Gazprom’s Arctic Offshore Platform Hits Milestone
Russian shipping company Sovcomflot (SCF Group) said that the Arctic shuttle tanker Mikhail Ulyanov loaded the milestone 10-millionth tonne of commercial oil produced at Prirazlomnaya offshore platform in the Pechora Sea.The energy shipping companies, specialising in the transportation of crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied gas, as well as the servicing of offshore oil and gas exploration and production…
KNOT Offshore CEO/CFO John Costain Steps Down
UK-based KNOT Offshore Partners has announced that John Costain has decided to step down as CEO and CFO of the partnership."Although Costain is resigning in order to pursue other interests outside of the partnership, he will be available for the partnership until 31 May 2019," said a press release from the publicly-traded master limited partnership, which , operates and acquires shuttle tankers under long-term…
OMV Starts Offshore Oil Production in United Arab Emirates
Austria's OMV started production at Abu Dhabi's SARB and Umm Lulu's offshore oil fields, expecting to produce 25,800 barrels per day by year-end, it said on Thursday.The gas and oil group took a 20 percent interest in the two oilfields off the United Arab Emirates under a $1.5 billion deal agreed with the Gulf state's national oil company ADNOC in April.OMV will initially produce 10,000 barrels per day and expects to increase its output to 43,000 barrels per day by 2023.(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle ; Editing by
Total Determined to Drill Amazon Basin as Greenpeace Storms AGM
Total is determined to push ahead with its plans to drill for oil in the Amazon basin, it said on Friday as Greenpeace activists interrupted its annual general meeting in protest at the project.The French oil major wants to explore Brazil's Foz do Amazonas basin, but Brazil's environmental agency rejected its licence application on Tuesday for a fourth time.As the company's annual general meeting opened in Paris on Friday…
Norway Calls in Mediator to Avert Strikes
Norwegian employers and labor unions failed to reach a deal in initial wage talks on Thursday, union sources told Reuters, leaving it up to a state-appointed mediator to avert widespread strikes that risk impacting output in western Europe's biggest crude producer. Negotiations will resume after the upcoming Easter holiday, ahead of an April 7 deadline, after which most workers are allowed to go on strike. While…
Oil Producer Norway Starts Wage Talks to Avert Widespread Strikes
Norwegian employers and labour unions embarked on four weeks' of wage talks on Monday to stave off widespread strikes that risk impacting output in western Europe's biggest crude producer. Unlike most years, in which wages are set on an industry-by-industry basis to reduce complexity, the 2018 round rolls a majority of private sector firms into a single negotiation in a bid to resolve a stand-off over pension reform.
BSEE Proposes Softening of Offshore Drilling Rules - WSJ
A U.S. regulator has proposed rolling back safety measures put in place after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which would reduce the role of government in offshore oil production, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), which regulates offshore oil and gas drilling, proposes relaxing requirements to stream real-time data on oil production operators to facilities onshore, where they are available for review by regulators, the Journal reported.
New Offshore Oil Investments Needed to Avoid Shortages -Hess
Higher investments in offshore oil production are critical to avoiding a supply squeeze by 2020, as expanding shale output will not match projected demand increases in the next few years, U.S. oil producer Hess Corp said on Thursday. The past four years of low oil prices have major producers pulling back on needed offshore investment, and the gap between supply and demand should help prices rebound, Hess Chief Operating Officer Greg Hill said at an energy conference at Rice University's Baker Institute.
