E&P Magazine. June 2020 PDF

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JUNE 2020
Frontier Exploration
the
Drill Bits
SHALE CODE
Decommissioning Lessons from the past
& Disposal can shape shale’s future
Special Report:
Emissions
Management
Unconventional
Report:
HAYNESVILLE
Accelerate
digital
transformation.
You need an innovative
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EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION J U NE 2020
WORLDWIDE COVERAGE VOLUME 93 n ISSUE 06
A H AR T E N E R G Y P UB L IC AT ION HartEnergy.com
COVER STORY: COMPLETIONS LESSONS

SPECIAL REPORT:
EMISSIONS MANAGEMENT
22
32 Keeping a lid on GHG emissions Cracking the
In this special report, operators and service
providers share their long-term view on shale code
emissions management.
30
Making the case
FRONTIER EXPLORATION for data sharing
36 Will gas hydrates be developed with

other biogenic gas plays?
40 Mega-merged 3D seismic in the

Vaca Muerta, Neuquén Basin
DRILL BITS
42 Managing transitional drilling challenges
44 Stratigraphic zonation for model-

based bit design
DECOMMISSIONING & DISPOSAL

46 A novel approach to a growing problem
58 UNCONVENTIONAL REPORT:
HAYNESVILLE
INDUSTRY PULSE
8 Conserve R&D budgets
and focus on external
technologies
12 Leading innovation
today
WORLD VIEW
14 Middle East economies
choked by low prices
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E&P DEPARTMENTS AND COMMENTARY
AS I SEE IT
Audience Altered reality 7
by the COMPLETIONS & PRODUCTION

Preserving today’s wells for tomorrow’s production 19
Numbers OFFSHORE ADVANCES

Upstream industry joins COVID-19 fight 21
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Traditional models of operating are evolving to meet present demands 48
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INTERNATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
ON THE MOVE/INDEX TO ADVERTISERS 66-67
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COMING NEXT MONTH The July issue of E&P will focus on how remote operations
Distributed in have been put to the test this year. Other features will cover land seismic, downhole tools,
135
last-mile logistics, full-field development and offshore wind. The regional report will high-
light Africa. Also, this issue will feature the annual Shale Technology Showcase as well as
the 2020 Meritorious Award for Engineering Innovation winners. As always, while you’re
waiting for your next copy of E&P, be sure to visit HartEnergy.com for the latest news,
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ABOUT THE COVER The transition from single well to multiwell pad
non-qualified Bonus Distribution Frontier Exploration
the operations, like this one in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas, is one
Drill Bits
SHALE CODE
Decommissioning
& Disposal
Lessons from the past
can shape shale’s future of many lessons shale producers have capitalized on to improve their
Special Report:
Emissions
Management
efficiencies. Left, storm clouds are gathering on the LNG export future
Unconventional
Report:
that may disrupt the smooth sailing Haynesville Shale. (Cover photo by
HAYNESVILLE
Yesenia Rodriguez, courtesy of BPX; Left image courtesy of Shutterstock.
com/Hart Energy; Cover design by Melissa Ritchie)
E&P (ISSN 1527-4063) (PM40036185) is published monthly by Hart Energy Publishing, LP, 1616 S. Voss Road, Suite 1000, Houston, Texas 77057.
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Oil, gas explorers face murky future after oil price crash
By Velda Addison, Group Senior Editor
Some companies are deferring or canceling plans for wells amid the
latest oil price crash, while gearing up for potential change due to a
shift toward cleaner forms of energy, according to a recent Westwood
Global Energy Group webinar on the state of exploration.
Colorado School of Mines researchers unveil
reservoir characterization study results
By Larry Prado, Activity Editor
Research from this year’s Colorado School of Mines’ Reservoir
Characterization Program includes a field project in the Eagle Ford Shale
conducted in Gonzales County, Texas.
Despite short-term pain, oil and gas leaders
stress infrastructure gain
By Joseph Markman, Senior Editor
In a recent webinar, executives and politicians discussed ways to
position the industry for the coming rebound.
Frac horsepower utilization falls alongside sand demand
By Velda Addison, Group Senior Editor
Westwood Global Energy Group analysts say signs of market recovery
are emerging, with some improvement expected later this year for frac
companies and sand suppliers.
VIDEOS:
n Dr. Yousef Alshammari sees international
opportunities for US service companies
Dr. Yousef Alshammari, CEO and head of Oil
Research at CMarkits, doesn’t expect OPEC
to scale back or deepen cuts at the group’s
June meeting.
n Energy job search tips from David Preng

David Preng, founder, president and CEO of Houston-based Preng &
Associates, says letting your network know immediately is key for those
who have lost their job amid the oil market crash.
n Parsley CEO Matt Gallagher

talks US shale, tech and ESG
Fresh off the end to proration discussions in Texas,
CEO Matt Gallagher shares how Parsley Energy
is responding to demand loss plus the Permian
shale producer’s focus on technology and ESG.
n KPMG’s Regina Mayor says ‘it’s grim’ but shale’s not dead
KPMG’s Regina Mayor looks at how U.S. shale producers will respond to
demand loss and who is getting hit the hardest in the energy industry
amid the current pandemic.
n Oilfield service companies turn to international

market for survival
As oilfield service companies adjust operations in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, many are planning to invest internationally rather
than in U.S. onshore, says energy investment banker Jim Wicklund.
By Jessica Morales, Director of Video Content

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As I
1616 S. VOSS ROAD, STE 1000 JENNIFER PRESLEY SEE IT
HOUSTON, TEXAS 77057 Executive Editor
P: +1 713.260.6400 F: +1 713.840.0923
HartEnergy.com
jpresley@hartenergy.com
Executive Editor
Read more commentary at
JENNIFER PRESLEY
jpresley@hartenergy.com HartEnergy.com
Group Senior Editor
VELDA ADDISON
vaddison@hartenergy.com
Altered reality
Senior Editor
BRIAN WALZEL
bwalzel@hartenergy.com
Senior Editor
DARREN BARBEE
Like life, the digital transformation is moving pretty fast.
dbarbee@hartenergy.com
Senior Editor
JOSEPH MARKMAN
jmarkman@hartenergy.com
D o you remember your first experience with a personal computer? Mine was
in 1983 when my mom brought home an original Compaq Portable all-in-
one computer in a cream-colored suitcase that weighed at least 20 billion tons in
my child-sized grip (OK, it was more like 30 lb).
Activity Editor
LARRY PRADO Using the system’s detachable keyboard and tiny built-in monitor, my mom did
lprado@hartenergy.com word processing and billing for the small engine repair business she owned with
Editor-at-Large
my dad in the heart of the Austin Chalk. When she wasn’t on it, I was learning
NISSA DARBONNE how to spell the names of the U.S. states using a MS-DOS program that I had to
ndarbonne@hartenergy.com load onto the system to run using a 5¼-inch floppy disk.
Associate Editors The COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down, brought the economies of many
MARY HOLCOMB mholcomb@hartenergy.com to their knees and forced us all to take a closer look at how we learn, live, play and
FAIZA RIZVI frizvi@hartenergy.com
work. The memory of that 30-lb “portable” brick lives on as I check work email on
my featherlight iPhone.
Senior Managing Editor, Print Media
The pandemic altered our reality for the worse and for the better. Curious
ARIANA HURTADO
ahurtado@hartenergy.com as to what this new reality means for the future of the oil and gas industry, I
reached out to Enverus’ Chris Dinkler for his views. He is the senior vice presi-
Senior Managing Editor, Digital Media
EMILY PATSY
dent and general manager of business automation for the company. First, and
epatsy@hartenergy.com foremost, welcome to the new era of working remotely, he explained.
Assistant Managing Editor
“As the scramble to respond to COVID-19 and the precipitous drop in prices
BILL WALTER continues, one thing is certain: it has created even greater urgency—and oppor-
bwalter@hartenergy.com tunity—for efficiency and innovation in how we operate,” he said. “Some will
wait. Others will wisely act and embrace change.”
Creative Director Also, staying home does not equal closed for business.
ALEXA SANDERS
asanders@hartenergy.com
“Leveraging technology that makes working remotely and virtualization pos-
sible is a necessity,” Dinkler said. “Improved workflows to eliminate ineffective
Art Director decision-making and identifying actionable intelligence that can be easily shared
MELISSA RITCHIE
mritchie@hartenergy.com among your team is key.”
The industry is going digital, forever.
Publisher “The U.S. oil and gas industry spends $5 billion annually processing paper
DARRIN WEST invoices, royalty check stubs and payment transactions that flow between operators,
dwest@hartenergy.com
suppliers and royalty owners. Going paperless is possibly the fastest and easiest way to
cut down on costly inefficiencies and maintain business continuity,” he noted.
Digital delivers greater efficiency and less exposure.
“Many are tapping into artificial intelligence and machine learning to manage
back-office systems and flagging unthinkable fraud and billing errors,” Dinkler
Editorial Director said. “Millions in mistakes are now being caught at the point of service.”
LEN VERMILLION
There’s no doubt we’ll look back and find a label for this period of epic uncertainty.
Senior Vice President, Media, “It will be full of dramatic drops, both in terms of revenue and resources,” he
E&P/Conferences
RUSSELL LAAS said. “But we’ll also look at how we adapted and ushered in
a new era of oil and gas marked by mobility, flexibility,
Chief Financial Officer
CHRIS ARNDT
innovation and automation.”
Chief Executive Officer

RICHARD A. EICHLER 7
industry
PULSE
Conserve R&D budgets and

focus on external technologies
Technology scouting programs can help preserve R&D capital by looking
to other industries for crossover innovation.
petroleum industry needs. Management teams in this

John C. Barratt, Oil & Gas Innovation Center Inc. industry are in an unenviable position, forced to choose
between cutting near-term capital budgets and providing
Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series outlining why enough funding to support the most important R&D.
oil and gas industry companies should look externally for technol- Fortunately, there is another viable option that pre-
ogy solutions. Part 1 discusses the merits of this approach, Part 2 serves R&D capital and still provides a gateway to inno-
will review numerous relevant external technologies and Part 3 vation and technology. This option involves looking
will address how to initiate a technology scouting program. broadly outside of this industry for external technolo-
gies having crossover applicability. Many of the leading
T he recent downturn in oil prices will inevitably prompt

cuts to petroleum industry R&D budgets and staff
oil and gas producers and oil service companies already
do some technology scouting. Still, there are compel-
The World's Most Innovative Companies 2018
reductions among R&D personnel. This is very unfor- ling financial and business reasons why a much broader
tunate because ongoing technological development cross section of operators and service companies should
What Companies Spend the most on R&D?
is essential to provide the future technologies that the also be actively sourcing external technologies.
2018 R&D SPENDING
$10.8B $13.1B
$15.3B $16.2B $15.8B
$22.6B $5.5B
$10.6B
$11.6B
$3.3B
Toyota Motor
$10B Semiconductors
$6.1B $12.3B and
Semiconductor
$5.9B $10.2B Equipment
$4.6B $8B
$7.8B
$6.1B
$7.3B $8.5B
$6.1B
R&D Intensity (%)
$4.8B
$5.8B More than 40%
$7.1B
$4B
$7.7B $3.4B 20% - 40%
10% - 20%
$3.6B
$3.2B 5% - 10% FIGURE 1. This
$7.1B $6.6B 1% - 5%
Capital listing reflects
Goods R&D Expense
$5.9B 2018 R&D
(in USD billions, income
$4.6B $6.1B
statement exchange rate) expenditures
$4.2B
$5.8B
$20B
$3.9B $5.9B for some of
$3.7B
Diversified $15B
$5.4B Financials the leading
$5.4B companies in
$4.3B $10B
$5.3B
other industries.
$4.2B
$5B $3.3B
$5B (Source:
$4.8B Consumer Durables
$3.7B HowMuch.net)
$3.6B and Apparel
8 June 2020 | E&P | HartEnergy.com

industry
PULSE
Petroleum industry R&D compared Change is pervasive in other industries

to other industries Today’s low oil prices, much like similar price down-
R&D and new product development are expensive and turns, will change the petroleum industry in unpredict-
very time-intensive, requiring millions of dollars and able ways. Other major industries are also undergoing
the commitment of significant personnel resources. transformations driven by economic forces and new
According to their financial filings, the largest of the technologies. The automotive industry is a good exam-
oil service companies invested ple. Several years ago, Mary
between $400 million and $800 Barra, the CEO of GM, gave a
million in R&D-related activities The petroleum industry speech in which she indicated
in 2018. Given the challenging that her industry would likely
operating conditions of the last should focus far more change more in the next five to
few years, these were substantial attention on accessing 10 years than it has in the last 50
investments. years. The changes she was allud-
Figure 1 details how much
relevant external ing to have a substantial technol-
the leading companies in sev- technologies. ogy component—the advent of
eral other key industries spent autonomous vehicles, ride-shar-
on R&D in 2018. There may be ing, vehicle-to-vehicle communi-
accounting differences regarding how R&D dollars are cations and, even more fundamentally, how consumers
classified, but the comparisons are nonetheless stark. will utilize automobiles in the future.
R&D expenditures by the leaders in each of these
other industries dramatically exceeded those of even
the largest oil service companies. In fact, the next tier
of companies in these industries materially outspent
the oil service leaders. One possible explanation is the
inherent cyclicality of the petroleum industry. It is chal-
lenging to maintain R&D funding when the profitability
and cash flow of a business fluctuates dramatically every
year. This is also a compelling reason why the petro-
leum industry should devote more time and effort to
external technology scouting.
Figure 1 does not address another critical consider- Call us about our
ation: the proliferation of startups. In each of the listed
industries—automotive, pharmaceuticals, retailing or STEP-UP
semiconductors—there are vibrant and growing startup program for improving
communities having thousands of early-stage compa-
nies involved in R&D and new product development. emissions management,
In many instances, the latest technologies arising from
these startups are far more compelling than even the vapor control and
R&D efforts of the large companies listed in Figure 1. flaring performance.
Certainly, much of this external technology has no
obvious applicability in the petroleum industry, and it
requires time and personnel resources to review large
numbers of external technologies. Even so, the poten-
844-NO-FLARE
tial benefits far outweigh the costs. The global entre- (844-663-5273)
preneurial community is larger than the petroleum
industry and the entrepreneurial ranks are steadily
growing. To yield the best possible results, a technol-
ogy scouting program should, therefore, attempt to
access both the technologies residing in large com-
panies outside of this industry as well as the solutions ecovaporrs.com
developed by startups.
EV Ad - E&P June 2020 - FINAL 050820.indd 1 5/8/20 5:21 PM

HartEnergy.com | E&P | June 2020 9
industry
PULSE
Automotive LiDAR Automotive Radar

Baraja Connected Car Echodyne
Cepton GhostWave
Innoviz Autotalks Metawave
Ouster Cohda Wireless Oculii
Quanergy Commsignia Uhnder
Velodyne Kymeta WaveSense
Savari
Veniam
Tire Safety Driver Assistance
Revvo AEye
Silent Sensors Almotive
Tymtix BestMile
Tyrata DeepMap FIGURE 2. A few of the
Wriggle Solutions nuTonomy early-stage companies
that are driving the
autonomous vehicle
revolution are listed.
(Source: Oil & Gas
Innovation Center)
Figure 2 lists a few of the hundreds of early-stage com- rate of the technology. The resulting equipment is
panies involved in developing autonomous vehicle tech- less expensive to operate and as effective as traditional
nologies such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR) manned, heavy equipment.
sensors, compact radar, lane change detection sensors,
pedestrian tracking software and tire monitoring solu- Funding internal R&D does not
tions. With very few exceptions, the funding for these foster economies of scale
technologies is coming from angel investors and venture The petroleum industry is among the largest industries
capital firms outside the automotive industry. Absent in the world. However, the various segments of this
these new technologies, vehicle autonomy would still be industry often require different types of products, from
a distant concept. The development of these technolo- bulk commodities to very specialized items. Unless there
gies and their adoption by just a few automobile com- is a compelling technical reason to develop customized
panies are prompting every other vehicle company to hardware or software, accessing external technologies
pursue autonomous solutions. Similar dynamics are tak- will likely be more cost-effective. As recently as a few
ing place in the pharmaceutical industry where external years ago, the advanced LiDAR sensors developed for
companies are developing and commercializing artificial the automobile industry cost more than $50,000 apiece,
intelligence and machine learning software capable of more than the actual vehicle. However, the sheer size of
dramatically decreasing the time and cost associated with the automotive LiDAR market attracted many startups,
developing new pharmaceuticals. and some of the latter developed LiDAR systems having
Even the construction industry, which is not con- comparable technical capabilities at 1/100th the cost.
sidered to be an early adopter of new technologies, is
being transformed by the implementation of robotic Conclusions
systems developed by early-stage companies outside of Compared to several other major industries, recent petro-
that industry. These robotic solutions convert indus- leum industry R&D expenditures have been modest and
try-standard construction equipment, such as loaders will likely decrease materially during this downturn.
or bulldozers, into systems that are either operated Rather than attempting to increase R&D expenditures,
remotely by a human or completely unmanned. the petroleum industry should focus far more attention
Deploying this technology on industry standard rather on accessing relevant external technologies. Importantly,
than customized equipment dramatically lowers the this is a strategy that oil and gas producers and oil service
implementation cost and accelerates the adoption companies of all sizes can readily pursue.

