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Offshore Well Completion and Stimulation Using Hydraulic Fracturing and Other Technologies: Proceedings of a Workshop (2019) / Chapter Skim
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3 Offshore Oil and Gas Development 101
Pages 13-20

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 13...
... Tutuncu explained that much of today's Gulf operations occur in ultra-deep water. Tutuncu categorized the life cycle of an oil and gas field into five stages that take place over several decades.
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From page 14...
... Additional challenges for drilling arise in the offshore environment as a result of lower fracture gradients and lower vertical stresses alongside higher pore pressures relative to the onshore environments, with higher pore pressures in the rock formations particularly as salt is approached. Advanced techniques such as managed pressure drilling or casing drilling can be used to overcome some of these challenges, Tutuncu explained.
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From page 15...
... . Founded in 1919 as a nonprofit national trade association, API represents all segments of the oil and natural gas industry and strives to have a completely transparent process in its development of industry standards.
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From page 16...
... RP 100-3 is a community engagement document that offers guidance on how industry can work with communities, address public concerns, and share mitigation strategies.2 Coco emphasized that standards documents do not contain "how to" guides, which can be found in academic texts instead. He added that the combination of standards documents and academic resources plays an important role in managing risk and planning operations.
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From page 17...
... The National Coastal Zone Management Program (see Figure 3.4) allows the states to take the lead when working with federal agencies to manage coastal resources and on issues of coastal development, public access, water quality, coastal hazards, and consistency of federal agency actions.4 Watson noted that federal agency actions that affect state coastal zones include such components as issuing licenses, implementing Outer Continental Shelf plans, 3   The website for the Coastal States Organization is www.coastalstates.org (accessed November 1, 2017)
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From page 18...
... However, although the offshore environment has lower overburden stress, it also has lower fracture gradients than the onshore, which can make hydraulic fracturing easier in the offshore environment. She added that offshore formations are deposited differently from onshore shale formations -- most offshore operations engage conventional deposits, though unconventional operations are possible in ultra-deep water.
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From page 19...
... This participant encouraged workshop participants to attend API's meetings to witness the rigor that goes into developing standards. Given the complexity of offshore operations, a participant asked how coordination and communication are handled among the various units involved.
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Key Terms

  • natural gas
  • hydraulic fracturing
  • zone management
  • offshore operations
  • offshore environment

  • participant asked
  • national coastal
  • coastal states
  • management program
  • states organization

  • agency actions
  • state coastal
  • coastal zones
  • gas production
  • dry natural

  • federal consistency
  • api standards
  • lower fracture
  • tutuncu explained
  • unconventional operations

  • water depth
  • american petroleum
  • central gulf
  • rock formations
  • energy management

  • affect state
  • fracture gradients
  • pore pressures
  • standards documents
  • international organization


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