GE to invest $500 million in Brazil

GE is investing US$500 million to expand its operations in Brazil and to accelerate technology partnerships with Brazilian companies. Additionally, Rio de Janeiro was chosen as the home for GE’s multidisciplinary, $100 million Brazil Global Research Center. When fully operational, it will employ 200 researchers and engineers working on advanced technologies for the oil & gas, renewable energy, mining, rail and aviation industries.

The company also plans to invest $400 million over the next three years in technology, training, new product development, new plant and equipment and human capital.

GE Oil & Gas’ drilling & production business was recently awarded $120 million in Brazil deepwater equipment orders. The two contracts are with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering of South Korea. Under the first contract, GE will supply a BOP stack and control system to be installed on a Petroserv-owned drillship for oil and gas production activities offshore Brazil.

In addition, GE will supply two complete drilling packages to be installed on Odebrecht Oil & Gas-owned drillships, each including a 10,000-ft riser system and BOP stacks and controls.

Lindsay named executive VP, COO of H&P

John Lindsay

John Lindsay has been named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Helmerich & Payne Inc, effective 7 December 2010.

He joined the company in 1987 as a drilling engineer and has since served in various positions, including operations manager for the company’s Mid-Continent region and vice president, US land operations.

In 2006, he was appointed executive vice president, US and international operations for Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Co.

Mr Lindsay graduated in 1986 from the University of Tulsa, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in petroleum engineering. He served as chairman of IADC in 2007.

Union Drilling names White as VP safety, training

Craig L White has joined Union Drilling as vice president of safety and training. He previously served for seven years as a senior consultant and key account manager at Moody International.  Most recently, he was a team leader on the expanded safety program that Moody International is implementing at Union Drilling.

Prior to Moody, Mr White has served in various HSE consultant and management roles since 1993. He has a degree in psychology from the University of New England QLD Australia.

Dutch groups recognize Swart with Colonel Drake Award

Dick Swart, senior adviser at Dick Swart Consultancy, has received the Colonel Drake Award from the Royal Institute of Engineers in the Netherlands and the Mining Student Association of Delft University. He was recognized for his contributions to the safe application of petroleum engineering, specifically drilling technology and well engineering, together with the introduction of new drilling concepts/applications onshore and offshore. These include the introduction of deep geothermal drilling in The Netherlands. He also played a critical role in the Delft Geothermal Project in collaboration with Delft University. He also contributed to a “hurricane-proof” solution for the Macondo blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

Expro wins well testing contracts in Tunisia

Expro has been awarded two contracts in Tunisia. One is an integrated well testing project, including slickline, data acquisition and drill stem testing offshore in the Gulf of Hammamet. Another contract is an extension to an integrated project in Tunisia. The company had originally been commissioned to provide wireline intervention services; the contract has been extended to include sampling and analysis, drill stem testing and data acquisition.

Total Safety acquires safety equipment supplier

Total Safety has acquired Scotsafe, a Scotland-based supplier of safety equipment and services, including gas-detection systems and equipment, breathing air, fit testing, and other critical safety systems and personnel.

Derrick Services expands presence in Asia, Mideast, North Africa

Derrick Services (DSL) has opened new offices in Southeast Asia and appointed Ryan Moore as regional manager to oversee that area’s growth. Mr Moore will be based in Singapore.

The company also recently announced new contracts in the Middle East and North Africa. DSL opened a base in Abu Dhabi last year and is about to open another in Algeria. DSL has been awarded a contract from CTF of Tunisia for engineering and project planning for the decommissioning of the CTF Rig 05 from Platform 2.

DSL was also awarded a contract from ENAFOR in Algeria for the inspection and recertification of their land drilling rigs, as well as a similar deal by Abu Dhabi’s National Drilling Company. The contract covers nearly 30 offshore and onshore rigs in the Middle East.

Total Deepwater Solution package helps with BOEMRE requirements

Wild Well Control is offering the Total Deepwater Solution package to assist clients with the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) requirements in terms of well permitting and emergency response to a deepwater well control event. It includes emergency response planning, relief well planning, well kill design and technical review assistance.

The package also includes dedicated BOP capping assemblies — 18 ¾-in. 15M 3-Ram and 13 ^5/8-in. 15M 3-Ram, subsea dispersant injection system, specially designed debris removal equipment and other response equipment as required. The company intends to further develop the package for use outside the Gulf of Mexico.

SkillsXP ready to assist with safety, environmental rules compliance in GOM

The Tritanium Company, makers of the SkillsXP software, announced that it is poised to help companies comply with new safety and environmental regulations, including the SEMS requirement, scheduled to take effect this year in the United States. “Because SkillsXP is SEMS-compliant and field-proven, it is perfectly suited to address the requirements of the new legislation,” said Edi Gittenberger, managing director of Tritanium.

Percussion Initiator, Time Delay Fuse get CE marking

Fike has received CE marking on its Percussion Initiator and Time Delay Fuse products, part of the company’s specialized line of energetic devices that work with oil and gas downhole operations. GB Explosives Notified Body (ENB) offers an independent, specialized technical service in the assessment and certification (CE-marking) of explosives within the scope of the European Directive 93/15/EEC. The Percussion Initiator device is typically used in tubing conveyed perforating operations to initiate the detonation chain of perforating guns for the completion of oil and gas wells. Used in similar applications, the Time Delay Fuse is a chemically generated device used to initiate detonation of an oilfield cord booster on perforating guns.

Torque tester verifies top drive torque at surface

The wireless 3PS Torque Tester helps to verify and validate top drive torque directly at the surface below the top drive. The system uses reliable and stable strain gauge technology to measure torque. The sensor has been shock- and vibration-tested to 90 G. Peak torque and current live torque are displayed simultaneously. Each system is range-tested to verify operation beyond 1,200 ft. Both devices can easily be made RF silent by removing the battery in each device.

As a wireless system, both static and rotating torque (left and right hand) can be measured. This system can also be used to check other torque application systems, such as power tongs. It is available with most API rotary shoulder threaded connections.

Tuffband approved for new drill pipe applications

Postle Industries’ Tuffband NC Hardbanding has been NS-1 approved for new drill pipe applications. The alloy hardband is applied crack-free on new pipe and is casing-friendly. It can also be used as a matrix for tungsten carbide applications.

New hydraulic IBOP actuator on the market

GDS International has released a new hydraulic IBOP actuator that can open or close the top drive while the top drive is in rotation. This feature eliminates the mess often associated with models that must stop rotating before opening or closing. It also offers a compact body to allow ample room for the elevator links to pass by. The actuator is designed to fit any major brand top drive.

Baker Hughes offers environmentally preferred fracturing fluid systems

Baker Hughes has launched its BJ SmartCare family of environmentally preferred fracturing fluids and additives, which has been qualified through a recognized third-party chemical evaluation process. The qualification process identifies the products and systems that meet or exceed existing regulatory requirements and provides a scientific protocol for evaluating and selecting products for use in areas where regulations are limited or absent.

