Upstream Oil News

Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, and Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, introduced Canada’s draft framework to cap pollution from the oil and gas sector on December 7. The aim is to reduce emissions and remain competitive in a shifting global market. “No sector of the economy should be allowed to emit unlimited pollution, not when we are all driving toward the same goal of net zero by 2050 to ward off the worst impacts of the climate crisis,” said the ministers in a statement.

Deutsche Bank has set emissions reduction targets for loans to clients in the coal mining, cement and shipping sectors and now has a net-zero plan for 55% of its financed emissions, its chief sustainability officer told Reuters.A key funder to polluting sectors, Germany's biggest lender, like many of its peers, is under increasing pressure from policymakers and investors to push clients to curb climate-damaging emissions.Its corporate loan book stood at 107 billion euros ($112.72 billion) at the end of 2022."Once we have pathways…

Exxon Mobil Corp on Friday said it is accelerating output at its Guyana offshore oil development, starting a new production vessel that will bring total capacity to more than 340,000 barrels per day.An Exxon-led consortium started production in the South America country in 2019 and is responsible for all oil and gas output in Guyana. Exxon and partners Hess Corp and CNOOC Ltd. have discovered some 10 billion barrels of oil.Production at the Liza Unity floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel is expected to reach 220,000 barrels of oil per day later this year, Exxon said.

Norwegian offshore vessel operator Siem Offshore has hired Oslo-based TMC Compressors (TMC) to deliver a new marine compressed air system to be retrofitted onboard the JOIDES Resolution research vessel.Former drillship JOIDES Resolution is a research vessel that drills into the ocean floor to collect and study core samples, to help scientists better understand climate change, geology, and Earth’s history.For this research vessel, TMC will supply a complete marine compressed air…

The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency's (MCA) future oil spill response plan will be informed by a new report that maps out possible threats to the UK's coastal areas, marine life, and traffic as a result of hydrocarbon releases from energy industry operation and shipping.The report on the review of the hydrocarbon release risk on the UKCS over the next decade was delivered for the MCA, by Xodus Group, in association with London Marine Consultants.The review evaluated the risk of a serious mineral oil release occurring in UK waters from vessels of more than 1…

PCCI, Inc. announce that Todd Carey has joined the company as a chief engineer based in Ventura, Calif. He will be responsible for providing engineering, design, installation and program/project management services to U.S. government and commercial clients in the ocean facility and offshore energy industries.Carey is a Mechanical Engineer with experience supporting U.S. Navy, and upstream oil and gas clients on the U.S. West Coast. He has 18-years of experience in the analysis…

Deepwater acreage will continue to attract significant company interest through 2020, said a report.According to GlobalData, a significant portion of the acreage available in Q1 2020 is located in either deep or ultra-deep water, up from the previous quarter.In Q1 2020, approximately 60% of the acreage available in licensing rounds either open or scheduled to close in the quarter is located in deep or ultra-deep water, revealed the report: ‘Q1 2020 Global Bid Round Outlook – Increase in Deepwater Acreage Offered in Q1 2020’.Toya Latham, Upstream Oil & Gas Analyst at GlobalData, said: “With the increase in deepwater exploration drilling in 2019 and the largest discoveries of last year also mostly located in deepwater settings…

Franco-American oil services firm TechnipFMC Plc is putting on hold plans to split itself into two due to turbulence in financial markets linked to the coronavirus outbreak, it said on Sunday.The group, created three years ago via the merger of Technip and FMC, had been planning to separate its engineering and construction activities from its upstream oil services business in the first half of this year."Market conditions have changed materially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the sharp decline in commodity prices, and the heightened volatility in global equity markets," TechnipFMC said in a sta

