From the North Sea (NT): Investment in NORWAY’s offshore sector next year continues to face a hefty fall.

According to the latest survey of oil company plans by Statistics Norway, the 2015 spend is estimated at NOK185.3bn ($29.4bn), 18% down on this year’s NOK 227.3bn.

However the picture is likely to change in early 2015 when the PDO for the giant Johan Sverdrup (SEN, 31/12) field is delivered. PDO submission is the point at which a project enters the calculations, and Sverdrup is expected to call for investments of some NOK120bn concentrated in the next five years. PDO’s for three smaller projects are also expected to be filed over the next six months, says SN.

Spending on decommissioning has nearly trebled this year to NOK8.1bn and is forecast to jump to NOK10bn in 2015. However, the exploration spend next year is expected to fall by 8% to NOK32.2bn and production operations by 18% to NOK78.7bn.

From Australia (RW): Hard on the heels of the failure of the proposed merger with Horizon Oil, the board of ROC OIL has unanimously accepted a A$474mn all-cash offer from Chinese combine Fosun International Group.

Fosun has offered A$0.69 per Roc share conditional on a minimum of 50% acceptance.

Roc directors say the offer represents a premium to the level at which shares were trading before it announced the Horizon merger back in April. That A$800mn deal fell through last month when Horizon decided not to compete with the Fosun offer.

The directors added that that the Fosun bid provides certain and immediate value and removes risk for shareholders.

On a stand-alone basis Roc has relatively limited opportunities for growth, they said. The company’s asset portfolio largely consists of producing projects that are near to production decline or actually in decline. Roc said it was likely to need additional funding in the future so it can pursue exploration and development programs.

Roc’s largest shareholder, the Alan Gray Group with 20% of the company, has also accepted the Fosun offer.

Clough Engineering has bought Scottish engineering and controls firm BOOTH WELSH...Precision hardware engineering company PREMIER HYTEMP is investing £20mn in a new facility in Singapore, while flexible pipe supplier FLEXTECH is spending £0.5mn on a new manufacturing base in Grimsby in the UK.

Longtime hardware man Charlie Jones, formerly head of Hydril, has joined Plexus’ US board as a non-executive director...Andrew Norman is to step down as CEO and director of JDR...Alan White has been named head of engineering with IRM specialist Harkand...Tony Mackay is the new operations director with Cortez Subsea.

Offshore