BP to pay Rosneft $750 million for part of Siberian oilfield

BP Plc will pay OAO Rosneft $750 million for a stake in an East Siberian oil producer, following Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s plans to expand a natural gas export project in Russia. More »

U.S. rig count falls for 28th straight week: Baker Hughes

The U.S. rig count dropped for the 28th straight week Friday, according to the latest data from Baker Hughes. More »

Technip UK pleads guilty to fatal health and safety breaches

A company which pleaded guilty to a breach of regulations covering health and safety of workers has been fined over $250,000 (£160,000), the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency announced Friday. More »

Twin Eagle acquires Eagle Ford crude pipeline

Twin Eagle Resource Management, LLC announced Thursday the acquisition of a 100% interest in StarMex Big Wells, LLC, a 42-mile crude oil gathering system pipeline in the Eagle Ford shale region that connects to the major long-haul pipelines in the Gardendale area. StarMex Big Wells will be renamed Twin Eagle Gardendale Pipeline, LLC. More »

Erin Energy starts production from Oyo-7 well offshore Nigeria

Erin Energy has commenced production from the Oyo-7 well, in OML 120, offshore Nigeria. Erin Energy is the operator of Oyo field and has a 100% interest in the block. More »

Rosneft, GE ink agreement on LNG cooperation

Itera, a wholly owned Rosneft subsidiary, and General Electric signed an agreement of intent regarding natural gas processing cooperation at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. More »

Oil and Gas UK launches video celebrating 50 years of UKCS activity

Oil and Gas UK’s annual conference, which focused on the next 40 years of the offshore industry and attracted more than 500 people, featured the launch of an animation celebrating the sector’s achievements to date. More »

Petrofac secures $400 million of repeat UKCS business

Petrofac’s Offshore Projects and Operations business unit has secured contract renewals for operations and maintenance work worth approximately $400 million on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). More »

Aker Solutions, Baker Hughes to cooperate on early-phase oil, gas studies

Aker Solutions and Baker Hughes have agreed to cooperate on early-phase studies to help customers improve the overall economics and value of oil and gas field developments. More »

Next threat to U.S. shale: Interest expense on $235 billion debt

The debt that fueled the U.S. shale boom now threatens to be its undoing. More »

Saudi Arabia pumps oil flat out in Citi, Goldman’s new oil order

Not content with the blow it’s dealt to U.S. oil drillers, Saudi Arabia is set to escalate the battle for market share by raising production to maximum levels. More »

Russia clinches Greece accord to build gas pipeline to Europe

Russia signed a preliminary agreement on building a natural-gas pipeline through Greece, a deal that signals strengthening ties between the countries as the crisis-stricken government in Athens is increasingly isolated from the rest of Europe. More »

BP, Rosneft ink production, exploration agreements

Rosneft and BP have signed several agreements strengthening the long term strategic relationship between the two companies, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. More »

Parsons to help develop response plans for crude oil transportation incidents

Parsons is pleased to announce that its team—consisting of OBG and Gallagher Marine Systems—has been selected by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) to help develop individual geographic response plans for emergencies caused by crude oil trains. More »

Saudi April crude exports drop as more supply used locally

Saudi Arabia reduced crude oil exports in April as the world’s biggest producer used record supplies domestically for a burgeoning refining industry. More »

Upstream projects remain strong in Kazakhstan while Azerbaijan’s crude declines: GlobalData

While Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have added over 1 MMbpd to the world’s oil supply since 2005, the two countries are now diverging in their ability to grow production and influence global supply, according to an analyst with research and consulting firm GlobalData. More »

DNV GL research shows bright future for subsea processing

DNV GL launched a research paper Thursday exploring the viability of moving offshore oil and gas processing subsea, including the techno-economics of an ‘all subsea’ solution. More »

Peterson, Veolia to develop UK decommissioning facility for southern North Sea

Peterson, in partnership with Veolia has announced a $1.59 million (£ 1 million) investment in the development of a new, purpose built decommissioning facility in Great Yarmouth. More »

Wintershall announces first gas from L6-B in Dutch North Sea

Wintershall is expanding its natural gas production in the Netherlands: the unmanned mini-platform L6-B has started to produce natural gas off the Dutch North Sea coast. More »

Wintershall wildcat strikes out in North Sea

Wintershall Norge, operator of production license 378, is in the process of completing the drilling of wildcat well 35/12-5 S. The well was drilled about 15 km southwest of Gjøa field in the North Sea and 80 km southwest of Florø. More »

