US-based driller Atwood Oceanics has sold its semisubmersible drilling rig Atwood Falcon for recycling and scheduled the Atwood Eagle semisubmersible to be idled in May. The Atwood Eagle is in transit to Singapore and is being marketed…
Drilling giant Transocean swung back into profit in Q1 2016, despite revenues having hemorrhaged compared to Q1 2015. Rig utilization was 51% in Q1, compared with 60% in the prior quarter, and 79% in the same period last year. Utilization is lowest in the ultra-deepwater floater segment…
Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) has completed the acquisition of Cameron International Corporation's (Cameron) offshore product division, which comprises the LeTourneau jackup rig designs, rig kit business, as well as its aftersales and aftermarket services…
Weatherford’s Snorre Lutnes examines managed pressure drilling applications across key regions. MPD deployment. Images from Weatherford. Once reserved as a last resort for wells defined as undrillable…
Cyprus-based Ocean Rig has stepped in to buy the sixth generation ultra-deepwater (UDW) drillship Cerrado, which once drilled the giant Libra prospect offshore Brazil, following its owner Brazil-based Schahin Group bankruptcy declaration last April…
Interocean Marine Services have been awarded a five-year contract by Maersk Oil North Sea UK for the provision of rig move and marine technical support services. The work will be managed by Interocean’s head office in Aberdeen, and will…
The Cross Group has won a contract to assist in pulling five flexible flowlines and an umbilical, with a maximum expected load of 44-tonne, onto a jacketed platform. The work will be performed using one of Cross Group’s Hepburn 83-MPE…
Transocean, has opted to delay delivery, and final payments, on two dynamically positioned ultra-deepwater (UDW) drillships currently under construction at Sembcorp Marine's subsidiary Jurong Shipyard. The proprietary Jurong Espadon…
Offshore drilling firm Paragon Offshore has picked up two contract extensions, having reduced day rates. In the Middle East, a contract with ADMA OPCO for the M1162 jackup has been extended from mid-January 2017 to late January 2019 and…
The repair of the Polyarnaya Zvezda and Severnoye Siyaniye, sixth generation semisubmersible mobile offshore drilling units (MODU), have been completed under the survey of Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) at Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore Shipyard in Yantai…
Sevan Drilling and Cosco have agreed to defer delivery of the new-build Sevan Developer cylindrical drilling rig for another six months. The deepwater unit is being built by Cosco, but has faced construction delays. Meanwhile, Sevan has seen a slowdown in contract awards for deepwater units…
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Statoil a drilling permit for wells 30/11-12 S and 30/11-12 A in production license 035 (PL 035), part of block 30/11 in the Norwegian North Sea. Well 30/11-12 S is wildcat well that…
The third of four new Cat D rigs being built to work for Statoil by drilling contractor Songa Offshore has started drilling operations for Statoil on the Norwegian Continental Shelf under its eight-year contract. The Songa Encourage is on operational day rate and working on the Skuld field…
The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway has given Statoil consent to use the Stena Don mobile drilling facility for drilling and completion of wells 35/11-B-22 and B-13 in the Fram field in the North Sea. Fram is an oil field in the northern North Sea around 20km north of Troll…
The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway has given Wintershall consent to use the mobile drilling facilities Island Frontier and Island Wellserver for intervention work on the wells in the Vega field. Vega lies due north of the Fram field…