French marine services group Bourbon Corporation, which has been in a court restructuring process after its business was hit by volatile energy markets, said its assets would be taken over by its creditor banks.Bourbon said the Marseille commercial court had ruled that Bourbon's assets would be transferred to Société Phocéenne de Participations (SPP) from Jan. 2, 2020.SPP is owned by BNP Paribas, Caisse Régionale de Crédit Agricole Mutuel Alpes Provence, Caisse Régionale de Crédit Agricole Mutuel de Paris et d'Ile de France…

Wison Offshore & Marine (WOM), the upstream oil and gas division of Chinese conglomerate Wison Group Holding, announced the fabrication of Arctic LNG 2 Project (ALNG2 Project) commenced in Zhoushan Yard.The module fabrication contract was awarded by Technip France S.A., a wholly-owned subsidiary of TechnipFMC.Novatek, client of ALNG2 project, is the largest independent natural gas producer in Russia. ALNG2 project comprises three LNG trains at 6.6 million tons per annum each. WOM’s work scope is engineering, procurement, fabrication and commissioning of modules in train one with a total weight of 48,000 MT."With continuous support of Novatek…

Wintermar announced on Monday it has secured contracts for two platform supply vessels (PSVs) to a major oil and gas company for a total of seven years including options.The PSVs will provide deck and cargo supply runs to support the drilling operations in Eastern Indonesia.Sugiman Layanto, Managing Director of PT Wintermar Offshore Marine Tbk said, "The project requires Dynamic Positioning 2 (DP2) operations while the vessels are approaching the rig. With our long experience in offshore deep water drilling campaigns since 2011…

American upstream oil company founded and based in Dallas Kosmos Energy made an offshore oil discovery in Equatorial Guinea, Reuters reported quoting the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons.The S-5 well was drilled at a total depth of 4,400 meters and encountered 39 meters of net oil play in the Santonian reservoir, in the offshore Rio Muni Basin, it said. “The discovery is a strong validation of our strategy to replace oil reserves by exploring the highly prospective oil basins like Rio Muni,” the nation’s Minister of Mines, Industry and Energy Gabriel Obiang said in the statement.According to the report, Lima’s ministry said the well was drilled at a depth of 4…

Heavyweight oilfield service providers like Saipem and Baker Hughes are moving past just oil and gas projects and embracing more renewable energy projects going forward.In 2014, non-upstream oil and gas activities accounted for 22% of revenues among service suppliers. This share grew to 27% in 2018.According to Rystad Energy, the trend to accelerate in the next decade.“If pure-play contractors within drilling, well services and seismic – which don’t have much to offer outside the upstream oil and gas industry – are removed from the equation, activities outside of upstream accounted for nearly 30% of last year’s revenues,” says Audun Martinsen…

If autonomous vessels are the future of maritime shipping, then cyber threats may be its Achilles heel. Congested shipping, restricted visibility, limited maneuverability, and intensive docking activities all contribute to port hazards – 42 percent of EU reported marine accidents (injury/death/damage to ships) took place in port areas and 44 percent of workboat fatalities occurred on Tugs. Autonomous shipping should provide numerous benefits including increased safety by relieving crewmembers of unsafe and repetitious tasks.

 The creditors of indebted French marine services company Bourbon reached a restructuring deal that would give them control of the company, protect jobs and draw new liquidity.Bourbon has been hurt by market overcapacity and a fall in spending on services by upstream oil and gas companies, but the deal with its creditors lifted its shares.Bourbon's stock rose 24% in early session trading, although it is still down around 36% so far this year.The creditors said their restructuring deal would result in the conversion of around half of 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion) of debts into new capital for

Global energy investment totalled more than USD 1.8 trillion in 2018, a level similar to 2017, said the International Energy Agency (IEA).The investment stabilised in 2018, ending three consecutive years of decline, as capital spending on oil, gas and coal supply bounced back while investment stalled for energy efficiency and renewables.IEA's latest annual review said that for the third year in a row, the power sector attracted more investment than the oil and gas industry.The biggest jump in overall energy investment was in the United States, where it was boosted by higher spending in upstream supply, particularly shale, but also electricity networks.

