Oil Wells News

The Biden administration on Saturday unveiled final rules aimed at cracking down on US oil and gas industry releases of methane, part of a global plan to rein in emissions that contribute to climate change.The rules, two years in the making, were announced by US officials at the United Nations COP28 climate change conference in Dubai. The US and other nations attending the summit are expected to detail how they will achieve a 150-country pledge made two years ago to slash methane emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.Methane tends to leak into the atmosphere undetected from drill sites…

Response crews have collected more than one million gallons of oil from a Gulf of Mexico spill that has been ongoing for nearly 20 years.The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and partner agencies have been working to contain oil that continues to leak from damaged wells in Mississippi Canyon Block 20 (MC-20), located 11 miles south of the Louisiana shoreline, after storm surge from Hurricane Ivan in 2004 triggered an underwater mudslide that toppled Taylor Energy's MC-20 platform. The active spill is the longest-running in U.S.

UAE-based shipyard Drydocks World has signed a contract with Norway-based Kanfa to deliver a topside module for a floating production storage and offloading vessel.In what will be the first collaboration between Drydocks World and Kanfa, the M10 module will be placed on the main deck of the FPSO.The module will be used to process crude oil received from oil wells, which will be dewatered and stabilised to meet export quality specifications. Weighing approximately 700 tons, the process module is scheduled for delivery in Q2 2023.Kanfa…

Oil company Taylor Energy Co LLC agreed to transfer a $432 million cleanup trust account to the U.S. government and pay an additional $43 million to resolve a lawsuit over its role in the longest-running oil spill in U.S. history under a proposed deal filed in New Orleans federal court on Wednesday.The New Orleans company and federal officials filed a proposed consent decree to resolve claims arising from a 2004 incident when Hurricane Ivan caused one of Taylor's offshore drilling platforms to collapse in the Gulf of Mexico.

Catastrophic engine damage led to the fire aboard the U.S. -flagged offshore supply vessel Ocean Intervention near Honolulu, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.No pollution or injuries to the 16 crewmembers were reported in connection with the mechanical failure, which resulted in a fire in the engine room on December 19, 2020. The crew isolated the fire before it could spread throughout the vessel.The Ocean Intervention, a 243-foot-long, steel-hulled vessel, was built in 1998 and operated by Oceaneering International, Inc.

Energy companies, ports and refiners raced on Monday to shut down as Hurricane Sally grew stronger while lumbering toward the central U.S. Gulf Coast, the second significant hurricane to shutter oil and gas activity over the last month.The hurricane is disrupting oil imports and exports as the nation's sole offshore terminal, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), stopped loading tanker ships on Sunday, while the port of New Orleans closed on Monday.The U.S. government said 21%…

Island Offshore took delivery of Island Victory, a new offshore installation vessel, at VARD Langsten today (Friday, February 7, 2020).Upon delivery the vessel will head straight into operation, spending a couple of weeks in the spot market, before commencing a series of contracts – in the Barents Sea and the Gulf of Mexico – securing work for the vessel potentially throughout October this year.“We experience great interest for this vessel,” said Tommy Walaunet, Managing Director, Island Offshore Management AS. “Having jobs lined up in coming months, confirms this and is highly appreciated.

Though the Permian Basin still dominates US land drilling, the pace of growth in this region has slowed significantly.Older tight oil wells decline by 20% per year without material intervention, according to Rystad Energy.Contrary to common belief, the Permian Basin systematically offers the lowest oil decline rates, along with the Bakken Shale.In turn, the Eagle Ford and DJ basins exhibit steeper decline rates throughout the first eight years of production across most vintages.Rystad Energy has examined all horizontal oil-producing wells in the Bakken, Eagle Ford, Permian and DJ Basins, turned-in-line between 2011 and 2017 with at least 24 months of reported production.The resulting sample includes 146,158 annualized production data points from 46,188 wells.

