Oilfield Review Summer 2004

Readers responded to a survey relating to the Autumn 2003 issue of Oilfield Review. This brief article highlights some of the results from that survey.

Time-lapse seismic surveys help engineers and geophysicists make informed development and production decisions. New seismic acquisition technology provides calibrated, repeatable seismic measurements that reveal actual changes in reservoirs rather than artifacts of survey-acquisition differences. This greater understanding of reservoirs improves hydrocarbon recovery.

Operators and service providers are discovering the importance of remote, real-time surveillance of electrical submersible pumps. Timely access to key information about pressure, temperature, voltage and current, coupled with the ability to control systems remotely, lowers operating costs, increases cash flow and optimizes production.

Modern water-management techniques offer E&P companies solutions for excess produced water in mature fields. We describe several examples showing how operators are managing water in mature fields and we examine how researchers and engineers are focusing on alternative uses for excess produced water—the science of turning waste into resource.

Not every reservoir can be seen with conventional compressional-wave seismic surveys. To be clearly imaged, some reservoirs require the addition of shear-wave information. Special seabed cable systems detect both wave types and allow acquisition of high-quality marine multicompnent data. Case studies from the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico demonstrate the power of the multicomponent technique to improve imaging, identify lithology changes, detect bypassed hydrocarbon zones and monitor stress changes.