SPE-GCS Blog

May 1st, 2021

MAY 2003

With shallow water reserves being steadily depleted worldwide, big oil is increasingly targeting its dollars at deepwater. The “World Deepwater Report” forecasts a global capital expenditure for deepwater developments of $57.9 billion in 2003-07, more than double the $25.6 billion that is estimated to have been spent in the previous five years. The US Gulf of Mexico and West Africa together account for 70% of the deepwater capital expenditure forecast. With some 17 billion BOE in 250 prospective offshore fields, Africa now accounts for 16% of all reserve prospects for the period 2003-07. It is of note that prospects for the region now exceed western Europe, which has 12% of the world total, while North America trails with 7%.

US Central Command announced early last week the surrender of Iraq’s former oil minister, Amir Mohammed Rashid, described as …

April 1st, 2021

APRIL 2006

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered people and structures in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Gulf Coast, leaving many large-scale renovation projects and rising rig rates in their wakes. Many rigs were damaged, not surprising, given that design guidelines for offshore platforms set by the American Petroleum Institute require that a structure only need withstand a “100-year storm,” equivalent to a Category 2 or 3 hurricane, with sustained winds at 110 mph. API guidelines also require that a platform be able to withstand waves up to about 70 ft high. But waves during the last few big hurricanes reached well beyond this height. The Naval Research Lab recorded a 91-ft wave more than 100 miles from the eye of Ivan last year.

Driven by concerns over stability, China is stepping up cooperation with its neighbors, aiming to secure supplies …

March 1st, 2021

MARCH 2001

Last year, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) sent a team out to the Permian Basin of West Texas to film our oil industry, and the film was included as part of a 30-minute documentary on the oil industry.

This documentary showed several experts testifying that world oil production will peak in the next 10 to 20 years before the world eventually runs short on oil. The King Hubbert Institute at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden also predicts world oil production will peak in the next 10 to 12 years. They cite statistics like 80% of the oil produced today flows from fields that were found before 1973, and the discovery of oil in the world peaked in 1962 at 40 billion bbl of oil. By 1991, it was already down to 7 billion bbl of oil.

Chevron …

February 1st, 2021

FEBRUARY 2008

The oil and gas industry generally has accepted a policy of sustainable energy that makes use of all available energy resources. However, John Westwood, managing director of UK consultancy Douglas-Westwood Ltd, said the oil and gas industry already is competing with the wind industry for materials and personnel for offshore operations, primarily overseas. Some $16 billion is expected to be spent on installation of 4.5 GW of new wind-power capacity in Europe over the next five years, up from 1.1 GW today. The UK will be the biggest market, with 2.4 GW of new capacity forecast in 2012. “Serious amounts of steel are heading offshore,” said Westwood. “Offshore wind and oil and gas are competing for the same resources and with onshore wind power.”

Efforts to bring some humanity into Russia’s treatment of former OAO Yukos officials may …

January 1st, 2021

JANUARY 2000

You’ve got to love this South La. well and formation name: “Union Pacific Resources Group Inc. (UPR), Fort Worth, and partner Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., Houston, have made a gas discovery on the Etouffee prospect with their Continental Land & Fur Co. Inc. 1 well, about 15 miles southeast of Morgan City in Terrebonne Parish, La.”

The good news from Russia for the oil and gas industry is that the Communist Party no longer controls legislation in the Duma, or lower house of parliament. The rest remains a muddle. It's worth cheering that 60% of the Russian electorate voted in December's parliamentary election, but that welcome exercise of democracy is yesterday's news. It also makes the meaning of the outcome no less puzzling. Oil companies, though, should be wary. They increasingly get called to account when governments …

December 1st, 2020

DECEMBER 2000

Woodside Petroleum Ltd.'s independent directors late last month rejected as "inadequate" a sweetened offer by an Australian unit of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group to gain a 56 percent controlling interest in that company, up from the 34.3 percent it now holds. The bid for Woodside, which operates Australia's massive Northwest Shelf LNG export venture, marks Shell's continuing expansion into the Asia-Pacific natural gas market. The going was easier for Shell in New Zealand, where the New Zealand Commerce Commission approved the sale of gas-focused Fletcher Challenge Energy Ltd. to units of Shell and Apache Corp.

