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Norway's Statoil said it has postponed a decision to invest 40 billion crowns ($5.74 billion) in a mature field, saying that it needed more time to refine the project as its profitability was under threat. Statoil said it would decide in October next year instead of March whether to go ahead with a new platform at the Snorre field in the Norwegian Sea as it hoped to cut costs and get more precise cost estimates. The project, which could squeeze another 240 million barrels of oil out of the field, has been in doubt due to high costs, and uncertainty...

The federal government today announced that it will hold its largest-ever competitive lease sale for offshore wind development in January. The feds will allow a dozen developers to bid on access to more than 742,000 acres off the coast of Massachusetts (map) starting Jan. 29, the Interior Department said Monday. The sale would triple the amount of federal offshore acreage available for commercial-scale offshore wind development, the department said. That area — if fully developed — could support as much as five gigawatts of commercial wind generation, enough to power more than 1.4 million homes, according to the U.S. Department...

Statoil announced this morning that effective today it is cancelling its contract for the Stena Carron, an ultra-deepwater drillship constructed in 2008. The Stena Carron was under contract to Statoil for a 3-year term, and is only about a half-a-year in. The 2.5 year contract cancellation will cost Statoil $350 million. Statoil signed the contract for the Stena Carron back in March 2013, and was paying a dayrate of around $630,000 per day for the rig. The total contract value remaining was about $585mm for the rig, and ancillary costs mean the total spread cost here likely would have run...

Interesting here to see transhumanists again talking about moving offshore—literally!—to avoid government regulations. -- Mellonkronos “Researchers, Ahoy! Should Futurist Science Move… Offshore?" By Nikki Olson November 9, 2014 http://transhumanity.net/researchers-ahoy-should-futurist-science-move-offshore/ What is the likelihood of seeing research vessels devoted to scientific research outside the bounds of national jurisdiction? The idea of relocating for the sake of circumventing law, in particular the notion of establishing new nations in international waters, is an idea typically initiated with liberty in mind. The Principality of Sealand, for instance, established in 1967, was founded with the intention of creating a space free from “oppressive laws and...

In a bold move of aggression on Saturday morning, Spanish Navy rigid-hulled inflatable boats repeatedly slammed into Greenpeace protesters off the Canary Islands. The activists were protesting against an offshore drilling campaign headed up by Repsol utilizing the Rowan Renaissance drillship.

Norway's Fred. Olsen Energy said the global rig market would struggle with lower demand and oversupply as it reported third-quarter profits below expectations on Tuesday. Rates in the offshore rig market have fallen from a 2013 high as oil companies cut spending and as newly built rigs enter the market, creating overcapacity. "(There is) continued low contracting activity in all market segments," the firm said in presentation material. "An increase in number of idle rigs is seen, predominantly in international mid water and deepwater markets ... As a result, dayrates have decreased in all market segments." Rival Maersk Drilling, a...

Drilling in the Kara Sea will continue into next year, even if sanctions prevent US firm ExxonMobil from participating, Russia’s Deputy Energy Minister Kirill Molotsov said Monday. According to Molotsov, Russia can independently go ahead with the necessary drilling in the Kara Sea in 2015 with the help of drilling platforms owned by Russian companies. Russia’s largest oil company, Rosneft has opened a large deposit of oil and gas in the area. "In total, we have about eight units of 100 percent Russian-owned platforms,” the deputy energy minister said. In the event Exxon leaves, work in the Arctic will continue,...

There’s still plenty left to parse ahead of Scotland’s historic independence referendum tomorrow, not the least of which are very real concerns over what a “yes” vote might mean for the country’s energy ambitions. The North Sea is lousy with oil deposits (though production from many of these seems to be tapering off), and many of the pro-independence agitators have campaigned on a desire to claim more of the revenues from these offshore plays. But as the New York Times reports, these fields could prove fractious for the Scotland-UK relationship: [A] yes vote on Thursday could lead to protracted wrangling...

More details came to light Tuesday on Shell’s plans for exploratory oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea north of Alaska, as federal regulators released a copy of the company’s broad Arctic drilling blueprint. Shell filed the document with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management last month, a milestone in its quest to resume drilling in the region after its previous, attempt two years ago was marred by mishaps. Shell is aiming to drill up to six wells on separate lease blocks encompassing its Burger prospect in the Chukchi Sea, with work unfolding over several years. It plans to put two...

Investors are losing interest in Brazil's oil industry as the country's energy policies raise costs, reduce efficiency and increase risk, Brazil's oil industry association, the IBP, said on Monday. Without changes Brazil will likely lose out to places such as Mexico, Iran, Iraq and Algeria where policies are becoming more open to private sector investment. "I went to the three largest oil conventions in the world this year and you hardly heard Brazil's name mentioned," Milton Costa Filho, Executive Secretary of the IBP told reporters at an industry event in Rio de Janeiro. "Brazil is falling off the world oil...

