Douglas Hotel News

Since 2004, well construction costs in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) have doubled, directly impacting drilling activity which is currently at an all-time low. However, collective industry efforts are already focusing in on how a reduction in core drilling costs of 50 per cent could potentially unlock around five billion boe of known reserves over the next decade. The significant work the industry is doing through the Technology Leadership Board (TLB) to address the well cost reduction challenge, will feature in a forthcoming event organized by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Aberdeen section on September 21 at Aberdeen’s Douglas Hotel.

As the search for oil and gas reserves continues, exploration and production activities are occurring in increasingly harsh environments and drilling is going deeper than ever before. An experienced petroleum engineer is set to explain exactly how far this could extend – namely to Mars - at a Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Aberdeen presentation and dinner meeting this month. Professor Alfred William Eustes III, a petroleum engineering and drilling specialist, will talk at the SPE Aberdeen monthly dinner and networking meeting on May 28.

Euan Duncan, Discipline Lead Reservoir Engineer at BP, will address SPE Aberdeen’s members and the wider public on April 23, at a presentation covering how EOR works and the opportunities this technology presents when conditions are right. Duncan will discuss the BP North Sea EOR program and lessons learned from water-alternating gas projects in the Miller, Ula and Magnus fields. He will also give an update on current projects, including the Clair Ridge EOR scheme using LoSal EOR and polymer applications in the Schiehallion field, highlighting how these are being taken from the research stage to operational projects. Duncan said, “Applying new technology, such as EOR techniques, is challenging.