Noble to Build 4th High-Spec Newbuild This Year

- Noble to Build 4th High-Spec Newbuild This Year

Thursday, September 01, 2011
Noble Corp.

Noble announced that a subsidiary has exercised its option with Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. ("HHI") for the construction of an additional ultra-deepwater drillship, the fourth such drillship to be ordered this year subject to the parties executing an agreed form of construction contract, which is expected to occur within the next several weeks. The additional ultra-deepwater drillship, to be named at a later date, will be constructed on a fixed price basis at HHI's shipyard in Ulsan, Korea, with expected delivery from the shipyard during the second half of 2014. Following shipyard delivery, the unit is expected to undergo the customary 90-120 day period for mobilization and acceptance prior to being ready to commence a contract. The rig is uncontracted at this time.

The delivered cost of the new drillship is expected to be $630 million and includes the turnkey construction contract, Company furnished equipment, project management and spares, but excludes capitalized interest. The construction contract contains favorable payment terms that incentivize on-time delivery.

"We continue to see an increase in deepwater demand, both near and longer-term," said David W. Williams, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Noble Corporation. "This view is bolstered not only by geologic successes in the traditional regions offshore the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and Brazil, but also by emerging regions offshore West Africa, Indonesia, the Black Sea, India and eastern Africa. With the addition of this fourth HHI newbuild drillship, by 2014 Noble will have one of the newest, most versatile and technologically advanced floater fleets in the industry with a total of 28 units, 16 of which will be dynamically positioned."

The new drillship announced Wednesday is based on a Hyundai Gusto P10000 hull design and is designed for operations in waters of up to 12,000 feet, but will be delivered fully equipped to operate in up to 10,000 feet of water. The unit will be equipped with DP-3 station keeping, the ability to handle two complete BOP systems, and multiple parallel activity features that improve well construction and overall project efficiencies, including a heave compensated construction crane to facilitate deployment of subsea production equipment. The drillship will also have accommodations for up to 210 personnel, in addition to a number of other operational enhancements beyond the shipyard's base specifications.

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Sionix to Build Bakken Water Treatment Plant

- Sionix to Build Bakken Water Treatment Plant

Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Sionix Corporation

Sionix Corporation has executed an agreement with Dakota Solutions, Inc. (DSI) for the lease of property in Tioga, North Dakota for the construction and operation of a Waste Water Treatment Facility (WWTF) in the Bakken Shale Formation.

Under the terms of the agreement Sionix plans to design, build, own and operate a WWTF on an 80 acre parcel of leased property near Tioga, ND, the center of drilling operations in North Dakota. Once constructed, this will be the first WWTF of its kind in the Williston Basin. The WWTF will be designed specifically for the treatment of heavily contaminated production, flowback and frac water generated by the rapidly expanding oil and gas drilling activities in the region, and will be equipped with the company's proprietary MWTS products and underlying dissolved air flotation technology. DSI, based in Tioga, North Dakota, owns and operates a fleet of waste hauling tankers for the transport of oil and gas drilling waste water in the Williston Basin region of North Dakota. DSI will transport oil and gas drilling waste to the WWTF as well as treated water back to drillers so that continued draw down on threatened fresh water resources is minimized.

Drilling activities in the energy rich Bakken Shale area of the Williston Basin are in the early stages of development. Drillers in the Williston Basin region of North Dakota currently dispose of their drilling wastes primarily in deep injection wells and continually access fresh water resources for their fracking operations, which is critical to the liberation of energy resources in the shale formation. The Williston Basin has limited availability of fresh water from glacial or bedrock aquifers, ground water resources, and municipal supplies to support drilling operations.

