SPE EVENING PRESENTATION

Another successful SPE get together was held on the 21^st October at the SKBB plaza in Kuala Belait. The event attracted members from a wide band of disciplines in the petroleum industry, from subsurface, operations production and government representatives. The highlight of the evening was a presentation by an SPE distinguished speaker, Arnfinn Nergaard from Smedvig Technologies on "New Rig Concepts". Arnfinn started his presentation with an interesting piece of statistical forecast, in which he said rig supply had exceeded demand during the period from early eighties to the late nineties, and demand is projected to increase beyond 1998. He then proceeded to present the designs of many new rigs that are either currently being built, or on the drawing board. These included some very impressive drill ships and semi-submersibles the tonnage of which are in competition for the positions of being some of the largest and most sophisticated in the world. One particular impressive design was one which is convertible between a semi-submersible and a tender assisted rig for operation in the required conditions. The twin derrick semi-submersible, the ‘pseudo seafloor elevation’ and the self propelling semi-submersibles are some of the latest innovations in drilling rig design presented by Arnfinn.

Although the rig designs presented were at the ‘big muscle’ end and unlikely to be of high interest to Brunei until the really deep water exploration begins, the get together was a very pleasant one which left us an awareness of these ‘super rigs’ and the extreme conditions under which these things operate.