Companies in the news

PTT Exploration & Production Public Co. Ltd. successfully completed its Arthif field’s second drilling campaign of 14 wells with great success. The field is located east of Songkhla and comprises block B14A, B15A and B16A. Out of 21 wildcats and appraisal wells drilled, only one was not commercial.

BP and E.On agreed to go ahead with their plan to acquire a majority stake in Veba Oil for $1.63 billion in cash and some $850 million of debt assumption in return for 51% and operational control of Veba Oil which owns Aral, a German retailer. BP said it would be prepared to pay a further $2.4 billion in cash for the remaining 49% of Veba Oil, which E.ON can require it to buy under terms of the agreement. BP also said the acquisition costs would be partly offset by its $1.65 billion share of the proceeds from the sale of Veba’s oil and gas production business to Petro-Canada.

Petrobrás will use 14 horizontal-tree production systems and five conventional trees for operation in water depths ranging from 3,280 to 6,561 ft of water. The systems will be used for water injection in the Albacora Leste field. Three conventional trees are designated for use as production trees in other fields. Two conventional trees with adapter bases will be installed in the Baracuda-Caratinga field. All of the trees are designed for guidelineless operation.

Denerco Oil acquired LD Energi A/S. The new, wholly-owned subsidiary operates under the name of Denerco Petroleum A/S.

Telenor Satellite Services completed its acquisition of COMSAT Mobile Communications and combined it with its Telenor Satellite Mobile, forming Telenor Satellite Services.

Kerr-McGee replaced 490% of its 2001 production at an average finding cost of $5.73/boe. About 40% of the reserves increase came from worldwide additions of proved reserves, net of property sales, totaling 529 million boe. Its exploration and appraisal program added 314 million boe, nearly 300% of its 2001 production, from the drillbit alone. Combined with the HS Resources’ acquisition, the result was reserves per common share increasing more than 30% from year-end 2000, to 15.1 boe per share. Deepwater programs in the North Sea accounted for about 26%, while U.S. onshore added nearly 22%. Year-end 2001 reserves were 56% liquieds and 44% gas. U.S. accounts for 54%, UK for 31%.

Range Resources Corp. sets its capex budget for 2002 at $100 million, a 13% increase over its 2001 budget. This includes $85 million for drilling and recompletions, $11 million for land and seismic and $3 million for pipelines and facilities.

Tri-Valley Oil & Gas has begun farming out working interest units in its Oil Creek play near Coalinga, California. The wildcat prospect is north along trend of the giant Kettleman North Dome field and TVOG has mapped a potential of six separate pay zones to 12,500 ft. Project costs are estimated at $3.5 million, including drilling and completing a test well. Seismic data confirms the stratigraphic concept of the play and recent drilling in the area confirmed the potential of a classic California-style "stacked pay" prospect with gas in the deeper Cretaceous section.