Objective
Oil exploration specialists have more and more need for geological information to locate new exploration wells ensuring a maximum chance of success.
The ROCKEVAL 6 project, whilst improving an existing 15 year-old technology, will bring new information on the hydrocarbon content in the rocks and the sources rocks. It will allow, in particular, a better localization in the sedimentary basins of areas where the genesis and the migration of the hydrocarbons have been maximum.
The release worldwide of the industrial version of the Rock Eval 6 apparatus and its commercialisation by ViNCI Technologies marks an important step in the evolution of the Rock Eval line of pyrolysers and is certainly the major achievement of this project. This is particularly important at a time of increased competition in this market (Pyromat 5, Soil and Rock Analyser; both released and manufactured in the United States). The different phases of the project have led us to a machine that has been successfully tested, first on sets of reference samples and then on a comprehensive suite of samples supplied by FINA. In this last phase of industrial evaluation, we have demonstrated the capability of the prototype to carry out analyses in an industrial manner, i.e. in a fully automatic way with results matching the needs of the Petroleum companies' geologists.
The project consists of the design of an industrial prototype of ROCK-EVAL 6 which has to be able to accomplish all the functions which have been defined during the R&D phase, namely the pyrolysis of rock samples in an inert atmosphere and then in oxidizing atmosphere and on the continuous measurement of the hydrocarbons CO, CO2 amounts issued from the pyrolysis and the oxidation.
The objective will be to lead to an optimized prototype as far as the costs are concerned as well as regarding the maximum reliability of functioning.
It will be necessary to ensure that the different elements and their assembly will respect the specifications issued from the research. More specifically, the two micro-ovens which must have a low thermal inertia must allow the accurate determination of the pyrolysis temperature with temperatures rising up to 850 deg. C. Regarding the monitoring and the interpretation software, they must permit in particular a large interactivity for the man-machine interface, a diagnostic function (flow measurements, failure detection) and possibly the signal processing (CO, CO2 curves) in delayed time.
The capacity of this equipment to perform analyses in an industrial fashion will be evaluated with a series of reference samples. About 280 samples (220 different source-rocks and 60 reservoir samples) will be analyzed during the Commissioning phase.
The project involves 5 phases :
Phase 1 : Design of an industrial prototype
Phase 2 : Purchasing and manufacturing
Phase 3 : Assembling, installation and erection
Phase 4 : Commissioning
Phase 5 : Tests/Reports/Dissemination.
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
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DEM - Demonstration contractsCoordinator
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