Drilling advances

	Vol. 224 No. 6
ROBERT E. SNYDER, EXECUTIVE ENGINEERING EDITOR

 Drilling activity moving up. While nobody is forecasting a drilling boom this year, it is a good feeling to see the US rig count moving up from the low point of April 2002, which saw only 750 rigs working, then slow improvement through early 2003. Lehman Brothers now offers some proof to support continued drilling increases, for a couple of months anyway. Drilling permits for the 30 states that the analyst monitors increased by 6.6% during April from the March count, adjusted for comparable numbers of filing days. April’s increase was led by Montana (up 184%), West Virginia (58%), Louisiana (42%), Wyoming (32%) and New Mexico (29%). This is the fourth consecutive month of improvement in permitting activity and is a positive indicator for continued increases in the domestic rig count during the months ahead, Lehman says. 

 Filing for the permit is usually one of the last steps taken before drilling commences. Thus, most well permits that are filed for are drilled. The relationship between permit issuance and rig count is strong. While the lead time varies by cycles and states, most often it is roughly two months, Lehman says. The company’s three-month average figures for permits and rig count in April 2003 thus indicates rig counts could be approaching the 1,050+ level in June. You can get more info on this report at www.lehman.com.

 Another analyst’s report is also encouraging. Douglas Westwood, in commenting on its The World Offshore Drilling Report 2003 – 2007, says this recently launched report forecasts that, over the next five years, 14,626 offshore wells will be drilled worldwide at a total cost of some $170 billion. Of these, development wells will total 10,231; exploration wells 2,665; and appraisal wells 1,730. 

 The Report gives a complete and thorough overview of the drilling industry, from the basics of rotary drilling to innovative engineering technologies currently being researched. It considers all the factors that control drilling economics and gives a five-year drilling activity forecast for all offshore regions in the world and industry expenditure. You can check this further at: www.dw-1.com.

 Transocean’s Nigerian operations disrupted. Transocean Inc. announced on April 22 that drilling operations had ceased on four of its mobile offshore drilling units located offshore Nigeria due to a strike commenced on April 16 on the semi M.G. Hulme, Jr., and on April 19 on the semi Sedco 709 and jackups Trident VI and Trident VIII, by local members of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). The strike was allegedly called to protest the continuation of disciplinary proceedings against certain personnel belonging to NUPENG. 

Seabed Drilling Rig (SDR), installed on a conductor driven into the seabed, and using equipment/tubular modules run through the Rig Support Vessel’s moonpool.

 On May 2, the contractor said that a communiqué had been issued by the Nigeria Labour Congress that instructed striking personnel to cease their action and allow personnel to depart the four rigs involved in the labor dispute. Striking personnel cooperated and granted access to the rigs, and the company began transporting nonessential personnel to shore. 

 The jointly signed communiqué was issued as the result of a May 2 meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, chaired by the Nigeria Labour Congress and attended by Transocean management, leadership of local and national labor unions, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corp. The labor unions represented at the meeting were NUPENG, and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria. The situation on all four rigs was said to be calm and orderly. No specific schedule was given for resuming drilling. 

 Seabed Drilling Rig (SDR). At the May Offshore Technology Conference, Maris International Ltd. presented basic concepts of a new approach to locating an offshore drilling rig on the seabed. The concept is being developed as ITF (Industry Technology Facilitator) Pioneer Project PX 1017, as a feasibility study. The project is supported by six operators and a UK DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) Smart Award. The SDR, plus its Rig Support Vessel (RSV) – which can be smaller than a drillship and notably different – can provide a practical/ economic solution to reduce well construction costs where the sea is too deep for bottom-supported facilities to operate. The economics improve further with increasing water depth, the developers say.

 Basically, the SDR is formed by modules run through the moonpool of the RSV, such that everything is on the seabed except flexible risers to the surface. All of the subsea system is mounted on a 42-in. dia. (or larger) conductor driven into the seabed. The accompanying illustration basically describes the concept, in which the rig mast – run as a module – rotates around and picks up tubulars of standard 40-ft lengths, run within modules, to make-up or break-out drill pipe and casing strings. Operations are controlled from surface through the flexible drilling fluid risers and power cables. Paper OTC 15328 presents the basic concepts. A land rig test is planned in Texas in June 2003. Detailed design is scheduled for 2003/2004 with a prototype operating in 2006.