Four Greenpeace protesters who boarded the Stena Don rig working on a deepwater well offshore Greenland for Cairn Energy have been arrested.

There was plenty of positive news flow last week with discoveries at Blakeney offshore the UK revealed by Wintershall and at Zidane offshore Norway by Noreco, at the ONS exhibition and conference took place in Stavanger. Amid the briefings, business talks, discussions and debates, Hollywood hunk Kevin Costner brought the taint of tinsel town to the oil show as he sought to find Norwegian business partners for his company's oil spill clean up equipment.

The well on the Oates prospect was disappointing, whilst Statoil's Brynhild discovery was successful. Further Ormen Lange drilling got a go-ahead, and Interoil discovered oil in Peru. On the field development front, Talisman Energy sold Stirby interest to North Energy, whilst Faroe Petroleum took over an interest from Det norske at the Clapton field. The Claymore FEED went to Fabricom and the Bentley programme has been enhanced. The Huntington partners extended the Sevan FPSO Voyageur's lease, and Total extended FMC Technologies deal offshore Angola. Finally, KNOC presented an offer directly to Dana Petroleum shareholders, Staoil announced corporate changes and Senergy secured foothold in the US.

Chevron has won new exploration rights to Canada's Arctic Far North in the Beaufort Sea.

Royal Dutch Shell's second quarter earnings this year were almost doubled while its half year earnings were also up and the company has pledged further asset sales.

Drilling contractor Noble Corporation has closed a US $2.16 Bn deal to acquire another rig owner adding seven new units to its fleet.

New seismic data is being acquired by TGS offshore Greenland in the latest addition to the Norwegian survey contractor's data library and coinciding with a new licensing round.

CGG Veritas has taken delivery of a new seismic ship co-owned with Norway's Eidesvik Shipping.

London-listed Cairn Energy has declared the start of a four-well exploration drilling campaign offshore Greenland in the Disko West licence area with a first well kicking off on a prospect called Alpha 1.

Bahamas explorer BPC has carried out a high specification seismic survey over its licences offshore The Bahamas near to Cuba.

BG was talking up its giant Tupi discovery offshore Brazil after a seventh appraisal well confirmed the 5 to 8 Billion barrels of oil there, but in the North Sea Dana Petroleum – linked with Austria's OMV in buyout talk after buying up SunCorp assets in The Netherlands – and said its important UK Monkwell exploration prospect was sub-commercial, while there as a dry hole south of Ekofisk for BG Norge. Companies considered the impact of the UK's emergency budget. And BP's Macondo well continued to gush oil.

Acergy and Subsea 7 say the reason for their combination is the demand to access more reserves in more remote areas and the growing size and complexity of offshore projects.

There was good news on the UK Tybalt prospect after a flow test confirmed light oil, and a second side-track is being considered to further appraise the Catcher prospect. Drilling kicked off on the Zidane prospect offshore Norway operated by RWE-Dea. BP revealed a US $20 Bn compensation fund it is to set up for the Gulf oil spill and the UK government announced plans to review oil spill response in the light of the disaster. Aker Stord saw sailout of the new Gjoa platform, and Aker Solutions secured a second deal for Noble Energy's Mediterranean Tamar deepwater gas development, while Lamprell clinched another to build a new wind farm installation ship for Seajacks.

Acergy and Subsea 7 are to merge it has been revealed today in a joint statement to the Oslo Stock Exchange.

A highly successful well in the Falklands, a UK find at Catcher, another near Skarv plus positive news in the Jubilee field area offshore Ghana with the Mahogany 5 well spelled out an excellent week for exploration last week. 

International survey group Fugro GEOS has marked a major milestone with a hundred simultaneously deployed mooring and metocean monitoring stations installed worldwide.

While Friends of the Earth pleaded for a halt to deepwater drilling offshore Norway in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Borgland Dolphin was set to drill the Zidane 1 prospect in the Halten Terrace offshore Norway. But there was exploration drilling disappointment too for Centrica near the Draugen field and for Det norske oljeselskap near  Sleipner Øst.

GoM oil spill can mean demands for new rigs. Norwegian rig owner and operator Seadrill says BP's Macondo well oil spill will have uncertain implications for the rest of the world's drilling industry but the company also believes it will underline the need for modern equipment in the US Gulf of Mexico in future. Aker Solutions wins USD 180 million contracts. The company has been awarded two contracts with Daewoo. The scope of work for Aker Solutions is to deliver complete drilling equipment packages consisting of equipment deliveries and commissioning services. Shtokman on the rise? A senior Total executive has signalled that he expects the first liquefied gas from the Shtokman field to be produced in 2017.

Aker Solutions has been awarded two contracts worth USD 180 million with Daewoo.

It was a big week last week for renewable energy with a headline-grabbing report suggesting offshore wind wave and tidal power industries around the UK coast  could be worth a huge £993 Bn by 2050. That was just one of the developments in the renewables sector during an exhibition and conference in Aberdeen. On the fossil fuels front, the Falklands Sea Lion oil discovery well was completed, and the rig which drilled it, the Ocean Guardian was mobilising to the East Falklands Basin to drill the next well in the current campaign on the Toroa prospect. New drilling commenced offshore Norway on the Maria prospect; Sevan Marine won another study contact for Chevron's UK Alder development and Wintershall was planning a new normally manned installation to tap the Wingate gas field in the UK's Southern Gas Basin.

Exploration drilling brought the best news last week with a find in the UK on Tybalt, another near Frøy, more oil was found at Draupne and another tieback was identified near Åsgard offshore Norway. And Rockhopper Exploration produced more positive news about its Sea Lion oil discovery in the Falklands.

Perhaps the best news last week was the confirmation of an oil discovery by Rockhopper Exploration in the North Falklands basin with its Sea Lion well which prompted favourable comment from one City observer in London. Ireland's Helvick oil field is to see a new feasibility study, a PDO for the Norwegian Pi field went to Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy while BP continued to battle with the oil spill in the US Gulf of Mexico and the UK electorate waited to see which party would form a new government after a general election which left no party with an overall majority.

It was a bad week for BP, but there was positive news on the North Sea field development front with a decision on the production platform for the Huntington development, for the Pi field, and Apache signalled a deal for a further platform for its Forties field.

BJ Services is now officially part of Baker Hughes after the US oil sevices giant said it had completed its US $5.5 Bn takeover deal which was first revalead last August which will see the operations of the two companies in the UK and Norway merged into one unit.

Shell's first quarter figures saw the Anglo-Dutch oil group report a surge in earnings to US $4.9 Bn up 49% from $3.3 Bn last year on its usual current cost of supplies basis.

Anglo-American oil giant BP saw a big improvement in its results in the first quarter with profit fort the period up by 135%.

Good news came from Norway with discoveries at Fogelberg and successful appraisal at Draupne; but it was not a good week for for logistics with helicopter flights again hit by a ban due to the Icelandic volcano dust cloud and there was tragedy in the US Gulf of Mexico.

Ensco has sold yet another rig in a bid to renew its fleet.