"After months of evaluating available data, we are moving forward with plans to construct and operate a waste water treatment facility in the Bakken Shale Formation," said James R. Currier, Chairman and CEO of Sionix. "We believe the combination of current and projected oil and gas drilling activities, limited availability of fresh water resources, and the absence of a comprehensive waste water treatment and water recycling facility makes this high energy reserve area an ideal location for the installation and operation of a WWTF equipped with our proprietary MWTS. It is expected to provide a critical resource for oil and gas drillers to treat and recycle (millions of gallons of) contaminated production, flowback and frac waste water (daily) without unnecessary stress on limited fresh water resources in the area. We expect the facility will serve not only oil and gas interests but also other industrial, agricultural, commercial and general public demands that require access to the limited public water supplies. With DSI hauling waste water exclusively to the Sionix WWTF, expected contracts with a number of drillers, and anticipated cooperation from local regulators, we believe we will have significant demand for our services."

John Hennessy and Mark Tudahl, co-owners of DSI, commented, "With deep roots, strong family ties, and a life long love for the prairies of North Dakota, we feel this is a great opportunity to preserve and maintain one of the prairies' most vital resources, simply water."

About Sionix Corporation
Sionix designs innovative and advanced Mobile Water Treatment Systems (MWTS) intended for use in energy projects including subterranean fracturing used in oil and gas drilling, government facilities, healthcare facilities, emergency water supplies, housing development projects, and various other industrial processes. These systems can be located adjacent to contaminated water sites or as a pre-treatment for reverse osmosis and other membrane applications. Industries involved in dairy, agribusiness, meat processing, mining, poultry operations, and many others can benefit from Sionix' cost-effective, easily maintained, portable water treatment systems. For more information about the company, go to www.sionix.com.

About Sionix Technology
Using a patented dissolved air flotation (DAF) technology packaged in a mobile shipping container, air bubbles between the size of 1 and 2 microns are injected and float organic contaminants to the surface where 99.95% are skimmed off, and a majority of inorganic contaminants are also captured and removed. This compares to standard DAF units which historically have been limited to using bubble sizes of 50 microns or larger. The size of these bubbles is important because the smaller the bubble, the greater the surface tension. They can then hold together longer and elevate more organic contaminants to the surface for removal.

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Helmerich & Payne to Build 12 Additional FlexRigs

- Helmerich & Payne to Build 12 Additional FlexRigs

Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Helmerich & Payne Inc.

Helmerich & Payne has entered into agreements to build and operate 12 additional FlexRigs. These rigs will be built under multi-year term contracts with eight exploration and production companies, and are scheduled to be completed and begin operations in the U.S. during fiscal 2012. The names of the customers and other terms were not disclosed. The Company does not expect these contracts to have a significant impact on its previously announced fiscal 2011 capital expenditures estimate.

President and CEO Hans Helmerich commented, "After a severe industry downturn in recent years, it is satisfying to report that since March 2010 we have now announced a total of 57 new builds, representing a 30 percent increase in the number of FlexRigs in our fleet. Given the increasing challenges and level of complexity related to drilling oil and gas wells today, demand for new and highly capable land rigs in the U.S. continues to grow and our FlexRigs continue to lead the way."

Since 2005, the Company has now committed to build a total of 197 new FlexRigs, all under multi-year term contracts with attractive dayrates and economic returns. Including the 12 announced new builds, 26 remain under construction and are scheduled to be completed at the rate of approximately three FlexRigs per month. Upon completion of these commitments in fiscal 2012, the Company's global land fleet is expected to include a total of 247 FlexRigs, of which 236 are assigned to the U.S. land market.

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Farstad Shipping to Build 2 New Vessels

- Farstad Shipping to Build 2 New Vessels

Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Farstad Shipping ASA

Farstad Shipping has reached an agreement with STX OSV AS to build 2 Anchor Handling / Offshore Service vessels (AHTS) of the type UT 731 CD. Contract value is approx. NOK 1.2 billion.

The vessels are designed by Rolls Royce Marine with a total length of 87.4 meters and breadth of 21.0 meters. Bollard pull will be approx. 260 tons and installed power is approx. 24 000 BHP. The vessels will be built according to DNV's strictest environmental class - "Clean Design" - and will be arranged for safe and efficient deepwater operations. The newbuilds are of the same design as Langsten has previously delivered four of to Farstad during 2009-2010.

