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As the global oil downturn grinds on and the industry increasingly accepts the fact that the days of $100 oil are behind us, industry leaders must zero in on performance factors that can be controlled. In his keynote address at the 2017 IADC Drilling Middle East Conference in Dubai on 4 October, Paul Foreman, VP Wells of the Middle East Region for BP, proposed a model for approaching and leading performance in the business of wells. “While the model may be simple, we should not be lulled into thinking that it is easy to achieve,” Mr Foreman said. “It requires active leadership everyday to make the gains – gains that are not just for the short term but also sustainable.”...

AFGlobal showcased several MPD technologies at its Houston facility on 12 October, including an active control device (ACD) for deepwater and offshore surface applications and a purpose-built rig for testing MPD scenarios. Bearings and rotating components are a common source of maintenance and failure in conventional rotating control devices used in MPD operations. The ACD, however, provides the prerequisite seal and diversion of annular wellbore returns using a non-rotating device enabled by an actively pressurized, co-molded element. Its active pressure-sealing system hydraulically applies closing pressure to maintain consistent wellbore sealing integrity over time as the sealing sleeve is worn. The sleeve is a co-molded element made up of an enhanced urethane matrix reinforced with a durable polytetrafluoroethylene inner shell. As ...

Most of the telemetry platforms in existence today don’t provide real-time data during completions. XACT Downhole Telemetry developed its acoustic telemetry network to provide pressure, temperature, tension, torque and bending data during completion operations. At the 2017 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, the company highlighted recent deepwater case studies in which the system provided crucial data during frac pack completions. In this video from the conference on 10 October, Andy Hawthorn, Director of Solutions, explains how the network was used to help an operator free a bottomhole assembly that was stuck in the circulating position. He also discusses a deployment in which the network helped an operator to determine whether the perforating guns had fired....

The CARBOAIR high-transport, ultra low-density ceramic proppant technology was developed to increase fracture length and height to improve reservoir contact. The technology was recently deployed to fracture a well in the Permian Basin with a very thin hydrocarbon zone. In this video from 10 October at the 2017 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, Don Conkle, Director of Sales and Marketing for CARBO, outlined the results that were achieved in this well...