E&P Magazine - October 2002
As I See It
Do you know where your payables are?
With accounting practices under intense scrutiny, accrual of field tickets and reconciliation with invoices can be made more accurate, timely and transparent using information technology.
Information enhances risk management
Valid and timely information is the foundation for any successful risk-management process.
Cover Story
Ethics required
Today's upstream business climate of consolidation, mergers, long-term alliances and total buy-outs has the potential of leaving the engineering community in a quandary of allegiances.
Drilling Technologies
Computer links driller and machine
Technology is essential for the well-connected driller.
Features
Rocky Mountain gas lights ambitious fires
Big fields and long-lived reserves draw big players.
Tech Watch
Oman tests short-radius technology
Even mature reservoirs can enjoy the benefits of horizontal well completions through the use of ultrashort-radius, rotary steerable drilling systems.
Activity Highlights
MEA gets a makeover
Before I get chatty this month, there are a couple of housekeeping things I need to cover with you.
Another Perspective
A new Paradigm: looking to the future
Paradigm Geophysical sheds the shackles of Wall Street to pursue its vision.
Approach restores surface data
A new method improves seismic reflection detail and continuity.
Building intelligent multilaterals
During the past 10 years, thousands of multilateral wells have been drilled worldwide, while scores of "intelligent" wells have been monitored and controlled downhole.
Deriving directional permeability
Multicomponent induction log data can provide permeability readings more consistent with reservoir-scale data.
Enhanced pump boosts GOM output
The RamPump is one part of an overall strategy to supply pumping capability to move fluids from the reservoir to the tank.
Getting a good grip on tubulars
With tubing strings getting longer and heavier, and specialty tubing getting slicker and more expensive, new gripping technology is needed to hold on tight without damaging the pipe.
New method reveals hydrocarbons
A new spectral decomposition method utilizing wavelet transforms reveals seismic direct hydrocarbon indicators that are not obvious on conventional stacked seismic data.
PCPs, ESPs evolve for niche markets
Unconventional resources call for unconventional responses to artificial lift problems.
PGS: Torpedoed!
Veritas DGC's board gets cold feet on the eve of the company's proposed merger with PGS.
Setting a new standard
A two-component multilateral junction enhances collapse resistance, excludes sand and enables a wide variety of completion options.
Technoogy expands well horizons
Expandable tubulars have now been deployed using corrosion-resistant alloys to increase the diameter of the production conduit and to shut off corroded and partially collapsed perforations.
Third-generation tool is a charm
The new AutoTrak G3 system drilled 6,000 ft in a single run offshore Norway and saved a UK operator a lot of money in the North Sea.
Tubulars go high-tech
No longer are oil country tubular goods merely "dumb iron."
Two duals and a three in the Irish Sea
Teamwork and technology contributed to the successful installation of three offshore multilateral wells for Burlington Resources.
World Map
Call to Arms
Do whales have a louder voice in Washington than seismic contractors?