Magazine - June 2005

One of the key parameters in determining the attractiveness of a country for exploration is the level of Government Take - the lower the take, the more attractive the opportunity.... more


FEATURES
Subsurface speaks to satellites

Mention satellites and you invoke memories of the dawn of popular science, with Sputnik and Telstar, and the beginnings of the space race. Indeed, early satellites helped proliferate their own... more

DHI interpretation and risking

Seismic amplitude anomalies, called direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHIs), are often used to assess the risk (the probability of geological and commercial success and the resource scope) for exploration prospects. The... more

A new look at an old field

In the Permian Basin of West Texas/New Mexico, a seminal 1984 Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) study titled "Oil Accumulation, Production and Characteristics, and Targets For Additional Recovery in Major... more

Economics right for EOR

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) activities traditionally wax and wane with commodity prices. With reasonably stable and historically handsome oil prices, companies are once again chasing residual oil. But there's a... more

Winning at EOR

Carbon dioxide (CO2) injection is a common method of enhanced oil recovery, particularly in West Texas and Southern Wyoming, geographical areas with abundant natural CO2 sources. But it is also... more

Improve deepwater installations

The Deepwater Installation of Subsea Hardware (DISH) joint industry project recently entered its third phase. Phase 1 identified a need to develop technology for deepwater synthetic fiber rope deployment systems... more

Reduce risk in commissioning

There is hardly an area of the oil and gas production process that isn't identified with a risk of some sort: operational, regulatory, environmental, legal or financial. The months or... more

Providing openhole productivity

The design of a reservoir completion is often dictated by the reservoir architecture and whether sand production is anticipated. A reservoir containing multiple zones requiring hydraulic isolation from one another... more

Expandable system built to take it

Many formations can tolerate an openhole completion if they just get a little help. A variety of solutions exists, including matrix treatments that bond sand grains together with an epoxy-like... more

 
MEA INNOVATIONS
CoalStim Service

The CoalStim service is used primarily to reverse production decline in unconventional reservoirs such as coalbeds that produce methane. The benign nature of its chemistry makes the service non-damaging to... more

Cement pulsation

Annular flow related to cementing surface casing has been identified as one of the most frequent causes of loss of well control incidents in the Gulf of Mexico. Past studies... more

ON THE MOVE
On the Move

NORTH AMERICA Ryder Scott announced numerous changes to its management team. Don Roesle has been named chief executive officer (CEO), John Hodgin has been named president, Fred Richoux has been... more

WORLD MAP
Activity Highlights

North America 1. Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp. tested 1,200 b/d of oil on its Nikaitchuq Unit in the area of Spy Island in the Beaufort Sea, offshore Alaska. 2. Northrock Resources... more

DIGITAL OIL FIELD
Management approach protects data

Exciting new standards such as downhole sensors, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and wireless networks that rapidly send data to be analyzed faster also create much more complex and demanding... more

EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGY
New tools for Sherlock

As an editor at an esteemed (hopefully) trade publication, I frequently get invited to attend meetings and interview folks who have a new idea to pitch to the industry. Sometimes... more

Launching into the future

Any technology worth pursuing consists of dynamic properties that enable it to evolve and maintain viability. For Enventure global Technology, the last 6 years have been used to develop robust... more

WELL CONSTRUCTION
Match drilling and supply chains

Can there ever be peace between the drillers and the supply chain professionals? Fifteen key factors were identified as playing a significant role in differentiating the performance of drilling functions... more

PRODUCTION OPTIMIZATION
Are we there yet?

We have made great strides in technology to optimize and enhance production. When it comes to information technology and the digital oil field, we are getting closer, but we aren1t... more

TECH TRENDS
System offers large screen, small size

The DEUCE is driven by two Barco Galaxy three-chip DLP active stereo projectors for bright images even in high ambient light conditions. It gives a large high-contrast image with a... more

AS I SEE IT
Unfulfilled promise

The hype about renewable energy and new energy sources increases daily. Unfortunately, it is mostly hype. Most efforts to date have made a miniscule contribution to the world's energy supply.... more

NEWS & ANALYSIS
Roxar joins POSC

Roxar has joined the Petrotechnical Open Standards Consortium (POSC), an international membership consortium of energy and energy service companies that is focused on leveraging eBusiness and Internet technology for the... more

MANAGEMENT REPORT
Add permeability to knowledge flow

Carla O'Dell's observation led me to think about similarities and differences between knowledge flow in the human world and fluid flow in the geological world. There is a substantial petroleum engineering... more

ACTIVITY SPOTLIGHT
Rockies invite oilfield power plays

The United States and Canada may be mature production areas, but the Rocky Mountain range in both countries are hot spots for operators searching for big reserves, low decline rates... more

THE LAST WORD
Oil sells itself

I was sitting on an airplane reading a stack of technical articles on alternative energy and global climate change, and didn't realize that the woman next to me was reading... more



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