BP has come under fierce criticism for its response to the Macondo blowout, a months-long saga of top hats, riser insertion tools and other containment efforts that only began collecting a significant portion of the oil spilling into the Gulf several weeks after the event…
Ultimately, the life of existing offshore assets will have to be extended, safely and reliably, and balancing production against integrity requires a comprehensive understanding of those assets and the use of management strategies that engage employees at all levels…
Chemical tracers have long been used to keep tabs on what is going on in a reservoir, such as characterizing injection water flow through the reservoir, and to determine what type of fluid is flowing from a certain location along the well. Jennifer…
Boosting recoveryThe HiWay flow-channel hydraulic fracturing technique, formally released by Schlumberger late June, is designed to maximize production and hydrocarbon recovery through the creation of open flow channels within the propped fracture…
Subsea trenching is not seen as one of the offshore industry's most glamorous or challenging activities – what could be more straightforward than digging in the dirt? In truth, however, it is far easier to lose money trenching than to make it…
Increased uncertainties about operating in ultra-deepwater typically result in over-designed production systems with resulting increased costs. Prasanna Parthasarathy and Kellin Nelson of MSi Kenny and Shell's Howard Littell discuss how high…
Nieuw-Lekkerland-headquartered Bayards, a key player in the offshore aluminium industry, is seeing early signs that the recession's grip on major oil & gas projects may at last be loosening.‘The market is coming back,' reports the company's commercial director Dick de Kluijver…
Fugro has teamed up with specialist underwater acoustics company Jasco Applied Sciences to provide a new marine renewables sector service – measurement of underwater noise and allied consultancy.With the measurement of underwater noise created…
Having enjoyed the occasional taste of EPC responsibility in recent years, Van Oord Offshore is looking for much more of the same. Although perhaps best known for its rock installation muscle as a subcontractor to the likes of Saipem and Allseas…
Heavy lifting, drilling and pipelay solutions provider Huisman has designed and built rock dumping systems before, notably for Tideway's Rollingstone and Seahorse vessels. But its next system, to be delivered later this year for the Tideway newbuild Flintstone…
The Macondo oil spill will have a lasting impact, but not the same repercussions on the petroleum industry that the Three Mile Island accident had on the nuclear industry. So said Douglas Becker, director oil services & equipment, global research for Bank of America…
Andrew McBarnet detects a shift of emphasis in the marketing of marine seismic.The marine seismic industry is well used to the cyclical nature of its operations, but could currently be described as being in something of a state of limbo. This…
Big things are in the air at Dockwise. Since going public on the Dutch stock exchange last December, the heavy marine transportation specialist has been putting together an ambitious five-year growth plan for its traditional core business and two key bolt-on activities…
With holding power over 100 times their own weight as well as clear economic advantages, the first drag embedment anchors made quite a splash in the offshore industry in the 1970s. Yet some project engineers still feel more comfortable with…
Within days of sister company Heerema Fabrication Group handing over the largest offshore deck ever built in the Netherlands, Heerema Marine Contractors was announcing plans to diversify its installation fleet with a multirole monohull vessel…