No. 1 - 2012
6/ G
etting to grips with
Process Safety
12 / W
iFi on
the steppe
4
Maersk Oil’s
Transformation – it
takes time to turn a
company around
16 / A day in the life of…
Karyn Hossack
the source / Page 2
Contents
Page 3.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CEO’s foreword
Page 8.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Safety update
Page 10. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Getting to grips with Process Safety
Page 13. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . News in brief
Photo competition
Maersk Oil turns 50.
Help create a poster
marking the anniversary.
Page 20. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Business update
Page 23. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A day in the life of… Karyn Hossack
16.
17.
WiFi on the steppe
On the Kazakh steppe and out at sea – workers
are getting high speed internet access.
5.
It takes time to turn around a company
From Project Focus to embedding lasting change, Maersk Oil is in the
midst of a significant transformation that will take time to take root.
Page 3 / the source
CEO´s Foreword
Dear Colleagues
Some weeks ago I attended the International Energy Forum in Kuwait. At the event,
energy ministers from around the world
met CEOs from national and international
oil companies to discuss the outlook for the
energy industry and how we continue to
supply oil and gas to the world. The biggest
concerns were the need for investments
during a global economic crisis, and the lack
of collaboration to develop new technologies which would enable the industry to
produce hydrocarbons from increasingly
challenging operational environments.
Maersk Oil is well positioned to handle both
concerns. Being part of the A.P. Moller –
Maersk Group gives us the financial clout
to participate in big investment projects or
acquire new prospects. And more importantly for governments and NOCs, we can
invest with a long term perspective due to
our strong balance sheet. We do not need
to go after the quick wins on the financial
markets, and that makes us an attractive
partner.
Our superior horizontal well technology and
the deployment of this in tight reservoirs
opens many opportunities for our business in the future as more and more fields
around the world become mature. At the
same time, we are working with our partners on CO2 injection and maturing TriGen.
the source / Page 4
“When I meet
governments
and national oil
companies and tell
them about our
financial strength
and pioneering
technical mindset,
they listen.”
CEO´s Foreword
Both technologies have the potential to
become game changers for us and the
industry – the CO2 injection as it increases
the recovery factor significantly, and TriGen
as it turns stranded gas fields into valuable
assets creating power, water and clean
CO2 which can be used for enhanced oil
and gas recovery.
When I meet governments and national
oil companies and tell them about our
financial strength and pioneering technical
mindset, they listen. They like our company
and what we stand for, but most of all they
like companies that can keep their oil and
gas fields alive, securing a steady income
for decades.
Our task as an E&P company is to deliver
hydrocarbons safely, responsibly and profitably. Our focus must be on executing our
field development projects on time and
within budget. We also have to turn our
many exciting discoveries into commercial
production fast and relentlessly maximise recovery from existing assets. And we
have to do all this safely and responsibly.
Incident-Free and our new global processes,
such as the project maturation process, will
be our handrail to delivering our projects
successfully.
Doing that will not only enable us to meet
our target of an entitlement production of
400,000 bpd, we will also be the partner of
choice, creating a sustainable pipeline of
opportunities for Maersk Oil in the years
to come.
Jakob Thomasen
Page 5 / the source
It takes time to turn
around a company
Maersk Oil is in the midst of a fundamental transformation process – one
of the most significant and difficult stages in the company’s 50 year history.
So, why is such a radical change necessary?
By Thomas Grøndorf
Maersk Oil produces 85% of Denmark’s
total oil output and over a third of Qatar’s,
having turned their challenging fields into
production through its ability, recognised
by the industry, to deploy horizontal well
technology.
Such a success story is impressive and
should build a solid basis for a long-term
business. But without the investment to
replace production, a business is unsustainable. In 2008, Maersk Oil’s entitlement
production was 424,000 barrels per day
(bpd); by 2011 it fell to 333,000 bpd.
