E&P Magazine - February 2006

Adopt habits of effective explorers

Exploration success isn't just luck. Performance leaders use techniques that make them winners.

Avoid costly oilpatch lawsuits

Sometimes a handshake works. When it doesn't, the results can be painful.

Isn't it time for real time?

For nearly a decade now the upstream industry has been striving to realize an ideal future state in which oil and gas field evaluation, planning, drilling and producing operations may be conducted in "real time."

Sounds like a broken record

Drill bits, the sharp end of the spear in oilfield operations, relentlessly raise the performance bar.

Harvesting wasted energy downhole

A new concept that uses piezoelectric material in progressing cavity motors promises a reliable downhole power source.

Tech Trends

With the current upturn in the energy business, many companies are finding they lack the time and manpower to generate an appropriate number of exploration and exploitation well targets.

Check New Zealand for opportunity

Drilling for dollars

New technology and techniques are enabling extended life for oil and gas wells around the world.

Aging gracefully

You're only as old as you feel - not all data has a short shelf life.

Integrated operations enhance value

Move beyond information technology for field management.

Peak Oil?

We have kept our heads down as the debate about peak oil has raged around us.

News and Analysis

Petroleum Geo-Services ASA (PGS) has decided to refinance most of its debt by raising a US $1 billion facility, comprised of an $850 million loan and a $150 million revolving credit facility.

A fluid concept

A formation testing portfolio provides complete reservoir characterization.

Commercial subsea separation nears

One of the first commercial subsea separation systems paves the way for future offshore advances.

Data squeezes more work from wells

Monitoring and control offer new benchmarks in well optimization.

Finding what others missed

Reprocessing seismic data with new techniques helps identify bypassed pay.

Increasing reliability in subsea systems

Reliable, available and maintainable subsea systems are best achieved by using powerful analytical tools and an integrated systems approach at every stage of development.

Intervention in mature environments

Production optimization has become a buzz word within the industry as operators ask, "How can I get more from what I have already got?"

Microhole drilling shaves well costs

Low-cost drilling systems using microhole technologies can give operators reservoir access in marginal fields for half the cost of conventional rigs.

Microholes for microdarcy reservoirs

Microhole coiled tubing drilling re-energizes a mature gas play in Kansas and Colorado.

Middle East offers giant profits

Technology boosts production capacity and earnings for large and small operators.

Multiphase meters enter well bore

Better information from downhole meters improves optimization and response times.

No pressure data? No problem.

An automated and iterative technique integrates decline curve analysis, type curve matching and reservoir simulation to converge to a set of reservoir characteristics.

Optical systems deliver the goods

With clear advantages and solid reliability, optical monitoring systems are gaining traction as the preferred way to manage reservoirs downhole.

Rendering realistic channels

A new reservoir characterization methodology promises to be more than "yet another channel simulator."

Saudi Aramco boosts world energy

Fields and technology add production efficiency for world's premier oil exporter.

More new tools for Sherlock

As prospects get harder to find, technology developers try new techniques.