A.J. Guiteau doesn’t know why, but he’s always liked education. He liked going to school and learning, so much that he earned an adult education degree from the College of Santa Fe in 1969 and then went back to high school as a teacher.

But being a high school teacher didn’t turn out quite “satisfying” enough, so he took a break, returned to his hometown of New Orleans, La., and worked in the construction business. It wasn’t long before he realized that “residential construction wasn’t it.”

In 1976, he heard about “a fledgling company” called Odeco, which “had a good reputation in New Orleans as a company that was growing,” he recalled.

It was a tough time in the business in 1976. So when Mr Guiteau, now corporate manager for training and development for Diamond Offshore, heard about an opening with Odeco in its claims department, he decided to take it. “It was a difficult side of the business,” and he was shocked by the severity of the injuries he saw.

However, investigating rig incidents did clue him in on “why people get injured, and frequently it was because of missing or poor training, or they didn’t act on what they learned.”

So in 1978, wanting to make more contributions to the company and the industry, Mr Guiteau moved to Odeco’s training department.

Over the years, the company aggressively pursued several major training initiatives that included designing and building the world’s first stability simulator that mimics the actual movements of a floating rig. To this day, the simulator continues to be used by Diamond to train its employees in stability and ballast control.

“The industry has made giant strides in the 30 years I’ve been in it – not because I’ve been in it but because of initiatives companies took upon themselves to improve,” he said. But it is because Mr Guiteau has been in the industry – him and thousands of others like him who are dedicated to improving safety and training – that it’s come so far.

In the early ’90s, Mr Guiteau served as chairman of the IADC Well Control Committee and led the group’s efforts to create and develop WellCAP. “It was a long process at first, but I think WellCAP has been a great training standard that is now recognized globally,” he said.

The next generation

The industry knows the “Big Crew Change” has already begun, and preparing for it in the midst of soaring rig activities hasn’t been easy, Mr Guiteau remarked. One program Diamond has implemented to help that process go more smoothly has been its Worldwide Competency Program. It’s a training and assessment system based on the electronic interfacing of 22 worldwide training and licensing matrices. If an employee is leaving a Gulf of Mexico rig to work offshore Indonesia, the program will clearly outline every requirement necessary to help him become “competent” for that area.

Mentoring programs have also been critical as Diamond, like many other contractors, deals with an influx of young, inexperienced personnel. “In some ways it’s easier to train them in safe operational practice rather than some of the older hands who may have some bad habits,” he noted. “However, today’s young people are so electronically tuned, they think they can do any job because they can find any answer in a computer, and that just information will get them through any problem.

“I’m seeing less respect for gaining experience. Younger employees are being promoted so quickly today due to the critical shortage of a qualified workforce, they are running the risk of becoming less effective in the future from missing critical learning experiences.”

Pairing young workers with experienced ones has been especially beneficial in that respect and can help them to “form good attitudes about developing safe and productive operational practices,” he said.

Mr Guiteau pointed to two mentors he’s had in his own career who have taught him valuable life lessons: Lynn Charles, Diamond vice president of human resources, and Moe Plaisance, Diamond vice president of international operations. “Lynn looks at the value of training in terms of development for the whole organization, and he supports innovative training, pilot programs, new technologies and reshaping learning approaches,” he said. “And Moe really represents what I saw in the drilling business early on that I liked. He’s honest, straightforward and encourages everyone to work together. He’s my best model for how things need to get done.”

The future

In 10 years, experience levels within the industry will be much lower than they are now, Mr Guiteau said, and it’s extremely critical to get young workers trained well from the beginning. “We know we have a different generation of people coming in now, so our focus on core, safe drilling practices will have to be much stronger. We have guys who don’t know the risks, and increasing technology and logistics are driving us to a challenging new era. I think the exposure is greater now, but industry commitment to manage this in a safe and productive manner through proper training has never been greater.”

Holger Temmen has been named chief executive officer of Abbot Group and the KCA DEUTAG group of companies. This is a new position created in anticipation of international growth and follows the takeover of Abbot Group by US private equity firm First Reserve in March. Alasdair Locke remains executive chairman of Abbot Group. The company plans to double the size of the business in the next few years through organized growth and acquisition, Mr Locke said.
Mr Temmen joined the DEUTAG group of companies in 1990 as a financial controller. In 2000 he became managing director of DEUTAG Europe. Following the acquisition of DEUTAG by KCA in 2001, he took over responsibility for the business development and commercial function and was appointed to the board of directors in 2005.

