From Australia (LB): Tap Oil said its decision to hold on to its flagship Manora (32/3) oil asset in the Gulf of Thailand is the best outcome for shareholders against a backdrop of prevailing volatile market conditions.

The Perth-based company launched a strategic review of its business in March to ward off a potential board coup attempt, which included mulling the divestment of the Manora development that had been adversely impacted by the falling oil price.

While the review process confirmed there was considerable interest in the company’s Manora asset, Tap advised shareholders that the depressed oil price environment and the ongoing payment disputes between the company and its major shareholder Northern Gulf Petroleum had added to “the complexity of successfully executing any transaction at an acceptable price.”

“After carefully considering all of the available options, the board strongly believes the best outcome for shareholders in the current market conditions is to retain its interest in the Manora asset and its current portfolio of assets in Australia and Myanmar,” Tap said in a statement.

Tap plans to focus its attention on maximising the value of Manora through near-field exploration and the progression and evaluation of growth and acquisition opportunities in the Southeast-Asia region.

Faroe Petroleum has snapped up a 12.5% stake in the Blane (30/13) Field in the U.K. North Sea and a 12% interest in the Enoch (32/6) Field from Roc Oil (Europe) Ltd. in a deal worth up to $20 million.

Blane has been developed as a subsea tieback to the BP-operated Ula platform located on the Norwegian continental shelf.

The Enoch Field has been developed as a single well subsea tieback to the Marathon-operated Brae (31/6) Field. The field was closed in due to a leak at the subsea wellhead, which has since been repaired, and the field is currently planned to be brought back on production during the second half of this year.

Rotork has acquired subsea and wellhead control systems specialist Bifold in a deal worth up to $191 million.

Bifold is headquartered in Manchester, U.K., and employs about 300 people across its operations in Manchester and Taunton, U.K.

Bifold will sit within Rotork’s Instruments division, and its current management team will remain with the business.

Peter France, Rotork CEO, said, “The acquisition of Bifold represents an exciting step forward in the continued development of Rotork Instruments. This strategic acquisition of a long held target of Rotork’s is directly in line with our core strategy of strengthening Rotork’s presence in the flow control sector and broadening our product portfolio.”

Two well-known names in the subsea sector—Jim Marchbanks and Jim Cattanach—have set up the consultancy Tamjen & Associates out of Kuala Lumpur, which will focus on the umbilicals and power cables side of the business plus rigid and flexible pipelines.

Petrofac said its revenue grew 25% to $3.2 billion in the six months to the end of June from $2.5 billion a year earlier.

However, underlying net profit slipped 4% to $130 million from $136 million in the first six months of 2014. Group backlog was $20.9 billion at the end of June.

Total is offloading its 100% stake in the Frigg U.K. Pipeline (FUKA), its 67% interest in the Shetland Island Regional Gas Export System (SIRGE) and the St. Fergus Gas Terminal to North Sea Midstream Partners in a $905 million deal.

FUKA is a 362-km, 32-in. gas pipeline that was originally constructed in 1977 to connect the Frigg Field on the U.K.-Norway median line to the St. Fergus Gas Terminal in Scotland.

The Frigg Field is now decommissioned but the FUKA pipeline is still operational, delivering gas from some 20 fields in the Northern North Sea to the terminal at St. Fergus.

The SIRGE is a 234-km, 30-in. gas pipeline with a capacity of 533,000 sq cm/d connecting the Shetland Gas Plant to the FUKA pipeline.

Patrick de La Chevardière, Total’s CFO, said, “Transferring ownership to an entity specialising in midstream U.K. assets creates value for us and ensures a long and bright future for the facilities.”

More job losses are expected at DeepOcean’s operations in the U.K., Thailand and Malaysia following continued slowdown in the oil and gas market.

The subsea engineering firm expects to shed up to 50 jobs in its offshore team on top of 45 redundancies that already have been made.

Norwegian number cruncher Rystad Energy believes that due to a lack of growth in North American shale production and increased decline in mature fields, a Brent price as low as $50/bbl is not sustainable beyond 2016.

About 10,000 shale wells would need to be drilled each year to keep North American shale production flat.

Rystad said that assuming balanced cash flows, costs would need to be decreased by 20% in 2015 vs. 2014 at a price of $50/ bbl to drill those wells according to conducted well-by-well breakeven modelling.

Rystad added that while $70/bbl is likely too high an average price for 2016, it is too low an average price beyond 2017 as the additional effect of nonsanctioning of projects reduces the global supply potential longer term.

Noted offshore technical pioneer Edward E. Horton III passed away in Houston in August, at age 87. The Yale and USC graduate, petroleum engineer and U.S. Navy veteran was principal engineer for Project Mohole in 1961, the original deepwater drilling project of the National Academy of Science.

During his career, he helped develop first-generation floating systems and is a named inventor of standard concepts such as the spar and tension-leg platform.

He received the lifetime achievement award at the Offshore Technology Conference in 1997 and was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2002. In 2008, he was named an Offshore Pioneer by the Offshore Energy Center in Galveston, Texas.

Horton was most recently on the advisory board of the American Bureau of Shipping’s offshore technical committee and Rice University’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.

Keppel Offshore & Marine has picked up Cameron’s offshore rigs business for $100 million.

The business includes the LeTourneau jackup rig designs, rig kit business and aftermarket services. The rig kits include jackup leg components, elevating units/jacking system and cantilever/skidding system. Support equipment, such as cranes and anchor winches, also are options in the rig kits.

About 100 of the rigs are currently operating worldwide.

“With the current low oil price, we have seen a slowdown in newbuild rig orders. Rig owners are instead looking at repairing and upgrading their current fleet,” said Chow Yew Yuen, CEO of Keppel O&M.

“These are popular designs operating in many of the world’s offshore oil fields and rig owners can now utilize our global network of yards to service and maintain their rig assets cost-effectively.”

Royal Dutch Shell gained EU antitrust approval on Sept. 2 for its 47-billion-pound acquisition of BG Group after regulators said the deal did not pose any competition issues.

The European Commission said the transaction would not grant Shell market power in oil and gas exploration, the liquefaction of gas and the wholesale supply of liquefied natural gas.

The merged company, which will be the world's top liquefied natural gas company, will be better able to compete with world No. 1 oil major ExxonMobil.

Houston-based ION Geophysical Corporation is slashing 25% of its global workforce in a bid to further cut costs.

ION employs around 850 staff, mainly in the U.S. “The difficult cost reduction initiative we are undertaking today is necessary to prudently scale the company during this period of significantly decreased revenues, which we believe will extend into 2017,” Brian Hanson, ION’s chief executive officer, said.

Subsea cable protection specialist, Tekmar Energy, is one company that seems to be doing well, despite the downturn.

Since the start of the year the company has expanded its reach into new global regions, won multiple orders of repeat business and brought in six new clients so far this year including JDR Cables, FlexLife and GE Oil & Gas.

Tekmar has also successfully supplied and installed equipment on the Martin Linge (32/7) Field off Norway. The company supplied bend restrictors on the world’s longest high voltage subsea power cable at 170 km (105 miles).

Tekmar’s growth has seen the company expand into the Gulf of Mexico and Middle East for the first time. To support its expansion in the United Arab Emirates, Tekmar has also appointed Emdad as its strategic, local partner.