Malcolm Brinded (pictured), a 37-year veteran of the Royal Dutch Shell group, is stepping down as an executive director with effect from 1 April. Andrew Brown, currently EVP Qatar, will take over Brinded’s responsibilities for Shell’s upstream…
Stephane Constant (pictured) has taken up the newly created, full-time post of CTO to lead the Xodus Group’s integration of surface and subsurface services. Constant worked as a reservoir engineer for Elf and Agip in the UK and Premier Oil…
Stephen Colville has been named as president of the International Association of Drilling Contractors following the retirement of Dr Lee Hunt.
Steve Preston (pictured) and John Smith join the Offshore Installation Group (OIG) this month as CEO and executive vice chairman, respectively. Preston joins OIG from Heerema Marine Contractors where he served as EVP, commercial & technology…
Now in its 43rd year, the Offshore Technology Conference returns to Houston’s Reliant Park 30 April-3 May. Almost as old as the offshore industry itself, the annual gathering has thrived throughout an E&P era marked by peaks, valleys, tremendous…
It was supposed to be the renewable ‘green jobs success story’ to be emulated by the United States. President Barack Obama pilloried skeptical Americans with it on several occasions way before he took office. Obama may be the loudest but he is not the only megaphone social engineer politician…
BOEMRE director Michael Bromwich vows that deepwater drilling will return to the US Gulf of Mexico in the coming months, marking a return of exploration all but shut down after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. But the oil & gas industry remains skeptical…
In a world where two things are certain – death and taxes – Arctic exploration does offer a certain amount of certainty: just a little bit of information can completely alter the way the industry views a specific Arctic area. Industry leaders…
Merger and acquisition activity in the oil & gas industry rebounded in 2010, up 35% over the previous year, Ernst & Young said last month. Global transaction value hit $270 billion last year, up from about $200 billion in 2009, the company said…
The 'Obamatorium' – what Ron Neal, the co-founder and co-owner of Houston Energy calls the continuing de facto drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico – is only one component of the political risk that has arisen in what was once a thriving oil & gas activity center…
An autonomous PowerBuoy recently deployed by Ocean Power Technologies for the US Navy is reported to have delivered ‘a very strong performance', meeting all of its mission specifications.The autonomous PowerBuoy, hailed as a self-sustaining…
In the run up to the Macondo trial, which was to begin in Louisiana late last month, the federal judge hearing the case ruled contracts between well operator BP and its contractors – including Transocean and Halliburton – indemnified the contractors…
Subsea hot tapping specialist TD Williamson has been called upon lately to assist with a number of Southeast Asian gas line tie-ins without recourse to costly and disruptive production shutdowns. TDW's Bancha Pitayagulsarn and Ray Foster discuss the planning and successful execution of these jobs…
The mix of orders for all categories of drillings rigs continues, with Asia Pacific and Middle East shipyards and their overseas affiliates indicating a marked drift away from jackups and towards ever larger semisubmersibles and ultra-deepwater drillships…
A robust mergers & acquisitions market in the latter half of 2011, particularly in midstream, bodes well for deal making in 2012, according to Deloitte's Center for Energy Studies. But world events could throw a wrench into the M&A machine, as Russell McCulley reports…