GLOBAL OFFSHORE UPDATE

Both companies are hosting an investor webcast at 8.30am ET, most likely to announce the deal. General Electric's oil and gas unit is close to signing a merger deal with Baker Hughes, one of the world's largest oil field services companies. This deal, which could be worth approximately $30bn (£24.61bn), could be announced as early as Monday (31 October), according to reports. The American conglomerate GE is considering to combine its own oil and gas operations with Texas-based, Baker Hughes. GE had confirmed the same in a statement last week and said, "We are in discussion with Baker Hughes on potential partnerships. While nothing is concluded, none of these options include an outright purchase." According to the websites of both companies, GE and Baker Hughes are hosting an investor webcast on Monday at 8.30am ET. However, more details such as the topic of discussion and speakers involved were not mentioned. Unnamed sources cited by the Wall Street Journal...

NORTH-EAST jobs could go to India in an engineering firm restructure, it can be revealed. Amec Foster Wheeler is speaking to Darlington staff about potential redundancies. The company confirmed up to 45 staff, from back office finance roles, could be affected. A spokeswoman added the business is reviewing its cost base to remain competitive, confirming jobs could go to India where it already runs an operations centre. However, she said no final decision has been made, adding the company is still exploring ways of re-deploying workers across operations. It is understood any redundancies would be made in early 2017. The plans come a year after Amec revealed it had been forced to increase cost-cutting to around £120m by 2017 to overcome tough market conditions, brought on primarily by the oil and gas sector slowdown. The company’s Darlington site, at Lingfield Point, operates as its European engineering base and employs around 1,000 people. Housing staff who manage recr...

The oil-rich former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan is investing heavily abroad, with its sovereign wealth fund and state oil company scrambling to diversify as weak crude prices and ultralow interest rates worldwide put their finances at risk. Risky business The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan, better known as Sofaz, is looking to take on more risk, according to Deputy CEO Israfil Mammadov. The fund aims to soon lift its cap on investment in stocks, including private equity, from 15% to 25%, Mammadov recently told The Nikkei Veritas. Sofaz had $33.7 billion in assets under management at the end of June, of which bonds and short-term financial instruments made up roughly 80%. The fund acquired Kirarito Ginza, a shopping mall in Tokyo's ritzy Ginza district, from Japanese leasing giant Orix last year for 52.3 billion yen ($496 million at current rates). Sofaz has also invested in funds involved in Japanese real-estate development, including logistics facilities and properties in...

There has been mass sack of over 3,000 workers in Nigeria’s oil industry as the country’s economic recession bites harder, two unions have said. The two major unions in the oil and gas sector, NUPENG and PENGASSAN, have thus threatened to go on strike saying over 3,000 of their members were affected. The unions on Wednesday issued a 21-day ultimatum to the federal government calling for a halt to the sack of their members by international oil companies in Nigeria. The National President of NUPENG, Igwe Achese, who addressed the media at the end of the Central Working Committee, CWC, meeting of the union in Effurun, Delta State, said government must do something urgently to stop the mass retrenchment of its members to avoid grounding the industry. Mr. Achese disclosed that most of the companies – Chevron Nigeria Limited, ExxonMobil, Pan Ocean, Sapiem, and Hercules oil and gas limited, among others – have terminated the appointment of over 3,000 of their workers apparently ove...

Royal Dutch Shell has resumed crude oil exports from the forcados terminal. This follows the restoration of the damaged facilities by Niger-Delta militants in the south-south region of the country. The development was communicated to the presidency by the Director of Global Upstream of Shell, Andrew Brown. Forcados crude has been under force majeure from operator, Shell, since a militant attack on the sub-sea pipeline in February. Exports from the terminal was between 250,000 and 300, 000 barrels per day before the strike claimed by militant group, Niger Delta Avengers. Meanwhile, the militant group at about 4am on Wednesday reportedly blew up a Chevron offshore export pipeline at Escravos in Delta State.

Oil traded near $50 a barrel with Opec’s secretary-general set to visit Baghdad on Tuesday for talks aimed at resolving a deal on output after Iraq said it should be exempt from planned cuts. Futures were little changed in New York after falling 0.7 per cent Monday. Mohammed Barkindo will meet with the prime minister and oil minister, according to people familiar with the matter, after Iraq said Sunday it should be excluded due to conflict with Islamic militants. US crude stockpiles rose last week, a Bloomberg survey shows before government data Wednesday. Oil has fluctuated near $50 a barrel amid uncertainty about whether the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries can implement an accord to reduce oil output when they gather at an official meeting in November. A committee will meet later this month to try to resolve differences over how much individual members should pump. “Oil is in a holding pattern, waiting to see the outcome of the November meeting,” said David...

London-listed Xcite Energy is set to go into liquidation after bondholders rejected a restructuring plan for the North Sea oil developer, the company said on Tuesday.

Statoil has shut down the production of gasoline at its Mongstad refinery on Norway's west coast following a hydrogen gas leak on Tuesday, the company said.

Iran will begin taking applications on Monday for an unspecified number of energy projects, the oil ministry's news agency SHANA reported on Sunday, as the country moves to launch exploration and production contracts after the lifting of sanctions.