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PULSE
Leading innovation today

Key actions leaders can take now to innovate effectively.
team culture, educational differences or even incentive

Gary Covert, Covert Consulting structures. Sometimes it is because leaders did not push
the teams to innovate together effectively.
S ince the start of the pandemic and the crash in oil

prices, leaders have been given much advice: stay
positive and don’t panic; think long term, not just short
For many companies, engineering and field operations
(i.e., “books and boots”) will likely have high-synergistic
innovation potential. Engineering has lots of specialized
term; and continue to innovate. But leaders need more knowledge, and field operation leaders have practical
than sermons. Most would agree they should innovate insight on where that knowledge could be best applied.
now; they are often stymied by a lack of clarity about Leaders need to identify those groups (and there
how to innovate in a practical way, especially when peo- may be more than two) with high-synergistic innovation
ple are remote and money is tight. Below are key actions potential. They need to ensure they are organized to
that leaders can take to innovate effectively. work together with an innovation process and within an
innovation cycle and not let any barriers get in the way.
Address beliefs
Peter Drucker famously observed that culture eats strat- Create high-touch, high-tech
egy for breakfast. But what can gnaw away at the effective- innovation environments
ness of an organization’s culture? Poor beliefs. If culture High-touch innovation environments are characterized
is a set of shared beliefs that drive behavior, then leaders by an engaged network of teams and leaders working
need to be proactive in maintaining useful beliefs and together on ideas and bringing them to fruition. High-
addressing potentially harmful beliefs. tech innovation environments are characterized by robust
For example, if employees information systems that help
believe that helping the company aggregate and organize innovative
to innovate is just working them- “Now is the time to get ideas and facilitate networks of
selves out of a job, then there will innovators across the organiza-
be little honest participation in
even more innovative.” tion.
innovation efforts. If people think —Gary Covert, Covert Consulting The most innovative compa-
they’re just a supplier and feel too nies have both high-touch and
little of themselves, they will have high-tech environments. An
resigned themselves to being spectators while the compe- innovation environment that is strong in tech but low in
tition innovates. If people believe they are not creative or touch results in glorified suggestion boxes. High-touch
not an engineer and, therefore, cannot innovate, this will innovation with low-tech systems results in teams act-
also impair any innovation efforts. ing like an old-fashioned bucket brigade moving ideas
The beliefs of the team and organization may have down the line with too much effort and little opportu-
changed radically in the last couple of months. Due to nity for synergy with other parts of the organization.
urgency, some beliefs may have changed for the bet- Where is the organization in terms of tech and touch?
ter, resulting in people being way more open to new Perhaps it has an automated system that is simply a repos-
approaches. Due to fear, some beliefs may have changed for itory for ideas that get celebrated but never go anywhere.
the worse resulting in people feeling stuck and helpless. Maybe there are pockets of great innovation within the
What does the team likely believe today? Take steps to organization, but the lack of a robust system has ham-
support the positive beliefs and address the negative beliefs. pered visibility and connection. Addressing both sides of
the equation will create a great leap forward in impact.
Insist on synergy
Many key teams work well together, but many do not live Train leaders
up to their potential to innovate well together. This may Leading innovation and solving problems are different
due to team barriers like being separated by distance, skill sets, and leaders need to be able to do both.

industry
SPE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING CONFERENCE
TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE
PULSE
Solving addresses
Valve problems getsoperational
us back to a baseline. Innovating
challenges innovative employees
potentially who have allowing
costly maintenance, great ideas but who
pressure
getsdiverter
of us to new levels of performance that have not been see little hope
pumping in getting
operations their ideas
to continue heard.
at their maximum
attained
The impactbefore.
of pumping large volumes of diverter efficiency. diverterplus.com, nov.com
Leadersstimulation
through who lack the processequipment
pumping knowledge isand inter-
a well- Issue strategic challenges
personal skills tochallenge.
lead innovation can inadvertently stifle Disks
All improvements Beads
are welcome, but not all improvements
known industry DiverterPlus and National
innovation.
Oilwell Varco They
(NOV) can squash ideas. They their
have coordinated can hijack
efforts to are strategic. Options to address those challenges should
discussions.
minimize orThey can also
eliminate the(paradoxically)
accelerated wear beand
too poten-
open come from broad sections of the organization. A challenge
to perspectives
tial damage thatand canend
occurup with
whena particulate
bunch of half-baked
diverter may be related to specific operational processes (e.g.,
ideas that
embeds runthe
into into execution
valve problems manipulation
insert. Through or never get attaining a 30% increase in equipment uptime). Recruit-
moved
of to a practical
the polymers’ state. properties and geom-
mechanical ing with more diversity is a people challenge. Reducing
Leaders
etries whomanufacturing
via new are excellent at leading innovation
techniques of its Div+ flaring by a certain percentage is a challenge related to the
can get
line the discretionary
of particulate diverters,effort required out
DiverterPlus has of
been their environmental, social and governance topic.
teams Flakes Powder
able toto come forward
eliminate the need withfor
great ideas and
additional will see
equipment Challenges can start an innovation cycle. Staying
theaggressive
in fast adoption of new
diversion processes and
deployments. activities
Utilizing to
NOV’s focused on strategic areas will ensure outcomes that are
raise Thunder
Blue the bar. Leaders
valve and whotheare poor at this
additional datawill fum-
gained high value and pragmatic.
ble away
from great ideas
cooperative and promulgate
development, environments
the insert compound in Now is the time to get even more innovative. It will
whichwith
used people are unlikely
the valve is highlytoresistant
be interested
to wearin and
giving take leaders with the right thinking, using the very best
their ideas
exhibits noneor receive the support embedment
of the problematic to get these issues
ideas tools and people to get it done. Leaders need to encour-
DiverterPlus and NOV developed a solution to minimize wear
out to their boss
traditionally and the
associated team.
with largeEven worse,
particle poor
diverters. age their organizations to engage and apply their inno-
and damage when pumping large amounts of diverter.
innovation
The combined leaders mayeliminates
system also drivedowntime
away thoserisk and vation muscle, and it can be done practically.
(Source: DiverterPlus)
HartEnergy.com | E&P | June 2020

HartEnergy.com | E&P | January 2020 13
49
world
VIEW
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Middle East economies Visit HartEnergy.com/videos

to watch an exclusive
choked by low prices

interview with Dr. Yousef
Alshammari, CEO and head
of Oil Research at CMarkits.
While some oil producers in the Gulf region have taken a
massive hit, others are scaling back projects in an effort to survive.
60% of the nation’s GDP directly related to oil revenues.

Faiza Rizvi, Associate Editor Saudi Arabia recently announced additional production
cuts of 1 MMbbl/d, starting June 1, in a bid to support oil
E conomies of the Middle East region, which rely heav-

ily on oil, will be severely affected if oil prices do not
bounce back in the short term. With the impact of the
prices and stabilize the market. Following the announce-
ment, UAE and Kuwait also announced supply cuts.
Even though Saudi Aramco had to slash its capex
historic market crash echoing across the region, coun- budgets to protect its balance sheet, analysts expect the
tries are struggling to offset losses from a key source of national oil company is strongly positioned to weather
national income. Some nations like Saudi Arabia, the the market collapse and will proceed with strategically
United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait are relying on important upstream projects due to low production costs
foreign currency reserves while anticipating higher oil and one of the lowest costs per barrel within the industry.
prices to sustain government spending and social pro- “Due to its heavy dependence on the crude market, it’s
grams. However, countries like Iraq face the added threat not a surprise to anyone that they are being challenged in
of possible social unrest if oil prices remain at current the current market conditions,” Das said, adding that even
levels, according to a recent Forbes report. The country is though foreign reserve funds will be instrumental in pro-
planning “painful cuts in social benefits relied on by mil- viding some cushion to Saudi economy in the short term,
lions of government workers,” the report stated. authorities are scrutinizing public spending, trying to find
Several E&P projects also have been put on hold. areas where cuts can be made, as recently indicated by the
According to GlobalData, the low-price environment will Saudi finance minister.
put E&P projects due to take
final investment decision in Iraq
2020 at an elevated risk of “The scale and breadth of the Numerous industry reports
deferral as governments are confirm that Iraq will be one
introducing cost-cutting mea- pandemic is so severe that it of the hardest hit due to low
sures. Several projects are is being felt across the globe, oil prices. In fact, 90% of
already facing operational the government’s revenue
interruptions and delays,
and the Middle East is not comes from oil, which is used
albeit varying in severity. insulated from this.” to support a payroll of more
“The scale and breadth of —Arindam Das, Westwood Global Energy than 4 million workers as well
the pandemic is so severe as payments to pensions and
that it is being felt across the welfare for the poor.
globe, and the Middle East is not insulated from this,” According to a report by AP, the oil-dependent state
Arindam Das, head of consulting with Westwood Global had been counting on revenues from oil prices at $56/
Energy, told E&P. “Oil companies in the Middle East bbl to fund “badly needed development projects and the
are cutting down production, canceling rig contracts bloated public sector.”
and trying to understand the output levels that could However, oil prices between $20/bbl and $30/bbl and
rebound oil prices…the impact is definitely being felt.” Iraq’s compliance with OPEC to cut over 1 MMbbl/d
from production in May and June have added to the
Saudi Arabia gloomy prognosis of the already depressed economic
Despite efforts by Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman to conditions in the country.
diversify the economy by investing in tourism and enter- Basra Gas Co., a joint venture between the Iraqi gov-
tainment, the country continues to rely heavily on oil, with ernment, Shell and Mitsubishi, has put multiple project

world
VIEW
Qatar Petroleum recently

commenced drilling at the
North Field East project,
previously known as the North
Field Expansion Project.
(Source: Qatar Gas)
plans of downsizing the North

Field expansion—the world’s
largest LNG project.
“We are moving full steam
ahead with the North Field
expansion. There is absolutely
no hesitation on that. I think
the world still needs this gas
with the cancellation of a lot
of projects and companies
reducing capital expenditure
left and right due to the situa-
tion,” Al-Kaabi stressed.
He added that the Golden
contracts on hold due to low oil demand. In addition, due Pass LNG terminal in Texas, in which QP is majority
to staff reductions surrounding fears of the spreading pan- owner, is on schedule, adding that none of the current
demic, Petrochina has reportedly halved production from projects have been “taken off the table.”
Iraq’s Halfaya Field while Petronas has halted production
completely at the Garraf oil field, according to GlobalData. UAE
The falling oil prices have appeared to dampen sour
Qatar gas ambitions of the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil
Qatar’s reliance on gas production provides the country Co. (ADNOC), which has delayed several projects and
some degree of a safety net due to the strong long-term canceled contracts in an effort to scale down costs. In
outlook of gas, Das explained. The country, which mid-April, ADNOC terminated $1.65 billion worth of engi-
exited OPEC in 2018, is known to be operationally flex- neering, procurement and construction contracts awarded
ible, adjusting maintenance schedules or keeping a few in February to a Petrofac-led group for an ultra-sour Dalma
ships as floating storage. Qatar plans to increase LNG Gas development project in northwest Abu Dhabi. The
output by about two-thirds while cushioning the industry project was scheduled for completion in 2022.
against the recent fall in oil demand, Oxford Business The Ghasha ultra-sour gas concession, which lies within
Group stated in a new report. Dalma, is jointly held by ADNOC and four international
State-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) said although oil company shareholders, of which Eni holds the larg-
the company is looking at opportunities to reduce its est stakes. In response to the market downturn, Eni had
operating costs and capex, it that would not impact the promptly announced plans to cut 2020 capex by 25%,
company’s major projects. “QP is in a very good position severely impacting new upstream projects. This isn’t good
financially. We have reduced our debt tremendously over news for the development of the wider Ghasha and Hail
the past years. We can weather the storm very easily,” QP’s fields either, which were set to produce 1 Bcf/d by 2025.
CEO and President Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi told Reuters. Although the company is identifying opportunities for
QP also announced that the coronavirus turmoil cost optimization, its corporate strategy currently remains
would not stop LNG expansion abroad, adding that it unchanged. The state-owned enterprise also said in an offi-
plans to move forward with both foreign and domestic cial statement that it would continue to invest responsibly
expansion despite the market downturn caused by the to deliver on its 2030 smart growth strategy during the mar-
pandemic. However, QP has postponed the start of pro- ket downturn. However, the ability of ADNOC to steer the
duction from its new gas facilities until 2025 following downfall, like many other producers in the region,
a delay in the bidding process, but the company has no depends on how prolonged the oil slump will be.

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completions &
PRODUCTION
Preserving today’s wells

for tomorrow’s production
Pickling as part of the shut-in process can help extend the shelf life of a well.
A perfect storm of too low oil prices, too low

demand and too much supply forced many oper-
ators to make the difficult decision to shut in produc-
JENNIFER PRESLEY
Executive Editor
tion. IHS Markit announced in May that it expected
jpresley@hartenergy.com
as much as 17 MMbbl/d total liquids output (which
Read more commentary at
includes nearly 14 MMbbl/d of crude oil production)
to be cut or shut in between April and June. HartEnergy.com
The process of shutting in production is more
complicated than simply flipping a switch. Physical
challenges, like paraffin blockages and microbial- “In producing wells, the fluids are constantly mov-
induced corrosion, could be effectively managed by ing,” he said. “But when it is shut in, a stagnant envi-
“pickling” the well. ronment is created.”
Pickling is preserving something for an extended Hot fluids flowing through the wellbore and out to
time. Think summer-fresh cucumbers cleaned and associated flowlines keep the system warm. Shutting
preserved in a briny solution to keep from spoiling in the well reduces or eliminates the heat distribution,
to enjoy on a wintry cold day. Pickling also is the pro- causing the system to cool down.
cess of using acid to remove foreign substances from “The worst-case scenario is when there are hydro-
metal. When a well is pickled, the wellbore is cleaned carbons in the tubing or in the well that begin to
and treated with paraffin inhibitors and biocides to precipitate organic components like the waxes or
save downhole components and its production for asphaltenes, potentially creating a blockage in the
better days and higher oil prices. system that will inhibit flow when the well is restarted,”
“The state of the well is preserved when shut in,” Marais said. “It will require a capex spend to remove
Willem Marais, technical service manager for M-I and clean out the blockages before the well can
SWACO, a Schlumberger company, told E&P. “When produce again.”
favorable conditions return, the well can be started up Microbial-induced corrosion is another well chal-
in a condition similar to when it was before shut-in.” lenge. While microscopic in size, its impact is sig-
It is a time-proven process, and its application in the nificant in that it is destructive to the wellbore and
unconventional wells of today demonstrate how the associated equipment, according to Ott.
industry is applying the lessons learned over the years. “Bacteria begin to feed on the nutrients found
“In heritage fields or ones with high water cuts and in the stagnant fluids and begin to proliferate,
significant lifting costs impacting opex, historically with the result being incredibly damaging cor-
they’ve been shut in to prevent losing money on the rosion. In the Permian Basin, for example, the
wells,” Jimmy Ott, technical support manager of oil- sulfate-rich waters provide plenty of nutrients for
field and industrial chemicals with Baker Hughes, sulfate-reducing bacteria to grow and rapidly
told E&P. “We’ve been through market downturns a damage equipment.”
number of times. We’re using our past experiences to In 1736 Benjamin Franklin coined the phrase,
ensure operators understand the value of preserving “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
their downhole and surface facility assets.” In today’s rapidly changing oil markets, there is a
Controlling the integrity of the well, along with truth there in that “an ounce
ensuring a smooth restart with production volumes at of preservation today is worth
pre-shut-in levels, are the primary reasons to perform preventing a pound of head-
a pickling treatment, Marais noted. aches later.”

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offshore
ADVANCES
Upstream industry joins

COVID-19 fight
An offshore service provider develops a testing facility for homeless communities.
T he fight against COVID-19 is not taking place solely in

pharmaceutical laboratories around the world or only
in meeting rooms of government agencies. It’s happening
BRIAN WALZEL
Senior Editor
across countries, across cultures and across industries. bwalzel@hartenergy.com
Although the oil and gas industry has taken a punch
and a kick over the past few months, it still stands Read more commentary at
resolutely with a focus on the long game of supplying HartEnergy.com
the world’s energy. And while it’s honing its focus on
energy production, the industry is also moving, if not
to the front lines, then at least to the battlefield of the technologies—among a host of others—could be
fight against the coronavirus. leveraged to develop a mobile testing facility to test
Multitudes of producers have donated millions of the city’s homeless populations.
dollars to battle the COVID-19 impacts, and service Shaun Roedel, senior vice president of subsea man-
providers are finding new uses for their technologies ufactured products with Oceaneering, said the com-
that can be applied in laboratories and affected company’s engineers developed a portable walk-up testing
munities around the world. cube in a matter of days that could safely and effectively
With a lack of access to health care, and in many test members of Houston’s homeless population while
cities no way to be tested, homeless populations are at the same time keeping health care workers safe.
among the most at-risk of contracting and spreading “We put our manufacturing engineers together and
COVID-19. Recently, the Houston branch of Health- came up with what was a pretty ingenious design in a
care for the Homeless reached out to Oceaneering pretty short period of time,” Roedel said.
in hopes the company’s know-how in building subsea With widespread and easily accessible testing a key
component in the battle against the coronavirus,
Healthcare for the Homeless recognized making test-
ing available to the homeless was imperative. Roedel
said that in the first three days of the facility’s opera-
tion, 40 tests were conducted.
“That was more testing than they had done in the
previous months,” he said.
Meaningful change in the fight against COVID-19 is
going to come in several incremental victories. While
40 more people tested might not show up in the
next day’s box score, to borrow from Pink Floyd, it’s
another brick in the wall. The oil and gas industry is
stepping forward to join the fight.
“All of the companies within the industry see them-
selves as really part of the larger community,” Roedel
From left, Peter Donohue with Oceaneering and Naomi said. “Whatever we can do to make that community
McCants and Mary Ellen McEvoy with Healthcare for the better makes all of us better. As all of the
Homeless-Houston unveil a mobile COVID-19 testing facility energy companies look to figure out
designed to test members of Houston’s homeless community. what we can do to give back at this time,
(Source: Oceaneering) it certainly is the right thing to do.”

COVER STORY:
COMPLETIONS LESSONS
the SHALE CODE

The hard-learned lessons of the past
decade can shape shale’s future.

COVER STORY:
COMPLETIONS LESSONS
Jennifer Presley, Executive Editor
C haos is an apt descriptor for 2020, espe-

cially for the last three months. In March,
daily necessities like hand sanitizer became as
precious as gold. For a few days in April, a bottle
of beer cost more in a West Texas bar than a
barrel of oil. May saw way too many in the oil and
gas industry placed on an involuntary but neces-
sary frac holiday.
When historians look back a decade from
now, they’ll see that 339 rotary rigs were operat-
ing in the U.S. for the week of May 15, accord-
ing to the Baker Hughes Rig Count, down from
987 one year ago. They’ll see a drop in the
number of started frac operations from 1,238
in February to fewer than 330 for May, accord-
ing to a Rystad Energy analysis. And if an IHS
Markit analysis holds, then they’ll see that as
much as 17 MMbbl/d of liquids production cut
for the period from April to June 2020.
They also will see that global crude demand
started to show signs of recovery in early May
as parts of the world began to ease mobility
restrictions going into the summer months. If
a careful reintroduction continues, then they’ll
potentially see that demand grow exponentially
and see how quickly the oil and gas industry
moved to fill that demand.
In preparing for that comeback, the U.S. shale
producers have decades of experience and tech-
nologies ready to deploy. The last 10 years, in
particular, are rich with numerous innovations in
digital, electrical, hydraulic and mechanical sys-
tems that all contributed to substantially elevating
production returns.
Left, the transition from single well to multiwell pad operations,

like this one in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas, is one of
many lessons shale producers have capitalized on to improve
their efficiencies. (Source: BPX; photo by Yesenia Rodriguez)

COVER STORY:
COMPLETIONS LESSONS
Oil and natural gas production in the U.S. has soared

due to the technical and technological breakthroughs
made in accessing the once inaccessible shale resources.
Natural gas production rose from 546.1 Bcm in 2008
‘ In the midst of chaos,
there also is opportunity
’
The shale journey has been a marathon ran at a sprint-
to 831.8 Bcm in 2018, while oil production broke new er’s pace. In that time, the industry has advanced its
records increasing from 6.8 MMbbl/d to more than understanding of shale considerably. As of May 8, there
15.3 MMbbl/d in 2018, according to the BP Statistical have been 138,170 horizontal wells drilled and com-
Review of World Energy. pleted in U.S. shale plays since 2010, with 124,051 of
Those advances also radically altered domestic and those wells still considered active, according to Enverus
global energy markets. The U.S. attained the long-held data provided to E&P. There were 2,562 drilled but
goal of energy independence in 2019 when the country’s uncompleted (DUC) wells, according to the data. Only
energy production (imports not included) was higher wells that have been drilled, but not completed, outside
than its consumption for the first time in 62 years, of the last six months are in the count.
according to the Institute of Energy Research (IER). In the beginning of the shale boom, the focus was
“One can thank the oil and gas industry, and its use on two simultaneous paths: operational efficiencies
of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, for that and completion designs, Reveal Energy Services CEO
milestone, as production in those industries increased Sudhendu Kashikar told E&P.
a combined 11% in 2019. Total U.S. energy production As the industry learned more about shale and its
increased by 5.7% in 2019 while U.S. energy demand many layers, it shifted from single-well to multiwell pad
decreased by 0.9%,” the IER report stated. operations and more to become more efficient.
And then the bottom dropped out in April, leaving “The transition to multiwell pad operations and zip-
many to ponder on the next steps and if comebacks per fracking are two examples of how we gained opera-
were possible. tional efficiencies,” Kashikar said. “On the completions
Sun Tzu, a noted military tactician and philosopher, side, we’ve learned that we need to stimulate the rock
provides some wisdom on staging a comeback in his much more than we thought we did a decade ago.
highly regarded text on strategy, “The Art of War.” A “Our stage lengths were too long, and the volumes
few of his insights are presented here against recent of proppant and fluid being pumped were too low.
industry activities to show how the data, observations Considerable experimentation went into determining
and lessons learned in the past are invaluable in making the appropriate stage lengths, and higher volumes of
a roaring comeback possible. fluid and proppant are necessary,” he said.
“With the transition to infill drilling,
now we are learning what the different
strategies are to work around frac-
ture-driven interference,” he said. “We
are working to understand how to miti-
gate damage to the producing well while
ensuring that the production of the infill
well is not impacted.”
As difficult as the past three months
have been, it has provided a needed
pause to become smarter about work
processes and well performance and to
re-strategize.
“In hard times, such as we are expe-
riencing right now, the two important
roles of management are first to sustain
the business, and even more impor-
tantly, prepare it for a better future.
Companies need to see this situation as
An intelligent frac spread can deliver operational insights to help improve an opportunity for their technical staff
efficiencies and more. (Source: Halliburton) to do an in-depth analysis of past prac-

