World of Oil and Gas
Anadarko increases resource potential offshore Mozambique to 10 Tcf
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Anadarko increases resource potential offshore Mozambique to 10 Tcf |
The cumulative results of Anadarko Petroleum’s appraisal tests in the Offshore Area 1 of Mozambique’s deepwater Rovuma basin have substantially increased the resource potential of that block. The appraisal section of its most recent exploration well at the Camarao prospect encountered 240 net ft of natural gas pay and confirmed static pressure connectivity with the adjacent Windjammer and Lagosta discoveries. In addition, the Camarao well discovered about 140 net ft of natural gas pay in shallower Miocene and Oligocene sand packages not encountered in previous wells. The discoveries are estimated to hold at least 10 Tcf of recoverable natural gas resources. Anadarko is planning to drill up to seven exploration and appraisal wells in the Rovuma basin over the next 12 months. |
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TGS to begin new survey offshore NW Australia |
TGS will commence acquisition of a 3D, multi-client seismic survey that covers 3,745 sq mi of the Exmouth plateau in the Carnarvon basin offshore Northwest Australia. The survey area is adjacent to existing large gas discoveries and covers newly available acreage in blocks WA-364-P, WA-365-P and WA-367-P. The seismic data will be acquired by the M/V Viking Vision beginning in November 2011 and is scheduled to be complete in the first quarter of 2012. |
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Ukraine, Shell sign shale gas exploration deal |
Ukraine has awarded its first shale gas exploration contract to supermajor Shell in a deal worth up to $800 million, according to Ukraine’s state gas exploration company Ukrgazvydobuvannya. No official estimate has been made and there is no confirmed figure of how much shale gas might be in the six blocks awarded to Shell near northeastern city of Kharkiv. |
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Greece to invite oil exploration in January |
In January 2012, Greece will invite offers for oil exploration off its western shores in the hopes of tapping reserves of some 280 million bbl, the country’s Junior Energy Minister Yiannis Maniatis recently announced. |
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Giant gas discovery offshore Mozambique |
Eni announced a giant natural gas discovery at the Mamba South 1 prospect, in the Area 4 offshore Mozambique, stating that the new finds could lead to at least 15 Tcf of gas in place. The well will be drilled to reach an expected total depth of around 5,000 m and encountered a total of 212 m of continuous gas pay in high-quality Oligocene sands. The Mamba South 1 discovery well is located about 40 km off the Cabo Delgado coast, in the northern offshore of Mozambique. This is the first exploration well in Area 4. |
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France cancels shale exploration permits over fracing impasse |
France’s energy ministry has cancelled three exclusive shale gas exploration permits as the holders, US-based Schuepbach Energy and Total, did not agree to adhere to France’s hydraulic fracturing practices. Schuepbach holds the Nant and Villeneuve-de-Berg permits and Total holds the Montelimar. The French government banned hydraulic fracturing in May due to concerns about the technique’s impact on the environment. Out of a total 64 exclusive permits, the holders of 61 permits not cancelled decided after the ban to either stop prospecting for shale gas or focus only on conventional gas fields, the ecology ministry said. The cancellation occurred despite a report issued in April by a French government commission, which said the country’s shale oil and gas fields are potentially some of the most promising in Europe, and banning exploration before the reserves are assessed could be detrimental to France’s economy and labor market. Total has shale gas exploration permits in Poland, Denmark and Argentina as part of a strategy to boost unconventional oil and gas production to offset dwindling reserves. |
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Chevron to drill offshore South China |
Chevron plans to start drilling its first gas exploration well off the southern coast of China before the end of the year, near an area where large gas reserves have been found. Chevron is following the path of Husky Energy and BG Group, who both have found gas offshore southern China recently. The well site, in Block 42/05, is about 300 km south of Hong Kong. |
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UNCONVENTIONALS |
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First horizontal ‘hot shale’ well drilled in Australia |
PetroFrontier has successfully drilled Baldwin-2Hst1, Australia’s first horizontal well in the Lower Arthur Creek “hot shale” formation in the southern Georgina basin of Australia’s Northern Territory. The formation, comprised of interbedded shale, silt, sand and carbonate, is slightly radioactive, and is easily identified on gamma ray logging tools. The formation is petroliferous, up to 131 ft thick and covers an extensive area. According to PetroFrontier, the area is geologically and mechanically analogous to major unconventional oil plays in North America, such as the Bakken and Eagle Ford. PetroFrontier has a 100% working interest in EP 103, which covers 3.16 million gross acres. |
