Winds of change
A world of
promises
The proposed Energy Union can add a new
dimension to global energy dynamics 6
Technological
advancements
redefine rules
of the modern
supply chain in the
energy sector 3
Home away
from home
How the LUKOIL
Overseas Ladies
Club helped families
of employees
adapt to life in the
Middle East 7
April 15, 2015
OIL JOURNAL
The world of LUKOIL’s international upstream projects
REAL-TIME
SOLUTIONS
From floating data centres to fibre-optic cables, offshore rig
technology is fast evolving, with great strides in communication
helping to shrink the distance between the field and rig 4-5
2
Business
Insight
Editor’s
note
Tech at the
forefront
W
ith both CERA Week
and OTC offshore
events coming up in
Houston very soon,
this issue of Oil Journal takes an
in-depth look at the people and
technology making LUKOIL one
of the few Russian energy companies with extensive deep water
experience. From West Africa to
Romania, it has left its footprint
on the global offshore industry.
An article from the Londonbased Energy Institute’s Petroleum Review focuses on technologies that are shaping the so-called
new industrial revolution that’s
changing the global energy sector
(p. 3). We also spoke to Bob Watkins, Drilling Manager of LUKOIL
Overseas’ Romania project, about
the area’s prospects and how the
industry has transformed over
the past 30 years (p. 5).
As
Romania
constitutes
LUKOIL Overseas’ first well in an
EU member state, we asked Berlin-based expert, Arastu Salehi,
how the proposed Energy Union’s
prospects may affect local (and
global) energy markets (p. 6).
And don’t forget to read the
story of how one group of relocated expats in Dubai came
together to help and learn from
each other in a new environment (p. 7). The experience
can be useful to a lot of us at
LUKOIL Overseas.
— Artem Zagorodnov
Editor-in-Chief: Artem Zagorodnov
Email: [email protected]
Address: LUKOIL Overseas Service BV,
Dubai Properties Group Building,
TECOM, Dubai
Web: lukoil-overseas.com (digital version)
Publishing Director, GN Publishing:
James Hewes
Head of NPD: Edward Marr
Editor: Libini Joy
Chief Subeditor: Victoria Etherington
Deputy Chief Subeditor: Priya Mathew
Subeditors: Krita Coelho, Riaz Naqvi,
Tania Bhattacharya
Production Editor, GN Publishing:
Keith Langford
Designer: Biplob Roy, Rita Ghantous
Account Group Manager: Vinod Thangoor
Tel: 04 406 7458; Mobile: 050 964 7009
Email: [email protected]
Published and printed by
Al Nisr Publishing LLC
Private circulation only
Oil Journal is LUKOIL Overseas’ official
English-language monthly newsletter.
Questions? Comments? Feedback?
Let us hear your voice!
[email protected]
All photos in the magazine by: LUKOIL Overseas
Archives, Corbis, Yana Ageeva and Autodesk
BP terminates Gulf
of Mexico rig contracts
BP ended contracts for two deep water rigs in the Gulf of Mexico amid
slashing of the oil major’s exploration budget, reported Reuters. The
rigs were “surplus to requirements following BP’s adjustment of capital
expenditures in response to the new, lower oil price environment. We
will continue to realise further measures to underpin our long-term
future in the US,” a spokesman said.
AN ENDURING
LEGACY
Several long-serving veterans bid farewell to
LUKOIL Overseas this year. Oil Journal congratulates
them on a well-deserved retirement while paying
tribute to their accomplishments
Pavel Bogomolov
Senior PR Manager, HOUSTON
Victor Demidov
General Director, LUKOIL Overseas Egypt, CAIRO
Vladimir Pashkov
Manager, LUKOIL Overseas Projects, HOUSTON
s a journalist and correspondent for the
A
riginally from Siberia, Vladimir Pashkov
newspaper Pravda in Cuba during the
O
joined LUKOIL Overseas’ Exploration
1980s, Pavel Bogomolov covered the conflicts in Central America and published a
department as a Senior Specialist in 2002.
book about his experiences. He joined LUKOIL in the UK in 1999 and was on board to
promote its listing on the London Stock Exchange three years later. His time at LUKOIL
Overseas involved stints in Venezuela, Ghana and the US. To the readers of Oil Journal,
he’ll most likely be remembered as one of its
most prolific authors, contributing timely,
insightful features based on decades of professional experience in the oil and gas sector.
Vladimir Inin
General Director, Aral Sea Operating Company,
UZBEKISTAN
He went on to lead the department before
being transferred to London in 2010 to head
the Geophysics Group at LUKOIL Overseas
UK. In 2013 he joined the team in Houston
as a Seismic Exploration Manager. Pashkov
holds a doctorate degree in Geological and
Mineralogical Science and has received commendation certificates from the President of
LUKOIL Overseas as well as Russia’s Ministry of Energy.
joining LUKOIL at its head office in Moscow
in 1993. From a senior engineer to department manager, his career flourished in the
company. From 2001, Demidov was in charge
of business and project development until
four and a half years ago when he started
heading the West Esh El-Mallaha and Meleiha projects. He holds a commendation certificate from LUKOIL Overseas and was also
awarded the Honorary Oilman title.
Vladimir Mikhnevich
Adviser to LUKOIL Overseas, MOSCOW
ith extensive experience in geologifter completing his education at Perm
W
cal exploration and a strong academic
A
Polytechnic University in oil and gas
background, including a PhD in Geological
engineering, Vladimir Mikhnevich rose
and Geophysical Engineering, Vladimir Inin
joined LUKOIL Overseas in 2001 to head its
Exploration Analysis and Licensing department in Moscow. Inin supervised the company’s exploration efforts in countries such as
Egypt and Colombia, and he served as General Director of LUKOIL Overseas Colombia.
Over the course of his career, Inin received
certificates of accomplishment and gratitude
from Russia’s Ministry of Energy, Gazprom
and the President of LUKOIL Overseas.
ictor Demidov spent more than 13 years
V
as a research associate and manager in
the erstwhile USSR’s Ministry of Oil prior to
through the ranks of the local research institute, PermNIPINeft, from junior research
associate to general director. After privatisation occurred in Russia, PermNIPINeft
became a part of LUKOIL Group’s vertically
integrated structure. Mikhnevich went on to
become Vice-President for Planning at LUKOIL Overseas Holding. He holds commendation certificates from LUKOIL and Russia’s Ministry of Energy.
Natalya Rusalkina
Managing accountant, LUKOIL Overseas,
MOSCOW
ith several years of accounting experiW
ence at leading companies in the city
of Perm in Russia, Natalya Rusalkina joined
LUKOIL Overseas in Perm as Deputy Chief
Accountant and Acting Chief Accountant in
1996. She became Managing Accountant at
LUKOIL Overseas in 2002. She has received
commendation certificates from LUKOIL
and LUKOIL Overseas.
