ITF, the global oil and gas technology facilitator, has announced the challenges that its membership of operator and service companies want to see tackled as priorities in 2012.

Up to 100% funding will be available for the right solutions to some of the industry’s most pressing challenges and ITF aims to secure around £50 million investment directly from its members over the next three years.

A series of workshops will be held in international locations throughout the year on the top global priorities including:

• Unconventional reservoir characterisation
• Heavy oil
• Subsea (including subsea power, extra long tie-backs, produced water, separation and cleaning and replacement of valve actuators)
• Down hole pressure and temperature monitoring

The first Technology Challenge Workshop on unconventional reservoir characterisation will take place in Aberdeen on 13 March where members will prepare a roadmap to define the issues ahead of a further workshop in Houston in June. A global call for proposals will then be issued inviting technology developers to submit their innovative solutions.

The organisation tasked with driving new technology solutions also revealed that it will be establishing membership clusters in the Middle East, Australia, US and Europe to focus on the unique regional challenges and bring forward more specific Joint Industry Projects (JIPs).

Neil Poxon, managing director of ITF said: “Members want to see game-changing technologies in a number of key areas and our workshop programme will kick off with unconventional reservoir characterisation which was voted as one of the top priorities. Our internationalisation strategy and establishment of four regional clusters means that we will also be targeting the issues that directly affect exploration and production in these areas with the issue of calls for proposals.”

A not-for -profit organisation, ITF is owned by its operator and service company members and has launched more than 180 JIPs from early stage projects through to field trials and commercialisation. ITF has set up bases in Abu Dhabi, Houston, Kuala Lumpur and Perth, Australia and aims to continue to grow international membership in 2012 and launch 25 JIPs across the regions.

Mr Poxon added: “ITF has been extremely successful in securing funding for JIPs and our membership is at its highest level. I would urge interested companies to come to us with their innovative technologies whether they are at the early concept stage or closer to commercialisation as there are opportunities to secure investment and also the buy-in of major operators, whilst retaining intellectual property.”

source: http://www.oil-itf.com

High reliability electronics provider, C-MAC, have announced the launch of their blog dedicated to high temperature electronics for the Oil & Gas industry.

Whether you are designing tools for operating temperatures over 200°c or intelligent completions requiring 10 years at 150°c, it is intended that this is the place to ask questions, share opinions and become more informed.

With a pedigree in Aerospace products spanning more than 60 years, C-MAC has maintained its position at the forefront of high reliability electronic components, modules and systems for applications in harsh environments. The blog provides a platform for discussions, opinions and news items, bringing up to date information to the growing high temperature electronics community in the Oil & Gas industry with an ever increasing need for maximum reliability.  New content and comments will be added regularly and C-MAC invite companies and individuals interested in these fields to participate with  thoughts, ideas, comments and questions.

“We wanted to introduce this new blog to share some of our knowledge and to engage all of you who are interested in this topic in discussions and in sharing ideas and opinions. Please read the articles and discussions and I look forward to hearing your thoughts, ideas, comments and questions.” Karen Oddey, CEO C-MAC Oil & Gas

Visit the blog: http://hitempelectronics.com/

Neopartners Ltd are in the process of updating and up rating their in house high temperature capacitor database which will be available to buy via the website this Autumn 2011.

The database provides comprehensive knowledge and up to date sourcing information for components for the bill of materials (BOM) required to build and develop the companies high temperature designs.

The database also stands alone as a useful tool to many industries including oil & gas, aerospace, geothermal, the process industry and R&D companies.

To find out more about the Neopartners HT capacitor database, including cost and level of detail included, contact the Neopartners team:

T: 0044 (0)1326 318444

E: info@neopartners.co.uk

The 2011 Saudi Aramco EXPEC ARC Technology Quest symposium is due to take place on 10^th – 12^th October in Aberdeen.

Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest integrated petroleum company, is hosting an invitation-only symposium bringing together the world’s top scientists and researchers to discuss opportunities with Saudi Aramco in the development of breakthrough upstream technologies.

Leading technologists from around the globe will gather for a unique opportunity to meet with representatives from Saudi Aramco’s EXPEC Advanced Research Centre (ARC) and to collaborate during the conceptual/research stages of technology development by submitting proposals that meet highly potent upstream technology challenges.

The invitation only event, hosted by the Aramco Overseas Company Ltd. is the 3^rd of its kind, with previous quests being held in Houston, Texas in 2007 & 2009 both of which were hugely successful. In 2009 more than 70 requests for proposals were extended to candidates.

