Archive | Features
Critical Issues in Drilling & Completions
Posted on 30 January 2013 in 2013, Features, January/February
For all the big iron the drilling industry has spent billions of dollars building that can lift millions of pounds and drill miles beneath the earth’s surface, for all the highly sophisticated downhole technologies that can match anything in the aerospace or nuclear industries, much of our efforts are now…
Deeper waters, LNG prospects gain momentum
Posted on 30 January 2013 in 2013, Features, Global and Regional Markets, January/February
Asia Pacific is stepping out of its comfort zone. Long a region with plenty of shallow, easy-to-tap conventional resources, the market has begun a transition, shifting focus to more complex and risky ventures such as deepwater, high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) reservoirs and…
2013 IADC chairman David Williams: Safety is not negotiable
Posted on 30 January 2013 in 2013, Features, IADC: Global Leadership, Global Challenges, January/February
In life, sometimes you have to be at the right place at the right time in order to get to that next step. But a lucky break is never enough; it’s what you do once you get that break…
Completing the shale puzzle
Posted on 30 January 2013 in 2013, Completing the Well, Features, January/February
It’s no secret that unconventional shale production is booming in North America, and the news keeps getting better as industry continues expanding into new oil and liquids-rich plays. So bullish is the outlook for shale oil, the International Energy Agency…
Optimism strong despite market uncertainties
Posted on 02 November 2012 in 2012, Features, Global and Regional Markets, November/December
Trumpets or fireworks may be absent in celebrating substantial industry growth as 2012 concludes, but that’s no matter. Over the past 12 months, industry solidified its footing after facing significant regulatory and economical challenges over the previous couple of years…
Technology Development: A game of risks vs rewards
Posted on 02 November 2012 in 2012, Features, Innovating While Drilling, November/December
Industry investing in new generation of forward-thinking technologies even as it works to overcome old mindsets, barriers. When National Oilwell Varco (NOV) unveils its open-platform drilling automation system NOVA in 2014…
Annual General Meeting Special: IADC 2012 – A year of reflection, changes
Posted on 02 November 2012 in 2012, Features, IADC: Global Leadership, Global Challenges, November/December
The drilling world is rapidly changing, and IADC is changing with it. With our strategic review recently completed, we’ve begun reshaping ourselves and have started to roll out new global initiatives aligned with our new way forward…
Positive rig demand steers 2013 outlook
Posted on 02 November 2012 in 2012, Features, Global and Regional Markets, November/December
Analysts are voicing optimism about a recovery in 2013 – looking to upticks in both rig demand and natural gas pricing. Although the US land rig count has steadily dropped throughout the year since Q1 and US natural gas prices have remained disappointingly weak…
Middle East on the up and up
Posted on 02 November 2012 in 2012, Features, Global and Regional Markets, November/December
A healthy, growing offshore market and renewed drilling and production in brownfields with significant reserves project a positive 2013 for the Middle East. This despite reduced production in Iran due to international sanctions and the slow-to-moderate pace of Iraq …
Sustaining the license to drill: It’s not a game!
Posted on 17 September 2012 in 2012, Drilling It Safely, Features, Global and Regional Markets, September/October
In summer 2011 offshore Greenland, in an attempt to halt Arctic exploration, Greenpeace activists scaled a semisubmersible rig large enough to drill in more than 8,000 ft of water. This, despite a court injunction and the risk of jail time and significant fines for the activists….
Recent Drilling News
19 June 2013
Dolphin Drilling unveils new deepwater drillship
Aberdeen-based Dolphin Drilling, one of the oldest and largest independent drilling contracting companies in the North Sea, unveiled its new 751-ft ultra deepwater rig...
14 June 2013
UK HSE report: Reportable hydrocarbon releases nearly halved over three years
The UK oil and gas industry has achieved a 48% reduction in the number of reportable hydrocarbon releases over three years, the...
12 June 2013
Atwood Oceanics secures contract for Atwood Achiever ultra-deepwater drillship
Atwood Oceanics has been awarded a drilling services contract for the ultra-deepwater drillship Atwood Achiever by a subsidiary...
10 June 2013
Ensco orders its eighth Samsung DP3 ultra-deepwater drillship
Ensco has ordered an additional advanced-capability DP3 ultra-deepwater drillship based on the Samsung GF12000 hull design. The vessel, ENSCO DS-10, will be the eighth...
07 June 2013
Unconventionals lead the way for drilling automation, but business model defines uptake
Industry’s ongoing efforts to bring automation to the drilling sector will progress over time as a “natural alignment”...