Lundin Norway commenced drilling of exploration well 16/4-9 S on the Luno II North prospect in the North Sea. The main objective of well 16/4-9 S is to test the hydrocarbon potential and reservoir properties in the Luno II North prospect…
Seadrill Ltd. is selling the West Polaris ultra deepwater drillship to Seadrill Operating in a US$204 million cash deal. The West Polaris. From Seadrill. Seadrill Partners LLC owns 58% of its subsidiary Seadrill Operating…
BG Group awarded DeepOcean a five-year inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR) contract. The contract covers all ROV-based IMR work for BG Group on its UK and Norwegian subsea assets. DeepOcean will use vessels from its North Sea-based fleet for work under this contract…
ExxonMobil awarded Ocean Installer its first call-off contract for subsea well tie-back, engineering, IRM (inspection, maintenance and repair), ROV and associated services at the Balder field. The Normand Mermaid…
Tropical storm Bill in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is causing rig evacuations. The storm is 300mi wide, with winds up to 50 mph and rainfall from 6-10in in some areas. Tropical Storm Bill (2015). From NOAA's National Hurricane Center Facebook…
Rystad Energy’s latest research indicates that 88 units within the floater market will have to be taken out between 2015 and 2017, making it the largest ever retirement cycle in the history of offshore drilling. Research shows that this…
J2 Subsea opened a new subsea tooling facility at sister Acteon company, Seatronics’, subsea electronics location in Houston. The new facility marks the next stage in J2 Subsea’s global expansion plan. North American customers can…
Energean Oil & Gas announced that it is to conduct a new 3D seismic survey over the Prinos oil field and its surrounding licenses, in the Gulf of Kavala, northeastern Greece. The 3D survey will cover an area of 400sq km and will last approximately three weeks…
The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) granted an extension to ExxonMobil to use the Jotun A floating production storage offloading (FPSO) vessel and Jotun B wellhead platform beyond their original expected lifetimes in the North Sea…
Thirteen activists in kayaks intercepted Shell's drilling rig, the Polar Pioneer, in Seattle's Puget Sound as the rig prepared to depart for the Arctic as part of Shell's US$1 billion Arctic exploration and drilling program. Kayaktivists…
Douglas-Westwood (DW) forecast in their new World Offshore Accommodation Market Forecast that, during the period 2015 to 2020, demand for offshore accommodation vessels will average almost 42,000 personnel on board (PoB) per year, which represents…
Malaysia-based Bumi Armada Berhad awarded ABB a contract to supply electrical and automation systems for a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for a recently discovered oilfield off the coast of Angola. Bumi is reconfiguring the former Armada Ali supertanker…
Noble Energy started drilling on the potentially play-opening Humpback prospect in the south Falklands basin on Saturday, according to partner Falkland Oil and Gas (FOGL). According to Noble, Humpback holds 250 MMbbl estimated gross…
Statoil has awarded Odfjell Drilling two contracts worth more than US$550 million (NOK 4.35 billion) for drilling services on its massive Johan Sverdrup field. The $14.8 billion first phase development on the field will see four, bridge-linked installations alone…
Leading classification society ClassNK released amendments to its “Rules and Guidance for the Survey and Construction of Steel Ships” on 8 May 2015. ClassNK continuously reviews, updates, and amends its technical rules and guidance as…