* Push against paying service firms for low-margin work
* Oil service profit margins rising again with oil prices
HOUSTON, July 21 (Reuters) – An executive at Royal Dutch Shell Plc sees a new Chinese partnership as an opportunity to avoid paying oilfield service companies for drilling they could do just as effectively themselves.
The venture with state-owned China National Petroleum Corp will build systems to automate repetitive drilling, with a goal of having them in the field by 2013, said Peter Sharpe, executive vice president, wells, at Shell Global Solutions International BV.
While Shell expects it will need traditional services in most instances, drilling in coalbed methane and heavy oil fields is relatively simple and can often be automated, he said.
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