Petroleum Engineering and Development Studies – serie

It is a pleasure to be asked to write the foreword to this interesting new book. When Professor Bedrikovetsky first accepted my invitation to spend an extended sabbatical period in the Department of Mineral Resources Engineering at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, I hoped it would be a period of fruitful collaboration. This book, a short course and a variety of technical papers are tangible evidence of a successful stay in the UK. I am also pleased that Professor Bedrikovetsky acted on my suggestion to publish this book with Kluwer as part of the petroleum publications for which I am Series Editor. The book derives much of its origin from the unpublished Doctor of Science thesis which Professor Bedrikovetsky prepared in Russian while at the Gubkin Institute. The original DSc contained a number of discrete publications unified by an analytical mathematics approach to fluid flow in petroleum reservoirs. During his sabbatical stay at Imperial College, Professor Bedrikovetsky has refined and extended many of the chapters and has discussed each one with internationally recognised experts in the field. He received great encouragement and editorial advice from Dr Gren Rowan, who pioneered analytical methods in reservoir modelling at BP for many years.

Some 35 years ago I was somewhat precariously balanced in a drilling derrick aligning a whipstock into a directional hole in North Holland by the Stokenbury method, and no doubt thinking to myself that I was at the very forefront of technology. During the intervening period it has become obvious to many of us that some of the most significant technical advances in the oil business have been made in drilling, and particularly in the fields of offshore and directional drilling. It has also become apparent that the quality of the technical literature describing these advances has not kept pace with that of the advances themselves in many instances. A particular glaring example of this has been in the field of directional drilling where a large literature gap has existed for many years. I am delighted to see this gap now filled with the present volume by my friend Tom Inglis. Indeed it is only after reading his comprehensive book that I realise the extent of my own ignorance of the latest techniques of directional drilling and how desirable it was to have an authoritative text on the subject. I feel sure that this volume will be welcomed by the industry and warmly recommend it to all who are in any way involved and interested in the fascinating world of drilling.

This book comprises a new mathematical study of multiphase multicomponent flows in heterogeneous porous media. The goal is to develop analytical models of the recovery processes from heterogeneous reservoirs based on the exact analytical solutions of equations of flow in porous media. The analytical models developed describe chemical and hot waterflooding, injection of gases and solvents in oil and gas condensate reservoirs. Analytical modelling allows a wide comparative study of application of different recovery technologies in any actual hydrocarbon reservoir and permits a detailed sensitivity study. Analytical solutions of inverse problems allow the determination of the properties of reservoirs and fluids from field test data and laboratory data. Applications of analytical models in feasibility studies, in the development planning and design, and in reservoir characterization are given with respect to numerous CIS oil and gas condensate fields. While a review of classical problems is included, the bulk of the book deals with original, unpublished material and new research.The book will be useful for researchers in petroleum engineering and reservoir modelling, for software engineers, for practical reservoir engineers and managers of reservoir studies.