Oil And Gas Industry News

Redoubling Our Resolve to Deliver Energy Transition

As momentum behind decarbonization accelerates, offshore service providers must accept the challenges ahead with great enthusiasm, harnessing key skills honed during many years working offshore, says William Hill, Executive Group Vice President, GAC Energy. The enforced shutdown of much of the industrialized world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown into sharp contrast the state of the environment before and after production, transportation and travel were dramatically cut back.

Saipem Inks Deal with Equinor on Floating Solar Farm Tech

Italy's Saipem has reached an agreement with Norway's Equinor to develop technology to build floating solar power farms close to the coast, the energy contractor said.The agreement is between Saipem's high-value services unit Moss Maritime and the Norwegian energy firm."The agreement with Equinor goes in the direction taken by Saipem and Moss Maritime to develop new technologies related to clean energy," said Moss Maritime Chief Executive Ida Husem.Saipem, a market leader in subsea construction for the oil and gas industry…

Unique Group Acquires APAC Marine Unit

Integrated marine and subsea solutions provider Unique Group has announced the acquisition of the Australian-company Western Advance’s Marine Division.The provider of services and solutions for the offshore, subsea and life support industries also announced the appointment of Chris Forde as its new regional vice-president.Western Advance’s integration with Unique Group ties in with the Group’s strategy to enhance its portfolio of autonomous solutions for marine, offshore and subsea industry operations in the region.Harry Gandhi…

Borr Drilling Appoints Neil Glass as Director

International drilling contractor to the oil and gas industry Borr Drilling Limited announced the appointment of Mr. Neil Glass as a new director of the Board.Glass graduated from the University of Alberta in 1983 with a degree in Business. He is a member of both the Chartered Professional Accountants of Bermuda and of Alberta, Canada, and is a Chartered Director and Fellow of the Institute of Directors.Glass worked for Ernst & Young for eleven years: seven years with the Edmonton, Canada office and four years with the Bermuda office.

Boskalis Completes Horizon Acquisition

Dutch dredging and heavylift company Royal Boskalis Westminster has acquired the remaining 37.5% in the United Arab Emirates’s Horizon Group, a company specializing in the provision of marine geophysical surveys and geotechnical services.Earlier this year, Boskalis already acquired 62.5% of the shares. The 2019 revenue is expected to exceed USD 100 million and the activities will be consolidated as of 2020.Following this transaction, Boskalis will be able to optimize its successful…

BW Offshore Completes Bond Issue

BW Offshore, a provider of floating production services to the oil and gas industry, has successfully completed a NOK 900 million senior unsecured bond issue with a coupon of three months NIBOR + 4.50% and maturity in December 2023.The Oslo Stock Exchange-listed company said that the settlement of the new bond issue is scheduled for 4 December 2019.The existing NOK bonds have either been repurchased as part of the offering or will be called with settlement mid-January 2020.In combination with the USD 297.4 million convertible bond issue announced on 5 November 2019…

Oil Majors to Raise $27Bln in Selling Spree

Global giants of the oil and gas industry – the so-called supermajors – are looking to sell assets that could fetch a total of $27.5 billion, according to Rystad Energy’s latest assessment.These companies are actively shedding mature assets on a massive scale in a bid to finance higher-yielding investments elsewhere, with the added benefit of pleasing shareholders who are calling for stricter capital discipline.“The expected transactions mean some of the majors are poised to exit certain regions…

Aramco Signs 34 EPC Contracts Worth $18bn

Saudi Aramco has signed 34 engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) related contracts (worth over US$18bn) for projects such as the Marjan and Berri field incremental development program in Saudi Arabia, during Q3 2019, according to GlobalData.The most important is ADNOC’s US$3.6bn contract for the supply of one million metric tons of casing and tubing to support exploration and production activity in United Arab Emirates (UAE).The global oil and gas industry has witnessed a substantial boost from those contracts activity in the Middle East…

