US/Canada

ExxonMobil recently announced plans to invest USD 340 million to boost production from its Hawkins field in east Texas, one of the oldest fields in the state. The enhanced oil recovery (EOR) program is projected to extend the life of the 70-year old field by an additional 25 years. Read more »

Baker Hughes recently announced the successful running of a 24-stage completion in the Williston Basin of the Bakken shale using its Frac-Point EX multistage fracturing system (Frac-Point EX).  The project represents one of the largest number of stages ever run using a ball/sleeve method for isolation. Read more »

BJ Services Company has launched a new stimulation technology that promises production increases in underproducing and plugged wells using a combination of electromagnetic wave frequencies transmitted into the wellbore. The company's patent-pending EcoWave treatment service transmits high-frequency radio waves and microwaves downhole at low power to affect downhole molecular bonding, thus helping to remove and inhibit organic deposition and improve reservoir wettability. Read more »

Calgary-based Suncor Energy is moving forward with a new technology that promises significant improvement in the speed of reclamation of oil-sands tailings. Studies have been so promising with the technology, known as Tailings Reduction Operations (TRO), that the company has submitted a regulatory application in Canada to implement it at existing oil-sands operations near Fort McMurray. Read more »

Houston's Rice University and M-I SWACO, the world's largest producer of drilling fluids for the oil and gas industry, have signed a research agreement to use nanotechnology advances to improve the productivity of wells. The project aims to develop a nanoscale graphene additive for drilling muds that will prevent the common problem of pore clogging. Read more »

The Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF), a consortium of 21 major operator and service companies that acts as a champion for technology development, is calling on Houston-based technology developers to provide solutions to subsea and subsurface challenges facing the global oil and gas sector. Read more »

A new research partnership was recently announced between Rice University and Canada's Alberta province, aimed at using nanotechnology to produce Alberta's vast oil sands in a more environmentally sustainable way. Read more »

Missouri University of Science and Technology (S&T) received a USD 3-million gift that it says will strengthen the university's emphasis as a national leader in energy research and education. The gift from retired oil and gas executive Wayne Laufer, a 33-year SPE member and graduate of the university, will fund the university's first endowed chair in energy research. Read more »

Several major oilfield technology companies have recently announced the opening of new research centers around the world, indicating an optimistic outlook for E&P activities in the coming year. Read more »

Chevron Technology Ventures has started site preparations for what is being called the world's first solar-to-steam field demonstration for heavy oil extraction. The company will partner with solar start-up BrightSource Energy to generate steam from captured sunlight, which will be then be pumped downhole to lower the viscosity of oil in aging California oil fields. Read more »