Equinor Axing Jobs in US, Canada and UK
Norwegian oil and gas firm Equinor is set to cut jobs significantly in the United States, Canada and Britain to adjust to a fall in oil prices, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.The group plans to cut employee numbers in those countries by about 20% and contractor numbers by around half to ensure profitability at lower oil prices, the spokesman told Reuters, adding that the targets were communicated internally on Tuesday.Equinor will also not drill any new unconventional wells this year in the United States…
Norway Oil Companies Slash Investment Plans
Norwegian oil and gas investment, a key economic driver, is expected to decline sharply in 2021 after rising less than previously anticipated this year, an industry survey by the national statistics agency (SSB) showed on Thursday.The biggest drop will come in the exploration for new reserves and in spending on development plans, while ongoing oilfield construction work continues largely as expected, the data showed.The closely watched forecasts…
Equinor's Helleneset Offshore Well Comes Up Dry
Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor has completed drilling of the offshore exploration well Helleneset, formally known as well 30/6-31 S, without finding hydrocarbons.The well was using the West Hercules semi-submersible drilling rig drilled about 7 kilometers southeast of the Oseberg C platform in the North Sea and 140 kilometers west of Bergen.The objective of the well was to prove petroleum in Middle Jurassic reservoir rocks (Intra Heather Formation sandstones).According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate…
Equinor Exploration Manager Steps Down to Take New Role
Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor has informed that its executive vice president Exploration Tim Dodson will step down as executive vice president Exploration, a role he held since 2011.In what Equinor said was a planned change to the leadership of Exploration, Dodson will take on the role as vice president Strategy Execution in Global Strategy and Business Development (GSB) from June 1, 2020.Tore Løseth has been appointed acting…
Norway to Admit Non-Resident Europeans Working in Oil Industry
Norway will allow entry to certain European citizens for work in sectors critically short of labor including agriculture and the oil industry despite its lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the government said on Monday.The measure, which takes immediate effect in the Nordic country, relaxes some of the restrictions on foreign travelers imposed to combat the transmission of coronavirus.Since March 16 Norway has barred arrivals of foreigners and ordering out those already in the country…
Saipem, Equinor Working on Floating Solar Panels
Italian oilfield services firm Saipem, and Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor are teaming up to develop a floating solar panel park solution for near coastal applications and rough weather conditions.According to a statement by Saipem, the technology will be based on the in-house developed concept by offshore rig designer Moss Maritime, part of Saipem's XSIGHT division dedicated to high value-added services, which is a modularized system…
Pandion Energy Completes Duva Stake Sale
Norwegian oil and gas company Pandion Energy has completed the sale of its 10 percent non-operated interests in PL 636, comprising the Duva oil and gas field, and PL 686B.According to Pandion Energy it was previously announced transaction with Solveig Gas Norway AS.The Duva oil and gas field is located in the northern North Sea and was discovered in the autumn of 2016. The Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) was approved in June…
DNV GL, DNO Pact on North Sea
The international accredited registrar and classification society DNV GL has been awarded a framework agreement by the Norwegian oil and gas operator DNO ASA to provide a broad portfolio of engineering and management support and verification services to support the operator, as it expands operations and developments in the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).DNV GL will support DNO in enhancing safety, maintaining compliance and reducing…
Electrifying Norway's Offshore Production
According to Rystad Energy, Norway has taken several steps to reduce its upstream emissions through electrifying offshore platforms, reducing flaring volumes, installing carbon capture and storage (CCS), and other energy efficiency measures.It said that power from shore to offshore platforms already started in 1996 when Troll East (A) came on-stream, with the Johan Sverdrup field as the latest addition in 2019.The latter infrastructure…
Cost Estimates at Equinor Norway Fields Goes Up
The cost of developing two major Norwegian oil and gas fields has increased due to the complexity of the projects, with the start of production delayed for one of them.The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy reports on the status of major projects that are currently undergoing development or have recently started operation.Thirteen of Equinor’s projects are on this list. Eight of the projects have reduced costs since submitting their plans for development and operation…
Equinor to Sell Shares in Lundin Petroleum
Norwegian oil and gas firm Equinor ASA on Sunday said it will sell a 16% stake in Lundin Petroleum AB for about $1.56 billion, and in return acquire an additional 2.6% stake in Johan Sverdrup oilfield.Equinor agreed to sell about 54.5 million Lundin shares at a price of 266.4 crowns ($28.22), representing a discount of about 9.6% to Lundin's close on Friday.It will retain a 4.9% stake in Lundin.The company will also acquire a 2.6% direct ownership share in the Johan Sverdrup oilfield for $910 million, it added.Equinor's giant Johan Sverdru
Danska Commodities Inks PPA with Hywind Scotland
Danish energy trading company Danske Commodities signed a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the world’s first floating wind farm, Hywind Scotland.Hywind Scotland, the world's first commercial-scale floating wind farm, was officially opened in October 2017. Norwegian oil and gas group Equinor owns 75%, while its partner the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, better known as Masdar, holds 25%. As the sole offtaker, Danske Commodities will take over balancing and trading of Hywind Scotland’s total volume of 30 MW.