Realising this, Maersk Oil spread its wings
in the past years increasing its footprint
around the world. However, acquiring new
licenses and production is not enough to
make Maersk Oil’s business sustainable. It
needs a solid business infrastructure and
flexibility to scale up to absorb expansion.
To achieve that, Maersk Oil had to do away
with a silo mentality and introduce new
systems, processes and ways of working.
the source / Page 6
Creating the new normal
“The transformation is about creating a new
state of ‘business as usual’. What we did in
the past is not necessarily right for the future. The operational environment is getting
more challenging, our workforce is growing
by 500 people a year, and the commercial
complexity is increasing. We have to prepare for all this while still holding on to what
we do well,” says CEO Jakob Thomasen.
Project Focus, a change programme of soulsearching and investigation into what company Maersk Oil wanted to become, was
launched back in 2010. Analyses clearly
showed that Maersk Oil had to change to
stay in business and that a new business
infrastructure was needed to stay competitive. This meant new global processes that
would inject operational, commercial and
organisational consistency and rigour into
the core of Maersk Oil’s activities around
the world.
Embedding change
The new processes were launched at the
end of last year during what was called ‘100
Days - 100% Focus’, a period of high activity across the organisation. Now, Maersk
Oil must embed these processes in a way
that they become an unnoticeable way of
working. And underpinning this work, says
Transformation Office Director, Lars Novrup,
are five Global Process Owners (GPOs).
“The GPO role is vital for Maersk Oil’s transformation. Not only do GPOs act as guardians of the processes, but, by managing a
network of process champions, they drive
the behavioural change needed across the
organisation to make the processes work
efficiently,” Novrup said.
The processes are linked directly to Maersk
Oil’s growth ambitions – some are concerned with improving oil and gas production, others with how the company measures performance consistently, others still
with identifying and pursuing business opportunities effectively. Thomasen emphasised that the role of these processes is to
drive better outcomes over time, with more
resilient behaviours and an eye towards
greater efficiency.
“We will instill transparency and scalability, improve the sharing of knowledge and
learning, and make our delivery more consistent across our operations. Ultimately,
this is all about creating value – not just
for ourselves, but for our partners as well,”
Thomasen said.
Transformation Office Director, Lars Novrup:
“We now enter a phase where it is about embedding the processes we developed last year.”
Page 7 / the source
Transformation
perspectives
transformation
2012
BRIAN CLARK, UK Programme and
Change Coordinator:
GRAHAM JEFFERY, Global Process
Owner for Business Development:
“The UK Transformation is about
making us a more performanceoriented organisation, improving results
and engaging our entire workforce to
achieve them. We were also keen to
make our contribution to the global
transformation, such as designing and
piloting a new business planning cycle
that incorporates both local and global
requirements. Similar business planning
cycles will now be adopted in the other
business units.
“The transformation is positioning
Maersk Oil for growth. One key to
success is our understanding of our
readiness for future growth. This means
that as we consider opportunities for
new business, we look closely at our
resources and our ability to properly
integrate any acquisitions. For instance,
do we have the people and technologies
to make an acquisition a commercial
success?
“In general, as we progress through
2012, the implementation of the
processes and introducing a consistent
operating rhythm across all installations
will create a lot of change, even more
than we saw a year ago.”
“To do this, we have implemented a new
business development process that
includes an assessment of our ability to
assimilate acquisitions as we scope out
these opportunities.”
the source / Page 8
Safety update
Maersk Oil is transforming itself and our
focus on safety as a core value of that
transformation is everything to do with the
way we work. The way we work is crucial to
our prevention of injuries and specifically
major accidents. And the prevention of major
accidents is what Process Safety is all about.
By Wells Grogan, Head of Global HSSEQ
When we look back at major accidents in
history across a range of industries, but
specifically our own, such as Piper Alpha,
Texas City and Macondo, there were numerous warning signs, some subtle but others
unambiguous. These warning signs were
missed because people had stopped paying attention to them, were rushing to get
a job finished or dismissed them because
they had become too familiar or were
deemed acceptable.