OPEC output reaches
highest level since October
Production from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) rose to 30.36 million bpd from 30.07 million bpd in February,
the highest since last October. This is attributed mainly to Iraq’s
rebounding exports after bad weather and Saudi Arabia’s near record
output, according to a Reuters survey based on shipping data and
information from sources at oil companies, OPEC and consultants.
3
Business
Insight
A smorgasbord
of possibilities
Today’s technology is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution that will reshape and redefine the rules
of the modern supply chain. Diego Tamburini and Dominic Thasarathar of Autodesk explain how
T
wo hundred years ago, technology
pioneers combined iron, coal and
steam with ingenuity to radically
transform manufacturing. The Industrial Revolution that those early innovators set in motion gave rise to the greatest disruption the world economy had ever
witnessed. Innovations of mechanisation,
precision engineering, material science,
industrial chemistry and mass production
laid the foundation for today’s globalised
economy and, in doing so, established the
rules of the modern supply chain.
Today, technology is on the cusp of delivering a new industrial revolution, which,
like the original, will be equally disruptive
to the manufacturing industry and the
definition of the supply chain. In the same
way that the original was born of a range of
innovations, from the blast furnace to the
stationary steam engine, so too is this one.
Comprising additive manufacturing
technologies such as 3D printing, democratised robotics, new design tools, immersive collaboration environments and
networked intelligence, the next wave is
already starting to make its presence felt.
So, what exactly is the new industrial
revolution? How is it changing the manufacturing sector? And what might the
implications be for the oil and gas industry — particularly for the discrete equipment, from pumps to valves to monitoring
systems, that support oil and gas facilities
and operations?
Dawn of a new era
In this era, the manufacturing landscape will look significantly different.
Small start-up manufacturers will be empowered to disrupt markets, successfully
bringing innovations faster and cheaper
than entrenched titans. Established manufacturers will have to rethink the way they
do business if they wish to stay relevant.
These changes will deliver interesting opportunities for the oil and gas industry as
a procurer of complex manufactured products and related services — from collapsing supply chains, to 3D printers on offshore platforms, to equipment that evolves
after installation.
A new generation of professionals, born
in the internet era and very comfortable
with sharing and reusing information,
is entering the workforce. People from
around the world, who may never meet,
are collaborating to solve problems in
ways that historically weren’t possible.
As a result, manufacturers are recognising that the best product ideas may actually be outside their corporate walls
and are experimenting with new collaborative methods such as crowdsourcing to
harvest ideas.
Simultaneously, attitudes toward intellectual property (IP) are changing at the
core. Some consider open access smart
and to be encouraged. Companies such
as GE and Tesla are opening up patents to
others who want to invent products.
Cloud computing is giving more people
access to tools and power that were previously available only to large corporations,
and on a pay-as-you-go basis. This is removing one of the main barriers to innovation for smaller firms — the prohibitive
cost of IT infrastructure and perpetual
software licences.
For the oil and gas industry, one could
argue these changes in the way products
are designed can’t arrive soon enough.
Consider how the complexity and cost of
upstream projects have soared since the
beginning of this century. Whether seeking to unlock unconventional resources,
operating in ultra deep water, or pursuing enhanced oil recovery programmes,
the nature of such operations increasingly
relies upon technological innovation,
much of that in the guise of equipment. But funding such innovation
in a period of declining oil prices
is difficult.
These changes should bring down
the cost and uncertainty
of bespoke product innovation, enabling the
supply chain to deliver
greater value and surety for
the same level of investment.
Shared supply infrastructure is
of course a topic gaining
much attention in areas
by leveraging an increasing number of production services, incubators, accelerators
and micro-factories that can help them set
up their supply chains, and source, fabricate, assemble and distribute products.
Will these developments result in a 3D
printer on every offshore platform? Possibly — perhaps owned by an equipment
vendor and contracted on a pay-per-print
basis for making anything from spare parts
for rotating equipment to new drill tools.
Changing product nature
Digital images and point clouds captured
on-site can be used to create 3D models of
existing infrastructure
such as the North Sea as a way to bring
down costs for all operators. Could the
same logic not be applied to product IP?
Commercially, it’s likely the boundary
between the industry and its supply chain
will become more porous, enabling flexible sharing of risk between the two when it
comes to designing equipment — and the
performance of these designs.
Manufacturing change
The physical process of production is
being democratised and economies of
scale are being disrupted. Companies will
no longer feel the need to be big to manufacture something at an attractive price
point. It is becoming easier for anyone to
access intricate production methods to
bring complex products to market swiftly.
Ideas can be turned into products at incredible speed thanks
to the growing proliferation of
3D printing.
It’s also getting easier for startups to bring ideas to market without
having to invest tens of millions of
dollars to build manufacturing infrastructure,
Growing numbers of devices are connecting to the internet and each other, creating entirely new applications and generating unprecedented amounts of data.
For these products and the companies that
make them, the lines between hardware,
electronics and software are blurring. This
kind of blurring of hardware and software
requires manufacturers to have a different
set of skills.
Designers will have to adapt their perspectives and design with connectivity in
mind from the start, rethinking the roles that
electronics and software play in the behaviour of their products. They are also optimising these for the performance of the entire
system, not only the individual device.
Digital oilfields have been an early exemplar of this change. As the technologies
underpinning these developments evolve,
it will likely open the door to greater use
of pay-per-performance type commercial
engagements with supply chain partners.
New opportunities
The new industrial revolution is beginning to change the very nature of the
manufacturing sector.
What will be the likely impact on the
oil and gas sector? Simply this — in a time
of falling oil prices, high project costs, increasing complexity and escalating risk,
there is the potential to reduce equipment
costs and improve productivity without
compromising on quality, safety or design
freedom. Truly a case of having your cake
and eating it too.
— Courtesy: Petroleum Review
www.energyinst.org
4
Special
Report
Karimov wins Uzbek
presidential election
US oil production sees
biggest drop
Incumbent Islam Karimov won Uzbekistan’s presidential
elections on March 29, receiving more than 90 per cent
of the vote. Karimov has led Uzbekistan earlier as a Soviet
republic and then as an independent nation since 1989
after contesting the election multiple times.
Oil production in the US has dropped by its largest margin
in three months (from 9.422 million bpd to 9.386 million
bpd) at the end of March, reported Investor’s Business Daily,
indicating that the country’s output could begin to show
downward trend on the heels of lower world prices.
Seamless
connection
Oil and gas companies worldwide have begun
to adopt a host of technologies to improve
operations and keep personnel out of harm’s way
n
“Some of the main
advantages of all this
technology is that
it allows you to take
the right decisions at
the right time without
having to fly people
in helicopters to
the platforms.”
