Offshore NEWS

A big decision comes the industry's way as Denmark decides to retire from the North Sea. On Thursday, the Danish Parliament voted in favour of ending the offshore oil and gas extraction. The nation has cancelled it's latest licensing round, saying the country is "now putting an end to the fossil fuel era". Currently, one-third of Denmark's electricity production derives from wind turbines.

The OTC organizers have announced that the Offshore Technology Conference 2021 will be postponed from its traditional time run, as Covid-19 is still creating challenges for mass meets. The new virtual submits will shift for the second half of the year 2021. The plan for the same will soon be shared with all the participants to ensure that everyone is able to meet and exchange their ideas despite these unprecedented circumstances.

A successful trial of a subsea power component has been announced by ABB and OneSubsea. The variable speed drive (VSD), component is particularly useful at slowing motors, fans, and other such devices to ensure that energy is not wasted and eventually delivers improved efficiency of the overall system. It has been an integral part of the ABB's long-running project to deliver an effective subsea power system, especially for the offshore industry.

Seabed Geosolutions has been awarded a survey contract in the Brazilian waters. The company will have to perform a baseline 4D ocean bottom node (OBN) survey and a future 4D monitor OBN survey. The operations will be performed in water depths over 2,200m. "We are delighted to be awarded another high-profile, deepwater OBN project in Brazil", said the company. Seabed is a joint venture between Fugro and CGG.

Fugro has secured a fourth consecutive contract from Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to provide integrated survey services. Under the contract, Fugro will provide infield developments on the east and west coasts of India. The contract also includes rig positioning, current profile measurements and wellhead searches. Fugro will carry out the services using multibeam bathymetric, shallow seismic profiling, magnetometry and 2D ultra-high resolution.

Well-Safe Solutions has acquired the harsh-environment jack-up West Epsilon from deepwater drilling contractor Seadrill. Well-Safe Solutions noted that the rig will be refurbished and renamed ‘Well-Safe Protector’. Operations on the upgrade of the company’s first rig Well-Safe Guardian were paused earlier this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, operations are restarting, and the company expects to deploy both Guardian and Protector early next year.

More than one-fifth of U.S. offshore oil production and exporting ports were shut in lieu of Hurricane Sally which will make landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Sally was upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane and could strengthen further before making landfall late on Tuesday. 21% of offshore crude oil production and 25% of natural gas output were shut in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Equinor has claimed a “world-first” with the use of a drone to deliver lifeboat system parts offshore. A drone flew from the Mongstad base to the Troll A platform in the North Sea. The flight spanning around 80 kilometers to the Troll field took about one hour, at an altitude of approx. 5000 feet. The flight was a test, the world’s first of its kind.

Following the tracks of Noble Energy and Diamond Offshore Drilling, Valaris Plc has also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The firm's revenue has taken a major hit due to the slump in the oil prices. Oil companies have canceled or delayed drilling programs while asking for price concessions and other contract modifications. Valaris ended the first quarter with $6.8 billion of debt against roughly $200 million in cash and $1.3 billion available on its credit facility.

Solstad Offshore (Norwegian offshore service company) has secured a contract from subsea contractor Ocean Installer for the Normand Vision high-capacity construction support vessel which is capable of carrying out the installation of subsea structures, umbilicals, risers and flowlines with a length of 157cm. It is equipped with a 3,000t underdeck carousel and a 150t vertical lay spread system. The contract starts in the first quarter of next year.

Hermitage Offshore Services, alongside 28 of its vessel-owning subsidiaries, have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The step was taken due to the collapse in global oil prices as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on on the company and it does not expect business operations and relationships with its customers and vendors to get affected while it works with its lenders through this process.

At least 31 employees of India’s state-controlled Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) working at a key offshore facility off the country’s west coast have tested positive for Covid-19. These 31 employees had spent 15 days at the facility. They were found positive in the COVID-19 test conducted at a hospital in Mahim. G North ward has reported 6,613 COVID-19 cases so far, of which 1,908 patients are from Mahim.

Norwegian firm DOF Subsea has secured two new contracts in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. The company has received an IMR services contract from Chevron Australia to support its North-West Shelf and nearshore subsea assets in Australia. DOF Subsea will provide Chevron with DP vessels, remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicle (AUVs), and intervention, inspection, management and engineering services.

French oil company Total, along with its partners BP and ENI, it had made a gas discovery at a well off the coast of Egypt. The discovery had been made at the Bashrush well on the North El Hammad licence, located eleven kilometres (6.8 miles) off the Egyptian coast. ENI and BP both have 37.5% stakes in the North El Hammad licence, while Total has a 25% stake.

The Hibernia oil platform in Canada was shut after a leakage of drilling and production fluids. Hibernia sits roughly 315 km (200 miles) east of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. The sheen was observed 2.5 kilometres (1.55 miles) from the 220,000-barrel-per-day platform and all personnel are safe, adding that the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board has been notified.

The Norwegian engineering firm, Aker Solutions has developed a new workover system to enable safe well access for subsea installation and completion. The system vouches to enable faster and cost-effective planned well interventions. The company noted that the new workover concept will first be applied to Norwegian firm Equinor’s Visund field in the northern part of the North Sea. The field has a water depth of 335m.

WFS Technologies has joined forces with Subsea Energy Solutions to harness their combined global expertise and market-leading range of live condition monitored cable protection systems for the offshore energy industry. The collaboration will see WFS utilize its smart wireless Seatooth technologies, which provide real-time insight in extreme environments, with SES’s offshore cable and subsea umbilical, riser and flowline protection systems.

Neptune Energy has conducted what is reportedly the “world’s first” dual drilling operation from an integrated subsea template structure at the Fenja field in the Norwegian North Sea. Neptune teams maximized the full capabilities of Seadrill’s West Phoenix drilling rig to drill two wellbores at the same time. This is a monumental step and can be adopted as a standard practice in the future.