Posts Tagged ‘Gulf of Mexico’

Freedom — And That Includes Energy Independence

July 1, 2010

With Independence Day celebrations occurring across the U.S., in cities ranging from “one stoplight” towns (or in my youth – no stoplights, one stop sign and a 2 block long main street with asphalt) to major metro areas, freedom is on our minds. Our soldiers continue bravely fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Equally as committed, the U.S. O&G industry continues fighting to produce the natural gas and oil needed to fuel our economy and standard of life. It’s not an easy fight, and casualties do occur – the Deepwater Horizon incident being a prime example. Despite this tragedy, deepwater/ultra deepwater reserves are sorely needed.

What are also needed are the reserves, definitely oil but also natural gas, remaining in mature properties. Exploration is not needed there – but efficiency and a relook with today’s technology as many of these reservoirs were developed decades ago. It is a fact of life that many of these properties are now operated by small independents whose technical staff is limited – very knowledgeable but spread really thin. Particularly for this niche, PTTC has been a resource they can pull from to efficiently learn what they need to know to solve problems and realize opportunities. PTTC has been delivering local affordable workshops where “those who know share what they know” since 1993. The majority of the information shared is as applicable today as it was years ago when it was shared. Working together, AAPG Datapages and PTTC are now making a significant portion of this historical workshop information available in TECHPLACE at a very nominal cost. – Just $195 per year for an individual subscription, which basically equates to the cost of attending just one of PTTC’s workshops today.

PTTC’s regional organizations regularly deliver workshops that focus on the needs of independents. In an exciting development, PTTC Headquarters is augmenting this program with several series of workshops with content appropriate for mature properties. In these series of workshops there has been a conscious effort to pull in results from DOE-supported R&D projects. This is a good thing. Whatever one may think of the federal government, DOE’s oil and gas R&D program has served a niche in stimulating technology application by smaller independents. Examine the series (below), read full descriptive information on the flyers and choose which ones would work for you.:

  • IOR Field Applications and Case Histories – content tailored by
    location, so check out a few locations to see which best fits you
    •  Lafayette, LA (Aug. 24)
    • Jackson, MS (Aug. 26)
    • Houston, TX (Sep. 2)
    • Denver, CO (Sep. 8 )
    • Bakersfield, CA (Sep. 29)
  • Technologies Targeting Mature Properties – RPSEA Small Producer,
    Stripper Well Consortium (plus, there is a special feedback session – PTTC wants insight on what you want to learn
    • Shreveport, LA (Aug. 23)
    • Tulsa, OK (Aug. 25)
    • Wichita, KS (Aug. 26)
  • Mining Online Tech Information (Getting Better Answers Faster) (plus, there is that feedback session where you get to tell PTTC what you want to
    learn about)
    • Dallas, TX (Aug. 3)
    • Oklahoma City, OK (Aug. 4)
    • Golden, CO (Aug. 13)
  • Data Management & Technology for Mature Properties
    • Dallas, TX (July 21)
    • Oklahoma City (July 22)

Closing on the freedom note, there is a new study by the National Energy Policy Institute (NEPI) about “Toward a New National Energy Policy: Assessing the Options.” For now, only the executive summary is available online. There are several features in NEPI’s approach that make the study unique, so check it out. NEPI, which is located at the University of Tulsa, is a nonpartisan independent energy research organization funded by the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

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Lance Cole

E. Lance Cole, PTTC Operations Manager, an Oklahoma resident since 1978 and a registered professional engineer in Oklahoma, has served PTTC since 1996, beginning as Project Manager and then as Executive Director until AAPG assumed PTTC management responsibility. As National Project Manager, he was responsible for technical oversight of PTTC’s regional lead organizations and contract reporting for the national office, and served as a technical adviser on all aspects of the program. As Executive Director, he had primary staff responsibility for the overall PTTC organization. Mr. Cole received a B.S. in chemical engineering from South Dakota School of Mines and an M.S. in management from Southern Nazarene University. His professional experience encompasses reservoir and corrosion engineering, as well as reserve estimation and appraisal. He has worked with a major oil and gas company, a large integrated independent, and in engineering-oriented consulting companies. Mr. Cole is a member of SPE, AAPG, SEG, and SIPES and, in the past, has been involved with the SPE/DOE IOR Symposium in Tulsa for several years. Email Lance Cole.

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Posted in Unconventional Resources | Leave a Comment »

Gulf tragedy: Teachable moment on offshore technology challenges

May 18, 2010

The ongoing Deepwater Horizon tragedy—and let us not forget that it is a human tragedy beyond the unfolding environmental and business impacts, in that the lives of 11 men were lost—is also an opportunity to learn and to educate.