Baker Hughes opens Center for Technology Innovation

Baker Hughes has opened Phase I of its new Center for Technology Innovation (CTI) in Houston. The 14-acre facility is capable of testing full-size prototypes of the next generation of downhole completion tools in a test environment with pressures up to 40,000 psi and temperatures up to 700˚F. Approximately 575 scientists, application engineers and laboratory technicians will conduct research, engineering, development and testing at the CTI. Phase II of the campus, with additional office buildings and research facilities, is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.

Halliburton awarded Saudi Aramco, StatoilHydro contracts

Halliburton has been selected to provide a variety of oilfield services in support of the offshore portion of Saudi Aramco’s Manifa mega-project, which has a production target of 900 MBCD (thousand bbl of oil per calendar day), making it Saudi Aramco’s second-largest incremental oil production project.
The three-year contract calls for the provision of directional drilling, logging while drilling, cementing, logging and perforating, coiled tubing and stimulation services for 93 wells offshore northeast Saudi Arabia. The offshore component of this project will utilize 10 jackup rigs.
Additionally, StatoilHydro has awarded Halliburton and WellDynamics nearly $900 million in contracts to provide completion equipment and services, tubing conveyed perforating services and SmartWell completion technology for oil and gas fields on the Norwegian continental shelf.

Schlumberger inaugurates 150-hectare Siberian Training Center

Schlumberger officially inaugurated the Schlumberger Siberian Training Center in Tyumen, West Siberia on 21 March. The center will provide training in the Russian language for Schlumberger field engineers and specialists, as well as offer specialized courses for the Russian oil and gas community. The site covers 150 hectares and is self-sufficient with accommodation for 160 students in custom-designed study-bedroom cottages. Total investment will exceed $100 million.

Transocean appoints new VPs

Transocean Inc has announced two vice president appointments. Terry B Bonno has been named vice president, marketing. She previously served as director, marketing North and South America Unit (AMU). Simon Crowe has been named vice president, planning and strategy. Previously, Mr Crowe served as director, finance, for the company’s Europe and Africa Unit (EAU).

Enventure announces appointment of executive positions

Enventure Global Technology has appointed Joseph Waiter as vice president, general counsel & secretary and Kevin Knight as vice president and chief financial officer.

InterMoor celebrates expansion of Port Fourchon facility

InterMoor, an Acteon company, has completed facility expansions at its Port Fourchon location in Louisiana. The facility was expanded to include about 25 acres and more than 1,200 ft of bulkhead waterfront dock space. The centerpiece of the facility is the Cajun Lifter, an 880-ton ringer crane.

Engineer joins Laser Cladding

Laser Cladding Services has added Eswar Yarrapareddy to its team as a laser cladding development engineer. He will supervise the development laser cladding processes using CO2, diode laser and fiber lasers.

Key Energy buys Western Drilling

Key Energy Services announced it has bought Western Drilling for $51 million to complement its December 2007 acquisition of Kings Oil Tools.

Career Training Center relocates

The Career Training Center, a Superior Energy Services company, relocated its Broussard training center to its expanded location in New Iberia, La. The remodeled facility will provide for staging of equipment to incorporate hands-on simulation of work scenarios and practical drills.

Subsea 7 awarded 3 Petrobras contracts, opens new spoolbase

Subsea 7, through its i-Tech division, announced the award of three new contracts, valued in excess of $30 million, for the provision of ROVs onboard three drilling units, with a combined term of 15 years, for Petrobras. A newbuild QX 125-hp ROV system will be provided onboard one of the three rigs.

Additionally, Subsea 7 has opened a North Sea spoolbase at Vigra, Norway. The $30 million investment is seen as key to developing Subsea 7’s pipelay capability in that market. It also provides a platform for new geographic markets such as the Barents Sea as that region opens up, the company said.

The first project to be undertaken by the new base is the fabrication of a 60-km 12-in. gas pipeline for StatoilHydro.

IDM to build QuickSilver drilling system for Union Drilling

IDM Group has been awarded a construction contract from Union Drilling to provide a 1,600-hp AC QuickSilver drilling system. The rig, expected to operate in Pennsylvania targeting the Marcellus Shale formation, should be delivered by June 2008. The QuickSilver is designed to rig down, then rig up on a new location within 100 miles in less than 48 hr. Elevated components are raised with hydraulic cylinders; no cranes are required.

Wärtsilä allows manufacture, sale of its low-speed engines in China

Wärtsilä Corp and Zhenjiang CME have signed a license agreement for the manufacture and sale of Wärtsilä RT-flex low-speed marine diesel engines by CME in China. CME will focus on engines of 50-cm cylinder bore and smaller.

MCS wins riser system contract

MCS has won a contract with Petrofac Energy Development to design and deliver a complete riser system for the Don Southwest and West Don development in the northern North Sea.

