Experimental Investigation of Environmentally Friendly Drilling Fluid Additives (Mandarin Peels Powder) to Substitute the Conventional Chemicals Used in Water-Based Drilling Fluid

The non-biodegradable additives used in controlling drilling fluid properties cause harm to the environment and personal safety. Thus, there is a need for alternative drilling fluid additives to reduce the amount of non-biodegradable waste disposed to the environment. This work investigates the potential of using mandarin peels powder (MPP), a food waste product, as a new environmentally friendly drilling fluid additive. A complete set of tests were conducted to recognize the impact of MPP on the drilling fluid properties. The results of MPP were compared to low viscosity polyanionic cellulose (PAC-LV), commonly used chemical additive for the drilling fluid. The results showed that MPP reduced the alkalinity by 20-32% and modified the rheological properties (plastic viscosity, yield point, and gel strength) of the drilling fluid. The fluid loss decreased by 44-68% at concentrations of MPP as less as 1-4%, and filter cake was enhanced as well when comparing to the reference mud. In addition, MPP had a negligible to minor impact on mud weight, and this effect was resulted due to foaming issues. Other properties such as salinity, calcium content, and resistivity were negligibly affected by MPP. This makes MPP an effective material to be used as pH reducer, a viscosity modifier, and an excellent fluid loss agent. This work also provides a practical guide for minimizing the cost of the drilling fluid through economic, environmental, and safety considerations, by comparing MPP with PAC-LV

Management of urethral strictures: A nationwide survey of urologists in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Context: urethral strictures commonly occur and considered difficult to manage due to high recurrence rate and wide variety of management approach. Aims: This study aims to identify how urologists in Saudi Arabia manage new and recurrent urethral stricture cases and to investigate their opinions regarding urethroplasty. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional study (Online Survey) among urologists. Subjects and Methods: A nationwide survey of urologists registered with the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties was performed through a mailed questionnaire. A total of 603 urologists were selected from all five regions of Saudi Arabia, of whom 216 (35.8%) completed the questionnaire. Statistical Analysis Used: SPSS software version 23 was used for data entry and analysis. Results: Most urologists (40.3%) had treated 1–5 urethral strictures in the past year. The most common procedures used to manage urethral strictures were visual urethrotomy (82.4%), cystoscopy and dilatation (62.2%), and excision and primary anastomosis (20.8%). Minimally invasive procedures were used more frequently than any open urethroplasty techniques. Most urologists (63%) did not perform urethroplasty surgery, and 21.8% were not aware of any adult reconstructive urologists in Saudi Arabia. When used, however, the most commonly performed urethroplasty surgeries were excision and primary anastomosis, dorsal buccal graft augmented urethroplasty, and ventral buccal graft augmented urethroplasty. Conclusions: Minimally invasive methods are easy to perform and have good short-term outcomes. As such, they are more commonly used for the management of urethral strictures. On the other hand, urethroplasty surgeries are challenging procedures that require greater experience and skill

Application of Artificial Intelligence in the Petroleum Industry: Volume Loss Prediction for Naturally Fractured Formations

