Issue: October 2024
SPECIAL FOCUS: ADVANCES IN DRILLING
Consistency and repeatability improve efficiency in drilling operations, delivering safety gains in conjunction with reductions in flat time.
Engineers leveraged data analytics, domain knowledge, and physics and machine-learning models to generate a depth-based optimum operating parameter roadmap automatically. This workflow enables ROP improvement and the reduction of drilling risks, becoming a key element for evolution of autonomous drilling operations and well cost reduction.
U-laterals are being employed increasingly by operators to gain access to greater amounts of reserves while simultaneously yielding significant savings.
Features
The oil and gas industry has used CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in mature reservoirs for 50 years. Now, as CCUS becomes a critical part of the industry's decarbonization strategy, lessons learned from EOR can help solve CO2-related subsurface challenges.
North Sea decommissioning costs are escalating and could exceed £20 billion, but the deployment of separation technologies represents an opportunity to significantly reduce costs and emissions while recovering valuable resources. A smarter approach can transform waste into profit, contributing to more efficient, cost-effective decommissioning efforts.
Columns
Although not my favorite David Bowie song, “Under Pressure” really does reflect Produced Water Management today. Most people would agree the seismicity issue is probably on the top of the list when it comes to the complexity of managing produced water.
The economic consequences of a banking crisis, if not addressed preemptively or in time to limit the damage, are numerous and dire, and need not be detailed here. Just the same, condensate banking in a gas well can also become a productivity and economic crisis, if ignored or not properly addressed proactively.
