Field Development News

Offshore installation contractor Allseas has made progress on the installation of the pipeline for Santos’ Barossa Gas Export Pipeline (GEP) project offshore Australia.Allseas’ Audacia pipelay vessel has installed her largest ever PLET in S-mode, concluding several years of in-house engineering, fabrication and testing, the Swiss-based contractor said.Due to the weight of the pipeline end termination structure, Allseas’ production crew had to install it separately to the connector head.Audacia vessels is being supported with four other vessels - Fortitude…

Energy and marine consultancy ABL Group has secured a contract by POSH Projects to act as tow master to support and supervise the towage of the Mero 3 FPSO from Yantai in China to Brazilian waters.As part of its scope of work, ABL’s operations in Singapore will provide a tow master to act as client representative throughout the 12,108 nautical mile towage.The tow master will supervise and ensure that all marine operations for the sail away from Yantai CIMC Raffles Shipyard are carried out in-line with approved recommendations and procedural documentation.

The first hybrid Platform Supply Vessel (PSV), which uses batteries and diesel for propulsion, has started operating for Equinor in Brazil.With the battery bank installed, the PSV is able to operate with hybrid propulsion, switching between the use of electricity and diesel. This is expected to reduce emissions by up to 40% during vessel’s activities.The PSV will be part of the logistics of the Bacalhau field, in the Santos Basin, where Equinor has a majority stake secured in…

This week Esgian’s Week 50 Rig Analytics Market Roundup notes developments in the semisub sector including that Shell has decided to exercise its option on Stena Don in the North Sea but not on Deepsea Bollsta in Namibia. Meanwhile, a new contract for the Transocean Barents will see it operate in the Black Sea, and jackup Shelf Drilling Perseverance will move to Vietnam.ContractsShelf Drilling has secured a contract award for the 400ft Shelf Drilling Perseverance jackup rig with PetroVietnam Domestic Exploration Production Operating Company Limited (PVEP POC).

Shell has authorized contractor McDermott International to start engineering work on its Manatee gas field development project off Trinidad and Tobago's east coast, the contractor disclosed on Tuesday.Trinidad is Latin America's largest LNG exporter, but its flagship Atlantic LNG project and its petrochemical plants have been operating at reduced capacity due to a shortage of natural gas.McDermott said it got the green light to proceed on an engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract pending an investment decision.

Norwegian offshore vessel owner Solstad Offshore has secured new contracts for two of its subsea vessels (CSV). CSV “Normand Baltic” has been awarded a 180-day contract for providing “Walk to Work” services on an unnamed offshore wind project in Asia. The contract will start in October 2023.CSV “Normand Samson” has been hired for a period of a minimum of 260 days to support a field development project in South America with start in in the first quarter 2024. "Commercial terms between the parties are in line with present market conditions for this type of vessels.

Subsea 7 has signed a three-year strategic partnership with Talos Energy to deliver commercial solutions for subsea engineering, construction and installation projects in the U.S.

Malaysian company Yinson has secured a firm contract to provide and maintain an FPSO for Azule Energy, a BP-Eni joint venture, in Angola.The contract, awarded by Eni Angola, is for the provision of the FPSO for the  Agogo Integrated West Hub Development Project in Angola (“FPSO Agogo”).According to Yinson, the contract is worth about $5.3 billion in total and has a firm period of 15 years from the date of the final FPSO's acceptance. Azule Energy will have the option to extend for another five years. The FPSO Agogo is expected to start operations in the fourth quarter of 2025.

IMA/WER has just completed its Annual Review and Five-Year Forecast of Orders for Floating Production Systems. The report:•provides a detailed look back at developments in the deepwater sector over the past year,•assesses 12 underlying market drivers that will determine the pace of production floater orders over the next five years,•identifies specific projects in the planning queue that will likely require a production floater and•forecasts the number of orders and capex for production floaters between 2023 and 2027.There has been a strong recovery in the deepwater sector…

In the 45 years since the Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard (ASRY) opened on reclaimed land in Bahrain, the Middle East has become one of the world’s ship repair hotspots. A broad range of shipyards now service both regional and global markets.Regional yards have a ready market, with hundreds of offshore rigs working across the region together with the service ships that support them. Then there are thousands of tankers and gas carriers that arrive each year to load energy cargoes for far-flung destinations.

Norway's Aker Solutions will upgrade Altera Infrastructure's Petrojarl  Knarr floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) to be redeployed at Equinor's Rosebank field development, offshore the UK. Petrojarl Knarr was built by Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea and delivered in 2014. It was operating on the Knarr field offshore Norway from 2015 until May 2022.The development concept for the Rosebank field includes the redeployment and reuse of the existing Petrojarl Knarr FPSO owned by Altera.Under a 'substantial' contract with Altera…

As we enter the final month of 2022, a review of the floating production system (FPS) market revealed that some E&Ps have been bold with investments in the development of their oil and gas (O&G) reserves, with a total of 1.9 mmboepd (1.3 mmbpd of oil and 3.8 bcfd of gas) of FPS throughput capacity sanctioned year to date (YTD). This represents a 7% increase on 2021, with Westwood anticipating an additional 180 kboepd of FPS throughput capacity to be sanctioned before the end of the year.

