Karoon Gas Australia has made a discovery at its Echidna-1 exploration well in the Santos Basin. The company said the well intersected an oil bearing section in Paleocene sands, and mudlogs showed an elevated gas reading and oil florescence in sandstone. Wirelogging will now be conducted to ascertain the extent of the gross and net columns, Karoon Gas said.
Aker Solutions and Fjords Processing have formed an alliance to develop technology and capabilities for wellstream separation and treatment solutions for the subsea and topside market. The WellSep alliance will apply Aker Solutions' subsea processing experience and testing facilities and Fjords' topside and onshore separation technologies. Rune Fantoft, chief executive of Fjords Processing, said:"This is a great opportunity to further develop our key technologies with one of our most important partners, Aker Solutions. "Developing our competence in a joint initiative will enable us to increase our focus on produced water and separation technology."
The former chairman of PetroChina Co. who went on to head the agency overseeing China’s state-owned assets went on trial for corruption, the first case linked to the nation’s former security chief Zhou Yongkang to be brought to court. Jiang Jiemin is charged with taking bribes, holding assets from unidentified sources and abusing his position as an executive with state-owned firms, Hubei’s Hanjiang Intermediate People’s Court said today on its verified microblog. Jiang’s lawyer, Li Fabao, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The court didn’t say how long the trial might last.
Statoil has made a second gas discovery in the Roald Rigg prospect in the Norwegian Sea. It marks the second discovery in the Aasta Hansteen area this year. Last month, well 6706/12-2 was drilled by Transocean Spitsbergen and proved a 105-metre gas column in the Nise Formation. Irene Rummelhoff, senior vice president exploration Norway in Statoil, said:“Statoil has completed a targeted two-well exploration programme around Aasta Hansteen which aimed to test additional potential in the area and make the Aasta Hansteen project more robust.
Oil held gains after a fourth weekly increase as skepticism among US lawmakers over a nuclear deal with Iran signaled a recovery in the OPEC producer’s crude exports may be delayed. Futures were little changed in New York after rising 5.1 percent last week. President Barack Obama is dispatching three cabinet members to brief lawmakers as a Senate committee prepares to take up a bill that will give Congress 60 days to review any final agreement with Iran.
Trans Energy has sold off Marcellus assets in West Virginia for $71.3million. The deal include 5,159 net acres and 12 producing Marcellus wells. President of Trans Energy, John Corp, said the move signaled the hard work and strategy the company had but in, in the region.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted a drilling permit to Talisman Energy Norge. The permit is for well 15/12-24 S, which will be drilled from the Maersk Giant drilling facility, just north east of the Varg field in the central part of the North Sea. The drilling programme for well 15/12-24 S relates to the drilling of a wildcat in production licence 672, where Talisman Norge AS is the operator.
The nation is planning facilities with capacity to store 232 million barrels of crude in the third phase of its strategic petroleum reserve program, according to a deputy director at the National Development Reform and Commission’s energy research institute. The proposal is yet to receive government approval, Gao Shixian said in Shanghai on Friday. The world’s second-biggest oil consumer stepped up purchases to fill its emergency supplies last year as benchmark prices plunged almost 50 percent amid a global supply glut.
Two of the first topside modules destined for a major oil project West of Shetland sailed away this week from a shipyard in Korea.
Calvalley Petroleum is set to liquidate and restructure as a result of ongoing trouble in the Middle East. The majority of the company’s operations are based in Yemen. The company has a 50% working interest in a block in the country’s Sayun-Masila Basin, producing 3,700 barrels per day, but was forced to shut down production earlier this week.
Baker Hughes said it has suspended its quarterly publication of the US onshore well count. The company said it is prioritising its resources to support the ongoing publication of the weekly North America and monthly international rig counts.
UK corporate profitability reached a 16-year high in 2014 despite easing back in the fourth quarter. But the Office for National Statistics figures showed the oil and gas industry hit an 18-year low in the final quarter of last year. Measured as “net rates of return”, corporate profitability for all non-financial UK firms improved to a high of 11.9% in 2014. This was up from 11.2% in both 2013 and 2012 and a low of just 9.7% in 2009, according to analysis by economics firm IHS.
Oil giant Shell has played down concerns that its £47billion proposed “mega-merger” with BG Group will lead to hundreds of further job cuts in the North Sea. Sources have claimed that up to 300 jobs are set to be cut in Aberdeen as the two firms plan to join forces and trim £1.6billion in costs annually. Shell is currently negotiating to cut at least 250 staff and agency contractors from its 4,500-strong North Sea workforce. Combined, BG and Shell will employ 5,500 people in the region and be the biggest oil and gas producer on the UK Continental Shelf. A further 300 jobs would amount to a 10% drop in employee numbers between the two firms. A spokeswoman for Shell said she did not “recognise” the 300 jobs figure, but pointed to chief executive Ben van Beurden’s admission that there are “of course going to be synergies” if the deal goes ahead.
