IPTC 2009

The International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC) 2009 was held at the Sheraton Doha Resort and Convention Hotel in Doha, Qatar, last month and brought together industry professionals from around the globe to discuss the technological advancement of the hydrocarbons sector.

The conference was opened by Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar and Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, the Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry and the opening address was given by Mohammed Bin Dhaen Al Hamli, Minister of Energy for the UAE.

Al Hamli spoke passionately about advances in oilfield technology which have resulted in oil production from fields rising from 35% to 50-60%. Al Hamli also called on the industry to ensure that young people were brought into the industry to overcome the many problems presented by an ageing oil and gas workforce.

Speakers at the event included Rich Kruger of ExxonMobil, Saad Al-Kaabi from Qatar Petroleum, Ali Al-Jarwan, Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company and Andrew Gould from Schlumberger.

The conference programme focused on dissemination of new and current technology, best practices and the importance of the “value chain” and maximising asset value.

The packed exhibitor hall played host to a number of high-profile oil and gas giants with Qatar Petroleum, Saudi Aramco, ADNOC, Kuwait Oil Company, Shell backed up by oilfield services providers including Schlumberger and Weatherford.

Day 1

The opening day brought major announcements from Qatar Petroleum, ExxonMobil and Schlumberger, aside from the opening address from Al Hamli.

The biggest news was reserved for Germany’s upstream division of BASF, Wintershall. The company kicked off a lively event with the news it is planning to expand its operations in the Middle East and is the operator of three offshore gas field licences in Qatar.

Speaking to Oil & Gas Middle East at IPTC, a director of Wintershall, Martin Bachmann, said that the blocks are located close to, but are not part of, the massive North Field.

“We are the largest exploration acreage holder in Qatar at this point in time. We won the blocks against very stiff competition and that is because it is one of the best prospects in Qatari waters,” Bachmann said.

The first exploration well in the Khuff formation of Block 4N will be drilled offshore in 2010 with a second soon following. Block 4N covers 544 square kilometers in water depths of around 70 metres.

Bachamann said that Wintershall plans to invest around US$100 million on developing Block 4N alone.

The principal conference discussion points revolved around new global carbon management initiatives, footprint minimisation in drilling and completion and the latest technological developments in cleaner fuels.

Day 2

The second day of IPTC took a closer look at the natural gas industry and what opportunities were currently available to Gulf countries developing their liquefied natural gas (LNG) industries.

Speaking ahead of the Copenhagen climate conference, there was a general consensus that natural gas would emerge as a real winning industry in 2010, as the desire to drop oil and coal in favour of cleaner burning gas was almost guaranteed to occur.

The technical session panel of the day discussed the environmental advantages of LNG, a fuel source from hydrocarbons that produces far fewer emissions than oil or coal. Senior professionals from BG Group, RasGas, Shell Qatar, Middle East Total and ExxonMobil participated in the discussion.

The interest in LNG was evident in the IPTC exhibition hall with both the Pearl GTL and Qatargas 4 being popular stands with the visiting delegates, who came from all over.

Day 3

The key theme which emerged on the final day of IPTC 2009 was a call for higher investment in unconventional recovery methods, with speakers imploring NOCs to support high-risk investments that will
allow more oil to be produced from already existing, and ageing oilfields.

High ranking industry professionals from Eni E&P, QP, Saudi Aramco, Kuwait Oil Company, Total and Shell E&P International spoke in the conference. The panellists discussed the challenges around increasing hydrocarbon recovery in existing fields and developing future energy resources which are energy intensive and more expensive.

Cautious Al Shaheen predicts stability in 2010

What brings you to IPTC?

Al-Shaheen has been established since June 2008, but Weatherford has been here for a long time. As a joint venture between a subsidiary of Qatar Petroleum and Weatherford, we have come to IPTC to support what they are trying to achieve here.

Has 2009 been a tough year in Qatar?

