VIDEO: One-on-One with Pieter van Oord, CEO, Van Oord
Pieter van Oord is candid in discussing the future growth of his storied company’s activities in offshore wind with specific insights on challenging current jobs, Van Oord’s recent order of a massive and groundbreaking Wind Turbine Installation Vessel, and the company’s future working in the United States.Pieter, to start, can you give a ‘By the Numbers’ look at your company today using the metrics of your choice?Well, 2021 was a disappointing year for us. As we said in our annual report, it was ‘a year with two faces.’ We had to report a loss for the first time in a long time in our company…
US Oil Industry Group Pledges to Fight Possible Biden Fracking Limits
If U.S. President-elect Joe Biden tries to restrict development of oil and gas drilling on federal lands, the American Petroleum Institute (API) will use "every tool at its disposal" including legal action, chief executive Mike Sommers said in an interview with Reuters on Monday.Biden has said he supports a ban on new gas and oil permits — including fracking — on federal lands.Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a drilling technology that has allowed the U.S. oil industry to vastly boost output in recent years, making the United States the world's largest producer of crude oil.
Weatherford Wins Russia Contracts
Oilfield services firm Weatherford announced it has signed two contracts totaling $67.4 million for drilling services with two major operators in Russia.The first contract spans two-and-a-half years. Operations began in July 2019 and will last through the end of 2022. Weatherford will provide logging-while-drilling (LWD), measurement-while-drilling (MWD), rotary steerable systems (RSS), drilling, and geo-data interpretation services at several oilfields in Western Siberia.The second contract is a three-year drilling services contract. Operations will begin in early 2020 with Weatherford providing LWD…
Schlumberger Names New CEO, Tops Revenue
Schlumberger NV said on Friday Chief Operating Officer Olivier Le Peuch will replace longtime Chief Executive Officer Paal Kibsgaard, as the company looks to shore up its position as a leader in drilling technology.The world's largest oilfield services provider also reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue, as demand in international markets countered weakness in North America, sending its shares up more than 1% before the bell.The change of guard comes when the oilfield services industry is buffeted by moderating demand as oil producers cut…
Chevron to Buy Anadarko for $33 Bln
Chevron Corp on Friday said it will buy oil and gas producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp for $33 billion in cash and stock in a deal that doubles down on its bet on U.S. shale and LNG as U.S. energy production is shattering records.The deal makes Chevron the second-largest major by crude production, behind Exxon Mobil Corp, up from fourth. It expands Chevron's reach in two areas where U.S. energy output is surging - shale from the Permian Basin of west Texas and New Mexico, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) - which have helped make the U.S. one of the world's largest energy exporters.“Chevron now joins the ranks of the 'ultramajors' – and the big three becomes the big four…
US Rig Cuts Continue
U.S. energy firms this week reduced the number of oil rigs operating for a fifth week in a row to its lowest in nearly a year as independent producers follow through on plans to cut spending on new drilling with the government cutting its growth forecasts for shale output.Drillers cut nine oil rigs in the week to March 22, bringing the total count down to 824, the lowest since April 2018, General Electric Co's Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday.That is the first time the rig count has declined for five weeks in a row since May 2016 when it fell for eight consecutive weeks.More than half the total U.S.
Oil Majors Rush to Dominate US Shale
In New Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert, Exxon Mobil Corp is building a massive shale oil project that its executives boast will allow it to ride out the industry's notorious boom-and-bust cycles.Workers at its Remuda lease near Carlsbad - part of a staff of 5,000 spread across New Mexico and Texas - are drilling wells, operating fleets of hydraulic pumps and digging trenches for pipelines.The sprawling site reflects the massive commitment to the Permian Basin by oil majors, who have spent an estimated $10 billion buying acreage in the top U.S. shale field since the beginning of 2017…
Blackstone Energy Partners Acquires Ulterra Drilling Technologies
Blackstone Energy Partners announced today that it has entered into binding agreements to acquire a controlling, majority interest in Ulterra Drilling Technologies from affiliates of American Securities LLC. American Securities and certain members of management will retain a minority equity interest in the Company going forward. Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close prior to year-end 2018. Ulterra is the largest pure-play, independent supplier of polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) drill bits to the oil and gas industry. The Company is one of the fastest growing PDC drill bit manufacturers, having more than doubled total revenue since 2016.
Record-size US Offshore Oil Lease Sale Draws Modest Bidding
Oil and gas drillers bid modestly on Gulf of Mexico acreage in the largest lease sale in American history on Wednesday, dealing a setback to the Trump administration's efforts to rapidly pump up investment in the region. The Interior Department had offered up a record 77 million acres (31.2 million hectares) for development in the Gulf with discounted royalty rates on the shallower tracts as part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump's administration to ramp up U.S. fossil fuels output. But companies bid on just 1 percent of that acreage, and won those tracts with bids averaging $153 an acre - 35 percent below levels last year…
Record U.S. Oil Offshore Lease Sale to Test Trump Energy Push
The U.S. Interior Department will hold the largest lease sale in American history in the offshore Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, in a major test of the oil industry’s appetite for federal acreage being offered by the Trump administration. The auction of more than 77 million acres (31.2 million hectares) - an area twice the size of Florida - is part of an effort by President Donald Trump's administration to ramp up U.S. fossil fuels production by lowering royalty rates, opening up more public lands, and rolling back environmental protections. But the push comes it comes at a time U.S.
