Total announces that the Ivoire-1X exploration well, located in the western portion of Block CI-100 in 2,280 meters of water, encountered 28 meters of net oil pay in a series of about 100 meters of Cretaceous reservoirs. The oil in the abrupt margin geological play is light 35  API oil.

 Four wells are onstream under a new phase of development drilling on the Bualuang oil field in the Gulf of Thailand, according to operator Salamander Energy.

 Welcoming the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) approval to develop the Mariner heavy oilfield, Mike Tholen, Oil & Gas UK’s economics director, said: “We are delighted that the Government has approved this £4.3 billion investment in the UK’s oil reserves. 

 Total has received a firm offer from Borealis for its entire 56.86% interest in Belgium’s Rosier S.A., listed on NYSE Euronext Brussels. A leading international provider of chemical solutions, Borealis is already active in nitrogen fertilizers in Central Europe, as well as in France following its acquisition of PEC-Rhin S.A. in early 2012. Borealis has offered €200 per share for Total’s majority interest.

 Mike Tholen, Oil & Gas UK's economics and commercial director, said: "Oil & Gas UK is pleased  that the tax change made recently by the Government to promote further new investment in the UK's existing oil and gas fields continues to deliver real benefits to the national economy.  

 YENAGOA (Reuters) – Gunmen ambushed an Indian-owned oil barge on Tuesday as it was being escorted by the military through Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, killing two soldiers and one crew member on the ship, a security forces spokesman said.

 Oceanteam Shipping ASA announced today that it has taken up one of its options and ordered a new, OTS design, 2000t modular carousel system, which will be delivered in April 2013.

  BP today announced the successful start-up of oil production from new facilities at the Valhall field in the southern part of the Norwegian North Sea. Production started on 26 January.

 2013 marks the start of a period of rapid growth in the windfarm construction vessel market and it coincides with new operational demands that require careful consideration, particularly in the design of jack-up systems. DNV highlights the need for owners and yards to consider both class and flag state requirements when evaluating limited operation designs.

  BP and partners today announced the successful start of production from the Skarv field in the Norwegian Sea, one of a series of new major upstream projects that BP brought into production in 2012. Production started on 31 December, 2012

  BP Trinidad & Tobago (bpTT) today announced that it has discovered an estimated 1 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas offshore Trinidad, doubling the estimated gas in place of the Savonette gas field, to 2tcf.

 Total announces the start-up of its South Mahakam gas condensate project two months ahead of schedule.

The South Mahakam is part of the program being implemented to offset production decline impacting the Mahakam PSC (Production Sharing Contract).

 Soil Machine Dynamics Limited (SMD) and Blade Offshore Services Limited (BOS) have completed a deal which sees the creation of a joint venture, SMD-BORD, and joint development of a novel technology for the installation of marine renewables devices on the seabed.

 MMT (Sweden) has recently completed a geophysical cable route survey for the Amrumbank West offshore wind farm (OWF) project for Siem Offshore Contractors GmbH. The geophysical survey was performed by MMT for the entire inner array grid cable route.