E&P Magazine - April 2003
As I See It
Guerilla leaders capture competence
Some oil and gas companies have allowed production goals to divert their attention from shareholder expectations.
Cover Story
Cope with maturity
In recent years, industry associations, academic institutions, and oil and gas companies have begun to recognize an unsettling trend: ours is an aging industry, and we are not attracting enough young minds to lead us into the future.
Drilling Technologies
Well-planning software revisited
Several new well planning applications were released at the SPE/IADC Drilling Conference in Amsterdam.
Features
AUVs glimpse the deepwater future
Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have the potential to become stars someday, but at this point, they're character actors, handling survey and observation tasks in the great underwater oil and gas operations theater.
GOM players reach for deep water
Overall rig counts are down and rates are low, but the deepwater Gulf of Mexico is going strong.
Vital tools develop deep water
Plunging to depths no man has visited, underwater pilots in the Gulf of Mexico put oil and gas operations on the sea floor.
Tech Watch
PVT data in time and online
Engineers can now can enjoy a head start in predicting reservoir production performance.
Activity Highlights
Lost at sea
You are probably as tired as I am of our industry being hammered for our supposed environmental indiscretions.
Another Perspective
Canadian oil sands: a heavy hitter
Although vast reserves make Canadian bitumen seem like a good investment, Kyoto concerns and shortages of water, condensate, capital and labor may limit the number of projects.
Chemistry control with a click
Optimization of production chemical delivery is possible with a monitoring and control system.
Connecting with the deep
Experts say power delivery and communication transmission issues are the primary drivers for subsea control over bigger distances.
Deep shelf play no Easter egg hunt
Deep high-pressure, high-temperature gas targets in the Gulf of Mexico's Shelf can be company-makers, but only for companies that do their homework first.
Impacting low-impact seismic
New acquisition techniques minimize the intrusiveness of seismic surveys without compromising data quality.
Intelligent design optimizes production
Combination of intelligent well design and ESP flexibility reduces water cut in UK offshore.
Mutliphase meters improve allocation
Continuous rate and water cut data reveal reasons for allocation errors and provide means for their correction.
Platforms push the limit
While the subsea market has taken great strides in the past decade, platform technology has not been neglected.
Storing business-critical applications
As the result of a network storage overhaul, efficiency at Newfield Exploration extends from the IT department to remote geoscientists.
Technologies target marginal wells
As subsea tiebacks become more common, attention is typically drawn to the largest, longest and biggest budget projects employing the latest technologies.
The evolution of offshore facilities
Houston Engineer of the Year Ken Arnold recounts how the science and safety of offshore facilities have developed in the last few decades and how important professionalism is in achieving job satisfaction.
Tieback technology reaches new depths
After Canyon Express set the high water mark for the deepest subsea tieback in the US Gulf, the challenge for operators and contractors is to push the performance envelope.
World Map
Angola: Better, but still problematic
In America, this means asking a question that gives one way more information than was expected. Perhaps the US National Petroleum Council has done just that.