VMS Group Expands into West Africa

The Danish maritime service company VMS Group A/S expands into West Africa opening a workshop in Walvis Bay, Namibia. A favorable location combined with a rapidly growing offshore market and fishing fleet creates huge potential for a strong, maritime cluster in this region.Being the only port with service facilities between Cape Town, South Africa, and the Canary Islands, Walvis Bay on the Namibian west coast is a key area for marine traffic in the Eastern Atlantic. This is the reason why VMS Group…

Emas Goes Under Judicial Management

EMAS Offshore, a global offshore contractor and provider of integrated offshore solutions to the oil and gas industry, said that its July application to be placed under judicial management approved by High Court of Singapore.According to a press note, the Court had granted the judicial management application on October 21, 2019.Goh Thien Phong and Chan Kheng Tek of PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services (PWC) have been appointed judicial managers and will seek to achieve the survival of the company…

Brazil Okays BW Offshore's Oilfield Buy

Norwegean provider of floating production services to the oil and gas industry BW Offshore has won approval from Brazilian oil regulator ANP for the purchase of the Maromba oilfield, part of the Oslo-listed company's plan to become an operator and not just a supplier of oil services, platforms and ships.The purchase, from Chevron Corp and Petrobras, extends BW's operations in Brazil, where it already has two floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units.“We are proud to announce that our subsidiary BW Energy has been approved by the razilian National Agency of Petroleum…

Dan-Bunkering Staff Changes in Houston

Dan-Bunkering (America) has announced the promotion and employment of two staff members.William Cline was recently promoted to Team Leader Offshore Division. William was hired as Bunker Trader back in 2014 and has since his employment demonstrated excellent skills, especially within the offshore sector where he has been one of the key contributors to Dan-Bunkering’s growth within this particular market. As the company has clear intentions of further positioning its presence in the sector…

Oil, Gas Majors Join Blockchain Consortium

A group of seven major oil and gas companies, including ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, announced a partnership to establish the first industry blockchain consortium in the United States.With several use cases across the industry value chain, the consortium intends to conduct proofs of concept with this emerging technology in 2019, said a press release from OOC Oil & Gas Blockchain Consortium.The OOC Oil & Gas Blockchain Consortium was founded to advance industry blockchain technology learnings for the purpose of driving industry standards…

Interview: Rolf Stiefel, Winterthur G&D

The May 2019 edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News features a 10-page feature section on "Thought Leadership" in the marine power sector. Here we extract and present the interview with Rolf Stiefel, Vice President Sales, Winterthur Gas & Diesel Ltd., in its entirety.Please put in perspective and discuss – using your career as the time span – the current environment and pressure to reduce emissions in the maritime industry.When I started in the marine industry (coming from the power generation markets) back in the early 2000’s…

Compliant & Efficient Solutions for Telford Offshore

In July 2015, Worldwide Recruitment Solutions (WRS) was awarded the contract as a provider of managed services for Telford Offshore (previously Sea Trucks Group). As a rostered managed services provider tasked with providing all contract manpower requirements and associated mobilization and HR services, WRS undertook responsibility for two DP3 accommodation vessels and one DP2 multipurpose support vessels (MPSV), working in the offshore oil and gas industry in Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria.A combination of factors created challenges to the success of these projects…

Geoquip Marine Names Laloe as Director

Switzerland-headquartered  geotechnical engineering and offshore drilling company Geoquip Marine has announced the appointment of industry veteran Jean-Luc Laloe to its Board of Directors.Jean-Luc, who has almost 40 years of experience in the offshore oil and gas industry, has joined as an independent non-Executive Director.Jean-Luc originally entered the Offshore Engineering and Construction industry in 1980 and in the course of his career he has worked with Technip, Stolt Offshore, and Acergy /Subsea 7.

Rotterdam Port Fund Acquires Stake in ExRobotics

Rotterdam Port Fund has invested in remote inspection robotics company ExRobotics, specialising in robots to operate in high risk environments such as oil and gas facilities.The Dutch robotics firm manfacturers modular robots that can carry out remote inspections of oil and gas facilities more efficiently and with a lower safety risk than those carried out by humans.ExRobotics will be working on the further development of this technology in close collaboration with knowledge institutes…

AsiaPac Oil and Gas Industry Looks Up

Confidence in the outlook for Asia Pacific’s oil and gas industry has more than doubled in the past two years, according to new research published by DNV GL, the technical advisor to the oil and gas industry.According to a new research from DNV GL, three quarters (76%) of senior oil and gas professionals in Asia Pacific are optimistic about the industry’s growth in 2019, compared with 58% in 2018 and 30% in 2017. The proportion of industry leaders who are confident in their own organizations’ prospects has also risen from 59% last year to 74% in 2019.

