BP in late August was in the final stages of permanently plugging the deepwater Gulf of Mexico Macondo exploration well, which spilled nearly 5 million barrels of oil between the 20 April blowout that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon rig and mid-July鈥
Finally, some sanity has surfaced in Europe on the subject of climate change and it is from a real scientific heavyweight to boot. Rarely have I found a book* so elegantly simple and yet compelling. Christian Gerondeau, a very well known French scientist and engineer鈥
When the ideal coiled tubing string for a sleeve-shifting operation was too heavy for the platform crane, the string was split and then rejoined offshore. BJ Services鈥 Godwin Effiong and Greg Dean explain how they kept the job safe.Efficiency鈥
The six-month US moratorium on deepwater drilling following the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, along with tougher regulations and higher liability costs likely to follow, could put the squeeze on independent operators in the Gulf of Mexico. Russell McCulley talks to one company that's pushing back鈥
Drilling at the Peró and Ingá prospects in block BM-C-40 and the Santa Helena prospect in BM-C-31 has turned up hits for Brazilian relative newcomer OGX. The operator has been focusing on shallow water opportunities (OE April) and has exploratory鈥
A new world benchmark for hydraulic skidding was established this June in Geoje-Si, South Korea, with the loadout of the 19,400t deck for an Arctic class semisubmersible destined eventually to serve on Russia鈥檚 Shtokman gas field. David Morgan reports鈥
For more than 20 years, the UK鈥檚 Civil Aviation Authority has led various initiatives to reduce the risks to helicopters operating to moving platforms in the North Sea. Dr Athena Scaperdas and Dr Paul Gallagher of Atkins describe one such project which looks at helicopter on-deck safety鈥
Conventional solids control methods are inadequate to manage low-gravity solids smaller than 8-10 microns. M-I Swaco鈥檚 Rich Cook discusses a new solution, recently successfully employed in West Africa, that helps manage these solids while keeping excess rig space to a minimum鈥
The pre-salt Tupi field may claim most of the interest when it comes to oil activity offshore Brazil, but plenty is going on along the large country's coastline. In the last two months, Petrobras has brought online two fields, updated its files鈥
Cape Wind clears another hurdleAnother challenge to its long-delayed quest to become the US鈥檚 first offshore wind farm was successfully fought off by Cape Wind as federal regulators in August upheld an earlier decision that said the project posed no threat to airways鈥
OE 鈥檚 analysis of current rig market data is updated monthly using statistics provided by Rigzone.comWorldwide utilization for the mobile offshore drilling fleet continues to hover in the 74-76% range. The recent softness seen in utilization鈥
Shell's solution for dealing with the heavy oil at the low-energy BC-10 concession offshore Brazil 鈥 caisson separator electrical submersible pumps - is working 鈥榦utstandingly' well according to the field's project manager. Jennifer Pallanich鈥
Matthew Simmons, an energy investment banker and peak oil alarmist who in recent years was a strong advocate of renewable energy, died on 8 August at his home near Rockland, Maine. He was 67.In the 2005 book Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy鈥
Weather is a major factor when planning offshore drilling campaigns. Asbjørn Stålesen of FMC Technologies says the company's Real Time Operating Limits system has allowed it to increase the time available for carrying out drilling work.The biggest鈥
With a major Russian Arctic contract already in the bag for next year, the Tideway Group is looking at early payback on its 鈧115 million investment in the industry's first ice-class fallpipe rockdump vessel.Dubbed Flintstone, the DP2 vessel鈥
