Global SCS opens new office in Dubai
Oil service company Global SCS has undertaken further expansion.
Oil & Gas
Ace Winches’ cost-cutting measures to jeopardise up to 60 jobs
Workers at a north-east engineering firm are braced for redundancies after bosses unveiled plans to downsize the operation.
Offshore and nuclear decom specialists combine forces
Two specialist decommissioning firms - one from the offshore and the other from the nuclear sector - are to work together to share each other's expertise.
Transocean profit beats estimates as new CEO cuts costs further
Transocean Ltd., the world’s largest offshore rig owner, posted earnings that exceeded expectations after cutting costs to confront declining demand for drillships.
Gallery: Industry leaders tour BP’s ETAP platform
Energy Voice editor Rita Brown documented her visit around BP's Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP) with OGA's Andy Samuel, UK Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom and BP's regional president for North Sea business, Trevor Garlick.
Exclusive Video: BP’s ETAP and the North Sea’s next chapter
It could easily be dubbed one of the North Sea’s most important helicopter rides.
Video: OGA chief executive hails BP’s $1bn investment
Energy Voice editor Rita Brown flew out with the UK Energy Minster, BP and the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) to visit one of the oil major’s cornerstone assets. It follows our exclusive report on how the company is set to invest $1billion into its Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP) as part of a special life extension scheme.
Tributes paid to offshore worker after death on North Sea FPSO
An offshore worker has died while working on an FPSO (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading) vessel in the North Sea. Tributes have been paid to William Nichol, 61, who had been working for IKM Testing UK Limited on the Anasuria FPSO. Police were sent offshore to investigate following the incident which happened at around 4pm on Tuesday on the Shell-operated vessel.
Poland’s PGNiG to begin German oil and gas exploration
Poland's biggest gas distributor PGNiG will start oil and gas exploration in eastern Germany, as part of a bigger plan to boost production assets outside Poland.
Empire Energy takes on Kansas operation
US-focused Empire Energy is to take on the operation of 16 wells in Marion County, Kansas.
US court rejects Ecuador challenge to $96 mln Chevron award
A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday rejected Ecuador's challenge to a $96 million international arbitration award in favor of energy giant Chevron, marking the latest twist in a decades-long dispute over the development of oil fields in the South American country. The dispute stemmed from a 1973 deal that called for Texaco Petroleum Co, later acquired by Chevron, to develop oil fields in exchange for selling oil to the Ecuadorean government at below-market rates. Texaco filed several lawsuits in the 1990s accusing Ecuador of violating the contract. The District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2011 award from The Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands.
MOL’s Q2 net profit soars 161 pct y/y on strong downstream business
Hungarian oil and gas group MOL's second-quarter net profit surged 161 percent from a year earlier as its downstream segment posted its best ever quarterly result thanks to strong refining and petrochemicals margins. The company's so called clean EBITDA, or core earnings, jumped 89 percent to 179.5 billion forints ($629.63 million), exceeding analysts' median forecast of 169.9 billion in a poll by business website portfolio.hu. It was also above the 154.1 billion forints core earnings recorded in the first quarter. MOL posted a net profit of 62.7 billion forints, compared to a profit of 24 billion forints in the same period of 2014.
Touchstone sells undeveloped Canadian acreage
Touchstone Exploration has disposed of its working interest in 1,166 hectares of undeveloped acreage in the Dodsland area of Saskatchewan for $4.2 million to a Canadian oil and gas producer.
White Marlin buys Dune’s fields for $19million
White Marlin, the Houston-based privately held upstream oil and gas production company, has acquired assets from Dune Energy for $19million.
Breitling announces 14-well West Texas programme
Dallas-based Breitling Energy has taken a new non-operated 35% share in a 14-well developmental drilling programme in West Texas.
Lundin completes successful appraisal well in Norwegian North Sea
Lundin has successfully completed the drilling and logging of an appraisal well in the Edvard Grieg field in the Norwegian North Sea.