Harkand secures UKCS decommissioning work for Maersk Oil

Harkand has commenced decommissioning work on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf in support of Maersk Oil UK’s work in Leadon field. More »

Wintershall selling selected assets on NCS

Wintershall, a wholly owned BASF subsidiary, is divesting assets in four non-operated fields—Knarr, Veslefrikk, Ivar Aasen and Yme—on the Norwegian Continental Shelf to Tellus Petroleum AS. More »

Wood Group awarded Saudi Aramco offshore contract

Wood Group has been awarded an offshore maintain potential program contract by Saudi Aramco for greenfield and brownfield engineering services, procurement, and construction management support for new facilities in the Arabian Gulf. More »

Crude futures hold near $60 as investors weigh glut in supply

Oil traded near $60/bbl as investors weighed the pace at which a U.S. supply glut is diminishing. More »

Oil-sands megaproject era wanes as Suncor to Imperial scale down

The era of the megaproject in Canada’s oil sands is fading. More »

Tanzania seeks up to 85% profit share from oil, gas output

Tanzania will seek as much as an 85% share of profit from oil and gas produced in the East African nation, according to a draft law being debated in parliament. More »

Peterson, Veolia in JV to develop Great Yarmouth decommissioning facility

Peterson, in partnership with Veolia has announced a $1.59 million (£ 1 million) investment in the development of a new, purpose built decommissioning facility in Great Yarmouth. More »

NUTECH adds new XRF technology to POROLABS core analysis solutions

NUTECH has added new X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) technologies to its proprietary POROLABS core analysis solutions for identifying the characteristics and composition of rock to confirm the mineralogy of the strata. More »

Canadian natural considers shift away from Alberta on levies

Canadian Natural Resources, the nation’s largest heavy oil producer, is considering a shift in investment away from Alberta as the province plans to increase corporate taxes and review royalties. More »

ONGC Videsh seeks 20-fold increase in spending allowance for MandA

ONGC Videsh Ltd., the overseas unit of India’s biggest oil and gas explorer, is seeking a 20-fold increase in the amount it’s allowed to spend on acquisitions without state approval. More »

Wood Group Kenny secures KPOC pipeline contract

Wood Group Kenny (WGK) will support the Kebabangan Petroleum Operating Company (KPOC) in pipeline engineering and flow assurance engineering studies for the Kamansu East (KME) field offshore Sabah, Malaysia. More »

Ross Philo joins Energistics as president, CEO

Energistics announced Wednesday that Ross Philo has joined the company as its new president and CEO. More »

Total launches an international robotics challenge

TOTAL EandP RandD has launched an international surface robotics challenge called the ARGOS challenge (Autonomous Robot for Gas and Oil Sites) in collaboration with the French National Research Agency (ANR). More »

Murkowski presses U.S. Energy Department nominees on energy exports, Arctic opportunities

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has questioned President Obama’s nominees for the Department of Energy (DOE) on the department’s plans to increase American energy exports and expand opportunities for energy production in the Arctic. More »

Bets Israel gas dispute may end send Delek Group to 6-month high

Delek Group Ltd. rose to the highest since December as investors discerned an end to months of regulatory uncertainty that halted development of Israel’s offshore natural gas fields. More »

North Sea must become sustainable at $60/bbl, Oil and Gas UK says

Oil and Gas UK’s chief executive, Deirdre Michie, warned Wednesday that the UK offshore oil and gas industry must become sustainable “in a world of $60 oil.” More »

Lundin spuds Luno II North exploration well offshore Norway

Lundin Norway, Lundin Petroleum’s wholly owned subsidiary, has commenced drilling of exploration well 16/4-9 S on the Luno II North prospect. More »

U.S. oil trading set to surpass Brent as shale boosts clout

Trading volume in New York oil futures is overtaking London’s Brent as the shale boom bolsters the U.S. benchmark’s clout in global crude markets. More »

OPEC revenue slumps below $1 trillion first time since 2010

OPEC nations’ revenue from petroleum exports plunged below $1 trillion last year for the first time since 2010, highlighting how slumping crude prices hurt countries reliant on oil sales to fund their economies. More »

Sen. Murkowski presses Energy Department nominees on energy exports, Arctic opportunities

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has questioned President Obama’s nominees for the Department of Energy (DOE) on the department’s plans to increase American energy exports and expand opportunities for energy production in the Arctic. More »

