Offshore articles from February 2005

Offshore archives from February 2005

Global data.
February 1, 2005... In the coming months, Infield Systems will highlight trends and Will present data, information and commentary on key aspects of the subsea market. To start, we will look at a base fundamental, the number of subsea fields. The number of...

ChevronTexaco de Mexico won a permit from the Regulatory Energy Commission (CRE) for a proposed natural gas import terminal off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.(Americas)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... ChevronTexaco de Mexico won a permit from the Regulatory Energy Commission (CRE) for a proposed natural gas import terminal off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. The company also received notice from the Port Authority of the Communication...

The US Minerals Management Service plans to evaluate a second sale in the federal waters of Cook Inlet, Alaska.(Americas)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... The US Minerals Management Service plans to evaluate a second sale in the federal waters of Cook Inlet, Alaska. The MMS made these plans public with a Request for Information and Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Assessment for Cook...

Navidec Inc. subsidiary BPZ Energy Inc. announced the independent certification by Gaffney, Cline & Associates Inc. of the gross natural gas reserves on block Z-1 off northwest Peru.(Americas)
February 1, 2005... Navidec Inc. subsidiary BPZ Energy Inc. announced the independent certification by Gaffney, Cline & Associates Inc. of the gross natural gas reserves on block Z-1 off northwest Peru. The possible reserves are untested, but are updip of existing...

Total subsidiary Elf Petroleum Nigeria Ltd. discovered hydrocarbons.(Africa)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Total subsidiary Elf Petroleum Nigeria Ltd. discovered hydrocarbons west of the deepwater Usan field offshore southeastern Nigeria early this year. The Usan 6 appraisal well is 110 km offshore and 4 km south of the Usan-5 well in 850-m...

ChevronTexaco Corp. subsidiary Cabinda Gulf Oil Co. Ltd. saw first oil from the Bomboco field in its block 0 concession offshore Malongo, Cabinda province, Angola in January.(Africa)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... ChevronTexaco Corp. subsidiary Cabinda Gulf Oil Co. Ltd. saw first oil from the Bomboco field in its block 0 concession offshore Malongo, Cabinda province, Angola in January. Bomboco is expected to reach an average production of 30,000 b/d of...

Statoil ups production numbers.(Global E&P)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Statoil has set performance goals through 2007. Among these is boosting production from the Norwegian shelf by 100,000 b/d. Raising the production target will provide an annual output growth of 8% up to 2007, with both the Norwegian...

Aminex Plc. has signed a share exchange agreement to acquire 10% of the issued share capital of Kobril Ltd.(Asia-Pacific)(Kobril Ltd)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Aminex Plc. has signed a share exchange agreement to acquire 10% of the issued share capital of Kobril Ltd., an international company controlled by the authorities of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. Under the agreement, Aminex...

Murphy Oil Corp. plans to increase spending.(Asia-Pacific)
February 1, 2005... Murphy Oil Corp. plans to increase spending in Malaysia this year. Expenditures for upstream operations are expected to be $887 million, 83% of the 2005 capital budget. Exploration expenditures are expected to be $356 million and include...

Meanwhile, Amerada Hess is reaping the benefits of its exploration investment offshore Malaysia.(Asia-Pacific)
February 1, 2005... Meanwhile, Amerada Hess is reaping the benefits of its exploration investment offshore Malaysia. Late last year, the company announced an oil and gas discovery with the Belud South exploration well on block SB302 offshore Sabah. The well is...

Dragon Oil is continuing its work on the LAM field offshore Turkmenistan.(Central Asia)(Dragon Oil PLC)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Dragon Oil is continuing its work on the LAM field offshore Turkmenistan. Late last year, Dragon spudded the LAM 10/110 in the Cheleken block in the southern sector of the Caspian Sea. LAM 10/110 is the first well in a planned series to be...

