Global Energy Demand and Its Geopolitical and Socioeconomic Implications: Which Role Would Shale Resources Have?

This paper discusses the geopolitical and socioeconomic implications the development of shale gas (& oil) has had in the US. The approach has been that of placing shale gas under erasure (or sous rature). In other words, the assumption that shale is currently both present/absent was made to answer the question of whether it can actually be considered as a resource. Moreover, the success of the “shale revolution” in the US has not only had an impact on the International Oil & Gas, Petrochemical, natural resource and renewable markets, but it has also triggered certain geopolitical events which are modifying the role played by nations globally. Finally, it is suggested that under the prevailing circumstances these unconventional resources appear to still be more of a challenge than part of the solution to the ever growing energy demand, and production of goods associated with societal needs/aspirations worldwide

Pressure detrending in harmonic pulse test interpretation: When, why and how

In reservoir engineering, one of the main sources of information for the characterization of reservoir and well parameters is well testing. An alternative to the standard drawdown/buildup test is Harmonic Pulse Testing (HPT) because it can provide well performance and reservoir behavior monitoring without having to interrupt field production, which is appealing from an economic standpoint. Recorded pressure analysis is performed in the frequency domain by adopting a derivative approach similar to conventional well testing. To this end, pressure and rate data must be decomposed into harmonic components. Test interpretability can be significantly improved if pressure data are detrended prior to interpretation, filtering out non periodic events such as discontinuous production from neighboring wells and flow regime variations that did not respect the designed test periodicity. Therefore, detrending offers the possibility of overcoming the limitation of HPT applicability due to the difficulty of imposing a regularly pulsing rate for the whole test duration (typically lasting several days). This makes HPT attractive for well performance monitoring, especially in gas reservoirs converted to underground gas storage. In this paper, different detrending methodologies are discussed and applied to synthetic and real data. Results show that, if a proper detrending strategy is adopted, information provided by HPT interpretation can be maximized and/or improved

Cash transfers and women's economic inclusion

This paper investigates whether an increase in exogenous income through the Child Grants model of the Social Cash Transfer programme in Zambia fosters economic inclusion among rural women. We conceptualize economic inclusion as a transformative process comprised of four pillars: productive capacity, financial inclusion, social power, and psychological assets. Using experimental data, we find strong evidence of direct impacts of the Child Grant on the productive capacity, financial inclusion, and psychological assets of rural women. In addition to these direct impacts, we implement a mediation analysis to explore the potential mediating role of psychological assets in affecting the other pillars of economic inclusion. Through this approach, we find indicative evidence of indirect and mutually reinforcing relationships between changes in psychological assets brought about through the Child Grant and improvements in the productive capacity and financial inclusion of beneficiaries. Such results suggest that cash transfers might be effective in promoting women’s economic inclusion, both through the direct monetary effect and through the mediated effect of psychological assets

Harmonic pulse testing for gas well deliverability assessment

Harmonic Pulse Testing was introduced in the early 1970’s as a special case of pulse testing. It is characterized by a periodic variation of production/injection rate. Subsequent developments proved that it could provide the same information as a conventional well test (permeability and skin, heterogeneity) in addition to those given by a pulse test (areal connectivity within the reservoir) if proper interpretation models were adopted. Consequently, it can be considered as a promising methodology to test a well during ongoing field operations without stopping production and thus it is very attractive for monitoring well performance, especially of gas storage wells. Initially applied to oil wells, Harmonic Pulse Testing has recently been extended to gas wells for which the assumption of Darcy flow regime is no longer valid because of inertial phenomena and/or turbulence. Harmonic Pulse Testing for gas wells comprises three or more consecutive sequences of pulses characterized by increasing average rate, similar to a Flow After Flow test. The interpretation of a single-well Harmonic Pulse test is based on the derivative approach in the frequency domain to obtain kh and the skin components (mechanical skin and D factor). The possibility of assessing well deliverability from a multi-sequence pulse test was analysed in the research work presented in this paper. Different Pulse test configurations were considered and compared with the well-established Flow After Flow test in terms of deliverability estimate. To this end synthetic well test data were generated and sensitivity to test design, well parameters and reservoir interference were carried out. Results show that multi-sequence pulse tests can be used to obtain the well deliverability of a gas well with the advantage that both the tested well and the neighboring wells needn’t be shut-in prior to or during the test

