Set to remain a major force in the region, the State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic (Socar) will continue to rely heavily on foreign investment to increase its oil and... more

Companies have been eager to tap the huge reserves of the Caspian region. However, not all such aspirations have translated into oil revenue. In a quieter corner of the eastern Caspian... more

Advanced multilateral junction technologies are beginning to establish successful track records. Each year, 50,000 oil and gas wells are drilled worldwide, and 10% are candidates for multilateral completions. Service companies have... more

Installing a new Level 5 multilateral junction at the Troll Olje field took only two trips after drilling the lateral. is business development manager for Sperry-Sun Multilateral Systems in Houston, Texas.... more

Step changes in design are overcoming earlier prototype difficulties. Completion isolation valves (CIVs) were developed in the mid-1990s as a solution to problems associated with high-angle sand-face completion operations. Specifically, they... more

As operators continue to look for cost savings in every aspect of their business, well operations have come under particular scrutiny, and several contractors are offering new tools for intervention... more

Offshore oil and gas has become the industry where the latest high-tech robot swimmers are deployed and developed. A "dolphin" originally invented for mine-hunting is set to be turned into a... more

A simultaneous application of rotary steerable and reaming-while-drilling (RWD) technology on an Ursa horizontal well eliminated a separate underreamer run and increased net rate of penetration (ROP) by 85% compared... more

A complex inhibitor drilling mud (CIDM) has allowed Russian operators to complete former problem wells. In drilling deep and ultradeep wells, the most common and difficult problem is the loss of... more

The Phillips Petroleum Co. board of directors has appointed J. Bryan Whitworth executive vice president, general counsel and chief administrative officer. Kevin Meyers has been promoted to executive vice president... more

Development of stranded gas fields - one of the industry's holy grails - in West Africa and Asia could be a step closer following a technical study backed by operators... more

BP and Shell use Web-based business planning tools to store and analyze real-time data and run what-if scenarios. "Global leaders are reinventing their business processes to leverage the most from the... more

1. Pemex plans to drill 424 new wells in the Burgos Basin, across the border from the southern tip of Texas. The US $720 million investment in 2001 should raise... more

1. Forest Oil Corp. plans an aggressive drilling program as the Gulf of Mexico takes the largest share of its exploration and production budget. It plans 37 exploratory and seven... more

1. Amerada Hess has started a new exploration well on the Cirrus prospect, designated 28/5aE, in the central North Sea southwest of its operated Bittern field, which is producing via... more

1. Triton Energy's run of success in deepwater Equatorial Guinea has come to an end following the failure of its wildcat in Block F. The F-1 well was plugged and... more

1. Trinidad and Tobago plan to call for bids for a seismic shoot covering some of the most prospective areas that will come up for bidding in the nation's next... more

1. Turkish Pet Oil Co. is exploring Azerbaijan's onshore Kalamaddin-Mishovdag fields under a joint production-sharing agreement. The company expects to increase field production by two to three times. Partners in... more

1. Novus Petroleum of Australia was in late March due to announce new exploration-led ventures in the Middle East, where it sees opportunities to add value in markets such as... more

1. The Philippines Department of Energy said only three of the country's major oil fields with significant oil reserves in the 1970s still are producing. Producing fields are Nido, Matinloc... more

It's not quite point-and-click, but technology shopping is getting almost that easy on the Internet. A few years ago research and development in the oil industry started to lose some of... more

Investigations of underbalanced drilling tools and technology offshore have shown remarkable progress and acceptance. At the National Drilling Technical Conference sponsored by the American Association of Drilling Engineers (AADE) in March,... more

By any crystal ball, 2001 looks like a good year for oil and gas, and big money already is moving toward the sweet spots. Analysts forecast gains close to 20% for... more

I am not in the habit of using artwork in my column, mainly because it is hard to find something to illustrate my often rather broad themes. But every once... more

Six basic shifts mark the new economy, and most oil company executives don't know how to take advantage of them. This article is an authorized condensation of Rober Peebler's "From eSizzle... more

Angola and Namibia team up to encourage foreign investment. In a spirit of inter-border comradeship, the state oil companies of Angola and Namibia have joined forces to promote the Namibe Basin,... more

People are our most important asset. Our goal is to be the low-cost producer. Mix these two lofty ideals together, and the results may not be pretty. However, at least... more