SPE Review Articles Index

1) Increasing productivity and profitability - Panel discussion reported in September 1995 SPE Review.
Speakers : John Gregory of BP UK, Graham Walker of ARCO and Rob Kewley of Baker Hughes Inteq.
Principal topics : Reorganising BP's UKCS mature assets. ARCO's use of FPSO and win-win contract strategy on the Blenheim field development. The benefits of a fully-integrated alliance approach to well construction and well management.

2) Extended drilling brings new oil within reach - Presentation reported in September 1995 SPE Review.
Speaker : Rob Meertens of Shell Expro.
Principal Topic : In February 1994 Shell Expro drilled an extended reach platform well from the Tern field platform to a small hydrocarbon prospect located five kilometres to the north of the platform. The well proved up the accumulation and has produced up to 18,000 barrels per day on extended production test.

3) Improving field economics through extended well tests - presentation and panel discussion reported in October 1995 SPE Review.
Speakers : Panel : Joe Lach of Texaco, Tony Oldfield of Coflexip Stena Offshore and Simon Toole of the UK Department of Trade and Industry. Presentation : Dave Neely of BP.
Principal Topics : Texaco Captain EWT. Integrated alliance approach to EWTs and contractor capabilities. DTI attitude to EWTs and Early Production Schemes. BP experience with UK EWTs. Conventional field development entails major financial exposure to the operator as development decisions are made on the basis of often inadequate data, according to Dave Neely of BP. He went on to explain that extended well tests provide a cost-effective means of extending the data set, hence reducing engineering and commercial risks.

4) Industry cannot ignore gas market issues - presentation reported in November 1995 SPE Review.
Speaker : Maria Foster, gas transportation and trading manager for National Power.
Principal topic : Time is running out for those who have dismissed the introduction of the UK network code as a downstream issue. It will have an enormous impact on the upstream gas business and cannot be ignored. Although the issues relating to the network code are sometimes complex, the drafting obtuse and the discussions hard to follow, it is of vital importance to our businesses, and the problems it presents cannot be disregarded or relegated to the back burner.

5) BHP meets the operational challenges of Liverpool Bay - presentation reported in December 1995 SPE Review.
Speaker : John Methven, Production Manager for the Irish Sea, BHP Petroleum.
Principal topics : The countdown to first production from BHP Petroleum's largest current oil and gas development has begun. Due on stream during December 1995, the Liverpool Bay development marks a number of industry firsts and achievements - including first oil production off the west coast of Britain.

6) Report from the SPE London Section Continuing Education Seminar on Multi-Lateral Wells - reported in December 1995 SPE Review.
Speakers : Adrian Gregory of the UK DTI, Professor Jim Peden from the Horizontal Well Technology Unit, Heriot Watt University, Paul Lurie from BP Exploration, Majid Shafiq of Mobil, Vigen Ghazarian of Phillips, Bill Hay of Baker Hughes, David Hill of Schlumberger-Anadrill, Jim Longbottom of Halliburton and Doug Hamer of Sperry Sun.
Principal Topics : DTI definition of multi-lateral well, completion design, methods to provide a seal at the lateral junction, drilling case histories, integrity of the lateral well junction.

7) Lies, damned lies and reserves - reported in August 1996 SPE Review
Speaker : Tony Corrigan, consultant
Principal topic : Reserves estimations are a critical factor in determining the viability of any field development yet historically the industry has not always got the numbers right. At a recent SPE Aberdeen meeting, held jointly with the PESGB and AFES, consultant Tony Corrigan suggested some constructive ways to improve performance in this area and examined the impact of some new technologies.

8) Successful horizontal well operations - During a year as SPE distinguished lecturer, Sada Joshi has travelled the world talking about the application of horizontal wells in reservoir management and the specific reservoir parameters that can help determine a commercially successful project. Tricia Young reports on the highlights from his presentation.

9) Extended Well testing: where do we go from here? - John Curley, facilitator of the welltesting network, reports on the group's most recent meeting held in Ballater, near Aberdeen. Extended welltesting in the North Sea was something of a novelty when it was discussed by the Welltesting Network in mid 1995. A year later, the network's follow-up workshop was packed with British and Norwegian EWT case histories on jobs already completed or planned for summer 1996. There were 26 presentations of case histories and related EWT topics and some lengthy group discussions. The EWT cases included Statoil's Åsgard, Conoco's Banff (Early Production Scheme), Norsk Hydroís Hermod, BP's Schiehallion, Mungo and Machar (EPS), Sagaís H-Central and Ranger/BP's Pierce.

10) Captain: from a prospect to production - Innovation and pioneering spirit are concepts which quickly spring to mind whichever way you consider the Captain field development. One of a new generation of heavy crudes to be produced from the North Sea, Captain's success has only been made possible by turning conventional thinking completely on its head.

11) Restructuring of the UK gas industry - The SPE London Section was delighted to welcome Cedric Brown as its after dinner speaker on 22 October at the Café Royal. Drawing on his experiences during a long career with British Gas and as current president of the Institution of Gas Engineers, he reviewed the restructuring of the UK gas industry and considered the benefits to consumers and stockholders. His presentation is reproduced in this article.

12) Heavy Crudes pose new challenges for North Sea operators - Over the past few years a new generation of heavy crude oils has been produced from the North Sea, posing a number of operational and marketing challenges to operators. At a recent SPE panel session in London, representatives from three companies outlined how they have overcome these challenges and, indeed, turned them into opportunities.

13) TERN 14: Case study of a cased hole multi-lateral well - The North Sea proved an overall success and has led the way for this pioneering technology to be applied around the world. This was the key message from Mike Tolstyko, senior well engineer for Shell Expro and project manager for the Tern 14 well, when he addressed a recent SPE dinner meeting in Aberdeen.