Learning from our mistakes
In addition to failures in design, hardware
and procedures, an underlying contribution
to these major incidents had to do with
mindset and attitude. This was about being
complacent about successes or systems,
losing a sense of vulnerability and exposure,
or a failure to listen to or communicate
key concerns.
Learning from our mistakes and our successes is a sign of a strong organisation.
We recently held a Lessons Learned review
of our High Potential Incidents in which we
had an open and frank discussion of what
went wrong and where we should focus
to improve. We have made some progress
over the last few years, and the data (see
page 9) show the reduction in personal
injuries that has been achieved.
With an increased focus on the complex
nature of Process Safety, our goal is to
achieve a similar improvement in our
process safety performance.
Keeping ourselves honest, being open to
challenges and making sure that we have
got it right are solid foundations on which
our systems and processes should be
built to help us prevent injuries and major
accidents.
Our focus in these HSSEQ pages of the
source is on recording some of the successes that parts of the organisation have
achieved and I hope that it provides a little
more explanation of process safety.
Page 9 / the source
Reduction in personal injuries
LTI: Lost Time Injuries (Blue bars) - a fatality or an injury whereby the person needed at least one day off to recuperate.
LTIF: LTI Frequency (Orange line) - the amount of LTIs per one million working hours.
LTI
LTIF
4
2,0
3
1,5
2
1,0
1
0,5
0
0,0
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
TRI: Total Recordable Injuries (Blue bars) - the number of LTIs, restricted workday cases and medical treatment cases.
TRIF: TRI Frequency (Orange line) - the amount of TRIs per one million working hours.
TRI
TRIF
4,0
10
8
3,0
6
2,0
4
1,0
2
0
0,0
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
PSI: Process Safety Incident (Blue bars) - an incident that has or could have led to an unplanned loss of containment.
PSIF: PSI frequency (Orange line) - the amount of PSIs per one million working hours.
PSI
PSIF
30
30,0
20
20,0
10
10,0
0
0,0
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
2011
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
2012
Mar
the source / Page 10
Getting to grips
with Process Safety
By Sabina Zawadzki
Any industry that deals with hazardous
materials must also have a strong handle
on Process Safety, which is essentially a
system of making sure that there is no
unwanted escape of these hazardous
materials such as oil, gas and chemicals. In
broader terms, the aim of Process Safety is
to avoid major accidents such as explosions
and fires.
The disasters mentioned by Wells Grogan
in previous pages are the subjects of many
books on Process Safety and all analyses
conclude that there is never one major
cause of these incidents. Experts have
come up with what they call the Swiss
Cheese model that illustrates how it takes
a number of weaknesses in the system,
or holes in the cheese, to align for a major
incident to occur.
But in an industry as complex as oil exploration and production how do you even begin
to create such as system?
“Process Safety is a thread that runs
through all our operations, from leaders
and management providing guidance on
hundreds of procedures governing the
way work is done, office-based engineers
designing infrastructure in a way that
mitigates risk, right down to the offshore
worker who carries out tasks following the
correct processes,” said John Mossman,
Director of Process Safety.
Two examples show the hard work of
Business Units to improve aspects of
Process Safety.
Stopping leaks
In 2007, Maersk Oil had some of the highest
incidences of hydrocarbon releases amongst
its peers in the UK, finding itself near the top
of a league it didn’t want to be in. The releases included gas escaping from pipe fittings
and oil leaking, mostly on the decks of the
Gryphon, Janice or GP3 floating installations.
This situation was unacceptable to Maersk
Oil’s management in the UK. Committed
to a significant reduction in the leaks, they
established a dedicated Hydrocarbon Leak
Reduction (HCLR) team to identify their
causes and find the best practices to
cut them.
Every hydrocarbon leak on Maersk Oil’s
UK installations was studied by the HCLR
team. The data provided information
on where leaks were occurring and how
frequently.
