SEA EXPLORATION

OilCareers.com Joins Forces With Air Energi To Announce Latest Oil & Gas Workforce Survey

Joint report anticipates a continual rise in recruitment with a steeper salary hike in the first half of 2011 March 14, 2011: Salaries in the global oil and gas industry are to increase throughout 2011 according to a joint report from OilCareers.com, the international job board for the oil and gas industry, in association with partner Air Energi, a global provider of manpower solutions to the energy sector. Focusing on employment and salary trends in the energy sector throughout 2011 the report, entitled ‘The Global Oil & Gas Workforce Survey: Expectations for hires and pay rates in the oil and gas industry H1 2011’, addresses the issues that affected the oil and gas industry across 2010 and what they mean for the first half of 2011. The report predicts that, globally, salaries will increase throughout 2011, with the number of hires across Africa, the Americas, Asia Pacific, Australasia, Caspian, Europe and the Middle East also remaining strong. With activity set to rise in the oil and gas sector many companies are expected to focus recruitment on the individual – ensuring that the right talent is in the right place for the right price. In the North West region of the UK, drilling is due to take place to extract shale gas, while a predicted pick up in project activity worldwide will keep design firms in Aberdeen and London busy throughout 2011

Deep-Sea Robot Lost at Sea

A deep-sea exploration robot — one of the first successful submersible vehicles that was both unmanned and untethered to surface ships — was lost at sea Friday, March 5, on a research expedition off the coast of Chile. The 15-year-old Autonomous Benthic Explorer, affectionately nicknamed ABE, was launched late on the night of Thursday, March 4, and had reached the seafloor to begin its 222nd research dive when, in the early hours of Friday morning

Greenpeace In Legal Battle With U.K. Over Oil Exploration

Environmentalist group Greenpeace reportedly took the UK government to court over what it sees as Britain's failure to protect coral beds, whales, dolphins and other marine life from the effects of oil and gas exploration. Greenpeace officials said the government has failed to apply the European Union Habitats Directive to oil and gas exploration in the relatively deep waters of the Atlantic Frontier, where oil companies believe large new oil reserves are waiting to be tapped.

UK’s North Sea Faces Rig Shortage

The government is putting together an action plan to solve a rig shortage crisis in the North Sea, but experts claim that no new rigs are available for hire until the end of 2007, the Sunday Herald reported. Surging demand for equipment is caused by the high oil price, which has made previously abandoned discoveries economically viable again. The shortage of exploring rigs has forced the industry and the Department of Trade and Industry to come up with a plan, yet to be published

Maersk to Sell Oil, Gas Exploration Licenses

Maersk Oil and Gas, a unit of Denmark's AP Moller-Maersk A/S will sell its exploration licenses in a number of countries and concentrate its activities in the Kerr McGee operations in the North Sea, a financial daily reported. The newspaper said a prospectus by investment bank Tristone Capital lists Maersk licenses in Morocco, Surinam, and the German part of the North Sea as being up for sale. It also writes Maersk is in talks to sell part of an exploration license in Turkmenistan

Oil Discovery Close to Vigdis Field

StatoilHydro has struck oil during the drilling of an exploration well and a sidetrack north of the Vigdis East field in the North Sea. The proven recoverable resources are estimated at about 25 million barrels of oil. The well confirmed the existence of a 280-metre oil column in rocks with good reservoir properties. "Our exploration activities close to fields on stream are successful and the discovery again confirms that there is still a great potential in this part of the North

Husky Begins Oil Production and Expands Activities

Husky Energy Inc. announced that it has signed petroleum contracts for two additional exploration leases in the South China Sea. Both are located in the Beibu Gulf, north of Hainan Island and within 80 kilometres of the Weizhou oil fields. The agreement includes exploration lease 23/15, which is 1,327 sq. kilometres, and exploration lease 23/20, which is 1,543-sq. kilometres. A single exploration well is required in each contract area in the first three years of the contract.

MMS Host Offshore Alaska Offers Exploration Rights

The U.S. Minerals Management Service will offer oil and gas exploration rights next month to 29.7 million acres in the remote Chukchi Sea off northwestern Alaska, according to Reuters. The decision to hold the February 6 lease sale, the first in the Chukchi since 1991, comes days before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether to list the polar bear as threatened and has drawn fire from environmentalists seeking to limit oil development in the area

BOEMRE Approves GOM Deepwater Exploration Plan

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) announced the approval of a deepwater Gulf of Mexico Exploration Plan (EP) following the completion of a site-specific Environmental Assessment (SEA) for deepwater oil and gas exploration.   Shell Offshore, Inc.’s Supplemental EP includes five proposed exploratory wells in approximately 7,160 to 7,259 feet water depth, as well as three previously approved wells approximately 72 miles offshore Louisiana.

South China Sea Energy Exploration by Chevron

Chevron Corporation's China subsidiary signs production sharing contracts for exploration blocks in the Pearl River Estuary, South China Sea. Chevron's agreement is with China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). Under the PSC agreements, Chevron China Energy Company will hold a 100 percent interest in blocks 15/10 and 15/28 in the Pearl River Mouth Basin. During the exploration phase Chevron China Energy Company will be the operator of the two shallow water blocks