US explorer W&T Offshore's ST 224 #1 exploration well, in the South Timbalier license in the US Gulf of Mexico, was considered water bearing, according to partner Otto Energy. The well was drilled in 170ft water depth using the Enterprise 264 jackup and reached a total measured depth of 10…
North Sea minnow Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) has been given extra time to develop its Blythe discovery, in the southern North Sea. The firm has been given an extension on License P1736, by 12 months to 31 December 2018, dependent on…
Norwegian operator Aker BP has submitted three plans for development and operations to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy for projects on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Aker BP is planning to develop Valhall Flank West…
Cobalt International Energy reported today (14 December) it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. But the company says it plans to conduct business as usual, with enough cash…
UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) operating costs dropped by 14% in 2016, with operators securing about £1.1 billion reductions in operating expenditure (OPEX), according to the UK Oil & Gas Authority’s (OGA) inaugural report, “Analysis of UKCS Operating Costs in 2016”…
Spanish oil firm Repsol has awarded UK engineering firm Atkins a contract for structural front end engineering design (FEED) and detailed design services for work on the Yme field offshore Norway. Repsol Norge is moving forward with a new attempt to develop the Yme field…
Shell has awarded a contract to UK forge Sheffield Forgemasters for castings for use on the Vito semisubmersible platform for the US Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The project will see the Sheffield Forgemasters' offshore oil and gas specialist…
Believing that major spending cuts are over, Wood Mackenzie expects global upstream capital expenditures to grow slightly in 2018 to a total of US$400 billion. The downturn resulted in nearly $1 trillion being taken out of company spending from 2015 to 2020…
Statoil has completed a deal with Queiroz Galvão Exploração e Produção (QGEP) to acquire a 10% interest a block offshore Brazil containing the Carcará oil discovery. The BM-S-8 block is in Brazil’s Santos basin and the 10% was acquired by Statoil for US$379 million…
Statoil has awardedd Aker Solutions a framework agreement for the provision of subsea services on the Norwegian oil major's operated assets offshore Norway. The contract has a fixed period of five years, starting in the first quarter of 2018…
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…
Work on a subsea power grid, which could support all-electric subsea process, has taken a step forward in Finland with the successful testing of subsea variable speed drives. A full scale prototype of a subsea variable speed drive (VSD)…
Australia's Woodside Energy is setting out to achieve a world first by installing a microgrid with a 1MW lithium-ion PowerStore Battery energy storage system on an offshore platform. Working with power and automation group ABB, the solution will be installed on Woodside's Goodwyn A platform…
UK-based subsea equipment firm Ashtead Technology deployed a new advanced subsea laser scanning technology on a project for Subsea 7 in the UK North Sea. Working on Chevron’s Captain field, Ashtead performed a well inspection using Newton…
Aberdeen's Oil & Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) has launched two calls for ideas relating to digital and decommissioning, with £2 million available to successful applicants. The OGTC says that machine learning techniques could help extend the life of oil and gas fields…