Daniela Navarro Perez

Profile

I am a PhD estudent from Chilean Patagonia, the most southern south part of the American Continent. Curently, I with permision of my employer University of Magallanes to take the PhD project here in the University of Leeds. Since 2015, I'm a permanent lecturer and faculty member of the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department there. My areas of especialization are industrial processes in comercial simulations (Aspen HYSYS), risk analysis in chemical plants, basic and conceptual engineering projects and oil & gas reservoir simulation. I teach in senior courses, such as: Simulation Computacional of Processes, Unit Operations from Fluids Mechanics, Energy or Mass Balance, Laboratory of Processes and Project Engineering.

I have a strong background in chemical engineering, especifically in the downstream processes of oil and gas. I worked for one year (2015) as a engineer contractor for the Methanex Spa Chile company, which produces methanol from local natural gas. Also, I worked for a year (2014) for INGEMAG, a local project engineering company.

In 2017/2018 I did a MSc programme of Petroleum Production Engineering at the University of Leeds, sponsored by the Chilean government through its scientific entity CONICYT.

Research interests

Tight sandstone reservoirs (TSRs) are often defined as having in situ porosities and permeabilities of less than 10% and 0.1 mD respectively. TSRs contain large volumes of gas but this is often only marginally economic to produce due to the low flow rates that are often achievable due to their low permeability. To increase the chance of producing TGRs at economic rates and to reduce the risk associated with their development it is essential to both reduce costs throughout the value chain and to increase the quality of reservoir characterization and modelling. Reservoir characterization of tight gas sandstones is challenging due to their heterogeneous nature and their low permeability together with the fact that their properties are often extremely stress-dependent. Another key issue is that it is often necessary to interpret well test data before it has been possible to make accurate measurements of the flow properties of core samples. For example, following a well test it is often necessary to decide whether to put the well on production, drill a side track or abandon the well completely but such decisions are often based on limited data.

The current project aims to develop methods that will increase the quality of the characterization and modelling of tight gas sandstone reservoirs but at reduced costs and increased speed. The project will concentrate on tight gas sandstones from Chile, which are potentially an extremely important resource for the country. The project will build-up on the results from the PETGAS project, which is a ten year research program that has been conducted at the University of Leeds (www.petgas3.leeds.ac.uk). The project will also make use of the state-of-the-art core analysis facilities within the
Wolfson multiphase flow laboratory at the University of Leeds, which are dedicated to measuring the petrophysical properties of low and ultralow permeability media.

Qualifications

• BSc Engineering Sciences, Universidad de Magallanes, Chile (2012)
• Chemical Engineering Degree, Universidad de Magallanes, Chile (2012)
• MSc. Petroleum Production Engineering, University of Leeds, UK (2017/2018)

Research groups and institutes

• Institute of Applied Geoscience