Wireline News

Lockport, La. based Bordelon Marine announced it has renewed the charter agreement with Oceaneering International for the Brandon Bordelon; 260-foot-long DP2 Jones Act compliant ultra-light intervention vessel for an additional two-year firm term plus one-year additional option. The charter agreement renewal commenced in March 2024.The 2015-built vessel is mobilized with two Oceaneering Millennium Plus work class remotely operated vehicles (ROV) and Oceaneering survey equipment and technology.

U.S. based offshore vessel owner Bordelon Marine LLC said it has renewed the charter agreement with Oceaneering International, Inc. for the MV Brandon Bordelon; 260’ DP2 Jones-Act-compliant ultra-light intervention vessel for an additional two-year firm term.The charter agreement renewal commenced in February 2022. The vessel is currently oprtating in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, according to AIS ship tracking data.The vessel is mobilized with two Oceaneering Millennium Plus work class remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV) and Oceaneering survey equipment and technology.

Indonesian oil & gas exploration and production company Conrad Petroleum has flowed dry gas from its Tambak-1 well located in the Duyung PSC in the West Natuna Basin, offshore Indonesia.The Tambak-1 well was designed to both appraise the Mako gas field and test the underlying Tambak exploration prospect. Coro Energy plc holds a 15% interest in this project.The drill stem test (DST) flowed dry gas from the intra-Muda sands at a rate of 11.4 MMcf/day on a 181/64-inch (2.8 inches) choke, maintaining a wellhead tubing pressure of 225psi. The DST of the Tambak-1 well was completed with cased hole perforations along with a 6-foot interval.The DST demonstrates that this completion method is viable…

Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE) announced the inauguration of its multimodal facility (MMF) for oil and gas in Luanda, Angola.The facility, with its additional capabilities across multiple product lines, will deliver a suite of products and services across the oil and gas value chain. It will serve as a hub to support customers and projects in Angola and Southern Africa region, and will also serve customers on a global scale.The strategic location for this multipurpose facility puts BHGE in close proximity to serve important projects in the region. This will enable BHGE to provide faster response and mobilization to customer sites, and reduced product and service delivery costs based on economies of scale of a one-stop shop.

Downhole sensing technology specialist, Well-SENSE, has launched a miniature optical pressure-temperature gauge, as part of its FiberLine Intervention (FLI) system.The Well-SENSE optical gauge widens the well surveillance application envelope for FLI, both on and offshore, and offers operators a low-cost and disposable alternative to both permanent downhole sensors and more traditional electronic logging devices.Combined with FLI’s other features and benefits, including a simple deployment mechanism and distributed sensing, it can deliver savings in the region of 50-90% compared to conventional logging methods.The fiber Bragg grating based device is a robust optical gauge with no electronics, batteries, external connections or power supply required.

UK-based independent full-cycle oil and gas company confirmed that Indico-1 well in Colombia reached target depth of 10,604 feet and encountered the Lower Sands of the Une formation.The South America focused oil and gas producer, which owns 30% non-operated working interest in the Indico-1 well, said the Lower Sands package is the same formation which holds the 120 feet oil column discovered at nearby Mariposa, which lies some 6.5 kilometres to the North West of Indico-1.The Mariposa well has produced at a stable rate of approximately 3,200 barrels of oil per day in natural flow from 10 feet of perforations near the top of the 120 feet oil column for over a year…

Saudi Aramco has awarded major stimulation and well-testing contract to Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE). BHGE will deliver a comprehensive well services solution including all cased-hole wireline logging, perforation, well testing, stimulation, fracturing and associated intervention services.By integrating discrete products, services and capabilities into a single offering, BHGE will help Saudi Aramco reduce time, costs and complexity while increasing efficiency.The three-year contract includes the option of two one-year extensions and the project is expected to commence in December 2018.The work is expected to create more than 200 new engineering…

Nearly two years ago GustoMSC introduced a smart crane for lifting and wireline operations under the drilling cantilever. Two years later, following industry feedback and further development, the equipment has evolved into Chela, named after the Greek word for a crab’s claw. Chela offers an extra hand in operations, and due to its crablike motion characteristics, it can reach below the cantilever as well as elevate towards the main deck, providing crane access to an area traditionally blocked by the cantilever when drilling.

