Drilling & production

Fernando Luiz Zancan, Brazilian Coal Association, Brazil, provides an overview of the country's coal industry and examines its future prospects.

Statoil has awarded Baker Hughes two year extensions on two contracts in Norway. The contracts are for the provision of drill bits, directional drilling, formation evaluation and related services on 10 - 12 rigs operating in multiple fields offshore Norway.

Chevron Australia Pty Ltd has announced successful drilling in the Greater Gorgon area in the Carnarvon Basin offshore Western Australia. The Yellowglen-1 exploration well is located in the WA-268-P permit area approximately 250 km northwest of Onslow.

Westar Energy has agreed to spend approximately US$ 500 million to significantly reduce harmful air pollution from a Kansas power plant and pay a US$ 3 million civil penalty under a settlement to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act.

February 2010: Kay Sever asks if companies really understand their improvement shortfalls?

A new type of continuous barge unloader (CBU) from ThyssenKrupp Fördertechnik will be put into operation at the Bontang Coal Terminal this Spring.

A brief overview of two of the latest refining projects

An overview of the North American natural gas industry

Newfield Exploration Co. has achieved record gross operated production of 323 million ft3/d of natural gas equivalent from the company's Woodford Shale play in the Arkoma Basin of southeastern Oklahoma.

India Resources Ltd has signed a Letter of Intent with Bankura DRI Mining Manufacturers Co. Private Ltd for a 30 year contract worth about AU$ 500 million to develop and operate the Biharinath coal mine.

Weatherford International Ltd has reported Q4 2009 income from continuing operations of US$ 15 million, or US$ 0.02 per diluted share, excluding an after tax loss of US$ 0.06.

In my last column of 2009, I ended on a positive note cautiously claiming that all sectors across the energy supply chain were beginning to see signs of a recovery. Let’s take a look at some of the sectors in more detail.

ExxonMobil has announced the successful completion of the first two extended reach wells at the Odoptu field offshore eastern Russia, employing one of the world's most powerful land based rigs. ExxonMobil subsidiary Exxon Neftegas Ltd (ENL) is operator on behalf of the five company international Sakhalin-1 Consortium.

Nord Stream has commissioned three steel producers to supply a total of 1 million t of pipes, to be used on its second pipeline.

Total and ConocoPhillips have announced the sanction of the Surmont Phase 2 SAGD (steam assisted gravity drainage) development in Canada. The project will increase Surmont’s production capacity from 27 000 - 11 000 bbls of bitumen per day.