THE Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has acquired seismic data in the areas off Lofoten, Vesteralen and Senja (Nordland VI and Troms II) that points to recoverable petroleum resources in the order of 1.3billion barrels oil equivalent. Based on the new knowledge and previously acquired data, the NPD has mapped the areas and estimated the resource potential.
THE UK sector is not the only part of the North West Europe Continental Shelf where Q1 drilling activity is behind the same period in 2009.
AKER Solutions has been hired by BP to provide subsurface consultancy services on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Under the three-year agreement, Aker Solutions' geo-business will deliver operational geology services from BP's onshore facility in Stavanger and wellsite geology services from BP's assets offshore Norway.
THE winners of the first UK Oil and Gas Industry Safety Awards were announced during a ceremony at Ardoe House Hotel, near Aberdeen.
SPECIALIST global oilfield production chemicals company Champion Technologies celebrated the launch of its new £4.5million research-and-development laboratory with about 160 invited guests and staff.
INTERNATIONAL engineering and project management company Amec has strengthened its Europe and West Africa management team based out of Aberdeen with two new senior appointments.
SWISS company Spectraseis, a provider of low-frequency seismic solutions to the upstream oil&gas industry, has reported that Malaysian state oil company Petronas has become the latest petroleum company to join the so-called Low Frequency Seismic Partnership (LFSP).
HALLIBURTON has snapped up well intervention, workover and firefighting legend Boots & Coots in a stock and cash transaction worth about $240million.
FMC Technologies has secured the $210million contract with Total for the manufacture and supply of subsea production equipment for the Laggan-Tormore subsea development West of Shetland.
IMPORTANT new oil finds have been declared on block 15 offshore Angola that clear the way to investment in a new production centre - the so-called Western Hub.
While the recovery may be slower than anticipated by some offshore leaders, it is happening, and 2011 has the makings of a decent year, according to a survey by Maxwell Drummond International.
OIL States MCS says it has successfully completed an underwater, remotely controlled, "fully castellated" cutting operation using one out of a series of eight new-build external cutting manipulators (ECM).
Flexible-pipe specialist flexlife is playing the lead role in a JIP (joint industry project) to carry out ground-breaking research that could help extend the future life span of flexible riser pipes.
Keppel Verolme and consortium partner French energy company AREVA have secured a $117.6million contract from Wetfeet Offshore to build a mobile offshore application barge (MOAB) for a new windfarm in German waters.
RELIANCE Industries, the largest private-sector company in India, is ploughing $1.7billion into the US shale-gas bonanza via a deal with American company Atlas Energy.
Among the critics of shale-gas extraction is energy investment banker Matt Simmons. He argues that the shale phenomenon endangers water resources and provides a means for gung-ho stakeholders to book reserves, and that production profiles are economically questionable.
Shale gas has been around for a long time, with first commercial production in New York in the late-1920s. Now it is back in fashion, fuelled by tax breaks.
Since the announcement earlier this year of the successes of the Blackbeard, and particularly the Davy Jones exploration well, drilled by McMoRan Exploration Company, there has been significant press attention given as to how such large, deep gas plays could be extracted from shallow-water regions in the Gulf of Mexico.
Oh, joy of joys. It's election time again and, despite the effort and mental pain involved, I feel it's my duty to provide you with unbiased (relatively speaking) advice on which one of the parties aiming to take power at Westminster will be best for the energy sector.
Whoever wins the UK general election, and whether that victory is hung or clear-cut, the new administration will be looking for large sums of money wherever they may be available.
Safety is very much in the headlines just now, not least because of the mass grounding of commercial aircraft in Europe because of the currently active Icelandic volcano, and which was, for several days, from the perspective of an aviation turbine, not good news.
There is a resurgence of diving in the North Sea, not just because of a revival of interest in their use by the oil&gas industry, but renewables, too.
Light bulbs which last 100 years, are frugal with energy and fill rooms with brilliant ambience may become a reality sooner rather than later, thanks to work carried out at the US's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Scottish marine technology solution provider Nautronix has developed a solution to overcome the issue of "scintillation" (solar activity interference) for vessel station-keeping with a new application of its acoustic positioning system known as NASNet.
In the oil&gas industry, you cannot not begin by trying to look at the global picture, according to Sir Ian Wood.