The Obama Administration has unveiled plans for keeping offshore oil wells in check, just a few days before the fifth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
The US Department of Interior said the measures would include more “stringent design requirements” and operational procedures.
Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, said the aim of the proposed measures was to further build on the lessons learned from the 2010 incident in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 workers.
Harkand has strengthened its inspection division by appointing a new inspection manager in their Aberdeen office.
Andrew Inglis, who was appointed today, brings more than 15 years experience in delivering subsea inspection services in the North Sea region to the role, and has previously held inspection management roles at Subsea 7 and Bibby Offshore Ltd.
Future UK Government budgets for offshore wind are unlikely to support Scotland’s ambitions to develop the industry, the first minister has said.
Nicola Sturgeon has called on the government to act now to provide confidence to the sector by increasingboost budget allocations to allow offshore wind to be delivered on a far greater scale.
Sturgeon’s plea comes after the results of the first contracts for difference auction were announced last week.
The auction awarded 15-year contracts which guarantee a price for the power generated as part of the government’s plan to encourage renewable energy.
The massive drop in oil prices, combined with cost and cash flow issues among petroleum companies, is expected to exert further downward pressure on offshore jack-up and semi-submersible rig charters this year.
In a nutshell, a lot of rigs are going to become idle over the next couple of years. That will depress rig rates significantly.
According to analysts RS Platou, rig demand will slacken sharply, dropping an additional 30% based on a $75 oil price over and above last year’s decline.
The RSPB has called for a judicial review after the Scottish Government gave consent for four offshore windfarms in the east of Scotland.
The charity mounted a legal challenge at the Court of Session in Edinburgh over permission granted last October for four Scottish territorial and round three wind farms.
The projects, in the Outer Forth and Tay, include Mainstream's 450MW Neart na Gaoithe, Repsol and EDP's 784MW Inch Cape and SSE and Fluor's 525MW Seagreen Alpha and 525MW Seagreen Bravo.
The shortlist for the 2015 Offshore Achievement Awards is unveiled today, revealing 34 contenders for 11 of the 12 honours on offer.
It is all hush-hush for the 12th award, which recognises significant achievement in the oil and gas industry, and will be presented along with the others in formt of about 500 guests at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre on Thursday, March 12.
Sponsored by Taqa in association with rigzone.com, the annual awards are organised and hosted by the Aberdeen section of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
Industry group Step Change in Safety has revealed its measurement strategy for helicopter passengers travelling to and from offshore installations.
The move comes after Step Change announced last year that passengers will be measured by the width of their shoulders for flights.
Those whose shoulders measure greater than 22inches (55.9cm) will be classified as extra broad.
It goes without saying that if you work offshore, you work in a physically demanding and hazardous environment. So when the European Court of Justice rules that obesity can constitute a disability, then of course safety must come into the discussion.
Before we get into things, we must remember that the EU’s judgement states that obesity is only classed as a disability in certain circumstances, not in every circumstance. It’s only a disability if the person has a long-term impairment that has been induced by their weight.
This footage shows how onshore and offshore personnel will be able to train and exercise for oil spills.
The North Cape Maritime Training Centre in Honningsvåg in Norway now contains the world’s only oil spill simulator where onshore and offshore personnel isolated or together, can train in the tools and stages of oil spill combating operations.
It has been created by Aptomar together with Transas in close cooperation with the North Cape Maritime Training Centre in Honningsvag.
Glacier Energy Services has merged its pipeline machining and onsite service businesses into a new division as it expands across the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
The firm, which has operational bases in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Newcastle and Singapore, has appointed Mark Derry, previously head of Glacier’s offshore division, to run the new unit.
Glacier has also appointed Kevin Strachan as regional manager for the Middle East, based in Dubai, for the newly formed Roberts Machining Solutions.
SBM Offshore is set to cut 1200 jobs over the next two years as it looks to make $40million in savings.
The contractor company will also move its headquarters to the Netherlands as weak market condition take hold.
A spokesman for SBM Offshore said it was currently in the process of losing 600 contractor staff and an equal number of permanent staff.
The total number of job losses would hit 1200.
An offshore helicopter was forced to return back to shore after a passenger became unwell.
The Bond S-92 was heading to the Balmoral Platform when an emergency call was issue around 9am.
A spokeswoman for Bond confirmed the helicopter was diverted.
An offshore worker has been airlifted to hospital from a platform 130 miles east of Aberdeen.
The man was flown to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where he was met by an ambulance and a team from the coastguard.
An Aberdeen coastguard spokesman said they received a call at around 1.30pm on Monday afternoon.
An offshore worker was airlifted to hospital last night after falling on a North Sea platform.
The 64-year-old man is believed to have fallen from a ladder aboard TAQA's Eider platform, 112 miles north-east of Shetland, at 10pm.
An Aberdeenshire firm has designed new technology for testing offshore fire sprinkler systems that should prevent glitches caused by existing methods.
Paradigm Flow Services (PFS), part of Netherlands-based investment firm Paradigm Group, has invested £180,000 in the research and development stage of its dryflow technology, which was carried out by academics, software designers and engineers in Aberdeen and Rotterdam over the past 18 months.
Conventional tests use large volumes of seawater, often leading to blockages and corrosion inside nozzles and pipework.
