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The IEA tells us that hydrocarbon fuels will continue to dominate the global energy mix with coal, oil and natural gas supplying almost 80% of primary energy needs. The consequent higher costs of new supply and the challenges of matching supply and demand are not likely to decrease.Brazil is one of emerging areas offering a cushion to this demand-supply gap. Typically the offshore exploration efforts in Brazil were led by NOC and IOCs. This changed in July 2007 with the creation of a new Independent Brazilian O&G Company. The company acquired 21 exploration blocks in November 2007 and increased its portfolio to 29 blocks by March 2009. The challenge of exploiting the blocks was achieved by setting ambitious, time bound, exploration and production goals and delivering against those goals.A conventional contracting strategy would have required a large in house team, with relevant technical expertise and multiple service contracts. It would have led the company to recruit heavily and to develop multiple internal processes and procedures prior to being able to start operations. However, the time frame set by the company to deliver the goals required a different approach. The company clearly needed to multiply its talents through rapid access to resources, people and technology in a technology intensive industry.The company chose an outsourcing strategy pillared on project management, and worked wherever practicable and appropriate to minimize the number of contractors. The majority of the exploration work was contracted to two major contractors, one integrated oilfield service provider and one drilling contractor. This gave the company access a large pool of petro-technical experts, mature processes and a wide portfolio of technologies in a short period of time.This paper looks at how this strategy allowed the company to successfully achieve its goals and increase value to its stakeholders. It also looks at the issues encountered and how they were productively turned around.

In today's challenging world of exploration, Hydro Fracturing (HF) is an important tool in the oilfield arsenal that enables operators to understand the formation potential deliverability. More and more companies today are adopting hydrofracturing as part of the exploration strategy for better quantification of hydrocarbon production. GSPC decided to precisely do this in their Tarapur asset due to very low rates of production post drilling phase.GSPC has drilled quite a few wells in the Tarapur field which is located near the Ahmedabad city. In order to verify the ultimate producability of these formations, hydraulic fracturing is the most suitable strategy. 6 wells, which showed presence of oil, were chosen as the stimulation candidates for the production enhancement and production potential identification from this field. This project primarily focused on the exploration and development of the Kalol Sand of the Tarapur field.The entire HF operation consisted of two parts known as the Datafrac and the Main Fracturing Treatment. Datafrac was done to estimate critical formation and fluid parameters such as like fracture closure pressure, Fluid Efficiency and Leakoff Coefficients which all are determined to design the most optimum job for maximizing ultimate recovery. Reservoir transmissibility validation was also performed via the injection test that is done as a part of the Datafrac injection test. This paper discusses the planning and design processes leading to the successful execution of the hydro frac treatments and the post-stimulation results. The experience and lessons learned during the stimulation treatment design, execution and poststimulation results will be discussed. Lessons learned from this successful experience are discussed as a way to enhance the benefits from this promising technology that will lead to more successful developments of the exploration wells in India.

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