Expandable Tubular Completions for
Carbonate Reservoirs
F. Marketz, SPE, and R.W.F. Welling, SPE, Petroleum Development Oman; and R.H.J. van Noort and
M.N. Baaijens, Shell
Summary
A major Middle East operator has applied expandable tubular so-
lutions for water shutoff and zonal isolation in fractured carbonate
reservoirs. In this paper, we review the operators experience with
the implementation of this emerging well technology. Expandable
tubular solutions have proven successful in terms of installation
reliability, isolation of fractures, and zonal isolation without ce-
ment to segment horizontal wells.
Case histories highlight the benefits, risks, and performance of
expandable tubular completions. Post-installation production per-
formance proves the viability of mechanical inflow profile control
for better management of unwanted production of water in frac-
tured carbonate reservoirs.
Introduction
A major Middle East operator faces the challenge of increasing
water production from maturing oil fields. Carbonate reservoir
fields with either natural water drive or waterfloods can benefit
from fracture shutoff with the objectives of increasing oil recovery,
reducing water production, and improving the sweep efficiency of
waterflood operations.
Past completion practices have been either unreliable or inva-
sive on the reservoir and have failed overall to provide the capa-
bility to manage water production over the life cycle of the well.
Wells with barefoot completions have watered out because of wa-
ter breakthrough through conductive faults and fractures. The most
common challenges encountered are:
1. Water influx from fractures or water bearing formations
(Fig. 1).
2. Early injection water breakthrough in producer wells and
water short-cutting between water injector and producer wells
through fractures (Fig. 2).
To control unwanted water production, a shift from openhole
completions toward wellbore segmentation is underway. A
completion approach with horizontal cemented liners based on
selective perforations has been used. The main limitations of this
approach are:
At the time of completing the well, it is as yet unknown
which fracture will produce unwanted water.
Intervals with low oil saturation are not perforated and con-
sequently not swept.
In fractured reservoirs where loss of circulation is frequently
encountered, cementations have often failed. Selectivity, which is
the main reason for a cemented liner completion, is therefore often
not achieved.
Fracture shutoffs have been carried out with scab liners as
depicted in Fig. 3. Zonal isolation is provided by external casing
packers (ECP). The main limitations of this approach are:
ECPs are short seals. If the formation behind the ECP is frac-
tured, there will be seepage behind the seal through the formation, in
which case the seal is ineffective because of its short length.
Access to the toe of the well is challenging because of the
reduction in hole diameter.
Copyright 2007 Society of Petroleum Engineers
This paper (SPE 88736) was first presented at the 2004 SPE Abu Dhabi International
Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, 1013 October, and revised for publica-
tion. Original manuscript received for review 4 December 2004. Revised manuscript re-
ceived 3 April 2006. Paper peer approved 3 April 2006.
March 2007 SPE Drilling & Completion
In many cases, scab liners have leaked, as shown in Fig. 4. A
fracture shutoff was carried out in a horizontal water injection
well. A memory-production log was obtained to determine the
injection profile. The temperature log confirms that there has been
channeling and injection of water into a fracture behind the scab liner.
Retrieval of scab liners has proven to be technically very
challenging and time-consuming. Therefore, wells with leaking
scab liners cannot be easily worked over.
Expandable Tubular Solution
Expandable tubular solutions were originally developed to extend
well depth while maintaining a larger borehole diameter (Dupal et
al. 2001). Such a product is usually referred to as an openhole liner
(OHL). The technology is based on running a liner, placing ce-
ment, and then expanding the liner across the borehole section into
the previous casing to form a liner hanger (Filippov et al. 1999).
The main value drivers for applying expandable tubular solu-
tions in carbonate reservoirs are as part of the completion (for
water shutoff) and as part of a well constriction (for loss curing).
The operator decided to introduce expandable tubulars for water
shutoff. Instead of cement, the operator used swelling elastomers
to achieve zonal isolation in the open hole (Van Noort et al. 2002;
Braas et al. 2003). The liner is expanded to seal the annulus by
energizing an elastomer between the expanding casing and the
formation. In addition, the elastomer swells in contact with pro-
duced water, oil, or both. This expandable tubular shutoff solution
is called open hole clad (OHC). A schematic of a fracture shutoff
with an OHC is shown in Fig. 3. Unlike an OHL, an OHC does not
include a tieback into the previous casing.