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| Exxon begins fracing 2nd shale well in Poland | ExxonMobil has begun hydraulic fracturing operations on its second test well in Poland, near the eastern town of Siennica. ExxonMobil has six licenses to explore for shale gas in Poland and has partnered with France’s Total and UK-based Hutton Energy. |
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PRODUCTION |
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| Eni starts production from Kitan field | Eni has started production from the Kitan oil field, which is located between Timor Leste and Australia, about 342 mi north of Darwin, Australia. Kitan field is being produced through deepwater subsea completion wells connected to an FPSO and is expected to reach peak production of about 40,000 bopd. First production commenced within three-and-half years from the declaration of commercial discovery. Eni is operator of Kitan with 40% interest while Inpex Timor Sea (35%) and Talisman Resources (25%) hold the remaining interest. Eni has interests in 19 offshore exploration and production licenses in Australia, Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea, 15 of which it operates. | ||
| Libyan output may reach 600,000 bpd by year-end | Libya is now producing 400,000 bopd, a quarter of its pre-war level, the country’s oil chief announced, but that may rise before the end of the year. Nuri Berruien, chairman of the country’s National Oil Company, said “we expect more than 600,000 barrels a day...hopefully” by year end. Libya shut off most of its output after civil war erupted in February, lending upward pressure to oil prices. The country restarted significant production in mid-September just prior to the departure of Moammar Gadhafi from Tripoli in October. Some of the upcoming increase will come from the resumption of production from the giant Sharara field. | ||
BUSINESS |
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| Kinder Morgan to acquire El Paso for $21.1 billion | Kinder Morgan, Inc. and El Paso Corporation signed a definitive agreement whereby Kinder Morgan will acquire all of the outstanding shares of El Paso. The transaction will create the largest midstream and the fourth largest energy company in North America with an enterprise value of about $94 billion and 80,000 miles of pipelines. While El Paso, prior to the acquisition, had been planning on spinning off its E&P and pipeline assets into two different entities, Kinder Morgan said it will try to sell El Paso’s E&P business and use the proceeds to pay down consolidated debt. Kinder Morgan CEO Richard Kinder said he hopes to have the E&P segment sold off by the time the merger is complete. |
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| Statoil acquires Brigham, enters Bakken and Three Forks oil play | Statoil has entered into an agreement with Brigham Exploration Company, which holds a strong position in the Bakken and Three Forks tight oil plays, to acquire all of Brigham’s outstanding shares for a total equity value of $4.4 billion. The transaction will provide Statoil with more than 375,000 net acres in the Williston basin, which holds potential for oil production from the Bakken and Three Forks formations. Brigham also holds interests in 40,000 net acres in other areas. At this early stage of development, the risked resource base is estimated at 300 to 500 MMboe. Current equity production is about 21,000 boepd, but the acreage has the potential to be ramped up to 60,000—100,000 boepd over a five-year period. |
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| Superior Energy to acquire rival Complete for $2.7 billion | New Orleans, Louisiana-based Superior Energy Services and Houston-based Complete Production Services have agreed to a definitive merger contract in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $2.7 billion. The acquisition will expand Superior’s hydraulic fracturing and well servicing offerings. The combined company will retain the name Superior and will be led by David Dunlap, Superior’s current president and CEO. Superior’s board of directors will be expanded to include two independent Complete board members. | ||
| Exxon to spend record $37 billion on capital projects | ExxonMobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson said that the company expects to spend a record $37 billion on capital projects this year, which is almost 9% more than the company previously said it was planning to invest. ExxonMobil, the world’s largest publicly traded company by market value, in March said it expected to invest about $34 billion this year and between $33 billion and $37 billion annually through 2015. Following last year’s acquisition of natural-gas producer XTO Energy for $25 billion, the company expects unconventional resources, such as shale oil and gas, to increase five-fold over the next five years. | ||
REGULATORY AFFAIRS |
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| Norwegian ministry requests joint development at Lundin discoveries | Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum has received a letter from the Norwegian Petroleum and Energy Ministry requesting the license holders of blocks PL338 and PL001B in the North Sea to coordinate a joint development solution. The two blocks contain the Draupne and Luno discoveries, which are estimated to contain recoverable reserves of 188 million boe. Lundin has completed front-end engineering for the Luno development and has proposed commercial solutions for a joint development to the Draupne license holders. Lundin is the operator of PL338 with a working interest of 50%. The partners are Wintershall with 30% and RWE Dea Norge AS with 20%. | ||
