Exploration

Schlumberger acquires rights to MetaCarta

Schlumberger announced the acquisition of exclusive distribution rights to the oil and gas sector for the map-based geographic information search technologies from MetaCarta Inc. The company’s search technology combines map-driven geographic search, geographic referencing, temporal filtering and data visualization capabilities, for both structured and unstructured content, making it “location-aware.” This enables geoscientists and engineers to rapidly find and display relevant data in the context of their area of interest.

Sonangol announces deadline

Sonangol E.P., the national oil company of Angola, has announced a March 13, 2008, submission deadline and guidelines for submission for all pre-qualified companies seeking to submit bid proposals for blocks offered in Angola’s 2007-2008 Licensing Round. The company has enlisted IHS Inc. to help facilitate the road shows for the round and to disseminate information regarding the licensing round.

ONGC uses Paradigm tools

Paradigm will provide Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), India’s national oil company, with a central server license for all Paradigm interpretation, modeling, reservoir characterization, well planning and drilling software solutions, including GOCAD. The US $3 million agreement marks the first deployment of geotechnical and geoenvironmental software licenses on a central server for India-wide use. A separate maintenance and support contract is currently being negotiated.

StatoilHydro secures vessels

StatoilHydro has signed a letter of intent for six seismic acquisition vessels which will gather data on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). The deal’s value is estimated at US $329.1 million.

Chevron selects Petrel

Chevron has selected Petrel seismic-to-simulation software as one of its next-generation interpretation and earth modeling frameworks. Chevron business units around the world will now have Petrel software available for integrating geology and geophysics workflows.

Paradigm provides modeling solution to Chevron

Paradigm and Chevron Corp. have announced a major agreement for the global deployment of the Paradigm Interpretation and Modeling software solutions to integrate with Chevron’s proprietary E&P systems. The multiyear, multimillion-dollar agreement encompasses the deployment of Paradigm’s next-generation interpretation and reservoir modeling technologies and associated services. Paradigm will partner with Chevron Energy Technology Company (ETC) to implement the solution worldwide as well as to provide further technology development to support Chevron’s specific E&P goals.

Wavefield gets BG contract

Wavefield Inseis ASA has been issued a Letter of Intent (LOI) by BG Group plc (BG) to award a 3-D seismic contract for Block 6302/6, located in BG’s Tulipan West license (PL 388) in the Norwegian Sea. The survey will be the first time the two companies have worked together and it will use the Geowave Master, one of Wavefield’s two new large multistreamer vessels launched earlier this year. The survey will take place during 2008 and is expected to take between two and three months to acquire.
GGS-Spectrum begins processing

GGS-Spectrum has been awarded a five-month contract by SeaBird Exploration and Oil and National Gas Corporation of India (ONGC) for onboard seismic data processing offshore the west coast of India. The onboard project is the first of its kind for GGS-Spectrum and is expected to finish in early spring 2008. The project involves the pre-processing of approximately 8,220 line miles (13,500 line km) of long-offset 2-D survey data on board Seabird’s Munin Explorer vessel.

Noble sells drilling business

Seawell Holding UK Ltd., part of Seadrill, purchased Noble Corp.’s North Sea platform drilling business US $35 million. The sale includes labor contracts for 11 platform operations in the UK sector of the North Sea, which currently employ approximately 450 people. The Hibernia platform located off the east coast of Canada was not included in the sale and Noble will continue to provide personnel for the drilling and maintenance operations in support of that project and its client.

Shipyard expanded

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. will spend an estimated US $435.4 billion by 2010 to expand its Kunsan shipyard in southwestern South Korea. According to a Reuters report, the company aims to secure $27.4 billion worth of orders in 2008 for oil carriers and oil drilling rigs due to soaring oil prices.

New research could save billions

A new multimillion dollar research and development program from the University of Aberdeen could reduce drilling costs and environmental footprints for the drilling industry. The University’s School of Engineering has secured a major research contract for Resonance Enhanced Drilling (RED) with ITI Energy for the first phase. The total program could be worth up to US $9.2 million and will involve a number of companies and institutions. RED could significantly reduce wellbore creation time in hard formations and deliver the capability to drill with one bit through differing formation conditions, reducing or removing the need to trip for bit changes. Market testing has estimated that the application of any successful new technology could result in an annual savings of $1.05 billion for operators and the rise of a new market in rate of penetration-improving technologies. The program will be carried out over four years and is expected to generate new innovations in downhole power generation, resonance components, sensor technology and control algorithms, according to Energy Current.

