Sept. 2000 Vol. 221 No. 9  Offshore

Robert E. Snyder,  Editor

Petrobras adds to Campos basin; Ten energy innovations

Petrobras has been drilling a new well on the big discovery it made in Santos basin last year to begin to sketch out a development plan for the area. In its July 27 report, Subsea Engineering News says the appraisal well, RJS-550, is in the BS-500 block, where the company discovered potential recoverable reserves of 600 to 700 MMbbl last year. Drilling and testing, to have been concluded in July, is expected to provide important additional reservoir information.

The appraisal was drilled by Diamond Offshore’s drillship NS-21. According to SEN, Petrobras will probably drill two more wells in the area before deciding on a development scheme for the project.

In another report in the same July issue, SEN says the five-company Angola Block 17 License Group has begun a technology project to explore the use of multiphase pumps in water depths to 1,500 m. The project is called MPSP-1500, Phase 1. No manufacturer is reportedly directly involved, although Sulzer provided the pumps to Total for its Dunbar project.

Of the group, comprising TotalFinaElf, Statoil, Norsk Hydro, BP Amoco and Exxon, most of the companies have been involved in multiphase technology development over the last 15 years. Total and Statoil were partners in the Poseidon project which resulted in the installation on Dunbar platform in the North Sea.

Upcoming energy innovations. In case you are wondering what the rest of the scientific community will be studying regarding "energy" over the next 10 years, Battelle has come up with a forecast of the "Top ten most economically impactful energy innovations by 2010." This is just one of the predictions of a panel of energy experts from Battelle and the several national labs it manages / co-manages for DOE. Driven by economics, R&D, environmental regulations, consumer behavior / preferences, national energy policy, and liability / legal issues, the 10 items, with a summary of Battelle’s descriptions, include:

• Shifting energy industry structure: Deregulation of natural gas / electric utilities will continue, resulting in more competition. Oil companies will become energy companies.
• Hybrid vehicles: Mileage of 70 mpg will create a lot of converts; but full transition may require decades.
• Smart energy management systems: Computers, the Internet and global positioning systems will increase the efficiency of transportation, reduce congestion and traffic delays and be used in heating, air conditioning, household appliances and business equipment.
• Distributed power generation: The current national power grid may not be able to meet skyrocketing demand; power grids of this scale are on the way out. Power may be generated locally for neighborhoods and individual residences and businesses via micro-turbines, internal combustion engines and fuel cells. There will be increased use of natural gas because it’s clean, cheap and available.
• Fuel cells: Fuel cells will become increasingly popular for transportation and for portable and stationary power generation over the next decade. Before being accepted by the public, fuel cells must be made smaller and cheaper.
• Gas to liquid conversion: Scientists predict the development of chemical engineering processes to transform hydrocarbon compounds from gases to liquids. This will permit more flexible use and storage of fuels.
• Advanced batteries: Batteries will continue a 20-year trend of advancements into the next decade. These next-generation batteries will be based on lithium-polymer technology and have about three times as much energy capability as those currently on the market.
• Energy farms: The use of bio-engineered crops for fuels will be hurried along by the genetic revolution that permits cultivation of crops to produce fuels such as ethanol. "We will grow gasoline, so to speak, to lessen our dependence on imported oil," Battelle says.
• Solar energy: Battelle experts see substantial improvements over the next decade. Progress is continually being made in the development of efficient photovoltaic cells.
• Methane hydrate crystal mining: Geologists have discovered rich deposits of frozen natural gas crystals on the ocean bottom. It is expected that this energy source will emerge in the next decade to add to our natural gas production.

Battelle prefaced these predictions with statements like, "We’re in for some major changes during the next 10 years," and "Oil fields could be supplemented by fuel farms, and gas stations will morph into energy stations." It would seem, to me anyway, that 10 years won’t see a whole lot of progress beyond brainstorming on a lot of these topics, probably funded by government money supported by those nasty old oil wells scattered all over the country.

And speaking of a national energy policy, DOE could be spending some of its resources helping the Administration come up with one. For more information on Battelle’s predictions, contact: Media Relations Manager Katy Delaney, Tel: 614 424 5544, E-mail: delaneyk@battelle.org.

Mobile rig construction tapering off. In its July 31 Offshore International Newsletter, Offshore Data Services says, if all goes according to schedule, 34 new offshore rigs will be delivered this year, the most in any single year since the mid-1980s. Of the 24 rigs scheduled for delivery in the last four months of this year, four are jackups, 11 are semis and nine are drillships. With these, the wave of new rig deliveries that began in 1998 is winding down.

Unless contractors perceive a need for additional rig construction, fewer than a dozen new rigs will be delivered in 2001 and 2002. For comparison, in 1982, nearly 130 mobile offshore rigs were delivered; this dropped to less than 10 per year from 1987 to 1997, when none was delivered.

However, fleet age will be a factor in the new century, ODS adds. Currently, 27 jackups, 18 semis and two drillships over 26 years of age are in service. In addition, 88 jackups, 53 semis and 11 drillships worldwide have 21 to 25 years’ service. And more than 34% of the existing fleet is 21 years old or older. At some point in the present decade, replacement construction will have to begin.