To date, products have been qualified in four fracturing systems: slickwater, linear gel, crosslinked and viscoelastic.

QTR transmissions aimed for pressure pumping, fracturing markets

Cummins is offering the QTR Series Transmission line to meet requirements of high-horsepower pressure pumping operations. The transmissions will be capable of up to 3,000 hp. The first in the series – the QTR2500 and QTR3000 – will be available in Q4 2011. The transmissions will be available as a package, coupled with a Cummins QSK50 or QSK60 engine, depending on the horsepower requirement, or as stand-alone transmissions. QTR Series transmissions use Dual Clutch technology with Cummins Synchro Shift design for smoother operations.

KCA DEUTAG wins rig contracts with BP, NAM, HESS

The T-208 has been contracted to drill for HESS’ shale oil exploration campaign in the Paris Basin starting this year.

KCA DEUTAG has signed several rig contracts in recent months, including six rigs for BP on the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli and Shah Deniz fields, one rig for Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij BV (NAM) for European land drilling, and one rig for HESS Oil France for shale drilling onshore Europe.

The six-rig contract will allow KCA DEUTAG to manage all BP-operated platform drilling assets in the Caspian region. The primary term is for five years, but there is an option to extend the contract by up to five more years. KCA DEUTAG believes this is the world’s largest single platform drilling contract. It covers platform drilling operations and maintenance services on the Central, East and West Azeri, Chirag, Deepwater Gunashli and Shah Deniz platforms.

The contract with NAM is for the T-700 heavy land drilling rig for a duration of seven years – two years firm and five years in options. “This is an innovative new rig that has been designed specifically to operate within the strict regulatory requirements of the European drilling market and is part of the company’s ongoing expansion of its fleet to meet customer demand,” KCA DEUTAG CEO Holger Temmen said. The T-700 is expected to commence drilling in early 2012.

With HESS, the contract is for KCA DEUTAG’s Euro Rig class land drilling rig T-208. The company will provide drilling and related services for shale oil exploration campaign in the Paris Basin permits operated by HESS and its partner Toreador Resources Corp. The deal includes the drilling of six firm wells in the Paris Basin, with two further well options; operations were expected to commence in February 2011.

Keppel to construct 4 newbuild jackups

Keppel FELS has won several contracts in recent months for newbuild KFELS B Class jackups – with Standard Drilling, Asia Offshore Drilling and Jasper Investments.

Standard Drilling, a subsidiary of the Norwegian investment company Ferncliff TIH, ordered a jackup for delivery in the second half of 2012. When completed, the unit will be able to drill in up to 400 ft of water and drill to a depth of 30,000 ft. Standard has options to build two similar jackups.

Two jackups will also be built for Asia Offshore Drilling, a subsidiary of Mermaid Maritime, with options to build another two similar units. The rigs are scheduled for delivery in 2012 and 2013 and will be able to operate in water depths up to 350 ft and drill to 30,000 ft.

An order has also been placed by Jasper for a 400-ft KFELS B Class jackup, with an option for another similar unit. Delivery is slated for the second half of 2012.

Keppel recently finished a 300-meter extension of the pier at its Singapore yard due to increased construction activities. See Q&A with Keppel O&M CEO Chong Heong Tong.

Hyundai to deliver ultra-deepwater drillship to Diamond in 2013

Diamond Offshore Drilling has ordered a new ultra-deepwater drillship to be delivered from Hyundai Heavy Industries in late Q2 2013. The turnkey contract includes a fixed-price option for a second drillship. The dynamically positioned drillship will have a seven-ram BOP, dual-activity capability, five mud pumps and a maximum hookload capacity of 1,250 tons. It will be designed for operations in up to 12,000 ft of water.

Pride to build 5th ultra-deepwater drillship with Samsung for 2013

Pride International and Samsung Heavy Industries have reached agreement to construct a fifth ultra-deepwater drillship for delivery in mid-2013. “The long-term outlook for the deepwater drilling sector is expected to remain fundamentally strong,” said Pride president and CEO Louis Raspino.

The new drillship will be designed for water depths up to 12,000 ft, with a vertical drilling depth of 40,000 ft. It will offer a payload in excess of 20,000 metric tons and a 1,250-ton hoisting system. Other features include a dual derrick, offline tubular stand-building and a 160-ton automated heave compensating construction crane to allow for the deployment of subsea production equipment without interfering with drilling. The rig will initially be equipped to drill in up to 10,000 ft of water.

JDC’s Chikyu to drill offshore Sri Lanka

Japan Drilling Co recently signed a contract with Cairn Lanka, a subsidiary of Cairn India, for the deepwater drillship Chikyu to drill three firm wells and two optional wells offshore Sri Lanka beginning in early July 2011.

Seadrill buys jackup, 2 Seadragon semis

Seadrill recently acquired three rigs, including a 375-ft jackup and two ultra-deepwater semisubmersibles. The company also took delivery of its West Juno jackup from Keppel FELS in Singapore.

The 375-ft jackup, to be named West Cressida, was acquired from Petrojack IV. It was delivered from Jurong Shipyard in January 2009 and is operating for PTTEP offshore Thailand under a long-term contract that goes out to Q2 2014.

The company has also acquired the Seadragon I and Seadragon II semis, both under construction at Jurong; deliveries are expected in Q1 2011 and Q4 2011. The Seadragon I has a five-year contract in place, although it is under discussion due to the rig’s postponed delivery.

The semis will be able to drill in up to 10,000 ft of water and have a total vertical drilling depth capacity up to 35,000 ft. They will have a single derrick with dual pipe-handling and offline stand-building capabilities.

The newly delivered West Juno is the ninth jackup added to Seadrill’s jackup fleet since 2008. It is a sister rig to the West Callisto and the sixth KFELS B Class rig to be constructed for Seadrill.

Statoil signs on COSLPioneer for up to 5 years

The COSLPioneer is the first of three fifth-generation semis that COSL Drilling Europe has under construction in China.

COSL Drilling Europe, a subsidiary of China Oilfield Services Ltd in Beijing, has been awarded a contract with Statoil for the COSLPioneer for drilling on the Norwegian Continental Shelf for up to five years. Plans call for the semisubmersible rig to be used for both production and exploration drilling.

“This contract is a major recognition of our strategy to build and operate purpose-built rigs for the mid-water segment in Norway,” said Jorgen Arnesen, CEO of COSL Drilling Europe.

The COSLPioneer is the first of three fifth-generation semisubmersibles under construction at CIMC Yantai Raffles shipyard to be finalized. The rig was delivered in late November 2010; it is on its way to Norway for commencement of operations by summer 2011.

The three semis are the first mid-water rigs to be built for the NCS since 2001, according to COSL. COSLInnovator and COSLPromoter, the other two rigs under construction with delivery in 2011 and 2012, already have long-term contracts with Statoil for use on the Troll field.

