Germany’s RWE Dea Group and Azeri state oil company SOCAR have signed an exploration accord for a project in the Caspian Sea.

Dragon Oil has completed testing of two development wells in its Cheleken Contract Area fields in the Caspian Sea Turkmen sector.

Iran is aiming to discover 500 MMbbl of oil per year and 5 tcm (177 tcf) of gas between 2010-2015, according to the country’s Petroenergy Information Network, Shana.

Sakheneftegaz Engineering LLC (SNE) has won orders covering further engineering and early procurement for the Sakhalin-1 Arkutun-Dagi topsides project.

The ACG partnership has taken a final investment decision to proceed with the $6-billion development of the Chirag oil field in the Azerbaijan section of the Caspian Sea, according to partner Statoil.

Iran has proposed a joint development with Kuwait of the Arash offshore oil field.

Qatargas has awarded Neptune Marine Services a subsea inspection contract for its platforms, offshore pipelines, and subsea connection facilities in the Arabian Gulf.

J. Ray McDermott has extended its existing contracts with Fugro Survey (Middle East) by 3.5 years to cover the provision of survey, positioning, and ROV services in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, India, and Saudi Arabia.

Fugro Subsea Services has awarded Vertec Engineering a $366,952 contract to design and manufacture two A60 ROV control cabins for use in a Zone 2 hazardous area for a project offshore Egypt.

Offshore Israel exploration specialist Adira Energy has appointed two new specialists to its technical team.

Polarcus Naila AS has taken delivery of the 12-streamer 3D seismic vessel Polarcus Naila.

Wintershall plans to explore Qatar’s offshore block 4N later this year.

European energy utility WINGAS, a joint venture between Wintershall and Gazprom, has contracted Siemens Energy for a compression system for its OPAL natural gas Baltic Sea pipeline link.

CAPE Group has developed a semi-automatic, remotely controlled orbital welding system to repair oil and gas pipelines on the seabed.

Saudi Arabia’s Environmental Protection Department (EPD) and the Offshore Projects Division of the Saudi Aramco’s Northern Area Projects Department (OPD/NAPD) have sponsored a coral relocation project in the Arabian Gulf.

Iran expects first oil from its $300-million Hengam field development in the Persian Gulf in mid-March.

Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil have started Train 7 of the Ras Laffan 3 LNG project at Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar.

Qatar and Iran expect to draft a master plan to develop gas co-operation initiatives, according to Iran’s petroleum minister Masoud Mirkazemi.

ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Turkey will use Transocean’s new drillship Deepwater Champion, for its deepwater exploration program in the Turkish sector of the Black Sea offshore Turkey.

Abu Dhabi’s National Drilling Company has contracted Maritime Industrial Services (MIS) to modify and refurbish its jackup NDC Al Bzoom. The $55.4 million order is MIS’ largest to date for this type of work.

Engineering contractor Grup Servicii Petroliere expects the construction vessel C-Master to arrive at its yard this weekend, ahead of pipelay operations in Russian waters towards end-March.