Petrobras CEO said to back Energy Minister’s pre-salt plan

Petroleo Brasileiro management is supporting a proposal to remove its obligation to operate all oilfields in Brazil’s so-called pre-salt offshore area, according to two people briefed on the matter. More »

Shell Arctic approval near as regulator sees no show stopper

Royal Dutch Shell has received U.S. permission to disturb marine mammals as part of its plan to resume oil exploration off Alaska’s Arctic coast as it neared final sign-off from regulators to drill this summer. More »

Shell-BG merger clears U.S. antitrust hurdle

Royal Dutch Shell announced Tuesday that its recommended combination with BG Group plc has cleared its first antitrust hurdle by receiving early termination of the U.S. antitrust waiting period from the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC). More »

EMGS cutting workforce by fifth as company aims to halve 2015 Capex

Electromagnetic Geoservices is to implement further cost reductions in response to the challenging market conditions facing the oil service industry, the company announced Tuesday. More »

Houston’s filet mignon special shows oil collapse is no problem

Thirty years ago, times were so tough in Houston that Steve Zimmerman introduced the Oil Barrel Special, a three-course lunch tied to the plummeting price of crude. More »

Production underway at Exxon Mobil’s Kearl oil sands expansion project

Exxon Mobil Corp. announced Tuesday that production at its Kearl oil sands expansion project in Alberta, Canada, started ahead of schedule and is expected to double overall capacity to 220,000 bpd of bitumen. More »

ABS to class newbuild semisubmersible, liftboat

ABS, a provider of marine and offshore classification services, has been selected by Baoham Offshore (HK) Ltd. to class a drilling semisubmersible and a liftboat. More »

CARBO proppant technologies prove worth in deepwater Gulf of Mexico

HOUSTON -- CARBO Ceramics Inc. has announced the successful application of two of its innovative proppant technologies, KRYPTOSPHERE HD and SCALEGUARD, for a major EandP operator in the Gulf of Mexico's Lower Tertiary trend, marking the largest and deepest job for these proprietary technologies to date. More »

CARBO KRYPTOSPHERE HD and SCALEGUARD technologies prove worth in deepwater Gulf of Mexico

HOUSTON -- CARBO Ceramics Inc. has announced the successful application of two of its innovative proppant technologies, KRYPTOSPHERE HD and SCALEGUARD, for a major EandP operator in the Gulf of Mexico's Lower Tertiary trend, marking the largest and deepest job for these proprietary technologies to date. More »

Amec Foster Wheeler appoints new president, Upstream Business Development

LONDON -- Amec Foster Wheeler has announced the appointment of George Hernandez as president, Upstream Business Development, effective immediately. More »

AGR releases multi-disciplinary well data software

AGR has released new functionality for its bespoke well data software, iQx that will improve the analysis of spatial well data from more than 6,000 wells drilled on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. More »

New PandA guideline from DNV GL could save industry over $32 bn

The plugging and abandonment (PandA) of offshore wells represents a significant cost to operating companies and national authorities. On the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) alone, the cost is estimated to be $108 billion over the next 40 years. More »

Emerson enhances reservoir modeling software to help operators maximize the value of reservoir assets

Emerson Process Management has launched the latest version of its reservoir modeling software, Roxar RMS. More »

Tropical Storm Bill heads for Texas as oil workers evacuated

Tropical Storm Bill formed in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving Texas bracing for another round of flooding in less than a month. More »

Longest oil glut in decades looms as OPEC lifts market share

The world is on the brink of the longest-lasting oil glut in at least three decades and OPEC’s quest for market share makes it almost unavoidable. More »

Statoil to lose up to 2,000 more jobs after crude’s collapse

Statoil ASA, Norway’s state-controlled oil producer, will cut as many as 2,000 more jobs by the end of next year as it reacts to lower crude prices by slashing costs. More »

Ceona names new CEO

Ceona, a SURF contractor with deepwater subsea construction capabilities, has announced that Mark Preece, the company’s executive V.P., commercial and business development, has been appointed as CEO. More »

Energean to conduct 3D seismic survey in the Gulf of Kavala

Energean Oil and Gas has announced that it is to conduct a new 3D seismic survey over the Prinos Oil field and its surrounding licenses, in the Gulf of Kavala, North Eastern Greece. More »

Maxxam Analytics and Analysts Inc. to launch new lubricant and oil analysis laboratory in Alberta

Maxxam Analytics and Analysts, Inc. are jointly opening a new testing facility in Edmonton, Alberta which provides lubricant and oil analysis services commencing a global expansion of oil condition monitoring (OCM) services for parent company, Bureau Veritas. More »