Noble puts in orders for 2 heavy-duty jackups, 2 ultra-deepwater drillships

Noble has entered into agreements for the construction of two harsh-environment jackups with Jurong Shipyard and two ultra-deepwater drillships with Hyundai Heavy Industries. The Friede & Goldman JU3000N design jackups are scheduled for delivery in Q4 2012 and Q2 2013. They will have the capability to operate in water depths up to 400 ft and to drill to 30,000 ft. The drillships, to be delivered in Q2 and Q4 2013, are based on a Hyundai Gusto P10000 hull design and are designed to operate in waters up to 12,000-ft deep, although either may be outfitted for shallower depths depending on contract requirements.

Xtreme Coil to build COTD rig for horizontal drilling in Bakken

Xtreme Coil has signed a multiyear rig contract and will construct a new Coil Over Top Drive (COTD) rig, scheduled for delivery in Q2 2011. The new XTC 500 rig design is intended for deep horizontal resource plays. It drills with and racks 45-ft joints of drill pipe in double stands to reduce the number of connections. The new rig will be the second XTC 500 unit contracted for the Bakken development of North Dakota.

Talisman extends contract with Odfjell for platform drilling, engineering

Odfjell Drilling has been awarded a contract extension with Talisman Energy UK for platform drilling and engineering for a fixed period of two years and three options of one year. According to Odfjell, Talisman will start up drilling again on the Claymore platform in 2011 and on the Auk platform in 2012.

Additionally, Odfjell was recently awarded a Letter of Intent from Statoil for the Deepsea Bergen semi for development drilling on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Superior Completion Services, a division of Superior Energy Services, recently completed its first Multi-Zone Single Trip (MST) installation in the Gulf of Mexico on a dual producer completion project. The well completion program involved four intervals with an isolation packer assembly in a larger casing size. This assembly made for the most intervals and the longest MST assembly installed in 7-in. casing to date. It also made for the first system to use a tapered service string for 9 ^5/8-in. and 7-in. casing.

The perforating and sand control operations on the four zones were completed in about four days, cutting in half the time these operations would have taken using typical stacked completion techniques. Sand control treatments were pumped on the four completion intervals in 27 hours. In addition, the MST system allows each zone to be tested individually. The well will produce the lower two zones as the long string and the upper two zones as the short string of a dual completion.

University center to get drilling simulator

KCA DEUTAG has established a strategic alliance with Robert Gordon University to provide drilling and rig training from the university’s new Energy Center at its Aberdeen campus. The company will relocate its proprietary DART simulator (Drilling and Advanced Rig Training) facility to a new complex within the Energy Center, expected to open in 2013. DART provides a full-scale reproduction of an offshore platform or land rig, with touchscreen consoles for both driller and assistant driller. 3D graphics of the rig’s drill floor and automated or remotely controlled equipment are projected onto a 60-ft long cinema screen at the front of the drilling control room cabin. Robert Gordon University will use the facility for postgraduate training programs.

Mpact downhole motor drills 3,390 ft in 24 hrs, setting Barnett daily footage record

Mpact Downhole Motors set a Barnett Shale daily footage record on 3 September 2010 using an Mpact downhole motor. For a 24-hr period, the assembly drilled a total of 3,390 ft with an average rotating and sliding ROP of 167.95 ft/hr.

The well, Little Hoss X5H, was drilled for Chesapeake Energy using the rig Patterson 178. The motor was configured with a high-torque, slow-speed performance power section that incorporated Mpact’s premium stator elastomer. An 8 ½-in. bearing stabilizer was attached to the lower assembly, and the proprietary adjustable bearing housing was set at 1.83˚.

10% production growth targets reached on Iraq’s Zubair, Rumaila fields

Key production growth targets have been reached on Iraq’s Zubair and Rumaila fields in recent months. In late 2010, Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) and Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS) said they achieved and sustained a 10% increase in oil production on Zubair, near Basra in southern Iraq. Then in early 2011, the Rumaila Operating Organization (ROO) announced it had increased production by more than 10% above the 1.066 million bbl/day initial production rate agreed in late 2009.

On Zubair, production has grown to more than 200,000 bbl/day of oil from the approximately 183,000 bbl/day produced when the consortium started field operations in Q1 2010. Aside from Oxy and KOGAS, the consortium also includes Eni and the Missan Oil Co. Iraq’s state-owned South Oil Company (SOC) and Missan are serving as state partners. The consortium plans to increase production from the Zubair field to 1.2 million bbl/day within the next six years and to maintain that production for seven years thereafter.

ROO, established by PetroChina, BP and SOC, has worked to steadily build activity on Rumaila over the past year. A total of 20 new rigs are mobilized in the field. Since the technical service agreement was signed in late 2009, a total of 31 wells have been drilled, 103 workovers completed and 122 kilometers of flowlines laid. Some 10,000 people are now working on Rumaila. The first phase of a new headquarters and accommodations complex has been completed.

Coiled-tubing drilling BHA used for underbalanced drilling

The COLT coiled-tubing drilling BHA gets rigged up on the first well test on a shale gas well onshore US. The tool withstood vibrations produced when drilling with aerated fluids while responding to changes in direction and speed.

UK-based AnTech has completed two drilling operations with the COLT, a coiled-tubing drilling bottomhole assembly (BHA) designed for the re-entry and thru-tubing markets. The tool was used on two wells in shale gas reservoirs in the Northeastern United States.

First field test

In the first field test, the well had originally been drilled conventionally with jointed pipe, but well problems meant that casing could not be run to TD. To re-drill the reservoir section would require drilling out a cement plug at the bottom of the casing, creating a new well trajectory and drilling a new horizontal section.

A rig with 2 ^3/8-in. diameter coil with e-line was brought to the well site, along with surface infrastructure and fluid tanks, a workshop trailer and a crane. Custom alignment tools and tool-handling equipment with hydraulically powered pistons were used to control deployment of the tool, which took just over two hours.

Drilling operations were performed in three stages: drilling the plug at the casing shoe, then the curve or “build” section, and the horizontal.

First, the COLT was run into the hole, and drilling commenced upon reaching the plug. It drilled through the plug and continued drilling for 165 ft with a straight motor and a tri-cone bit.

After drilling the plug, the operator set a well path; the challenge was to drill a build section that would effectively bring the well into a horizontal configuration. Setting a bend angle of 1.5˚ on the motor and aiming the toolface toward the desired direction, a build rate of 20°/100 ft was achieved. The operation was carried out using formation water as the drilling fluid. A 3 ^1/8-in. motor and a PDC bit were used to drill 460 ft to bring the wellbore horizontal at the desired depth.

The final step was to drill horizontally until the wellbore intersected the gently dipping formation above. While the previous two sections were drilled with formation fluid, the last section would be drilled underbalanced with nitrogen.  Aerated fluids increase vibration and make it more difficult to see motor stalls by monitoring surface pressures. The immediate effect of the underbalance condition doubled the ROP as the overbalanced pressure was reduced.

