Chevron chairman and CEO John Watson told the Energy Institute's International Petroleum Week dinner in London last month that fossil fuel is no dinosaur. Meg Chesshyre was there.Far from having reached any peak, the world's estimated base of recoverable oil…
Differing perspectives on the African exploration & production scene were offered during IP Week in London last month, with Tullow Oil and Afren describing their respective approaches to the continent and Equatorial Guinea's energy ministry updating the republic's offshore developments to date…
Worldwide, the mobile offshore drilling fleet has kept between 500 to 550 rigs under contract over the past two years. Recent overall utilization remains at a two-year low of 68% or 507 rigs working. However, tendering activity has been on the…
Under a memorandum of understanding with Petrobras, Cameron plans to invest $30 million in R&D facilities at two Brazilian locations. The company's Jacarei plant will add testing capabilities, including a hyperbaric chamber, along with a highpressure…
Ahead of the September launch of its second offshore licensing round, Uruguayan national oil company Ancap opened up a Houston data room in February in hopes of whetting IOC appetites. Jennifer Pallanich paid it an early visit.Uruguay Round II has fair bidding terms according to Santiago Ferro…
Within a fortnight of closing its $3 billion acquisition of compression, flow technology, measurement and distribution infrastructure provider Dresser, GE last month announced plans to lay out another $2.8 billion to secure the well support division of John Wood Group…
The Macondo well disaster and its ramifications were never far from the surface during the recent GE Oil & Gas annual meeting in Florence, where business leaders gathered in large numbers to discuss the technological and regulatory challenges…
Reservoir isolation rethinkThe newly patented PowerBall from Aberdeen-based Red Spider turns traditional reservoir isolation barrier technology on its head by moving the mechanical parts of the ball mechanism below the closed ball area of the tool…
China constantly shakes many of the world's beliefs, for better or worse, from its economic growth to trade to human rights. There is no doubt that China will become before not too long the world's dominant economic power. It also provides an additional…
Field development prospects on the UK Continental Shelf are gathering momentum again, with Nexen (Golden Eagle, Blackbird), Chrysaor (Solan) and BG (Blake increased production) firming up North Sea project and environmental impact details in recent weeks…
Companies across the offshore supply spectrum used the recent downturn to take stock – either out of necessity or for strategic reasons – in order to reposition themselves for when the upturn finally kicked in. OE looks at one such company,…
Data fetchingCoastal Flow Measurement has announced a new leasing program for its BirdDog Remote data Retrieval System, which provides access to information from monitored remote locations through a web interface as well as BirdDog Morning Reports delivered daily via e-mail…
A new international offshore contracting giant, with a market cap above $5.5 billion, backlog of $5.3 billion and over 12,000 employees, came into being last month with the combination of Acergy SA and Subsea 7 Inc. Meg Chesshyre looks at the rationale behind this high-profile marriage…
Marathon Oil is spinning off its downstream business to create the upstream Marathon Oil Corporation, to be based in Houston, and the downstream Marathon Petroleum Corporation, based in Ohio. Marathon Oil will operate and report through three segments: exploration & production…
Jose Antonio Meade Kuribreña has been appointed Mexico's energy minister and chairman of the state oil company Pemex. Previously Mexico's deputy finance minister, Meade replaces Georgina Kessel, who had served as energy minister under President Felipe Calderón since 2006…