Deep and ultradeep water of many of the world's most promising hydrocarbon provinces has technically and economically challenged developers and operators in their field development approaches, especially for natural gas.... more

Technology makes LNG available for offshore stranded gas. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is not just for monster fields anymore. A new system offers technology that works financially for stranded or associated... more

Operators sift through a lot of variables before picking the right production facility. Selecting the right production platform for an offshore field is getting more complicated for operators as lightweight materials... more

The ability to manage each producing zone in a multizone completion pays big dividends. Intelligent well systems (IWS) are needed to thoroughly analyze production dynamics, then act to optimize them. Not... more

Intelligent well systems (IWS) are slowly building traction as early adopters gain confidence in their reliability and long-term profitability potential. A 5-year joint development between Baker Oil Tools (BOT) and Petrobras... more

Better recoveries, better economics make new projects more drillable. Many drilling-related challenges facing the offshore drilling industry today contribute to more than half of all offshore prospects being economically undrillable. In... more

Water incursion measurements during underbalanced drilling improve production. Traditionally, the primary reason that energy companies employed underbalanced drilling (UBD) techniques in their operations was to minimize reservoir impairment and improve access... more

Advanced time-lapse seismic acquisition technology improves repeatability by greatly reducing noise and positioning problems that previously impeded reservoir management. The Norne field in the Norwegian Sea demonstrates the impressive insights now... more

An integrated study is attempting to minimize risk in Deep Shelf wells through careful analysis of available and new data. The Deep Shelf play in the Gulf of Mexico has operators... more

The conventional wisdom points to the Rocky Mountains as a major part of the solution to America's gas future. Is the euphoria real, or just a lot of "gas?" International... more

Oceanographic survey work underway in the Norwegian Sea this summer showed how well operators can work together for mutual benefit. Norsk Hydro needed to continue oceanographic surveys for its Ormen Lange... more

By combining cutting and drilling capabilities, the new PathMAKER Formation Mill from Baker Oil Tools saves operators considerable rig time. Designed to mill a full gauge casing window, the tool... more

Getting down in horizontal or highly deviated holes has always been problematic for wireline-conveyed service tools. The MaxTRAC downhole well tractor system is the only tractor designed and developed by... more

When the hype surrounding the Kashagan oilfield discovery first broke out, there were suggestions the North Caspian Sea find could contain up to 30 billion bbl of oil. Kazakhstan's government claims... more

NORTH AMERICA Joseph H. Bryant has been named Unocal Corp.'s president and chief operating officer. Offshore Logistics, Inc. elected William E. Chiles as the company's president and chief executive officer. Professional... more

1. Aspen Exploration Corp., Denver, Colo., drilled five successful wells in five attempts in its development program in West Grimes field in Colusa County, Calif. Its WGU #15-8 well in... more

1. Pioneer Natural Resources Co. brought its Raptor and Tomahawk fields online in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Both fields are subsea tiebacks to the company's Falcon field, where production... more

1. Petroleos de Venezuela SA wants to push production from its Tomoporo oil field on the western side of Lake Maracaibo to 130,000 b/d by the end of this year.... more

1. Stratic Energy farmed into acreage offshore Turkey in the Black Sea and will drill immediately. The company will put up 25% of the cost of the US $4.5-million Ayazli-1... more

1. Iran's plans for its latest licensing round may have to be cancelled after the Iranian Parliament rejected a modification in the country's buy-back formula for foreign investors. Bids for... more

1. Petrofac Resources, the investment arm of UK-based Petrofac Group, has acquired Amerada Hess Malaysia PM 304 Ltd., the Amerada Hess subsidiary that operates and owns a 40.5% interest in... more

1. Amerada Hess completed its 204/10b-2 Lindisfarne exploration well in a water depth of 3,608 ft (1,100 m) with the West Navigator semisubmersible. The rig went off hire July 9... more

1. The first deepwater well offshore Morocco has come up dry, according to Ogilvie's Africa Oil & Gas newsletter. The Vanco Energy consortium spudded the Shark well on the Ras... more

Same song, new verse. Wise portfolio management will continue to yield exploration success. As a part-time independent exploration consultant with almost 50 years experience, I read many articles about our industry... more

Pressure management marks a step change for drilling. Can we imagine life without cordless power tools and appliances? They are a spin-off from technology developed for the Apollo space program. Computer-aided... more

In nearly every game, at least those involving balls, the first, second and last admonition coaches give their players is, "Keep your eye on the ball." In our game production... more

Controlling dynamic underbalanced pressure when perforating using the PURE method results in clean perforation tunnels for higher productivity and better injectivity. Perforating using static underbalance is the most widely accepted technique... more

Sometimes they make it just too darned easy - the environmental radicals, of course. I received a press release from the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) recently. It railed against the... more

Reduction of unplanned events creates savings in offshore operations. Oil companies are adding typically 20% to 40% to their total costs, and losing up to 20% of their production, without realizing... more

Security training keeps employees safe. Not so long ago a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) security correspondent was critically injured while reporting in Saudi Arabia. Unknown gunmen were responsible for the attack... more

Despite rosy production numbers, actions by Russia courts have cast a cloud over future growth and potential investments. The well-publicized tax problems currently being experienced by Yukos, Russia's largest oil producer,... more

Estimating reserves from limited data is very challenging. Just because huge sums of money are involved doesn't mean that we can realistically from a technical and/or commercial perspective obtain the... more