From Houston (BN): Petrobras announced it is filing lawsuits related to the OPERATION CAR WASH scandal seeking to recover losses due to improper payments to companies which then gave ‘kickbacks’ to Petrobras employees.

The suits - filed jointly with federal prosecutors - seek recovery of funds misapplied, fines and ‘material and moral damages’. The first two lawsuits target the dealings of Enegevix and Mendes Junior with Petrobras’ downstream division.

Total of damages sought is R$452mn. Petrobras said it will file three more lawsuits against Camargo Correa, OAS and Galvao Engenharia seeking R$826mn. Petrobras has already received R$157mn from federal officials who described the money as repatriated from Swiss accounts.

Petrobras has also announced a new director and composition of its audit committee as part of efforts to restore investor confidence.

GE OIL & GAS and ENPRO SUBSEA have teamed up to offer fluid well intervention services to the global market

GEOG says the tie-up is a step in growing its ‘life of field’ service business by investing in technology R&D. Enpro’s Integrated Subsea Sampling and Injection solution is a small, lightweight system that enables multiple well campaigns from a single vessel. The equipment can be operated subsea by an rov which can be deployed at multiple injection locations.

AMETEK has acquired Global Tubes, a manufacturer of high-precision, small-diameter metal tubing, for approximately $200mn. The business has annual sales of approximately $120mn.

GT is comprised of two businesses: Fine Tubes, based in Plymouth, UK, and Superior Tube, based in Collegeville, PA. It manufactures customized metal tubing from a variety of metals and alloys, including stainless steel, nickel, zirconium and titanium. Its products are used in highly engineered applications serving the aerospace, energy, power generation and medical markets.

From the North Sea (NT): CECON ASA, the holding company of the Norwegian subsea construction group, has been declared bankrupt, although its subsidiaries continue to operate.

The company’s efforts to agree a debt restructuring with its creditors were torpedoed when €38mn posted as a performance bond in an escrow account in Holland were released by the bank to GDF Suez (now renamed Engie), Cecon tells SEN. Cecon is in dispute with the French company over a pipelay contract.

Cecon Pride, the first of three subsea construction vessels built by the Davie yard in Canada, was delivered last year and a majority interest sold to the Fortress Investment Group. The vessel is under charter to Micoperi in the Mediterranean, operating as Micoperi Pride.

As new work is sought, although so far without success, by the Cecon Contracting subsidiary, delivery of the second and third vessels, Cecon Excellence and Cecon Sovereign, has been put back to end 2015-early 2016 and end 2016-early 2017, respectively.

Ultrasonic inspection services provider Sonomatic has appointed Tracy Anderson as RAIS division manager (Rope Access and Inspection Services) and UK business development manager. She joins from ApplusRTD.

Sonomatic is also investing £3mn in building a brand new facility in Aberdeen that will allow it to cover the entire range of NDT Inspections.

Subsea Tooling specialist, SEANIC OCEAN SYSTEMS has signed a strategic distributor agreement with Norway’s ENVIRENT. The deal entitles Envirent to become an agent for Seanic in Norway, bringing an extensive range of specialist subsea tools and hardware into Envirent’s existing rental portfolio.

Statoil has completed the sale of its interests in the SHAH DENIZ production sharing agreement in the Caspian Sea offshore Azerbaijan, to Malaysia’s Petronas. Its assets included a 15.5% share in the South Caucasus Pipeline Co, 15.5% share in the SCPC holding company, and 12.4% share in the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Co.

From the North Sea (NT): Hungarian oil company MOL, already active in the UK, is to enter Norway by acquiring Ithaca Petroleum’s 14 licences, three of them operated.

The deal, expected to be completed in Q3, will cost it $60mn plus bonuses of up to $30mn depending on future exploration success. The committed work programme includes three exploration wells in 2015-16.

According to MOL, the portfolio contains prospective resources of more than 600mmboe, all in lower risk areas of the North Sea. The operated licences are in the Varg area and east of Eldfisk and Valhall.

From Australia (RW): The ASCO group has won a contract to manage the operations, maintenance logistics and supply base for Shell’s Prelude floating LNG project in the Browse Basin off Western Australia. The contract includes Shell’s supply base in Darwin as well as the logistics requirements throughout Australia and supply vessel support.

This is the second major win for Asco which secured an award from BP to manage that company’s supply base at Flinders Port in South Australia for the Great Australian Bight exploration programme beginning in late 2016.

Also, logistics company QUBE HOLDINGS and the miner MOUNT GIBSON Iron have signed a framework agreement that could turn the iron ore mine at Koolan Island, located in the Buccaneer Archipelago 1km off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia, into a supply-operations base for Browse Basin explorers and producers.

The mine was flooded and closed last November when a seawall failed. The company wrote down the mine by A$946mn this year and no decision has yet been made about options to rebuild the seawalls and resuscitate iron ore production.

In the meantime Qube has come up with a plan for staged development of helicopter refuelling and maintenance facilities, air search and rescue facilities, all-weather runway for passenger jet aircraft, a deepwater marine terminal and accommodation facilities. Koolan Island is considered a prime location for a base because it is close to Browse activity, has significant existing infrastructure and would use an already disturbed part of the island thus minimising environmental impacts.

Preliminary discussions have been held with the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, local and State government and prospective end users.

NEPTUNE MARINE SERVICES has been awarded an offshore diving and subsea inspection services contract by Oil Search for work in the Gulf of Papua. The five-year contract began in April and involves call-out diving support and other services focusing on the Kumul marine terminal at the marine delivery end of the pipeline bringing oil down from the Kutubu oil fields in the PNG Highlands.

A group of ex-FMC employees have teamed up with subsea installation player DeepOcean to found OPTIME SUBSEA SERVICES.

It has set up offices in Houston, USA, and the city of Notodden, which is part of the ‘Subsea Valley’ industry cluster in Norway. The company develops its own technology and provides services within subsea intervention, installation and work over operations.

‘The oil and gas operators have for years requested a cost reduction within the subsea industry. So far their expectations have not been met. A change needs to happen now! Our technologies will limit operators’ capex and significantly lower their opex. For example, one of our solutions can save $1-2mn per vertical subsea tree installation,” says Jan-Fredrik Carlsen, CEO of Optime Subsea Serivces.

Massy Wood Group has been awarded a five year contract, with a potential value of up to $250mn, by BP to provide services to its operations in TRINIDAD & TOBAGO.

The company, which is jointly owned by Wood Group PSN (WGPSN) and the energy division of Massy Holdings, will deliver engineering, procurement and construction services to BP’s 13 upstream offshore facilities in the Greater Cassia and Greater Mahogany areas.