Floatel Superior and Statoil's Njord A platformAll non-essential personnel, some 336 people, onboard the Floatel Superior have been evacuated after the semisubmersible sustained damage on two ballast tanks, Statoil announced on 8 November 2012…
Toisa PolarisBibby Offshore has purchased the dive support vessel Toisa Polaris, the Aberdeen-based company announced on 2 November 2012. Bibby said the move will provide as many as 60 North Sea jobs. ‘We are forecasting an increasing level of work in the region over the next year…
EMAS has secured two contracts with South Korean clients worth a combined total of approximately US$200 million.EMAS' subsea division (EMAS AMC) was awarded an EPCIC contract in Asia by STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. Ltd for the engineering…
In Warsaw, a working meeting was held between Deputy Chairman of Gazprom's Management Committee Alexander Medvedev and President of the Management Board of PGNiG SA Grażyna Piotrowska-Oliwa. The meeting resulted in an agreement to adjust prices in the natural gas supply contract to Poland…
'There are 'suspicions' that [Gazprom] has prevented alternative sources of natural gas from and into European countries, applying inappropriate practices, exploiting its position as the dominant supplier of natural gas to Europe.'It took time but it eventually happened…
Recent tests on Mobil Industrial Lubricants’ Arctic performance hydraulic oil have reportedly shown that it can help reduce hydraulic system energy consumption by up to 6.2%, when compared with standard mineral hydraulic oils. Given pride of…
Baker Hughes has expanded its SmartCare line of products to include what the company describes as ‘more environmentally responsible’ drilling and completion fluids, production chemicals and additives used in cementing and stimulation procedures…
During the last week of June in the US, anything that wasn’t ‘Obamacare’ didn’t get much news coverage. With that in mind, one had to wonder why ‘36 citizen organizations with more than 1.1 million combined members’ chose 27 June to release…
Salaries for oil & gas industry engineers shot up over the past year, rising an average 6.1% across several professional disciplines, according to a new survey released by recruitment firm Hays.The average permanent salary across the survey's sample of 144…
Fifty-six i-FRAC sleeves were opened with three balls on the Norwegian shelf.Well technology company i-TEC has developed an innovative lower completion ball drop sleeve system which it claims can bring wells in tight formations online much more quickly than other methods…
Since it began addressing safety critical fire water deluge system integrity issues a year ago, Paradigm Flow Solutions has rapidly expanded its provision in this area. The company is now working on life-of-field solutions with two North Sea operators…
Andrew McBarnet puts the decision-making of marine seismic companies under the microscope.Carrying on where we left off (OE last month), the future of financially troubled SeaBird Exploration and its ocean bottom node (OBN) seismic acquisition business remains unclear…
Two Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) initiatives have been launched in the UK for offshore companies looking to address the skills gap through the reskilling of adult trainees. The first 16 learners recently completed their training…
Earlier this year the refrain was ‘$5 natural gas forever', based on the US Energy Information Administration's (EIA) annual outlook, which argued that natural gas prices will remain below $5 per million btu until 2022. The underlying rationale was growth in the ‘vast' US shale gas resource base…
Multi-client specialist TGS took the marine seismic business by surprise last month with the purchase of Stingray Geophysical, a UK-based start up company focusing on seismic-based permanent reservoir monitoring (PRM). Andrew McBarnet discusses what prompted the move…