Upstream news

Downtime caused by critical system failures continues to be a key challenge for the oil and gas industry, estimated to cost the UKCS more than US$1 billion a year in lost production.

Saudi Aramco has awarded Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. a contract to provide engineering and project management services for the Zuluf Field Development Programme's Arab Heavy (AH) Crude Oil Increment 600 MBCD - Onshore Central Processing Facilities (CPF) project, which will provide facilities to process 600 000 bopd of Arabian heavy crude oil from the Zuluf offshore field in the Arabian Gulf.

Materion Corporation, an advanced materials solutions provider, recently introduced a new oilfield coupling that is designed to significantly reduce failures in wells that are prone to extreme rod string buckling and wear deep in wells.

Over US$811 billion will be spent on 615 upcoming oil and gas fields between 2018 and 2025.

Sembcorp Marine Ltd has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Sembcorp Marine Rigs & Floaters Pte. Ltd., has secured a contract from TechnipFMC to undertake the Engineering, Procurement and Construction of Hull and Living Quarters for a newbuild Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO).

Pioneer Natural Resources Company announced that it has signed a purchase and sale agreement with Sundance Energy, Inc. to sell approximately 10 200 net acres in the western portion of Pioneer’s Eagle Ford Shale acreage position for US$102 million, subject to normal closing adjustments.

Total announces first gas from the Timimoun field in southwestern Algeria. The production complex with a capacity of around 5 million m3 of natural gas per day at plateau (around 30 000 boepd, is jointly operated by Sonatrach (51%), Total (37.75%) and Cepsa (11.25%).

Neptune has announced the award of subsea stabilisation services for the Daman field development project in Mumbai High, India.

Minor oil discovery north-west of the Gjøa Field in the North Sea – 35/9-13, 35/9-14 and 35/9-14 A

Petróleos Mexicanos and Lewis Energy México signed the first Integrated Exploration and Extraction Contract (CSIEE) for the Olmos field, which is located in the state of Coahuila. The purpose is to assess and develop the Eagle Ford field in Mexico.