For cinema fans, this year's Academy Awards provided more than a few surprises. Fortunately, there were no surprises in this year's crop of Meritorious Engineering Award winners - all were great ideas.
A bell-curve describes technology uptake in the upstream oil and gas industry. Unfortunately it bears little resemblance to an actual bell, looking more like a gentle slope leading to a flat plain. As we have bemoaned in the past, technology uptake in our industry seems to move at geologic speed. So lethargic is the implementation of innovative tools and techniques to the oilpatch that one wonders how many great ideas have died on the vine, unable to sustain themselves while they gained traction.
It's refreshing, therefore, to note that many of this year's Oilpatch Oscar winners have sprung from ideas that were all but vilified in the recent past. I can remember clearly when intelligent well systems (IWS) were branded as extravagant gadgetry. Now, our astute panel of industry experts has recognized Baker Hughes' InForce IWS as a winner in the Production Systems category (you can read the details of this and other deserving MEA winners on page 103).
The InForce system is but one of a dozen good ideas that has overcome the perils of the industry's unique technology adoption process - a slower cycle than that of even the pharmaceutical industry I am told. Others include electromagnetic seabed logging, (a promising new way to differentiate hydrocarbon-bearing subsea structures from plain vanilla subsea structures), an innovative drill bit design and reservoir drill-in fluid and a unique way to make drill string connections while maintaining continuous circulation. This last idea has been cited as key enabling technology for a proposed subsea remote-controlled drilling rig. While the subsea rig idea is still jumping some formidable adoption hurdles, many of its component parts, such as automatic pipe handling, are in use today.
Following hot on the heels of expandable tubulars are swellable elastomers that enable innovative sealing solutions. And a unique mixture of proppant and micro-fibers is said to eliminate proppant slump and non-uniform distribution within the fractures.
There may be some hope on the horizon. A minority of leading-edge operators have changed the way they view new technology introduction. Not limited to the majors, this group of pioneers believes that technology promises the ultimate solution to today's challenges. Technology is pushing the frontiers of discovery and production into increasingly difficult areas. It is enabling economic solutions to previously unaffordable goals. And it is reducing exploration, drilling and production risk to viable levels.
In the past, most oil companies preferred to develop technology in-house, or with a service partner for their exclusive use. Now we are seeing technology alliances consisting of two or more companies working with a service provider and supporting the development of solutions to common problems. A Shell executive told me, "We have realized that rapid commercialization of a good idea benefits us all. It reimburses the provider for the cost of research and development quickly, and allows commercialization at affordable price levels."
Another executive said, "It has taken a long time for us to realize that we are not in the business of competing for universally beneficial technology. We want to encourage its development and implementation so we can use it to compete in our areas of core competency."
Music to your ears? I hope so. It takes guts to be first, but far from taking a daredevil approach, these companies have figured out a way to bring good ideas online without incurring added financial risk or jeopardizing their assets.
What's in the wings? A quick stroll through the aisles at the recent SPE/IADC Drilling Conference revealed several interesting new technologies that are poised to make a step-change in efficiency. The ideas are not new - many have been around for a few years - but today they are gaining the traction they need to be commercially successful. Such techniques as casing drilling, which used to require a purpose-built drilling rig, is now being adapted for use on any rig. This will undoubtedly hasten its acceptance. And after extensive and exhaustive testing, drillstring telemetry has made its commercial debut. One system is in operation and its inventor, IntelliServ, says it will build eight more this year. Finally, you can read about the new Scanner logging system in this month's Tech Watch. All good ideas, all show great promise, and surely there are some more Oscar winners just waiting for their curtain call.

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