Strategy: Differentiate performance through technology.
Technology is an important part of our strategy to grow our company and deliver superior business value. How we deploy technology is a key differentiator in our performance. It is the application of technology combined with the expertise of our employees that enables us to find and develop energy safely, efficiently and reliably.
We continually develop and invest in a full range of technologies — geophysical imaging, geologic models, oil field automation, wireless communications, computer modeling, clean-fuels processing and more. Additionally, we partner with universities, governments and others. We focus research funds and venture capital on future energy sources, including renewables, that have the potential to be developed profitably and on a commercial scale.
Reservoir Management
One of the newest and most powerful tools we are deploying is an advanced, high-speed reservoir simulator called INTERSECT™, which essentially allows us to "see" inside a reservoir and determine how it should best be developed to maximize production. INTERSECT has been in development over the past 10 years with our partner Schlumberger, a top international oil field services company. We are now deploying this technology to develop our major capital projects in Australia, China, Kazakhstan and the United States — and soon in other countries.
We also are deploying next-generation interpretation and earth-modeling software to our earth scientists worldwide. The software applications provide cutting-edge technologies that allow our upstream operations to identify new exploration and production opportunities and deliver more realistic reservoir models. This, in turn, enables us to make decisions that improve production rates and lower our exploration and production cost structures.
In 2010, Chevron commercialized INFICOMM™, a new downhole communication technology that enables wireless transmission of well data. Developed through a research alliance with the U.S. Los Alamos National Laboratory, the technology provides reliable, real-time communication from deep wells to the surface without the need for wires, cables or batteries. The patented system delivers continuous electromagnetic data on the reservoir conditions — pressure, temperature and flow rate — enabling economical and effective monitoring and analysis.
Mature Fields
Technology also is helping us enhance production from mature fields. Our i-field™ program uses new developments in sensors, monitoring and optimization tools that enable us to gather production and reservoir information in real time and continually adjust to operating circumstances. I-field also improves productivity in other ways. Rather than driving out to check each well in a field — which can include hundreds of wells covering 1,000 square miles or more — operators use hand-held devices and laptop computers to monitor well performance from a central location. Because i-fields require integrated capabilities in information technology and engineering, we are partnering with the University of Southern California's Center for Interactive Smart Oilfield Technologies. The center offers a multidisciplinary graduate degree that combines petroleum engineering with information technology, math, and electrical and industrial engineering.
A pilot project for the world's first commercial-scale carbonate steamflood is under way in the Wafra Field, located in the Partitioned Zone between Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The potential impact of steamflooding is immense, with every 1 percent of additional recovery yielding more than 100 million barrels of reserves. During the pilot project, production rates have increased more than 600 percent above the initial baseline production. These results are encouraging, and we expect to move the full field project into front-end engineering and design in 2012.
For a comprehensive look at Chevron's leading-edge technologies, read the latest edition of Next*, our annual technology publication.
Posted: April 2011