[Really? This story is NOT about the thriving UK offshore, it is about declining production hidden behind optimistic headlines, with big reservoirs like Forties a thing of the past, and marginal high-entropy fields brought into production by the Expro life-support system. North Sea oil + gas is another tombstone over Big Oil. Mark] from Oil & Gas Journal Online's Upstream This Week Friday, Sept. 8, 2000 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Malcolm Brinded, managing director of Shell Exploration & Production PLC, recently revealed a confident vision of a UK North Sea oil industry prolonging its productive life through new technology and further cost-cutting. The Shell Expro chief tipped reservoir- optimizing 4D seismic,"smart wells," expandable tubulars, and sand screens, as well as Shell's own gas separation "Twister" system, as technologies that would help "get the most value out of what we've already got" in the North Sea. Brinded said North Sea companies would have to leverage their technologies along with "what they had going for them" -- existing infrastructure, a "quality" service sector, and ready-made gas market -- to answer the rigors of the region's "maturity, small field size, and global competition." Given the "small but many" untapped reservoirs on the UK Continental Shelf, further cost reduction could widen the net so that many of the most marginal central North Sea's fields could be exploited economically as subsea tiebacks. The pan-industry "change in behavior" required, however, he added, is a fundamental hurdle in a mature basin such as the UKCS. _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
