Issue: April 2013
A series of wells in complex lithology, in Carpa field of the Faja de Oro (Golden Lane) area, used liner drilling to isolate the problem intervals and reach planned setting depths.
Chapter One: The NOV Harsh Environment FPSO signals a transition in vessel design that will be tested first in the North Sea. Additional versions of the new design will eventually be built and put to work in Brazil, West Africa and other regions.
Inhibitors will fail to prevent hydrate formation in subsea jumpers if proper mixing does not occur.
Pioneer Astronautics is developing truck-portable equipment for generating CO2 on site to make enhanced oil recovery feasible for the small oil producer.
Since the beginning of the upstream industry’s migration from dry land into shallow- water arenas, and subsequently into deeper water depths of 600-plus ft, the development of reserves in ever-greater water depths to 10,000 ft has brought on significantly greater volumes of reserves, along with greater producing rates. This has required the development of a vast amount of new technology to bring these reserves to the marketplace.
While hydraulic fracturing is an essential technology to improve gas production from tight gas reservoirs, often the expected post-fracture rate is not achieved, even though the fracture treatment is pumped, as designed. Saudi Aramco has applied best practices associated with gel and polymer systems and the breaking agents. Examples from Saudi Arabia confirm the successes achieved by identifying problems and following up with remedial actions.
With activity in the Gulf of Mexico back to pre-Macondo levels, and a plethora of new deepwater discoveries off Brazil, West Africa, Southeast Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, a special emphasis is being placed during OTC 2013 on industry self-regulation, government policy and the increasing role of NOCs around the world.
Despite devastating hurricanes and a government-imposed moratorium, the oil and gas industry’s first and largest offshore sector is experiencing yet another banner year.
Foggy mountain mornings are commonplace in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, western New York and southeastern Ohio, home to the Marcellus shale. Early in the morning, at or before sunrise, visibility can be less than one-tenth of a mile.
Despite recent media focus on the In Aménas gas plant attack, there are also many other security threats that face overseas workers, especially in the form of kidnapping for financial gain.
An overriding factor in any deepwater project is cost. Because the weight of both the structure and the topsides production facility directly impacts cost, it must be a top priority. By reducing the weight of a 20,000-ton topsides by 15%, it is possible to slash capital costs of the project by $100-150 million.
Cybersecurity is a growing rig issue
Up in the air
Disruptive technologies change performance standards
Agilyx: Tapping the energy of plastic waste
PDVSA regroups after Chavez
Eagle Ford shale gives mighty boost to South Texas
Twenty thousand (remotely-powered) traces under the ground
Sustainable shale gas in Appalachia: A greenhouse divided
Companies in the news
Industry at a glance
Meetings and Events
New products and services
People in industry
World of Oil and Gas
In 2009, CGG won a four-year contract with Pemex for a dedicated seismic vessel to acquire large narrow-azimuth surveys in the deep offshore Mexican Gulf of Mexico, which was later extended to include two large 3D wide-azimuth projects. Since the start of the original contract, Pemex has acquired the world’s first full-scale broadband, high-density, wide-azimuth survey, specifically designed for field development.
The 2013 AAPG Annual Conference & Exhibition will take place May 19–22 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, 1000 Fort Duquesne Blvd., Pittsburgh, Pa. Visit https://www.aapg.org/pittsburgh2013/index.cfm to register for the conference and for up-to-date information. Details about technical sessions are at https://www.aapg.org/pittsburgh2013/technicalprogram.cfm. The conference will feature more than 900 oral and poster presentations, covering 11 themes.
Rock and fluid analyses are essential for prediction and characterization of produced hydrocarbons and for understanding reservoir architecture. A new approach for archived drill cuttings, or cores of any age, allows evaluation of small rock samples and associated trapped fluid with a single, semi-automated workflow
After almost two years of work in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, geologists share the unprecedented experience of finding more than 60 prospects in record time by using new tools to tackle the region’s amazing challenges.
IOC investment in South Africa is growing as companies realize that the nation provides unconventional resources, a favorable drilling environment and a potential domestic market.
By early next year, Fletcher Technical Community College of Schriever, La., hopes to begin making a serious dent in the growing shortage of deepwater production operators, with the unveiling of its new, all-inclusive Integrated Production Technology (IPT) school.
While the pace of drilling authorizations is accelerating, all too often operators still find themselves sitting on the edge of their desks, awaiting the go-ahead before a contracted deepwater rig can begin paying for itself, according to the grassroots Gulf Economic Survival Team (GEST).
As activity continues to grow in the Gulf of Mexico, the nation’s pre-eminent port for deepwater operations is embarking on further expansion to ensure that operators have sufficient service/supply resources to support their myriad projects
From what we have seen over the past year and all the signs pointing forward, it is abundantly clear that the Gulf of Mexico is returning full throttle to the business of exploring for, and producing, oil and gas. The activity over the past year, particularly in deep and ultra-deep water, has increased to levels that we reasonably could not have foreseen a couple of years ago.
In what could be seen as an ironic twist, fallout from the 2010 Macondo oil spill could deliver the long-sought funds needed to help complete the elevated replacement of a rapidly sinking, and often-impassable, Lafourche Parish highway that provides the only access to the strategic deepwater hub of Port Fourchon.
