Oil giant BP is planning at least one more development phase for the huge west of Shetland Clair field at a likely cost in the range £6.3billion-£9.4billion.
No clear time-scale for development has been set - it is is at the concept stage just now - but the current expectation is that phase three of Clair will up and running before the original first stage peters out by around 2028.
The cost estimate is two to three times higher than the current phase two - Clair Ridge - development, where production is expected to start in 2016.
“If you look at the assets that we’ve held the longest, like Thistle, the Dons where we have the (FPSO) Northern Producer, and Heather, we’re having a very good year,” says Enquest’s North Sea president, Neil McCulloch.
“We’re doing well on the regulatory side of things too; had inspections around our facilities this year . . . some of the oldest in the North Sea.
“While you never get an entirely clean bill of health, we’ve done very well with no prohibition notices, no improvement notices; just some support for the way we go about our business. It’s about doing simple things very well, repeatedly. And that’s a core value at Enquest.
Enzyme-enabled carbon capture technology company CO2 Solutions has signed an agreement with the University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center to test its technology at EERC's testing facility using natural gas and coal flue gas in December.
A top boss at Siemens Wind Power has claimed that offshore wind will be one of the cheapest, scalable solutions for the UK, as compared to other renewables and fossil fuel energy sources by 2025, if the true cost to society is factored into the cost of energy equation.
The global oilfield equipment rental market will grow from an estimated $26.8billion this year to $53.7billion by 2019 with a CAGR of 14.9% over the five-year period, according to US research. The revenue for OER last year was $23billion.
As shale gas exploitation proliferates, new research into the contents of the fluids involved in the process raises concerns about several ingredients.
The next generation of the oil and gas industry are ready to reach new career heights after an action-packed first week with Petrofac's Offshore Projects & Operations (OPO) business in Aberdeen.
With drilling . . . particularly exploration and appraisal . . . running at an all-time low on the UK Continental Shelf, life is tough for those connected with this activity.
National Oil & Gas Skills Week is just a few weeks off and one is given to understand that this initiative by Opito is not receiving the kind of support that had been expected.
The operator of the UK's Kraken development says the project is on track, that award of the development drilling contract will be made soon, that initial prepping of the ex tanker that will be used is done, with the fitting of process systems soon to start, and that a final appraisal well (Tyrone) is about to be spudded.
Bridge Energy has been re-engineered and its UK business has re-merged as Verus Petroleum. The principal investor in the new company is Norwegian private equity firm HitecVision.
The UK's Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has awarded a contract to Mott MacDonald in support of a new research project to identify the characteristics of alternative small-scale thermal and nuclear plant power generation technologies.
Techniques now being used in the US Lower 48 States to prolong the commerciality of unconventionals hydrocarbon production could work in Europe, according to Wood Mackenzie analysts.
Colette Cohen has moved almost 20 times during her career. By any standard hers has been an adventure . . . from starting out as the only woman on a BP platform in the UK North Sea, to today's role as senior VP, UK and Netherlands at Centrica Energy.
HeliOffshore, a global safety-focused organisation formed by major providers of offshore helicopter transportation, has gone live and will be formally launched this month.
Natural methane leakage from the seafloor is far more widespread on the US Atlantic margin than previously thought, according to a study out of Mississippi State University, the US Geological Survey, and others.
The baseplate of a new style of offshore wind turbine concrete foundation has been fully cast and should be installed in the English Channel within months.