Research domains for the quest include:

Computational modelling technology, Geology technology, Production technology, Reservoir engineering technology and Drilling technology.

Neopartners Ltd has strong capability in the Production Technology domain and will attend the event in October to discuss various collaborative solutions to challenges noted in the 2011 technology quest.

Details of this year’s quest can be found here www.techquest2011.com

The deadline for proposal submission is 16^th September 2011

Source: www.techquest2011.com

But exactly how embracing has the Oil & Gas industry been of this phenomenon?

‘Twitter’ celebrated its fifth birthday with the news that daily tweeting posts had risen from 50 million to 140 million in the last year. But despite the numbers are businesses yet to realise the income generating potential that social media poses?

Sceptics remain unconvinced that this new media can provide any lasting advantage or aid business development yet the advocates claim quite the opposite, attributing continued business growth and transformation to online communication.

The oil & Gas industry has been cautious in its approach to social media, with some companies dabbling at a very non-committal level with facebook pages and twitter accounts.

It could be argued that the very nature of the industry prevents service companies and oil and gas giants from being sociable. With tight confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements news and technology updates can be scarce and when you can’t discuss what’s happening what do you twitter about? And, if you’re potential clients aren’t yet using this channel then why join?

To be effective, social networking must be fully integrated into a marketing strategy. It’s cost effective, targeted and timely. So what’s not to like? Never have we had the ability to talk to our customers so informally or alter the way clients perceive us so simply and perhaps it’s these fast paced changes that make us tip-toe around the brave new networking world, terrified of poorly representing our businesses.

Really we are just communicating the same ethos that our businesses always had, just in a newer, faster, more experimental way.

Whether you’re a sceptic or an avid social fanatic it always comes down to considered, strategic, planned communication in business and this especially applies to social networking platforms.

The oil & gas industry have kept it at arm’s length until now but there is no doubt that it is on the minds of many an industry professional and the topic at various trade exhibitions and conferences. Rumblings of tweeting and status updates can be heard from afar so the industries launch into social media may well be on its way.

Cassandra Manning, Marketing Manager – Neopartners Ltd.

11th May 2011

17th March 2011

Global demand for additional oil and gas resources has led to several offshore discoveries in the recent past. Most of these discoveries have been in the less explored, offshore areas of the globe. Currently, Latin America and Africa have become attractive investment destinations globally for oil and gas due to major offshore discoveries with huge amounts of reserves. The offshore oil and gas discoveries made in these regions have abundant proved reserves with high production potential.  

During the period 2007–2010, 82 offshore oil and gas discoveries have been made in Africa and 111 in Latin America. Asia-Pacific and Europe occupy the top positions in the number of offshore oil and gas discoveries made during this period, but Latin America and Africa have seen giant offshore oil and gas discoveries that have much bigger reserves. Moreover, the number of discoveries in Latin America and Africa has remained more or less consistent, showing considerable increase over the past years.

National Oil Companies are Dominating Global Offshore Oil and Gas Discoveries

There were 543 global offshore oil and gas discoveries during the period 2007–2010. Among these, the top 10 global offshore oil and gas companies contributed 248 (46%). Two National Oil Companies (NOCs) – Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) of Brazil and Statoil S.A (Statoil) of Norway – have together contributed to around 21% to the total global offshore oil and gas discoveries.

Source: offshoretechnology.com

The prospects for practical exploitation of geothermal energy are looking significantly brighter thanks to an agreement between two key players in the industry. Penzance based EGS Energy and the Slovakian engineering company Geothermal Anywhere (GA) will work together to develop GA’s deep-drilling technology concept, Ultradrill.

Engineered geothermal systems (EGS) use water to extract heat from rocks deep underground and bring it up to the surface, where it can be used directly or to generate electricity. Such a system needs at least two boreholes – an injection well and a production well – which have to be several kilometres deep to ensure an edequate operating temperature. EGS Energy’s planned power plant at Cornwall’s Eden Project, where drilling is due to start mid-2011, will require boreholes of at least 4km.

Conventional drilling technologyy relies on an assembly of connected drilling rods – collectively called the string to connect the drill bit to the drilling rig. Whenever a worn drill bit needs replacing , the string has to be withdrawn from the well, dismantled and then re-assembled. The time lost in this procedure becomes progressively longer as wells get deeper, resulting in an exponential rise in drilling costs.

