Oil Equivalent News

This week at Singapore Maritime Week, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is advancing ambitious decarbonization targets for the maritime transportation sector, both domestically and internationally.DOE is teaming with over 15 government and industry partners in Singapore to foster partnerships and collaborate on clean energy solutions aimed at achieving net zero-emissions in the maritime sector by 2050. Domestically, DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is joining with ABS to create opportunities for data and information sharing to strengthen U.S. shipping. The U.S.

Esgian reports fresh finds confirmed in Guyana, China and Norway in its Week 12 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report Outline:ContractsDolphin Drilling has announced the award of a $154 million drilling contract from India's exploration and production company, Oil India Limited (Oil India), to the 6,000-ft semisub Blackford Dolphin.Malaysian offshore drilling firm Velesto confirmed Friday it had recently secured long-term contract extensions for three of its jackup rigs with Petronas Carigali…

Esgian reports that drilling contracts have been announced this week for operations in Brazil and the Philippines, and new discoveries have been confirmed in the UK and Namibia in its Week 11 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.ContractsCOSL Drilling has emerged as the winner for Petrobras' moored semisubmersible tender with the 4,600-ft Nanhai 8 (also known as Nan Hai Ba Hao).Noble has secured a high-dayrate drillship contract with Prime Energy in the Philippines.Drilling Activity and…

Esgian reports that offshore drilling contractors secured additional backlog in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Egypt, Nigeria, and Brazil and operators confirmed new discoveries in Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoire, and China in its Week 10 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.ContractsDiamond Offshore has executed a two-year contract extension with a subsidiary of bp in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for the 12,000-ft drillship Ocean BlackHornet.Shelf Drilling’s 250-ft jackup Rig 141 has secured a two-year…

QatarEnergy has announced that it is proceeding with a new LNG expansion project, the “North Field West” project, to raise the nation’s LNG production capacity to 142 million tons per annum (MTPA) before the end of this decade.This represents an increase of almost 85% from current production levels.Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs and President and CEO of QatarEnergy, made the announcement during a press conference on Sunday. He said that extensive appraisal…

2023 was the first year of real recovery for owners in the offshore supply market and yet we have barely skimmed the surface of what’s to come.The market is still on an upward trajectory with charter rates accelerating month-by-month, availability changing day-by-day, leading to earnings doubling and, in some segments, tripling since the lows of 2020. Current rates will remind many of the glory days of pre-2014 with the demand for OSVs projected to remain elevated for years to come.In general…

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 on Tuesday said it has made a final investment decision (FID) to boost production at the Perdido oil project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, starting in April 2025.The company, which operates the platform, said it will add three wells that are expected to produce up to 22,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) at peak rates.

Esgian has published its Week 49 Rig Market Roundup highlighting new drilling activity in the North Sea and a new licensing deal in Morocco.Drilling Activity and DiscoveriesSerica Energy is continuing with plans for its four-well drilling campaign in the UK North Sea, scheduled for 2024 and early 2025. The campaign will be carried out using the semisubmersible COSLInnovator. All four wells are production wells. The first well in the campaign will be a sidetrack of an existing well (B1z) on the Bittern field.

Environmental groups on Tuesday will ask a Norwegian court to block the development of three North Sea oil and gas fields, citing insufficient assessment of global climate impact from future petroleum use.The lawsuit filed by Greenpeace and its partner Nature and Youth concerns the Equinor-operated Breidablikk and Aker BP's Yggdrasil and Tyrving fields, which hold combined reserves of some 875 million barrels of oil equivalent.The two NGOs in 2020 lost a case against Arctic drilling at Norway's top court…

Brazil's Petrobras will invest around $102 billion within the 2024-2028 period, the firm's new strategic plan showed on Thursday, representing a major boost in expected investments by the state-run oil company.The plan, the first released by the oil giant since CEO Jean Paul Prates took the helm of the company, includes investments in a range of different segments, with most of it going into oil exploration and production.The figure represents a 31% leap from the $78 billion Petrobras…

According to the latest edition of DNV’s Maritime Forecast to 2050, the shipping industry will find it challenging to secure enough supply of carbon-neutral fuels.To meet the anticipated demand of 17 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) annually by 2030, the maritime sector would need to access 30-40% of the projected worldwide carbon-neutral fuel supply.As the shipping industry will compete for these fuels with aviation and road transportation, as well as other industries, their production needs to significantly accelerate if the industry’s emission-reduction goals are to be met.