Benefits of OHC Technology. In carbonate reservoirs, OHC tech-
nology offers the following benefits:
1. OHC offers a noninvasive, positive isolation for inflow pro-
file control. Alternative technologies (cement, chemical squeezes,
or scab liners) are either invasive on the reservoir or have had
limited success.
2. Larger inner diameter: an OHC provides accessibility of a
well below the OHC because of its 40%-larger diameter compared
to a scab liner.
3. Reliable placement: an OHC can be accurately placed and
expanded across a borehole section that needs shutoff. No cement
is required.
4. Flexible zonal isolation design: the required annular seal
length depends only on the number of joints with elastomer seals.
5. Seal area: an OHC provides a larger sealing area between
pipe and rock than an ECP, plus an energized seal due to expansion
against the formation and swelling of the elastomers in contact
with produced water.
Risks of OHC Technology. The main risk from an economic
point of view is that the application of the expandable tubular
completion fails to provide the required inflow or outflow profile
modification. This can happen if:
1. The OHC is set at the wrong place.
2. A shutoff is carried out successfully, but the resulting pro-
file modification does not deliver more oil and/or less water from
the well.
3. The OHC leaks.
Scenario 1 can occur becaue of uncertainty of the location of
the water influx. Because OHC is a nonreversible shutoff method,
39
Fig. 1Water influx from water-bearing formation intervals in
horizontal wells. Red=oil; blue=water.
an OHC cannot be retrieved. If set in the wrong place, the OHC
would need to be perforated and a cement squeeze carried out.
Scenario 2 can occur in highly fractured or permeable reservoirs
where a shallow water shutoff treatment cannot work. This risk can be
mitigated by reservoir characterization and inflow modeling.
Scenario 3 would lead to channeling of water behind the OHC,
similar to the problem of poor zonal isolation with cement and
leaking scab liners. This risk can be mitigated by gauge-hole drill-
ing and proper zonal isolation design. Holes need to be near the
gauge to achieve a seal. Expandable tubular solutions do not seal
if the borehole diameter exceeds the sealing envelope. In a 618-in.
hole, a 5-in. OHC with swelling elastomers can provide a seal up
to a 6.9-in. hole size. In the case of a leaking OHC, the OHC would
need to be perforated and a squeeze cement job would be required.
To overcome this limitation, another casing expansion method
without a fixed cone must be used. Alternatively, a 3-in. liner
with expandable zonal inflow profiler (EZIP) tools can be used in
a 618-in. hole (Ogoke et al. 2006). An annular seal is created
entirely by swelling of the seals. Because of the smaller outside
diameter (OD) of the liner compared to the clad (3 in. instead of
5 in.), the thickness of the elastomer seal is larger. As the can
seal typically swells to twice its original thickness, the sealing
envelope is larger than it is for the OHC.
Technical Limitations.
1. Access to the well for surveillance purposes is required. To
locate the water influx in existing wells, production logging ac-
cessibility is required throughout the completion. This is only pos-
sible if the well has been completed with gas lift or electrical
submersible pumps (ESPs) with Y-tools.
2. With currently available expandable tubular technology, it is
not possible to do through-tubing shutoffs. In the case of a work-
over, the well needs to be killed and the tubing pulled. For ex-
ample, for a shutoff in 7-in. casing through 4-in. tubing with
3-in. expandable casing, an expansion ratio of approximately
80% is required. Maximum diameter expansion ratios of currently
available products are approximately 15%.
3. A second shutoff with an OHC below a previously installed
OHC is not possible. Running an OHC through one already in-
Fig. 3Fracture shutoff with a scab liner.
40
Fig. 2Water short-cutting through fractures. Red=oil;
blue=water.
stalled is not possible. The running OD of the OHC is larger than
the drift diameter of an expanded OHC. Clad-through-clad capa-
bility would require more advanced expandable tubular solutions.
Zonal Isolation Design. Zonal isolation design is based on caliper
data. The design parameters are the thickness of the seal and the
placement of expandable casing joints with seals at a specific well
depth. In the example shown in Fig. 5, a 758-in.958-in. expand-
able liner with seven joints of expandable casing coated with
7-mm thick elastomer seals was installed. By expanding the cas-
ing, an instantaneous seal can be created in wellbores with a maxi-
mum borehole diameter of 8.94 in. The minimum required radial
compression of the seal is 5%. If the wellbore diameter is larger
than 8.94 in., a seal can still be created up to a maximum hole size
of 9.45 in. by swelling of the seals in produced water. The time to
create a seal by swelling of the elastomer can vary from several
days up to several months, depending on hole size, produced water
salinity, and downhole temperature.