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COVER STORY:
COMPLETIONS LESSONS
Halliburton’s Prodigi Intelligent Fracturing Service uses highly trained

algorithms to control job treatment rates. (Source: Halliburton)
tices to identify areas in which what we are doing can attention to how the experiment is designed to ensure
be done faster, cheaper and more effectively in terms successful results.
of higher production results,” Ali Daneshy, president of “One thing we learned is the design of the experi-
Daneshy Consulting International, shared with E&P. ment, which is knowing what we are testing and how,”
Since the beginning of the year, capex among U.S. Kashikar said. “The inventory of wells that we will have
E&P companies has been revised down by $51 billion, to test different parameters is going to be smaller for at
according to James Jang, lead analyst with Westwood least the next six to 18 months. It becomes even more
Global Energy Group, in a market outlook presented critical that we design the right experiments and that
on May 8. A sub $30/bbl WTI environment will con- we begin collecting data on many more wells than we
tinue to push E&P companies to take cost reduction have in the past. Then we use those data to drive those
programs, he added. answers faster collectively.”
The effects of those cost reduction programs are visi- Experiments require an expensive commodity—time.
ble in the declining rig count numbers and the number “The feedback loop has been a big challenge for the
of wells completed. industry. We’ll install a particular completions design
In a May 14 analysis, Rystad Energy estimated that and then wait,” Scott Gale, global business strategy man-
the total number of started fracturing operations in ager for Halliburton, told E&P. “It takes several months
the U.S. would end up at about 300 to 330 wells in May of production to determine if that design was successful
2020, down from April’s 337 wells. Some activity is still and is based on the open metric of cumulative produc-
going on, with 92 started frac operations observed so far tion over a designated time frame like 30 or 60 days.”
in May on a standard-month basis. Data and time are interdependent commodities that
“A modest recovery is expected in the third quarter are often at odds with each other. Too much of one
of 2020, but stable WTI oil prices in the low- to mid- and too little of another leaves questions unanswered.
$30s are required to see this recovery in selected core Too much of both can overwhelm a system with too
acreage positions operated by producers with strong many answers to unrelated problems. In the industry’s
balance sheets,” said Artem Abramov, head of shale current situation, a critical question that arises is how
research for Rystad, in the report. to manage the process of improving operations, well
Fewer wells drilled and fewer DUCs mean there is completions and production. However, a team looking
less opportunity to test completion designs, according back on specific projects and asking the right questions
to Kashikar. Fewer test opportunities require greater of the data can find areas of improvement.

COVER STORY:
COMPLETIONS LESSONS
“I do not doubt that an in-depth analysis of the data “By the time you get to 20 or even 30 wells, humans
and information that we have within each company will don’t have the bandwidth to be able to ingest and ana-
lead to changes and alterations in existing practices that lyze all of the data generated,” Robart said, offering as
will make it better and more efficient,” Daneshy said. “It an example the slugging and liquid loading in naturally
also would allow technical staff to review and compare flowing gas wells. “If you put a decent engineer on it
what they’re doing with what others have done and that had the time go through all of their wells, then
determine if there are better pieces of technology that they’d be able to find the problem. But they just don’t
could be borrowed and adapted from other companies have the time or the bandwidth to be able to review
that will help improve operations.” a time series for their wells and do the analysis that is
needed to identify the problem.”
‘ By continuing to prepare for the digital decade

Plan for the difficult while through the further digitalization of systems, shale
it is easy, do what is producers will be able to survive and further elevate
’
their successes.
great when it is small Two E&P companies that have done just that are
The COVID-19 pandemic and low-oil price environ- Birchcliff Energy and Parsley Energy. The companies
ment will continue to present a challenging operational use Cold Bore Technology’s SmartPAD to optimize their
environment. When there is a reset in the markets like completions process. Billed as an operations system for
the one underway, old rules and plans are discarded, well completions, the system uses valve positioning and
and new ones are made. Planning for the years ahead pressure monitoring sensors bolted onto the wellheads
is improved through the use of digital systems to help to track operational data for all services, even those gen-
make it possible to find and decode the small details erated by other service companies. All data are collected
that have limited production returns. and processed into a single dataset in a standard format
“We see the next decade as the ‘digital decade.’ that is suitable for viewing on a single screen. The auto-
There’s no doubt that the integration of datasets is mated collection of time-stamped data reduces workload
going to be a key factor in integrating with different while increasing accuracy, according to the company.
disciplines,” Gale said. “Incorporating exploration and
drilling data into a completion design that is then tied
to a well’s performance through production activities
like artificial lift is vital. Enabling those integrated
datasets into a cohesive decision-making application
is an important part of where the industry goes
more broadly.”
The challenge, he said, is getting beyond the “if you
build it, they will come” mentality that occurs when all
of the data are located in one place.
“If we have clarity about the problems trying to be
solved and the outcomes trying to be achieved, then
what data feeds are necessary to achieve those outcomes
become clear,” he said.
The hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of datapoints
from the 138,170 completed horizontal wells tell a story
that requires intensive cleaning, sifting and sorting
before reading. That is when the beauty of algorithms,
the cloud and digitalization are most visible.
Data systems and optimization tools are programmed
to analyze the numbers, to dig in and find the problems
in a well faster and more efficiently than humanly
possible, according to Chris Robart, chief commercial
officer for Ambyint, a provider of artificial-intelligence- Technicians bolt SmartPAD valve positioning and pressure
powered production optimization software. monitoring sensors onto a wellhead. (Source: Cold Bore Technology)

COVER STORY:
COMPLETIONS LESSONS
Calgary-based Birchcliff Energy has used SmartPAD we are in now, it may be advisable to have an external
since 2018, and it has realized significant efficiency group take a look at what we’re doing and advise on
gains in the two years since the system’s deployment. if there could be improvements. The combination of
“The system has really helped us get the non- outside and inside views is more likely to come up with
pumping time per day down because we’re tracking improvements than an internal group only.”
the time between stages in real time, not just after Daneshy believes that the industry needs to look for
the operation,” said Mike Zimmerman, completions ways of making the whole shale development process
superintendent for Birchcliff Energy. “A good day financially viable in a lower oil and gas price environ-
for us would be 16 to 18 stages pumped. In April, ment. “Obviously, we cannot afford to spend millions
on our Pouce Coupe pad, we pumped 2,860 tons of and millions of dollars in a well and hope that we’re
sand and completed 25 stages in a single day. It was going to get good production. Because at the end of
chasing the minutes between pumping stages or well the day, it has to be a profitable venture,” he said.
swaps that made it possible for us to get those addi- Rather than request a larger budget, another option
tional stages.” Daneshy suggested is to try to use more reliable comple-
Zimmerman added that being able to see the com- tion practices that will make it possible to produce the
pletions data wherever and whenever he needed was a reservoir with fewer unnecessary expenses. “This is done
significant advantage, helping to identify potential oper- not by beating up on the service companies, but with
ational issues early. more efficient engineering,” he said.
“About five years ago, we made efficiency a key word,” For example, by reviewing past operations and identi-
said Agustin De Fex, senior manager for completions fying inefficiencies, an E&P company can shave time off
with Parsley Energy. “We started keeping track of non- its processes, reducing the number of days spent on a
productive time and areas where we could make the well site and deliver cost savings.
operations safer and better. This was a manual process
‘
that, as we started to grow, would take several hours of
work to track and write down data.” As water retains no constant
In 2019 the Permian Basin operator began working shape, so in warfare there
’
with Cold Bore Technology’s SmartPAD system and
noticed an immediate improvement in its operations. are no constant conditions
“We can now look at the operations 1 minute at a Let data give peace in the knowledge that it provides.
time and focus on the operation, making it safer,” Historians will see in 10 years that the low-price oil envi-
De Fex said. ronment of 2020 passed, just as it has multiple times
before. The industry will get past this crisis and on to
‘
better times. Hiding is not a destination the oil and gas
Do not repeat the tactics industry sails to.
which have gained you one From this storm, the industry will emerge stronger,
said U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette in a
victory, but let your methods CERAWeek Conversations video with Daniel Yergin,
be regulated by the infinite IHS Markit vice chairman.
’
“I think you’re going to see the U.S. energy industry
variety of circumstances bounce right back. These are some very strong players
Interpretation of data and the application of the anal- and, importantly, they’re very innovative players,” he
ysis are, in the end, only as good as the human reading said, before going on to share a comment once made to
the reports. Bias is an inescapable condition of being him by an energy minister.
human, and it is reflected in all data that exist. In any “He said that every time we do something like
type of work, there is a prejudice in favor of one’s prac- this, everybody thinks that the United States is going
tices, making it difficult to see areas in need of change. to leave the playing field, that the United States is
External perspectives can challenge the status quo, dead or certain parts of the industry are dead—and
bringing a variety of solutions to a difficult exercise. that never really happens,” Brouillette recounted.
“Generally, most of us, when we do engineering and “They take a small break and they come back
technical work, we believe that we’re doing the best stronger than ever. And I do think that’s going to
that can be done,” Daneshy said. “In a situation like happen again.”

A home for
North American
hydrocarbons
In North America, EDF specializes in commodity price risk
management solutions with a focus on leveraging its
downstream demand to serve the upstream oil and gas sector.
We are part of the EDF Group of companies, one of the world’s
largest generators of electricity and a global consumer of
energy including Natural Gas, NGLs, Crude Oil, and LNG.
www.edfenergyna.com
Chris Beyer Ben Rich

chris.beyer@edfenergyna.com ben.rich@edfenergyna.com
281-653-1068 281-653-1736
COVER STORY:
COMPLETIONS LESSONS
Making the case for data sharing

Operators are driving sustained efficiencies by sharing their drilling data.
Chris Marland, Noble Energy; and consistent variable naming and data storage, all needed
Kendall Zakariassen and Saraan Vercillo, Moblize to be addressed to apply algorithms from simple logic
statements to more complex mathematical calculations
O perators’ needs for operational efficiency, espe-

cially today, are driving them to continuously try
different technologies such as new bits, bottomhole
to derive new and improved KPIs.
These challenges are being met by operators and
service companies by standardizing rig data acquisition
assembly (BHA) components, string designs, well systems, industrializing rig connectivity and utilizing
designs and new operating parameters for those tech- cloud-based systems to store the data and have those
nologies. This takes time to implement, can have some readily accessible. The result is an internal understand-
trial and error and always requires performance tracking ing of the performance gains, from on-bottom drilling
(time) and cost tracking to determine the overall perfor- performance, tripping times and connections times.
mance gains well by well. These can be subdivided by well, hole section, bit type,
The oil and gas industry had “Big Data” before that BHA type, formation, operating parameter and a host
term was used as widely as it is today. Those data were of other categories to develop a more detailed under-
used to provide broad drilling key performance indica- standing of where and how performance gains have
tors (KPIs) such as days versus depth curves, slide versus been achieved. With the advent of cloud computing
rotate percentages, tripping times and has been used and remote access, these indicators are available at the
to track nonproductive time (NPT). Data quality, com- rig site to track performance in real time down to min-
puting and analytical resources limited more detailed utes compared to relevant offset wells.
performance evaluation, and performance improve-
ment generally didn’t require anything more granular. Increased data sharing
The unseen consequence was often more lengthy and The adoption of Big Data by the oil and gas industry is
repeated trial and error loops, untracked procedural giving operators the tools to internally assess new meth-
changes as well as large amounts of invisible lost time odologies, but there is a need to scale this even further.
and flat time. All of this adds to drilling risk, HSE The industry is moving toward increasing data sharing
events and hidden costs. among operators. The development of open forums
(such as Open Subsurface Data Universe) for subsurface
KPI improvements data sharing is one such example. Sharing KPIs and
As on-bottom performance improvement slowed, and micro-KPIs to more effectively benchmark performance
market conditions changed, operators have looked for across a basin will incentivize the industry to deliver
additional methods to continually improve to reduce operational efficiencies to match peer groups.
costs and improve performance to satisfy investor A challenge for those operators willing to lead the
demand for return on investment (ROI), especially way on creating a data ecosystem for their drilling oper-
in higher volume markets such as those in the U.S. ations includes data quality control, data accuracy, data
onshore. The adoption and industrialization of drilling aggregation, storage and security, standard analytics log-
data acquisition systems and cloud-based computing ics and calculations, and service company neutrality.
for analytics enabled operators to utilize their Big Data,
and the analytical capabilities cloud computing offers to Shared KPIs
develop and refine more granular KPIs to deliver oper- A proposed solution to these challenges was created so
ational efficiencies to the market are demanding. This operators could share KPIs and micro-KPIs among them-
change has brought other challenges. selves and quickly drive drilling operations to best in class.
More detailed KPIs for drilling and related activi- First, the data need to be aggregated from different
ties require access to high-quality datasets. Operators sources such as electronic drilling recorders, MWD
realized data quality issues, such as sensor calibration, tools, and planning and reporting systems. After this,
data frequency (10 seconds, 5 seconds, 1 second, etc.), aggregating the data needs to be quality controlled so

COVER STORY:
COMPLETIONS LESSONS
FIGURE 1. Charts like DAYS VS. MEASURED DEPTH

this one provide a clear
0
comparison of operational
efficiencies for a group of 5k
wells in a selected radius. Measured Depth
(Source: Moblize) 10k
15k
the raw data coming in
Noble Well 3
are correct. The data 20k Noble Well 2
need to be stored on Noble Well 1
secure servers available 25k
for approved users with
a robust and consis- Days
tent analytics engine

applied to the data to derive the KPIs. user-selected radius. The analysis can be performed for
Another challenge is how to show enough valuable total drilled days, average ROP, rotating ROP, sliding,
information without disclosing any intellectual property ROP, drilling connection times and tripping speeds,
the operators want to keep private. This is accomplished to name a few. All either on a radial search by county,
by creating a quid pro quo environment where operators spud date and detailed by sections.
can only see the level of details on KPIs they are willing All of these KPIs provide each participating operator
to share and all other operator names are hidden. with a clear comparison of their overall and detailed
The value proposition of this information is directly performance. Using those comparisons enables opera-
linked to its accuracy, so these KPIs must be generated tors to focus on critical performance improvement ini-
from raw sensor data to avoid any bias or reporting tiatives specific to their operating area being achieved
errors. These KPIs also must be updated in real time by peers, which will deliver a step change in perfor-
so all users have the most relevant information readily mance, time and costs.
available. From here, the utilization of the information As the appetite for operator data sharing increases,
by each operator will drive value. Data must also be these databases and KPIs will grow more detailed and
complete across a basin so all wells, good and bad, are complex to include but not be limited to NPT, costs
available so benchmarking isn’t skewed to misrepresent and parameters—driving continuous improvements for
overall performance. operators and the industry as a whole. As data sharing
One of the pioneers of this project is Noble Energy. becomes more accepted, moving from anonymized to
In its desire to further increase its drilling operations open benchmarking may become standard practice.
efficiency, the company started to contribute high-qual- Including additional well construction information,
ity KPIs and micro-KPIs to a third-party vendor-agnostic data often available through regulatory sites but delayed
platform. Some of the value extracted from this infor- in availability may also become more accepted.
mation includes There are still additional ways data can be shared in
• Realistic benchmarking operations against other the future, promoting multifaceted and complete
players in the basins they operate in and use of this benchmarking for more robust analysis. To progress sit-
information to drive their own operations to those uational awareness, gathering and sharing HSE data
levels of efficiency; could greatly benefit the industry. A tie in with service
• Compare in real time how their BHA, string and/ companies’ data streams will award top performers and
or procedure changes are improving performance drive innovation and reliability to meet the market
when compared to others; and needs of both the operator and service company. What
• Provide investors with peer group benchmarking is more, once the groundwork for data acquisition and
to demonstrate industry-leading performance and streaming capabilities are established for completions
continual improvement. and production data, there is potential for them to see
An example of such a system is shown in Figure 1. the same benefits as drilling: the ability to see how oth-
In this example, well days versus measured depth are ers are designing, implementing and performing, with
displayed, where the colored curves are the subject the end goal of presenting to partners and/or investors
operator and the gray curves are the operators within a how they are performing accurately.