Dutch geo-consultancy  Fugro’s integrated capabilities clinch further work for Sirius at the world’s largest high grade polyhalite deposit. The award of two major new contracts integrating geotechnical and geophysical investigations sees Fugro continue its site characterisation services at Sirius Minerals’ North Yorkshire polyhalite project. A new geotechnical package comprises seven deep boreholes in shaft and tunnel locations at the new UK mine, located 3.5 kilometres south of Whitby in North Yorkshire. Fugro is undertaking strength tests of the rock formation, drilling to depths in excess of 420 metres. The project is developing the world’s largest known high grade polyhalite deposit, a highly effective organic agricultural fertiliser.

Royal IHC and Tompkins UK Limited are strengthening their strategic cooperation with IHC’s acquisition of a majority stake in Tompkins, the parent company of Modus Seabed Intervention and a partner in the TI Geosciences joint venture (that IHC and Tompkins created in 2015). Modus is a specialist provider of remote and autonomous technologies for subsea and seabed intervention. It has industry-leading capabilities in remotely operated vehicle (ROV) services and currently deploys a fleet of work class ROVs and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in construction and drill support, as well as survey and inspection activities. With its fleet of trenching ROVs and systems, Modus also offers seabed intervention solutions in cable and pipeline trenching, and seabed earthmoving, among others.

Schlumberger announced today the launch of the MaxPull high-pull wireline conveyance system that can pull from 18,000 lbf to 30,000 lbf in wells 40,000 ft [12,192 m] deep or more. The MaxPull system’s engineered integration of wireline conveyance components brings efficiency, reliability and sticking avoidance to complex well trajectories that were not previously wireline accessible. “With the industry’s highest-pull wireline conveyance system, drillers can expect drillpipe-free wireline operations in any environment with vertical well efficiency and minimum sticking risk,” said Hinda Gharbi, president, Wireline, Schlumberger. The MaxPull system can pull up to 30,000-lbf line tension, which is 43% higher than previously possible.

Cairn informed that the successful testing of the SNE-2 appraisal well offshore Senegal with positive results. Operations have been safely and successfully completed following drilling, coring, logging and drill-stem testing (DST). The well is now being plugged and abandoned. Following this first successful appraisal well, resource estimates for the SNE field will be fully revised and  announced after the results of the further appraisal activity. * DST over a 15m interval (~3.5m net) of relatively low quality “heterolithic” pay flowed at a maximum rate of ~1,000 bopd on a 24/64” choke, confirming that these reservoirs are able to produce at viable rates and thus make a material contribution to resource volumes.

A team of scientists will set sail from Southampton to drill through the Earth’s mantle in the center of the Atlantic Ocean. They leave on board the Royal Research Ship James Cook on October 26, 2015 to explore the Atlantis Massif, a 4000 meter high underwater mountain. This is the first time a UK research ship will be used for this branch of science. The expedition is conducted by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) as part of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP).

Herrenknecht and Ulstein are due to present their vision of the future of heavy well intervention at the Offshore Energy 2015 exhibition in Amsterdam this week. Germany’s Herrenknecht Vertical GmbH (HVG) and the Netherland’s Ulstein Design & Solutions B.V. (UDS BV) will present ULSTEIN DX105, a heavy well intervention vessel design for water depths up to 2,500m, featuring the HVG Terra Invader 750 drill tower. The integration of the Herrenknecht equipment resulted in a compact…

Woodside advises that the Pyxis-1 exploration well in production licence WA-34-L has intersected approximately 18.5 metres of net gas within the Jurassic sandstone target. The well reached a total depth of 3347 metres. Wireline logging has confirmed the discovery through the recovery of gas samples to surface and establishment of a gas pressure gradient. Pyxis-1 is located in Production Licence WA-34-L, within Western Australia’s Dampier Sub-Basin and is located approximately 15 km north of Woodside’s producing Pluto Gas Field infrastructure. Woodside Burrup Pty. Ltd. is the operator and 90% equity owner of WA-34-L. Kansai Electric Power Australia Pty. Ltd. and Tokyo Gas Pluto Pty. Ltd. each hold 5% equity.

Dynamic positioning system failures on offshore supply vessels engage in oil and gas operations in the U.S. The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has issued a Joint Safety Alert addressing a dynamic positioning (DP) incident involving an offshore supply vessel (OSV) which resulted in a loss of position while conducting a critical Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) activity. The OSV was attached to a wellhead, lost position and severed the wellhead tree causing a lubricant release on the platform deck and to the environment. Immediately prior to the position loss, the OSV had multiple DP system alarms and failures, including loss of bow thruster and engine control. No attempt was made to identify or correct the causes of these failures and the operations continued.