The wireline telemetry used in the COLT meant that the signal transmission was not affected by the change in fluid, and the fast signal transmission and downhole weight and torque (WOB/TOB) sensors meant that stalls could be avoided by monitoring the downhole signals. The tool’s performance was not adversely affected by the increase in vibration.  The borehole target was reached as planned.

Well Test 2

On a nearby commercial well, AnTech was to use the COLT to extend and drill a sump. The well was drilled in one run, with an extension and an open-hole sidetrack for a sump.

The COLT was used in combination with a 3 ^1/8-in. motor that had a 3 ^3/8-in. bearing section. It was drilled with an air-foam mix at an initial flow rate of 700 scf/min and 10 gpm, which was then increased to 900 scf/min and 10 gpm. At a TVD of 1,340 ft, the lateral was extended by 215.5 ft and a 255-ft sump was successfully drilled.

Using coiled-tubing drilling techniques, underbalance can be maintained 100% of the time. There are no joints to make and break, and downhole pressures are monitored continuously to ensure that they do not fall above or below planned values. In addition to the fast running speeds, continuous pressure containment and no personnel required on the rig floor, coiled-tubing drilling is an attractive proposition. In some cases it is the only viable way to drill a re-entry.

Since these operations, AnTech has implemented design improvements and created POLARIS, a simpler tool scheduled to debut in 2011. It is suitable for commodity drilling markets.

Cary Moomjian (center), Ensco, has been going to IADC’s Annual General Meetings for more than 30 years. He believes the industry should encourage young and high-potential people to attend more events such as these. At left is 2009 IADC chairman Claus Hemmingsen, Maersk Drilling, and at right are 2011 IADC chairman Matt Ralls, Rowan, and his wife, Amy, at the 2010 IADC Annual General Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, late last year.

For Cary Moomjian, this industry is all about the people. Early in his career, he left private law practice in southern California to join Santa Fe Drilling Company because he liked the people he had met while representing the company. Thirty-five years later, it is still the people of this industry who keep Mr Moomjian excited and active in the business. “I really enjoy dealing with IADC and the people. That’s the essence of it,” he said.

Mr Moomjian’s three decade-plus industry career has been devoted to two companies, both of which underwent significant growth and transformation during his tenure. At Santa Fe, where he led the legal and contracts departments for most of his 26 years with the company, one of the biggest milestones came when it was acquired by the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp in 1981.

“In retrospect, the acquisition couldn’t have come at a better time. Through the next decade, as oil prices collapsed and the industry went into a protracted slump, Santa Fe was able to navigate the downturn better than most drilling companies because it was privately owned and essentially debt-free,” he said. “It was about the only company in the world that was buying new offshore rigs in the late ’80s and throughout the ’90s.”

Being owned by a foreign government didn’t come without its challenges, however. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, Santa Fe employees working in Kuwait were some of the very first American hostages taken. Mr. Moomjian recalls hearing the news while on vacation in Utah. He hopped on the next flight back to Santa Fe’s headquarters in California to help manage the crisis. “It was a very intriguing time, and a very uncertain time, for the company,” he recalled.

Santa Fe moved to Dallas in 1993. When it merged with Global Marine and moved to Houston in 2001, Mr Moomjian decided to leave the merged company. “I was very fortunate as the only remaining driller in the Dallas area was Ensco. When the GlobalSantaFe merger was announced, the first phone call I received was from Ensco. It was a virtually seamless transition,” he said.

Mr Moomjian joined Ensco as vice president, general counsel and secretary in 2002 and began overseeing the company’s legal and risk management departments.

As he embarks on his ninth year with Ensco, he noted how much the company has grown – especially in its jackup and deepwater rig fleet. The company relocated its place of incorporation from the US to the UK in 2009, creating interesting dynamics because the company is still an SEC registrant with equity trading on the New York Stock Exchange, he said.

TRUE IADC STALWART

There are few people in the industry who don’t know – or at least know of – Mr Moomjian. If you’ve been to IADC conferences or participated in association activities, more likely than not you’ve crossed paths with him. To say that he chaired the Contracts Committee for over a decade and has served on the Executive Committee for three separate terms barely scratches the surface of his contributions. His leadership and industry service were recognized when he was named IADC Contractor of the Year in 1996.

In the true sense of the word, he is an IADC stalwart.

“Although I plan to continue to be active in the industry for several years, I wonder who will be the IADC stalwarts in the year 2040?” Mr Moomjian commented.

“The industry needs to do more to bring along the younger people within the ranks of IADC. We need to support and encourage the next generation of industry leaders by giving them the time and authorization to participate in IADC activities.

“It’s for the future of the industry and the association.”

Improved designs in protective gloves have boosted their use on drilling rigs in recent years as the drilling industry steps up efforts to protect hands and fingers. Photo © 2011 Judy Patrick Photography

Hand and finger injuries lead the  industry’s recordable incidence rates every year. Data from IADC’s 2009 Incident Statistics Program (ISP) indicate that 34% of recordable incidents and 20% of lost-time incidents fall in this category.

According to ISP statistics, the floorman is injured the most often while tripping drill pipe in and out of the well. Most of these injuries occur on the rig floor in the “caught between objects” category.

As a result of seeing these kinds of statistics over the years, the drilling industry has continued to place more and more emphasis on keeping hands and fingers from being injured. There have been many hand and finger injury prevention campaigns in the industry for years. More recently, companies have been looking to protective devices, such as different types of gloves, to make further safety improvements, said Joe Hurt, IADC regional vice president North America and lead staff land HSE issues.

Other efforts continue to be made as well. Automation has been introduced as a method to reduce hand injuries. Company campaigns to boost awareness were presented at an IADC HSE Committee meeting last year. More companies are placing pinch point stickers around the rigs to alert workers of potential danger.

A well-known hand safety program in the industry is Moody International’s “High Five” initiative, developed “because we received many requests from oil and gas clients who were having difficulty controlling their hand injuries despite their many attempts to initiate hand injury prevention processes,” said Jade Strong, regional manager – North America for Moody International. The behavior-based program focuses on people rather than equipment or policies, she said.

A major operator also has launched a 100-day campaign on the subject of finger and hand safety. For each day of the campaign, an incident that resulted in an injury was shown during the daily safety meeting. Each incident was taken from drilling experiences within the region to ensure they were relevant to the crews. The presentation would include a description of the incident and the consequences, including photos. Crews would then be asked to identify the hazard, discuss why it had not been recognized and what should be done to avoid similar incidents.

Improved designs in protective gloves have boosted their use on drilling rigs in recent years as the drilling industry steps up efforts to protect hands and fingers. Photo © 2011 Judy Patrick Photography

Safety tips

To help the industry to continue to reduce the incidence rate for finger and hand injuries, Drilling Contractor asked HSE personnel at operator, drilling contractor and service companies to share a few tips on hand safety. The following is a compilation of good practices collected that may prove useful in your organization:

1. The use of gloves was the most frequently cited tip from the companies DC spoke with. One contractor said that his company has mandated the use of impact-resistant gloves for certain positions, while another contractor said his company now requires employees to wear impact-resistant gloves as everyday gloves. One company noted that the use of brightly colored gloves can increase employee awareness of hand safety while working. It is important to change the color of the glove on a regular basis to revive the sensory awareness of the employee, the contractor said.

