Wilson C. Chin, author, scientist and software developer, earned his Ph.D. from M.I.T. and M.Sc. at Caltech. He has published twenty research monographs, over a hundred papers and more than four dozen patents. His interests focus on MWD design, managed pressure drilling, reservoir engineering, formation testing, electromagnetic logging, and drilling and cementing rheology. Mr. Chin's books, available from www.amazon.com, www.wiley.com and www.elsevier.com, describe test methods, math models and numerical algorithms in detail. Contact the author at wilsonchin@aol.com or (832) 483-6899.

All techniques, methods and algorithms in our publications are developed for the general public interest and are not subject to patent restrictions unless noted otherwise. Comments, questions and contributions from all readers are welcome.

Reservoir Simulation and Well Interference: Parent-Child, Multilateral Well and Fracture Interactions (Wiley, 2020). This volume addresses the most pressing problems confronting modern oil and gas production - well spacing and topology decisions, hydraulic fracturing effects, and challenging transient, 3D real-world simulations performed rapidly using rigorous models. From the back cover . . .

Co-written by a world-renowned petroleum engineer, this breakthrough new volume teaches engineers how to configure, place and produce horizontal and multilateral wells in geologically complicated reservoirs, select optimal well spacings and fracture separations, and how to manage factors influencing well productivity using proven cost-effective and user-friendly simulation methods.

Charged in the 1990s with solving some of petroleum engineering’s biggest problems that the industry deemed “unsolvable,” the authors of this innovative new volume solved those problems, not just using a well-published math model, but one optimized to run rapidly, the first time, every time. This not only provides numerical output, but production curves and color pressure plots automatically. And each in a single hour of desk time.

Using their Multisim software featured in this volume, secondary school students at the Aldine Independent School District delivered professional quality simulations in a training program funded by some of the largest energy companies in the world. Think what you, as a professional engineer, could do in your daily work. Valuable with or without the software, this volume is the cutting-edge of reservoir engineering today, prefacing each chapter with a “trade journal summary” followed by hands-on details, allowing readers to replicate and extend results for their own applications. This volume covers Parent-Child, Multilateral Well and Fracture Flow Interactions, reservoir flow analysis, many other issues involving fluid flow, fracturing, and many other common “unsolvable” problems that engineers encounter every day. It is a must-have for every engineer’s bookshelf.

This groundbreaking new volume: • Presents simulation, explained in simple terms, focusing on strengths in present formulation and limitations behind industry models • Introduces a reservoir simulator, developed in earlier books and used at multiple companies, incorporating “smart menus” for interactive computing requiring minimal training • Goes through six challenging problems with complicated geologies and multilateral well systems defined and solved, each in one hour of “desk time,” with integrated graphics producing production histories and 3D color pressure plots • Covers pressure and rate constraints, levels and type changeable at any time, how new wells may be added, and existing wells shortened, lengthened or redirected during simulations, how multilaterals and fracture systems may assume arbitrary geometries, dozens of farfield drive models, liquids and gases supported; and, finally, program architecture that supports multiple “what if” analyses in same work session

For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents.

Formation Testing: Supercharge, Pressure Testing and Contamination (Wiley, 2019). The Halliburton paper, “A New Hostile Environment Wireline Formation Testing Tool: Case Study from the Gulf of Thailand,” by Rourke et al., SPWLA 47th Annual Logging Symposium, Veracruz, Mexico, June 4-7, 2006, cites numerous field examples where overbalance pressures exceed 2,000 psi – not a typographical error.

Supercharging has long disrupted pressure transient interpretation in logging operations. Real-time prediction methods, e.g., Halliburton’s GeoTap^TM due to Proett and Chin for tight zone applications, or Chin’s later “rational polynomial” approach, apply only to problems with identical initial and farfield pressures. Long wait times are typically required before high pressure borehole effects dissipate.

We’ve developed supercharge models with overbalanced initial pressures – plus exact analytical solutions for both forward and inverse problems. Now, accurately predict pore pressure, mobility and compressibility from any three (time, pressure) points, rapidly without waiting. What’s more, we can handle inverse problems with multiple flow rates (positive or negative, in any order) for standard logging and “analyze-inject-analyze” formation treatment applications. And again, low mobility, with flowline volume distortion, rapidly without waiting. For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents.

