...and transferring that technological know-how throughout the region

Shell is the world’s leading developer of technology for the oil and gas industry and has been transferring technology and knowledge to its partners and stakeholders around the world for many years. Dr Zara Khatib is Shell’s Technology Marketing Manager for the Middle East, Caspian and South Asia, and it is her job to help transfer Shell’s technological know-how to Shell stakeholders, joint venture partners, and potential partners across the region. It is also her job to make sure that people within Shell in her area of responsibility are kept up to date with the many new technologies that are coming out of Shell’s Research and Development establishments around the world so that they can improve and enhance the efficiency of their operations. Her role today also extends to working with universities to help in the goal of ensuring that the region’s energy sector will be provided with the high quality, locally educated and trained graduates needed for the future...

Zara talks to ‘Shell in the Middle East’...

Technology marketing has many facets to it. “It means the marketing of the technological capability of Shell, which includes Shell proprietary and third party technology and tools, as well as the technical expertise and capabilities which we have within the Royal Dutch Shell Group. It also means marketing the processes which enable the interaction of technology and the human factor to win new business or extend, expand or improve existing business and business opportunities,” says Dr Zara Khatib, Shell’s Technology Marketing Manager for the Middle East, Caspian and South Asia.

“My role has several components. The first is to market the technological capability of Shell to targeted stakeholders in the region, such as the national oil companies [NOCs] and government organisations.

“The second part of my role is to ensure that there is a proper awareness, both internally within the Shell Group and externally amongst our stakeholders and joint venture partners, of the latest Shell technology and innovations which Shell’s Research, Development and Deployment establishments have developed and are continuing to develop all the time, and which have been successfully implemented in other operating ventures around the globe.

“My job is to make people aware of these technologies and of the ways in which they can be used to benefit their businesses, improve efficiency or, more specifically, to increase recovery levels of oil and gas. My job is also to communicate more detailed information on these new technological innovations to interested stakeholders,” says Zara. Shell holds a Technology Month for staff in Shell operating units and joint ventures once a year right across the region when technology seminars are presented on Shell’s major themes.

Today in the Middle East these themes include: carbon dioxide [CO2], its management through increased efficiency, emission reduction, capture and sequestration or reinjection; the Gas to Liquids [GTL] process and the benefit of GTL products; the fast delivery of energy with the growing demand across the world through LNG [Liquefied Natural Gas], a valuable product used increasingly as a feedstock for power production; the extraction, treatment and use of sour gas to make available the trillions of cubic feet of sour gas amongst the world’s reserves; and the all-important issue of catalysts and catalysis for producing clean fuels and valuable by-products, and to improve the production processes in refineries and petrochemical complexes.

“The seminars, which are delivered during Technology Month, are held centrally with all operating units in the region logging into the discussions and presentations via video conference links, allowing active participation from people right across the region,” explains Zara.

“Following the seminars, there is discussion and analysis on ways to use these technologies for the benefit of Shell companies and its joint venture partners in the region. For example, in 2007 we introduced new themes on Underbalanced Drilling [UBD] and Managed Pressure Drilling [MPD] that have been used extensively and successfully in our joint venture Petroleum Development Oman [PDO].

“These seminars enhance people’s awareness of precisely what is available, and introduce new issues to staff within the Group. This is of great benefit today as there are currently many opportunities for the use of new technology within the region, for example, with CO2 and its use in Enhanced Oil Recovery [EOR] operations. So by keeping staff up to date on new technologies we can benefit our partners and stakeholders in the region as well,” she says.

Zara’s role has expanded to include engagement with universities and research establishments in her area of responsibility, the purpose being to leverage the research capabilities of Shell and step up the research capabilities of the universities and align them with Shell’s business needs.

She is the Chairman for the Society of Petroleum Engineers University and Industry Advisory Board, which was created to enhance and increase postgraduate research opportunities in the universities of the region. She explains. “It was also established to highlight the gaps in infrastructure, processes and funding mechanisms to facilitate the development of the abilities of professors and lecturers and research and development capabilities, such as laboratories and postgraduate studies, to achieve global standards, in terms of their knowledge and engagement capabilities, with professionals working in the energy industry.

“One way that we perform this task is by holding workshops, seminars and lectures with national oil companies, government ministries and universities to bring people together to exchange views, to identify research and development gaps in the energy business and to share best practices. These initiatives demonstrate the contribution and commitment which Shell has made to the development of the capabilities of people in the region, both students and teachers.

