Issue: December 2018
Special Focus
Control and automation are long-time centers of gravity for rig innovation. But high tech is redefining both with remarkable advances in safety, efficiency and operational capabilities.
Features
By all measures, most of 2018 has been an improvement on 2017, which was markedly better than 2016.
When Apache founder and former Chairman Raymond N. Plank passed away at his Ucross, Wyoming, home on Nov. 8, at the age of 96, it marked the departure of one of the U.S. oil and gas industry’s last truly larger-than-life figures.
On Nov. 9, 2018, at the IADC Annual General Meeting held in New Orleans, Trent Latshaw, president of Latshaw Drilling Co. and a World Oil editorial advisor, was named 2018 IADC Contractor of the Year.
Despite a few recent snags, Permian basin production should continue its upward trend through 2019.
A difficult P&A operation in the GOM was halted, due to a casing part below the slips. Inspection revealed damage so extensive, that further operations or well entry were impossible without changing the BOP for a larger-diameter version. Gas was also emanating from the wellbore, which required a barrier. To solve the problem and reduce NPT, a novel nitrogen freeze technique was employed.
Potential two-year gridlock in the U.S. Congress following the mid-term elections may be a good thing for the domestic oil and gas industry.
Since the beginning of the U.S. shale revolution, circa 2003, producers have been drawn to the value of the nation’s copious onshore resources.
A subsea water treatment module enables operators to decouple water management philosophy from topside processes and tailor an injection, based on well behavior in otherwise inaccessible areas of a reservoir.
Despite both production and seasonal gas prices at multi-year highs, asset-holders in the Haynesville and Bossier shales are sending mixed messages as to the breadth of the supposedly percolating recovery.
Columns
Observations: The good, bad and indifferent
Permian makes more marks
Working to prevent a total collapse of the geophysical industry onshore
Sleepless in the Gulf
Liquefying the problem
Colorado’s debate begins a national struggle: Your state could be next
Sven Krueger: Learn, develop, and deliver
Vaca Muerta slowly comes to life
News & Resources
World of oil and gas
Industry at a glance
People in the industry
Companies in the news
New products and services