2. Another commonly mentioned good practice was the adoption of a “hands off loads” policy where no one touches a load after it has been rigged. Provide push tools and tag lines to help employees keep hands out of lifting operations.

3. Within the tools category, hammers represent the greatest opportunity for hand or finger injuries, one contractor said. Gloves need to be clean to maintain a good grip; likewise, hammer handles need to be clean to support a good grip. Also, select the right size of hammer as opposed to one that is too large for the task.

4. Clearly identify pinch points. Paint the hazards a different color or place stickers at each potential pinch point so workers are alerted when they see the stickers or brightly painted hazardous areas. Everyone is responsible for being aware of the hazards around them.

5. Do not allow employees to wear jewelry (rings and watches) while performing tasks.  “We experience too many hand and finger incidents, which of course, had the injured party been wearing jewelry, the impact of the incident would have been a lot worse,” one operator representative said.

6. Ban the use of adjustable wrenches as they have a tendency to slip, increasing the opportunity for hand or finger injury.

7. Often, employees place the non-dominant hand in the line of fire, increasing the risk of hand injuries, said the HSE director of a major service company. Remind employees to be aware of hand placement, especially of their non-dominant hand.

8. During pre-risk assessments and job safety analysis, a review of hand safety must include cut, pinching and puncture risk, chemical exposure and any other type of identified hazard.

9. During training, have your employees consider the effects of a hand injury from different viewpoints. Have them imagine not being able to do something so simple as to hold their child’s hand.

“I have worked real hard on getting my team members to understand the long-term effects of a finger injury. Make it personal,” one contractor said. Role playing can also help. Tape up each student’s dominant hand to simulate a debilitating injury for the training session. Give them exercises to perform that are difficult when one does not have use of the dominant hand.

10. An important element in any safety program is to involve the crews in the discussion. One operator noted that her company developed a safety campaign that included an interactive DVD. After viewing the DVD, crews in the safety meetings were asked to respond to the following questions:

1. What can the company do to reduce the risk of finger injuries?

2. What can your team do to prevent such injuries?

3. What can you to do reduce the risk of finger injuries?

All feedback was compiled and made available to participants and instructors for further comment and discussion. All proposals were considered and implemented, where practical.

Despite continuing uncertainty in the US Gulf of Mexico, the industry is smiling. Oil prices are rising, a driller’s delight.

Orders for new, high-spec offshore rigs have multiplied. Diamond Offshore Drilling, Noble Corporation and Pride International have each announced advanced rigs and negotiated options for additional units.

Perceptions of sustainable demand for premium equipment to drill the wells of tomorrow have pushed overbuilding concerns to the far back seat. This is true onshore as well as off.

“The long-term outlook for the deepwater drilling sector is expected to remain fundamentally strong,” said Pride president and CEO Louis Raspino. He cited steady geologic success, new emerging markets, shifts to field development, a preference for the most advanced rigs, new technologies that improve recovery rates, and the perception that world economic growth will support oil prices at a level sustaining deepwater development.

Pride in December ordered its fifth ultra-deepwater drillship since 2007. With delivery slated for mid-2013, the rig will boast advanced systems for hoisting, BOP handling and more.

Similarly, Diamond Offshore has contracted to build a $590 million ultra-deepwater drillship. Delivery is planned for the second quarter of 2013. The Diamond rig will feature a seven-ram blowout preventer, dual-activity capability, five mud pumps and a 1,250-ton hook-load capacity.

“The addition of a new drillship to our fleet is part of a continuing effort to enhance our ultra-deepwater capabilities at attractive capital costs,” remarked Diamond Offshore president and CEO Larry Dickerson.

Noble also put its money where its mouth is to leverage opportunities both in deep and shallow water. Noble has ordered both two ultra-deepwater drillships and two high-specification, harsh-environment jackups. Drillship deliveries are slated for the second half of 2013, while the jackups are expected at the end of 2012 and mid-2013.

(See D&C News and www.drillingcontractor.org for details on the rig orders.)

As Mr Raspino noted, new technologies, both downhole and topside, are enablers for deepwater. They have also driven the amazing resurgence in land operations, notably shale plays.

If you are not a stranger to this page, you are familiar with IADC’s championship of enabling technologies, including managed pressure drilling and advanced rig technologies.

Most recently, IADC formed a Dual Gradient Drilling Subcommittee. The new work group will serve as a nexus for developing DGD best practices and building awareness of the technology.

More on the DGD group is available on www.drillingcontractor.org.

Land drilling is enjoying a gleeful renaissance in oil and gas shales, enabled by horizontal drilling and fracturing technologies. New demands are revolutionizing land rigs into well factories. It’s like transforming post-hole diggers into fence-building machines.

Automation of both topside and downhole systems leading to human-free drilling is being vigorously pursued. Come to Amsterdam on 28 February for an afternoon of presentations exploring this topic, sponsored by the IADC Advanced Rig Technology Committee and the SPE Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section (www.spe.org/events/dc/2011/pages/general/panel.php).

In the brave new oilfield, technology is the differentiator, whether for tomorrow’s massive deepwater reservoirs, or the marginal fields of today and yesteryear.

Mike Killalea can be reached via email at mike.killalea@iadc.org.

Post-Macondo efforts continue

Industry groups, including IADC, urged the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) to open its regulatory process to the public and reiterated an invitation to the agency to participate in API’s open standards-setting process. The recommendations were made as part of the groups’ formal comments filed to the BOEMRE in December on the interim final rule on offshore drilling safety.

The 24-page comment emphasized that notice and comment rulemaking in the future would help to make the agency’s rulemakings more efficient and likely achieve a safety benefit, and would assist BOEMRE in promulgating more legally defensible regulatory actions.

The agency was also urged to immediately issue a final rule to clarify that it will not interpret “should” as “must” with regards to more than 14,000 discretionary, non-mandatory provisions in 80 API standards. There is no regulatory basis for adopting a blanket requirement for all discretionary language to become mandatory, the trade groups pointed out. Furthermore, mandatory compliance with discretionary API standards provisions is impossible in many cases – the standards were not drafted with mandatory compliance in mind.

To highlight this issue, industry groups provided detailed commentary on key standards – Spec 6A, RP 65-2, RP 53, MPMS Chapter 7, 20.1 and 21.1. These documents represent an important subset of the referenced standards and include valves, blowout preventers, cementing practices and measurement techniques. The commentary pointed out how conflicts would arise if “must” were substituted for “should.”

The document submitted to BOEMRE also highlighted nearly 30 additional technical issues raised by the agency’s interim final rule.

