JPT June 2020 Issue
On the Cover
Located north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, the bitumen upgrader at Kearl produces blended bitumen. The oil sands deposit has an estimated 4.6 billion bbl of recoverable bitumen. Source: Imperial Oil Co. Source: Getty Images.
President's Column
From the beginning, SPE has focused on knowledge dissemination in four fundamental areas, which I refer to as the core disciplines: drilling, completions, reservoir (including geosciences), and production operations.
Monthly Features
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Environment/social/governance (ESG) represents the integration of human values into the financial value of investments. The energy industry that emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic will be different from the one that entered it. -
Its reward for years of struggling to adapt to low prices and weak demand for its oil and gas has been an epic crash. Canadians selling change say it is time to consider possibilities that seemed inconceivable in the past. -
Autonomous Inflow Control Valve technology demonstrates significant benefits within first year. -
The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) selected 12 new technologies for its 2020 Spotlight on New Technology Awards. The annual awards program recognizes innovative technologies and allows companies to showcase the latest advances in offshore exploration and production. -
The Offshore Technology Conference was cancelled for the first time ever due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the flow of ideas continues. As proof, this curated summary of technical papers highlights unique concepts that might someday reduce the offshore sector’s heavy cost burdens. -
Alan Nelson is not only the new chief technology officer at ADNOC, he is the company’s first person to hold the title at the integrated oil company. -
The Texas Railroad Commission finally ended its uncomfortable flirtation with limiting production by declining to set quotas, but it changed rules to speed oil storage construction and allow companies to conserve cash by giving them more time to plug wells and clean up waste pits. -
As tight-oil producers move to curtail production, hard-to-answer questions are being raised about how shuttered wells will come back. The issue reveals key uncertainties about the delicate flow paths that define unconventional reservoirs.
TGS, with the support of TGS’ Russian partner DMNG, has completed its second phase of processing in the Russian Sea of Okhotsk.
Brazil’s Petrobras has found oil in an exploratory well located in the Sudoeste de Tartaruga Verde block, in the Campos Basin.
No gas or commercial reservoirs have been found in the first-ever exploration well off Lebanon’s coast, according to Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar and the Total exploration firm.
Thai energy company PTT Exploration and Production announced two deepwater oil discoveries in the Salina Basin, offshore Mexico.
The number of active natural gas rigs in the US fell further to 80 on 8 May. The number had dipped to 85 on 21 April, the lowest number since August 2016, according to the Baker Hughes rig count.
The oil market is likely facing the largest monthly drop in fracturing activity ever recorded in the US, according to Rystad Energy analysis.
US oil producers ExxonMobil and Chevron announced they are tightening output, for combined global shut-ins of 800,000 B/D, in response to plunging crude prices and shrinking fuel demand.
Pre-COVID-19 forecasts were blown out of the water and nearly made moot quickly in the first quarter of this year. Attempts to form long-term forecasts are stymied by uncertainties until some degree of stabilization returns to the oil and gas industry.
Exploration commitments are expected to dwindle in the current market environment.
Technology Focus