Technology Implementation. The operator has managed the
implementation of expandable tubular technology as a new tech-
nology project with dedicated resources. As soon as expandable
tubular solutions were offered as a commercial service, the opera-
tor screened its entire well construction and workover portfolio for
applications. In the operators onshore, mainly low-cost well en-
vironment, water shutoff and zonal isolation were identified as the
highest value drivers. As a result, expandable tubulars were intro-
duced for water shutoff rather than drilling applications.
A producing well with high water cut was selected as the best
first candidate to perform a trial of OHC technology. The operator
decided to shut off two water-producing fractures in a barefoot
horizontal oil producer. This application has been documented in
detail in earlier papers (Van Noort et al. 2002; Braas et al. 2003).
After the water shutoff, oil production from the well more than
doubled. Two years after the workover, the well is still producing
as much as before the fracture shutoff. After this successful proof
of concept, further applications were identified, mainly in new
wells, for fracture shutoff in the drilling phase and zonal isolation
with cement.
Installation Operations. The deployment process for OHC and
OHL has been described in detail by Filippov et al. (1999) and van
Noort et al. (2002). A typical OHC installation operation consists
of the following steps:
1. Drill the openhole section.
2. Measure the hole size (e.g., by running a caliper log).
3. Determine location of fractures [e.g., by running a Fullbore
Formation MicroImager (FMI) log].
4. Design zonal isolation.
5. Run a drift assembly to prove that OHC/OHL can be run to
target depth; ream hole if necessary.
6. Make up and run OHC in hole.
a. Expand OHC.
March 2007 SPE Drilling & Completion
Fig. 4Average temperature data from shut-in passes from a memory production log, indicating a leaking scab liner in a horizontal
water injector well.
b. If OHL, expand OHL into previous casing and pressure
test OHL overlap.
7. Mill out shoe.
The main installation risks and their mitigation approaches are
outlined in Table 1.
To manage the operational risks, generic installation proce-
dures have been developed in close collaboration between operator
and contractor personnel. These procedures have been updated
periodically to include improvements and additions based on ac-
tual installation experience. For each installation, the contractor
prepares an installation procedure based on well data and applica-
tion objectives provided by the operator. Toolbox talks are held on
the rig site when the installation operation begins.
A summary of the installations discussed in this study is pre-
sented in Table 2. Trials of the technology were carried out in five
carbonate reservoirs. OHLs were installed in horizontal oil pro-
ducer wells (HOP), vertical oil producer wells (VOP), deviated oil
producer wells (DOP), horizontal water injector wells (HWI), and
sidetracked wells (ST). Multiple OHCs were installed in four
wells. Multiple fracture shutoffs were required in Wells F#5 and
F#6. In Wells Y#4 and Y#5, a 1000-m-length wellbore section was
lined. This was not possible in a single pass because of small
running clearances.
Installation time normalized with respect to the length of OHC
installed for all wells has been reduced by 75% over time. Instal-
lation time excludes the time for milling the shoe track. To im-
prove and sustain installation reliability, the main focus areas have
been improved quality assurance and control and the drilling of a
gauge hole. It is desirable to make milling of the shoe track re-
dundant, which would save one trip plus additional time. Alterna-
tive products with retrievable shoes are under development.
Of 31 installation operations, 27 (87%) were successful, as
shown in Table 3. From the operators point of view, an installa-
tion operation is either a success or a failure and is evaluated
Fig. 5Open hole clad for fracture shutoff.
March 2007 SPE Drilling & Completion
using a tier system. A successful installation can occur with or
without operational problems.
Tier 1: Achieved installation objective. Successful comple-
tion of expansion operations and pressure testing of OHL.
Tier 2: Achieved installation objective. Successful comple-
tion of expansion operations and pressure testing of OHL. Con-
tingency operations, remedial actions, or fishing operations required.
Tier 3: Did not achieve installation objective. Unsuccessful
completion of expansion operations and pressure testing of OHL.
Thirty installations were executed with one service provider. 25
of these were Tier 1, two were Tier 2, and three were Tier 3
installations. One fracture shutoff trial on Well A#4 was unsuccessful.
An alternative product from another service provider was tried.
