Seadrill Ltd. announced contracts for the three jack up rigs: Offshore Mischief, Offshore Defender, and West Leda. The three contracts have an aggregated revenue potential of $311 million including mobilization fees and assignment-specific rig modifications.

Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., Calgary, reported completion of Montney and Nordegg multistage fractured horizontal wells at Kaybob in the Deep Basin of Alberta.

A unit of Total SA is installing four platforms on Ofon oil field offshore Nigeria in a second phase of development that will triple production to 90,000 boe/d (OGJ Online, July 24, 2007).

ExxonMobil Upstream Research Co. has issued a global license for proprietary oil-well sand-control technology to Weatherford International Ltd.

The global market for oil field specialty chemicals reached nearly $16 billion in 2010 with the US and Canada accounting for 52%, which an IHS Chemical market study attributed to increasing oil and natural gas drilling activity in shale plays.

PetroChina, a unit of China National Petroleum Corp., has signed a binding agreement to purchase a 20% stake in Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Groundbirch assets in northeastern British Columbia.