Technology Info Crunch

Published in  Oil Industry News  on Friday, 31 March 2017 Subsea wireless automation provider WFS Technologies, and marine rental equipment specialist Seatronics, demonstrated drone-to-remote operated vehicle (ROV) wireless communications at a Subsea Internet of Things event in Houston. The demonstration took place in February at the Delta SubSea (DSS) test tank facility in Houston, Texas, and was attended by representatives from Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP. Seatooth wireless controllers were integrated with a Seatronics Predator II Inspection Class ROV and a DJI Inspire drone. Two-way data communications between the ROV and the drone were demonstrated while the ROV was submerged in a test tank and the drone flew overhead. “We are helping our customers to drive down costs. Using proven subsea wireless automation deployed by inspection and light class ROVs, we are delivering improved asset integrity information at a fraction of the cost” said Brendan Hyland, Chairman...

Published in  Oil Industry News  on Friday, 31 March 2017 Oil major BP (BP.L) expects its trading operations to benefit from growing global crude trade on the back of abundant U.S., Canadian and Brazilian production and rising energy demand in Asia, a top BP executive said. Tufan Erginbilgic, the head of BP's downstream division that includes one of the world's most powerful trading desks, told Reuters he wanted to expand BP's trading activities using long-term deals on third-party oil and products. U.S. shale oil production using fracking technology has turned the world's largest oil consumer into an exporter of crude and products, while Canada is developing its vast oil sands deposits and Brazil is developing huge offshore fields. "There will be more flows in the world because where crude production will increase is the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and refining will increase in Asia and the Middle East," Erginbilgic told Reuters in an interview. "We are...

Published in  Oil Industry News  on Friday, 31 March 2017 Venezuela has arrested a senior manager of state oil company PDVSA on suspicion of "irregularities" in contracts to supply fuel to the domestic market, authorities said on Wednesday. The detention of international commerce manager Marco Malave, 47, followed a shakeup of personnel at PDVSA's trade department since January and amid gasoline shortages around the South American OPEC nation last week. "PDVSA representatives denounced a series of irregularities in the protocol for contracting companies with vessels to supply the referred hydrocarbon to the Venezuelan market," the state prosecutor's office said in a statement. The situation affected fuel distribution in seven states, including the capital Caracas, it said. Malave was arrested last week in Caracas and his bank accounts have been frozen. President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government and Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., familiarly kno...

Iraq has Pledged to Fully Comply with Oil Cut Deal, OPEC Chief Says Published in  Oil Industry News  on Sunday, 2 April 2017 Iraq has assured OPEC it will fully comply with an agreement to cut oil supply in order to bolster crude prices, OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo said on Sunday. Compliance with the deal agreed by OPEC and non-OPEC producers at the end of last year to cut supply is "encouraging", Barkindo told an energy conference in Baghdad. General compliance with supply cuts by the oil producers was 86 percent in January and 94 percent in February, he said. "The focus is now to rebalance the market," he added. OPEC ministers will meet in May to decide whether or not to extend the oil supply curbs beyond June. Barkindo described as "very constructive" meetings he had on Saturday with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other Iraqi leaders in Baghdad. He saluted Iraq's "flexibility" in the talks that helped bring about ...