Editor's Letter

If It Isn’t Oct. 28, There’s Still Time to Attend the SPE RO&G Tech Conference

Pat Davis Szymczak

   It’s October and Oil&Gas Eurasia is proud to, once again, be the Official Publication of the SPE Russian Oil&...

EAGC 2010 Berlin: European Commissioner for Energy Says Infrastructure is Key to EU Energy Future

Keynote speaker Gunther H. Oettinger, European Commissioner for Energy, European Commission, at last week’s 2010 European Autumn Gas Conference, said “the urgent necessity to provide the energy market with a proper infrastructure is one of the key priorities of the new energy strategy until 2020,” which was presented by the European Commission on Wednesday. “All our energy objectives have one common denominator – infrastructure,” said Mr Oettinger.

LNG to Displace Oil as Dominant Ship Fuel

Liquefied natural gas will become the dominant fuel source for all merchant ships within 40 years as environmental pressures force owners to use cleaner burning fuel, the world's fourth-largest vessel classifier, Det Norske Veritas, said.

ICoTA Russia says Coiled Tubing Market Growing

   The 11th International Scientific and Practical Coiled Tubing and Well Intervention Conference, organized by ICoTA (Intervention and Coiled Tubing Association), its Russian representative CTTDC (Coiled Tubing Technologies Development Center) and Coiled Tubing Times Journal, took place on September 15-17 in the capital of Russia in the Renaissance Moscow Hotel. Held under the auspices of Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, the event was sponsored by Foremost, Global Tubing, Schlumberger, NOV Fidmash, Tegas and Tenaris.

Revived 305! Advanced Capabilities for Flow Metering in Reservoir Pressure Maintenance Systems

   Metran Industrial Group launched Metran-305PR flow meter at the end of 2005. The flow meter quickly proved to be a precise and reliable device, and now it is widely regarded as one of the best flow meters for reservoir pressure maintenance systems (RPMS).

EFC President Philippe Marcus, “Corrosion Management Is Great Tool to Slash Facilities Downtime and Indirect Costs”

   The good, old “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” motto may appeal to many, but when it comes to skilled corrosion specialists, they will always prefer “Prevention is better than cure.” Corrosion management is picking up pace across a wide spectrum of industries as scientists tirelessly promote the benefits of early detection of potential failures and call upon corporations to invest more funds in smart technologies that help fight corrosion.

Innovative Technical Equipment in Utilization of Associated Petroleum Gas (APG)

   APG utilization technologies include the following basic equipment:
separation equipment for Stage I, Stage II and final separation stage of oil of various compositions, pressures and temperatures; compressor equipment for the specified gas compression to pressures required by Customer;
heat exchange equipment for compressed gas cooling; mass-transfer equipment for gas treatment to the required dew point; equipment for sour components (Н2S, СО2 etc.) removal from sulfurous gases; equipment for recovered components utilization: phase separators for immiscible liquids (water-based and hydrocarbon-based) separation; regenerators for absorbent regeneration; units for recovered components pumping; gas heaters; flare equipment; end filter separators, etc.

Russia Updates National Standards and Picks Up Pace at ISO

   With the advent of the market economy, the Russian oil and gas industry community acquired the right not only to select the equipment from any available worldwide, but also to co-operate with foreign equipment vendors and technology developers.

Premium Production – Advances in Threading Technologies

   Premium-class threaded joints ensure a well’s high resistance and complete tightness and help produce oil and gas in environments where traditional technologies cannot be applied. The premium segment of TMK’s activity was established in Russia three years ago and now includes production of pipes with premium threaded joints at the TMK-Premium Service unit’s facilities.

China Snatches Contract to Build Jack-up Drilling Rig for Ukraine

   In 2011, the China Precision Machinery Import Export Corporation (CPMIEC) will supply the Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Ministry and the Ukrainian State JSC Chernomorneftegaz with a Super M2 series self-submersible drilling rig (SSDR).  The value of the transaction has not yet been disclosed.

