Looking ahead

February 2000 Vol. 221 No. 2 Looking Ahead ARCO files plan for NPR drilling. ARCO has filed its plan with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to drill up to eight wildcats in the nort

February 2000 Vol. 221 No. 2
Looking Ahead

ARCO files plan for NPR drilling. ARCO has filed its plan with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to drill up to eight wildcats in the northeast corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, just west of Alpine field. Three exploratory wells, three ice drill pads and an ice road are planned for this season. BLM said ARCO’s plan would “leave no significant damage” on the environment. At press time, they were still analyzing over 100 comments from the comment period, which closed in early January.

China plans to boost output. China’s state newspaper China Dailey reported China National Offshore Oil Corp. intends to double its output by 2005. Plans call for an investment of $1.9 billion in developing the Suizhong, Qinhuangao and Weichan oil fields. A production increase of 20% a year is planned between 2000 and 2005.

Bangladesh seeks deepwater drillers. Bangladesh plans to offer deepwater blocks in the Bay of Bengal for international bidding. Some seismic work could be done on the unexplored tracts, and new blocks formed. To date, exploration focused onshore in the northeast and in the shallow waters of the Bay of Bengal has found only gas. Despite arduous allocation of E&P rights in the past, some foreign firms have shown interest in the area.

MMS proposes spot prices rather than NYMEX to value crude on Indian lands. The U.S. Minerals Management Service said in a Federal Register notice it plans to change the way it values crude produced on Indian lands. Rather than using the New York Mercantile Exchange futures prices, it will use spot prices. Producers would use the index price, published in an MMS-approved publication, at the market center closest to their lease. MMS also decided to use the average of high daily spot prices, rather than the average of the five highest settlement prices in a given month, despite comments that using those prices was “unfair and unrealistic.”

Norway delays proposal to overhaul industry. Following a vote by the Centre Party, plans to revamp Norway’s oil and gas sector and privatize state firm, Statoil, will be delayed, at least until spring. Statoil’s board has urged a partial privatization to better position itself against international competition.

Algerian policymakers get aggressive with oil and gas industry. To encourage international participation in its exploration efforts, Algeria’s parliament is debating opening its upstream sector further to private investors, partly through shareholding in state-owned companies. The state will retain the majority of the shares. The policy outline is the most liberal since the laws in 1986 and 1991 encouraged international participation.

Unocal sees 44% growth in output. Unocal expects its production to jump 44% to nearly 700,000 boepd by 2004, reflecting a 7.6% annual growth in net worldwide output from an estimated 485,000 boepd in 1999. The latest forecast includes only anticipated production from established discoveries. Output from deepwater discoveries or other frontier areas requiring additional drilling, approvals or sales contracts, was excluded from the forecast.

Seismic to be available for Turkmen licensing round. In preparation for a planned licensing round this year, Western Geophysical acquired 9,947 mi of 2-D seismic data in the central and southern Caspian Sea for the government of Turkmenistan. A newly-formed work group is working on an interpretative report to be used to evaluate the acreage, design new block boundaries and prepare technical materials and promotional brochures.

Veritas processes huge pre-stack time migration. Veritas will conduct what is believed to be the largest intensive pre-stack time migration processing contract of its type ever undertaken. The 1,390-sq mi offshore-Mauritania project will be managed by Veritas’ project team. Although Veritas will supervise the project from its new West Perth processing center, the computing effort will be done at its Singapore center’s NEC supercomputer.

Jordan seeks Iraqi trade ties. Two Jordanian ministers met with Iraqi officials to improve trade relations, including their trade in oil. A dispute was recently settled over renewal terms for Jordan’s annual oil deal with Baghdad. In an agreement dating back to the Gulf War, and worth around $500 million at market prices, Jordan gets nearly half its oil from Iraq free of charge and the remainder in exchange for goods.

Shell signs with Turkmenistan. Shell says it plans to sign a production sharing agreement with Turkmenistan. In ongoing discussions, Shell is already conducting geological and seismic tests on some major gas deposits in the east in conjunction with state oil companies Turkmenneft and Turkmengaz. Estimated recoverable gas reserves in Malai and Shatlyk deposits are 5.8 Tcf and 16.2 Tcf, respectively.