Patrick Phelan (pictured) became MD of drilling equipment and support services provider Aquaterra Energy last month. He joined from JDR Cable Systems, where he served as MD from 1999 to 2011. George Morrison, Aquaterra’s MD for the past six years…
AGR’s Aberdeen-based consultancy division has doubled its manpower in the Falklands to supply a team to its well management division to work on the Leiv Eiriksson. Following a six-month recruitment drive, the company expected to deploy a 50…
The Deepwater Horizon went to its grave on 22 April 2010 taking eleven men with her. In the two years since, the disaster has been investigated and reviewed by several august panels and consultants in the US at the behest of the Obama administration…
The complexity and sheer scale of Total's Pazflor project in block 17 offshore Angola – the field covers 600km2, six times the surface area of Paris – was outlined at the recent Subsea Europe conference in Paris by Laurent Villard, the operator's SURF installation engineering leader…
Mooring Systems’ 150t spooler for the BP Valhall flowline.Aberdeen-based Moorings Systems has completed the installation of a flexible export flowline to transfer water to a DP tanker at the BP Valhall platform complex in the Norwegian North Sea…
Building on a record high set in 2011, upstream oil & gas spending in the UK will continue at robust levels in 2012 and beyond, according to research consulting company Wood Mackenzie. In the firm’s annual analysis of the previous year’s UK upstream spending and outlook for the coming months…
Andrew McBarnet speculates whether evolving microseismic monitoring technology being harnessed for the US onshore shale gas revolution could end up offshore. The rapid development of US onshore shale gas must count as the most stunning turnaround ever in the country's energy prospects…
Matt Walsh has been named as American Electric Technologies’ VP, South America business development, a newly created role focused on building the company’s market share in the Brazilian oil & gas and marine markets. Walsh rejoins the company…
Weatherford has taken delivery of the first ten of 14 Atlas Copco XAS 186 portable energy compressors ordered for Middle East cementing operations offshore and onshore. Eight of them feature special skid frames and additional ‘add ons’ specified…
Safer, faster, more efficient, more productive, more cost-effective and simpler interfaces top the technology wish lists of many in the offshore oil & gas sector over the next decade, as Jennifer Pallanich reveals in part two of this month's special survey…
With 22 active heave compensated (AHC) cranes ranging from 10t to 250t currently operational on its vessels and another 17 on order, French offshore service provider Bourbon Subsea Services considers itself something of an authority on AHC crane capabilities…
TORXS saves a well Baker Hughes has introduced an expandable liner hanger system that the company says is the only system of its type that is installed and released prior to a cement job, eliminating the risk of running tools becoming fixed in place during cementing…
Despite a brief interruption post-Macondo, the rig newbuilding boom that started in 2005 is gathering momentum. Jennifer Pallanich talks to IHS about the latest trends in the drilling contractor market.One of the trends that Tom Kellock, Houston's head of consulting for IHS Petrodata…
Reservoir complexity and an emphasis on asset integrity have encouraged developers to refine visualization technology for oil & gas applications. OE shares details of a handful of new products that have come across our desk in recent weeks.The…
With 2011 drawing to a close, it's time for OE to look afresh at the world's emerging hot spots. One of those generating the most interest, if not the most dollars yet, is also the coldest: the Arctic. Jennifer Pallanich asks a cross-section…