The US lifted the six-month moratorium on deepwater exploration in October, while codifying new rules governing drilling safety and well control. Russell McCulley looks at what the new regulations could mean for oil & gas companies doing business in the Gulf of Mexico…
There were echoes of the UK’s Dragon’s Den and its US reality TV brethren Shark Tank when the great and the good of the private equity world gathered in Aberdeen last month to sample the wares of would-be oil & gas sector high fliers.The occasion…
In his think piece for OE’s July issue, consultant Ian Fitzsimmons drew parallels between the Deepwater Horizon tragedy and the earlier Titanic, Ixtoc-1, Piper Alpha, Comet and Challenger disasters in terms of their presumed design infallibility…
Litigation continues in US courts over the Obama administration’s Gulf of Mexico deepwater drilling moratorium, despite the early lifting of the six-month drilling ban in October. In a 19 October decision, US District Court judge Martin Feldman…
Long used in deepwater mooring, synthetic ropes are increasingly being employed in deepwater heavy lift operations. Russell McCulley talks to Samson's Dennis Sherman and Offspring International director Dave Rowley about the technology advances that are changing techniques…
By ensuring optimal hole size, well designs using solid expandable tubulars have a far-reaching effect on drilling, evaluation, completion and life-of-well solutions. Enventure Global Technology’s Kevin Waddell, Jerry Fritsch and Kristaq Mitrushi…
First Subsea and Offspring International, the worldwide agent for the offshore division of Lankhorst Ropes, have introduced the LankoFirst series of fiber rope connectors for deepwater moorings that the companies say are stronger, lighter, smaller…
All alarms exist for a reason, but in many offshore assets too many alarms can be worse than too few. Amor Group’s Brendon Glass explains why.In today’s automated plants or platforms, thousands of alarms have been configured into the control system…
Energy and climate wars: How naïve politicians, green ideologues, and media elites are undermining the truth about energy and climate. Peter C Glover & Michael J Economides. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010.The lengthy subtitle…
Ageing FPSOs present naval architect with GL – installed March 2000 in 90m potential safety challenges that the oil & gas industry is only now coming to terms with, according to GL Noble Denton. ‘There have been over 200 floating production system deployments…
OE ’s analysis of current rig market data is updated monthly using statistics provided by Rigzone.comWorldwide utilization for the mobile offshore drilling fleet is tracking at 74%; holding steady for the last three months at the bottom of a…
Current projections indicate around £27 billion will be spent on UK offshore decommissioning over the next 40 years, of which £9.2 billion will be spent over this next decade, according to a 2010 Decommissioning Insight brochure presented at the conference by Robert Harris-Deans…
Reporting from last month’s SEG annual meeting in Denver, Andrew McBarnet finds marine seismic contractors frustrated by contract bidding woes.There is no question about what was bothering the marine seismic community at last month’s well attended…
Mexico's Pemex is preparing this month to issue the first incentive-based contracts allowed under the country's 2008 oil reforms. Most observers agree that the reforms didn't go far enough, but will a new president in 2012 pick up the pace? Russell McCulley reports…
OE's analysis of current rig market data is updated monthly using statistics provided by Rigzone.com Worldwide utilization for the mobile offshore drilling fleet has averaged 74% over the last two months. Of late the global utilization rates…