US investors are showing increasing interest in Libya's offshore.(Mediterranean)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... US investors are showing increasing interest in Libya's offshore. The country's National Oil Corp. officially announced that there will be two licensing rounds this year, one in the first half of the year and the other in the second half....

Indian companies are making a move.(Middle East)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Indian companies are making a move on the Persian Gulf. India's Reliance Industries Ltd. won a deepwater oil and gas block in the Gulf of Oman in a bidding round that offered six deepwater licenses. Reliance, a privately held company, also...

Norway projects rolling forward.(Offshore Europe)
February 1, 2005... Late last year, Norway's Energy Ministry predicted submissions for seven new projects by mid-2005. In fact, the wheels started rolling in four cases before Christmas, and details of a fifth scheme emerged in January. First up was Statoil's...

Shell abandons 'ship' fields.(Offshore Europe)
February 1, 2005... Shell has joined the list of majors selling field centers in the southern North Sea, although it has also sanctioned one new minor development. Under a $390-million package, Tullow Oil has acquired virtually the entire production interests held...

Lochnagar reserves.(Offshore Europe)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... ChervonTexaco's Lochnagar discovery last summer could hold 500 MMbbl of recoverable oil, according to UK-based analysts Wood Mackenzie. If planned appraisal drilling proves this figure this summer, it would outstrip the previous largest find...

Deepwater production online.(Gulf Of Mexico)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Murphy Oil Corp. has started production from its Front Runner field in Green Canyon blocks 338 and 339. The field is producing from the first of eight wells to be completed. Production from the well will be increased to 13,000-15,000 boe/d....

Independence Hub contracts.(Gulf Of Mexico)(Independence Hub LLC)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Independence Hub LLC, an affiliate of Enterprise Products Partners LP, and operated by Anadarko Petroleum, has awarded ABS a contract to class the Mississippi Canyon block 920 Independence Hub, a semisubmersible facility destined for 8,000 ft...

Undiscovered oil and gas.(Gulf Of Mexico)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... The Minerals Management Service has issued an interim update estimate for undiscovered technically recoverable resources underlying waters on the Outer Continental Shelf. Based on information obtained from new exploration activities in the Gulf...

Shell to use Noble semi in GoM.(Gulf Of Mexico)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Noble Corp. has signed a two-year contract with Shell Exploration & Production Co. for the use of the Noble Clyde Boudreaux deepwater semisubmersible in the US Gulf with an estimated start date in 3Q 2006. The Noble Clyde Boudreaux is a...

Aker wins Vilje subsea contract.(Subsea/Surfaces Systems)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... The operator Norsk Hydro has awarded a $20-million contract to Aker Kvaerner to supply subsea equipment for the Vilje subsea tieback to Marathon's Alvheim production vessel. The Vilje field, in petroleum license PL036 in the Norwegian North...

Arthur subsea production.(Subsea/Surfaces Systems)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Mobil North Sea Ltd., a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp., has produced first gas from the Arthur field in the southern UK North Sea. The field is a subsea development tied back to the existing ExxonMobil-operated Thames platform by a new 20-mi,...

Tampen subsea systems.(Subsea/Surfaces Systems)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Statoil ASA has awarded a $74-million contract to FMC Kongsberg Subsea AS to supply subsea systems for the Tampen area in the North Sea. The contract includes six subsea trees, manifolds, production controls, and associated systems....

Keppel keeps busy.(Vessels, Rigs, Upgrades)(Keppel Verolme BV)(Solitaire Marine Contractors SA)(pipelay vessel construction and operation)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Keppel Verolme BV, a member of Singapore's Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd., landed a contract from Allseas Group SA subsidiary Solitaire Marine Contractors SA, for a 20-million conversion of the pipelay vessel (PLV), Solitaire. The PLV was...

ABB supports Kashagan development.(Vessels, Rigs, Upgrades)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... ABB won a contract to design and build a self-contained energy support barge to serve the Kashagan offshore oil field in the Caspian Sea. Working in cooperation with Rolls Royce, ABB Process Solutions & Services SpA will oversee the design...

