Industry News - Offshore Engineer Reports
September 2008A hand in safety
With industry increasingly focused on injury prevention, manufacturers and product developers are looking for new ways to boost safety – and market share. Russell McCulley looks at a trio of products that address some common offshore accidents.
A question of integrity
Recent contracts for iicorr in the Caspian, China and Malaysia tell the tale: the oil industry is increasingly seeing both the virtue and economic value of integrity management. Darius Snieckus reports.
Asian fusion feeds international appetite
Fresh from carrying out the world’s first rigless well intervention in Asia-Pacific, Darius Snieckus sits down with TSMarine to talk about Vincent, vessel construction, and venture capitalists – and plans taking shape in West Africa and the US Gulf.
Cementing for life
Halliburton has bundled three proprietary zonal isolation technologies into a suite that the company says can help preserve cement integrity throughout the life of a well and prevent damage caused by sustained casing pressure (SCP) ...
Digging beneath the subsurface
Since its foundation in 1999, the ITF has been a mirror to the evolving technology demands of the offshore sector. And so it comes as no surprise that much of its time these days is occupied by projects ‘below the mudline’. Darius Snieckus speaks with subsurface technology manager Duncan Anderson.
Distributed temperature sensing heats up
Distributed temperature sensing (DTS) is crossing the threshold between operator interest and operator acceptance for use in monitoring and troubleshooting well operations. The technology, pioneered in the 1980s, has been in use in the oil & gas sector for about 10 years. One company is working to improve the technology and the way operators deal with its accompanying abundance of data as a means of preventing interventions, as Jennifer Pallanich reports.
Expanding horizons
Designing the well with the completion in mind helps the operator to reach TD with a reasonable ID in the wellbore. US editor Jennifer Pallanich opens this month’s review of drilling and completion advancements with a look at how well planners have become increasingly reliant on expandable technology to help them achieve the desired wellbore diameter at TD.
Faster ROPs in hot holes
When a major operator tapped Halliburton’s Sperry to drill a high-temperature field appraisal campaign in the UK North Sea, Sperry combined some of its Solar tools, increasing the ROP by 24% compared to offsets. Halliburton’s George Sutherland explains how it was done.
Malaysian mountain high
With its first East Belumut field oil producer onstream offshore Malaysia, Newfield Exploration is harnessing its horizontal and extended reach experience as well as some special completion techniques to exploit reservoirs with around 20 million barrels of recoverables. Jennifer Pallanich reviews the US independent’s plans for these South China Sea fields, mostly named for Malaysian mountains, and the neighboring acreage.
Potential field methods gain gravity
Talking of a comeback might be a little misleading because potential field methods have always been in the playbook of E&P geoscientists. However, Andrew McBarnet detects renewed interest in gravity and magnetic measurements particularly in trying to divine the structural make-up of hydrocarbons prospects in complex geological settings.
Regulators run the rule over US Gulf idle iron
The US Minerals Management Service is stepping up its efforts to get ‘idle iron’ – rigs, wells and associated infrastructure that have been off production for five years or more – out of the hurricane-prone Gulf of Mexico. OE’s Russell McCulley talks to the MMS and others about the push and how increased decommissioning could further strain an already high demand for service vessels and personnel.
Strait talking about Hormuz danger
With all of the sabre rattling between Iran and Israel one of the most obvious concerns is the potential closure of the Straits of Hormuz ...
Tender trap for core fluids
Hailed as a groundbreaking advance in coring technology, the Liquid Trapper is designed to allow seamless and cost-effective sampling of both reservoir rock and fluids. Reservoir Group’s Pascal Bartette and Corpro’s Philippe Cravatte discuss the innovative tool’s provenance and potential.
Upbeat Don out of the blocks
Being created by yoking together one field that has lain dormant since discovery 30 years ago with part of another that ceased production in 2003, the £360 million Don Area development is expected to add over 40,000b/d of oil to UK North Sea production rates once brought onstream next year. Darius Snieckus speaks with operations services specialist Petrofac about its first greenfield operatorship in the region.
US ports, industry brace for ‘smart’ security rules
Next month, federal guidelines designed to protect US ports from acts of terrorism will kick into high gear as the first of some 1.2 million workers will be required to present a Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC ...
Wellslot creation helps evolving Hewett
Engineering and business ingenuity are key to maximising hydrocarbon recovery from mature North Sea fields and ensuring the more long-in-the-tooth structures remain fit for purpose. Aquaterra Energy recently completed a $2 million structural project to install an additional wellslot on a 40-year old gas platform. Project manager David Rowson reports.
August 2008
Bubbling under at Bunga Raya
A lightweight completion fluid was used by Talisman Malaysia to achieve the necessary underbalance to obtain clean perforation in a new offshore well. Results showed a measurable improvement over that of an adjacent well that had been perforated with a conventional underbalance fluid.
Early birds break the ice
Preparation, preparation, preparation . . . That’s the business mantra of canny offshore contractors and suppliers looking to succeed in the inhospitable but highly prospective Arctic regions now yielding to hydrocarbons exploration and development. David Morgan reviews the exploits of one intrepid Dutch contractor.
ebb and flow ... Fishing for higher prices has a catch
At $130 oil and in today’s highly complicated and interconnected energy ties, Russia and China are still caught at an impasse over oil and gas prices, and over building the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (EPOC) oil pipeline and two new natural gas pipelines that are supposed to pump eastern and western Siberian natural gas to China.
