An important milestone in Apache's UK North Sea Bacchus field development was reached recently with installation of a 6.7km pipeline bundle. The job was overseen by Flexlife, whose operations director John Marsden here describes how it was planned and executed…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The world's largest cargo barge – Heerema's H-851 – announced its arrival on the offshore scene in 1988 when installing the 44,785t jacket for Shell's Bullwinkle platform in a then daunting 412m of water in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, following…
Netherlands-based lightweight fibre specialist DSM Dyneema believes a recent ultra-deepwater recovery operation amply justifies its trademarked claim to have ‘the world's strongest fibre'.A salvage operation on a ship wreck in 3200m of water…
Investments in the region of NKr65 billion are on the cards over the next few years following ConocoPhillips' recent submission of its plans for the further development of the Ekofisk and Eldfisk fields to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum & Energy…
Decommissioning and abandonment specialist Cutting Underwater Technologies (Cut) assisted Heerema's Thialf with the removal of the Norpipe 37/4A booster platform's eightlegged steel jacket as part of Norway's Ekofisk cessation project. The 5500t platform stood in 85m of water…
DNV expects shortly to issue the first ISDS (Integrated Software Dependent Systems) class certificate to Dolphin Drilling. This new state-of-the art class notation has been under development since 2008 and the class society says it is already in demand…
OPITO, the Aberdeen-headquartered body serving as the focal point for skills, learning and workforce development in the UK energy sector, estimates that over 15,000 new posts will be required over the next five years to deliver UK offshore project plans…
Operator Perenco and its key subcontractors on January's Welland 53/4A gas production platform removal – Scaldis SMC, Overdick, Hoondert and Proserv Offshore – believe the project has set a new decommissioning performance benchmark for southern North Sea operators and service providers alike…
A resurgent UK offshore oil & gas sector is mired in fresh uncertainty following the coalition government's surprise imposition of what is, in all but name, a windfall tax on North Sea production. David Morgan reports.In his Budget speech last month…
Differing perspectives on the African exploration & production scene were offered during IP Week in London last month, with Tullow Oil and Afren describing their respective approaches to the continent and Equatorial Guinea's energy ministry updating the republic's offshore developments to date…