The effect of the continuing credit crunch last summer meant that North Sea field development activity was down last year, but the steadying of the price this spring has led to projects being dusted off in both the UK and the Norwegian sectors…
BP in late August was in the final stages of permanently plugging the deepwater Gulf of Mexico Macondo exploration well, which spilled nearly 5 million barrels of oil between the 20 April blowout that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon rig and mid-July…
Andrew McBarnet suggests that the major marine seismic players are favourites to win in a crowded market.You would never realise it from the current crop of financial results and muted forward-looking statements from CEOs of marine seismic vessel operators…
Matthew Simmons, an energy investment banker and peak oil alarmist who in recent years was a strong advocate of renewable energy, died on 8 August at his home near Rockland, Maine. He was 67.In the 2005 book Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy…
The risks associated with placing complex open hole completions across the reservoir are increasing. Deep Casing Tools’ Mark Presslie explains why and describes how a new tool assists the first-time placement of liners or completions.--Over the past two decades…
LOCH NESS SITING:AWS Ocean Energy began testing a 1/9th scale prototype of its new AWS-III wave energy device in Loch Ness. The device is a ring-shaped multi-cell floating power system that, at its full 60m-diameter scale, will be capable of generating up to 2…
Since Petrobras and its partners reported finding the large Tupi field in 2006, excitement has reigned over Brazil's pre-salt reserves. Opportunities exist, even in a changing regulatory environment: the Brazilian congress is poised to consider…
Operating in the marine seismic environment requires the ability to constantly adapt and chase down the opportunities. Andrew McBarnet describes how fortunes tend to favour the big rather than the brave.It’s business as usual’ has got to be something of a misnomer in commercial life…
In 2007, OGX was but a dream of Brazilian entrepreneur Eike Batista. In the course of three short years, the company secured financing for leases, bid on and won shallow water blocks, secured drilling rigs, hired about 150 staff, tallied six…
The shaky economic recovery could be threatened if US energy policies push up prices, ExxonMobil chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson said in Houston last month.‘You can raise taxes, raise royalties – it's going to ultimately increase the cost of energy…
The trend toward putting more and more production equipment on the seabed – and in increasingly deeper waters – strongly challenges the offshore construction industry to continuously improve their ability to perform such activities in a safe and cost-effective manner…
All energy industry eyes will be on Houston the first week of May, when the 41st annual Offshore Technology Conference gathers at Reliant Park. OE takes a look at what’s in store for delegates.The past couple of years have been tumultuous ones for the oil & gas industry…
With an offshore network of over 7000 production platforms, 180,000km of pipelines and 40,000 producer wells already installed, the global offshore operations & maintenance market could be worth more than $330 billion over the next five years - and…
Its boosters say radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, which is gaining wider acceptance in retail and other industries, offers cost-effective and convenient applications for oil & gas companies, particularly in tracking assets. So why has the industry been slow to adopt RFID…
Major players in the marine seismic market are playing it cool, but there must be some apprehension about the impact of recent moves by the Chinese contractor BGP. Andrew McBarnet reviews the plot so far.The Houdini act performed by ION…