The Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) of Norway has granted Statoil consent to use the Bideford Dolphin mobile drilling facility to drill a sidetrack on the Vigdis field in production license 089. The planned start-up is early February and the activity is estimated to last 8 days…
Statoil is to join French oil major Total in drilling the first deep water exploration well offshore Uraguay. Statoil has agreed to take a 15% stake in Block 14, a frontier block in the deep water Pelotas basin, about 200km offshore, in the the South Atlantic Ocean…
AziNam, the offshore Namibia focused exploration company, has announced that it has completed a 3D seismic survey on PEL 34, the Guy Block, offshore Namibia. The survey is located in the Walvis basin and was conducted by PGS Geophysical…
Semi-state owned Danish energy company DONG Energy has decided to keep its exploration and production business ahead of floating on the stock market. But, the firm said its exploration and production business will have to 'adapt to the significant decline in oil and gas prices…
Despite the already difficult North Sea market and painfully high cost levels, a new research report published today by DNV GL reveals that more short-term cost cuts are expected in 2016. Sixty-five percent of UK respondents think mistakes made in previous downturns are being repeated…
Atlantic margin focused explorer Chariot Oil & Gas has started a 3D seismic acquisition survey of approximately 2600sq km in Blocks 2312 & 2412A (the “Central Blocks”) offshore Namibia. The survey is being conducted by PGS Exploration…
Oil services giant Schlumberger posted more than a US$1 billion loss in its Q4 and full year 2015 results, in addition to a further 10,000 job cuts, bringing its workforce reduction to some 30,000 for the year. Kibsgaard…
Saudi Arabia’s reluctance to cut production to maintain its share of the global crude market has paid off. By not “blinking first”, the Kingdom has succeeded in driving rigs out of the US shale market with current rotary rig counts down 65% from 2014 highs in September…
Norway's latest awards in predefined areas (APA) license round has been hailed a success with some 56 exploration licenses being offered on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The APA rounds offer acreage in known areas on the shelf, rather than frontier acreage…
Two Israeli firms are eying a multi-trillion cubic feet deepwater gas field offshore Israel. According to a resource report by Netherland, Sewell & Associates, the Og field lower sand contains 8.84 Tcf best estimate, unrisked gross prospective…
Statoil awarded IKM Ocean Design a contract worth an estimated US$22.5 million (NOK 200 million) for the Johan Castberg subsea integration pre-FEED and FEED project. Image of the contract signing in Oslo of Peder Hoås and Geir Paulsen…
Protea has completed the manufacture of a comprehensive crane package for an FSO (floating, storage, and offloading) that will be chartered by Total for operation at the Martin Linge offshore development. Comprising of two deck cranes…
Some US$380 billion worth of upstream oil and gas projects have been put on hold as a result of the fall in oil prices, according to new research by analysts Wood Mackenzie. The Edinburgh based firm says the last six months of 2015 saw…
DOF Subsea inked US$30.8 million (NOK 270 million) in IMR and subsea installation contracts in the Asia Pacific and Atlantic regions that will use the company’s subsea project fleet. Skandi Hercules…
Shell has terminated the contract for the Polar Pioneer, a harsh environment semisubmersible drilling rig, announced rig owner Transocean on 28 December. The rig was famously used this summer in Shell's Arctic campaign in the Chukchi Sea…