Transocean and oil major Shell have agreed to delay the operating and delivery contracts for two newbuild ultra deepwater drillships by 12 months each. The company said the agreement had been struck between itself, Shell and Daewoo ShipBuilding & Marine Engineering. The decision affects the Deepwater Pontus and the Deepwater Poseidon.
Before the Energy Transitions Commission was even launched here in Houston a few weeks ago, environmentalists had already dismissed it as a public relations ploy by major oil companies and other peddlers of fossil fuels. They immediately questioned the climate change credentials of companies like Shell, which is one of the leaders of the initiative to help meet the energy needs of growing world population without damaging the environment beyond repair. Just a few weeks ago, activists from the environmental community took to their kayaks and posed for pictures in front of Shell’s Polar Pioneer rig moored in Seattle. Paddles raised in defiance, they decried the company’s plans to drill in the Arctic.
This time-lapse shows a self-installing platform which will help unlock more energy from deepwater, in waters off the coast of the Phillipines. It is the first offshore platform designed and built in the country. More than 1,400 Filipino workers have spent two years attempting to make the concept a reality for oil major Shell.
A decision on Shell's takeover of BG Group by Australia's competition watchdog has been postponed until the middle of November. The move follows an earlier deferral last month by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). It said last month that market participants had expressed concerns the takeover may harm gas supply competition in eastern Australia.
A French man and his cat were rescued from his sailboat after getting stuck in high seas off the coast of Alaska.
This time-lapse shows the Malikai topside at 40 metres high being skidded a distance of 90km into place. The feat was the world’s highest operation of its kind performed at that scale for the Shell deepwater project.
Premier Inn owner Whitbread and InterContinental Hotels saw shares leap higher after well-received figures, but further falls for commodity stocks held back progress on the wider FTSE 100 Index. Whitbread, which also owns Costa Coffee and restaurant brands including Brewers Fayre, saw shares lift more than 2% after a better-than-expected 13.8% hike in half-year profits to £291.3 million. Holiday Inn parent InterContinental also cheered the market with recent solid trading, although the FTSE 100 Index struggled to make headway, edging 12.1 points higher to 6364.4 as miners and oil firms lost more ground following yesterday’s weak China growth figures.
BG Group has restarted production from its Everest platform in the central North Sea after completing the first phase of a £300million major upgrade that will extend its life a further 10 years.
The US government has launched new curbs on oil and gas exploration in Arctic waters. The move comes after oil major Shell announced it was pulling out of its drilling activity in the region. The US Interior department said as well as cancelling two potential Arctic offshore lease sales and would not extend current leases.
Oil major Shell said two drill vessels it had been using before it pulled out of its Arctic operation have safely departed from Alaska. The Noble Discoverer is on its way to Washington State along with the Polar Pioneer after both received a Coast Guard inspection and refuel. Shell said the next destinations for both vessels have not yet been decided upon.
Blue-chip companies, including Shell and BP, have given their strong support for the adoption of a new global climate agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference this December in Paris.
The world is awash in crude, but big oil companies are lining up to develop new fields in Iran even as they slash spending and abandon exploration elsewhere. One thing explains this paradox: cost.
Shell will install a nationwide network of hydrogen fuelling pumps at retail sites in Germany from 2016, as it aims to accelerate the growth in Europe of the low-carbon alternative fuel.
Oilfield services company Petrofac has been awarded a multi-million dollar technical training contract with Shell Iraq, achieving their fourth win with a major operator in the country.
The crew on the North Sea’s Brent Delta platform, which is set to be decommissioned, gave the song ‘Talk Tonight’ from the Oasis’ 1995 album The Master Plan their best go. Watch the video to see more. Take a look at Subsea 7’s own viral music video here.
Shell’s Ben van Beurden said the industry must create a “brave new world of energy”.
There has been a lot of talk recently about the ‘barriers to entry’ for girls studying science and mathematics at school. Whether it is not feeling smart enough, not knowing about the different career options or just not having the support and role models to encourage and inspire them to take that leap of faith to study science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects, girls are not pursuing STEM careers in the same way boys are.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc is “puling out all the stops to safeguard” its dividend in a world where oil prices remain “lower for longer,” chief executive officer Ben Van Beurden said.
Oil major Shell could still house some of its fleet in Seattle’s port despite pulling out of plans for exploratory drilling in Alaska. The company said last month it would no longer be pursuing Arctic drilling for the foreseeable future after disappointing results from an initial well. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said the ruling by deputy hearing examiner Anne Wantanable to clear the way for the possibility of Shell using Terminal 5 for the Polar Pioneer was disappointing. Wantanabe said the attempt by the city’s department of planning and development to require a new land-use permit relied on “inaccurate” characterisations of the work to be done.
Oil major Shell said it has launched the start-up of production from the Bonga Phase 3 project in Nigeria. The Bonga Phase 3 is an expansion of the Bonga Main development, with peak production expected to be some 50,000 barrels of oil and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. The field has been producing oil and gas since 2005 and was Nigeria's first deepwater development in depths more than 1,000 metres.
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Oil giant Shell has completed the sale of Smart Fuel to St1 Nordic Oy of some of its downstream businesses in Norway. The company said it would still continue to remain highly visible in the country, despite the deal for its retail, commercial fuels and supply and distribution logistics businesses. Shell and St1 have also joined forced to create Aviation Fuelling Services Norway AS, a joint venture to sell aviation fuel in Norway.
Shell could delay deepwater drilling planned in New Zealand until next year. According to reports the oil major and its two partners OMV and Mitsui E&P had been planning to drill a test well in the Great South Basin this year. However the company has said it needs more time to evaluate the basin’s complex geology.
Oil major Shell has declared a force majeure and halted crude exports from a key terminal in Nigeria after a pipeline leak. The company said the move was taken after a leak in the Trans Forcados pipeline which affected crude exports from one of the country’s main export points. The terminal has the capacity to export up to 400,000 barrels a day.
The £1billion Peterhead Carbon Capture and Storage project can help kick-start other CCS projects in the UK and make a significant contribution to reducing CO2, according to a leading industry expert.