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…
With power generated from offshore wind farms forecast to grow from 3GW to 75GW over the next decade, operators are looking to tried and true oil & gas practices to help reduce construction costs. Russell McCulley speaks to Canyon Offshore about…
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…
The big news coming out of Europe is that it is running out of money, but is Europe also running out of gas? Infield Systems' Peter Kiernan(left) and Dr Roger Knight discuss the future of Europe's gas supply in the light of the growing need to secure energy from Russia and the Middle East…
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…
It took a month to admit that there was an oil spill in China’s Bohai Bay, from June 4 – when it happened – to July 5 when China’s The Global Times, in an unusual reaction from a presumably government controlled newspaper, wrote: ‘We cannot…
A federal investigation into the 2010 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…
The latest addition to Tideway’s fallpipe vessel fleet was named Flintstone during a high-tech ceremony in Zeebrugge, Belgium, in July – but the vessel itself was 11,000km away in Singapore being readied for an inaugural assignment in Chinese waters…
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…
The AP Moller-Maersk Group's Maersk Drilling has signed a contract with the Keppel Fels yard in Singapore for the construction of two ultra-harsh environment, high-capacity jackup drilling rigs. The new rigs are targeting operations in water…
A shortage of experienced geoscientists and petroleum engineers will delay projects and could push operators to take more risks, according to a survey released 29 March 2011.The labor market for mid-career petrotechnical professionals ‘will be tight over the next three years…
Field development prospects on the UK Continental Shelf are gathering momentum again, with Nexen (Golden Eagle, Blackbird), Chrysaor (Solan) and BG (Blake increased production) firming up North Sea project and environmental impact details in recent weeks…
Post-Macondo efforts to improve well containment capabilities on both sides of the Atlantic moved into higher gear last month.In the US it was confirmed that Technip will handle front- end engineering and design of a proposed subsea well containment…
Merger and acquisition activity in the US oil & gas sector picked up steam 3Q 2010, despite ongoing uncertainty about business in the Gulf of Mexico, reported PricewaterhouseCoopers.For the three-month period ending 30 September, there were…
Global upstream capital spending should rebound this year, according to IHS Herold director Nicholas Cacchione, author of the research firm’s 2010 Global Upstream Performance Review, released last month. ‘In North America, E&P investment increased 30% in the first half of 2010…