Oil And Gas Assets News

DNV has published a substantial revision to the ‘go-to standard’, DNV-ST-N001, for the design and planning of marine operations for the transport, installation and removal of offshore wind farms, subsea cables and oil and gas assets.The new major changes reflect the changing nature of the offshore industry in line with its support of the energy transition, ensuring that the standard remains relevant and supports the development of cost-effective marine operations during a fast-evolving energy transition.DNV…

Subsea services firm DeepOcean has taken the Olympic Ares multi-purpose support vessel (MPSV) on a two-year charter. The vessel is owned by the Norwegian shipowner Olympic Subsea.The vessel is a modern construction support vessel equipped with a 250 Te crane. It will provide subsea inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR), light construction, and recycling services to DeepOcean’s clients in the offshore renewables and oil and gas industries.Øyvind Mikaelsen, CEO of DeepOcean…

India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is struggling to find a vessel to ship 700,000 barrels of crude from Russia's Far East, in a growing sign that complex trades involving one of Moscow's biggest partners are being interrupted by Western sanctions, sources say.Several Indian companies including ONGC have stakes in Russian oil and gas assets, and India has been buying more Russian crude since Moscow invaded Ukraine, snapping up the popular Urals crude grade, while other buyers…

UK-based offshore vessel owner North Star has said it has recently secured new Emergency Response and Rescue Vessel (ERRV) contracts totaling more than £100 million (around $133.7 million).Under the contracts, North Star said it would support new and existing clients in the UK Continental Shelf with its fast-response emergency fleet, purpose built to protect personnel working on offshore oil and gas platforms.

The market for marine services in support of the installation and maintenance of undersea telecommunications cables has matured over a period of more than 100 years to reach its present state of development. The largest providers of marine services (companies such as the Global Marine Group, SubCom, Alcatel Submarine Networks and Orange Marine) take different approaches to operations, but provide a mature and assured set of services that play a critical role in the industry. Marine services support the suppliers of undersea cable systems (delivering 50…

Offshore drilling contractor Transocean on Wednesday released its quarterly offshore drilling rig fleet status report, which shows one contract terminated in Norway, and several new deals secured Norway, U.S. Gulf, Brazil, Angola, Brunei, and, possibly, Myanmar. The rig owner's total backlog is now around $7.3 billion.While some of the contracts were already announced as they were coming in during the quarter, Transocean shared some new information, too.It said Thursday that the Hungarian oil firm MOL had in July terminated the Transocean Barents semi-sub drilling contract for convenience. The drilling rig was supposed to stay with MOL between May and December 2021…

Squire Patton Boggs continued the expansion of its commodities and shipping capabilities with the addition of partner Kate Sherrard into its Financial Services Practice. She joins the firm from Clifford Chance where she was Head of the Asia Pacific Maritime and Offshore Group and is accompanied by senior associate Bernice Chia.“When we launched our commodities and shipping group last year we set our sights on creating one of the premier practices in the market,” said Steve Mahon, global managing partner – clients and strategy.

Maersk will cut jobs in a major shake-up that will affect a third of the shipping giant's staff as it seeks to integrate its seaborne container and in-land logistics businesses, it said on Tuesday.Maersk, which handles about one in five containers shipped worldwide, has been under pressure from investors to speed its transformation from an unwieldy conglomerate but has proved resilient in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.Cost cuts and its reinstatement of more upbeat guidance last month have helped to double its share price since March and the shares were trading 0.9% up at 9,652 crowns by 08

Fluor Corporation announced that Stork, part of Fluor’s Diversified Services segment, was awarded a contract extension by Centrica Storage Limited to continue providing fabric maintenance and associated services for the company’s UK onshore and offshore oil and gas assets.Fluor booked the undisclosed contract value in the second quarter of 2019, said a release.“Stork is extremely pleased to deepen our long-term relationship with Centrica in the UK by providing services to extend the life and efficiency of its assets in the northeast of England,” said Taco de Haan, Stork’s president.“Stork’s multidisciplined team will provide a single…

British industry regulator, Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) will soon publish an industry report detailing the cost of decommissioning on the UK Continental Shelf and the progress being made by industry, government and regulators to reduce costs by more than 30 per cent.The annual UKCS Decommissioning Cost Estimate Report  will give a deeper insight into the landscape of the sector as well as highlight the opportunities and challenges currently facing the market.Joe Leask, Decommissioning Manager at OGUK, said: "I look forward to hearing more about the progress industry has made in achieving the 35 per cent cost reduction target."“The UK is a first mover in the decommissioning of complex…

Forth Ports Limited and AF Offshore Decom UK announced the signing of a Heads of Agreement with the intent to establish a new joint venture, AF Dundee, which will lay the foundations of creating a North Sea oil and gas decommissioning hub in the city of Dundee, with its nucleus at the port. AF Offshore Decom UK, a subsidiary of AF Gruppen, is one of the North Sea’s most respected and prominent decommissioning contractors and operates AF VATS Environmental Base in Norway, the North Sea’s most advanced facility for decommissioning offshore installations. The Port of Dundee, is optimally placed to accommodate a significant share of North Sea decommissioning work due to its proximity to many UK North Sea oil and gas assets…

The Buchan Alpha oil production vessel has arrived safely in Lerwick, Shetland for disposal. A semi-submersible moored floating production vessel, weighing 12,000 tonnes, Buchan Alpha was built in 1973 as a drilling rig and converted for production purposes in Stornoway between 1978-80. The vessel commenced production in 1981 from the Buchan field, located in blocks 21/1A and 20/5A, and has subsequently also produced the nearby Hannay field. Production ceased, as planned, on 12 May 2017 having produced around 148mm barrels of oil. The contract for disposal was internationally tendered and awarded to Veolia working with their strategic partner in decommissioning, Peterson, who have a proven safety and environmental track record in the decommissioning of oil and gas assets.