Ultradrill dispenses with a conventional drill bit, replacing it with a pulsed-plasma and ultrs-sound ‘cutting tool’ attached to the head of a long length of coiled tubing. As the coil is unwoun, and the cutting tool fed down the borehole, the plasma and the ultra-sound pulses break up and disperse the rock without direct contact.

Water is pumped down the tubing and rises up the borehole. Capsules of drilled disintegrated rock are brought to the surface by buoyancy and artificial airlift.

The big attractions of Ultradrill over conventional drilling technology are lower costs and greater speed. There’s no need for for a large drilling rig , and the drill doesn’t have to be brought to the surface at regular invervals. On the basis of a laboratory demonstrator, GA estimates that Ultrdrill will take less than 60 days to drill a 5km well – an unprecedented speed.

Its early days for the technology but Roy Baria, technical director for EGS Energy, is decidedly upbeat about Ultradrill’s future. “It works in the lab, and once we’ve shown it can work in the field at more that 2000m then deep drilling costs will fall significantly, and the main obstacle to the take-up of EGS in the world will disappear.”

Source: E&T Magazine, Vol 5 Issue 18

After reviewing the catastrophic accident nine months ago at one of BP’s oilfields off the southern U.S. coast, members of a parliamentary committee conceded a major oil spill in the North Sea would be even more difficult to handle. However, they added in a report that a North Sea oil spill is less likely to occur because Britain has tougher oil-exploration safety standards than the United States.

The report being published Thursday by Parliament’s Energy and Climate Change Committee concludes that a North Sea oil-drilling ban is not necessary.

The lawmakers say a North Sea oil-drilling ban would leave Britain too reliant on imported energy, and also would lead energy companies to relocate their drilling rigs to other parts of the world.

The British report did note that a North Sea oil-well accident would pose serious difficulties, because of the remote location of most new oilfields. In case of an uncontrolled oil spill, the report said there are only a limited number of oil rigs that could be deployed to take emergency measures such as drilling relief wells.

Britain estimates its North Sea waters still have about 20 billion barrels of oil waiting to be discovered and extracted. Current British production is over 1.3 million barrels a day.

Britain tightened its regulation of North Sea drilling after the country’s worst offshore accident, a 1988 explosion that killed 167 workers. The Gulf of Mexico explosion killed 11 oil workers.

Source: YourOilandGasNews.com

Following installation of the capping stack and in line with the procedure approved by the National Incident Commander and Unified Area Command, the well integrity test on the MC252 well commenced today.

The well integrity test will last at least 6 hours and could last up to 48 hours. During the test, the three ram capping stack is closed, effectively shutting in the well and all sub-sea containment systems (namely, the Q4000 and Helix Producer systems) have been temporarily stopped. Although it cannot be assured, it is expected that no oil will be released to the ocean during the test. Even if no oil is released during the test, this will not be an indication that oil and gas flow from the wellbore has been permanently stopped.

Information gathered during the test will be reviewed with the relevant government agencies, including the federal science team, to determine next steps.

The sealing cap system never before has been deployed at these depths or under these conditions, and its efficiency and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured.

During the well integrity test, operations on the first relief well have been temporarily stopped while the well was at 17,840 ft as a precaution. Operations on the second relief well have been temporarily suspended at 15,874 feet to ensure that there is no interference with the first relief well. The relief wells remain the sole means to permanently seal and isolate the well.  

BP Press Office London: +44 (0)20 7496 4076
BP Press office, US: +1 281 366 0265

Source: www.bp.com

Today BP announced it is providing the State of Florida with an additional $25 million grant to continue implementation of the State’s Area Contingency Plan.

This $25 million grant is in addition to a previous $25 million block grant that BP announced on May 5 to help accelerate the implementation of the State’s Area Contingency Plan, and a $25 million tourism grant announced on May 17.

“Working in partnership with the state is important to an effective spill response. So we are pleased to make these additional funds available per the Governor’s request,” said Doug Suttles, BP’s Chief Operating Officer, Exploration and Production.

This additional grant is another example of BP’s commitment to help mitigate the impact of the oil and gas spill from the MC252 well on the State of Florida.

Further information:

BP Press Office London: +44 20 7496 4076
BP Press office Houston: +1 281 366 0265
www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com
www.bp.com/gulfofmexicoresponse

Source: www.bp.com