and another thing ... Innovation over a barrel
There is a feeling abroad that oil prices may be too high. Of
course the industry is accustomed to hearing such
complaints, particularly from Americans every time the
price of a gallon of gasoline sneaks above about $1.25 ...Angola addition
EXXONMOBIL HAS DRILLED ITS
17th deepwater find on block 15
in the Angolan deepwater with
the Bavuca-1 well. The well was
drilled in 3589ft of water to a
total depth of 10,613ft and
tested at a flowrate of 2726b/d
of oil.
Atlantis homes in on eastern promise
Completion of a deal that may see the first application of the
innovative Atlantis artificial buoyant seabed (ABS) concept for
deepwater drilling operations was imminent as OE went to press -
and offshore India is the likely venue. Terry Knott has the details.
Back into the Barents - and beyond
Statoil is leading the charge back into the Barents Sea after
the lifting of a three-year moratorium on drilling in Norway's
northernmost offshore region. But finding and developing the
big prize here - an estimated 770 billion m3 of gas - will be far
from shooting fish in a barrel, as Darius Snieckus reports.
Balmoral gets a timely boost
THE UK NORTH SEA BALMORAL FIELD WILL BE
the site of a pilot project that could well
represent a commercial breakthrough for
AkerKvaerner's MultiBooster subsea
pump as a technology capable of
increasing production from a development
late in its field life.
Blue Marlin builds up for The Big One
Dockwise Shipping's newly
'jumboised' Blue Marlin, the world's
largest semi-submersible heavy
transport vessel with a carrying capacity
of up to 73,000t, has been warming up with
a series of smaller cargos in preparation
for The Big One - transporting BP's huge
Thunder Horse semi from the Daewoo
yard in Korea to its Gulf of Mexico
location in June ...
Bouncing back to buoyancy
When CRP and Balmoral Group merged their buoyancy
businesses just a year ago, no one in the management team
thought they would be shooting for the moon. But that has
proved to be the case, reports Steve Sasanow.
Breaking the surface
Late last year, ChevronTexaco and Transocean drilled the Toledo
well in a remarkable, record-setting 10,011ft of water in the Gulf
of Mexico. Now Shell says it is ready to push beyond this depth
and at a fraction of the cost. Marshall DeLuca reports.
Catching the swell
EASYWELL SOLUTIONS COLLABORATED RECENTLY
with an operator facing the prospect of
formation collapse during pressure
depletion on a HPHT condensate field
developed with subsea wells in the North
Sea.
Cutting to the quick
NORSE CUTTING & ABANDONMENT HAS
completed a benchmark-setting assignment
at BP's North West Hutton field
involving the retrieval of 40 multi string
conductors. Part of the operator's P&A
work at the UK North Sea development,
the nine-month securing, sectioning and
cleaning operation saw the Norwegian
contractor carry out more than 540 multi
string cuts at an average of 30 mins/cut.
Daughter deliveries
NORSAFE IS CELEBRATING ITS 100TH ANNIVERsary
in some style, having landed an order
from Statoil for new daughter craft for the
giant Statfjord A, B and C concrete
platforms as part of the Norwegian
operator's new emergency plan for the
field ...
Diamonds in the rough
Fibre optic seismic monitoring is just one of
a raft of defence-based technologies and
capabilities QinetiQ is looking to exploit to
the international oil and gas industry's
advantage.
Exporting a safety culture
Long active in the UK North Sea
platform drilling sector, KCA Deutag
has well and truly broken out of its
home patch and has added four newbuild
platform rigs to its portfolio in the
Caspian for BP, two offshore Sakhalin for
SEIC and one offshore Angola for
ChevronTexaco ...
Family connections
UNITECH OFFSHORE CONTINUES TO DIVERSIFY ITS
activities both technologically and
geographically but the family business
says its reputation for excellence is very
much founded on subsea applications, in
water depths to 2000m, of its connector
range.
Floaters on a rising tide
THE INDUSTRY HAS NEARLY 250% MORE
floating production systems than it
did ten years ago and this strong
market growth is set to continue ...
