Engineers have taken an important step toward the creation of a working optical transistor: precisely controlling the mixing of optical signals via tailored electric fields, and obtaining outputs with a near perfect contrast and extremely large on/off ratios.

Total SA is confirming upside potential with a sidetrack to its Ballymore discovery. Drilled to a final depth of 8,898 m, the Ballymore well encountered 205 m of net oil pay in a high-quality Jurassic Norphlet reservoir. The well is in 2,000 m of water about 120 km offshore Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico.

In what OMV AG is calling the largest seismic campaign in Austria, the operator will shoot 600 sq km of 3D seismic in the winter months of 2018. The exploration effort will analyze the subsurface at depths of 4,000-6,000 m for potential natural gas deposits.

US commercial crude oil inventories, which exclude the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increased 6.8 million bbl during the week ended Jan. 26 from the previous week.

BP PLC is considering a possible tie-back development for its Capercaillie discovery on Block 29/4e in the central North Sea. A second discovery, the Achmelvich on Block 206/9b in the West of Shetland area, is being evaluated to assess further options.

Hess Corp. set its 2018 capital and exploratory budget at $2.1 billion, allocating 56% to production, including $900 million to increase its Bakken rig count to 6 from 4 by yearend.