•Products•

Capital Safety introduces new lifeline, tie-back lanyard

Capital Safety recently released two new products:

• Protecta Rebel CT Self-Retracting Lifeline has 15 ft of galvanized cable lifeline to maximize mobility and worker productivity. At 6.4 lb, the Rebel CT features one of the industry’s best length-to-weight ratios.

• DBI-SALA EZ Stop II Tie-back Lanyard with Rebar Hooks feature 3,600-lb gates, allowing them to be used in tie-back applications with a floating D-ring, giving the user greater versatility on the job. It is available in a single- or twin-leg tie-back model with a standard snap hook, aluminum rebar hook, flat steel rebar hook or carabiner ends. A floating D-ring provides an adjustable tie-back point so the lanyard can be used around various structures at a job site. The EZ Stop II lanyard uses a controlled tearing action when subjected to fall arrest forces, limiting arresting forces to no more than 900 lbs.

EZ Stop II

Halliburton’s frac stimulation technologies help reduce costs

Halliburton has developed four complementary fracture stimulation technologies to help reduce operators’ production cost – OmegaFrac fluid, MonoProp proppant, the ADP (advanced dry polymer) blender and the Mimic fluid measuring device. OmegaFrac fluid is the first fracturing fluid to practically and economically blend with field-produced brine water and effectively suspend and deliver proppant into the fracture. MonoProp proppant achieves a partial monolayer of deformable polymer alloy particles to maintain adequate fracture width without creating flow impediments. This allows unrestricted fluid flow of hydrocarbon from the formation through the fracture to the wellbore. Two more innovations enable Halliburton to vary fluid characteristics according to the fracturing plan or in response to changing treatment conditions. On the environmental front, the ADP blender mixes fracturing fluids from a dry-polymer base rather than a hydrocarbon-based concentrate. The Mimic proppant transport measuring device directly measures the ability of the fracturing fluid to transport the propping agent under specific downhole conditions.

Shield Technologies covers suitable for corrosive environments

Shield Technologies has introduced Envelop Protective Covers, suitable for use in harsh and corrosive environments. By virtually eliminating the penetration of moisture and humidity, the Envelop covers have proven to reduce equipment corrosion by as much as 90%. Lasting three to four times as long as vinyl alternatives, the Envelop covers provide a return on investment of 4:1 and as high as 15:1 versus traditional covers and chemicals.

T&T’s Pipe Boss designed for ‘no touch’ handling

T&T Engineering has introduced the Pipe Boss casing stabbing/pipe handling machines, designed for “no touch” delivery/removal/stabbing of tubulars. The Pipe Boss is completely independent of the rig and replaces equipment such as the casing stabbing board, catwalk/V-door ramp or pickup/laydown machine and automatic mouse holes.

A.J. Guiteau, corporate manager of training and development for Diamond, first led a discussion of the company’s training initiatives, including its well control, stability and dynamic positioning courses, and related issues such as mooring standards, storm preparation processes, deepwater well control and safety, and its corporate safety management system GEMS. Diamond delivers in-house WellCAP-accredited well control training to nearly 600 employees worldwide and stability training to 400 marine and drilling personnel. The company anticipates the stability and ballast control course to gain IADC accreditation shortly. The Chinese visitors then received a tour of the well control classrooms, with simulators that instructors use to teach students in identifying early warning signs of trouble downhole. A demonstration also was held with Diamond’s stability simulator – the first of its kind and one of only three units in the world. Use of simulation with the course helps to build a more involved learning environment for students, Mr Guiteau said.

Winning technologies are selected on 4 criteria:

• New and innovative: The technology must be less than 2 years old.

• Proven: The technology must be proven, either through full-scale application or successful prototype testing.

• Broad interest: The technology must have a broad interest and appeal for the industry.

• Significant impact: The technology must provide significant benefits beyond existing technologies.

StatoilHydro has awarded a five-year contract to Aker Drilling’s Aker Spitsbergen for drilling operations in the Norwegian Sea. The contract was originally awarded in December 2006, but StatoilHydro has had until now to decide the length of the fixed part of the contract, beyond a minimum period of three years.

It was important to be awarded this contract for Aker’s first drilling unit, said Geir Sjøberg, Aker president and CEO. Value of the contract is estimated at approximately US $970 million.

The Aker Spitsbergen, an Aker sixth-generation rig, will be used for drilling assignment at Halten Nordland in the Norwegian Sea. It is designed for the Norwegian continental shelf, where deep waters and inclement weather pose extra challenges.

The construction of the rig is in progress at the Aker Kværner yard at Stord, and it is scheduled to be delivered at the end of July 2008.