New drydocking for world's largest semi.(Vessels, Rigs, Upgrades)(Fairmount Marine NV)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Rotterdam's Fairmount Marine recently won a novel contract for drydocking the largest semisubmersible in the world. Fairmount loaded the 11,200-tonne Mata Redonda semi using the 50,000 dwt semisubmersible barge Zhong Ren 3 as the platform....

Midnight Express finishes trials.(Vessels, Rigs, Upgrades)(Torch Offshore Inc)(deepwater pipelay vessel testing)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Torch Offshore Inc.'s Midnight Express completed sea trials late last year. The sea trials concluded the work associated with the vessel's conversion and the installation of the company's patented pipelay system. The vessel underwent...

Coiled tubing offshore.(Drilling & Production)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... The oil and gas industry has used coiled tubing as a well intervention tool since the early 1960s. Since its introduction, the various uses, demands, metallurgy, and the diameter of coiled tubing have changed and/or increased. Driven by demands...

Coiled-tubing-deployed electric submersible pumps.(Drilling & Production)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... An electric submersible pump (ESP) is an artificial lift system that uses an electrically driven downhole pumping system. The pump comprises several staged centrifugal pump sections that can change to suit the production and wellbore...

North Sea deployment.(Drilling & Production)(Qserv quality services)
February 1, 2005... Shifting to the North Sea, Apache has appointed Qserv for the installation of coiled-tubing-deployed electric submersible pump (CTDESP) services. The investment by the independent oil and gas company is expected to increase well efficiency...

Catastrophism.(Geosciences)
February 1, 2005... The tragedy of Sumatra and those countries affected by the recent tsumani brings into sharp focus the forces we geoscientists try to understand. The event brings to mind the theory of Catastrophism: sudden geologic change that reshapes the...

Impact stimulation.(Geosciences)(Applied Seismic Research Corp oil recovery technology)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Applied Seismic Research Corp. (ASR) announced a new form of oil recovery called Hydro-Impact Technology. The new approach uses seismic wave stimulation to shake loose oil trapped in existing wells. ASR developed the low-cost procedure to...

North Sea survey.(Exploration)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... In support of the UK's 23rd License Round over the East Shetland platform, Fugro Multi Client Services (FMCS) highlighted a reconnaissance grid of 2D non-exclusive seismic data acquired in 1999. The survey covers the region with a 2,775-km...

SeisWare upgrade.(Technology)(Zokero Inc. released SeisWare 6.1 sesmic interpretation software)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Zokero Inc. released SeisWare 6.1 with new functionality including: * Advanced cross correlation (pseudo facies analysis) * OpenSpirit plug-in * Log Editor enhancements for picking tops of multiple curves and synthetics *...

32- and 64-bit clusters.(Technology)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2005... Compagnie Generale de Geophysique modified its Geocluster seismic processing software suite to run on both 32-bit and 64-bit cluster platforms. Over the last five years, CGG has deployed industrial-scale, high-performance computing on...

Correction.(Technology)(Correction Notice)
February 1, 2005... Two sentences in December's SEG report were incorrect. They should have read: "Silicon Graphics displayed its new device that uses Intel's Itanium processors coupled with ATI's GPUs. Sun answered with a similar system based on AMD's Opteron...

West Africa leads the world in deepwater growth.(West Africa)
February 1, 2005... Deepwater volume growth remains strong in West Africa. According to analysts at PFC Energy, West Africa dominates the international deepwater market and will see over 40% of the $48 billion in deepwater exploration spending in 2005-2009. PFC's...

Tender assisted drilling a first for West Africa: Amerada Hess moves the Okume complex into production.(West Africa)
February 1, 2005... Amerada Hess Corp. is stepping slightly off of the beaten path with its development plans for the Okume complex project (formerly northern block G) in the Rio Muni basin offshore Equatorial Guinea. According to John Simon, vice president of...

