Research
Research Facilities
Established in 1984, the Petroleum Development Laboratory (PDL) is a state of the art research laboratory conducting energy related research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The primary function of PDL is to explore the various aspects of enhanced oil and gas recovery research. In addition to addressing the unique challenges confronting the petroleum industry, it provides excellent laboratories to supplement petroleum engineering courses.
Research Areas
Reservoir characterization, modeling and simulation
Alaska has a wide range of conventional and unconventional energy resources. UAF's petroleum engineering faculty conduct applied and fundamental research aimed at better understanding of the distribution, character and behavior of these reservoirs. Ongoing projects include:
- frozen reservoirs
- Modeling fluvial reservoirs of Cook Inlet
- Reservoir behavior of low temperature geothermal reservoirs
- CO2 sequestration and EOR
Rock and Fluid Properties
Understanding the behavior of both the host rock and the reservoir fluid is critical for maximizing the productivity of the reservoir. Research on rock and fluid properties includes:
- Relative permeability of frozen reservoirs
- Solid organic deposition and flow assurance of reservoir fluids
- PVT/phase behavior and compositional analysis
- Gas hydrates
- Viscous and heavy oil
(Contact: Dr. A. Dandekar)
Drilling and Completions
UAF faculty work with the Alaska petroleum industry on drilling techniques used and
problems encountered in Alaska's extreme environment.
These topics include:
- Optimization of drilling fluids for coiled tube and horizontal drilling
- D
evelopment and testing of drag reducing fluids, surfactant and polymeric fluids, slurries and foams - Development of effective low and high temperature cements
Enhanced Oil Production methods
Effective secondary and tertiary recovery methods are vital for optimizing recovery
from established hydrocarbon reservoirs. UAF faculty are working with Alaskan petroleum
industry to develop new techniques to enhance recovery from identified hydrocarbon
resources such as heavy and viscous oil and gas hydrates.
Research topics include:
- CO2 miscible and immiscible flooding
- Low salinity water flooding
- Heavy and viscous oil recovery methods
- Gas hydrates
- Use of nanotechnology to enhance recovery
- Chemical EOR methods
(Contact: Dr. A. Dandekar)
Formation damage evaluation
The corelab formation damage evaluation system is used to determine the effect on the permeability of reservoir rock samples from various drilling and completion fluids at reservoir pressure and temperature.
(Contact: Dr. Yin Zhang)
Coreflooding experimental studies
The Auto Flood Reservoir Conditions Core Flooding System (AFS-300) is used to conduct water flood, water flood susceptibility, chemical and solvent flood, gas flooding, low-salinity water flooding.
(Contact: Dr. Yin Zhang)
Origin of Overpressure and Pore Pressure Prediction
Accurate estimation of pore pressure is essential in all aspects of the oil and gas field exploration and development.
Differences in pore pressure estimation could lead to drastic changes in reserve evaluation. This can especially occur in under-saturated oil reservoirs with solution gas, where gas bubbles can emerge below a certain pressure. Pore pressure is also a key factor in designing and successfully performing hydraulic fracturing.
The main objective of this research is to undertake a contingency evaluation of the mechanisms capable of generating abnormally high pore pressure (fluid expansion, clay diagenesis, kerogen maturation, pressure transfer, etc.), and then quantify the role of each mechanism.
The magnitude of overpressure is another objective of this research which will be aimed by either conducting conventional methods (in clastic rocks), or numerical modeling of the processes that contributed to overpressure generation.
Oil Price, Economic Analysis and Sustainability in Oil and Gas Companies
Environmental, social, and economic impacts of activities within the oil and gas industry, especially in the hydrocarbon producing countries, have significantly shaped the development framework of governments as well as local communities. Considering several oil price fluctuations in recent years, successful transition of societies toward a robust future, requires a comprehensive analytical evaluation of sustainable development methodologies and their implications for local communities, governments, and business corporations.
Given three major components of sustainability as economic, social, and ecological, the main focus is on the economic aspects of sustainability. Dynamic and effectively responsive business models based on appropriate evaluation of the cost/benefit analysis is the core part of this research.