BP requests US court to stop spill settlement payments
British oil major BP has requested that a US court temporarily stops payments from its settlement agreement for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
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The company wants a halt in payments until the court-appointed claims administrator Patrick Juneau puts accounting controls in place, as recommended by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who reviewed the payment programme.
Freeh, who was appointed by federal judge Carl Barbier in July 2013, to probe the settlement programme, filed his report with the court earlier this month.
The payment programme is meant to compensate victims of the deadly Deepwater Horizon blast.
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GE Oil & Gas unveils subsea manifold design for offshore customers
GE Oil & Gas has introduced a standardised manifold design option, to cut down the time it takes to design and deliver subsea manifold systems for offshore operations.
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By GlobalDataThe new option, which can be reconfigured to meet certain project conditions, can help minimise manifold delivery times by up to 50%, depending on various project factors, according to the company.
The manifold programme is part of the company’s ‘Structured Products Portfolio’ initiative, which is aimed at developing a series of pre-engineered products.
FMC secures $90m subsea equipment contract from Statoil
FMC Technologies has received a contract worth $90m from Statoil for subsea equipment for the Gullfaks Rimfaksdalen project in the Norwegian North Sea.
As part of the order, FMC Technologies will supply subsea trees, wellheads, a manifold, control systems integration and other associated equipment.
The Gullfaks Rimfaksdalen project comprises of the Rutil and Opal subsea tie-back gas fields to Gullfaks.
In December 2012, FMC signed an agreement with Statoil for the supply of additional subsea equipment for the Snorre field.
Chevron to pay $42m to settle Brazilian spill suits
US-based Chevron will pay BRL95.2m ($42m) to settle civil lawsuits regarding an offshore oil spill in November 2011 at the Frade field offshore of Brazil.
The payment will close the book on two civil lawsuits that sought up to $20bn in damages for Chevron’s role in the oil spill at the company’s offshore field.
An estimated 2,400 to 3,700 barrels of oil were leaked into the Atlantic Ocean after a drilling accident at the field.
Chevron’s payment is said to meet requirements of prosecutors for all damages related to the oil spill.
Total warns Shell of corrosive drilling fluid leak at Shearwater
Total has warned Royal Dutch Shell that its nearby Shearwater field may be at risk, as a corrosive drilling fluid that caused the North Sea’s worst gas leak in 20 years is expected to threaten similar deep-sea wells.
The fluids, such as calcium bromide, implicated in the leak at the company’s Elgin field, are said to be commonly used in deep-sea wells.
According to Total, the leakage at the Elgin field in 2012 happened due to a corrosive reaction that took place between calcium bromide, which is used to complete the well, and grease in the pipework, which cracked the piping under high pressure.
US court charges Halliburton director for destroying evidence
The US federal court has charged Halliburton Energy Services’ former cementing technology director Anthony Badalamenti, for destroying evidence related to the deadly oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) in 2010, which killed 11 workers.
Badalamenti, who was BP’s cement contractor on the drilling rig that exploded in the GoM, was believed to have instructed two other employees to delete key data during a post-spill review of the cement job on BP’s blown-out well.
According to prosecutors, Badalamenti had directed a senior programme manager in May 2010 to run computer simulations on centralisers, which are used to keep the casing centred in the wellbore.
Following his instructions, another Halliburton employee also deleted data from a separate round of simulations.
BHP Billiton opens Australian $1.5bn domestic gas project
BHP Billiton has opened its $1.5bn Macedon domestic gas project in Onslow, in Western Australia.
The BHP Billiton-operated facility, which commercialises natural gas from offshore production lease WA-42-L, situated in the Exmouth Sub-Basin, commenced first gas on target in August 2013.
According to the company, the operation is said to supply 20% of the state’s daily domestic gas supply for consumers and industry.
The facility is also expected to build on the company’s oil and gas operations in Western Australia, which include interests in the North West Shelf, as well as the Exmouth Sub-Basin.
Buccaneer Energy to acquire Apache leases in Alaska
Australian oil and gas company Buccaneer Energy has signed binding agreements with Apache Alaska to acquire complete stakes in four oil and gas leases in the state of Alaska.
Spreading across 14,353 acre area, the oil and gas leases include ADL 391899, 391902, 391903 and 391904 and are located near the existing Cosmopolitan Project, in which the company owns a 25% stake.
The remaining 75% working interest in the existing Cosmopolitan Project is owned by BlueCrest Energy.
Buccaneer Energy has offered an option to BlueCrest to acquire a 75% working interest in the leases, under terms similar to its agreement with BlueCrest.
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