Exploration ///
Apache Corp. tumbled after the company’s update on a closely watched exploratory oil well off the coast of Suriname offered little indication as to whether it will be commercially viable.
Japan’s largest petroleum exploration company, Inpex Corp., is looking at expanding its natural gas business in Australia, even as U.S. energy majors Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips scale back their operations in the country.
Officially launched in April, the round received interest from 53 international and national companies, with 17 companies submitting official bids and seven companies awarded concessions for nine blocks.
Equinor will reduce its focus on the frontier areas of the Barents Sea in another blow to Norway’s ambition to build a new oil province in its Arctic region.
Springfield E&P announced the completion of its maiden deepwater drilling campaign on the West Cape Three Points Block 2, offshore Ghana.
Under the auspices of the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons and supported by the African Energy Chamber, “Equatorial Guinea 2020 Year of Investment” is aimed at attracting foreign direct investment.
William (Bill) Head, Contributing Editor
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!!
Mike Slaton, Contributing Editor
Dancing on melting ice
Total investment in Ohio’s resource rich shale energy sector has reached $78 billion since tracking began in 2011, according to a Cleveland State University (CSU) study.
Encana’s announcement of the planned U.S. move last month ratcheted up the gloom enveloping the Canadian oil industry and heightened anxieties about losing major domestic companies.
Senegal’s MSGBC basin is home to several recent high-profile oil and gas discoveries, set in a variety of play types, both on and off the carbonate shelf.
A report by analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. sees projects in the Gulf of Mexico and off of South America significantly boosting output next year. After that, though, the odds drop for any further growth gains, the report found.
Investments had been picking up in Vaca Muerta, a Maryland-sized shale formation in Patagonia that could turn the troubled nation into a global energy provider. But that was before leftist Alberto Fernandez won the presidential election last month.
Petrobras CEO Roberto Castello Branco said the reason most major oil companies didn’t show up for Brazil’s massive auction was because of the astronomic price tag and regulatory uncertainties.
Ivory Coast wants more explorers for oil and gas as it seeks to boost economic growth, according to Energy Minister Abdourahmane Cisse.
Brazil’s largest-ever auction of oil deposits flopped, sending the real tumbling, after state-controlled Petrobras did most of the bidding while other major oil companies stayed away.
Equinor and partners ExxonMobil, Idemitsu and Neptune have discovered oil and gas in exploration well Echino South, 35/11-23, by the Fram field in the North Sea.
Ecuador’s plan to boost its economy by attracting foreign oil investment is falling victim to heavy resistance from indigenous groups newly empowered by the protests that rolled across the nation last month.
Vicki Hollub is set to face investors for the first time since leading Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s controversial $37 billion purchase of Anadarko Petroleum.
The S-5 well was drilled to a depth of 4,400 meters and encountered 39 meters of net oil play in the Santonian reservoir in the offshore Rio Muni Basin, the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons said in an emailed statement.