Tag Oil hits gas in New Zealand
Tag Oil has hit hydrocarbon bearing sands in the onshore Taranaki Basin in New Zealand. The Cheal-E6 step out well intersected more than nine metres of net oil and gas bearing sands in the Mount Messenger formation.
Tag Oil has hit hydrocarbon bearing sands in the onshore Taranaki Basin in New Zealand. The Cheal-E6 step out well intersected more than nine metres of net oil and gas bearing sands in the Mount Messenger formation.
Energy experts at professional services firm EY have urged the UK Government to usher in tax breaks to help extend the life of the North Sea oil and gas industry. Its message echoes earlier calls, including from industry body Oil and Gas UK, Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce and Aberdeen University petroleum economist Alex Kemp, for Chancellor George Osborne to deliver concessions in his autumn statement next week. The mini-Budget may coincide with the publication of findings from the Treasury's review of the current North Sea tax regime.
Oil and gas firms need a "cultural shift" to make the most of the North Sea's potential, according to a new report. Business advisory firm Deloitte says new regulator the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), the UK Government and companies should adapt to "a new reality in the basin". Research by Deloitte into the industry’s reaction to Sir Ian Wood’s Maximising Recovery Review showed strong support for the OGA as well as a stable, simple and internationally competitive tax regime.
BG Group’s plan to reward its next chief executive with a pay deal worth £25million is causing growing unrest among investors. The Investment Management Association (IMA), whose members manage more than £5trillion of assets on behalf of UK and overseas clients, has issued a “red top” warning. Legal and General – one of the biggest investment businesses in the UK – has also raised concerns about the offer to Helge Lund, who takes the helm at BG in March.
The oil major will use its Norce Endeavour during its Gulf of Thailand campaign next year.
Shale gas provided the largest share of American natural gas production last year, new figures have shown. The US Energy Information Administration said withdrawals reached a new high of 82billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) last year. Shale gas well withdrawals jumped from five bcf/d in 2007, to 33 bcf/d in 2013, representing a 40% increase in total gas production and surpassing production from non-shale gas wells.
Fletcher Shipping has added a new platform supply vessel (PSV) to its fleet. The FS Cygnus was named by Karen Fletcher at Flekkefjord in Norway. It is the first new build for the Fletcher fleet and is one of two sister ships being built by Norwegian shipyard Simek.
The chairman of Leyshon Energy has stepped down from his position with the board. John Manzoni is set to take up a new role as chief executive of the Civil Service with the UK government.
The Government is “backing the wrong horse” in its policy on fracking and needs to invest further in renewables, a Lib Dem MP has warned. Former home office minister Norman Baker argued shale gas extraction had been “over hyped” and could be “damaging rather than helpful” to the country. The MP for Lewes said there was “significant doubt” as to whether or not the reserves of potentially usable shale gas and shale oil were going to be as “exhaustive and extensive as the Government has maintained”. Energy policy aims, he said, were to secure security of supply, help meet climate change targets and use the energy supply to create jobs, help the economy and keep prices down. Speaking at the start of his Westminster Hall debate on fracking, the extraction of shale gas through controversial hydraulic fracturing, he said: “The issue is whether or not the Government’s policy in terms of fracking achieves those objectives and I’m not sure it does and therefore I would suggest to the minister we may be backing the wrong horse or at least putting too much money on the wrong horse.”
Italian contractor Saipem has been awarded a $1billion contract in the Caspian Region by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering. The engineering and construction contract has been awarded through Saipem company ERSAI Caspian Contractor LLC.
Kazakhstan-focused Jupiter Energy will begin drilling one of its wells in its East Akkar field. Well 19, sits between the J-51 AND J-52 wells, both of which have been producing oil under trial production licenses.
Antrim Energy is set to consider a £6.35million offer from Sound Oil. The Canada-focused company said it will consult with its board and legal and financial advisers following the takeover bid. Mediterranean-focused explorer Sound Oil announced yesterday its desire to purchase the company.
Faroe Petroleum has completed the sale of its share in a North Sea gas field to Total for £10million. The company sold its 10% interest in the undeveloped Glenlivet gas field as it looks to directing its focus on projects elsewhere in Norway and the UK.
The labor shortage is squeezing a cattle industry already diminished over the past decade by mad cow disease, drought and floods. The herd in Canada, the world’s eighth-largest beef exporter, is the smallest in 21 years. Beef supplies are so tight that Costco Wholesale Corp. is importing more meat from the U.S., where prices are the highest ever. “It’s impossible to find workers,” said Tim Stewart, 57, who has four unfilled jobs and is considering selling the 4,000- head ranch in Rockglen, Saskatchewan, that his family has owned since 1910. “If someone came along with a big fat checkbook, we’d probably walk away.” In Alberta, Canada’s biggest producer of oil and beef, annual wages for specialized livestock workers was C$44,870, ($39,700) or 63 percent less than petroleum workers at C$73,105, according to a provincial government survey of employers last year. The data showed 72 percent of farm employers experienced hiring difficulties, with 25 percent reporting unfilled vacancies for more than four months.