In December, IADC VP – offshore technical and regulatory affairs Alan Spackman testified in Washington, DC, before the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) as part of its ongoing investigation into the causes of the Macondo incident. He reviewed IADC’s HSE Case Guidelines for MODUs and described why a safety case based on these guidelines is appropriate for US deepwater drilling operations. He also described the API-IADC Well Construction Interface Document and how it adds the elements of well basis of design, well execution plan and critical well activity risk assessments to the traditional HSE management system bridging arrangement.

Further, Mr Spackman urged the agency to assess its resources in developing an approach to implementing the HSE case. Ongoing dialogue with industry is needed, and a multi-year roadmap for implementation should be formed.

On another front, industry has objected to language in a House bill that could extend offshore permit reviews from 30 days to 90 days. A letter was sent to the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Committee on Appropriations and the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies in December. The “continuing resolution” bill passed by the US House would create additional uncertainty for offshore energy development when clarity and stability are needed most, the trade groups pointed out.

Industry groups also sent a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations Full and Subcommittee asking Congress to provide additional resources to the BOEMRE to increase staff, training and inspectors. “It is imperative that BOEMRE is provided the necessary resources to review and process permits to drill OCS waters, and to maintain a vibrant leasing program in the OCS,” the letter stated.

IADC endorses IPTC 2011 to be held in Bangkok

Join IADC at the 2011 International Petroleum Technology Conference! IADC is an endorsing organization for IPTC 2011, 15-17 November in Bangkok. This year’s event, the fifth edition, has the theme “Technology and Operational Excellence: Keys to Sustainable Global Energy” (www.iptcnet.org).

IPTC is led by three co-chairmen, Luechai Wongsirasawad, PTT Exploration and Production; Saif Hamed Al Hinai, Petroleum Development Oman; and Ganesh Thakur, Chevron Energy Technology.

Papers will cover more than 30 topics spanning all E&P practices. For drilling and completions, topics are:

• Optimisation of well planning and execution: mature field revitalisation strategies, well drilling construction and completion, intelligent well construction, multilateral wells, wellbore quality considerations, drilling system optimisation of hardware, equipment, rigs, tubulars, etc;

• Challenges in well construction and completion: HPHT, deepwater, extended-reach drilling, managed pressure drilling;

• Advancements in technology application: Completion diagnostics, well testing, intelligent completions, wellbore construction fluids.

The conference will also include papers on HSE, security, human resources and social responsibility, as well as on geoscience, production and other topics.

IPTC is organized by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and sponsored by SPE, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers, and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.

North Sea Chapter makes donation to children’s charity

The IADC North Sea Chapter (NSC) has donated £5,000 to the ARCHIE Foundation, the official charity of the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital and community-based Child Health through Grampian, Orkney and Shetland.

“We are delighted to be able to present this check to a charity which is making a real difference to the lives of children of the North East of Scotland and the Islands who require medical care in the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital or in their own community,” NSC chairman John Monks, Northern Offshore, said. The donation will help the hospital to purchase specialized equipment.

Matt Ralls intends to dedicate his 2011 IADC chairmanship to the issue of safety. “The industry can do a much better job of sharing really good ideas about safety,” he said.

Life takes us to unexpected places. For Matt Ralls, it was a rather circuitous route – including a botched roustabout attempt when he was 18, a decision to major in nuclear engineering rather than petroleum engineering in college, and nearly two decades in the banking industry – that finally took him into the oil and gas business in 1990. Now, as president and CEO of Rowan Companies, Mr Ralls is leading one of the industry’s most respected companies with a long-standing reputation for operational excellence worldwide. Rowan currently operates a fleet of high-spec jackups on a global basis, with an ambition to expand into the floating deepwater segment.

Mr Ralls has also been elected IADC’s 2011 chairman, a position he intends to dedicate to safety and enhancing the industry’s safety culture. “Safety is not proprietary. I think the industry can do a much better job of sharing really good ideas about safety. We can all reinforce each other’s commitment to safety,” he said.

Another priority is working with IADC members and staff to continue to deal with Macondo’s aftermath. “Up until now it’s really been about keeping the government from overreacting and hurting our industry,” Mr Ralls said. “But now we’re starting to see details come out about what happened, and there will be an attempt to turn those findings into regulations. I think this is the year where a lot of heavy lifting is going to be done in terms of making sure that we get effective new regulation out of this and not overregulation.

He continued: “We need to make sure we have a seat at the table when it comes to turning the findings into practical application in daily operations… We are the industry representative for contract drilling, and that is exactly where the focus of the new safety regulations will fall. We need to make darn sure we’re in there and influencing the outcome.”

Early career

With a geologist father who was always going out to rigs to see logging results, Mr Ralls and his twin brother Mark have been around drilling rigs since they were young children. It was no surprise when they headed to Pauls Valley, Okla., to roustabout on a land rig the summer they turned 18.

“Unfortunately it was a very rainy summer and they were unable to move the rigs. They just couldn’t find any work for us,” Mr Ralls recalls. So the brothers had to go home without the rig experience they were looking for.

Ironically, it wasn’t until he joined the banking industry in 1973 that Mr Ralls really got to know the drilling industry through the finance side. He became a founding member of the energy department for a Houston bank just when banks were starting to set up energy lending departments in the mid- to late ’70s.

It turned out to be a great time for rig lending – for a few years at least. Then, everything crashed and burned in the ’80s downturn and the business turned brutal.

Due to the massive building boom in the late ’70s and early ’80s, substantial overcapacity of rigs had accumulated in an industry about to sink into a decades-long downturn. “I went to work for a bank that had made loans against new-construction land rigs, and there was just no work for them. We sold rigs that had never worked for less than 10 cents on the dollar,” he said.

It was a time of tough lessons, one of the most valuable of which was how volatile and cyclical this industry can be. “You have to plan your business around that cyclicality. As we say around here, you have to be able to stay in the game.”

From banking to E&P

In 1990, an acquisition of the bank Mr Ralls was working for prompted him to end his 17-year career in the banking industry and join Kelley Oil & Gas, an independent oil company, as its chief financial officer. The decision felt natural because of his familiarity with energy financing, and it turned out to be a career move he never looked back on.

Still, by any standard, 1990 was a lackluster year for the oil & gas industry. His time at Kelley Oil was one when the entire energy industry was trying to survive some of the toughest economics it had ever seen. “One month in 1992 I remember we sold natural gas for $1.05 per mcf. That’s how bad it got,” he recalled.

Mr Ralls’ first serious exposure to offshore drilling came in 1997, when he joined Global Marine as CFO. After about 15 years of hard times, things were starting to look up. “The industry was finally starting to see some pricing power. There was a lot of expansion going on. We were building a lot of equipment and doing some very interesting financings and lease structures,” he said.

He later moved to the operations side of the company – a shift that was made easier because of his engineering background. “I was probably an atypical finance person. I’ve always had a strong curiosity about how things work technically, how the equipment operated,” he said. Drilling rigs, equipment and technology “fascinated me.”

