E&P Magazine - December 2009

As I See It

EPmag.com – Hart’s best-kept secret

What has become known as “information overload” is actually, to quote a friend of mine, “information pollution.

Exploration Technologies

Exploration geophysicist not just looking for oil and gas

University of Houston professor gets students excited about science.

Drilling Technologies

Drilling down in Canada

Gas drilling declines for fourth year.

Completions and Production

Good news, school’s in session!

In case you’re tired of hearing our industry being bashed in the press, by Congress or anyone else with an axe to grind, here’s a holiday present for you.

Digital Solutions

Delivering production in 2010 and beyond

Oil and gas producers operate in a world of seemingly conflicting objectives: to deliver more oil today from a well or series of wells while simultaneously reducing operating expenditures. To get more oil, pumps and compressors need to run harder, which consumes more fuel and increases maintenance costs. This has been the challenge of best-in-class operators for years.

Get more out of capital assets

Using a systematic approach called Design, Operate, Maintain, companies are realizing significant savings through enterprise asset management.

Features

Better rigs and tools improve drilling outlook

New rig designs, control systems, drilling risers, and API specifications are among the rollouts this year.

Breaking Barriers

Biggest, fastest, first-ever — it’s all in a year’s work.

Brighter days are on the horizon

Financial indicators point to an economy in the early stages of recovery.

Exploration technology: Ready for the rebound

You want better-faster-cheaper? You got it! Innovative technologies continue to emerge.

Great ideas benefit production

There is no end to the great ideas that come from our creative and innovative industry; unfortunately, the uptake of many of these ideas seems to move at geologic speed.

O&G capex will rise in 2010

Capital expenditure of oil and gas companies, after surging from 2007 to 2008, witnessed a significant decrease in 2009. In 2010, capex activity is expected to go up, driven mainly by large national oil companies.

Production is the name of the game

Exploration is important, drilling is important, reservoir characterization is important, but at the end of the day, it’s production that pays the bills.

Woodside pushes toward global leadership in LNG

Mary Hackett, Woodside Petroleum Ltd.’s onshore project manager for Pluto trains two and three, talks about the company’s vision to be a global LNG leader as well as the key projects and people that will help the company realize this goal.

Worldwide Drilling: Testing Limits

New rigs, deeper wells, and Arctic drilling drew attention this year.

Tech Trends

Airborne technology identifies, maps CBM seeps

A technology typically used for discovering pipeline leaks helps a Ute tribe monetize its natural gas.

Tech Trends

A look at December tech trends.

On The Move

Last Word

Offshore technological advances define new business model

In the past decade or so, a steady stream of new technologies, some with revolutionary impact, has empowered offshore producers to search for and recover oil and gas in almost unimaginably deep or pernicious waters from reservoirs previously deemed unproductive or inaccessible.

Activity Spotlight

North Dakota oil production up 27%

North Dakota posts record oil production in 2009

Management Report

Innovation, automation drive oilfield efficiencies, increase productivity

While the oil industry consistently produces leading-edge technology, early adoption is not necessarily the watchword. Instead, conservatism is the rule, with ‘a mad dash to be second’ when new technological products are introduced.