Managed pressure drilling (MPD) is a topic of much debate across E&P companies, drilling contractors, service companies and even regulatory bodies. The debate has centered on...

As the moratorium on deepwater drilling creeps toward its purported 30 Nov end date, efforts to jump start drilling in shallow water remain...

The introduction of swellable elastomer packers to the market in the early 2000s provided operators with a wider set of technology options for zonal isolation...

A high percentage of the total number of wells worldwide leak or show sustained casing pressure (SCP). Loss of zonal isolation, especially when leaks...

Collaboration is a beautiful thing, especially when it extends beyond the parties involved to create a standard of practice for a safer workplace...

In the post-Macondo world, there’s a renewed sense of urgency around deepwater drilling safety, and the government has made it clear that it will take aggressive...

For drilling companies that operate only in North America or Europe, they likely don’t make considerations for what actions to take if their rig crew gets kidnapped while trying to get to the rig site or going home after a tour...

Audits performed on drilling and workover rigs and associated equipment are an important means of ensuring safe and efficient operations of the complete unit...

The Macondo incident has understandably seized our industry’s attention, leaving other developments comparatively unexamined in its vast shadow. One of these developments arose in July...

Safety. Environmental footprint. Cost efficiency. In the oil and gas industry’s ever-expanding lexicon, no terms have become as top of mind as these critical watchwords that factor into every decision on every well...