KEY SKILLS

Ability to use data and information to arrive at engineering recommendations that are documented with supporting rationale in readable reports.

Perform technical investigations, develop plans, investigate any topic, solve a problem, offer an alternative view.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Knut Arne Hovem, Lead / Senior Well Engineer / Completions Engineer

Key Skills

• + 30 years of relevant oilfield experience
• Extensive international experience as well as NCS experience
• Most recent experience with subsea field tieback developments from concept design to execution, from early development planning and cost estimating to detailed well site procedures and offshore supervision. Deep experience with completion of platform & subsea wells, sand control methods and water injection well design. Skilled with drilling and completion fluids, sand control and gravel pack, tubing stress analysis, gas lift, well integrity, P&A, and contract and procurement.

Work Experience

Finalized operational plans and worked offshore for completion execution for all five subsea well in the Solveig development. Finalized the fluid program and detailed plan for displacement of breaker fluid and achieved water injection without clean-up flow for both water injection wells. Presented the positive results with direct injection for 2022 European well productivity forum.

Led the well construction and well completion planning work from fast-track concept to execution for the development of Gjøa P1 and the Duva field, both subsea tieback to Gjøa Host. Wrote the wells part of Duva (PL636) PDO submission to Ministry of Petroleum (MPE). Led our team to secure contacts and place orders for OCTG and completion equipment. Before completion execution:

• Wrote the close out report of laboratory work related to formation damage and reservoir drilling fluid qualifications.
• Reported on well specific casing and tubing stress reports.
• Organized HAZID meetings related gravel pack, rig up of surface flow tree and wireline over a subsea well.
• Closeout of risk mitigation actions identified from CWOP meetings.
• QA of completion subassembly preparation
• QA of detail operation procedures
• QA of fluid programs including surge and swab.

Prepared to be working an offshore/office rotation for the remaining of the project to cover as rig site completion supervisor.

Verify and approve assurance plans as completed. Advise on well integrity, compliance to barrier standards and P&A options. Contract sponsor for OHGP and lower completion contracts. Approve assurance plans for well testing and well unload. Led a Monday afternoon standing open meeting where well issues was discussed, actions assigned and signed off when completed. Since June 2017 took on oversight of platform wireline intervention and led a turnaround in performance.

Lead Completions Engineer (Jan 2017 – present): Led a team of 5 engineers in planning wells for new development projects and support commercial acquisition team with assessment of well construction and expected cost.

Sr. Completion Engineer (Jan 2016 - Jan 2017): 3-field development tied back to existing FPSO. Worked up detailed design for the 12 wells solving challenges such as water injection without flow back, cost effective material choices and sand control with screen only.

Sr. Completion Engineer (Consultant from Jan 2015 – Jun 2016): Delivered Basis of Design for open hole gravel pack for wells. Deliver Basis of Design for permanent abandonment of oil field with 10 wells.

Achievements: Designed and selected equipment for 9 successful OHGP wells executed in 2017 and 3 in 2016. Updated Well barrier standard and procedure in 2016. Updated Casing and Tubing design procedure in 2107. Sponsored two major tenders resulting in change of contractor and significant cost reduction (2015 / 2016).

Ultradeep development wells in blk 31 (1 year).

Task: Deliver wells; write Basis of Design documents, coach and mentor staff, and lead development program of new national completion engineers.

Skills: Cased Hole Frac Pack Completion. Open Hole Gravel Pack. Coaching and Mentoring.

Offshore platforms wells on ACG Field (4 years).

Task: Deliver wells, update basis of design, perform torque and drag and tubing stress calculations, perform engineering studies on failures or issues, coach and mentor national staff.

Skills: Verification of open-hole gravel pack efficiency from memory gauge data analysis. Tubing stress calculations. Root cause investigation to tubing leaks. Development of completion procedures specific to particular platform and rig. Selection and verification of materials for water injection and Gas lift completions equipment. Gained some working knowledge of Azerbaijan language.

Spar platform and subsea wells (2 years).

Task: Deliver the last two wells in the Holstein drilling program, and support planning of subsea work-over.

Skills: Delivery of entire Cased Hole Frac Pack Completion from start to finish. Investigation of incomplete annular gravel pack.

