Drilling News


Barents Sea exploration success for Lundin

Nov 22, 2016

Sweden's Lundin has made a ca. 25-60 MMboe oil and gas discovery on the Loppa High, 20km east of the Johan Castberg discovery in the Norwegian Barents Sea.  The well, 7220/6-2 R, was drilled on the Neiden prospect in production license 609…

Maersk Drilling, NOV tackle drilling equipment maintenance

Nov 21, 2016

Maersk Drilling and National Oilwell Varco (NOV) have entered into a five-year partnership to improve maintenance predictability for drilling equipment. The shared vision behind the partnership is to implement a new maintenance mind-set which…

Total, Socar to develop Azerbaijan find

Nov 21, 2016

Total and Socar, the national oil company of Azerbaijan, signed an agreement establishing the contractual and commercial terms for a first phase of production of the Absheron gas and condensate field, located in the Caspian Sea. The development…

Saudi Aramco, Rowan create new rig firm

Nov 21, 2016

US offshore drilling contractor Rowan Companies and Saudi Aramco have signed a deal to create a new offshore rig outfit. The new organization will be a 50/50 joint venture (JV) which will own, operate, and manage offshore drilling rigs in Saudi Arabia…

Colombian exploration to heat up in 2017

Nov 19, 2016

After forming its own offshore-focused offshoot this January, Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol noted in its Q3 conference call that it intends to stabilize its production with a more 'aggressive' exploration drilling program slated for 2017…

Sirius, COSL enter Ororo deal

Nov 16, 2016

Sirius Petroleum entered into a financed drilling contract with COSL Drilling Pan-Pacific Ltd. (COSL), for the provision of a high specification jackup rig that will be utilized to drill a multi well campaign as part of its shallow water development strategy in Nigeria at the Ororo project…

Israel launches offshore bid round

Nov 16, 2016

Israel's Minister of Energy has opened the country's first offshore bid round covering 24 areas in the Levant Basin, with some located close to existing major gas discoveries. The discovery of giant gas fields in the Levant Basin, offshore…

AkerBP, IKM agree to mud recovery services

Nov 14, 2016

IKM Cleandrill has been awarded a three-year frame agreement with AkerBP for riserless closed loop mud recovery services. The initial operations under this contract will be production well drilling on the Alvheim development from the Transocean Arctic semisubmersible rig…

Carnarvon updates Australia resource estimates

Nov 14, 2016

Carnarvon has updated resource estimates for the Roc, Phoenix, and Phoenix South areas in the WA-435-P and WA-437-P permits, offshore Australia. “Our resource estimates are based on the successful drilling results to date and a foundation…

Petrobras completes first Libra well

Nov 14, 2016

Petrobras completed the first well in the Santos Basin’s Libra pre-salt field last week, with the anticipation of starting production next year, connected to the Pioneiro de Libra floating production and storage offloading (FPSO) unit. The West Carina…

All eyes on Verbier as Statoil confirms drilling

Nov 14, 2016

Statoil has confirmed to the Oil and Gas Authority that it will drill a well on the Verbier prospect in the North Sea, in summer 2017, according to partner Jersey Oil & Gas. Jersey says the prospect, which is in production license 2170…

Coretrax expands ME presence

Nov 09, 2016

Coretrax, an engineered servicing company for wellbore clean up and abandonment, has radically expanded its Middle East presence by moving its Saudi Arabian operations into a 130,000sq ft facility in Dammam.   'We’ve worked hard to get…

Tullow progresses on Jubilee, Norway exit

Nov 09, 2016

Tullow Oil is moving to get its Jubilee project offshore Ghana on track by year-end, as it firms up plans to divest all of its Norwegian assets by 1H 2017. Image from Tullow. “We…

Hurricane spuds Lincoln probe, aims for 250 MMbbl unrisked

Nov 09, 2016

UK-based basement explorer Hurricane Energy has spudded its latest well West of Shetland. The firm, which recently completed the successful Lancaster 7 appraisal spudded the Lincoln well on 8 November, the firm said. The Lincoln well…

Wintershall spuds Shuwaihat off Abu Dhabi

Nov 08, 2016

Wintershall has spudded its first offshore well for the Shuwaihat project, off Abu Dhabi.  Image from Wintershall. The Shuwaihat field is situated in the western region of Abu Dhabi…

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