Table of Contents

• Total drills extended-reach record in Tierra del Fuego
  Located at the southern tip of South America in Tierra del Fuego, the Cullen Norte No. 1 set a world record 10,585 m of horizontal displacement, reaching a TD of 11,184 m in March 1999. Forasol's Rig No. 1625/3, on location facing the South Atlantic Ocean, uses a variety of innovative extended-reach drilling technologies, including a horizontal pickup-laydown machine and cuttings-weighing equipment (Fig. 1).
• Rotary-steerable system drills 300,000 ft of hole
  A Norwegian driller lowers the rotary-steerable, closed-loop drilling assembly into a well in Norsk Hydro's Troll field (Fig. 1). Well 31/5 J-A11H, Troll Field, offshore Norway [65,014 bytes] A rotary-steerable, closed-loop drilling system accumulated 300,000 ft of hole last February, achieving a significant milestone for directional drilling technologies. With more than 10,000 hr of operation in the field, the Baker Hughes Inteq/Agip SpA Autotrack system reached this mark on the
• Drilling with casing promises major benefits
  A wire line winch is used to run and retrieve the BHA through the casing. It is driven by a high-torque motor attached directly to the winch axle (Fig. 3). This fully hydraulic powered drilling rig with a telescoping mast was utilized for Tesco's first casing drilling tests (Fig. 4). A casing drilling system developed by Tesco Drilling Technology aims to reduce costs, improve drilling efficiency, and minimize hole problems by casing the well as it is drilled.
• IEA marks 25th anniversary with expanded role
  How oil prices have rollercoastered [83,064 bytes] IEA oil production vs. dependence [78,060 bytes] IEA countries' demand for petroleum products [82,519 bytes] IEA countries' energy supply [84,362 bytes] IEA countries' oil stocks [52,190 bytes] OECD countries with competitive wholsale electricity [52,190 bytes] Regional indicators [191,699 bytes] The Paris-based International Energy Agency is marking its 25th anniversary in a year when oil markets are swamped with ample supplies and
• IEA organization reflects autonomy, member consensus
  As currently structured, the International Energy Agency is an autonomous body of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Until recently, IEA was housed on the same premises as OECD. It has recently moved to separate quarters, because OECD has an expanding membership and needed the space. Its powers of decision lie in the governing board, made up of officials holding positions of policy responsibility in the member governments. The board's decisions are made in practice
• IEA monthly oil report relies on having 'right contacts'
  Michael Witner, an International Energy Agency official working on the agency's widely watched Monthly Oil Market Report, described to OGJ how the report is compiled. "We receive statistics and data from member countries, from member governments, from trade organizations, the press, consultants, oil companies, and other international organizations," he said.
• Hydro, Repsol bids lead European M&A action
  A new takeover bid has topped European energy news as Norsk Hydro AS last week made a move to swallow up fellow Norwegian firm Saga Petroleum AS, Oslo. In a week that saw the current mergers and acquisitions frenzy maintain its vigor, Spain's Repsol SA had its offer for Argentina's YPF SA accepted, while London-based Lasmo plc and Premier Oil plc waited on shareholders' decisions. Lasmo made a bid for Monument Oil & Gas plc, London, while Premier faced a bid to overthrow its current
• Norway acts to boost blighted E&P sector
  Norwegien project cost over-runs [108,778 bytes] Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has announced new measures designed to maintain activity in its offshore oil and gas industry. The news came on Mar. 11, a day after the reading before the Storting, Norway's parliament, of a white paper expected to start an investigation into how state firm Statoil AS ran into trouble on its ?sgard fields development (see story, p. 32).
• IPAA backs petition alleging crude oil dumping
  The Independent Petroleum Association of America has voted to support a petition asking the U.S. International Trade Commission to investigate alleged dumping of crude oil in the U.S. market by Mexico, Venezuela, Iraq, and Kuwait. Concerned about low oil prices for the past year, IPAA governors took the action during IPAA's midyear meeting in Charleston, S.C., last week.
• Watching Government
  A couple of years ago, the Caspian Sea region seemed to be the last great oil frontier. Now international oil companies view the Caspian less optimistically, after the plunge in world oil prices, some exploration failures, and continuing political problems. But the U.S. State Department is convinced the region still has great promise. To get that view publicized, it and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA) recently sent six U.S. ambassadors on a tour that touched down in New Orleans, New
• Bug business booms
  In its laboratories, BASF Microcheck Ltd., Nottingham, U.K., grows bacteria at amazing rates, and it aims to achieve similar multiplication of its sales. Microcheck cultivates bugs that are a major problem in a number of industries, including oil and gas. These are used only to test the company's products. Walter Guthrie, R&D manager at Microcheck, said: "Wherever you've got water, you'll get bugs. In the oil and gas industry, sulfate reducers, slime formers, and degraders are the
• INDUSTRY BRIEFS
  Concern about a gas leak prompted more than 200 workers at Esso Australia Ltd.'s Longford gas plant in eastern Gippsland, Victoria, to walk off the job May 7 and 8. An unidentified employee told the local press that operations were continuing as normal at the plant, which is supplied from the Bass Strait oil and gas fields. Last September, an explosion at the Longford plant killed two workers and cut much of Victoria's gas supplies for 10 days (OGJ, Oct. 5, 1998, p. 39). Lyondell-Citgo