| Siberian court rules against plaintiff in BP case | A Siberian court has refused to grant a minority shareholder of BP’s Russian joint venture OAO TNK-BP Holding more time to bolster shareholder support for his $2.8 billion lawsuit against two BP executives on the board of TNK-BP. The court of arbitration in the West Siberian city of Tyumen told the plaintiff, Andrey Prokhorov, who owns a 0.0000106% stake in TNK-BP, that he couldn’t proceed with bringing more of the company’s shareholders on board for the complaint. The court will now hear Prokhorov’s complaint in mid-November. | ||
DISCOVERIES |
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| Coastal finds additional pay at Bua Ban offshore Thailand | Coastal Energy proved an extension of its Bua Ban North A field in the Gulf of Thailand’s block G5/43 after finding more pay in its A-07 appraisal well. The well was drilled to a total depth of 3,750 ft about 2 km south of the A-05 discovery by Atwood Oceanics jackup Vicksburg. It struck 48 ft of net pay in the primary Upper Miocene objective, which is about 14 ft larger than the pay zone encountered in the discovery well. The appraisal confirms that the eastern fault block of the field extends to the south. Coastal plans to drill two or three additional wells at Bua Ban North A by the end of November. | ||
| Cairn makes first gas discovery in Sri Lanka | Cairn Lanka Ltd. has made a gas discovery in the Mannar basin off the west coast of Sri Lanka. The well, CLPL-Dorado-91H/1z, was drilled using the JAMSTEC drillship in a water depth of 4,413 ft. It encountered a gross hydrocarbon column of 82 ft in sandstone at depths between 9,986 and 10,068 ft MD. Cairn said this information was interpreted from log and MDT data, indicating that the formation is predominantly gas-bearing with some additional liquid hydrocarbon potential. Additional drilling is required to determine the commerciality of the discovery. According to Cairn, this is the first well to be drilled in Sri Lanka in 30 years as well as the country’s first ever hydrocarbon discovery. Exploration rights for the Mannar basin, which has both structural and stratigraphic plays, were awarded to Cairn in the 2008 Sri Lanka bid round. Cairn Lanka, which owns and operates the block, is slated to drill two more wells as a part of its three-well exploration campaign. | ||
| Fifth find in Colombia’s Caño Sur block | Colombia’s Ecopetrol SA made its first oil find in the western section of its Caño Sur block, the fifth find this year in the promising oil region. This latest discovery, located in the Llanos Orientales basin in central Colombia, east of Bogota, showed stable production of 120 bopd of heavy crude oil. The Caño Sur block is in the same general area as Pacific Rubiales Energy’s Rubiales field, which is Colombia’s most productive field at 150,000 bopd. Following the February purchase of Royal Dutch Shell’s 50% stake in the Caño Sur block, Ecopetrol also holds 100% of the drilling rights. | ||
| Condor soars with fifth oil find this year | Condor Petroleum’s Taskuduk West 4 well encountered 62 ft of net oil pay within two Triassic intervals. The well, located on the 1,008-sq-mi Zharkamys West 1 contract situated in Kazakhstan’s pre-Caspian basin, reached a total depth of4,360 ft. The interval was identified using Condor’s 3D seismic attribute and pre-stack analysis. Based on formation pressure data, the oil gravity is estimated to be 35˚API. Production casing has been run and cemented and the well is scheduled to be flow-tested once regulatory approvals are obtained. Taskuduk West 4 is Condor’s eighth well and fifth discovery of the year. The next prospect in the drilling queue is Uitas-6, another shallow Triassic structure. | ||
| Exillon continues success in West Siberia | Tullow Oil announced that the Enyenra-3A appraisal well, in the deepwater Tano licence offshore Ghana, has successfully encountered oil in high quality sandstone reservoirs. Pressure data indicates that the Enyenra-3A well has confirmed an up-dip extension of the Enyenra oil field. Located 6.5 km north of the Owo-1 discovery well and 14 km north of Enyenra-2A, the well was drilled to test the up-dip extent of the Enyenra oil field. Results of drilling, wireline logs, samples of reservoir fluids and pressure data show that Enyenra-3A has intersected 17 m of 35°API net oil. On completion of drilling operations, prior to flow testing the Enyenra field in late 2011, pressure gauges will be deployed in Enyenra-2A and Enyenra-3A to determine reservoir connectivity. | ||
| New oilfield discovery onshore Australia | British independent oil producer Exillon found oil on the southeastern part of the East EWS I field in West Siberia. The well encountered the Jurassic P reservoir at a depth of 5,990 ft, confirming 51 ft of net oil pay, and flowed water-free oil naturally to the surface with a flowrate of 595 bopd on an 8-mm choke. It was directionally drilled less than half a mile to the north from the existing well pad. Upon completion of well tests, it will be connected to existing production facilities. | ||
| UK North Sea gas discovery flows at 50 MMcfd | Germany-based E.ON Ruhrgas encountered gas at its Tolmount prospect in the UK Southern North Sea, west of the E.ON-operated Babbage gas field. The well targeted a Permian Leman sandstone formation, encountering a gas column in excess of 200 ft. The well flowed at a maximum stable rate of 50 MMcfd during a test. E.ON holds a 50% operating interest in the license, with partner Dana Petroleum, a subsidiary of Korea National Oil Corp., holding the other half. E.ON’s output from UK, Norwegian, Russian and North African fields was 8.6 Bcm of oil and gas in 2010. | ||
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