Oil and gas operations are moving to more complex deepwater and onshore unconventional projects, and activity in the industry is higher than ever before. Meanwhile, brownfield projects for increased reservoir recovery are also changing industry parameters. Arctic and ultradeepwater exploration has created a new learning curve in the industry, while advances in technologies and techniques have opened up new areas of exploration and production for business.
Discussion of these topics will take place at the 2013 SPE/IADC Drilling Conference on 5–7 March at the Rai Congress Centre in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Plenary Session
Exploration and development are moving to deeper waters, more remote and sensitive environments, higher pressure formations, and sour reservoirs. Questions about how the industry should move forward arise from heightened public awareness about the impact of oil and gas development, and greater expectations from stakeholders.
A morning plenary session on Wednesday, titled “Delivering Wells in a Critical World,” will be moderated by Ole Slorer, managing director of Global Oilfield Services at Morgan Stanley Research. Panelists are Steve Orr, president of Schlumberger’s Drilling Group; Rosli Hamzah, head of well delivery at Petronas; Joel Kiker, vice president of drilling at ExxonMobil; Øyvind Tuntland, vice president of Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority; and Per Wullf of Seadrill.
Technical Program
Technical sessions will cover wellbore placement, deep water, downhole tools, drilling dynamics, smart fields, automation, well control, bit technology, fluids, tubulars, and cuttings transport and processing.
A cementing and zonal isolation session on Tuesday morning will focus on innovations in methods for extreme environments. Discussion will cover extended-reach, deepwater, and ultrahigh-temperature regimes. The conversation will also include cementing for novel well construction methods such as dual-gradient drilling, dynamic cementing, loss accountability, and advanced methods for predicting residual cement in-pipe. The chairmen of the session are Iain Cooper of Schlumberger and Dan Mueller of ConocoPhillips.
A Wednesday afternoon session will highlight recent deployment experiences and advances in managed pressure drilling (MPD) and underbalanced operations. Discussion will cover operational sensitivities contributing to failure or success, data transmission and equivalent circulating density control using wired drillpipe, influx recognition and control, deepwater MPD operations, and casing drilling with a riserless mud recovery system. The chairmen are Raymond Bullock of Halliburton and Rolv Rommetveit of eDrilling Solutions.
Few innovations in the upstream industry have matched the success of controlled directional drilling. Thursday afternoon’s sessions will begin with a directional drilling panel chaired by Mohammad Hattab of Saudi Aramco and Jonathan Ruszka of Baker Hughes. Contents include presentations on the application of directional drilling in unconventional and conventional reservoirs, onshore, offshore, and in deep water.
Technical session topics are
- Drilling project case studies
- Wellbore placement
- Cementing and zonal isolation
- Deep water
- Downhole tools
- Performance drilling
- Drilling dynamics
- Rigs, equipment, and smart technology
- Lost circulation and wellbore strengthening
- Drilling automation
- Early detection and well control
- Managed pressure and underbalanced drilling
- Management and health, safety, and environment
- Bit technology
- Drilling and well technologies
- Directional drilling
- Transport and processing of fluids and cuttings
- Tubulars
Special Events
Tuesday’s opening session will feature a speech from the conference Chairman Øystein Arvid Håland, and 2013 IADC Chairman David W. Williams.
The opening session also includes the presentation of the 2013 SPE Drilling Engineering Award, which recognizes outstanding achievements and contributions in the advancement of the engineering discipline or field. This year’s recipient is Fred E. Dupriest of ExxonMobil.
A Young Professionals luncheon provides a chance to discuss industry and career topics with experienced professionals in a relaxed setting on Wednesday. The speaker will be Professor Eric van Oort of The University of Texas at Austin. Young professionals can register for this event when registering for the conference.
The SPE Drilling Systems Automation Technical Section and IADC Advanced Rig Technology Committee will hold a half-day symposium on advances in drilling systems automation on Monday. The keynote speaker is Andrew Stokes, Rio Tinto’s manager in charge of implementation of the company’s Mine of the Future program. Various speakers will represent heavy industry and cutting-edge automation applications. The moderator is John de Wardt and the session will be followed by a networking reception. Registration is free at the conference website.
Two training courses will be offered on Monday. One covers horizontal well completions, and is taught by Sudiptya Banerjee and Aaron Burton, both of Baker Hughes. Its content covers consolidated and unconsolidated formations. The other course is about modern well design, and is taught by Bernt S. Aadnoy of the University of Stavanger. Topics include mud design, hydraulic optimization, lost circulation, casing design, wellbore torque and drag, stuck pipe, and well integrity status on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
- For more information about the conference, visit www.spe.org/events/dc.