Drilling Contractor | Archive | Deepwater Operations

Frontier drilling to require a shift in paradigm

Posted on 04 February 2010 in 2010, Deepwater Operations, January/February, Land Operations

Critical D&C issues with John de Lange, BG Group. Looking at technology and the world demand for oil and gas, I see a couple of areas that haven’t been explored much and where there is potential. First, there is deepwater and ultra-deepwater. …

Control systems integration an ongoing challenge

Posted on 04 February 2010 in 2010, Automation, Deepwater Operations, Global Market Trends, January/February, Offshore Operations, Opinion

Critical D&C issues with Tim Juran, Seadrill Americas. Seadrill has delivered eight modern, highly sophisticated deepwater newbuilds in the last 15-18 months. What are the key challenges you’ve faced in doing that? …

Smart drilling a must as wells push technical limit

Posted on 04 February 2010 in 2010, Automation, Deepwater Operations, January/February, Offshore Operations, Opinion

Critical D&C issues with Ron Toufeeq, Pride International. Ron Toufeeq is senior vice president of operations, asset management and engineering for Pride International. What are some of the most critical issues facing the drilling and completion industry in…

Lower Tertiary seismic survey kicks off in Gulf of Mexico

Posted on 08 December 2009 in Deepwater Operations, News, Offshore Operations

WesternGeco has begun acquisition of the E-Octopus VII survey. Located in the Walker Ridge and Keathley Canyon areas of the US central Gulf of Mexico…

Transocean’s Discoverer Americas commences GOM operations

Posted on 24 November 2009 in Deepwater Operations, News, Offshore Operations, Regional Market Trends

Transocean announced this week that its newbuild ultra-deepwater drillship Discoverer Americas has commenced operations in the US Gulf of Mexico…

Riserless drilling with casing: GOM well design model requires change for deepwater drilling

Posted on 03 November 2009 in 2009, Deepwater Operations, Innovating While Drilling, July/August, MPD & UBO

As deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) drilling operations move into deeper water and well depths, there has been a lack of consistent and sustained performance…

Deepwater cement design optimized for record-length expandable liner in Gulf of Mexico

Posted on 30 October 2009 in 2008, Completions & Cementing, Deepwater Operations, September/October

By Don Schultz, Greg Pollard, Nexen Petroleum; George Fuller, Joey Langlinais, Michael Serio, Jasen Bradley, Halliburton During a sidetrack operation out of 9 7/8-in. casing on a deepwater well in Green Canyon Block 243, Gulf of Mexico, unexpected hole conditions were encountered that required the use of an additional casing string. The decision was made [...]

Deepwater trend pushes risk management to forefront

Posted on 30 October 2009 in 2008, Deepwater Operations, September/October

By Katie Mazerov, contributing editor As oil prices surge and easy-to-tap reservoirs dwindle, the oil and gas industry finds itself venturing into complicated formations and much deeper waters, using technology that just ten years ago was unfathomable. Now, with the stakes higher than they’ve ever been, an already risky business has become even riskier, with [...]

TOTAL aims for ‘routine’ deepwater drilling in West Africa

Posted on 30 October 2009 in 2008, Deepwater Operations, Regional Market Trends, September/October

By Jeremy Cresswell, contributing editor The name TOTAL is synonymous with West Africa, and for sure the region ranks as the French group’s number one theater of activity. Moreover, the company has an excellent exploration track record and reputation as a technology frontier buster when it comes to developing discoveries. While many of the headlines [...]

Lifting Safety: Inexperienced employees, deepwater/subsea projects push lifting challenges to new

Posted on 30 October 2009 in 2008, Deepwater Operations, HSE & Training, July/August

“The challenges have shifted,” said Mike Brasic, who retired from BP in May 2008 as lifting adviser and as HSE manager for BP Sakhalin. First, there’s the people problem. “The level of experience among employees has gone down as the level of activity has gone up. That’s presenting challenges with competency that the industry must [...]