Offshore exploration could, finally, soon be on the agenda in Lebanon after the country's first offshore licensing round was opened. Lebanon’s Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil announced on 26 January the opening and timetable for the round…
North Atlantic Drilling has again extended a newbuild rig contract standstill agreement with Singapore's Sembcorp Marine. Sembcorp Marine's subsidiary Jurung Shipyard has been building the semisubmersible drilling rig West Rigel, on which a standstill agreement had already been put in place…
Norway's TGS has inked two new seismic vessel contracts with Norwegian geoscience firms Shearwater GeoServices and Polarcus, for surveys in Europe. Shearwater GeoServices has agreements for two surveys, one firm and one optional, starting between March and May 2017…
A decision by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to deny six pending geophysical and geological (G&G) permit applications for airgun seismic surveys in the Mid- and South Atlantic Planning Areas of the Atlantic Ocean has caused uproar in the industry…
Norway's latest licensing round has seen the fewest companies awarded licenses in the Norwegian Awards in Predefined (APA) areas in a decade. But, the number of licenses offered remains high - the most since 2013, in fact, creating an opportunity…
Premier Oil's Catcher North Sea floating production project is on schedule for startup later this year with a 29% reduced capital budget compared to when it was sanctioned, at US$1.6 billion. The Catcher area is expected to produce 96 MMboe…
Production on 10 January 2017 from the Beibu Gulf fields, offshore China, reached a total of 13.9 MMbbl, according to Horizon Oil. Up until this point, the Block 22/12 participants have been paying a fixed operating tariff of US$4.75/bbl to China National Offshore Oil Corp…
UK Independent Serica Energy is targeting a development plan for the long-dormant North Sea Columbus field this year, the firm said today. Serica is also firming up plans to drill its Rowallan prospect in North Sea block 22/18c in 2018…
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will offer more than 9000 blocks, spanning more than 48 million acres in the Central Gulf of Mexico (GoM) Lease Sale 247, which is the Obama Administration's final GoM sale in its five year program…
Ithaca Energy is further delaying its Stella field offshore the UK to February 2017 due to an electrical inspection program on the FPF-1 floating production facility. First oil was anticipated at the end of November 2016, and was pushed back to January 2017…
Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has given Statoil consent to drill well 16/2-22, an appraisal well, on the Johan Sverdrup field. The consent also applies to a possible sidetrack from this well. The Statoil-operated field, located around 140km west of Stavanger in the North Sea…
A total of 32 crude and natural gas projects are expected to commence operations in the North Sea region by 2025, with the UK claiming the highest number at 22, followed by Norway and Denmark with nine and one respectively, according to GlobalData…
The National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) has released a list of 29 foreign oil and gas firms which have been pre-qualified for its upcoming upstream projects tender round. NIOC is planning to put to a round of tenders several upstream oil…
Hyperdynamics Corp. has entered into a US$4.5 million master service agreement (MSA) with oilfield services giant Schlumberger to provide drilling services for the Fatala-1 deepwater exploration well planned for Q2 2017, offshore the Republic of Guinea…
Faroe Islands-based Atlantic Petroleum is to take over as operator of the Orlando and Kells licenses in the UK North Sea following operator Iona Energy going into administration. Orlando and Kells are in UK North Sea licenses P.1606 and P…