Black Sea Oil & Gas (BSOG) has awarded GSP Offshore a contract to drill two exploration wells in the XV Midia Shallow Block, on the Romanian Black Sea Continental Shelf. The GSP Uranus, from GSP…
Lundin Petroleum discovered a 15m oil column at the Edvard Grieg Southwest appraisal well in the North Sea, confirming an upside for the field. The Island Innovator, from Island Drilling. Lundin…
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Statoil Petroleum a drilling permit for well 7121/8-1, named Blåmann in the Barents Sea. Well 7121/8-1 will be drilled from the Songa Enabler drilling facility, after completing the…
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Aker BP a drilling permit for well 24/9-11 S, cf. Section 8 of the Resource Management Regulations. Well 24/9-11 S will be drilled from the Transocean Arctic drilling facility, at position 59°29’6…
The American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed that estimated total wells drilled and completed in the Q1 2017 saw an increase of 35% compared to the Q1 2016. This is a drastic improvement from 2016 levels, which saw a 59& decrease…
Shelf Drilling, Ltd. has taken delivery of its second newbuild jackup rig – Shelf Drilling Krathong (SDK) – from Lamprell. The rig was delivered within budget and on-time. It is scheduled to depart for Thailand by 20 April 2017 where it commences operations for Chevron Thailand…
Rosneft started drilling the Tsentralno-Olginskaya-1 well, the northernmost well at the Russian Arctic shelf, in the Khatangsky license area. Image of Rosneft workers drilling the northernmost well at the Russian shelf…
Vantage Drilling International has acquired the Hercules 260, a Marathon LeTourneau Class jackup drilling unit, from Hercules Offshore for an undisclosed amount, and has renamed the rig the Vantage 260. As part of the acquisition, Vantage…
Australia’s FAR Ltd. has increased its stakes offshore Guinea-Bissau with plans to drill two exploration wells, and has gained a three-year extension for the area. Map from FAR. FAR…
Statoil has hired the Transocean Spitsbergen semisubmersible rig to drill a total of nine wells offshore the UK and Norway, in a US$113 million deal. From left: Ian Paterson (Transocean Drilling UK)…
Recent rig count data suggests that there are no big moves over or under for offshore rig counts from February through end of March 2017. Baker Hughes released its latest US rig count numbers on Friday, 31 March, showing an increase of four units over week ago…
Inflow control valves and in-well fiber-optics have given Nexen far greater visibility of what’s going in and out of their reservoirs on the Golden Eagle field. Elaine Maslin reports. Golden Eagle with the Safe Caledonia alongside…
While Southeast Asia has suffered during the downturn, a return to natural gas developments could drive sector activity over the next several years. Steve Hamlen sets out the details. Shell’s Gumusut-Kakap platform operating off the coast of Sabah…
There’s a growing acceptance of MPD in offshore operations, but are all options being considered? Jerry Lee examines the RFC-HSE variation. AFGlobal’s riser gas handling system is integrated with…
Nigerian-based South Atlantic Petroleum (Sapetro) and Houston-based Hyperdynamics have agreed to a farmout, allowing Sapetro to pick up 50% participating interest in the production sharing contract covering the deepwater Fatala turbidite fan prospect…