Meet the experts

Flow assurance

Dr. Walt Lamb, Ph. D.

Education: Doctorate in Physical Chemistry, University of Illinois, 1981.

No. of years of oil field experience: Prior to joining Add Energy, 34 years of international industry experience with Exxon and BP, working primarily as a petroleum engineer, and later as an engineering advisor and operations manager.

What motivates me? Applying specialist knowledge, skills, experience, know-how, and new/evolving technologies, to assist clients in the delivery of safe and cost-effective engineering best practices.

What I am really good at? My flow-assurance expertise includes: formation damage diagnosis, well stimulation (matrix acidizing and fracturing), treating fluid diversion, control and management of mineral scales and asphaltenes/paraffins, water & gas shut-off, production logging, and laboratory methods and testing. I strive to work with clients to help guide engineering decisions and operations, based on sound and thorough technical analyses, state-of-the art lab testing, and proven/practical implementation alternatives.

Papers published:

• U.S. Patent #5,890,536, “Method for Stimulation of Lenticular Natural Gas Formations”, D. E. Nierode and W. J. Lamb, 1999.
• U.S. Patent #5,708,203, “Neutron Logging Method for Quantitative Wellbore Fluid Analysis”, R. M. McKinley and W. J. Lamb, 1998.
• U.S. Patent #5,309,995, “Well Treatment Using Ball Sealers”, M. E. Gonzalez, J. R. Bailey, and W. J. Lamb, 1994.
• U.S. Patent #4,648,456, “Method for Acidizing Siliceous Formations”, W. J. Lamb and K. R. Kunze, 1987.
• Author or co-author of more than 300 internal technical documents over my career with BP (1998-2015) and more than 400 internal technical documents over my career with Exxon (1981-1997).
• Co-author of five peer-reviewed scientific journal articles related to high-pressure/high-temperature studies of water with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) during my university career.

Multiphase flow and PVT

Morten H. Emilsen

Education: MSc. in Fluid Mechanics from Norwegian Institute of Technology, Trondheim, Norway (1994)

No. of years of oil field experience: 20 years of experience within multiphase flow for the oil industry. I have managed flow assurance and debottlenecking studies for field development projects. I am a well control advisor with experience from a number of blowouts world-wide including Aliso Canyon gas blowout in 2015, Macondo blowout in 2010, Montara blowout in 2009. I co-authored the Deepwater Horizon Accident Investigation Report and testified as an expert witness in US District Court. I have specialized in transient multiphase flow simulations and developed the recognized Olga-Well-Kill software.

What motivates me? Using my knowledge and experience to help operating companies to develop oil and gas fields in a safer and more cost effective way.

What I am really good at? Diagnosing flow conditions and planning tubulars, pipelines and operational procedures to increase oil and gas production and recovery. Flow assurance. Evaluating hydrocarbon fluids and behaviors. Use my content analytical skills and computer programming skill to optimize production. Evaluate kick incidents and blowouts. Planning kill operations.

Papers published:

• Rygg, O, Emilsen, M. H., "Analysis of The Hazardous Consequences Of Pipeline Ruptures", PSIG Annual Meeting, October 23-25, 2002, Portland, Oregon
• Reed, M., Emilsen, M. H., Hetland, B. Johansen, Ø, Buffington, S., "Numerical Model for Estimation of Pipeline Oil Spill Volumes", 2003 International Oil Spill Conference, Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada. Referenced paper and published in Environmental Modelling & Software, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2006, pp. 178-189.

Well integrity

Terje Løkke-Sørensen

Education: MSc. in Petroleum Engineering from the Technical University of Trondheim, Norway (1984)

No. of years of oil field experience: 30 years, in positions as drilling engineer, drilling supervisor and project leader for various operating oil companies in Norway and abroad.

What motivates me? My first awakening around well integrity happened early in my working career as Drilling Supervisor on production platform. We had just finished cementing the production casing and had lifted off the riser/BOP to set emergency casing hanger slips. Our contingency plan was to set down the riser/BOP should the well flow up the annulus. Not a very reliable plan, considering that all the things that could go wrong. Later-on, we started to use multi-bowl wellheads whereby avoiding disconnection of the BOP to set hanger and seals. A much safer operation. I find Well Integrity to be the core of the core in well construction and operations – there is always something new to learn and people to discuss it with.

