Companies in the news

LUKOIL has commenced drilling new production wells at West Qurna-2 field as part of the second development phase. The company has, so far, concluded contracts to drill 57 production wells, including 54 in the Mishrif formation and three wells in the Yamama formation. The drilling campaign will ramp up production at West Qurna-2 from the current level of 400,000 bopd to 480,000 bopd in 2020, and employ 500+ local Iraqis.

Rockwell Automation Inc. has acquired Emulate3D, an engineering software developer. The acquisition’s software enables customers to virtually test machine and system designs before incurring manufacturing and automation costs, and committing to a final design.

Danos has reached a tentative agreement to acquire the assets and business of Shamrock Energy Solutions, a privately held, 22-year-old, oilfield service company, based out of Houma, La. The deal will increase the number of Danos employees by nearly 50%, from 2,200 to 3,200.

Royal Dutch Shell plc, through its subsidiary Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda., with consortium partners, has started production at the Lula North deepwater project in the Brazilian Santos basin. Production is processed by the P-67FPSO and is operated by Petrobras. The production hub is the seventh FPSO deployed at Lula and the third in a series of standardized vessels built for the consortium. It is designed to process up to 150,000 bopd and 6 MMcfd.

Southwest Research Institute is co-leading the first phase of a JIP to verify and validate oil and gas drilling sensor systems. Approved by the IADC Drilling Engineering Committee, the Independent Verification and Validation of Sensors and Systems in Drilling JIP will develop techniques to classify sensor abilities affecting drilling data and impacting operations, analytics and automation.

Ampelmann has opened a new office in Sakhalin, Russia, in a move to expand its presence in the local market. The office will be manned by a full-time team of two operations engineers who will work toward strengthening the company’s foothold in the region.

ADNOC has signed an agreement awarding Onshore Block 3 to Occidental Petroleum. The block covers an area of 5,782 km²in the Al Dhafra region. Existing 3D seismic data already cover a large part of the block which, combined with its proximity to Shah, Asab, Haliba and Sahl fields, suggests the concession area has very promising potential.

Norwegian IMR, WellConnection Group, has acquired Scotland-based Independent Oilfield Services. IOS has changed its name to WellConnection IOS and will provide the group with a strong foothold in the UK market. This represents WellConnection Group’s first step into the international market.

Seadrill Limited has entered a 50:50 JV with Empresa de Serviços e Sondagens de Angola Ltda, an affiliate of Sonangol E.P. The new JV, Sonadrill, will operate four drillships, focusing on opportunities in Angolan waters. Each of the parties will bareboat two drillships into Sonadrill.

Wood and KBR, Inc., have secured a new multi-million-dollar contract to deliver integrated FEED for Shell Australia’s Crux project. The project will build a not normally manned platform and a gas export pipeline approximately 373 mi north of Broome, offshore Western Australia. The facilities will be an important source of backfill gas supply to the Shell-operated Prelude FLNG facility.

The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company has awarded one license to DEA in its 2018 Bidding Round. The East Damanhour exploration block (originally offered as Block 10) covers 1,418 km²and is west of the Disouq development leases, where DEA is the operator with a 100% license share.

Tenaris will open its sucker rods manufacturing facility in Conroe, Texas, in July. The $70-million investment includes non-destructive testing (NDT), a testing lab, robotized forging lines, and heat treatment, threading and finishing processes. The rods mill also has an on-site training facility and classroom.

BP has produced its first gas from the second stage of its West Nile Delta development offshore Egypt. The project, which produces gas from Giza and Fayoum fields, was developed as a deepwater, long-distance tie-back to an existing onshore plant. This is the second in a string of new upstream major projects expected to be brought online in 2019.

Petrofac’s EPS business has been awarded a contract from independent E&P company, Siccar Point Energy. The contract includes provision of well operator and well engineering project management services, including supply chain management, for Siccar Point’s operated assets West of Shetland. The three-year agreement is estimated to be worth up to $95 million.

Siccar Point Energy. The contract includes provision of well operator and well engineering project management services, including supply chain management, for Siccar Point’s operated assets West of Shetland. The three-year agreement is estimated to be worth up to $95 million.

Maersk Maker,the final vessel of Maersk Supply Service’s Starfish AHTS newbuilding series, was delivered from Kleven Yard. The vessel’s arrival completes the company’s fleet renewal program, with ten new-build vessels delivered and 23 vessels divested over the last three years.

PD&MS Group has won a two-year contract extension with Shell UK, extending an existing partnership to April 2021, and securing 50 full-time jobs. The extension follows a successful track record of delivery for Shell during an initial three-year contract term, which included execution of minor modifications scopes, as well as larger and more complex projects in the North Sea.

CGG and TGS have launched the Greater Castberg TopSeis survey in the Barents Sea. The survey is 5,000 km²and will be acquired and processed with CGG’s technology. In addition, the survey will cover existing and newly awarded licenses, as well as open acreage with several play models in multiple geological layers. The acquisition is expected to commence late second-quarter 2019 with final delivery to clients in fourth-quarter 2020.

Neptune Energy has been awarded an operated oil exploration license in the North West El Amal Offshore Concession in Egypt by Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation. The concession (originally offered as Block 4) covers 365 km²and is in the central part of the Gulf of Suez. The block lies approximately 26.1 mi south from Ras Gharib and 65.2 km north to Hurghada.