Exploration and Production Technology Group (3 years).

Task: To run a technology development program with five projects related to water injection wells in soft sand reservoirs. Support and mentoring 5 project leaders and 3 full-time project engineers.

Skills: Setting the technical direction on R&D projects, develop project work plans, get support for budgets and identify opportunity for field trials. Deep technical experience on the projects; open-hole mechanical packers, operating water injection wells, chemical consolidation technology and fracpack geo-mechanics.

Task: Part of the central team that took the emerging expandable screen product to market. To manage the collaboration effort with BP that resulted in taking prototype tools to field trials. Support worldwide districts with preparing technical proposals and commercial quotations. In a period of 10 months made 78 visits with operators in France, Italy, Poland, Nederland’s, Algeria, Nigeria, Gabon, Angola, Russia, and Siberia.

Skills: Marketing of new technology and the challenge of braking into establish market with new technology. Understanding of the challenges of completing wells in mature fields with need for water shut off and sand control. Knowledge of metallurgy and performance impact to threaded connection, sand control applications & resistance to corrosive conditions.

Task: To sell completion equipment from all BOT product lines to companies conducting international operations from Houston. Made $4 million in sales in 18 months. Sales of gravel pack equipment and upper completion for a subsea development in Gabon, Liner hanger completions to Turkey, Ecuador & Equatorial Guinea, and Safety valves to Nigeria.

Skills: Understanding the technical challenge of each well and proposing the right equipment. Network with other product line sales force to gain insight to well challenges. Utilize active listing skills to prepare quotations at the right contractual terms.

Task: To support and promote Baker Hughes capabilities through performing petroleum engineering work. Notable projects where feasibility study for downhole water separation and investigation into lack of success with open-hole zone isolation in horizontal wells. The study resulted in funds to develop a mechanical open-hole packer that became a commercially very successful product.

Task: To develop procedures and provide offshore supervision of clean-up flow of new wells, ESP (electrical submersible pump) on platform wells and gas lift on subsea wells. Applied rock mechanics knowledge to promote two successful barefoot multi-lateral horizontal wells. Enjoyed the learning opportunity of design and execution of fracture stimulations in three wells and being on semi-submersible for well testing and downhole reservoir fluid sampling.

Task: To support the planning of Åsgard development, at the time, world largest sub-sea field development from the central team. Delivered the sand production risk assessment and coordinated production engineering contributions to the sanction documents, including hydraulic nodal analysis and flow assurance.

Task: Supervise the testing work done in the rock mechanical laboratory and performed rock mechanical studies utilizing a 3D finite element code. Was rewarded with offshore trip to observe horizontal drilling.

Education

2004 - 2006 Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

MBA course “Organizational Behavior” in 2004 and “Accounting” in 2006.

1988 – 1991 MSc, Thayer Engineering School, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 

Thesis: Design of automatic measuring device for liquid water content in clouds.

1986 - 1988 BSc, Civil Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

Graduate level engineering courses include Finite Element Methods, Dynamics of Structures and Computer Graphics.

1983 - 1985 Civil Engineering, Technical College, Trondheim, Norway

Courses

2020

• RVK Grunnkurs, Norwegian Petroleum Law introduction
• Boost: Mentoring and coaching mastery program, Ridge
• Well control, IWCF level 4, Wireline, Snubbing and Coiled Tubing Operations, Altus

2017

• Improved Hydrocarbon Recovery, Woodside
• Contracts Fundamentals & Contracting Management, Woodside
• Incident Investigation Lead, Woodside
• Subsea Wellhead Tree and Production Hardware, Woodside
• Decision Gate Process Overview, Woodside

2016

• Drilling & Completions Environmental Compliance and Leadership Training, Woodside

2015

• Cementing School, Woodside
• Kick Tolerance, Woodside
• Well Control, Woodside

2009

• Tubing stress analysis with Wellcat, BP 

1996

• Gas lift design & Eclipse100 reservoir simulation, Statoil

1995

• Log interpretation, Statoil

1994

• Nodal Analysis with Prosper, Statoil

1993

• Hydraulic Fracturing NSI, Statoil

1992

• Reservoir Engineering, Statoil

1991

• Petroleum Related Rock Mechanics, Statoil