To tether, or not to tether? A Brazilian remotely operated vehicle (ROV) operator recently approached JDR with the concept of building an optimum-cost work-class ROV system to service a South American... more

TotalFinaElf's Girassol project uses innovative riser towers to bring production up from the deep, but before it could do so, it needed a buoyancy system to take the weight off... more

Decommissioning is the newest big market opportunity to develop in the North Sea. After 25 years of production, many forecasts originally predicted, the North Sea sector would see the removal of... more

In gas condensate wells, liquid reinjection during a buildup test can be mistaken for dual porosity or condensate banking in the reservoir. When pressure-testing a well from the surface, it is... more

A new capillary shock-wave model enhances the accuracy of 3-D seismic interpretation. A year ago, a new wave mechanics approach to pressure-transient analysis called WaveX was introduced.1 This pressure analysis method... more

A multiphase flow meter enhances data quality and quantity obtained from mobile and permanent well testing equipment, improving well performance assessment and reservoir understanding. A novel multiphase flow meter has proven... more

Stock prices are plunging for tubular manufacturers. But most are counting on a rosier 2002. Like most of the rest of the oil and gas industry, recent news has gone from... more

Pipe vendors are focusing their supply and service skills on high-volume slots in an effort to assume single-source responsibility. Becoming a single supply source in the upstream petroleum industry has been... more

An environmentally friendly casing cleaning treatment is bolstering efficiency on Statfjord and Sleipner fields. A new oil-based soap (OBS) for cleaning casing reduces rig time and is environmentally safe, its makers... more

A new tubular design offers an alternative to drilling strings in deepwater applications. Concurrent with seismic innovations that have significantly increased the exploration and production industry's ability to find deep oil... more

There's no telling what far-flung locale might tug at a company's heart - and purse - strings. For three companies, key points of interest are along the Pacific Rim. Unstable political... more

The two-phased development is the largest proposed investment to date in the Timor Sea. After a 3-year exploration program, the Bayu-Undan field was discovered in early 1995 by a Phillips Petroleum... more

South Australia boasts significant hydrocarbon potential. South Australia has a long history of petroleum exploration, extending to 1866, when the first well was sunk in the search for oil. The discovery... more

What's out: GeoNet and 4-year-old PCs. What's in: DVDs and iReservoir.com. Another dot-com is dead. GeoNet services.com, the only third-party application service provider (ASP) for the upstream and downstream sectors of... more

New processing techniques combine the efficiency of multiple streamers with the quality of single-source, full-fold data. During the past decade, marine seismic acquisition technology has developed significantly. The increase in streamer... more

The days of the work-class remotely operated vehicle (ROV) may be numbered. A new super robot with more than twice the power of a work ROV has been developed in Holland... more

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. promoted Bill Sullivan to executive vice president, exploration and production. Rex Alman was promoted to senior vice president, domestic operations. Jim Emme has been named vice president,... more

1. Partners continue drilling on the East Lost Hills (ELH) program in Kern County, Calif., in search of deep gas, according to participant Hilton Petroleum Ltd. Activity at the ELH... more

1. Samedan Oil plans development of its Lost Ark project in East Breaks Block 421 and is drilling a sidetrack appraisal well into East Breaks 464. The gas discovery likely... more

1. Talisman Energy returned to the hydrocarbon hunt in September, beginning drilling on the Craigevaar prospect. The new well was spudded with the Ocean Princess semisubmersible operating on the 14/18a-11... more

1. Dana Petroleum is trying to find a rig to drill on its acreage in Ghana and a vessel to shoot 3-D off Mauritania. The company is undecided about whether... more

1. The powerhouse trio of Texaco, Colombia's Ecopetrol and Petroleos de Venezuela SA is studying a US $200 million, 200 MMcf/d, 125-mile (200-km) pipeline from Texaco's 3.5 Tcf gas fields... more

1. After an unsuccessful attempt to find commercial levels of gas in its US $78 million first Absheron field exploratory well off the coast of Azerbaijan south of Baku, Chevron... more

1. British gas company BG has decided to relinquish one of its three exploration blocks offshore Israel. The company will abandon efforts to explore for gas in the 618-sq mile... more

1. Malaysia's Petronas is negotiating with the Philippines National Oil Co. over a pipeline from fields on Sabah undersea to the Bataan Peninsula near Manila, the Philippines. The Manila government... more

When the going got tough, an industry society kept going, with remarkable poise and grace. It's an intriguing fact about human nature that whenever something big happens, people can always remember... more

One person's trash is another's treasure. Whenever one drills a hole, disposal of whatever used to occupy that hole will be necessary. The bigger the hole, the higher the production -... more

Floating production projects are popping up off Africa, Brazil and Indonesia...and elsewhere. Offshore operators continue to employ floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs) in deep water and remote offshore oil... more

The bombs started to fall yesterday in Afghanistan. Despite the fact that it must - and should - be done, it is a sad conclusion to an even sadder attack.... more

Observant people are a company's most important asset in preventing a terrorist attack on a corporate installation. The age of terrorism has reared its ugly head in the United States. Although... more

With 44% of Africa's industrial output, South Africa should be a natural target for oil and gas supplies, but that movement still is in the building stages. To the northwest, Shell... more

When oil prices are low and jobs are scarce, companies can get away with ignoring career development. At least for the moment, the tables have turned. To increase productivity and... more