U.S. Embassy warns of plot targeting oil workers in Saudi Arabia

U.S. oil workers operating in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia may be targets for kidnapping or other attacks, according to a warning issued Friday by the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh. More »

U.S. oil rigs slide for 14th straight week, dropping to 866

U.S. oil explorers idled rigs targeting oil for the 14th straight week, prolonging the biggest retrenchment in drilling on record. More »

Statoil awards facility services contract to Coor

Statoil has awarded the contract for offshore facility services on Statfjord and Snorre fields to Coor Service Management, Statoil announced Friday. More »

New Mexico blast kills one oil worker, injures second

An oilfield worker has been killed and another injured following an explosion at a site in southeastern New Mexico on Wednesday. More »

Chariot completes seismic survey offshore Namibia

Chariot Oil and Gas Limited has completed its 2D seismic survey in its Central Blocks 2312 and 2412A offshore Namibia, in conjunction with its partners AziNam (20%), NAMCOR (10%, carried interest) and Ignitus (5%, carried interest). More »

Exxon CEO in call for U.S. policy reform, end to oil export ban

The U.S. government needs to adjust its energy policies to ensure that America can realize all the benefits of the new era of energy abundance, Rex W. Tillerson, chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday. More »

Tourmaline Oil consolidates Deep basin assets

Tourmaline Oil has entered into a transaction to acquire Perpetual Energy's interests in the West Edson area of the Alberta Deep basin. The interests include Perpetual's land interests, production, reserves and facilities that are currently joint with Tourmaline. More »

Buzzard soars high marking 500 MMbbl of production

Nexen Petroleum, a subsidiary of CNOOC, has announced that Buzzard field has passed a significant landmark by producing its 500 millionth barrel of oil. More »

CGG open to Technip partnership after spurning takeover approach

CGG CEO Jean-Georges Malcor said he would welcome a commercial partnership deal for seismic oil surveys with Technip, after spurning a takeover approach from the French oil-services provider four months ago. More »

Tourmaline Oil consolidates Perpetual Energy's Deep basin assets for $256.5 million

Tourmaline Oil has entered into a transaction to acquire Perpetual Energy's interests in the West Edson area of the Alberta Deep basin. More »

IEA sees China, India filling strategic reserves with cheap oil

China and India are set to fill up their strategic petroleum reserves this year, taking advantage of lower oil prices, according to the International Energy Agency. More »

EMGS inks 3D EM data sales agreement in Barents Sea

Electromagnetic Geoservices (EMGS) has entered into a data licensing agreement with an oil company for the provision of 3D EM data from EMGS's multi-client data library in the Barents Sea. More »

Buzzard soars high marking 500 million barrels production

Nexen Petroleum, a subsidiary of CNOOC has announced that the Buzzard field has passed a truly significant landmark by producing its 500 millionth barrel of oil. More »

OMV to drill well in PL537 in Barents Sea

OMV Norge has received a consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) Norway to drill a well 7324/8-2 Bjaaland in PL537, located in the Barents Sea. More »

Oil CEOs said to ask Obama administration to lift export ban

About a dozen U.S. drilling executives, including ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance, were in Washington this week trying to persuade White House officials and lawmakers to lift the 40-year ban on U.S. oil exports, according to two people familiar with the meetings. More »

Texas LNG starts talks with customers in Eastern Europe, Asia

Texas LNG, a closely held company planning a $1.3 billion liquefied natural gas project in the U.S., has started talks with potential customers, targeting companies in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia. More »

Mexico cuts production and reserve forecasts after prices slid

Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission lowered the country’s estimates for proven oil reserves and state-run Petroleos Mexicanos cut its 2015 production forecast after crude prices collapsed and its budget was reduced. More »

Oilfield safety a concern as companies cut costs during downturn

HOUSTON (Bloomberg) -- A deadly oil well explosion in Texas’s Permian Basin this week offers a cautionary note of the industry’s challenges as companies cut costs during a market downturn. More »

