Deepwater Petroleum Exploration & Production: A Nontechnical Guide

by William L. Leffler

Provides coverage of all aspects of deepwater operations, including historic background; drilling and completing wells; development systems; fixed structures; floating production systems; subsea systems; topsides; and pipelines, flowlines, and risers.

Hardcover

First published May 1, 2003

Reviews

[Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leffler has a knack for demystifying very technical processes related to the petroleum industry, and again he has created a great basic primer, this time on deepwater exploration. The book discusses the history, equipment, and technology used in offshore exploration and production and covers everything from geology to production. The book is written in very understandable language and the reader only needs to have a basic understanding of science and physics to follow along. As the title describes, this is a nontechnical guide, but it delves deep enough into the details to make it interesting and informative for those with a more technical background, but also accessible to those unfamiliar with the industry or less technically oriented.

The book does a good job of describing the different types of drill/production facilities and describes different types of fixed structures and floating platforms well. I found that very helpful.

I would recommend the book to anyone that is entering the industry, interested in understanding the challenges of the industry, interested in the history of the deepwater exploration, or anyone that needs a crash course to gain a working knowledge of deepwater exploration and production in order to be conversant with industry professionals. The book is not inexpensive, so it is probably most suited for people that have a need or true desire to learn about the industry. Consider it a cheap version of a semester of Deepwater Exploration 101 (assuming such a course exists).

[Joe Frankie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given the current media dribble, this is a good primer on what deepwater exploration and production is and its challenges--in simple English.
Leffler, Pattarozzi, and Sterling did an admirable job of explaining the history and continued development of technology to go deeper and deeper in petroleum exploration and production. Along the way, they show the wave in the evolution of Oil and Gas Exploration from onshore, offshore, and deepwater in a graph of technology change over time.
The Eiffel Tower (in Paris, France) is 1,063 ft high and uses 7300 tons of steel. The Bullwinkle Platform (jacket) is 1500 ft high and uses 50,000 tons of steel with another 15,000 tons for anchor pillings. The Deepwater Horizon gross tonnage is 32, 588 tons. The authors do go over the engineering, siesmic, construction, petroleum, and logistics challenges involved in a way that one can understand. This book is an outstanding starting point on this subject.

[Lars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having plowed through a number of books about oil production now, I have found this to be the clearest and best explained of them all. The jargon of deepwater drilling, so baffling to me in my previous encounters with it, suddenly made a lot of sense after reading Leffler's explanations. The book is concise, impeccably structured and virtually free of fluff after the first two chapters. You could not ask for a better treatment of the topic. Highly recommended.

[Jay Jani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificently well written book with fun and humour that makes it an extremely interesting book to read.... covers all the basic aspects of Deepwater Operations pretty well with wonderful diagrams, pictures and flow charts. I will highly recommend it to anyone wanting to start on Deepwater from scratch.