World of Oil and Gas
World of Oil and Gas
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| EXPLORATION | |||
Kenya leases all oil exploration blocks |
Kenya has leased out all of its 46 existing blocks to exploration companies, said the Daily Nation newspaper, citing Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi. In the latest awards, the government has leaszed the last remaining four blocks to Apache, Total, Anadarko and CNOOC. Apache is expected to drill Kenya’s first deepwater oil well within the next three months. |
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Myanmar opens up 23 offshore blocks for exploration |
Myanmar has invited international energy firms to explore 23 offshore oil and gas blocks, as the Southeast Asian country seeks billions of dollars in investments to tap its vast reserves. The offer is likely to attract interest from majors after the U.S. government cleared companies to invest in Myanmar, including oil and gas, in its greatest loosening of tough sanctions so far. The resource-rich nation has opened up to foreign investments at a fast pace since a civilian government took over in March 2011 after five decades of military rule. The blocks available for bidding include 17 deepwater blocks and six shallow-water blocks in the Rakhine, Mottama and Tanintharyi offshore areas. |
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Global sees peak crew productivity on industry’s first Ultra RG3D survey |
Global Geophysical Services, Inc. announced that it has already completed over 40% of the data acquisition on its University Lands Ultra RG3D program, located in the Permian basin. Recorded using Global’s AutoSeis 32-bit High Definition Recorder (HDR) system, the 26,000-channel recording crew assigned to this project is averaging over 1,300 vibrator points (VPs) per 12-hour day and has achieved peak productivities in excess of 1900 VPs per day. Utilizing high productivity slip sweep and offset separated vibroseis techniques developed by Global in the Middle East and North Africa, the crew is projected to complete acquisition of Phase 1 of this project in fourth-quarter 2012. |
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ONGC exploring South China Sea off Vietnam |
India’s state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) will continue to explore for oil and gas offshore Vietnam in the South China Sea, ignoring objections from China. ONGC Videsh Ltd., the overseas investment arm of ONGC, has accepted Vietnam’s proposal to stay invested in Block 128, as Hanoi has offered additional data that can help to make future exploration economically feasible and discovering hydrocarbons commercially viable, a senior executive with the company said. |
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UNCONVENTIONALS |
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San Leon completes third Polish well |
Poland-focused oil company San Leon Energy has successfully completed its third shale gas exploration well in the Baltic basin. Having encountered gas, the firm plans in six months to evaluate the cores and logs. Talisman Energy operated the Szymkowo-1 well on the Szczawno concession in Poland, drilling it to a depth of 4,551 m and encountering more than 600 m of gas. San Leon expects Talisman to drill and test the first horizontal well in the upcoming drilling program in the first or second quarter of 2013. |
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| Indian firms invest in Venezuela | Indian state-run oil companies plan to invest nearly $3 billion in Venezuelan crude oil production projects. A consortium of companies led by ONGC Videsh Ltd., the overseas investment arm of Oil & Natural Gas Corp., plans to invest an additional $2.2 billion in the Carabobo-1 heavy oil project, the government said. The project is expected to produce about 400,000 bpd of heavy oil. That target is likely to be reached within “six to seven years,” according to people familiar with the project in Caracas. |
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Algeria to ink shale gas partnerships with Shell, Exxon |
Algerian state-run oil company Sonatrach will soon sign partnership agreements with Shell and ExxonMobil for shale gas exploration in the north African country, the firm’s CEO, Abdelhamid Zerguine, said. The new partnerships will be similar to the agreements signed earlier with Eni and Talisman Energy, Zerguine said. The country has an estimated 600 Tcf of recoverable shale gas reserves yet to be developed, according to a recent study conducted by Sonatrach. |
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PRODUCTION |