Operational difficulties encountered during three Tier 2 in-
stallations stemmed from a quality assurance failure, borehole-
quality-related difficulties, and the need for milling the shoe track.
Better borehole quality and hole preparation are essential to reduce
nonproductive time (NPT) associated with installation operations
for expandable tubulars. It is important to provide the drilling
engineer with an incentive to deliver good borehole quality. This
includes the application of good drilling practices and bottomhole
assemblies to deliver a gauge hole and to minimize doglegs and
41
 well tortuosity. A drift run is required to make sure that the bore-
hole dimensions permit running of the OHC or OHL to bottom.
The most significant and recurring NPT has been to rerun the drift.
More stringent procedures have since been put in place to mini-
mize these problems.

Expandable Tubular Solution for Zonal Isolation

Without Cement
A horizontal well design, with an expanded and perforated OHL
replacing a horizontal cemented and perforated liner, has been
introduced to develop remaining reserves in one of the large fields
of the operators portfolio (Fig. 6). This field has been on-stream
since 1969, and almost 500 wells have been drilled to date. The
water cut is greater than 90%. Variations in geological characteristics,
such as the degree of faulting and fracturing, and variations in the
production/injection history of different areas have led to differences
in the distribution of the remaining oil targets. Predicting the location
of remaining oil has become an ever-increasing challenge.
Experience has shown that poorly cemented horizontal liners
cause water influx from fractures and water-bearing formation
intervals in horizontal wells (Fig. 1). Communication behind the
casing prevents the development of oil-producing intervals. There-
fore, use of cement has been discontinued, and an expandable
tubular solution was chosen to access undrained oil pockets cost-
effectively by isolating the oil-bearing intervals from water-
bearing features.
Two horizontal oil producer wells (Y#4 and Y#5 in Table 2)
were drilled with a view to testing wellbore segmentation in this
reservoir. Segmentation of the 1000-m horizontal section enables
the perforation of intervals that would not be perforated with ver-
tical wells. The two wells were placed in the top of the reservoir.

Fig. 6Design of an openhole seal with expandable tubulars and swelling elastomer seals, based on caliper log data.

42 March 2007 SPE Drilling & Completion


Fig. 7Well design with expanded (blue) and perforated (green)
openhole liner to provide wellbore segmentation with swelling
elastomers (red).
Faults and fractures were detected by FMI logs and isolated from
oil-bearing intervals with the OHL. Then the expanded OHL was
perforated. The well design, planning, and installation operations
of this longest-ever installed expandable tubular solution with
swelling elastomers have been documented by Al-Balushi et al.
(2003). The horizontal well design replaces five vertical wells
drilled from different locations to develop the same reserves. Drill-
ing of one segmented horizontal well was 50 to 65% percent
cheaper than drilling five vertical wells. The elimination of four
surface locations alleviates surface location construction con-
straints in this maturing field. Wellbore segmentation has provided
the option to retrofit the well at a later stage with an intelligent
completion for downhole monitoring and control.
The horizontal section of Well Y#4 was segmented with one
OHC and one OHL and perforated to create four intervals totaling
170 m of perforations and completed with an ESP with a Y-tool.
The well came on production with a higher than expected water cut
and was subsequently closed in. Through a production log (PLT),
it was discovered that more than two-thirds of the water produced
was coming from the bottom two perforation intervals, with ap-
proximately half of all produced water coming from one single
interval. The PLT also delivered the evidence for zonal isolation
from inner diameter measurements of the expanded OHL. As for
expansion against the formation, a slightly smaller inner diameter
Fig. 8Water cut of wells after 1 month of production vs. losses encountered while drilling the reservoir section. Comparison of
wells completed barefoot (green), with scab liners (blue), and with openhole clads (red).
March 2007 SPE Drilling & Completion
(by less than one millimeter) caused by springback of the OHL can
be seen in the log. In a workover, the bottom two intervals were
shut off with a bridge plug. This water shutoff did not result in a
notable increase in oil production.
For Well Y#5, particular emphasis was given to well place-
ment, an approach supported by reservoir simulations. The reser-
voir model was calibrated by simulation of Well Y#4, taking into
account the production results. The horizontal section of Y#5 was
segmented with two OHC and one OHL. Three installations were
carried out because small running clearances prevent running a
1000-m openhole liner in a single pass. The expanded liner was
perforated to create five intervals totaling 198 meters of perfora-
tions and completed with an ESP with a Y-tool. The well came on
production in-line and met expectations in terms of oil production
and water cut. No water has been detected and no shutoff has been
required within the first 2 years of production.
