Mason

I first started reading SPE Drilling Engineering around 1990, before it was renamed SPE Drilling & Completion in 1993. As a newcomer to the subject, I remember finding many papers daunting and some quite un-understandable. Writing technical papers requires thorough knowledge of the subject, which is only to be expected, but writing good technical papers, which are readable and understandable, requires additional skills which may not be so ubiquitous. We do expect our readers to have a basic knowledge of the oilfield and of wells, but we should not demand any specific or detailed knowledge about the subjects being presented. A good paper brings the reader into the subject, carries the reader through to the conclusions, and leaves the reader with a powerful learning experience.

As Executive Editor, my most powerful learning experience has been the appreciation of the vast diversity of our industry’s drilling and completion challenges. There is a correspondingly vast diversity to our global readership. To approve papers for publication, I start by looking at each paper from the perspective of a reader with no specific or detailed knowledge.

Taking on the Executive Editor role two years ago gave me the opportunity to nudge this publication a little, remembering my early impressions as a reader of technical papers. After two short years, there are now only two weeks until December 2007, so this is my final edition as Executive Editor. Before I hand over to the new Executive Editor, Robert Mitchell, I wanted to briefly assess these two years. In March 2006 I stated three objectives as Executive Editor:

• to deliver the best possible publication we can achieve; providing you with readable, understandable material with the potential to be applied to your business.

• to present a diversity of drilling and completion papers to give you the opportunity to broaden your awareness and challenge your perceptions.

• to encourage the idea that papers are an opportunity for a two-way dialogue, in which questions or clarifications should be raised with the authors.

I think the SPE Peer Review team continues to do a great job on the first two objectives. From my perspective, the papers published in SPE Drilling & Completion are amongst the best examples of today’s well engineering challenges and solutions, and they certainly carry interest, provide new learnings and offer a global diversity. The third objective is much harder to assess; the e-library online forum has seen virtually no use to date. I think we should keep working on this; to start off, I’d encourage all SPE Peer Reviewers (890 people at the last count) to kick off discussions on the forum. I’ll make a resolution to try kick-starting a few online forum questions in the new year.

To you, the subscribers and readers of SPE Drilling & Completion, I’d like to suggest two resolutions for the New Year;

I will cycle at least 100 miles during 2008; cycling is a great way of appreciating just how much chemical energy is stored in a liter of hydrocarbon fuel. Regular cycling helps to develop a little more respect for the value and conservation of our finite hydrocarbons. Everyone knows that mankind needs to become smarter and more efficient at consuming hydrocarbons.

Secondly, I will make a determined effort to read, digest, and learn from one or two papers in each edition of SPE Drilling and Completion, once you develop the habit of continuous learning, it is hard to shake off. Digesting these papers is a great way of broadening your knowledge, straightening out perspective, and throwing light on some of those areas that you’ve never quite had the chance to understand. You could also consider signing up for an SPE Peer Review team and review papers on a regular basis. Reviewing papers is a natural step beyond reading this publication.

However, I would recommend you don’t attempt these two resolutions at the same time.

The papers of this issue cover a wide range of subjects; "Drilling Wellbore Stability in the Compacting and Subsiding Valhall Field, A Case Study" presents the challenges of infill drilling in a carbonate reservoir which has seen depletion and subsidence.

"Analyses and Procedures for Kick Detection in Subsea Mudlift Drilling" looks at one of the pieces of understanding needed to turn dual-gradient drilling into a standard activity.

"Experimental Study on Cuttings Transport With Foam Under Simulated Horizontal Downhole Conditions" presents improved understanding of drilling with foam or other two-phase low density fluids.

"Through-Tubing Rotary Drilling From Njord Floating Platform" pushes the envelope on reducing drilling costs in mature fields. In some regions, TTRD is a mainstay of late-life infill drilling, elsewhere it is not feasible.

Fracturing remains a core part of well construction in many areas of the world. Technical advances continue to push the envelope of fracturing, for example:

"Extreme Multistage Fracturing Improves Vertical Coverage and Well Performance in the Lost Hills Field."

"Deepwater Horizontal Openhole Gravel Packing in Marlim Sul Field, Campos Basin, Brazil—Completion Project Learning Curve and Optimization" provides a valuable learning opportunity for the state of the art of OHGP’s in deep water.

"Brine Viscosity Correlation With Temperature Using the VTF Equation" provides a more accurate prediction tool for brine viscosity.

"Rapid Pressure Support for Champion SE Reservoirs by Multi-Layer Fractured Water Injection" shows how water injectors often have a much bigger influence on reservoir management than production wells.

In closing, thank you for your continued support of SPE Drilling & Completion. I wish Robert Mitchell the best of success as your new Executive Editor. We just need a few hours of your time to read one or two of these papers to make all of the peer review work worthwhile.

Best regards, John Mason, john.mason2@bp.com