Cabin specialist OEG Offshore has snapped up two oilfield services companies based in Perth, Australia, for a total of at least £1million.
The two firms, Oilfield & Resource Rentals (ORR) and Offshore Cryogenic Services (OCS), are involved in the provision
and inspection of transportable storage tanks and pumping services and have operations in Perth, Karratha, Broome and Darwin.
They will retain their trading names as part of OEG group, whose headcount has now swelled to 170 employees operating in 25 countries.
The rash of oil and gas sector redundancies in the north-east of Scotland shows no sign of abating after US energy giant Axon confirmed it was laying off about 25 of its staff.
A slump in oil prices caused by a supply glut has left firms scrambling to cut costs by delaying major projects and reducing their head counts.
Axon has now followed the lead of KCA Deutag, BP and Talisman Sinopec by announcing North Sea job losses.
An investigation is underway after a man fell overboard from a semi-submersible drilling rig in the Barents Sea.
The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority said it will seek to clarify the course of events and identify the “direct and underlying causes” of the incident which happened on the Goliat field earlier today.
A recruitment campaign has been launched by the recently appointed chief executive of the OGA (Oil and Gas Authority) to attract a number of high-calibre leaders to senior level roles with the North Sea regulator.
Andy Samuel recently confirmed the appointment of the first three members of his leadership earlier this month.
Now the search is continuing for the three remaining executive level directors, as well as four further senior leaders, who will be influential in delivering the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) maximising economic recovery strategy.
Mr Samuel, said: “The recent decline in the global oil price has magnified the challenges facing the UK oil and gas industry.
Algerian government advisers yesterday met with oil and gas executives to discuss the state of the country's hydrocarbon fields in Moscow.
The Gazprom headquarters played host to the meeting between their management committee chairman - Alexey Miller, Sonatrach head - Said Sahnoun and Ali Hashed - advisor to Algeria's energy minister.
Sonatrach is Africa's biggest oil and gas firm.
This week's most read story was from Energy Voice columnist Loren Steffy. In his piece, the Houston-based writer suggested why this oil price bust might be different than what went before it.
He argues that this time, the decline in prices isn't just about oil, but other factors such as the expansion of renewables like solar power energy.
Marathon Oil is expected to reduce its headcount by around 10% as it looks to lower costs.
The company said it between 350-400 jobs would be affected by the decision.
It is expected staff affected will be based in the US.
Aberdeen pipeline technology firm Online Electronics is under new ownership after being snapped up by Norway’s IK-Group.
The value of the deal, which does not include a subsidiary, Online Valves, was undisclosed.
It is expected to lead to 10 new jobs in the Granite City in the coming year through increased market share driven by research, development and special engineering projects.
The cost to ship super-chilled natural gas has tumbled to the lowest level in more than four years and is forecast to fall further. That’s good news for buyers and sellers of the fuel.
Rates to transport liquefied natural gas have declined to about $50,000 per day and will probably go lower before recovering, according to Andrew Buckland, a London-based analyst at Wood Mackenzie Ltd.
That compares with more than $140,000 a day in 2012, the energy consulting firm found in a report last month.
The United Steelworkers, representing more than 30,000 US oil workers, instructed members to reject a seventh labor contract offered by Royal Dutch Shell Plc as the biggest refinery strike since 1980 dragged on.
The proposal, the first one made by Shell since February 5 on behalf of companies including Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp., “fails to improve safety” in an enforceable way, the USW said in a text message, instructing local units to prepare to join the strike “if called upon.”
Ray Fisher, a spokesman for The Hague, Netherlands-based Shell, said the company had no comment beyond saying the two sides met.
OMV Petrom SA, Romania’s largest oil company, said its 2014 net income declined 56% from a year earlier as falling oil prices caused a loss in the fourth quarter.
Profit dropped to 2.1 billion lei ($539 million) from 4.8 billion lei in 2013 because of cheaper oil and higher production costs, the company said in a statement to the Bucharest bourse on Thursday.
Sales fell 11% to 21.5 billion lei from 24 billion lei. Company turned to a loss of 304 million lei in the fourth quarter compared with a profit of 1.16 billion lei in the last three months of 2013.
“In light of the volatile and potentially prolonged weaker market fundamentals, we are scaling back our investment plans for 2015 and have intensified cost optimization programs while maintaining our potential growth projects in the Black Sea,” Petrom Chief Executive Officer Mariana Gheorghe said in the statement.
A contractor has completed survey work of unexplored potential on and near-shore sites in Trinidad.
Arkex Limited carried out the work on behalf of LGO and data-processing is now underway following the completion of an airbourne full tensor gravity gradiometry survey.
All data is now gathered and has been accepted as within specification.
