Issue: October 2017
Special Focus
Modeling software enables drilling operations in some of the world’s most challenging environments.
Well interventions in declining fields are viewed as challenging, yet increasingly necessary. Despite the difficulties, advanced drilling technologies and techniques can deliver increased yields and reduced costs over traditional intervention methods in legacy assets.
A new backup cutter layout extends bit life without sacrificing rate of penetration.
Features
A real-time downhole flow measurement service on coiled tubing boosts success in open-hole water injectors, in Kuwait
Increased drilling activity associated with improving commodity prices is driving drill bit manufacturers to develop more efficient hydraulics for cuttings evacuation in softer formations, in addition to technologies designed to improve one-run success rates in challenging directional applications, and in hard/abrasive formations.
Drilling, production up amid new regulatory concerns
Understanding and analyzing a formation’s altered stress state during stimulation can lead to added fracture complexity, greater fracture surface area and improved drainage.
Middle East/North Africa grapples with production cut commitment, despite urge to boost output
The upstream industry is now in a unique phase in its history. Bringing digitalization into the mix, both in the field and in the office, is the next step in the industry’s transformation. Here is an analysis of where the effort stands.
Columns
Last month’s original topic was pre-empted by our tropical nemesis, Hurricane Harvey, so now we pick up the subject again.
What an interesting month we have had, here in the States.
Reliability matters. Over the past several years, our industry has learned this lesson the hard way.
What if a month went by, where no one reported any exploration activity, planned or past?
Sam Charrington has some interesting things to say about artificial intelligence for industrial applications.
“They asked for it, and now they are going to get it.”–U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 1943.
The August 23rd election in Angola signaled the end of the 38-year rule of President José Eduardo Dos Santos, but it brought few expectations for change in the country’s politics, oil policies, or conditions for its impoverished citizens.
While the definition of what constitutes an offshore or onshore rig as fully prepared for managed pressure drilling (MPD) varies widely, it is generally acknowledged that blanket adoption of MPD will remain elusive until the technology is universally perceived as an efficiency driver, rather than strictly a mechanism for drilling cantankerous wells.
The U.S. is experiencing a noticeable recovery, thanks in large part to the well-publicized production cuts by OPEC and Russia.
Dr. Jim Kaculi says he always “had a great desire to learn.”
News & Resources
InterMoor, an Acteon company, announced that it has moored the first privately-operated rig offshore Mexico since 1938.
Crude prices continued to climb, as production cuts by OPEC and Russia finally started to make meaningful inventory reductions at major storage facilities in the U.S. and South Africa.
Weatherford International has appointed Karl Blanchard as executive V.P. and COO.
Royal Dutch Shell and Petrobras have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to institute a long-term collaboration for the development of Brazil’s pre-salt fields.
Weatherford International plc announced the commercial release of the AutoTong system featuring AutoEvaluate connection-make-up software.
