Exploration • Drilling • Field Services
Drilling programmes prosper on back of exploration investment
Drilling activity remains robust around the world, with the US, Europe and the Far East attracting major exploration investment. Eugene McCarthy reports.
Eugene McCarthy informa que la actividad de perforación mantiene su importancia en todo el mundo, siendo los EE. UU., Europa y el Lejano Oriente los que atraen la mayor inversión para exploración.
Weltweit bleibt das Bohrgeschäft stabil, wobei die USA, Europa und der Ferne Osten große Investitionen in die Exploration verzeichnen. Eugene McCarthy berichtet.
B
P has added two drilling rigs to the deep water Gulf of Mexico, bringing its fleet to a company record nine rigs as it continues to develop its portfolio of assets
in the key US offshore basin. One of the rigs is a new ultra deep water drill ship known as the West Auriga that is under long-term contract to BP from Seadrill, a leading international offshore drilling contractor. Te vessel, capable of operating in up to 12,000 feet of water, has begun development drilling work at BP’s Tunder Horse field. Te other is a reconstructed drilling rig
on BP’s Mad Dog oil and gas production platform. It replaces the original rig on the platform that was badly damaged and left inoperable by Hurricane Ike in 2008. With the new, state-of-the art rig, the platform recently resumed development drilling at the massive Mad Dog field complex (Fig. 1).
“Te addition of these two new rigs
reflects the vital importance of the deep water Gulf of Mexico to the future of BP,” said Richard Morrison, regional president of BP’s Gulf of Mexico business. BP currently anticipates investing on
average at least US$4 billion (€3 billion) in the Gulf of Mexico each year for the next decade. Part of this involves the Atlantis North expansion – the first of seven additional wells to be tied back to the existing Atlantic platform. Back in Europe, Lundin Norway, a subsidiary of Lundin Petroleum, has announced the flow test rate of the previously announced Gohta discovery of about 4300 barrels of oil per day (bopd). Gohta is Lundin Petroleum’s first oil discovery in the Barents Sea, offshore Norway. Te well 7120/1-3 operated by Lundin Petroleum was drilled on PL492 approximately 35 km north of the Snøhvit field in the Barents Sea. Te well proved oil in contact with an overlying gas cap. Te purpose of the well was to
prove petroleum in reservoir rocks in Triassic sandstone reservoirs and Permo- Carboniferous carbonate reservoir. In the carbonate reservoir the well found a 25 metre gross gas column above a 75 metre gross oil column in karstified and dolomitised limestone. Te Triassic sandstone was water bearing. A drill stem test (DST) was performed to assess the quality of the carbonate
Fig. 1. A new drilling rig on BP’s Mad Dog oil and gas production platform has replaced the one seriously damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008.
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