Ecuador formally joined the World Energy Council as a member country last Friday, 22 August. In a ceremony in Quito, hosted by Dr. Esteban Albornoz Vintimilla, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, the World Energy Council formally…
Pacific Drilling’s ultra deepwater Pacific Sharav began its five-year drilling contract for Chevron on 27 August 2014. The contract is estimated to be worth more than US$1 billion, bringing Pacific Drilling’s total contract backlog as of 22 June 2012…
Cabotage is trade or navigation in coastal waters and traditionally refers to shipping along coastal routes, transporting passengers or goods from port to port in the same country. Laws governing cabotage serve to protect local industries…
Martin Landro won the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s (NPD) IOR award for his work on developing 4D seismic for mapping, production management and monitoring of reservoirs. Landro is a geophysics professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology…
Lagos-based Star Deep Water Petroleum signed a contract extension for Pacific Drilling’s Pacific Bora. The Pacific Bora is currently drilling offshore Nigeria. The contract extension increases the drillship’s backlog by approximately US$439 million…
Claudio Paschoa takes a look at Ceona’s vertical pipelay vessel, Polar Oynx, now serving Petrobras offshore Brazil. Polar Onyx in the Storfjord in Norway. Photo from Norsk Skipsfarts Forum. With…
On Friday, The US International Trade Commission endorsed anti-dumping duties on steel pipe imports from four Asian countries, Turkey, and Ukraine. The USITC voted on 22 August that imports of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) from South Korea…
A power cut at Shell’s Nelson platform, 124 miles off Aberdeen in the North Sea, saw 148 of the 167 on board airlifted to the nearby Borgholm Dolphin flotel on Tuesday (19 August). Nineteen workers remained on the rig while the problem is resolved…
Production from the entire Siri area offshore Denmark is hoped to resume in Q3 on finalization of permanent structural repair to the Siri platform (right). Noreco, a partner in the Cecile License, which relies on Siri for offtake, said…
Baker Hughes issued the July 2014 international rotary drilling rig count last week, showing a total of 1382 rigs operating outside the US & Canada. International activity in July was up 38 rigs from the 1344 rigs drilling in June 2014…
Staatsolie, Suriname’s state-oil company, is offering three deepwater blocks through a competitive bid round. The blocks for bid include offshore blocks 58, 59 and 60, which lie east of Suriname in the Suriname-Guyana basin. The Suriname…
Forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center raised the likelihood for a below-normal season in last week’s update to the Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook. Image…
Finland's Arctech Helsinki Shipyard signed a contract to build three icebreaking stand-by vessels for Russia´s largest shipping company, Sovcomflot (SCF Group). The vessels will be built for the North East Sakhalin Offshore region oil…
Oman's Ministry of Oil & Gas (MOG) has announced an oil and exploration bid round which includes two blocks offshore. The two offshore blocks 18, 59 are being opened to bidders alongside onshore blocks 43A, 54, 58. Block 18 is in…
Chinese industrial conglomerate Fosun International Ltd. is buying Australia’s Roc Oil Co. Ltd. in an all-cash, A$474 million (US$441 million) transaction. Sydney-based Roc Oil has assets from Australia to Malaysia, China, and the UK North Sea…