Oil and gas engineering firm Plexus Holdings said yesterday it had won a £1.9million order from a major oil and gas operator to supply equipment for a gas and condensate exploration well in the UK North Sea. Aberdeen-based Plexus did not reveal the customer's identity but said it was a long-standing client. Plexus will supply high pressure/high temperature (HT/HP) adjustable surface wellhead and mudline casing support systems under the new contract, which is expected to have a duration of 150 days.
Engineering support services company Babcock International said yesterday it had completed its second walk to work (W2W) contract for Total Exploration and Production UK. W2W systems allows oil and gas workers to cross from boats on to platforms by foot. Babcock said more than 18,000 people were transferred this way under Total's central North Sea contract between march and September.
The oil and gas industry has called for tax cuts to ensure further exploration and extraction of the North Sea is encouraged, following reports of a drop in confidence within the sector. Firms have called for changes to the fiscal regime ahead of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement next week. The call comes after the 21st Oil and Gas Survey found that, for the first time since 2008, more operators and contractors are pessimistic about their UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) activity than are optimistic.
A Chinese company offered NOK4.34billion ($640million) to buy REC Solar ASA, one of the last makers of solar panels in Western hands, a move that may help circumvent trade disputes in the US and Europe. The deal by a unit of China National Chemical Corp. would follow a surge in demand for solar panels, absorbing much of the production that companies supported by the government in Beijing built in the past decade. Authorities in Brussels and Washington have imposed restrictions on Chinese solar panel imports after accusations from competitors that products were sold below cost. That has required Chinese companies that dominate the panel manufacturing industry to establish subsidiaries with factories abroad that are outside sanctions.
US shale production is largely shielded from dipped oil prices, the chief executive of Dow Chemical said. Andrew Liveris, was speaking at a conference in Dubai, when he explained the majority of well and production investments in the US shale market had already been made, allowing the sector to withstand the falling crude prices.
U.K. natural gas for next-month delivery rose for a sixth day, the longest such streak since December, amid forecasts for colder weather and continued Norwegian outages. Gas for front-month delivery advanced as much as 2.4 percent on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. The December contract expires on Nov. 27. First-quarter fuel climbed to the highest level in almost a month on ICE, also advancing for a sixth day. Temperatures in the U.K., where gas is mainly used for heating, are set to be 1.6 degrees Celsius (2.9 degrees Fahrenheit) below seasonal norms next week, according to a WSI Corp. forecast using the GFS model on Bloomberg. Supply from the Troll and Skarv fields in Norway remain reduced as outages continued, dragging up the curve with the prompt prices, according to Trevor Sikorski, head of natural gas, coal and carbon at Energy Aspects Ltd.
LGO Energy said it has now recompleted work on the GY-667 well at its Goudron Field in Trinidad. The company said the well is currently flowing under its own pressure at a stabilized rate of 350 barrels of oil per day (bopd). An interval of 186 feet of net pay was perforated using tubing conveyed guns and an initial open-hole flow rate of 1,030bopd was observed.
A couple have literally taken the plunge and showed the depth of their love at their wedding. For both bride and groom are professional divers and decided they would like to take their vows in a giant tank full of seawater, so had bubbles underwater and bubbly as they sipped champagne later. The bizarre wedding took place at the Underwater Centre in Fort William on Saturday. A crowd of around 100 attended to watch Dorota “Dot” Bankowska, 37, and James Abbott, 39, tie the knot at the world renowned centre’s onshore seawater tank.
Ophir Energy said its board of directors has reached an agreement with Salamander Energy in its takeover bid. The transaction for the entire share capital of Salamander Energy means shareholders will be entitled to 0.5719 of new Ophir shares.
Petrofac said it expects its IES net profit for 2015 to drop by around $45million after assessing a number of ongoing projects. The company said the current change in oil prices and “expectation on delivery” of certain IES projects had been behind the estimated reduction. Within the next year, the company said the Laggan-Tormore project in Shetland, would result in “no profit or loss”.
Oil and gas operators are preparing a re-entry into Iran as talks on lifting 14-year-old sanctions against the country reach an end-game. A number of UK firms have visited Iran in recent weeks to meet domestic companies and discuss the best route to re-establishing operations. Talks which began earlier this month between Iran and the so-called P5+1 countries - the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany – are scheduled to end later today, although there is speculation the deadline may be extended if agreement is not reached.