E&P Magazine - February 2005
As I See It
Oil industry focuses in efficiency
With high product prices, the key challenge for exploration and production (E&P) companies is not just to reduce costs, but to improve efficiency, develop sustainable improvement processes and align operations performance with value creation.
Cover Story
Be a good neighbor
Along with directional drilling and the pursuit of deep gas, the international oilpatch needs to become more effective at a new line of work - community development projects.
Drilling Technologies
Driller's Culture needs improvement
This column begins a six-part series on drilling practices and improvement based on an industry study by James Miller & Co.
Completions and Production
China exports hi-tech land rigs
A new series of land rigs has been introduced in China that features an award-winning variable frequency drive and digital control functions.
Features
Jamaica opens for business
Caribbean nation seeks first oil and gas production.
Tech Watch
Smooth out the technology path
Focus and reward are keys to technology growth.
Tech Trends
Digital oil field gains momentum
Technology transforms performance through optimization, monitoring and control.
Activity Highlights
Nugatory onde secondaire
Salud. And nugatory onde secondaire, which, of course, in legatechnich means "void secondary wave," a term much used in the seismic industry.
Another Perspective
2005 Drill Bit Technology
After more than a century of drilling, one would think that drill bit innovation should be close to a plateau - not so, as this year's bit technology roundup proves.
Cover your assets
Terrorism is a fact of life. But savvy operators can still protect their investments.
Integration aids characterization
Combining advanced seismic facies classification with innovative smoothing techniques helps to fine-tune interpretation.
New ways to make wells work harder
Faster and cheaper well intervention was the aim behind a campaign carried out by Statoil late 2004 working with a new subsea lubricator stack which has made rigless workovers a reality.
Prepared for the worst
Contingency planning can save huge dividends when developing a drilling program.
Project continues to push the limits
Colorado School of Mines' Reservoir Characterization Project is entering its 20th year of developing leading-edge techniques and technology to better understand complex reservoirs.
Sub-surface sophistication grows
Technical sophistication below the water line is growing by the day as operators continue to install new systems to optimize their subsea operations.
Subsea driller seeks support
Design work is underway to perfect a subsea drilling rig (SDR) system that has potential to offer a step change in exploration costs in either deepwater or under-ice environments.
Uncertainty assessment in 3-D modeling
Tools that can integrate all data must be used for modeling undertainty.
Window opens for re-entry jobs
Hard formations, high-grade casings give way to new all-in-one window mill that can cut a window and drill a drainhole on one trip.
World Map
Journey to the center of te Earth
At what point do we stop drilling for gas and start hitting magma? Operators in the Deep Shelf play in the Gulf of Mexico seem intent on solving that riddle.