Rosneft and partner Eni have spud the Maria-1 exploration well in the Zapadno-Chernomorskaya licence area in the Black Sea. The license is estimated to hold oil in place of over 570 million tons, Rosneft reported on 20 December. To prepare for drilling…
Petrobras has released its new 2018-2022 business plan, in which the Brazilian giant has promised to maintain about the same level of investments in exploration and production (E&P) as it listed in last year's plan. Photo from OE/Audrey Leon…
Eni has acquired from Shell a 32.5% interest in and operatorship of the Evans Shoal gas field offshore northern Australia. Evans Shoal is in Retention Lease NT/RL7, in the north Bonaparte Basin around 300km northwest of Darwin, where the Darwin liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant is operating…
Statoil awarded Transocean a 22-well contract in the Norwegian North Sea for the harsh environment semisubmersible Transocean Spitsbergen with an estimated duration of 33 months; plus two one-well options. The estimated firm backlog associated…
How did global oil and gas exploration fare in 2017? It depends on who you ask. Photo from Maersk Drilling. Rystad Energy reported today (21 December) that 2017 was another record low year…
UK-based remote operated vehicle operator ROVOP has increased its ROV fleet by 50% following aUS$74.93 (£56 million) funding boost. Blue Water Energy and BGF have jointly committed to the funding, which allowed ROVOP to buy an additional 24 ROVs…
A total of 30 oil and gas discoveries were made in Q3 2017. Of these, 18 were conventional oil, one was heavy oil, one was unconventional gas, and the remaining 10 were conventional gas, according to analytics firm GlobalData. Among countries…
Geoscience firm TGS is to start a new multiclient acquisition project called Alonso 3D in the US Gulf of Mexico. Alonso 3D will cover 6172sq km in the Atwater Valley and Lloyd Ridge protraction areas of the US Gulf of Mexico. TGS says multi-level targets exist…
Norwegian seismic firm Polarcus has received a letter of award from TGS for the acquisition of 6172sq km of 3D seismic data in the Gulf of Mexico. TGS announced earlier today (21 December) that the firm will begin the Alonso 3D survey in February 2018…
Norway's Statoil is planning to start production from a US$2.27 (NOK19 billion) expansion project on its Snorre field in the Norwegian North Sea by 2021, tapping an additional 200 MMbo from the field and extending its life out to at least 2040…
Senegal and Mauritania are set for a raft of activity as two major projects move towards putting both countries on the deepwater map, while Cyprus waits in the wings. Elaine Maslin reports. (First published in the December 2017 OE.) Rokhaya Diallo Gunning…
Eni reported today (20 December) it has signed a Petroleum Agreement (PA) with the Moroccan State Company ONHYM to enter into the Tarfaya Offshore Shallow exploration permits I-XII in the Atlantic Ocean offshore the cities of Sidi Ifni, Tan Tan and Tarfaya…
Work is expected to start mid-December on TGS and Schlumberger’s new 2D seismic project offshore Egypt. The project will comprise acquisition of a 10,000 km 2D long-offset broadband multiclient seismic survey. Advanced new acquisition and…
Seabed Geosolutions has been awarded a 3D ocean bottom node (OBN) seismic acquisition project over the greater Angostura field in shallow waters, offshore Trinidad for BHP, and a 4D OBN project for Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company…
Eni and partner BP have confirmed that production has started from the giant Zohr gas field offshore Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea. The deepwater field, with potential resources in excess of 30 Tcf of gas in place, started-up in less than two and a half years from the discovery…