Maxxam Analytics and Analysts Inc. combine expertise to launch new lubricant and oil analysis laboratory

Maxxam Analytics and Analysts, Inc. are jointly opening a new testing facility in Edmonton, Alberta which provides lubricant and oil analysis services commencing a global expansion of oil condition monitoring (OCM) services for parent company, Bureau Veritas. More »

New role for strategic oil reserve seen by U.S. Energy Secretary

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve should be tapped to ease global oil-price shocks and not be limited to easing U.S. supply emergencies, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Monday. More »

AFGlobal promotes Curtis Samford to CEO

AFGlobal Corporation announced that Curtis Samford, the Company’s COO, will assume the role of president and CEO of the Company. More »

Halliburton introduces Illusion frac plug

HOUSTON -- Halliburton’s Completion Tools business line, a long-standing industry leader in total composite plug technology, has introduced the Illusion frac plug, the only fully dissolvable frac plug on the market. More »

J2 Subsea opens new subsea tooling facility in Houston

J2 Subsea, an Acteon company, has opened a new subsea tooling facility at sister Acteon company, Seatronics’, subsea electronics location in Houston. More »

Cuadrilla set to get go-ahead to drill at UK shale site

Cuadrilla Resources Ltd., the driller whose fracing ambitions have sparked protests in the UK, took a step closer to sinking a shale-gas well in northwest England as council planners backed the project. More »

Plexus Holdings PLC secures £3.3 million contract

Plexus Holdings PLC, the AIM quoted oil and gas engineering services business and owner of the proprietary POS-GRIP® friction-grip method of wellhead engineering, announces that it has secured a new customer via a £3.3 million contract win with oil and gas major, Total EandP Norge AS (Total), to supply its POS-GRIP wellhead systems, associated equipment and mudline services for Total’s Ultra High Pressure/High Temperature (X-HP/HT) Solaris gas exploration well in the Graben area of the North Sea, offshore Norway. More »

Sparrows Group appoints experienced director to oversee Americas growth

The Sparrows Group has boosted its senior management team with the appointment of an experienced director to head up its operations across the Americas. More »

Unimin commences unit train service to Marcellus

Unimin Energy Solutions announced Monday the first delivery of frac sands by unit train to its Jerry Run, West Virginia terminal. More »

Billionaire seeks BHP-style conglomerate in Vedanta deal

Billionaire Anil Agarwal’s move to merge his two Indian units will create a national natural resources group to compete with BHP Billiton Ltd. and Vale SA. More »

PNG LNG achieves 100th LNG cargo

The 100th cargo of LNG from the PNG LNG project, operated by Exxon Mobil PNG Limited, set sail this weekend, just over one year on from the start of export operations. More »

Statoil awards Johan Sverdrup contracts to Odfjell Drilling

Statoil, on behalf of the Johan Sverdrup license, has awarded two contracts, at a total value of more than NOK 4.35 billion, to Odfjell Drilling for drilling wells on Johan Sverdrup field. More »

Petrobras sets new records for pre-salt production

Petrobras’ pre-salt production in May set two new monthly output records, the company said Friday. More »

TGS announces first multi-client 3D program in Newfoundland-Labrador

TGS has announced a new multi-client 3D survey offshore Eastern Canada, with plans to acquire approximately 6,000 km2 of seismic data. This survey is in partnership with PGS. More »

Oil traders lose faith in rally as OPEC nations pump at records

Speculators reduced bullish wagers on oil to the lowest level in eight weeks as OPEC’s biggest members pumped record amounts of crude. More »

ENOC to buy Dragon Oil for $2.6 billion after increasing bid

Emirates National Oil Co. agreed to buy Dragon Oil Plc for 1.7 billion pounds ($2.6 billion), gaining control over wells in Turkmenistan and exploration projects from Algeria to Iraq. More »

Frames, Novasep introduce Waste-Free Inhibitor Salt Extraction system

Frames and Novasep have jointly developed an easier solution to protect new and existing production facilities from damage caused by salt build-up. More »

Fjords Processing wins supplier award from GE

Fjords Processing was recently honored by General Electric (GE) through its supplier award, Excellence in Customer Centricity. The prestigious award recognizes suppliers that consistently meet the sourcing critical to quality and price, delivery quality, and demonstrates flexibility and responsiveness to GE. More »

Oil drops a third day as Libyan production adds to global glut

Oil fell for a third day as rising Libyan output added to speculation that unyielding OPEC production will prolong a global glut. More »