A group of researchers from the Refrigeration and Thermophysics Research Laboratory (Polo) is working in partnership with Petrobras on a project to improve safety at the company's oil exploration wells. The project is financially managed by the Stemmer Foundation for Research, Development and Innovation (Feesc) and is in its second phase, which runs until 2021.
The Polo Laboratory is linked to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), and the project, entitled “Thermal Phenomena in Oil and Gas Wells”, is coordinated by Professor Jader Barbosa Jr. “The problem under study is very specific: there are some thermal phenomena that occur in oil exploration wells that cause the structures to heat up a lot ”, explains the professor. “The wells are a relatively complex structure, which have sealed cavities, filled with so-called drilling muds, a fluid that they use to drill the well. Then these layers are trapped there and, as the well is producing and heating these sealed cavities, the fluid heats up, has nowhere to escape and will expand. The consequence is that the pressure increases and can reach very high levels, compromising the physical structure of the well ”, details the researcher, who holds a bachelor's and master's degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London, UK.
With the beginning of the exploration of the pre-salt layer, the concern with the increase in risks increased. “With increasingly deeper layers of exploitation, this problem is increasingly aggravated because conditions are more extreme. So, this is a problem of great importance for Petrobras ”, observes the professor. “The physical structure of the well can be compromised, collapse, with leaks and strong environmental impacts and even the loss of the well. Therefore, the great interest of the company and the ANP (National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels) in the study of this phenomenon ”, adds Barbosa Jr, who between September 2017 and January 2018 served as a visiting professor at Oregon State University, in the United States.
Development
The research project is in the second phase. The first one was carried out from 2014 to 2017 and the current one started in 2018 and runs until 2021. In the first stage, the work counted on the participation of two professors, five undergraduate students, two master's students, a doctoral student, in addition to scientific initiation scholarship holders, who defended the Course Conclusion Work (TCC) in the period. Now, in addition to the professors, in the team there is a doctoral student, a master's student, two undergraduate students and an engineer, who is improving the computer program developed in the first phase to simulate different scenarios of the phenomenon under study.
“The idea is that the program can be used effectively at Petrobras. So, in order for this to be possible, a series of improvements are being made to this computer program so that it can be used more effectively and more assertively by company personnel and this is already happening now ”, points out Professor Jader. And other ideas are emerging. “We want to know more about this fluid used in the well structures: when it expands, how much heat it conducts and what is possible to improve and optimize it”. Questions that the Polo Polo team will soon have the challenge of answering.
SOURCE: Fundação Stemmer para Pesquisa, Desenvolvimento e Inovação - Feesc
