Features
An ice management philosophy of avoidance, rather than interacting with ice, contributed significantly to the successful completion of seismic projects. There were no ice-related incidents, despite the high rate of data acquisition.
The run life of an electrical submersible pump (ESP) today should not be measured in months, but rather in years, with expected run times of five years or more. These successful run times can be attributed directly to an appropriately designed ESP, containment of fines and sands, and fully implemented monitoring.
First-ever, high-productivity, slip-sweep, high-resolution 3D survey acquired on the North Slope sets new standards in Arctic seismic.
IOCs, NOCs and independents are active around the world, attempting to replicate the success of North American shale plays.
With China’s oil and gas giants continuing their global buying bender and showing no signs of closing their wallets anytime soon, it’s easy to overlook the spirited onshore and offshore drilling campaign taking place within the country’s ample borders as it struggles to quench an unequaled thirst for energy.
Columns
JIP to advance impact-free drilling
Saeed Mubarak: Intelligent fields: The norm not the exception
Is Europe moving from Green to Gas?
Four more years of the South Side of Chicago
Forty million acres went up for auction in 2012
At these pressures and temperatures, we’d better stick together
News & Resources
New products and services
Industry At A Glance
Selected World Oil Prices Graph
U.S. Rotary Drilling Rigs Graph
Rotary Rigs Running in US
World Oil and NGL Production Table
Web Exclusive
The Effective Tension Concept is easy to understand, and simple to use; it models perfectly correctly the bending effects induced by hydrostatic pressures acting in, and on, pipes and risers.
Supplement
Whither Russia? The coming year will likely be a crucial one for the Russian oil and gas industry.
Robert E. Warren's letter to the President. Some thoughts about leveraging the oil and gas industry to drive positive change for our country, while improving the President's image and drastically enhancing his legacy.
The extraordinary impact of unconventional resources on what we do as an industry has quickly moved from a few areas in North America to nearly every country with hydrocarbon resources. I once described my area of specialization as “long, high-permeability pathways in low-permeability rocks” to include both horizontal wells and hydraulic fracturing. These two technologies have merged to result in a sea change in activity. Massive shale projects with complex wells and scores of hydraulic fracturing treatments marry pressure pumping techniques that were born in the 1950s with nanotechnology structured metallic composite frac balls that allow operators to safely implement multiple treatments and then effectively disappear.
Chris Cragg. The oil and gas business is at an unusual juncture in our long history. Business is good—oil prices are stable, we’re faster and more efficient than ever in solving sub-surface engineering problems, and our industry now has a decades-long inventory of known, productive drilling locations in the U.S. Yet today, despite our success, we find ourselves in a precarious situation.
The oil and gas industry has an opportunity to redefine its reputation and establish an improved relationship with the energy consumer. We need more people pulling for us instead of pushing against us. We can influence opinions and actions. Oil and gas are a part of the world’s present and future. The industry cannot allow itself to be viewed as a necessary evil. It should be embraced as a major contributor to the improvement of the human condition.
Norwegian Continental Shelf: How do all the companies survive the decline in the North Sea and how do we secure our jobs for the future? Key elements include globalization and entry into other energy plays, such as heavy oil and shale gas; step changes in exploration efforts; entering into new regions farther north and also picking up the challenge right in front of us and adapting to changing conditions that come with a declining production performance.
For generations, E&P companies have failed to look beyond the wellhead, ignoring the reality that natural gas and NGLs have broad-reaching value and are as important to the steel, chemical, and agricultural industries as a lifesaving medication is to a sick patient.
Chevron continues to be a technology-driven company in the ever-tougher world of deeper water, less conventional reservoir rocks, tighter regulations, and challenging cost management.
The offshore industry: A success that Washington should back. With the 2012 elections now more than a month behind us, it is nice to watch football, go to family outings, and listen to the radio without a constant barrage of politics consuming every area of our lives. The way I see it, nothing much changed. We ended up with the same President, basically the same makeup in Congress, and people everywhere ready to tune out the entire process. While some may argue about who the big winners were in the election, I would argue that energy has to be among them.
UKCS investment boom continues. The year 2012 has been one of contrasts on the UKCS. Field investment could end up at a record level of £11.5 billion (US$18.4 billion), compared to £8.5 billion (US$13.6 billion) in 2011.
Waking the resource giants. With unconventional resources now gaining momentum in many Middle Eastern countries, the perception of gas becoming a sustainable resource may in fact, become more of a reality.
If one thought there isn’t anything new that drilling rig and equipment designers and manufacturers could bring to the industry, it’s time to think again.
Maersk Drilling is constructing the XL Enhanced rigs in Singapore. RT Energy Services’ Versa-Rig 300 kept pulling 1/2-in. casing, when most workover rigs in North Dakota needed to be shut down. The Sparta drilling system has increased its presence in North American shale plays, as Integrated Drilling Equipment recently fulfilled its twelfth contract for the safe, highly efficient, fast-moving rig.
Rig Floor Equipment: Centurion control system, C27 ACERT, C32 ACERT, fully autonomous drilling, closed loop drilling, Hyperpool, WR-80 Wrangler Roughneck, QSK50
An electronic questionnaire sent to 250 simulator users in the Norwegian oil and gas industry revealed that operator effectiveness was improved by 31%. To make the simulator training even more successful, special attention has to be paid to simulator maintenance, education of new instructors and further development of training materials.
The story of valves and actuators is one of changing demands. Over the course of history, valves have evolved to meet the needs of the user. In the oil and gas industry, valves met their toughest customers. This is increasingly true today.
Shale gas development presents many flow-control challenges, requiring valves selected specifically for this environment. Conditions vary considerably from one shale basin to another, and effective valve design and selection criteria must consider HPHT and volume demands, as well as abrasive media and corrosion.
Advances in exploration and drilling technology are enabling the oil and gas industry to target more complex reservoirs in extreme environments, requiring new designs for intelligent completion tools. A new generation of interval control valves (ICVs) that tolerate higher pressures and temperatures has been developed to cater to these harsher environments.
Although the industry considers 15,000 psi and 350°F to represent “high-pressure/high-temperature” (HPHT) conditions, these are rapidly becoming the category’s lower limits. Since subsurface safety valves are the emergency fail-safe flow-controlling devices within a completion, they must have superior performance and reliability throughout a well’s life. Additional validation techniques must be employed to ensure robust, fit-for-purpose performance early in the development process.
What’s new in valve technology: Rupture Pin Technology’s Model JA, FIELDVUE, NEWCO TOV, Kimray Electro-Hydraulic Actuator, surface safety valve, Farris SmartPRV, Rotork IQ3