Fine summer for seismic
Midsummer stocktaking suggests that the E&P geoscience community is still in rude health. First signs of softening in the pricing of marine seismic surveys have not as yet shown up as anything but a conversation piece in the booming market worldwide, according to Andrew McBarnet.
Moho-Bilondo gets Congo’sdeepwater mojo working
Moho-Bilondo, brought onstream by Total earlier this year, marks Congo’s first foray into its deep water,with expectations that the landmark FPU development will produce some 230 million barrels over its life. First flow was hard-won. It has taken free-thinking by the partners to drill up and develop reservoirs that had long been stymiedby marginal economics. Darius Snieckus reports on a project ‘opening a new lane’ into the West African deeps.
Packing lite for the long haul
More and more operators are discovering the appeal of ultra-lightweight gravel for completions in challenging environments. OE’s Russell McCulley examines completion technology one service company has used with success in the Gulf of Mexico, including a horizontal open-hole gravel pack in a well at high risk of formation fracture.
Set for Stavanger
Process automation specialist Yokogawa may be a relatively late entrant to the Norwegian offshore scene, but at the ONS show in Stavanger this month the company is looking to demonstrate why its move will not only prove timely but also advantageous to the oil and gas industry at large. David Morgan reports.
Shrink fit for purpose
The novel application of an established technology lies behind the manufacture of the world’s first ultra-high pressure, large-bore drilling riser.
Sizing up tree planting
At its inception in the mid-1990s, a heave compensated support system for positioning subsea work packages was intended for inspection, repair and maintenance work with loads of 10,000lbs. A dozen years on, it has evolved into the Heave-Compensated Landing System that Delmar has used to install over 130 subsea trees, some of which tip the scales at 130,000lbs. Jennifer Pallanich reports.
Venturing into the Dragon’s den
Demand for hydrocarbons continues to grow in China, a country that has brought online 38 offshore fields since 2000, according to Infield Systems data ... Jennifer Pallanich reports.
July 2008
A look at cold assets
With countries racing to claim acreage in the highly prospective Arctic, the US Geological Survey recently estimated the offshore area between West Greenland and East Canada north of the Arctic Circle could hold 7.3 billion barrels of oil and 51.8tcf of natural gas. Jennifer Pallanich reports on a frontier segment of the Arctic as well as a North Slope project now onstream.
BC-10 advances the SBOP cause
Using surface BOPs carries a comparable risk to conventional BOPs on deepwater drilling and completions with moored rigs, and one supermajor believes it can save at least $50 million over the course of a three-year contract by using one. While an SBOP may not be the solution for all applications, Shell sees real potential for it offshore Brazil and, as OE’s Jennifer Pallanich reports, is currently demonstrating its faith in the technology on the BC-10 project.
Cool heads in the hot zone
The Atlantic hurricane season 2008 opened on 1 June, a day after Tropical Storm Arthur, the first named storm of the year, formed off the coast of Belize. Meteorologists are forecasting about a dozen named storms to form this year, and the US Minerals Management Service has revamped its guidelines for storm-readiness ... Jennifer Pallanich reports
ebb and flow ... The age of Camelot is long gone
He is an idealist and necessarily naïve. Barack Obama believes that a society and its government must create the conditions of egalitarian living, he takes literally ‘all men are created equal’ and that it transcends borders ...
Fleet-footed Bourbon hoists sail for wider horizons
Paris-headquartered Bourbon earlier this year added extra financial muscle to its strategic Euro2 billion plans to enlarge its share of the ‘modern offshore oil and gas services’ market by building on an already ambitious programme of fleet, equipment and technology investment, and recruitment and training. Darius Snieckus gets a progress report from chief executive Jacques de Chateauvieux.
Gas compression race begins
Battle lines have been drawn between MAN Turbo and Siemens in the quest for a subsea gas compression unit designed to be ready for use on StatoilHydro’s Norwegian Sea Åsgard field within five years. John Sheehan reports.
New dawn for Shtokman’s polar night
Russia’s Shtokman field has grown to near mythic status in the offshore pantheon in the years since its discovery in 1988 in the Barents Sea. Home to gas reserves of more than 3.8 trillion m 3 and locked in ice and polar night much of the year 600km northeast of Murmansk, the multi-stage megadevelopment represents the sternest of tests ... Darius Snieckus reports.
Seismic six-pack marks a second coming!
Déjà vu is an over-worked expression but it’s the only way to describe the latest newcomer to the marine seismic business. Andrew McBarnet reports with some thoughts on the implications.
Sharing the performance risks
The majority of FPSOs are leased by contractors, who are eager to recoup their expenditure in building or converting the FPSO hull, to operators, who need to achieve a specific level of field production. Energy lawyer Simon Curtis analyses the performance risks in FPSO projects and how these are mitigated through production services agreements between contractors and operators.
Tiny tubing takes on hydrates
Despite best efforts at inhibition, hydrate plugs are an occasional offshore annoyance. Traditional methods of dissolving the plugs are dangerous, expensive and environmentally unfriendly. BJ Services’ Mark Embry describes a safer, more economical alternative.
Weathering the storms
Even in the days of plenty, a number of factors can push a field into the marginal category: low production rates, short field life, and high costs of field development or abandonment. Jennifer Pallanich reports on a start-up company working to bring back focus to the shallow water minimum facilities platform in regions with severe storms.