Per Helge Svensson
Managing Director, Tampnet
By Slavka Atanasova
F
rom floating data centres and wireless communication systems to
fibre-optic cables and 3D modelling, offshore rig technology is fast
evolving and increasing in complexity. Over
the past few years, great strides have been
made in developing technology for real-time
communication, making the distance between the field and rig shorter than ever.
Per Helge Svensson, Managing Director
of Tampnet, one of the companies involved
in providing the world’s largest offshore high
capacity communication network, says: “In
the North Sea, we have 2,500km of subsea
fibre connected from the shore to different
platforms in the UK and Norway. We have a
large infrastructure combining subsea fibre,
radio link systems and 4G systems. Some of
the main advantages of all this technology is
that it allows you to take the right decisions
at the right time without having to fly people
in helicopters to the platforms.”
Data shows that investment in offshore
technology has been significant, with as
much as $341.2 million being spent last year
on distributed fibre-optic sensing alone. But
such progress has not been apparent in the
Middle East, with some in the region playing
catch-up. “We know that Saudi Aramco has
deployed a subsea fibre infrastructure connecting platforms (but not as a commercialised system) to the shore so the i-field is part
of the Middle East. The National Oil Companies (NOCs) have deployed some of it and
they operate it themselves,” says Svensson.
Still catching up?
With the exception of Saudi Aramco and
a few other Gulf NOCs, the majority of oil
and gas companies in the region, particularly
those operating in brownfields, mainly use
what have now started to be considered as
outdated satellite communication systems.
“If you want to remotely operate, you
have to have real-time operation and when
you have a latency of 600 milliseconds, it is
quite difficult to make a decision in a realtime perspective. If you want to have something in real time, it has to be below 40 milli
seconds,” says Svensson.
“There are many applications that companies cannot install if they only have satellites that have limited capacity, and it is also
quite expensive to have a 10MB and above.”
Another bespoke ITC system, commonly
marketed as 4G LTE, has become an absolute
must in the digital offshore field, says Asfar
Zaidi, principal consultant for Huawei, Enterprise, the Middle East.
“We maintain that the backbone of all of
our offshore and digital oilfield technology
solutions is a strong LTE (Long-Term Evolution) communications network. Before addressing any project within the oil and gas
On-board processing Real-time decisions
on the rig are a reality thanks to latest
applications in offshore technology
Data shows that
investment in
offshore technology
has been significant,
with as much as
$341.2 million being
spent last year on
distributed fibreoptic sensing alone
sector, we recommend that operators invest
in their communications network infrastructure, as this will provide the agility to add
more complex technology layers,” he adds.
Once implemented, this so-called seamless system can provide LTE wireless coverage for oil drilling platforms, floating
production storage and offloading units, oil
tankers and onshore communication stations offering voice communications, data
transmission and video services.
“Traditional communications use satellite for remote voice communications and
helicopters to transport data on hard disks,
which is both inefficient and costly,” says
Zaidi. “In an effort to maximise efficiencies,
oil companies are increasingly building integrated operational practices, which are
based on more offshore personnel completing their work onshore.”
As a result, more intelligent devices on
the seabed and downhole have been coming
into use, says Mark Claxton, Director of Tessella’s energy division.
“Instead of spending a lot of time and
money doing multiple workovers, by using
more intelligent valves, for example, with
multiple capabilities, [operators] can effectively get things done quicker and cheaper,”
adds Zaidi.
“As the era of easy-to-access and lowcost oil and gas production is coming to
an end, the strategic importance of the
offshore industry is only becoming more
pronounced. Improved technology is also
making oil exploration and refinement more
profitable and eLTE is playing an increasingly important role in oil and gas recovery.”
The acquisition of real-time or on-time
data from oil wells and field operations, Zaidi says, can also help to optimise oil production. This is where big data analytics comes
in, offering more accurate predictive functionalities to drive efficiencies in oil drilling,
he adds.
Another major trend in the oil and gas
field is the so called on-board processing,
where real-time data is analysed by people
on the rig itself. Chris Hawkins, Operations
Manager at Tessella, explains.
“There is a real move from the experts
working in the office post-processing data
to understand continual improvements
and lessons. This supports real-time decisions and makes information available right
where it is needed, in the user interfaces
that the drillers are using on the rigs by
pushing that analytics capability on to the
on-board rig applications.”
A proactive approach
Hawkins is of the opinion that thanks to
all the latest tools available to offshore drillers, operations are moving from a reactive to
a more proactive and preventive mode.
“There is an awful lot of data coming to
the rig that is being visualised and then replicated to shore and in offices. Post-processing of that data was the norm but looking
at trends, I think more and more decisionmaking and advice are coming in real time
now and lot of that has been pushed out to
rig-based applications,” he says.
“Monitoring stations are no longer producing plots of various variables; they are
now looking for correlations between data
sources or comparing data to previous runs
to give you early warnings that you should
expect a problem in the next 200m of data.”
This enhanced connectivity between
the rig and the shore will likely change the
way operators work. The industry is going
to move from using stand-alone installations
solving problems on their own, to a more
collective, joined-up and standardised approach, explains Claxton.
“You have got a rig stuck in the middle
of nowhere that might be very hot, cold or
wet and the connection to the head office
might be a satellite link or fibre. But you are
basically at the end of a long piece of wire,
the bandwidth is very slow, so you have to
decide what could be done from a remote location and what could be done back at base.
“You also need to have this concept of
shared situational awareness so that people
on the rig and people back in the headquarters and in control need to be able to see the
same things. If there is a problem that people
on the rig find challenging, they can call one
of their colleagues back at mission control
and share with them what is going on. That I
believe is where the industry is going in the
next 20 years or so. It is an era that does not
seem to have started yet in this sector. To be
able to have somebody on a rig looking at a
large piece of plant, lots of pipes, insulation
on the pipes, but there is a corrosion problem that actually needs to get located and
inspected visually.
“Somebody back at headquarters has run
the models, they know there is a potential
problem on that particular curve of the pipe.
“There is no reason why you cannot use
an augmented reality, where they hold up a
tablet with the cameras recording the pipework and it is flashing red in particular areas
they have got to look at. The advantages for
the industry are massive. They could save
them an awful lot of time and money hunting
around for things. However, the challenge is
to get that information to the engineer standing on the rig.”
Brandy Wong, business representative
for Shandong Kerui Petroleum Equipment in
the UAE, says that integrating wireless and
digital technology holds a number of benefits for the industry, one of which is ease of
control. Some of the most sought-after product lines on the market are around wireless
and digital solutions, satellite communications and remote control, says Wong.
“By eliminating the risk of wire breakage,
they make operations safer, more efficient
and accurate,” he adds. “In addition, health,
safety and environmental standards require
drilling operations to be safer and environmentally sound. Automation has made rigs
and platforms safer and more efficient.”
Is it a safety requirement?