Development of a Magnetoresistive-Based Wearable Eye-Tracking System for Oculomotor Assessment in Neurological and Otoneurological Research—Preliminary In Vivo Tests

Over the past 20 years, several eye-tracking technologies have been developed. This article aims to present a new type of eye tracker capable of producing detailed information on eye and head movements using an array of magnetoresistive detectors fixed on the patient’s head and a small magnet inserted into a contact lens, adapted to the curvature of the cornea of the subject. The software used for data analysis can combine or compare eye and head movements and can represent them as 2D or 3D images. Preliminary data involve an initial patient who was asked to perform several tasks to establish the accuracy, reliability, and tolerance of the magnetic eye tracker and software. The tasks included assessment of saccadic eye movements and pursuit, “drawing” alphabetic shapes or letters, and reading. Finally, a Head Impulse Test (HIT) was performed to estimate the VOR gain, comparing the standard deviation established via vHIT with that established via this magnetic eye tracker (mHIT). This prototypical device is minimally invasive, lightweight, relatively cheap, and tolerable, with a high degree of reliability and precision. All these characteristics could lead to the future use of the magnetic eye tracker in neurological and otoneurological fields

Prove di Pozzo non Convenzionali a Basso Impatto Ambientale

Le prove di produzione eseguite su pozzi a olio o a gas consentono di caratterizzare alcuni parametri chiave per la descrizione del comportamento fluido-dinamico di pozzo e di giacimento. Le prove di produzione di tipo convenzionale vengono eseguite erogando una o più portate costanti, registrate in superficie, e misurando la corrispondente evoluzione della pressione nel tempo a fondo pozzo. Durante la fase esplorativa e di delimitazione del giacimento, specialmente in ambienti off-shore, i fluidi prodotti durante la prova vengono generalmente bruciati in fiaccola. Nell’ottica di una maggiore tutela e sicurezza dell’ambiente, una delle alternative più promettenti è rappresentata dalle prove di iniezione che consistono nell’iniettare un fluido, liquido o gassoso, in giacimento e registrare la risposta dinamica del sistema. Tali prove consentono pertanto di evitare l’erogazione di fluidi in superficie e quindi l’emissione di gas esausti in atmosfera a seguito della combustione in fiaccola nonché qualsiasi rischio di sversamento nel caso di miscele di idrocarburi liquidi o di fuga nel caso di miscele di idrocarburi gassosi. Gli studi sinora condotti hanno riguardato sia gli aspetti teorici, soprattutto allo scopo di poter progettare e interpretare correttamente questo tipo di prove, sia l’analisi di alcune applicazioni reali ai fini di validare le potenzialità delle prove di iniezione come efficace alternativa alle prove di produzione tradizionali. Lo studio fa parte del programma di ricerca del polo SEADOG (Safety & Environmental Analysis Division for Oil & Gas), nato nell’ambito della collaborazione tra il Politecnico di Torino e la Divisione DGS del MISE sul tema della sicurezza off-shore

2D Microfluidic Devices for Pore-Scale Phenomena Investigation: A Review

Underground porous media are complex multiphase systems, where the behavior at the macro-scale is affected by physical phenomena occurring at the pore(micro)-scale. The understanding of pore-scale fluid flow, transport properties, and chemical reactions is fundamental to reducing the uncertainties associated with the dynamic behavior, volume capacity, and injection/withdrawal efficiency of reservoirs and groundwater systems. Lately, laboratory technologies were found to be growing along with new computational tools, for the analysis and characterization of porous media. In this context, a significant contribution is given by microfluidics, which provides synthetic tools, often referred to as micromodels or microfluidic devices, able to mimic porous media networks and offer direct visualization of fluid dynamics. This work aimed to provide a review of the design, materials, and fabrication techniques of 2D micromodels applied to the investigation of multiphase flow in underground porous media. The first part of the article describes the main aspects related to the geometrical characterization of the porous media that lead to the design of micromodels. Materials and fabrication processes to manufacture microfluidic devices are then described, and relevant applications in the field are presented. In conclusion, the strengths and limitations of this approach are discussed, and future perspectives are suggested

