Norwegian mechanical engineer Julius Espedal had his first real brush with the forces of nature when undergoing offshore safety induction and emergency training in the UK back in 1999. Now he is getting reacquainted with them as his company…
Three Alaskan Beaufort Sea developments – BP Exploration (Alaska)'s Northstar, Pioneer --Natural Resources' Oooguruk and now Eni Petroleum's Nikaitchuq – have helped establish baseline experience for future arctic frontier pipelines. As well as demonstrating technical strides…
With over 27 years' of development and application work behind it, Nautronix is a company with subsea acoustics in its DNA. David Morgan looks at the company's provenance and projects, including the recent deployment of its NASNet technology…
March's Japanese earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear contamination at the Fukushima power plant spawned a disaster that will be hard to remedy or forget. As usual the events have had a number of dimensions, mostly unfortunate for that country no matter how developed and prosperous it has been…
OPITO, the Aberdeen-headquartered body serving as the focal point for skills, learning and workforce development in the UK energy sector, estimates that over 15,000 new posts will be required over the next five years to deliver UK offshore project plans…
Operator Perenco and its key subcontractors on January's Welland 53/4A gas production platform removal – Scaldis SMC, Overdick, Hoondert and Proserv Offshore – believe the project has set a new decommissioning performance benchmark for southern North Sea operators and service providers alike…
A resurgent UK offshore oil & gas sector is mired in fresh uncertainty following the coalition government's surprise imposition of what is, in all but name, a windfall tax on North Sea production. David Morgan reports.In his Budget speech last month…
Differing perspectives on the African exploration & production scene were offered during IP Week in London last month, with Tullow Oil and Afren describing their respective approaches to the continent and Equatorial Guinea's energy ministry updating the republic's offshore developments to date…
With several major LNG projects under way locally and rising demand in neighboring Asian countries, Western Australia's premier Colin Barnett is presiding over a pivotal moment in the state's history. He talks to Russell McCulley about the LNG…
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…
Offshore disposal of untreated oil base mud (OBM) cuttings is not permitted anywhere in the world, and in several geographical areas the discharge limit is generally 1% oil on cuttings or less.--Norwegian firm Thermtech claims its TCC technology…
Worldwide, the mobile offshore drilling fleet has kept between 500 to 550 rigs under contract over the past two years. Recent overall utilization remains at a two-year low of 68% or 507 rigs working. However, tendering activity has been on the…
A more optimistic view of the future of the southern North Sea gas and the hard-pressed East of England offshore supply chain emerged at a recent regional conference in Norwich. Meg Chesshyre reports.Having acquired assets from BP, Shell and BG in 2003 and ExxonMobil fields in 2007…
Production from another of Norway's old-timers, Statfjord A, could potentially shut down as early as 2014 according to operating plans under consideration by operator Statoil. The company recently circulated a consultative document based on that assumption…
The current state of development of methane hydrate resources – ‘from Mallik to the Nankai Trough' – was examined by an international symposium in Japan late last year. Two of the participants, Professor Andrew Palmer and Simon Falser from the…
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