Russia's President Vladimir Putin inaugurated first oil from the Vladimir Filanovsky field in the Caspian Sea yesterday (31 October). The V. Filanovsky field, discovered by Lukoil in 2005, is Russia’s largest oil discovery for the past 25 years…
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) and Russian petroleum authorities (Federal Subsoil Resources Management Agency, Rosnedra) have entered into an agreement to exchange seismic data from the areas around the demarcation line in the Barents Sea…
While it seems most Arctic exploration activity has slowed, it really depends on where you look. Bruce McMichael reports. Gazprom Neft’s Prirazlomnoye facility, in the Russian Arctic. Photos from Gazprom Neft…
Jerry Lee looks into Arctic-rated safety equipment that seeks to make it eaiser to comply with regulations around the globe. Arctic capping stack with remote BOP control and intervention subsea accumulator module…
Russia's Gazprom has made a discovery on the Kirinsky block in the Sea of Okhotsk. The firm was drilling an exploration and appraisal well on the Yuzhno-Lunskaya structure within the Sakhalin III project. As a result, a substantial gas and condensate inflow was reported…
Vard Holdings secured a contract worth about US$40 million for the design and construction of two additional module carrier vessels for Topaz Energy and Marine. The vessels, of VARD 9 21 design and measuring 123m by 16.5m, are sister…
The Russian government is temporarily banning new licenses for offshore field development on the Russian Arctic shelf, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sergei Donskoi has said. The move appears to be aimed at focusing investment on existing development projects…
Russia's Rosneft has made a gas condensate discovery named Wild Orchid offshore Vietnam. The well was drilled using the Hakuryu-5 semisubmersible drilling rig during Q2 this year, operated by RN-Vietnam, in Block 06.1. Volume of reserves…
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…
Russia’s Lukoil is moving the jackets for the offshore ice-resistant stationary platform #2 from the port of Astrakhan to the Filanovsky field in the Caspian Sea. The platform is intended for drilling and operation of wells within the second stage of field development…
Russia's LUKOIL-Nizhnevolzhskneft has taken into service, from contractor Bumi Armada Berhad, three ice-class vessels for use on its Vladimir Filanovsky field in the Caspian Sea. Bumi Naryan-Mar is a standby/rescue vessel equipped with oil spill response equipment and fire fighting system…
A new independent estimate of world oil reserves has been released by Rystad Energy, showing that the US now holds more recoverable oil reserves than both Saudi Arabia and Russia. For US, more than 50% of remaining oil reserves is unconventional shale oil…
Gazprom Neft has signed a memorandum of cooperation with IBM at this year’s St Petersburg International Economic Forum covering the use of information technologies in exploration and production (E&P). The agreement outlines the key areas of technical collaboration…
Lukoil has commenced drilling operations at the Vladimir Filanovsky field in the Caspian Sea. The well is being drilled from an ice-resistant fixed platform, LSP-1, with first production set for 2H 2016. V. Filanovsky is the largest of all fields discovered in Russia in the past 25 years…
Global upstream capital spending from 2015 out to 2020 has been reduced by 22% or US$740 billion, however, when cuts to conventional exploration investment are included, the figure increases to just over $1 trillion, Wood Mackenzie said. Image…