He added: “It was a very rewarding experience for me. Having been from the lending/credit side, I already had a profound appreciation for the capital intensity of the business. But until I got to Global Marine, I didn’t really appreciate the sophistication of the business, particularly on the technology side and with the management systems.”

The Rowan Viking is among three N-class jackups acquired along with Skeie Drilling in 2010. By 2012, Rowan will have constructed or acquired 11 newbuild jackups since 2008.

Rowan – too good to pass up

When GlobalSantaFe merged with Transocean in 2007, Mr Ralls retired. As a man of many hobbies – skiing, sailing, hunting and golfing, to name a few – Mr Ralls felt he had enjoyed a fruitful and successful career, and was ready to kick back in the Texas Hill Country. “My wife and I moved to Austin and was in the process of unpacking when I got a call,” he said. When he heard about the opportunity – to succeed a retiring Danny McNease at Rowan – Mr Ralls knew it was too good to pass up. “I knew Rowan by reputation as having very good people and very good equipment. Nobody has the concentration of high-spec jackups that Rowan has.”

Since joining Rowan in January 2009, Mr Ralls has been leading the company in an expansion effort that had started under Mr McNease. Although the Middle East and North Sea continue to be strong growth areas for the company, it has also opened an office in Southeast Asia. “We have high hopes for penetrating that market,” Mr Ralls said.

The expansion strategy also included a sizable newbuilding program. By early 2012, Rowan will have constructed or acquired 11 newbuild jackups since 2008. This includes the three N-class jackups that came with the acquisition of Skeie Drilling in 2010, all three of which have contract commitments in place. “We’ve added almost a billion and a half dollars of contract backlog in 2010,” he said.

When asked whether the company will look at further jackup construction in the near future, Mr Ralls replied: “For now we’ll probably take a breather on newbuild jackup construction and focus on opportunities to expand Rowan’s fleet through rig acquisitions in the ultra-deepwater drilling or high-end jackup markets.” Over the long term, the company intends to move toward a balance between jackups and floating rigs. This also includes a move away from the land drilling and manufacturing segments of the business.

“But there’s no hurry to do that,” Mr Ralls said. In fact, utilization for the company’s fleet of high-spec land rigs has been “a real bright spot” in 2010, compared with the jackup side. “We had about 50% of the fleet stacked by mid-2009, but that business just roared back.”

Safety – for one, for all

Despite all the progress Rowan has made as far as newbuilds and international expansion, Mr Ralls stresses that safety is still the one issue he’s been looking at more than any other since his first day at the company. “It has to be constantly refreshed and constantly driven home that safety is in fact our highest priority. The fact is that safe operations are the most efficient operations; they’re not only our moral obligation but they actually have a positive operational impact as well.”

To achieve safe operations, management leadership must set the example at the top, Mr Ralls believes. He recalls the president of a bank he’d worked for early in his career who often said: Management gets what it inspects and not what it expects. “At the time I thought it was a pretty gross oversimplification. But some 30 years into my career, I’m convinced it’s just that simple. Employees look at what we pay attention to, and that’s what we get. If management is crystal clear and highly focused on what we think are the priorities for the company, the workforce in this industry can and will deliver it.”

The Ralph Coffman is departing the US Gulf of Mexico market for a three-year contract with Saudi Aramco. The Middle East has remained a strong market for Rowan.

Macondo

The 2010 blowout and spill of the Macondo well served as a tragic reminder of the critical importance of having a strong safety culture. “What we need more than anything else is an increase in the leadership that we see from management of the contractors in terms of walking the walk with regards to safety. Everybody believes in it. Everybody endorses it. But whether they preach it day in and day out is another issue,” Mr Ralls said.

What industry doesn’t need is overreaction from regulators that will lead to overregulation: “I don’t view Macondo as symptomatic of a systemic flaw in the industry. To the contrary, I think the record for offshore drilling is pretty remarkable.”

Mr Ralls also believes that, just like in 2010, IADC will have a significant role to play in 2011 when it comes to managing industry’s response to regulation attempts. “It’s critically important that we all be aligned in our response and that we be cooperative with the regulators to reassure them that it’s our highest priority to ensure safe operations… There’s a lot of new information coming out about the event, and there will be a move to react to it from a regulatory or management standpoint. We can either do it as an industry or we can have it forced on us by regulators.”

Mr Ralls added: “I think that over time there’s going to be a concerted move outside of just the US to have a single safety oversight body that will set the standards for offshore safety rather than doing that country by country and company by company… Industrywide objectives and standards setting for what constitutes safe operations may actually turn out to be a positive for the industry.”

In the near term, there’s no doubt that Macondo has changed the game – especially when it comes to the painful snail’s pace of permit approvals. In the long term, however, Mr Ralls is optimistic that the national political and regulatory pendulum will swing back toward the middle. He also doesn’t expect new regulations to significantly increase drilling contractors’ operating costs or for Macondo to hugely impact operations outside the US Gulf. “Long term, this is still a very healthy industry.”

Finally, the people problem

The oft-discussed human resources challenge can’t be overlooked either. Fortunately, virtually every company in the industry now has employee development programs, and they are doing more training than ever before. “But the fact is we’re going to have to do more. We need to be constantly improving the training programs – what we’re teaching, how we’re teaching, how often we’re teaching,” Mr Ralls said. “It’s an area where you’ll see an increasing commitment by the industry.”

He also encourages employees to take a more active role in their career development. “They need to seek out opportunities as opposed to just waiting for someone to identify them as someone needing development. This industry is a fertile ground for people who have good ethics, are willing to work hard and take an active role in the development of their own career paths.”

Ironically, although Mr Ralls himself was talked out of pursuing a petroleum engineering degree in college because nuclear engineering appeared to be “the way of the future,” his experiences over the past 30 years have convinced him that the oil and gas business will be a critical industry worldwide for decades to come. “Maybe there’s something out there that will change the game someday, but it’s not going to be anytime soon. Our dependence on drilling and fossil fuels is not diminishing but expanding. My grandchildren could still have a very good career in the contract drilling business.”

Mr Ralls and his wife, Amy, live in Austin, Texas. They have four grown children and six grandchildren.

Matt Ralls, Chairman
Rowan Companies

Matt Ralls joined Rowan Companies in 2009 as president, chief executive officer and member of the board of directors. He most recently served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of GlobalSantaFe Corp, from June 2005 until the completion of its merger with Transocean in November 2007.

Prior to that he served as senior vice president and CFO of GlobalSantaFe. He joined Global Marine in 1997 as vice president and treasurer and was senior vice president, CFO and treasurer prior to the November 2001 merger that created GlobalSantaFe.

