E&P Magazine - December 2009
As I See It
EPmag.com – Hart’s best-kept secret
What has become known as “information overload” is actually, to quote a friend of mine, “information pollution.
Exploration Technologies
Exploration geophysicist not just looking for oil and gas
University of Houston professor gets students excited about science.
Drilling Technologies
Drilling down in Canada
Gas drilling declines for fourth year.
Completions and Production
Good news, school’s in session!
In case you’re tired of hearing our industry being bashed in the press, by Congress or anyone else with an axe to grind, here’s a holiday present for you.
Digital Solutions
Delivering production in 2010 and beyond
Oil and gas producers operate in a world of seemingly conflicting objectives: to deliver more oil today from a well or series of wells while simultaneously reducing operating expenditures. To get more oil, pumps and compressors need to run harder, which consumes more fuel and increases maintenance costs. This has been the challenge of best-in-class operators for years.
Get more out of capital assets
Using a systematic approach called Design, Operate, Maintain, companies are realizing significant savings through enterprise asset management.
Features
Better rigs and tools improve drilling outlook
New rig designs, control systems, drilling risers, and API specifications are among the rollouts this year.
Breaking Barriers
Biggest, fastest, first-ever — it’s all in a year’s work.
Brighter days are on the horizon
Financial indicators point to an economy in the early stages of recovery.
Exploration technology: Ready for the rebound
You want better-faster-cheaper? You got it! Innovative technologies continue to emerge.
Great ideas benefit production
There is no end to the great ideas that come from our creative and innovative industry; unfortunately, the uptake of many of these ideas seems to move at geologic speed.
O&G capex will rise in 2010
Capital expenditure of oil and gas companies, after surging from 2007 to 2008, witnessed a significant decrease in 2009. In 2010, capex activity is expected to go up, driven mainly by large national oil companies.
Production is the name of the game
Exploration is important, drilling is important, reservoir characterization is important, but at the end of the day, it’s production that pays the bills.
Woodside pushes toward global leadership in LNG
Mary Hackett, Woodside Petroleum Ltd.’s onshore project manager for Pluto trains two and three, talks about the company’s vision to be a global LNG leader as well as the key projects and people that will help the company realize this goal.
Worldwide Drilling: Testing Limits
New rigs, deeper wells, and Arctic drilling drew attention this year.
Tech Trends
Airborne technology identifies, maps CBM seeps
A technology typically used for discovering pipeline leaks helps a Ute tribe monetize its natural gas.
Tech Trends
A look at December tech trends.
On The Move
Last Word
Offshore technological advances define new business model
In the past decade or so, a steady stream of new technologies, some with revolutionary impact, has empowered offshore producers to search for and recover oil and gas in almost unimaginably deep or pernicious waters from reservoirs previously deemed unproductive or inaccessible.
Activity Spotlight
North Dakota oil production up 27%
North Dakota posts record oil production in 2009
Management Report
Innovation, automation drive oilfield efficiencies, increase productivity
While the oil industry consistently produces leading-edge technology, early adoption is not necessarily the watchword. Instead, conservatism is the rule, with ‘a mad dash to be second’ when new technological products are introduced.