The manning of Aker Spitsbergen is almost complete as well, the company noted.

Noble named winner of MMS SAFE Award 2nd year in a row

For the second consecutive year, Noble Corp has been named the recipient of the MMS 2007 National Safety Award for Excellence (SAFE) for drilling contractors. This is the third time Noble has won the SAFE award since the program’s inception.

MMS established the SAFE Award to recognize companies that excel in their efforts to conduct operations in a safe and pollution-free manner by adhering to all regulations, employing trained and motivated personnel, and going the extra mile to enhance safety and environmental protection. “Noble’s US Gulf of Mexico team has once again achieved truly outstanding results in offshore safety and environmental performance,” said David W Williams, Noble chairman.

Separately, Noble announced it has secured a Memorandum of Understanding for contracts with a total revenue potential of $4 billion over 29 rig years on its five deepwater rigs operating offshore Brazil for Petrobras. The five rigs are the noble Paul Wolff, the Noble Roger Eason, the Noble Leo Segerius, the Noble Muravlenko and the Noble Therald Martin.

Petrobras awards 6-year contracts to Seadrill newbuild semis

Seadrill has secured an unconditional Letter of Award for contracts with a revenue potential of approximately US $4.1 billion over 18 rig years for three newbuild deepwater units with Petrobras. The West Eminence semisubmersible will be delivered in late 2008, and start-up of operations offshore Brazil is scheduled for Q1 2009. Contract duration is six years. The West Taurus semi is scheduled to be delivered during Q4 2008, and start-up of operations offshore Brazil is scheduled for Q1 2009. Contract duration is six years. The West Orion semi is scheduled to be delivered during Q2 2010, and start-up of operations offshore Brazil is scheduled for Q3 2010. Contract duration is six years.

“This is one of the most important assignments ever awarded to Seadrill and will increase our contract backlog to more than US$12 billion,” said Kjell E Jacobsen, Seadrill CEO.

Separately, ExxonMobil has exercised the option to extend the contract for Seadrill’s West Aquarius from three years to four years. Estimated contract value for the full four-year period is approximately US$750 million. In addition, ExxonMobil has awarded Seadrill one additional year to the existing  three-year term for West Polaris.

The West Polaris and West Aquarius are both under construction in South Korea.

StatoilHydro makes gas discovery on Halten Bank, completes well in Algeria

StatoilHydro has made a gas discovery in the Natalia prospect in the Norwegian Sea. According to preliminary calculations, the discovery could contain around 1.5 billion cu m of recoverable gas. Natalia is located five km northwest of the Midgard structure on the Åsgard field on the Halten Bank and adds to the many finds in this area. The exploration well was drilled to a total depth of 3,040 m below sea level and was completed in rocks of early Jurassic age. Drilling on the Natalia prospect was carried out by the West Alpha semisubmersible. The well will be plugged and abandoned, and the rig will continue to the StatoilHydro-operated licence 348 in the Norwegian Sea to drill a new exploration well.

Separately, StatoilHydro and partner Sonatrach have completed the drilling and testing of exploration well number four in the Hassi Mouina license, in the Sahara desert in Algeria. The fifth Hassi Mouina well is now being drilled. The partners have proven and tested gas in Lower Carboniferous and Upper Devonian sandstones. This was the fourth discovery in the Hassi Mouina license.

Apache: 3 horizontal wells successful at Ootla shale gas play in Canada

Apache Corp announced that horizontal wells drilled in the Ootla shale play in Northeast British Columbia test-flowed at rates of 8.8 million cu ft/day, 6.1 cu ft/day and 5.3 cu ft/day. The three wells were drilled during the 2008 winter season.

“Although we are still in the early stages of understanding the full scope of this play, these three wells help validate our view that Ootla has the potential to be one of the larger shale gas accumulations in North America,” said G. Steven Farris, Apache president and chief executive officer.
Apache performed 18 fracture stimulations in the three horizontal wells, pumping a total of 7.8 million lb of sand and 280,000 bbl of water into the formation.

Transocean announces deepwater contracts

Transocean Inc announced that the ultra-deepwater drillship Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2 (formerly Deepwater Pacific 2), owned by a joint venture in which the company has 50% interest, has been awarded a five-year drilling contract from Reliance Industries. The contract is expected to commence in Q1 2010.

In addition, Transocean announced that the first ultra-deepwater drillship owned by the joint venture, Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1 (formerly Deepwater Pacific 1), has had its previously announced four-year contract extended by Reliance to five years. The drilling contract is still expected to commence in Q3 2009. The two Samsung-design drillships are under construction in South Korea. Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1 will be equipped to work in water depths up to 12,000 ft, and the Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2 in water depths up to 10,000 ft.

