Wood Group opens HSE, technical competency center in Eagle Ford

Wood Group has opened a 16,000 sq ft training facility in Kenedy, Texas, where educational programs for Eagle Ford shale workers will focus on health, safety, and environment (HSE) and technical competency. The center includes a 300-person capacity training room, an instrumentation and electrical (I&E) lab, a computer-based training (CBT) lab and a board room. The facility also has an outside pad with a tank battery and an area with buried pipe for pipeline finding; both will be instrumental for hands-on training.

The center is operated by Wood Group PSN, which provides high-integrity services to design and construct facilities, optimize performance, maintain production, reduce operating costs, ensure asset integrity, and extend the operating life of oil and gas fields. It is this knowledge and expertise that Wood Group PSN will provide via a combination of classroom, hands-on and API-certified computer-based training.

The training curriculum levels range from basic production operations for entry-level personnel to the essentials of managing oil & gas contract obligations for experienced lease operators. HSE-specific classes include SafeLand, Department of Transportation operator qualification (DOT OQ), H2S training and defensive driving. The combination of structured, industry-proven processes and a strong focus on safety and regulatory compliance serves as the foundation for developing safe, competent workers for the Eagle Ford region.

Class instructors are oil & gas industry veterans with a minimum of 20 years of experience onshore and offshore, in the U.S. or international. They are experienced in operations, engineering and major project management.

Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.

Halliburton introduces well design, placement solution

Halliburton launched recently its Drilling Engineering Solutions (DES) service. As drilling complexities increase, the need for comprehensive solutions continues to grow. DES provides fully integrated, custom-engineered solutions to optimize well design and placement - rom high volume wells to complex environments.

DES combines expertise and experience across multiple Halliburton product service lines: Sperry Drilling, Baroid and Halliburton Drill Bits and Services, and is powered by Landmark Software. The DrillingXpert proprietary solution delivery platform allows DES teams to design an entire performance drilling system on a single platform.

The DrillingXpert platform is built on Landmark’s DecisionSpace Well Engineering software and the Engineer’s Data Model (EDM) application, a well data management solution. Utilizing the widely deployed DecisionSpace platform allows DES to exchange drilling technical information readily and more efficiently.

The core of the DES solution delivery is the Drilling Engineering Solution Centers (DESCs), which provide engineering, monitoring and support.

Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.

Imperial Oil to sell western Canada assets, focus on oil sands

Imperial Oil Ltd., the Canadian energy company majority owned by Exxon Mobil Corp., agreed to sell some assets to Whitecap Resources Inc. for about C$855 million ($774 million) as it focuses on larger oil-sands projects.

The conventional oil and natural gas assets in British Columbia and Alberta produced the equivalent of about 15,000 bopd in 2013, the Calgary-based company said in a statement today. Half of the production is oil and the other half is gas.

Imperial has focused on expanding its so-called unconventional production, which includes oil sands. The company spent C$12.9 billion to bring the Kearl oil-sands project online last year and joined with Exxon, which owns 70% of its stock, to buy more oil-sands acreage for about C$751 million in August. Kearl and the Cold Lake oil-sands project provide an “incredible platform for growth,” Imperial CEO Rich Kruger said in September.

“For Imperial, I don’t think these assets really move the needle anymore, so it’s a focus on Cold Lake and Kearl, the big projects,” Justin Bouchard, an analyst at Desjardins Securities Inc. in Calgary, said in a phone interview today. “For the guys who bought it, it’s obviously meaningful.”

For Whitecap, also based in Calgary, the acquisition “greatly enhances our sustainable dividend-growth model and is accretive on all key measures both in 2014 and 2015,” the company said in a separate statement. The deal is expected to close in May.

Imperial hired Scotiabank last year to sell the assets. National Bank Financial Inc. has acted as Whitecap’s financial adviser and GMP Securities LP, and TD Securities Inc. were strategic advisers on the purchase.

Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.

Pan American Energy renews Wavefront fluid injection contract

Wavefront Technology Solutions, a provider of fluid injection processes primarily for mature field revitalization (EOR), as well as oil and gas well stimulation, has announced that Pan American Energy has awarded it (through agent Chilicote) a renewed, 12-month Powerwave contract worth approximately $533,000.

The contract renewal with PAE is for the Los Flores Norte–Cerro Dragon field in Argentina, and expands the existing project from three to seven Powerwave-driven water injectors.

Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.

EU environmental impact assessment rules to trigger more competitiveness, growth

A recent European Parliament vote on new environmental impact assessment rules is a step forward in making Europe more competitive without compromising on the environment, according to the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP).

“While not imposing unnecessary requirements on the upstream oil and gas industry, the new rules will guarantee that any development, including exploration for shale gas, will be subject to strict environmental standards,” said Roland Festor, OGP’s director for EU affairs.

The new rules confirmed the existing differentiation between exploration and production of hydrocarbons. It will ensure that the requirements for environmental protection become more stringent as a project progresses. This way, time and resources will be applied where they matter: on full environmental studies, once a project’s economic potential is confirmed and its development is going ahead.

Too many detailed requirements during the early phase of exploration - when commercial viability of a project is totally uncertain and operations limited - would have undermined key investments, without bringing any additional benefit to the environment.

“The vote is a positive first step in enabling the assessment of domestic energy resources. Opportunities, such as natural gas from shale, must be explored and, if promising, will be crucial to encourage future economic growth and create new jobs,” said Festor.

“Shale gas exploration is even more crucial now that the EU is devising its 2030 climate and energy policy. Gas is the best resource Europe has - cleaner-burning, reliable and immediately available - to help meet EU emissions reduction targets quickly and at a competitive cost versus alternatives,” he explained.

Shale gas development could have other significant benefits for Europe. According to a recent study from consulting and engineering firm Poyry, domestic EU development could create as many as 1.1 million jobs by 2050, while reducing the region’s dependence on energy imports and relatively lowering prices.

Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.