Prompted by practical engineering needs, Foster Wheeler Upstream developed a design tool to facilitate the design of subsea plate mudmats. Dr Jinming Xu, Paul Schank and Ray Young discuss how Mudmatician, through automation and built-in intelligence…
Global demand for floating hardware continues apace. David Morgan and Meg Chesshyre review recent support & supply sector initiatives and innovations targeting offshore platforms and rigs.Drilling riser departure A high pressure marine riser…
Quicker connection Baker Hughes announced the commercialization of its Reconnect technology, which the company says provides an alternative for re-establishing surface hydraulic control to surface-controlled subsurface safety valves (SCSSVs)…
Schlumberger wrapped up its $11 billion purchase of Smith International at the end of August. Andrew Gould, chairman and CEO of Schlumberger, commented: ‘We are ready to begin the process of realizing the synergies made possible by this merger…
With a major service point for the deepwater Gulf of Mexico in Port Fourchon, Louisiana among all US states has the most at stake in the federal government's six-month deepwater drilling moratorium. The effects so far haven't been as bad as some feared…
Another drilling contractor, Seadrill, recently put to the test DNV’s new standard for managing integrated software dependent systems. Wendy Laursen assesses the system’s scope for reducing software-related downtime on drilling units.There are…
Worries about the future of natural gas dominated proceedings as the SPE’s Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition made its international debut in Florence last month. Speakers focused on what the industry must do to meet burgeoning global energy demand…
When setting out to reshape itself from a jack-of-all-trades drilling contractor to one with a deepwater future, Pride International realized it had to do more than simply change up its fleet. With deepwater assets tending to feature longer contract cycles than shallow and mid-water rigs…
Each time a hurricane sweeps through the Gulf of Mexico, operators hope for the best – that their infrastructure, from topsides to flowlines to wellheads, remains safe in the face of nature’s fury. Determined to protect its assets, Chevron sought…
In a ‘brutally costcompetitive environment,' KBR has been looking at multiple ways to provide its services at an increasingly lower cost, said KBR chairman, president and CEO William P ‘Bill' Lutt during the 2010 Rice Global E&C Forum.Lutt told…
HYWIND’S HIDDEN ASSETS: Syntactic foam specialist Trelleborg Offshore recently released details of how it employed well-proven offshore oil & gas technology in the subsea buoyancy arrangements for the world’s first wind turbine ‘floater’,…
One or two recent asides from major seismic contractor bosses implies that they expect that the global seismic fleet to move closer to some kind of equilibrium next year where the supply of vessels is no longer so out of kilter with the demand for survey work…
All dressed up and nowhere to go is never a good feeling. But that's exactly what has just happened to − of all companies − TGSNopec. The acknowledged maestro of the multiclient seismic survey business last month put out a terse statement that…
A recent contract renewal for the small UK-based company WGP Group and its partner Thalassa Energy Services is a reminder that the first life of field seismic (LoFS) project on BP's Valhall field offshore Norway has been ongoing since 2003.…
The effect of the continuing credit crunch last summer meant that North Sea field development activity was down last year, but the steadying of the price this spring has led to projects being dusted off in both the UK and the Norwegian sectors…