Page 11 / the source
Some weaknesses are
due to active failures
Hazards
Accident
Other weaknesses are
due to latent conditions
The cheese slices represent
successive layers of defense
The Swiss Cheese model
shows how there are
numerous barriers to
an accident. However,
weaknesses in the barriers
can exist and if they align, a
hazard leads to an accident.
the source / Page 12
The team found that the majority of
releases occurred where equipment was
connected together and in smaller diameter pipe fittings. Gas releases were dominant and compression systems in particular were prone to leak. The combination of
high pressure gas, vibration from equipment and many connections using smalldiameter pipes made this an obvious area
for gas leaks.
As a result, inspection programmes were
put in place to identify problems before
they occurred. Procedures were improved
and employees were further trained to reduce leaks from joints and connections.
Maersk Oil also took its employees to a
testing site in the North East of England
where it could safely demonstrate large
scale fires and explosions ignited from the
tiniest of amounts of hydrocarbons. This
experience served to focus everyone’s mind
on cutting hydrocarbon releases by showing their potentially severe consequences.
By 2010, the number of reportable hydrocarbon releases was cut by 80% and, while
industry data for 2011 is not yet available,
Maersk Oil believes it will be in the lowest
quartile of companies with hydrocarbon
leaks, having had the least number of
releases in its UK history.
When more is less
Information is crucial if incidents are to be
avoided and Maersk Oil has tried to improve
how the whole company learns from its
experiences, previous incidents, or conditions and behaviours that could lead to
incidents. To have as much information as
it can, the company relies on its employees
to report everything with a potential impact
on safety, right down to a broken glass in
the canteen or a box of paper blocking an
emergency exit.
In Kazakhstan, the number of Near Misses
– conditions or situations that could have
led to an incident but didn’t – was traditionally low, which could have meant that the
business unit was in a pretty safe condition.
But the organisation decided to dig deeper
and discovered that many Near Misses
were not reported. There were a variety
of reasons for this including fear of being
punished for the Near Miss, a belief that the
risk was insignificant or because it was felt
that the situation had been resolved. But in
essence the fundamental reason was that
Maersk Oil had not trained employees sufficiently in safety awareness.
Managers in Kazakhstan therefore
launched an information campaign emphasising the importance of reporting Near
Misses as an opportunity to learn and to
avoid real incidents. They instilled a ‘No
Blame’ culture and in fact, Near Miss reports that were deemed very useful were
rewarded.
Employees in Kazakhstan reported 261
Near Misses in 2011 – the same year in
which not a single person in the organisation was injured. In 2010, Near Miss reports
numbered just 34.
Page 13 / the source
Constant care
during operations
An example of the care that is taken on
an everyday basis is the ‘permit to work’
system. Any job that needs to be done
on an offshore platform, rig, or onshore
facilities needs a permit to work, no
matter how small it is.
The permit assesses the work scope,
tools, any potential hazards and ways to
mitigate them. If chemicals are involved,
they come with lengthy instructions
on how to use them – even the humble
WD40 spray that most people have
in their homes has a 5-page manual.
Permits are discussed and approved
by managers.
This kind of preparation means that
the actual “doing” part of a 2-hour job
may only occupy half an hour but the
preparation is a critical part of the job
itself, not an optional extra.
Maersk Oil settles
Algerian tax claims
News
in brief
Maersk Oil and its partner in Algeria, Anadarko, have
settled a tax dispute with Algerian national oil company Sonatrach S.P.A..
Maersk Oil is set to receive USD 920 million as part
of the settlement paid in barrels of oil over a 12
month period. Maersk Oil will also receive a moderately higher share of production as of the third
quarter of this year due to improved terms of its
Production Sharing Contract.
the source / Page 14
News
in brief
“This settlement is significant for us and our Algerian business. The parties have agreed on how to resolve and settle all
outstanding claims related to this tax. Following this agreement, we have a solid basis for moving ahead with our
Algerian activities with our partners,” said Jakob Thomasen,
CEO of Maersk Oil.
