E&P Magazine - January 2006
As I See It
Risk rises with international move
New dynamics in overseas investments present unique opportunities - and risks - for oilfield service companies.
Strategy leads superior performance
Financial winners take advantage of sophisticated execution strategies.
Cover Story
Monitoring leads to success
As an industry, we have a vital need to invest in our aging reservoir base.
Drilling Technologies
The greatest drillship you'll never see
One of the world's most capable drilling vessels will never strike oil.
Completions and Production
World-class workover
Bumper-to-bumper re-thinking creates a workover rig unlike any other.
Special Report
Chipsets offer performance, efficiency
Cirrus Logic has introduced the Single-S seismic platform, which combines a modulator and digital filter to create a high-resolution single-sensor measurement system for seismic and geophysical data acquisition.
New formula frees flow
A solution to pumping heavy oil seems to be at hand following the successful testing of Proflux technology by Oilflow Solutions Ltd. of Aberdeen, Scotland.
Sensor measures viscosity
A new solid state viscosity sensor called ViSmart from BiODE Inc. holds great promise for several oil industry applications.
Tool eases well log access
The NeuraWellTool from Neuralog is a platform for visualizing annotated work logs.
Tool makes clean downhole cuts
An advanced cutting tool developed by Sondex has demonstrated its ability to quickly cut tubulars downhole with surgical precision.
Features
Angola gets transparent for bid round
Recent laws clarify position of government and operators in production contracts.
Tech Watch
The clash of the titans
According to the brain trust in Hollywood, Roman gladiators used to greet their emperor by chanting, "We, who are about to die, salute you!"
Tech Trends
Journey to the digital oil field
Chevron's self-designed path for IT-enabled transformation shows industry's intent to mine the gold in the IT promise.
Nuclear fracturing bombs out
Atoms for Peace program fails oilpatch testing.
Activity Highlights
A helping hand
There are few causes that I believe are more important than educating the public about our industry to dispel the negative image we have.
Activity Spotlight
Billions sink in deep water
A strong deepwater exploration, drilling and production campaign will consume US $20 billion a year
by 2010, according to Douglas-Westwood's new "World Deepwater Market Forecast."
Blind Faith perseveres
Chevron USA North America Exploration & Production Co. has contracted with Gulf Island LLC to build the topsides
BP weighs super rig
BP Alaska may build a super rig that will allow it to drill extended reach wells from an onshore post on the North Slope of Alaska to reservoir targets 40,000 ft (12,200 m) into the Beaufort Sea.
Brazil excels in Round 7
Brazil awarded 251 exploration blocks in its seventh licensing round, up from 154 blocks awarded in the 2004 round. It had offered 1,134 blocks in the latest round of licensing.
China wins license rights
Three cooperation agreements signed in Beijing cancelled a large part of the debt owed by Equatorial Guinea and opened the African nation to exploration by China's state oil companies. Government officials in Equatorial Guinea did not release details of the agreement.
EMGS increases vessel count
Electromagnetic Geoservices AS (emgs) has commissioned a third vessel, the MV Sasha, to conduct marine electromagnetic surveys.
ExxonMobil cuts drilling cost
Exxon Mobil Corp. engineers have come up with the Fast Drill Process (FDP) that cuts drilling time up to 35% by using real-time computer analysis of energy consumed in the drilling system.
H&P builds new rigs
Helmerich & Payne will build and operate 16 new FlexRigs under 3-year contracts with three exploration and production companies.
Hydrate funds released
The US Department of Energy will grant US $2 million to help fund five research efforts leading to the safe production of methane hydrates.
Kiwis help exploration
The New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development wants to give oil and gas companies more information about its resources so they'll feel more inclined to license properties in the island nation.
KS plans Qatar rig
An oil company based in Qatar has ordered a US $7.9 million land rig from KS Energy Services. The price includes all construction, transportation and set-up costs.
MTEM read to roll
Multi-Transient Electro Magnetic (MTEM), a spin-out of technology developed at Edinburgh University, has tested its new system in the Firth of Forth,
New releases
Microsoft has unveiled a new "supercomputing-friendly" version of Windows that makes ultra-powerful computing systems affordable and easier to deploy and use. For more information, visit www.microsoft.com.
Oil sands grow
EnCana plans a program to invest US $5 billion into its Canadian oil sands projects
Oils win legal battle
In one of the largest awards in its 140-year history, the United States Court of Federal Claims unsealed its US $1.1 billion award to 12 oil and gas companies...
Purchases and acquisitions
LaMesa Geophysical has purchased an acquisition system from Vib-Tech. The source type is "accelerated weight drop" and the equipment is the Vib-Tech IT system.
Shell upgrades semisub
Shell will charter a Sedco 700-series semisubmersible drilling rig for 3 years with an additional 2-year option in return for Transocean's pledge to upgrade the rig at a cost of US $300 million.
TGC adds crew
TGC Industries Inc. has deployed its fifth seismic crew and has equipped it with an ARAM ARIES recording system. The crew will work in the continental United States.
Tunisia opens acreage
Tunisia's production is declining, and the government would like to do something to halt that decline by inviting more foreign companies in to search for oil and gas.
Veritas completes library
Time Seismic Exchange Ltd., a subsidiary of Veritas DGC Inc., has completed a series of major 3-D seismic library programs in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies.
Wartsila builds engines
Wartsila picked up a contract to supply six engines totaling 46 MW for the world's largest drillship.
Another Perspective
Are unconventional resources for real?
Unconventional gas reservoirs in the United States are hinting at mind-boggling reserves.
Automate and track company assets
Keeping track of assets and pieces of assets to coordinate location and management is getting easier.
Coming soon - desktop 3-D immersion?
A new system removes the headaches of current visualization displays.
Fayetteville Shale draws a crowd
Shales are big news in unconventional resource plays, and Arkansas makes a healthy contribution.
Monitoring upstream assets
The shift from reactive maintenance to a condition-based and predictive paradigm is lowering costs and extending reservoir life.
New tool finds gas, wherever it is
As natural gas resource development grows worldwide, operators need an improved method to effectively evaluate formation gas saturation through casing.
Options for CBM production
With the coalbed methane market heating up, equipment manufacturers are custom-designing artificial lift solutions.
Preparing for Petascale
Multicore microprocessor architectures promise petaflops levels of performance - 1,000 times more powerful than today's teraflops computers - by the end of the decade.
Reversible fluid performs in HP/HT
High-temperature reversible invert fluid enhances drilling and completion performance in carbonate reservoir.
Seeing between a rock and a hard place
Windows-based visualization of high-frequency seismic volumes optimizes reservoir potential in a channel play.
Water-based fluid works in reactive shales
Highly inhibitive water-based fluid provides drilling performance comparable to invert emulsion systems in reactive shale sections.
Water-based replaces nonaqueous mud
New, water-based mud system is successful as an environmentally compliant alternative to nonaqueous fluids on Gulf of Mexico shelf wells.
World Map
Lights! Camera! Geophysics!
Geoscience goes a little Hollywood as SEG celebrates its 75th.