London. Bedford Energy, Inc. has declared the resignation of its CEO and President, Harvey S. Bryant, effective July 1, 2010. Mr. Bryant is replaced by Bruce Scambler as CEO and President.  Mr. Scambler will also serve as the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Bryant will remain a consultant to the company and will continue to serve on the Board of Directors.

Moscow. The Federal Subsoil Resources Management Agency said on Thursday that auctions for the development of two oil and gas deposits in central Russia have failed due to the lack of bids. The agency has auctioned the Medveditsko-Karamyshskoye and Perelyubsko-Rubezhinskoye fields in the Saratov region getting only one bid for the Perelyubsko-Rubezhinskoye field, it said in a statement.

Texas. Chevron Corp. will take a roughly 30% stake in its Black Sea oil venture with Russia's largest oil producer, Rosneft, holding the remainder, industry sources said. "The ownership structure will be around one-third Chevron, two-thirds Rosneft," said a source familiar with the details of the project. Last month, Chevron and Rosneft signed an agreement to jointly explore and develop the Val Shatsky field on Russia's Black Sea shelf, a deep-water region that analysts say presents major geological difficulties.

San Donato Milanese. Saipem has been awarded new offshore contracts worth over 1 billion euro. The contracts refer to activities to be carried out between 2010 and 2012 in the main offshore areas where Saipem is present, in particular in the Caspian Sea, both in the Kazakh and Azeri sectors, Brazil, the Middle East, West Africa, the North Sea and Mexico. The operations will be performed by Saipem's most powerful fleet vessels and include the laying of sealines, field development, as well as platform fabrication and installation.

Moscow. FMC Technologies has signed an agreement with Gazprom Dobycha Shelf for the manufacture and supply of subsea production equipment to support the Kirinskoye field. The award has a value of approximately $190 million in revenue to FMC Technologies.

Moscow. Skolkovo, dubbed Russia's Silicon Valley, is being built from scratch 20 km (12.4 miles) outside of Moscow. The center will focus on research in five priority spheres: energy, information technologies, communication, biomedical research and nuclear technologies.

London. Ensco plc (NYSE: ESV) reported that its second quarter 2010 earnings conference call will be held at 10:00 a.m. CDT (11:00 a.m. EDT and 4:00 p.m. London) on Thursday, 22 July 2010. The earnings release will be issued before the New York Stock Exchange opens that morning. The conference call will be webcast live at www.enscoplc.com. Interested parties may also listen to the call by dialing 719-325-2359 (access code 4222569). It is recommended that participants call five to ten minutes before the scheduled start time. A replay of the conference call will be available by phone for five days by dialing (719) 457-0820 (access code 4222569). A webcast replay, MP3 download and transcript of the call will be available at www.enscoplc.com.

San Donato Milanese (Mi) Snamprogetti Netherlands B.V., a former indirect subsidiary of Eni and current subsidiary of Saipem, has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") to resolve an investigation into Snamprogetti Netherlands B.V.'s activities in connection with contracts to build liquid natural gas facilities on Bonny Island, Nigeria.