Singapore rig builder Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) will send another two jack-up rigs to the Middle East in a deal worth up to S$120 million (US$87.2 million) as the oil and gas market improves.
Thailand’s state-backed upstream player PTT Exploration & Production (PTTEP) is facing significant gas supply challenges that pose further downside risks to the Southeast Asian nation’s gas power sector, warned Fitch Solutions.
Upstream oil and gas projects with over 1.4 billion barrels of resources and $8.5 billion worth of greenfield investments are targeted for final investment decisions (FIDs) in Southeast Asia this year, based on operators’ plans, reported Rystad Energy. However, delays are likely with more activity expected to happen next year, noted the energy consultancy.
Inpex has started exploration drilling offshore Japan, which if successful could mark the nation’s first new offshore gas development in over three decades.
Japanese offshore drilling company Japan Drilling Co., Ltd. (JDC) will drill up to 10 wells for Petronas offshore Malaysia with its semi-submersible Hakuryu-5.
Australian-listed Sacgasco (ASX:SGC) has agreed an alliance covering extended well testing and early production systems in the Palawan basin offshore Philippines as they aim to pump oil as fast as possible in the current high oil price environment. Significantly, the company and its partners will be hoping to eek oil out of an old field before their contract expires in 2024.
India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and Norway’s Equinor will collaborate in the areas of upstream exploration and production (E&P), midstream, downstream, and clean energy options, including carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) in India, after the pair signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU).
Malaysia’s Petronas and Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production (PTTEP) have announced they will exit the Yetagun gas project offshore Myanmar as they rationalise their upstream portfolios. Neither company denounced the military-led coup in their exit statements.
Canada’s Valeura Energy will buy two operated licences offshore Thailand from Singapore’s KrisEnergy, which was forced into liquidation last year, for a price of $3.1 million. There will also be certain contingent payments of up to a further $7 million related to future development milestones, said Valeura Energy.
Only five blocks out of 18 blocks offered in East Timor’s second licensing round have been awarded. East Timor’s National Petroleum and Minerals Authority (ANPM) said that it has awarded three onshore blocks and two offshore blocks.
Petronas has awarded Block SK427 off the coast of Sarawak to SK earthon, a subsidiary of South Korea’s SK Innovation, and Petroleum Sarawak Exploration & Production (PSEP) in an area where several discoveries were made last year. Petronas and SK will also collaborate on carbon capture and storage (CCS) opportunities.
The Indonesian government is preparing to launch domestic legal action against Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production (PTTEP) (BKK:PTTEP) relating to economic and environmental damages suffered by local people around Kupang following the 2009 Montara oil spill.
Specialist solar batteries supplied by Saft, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies, are providing power continuity for Pertamina’s GG unmanned gas wellhead platform offshore Indonesia. The platform is operated by Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE) ONWJ, Indonesia’s state-owned oil and gas company and produces around 40,000 barrels of oil per day.
Repsol finished its 3D seismic shoot in Indonesia’s South East Jambi block onshore Southern Sumatra in December 2021 and is currently evaluating the data.
Australian-listed Carnarvon Energy (ASX:CVN) said today that it has raised A$70 million (US$52.7 million) via an institutional placement to help bring the large Dorado liquids development offshore Australia to a final investment decision (FID) this year.
Traditional landowners in Australia’s Northern Territory have launched legal action against South Korea’s export credit agencies in an attempt to block funding for the Santos-led $3.6 billion Barossa gas project, which will backfill the Darwin liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant.
Harbour Energy (LON:HBR) is on track to start high impact exploration drilling in its Andaman II PSC offshore Indonesia in the second quarter this year. The news adds to the excitement in Indonesia as other companies, including BP (LON:BP), look set to probe the archipelago’s deep waters, following recent fiscal and regulatory enhancements.
US engineering giant McDermott has delivered the first ever pipe-in-pipe flowline for production in India as part of Oil & Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC)'s KG-DWN 98/2 project in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin off India’s eastern coast. Significantly, the development is the largest and one of the most complex subsea projects in Asia Pacific, involving major subsea infrastructure installation in ultra-deepwater.
Malaysia's Petronas has signed production sharing contracts (PSCs) for five offshore exploration blocks, namely SB412, 2W, and X located off the coast of Sabah, and SK439/SK440 situated off the coast of Sarawak. Significantly, Shell has signed up for ultra-deepwater exploration acreage.
The Pavo-1 exploration well near the Dorado field offshore Western Australia in the Bedout sub-basin has made a “significant oil discovery” that has an estimated breakeven cost at less than $10 per barrel, operator Santos (ASX:STO) said today.
The outlook for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production in Asia has taken a positive turn following Mubadala Petroleum starting first gas flows from Pegaga to the Petronas-led Bintulu LNG export complex in Malaysia.
Malaysia’s Petronas will explore the North Ketapang Block after winning the shallow-water acreage onshore and offshore East Java in Indonesia’s Petroleum Bid Round 2021.
BP (LON:BP) will carry out deepwater oil and gas exploration offshore Indonesia after winning the rights to the Agung I and Agung II blocks as part of the nation’s second bid round last year. The move offers a glimmer of hope for Indonesia’s struggling upstream sector that has seen big international firms, such as ConocoPhillips, exit recently.
TotalEnergies, which on 21 January announced a rapid withdrawal from Myanmar because the situation in the country no longer allowed the French company to make a “sufficiently positive contribution”, said its exit will be “responsible.”
Sunda Gas is busy completing various studies that could lead to the commercial development of the shallow-water Chuditch gas discovery offshore East Timor with a potential floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) development under consideration.