Settari wins an Eni
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U of C engineer wins Eni Award for New Frontier of HydrocarbonsTony Settari’s leading edge work in oil and gas reservoir computer modelling over the past five years has earned him an international honour in energy and environment.
“It’s always nice to get recognition,” said Settari, of the chemical and petroleum engineering department. “I was happy that they selected somebody who works in applied science. It means also recognition for what we do here, and it’s good for the University of Calgary.” The awards ceremony was held in La Scala opera house in Milan. The Italian minister of education, the mayor of Milan and the chairman of Eni presented the awards. In the days following the ceremony, the winners gave a series of lectures at three universities—Polytechnic of Milan, Royal Turin Polytechnic and the University of Pisa. In the past five years, Settari’s work has focused on reservoir geomechanics, a relatively new discipline in petroleum engineering. He uses computer modelling to optimize oil and gas extraction by looking at the geography of fractures and faults, but he also evaluates the entire picture. “When we produce oil and gas—or inject water for enhanced recovery or inject steam for thermal recovery—changes are not happening to the fluids only. There are also changes happening to the rock that the fluids are contained in,” Settari said. Changes in rock can lead to earthquakes, surface heaves and ground craters. Offshore drilling, for instance, can cause changes to the sea floor that lead to shoreline recession. Rock deformation could mean wells need to be redrilled. Settari is also working on modelling to improve hydraulic fracturing—ways to improve flow paths for fluids—and do so on a large and sustained enough manner than fewer wells need to be drilled.
Eni operates in the oil and gas, electricity generation and sale, petrochemicals, oilfield services construction and engineering industries. It operates in 70 countries and has about 79,000 employees.
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June 25, 2009
