E&P Notes (July 2018)

E&P Notes

How ConocoPhillips Solved its Big Data Problem

Matt Zborowski, Technology Writer

In doing basic analysis on something such as well performance, an engineer can spend weeks merely collecting data related to the subsurface, operations, maintenance, and finance. Staff at Conoco Phillips, however, can bypass this time-consuming data curation process and begin performing analysis right off the bat thanks to a program that was years in the making.

Recently scaled across its organization, the Houston independent’s integrated data warehouses (IDWs) serve as centralized data stores for staff involved in various disciplines including operations, production engineering, well construction, reservoir engineering, and geoscience. Deployment has resulted in improved well uptime, decreased drilling times, optimized completion designs, and increased understanding of subsurface characteristics, the company said. 

Total Prepares Exit From Big Iran Project as US Sanctions Renewed 

Matt Zborowski, Technology Writer

Total said it will pull out of the South Pars 11 (SP11) gas project in Iran to avoid exposure to renewed US sanctions on the country unless the company is granted a waiver.

The French supermajor relies heavily on the US financially and has investments and business operations in 23 states spanning upstream, midstream, downstream, and marketing. US banks are involved in more than 90% of the company’s financing operations, US shareholders represent more than 30% of its shareholding, and its US assets represent more than $10 billion of capital employed, it said.

US President Donald Trump on 8 May announced that the US would withdraw from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly referred to as the Iran nuclear deal, and rein-state sanctions enforced before JCPOA took effect, subject to certain winddown periods. European participants in JCPOA remain supportive of the deal.

Marriage of Ideas Could Allow More Deepwater Gas to Shore

Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor

Lee Thomas admits he and his wife talk about some things most couples don’t. The thing is that he and his spouse, Laura Liebana, are engineers with overlapping interests.

His expertise is pipelines and hers is flow assurance. They met while working on pipeline systems used to transport gas from coal seams in Australia.

They moved on to offshore work in the Intecsea/Worley Parsons London office where they faced a problem common to those contrasting environments. There are fields in both that produce a mix of gas and liquid and where the energy required to move the mix through a pipe-line significantly limits how much can be produced using natural pressure, among other problems.

Shallow Ports Keep US From Exporting Even More Crude

Trent Jacobs, Digital Editor

The US might be exporting even more oil, and commanding higher prices for it, if only it had the right port facilities. A new report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that while US crude shipments continue to rise at an impressive rate since a nearly 40-year government ban was lifted in 2015, exports are constrained by an inability to accommodate Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs).

Exports averaged 1.1 million B/D in 2017 and have expanded to 1.6 million B/D in the first half of this year. Crude exports were less than 500,000 B/D in 2016. Almost all of these exports originate from the US Gulf Coast where most loading facilities are located in shallow inland harbors—a factor that has severely limited the use of VLCCs to move oil overseas.

ConocoPhillips Considering Sale of North Sea Assets?

Stephen Whitfield, Senior Staff Writer

ConocoPhillips is preparing to sell its fields in the North Sea, according to a Reuters report. Citing sources in the oil and gas industry and in banking, the news agency said the operator’s decision is part of an overall effort to focus on US shale operations.

While ConocoPhillips has not launched a formal process or appointed a bank to manage a potential sale, the report said that the company’s executives have had discussions with a number of North Sea operators and bankers in the region to test the waters. Reuters said that the sale could net as much as $2 billion, though it was not clear how much of ConocoPhillips’ portfolio would be available, or if the company would put its Norwegian North Sea assets up as well.

The company has operated in the North Sea for more than 45 years, with significant developments in both the UK and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea. These developments include fields in Greater Britannia, the J-Area, and the Southern North Sea fields in the UK, along with the Greater Ekofisk Area in Norway.