Science

Three potent forces are buffeting the offshore energy industry in 2024. Thanks to technology, it’s meeting those challenges head on. Offshore operators today face significant demands to reduce or at least contain higher costs and increase efficiency, especially in production operations. At the same time, the industry’s need to build up long-term reserves has pushed offshore exploration toward more remote, frontier prospects. In sports terms, offshore exploration and production companies are like teams struggling with spending caps while also trying to boost their scoring ability.

Production and prospects continue to pour out of the greater Permian Basin-area of West Texas. One growing play echoes the very beginning of the U.S. shale revolution. More than 20 years ago, development of the Barnett Shale in the Fort Worth Basin introduced the world to the practice of combining hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling. That became a history-making shale gas play. Today, operators are targeting the Barnett more than 300 miles to the west, in the Midland Basin, where the formation is deeper and oilier.