French-owned utility group GDF Suez is stepping up its UK exploration and production operations with the goal of becoming a major player in the North Sea. The company's UK E&P arm has been involved in the sector for the past 15 years, but is now working up major expansion plans…
Mexico's latest licensing round only the second in state oil company Pemex's long history, made possible by recent exploration & production contract reforms failed to draw a successful bid for the offshore blocks on offer. Russell McCulley talks to Juan Carlos Zepeda Molina…
CGGVeritas marine seismic operations have undergone a major modernisation programme and the introduction of new technology. Andrew McBarnet reviews progress.Something of a Gallic flourish can be detected about the CGGVeritas multi-client survey in the Keathley Canyon area of the US Gulf of Mexico…
Offshore contractors have taken delivery of some pretty big pieces of floating hardware lately but the daddy of them all Allseas ultra-versatile platform installation/decommissioning and pipelay vessel Pieter Schelte won't be making its giant presence felt until early 2014…
Pieter Schelte will be capable of single-lifting topsides up to 48,000te and jackets up to 25,000te. Topsides will be lifted from a 122m long, 52m wide slot at the bow using eight sets of horizontal lifting beams, four on each side of the slot…
An impressive example of lean design and fast-track construction of a major offshore structure is now standing in 133m of water in the Norwegian North Sea. Adrian Cottrill looks at the technology-stretching jacket at the heart of Statoil's NKr20…
The Valemon gas and condensate accumulation, a 1985 discovery 160km off the coast from Bergen, has estimated recoverable reserves equivalent to 210 million barrels of oil. Development is currently priced at NKr20.4 billion by operator Statoil and its partners Petoro…
All the careful planning and refinement of the Valemon jacket design finally paid off on 18 June when the structure's record-breaking offshore lift-installation was completed. At 03.00 hours, the base of the 160m high steel frame finally touched the seabed…
Breda-headquartered Dockwise is rapidly expanding its business beyond heavy marine transportation, and carried out its first jacket launch in the Bay of Bengal earlier this year. Meg Chesshyre talks to Dockwise's Fons van Lith in this opener to OE's Netherlands offshore industry review…
As the giant Nord Stream project, involving 3 million tonnes of rock dumping over two and a half years, comes to an end, Tideway has picked up another substantial project from Subsea 7 for Total's Laggan Tormore project. Meg Chesshyre reports…
Rotterdam-based Jumbo is boosting the capacity of its heavylift fleet with orders for two K-3000 vessels which, as the name implies, offer a tandem lift capacity of 3000te. The in-house designed K-3000 vessels are being built at the Brodosplit shipyard at Split in Croatia…
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…
IHC Merwede, better known for its high-end sophisticated construction vessels, has developed a versatile in-house IHC Supporter class, targeting the light construction market, ROV construction support market and in particular the growing cable lay market associated with wind farms…
Just as its current workload was drawing to a close, the HSM Offshore yard picked up a substantial construction contract from GDF Suez E&P Nederland for the operator's Dutch sector L5 and D18 projects. Tenders included three (two x 1200te, one x 1800te) topsides plus jackets…
Statoil may not have the biggest R&D budget, but company officials say the operator's technological track record on the Norwegian continental shelf will help it push recovery rates to new highs and create the first subsea factory, including seafloor separation…
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