The benefits of 'remote open close' technology are increasingly being sought out by operators as a new way to approach well interventions and completions, particularly in deepwater and subsea applications where rig time savings are critical…
Ever-alert to the need to hone its competitive edge, the drilling technologies business unit of Aker Solutions is looking to take its service offering to an unrivalled level of sophistication with the new drawworks extended test facility in Erkelenz…
Time is running short for a collaborative and cost-efficient approach to decommissioning, believes Optimus consultant Stuart Heggie.Perhaps understandably, governments and operators have put off decommissioning as much as possible. However,…
Aberdeen-based specialist explosives service provider Spex Services launched a new division earlier this year to capitalise on the business opportunities opening up in the decommissioning and salvage sectors. The company operates from three bases…
Seeking to establish itself as the national strategic centre of excellence for subsea research, the National Subsea Research Institute (NSRI) recently unveiled the future focus for its ground-breaking research – and the accent will be very much…
Having established itself as the largest independent provider of onshore drilling services in Russia, Eurasia Drilling Company is now looking to have a bigger say in the developing CIS offshore market. David Morgan reports.Eurasia Drilling Company's…
The focus on Latin American deepwater activity naturally gravitates to the headline-grabbing pre-salt region offshore Brazil. But other areas in Latin American deep waters are worth noting, as Jennifer Pallanich explains.Petrobras' discovery…
Increased economic activity, more jobs and a 70% rise in spending are predicted for the Gulf of Mexico offshore oil & gas industry by 2013 – provided permitting returns to pre-moratorium levels. Katie Jernigan looks at the region’s latest economic impact analysis…
Technological barriers and operator requirements can limit the possibilities available to offshore design teams when it comes to engineering a production riser plan for a deepwater facility. Hybrid solutions and composites will offer some relief…
If current trends continue, Mexico could become a net oil importer in a decade, a new report claims. --Mexico, the world's sixth-biggest crude oil producer and an important supplier to the US, has seen its production fall by more than 25% from its 2004 peak of 3…
The Deepwater Horizon's blowout preventer was a victim of the Macondo disaster, not the perpetrator. So says consultant Ian Fitzsimmons in his latest think piece for OE which takes issue with some of the findings of DNV's forensic study of the…
Earlier this year the refrain was ‘$5 natural gas forever', based on the US Energy Information Administration's (EIA) annual outlook, which argued that natural gas prices will remain below $5 per million btu until 2022. The underlying rationale was growth in the ‘vast' US shale gas resource base…
The proliferation of modern specialist vessels serving just about every sector of the offshore oil & gas business has not gone unnoticed by traditional shipping industry equipment and service providers, as was plain to see at the 2011 Nor-Shipping event in Oslo late May…
Statoil last month launched a campaign urging the UK to make natural gas a key component in its long-term future energy. The operator argues gas can be an important part of securing UK energy supplies and cutting CO2 emissions, although political…
An internal Transocean investigation into the explosion and loss of the Deepwater Horizon found that the tragedy was the result of ‘compromised' well integrity due to a series of well design, construction and temporary abandonment decisions made by operator BP…