Modern Aerodynamic Methods for Direct and Inverse Applications (Wiley, 2019). An important volume describing modern methods for aerodynamic design in subsonic, transonic and supersonic flow. Special techniques include: (1) Exact drag calculations for nonplanar supersonic bodies, (2) Nonlinear oscillations in low frequency transonic flow, (3) Hydrodynamic stability of shear flows past flexible surfaces, (4) Actuator disk simulation for jet engine power addition, (5) Engine and airframe integration, (6) Type-independent methods for supercritical transonic flow calculation, (7) Shear flow analysis without Euler equation approaches, and more. Importantly, the “inverse problem” is solved with a new Neumann formulation that rapidly calculates airfoil shapes which induce prescribed pressure distributions. For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents.

Measurement While Drilling: Signal Analysis, Optimization and Design, 2nd Edition (Wiley, 2018). This long awaited update to our best-selling 2014 MWD book takes you behind the scenes, introducing you to the latest developmental efforts at leading international corporations like Sinopec, Gyrodata, and GE Oil & Gas. New "out of box" designs are profiled, together with experimental results, and detailed color photographs of prototypes and test fixtures are offered. In particular, we cover high signal strength, self-spinning "sirens in series" that rotate under minimal power, drawing only on the kinetic energy of the flowing mud. We cover miniature, low torque sirens that rotate in narrow conduits, driven by flow rates as low as those from simple hair dryers. We also demonstrate how special rotor tapers can significantly affect siren torque - increasing values so much that jamming is unlikely and trapped debris are rapidly destroyed. Detailed numerical studies are also offered showing how signal reflections from pump pistons and desurgers, and strong mudpump noise, are both effortlessly filtered and removed using cleverly designed transducer arrays and signal processing. For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents.

Managed Pressure Drilling: Modeling, Strategy and Planning (Elsevier, 2012). Non-Newtonian flow models for drilling and cementing are developed for arbitrary flow schedules, where different fluids with contrasting rates are pumped for different durations. Steady, transient and multiphase flows are supported - general time-varying rotation rates, axial movements and pressure gradients. Realistic annuli include eccentric circles with cuttings beds, washouts and fractures. The book, which discusses pressure prediction along the entire borehole, also considers hole cleaning strategies important to horizontal drilling. Flow assurance and wax deposition models critical to subsea pipeline operations are additionally covered.

We are pleased to offer the recently published Managed Pressure Drilling (Chinese, 2016) from Elsevier, introducing our unique approaches to Asia. The book is “must reading” at China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL), China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) and other leading oil companies. This book may be purchased from www.amazon.cn or other authorized resellers (ISBN 9787518311729).

The author, key developer to Halliburton's OptiCem, Displace3D and iCem products, wrote Computational Rheology and Borehole Flow Modeling (below). The present work in drilling and cementing rheology was supported by the United States Department of Energy's Ultra-Deepwater Program during 2009-2011. For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents. An additional volume, Modern Borehole Analytics (Wiley, 2017), described below, expands upon our MPD applications to include the role of formation pore pressure, mudcake dynamics and growth models.

Modern Borehole Analytics for Annular Flow, Hole Cleaning and Pressure Control (Wiley, 2017). This new book on drilling and cementing rheology expands upon Managed Pressure Drilling: Modeling, Strategy and Planning (Elsevier, 2014, 2017), providing additional solved problems focusing on practical applications. Importantly, the integrity of the mudcake (separating borehole from reservoir events) is addressed. Does it really seal the formation to provide smooth annular flow? Is it thin or thick? What is its growth rate and how does this control influx into the matrix rock? Related topics like pore pressure determination in tight zones, necessary to understanding blowout prevention and modeling, are considered, drawing on recent advances in formation testing. For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents.

Measurement While Drilling Signal Analysis, Optimization and Design (Wiley, 2014). Key issues in MWD telemetry - desurger distortions, signal enhancement by constructive wave interference, multiple transducer echo cancellation and pump noise removal methods are considered. Siren hardware and turbine design are discussed, as are innovative test approaches. The author's wind tunnel methods, used at Schlumberger, Halliburton, CNPC, Gyrodata, Sinopec, GE Oil & Gas and others, are industry standards. Numerous signal processing algorithms and mud pulse design methods are offered. The author holds multiple patents in MWD telemetry and has consulted widely. For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents.