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| British field renamed again | The UK’s first oil field to ever go onstream in the North Sea has undergone yet another name change. The field was originally named Argyll and operated by Hamilton Brothers, when it ushered in Britain’s oil age 37 years ago. After producing 72.6 MMbbl of oil over 17 years, Argyll was abandoned in 1992. Acquired by Tuscan Energy and Acorn Oil in 2002, it was redeveloped and renamed Ardmore. After 5.2 MMbbl were produced between 2003 and 2005, Ardmore was again decommissioned in 2008. Now, Scotland-based EnQuest is redeveloping the field with new technology and renaming it Alma. EnQuest has farmed out a 35% interest to KUFPEC and will put Alma onstream in 2013. | ||
| Total to increase production at Venezuela’s Yucal Placer gas field | Total, together with its partners Repsol, Inepetrol and Otepi, has made the final investment decision for a new development phase of the Yucal Placer gas field, operated by Ypergas, and located in Guárico State, Venezuela. The production capacity of the field, which went onstream in 2004, will be increased to ultimately reach a plateau of 300 MMcfd, three times the current production. | ||
| Brazil’s Peregrino field to hit plateau | Statoil expects its Peregrino offshore oil field to reach plateau production of about 100,000 bpd by mid-August, as two new wells start output in the coming weeks. Statoil suffered delays at Peregrino, the company’s largest offshore operation outside Norway, because of equipment troubles that affected completion of three wells. Peregrino currently produces about 75,000 bpd of heavy crude. | ||
BUSINESS |
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| CNPC invests $3.3 billion in Iraqi oil projects | CNPC, the largest Chinese oil producing company, has so far invested $3.3 billion in developing oil projects in Iraq, the firm’s vice president said. CNPC and its subsidiary, Petro China, are developing three large oil fields. CNPC is developing, along with BP, Iraq’s largest oil field, Rumaila, in southern Basra province, where production is currently hitting 1.35 MMbopd. CNPC is also developing Ahdab oil field in Wasit governate, in central Iraq. The field recently started pumping 140,000 bopd. The company also commenced production for the first time of 100,000 bopd at Halfaya oil field, in Missan province in southern Iraq. |
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| BG signs $4.5 billion in contracts for Brazilian FPSOs | BG Group and its partners have approved contracts worth $4.5 billion for the completion of six FPSO vessels that will be used to bring major oil discoveries onstream, offshore Brazil. The contracts are for the construction of six topside modules and integration packages. The company did not say to whom it has decided to give the contracts. BG and its partners awarded the contract for construction of eight FPSO hulls in November 2010 to Brazil’s Engevix Engenharia for $3.5 billion. The vessels, the first of their kind to be built in Brazil, will be used to produce oil from the Lula and Guará discoveries. They are being built to handle oil production from field developments in Blocks BM-S-9 and BM-S-11, in the Santos basin, offshore Sao Paulo state. |
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| Chevron to develop Rosebank project in UK North Sea | Chevron will invest billions of dollars developing a giant offshore project in a remote and technically challenging corner of the UK North Sea, the latest sign that major international oil firms are being drawn back to the region as efforts to ameliorate the country’s onerous tax regime begin to bear fruit. The move was hailed by UK Energy Minister Charles Hendry, who said the development had the potential to unlock as much as a fifth of the country’s remaining oil reserves. Chevron’s decision to start allocating the main engineering and design contracts for the Rosebank project, located in rough seas more than 100 km northwest of the Shetland Islands, comes three months after UK Chancellor George Osborne announced a raft of tax measures aimed at encouraging renewed investment in one of the world’s older oil and gas basins. | ||
| Seadrill wins $4-billion, 19-year contract for ultra-deepwater units | Seadrill received a commitment from a major oil company for new contracts on newbuild drillships West Auriga, West Vela and a third drilling unit currently in operation, which will be named later. The combined three-rig package has a potential contract value of $4 billion, including mobilization fees for the newbuild units. West Auriga and West Vela are under construction at Samsung shipyard in Korea. | ||
REGULATORY AFFAIRS |
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| India asks Reliance, BP to provide East Coast Block accounts | India’s oil ministry said it has asked Reliance Industries, and its partner BP, to provide all the accounts of investment at their East Coast gas block to the federal auditor, after the explorers sought the ministry’s speedy clearances for further investments in four blocks, including D6 in the Krishna Godavari basin. Reliance and BP are struggling with declining output at the D6 Block, which has crippled India’s gas-based power plants and hurt the flow of investments into the sector. | ||