Winding up for wind power
With energy costs rising and government officials calling for more emphasis on renewable sources of power, Texas is making a bid to become the leader in US offshore wind. But significant hurdles – technological, financial and environmental – remain. OE Gulf of Mexico editor Russell McCulley looks at some of the issues state leaders and energy companies are grappling with in the effort to bring wind power to the Gulf of Mexico.
June 2008
A new development paradigm?
In terms of revenue raised, the recent Gulf of Mexico licensing round was the most prolific ever. However, with the delays and complications surrounding some deepwater projects, did the latest bidding round reflect a new development paradigm? Kicking off OE’s latest Gulf of Mexico round-up, Infield Systems’ Dr Roger Knight and Julian Callanan investigate the competing strategies shaping the region’s development.
Broad horizons beckon beyond Buzzard
Wheels now turning on plans to boost the producing life of its 600 million barrel Buzzard field via a platform-based ‘enhancement project’, Nexen is in the front rank of independent operators advancing the cause of the UK North Sea’s Third Age ...
Carbon capture and storage: what’s in it for the offshore industry?
With the offshore industry likely to be at the heart of a future UK carbon capture and storage strategy, Atkins managing director Martin Grant identifies the key issues and looks at what steps can be taken to begin analysing the potential for CCS now.
Drilling through salt
In less than two decades, salt has morphed from foe to friend. Once viewed as difficult to drill, salt has shown it can offer certain benefits. Even so, drilling to reach a sub-salt prospect still holds some challenges, as Jennifer Pallanich reports.
ebb and flow ... The price of conspiracy theories
It would be more amusing had I not been personally involved. Three years ago I was a lone voice outrageously predicting $100 oil, berated on many occasions on national TV by those predicting $50 or even less. The tapes are still available ...
Making lite work of a stranded asset
Bass Lite changed hands in a number of farm-ins and farm-outs following its 2001 discovery in 6700ft of water. With the gas field now in production via a 56-mile tieback to the neighboring Devils Tower spar, Jennifer Pallanich talks to operator Mariner Energy about the Bass Lite project highlights and the independent’s deepwater ambitions.
Mexico’s deep challenge
Accessing deepwater Gulf of Mexico reserves remains Pemex’s main challenge, according to the company’s director general, Jesus Reyes-Heroles. Getting there is quite tough for a combination of reasons, not least of which is Mexico law prohibiting Pemex from pairing up with foreign companies. Jennifer Pallanich looks at the current state of the Mexican oil industry.
Moving up the Q
The story of Q-Marine is worth telling. It is primarily a cautionary tale about introducing new technology into the E&P business. Overnight success is not the expression that comes to mind, more like slow and steady wins the race. Andrew McBarnet explains.
OTC Analysis
There were 75,092 attendees – a 26-year high – from 110 countries at May’s Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. Russell McCulley, Jennifer Pallanich and John Sheehan sample the sights and sounds of OTC 2008.
Pre-salt promise buoys bustling market
Brazil’s deepwater areas hold a petroleum promise that the rest of the world is eyeing hungrily. The elephant Tupi find, paired with the speculation surrounding Carioca as being a gargantuan discovery, has buoyed an already bustling market in this corner of the deepwater Golden Triangle. Brazil’s waters already host a number of rigs and an influx of more is expected by 2010. Jennifer Pallanich reports from Rio and Houston.
Redrawing the boundaries
US EIA forecasts see oil and gas production meeting well over half of world energy demand through to at least 2025. With NOCs’ share of remaining global reserves at near 90%, is this reality precipitating ‘a deeper relationship’ between the western E&P fraternity and their hydrocarbon-rich host countries? Darius Snieckus reports.
Turbulent times ahead for the next wave
Delays and skyrocketing costs in several ultra-deepwater Gulf of Mexico projects have been offset to a degree by healthy prices for crude oil, a panel of industry leaders said in Houston last month. Russell McCulley, Jennifer Pallanich and John Sheehan review this and other GOM-related issues raised during OTC 2008.
May 2008
A new direction in CwD
Adding a retrievable bottom hole assembly to offshore directional casing while drilling seemed a good way to address the lost circulation and wellbore instability issues accompanying drilling through depleted zones that are a bane of offshore brownfield construction ...
A production services page turner
In 2007, a year after cutting the cord from parent company KBR via a management buy-out, Aberdeen headquartered Production Services Network set itself the target of establishing three new international businesses inside 12 months to push revenues past the $1 billion mark – a target broken less than nine months later. As the fast-growing global service contractor turns two, Darius Snieckus sits down with CEO Bob Keiller.
Angel in its firmament
Clough Aker Joint Venture has laid claim to a new ‘world height record’ following successful installation of the topsides for the North West Shelf Venture’s Angel platform off Western Australia. Darius Snieckus reports.
Chock tactics
The corrosion, erosion and fatigue issues facing the ageing offshore wells of the North Sea are focusing attention on effective maintenance and life extension of offshore installations. OE kicks off this month’s two-parter on the asset integrity front with a report on how protecting against conductor damage has been getting smarter.
ebb and flow ... Icing on the top of warming furore
As I discussed last month (‘Kilimanjaro claims are snow joke’), there is an astonishing array of claims, many markedly contradictory, published by scientists about the effects of global warming ...
Rig market up, up and away
It’s become something of a joke on the offshore circuit these days. Q: How can you tell if your 2011 rig count estimate is out of date? A: Well, is it on paper? Demand for rigs has never been higher, and based on the number of newbuilds under construction with and without signed contracts, companies are speculating that the up cycle will continue at least a few more years. Jennifer Pallanich reports.
