Ascophyllum nodosum extract products are used commercially in the form of liquid concentrate and soluble powder. These formulations are manufactured from seaweeds that are harvested from natural habitats with inherent environmental variability. The seaweeds by themselves are at different stages of their development life-cycle. Owing to these differences, there could be variability in chemical composition that could in turn affect product consistency and performance. Here, we have tested the applicability of using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model to study the activity of two different extracts from A. nodosum. Three different bioassays: Arabidopsis root-tip elongation bioassay, Arabidopsis liquid growth bioassay and greenhouse growth bioassay were evaluated as growth assays. Our results indicate that both extracts promoted root and shoot growth in comparison to controls. Further, using Arabidopsis plants with a DR5:GUS reporter gene construct, we provide evidence that components of the commercial A. nodosum extracts modulates the concentration and localisation of auxins which could account, at least in part, for the enhanced plant growth. The results suggest that A. thaliana could be used effectively as a rapid means to test the bioactivity of seaweed extracts and fractions.

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The ‘B’ Field is located about 40 KM, offshore Sarawak and was discovered in 1967 with 70-80 m water depth. Structurally, ‘B’ field is charaterised by a simple relatively flat, low-relief domal anticline which is bounded to the north and south by the north-hading growth faults. The major faults are acted as effective lateral seal, which is indicated by the difference in the fluid type and fluid contacts across those faults. ‘B’ field consist of multiple hetereogenous sandstone reservoirs with permeability and porosity ranging from 25 −1700 mD and 16 −29% respectively. ‘B’ Field injectivity conformance for reservoir pressure support is very crucial as the field is undergoing severe depletions over years and unable to meet the production target. The Operator realized the importance in order to further increase the recovery factor, hence has included ‘B’ field in the Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) project to boost the production and prolong ‘B'field's life. Based on comprehensive IOR/EOR screening study, water injection process has been identified as the most amenable IOR process in ‘B'field. Hence, in Phase 1 drilling campaign, two (2) water injectors were drilled in 2016 in order to achieve the target oil recovery. Both well BWI-01 and BWI-02 were completed with Intelligent completions (IC) and expected to come online in Q4 2018. This paper further discusses the injection strategy in ‘B’ field multi-zones to meet the zonal injectivity and reservoir zonal voidage replacement requirement for pressure maintenance over field production life. The discussion covers the reservoir characteristics and zonal injectivity challenges with surface constraints that require intelligent completions solution for IOR phase. Completions architecture and customized metallurgy needs is crucial to meet operational challenges. Fit-for-purpose and maintaning development cost is pre-requisite to achieve well injection performance for optimal production

Greenshoulder (GS) and internal greening (IG) are physiological disorders in carrots that affect root appearance and profits to the producer. Experiments were conducted to examine genotypic sensitivity to GS and IG and to understand the relationship among canopy volume, root length, and GS and IG. Season and genotype affected GS and IG. Genotypes varied in GS and IG significantly and differentially. Regression analysis indicated a significant, negative, linear relationship between leaf area index and GS (R 2 = 0.80, P ≤ 0.0001) and IG (R 2 = 0.62, P ≤ 0.0001), implying that leaf canopy volume influenced the development of GS and IG. There were positive, significant, linear relationships between root length and GS (R 2 = 0.65, P ≤ 0.0001) and IG (R 2 = 0.35, P ≤ 0.0001) development. GS and IG are frequently observed in genotypes that have longer roots. GS and IG can be reduced by optimizing canopy volume.