French-owned utility group GDF Suez is stepping up its UK exploration and production operations with the goal of becoming a major player in the North Sea. The company's UK E&P arm has been involved in the sector for the past 15 years, but is now working up major expansion plans…
The Inter-M Pulse long-term mooring connector, developed by InterMoor in conjunction with sister company Pulse Structural Monitoring, was recently put through its paces in a North Sea field trial. Alan Duncan, MD of InterMoor UK, reported…
With the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season well under way, Weather Research Center's Jill Haslings discusses key learnings from the super storms of the past decade and how the Freeman/Hasling Damage Potential Scale can help the oil industry better understand the threat from the Gulf hurricanes to come…
OE's analysis of current rig market data is updated monthly using statistics provided by Rigzone.comUtilization for the competitive fleet of mobile offshore drilling units worldwide has been gradually improving since February and is currently in the mid-80% range…
Despite higher oil prices, improving access to capital, increasing economic optimism and a generally more favorable deal environment, oil & gas executives are still cautious about engaging in M&A, according to Ernst & Young's sixth Global Capital Confidence Barometer…
Tomahawk, the latest addition to Forum Subsea Technologies’ ROV range, has been built to be fast and agile and it shares the same 35kW power system and thrusters as Forum’s largest electric vehicle, the Comanche.It is manufactured at the Aberdeenshire facility of Sub-Atlantic…
The water depth record for conventional mooring offshore Brazil was improved by another 12m – to 2027m – by InterMoor recently under its one-year mooring and positioning support operations contract with Shell using the mobile offshore drilling unit Noble Clyde Boudreaux (pictured)…
A new line of fire-resistant cables, developed by Keystone with input from engineers, consultants and contractors involved in Chevron’s Gorgon LNG project, will feature on the Westrade Australia stand at this month’s Australasia Oil & Gas show (Perth…
Despite some concerns over the global economic outlook, oil & gas industry leaders are expecting improved performance and higher capital expenditures in 2012, according to an annual survey of top industry executives and directors.The study, Big…
Siemens last month increased its stake in UK tidal energy company Marine Current Turbines to 45%, with Michael Axmann, CFO of Siemens Energy's newly established solar & hydro division, declaring: ‘We will actively shape the commercialization process of innovative marine current power plants…
With Canadian environmental regulators tightening their monitoring and control of fluids used offshore, Castrol's Jason Vallier and K+D Pratt's Andrew Bell review existing guidelines elsewhere and the implications for Canada's E&P sector.The…
In its drive to improve and align safety and competence standards in the global oil and gas industry, Opito International has commissioned new research to discover how companies are assuring the workforce is competent, rather than simply compliant…
OE's popular annual guide to oil & gas developments on the Northwest European Continental Shelf returns, fully updated.Operators in the UK sector of the North Sea were taken aback in March this year by UK Chancellor George Osborne's decision to raise the supplementary tax rate from 20% to 32%…
Integrating several imaging and modeling technologies can reduce exploration risk. Ian Bryant (Schlumberger) and Paul Xu (formerly of Ipex) present an integrated basin and petroleum system study that predicted many oil and gas accumulations in a relatively unexplored region offshore Brazil…
The proliferation of modern specialist vessels serving just about every sector of the offshore oil & gas business has not gone unnoticed by traditional shipping industry equipment and service providers, as was plain to see at the 2011 Nor-Shipping event in Oslo late May…