MANAGING the risk of non-compliance with contractual requirements has therefore significantly increased in importance. The irony is, under most corporate risk management structures, contract risks are often not addressed using a systematic approach.
FOOTSIE-100 listed Tullow Oil has scored with its Ngege-1 exploration well drilled in Uganda's Lake Albert Rift Basin, encountering both oil and gas.
TECHNIP, with 50:50 joint-venture partner DOF Subsea, is to provide Petrobras with a new pipelay vessel under a four-year charter.
APPLICATIONS are invited from individuals, multi-disciplinary teams or community groups for the 2009 St Andrews Prize for the Environment.
NAUTRONIX says an independent study carried out by Blade Offshore Services demonstrates that its innovative NASNet acoustic positioning system really does outperform other acoustic positioning systems. NASNet is established in the defence market, but is still finding its feet offshore- though recent applications on offshore developments such as Agbami and Frade by Subsea 7 and Acergy suggest it is coming of age.
VARIOUS opinions were at play within Technip's boardroom and among senior management. At the end of the day, what was best for the Perry Slingsby business determined the outcome.
THE years 2002-03 had been truly dreadful for a lot of companies, and particularly Perry Slingsby.
For Triton, it boils down to acquiring highly specialist businesses that have been set up by smart people but which may nonetheless be struggling to make headway, perhaps because of solid management skills.
UK COMPANY Corac Group is looking for new participants to join an ongoing JIP that will further develop its innovative Downhole Gas Compressor (DGC) technology.
StatoilHydro has teamed up with Chevron and Petrobras to develop a new compact deepwater separation plant for seafloor installation known as Tordis.
UNLESS one is getting a bit long in the tooth and very British, the chances are that most of us are aware of the "high-five" greeting. The writer has a toddler who uses it a lot.
COSTS associated with constructing new oil&gas upstream facilities have reached a new record high, according to the latest IHS/Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) Upstream Capital Costs Index. They are up 6% over the past six months and have doubled since 2005.
SOME countries are perceived as better than others when it comes to driving forward HS & E standards, and Norway is an outstanding example in this regard.
LIKE Merry, Haslett believes some of the major threats posed by any Severn Barrage would be "siltation" - silting-up both up and downstream of any estuary barrage because of an inevitable reduction in tidal flow velocity.
FRIENDS of the Earth prefers tidal lagoons, with a position paper from the group arguing these could generate 24 Terawatt hours per year of electricity with average output of 2,750MW, compared with 17-19 Twh/year and 1,950-2,170MW quoted for a barrage.
There are several proposals for barrages, as well as tidal lagoons. According to BERR, a barrage would be a very complex project, but the basic concept is well understood and is the application of mature, commercially available technology.
THE first phase of Supergen (Marine) concluded in September, 2007. However, the team was asked to bid for continuing work in 2006 and, once again, the partners were asked to subject their proposals and output from first phase for peer review.
SUPERGEN has an educational as well as a research remit and the associated doctoral training programme will ensure that PhD students attached to Supergen will receive targeted training in their chosen field of research from the most eminent specialists in the field. The programme includes quarterly training sessions and close association between the students and the professional researchers involved in the main Supergen research.
THE development of marine renewable energy has been very close to the frontier of understanding of interactions between energy extraction technology and the very environment it is intended to exploit.
In order to achieve the aims, the emergent programme known as Supergen was divided into 12 parallel, but closely linked, work programmes. They comprise:
According to EWEA, over the last eight years, only new gas capacity has exceeded new wind power capacity in the EU.
EWEA is sticking to the target it set in 2003 of 180,000MW by 2020 and 300,000MW by 2030, 40% of which is expected to be offshore wind. It should be borne in mind that the European Parliament has, for many years, been calling for a mandatory 25% target for renewable energy by 2020, though the current firm commitment is 20% (equivalent to 30% of the community's entire electricity requirements).
EWEA warns that spare electricity generating capacity is at a historic low across Europe (This applies to the UK, including Scotland) and the only way to fix the problem is to invest in new power plant before blackouts become endemic rather exceptional.
AS IF the foregoing isn't enough to chew over, there is also the not-in-my-back-yard brigade to contend with - individuals, various NGOs and other organisations, poorly conceived national and local-government policy and planning decisions, and so forth. With 6,000MW of projects stuck in planning, the UK is a prime example of where there needs to be a big-time sort-out.
Renewable energy isn't just about wind turbines, hydro-dams and such like, there is also a much more prosaic, simpler dimension to this increasingly important sector - biomass.
