A new gas module has been put on stream on Troll B, boosting the oil production and processing capacity on the Troll field. It is essential to maximizing the value of the remaining oil from Troll, and to maintaining high gas export from the field.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has announced a long-awaited development for oil and gas energy production offshore the state of Alaska. Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued conditional approval to Hilcorp Alaska LLC for its Liberty Project oil and gas development and production plan. If developed, the facility would be the first oil and gas production facility in federal waters off Alaska.

BP announced on October 18, 2018, that it has started up the Thunder Horse Northwest Expansion project in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, four months ahead of schedule and 15 percent under budget.

With the growing relevance of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as a sustainable alternative to oil and other fossil fuels, Sembcorp Marine, ABS (American Bureau of Shipping) and A*STAR’s Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) are teaming up to develop new technologies, applications and capabilities in the offshore, marine and energy sectors that will advance the adoption of LNG as a globally preferred fuel.

Eni, Sonatrach and Total signed two agreements which include an exclusive partnership for offshore exploration in Algeria in a virtually unexplored geological province.

New deep-water production is underway at Lula Extreme South in the Brazilian Santos Basin. Royal Dutch Shell plc, through its subsidiary Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda. (Shell) and consortium partners, announces that the FPSO P-69 is now producing.

Talos Energy Inc. announces that the Company entered into a transaction with Hokchi Energy, S.A. de C.V., a subsidiary of Pan American Energy LLC, to cross assign the Company's Participating Interest ("PI") in Block 2 and Hokchi's PI in Block 31, both in the Sureste Basin offshore Mexico.

On October 14, the Oseberg Vestflanken 2 field in the North Sea came on stream. Remote-operated from the Oseberg field center, the new Oseberg H platform is the first unmanned platform on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Recoverable resources are 110 million barrels, and the project was delivered far below budget.

Total announces that the first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Ichthys LNG has left Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia, following the production start-up at the end of July.

Rowan Norway Limited has been awarded a contract for drilling two wells at the Gudrun field by use of the Rowan Stavanger jack-up rig. The rig has furthermore been awarded five options for drilling of single wells.

Coretrax has successfully saved a North Sea operator more than £500,000 during a well abandonment campaign in the UKCS.

Maersk Drilling AS and the Maersk Intrepid rig have been awarded a 5-month contract for operational support on the Martin Linge field. Two extension options will also be exercised, and four new options will be added.

Equinor and partners ENI and Petoro have completed the Skruis exploration well in the Johan Castberg license. The well confirms a volume of 12-25 million recoverable barrels of oil.

Walking through sunny Amsterdam streets carpeted with golden autumn leaves and into a vast hall full of smiles and perfectly-polished multi-million dollar machines, you could be forgiven for thinking nothing was amiss in the offshore helicopter world.

Saipem has signed new Offshore E&C contracts in Azerbaijan, the North Sea and the Republic of Congo. The overall value of the contracts is approximately 400 million USD.

Despite the rapid speed of technology and innovation pressuring the industry, oil and gas CEOs see technological disruption as more of an opportunity than a threat but acknowledge that more work is to be done.