SPE lecturer from the USA at USTU

The Distinguished lecturer Patrick Brand (USA) visited Ukhta State Technical University from 24th to 25th January, 2018. Patrick Brand is a founding partner of Blade Energy Partners and a former drilling technology adviser at Mobil. In his 36 years of experience in oil and gas upstream, Brand has made numerous innovative and fundamental contributions to Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD), including the development of dynamic influx control and dynamic pore-pressure and fracture-pressure determination.

The main aim of the visit was to make a technical presentation on the topic “Breaking down conventional barriers with Managed Pressure Drilling”. The technical lecture was held on 24th January, 2018 at 12pm. During the lecture Patrick explained the meaning of MPD and that it was introduced in 2000 as an adaptive drilling technology for cost-effectively controlling the pressure profile in the wellbore. The lecture was under the current state of the technologies of dynamic flow control in the well and its limitation, and also revealed the conventional methods of monitoring the hydrostatic pressure in the well. Fundamentals and practical applications of dynamic flow control technologies were presented as well. In addition, the conditions under which MPD techniques can be applied and the conditions for the application of the preceding control were discussed.

The lecture was read in English and translated into Russian by George Buslaev, the associate professor and head of the drilling department of USTU. The topic of the lecture was quite extensive and important in the field of oil and gas drilling.  The lecture was organized by the representatives of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Timan-Pechora section and the international department. After the lecture Patrick Brand had some time for an excursion at the USTU museum and technical training ground.

Patrick Brand left Ukhta on 25th January, 2018 early in the morning.