The steel hulls will be built in Romania and outfitting yard will be STX OSV Langsten in Tomrefjord. Delivery of the vessels will be April and June 2013 respectively.

These newbuilds are part of Farstad's fleet renewal and focus on the segment for deepwater activities.

With this latest order Farstad will have 8 vessels under construction at a contract value of NOK 3.2 billion.

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BP Plans to Build 300 Wells in Oman

- BP Plans to Build 300 Wells in Oman

Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
LONDON
by Alexis Flynn

BP aims to develop 300 natural gas wells in Oman in what would be one of the company's largest global projects, Chief Executive Bob Dudley said Wednesday.

"Today we have just the three wells (in Oman), the plan is to have 300," Dudley said. Developing tight gas resources in the Gulf State "will be one of the largest projects in BP's portfolio."

Dudley's comments follow a recent report that BP is considering investing $15 billion over 10 years to develop the Block 61 tight gas fields in the country.

Citing the vice-president of BP Oman, Oil & Gas Journal reported that the company will submit a field development plan to the government early next year, which includes a 1.2 billion cubic-feet-a-day gas processing plant, with production seen starting by early 2017.

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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Daewoo to Build Vantage Ultra-Deepwater Drillship

Daewoo to Build Vantage Ultra-Deepwater Drillship

Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Vantage Drilling Company

Vantage Drilling Company has entered into an agreement with Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., Ltd ("DSME") to
construct an ultra-deepwater drillship further expanding the Company's ultra-deepwater drilling fleet. The Company plans to name
the drillship Tungsten Explorer.

The agreement is a fixed price turnkey contract for the construction of the drillship with a scheduled delivery date of May 31, 2013. The
cost of the Tungsten Explorer, including all project management, commissioning, spares, pre-delivery crew costs and inventory is
estimated to be approximately $580 to $590 million. The Company has also obtained a fixed price option for the purchase of an additional drillship.

Tungsten Explorer will be constructed at DSME's shipyard in Okpo, Korea, and will be capable of operating in water depths up to 12,000 feet, with a total vertical drilling depth capacity of 40,000 feet. The hull design has a variable deck load of 20,000 tons and measures 781 feet long by 137 feet wide. The drillship will be equipped with the most technically advanced features in the drilling industry including DP3 dynamic positioning system, 1250 short ton hook load drilling package, a 9000 hp drawworks, as well as offline pipe handling and trip saver system. The drillship will have accommodations for 200 personnel.

Paul Bragg, the Company's Chairman and CEO, commented, "The addition of Tungsten Explorer to our fleet is an exciting development. While this will be our second Company-owned unit to be constructed at DSME, it will be our fifth drillship project undertaken there, inclusive of our three ongoing construction oversight projects. Our strong relationship with the DSME management has allowed us to achieve exceptional project terms -- a) one of the lowest cost construction contracts of this kind, (b) one of the earliest deliveries of the recent order cycle -- just 24 months away, and (c) one of the highest specification ultra-deepwater units yet to be built.

"We are also very pleased that payment terms provide for an initial down payment of just slightly over $100 million, with the balance of
the contract price due at delivery in May 2013. We plan to debt finance the down payment in connection with our planned refinancing
of some of our existing high cost debt.

"The addition of Tungsten Explorer to our fleet will add substantial additional earnings power to Vantage by the second half of 2013."

The Company, a Cayman Islands exempted company, is an offshore drilling contractor, with an owned fleet of four Baker Marine Pacific Class 375 ultra-premium jackup drilling rigs and one ultra-deepwater drillship, the Platinum Explorer. The Company's primary business is to contract drilling units, related equipment and work crews primarily on a dayrate basis to drill oil and natural gas wells. The Company also provides construction supervision services for, and will operate and manage, drilling units owned by others. Through its fleet of seven owned and managed drilling units, the Company is a provider of offshore contract drilling services globally to major, nationaland large independent oil and natural gas companies.

