Frank Hartley,
Drilling & Production Editor

HOUSTON -- There are hundred of deepwater oil fields worldwide that have been discovered, and many hundreds yet to be discovered that are not commercial using existing conventional deep water approaches, said Dr. Keith Millheim with MEPS at the 2008 Offshore Technology Conference today in Houston. He continued to say a new paradigm based on production materiality is an alternate approach for deep water marginal oil field exploration and development.

Millheim says using a specially designed self standing riser first oil could be consistently achieved in one to two years from discovery to first oil with attractive economics if there are new ways to significantly reduce drilling costs, capital investments, and operational costs. However, the reality is the need for risk takers to accept the challenge.

05/07/08