Angola well…
Maersk Oil came up trumps in January with its
Azul-1 exploration well in previously unchartered
areas offshore Angola. It recovered two quality oil
samples and data from tests conducted at the well
may eventually help build up a significant business
in Angola.
The test data indicated a potential flow capacity
greater than 3,000 barrels of oil a day from the well,
leading to optimism about the prospects for the
area. The exploration well, from which the samples
were extracted, was one of the first to penetrate
presalt layers in Angolan deepwater.
“The important thing about this discovery is that we
have now proved the existence of hydrocarbons in
the pre-salt layers on the African side of the South
Atlantic Ocean. The Kwanza Basin that we drilled in
now appears to be a mirror of the Campos Basin offshore Brazil where huge discoveries have been made
in pre-salt layers,” says Lars Nydahl Jørgensen, Head
of Exploration at Maersk Oil.
…Norway
not so well
Maersk Oil had less luck
with its first operated
prospect in Norway. The
T-Rex well, drilled in Production Licence 431 in the
Norwegian Sea, did not
discover hydrocarbons in
commercial quantities.
“While the result of T-Rex
is disappointing, we have
gathered a large amount
of data that we will analyse to understand the
wider implications and
decide on further activities in the license,” said
Morten Jeppesen, Managing Director of Maersk Oil
in Norway.
Page 15 / the source
World’s largest geoscience event
in Copenhagen
Copenhagen will host the 74th European
Association for Geoscientists and Engineers conference. The conference, which
takes place in Bella Centre from 4-7 June
2012, is the largest and most comprehensive geoscience event in the world.
Maersk Oil is the main sponsor this year
and CEO Jakob Thomasen will be a keynote speaker at the Opening Session.
The four-day programme consists of a
large conference and a technical exhibition presenting the latest developments
in geophysics, geology and reservoir engi-
High oil prices secure oil
industry’s profits
neering. The Danish Business Unit provided a data set to be used in a student
Field Challenge and Maersk Oil’s technical professionals submitted 18 technical
papers to the EAGE selection committee.
“The number of technical papers submitted is an all time record – indeed it shows
the commitment of our staff to show the
industry the level of our technical capabilities in Geoscience and Reservoir Engineering,” said Pierre Lanfranchi, CTP Chief
Geophysicist.
ConocoPhillips, whose production
dropped 22% in 2011.
Despite generally lower production, higher
oil prices secured higher profits for oil
companies in 2011. For the majors, average earnings were up 28% compared to
2010 while earnings of mid-sized independent oil companies were up 41%
on average.
Maersk Oil invested heavily to offset its
production decline of 11% such as its
acquisition of SK Energy’s assets in Brazil,
The only two oil companies to show a
significant increase in production were
Maersk Oil’s capital expenditure (CAPEX)
almost doubled in 2011, while peers’
equivalent spending grew 3% on average.
Majors’ CAPEX increased 27% on average
in the same year.
Apache (15%) and Anardarko (5%) – all
other oil companies faced output declines. The largest decline came from
the El Merk development project in
Algeria and a shareholding in HKN Energy,
with assets in Iraqi Kurdistan.
the source / Page 16
Photo competition
Maersk Oil turns 50
Maersk Oil will celebrate its 50th
birthday on 8 July. To remember the
years, we want to create a collage
of images showing Maersk Oil from
different perspectives: offshore
conditions such as storms, field trips,
definitive moments, company parties…
We are looking for old and new pictures
and the best will feature on a poster,
which will be made available to all
Submit your photos by 25 May to:
[email protected]
locations. We will also create a photo
data-base on the intranet.
If you submit a photo, write a few lines
about where, when and why the picture
was taken, and who is in it. The higher
the quality, the better, but we know
older pictures will be low resolution or
even scanned from paper copies – we’ll
do our best to incorporate all of these.
Page 17 / the source
On the steppe and out
at sea – faster internet
connections bring sites
closer to office and home
In an era of easy access to high-speed internet connection in the
office and at home, it is easy to overlook the challenges of providing
the same for oil field workers, whether on platforms in the rough
waters of the North Sea or out on the Kazakh steppe.
