Offshore Oil

Ecopetrol SA’s US subsidiary is the apparent high bidder on 19 blocks in the Oil & Gas Lease Sale 213 held by the US Minerals Management Service in New Orleans.

Oil and natural gas company W&T Offshore is the apparent high bidder on five Outer Continental Shelf blocks offered in the Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 213 held yesterday by the US Minerals Management Service (MMS).

Statoil aims to step up the speed and performance of its production wells on the Norwegian shelf, according to Geir Slora, senior VP for drilling and wells.

InterAct has completed the abandonment of an `observation’ well in the East Irish Sea for Centrica Hydrocarbon Resources.

Det norske oljeselskap will drill an exploration well in the southern North Sea with the semisub Bredford Dolphin, following clearance from Petroleum Safety Authority Norway.

Albert Einstein said: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity.” Is it not insanity to continue to use the same contractual language on high specification rigs as we have on the less complex rigs?

The ongoing push for more producible oil and gas reservoirs is leading the industry into greater offshore depths and harsher environments. Traditional design approaches to developing equipment and systems for shallower offshore wells often don’t work effectively in these deeper, harsher environments. How can petroleum and marine mechanical engineers move outside their traditional realm of experience to develop new designs that will improve drilling performance in these new challenging environments?