New Oil Discovered in the North Sea
the PL 167 licence at the Utsira High in the North Sea.The discovery is currently estimated to contain 15-35 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.“We are very pleased to announce the first Equinor discovery,” said Nicholas Ashton, Equinor’s senior vice president, Exploration, Norway & UK.“This is a good discovery which we expect will be commercial. In addition, the results from the drilling indicate an upside potential in this discovery,” Ashton pointed out.The Lille Prinsen well is located 200 kilometers west of Stavanger and northwest of the Johan Sverdrup
Norway Wants to Build Floating Wind Farms
Norway's energy minister will meet with companies on Wednesday to discuss the potential construction of offshore floating wind farms, he told Reuters on Friday.The meeting is the first concrete step to spur development of offshore floating power generation, after the government said last December it would seek to accommodate such plans."Wednesday next week I will have a meeting with different stakeholders in offshore wind and discuss both the opening process and the regulatory framework," Terje Soeviknes said.Unlike offshore wind turbines that are fixed to the seabed, floating wind parks
Norway Awards Oil Permits to 11 Firms in Arctic Licensing Round
Norway has awarded 12 oil and gas exploration licences to Equinor and 10 other companies focused mostly on the Arctic, where Oslo believes it has the greatest potential for significant new discoveries.Nine of the licences are located in the Barents Sea and three in the Norwegian Sea off central Norway, the Ministry of Oil and Energy said on Monday."This licensing round confirms that the oil companies see opportunities for further profitable petroleum activity in the north," Oil and Energy Minister Terje Soeviknes said in a statement.Equinor, formerly known as Statoil, was awarded five
Hydroid's Most Compact AUV Ever Produced
ran comparative “offboard” tests of the Nortek DVL1000 against systems from other manufacturers, attaching them to a rig at sea. Hydroid also brought in Dr. Øyvind Hegrenæs, a Principal Engineer and Navigation Solutions Product Manager from Kongsberg Maritime in Horten, Norway. “After having tested of one of Nortek’s other DVLs, the DVL500, his conclusion was that Nortek’s DVL500 had a comparable or better accuracy than more expensive alternatives, as well as some nice features like outputting figure of merit data,” Lester reports.
Oil Exploration Is Ramping Up Off Norway
Oil firms are expected to drill 40-50 exploration wells off Norway this year compared to 36 wells drilled the previous year, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said on Thursday.The Norwegian continental shelf still held an estimated 4 billion cubic meters (25.2 billion barrels) of oil equivalents in undiscovered petroleum resources, with two-thirds located in the Arctic Barents Sea, it added.Half of estimated undiscovered resources in the Barents Sea, however, are located north of the areas opened for petroleum activities, and it's unclear when oil firms can get access to them.(Reporting by
Norwegians Collaborate on Mapping Plastic in the Oceans
find good solutions to a major environmental problem," says Torvald Klaveness CEO Lasse Kristoffersen. The Norwegian Shipowners' Association is heading up the project, and believes that cross-sector cooperation is important to finding solutions to the problems caused by marine garbage. "Norway is a world leader in maritime expertise and technology. We will now use that knowledge to obtain more information about the sea and the state of its health. Plastic in the ocean is a major environmental problem, and it is crucial that we find a solution. We are therefore proud that the industry will
Houlder Joins Sir David Attenborough Celebrations
Technical Director) have also played key technical and management roles. They have been joined by a range of specialists from Houlder during the project. These include marine engineers, hull inspectors, electrical engineers and works supervisors. Houlder has also deployed its personnel further afield, to Norway and Vietnam for example, to test and accept major equipment from the wider supply chain.Houlder Chief Executive Officer, Rupert Hare explains, "The Houlder team has been acting as technical advisor and ‘customer friend’ at each stage of delivery. This will go on as the build continues
Aker Solutions Bags Work On Johan Sverdrup Offshore Norway
Aker Solutions has, in collaboration with Kvaerner, secured additional hook-up and commissioning work for Equinor's Johan Sverdrup field offshore Norway.Equinor has exercised an option in the Johan Sverdrup Riser platform hook-up contract awarded in January 2017 for Aker Solutions to perform hook-up and commissioning assistance of the field's utility and living quarter platform, as well as the preparatory offshore work connected with the phase two modifications of the riser platform."We are delivering well and on schedule on the hook-up work that we are currently performing on the
Fugro Resumes Norwegian Seabed Mapping Project
