PSA Norway conducted an audit of Lundin Norway’s extended well testing of well 7220/11-5 S in the Barents Sea. The audit included Ocean Rig as the holder of the AoC for the Leiv Eiriksson drilling facility. The audit was conducted between 22 March and 28 June 2018 and found points that can be improved.
PSA Norway has given Equinor consent to use a facility to supply power from onshore to the Johan Sverdrup field. Electrical power will be obtained from the onshore grid and converted to DC at a transformer station at Haugsneset close to the Kårstø facility in Rogaland.
A total of 20 development projects are currently underway on the Norwegian Shelf, and 13 exploration wells in the first half of 2018 have yielded 6 discoveries. Production has been a little lower in the first six months of the year as compared with the same period last year, says Norwegian NPD.
A new project to develop a UK oil and gas skills strategy has been launched following release of the UKCS Workforce Dynamics Review. Launched in May 2018, the study found that if the sector achieves energy transition ambitions, around 40,000 people will need to be recruited into the sector over the next 20 years.
UK’s Oil and Gas Authority released its Production efficiency for 2017. OGA reports the PE continued its rise for the fifth year in a row. Namely, in 2017 it reached 74%, increasing production in the UK Continental Shelf. Th total UKCS production potential in 2017 was 800 million boe, a slight increase from 2016.
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will offer about 78 million acres offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida for oil and gas exploration and development. The region-wide lease sale is scheduled for August 15, 2018, and includes all available unleased areas in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
New York’s Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the New York State Public Service Commission started procurements of offshore wind to support New York’s goal of 2,400 megawatts of new offshore wind generation by 2030. This is the first phase of the procurements, which will obtain about 800 megawatts of offshore wind by 2019.
On 25-26 April and on 7-10 May 2018, Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority carried out an audit of ConocoPhillips’ planning and execution of drilling and well operations at Ekofisk X, and identified four irregularities and three points of improvement.
Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority informed that it found safety problems on Inpex’s offshore gas platform Ichthys LNG project off northern Australia. As a result the authority is considering enforcement action.
The Health and Safety Working Group of the North Sea Offshore Authorities Forum, discussed challenges for the oil and gas industry. The challenges related to maintaining and operating ageing installations in a lower oil price environment was selected, and a series of audits were conducted under the theme of Maintaining Safe Operations.