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Iran's Mahshahar in Talks to Build Oil Pipe Plant in Iraq

Iran's Mahshahar in Talks to Build Oil Pipe Plant in Iraq

Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Asia Pulse Pte Ltd

Iran's Mahshahar, a specialist oil pipe manufacturer, is in talks with Iraq's Basra Investment Commission to build a factory and warehouses in Basra to provide the Iraqi State Oil Company with custom-made oil pipes.

Head of the commission, Haidar Ali Fadhil, told NINA that the Iranian firm had discussed building the factory and the warehouses under international standards.

He expressed the commission's readiness to provide land for the project and accelerate the license procedures.

Fadhil said that both sides have agreed to hold an expanded meeting with the entrusted Iraqi companies; Southern Oil Company, Southern Gas Company, Oil Pipelines Company, and Southern Refineries Company in order to cooperate and coordinate and provide them with the needed pipes.

(C) 2011 Asia Pulse Pte Ltd.

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Maersk Oil Takes Stake Offshore Norway

Maersk Oil Takes Stake Offshore Norway

Friday, April 15, 2011
Maersk Oil

Maersk Oil has been awarded a 30% non-operated share in License PL597 on the Halten Terrace offshore Norway in the 21st Licensing Round.

The operator of the license is VNG Norge A/S (40%) with Dana Petroleum Plc as partner (30%). Together with Maersk Oil, the partners are committed to carrying out seismic data reprocessing leading to a decision whether to drill an exploration well.

"This license award fits well with Maersk Oil's strategy of building up a strong exploration portfolio in our chosen focus areas in Norway. It adds to our current interests in four other licenses on the Halten Terrace," said Morten Jeppesen, Managing Director of Maersk Oil Norway.

"We are committed to growing our business in Norway through exploration and acquisitions to build a significant portfolio of exploration and producing assets in the coming years," Jeppesen said.

Moscow scolds Bulgaria over oil pipeline

Moscow scolds Bulgaria over oil pipeline
March. 22, 2011 at 8:25 AM

MOSCOW, March 22 (UPI) -- The Bulgarian government is in part to blame for all-but shutting down plans for the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, a Russian energy executive said.

Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said in February that Moscow was interested in the project but had to suspend most of the work because of delays from Sofia.

Bulgaria in 2007 signed an agreement with Russia and Greece to build the 174-mile oil pipeline to bypass crowded waterways near Turkey by crossing an overland route to the Aegean Sea.

Mikhail Barkov, a vice president at Russian pipeline company Transneft, was quoted by Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti as saying the project would be scaled down if Sofia doesn't take it seriously.

"If the Bulgarian side fails to treat the Burgas-Alexandroupolis positively, and does not adopt a positive environmental assessment for the oil pipeline, there will be a decision to put the company into a hibernation mode," he said.

Moscow claims the Bulgarian government owes about $10.3 million to the project consortium.

Bulgarian officials brushed off past threats from Moscow, however, saying the rhetoric was intended more as a negotiation tactic than as a statement of intent.

Link
http://www.upi.com/

[Oil and Gas Post] - Samsung wins $2.76 bn project in Saudi Arabia

Samsung wins $2.76 bn project in Saudi Arabia

22 Mar, 2011, 11.40AM IST,AFP

SEOUL: South Korea's Samsung Engineering Co. said Tuesday it had signed a $2.76 billion deal to build a natural gas liquid complex in eastern Saudi Arabia .

Under the deal signed with Saudi Arabia's state-run oil company, Aramco , Samsung Engineering will complete the complex in Shaybah oil and gas field by June 2014.

The plant will produce 750,000 barrels of crude oil and more than 200,000 barrels of natural gas liquids a day.

Samsung Engineering has now secured five projects worth a total of $5 billion, including a power plant project in Wasit, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the industrial city of Jubail.

Link
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/