Total greenfield project sanctioning, summed up to the present day, only accounts for 40% of estimated volumes of offshore projects ever being sanctioned, said Rystad Energy, the  energy research and consultancy headquartered in Norway."Likewise, the brownfield market has only begun, with total historical expenditures accounting for only about 20% of estimated brownfield spend over the projects lifetime, leaving 80% of brownfield spending to the future. And the decommissioning market is still in its nascent form,” says Audun Martinsen, head of oilfield services research at Rystad Energy.It estimates that around 800 billion undiscovered barrels of oil and gas equivalents exist globally…

The oil and gas producer Neptune Energy has announced the appointment of Eko Lumadyo as Managing Director of its Indonesian business, based in Jakarta.Lumadyo will join Neptune from Mandala Energy Indonesia, where he is currently Country President and General Manager.Lumadyo has more than 30 years’ experience in upstream oil and gas exploration, development, planning, operations and commercial affairs. He started his career with Unocal as a geophysicist and progressed within the organisation from technical leadership through to Vice President of Deepwater Development.He held positions in Indonesia, Los Angeles and Texas. Subsequently he held senior roles with Black Gold Energy…

UK-based Tower Resources has announced it has contracted US offshore driller Vantage Drilling International to provide drilling operations at the NJOM-3 well offshore Cameroon. The well is located in Tower’s 100%-owned Thali licence.The Topaz Driller is a Baker Marine Pacific Class 375 jack-up, which was recently mobilised to Cameroon by NewAge as operator for the Etinde license for two appraisal wells and is currently employed in Gabon, informed a press release from the upstream oil and gas company.As announced on 1 November 2018, the terms of the contract are confidential, however, the economics are consistent with Tower’s current drilling cost estimates…

Norway's Aker Solutions has forged an alliance with the German technology giant Siemens to further develop digital offerings in engineering, operations and services.The global engineering company based in Oslo said that the collaboration focuses on the creation of software applications and joint service offerings including the development of industrial digital twins that will drive efficiency throughout the entire plant lifecycle.In addition, the companies will further develop specific offerings for the oil and gas sector based on Siemens' Comos engineering platform. These solutions will help customers to reduce engineering and operational cost and enable improved decision making…

Singapore's Keppel Offshore & Marine said its wholly-owned subsidiary Keppel Shipyard has secured a contract worth about S$30 million (US$21.8 million) for the modification and upgrading of a production barge for SJ Production Barge Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of compatriot upstream oil and gas company KrisEnergy.Keppel Shipyard's scope of work includes installation of a power generation module, electrical house, new accommodation units and other refurbishment works. The work is expected to conclude around the third quarter of 2019.Chor How Jat, Managing Director (Conversions & Repairs) of Keppel O&M and Managing Director of Keppel Shipyard…

Chevron will exit the Makassar Strait gas block in the Indonesia Deepwater Development (IDD) offshore natural gas project to focus on more promising areas in the venture, Indonesian officials said on Wednesday.Indonesia's energy minister had issued a decree terminating Chevron's Makassar Strait production sharing contract (PSC) after it decided not to extend its operation of the block beyond 2020, upstream oil and gas regulator SKKMigas said."Chevron was not interested in requesting an extension," SKKMigas chairman Amien Sunaryadi told reporters.

Norwegian oil and gas major Equinor, formerly Statoil, is acquiring the Danish energy trading company, Danske Commodities for EUR 400 million (USD 470 mln). "Equinor has reached agreement to buy 100% of the shares in Danish energy trading company Danske Commodities (DC) for EUR 400 million, with smaller contingent payments depending on DC’s performance over the next couple of years," said a press release from the company. This acquisition – of one of Europe’s largest short-term electricity traders – supports Equinor’s development towards becoming a broad energy company. DC is also active in short-term gas trading and provides energy market services. DC was founded in 2004 and is based in Aarhus, Denmark, with 284 employees.