E&P Magazine - February 2009
As I See It
Of ice cream and presidents
The concept of continuity is especially appropriate on this day, for it is the 20th of January, the day we inaugurate a new president.
Exploration Technologies
EM for the masses
Until recently electromagnetic surveys have been the purview of a select few. One company plans to change that.
Drilling Technologies
Diversity is the key
The best way to survive industry downturns is to find new avenues for providing value through alternate services.
Completions and Production
A new look at an old problem
For industry professionals who undoubtedly spend the lion’s share of their time ‘communicating,’ it may not seem very helpful simply to say, ‘You need to do it better.’ The problem is that the best effort accounts for little when supporting infrastructure is unequal to the task.
Deepwater investment
The world financial crisis has impacted the budgets of operating companies, but deep water, which is developing into a long-term growth sector, will not be one of the line items that comes under scrutiny.
UK cuts taxes to entice investors
In a move to sharpen the country’s competitive edge, regulators in the UK are lowering taxes to attract a greater share of E&P investment.
Special Report
Cooperation puts province back on the map
Operating companies that have been active in Atlantic Canada have teamed up to speed drilling programs that could lead to additional production offshore Newfoundland and Labrador.
Digital Solutions
Finding the ‘killer app’ in industrial wireless
Technological advances, newly emergent standards, and hunger for more data at the right price are driving increased use of wireless sensor networks in the upstream oil and gas industry. Moreover, additional petroleum industry uses for wireless technology are seen in the areas of security, safety, and asset management. But as its use proliferates, so too will the need to comprehensively manage these wireless networks.
Features
An essential tool for optimizing reserves
Reservoir characterization projects should be undertaken with the end result in mind.
Atlantic Canada seeks sustainability
Newfoundland and Labrador has had its ups and downs with offshore exploration, but the approval of the Hebron development, combined with forward-looking plans initiated by the provincial government, has changed the local mood from cautiously optimistic to buoyant.
Elevated RPM with increased ROP
Application-specific roller cone bits equipped to withstand higher energy inputs can deliver better performance in critical applications.
Geologic modeling for seismic inversion
The use of impedances inverted from seismic data helps generate attributes for reservoir property analysis and estimation.
Green Point: The Next Big Shale Play?
Recent exploration in Port au Port Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador has established the presence of a rich source rock/unconventional reservoir unit within the Cambro-Ordovician Green Point formation of the Humber Arm Allochthon. Could it be the next big North American shale play?
Holistic reservoir characterization
This approach starts with raw digital data, data conditioning, and data fusion to create realistic 3-D reservoir models.
Innovative test equipment
Well testing provides answers that are not available any other way, supporting critical decisions that can affect reservoirs for their active life. Getting test data more swiftly allows operators to make faster production decisions.
Intuition to precision
New software allows wells to be drilled with fewer bits and fewer trips and aids in premium hole quality, which reduces nonproductive time in the most complex wells.
Mutiphase metering
Use of multiphase metering has seen considerable growth and adoption in the oil and gas industry the past several years. As an effective alternative to expensive and labor-intensive well-testing operations — involving test separators, cumbersome mobile well-test units, and maintenance-intensive platform facilities — the potential for growing use of multiphase meters is significant.
New system enables rigless subsea well abandonment
A uniquely engineered vessel deployment system has completed what may be the world’s deepest rigless subsea production well abandonment.
PDC technology redefines standards
PDC bit technology is fine-tuned for specific formations located in fields traditionally dominated by roller cone bit applications.
Predictive modeling reduces uncertainty
A seismic-to-simulation workflow achieved a 95% history match without porosity modifiers.
Quantec PDC sets worldwide standard
Quantec premium PDC bits are fast, tough, and stable.
Reliability – critical in slimhole drilling
Modern drilling environments require renewed focus on cost reduction. Slimhole drilling can save casing and cement costs.
Sophisticated dynamic modeling
UNIX-based finite element analysis (FEA) drilling simulation model incorporates more than 1,000,000 lines of code to accurately reflect the complexity of the total drilling system.
Subsea tool enables deepwater intervention
Intervention is necessary to maintain production levels, but when workover rig and vessel day rates are high, the costs can sometimes outweigh the benefits.
Tech Trends
Control fines migration
Nanoparticle-treated fracture proppant attracts and fixates formation fines with remarkable efficiency.
Tech Trends
A look at February tech trends.
On The Move
On the move
Who's going where in the upstream sector.
Last Word
The last dash for gas
Climate change, security of supply, and oil prices consistently well in excess of $100 a barrel in the first half of 2008 have pushed the issue of power generation to the top of the social, economic, and political agendas in many countries.
Activity Spotlight
Nova Scotia offers deepwater blocks
Increased interest in Atlantic Canada is pushing exploration into deeper water.
Another Perspective
Reinventing a company
Sometimes, a company that looks “down and out” really just needs a makeover.
Management Report
Achieving project management competence
In 2009, 40 years after NASA landed on the moon and in a world so technology-driven that seemingly only isolated tribes do not e-mail daily, one question that regularly pops up is, “What is the status of project management in the oil industry?”
Oilfield History
Yellow Dog: Icon of the American oil field
Oilpatch lore says “yellow dog” lanterns were so named because their two burning wicks resembled a dog’s glowing eyes at night. Others say the lamps cast a dog’s head shadow on the derrick floor.