When compared with 2008, the pace of activity in the UKCS remains subdued, with only eight mobile rigs currently active on exploration and appraisal drilling – the same as last month – of which two are drilling sidetracks.

After years of waiting for the moment, Faroe Petroleum expects to get two cracks at drilling the UK Atlantic Frontier this summer.

Aberdeen-based Nautronix and Cameron’s Drilling Systems division in Houston have been awarded an OTC Spotlight on New Technology Award for the NASMUX (Nautronix Acoustic Subsea Multiplex) system.

High-value long-term contracts are still being awarded despite the impact of the credit crunch on the oil&gas sector. That Vantage Drilling of Houston has just bagged contracts worth $2.56billion is testament to this.

A year ago, UK North Sea drilling was going great guns with exploration and appraisal drilling, and it pretty much stayed that way for 2008, which turned out to be the busiest since 1997. During the first quarter, 20 wells and eight sidetracks were started.

Prosafe Production’s innovative hybrid Azurite floating, drilling, production, storage and offloading vessel (FDPSO) is on its maiden voyage en route from the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore to its first contract – working offshore the Republic of Congo.

To date, 2009 has seen just seven wells spudded on the UK Continental Shelf, half the number recorded for the first two months of 2008.

AN ABERDEEN-BASED partnership has launched a new global index developed to quantify the difficulty of drilling wells. Its successful action should lead to large savings on well costs.

Transocean has cancelled a $550,000-a-day rig lease to Burgundy Global Exploration of the Philippines, the company having failed to lodge the required escrow.

NORWAY’S Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has given the green light to StatoilHydro and Marathon to carry out exploration and development drilling with the semi-submersibles, Polar Pioneer, West Alpha and Deepsea Bergen.

During a record year in which the oil price averaged around $100 a barrel overall, the UK sector saw the highest level of exploration and appraisal drilling for a decade.

Last year, CNR took a bold step in the North Sea by deciding to team with Schlumberger to remote manage the drilling of a well sidetrack in its quest to sustain production from the ageing Murchison field.

SEADRILL has taken delivery of its seventh consecutive deepwater drilling unit in just 10 months. West Aquarius is a product of the DSME shipyard in South Korea.