“Recently we held one such workshop in Kuwait, the ‘Sour Gas Workshop’, at which some 50 people from all of Kuwait’s upstream and downstream operations - from KOC [Kuwait Oil Company], Kuwait Petroleum Company [KPC] and from Kuwait National Petroleum Company [KNPC] - participated, as well as representatives from universities.”

Zara goes on to say, “Shell is a leading technology developer in the energy sector and this is now ever-more apparent with the integrated development of the Pearl GTL project in Qatar. Shell is the only international oil company with an existing Gas to Liquids facility in production, which is in Bintulu in Malaysia, and once the Pearl GTL plant is up and running at the end of the decade Shell will be the largest GTL producer in the world.

“What makes Pearl GTL such an exciting project is that it provides an alternative opportunity to monetise natural gas. In addition the process delivers a range of valuable products, such as transport fuel with less particulate emissions. This fuel has proven to be extremely efficient and has, for example, been used to enhance diesel with great success,” she says. Indeed, a racing car fuelled with Shell V-Power Diesel has won Le Mans 24-hour endurance race for two years in succession, competing against cars with petrol-driven engines.

Zara admits to GTL fuel having a slightly higher cost but its environmental benefits and higher performance will, she believes, in the long term more than make up for this.

Moving on to talk about CO2, she says, “CO2 management in the region is very important and will be enabled through the development of an infrastructure of CO2 pipelines to collect CO2 from the sources of CO2 emissions, such as industrial complexes, and then transport it through a network of pipelines to selected oil and gas reservoirs to enhance hydrocarbon recovery. At the same time this could become an alternative for the existing practice of using natural gas to maintain reservoir pressures, thereby increasing available supplies of natural gas within the region.

“This is a project which is being given support and encouragement from many major companies in the region, such as Masdar, and many influential people. Indeed, the vision for a CO2 infrastructure has received the support of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

“Currently studies are being undertaken in all the Gulf states to evaluate the sources of CO2, the volumes being produced and the technology required to capture existing CO2 emissions. The studies are also examining the location and availability of suitable hydrocarbon reservoirs into which captured CO2 could be injected.

“Shell has been a pioneer of CO2 for use in Enhanced Oil Recovery technology since 1972, when it constructed a 900 kilometre pipeline in West Texas to deliver CO2 to an oil reservoir to aid recovery,” she adds.

Integrated water management is another of Shell’s major themes. There is a real need to manage the water produced from oil and gas production around the region. Many of the fields within the region are mature and there has been a substantial increase in the volumes of produced water during production operations. In the south of Oman, for example, for every barrel of oil PDO is producing, on average eight barrels of water are produced during production operations.

Zara elaborates, “The majority of this water is brackish and is currently being reinjected into deep disposal wells, which requires the use of more energy and, as a result, adds to CO2 emissions. In addition, potential and available reservoir capacity is being filled up relatively quickly.

“So the industry needs to find a solution and Shell has developed a well completion technology which can help reduce the volume of produced water. During drilling operations engineers can insert a Swellable Elastomer Sleeve into the well bore which, when it comes into contact with water, swells and seals the part of the well bore that is producing water, so preventing water from the formations flowing into the well bore. This is proving to be very useful in fractured carbonate formations, which are common in Oman’s fields.

“Shell has demonstrated that, in the Nimr field, oil production can be increased by 40 per cent, whilst produced water can be reduced by a similar amount.

“So,” concludes Zara, “technology marketing is all about making sure that partners and stakeholders within the region know what Shell has to offer, what technology is available and how it can be used to specifically benefit their businesses and to help address their challenges for the future - and for Shell to become the preferred partner in new ventures.”

When completed around the end of the decade, the Pearl GTL (Gas to Liquids) integrated development project will produce 140,000 barrels per day of GTL products, as well as an estimated 120,000 barrels per day of condensate, liquefied petroleum gas and ethane. Pearl GTL will be the largest GTL plant in the world and will use a range of Shell’s proprietary and patented technology, including Shell-patented catalysts, often referred to as the ‘heart of the process’, to convert natural gas into a range of GTL products.

Shell is a world leader in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), which is fast becoming the preferred fuel on which to run power stations and for domestic consumers around the world. LNG is cost effective and environmentally friendly and for now there is no shortage of natural gas or of countries and companies wanting to invest in this fuel.