Statoil to build IOR center and redefine drilling rigs
Statoil leads the world on recovery rate in exceeding for the first time an average of 50% in 2011.
By comparison the global oil recovery rate is around 35% and in the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), all the producers reach an average of 47%.
Among them, Statoil managed to increase its average recovery rate by 1% to tap 50%.
This last 1% of increased oil recovery (IOR) represents 327 million barrels of oil equivalent to the Skrugard and Havis discoveries and worth of $35 billion, based on $100 per barrel.
Since it is more costs effective to increased oil recovery (IOR) on existing wells than exploring, developing and set in production new oil and gas fields, Statoil is now aiming at 60% average oil recovery rate.
To reach this new goal, Statoil is taking a leap in:
– Building a new increased oil recovery (IOR) research center in Trondheim, Norway
– Redefining its requirements for the drilling rigs.
About half of Statoil‘s research and development budget of $500 million is dedicated to investigating, testing and deploying new increased oil recovery (IOR) technologies.
Due for completion in 2013, Statoil will invest $42 million capital expenditure for this new increased oil recovery (IOR) center.
This 2,700 square meters purposed-build center will gather all the teams and expertise in Statoil acting around increased oil recovery (IOR).
The research efforts will be concentrated on:
– Drilling operations and wells understanding
– Reservoir mapping
– Advanced injection techniques
To perform more fundamental researches, Statoil will install in this increased oil recovery (IOR) center a CT scanner 100 times more powerful than a medical CT scanner.
Statoil to create new drilling rig designs for IOR
Among the 300 different activities and processes related to increased oil recovery (IOR), the most important one is about drilling the new wells and maintenance of the existing ones.
increased oil recovery (IOR) performances follow a rather simple rule, the more wells you drill, the more reservoir you can access to and recover.
Since the drilling capacities in the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), are limited or not optimized to the requirements of exploration and production to meet 60% average oil recovery rate, Statoil is rewriting its specifications for drilling rigs to operate in the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS),.
These new specifications lead Statoil and its drilling contractors to create fit-for-purpose new categories of drilling rigs
Statoil selected five different types of drilling ships and drilling rigs with specific requirements to match with the nature of the oil and gas fields in the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) and the operations that Statoil intends to optimize on these fields.
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Cat A Vessel
Cat A VesselSmall but agile and costs effective, the Cat A drilling ships are designed for light operations such as light wireline interventions on subsea wells or to plug wells
With 60% cost reduction, and high efficiency Statoil will use the Cat A drilling ships to increase the oil recovery from the subsea wells.
Cat B Rig
The Cat B drilling rigs are fit-for-purpose designed for well intervention and tubing drilling and completion.
These newly designed Cat B drilling rigs should reduce costs by 40% while supporting all the additional equipment for the increased oil recovery (IOR) operations
Cat C Rig
Statoil will continue to use Cat C drilling rigs as usual, in line with their corresponding capabilities
Cat D Rig
Statoil ordered four of this new category of drilling rigs to be custom-designed for Statoil to cope with the medium waters depths of the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS),.
They should be used for drilling operations, completion and wells workovers.
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Cat J Jack-up
Cat J Jack-upFor this type of drilling rigs, Statoil expressed its requirements to get longer legs than normal jack-up rigs in order to match with the deeper water of the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS),
Designed to operate in 150 meter water depth, Statoil intends to use these new Cat J jack-up rigs for Gullfaks and Oseberg on the NCS, but also for Mariner on the UK Continental Shelf.
In July, Statoil called for tender on two of these new Cat J jack-up rigs to be awarded at year end for delivery in 2015.
The third one for Mariner should follow in 2016.
With such modifications, Statoil designed Cat J jack-up rigs should require approximately $600 million capital expenditure per unit.
In combining the advanced research and development program of its future increased oil recovery (IOR) center in Trundheim, together with a pragmatical approach of the drilling rigs operations, Statoil aligns all resources and processes to take the next leap of the increased oil recovery (IOR) technology toward its new goal of 60% recoveryy rate in theNorwegian Continental Shelf (NCS),
