Upstream Oil And Gas Industry News

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…

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…

The partnership between Damen Shipyards Group and Ampelmann to extend the benefits of motion-compensated gangway systems to fast crew supply vessels has reached a major landmark. At the end of March, the first Damen fast crew supply (FCS) vessel to be fitted with an Ampelmann L-type system began operations in the Gulf of Guinea. This marks a significant step forward in the move towards bringing the latest advances in safe and flexible marine access to a wider array of oil and gas operations. Damen and Ampelmann have together been promoting their integrated solutions combining Damen’s FCS range and Ampelmann’s systems and now, thanks to the vision of Nigerian offshore services company LATC Marine and its client ExxonMobil Nigeria, the first has entered service.

ABS, a leading provider of classification and technical services to the marine and offshore industries, formed a joint venture with Notabene Classification Limited to offer regulatory and technical support services, including key classification services to the upstream oil and gas market in Ghana. “This joint venture is an important milestone and demonstrates our strong commitment to advancing safety in all parts of the globe,” said ABS Executive Vice President, Global Offshore, Kenneth Richardson. The ABS and Notabene Classification Limited joint venture will operate under the name ABS Ghana Upstream Limited. With this joint venture, ABS continues to provide technical, integrity test and inspection services in the upstream oil and gas industry in Ghana as it has since 2010.

Malaysia International Shipping Corporation Berhad (MISC Berhad), a shipping arm of Petronas, has seen an increase of 12.3 percent in its net profit for the 2015 full year financials when compared to 2014. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipper said the higher earnings compared with RM2.04bil from a year ago were supported by the 17.3% rise in revenue. Revenue increased to RM10.91bil from RM9.29bil while group operating profit jumped 54.1% to RM2.84bil from RM1.84bil a year ago. The company said its energy related shipping (ERS) revenue of RM2.05bil was 31.8% higher than the corresponding quarter’s revenue of RM1.55bil, mainly from improved freight rates in the petroleum business. It announced a higher dividend of 22.50 sen for the fourth quarter compared with six sen a share.

ACE Winches hosted a delegation from SPRING Singapore to its Towie Barclay Works facility for a visit to share an overview of its products and services, including manufacturing and engineering expertise. Several delegates from the Marine and Offshore Department in SPRING Singapore were welcomed to ACE Winches global headquarters by key personnel during their visit to Northeast Scotland. SPRING Singapore is a statutory board under the Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, responsible for helping Singapore enterprises grow.

Floating production has been one of the most significant achievements in the upstream oil and gas industry over the past four decades. There are two basic types of floating production systems: oil/gas production units and LNG/gas processing units. Common to both is the use of a floating facility to support an oil and/or gas processing plant to monetize oil and/or gas deposits. •    Floating oil/gas production systems:  These production systems are positioned on offshore fields and used to produce oil and gas contained in subsea reservoirs.

Sound Oil, the Mediterranean focused upstream oil and gas company, is pleased to announce that Luca Madeddu, Sound Oil's Italian Managing Director, has been appointed to the Board with immediate effect. Luca has been with Sound Oil since 2012 and brings over 24 years of experience in the upstream oil and gas industry with ENI, the major integrated energy company. Luca is a reservoir geologist by background and has extensive experience in hydrocarbon production, field development, petroleum engineering, supply chain management and reservoir engineering. He has managed large teams in complex operations in sensitive onshore and offshore environments and has worked in Italy, Venezuela, Nigeria, Indonesia, UK and Congo.

Euan Duncan, Discipline Lead Reservoir Engineer at BP, will address SPE Aberdeen’s members and the wider public on April 23, at a presentation covering how EOR works and the opportunities this technology presents when conditions are right. Duncan will discuss the BP North Sea EOR program and lessons learned from water-alternating gas projects in the Miller, Ula and Magnus fields. He will also give an update on current projects, including the Clair Ridge EOR scheme using LoSal EOR and polymer applications in the Schiehallion field, highlighting how these are being taken from the research stage to operational projects. Duncan said, “Applying new technology, such as EOR techniques, is challenging.

Warning that the world is not on track to limit the global temperature increase to 2°C, the International Energy Agency (IEA) urged governments to swiftly enact four energy policies that would keep climate goals alive without harming economic growth. “Climate change has quite frankly slipped to the back burner of policy priorities. But the problem is not going away – quite the opposite,” IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said in London at the launch of a World Energy Outlook Special Report, Redrawing the Energy-Climate Map, which highlights the need for intensive action before 2020. New estimates for global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2012 reveal a 1.4% increase, reaching a record high of 31.6 gigatonnes (Gt), but also mask significant regional differences.

Hermes Datacommunications International Ltd., a company providing Wide Area Network communications to the upstream oil and gas industry, won a contract to support Tullow Oil plc. for their operations in Africa. The 24-month deal sees the company use its pan–African satellite platform to provide a connection from Tullow Oil’s data center in London to its Ethiopia office in Addis Ababa, extending core services to the continent and growing the current services in Kenya. Ian Theophilus…

Tendeka, the provider of completions and reservoir monitoring products and services to the upstream oil and gas industry, is delighted to announce the promotions of two key personnel. Gillian King, SPE, has been appointed vice president Asia Pacific region and Derren Simpson, SPE, has been appointed vice president Middle East and North Africa. Gillian joined Tendeka as senior sales engineer in January 2007. She then progressed to regional sales manager Europe before becoming area manager for Asia Pacific (South) in 2010.

RigNet, Inc., a provider of managed remote communications solutions for the upstream oil and gas industry, recently announced the expansion of its contract with Hercules Offshore to provide managed remote communications to its fleet of jackup drilling rigs and U.S. Gulf of Mexico-based inland barges. Under the previous contract, RigNet provided managed communication services to most Hercules Offshore rigs operating outside of the United States. This recent agreement expands the contract to include the company's jackup rigs and inland barges in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, including the recently-acquired rigs from Seahawk Drilling. With managed communications solutions provided by RigNet, Hercules Offshore's remote personnel can now access critical enterprise data, voice and broadband Internet.

Aker Solutions has decided to create three separate companies., a strategic direction announced at the company's capital markets day in Oslo today. This is the conclusion of a strategy process initiated by the Board in second quarter 2009. "We have listened carefully to feedback from our customers and investors and analyzed how we should position ourselves to meet their expectations," says Øyvind Eriksen, executive chairman of Aker Solutions. "Their feedback is consistent. Our company enjoys strong positions in several market segments. However, to further accelerate our growth, we should be more focused, more flexible in our approach to customer specific requirements, and much more transparent," he said.

Edward Muller has been appointed to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of RigNet Inc. Paul Gundersen, RigNet chairman and CEO, said, "Ed Muller brings a valuable blend of industry knowledge and business experience to RigNet. Mr. Edward Muller was elected to the Global Marine Board of Directors in February 1997, and now serves on the GlobalSantaFe Board. A private investor, Mr. Muller was President and Chief Executive Officer of Edison Mission Energy, the wholly owned global power subsidiary of Edison International, from 1993 until 2000. In addition to RigNet, Mr. Muller currently serves as a Director for Interval, Inc., Strategic Data Corp. and The Keith Companies, Inc.