Asia-Pacific offshore pace to grow

Eldon Ball • Houston

The Asia-Pacific area is an offshore growth market. With an estimated capex of over $97 billion through 2009 to 2013, Asia is expected to witness an increase of 77% in terms of capex when compared to the previous five-year period, according to energy analysts Infield System’sRegional Perspectives Asia Pacific Market Update Report 2009/13. Asia is expected to represent the second largest share of the global capex spend.

Exploration leads the way for subsequent drilling and production and the region is an active area for geology and geophysics work. Indonesia may be the most active exploration sector in the Asia-Pacific region. A full analysis and forecast of the Asia-Pacific offshore arena byGene Kliewer, Technology Editor, Subsea & Seismic, begins on page 44.

Offshore Asia keynote speaker to asses SE Asia undiscovered potential

PennWell’sOffshore Asia Conference & Exhibition in Kuala Lumpur in March opens with an assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in basins of Southeast Asia by Dr. Christopher Schenk, of the US Geological Survey. He will define total petroleum systems and assess the potential for undiscovered oil and gas resources. Many of the basins assessed in Southeast Asia have significant potential for oil and gas resources offshore.

He will cover assessments of undiscovered oil and gas resources for the Malay basin, Penyu-West Natuna, Thai basin, Cuu Long basin, Nam Con Son basin, Song Hong, Kutei basin, Barito basin, Tarakan basin, Palawan, Greater Sarawak, Baram-Sabah Delta, and the Sumatra and Java basins. For each assessment, his presentation will include unit estimates of volumes of undiscovered oil and gas resources and of sizes of expected largest undiscovered oil and gas fields.

The conference runsMarch 16-18 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. An outline of events and speakers, along with registration information, begins on page 54.

First use of ESPs off Malaysia brings significant increases

Production increases that have resulted from the installation of ESPs in three wells in the Bokor oilfield offshore Malaysia are predicted to pay back the workover costs within six months. Reservoir simulations indicate that these ESPs will add approximately 2.8 MMbbl incremental oil production over 10 years without significant water cut increases. Current plans are to install additional ESPs on both the BODP-B and BODP-A platforms in 2010.

AuthorsMaharon Jadid and Mahmoud Wahba of Petronas Carigali and Dan Saenz of Schlumberger give the full details, beginning on page 60.

Modest recovery possible in offshore rig market

After a year that brought bankruptcies across the industrial, financial, and retail sectors – and oil prices under $40 a barrel – 2010 cannot help but look better. Many offshore rig owners are looking for a recovery now that 2009 is behind them.

With 573 of the world’s 749 mobile offshore drilling rigs under contract, worldwide fleet utilization is 76.5%. While offshore rig utilization has not recovered to the levels of a year ago, when the worldwide utilization rate was 86.7%, some improvement has occurred. In August 2009, offshore rig fleet utilization dipped to 74.9%, and since then has been increasing slowly. However, with so many rigs out of work, upcoming new additions to the fleet could spell trouble in some market segments.

A total of 176 mobile offshore rigs of various types are without contracts at this time. This number includes 121 jackups, 21 semisubmersibles, and one drillship.Matthew Donovan, ODS-Petrodata, looks at the worldwide MODU picture, beginning on page 32.

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