Hundreds of jobs could be secured after energy services firm Cape secured a two-year contract extension with oil major BP. The deal, for work in the North Sea, is worth an estimated $153million. Cape will supply a range of services to six BP assets in the North Sea.
Oil giant Shell is said to be pushing ahead with plans to explore for oil in the Arctic Ocean near Alaska despite strong opposition from environmental groups. The company is said to be preparing vessels to begin a two-year programme to explore two to three wells in the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska. Shell's chief financial officer Simon Henry said work was "currently on track".
Statoil has completed the sale of its share in the Shah Deniz production sharing agreement to Petronas. The Norwegian company sold off its 15.5% participating interest in Shah Deniz, 15.5% share in the South Caucasus Pipeline Company, 15.5% share in the SCPC holding company and 12.4% share in the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company (AGSC).
The North Sea oil and gas industry raised a toast to its champions of safety at an awards ceremony in Aberdeen yesterday. Six awards were handed out at this year’s UK Oil and Gas Industry Safety Awards to people and companies who went the extra mile to keep employees out of harm’s way. Vic Retalic, HSE and security manager of Premier Oil, was recognised for his creative approach to communicating health and safety messages, which includes the use of cartoons. He took the Safety Leadership Award home from the event at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC).
Most of the country’s national parks are unsuitable for fracking because of their geology, a report has found. Scientists from Durham University’s Department of Earth Sciences have reviewed existing data for each of our 15 national parks and found only four where it could be considered. The briefing document found the four parks with geology to interest companies looking to exploit shale gas, shale oil or coalbed methane were the North York Moors, the Peak District, the South Downs and the Yorkshire Dales.
The start of a seven-year drilling campaign on the Loyal field west of Shetland is an “exciting and important milestone” for BP’s operations in the UK North Sea, the oil giant said today. Newly built semi-submersible Deepsea Aberdeen is contracted to drill wells across the Schiehallion and Loyal fields, as part of the Quad204 redevelopment. It will initially drill two producer wells and one injector well on Loyal, before moving onto Schiehallion to continue drilling activities. A total of five wells are planned to be drilled in advance of first oil from the new Glen Lyon floating, production, storage and offload (FPSO) vessel at the end of 2016.
Solo Oil is to team with one of the oil industry’s leading entrepreneurs in an asset swap deal. Solo will exchange its 15% stake in Pan Minerals and Gas for a 15.9% stake in Burj Petroleum Africa and will acquire a further 5% for $500,000 in cash and shares.
KBC Advanced Technologies has signed a non-exclusive cooperation deal with Norway's Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technologies. The agreement will enable the pair to work on developing simulation software and more effective engineering and operations workflows for the oil and gas sector.
Industry experts have been urged to step forward and voice their concerns over the challenges currently facing the sector as a result of the falling oil price. Subsea UK has made its last call for papers for its annual ROV conference. The event, which is now in its third year, will be held at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre during the final day of the Offshore Europe conference on Friday, September 11 and will debate key industry issues across the globe. Topics under the spotlight include deepwater construction, operational efficiencies, ROV development, and technological advancements.
A British man is on board a cargo ship seized by Iranian authorities. He is one of 24 crew members on the Maersk Tigris, which was in international waters crossing the Strait of Hormuz en route from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Jebel Ali in the UAE when it was approached and seized by Iranian patrol boats. A spokesman for Denmark-based Maersk said they understand the “crew is safe and under the circumstances in good spirits”. A statement added: “We are continuing our efforts to obtain more information about the Iranian authorities’ seizure - in international waters - of Maersk Tigris. We are not able at this point to establish or confirm the reason behind the seizure.
Oil giant Shell has chosen Asco to run its Darwin supply base for its Prelude floating LNG project. The contractor will begin a gradual ramp-up from later this year at the facility as part of a five-year deal. ASCO will be handling Prelude's operations and maintenance logistics requirements.
There is a new name in the UK North Sea oil and gas industry after French energy giant GDF Suez changed its name to ENGIE. The rebranding was not trumpeted loudly by the Paris-based group on this side of the Channel but a major marketing campaign is under way in key markets, particularly France and Belgium. Engie has no specific meaning in French – websites describe it as a girl's name, a variant of Evangeline, of Latin and Greek origin and derived for words translating as “good” and “news”.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman named Khalid A. Al-Falih as chairman of Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s biggest crude exporter, replacing Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi, according to state television. Al-Falih, born in 1959, was also named health minister in a royal court statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency on Wednesday. He had been president and chief executive officer of Aramco. No replacement for that job was announced. “Having Al-Falih as a full cabinet member now does not preclude him from other ministerial positions including petroleum in the future,” Mohammed al-Ramady, professor of economics at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, said by phone on Wednesday.