Petrobras starts early production system at Buzios field

Petrobras started up its early production system in the Santos basin’s Buzios field on Tuesday. More »

Exxon resumes drilling at Alaska’s Point Thomson

Exxon Mobil has resumed drilling at Point Thomson on Alaska’s North Slope as construction continues toward bringing the initial production system online. More »

Drilling halted at North Sea’s Veslefrikk field, Statoil says

The license partners have decided to temporarily halt drilling on Veslefrikk field in the North Sea, Statoil said Thursday. More »

GDF Suez announces Central North Sea oil discovery

GDF Suez EandP UK Ltd. and its co-venturers announced a new discovery in the UK Central North Sea on Thursday. More »

Statoil halts drilling at North Sea’s Veslefrikk field

The license partners have decided to temporarily halt drilling on Veslefrikk field in the North Sea, Statoil said Thursday. More »

Iraq talking with oil companies on proposed contract changes

Iraq is in talks with oil companies about possible changes in production contracts to create incentives for companies if the price of crude rises and shield government revenue if it falls, Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said. More »

Ferguson Group expands fleet size in Malaysia

The Ferguson Group Singapore—global specialists in the provision of offshore DNV 2.7-1/EN12079 containers, tanks, baskets, reefers, workspace modules and accommodation solutions—is meeting the market requirements with further investment in its SE Asia fleet. More »

DNV GL calls for collaboration over Arctic emergency response, rescue strategies

As offshore field developments in the North and Norwegian Seas face maturity, operators on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) are looking to the more remote areas of the Barents Sea for further development. More »

Sanchez Production Partners announces departure of president, CEO

HOUSTON -- Sanchez Production Partners (SPP) has announced that Stephen R. Brunner, SPP’s President and CEO, left the partnership on Wednesday. More »

DOF Subsea wins Chevron IMR contract

Chevron Australia has awarded DOF Subsea Asia Pacific a three years Master Services Agreement, IMR contract to work on projects on the Australian North West Shelf. More »

MCP to build world’s largest 4G network at sea for Statoil

Statoil has signed a six years contract with Maritime Communications Partner (MCP) to deploy and operate their high speed 4G-network on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). More »

Husky Energy brings Alberta's Sunrise Energy Project online

CALGARY, Canada -- Husky Energy has started oil production at the Sunrise Energy Project in northern Alberta. More »

Wellsite Rental names Nicole Hover as mid-continent Sales Manager

Wellsite Rental Services has named Nicole Hover as Sales Manager for its mid-continent region. More »

Three workers killed in Permian wellsite explosion

Three oilfield workers were killed after an explosion early Tuesday morning at a West Texas well site owned by Parsley Energy Inc. More »

Exxon’s Baytown refinery reduces rates; ship channel section remains shut

HOUSTON (Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. cut processing rates at its Baytown, Texas, refinery due to vessel traffic delays along the Houston Ship Channel as a stretch of the largest U.S. export gateway was shut for a third day following a crash. More »

Exelon explores development of Texas LNG export terminal

Annova LNG filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Wednesday to initiate a review of the potential development of a mid-scale natural gas liquefaction and transfer facility at the Port of Brownsville, Texas. More »

Russia to keep oil output steady to 2035 despite price drop

MOSCOW (Bloomberg) -- Russia plans to maintain oil output at current levels for the next two decades, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said, shrugging off sanctions and the slump in crude prices. More »

Crude oil slides to five-week low as U.S. supply glut expands

NEW YORK (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil slumped to a five-week low on the morning of March 11 in New York after a government report showed U.S. inventories rose for a ninth week amid rising production. More »

Leviathan partners says Palestine Power may cancel gas deal

TEL AVIV -- Palestine Power Generation Co. may cancel a deal to buy gas from Israel’s largest offshore field due to regulatory and development delays, the partners in the Leviathan field said in a filing on Wednesday. More »

