Pat Davis Szymczak

Contributing Editor Journal of Petroleum Technology

Pat Davis Szymczak has covered oil and gas for 30 years, much of that out of the Eastern Hemisphere. She founded Oil & Gas Eurasia in Moscow and set up Argus Media's Russian Business. Previously, she was a staff writer/editor at the commodity magazine Futures, the Chicago Tribune, and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. She holds an MA in journalism from the University of Illinois and a BA in international relations and Russian studies from Knox College. She can be reached at pszymczak@spe.org.

Emission management

Iraq on Track To Stop Flaring and Go Solar With Total’s Help

Iraq, which is second only to Russia in terms of gas flaring, is nearing an agreement with Total to implement dual-energy megaprojects to capture that gas and wean the country away from sanctioned Iranian gas and electricity imports. Solar power will play a major role.

March 29, 2021 • Pat Davis Szymczak • Journal of Petroleum Technology
Field/project development

Australia’s Ichthys LNG Project Wins 2021 IPTC Project Integration Award

The INPEX-lead Ichthys LNG megaproject won the 2021 International Petroleum Technology Conference Excellence in Project Integration award in a presentation that took place during the opening ceremonies of the annual conference.

March 26, 2021 • Pat Davis Szymczak • Oil and Gas Facilities
Onshore/Offshore Facilities

Petronas Ships First LNG From New, Deepwater FLNG

Petronas has become the first global energy company to own and operate two floating LNG production facilities. The PFLNG DUA loaded its first shipment on an LNG carrier bound for Thailand. Petronas is also stepping up promotion of its 2021 licensing round for new fields.

March 26, 2021 • Pat Davis Szymczak • Oil and Gas Facilities
Exploration/discoveries

ExxonMobil VP for Africa, Asia Pacific Sees Future in Fossil Fuel Exploration

ExxonMobil’s Kerry Moreland, a geoscientist, managed breakthrough discoveries in the early stage of her 15-year career that have positioned the company for decades to come in South America. Now she is pursuing similar goals in Africa and Asia Pacific, as she explains in a moderated interview at this week’s IPTC in Kuala Lumpur.

March 25, 2021 • Pat Davis Szymczak • Journal of Petroleum Technology
Exploration/discoveries

Equinor’s Wildcats Score Big Find on Mature Norwegian Shelf Acreage

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate and Equinor have announced the biggest discovery so far this year on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Three wildcat wells drilled in the Blasto prospect near the Fram field confirmed the find and were then permanently plugged and abandoned.

March 24, 2021 • Pat Davis Szymczak • Journal of Petroleum Technology
Directional/complex wells

Schlumberger Wins $480-Million Contract To Drill for Basra Oil and ExxonMobil in Iraq

Schlumberger has won a $480-million contract to drill 96 oil wells in southern Iraq for the country’s Basra Oil Company and for ExxonMobil, which operates the giant West Qurna-1 field with partners from Iraq, Japan, Indonesia, and China. West Qurna-1 is one of the world’s largest oil fields.

March 24, 2021 • Pat Davis Szymczak • Journal of Petroleum Technology
Fracturing/pressure pumping

ExxonMobil Proposes Hydraulic Fracturing Pilot Project in Colombia

ExxonMobil submitted a proposal to Colombian authorities to develop a hydraulic fracturing pilot project in the Magdalena Basin. Colombia wants to drastically raise its declining reserves-to-production ratio by tapping into shale.

March 19, 2021 • Pat Davis Szymczak • Journal of Petroleum Technology
Business/economics

Financiers Remain Bullish on E&P Exploration

The Energy Council, a London-based networking platform, has released a survey of its 100,000 members suggesting that the finance and investment community has money and an appetite to continue to fund E&P exploration, particularly in gas.

March 18, 2021 • Pat Davis Szymczak • Journal of Petroleum Technology
Field/project development

Rosneft Eyes Major Role in LNG as It Sheds Redundant Oil Assets

Russia’s largest oil company is moving quickly to shed underperforming brownfield assets to raise capital and transform itself into a major LNG player this decade. The state-owned giant is making the move as natural gas positions itself for a growing role in the energy transition.

March 16, 2021 • Pat Davis Szymczak • Journal of Petroleum Technology
AI/machine learning

Deep Neural Network Trains To Pinpoint Microseismic Events in Real Time

Artificial intelligence is opening new ways to analyze data from microseismic events that occur during hydraulic fracturing. One researcher at Moscow’s Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology is building a convolutional neural network to get a subsurface view of permeability after fracturing.

March 1, 2021 • Pat Davis Szymczak • Journal of Petroleum Technology

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