Highlights of the Week

Subsea World News has put together a recap of the most interesting articles from the previous week (November 10 – November 16).

AGR’s well construction planning software, P1, has been selected by Xcite Energy to support development of the Bentley Field, one of the largest fields in the UKCS.

P1 software will play a key role in Xcite’s strategic planning for the field, allowing the oil company to maximise the performance of well construction. From planning onwards, P1 can be utilised to monitor and improve well-construction performance and to evaluate options in the event of a problem.

UK based engineering and construction player Subsea 7 saw profits go up in the third quarter of 2014 on operating income jump, lower costs and lower currency losses.

The company scored $206 million in net income, compared with $160 million in the third quarter (Q3) last year. As for the first nine months of 2014, Subsea 7 reported profit of $607 million, versus $278 million year-over-year. However, Subsea 7 reported a drop in its Q3 order backlog and warned that the slip of oil prices could delay future offshore projects.

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) has acquired a 14.8% stake in Fugro N.V.

Boskalis views Fugro as an interesting company with activities that fit very well with its own activities and wants to enter into a dialogue with Fugro to explore possible options for cooperation, the Company said in a press release. The strategy of Boskalis is focused on offshore and (maritime) infrastructure, making use of the combination of high end know-how and maritime assets. This fits very well with the activities of Fugro.

McDermott International has been awarded a three-year shallow water pipeline contract by Brunei Shell Petroleum Company (BSP) to transport and install pipelines and umbilicals for the Champion and Ampa Fields offshore Brunei. Work is expected to be executed through 2017.

The full scope of work will be executed in annual work plans that are expected to be confirmed over the coming years as BSP finalizes its development plans and budgets. The work identified for 2015 will be included in McDermott’s fourth quarter 2014 backlog.

Cluff Natural Resources has announced an initial JORC resource estimate of 335 million tonnes of coal of which 247 million tonnes is measured and indicated, within its 100% owned Kincardine Licence in the Firth of Forth, Scotland.

This initial resource estimate is a key step towards building the UK’s first deep offshore Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) demonstration project.