(OE) Global consultancy ABL Group has completed the transaction to acquire 100% of the shares of specialist energy consultancy Ross Offshore, which now will merge with ABL Group company AGR. The combination of AGR and Ross Offshore will further strengthen the group’s center of technical excellence in wells, reservoirs and marine and survey management. Integration... Continue Reading →
Foresea completes one year with 100% of its fleet contracted
(PN) Foresea has 100% of its fleet contracted and had operational uptime (operation quality index) of 98.2% in 2023, the highest in the Brazilian market. According to the CEO of Foresea, Rogério Ibrahim, the drilling sector should remain at a very competitive level in 2024, with increased demands and a stabilization of the tariff recovery experienced... Continue Reading →
Drilling gets underway at Fénix Field offshore Argentina
(OM) Development drilling has started at the Fénix Field, 60 km offshore Tierra del Fuego, southern Argentina. The jackup Noble Regina Allen is stationed alongside the new Fénix production platform, which was installed in February. Operator Total Austral has commissioned three development wells to be drilled and completed over the next months. Once online, the production will head through... Continue Reading →
Noble Corporation and Diamond Offshore Enter Merger Creating 41 Rig Units Fleet
(OE) Noble Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Diamond Offshore, creating a fleet of 41 rigs - including 28 floaters and 13 jack-ups, and a combined backlog of approximately $6.5 billion. Noble will acquire Diamond in a stock plus cash transaction, whereby Diamond shareholders will receive 0.2316 shares of Noble, plus cash... Continue Reading →
Brazilian Drilling Contractor Goes to Public Market in Norway
(OE) Brazilian deepwater drilling firm Ventura Offshore Holding has been listed for public trading at Euronext Growth in Oslo, Norway. On March 8, 2024, Ventura Offshore Holding entered into a share purchase agreement (SPA) with Petroserv Marine regarding the acquisition of all outstanding shares in Universal Energy Resources. Following the closing of the acquisition two... Continue Reading →
Report: Worldwide demand for rigs ramping up
(OM) Demand for floating and jackup rigs is ramping up worldwide, with operators particularly active for drilling campaigns in the “golden triangle” of the US Gulf of Mexico, Africa and Brazil, according to Evercore ISI’s latest Offshore Rig Market Snapshot. The oilfield services investment consulting firm based its analysis on 1Q 2024 earnings results. In the US,... Continue Reading →
Colombia’s Oil Industry Stuck in Down Spiral
By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com In a controversial move, Colombia’s leftist President, Gustavo Petro, banned awarding new hydrocarbon exploration contracts. He also sought to ban hydraulic fracturing in the conflict-riven country, which is economically dependent on petroleum extraction. Those government policies, coupled with tax hikes for Colombia’s extractive industries along with a lack of major oil and... Continue Reading →
Diamond Offshore Agrees Marketing Rights for Three Drillships
(OE) U.S.-based offshore drilling company Diamond Offshore has secured the marketing rights for three seventh generation drillships - West Dorado, West Draco and West Libra, which will be renamed Tidal Action. Diamond Offshore entered into an agreement with Eldorado Drilling, the owner of the West Dorado and West Draco, to market the rigs in Brazil,... Continue Reading →
Big Oil Finds More to Love in Deepwater Exploration Fields
(Reuters) As Big Oil returns this week to the industry's annual showcase for offshore energy projects and equipment in Houston, deepwater discoveries off Guyana, Namibia and the U.S. Gulf Coast will take the spotlight. Offshore exploration had dimmed after the U.S. shale boom ushered in new and cheaper-to-tap supplies of oil, and as past offshore... Continue Reading →
Petrobras launches tender for large onshore drilling rigs
Petrobras launched a bidding process to contract four large rigs, which will drill oil and gas production wells onshore in the fields of Araçás, Fazenda Azevedo, Massapê , Taquipe, Fazenda Boa Esperança, among others, in Bahia, and Rio do Urucu, Sudoeste do Urucu and Leste Urucu and Arara Azul, in Amazonas. The rigs to be... Continue Reading →