By Charlotte Holst Hansen
The need for oil field workers to find, measure and interpret information and to communicate it further is just as high as in an oil
company’s office. Maersk Oil is improving
data networks through better internet connections, paving the way for fully digitalised
oil fields while helping employees to stay
connected to home.
less of measuring instruments. But other
data is collected too, such as readings of
the wind and waves on the Valdemar unmanned platform to see the effect weather
has on aging infrastructure.
The 40-odd platforms in the Danish North
Sea communicate internally and with
onshore offices via radio signals and a 2
Megabite (Mb) satellite connection which
is much less than the internet capacity of a
single private household in Denmark.
“Right now, we have to put the data on
hard drives and fly it by helicopters to land
because it is so detailed and heavy that it
would block the connection for all other
communication,” said René Røndbjerg,
Director of IT in Esbjerg. “The mandatory
daily teleconference also blocks two-thirds
of the line, slowing down all other data
transfer.”
Running mature fields requires a mountain
of daily data. Platforms are monitored for
production, safety and environmental information comprised of readings from count-
But by the end of the year, a 25-kilometre
fibre cable will be laid down on the seabed,
connecting platforms to an existing telecommunications line from Iceland via
the source / Page 18
the Faroe Islands to Denmark and Germany
and the U.S., increasing the network speed
to a much faster and more reliable 100 Mb.
Poul Brunsgaard, platform supervisor on
the Danish Halfdan field, sounds relieved
when he lists the benefits – teleconferences that can be made without delays,
access gained to online systems such as
safety reporting systems, helicopter booking and the company intranet. Monitoring
and analysing data will also become easier
with a more reliable system.
“On top of that, many offshore workers are
very exited because they will have closer
links to home by, for example using Skype
to phone their family,” he said, explaining
that mobile phones are banned offshore.
WiFi on the Steppe
In Kazakhstan, network access was upgraded through a simpler method – by implementing a Wi-Fi network.
“Traditionally, wireless solutions for industrial data gathering used different frequencies
and standards than Wi-Fi, which was more
common in personal computers in offices,
homes and internet cafés,” said Vladan
Prigara, Completion Data Engineer. “But recently, Wi-Fi equipment has become more
secure and robust, acquiring the ability to
operate in industrial environments.”
The Dunga team in Kazakhstan placed a
number of Wi-Fi devices around the field,
such as on the traditional nodding donkey
wells, increasing the connection speed significantly and improving data collection and
analysis.
“Data is crucial to operating the Dunga field
more efficiently: The reservoir’s pressure is
low and we use artificial lift to get the hydrocarbons to the surface. To figure out
exactly how much gas must be pumped
into the field to acquire this artificial lift, we
need a constant stream of accurate data,”
Prigara said.
At other locations, the solution is not so
simple – Maersk Oil’s operations in the UK
are run from floating installations – large
vessels that are anchored but not fixed to
the seabed as Danish platforms.
“These conditions make it more difficult to
use solutions such as fibre cables. But we
are running trials with 4G technology providing a communications link to neighbouring platforms where we can share access
to fibre technology. If this trial is successful
we could become the first in the North Sea
to use 4G technology offshore,” said Keith
Greig, IT Manager at Maersk Oil in the UK.
A digital future of
Integrated Operations
Smoother network access will help move
Maersk Oil towards the concept of ‘Digital
Oil Fields’, where data acquisition and the
monitoring of operations is automated and
given in real-time.
Industry consultants and analysts agree
that going digital not only cuts operating
costs but, by tapping reservoirs more efficiently, could add billions of barrels to global
oil and gas reserves.
Page 19 / the source
Data is crucial to
operating the Dunga
field more efficiently:
The reservoir’s pressure
is low and we use artificial lift to get the hydrocarbons to the surface.
To figure out exactly
how much gas must be
pumped into the field
to acquire this artificial
lift, we need a constant
stream of accurate data.
