Engineering firm Wood Group has started detailed engineering on the Leviathan field development platform after completing front-end engineering and design (FEED) on the project. Leviathan is Noble Energy's giant gas field project in the Mediterranean Sea…
Belgium marine contractor DEME has ordered a new, 300-tonne lifting capacity offshore transport and installation vessel, to be called Orion, from China's COSCO. The vessel is set to be delivered in 2019 and will be deployed by DEME’s…
TDI-Brooks International, under contract to TGS, recently completed a coring program for the Gigante survey in the Gulf of Mexico. Map of Gigante, from TDI-Brooks. TDI-Brooks…
Odfjell Drilling has signed a conditional letter of award with an oil major for a one well contract to be drilled by the sixth generation semisubmersible, Deepsea Stavanger, offshore South Africa. The contract commencement is back to…
The US Senate has confirmed that Ryan Zinke will lead the Department of the Interior (DOI), nearly three months following the Trump administration’s nomination in December. Image of Zinke, from US House of Representatives…
Chevron and Inpex will make their entry into the Mexican Gulf of Mexico, following an agreement signed between the US supermajor, Japanese giant, and Mexico’s Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), for the exploration of Block 3 North in the Perdido Fold Belt…
Royal Boskalis Westminster has sold all of its remaining stake in Fugro. Boskalis went from owning 28.6% stake in Fugro at the end of 2015, to 9.38% in December 2016. The reduction was accomplished through a successful accelerated bookbuild via which 7…
McDermott International has won a contract award from Hess Corp. for subsea tieback work for its deepwater Penn State Deep (PSD) field in the Gulf of Mexico. The PSD field is located in the Garden Banks 216 block in approximately 1500ft of water…
Petrobras and Total have signed deals worth US$2.2 billion that will see Total take stakes in a number of Brazilian offshore fields and an onshore plant. Petrobras has agreed to give Total 22.5% in the Iara concession area, containing the Sururu…
All eyes may be on Guyana, but there’s plenty of other countries worthy of attention in South America. Audrey Leon surveys the current spike in exploration activity in the region. Image from Anadarko Petroleum’s Q4 Operations Report…
Scott Weeden looks at new developments in extended reach drilling, which include managing vibrations, thereby allowing the BHA and bit to stay on bottom longer and get the well to total depth. The…
Artificial neural networks are being used to help design floating production system hulls in the concept and front-end engineering phases. Elaine Maslin reports. Libra and her possible smaller…
Audrey Leon speaks with Karim Lassel, Director General, CGG México, to get the company’s perspective on Mexico’s geology, the energy reform, and much more. CGG’s sister vessels, the Oceanic Sirius and Oceanic Vega…
Fernando C. Hernandez, of SECC Oil & Gas, and Efrain Rodriguez, of IMP, discuss efforts to research rigless production solutions for Mexican deepwater operations. Figure 1: SECC’s connector installed on a manifold…
Over enthusiasm in the recent floating rig building cycle has led to an ultra deepwater “hangover” that will take several years of recovery, says Liz Tysall and Oddmund Føre, of Rystad Energy. Transocean…