Bernard Sanseau, Drilling Manager at Total Abu Al Bukhoosh, is also of the opinion
that digital technologies are an absolute asset to maintaining safety both offshore and
onshore. “Automation can bring additional
layers of safety for the crew and the people
on the rig floor,” he says. “Years ago, drilling personnel would stand for up to 12 hours
on the rig floor. Now it is possible to work
remotely from a cyber chair, so it’s a completely different way of looking at things.”
Last month, new fibre-optic communication cable was commissioned for delivery
to the Umm Shaif platform in the Nasr field
near Abu Dhabi operated by ADMA-OPCO.
The deal is part of a recent modernisation
project estimated to add 65,000 barrels per
day to existing production.
The dream of automated rigs involves
software-controlled electromechanical systems, system integrated from a large number
of disparate vendors. But all too often, the
best technologies cannot make it to the field
due to compatibility issues.
Sanseau says, “Automation can also involve a variety of equipment working in one
place at the same time, so you need to carry
out additional verification procedures to ensure the different units can work together
without interference. Therefore, it demands
greater efficiency and time management discipline on the part of the drilling units to optimise productivity.
“It is meant to make things faster, but, in
fact, sometimes you find they take longer
than before. Using tripping times as an example, 30 years ago, we might do 1,000m per
hour in a casing. Today, even the best rigs,
using specific drill pipes, achieve a maximum of 700m per hour, and the average is
around 500m.”
— Courtesy: ArabianOilandGas.com
5
Special
Report
Rewards
justify
the risks
Bob Watkins is LUKOIL Overseas’
Houston-based Director for Drilling
who is also overseeing the Romanian
project. He tells Oil Journal why he thinks
the future is in offshore drilling
B
ob Watkins began drilling in West Texas 34 years
ago after graduating with a degree in Chemical
Engineering from New Mexico State University.
After long stints with Amoco and BP, he joined
LUKOIL Overseas. He is currently the Houston-based Director for Drilling and is also overseeing the Romanian project.
Oil Journal speaks to Watkins about going offshore, the risks
involved and the technological advancements in the field.
How is the Est Rapsodia project important to LUKOIL?
We are trying to grow our company internationally to
access more hydrocarbon reserves. Searching for and finding hydrocarbon reserves are the lifeblood of the company’s
upstream business. It is really the essence of what we do as
an organisation, and what we are doing in Romania as well.
The Romania project covers two blocks — Est Rapsodia and
Trident. These wells are of strategic importance to LUKOIL;
they are LUKOIL’s first wells in an EU country, so consequently there is high visibility for this project.
Explain some of the most advanced technologies being
used in the Romanian operation.
I find it amusing to recall my first experience in deep water in 1984 at 2,000 feet [600m] — it was considered really
advanced then. We’ve come a long way since that time.
Our technologies fall under three categories.
First are the technologies that enable us to drill in deep
water. The weather conditions are tough in the deep waters
of the Black Sea. A vessel cannot be anchored tightly enough
to keep it in a small area so the drilling string can be kept
vertical through the water into the formation. Our rig is capable of being dynamically positioned, which allows us to
keep it — which is the size of a large building — from moving
outside an area no larger than a small parking lot.
Secondly, there are a lot of technologies on rigs that ensure safety. That is the big change I’ve seen in my career.
Historically, working on a drilling rig was dangerous because
the personnel had to be near heavy moving machinery. The
industry now uses automation technologies, which allow the
work to be done remotely, keeping people away from moving
equipment. Our safety data shows that it’s rare for someone
to get hurt or killed on the rig than in the past. Safety is a big
focus at LUKOIL, and we’re proud of it.
Finally, we are utilising efficiency-increasing technologies that reduce risk exposure and decrease workload. For
example, we have a completely closed loop system for recovering all our drilling cuttings that are disposed off in an
efficient and environmentally safe manner. All our cuttings
are captured in a closed system and put in big tanks on the
rig. They are transferred from these tanks to a boat for safe
disposal onshore, where they get incinerated. There was a lot
more equipment movement involved and spill potential with
the earlier system. The present system reduces exposure to
the cuttings, and this technology has only been available for
a few years.
What is the way forward for this operation?
We are in the first phase, which is exploration drilling.
Once we confirm with the exploration wells the results we
‘‘I find it amusing to recall
my first experience in deep
water in 1984 at 2,000
feet [600 metres] – it was
considered really advanced
then. We’ve come a long
way since that time.”
want, we will enter the next phase, which is to appraise the
initial results to validate there are reserves and these reserves are commercially viable.
Finally, if all goes as planned, we will begin the development phase, which will lead to producing hydrocarbons for
sale. Choices will have to be made depending on the depth
of water and where we find these reserves. In Romania, the
most likely case is the requirement for subsea development,
a large investment in expensive and time-consuming technologies because everything you normally see on land — the
Christmas tree, the gathering system — would all be underwater with a pipeline to shore to transport the production.
That would be the most exciting result — the phase that
West Qurna-2 is just coming out of now as long-term production begins there.
Once the infrastructure is established in production
mode, smaller accumulations and reserves become economical because you can link them into existing infrastructure. So
finding something that justifies an additional development is
great because it broadens the opportunities for making more
money. That is what we hope we will achieve in Romania.
Some people might say that operations like the one in
Romania (and others in West Africa) are expensive, and
the risk is quite high. Why is LUKOIL engaged in offshore drilling, especially deep offshore?
In the gas exploration business, it is a classic battle of risk
and reward. Of course, it’s risky to bet $100 million on a well.
But when you find new reserves, that is the reward that justifies the risk. I think something like only one in 10 or maybe
one in 20 exploration wells finds commercial reserves. But
when you find commercial reserves, it is so profitable that it
pays for the other wells.
I think we have really good potential in Romania: we are
drilling in an area that is known to have good hydrocarbon
reserves and we know that other companies in neighbouring
blocks are moving into appraisal work.
The sentiment in the industry today is if significant volumes of hydrocarbons are going to be discovered these days,
it will have to be offshore. It is a good long-term strategy
because if a company wants to continue to add reserves, then
that’s where you have to go — offshore.
4
Special
Report
Karimov wins Uzbek
presidential election
US oil production sees
biggest drop
Incumbent Islam Karimov won Uzbekistan’s presidential
elections on March 29, receiving more than 90 per cent
of the vote. Karimov has led Uzbekistan earlier as a Soviet
republic and then as an independent nation since 1989
after contesting the election multiple times.
Oil production in the US has dropped by its largest margin
in three months (from 9.422 million bpd to 9.386 million
bpd) at the end of March, reported Investor’s Business Daily,
indicating that the country’s output could begin to show
downward trend on the heels of lower world prices.
