RWE Dea AG, Hamburg, has inaugurated a two-unit land base to serve the artificial drilling and production island on Mittelplate oil field in the Wadden Sea tidelands of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Partners in a pilot development of the Late Devonian Grosmont formation in Alberta report progress toward commercial production of bitumen, which would be the first for the expansive carbonate.

GDF SUEZ E&P UK Ltd., London, has awarded an engineering, procurement, installation, and construction contract to Technip for the Juliet project, a tie-back to the Pickerill A platform.

The US drilling rig count climbed by 4 units during the week ended Jan. 25, with the total number of rotary rigs reaching 1,753, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. This compares with 2,008 rigs working in the comparable week last year.

Adira Energy received approval from the Tel Aviv District Committee for Planning and Building for exploratory oil drilling in the Gabriella reservoir offshore Israel.

Saudi Aramco planned to begin drilling in the Persian Gulf this month with a jack up drilling rig purpose-built at the Kepper FELS shipyard in Singapore.

The latest appraisal well in Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea offshore Norway has encountered excellent reservoir and confirmed the deep oil-water contact, said a unit of Lundin Petroleum AB, Stockholm.

Cisco Energy LLC, Plano, Tex., said it has participated in eight operated and 13 nonoperated wells in the Mississippi lime play in north-central Oklahoma and constructed five salt-water disposal well facilities since beginning its drilling program in January 2012.

WPX Energy Inc., Tulsa, has revealed a horizontal Niobrara shale gas discovery in the Piceance basin of Colorado that the company said has the potential to ultimately more than double its current 18 tcf equivalent of proved, probable, and possible reserves.

Gulfport Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, reported production test results on two operated Utica shale wells in eastern Ohio.

Continental Resources Inc., Oklahoma City, the top producer and leaseholder in the Williston basin Bakken play, said it increased its end-2012 proved reserves 54% to 785 million bbl of oil equivalent, 72% oil.

Eni SPA and PetroVietnam have signed a memorandum of understanding covering exploration and production business opportunities in Vietnam and elsewhere.

Pan Orient Energy Corp., Calgary, said a well in an undrilled fault block in L53 D East field in Thailand has found the first good quality oil pay of significant thickness in five sandstone intervals.