Monthly Features

During a protracted period of depressed prices in E&P, the customer focus for service companies and suppliers shifts to finding ways to reduce the cost of producing a barrel of oil.

Pressure is growing this year for exploration and production (E&P) companies to “face the reality of a prolonged period of low prices,” said Alan Cunningham, technical director for Gaffney, Cline & Associates.

The impact on workers from the global downturn is so large it is difficult to track. At the high end of the job loss estimates is John Graves, owner of Graves & Co., who estimated the number of jobs lost in the oil and gas industry at more than 250,000 at year end, and rising.

Seismic innovators are working on new sound sources designed to produce better subsurface images while addressing concerns raised by scientists and regulators about the environmental impact of the related noise on sea life.

The Caspian Sea region is once again becoming one of the globe’s important frontiers in oil and gas production. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan are in the midst of intensive efforts to underpin their developing economies by increased exploitation of massive reserves.

Concerned about the long-term impact of the current oil recession, SPE’s seven technical directors give their outlook for the coming year.

Rising demand for flowback technologies to reduce uncertainties is leading to the creation of more hydrocarbon and water tracers. These chemical-based tracers may play an important role in the shale industry’s effort to come up with more cost-effective fracture designs.

An area of great interest to those researching flowback is the interaction of water and salt inside the shale reservoir. After a well is stimulated, the flowback fluids tend to show a rising concentration of salt that falls back to near zero over time.

On the far end of the flowback spectrum is a completion process called soakback. If the well has to be shut in until takeaway capacity is available, the completion fluids soak into the shale rock. Flowback analysis can help understand what happens in the formation.

Most shale producers in North America have given little thought to the flowback stage following hydraulic fracturing. Others have come to realize it represents a valuable opportunity to learn more about their wells.