Technology still opens new frontiers

Eldon Ball • Houston

This time last year in our comments about the annual Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, we noted that the industry had cut back on some spending, but at the same time the development of new technology and equipment had not diminished.

That still remains true. The result is reflected once again in the pages of this – and every – issue ofOffshore. Here's some of what's waiting for you in this issue:

Nearly 10 years after a joint industry project certified it a field-proven technology, post-BOP dual-gradient drilling has been taken off the shelf and, if its proponents have their way, promises to number the days when constructing a deepwater well will require a long riser filled with pressure-inducing, but otherwise inactive, drilling fluid.

"This is game-changing technology and was quite the buzz in the late 1990s and early 2000s when it was first developed," saysKen Smith, dual-gradient drilling project implementation manager for Chevron North America. "Dual-gradient technology will allow us to remove the impact of water depth on well design."

Since late 2001, the game changer Smith refers to had been on the sidelines, but a confluence of economic and operational realities has since inspired the industry to take another look.Contributing Editor Jim Redden gives the details, beginning on page70.

Named for the visionary French author, the Jules Verne study was commissioned last year by theDeepStar joint industry technology project to evaluate the technical maturity of an all subsea process development in the deepwater regions of the Gulf of Mexico. The study consisted of a series of vendor interviews and open conversations with operating company personnel to determine the current state of the art in subsea processing, as well as the technology needed to bring the subsea processing components to a project-ready status.

The ultimate goal of three-phase separation on the seafloor is the cornerstone of the project and is built upon the successful implementation and adoption of standard production systems, full well stream boosting, water/hydrocarbon separation, and gas/liquid separation. As operating companies continue to move into the deepwater regions around the globe, their reliance on these subsea processing technologies will increase. In this issue,Tim Lowry and Chuck Horn of Technip bring us up to date on the projects progress and its promise for the future, beginning on page 88.

The client is a small independent that just made a $600 million bet on a new deepwater floating platform to develop a Gulf of Mexico field the majors considered too small to develop themselves. Get it right and the client doubles production next year. Get it wrong…well, do not go there. Mitigating installation risk with dimensional control makes a lot of sense when the stakes are so high. Here is howBluewaterIndustries did it for ATP Oil and Gas Corp. on the Titan MinDOC project earlier this year. TomGreaves, Spar Point Group; Robert Shivers, ATP Oil & Gas Corp.; Jose Vasquez and RoyCottrell, Bennett & Associates; and IanMackie and KeithMedley, Intertek Hi-Cad put it together for you, beginning on page78.

As we do every year in the May edition, this month's issue leads off with a global review and forecast of offshore exploration and production activity worldwide. As the global overview byIHS reports, deepwater and ultra deepwater discoveries are becoming the dominant source of new reserve additions, accounting for 41% of total new reserves based on discoveries between 2005 and 2009. Their report, plus a region-by-region analysis of offshore activity worldwide by the editors of Offshore, begins on page 32.

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