Union bosses have given offshore catering companies two weeks to return to the negotiating table and hammer out a compromise on staff pay, or risk facing strike action. The Unite union yesterday said the Caterers Offshore Trade Association (Cota) had “refused to enter into meaningful discussion” regarding its members’ earlier decision to backtrack on a 2% pay increase that had been agreed for this year.
Indonesia is seeking a long-term crude oil supply deal with Iran if trade sanctions against the Persian Gulf nation are lifted, as it talks to OPEC on rejoining the group. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will hold a meeting on Friday to discuss Indonesia’s request to be a member, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said said in a statement. Indonesia, a net oil importer, is also discussing crude supply and investments with the United Arab Emirates during meetings in Vienna, he said.
Airpac Bukom Oilfield Services grew profits and revenue during the year to March 31 despite an “increasingly challenging” trading climate, the Aberdeenshire firm’s owner said yesterday. Reporting group results, equipment rental specialist Vp said its Kintore-based Airpac Bukom subsidiary increased operating profits to £2.8million, from £2million the year before, while revenue rose by £1.3million to £21.5million.
McDermott International has been awarded an offshore contract by Pemex for the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of the Ayastil-C replacement jacket. The company said the value of the large brownfield award will be included in McDermott’s second quarter 2015 backlog. McDermott International said it plans to use its in-house engineering and procurement experts Altamira fabrication yard in Mexico, Intermac 600 transportation and launch barge and heavy-lift Derrick Barge 50 vessel to complete the installation of all structures.
The head of ConocoPhillips said he expects the US tight oil boom to continue, despite low crude prices currently hitting the market. Ryan Lance told a seminar organised by oil-producing group OPEC that technological breakthroughs would play a significant part in allowing steep reductions in costs. Since last year OPEC has decided against cutting production to tackle the global glut which arose from a boom in US shale.
Nearly a year after oil markets entered a deep downward spiral, unmoored from the $100-a-barrel mark that had anchored them for years, some OPEC members are publicly talking for the first time about a new "fair" price for their crude.
Lifting the ban on US oil exports would do little to help Eastern European countries decrease their reliance on Russian energy, a policy research arm of Congress said in a memo to US lawmakers.
North Sea well services contractors expect revenues and investment to drop by about a quarter this year as balance sheets start to reflect the full severity of the downturn in the sector, a new report said.
Petrofac has secured a contract worth $45million to support ONE (Oranje-Nassau Energie) on its newly acquired share of the Sean gas field. The deal comes just a few days after the Dutch oil and gas producer announced its entry into the UK North Sea after snapping up 50% of the Sean field. Sean is in the southern sector of the North Sea and ONE is now operator after acquiring its stake from Shell and Esso Exploration and Production UK, which each held 25%. The remaining 50% is held by SSE E&P UK.
Energy service firm NorSea Group (UK) said yesterday it was expanding its activities to take in the “small piece” decommissioning market. It revealed it had already secured a “major” decommissioning contract, serviced through its deepwater support base at Smith Quay in Peterhead, and was actively tendering for other opportunities in this growing sector of the market. The Norwegian-owned firm gave no further details of the new contract, which coincides with a new senior management team being set up to lead the company’s growing activity across Scotland.
Never mind cutting output to staunch a global glut, the talk so far at this week’s OPEC summit is mostly about pumping more oil. Iraq will increase exports this month as fighting with Islamic State militants spares its biggest-producing regions, the country’s oil minister said Wednesday. His counterpart from Iran urged the group to make room for more output when global sanctions recede. The prospect of more supply led BP Plc’s chief executive officer to predict price “softness” will persist.
Woodside Petroleum Ltd. is looking at becoming a partner in a potential $8.5 billion liquefied natural gas project in the US, a sign it’s setting its sights on the major leagues. The Australian company’s initial pact with Sempra Energy to develop the Texas terminal shows it’s moving toward a model that looks more like that of energy giants Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BG Group Plc, according to UBS Group AG. “We see our customers wanting more flexibility,” Woodside Chief Executive Officer Peter Coleman said in an interview in Paris, where he’s attending the World Gas Conference.
Goldman Sachs, one of the banks at the heart of the 2008 Western financial implosion and multiple scandals and which presumes to pronounce on the fate of others, has issued a scathing commentary on the future of offshore drilling prospects. In a note by one of its analysts Waqar Syed (plus team), Goldman tells the world that 2017 is going to be really tough. “Industry is retiring floating rigs, but without rising demand, rig retirement will not solve the problem,” says Waqar Syed. “Total marketed floater supply for end of 2015 stands at 280 rigs (313 total supply at the start of the year, less 31 rigs cold stacked already, less 21 rigs that we expect to be cold stacked, plus 19 scheduled newbuilds) of which 235 rigs are contracted (84%), while about 209 (74%) are currently working.