And finally, a long awaited 2nd Edition (with numerous surprises) has gone to press and will appear in Summer 2018.

Reservoir Engineering in Modern Oilfields: Vertical, Deviated, Horizontal and Multilateral Well Systems (Wiley, 2016). Mr. Chin earned BP's Chairman's Innovation Award for reservoir engineering in 1990. This book describes rapid, accurate and stable methods for Darcy flow simulation of systems of vertical, deviated, horizontal and multilateral wells in 3D layered, heterogeneous and anisotropic formations. Wells are sketched on computer screens, constraints are specified (that may change during simulation), new laterals drilled or old ones extended, and farfield drives are defined for steady or transient analysis. Detailed results completed within minutes, with color plots and reports generated. Extremely fast graphics and numerical engines, plus a user-friendly interface, support field optimization and infill drilling needs. Special graphics boards or hardware accelerators not required to operate Windows software. For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents.

Quantitative Methods in Reservoir Engineering, Second Edition (Elsevier, 2016). This new book updates our successful First Edition with latest developments in formation testing (exact and numerical forward simulation methods, inverse approaches for permeability prediction in high and low mobility environments, surveys of modern tools and their capabilities) and multilateral well design for enhanced production in layered, anisotropic and heterogeneous reservoirs. These two areas augment the extensive collection of math models presented in the predecessor book (below). For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents.

Quantitative Methods in Reservoir Engineering, First Edition (Elsevier, 2002). This monograph, an outgrowth of Modern Reservoir Flow, presents exact models for Darcy flows from fractures and shales, provides rigorous solutions for formation invasion with mudcake buildup, develops reservoir flow simulators on curvilinear grids, explains streamline tracing algorithms in complex reservoirs, and so on. The author previously won the Chairman's Innovation Award at British Petroleum for reservoir engineering. Models described here have been commercialized over the years with success. Content included in Quantitative Methods, Second Edition (above).

Formation Testing: Pressure Transient and Contamination Modeling (Wiley, 2014). The first industry book devoted to formation testing - the author, who developed Halliburton's GeoTap algorithms for real-time permeability in tight formations, presents exact forward and inverse methods supported by two prestigious Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards from the U.S. Department of Energy. Pressure transient interpretation methods are developed from first principles. "Time to clean" multiphase models support strategies needed to pump clean in-situ oil samples. The book (co-authored with CNOOC) presents a "behind the scenes" tool design tour at Asia's largest oil service company. For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents.

Formation Testing: Low Mobility Pressure Transient Analysis (Wiley, 2015). One year after Formation Testing: Pressure Transient and Contamination Modeling appeared, major breakthroughs in real-time permeability prediction in tight zones were announced for pressure transient data with strong flowline storage effects. A new "rational polynomial" scheme requires only three data points, versus ten in competitor schemes and provides answers in seconds. Phase delay approaches (analogous to resistivity logging) extrapolate anisotropic permeability from time differences between "transmitter" (pumping probe) and "receivers" (observation pressure transducers). This volume is must reading for log analysts and tool developers. For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents.

Electromagnetic Well Logging: Models for MWD/LWD Interpretation and Tool Design (Wiley, 2014). Electromagnetic tools measure phase differences and amplitude ratios between coil transmitters and receivers. Resistivities are inferred from Maxwell's equations, but analytical difficulties preclude accurate analysis - dipole, integral equation and Born approximations are not helpful because large coil fields near drill collars are complicated to model. Further, tools may reside across multiple anisotropic layers, where interfacial charge creation leads to uncertainty in relating measurements to fluid saturations. The author, who specialized in electrodynamics at M.I.T.'s renowned physics department, solves the complete problem using a new and fast approach. For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents.

