OffshoreNews

Looking for a Diamond? Look to the Sea

By Rae Steinbach 2019-03-25 23:06:01

Diamond mining has traditionally been restricted to the land. However, recent developments are changing that. Fears that land-based diamond mines may dry up and affect the business of buying and selling diamonds have spurred interest in underwater mining. Millions of years ago, gemstones washed into the ocean and settled at the bottom of the Atlantic off the coast of Namibia. Diamond companies are now focusing on mining them using vessels similar to oil rigs. This is particularly important for a...

Shell Ships First Condensate from Prelude FLNG

By MarEx 2019-03-25 19:51:35

Shell shipped the first condensate cargo from its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project off Broome in Western Australia on Saturday. The 116,000dwt tanker Advantage Atom arrived at Prelude from Singapore on Wednesday, according to vessel tracking data from MarineTraffic. Production commenced in late December. Prelude has a nameplate capacity of 3.6 million tons per annum (mtpa). It is located 155 nautical miles offshore and weather vanes 360 degrees around a turret, moored in 248 meters (813 feet) of...

Watch: Record-Breaking Lift at Johan Sverdrup Field

By MarEx 2019-03-23 18:54:29

The two final platform topsides for Equinor's Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea were installed using the heavy lift vessel Pioneering Spirit’s single lift technology. The processing platform lift – nearly 26,000 tons – set a new lifting record offshore and was carried out on Tuesday morning in four hours with a clearance of just 25 meters (82 feet) from the rest of the field center. The lift of the utility and living quarters topside, 18,000 tons, was completed...

Construction Starts on Gazprom's Kharasaveyskoye Gas Field

By MarEx 2019-03-21 16:11:15

Russian President Vladimir Putin has overseen the official start of the full-scale development of Gazprom's Kharasaveyskoye gas field on the Yamal Peninsula. The field is located north of the Bovanenkovskoye field and is located partly on land and partly in the waters of the Kara Sea. It has an estimated two trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, and production is scheduled for 2023, with an output of 32 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

U.S. Judge Orders "Hard Look" at CO2 from Federal E&P Leases

By MarEx 2019-03-20 17:24:12

In a decision that could affect environmental permitting for federal oil and gas leases, Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled that the Obama administration improperly excluded downstream greenhouse gas emissions when evaluating the impact of lease activity in Wyoming. While the ruling's immediate outcome is limited in scope - it temporarily blocks new leases on a 300,000-acre area in Wyoming - it rests on an interpretation of environmental requirements that could affect all federal E&P leasing, offshore or on. Under the National Environmental...

Norway's Push-Pull Coziness with Big Oil

By Charles Digges 2019-03-19 17:14:21

Norway’s $ 1 trillion sovereign wealth fund – the world’s largest – has taken a partial step to dump oil stocks, approving the sale of smaller exploration companies while sparing some of the world’s biggest producers like BP, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell. The strategy shift, based on advice from the country’s central Norges Bank, will affect 1.2 percent of its equity holdings, worth about 66 billion Norwegian kroner, or $7.5 billion. The move has cheered environmentalists and sent...

Rystad: America Will Surpass Saudi Arabia in Petroleum Exports

By MarEx 2019-03-08 16:18:03

According to consultancy Rystad Energy, the United States will soon export more oil and petroleum liquids than Saudi Arabia, upending a decades-long global trading pattern. Thanks to rapidly-expanding production in the Permian Basin and other U.S. shale fields, along with the loading activity at Gulf Coast ports, American oil exports are on a rapid upward trend. The current crude export volume sits at about 3.5 million bpd, plus an additional five million bpd of natural gas liquids and refined products,...

Supermajors Cost Index – Has Cost Efficiency Peaked?

By MarEx 2019-03-02 16:27:49

Apex Consulting has released its latest Supermajors Cost Index report, saying that development costs may have bottomed out. The report examines how the industry performed in developing its reserves over the years leading up to 2017. Sector costs were about 16 percent higher in 2017 than in 2011, when the industry was in the midst of significant cost escalation. Among the seven companies analyzed between 2011 and 2017, the report states that Eni’s performance improved the most, followed by Chevron...

ExxonMobil Discovers Large Gas Field Off Cyprus

By MarEx 2019-02-28 20:08:09

In a further confirmation of the potential of Cyprus' offshore reserves, ExxonMobil announced Thursday that it has found a large new natural gas field in Cypriot waters. The resource is the third-biggest find since 2017, and it holds an estimated five to eight trillion cubic feet (TCF). Exxon will conduct additional testing over the next several months to determine its exact potential. Exxon's drilling contractor went down 14,000 feet beneath 6,800 feet of water to find the resource at the...

E.U. Supports French Floating Wind Projects

By MarEx 2019-02-25 19:37:17

The European Commission has agreed to provide aid to four French floating wind demonstration projects. The Groix Belle Ile project will be located in the Atlantic Ocean, while the other three projects (Golf du Lion, Eolmed and Provence Grand Large) will be located in the Mediterranean Sea. Each will consist of three or four turbines and will have a total installed capacity of 24MW. Each of the four demonstration wind farms will use a particular combination of turbine, floater and...