Statoil has started production at an undisclosed rate from Vigdis North-East oil field, a four-well subsea development in the North Sea offshore Norway (OGJ Online, Sept. 16, 2011).

Total SA restarted production of natural gas and condensate on the Elgin-Franklin complex in the UK North Sea following approval by the UK Health and Safety Executive.

ExxonMobil Corp. reported the start-up of Telok natural gas field offshore Malaysia, production from which will peak at 370 MMcfd, according to earlier disclosures by the company.

The US drilling rig count slipped by 5 units during the week ended Mar. 8 reaching a total 1,752 rotary rigs working, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. That compares with 1,973 rigs working in the comparable week last year.

Det Norske Veritas (DNV) was selected to evaluate and support development of two cost-competitive dry-tree semisubmersible rig concepts for the Gulf of Mexico.

Saratoga Resources Inc., Houston, has dually completed its QQ-25 Roux Toux well in Main Pass Block 47 field on State Lease 195 in the Gulf of Mexico offshore Louisiana and tied it back to the company’s Grand Bay production facility.

Talisman Energy Inc. is setting its short-term priority on developing liquids in the South Texas Eagle Ford liquids shale play and also on drilling to hold strategic land positions in some of its dry gas plays, Talisman Pres. and Chief Executive Officer Hal Kvisle said in a Mar. 6 webcast with investors.

The result from the latest appraisal well in the Johan Sverdrup area offshore Norway “in terms of reservoir quality of the Volgian reservoir represents one of the best tests ever seen in the North Sea,” said Lundin Petroleum AB, Stockholm.

Petrominerales Ltd., Calgary, said it resumed production testing in January 2013 at its Tatama horizontal well in Colombia’s Llanos basin, where the company operates the Rio Ariari, Chiguiro Oeste, and Chiguiro Este blocks.

While US oil and gas production has climbed to its highest level in 2 decades, all of the growth since 2007 has occurred outside federally controlled areas where production actually declined, a recent report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service found.

Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (TAQA) confirmed a hydrocarbon release was detected in one of the Cormorant Alpha platform legs in the northern UK North Sea, adding there was no hydrocarbon release into the sea or air.

Apache Corp. has completed an oil and gas-condensate discovery on the north flank of the Khalda Ridge producing complex in the Western Desert of Egypt, a country in which the company plans to drill 270 wells in 2013, including more than 60 exploratory wells.