Petrobras announced drilling has started on the first exploration well on the Libra pre-salt area in the Santos basin offshore Brazil. Drilling on Libra, discovered in 2010, and estimated to contain 8-12 billion boe, comes as marine production…
Nigeria focused Oando Energy Resources Inc. (OER) has completed the acquisition of ConocoPhillips' Nigerian upstream oil and gas business for a total cash consideration of US$1.5 billion, after customary adjustments, plus a deferred consideration of $33 million…
On 17 July, senators in the Australian Parliament voted to disallow the Federal Government from continuing to issue Maritime Crew (subclass 988) visas to foreign workers for the purposes of working in Australia’s offshore oil and gas industry…
Houston-based Apache Energy found gas and associated liquid hydrocarbons in the Phoenix South-1 well off Western Australia, in the Roebuck basin, before a drill bit failure on 29 July. Over the past two weeks, Apache drilled to a depth…
FAR Ltd. reported that the Cairn-operated FAN-1 exploration well resumed drilling on the North Fan prospect in 1500m water depth, offshore Senegal on 28 July. Drilling to date has reached 3000m with a planned TD of approximately 5300m using Transocean’s fifth-generation semisubmersible…
FMC Technologies established a joint industry program focused on developing a new generation of standardized subsea production equipment and systems, the company has announced. The JIP, which includes Anadarko Petroleum, BP, ConocoPhillips…
Royal Dutch Shell is selling a major portion of its stake in Australia's Woodside Petroleum Ltd., raising AU$5.7billion. Shell is selling 9.5% back to Woodside, and another 9.5% to institutional investors, at a small discount to the closing share price on 16 June 2014…
OMV (Norge) has made an oil dioscvery on the 7324/7-2 Hanssen well, in production license 537, in the Barents Sea. The Hanssen discovery was made about 7km northwest of the 7324/8-1 Wisting Central oil discovery and about 315km north of Hammerfest…
A cost reduction program has meant Total has now decided to move forward with its West of Shetland Edradour subsea development, the French oil major said today. Edradour, in Block 206/4a, in about 300m water depth, 75km northwest of the Shetlands…
On 5 January 2014, Euronav NV announced it would acquire 15 very large crude carriers (VLCC) from Maersk Tankers Singapore Pte Ltd. Today, Euronav said that eight of the VLCCs have been delivered in the first half of 2014. Deliveries…
Maersk Drilling has ordered the offshore oil and gas industry’s first 20,000-psi (20-ksi) rated deepwater blowout preventer (BOP) stack and riser systems. The four BOPs and two risers, ordered from GE Oil and Gas, will be used in the Project 20K agreement with BP…
UK-based downhole video technology specialist EV has completed a £69 million management buyout backed by Dunedin, the UK mid-market buyout house. Headquartered in Norwich, EV provides downhole video applications for the oil and gas industry…
BP and the China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) signed a heads of agreement regarding the supply of up to 1.5MTPA of liquefied natural gas (LNG) over 20 years starting in 2019, the supermajor announced on 17 June 2014. The agreement…
Ocean Rig UDW Inc., a subsidiary of Athens-based DryShips Inc., announced that it signed a six-year contract with Total E&P Angola for drilling operations in Block 32 offshore Angola, using the ultra-deepwater drillship Ocean Rig Skyros…
Drilling continues at Statoil's Martin prospect in Mississippi Canyon Block 718 with the Maersk Developer semisubmersible, in 850m (2789ft) water depth. Statoil plans to run a zero-offset vertical seismic profile (VSP) survey on or before 15 August 2014…