Xodus Group has won a contract with Cairn Oil and Gas of Vedanta Ltd to conduct exploration and appraisal work on its Rajasthan block in north-west India over the next two years.

BOEM announces that they have completed an analysis of their royalty rates and have decided to set the royalty rate at 12.5 percent for leases located in water depths less than 200 meters in the proposed Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Sale 249.

Veolia and Peterson have accepted the first offshore structure into their Great Yarmouth decommissioning facility.

At an Energy Week event hosted by Energy Secretary Rick Perry, President Donald J. Trump announced that Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has taken action to open up the public comment period for a new 5-year National Offshore Oil and Gas Leasing Program on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

SIMMONS EDECO, a leading supplier of wellhead and valve maintenance, asset integrity solutions and onshore drilling services to the global oil and gas industry, announced that it has been awarded a major contract by Maersk Oil.

Statoil and partners have decided to develop the Snefrid Nord gas discovery near the Aasta Hansteen field in the Norwegian Sea. The discovery, scheduled to come on stream in late 2019, will be tied back to Aasta Hansteen.

The award is part of Statoil’s Marine Wave 2 program and means that Ocean Installer will continue playing a key role in the Johan Sverdrup subsea works, initiated under the Marine Wave 1 umbrella. The complete work scope encompasses umbilical installation at Johan Sverdrup, Bauge and Utgard, as well as spools, cover, tie-in and manifold installation at Utgard.

Statoil will soon commence a three-well exploration drilling campaign on the UK continental shelf. In early July, the Transocean Spitsbergen semi-submersible rig will spud the first well in the campaign.

Talos Energy LLC ("Talos" or the "Company") as operator, together with its joint venture partners Sierra Oil and Gas S. de R.L de C.V. ("Sierra") and Premier Oil Plc ("Premier"), is pleased to announce that the Zama-1 exploration well, offshore Mexico, has discovered oil. Talos holds a 35% participation interest with Sierra and Premier holding 40% and 25% participation interests, respectively.

Sparrows Group has been awarded a three-and-a-half-year extension to its inspection services contract for Stena Drilling’s global fleet of drilling vessels.

Statoil, along with its partner, Husky Energy, has finalized a two-well exploration drilling program in the Flemish Pass Basin offshore Newfoundland.

The U.S. Department of Energy announces the approval of two long-term applications to export additional liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Lake Charles LNG Liquefaction Project in Lake Charles, LA. Additional exports in the amount of 0.33 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas are approved from Lake Charles’s proposed liquefaction facility.

Otto Energy Limited (ASX:OEL) (‘Otto’ or the ‘Company’) announces it has farmed into the South Timbalier 224 (‘ST 224’) lease in the Gulf Of Mexico shelf, for a 25% working interest.

The operation of drilling an offshore oil and gas well provides for economic development and supports as many as 450 new jobs. As Energy Week concludes, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s well permit approvals in 2017 total 69. Approval of a well permit paves the way for an offshore operator to begin the drilling activity and initiates a vast project supported by drilling crews and service and supply contractors.

With the global fuel sulphur limit of 0.5% entering into force in 2020, the interest towards LNG as a marine fuel is increasing. One of the main obstacles to the accelerated uptake of LNG, however, is the uncertainty regarding future market volumes for LNG.

Totaling between 25 and 50 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalents, the discovery may provide valuable additional volumes for the Johan Castberg development. The discovery also opens other exploration opportunities in the same area.