Vietgazprom Five-Well Program for the Energy Searcher

Northern Offshore, Ltd. reported today that the company received notice from Vietgazprom that they will not proceed with the fifth and final well of the five-well drilling program offshore Vietnam.  The drillship Energy Searcher, upon completion of the fourth well, was at a standby location awaiting the appropriate approval to undertake drilling operations when notice of the terminated program was received.
Under the contract with Vietgazprom, a 20-day notice of cancellation is required.  The company therefore expects to receive day rate under the contract until December 9, 2010.  The contract further requires that Vietgazprom make a demobilization payment of US$2.4 million.
The company intends to demobilize the drillship to Singapore, and will investigate the opportunity to accelerate certain inspections to coincide with the rig's idle time.  In the meantime, the company will pursue other near-term drilling programs in the region.
Source: PR Newswire (Press release)

Posted on 11/21/2010 / 0 comments / Read More

OMV apologises for oil spills

Oil company OMV New Zealand is apologising for causing two oil spills in just over a month and says it is working to minimise any environmental risk.The company is part of the global OMV Group, based in Austria, and operates the Maari oil field 80km off the Taranaki Coast

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Source: NZ Herald

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Oil giant Exxon to sell $2bn North Sea assets

EXXON Mobil is expected to part with $2 billion (£1.2bn) of North Sea assets as the so-called "super majors" continue to shift their focus to other faster growth areas such as Brazil. Despite recent discoveries such as the Catcher prospect - the biggest North Sea find since Buzzard in 2001 - the waters off the coast of Aberdeen are struggling to retain the interest of the biggest oil companies.
[Read more]
Source: Scotsman

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Petronas awards offshore Malaysia oil block to Total

State oil firm Petronas on Monday said it had awarded French oil major Total an 85 percent interest in an offshore block.
Petronas awarded the interest in Block SK317B, located about 100 kilometers offshore from the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo island, it said in a statement.
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Source: Reuters

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AusTex Oil Limited Lancaster #9 Well Successfully Reaches Total Depth And Logs Confirm Hydrocarbons in Multiple Formations

AusTex Oil Limited, is pleased to advise that drilling of the Lancaster No.9 Well successfully reached TD at 2,633 feet on Friday 19 November, Tulsa time. During drilling operations free oil and gas was displaced to the surface. 
Well logs and samples collected confirm hydrocarbons have been intersected in multiple zones including three of the Simpson Series sandstones and the Arbuckle formation. 
The well has logged structurally higher than the Lancaster #8 well and has confirmed over 100 feet of oil and gas pay zones in the Simpson Series formation in both wells. Reviews of the well log data and surface geology show the formations follow the surface structural high at the location with additional well sites available at 10 acre pacing in this part of the lease. 
The well has been cased and will be completed for production sting in the Simpson Series formations. 
AOK holds 100% Working Interest and 80% Net Revenue Interest in this section of the project.
Source: ABN Newswire(Press release)

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Energy XXI to Buy Gulf of Mexico Shelf Assets for $1 Billion

Energy XXI (Bermuda) Ltd. has agreed to acquire several shallow-water Gulf of Mexico shelf oil and natural gas properties from Exxon Mobil Corp. affiliates for $1.01 billion, the company said in an e-mailed statement today.
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Source: Bloomberg

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Beach Energy, Impress set to merge

Oil and gas explorers Beach Energy Ltd and Impress Energy Ltd are to merge to accelerate the development of their assets in South Australia's Cooper Basin.
Beach will buy all the issued shares in Impress it does not own at 8.25 cents a share, under a scheme to be approved by Impress shareholders at its general meeting.
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Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

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Nigerian army arrests militant gang behind oil-rig kidnappings

Nigeria’s armed forces on Saturday arrested a militant gang leader and more than 60 of his followers believed to be behind the kidnapping of 19 oil and construction workers in the Niger Delta.
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Source: The Globe and Mail

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Cairn Energy refuse to publish full oil spill plan

Cairn Energy, based in Edinburgh, is at the forefront of the push to open up oil supplies off Greenland.
The company and the Greenland government told a BBC Scotland investigation team the plan was secret to prevent sabotage by "third parties".
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Source: BBC News

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BP Fights Court Bid to Lift Oil-Spill Damages Limit

BP Plc had said for months it would pay all legitimate damages for the largest oil spill in U.S. history, but now it's fighting a bid to legally force it to waive a $75 million statutory cap.
Lawyers for local businesses and individuals filed a motion this month asking U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, who is overseeing the oil-spill litigation in New Orleans, to rule that a cap is inapplicable in this case.
[Read more]
Source: ABC News

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Husky, partners, win two Canada offshore blocks

Husky Energy Inc and its partners won exploration rights to two parcels of land in the prolific Jeanne D'Arc Basin offshore Newfoundland with bids totaling C$16.3 million ($16 million), the province's offshore regulator said on Friday.
The Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board said Husky, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, and equal partner Statoil, paid C$15.5 million for a 74,000-acre block.
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Source: Reuters

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Norway Says Only ‘Chance’ Averted Statoil Gullfaks Well Blowout

Only “chance” averted a full-scale blowout or explosion during a pressure surge at Statoil ASA’s Gullfaks field in May, Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority said.
Norway’s largest oil company was ordered to investigate why deficiencies weren’t picked up and why assessments of similar earlier incidents didn’t have an effect on safety at Gullfaks, the Stavanger-based agency said today in a statement. The first deadline to implement the orders is next month.
[Read more]
Source: Bloomberg