Gazpromneft Orenburg spuds wildcat in Kuvayskoye license area

Gazpromneft Orenburg has begun geological prospecting in the Kuvayskoye area. More »

Wood Mackenzie assesses shallow-water opportunities in Mexico's Round One

New analysis by Wood Mackenzie looks at Mexico's Round One shallow water opportunities, a licensing round that includes nine shallow-water fields with a total of 356 MMboe of 2P reserves. These fields, which have not yet been put into production, are organized in five different contractual areas within the Salinas Sureste basin. More »

Antelope Oil Tool launches new cementation centralizer

Antelope Oil Tool has developed the CentraMax series, a unique centralizer design that provides a solution to enhance standoff and efficiency in cementing operations. More »

Cairn Energy disputes $1.6 billion Indian tax order

Cairn Energy has instructed counsel to file a Notice of Dispute under the UK-India Investment Treaty in order to protect its legal position and shareholder interests having received a draft assessment order from the Indian Income Tax Department. More »

New Guinea Energy sells its 50% interest in PPL269 to Santos

New Guinea Energy's wholly owned subsidiary, Kirkland Ltd., has completed the sale of its 50% interest in PPL269 located in Papua New Guinea to Barracuda Ltd., a subsidiary of Santos Ltd. More »

Azonto Petroleum abandons Accra Block offshore Ghana

Azonto Petroleum has decided not to continue with its deepwater exploration acreage in the Accra Block offshore Ghana. More »

Shale on sale as oil crash tilting seller markets to buyers

A decision by Whiting Petroleum, the largest producer in North Dakota’s Bakken shale basin, to put itself up for sale looks to be the first tremor in a potential wave of consolidation as $50/bbl prices undercut companies with heavy debt and high costs. More »

Azonto Petroleum abandons offshore Accra Block in Ghana

LONDON -- Azonto Petroleum has decided not to continue with its deepwater exploration acreage in the offshore Accra Block in Ghana. More »

Nam Cheong sells two vessels for $58 million

Nam Cheong Ltd, a global offshore marine player and an OSV builder, has sold two vessels worth approximately $58 million to two repeat customers. More »

Cairn Energy sees 50% lower rig cost sustaining Senegal drilling

Cairn Energy Plc expects a slump by half in the cost of oil rigs to sustain the UK producer’s exploration in Senegal even after crude prices sank in previous months. More »

Chevron accelerating asset sales to $15 billion on oil slide

Chevron Corp. will increase asset sales by 50% to $15 billion and curtail new investment for the next two years after plunging oil prices squeezed cash flow for the second-biggest U.S. energy producer. More »

Proppant market exceeds 135 billion lb: industry survey

HOUSTON -- PropTester, Inc. and KELRIK, LLC released the 2014 Proppant Market Report (PMR), a detailed overview of the global proppant market, which showed that the industry supplied over 135 billion lb of sand, ceramic, and resin coated proppants in 2014, a 50% increase over 2013. More »

Oil Search concludes record-breaking survey in Kurdistan

Oil Search Limited and Wireless Seismic announced Tuesday that in December, following seven months of continuous operations, Asian Oilfield Services (ASIAN) completed a large 3D seismic survey over the Taza Block in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq using Wireless Seismic’s real-time, radio-based RT System 2 seismic data acquisition system. More »

U.S. cuts 2015 WTI forecast as oil production rises

The Energy Information Administration reduced its 2015 forecast for West Texas Intermediate oil prices as production is poised to rise further. More »

Rio Grande LNG doubles site size, completes pre-FEED

NextDecade, LLC has signed an option-to-lease agreement with the Port of Brownsville, Texas, that will expand the company’s site to 1,000 acres for its proposed Rio Grande Liquefied Natural Gas (RGLNG) export terminal, doubling its initial agreement. More »