Seamless
connection
Oil and gas companies worldwide have begun
to adopt a host of technologies to improve
operations and keep personnel out of harm’s way
n
“Some of the main
advantages of all this
technology is that
it allows you to take
the right decisions at
the right time without
having to fly people
in helicopters to
the platforms.”
Per Helge Svensson
Managing Director, Tampnet
By Slavka Atanasova
F
rom floating data centres and wireless communication systems to
fibre-optic cables and 3D modelling, offshore rig technology is fast
evolving and increasing in complexity. Over
the past few years, great strides have been
made in developing technology for real-time
communication, making the distance between the field and rig shorter than ever.
Per Helge Svensson, Managing Director
of Tampnet, one of the companies involved
in providing the world’s largest offshore high
capacity communication network, says: “In
the North Sea, we have 2,500km of subsea
fibre connected from the shore to different
platforms in the UK and Norway. We have a
large infrastructure combining subsea fibre,
radio link systems and 4G systems. Some of
the main advantages of all this technology is
that it allows you to take the right decisions
at the right time without having to fly people
in helicopters to the platforms.”
Data shows that investment in offshore
technology has been significant, with as
much as $341.2 million being spent last year
on distributed fibre-optic sensing alone. But
such progress has not been apparent in the
Middle East, with some in the region playing
catch-up. “We know that Saudi Aramco has
deployed a subsea fibre infrastructure connecting platforms (but not as a commercialised system) to the shore so the i-field is part
of the Middle East. The National Oil Companies (NOCs) have deployed some of it and
they operate it themselves,” says Svensson.
Still catching up?
With the exception of Saudi Aramco and
a few other Gulf NOCs, the majority of oil
and gas companies in the region, particularly
those operating in brownfields, mainly use
what have now started to be considered as
outdated satellite communication systems.
“If you want to remotely operate, you
have to have real-time operation and when
you have a latency of 600 milliseconds, it is
quite difficult to make a decision in a realtime perspective. If you want to have something in real time, it has to be below 40 milli
seconds,” says Svensson.
“There are many applications that companies cannot install if they only have satellites that have limited capacity, and it is also
quite expensive to have a 10MB and above.”
Another bespoke ITC system, commonly
marketed as 4G LTE, has become an absolute
must in the digital offshore field, says Asfar
Zaidi, principal consultant for Huawei, Enterprise, the Middle East.
“We maintain that the backbone of all of
our offshore and digital oilfield technology
solutions is a strong LTE (Long-Term Evolution) communications network. Before addressing any project within the oil and gas
On-board processing Real-time decisions
on the rig are a reality thanks to latest
applications in offshore technology
Data shows that
investment in
offshore technology
has been significant,
with as much as
$341.2 million being
spent last year on
distributed fibreoptic sensing alone
sector, we recommend that operators invest
in their communications network infrastructure, as this will provide the agility to add
more complex technology layers,” he adds.
Once implemented, this so-called seamless system can provide LTE wireless coverage for oil drilling platforms, floating
production storage and offloading units, oil
tankers and onshore communication stations offering voice communications, data
transmission and video services.
“Traditional communications use satellite for remote voice communications and
helicopters to transport data on hard disks,
which is both inefficient and costly,” says
Zaidi. “In an effort to maximise efficiencies,
oil companies are increasingly building integrated operational practices, which are
based on more offshore personnel completing their work onshore.”
As a result, more intelligent devices on
the seabed and downhole have been coming
into use, says Mark Claxton, Director of Tessella’s energy division.
“Instead of spending a lot of time and
money doing multiple workovers, by using
more intelligent valves, for example, with
multiple capabilities, [operators] can effectively get things done quicker and cheaper,”
adds Zaidi.
“As the era of easy-to-access and lowcost oil and gas production is coming to
an end, the strategic importance of the
offshore industry is only becoming more
pronounced. Improved technology is also
making oil exploration and refinement more
profitable and eLTE is playing an increasingly important role in oil and gas recovery.”
The acquisition of real-time or on-time
data from oil wells and field operations, Zaidi says, can also help to optimise oil production. This is where big data analytics comes
in, offering more accurate predictive functionalities to drive efficiencies in oil drilling,
he adds.
Another major trend in the oil and gas
field is the so called on-board processing,
where real-time data is analysed by people
on the rig itself. Chris Hawkins, Operations
Manager at Tessella, explains.
“There is a real move from the experts
working in the office post-processing data
to understand continual improvements
and lessons. This supports real-time decisions and makes information available right
where it is needed, in the user interfaces
that the drillers are using on the rigs by
pushing that analytics capability on to the
on-board rig applications.”
A proactive approach
Hawkins is of the opinion that thanks to
all the latest tools available to offshore drillers, operations are moving from a reactive to
a more proactive and preventive mode.
“There is an awful lot of data coming to
the rig that is being visualised and then replicated to shore and in offices. Post-processing of that data was the norm but looking
at trends, I think more and more decisionmaking and advice are coming in real time
now and lot of that has been pushed out to
rig-based applications,” he says.
“Monitoring stations are no longer producing plots of various variables; they are
now looking for correlations between data
sources or comparing data to previous runs
to give you early warnings that you should
expect a problem in the next 200m of data.”
This enhanced connectivity between
the rig and the shore will likely change the
way operators work. The industry is going
to move from using stand-alone installations
solving problems on their own, to a more
collective, joined-up and standardised approach, explains Claxton.
“You have got a rig stuck in the middle
of nowhere that might be very hot, cold or
wet and the connection to the head office
might be a satellite link or fibre. But you are
basically at the end of a long piece of wire,
the bandwidth is very slow, so you have to
decide what could be done from a remote location and what could be done back at base.
“You also need to have this concept of
shared situational awareness so that people
on the rig and people back in the headquarters and in control need to be able to see the
same things. If there is a problem that people
on the rig find challenging, they can call one
of their colleagues back at mission control
and share with them what is going on. That I
believe is where the industry is going in the
next 20 years or so. It is an era that does not
seem to have started yet in this sector. To be
able to have somebody on a rig looking at a
large piece of plant, lots of pipes, insulation
on the pipes, but there is a corrosion problem that actually needs to get located and
inspected visually.
“Somebody back at headquarters has run
the models, they know there is a potential
problem on that particular curve of the pipe.
“There is no reason why you cannot use
an augmented reality, where they hold up a
tablet with the cameras recording the pipework and it is flashing red in particular areas
they have got to look at. The advantages for
the industry are massive. They could save
them an awful lot of time and money hunting
around for things. However, the challenge is
to get that information to the engineer standing on the rig.”
Brandy Wong, business representative
for Shandong Kerui Petroleum Equipment in
the UAE, says that integrating wireless and
digital technology holds a number of benefits for the industry, one of which is ease of
control. Some of the most sought-after product lines on the market are around wireless
and digital solutions, satellite communications and remote control, says Wong.
