Open-Ended Control Challenges in the Oil Service Industry

Abstract

Electricity production in the US has changed dramatically since 2000, with the percent of electricity produced from gas growing from 16% to 30%, while coal dropped from 52% to 37%. These changes are primarily driven by two technologies used in shale rock formations, directional drilling to create horizontal wells, and hydraulic fracturing to release the gas within the relatively impermeable rock. This presentation will first give a brief operational overview of hydraulic fracturing. Next, challenges that relate to the control of this technology are described. Lastly, two examples are presented, one a theoretical study investigating the potential of model-based feedback control of the hydraulic fracturing process and the other an implementation that highlights the importance of measurements and data uncertainty when designing effective and robust controllers.

Presentation Event

ACC 2016

Presentation Type

Conference Plenary Lecture

Presentation Topic(s) or Tag(s)

ACC

Presented:

Thu, Jul 6th, 2017

Speaker(s)

Dr. Jason Dykstra (Halliburton) and Professor Karlene A. Hoo (Montana State University)

Jason

Dykstra

Bio:

Dr. Jason Dykstra
Dr. Jason Dykstra received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He is currently the Chief Advisor to the corporate research group, where he is tasked with creating the technology vision of high risk research. He has worked in the automotive, nuclear, steel mill, and heavy equipment industries before joining the oil services company Halliburton upon completion of his doctorate. At Halliburton he has designed control systems for cementing, cryogenic nitrogen pumping, chemical blending, and high pressure fracking equipment along with fault detection and virtual sensing system that are used in over 100 countries every day. Jason has invented several award winning tools that have been installed in wells in South America, the North Sea, and the Middle East. He holds 62 U.S. patents with over 100 patent applications in process, and was awarded the E&P meritorious award for engineering innovation 2012, the OTC spotlight on innovation award 2012, and a finalist in the world oil awards 2013. Jason is currently interested in creating value by distilling control theory to practice in the broad range of products and services Halliburton offers.

Dr. Karlene A. Hoo
Karlene A. Hoo has a B.S. degree from the Univ. Pennsylvania and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Univ. of Notre Dame. All her degrees are in chemical engineering. Prior to joining academia she was an employee of Exxon Chemical Co. and the DuPont chemical Co. She has experience in research administration at as co Director of an Industrial consortium on Process Control and Optimization, as an Assoc. Dept. Chair, Assoc. Dean of Research in the engineering, and Assoc. Vice President for Research and Acting Vice President for Research at the university level. In 2011-2013, Karlene was a Program Director at the National Science Foundation in the Industrial Innovations and Partnerships in the Engineering Directorate. Currently, Karlene is a tenured full professor of chemical and biological engineering and the Dean of the Graduate School at Montana State University. Her research interests include modeling of complex dynamical systems, control system synthesis, multivariate statistics, and optimization with applications in chemical, petrochemical, and biological processes.