Testing page for app

The time for the annual selection of SPE’s Distinguished Lecturers (DLs) is coming soon. If you are unfamiliar with the DL program or have not explored it in depth, consider learning more as the selection process for the 2015–2016 lecture season begins on 1 February 2014.

This issue features four papers, three of which deal with flowline- and pipeline-related issues. The fourth paper deals with the use of the ALARP (as low as reasonably possible) principle for evaluating environmental risks and impacts of produced water discharged to the sea.

This year has been a great year for me; I was able to play more rounds of golf than expected! I was also successful in sealing a few research collaboration agreements within the oil and gas industry.

When oil-based mud is used, the drilled formation solids (cuttings) are regarded as controlled or hazardous waste.

A novel nonaqueous-fluid (NAF) system was designed to provide stable rheological properties with a nonprogressive gel structure and very good filtration control and filter-cake quality in wells where the expected bottomhole static temperature (BHST) exceeds 400°F.

A well in the South China Sea was diagnosed by ultrasonic and temperature logging to have a well-integrity problem, forcing the operator to shut in the well because the leak created a high tubing/casing-annulus pressure.

A novel solids-free fluid-loss pill for higher-temperature reservoirs has been formulated.

Irrespective of industry or sector, the objectives of innovation are productivity and performance improvement and cost reduction.

A new workflow technology has been launched that uses real-time logging-while-drilling (LWD) data and a new horizontal well-correlation technique to dynamically update a structural framework that can be used to geosteer an active drilling well.

The elliptical (conical) damage profile associated with horizontal wells is well-known, but review of industry-wide applications by different operators shows no corresponding uniform correlation between the damage profile and actual treatment volumes that have been applied.