Events

Speaker: Stephen Melzer, Consulting Engineer, Melzer Consulting - Midland, Texas

Title of Seminar: "Residual Oil Zones, CO2 EOR, Horizontal Well Reservoir Depressuring and other Examples of the Excitement over the “New Day” in Oil and Gas?"

Abstract: Today, both the changes and the excitement level in the oil and gas profession are unprecedented in the last fifty years. The innovations created within the industry with horizontal well drilling and completions are coming so fast that one can find themselves outdated in a very short time. Also, the understanding of reservoirs and in producing their fluids lies in a new quantum level today. But this is just the start; all of this waits new graduates to advance even further. And, more than ever before, Texas is ground zero both for the development and field testing of these innovations. Much of the news in the oil and gas sector revolves around the unconventionals or, as they are often loosely termed, “shales.” But a second revolution is quietly growing in a class of reservoirs which has become known as residual oil zones (ROZs). These are now understood to be quite common in a number of oil basins around the world. They have broken free from the idea of just transition zones limited to intervals below oil/water contacts in existing oil fields. Two now proven methods have emerged that have shown producing commercial oil is possible from the ROZs historically incapable of producing mobile oil. Five categories of technology case histories will be presented to convey samples of the new excitement. The discussed technologies are rich in engineering advancements as well as in reservoir understanding. Innovative services developed to help design hydrofracturing parameters for horizontal wells have a bonus value in better understanding reservoir continuity and flood sweep efficiency. EOR has moved into the ROZs in a big way in the Permian Basin and reservoir depressuring in the upper ROZs via horizontal wells competes well with the shales. Additionally, grasping the roles of naturally occurring microbes is essential in both the rock and the fluids they contain. Wettability, solution gas content and late-stage rock diagenesis are three examples. Finally, capturing CO2 from industrial processes before emission into the atmosphere and storing into reservoirs during CO2 EOR is a coming trend. Your University has maintained a leadership role in all of these advancements and especially in this latter area. You can take it from this fellow “in the field” that this exciting new world awaits the bright and motivated coming graduates.

Bio: Steve Melzer is a consulting engineer in Midland, Texas specializing in CO2 injection projects, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and horizontal well depressuring of carbonate reservoirs. He has conducted foundational research on the origin and distribution of residual oil zones and their commercial exploitation through the use of both CO2 EOR and horizontal wells. He also provides engineering and business planning services for a variety of U.S. and International commercial clients in the oil and gas, industrial gas, coal and power sectors as well as advising policy makers and non-governmental organizations on the subject of CO2 EOR and carbon capture and storage. In the past he originated and operated many exploration and production projects in the U.S. oil and gas sector.

He is the long-standing director of the annual CO2 Flooding Conference and assists in organizing the EOR Carbon Management Workshop held each year in December in Midland, Texas. These two events will be held this year in the first week in December and are sponsored by over twenty key companies in the energy sector. He has served on the Governor of Texas FutureGen Board, as Director of The University of Texas of the Permian Basin’s Petroleum Industry Alliance, and several out of state Technical Advisory Boards.

Steve resides in Midland, Tx. He has a BS in geological engineering from Texas A&M and a MS degree in Engineering from Purdue University.