“By eliminating the risk of wire breakage,
they make operations safer, more efficient
and accurate,” he adds. “In addition, health,
safety and environmental standards require
drilling operations to be safer and environmentally sound. Automation has made rigs
and platforms safer and more efficient.”
Is it a safety requirement?
Bernard Sanseau, Drilling Manager at Total Abu Al Bukhoosh, is also of the opinion
that digital technologies are an absolute asset to maintaining safety both offshore and
onshore. “Automation can bring additional
layers of safety for the crew and the people
on the rig floor,” he says. “Years ago, drilling personnel would stand for up to 12 hours
on the rig floor. Now it is possible to work
remotely from a cyber chair, so it’s a completely different way of looking at things.”
Last month, new fibre-optic communication cable was commissioned for delivery
to the Umm Shaif platform in the Nasr field
near Abu Dhabi operated by ADMA-OPCO.
The deal is part of a recent modernisation
project estimated to add 65,000 barrels per
day to existing production.
The dream of automated rigs involves
software-controlled electromechanical systems, system integrated from a large number
of disparate vendors. But all too often, the
best technologies cannot make it to the field
due to compatibility issues.
Sanseau says, “Automation can also involve a variety of equipment working in one
place at the same time, so you need to carry
out additional verification procedures to ensure the different units can work together
without interference. Therefore, it demands
greater efficiency and time management discipline on the part of the drilling units to optimise productivity.
“It is meant to make things faster, but, in
fact, sometimes you find they take longer
than before. Using tripping times as an example, 30 years ago, we might do 1,000m per
hour in a casing. Today, even the best rigs,
using specific drill pipes, achieve a maximum of 700m per hour, and the average is
around 500m.”
— Courtesy: ArabianOilandGas.com
5
Special
Report
Rewards
justify
the risks
Bob Watkins is LUKOIL Overseas’
Houston-based Director for Drilling
who is also overseeing the Romanian
project. He tells Oil Journal why he thinks
the future is in offshore drilling
B
ob Watkins began drilling in West Texas 34 years
ago after graduating with a degree in Chemical
Engineering from New Mexico State University.
After long stints with Amoco and BP, he joined
LUKOIL Overseas. He is currently the Houston-based Director for Drilling and is also overseeing the Romanian project.
Oil Journal speaks to Watkins about going offshore, the risks
involved and the technological advancements in the field.
How is the Est Rapsodia project important to LUKOIL?
We are trying to grow our company internationally to
access more hydrocarbon reserves. Searching for and finding hydrocarbon reserves are the lifeblood of the company’s
upstream business. It is really the essence of what we do as
an organisation, and what we are doing in Romania as well.
The Romania project covers two blocks — Est Rapsodia and
Trident. These wells are of strategic importance to LUKOIL;
they are LUKOIL’s first wells in an EU country, so consequently there is high visibility for this project.
Explain some of the most advanced technologies being
used in the Romanian operation.
I find it amusing to recall my first experience in deep water in 1984 at 2,000 feet [600m] — it was considered really
advanced then. We’ve come a long way since that time.
Our technologies fall under three categories.
First are the technologies that enable us to drill in deep
water. The weather conditions are tough in the deep waters
of the Black Sea. A vessel cannot be anchored tightly enough
to keep it in a small area so the drilling string can be kept
vertical through the water into the formation. Our rig is capable of being dynamically positioned, which allows us to
keep it — which is the size of a large building — from moving
outside an area no larger than a small parking lot.
Secondly, there are a lot of technologies on rigs that ensure safety. That is the big change I’ve seen in my career.
Historically, working on a drilling rig was dangerous because
the personnel had to be near heavy moving machinery. The
industry now uses automation technologies, which allow the
work to be done remotely, keeping people away from moving
equipment. Our safety data shows that it’s rare for someone
to get hurt or killed on the rig than in the past. Safety is a big
focus at LUKOIL, and we’re proud of it.
Finally, we are utilising efficiency-increasing technologies that reduce risk exposure and decrease workload. For
example, we have a completely closed loop system for recovering all our drilling cuttings that are disposed off in an
efficient and environmentally safe manner. All our cuttings
are captured in a closed system and put in big tanks on the
rig. They are transferred from these tanks to a boat for safe
disposal onshore, where they get incinerated. There was a lot
more equipment movement involved and spill potential with
the earlier system. The present system reduces exposure to
the cuttings, and this technology has only been available for
a few years.
What is the way forward for this operation?
We are in the first phase, which is exploration drilling.
Once we confirm with the exploration wells the results we
‘‘I find it amusing to recall
my first experience in deep
water in 1984 at 2,000
feet [600 metres] – it was
considered really advanced
then. We’ve come a long
way since that time.”
want, we will enter the next phase, which is to appraise the
initial results to validate there are reserves and these reserves are commercially viable.
Finally, if all goes as planned, we will begin the development phase, which will lead to producing hydrocarbons for
sale. Choices will have to be made depending on the depth
of water and where we find these reserves. In Romania, the
most likely case is the requirement for subsea development,
a large investment in expensive and time-consuming technologies because everything you normally see on land — the
Christmas tree, the gathering system — would all be underwater with a pipeline to shore to transport the production.
That would be the most exciting result — the phase that
West Qurna-2 is just coming out of now as long-term production begins there.
Once the infrastructure is established in production
mode, smaller accumulations and reserves become economical because you can link them into existing infrastructure. So
finding something that justifies an additional development is
great because it broadens the opportunities for making more
money. That is what we hope we will achieve in Romania.
Some people might say that operations like the one in
Romania (and others in West Africa) are expensive, and
the risk is quite high. Why is LUKOIL engaged in offshore drilling, especially deep offshore?
In the gas exploration business, it is a classic battle of risk
and reward. Of course, it’s risky to bet $100 million on a well.
But when you find new reserves, that is the reward that justifies the risk. I think something like only one in 10 or maybe
one in 20 exploration wells finds commercial reserves. But
when you find commercial reserves, it is so profitable that it
pays for the other wells.
I think we have really good potential in Romania: we are
drilling in an area that is known to have good hydrocarbon
reserves and we know that other companies in neighbouring
blocks are moving into appraisal work.
The sentiment in the industry today is if significant volumes of hydrocarbons are going to be discovered these days,
it will have to be offshore. It is a good long-term strategy
because if a company wants to continue to add reserves, then
that’s where you have to go — offshore.
6
Industry
Uzbekistan to build new
pipeline to China
Uzbekistan will start building its fourth gas pipeline
to China by the end of this year, reported Investing.com.
The Uzbek section of the line will be 210km long and cost
at least $800 million, according to preliminary figures.
The new pipeline is part of the Central Asia-China Pipeline,
which transits Uzbekistan.