A federal judge’s ruling that BP was reckless in the lead-up to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill hinged on mishandling of well integrity tests and a decision to drill deeper than was deemed safe, among other factors the judge said were “motivated by profit.” For years, the London oil company has been waging courtroom warfare over the events before the worst oil spill in U.S. history, pointing to alleged mistakes by cement contractor Halliburton and rig operator Transocean, which owned the Deepwater Horizon rig where 11 workers died in an explosion as the disaster unfolded. U.S. District Judge Carl...

Cuba has shifted its focus away from offshore oil, concentrating on renewable energy and improving output from onshore wells due to a lack of interest by foreign companies for further deepwater exploration,... With so much oil readily available around the world, oil companies...see little incentive in drilling off the Caribbean island, delaying the Cuban dream of oil wealth that could inject vigor into its socialist revolution... Russia's state-run Rosneft and the China National Petroleum Company separately agreed last month to help Communist-run Cuba extract more oil along the traditional northwest heavy oil belt, but did not sign on to deepwater...

President Obama is moving toward opening the Atlantic Ocean to drilling in a major shift in U.S. policy that cuts against the administration's efforts to reduce global warming. Environmental groups applauding the president's pursuit of new power plant rules meant to reduce climate change are now preparing for a major battle over authorizing drilling in the Atlantic, and possibly the Arctic and Pacific oceans. President Obama is moving toward opening the Atlantic Ocean to drilling in a major shift in U.S. policy that cuts against the administration's efforts to reduce global warming. Environmental groups applauding the president's pursuit of new...

An ordinary, long-scheduled journey of an oil drilling rig into Arctic waters is turning into a major political exercise, attracting international scrutiny and creating a dilemma for ExxonMobil. Exxon, the top U.S. oil major and the world's most valued oil company, is bringing the rig, called West Alpha, from Norway to the Russian Arctic. It is hoping for a major discovery in the Kara Sea with Russian partner Rosneft. The journey has begun just as the United States has slapped the toughest sanctions yet on Russia, including on Rosneft, over escalating violence in Ukraine. Further sanctions are likely after the...

Opening the Eastern Seaboard to offshore oil exploration for the first time in decades, the Obama administration on Friday approved the use of sonic cannons to discover deposits under the ocean floor by shooting sound waves 100 times louder than a jet engine through waters shared by endangered whales and turtles. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's approval of this technology is the first step toward identifying new oil and gas deposits in federal waters from Florida to Delaware

The Obama administration on Friday gave the oil industry the green light to use air guns and sonic sensors to search for possible oil and gas under Atlantic waters, overriding environmentalists concerned that the seismic research can harm whales and other marine life. Although geophysical research companies will still have to apply for individual permits to conduct seismic studies along the south- and mid-Atlantic coast — and undergo more rigorous environmental scrutiny of their specific plans — the Interior Department’s formal decision opens the door for the activity. Friday’s move also helps pave the way for possible drilling off the...

On Tuesday, the state-backed China Oilfield Services Limited said the billion-dollar platform, which had been drilling in the heart of highly contested waters claimed by Vietnam, had “precisely extracted the related geological data as planned” and was being redeployed to sea blocks off China’s Hainan Island. (Please see full article at link)

HANOI, Vietnam — The day after tough talks between Vietnam and China that made no progress over a Chinese oil rig in the South China Sea, the Chinese government said Thursday it was sending a second rig to waters close to Vietnam.

The oil giant is spending billions to tap new oil fields in deepwater far offshore. Take an up-close look at how it’s done. “You saw Jack? What was it like?” Jason Morehouse, 35, is wearing navy-blue coveralls. Around six feet tall, he has a buzzcut under his hardhat and a thick goatee that extends about two inches below his chin. At the moment he’s giving me a tour of Tahiti—not the Polynesian island, but a $2.7 billion Chevron oil production platform about 190 miles south of New Orleans. Tahiti sits in more than 4,000 feet of water and is a...

China's Massive Disputed Oil Rig Near Vietnam Is Now Drilling ReutersMay 27, 2014, 6:20 AM  A giant Chinese oil rig has finished its first round of drilling in South China Sea waters also claimed by Vietnam and moved to another site in the area, the rig's operator, China Oilfield Services Ltd (COSL), said on Tuesday. In a statement, COSL said exploration would still take place off the Xisha islands, China's name for the disputed Paracel chain, suggesting the rig was not moving far. In early May, the rig was deployed between the Paracel islands and the Vietnamese coast, sparking...