Ineos to acquire shares of UK shale gas licenses from IGas

LONDON (Bloomberg) -- Ineos plans to acquire stakes of at least 50% in seven shale gas licenses in northwest England for 30 million pounds ($45 million) as it looks tap unexploited reserves and get cheaper feedstock for its petrochemical plants. More »

TAG Oil's founder and chairman named interim CEO

Canadian-based, New Zealand oil and gas producer TAG Oil has announced that Alex Guidi, the company's chairman and founder, has been appointed interim CEO. More »

OPEC seen by Attiyah keeping oil policy unless others cut output

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries won’t change policy at its next meeting unless other producers cut first, Qatar’s former energy minister said. More »

Beach Energy reports Western Flank oil discovery

Beach Energy has reported a new Birkhead formation oil discovery at Stanleys-1 in PRL 171 and provided initial results from the first development well of the second Bauer field pad drilling campaign. More »

RAK Petroleum reports discovery offshore Côte d'Ivoire

RAK Petroleum announced Monday that the Marlin North-1 well drilled by Foxtrot International LDC offshore Côte d'Ivoire flowed gas and oil from the Turonian and Lower Senonian intervals, neither of which had previously tested hydrocarbons on Block CI-27. More »

Wintershall, ADNOC present drill core to Germany’s Economics Minister

Wintershall and its partner ADNOC have presented the German Federal Minister of Economic Affairs, Sigmar Gabriel, in Abu Dhabi with the first piece of a drill core from the joint natural gas and condensate field Shuwaihat. More »

Norway looks to reduce cost of rig moves

The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway has set up a working group to examine possible means of reducing costs on the Norwegian Continental Shelf associated with rig movements between the shelves in the North Sea. More »

CARBO mothballs Georgia proppant facility amid oil slump

CARBO Ceramics has decided to mothball its proppant manufacturing facility in McIntyre, Georgia, in response to lower oil prices. More »

Verisk Analytics to buy Wood Mackenzie for $2.8 billion

Verisk Analytics Inc., a supplier of data to insurers and banks, agreed to buy Wood Mackenzie for about 1.85 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) in cash, gaining a business providing information to the energy, chemicals and mining industries. More »

OPEC output dips in February, Platts survey finds

Oil production from OPEC remained below the group's 30 MMbpd ceiling for a second consecutive month in February as lower volumes from Libya and Nigeria more than offset increases from several other countries, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts showed Friday. More »

Premier Oil announces first gas from Indonesia's Pelikan field

Premier Oil started gas production from Pelikan field in the Natuna Sea Block A, offshore Indonesia, on Monday. More »

Verisk Analytics to acquire Wood Mackenzie for $2.8 billion

JERSEY CITY, United States -- Verisk Analytics, Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Wood Mackenzie from Hellman and Friedman and other Wood Mackenzie shareholders. More »

OPEC output dips 20,000 bpd to 29.92 MMbpd in February: Platts Survey

Oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) remained below the group's 30 MMbpd ceiling for a second consecutive month in February as lower volumes from Libya and Nigeria more than offset increases from several other countries, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts showed on Mar. 06. More »

Oil trades near $50 as supply expansion in U.S. seen slowing

Oil traded near $50/bbl after the U.S. government forecast that the nation’s supply growth will slow next month, prompting speculation a global glut will ease. More »

Premier Oil brings Indonesia's Pelikan field on-stream

LONDON -- Premier Oil has initiated gas production from the Pelikan field in the Natuna Sea Block A, offshore Indonesia on Mar. 09. More »

U.S. shale oil growth slows as price crash idles drilling rigs

HOUSTON (Bloomberg) -- The biggest slowdown in oil drilling on record is showing signs of reining in the U.S. shale boom. More »

Alfa Laval wins $30 million offshore pumping systems order in Angola

Alfa Laval has won an order to supply Framo pumping systems for FPSO projects in Angola. The order, booked in the Marine and Offshore Pumping Systems segment, has a value of approximately $30 million (SEK 260 million) and delivery is scheduled for 2015 and 2016. More »