U.S. oil major ExxonMobil has chartered the Subsea Support Vessel (SSV) Maersk Nomad for a minimum one-year contract, supporting its field development activities offshore Guyana.Maersk Nomad will be operating with two ROVs onboard, providing general and subsea support scopes for ExxonMobil’s six ultra-deepwater drillships currently operating offshore Guyana in the Stabroek Block. The first charter is expected to start in mid-November 2022, out of Georgetown, Guyana.ExxonMobil…

Japanese floating oil and gas production systems provider MODEC has signed a contract to perform Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) for an FPSO vessel for ExxonMobil's “Uaru” oil field development project offshore Guyana.The FEED contract award relates to the initial funding by ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), to begin FEED activities related to the FPSO design and to secure the second M350TM hull for FPSO service.Following FEED and subject to government approvals in Guyana of the development plan…

The Dutch FPSO leasing specialist SBM Offshore said Friday the construction of the topside modules had kicked off in Singapore for one of the company's largest-ever FPSO units, the One Guyana FPSO."During September this year, two steel strike ceremonies were held in both Keppel FELS and DynaMac yards. This marks a key milestone, which is the start of the fabrication of the marine structures and the topside modules," SBM Offshore said.SBM Offshore received an order from ExxonMobil in April to deliver the One Guyana FPSO for the Yellowtail development offshore Guyana.

Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M)’s wholly-owned subsidiaries, Keppel AmFELS in the U.S. and Keppel Shipyard in Singapore, have been awarded contracts worth around S$75 million (US$54.5 million) for the refurbishment and completion of two floating production units (FPU). The first contract is by Keppel AmFELS with Salamanca FPS Infra, LLC for the refurbishment of a floating production unit to be operated by LLOG Exploration Offshore, LLC, a private exploration and production company in the U.S.Keppel AmFELS’ scope of work on the production facility includes demolition…

Offshore services company Havfram announced it has been awarded a contract from MODEC Offshore Production Systems (Singapore) Pte Ltd. (MODEC) for the pre-installation of the subsea mooring system for a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) in 2022.MODEC’s parent company, MODEC, Inc., will supply this facility to Woodside, for deployment in Senegal as part of the Sangomar Field Development Phase 1 project. This phase will target approximately 230 million barrels of…

The region could be a key growth market for the oil and gas industry going forward, writes Joshua Belo-Osagie, Maritime Strategies International (MSI).Improving sentiment surrounds energy market prospects offshore West Africa, the positive mood underpinned by higher oil prices, reformed regulatory frameworks in key markets including Angola and Nigeria and the discovery of major prospects off the Ivory Coast and Namibia.In addition, the implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have only reinforced some of these pre-existing dynamics…

Aker Solutions received a Letter of Intent (LOI) for a front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract from Equinor, for the FPSO for the Wisting field development in the Norwegian Barents Sea.Wisting is a greenfield development located in the Barents Sea, about 310 km from the Norwegian mainland. Equinor is the operator of the field (35%), with partners OMV Norge AS (25%), Petoro AS (20%), Idemitsu Petroleum Norge AS (10%) and Lundin Energy Norway AS (10%).The intended FEED contract includes an option for engineering, procurement, construction and integration (EPCI) of the topside for the FPSO. The scope of the FEED is to provide front-end design- and engineering for a circular floating production…

Malaysian FPSO contractor Yinson has signed a Letter of Intent with the Brazilian oil company Enauta Energia for the provision, operation, and maintenance of an FPSO at Enauta's Atlanta field in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil.Enauta has been producing oil from the field using the FPSO Petrojarl I as an Early Production System, and has been looking to deploy another FPSO at the field for full-field development.The oil company and the Malaysian FPSO supplier had in August signed…

Norwegian offshore vessel operator Solstad Offshore has won a contract for its construction support vessel Normand Samson.The CSV Normand Samson was chartered by a major oil service firm for a minimum of 350 days, with the possibility to extend for an additional 150 days, according to the company. Solstad did not say who the client was.The contract will start during Q2 2022. "The vessel will be utilized on a field development project in South America," Solstad Offshore said.Built in 2009, the 121,5 meters long Normand Samson can accommodate 100 people aboard.

Oil and gas major ExxonMobil on Wednesday announced two new oil discoveries offshore Guyana, at Fangtooth and Lau Lau wells, adding to previous recoverable resource estimate of 10 billion oil-equivalent barrels.The Fangtooth-1 well, drilled with the Stena DrillMAX drillship, encountered approximately 164 feet (50 meters) of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs. The well was drilled in 6,030 feet (1,838 meters) of water and is located approximately 11 miles (18 kilometers) northwest of the Liza field. The Lau Lau-1 well, drilled by the Noble Don Taylor drillship, hit around 315 feet (96 meters) of high-quality hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone reservoirs.

As offshore market activity recovers and continues to increase through the next decade, as we expect it to, oilfield service (OFS) capacity is expected to tighten.As offshore market activity recovers and continues to increase through the next decade, as NorthStone Advisors expect it to, oilfield service (OFS) capacity is expected to tighten. In NorthStone Advisors’ view, this will create a period of increased scarcity and cost inflation, presenting significant cost and schedule risk to decommissioning programs.Many eyes are on the UK…