Lundin Petroleum cuts production expectations in second quarter earnings
Lundin Petroleum has reported second quarter earnings and production below expectations in the second quarter of 2015. The company lowered its 2015 production guidance but has kept its year-end production target. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped 38% on the year to $106.5million.
Mexico makes rule changes in auctions rounds in bid to attract investors
Mexico’s oil regulator has voted to change the rules for the second phase of the country’s round one auction. The move includes lowering a required corporate guarantee that was said to have initially put investors off. Last month the first inaugural oil auction – which covered 14 shallow water exploration blocks – took place. However, only two blocks were awarded in the first stage of the highly anticipated auction.
Gallery: Images of BP’s $1billion investment
Oil major BP has confirmed a $1billion investment in the North Sea. The company's investment is expected to add an additional 15 years to the Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP) as part of a special life extension project. BP said it remained committed to the North Sea despite the current economic challenges which has seen the oil price dip below $50 this week.
Nazi-fighter Grynberg girds for Swiss last stand against big oil
US courts have been good to Jack Grynberg, netting him hundreds of millions of dollars in disputes with some of the world’s largest oil and gas producers since 1984. Despite that fortune, the 83-year-old oilman says he’s fed up with America’s legal system and has taken his biggest suit yet -- a battle over profits from Kazakhstan’s most valuable oil fields -- to Switzerland. Grynberg is suing a consortium led by BP Plc, saying the oil giant backtracked on a 1991 deal promising him 20 percent of the profits from Kazakh fields he helped find. Instead, Grynberg says in the lawsuit that BP cut him out and struck deals directly with the Kazakh government, greased with bribes paid by a CIA agent who was arrested in 2003.
Oil recession impact on firms varies
Listed UK manufacturers weighed the effects of the global oil and gas downturn on their businesses revealing mixed results yesterday. Engineering components firm Meggitt hailed a 6% boost to its half year profits thanks to its aviation spare parts business which offset a decline in its oil and gas valves business. Meanwhile, pump actuator maker Rotork said its oil and gas business saw revenues drop £15million as it was hit by weak oil prices and political instability. Meggitt rose to the top of the FTSE-100 leaders board last night, up 8% after half-year results showing pre-tax profits up 6% to £152 million at the engineering group.
Businessman relaunches firm following liquidation
The head of an Aberdeen-based energy sector procurement services firm that went bust last month has started trading again. Warren Anderson was the controlling shareholder in Gas and Oil Technology Services (GOT Services) when administrators were brought in to wind down the business in July, putting 19 employees out of work with immediate effect. But last week it emerged that Mr Anderson had set up GOT Procurement Services at the same registered address less than a fortnight after the earlier venture hit the buffers.
Exclusive: BP confirms $1bn North Sea investment, secures project lifespan through 2030
BP has confirmed a bumper $1billion investment in one of its cornerstone North Sea assets. The cash injection is expected to add 15 years to the project – nearly doubling the site’s lifespan. The North Sea pioneer revealed the billion dollar price tag exclusively to Energy Voice. The money will be funnelled into its Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP) as part of a special life extension project, securing its future through to 2030.
Permission sought for exploratory fracking work in Nottinghamshire
An energy company has applied for permission to explore the potential for fracking in north Nottinghamshire. IGas Limited want to drill 12 bore holes on land in Misson, close to the boundary with South Yorkshire.
BP to relinquish three offshore blocks in Uruguay
British oil major BP has halted its deepwater exploration activities off Uruguay as it prioritizes lower-risk projects at a time of low international prices, an official at Uruguay's state-owned oil company Ancap said on Monday. BP confirmed its exit from the South American country, three years after it won rights to explore blocks 11 and 12 in Uruguay's Pelotas basin and block 6 in the Punta del Este basin. The acreage covers an area of almost 26,000 square kilometers in waters ranging from 50 to 2,000 meters deep. "BP has other exploration projects in other parts of the world that are lower risk. In today's environment, there is a limit to investments," said Hector de Santa Ana, head of Exploration and Production at Ancap.