Some notable heavy oil projects offshore Brazil are entering advanced phases to increase or maintain production. Russell McCulley reports from Rio de Janeiro on the latest developments at three Campos Basin fields – Statoil’s Peregrino, Petrobras’…
As offshore operators get into deeper waters and develop more mature oil & gas fields using more complex well architectures, continuous downhole injection of chemicals is increasingly required to manage challenges such as scale formation or asphaltene precipitation within the wellbore…
'In two to three years' time we could be looking at data speeds of 1Gbps.' Derek RobertsonThe development of subsea controls over the past 30 years, and trends for the future, were reviewed as part of a subsea technology day held in Aberdeen last month by Aker Solutions…
Rising day rates and demand for drilling in deepwater environments are helping the offshore drilling sector recover from not just the global economic gloom of recent years but also the post-Macondo drilling moratorium in the US. According to…
Citing a ‘renewed culture of safety' taking hold in the offshore oil & gas industry, the co-chairman of the presidential commission set up to investigate the Macondo disaster told attendees at the March CeraWeek conference in Houston that the…
As a number of Caribbean nations set sights on developing potential deepwater reserves, concerns have surfaced about the region’s ability to respond to a Macondo-style subsea leak. The topic is especially prominent in a swath of sea where tourists…
Oil seeps at Chevron’s Frade field nearly a year ago have led Brazilian regulator ANP to assess millions in fines against Chevron and ultimately halted output at the troubled Campos Basin field. In November 2011, Chevron P&A’d an appraisal well…
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…
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’…
The worldwide mobile offshore drilling fleet has seen modest but steady increases in utilization since the beginning of the year. Currently, worldwide utilization stands at 78% whereas at the start of the year it was hovering around 73%.Recently…
Purpose-built to match the evolving needs of deepwater subsea developments, the Seven Borealis promises to set a new benchmark in the subsea world. Terry Knott was invited to visit the vessel as it neared completion in the Netherlands.When Subsea…
Statoil and its partner Sinochem have agreed to purchase the Peregrino FPSO from A.P. Moller-Maersk Group. The floating production, storage and offloading unit has been in use at the Statoil-operated Peregrino field in Brazil since production start-up in 2011…
Oil & gas companies will spend roughly $135 billion on subsea hardware between 2012 and 2016, an increase of 14% over the preceding five-year period, according to a new report from Douglas-Westwood.Spending took a hit in 2010 and 2011 as the…
High demand for goods and services helped push up building and operating costs for upstream oil & gas facilities over the six-month period covering 3Q 2011 to 1Q 2012, according to two IHS cost indexes. The IHS Upstream Capital Cost index rose 2…
With the recent completion in Johor, Malaysia, of the first phase of its new $100 million wire rope manufacturing plant, Kiswire believes it is now well placed to deal with the greater demands made of such products as the offshore industry moves into ever-deeper waters…