Voices
Winds of
change
Oil demand grows in
the Middle East
A growing population,
expanding middle
classes and increasing
consumerism are eroding
the Middle East’s position
as a key oil exporter,
reported Forbes. Today, the
region already uses a third
of the oil it produces —
compared to 20 per cent
in 2000.
Yemen LNG exports
continue despite
seaports closure
Yemeni exports of liquefied
natural gas are running as
normal despite a shutdown
of major seaports after
neighbouring Saudi Arabia
and Arab allies launched
air strikes against Houthi
forces, Reuters reported.
“Work is ongoing as
normal,” one source
told Reuters.
Oil attracts 84 per cent
of Azerbaijan’s FDI
Azerbaijan’s oil and gas
sector is responsible for
bringing in 84 per cent of
the country’s foreign direct
investment, reported news
website Today.az. The total
amount of inbound foreign
capital was $8 billion in
2014. The investments
financed major oil and gas
projects by BP Exploration
at Shah Deniz and the
Azerbaijan International
Operating Company at the
Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli bloc
oil fields.
Energy Union Commissioner Maroš Šefcovic (left) and the EU Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete talk to media
about the consequences of the new Energy Union in the Berlaymont, the headquarters of the EU Commission
If the proposed Energy Union for
Europe becomes a reality, it will
add a new dimension to global
energy dynamics
By Arastu Salehi
Special to Oil Journal
T
he European Commission (EC) announced an ambitious, far-reaching
plan for the formation of a new Energy Union for Europe on February
25. To fully understand its impact on European energy affairs, we will have to first look
at the history of energy market formation
within the European Union.
Since global energy markets — particularly oil and gas — are in a state of rapid
transformation with regard to market shares,
energy price formation and introduction of
new technologies, the EC is trying to adapt
to these new complex realities with the introduction of an Energy Union, which is political in nature. To comprehend the scope
of the new institution, some of the energyeconomic consequences resulting from this
union will need to be looked at.
Evolution of the European
Energy Cooperation
Energy has been at the heart of the European construction scene since its beginning.
In 1951, the Treaty of Paris created the European Coal and Steel Community and subsequently in 1957 the European Atomic Agency
was formed from the Treaty of Rome. The
rationale behind these treaties was to build
cooperation and solidarity among European
states in the field of energy trade and production. Despite this ethos of shared respon-
sibilities and cooperation, the further integration of European member states towards
a fully integrated European energy market
has not been possible because of EU competence and national energy policies. Member
states are still cautious not to give up their
sovereign rights to determine their energy
mix and the general structure of their energy supply.
With the implementation of the Third Internal Energy Market Package in 2009, the
EC gained momentum again by aiming for
complete liberalisation of national gas markets to reach the ultimate goal of a single European energy market.
From Energy NATO to
Energy Union
The concept of a political Energy Union
for Europe is nothing new. In 2006, Poland
proposed the Energy NATO — a security alliance for EU and NATO members with collective energy support mechanisms in cases
of threats to a nation’s energy security. This
concept was finally rejected by Germany on
the grounds that such a model would only
incorporate energy consumer countries and
not producer countries, hence not securing
any energy supplies.
Against this backdrop, the Energy Union
is a political compromise between these two
philosophies on European energy security.
At the core of a resilient Energy Union is the
strengthening of solidarity among all member states in times of sudden external shocks
related to energy and the move away from a
fragmented energy system characterised by
uncoordinated national policies, market barriers and energy-isolated areas. In addition
to the overall required improvement of power and natural gas infrastructure, in which
power and gas would flow freely across borders, the Energy Union will develop partnerships with the US and Canada to import LNG
and establish strategic energy partnerships
with important producer and transit countries, including Algeria, Turkey, Azerbaijan
and Turkmenistan.
Effects on global natural
gas markets
With the aim of strengthening the Energy
Union to secure the supply of natural gas,
this new framework places special attention
on gas supplies.
Two aspects could have the potential to
impact global gas markets. The EC will seek
to improve the transparency of commercial
gas supply contracts that may have an impact
on EU energy security. Since international
gas supply contracts are the core business
model through which international gas companies trade with the EU, it will be interesting to see what degree of transparency is acceptable for these companies without giving
away their comparative edge in global gas
markets. The Energy Union introduces for
the first time the idea of a single purchaser of
natural gas on behalf of member states. How
this is in compliance with WTO or EU competition rules, or under what circumstances
it will be applied is still unclear.
Nevertheless, if joint gas buying of the Energy Union will become a reality in the foreseeable future, it would add a new dimension to global gas markets. It will improve
the purchasing ability of member states and
spread the risks associated with gas prices to
the whole Energy Union.
— The author is a Research Fellow at the
Centre for Caspian Environmental and
Energy Studies — Freie Universität Berlin
7
Oil companies lured to
Mexican projects
More than 40 oil companies have sought access to geological
data during Mexico’s first oil auction in eight decades, The Wall
Street Journal reported. The first round of the auction was held
in December, and, since then, companies have paid fees to access
geological — including seismic — information for relevant fields.
How it has
helped us
NATALYA KONYAKHINA
T
he LUKOIL
Overseas
Ladies Club
Dubai offers a
huge amount
of support to
women who
have landed in Dubai and are
simultaneously faced with a
million different problems.
They get useful information
about schools, doctors and kids’
activities. From beauticians to
plumbers, they also get a
plethora of necessary contacts.
ANNA SUDAREVA
T
hanks to
our group,
we can see that
a very talented,
educated and
creative bunch
of women have
followed their husbands to
Dubai! It would be a huge pity
not to tap into this potential.
By working together, maybe
with the help of LUKOIL,
I’m sure that we’ll come up
with many new, interesting
projects that will represent
our company’s spirit.
YULIA VOROBYEVA
W
hen I
joined
the club, I was
taken aback
by everyone’s
warmth and
the attention
they paid to the problems
of every single member. It’s
almost like we were family. I
think it’s a great platform for
communication. I’ve lived in
Dubai for nearly five years, and
before joining the club I didn’t
have any close friends. Dubai
is a city of expats after all.
People come and go, and you
often don’t get the chance to
get really close. We Russians
especially miss that depth of
relations. Now everything’s
changed, and that’s great.
Corporate
Responsibility
home
Home away from
With mobility at the
heart of the corporate
culture of LUKOIL
Overseas, numerous
employees and
their families often
find themselves
in new, unfamiliar
environments.
Here’s how one group
adapted to life in the
Middle East
B y O l g a M i k h ay l o va | Oil Journal
W
hen LUKOIL Overseas relocated its head office from Moscow
to Dubai about 18 months back,
many of us suddenly found
ourselves seeking support and advice in an
unfamiliar environment. I vividly remember all the parents, mostly wives of employees, gathering in the foyer of the company’s
new building to meet their kids after a summer language camp.
