Maersk Drilling has ordered potentially up to three new ultra harsh environment jack-up rigs, underpinned by a five year contract with BP for plugging and abandonment work on the Norwegian North Sea Valhall field. The first new rig, an XL Enhanced 4…
Falkland Oil and Gas (FOGL) has said it is moving closer to securing a rig for a 2014 drilling campaign in the remote Falklands region. The firm, focused on areas to the south and east of the Falkland Islands, said a rig enquiry had been issued and available units identified…
Singapore-based YHM Group has said it has won a contract worth about US$183 million over a three-year period to provide a semi- submersible rig. The rig is to be used by a south east Asia-based national oil company to support oil and gas activities in the Andaman Sea…
Statoil ASA, along with partners Eni Norge and Petoro, made a gas discovery at the Iskrystall prospect on PL608 off Norway in the Barents Sea. The well is approximately 30km southwest of 7220/8-1 Johan Castberg and about 240km north of Hammerfest…
Ithaca Energy has agreed string of farm-out deals on a number of UK North Sea assets. Newly formed private-equity backed Oyster Petroleum is to take a 9% working interest in west of Shetland licences containing the Handcross prospect…
A new shipbuilding yard, jointly developed by Keppel Offshore & Marine, Azerbaijan’s state oil firm SOCAR and Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC), was officially opened this morning, September 20. Baku Shipyard is a 62ha yard, in Baku…
Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc.'s Ocean Saratoga semisubmersible drilling rig spudded a well on Noble Energy's Tyra Bank concession off Nicaragua in mid August. The rig is under contract to Noble Energy for US$323,000/d and is expected to finish in late November…
Salamander Energy plc announced the spud of an exploration well in Block G4/50, Gulf of Thailand targeting the Ayutthaya prospect. Ayutthaya is located in the Western Central sub-basin, less than one mi northeast of the recent Surin oil discovery…
Serica Energy has said a drilling campaign will start offshore Morocco in October. Drilling will be carried out on the Foum Draa and Sidi Moussa blocks in October, and H1 2014 respectively. The well on the Foum Draa block (operated by Cairn Energy…
Desire Petroleum has said a farm out process on its Falklands acreage has been held back by uncertainty over the timing and scope of the development of the Sea Lion oil field. A lack of a firm date for the mobilisation of a rig to the…
Russian oil firm Lukoil Overseas has started drilling in deep water off the coast of Sierra Leone. The company is drilling the Savannah prospect on Block SL-5-11, using the semisubmersible Eirik Raude drilling rig, in more than 2000m water depth…
Lundin Petroleum has made an oil discovery on the Ghohta prospect in exploration licence PL492 in the Barents Sea. The well, 7120/1-3, 35km north west of the Snøhvit field, found a 75m oil column beneath a 25m gas/condensate cap in dolomitized and karstified carbonate in a Permian target…
Ensco plc has taken delivery of ENSCO 120, the first in its series of three ultra-premium, harsh-environment jackup rigs. The rig is contracted to work for Nexen in the North Sea beginning in the 4Q 2013 at a day rate of about US$230,000 plus cost adjustments…
Ensco plc has taken delivery of ENSCO DS-7, an advanced-capability, ultra-deepwater drillship. The vessel will embark from the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea to Angola, where it is contracted to Total for three years beginning…
The Macondo well catastrophe occurred more than three years ago, but it continues to serve as a central reference point in any assessment of contemporary offshore drilling, not least at today’s SPE Offshore Europe keynote session, Industry Progress since Macondo…
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