E&P Magazine - July 2008
As I See It
As I see it: Pain killer at the pump
Here, presented as a public service, is an extremely simple way to determine how to maintain automobile fuel expenses at whatever rate you wistfully recall, within the range of possibility. You only have to do one thing — consume less.
Exploration Technologies
Global Exploration: Ain't technology grand?
Recent trade shows have demonstrated that we’re in a golden age for new technology developments.
Starting over — again
After one marine acquisition start-up was bought out from under them, members of that management team are starting afresh.
Drilling Technologies
The only records that count
Among industry “firsts,” extended reach operations are achieving bold advances that only promise to enhance the industry’s capability to attain more reserves with less of an impact.
Completions and Production
Offshore Operations: Limited rig availability and innovative agreements
Shipyards are going full tilt to fill orders to make up the deficit in the international rig fleet, but there seems to be no near-term solution in sight that will resolve the worldwide shortage.
Where the deer and the antelope play
Seldom is heard an encouraging word on operators and environmental stewardship, but on the ground in Pinedale, Wyo., everyone is considered a stakeholder in keeping things pure and natural.
Special Report
IDM changes the game
Integrated decision management (IDM) changes how decisions are made. This final article of the three-part series shows how IDM promotes and contributes to successful implementation of those decisions.
Digital Solutions
Digital Oil Field: A new approach to WebGIS maps
Integrated WebGIS creates a repository to promote faster access to E&P documents and records in smaller companies.
Model and simulate subsea control systems
By using a simulation tool to test a system virtually before putting it into production, various alternative solutions can be tested in ways that are not practicable in real life.
Features
Aeration improves water remediation
Increasing demand for oil is pushing the industry to produce greater amounts of hydrocarbons. Advances in water treatment technologies will allow increased oil production without the liability of large volumes of contaminated water.
Applied asset management pays off
Asset team calls on eight technologies to answer critical reservoir delineation questions.
Artificial Lift: Double play in Ecuador
A dual concentric ESP completion saves money, boosts profits, and satisfies regulations in a single innovative package.
Artificial Lift: Giving liquid a little lift
For gas wells drowning under liquid loading, an economical, efficient artificial lift method is a lifeline to restoring steady production.
Artificial Lift: Stirling-cycle generators in production operations
Technology first developed in 1816 is employed as a highly effective solution for well-pumping and other power requirements in remote well locations.
Detect near-bit vibration in real time
Severe downhole vibrations can damage drilling equipment, including the drill bit, drill collars, stabilizers, measurement-while-drilling/logging-while-drilling (MWD/LWD) tools, and rotary steerable systems (RSSs). Advances in near-bit sensor technology are now allowing drillers to use vibration sensor information while drilling to optimize rotary-steerable operations.
Excitement building for rotary steerables
West Texas operators experience dramatic savings in cost per reservoir-foot in zone when they take a high-tech approach.
Extended reach, multilateral drainage or both?
It is just a matter of time before ERD and multilateral drilling techniques converge and are then applied to more effectively develop those reservoirs that need it most.
Formation mineralogy key to inhibiting scale
Correct planning can reduce the frequency of squeeze operations needed to place scale inhibitors into the formation.
Human capital strategies
Companies that continue to thrive must develop unique and creative ways of attracting and retaining human capital that will allow their organization to grow and prosper.
Integrative opportunity planning
Shell seeks to reduce time without sacrificing understanding using a new software tool in front-end planning.
Introducing 'greengineers'
The big challenge of the 21st century is more than simply protecting our environment; it’s about thriving in a future that is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable.
It's about who you've known
Web-based alumni networks are helping oil and gas companies maintain their most valuable asset — experienced employees.
LCM, pre-drill planning contend with hole instability
A wellbore strengthening treatment initiative incorporating particulate or chemical-based lost-circulation material (LCM) and comprehensive pre-drill planning addresses the hazards associated with hole instability.
