E&P Magazine - June 2008
As I See It
Show and tell
OTC has become the Home Depot of the global petroleum industry, a one-stop bazaar for all your field development needs regardless of geography or geology, complete with eager clerks standing by to serve.
Streamlining rig and office administration
By streamlining business processes, drilling contractors can increase their activity without increasing worker headcount.
Cover Story
Put the hammer down
My friend and colleague Don Francis is fond of saying "to a hammer everything looks like a nail." The interminable US presidential campaigns have turned that saying on its ear. Currently we have a number of hammers in search of a nail - McCain, Obama, Clinton and a host of lesser players. One of the biggest nails they have found, and one that they are hammering really hard, is the price of oil. Ah, and the arguments and remedies they have come up with.
Exploration Technologies
The next great frontier
Space is the final frontier, but tapping its resources may be closer than we think.
Drilling Technologies
Coming soon to a field near you
An exploration of OTC turns up noteworthy new well construction tools.
Coming soon to a field near you
An exploration of OTC turns up noteworthy new well construction tools.
Completions and Production
NOC does it right — StatoilHydro ups revenues
After registering a setback in 4Q 2007 as a result of the merger between Statoil and Hydro, the new company has bounced back with a vengeance. “The merger has strengthened our financial capacity, our competence, and resources base, and thereby our competitiveness,” said Helge Lund, StatoilHydro chief executive.
Special Report
Making the most of the hand you are dealt
Integrated Decision Management (IDM) helps to identify, economically evaluate, and implement superior alternatives — even where it appears that none exist.
New tool solves conventional jet-pump problems
Hybrid tool combines qualities of conventional gas lift valves and hydraulic jet pump.
Digital Solutions
Leverage the power of paperless maps
A map is just a pretty picture unless it’s tied to your data.
Features
Alaska's North Slope: promising or in decline?
Oil production from Alaska's North Slope has declined since it began in 1977. Will the proposed Denali gas pipeline stimulate a non-existent natural gas market in this prolific region?
Articulated joint system reduces topside rotation
Joints make the system react to the applied environmental loads in a fundamentally different manner compared to the performance of single hull floaters.
Assessing contaminated gas
Although contaminated gas makes up a small amount of the world’s reserves, those reserves are becoming increasingly important to international oil companies (IOCs). National oil companies (NOCs) are capitalizing on easier-to-produce sweet gas reserves and leaving the more difficult contaminated reservoirs for the IOCs.
BC-10 project is on track
Shell applies a suite of advanced technologies to develop a challenging project offshore Brazil.
Casing drilling lowers well costs
Always on the lookout for new technology that improves efficiency, increases safety and lower costs, one Chinese oilfield operator found a solution by drillling the top section of wells with a casing drilling system.
Chemical recovery at less than $1/bbl
A new dilute chemical method can recover more than half of the oil left in depleted, fractured, oil-wet carbonate reservoirs at a chemical cost of less than US $1/bbl of oil. The process depends on compressing the gas in depleted reservoirs by injecting dilute (< 0.1 wt%) surfactant alkaline solutions, altering the wettability, and producing the oil by wettability alteration.
Colombia is open for business
Dr. Armando Zamora, director general of Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos (ANH), Colombia’s national hydrocarbons agency, outlined the country’s plans for the upcoming bidding round and the efforts being made to differentiate Colombia as a favorable place for international investors.
Continuously monitor metal fatigue on rig
Complete metal fatigue or even wear before complete failure can be continuously measured using the technology of harmonic footprinting.
Data compression is key
Chevron overcomes file size limitations to deploy satellite images in mobile field mapping projects.
Deep or detailed, real-time images pay off
Faced with developing a tough, multizone reservoir in Ecuador, an innovative combination of real-time images was used to make proactive geosteering decisions.
Discoveries lead to prospecting
Offshore opportunities abound from Benin to Sierra Leone.
Expandable casing patch and liner hanger
Solid expandable technology, expandable casing patch systems, and expandable liner hangers enable many new techniques for drilling and completion operations.
Expandables revitalize mature assets
Expandable technology enables improved efficiency and economics in well remediation and sidetrack projects.
Impact of miscible CO2 flooding on HCGOR
The current price regime of crude makes it imperative that CO2 flooding scoping models account for the extra gas processing expense that comes with increased gas handling volumes and the additional revenue that comes from the highly profitable natural gas liquid (NGL) stream.
Monobore technology expands applications
A new generation of solid tubular expandable liners provides dependable results even when conditions are deemed high risk.
New system overcomes frontier challenges
Low-frequency passive seismic can go where conventional seismic often can’t and can provide a clearer indication of hydrocarbon
Optimization after 60 years of production
Optimizing reservoir management, re-building surface facilities, and infill drilling result in a substantial increase in the value of a field producing for almost 60 years.
