E&P Magazine - May 2000
Cover Story
Striving for perfection
The industry's greatest achievements in recent years are probably in drilling and subsea technologies.
Drilling Technologies
It's a whole new game
Technology and best practices will drive growth and improve the performance of existing assets.
Features
Getting into Ghana
When a country announces its first oil strike in more than 20 years, it will usually draw only a flicker of initial interest from explorationists, who will immediately draw the conclusion that there must have been an awful lot of dusters drilled between the two successful wildcats.
Tech Watch
Multi minilaterals
Completions and workovers are always undertaken with the hope that minimal formation damage will result and fluids will flow freely into the well.
Activity Highlights
Recognition Day
In most walks of working life, there's nothing worse than not having your work appreciated by your boss.
Another Perspective
A process of illumination
Reprocessing brings new ideas to light in older data.
Assessing the value of Offshore R&D
Oil company research and development (R&D) can add tremendous value.
Estimating Formation Permeability
A new method of formation evaluation computes permeability using standard well test and log data.
Exploration heading deeper in the Caspian
Exploration activity in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea is set to go deeper, with the news that the first well to be drilled in a Chevron project will be in more than 1,630ft (500m) of water.
Great Expectations
Although the Caspian Sea region is one of the oldest oil-producing provinces on earth, it still has striking promise for future discoveries.
Idling the armada
Until marine seismic capacity is reduced, contractors will continue to struggle.
Joining the Caspian Club
If the present shortage of offshore drilling installations in the Caspian is to be solved, it appears to be through the "rig club" scheme operating in the region.
Lukoil's 2 billion bbl Caspian Sea strike
Lukoil has made a significant oil discovery in its sector of the Caspian Sea that could promote it to Russia's No. 1 oil company in terms of reserves.
Measure P-, S-waves while drilling
A new logging-while-drilling (LWD) sonic tool provides compressional and shear logs in fast and slow formations.
Quality improvements impact seismic business
Originally an exploration tool, reflection seismic has evolved into a valuable reservoir imaging technique.
Recent advances show promise
With better imaging than traditional 3D and declining costs, multicomponent technology promises to have positive impacts throughout the E&P cycle.
Turkmenistan 2000 licensing round launched
Following on from the unveiling of Turkmenistan's new offshore licensing acreage offer in the Caspian Sea, the government has released details on its targeted production levels.
Waiting for the good times
Seismic contractors are noticing tiny rays of light after a very dark 1999. But 2000 is not likely to become dazzling any time soon.
World Map
Where credit is due
With 3D seismic enjoying the reputation of being a necessity for almost all exploration activity, maybe it's time to say "thanks" to all our geophysical contractor friends.