• Oil and China's complaint
  Beneath diplomatic tempests stirred up by the May 7 aerial bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade lurks petroleum. The errant attack, said to result from faulty U.S. intelligence, killed three Chinese nationals, and triggered demonstrations in Beijing that left the U.S. embassy there battered by thrown objects and had diplomats on the scene worried about physical takeover. U.S. officials blamed the mistake on an obsolete map. The Chinese embassy moved into the location mistargeted as a

• Norway's Storting to debate Åsgard cost
  Norway's parliament, the Storting, has been presented with a white paper detailing the problems state firm Statoil AS ran into with its Åsgard fields development. The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy recently ousted the board of Statoil (see related story, p. 31), after it was revealed that the current Åsgard development would exceed its budget of 28.5 billion kroner ($3.67 billion) by 17 billion kroner ($2.19 billion).
• Shell creates global deepwater unit
  Royal Dutch/Shell companies are rolling their deepwater expertise into a single, global organization. The unit, known as Shell Deepwater Services (SDS) and based in Houston, will begin operations around July 1. The organization has been in formation during the past 5 months, said Mahdi Hasan and Richard A. Sears, Shell vice-presidents, who unveiled the plan at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston earlier this month.

• Mixed-distillate hydrotreating reduces costs
  Feeds and products of MDH unit (Fig.1) [60,994 bytes] In its Meraux, La., refinery, Murphy Oil USA Inc. worked with Haldor Topsoe Inc. to increase the cycle lengths of Murphy Oil's mixed-distillate hydrotreating (MDH) unit by more than 42%. Reducing the pressure-drop buildup and catalyst-deactivation rate allowed increased cycle lengths.
• Gulf Coast refinery increases product recovery with neural networks
  By applying a new advanced-control system to its crude-tower process, Amoco Oil Petroleum Products Co. (now BP-Amoco) Texas City refinery saved more than $500,000/year in recovered product, according to the company. The Texas City refinery's atmospheric crude unit takes preheated crude oil and separates it into five streams: top stream (to vapor recovery), naphtha, kerosine, diesel (the primary product), and bottom stream. The distillation unit has a capacity of more than 400,000 b/d of

• Abu Dhabi NGL plant revamped to handle new feed composition
  Capacity study criteria [82,455 bytes] Changes in 1996 to the stream composition feeding the NGL fractionation plant at Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, prompted operator Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd. (Gasco) to revamp and debottleneck the plant. The new feed-component distribution has led to increased propane and butane rates and to significantly increased sulfur component rates. Gasco engaged Kellogg Construction Ltd., London, to lead the revamp project, from process debottlenecking studies through to
• Caspian pipeline plans tied to available oil
  Key to commercial viability of a Baku-Ceyhan pipeline is the availability of oil from the eastern Caspian Sea region That is the view that Jan H. Kalicki, U.S. Department of Commerce Counselor, gave in a speech to the Offshore Technology Conference earlier this month. Eventually, producers in the eastern Caspian region will rely on a Baku-Ceyhan pipeline as much as oil producers off Azerbaijan. Kalicki said, "We will see the creation of a phased, integrated approach to exporting oil from the
• Brazil-Uruguay natural gas pipeline slated
  Pan American Energy, BG plc, and Uruguay's state petroleum company Ancap have signed a memorandum of understanding with Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state government for construction of a $350 million, 920-km gas pipeline from Uruguay to the northern Brazil state.

• Faroes licensing due after boundary deal
  A long dispute over the maritime boundary between the U.K. and the Faroes Islands has been resolved, clearing the way for licensing of the area for oil and gas exploration. The agreement was due to be signed by the U.K., Faroese, and Danish governments in the Faroes capital of Tors- havn during a May 18-19 visit. Fishing considerations have been a major factor in delaying the deal. The U.K. Foreign Office said, "The agreement will make it possible for both parties (U.K. and Denmark-the Faroes
• ARCO, Anadarko dominate Alaska NPR-A sale
  Who got what in NPR-a sale [339,749 bytes] ARCO Alaska Inc. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., bidding as partners, dominated a recent National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska onshore lease sale. Six companies participated in the sale, offering apparent high bids of $104,635,728 for 134 North Slope tracts-all but a few in the northeastern corner of NPR-A (see map). The ARCO-Anadarko partnership picked up 92 of the blocks. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management said the sale attracted 174 bids totaling
• Patience, persistence preceded Elephant discovery in Libya
  A rig drills for a Lasmo group on Block NC174 in the Murzuk basin about 1,000 km south of Tripoli. Lasmo Group's drilling on Libya block NC174 [96,904 bytes] F field base Silurian [61,256 bytes] The well that Lasmo plc explorers deemed to be the least likely in the 1997 program to succeed is the well that discovered a 500 million bbl oil field on the Elephant prospect in the remote Murzuk basin. Substantial opportunities exist for oil and gas companies in Libya, said Mike Buck, business
• Area Drilling
  Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Houston, expects to invite bids for an engineering, procurement, and construction contract this quarter for its second major field development project in the Berkine area of the Ghadames basin. Construction at Ourhroud, formerly Qoubba, field is to start next year, with production to start in mid-2002, eventually rising to 230,000 b/d. British Gas plc is starting a 1,500 sq km 3D seismic survey in the northern Red Sea. BG let a contract to Schlumberger Geco-Prakla,

OGJ Newsletter

• OGJ Newsletter
  U.S. INDUSTRY SCOREBOARD 5/17 [44,070 bytes] Mergers and acquisitions are taking center stage in the petroleum industry again, with the emergence of several takeover bids by European firms and some new merger rumors (see story, p. 30).