Aberdeen-based oil and gas consultancy Optimus has hailed its “best ever” period in its 15-year history after turning over contracts worth more than £5million in the ten weeks to end-January.
But while turnover in the engineering firm’s most recent financial year grew 32%, profits were flat as the firm said it “sacrificed” margin on investment in new offices, staff and technology.
Managing director Karl Green said: “We sacrificed profits to build our team and development capabilities, and procure new hardware; we hired experienced people even if we didn’t have immediate work for them,” said Mr Green. “This was the correct decision for last year, providing a real growth spurt and building our capabilities to support fit-for-purpose delivery in the modern era.
US oil explorers, facing crude near $50 a barrel, idled rigs for the 10th straight week, extending an unprecedented retreat in drilling and dragging the nation’s total rig count down to the lowest level in almost five years.
Rigs targeting oil in the US dropped by 84 to 1,056, the least since August 2011, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday.
The total US count fell by 98 to 1,358, the Houston-based field services company said. Half the decline was in the Permian Basin of Texas and Mexico, the biggest US oil field.
ConocoPhillips is considering the sale of properties that account for about 20 percent of its production in Western Canada outside the oil sands.
The largest US independent oil and natural gas producer is weighing whether to sell properties spread across British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan in 2015, according to a copy of a marketing document.
Production from the properties is mostly gas and amounts to the equivalent of about 31,000 barrels of oil a day after royalties.
The investment company founded by oil pioneer Algy Cluff has come to a preliminary agreement with US oil giant Halliburton to work together on cultivating UK fossil fuel deposits.
The deal moves Cluff Natural Resources (CNR) another step closer to developing the UK’s first offshore Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) project.
The process of tapping un-mined coal reserves involves pumping oxygen and water through a borehole to turn the fossil fuel into synthetic gas, which can then be converted into hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
Interwell UK has announced the departure of its managing director.
Andrew Louden joined the company in 2010 to establish the UK subsidiary of Interwell AS.
David Aitken, who joined the company as UK operations manager will now take up the position.
‘Big-metal’ contracts are being issued; development of the massive Johan Sverdrup field has started; Norway can look forward to the future with renewed confidence.
It was in September 2010 when Lundin disclosed that it had made an oil discovery with exploratory well 16/2-6 on the Avaldsnes prospect in the Norwegian part of the North Sea.
Drilled to a vertical depth of 2,132m (6,995ft), the well encountered a 17m column of oil in the Draupne and Hugin formation in the Upper to Middle Jurassic.
This week's most read story on Energy Voice was the news that the Spanish takeover of Talisman Energy and its 50% stake in a struggling UK joint venture is “on track” to complete during the first half of 2015.
Talisman insisted earlier this week that the £5.3billion deal struck with Spain’s Repsol in December was unaffected by hefty losses in the North Sea as oil prices nose-dived last year.
At Subsea Expo 2015, which took place from February 11 -13 at the AECC (Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre), Forum Energy Technologies launched its latest generation subsea robotic system at Subsea Expo.
Subsea 7 has been awarded a contract by Woodside Energy for its Persephone development off the coast of Australia.
The Persephone project consists of two wells tied into a subsea production manifold with production fluids transported to the existing North Rankin Complex (NRC).
The contract comprises fabrication, transportation, installation and pre-commissioning activities.
Statoil and its partners will submit a plan for the development and operation (PDO) of Johan Sverdrup to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
The PDO will be handed over from Statoil’s chief executive officer Eldar Saetre to Norwegian petroleum and energy minister Tord Lien.
The capital expenditures for phase one of the project is an estimated NOK 117 billion and the expected recoverable resources are projected between 1.4-2.4billion barrels of oil equivalent.
More details have emerged of plans for new north-east headquarters for drilling contractor KCA Deutag.
The company announced on Wednesday it was consolidating its two offices in Altens, Aberdeen, to a new site on the City South development five miles south of Europe’s energy capital.
The relocation news coincided with the firm revealing plans to cut up to 230 jobs in Aberdeen as it grapples with a slowdown in North Sea drilling.
Property developer Dandara said yesterday it would start work later this year on the new building – the first major premises at City South, Portlethen – with completion expected in summer 2016.
US oil firm Apache expects to spend between £900million and £1.1billion “internationally and offshore” during 2015, compared with £1.8billion last year,results revealed yesterday.
Houston-based Apache – one of the UK North Sea’s leading operators – reported fourth quarter net losses of £3.1billion, compared with profits of £113million a year earlier.
