A unique test facility that can help identify and prevent potentially catastrophic pipeline failures around the world has opened for business.
The $1.5 million Technology Development Centre in Houston was created by the PRCI (Pipeline Research Council International).
It will helps enable operators and pipeline companies to carry out real world testing of onshore and offshore pipelines in one place and then assess how equipment will perform in extreme conditions.
Average annual bills for British Gas customers are set to fall by £35 after the company announced a 5% cut for prices for household gas.
The move, which is expected to be followed by the other “Big Six” major energy firms, will come in ahead of the winter and reflects lower costs, according to British Gas managing director Mark Hodges.
It comes as National Grid warned it would have to spend more money on putting measures in place to keep the lights on this winter - adding an average extra 50p onto consumer bills - in the face of a worsening energy crunch.
The closure of some power stations would have left a spare capacity of just 1.2%, and the company is paying mothballed plants to be on standby and some industries to be ready to power down if needed at times of peak demand.
The UK faces a tighter energy crunch than last year, with more contingency measures needed to ensure the lights stay on, an assessment from National Grid has shown.
The gap between total electricity generating capacity and peak demand would fall to just 1.2% without measures in place such as paying moth-balled power plants to be ready to come online and paying factories to be prepared to power down if needed.
With those extra measures in place for times of peak demand, the capacity margin rises to 5.1%, the National Grid assessment shows.
Last year’s capacity margin was 4.1% without additional provisions, which raised the breathing space to 6.1%.
A challenge by Canadian Pacific Railway over settlements for victims of a crude-buy-rail oil disaster has been rejected by a judge.
The company has been subject to a class action lawsuit following the incident in which 47 people were killed and the main downtown region of a town were destroyed following the derailment of a train.
MSIS has strengthened its board with the appointment of a new non-executive chairman.
John Forrest will join the team this month after more than 35 years in the upstream oil and gas industry.
He is currently chairman of PDG Helicopters and Task Fronterra and has provided board-level leadership to a number of companies.
Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras is facing a battle to cling on to his government’s majority after he was forced to shred election promises and introduce punishing austerity measures in exchange for a bailout deal with the country’s European creditors.
With members of his own party openly condemning the preliminary rescue deal, Mr Tsipras, who flew home from gruelling night-long negotiations with European leaders, will chair an executive meeting of his Syriza party before MPs begin a two-day debate on the deal, which will heap more tax rises and spending cuts on a nation already suffering through six years of recession.
The deal ensures that Greece avoids an imminent financial catastrophe and an exit from the eurozone, but Panos Kammenos, leader of the junior partner in Mr Tsipras’ coalition government, called the bailout plan a German-led “coup”.
Former BP Plc Chief Financial Officer John Buchanan has died at the age of 72, according to BHP Billiton Ltd., the mining company at which he served as a director.
New Zealand-born Buchanan spent a 32-year career at BP, serving as its top finance executive between 1996 and 2002 and previously as chief operating officer of its chemicals division, according to a profile on BHP’s website.
Jacobs Engineering Group has strengthened its senior team after picking a new chief executive.
The company has named Steven Demetriou as head of the company, and he will also be elected to the board.
He brings more than 30 years’ experience in global business leadership and most recently served as chief executive of Aleris Corporation.
A Plains All American pipeline has spilled an estimated 4,200 gallons of crude oil near St Louis in the US.
The incident it’s the second leak for the company in around two months.
In May, a leak in Santa Barbara County, California, created an oil spill nine miles long.
The company said the flow of oil from the pipeline near St Louis has since been stopped and an emergency response plan was implemented to contain the release, which happened on July 10.
Disputes over attempts to probe Tehran’s alleged work on nuclear weapons are unexpectedly persisting, threatening plans to wrap up an Iran nuclear deal.
Diplomats say at least two other issues still need final agreement. These are Iranian demands that a UN arms embargo be lifted and any UN Security Council resolution approving the deal no longer describes Iran’s nuclear activities as illegal.
With few signs that Iranian or US negotiators are prepared to give ground, the high-stakes game of brinksmanship looks set to force a fourth extension of talks since the current round began 17 days ago.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said India and Pakistan will join the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), a group dominated by Russia and China and also including former Soviet republics in Central Asia.
Twelve people died and three were injured in an explosion during repair work at an Eni SpA crude oil pipeline in Nigeria.
The victims worked on a maintenance team for a local service company, Rome-based Eni said in a statement Friday. The Tebidaba-Clough Creek pipeline in the Niger delta was previously “damaged by acts of sabotage.” The company said it is still investigating the cause of Thursday’s blast.
Welcome to Japan, land of cherry blossoms, sushi and sake, and 17,000 metric tons of highly radioactive waste.
That’s what the country has in temporary storage from its nuclear plants. Supporters of atomic power say it’s cleaner than fossil fuels for generating electricity. Detractors say there’s nothing clean about what’s left behind, some of which remains a deadly environmental toxin for thousands of years.
Since atomic power was first harnessed more than 70 years ago, the industry has been trying to solve the problem of safe disposal of the waste. Japan has been thrown into the center of the conundrum by its decision in recent months to retire five reactors after the Fukushima disaster in 2011.