SPECIAL REPORT:
Keeping a lid on GHG emissions

Operators and service providers maintain a long-term view on emissions management.
(GHG) emissions by 2050 or sooner, with Shell’s efforts

Brian Walzel, Senior Editor among the most ambitious.
“With the COVID-19 pandemic having a serious impact
B y now, the situation in the oil and gas industry is a

familiar one—the COVID-19 pandemic has weak-
ened global energy demand by nearly 30 MMbbl/d less
on people’s health and our economies, these are extraor-
dinary times,” said Ben van Beurden, CEO of Royal
Dutch Shell, in a release announcing the company’s
than last year, according to the International Energy plans. “Yet even at this time of immediate challenge, we
Agency (IEA), with only incremental recovery expected. must also maintain the focus on the long term.”
The historically weak demand has resulted in a global According to the IEA, “Methane emissions from the
supply glut, pushing oil prices down and forcing produc- oil and gas sector reached close to 80 Mt, or 2.4 billion
ers worldwide to shut in wells and shut down rigs. tonnes of CO2 equivalent [CO2e], in 2017.” Energy
But despite the dire circumstances, the world still producers around the world ranging from small inde-
needs oil, and it will continue to need reliable supplies pendents to supermajors have taken on the challenge
of energy as it begins the slow process of recovery. Amid of reducing the industry’s carbon footprint, and the
these challenging circumstances, oil producers still services market has answered the call with innovative
must abide by state and federal emissions regulations, technologies to help companies achieve their goals.
and many are resolute in maintaining their own inter-
nal goals of reducing emissions. A supermajor’s reduction plans
In fact, during the midst of the global energy cri- Chevron is among the multitude of supermajors that
sis, both Shell and Total announced new efforts to have announced plans to either significantly reduce or
meet their individual goals of net zero greenhouse-gas move to net zero emissions over the next few decades. In
October 2019, Chevron established new goals to reduce
net GHG emission intensity from its upstream oil and
natural gas operations by lowering upstream oil net GHG
emission intensity by 5% to 10% and upstream natural
gas net GHG emission intensity by 2% to 5% from 2016
to 2023. The company also is targeting reduced methane
emissions intensity by 20% to 25% and flaring intensity by
25% to 30% from 2016 levels to 2023.
Sean Comey, senior adviser of external affairs with
Chevron, said the company’s timing is aligned with the
milestones set in the Paris Agreement on climate change.
“Effectively managing climate change risks and
exploring new lower-carbon business opportunities is
part of our responsibility to our stockholders,” he said.
“Reducing greenhouse-gas emissions is a global issue
that requires global engagement and action. We work
with policymakers to design balanced and transparent
GHG emissions reductions policies that address envi-
ronmental goals and ensure consumers have access to
affordable, reliable and ever cleaner energy.”
Chevron’s efforts at reducing emissions include car-
Several major global oil producers, such as Chevron, have bon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), methane
established goals to either significantly reduce or eliminate emissions reductions, flaring reduction and increasing
carbon emissions throughout their operations. (Source: Chevron) its use of renewable energy. The company’s emissions

SPECIAL REPORT:
reductions initiatives include monitoring and verifying

the integrity of its wells and production equipment with
regular inspections and safety tests, Comey said.
“We have retrofitted or replaced more than 1,000
continuous high-bleed pneumatic controllers from our
onshore U.S. facilities with low-emitting or noncontinu-
ous-bleed technologies to reduce emissions,” he said.
In addition, Comey explained that where electricity is
available, electric and air-driven controllers and pumps
are used, which do not emit methane when actuated.
He said Chevron has piloted several emerging technol-
ogies and remains encouraged that more effective and
efficient tools will improve leak detection and repair
performance in the future.
According to the company, methane accounts for
about 5% of Chevron’s total GHG emissions. About
one-third of the 5% is considered fugitive emissions, or
leaks from equipment and piping, Comey said. Integrated data reporting technologies can help field
“We have developed internal country-specific plans workers identify sources of GHG emissions. (Source: Emerson
to minimize gas flaring, and we are a member of Automation Solutions)
the World Bank-led Global Gas Flaring Reduction
Partnership,” he said. “In 2019 Chevron had one of was very difficult for them to report a summary of all
the lowest venting and flaring rates of any company in of their solutions.”
the Permian Basin located in Texas and New Mexico. To consolidate all of that information, Arroyo said
Chevron flares natural gas only when required for safety Emerson integrated all of the data sources and created
and operational purposes and in areas where pipelines a map where the operators can see all of their different
and other alternatives for transporting gas do not exist.” assets in the different locations to increase visibility and
keep track of those emissions. Emerson’s data manage-
Tracking emissions ment tool presents a hierarchy of assets across different
While producers around the globe have set out ambi- locations and geographies, and it tracks, manages and
tious emission reduction plans, the technologies to help reports total emissions, organized into operational and
them achieve those goals are surfacing from service pro- fugitive sources.
viders across the industry. Upstream companies often have two sources of emis-
Emerson Automation Solutions offers an emissions sions—operational and fugitive. Operational emissions
reporting system geared toward helping companies track, are those resulting from the day-to-day operations of oil
manage and report GHG emissions from their equip- and gas production, while fugitive emissions are those
ment and assets throughout their operations. Emerson’s caused by equipment failures such as leaks.
six-step leak detection and repair program structure “Fugitive emissions are where operators often focus
identifies and monitors select components before any their action plans,” Arroyo said. “They have to repair
reparative actions are taken. According to the company, where emissions are emitting from. A lot of customers
the intent of the system is to consolidate the sources of have started using pneumatic devices. They get the gas
emissions information from across an operator’s enter- coming from their production, and in their normal
prise and consolidate it into a coherent manner. operations they replace those devices. And for what
“We started working on these types of solutions they cannot replace, they repair.”
in Canada, where the regulators put more pressure Arroyo explained that as a result of there being two
on operators to reduce emissions,” said Manuel different types of emissions, companies often have two
Arroyo, oil and gas manager of industry programs different isolated databases—one for operations and
with Emerson. “One of the challenges those operators one for emissions.
had was they operate assets in multiple locations. “Between operational emissions and fugitive emis-
Not everything was in a single location. And every sions, everything starts to comingle into one single data-
location had its own reporting system or database. It base,” he said. “Operational emissions are not an indi-

SPECIAL REPORT:
cation of asset health. If your asset health isn’t good, Visualizing emissions management
you’re going to have two different situations. You’re Understanding and managing the proliferation of data
going to increase your emissions and you’re going to collected during a company’s emissions management
reduce your reliability of that asset. We are seeking to programs often presents challenges with data organiza-
solve those two actions to reduce emissions.” tion and comes with steep learning curves. But visualiz-
ing problem areas of methane leaks can save time and
money. Based on technology designed in collaboration
with the U.S. Department of Defense, Geosite serves sat-
ellite imagery that detects methane emissions at scale.
“There is a chasm between the data and the end
user,” said Burke Greer, lead geographical information
systems scientist with Geosite. “It’s really hard for peo-
ple, especially those who don’t have the training, to
take those new data sources and use them in their work-
flows. One of the things that we’re doing at Geosite is
making it easier for people to integrate real data into
the workflows that they’re doing, and methane emis-
sions are an example of that.”
Geosite’s technology combines a variety of data
sources like satellite imagery, sensor data and drone
mapping into an interactive operating system. It pro-
vides the ability to send workers in the field to the right
location to mitigate methane emission leaks.
“At its heart, Geosite is a map,” Burke said. “It’s a map
Crusoe Energy’s Digital Mitigation System helps turn natural that contains spatial data and information. The way that
gas that would otherwise be flared into electricity for data we’ve structured our map, it’s able to leverage cloud
processing centers. (Crusoe Energy) technology. That means a lot of people in your organi-
zation can work with, access and see the same data and
information on the map. For a use case like methane,
what that means is we type in satellite-derived methane
emission estimates that are visible on the map. And
your team that’s out in the field can see those data.”
Burke explained that if a methane emission cloud is
visible in the satellite data, the team working in the field
can see the emission cloud in the map with different data
layers integrated into the visible cloud. A team could then
visit the site, add video imagery and more high-resolution
data to further enhance the available information.
“For something like methane, our platform is really
set up for integrating different data sources so you
can take those safety data and emission data from the
methane satellite imagery sources and use those in your
workflows on the ground,” Burke said.
Mitigating flaring
One of the largest impediments to widespread emis-
sions management success in the upstream oil and gas
industry is the flaring of natural gas. Operators burn
Qnergy’s compressed air pneumatic system combusts methane off the excess natural gas they can’t sell and also burn
gas that would normally be vented into the atmosphere. off methane in the gas in the process. But flaring also
(Source: Qnergy) releases CO2 into the atmosphere. According to the

SPECIAL REPORT:
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Texas totaled decarbonize, among others, the oil and gas industry.
0.65 Bcf/d while North Dakota amassed 0.4 Bcf/d of The fund supports technologies and applications that
flared gas in 2017. reduce methane and CO2 emissions and can recycle
For companies looking to meet either internally and store CO2, according to the OGCI website.
established goals or regulatory rules for flaring reduc- In April, the OGCI fund, along with others, pro-
tions, technologies that detect carbon emissions and vided Qnergy with $10 million in Series B funding to
reuse associated gas have emerged as adaptable options. accelerate the deployment of its compressed air pneu-
Crusoe Energy System’s Digital Flare Mitigation sys- matics product, CAP3. The application, which couples
tem converts natural gas that would otherwise poten- Qnergy’s remote power generators with air compres-
tially be flared into electricity to power energy-inten- sors, offers a low-emission alternative to gas pneumatic
sive computing at the well site. Crusoe president and devices, which vent spent gas into the atmosphere and
co-founder Cully Cavness explained that the flare mit- are often used in upstream oil and gas operations.
igation system includes containerized mobile modular “Gas pneumatics are responsible for about 20%
data centers and power generation modules located at to 40% of the gas industry’s supply chain in North
the well site, which are fueled by the otherwise flared America,” said Qnergy CEO Ory Zik. “And methane
natural gas. is a very potent greenhouse gas at 25 or even 85 times
“The natural gas goes into the power generation more than CO2, and the gas industry is very sensitive to
module and is the fuel for a generator,” Cavness said. those methane emissions. Pneumatic devices are among
“A piece of equipment that is very common in the oil the easiest to solve. The same technology that is used
field is power generation, which is fueled by natural gas for these pneumatic devices can be used when you use
or diesel. We’re using a custom-designed and config- compressed air or clean air as the source of power. All
ured type of power generation equipment. Basically, it’s you need conceptually is a power generator that com-
reciprocating engines or turbines.” presses the air and replaces natural gas or methane as a
Cavness explained that power is generated by con- source of power with compressed air.”
suming natural gas and combusting it in the power Zik explained that Qnergy’s technology is based on
generation process, generating electricity, which is then the Stirling engine, which generates electricity by a
used to power the modular data center. cyclic compression of air and gas at differing tempera-
“Then that is distributed to a customized electrical tures. Qnergy’s CAP3 system combusts the normally
distribution system that powers hundreds of servers vented methane.
inside of this containerized data center, and those are “The oil and gas industry is focusing aggressively
very energy intensive servers doing things like block- on reducing methane emissions throughout the sup-
chain processing,” Cavness said. ply chain,” Zik said. “About 20% of those emissions
According to Crusoe, the Digital Flare Mitigation sys- are low-hanging fruit that can be updated through
tem can reduce methane emissions by up to 95% and pneumatic devices. After focusing intensely on fugitive
CO2e emissions by 39%. emissions through leak detection and correction,
“At the end of the day, we’re looking for really ener- now the next stage is venting, and this is what this
gy-intensive, constantly running computing processes technology serves.”
so we can have a high demand for energy,” Cavness Sam Gabbita, OGCI Climate Investments venture
said. “That’s what pairs well with the flaring—it’s a high director, said Qnergy’s technology was appealing to the
energy waste pairing with the high energy demand.” fund because it offered low-cost and reliable energy that
can be applied at scale across much of the industry.
Funding innovation “There are about 250,000 pneumatic devices just in
Securing funding for operations and new technologies the U.S. alone,” Gabbita said. “And these are emitting
in the upstream industry was challenging even before about 14 million tons of CO2 when you convert the
the COVID-19 pandemic, and it remains a substantial methane equivalent. So the opportunity to use Qnergy’s
challenge amid the energy industry collapse. But the remote power engine to basically run compressed air
Oil and Gas Climate Initiative’s (OGCI) Climate Invest- rather than typical methane was a beautiful marriage.
ments fund maintains a long-term view of emissions We liked the fact that there was established technology,
management technologies. and we loved the fact that we could use this established
The OGCI Climate Investments is a $1 billion-plus technology to decarbonize an important part of the oil
fund that invests in technologies designed to help and gas value chain.”

EXPLORATION:
FRONTIER EXPLORATION
Engineers on Fugro’s REM Etive take pressure

cores of buried gas hydrate deposits for reservoir
saturation confirmation. (Source: Fugro)
Will gas hydrates be developed

with other biogenic gas plays?
The time line for international R&D to demonstrate safe, sustainable and
economically feasible gas hydrate production is on the horizon.
gases and water. Methane hydrate is a dense energy

Dan McConnell, Fugro source of natural gas and therefore sometimes referred
to as “nature’s LNG.” Gas hydrates, which resemble ice,
E ven though the natural gas market is not currently

affected by supply insecurity, research into natural gas
hydrates as a potential resource is still active. Methane
are part of the natural hydrocarbon migration system
and an integral component of the Arctic petroleum
system, where it is cold enough for gas hydrates to
hydrate resource potential is immense, and the world’s form. They are also widespread in deep water on con-
press took notice of the successful short-term marine tinental margins, where pressures are high enough
gas hydrate production tests in 2017 off the east coast of for gas hydrates to form. Gas hydrates are not always
Japan and in the South China Sea. What has international useful: a robust billion-dollar business controls gas
methane hydrate research achieved so far? What is the hydrate formation in deepwater pipelines and subsea
relationship between gas hydrate and large conventional production facilities because they can restrict and plug
biogenic gas deposits? And what is the time line for devel- the flow of hydrocarbons.
oping methane hydrate as a natural gas resource?
International research
What is methane hydrate? Serious research to develop natural gas hydrates as a
Gas hydrates are a solid form of light hydrocarbon resource started in Japan in the early 2000s, followed

EXPLORATION:
Gain A New
PERSPECTIVE
by India and Korea. At the same time, bacterial activity involved in CO2 reduc-
the U.S. began a multiagency research tion in very young sediments during Get a fresh look
effort led by its Department of Energy their burial.
(DOE), and China has fielded six In parallel, biogenic gas plays are at upstream and
major field programs in the last 14 getting a new look, and these will midstream activity
years to confirm gas hydrate deposits have possible economic gas hydrate
in the South China Sea. Advances to deposits associated with them. In fact, with our collection
date include reservoir characterization,
including confirmation of direct detec-
gas hydrates might have helped form
them. Economic biogenic gas accumu-
of wall maps.
tion of high-saturation gas hydrates lations and the associated gas hydrate
in offshore sand deposits, production deposits are young systems that may
technologies and reservoir production form in less than 100,000 years. In the
simulators. The consensus so far is that last 20 years, deepwater conventional
conventional oil and gas production biogenic gas discoveries with about 100
equipment and technologies can be Tcf of gas reserves have been devel-
modified to produce gas hydrates. Gas oped. Large economic conventional
hydrates, unlike conventional hydro- biogenic gas systems are also highly
carbons, will not flow freely between likely to be associated with high-satura-
the reservoir and wellhead by pressure tion gas hydrate deposits.
differences. Changing the gas hydrate Gas hydrates are intimately related
into gas and water requires active to the processes of how biogenic gas
depressurization through pumping, as basins generate and preserve economic
demonstrated in the short-term Arctic quantities of natural gas. The window
and marine production tests. Thermal for biogenic gas generation is in the
and chemical means to dissociate gas compaction and dewatering phase of
hydrate are only likely to be employed the sediments within the upper 2 km
for flow assurance and production sys- of burial. After oxygen and sulfates
tem control. are depleted during initial burial, the
controlling parameters for biogenic gas
Biogenic gas plays production are temperature, organic
The elements of a petroleum system matter and space. In biogenic gas sys-
(source rock, expulsion and migration tems, methanogenic bacteria feed on
to reservoir) are the fundamental con- labile organic matter in the pore space
cepts of oil and gas exploration. If gas until the sediments compact too much
hydrates are mentioned in the oil and or it becomes too hot for the bacteria
gas exploration context, they are often to be there.
described as possible indicators of
secondary and tertiary migration from Gas hydrate link to biogenic
the object of exploration (deep ther- gas preservation?
mogenic hydrocarbon reservoirs). So Large deepwater biogenic gas plays
far, gas hydrate field expeditions have have three essential components:
confirmed thermogenic gas hydrate, rapid sedimentation of organic rich
but these are best described as having sediments, cool geothermal gradients
mixed thermogenic and biogenic iso- and early trap formation. This sce-
topic signatures. Most gas hydrates, nario preserves the ability of metha-
however, are associated not with ther-
mogenic gas migration, which is a
nogenic bacteria to produce methane
while the sediment column is compact-
Available Now
by-product of thermal cracking of ker- ing to create an imperfect but suffi-
HartEnergyStore.com
ogen within much older sedimentary cient seal.
rocks, but with biogenic gas systems, in Gas hydrates also may help concen-
which methane is a by-product of the trate conventional biogenic gas deposits.
STORE
EXPLORATION:
The map depicts regions

with known conventional
biogenic gas reserves
with stable gas hydrates
overlying. (Source: Fugro)
Recent gas hydrate field programs in India support the stand large conventional biogenic gas resources and
growing hypothesis that large gas hydrate deposits need the associated gas hydrates above them. As these large
an immediate local overlying lithologic seal. biogenic gas plays become sanctioned for development,
Large gas hydrate deposits in India’s Krishna the exploration companies should consider setting
Godavari Basin were direct-detected from seismic targets for developing the secondary gas hydrate that
response, and pressure cores confirmed there was a remains and may be in reach.
tight lithologic directly over the gas-hydrate-filled sand.
In contrast, the same sand in a step-out, also near the Long-term gas hydrate production
base of gas hydrate stability and subject to the same tests are key
vertical methane migration, was not saturated with Preparations for a long-term production test, a joint
gas hydrate. The difference between the two locations project of the U.S. DOE and the Japan Oil, Gas and
was the absence of the sealing Metals National Corp., are
facies where the sand was well underway on the Alaskan
water saturated. North Slope, where a strati-
The ability of gas hydrates to
The ability of gas hydrates graphic and monitoring well
help concentrate and preserve to help concentrate and was drilled in December 2018
biogenic gas is likely an import- preserve biogenic gas in the Prudhoe Bay Unit along
ant mechanism for the preser- the Eileen gas hydrate trend.
vation of biogenic gas deposits. is likely an important This coming winter, the gas
Escaping gassy fluids from the mechanism for the hydrate production wells at
methane generation window the site will be completed with
can be available for capture
preservation of biogenic the goal of demonstrating
within the gas hydrate stability gas deposits. sustained long-term produc-
field, but the overall migration tion of gas hydrates. The time
will happen in the dissolved line for international R&D to
phase and would, without local seals, escape the system. demonstrate safe, sustainable and economically fea-
Hoteling of biogenic gas as gas hydrate as a mecha- sible gas hydrate production is on the near horizon
nism for free gas concentration mechanism has been between five and 15 years.
proposed for Camden Hills in Mississippi Canyon 348 Given the development time for the biogenic gas
in the Gulf of Mexico and at the multi-Tcf Shwe gas fields being developed by the industry, this will be just
field offshore Myanmar. Recycling of gas hydrates at the in time for oil and gas companies to add gas hydrate
base of gas hydrate stability due to rapid sedimentation production to their Arctic and deepwater biogenic gas
and burial could be an important mechanism to under- field production.

