Aberdeen-based subsea installation company, Subocean Limited, has been awarded a fast track contract with E.ON UK on the Scottish Robin Rigg wind farm development in the Solway Firth, bolstering the company's strategy of generating £50 million in sales from the renewable energy sector in the next two years.

Fluor Corporation has announced that it is expanding its presence in southeast Asia with a new and expanded operations office in Singapore. The new location will offer a range of services to Fluor's clients in the energy, chemicals, industrial, infrastructure, operations and maintenance sectors.

Due to an increased demand from clients, C&D Industrial Services Ltd, one of the UK's leading providers of multi-discipline support services to the public and private sectors, has recently announced the setting up of four new offices; namely South Normanton (Derbyshire), Irlam (Cheshire), Stansted (Essex) and Melksham (Wiltshire).

Shell has been given the go-ahead to use the Leiv Eiriksson semisubmersible for production drilling in the Norwegian Sea.

AMEC plc, the international engineering and project management company, has announced the acquisition of the Slovak specialist nuclear services company AllDeco sro from its owner-managers for a total cash consideration of £11.1 million (€14.0 million).

Foster Wheeler Ltd has announced that Italian and Greek subsidiaries of its Continental Europe operating unit, part of its Global Engineering and Construction Group, have been awarded engineering, procurement and construction management contracts by HELLENIC PETROLEUM SA for a refinery upgrading project at one of the company's refineries at Thessaloniki in Northern Greece.

In order to strengthen its position in the oil and gas industry global systems integrator, CSE Servelec Group, has appointed Steve Taylor as Director of Business Development - Oil & Gas.

StatoilHydro has released options for maintenance, modifications, service and support work on their Norwegian offshore installations in the Tampen area and on the Troll B, Troll C and Brage platforms to Aker Solutions ASA.

Process system integrators, DPS (Bristol) Ltd, have been awarded a process topsides FEED for the 40,000bopd Oyo field FPSO, destined for offshore Nigeria.

RBG Limited, the integrated oil, gas and petrochemicals services provider, has secured three new contracts for maintenance and subsea operations in the UK North Sea, worth a combined annual total of £5 million.

E.ON has joined with Danish utility DONG Energy to buy out Shell's stake in the London Array offshore wind farm for an undisclosed sum.

BP America Inc and Chesapeake Energy Corporation have announced that BP has agreed to acquire all of Chesapeake's interests in approximately 90,000 net acres of leasehold and producing natural gas properties in the Arkoma Basin Woodford Shale play for $1.75 billion in cash.

Viking Johnson has extended its MaxiFit couplings range by adding a DN700 size - initially to overcome a difficulty encountered by Balfour Beatty during the cleaning and spray-lining of a 30 kilometre stretch of United Utilities' Hodder strategic trunk main.

Shell will invest up to US $300m to explore offshore Peru as part of a deal with BPZ Energy which marks Shell’s return to Peru after 11 years.

For the first time on its network SFR has installed a fuel cell system using liquid methanol as an alternative backup power source.

In order to support hydroelectric projects in the northern region of Brazil and supply hydromechanical and lifting equipment for projects in the Amazon region, Alstom Hydro has joined forces with Bardella, a Brazilian capital goods company, to create a 50/50 joint venture called Indústria Metalúrgica e Mecânica da Amazônia (IMMA).

Siemens Energy has received an order from Petrobras for the supply of ten compressor trains.

Lloyd's Register Capstone Inc has concluded the acquisition of Celerity3 Engineering Inc, an engineering firm based in Houston, Texas. Celerity3 specialises in design, process, and safety solutions and has delivered practical solutions to challenging engineering problems for more than four years.

TNK-BP is planning production of approximately 1.2 million tons of oil in the Uvat project in South Tyumen Region in 2008, says Oleg Chemezov, Vice President of TNK-BP Management and Director of TNK-BP Sibir, subsidiary of TNK-BP in Tyumen.

Intrinsic safety also means limited power supply, according to the present state of technology. Dynamic Arc Recognition and Termination (DART) will eliminate this restricting factor.

A group of major multi-national organisations including AMEC, BMT Group, Econnect, Edinburgh University, IT Power, Marubeni Europe, NaREC and Pulse Tidal Ltd, have formed the Severn Tidal Fence Group (STF Group) to promote the idea of a 'tidal fence' in the Severn Estuary.

