DRILLING & PRODUCTION
Frank Hartley • Houston
Practical wellbore stability prediction
A new joint industry project (JIP) on wellbore stability methodologies is planned by Knowledge Systems Inc. The multi-company research is the latest in a series of JIPs about predicting earth pressure and in-situ stress in order to reduce expensive well construction problems such as wellbore collapse and lost circulation.
“Billions of industry dollars are spent annually dealing with wellbore stability-related issues,” says William Standifird, Knowledge Systems’ senior VP of operations, “and wellbore stability predictions are central to casing and fluid plans, trajectories and drilling practices. But despite this importance, there is no industry consensus on stability analysis methodologies.”
The practical wellbore stability prediction JIP is to identify and to develop best practices for practical wellbore stability analysis, as well as to develop guidelines for assessing the relative priority of data types and the minimum data needed for effective modeling.
The group plans to examine about 250 wellbores from five regions around the world. Studies are planned for:
- US GoM deepwater
- US GoM shelf
- Western Canada (WCSB)
- Australian northwest shelf
- North Sea.
“The value of documenting some of our own best practices, having them peer reviewed, compared with the best practices of other operators, and perhaps having them improved upon or expanded is easily worth the cost of participation,” says John Jones, senior staff drilling engineer at Marathon Oil Co. Jones also sees a continuing need to spread fundamental wellbore stability modeling capabilities among engineering groups. “Documentation associated with this project should provide a very useful tool for developing these capabilities in other individuals within Marathon, while minimizing the learning curve and ensuring consistency in analysis.”
Knowledge Systems currently is enrolling operator and service company participants. The study is set for kickoff in early 2007 and will take approximately a year to complete.
Integrating drilling support with well lifecycle management
A new software platform for upstream oil and gas companies is the first in the industry to integrate drilling support with well lifecycle management, improving efficiencies, cost controls, and compliance capabilities for exploration and production companies. Decision Dynamics Technology Ltd. says its Wellcore software upgrade enables real-time visibility of all departmental functions - from initial prospect to well abandonment - while also linking that data with cross-department tools such as AFE, project planning, rig scheduling, and electronic permit filing to give seamless information flow.
The company’s new bridge between its drilling operations and well lifecycle management suites eliminates information silos that can hamper smooth business execution and intelligent decision making. The software benefits range from faster time to production and improved capital spending management to more efficient rig utilization, automated filing preparation and submission with an associated audit trail to aid compliance efforts, and automated identification of problems such as scheduling conflicts and lack of permits to minimize operating downtime and regulatory fines.
“The historical separation of E&P data into different applications for each functional department created inefficiencies within the upstream industry, and the problem is now being exacerbated by a shortage of experienced personnel caused by the retirement of veteran workers,” says Sekhar Venkat, program manager, Energy Upstream Strategies, for Energy Insights, an IDC company. “Eliminating these information silos will go a long way toward improving operations, reducing costs and increasing profitability.”
BP installs East Azeri deck
The East Azeri platform deck on the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea was lowered into position. Statoil has an 8.56% interest in the ACG field, operated by BP.
The nearly 16,000-ton topside was transported from the construction site near the capital Baku to the field in two days. The platform’s jacket was positioned in 150 m of water during March.
“Project execution has progressed well,” says Andrew Sanderson, Statoil’s ACG project manager. “Following the successful positioning of the deck, all that remains is offshore hook-ups and commissioning of facilities prior to first oil.”
First oil production from East Azeri is expected towards the end of 2006, several months earlier than originally planned. At its peak, East Azeri will produce 260,000 b/d of oil, and build on earlier successes of the phased full-field development.
ACG will produce more than 1 MMb/d of oil at peak production in 2009. BP will send the oil to the Sangachal terminal in Azerbaijan for processing and export primarily through the recently completed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline to the Mediterranean.
Cnooc’s Chunxiao field online, border dispute continues
The China National Offshore Oil Corp. (Cnooc) began first gas production from the Chunxiao field in the East China Sea, an area that is the focus of a drawn-out dispute with Japan.
On an inspection tour at the Chunxiao field, a senior government official said the first stage of gas production had begun and urged Cnooc to make good use of its resources.
“The first phase of Chunxiao oil and gas field has already entered the production stage,” says Zhang Guobao, vice director of the National Development and Reform Commission.
“But inadequate gas usage from downstream users has limited the speed of the oil field’s exploration.”
Japan and China long have disputed their maritime boundary, and Beijing always insisted its explorations in the East China Sea are within its territorial waters. However, the Japanese say the gas field lies too close to its Exclusive Economic Zone, a delineation not recognized by China, and fears China might siphon off resources from an area Japan claims as its territory.
The Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun quoted unnamed foreign ministry sources as saying that Japan has started examining counter-measures against China’s development of a gas field. The business daily continued to say that if gas production at Chunxiao is confirmed, Japan will protest against China officially and call for an immediate drilling halt.
A 1999 Japanese survey estimated there were 7 tcf of gas reserves in the area, which is 250 miles northwest of the Japanese island of Okinawa.
The two countries escalated tension last year after Japan said flames indicated China had started production close to the area where Japan claims development rights. China began test drilling in 2003.
The two countries failed to find common ground during many rounds of talks, with China saying “great differences still remained” after the last round in July.