North Sea News


Jack of all trades

Jul 01, 2015

Decommissioning, plugging and abandonment, well workovers, EOR, and even offshore renewables maintenance could be performed from the dual decks of the CDC Heron. Elaine Maslin reports. The CDC Heron multipurpose vessel design…

Decom projects on the rise

Jul 01, 2015

Within the next few years, a couple of major decommissioning projects are set to start in the UK sector of the North Sea at the Brent and Murchison fields — and there are plenty of other projects in the pipeline. John Bradbury outlines the activity…

Realizing CCS’s potential

Jul 01, 2015

Could the North Sea become a CO2 storage site? Elaine Maslin takes a look at two proposed projects and some of the challenges involved. The CCS goal—how the Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage sees carbon capture and storage on and offshore…

The key to CCS: monitoring, measurement and verification

Jul 01, 2015

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects need to demonstrate, through monitoring, that the injected CO2 is contained within the geological store during and after injection and no unexpected migration has occurred. In order to achieve this…

Decommissioning Relief: certainty for the oil and gas industry?

Jul 01, 2015

There has been much uncertainty in recent years around the tax relief available to companies as part of the decommissioning process, as a result of a constantly changing UK tax regime. Oil and gas companies have commonly been required…

Statoil plans further Gullfaks development

Jun 30, 2015

Statoil and its partners submitted an amendment to the plan for development and operations (PDO) for the Gullfaks license to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy for phase 1 of the Shetland/Lista development. Investment costs are estimated at some US$114…

IOG eyes Skipper FPSO options

Jun 30, 2015

Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) has started discussions with potential floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel providers for its UK north Sea Skipper development.  The firm, which recently agreed to acquire 50% of the Skipper license from Alpha Petroleum…

UK drilling activity increases

Jun 30, 2015

Exploration and appraisal activity in the North Sea doubled in the opening three months of the year following the UK Chancellor’s industry tax cut, new figures reveal. Data published by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)…

Johan Sverdrup: construction starts

Jun 29, 2015

Norwegian oil firm has marked the start of construction work on the Johan Sverdrup development project - labelled the biggest industrial project in Norway for decades to come. Work started at Kværner in Verdal, Norway, today (Monday 29…

Lundin drills three wells off Norway

Jun 25, 2015

Lundin Norway commenced the drilling of its second Alta appraisal well in the Barents Sea South, and the drilling of an appraisal well on the Edvard Grieg field in the Norwegian North Sea. Drilling has also commenced on the partner-operated…

Clair Ridge topsides installed: photos

Jun 25, 2015

Supermajor BP is a step closer to starting up its US$7 billion (£4.5 billion) west of Shetland Clair Ridge development after a major heavy lifting installation campaign.  BP, with partners ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Shell, oversaw the…

Wood Group to run CATS

Jun 25, 2015

Wood Group has entered into a US$250million agreement with Antin Infrastructure Partners (Antin IP) to provide operating services for the Central Area Transmission System (also known as CATS) in the North Sea for up to 10 years, subject to certain regulatory and other consents…

Harkand supports Solan commissioning

Jun 24, 2015

UK-based subsea inspection, repair and maintenance sector firm Harkand has started work with Premier Oil supporting the Solan field development, West of Shetland. Harkand's multi-purpose service vessel Siem Spearfish, which is on long-term charter to Harkand…

Framo wins $24 million Johan Sverdrup contract

Jun 24, 2015

Sweden's Alfa Laval has won an order to supply its Framo pumping systems to the Johan Sverdrup field development in the Norwegian North Sea. The order, booked in the Marine & Offshore Pumping Systems segment, has a value of approximately SEK 200 million (US$24…

Lundin spins multiple bits on NCS

Jun 24, 2015

Swedish headquartered Lundin Petroleum has started spinning two drill bits on the Norwegian Continental Shelf - on Alta, in the Barents Sea, and one on the Edvard Grieg discovery, in the Norwegian North Sea. Both are appraisal wells.…

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