VAM's Houston facilityHouston facility tests GOM shale applicationsVAM USA has plans to expand its Houston-based Connection Technology Center to 90,000 sq ft, doubling its R&D capacity, the company announced on 29 November 2012.The…
Black Elk Energy production platformBody indentified as missing Grand Isle workerThe death toll from Black Elk Energy's 16 November platform fire has risen to three as the body of the sole missing worker has been recovered off Grand Isle…
Deepwater Horizon accidentEPA says BP shows lack of business integrity The EPA has temporarily banned BP from receiving federal contracts, citing a ‘lack of business integrity' due to its role in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the U…
Three Streams EngineeringFoster Wheeler buys Canadian engineering firmFoster Wheeler has acquired Calgary-based Three Streams Engineering for an undisclosed amount.Three Streams is a multi-discipline full service engineering, procurement…
EPAThe American Petroleum Institute (API) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia late Monday against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its decision to mandate the use of 1.28 billion gallons of biodiesel in 2013…
Aker Solutions plans to purchase Canadian asset integrity management (AIM) company Thurm Energy, the company announced on 22 November 2012.The financial details were undisclosed; however, Aker said the acquisition will grow its AIM portfolio and boost its presence in the Atlantic Canada market…
US Coast Guard PhotoA second worker has died of injuries sustained after a fire broke out on Black Elk Energy's production platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. announced on 23 November 2012.Baton…
US Coast Guard PhotoAfter 100 hours of search and rescue efforts, Black Elk Energy has ended its search for a missing worker who vanished following an explosion at its production platform offshore Louisiana on Friday, the company announced on 20 November…
Thomas DiNapoliChevron has filed a complaint with the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics against state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in connection with the company's ongoing litigation in Ecuador, Chevron announced 20 November 2012…
Photo: BPA new discovery at BP's Savonette field offshore Trinidad has doubled the field's estimated reserves to 2Tcf, the supermajor announced on 19 November 2012.The Savonette 4 exploration well encountered an estimated 1Tcf of gas in two reservoir intervals…
Robert Bachman, a friend and a distinguished reservoir engineer from Calgary, sent me an e-mail on 11 November 2011: ‘Michael, I am really looking forward to your comments on the Keystone debacle. You know as well as I do that the US has just stabbed their best friend in the back…
When a major operator with extensive holdings on the US Gulf of Mexico shelf wanted to scale back the use of divers while ramping up decommissioning and platform removal activities, it turned to contractor Versabar, the company behind the Bottom Feeder heavy lift system…
As 2011 drew to a close, yet another Deepwater Horizon report surfaced, this time from the National Academy of Engineering. Russell McCulley reports on the findings, as well as other late-year news involving ongoing legal wrangling between BP and its Macondo contractors…
Global upstream spending ballooned by 47% in 2010, driven by substantial investments in the US and Latin America, IHS reported. In the IHS Herold 2011 Global Upstream Performance Review, the information service said capital spending among 221 oil & gas companies reached $558 billion in 2010…
U.S. Coast Guard photo of the Black Elk Energy production platformHouston-based Black Elk Energy vowed to continue searching for a missing contractor after the U.S. Coast Guard suspended efforts on Saturday offshore Louisiana, the company announced on 18 November 2012…