Royal IHC (IHC) has joined forces with Tompkins UK to enter the deep and ultra-deep water, oil and gas geotechnical survey and site investigation market under the banner of TI Geosciences. TI Geosciences will initially provide cone penetration test (CPT)/gravity coring services. These will be based on Tompkins’ deep-push, buoyancy stabilized, deep-water CPT system – equipped with AP van den Berg’s digital pressure compensated Icone – deployed from a Swire Pacific Offshore G-class platform supply vessel.

Drillsearch Energy Limited announced a new wet gas discovery on the Western Cooper Wet Gas Fairway of the Cooper Basin. The Varanus South-1 well in PEL 513 (Drillsearch 40% and Santos 60% and Operator) is the first well to be drilled by Santos and Drillsearch under the joint venture between the companies announced in July 2013. Varanus South-1 was drilled to a total depth of 3,154 metres as a near-field exploration well. Drillsearch’s preliminary interpretation of wireline logs has confirmed an aggregate best estimate of 18 metres of net gas pay over a gross interval of 365 metres in the Patchawarra Formation and an additional 9 metres of net hydrocarbon pay over a gross interval of 37 metres in the Tirrawarra Formation, which was considered a secondary target.

Schlumberger today launched the Quanta Geo* photorealistic reservoir geology service at the Offshore Northern Seas Annual Conference and Exhibition. The new service includes the industry’s first microresistivity imager that produces oriented, photorealistic, core-like images of the formation in wells drilled with oil-base mud (OBM). Interpretation of the images identifies geological features and predicts reservoir trends in 3D with a high degree of certainty. “Geological imaging in wells drilled with OBM has long been recognized by operators as a major technical challenge, particularly in deepwater,” said Hinda Gharbi, president, Wireline, Schlumberger.

Apache Corporation  today announced an oil discovery at the Phoenix South-1 well - the company's first discovery in Australia's offshore Canning Basin. Wireline and formation pressure tools have confirmed at least four discrete oil columns ranging in thickness between 85 and 151 feet (26 to 46 meters) in the Triassic Lower Keraudren formation, within an overall, sand-rich section between 13,648 and 14,763 feet below sea level (4,160 to 4,500 meters). Six light oil samples have been recovered from three intervals to date; permeability measurements from the sampled zones indicate a productive oil reservoir with preliminary estimates that there might be as much as 300 million barrels of oil in place.* Evaluation of the formation penetrated in the Phoenix South-1 is under way…

Drillsearch Energy Limited announced that a new oil discovery at the Balgowan-1 exploration well in PEL 91 on the Western Flank Oil Fairway of the Cooper Basin. Wireline logs carried out at Balgowan-1 have confirmed a 9-metre gross oil column in the McKinlay-Namur and as a result, the well has been cased and suspended as a future oil producer, the 14th discovery in PEL 91. Analysis of the well results is continuing and Drillsearch will provide an update on the size of the discovery in due course. Balgowan-1 is located 3.6 kilometres northeast of the Stunsail-1 oil discovery. Following casing and suspension of Balgowan-1, the rig will now move to drill Burners-1, which is located midway between Balgowan-1 and Stunsail-1.

GE Oil & Gas today celebrated the ground-breaking of a new facility that will further expand its presence in the UAE in Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza). Scheduled to open in 2015, the new facility spreads over an area of 22,700 sqm and can accommodate over 300 employees. A milestone in the expansion of GE Oil & Gas in the country and the region, the new facility will offer services by GE Oil & Gas’ various business units, thus strengthening customer service standards. Housed in a customized state-of-the-art facility developed by Jafza, the new GE Oil & Gas Manufacturing & Technology Center will offer tailored training programs, and also feature a dedicated repair center that will help improve the speed of service delivered by being closer to the customers.

Wireline International has secured a contract worth up to $3.1/£1.9million for the supply of its patented Roller Bogie  wireline conveyance tools to Mexican state-owned petroleum company PEMEX. The wireline and well intervention technology specialist secured the contract for a range of its Roller Bogie  products, designed to enhance the deployment of wireline equipment in deviated wells. Wireline Engineering Chairman Bill Petrie said, “We have worked hard to develop our position in the thriving Mexican market.