National Oilwell Varco expands its empire

National Oilwell Varco Inc. and Grant Prideco Inc. announced that they have entered into a merger agreement in which National Oilwell Varco will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Grant Prideco for a cash consideration of US $23.20 per combined with .4498 shares of National Oilwell Varco per share of Grant Prideco, a combined total of $58 per share. This price was a 22% premium according closing share prices for both companies on Friday Dec. 14, 2007. The merger was unanimously approved by each company’s board of directors. Upon completion of the transaction it is anticipated that the current stockholders of National Oilwell Varco will own approximately 86% of the combined company and the current stockholders of Grant Prideco will own approximately 14%.

Contracts signed

Aker Kværner signed two contracts with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) for the delivery of two deepwater marine drilling riser systems with buoyancy packages and associated equipment. The combined value of the contract is approximately US $75 million. Both risers will have a length of 7,500 ft (2,287.5 m) and are slated for delivery in 2010.

Drilling

Noble sells drilling business

Seawell Holding UK Ltd., part of Seadrill, purchased Noble Corp.’s North Sea platform drilling business US $35 million. The sale includes labor contracts for 11 platform operations in the UK sector of the North Sea, which currently employ approximately 450 people. The Hibernia platform located off the east coast of Canada was not included in the sale and Noble will continue to provide personnel for the drilling and maintenance operations in support of that project and its client.

Shipyard expanded

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. will spend an estimated US $435.4 billion by 2010 to expand its Kunsan shipyard in southwestern South Korea. According to a Reuters report, the company aims to secure $27.4 billion worth of orders in 2008 for oil carriers and oil drilling rigs due to soaring oil prices.

New research could save billions

A new multimillion dollar research and development program from the University of Aberdeen could reduce drilling costs and environmental footprints for the drilling industry. The University’s School of Engineering has secured a major research contract for Resonance Enhanced Drilling (RED) with ITI Energy for the first phase. The total program could be worth up to US $9.2 million and will involve a number of companies and institutions. RED could significantly reduce wellbore creation time in hard formations and deliver the capability to drill with one bit through differing formation conditions, reducing or removing the need to trip for bit changes. Market testing has estimated that the application of any successful new technology could result in an annual savings of $1.05 billion for operators and the rise of a new market in rate of penetration-improving technologies. The program will be carried out over four years and is expected to generate new innovations in downhole power generation, resonance components, sensor technology and control algorithms, according to Energy Current.

National Oilwell Varco expands its empire

National Oilwell Varco Inc. and Grant Prideco Inc. announced that they have entered into a merger agreement in which National Oilwell Varco will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Grant Prideco for a cash consideration of US $23.20 per combined with .4498 shares of National Oilwell Varco per share of Grant Prideco, a combined total of $58 per share. This price was a 22% premium according closing share prices for both companies on Friday Dec. 14, 2007. The merger was unanimously approved by each company’s board of directors. Upon completion of the transaction it is anticipated that the current stockholders of National Oilwell Varco will own approximately 86% of the combined company and the current stockholders of Grant Prideco will own approximately 14%.

Contracts signed

Aker Kværner signed two contracts with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) for the delivery of two deepwater marine drilling riser systems with buoyancy packages and associated equipment. The combined value of the contract is approximately US $75 million. Both risers will have a length of 7,500 ft (2,287.5 m) and are slated for delivery in 2010.

Production

New support vessel delivered

Canyon Offshore took delivery of its Olympic Triton, a new build multiservice deepwater support vessel. The vessel is destined to support Helix Energy Solutions’ Deepwater Contracting Group’s redevelopment of the Phoenix (formerly Typhoon) field and other similar projects. The vessel carries two-work class remotely operated vehicle systems rated for 9,843 ft (3,000 m) and is equipped with a 150-ton active heave compensated crane capable of working in 10,000 ft (3,050 m) of water. The ships reinforced moonpool is capable of taking a derrick for intervention work when necessary. The purpose-built vessel was designed and is equipped for operations worldwide with accommodations for up to 100 crew members.

Partnership improves gas well life cycle

Schlumberger and Moblize, an developer of instrumentation and next generation sensor-to-Web surveillance tools, announced a partnership to apply real-time technologies to improve field operations efficiency in onshore gas fields to find ways of managing gas well liquid loading. The partnership will use advanced technologies with proven processes for gas well life cycle management, moving from field operations efficiency and well status through monitoring, on to well and reservoir performance management. Initial emphasis will be for onshore wells in the United States.