Latest News

Expenditures for deepwater projects are expected to rise by 90% over the next 5 years. Drilling and completion of subsea wells will dominate deepwater spending. Higher oil prices are supporting the development of deepwater prospects to contribute to world energy supplies.

A recent workshop titled “Bridging the Gap Between Reservoir Engineering and Facilities Design” brought together more than 120 representatives of both disciplines to discuss the topsides/reservoir interface. Reservoir uncertainties and how they affect design was a key topic.

This paper addresses a “conceptual model” for an overfill-protection program, based on a recent industry example. Key portions of the programmatic and overfill-equipment aspects will be addressed.

The ultimate success of a deepwater project depends on phases from early concept selection, design, construction, commissioning, and startup to operation. However, the boundaries and transfer of responsibilities may not be sharply demarcated between phases.

The Polymer injection project on the Dalia field, a high permeability sandstone reservoir deep offshore Angola, is a world first in both surface and subsurface aspects. A phased approach was used to manage risks, along with development of new monitoring approaches.

This article focuses on offshore opportunities globally and identifies the hot spots of activity. It also examines some of the key issues facing the sector and the energy supply chain, such as the need to maximize oil and gas recovery from challenging environments, to innovate, and to reduce costs.

Regulations are driving increased decommissioning activities in the Gulf of Mexico. Incomplete data is one of the obstacles in planning decommissioning. As fields have changed ownership over time, key information has been lost, creating challenges for the current operator.

The author reviews advances in produced water treatment, particularly offshore, since the 1960s. Regulations on discharge quality have been a major driver in the improvement of treatment technology.

A Separations Technology Technical Section was recently created to allow SPE members to share knowledge about emerging separations technology and its challenging applications. Interested members are encouraged to join.

Facilities engineers in the oil and gas industry have grown in stature over the past decade—the huge sums of capital we now spend have assured that. We are a growing presence as facilities become larger and more complex.

For several months, a number of us involved with water treating have been thinking about how we would like to contribute to Oil and Gas Facilities. We had in mind a regular feature with an emphasis on water treating technology.

Systematic experimental and modeling approaches to designing a safe operating strategy for a 5-km deepwater-subsea-flowline case study are presented to address unplanned shutdown and restart events for waxy-crude production.