LR Chalks Out Energy Growth Strategy

Lloyd’s Register (LR), which ranks as one of the world’s largest providers of professional services for the engineering and technology sectors, has chalked out a new strategy for future growth in the energy market.The firm, which started out in 1760 as a marine classification society and now has more than 7,000 staff globally, said that the first phase of its new global strategy for its energy business to reposition the professional services portfolio for growth through the energy transition…

FuelTrax 'Vision' for SPO

Swire has installed FuelTrax Vision, a new onboard surveillance system.Swire Pacific Offshore, a marine services conglomerate and a leading service provider to the offshore oil and gas industry currently operates six vessels with FuelTrax on board, two of which have been installed with the latest FuelTrax Vision technology. The two FuelTrax Vision systems have been preforming without disruption since December 2018.FuelTrax is designed to be a smart, self-contained, marine fuel management solution…

DeVilbiss Joins Glosten

Glosten announced the hiring of David DeVilbiss, who will join Glosten’s Marine Construction group as a Senior Marine Consultant.Formerly Vice President of Marine Casualty & Emergency Response at Global Diving & Salvage, Inc., DeVilbiss oversaw all marine casualty and emergency response operations throughout all operating regions. He brings over 25 years of marine industry experience ranging from vessels, marine infrastructure, and the oil and gas industry.DeVilbiss attended Le Tourneau University (Mechanical Engineering)…

MTL: Allan Named Senior Naval Architect

FPSO and marine integrity management specialists, Marine Technical Limits (MTL) has welcomed a senior naval architect to its team.Paul Allan, who has more than 10-years’ experience in delivering naval architecture and marine warranty surveying (MWS) to the oil and gas industry, has been appointed to the position of Senior Naval Architect by the Kintore-based firm.The chartered engineer will be supporting the MTL team developing systems and procedures, driving MWS and supporting the company’s global FPSO and marine activities.MTL…

DP World Set to Acquire Topaz Energy

The world’s largest port operator DP World is in advanced discussions to acquire Topaz Energy & Marine, marking the Dubai-based company's first potential foray into the oil and gas industry.Britain’s Sky News, citing sources, earlier reported that a $1.3 billion deal for DP World to take over Topaz could be announced as early as Monday. The report didn't specify whether the valuation was referring to the equity or enterprise value of the transaction.However, Bloomberg reported that the port operator is in “very advanced” discussions to acquire Topaz Energy.

Bristow Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Offshore helicopter services provider Bristow Group filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after reaching a deal with senior bondholders on a plan to slash its debt load.The struggling Houston-based helicopter operator for offshore oil and gas industry looks to cut debt after reaching deal with senior bondholders, as it attempts to restructure its crippling debt load.The Chapter 11 filing, dated 11 May, covers only six US- and two Cayman Islands-registered businesses, with…

Two Directors Appointed at Nucore Group

Nucore Group, based in Aberdeen, has announced the appointment of two new directors to the business, CFO for Nucore Group and Services Director for Oteac Ltd with immediate effect.Operating internationally Nucore Group brings together the knowledge, expertise and best practice to deliver innovative engineering for protecting people and assets. The group supports the oil and gas, marine, renewable energy and petrochemical industries, as well as large private and public sector clients…

Miami Delegation Returns to Port of Cape Town

Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) welcomed a high-level delegation from the Miami-Dade County in the United States for a tour of South Africa’s second busiest port, the Port of Cape Town, on Tuesday, March 26, 2019. The visit formed part of the Miami-Dade Business Development Mission to South Africa from March 24 to March 27, 2019.The Miami-Dade delegation was led by Ms Audrey M. Edmonson, Chairwoman of the Miami-Dade County Commission. She was joined by senior representatives of entities including Miami-Dade Aviation Department…