Baker Hughes has expanded its SmartCare line of products to include what the company describes as ‘more environmentally responsible’ drilling and completion fluids, production chemicals and additives used in cementing and stimulation procedures…
Germany's Lufthansa continues to beef up its international oil & gas routes with the launch of Airbus A380 service between Houston and the company's Frankfurt hub. Russell McCulley was invited along for the inaugural flight.Lufthansa flight 440 departed Frankfurt Airport 1 August…
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…
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…
Mooring of the PSVM FPSO in 2000m of water in BP’s ultra-deepwater block 31 offshore Angola was completed recently by First Subsea. The double-hulled FPSO is a hub field development that will produce oil from the Plutao, Saturno, Venus and Marte fields…
The new Hydro-Ram yard facility opened by IHC Merwede in Broussard, Louisiana, will also serve as the Dutch group’s North America regional office for the piling markets. The facility will house a large rental fleet, maintenance operation and…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Two years after Macondo, BP launched an all-out effort at OTC 2012 to demonstrate its commitment to safety and to its future in the Gulf of Mexico. Russell McCulley reports.Among the many legacies of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout is what'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)…
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…
With the successful deployment of its new large bore SIM plug systems at Apache’s Sinbad field on the North West Shelf, Peak Well Systems chalked up an industry first offshore Australia earlier this year. Russell McCulley pays a visit to the…
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…