Funding secured to tackle improved oil recovery challenge

Foundation CMG (FCMG) has committed another £1.1 million to Heriot-Watt University to extend their sponsorship of the FCMG Chair held jointly by Professor Eric Mackay Foundation and Professor Sebastian Geiger for another five years.

This investment, together with matching funds that could be as high as £6.5 million, will enable Professors Mackay and Geiger to contribute significantly to the training of students in petroleum engineering, with over 25 PhD and 100 MSc students expected to graduate over the five year period.

Speaking about the sponsorship, Duke Anderson, President, Foundation CMG said “Foundation CMG is extremely pleased with the results of the first five year term with Professors Geiger and Mackay and is very excited to support these research Chairs for another five year period.”

Together with their research teams, Professors Mackay and Geiger will tackle some of the key challenges faced by the oil and gas industry today.

Professor Mackay is the Foundation CMG Chair in Reactive Flow Simulation. His research focuses on quantifying the interplay between fluid flow and chemical reactions and has applications to three key areas. It:

• helps to maintain production in mature provinces that operate at high water production, such as the UK North Sea, while managing the resulting flow assurance risks.
• helps to optimise production in mature and emerging provinces by investigating advanced hydrocarbon recovery methods.
• allows better modelling of CO₂ storage in the subsurface as part of Carbon Capture and Storage projects.

Professor Geiger is the Foundation CMG Chair for Carbonate Reservoir Simulation. His research focuses on novel methods to improve the characterisation, modelling, and simulation of (fractured) carbonate reservoirs.

Carbonate reservoirs hold over 60% of the world’s remaining conventional oil reserves but much of the oil contained in them cannot be produced at present.

Technical innovation in reservoir modelling and simulation that facilitate an increase in recovery factor and recovery efficiency from carbonate reservoirs, will be among the most important contributions to the oil and gas industry for the next decade.

Professor Gareth Pender, Head of Heriot-Watt University’s School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society said “It is a privilege for Heriot-Watt University and the Institute of Petroleum Engineering to be associated with such a unique organisation as Foundation CMG. We are grateful for the opportunities that Foundation CMG has provided to us in the past and looking forward to continuing our partnership in the future.”

The Foundation CMG Chair programme at Heriot-Watt was first launched in 2010.

Professors Mackay and Geiger said, how grateful they were for the support they have received over the past five years from Foundation CMG as well as from colleagues. They said “This continued funding from FCMG means that a further generation of students, and the wider industry, will benefit from the Chair programme’s expertise and innovative research.”

Adapted from a press release by David Bizley

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/11042016/funding-secured-to-tackle-improved-oil-recovery-challenge/