The promise of the West African offshore: OWA conference examines expanding frontiers.(West Africa)
February 1, 2005... A torrent of E&P dollars is pouring into West Africa. Analysts agree that the region will not only see the lion's share of deepwater investment in 2005, but that it will see a large increase in capital expenditure over the next four years. ...

Meeting the challenges of a high-ratio, extended-reach horizontal well; drilling fluid design and implementation is key.(Drilling & Completion)
February 1, 2005... A measure of difficulty for drilling a horizontal well is the ratio of horizontal displacement (HD) to true vertical depth (TVD). A higher ratio involves a more difficult completion. Typically, this ratio is less than 1:1. However, completions...

Ivan the terrible: hurricane's impact raises design criteria questions.(Construction & Installation)
February 1, 2005... As the oil and gas industry continues to recover from Hurricane Ivan, an opportunity arises to consider Ivan's impact on future designs, maintenance, and assessment of platforms and pipelines. Industry experts are studying and evaluating...

Oilfield bulletin: technology focus on perforating for optimal production.
February 1, 2005... Dynamic underbalanced pressure is a key to successful perforating. Perforation designs based on specific reservoir properties, well geometry, fluids, and customized perforating hardware achieve significant improvement in well productivity or...

Libya gas export project sets records.(Pipeline & Transportation: National Oil Co.)
February 1, 2005... Libya's first gas export scheme is also the Mediterranean's most ambitious. Partners Eni Gas and Libya's National Oil Co. (NOC) are investing over $6 billion in developing the Bahr Essalam field 110-km offshore Tripoli and the Wafa field 550-km...

Greenstream validates temporary compressors for deepwater pipeline projects: single station renders wet-buckling contingency, dewatering/drying capabilities.(Pipeline & Transportation)
February 1, 2005... Technical evolution inevitably results in a domino effect for ancillary equipment and processes. The energy industry's continued quest to drill and produce in more severe and remote conditions and environments is one example of this...

As much as things change, they remain the same.(Subsea Technology)
February 1, 2005... In the course of preparing and researching this special supplement on long-distance subsea tiebacks (LDT), I found myself reading a number of keynote addresses given at subsea technology conferences more than a decade ago by senior off company...

Subsea long-distance tiebacks: a look back.(Subsea Technology)
February 1, 2005... The offshore industry has always been good at noting milestones. It does not take much legwork to find the details behind the deepest well, the longest pipeline, the heaviest offshore lift, or tallest bottom-founded platform. So it is not...

BG faces risk in West Delta Deep development.(Subsea Technology)
February 1, 2005... If one were looking for one statement that would describe British Gas and its Burullus partners' deepwater gas subsea-to-beach development in the Egyptian Mediterranean, it would be this: hardly ever has a company with relatively little...

Snohvit development brings budget, schedule changes.(Subsea Technology)
February 1, 2005... Offshore are well under way activities on Statoil's Snohvit project, which involves the production of gas through subsea facilities tied back 143 km to an onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. Drilling started in late 2004 and will...

Ormen Lange gives Hydro enormous challenge: difficult subsea-to-shore pipeline route.(Subsea Technology)
February 1, 2005... Norsk Hydro has never been shy of taking on a technology challenge. Norway's number two operator executed the offshore industry's very first long-distance tieback project--TOGI--nearly 15 years ago. It followed up with the giant Troll West oil...

Next round of projects will require more technology.(Subsea Technology)
February 1, 2005... By the time the current group of long-distance tieback (LDT) projects--Snohvit, Ormen Lange, and phase two of West Delta Deep--have been completed, the novelty of the LDT may have just about worn off. The next group of projects is not...

The story of a legend.(Beyond The Horizon)(Biography)
February 1, 2005... Long John Latham rescued me from West Texas in the spring of 1955. I had taken a course in oil writing at the University of Texas in 1951 under A.R. McTee, who had been to Alaska in the first oil boom, I think in the 1920s. When I got out...