Oil And Gas Wells News

Samsung Heavy Industries has received basic certification for a floating CO2 storage unit (FCSU) from DNV.The FCSU, jointly developed by Samsung Heavy Industries and MISC, is 330 meters long and 64 meters wide, and has a high-pressure tank capacity that can store 100,000 cubic meters of liquefied CO2 at -50 degrees Celsius or less.The injection module mounted on the upper part of the hull secures the ability to send five million tons (MTPA) of CO2 per year to the depths of the seabed.

Danish offshore drilling company Maersk Drilling has joined a consortium whose aim is to develop an offshore storage solution for CO2 captured in Danish onshore facilities.Maersk Drilling said Wednesday it was joining a new CO2 storage consortium formed by INEOS Oil & Gas Denmark and Wintershall Dea. "The consortium is maturing one of the most progressed carbon capture and storage projects inside Danish jurisdiction and targets the development of CO2 storage capacity offshore Denmark based on reusing discontinued offshore oil and gas fields for permanent CO2 storage…

Rystad Energy forecasts that the number of onshore and offshore oil and gas wells drilled globally will increase to around 65,000 in 2019.Activity levels are then projected to remain around this level through 2023, the energy research and business intelligence company said.Rystad Energy also forecasts that more than 1 million kilometers of new oil and gas wells will be drilled over the next five years. The collective depth of these wells is the equivalent of 25 times around the equator – or 2.5 times the distance to the moon.As the global oil and gas industry gets back into high gear – thanks in no small part to higher commodity prices – demand for steel is set to increase.

Atlantica Tender Drilling, a provider of management and contract drilling services for oil and gas wells for the offshore tender assist market worldwide, announced that Petrobras has extended the rig BassDrill Beta by 180 days."Petrobras exercised its right to extend the Beta contract by 180 days commencing in September 2019 through March of 2020," said a press release from theAtlantica has two semi tender units are secured on long-term development contracts. Atlantica's “BassDrill Beta” is a semi-submersible tender assist vessel built by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry. It is a Platform registered and sailing under the flag of Panama.BassDrill Beta has a operational displacement of 21,530 metric ton and total operational payload of 4,500 metric ton.

With the global offshore decommissioning industry expected to reach $36bn over the next 3 years, several hundred offshore oil and gas wells could cease production by 2021 in the face of today’s bearish oil market.As a consequence, so-called decommissioning obligations in the global oil and gas industry rose to $11.7 billion last year and are projected to hold steady at an average of about $12 billion per year from 2019 through 2021, according to Rystad Energy.“2018 was an all-time high, and the next years are set to break this record,” said Rystad Energy partner Audun Martinsen. “To put this into context, the global oil and gas industry…

Transocean, international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells, has announced that its shareholders approved the acquisition of Ocean Rig UDW, by approving the proposals presented at Transocean’s Extraordinary General Meeting. Switzerland-based offshore drilling contractor quoted its President and CEO Jeremy Thigpen in a press release, as saying: "We are extremely pleased that our shareholders have overwhelmingly approved our acquisition of Ocean Rig. Through this combination, Transocean further enhances our industry-leading fleet of high specification floaters, thus improving our competitive position."Thigpen…

The  international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells Transocean announced that the ultra-deepwater drillship Petrobras 10000 was awarded a 790-day contract extension offshore Brazil with Petrobras.The contract is extended through October 2021 and includes a blend and extend modification to the previous contract dayrate, effective September 2018. The additional net contract backlog is approximately $185 million, including cost escalations.Additionally, Transocean will receive a 5% royalty per day, totaling approximately $16 million, estimated to be from October 2018 to October 2021 associated with the…

Aberdeen-based oil field technology firm Deep Casing Tools (DCT), which specialises in the design and manufacture of casing and completion tools, has agreed a pact with a Canadian distributor, ProTorque Connection Technologies (PTCT).The partnership with ProTorque, a tubular running service business, will see Deep Casing Tools re-enter the Canadian market, which historically was a successful region for the company.Deep Casing Tools previously had an office in Alberta, Canada, but during the more challenging times of the oil and gas industry downturn and a reduction in drilling activity, took the decision pull out of the region.Following…