KBR has announced that it has been awarded a $16.5 million contract for detailed engineering for the SMOE Maersk Olie Gas (MOG) Halfdan Phase IV project.

Venture Production Plc has announced that it has successfully sidetracked and tested well 47/9c-11x to appraise the Barbarossa gas field.

After the inauguration of the new drilling riser manufacturing facility in Rio das Ostras, Aker Solutions has signed an agreement with Queiroz Galvão Óleo e Gás SA for the delivery of a fourth deepwater marine drilling riser system.

BP has given final approval to invest US$1.5 billion to develop the Liberty oil field in the Beaufort Sea offshore northern Alaska.

ConocoPhillips has been given the go ahead to use the Maersk Gallant jackup for permanent plugging of two wells on Ekofisk 2/4-W off Norway.

Tyco Thermal Controls has announced that it will be providing Cairn Energy of India with a Skin Effect Heat-Tracing system (STS) for a new underground crude oil pipeline.

In a positive move to broaden its recruitment capability, engineering consultancy and managed contractor service provider, ASTEC Group Limited, has acquired a specialist recruitment consultancy.

Prosafe has been awarded a contract by Shell UK Limited for the provision of the Safe Scandinavia accommodation rig for operations in the UK sector of the North Sea.

FMC Technologies Inc has signed a contract with StatoilHydro for the manufacture and supply of additional subsea equipment for its Norne field development, located in the Norwegian Sea.

Aker Solutions has acquired shares in Qserv Ltd, a leading provider of well, process and pipeline services in the North Sea and international markets.

Fluor Corporation and E.ON Energie AG have announced that the two companies have formed a strategic partnership for the development of a retrofitted pilot plant using Fluor's commercially-proven Econamine FG+ carbon capture technology.

Foster Wheeler Ltd has announced that its Houston-headquartered operating unit, Foster Wheeler USA Corporation and FWUSA's Indian subsidiary, part of its Global Engineering and Construction Group, have acquired the bulk of the assets of Quotient Engineering Inc.

Resins are the constituents that go to make up different types of plastic products. Plastic processors will heat the resins then mould or extrude them into the desired shapes to create the final product. It is a very simple process, but it is important to keep the resins dry.

ESR Technology has announced the appointment of Pat Lawless to the role of Chief Executive Officer.

Project and heavy lift carrier Beluga Shipping GmbH is now proudly able to add London to its list of worldwide sites.

ABB has supplied Q8 National Petroleum with twelve 23 metre long multipoint temperature measuring devices for the refurbishment of Atmospheric Residue Desulfuriser Reactors in the Mina Abdulla refinery in Kuwait.

Aker Solutions has been awarded two contracts with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd in South Korea for the delivery of identical drilling equipment packages for Odebrecht's two new drillships.

Kildrummy, the world's leading supplier of cost management solutions, has announced the general release of version 2.1 of Kildrummy® CostMANAGER.

The UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has announced that Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) has been selected as preferred bidder in the competition to secure a Parent Body Organisation (PBO) for the Sellafield Site Licence Company (SLC). NMP is the consortium comprising AMEC, AREVA and URS Washington Division.

Enerflex Systems Income Fund has announced that it has been awarded several contracts totalling approximately C$62 million.

Gatley-based WebGuild Media Ltd has secured and delivered a new website as part of an extensive rebranding exercise, to global independent market specialist Hima-Sella Ltd.

The development of the Oseberg area in the North Sea continues. Oseberg Delta and Theta Cook, which have now come on stream, add considerable production value.

The Joint-Stock Company Vareganneftegas (subsidiary of TNK-BP in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area) is to drill 2 well clusters and 17 wells (11 production wells and 6 injection wells) in the Bakhilovskoe field.

StatoilHydro has submitted a new plan for the development and operation (PDO) of the Troll field to ensure the long-term management of the oil and gas reserves in Norway’s largest gas field.

Shell has launched invitations to tender (ITTs) for the Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED), as well as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a Floating LNG (FLNG) facility to be used in the Asia Pacific region.

StatoilHydro has awarded Aker Solutions the contract to perform topside modifications for tie-in of the M-template to the Norne FPSO, the Norne M project. The contract is a EPCI contract worth approximately NOK50 million, scheduled for project completion November 2009.

Fluor Corporation has announced that its polysilicon project in China for LDK Solar, the world-class solar wafer manufacturer, logged more than 2 million craft hours without a single safety incident effective through to the end of April 2008.

