Hunting has completed the acquisition of Specialty Supply for an initial cash consideration of $31 million. Located in Houston, Specialty manufactures precisionmachined MWD parts used in directional drilling markets worldwide.Lankhorst Mouldings and…
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…
Class society Lloyd's Register is working with leading owners and operators from the oil & gas sector to improve current methods of monitoring the performance of blowout preventers. Two risk management specialists within the Lloyd's Register Group…
Offshore rig and vessel repair continues to produce attractive returns for yards that are well placed strategically and geographically. OE checks out the latest developments at two players – one in Bahrain, the other in Gibraltar – still relatively…
Baker Hughes continues to invest heavily in R&D, having reorganized itself along ‘geo-market' lines over the last couple of years. During the recent SPE ATCE gathering in Denver, Russell McCulley caught up with the oilfield services giant's president of products & technology…
BP has received approval from the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for a supplemental exploration plan in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, the company’s first such approval since the April 2010 blowout and spill at its Macondo prospect and…
North Sea independent Ithaca Energy will use Petrofac's FPF-1 semi – the former AH-001 deployed by Hess on Ivanhoe/Rob Roy – as a production hub to develop the Greater Stella Area (GSA ) fields, Stella, Harrier, Hurricane and Helios. Jennifer Pallanich reports…
The Macondo incident pushed oil spill response to the top of the environmental agenda. A recent contest let some innovative companies demonstrate spill response equipment – and for one of the event's technical advisors, Shell, to reassure the public that it intends to operate safely in Alaska…
A growing belief that the ‘bow wave' of the long-awaited North Sea decommissioning market has now reached the industry was evident at last month's sell-out Offshore Decommissioning Conference† in Dunblane, Scotland. Meg Chesshyre reports.A plea…
A federal investigation of the Macondo disaster does not pinpoint what caused the well's cement job to fail, but backs up earlier conclusions that operator BP and its contractors skirted safety measures that could have prevented the blowout…
Siri field operator Dong Energy is now forging ahead with a DK r2 billion ($384 million) permanent repair programme that virtually constitutes a redevelopment of the Danish North Sea field in 60m of water. Meg Chesshyretalks to Dong's executive vice president E&P Søren Gath Hansen…
Securing safe, smart, sustainable supply' provided the theme for SPE Offshore Europe, the biennial Aberdeen conference and exhibition that continues to bring in the crowds. A record-setting 32,025 unique visitors attended September's show. OE's Jennifer Pallanich…
Petroleum engineering has once again become a popular course of study, perhaps nowhere more than in Louisiana. Russell McCulley looks at what its flagship university is doing to prepare the next generation of oil & gas professionals.In some respects…
Statoil’s two UKCS heavy oil developments – Mariner in block 9/11a and Bressay in blocks 3/27b, 3/28a, 3/28b, 9/2a and 3/a – are back on track having been halted by the operator in March following the UK Chancellor’s decision to increase the…
Materials and long-lead items are only two of the challenges offshore yards must juggle. Regulations and their impact on operators also keep fabricators on their toes. Jennifer Pallanich calls on Kiewit Offshore Services to see how the Gulf…