Deepwater drilling is back and targeting ever deeper waters, from South Africa to Pakistan.Deepwater exploration is starting to get serious, again. If fact, French oil major Total is lined up to drill what will be a new deepwater drilling record later this year…
Brazil has more than doubled the number of risky ship-to-ship oil transfers this year, but its monitoring of such offshore maneuvers is lax, to a point where a July 2017 collision between two tankers was not reported, according to a Reuters review of government and shipping records…
While a leaner and more selective exploration industry has emerged over the past two years, Wood Mackenzie expects Latin America to buck this global trend in 2018, with intense exploration activity expected in frontier basins in the Equatorial Margin…
It’s a smaller, more focused exploration world as we start 2018. Elaine Maslin discusses the main themes for 2018 with Wood Mackenzie’s Andrew Latham (First published in the January 2018 OE, access full issue here). Deepwater is very…
Renowned for its agriculture and livestock industries, Uruguay has sought to expand its oil and gas exploration and production sector over the past decade. The South American nation hopes that its third offshore licensing round will attract…
Uruguay's Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM) and national oil firm ANCAP have launched the Uruguay Round 3, an offshore licensing round. Image from iStock. Seventeen…
Oilfield giant schlumberger has revealed a slew of new contacts including a deal to supply equipment to the Leviathan field, offshore Israel, and to perform ocean bottom survey work on BP's Clair Ridge field, west of Shetland, UK. The…
All eyes may be on Guyana, but there’s plenty of other countries worthy of attention in South America. Audrey Leon surveys the current spike in exploration activity in the region. Image from Anadarko Petroleum’s Q4 Operations Report…
Independent explorer Tullow Oil is lining up a string of exploration projects this year, including targeting the 500 MMbo Araku prospect offshore Suriname in 2H this year. Other projects include seismic campaigns in Ghana, Jamaica and Uruguay…
Despite reductions in exploration spend, work goes on. Elaine Maslin speaks with Wood Mackenzie’s Andrew Latham to find out where explorers will aim their drillbits this year. Stena DrillMAX. Photo from Stena Drilling…
Elaine Maslin reports on the year’s top discoveries to date. The largest discoveries were smaller in 2016, but the average ranged between 396-524 MMboe. Atwood Oceanic’s Atwood Achiever drillship…
Tullow Oil is moving to get its Jubilee project offshore Ghana on track by year-end, as it firms up plans to divest all of its Norwegian assets by 1H 2017. Image from Tullow. “We…
Norwegian giant Statoil and Argentina’s state owned company YPF have entered a cooperation agreement to study the offshore areas of Argentina. Darre, Dodson. Image from YPF. YPF CEO Ricardo Darre…
Total E&P Uruguay awarded Fugro a contract to support its drilling campaign offshore Uruguay. The contract provides for ROV and tooling services in the Raya-1 prospect in 3400m water depth. Fugro is supplying two state-of-the-art 200hp FCV 4000D work-class ROV systems and subsea tooling…
Independent explorer Tullow Oil has returned to a profit and is looking forward to first production on its TEN project offshore Ghana next month, on schedule, and focusing its exploration efforts on South America. TEN, a floating production…