Recently, artificial intelligence has gain popularity in the drilling industry since more wells are drilled in hostile environments. One of the most difficult problems have been encountering the drilling operation is the problem of lost circulation. The complexity of the lost circulation problem is due to the interaction between the parameters that are causing this issue. The aim of this work is to create artificial intelligence models to predict lost circulation, equivalent circulation density (ECD), and rate of pentation (ROP) prior to drilling for naturally fractured formations. Lost circulation events from 500 wells were collected and analyzed to comprehend the impact of each drilling parameter on lost circulation. The data were cleaned and outliers were removed. Partial least square (PLS), a supervised machine learning algorithm, was utilized to create three models to estimate mud losses, ECD, and ROP before drilling. The models went through a cross-validation process to validate them. In addition, the models were tested with new data that were not used in the process of creating the models. The results showed that the three models can predict mud losses, ECD, and ROP within a reasonable margin of error. Testing the models with new data of 30 wells drilled showed that the models\u27 predictions closely track the actual values from the real data. Moreover, the new models were compared with previously developed models for naturally fractured formations. The new models showed better predictions for the actual values than the previously developed models, suggesting the ability of the new models to predict mud losses, ECD, and ROP within an acceptable error. In addition, a 10% sensitivity analysis was conducted for all models to quantify and understand the effect of each parameter on every model. Mud weight (MW) had the highest impact on the ECD and mud losses models revealing that in order to minimize mud losses and ECD, the first action should be trying to use as low MW as possible. On the other hand, weight on bit (WOB) showed the highest positive influence on the ROP model and total flow area (TFA) of the nozzles showed the highest negative impact on the ROP model. Thus, the models developed in this study can be used to regulate the drilling parameters to minimize mud losses. The methodology used in this study to develop estimation models for mud losses, ECD, and ROP can be applied to create predictive models in other formations if the required data are available

From Data Collection to Data Analytics: How to Successfully Extract Useful Information from Big Data in the Oil & Gas Industry?

Big data has become a major topic in many industries. Most recently, the oil and gas industry adopted a special interest in data science as a result of the increasing availability of public domains and commercial databases. Utilizing and processing such data can help in making better future decisions. The aim of this work is to provide an example and demonstrate methodologies on how to collect and utilize big data to help in making better future decisions in the oils and gas industry. After reading a good number of papers and books about the applications of data analysis in the oil and gas industry, in addition to other industries, and given that data analysis is the area of expertise of the authors, this paper was written to demonstrate real examples of data processing and validation workflows. This work is intended to cover the gaps in the literature were many of the publications only discuss the importance of data-driven analytics. This paper provides an overview of the diverse and bulk data generating sources in the oil and gas industry, starting from the exploration phase to the end of the lifecycle of the well. It provides an example of utilizing a public domain database (FracFocus) and demonstrates a step by step workflow on how to collect and process the data based on the objective of the analytics. Two real examples of descriptive and predictive analytics are also demonstrated in this paper to show the power of having a diverse and multiple resources databases. A framework of data validation and preparation is also shown to illustrate data quality checks combined with best practices of data cleansing and outlier detection methodologies. This paper provides a clear methodology on how to successfully apply data analysis which can serve as a guide for some future data analysis applications in the oil and gas industry

Proposing a New Eco-Friendly Drilling Fluid Additive to Enhance the Filtration Properties of Water-Based Drilling Fluid Systems

The main objective of this paper is to develop a new material used to control the seepage losses and combat issues regarding thick mud cake. The plan is to develop a biodegradable waste material from Grass, which is environmentally friendly to be utilized as an alternative material to address filtration problems. Raw material from local Grass in the USA was used to construct the fibrous fluid loss control agent (Grass Powder). The lab procedure consisted of crushing and grinding process to assemble the samples to be ready for preparation. Spud mud samples were used as a guide to indicate filtration control. The material was tested to generate results from the experiments conducted at surface conditions to determine the reduction in the volume of filtrate and mud cake. Based on the experiments conducted, Grass Powder (GP) can be applied to treat problems associated with the seepage loss in the drilling operations. The grass availability, being eco-friendly, low cost, and the simple method of Grass Powder preparation by using grinding and crushing can prove to be a suitable replacement for conventional materials used to control filtration. Then, the results of Grass Powder were compared to starch, commonly used conventional additive. The results showed that Grass Powder decreased the fluid loss by 44% at 1% (7 grams) concentration of GP, and the filter cake was enhanced as well when comparing it to the reference fluid. While the starch material showed an improvement in seepage loss by 40% at 1% (7 grams) concentration when comparing it to the reference fluid. In addition, starch was less efficient in improving the filter cake as compared to Grass Powder. Consequently, GP laboratory outcomes slightly showed better performance as compared to starch additive, suggesting the feasibility of Grass Powder to be used as fluid loss control agents. In brief, these experimental results exhibit that Grass Powder has the potential to be utilized as biodegradable drilling fluid additives replacing chemical additives and reducing the amount of non-biodegradable waste disposed to the environment

