A Scottish university has joined the largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) research partnership in the UK. Scientists from the University of Strathclyde will join fellow researchers within the Scottish Carbon Capture & Storage (SCCS) partnership, providing expertise in areas including carbon dioxide transport and environment impact analysis.
Oil giant Halliburton has boosted its income for the third quarter of the year by $1billion, which is an increase from the previous quarter. The company announced their total revenue of $8.7billion was up by 16% on the same time last year.
The price of Brent crude has steadied at $86 a barrel after the announcement of a cut in Saudi-Kuwait oil output. Production at the Khafji oilfield has been stopped temporarily for environmental reasons.
A rig owned by Norwegian driller Songa offshore has suffered failure on one of its four engines, while undergoing survey work in Scotland.
Tethys Petroleum will face a shareholders vote to remove the majority of its directors, the company has announced. An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the company will be held after the board received a requisition on behalf Pope Management LLC.
Genel Energy has hit oil during drilling at a well on the Sidi Moussa Block off the coast of Morocco. The discovery was made by the oil and gas explorer along with its partners San Leon and Serica Energy.
President Energy has made it first oil discovery in the Lapacho well at the Pirity Concession in Paraguay. The company, which has a 65% interest in the asset, said tests will now be carried out to confirm the discovery of the conventional light oil.
A strategy manager for French-engineering company Technip said the “gold-plating” was coming off technology design in the oil and gas industry. Scott Campbell, strategy manager for the company’s UK business unit, said the market downturn would likely remain for the next year.
International oil and gas facility service provider expects to make up to $600million in profit this year. The company said the past year had been its most successful for new awards, with an ECOM (Engineering, Construction, Operation and Maintenance) order intake of $9.4billion.
The chief executive of oil and gas facilitator ITF said techniques used in deepwater could also be beneficial to the oil and gas industry in the North Sea. Dr Patrick O’Brien spoke on the final day of Deep Offshore Technology International 2014 (DOT) about the potential techniques which could be used to find more energy sources in the UKCS.
Development in floating concrete structures - which could be used for exploration in the Arctic Ocean - was presented by Norwegian-based engineering company Kvaerner at Deep Offshore Technology International 2014 (DOT). Kvaerner has been designing the concrete structures which would be adaptable to the region, rather than typical fixed platforms seen elsewhere in the industry.
The potential revenues which come from Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) will be realised by the oil and gas industry within the next five years, according to Industry team leader. Members of the industry gathered for the final day of Deep Offshore Technology International 2014 (2014) to discuss enabling technologies to maximise recovery.
Closing the skills gap could be a major step forward in solving the challenges in deepwater developments, according to an industry analyst. Richard D’Souza from Granherne/KBR said collaboration is needed between the oil and gas industry, governments and educational institutions to hire the right staff.
Industry experts believe standardisation to stop costs creeping up in deepwater activities. A panel at the Deep Offshore Technology International 2014 (DOT) assessed the ways costs could be reduced within deepwater activity, with the recent decrease in oil prices, coupled with increasing cost.
The boss of an independent oil and gas company said deep water production of oil and gas could triple by 2040. Jarand Rystad, managing director of Rystad Energy, was speaking at the Deep Offshore Technology International 2014 (DOT) about rising costs in finding energy resources.
CNOOC has struck its first oil in the South China Sea. The corporation has a 100% interest in the Enping 24-2 oilfield, which is located in the Pear River Mouth Basin of the South China Sea, and has a water depth of 86-96 metres.
Young oil and gas workers have been invited to an industry first event which will focus on ‘soft skills’ which could help them succeed. Skills including networking, communication and presentation skills will be discussed by members of three of the oil and gas industry’s professional societies.
Lundin Petroleum has spudded an exploration well in the Gobi prospect within the Natuna Gas field, near Indonesia. The Gobi-1 is a wildcat exploration well designed to test the hydrocarbon potential of Oligocene and Miocene stacked fluvial reservoirs in the Jemaja Basin.
A World Bank tribunal has ordered Venezuela to pay oil giant ExxonMobil about $1.6billion to compensate for oil nationalisation. Venezuela said it would pay the award, but only after deducting a previous Exxon award from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) of $908million.
Oil workers are set to return to a North Sea platform evacuated after a cargo vessel carrying cargo waste began drifting towards it. The Denmark-registered Parida, which was carrying a cargo of radioactive waste from Scrabster to Antwerp, lost engine power after a fire broke out in one of her funnels at about 8pm on Monday.
Oil and gas operators have forecast decommissioning expenditures will cost £1.5billion every year for the next decade. Oil and Gas UK has launched its annual Decommissioning Insight which is the leading industry forecast for activity and expenditure on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).
Lee Tillman, chief executive officer of Marathon Oil told investors last month that the company was sitting on the equivalent of 4.3 billion barrels in its US shale acreage. That number was 5.5 times higher than the one Marathon reported to federal regulators. Such discrepancies are rife in the US shale industry. Drillers use bigger forecasts to sell the hydraulic fracturing boom to investors and to persuade lawmakers to lift the 39-year-old ban on crude exports. Sixty-two of 73 US shale drillers reported one estimate in mandatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission while citing higher potential figures to the public, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Pioneer Natural Resources' estimate was 13 times higher. Goodrich Petroleum's was 19 times. For Rice Energy it was almost 27-fold.
Technology and skills provider Atlas Knowledge has created a system to manage and track the competence of employees in the oil and gas industry. The Competency Assurance Management System (CAMS) was developed with expertise from a industry advisory group of 100 people.
Energy giant Halliburton has signed a long-term contract with Ecuador’s state-run oil company Petroamazonas to provide field development and project management across nine mature fields. The contracts, for fields including the Palo Azul, Lago Agrio, and Victor Hugo Ruales, are 15 years long with the potential for a further five-year extension.
Independent explorer Enegi has discovered oil bearing sands at one of its wells in the Central North Sea. The company said the find was contained in a simple four way dip structure at the 22/12a-12 appraisal well at its Phoenix discovery.