E&P Magazine - February 2000
Cover Story
Pleasing the customer
E&P technology has only one customer: the well. Whatever the specific purpose of the technology or services required across the industry, it is basically in support of drilling, completing and maintaining the production well.
Drilling Technologies
Transferring technology
Drilling and completion problems are at the forefront of oil companies' research and development (R&D) needs. The dilemma is how to fund the work.
Features
Is there oil east of Oz?
A new deepwater frontier could be emerging offshore eastern Australia after a fresh geological discovery unexpectedly made by a joint Australian-French survey.
Tech Watch
Untethered robot
1999 saw a lot of well tractors introduced.
Activity Highlights
Divided by a common language
There's a saying from the days of England's great war-time leader Sir Winston Churchill in which he describes the United States and his own country as being two nations "divided by the same language."
Another Perspective
A Rigged Market
The mobile rig market remains a unique sector of the global upstream oil and gas industry.
An immaculate conversion
Saipem transforms accommodation unit into deepwater player
Casing-conveyed perforating tested
A new completion system allows multiple zones to be sequentially perforated and individually stimulated without any tools inside the casing string.
Drillship dilemmas
The growth in the use of drillships for deepwater activity sparked a rash of newbuilds by contractors several years ago, leading to a number of ultra-high spec units arriving on the market in 1998 and 1999.
Foam: A value-added drilling tool
First used as a drilling fluid in the 1960s, foam has endured a rather unrefined gestation period.
Moving from software to solutions
The pace of change within the computer technology industry will enable software vendors to provide better geoscience knowledge solutions to their clients.
ONE-TRIP CEMENT Cleanouts
The cost of drillout trips in the Gulf of Mexico from a deepwater drillship can easily approach $70,000 a day. A new eccentric drillout tool, which employs a field-exchangeable pilot bit solves this problem.
PDC cutters improve drilling in harsh environments
Improvements in polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) cutter technology have contributed immensely to the industry's acceptance of PDC bits as effective drilling tools.
Push, pull and drill
One piece of equipment has remained virtually unchanged since the beginning of the century - the drilling derrick itself.
Rig revolution
New rig designs integrate the latest marine and well construction technologies to cut costs and improve suitability.
The changing scene in fracturing
As stimulation technology gives life to new reservoirs and old, completion and fracturing are becoming
more closely involved with one another.
World Map
An expanded horizon
Revolutionary expandable tubulars and connectors will change the basic design and construction of oil and gas wells.
High-tech processing is common derivative
Depth imaging is becoming a hot ticket in spec offerings as seismic companies strive to differentiate their products from the pack.
Lessons learned
Remember the bumper sticker that said, "Please, Lord, give me one more boom. I promise not to screw it up this time"? It might be time to start keeping some promises.