This issue features our annual International Report - a complete roundup of offshore exploration and production activity worldwide.
As she does every May,International Editor Judy Maksoud takes a region-by-region look at what has occurred in the last 12 months. She brings you up to date on discoveries, field developments, and new exploration plans. As a veteran of this type of research, analysis, and reporting, Maksoud presents a lively, fact-filled review and forecast - from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea to South America, and the Asia-Pacific to offshore Canada. She covers the globe.
As you might expect to find, a lot has happened in the last 12 months, and a lot more is on the horizon. For the latest and the soon-to-be-expected, don’t miss this annual feature. The 12-page special report begins onpage 34.
TPG 500 moves outside North Sea
Production is building at Shah Deniz in the Azeri sector of the Caspian. Under the first phase of the BP-operated development, nine wells will deliver up to 900 MMcf/d of gas and 58,000 b/d of condensate. All production is being exported through parallel sea lines to a terminal in Sangachal, on the shore of Azerbaijan.
The wells are being drilled from a three-legged TPG 500 jackup platform, supplied and installed by the project’s main engineering contractor, Technip. Shah Deniz is the third application of this proprietary design, the forerunners being BP’s Harding and Total’s Elgin/Franklin in the North Sea.
In his feature on the development of Shan Deniz,Jeremy Beckman, Editor, Europe, talks with the project decision-makers about how and why the concept was chosen. His report on their selection process and how the field was developed begins on page 70.
Helix to deploy first ship-shaped DP FPU in Gulf of Mexico
AsManaging Editor David Paganie points out in his feature on Helix Energy Solutions, operators in the Gulf of Mexico continue to find new ways of dealing with challenging field development and operational conditions.
Helix is about to launch the first ship-shaped, disconnectable, dynamically positioned (DP), floating production unit in the GoM. The vessel will be used to exploit marginal deepwater oil and gas prospects.
The company also is managing a separate set of challenges at the installation site, where it continues to clear wreckage of theTyphoon TLP. Helix’s floating production unit (FPU), Helix Producer I (HPI), will be installed on the old Typhoon field, renamed Phoenix, in Green Canyon block 237 in 640 m (2,100 ft) of water.
In thisOffshore exclusive report, Helix Executive Vice President and COO Bart Heijermans discusses the decision behind the concept selection and the investment’s upside potential, beginning on page 97.
Time-lapse seismic swaths prove cost-effective
With careful planning, time-lapse seismic technology (4D) swaths can be a cost-effective alternative to full-field 4D seismic acquisition for structurally simple fields and are important in Shell’s North Sea 4D strategy.
That’s the conclusion of a team of authors from Shell UK. The authors includeJon Brain, Peter Grant, Rob Staples, and Erik Tijdens.
As they explain, the portfolio approach to 4D swath acquisition successfully acquired time-lapse seismic data over four North Sea fields at low cost with minimal preparation. In the case of Nelson and Guillemot fields, processed results support current business activities. For Scoter and Cook fields, the results are less convincing. In all cases, valuable information was acquired.
Keys to technical success, they say, are out-of-plane geological dips, which result in imaging errors and serious 4D non-repeatability. See their entire analysis beginning onpage 120.