Fugro has been awarded a hydrographic survey contract, valued at NOK 44.7 million (approximately €4.7 million), by the Norwegian Hydrographic Service. The survey is part of the MAREANO seabed mapping program, which is financed by Norway’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, and the Ministry of Climate and Environment. Fugro has successfully completed numerous surveys for the program since 2006, collecting more than 100,000 square kilometers of data.In water depths that typically range from 80 meters to 1,700 meters, the survey area of approximately 14,500 square kilometers is located
Circulation Tool Helps Operators Cut Rig Time
Drilling Tools. Run in hundreds of wells every year and recognized for its reliability, resilience and versatility, the dart activated DAV MX is the ultimate downhole circulation tool.With demand continuing to grow for the award-winning tool, the company, ahead of exhibiting at ONS in Norway this month, has released details of one of 14 activations in the last year in the Norwegian Sea alone.Demonstrating the DAV MX’s resilience and versatility, a North Sea operator activated the tool on a specialist Well Bore Clean Up (WBCU) run on a recent exploration well. The tool was
Aker BP Adds More Acreage off Norway
Norway's independent oil firm Aker BP has agreed to buy stakes in 11 production licenses off Norway from French Total for a cash consideration of $205 million, the company said on Tuesday.The portfolio includes four discoveries with net recoverable resources of 83 million barrels oil equivalents based on estimates from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), it added."With this transaction, we get access to new tie-back opportunities in the Alvheim and Skarv areas, we strengthen our resource base in the NOAKA area, and we increase our interest in exploration acreage near the Ula field
Johan Castberg PDO Approved
Castberg field will have a supply and helicopter base in Hammerfest and an operations organization in Harstad. The costs of operating the field are estimated at some NOK 1.15 billion ($19 million) per year, representing around 1700 man-years nationwide, some 500 of which will be performed in Northern Norway. This includes both direct and indirect spinoffs.Equinor and the other operators with oil deposits in the Barents Sea are looking at the possibilities of oil transfer at Veidnes in Finnmark county, including both a downscaled terminal solution and ship-to-ship transfer.The Johan Castberg partnership
Equinor Announced Partnership with Microsoft
Equinor partners with Microsoft for cloud services delivered from new cloud data centers in NorwayAs part of a strategic partnership agreement, Equinor will provide industry knowledge and business needs to support Microsoft in developing new solutions for our industry. Microsoft will provide expertise to accelerate Equinor’s IT development and establish new data center regions in Stavanger and in Oslo.The strategic partnership is a seven-year consumption and development agreement in the hundreds of millions of dollars (USD).Equinor said its partnership with Microsoft enables it to shape and
Johan Sverdrup Drilling Platform Installed
development phase of the giant Johan Sverdrup field is thus installed.“This is an important milestone in the Johan Sverdrup installation campaign. Two of the four Johan Sverdrup platforms are now in place. The power cables to the field were rolled out last week, and so far, the installation of Norway’s biggest oil pipeline has gone very well, so this is definitely moving in the right direction,” says Trond Bokn, senior vice president for Johan Sverdrup at Equinor.“At the same time, much work remains, and we must maintain extra focus on safety and quality in the execution phase
Powering the Seafloor: Put a Socket in It
power source up to 600km away and with no offshore platform. Then, subsea installed switchgear and VSDs would control and distribute power to a range of users, from pumps and compressors to pipeline heating systems and ROVs or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs).The concept is being driven out of Norway, largely by Norway’s Statoil, along with other oil majors via JIPs. “The direct benefits (of subsea electrification) are reducing topside foot print and cost, through removal of the hydraulic system, having a smaller, less complex umbilical, smaller and lighter subsea modules, improved
House Set to Debate Offshore Wind Energy Bills in US Waters
that commits his state to procuring 3.5 gigawatts of offshore wind.A wind farm that generates up to 1.5 gigawatts of electricity can power roughly 1 million homes.European companies have been especially interested in U.S. offshore acreage up for lease.Mike Olsen, senior director of government affairs at Norway's Equinor, formerly Statoil, is expected to testify at Tuesday's hearing.Statoil Wind has already won a bid for 80,000 acres of offshore leasing rights off of New York's coast.James Bennett, chief of the Office of Renewable Energy Programs Department at the Interior’s Bureau of
RAMCO Agrees to Contract with Equinor
RAMCO, the international specialist in the care and maintenance of oil country tubular goods (OCTG), has signed a contract with Equinor (formerly Statoil) for inspection and mobilization of casing and tubing in Norway, worth more than $10 million a year to 2024.Over the last 40 years, RAMCO has played a key role in the provision of inspection and cleaning for OCTG pipe and during this time the company has developed a long-standing relationship with Equinor delivering pipe care excellence in Norway. This new contract, which is initially for two-years, covers sites in the ports of Florø and
