Heavy lifting, drilling and pipelay solutions provider Huisman has designed and built rock dumping systems before, notably for Tideway's Rollingstone and Seahorse vessels. But its next system, to be delivered later this year for the Tideway newbuild Flintstone…
Macondo mattersSir, OE's article by Ian Fitzsimmons on preventing future Macondo spills [‘Macondo and other titanic struggles', OE July] was excellent and I distributed a copy to my colleagues both in EIA and DOE. The recommendations made…
Making more sense of pipe handlingNorway's TTS Sense has developed an advanced pipe handling machine named SmartRacker, following the award to the company of a contract to supply an entire drilling package to two advanced newbuild jackups…
The Macondo oil spill will have a lasting impact, but not the same repercussions on the petroleum industry that the Three Mile Island accident had on the nuclear industry. So said Douglas Becker, director oil services & equipment, global research for Bank of America…
GDF Suez takes over as operator of Gjøa when the field comes onstream in October. The project comprises a semisubmersible platform with subsea tiebacks, and is also expected to be a hub in the future. Meg Chesshyre opens this month's Scandinavian…
Boosting recoveryThe HiWay flow-channel hydraulic fracturing technique, formally released by Schlumberger late June, is designed to maximize production and hydrocarbon recovery through the creation of open flow channels within the propped fracture…
Weather is a major factor when planning offshore drilling campaigns. Asbjørn Stålesen of FMC Technologies says the company's Real Time Operating Limits system has allowed it to increase the time available for carrying out drilling work.The biggest…
OE 's analysis of current rig market data is updated monthly using statistics provided by Rigzone.comWorldwide utilization for the mobile offshore drilling fleet is tracking at 76%, near the top of a 74%-76% band that it has traversed over the past 11 months…
BP's Gulf of Mexico oil leak is an unmitigated disaster, not just because of the amount of oil that has to be skimmed, the oil-soaked birds that have to be cleansed and the beaches that require purification. It has allowed an Obama administration…
BP has come under fierce criticism for its response to the Macondo blowout, a months-long saga of top hats, riser insertion tools and other containment efforts that only began collecting a significant portion of the oil spilling into the Gulf several weeks after the event…
Four of the largest oil companies have pledged $1 billion to build a rapid response system designed to capture and contain oil in the event of another Macondo-style blowout in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.In a July 21 joint announcement, Chevron…
FIRMSTGS-Nopec Geophysical has bought the directional survey business and information for ongoing client-initiated programs from P2 Energy Solutions' Tobin business line. The purchase includes P2's existing database of over 38,000 directional surveys…
Gas is part of the solution to the global energy challenge says Brian Bjordal, president and CEO of Gassco, whose throughput of gas has doubled in just ten years. Meg Chesshyre reports.On the positive side, notes Bjordal, there are significant…
For a while, non-productive time was a problem most companies didn't want to acknowledge. Two recent reports have brought into focus the amount of time, and money, lost due to non-productive time. Jennifer Pallanich finds out what the Athens…
The six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon disaster has forced oil & gas companies to redraw their plans for the rest of the year. But the effects of the ban could linger long after, as Russell McCulley reports…