Additionally, Transocean has announced that the ultra-deepwater semisubmersible Deepwater Nautilus has been awarded a minimum three-year contract extension commencing in December 2008 by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. Shell has the right to elect, by 30 June 2008, to extend the contract by an additional year. The Deepwater Nautilus is capable of operating in water depths up to 8,000 ft, or greater if a pre-set mooring system is used.

Scorpion receives letters of intent for 3 jackups

Scorpion International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Scorpion Offshore, has received letters of intent for three jackups. The first is for the Offshore Vigilant, for operations of at least 11 months offshore Venezuela beginning in late October 2008. The rig is under construction at Keppel AmFELS in Brownsville, Texas, and will be delivered in August 2008. The second is for the Offshore Resolute for operations of seven months offshore Vietnam, beginning in late July 2008. The rig is also under construction in Texas and was to be delivered by mid-April 2008. The third is for the Offshore Courageous, for operations for three years in the South China Sea beginning in January 2009. The rig is currently offshore Oman; its contract with RAK Petroleum goes through October 2008.

Wärtsilä subsidiary to design deep-sea research ship

Wärtsilä’s ship design and marine consultancy subsidiary, SCHIFFKO GmbH, based in Hamburg, has been awarded a contract from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research of Bremerhaven, Germany, to design the research icebreaker AURORA BOREALIS. The ship will be capable of performing scientific deep-sea drilling operations at water depths of up to 5,000 m with a penetration of up to 1,000 m, even amid drifting pack-ice fields. An innovative dynamic positioning system will enable the ship to keep position in such a demanding environment.

Transocean Arctic arrives on StatoilHydro’s Tyrihans field

The Transocean Arctic has arrived on the Tyrihans field at Haltenbanken in the Norwegian Sea for production drilling, marking an important milestone for the start-up of an extensive drilling programme in the Norwegian Sea. Planning work on the StatoilHydro-operated Tyrihans field started back in 1986. The field is one of the largest development projects on the Norwegian continental shelf. The development involves extensive use of multilateral wells and smart wells with downhole regulation and control equipment. Pumps for seawater injection will be installed directly on the seabed for enhanced recovery.

Back in the day, as a wet-between-the-ears engineer clutching a freshly minted diploma, I joined the illustrious deep-think research arm of a major oil company, my entrée into the oil patch. Fascinating work, but, compared to my brilliant fellows, I was something of a dim bulb. I concluded I did not need to be reminded of my inadequacies on the job. Being a married man, I had a wife for that.

Those days in the early 1980s was, broadly speaking, the beginning of the end for operator-funded research, and the end of the beginning for service companies to shoulder the work. After the Great Crash of 1986, oil companies largely pulled the plug on research as “non core.” Exceptions remain, the definitive one Shell’s development of expandable tubulars. (Now marketed by Enventure, this landmark enabling technology was publicly unveiled at the 1998 IADC Annual Meeting in New Orleans.)

Thence came Joint Industry Projects, where pooled money funds research of mutual value. In 1982, the Drilling Engineering Association was founded to advance JIPs for drilling R&D. Through DEA, more than 160 JIPs have been organized, some as public-private partnerships, some wholly funded by industry (p 130).

At the 2008 IADC/SPE Drilling Conference held in March in Orlando, the audience was polled on likely sources of innovation. 22% said operators, but the plurality was JIPs (39%), slightly edging out service providers (37%). (Only 1% voted for government or university labs, giving government an undeserved bum rap. Actually, government funding has resulted in key breakthroughs. In the USA, for instance, one landmark new downhole technology, GrantPrideco’s Intellipipe, came about through projects spanning more than a decade, and enjoying $7.8 million from Uncle Sam’s coffers. Total funding, including industry matching, exceeded $17 million.)

Service companies have increasingly embraced R&D as inimical to their core business. Any R&D commitment is necessarily long term. One example: Halliburton recently introduced MonoProp, described as a high-performance polymer alloy with a very low specific gravity (1.08) and properties far different than the crosslinked systems currently used. (See the Products, p 139.) Instead of a crosslinked polymer, this proppant produces a partial monolayer in fractures, which allows porosity and fluid flow, the company says. Company researchers estimated that it took up to 6 years to develop the system. While Halliburton couldn’t tie a single price tag to this specific effort, the company has reported investing during 2007 more than $300 million for R&D. Other companies can trot out similar stats.