The international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells Transocean announced that the ultra-deepwater semisubmersible GSF Development Driller I was awarded an 11-well contract (approximately 955 days) commencing offshore Australia in the first half of 2019 with Chevron Australia.The estimated firm contract backlog, excluding integrated services, is approximately USD 158 million. Additionally, the contract includes four one-well options.Two days ago, Transocean announced that the midwater semisubmersible Transocean 712 was awarded a 13-well contract (approximately 580 days) commencing in March 2019 in the U.K. North Sea with ConocoPhillips.The estimated firm contract backlog is approximately $75 million. Additionally, the contract includes a one-well option.

DNV GL will add a new third party software solution to Veracity, its open industry data platform, that is based on cleaned data collected from 80 000 oil and gas wells. AGR, the leading well design and drilling project management firm, has agreed to host its iQx software on the platform, which contains information that is vital to companies selecting locations of wells. Users, such as drilling engineers, can access information on numerous metrics including geology and bit performance, enabling them to make smarter and more efficient operational decisions. AGR has drilled more than 500 wells and developed the solution in reaction to the inefficiencies created by the lack of standardized, high quality information on comparable wells.

Transocean announced that an agreement has been reached with the incumbent customer to amend the drilling contract on the harsh environment semisubmersible Transocean Leader. The rig experienced equipment breakdown that could not be repaired timely, providing the customer with the right to cancel the contract. However, given the otherwise efficient performance of the rig, the customer elected to complete its program with the Leader and Transocean agreed to amend the drilling contract, signed today and effective January 13, 2018, whereby the dayrate and contract duration were modified. The rig is currently in the shipyard for these repairs and will not earn a dayrate during the first quarter of 2018.

Oil service and mapping firms still emerging from an industry recession have received a boost from about $800 million of data sales to energy firms considering bidding for Mexican oil and gas blocks. Mexico will on Wednesday hold its most important auction since a 2013 reform ended the 75-year monopoly on the energy sector held by state-run oil firm Pemex. The government of President Enrique Pena Nieto hopes the deepwater sale will attract tens of billions of dollars of investment to turnaround a slump in the country's oil output. Seven previous auctions drew investment pledges of $61 billion.

Transocean announced  that the harsh environment semisubmersible Transocean Spitsbergen was awarded a 22-well contract with an estimated duration of 33 months; plus two one-well options in the Norwegian North Sea with Statoil Petroleum ASA. The estimated firm backlog associated with the contract is approximately $286 million, which excludes opportunities for performance incentives. The contract is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2019. “We are extremely pleased to have once again contracted the Transocean Spitsbergen with Statoil,” said Jeremy Thigpen, President and Chief Executive Officer. “This contract is a testament to the capability…

Transocean announced that the ultra-deepwater drillship Deepwater Invictus was awarded a two-year contract plus three one-year priced options with a subsidiary of BHP Billiton. The backlog associated with the firm contract is approximately $106 million. The contract is expected to commence in the second quarter of 2018. “We are extremely pleased to continue working with BHP,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Thigpen. “Since we welcomed the Invictus into our fleet in 2014, the combination of BHP, Transocean and the Invictus has delivered industry-leading performance; and, we look forward to extending our productive relationship through this multi-year contract,” Jeremy added.

The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended the search for a worker missing from an oil production platform in Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain that exploded and caught fire late on Sunday. Missing is Timothy Morrison, 44, of Katy, Texas, the Coast Guard said in a statement. Seven other workers were sent to hospital with injuries in the incident. "The decision to suspend a search is never an easy one," Commander Zac Ford said in the statement. Coast Guard rescue crews battled 4 foot to 5 foot (1.2 meter to 1.5 meter) waves during the search, and a helicopter joined them at daybreak after overnight efforts failed to locate Morrison, officials said at a briefing on Monday.

