Statoil with partners Petoro and OMV have started the world´s first wet gas compression on the seabed of the North Sea Gullfaks field.​

After winning a key platform construction contract from Statoil in June, Norway’s Kvaerner is reportedly working to enter into the LNG business with floating near-shore liquefaction barges designed for operations in the Arctic. Doing so, Kvaerner could increase its clout in Russia.

Rosneft and Statoil ASA completed drilling works as part of the Pilot Project at the PK1 layer of the North-Komsomolskoye field. During 2015 the companies jointly drilled 2 horizontal exploitation wells.

U.S. Rig Count is up 19 rigs from last week to 876, with oil rigs up 21 to 659, gas rigs down 2 to 216, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 1. U.S. Rig Count is down 1,007 rigs from last year at 1,883, with oil rigs down 903, gas rigs down 102, and miscellaneous rigs down 2. The U.S. Offshore rig count is 31, unchanged from last week, and down 29 rigs year over year. Canadian Rig Count is up 8 rigs from last week to 200, with oil rigs unchanged at 98, and gas rigs up 8 to 102. Canadian Rig Count is down 195 rigs from last year at 395, with oil rigs down 140, and gas rigs down 55.

Last week, Operator Statoil and its PL146/PL333 partner Total E&P Norge announced they made a gas and condensate discovery in the Julius prospect in the King Lear area in Norway’s North Sea

Russia’s Rosneft and Norway’s Statoil completed drilling works as part of the Pilot Project at the PK1 layer of the North-Komsomolskoye field in Purovsky and Nadymsky regions of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.

The Norwegian government confirmed Wednesday oil and gas reserves were discovered in a North Sea area not known previously to contain hydrocarbons.

“The steel jacket will also be one of the most complex ever built by the industry. Not only will we route the land-based power through the jacket, we’ll also be controlling the subsea water injection and exporting the field’s oil and gas from it,”

Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil says it will lay off up to 1,500 staff and 500 consultants by the end of to slash costs.

Europe’s biggest oil groups are extending business deals with their Russian energy partners despite this month’s EU vote to continue imposing sanctions, highlighting how western companies are learning to live with the restrictions placed on Moscow.