In fact, Baker Hughes just cut the ribbon on its new Center for Technology Innovation (p 138). The 14-acre, $42-million Houston facility is described as a “state-of-the-art” research and engineering facility for oil and gas completion and production technologies.” Its centerpiece is a 209,000-sq ft lab where work will advance completion and production technologies for deepwater, extreme HPHT, production optimization, and big-bore completions.

We may be entering a new golden age for industry R&D. I encourage you to get involved in organizations like DEA, who are charting the way forward. Come to our workshop in June in Galveston. (See the link at www.dea-global.org.)

New technology is only half the battle. We still must ensure that our workforce, green and seasoned alike, can actually use these nifty toys the labs will crank out. But that’s a story for another day. Stay tuned.

You can reach Mike Killalea at mike.killalea@iadc.org

IADC has named Claus Chur, KCA DEUTAG director technical services, as the 2008 IADC Contractor of the Year. “I am deeply honored to be selected as the 2008 IADC Contractor of the Year,” Mr Chur said in accepting the award. “I am particularly proud of this award, being only the second European to have received it. And I want to take this opportunity to praise IADC president Dr Lee Hunt for developing IADC into a truly international organization.”

The Contractor of the Year Award is the most prestigious award in the drilling industry, and the recipient is selected by IADC’s leadership for career contributions to the association and the drilling industry.

The award, now in its 21st year, is sponsored by ReedHycalog. The company will donate a $7,500 scholarship to the Institute of Petroleum Engineering at the Technical University Clausthal in Germany in Mr Chur’s name.

Mr Chur received his master’s degree in petroleum and drilling engineering from the University of Clausthal in 1979. He then joined a Shell Exxon affiliate as a drilling engineer. In 1985 he was appointed operations manager and later technical director of the German government’s Continental Deep Drilling Programme.

In 1995 Mr Chur joined DEUTAG, where he has since held several management positions. In 2001 he was appointed to the KCA DEUTAG board.

Today, as director technical services, he is responsible for the technical integrity of KCA DEUTAG’s rig fleet and group-wide supply management.

In addition to various positions with industry advisory committees and the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Mr Chur served as IADC chairman in 2006. He also is a charter member of the IADC Environmental Policy Advisory Committee.

1st Competence Assurance accreditations awarded

Noble Drilling Land Support and Rowan Drilling UK have become the first drilling contractors to be accredited under IADC’s new Competence Assurance Accreditation Program. Noble’s accreditation applies to 18 skilled rig positions and will affect rig personnel operating in the UK and Europe. Rowan’s accreditation applies to 16 rig positions and the personnel holding these positions who work in Northern European waters.

Both companies were granted conditional accreditation in February 2008, indicating that minor revisions to an existing program are required. The companies have until August 2008 to satisfy minor program deficiencies and fully satisfy the Competence Assurance Accreditation requirements. Three other companies have applied for Competence Assurance Accreditation and are awaiting either application review or scheduling of a site visit to verify conformance with program requirements.

More information is available by contacting Brenda Kelly at brenda.kelly@iadc.org This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Event addresses Competency Training Programme

IADC held an industry symposium in late February in Amsterdam to address the development and use of its Offshore Competency Training Programme. The goal was to educate all invited participants about the programme’s global applicability in harmonising training standards for crews on mobile offshore units.

The event covered historical developments in training harmonisation dating from the early 1990s, along with the content, testing and acceptance of the current programme. IADC’s process for assuring the quality of both the training providers and the IADC standard courses that they intend to teach was outlined, along with the proposal for ongoing verification of competence of drilling crews.

Representatives from all sectors of the offshore oil and gas industry in Canada, Europe, Russia and the United States attended the interactive event.

Presentation material from this symposium is available for download on the European Working Group section of IADC’s website.

New IADC Well Servicing Committee holds first meeting to develop mission

The IADC Well Servicing Committee held its first meeting at IADC headquarters in Houston on 10 April, to develop a mission that would better serve the well-servicing segment of the industry. Some 106 of IADC’s 380 contractor member companies report owning or operating well servicing rigs. In total, IADC members operate 2,385 well-servicing units of all types.

The committee determined that IADC expertise in areas such as well control, training and worldwide scope, would benefit the well-servicing industry when applied to the special needs of production rigs. The committee determined that it would work collaboratively with other organizations, including the Association of Energy Servicing Companies.

Charter members attending were:

Matt Hooker, Nabors Well Services;

Erbie Massengill, Rapad Drilling & Well Service;

Nick Petronio, Nabors Well Services;

Greg Shanks, Key Energy Service;

Charlie Swift, Basic Energy Services;

Donald Wilson, Rapad Drilling & Well Service.

For more information, contact Mike Killalea at mike.killalea@iadc.org This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.iadc.org.

