Drilling advances

	Vol. 225 No. 3
ROBERT E. SNYDER, EXECUTIVE ENGINEERING EDITOR

UK extends exploration areas. UK Energy Minister Stephen Timms announced a new innovative licensing program to further boost exploration on the UK Continental Shelf. The new “Frontier” license allows companies to apply for relatively large amounts of acreage at significantly reduced costs and gives them more time to carry out the necessary exploration/ development. The license will be on offer in the forthcoming 22nd Offshore Licensing Round, which Timms “hopes to announce in the coming weeks.” 

Following success of the Promote license in the 21st round, which provided great incentives to smaller prospectors, Timms says the Frontier license offers benefits to the more established players who are more likely to prospect in the new blocks. The license will allow companies to apply for relatively large amounts of acreage and then relinquish three quarters of that after an initial screening phase, during which normal rental fees will be discounted by 90%. Additionally, E&P periods will be extended by two years over and above those stipulated for the Traditional license. 

The new license will be on offer for areas west of the Shetland Isles only, comprising Areas 1 and 4 of the DTI's Strategic Environmental Assessment process, although the exact areas that will be available are yet to be concluded by this process. In the 22nd round, the Traditional license will also be on offer in this area, and all other areas that are put on offer for licensing. The Promote license will only be offered in areas other than the West of Shetland regions. 

IMCA zeros in on “falling” accidents. Falls from height are still a serious problem worldwide – a 2-m (6-ft) fall can cause serious injury or even death. Indeed, people have been killed by falling not much over a meter. Falls from a height are the single largest cause of death and serious injury in industry today, and one of the problems in dealing with these incidents is that they are so varied. 

For this reason, IMCA, The International Marine Contractors Association, has developed a video (available in DVD PAL and NTSC formats) to help promote the need for safety awareness when working at height, e.g., taking the time to use proper protective equipment, safe working practices and looking out not just for yourself but your colleagues too. 

Almost all accident reports from around the world discussed at its committee meetings are the same, IMCA says. Someone has been hurt because they didn't follow the rules. They didn't bother with the safety harness because: the job was only going to take a minute; it wasn't worth going back to the store to get the gear; I've done it dozens of times before – and so on. 

The DVD focuses on various hazards, with real-life demonstrations of what to do and what not to do in situations such as working up or near a ladder, on a stinger, near an open hold and during loading/ unloading pipes. The 14-min. DVD is available from IMCA (London): Tel: 44 (0) 20 7931 8171; email: publications@imca-int.com. Copies are £10 ($18) for members, £50 ($88) for non-members. Specify which format you want, PAL or NTSC (for North America).

New LWD formation pressure tester. Statoil and Baker Hughes INTEQ announced successful evaluation of innovative logging-while drilling (LWD) formation pressure testing technology from Baker. The new TesTrak system, measures formation pressure through direct contact with the formation and transmits the pressure data to surface in real-time. An intelligent, closed loop, drawdown control system makes it possible to complete a test in 5 minutes or less. 

During such pauses in the drilling process, the tester deploys a pad to seal a small portion of the borehole wall while the instrument's electronics and onboard computer run a series of optimized tests to compute formation pressure and mobility. Then, once circulation resumes, the data is transmitted to surface immediately via mud pulse telemetry. 

Statoil compared results from the new system with traditional wireline formation testers in multiple Norwegian shelf wells. TesTrak measurements compared very well, although some small differences were noted in low-permeability reservoirs. Based on their observations, Statoil qualified the service as a replacement for the wireline pressure testing service and will continue to evaluate the tool's performance in low-permeability reservoirs. This is the first LWD formation pressure tester to be officially qualified by Statoil. Baker says, working together, Statoil and INTEQ will use the new service to investigate effects of supercharging on LWD pressure tests in tight reservoirs and develop “best practices.” 

Jackup market outlook. Guarded optimism appears to be permeating many segments of the offshore contract drilling market as jackup rig demand and dayrates improve. In the US Gulf, falling supply propped up jackup utilization rates last year; but, in recent weeks, demand has see-sawed from 84 to 88 rigs, while supply has remained constant. 

In its February 2 report on jackup market prospects, The Offshore International Newsletter said the exodus of jackups from the Gulf will likely continue as rig owners seek better, longer-term contracts in the international market. The Mexican drilling market likely will draw heavily from the Gulf's rig supply base if PEMEX continues to boost its exploration efforts. But this market is not certain. 

Hopeful that the situation will improve, Transocean decided to move ahead with marketing its proposed initial public offering (IPO) of TODCO, Transocean's Gulf of Mexico new shallow and inland water subsidiary. In another move, TODCO has renamed its jackup fleet. The RBF prefix has been replaced with THE. Nineteen of the Houston-based company's 24 jackups are in the US Gulf, two in Mexico, one in Venezuela and two in Trinidad. 

And, playing toward a positive market, Oslo investment company Sinvest has ordered two newbuild jackups capable of drilling deep wells – both to be built in Singapore. The rigs are a $126-million Keppel FELS ModVB, and a $110-million BMC 373 design. Both are due for delivery in first-quarter 2006. A probable market for the rigs is drilling for deep gas in the US Gulf. A contractor based there will likely be appointed to manage the rigs.