An INTECSEA-led joint industry project headed by former Shell subsea specialist Ian Ball is looking to pave the way for increased step-outs, enhanced recovery and improved economics on upcoming subsea developments in arctic and sub-arctic waters…
Earlier this year, Douglas-Westwood forecast † the industry will spend $139 billion on subsea hardware 2011-15, a 23% jump on the previous five years, with the deepwater Golden Triangle inevitably dominating the anticipated spend. Despite the trials and tribulations of the past year…
Planning and information are key to the successful realization of Petrobras’ ambitious plans to hoist pre-salt production levels from the current 100,000b/d to 1.08 million b/d inside ten years. Jennifer Pallanich listened in as José Formigli…
As an indicator of the health of the oil & gas industry, attendance at May's Offshore Technology Conference in Houston suggests that recovery from the global recession is well underway. OE looks back over some of the sights and sounds of OTC 2011…
A decade after acquiring Kvaerner, Aker Solutions is preparing a demerger that will spin the company off as a separate, fully fledged EPC contractor – with concrete gravity base structures (GBS) very much on its agenda.Legacy company Norwegian…
With over 27 years' of development and application work behind it, Nautronix is a company with subsea acoustics in its DNA. David Morgan looks at the company's provenance and projects, including the recent deployment of its NASNet technology…
Three Alaskan Beaufort Sea developments – BP Exploration (Alaska)'s Northstar, Pioneer --Natural Resources' Oooguruk and now Eni Petroleum's Nikaitchuq – have helped establish baseline experience for future arctic frontier pipelines. As well as demonstrating technical strides…
March's Japanese earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear contamination at the Fukushima power plant spawned a disaster that will be hard to remedy or forget. As usual the events have had a number of dimensions, mostly unfortunate for that country no matter how developed and prosperous it has been…
The UK offshore industry recognised that a key component to achieving a reduction in offshore hazards and incidents was to improve basic safety training for all personnel. OE looks at the e-learning programme designed to achieve that goal and now ready for roll out internationally…
In the past decade, the oil & gas industry has been effective in finding new resources, but much less successful in bringing new supplies onstream. That was the verdict of Eni E&P executive vice president Antonio Vella, addressing this year's Offshore Mediterranean Conference in Ravenna…
With wellbores drilled in ever deeper waters penetrating further into the earth and clients demanding improved performance from all parts of the drilling process, VAM Drilling has focused on two aspects of the drillstem it believes deliver on the reliability front…
Norwegian mechanical engineer Julius Espedal had his first real brush with the forces of nature when undergoing offshore safety induction and emergency training in the UK back in 1999. Now he is getting reacquainted with them as his company…
For Fluor, America is only one land of opportunity. Recent contract wins for work offshore Australia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East have buoyed Fluor's backlog. Jennifer Pallanich talks to Fluor executives about recent contract wins and Fluor's offshore strategy…
Competence testing, true independent oversight and a stronger focus on the human element are the lessons from Macondo, argues Lloyd's Register energy director Dr Iain Light. --The offshore industry has just had the dubious distinction of…
A new report estimates flaring of unused gas wastes about 5% of the world's annual production while emitting 400 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year. GE's Flare Gas Reduction: Recent Global Trends and Policy Considerations report estimates…