The Platform Services division of global drilling and engineering company KCA Deutag agreed on a multi-million dollar contract with ExxonMobil Canada Properties for work on the Hebron heavy oil development project. The contract for drilling…
Marine geophysical company Polarcus completed a 3000sq km 3D sesmic survey in license area EL 0037 in the Walvis basin offshore Namibia for operator Tullow Oil. A second 2D acquisition phase has now started. It will cover approximately 1000km and will take about two weeks to complete…
Statoil and its partners have made a 20-75MM boe gas and oil discovery in the Valemon Nord prospect in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The discovery wells 34/10-54 S and 34/10-54 A, in production license 050, drilled by the semisubmersible drilling rig Transocean Leader…
Wintershall Norge has made a gas and condensate discovery in the Solberg well in the Norwegian Sea. Exploration well 6407/1-7 and the subsequent sidetrack 6407/1-7A, in production license 475, encountered gas and condensate in the main target lower Cretaceous Lange formation…
AGR has been awarded a new well management services contract by OMV (Norge). The contract, which is for three years, with the option of two further years, also covers delivery of other drilling and well engineering services for complete well construction…
GDF SUEZ E&P Norge's wildcat well 7218/8-1 on the Byrkje prospect in the Barents Sea has been classified as dry, with traces of gas. The well, in production licence 607, well was drilled about 65km southwest of the oil and gas discovery…
Partners in the Pil exploration well 6406/12-3 S have carried out “a highly successful production test” (Drill Stem Test/DST) on the well, on the Norwegian Sea’s Halten Terrace. The well flowed at 6710 bo/d of 37° API oil from a 56/64in…
Dragon Oil says drilling on the Cheleken Contract Area in Turkmenistan has been delayed and will be weighted towards H2 this year, with a total 14-16 wells due to be drilled. The Cheleken Contract Area covers about 950sq km and comprises two offshore oil and gas fields…
The first exploration well to be drilled on the Ntem Concession, offshore Cameroon, is to be plugged and abandoned after no commercial hydrocarbons were found. Sterling Energy, partner with Murphy Cameroon Ntem Oil Co., said the well…
Deepwater drilling is no longer just about exploration. Lars Eirik Nocolaisen looks at market sentiment and potential reality. Reporting season 1Q 2014 saw deepwater drillers’ reporting numbers in-line with expectations, but still stock prices have plummeted…
Market drivers point to a slowdown in new project activity, Ian Simpson and James Graf of ABS report. Changes in the drilling rig market are indicators of industry ups and downs. A look at today’s numbers indicates that the most recent upswing is about to change direction…
US rakes in $850million for lease sale The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) received 380 bids for 326blocks in the central Gulf of Mexico, totaling more than US $850 million. Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 231 attracted operators to bison almost 40 million acres…
New Zealand's Minister of Energy and Resources Simon Bridges announced the country's third block offering. Up for grabs is a total of 405,000sq km, including both on and offshore acreage. Offshore release areas include the Reinga-Northland Basin…
Lukoil Overseas completed drilling on its first offshore exploration well, Capitaine East-1X, at block CI-101 in the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, the Russian company announced 2 April 2014. The well penetrated through 140m of sandstone from a Turonian formation…
Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni outlined the Italian company’s exploration progress and activities within the country to the President of the Republic of Mozambique Armando Guebuza. Eni announced that the “possibility of enlarging the shareholder base of Area 4 was favorably received by the President…