The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement issued a new Safety and Environmental Management Systems (SEMS) rule for offshore oil and gas activity that aims to improve SEMS requirements under the original workplace safety rule that became effective on Nov. 15, 2010.

Titan River Energy, a newly formed oil and gas company based in Fort Worth, announced a $100 million capital commitment from two private equity firms that Titan River will use to initially focus on drilling and developing oil-prone shale plays in Texas.

Bankers Petroleum Ltd., Calgary, has begun injectivity testing at the first pilot polymer flood location in Patos-Marinza field in Albania.

A group led by OMV AG has submitted a declaration of commerciality for Bina Bawi field east of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

A federal judge in Houston has upheld the US Chemical Safety Board’s legal authority to investigate the April 2010 deepwater Macondo well blowout and subsequent explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible in the Gulf of Mexico, which resulted in a massive oil spill.

Heerema Fabrication Group has received a contract for procurement and fabrication of equipment for Hejre oil field under development by DONG Energy and Bayerngas in the Danish North Sea (OGJ Online, Feb. 27, 2012).

Prospects for new bitumen upgraders in Alberta have soured since the global recession of 2008, notes a study published by IHS on the same day plans were reported cancelled for a large project near Fort McMurray (OGJ Online, Mar. 27, 2013).

The US drilling rig count made a slight gain of 2 units during the week ended Mar. 29 reaching a total 1,748 rotary rigs working, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. That compares with 1,979 rigs working in the comparable week last year.

Suncor Energy Inc., Calgary, has scrapped plans for the Voyageur upgrader project near Fort McMurray, Alta., and has acquired partner Total E&P Canada Ltd.’s interest for $515 million.

Gulfport Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, expects delineation drilling in the May River area of northern Alberta by Grizzly Oil Sands ULC to lead to filing of applications for thermal recovery of bitumen.

The Well Life Cycle Practices Forum, a UK group formed in response to the Macondo tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, has published a second edition of its guidelines for relief-well planning for work on the UK continental shelf (OGJ Online, July 31, 2012).