Research Paper
Project Management
Mahdi Rostami; Mohammad Amin Ahangari
Abstract
AbstractThe complicated nature of oil and gas projects demands the deployment of integrated and effective project management methodologies to achieve the project objectives including the scope, cost and timing of the project. However, the availability of alternative methods such as PMI/PMBOK, IPMA, and ...
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AbstractThe complicated nature of oil and gas projects demands the deployment of integrated and effective project management methodologies to achieve the project objectives including the scope, cost and timing of the project. However, the availability of alternative methods such as PMI/PMBOK, IPMA, and PRINCE2, high rate of project failure, and limited available resources can make decision making a challenge for project managers. Identification and ranking the most important factors in project management could be done through different methods i.e., MCDM, Regression analyse, or Structural equation modelings depends on the nature of data and the purpose of research. The main purpose of this research is to provide insight to project managers and oil and gas companies on the effect of PMBOK's 10 knowledge areas including Integration Management, Scope Management, Time Management, Cost Management, Quality Management, Human Resource Management, Communication Management, Risk Management, Procurement Management, and Stakeholder Management on critical success factors in oil and gas industry in Iran. PMBOK knowledge areas were measured through the Project Management Planning Quality (PMPQ) survey and the dependent variables which are critical success factors were operationalized through the Project Implementation Profile (PIP) questionnaire. A total of 100 questionnaires were distributed among project managers, senior managers and project experts in oil and gas organizations in Iran and 72 acceptable responses were received and analyzed through structural equation modelling (SEM). The model is statistically significant and accounts for 33.7 % of the variation of CSFs. The SRMR value of the modified model is 0.098 and therefore the model fit is appropriate. The overall positive relationship between the variables is observed. The results of SEM analysis indicated that the scope management is the most effective knowledge area with the weight equals to 0.855 followed by communication management and risk management with the weights equal to 0.818 and 0.756 respectively.
Research Paper
Accounting
Vahab Montazeri; Atefeh Ghazi
Abstract
AbstractIt is essential to separate two immiscible liquids from gas to produce the light liquid, heavy liquid, and vapor phases. The separation of water from hydrocarbons is a practical example in the oil industry. For such separation in industry, three phase separator is used. In this study, different ...
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AbstractIt is essential to separate two immiscible liquids from gas to produce the light liquid, heavy liquid, and vapor phases. The separation of water from hydrocarbons is a practical example in the oil industry. For such separation in industry, three phase separator is used. In this study, different parameter and the weight of the three-phase separator was optimized with the genetic algorithm (G.A.) and finally, the total cost of manufacturing the separator was decreased. Different types of three-phase separators are vertical, horizontal, and spherical. The separator works in the operating condition of 172 kPa and 445 K, respectively and the real weight of the separator is 8131 kg. For the optimization target, the flow of vapor, light liquid, and heavy liquid was considered constant during the optimization process. The objective function (O.F.) is obtained from the weight of the separator and 3 multiparameter equations. Also, 7 parameters which include: separator aspect ratio (L/D), the height of heavy liquid (HHL), height of light liquid (HLL), hold-up time (TH), surge time (TS), low liquid level (HLLL) and vapor level (Hv) are used in G.A. as constraints. The weight of the optimized separator was calculated 6001 kg approximately. So, with this method, the total weight of the separator decreases by about 26.2 % as compared to the real weight of the separator. On the other hand, the maximum difference between the answers was 3.3%, which is acceptable. Also, error analysis of the predicted results is calculated by mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) for 7 design parameters of the three-phase separator and separator weight, which are in an acceptable level of accuracy. The presented approach can have potential application for the development of low-cost manufacturing of three-phase separators in the petroleum industry.
Research Paper
Petroleum Engineering – Reservoir
Mehdi Bahari Moghaddam; Seyyed Alireza Kamani
Abstract
An essential transport characteristic that links a substance's molar (mass) flux to its concentration gradient is the molecular diffusion coefficient. For modeling and performance forecasting of solvent-aided recovery processes of heavy oils such as VAPEX and SAGD; a reliable and accurate estimation ...
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An essential transport characteristic that links a substance's molar (mass) flux to its concentration gradient is the molecular diffusion coefficient. For modeling and performance forecasting of solvent-aided recovery processes of heavy oils such as VAPEX and SAGD; a reliable and accurate estimation of the molecular diffusion coefficient is a crucial input. Despite the importance of this parameter, there is no approved way to measure it, especially in systems with heavy oil and gaseous solvents that have limited solubility. This can be as a result of the intricacy of experimental measures and the challenge of analyzing experimental data. There are two direct and indirect methods for measuring the diffusion coefficient, the direct method has not been addressed because it is expensive and time-consuming. Indirect methods include Constant-Volume Methods (Pressure Decay), Constant-Pressure, Refractive Index, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), X-ray Computer-Assisted Tomography (CAT), Pendent drop and Microfluidics. The advantage and disadvantages of these experimental methods established for diffusivity measurements of the gaseous solvent in heavy oil systems are discussed in this article. According to the investigations carried out in this study, the Constant-Volume Methods (Pressure Decay) with the least error percentage (1.05%) was chosen as the best method for measuring the diffusion coefficient. The diffusion coefficient of light and heavy oil was compared, and light oil has a higher diffusion coefficient.
