Shell Oil Co. reports that the Olympus tension leg platform reached the Mars B field on July 20th, following a 425-mi. tow from Ingleside, Texas. The location, in Mississippi Canyon Block 807, is about 130mi. south of New Orleans. The TLP was safely secured in place last week…
Germanischer Lloyd (GL) has published new guidelines for data networks which are implemented onboard ships or offshore platforms. As the maritime industry makes greater use of automated systems data networks have become more and more complex…
ABB has been awarded a US$20 million contract to provide power and automation technologies to a floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO). The unit is being built to Sevan Marine's cylindrical design at Chinese shipyard COSCO Nantong for Dana Petroleum…
Safety is a necessary practice for all operations, and new regulations for oversight seem to be missing some key components.The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) released its Safety and Environmental Management Systems…
Lloyd’s Register published a comprehensive rule set to guide the design, construction and operation of FLNG facilities to provide safer, cheaper and more environmentally friendly approaches to retrieving natural gas. “Natural gas is a…
Off the coast of Summerland, California, they didn’t drill the first-ever offshore oil well. They hammered it. “Engineers” used a pile driver to pound a pipe 455ft into the seabed in about 30ft of water. Yield was moderate; the site shut down after several years…
Automation is the ideal way to unite technology with company cultures. Through technology, workers in the offshore environment have the potential to form a myopic view on life. Produce now, don’t worry about tomorrow. It makes sense. From drilling to producing…
Bureau Veritas Certification is pleased to announce its provisional accreditation as an official SEMS Audit Service Provider for the Center for Offshore Safety (COS). Originally introduced as recommended practice RP 75 in 1990, the Safety…
Magne Ognedal had his final working day as director general of the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority Norway on Friday 12 April. A prominent personality has thereby handed on a heritage which will call for courage and strength to maintain and extend…
New software developed by naval architects and marine engineering consultants Safety at Sea to address the International Maritime Organization's challenging regulations on a ship's safe return offers potential for aspects of offshore vessel design…
In a perceptive and timely contribution to the ongoing Macondo debate, US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement director James Watson spelled out the key lessons learned from the disaster in a Houston Chronicle opinion piece last month…
As gas wells mature and the produced gas becomes less able to carry water from the well, a decline in flow rate and production to rates below the anticipated decline curve often results. Bert Lugtmeier and Kees Veeken from Dutch operator NAM…
The US Coast Guard in April released a report on its investigation into BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster, just weeks after DNV delivered the results of its forensic examination of the Macondo blowout preventer. Both will inform the Joint Investigation Team's final report…
The US lifted the six-month moratorium on deepwater exploration in October, while codifying new rules governing drilling safety and well control. Russell McCulley looks at what the new regulations could mean for oil & gas companies doing business in the Gulf of Mexico…
Litigation continues in US courts over the Obama administration’s Gulf of Mexico deepwater drilling moratorium, despite the early lifting of the six-month drilling ban in October. In a 19 October decision, US District Court judge Martin Feldman…