FEBRUARY 8, 2010

Industry Highlight: XTO Realizes Significant Savings in Permian Basin with Switch to PDC Bits & Combined Rotary/Coil Tubing Rig, Drilling Contractor, Nov. 2, 2009

Changing from roller cone bits to PDC bits delivered a 50% reduction in drilling time. A second switch to a dual purpose rotary/coil tubing rig (Xtreme Coil Drilling). By optimizing the on-bottom time, reducing PDC bit damage and tripping faster, overall drilling times are reduced.

DOE News Highlight: DOE’s FY11 Fossil Energy Presidential Budget Not Favorable to O&G

President Obama’s FY2011 budget seeks $587 million for DOE’s fossil energy research and development budget, down from $672 million in FY2010. No funding is proposed for either oil or gas technologies. Since the Office of Science will initiate a new research program in gas hydrates, funding previously provided for hydrates research within DOE’s gas program is not requested.

PTTC Highlight:  CCS Regional Training for the Permian Basin

PTTC, AAPG and the Applied Petroleum Technology Academy of Midland, TX are diligently working to develop CCS training products (webinars, workshops, e-certification, extended length short course). It’s a work in progress, but check out (and bookmark) the program’s website (www.permianbasinccs.org). Advisory Board members are currently being recruited and sponsors will be sought. Contact Lance Cole (lcole@pttc.org) if interested in either.

AAPG Highlight: Joint Society Meeting (Pacific Section AAPG, GSA Cordilleran Section, SPE Western Region) in Anaheim, CA., May 27-29

Not only does this model illustrate independent societies working together where it makes sense, but there’s an additional element of cooperation. The societies have asked PTTC to coordinate workshops around the meeting, some nine in all through PTTC’s West Coast program led by Jerry Anderson of the Conservation Committee of California Oil & Gas Producers. Check the meeting websites (and PTTC’s website too) for workshop information as it becomes available.

• Pacific Section AAPG, May 27-29, Anaheim, CA.

• SPE Western Regional Meeting, May, Anaheim, CA.

AAPG Upcoming E-Symposia: Be sure to sign up and tune in for one or more of these informative 1-hour live e-symposia:

• Predicting Gas Hydrates using Pre-stack Seismic data in Deepwater GOM, February 11 2:00 p.m. for the live event, See what’s included in this promising methodology for predicting saturations of gas hydrates.

• Creativity in Exploration, February 25, 2:00 p.m. for the live event, What is creativity? How can it be applied to petroleum exploration to improve your success rate?

E-symposia are $75 for AAPG members ($95 for non-members) for the live one-hour session only. Expanded packages for CEU credit available for $100/members, $145/non-members.

Trivia Question: Can completion problems in an exploratory well change a nation's future? Living in the "what if" realm serves no useful purpose, but it is interesting to imagine how stimulation success rather than failure would have changed John Wilkes Booth's direction and the subsequent impact on our nation's history. What happened when the Dramatic Oil Company "shot" it's Wilhelmina well in Pennsylvania's early oil fields?

Trivia Answer: According to an article in the Petroleum Age (March 2005), "shooting" the well utterly ruined the hole. The well, which had produced some 25 bopd, never yielded another drop of oil after stimulation. Just a few months later Booth started his journey leading to Lincoln's assassination. (Courtesy of the American Oil & Gas Historical Society (www.aoghs.org)