KrisEnergy picks up Vietnam Block 105 from Eni

KrisEnergy has increased its working interest in Block 105 and is taking over operatorship of the production sharing contract. More »

Ceona wins its first rigid pipelay project in Gulf of Mexico

More »

Brent crude falls on Chinese data; WTI gains on slower supply gain

Oil fell in London for a fourth day after China reduced crude imports. Futures advanced in New York after an industry survey was said to report a slowdown in crude stockpile increases at Cushing, Oklahoma. More »

Dune Energy declares bankruptcy after merger fails

Dune Energy Inc., a Houston-based oil and gas explorer with operations in Texas and Louisiana, sought bankruptcy protection following a failed merger, making the company the latest victim of falling oil prices. More »

Claxton awarded new contract for Statoil’s Gina Krog

Claxton Engineering Services, an Acteon company, has been awarded a contract with Statoil to supply conductor and internal centralizers to a minimum of 14 wells on the Gina Krog development, offshore Norway. More »

Jericho Oil closes on its initial Oklahoma acquisition

Jericho Oil Corporation has closed on its previously announced acquisition of a 50% working interest in 1,850 acres in northeastern Oklahoma. More »

Whiting Petroleum said to hire bank to pursue potential sale

Whiting Petroleum Corp., the largest oil producer in the Bakken shale formation, has hired a bank to pursue a possible sale, people familiar with the matter said. More »

iSURVEY Singapore awarded contract with Solstad Offshore

iSURVEY Pte Ltd, Singapore, has been awarded a marine construction support contract by Solstad Offshore Asia Pacific to provide positioning and survey support for its 2015 platform installation program in Thailand, on board the DLB Norce Endeavour. More »

Tap Oil awarded two blocks offshore Australia

Tap Oil Limited has been awarded 100% of Blocks W14-7 and W14-16 in the prospective Barrow and Dampier sub-basins on Australia’s North West Shelf. More »

Volatility lies ahead for LNG market, BG Group says

READING, United Kingdom -- For the LNG market, 2015 will be marked by increasing volatility as new waves of supply start to add volume together with new markets opening up, according to BG Group’s annual Global LNG Market Outlook. More »

Statoil orders new emergency vessel for Mariner field

Statoil (UK) Limited has awarded a contract to Sentinel Marine Limited to provide a new multi role Emergency Response and Rescue Vessel (ERRV) to support operations on Mariner field on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). More »

CNOOC commences production at Qinhuangdao 32-6 oilfield, Bohai Bay

CNOOC has commenced production at its Qinhuangdao 32-6 comprehensive adjustment project. More »

BP in second deepwater gas find offshore Egypt

LONDON -- BP Egypt announced another gas discovery in the North Damietta Offshore Concession in the East Nile Delta on Monday. More »

Oil glut seen easing in second half of year by head of OPEC

The global crude-oil market will return to balance in the second half of this year as demand growth picks up and high-cost producers trim output amid lower prices, OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri said. More »

Goldman says $40 oil call may be too low as demand surprises

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it didn’t expect oil demand to recover so quickly and its forecast for crude at $40/bbl may be too low. More »

Lloyd's Register Consulting completes safety contract on the Vette FPSO project

LONDON -- Lloyd’s Register Consulting has completed prime safety work packages for Aibel on the Vette FEED contract for the Sevan-type cylindrical FPSO. More »

Acorn International presents Independent Study of Marine Environmental Conditions in Ghana

HOUSTON -- Acorn International, a premier environmental and social risk management service provider, has presented an Independent Study of Marine Environmental Conditions at an official launch ceremony in Ghana on Feb. 25. More »

Winters launches a complete line of industrial pressure switches

TORONTO, Canada -- Winters Instruments has launched a complete line of industrial pressure switches viz. 2WPS, 3WPS, 4WPS and 9WPS. More »