Seasonal pickings
It is always good to catch up. This month Andrew McBarnet offers some updates on some running stories in the E&P geoscience arena.
Singapore power play
Opportunities masquerade as difficulties in the offshore oil and gas world, especially in frontier and emerging areas. Like the trash of one is the treasure of another, companies in the oil patch translate challenges into dollars. Jennifer Pallanich reports on how one seismic company tackles other companies’ problems.
Smart anchor weighs in
Dutch specialist Vryhof is putting the final touches to development of its Stevtrack anchor data acquisition system, a technology designed to ‘monitor and visualise’ the behaviour of anchors during installation and transmit orientation and load data topside in real-time from embedment through to final penetration ...
Tubular turning point
When engineer Keith Orgeron turned his attention to drilling operations a year and a half ago, he thought there had to be an elegant way to improve safety and drilling speed. Jennifer Pallanich reviews his progress to date.
April 2008
Access system goes through the motions
An innovative offshore access system has been successfully trialled by the Delft University of Technology’s Ampelmann project team at the Shell-owned offshore wind farm at Egmond aan Zee (Owez).
Agbami accolades for NASNet
To the obvious delight of developer Nautronix, the NASNet underwater acoustic positioning system recently saw its first field-wide deployment – for Chevron’s high-profile Agbami development offshore Nigeria – courtesy of contractor Subsea 7.
Blind Faith’s clever connections
Performing a deepwater Gulf of Mexico subsea tie-in between Williams’ Devils Tower and Chevron’s Blind Faith export pipelines required innovative subsea installation and connection methodologies. OE reports how the job was done.
Dry tree semis await their moment
The industry drive for improved economics coupled with a priority for safety has led to the creation of novel concepts as well as hybridization or extension of existing technologies. When operators started asking for less cost-intensive dry trees to be used on quayside integration-friendly semis, the engineering firms jumped to it. US editor Jennifer Pallanich looks at some of the rival solutions now ready for market or close to commercialization.
Eastern promise fuels Seaway expansion
Seaway Heavy Lifting’s offshore workhorse Stanislav Yudin continues its globetrotting ways, the crane vessel having recently sailed further eastwards to complete its first Southeast Asian assignments. David Morgan reports.
ebb and flow ... Kilimanjaro claims are snow joke
The science is all in.’ This netted former US vice president Al Gore an Oscar, an Emmy, and a share of a Nobel Prize with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). True believers constantly invoke the ‘scientific consensus’ which supposedly leaves no doubt over the fact of global warming or its causes ...
Engineered back to fortune
It’s typical of the way Schlumberger operates that Dalton Boutte started his career as a wireline engineer, worked his way through the management ranks in various places around the world and today is president of WesternGeco, the leading brand in the geophysical services business where he’s been in charge for just over five years. Andrew McBarnet talks to him about the company and his experience.
Floating into position
With 50+ FPSOs on the global orderbook and another 100 being planned for or studied, the floating production market could hardly be in a more bullish cycle. Darius Snieckus speaks with Georg Sverdrup Onsrud, CEO of new entrant FPSOcean
Floating into the future
The key market drivers for offshore LNG, current offshore liquefaction concepts and key enabling technologies are examined here by Douglas-Westwood’s Adrian John and Steve Robertson.
International geographic
Last year’s merger between Statoil and Hydro created a combine with an acreage portfolio ranged across 40 countries and gave fresh impetus to the campaign of internationalisation that had been afoot at the larger Norwegian oil company since its partial privatisation in 2000
Life-cyclist rings the changes
A year on from its ‘demerger’ with Vetco Gray, Aibel – to judge by its diverse contract backlog – is making the most of its newfound independence. Darius Snieckus speaks with chief executive Rasmus Sunde about the changing identity of a company that has gone through three names in three years.
Making quality count
The first tangible fruits of the Heerema Fabrication Group’s acquisition of an engineering consultancy were revealed with last month’s signing of a major EPC contract with Sweden’s ABB for the design, procurement and fabrication of a 400MW transformer offshore platform for installation in German waters. The group has also been successful in securing work for more far-flung markets lately, as David Morgan reports.
Measure for measure
Darius Snieckus opens OE’s latest review of the Scandinavian offshore scene with a look at the Norwegian government’s current action plan for the province – and its hopes of a ‘moon landing’ for carbon capture and storage technology.
Mediterranean blues
The sharp rise in the price of a barrel of oil over the past year has also had a fundamental effect on the price of natural gas. How these price trends will affect developments in the Mediterranean region is examined by Dr Roger Knight and George Venturas of energy analysts Infield Systems.
Pace-setting for Aker’s Lieungh run
Having left Aker Kvaerner in the summer of 2007 to run the oilfield services arm of Norwegian shipping group Arne Blystad, the contractor’s former executive vice president of field development, Simen Lieungh, last month returned – to take over the chief executiveship. He speaks to Darius Snieckus ...
Pieter Schelte Heerema: the spirit of invention
27 April 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pieter Schelte Heerema. With the help of former colleague Ab Schreuders and the OE archives, David Morgan looks back over the life and times of this legendary offshore industry figure.
Pump it up
A bold plan in 2006 to ‘restructure, refocus and invest’ has given Bjørge’s orderbook a big boost, as Darius Snieckus reports.