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EXPLORATION:
FIGURE 1. Several arbitrary lines of

the mega-merged seismic show the
stratigraphy variation across the basin.
(Source: ION Geophysical)
Mega-merged 3D seismic in the

Vaca Muerta, Neuquén Basin
A basin-scale geocellular model provides a tool for sweetspot identification.
Shihong Chi, Felix Dias and Zakir Hossain, basin margin facies through central basin settings and
ION Geophysical; Jhon Rivas, independent consultant; into distal basin floor facies (Figure 1).
and Yijie Zhou, Noble Energy
Petrophysical analysis
T he tectonics of Argentina’s Neuquén Basin has been

studied in detail by many authors. The extensional
period between the Upper Triassic and Lower Jurassic
A total of 14 wells with a relatively complete log set were
identified for the petrophysical analysis. Given the complex
mineralogy of the Vaca Muerta Formation, a statistical min-
resulted in a system of northwest-to-southeast-oriented eral analysis was used. The method included log response
half grabens; and a later compressive-transgressive equations for several tools simultaneously to obtain the
period from the Upper Jurassic resulted in a system mineralogy, fluid content and total porosity. Gamma ray,
of mainly east-to-west reverse and transgressive faults. density, neutron and compressional sonic and clay volume
Trans-tension related to this period adds structural estimated from normalized gamma ray were used as input
complexity to the area. Similarly, the stratigraphy curves for all the wells analyzed. The results show the Vaca
and facies of the Vaca Muerta Formation have been Muerta is predominantly limestone, with some marl or
studied in detail. siltstone interbeds. Kerogen is mainly deposited in the
The mega-merged 3D seismic clearly shows the lower Vaca Muerta formation with a maximum 12% of vol-
characteristics and geometries that make the interpreta- ume. Total porosity can reach up to 25% at the lower Vaca
tion of strata stacking patterns, their stratigraphic rela- Muerta. The interpretation was calibrated to core data.
tions and the interpretation of internal configurations
(e.g., onlaps and downlaps) much easier than before. Post-stack seismic inversion
From the southeast to northwest, it can be observed Three key horizons around the target formation, Top
that the major architectural trends from proximal B, Vaca Muerta and Todrillo, were interpreted for well

EXPLORATION:
tie, background model building and inversion. The rich and high-porosity zone is located in the lower Vaca
seismic data quality is relatively good in the target zone Muerta of the southeastern part of the basin.
(Vaca Muerta to Todrillo). However, this seismic volume
comes from different surveys, and the spectra of differ- Conclusions
ent surveys are not quite balanced, which may affect the An integrated study of the Vaca Muerta Formation,
inversion results. Neuquén Basin, was performed using mega-merged 3D
All the wells inside the seismic survey are tied with seismic data covering about 12,000 sq km to estimate
seismic before inversion. The Gardner equation is used the kerogen, porosity and lithology (Figure 2). Four key
to predict the density log for the wells without the den- tasks were included in this project: regional structural
sity measurement. and stratigraphic interpretation, petrophysical analysis,
The inversion results show a relatively good match with post-stack inversion, and geocellular model building.
the wells. The lower Vaca Muerta shows relatively low acous- 3D structures of the Vaca Muerta are revealed from the
tic impedance (AI), which is a typical Kerogen response. mega 3D interpretation. Regional scale stratigraphic fea-
The inverted AI volume, together with the well logs inter- tures and lateral transitions have been evidenced from a
pretation results are then later integrated using the geologic single seismic volume for the first time.
modeling technique for detailed rock property estimation. Geocellular modeling combines the well log data
and inverted AI volume together with the geological
Geomodeling information to produce a detailed description of the
A geocellular model represents the reservoir geology geological deposition and kerogen distribution. The
and the vertical and horizontal variation of the reservoirs basin-scale geocellular model provides a powerful tool
in detailed log scale. The model incorporates the 3D for sweetspot identification during the exploration
structural framework, the conceptual depositional sys- phase and reserve estimation and well planning
tem (facies) and reservoir sublayers. The reservoirs and during field development.
formations above and below the reservoirs, constraining
the structural model, are divided first into zones and
later into thin layers and into a 3D mesh of cells until the
cells with thickness of rocks can simulate the reservoir
properties. For each cell, just one lithofacies type can be
assigned, but it can storage multiple reservoir properties.
The cells cut by wells are populated with facies and
reservoir properties, using averaging methods such as
arithmetic mean. The values of facies and a cell’s proper-
ties loaded from well logs are distributed or interpolated
through all the cells of the geocellular model based on
the spatial continuity concepts. The spatial distribution
is carried out by applying geostatistics, which includes
data analysis and deterministic and stochastic algorithms.
Sequential Gaussian Simulation is applied to create
heterogeneity-property volumes honoring input/output
of local data, histograms and variograms. Rock physics
constraints and a co-located cokriging method were used
to honor the well data and seismic inversion result simul-
taneously. Finally, the geocellular model was populated
with petrophysical and elastic rock properties that can be
used to assess, develop and manage the reservoir.
Two types of geomodels are created: one using well
data only, and the other using both seismic and well
data. By comparing two geomodels, significant values
of applying seismic data in delineating the 3D rock FIGURE 2. Seismic surveys overlay a topographic map in which the
properties are demonstrated. From the basin-scale geo- red dots are wells used in performing well tie and velocity model
models, it was observed that the highest total organic building for time to depth conversion. (Source: ION Geophysical)

DRILLING:
DRILL BITS
Managing transitional
drilling challenges
A new active torque cutting structure is saving millions
of dollars in transitional drilling applications.
Having the bit lean on these hard surfaces while

Chris Gooch, Ulterra Drilling Technologies drilling also causes increased friction, which can cause
torsional vibration. To solve these problems, manufac-
T ransitional drilling and interfacial severity are the

buzz words of the drilling industry right now. Essen-
tially, they refer to the same problem—to drill through
turers have recently started experimenting with moving
DoC control elements built into the bit, but the added
complexity of moving parts in the bit face brings a
layers of varying rock types and strengths. As the bit whole new set of risks.
moves through these transitions, the cutting structure
is subjected to uneven forces in different parts of the Drilling the Permian Basin
profile, which can overload and damage cutters, The 12¼-inch intermediate section in the Permian
shortening bit life and leading to unplanned trips.
Basin has one of the toughest transitional sections in
These uneven forces also can be transmitted up the
the world. The upper part of the section is relatively
drillstring in the form of harmful vibrations, which
easy and fast. But approximately two-thirds of the way
could increase the risk of tool failures in the button-
through the interval, the bit will encounter the Brushy
hole assembly (BHA). Canyon and Cherry Canyon formations that have a mix
The way to control this uneven loading is to man-
of hard carbonate lithologies interbedded with softer
age the drill bit’s depth of cut (DoC); if the bit can be
silicates and anhydrites. This part of the section defines
stopped from taking too big a bite of the formation, the
whether a run will be successful or not. About 30% of
magnitude of the uneven forces through that transition
bits don’t make it. While the rest will go on to section
can be reduced. Drill bit manufacturers have used a
total depth (TD), that 30% must be pulled for an
few methods to control DoC. Historically, this was done
expensive trip and may be damaged beyond repair.
using hard-stop surfaces such as the blade top or inserts
Seeking a solution to the transitional drilling prob-
behind the cutter. This very effectively stops the bit
lem, Ulterra engineers set to work brainstorming var-
from taking that bigger bite, but by tuning that DoC
ious options. By year-end 2019, the concept evolved
control for the transitions, it also prevents the bit from
into the new RipSaw product technology, which had
achieving high instantaneous ROP. quickly accumulated more than 2,000 runs and drilled
9 MMft of hole.
RipSaw uses a new form of active
BIT TRANSITIONS THROUGH HARD AND SOFT LITHOLOGIES
torque technology to manage DoC
proactively using the cutting struc-
ture itself rather than passive ele-
ments in the bit face. At the core of
this technology are high back rake
cutters strategically placed in differ-
ent parts of the profile. The more
passive cutters resist rapid changes
As the bit transitions through hard and

soft lithologies, load forces move around
the profile causing damage. (Source:
Ulterra Drilling Technologies)

DRILLING:
DRILL BITS
in DoC but, at the same time, still cut elements so as to

THE RIPSAW EFFECT
not prevent high-instantaneous ROP when more weight
on bit (WOB) is applied.
In this way they act like a shock absorber on a vehi-
cle, protecting the occupant or bit from potholes and
bumps while also allowing a smooth and compliant
ride. In transitions, the higher back rake cutters prevent
the more aggressive parts of the profile from over-
engaging so the driller, rather than backing off to man-
age WOB, can lean on the bit and allow the RipSaw
cutting structure to regulate itself.
In real world applications, this means less damage to
the bit and BHA, better dulls and increased reliability,
which ultimately lead to faster average penetration
rates and a better chance of shoe-to-TD performances. Traditional DoC control limits ROP and converts any added
In the current economic and drilling industry climate, WOB into friction, whereas the new technology does not
the one thing that drillers need is better reliability prevent high ROP but controls high axial forces. (Source: Ulterra
so they can reliably plan well construction time and Drilling Technologies)
reduce cost overruns.
runs out of the shoe and created risk profile graphs
Measuring success to demonstrate how likely it was that bits would reach
The drill bit industry has typically focused on ROP as the any given depth. They found that bits equipped with
primary and, at times, only demonstration of success, but RipSaw technology would have an 80% chance of hit-
a successful run can be measured in many other ways. ting a critical depth that conventional products only
Ulterra analysts wanted to show what increased reliabil- managed 50% of the time.
ity means in the real world, especially as the industry In terms of well costs, that increased reliability trans-
evolves to focus on delivering lates to a 39% improvement in the
a quality wellbore with maxi- cost per foot, applying standard-
mum efficiency. Performance ized costs across the board for
data analysts pulled every The drill bit industry comparison. By extrapolating that
comparable Permian Basin has typically focused number over the 1.8 MMft of hole
12¼-inch intermediate run in drilled by RipSaw in this study, the
the previous six months from on ROP as the primary results show that those 434 runs
Ulterra’s bit record database. demonstration of success, saved Permian operators more
This dataset consisted of 3,264 than $42 million in drilling costs.
runs on 2,147 wells with more
but a successful run Moreover, if RipSaw technology
than 11 MMft of hole drilled can be measured in had been used on every single
for 128 different operators. Of many other ways. run in the study, that amount
these, 434 runs were with the would be more than $220 million,
new RipSaw technology, 1,320 demonstrating that seemingly
with competitor bits and the small gains in reliability translate
remainder with other Ulterra products. With so many into the potential for massive cost savings.
datapoints, the effects of outliers and one-offs were mini- The challenge for Ulterra engineers is to expand the
mized and any findings from these data were guaranteed technology into other applications where active DoC
to be statistically significant. control would bring benefits. Focus has now moved to
The new active torque technology drilled on aver- long lateral sections and RipSaw technology has deliv-
age 750 ft farther per run than all other bits from ered longer runs, better tracking and improved tool-
any manufacturer. The data also showed that this face control.
technology improved the shoe-to-TD rate by nearly The technology also will be highly effective in com-
30%, delivering a one-run section nearly 90% of the plex 3D directional wells where steering control and
time. Ulterra analysts then filtered the dataset for first wellbore quality are essential to success.

DRILLING:
DRILL BITS
Stratigraphic zonation for

model-based bit design
A novel application for drilling optimization proves successful
in the Brazilian deepwater presalt.
Romulo Aguiar and João Pedro Tocantins,

were applied during an exploratory campaign to
Schlumberger; and Danilo Gozzi and develop the ultradeepwater Búzios Field located in
Rafael França, Petrobras Brazil’s Santos Basin. The system led to the develop-
ment of customized drill bit designs with improved
T he majority of oil discoveries offshore Brazil are

in the presalt formations, and drilling activity has
focused primarily on economically viable ways to
cutting structure resistance and dynamic stability, which
resulted in overall improved performance when drilling
the field’s presalt cluster.
develop these reserves. Presalt is a geological formation
consisting of heterogenous carbonates and other sedi- Stratigraphic zonation for drilling
ments that pose innumerous drilling challenges, includ- Stratigraphic zonation for drilling is a novel application
ing hard silicate nodules and low-porosity layers, which that uses rock typing to define the distinctive hetero-
make the formation strength extremely high. geneity and non-uniform nature of carbonates. It is
The presalt reservoirs are drilled with various types designed to gain better understanding of the physics
of drill bits and drilling assemblies. Drilling in this and causes behind poor drilling performances. Since
region can produce high lateral vibrations and stick/ optimal drilling parameters for one layer might not be
slip levels in the drilling system leading to polycrystal- appropriate for the other, a good characterization and
line diamond compact (PDC) cutter damage, bottom- understanding of each of these zones, their occurrence
hole assembly tool failure, well and possible thickness are critical
deviation and low ROP. Generally, for drilling optimization.
in the reservoir intervals, opera- This approach comprises a com-
tors encounter undesirable dull prehensive workflow that facilitates
conditions on the bit such as ring integrating large amounts of mul-
out in the outer region or core out tiwell data acquired from drilling,
of the innermost cutting elements. logging and coring operations to
These wear-out conditions are usu- derive relevant drilling informa-
ally related to drilling dynamics, tion and knowledge. Stratigraphic
which confirm the impact-prone zonation from a drilling perspective
characteristics from the highly presents a road map to benchmark
heterogeneous formation. A major and understand the performances
challenge today is to reach section of any given drilling system through
total depth (TD) in a single run each of the zones and guides the
with good overall ROP. design of new engineering solu-
As part of a joint presalt drilling
optimization project, Schlumberger FIGURE 1. Stratigraphic zonation for
and Petrobras developed and drilling is a novel workflow that uses
executed an approach to reduce spectroscopy from wireline, combined
drilling costs. This approach was with technical expertise, to reproduce
inspired by rock typing method- actual drilling scenarios into virtual
ology, paired with 4D modeling formations. It is used to determine
and simulation to develop a fit-for- the distinctive heterogeneity and
purpose drill bit design solution. nonuniform nature of carbonates.
These complementary workflows (Source: Schlumberger)

DRILLING:
DRILL BITS
FIGURE 2. Using its integrated dynamic

design and analysis platform, Schlumberger
designed two fit-for-purpose drill bits to
tackle the carbonate complexity within the
Búzios Field. These bits featured a central
Stinger conical diamond element (left)
and Stinger conical diamond elements
dispersed throughout the blades (right).
(Source: Schlumberger)
tions. Figure 1 shows a virtual carbonate formation that enabling the cutter to fracture high-compressive-strength
was created using the IDEAS integrated dynamic design rocks more efficiently while generating less torque and
and analysis platform to reproduce the drilling condi- vibrations compared with a conventional PDC cutter.
tions of the presalt carbonates. These new bits were designed to improve footage and
Information about the formation geological properties ROP while maintaining directional control and mini-
obtained from the drilling zonation workflow was then mizing shock and vibration levels in challenging drilling
extracted to build an engineering model using the inte- applications that can cause impact damage to conven-
grated dynamic design and analysis platform. An advanced tional bits. Depending on the offset wells, bit selections
4D drilling dynamics model predicts real-time vibrations were made to provide the optimal cutting structure
and stick/slip and enables engineers to optimize drilling for each well in the drilling campaign. Several prejob
parameters for drill bit designs and drillstring configura- simulations compared the benchmark bit to the newly
tion. In addition, the model simulates drilling interactions designed bits. The simulations with the new drill bit
in a virtual environment to predict bit performance while designs showed a 40% reduction in shocks and vibra-
eliminating costly trial-and-error field tests and enabling tions and a 57% improvement in ROP.
the achievement of desired results on the first run. All
models are verified and validated extensively using theo- Results
retical calculations, commercial finite element packages, Drilling optimization in the Búzios Field was success-
in-house drill rig tests, full-scale rig tests and field tests with fully achieved by using the combination of stratigraphic
MWD or downhole drilling dynamics sensors. zonation for drilling and model-based approach for
customized drill bit designs. There were eight runs
Modeling bits for presalt application using the proposed drill bits. Except for the first run,
The integrated dynamic design and analysis platform where the existence of Drill Zone C was unknown, the
created a model for application-specific bit designs to 12¼-inch reservoir sections of all wells were drilled in a
optimize drilling efficiency while aiming to drill the single run. On the last attempt, the bit run achieved an
entire reservoir section in a single run. Two new cut- average ROP of about 27 ft/hr—197% higher than the
ting structures were developed to tackle the various offset average—and reached interval TD after drilling
carbonate complexity within the field. Figure 2 shows about 1,716 ft in a single run. As a result of the perfor-
two fit-for-purpose drill bits featuring the Stinger con- mance improvement, this bit run set a new performance
ical diamond cutting element that were proposed to benchmark with regard to cost per foot for the 12¼-inch
enhance performance and durability. section in presalt fields offshore the Santos Basin.
The conical-shaped cutter incorporated in the new Furthermore, while optimizing bit designs and drill-
bit design is a cutting element that combines 3D geom- ing performance were initially motivated to tackle the
etry with superior impact strength and wear resistance, challenging presalt carbonates in Brazil, an applica-
enabling increased ROP and footage in hard-to-drill tion-specific bit design is applicable to any drilling sce-
formations. It has twice the diamond thickness of conven- nario and can be applied to different fields and geo-
tional PDC cutters and is manufactured from synthetic dia- graphical locations using the presented workflows.
mond material engineered to provide superior resistance
to abrasive wear and impact loading. The conical shape Editor’s note: This article was adapted from the SPE-
places a highly concentrated point load on the formation, 196057-MS paper.

OFFSHORE:
The M/V Island Venture is an

Ulstein SX165-design multipurpose
construction and light well intervention
vessel. (Source: C-Innovation)
A novel approach to a
growing problem
A vessel-led approach to surface intervention addresses the issue of
retiring deepwater and ultradeepwater pipeline assets.
In 2017 a large international operator in the GoM’s

David Sheetz, C-Innovation Mississippi Canyon area approached C-Innovation with
an aging deepwater pipeline that exhibited an extensive
D uring the 1990s, U.S. deepwater oil production

exceeded shallow-water production for the first
time. By the early 2000s, deepwater operations pro-
asphaltene blockage but needed to satisfy the govern-
ment’s decommissioning requirements. Due to its location
at a depth of 4,000 ft and access challenges, C-Innovation
duced twice as much as shallow water. In the ultradeep- devised a novel way to remove the blockage and prepare
water sector, production was growing at a rapid pace. for abandonment. After considering several alternatives to
More than 20 years on from that initial boom in the off- clean it in place while it was on the seabed, C-Innovation’s
shore industry, pipeline operators are beginning to face subsea projects team, alongside partner Halliburton,
serious practical challenges surrounding the decommis- successfully lifted the pipeline off of the seabed. It was
sioning of these trailblazing deepwater pipelines. threaded through the vessel’s moonpool and supported
U.S. regulatory and industry requirements state that for weeks while a surface intervention was performed.
any pipeline destined for decommissioning must be
effectively cleaned and made safe before its abandon- Phase 1
ment in place. Traditionally, to ensure the retired pipe- The asphaltene blockage was thought to be closer to
line is inert and free of product, divers would be called the upstream/pipeline end termination (PLET) of
in to access the pipeline to perform a flush or cut the the flowline submerged under 4,000 ft of water. The
pipe to bring to the surface. However, these techniques flowline was lifted to the surface for surface injection of
were only ever feasible for shallow-water pipelines. The coiled tubing (CT) to reduce the total distance to the
newer, deeper pipelines of the world are beyond the blockage. An adequate hangoff structure, load tested to
capabilities of any divers, and usually a rig would be more than 1 MMlb to support the catenary weight, was
required to perform any remedial work on them. As the designed, engineered and installed in-house by C-Inno-
necessity for pipeline decommissioning spreads from vation with a safe working load of 300 t. A custom moon-
the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and the North pool bridging system was designed and built by North
Sea to the aging Brazilian oil fields and eventually West American Shipbuilders (an Edison Chouest Co.).
Africa, the challenges of deepwater decommissioning Once the flowline was recovered, a change-out of the
will become a global issue. interface was required to allow CT injection. An addi-

