Drilling advances

	Vol. 224 No. 1
ROBERT E. SNYDER, EXECUTIVE ENGINEERING EDITOR

 Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) update. The ODP, started by the U.S. some 20 years ago, has utilized the Joides Resolution drillship – built in 1978 and converted for ODP in 1984 – as its primary research vessel. Presently operated by Transocean and contracted to the Texas A&M Research Foundation for the ODP, the rig has been drilling in the riser-less mode, collecting data from relatively shallow holes in various deepwater sites. Because offshore developments have principally involved the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea, ODP participation has been primarily through U.S. and European countries. 

 In October 2003, ODP will officially expand into the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). This new organization will see the addition of a second newbuild drillship featuring riser drilling, designed to provide improved hole conditions and drilling depths significantly beyond present riser-less limitations of some 2,000 m. The new vessel is the contribution of the Japanese R&D project that forms part of the IODP. Japan Marine, Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC) is the vessel's official owner. 

 The new drillship was officially launched at the Tamano Shipyard of Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding in January 2002, and christened the Chikyu. The vessel will remain in the yard about a year for lab facility and quarters installation. It will then move to Mitsubishi's Nagasaki yard for drilling equipment installation. Construction is scheduled to be completed in April 2005, about a year behind the original schedule. 

 Chikyu's hull measures 210 x 38 x 16.2 m, vs. Joides Resolution’s 143-m hull. It will support a derrick claimed to be over 110 m (360-ft) high, and accommodate 150 people, including 59 scientists. Major goals are to provide more stable hole conditions and to drill into the “epicenter of plate earthquakes and the “Mohorovicic Discontinuity.” The two vessels will constitute the core capability of IODP. 

 JAMSTEC says both the U.S. and Japan will support the program as the “Lead Agency” with equal partnership and responsibilities. Scientific objectives have been identified in IODP’s Initial Science Plan. IODP is primarily a proposal-driven program. Call for proposals begun in July 2002 netted about 20 new proposals, along with more than 60 left over from the present ODP. These were transferred to the iSAS (interim Science Advisory Structure) office for review, and final evaluation. 

 The interim Planning Committee (iPC) is the highest-level committee of the iSAS, and the organization goes on and on with various “panels.” Co-chairs are from the U.S. and Japan. This committee presently comprises 15 members, five from Japan, five from the U.S., five from other countries (mainly Europe and Canada), and three to four observers from other countries. In January 2002, a meeting of the International Working Group (IWG) showed a plan that would provide a Mission Specific Platform (MSP) from 2004. For more information, try the website: www.jamstec.go.jp.

 New casing drilling rig’s first well. Tesco Corp. announced that the purpose-built Rig Alpha has successfully completed its first well in the South Texas Lobo field. The first of three to be delivered under this contract, the rig demonstrated the substantial advantages of the casing drilling process. As they are seldom required to trip pipe, these purpose-built rigs are substantially smaller and equipped with about half the horsepower found on a conventional rig of equivalent depth capability.

 Tesco also says it has been contracted by a major independent operator to apply the technology to continuous-coring operations. The client plans to drill a series of stratigraphic wells in a northeastern Alberta heavy oil deposit. The advantage of applying the proprietary wireline-deployment system is that it accelerates core retrieval and eliminates risk of unscheduled events associated with the conventional process. Driller’s Technology Corp. will provide a Tesco-built CD rig to ensure full advantage of this application.

 Tesco also offers the process for continuous coring in coal-bed methane and methane hydrate projects, for which large deposits have been identified in both North America and the Far East. And moving the casing drilling operation offshore is a major goal, as offshore fields hold a big potential for both the operator and Tesco. Casing drilling has been used offshore but, reportedly, not from start to finish of a well. Operators are interested in a technology that can cut drilling times by 20 to 30%. Tesco expects 2003 to see positive returns from offshore field tests. 

 No drilling off Central California. A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling halting oil/gas exploration off the Central California coast, saying the area cannot be drilled or explored until the California Coastal Commission approves the plan. The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocks any attempt to build the first new oil platforms off California since 1994. No drilling to explore has been conducted since 1989. The proposed developments were off the coastline of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. 

 California sued to block the exploration, days after President Clinton’s Interior Secretary, Bruce Babbitt, extended petroleum companies’ offshore leases for 10 years in 1999, as they were set to expire. Under the Coastal Zone Management Act, amended in 1990, Congress gave states a say in any activity affecting coastal communities, the appeals court said. 

 The San Francisco-based appeals court upheld U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, who last year ruled that the federal government illegally extended the oil companies’ 10-year leases. The appeals court agreed with Wilken. The Justice department had argued to Wilken and the appeals court that the law did not give California a say. Wilken ordered all leases terminated until the federal Minerals Management Service complies with her order, a decision upheld by the appeals court. 

 The governor appoints four of the 12 members of the California Coastal Commission. If he has his way, the commission would scuttle new exploration. Oil companies have paid $1.25 billion for the 40 leases, each covering about a nine-square-mile expanse of ocean. The leases were issued between 1968 and 1984. Four of them expired in 1999. Contact T. J. Michels, NOIA, for more information: tom@noia.org.