Transocean announced its intent to retire the ultra-deepwater floaters GSF Jack Ryan, Sedco Energy, Sedco Express, Cajun Express, and Deepwater Pathfinder, and the deepwater floater Transocean Marianas. The rigs will be classified as held for sale and will be recycled in an environmentally responsible manner. All six rigs were previously cold stacked. The company will recognize an impairment charge of approximately $1.4 billion during the third quarter of 2017 associated with these actions. “We continue to enhance the quality of our fleet through the addition of new, high-specification assets, and the retirement of older, less competitive rigs,” said Jeremy Thigpen, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Repair of Polyarnaya Zvezda and Severnoye Siyaniye, semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling units (MODU) of the sixth generation, has been completed under survey of Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) at Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore Shipyard Ltd. in Yantai, China. Mr. Konstantin Palnikov, RS Director General, attended the ceremony of MODUs delivery to customer, which was held on April 15, 2016. During survey of the MODU repair and equipment replacement RS specialists performed docking survey, inspection of hull structures, ship machinery and disassembled devices. The tests and operation checks of the machinery, equipment and ship systems, as well as platform sea trials, were successful.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell Thursday commended the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council for issuing its initial list of proposed projects for natural resource restoration for Gulf Coast communities in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The RESTORE Council proposed using approximately $139.6 million from the recent settlement with Transocean Deepwater, Inc. to support restoration projects in key regional watersheds. Interior’s role in these projects is primarily focused on resiliency building efforts across the Gulf Coast.

Transocean Ltd. has issued a monthly Fleet Update Summary which includes new contracts, significant changes to existing contracts, and changes in estimated planned out-of-service time of 15 or more days since May 15, 2014. The high-specification jackup, GSF Magellan, is held for sale. Estimated 2014 planned out-of-service time decreased by a net five days; estimated 2015 planned out-of-service time increased by a net 29 days. Transocean is a leading international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells. The company specializes in technically demanding sectors of the global offshore drilling business with a particular focus on deepwater and harsh environment drilling services…

The United States is planning to impose a major new regulation on offshore oil and gas drilling to try to prevent the kind of explosions that caused the catastrophic BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing Obama administration officials. The Interior Department could make the announcement as early as Monday, the paper said. It is timed to coincide with the five-year anniversary of the BP disaster, which killed 11 men and sent millions of barrels of oil spewing into the gulf. The rule is expected to tighten safety requirements on blowout preventers, devices that are the last line of protection to stop explosions in undersea oil and gas wells, the Times reported. The White House did not immediatley respond to a request for comment.

Aker Solutions won its first order for a project offshore Mexico as it secured a contract from Saipem to supply umbilicals for the Pemex-operated Lakach deepwater natural-gas field. Aker Solutions will deliver electro-hydraulic steel tube umbilicals of about 73 kilometers (45 miles) that will help connect Mexico's first subsea gas development to onshore processing facilities. The field is located about 98 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Veracruz at depths of between 900 and 1,200 meters in the Gulf of Mexico. It is targeted to supply 400 million standard cubic feet per day. "The Lakach field is Mexico's first deepwater subsea development by Pemex and Aker Solutions is proud to deliver the first umbilical to the Mexican Gulf of Mexico…

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Neil Kornze today testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a bill that would increase the efficiency of oil and gas permitting on public lands and coordination among agencies by continuing the BLM’s Oil and Gas Pilot Office program. During his testimony on S. 2440, the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Act of 2014, Kornze described the key role pilot offices play in supporting the Administration’s All-of-the-Above energy strategy to create jobs and reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil. “The Obama Administration has made it a priority to permit environmentally responsible oil and gas development on the nation’s public lands,” Kornze said.

Dynamic positioning is a vessel capability provided by integration of a variety of individual systems and functions to automatically maintain a vessel’s position and heading by use of the vessel’s propellers and thrusters, and has been in use, particularly in the offshore oil and gas exploration business since the 1960s. To date, use of dynamic positioning has relied on industry best practices, classification society rules, and guidance from the International Maritime Organization (IMO). If the US Coast Guard has its way, that may change soon.