Norway's Statoil has terminated its contract with COSL Offshore Management for the semisubmersible drilling rig COSL Innovator, which it was using on the Troll field in the Norwegian North Sea. One man died and two more wre injured after a wave hit the rig on 30 December last year…
Geoquip Marine, a geotechnical engineering and offshore drilling company, will unveil its new GMTR150 rig at Oceanology International in London. The GMTR150 is a twin ram drilling rig that can be used for drilling, coring, sampling and testing in water depths up to 3500m…
Sweden's Lundin Petroleum has discovered 'significant gas shows' in the Maligan exploration well in Block SB307/SB308, offshore East Malaysia. The Maligan well was drilled with the West Prospero jackup rig to a total depth of approximately 1380m…
Dana Petroleum commenced drilling operations at the Manatee-1 exploration well on the Bakassi West block, offshore Cameroon, according to partner SDX Energy. Map of Bakassi West block, from SDX…
Ratings house Moody's issued a damning report on the health of some of the industry's top offshore drillers following a review. Out of six US offshore drilling companies, it has downgraded two by three notches, three companies' ratings…
Total's Uptonia exploration well 34/6-4 on production license 554 in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea is to be plugged and abandoned as a dry well, says the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. The well was drilled about 6km northeast…
Smith Bits, a Schlumberger company, has released the AxeBlade ridged diamond element bit, which incorporates new-geometry Axe ridged diamond elements across the bit face. AxeBlade bits are designed to improve rate of penetration (ROP) in…
Opportunity North East (ONE) is working with oil and gas industry leaders to establish Aberdeen as a global center for offshore technology research and development. The funding announced by the UK and Scottish governments through the…
Production well drilling has started on Statoil's major Johan Sverdrup development offshore Norway. The first of 35 wells was spudded by Odfjell drilling's Deepsea Atlantic semisubmersible drilling rig. The US$13.3 billion first phase…
Elaine Maslin reports on Saudi Aramco’s work to improve recovery through “smart” completions, thereby simultaneously reducing intervention. Dr Mohamed Nabil Noui-Mehidi speaking at the Society…
Brazil and Mexico are not the only games in town in Latin America. The deepest water well ever drilled is lined up for offshore Uruguay and Exxon is set to test Liza offshore Guyana. Elaine Maslin reports. The newly minted Maersk Venturer drillship…
Elaine Maslin examines some of the potential uses for nanoscale manufacturing in the oil and gas industry. Image provided by Repsol. Source: 'Commercial scale production of inorganic nanoparticles…
The floating rig market is preparing for the most challenging year ahead. Leslie Cook, of Quest Offshore, explains. Noble Corp. announced in Q1 it would retire the Noble Discoverer drillship after…
35 offshore projects and 100 rig years have slipped after the oil price collapse. Oddmund Føre, Analyst, Rystad Energy, explains. The market for oilfield services is hurting and offshore drilling is no exception. The global market for…
Since its discovery in 2010, the Sea Lion field offshore the Falkland Islands has been subject to a string of development options. Elaine Maslin looks at Premier Oil’s optimized final plan. Ocean Rig’s Ocean Guardian semisubmersible drilling rig…