Freeport-McMoRan’s oil and gas division, FM O&G, has decided to idle three drillships in the Gulf of Mexico in order to cut costs. Freeport-McMoRan announced in December it would be reducing its rig utilization from three deepwater Gulf of Mexico drillships to one drillship. As the company continues
Finland’s Wärtsilä has signed a maintenance agreement with Ensco, an offshore drilling contractor, to create savings by optimising Ensco’s assets and improving predictability through condition monitoring services and parts supply management for Ensco’s four drillships equipped with six Wärtsilä 32 e
Kosmos Energy announced on Wednesday that its Guembeul-1 exploration well, located in the northern part of the St. Louis Offshore Profond license area in Senegal, has made a gas discovery. Located approximately five kilometers south of the basin-opening Tortue-1 gas discovery (renamed Ahmeyim) in ap
Byron Energy, the operator of several blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, has cancelled a contract with Hercules Offshore for one of its rigs, and swapped it for another one. The U.S. offshore drilling contractor Hercules Offshore informed on Tuesday in its latest fleet status report that Byron cancelled
Statoil, a Norwegian oil and gas major, has been granted consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) Norway to use the Bideford Dolphin drilling rig to drill a sidetrack well on the Vigdis field, offshore Norway. The field is located in production licence 089 in the North Sea. According to the
Japan’s JX Nippon has completed drilling of the Bestari-2 appraisal well, offshore Sabah, Malaysia, and according to Santos, a partner in the project, the initial results are in line with expectations. The well, testing the Bestari oil discovery, located offshore Malaysia in the Block R Production S
Prosafe, world’s largest provider of offshore accommodation rigs, will lay-up one of its flotels. According to the company’s update, the Jasminia flotel remained off hire in the fourth quarter of 2015, and will now be moved to a lay-up location. The Jasminia, currently in Mexico, has been out of con
Keppel FELS, a subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M), has delivered Halul, a KFELS B Class jack-up rig, to Gulf Drilling International (GDI) of Qatar. According to Keppel, the rig was completed on January 21, 2016, which is ten days ahead of schedule. Also, it is the first rig that Kep
Lundin Petroleum’s Norwegian subsidiary, Lundin Norway, has started drilling the exploration well 16/4-10 on the Fosen prospect, offshore Norway. The well is located approximately 27 km south of the Edvard Grieg field and 11 km south of the Luno II discovery on the Utsira High on the Norwegian Conti
Swedish operator Lundin Petroleum has completed the Bambazon exploration well in Block SB307/SB308, offshore East Malaysia. The Bambazon well encountered approximately 15 metres of net logged reservoir pay with oil shows over three main reservoir intervals and the well has been plugged and abandoned
The U.S. offshore rig count managed to climb up last week, Baker Hughes, one of the world’s largest oilfield services provider, informed in its latest Weekly Rig Count report. BHI Rig Count: U.S. -13 to 637 rigs U.S. Rig Count is down 13 rigs from last week to 637, with oil rigs down 5 to 510, and [
South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries, one of the world’s largest builders of offshore drilling rigs used by the international oil and gas industry, plans to shut down its rig construction yard due to scarce new orders. The drop in orders has been caused by low oil prices, and lack in demand for oi
It seems like bad news for the offshore drillers will never stop, as another one has lost a rig contract today. This time it is Ocean Rig UDW, a drilling company run by the Greek shipping mogul, George Economou. In a brief statement on Thursday, the driller said that “due to the dramatic fall of the
Rowan Companies, an offshore drilling contractor, has been awarded a contract for one of its jack-up rigs from BP in Trinidad. According to Rowan’s latest fleet status report, the company’s high-spec jack-up drilling rig Joe Douglas was awarded a 300-day contract at a dayrate of $157,000. The contra
