Getting smart
SMART energy is the focus of a Society of Petroleum Engineers conference in Aberdeen on June 9-10. It is the result of feedback from the SPE community in Britain.
Oil & Gas
Another find for state operator
STATOILHYDRO has made a fresh discovery with an exploration well drilled about 35km east of the Gudrun field and some 30km south of the Grane field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.
Petrobras to sink $300m in Black Sea
BRAZILIAN state operator Petrobras expects to spend about $300million on exploring its Turkish Black Sea concessions over the next two years, according to the company's international director, Jorge Zelada.
Grenland signs up for work in China
GRENLAND Group of Norway has signed a $7.7million contract with a unit of China Offshore Services Limited (COSL) for project-related work on a semi-submersible rig under construction at the Yantai Raffles yard in China.
Security specialist revamps website
INTERNATIONAL security and risk-mitigation provider AKE has launched the next generation of its secure online country information website, Global Intake.
How to engineer a good night out
OIL and gas consultants Altra Energy hosted a party at its new offices in the Union Plaza complex in Aberdeen.
Literary lunch first for Aberdeen
THE concept has worked well in Edinburgh and Glasgow, but Aberdeen got its first taste of the Gliterary lunch in the city's The Square restaurant. Guest speakers were authors Libby Purves, Sybil Le Fleur and Derek Flory.
Lack of pride costs company dear
PRIDE International has admitted to Chevron that its semi-submersible, Pride Venezuela, has an unacceptable level of corrosion. This has precipitated cancellation of a contract for use of the rig by Chevron off Angola.
Awards call to young professionals
ONE of the winners of the Oil and Gas UK Awards 2008 is urging fellow young professionals to have their skills, resolve and achievements rewarded at this year's event.
Massive $1.6billion Kashagan field win for Aker Solutions
NORWEGIAN group Aker Solutions has been awarded two key contracts, in partnership with Saipem, from Agip KCO, operator of the Kashagan field, on behalf of the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC).
Share of DONG licence up for grabs
DONG Energy is inviting companies to acquire up to 20% of its UK Atlantic Margin Licence P1195.
World-class people seek world-class solutions
CLEARLY, the NSRI has a business plan, but what are the guts of it? The core is a five-year plan, but with annual waypoint targets.
Saudi Aramco backs ‘oriented fracturing’ to boost well output
SAUDI Aramco's EXPEC Advanced Research Center (EXPEC ARC) claims to have found a better and cheaper way to control hydraulic fracturing in open-hole horizontal wells to improve reservoir contact and enhance production.
Sevan Voyageur signed for ‘life’ of Shelley field
SEVAN Marine and Premier Oil have signed up to a firm contract for the continued provision and operation of the floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), Sevan Voyageur, on the Shelley field in the Central North Sea (blocks 22/2b and 22/3a).
RGU and Stavanger set to collaborate
ABERDEEN'S Robert Gordon University and Stavanger University are forming a collaborative partnership covering education and research across a number of disciplines, but which will especially capitalise on their strong positions in energy-related activities - most of all North Sea oil&gas.
EMGS cuts fleet and slashes workforce as recession bites hard
Norwegian company Electromagnetic Geoservices (EMGS) is restructuring and cutting its workforce in the hope of riding out the recession successfully.
Capitalising on UK’s huge underwater capability
BUT surely the difference between academia and industry is that they would say academia leans too much towards blue skies and doesn't understand the corporate world.
Partnering and alliancing are back
Alliancing, gainsharing and partnering were all buzzwords in the North Sea oil&gas industry of the mid-1990s. There is some talk of the return of these agreements, given the economic challenges faced by the industry in 2009.
All-Energy – the ‘Offshore Europe’ of renewables
It was great to see All-Energy at Aberdeen's exhibition centre absolutely booming. As a veteran of these events, from the kick-off in 2001, I had the real sense of an industry which is on the verge of something big.
OTC provides backdrop for global gathering
THIS year's Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) was the setting for another global technology summit, led by Aberdeen-headquartered ITF. Key technology organisations from the world's major oil&gas provinces came together for a breakfast on the second day of the show in Houston to share updates on current programmes.
GoM Tubular Bells win sweet music to Amec’s Neil Bruce
BP has handed UK group Amec the engineering services contract covering development of the Tubular Bells and Kodiak discoveries in deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
NSRI founded on determined brilliance
We've read the headlines, perhaps even attended February's launch, but how is the CEO of Britain's shiny new National Subsea Research Institute going to actually make this bold ambition happen?
Report hints of major gas find offshore Falklands in late-1990s
A just published study commissioned by Rockhopper Exploration shows just how tantalisingly close the late-1990s exploration drilling campaign to the north of the Falkland Islands was, especially one of the two operated by Shell.
Chinese in pincer movement
Late May's news that the Chinese are snapping up nearly half of a strategically important refinery in Singapore, plus pouring a staggering $442billion into expanding renewables capacity, should send shivers through corridors of power here in the West.
Want to influence energy policy?
The utterly immoral behaviour of an apparently significant number of MPs is something that I find truly abhorrent. Without a shadow of a doubt, the authority of the UK parliament as an institution and the politicians that occupy it have both been severely damaged.