The Met Office has welcomed calls for a joint centre to deal with the issue of severe weather and flooding in the UK.

International oil and gas drilling rig design and engineering company, RDS, a division of the KCA DEUTAG Group, has been awarded accreditation by The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) for its Professional Development Scheme for Electrical, Control and Instrumentation Engineering.

The fastest and most efficient way to upgrade a magnetic level indicator (MLI) is to clamp a Jupiter 200 magnetostrictive level transmitter onto its by-pass cage. The installation can be performed under process conditions and without any modification of the installed equipment.

The process for the construction of the UAE's first nuclear power plant has begun with the invitation for pre-qualification by interested contractors. Nine bidders are competing for the contract, which is likely to close in a couple of weeks. AMEC said it is one of the nine who have been short-listed to manage the first of the UAE's nuclear power plants.

Groveley Detection's first GDU-01 ultrasonic gas leak detectors - installed at Centrica's Rough onshore gas terminal in Easington, Hull nearly 12 months ago - have proved 100% effective for monitoring potential gas leaks.

The UK has just been ranked near the bottom of an international league of the most attractive places to work. Engineering staffing specialist EPCglobal questioned 1,695 engineers worldwide to help employers understand their chances of plugging skills gaps with overseas talent.

Valve actuation and control specialist Rotork has introduced a new version of its market-leading IQT intelligent electric actuator, developed specifically to meet the extreme demands of naval marine applications.

BG Group Plc has announced its intention to acquire all of the issued shares in Origin Energy Limited.

BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Total are in the final negotiations for contracts that will see the four return to Iraq 36 years after having their assets taken away following Saddam Hussein taking power.

BG Group Plc has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary BG LNG Trading (BGLT) has signed a Liquefied Natural Gas Heads of Agreement with Castle Peak Power Company (CAPCO), Hong Kong.

Fluor Corporation has announced that it has been named part of the winning team to execute the Plateau Remediation Contract (PRC) at the Hanford site in Washington State.

Rig use in the Asia Pacific region by petroleum explorers such as Chevron Corp, Reliance Industries Ltd and Total SA rose to a 16-year high in May.

The rising cost and consumption of electrical power and increasing pressure on companies to become 'green', has led to energy efficiency becoming a widely debated topic.

Aker Solutions has been awarded a contract with Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd in Singapore for delivery of a complete drilling system for an ultra deepwater drilling semi-submersible platform.

Norway’s Bjørge has extended a contract with FMC Technologies to supply its advanced surface treatment on components for FMC’s subsea systems.

Shell UK and joint venture partner Esso Exploration and Production UK are offering for sale a further portfolio of northern North Sea assets comprising four discoveries and a number of prospects and leads.

Aker Solutions has officially opened Brazil's only manufacturing centre for deepwater marine drilling risers.

During the 2008 North Atlantic tropical storm season the Met Office is forecasting 15 named storms, with a 70% chance that the number will be in the range 10 to 20 between July and November.

A study led by Yorkshire Forward for a group of stakeholders and undertaken by AMEC, the international engineering and project management company, shows how Britain can reduce its total CO2 emissions by over 6% by capturing and storing CO2 from sources in Yorkshire and Humber.

BG Group has announced another new oil discovery in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil. The exploration well, known as Guara, discovered oil within the BM-S-9 concession area.

MOGAS Industries will feature the FlexStream® Technology at their exhibit at Neftegaz 2008, June 23-27 in Moscow, Russia.

Aker Solutions has been awarded a contract worth approximately US$65 million for the delivery of a complete subsea production system to Eni's Oyo field development offshore Nigeria.

StatoilHydro has drilled exploration wells in prospects at Haltenbanken three times this year. Gas has been struck in all prospects. Galtvort is the last gas find in line.

Lloyd's Register EMEA has appointed a new team to broaden its existing oil and gas consultancy capability.

UK engineering company Peter Brotherhood Ltd has secured another order to supply a condensing steam turbo-generator set to Pakistan. The 15MW steam turbo-generator set will be installed in a diesel combined cycle power plant in Lahore, Pakistan, in early 2009 and the plant will become fully operational in September 2009.

Chloride has expanded its technology options to offer customers more choice in selecting the most appropriate power protection solution for their application.

The Met Office has announced significant developments in its science and technology capability to provide more precise pinpointing of where and when extreme rainfall will occur, helping to strengthen the UK's resilience to major severe weather events.