Drilling & production

Iraq has agreed to build an oil pipeline to Jordan to increase the supply of crude oil.

Petrofac has been awarded a contract by Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd for the development of the SEPAT offshore early production system on the East coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Diamond Offshore Drilling have signed a contract for an ultra deepwater drilling ship with Hyundai Heavy Industries, with the option to buy a second one.

Riversdale Mining and Rio Tinto have enterd a Bid Implementation Agreement, under which Rio Tinto has agreed to make an all cash off-market takeover bid at AU$ 16/share.

Aker Solutions has entered into a share purchase agreement (SPA) whereby it has agreed to transfer operations within its Process and Construction business area to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Jacobs).

Increase in petroleum deliveries signals stronger economy say the American Petroleum Institute.

A special IHS Herold Review on the oilfield services sector issued this month indicates a healthier growth outlook for the industry in 2011, despite being hard hit by the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) drilling moratorium in 2010.

Oil accidents have prompted Danish industries and research to cooperate on new groundbreaking sonar technology. For the first time ever it will be possible to get a detailed picture of oil in the water column and on the seafloor.

Santos LNG has sold stakes in its Gladstone LNG project to KOGAS and Total and signed a 20 year supply agreement with KOGAS.

Calais LNG has formally withdrawn its application to build an LNG terminal in Calais, Maine.

The Department of Energy has provided a partial loan guarantee on the US$ 1.3 billion loan that will finance the Caithness Shepherds Flat project.

Chevron Corporation has sanctioned the development of its US$ 4 billion Big Foot development.

Over the next 20 years, South Africa intends to drastically reduce the use of coal as the country’s prime energy-fuel, and 30 years thereafter virtually remove it altogether from the energy-fuel mix. Barry Baxter asks if this could really happen.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium is to expand its pipeline capacity to 67 million tpa at a cost of US$ 5.4 billion. The expansion will allow Kazakhstan to increase it oil exports.

Churchill Mining has completed the purchase of the land to be used as the site of the future port facility for the shipment of coal from the East Kutai coal project. When complete, the port will be capable of handling 30 million tpa of coal and offer direct access to international markets.