Aberdeen firms X-Subsea UK and X-Subsea Atlantic are in administration, with 20 jobs axed, after a downturn in orders. They are subsidiaries of Granite City-based X-Subsea UK Holding (X-Subsea UKH), which is also in administration. Their parent, Norway’s Reef Subsea, went into liquidation in February after backers pulled support in the wake of falling oil prices. But X-Subsea operations in Houston in the US, Ciudad del Carmen in Mexico and Singapore are not in administration.
Saudi Arabia said it will keep pumping oil to meet any demand for its supplies as the world’s biggest crude exporter seeks to defend its share of the market. The oil market is in “excellent” condition, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s deputy oil minister, told reporters on Monday in the eastern city of Khobar, without elaborating. The kingdom seeks to keep customers happy and maintain stability of prices, demand and supply, he said. Saudi Arabia is affirming its strategy to refrain from reducing output amid a global glut after Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi stressed earlier this month that his country won’t yield market share to higher-cost producers. The biggest OPEC producer pumped at close to a record pace in March, the International Energy Agency reported on April 15. That’s adding to an abundance of supplies fed partly by a US shale boom.
Amec Foster Wheeler is in consultation with staff as it looks to make cost savings during the oil price decline. In line with a number of companies, including BP and Shell, the company said a number of its Aberdeen-based employees jobs were at risk. It is understood that while the company is in consultation with 149 members of staff, the move is likely to affect 64 roles.
Petrofac is in consultation with onshore staff as it looks to make reductions to it headcount. The services company said it was in discussion with around 100 members of staff. However it is understood the number of staff who could face job losses is likely to be around 50. As previously reported earlier this month on Energy Voice, in addition to 79 job reductions as a result of EnQuest’s changes to its shift pattern, a further 21 jobs could also go offshore.
Rose Petroleum has chosen the Cisco Dome region for the first of six new horizontal wells on the Mancos Shale formation in Utah. The move comes after after analysis of previous core results and it is hoped the first of the new wells will be under way by the end of 2015.
Oilex has completed the Cambay-73 oil and gas facilities and will begin to connect the pipeline next month. Construction of the pipeline has commenced and it is expected to be ready for connection to the production facilities during May 2015 when final commissioning to be completed.
A flow test will be carried out on the Horse Hill-1 development later this year. The onshore site is in the UK's Weald basin.
Lamprell has been awarded a contract by NDC (National Drilling Company Abu Dhabi) for the construction and delivery of a high specification jack-up drilling rig. The company has previously been awarded contracts by NDC for a series of eight rigs and this ninth rig will be the same design. The LeTourneau-designed, Super 116E class mobile offshore drilling unit will be constructed at the company's facility in Hamriyah in the UAE (United Arab Emirates).
Technip has been awarded a PMC (Project Management Consultancy) contract in partnership with Japanese engineering consultant UNICO. The company said the project is for the upgrading of the Basra refinery in Iraq. It was awarded by SRC (South Refineries Company) covering the engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and start-up and warranty management phase of the project.
Wintershall has been awarded a new drilling permit by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. Well 35/12-5 S will be drilled from the Transocean Arctic drilling facility after completing the drilling of wildcat well 6406/2-8 in production licence 589. The company is the operator with an ownership interest of 45% while the other licensees are Capricorn Norge AS with 20%, Explora Petroleum with 17.5% and Talisman Energy Norge with 17.5%.
Statoil has spudded the Bister exploration well in the Norwegian Sea. The company is operator of the well in licence PL 348/C, which also contains the producing Hyme field and the 2013 Snilehorn discovery. The licence is located adjacent to the producing Njord field.
Wood Group has confirmed almost 100 jobs are at risk at the Energy service giant. As previously reported on Energy Voice, the company said it had launched a consultation with about 380 staff in its Wood Group PSN business - 80 of whom are expected to lose their jobs - following an operational review aimed at reducing costs and improving efficiency. It is anticipated a further 12 roles will go in the company’s Wood Group Kenny subsidiary.