According to officials, the offshore drilling industry needs to develop a comprehensive public database to help improve safety and prevent spills in federal waters. “Currently individual operators are collecting a lot of the data we need to properly assess risk…
Statoil Petroleum has made a gas discovery in wildcat well 7220/2-1 on the Isfjell prospect in production licence 714. The well, the first in PL714, was drilled in about 429m water depth, using the Transocean Spitsbergen semisubmersible drilling rig (pictured)…
Perenco, Tullow Oil’s partner in the Arouwe block offshore Gabon, has said the Sputnik-1 well, targeting a pre-salt structure in Gabon’s offshore Arouwe block, made a non-commercial discovery. But, according to Tullow, the pre-salt well's results are encouraging…
MPX North Sea's exploration well 9/14a-15a on the Aragon prospect in the North Sea is to be plugged and abandoned after the reservoir was found to be water bearing. Drilling and open hole logging operations were completed on the well…
Lundin Petroleum has started drilling exploration well 33/2-1 on the Storm prospect in production license 555 in the northern North Sea. The well is 200km west northwest of Florø on the Norwegian west coast and about 65km northwest of the Snorre field…
Weatherford Secure Drilling services contracted 2H Offshore to manage the design and delivery of the riser equipment for its managed pressure drilling (MPD) system. The system is expected to be delivered by 2015. The project award follows a feasibility study conducted by 2H Offshore…
Baker Hughes Inc. issued the September 2014 international rotary drilling rig count today, showing a total of 1323 rigs operating internationally in September 2014, outside of the US & Canada. The worldwide rig count for September 2014 was 3659…
UK-based Cairn Energy and its Senegalese partners have made an oil discovery, which has the potential to be a “significant standalone development”, on the deepwater FAN-1 well. The well, drilled using the semisubmersible Cajun Express…
Stone Energy Corp. contracted the ENSCO 8503 dynamically-positioned deepwater drilling rig for Stone Energy's multi-year drilling program in the Gulf of Mexico. The 30-month contract will commence during 2Q 2015 at a rate of approximately US$350…
Since the first successful oil well was drilled by Shell-BP in 1956 at Oloibiri, Nigeria has acclaimed the status of Africa’s largest oil producer and the sixth largest in the world. However, the Nigerian oil and gas industry has been engulfed in challenges with few success stories…
Centrica Energy's Norwegian outfit has started drilling on the Ivory prospect in production license 528 in the Norwegian Sea, according to partners Rocksource and Atlantic Petroleum, Exploration well 6707/10-3 S is being drilled using the West Navigator drillship…
Jeremy Berry examines the trend occurring off West Africa where exploration success continues to be confined to those countries that already have significant production. Fig. 1: West Africa production…
Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Petroleum has spudded two more wells on the Manora field off Thailand. Drilled with Atwood Oceanics’ jackup Atwood Orca, the MNA-04 and MNA-05 wells represent the fourth and fifth wells, respectively, of a planned 15 developmental well campaign set to end 1Q 2015…
Eleven Japanese companies including oil and gas exploration firm Inpex have joined forces to create a new firm focused on methane hydrate extraction. Japan Methane Hydrate Operating Co., (JMH) was formally established 1 October specifically…
ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson (pictured) said on Thursday that the Ebola virus has disrupted plans to drill off Liberia, Reuters reported. Plans to drill the Mesurado-1 wildcat, located in block LB-13, were delayed in July, according to partner Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd…