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…
IHC Merwede, better known for its high-end sophisticated construction vessels, has developed a versatile in-house IHC Supporter class, targeting the light construction market, ROV construction support market and in particular the growing cable lay market associated with wind farms…
At a recent Bergen conference showcasing the strength in depth of Norway's subsea industry, Statoil EVP Øystein Michelsen challenged delegates to work with his company in developing the technology to go further, deeper and colder and seize the…
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…
Subsea thermal insulation has an important role to play in ensuring the smooth running of offshore facilities as the industry moves into deeper waters and fluids get warmer. Trelleborg Offshore's Grethe Hartviksen argues that innovative synthetic…
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…
Specialist offshore fabricators continue to innovate in pursuit of an oil & gas market edge. Meg Chesshyre opens this month's yards round-up with a review of progress on the latest additions to Centrica Energy's North Sea infrastructure.Centrica’s…
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)…
In a perceptive and timely contribution to the ongoing Macondo debate, US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement director James Watson spelled out the key lessons learned from the disaster in a Houston Chronicle opinion piece last month…
ENSCO 8505, the sixth in a series of seven ultra-deepwater semisubmersibles, recently arrived in Texas for final trials before launching a two-year stint under contract to Anadarko, Apache and Noble Energy in the Gulf of Mexico. Russell McCulley was on hand in Corpus Christi…
Runar Tunem (pictured) has joined Norwegian winch and deck machinery specialist Rapp Hydema in the company‘s newly established Stavanger office as head of global sales and marketing. He brings to the role 17 years’ experience in the drilling, subsea and maritime sectors.
One of Bergen’s biggest and boldest offshore players is Framo Engineering, now wholly owned by Schlumberger following its purchase of the Sandsli-headquartered company’s remaining equity shares in June 2011. The two organisations had worked…
Salaries for oil & gas industry engineers shot up over the past year, rising an average 6.1% across several professional disciplines, according to a new survey released by recruitment firm Hays.The average permanent salary across the survey's sample of 144…
One portion of the Golden Triangle – the Gulf of Mexico – has slipped a notch in its dominance of the global deepwater play while activities in the other two corners – West Africa and Brazil – amped up. In addition, a new region has joined the report this year…