World of Oil and Gas

Vol. 234 No. 8

GDF Suez makes West of Shetlands gas discovery

GDF Suez E&P UK has confirmed that the Cragganmore exploration well was a successful gas discovery. In Block 208/17, this is one of two wells drilled in the West of Shetlands, in partnership with DONG Energy as operator. The Cragganmore well results are being evaluated to assess viability and determine further activity. The second well, Glenrothes, in Block 208/11, has been plugged and abandoned, having reached a TD of 4,295 m. The water depths of the wells were 673 m for Cragganmore and 1,169 m at Glenrothes. The drilling campaign commenced at the end of 2012, and continued into early 2013. In the West of Shetlands, GDF Suez secured its first license as operator, with three other firms as partners, in October 2012. The company now holds seven licenses in the West of Shetlands province.  The company’s next exploration well in the region is planned for 2015. GDF Suez is a partner (30%) in the exploration wells at Glenrothes and Cragganmore. DONG Energy is the operator (40%), and Dana Petroleum is also a partner (30%).

BG Group raises Tanzania gas estimate after offshore find

BG Group raised its estimate for total gross recoverable resources of natural gas from its Tanzania discoveries to around 13 Tcf, following its eighth consecutive find off the East African country’s coast. Increasing the estimate from 10 Tcf underscores the region’s importance as one of the energy industry’s hottest new areas. Neighboring Mozambique, with its discoveries of giant offshore gas fields, aims to export its first cargoes of LNG by 2018. Analysts say the region is well-placed to serve growing energy demand in Asian markets. The mounting volume of gas discoveries off the coast of East Africa has already stimulated a wave of multi-billion-dollar acquisitions in projects in Mozambique. BG Group said that its eighth consecutive gas discovery offshore Tanzania occurred in July, in the Ngisi-1 exploration well in Block 4. The Ngisi well is the first to penetrate a reservoir section adjacent to the previously announced Pweza and Chewa discoveries in Block 4, opening up a new play in the tertiary formation of the northern block. BG Group is in the process of selecting a site for an onshore LNG plant, and said that the process was progressing well. Terminal capacity will be determined by further exploration and appraisal results across the company’s three offshore blocks.

Oil Search encouraged by PNG gas discovery

Oil Search said that it discovered modest quantities of natural gas during a new exploration campaign in Papua New Guinea (PNG), but that the find had encouraged it to continue drilling. Oil Search began looking for gas in the Gulf of Papua this year, as part of a campaign that may help it develop another gas export plant in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation. The Australian company is already a major shareholder in the $19-billion Papua New Guinea LNG export project, led by ExxonMobil. Oil Search said in a statement that its Flinders and Hagana wells in the Gulf of Papua intersected good-quality geological properties that may indicate the presence of larger resources nearby. Hagana is still drilling ahead to its target depth.

CNOOC hits two discoveries in Bohai bay

CNOOC Limited has struck two new discoveries, Bozhong 8-4 and Kenli 10-4, in Bohai. Bozhong 8-4 is on the west slope of Bozhong Sag in Bohai bay, with an average water depth of about 28 m. The discovery well, Bozhong 8-4-4, was drilled and completed at a depth of 1,962 m, and encountered oil pay zones and a gas reservoir with total thickness of about 50 m and 11 m, respectively. During the test period, the well’s oil production was around 660 bopd. Kenli 10-4 is on the southern slope of Laizhou Bay Sag in Bohai, with an average water depth of about 15 m. The discovery well, Kenli 10-4-1, was drilled and completed at a depth of 2,395 m, and encountered oil pay zones with total thickness of about 45 m. During the test period, the well’s oil production was around 2,800 bopd.

Wintershall raises Norwegian production with Statoil deal

Wintershall will increase its production in Norway from 3,000 boed to almost 40,000 boed, with the closing of an asset swap with Statoil for shares in Brage (32.7%), Vega (30%) and Gjøa (15%) fields. The effective date of the transaction is Jan. 1, 2013. In addition, at Brage, Wintershall will take over operatorship of a major production platform on the Norwegian Continental Shelf for the first time. Transfer of the operatorship from Statoil to Wintershall is planned for Oct. 1, 2013. In return, Statoil will receive a 15% share in the Edvard Grieg development project from Wintershall, and financial compensation of $1.35 billion. The compensation payment is being offset by the earnings derived from the share in production from Brage, Vega and Gjøa since Jan. 1, 2013. An additional payment of up to $100 million will be paid by Wintershall, contingent on the successful future development of Vega field. As part of the transaction, the two companies also agreed to conduct joint research activities into EOR, and to work together in researching unconventional hydrocarbon deposits in Germany and other regions. Photo courtesy of Øyvind Hagen/Statoil.

Shell, with its partners, expects to boost production with two new deepwater projects at Brazil’s Parque das Conchas (BC-10) and Bijupirá/Salema fields. For Parque das Conchas (BC-10), Shell, with Petrobras and ONGC, has decided to move forward with Phase 3 of the project, which will include installation of subsea infrastructure at Massa and Argonauta O-South fields. These fields will be tied back to the Espírito Santo FPSO, at the center of the Parque das Conchas development. Once online, Phase 3 of the BC-10 project is expected to reach peak production of 28 Mboed. Since coming onstream in 2009, the BC-10 project has produced more than 70 Mboe. Phase 2 of the project continues to progress and is expected to come online in late 2013 with peak production of 35,000 Mboed.

Nigeria LNG said on July 26 that it had lifted force majeure on its LNG exports, two weeks after Nigeria’s maritime regulator lifted a blockade of the company’s operations amid a tax dispute. Nigeria LNG declared the force majeure, effective June 28, after a blockade by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, or NIMASA, prevented LNG tankers from accessing the company’s loading terminal on Bonny Island in the Niger Delta region. The blockade was the result of a long-running dispute over the payment of duties on freight and exports. The blockade, imposed on June 21, was lifted in July after Nigeria LNG was ordered by the government to pay about $159 million to settle levies allegedly owed to NIMASA from October 2009 to May 2013, and to continue paying the levies going forward. Nigeria LNG said it made the payment “under protest.” Nigeria LNG is a JV between Nigeria’s state oil company, NNPC, and Shell, Total and Eni.

Shell’s massive Olympus tension leg platform (TLP) set sail from Ingleside, Texas, for a 425-mi trek to its final home on the Mars field in the Gulf of Mexico. For 10 days, tugboats will have transported the more-than-120,000-t platform to location, where work will begin to secure the platform in place. The Olympus TLP will be moored to the seafloor by tendons grouped at each of the structure’s corners, and will float in approximately 3,000 ft of water. Olympus is Shell’s sixth and largest TLP, and will provide process infrastructure for two of Shell’s deepwater discoveries, West Boreas and South Deimos. The project also includes pipelines that will be routed through West Delta 143C, the recently installed shallow-water platform. The Olympus TLP is expected to start production in 2014, producing at a maximum rate of 100,000 boed.

Halliburton has completed acquisition of the assets of Optiphase, a provider of interferometric fiber optic sensing solutions, including distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) interrogation systems. The terms and cost of the acquisition were not disclosed. DAS technology turns a piece of fiber optic cable, similar to what one would use for cable or telephone service, into a fully distributed noise logging system. When applied to an oil and gas well, operators can tune in to any section of the fiber, and listen to what is happening in their well. Applications include stimulation and production monitoring, verification of downhole equipment operation, pipeline monitoring and collection of seismic data. Optiphase joins the ranks of Halliburton’s other fiber optic assets.

Acteon acquires UK-based J2 Engineering Services

HSB Solomon Associates acquires large consulting firm

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