OFFSHORE:
tional structure was needed to support the rigup of a Once the pipeline was recovered to the vessel,
BOP and injector system and to allow a safe workspace C-Innovation removed the PLET and installed a slip-on
in the vicinity of the equipment. The flowline was lifted wellhead connector. Then a tractor and 30,000 ft of CT
and threaded through the moonpool of the Island were rigged up, which enabled a jetting head to remove
Venture, C-Innovation’s flagship intervention vessel. and wash the asphaltene blockage back to the vessel.
The full extent of the blockage was unknown at this Returns were routed through a shaker to remove solids;
point. The flowline needed to be flushed to maintain gas was vented at a vent boom and liquids were routed
cleanliness after the blockage remediation, which required to four 500-bbl tanks.
service vessels at the tension-leg platform (TLP) and PLET. The remaining pipe that still needed to be remedi-
A large capacity of hazardous material storage and offload- ated was raised to the deck of the boat utilizing a ball
ing to another vessel while on site was needed to handle the grab tool. Once at the surface, the pipe was hung off on
substantial quantities of solvent that were required and the the support structure and pressure control equipment
anticipated volume of returns from the flowline. were connected and tested. The pipeline cleaning pro-
The downstream side of the flowline (on the TLP) cess began using a WWT tractor that pulls the CT into
required a temporary interface to the riser and nitro- the pipeline to enable extended cleanout distances.
gen packing and water flushing systems installed. The The first run was 14,500 ft. The tractor was left to run
nitrogen packing was to provide a positive indication and perform its washout, and then the whole assembly
of a breakthrough on the was pulled back out.
solid blockage, and the water Internal well tools were
pumping system was to flush As the necessity for pipeline used to set another plug, then
the remediated flowline to pulled out. The pipeline was
regulatory cleanliness stan- decommissioning spreads, laid down, the vessel transited
dards for decommissioning. the challenges of deepwater 14,000 ft down the line and
However, there was only a cut was performed. Three
enough room on the platform
decommissioning will more tractor CT runs were
for the temporary system that become a global issue. made, establishing communi-
directly interfaced with the cation through the pipeline.
riser. All other systems were All segments of the pipeline
deployed on a platform supply vessel (PSV) with a flex- were flushed and abandoned in place. The whole project
ible hose connecting the systems on the TLP and the was completed to Bureau of Safety and Environmental
system on the PSV. Enforcement regulations, with no recorded releases to
The flowline was safely recovered and secured, and the the environment and no HSE incidents.
interface was changed for intervention. The end of the flow-
line downstream of the blockage was packed with nitrogen. Equipped to meet future challenges
Asphaltenes blocking the flowline were removed. However, One of the main objectives of decommissioning is to
due to conditions more extreme than the client expected prevent the acute and long-term release of trapped
to encounter, the removal of all asphaltenes was prevented. hydrocarbons inside a pipeline on the seafloor into
The client decided to cease intervention and demobilize the environment. To that end, C-Innovation has joined
with the solution deemed a success. forces with one of the key vendors involved in this proj-
ect, WWT International, to devise a new tractor that
Phase 2 will reach even farther than before and help reduce the
In 2019 a Phase 2 solution was undertaken through number of cuts required. By reducing the number of
C-Innovation to continue to complete the work scope cuts, many days of necessary work can be reduced.
safely and without impact on the environment. In this By lifting a pipeline off of the seabed, threading it
case, the flowline blockage remediation was performed through the vessel moonpool and supporting it while a
with a CT tractor system supplied by Houston-based WWT surface intervention was performed, the client saved about
International. Four vessels were involved: the Island Venture, 50% of costs and a significant amount of time that would
Island Performer, Carol and Fast Hauler. Pipeline communica- have been associated with bringing in a rig to perform the
tion was achieved to the platform following four CT tractor same work. Discussions are underway with another two
runs. Finally, a successful flush of the pipeline to seawater operators for deployment of a pipeline intervention
was required to enable riser cut and abandonment. technique such as this one in the GoM.

digital solutions
OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES
Traditional models of operating are

evolving to meet present demands
A remote operations center enables performance benchmarking and drilling
optimization, improving consistency and performance.
Ahmad Alhajami, Brian Jansky and

achieve optimal drilling performance, as one-off issues can
Stephen Forrester, Gyrodata dramatically impact performance. Additionally, with the
pressure on the driller to increase ROP and drill the well
T he shift to digital has slowly but surely changed the

way the oil and gas industry does business. Much
has been said about the need to keep personnel out
faster, relevant lessons learned are not always captured.
In one basin, the spread rates between rigs on a days-
versus-depth curve can vary wildly, which requires addi-
of harm’s way, prompting operators and drilling con- tional analysis between well types and groupings to estab-
tractors to seek new ways of improving safety while also lish the proper well for benchmarking, often called the
increasing performance. This has historically been dif- pacesetter well. Understanding the answers to certain
ficult due to the need for so many people on the rig to questions, like what differentiates the wells in a grouping
operate the machinery. With the continued growth of and if drilling behavior patterns can be established via
remote operations as a valid way to manage rig perfor- well proximity, will help to establish the pacesetter well
mance, however, the traditional model is changing. in a given grouping. The operator also can focus on the
Remote operating centers have existed for some limitations of the slower, more challenging wells instead of
time. Current reductions in capex and opex on contin- those that have already achieved excellent performance.
ued commodity price weakness, however, are driving
renewed focus on eliminating costs and risks. In this Drilling road map
environment, the evolution of these remote operating Drilling performance is often measured against the
centers has been brought back into the spotlight. pacesetter well(s) in an area regardless of well or
casing profile, target forma-
Benchmarking DRILLING PRODUCTION SUMMARY tions or planned hole sizes.
Performance benchmarking To maximize the potential
has long been used to help improvements possible with
operators improve the way they drilling optimization, knowing
drill future wells. By analyzing what data are available and
historical data from previously pertinent, as well as properly
drilled wells, the operator can identifying the objectives of the
effectively leverage the successes drilling program beforehand,
and challenges of those wells is critical.
to enable better performance. Additionally, comparisons
With a benchmark set, an between wells must involve
acceptable performance thresh- similar well types, not just the
old becomes standard, and as regions where they were drilled.
additional improvements are Two wells in the Permian Basin
made, drilling performance ver- might look completely different,
sus this benchmark and earlier with each well plan irrelevant to
wells can be compared to holis- the other. As such, the criteria
tically understand the drivers of for success cannot be static.
efficiency in the area. Simply choosing one fast well
Some difficulty arises with FIGURE 1. The operator successfully drilled the well, could effectively invalidate the
this. Not all local offset wells which included a record extended-reach lateral, in nine entire process if it was a one-off
are applicable when trying to days less than the planned time. (Source: Gyrodata) project with a unique factor

digital solutions
EIGHT CONSECUTIVE ONE-RUN HORIZONTAL WELLS After this, the drilling services continue to update
9,000 170 the latest historical data while monitoring the live data
166
feeds from each rig to seek optimal drilling perfor-
8,476 Footage Drilled in Lateral (ft)
8,323 mance and validate the analytical models. This informa-
Avg ROP (ft/hr)
tion is fed into the road maps and optimization reports
8,000 7,940
for field personnel to use as a drilling guide.
7,733 7,742 7,778
7,704
7,565
Case histories
124 In a project in the Permian Basin, an operator was experi-
7,000 encing challenges while drilling an extended-reach well in
109
the Wolfcamp Formation. The operator’s two main objec-
99
101
106
tives were to improve drilling performance and decrease the
94 rig time necessary to drill the well. Earlier BHA designs on
89
offset wells had encountered issues with similar well profiles,
6,000 85
including reduced ROP and an inability to reach TD.
Well 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Using historical data from conventionally drilled wells
FIGURE 2. Footage drilled versus ROP showed an overall upward in this formation, experts helped the operator develop
trend in ROP as the BHA was continually optimized, culminating an optimized BHA configuration. By applying learnings
in a record run at 166 ft/hr. (Source: Gyrodata) from the data, Gyrodata suggested the operator incor-
porate a motor-assisted rotary steerable system BHA
impacting drilling performance. Understanding the lim- and provided recommendations on better MWD equip-
itations in slower offset wells also is critical. Just because ment for the formation’s challenges. After implement-
one well took longer to drill than surrounding wells does ing the new BHA design, the operator was able to drill
not mean the learnings from that well should be dis- a 9,015-ft lateral in only one run of 43.84 drilling hours
carded; rather, the entire operation should be examined at an average ROP of 206 ft/hr. Collectively, this pro-
so that limitations, either with drilling or on the rig, can cess reduced rig time by nine days and achieved total
be identified and accounted for. At the end of this pro- cost savings of about $500,000 (Figure 1).
cess, a drilling road map with optimized parameters based On another project, an operator wanted to use the
on the pacesetter well can be created and used to repli- lessons learned from remote monitoring of its previous
cate performance of the benchmarked well. wells to optimize its current eight-well pad. Drawing
from the historical database of previous work done with
Enabling success this operator, Gyrodata developed a new plan for the
Once well objectives are identified, the execution phase pad. Implementing an optimized BHA with a new motor
involves multidiscipline collaboration. A remote oper- selection, Gyrodata also used data coming into the remote
ating center typically brings together several functional operating center to continuously update the BHA config-
experts from drilling engineering, drilling optimization, uration and drilling parameters for each well.
bottomhole assembly (BHA) design, survey tool selec- The eight wells were drilled successfully as consecutive,
tion and configuration, and well planning to formulate one-run horizontals. After drilling each well, ROP and
the drilling road map that will align with the pacesetter footage drilled in the lateral were correlated to ensure
well and, should performance increase beyond the that the BHAs were continuing to improve drilling perfor-
intended results, become the next pacesetter well. mance. The project ultimately showed an upward trend in
The well planning/well engineering team ensures average ROP across the eight wells, and ROP of 166 ft/hr
that well design does not exceed mechanical limitations set a record on the final well of the pad (Figure 2). Based
and other dysfunctions that could prevent the well from on an assumed spread rate at current pricing, the lack of
successfully reaching total depth (TD). This informa- damage to the equipment in the optimized BHA, and all
tion is then used by other groups within the remote the time saved by doing each well in one run, the opera-
operating center to inform their review. Survey tool tor saved hundreds of thousands of dollars.
selection takes place next, with the team determining
the ideal survey tool for the parameters detailed in the Editor’s note: This article was submitted prior to the acquisi-
well objectives. This could be a gyro tool or MWD tool, tion of Gyrodata’s directional drilling product line by Intrepid
depending on the analysis of risks. Directional Drilling Specialists.

digital solutions
Six levels of digital oilfield maturity

A true digital oil field delivers operational excellence by providing significant
advantages in reporting and analytics.
field through a mobile-enabled system, as in Levels 2-3,

Michael Maltsev, RigER departments can share data smoothly—and each can
create their own unique reports.
I n today’s hypercompetitive market, energy service

companies are quickly learning that it is not enough
to be the best at their core business; the greater compet-
The deep data and analytics available at Level 4
let an organization clearly see and fix billing and cash
flow bottlenecks. Empowered by live information
itive advantage comes through improving operational and analytics, managers and investors can then make
efficiency. Old-school tools are out the window as com- daily data-driven decisions instead of waiting for
panies race toward operations excellence. While this is monthly or quarterly updates. Data visibility leads to
an important first step, the true digital oil field offers precision in actions.
great advantages in reporting and analytics. On the operations side, higher levels allow the
A true digital process helps accounting to bill faster tracking of a number of key metrics (i.e., client per-
and accurately, and it gives operations detailed infor- formance, equipment utilization, schedules for main-
mation on each piece of inventory, service and rental tenance/repairs, job costs and other data) that man-
fleet in real time. The operations department gains agement needs to assess progress on the path to opera-
insights on hours in use, status tional excellence.
of repairs or maintenance, reve- Large integrated companies
nue versus costs, and more, for may have the resources to
each asset. Oilfield service create their own ticketing,
These issues were already a companies are finding tracking and billing software in
problem for companies still house. But even in this case, a
using paper tickets. Since the cost efficiencies by using system requires ongoing invest-
outbreak of COVID-19 and the leading-edge solutions. ments in upgrades to stay cur-
resulting oil price crash, reve- rent and useful.
nue losses could send a com- Smaller companies may
pany into bankruptcy. buy off-the-shelf software that
The RigER approach identifies six basic levels of auto- requires the user to adapt to the software instead of the
mation in its Digital Oilfield Road Map. A few years ago, software being tailored to the user’s needs. This is still
most companies were at Level 0 or 1 on the road map, inefficient. The way a company operates is their com-
but now more and more have advanced to about Level petitive advantage, and the system must fully support it.
3. While it can take up to a few years to get from Level 0
to 5, most companies move incrementally, seeing signif- Solutions
icant bottom-line savings and efficiencies at each step. A growing number of oilfield service companies are
This moves them toward operational excellence. finding cost efficiencies by using leading-edge solutions
that bring them as close to Level 5 as possible. This
Taking the path forward lets them rely on professional system providers to take
The automation process often starts with a basic desktop their existing base product and tailor it to the client’s
database such as Microsoft Excel, which is certainly an requirements. The service company gets the operational
improvement over the paper and whiteboard system of and reporting functions it needs without building an
Level 0. But spreadsheets offer little in the way of opera- in-house system or bending their own operations to the
tional analysis. unyielding requirements of a one-size-fits-all product.
Advancing further opens the door for deeper opera- Properly tailored software brings sales, operations
tional insights. By connecting back-office people to the and accounting departments together by supplying

digital solutions
the need for fast-paced information in operations and Starting in place

the requirements in accounting for cumulative data Current market instability is the right time for compa-
less often. It allows the sales department to under- nies to advance their automation levels, because survival
stand each client’s needs and how to serve them bet- may depend on becoming more efficient. Each move
ter. A common database stores all field ticket data, up the map brings more savings, better diagnostics and
from which both departments draw what they need companies closer to operational excellence.
in real time. While stepping up the ladder pays off in many ways, it
Searches by client, equipment status (e.g., rented, is important to remember internal human factors during
returned, rental/service history, maintenance costs), the change. Any kind of change encounters some resis-
job status and more allow all departments to discover tance and temporary pain during the learning process,
and remedy revenue bottlenecks. The company can so it is important to change at a speed acceptable to staff.
identify its most and least profitable assets and decide Moving too fast can sour staff members on any change,
whether to expand its best assets and minimize or elimi- no matter how beneficial it is after the transition.
nate its lowest-performing items.
As equipment ages out, it may become more cost-ef- A step toward keeping people on the job
fective to replace it than to continue to repair, espe- The crash in commodity prices also put downward pressure
cially when adding together the cost of parts with lost on pricing and payment schedules for service companies.
revenue from time spent in the shop. Level 5 digitaliza- Moving up the automation scale to any extent can improve
tion gives management the numbers needed to make cash flow on the front end. In the back office, its real-time
these decisions. and extensive database’s reporting functions can quickly
When data are immediately available across depart- reveal areas of greatest profit as opposed to areas of negative
ments, it creates the ultimate transparency. No longer cash flow. This information lets companies focus on their
can a single manager tailor a report to boost their own strongest areas and adjust or eliminate the worst ones.
department’s numbers. Nor is knowledge concentrated All of this improves the bottom line in ways that can
in the mind of one person who could depart suddenly, be the difference in staying in business or shutting the
leaving a crippling information gap. doors and putting more people out of work.
DIGITAL OILFIELD ROAD MAP
ZERO DIGITAL
Level Paper Tickets,
0 Whiteboards Level SIMPLE SOFTWARE
1 Basic Desktop Software Level CLOUD OILFIELD
2 SaaS, IaaS, PaaS
Level
3 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Level
Telemetry, Smart Devices,
4 IoT, Business Analytics
MOBILE OILFIELD
Mobile Applications
Level
ADVANCED DIGITALIZATION 5
There are six levels of automation ranging from notes
Block Chain, Smart Contracts,
on a simple whiteboard to advanced analytics. Digital Twins, Predictive Maintenance,
(Source: RigER) Machine Learning

operator solutions
EFFICIENCY ADVANCES
A different way to think

about wellbore surveying
Solid-state gyro system improves accuracy in cleanout BHA in Gulf of Mexico.
Ty Mitschke, BP; and Rob Shoup, Sean White racy, the development of new error models involved in
and Stephen Forrester, Gyrodata survey uncertainty calculations and the realization that
better data quality and survey accuracy enhance a well’s
W hen discussing wellbore surveying, it is impossible

not to examine the ways in which the oil and gas
industry has changed and evolved over the past several
recovery factor and production life. Gyroscopic surveys
have long been recognized for being more accurate and
precise than standard MWD surveys, but evolution in
decades. Particularly after the recent downturn, oper- well design and well complexity, as well as the need for
ators began to focus intently on drilling wells more in-field survey validation, made an innovation necessary.
efficiently, with drillers given a prime directive: reduce
nonproductive time and invisible lost time. This was Technology
apparent across virtually all published media in the Gyrodata has developed a first-of-its-kind solid-state
industry, from scientific papers touting dramatic reduc- gyroscopic technology that allows a dual-probe setup,
tions in days-versus-depth curves to marketing materials which is deployed in the OmegaX all-attitude drop
insisting that the more efficiently a company could drill, gyro surveying system. The OmegaX system is built on
the better. solid-state circuit technology. This advanced sensor
It has now become more imperative than ever that package integrates two independent three-axis sensor
the industry recognizes the need for significantly better probes to measure the Earth’s rotational rate, and
accuracy in wellbore surveys—and thus, better wellbore thus more precisely determines wellbore inclination
placement. This has taken place in the creation of and true north. Due to its solid-state construction, the
committees overseeing the management of survey accu- OmegaX system is significantly more rugged than its
predecessor. Additionally, while traditional gyros had
to be placed in a thermal flask to operate at tempera-
tures of 150 C (302 F) for extended time periods, the
OmegaX system can operate at such a temperature with
no thermal flask and no time limitation—the only such
tool on the market. The three-axis sensor package and
electronics, including memory and data processing
modules, are only 19 inches long, thus allowing addi-
tional flexibility in operators’ bottomhole assembly
(BHA) designs and configurations.
Continuing from existing spinning-mass technology,
the system seamlessly collects surveys during pipe con-
nections without adding critical path rig time. Due to
the nature of solid-state gyros, no post-run calibrations
are required with the tool since it is not affected by
The graph on the left is the gyro earth rate QC for the mass balance errors. Additionally, quality assurance/
spinning-mass gyro, which was mostly out of spec, while the quality control (QA/QC) is more comprehensive, and
graph on the right is the gyro earth rate QC for the OmegaX validation of the survey run can be completed at the
system, which was in spec. The middle image shows the well site once the tool system is retrieved from the
ellipses of uncertainty and wellbore trajectory with the MWD, BHA. This eliminates the delay incurred by having to
rate gyro and solid-state gyro surveys (black, blue and red, wait for the tool to return to its home base for process-
respectively). (Source: Gyrodata) ing, as required by existing spinning-mass gyros.

operator solutions
EFFICIENCY ADVANCES
Case history data were shown to statistically agree with the position
BP ran a rate gyro survey system through a cased-hole of the MWD surveys, thus increasing confidence in the
cleanout BHA inside the production casing of a well in placement of the wellbore. By being unaffected by the
the Gulf of Mexico. The BHA incorporated a debris- string magnet, the solid-state gyro enables BP to imple-
recovery tool with a high-strength permanent magnet ment a shorter, more effective BHA design and elimi-
designed for large-volume cleanup of ferrous debris in nates the need for extra collars and other costly com-
the wellbore. When the rate gyro survey was compared ponents from a more conventional configuration. In
against the definitive MWD survey, the two surveys did addition, BP and Gyrodata took several lessons learned
not agree within statistical expectation. Post-job analyses for future implementation:
showed that all survey tools passed their respective QA/ • When running a magnet as part of a cleanout BHA
QC tolerances. run, the OmegaX solid-state gyro system is not
Further investigation into the gyro run revealed that affected by magnetic interference regardless of the
although the gyro BHA landed in the expected loca- placement of the magnet in the BHA configuration;
tion, the spinning-mass gyro sensor had sat within 16.16 • The OmegaX system enables more flexibility in clea-
ft of the string magnet throughout the survey run. It nout BHA configuration by eliminating the need
was suspected that the magnet’s large magnetic field to reposition the magnet relative to the gyro or to
and proximity to the gyro system in the BHA had influ- adjust the gyro landing point to avoid the magnet.
enced that survey run. This enables the magnet to be placed closer to the
To prove this hypothesis, a subsequent well with simi- bit, thus potentially improving the efficiency of the
lar casing design and cleanout BHA design was chosen cleanout operation; and
to deploy the OmegaX solid-state gyro system in tandem • The time necessary to conduct a post-job roll
with the rate gyro system to confirm the interference test with the rate gyro is eliminated via use of the
from the string magnet, eval- OmegaX system. This effec-
uate the viability and perfor- tively closes the QA/QC
mance of the solid-state system loop at the well site by being
against the existing technology, able to receive a final defin-
and to prove its viability for
Improving the precision, itive survey within hours of
future use in BP. An additional accuracy and speed retrieving the tool at surface.
objective was to evaluate the of wellbore surveys Subsequent operations are
solid-state gyro’s sensitivity to then able to proceed sooner.
the string magnet placed in the has been the dominant
cleanout BHA. factor driving the Conclusion
The well profile consisted Improving the precision, accu-
of a vertical section with less development of solid- racy and speed of wellbore sur-
than 5 degrees of inclination state gyro technology. veys has been the dominant
from the seabed at 5,042 ft to factor driving the development
the kickoff point at 7,850 ft, of solid-state gyro technology.
followed by a gradual build With this capability clearly
from 7,850 ft to 10,609 ft and about 42 degrees of proven, however, other benefits have become more
inclination. This trajectory was maintained on an East apparent. Due to its smaller size and the inherent
heading (about 92 degrees) to 18,202 ft. The well then advantages of solid-state technology, a system like
proceeded to drop gradually in inclination, first to OmegaX can help an operator implement a wider
37.5 degrees at about 19,142 ft and then to 37 degrees range of BHA designs, as BP learned from this project
until reaching total depth at 24,806 ft. Surveys were with the cleanout BHA. In addition, the results prove
collected at every stand while pulling out of the hole. that in applications where rate gyro systems might face
No issues were encountered during rigup, rigdown or technical limitations based on well design or BHA con-
during the trip out of hole. figuration, the solid-state gyro system is an effective,
The project proved that the solid-state OmegaX sys- high-performing alternative. As the industry continues
tem experienced no observable interference from the its journey to drill better wells and improve operational
magnet and was able to deliver a valid survey run. With efficiency, solid-state gyros will see greater implementa-
a relative instrument performance test, the gyro survey tion in projects around the world.