Food chain finesse
On any offshore project there is a 'food
chain'. At the top is the operator and,
most often, a main contractor - the
household name, the lion so to speak, who
everyone knows and who is always associated
with the totality of any big development. Work
your way down, even just a level or two, and
you find scores of capable, successful
companies who beaver away out of the
limelight providing the products and services
that make projects move.
FPSO designers out of touch?
Rumblings from one leading Norwegian equipment manufacturer in the FPSO project supply chain
could indicate that operators may not be getting the best solution for the job. Terry Knott reports.
From exotic to routine - the offshore quick-step
A number of oilfield innovations that not long ago were viewed as exotic are today quickly
becoming routine. With the offshore industry's premier annual technology showcase, OTC, just
around the corner, Rick von Flatern reflects on how the service industry continues to build on,
refine and mainstream some of those practices once considered so extreme.
Full load locking
A NEW FULL LOAD LOCKING SYSTEM FOR
hydraulic cylinders is being introduced at
OTC.04 by Denmark's Hydra tech. The
automatic system enables the cylinder to
be mechanically locked in extended or
retracted mode. When the lock is activated,
the cylinder cannot be operated.
Game-changing names
What's in a name, Mr Shakespeare asked. Quite a lot when it is an
oilfield legend and it is being used to spearhead the launch of a new
organisation that wants an identity of its own. Steve Sasanow reflects
on the latest in a long line of corporate rebranding exercises.
Guerrilla warfare on the waterfront
It won't turn water into wine, but the compact flotation unit
developed by Epcon Offshore can remove 90-95% of oil contained
in produced water, a percentage many not long ago might have
considered almost miraculous. Darius Snieckus praises its roots.
Leak test latest
A NEW METHOD OF LEAK TESTING OF FLANGES
with ring joints, introduced by Karmsund
Maritime Offshore Supply (KaMOS), can
measure whether tightness has been
achieved on all flange sealing surfaces
before the flange and pipe are subjected to
internal pressure as well as monitoring the
flange connections for potential future
leaks.
Light touch
GLAMOX IS KEEPING ON TOP OF THE EVERgreater
internationalisation of the
offshore oil and gas industry via five global
R&D hubs, supported by 10 manufacturing
sites and an equal number of sales
companies, an extensive network of
subsidiaries, branch offices and a
worldwide network of agents.
Making light of seismic
The industry's first fully fibre optic seismic monitoring system could soon be finding its way to the seabed to give oil companies better
understanding of their reservoirs - at an attractive price. Terry Knott talks to UK experts in the field at QinetiQ.
McMoRan goes with the LNG flow
MCMORAN EXPLORATION HAS
officially thrown its hat into
the LNG ring. The company
has submitted a licence
application to the US Coast
Guard under the US Deepwater
Port Act to develop its Main
Pass Energy Hub LNG project
in the Gulf of Mexico.
MCS sweeps up Broom Redevelopment
MCS continued its run of success in
North Sea redevelopment work last
month with the award of a contract by
Lundin Britain for the Broom field. Dr Patrick
O'Brien, managing director of MCS in the UK,
explains: 'This is by far the biggest project we
have undertaken in redevelopment. Five
flexible risers will be used in the tieback
covering the whole subsea production system.'
Modules on the move
MAD DOG IN THE GULF OF MEXICO AND
Kristin in the Norwegian North Sea are
two of the latest high-profile offshore
developments to receive living quarters
modules designed, fabricated and
commissioned by Swedish specialist
Pharmadule Emtunga.
New internationalists
Making the case for a merger's 'industrial logic' is one thing.
Yoking together Norway's two largest oil and gas contractors
to take on the most complex field development projects in the
global offshore arena quite another. Darius Snieckus reflects
on the AkerKvaerner tie-up two years on.
Nexans turns up the heat
With deliveries over the last
five years to Statoil's Åsgard,
Huldra and now Kristin
developments, Nexans' direct
electrical heating cable
systems have become 'a
focus for the future' for the
umbilical specialist. Darius
Snieckus reports.
Nile Delta delivers
BP EGYPT HAS MADE A FURTHER
gas and condensate discovery
in the western Nile Delta. The
Raven 1 exploration well in the
North Alexandria concession is
the fourth discovery on the
block following the Taurus,
Libra and Fayoum finds made
in 2000 and 2001.
