Staffing shortages are creating project delays at a majority of large oil & gas companies, according to new data released by management consultancy Schlumberger Business Consulting.The much-discussed 鈥榖ig crew change' 鈥 the retirement of geoscientists鈥
National Oilwell Varco is looking to establish a major foothold in the flexible pipe business with the acquisition of Danish manufacturer NKT Flexibles, a joint venture between NKT Holding and Subsea 7 since 1999.The $670 million deal, announced early February鈥
Mexico鈥檚 state oil company plans to ramp up domestic production of crude oil to 2.7 million b/d next year and to 3 million b/d by 2017, buoyed by new shallow-water discoveries and enhanced recovery techniques in mature fields, a key member of鈥
The integrated energy services and production management divisions of Petrofac and Schlumberger, respectively, have signed a co-operation agreement under which they will establish a working relationship to deliver integrated and high-value production鈥
Fifty-six i-FRAC sleeves were opened with three balls on the Norwegian shelf.Well technology company i-TEC has developed an innovative lower completion ball drop sleeve system which it claims can bring wells in tight formations online much more quickly than other methods鈥
As gas wells mature and the produced gas becomes less able to carry water from the well, a decline in flow rate and production to rates below the anticipated decline curve often results. Bert Lugtmeier and Kees Veeken from Dutch operator NAM鈥
Combining Alternate Path shunt tube technology with concentric sandface completion systems is improving operational efficiency and economics while bringing new life to old offshore wells in Malaysian waters. Here, Schlumberger's Shahryar Saebi and Sergey鈥
The oil & gas industry has long used dry ice as an isolation technique, for example to freeze a wellbore and allow intervention work. Now, after years of application in the nuclear sector, cryogenic freezing using liquid nitrogen has started to make inroads offshore鈥
Statoil鈥檚 two UKCS heavy oil developments 鈥 Mariner in block 9/11a and Bressay in blocks 3/27b, 3/28a, 3/28b, 9/2a and 3/a 鈥 are back on track having been halted by the operator in March following the UK Chancellor鈥檚 decision to increase the鈥
The big news coming out of Europe is that it is running out of money, but is Europe also running out of gas? Infield Systems' Peter Kiernan(left) and Dr Roger Knight discuss the future of Europe's gas supply in the light of the growing need to secure energy from Russia and the Middle East鈥
Iraq's large oil-production potential could put it in a position to vie for leadership with Saudi Arabia in the world oil scene in the coming decades.But a study released by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy finds that in the near term鈥
As the jacket for Statoil's Gudrun development went in last month, confirmation that there was communication between the Norwegian operator's high-impact Aldous Major South discovery and Lundin's Avaldsnes oil find was generating much excitement鈥
Shell's 100% owned and operated Prelude FLNG project offshore Western Australia, long in the works and given a final investment decision in May, will include what the company boasts is the largest floating offshore facility. Russell McCulley鈥
Earlier this year the refrain was 鈥$5 natural gas forever', based on the US Energy Information Administration's (EIA) annual outlook, which argued that natural gas prices will remain below $5 per million btu until 2022. The underlying rationale was growth in the 鈥榲ast' US shale gas resource base鈥
The 50:50 partners in Denmark's Siri oil field fell out last month over the latest proposals to deal with the subsea cracks that have beset the 13-year old Siri production and storage platform in recent years. Meg Chesshyre reports.The row鈥