The US drilling frenzy is over. What’s not is the boom in oil production.
While companies have idled 151 rigs in five shale formations since reaching a peak of 1,157 in October, they’ll need to park another 200 for growth to stall, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.
Output there will reach a record 5.468 million barrels a day in March even though the number of rigs exploring for oil is the lowest since 2013.
The spending cuts led to speculation that US gains would slow, eroding a global supply glut that sent prices tumbling last year.
In the months since Brazil’s largest bribery scandal broke, bond investors have fled companies tied to the alleged kickbacks. They’ve been far too hasty, according to HSBC Holdings Plc and Mizuho Securities USA.
Odebrecht Offshore Drilling and Queiroz Galvao Oil & Gas Constellation are a case in point. Their securities have plunged at least 27% since November 13, when federal police said they found “strong evidence” that at least seven builders, including the parent companies of the two oil-rig providers, formed a cartel to win public contracts.
To Mizuho’s John Haugh, the bonds are now a buy because the terms that govern them will likely shield the issuers from any punishment the parent companies may face if they’re found guilty of bribing Petroleos Brasileiro SA, the state oil company.
Oil giant Total plans to sell North Sea assets and may consider Aberdeen job cuts unless prices rise and taxes are cut.
Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said the firm was not proposing upstream redundancies, but that it was slashing UK investment, and may "need less staff" if it continues.
He was speaking to journalists in London after the Paris-based company announced its net adjusted profit fell 17% to $2.8 billion in the quarter, compared with the same period a year ago.
BP’s former chief executive Lord Browne has called on ministers to scrap a supplementary tax on North Sea oil and gas revenues.
Lord Browne warned the plunge in oil prices had done “permanent damage” to the mature fields in the region.
He warned that while the North Sea was still producing plenty of oil and gas, the price decline meant “we are now seeing the late evening of the North Sea.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has been urged by the oil and gas industry to use next month’s budget to roll back the 30% levy.
United Steelworkers and Royal Dutch Shell Plc will resume labor negotiations in a week amid the largest U.S. refinery strike in more than three decades.
A north-east MP has said a “compulsory” jobs scheme is needed to protect young workers in the region during the North Sea downturn.
Dame Anne Begg, the Aberdeen South MP, highlighted concerns about the oil price drop during a debate in the Commons yesterday.
Labour want an initiative where anyone under 25 who has been receiving Jobseekers Allowance for a year, and anyone over 25 who has been receiving it for two years, would be offered a paid job or face losing benefits.
North-east engineering company Ace Winches has beefed up its boardroom team as it eyes growth in international markets.
The firm, based at Towie Barclay Works, near Turriff, officially unveiled Colin Black as its new chief commercial officer yesterday, although he joined Ace late last year.
He was previously managing director and vice-president of Aberdeen-based oil and gas service firm Optima Solutions UK.
KCA Deutag has announced plans to cut up to 230 jobs in Aberdeen as it grapples with a slowdown in North Sea drilling.
Overall the drilling contractor said 500 jobs across its business spanning 20 countries were “at risk”, while it would also cut staff wages by 5% across the board. The company employs 10,000 worldwide and 1,200 in its North Sea offshore business.
Revealing the plans to staff at its Altens base this afternoon, the firm said it would launch a consultation on its plan to cut 30 office jobs and 200 offshore roles after two of its North Sea clients “pause drilling operations”.
OAO Gazprom, Russia’s largest company, has the strength to weather the country’s economic crisis, according to its chief financial officer.
The state-run gas exporter cut its debt by 10% last year, has a cash pile of about $20billion and is benefiting from the ruble’s declines, Gazprom’s Andrey Kruglov said.
Trapoil confirmed it would relinquish its North Sea "Orchid" license after failing to secure a potential farm-out.
The firm's board decided to cut its losses after licence P.1556 Block 29/1c became too expensive to maintain.
Tullow Oil Plc, an Africa-focused UK explorer that’s lost half its value in a year, swung to a loss in 2014 because of declining oil prices. It suspended its dividend.
The company had a net loss of $1.56billion, compared with a profit of $169million a year earlier, after writing off the value of assets, Tullow said. That exceeded the average estimate for a $1.17billion loss of 11 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
Oil producers outside OPEC and US shale fields are getting caught in the confrontation over market supremacy that has brought crude prices to near six-year lows.
High-cost regions from aging North Sea fields to untapped resources in East Siberia and deep-water projects off Latin America will suffer the most from the clash, say Standard Chartered Plc, Citigroup Inc. and BNP Paribas SA.
