News Cuttings

IADC hosts meeting with Myanmar oil & gas industry reps

IADC president Dr Lee Hunt and operations assistant – Asia operations Chit Hlaing hosted a meeting with active operator and services companies in Yangon, Myanmar, in January. Representatives of the Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise (MOGE) were present, including deputy general manager Kyaw Nyan Tun and geologist Tint Sann.

The meeting opened with introductions about IADC’s mission in the global oil and gas drilling industry and its various operations worldwide. This information was intended to raise awareness of IADC’s Asia operations presence and Mr Hlaing’s role in supporting members from the association’s Bangkok office.

The luncheon was followed by a discussion about regional issues and an update of IADC regional activities. IADC was able to enhance its familiarity with current drilling activities and the near-term market outlook.

Among other guests attending were: Amar Moussa, HSE & security manager, TOTAL E&P Myanmar; Tony Cole, logistics manager & advisor, Petronas Carigali Myanmar; Nay Myo Aung, assistant rig manager, Asia Drilling; Jonathan Royds, senior development drilling engineer, Daewoo E&P Myanmar; Sunchai Pongorapin, drilling operation manager and Amornpun Kulpraneet, acting chief, logistics, PTTEP International; and Kyaw Kyaw Hlaing, CEO, SMART Technical Services.

Offshore Competency Training Programme gaining acceptance by North Sea groups

IADC met with representatives of North Sea oil industry associations in Stavanger in January as part of the association’s efforts to further acceptance of its Offshore Competency Training Programme (OCTP).

Dr Brenda Kelly, director of accreditation and certification, and Jens Hoffmark, regional vice president – Europe, met with members of the Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF), Oil & Gas UK, the Netherlands Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Association (NOGEPA) and producer groups from Denmark and Germany.

Full acceptance of the OCTP would allow drilling contractors to use the programme’s two key components – Basic Introduction to Offshore Safety and Helicopter Underwater Escape Training. Drilling contractors would then be able to move personnel from location to location without having to repeat that training.

Danish and Dutch representatives confirmed their unofficial acceptance of the OCTP at the meeting.

OLF and Oil & Gas UK also accepted the programme’s content since it mirrors the harmonized course requirements for their countries. Achieving their acceptance will still require implementation of an audit program that mirrors the audit program in place within each country, acceptability of auditors/auditor qualifications, modification of the programme’s plan to accept STCW courses as equivalent training, and ongoing transparency of implementation, including tracking of training certificates. Group members indicated acceptance of IADC’s quality assurance plan, contingent on acceptable qualifications of specific program auditors.

Next, IADC will submit the OCTP documents and quality assurance plan to the work group for review. Group members have agreed to individually assist IADC in seeking national trade union acceptance once the programme documentation is deemed satisfactory.

UBO/MPD Committee to issue MPD tool online

A new online MPD screening tool developed by the IADC Underbalanced Operations & Managed Pressure Drilling Committee will be rolled out at IADC World Drilling 2010, 16-17 June in Budapest, announced committee chairman Brian Grayson, Weatherford International. Mr Grayson made his remarks while opening the second day of the 2010 SPE/IADC MPD & UBO Conference on 25 February in Kuala Lumpur. The candidate selection tool will be made available at www.IADC.org.

IADC group vice president/publisher Mike Killalea conducted an exclusive video interview with Mr Grayson that is available here.

IADC Gin Pole Truck Guidelines released

The IADC Rig Moving Committee issued voluntary Gin Pole Truck Guidelines on 1 March. These guidelines are intended to help improve the safety of rig-moving operations and include information on inspections, operations and manufacture of gin pole trucks. They will be posted on the IADC web page for the Rig Moving Committee.

ART Drilling Control Systems Subcommittee seeks comments

Integrating different pieces of equipment on a rig can be a major hassle, not to mention, integration with downhole equipment. A new survey by the Drilling Control Systems (DCS) Subcommittee of the IADC Advanced Rig Technology (ART) Committee seeks to clarify the type of control system that can best provide surface and downhole integration. The survey was designed under the leadership of DCS Subcommittee vice chairman Terry Loftis, Transocean.

During the 2009 IADC Advanced Rig Technology Conference, 35% of the audience selected “integration with the downhole system” as the aspect of drilling control systems that needed the most improvement.

The survey comprises five questions, including a request for contact information, which will be held confidential by IADC. To take the survey, click here.