Wi-Fi device on a traditional
nodding donkey well in
Kazakhstan
“Effective communication is a critical enabler of Digital Oil Fields or Integrated Operations as Maersk Oil calls this principle,” said
Pieter Kapteijn, Head of Technology and
Innovation, at Maersk Oil.
“Getting the right tools and IT infrastructure, like network access, is a first small but
critical step for the integration of operations. This can then be built out to allow
real-time data and information exchange
between field and office and ultimately
across the company. This way we can
mobilise our collective knowledge to
support our operations.”
the source / Page 20
Maersk Oil average entitlement production
Business
update
1,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day
2011
2010
Qatar
157
167
Denmark - oil
75
82
Denmark - gas
38
49
UK
27
51
Algeria
25
26
Brazil
8
N/A
Kazakhstan
3
3
333
377
Total
Maersk Oil’s operated production in 2011 was 626,000 boepd, 11%
lower than the 2010 average. The share of production was 333,000
boepd on average, 12% below 2010. The reduction was due to the
shutdown of Gryphon production in the UK, lower output in Denmark
and a lower share of production from Qatar. This was slightly offset by
production from newly acquired Brazilian assets.
Page 21 / the source
Exploration
Angola
Block 16: The Chissonga team continues
its work on the Field Development Plan
with the aim of submitting it for approval
by partners and the authorities by the end
of 2012. The Caporolo exploration well is
currently being drilled.
Kazakhstan
The AP-1 exploration well at the Dunga field
was spudded in February to test a reservoir
lying beneath the top reservoir from which
oil and gas is currently being produced. The
well will also test whether Dunga reservoirs
stretch beyond the current field delineation.
Block 23: The Azul-1 deepwater exploration
well discovered oil in January. The Angola
team is now reprocessing seismic based
on the results of the well before planning
further drilling.
Norway
Appraisal drilling is continuing at the
Lundin-operated Avaldsnes discovery
(part of the giant Johan Sverdrup
discovery), including evaluation work of
a recently completed appraisal well. The
RWE-operated Zidane-2 exploration well
discovered gas and the com-pany gave
preliminary resource estimates of 4-13
million Sm3 of recoverable gas.
Block 8: An exploration well is due to be
drilled by the end of the year.
Brazil
Maersk Oil reduced its share in Blocks BMC-37 and BM-C-38 to 30% from 50% after
farming down to partner OGX, who will also
become operator upon the approval of the
deal by the Brazilain regulators. Exploration
drilling is ongoing in the BP-operated Block
BM-C-34 and appraisal drilling at the Wahoo
and Itaipu discoveries is planned for April
and in the second half of 2012, respectively.
Iraq
The 2nd well at the Swara Tika discovery in
Iraqi Kurdistan is currently being drilled.
Greenland
Maersk Oil is preparing for 3D seismic
acquisition and shallow coring campaign in
Baffin Bay scheduled for mid-2012.
Maersk Oil was awarded interests in seven
licences, including two as operator, at the
2011 APA licence round. This increases
the number of licences Maersk Oil holds in
Norway to 19.
UK
Maersk Oil was awarded two additional
licences, as part of the 26th bid round,
bringing the total it was awarded in the
round to five operated and three nonoperated. The GDF-operated Faraday High
Pressure High Temperature exploration
well discovered gas/condensate in January
and results are being evaluated to assess
commercial viability.
US
The Buckskin appraisal well has been
completed and results are being evaluated.
the source / Page 22
Business
update
Production
Qatar
Maersk Oil is discussing how to further
develop the Al Shaheen field with Qatar
Petroleum. Production is stable at about
300,000 barrels a day.
UK
Production continues to be low due to the
shutdown of Gryphon as well as repairs to
the subsea infrastructure below Janice.
Janice was restarted in April.
Algeria
The Anadarko-operated development of
the El Merk fields is progressing towards
first oil in the second half of 2012.