Norway's Statoil said on Sunday it had stopped production at its Statfjord A platform in the North Seadue to a fire, and started to evacuate the personnel. There were 67 people on board when the fire broke at 0820 CET (0620 GMT), and Statoil had evacuated 20 people by 1000 CET.

Oil operators and helicopter companies have recently banned the Samsung Galaxy S7 Note from being transported offshore and onto platforms and drilling vessels themselves. However one oil major has went one step further and banned the devices from entering their premises.

Beerenberg forecasts that the company will need to layoff an additional 250 employees. This announcement comes after 250 layoffs have already been announced and means that the oil service provider will have cut over 500 positions be the end of the layoffs.

Norwegian offshore safety watchdog, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has given its consent to Statoil to drill four survey wells at the Johan Sverdrup field, offshore Norway, using the Deepsea Atlantic semi-sub rig. Statoil is the operator of the Johan Sverdrup field, which is located in the North Sea around 155 kilometers west of Karmøy in Rogaland county. Partners in the field include Lundin Norway, Petoro, Aker BP, and Maersk Oil. The PSA said on Monday that the consent was given to Statoil in order to obtain information about the reservoir conditions in the field. The safety watchdog provided two separate consents, one for one of the wells and one for the other three. The drilling, which will be done at a depth of 110-120 meters, will begin on November 1, 2016, and will last around four months. The Deepsea Atlantic, of a MODU GVA 7500 type, was built by South Korea’s DSME shipyard in 2009. The rig is classified by DNV GL, operated by Odfjell Drilling, and issued wit...

A powerful blast has ripped through an oil refinery in Nanjing in eastern China, but the fire has reportedly been brought under control, with no casualties, according to local media. CCTV posted photos of the Jinlingshihua Nanjing Refinery in smoke on Twitter. Xinhua cited the local fire department as saying that the blast may have been caused by production equipment catching fire on Sunday afternoon. The explosion occurred at 1:51 pm local time and quickly produced thick black plumes of smoke, which were visible for miles billowing from the refinery. Authorities did not report any hazardous gasses being expelled into the atmosphere, however, according to a statement by Nanjing’s environmental ministry. Firefighters are still at the scene, but the blaze has long been localized. China is no stranger to chemical fires ravaging industrial facilities. In June of 2014, oil tanks exploded at another oil refinery in Nanjing. In August of 2016, an explosion at a coal-powered pow...

A Nigerian militant group claimed an attack on Thursday on a crude pipeline operated by state oil firm NNPC in the Niger Delta. Attacks on Nigeria's energy facilities by groups calling for the Delta region to receive a greater share of the OPEC member's oil wealth have cut crude production, which stood at 2.1 million barrels per day at the start of the year, by a third. The Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate said it bombed the Unenurhie-Evwreni delivery line in Ughelli, Delta state, at around 01:00 a.m. (0000 GMT) on Thursday. The line is operated by NPDC, a subsidiary of NNPC. A military source said dynamite was used to blow up the pipeline. An NNPC spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. It comes days after Niger Delta Avengers, which has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks on energy facilities in the region since the start of the year, said it carried out its first attack since declaring a break in hostilities in August to ...

Oil services company Weatherford has agreed to pay a $140 million penalty to settle the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claims that it inflated earnings by using deceptive income tax accounting. The agency stated on Tuesday that two of the company’s senior accounting executives at the time have agreed to settle charges that they were behind the scheme. According to the SEC’s order, Weatherford fraudulently lowered its year-end provision for income taxes by $100 million to $154 million each year so the company could better align its earnings results with its earlier-announced projections and analysts’ expectations. The SEC claims that James Hudgins, who served as Weatherford’s vice president of tax, and Darryl Kitay, who was a tax manager, made numerous post-closing adjustments to fill gaps and meet its previously disclosed effective tax rate (ETR), which is the average rate that a company is taxed on pre-tax profits. The agency further said that Weatherford re...

Offshore drilling contractor Dolphin Drilling, a subsidiary of Fred. Olsen Energy, has entered into an early termination agreement with Total E&P UK for the tender support vessel Borgsten Dolphin. The driller’s parent company informed on Friday that the agreement will result in a cessation of offshore services on October 1, 2016, and the unit mobilizing inshore for expected cold stacking thereafter. The unit was operating for Total under a dayrate of $166,000. Further, the company said, Total will pay an early termination fee of approximately $22.1 million in addition to payment for services provided until October 1, 2016. The oil company hired the Borgsten Dolphin back in 2011 for a 40-month program to undertake tender support services at the Dunbar platform in the Northern North Sea. Prior to starting the contract, the 1975-built semi-submersible rig was upgraded and converted to a tender support vessel. In June 2015, Total and Dolphin amended the contract to cover a ...

Offshore vessel operator DOF has announced that it has secured various contract extensions in different market regions. In Norway, Statoil has extended the contract for its AHTS Skandi Mongstad for an additional one year from October. In Argentina Total Austral has extended the contract for AHTS Skandi Møgster with 6 months from October. Lastly, DOF has also secured another six-month extension for the PSV Skandi Flora, which has been deployed in Canada.