Velociraptor Rigs; Schlumberger Drops Out Of Joint Venture With Russia's Largest Driller -- September 25, 2015

Velociraptor Rigs over at Rigzone:

The current downturn in the global oil and gas industry may not seem like an opportune time to introduce a new drilling rig. However, the founders of Raptor Rig see opportunities on the horizon for their drilling rig technology. 

Named for the fast-moving dinosaur, the Velociraptor Rig has been designed to eliminate the inefficiencies of the 100-year old drilling platform and include automation that industry is having trouble installing on the traditional platform, Brett Chell, an energy tech entrepreneur involved with the company and managing director of Axial Energy Technologies, told Rigzone in an interview. 

The rig is a conventional style jointed pipe rig that does simultaneous connections, something that Chell says has not been done before. The Velociraptor rig combines the best attributes and speed of a coil rig with the extreme capability and time-tested viability of jointed pipe. 

The rig has been created by oil and gas drilling company veterans, Reg Layden and Richard Havinga, who have designed some of the world’s fastest and most efficient rigs, said Chell. Layden is the ex-general manager of Xtreme Coil Drilling and Technicol, and Havinga is the former president of Xtreme Coil Drilling and Foremost Industries.

Much, much more at the link. Will be archived at the source.

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Schlumberger To Drop Out Of Joint Venture With Russia's Largest Driller

Rigzone is reporting:

Schlumberger Ltd. will not pursue a $1.7 billion agreement to buy a minority stake in Russia’s largest driller Eurasia Drilling Co. beyond Sept. 30 after a lack of regulatory approvals stalled the deal.

The world’s largest oilfield services provider will instead focus on other merger and acquisition opportunities.

Relations between Russia and the U.S. are the worst since the Cold War over the Kremlin’s support for separatists in Ukraine. Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB, was holding up the deal on concerns that Schlumberger, based in Houston and Paris, would have too much influence in Russia’s oil-services market.

“Schlumberger was ready to drop a $2 billion anchor in the country, now who knows if they won’t find better opportunities elsewhere,” Artem Konchin, an oil analyst at Otkritie Capital, said by telephone Thursday. “Schlumberger could have played a role in lobbying Russia’s economic interests amid sanctions” on the export of some drilling technology and equipment to the country, he said.

The approvals required for the deal were legal, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Friday. “There’s a certain framework to approve foreign investments in line with the law. Those are not voluntary requests.”

Schlumberger’s decision to pull out was a commercial decision, Peskov said.