Resistivity Modeling: Propagation, Laterolog and Micro-Pad Analysis (Wiley, 2016). Whereas Electromagnetic Well Logging addresses diffusive wave propagation associated with alternating currents in 3D, this volume focuses on subjects central to resistivity logging. In particular, axisymmetric A/C coil fields with multiple horizontal and radial layers, "time lapse logging" where formation properties are inferred from resistitivy changes, plus D/C design methods for laterolog and pad resistivity tools. Voltage field calculations in anisotropic media are discussed as is streamline analysis for current flow. What does your data "really" see in vertical versus horizontal wells? Finally, the Archie's law is extended to field-wide interpretation as opposed to core-level applications. For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents.

Wave Propagation in Drilling, Well Logging and Reservoir Applications (Wiley, 2014). Starting with a survey of wave propagation math methods, we delve into practical petroleum applications. Half of the book is devoted to drillstring vibrations, axial models with bit bounce and drill ahead, rock-bit interaction, stick-slip effects in torsional displacements, and coupled axial, torsional and lateral vibrations. Additional subjects include ocean waves, acoustic propagation for mud pulse MWD, Maxwell's equations in resistivity logging, permeability prediction from Stoneley wave measurements, and eccentric hole approaches to borehole seismics. Wave propagation is particularly interesting to the author, who earned his M.I.T. Ph.D. in this area. For more information, click Preface or Table of Contents.

EARLIER BOOKS

Borehole Flow Modeling in Horizontal, Deviated and Vertical Wells (Elsevier, 1991). This first book to rigorously model non-Newtonian flows in eccentric annuli shows why viscous stress controls hole cleaning in horizontal wells, how vertical velocity is similarly important in vertical wells and explains apparent viscosity's role in freeing stuck pipe. Models for barite sag (density stratification) correctly predict the recirculating vortex flows observed experimentally. Curvilinear grids are used to model off-centered circles containing cuttings beds, washouts and fractures. Consistency with a University of Tulsa experimental database validated the now popular approach to hole cleaning and pressure prediction. Content included in Managed Pressure Drilling (above).

Modern Reservoir Flow and Well Transient Analysis (Elsevier, 1993). This classic book adapted solutions from theoretical aerodynamics and elasticity to reservoir simulation, for example, flows past fractures, boreholes with intersecting fractures, shales and shale arrays. Exact methods for streamline analysis are presented, as are curvilinear grid approaches to modeling irregular reservoir boundaries. Steady and transient analyses are developed for well topologies from vertical, to horizontal, to multilateral. Content included in Quantitative Methods, Second Edition (above).

Wave Propagation in Petroleum Engineering (Elsevier, 1994). This work in drillstring vibrations coupled axial, torsional and lateral vibrations in a single model that explained field observations. For example, axial models included "displacement sources" that simulated roller cone motions, while bit-bounce and rate-of-penetration were enabled using lab defined rock-bit interaction results. Torsional stick-slip and reversals were obtained by coupling with axial vibrations. Out-of-plane lateral displacements were simulated by including torsion (integration with axial model provided a comprehensive description for observed phenomena). Why drillstrings failed at the neutral point was explained analytically using group velocity ideas from classical physics. Content included in Wave Propagation (above).

Computational Rheology for Pipeline and Annular Flow (Elsevier, 2001). The pioneering approaches in Borehole Flow Modeling were extended in several directions. New topics included pipe flow modeling in general ducts, coupled velocity and temperature in bundled pipelines, solids deposition modeling, wax buildup in subsea pipelines, hydrate control, pipe bends, secondary flows and others. Content included in Managed Pressure Drilling (above) which extends our capabilities to applications with rotation, reciprocation, pump transients, plug flow and multiphase effects.

Formation Invasion, with Applications to MWD, Time Lapse Analysis and Formation Damage (Elsevier, 1995). That mudcake grows with "the square root of time" is assumed in drilling and well logging. But this is generally untrue. Rigorous math models, together with validating Catscan experiments in linear and radial flow vessels, reveal the effects of borehole curvature, formation permeability, mudcake composition, pressure compaction and so on. New models are formulated and solved to predict "time to plug" in slim holes and erosive effects in dynamic filtration. Importantly, fluid based "time lapse logging" methods are developed for porosity, viscosity and pore pressure prediction using resistivities found at different instants in time. Content included in Quantitative Methods, Second Edition (above).