Songa Offshore's newbuild semisubmersible drilling rig, the Songa Endurance, has today started drilling operations under its eight-year drilling contract with Statoil at the Troll field on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, and the rig is now on operating rate…
One person has died and two more were injured after a breaking wave hit the COSL Innovator semisubmersible drilling rig around 5pm local time on 30 December, Statoil announced. The rig, which is under contract with Statoil for the Troll field in the North Sea…
Lundin Petroleum has completed the drilling and evaluation of exploration well 7130/4-1 on the Ørnen prospect. The well is in PL708, on the eastern parts of the Finnmark Platform in the southern Barents Sea. The well was dry and has been plugged and abandoned…
Petrobras concluded two formation tests in the 3-SPS-105 (Carcará Norte) well, confirming the high productivity of the pre-salt carbonate reservoirs. The well is in the area of the Carcará Discovery Evaluation Plan (PAD), 4.6km north of the discovery well (4-SPS-86B)…
This year, the offshore oil and gas industry has had to come to terms with the worst downturn for more than a decade. With commodity prices plummeting to an eleven-year low in December, it is time to reflect on the year gone by and consider the outlook for the year to come…
Marred by corruption and market turmoil, Petrobras, the operator of key pre-salt projects for Brazil’s oil production over the next five years, is one of many Brazilian oil and gas companies facing a difficult financial future in the short term…
Mexican national oil company Pemex has awarded a further extension to Fugro's contract to support its exploration drilling activities in the Bay of Campeche. The contract extension is valued at approximately US$20 million and the workscope…
Lundin Petroleum has discovered oil at the Rolvsnes exploration well 16/1-25 S in PL338C, in the central North Sea sector of the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), the company confirmed on 22 December. Lundin said the well encountered a 30m gross oil column in porous granitic basement…
Total E&P Norge has been approved to drill a wildcat on its Solaris prospect in production licence 618, in the southern North Sea, bordering the UK shelf, announced the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) on 21 December. The drilling…
UTEC NCS Survey, part of UTEC (an Acteon company), has announced the award of a multi-year rig move and positioning framework contract with Total. Total recently awarded the three-year contract with the opportunity to provide positioning…
Energy analysts Douglas Westwood say the oilfield services market has seen a 39% drop in capex in the last year, with North American expenditure falling the hardest, at 55%. The group, discussing its World Oilfield Services Market Forecast…
Drilling contractor Noble Corp. is relocating its drillship Noble Discoverer to Singapore where it will be stacked after Shell terminated its contract on the rig. Shell had been using the Noble Discoverer for its failed arctic exploration in the Chukchi Sea alongside the Polar Pioneer…
Statoil has decided to cancel the contract with Transocean for the drillship Discoverer Americas. The drillship has been on contract with Statoil since 2009, supporting Statoil’s exploration activities in East and North Africa and the Gulf of Mexico…
Weatherford achieved a new world record by landing an 1180-ton (2,360,700-lb) casing string at a total depth of 26,805 ft (8170 m). The job was performed on a deepwater rig in the Gulf of Mexico this fall. The operator of a deepwater rig in the Green Canyon required installation of a heavy…
Better success rates from North Sea exploration drilling could be achieved if historical well data was stored and shared better, according to the results of a review of well data published. The Oil and Gas Authority says a lack of quality geoscience and geophysics work…