offshore
SOLUTIONS
Weathering a network storm

Dynamic positioning control systems, when flooded with too much data,
can potentially lose position and other critical functions.
A network storm, associated with ethernet networks,

Ben Hukins, DNV GL has the potential to affect both networks and result in a
loss of position.
M any operations at sea rely on a vessel with a dynamic

positioning (DP) system whereby the vessel
maintains a specific position or track to perform posi-
Network storms
It is not possible to be certain how often network storms
tion-critical operations. The DP system comprises power occur on DP vessels because some are not reported and
generation, power distribution, a thruster and propulsion sometimes it is unclear if it was actually established that
system, heading, environmental and position reference a system failure was a result of a network storm. DNV
systems and the control system. The system components GL recently investigated several events where a network
are typically arranged into two or more redundant storm has contributed to a loss of position, including
groups, with each group able to generate and control ves- onboard diving support vessels and drillships.
sel thrust in three axes: surge, sway and yaw. In normal operation, the network has plenty of capac-
ity to handle the packets of data that are exchanged
Control system between the various system nodes. The processors and
The DP control system is typically arranged as two sep- control equipment process these packets of data and
arate ethernet networks to ensure redundancy. The take action accordingly. In a network storm, the net-
network nodes (e.g., operator stations, field stations work is flooded with too much data and the network
and processors) contain network switches, hubs and becomes overloaded. This can impact critical respon-
other hardware that can create common points between sibilities, such as controlling thrusters, monitoring
redundant groups. While a single fault or loose connec- shutdown conditions or providing switchboard protec-
tion in one network can result in operations continuing tion. Other possible causes of a netstorm can include
without a loss of position on the other redundant net- software and hardware failure, human error, inherited
work, there are potential network faults that can affect design issue and network configuration errors.
both networks and defeat the redundancy concept. The performance of a network also can deteriorate
over time. Likewise, controller or network hardware can
be replaced with lesser capacity components; or with
different firmware, software files can become corrupt
and controller hardware can fail. There is also a regu-
lar flurry of firmware/software upgrades/downgrades
involved in service work, backups and restores. All of
these activities could potentially introduce issues into
the DP control system and network infrastructure.
Protection
Many network switches will feature some form of traffic
control and rate-limiting functionality. This can essen-
tially drop packets of various types when a specified traffic
level is exceeded, potentially averting the degradation of
performance for essential traffic during a critical period.
The external forces and This first line of defense can stop the overload of a con-
degrees of motion experienced troller, and the system can maintain proper function.
by a vessel and controlled by vessel thrust using a If the DP control system software detects a netstorm,
DP system are depicted in the diagram. (Source: DNV GL) then it may be possible that any switch-based protection

offshore
SOLUTIONS
has failed or is not present. The increased traffic level

now poses a real threat to the control system and to
maintaining position.
The system can warn the operator and also attempt
to limit the effects by disabling the affected network
while continuing operation on the redundant network.
Netstorm and the associated protection should be
addressed within the vessel’s failure mode and effects
analysis (FMEA) and suitably tested as part of the DP
FMEA proving trials and annual DP trials as necessary.
It is important to distinguish between throughput
and bandwidth to ascertain sufficient performance. It
also is vital in a control system that traffic reaches its
destination in a time that is expected; in other words,
good network latency. Network redundancy in DP control systems enable safe operations by
ensuring the vessel stays in position. (Source: DNV GL/Polar Media)
Testing
Interestingly, the DP community has traditionally shied pendent of any joystick system. The result should be no
away from the concept of condition, confidence or risk- loss of position or an unexpected failure of equipment.
based testing, preferring to adhere to calendar-based test Testing can be performed using a software utility run
programs. For instance, the most recent update of the from a laptop or specialized hardware test equipment.
International Maritime Organization guidelines can be Thought and consideration also should be given to how
paraphrased as test everything every year. Opinions on results are demonstrated and displayed for an assurance
the frequency of testing differ, but many agree that testing audit or other activity.
every five years or after a software or hardware change/
repair is prudent. The vessel and its systems should at the Addressing dilemmas
very least be tested when it is commissioned. The DP fleet currently in operation has a wide vari-
It is more common to find that network problems exist ety and age of vessels. Only in recent years has the
when the system is tested at FMEA, proving trials, which danger of network storms been appreciated, and the
are not universal. The first network test is potentially the requirements for its consideration and protection were
most important as a vessel with no protection, or defec- included in classification society rules for such vessels.
tive protection stands no chance of surviving a netstorm As such, it is quite common that only in newer vessels
or performance-related failure. has this phenomenon been considered, designed for
The duration of any testing also should be factored into and tested to ensure the vessel is fault-tolerant. Older
these considerations and, most importantly, the duration fleets are potentially not protected against and have
for which the netstorm is maintained during the test. never been tested for their resilience to network storms.
Fortunately, the ease with which netstorm testing can Any ethernet network on the vessel is subject to such
be carried out is improving, and tests are more regular a storm and should be considered in the DP FMEA
and commonplace. It is now possible to test networks and when testing. Other such networks and situations
annually with little, if any, additional burden on vessel to consider are the thruster control system, emergency
availability. Options include facilities to allow the crew shutdown system or an integrated automation system.
to test the networks themselves or to have the test car- Netstorms can have a detrimental impact on all networks,
ried as part of the annual DP trials—a service that DNV not just those that are actively exchanging commands and
GL’s Noble Denton marine services perform. instructions. It has been observed that a storm on a network
It is imperative that preventative measures and through- only utilized for the exchange of data and not processing
put be tested to demonstrate that the system can detect any executive actions can actually interfere with the vessel’s
and protect the controllers from a network storm on ability to control its thrusters resulting in a loss of position.
one of the two process networks and that alarms are effi- Risk-free methods to fully simulate scenarios mean
ciently and effectively delivered to the operator. Testing there is no longer an unreasonable time or cost burden
should also prove the network can maintain communi- to identify and eliminate potential failure and its costly
cations at the expected data rates as well as being inde- consequences.

tech
WATCH
Catalyst-free PDC cutter technology

to drive drilling efficiencies
A new manufacturing process optimizes PDC cutter performance.
to bond them together with metal catalysts, usually cobalt.

Faiza Rizvi, Associate Editor It is also used to combine the diamond cutting element
tables with substrates like tungsten carbide,” Zhan said.
P olycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) drill bits

have been historically used as key drilling tools and
have dramatically changed the oil and gas industry since
He pointed out that the problem arises when the
cobalt residue heats up due to intense friction during
the drilling process, which causes the metal to expand
their introduction in the1970s. Currently, PDC bits more than the diamond until it begins to split. The
account for about 90% of the total drill bit market due expansion of cobalt also leads to the development of
to significant advancements in PDC cutter technology, cracks, resulting in failure.
including deep leaching process applications. However, Zhan has previously worked on the development of
drilling hard, highly abrasive and interbedded forma- a film with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to
tions is a challenge for PDC bits that are currently being demonstrate the consequences of heating a PDC sam-
used in the industry, which do not provide sufficient ple under controlled reservoir conditions.
wear or impact resistance nor adequate thermal stability “Due to the heat, irregular cracks appear [and] the
to drill entire intervals in a single run. This is due to the material dims, turning the once evenly surface into
use of unavoidable cobalt catalyst needed to bind the something similar to the cracked mud seen at the bot-
diamonds that compose the PDC cutting structure. tom of a dry pond,” Zhan said, adding that he has con-
Eliminating the use of catalysts, Saudi Aramco has tributed in-depth research to deep leaching technol-
released the Ultra-HP/HT technology to manufacture ogy—one of the possible solutions to the problem. This
catalyst-free ultra-strong PDC cutting elements, explained solution involves dipping the PDC into acid to leach
David Zhan, the R&D team leader of the Drilling most of the cobalt.
Technology Division at the EXPEC Advanced Research “The industry is researching improved leaching meth-
Center at Saudi Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran. ods or other methods to further reduce the effects of
The company has developed the technology in cobalt. But it also has its limitations as some metals are
collaboration with Chengdu Dongwei Technology Co., sealed in spaces that the liquid cannot reach and are
the world’s only ultra-HP/HT technology provider. left behind,” Zhan said.
Discussing the findings of a PDC cutter’s typical micro-
Overcoming challenges structure under SEM, he said, a PDC cutter is made up
Removal of cobalt, a key ingredient in the manufactur- of a continuous network of diamond coexisting with a
ing process, is the challenge in optimizing the perfor- cobalt catalyst binder distributed in interstices.
mance of PDC cutters made for traditional HP/HT use. “The cobalt catalyst could have both beneficial and
“The PDC cutter relies on a distributed network in detrimental effects on the cutter performance,” he said.
which the crystals are strongly combined. The key point is “During PDC cutter manufacturing, the cobalt catalyst
The image depicts A) wear flat of the Ultra-HP/

HT technology synthesized managed pressure
drilling (MPD) and B) a reference cutter
generated under the same testing condition,
which shows “industry-record” wear resistance
of the Ultra-HP/HT MPD diamond cutting
material, according to the company. (Source:
A) B)
Saudi Aramco)

tech
WATCH
The PDC cutting elements possess metallic fracture toughness that is more than 100% higher than that of current PDC cutters.
(Source: Saudi Aramco)
enhances strong diamond-to-diamond bonding and than the PDC cutters currently used in the industry,
lowers the sintering temperatures and pressures as well. according to the developers. The development of an
“However, cobalt can also expand to break diamond- ultra-strong and catalyst-free PDC cutter delivers signifi-
to-diamond bonding during drilling, especially for hard cant increases in performance, durability and improved
and abrasive formations, resulting from frictional heat well economics, according to the company.
generated from cutter/rock interface. That’s why the Conventional HP/HT technology has a synthesis
PDC industry is working on leaching and other emerg- capability of pressures ranging from 5.5 GPa to 7 GPa.
ing technologies to reduce cobalt in the cutter with a Saudi Aramco’s Ultra-HP/HT technology used a
rapid pace of improvements,” Zhan said. two-stage multi-anvil apparatus with high-pressure
assembly designs for generating ultrahigh pressures
Research up to 35 GPa—seven times higher than current
Saudi Aramco has documented the successful synthesis of PDC cutters—as well as ultrahigh temperatures of
catalyst-free PDC compacts in centimeter size under ultra- up to 2,300 C.
high pressure of 16 GPa and ultrahigh temperature of Saudi Aramco said the PDC cutting elements
2,300 C using micron diamond powder as the starting mate- possess metallic fracture toughness that is more than
rial. A large sample dimension of more than 10 mm in 100% higher than that of current PDC cutters. The
diameter and up to 6 mm in thickness has been achieved, material is catalyst-free and has the highest thermal
which are sufficiently large enough and cost-effective to stability of up to 1,200 C in air, which is 600 C higher
make parts and components for not only hydrocarbon drill- than the best commercial PDC materials, according
ing but also a wide range of other industrial applications. to the company.
“Across the industry, the goal is for PDC cutters to be
able to endure long periods of time at high temperatures Moving forward
as they cut through hard, variable formations,” Zhan During Phase 1 of the research, laboratory testing of the
explained, adding that the industry’s rule of thumb is catalyst-free PDC cutting materials synthesized by the
that temperatures higher than 750 C damages the PDC Ultra-HP/HT technology proved its potential in E&P
cutter and leaching pushes that limit to about 1,200 C. and drilling operations as well as in physics, aerospace
“Although there have been many attempts to further science, geoscience and petroleum engineering.
optimize these limits, Saudi Aramco has successfully devel- Zhan concluded, “Our next step in Phase 2, which we
oped the Ultra-HP/HT technology to manufacture cata- are currently working on, is to join or bond the ultra-
lyst-free ultra-strong PDC cutting elements,” Zhan said. strong catalyst-free PDC cutting elements or layers onto
a substrate to form a full-scale PDC cutter that will be
Features attached to the drill bit body for field testing. Once the
The new method manufactures diamond-cutting materi- field testing is completed, the technology will be
als with ultrahigh wear resistance, which is 300% higher deployed in our operations.”

UNCONVENTIONAL REPORT:
HAYNESVILLE
LNG exports to decline

for Haynesville Shale
An analysis reveals a 20% output decline in a $1.80 to $1.90
Henry Hub scenario for the gas play.
wells per month will be put on production. Haynesville

Contributed by Rystad Energy gross gas output will then fall from 12.5 Bcf/d to 10 Bcf/d
throughout 2020-2022, stabilizing in 2023.
T he Haynesville gas basin, arguably the most import-

ant basin for LNG exports in the U.S. due to its
proximity to existing and planned terminals, is set for a
In a Henry Hub environment of $2.20 to $2.40, the
running rate of activity is at about 30 horizontal wells per
month in the medium term. Such an activity level deliv-
20% decline in output toward 2023 if Henry Hub prices ers an almost perfect match with maintenance require-
average $1.80 to $1.90/MMBtu, according to a Rystad ments, with production remaining close to 12.5 Bcf/d
Energy analysis. during 2020 to 2023. Higher gas prices are sufficient to
Henry Hub prices are currently within the $1.80 to trigger continuous production growth in the Haynesville.
$1.90 range, and if they maintain current levels until 2023, In a $2.70 to $3 Henry Hub environment, the run-
gas production in Haynesville is set for a decline in activity. ning rate of activity is set to increase to 40 wells per
As a result, Rystad expects only an average of 20 horizontal month—sufficient to see another 3 Bcf/d added by the
Haynesville before year-end 2023.
“As of today, we have not seen any meaningful pro-
duction slowdown in Haynesville gas output—yet.
With the declining trend, activity is set to fall below
maintenance requirements in the next few months.
Nevertheless, we should not forget about the likelihood
of continuous productivity improvements, which always
accompany declining activity due to the renewed focus
on the best projects,” said Artem Abramov, Rystad
Energy’s head of shale research.
The total number of horizontal spuds per quarter has
already declined from about 110 to 120 wells per quar-
ter in the fourth quarter of 2017 to the third quarter of
2019, and to 85 wells in the first quarter of 2020. With
the current rig count, the basin will likely be down to 75
Storm clouds are gathering horizontal spuds in the second quarter of this year.
on the LNG export future that The number of wells put on production has lagged
may disrupt the smooth behind spuds in 2017 to 2019. But everything changed
sailing Haynesville Shale. in the fourth quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of this
(Source: Shutterstock/ year, as operators began diving into their drilled but
Hart Energy) completed inventory (a normal trend when the drilling
market begins to decline). In the first quarter, it is esti-
mated that Haynesville operators put 94 horizontal wells
on production, but the recent decline in fracking will
likely result in about a 15% contraction in activity put
on production in the second quarter.
Among all major unconventional oil and gas basins in
the U.S., the Haynesville exhibits the highest production
contribution from private operators. As of the first quarter,

UNCONVENTIONAL REPORT:
HAYNESVILLE
private operators produced 7.2 Bcf/d of HAYNESVILLE REGION, GROSS GAS PRODUCTION OUTLOOK
gross gas in the region, almost 60% of total
output. Private operators also drove nearly
all recent growth in the region.
As of the first quarter, short-term
growth is probably over for dedicated
public operators and supermajors—both
groups exhibit little to no growth on a
year-over-year basis, with a growing num-
ber of operators managing a plateau. In
turn, many private operators had a back-
loaded growth schedule in 2019, and the
group as a whole pushed its year-over-year
growth to a record high level of about 1.5
Bcf/d, a level previously achieved in 2018.
“The pace of year-over-year growth in the (Source: Rystad Energy research and analysis, ShaleWellCube)
Haynesville has decelerated since mid-
2019. However, it is clear that it may take some time
before the low gas price environment and the decline in Rystad Energy’s own base case scenario has Henry
drilling and completion activity pushes basinwide output Hub prices steadily recovering to nearly $3/MMBtu
downward,” Abramov said. in 2022.
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tech
TRENDS
Remote training for offshore vessels based surveillance systems, together with its predictive data
Kongsberg Maritime offers virtual, targeted training analytics and Internet of Things ecosystem, to manage and
through digital platforms including remote training, assess client operations. The enhanced level of services pro-
e-learning and the Kongsberg Competence Assessment vided by this system during drilling operations will vastly
Tool (K-CAT). Video conferencing and virtual machines benefit those with a stake in identifying and managing
allow in-depth, hands-on training to be safely delivered, risks and any asset deterioration.
maintaining skills and continuing development. The
virtual training environment enables remote students to Risk management tool to help
learn using their own vessel’s software, assisted live by a businesses resume operations smoothly
qualified instructor. Remote training delivered through ABS Consulting has released the Restart Risk Model to
established virtual classrooms and online training tools help commercial and public organizations resume oper-
will ensure that vessel crews can fully benefit from Kongs- ations safely as restrictions around the COVID-19 pan-
berg’s expertise from the convenience and safety of their demic have started easing. The Restart Risk Model builds
homes or offices. E-learning delivers an interactive experi- on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and
ence without the instructor, allowing the student to com- Prevention and OSHA, offering a way for organizations
plete the course at their convenience. E-learning typically to systematically evaluate the risk of disease transmission
comprises a combination of theoretical lessons, practical to their sites, operations and work areas. This risk-based
tasks and summative tests after every topic, qualifying the framework will help organizations develop a plan to
student to sign up for a final online assessment. Aiming restart operations with enhanced working practices that
to help ship owners safeguard and verify the development address the “new normal” business environment after the
and retention of their crews’ skills, K-CAT offers compe- pandemic. The Restart Risk Model leverages industry-
tence assessments for key damage prevention personnel, specific templates developed by ABS Consulting to assess
with additional offerings expected soon. an organization’s site and develop a custom risk profile.
Through a systematic process, the company will work
with a client to document current risk controls for worker
safety and make recommended mitigation controls for
back-to-work scenarios and the opening and closing of
sites. The Restart Risk Model also includes an integrated
dashboard that provides a visualization of risk levels at
work sites. As conditions and guidance evolve, organiza-
tions can easily see where they need to adapt.
Device ensures the safety of

workers through social distancing
Triax Technologies Inc. has released Proximity Trace
devices that provide proximity distancing alerts and con-
tact tracing through a wearable device for workers. The
device offers added protection for essential workers during
Kongsberg Maritime instructors will conduct courses in real time the COVID-19 pandemic and helps companies get workers
in virtual classrooms. (Source: Kongsberg) back to work safely while addressing recommended social
distancing practices. The Proximity Trace devices are
New system for remotely affixed to a hard hat or worn on the body with a lanyard
monitoring drilling operations and emit a progressively louder alarm, alerting workers
Stress Engineering Services (SES) has released a digital when they are too close to each other. The alarm also
flex joint angle measurement system for monitoring real- serves to change behaviors by reminding workers to prac-
time drilling operations. Using the core technology of a tice safe social distancing. In the event of a confirmed case
real-time fatigue monitoring system and subsea vibration of COVID-19 in an employee, the employer can conduct
data logger system, the technology has been leveraged and contact tracing using historical data captured passively
improved to determine quasi-static and dynamic lower and by the worker’s device to identify who may have been
upper flex joint angles in real time. The development adds exposed. With more reliable information, companies can
to the company’s present technology portfolio of asset- decide who needs to be in mandatory or precautionary