A BP drilling rig heading to an oilfield in the British North Sea has been forced to turn away twice over the past two days as a Greenpeace vessel protesting climate change tries to hamper its progress.The high-sea chase is the latest step in Greenpeace's nine-day effort to stop the 40,000 tonne Paul Loyd JNR rig from reaching the Vorlich oilfield to start its drilling campaign.The vessel left Cromarty Firth, north of Inverness, Scotland on Friday after police twice removed activists…

High-tech deep-drilling company GA Drilling signed a EUR 4.2 million funding agreement with Lead Ventures and a service agreement with MOL Group.Lead Ventures, a Budapest based venture capital firm invested funds provided by MOL Group, and Hungarian Eximbank.The deal gives GA Drilling access to onshore production wells to test its disruptive PLASMABIT plug & abandonment technology in real field conditions.The agreement is a major step in enabling the commercialization of the PLASMABIT technology, which can bring positive environmental impacts, and significant cost and time reductions when compared to conventional methods of decommissioning…

Hedge funds are betting crude oil stocks will adjust quickly to the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma but gasoline and distillate inventories may take more time to normalise. Hedge funds and other money managers increased their combined net long position in the five major petroleum contracts linked to crude, gasoline and heating oil by 46 million barrels in the week to Sept. 5, according to the latest regulatory and exchange data. Fund managers recovered some of their pre-hurricane bullishness after cutting net long positions in the petroleum complex by a total of 116 million barrels over the previous two weeks (http://tmsnrt.rs/2jhR0sX).

TechnipFMC’s Andersen discusses the way forward now that “super-profit oil” is over. Ann Kristen Andersen heads up oilfield projects as offshore services and equipment supplier TechnipFMC’s managing director for Norway and Russia. She started her job on the first day of February 2017, a month after a merger that changed the company and has already partly changed an industry beginning to ramp up activity with the oil price buoyant at $55 per barrel. How has the merger that created TechnipFMC — which answered calls for lower offshore costs in tough times — changed the way you do things?

U.S. natural gas prices have tumbled by more than 10 percent since late May as hedge funds start to liquidate a near-record bullish position accumulated in the expectation of a tighter market that failed to materialise. Hedge funds and other money managers reduced their combined net long position in the two main futures and options contracts linked to Henry Hub prices by 584 billion cubic feet in the week to May 30. Fund managers reduced their net long position by the largest amount in any one week since November 2016, after raising it by a cumulative 1,721 bcf during the previous 12 weeks. Prior to the selloff, hedge fund managers held a record ratio of 5 long positions for every 1 short position, a warning sign that their position had become overstretched and was at risk from a reversal.

The MR tanker Stena Imagination was named in the Port Rashid Terminal in the heart of Dubai. According to Erik Hånell, President & CEO of Stena Bulk and CEO of Stena Weco, “Naming the Stena Imagination in Dubai is very much a strategic choice. Stena Bulk recently opened an office here together with Stena Weco and Golden Stena Weco. We already had a presence in the market in the region but wanted to get even closer to our customers. Stena’s tanker business already has a presence in the area with contacts in the neighboring region.

Earlier this year Kongsberg launched Kongsberg Digital, a new subsidiary to expand its industrial software offering, a “start-up” with about 500 employees. Hege Skryseth, President of Kongsberg Digital and also the Chief Digital Officer of Kongsberg shares with MR her insights on the size, shape and direction of the new entity. “You see some opportunities here,” is how Hege Skryseth summarizes the potential for the digital revolution to make maritime and offshore operations more efficient.

When night falls over western Venezuela, armed gangs known as "pirates" sometimes ride boats into muggy Lake Maracaibo to steal equipment from oil wells. In the country's Paraguana peninsula, opposite the Caribbean island of Aruba, slum dwellers at times break through a perimeter wall into Venezuela's biggest refinery and rob machinery, construction tools, and cables to sell as scrap. On the other side of the OPEC country in Monagas state, around 26,000 potential barrels were lost in March during a shutdown after state oil company employees and contractors stole copper cables and caused a tank to overflow. Venezuela's national crime pandemic - the United Nations says the country has the world's second-highest murder rate after Honduras - is a growing headache for the oil industry…

