With a number of new vessels in the works and others just starting to make their presence felt in the market, Jumbo Offshore's recent announcement that it will build a new-generation K-Class heavylift vessel suggests there's still plenty of competitive juice in the offshore installation…
As gas wells mature and the produced gas becomes less able to carry water from the well, a decline in flow rate and production to rates below the anticipated decline curve often results. Bert Lugtmeier and Kees Veeken from Dutch operator NAM…
North Sea independent Ithaca Energy will use Petrofac's FPF-1 semi – the former AH-001 deployed by Hess on Ivanhoe/Rob Roy – as a production hub to develop the Greater Stella Area (GSA ) fields, Stella, Harrier, Hurricane and Helios. Jennifer Pallanich reports…
The Macondo incident pushed oil spill response to the top of the environmental agenda. A recent contest let some innovative companies demonstrate spill response equipment – and for one of the event's technical advisors, Shell, to reassure the public that it intends to operate safely in Alaska…
BP has received approval from the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for a supplemental exploration plan in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, the company’s first such approval since the April 2010 blowout and spill at its Macondo prospect and…
The long-delayed final report on the Macondo disaster from the joint BOEMRE/USCG investigation team chose not to pinpoint a fundamental cause. However, veteran offshore oil & gas consultant and occasional expert witness Ian Fitzsimmons has no such qualm…
Combining Alternate Path shunt tube technology with concentric sandface completion systems is improving operational efficiency and economics while bringing new life to old offshore wells in Malaysian waters. Here, Schlumberger's Shahryar Saebi and Sergey…
An innovative installation approach was adopted this summer for a Dutch riser access tower constructed under Shell's SWEEP gas accumulation development programme. David Morgan reports.The 800t riser access tower (RAT) was fabricated by Mercon…
Siri field operator Dong Energy is now forging ahead with a DK r2 billion ($384 million) permanent repair programme that virtually constitutes a redevelopment of the Danish North Sea field in 60m of water. Meg Chesshyretalks to Dong's executive vice president E&P Søren Gath Hansen…
Materials and long-lead items are only two of the challenges offshore yards must juggle. Regulations and their impact on operators also keep fabricators on their toes. Jennifer Pallanich calls on Kiewit Offshore Services to see how the Gulf…
A federal investigation of the Macondo disaster does not pinpoint what caused the well's cement job to fail, but backs up earlier conclusions that operator BP and its contractors skirted safety measures that could have prevented the blowout…
Statoil’s two UKCS heavy oil developments – Mariner in block 9/11a and Bressay in blocks 3/27b, 3/28a, 3/28b, 9/2a and 3/a – are back on track having been halted by the operator in March following the UK Chancellor’s decision to increase the…
After a trillion-plus dollar stimulus package that seems to have fizzled, after forays towards ‘bipartisanship’ which often meant agree with him or nothing, and after seeing his approval ratings drop like a rock, US president Barack Obama unveiled…
Energy companies and conservationists have joined forces in a novel effort to protect Louisiana’s coastal wetlands using recycled plastic bottles to create floating ‘islands’ offshore one of the state’s most threatened ecosystems.The technology…
The big news coming out of Europe is that it is running out of money, but is Europe also running out of gas? Infield Systems' Peter Kiernan(left) and Dr Roger Knight discuss the future of Europe's gas supply in the light of the growing need to secure energy from Russia and the Middle East…