IADC has written the Indonesian director general of tax to urge the consistent application of Indonesia’s “deemed profits” regime for offshore drilling contractors. Over many years, IADC has worked with the Indonesian government to establish a reliable taxation system for its members operating in Indonesia. As recently as 2005, an IADC delegation went to Jakarta to update that regime, which was successfully completed.

A recent audit of an IADC member company raises concerns that regulatory authorities may not be observing settled agreements with IADC on the tax regime. IADC senior vice president – government affairs Brian Petty has written to support contractors’ position, emphasizing the importance of the long-standing agreement between IADC and the Tax Administration.

Working Time Directive appeal filed

IADC, as part of the joint industry employers group litigating on the application of the EU Working Time Directive on the UKCS, has filed an appeal to the findings of the Scottish Employment Tribunal. It says that the decision was based on the premise that, if time was not work or annual leave, it had to be a rest period, with annual leave and rest period being mutually exclusive under UK implementing regulations. The Directive, however, defines work and rest as mutually exclusive concepts of time; therefore, annual leave must be rest. Applied to the present circumstances, annual leave can be taken from field break. The appeal also notes that the Tribunal did not correctly interpret the issue of when leave could or had to be taken, which should be that all time off the installation, save for periods of training or other work, were leave.

Marine diesel engine rules released

The US EPA has released regulations aimed at reducing emissions of particulate matter and nitrogen oxides from marine diesel engines, including those on MODUs.

The new regulations:

• Require existing engines (1973 or later, through Tier 2), as they’re remanufactured, to have certified remanufacture systems installed on them once available, as early as this year.

• Set near-term (Tier 3) standards for newly built engines that reflect currently available emission reduction technologies; they phase in starting in 2009.

• Set long-term (Tier 4) standards for newly built engines that are based on the application of high-efficiency catalytic treatment technology. These standards will phase in beginning in 2014 and are dependent on the availability of ultra-low sulphur diesel. These regulations affect only US-flag vessels; standards for foreign vessels will be addressed in a future rulemaking.

The solution to problems in the petroleum industry is not new regulations but enhancing the responsibility of the players. That view underpins Norway’s regulatory approach to offshore health, safety and the environment. It also means that a fundamental understanding of the factors that influence risk, including technical integrity and barriers, is essential in every part of the industry. The report on the Texas City disaster is thought-provoking in that respect.

Company management, above all, must be aware of and knowledgeable about factors that enhance risk. Focusing on statistics of personal injuries and undesirable incidents alone is a waste of time in seeking to avoid major accidents. Regrettably, we constantly see irrelevant data being presented in this context.

Safe wells, drilling and downhole operations are among key elements in efforts to prevent major accidents and undesirable incidents, both in Norway and internationally. The gas blowout on Snorre A in the North Sea in 2004 was a serious reminder that failures in well barriers can have disastrous consequences for safety.

At the PSA, this incident led to the launch of an extensive project focused on a vision that the only wells to be found on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) would be safe ones. A survey of 581 production wells from 12 installations in spring 2006 identified weaknesses in every fifth well. This showed with full clarity that action is needed by both industry and the authorities.

The NCS survey has also aroused international interest, and the PSA has presented its methodology and findings to a number of regulatory and industry forums around the world.

In Norway, drilling and well activities are now affected by huge pressure on the labour market combined with developments that make operations ever more complex, complicated and dependent on experience. We must be able to recruit personnel with great knowledge and long involvement if risk is to be kept at an acceptable level.

In the near future, a number of giant projects are scheduled for the NCS that represent labour- and resource-intensive jobs. The question is whether all the companies, be they operators or contractors, are capable of acceptably executing forthcoming developments alongside normal operations. Every company must ask itself that. If the answer is no, the decision must be that it currently lacks the necessary capacity and expertise and must therefore postpone the work.

This is in line with the petroleum regulation philosophy in Norway, which aims to support and clarify the responsibility of the players themselves to comply with the regulations and operate acceptably. Detailed supervision and various forms of official consent are difficult to reconcile with this principle, because they could undermine player responsibility and transfer part of it to the government.

Take, for example, the acknowledgement of compliance (AoC), which provides a formal statement that the PSA has assessed and found that a mobile unit’s technical condition appears to be in accord with the regulations. But this does not absolve any of the players concerned from their responsibilities.

The AoC was initially introduced as a voluntary scheme for mobile drilling units in 2000, primarily to improve predictability for owners wanting to use a rig on the NCS. It has since been expanded to other types of offshore units. The AoC process, which makes wide use of the IADC guidelines, has created good understanding of regulations and risk management in the drilling industry.