What I am really good at? Through my work for major clients in authoring of well barrier requirements and managing revision #3 and #4 of NORSOK D-010 Well Integrity Standard, I learned a lot about how to identify/select well barriers and related performance requirements well barrier elements. I also lecture these principles in courses and at seminar. I use this knowledge in conducting technical investigations and authoring of reports. With an analytical mind and logical approach, my reports are easy to read and follow. I love to use tables and sketches instead of many words to convey the message.

Wellbore stability

Ken Kunze

Education: PhD Chemistry, Rice University Houston Texas, 1978

No. of years of oil field experience: 38 years, ExxonMobil, comprising assignments in Drilling and Completion research, as drilling engineer in Norway (6+ years), as lead drilling engineer for Skene in Aberdeen (2.5 years), and in varied planning and technology support functions (8 months in Melbourne for PNG planning). Most recently worked in Unconventional Resources D&C group.

What motivates me? Engaging in analysis of data to discover what the drilling situation is in any given area (data sleuthing).

What I am really good at? I enjoy approaching new field areas and projects through a review of available experiential data, logs, drill cuttings analysis, and field reports, in order to reveal potential problems such as wellbore stability and lost returns, slow drilling, formation damage, and high non-productive time costs. Once the major difficulties have been identified, detailed attention can be directed toward mitigation and avoidance methods. During my work in Drilling Planning and Unconventional Resources, I often had to draw from my technical background to assess potential operational difficulties in frontier or under-developed areas and identify the necessary technology. Examples include identifying geo-mechanical problems presented by drilling in Papua New Guinea. Also, as one of 5 initial members of our Piceance CO drill team, I reviewed well files and logs from nearly 50 previous “ad hoc” wells that experienced high wellbore-related NPT, and created a major part of the Well Design Basis document. More recently, I engaged in “data sleuthing” into Chinese well reports and logs to assess the costs and difficulties of remediating or abandoning hundreds of wells for a proposed joint venture EOR project at Renqui, China.

I am especially proud of establishing drill cuttings injection as standard technology within my company. Prior to the project I initiated within Esso Norway, this technology was new to the corporation, although it had become standard among other operators in the North Sea, Alaska, and the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, I became the Cuttings Injection Subject Matter expert, published a company manual, and assisted a variety of injection projects including those at Point Thompson AK, Sakhalin Island Russia, and Piceance CO.

My research and field experience with drilling fluids led me to become the Oil Based Fluid subject matter expert for my company, and chairman of the API sub-committee that standardized the use of the Activity Meter to measure the water phase activity of oil emulsion fluids, a property that is critical for wellbore stability and shale stabilization.

Papers published:

• Kunze, K. R., Romero, E. E., and Duck, S., “Colorado Drill Cuttings Injection Pilot Results”, SPE 151453, presented at IADC Drilling Conference and Exhibition, San Diego, CA, March 2012
• Kunze, K.R., and Skorve, H.: "Merits of Suspending the First Platform Well as a Cuttings Injector," SPE 63124, 2000 SPE Annual Technical Conference, Dallas, TX, October 2000
• Kunze, K.R. and Steiger, R.P.: "Accurate In-Situ Stress Measurements during Drilling Operations," SPE 24593, 67th Annual SPE Technical Conference, Washington, D.C., October 1992
• Kunze, K.R., Steiger, R.P., “Extended leakoff tests to measure in-situ stress during drilling”, Rock Mechanics as a Multidisciplinary Science, Roegiers (ed), 1991 Balkema, Rotterdam ISBN 90 6191 194X
• Chow, T. W., McIntire, L.V., Kunze, K. R., Cooke, C. E., “The Rheological Properties of Cement Slurries: Effects of Vibration, Hydration Conditions, and Additives”, SPE Production Engineering, November 1988 13936
• Kunze, K. R., “Obtaining and Verifying Quality Cement Blends”, SPE 15576, Presented at 61st Annual Technical Conference of SPE, New Orleans, LA, Oct 5-8, 1986
• Kunze, K.R. and Shaughnessy, C. M.: "Acidizing Sandstone Formations with Fluoboric Acid, " SPEJ (Feb 1983)
• Shaughnessy, C.M. and Kunze, K.R.: "Understanding Sandstone Acidizing Leads to Improved Field Practices, " JPT (July 1981)

Patents: U.S. Patent #4,648,456, “Method for Acidizing Siliceous Formations”, W. J. Lamb and K. R. Kunze, 1987