European oil majors are for the first time openly declaring interest in Iran in anticipation of a possible end to sanctions against the country over its nuclear program. Leaders of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc and Total SA all said Wednesday they were ready to return to the nation with the world’s second-largest natural-gas reserves and fourth-biggest oil cache, after similar comments by Italy’s Eni SpA last month. US oil companies, constrained by the history of American sanctions against Iran dating from the 1979 Islamic revolution, are more cautious in their statements on a return. The current curbs have prevented investment in Iran for a decade.
Aker Solutions has won its first order for work in offshore Mexico. The company secured the deal from Saipem to supply umbilicals for the Pemex-operated Lakach deepwater natural gas field. Aker will deliver electro-hydraulic steel tube umbilicals of about 73 kilometres, which will help connect Mexico’s first subsea gas development to onshore processing facilities.
Sterling Energy has signed a deal with Tullow Oil to acquire a 13.5% interest in the production sharing contract for Block C-10 in Mauritania in west Africa. The company will pay Tullow $50,000 to buy the stake. The transaction will see Tullow’s share in the licence drop to 76.5%.
A number of environmental groups in the US are to sue Shell over plans to drill in the Arctic Ocean. The Sierra Club and nine other groups are seeking to overturn the government's decision in a petition with the US Circuit Court of Appeals. The move comes after the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management gave conditional approval last month for Shell to resume its fossil fuel exploration in the Arctic.
Dutch oil and gas producer Oranje-Nassau Energie (ONE) announced its entry into the UK North Sea yesterday after snapping up 50% of the Sean field. The move increases the Amsterdam-based firm’s total production to more than 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and is part of its “long-term reserve base growth strategy”. Sean is in the southern sector of the North Sea and ONE is now the operator after acquiring its stake from Shell and Esso Exploration and Production UK, which each held 25%. The remaining 50% is held by SSE E&P UK.
Oil major BP will suspend operations at one of its platforms in the Caspian Sea. The British oil company said it will be postponing work at Chirag, while planned maintenance takes place.
The drop in oil prices will probably spur smaller oil and gas explorers in Africa to consider mergers to fund their ambitions, according to Pura Vida Energy NL. Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s $70 billion deal to buy BG Group Plc may be followed by mergers and acquisitions among smaller operators, according to the Perth-based company, which started drilling off Morocco this week. Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas LLC is its partner.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc sees oil prices increasing because supply from shale drilling in the U.S. won’t be enough to meet increasing global demand. The industry needs to find an additional 4 million barrels to 5 million barrels a day of supply every year to meet rising demand and replace depleted fields, Shell Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry said in an interview on Tuesday. “Lower oil prices increase demand and reduce investment, and it already has,” Henry said. Global demand of about 93 million barrels a day is increasing by 1 million every year, he said in London.
Dutch ship designer, builder and repairer, Damen, has broken into the oil & gas standby (ERRV) market for the first time with its remarkable Twin Axe workboat. It was only a matter of time as a number of these vessels are successfully servicing the needs of North Sea windfarms. They are weatherly, fast and have the ability to carry significant loads. It is Groen Offshore, Guard & Support that has broken with oil & gas tradition and gone for something totally different to convention.
Helix Well Ops’ new well intervention semi-submersible, the 35,000-ton Q5000, is en-route to the US Gulf of Mexico following its handover by the Jurong Shipyard in Singapore. The company’s latest asset is due to stop off at Mauritius, Namibia and Curacao before eventually arriving during the summer. Based upon the successful Q4000 design, the Q5000 is a much larger second generation intervention semi with enhanced capability for subsea intervention, construction and life of field services. The company had been planning the new-build for a number of years prior to placing orders for not just one but two intervention semis . . . Q5000 in 2012 and Q7000 the following year, though there is talk of the latter being pushed back to 2017 because of deteriorating market conditions.
Confidence and determination are important, but cash pays the wage bill. The industry has already witnessed some casualties of the downturn, and we are not out of the woods yet. What does “through cycle investing” really mean? First, let’s acknowledge that not everyone is in the same predicament. If you have a monopoly on an essential product or service you can boast how many requests for rate reductions you have politely declined or ignored. Some call these “begging letters”, but the form and substance varies widely. Some are well considered, with a tailored personal message from named senior executive to named senior executive. Perhaps even uncomfortably comparing published customer and suppliers profit margins!
Almost 30 years have passed since Ewen Kerr walked out of Oldmachar Academy into the big wide world. He had wanted to work . . . something engineering-related; ideally training to become a draftsman. The North Sea seemed logical; after all it had been booming, only his timing was awful as the province had just been hit hard in the 1986 oil price crash. “My father was head engineer at John M Henderson’s here in Aberdeen,” recalls Kerr. “So maybe it was a genetic thing. But with the North Sea in recession, I couldn’t get a job. I ended up working in a bank for a year or two as it was all that was available. “I had done my Highers and I could have gone to university but I wanted to work. I made that choice. Whether it was right, well, you can look back and wonder. But I’ve done OK. “The career advice I got wasn’t very good . . . and that was to go and work in a bank because I couldn’t get a technical job. And to be honest, looking back, banking was a really good grounding. I even started doing my banking exams . . . economics, finance, that sort of thing; a good grounding for running a business.