Actually it was a little bit below expectation. We are still busy but due the rig count decline in Qatar, which declined from 32 to around 22 in 2009, this obviously affected our business. However, despite this we have still managed to maintain the same level of activity in Qatar in terms of drilling and completing wells. Through our wide portfolio of services we can provide in Qatar we have managed to compete with the big players that operate in the market.

What are your expectations for 2010?

We have revenues of $100 million which is also our target in 2010. You will see a lot of activity in Qatar over the next two quarters. Some of them will be tenders some will be single sourced. Or the customer has the option to extend the current deal it already has in place. We are open for all options. We are here whatever QP calls for. That is why we have done a joint venture. But it is not only QP in Qatar, you have big players like RasGas, Maersk, Oxy, Shell, Wintershall, Total. They are our customers globally and know us from elsewhere. We have no problem with IOCs and NOCs.

Are you optimistic about a pick-up in drilling spend?

2010 will be similar to 2009. I think we’ll see the same levels of activity plus or minus 5%. I don’t think there will be any major change. Q2 in 2011 is when we are expecting it to really change.

Schlumberger’s triple launch at IPTC 2009

Schlumberger rolled out the big guns at the IPTC, with CEO Andrew Gould flying into Doha to promote the launch of three new products by the oilfield services giant.

The first, the EM Pipe Scanner, is an electromagnetic casing inspection tool that can run through tubing to produce a quantitative scan of the interior surface and thickness of the production casing.

“The unique ability of the EM Pipe Scanner to measure corrosion in production casing without having to pull completion tubing saves customers significant cost,” Zied Ben Hamad, marketing and technology manager, Schlumberger Wireline said.

The second product, OPTICall, is a thermal profile and investigation service. This distributed temperature sensing (DTS) service tracks fluid movements in real time along the wellbore, helping to detect leaks, monitor gas lift and evaluate fractures to improve field productivity.

“The OPTICall service offers a low-risk, economical way to troubleshoot issues in all types of wells,” Claude Durocher, Slickline business manager, Schlumberger said.

The third, the MaxCO3 Acid degradable diversion acid system is a polymer-free, non-damaging acidising system that can be used for both matrix and fracture stimulation in carbonate reservoirs with permeability contrasts or natural fractures.

“The MaxCO3 Acid system is designed to be used in oil or gas wells in both open-hole and cased-hole intervals, regardless of deviation. Treatment design, execution and evaluation are optimised using Schlumberger proprietary software applications,” the company said.

Speaking earlier in the conference Gould had moved to defend Schlumberger’s recent cost cutting measures, stating the core areas of the business had not been affected.

“We have protected our key research and development expenditures with only minimal adjustments in the overall plan,” Gould concluded.

on our ability to grow such as in Brazil, Saudi Arabia or Iraq,” he added.

$6bn investment coming to fruition

Esbern Hoch head of geoscience, director, Maersk Oil Qatar speaks to Oil & Gas Middle East

What’s you message to the industry at IPTC 2009?

We’ve been here [Qatar] since 1992 and we felt it was important for us is to show the industry the success we have had. Also we wanted to support Qatar Petroleum, our partner in the Al Shaheen field.

Has the fluctuating oil prices in 2009 affected you?

When you undertake a US$6 billion project like Al Shaheen Field Development Plan you define your investments based on expectations of a fluctuating oil price. In the late 1990s we were down to $9.50 per barrel, so this crisis hasn’t been nearly as bad as that.

What does 2010 hold for Maersk Oil Qatar?

We are installing a huge number of offshore facilities at the moment. We have more than 30 facilities installed on our offshore platform locations and they will be finalised by the middle of Q2 in 2010. We have also started a pilot scheme for gas injection. We need to maintain the reservoir pressure and currently using water, but we can be even more efficient if we use gas.

Gas improves the viscosity and visibility issues and so forth and lower the remaining oil saturation. Then we are planning to maybe take that even further and inject CO2. That is still only speculative however.