A joint event between the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and three Green Members of the European Parliament highlighted the paradox between the strict rules under OSPAR for the decommissioning of fixed oil platforms from the North Sea with the rules that govern the recycling of floating platforms and structures. The latter fall under the same rules as commercial ships, and would therefore have to follow the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. The NGO Shipbreaking Platform and other stakeholders have already highlighted the weakness of the SRR which needs to be coupled with a financial incentive to curb the trend to flag out and circumvent the legislation.

The March 2017 edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News, with U.S. President Donald Trump on the cover, is now available. Read it online here. As this is Maritime Reporter & Engineering News’ ‘Green Marine’ annual, one might be surprised to see a recent photo of President Trump gracing our cover. Regardless of your personal feeling or political view, the story of President Trump and his new administration is arguably the maritime story of the year, as it touches on nearly every sector, from defense and national security to international commerce and infrastructure.

Subsea 7 S.A. announced that one of its wholly owned subsidiaries has made an offer to acquire the 50% shareholding in Seaway Heavy Lifting Holding Limited currently owned by K&S Baltic Offshore (Cyprus) Limited. The terms of the offer are binding on Subsea 7 until 1 July 2017. During this period the Works Council representing the employees of Seaway Heavy Lifting in the Netherlands will be consulted in compliance with Dutch law. Jean Cahuzac, CEO, said: "Subsea 7's strong market position in offshore energy services is complemented by Seaway Heavy Lifting's expertise in three areas  of offshore activity: renewables, heavy lifting operations and decommissioning of oil and gas assets.

Moody's downgraded A.P. Moller-Maersk's credit rating on Tuesday, piling pressure on the world's biggest container shipper as it juggles a major restructuring with a multi-billion dollar acquisition of a German rival. Moody's said the downgrade from Baa1 to Baa2 with a negative outlook "reflects Maersk's deteriorating credit profile". The credit rating firm put the Danish shipping company under review in September, when it announced a split-up to focus on the shipping business and spin off its energy assets.

Royal Dutch Shell is nearing the sale of a large part of its North Sea oil and gas assets to private equity-backed Chrysaor for $3 billion, banking sources said, marking a milestone in its drive to reduce debt after buying BG Group. Chrysaor, a North Sea-focused oil company backed by private equity fund EIG Partners, will acquire from Shell a mix of older fields, new developments and infrastructure in a move analysts say could breathe new life into one of the world's oldest offshore basins where production has been in a steady decline since the late 1990s. The anticipated deal in what is a relatively high-cost region has been seen by the industry as a litmus test for the sector's appetite for buying and selling oil and gas fields…

Britain will look at ways of making it easier to sell North Sea oil and gas fields by changing tax rules in order to keep them producing for longer, the finance ministry said. The move, which is due to be announced in finance minister Philip Hammond's budget on Wednesday, follows a call by the industry's oil lobby group for a change to decommissioning tax rules that have prevented deals in the North Sea. Owners of oil and gas assets get tax relief on the future costs of dismantling them, but as assets are sold the relief cannot be passed on to new owners. "The UK government will publish a discussion paper and establish a panel of industry experts to consider how tax can assist sales of oil and gas fields, helping to keep them productive for longer," the ministry said in a statement.

V.Group has acquired Bibby Ship Management, part of the Bibby Line Group, which has an established track record for providing high quality, safe and reliable ship management and support services to blue-chip clients. Bibby Ship Management services all types of vessels and has particular strengths in the management of offshore vessels. It also provides extensive crew management solutions, technical support services, marine travel, marine surveying, training and recruitment services. With 332 personnel in the UK, Isle of Man, Sweden, Ukraine, India, Philippines and Singapore, Bibby Ship Management complements V.Group’s expertise in vessel management and support services across all vessel types.

Energy company Pertamina plans to explore for oil and gas in areas close to Indonesia's maritime border in the South China Sea to assert the country's territorial rights, the upstream director of the state-owned company said. "The government needs to have activities around the borders and one of Pertamina's strategies is to support this," Syamsu Alam told Reuters in an interview on Monday. He said Indonesia had lost sovereignty over two disputed islands in the past because it was not developing those areas. "So, like the South China Sea and the borders in North Kalimantan, we need to have some activities there," he said. China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea…

Energy company Pertamina plans to explore for oil and gas in areas close to Indonesia's maritime border in the South China Sea to assert the country's territorial rights, the upstream director of the state-owned company said. "The government needs to have activities around the borders and one of Pertamina's strategies is to support this," Syamsu Alam told Reuters in an interview on Monday. He said Indonesia had lost sovereignty over two disputed islands in the past because it was not developing those areas. "So, like the South China Sea and the borders in North Kalimantan, we need to have some activities there," he said. China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea…

Oil producer EOG Resources Inc's loss in the third quarter was smaller than a year earlier the company took an impairment charge of more than $6 billion.   The company posted a net loss of $190 million, or 35 cents per share, compared with a loss of $4.08 billion, or $7.47 per share, a year earlier.   EOG recorded a $6.31 billion charge in year-ago quarter as it wrote down the valuation of its oil and gas assets after a more than 55 percent slump in oil prices.   The company's net operating revenue fell 2.5 percent to $2.12 billion in the latest quarter. (Reporting by Arathy S Nair; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk and DONG Energy are in talks to merge their oil and gas operations in a deal that would create a business worth more than $10 billion including debt, sources familiar with the matter said. Maersk is working with Bank of America on the potential deal, while JP Morgan is assisting Dong Energy, said the people, who cautioned there is no certainty the parties would come to terms. Maersk said in September it planned to merge or spin-off its energy assets as part of a major restructuring and instead focus on its core transport and logistics businesses.