The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has warned North Atlantic Drilling (NAD) that an incident on a drilling unit could have caused injury to staff. An investigation by the PSA was carried out after an incident on the West Venture in March this year when it was operating on the Troll field. It comes at the same time as Transocean were hit with a report outlining concerns over safety following an incident the same month.
The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has called for a number of improvements to be made after a roustabout was injured on the Transocean Barents drilling unit. The incident, which happened in March this year, left the worker with injuries to his head, neck and back. He had been carrying out an inspection of the derrick when the accident happened.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has issued a drilling permit to operator VNG Norge for a new wildcat well in the North Sea.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has granted Statoil a drilling for well 16/7-11. The well will be drilled from the Songa Trym drilling facility and relates to the drilling of a wildcat well in production licence 072 B. Statoil is the operator with a 50% ownership interest.
E.ON has completed a wildcat well near the Skarv field and confirmed it is a dry hole.
European natural gas traders have one more reason to be bearish: Norway is overproducing and output at the nation’s biggest field is poised to reach an eight-year high. Europe’s second-largest supplier pumped more gas than forecast in five of the first six months this year, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate data show. Output from the Troll field is set to climb 23 percent to 33.5 billion cubic meters (1.2 trillion cubic feet) in the year through September, according to an estimate by Eclipse Energy Group, a London-based consultant. Norwegian output is rising amid a global oil and gas glut that’s pressuring prices and cutting profit for companies including Troll’s operator Statoil ASA. Brent crude is trading close to the six-year low it reached in January, and gas prices in the U.K., a European benchmark, are at the weakest for this time of year since 2009.
Norway's hard pressed oil and gas sector can weather the storm created by $50 oil, if the industry continues to work towards reducing costs and adapts to the new price levels.
When the financial crisis brought the global economy to its knees, Norway was largely unscathed. But oil under $50? That's another story. Unemployment peaked at about 3.7 percent in 2010 in the post-crisis aftermath. Falling oil prices already pushed the jobless rate to 4.3 percent in May, the highest in at least 11 years, and that was before a renewed drop in Brent crude. Here are a few ways it's harder for Norway to deal with plunging oil prices than a global financial meltdown.
For the first time since the financial crisis, the Norwegian government’s oil company has seen no significant new plans presented for its offshore fields this year as producers cut spending after crude prices collapsed. Petoro AS, which manages the state’s direct ownership in a third of the country’s oil and gas reserves, said operating companies have submitted no new proposals for projects that are valued at more than 1 billion kroner ($120 million) and include plans for a development-concept or investment decision. “When you consider that the decisions we make this year are the ones that will generate income four to five years from now, it’s worrying,” Petoro Chief Executive Officer Grethe Moen said Thursday in an phone interview from Stavanger. “The issue is the consequence for production.”
Noreco has been hit by another field shut-in after the Lulita field was closed due to technical problems. The company said the duration of the current shutdown is unknown. It comes after a number of stops and starts with the Huntington oilfield off the UK.
Norwegian offshore survey vessel operator Electromagnetic Geoservices (EMGS) has been awarded a contract from an oil company in Malaysia worth $4.2million. The company said the deal is with a repeat customer and is for a two-year period with an additional option for a second phase survey in 2016.
Drilling contractor Songa Offshore has issued a July fleet update.
Lundin has successfully completed the drilling and logging of an appraisal well in the Edvard Grieg field in the Norwegian North Sea.
Lundin Petroleum has reported second quarter earnings and production below expectations in the second quarter of 2015. The company lowered its 2015 production guidance but has kept its year-end production target. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped 38% on the year to $106.5million.
Lime Petroleum Norway has extended an agreement with EnQuest Norge to acquire their 50% stake in each of the PL760 and PL760B licenses. The company is a jointly-controlled entity in which Hibiscus Petroleum owns a 35% stake.
The first well has been spudded on the Gina Krog field in the Norwegian North Sea. Statoil said drilling began earlier this week using the Maersk Integrator rig, which will now be in use until 2019. The milestone is one of many for the company on the Gina Krog development project.
Det Norske Oljeselskap ASA is claiming as much as 20 million barrels more of the Johan Sverdrup oil field as it appeals a government decision that reduced its stake in the giant deposit offshore Norway. The Trondheim-based company asked the government to raise its stake to 12.23 percent from the 11.57 percent it was awarded in a July 1 ruling by the Petroleum and Energy Ministry, according to an appeal letter dated Tuesday obtained by Bloomberg. The field holds as much as 3 billion barrels of oil, meaning a successful appeal may result in an increase of 20 million barrels. “Det Norske asserts that the decision is invalid,” it said in the appeal. The ministry has misinterpreted the petroleum act and hasn’t provided sufficient justification for its decision, which constitutes a process error, the company said.
Statoil has made a gas discovery in the Julius prospect in the North Sea alongside its partner Total of between 15 and 75 million barrels of recoverable oil. Well 2/4-23S was drilled by the Maersk Gallant in the King Lear area and proved gas and condensate in the Ula formation. The Norwegian operator said the well was aimed at appraising the King Lear gas and condensate discovery made by the PL146/PL333 partnership in 2012.
Energy firm Noreco said no hydrocarbons were encountered at the Haribo exploration well. The company said the well will now be plugged and abandoned.
The boss of Odfjell Tankers, Morten Nystad is standing down after 35 years in the chief role.
Lundin Norway has been granted a drilling permit by the NPD (Norwegian Petroleum Directorate) for a fifth exploration well in production licence 609. The company said well 7220/6-2 will be drilled from the Island Innovator facility.
This time-lapse footage shows the second module of the Gina Krog living quarter being lifted into place. It was built by Aluship in Poland and was placed onto the first module, which was built at Apply Leirvik in Norway.
Statoil has installed the steel jacket for the Gina Krog platform in the Norwegian part of the North Sea. This stunning footage shows the jacket, which weighs more than 17,000 tonnes. Weighing more than twice the steel weight of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it has now been secured into the seabed.
Shell in Norway has awarded Kvaerner a project to harmonise the power supply interaction between the Nyhamna gas plant and the national grid.
No one can accuse the Norwegian government of being greedy when it last week decided on the ownership stakes in the giant Johan Sverdrup oil discovery. After months of deliberation, the Petroleum and Energy Ministry’s decision meant it took away as much as 15 million barrels of oil from Petoro AS, the state-owned oil company. The other loser was Det Norske Oljeselskap ASA, which forced the government to arbiter after disagreeing with the field’s other partners. They include Statoil ASA, Lundin Petroleum AB and A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S. The move to cut Det Norske’s stake, and in the process its own, was surprising since it could have approved the initial deal, said Kjetil Bakken, an analyst at Carnegie ASA. “That’s a bit odd,” he said in an interview Friday. “You could wonder if there’s an element of retribution here, or at least a very strong signal to the entire industry to please refrain from bringing this sort of dispute to the ministry.”