Australia's BHP Billiton has made a gas discovery on the deepwater LeClerc play-opening well offshore Trinidad and Tobago. BHP had been drilling for oil. The LeClerc 1 ST01 well was drilled in Block 5, in 2500-8500ft water depth, 135mi…
Noble Energy has been named the successor operator of the Thunder Hawk production facility, according to the company’s Q2 2016 report. Scant on details, Noble did confirm that the deal is expected to become effective within Q3 2016, subject to regulatory approval…
SBM Offshore has appointed former Shell executive D.H.M. Wood as management board member and chief financial officer (CFO), to be effective in October. On 10 February 2016, SBM announced the intention of the current CFO, P.M. van Rossum…
Semco Maritime is conducting a heavy lift for the 147-room complete hotel module on board the Maersk Guardian to finalize a major conversion of the upcoming hotel rig. Image of the Maersk Guardian…
Damage assessments by Smit Salvage and Transocean staff who boarded the grounded semisubmersible drilling rig Transocean Winner off the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, say two of its fuel tanks appear to have been breached. UPDATE: No pollution has been found at the site…
Gazpromneft has brought a further two production wells (its third and fourth) into production at the Prirazlomnoye field in the Pechora Sea, as well as its second and third injection wells. Daily production on the Prirazlomnaya ice-resistant offshore rig…
Canada's Suncor Energy is to acquire a 30% stake in the UK deepwater North Sea Rosebank project from Austria's OMV. The move will see OMV reduce its stake from 50% to 20% in what is a massive, challenging, deep water, very harsh environment…
Subsea SURF contractor Subsea 7 has acquired polymer lining technology firm Swagelining. The two firms have already cooperated together, designing and installing in excess of 150km of reeled and bundled polyethylene (PE) lined water injection flowlines in the North Sea…
Unite the union says it has called for urgent talks with engineering firm Wood Group ahead of more planned strike action in the North Sea. Nearly 400 workers in the Unite and RMT unions who work for Wood Group on Shell platforms in the UK North Sea have so far staged two walkouts…
Vaalco Energy’s experienced a 72% increase in its revenue in Q2 2016, in addition to a new setback offshore Gabon with another failed electrical submersible pump (ESP) on the Avouma platform. Map from Vaalco…
Allseas’ huge single-lift installation/decommissioning and pipelay vessel Pioneering Spirit has successfully installed a 5500-tonne test platform topsides on a substructure in the K-13 field in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. The installation was completed on Sunday 7 August…
Wintershall Norge has started drilling wildcat exploration well 35/11-20 B using the Borgland Dolphin drilling rig in production license 248 F in the Norwegian North Sea. It is the latest well on the license, following well 35/11-20 A…
Paragon Offshore and its lenders have entered into an agreement to revise the company's restructuring plan in hopes to emerge from its bankruptcy process later this year in October. The Paragon MSS1…
Royal IHC has appointed Dave Vander Heyde as its new CEO effective 1 September, as the current CEO, Bram Roelse steps down from the role on the same day. Heyde has been CFO at IHC since 2011. Accustomed to the challenges the company is facing…
Italian giant Eni has gained operatorship of frontier exploration licence (FEL) 3/04 in the southern Porcupine Basin after supermajor ExxonMobil elected to withdraw from the license, according to partner Providence Resources. Following ExxonMobil’s withdraw…