An oil and gas services company has produced a component of capping technology which limits environmental risks associated with production in the Gulf of Mexico.
Aker Solutions has delivered a key component for the Subsea Containment Assembly (SCA) which is being crafted by the Marine Well Containment Company (MWCC).
The SCA is designed to contain well control incidents by connecting and creating seals which prevent oil leaks.
An Australian oil and gas company has announced the start of flow testing works on one of their latest wells in the west of the country.
AWE Limited kicked off its programme for the work at the Senecio-3 well to assess the quality of the onshore Waitsia gas discovery, at the Perth Basin.
Drilling operations at the well were completed in September 2014.
Former chief executive of BP, Lord Browne, said oil companies will have to adapt their business models to new oil prices.
He also placed a greater emphasis on reducing carbon dioxide emissions in order to survive.
In a speech to the City earlier this week, Lord Browne said oil majors must “look at their balance sheets” and decide how best to generate value.
A US oil, gas and water treatment firm has announced a 12-month joint industry project in the Middle East.
Houston-based ProSep has launched an Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF) joint industry project (JIP) with Qater Petroleum and Petroleum Development Oman.
The scheme kicked off in December last year and will see the three companies collaborate on an offshore capable unit for oil-in-water removal and media regeneration.
CNR International will begin a consultation process with its offshore employees regarding changes to a three on, three off shift rotation in the North Sea.
The company's move is in line with Apache and Talisman Sinopec who both previously revealed similar plans.
It is understood US firm Marathon Oil is also considering whether to move to the same rotation.
Statoil has been granted a drilling permit for well 6706/12-2 in the Norwegian North Sea by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).
The well will be drilled from the Transocean Spitsbergen drilling facility.
The drilling programme for well 6706/12-2 concerns the drilling of a wildcat well in production licence 218.
Lukoil has finished its 2D seismic survey at Block 10 in southern Iraq.
The seismic survey began in April 2014 and covered 2,000 kilometres and the data will now be processed and interpreted to identify promising sites for exploration drilling.
The mandatory geologic exploration program at Block 10 has a five-year time frame with a potential two year extension and includes drilling one exploration well in addition to the 2D sesimic survey.
Scottish oil and gas expertise is as highly regarded around the world as people in this country like to believe, according to new research findings.
More than 260 senior industry leaders from around the world took part in the Scottish Development International (SDI) survey, which highlights the influential role of Scots in key energy centres such as Houston, Calgary and Perth.
Nearly four-fifths (78%) highlighted Scotland's important role in the global industry, with almost as many (74%) recognising it as one of the world’s best training grounds for the sector.
Nearly three-quarters (71%) said Scottish employees were among the most experienced and dependable.
Landsdowne Oil and Gas has received consent from the Irish Government for a farm-in agreement with PSE Kinsale Energy.
Through its 80% interest and as the operator of SEL 4/07 offshore Ireland will fund 100% of the costs of drilling a well on the Midleton prospect.
Should the well be tested, Kinsale Energy well will also fund Landsdowne's share of the testing costs, up to $2.5million.
Egdon Resources said test operations have now been completed on the Wingfield Flags reservoir at the Wressle-1 oil discovery in England.
The reservoir is the second of three potentially hydrocarbon bearing zones identified in the well.
Oil production rates equivalent of up to 182 barrels of oil per day of good quality 39-40 API oil were achieved on free flow, along with up to 456 thousand cubic feet of gas per day.
While US drilling on land has fallen along with the price of crude, the risky and expensive drive to pull oil from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico is showing little evidence of a slowdown.
Oil rigs working in the Gulf will increase by more than 30% this year compared with 2014, according to data from Wood Mackenzie, an industry consultant.
At the same time, the number of land-based rigs has fallen by a third since October, bearing the brunt of industry-wide cutbacks that have shed tens of thousands of jobs in the US.
BP Plc has no shortage of challenges: adapting to lower oil prices, dealing with the legal fallout from 2010’s Gulf of Mexico spill and managing the largest foreign investment in Russia.
Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley can add another to the list: extending an agreement with Azerbaijan to manage the country’s largest oil project, fields accounting for about 4 percent of the London-based company’s global production.
Dubbed the “contract of the century,” BP signed a deal to develop the fields in 1994 as an independent Azerbaijan emerged for the chaotic collapse of the Soviet Union.
Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has admitted he is worried that North Sea oil fields could be decommissioned prematurely.
He told MSPs at Holyrood yesterday that the UK Government needed to bring forward substantial tax reduction measures in the budget next month to persuade companies not to pull out of the UK continental shelf too early.
Mr Ewing spoke out as Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy last night claimed there was potential to create thousands of new jobs in the north-east through decommissioning oil fields.
