From the U.K. (SS): When is a monopoly not a monopoly? When it is sanctioned by the government and there is no inherent competition.

The Israeli antitrust commissioner decided last year that it should punish the Noble Energy-led consortium, which found and developed the big Tamar (SEN, 32/6) gas field and later discovered the aptly named Leviathan (32/6) gas giant, which together transformed the Israeli energy market and its whole economy. The group’s crime? Its exploration success.

One understands the philosophy behind antitrust action against monopolies, but if the Noble group had not found Leviathan, this whole series of events would have been moot.

So the group invested the money in exploration and were successful and thus, were to be sanctioned and made to sell off part of its stakes in the fields. How does that make sense?

In any event, the commissioner resigned when he was not backed by the government of Israel, which has now just signed a new deal with Noble and its partners.

This allows further offshore development and gas supply deals covering Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Cyprus to move forward.

From Houston (BN): InterMoor stepped in at short notice for Heerema to help Anadarko moor the Heidelberg (32/9) truss spar in the Gulf of Mexico. Reports blamed the situation on problems with Chevron’s Big Foot (32/7) installation, during which tendons lost buoyancy, delaying that project indefinitely.

The setback delayed Heerema’s being able to send the installation vessel Balder to Heidelberg.

To help Anadarko, Intermoor said it mobilised two tugs and three anchor-handling vessels attached three lines to start mooring the 80-Mbbl/d facility in 1,600 m in Green Canyon Block 860. Heerema then came in, installed six more lines and finished the job.

Det norske oljeselskap is making good progress with its developments in the Alvheim area off Norway.

First oil from the second well on the Bøyla Field has flowed the 28 km back to the Alvheim FPSO, while the extension manifold for the Boa Field has been safely installed on the seabed.

Bøyla has been developed with two horizontal production wells and one water injection well. The first production well came onstream in January this year, and the second last week. Total production from Bøyla will be about 20 Mbbl/d.

The wells at Bøyla were drilled with the Transocean Winner, and the subsea installation was carried out by Technip on an engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract.

Estimated recoverable reserves on Bøyla are about 23 MMboe gross (15 MMboe net) to Det norske.

Boa, meanwhile, is a part of the IOR project on Alvheim with production startup expected in second-quarter 2016.

Boa is located in license 088 BS and three new wells are part of this campaign: East Kameleon, Kneler and Boa Kam North.

East Kameleon came onstream in second-quarter 2016, and the Kneler well is being drilled now. Boa Kam North will be drilled when the well at Kneler is completed.

Aquatic Engineering and Construction has been awarded a multimillion pound contract on the $10 billion Moho Nord (32/2) subsea project off the coast of the Republic of Congo, West Africa.

The contract was awarded by a U.K.-based subcontractor working for Total E&P Congo. Aquatic will begin work on its 10-month campaign in October.

Aquatic will supply reel drive systems and will be instrumental in the installation of 23 km of subsea flexible pipes and 50 km of umbilicals.

The Moho Nord subsea deepwater offshore project, which is expected to produce 140 Mboe/d by 2017, is located about 75 km off the coast of Pointe Noire and is the latest project being developed in the Moho-Bilondo Licence.

Since 2013, three other Acteon companies (2H Offshore, SRP and UTEC Survey) have been awarded work on the Moho Nord subsea project.

From the U.K. (SS): It is always good to get in early in a new opportunity. Wood Group has picked up a three-year engineering deal with Pemex, valued at up to $28 million, which covers concept and basic engineering services for both shallow-water and deepwater projects.

Its subsea-riser division Wood Group Kenny (WGK) and topside specialist Wood Group Mustang will get in on the action working on a spectrum of projects for the Mexican national oil company including Lakach (32/6) and other unnamed deepwater prospects.

WGK also has scooped a FEED contract for the subsea development of Talisman Energy’s Ca Rong Do (31/21) Field offshore Vietnam.

WGK will carry out comprehensive flow assurance studies and full FEED of the subsea system and structures, risers, flowlines, and power and control umbilicals for the field, which is estimated to contain about 67 MMboe.

Work on the subsea FEED will be carried out from WGK’s Kuala Lumpur office and be supported by other WGK Asia-Pacific offices.

This follows the award of the top tensioned riser FEED contract for design of the dry tree production/injection and drilling riser systems.