Strike Would Cut Norway's Output 11%/Day
Norway's oil and gas output could be cut by about 440,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day, or about 11% of total production, if workers go on strike from June 4, industry association Norwegian Oil and Gas (NOG) said on Monday.A government-appointed mediator is leading negotiations between oil companies and employees represented by the Lederne union in a bid to avert a strike.Altogether nine fields would have to shut in the event of industrial action…
Norway Oil Workers Threaten Strike
Around 200 Norwegian offshore oil and gas workers plan to go on strike on June 4 unless pay negotiations lead to a deal with employers, the Lederne labour union said on Wednesday.A strike would hit seven offshore fields and at least two of those would have to shut production, cutting output by a combined 102,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), industry group Norwegian Oil and Gas (NOG) told Reuters.While Neptune Energy's Gjøa and Okea's Draugen fields would shut in the initial phase of a strike, it was not yet clear whether the s
DNO Completes $400mln Bond Placement
The Norwegian oil and gas operator focused on the Middle East and the North Sea, DNO ASA said it has completed the private placement of USD 400 million of new, five-year senior unsecured bonds with a coupon rate of 8.375 percent.The bond placement received strong investor demand across international markets and was oversubscribed, said a press release from Norway's oldest oil company. The bond issue is expected to be settled on or about 29 May 2019…
Equinor Q1 Beats Forecast
Norwegian oil and gas firm Equinor reported on Friday a small fall in quarterly operating profit, beating forecasts, and said its giant Johan Sverdrup oilfield in the North Sea remains on track to start production in November.Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), adjusted for one-off items, fell to $4.2 billion in the first quarter from $4.4 billion during the same period of 2018, higher than a forecast of $3.9 billion in a Reuters poll of analysts.The company, which has a smaller refining business than rivals, fared slightly better tha
Wellesley Hits Dry Well in North Sea
Norwegian oil and gas exploration company Wellesley Petroleum has drilled another dry well in the Norwegian section of the North Sea, 220 kilometers northwest of Stavanger.The explorer for oil and gas sees second dry well this year with latest probe using semisub Transocean Arctic. "Following last month’s announcement of a dry well in the production license 931, Wellesley has now failed to hit the target at the 25/1-13 wildcat in the production license 871…
Norway Fund to Sell E&P Firms
Norway's trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, will sell its stakes in oil and gas explorers and producers but still invest in energy firms that have refineries and other downstream activities, according to a government plan.The proposal announced on Friday said the fund's stakes in integrated companies, such as Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil and other majors involved in everything from exploration to selling fuel at the roadside…
2021 to See 33 More FPSOs
A total of 33 floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels will be sanctioned between now and 2021 as oil and gas activity picks up in the offshore sector.Norwegian oil and gas intelligence firm Rystad Energy reports that 15 of the FPSOs will require production capacity of more than 80,000 barrels per day.Rystad said that the high capacity demand would come mainly from the developments in Guyana and Brazil where operators such as ExxonMobil…
Melkoeya LNG Plant Restarts Operations
Norwegian oil and gas firm Equinor has restarted operations at its Melkoeya LNG plant after an outage ten days ago, the company said on Monday.The plant, which liquefies natural gas from the Arctic Snoehvit gas field for transportation by tankers, has been shut since Jan. 4 due to a compressor failure.(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik)
