Wells and facilities decommissioning around the world is entering a new era. Some drivers for the changes in decommissioning are eco-awareness, a recent particularly onerous cycle of climatic events, facility design evolution, the glaring…
As decommissioning begins in earnest in the UK North Sea, the real cost of decommissioning is starting to be seen. Elaine Maslin reports on a study conducted to assess the increasing costs. The…
Heerema Marine Contractor’s new semisubmersible crane vessel is set to make waves. Elaine Maslin reports. An illustration of the new NSCV. Photos from Heerema Marine Contractors. Norse gods do not come along that often…
A change in Nigerian leadership will not end piracy risks to companies that operate oil and gas assets offshore West Africa. AKE Group’s Laura Barber weighs in. A ship uses fire hose defense. Image from US Naval Institute…
The tides are changing in many countries, which are ramping up their political policies to provide international operators the consistency and transparency needed to invest in the region. Heather Saucier reports. Noble Energy has distributed approx…
Could the North Sea become a CO2 storage site? Elaine Maslin takes a look at two proposed projects and some of the challenges involved. The CCS goal—how the Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage sees carbon capture and storage on and offshore…
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects need to demonstrate, through monitoring, that the injected CO2 is contained within the geological store during and after injection and no unexpected migration has occurred. In order to achieve this…
There has been much uncertainty in recent years around the tax relief available to companies as part of the decommissioning process, as a result of a constantly changing UK tax regime. Oil and gas companies have commonly been required…
Norway’s Standlifter has developed a decommissioning jackup concept. The concept, shown during Norway’s Subsea Valley conference in April, is a jackup equipped for plugging and abandonment (P&A) and decommissioning operations in up to 300ft water depth…
For offshore field development planners, the selection between wet or dry tree completion systems represents a key planning decision. Granherne compares the two and Jeannie Stell captures the details. Robert…
Improved ways to gather and interpret geophysical data were highlighted at OTC. Bruce Nichols reports. Rocky Roden, consulting geophysicist for Geophysical Insights, showed an OTC session how to…
As the oil and gas industry reacts to the continued downturn in prices, even the seismic vessels market is taking great pains to trim the fleet and stay competitive. Elaine Maslin surveys the market. GC Rieber delivered the Polar Empress…
Three firms have joined forces to lighten the load of offshore heavy lifting game. Elaine Maslin found out more. DeepTek drum winch, with 150m test length of LankoDeep AHC rope, installed on Jebsen and Jessen 110-tonne knuckle boom crane…
Within the next few years, a couple of major decommissioning projects are set to start in the UK sector of the North Sea at the Brent and Murchison fields — and there are plenty of other projects in the pipeline. John Bradbury outlines the activity…
Decommissioning, plugging and abandonment, well workovers, EOR, and even offshore renewables maintenance could be performed from the dual decks of the CDC Heron. Elaine Maslin reports. The CDC Heron multipurpose vessel design…