Following these trials, zonal isolation without cement has been
adopted in vertical wells for waterflood appraisal drilling in an-
other fractured carbonate reservoir (Marketz et al. 2005).
Expandable Tubular Solution for Fracture
Shutoff in the Drilling Phase
Openhole clads have been applied in one of the operators large
fields consisting of several stacked reservoir layers. The reservoir
itself is subdivided into seven reservoir units. The average water
cut of the field is 50%. To date, almost 400 wells have been drilled
in this field.
Reservoir simulations have predicted that short-cutting of water
through fractures (Fig. 2) leads to a rapid increase in water cut if
no shutoff treatment is performed. Without shutoff, water cuts of
more that 80% and low cumulative oil production can be predicted.
A combination of a mechanical shutoff with an OHC in the pro-
ducer well and a deep chemical fracture shutoff in the injector well
would result in the highest recovery. However, a mechanical shut-
off with OHC in both the producer and the injector wells would
deliver 90% of the value of the previously mentioned mechanical/
chemical shutoff solution at a fraction of the upfront investment
for products and services.
The operator decided to test OHC technology as an alternative
to scab liners during a waterflood development drilling project. If
considerable drilling fluid losses over a certain interval were en-
countered and fractures were identified by FMI logs, an OHC
would be run. Wells were completed barefoot, with scab liner (Fig.
8) and with OHC (Fig. 3), depending on the losses encountered
and the results of formation evaluation.
43
 Fig. 7 shows the initial water cut after one month of production
for 13 wells vs. maximum drilling losses.
Barefoot Horizontal Oil Producers (BF). Five wells (F#1,
F#3, F#4, F#5, and F#6) experienced losses of less than 2 m3/h and
were completed barefoot. The initial water cut in these cases was
less than 15%, and the water cut remained well below the field
average of 50% after more than 3 years of production. Well F#2
experienced drilling losses of 15 m3/h maximum and was com-
pleted barefoot. The water cut was 58% after 1 month of produc-
tion but increased to more than 90% after 2 years of production.
Horizontal Oil Producers With Scab Liner (SCAB). Well
F#S1 was completed with a scab liner to shut off fractures. While
the maximum losses experienced in the drilling phase were 14 m3/h,
the initial water cut of the wells was 56%, increasing to 77% over 2
years. This compares to a 50% water cut for the field as a whole.
Horizontal Oil Producers With Openhole Clads (OHC). Se-
vere losses of more than 40 m3/h were experienced in six wells. In
these cases, fractures were shut off with OHC. Water cuts of five
of these wells were less than 20%.
Losses of 125 m3/h (18,840 B/D) followed by total losses
were experienced in Well F#7. Fractures were confirmed by an
FMI log, and an OHC was installed. The well produced 150 B/D
after 1 month of production and has never produced more than 180
B/D of water over more than 3 years.
Production tests indicate that OHC provides water shutoff.
Wells with OHC produce at lower water cuts than the field aver-
age. Table 4 shows the water cut of wells with OHC after 1, 6, 12,
and 24 months of production. In several wells, the water cut is de-
creasing over time, mainly because of the response to water injection.
As can be seen from Table 2, the water cut of Well F#6 in-
creased from 35 to 83% during the second year of production. The
well came onstream with high water cut and high gas/oil ratio
(GOR). The water cut decreased to 23% over the next month, and
the well continued production at a sustainable water cut below
35% for one year, after which the water cut gradually increased to
approximately 70%. Because the well has had a high GOR from
the first day of production, it has been produced as a stopcock
producer. A water-flow log was run to determine where the un-
wanted water and gas are entering the well. Spinner and tempera-
ture data suggest that the water entry point is an 8-m interval in the
openhole section. No inflow is now seen from this interval, which
was shut off with an OHC in the drilling phase.
Conclusions
1. A new technology trial in more than 20 wells in fractured car-
bonate reservoirs has demonstrated success with expandable tu-
bular solutions to replace scab liners for fracture shutoff and to
replace cement for zonal isolation.
2. Fracture shutoff in the drilling phase with expandable tubulars
and swelling elastomers has made it possible to reduce water
44
cuts of horizontal wells in a carbonate reservoir. Water cuts
significantly lower than field average have been sustained for
more than 3 years of production.