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America – We Make Sure
Policymakers Know
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Visit www.ipaa.org/join
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I N D E P E N D E N T P E T R O L E U M A S S O C I AT I O N O F A M E R I C A | W W W. I P A A . O R G
tech
TRENDS
quarantine per the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention guidelines and whether the site can con-
tinue to operate safely without the need to shut down
the entire operation. Proximity Trace was designed
to support appropriate social distancing guidelines as
outlined by government agencies, which can be used
alongside an organization’s internal policies on social
distancing and other safety guidelines. The device com-
municates to a cloud dashboard designed for contact
tracing. The product is undergoing field testing, and
key feedback from early customers will be incorporated
into production for commercial availability.
3D data capture service for offshore operations

Viewport3 has developed a new remote data capture
service, allowing users to collect and process 3D data
from offshore operations via remote working arrange-
ments. Demand for the data capture service has grown
as operators seek to reduce personnel working offshore,
combined with travel restrictions related to COVID-19.
The company’s technique involves providing divers
and ROV personnel with instructions for the task along
with remote support, allowing them to collect and sub-
mit the data to Viewport3 for processing and analysis.
Over the course of the development, the company has
improved the service to ensure users can retrieve the
correct data. Because written instructions were insuffi- Acoustic Data’s deployment model for its wireless monitoring
cient, site-specific video and graphical workflows were system is designed to give operators a cost-effective data
created to demonstrate how to collect all the required solution. (Source: Acoustic Data)
information. Viewport3 can process and interrogate
data acquired from any source, in addition to its own. underground storage, production, injection and moni-
toring wells. The technology can be quickly and safely
Remote deployment for retrofitted via slickline in existing wells with Acoustic
wireless monitoring system Data’s Barracuda HEX-Hanger, a high-expansion gauge
Acoustic Data has released a remote deployment model hanger system.
for its SonicGauge Wireless Monitoring System to over-
come travel restrictions related to COVID-19. The sys- Editor’s note: The copy herein is compiled from press releases
tem enables operators to self-install their real-time and product announcements from service companies and does
wireless downhole monitoring system without any spe- not reflect the opinions of Hart Energy. Submit your company’s
cialist engineers on site. With much of the industry’s updates related to new technology products and services to
workforce grounded, Acoustic Data is offering full oper- Faiza Rizvi at frizvi@hartenergy.com.
ational support in real time from its U.K. headquarters.
In conjunction with online training videos, operators
will now be able to install the prepackaged and prepro-
grammed technology in standard well installations,
from underground gas storage to production and moni-
toring wells. The SonicGauge provides simple, real-time
data acquisition and reporting as an alternative to
cabled permanent downhole gauges and sporadic mem-
ory gauge surveys. The acoustic telemetry system enables
engineers to conduct real-time reservoir evaluation in

TECHNOLOGY
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Connecting You to the Global Energy Industry

international
HIGHLIGHTS
Oil was found in porous reservoirs

1 US 6 Norway
in the exploratory prospect known
An oil discovery was reported at informally as Araucária. The well data In offshore Norway PL836 S, Winter-
the Monument exploration pros- will be analyzed to better target the shall completed wildcat well 6406/3-
pect by Equinor (operator) and its exploratory activities in the area and 10. The primary target for the well was
partners Progress Resources USA assess the potential of the discovery. to prove petroleum in reservoir rocks
Ltd. and Repsol. The OCS G35081 from Early and Middle Jurassic (Ile
encountered about 200 ft of net oil and Tilje). The secondary explora-
4 Brazil
pay with good reservoir character- tion target was to prove petroleum in
istics in Paleogene-aged sandstone. Petro-Victory Energy has announced reservoir rocks from Middle Jurassic
The well was drilled to 33,348 ft and an oil discovery at exploration well Age (Garn). In the primary explora-
is in Walker Ridge Block 316 (OCS 1-VID-1-ES (Vida) in Block ES-T- tion target, the venture encountered
G36084). Walker Ridge Block 271 487 in the Espírito Santo Basin in a 35-m, hydrocarbon-bearing sand-
(OCS G35080) is also part of the Brazil. It was drilled to 1,890 m in stone layers in Ile with poor reservoir
Monument project. the onshore portion of the basin. quality. The well also found a 120-m
Evaluation of logging, pressure and oil column in Tilje, with sandstone
fluid data confirms that Vida com- layers totaling about 75 m with poor-
2 Suriname
prises high-quality, oil-bearing Cre- to-good reservoir quality. In the sec-
A significant offshore Suriname oil taceous sandstone reservoirs. The ondary exploration target, a 60-m oil
discovery was reported by Apache well encountered 49 m of net oil pay. zone was encountered in Garn, with
Corp. at the Sapakara-1 West well in Oil was recovered to surface during poor-to-moderate sandstone reservoir
Block 58. It was drilled to 6,300 m. fluid sampling from a sandstone res- quality. Preliminary estimates indicate
Preliminary fluid samples and test ervoir at 1,600 m, and preliminary 4 MMcm to 15 MMcm of recoverable
results indicate at least 79 m of net testing of oil samples indicate simi- oil equivalent. The well was drilled to
oil and gas condensate pay in two lar qualities (24°API) to a nearby oil 4,566 m. This is the first exploration
intervals. The shallower Campan- field. Most of the reported oil pay well in the license area.
ian interval contains 13 m of net gas was found 1,560 m to 1,660 m. Addi-
condensate and 30 m of net oil pay tional testing is planned.
7 Norway
(35-40°API). The deeper Santonian
interval contains a 36-m, net oil-bear- Aker BP completed wildcat well
5 UK
ing reservoir. Block 58 comprises 1.4 6506/5-1 S in PL1008, the first well in
million acres and offers potential UK Oil & Gas has filed a planning the license. The objective of the Skarv
beyond the discoveries at Sapakara application with the U.K. Isle of Field well was to prove petroleum in
West and Maka Central. Apache has Wight Council for exploration drill- Upper Cretaceous reservoir rocks
identified at least seven distinct play ing and flow testing of the Arreton oil (Lysing). The wildcat encountered a
types and more than 50 prospects discovery. A deviated borehole test is gas column of about 15 m in Lysing,
within the thermally mature play fair- planned for the Arreton-3 well plus a of which 10 m of sandstones had very
way. Two other wells are planned at possible horizontal sidetrack off the good reservoir quality. Deeper in the
Kwaskwasi-1 and Keskesi-1, and both main borehole at Arreton-3Z. The Lysing Formation, about 25 m of net
will test oil-prone upper Cretaceous Arreton conventional oil discovery is water-bearing reservoir rocks were
targets in Campanian and Santonian similar to the company’s Horse Hill encountered with moderate reservoir
intervals in reservoirs that appear to oil field. It contains three stacked quality. It was drilled to 3,225 m and
be independent of Maka-1 and Sapa- Jurassic oil pools with a calculated, terminated in Lange in the Lower
kara-1 discoveries. aggregate gross P50 oil in place of Cretaceous. Preliminary estimates
127 MMbbl. If short-term flow test- indicate the discovery is between 1
ing of Arreton-3 indicates commer- Bcm to 2.4 Bcm of recoverable gas.
3 Brazil
cial viability, flow testing could also
Petrobras found oil in the pioneer be conducted in the planned hor-
8 Germany
well of the Uirapuru Block offshore izontal sidetrack wells, including
Brazil’s presalt Santos Basin. The an extended well test to assess lon- Neptune Energy announced an oil
Uirapuru-1 well is in 1,995 m of water. ger-term flow performance. discovery in Germany’s Rhine Valley

international
HIGHLIGHTS
7
6
8
5
9
1
10
3
11
at exploration well Schwegenheim-1.

10 Saudi Arabia 11 Australia
According to the company, two lay-
ers of the Bunter Sandstone reservoir Lukoil plans to drill two deep Santos Ltd. has submitted a develop-
were found to be oil-bearing. The ven- unconventional gas exploration ment plan for the Narrabri Gas Project
ture was drilled to 2,600 m. It has been wells in Saudi Arabia’s Rub al-Khali in New South Wales, Australia. The
cased and suspended for further test- region. Both wells will be drilled to project will develop a coal seam gas
ing. The Bunter Sandstone reservoir about 5,800 m in the Mushaib Field, field with as many as 850 gas wells on
is an equivalent to the nearby Romer- a tight gas play. Aramco wants gas up to 425 well pads over 20 years. Gas
berg structure. During production to help it cover subsidized domestic processing and water treatment facili-
testing, the well produced 1,500 bbl of power demand so it can save oil for ties also are planned. According to the
oil during an unspecified period. more lucrative exports. Aramco is company, the project can potentially
willing to spend up to $3 billion on supply enough gas to meet 50% of the
shale gas development in the King- demand for New South Wales, and it
9 Egypt
dom, but it has given no details on has committed 100% of Narrabri gas
SDX Energy announced an oil dis- the investment. Adequate supply of production to that market, which will
covery at 12X-SD-12X in the South water for fracturing will be a major be supplied through the existing
Disouq Exploration Permit in Egypt’s issue. Aramco is developing new Moomba-to-Sydney pipeline.
Nile Delta region. It was drilled to hydraulic fracturing technologies to
7,245 ft and hit 108 net ft of high-qual- increase recovery rates and improve By Larry Prado, Activity Editor
ity gas-bearing sands with an average cost efficiency, including a CO2-
porosity of 20% in Kafr El Sheikh. based fracturing fluid. Aramco has
For additional information on these projects
Current estimates by the company a plan to produce 200 MMcf/d of and other global developments, visit the
indicate about 24 Bcfe of recoverable unconventional gas to supply a new activity highlights database at
gas and condensate resources. Addi- phosphate project and power plant
tional testing is planned. in the Eastern Province.

on the
MOVE
PEOPLE Golar LNG Partners L.P. has which is anticipated to take place
appointed Karl Fredrik Staubo within the next 12 months. In the
interim CEO and Golar LNG meantime, Tyler has indicated his
Joe B. Foster, founder Ltd. has appointed Callum Mitch- commitment to continue serving as
and former chairman, ell-Thomson CFO, both succeeding chairman of the board.
president and CEO of Graham Robjohns, who has stepped
Newfield Exploration down from those positions. Daniel Energy Partners has
Co., has passed away. According to appointed 10 executive advisers:
an internal email sent to employ- ConocoPhillips has announced the Don Gawick, Joe Freeman, Mark
ees by Ovintiv Inc., Foster, 86, retirement of Don E. Wallette, Jr. as Hood, Larry Kerr, Chris Menefee,
died May 9 at his home in Hous- executive vice president and CFO, Royce Mitchell, Brian Smith, Garrett
ton from an apparent heart attack. effective Aug. 31. He held a 39-year Smith, Bill Stanger and Denzil West.
His death was not COVID-19- career with the company.
related. When he started Newfield Cub Energy Inc., a Ukraine-focused
in 1989, Foster had a team of 26 Nigel Filer has joined energy company, has appointed
employees and $9 million of equi- tech startup Xergy as an Patrick McGrath to the board. Dr.
ty capital. By the time he retired investor and COO. Timothy Marchant has resigned
from Newfield in 2000, he had from the board.
built the company into a thriving
multibillion-dollar business. Imperial Oil Ltd. has named S.P.
COMPANIES
(Simon) Younger senior vice presi-
Eni’s board of directors has dent of upstream, effective June 1. CUI Global Inc. has changed its
appointed Claudio Descalzi CEO He will succeed J.R. (John) Whelan, name to Orbital Energy Group,
and general manager. who has been appointed vice presi- Inc. The new name reflects the
dent of Global Heavy Oil at Exxon company’s strategic repositioning to
Mitch Little (left) has retired as Mobil Upstream Oil and Gas. become a diversified energy infra-
executive vice president structure services company.
of operations with Mar- SeekOps has named Jim
athon Oil Corp. and will Rutherford vice president Murphy Oil Corp. is set to relocate
transition to executive vice of engineering. its headquarters to Houston, shutter-
president and adviser to the CEO ing its legacy headquarters office in
with oversight for Equatorial Guinea El Dorado, Ark., where the compa-
operations. Additionally, Mike The Oil and Gas Authority has ny was formed by its namesake in
Henderson has been promoted to appointed Iain Lanaghan and 1944. The E&P company also plans
senior vice president of operations Sarah Deasley nonexecutive direc- to close its longstanding office in
and will oversee Marathon Oil’s U.S. tors. Deasley will assume responsi- Calgary, Alberta. Both offices are set
Resource Play businesses. bilities in October, following the to close by early third quarter.
retirement of Robert Armour at the
Stephen M. Johnson (left), CEO of end of September. Peloton has acquired ExproSoft, a
WaterBridge supplier of well integrity, reliability
Resources LLC, will transi- Xodus Group has and data modeling software and
tion into the newly created appointed Nigel Under- consulting services.
role of vice chairman. He wood to manage the com-
will be succeeded by CFO Steven pany’s London subsea and MAKEEN Energy’s daughter
Jones and COO Jason Long, who pipelines division. company, Kosan Crisplant, has
have been named co-CEOs. Both signed an agreement to acquire
Jones and Long will retain their Ian Tyler, Cairn Energy’s chairman, Gas Equipment Company Inc.
roles as CFO and COO, respectively. has announced his intention to
retire from the board once a succes- The Petroleum Equipment &
ARROW Exploration Corp. has sor has been appointed. The board Services Association welcomed
appointed Joe McFarlane CFO, will begin a comprehensive process Wellbore Integrity Solutions as its
succeeding John Newman. to identify and appoint a successor, new member company.

on the
MOVE
MARKETING | SALES | CIRCULATION
The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact technologies and software that mea-
Commission, a consortium of 31 states, sure and control the flow of material
has asked the Trump administration for in a manufacturing process.
Publisher stimulus funds to hire laid-off energy
DARRIN WEST workers to plug abandoned wells, a pro- KLX Energy Services Holdings Inc.
Tel: 713-260-6449 posal aimed at fending off unemploy- and Quintana Energy Services Inc.
dwest@hartenergy.com
ment while tackling a growing environ- announced that they have entered into
mental problem. a definitive agreement whereby the
Global Sales Manager
HENRY TINNE
companies will combine in an all-
Tel: 713-260-6478 Emerson will invest more than $100 stock merger transaction. The merger
htinne@hartenergy.com million in Boulder to significantly is expected to close in the second
expand its manufacturing space half of 2020.
Executive Director of Conference Marketing and launch a new innovation center
BILL MILLER focused on research, new product Flotek Industries Inc. has acquired
Tel: 713-260-1067
development and industry training 100% ownership of JP3 Measurement
bmiller@hartenergy.com
for its advanced flow measurement LLC, a privately held data and
Executive Director—Digital Media
products. The nearly 180,000-sq-ft analytics technology company, in
DANNY FOSTER expansion includes a new, 85,000-sq-ft a cash-and-stock transaction. The
Tel: 713-260-6437 laboratory and manufacturing facility transaction is valued at approximately
dfoster@hartenergy.com to design and develop products, $34.4 million.
Sales Manager, Eastern Hemisphere

DAVID HOGGARTH
ADVERTISER INDEX
Tel: 44 (0) 7930 380782
Fax: 44 (0) 1276 482806
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Aggreko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Business Development Representative API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
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CP Energy Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Tel: 713-260-6450
kmuhl@hartenergy.com EcoVapor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
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Tel: 713-260-6400 FTS International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Toll Free: 800-874-2544 GR Energy Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
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| June
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20202020 67
last
WORD
A standards approach to
specifying fluid system components
Certified materials ensure repeatability and reliability.
turing and material property requirements listed in the

Matthew Gallaugher, Swagelok Co. relevant tables of the standard’s Annex A to optimize
the corrosion resistance. Failure to follow the defined
W hen designing fluid systems for corrosive oper-

ating environments, asset owners often follow a
standard approach to ensure repeatability and reliabil-
material conditions may compromise component per-
formance and life span as well as NACE compliance.
ity. A design that has performed dependably over time Following NORSOK standards
will likely do the same in a new system in the same envi- Similar to NACE standards, the Norwegian petroleum
ronment and conditions. Yet, owners also can customize industry’s NORSOK standards outline material and
systems and still achieve optimal performance. supply chain requirements to ensure component qual-
Standardization is a requirement for fluid system ity. Such provisions include material selection guide-
component manufacturers. Suppliers must adhere to lines for specific applications and strict manufacturing
industry standards to ensure compliance with those protocols. For example, the NORSOK M-650 standard
guidelines. Of course, component repeatability and reli- verifies that a manufacturer has sufficient experience
ability typically follow. with relevant material grades as well as the necessary
Consider the American National Standards Institute facilities and equipment to manufacture those materi-
(ANSI)/NACE MR0175/ International Organization als into components.
for Standardization (ISO)15156 “Petroleum,
Petrochemical and Natural Gas Industries—Materials Going above and beyond
for Use in H2S-containing Environments in Oil and Gas The industry relies on material standards to provide
Production” standard. a level of confidence that a component will perform
This consensus standard is a collaboration of three as stated. However, a standard represents a minimum
major standards organizations: ANSI, NACE International requirement. A part designed to meet the minimum
and ISO. These parties have agreed on the minimum should perform reliably. Yet, a part that exceeds that
requirements for selecting and qualifying various alloys minimum should perform even better.
to enhance component corrosion resistance. When specifying components made from 316
When manufacturers follow the standard’s metal- stainless steel, ASTM A479/A479M-18 “Standard
lurgical requirements, components are more likely to Specification for Stainless Steel Bars and Shapes for
resist corrosion and perform reliably. Similar results are Use in Boilers and Other Pressure Vessels” requires
expected when manufacturers produce components the material to have at least 10% nickel and 16% chro-
based on guidelines from other standards organizations mium content to mitigate corrosion. Field-testing has
such as ASTM International and NORSOK. shown that 316 stainless steel tubing with elevated ele-
mental concentrations closer to 12% nickel and 17%
Adhering to the standard chromium resists corrosion far better than tubing man-
The ANSI/NACE MR0175/ISO 15156 standard helps ufactured to minimum standards. Selecting a better 316
ensure materials used in sour gas environments can stainless steel grade should enhance system reliability.
reliably mitigate stress corrosion cracking and sulfide To realize the best outcomes, asset owners must
stress cracking. Sulfide stress cracking can develop when ensure their fluid system component suppliers meet
H2S is present. To produce fluid system components industry standards and exceed them, when possible.
that comply with the standard, manufacturers must use Practices also should include assurances covering com-
qualified raw materials, test those materials and follow ponent repeatability and reliability.
specific manufacturing methods. Like the very processes outlined in component stan-
When producing components that are compliant with dards, these qualifications should be a standard part of
this standard, manufacturers must follow the manufac- an owner’s vetting process.

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