‘Effective tension’ is one of the key concepts in pipeline and marine riser engineering since it tells the user how to account for the pressure in the fluid inside and outside the pipe. Although known and understood for at least 60 years, engineers still sometimes overlook it and get into trouble…
Oil seeps at Chevron’s Frade field nearly a year ago have led Brazilian regulator ANP to assess millions in fines against Chevron and ultimately halted output at the troubled Campos Basin field. In November 2011, Chevron P&A’d an appraisal well…
Full qualification testing of a 3.2MW multiphase subsea pump system capable of operation in pressures up to 5000psi has now been completed, FMC Technologies and Sulzer Pumps confirmed during Stavanger’s ONS show.Unveiling the new system, Tore Halvorsen…
Maintaining a steady level of exploration activity, OGX has marked a number of successes.The Itacoatiara well, or OGX-79, found a hydrocarbon column of about 150m with 64m of net pay in the Albian section in the Campos Basin. The block BM-C-39 well…
Over the last 18 months or so, Petrobras has a string of reported discoveries to its credit. Company CEO Maria das Graças Silva Foster said the 2011 discoveries alone added 1.24 billion barrels of equivalent oil to Petrobras’ numbers, with 1 billion of that coming from the pre-salt area…
An innovative cased-hole expandable liner system has been deployed to repair casing corrosion in an offshore Congo well. Weatherford’s Scott Durment and Doug Farley explain why and how.Casing damage in older wells comes in many forms and from many sources…
A number of operators on the Norwegian shelf revealed updates of their field development plans at the recent Offshore Northern Seas conference in Stavanger, with a substantial list of projects and refurbishments going forward as part of the revitalisation of the Norwegian shelf…
Brazil’s oil & gas potential continues to grab the industry headlines, with Petrobras confirming more than a score of offshore discoveries, most of them deepwater, in the last 18 months alone. Newcomer OGX confirmed a number of discoveries too…
Utilization for the worldwide mobile offshore drilling fleet continues to hold steady at 77% – almost five points higher than this time last year. The trailing twelve-month utilization average is at 75%. Floater utilization in the Gulf of Mexico…
New software for the offshore and shipping industries, including optimal voyage planning for safe journeys and minimum fuel consumption, are expected to emerge from a partnership agreement between Star Information Systems and weather experts StormGeo…
No-one seems to have fathomed out the depth of the potential market for seabed-based seismic surveys. Andrew McBarnet reviews the state of play.Sometimes the surf seems to be up, but those big waves that make the surf boarders’ day just don’t quite materialise…
Statoil will launch a drilling campaign in the Norwegian Barents Sea before the end of the year with four exploration wells in the Skrugard area, the company announced at this year’s Offshore Northern Seas (ONS) conference in Stavanger. But its Arctic ambitions go much farther…
The effective development of low-permeability tight gas reservoir resources requires operational efficiency to improve production performance. Erik Schrama, Robin Naughton-Rumbo and Fred van der Bas, Shell; Josef Shaoul, Fenix Consulting Delft…
Brazilian independent OGX kicked off 2012 with production at its offshore Waimea development. First oil came in January via an extended well test (EWT) to the FPSO OSX-1 just over two years after the field was discovered with OGX-3 in December 2009…
Passionate about the product is how Technip's SVP subsea assets and technologies Alain Marion sums up his company's feeling about supplying flexible pipe. Meg Chesshyre visited Le Trait, in Normandy, to see the Flexi France plant in action and…