Statoil has made an oil discovery in its Miocene Yeti Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico. The Norwegian company said the Yeti discovery was made in Walker Ridge block 160, which is located around 15 kilometre south of the Big Foot field and 11 kilometres from the Cascade field. Jez Averty, Statoil's senior vice president for exploration in the North Sea, said: “The Yeti discovery expands the proven sub-salt Miocene play further south and west of the Big Foot field.
French oil giant Total has made a gas discovery in the Norwegian North Sea. The firm said the small gas and condensate discovery was made near to the Skirne field.
BP Plc coined the slogan “Beyond Petroleum.” The new industry mantra might be “Beyond Oil and Into Gas.” Oh, and while we’re at it, “Down With Coal.” Consider Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s recent $70 billion acquisition of BG Group Plc -- clearly a huge bet that natural gas will prove to be its cash cow of the future. The petroleum industry’s move toward gas is hardly new -- the hydraulic fracturing shale revolution is in its second decade, after all. Still, Shell’s move is an emphatic confirmation that some among the Big Oil family firmly believe gas will play a growing role in meeting the energy demand of emerging countries such as China and India that are trying to move away from dirtier coal.
The UK and Argentina summoned each others’ ambassadors as Britain stepped up its defenses of the Falkland Islands and the South American nation filed criminal charges against oil companies operating in the area. The Argentine Foreign Ministry said it called in the UK ambassador to explain the defense spending and revelations by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the UK had spied on the Argentine government since 2009. Argentine ambassador Alicia Castro was questioned by the UK after President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said the islands will be Argentine sooner or later, the Telegraph reported, citing a Foreign Office spokesman it didn’t identify. The Argentine government “expressed its discomfort” at recent comments by UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon in which he alleged “a supposed and improbable Argentine ‘threat,’” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
Aberdeen well management and performance improvement specialist Exceed has enjoyed a good start to 2015 with “significant” new business being secured in Southeast Asia. The firm’s performance improvement division has won its first Malaysia-based contract worth around $600,000 (£400,000). In this case, performance coaches are working alongside client rig teams, developing front-line solutions to achieve optimal operational efficiency, reduce costs and eliminate waste. The three-year call-off contract will see up to three members of the division working in the region.
An exploration firm said there could be an estimated 100 billion barrels of oil in the South of England. However UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) said only a fraction of the find would be recoverable. The firm, which drilled a well at Horse-Hill 1 last year, near to Gatwick Airport, said further analysis has suggested the region could hold around 158 million barrels of oil per square mile.
Premier Oil has spudded its second well in the Falklands. The rig Eirik Ruade moved a short distance a few days ago to the next target of the current four prospects exploration campaign, Isobel Deep. Earlier this week Premier said it had made an oil discovery in the Zebedee well, with a total of 81 feet of net-oil bearing reservoir and 55 feet of net gas-bearing reservoir being discovered. In February Falklands oil explorers shook off concerns about low crude prices as they revealed plans to press ahead with work in the region.
Two north-east firms have managed to tie up new contracts with oil and gas industry clients, making light of a downturn in the sector that has been brought on by low crude prices. Offshore health and safety training provider Survivex yesterday announced that it had signed a contract worth more than £500,000 a year with US driller Hercules Offshore. Aleron Subsea, meanwhile, said it would rent out remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to two unidentified Indonesian companies in deals totalling £2million.
Transocean, Diamond Offshore and Ensco are the drilling contractors deemed by stock analysts at Seeking Alpha to be most at risk this year. They face the threat of significant contract rollovers but that “actual long-term contracts will not be terminated”. According to Seeking Alpha, as of March 12 there were 11 new-build floaters scheduled to be delivered to US account this year and which do not have work. “Some of these rigs have been already delayed until 2016 or will certainly be delayed if they do not have a firm contract,” it says.
Baker Hughes said its rig count for March was down 94 from the same time last year. The company published its international rig count for the third month of 2015. It said rig count was 1,251 down 24 from the 1,275 counted in February.
Iona Energy said the Huntington oilfield is set to resume full production once access to the Central Area Transmission System (CATS) has become available. The field has been operating under gas export restrictions since October 2014, which has reduced the rate of oil production from the field. However Iona Energy said it has been informed by the field’s operator E.ON that the CATS operator has confirmed full resumption of normal operations.
Shell has sought an injunction against Greenpeace activists after Arctic drilling protesters boarded an oil rig in the Pacific. Half a dozen Greenpeace members had approached the rig, the Polar Pioneer, in inflatable boats and scaled the platform. The Transocean-owned rig is being sent on a vessel called the Blue Marlin to Seattle before heading to the Arctic, according to Greenpeace.