SEACOR Holdings Top Deck Expands
SEACOR Holdings announced that it has expanded its Board of Directors to six members and added Christopher P. Papouras to fill the newly created position. Papouras, 50, has been President of Nabors Drilling Solutions, a division of Nabors Industries Ltd. that provides oil and gas drilling services, since 2015 and served as President of Canrig Drilling Technology, Ltd. from 1998 to February 2016. In the past he also served as President of Epoch Well Services, Inc., a provider of information technology services to the oil and gas industry, Assistant to the Chairman of Nabors Industries…
US Oil Industry Set to Break Record, Upend Global Trade
Surging shale production is poised to push U.S. oil output to more than 10 million barrels per day - toppling a record set in 1970 and crossing a threshold few could have imagined even a decade ago. And this new record, expected within days, likely won't last long. The U.S. government forecasts that the nation's production will climb to 11 million barrels a day by late 2019, a level that would rival Russia, the world's top producer. The economic and political impacts of soaring U.S. output are breathtaking, cutting the nation's oil imports by a fifth over a decade…
Big Gas Exporter Nations Blast Unilateral Sanctions in US Dig
Representatives from a group of major energy-exporting nations on Friday said they oppose the use of unilateral sanctions on any of their members - an apparent dig at the United States for its moves against Russia, Iran and Venezuela. The Gas Exporting Countries Forum, which also includes members like Libya, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria, expressed their "profound concern" about sanctions affecting the gas sector that are not authorized by the United Nations, according to a communique signed by GECF's 12 members after the group's summit in Bolivia this week. The U.S.
Energy Industry Says 'No Thanks' to Trump Offer of Marine Sanctuaries
In a bid to boost energy development, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is considering shrinking or eliminating 11 marine sanctuaries designed to protect 425 million acres of coral reefs, marine mammal habitats and pristine beaches. The review is part of a broader strategy to open new areas to oil and gas drilling and “put the energy needs of American families and businesses first,” according to the order Trump signed in April that triggered it. But interviews with energy industry representatives signal the effort will likely miss its target. Opening up these areas would likely help wind power companies - which Trump has lambasted - more than oil producers, they say.
YPF Says Technology Lowering Its Shale Costs
Longer horizontal wells and technology improvements will help Argentine state-run oil company YPF SA lower costs at its most productive shale field, but better infrastructure is still needed in the remote Vaca Muerta play, an executive said. The breakeven price at the Loma Campana field is $43 per barrel and falling while development costs are $12.90 per barrel and expected to fall to $10 next year, said Pablo Bizzotto, executive manager at YPF's unconventional resources unit. "Ten dollars is world-class compared with the Permian" shale field in Texas…
Statoil Cleared to Use Cap-X Drilling Technology – for Now
A ban on Norway's Statoil using a pioneering drilling technology in the Barents Sea was lifted after a plaintiff failed to post security in a patent dispute, a lawyer said on Thursday. A Stavanger court earlier in June upheld an injunction on the technology's use, pending payment of a 20 million Norwegian crown ($2.35 million) security by privately owned NeoDrill. NeoDrill was unable to post the security due to its "very limited economic position". But it was open to finding a commercial solution with Statoil, Kyrre Tangen Andersen, a lawyer representing NeoDrill, told Reuters in an email. The decision meant there was no formal ban on Statoil using the technology.
Statoil Denies Patent Infringement, Keeps Drilling in the Barents Sea
Norway's Statoil said on Monday it would keep drilling exploration wells in the Barents Sea using what it called "regular equipment" after a court upheld an injunction in a patent dispute over specialised drilling technology. Statoil said the Stavanger court had lifted an injunction on the use of its Cap-X technology in the Blaaman well, where drilling was suspended earlier, but had upheld a ban on the four other Arctic wells planned to be drilled this year. When presenting Cap-X last year, Statoil said it would help reduce drilling costs. Small Norwegian firm NeoDrill said Cap-X included essential parts of NeoDrill's CAN technology…
As Trump Targets Energy Rules, Oil Companies Downplay their Impact
President Donald Trump’s White House has said his plans to slash environmental regulations will trigger a new energy boom and help the United States drill its way to independence from foreign oil. But the top U.S. oil and gas companies have been telling their shareholders that regulations have little impact on their business, according to a Reuters review of U.S. securities filings from the top producers. In annual reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 13 of the 15 biggest U.S. oil and gas producers said that compliance with current regulations is not impacting their operations or their financial condition.
International Expansion leads to success for Exceed
Well management and performance improvement specialist Exceed has reported a positive year in 2016, including a recruitment drive resulting from increased activity both internationally and in the North Sea. Exceed has also seen an increased requirement for engineering studies in 2016, with pre-feasibility engineering work, late life asset management and liability studies conducted on behalf of clients such as Faroe Petroleum, Boskalis, Verus Petroleum, The Oil & Gas Authority, Serica Energy and Houlder Marine. As a result the firm has been one of the few to actively add to its numbers in the last 12 months…
Harold Hamm Tops Trump Short-list for US Energy Secretary
Continental Resources Chief Executive Harold Hamm is at the top of President-elect Donald Trump's list to serve as energy secretary, according to U.S. Representative Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, a Trump energy adviser who confirmed he is also under consideration for the job. "In my view, Harold Hamm has the right of first refusal," Cramer told Reuters in a telephone interview. "In my view, he's likely to be asked. Hamm, 70, became one of America's wealthiest men during the U.S. oil and gas drilling boom over the past decade, tapping into controversial hydraulic fracturing drilling technology to access vast deposits in North Dakota's shale fields.