The Dumbarton/Lochranza pilot hole
was successfully drilled and is now being
sidetracked. The combined Flyndre/
Cawdor Field Development Plan has been
submitted to the UK authorities and
approval is expected later this year.
Brazil
The BP-operated Polvo Field is back in
production early March following an earlier
shutdown for repairs.
US
The first development well is being drilled
at the Chevron-operated Jack field in the
Gulf of Mexico, while facilities are being built
generally according to schedule.
Page 23 / the source
A day in the life of…
Karyn Hossack
Senior Drilling Engineer
After five years negotiating commercial
contracts with companies offering
services to her oil company in Aberdeen,
Karyn Hossack realised she made the
wrong career decision. She decided to
retrain and take an MSc in Drilling and
Well Engineering. She hasn’t looked
back since.
My strongest school subjects were science
and maths but somehow I ended up doing a
Law and Management degree. I worked for
five years negotiating contracts for my drilling department and the more I learnt about
drilling, the more I wanted to return to my
science roots. The department was exciting,
full of adrenalin – the engineers worked on
the there and now – it was real time work.
cially as my new choice meant entering the
‘man’s world’ of offshore. I understand why
people think of offshore in this way, however I can honestly say that I never found
being a female in the offshore environment
an issue.
I became a Night Drilling Supervisor onboard
a semi-submersible drilling rig. Drilling rigs
work around the clock so there’s no let-up in
activities in the night. The work is ‘hands on’
– I would be outside monitoring the operation, interacting with service companies,
reviewing data and all the while recording
everything to share with the onshore team
in the morning.
I applied for a graduate position and embarked on a life-changing journey. During
office periods I learnt the engineering principles behind well design. In my spare time I
was studying for an MSc in Drilling and Well
Engineering – it was a busy period in my life,
and at times very hard work.
The shift is an intense 12 hours during
which time you’re concentrating hard to
ensure everything goes smoothly. There’s a
lot of noise on the rig, but sometimes you
can look beyond that and see the calm of
the sea and the sun rising. Then you know
it’s soon time for bed and after a tiring shift,
the bunk bed in your small cabin can feel as
good as a king size in a luxury hotel!
My parents thought I was mad - they had
watched me be successful in my commercial role and couldn’t understand why I
wanted to start my career over again, espe-
While working offshore was exciting, in my
current job I perform a much broader range
of tasks as an onshore-based Senior Drilling
Engineer.
the source
My job now spans the whole cycle of planning a well, executing it and reviewing the
results – it’s a ‘cradle to grave’ approach and
overseeing the whole process can last from
3-12 months.
I’m now moving to the Culzean project,
which is one of the largest gas discoveries in
recent years in the UK. Working on Culzean
will be challenging as this is a High Pressure
High Temperature (HPHT) discovery.
I get given a geological target from the
subsurface team and I then select the best
surface location, design the well architecture, and choose the materials and components of the well. I’ve to make sure safety
elements are designed into the well, such
as the mud composition necessary to keep
the well pressure stable and deciding where
the casing should be set. All this is included
in a 100-page drilling programme that must
be endorsed for safety by the regulators.
I probably work about 9 hours a day, but
if your well is being drilled, you never really
switch off. It’s built in your nature that you
want to know what’s happening offshore
all the time.
During the actual drilling, I provide support
to the offshore team, much as I got support
when I was out there, and at the end of the
well I analyse our performance. No well is
the same so it’s important we hand down
the history and details of the well to the production team, which will continue working
with it for years, maybe decades, to come.
But I do get to relax. My partner and I have
been doing a lot of work on the house recently and landscaping the garden in time
for summer. He’s working offshore now in
Angola on a 4-weeks on, 4-weeks off rotation. I miss him when he’s away but when
he’s back, we get to spend far better quality time together than if we were both office workers. We met offshore, so to think,
if I hadn’t changed my career, I would have
never met him!
April 2012
Content Editor: Sabina Zawadzki
Design Editor: Susanne Gylstorff
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