Underbalanced drilling

Authors from Signa Engineering discuss recent changes to IADC definitions and categories of Managed Pressure drilling. The article also gives examples of these new types of MP drilling, as well as more conventional methods.

 Casing while drilling

Directional drilling with casing: What are the limits? This article probes what diameter casing and what the radius are at the fatigue limit in drilling with casing.

 Well logging and formation evaluation

Latest advances in MWD and formation evaluation. This is our well-received, annual wrap-up of new technology in the areas of Logging While Drilling and Measuring While Drilling technology.

 Geology/Geophysics

Monitoring fluid movements at reservoir scale using EM. Authors from Schlumberger and CNPC discuss resistivity variations due to changes in porosity, saturation (water, bypassed pay) and temperature (steam flooding). While crosswell EM development started two decades ago, it is only today, with advances in processing, inversion techniques and following rigorous workflows, that it is available for oilfield applications on a commercial basis. The field work described is the Gudao oilfield in Shandong Province in China.

Tying PS and PP seismic volumes. With increasing uptake of multicomponent technology, putting the two volumes generated, namely, compression and shear, there is a need for a standardized, easier method – an algorithm – to replace the present methods, including eyeballing and guessing. An author from The University of Texas tells how it's done.

 Deepwater technology

Flow assurance: preventing wax deposition. This article from Multiphase Solutions gives a thorough discussion of wax-RELATED PROBLEMS as they pertain to deepwater flow assurance.

Production of heavy crude in deep water. The deepwater surprise is that many of the oils found there are degraded, which puts further strain on the economics of deepwater operations. Frontier Oil gives their perspective on how to produce it economically.

 Petroleum Technology Digest

Our popular, recurring feature that results from World Oil's association with the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council will feature a case study involving a practical, cost-effective boost to production using novel technology.