The six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon disaster has forced oil & gas companies to redraw their plans for the rest of the year. But the effects of the ban could linger long after, as Russell McCulley reports…
OE's analysis of current rig market data is updated monthly using statistics provided by Rigzone.comWorldwide utilization for the mobile offshore drilling fleet is tracking at about 74%, within the tight 74%-76% band it has seen for the past 10 months…
BP in mid-June began collecting oil & gas from the first phase of a system that taps into the choke and kill valves on the Macondo well's failed blowout preventer. The system employs the same flow lines and manifold used in the company's unsuccessful top kill attempt in May…
The Titanic, Columbia space shuttle and Deepwater Horizon disasters span a period of almost 100 years but have more in common than might at first be apparent. All three were avoidable and foundered on a misguided belief in their indestructibility…
BP struggled to stop the flow of oil from the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico as the disaster entered its second month, and the spill, the worst in US history, was having repercussions far beyond the environmental catastrophe. Russell McCulley reports…
Around 73,000 attendees packed this year’s OTC in Houston, nearly 5000 more than last year. But the still-unfolding Deepwater Horizon drama in the Gulf of Mexico kept the usual celebratory mood at bay, writes Russell McCulley.--It wasn’t exactly…
Andrew McBarnet forecasts some damaging consequences for marine seismic operations offshore the US as a result of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.The enormity of the blow-out and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig at the BP Macondo…
After years of delay, the Cape Wind offshore wind project got the green light to proceed with the $1 billion development off the coast of Massachusetts, putting the project on the path to become the first wind power installation on the US Outer Continental Shelf…
Two recently published reports point to a speedy recovery for offshore E&P. The deepwater sector of the oil & gas business should recover quickly from the economic downturn and resume the growth the sector enjoyed before the recession, suggests a new report from Douglas-Westwood…
With well costs escalating to consume up to half of a project’s funding, operators are seeking ways to trim costs. During IADC’s Deepwater Drilling conference in Rio de Janeiro in March, operators discussed some of their strategies to trim costs…
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 oil & gas industry and analysts greeted President Obama’s offshore drilling plan as a step in the right direction. But subsequent events surrounding the Deepwater Horizon disaster (see Heavy losses in Horizon tragedy ) could complicate matters…
Late in the evening 20 April, an explosion rocked the deck of the Deepwater Horizon and set off a fire that raged for 36 hours before the Transocean semisubmersible plunged to the seafloor 5000ft below. As OE went to press, operator BP and other…
Water shortages could pose as great a threat to energy security as political instability or terrorism, leading peak oil theorist Matt Simmons told delegates at the Global Marine Renewable Energy Conference in Seattle, Washington, last month…
The scheduled 2012 lease sale offshore Virginia will proceed, even without the environmental impact studies necessary to allow oil & gas exploration in place, according to MMS director Liz Burnham.The sale – the first on the US Atlantic OCS…
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