A Wearable Wireless Magnetic Eye-Tracker, in-vitro and in-vivo tests

A wireless, wearable magnetic eye tracker is described and characterized. The proposed instrumentation enables simultaneous evaluation of eye and head angular displacements. Such a system can be used to determine the absolute gaze direction as well as to analyze spontaneous eye re-orientation in response to stimuli consisting in head rotations. The latter feature has implications to analyze the vestibulo-ocular reflex and constitutes an interesting opportunity to develop medical (oto-neurological) diagnostics. Details of data analysis are reported together with some results obtained in-vivo or with simple mechanical simulators that enable measurements under controlled conditions

A retrospective evaluation to assess reliability of electrophysiological methods for diagnosis of hearing loss in infants

Background: An electrophysiological investigation with auditory brainstem response (ABR), round window electrocochleography (RW-ECoG), and electrical-ABR (E-ABR) was performed in children with suspected hearing loss with the purpose of early diagnosis and treatment. The effectiveness of the electrophysiological measures as diagnostic tools was assessed in this study. Methods: In this retrospective case series with chart review, 790 children below 3 years of age with suspected profound hearing loss were tested with impedance audiometry and underwent electrophysiological investigation (ABR, RW-ECoG, and E-ABR). All implanted cases underwent pure-tone audiometry (PTA) of the non-implanted ear at least 5 years after surgery for a long-term assessment of the reliability of the protocol. Results: Two hundred and fourteen children showed bilateral severe-to-profound hearing loss. In 56 children with either ABR thresholds between 70 and 90 dB nHL or no response, RW-ECoG showed thresholds below 70 dB nHL. In the 21 infants with bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss receiving a unilateral cochlear implant, no statistically significant differences were found in auditory thresholds in the non-implanted ear between electrophysiological measures and PTA at the last follow-up (p > 0.05). Eight implanted children showed residual hearing below 2000 Hz worse than 100 dB nHL and 2 children showed pantonal residual hearing worse than 100 dB nHL (p > 0.05). Conclusion: The audiological evaluation of infants with a comprehensive protocol is highly reliable. RW-ECoG provided a better definition of hearing thresholds, while E-ABR added useful information in cases of auditory nerve deficiency. © 2022 by the authors

Italian Offshore Platform and Depleted Reservoir Conversion in the Energy Transition Perspective

New hypotheses for reusing platforms reaching their end-of-life have been investigated in several works, discussing the potential conversions of these infrastructures from recreational tourism to fish farming. In this perspective paper, we discuss the conversion options that could be of interest in the context of the current energy transition, with reference to the off-shore Italian scenario. The study was developed in support of the development of a national strategy aimed at favoring a circular economy and the reuse of existing infrastructure for the implementation of the energy transition. Thus, the investigated options include the onboard production of renewable energy, hydrogen production from seawater through electrolyzers, CO2 capture and valorization, and platform reuse for underground fluid storage in depleted reservoirs once produced through platforms. Case histories are developed with reference to a typical, fictitious platform in the Adriatic Sea, Italy, to provide an engineering-based approach to these different conversion options. The coupling of the platform with the underground storage to set the optimal operational conditions is managed through the forecast of the reservoir performance, with advanced numerical models able to simulate the complexity of the phenomena occurring in the presence of coupled hydrodynamic, geomechanical, geochemical, thermal, and biological processes. The results of our study are very encouraging, because they reveal that no technical, environmental, or safety issues prevent the conversion of offshore platforms into valuable infrastructure, contributing to achieving the energy transition targets, as long as the selection of the conversion option to deploy is designed taking into account the system specificity and including the depleted reservoir to which it is connected when relevant. Socio-economic issues were not investigated, as they were out of the scope of the project