Table of Contents

The waters of Latin America drive the region’s upstream oil and gas business, and the potential for more success suggests the area will continue to draw attention. How the area will develop depends upon the national oil companies. The NOCs in Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico hold about 90% of all reserves and account for 90% of all production. Even in the smaller arenas of Colombia and Ecuador, the NOCs produce more than half the oil. This reliance on NOCs remains a barrier to operations in Venezuela and Mexico, and to some degree Brazil which is considering new legislation to restrict some areas of operation to Petrobras.

Available data today, mostly provided by 3D seismic, oil and source rock geochemistry, and 3D basin modeling reveals a close match between the South American and West African margin basins with respect to their pre-salt depositional sequences, including reservoir and source facies of the pre-salt tectono-sedimentary sequences.

Prestack depth migration (PSDM) projects of regional lines and 3D surveys have a major impact on exploration and development projects offshore India because the technique can reduce risks. PSDM can handle complex structures and rapid vertical and lateral changes in the velocity field, so the resulting images can enhance interpretations compared to those based on the time processing results alone.

An increasing catalogue of case studies demonstrates that the dual-sensor Geo Streamer enables more accurate reservoir description, and, reduces the dependence on well log data. This goes beyond the well-known survey efficiency, signal penetration, and resolution improvements.

The world of volume interpretation and visualization is evolving with the advent of a new parameter that exceeds the capabilities of traditional systems. While it has been possible to visualize pre-stack data for some time with some ingenious adaptations of a full multi-attribute 3D viewer, the azimuth component demands specific viewing techniques, as well as the support of tools such as illumination ray path features and attributes volumes. Together, they deliver a better view of a reservoir under a complex anisotropic overburden.

New mobile offshore drilling rigs are being delivered into a market ill-suited at present to absorb new capacity, and some rigs are being delivered with no work prospects in hand. In conjunction, new rig orders have fallen dramatically over the past year, according to data compiled by ODS-Petrodata.

The worldwide deepwater (4,000 ft [1,219 m] water depth and greater) rig fleet has grown significantly since 2008 when Offshore last presented its Worldwide Survey of Deepwater Drilling Rigs. The deepwater rig survey is conducted every other year, with a jackup survey published in alternate years. The deepwater rig survey was conducted during May and represents a snapshot of the existing operational deepwater fleet capable of drilling in 4,000 ft of water and greater. Rigs under construction are not included in the survey. New rigs with a construction date in 2010 are included if they are delivered from the shipyard, or expected to be delivered from the shipyard, by the end of June.

More than 1,100 installations worldwide in myriad conditions – including over 115 in deepwater – demonstrate the effectiveness of solid expandable systems in offshore programs. Expandable systems can be an advantage in challenging wells where lack of offset data and unknown formations can disrupt the planned drilling program. When these conditions necessitate setting casing higher than planned, expandable technology may mitigate wellbore diameter reduction and enable the operator to return to the original casing program to complete the well, meeting hole size and depth objectives.

Gushers may look great in films like 2007’s There Will Be Blood, but like many of Hollywood’s ideas, they are far better on the screen than in real life. Fortunately, drilling is much safer since 1922 when James Smither Abercrombie walked into Harry Cameron’s machine shop in Humble, Texas, and explained his idea for a ram-type blowout preventer. Cameron was dead within six years, but Cameron International Corp, now a $5-billion Houston-based international flow equipment firm, still makes BOPs. The designs, of course, have advanced considerably over the years, and Cameron offers dozens of models designed to prevent surface and subsea blowouts on different sizes of drill pipes. That company has been joined by a dozen or more BOP manufacturers such as Hydril and National Oilwell Varco/Shaffer.

Oil and gas companies are extending their operational domain to deep and ultra deepwater; which challenge the performance and operational integrity of conventional subsea technology, jeopardizing the value proposition of the enterprise and increasing the downside risk to stakeholders.

The first subsea horizontal electrical submersible pumping booster system is scheduled for installation later this year in the Gulf of Mexico. The installation will be the first use of a horizontal ESP-based booster system in ultra deepwater.

Subsea 7 did the pipeline installation for the Parque das Conchas (BC-10) development, offshore Brazil. Parque das Conchas is operated by Shell on behalf of the BC-10 Joint Venture (Shell 50%, Petrobras 35%, ONGC 15%).

ABB has won a contract to supply subsea power cables for Eni Norge’s Goliat development in the Barents Sea. The NOK 676-million ($104 million) assignment covers design, manufacture, and installation, the latter scheduled for summer 2013.

Antycip Simulation and CMLabs have teamed to develop offshore crane training simulators for the PNI Training Centre in Norway. The simulators, installed at PNI’s Stavanger base in June, will help the company address increasing demands for the training of personnel in offshore lifting operations.

Tranter International faced an unusual challenge when asked to supply heat exchangers for Eni’s field FPSO offshore Nigeria.

Driven by global demand for energy, subsea exploration and well construction has boomed in the past decade. According to consultants Infield Systems and Douglas Westwood, the total number of subsea wells will balloon to more than 5,500 by the end of this year. While some projects may be delayed due to financing issues related to the global economic downturn, the rapid construction of new wells is likely to continue, if not accelerate, in the years to come.