Although we didn’t realise it at the time,
that’s where the idea for the LUKOIL Overseas Ladies Club was born. One of the parents, Anna Sudareva, suggested that we
could all meet regularly and share our experiences in the new country over coffee.
It turned out that we were all in the same
situation: the new place inspired optimism,
but losing the support of friends and relatives back home left us feeling lonely and
helpless at times. Even those of us with English-language skills found it difficult to adapt
to the new settings. Many had given up
jobs in Russia to accompany their families
to Dubai.
After much deliberation, a decision was
made to form the LUKOIL Overseas Ladies
Club Dubai Facebook group. It had a major impact not only on us — the founding
members — but also on just about every
woman following LUKOIL Overseas to its
new Dubai headquarters.
Today, our group has 400 members and
it is not limited to only LUKOIL Overseas
employees and their families. Many other
Russian-speaking women in the UAE are
interested in maintaining contact with their
fellow nationals and we receive new applications everyday.
Sudareva is still the leading coordinator
of the group. A busy mother of two, she
is responsible for updating the Facebook
page daily and scheduling our regular coffee mornings. She’s also in charge of strategic planning, including finding the right
direction and new partners for the LUKOIL
Overseas Ladies Club Dubai.
After the initial few meetings, we realised that we could initiate more activities.
Since most of us had little children, the next
big step was to set up the Dubai Kids Reading Club for those aged between three and
13. The idea came from the desire to keep
our children exposed to Russian culture, literature and history. Thanks to the enthusiasm and organisational talent of a member,
Natalya Konyakhina, we were able to find
books for different age groups and a suitable venue for the meetings. The kids not
only discuss the books they read, but complete assignments, compete in games and
put up plays.
All the group section heads — Naza
Aslamina, Yulia Vorobyeva, Lubov Volskaya, Svetlana Butorina, Lyudmila Ivchenko,
Sudareva and Konyakhina — play a big role
in making all the meetings lively and fun. In
the half year since we founded the group,
it’s become extremely popular. Another
important pursuit has been the RussianEmirati Cultural Initiative, which I head.
So far we’ve held two meetings with local
businesswomen. They gave us the opportunity to better understand local culture,
the role of women in the Islamic world, the
Arabic language and the peculiarities of doing business here.
No less important are the charity activities initiated by the club. Last December,
we ran the Letters to Santa Claus project to
gather funds to buy New Year’s gifts to donate to an orphanage outside St Petersburg.
We were also able to help a nine-month-old
leukaemia patient, Li, with special treatment in South Korea.
We have big plans for the future. Our
main goal is to get busy fathers to move
away from endless hours in front of the computer and involve the women working at
LUKOIL in our group. As the founders say, the
LUKOIL Overseas Ladies Club Dubai is not
for lonely housewives, but for active and
talented people seeking to make their lives
more meaningful, dynamic and happy.
8
Global
Right on
target
LUKOIL Overseas
meets 2014
targets ahead of
schedule 2
Lord of
the rinks
Young specialists shine
Promising talent gets the chance to share
the stage with industry luminaries 7
Why this holiday
season is a great
time to visiit
Russia’s capital 8
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December 29, 2014
OIL JOURNAL
The world of LUKOIL’s international upstream projects
Oil’s new
digital
priority
Upstream
projects are
now banking on
technology to
save costs 6
To gauge and engage
Why employee engagement is
critical to the long-term success of
the O&G industry 3
The many charms
of Vienna
History and glamour walk hand in hand
8
in a city known for its art and culture
November 20, 2014
OIL JOURNAL
The world of LUKOIL’s international
upstream projects
OIL JOU
RNAL
The worl
READY
FOR
d of LUKO
2015
IL’s inter
natio nal
upstr eam
proje cts
January
31,
EVA
BLACK DING
From launching the largest
greenfield in the Middle
East at Iraq’s West Qurna-2
to drilling the company’s
first exploration well in the
EU, 2014 has been a year
of milestones for LUKOIL
Overseas 4-5
SWANS
Risk managem
ent
better rewa for
rds 6
Between
space
and deepwa
ter
Apo
llo 13
Fred Haise astronaut
on
from oute threats
r space 7
GLOBAL
Perspective
SPOILS
Sergey Nikiforov has
as President of LUKOIL Overseas,
As Andrey Kuzyaev steps downhis predecessor, whose 14-year legacy saw the company
the advantage of learning from of success in its international upstream business 4-5
achieve stratospheric levels
2015
CHANGING
DYNAMIC
S
Even with
crud
slipping dras e prices
LUKOIL CEO tically,
Vagit Alek
pero
believes that v
the
company
can optim
ise
costs and
productivity
without havi
resort to job ng to
cuts 4-5
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Shale revo
lutio
energy prod n challenges
ucers 3
Photo of the month
T
his photograph was taken by Logistics
Coordinator Vadim Chirkov at the Al
Ain Zoo during one of his weekend trips
with friends. The image charmingly captures
the giraffe drinking water from a shallow
pool at the zoo. The city of Al Ain is known
for its zoo and oases. About one and a half
hours drive from Dubai, it is the second-largest city in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Winning shot
LUKOIL employees who are handy with a
camera are welcome to send any photographs snapped in the countries we operate
in to [email protected]
Beyond the office
Irina Zuykina tells Oil Journal
how an art club in her home
town helped unleash
the artist in her
F
ocusing on a hobby is a great way to clear
your mind. It gives you relief from the
daily grind. LUKOIL Overseas accountant and resident artist Irina Zuykina escapes from the stress at work by drawing pictures.
And she has been doing it since childhood.
“I went to an art club in my home town of
Tashkent as a child. Back then I preferred painting nature [landscapes], but the instructor taught
me how to accurately portray human faces, their
features [and] symmetry. Otherwise I’m mostly
self-taught,” explains Zuykina.
As a child, she also made dolls, which were featured as part of an exhibition.
Zuykina took the hobby a step further and went
to art school. “In the end, I decided to pursue accounting, which brought me to LUKOIL Overseas. I have no regrets. Drawing is a great hobby,
but accounting helps me pay the bills,” she says.
Utilising the skills she learned in childhood,
Zuykina sketches human figures with the pencil.
“I draw them when I’m inspired, but inspiration
is a funny thing. You want to create something at
times, but you don’t feel inspired, while there are
moments you sit before a piece of paper and it
just flows,” she says.
“It’s my way of escaping into my own world,
away from the stress of work and study. It’s an
amazing feeling to be able to create whatever you
want on a piece of paper,” she explains.
Zuykina gifts some of her beautiful drawings to
her friends.
SKETCHING FROM
IMAGINATION
Do you have a talent
or hobby that you’re proud
of? Maybe you’re into skiing,
handicrafts or orienteering.
Or do you have exotic animals
as pets? Whatever it may
be, send pictures with a brief
description to [email protected] to share with
LUKOIL Overseas