Danish drilling rig operator Maersk Drilling has won a four-year contract with Tullow Oil for use of the deepwater drillship Maersk Venturer offshore Ghana. The contract, signed in December 2017, is expected to start in February 2018…
Houston headquartered Hyperdynamics has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy relief. The firm, which is focused on exploring offshore the Republic of Guinea, says it had reviewed and analyzed its options, including raising more finance, selling assets…
Australia's Santos is planning to drill the Paus Biru-1 exploration well on the Sampang production sharing contract offshore Indonesia, says partner Cue Energy Resources. Paus Biru is 27km east from the producing Oyong gas field. The…
Saipem's Scarabeo 9 semisubmersible is in the Black Sea, where it is drilling one well, the Maria-1 exploration well in the Zapadno-Chernomorskaya license area, plus one optional well, in deepwater (more than 2000m water depth). To get there…
Jurong Shipyard, part of Sembcorp Marine, has signed an agreement to sell the semisubmersible rig West Rigel for US$500 million. West Rigel was originally contracted by North Atlantic Rigel (NARL), a subsidiary of North Atlantic Drilling (NADL) and Seadrill…
It’s a smaller, more focused exploration world as we start 2018. Elaine Maslin discusses the main themes for 2018 with Wood Mackenzie’s Andrew Latham (First published in the January 2018 OE, access full issue here). Deepwater is very…
Saipem has signed a contract with Eni Angola in relation to the West Hub Development project in Angola, which incorporates the work orders previously assigned and communicated in 2016 and 2017 and adds the scope of work for the development of the Vandumbu field in Block 15/06…
Italy's Eni says a production test on the Tecoalli-2 well, in shallow water Campeche Bay, Mexico, showed 'excellent production capabilities,' and increased estimates of oil in place in Area 1 to 2 billion boe, with about 90% oil. The well is in Contractual Area 1…
Statoil awarded Transocean a 22-well contract in the Norwegian North Sea for the harsh environment semisubmersible Transocean Spitsbergen with an estimated duration of 33 months; plus two one-well options. The estimated firm backlog associated…
A total of 30 oil and gas discoveries were made in Q3 2017. Of these, 18 were conventional oil, one was heavy oil, one was unconventional gas, and the remaining 10 were conventional gas, according to analytics firm GlobalData. Among countries…
Global high-impact* exploration in 2017 is expected to match 2016 in both activity and success rates, and with a marked improvement in commercial oil volumes discovered and lower finding costs. High impact drilling commercial success…
Quadrant Energy is lining up drilling the Phoenix South-3 well in the Roebuck Basin offshore Western Australia, using Transocean's Development Driller-1 semisubmersible rig. The rig is about to start its voyage to Western Australia…
Halliburton has released the Geometrix 4D shaped cutters, a line of four distinct geometric profiles to help improve cutting efficiency and increase control to reduce drilling costs. “The launch of Geometrix cutters demonstrates our…
Australia's Santos has agreed to partly fund and lead a new 3D seismic survey over the beehive prospect in Australia's Bonaparte Basin in return for an up to 80% farm-in option in the permit. Santos calls Beehive, which sits on the WA-488-P permit…
Kosmos Energy's Lamantin-1 exploration well on Block C-12 offshore Mauritania has disappointed. The well, drilled in 2200m water depth and to a total depth of 5150m, hit a water bearing reservoir with residual hydrocarbons. It is thought…