Self-standing hybrid riser in Roncador debut
With the installation of a self-standing hybrid riser on Petrobras’ Roncador field, the first of four deepwater production solutions specifically targeted under Brazil’s Procap 3000 initiative has become a reality. The other three evolving technologies are slated for deployment by 2010. Jennifer Pallanich reports.
Service Jack of all trades
When the North Sea market for a DP semisubmersible capable of single-lift topsides removal of up to 20,000t failed to catch light as quickly as hoped, Master Marine regrouped and set to work on a more versatile concept. As construction of a pair of ‘all-in-one’ Service Jack construction jackups gets under way for the company in Indonesia, Darius Snieckus speaks with managing director Per Johannson.
Ship designers spliced
Confirmation that the Dutch offshore vessel designer Sea of Solutions is being acquired by Norway’s Ulstein Group came early March, with both companies declaring they see plenty of positives in the move.
Why anisotropy can no longer be ignored
Andrew McBarnet reviews one of the current seismic imaging methods being applied to resolve the distorting effects of anisotropy in the Earth’s surface.
March 2008
A walk in Shell Park
Looking to exploit the oil from its BC-10 field in deep waters offshore Brazil, Shell needed to find a way to produce the heavy crude from a low-energy reservoir. Jennifer Pallanich looks at the pioneering subsea oil and gas separation and pumping technology adopted for this Campos Basin field development.
Cross-pollination stirs life on Pazflor
On the surface, Total’s Pazflor development off Angola will bear a striking resemblance to its block 17 brethren, Girassol and Dalia, insofar as they each rely of a 2 million barrel FPSO for production, storage and offloading ... Darius Snieckus reports.
Delivering the goods
Designing subsea risers and their associated hardware – components critical to the success of deepwater projects – requires highly skilled engineers. Now, the proliferation of risers has given one leading designer the opportunity to spin off an independent riser products company focused on supplying a complementary service to the industry. In this OE exclusive, Terry Knott digs into the background with 2H Offshore.
Design frees up jackup deck space
Four new identical jackups under construction in Southeast Asia could be the most efficient rigs in their class to-date. OE’s Jennifer Pallanich talks to the contractors about how they believe the design will reduce drilling costs and about their outlook on the drilling market in the years to come.
ebb and flow ... Overblown wind plan just hot air
If you have a hankering to see England’s green and pleasant land or Britain’s rugged coastline, you shouldn’t wait too long to visit. That is, before it disappears under the swirling of thousands of massive 400ft tall wind turbines that the British government plans to erect ...
EU gas feels Putin’s pincer
With its pipeline pincer strategy in Europe faring rather better than the battered EU ‘alternative’, it’s time for Gazprom to get serious on major gasfield development. Derek Brower examines the issues and reviews a new book charting energy’s dominant role in Russian power-broking over the years.
GE pushes further upstream
Already four times the size it was in 2000 following the acquisition of the PII pipeline integrity business and drilling equipment provider VetcoGray, GE Oil & Gas is about to become bigger still via Hydril’s pressure control business. David Morgan reports from Florence.
Keeping pace with the deepwater push
The inexorable push toward untapped energy resources in the deeper reaches of the Gulf of Mexico’s canyons and folds has created design challenges for both oil and gas exploration companies and those tasked with building the systems that get those products from the source to the shore. Russell McCulley discusses the issues in his opener to this month’s pipeline design, installation and maintenance review.
Locating subsea umbilical leaks
Dutch legend has it that Hans Brinker, the ‘Hero of Haarlem’, used his finger to plug a leaking dyke which threatened to engulf his town. More recently the Aberdeen University spinout company that borrowed his name was called in to locate a leak in a subsea umbilical on Norway’s Ormen Lange field. Brinker’s Klaire Evans explains.
On the crest of a wave
Waves of Change, the theme for this year’s Offshore Technology Conference, talks both to the industry and to the event itself. OE looks at the agenda for the popular annual event.
Tensioners on right track
Pipelay equipment specialist Remacut has built both two- and four-track tensioners for offshore pipelayers. Here, engineer Sergio Bogge explains why the new generation of tensioners with two vertical tracks is now the company’s favoured option
The seismic question: does it pay to keep a secret?
Andrew McBarnet believes that marine seismic companies might benefit from being more open about their operations.
Thinking out of the Caspian box
The need for detailed engineering analysis and innovative design and installation approaches in awkward pipelay locations such as the Caspian Sea is discussed here by DeepSea Engineering’s Alex Boheimer.
To the depths of weld integrity . . . and beyond
Weld simulation techniques developed by Frazer-Nash Consultancy and taken from nuclear primary reactor components are now being applied in subsea and deepwater situations. The Frazer-Nash Consultancy’s Dr Simon Rees explains why.
February 2008
All-electric subsea starts its charge
Darius Snieckus visited Cameron’s centre of excellence for controls technology in Celle, Germany.
Blocked umbilicals – UMF goes back to basics
Blockages occurring in umbilical systems in service have posed very real problems for offshore operators, although seldom publicised. Duco’s Dave Stables explains how manufacturers’s body UMF, through its BASICS JIP, is shedding new light on the subject
Brazilian deeps continue to excite
With a raft of impressive offshore developments under way and analysts predicting that Petrobras’ Tupi field has the potential to be the largest ever deepwater oil discovery, Brazil grabbed the offshore spotlight in 2007. US editor Jennifer Pallanich reviews the fast and furious pace of deepwater drilling ...
ebb and flow ... New bill is pure cornball politics
In this era of energy and environment polarization, if most Democrats and Republicans in Congress agree and the President signs it, a new US Energy Bill must be a nothing bill ...
eismic serene amidst recession rumblings
No market thrives on economic uncertainty, but up to now the marine seismic community remains super confident amid US recession talk. Andrew McBarnet ponders the paradox.
