Drilling
Operators aren’t rushing to drill, even as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz drives oil prices up.
Drilling experts recently shared candid views on what will be required for their segment of the upstream business to move to the next stage of development.
In partnership with OTC 2026, Rystad Energy has shared its latest outlook for the offshore sector and the role it is expected to play in supplying low-cost barrels through 2050.
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The drilling-systems-automation roadmap (DSA-R) initiative is a cross-industry effort launched in June 2013 to help accelerate the adoption of advancements in drilling-systems automation (DSA) for both onshore and offshore wells. -
The mixed-salinity environment poses a significant challenge in petrophysics.
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Recent experience with a newly introduced sampling-while-drilling service has shown that it is possible to make reliable downhole formation-fluid-property estimates during sampling-while-drilling operations.
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In June, Mexico’s national oil company Pemex announced its largest discoveries of oil and gas in 5 years. Located in the shallow-water basin of the Gulf of Mexico offshore Tabasco and Campeche, the four new fields are estimated to hold 350 million bbl of oil.
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Well control training programs for deepwater drillers and key rig personnel are undergoing a major overhaul that has been years in the making.
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After the 2010 subsea blowout of the Macondo well that resulted in 11 deaths and the worst oil spill in US history, early kick detection technology found itself at the top of the wish list for regulators and offshore companies seeking to avoid similar accidents.
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Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) have set an audacious goal to halve the time, cost, and number of rig personnel required for drilling every type of well, from unconventional shale to ultradeepwater.
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Technology developers are working on a new ultrasonic flowmeter for drilling fluids aimed at obtaining better measurements than current systems with far fewer disruptions to rig systems.
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For the past several years, automated drilling has promised to deliver major improvements in drilling performance. But the technology is facing new obstacles that might affect its progress and commercialization.
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There is a lot of information buried in drilling reports written every day, but little of it appears in computer databases.