No showstoppers for offshore LNG
With a boom forecast in the demand for liquefied natural gas,
Terry Knott takes a look at technology in the LNG supply chain
and talks to leading engineering contractor MW Kellogg about
the impact this may have on the offshore industry.
Norway looks to a new order
For a premier international oil and gas province of long standing,
the last few years have been far from trouble-free for the
Norwegian continental shelf. Petroleum and energy minister Einar
Steensnæs talks to Darius Snieckus about the steps being
taken to change Norway's faltering offshore fortunes.
Offshore production rocket on the launchpad
WORLD OFFSHORE OIL PRODUCTION
is set to soar by almost 43% in
the next five years and gas by
83% fuelled by output from
regions including Nigeria,
China and Mexico, according
to recent calculations by
Inverness-based energy economists
Mackay Consultants ...
Ormen Lange starts its long climb to the top
Ormen Lange is a deepwater project destined to be described in superlatives. Set to start flowing
in 2007, Norsk Hydro's pioneering subsea-to-beach development in the Norwegian Sea will give a
25% boost to output levels on the Norwegian continental shelf and meet 20% of future UK demand.
As Darius Snieckus hears from marine and pipeline vice president Anders Henriksson and
project subsea manager Thomas Bernt, Ormen Lange is a field 'whose time has come'.
Products in action ... Well scale removal without chemicals
ACOUSTIC TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST
TecWel, founded just three years
ago, has now added a well scale
removal (WSR) tool to a technology
portfolio that already features the
well leak (WLD) and well sand
(WSD) detectors ...
Scaling up for Sabratha
Load testing of the industry's biggest
subsea jacket levelling tool to-date,
with a pull capacity of 3000t, will
begin at the Delfgauw facility of specialist
Dutch contractor IHC Handling Systems
in mid-May.
Shell back in Libya
SHELL AND LIBYA'S NATIONAL OIL
Corporation last month signed
a landmark heads of agreement
to pave the way for of a 'long
term strategic partnership'.
Shell scrambles to put itself back together
SHELL OFFICIALS WERE SUMMONED
to meet with the US
department of justice late last
month to explain the oil
company's methodology in
booking reserves with the
security and exchange commission ...
Steering a course for subsea success
Among the first fruits of Subsea UK,
the newly formed organisation to
promote the UK subsea industry, is a
survey of the companies involved in this
marketplace, their staffing levels, turnover,
exports and operating areas.
Testing time for tankers
With close to 100 'new'
basic model FPSOs having
been created through
tanker-conversions in just
20 years or so, closer
scrutiny is suddenly being
given to the remaining
Suezmax tankers and VLCCs
that are prime candidates
for future production and
storage duties offshore.
Darius Snieckus reports.
The world in depth
The billions of dollars the
industry has spent to develop
systems to produce its
deepwater fields are now
beginning to bear fruit. More
and more structures are being
installed and new work is
being planned on future
projects. Marshall DeLuca
expands his annual coverage
of US Gulf of Mexico
deepwater developments to
include the world as activity in
other regions picks up while
other areas begin to slow.
This month news ...
Kazakhstan oil and
gas authority
Kazmunaygaz has given
the green light to
development of the giant
Kashagan oil field by the
seven-company North
Caspian Sea PSC led by Eni
Agip ...
Tipping the scale
AkerKvaerner
subsidiary
Maritime Well
Service recently
carried out an
innovative scale
milling operation on a
well offshore Norway ...
Trondheim tackles oil spill topic
WORLD EXPERTS IN THE FIELDS OF OIL SPILL
prevention and response will descend on
Trondheim, Norway, in June for the
Interspill 2004 exhibition and conference
(14-17 June), which this year takes as its
theme 'Clean seas, global concern, local
solutions'.
US Gulf's next lease on life
THE US MINERALS MANAGEMENT
Service has reported that OCS
Central Gulf of Mexico Lease
Sale 190 received the highest
number of bids in a Central
Gulf lease sale in six years ...
What makes Fugro grow
With its recent takeover of survey company ThalesGeosolutions, Fugro has again
shown its flair for establishing leading positions in niche markets. Andrew McBarnet
reviews the company's continuing 20 years of expansion under Gert-Jan Kramer, a
man unafraid to lead from the front.
Offshore Engineer Reports