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…
A robust mergers & acquisitions market in the latter half of 2011, particularly in midstream, bodes well for deal making in 2012, according to Deloitte's Center for Energy Studies. But world events could throw a wrench into the M&A machine, as Russell McCulley reports…
Fifty-six i-FRAC sleeves were opened with three balls on the Norwegian shelf.Well technology company i-TEC has developed an innovative lower completion ball drop sleeve system which it claims can bring wells in tight formations online much more quickly than other methods…
Since it began addressing safety critical fire water deluge system integrity issues a year ago, Paradigm Flow Solutions has rapidly expanded its provision in this area. The company is now working on life-of-field solutions with two North Sea operators…
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…
High safety standards in oil & gas operations are better achieved when self-imposed, rather than through excessive government regulation, a leading Shell figure told delegates to this year's SPE ATCE in Denver. US editor Russell McCulley listened in…
The offshore oil & gas industry has long relied on sensors and sporadic ROV footage to find out what's going on subsea. Now a new tool designed for permanent deployment at well sites is about to change all that, according to Weatherford's Ole Tom Furu…
Andrew McBarnet puts the decision-making of marine seismic companies under the microscope.Carrying on where we left off (OE last month), the future of financially troubled SeaBird Exploration and its ocean bottom node (OBN) seismic acquisition business remains unclear…
A majority of oil & gas company officials are confident that their information security practices are effective, despite an acrossthe- board rise in security breaches in recent years, according to a new study.The 2012 Global State of Information Security Survey…
OE's popular annual guide to oil & gas developments on the Northwest European Continental Shelf returns, fully updated.Operators in the UK sector of the North Sea were taken aback in March this year by UK Chancellor George Osborne's decision to raise the supplementary tax rate from 20% to 32%…
Two Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) initiatives have been launched in the UK for offshore companies looking to address the skills gap through the reskilling of adult trainees. The first 16 learners recently completed their training…
The number and total value of US oil & gas mergers and acquisitions dipped slightly in 2Q 2011 over the same period last year, according to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study. But the average deal value for the largest transactions rose by 14%…
Earlier this year the refrain was ‘$5 natural gas forever', based on the US Energy Information Administration's (EIA) annual outlook, which argued that natural gas prices will remain below $5 per million btu until 2022. The underlying rationale was growth in the ‘vast' US shale gas resource base…
Multi-client specialist TGS took the marine seismic business by surprise last month with the purchase of Stingray Geophysical, a UK-based start up company focusing on seismic-based permanent reservoir monitoring (PRM). Andrew McBarnet discusses what prompted the move…
Following two years of development, Aberdeen Drilling Consultants recently launched its new ADC Virtual Academy division, offering what they believe is the world's first online course focused on drilling equipment for the oil & gas industry…