Titrated oral misoprostol versus static regimen of oral misoprostol for induction of labour: a systematic review and meta-analysis

We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare the efficacy and safety of titrated oral misoprostol versus static oral misoprostol for labour induction. We searched for the available randomised clinical trials (RCTs) in the Cochrane Library, PubMed, ISI web of science, Scopus, and ClinicalTrials.gov. We included RCTs compared titrated oral misoprostol versus static regimen of oral misoprostol during labour induction. Our main outcomes were vaginal and caesarean delivery rates, uterine tachysystole, misoprostol side effects, and neonatal adverse events. Three RCTs met our inclusion criteria with a total number of 360 patients. The vaginal delivery rate did not significantly differ between both groups (p = 0.49). Titrated oral misoprostol was associated with significant increase in the caesarean delivery rate compared to static oral misoprostol (p = 0.04). Moreover, titrated oral misoprostol led to significant increase in the uterine tachysystole and misoprostol side effects (p = 0.01 & p = 0.003, respectively). There were no differences among both groups regarding different neonatal adverse events. In conclusion, titrated oral misoprostol increases the incidence of caesarean delivery, uterine tachysystole, and misoprostol side effects with a similar vaginal delivery rate compared to static dose misoprostol. Thus, static oral misoprostol should be used instead of titrated oral misoprostol during labour induction. Impact Statement What is already known on this subject? Different studies have evaluated titrated oral misoprostol administration for induction of labour and proved their efficacy in comparison with other induction methods. However, there is controversy among the published studies between titrated oral misoprostol and static oral misoprostol during induction of labour. A recent study concluded that hourly titrated misoprostol and static oral misoprostol are equally safe and effective when utilised for induction of labour with no fear of any adverse events. However, another study recommended static oral misoprostol administration for labour induction as it was linked to a lower caesarean section incidence, fewer drug side effects, and decline in complication rates in comparison with titrated oral misoprostol. What the results of this study add? Titrated oral misoprostol increases the incidence of caesarean delivery, uterine tachysystole, and misoprostol side effects with a similar vaginal delivery rate compared to static dose misoprostol. What the implications are of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Static oral misoprostol should be used instead of titrated oral misoprostol during labour induction. More future trials are required to confirm our findings

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination modelling for safe surgery to save lives: data from an international prospective cohort study

Background: Preoperative SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could support safer elective surgery. Vaccine numbers are limited so this study aimed to inform their prioritization by modelling. Methods: The primary outcome was the number needed to vaccinate (NNV) to prevent one COVID-19-related death in 1 year. NNVs were based on postoperative SARS-CoV-2 rates and mortality in an international cohort study (surgical patients), and community SARS-CoV-2 incidence and case fatality data (general population). NNV estimates were stratified by age (18-49, 50-69, 70 or more years) and type of surgery. Best- and worst-case scenarios were used to describe uncertainty. Results: NNVs were more favourable in surgical patients than the general population. The most favourable NNVs were in patients aged 70 years or more needing cancer surgery (351; best case 196, worst case 816) or non-cancer surgery (733; best case 407, worst case 1664). Both exceeded the NNV in the general population (1840; best case 1196, worst case 3066). NNVs for surgical patients remained favourable at a range of SARS-CoV-2 incidence rates in sensitivity analysis modelling. Globally, prioritizing preoperative vaccination of patients needing elective surgery ahead of the general population could prevent an additional 58 687 (best case 115 007, worst case 20 177) COVID-19-related deaths in 1 year. Conclusion: As global roll out of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination proceeds, patients needing elective surgery should be prioritized ahead of the general population