Eldon Ball, Houston
“Earlier this month, the global offshore petroleum industry marked the 60th anniversary of completion of the first commercial offshore oil well drilled by a “mobile” rig out of sight of land....”
So begins the saga of 60 years of offshore oil and
gas exploration. This month,Offshore brings you a fascinating recap of those 60 years, packaged with this issue in a separate binding you can keep on your bookcase as a historical reference.
This special editorial supplement is condensed in part from the first of a multi-volume history of the offshore industry commissioned by the Offshore Energy Center (OEC), based in Houston. The volume, titledPioneering Offshore: The Early Years, was authored by award-winning petroleum journalist F. Jay Schempf. It is published by PennWell Custom Publishing, Houston, which released it for distribution in September.
Offshore also honored the offshore segment’s 50th anniversary a decade ago, in 1997, with a special section of the magazine. Building on that heritage, this year Offshore included not only the special publication packaged with this issue, but also a special page on our Website featuring video recordings of the industry pioneers themselves recalling the lives and times of that era. By going to http://www.offshore-mag.com/history, you can click on the photos and view reminisces of those early years by Red Adair, Robert F. Bauer, Billy Pugh, Michael Hughes, Bramlette McClelland, Bruce Collip, and more.
Don’t miss either of these unique historical treasures.
Big deepwater growth ahead
Our industry will be spending more than $24.6 billion a year on deepwater projects alone by 2012 according to a recent forecast by analysts Douglas-Westwood Ltd.
Deepwater oil and gas production is increasing rapidly, and output is expected to increase by almost 80% over the period to 2011, they say. From 4.5 MMb/d in 2007, deepwater oil production will grow to nearly 8 MMb/d in 2011, while deepwater gas production will increase from 1.6 to over 3 MMboe/d over the same period.
Not surprisingly, Africa is expected to be the leading deepwater development area over the 2008-2012 period, the authors say, accounting for nearly 40% of the global deepwater spend. Since the first brace of deepwater “elephants” - Shell’s Bonga in OPL 212 off Nigeria and Total’s Girassol in block 17 off Angola - Africa has emerged as perhaps the most significant deepwater region in the world, with some stunning successes.
The report, by analystsAdrian John and Georgie MacFarlan of Douglas-Westwood, begins on page 70.
