Shell showed earnings were significantly down in the fourth quarter last year to US £1.2 Bn from $4.8 Bn a year ago on a current cost of supplies basis.

Last week was dominated by positive new from British-based Tullow Oil with a successful deepwater well result on Tweneboa 2 offshore Ghana, then the company produced more positive  results with its Kasamene 2 well onshore Uganda, and indicated plans for a raft of new exploration wells this year, and a new share-placing to fund further exploration. There was concern in Norway that a contract to build a new installation for Ekofisk could go to a foreign fabrication yard, and Statoil was urged to go it alone without partners to develop the  Gudrun field. And the UK government launched a 26th Offshore Licensing Round, and at the same time announced new tax breaks to help development in the potentially significant West of Shetlands region.

Cairn Energy has reaffirmed its commitment to exploration offshore Greenland with plans to drill with two rigs this summer.

Tullow Oil had a good week exploration in Africa last week with its deepwater Tweneboa 2 well confirming a major find and onshore Uganda the Kasamene 2 well firmed a discovery also. Offshore Norway rigs, Aker Barents and Transocean Leader received new drilling consents, while the Bredford Dolphin has been hired for two new UK West of Shetlands wells by Hurricane Exploration.  And a new tender was issued for the Wave Hub renewable energy test bed off the UK coast in Cornwall.

Middle East based Masdar and Germany utility E.ON have signalled their intention to form a joint venture through which to roll out carbon capture technology internationally.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown launched a major new UK offshore bonanza with a third licensing round for wind farms around the UK coast in nine different zones with the aim of providing capacity to generate up to 25% of electricity demand from offshore wind by 2020. Drilling on the UK Metis prospected firmed up with a farm-in deal, Lundin gained consent for a new well offshore Norway and Daewoo appears to have won a US $2  Bn deal to build ships to carry liquefied Shtokman field gas.

Despite the failure to secure a legally binding agreement from the Copenhagen climate change conference the leaders of the European offshore wind industry say the European Union should now take a leader on getting a global agreement on reducing carbon emissions.

The prospect of new drilling offshore Greenland has come closer with the fixture of a drillship for an exploration programme there.

This is the Borealis, the new heavy duty deepwater construction ship acquired by Acergy which is being constructed at the Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore to provide a new pipelayer for the global contract group.

Engineering and service contractor Petrofac has predicted that it will see profit of around US $330 m for the year ending on 31 December this year.

Offshore contractor Acergy has demonstrated its confidence in the future of the global offshore oil and gas market by unveiling plans to deploy a newbuild deepwater pipelay ship to provide state-of-the-art offshore construction capability.

Economic data from the US plus an increase in Saudi production and monetary issues helped to push the price of crude oil down below the US $70/barrel benchmark in Asian trading.

Oilfield service giant Schlumberger has launched  a new downhole monitoring service to provide data on movement of well fluids through the wellbore to help with production profiling, leak detection and evaluation of gas lifting.

Recent figures show that there are 42 more rigs worldwide, in November than in October.

Brent North Sea crude has edged up higher in over night trading to nudge near to the US$809/bbl mark.

Explorer BPC Limited which holds licences in the Bahamas has indicated its intention to change its domicile address from the Falkland Islands to the Isle of Man in the UK.

A new report into the global market for floating production units has noted that as many as 23 existing units a now looking for new contracts.

The Japanese Nikkei index fell by more than three per cent on Friday.  The news of the recession in Dubai is creating fear in the market and a drop in the oil price.

Offshore group Acergy has warned this year's revenue from continuing operations are likely to be in line with previous guidance and lower than last year.

A new licensing round coming up in Greenland next year has encouraged UK-listed Faroe Petroleum to pre-qualify as an operator for the round.

Survey group DOF Subsea has completed a well site clearance survey offshore Newfoundland in the Laurentian Basin using the Geosounder vessel which is now heading back to Norway.

Teekay Offshore Partners signed a 260 million dollar revolving credit facility which increases the partnership's liquidity by approximately 100 million dollars.

A whistleblower at the International Energy Agency claims the world is running out of oil faster than the official estimates indicate.The senior official claims that the reporting has been underplayed due to fear of triggering panic buying.

There was more good news for the UK sector with a sidetrack on the West of Shetland Tornado discovery encountering oil and gas; news of substantial projects ahead from the Pilot Share Fair in Aberdeen – including a replacement for the BP Schiehallion FPSO – and big deals were done in Iraq by European majors Shell and Eni

Greenland has a new energy association which has been formed to support future exploration and development in the country.

Last week saw a succession of company results for the third quarter with all reporting falls in profit for the period: Shell's earnings were down 73% and ConocoPhillips reported a 71% earnings fall. On the plus side ExxonMobil and its partners drilled the Jetta discovery offshore Norway, and in the UK West of Shetlands region, the Lancaster exploration by Hurricane Hydrocarbons proved up a new basement oil discovery.

Claims have been made about the discovery of a new CO2-free source of energy which its backers claims is more powerful than oil and gas.

A good week for exploration last week with new finds off Norway near Alvheim for Marathon, off Angola for Total and off Venezuela for Eni, while BG Norway got a green light for new exploration drilling near the Jordbaer (strawberry) discovery.