The Bit

Activity is starting to pick up in the Gulf of Mexico. Operators are awarding development contracts, companies are bidding on new acreage and bits are spinning in the shallow waters off Mexico. Kat Schmidt gives us the lowdown on ownership changes and contract awards for the Chevron-operated Tigris project and recaps an intriguing US lease sale, plus continued fallout from the ATP bankruptcy, which turned into another bankruptcy and now has Statoil footing an unwelcome bill. A payday for Eni in Mexico, and more, this week on The Bit. Read more: http://bit.ly/thebit97

We're taking a break from our hiatus for an episode focused on cybersecurity in the oil and gas industry. By some accounts as many as two-thirds of US oil companies believe they've been hacked in the last year. Experts say hackers are after more than just data - the increasing digitisation of the oilfield means vital physical processes are now vulnerable to attack. We speak with top-level representatives of Emerson and Schneider Electric, two companies who provide automation equipment upstream and downstream and are at the forefront of protecting systems from cyber attacks.

We hope you've noticed that we haven't been posting as many podcasts lately. The culprit is a lack of time due to some exciting changes at Upstream. We're taking a hard look at the podcast and how to make it better and will be experimenting with some new ideas, but posting will likely be irregular in the near term. We hope to be back at full steam soon, but until then you can keep getting all the best independent oil and gas news at www.upstreamonline.com.

Shale players in the US have been able to get back to work quickly largely because of artificially low services costs. Noah Brenner tells us why operators might be in for a rude awakening in 2017. Then Kat Schmidt joins to talk about a Canadian company that thinks it may be able to crack the code of a vast but vexing unconventional field in Mexico. Donald Trump has wasted no time making his mark on the oil industry, plus more, this week on The Bit. Music by RDG.

Even as the offshore oil and gas industry flounders, explorers big and small still see hope in deep waters. US indie Llog Exploration is taking a big swing outside its wheelhouse - and the rewards could be huge. And ExxonMobil's resources are getting vaster in Guyana, the world's newest offshore play. One drilling titan sues another, and more, this week on The Bit.

The Permian basin is the hottest play for A&D in the oil patch and Noah Brenner takes a deep dive into who's selling, and who's paying. The he sits down with West Texas legend Jim Henry, whose company was the first to drill through the Sprabrerry and into the Wolfcamp shale - ground zero of the Permian's resurgence. Plus, human error and endless acronyms lead to a a BOP plummeting to the ocean floor, this week on The Bit. Music by Ron Gilmore. Trombone by Dr Eric Starr.