Elsewhere in the region . . .
In other Latin American developments, Mexico continued its march into deepwater, courts resolved several maritime border disputes and a number of countries held deepwater licensing rounds. Jennifer Pallanich reports.
Flocking to bigger birds
As exploration and production activity moves further out in the Gulf of Mexico, more medium and large helicopters are needed to access remote platforms ...
Liftboats look to fill the gap
he liftboat sector was one of many in the Gulf of Mexico to feel the impact of the post KatRita hurricane clean-up and repair work through 2006 and most of 2007, which helped drive up utilization and dayrates ...
Passage to India
India’s hydrocarbon resource base is put at between 29-33 billion tonnes of oil equivalent, but with only eight of its 26 sedimentary basins having seen drilling to-date some analysts suggest more than 80% of the country’s reserves may still lie unexplored. On the eve of the inaugural Indian Oil & Gas conference in Mumbai, Darius Snieckus sounds out ...
What lies beneath . . .
On the surface, oil and gas operations in the US Gulf of Mexico appear to be back to normal, but offshore drilling contractors must contend with a seasonal market that restricts the water depth capability of jackups and semisubmersibles during hurricane season ...
January 2008
Another stellar year?
Predictions are a mug’s game. Undeterred, Andrew McBarnet divines what may be in store for the marine geophysical services industry.
At the center of stability
The continued march into offshore production, combined with smaller field sizes and remote locations, means producers are scrutinizing their options for floating production. US editor Jennifer Pallanich talks to two engineering firms about their latest offerings.
ebb and flow ... Cents and sensibilities
The oil business has always been for the traveling man, the wanderer and the restless. It brought in a special type of character: innovative, tough, unfazed in adversity ...
Extending the TLP brand
Another extended tension leg platform is inching its way toward the Gulf of Mexico. It is shorter on steel requirements than its sister design, engineering on the ETLP is moving forward, and basin tests are nearly complete. Jennifer Pallanich reports.
Floaters at full-sail on prevailing wind
Even before the headline-making announcements of Petrobras’ elephantine deepwater Tupi discovery off Brazil and the US Minerals Management Service’s blessing of a flagship FPSO development in the US Gulf of Mexico, the international oil and gas industry had already pledged close to $40 billion to sail 120 FPSs into service over the next five years. Darius Snieckus tests the waters of a market still on a rising tide.
Halul homes in on digital radio shutdown
A digital radio communication network serving Qatar Petroleum is designed not only to provide reliable two-way voice communication but also to facilitate remote shutdown of the company’s Halul Island oil loading facility in the event of an emergency ...
India’s eastern promise
Governmental reforms of India’s licensing policies have turned a frontier offshore play into a global deepwater hotspot, with the 11tcf Dhirubhai gas field on the front burner. Still, argues Wood Mackenzie’s Giles Farrer, it will be the next five years that reveal the true potential of India’s offshore basins.
Integrating 2D and 3D yields new insights
With the oil and gas industry’s recent focus on 3D and 4D exploration technologies and powerful integrated workstations, the wealth of legacy 2D seismic data that exists has tended to be overlooked ...
Let the good times roll
The oil industry is flush with cash, thanks to a continued upward march in prices. It’s almost hard not to make money these days, and market watchdogs see continued good times for 2008, although they temper that optimism with a few cautions. Jennifer Pallanich reports.
letter to the editor
Sea-sick separation systems
Calculating the effects of separator sloshing on floating production systems can be a tricky business. OE invited Matt Straw, director of engineering partner Prospect, to discuss the state of the art.
Working hard for the Olympics
A newbuild multiservice vessel has joined the deepwater Gulf of Mexico ranks, and it doesn’t look like the Olympic Triton will leave the area any time soon. OE reviews some of the latest ROV/AUV technology talking points.
World E&P spend on trend
With the days of the crude price/exploration capital expenditure ‘disconnect’ now behind them, operators are demonstrating they have very deep pockets when it comes to deepwater and, more widely, international E&P. Darius Snieckus looks at the latest Lehman Brothers’ E&P spending survey.
December 2007
Creating a self-propelled drilling rig for the Arctic
Shell purchased the first floating drilling unit purpose-built for Arctic waters and set about reactivating it in 2005, adding thruster porches to accommodate US maritime law. Spar Point Research’s Bruce Jenkins, details Kulluk’s second coming.
e-learning to stay top of the class
Keeping on top of the training requirements of a geographically dispersed workforce is no simple matter. Fugro, with 200 plus operating companies and some 11,000 employees worldwide, looked to e-learning for a solution.
Engineering under pressure
With an aging oil and gas population and a small candidate pool, the industry faces a talent squeeze. Jennifer Pallanich opens this month’s review of recent developments in the area of offshore industry recruitment, retention and training with the findings of a recent Cera study projecting shortfall numbers in the engineering ranks and a look at how the industry plans to respond.
Getting the global skills mix right
The oil and gas industry’s ongoing skills shortage and the spread of E&P;activity to previously uncharted territories have combined to put wind in the sails of internationally focused technical training establishments in recent years. Among the beneficiaries has been the UK’s TTE Technical Training Group ...