Lance Cole

It is an opportunity for the industry to learn from any operational mistakes made that might have led to this devastating accident—and from what did work, didn’t work, and could still work among the engineered-on-the-fly, improvisational solutions.

It is also an opportunity for the industry to educate all stakeholders about the technology challenges of operating in deep and ultra-deep waters off America’s coast and, in the process, take steps to repair a newly battered image of an industry operation that is still critical to our energy future.

Sober tone at OTC

Interest in offshore technology is stronger than ever, as evidenced by the nearly 73,000 in attendance at this year’s Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

Although the Deepwater Horizon tragedy cast a sobering tone over the massive annual conference and exhibition, it was left to Noble Energy Chairman and CEO Charles Davidson to note that industry must also celebrate its offshore successes even as it takes steps to clean up the spill, “find out what happened, and fix it so that it never happens again.”

Davidson added that industry’s “willingness to take on the impossible has led to immense change and success.” Appropriately, his keynote address was titled “Today’s reality is yesterday’s impossibility.”

It is difficult enough for us greybeards in the industry to comprehend industry’s offshore technology advances of the past 25-30 years. It was just three decades ago that production in 1,000 ft of water was the deepwater limit, and only a handful of wells had been drilled in as much as 2,000 ft of water. Today, 10,000 ft of water has been surpassed for drilling, and is almost there for production.

As planned and improvised solutions proliferate to control the wild well in the Gulf of Mexico and mitigate the environmental damage, the public is getting a rare glimpse into both the daunting operational challenges of ultra-deepwater drilling and the level of technological sophistication that’s involved.

Resources for deepwater challenges

For example, the issue of methane hydrates in deep waters whhich arose anew when hydrates clogged up the cofferdam BP had installed over the wild well must be an eye-opener for the millions of folks unfamiliar with deepwater operations.

Could the average person have any notion that this odd substance, which has long posed an operational hazard when it forms in deepwater exploration and production pipes and equipment, also represents potential energy resource when it has accumulated naturally in shallow sediments worldwide? The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is working extensively with Industry and academia to better understand naturally occurring gas hydrates and its role in the environment:  for more information please visit NETL’s gas hydrates site at www.netl.doe.gov
/technologies/oil-gas/futuresupply/methanehydrates/maincontent.htm.

A lot of discussion has also focused on the reliability of blowout preventers (BOPs) in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. And a related hot-button topic is industry’s interface with regulatory agencies.

At PTTC’s Deepwater/Ultra-Deepwater, you’ll find information on a NETL/RPSEA (Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America) project to undertake a program to move the oil and gas industry, particularly the ultra-deepwater community, toward a more efficient and effective means of evaluating safety barriers such as valves and BOPs. Southwest Research Institute (SRI) of San Antonio, Texas, the project performer, notes that a key component is industry’s interface with regulatory bodies. SRI suggests that approaches developed during the project are likely to be on the right track toward acceptance as regulatory-approved industry practices. It’s become a bit of a political buzzword in the past year, but don’t let that deter us from making this tragedy a “teachable moment” for all concerned.

Moving to the more general realm of environmental cleanup and safety, PTTC is making a “special advertising/white paper” offer to those offering technologies, products, and services in that realm. Watch for it in our next Tech Alert (you are subscribed, correct?) If you are not, you can subscribe online. It’s just another way to keep up with things in the oil and gas technology realm.

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E. Lance Cole, PTTC Operations Manager, an Oklahoma resident since 1978 and a registered professional engineer in Oklahoma, has served PTTC since 1996, beginning as Project Manager and then as Executive Director until AAPG assumed PTTC management responsibility. As National Project Manager, he was responsible for technical oversight of PTTC’s regional lead organizations and contract reporting for the national office, and served as a technical adviser on all aspects of the program. As Executive Director, he had primary staff responsibility for the overall PTTC organization. Mr. Cole received a B.S. in chemical engineering from South Dakota School of Mines and an M.S. in management from Southern Nazarene University. His professional experience encompasses reservoir and corrosion engineering, as well as reserve estimation and appraisal. He has worked with a major oil and gas company, a large integrated independent, and in engineering-oriented consulting companies. Mr. Cole is a member of SPE, AAPG, SEG, and SIPES and, in the past, has been involved with the SPE/DOE IOR Symposium in Tulsa for several years. Email Lance Cole at lcole@pttc.org

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Posted in Deepwater drilling | Leave a Comment »

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