Table of ContentsSpecial Report:Caspian SeaCaspian Sea set for offshore resurgenceThe Caspian Sea is the setting for some of the world’s oldest offshore oil developments. These date to the late 1940s in Azerbaijan, when the Pirallahi, Gurgany Deniz, and Chilov Adasy fields were brought onstream. Azerbaijan remained a prominent offshore producer through the 1950s and, for a while, the Neft Dashlary field took on the mantle of the world’s biggest offshore project. Port FourchonYes, they have no bananasDetermined to corner the lucrative banana trade, Louisiana Gov. Jimmie Davis on July 7, 1960, put his signature to Act 222 that created the Greater Lafourche Port Commission, and with it, Port Fourchon. New lock keeps bayou cargo flowing; LA 1 again seeks fundingA waterway that some contend is as vital to the offshore as its more popularized overland counterpart received a major boost late last year with the long-awaited opening of a lock engineered to keep rig-bound cargo moving. Storms, deepwater combine to make inspections healthy business in Port FourchonAdd a few hurricanes to the intrinsic nature of the deepwater and you have the ideal scenario for companies specializing in checking the integrity of topsides and downhole paraphernalia. HOS Centerline gives new meaning to multi-purpose vesselWhen Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc. introduced its 370-ft (113-m) HOS Centerline last year, it not only gave the Gulf of Mexico the world’s largest support vessel, but also one designed to transport everything from drilling fluid to crude oil. With a more than 8,000-dwt (7,258-metric ton) capacity, the Centerline brings multi-purpose support vessels to an entirely new dimension. Not only is the triple-certified newbuild designed to transport supplies for drilling and production, it can be “flipped over” in two to three days and work as a crude oil tanker, says Todd M. Hornbeck, chairman, president and CEO of the Covington, Louisiana-based company that also operates the HOS Port in Port Fourchon. What’s more, Hornbeck says the newest entry to the company’s global fleet also is fully certified to haul hazardous wastes. Report shows enormity of GoM decommissioning marketIt may come as a surprise, but for some Port Fourchon companies one of the hottest markets in the Gulf of Mexico these days has nothing to do with drilling or production. Quite the contrary, actually. Geology & GeophysicsSeismic vessel count down, but work is picking upThe business side of offshore geology and geophysics in 2009 remained in tune with the generally weak year for the entire E&P industry. The survey which follows shows that the vessel count was 156, down by 17 from last year’s report. Two company names are missing from this year’s survey – Scan Geophysical and Wavefield. Scan closed its operation in mid-2009. Wavefield and CGGVeritas were in the process of merging at this time last year and that is complete. The vessels list for each also merged, as you might expect. One new company, NAUTIC Offshore out of Oslo, Norway, joins the list for the first time. Worldwide Seismic Vessel SurveyWorldwide Seismic Vessel Survey Drilling & CompletionUltra high-pressure risers for deepwater drillingAs the development of offshore hydrocarbon reserves extends into greater water and well depths, riser system design and supply becomes a critical industry challenge. One such example is the drilling of pre-salt wells in water depths approaching 3,000 m (10,000 ft). This is a complex undertaking, and can require extensive initial well construction work as well as regular intervention throughout production life. For these reasons, and considering recent day rates for a mobile offshore drilling unit, operators are considering drilling these wells using a dry tree floating production system with surface BOP. SubseaSubsea separation, boosting reach record depthsThis is an overview of the subsea separation, boosting, and compression progress and development in the offshore oil and gas industry during 2009. Recent awards and start-ups indicate several new projects in the developmental stages plus new world records for installed systems. Subsea separation and boosting technology is now operational in 2,438 m (7,999 ft) water depth in Shell’s Perdido field. Flowlines & PipelinesTechnip lowering threshold for flexible pipes, risersTechnip is shifting its subsea R&D focus increasingly towards the coming generation of ultra deepwater projects. Management outlined some of the solutions and associated investments at a recent presentation at the company’s flexible risers/flowlines plant in Le Trait, northern France. Challenges to manufacture of pipe for deepwater, corrosive hydrocarbonsGas is increasingly important in a historically oil-driven world economy. Its increased value is a driver of pipeline technology developments. To meet the demand for gas transportation through more onerous environments, there are factors the pipe and plate makers need to consider to ensure the finished product meets the standards required especially for sour service and deepwater applications. SwedenGlass-syntactic foam insulates IRM diversSyntactic foam from Trelleborg Offshore is helping to protect saturation divers from the cold during offshore inspection, repair, and maintenance tasks. H-shackles to connect Usan mooring chainKohlswa Gjuteri will supply a total of 54 mooring shackles for Total’s Usan development off Nigeria. The order has been placed by Ramnäs Bruk, a regular user of Kohlswa’s cast-steel products, which is providing mooring chain to the Hyundai yard in Korea where the Usan FPSO is under construction. Kohlswa will deliver 54 