Brazil’s oil & gas potential continues to grab the industry headlines, with Petrobras confirming more than a score of offshore discoveries, most of them deepwater, in the last 18 months alone. Newcomer OGX confirmed a number of discoveries too…
Utilization for the worldwide mobile offshore drilling fleet continues to hold steady at 77% – almost five points higher than this time last year. The trailing twelve-month utilization average is at 75%. Floater utilization in the Gulf of Mexico…
No-one seems to have fathomed out the depth of the potential market for seabed-based seismic surveys. Andrew McBarnet reviews the state of play.Sometimes the surf seems to be up, but those big waves that make the surf boarders’ day just don’t quite materialise…
Statoil will launch a drilling campaign in the Norwegian Barents Sea before the end of the year with four exploration wells in the Skrugard area, the company announced at this year’s Offshore Northern Seas (ONS) conference in Stavanger. But its Arctic ambitions go much farther…
The effective development of low-permeability tight gas reservoir resources requires operational efficiency to improve production performance. Erik Schrama, Robin Naughton-Rumbo and Fred van der Bas, Shell; Josef Shaoul, Fenix Consulting Delft…
Brazilian independent OGX kicked off 2012 with production at its offshore Waimea development. First oil came in January via an extended well test (EWT) to the FPSO OSX-1 just over two years after the field was discovered with OGX-3 in December 2009…
Passionate about the product is how Technip's SVP subsea assets and technologies Alain Marion sums up his company's feeling about supplying flexible pipe. Meg Chesshyre visited Le Trait, in Normandy, to see the Flexi France plant in action and…
The 2012 release of the deepwater knowledge base, ReservoirKB, has been announced by global energy consulting firm Knowledge Reservoir. Hailed as ‘the most comprehensive knowledge base for exploration and appraisal geoscientists and engineers in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico region’…
Houston-based managed pressure drilling systems specialist Managed Pressure Operations International reports that it is expanding its delivery of the innovative Non-Stop Driller (NSD) continuous circulation system.Devoloped to maintain…
French premium tubular solutions specialist Vallourec reports that its new-generation Vam 21 threaded connection is now also enjoying commercial success in the Middle East after making early market inroads in the North Sea, Brazil and Southeast Asia…
Leicester-based materials specialist Nylacast, which prides itself on being able to provide a full engineering polymer solution, with full traceability from raw chemistry through to end components in any quantity, was among the UK companies…
Ropemaker Bridon is hailing the £10 million closer being installed at its new Neptune Quay facility in the UK as ‘the world’s biggest machine for the manufacture of steel wire ropes’. Targeting today’s more challenging offshore sector applications in particular…
The pre-cut trenching workscope on Denmark’s Skagerrak 4 HVDC submarine interconnector project was completed on time, on budget and with zero plough downtime, reports DeepOcean senior project manager David Brown. The independent UK contractor…
A 10in PLET and in-line tee for Russia’s Kirinskoye gas condensate field development in the Sea of Okhotsk were installed in around 90m of water by main contractor JSC Mezhregiontruboprovodstroy (MRTS) using the newly installed 1600te crane on its vessel Fortuna (pictured)…
Alderley has launched a new division specialising in the provision of metering solutions for brownfield modifications and ageing systems. Alderley Metering Solutions’ multi-disciplined team of engineers will provide local support and services…