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US rig count slips lower

US drilling activity dipped this week after three consecutive weeks of small increases, with 1,677 rotary rigs now working, down 8 from the previous week, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. That compared with 1,113 units drilling in the same period last year. 
Land operations had the biggest decline, down 5 rigs to 1,637 working. Offshore drilling dropped 3 units with 20 working, all in the Gulf of Mexico. Inland waters activity was unchanged with 20 active rigs. 
[Read more]
SourceL Oil & Gas Journal

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Aker to supply FPSO topsides separation equipment

Aker Solutions will design, build, and supply heavy-oil equipment for an FPSO under a new contract with OSX in Brazil. The contract value is NOK 40 million ($6.67 million).
The contract includes design, procurement, fabrication, and delivery of the following: 
· New degasser and compact electrostatic coalescer mounted on a common skid with interconnecting piping 
· Design modifications to existing second stage separator and delivery of new internals 
· New third stage electrostatic 3D coalescer with internals. 
The target is to convert the current light oil process system to heavy oil production on board the OSX-1 FPSO, which will operate for OGX on the Waimea field offshore Brazil. 
The vessel conversion is being done by BWO in Singapore with delivery scheduled for May 2011. The new processing equipment is due for delivery in April 2011. 
Source: Penn Energy(Press release)

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Sovcomflot links with Glencore to grow SE Asian products business

London: Sovcomflot (SCF) Group has taken delivery of a first product tanker under a joint venture with commodities trading giant Glencore International, whose Singapore-based subsidiary ST Shipping operates over 200 vessels and is a lead player in Handy/MR/Panamax sectors.
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Source: Seatrade Asia Online

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SITC orders boxships at Dae Sun

Hong Kong: SITC Development has ordered a trio of feeder boxships from Dae Sun Shipbuilding and Engineering.
[Read More]
Source: Seatrade Asia Online

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Rongsheng shares slide on debut

Hong Kong: Shares in China Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group closed down on their offer price on their first day of trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
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Source: Seatrade Asia Online

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Lift and Shift India claims Indian heavylift record

A record-breaking movement of India’s longest column transported by sea and land on Indian soil has taken place, claims Indian heavylift company, Lift & Shift India.
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Source: Heavy Lift

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Wind farm barge gets Liebherr crane

In a world first, Liebherr says that it has fitted a LTR 11200 telescopic crawler crane to the deck of a self-propelled jack-up barge for DBB Jack-up Services, a Danish offshore services provider.
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Source: Heavy Lift

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Cargotec service certified by LR

Cargotec's Marine Service organisation has recently been assessed and certified as an ‘Approved Service Supplier’ by classification societies Lloyd's Register EMEA and Italian RINA (Registro Italiano Navale).
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Source: Motorship

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Svitzer prepares to leave Swedish flagg

Svitzer is preparing to re-flagg their Swedish flagged tugboats. “We have told our employees and the unions about our intentions. We want an open process”, says Torsten Holst Pedersen, managing director at Svitzer’s Scandinvaian region.
[Read More]
Source: Shipgaz

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2010 – ice-fee free year in Danish waters

Danish Minister of Defence Gitte Lillelund Bech has decided to remove the annual ice fee for sailing in Danish waters in 2010
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Source: Shipgaz

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Two yards fight over Russian icebreaker order

There are now two yards left in the bidding process for a new 25 MW icebreaker for the Russian state-owned port group Rosmorport
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Source: Shipgaz

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Survey sees crew costs as set to rise

Vessel operating costs are expected to rise by 3.2 percent this year and by 3.5 percent in 2011, Crew costs are the category most likely to produce the highest levels of increase.
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Source: MarineLog

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Rimorchiatori Malta Offshore vessel A.H. Valletta sets sail for Brazil

Rimorchiatori Malta Offshore Ltd, a sister company to Tug Malta Ltd, has taken delivery of the new anchor handling supply vessel A.H. Valletta, a vessel built by the Spanish shipyards Astilleros Armon, in the port of Vigo in northwest Spain.
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Source: Times of Malta

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Polarcus orders two more seismic vessels

Polarcus, the Dubai-based provider of marine geophysical services, has ordered two high-end 3D seismic vessels from Ulstein Verft shipyard in Norway for delivery in March and June 2012.
[Read More]
Source: Motorship

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Revolution in Global Shipping Traffic: The Northern Sea Route

The impact of climate change and global warming is bad news to many but some industries are actually taking advantage of it.
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Source: arirang

Posted on 11/21/2010 / 0 comments / Read More

Medium range product tankers faced with increasing complexities in attempt to increase earnings

Medium range tankers have been in a dismal situation since the second half of the previous year, with the situation not much altered during most of this year as well, but things could pick up in the future, albeit only for those ship owners who keep their eyes and ears open. According to a report from London-based shipbroker Gibson, the second half of last year was an absolute disaster for MR tankers operating in the Atlantic Basin. “Timecharter equivalent earnings on a round voyage basis for the benchmark gasoline trade UKC – USAC (TC2, 37,000 tons) averaged well below fixed operating costs at $2,500/day between July and November 2009. The situation this autumn has not been much different, despite initial strong hopes for a busy hurricane season. Since early August TC2 daily returns have remained below the very basic “break-even” mark in
terms of fixed operating expenses, with the latest TCEs at just $500/day”.
[Read More]
Source: Hellenic Shipping News

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