Offshore staff
DOHA, Qatar – Qatar Petroleum (QP), Total E&P Qatar, and Q Analytica LLC have signed a joint R&D agreement on petroleum profiling, a technology used to characterize the chemical composition of crude oil.
Stéphane Michel, managing director of Total E&P Qatar, said: “We are very pleased to sign this new research agreement on the geochemistry of carbonate reservoirs with Qatar Petroleum and Q Analytica. This follows a previous agreement signed last year with Qatar Petroleum onacid stimulation.”
The joint research project will be implemented in three phases, with research conducted at the laboratories of QP and Total at the Qatar Science and Technology Park.
Petroleum profiling, also known as “oil fingerprinting,” enables identification and quantification of all components of crude oil, and analysis of how these components affect the properties and reactivity of specific crude. Although conventional techniques for petroleum profiling already exist, the new project will study the possibility of acquiring new technologies currently applied by Q Analytica LLC in the biomedical sector, then apply these to oil and gas operations to enhance, simplify, and hasten the oil fingerprinting process.
The partners expect to file a number of patents out of the research work in the first year, and QP says a successful outcome could positively impact its offshore and onshore operational units.
2/27/2013
