Projects

The following are examples of just some of the projects that Signa has worked on and continues to work on for our clients. The projects are arranged in the following categories:

• Project Management
• Engineering Design
• Operations Audits
• Technology Transfer / Training

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Project Management

• Apache Corporation

  Managed the western regional drilling department including overseeing operations, engineering, regulatory affairs, contracts, and engineering. Footage drilled for 2-month period in the Permian Basin and Rocky Mountains exceeded 70,000'.

• Harken de Columbia

  Performed reservoir and production engineering to create a complete field development plan for a new field discovery in Columbia, including volumetric reserves, water coning, artificial lift design and horizontal well analysis. Team included geologist, petroleum engineer, drilling engineer and Ph.D. reservoir engineer.

  Performed underbalanced drilling and completion engineering and operations evaluation for separate project in Columbia involving a highly fractured, normally pressured, oil reservoir. Also recommended sand control techniques and ESP sizing for wells in the theater of operations.

• POGO Producing/Thaipo

  Signas multidisciplinary team successfully designed a horizontal completion system for a weakly consolidated sand in the Gulf of Thailand. Challenges included horizontal exploitation of weakly consolidated, fluid sensitive, channel sand taking into account wellbore stability and sand control issues. Engineering tasks included design and evaluation of various drilling fluid systems including OBM, Sized Salt, Mixed Metal Hydroxide, Perflow systems. Design and evaluation of various sand control methods including gravel packing, pre-packed screens, wire & rod-based screens, and pre-perforated casing. Worked closely with vendors, reservoir engineers, geologists, drilling engineers, and completion engineers and laboratory technicians to effectively quantify formation/skin damage of drilling fluids and select the optimum completion technique. This 25 well, $100 million drilling project was implemented in January of 1999.

• Amoco Production Co.

  Signa provided comprehensive project management on the Amoco North Cowden Project where 14 wells were drilled and completed. Services included: Drilling engineering, completion engineering, vendor bidding, location and road construction, field supervision, well recap and wellsite drilling report software. At the conclusion of the project, Signa personnel turned the project over to the Amoco production department. The project was completed on time and under budget.

• BP-Amoco

  Provided engineering and operations supervision for 2 short-radius horizontal reentry wells in the Niagaran pinnacle reef play in the Michigan Basin. Reduced drilling costs from $650,000/well to $390,000/well by choosing the optimum equipment, successfully managing risks, and implementing a cost control system.

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Engineering Design

• Shell Venezuela

  Mud Cap drilling engineering for Shell Venezuela. Highly fractured sour abnormal (14 PPG emw BHP) oil reservoir in Lake Maricaibo.

• Schlumberger IPM

  Underbalanced drilling & completion engineering for Schlumberger IPM. Shallow highly fractured sour subnormal heavy oil reservoir on remote Island of Seram. Drilling with diesel with N2 from Membrane, 4-phase separation technology.

• Texaco

  Signa provides ongoing engineering support for Texaco's DEEPSTAR IV. Project involves engineering design of drilling, completion, and production systems in water depths from 6000' to 10000'.

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Operations Audits

• Pluspetrol

  Signa audited the client's operations, which range from South America to the Middle East. To achieve this task Signa dispatched experts to the region(s). The intent of the drilling audits was to constructively review operations, decision making, vendor support, rig and environmental conditions as well as organizational structure. Recommendations concerning operations were made which, if applied, will result in significant savings and improved operational success. The Algerian project involved a field development study and operational review for horizontal potential on three large Algerian oilfields. Made recommendations to client on methods to improve production and lower operating expenses after acquisition. Team included production engineer, drilling engineer, petroleum engineer and a geologist.

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Technology Transfer / Training

• Well Completion Technology

  Signa has provided various training, technology transfer and mentoring services to large groups of foreign nationals over multi-week periods. Courses have included students from many different countries including Japan and Indonesia. Material covered numerous areas of interest, including:

  • Horizontal Drilling
  • Petroleum Economics
  • Reservoir Evaluation
  • Reservoir Management

• China National Pet. Corp.

  Customized 3-day Underbalanced Operations Seminar for 50+ attendees, Beijing, China for Chinese Petroleum Society.

• Chevron, Agip

  Specialized Underbalanced Operations Training School.

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