Offshore Middle East features operators' perspectives

Under the Patronage of H.E. Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Energy and Industry, PennWell owned and operated Offshore Middle East (OME) Conference & Exhibition returns to Doha, Qatar, Oct. 12-14, 2010.

As in past OME events, national and international operators are well represented in the technical program. The Opening Plenary traditionally is reserved for the host company, but new for this year’s event is an extended Opening Session that includes presentations from key international operators in the region.

The new session – Operators’ Perspectives – leads with a presentation from Dr. Faisal Bin Fahad Al-Thani, deputy managing director of Maersk Oil Qatar, followed by senior management from Shell and Total.

Mubarak A. Al-Hajri, operations manager of offshore fields for Qatar Petroleum, and chairman of the OME conference advisory board, will open the event with the Welcome Address, followed by Qatar Petroleum and the Ministry of Energy & Industry with the Keynote Address.

Operator case studies

A number of national and international operators are scheduled throughout the technical program to share details of the latest offshore exploration and development projects in the region.

Roy Quaden, Qatar Shell, brings the audience up-to-date on the key successes and lessons learned from inception to delivery of the Pearl GTL project. The development in the North field offshore Qatar consists of two platforms and 22 wells, which will feed the world’s largest GTL plant. A number of unique solutions were discovered during the development, including optimized well design, improved BOP handling during skidding operations, and faster drilling. To date, the project team has delivered the fastest well in the North field – in 28.5 days – and averaged 45 days/well from the Pearl-2 platform. The average is 75 days to deliver a North field development well.

Engr. Ahmed Alghamdi, Saudi Aramco, discusses safety and environmental concerns during the drilling and development of a gas field, where the presence of H2S could be a factor. During one project, the operator opted to monitor potential H2S release with a new wireless-sensor configuration. The presentation outlines the regulatory, technical, and environmental considerations and requirements to design and implement the wireless monitoring system.

James King, Qatar Petroleum, introduces a well integrity management process for brownfield development. Formally adopted by the operator, the approach relies on risk levels as low as reasonably practical during the design, construction, operational, and abandonment stages of a well’s lifecycle. It allows the company to follow recognized industry standards and procedures. Other approaches to well integrity management could result in the adoption of conservative control processes. Different approaches and assumptions to annular pressure control, for example, could result in the selection of maximum allowable working pressures for well integrity management.

Dr. Tarek Elshayeb, Maersk Oil Qatar, shares the operator’s method of extended reach horizontal drilling to maximize oil-recovery rates and production of the Al Shaheen field offshore Qatar. Geosteering, among other innovative principles and practices, enabled one of the wells to reach a world record 40,320 ft MD. The case study reveals how the field’s thin Nahr Umr Sandstone reservoir is developed with geosteering in a 3-ft thick target with more than 97% reservoir contact to 33,700 ft MD.

P.C. Wong, ExxonMobil Development Co., shares the results of a feasibility study of seafloor remediation for multiple jackup visits. These multiple visits to the North field offshore Qatar has resulted in overlapped spudcan footprints on the seabed. The study was conducted on methods to remediate the seafloor at the platform rig approach side to enable a broader selection of jackup rigs to revisit the platform. Foundation methods such as covering, dredging, in-filling, stomping, and “swiss-cheesing,” were evaluated.

More information on OME 2010 is available on page 40 in this issue, and atwww.offshoremiddleeast.com.