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Nova Scotia's offshore has been in a slump for several years. The 'time out' on development plans for the Deep Panuke field, announced by EnCana in Feb. 2003, was a [...]

Deepwater environments pose significant technical challenges. As demands on equipment increase, the companies that supply critical components are working to meet some of the greatest challenges since the inception of [...]

India's offshore has seen a high level of exploration and production activity over the past five years, and all indicators point to increasing E&P in the five years to come. [...]

International operators are dipping into their coffers and investing unprecedented amounts offshore Newfoundland and Labrador. A lease sale in 2003 laid the foundation for a sizable portion of today's exploration [...]

Drilling contractors are making hay while the sun shines. After a downturn in drilling activity that saw many rigs leaving the Gulf of Mexico and many more looking for fewer [...]

Deepwater volume growth remains strong in West Africa. According to analysts at PFC Energy, West Africa dominates the international deepwater market and will see over 40% of the $48 billion [...]

The littoral states of the Caspian Sea just got another nudge toward resolving delineation. A visit from US Defense Secretary 1 Donald Rumsfeld in February 2004 could be a catalyst [...]

Close to 5,000 tcf of natural gas worldwide is stranded. The huge potential value of the gas explains why considerable effort is being made throughout the industry to reduce transport [...]

India is sinking big bucks into hydrocarbon exploration. As the seventh largest consumer of oil in the world, India is looking to meet its own energy needs. Enormous financial resources [...]

The construction trend is slowing down, and more money is being invested in upgrades. Most of the money being invested in the mobile offshore drilling unit fleet has bean to [...]

Global E&P expenditures are expected to top $130 billion in 2003. West Africa's vast deepwater frontiers will receive a fair portion of those dollars in the form of exploratory drilling. [...]

A number of the newbuilds listed in the planning stage in last year's survey have been completed and left the shipyards. Today, the building and upgrading trend continues, but now [...]

Gas projects will outweigh oil projects in 2002, with sizable investment in India, the I Gulf of Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. International cooperation is on the rise. State oil [...]

Territorial disputes, particularly in the southern Caspian Sea, are expected to continue to challenge investors. Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkmenistan have moved no closer to an agreement to divide the sea [...]

The deepwater market off West Africa remains steady as a result of the long-term nature of the drilling programs, favorable economics, and field prospectivity. The US is looking to secure [...]

The world of marine seismic is in the throes of major change. The process began in 2000 with the formation of WesternGeco, the joint venture of Schlumberger Geco-Prakia and Baker-Hughes [...]

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita taught the oil and gas industry some costly lessons. One of those lessons is that structures designed for operation in the Gulf of Mexico have to [...]

With the discovery and development of its prolific gas reserves, Trinidad and Tobago has grown into a significant player in the international hydrocarbons arena. This is particularly the case in [...]

Since the introduction of slickline technology for wellbore intervention, there has been a need for a measurement device that can determine not only the strain on the wire, but the [...]

Shah Deniz, one of the largest oil and gas fields in the world at an estimated 1.5-3 Bbbl of oil and 50-100 bcm of gas, came onstream last December. Full [...]

Kikeh, the first deepwater development offshore Malaysia, is on track to begin production in the second half of 2007. By now, there are few in the industry that are not [...]

The Malaysia Marine Heavy Engineering yard in Pasir Gudang, Johor, Malaysia, is changing focus and making improvements to meet the region's growing deepwater needs. MMHE, formerly known as Malaysia Shipyard [...]

Billions of dollars are being spent on exploration and production in the Asia-Pacific region. Expanding economies in Malaysia, India, China, and all of Southeast Asia are creating enormous demand for [...]

Seismic activity off Atlantic Canada hit an all-time high this summer, with WesternGeco alone putting three high-capacity vessels to work in the region. Investment off Newfoundland and Labrador is on [...]

The newbuild jackup market has reached record levels, and Singapore is raking in the profits. The country's two major yards, Keppel FELS and PPL Shipyard Pte. Ltd., have captured a [...]