H-shackles to Ramnäs for the Usan FPSO mooring system.SKF has strengthened its offshore presence with two wide-ranging contracts for operations in the northern hemisphere. DepartmentsCommentsSeismic vessel count down but work is picking upThe business side of offshore geology and geophysics in 2009 remained in tune with the generally weak year for the entire E&P industry. As the global survey of seismic vessel activity in this month’s issue shows, the vessel count was 156, down by 17 from last year’s report. DataGLOBAL DATAGLOBAL DATA Global E & PGLOBAL E & PPetrobras and Chevron have awarded a series of contracts for the Papa Terra heavy oil field development in the Campos basin, 68 mi (110 km) offshore Rio de Janeiro, in water depths of up to 3,940 ft (1,200 m). Offshore EuropeOFFSHORE EUROPENorway has issued 38 new production licenses under its latest Awards in Pre-Defined Areas (APA) round. The permits were spread between the North Sea (25), the Norwegian Sea (10), and the Barents Sea (three). Gulf of MexicoGULF OF MEXICOA sidetrack appraisal well on the Lucius discovery in the Gulf of Mexico Keathley Canyon block 875, encountered about 600 net ft (183 m) of oil and gas pay in subsalt Pliocene and Miocene sands, operator Anadarko reports. Subsea SystemsSUBSEA SYSTEMSATP Oil & Gas Corp. and Blue Ocean Technologies set multiple new industry records in subsea well intervention while working over two gas production wells in 2,950 ft (900 m) of water and approximately 9,000 ft (2,743 m) downhole without a riser. Vessels, Rigs, & Surface SystemsVESSELS, RIGS, & SURFACE SYSTEMSPennWell’s Deep Offshore Technology International Conference & Exhibition (DOT) is an event where operators, equipment manufacturers, contactors, and service-providers introduce new deepwater technology. This past February in Houston, the tradition continued. Drilling & ProductionDRILLING & PRODUCTIONShell International E&P and Delft University of Technology have launched a new joint research project that seeks to develop new techniques for enhancing oil production by combining new technologies with traditional methods. GeosciencesGEOSCIENCESTGS is conducting a 2D seismic acquisition program offshore West Papua in East Indonesia to add 2,240 km (1,392 mi) of new 2D data to help evaluate the potential south of Salawati basin. Salawati is recognized as one of the largest oil basins in eastern Indonesia. Data acquisition is expected to end by the second quarter of this year. Business BriefsBUSINESS BRIEFSAker Qserv has appointed Ian Pittman as well services manager to lead its operations in the east of England. Based in Great Yarmouth, Pittman will provide operational management support for a range of Aker QServ clients including E.ON Ruhrgas and Scottish and Southern Energy. He will also develop new business opportunities within the well stimulation, coiled tubing, wireline, pipeline, and process services in the North Sea. Beyond the HorizonGeoscientists peer into the crystal ballWe hear so many varying opinions in the mainstream media about the energy industry that it is hard to tell if it will be feast or famine in the days ahead. So we at SMT thought it would be interesting to avoid the “talking heads” and survey some “thinking heads” about where our industry is going. Over the last two years, SMT has conducted surveys at Society of Exploration Geophysics (SEG) to see if geoscientists could read the tea leaves and predict the future. And looking at the accuracy of previous prognostications, 2010 looks good for the industry. Engineering, Construction, & InstallationInstallation of the world's deepest sparShell’s Perdido development is a record-setting venture. The list of world firsts includes the deepest ever installation of a spar, 2,384 m (7,820 ft) of water depth; the deepest installation of permanent suction piles, 2,630 m (8,630 ft) of water; the deepest ever flowlines and pipeline end structure, 2,984 m (9,790 ft) of water; and an integrated topsides installation that set a new record for lift weight in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) at 8,866 metric tons (9,773 tons). Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) met the challenges of this technically difficult, ultra deepwater installation in a remote location with the threat of hurricanes ever present. Production OperationsDownhole monitoring, control using digital distributed sensingReal-time, accurate downhole monitoring data is crucial to understanding and controlling wellbore and reservoir performance while maximizing oil and gas extraction. An increasingly used method to get this data is permanently installed downhole monitoring sensors in production and injection wells. Of growing importance in this trend is fiber optic distributed temperature sensing (DTS). Capitalizing on real-time drilling data in reservoir managementThe industry is looking for fast, easy-to-use, powerful reservoir management solutions to improve performance and production, and reservoir modeling is moving into this crucial phase of drilling developments in well correlation, well planning, local model updates, and the ability to incorporate real-time drilling data. Polymer seal tests reveal elastomer needs for future EOR programsExtracting oil is becoming more technically and financial challenging as operators face increasingly complex and deeper wells. The lifespan of a well is dictated by production volume versus economic viability. This has led to technologies for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) to increase volumes extracted from a well, thereby improving its profitability. |
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