offshore

The new well control rule is evidence that memories of the Macondo blowout remain a powerful force for caution. Despite the rhetoric on both sides of this hot-button issue suggesting big changes, the final changes were incremental.

After drilling the Dorado-2 appraisal well, operator Santos Energy now expects a big increase in gas resources from predrill estimates, adding to one of the largest oil resources ever found on Australia’s North West Shelf.

The Agidigbo find follows the Kalimba, Afoxé, Agogo, and Ndungu discoveries. The five discoveries combined hold an estimated 1.8 billion bbl of light oil in place.

The state-owned firm is looking within its home country, around Southeast Asia, and to the Americas—including shale—in an effort to maintain its forecast average yearly production of 1.7 million BOE/D over the next 5 years.

The El Dorado, Arkansas-based Murphy has quickly found a home for some of the cash it will receive from the sale of its Malaysia business. The company has been rapidly expanding its US gulf footprint while simplifying its portfolio and targeting more oil.

Operators are looking for ways to better handle water coming from subsea wells, which is typically treated at topside facilities. Subsea separation systems are not equipped to discharge water back into the reservoir, so how do companies close the gaps?

The three largest service companies are optimistic about the rest of 2019.

There is a new, big independent in the UK North Sea, Delek Group. Its UK North Sea arm, Ithaca, bought most of Chevron’s holdings in the sector in a $2 billion deal.

The deepwater Gulf of Mexico project is expected to add 50,000 B/D of oil production through the construction of two new subsea production units and production wells.

Appomattox begins production below cost and ahead of schedule in another optimistic sign of the offshore sector’s rebound.