Offshore NEWS

Supermajor BP has announced an investment of $1.3 billion to expand its Atlantis development in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil major will construct a new subsea production system, which will be used to tie eight new wells into the existing Atlantis platform. BP’s advanced seismic imaging has revealed the existence of an additional 400 million barrels of oil at the Atlantis field.

Italian oil major, Eni has reached an agreement with Caelus Natural Resources Alaska LLC to acquire 70% stakes in Alaska’s Oooguruk oil field. Eni already has 30% stakes in the field, and will now gain complete ownership and operatorship of the field. With the acquisition of Oooguruk, Eni’s production from Alaska will be boosted by approximately 7,000 bopd gross.

Supermajor Total has informed about initiating production from the Egina field, offshore Nigeria. Egina field is estimated to produce 200,000 bopd. The field is being developed using Total’s largest ever Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit. A 30% reduction in the drilling time per well has allowed Total to achieve the startup approximately 10% less than the initial budget.

On Wednesday, OMV announced that it has signed a concession agreement with ADNOC. After this agreement, the Austrian oil and gas group will get 5% stakes in the Ghasha offshore gas and condensate fields which in turn will increase its prominence in the region. The Ghasha project of ADNOC includes three major development plans- Hail, Ghasha and Dalma.

EPC giant, McDermott Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd has signed up Aqualis Offshore for its engineering reviews and marine warranty services. Aqualis will stay associated with McDermott for five years on the contract, supporting McDermott’s offshore operations in the Asia Pacific region. Under the scope of the agreement, Aqualis Offshore will provide engineering reviews and approvals, vessel surveys, towage approvals and marine warranty services for McDermott’s projects.

Mexico-based Sierra Oil & Gas has inked an agreement with German E&P firm, Deutsche Erdoel AG (DEA AG) to integrate its business with DEA AG’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Deutsche Erdoel México. The integration will expand DEA AG’s portfolio in Mexico to ten exploration blocks and one onshore production block. The transaction is estimated to be completed during the first half of 2019.

Apache Corporation has informed about beginning oil production at its Garten well in the UK North Sea. The first successful exploration well was drilled in March 2018. First oil from the Garten well came by the end of November this year. Apache had anticipated oil production from well to kick start in 2019. The well is currently producing 13,700 bpd of oil and 15.7m cubic feet of gas.

Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum has informed that the EPCI contract of the offshore subsea system was granted to EPC giant, TechnipFMC and VanOord. More than 75 Tcf of natural gas resources have been discovered in the Mozambique’s Offshore Area 1. Anadarko’s partners at Mozambique LNG project are ENH, Mitsui E&P, ONGC Videsh, Bharat PetroResources, PTT Exploration & Production and Oil India.

BHGE has come up with a new deepwater modular technology, combining planning and risk management. The company has informed about the launch of Subsea Connect, and Aptara TOTEX-lite subsea system, a new approach towards subsea development. It also unravels additional 16 Bbbl of global reserves. It will provide 4 key solutions: Project Connect, Reservoir to Topsides Technology Solutions, Flexible Partnerships and Commercial Models and Digital Enablement.

Subsea 7 has secured contract extension of three years with seven North Sea clients. Chevron, Dana Petroleum, Hess Denmark APS, Nexen Petroleum UK, Repsol Sinopec Resources UK, Shell and TAQA Bratani are the companies that have agreed on contract extension. Subsea 7 will continue providing diving support vessel services and also associated project management and engineering services for up to 50 offshore facilities of North Sea.

Saipem 7000 has reached Damen Verolme Rotterdam (DVR) and will go through a major upgrade. It is one of the world’s largest semi-submersible crane and pipelaying vessels. Its system will be upgraded to meet the closed ring DP3 configuration and ABS EHS-P notation after which it will have 4 independent redundancy group systems. After the modifications, it will be able to maintain its position in the harsh weather conditions also.

The state oil giant of UAE, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) gave 25% stakes of its Ghasha sour gas concession to Italian company, Eni. As per the information from the oil major, it will announce its new partners for this offshore project in the coming weeks. ADNOC said in a statement that the further announcement would revolve around the opening of six oil and gas blocks for competitive bidding.

EPC giant, TechnipFMC has granted a transportation and installation contract to Jumbo's offshore division. The work involves lowering the manifold onto the seabed and installing various other SSIV’s and valve skids. Jumbo will additionally transfer equipment from U.S. Gulf Coast to Eastern Mediterranean. Jumbo’s offshore division will also provide reliable project management and engineering services are part of the contract as well.

Aberdeen-based ROVOP acquired M2 Subsea’s entire fleet of 28 ROV systems. The fleet acquisition is in line with ROVOP’s growth strategy to offer a focused ROV service to its customers regardless of markets and geographies. While 19 of the ROV systems qualifies the ROVOP standard and will be added to its fleet, the remaining ROVs will be either decommissioned or sold.

CLP Power has got an environmental permit for Hong Kong’s first offshore LNG receiving terminal. The Environmental Protection Department of the territory has considered the project as environmentally safe and has given a nod for its construction and operation. After the final approval from the government, the construction is expected to start from 2019. CLP Power is currently operating three power stations.

Offshore services firm, EnerMech was acquired by private equity firm, Carlyle Group in a $450 million buy-out deal. EnerMech is involved in large scale projects across the sectors of oil and gas, renewables, defence, power, infrastructure and petrochemicals. The firm registered group turnover of £361.4 million in 2017. Final transaction is expected in 4Q2018.

British offshore drilling services provider, Ensco Plc has entered into an acquisition agreement to buy Rowan Companies. The deal is estimated to be worth £1.7 billion. The acquisition is said to create an “industry-leading” drilling firm with a fleet of 82 rigs covering six continents. The merged entity will be valued around £9.2 billion. The merger is expected to conclude by the first half of next year.

Shell decided to scrape off the “hated” three week rotas and change it to 2:3 last month. The offshore contractors on the Shell platform, working for Wood have shown disagreement on the same as it leads to severe pay cuts of 14.8%. Shell plans on introducing performance based bonus in order to reduce the impact of pay cuts. Currently, Wood has employed 250 people on the Shell assets.