David Cameron has paid tribute to Saudi Arabia’s Prince Saud al-Faisal, the world’s longest-serving foreign minister, for his “great wisdom” following his death aged 75.
Prince Saud was in the post for four decades until his retirement in April.
His tenure saw him navigate the oil-rich region through a number of crises, including Lebanon’s civil war in the 1970s and 1980s, the 9/11 terror attacks in the US and subsequent invasion of Iraq, and most recently the rise of Islamic State (IS).
The Prime Minister echoed comments by US secretary of state John Kerry who previously hailed Prince Saud as being “among the wisest” foreign ministers.
Mr Cameron said: “I am saddened to hear of the death of His Royal Highness Prince Saud al Faisal.
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Saud al-Faisal, who was the world’s longest-serving foreign minister with 40 years in the post until his retirement, has died at the age of 75.
The tall, stately Prince Saud was a fixture of Middle East diplomacy, representing the oil-rich Gulf powerhouse as it wielded its influence in crisis after crisis shaking the region - from Lebanon’s civil war in the 1970s and 1980s, through multiple rounds of Arab-Israeli peace efforts, the 1990 Iraqi invasion of neighbouring Kuwait and the subsequent Gulf War, al Qaida’s September 11 2001 attacks in the United States, the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq to the current day’s tensions between the Arab Gulf bloc and Iran, Arab Spring uprisings, Syria’s civil war and the spread of Islamic State extremists.
The country’s government-owned media announced his death just after midnight. The official announcement, carried by state television, did not state the cause of death.
Oceaneering International has made a new appointment to its senior team.
The company has named Steve Barrett as senior vice president with global responsibility for its Subsea Products segment.
Rod Larson, president and chief operating officer, said: “Steve's leadership and successful track record in subsea products will add depth and capabilities to our management team.
Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme are lurching towards another deadline with diplomats reconvening amid uncertainty and vague pronouncements from participants.
As the talks entered a 13th day in Vienna, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his nation is preparing for a “post-sanctions” era, suggesting that a deal may be in sight to curb the country’s nuclear programme in exchange for the removal of economic sanctions.
His foreign minister, meanwhile, said on Twitter that “with mutual respect, anything possible”.
“We’re always making progress. We’re going to resolve the last issues - if we can,” US energy secretary Earnest Moniz told reporters while meeting his Iranian counterpart Ali Akhbar Salehi, who responded more optimistically. “Hopefully, today is the last day,” Mr Salehi said.
GE Oil & Gas has invested in the development of new completion and workover riser connectors for the offshore market.
The company said the move will help enable operators in a bid to save rig time during operations.
GE Oil & Gas has awarded SRP (Subsea Riser Products) a contract to develop and qualify SRP’s Nimway 510 and Nimway 710 completion and workover riser connectors.
An agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program could create a bonanza for US defense contractors who already are benefiting as the Obama administration tries to assuage Israeli and Gulf Arab concerns by cutting deals for more than $6billion in military hardware.
The details of a potential deal being negotiated between Iran and six world powers -- China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and US -- would determine what steps the U.S. takes to help its allies. A nuclear agreement is likely to prompt Mideast partners to seek improved defense systems from American contractors such as Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co. as well as weapons-makers in France and elsewhere.
“In theory, an Iran deal could lead to a reduction in tensions in the region that would reduce the demand for advanced weaponry,” said William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy in Washington. “In the short-term, a deal could actually boost the demand for arms.”
Oil trader Michael Prest faces four weeks in jail unless he pays the 360,200 pounds ($556,100) of alimony and child support he owes his ex-wife by September 28.
Prest, who has been battling divorce proceedings since 2008, was given the ultimatum in a decision by a three-judge panel at London’s Court of Appeal on Tuesday. While they refused him permission to appeal to the UK’s Supreme Court, his lawyers said they’d make a direct application -- a step that would delay incarceration.
Yasmin Prest won a landmark ruling at the top court in June 2013 giving her the right to force offshore companies owned by her former husband to turn over assets as part of a 17.5 million-pound divorce award.
The Baker Hughes rig count was up slightly overall from the previous month, despite both the international and US count remaining slightly down.
The worldwide rig count for June 2015 was 2,136 – up nine from the 2,127 counted in May and down 1,309 from the 3,445 counted in June 2014.
However company ranked the numbers on the international rig count at 1,146 – down 12 from the 1,158 the month previously.
Investigations are underway in Qatar after a jack-up leg collapsed causing a rig to keel into the water.
These images give a glimpse into the damage caused to Rumailah rig in the Maersk Oil operated Al Shaheen field.
Both companies said all personnel were evacuated safely and no injuries had been reported.
An investigation has been launched after an incident at a Brazilian oil terminal operated by state-owned Petrobas caused two fatalities.
Two workers were killed after scaffolding erected on a construction project at the site collapsed at the end of a pier operated by Transpetro, which is the company’s pipeline and shipping unit.
It is understood the workers, who had been wearing security belts, drowned during the incident.
A rig will have to undergo months of repairs and maintenance after one of its jack-up legs collapsed – causing it to keel into waters offshore Qatar.
The incident happened in the Maersk Oil operated field Al Shaheen on the Rumailah rig, which is owned by GIS (Gulf International Services).
Both companies said all personnel were evacuated safely and no injuries had been reported.