Residents Flee South Texas Ahead of Harvey
Residents fleeing most powerful storm on U.S. mainland since 2005. Businesses closed and lines of cars streamed out of coastal Texas as officials called for residents to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Harvey, expected to arrive about midnight as the most powerful storm to hit the U.S. mainland in more than a decade. The hurricane is forecast to slam first near Corpus Christi, Texas, drop flooding rains along the central Texas coast and potentially loop back over the Gulf of Mexico before hitting Houston…
Company to Pay $9.5 Mln for Actions Leading to US Gulf Explosion
Wood Group PSN Inc., a Nevada corporation headquartered in Houston, was ordered to pay $9.5 million in two separate cases involving its conduct in the Gulf of Mexico. Specifically, Wood Group PSN was ordered to pay $7 million for falsely reporting over several years that personnel had performed safety inspections on offshore facilities in the Gulf of Mexico in the Western District of Louisiana, and $1.8 million…
Petrobras' Production Crosses 1 bln barrels
On Wednesday, December 14, Petrobras and its partners celebrated a milestone: they have now produced 1 billion barrels of oil in the pre-salt layer. This total output was achieved just six years after the first production system came on stream in Santos Basin, in Lula field, and 10 years after the first discovery, in 2006, demonstrating Petrobras’ technical capacity. This performance is unparalleled in the global…
Offshore O&G Leasing Plan for 2017-2022 Announced
After considering more than 3.3 million public comments and holding 36 public meetings, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Abigail Hopper today released the final plan to guide future energy development for the Nation’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) for 2017-2022. The plan takes a balanced approach to best meet the nation’s energy needs by including…
Freeport to Sell California Energy Assets for Up to $742 mln
Freeport-McMoRan Inc said on Friday it will sell onshore California oil and gas assets to Sentinel Peak Resources California for up to $742 million, part of the world's biggest listed copper miner's push to trim its multi-billion dollar debt. Hard hit in recent years by a downturn in commodity prices, Phoenix-based Freeport is under pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn, its third-largest shareholder, to reduce net debt of $18.8 billion and boost valuation.
Big Oil Shrinks and Plots the Way Forward
Companies seek to safeguard growth for when market recovers. As oil and gas companies cut ever-deeper into the bone to weather their worst downturn in decades, boards have adopted contrasting strategies to lead them out of the crisis. Crude prices have tumbled around 70 percent over the past 18 months to around $35 a barrel, leading to five of the world's top oil companies reporting sharp declines in profits in recent days.
Shell Plans to Complete BG Merger by Feb. 15
Royal Dutch Shell said on Tuesday it planned to complete its proposed $53 billion takeover of BG Group by Feb. 15, outlining plans for further spending cuts next year in the face of low oil prices. Shell also lowered the capital spending plan for next year for the combined group by $2 billion to $33 billion, saying it would bolster its ability to weather the industry's downturn and to maintain dividend payments.
Shell: BG Deal Will work Despite Weak Oil
Shell raises expected benefits from deal to $3.5 bln. Royal Dutch Shell sought to ease investor concerns over its planned $70 billion takeover of BG Group, announcing plans for further benefits and cost cuts aimed at making the deal work with an oil price in the mid-$60s a barrel. The Anglo-Dutch group, which hopes to complete the deal early next year, said it now expected synergies to increase by $1 billion to…
Shell Green Lights GoM Field After Cost Cuts
Royal Dutch Shell has given the green light for the development of its largest platform in the Gulf of Mexico after making steep cost cuts which made the deep water project economical despite low oil prices. The decision to pour billions of dollars into the Appomattox project comes as companies have scrapped around $200 billion of mega-projects in the wake of the sharp decline in oil prices over the past year. Shell has operated in the Gulf of Mexico for over 60 years.
Teekay Orders 3 Tankers for Canada Contracts
Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. informs it has entered long-term contracts to provide shuttle tanker services for a group of companies producing oil on Canada’s East Coast, including Chevron Canada, Husky Energy, Mosbacher Operating Ltd., Murphy Oil, Nalcor Energy, Statoil and Suncor Energy. The 15-year contracts, plus extension options, will initially be serviced by one of Teekay Offshore’s existing shuttle tankers…
Two Hurt in Petrobras Platform Accident; Output Halted
Brazil's state-led oil company Petrobras was forced to stop output at its P-56 offshore oil production ship on Wednesday in the Marlim Sul field after an explosion in an electrical panel started a fire and injured two workers, union officials said. The explosion happened Wednesday morning causing first and second-degree burns to the workers's hands, Brazil's national petroleum workers federation, FUP, said in a statement issued on Thursday. Production of oil and gas on the platform was stopped until 2 p.m.
Petrobras Halts Offshore Platform as safety problems found
Brazil's Petrobras shut its P-58 offshore oil production platform after the country's petroleum regulator ANP found safety problems on board, the state-run oil company said on Friday. The platform was producing 106,000 barrels of oil and natural gas equivalent a day in January from seven wells, the last month for which oil regulator ANP has released statistics, making it the company's fifth-largest producer. The platform was shut down on Wednesday…
