"On the issue of territory and disputes over maritime delineation, China does not accept any dispute resolution from a third party and does not accept any dispute resolution forced on China."

The Chinese, through a statement by the Foreign Ministry last Sunday, said the two countries “have overlapping claims for maritime rights and interest.”

"During the first quarter we achieved record operational uptime and we continue to see the benefits of our cost reduction program coming through. Our key priorities for the year are cost reduction, managing newbuild deferments and concluding our financing plans, while ensuring that we continue to maintain safe and efficient operations. I am pleased to say we have made good progress in all three areas during the first quarter."

The Barents Sea is characterized by low exploration maturity with a high resource potential. Operators have discovered 3.3 billion boe in the Barents Sea since exploration began, and the region has an estimated undiscovered potential of 7.6 billion boe. About 5 billion boe is expected to gas and condensate.

Seadrill generated EBITDA of $513 million for the fourth quarter 2015 Current order backlog of $5.1 billion $10.7 billion for Seadrill Group

China and Japan dispute sovereignty over a group of uninhabited East China Sea islets, while in the South China Sea, Beijing is building islands on reefs to bolster its claims.

In the face of the severe downturn in our industry our priorities for 2016 are to conserve cash and address our financing needs. We have a modern competitive fleet, a proven track record in operations and every intention to position ourselves for a recovery in the sector.

Billions of barrels of oil could be lost completely, left in the seabed without the infrastructure or skills to get it out.

French oil company Total SA said Monday that a deep-water natural-gas project west of the Shetland Islands called Laggan Tormore will produce the equivalent of 90,000 barrels of oil a day—almost 6% of the U.K.’s total output.

Shell is consulting experts and commercial partners about what to do with the reinforced concrete base structures, each of which rises 160m from the seabed and weighs about 300,000 tonnes. The low oil price has put companies under pressure to shut facilities as cheaply as possible.