Providing interpretations, evaluating potential
Increased oil recovery (IOR) screening of the fractured Mogollón Formation in northwestern Peru has led to a plan that will increase recovery and has targeted areas for additional study.
Putting positioning errors in their place
A new method for survey design overcomes repeatability issues.
Raising the Cherokee Basin’s CBM profile
The Cherokee Basin is emerging as a significant coalbed methane (CBM) play.
Water management in CBM reservoirs
A proposed method reduces total dissolved solids in produced water.
Tech Watch
NOC does it right - StatoilHydro ups
After registering a setback in 4Q 2007 as a result of the merger between Statoil and Hydro, the new company has bounced back with a vengeance. "The merger has strengthened our financial capacity, our competence, and resources base, and thereby our competitiveness," said Helge Lund, StatoilHydro chief executive.
Tech Trends
Leverage the power of paperless maps
A map is just a pretty picture unless it's tied to your data.
New tool solves conventional jet-pump problems
Hybrid tool combines qualities of conventional gas lift valves and hydraulic jet pump.
Tech Trend briefs
June Tech trend shorts.
Activity Highlights
Show and tell
If you were fortunate enough to have visited this year's edition of the Oilfield Technology Conf - correction, Offshore Technology Conference - you may have been struck by the thought that some - let's face it, a lot - of the technology on display was only marginally related to offshore-specific operations.
On The Move
On the Move
Who's going where in the upstream sector.
Last Word
Put the hammer down
Currently we have a number of hammers in search of a nail — McCain, Obama, Clinton and a host of lesser players.
The first gun perforator service truck
The first service "car," as it was known, worked in the field for seven years. By the time the vehicle was retired from service, larger and more capable trucks were performing its service tasks. The first gun perforator service truck, though, will always have a special place in oilfield history.
Activity Spotlight
Alaska’s North Slope: promising or in decline?
Oil production from Alaska’s North Slope has declined. Will the proposed Denali gas pipeline stimulate a non-existent natural gas market in this prolific region?
Slimming down the oil and gas well
Reduced well construction cost through the use of slender well technology is closer to being a reality.
Another Perspective
Assessing contaminated gas
Although contaminated gas makes up a small amount of the world's reserves, those reserves are becoming increasingly important to international oil companies (IOCs). National oil companies (NOCs) are capitalizing on easier-to-produce sweet gas reserves and leaving the more difficult contaminated reservoirs for the IOCs.
Chemical recovery at less than $1/bbl
A new dilute chemical method can recover more than half of the oil left in depleted, fractured, oil-wet carbonate reservoirs at a chemical cost of less than US $1/bbl of oil. The process depends on compressing the gas in depleted reservoirs by injecting dilute (< 0.1 wt%) surfactant alkaline solutions, altering the wettability, and producing the oil by wettability alteration.
Drill Rig Technology
Joints make the system react to the applied environmental loads in a fundamentally different manner compared to the performance of single hull floaters.
Expandable casing patch and liner hanger
Solid expandable technology, expandable casing patch systems, and expandable liner hangers enable many new techniques for drilling and completion operations.
Expandables revitalize mature assets
Expandable technology enables improved efficiency and economics in well remediation and sidetrack projects.
Impact of miscible CO2 flooding on HCGOR
The current price regime of crude makes it imperative that CO2 flooding scoping models account for the extra gas processing expense that comes with increased gas handling volumes and the additional revenue that comes from the highly profitable natural gas liquid (NGL) stream.
Monobore technology expands applications
A new generation of solid tubular expandable liners provides dependable results even when conditions are deemed high risk.
Optimization after 60 years of production
Optimizing reservoir management, re-building surface facilities, and infill drilling result in a substantial increase in the value of a field producing for almost 60 years.
Retain your talented female employees
Women have made great strides in gaining acceptance in the petroleum industry, but a large percentage feels they face gender-related obstacles. This can lead to retention problems.
Slimming down the oil and gas well
Reduced well construction cost through the use of slender well technology is closer to being a reality.
Water management in CBM reservoirs
A proposed method reduces total dissolved solids in produced water.
International Spotlight
Retain your talented female employees
Women have made great strides in gaining acceptance in the petroleum industry, but a large percentage feels they face gender-related obstacles. This can lead to retention problems.
Management Report
Streamlining rig and office administration
By streamlining business processes, drilling contractors can increase their activity without increasing worker headcount.
News & Analysis
News and Analysis
June news and analysis.
Oilfield History
The first gun perforator service truck
The first service “car,” as it was known, worked in the field for seven years. By the time the vehicle was retired from service, larger and more capable trucks were performing its service tasks. The first gun perforator service truck, though, will always have a special place in oilfield history.
World Map
The next great frontier
In our industry "exploration" usually refers to finding oil and gas through a variety of sensing methods (or with the drill bit). But in a larger sense it means stepping outside one's comfort zone to discover new things.