Rhetoric at the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change betrayed troubling political motives. French Pres. Jacques Chirac urged representatives from the US to "cast aside their doubts and hesitations" about the need for drastic response to climate change, asserting, …

November 1st, 2020

NOVEMBER 1997

Phillips China Inc. has reportedly found oil in China's Bohai Bay. After drilling a dry hole on its first try, its second well flowed on test at a rate of 1,602 b/d. Phillips China, a unit of Phillips Petroleum Co., is operator of the block and holds a 60 percent interest, while China National Offshore Oil Corp. has the right to acquire as much as 51 percent of any proposed development.

BP Exploration Inc. and partners have started up the Troika oil and gas field in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Troika, 150 miles south of New Orleans in the Green Canyon area, is produced from subsea facilities in 2,700 feet of water. The field was discovered by Marathon Oil Co. in 1994. BP Exploration Inc. is operator of the project. BP, Marathon and Shell Deepwater Development Inc. …

October 1st, 2020

OCTOBER 2001

Operators, including Syncrude Canada Ltd. and Suncor Inc., which operate existing Canadian oil sands projects report having a number of projects under development or on the drawing board worth an estimated $51 billion (CAD). These projects are expected to extend oil sands production from about 600,000 b/d to an expected 1.9 million b/d within a decade.

Last month’s attack on the WTC is not forecast to significantly impact hydrocarbon demand, as economic growth is expected to be sluggish.

Military demand, on the other hand, is expected to spike significantly.

Light, sweet crude: $22.47/bbl

Natural gas: $2.00/MMbtu

U.S. active rig count: 1,140

OCTOBER 2008

Does this analyst report sound vaguely familiar..? "With numerous wells expected to be shut in and capacity coming online, 2009 is shaping up to be an ugly year in North America.”

Reliance Industries Ltd., Mumbai, and …

September 1st, 2020

SEPTEMBER 2002

Expandable-tubular technology advances as the industry extends its application from the drilling environment, where carbon-steel expandable tubulars reduce the telescopic effects of well construction, to corrosion-resistant alloy (CRA) production liners with gas-tight connections.

Industry officials praise the key findings of a draft report by the US Environmental Protection Agency that found hydraulic fracturing of coalbed methane wells does not contaminate underground drinking water sources.

Light, sweet crude: $28.66/bbl

Natural gas: $3.23/MMbtu

SEPTEMBER 2008

Shell installs the world’s deepest production spar at Perdido in 8,000 feet of water and about eight miles north of the international maritime border with Mexico. It's to be used for gathering, processing and exporting production from three fields, namely, Great White, Tobago and Silvertip.

BP will reportedly pay $1.9 billion for a 25 percent interest in Chesapeake’s Fayetteville shale assets covering 540,000 net acres, which the companies …

May 1st, 2020

MAY 2002

Rotary steerable, directional- drilling systems increased the rate of penetration and, in the process, saved 100 days of rig time when used to drill complex 3D well paths in the 12.25- in. and 8.5-in. hole sections of North Sea Jotan field wells, compared to conventional directional-drilled wells.

The Nile Delta and Mediterranean deepwater trend along the northern coastline of Egypt is proving to be an emerging giant gas province with an estimated 36 trillion cubic feet of gas, and ideally situated for markets in the Mediterranean region. (This is a very “noble” development.)

MAY 2009

Operators are actively involved in testing new biocides to determine the best chemical for controlling bacteria introduced in Barnett shale frac source waters, including rivers, lakes, oilfield wastewater, and recycled frac water. Fracked Barnett wells have been plagued by biogenic sulfide plugging and corrosion failures of …