Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has given Statoil consent to drill well 16/2-22, an appraisal well, on the Johan Sverdrup field. The consent also applies to a possible sidetrack from this well. The Statoil-operated field, located around 140km west of Stavanger in the North Sea…
US offshore drilling contractor Rowan Companies and Saudi Aramco have signed a deal to create a new offshore rig outfit. The new organization will be a 50/50 joint venture (JV) which will own, operate, and manage offshore drilling rigs in Saudi Arabia…
IKM Cleandrill has been awarded a three-year frame agreement with AkerBP for riserless closed loop mud recovery services. The initial operations under this contract will be production well drilling on the Alvheim development from the Transocean Arctic semisubmersible rig…
Sonomatic, a provider of automated ultrasonic inspection services, has developed a tool for the internal inspection of caissons. The integrity of caissons is critical to safe and efficient operation of offshore structures. As offshore facilities age…
The 2016 development drilling program offshore southern Vietnam on the Te Giac Trang (TGT) Field of Block 16-1 has commenced, announced SOCO. The infill wells, TGT-27P and TGT-28P, will be batch drilled with the first well spudded on…
As the industry heads into the third year of the downturn, market fundamentals for the deepwater segment continue to fight strong headwinds, Rystad Energy says. But, is 2018 the light at the end of the tunnel for the floating rig market? Utilization…
The UK business of CNOOC-owned Nexen Petroleum is planning two high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) exploration wells in the North Sea, with at least one in 2017, and assessing a phase 2 of its massive Buzzard development. Presenting…
Quadrant Energy’s Phoenix South-2 (PS-2) well is expected to commence in the next seven days to appraise the Phoenix South-1 oil discovery in the Barret Sandstone and evaluate the deeper Caley Sandstone, akin to the Roc field, for gas and condensate…
Without higher oil prices, many new projects are thought to be uneconomic. Or are they? Douglas-Westwood recently reviewed more than 250 upstream capital projects sanctioned in the last four years to assess how industry costs are moving…
The Transocean Winner has been loaded onto the Hawk semisubmersible heavy lift ship, and is preparing for its journey to Turkey, according to the UK’s Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA). The Transocean Winner…
UK authorities are hopeful that they may finally have a weather window to move the Transocean Winner semisubmersible rig. With just days to go before the heavy transport vessel due to move it is due to come off contract, contingencies are already being assessed…
North Atlantic Drilling (NADL) entered an amendment agreement with Jurong Shipyard that will extend the delivery deferral period of the West Rigel semisubmersible to 6 January 2017. The extension allows the parties to continue to explore commercial opportunities for the unit…
Dubai-based rig builder and engineering firm Lamprell's new CEO Christopher McDonald has taken up his role as firm enters 'challenging period.' James Moffat, who has been in the role of CEO since March 2013, has stepped down but will…
Rig builder and engineering firm Lamprell delivered its latest newbuild jackup and won a new contract. The new US$90 million contract award, from Jacktel, part of Master Marine, is for the upgrade of the mobile operating unit Haven as…
A strike by workers in the Norwegian sector has led to a number of rigs in the basin having to halt operations and staff being put on temporary dismissal. Songa Offshore says three of its four newbuild Cat D rigs are out of operation and on force majeure rate…