3. It has been demonstrated that zonal isolation without cement is
technically feasible in horizontal wells where horizontal liner
cementation has had limited success because of fractures. Seg-
mentation of horizontal wells into a discrete number of man-
agement intervals has been achieved. That allows selective shut-
off of unwanted water or gas during a well workover.
References
Al-Balushi, H.M., Al-Rashdi, M.H., Al-Shandoodi, M.H., and van Noort,
R.H. 2003. Worlds Longest Expandable Open Hole Clad and Open
Hole Liner With Swelling Elastomer Deployed in Yibal Horizontal
Well. Paper SPE 88026 presented at the IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drill-
ing Technology Conference and Exhibition, Kuala Lumpur, 1315
September. DOI: 10.2118/88026-MS.
Braas, J.C.M., Aihevba, C.O., Shandoodi, M., van Noort, R.H., and
Baaijens, M.N. 2003. Water Production ManagementPDOs Suc-
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sented at the SPE Middle East Oil Show and Conference, Bahrain, 58
April. DOI: 10.2118/81489-MS.
Dupal, K.K. et al. 2001. Solid Expandable Tubular TechnologyA Year
of Case Histories in the Drilling Environment. Paper SPE 67770 pre-
sented at the SPE/IADC Drilling Conference, Amsterdam, The Neth-
erlands, 27 February1 March. DOI: 10.2118/67770-MS.
Filippov, A., Mack, R., Cook, L., York, P., Ring, L., and McCoy, T. 1999.
Expandable Tubular Solutions. Paper SPE 56500 presented at the SPE
Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Houston, 36 October.
DOI: 10.2118/56500-MS.
Marketz, F., Leuranguer, C., and Welling, R.W.F. 2005. Waterflood Ap-
praisal Well Delivery With Expandable Tubulars. Paper SPE/IPTC
10345 presented at the International Petroleum Technology Confer-
ence, Doha, Qatar, 2123 November.
Ogoke, V., Aihevba, C., and Marketz, F. 2006. Cost-Effective Life-Cycle
Profile Control Completion System for Horizontal and Multilateral
Wells. Paper SPE 102077 presented at the SPE Annual Technical Con-
ference and Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas, 2427 September. DOI:
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Van Noort, R., Rivenbark, M., and Jones, M. 2002. Using Solid Expand-
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Franz Marketz is a Senior Well Engineer, New Technology with
Petroleum Oman (PDO) in Muscat. He has been Shells subject
matter expert for expandable tubulars and swelling elastomers
in the Middle East Region and heads PDOs Technology Focus
March 2007 SPE Drilling & Completion
Area for Mechanical Profile Control. He joined Shell in the
Netherlands as a geomechanics expert. After cracking solid
tubular expansion fundamentals, he has worked with Shell
Technology Ventures to commercialize and with Shell Operat-
ing Units to implement the technology. Marketz holds MSc and
PhD degrees from the U. of Leoben in Austria. Rudy Welling is a
Principal Production Technologist with Petroleum Develop-
ment Oman in Muscat, where he is the Head of Reservoir Sur-
veillance for one of its major oil fields. He has worked for Shell
since 1980 in The Netherlands, the U.K., Brunei, the United
States, Nigeria, and currently Oman in various production
technology roles. His main research interest in Shell is in pro-
duction optimization, initially through improving gravel-pack
understanding and, currently, water and gas shutoffs. Welling
holds an MSc degree from the Delft U. of Technology. On both
topics he has published various SPE papers. Roger van Noort
March 2007 SPE Drilling & Completion
is a Senior Well Engineer with Shell Exploration and Production
in Houston, where he works in the Deepwater Well Engineering
Group. He was previously a Senior Well Engineer, New Tech-
nology pioneering expandable tubular and swelling elastomer
technology implementation in Petroleum Development
Oman. He also worked for Shell in The Netherlands, the U.K.,
Thailand, and Indonesia in various well-engineering positions.
Van Noort holds a BSc degree in operations technology from
the Rijks Hoge School Groningen, The Netherlands. Thijs
Baaijens is a Principal Production Technologist with Shell Explo-
ration & Production in Rijswijk, where he heads Shells research
zonal isolation and swelling elastomers research. He has
worked for Shell in The Netherlands, the U.K., and Egypt in vari-
ous production technology, research, and technology imple-
mentation roles. Baaijens holds an MSc degree in mechanical
engineering from the Delft U. of Technology.
45