| Brazil’s ANP says Chevron oil spill fine unlikely to surpass $25 million | Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency (ANP) is unlikely to fine Chevron more than $24.6 million for its role in a November oil spill off Brazil’s coast, ANP Director Magda Chambriard said. The incident caused between 2,400 and 3,000 bbl of oil to leak into the Atlantic Ocean from cracks in the seabed. Chevron and drilling contractor Transocean are facing civil and criminal lawsuits for their roles in the incident at the Chevron-operated Frade oil field. Both firms said that they reacted quickly and responsibly. | ||
DISCOVERIES |
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| Anadarko announces discovery offshore Ghana | Anadarko said that its Wawa-1 exploration well, in the deepwater Tano Block offshore the Republic of Ghana, discovered approximately 43 net ft of oil pay and 65 net ft of gas-condensate pay in Turonian-aged reservoirs. The Wawa-1 exploration well is located in 1,926 ft of water and was drilled to 10,899 ft, TD. The discovery enhances the value of the TEN (Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme) complex, which is advancing toward submission of a plan of development. The company plans further exploration of the deepwater Tano Block, with additional wells scheduled at its Okure and Sapele prospects later this year. |
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| New oil discovery in Espírito Santo basin | Petrobras has made new oil discovery in the post-salt layer of the Espírito Santo basin within the BM-ES-24 concession, 58 km off the coast of Vitória, capital of Espírito Santo state. The discovery was made during the drilling of the Grana Padano well, 64 km from Golfinho field, at a water depth of 1,208 m. The discovery was confirmed by the gas detector response and profiling data for reservoirs at a depth of 2,008 m. Petrobras (70%) is the operator of the consortium exploring the concession, which includes IBV (30%). | ||
| Pemex makes 2-Bcf deepwater gas find | Pemex has discovered as much as 2 Bcf of natural gas reserves in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The state oil company said that the Kunah-1 well, drilled in a water depth of 2,157 m, was its most productive well in deep waters resulting from exploratory tests. The well allowed Pemex to identify five wet gas deposits at different drilling levels. The find at Kunah-1, 125 km northeast of the port of Veracruz, has allowed Pemex to estimate that it can certify reserves between 1.5 and 2.0 Tcf of gas, using the 3P measurement of reserves. The discovery builds on production opportunities in the Catemaco belt that are equivalent to between 300 million and 400 million bbl of crude oil. | ||
| Helix, Deep Gulf strike oil in GOM | Helix Energy Solutions Group and Deep Gulf Energy announced an oil discovery in the Danny II exploration well at Bushwood field, located in Garden Banks Block 506, about 145 mi offshore Galveston, Texas. The well was drilled to a TD of 14,750 ft at a water depth of 2,800 ft. The well is being completed and most likely will be developed via a subsea tieback system linked to the partners’ 70% owned and operated East Cameron Block 381. First production from Danny II is expected in fourth-quarter 2012. |
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| Afren finds more oil in Kurdish well | Independent oil and gas firm Afren announced that its Simrit-2 exploration well in the Kurdistan region of Iraq has found additional oil. Afren, despite its presence in Kurdistan, is mainly focused on Africa. The firm reported that the well has now encountered more than 1,500 ft of net oil pay after being drilled to a depth of 12,467 ft. Previously, the well had encountered an estimated 1,340 ft of net pay throughout the Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic reservoirs, down to the initially planned total depth of 12,140 ft. To date, three drillstem tests out of a planned 12 have been completed at separate zones within the Triassic-age Kurra Chine formation, yielding an aggregate flowrate of 13,584 bopd at a gravity of 39° API. | ||
| New oil and gas discoveries in Algeria | E.ON E&P and Sonatrach have made further oil and gas discoveries in the Rhourde Yacoub license area of Algeria. The duo has successfully completed the drilling and testing of their seventh exploration well in Block 405a, and found oil and gas in the NEY-1 well. The Rhourde Yacoub license is in the eastern Algerian Sahara, about 250 km southeast of Hassi Messaoud field. The companies will now enter a phase, where they will drill several wells over the next two years to evaluate the extension of the discoveries. Sonatrach holds the majority stake of 51%. | ||
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