Is the world feeling peaky?
The analysts may not agree on whether the world has hit peak oil, but they all seem to agree that surviving peak oil won’t be pretty. US editor Jennifer Pallanich sat in on the ASPO-USA World Oil Conference in Houston late October.
More vessels at any cost!
There’s been nothing festive about the latest rush for more seismic vessel capacity. Andrew McBarnet has been watching the fall-out.
Optical extremes
Extreme environments call for sturdy equipment. Monitoring deep reservoirs with high temperatures and high pressures demands durable optical sensing technology, and one service company is finding solutions to the difficulties of packaging sensors that can survive. Jennifer Pallanich reports.
Profit squeeze points to Big Oil decline
It was tough for many to understand and tougher to interpret. How was it possible, at record oil prices inching towards the real and especially psychologically important $100, for Exxon Mobil and other huge oil companies to report decreasing profits?
Southern exposure warms RWE-Dea growth plan
Development of the southern North Sea Cavendish field by RWE-Dea UK – its first operatorship off Britain – has been instrumental in moving forward the German oil and gas company’s wider plans for doubling its global hydrocarbon production levels by 2013 ...
Steady as she goes . . .
As the steady output of semisubmersible and jackup drilling rigs and the occasional FPSO and drillship continues from Asian owned and Asia market-oriented shipyards, the number of support vessels under construction is also trending upwards. John Mueller updates his files on current project progress and highlights the latest batch of orders.
Swimming with the churn and change
Having rapidly risen to prominence in the North Sea’s Third Age as the ‘operators’ operator’, Petrofac is now mapping out the next march in its campaign as a global facilities solutions provider intent on making the most of the ‘shifting lateral boundaries’ between service contractors and oil companies – not least the NOCs. Darius Snieckus speaks with Petrofac Facilities Management managing director Gordon East.
November 2007
A tool less tripped
A new completion system isolates multiple zones in a single trip. Jennifer Pallanich talks to one company that adapted its existing isolation equipment to meet operator requests for speeding up the process.
Angola rolls out the barrels
Angola has, inside five years, orchestrated an upswing in its oil production that should see output climbing past the 2 million boe/d mark in 2008 as the next large-scale fields being developed in its deep and ultra-deepwaters are brought to plateau. The question, as Darius Snieckus reports, is how long this crescendo of production can be sustained.
Avoiding the sand trap
Some 70% of the world’s oil and gas reserves are contained in sandstone reservoirs where sand is likely to become a problem at some point during the life of the field. Senergy’s Colin McPhee discusses the issues and challenges for operators worldwide and the effectiveness of current sand management methods and technologies.
Flagship Greater Plutonio in its element
Like its deepwater Angola brethren Girassol and Kizomba, BP’s Greater Plutonio development has necessarily been built around thinking big: a 1.77 million barrel FPSO capable of processing up to 240,000b/d of oil, 450,000b/d of water, and 400 million scf/d of gas, a 1258m-tall hybrid riser tower – the world’s largest to-date ...
Frontier no more
Jennifer Pallanich reports on the technology the Independence Hub team applied to overcome the challenges.
Frontier Porcupine Basin round to the point
Over the last 15 years a mere 23 wells have been spudded in the waters off Ireland. The country’s latest licensing round, a fast-track offering of 232 full and part blocks in the Porcupine Basin, aims to transform the fortunes of the Irish continental shelf as an offshore province. Darius Snieckus reports on resurgent interest in this swathe of the Atlantic margin.
Sonangol hopes high for ‘lucky’ seven
Home to discoveries such as Girassol, Kizomba and Dalia, Angola is wooing investors to bid on seven more offshore blocks. Jennifer Pallanich kicks off OE’s Angolan review with a report on the latest offerings.
Taking teamwork to the edge
Two service companies are bringing the wow factor back into viz rooms, real time centers, and executive briefing rooms. Both opened centers aimed at collaboration and innovation with the latest in high-definition viewing, techno-toys and creature comforts. It kind of makes the centers of yesterday seem, well, yesteryear. US editor Jennifer Pallanich checks out the facilities.
This mass debate is a flaccid one
The biggest effect of the man-made global warming debate is that it brought into the mainstream what used to be considered radical ideological drivel. Time did it first and then, not to be outdone, Newsweek upped the ante with a cover story that was a venomous piece of propaganda masquerading as journalism. Deniers were denigrated as ogres, or worse, as Republicans or oil company stooges.
Whale of a problem
Not everything is plain sailing in the marine seismic business, especially when it comes to environmental objections to man-made sounds disturbing the world’s marine mammal community. Andrew McBarnet fishes deeper.
September 2007
Consulting on the cost
New decommissioning security agreements – DSAs – are being drafted which could help ease industry concern about covering the cost of removing UKCS infrastructure. John Bradbury reviews this and other current developments on the North Sea decommissioning front.
Deliberating on ‘downers’: the hidden legacies of two fierce ladies
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita left their marks on more than just the coast. They knocked over many platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Kicking off this month’s decommissioning special, US editor Jennifer Pallanich talks to companies about the methods they’re using to decommission damaged wells and platforms.
ebb and flow ... Guilt in delight and delight in guilt
It is amazing how 12 hours of traveling can run the spectrum of human emotions in that potent mix of established versus developing wealth, the use of energy sources and the increasing concerns for the environment. There is hardly anybody that hasn’t personally lived through two very powerful emotions: feeling some guilt when so many good things seem to come your way ...