The WGK Houston office, a centre of excellence for dry tree riser system engineering, will carry out the engineering for the tension-leg wellhead platform supported riser systems.

Statoil has received consent to use pipelines and subsea production facilities on the Åsgard (32/7) Field.

Åsgard comprises the Smørbukk, Smørbukk South and Midgard finds.

The field has been developed using subsea completed wells tied back to a production and storage vessel, Åsgard A, which produces and stores oil, and a floating semisubmersible facility, Åsgard B, which processes gas and condensate.

The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway has granted consent to use pipelines and subsea production facilities.

FMC Technologies delivered four subsea wellheads for Total’s Egina (32/2) project off Nigeria.

The wellheads were built for FMC by Nigerian company Oiltools Africa and feature a 36-in. diameter conductor housing and a 20-in. diameter wellhead assembly.

“Locally manufacturing these wellheads marks a significant milestone for the company and for Nigeria’s energy industry,” said Shelagh Daley, area manager at FMC Technologies. “FMC Technologies is committed not only to delivering on time to its customers, but developing local talent to do so.”

Heerema Marine Contractors’ crane vessel Thialf has completed the installation of the 280-mt predrilling template on the Johan Sverdrup (32/8) Field.

The predrilling template contains eight well slots that allow production wells to be predrilled before the drilling platform is installed in 2018 and production starts in late 2019. The predrilling template is 32 m long and 10 m high.

India’s ONGC has approved a development plan for the GK-28/42 Field as part of its Neelam Field redevelopment project offshore India. The plan, which is due to be completed in March 2023, will consist of a 27-well drilling programme, including 14 production wells and 13 sidetrack wells.

The project scope also includes the installation of three platforms, three clamp-on facilities and associated pipelines to be completed by August 2018.

First oil and gas from the H5 wellhead platform (H5-WHP) of the Te Giac Trang (TGT) Field offshore Vietnam flowed on August 10, more than a month ahead of schedule, SOCO said.

Startup followed perforation of the first of the H5 development wells. The perforation campaign will continue targeting a balance between maximising new production from the H5-WHP, natural production decline rates and water-cut from the existing wells with total liquids handling capacity on the FPSO facility, SOCO said.

The H5-WHP is located in Block 16-1 in the Cuu Long Basin off the southern coast of Vietnam, about 20 km northwest of the Bach Ho Field and 35 km west of the Rang Dong Field. The H5-WHP is TGT’s third platform to be brought on production, according to the release.

Montrose Port Authority (MPA) is pushing the Scottish port as a centre for the decommissioning of offshore oil and gas structures.

Major investment at the port in recent years has seen the creation of three heavy-lift pads with a capacity of 15 mt per square metre.

In all, about £15 million (US$23.5 million) has been invested in the port since 2012, including major upgrades to quays on both the north and south sides of the harbour.

Nik Scott-Gray, CEO of MPA, said, “Over the next 12 months, we will undertake a master planning process that will, amongst other things, allow the further development of additional deepwater berths and even more heavy-lift pads.

“We believe this investment in our infrastructure will attract interest from companies involved in offshore decommissioning.”

The steel jacket for the Statoil-operated Mariner A platform on the U.K. Continental Shelf left the Spanish Dragados yard August 10 and is on its way to the North Sea.

Construction of the large platform substructure started in October 2013 and was completed in May of this year. At 134 m high and weighing 22,400 mt, the steel jacket is the largest built for a Statoil project.

The load-out from the Dragados yard in Cadiz onto the S44 barge took place in late July.

The 1,835-nautical-mile journey from the southern part of Spain to the Mariner Field in the North Sea is expected to take about two weeks.

OceanWorks has been awarded a contract by Safe Marine Transfer to define, engineer and quantify the equipment required for development of a deepwater permanent subsea pressure compensated chemical storage and injection system.

The work includes the pumps, tanks, controls, sensors, electrical and battery systems necessary to support the subsea system.

The system will be carried on a towable barge containing a large quantity (3,000-plus bbl) of methanol and other production well management chemicals, and the pumping systems.

The entire system can be quickly, accurately and cost effectively placed on the ocean floor at point of use. Upon consumption of the chemical, the system can be refilled from a surface vessel via a riser or towed to quayside for refill and for inspection, maintenance and upgrades if desired.

Offshore