Logging and Formation Evaluation: Advancements enable precise sampling
New formation testing technology tools overcome mixed-phase fluid challenges.
Logging and Formation Evaluation: Advice for carbonates
A new service combines a vast array of formation evaluation data into a seamless workflow.
Logging and Formation Evaluation: Production testing in difficult wells
Oman/Shell joint venture PDO overcomes access and production logging challenges in North Oman.
Logging and Formation Evaluation: Tools improve real-time wireline data delivery
A new data delivery system speeds up processing and interpretation time.
Mature Assets: Breathing new life into old fields
Mature fields may lack the sparkle of a new play, but can still yield enormous returns.
Mature Assets: More data from mature offshore fields
New system uses spare subsea electrical circuitry or co-existent power supplies to convey increased well and reservoir data to topside data acquisition systems for analysis.
North Sea Operations: Automated safeguarding enters the drilling process
A new approach closes the loop between what is physically possible to do from a well tolerance perspective and the commands issued through drilling controls.
North Sea Operations:Finding the sweet spots
Well placement in mature reservoirs can be tricky, but the right logging-while-drilling tools makes it easier.
Preserve near-wellbore permeability
A new chemical sand-consolidation method is reliably controlling sand production and increasing oil-recovery rates from weakly consolidated sandstone reservoirs in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.
Resolving thin stringer sands
Novel processing techniques help one operator overcoming obstacles related to thin, sub-seismic features in the shallow Gulf of Mexico.
Smart water management yields extra barrels
In a world where easy oil is a thing of the past, technology remains key to unleashing difficult resources.
Software provides new insight
New methodologies enable geologists to map old fields with logging data.
Treat production problems before they occur
Pumped with a frac deep into the formation, long-life specialty chemicals prevent expensive post-stimulation buildups of scale, paraffin, bacteria, and other troublesome contaminants.
Turning the tide
Human Resources (HR) executives list the talent void as one of the top five business issues facing their companies.
Use collaborative earth models in LWD navigation
A common understanding across disciplines can be achieved by sharing real-time LWD data using the familiar environment of a geological framework surrounding the well bore — a three-dimensional earth model.
Validating a new azimuthal LWD sensor
A new azimuthal deep-resistivity logging-while-drilling (LWD) sensor can detect events as far as 18 ft (5.5 m) laterally from a wellbore path and help determine the direction to the approaching event.
Tech Trends
Collapsing depth imaging cycle time
A new algorithm is up to today’s demanding business climate.
New vessel concept simplifies intervention
Unique combination of proven technologies makes heavy well intervention offshore feasible and more cost-effective.
Tech Trend briefs
July Tech Trends.
Tech Trend shorts
A look at August tech trends.
Tech Trends
Solving vibration and stick-slip issues achieves record rate of penetration (ROP) in Pagoreni field, Peru.
On The Move
On the Move
Who's going where in the upstream sector.
On the move
Who's going where in the upstream sector.
Last Word
Last Word: Trip log
We all travel a lot, and we all have the occasional trip from Hades. Here is one for the books.
Activity Spotlight
Latest UK round draws record bids
Drilling activity on the UKCS should be heating up within the next couple of years.
Newfoundland seeks new finds
Newfoundland and Labrador offer up 10 parcels for long-term developments in its burgeoning offshore arena.
Another Perspective
Demographic challenges facing the E&P industry
New workers will be faced with growing challenges in the years to come.
Management Report
Tips for making effective presentations
We’ve all suffered through poorly executed talks. Here’s how to make sure yours isn’t one of them. This is the first of a two-part series.
News & Analysis
News and Analysis
July news and analysis in exploration, drilling, and production.
Oilfield History
Ancient Chinese drilling
Drilling technology is older than we think.
Oilfield History: An ancient history
An entertaining combination of erudition, humor, and colorful prose makes an unlikely appearance in an obscure early history of the petroleum industry.