Each major North Sea platform has in the region of 4000 valves ranging from safety relief valves and emergency shutdown valves through control valves and general isolation valves. Meg Chesshyre talks to specialist valve maintenance company Severn…
Elastomer seals and their wear can tell the offshore equipment maintenance engineer a lot about how well equipment is operating and provide early warning of potential problems. By visually examining the seals as part of a preventative maintenance schedule…
Technip and Schlumberger have signed a global co-operation agreement jointly to develop subsea integrity and surveillance solutions for flexible pipes used in deep offshore oil and gas production.The new agreement extends a collaboration between the companies that began in 1998…
The marine seismic industry chalked off 2009 as a year to forget, but Andrew McBarnet suggests that 2010 won't be a whole lot better.Making predictions is a mug's game. We all know it, but we all do it. And if you're in a business like marine seismic…
CCS which stands for carbon capture and storage or sequestration has been the great hope of middle-of-the-road characters, people other than radical ‘greenies’ or their ‘right-wing’ adversaries. Oil companies and governments have jumped on this…
Drilling with casing continues to draw interest for its ability to overcome troublesome formations. Jennifer Pallanich reviews Weatherford’s recent applications of the technology offshore Brazil and West Africa.Weatherford carries out its…
Historically, the Middle East play has been an onshore story, with one notable exception: the South Pars/North Field offshore Iran and Qatar. That looks to be a changing trend as operators pursue the offshore gas potential. Jennifer Pallanich reports…
Landing a helicopter on a fixed platform can be testing at the best of times, but landing on a floating vessel with changing vessel motion and significant weather variations throughout the day quite another matter. Fugro’s Anthony Gaffney discusses…
Earlier this year, Indonesia’s Graha yard launched its first newbuild jackup rigs. Jennifer Pallanich talks to owner Drydocks World about the the yard’s journey so far and its plans for the future.Drydocks World bought Labroy Marine’s Graha facility on Indonesia’s Batam Island in early 2008…
Major players in the marine seismic market are playing it cool, but there must be some apprehension about the impact of recent moves by the Chinese contractor BGP. Andrew McBarnet reviews the plot so far.The Houdini act performed by ION…
The recent building boom in jackups will peak in 2010, with more than two dozen new rigs, many without contracts, scheduled to enter a market still trying to dig out from under a global recession. But hopes abound that the market will be able…
The monetary and environmental cost of the 72-day Montara field oil leak which culminated in a devastating two-day platform fire in the Timor Sea has yet to be determined, but the Australian Government has been quick to establish a Commission…
The South Pars gas field, located in the Persian Gulf between Iran and Qatar, is one of the largest independent gas reservoirs in the world. The estimated 14tcm of gas and 18 billion barrels of gas condensates on the Iranian part of the field…
Border disputes, political upheaval and environmental concerns have helped keep offshore E&P in Central America mostly at bay. But activities offshore Nicaragua could signal a change in direction for some countries in the region. Russell McCulley reports…
Scheduled to arrive in US waters in January, the BW Pioneer will become the first FPSO to operate in the US Gulf of Mexico when it goes into service on Cascade-Chinook, Petrobras America’s first development in the region. It will also extend the FPSO operational water depth record to 8200ft…