emerson’s Chuck Miller coordinated the gathering of midstream sector thought leaders so that they could share ideas and needs relative to how to better run their…
- 21 Jun 2016
Improving Gas Well Economics via Casing Flow Management

Jim Cahill

According the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) , the U.S. remains the largest oil & gas producer : Today in #Energy : U.S. remains largest producer of petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbons https://t.co/A9m92F9CnW pic.twitter.com/5WLl14gwne — EIA (@EIAgov) May 23, 2016 Shale oil and gas production has significantly helped secure this leadership position since 2012. The downside of shale oil & gas…
- 24 May 2016
Integrating Leak Detection and Custody Transfer for Pipeline Monitoring

Jim Cahill

Authors: Rossella Mimmi and Marc Buttler The importance of pipeline integrity is growing in the oil and gas industry. New regions of oil and gas production and growing demand are driving the construction of new pipelines and reversals of existing pipelines. Older pipeline systems are still in operation and often running at capacity. 41% of US oil pipelines were built in the 1950s and 1960s. A report that was prepared…
- 12 May 2016
Pipeline Management throughout the Lifecycle

Jim Cahill

This article, Throughout the Lifecycle , was first published in Oil & Gas Middle East magazine and is reposted here with permission. Sachin Tere , Business Development Manager, Flow Solutions – Emerson Process Management Pipeline management often poses a challenge to the industry’s stakeholders and Emerson Process Management is helping them deal with issues such as cost overruns, besides assisting companies from the…
- 10 May 2016
OTC 2016-Integrated Operations Command Centers

Jim Cahill

The more quickly experts can respond to changing conditions by interpreting the available information and collaborating with other cross-functional experts, the more safely, reliably and efficiently will process manufacturing and production facilities operate. At the 2016 Offshore Technology Conference, Emerson’s Jeff Dymond discussed how integrated operations (iOps) command centers help to enable decisions to increase…
- 5 May 2016
OTC 2016-Dynamic Lift Optimization

Jim Cahill

In these current times of lower oil prices, operational efficiency is a top priority along with cost control for oil and gas producers. The challenge is to maintain base production levels and extend & stem the decline rate of producing wells. Most wells require artificial lift methods such as gas lift and water flood. Emerson’s Darren Doige described the goal of optimization around artificial lift methods to maximize…
- 5 May 2016
OTC 2016-Flow Assurance

Jim Cahill

Successfully and economically getting oil and gas from the reservoir to the point of sale is known as flow assurance. Wikipedia defines it as: …extremely diverse, encompassing many discrete and specialized subjects and bridging across the full gamut of engineering disciplines. Besides network modeling and transient multiphase simulation, flow assurance involves effectively handling many solid deposits, such as, gas…
- 3 May 2016
OTC 2016- Produced Fluids Management

Jim Cahill

Managing produced oil & gas fluids go through the phases of allocation royalty, centralized processing, tank management and transfers. The opportunities for inaccuracies and losses can be quite high. At the 2016 Offshore Technology Conference, Emerson’s Jody Overshiner explained that in the allocation royalty and centralized processing phases where the fluids are separated into components, the goal is to minimize…
- 3 May 2016
Buoyed Oil Prices, Buoyed Spirits at the Offshore Technology Conference

Jim Cahill

As I prepare to head over to Houston today for the Offshore Technology Conference , I see that oil prices have managed to sustain the gains they have made over the month of April. That should help lift everyone’s spirits this week. Our Emerson oil and gas experts with be there all week in the NRG Center in booth 5817 . If you are in the oil and gas business and in the Houston area this week, come by and visit with…
- 2 May 2016
Managing Oil and Gas Produced Fluids

Jim Cahill

Managing produced fluids in the age of shale oil and gas production has opened up some new challenges compared with the days of traditional reservoir production. I caught up with Emerson’s Michael Machuca . He noted that while global oil prices were high, shale production levels in the U.S. skyrocketed and the focus was on bringing more production online as fast as possible. With the low oil price environment we’re…
- 22 Apr 2016
Integrated Operations Continue to Deliver Benefits in Today’s Oil Market

Jim Cahill

Authors: Jeff Dymond and Mike Boudreaux The reality of lower oil and gas prices is driving energy companies to operate differently. The lower price per barrel is squeezing profitability and pushing companies to contain costs, increase reliability, and respond quickly to revenue opportunities. Some are reducing workforce to decrease costs. Others are running full bore to protect market share. Industry-wide, they are…
- 5 Apr 2016
Manual Level Gauging of Hydrocarbon Production Tanks

Jim Cahill

An NPR article, Mysterious Death Reveals Risk in Federal Oil Field Rules , highlights a big problem with rules by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management pertaining to manual tank level gauging. The article’s author writes: On a cold night in January 2012, Dustin Bergsing climbed on top of a crude oil storage tank in North Dakota’s Bakken oil field. His job was to open the hatch on top and drop a rope inside to measure…
- 1 Apr 2016
Fundamentally Transforming Capital Project Planning and Execution