Bumi Armada's Armada Kraken FPSO, a production unit operating at EnQuest's Kraken offshore field in the UK North Sea, has increased operational performance following a shutdown in early June.As Offshore Engineer previously reported, the Armada Kraken FPSO was shut in in June following the failure of critical hydraulic submersible pump (HSP) transformers.The Kraken FPSO is deployed at Kraken field under a bareboat charter contract.During the first four months of 2023, the average net production from the Kraken field was 15,910 barrels of oil equivalent per day.On June 21, Bumi Armada said that production had resumed from the FPSO and was at around 60% of pre-shutdown levels.In an update on Thursday…

DNV's latest white paper “Biofuels in shipping” finds that the flexibility of biofuels can enable the shipping industry to accelerate its journey towards decarbonization, but current limitations in production capacity may impact short-term supply and create stiff competition with other sectors.The current global production capacity of sustainable biofuels is around 11 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) per year. DNV estimates that the limit for the global sustainable and economical biofuel potential lies between 400 – 600 Mtoe per year in 2030…

Japanese FPSO supplier MODEC has won a contract with Equinor to supply an FPSO vessel for the BM-C-33 block of the Campos Basin offshore Brazil. The order comes just days after Equinor and its partners Repsol Sinopec Brasil, and Petrobras took the $9 billion investment decision to develop the BM-C-33 project in Brazil. Located in the Campos Basin, BM-C-33 comprises three different pre-salt discoveries – Pão de Açúcar, Gávea and Seat – containing natural gas and oil/condensate…

Hess Corp on Thursday said drilling results expected this month could add a seventh platform in Guyana, which would lift the nascent oil producing nation's output above the 1.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day planned.The U.S. oil producer is part of the Exxon Mobil Corp-led consortium that controls all production in the tiny South American nation. The group has confirmed so far plans for six floating production vessels in the country, home to the world's largest offshore…

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…

Akastor's subsidiary DDW Offshore has won a one-year contract with Petrofac for the AHTS vessel Skandi Atlantic. The AHTS will support the disconnection of the FPSO "Northern Endeavour" together with towing and well isolations work in the Laminaria Corallina oil fields in the West Timor Sea. The contract start date is September 27th, 2022.The Australian Government earlier this year awarded London-listed oilfield services giant Petrofac a contract for Phase 1 of the decommissioning of the Northern Endeavour FPSO, offshore W.

Global oil companies are pumping billions of dollars into offshore drilling, reversing a long decline in spending on the decades-long projects, including some in the remote iceberg waters far off Canada's Atlantic coast.Surging oil prices are encouraging the investments, along with Europe's mounting energy demand as the Ukraine-Russia war drags on. Offshore production sites are more expensive to build than onshore shale, the last decade's investment darling. But once they are up and running…

Brazilian oil company Petrobras said Monday it had ordered an FPSO from Keppel Shipyard, for deployment at the Búzios offshore oil field in Brazil.The FPSO, named P-80 will be the ninth unit to be installed in the field, and, according to Petrobras "one of the largest to operate in Brazil and one of the largest in the global oil and gas industry."The P-80, which will cost $2.9 billion, will have capacity to produce up to 225 thousand barrels of oil per day, process up to 12 million m3/day of gas, and store more than 1.6 million barrels.

KOTUG's subsidiary KOTUG Guyana has been awarded a second contract by ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana to support operations in Guyana. KOTUG’s latest addition, the 120 tonnes bollard pull strong SD Honour, will join the fleet of dedicated offshore terminal tugs supporting the two floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs), Liza Destiny and Liza Unity, on the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana with static tow, push-pull duties and general…

Oil and gas production has started from FPSO Guanabara offshore Brazil, the first definitive production system installed in the Petrobras-operated Mero field, in the Santos Basin pre-salt. Three more FPSOs are planned for deployment at the Mero field.The Mero field has been in pre-production since 2017 with the 50,000 barrels of oil per day Pioneiro de Libra FPSO.The Guanabara FPSO is capable of processing up to 180 thousand barrels of oil and 12 million m3 of gas, which represents 6% of the production operated by Petrobras…