From the North Sea (NT): Norwegian suppliers booked to support Rosneft’s operations in the Kara Sea next year had have their contracts cancelled as a result of Western sanctions levelled against RUSSIA and Russian companies.

Siem Offshore and Viking Supply have both confirmed the early termination of contracts to provide anchor handlers and platform supply vessels and Rem Offshore is reported to be in the same boat.

The contract party is Karamoneftegaz, the joint venture between Rosneft and ExxonMobil. For the time being, North Atlantic Drilling’s rig deals with Rosneft remain in force, although last month the two sides agreed to postpone the final signing of the contracts until May 2015 (SEN, 31/17).

Meanwhile Gazprom, which claims it is the only Russian company able to conduct offshore E&P without Western support, is reported to have entered into an agreement with Petrovietnam to develop Dolginskoye, an oil field close to the Prirazlomnoye producing field in the Pechora Sea. SEN was unable to get confirmation from Gazprom, although the company has reported an agreement with Petrovietnam to develop onshore gas fields.

From Houston (BN): With an eye on ARCTIC developments and the debate over global warming, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced a multi-institution, public-private study of the Beaufort Sea ecosystem offshore of Alaska and Canada.

The focus of the Marine Arctic Ecosystem Study will be the interrelationship among physical, biological, chemical and human aspects of life in coastal waters from Barrow, Alaska, to the Mackenzie River delta in Canada. The aim is to deepen understanding of the area to inform regulation of offshore activity in a biologically productive area.

One area of study will be the impact of the Mackenzie River freshwater plume on the salinity of the Beaufort Sea shelf area.

From Houston (BN): An independent audit has blown a hole in BP’s claims it is the victim of overpayments on claims related to the MACONDO (31/17) oil spill. McGladney, a leading audit firm, investigated claims administrator Patrick Juneau’s work and found it close to flawless. He gets a grade of 99.5% correct awards on the sample studied, based on a random sample of 1,852 claims out of 53,512 filed.

The sample received $741mn of the $3.75bn paid. McGladney found net overpayments of $2.1mn, an error rate of less than 3%. Giving itself a 95% accuracy rate, McGladney extrapolated that to $17.5mn in overpayments from $3.75bn in claims to date.

Offshore