Category: Oil and Gas business

Economic producibility differs from commerciality in that economic producibility is less subjective in that it does not depend on a company’s net present value which can differ from company to company.

An exploratory well that finds petroleum in two separate reservoirs

Drilling barges are mobile drilling platforms that are submersible and are built to work in seven to twenty feet of water. They are towed by tugboats to the drill site with the derrick lying down. The lower hull is then submerged by flooding compartments until it rests on the river or sea floor. The derrick is then raised and drilling operations are conducted with the barge resting on the bottom.

In the offshore oil industry, floating structures are used in areas where deep water results in the cost of a jacket fixed to the sea floor being too expensive to realize a sufficient economic return, even for large oil reserves. Such floating structures have been semi-submersibles, a column stabilized vessel that is moored in place by the use of multiple anchors, single column spar type structures, that are moored in place by multiple anchors, dynamically positioned vessels that use a number of thrusters to hold the vessel in position at the site, and tension leg platforms. Each structure has advantages and disadvantages. The dynamically positioned vessels eliminate the need for anchors and mooring lines, they present a large surface area to waves and currents, which can result in a substantial amount of power required to hold the vessel in position. The large surface area also results in the vessel being subject to heave, pitch, and roll motions in response to wave action.

Although EGPC, which was established in 1962, has since lost the oil sector in Upper Egypt, the gas sector to Egas and the petrochemical sector to Echem, EGPC remains a huge concern. It is integrated with major upstream and downstream oil operations. It functions as a holding group and has almost 30 operating subsidiaries and affiliates. In 1964 the Egyptian government nationalized the sole oil concessionaire, Anglo-Egyptian Oilfields. The assets of this company were taken over by General Petroleum Company (GPC), which is now one of EGPC’s operating subsidiaries. EGPC controls all or part of the capital of all Egyptian companies in the oil E&P sector. It holds 50% in all the oil producing joint ventures which are operated by foreign and some Egyptian companies. These JVs are all headed by EGPC executives appointed by the Petroleum Minister.

Previously, steam turbines have dominated as propulsion machinery for LNG carriers, with their apparent reliability and the ease with which they can burn the boil-off gas from the ship’s cargo tanks while at sea. The low fuel efficiency of steam turbines, however, has encouraged almost all other shipping segments to switch to diesel-powered ships. As a result of both increased fuel efficiency and increased cargo capacity, an LNG carrier with dual-fuel electric machinery will deliver more natural gas to the offloading terminal even when gas is used as fuel throughout the voyage

A sudden increase in the rate of penetration during drilling. When this increase is significant – two or more times the normal speed – it may be due to a change in the formation, a change in the pore pressure of the formation fluids or both. It often means that the bit has drilled into sand (high-speed drilling) rather than shale (low-speed drilling)