April 2010

The April 2010 issue of Oilfield Technology opens with a regional report looking at the current state of play in North America. Following this, Brian Horsfield and Hans-Martin Schulz from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences provide an interesting examination on shale gas research and the future of European gas supply. Subsequent articles written by WesternGeco, Fugro-Geoteam and FairfieldNodal explore recent developments in offshore seismic. The offshore theme continues with articles by Kongsberg and INTECSEA considering FPSO technology, and Shell and Sulzer Pumps describing an innovative subsea separation and pumping system. Other highlights include a feature on fracturing and high pressure, high temperature drilling.

A green light for North America?
Gordon Cope, Oilfield Technology Correspondent, discusses how signs are pointing to North America’s petroleum sector revving up. Or is it just a false start?

Shale gas research: the way forward for Europe
Brian Horsfield and Hans-Martin Schulz, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Germany, and colleagues from France, The Netherlands, UK and USA, examine shale gas from an earth science research perspective, and consider the role it could play in the future of European gas supply.

A new approach for subsalt
Rob Ross, WesternGeco, UK, examines a new development in subsalt imaging known as Coil Shooting seismic.

Blocking out the noise
Thomas Elboth, Fugro-Geoteam AS, Norway, suggests how new technologies can be used to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of marine seismic data.

A new junction in seismic data acquisition
Louise S. Durham, on behalf of FairfieldNodal, USA, illustrates the benefits of nodal seismic technology with a case study in the Gulf of Mexico.

Under control
Trond B. Jakobsen, Kongsberg Maritime, Norway, reviews the integrated control technology onboard the current and forthcoming generation of FPSO.

Getting ready to redeploy
John Manning, INTECSEA, Australia, considers design and configuration issues as they affect the redeployability of FPSOs.

Pumping up efficiency subsea
Svein Håheim, Shell Technology Norway AS, Norway, and Xavier Gaillard, Sulzer Pumps, Switzerland, describe a simplified subsea separation and pumping system.

The power of miniROVs
Jesse Rodocker, SeaBotix Inc., USA, predicts how perceptions of miniROVs are going to change due to high performance results in offshore surveys.

The smart solution for better working
Stan DeVries, Invensys Operations Management, USA, considers the use of operations management systems to improve upstream performance.

Tractor triumphs in openhole conditions
Brian Schwanitz, Kristine Henriques, Joe Collins, Nassar Al-Awami, Rex Mann and Jeremy Ray, Welltec, discuss how new wireline tractor developments improve the success rates of high angle openhole logging.

Less can deliver more
Harold Brannon and Thomas R. Starks II, BJ Services Co., USA, explain how proppant choices affect slickwater fracturing economics.

Heightening the intensity
Loyd East, Halliburton, USA, looks at recent developments in multiple interval horizontal well fracture stimulation.

Beyond Fahrenheit 451
Michael A. Freeman, Quan Guo and Sanjit Roy, M-I SWACO, USA, explore challenges of high pressure, high temperature drilling.

April 2010

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