Jim Cahill

Executing capital projects grows increasingly difficult as their size and scope continues to expand. I caught up with Emerson’s Kevin Jackson who has witnessed this growth over time. Kevin notes that today 65% of projects over a billion dollars fail. Likewise, 35% of projects under $500 million have failed as well. By ‘failing’ he means that they are at least 25% over budget or late by at least 50% from the planned…
- 31 Mar 2016
Offshore Technology Conference 2016—Examine your Chemical Injection System

Jim Cahill

Author: Laura Schafer Take a moment and ask yourself: How much does my company spend every year on chemicals? For most, chemical injection is a sunk cost of production–it’s a cost that’s hard to tackle because few of us are chemists. Both the dosage of chemical and the amount spent on chemical is difficult to determine! But in today’s low oil price environment, a critical examination of your chemical injection system…
- 23 Mar 2016
Pressure Regulators in Upstream Oil and Gas Processing Applications

Jim Cahill

Managing pressures are a large part of the control strategies for upstream oil and gas applications. These pressures include those in the main processing lines, fuel lines and vapor spaces found in storage tanks. Emerson’s Thomas Weyer shared a new pressure regulator upstream oil and gas application map with me. It was designed to show the options of pressure regulators upstream and downstream of the equipment typically…
- 16 Mar 2016
High Pressure and Temperature Sensors for Subsurface and Surface Oil and Gas Applications

Jim Cahill

In a Reuters article, Forget fracking. Choking, lifting latest efforts to stem U.S. shale bust , Andrew Slaughter, director for the Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions stated: Production optimization is going to be the next phase of the shale revolution… The low price environment will give companies and operators a chance to take stock of the techniques that work. One of the ways to optimize oil and gas production…
- 10 Mar 2016
Interview with Steve Sonnenberg on Opportunities for Top Quartile Performance

Jim Cahill

At this week’s IHS Energy CERAWeek conference in Houston, IHS Energy’s Kurt Barrow spoke with Emerson Process Management president Steve Sonnenberg about the imperatives of oil and gas upstream, midstream and downstream producers to improve their operational efficiency. In this 4:34 CERAWeek On Demand video , Steve describes the differences in performance between Top Quartile and lower quartile performers with respect…
- 25 Feb 2016
Driving Value and Safety in Current Oil Price Environment

Jim Cahill

This post is an excerpt of my post on the Top Quartile site. At CERAWeek 2016, Emerson president Ed Monser (pictured at right with CNBC’s Brian Sullivan) joined a distinguished panel including Chevron’s Wesley Lohec, ERM’s Don Lloyd and IHS panel chair Nilesh Dayal to discuss operational strategies in the current economic and energy climate. The session’s objectives were lofty: “The global energy industry has an…
- 24 Feb 2016
Getting More From Brownfield Production Sites in a Low Oil Price Environment

Jim Cahill

At CERAWeek 2016 , a panel of experts steeped in the upstream oil business shared their ideas for improving efficiency of existing facilities, well pads and offshore platforms. The panel was chaired by IHS’s Paul Markwell and included Emerson’s David Tredinnick along with senior leadership for oil and gas owner/operators and service providers. David opened the panel reminding the attendees of the notion of “Peak Oil…
- 23 Feb 2016
CERAWeek Strategies for a New World

Jim Cahill

If you’re unfamiliar with CERAWeek, it is billed as : …the premier annual international gathering of energy industry leaders, experts, government officials and policymakers, leaders from the technology, financial, and industrial communities – and energy technology innovators. I’m here in Houston at this event that opens today. And what a time it is for these energy industry leaders and those working in the business…
- 22 Feb 2016
Maximizing Production through Optimized Gas Lifting

Jim Cahill

The vast majority of oil wells require some type of artificial lift method to bring the wellbore fluids to the surface. Four major lift methods include: Electric submersible pump (ESP) Gas lift Hydraulic pump (piston and jet pump) Beam pump Gas lift works by injecting gas into the well tubing through gas lift valves in order to reduce the hydrostatic pressure on the fluid column below the pressure…
- 18 Feb 2016
Lease Automatic Custody Transfer Components and Operation

Jim Cahill

The exchange of crude oil between seller and buyer is known as custody transfer. A simple example of this is the gas pump where you fill up your car. The pump must accurately measure the fuel and determine/collect payment for the amount transferred into your gas tank. Lease Automatic Custody Transfer (LACT) units facilitate this transfer in an automatic way, both in onshore and offshore oil & gas production operations…
- 17 Feb 2016
Managing Coalbed Methane Wells Feeding LNG Plant

Jim Cahill

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities require careful pressure management on their incoming gas pipelines. In a recent LNG Industry article, Turn it Up (and Down) , Emerson’s Michael Calvert describes the challenges and solutions around the Santos Gladstone LNG (GLNG) project . One of the big challenges is that the source gas is from coal-bed methane (CBM) fields instead of traditional gas production wells. In these…
- 7 Dec 2015