Deepwater remains a frontier for the oil and gas industry. That frontier brings with it the commercial and technical challenges of moving hydrocarbons into production in an exacting environment. The [...]

If a pilot test this month in the North Sea concludes as anticipated, it will prove the capability of a combined synthetic rope and winch system as a viable technology [...]

News offshore Norway last year was not all good. Exploration drilling dropped and there were no sizable new discoveries. On the other hand, more licenses were issued last year than [...]

The consensus among analysts is that West Africa will remain at the forefront of deepwater development. Activity in the region was strong over the last year and promises to continue [...]

Southeast Asia's appetite for energy is growing by leaps and bounds. China and India are investing heavily at home and abroad to meet increasing domestic demand. And new opportunities in [...]

More and more operators are considering investing in India, and the Indian government is working hard to make doing business in India attractive by opening the door wide to foreign [...]

Amerada Hess Corp. is stepping slightly off of the beaten path with its development plans for the Okume complex project (formerly northern block G) in the Rio Muni basin offshore [...]

Kerr-McGee Corp. continues its exploration success in Bohai Bay, China, announcing its eighth discovery, the CFD 14-5-1 well in block 09/18, where Kerr-McGee holds a 100% foreign contractor's interest. The [...]

Gas production could eventually surpass oil production offshore Atlantic Canada. The scales won't tip dramatically for several years, but work is under way to commercialize the nearly 72 tcf of [...]

Technip's newly introduced extendable draft platform (EDP) is an evolutionary floating production concept. According to John Murray, principal engineer, Technip has combined the best features of deep-draft semisubmersibles, truss spars, [...]

Money continues to pour into West Africa. The region has tremendous potential, and improved stability in some of the most prospective regions is making investment in the region more secure. [...]

Billions of dollars are being spent on exploration and production in the Asia-Pacific region. India launched an enormous deepwater drilling program last year, and China continues to invest at home [...]

The laws of probability weigh against Vaalco Energy Inc. The fact is that Houston-based Vaalco, operator of the Etame field off Gabon, is a company made up of only eight [...]

Heavy-lift shipping company Jumbo has adapted standard technology, to perform a combined transportation and installation project off Australia. The Technip Coflexip-Subsea 7 joint venture (TCS7 JV) selected Jumbo to carry [...]

The North Sea still plays a formidable role in the global search for oil and gas, though the supporting characters are shifting. Acreage is changing hands as smaller players invest [...]

The Caspian Sea has become a focus for the US as the country looks for energy resources outside the Middle East. On behalf of T the federal government, the US [...]

While exploration and development have leveled off or slumped in some regions of the world, they have taken off in Southeast Asia. BP's $20-billion investment strategy for 2003 focuses on [...]

Newfoundland is looking to deepwater for discoveries that will sustain the offshore industry. The White Rose project is moving forward, but there are no other development projects in the works. [...]

There are 59 exploration licenses offshore Nova Scotia that carry commitments to spend $985 million between now and 2007, according to the Nova Scotia Petroleum Directorate. Nova Scotia's offshore is [...]

Varco International has developed a way to reduce rig downtime by monitoring drilling equipment in near real-time. The system is called e-drill, a product the company describes as the industry's [...]

Trinidad and Tobago, the most attractive new play in Latin America, is receiving the most new investment money in the region. Brazil is still receiving the most development money, particularly [...]

While offshore oil production rose slightly last year, gas production saw a marked increase. A number of current development projects are targeting gas. Though a couple of large fields are [...]

Fifteen deepwater wells are already scheduled to be drilled over the next three years offshore Nova Scotia. The first of these is already underway. Marathon Oil is drilling the Annapolis [...]

The Geological Survey of Canada places oil reserves offshore British Columbia in the neighborhood of 9.8 billion bbl, and natural gas at 25.9 tcf. These reserves are 10 times greater [...]

In early September, Norsk Hydro signed a production sharing agreement with Angola's state-owned Sonangol for Block 34, located south of Block 17 and covering an area of 5,900 sq km [...]