Geosteering advances put wells in the right spot

摘要

MIKE WILLIAMS IS global accounts manager, drilling & measurements, Schlumberger. What arenas will be the key areas of focus for the industry in 2010? If you look at the major finds that the industry has had over the last year, they are nearly all deepwater. There is no doubt deepwater has boomed and will continue to boom. If you look at the major deepwater plays in the world, the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil are both growing. The same is true to a lesser extent in West Africa. For us, deepwater is one of the major focus areas, together with extended-reach drilling (ERD). They share similarities in that they are both at the extreme of drilling activity today, and despite the downturn, both areas have kept pace. This has to do with the up-front investments companies have made in drilling wells like these. You are looking at a year-plus lead time to plan these operations, so obviously companies have invested a lot of money before they even start to drill.