Mr Ralls previously held executive positions at two publicly traded oil and gas companies and various management positions in commercial banking. He received an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and a Masters in Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Dan Rabun, Vice Chairman
Ensco

Daniel W Rabun is chairman of the Board, president and chief executive officer of Ensco. He joined the company in March 2006 as president and director.  He was appointed chief executive officer and chairman of the Board of Directors in 2007. Before joining Ensco, Mr Rabun was a partner at the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie LLP, where he practiced law for 20 years. He is a certified public accountant and holds a B.B.A. in accounting from the University of Houston and a Juris Doctorate degree from Southern Methodist University. Beth Gordon, Secretary-Treasurer
Diamond Offshore Drilling

Beth Gordon is the controller of Diamond Offshore Drilling and has served in that capacity for the past decade. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston and has been a CPA since 1982. David Russell, Vice President – Offshore Division
Rowan Companies

David Russell is executive vice president of Rowan Companies. He started his career at Rowan as a college roustabout in summer 1982 while attending the University of Texas. He became a full-time employee in 1984, spending his first nine years of service as a barge engineer, driller and toolpusher on offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1993, Mr Russell was promoted to drilling supervisor in Rowan’s Turnkey Division, Rowan Petroleum. In June 1995, he was named land operations manager, then promoted to vice president of Rowan Drilling Company in 1998. In January 2005, he was named president of Rowan Drilling Company and VP of Rowan Companies. He assumed his current position in January 2006. Ronnie Witherspoon, Vice President – Land Division
Nabors Drilling USA

Ronnie Witherspoon is senior vice president of marketing and business development for Nabors Drilling USA. He began his career with Schlumberger, providing logging services to clients in the Gulf of Mexico. He joined Nabors following graduate school and has held various positions within the company, including project manager, manager of contracts and marketing, district manager of Arkoma, district manager of East Texas and vice president of the Northern Division.

Mr Witherspoon holds an MBA in finance and MSMIS from the University of Oklahoma and has taken advance graduate finance courses at New York University. He also serves as a board member for The Center of Hearing and Speech in Houston. David Reid, Vice President – Drilling & Well Services Division
National Oilwell Varco

As vice president, E&P technology and business at NOV, David Reid is responsible for developing corporate business interaction with strategic E&P companies. Joining Varco International nearly two decades ago, he spent three years each in the UK Drilling Systems Service Business and the Product Line Management for Pipehandling Products. He then spent another three years as director of marketing and sales with the Shaffer division of Varco before he became vice president of marketing and business development for Varco. Dr Lee Hunt, IADC President

Dr Lee Hunt serves as the chief executive of IADC, responsible for managing IADC’s worldwide operations. Before being named president in 1990, his prior association positions included manager for state government affairs, environmental affairs and human resources. Dr Hunt holds a PhD in political science from Northwestern University and received his law degree from South Texas College of Law. Brian Petty, IADC Executive Vice President, Government Affairs

Brian Petty is based in Washington, DC, with global responsibilities for directing IADC’s government affairs initiatives. He serves as chairman of the federal Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Automotive Equipment and Capital Goods, which counsels the US Trade Representative and the US Secretary of Commerce on international trade issues. He also serves on their joint Investment Working Group to advise them on international investment policy. He co-chairs the Energy Services Coalition, comprised of 60 companies and trade associations seeking liberalization of trade in the hydrocarbon, electric power and renewable energy sectors at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Mr Petty holds a law degree from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in literature from the University of Virginia. ]]> http://www.drillingcontractor.org/2011-iadc-officers-8108/feed 0 http://www.drillingcontractor.org/from-the-chairman-leadership-not-politics-8106 http://www.drillingcontractor.org/from-the-chairman-leadership-not-politics-8106#comments Fri, 28 Jan 2011 21:03:52 +0000 Wr1t3rz http://www.drillingcontractor.org/?p=8106

Matt Ralls, IADC 2011 Chairman

After months of hearings and investigations, the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling released its report in early January. The commission concluded that there was a systemic flaw in the industry’s safety culture that led to the Macondo disaster and made a number of recommendations for how the industry should respond to that perceived failure, including the creation of a national safety institute.

Incidents such as Macondo, and Montara in the Timor Sea, may have underlying issues that appear to cry out for increased standards and regulations – and then again they may not. But the constant pressure from legislators, environmentalists and the public may put pressure on regulators to act, even if it is against the best interest of themselves, the public and indeed the national interest.

Thus far, only the US has given in to the temptation to turn a disastrous but incredibly infrequent event like Macondo into a political issue, imposing sanctions beyond existing laws and effectively creating political risk for companies looking to invest in the development of hydrocarbons in the US.

The moratorium on deepwater drilling and the “permitorium” on all drilling in the US GOM, along with promises early on by the administration to aggressively pursue criminal convictions, all frustrate the ability of the industry to understand the mistakes made on the Deepwater Horizon, to make the changes needed to ensure it doesn’t happen again and to communicate those lessons learned to other industry participants.

Presentations to the commission over the past several months have offered comparisons to other industry oversight groups, such as those from the nuclear power generation and airline industries. In my opinion, there is some merit to the concept of a single safety oversight organization that would establish safety policy for the entire industry based on best practices. To be sure, we should all continually strive for improvement in the safety of everything we do and be quick to share every good idea with everyone in the drilling industry; effective safety practices should never be considered proprietary.

However, there are obvious difficulties of getting governments around the world to agree on what a safety culture should look like and share responsibility for determining best practices. Drilling has become a very international business, with US activities representing an important but increasingly smaller percentage of worldwide activity, especially for offshore drilling.

The leverage of US industry groups or regulators to impose their views is dubious, particularly when other regulators in large offshore drilling markets consider their practices and standards to be superior to those in the US. And without international participation, it’s not clear how a US Gulf of Mexico safety institute would be effective or necessary.

But the fact is that, even without an overarching policy body, this industry has come a very long way over the past couple of decades in the way we think about safety and in the development of safety policies. I personally know members of the managements of many of the world’s largest drilling contractors and know they are truly dedicated to creating the safest possible working environments for their people.

And their efforts have borne fruit, creating a much safer industry with an incident rate well below the agricultural, construction and mining industries, and even below that of retail and healthcare. Certainly, there is more to be done, and it shouldn’t be left to regulators to determine how to get us to the next level in safety.

What the industry needs now is more leadership on a strong safety culture from all of us in management. We all start our meetings with safety briefings but often quickly move on to pressing operational or financial issues. Many meetings focused on safety are delegated to staff functions and, despite the efforts of even the most dedicated HSE personnel, may become routine or repetitive.

There’s an old saying that management gets what it inspects, not what it expects.  If we as senior managers spend 5%, even if it’s the first 5%, of our time in front of our coworkers on safety and then 95% on other matters, is it reasonable to assume that they will conclude that safety is our highest priority?

We need to continually engage everyone in the office and on the rig in a conversation on safety, emphasizing their individual responsibilities for the safety of everyone working around them. We need to make safety such an obvious priority in the way we manage that others seeking to emulate their company’s leadership will prioritize it in the same way.

Our managers and supervisors need to be rewarded as much for constantly demonstrating a commitment to safety as for their operational competency, recognizing that both are critical to creating a safe working environment. In short, let’s elevate the share of mind that we and our coworkers give to continuous improvement in our safety culture.