IRClass, a leading Classification Society and member of IACS, has recently completed the survey and certification of ‘Greatship Ramya’, during its conversion from an Offshore Supply Vessel (OSV) to a Well Stimulation Vessel for Schlumberger under its Single Class. The vessel is now deployed with an Indian Oil Major in the offshore sector. Well Stimulation Vessels are one of the most critical ship types in offshore segment with respect to complexity of processes and equipment reliability as they handle hazardous chemicals under very high pressures (close to 20,000 Psi) and supply/receive these fluids to& from offshore Oil Wells. The Classification for such vessels…

U.S. oil production may stop growing in the second half of this year and could fall in 2016 as low oil prices make the majority of oil wells uneconomic, according to a report released on Tuesday by IHS Inc energy analysts. Global oversupply of oil has knocked 60 percent off prices since June last year, forcing a slowdown in drilling and putting the brakes on a five-year boom that pushed U.S. production to record highs. Production will likely grow in the next few months as oil producers honor contractual obligations and finish work on a backlog of wells that have already been drilled. But growth will halt in the second half of the year if oil prices remain below $60 a barrel, according to the IHS report based on a study of 39,000 oil wells. U.S.

Oil majors BP and ConocoPhillips will cut over 500 jobs in the North Sea following similar moves by rivals to reduce costs in one of the world's most expensive exploration areas as oil prices tumble. Although the cuts are relatively small for companies with dozens of thousands of employees, they come at a politically sensitive time in Britain as the Scottish independence debate continues and a May parliamentary election looms. BP said the cuts of 200 onshore staff and 100 contractors were part of a previously announced $1 billion reorganisation aimed at simplifying the company's structure after it sold billions of dollars of assets.

Companies eager to export U.S. oil face fines and other risks if they stray from government-approved practices, trade lawyers said this week, but the challenge is figuring out what the government allows because its rulings have so far been private. As the drilling boom floods the Gulf Coast with light oil that local refineries cannot easily process, energy companies are under pressure to sell the petroleum to global markets, despite a 40-year ban on crude exports. A 20 percent drop in oil prices this fall has also made them anxious to find new buyers. The Obama administration this summer put a hold on more than 20 new applications for exports of minimally processed light oil called condensate after issuing two approvals for the fuel.

Southern exports average almost 2.60 million bpd; Exports close to record rate seen in May. Lack of Kirkuk northern exports limits overall supply. Iraq's oil exports from its southern terminals on the Gulf, far from the fighting in its north, have increased so far this month as bad weather and logistical delays subsided, approaching a record high reached in May. Three months after an advance by Islamic State into northern Iraq sent oil prices soaring to $115 a barrel, the fighting has not reduced Iraq's exports from the south, the main outlet for its crude to world markets. Exports from Iraq's southern terminals have averaged 2.58 million barrels per day (bpd), according to shipping data for the first 23 days of September tracked by Reuters.

Transocean Ltd. informs it has received a decision by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on phase one of litigation related to the April 20, 2010 Macondo well incident involving the Deepwater Horizon. [Background:a US judge has ruled BP was "grossly negligent" in the lead-up to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. •    Contractual indemnity: The Court found that BP's contractual agreement to indemnify Transocean for compensatory damages is valid and enforceable. •    Liability for punitive damages: The Court's finding that Transocean was not grossly negligent means that the company is not liable for punitive damages.

Creditors of Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's Oleo e Gas Participacoes SA approved a restructuring plan for the oil company that could lead to a quick resolution of the largest bankruptcy in Latin America's history, lawyers said on Tuesday. The plan was approved by creditors holding 90 percent of the Rio de Janeiro-based company's nearly 12 billion reais ($5 billion) of unpaid obligations. If a judge approves, creditors will swap debts for about 90 percent of Oleo e Gas stock, said Ricardo Knoepfelmacher of Angra Partners, the consultancy that handled talks with creditors. The judge's approval is expected within days, he said. Creditors include Newport Beach…