There has been much uncertainty in recent years around the tax relief available to companies as part of the decommissioning process, as a result of a constantly changing UK tax regime. Oil and gas companies have commonly been required…
As the oil and gas industry reacts to the continued downturn in prices, even the seismic vessels market is taking great pains to trim the fleet and stay competitive. Elaine Maslin surveys the market. GC Rieber delivered the Polar Empress…
Three firms have joined forces to lighten the load of offshore heavy lifting game. Elaine Maslin found out more. DeepTek drum winch, with 150m test length of LankoDeep AHC rope, installed on Jebsen and Jessen 110-tonne knuckle boom crane…
Norway’s Standlifter has developed a decommissioning jackup concept. The concept, shown during Norway’s Subsea Valley conference in April, is a jackup equipped for plugging and abandonment (P&A) and decommissioning operations in up to 300ft water depth…
This summer, Ampelmann will provide one of its offshore access solutions to enable ‘walk to work’ for a commissioning campaign on Premier Oil’s Solan field, West of Shetland. The Ampelmann system enables the safe and effective transfer of…
The Greek government revealed it does not have the funds to pay what is owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and cannot meet its obligations on 30 June. As a result, procedures for the country’s transition to a state of default could be initiated automatically…
Songa Offshore has taken delivery of Songa Equinox from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in Korea. Songa Equinox will shortly depart South Korea en route to Norway for commencement of an eight-year drilling contract with Statoil…
Statoil and its partners submitted an amendment to the plan for development and operations (PDO) for the Gullfaks license to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy for phase 1 of the Shetland/Lista development. Investment costs are estimated at some US$114…
Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) has started discussions with potential floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel providers for its UK north Sea Skipper development. The firm, which recently agreed to acquire 50% of the Skipper license from Alpha Petroleum…
Exploration and appraisal activity in the North Sea doubled in the opening three months of the year following the UK Chancellor’s industry tax cut, new figures reveal. Data published by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)…
The European Commission has cleared the proposed US$7.6 billion merger between Dresser-Rand and Siemens, the Houston-based equipment supplier announced on 29 June. All of the conditions precedent regarding regulatory matters have now been satisfied…
Houston-headquartered driller Northern Offshore (NOF) is to be combined with Chinese-controlled Blue Ocean Drilling into a new firm if a deal with Shandong Offshore International Co. worth about US$160 million (NOK 1.3 billion) is agreed…
Norway-based geoscience firm TGS has agreed to buy seismic firm Polarcus' multiclient library, excluding Australia, for US$ 27.5 million and future share on library late sales. The move was described as enabling Polarcus to 'navigate the current challenging market environment…
Norwegian oil firm has marked the start of construction work on the Johan Sverdrup development project - labelled the biggest industrial project in Norway for decades to come. Work started at Kværner in Verdal, Norway, today (Monday 29…
Speaking this week as the 2015 recipient of the Energy Institute (EI)'s Cadman Award, Malcolm Brinded, chairman of Shell Foundation, has called for increased focus on breakthrough technology and business innovations to respond to the challenges of international development…