Feeding off the bottom
An innovative custom-lifting system has been busy lately recovering hurricane-destroyed platform decks in the Gulf of Mexico. Steven McGinn looks at the rationale behind Versabar’s Bottom Feeder.
Game for advancement
Splicing hardware for computer gamers with the requirements of the E&P;and seismic industry seems an unlikely marriage, but demand for high-end visuals and graphics in games fueled the advancement of hardware for data processing. Steven McGinn reports on this and other recent IT-related developments in the offshore sector.
Good times, bad times
Mergers and acquisitions are frequent occurrences in a struggling economy and can be a surprise in a booming one. US editor Jennifer Pallanich looks at the motives behind the merger that has dominated talk in the offshore drilling circle in recent weeks.
Handling asbestos on MCP-01
Aberdeen contractor RBG has been working on deconstruction in the Total E&P UK-operated Frigg field where ongoing decommissioning work has had to embrace and comply with all asbestos related legislation.
Legendary Ormen Lange comes ashore
Discovered ten years ago almost 3000m below sea level off Norway, the NKr66 billion Ormen Lange field has emerged as a history-making development that continues to transform many of the international E&P;industry’s engrained attitudes and approaches toward deepwater oil and gas production ...
Lifting behavior to new heights
Cranes have long posed risks to people and equipment on offshore platforms. These necessary lifters can be operated safely, but the question is how to improve the overall safety levels of crane activity in the industry. Jennifer Pallanich reports on the topic following a crane safety conference in Houston.
Low-profile tanks targeted for offshore use
LNG technology continues to improve, Jennifer Pallanich looks at new storage and vaporization technologies.
Pyrenees plum puts new pairing on the map
One of the more audacious assaults on the market domination of the ‘Big Three’ installers of subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines (Surf) came recently with the unexpected pairing of flexpipe manufacturer Wellstream and vessel owner Sea Trucks. Their Seastream JV offering has plenty of hard-headed offshore industry logic behind it and, as David Morgan reports, has already beaten the big boys to a plum Australian ‘supply and install’ contract.
Surf City shakedown
If you believe one player in the Scottish subsea sector then only an accident of geography can explain why Aberdeen, or, more precisely, the suburb of Westhill, can justifiably claim to be the subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines (Surf) capital of the world. Technip’s Aberdeen headquarters is in Westhill, some of Subsea 7’s operations are already there, and Acergy will be joining them in ‘Surf City’ next spring, as John Bradbury reports.
TGS picks a partner
Who would have guessed that the first significant merger of offshore seismic interests in Norway would involve TGS-Nopec. Yet the newly proposed TGS Wavefield makes a lot of sense, according to Andrew McBarnet.
Ursa Basin explorers shine new light on shallow water flow
Targeting the Gulf of Mexico’s Ursa field, academe and industry came together in IODP Expedition 308 to try to improve their understanding of the conditions that cause shallow water flow and the best practices for approaching near-surface, narrow-margin drilling. Greg Myers, who chaired a session dedicated to this initiative at OTC 2007, distills the essence of the team’s findings in this special report for OE.
August 2007
Dalia’s 120 days to full bloom
First flow from Angola’s $4 billion deepwater Dalia development brought with it many of the myriad attendant operational challenges one might expect from a project that had united a subsea installation ‘the size of a city’, a 2 million barrel capacity FPSO, and first-of-its-kind 1650m-long integrated production bundles to tap four complex reservoirs housing reserves of some 1 billion barrels.
Expandables – the journey so far
From a simple need, expandable screens evolved into a solution that offers cased hole benefits in an open hole environment. About 550 installations in less than a decade indicate growing industry support of the technology, as US editor Jennifer Pallanich reports.
Leading the LWI pack
With the subsea light well intervention (LWI) market gathering momentum, and a raft of new players joining in, Steve Sasanow sounds out Well Ops, the founder of this specialist niche and still the acknowledged leader of the pack.
Mulva puts down a regional marker
Underpinned by burgeoning regional demand and easy access to large seaborne export markets, the Asia Pacific region has sufficient resource base and technical expertise to become a deepwater technology hub. That was among the conclusions of ConocoPhillips president and CEO Jim Mulva in his presentation to June’s Petronas-sponsored Asia Oil & Gas Conference (AOGC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Mulva’s comments are summarised here by John Mueller.
Other runners and riders . . .
Competition in the light well intervention market comes from various fronts – those with vessels, those with intervention technology and those with both.
Pushing the expandables envelope
The ‘single-diameter’ milestone recently achieved on an Oklahoma land well provides useful pointers to the advancement of expandable technology for today’s more challenging offshore well construction assignments. Enventure’s Mark Holland explains why.
Seismic shift in EM forces
EM is once again centre stage in the marine geophysical services market with the seismic contractors piling in to get a piece of the action. Andrew McBarnet explains.
Slow-release medication relieves deepwater headache
Two deepwater Gulf of Mexico wells have joined the ranks of onshore wells that received chemicals during fracturing. Jennifer Pallanich reports.
Subsea centre opens in record time
Aker Kvaerner has officially opened a $100 million integrated subsea oil and gas centre in Malaysia, marking the successful conclusion of an ultra fast-track schedule to bring the facility on stream. John Mueller reports.