As I said, providing predictability for players without undermining their sense of responsibility can present regulators with a dilemma. But the PSA believes that the AoC scheme, developed in cooperation with all affected parties, takes account of both these aspects.

Different regimes for regulating mobile offshore units are operated around the North Sea. Joint action by national regulators in the region has persuaded the IADC to develop a document comparing regulatory requirements and application routines in five North Sea nations.

The five regulatory authorities involved have agreed that documented checks in one country can be used to support an application to use a unit in another. That includes seeking an AoC in Norway. Both the industry and the authorities can thereby avoid unnecessary duplication of effort.

Regulation along these lines calls for competent and well-resourced players who see operating acceptably as being in their own interest. Credibility and confidence are cornerstones of this regulatory strategy.

Magne Ognedal is director-general, Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA).

Among the ongoing JIPs discussed at the first quarter meeting were: Shoulder/thread verifier system (DEA 160), presented by Raymond J Dishaw, Global Systems Inc; Project to Develop an Improved Methodology for Wellbore Stability Prediction (DEA 161), by William Standifird, Knowledge Systems Inc; and DeepTrek JIP for Advancing Deep, Hard Rock Drilling Performance Through Controlled, Full-scale Laboratory Drilling Experiments with Aggressive Bits and Specialized Fluids (DEA 162), by Ron Bland, Baker Hughes Drilling Fluids.

DEA 162

DEA 162 is a continuation of the US Department of Energy’s DeepTrek project. It is aimed at optimizing drilling extremely deep wells with an emphasis on studying rock strength, shale plasticity, bit-balling tendencies, overbalance factors affecting chip hold down; and effects of mud solids, composition and fluid properties.

Phase I and Phase II results of the JIP have been published at the 2007 SPE/IADC Drilling Conference and the 2008 IADC/SPE Drilling Conference, respectively. They concluded that both bit design and HPHT drilling fluids can be improved. Phase III of the JIP may continue, depending on additional funding.

The JIP objectives are to:

• Determine the mechanisms of rock failure under pressure with various cutters.

• Determine how the various properties of drilling fluids affect drilling.

• Prove the theory with full-scale laboratory drilling at simulated depth.

DEA 161

DEA 161 aims to expand and improve the use of wellbore stability modeling technologies by creating awareness, developing best practices and expanding the industry knowledge base. Deliverables include:

• Improved methods, models and procedures.

• Wellbore stability prediction best-practice manual.

• Wellbore stability school.

• Wellbore stability database.

• Wellbore stability website.

A kick-off meeting as well as a third technical advisory board meeting have been completed. A website with information for participants is operational, and approximately 180 wells in the Gulf of Mexico shelf and deepwater and the North Sea are on order for digitization and analysis.

DEA 160

DEA 160 looks at shoulder, thread and torque to provide a verifier system and eliminate drill pipe twist-off caused by lack of shoulder engagement or torque, or casing or tubing leaks caused by a lack of seal or thread engagement. Technical objectives include verifying shoulder connections and thread and seal engagement on various connections; tailoring software and communications offshore/onshore for operators; and developing a connection verification database.

The methodologies to be used include verifying shoulder engagement and torque on drill pipe; verifying complete thread and seal engagement and torque on casing and tubing in real time before going into the hole without any down time; and the ability to see thread engagement.

2008 DEA Workshop

To learn more about these and other drilling research projects and opportunities, the industry is invited to attend the 2008 DEA Workshop, 17-18 June 2008 in Galveston, Texas. The event is sponsored by Pride International.

Topics on the agenda include:

• Advances in sand control: sanding prediction methodology, a sand control completion technique for deepwater horizontal water injectors, and other advances in deepwater completions.

• Drilling tar in deepwater Gulf of Mexico: bitumen encounters, a high-temperature digital accelerometer, and adaptive drilling techniques for floating vessels.

• High-speed telemetry: updates on applications of telemetry drillstrings, Occidental’s wired drill pipe experience at Elk Hills, and using high-speed telemetry drill pipe in deepwater.

• Pushing the limits downhole: depth-of-cut control technology, a new concentric expandable reamer tool, and directional drilling in very soft formations.

• Cutting-edge deepwater applications: the DNV qualification process, management of downhole pressures, and well-testing planning in HPHT.

• Advanced completion systems: solid expandable monobore open-hole liner applications and an all-electric intelligent well completion system.

• DEA 163, “E&P Technology: Extinguishing Coal Seam Wildfires”: Uncontrolled coal seam fires are an environmental and economic problem globally. The upstream industry has the technologies needed to reduce/eliminate the CO2 annually emitted from coal fires. This special presentation will present the technologies that can be integrated to permanently extinguish these fires.