With 2011 drawing to a close, it's time for OE to look afresh at the world's emerging hot spots. One of those generating the most interest, if not the most dollars yet, is also the coldest: the Arctic. Jennifer Pallanich asks a cross-section…
High safety standards in oil & gas operations are better achieved when self-imposed, rather than through excessive government regulation, a leading Shell figure told delegates to this year's SPE ATCE in Denver. US editor Russell McCulley listened in…
The subsea gas compression system for Norway's Ormen Lange subsea compression pilot is about to start a six-month endurance test which will last until June 2012, Aker Solutions project director Øystein Haukvik revealed last month at the opening of his company's new engineering office in west London…
Despite a brief interruption post-Macondo, the rig newbuilding boom that started in 2005 is gathering momentum. Jennifer Pallanich talks to IHS about the latest trends in the drilling contractor market.One of the trends that Tom Kellock, Houston's head of consulting for IHS Petrodata…
Baker Hughes continues to invest heavily in R&D, having reorganized itself along ‘geo-market' lines over the last couple of years. During the recent SPE ATCE gathering in Denver, Russell McCulley caught up with the oilfield services giant's president of products & technology…
Born in Houston, raised in London, Gardiner Henderson is no stranger to travel. Which is just as well, since his latest job has him in almost perpetual motion criss-crossing the globe to build business and raise awareness of a company he sees…
Risk management processes are fundamental to making decisions that improve the well construction process. Halliburton’s Hamayun Raja, Aijaz Rizvi and John Walters review the way risk management can be used in offshore projects to improve safety and on-target performance…
Andrew McBarnet says it makes sense for the oil and gas E&P business to provide more independently researched evidence documenting best environmental practice in its operations. A recent fragment in the oil industry news cycle noted that electromagnetic…
Total's UK North Sea Islay tieback, a gas condensate field with challenging flow assurance issues for the management of hydrates, is being used as a pilot for what is being hailed as the world's first electrically trace heated pipe-in-pipe system…
Harnessing and transporting multiphase products from often high temperature/high pressure well environments to the processing plant presents many a technological challenge. Tata Steel’s Derek Bish discusses one of them: how to construct and efficiently insulate pipe-in-pipe bends…
Design by analysis rather than the traditional formula approach is the way forward for pipeline operators and contractors looking to cut project costs and timescales, argues TRaC Global consultant Dr Peter Moir.Analysis to validate the design…
The offshore oil & gas industry has long relied on sensors and sporadic ROV footage to find out what's going on subsea. Now a new tool designed for permanent deployment at well sites is about to change all that, according to Weatherford's Ole Tom Furu…
Two platform supply vessels under construction at Louisiana's Harvey Gulf International Marine will use LNG as a propulsion fuel, a first for the US. Russell McCulley hears from Harvey Gulf and others about the move to LNG fuel in the offshore oil & gas market…
Hunting has completed the acquisition of Specialty Supply for an initial cash consideration of $31 million. Located in Houston, Specialty manufactures precisionmachined MWD parts used in directional drilling markets worldwide.Lankhorst Mouldings and…
Siemens last month increased its stake in UK tidal energy company Marine Current Turbines to 45%, with Michael Axmann, CFO of Siemens Energy's newly established solar & hydro division, declaring: ‘We will actively shape the commercialization process of innovative marine current power plants…