An Innovative Approach to Modeling Unconventional Hydrocarbons Source Development

   Amid today’s trend of searching for alternative energy sources, it is important that accepted theory is applied in stages, from its fundamental basics to precise details and clarifications. Under the current federal program to develop Russia’s scientific technological industry for 2009–2012, significant work is being done to develop and implement innovative technologies to produce hard-to-recover and unconventional resources including highly viscous oil, bitumen sands and kerogen laden rock.

High Quality of Blowout Equipment to Prevent Accidents

   For the average person a fountain of oil at an oilfield is a sign of its availability and a reason of drillers show off their joy as they rush to wash their faces with the first oil. But this happens only in movies. In fact, a blowing well is the result of a major, sometimes uncontrollable accident which requires both a long time and considerable material resources to eliminate.

LUKOIL - Vanco Drilling Campaign Targets Offshore West Africa

LUKOIL, Vanco and state oil company partners GNPC and PETROCI, are preparing for an intensive West African exploration and appraisal drilling program for two contract areas in the Gulf of Guinea, including Cape Three Points Deep Water (CTPDW, Republic of Ghana) and CI-401 (Republic of Cóte d’Ivoire). The drilling contractor Ocean Rig, a subsidiary of Dryships Inc., entered into contracts to drill four wells in CTPDW block, including two exploration wells on new structures and two appraisal wells on the Dzata structure, where an oil and gas discovery was announced in February 2010.

Integra, Schlumberger Seismic Unit Establish Joint Venture

Integra and WesternGeco, a Schlumberger seismic unit, have completed setting up an exclusive joint venture to collect, interpret and process seismic data in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan both on land and in transit zones. The JV has already begun carrying out successful projects in Russia and Kazakhstan and received orders for this winter.

SPE RO&G 2010 Kicks Off In Russia With Record Crowd

SPE Russian Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Technical Conference and Exhibition kicked off for the third time Tuesday, with over 4,000 industry professionals expected to attend and 75 exhibitors displaying the latest technology achievements.

Gubkin Offshore Drilling Chair Proposes Russia Export Helium

Russia could become the global leader in industrial use of helium-processing products, but it currently lags far behind its major competitors, President of Russia's Academy of Technological Sciences and chair of the Offshore Drilling Dept. at Gubkin Oil & Gas University Boris Nikitin said speaking today at the plenary session of the RO&G SPE 2010 conference in Moscow.

Tendeka VP: Russian Engineers Should Join SPE To Enter New Markets

"I like the technical component of RO&G", Tendeka Vice-President, Europe, Malcolm Pitman told OGE. "In my opinion, there are a lot of events in Russia organized by Russian companies, but this conference and exhibit are helpful in bringing Russian oil engineers into the world organization of SPE. And that will help Russian companies enter the world market and increase their presence on it", he added. The Danish company Tendeka has been operating on the Russian market for several years, cooperating with Total, Salym Petroleum Development and Surgutneftegaz.

Ukraine, Russia Poised to Catch Shale Gale

Though the big NOCs in Russia tend to scoff at unconventional resource development – shale gas in particular – independent producers are offering a far different point of view. Tatyana V. Kruchkova, Deputy General Director and Chief Geologist, at Moscow-based NRK-Technology, is convinced that Russia has a future in unconventional hydrocarbon development – including shale gas.

SPE ROG Ends, Arctic Launched for 2011

The Russia Oil&Gas Technical Exploration and Production Conference & Exhibition closed Thursday with show organizers reporting a record attendance of over 4,000 conference delegates and visitors.

Russian expert: Norway Will Back Out Of Shtokman

The agreement between Russian and Norway on delimitation of the Barents Sea will result in Norway concentrating on more easily accessible resources and withdrawing from the development of the Shtokman gas field, a Russian scientist believes.

PetroNeft Strikes Oil In Russia

PetroNeft Resources plc (AIM: PTR), the owner and operator of Licences 61 and 67, Tomsk Oblast, Russian Federation, has discovered a new oil field at Arbuzovskaya in Licence 61.