Norwegian Energy Company (Noreco) will request a deferral of bond instalments and bond interest due in December, the company has said. The bond instalment, worth NOK 560.8million, and the bond interest NOK 84.6million, will be delayed while the company explores available alternatives. The company said the deferral will allow it time to pursue any solutions which could create more values for its stakeholders.
Wood Group PSN (WGPSN) will continue its work on an offshore Canadian platform in a multi-million dollar deal. The company has been awarded a five-year contract extension for its engineering, procurement and construction services to the Hibernia platform. Hibernia Management and Development Company Ltd (HMDC) awarded the contract for work on the platform, which is in offshore Newfoundland and Labrador.
A newbuild Diving Support Vessel (DSV) currently being built by Vard has been named as the ‘Deep Explorer’. The state-of-the-art vessel was commissioned by French services company, Technip. The company had previously announced in April plans to invest in the new vessel, which has been equipped with the latest navigational technology.
This week heralded a significant moment in the oil and gas industry as Halliburton confirmed plans to takeover Baker Hughes in a $36.4billion deal. Energy Voice takes a look back at the previous ‘mega-mergers’ that have taken place in recent years. Triggered by the $110billion merger between BP and Amoco in 1998 just prior to the millennium and a number of years after, some of the biggest oil companies includinging Exxon and Mobil, Chevron and Texaco and Conoco and Phillips merged.
Cairn Energy has completed work on the SNE-1 well in Senegal after failing to hit hydrocarbons at a lower target. The company and its joint venture partners had previously discovered oil in the upper clastic target. However the deeper target of Karstified and fractured Lower Crestaceous shelf carbonates returned no hydrocarbons, Cairn Energy said.
A £22billion mega-merger of two global energy service giants creates new opportunities but also a potential threat to Scottish oil and gas jobs, an industry expert said yesterday. US firms Halliburton and Baker Hughes together employ many thousands of people in the north-east.
A deal has been struck between Eni and state agencies in Turkmenistan after they agreed to a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) regarding the Nebi Dag area of the country. Yagshygeldy Kakayev, the director of the tate agency for management and use of hydrocarbon resources, Tachdurdy Begdjanov the chairman of state concern Turkmenneft and the chief executive of Eni, Claudio Descalzi, all signed the agreement.
The UK government has signed an agreement with Canada to work together on research and knowledge sharing for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Both countries released a joint statement which identifies how they plan to work together and build on the work they have already undertaken. The use of CCS is viewed as one of the most cost effective technologies for decarbonisation of the UK’s power.
CorEnergy is to acquire ownership of a multi-million dollar pipeline central to natural gas in St Louis. The MoGas pipeline, worth $125million, is 263 miles long and maintains key connections on three natural gas transmission pipelines.
A Senex Energy gas well is ready for first gas sales. The Hornet-1 gas well has been completed for production and is in pre-commissioning, ahead of first gas sales for the Australia-headquartered firm.
Iraq’s biggest oil refinery at Baiji is set to reopen after government troops forced Islamic State militants further from the facility, according to state-sponsored Iraqiya television. The army entered Baiji after clearing bombs and other equipment from around the plant, the station reported. It didn’t say when production would resume at the refinery that halted in mid-June. “Army troops achieve a victory and lift the siege on Baiji refinery,” Iraqiya reported in the banner headline. “Baiji refinery to reopen soon.”
Finland and Estonia have reached an agreement on a road map for creating a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal between the two countries. The Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb and Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas said the two countries will implement the LNG projects when it is both “technically and economically feasible” to do so. The plan includes the construction of a large-scale LNG terminal in Finland, which would then provide liquefied natural gas to users in the region at competitive prices.
Wentworth Resources Limited has secured $26million in loan agreements from the Tanzanian Bank for the development of a well and loan repayments. The company said it had also signed a long-term gas sales and purchase agreement to supply discovered natural gas at a price of $3 per mmbtu (million metric British thermal units) for its Mnazi Bay concession. In its third quarter results the company said its working capital was down to $24million compared with $38.4million for the same time last year.
After a bitter two days, Dave Lesar drove out to Martin Craighead’s headquarters Sunday, taking the final play in a tense merger negotiation straight to his counterpart. It was cold and windy in Houston as the two chief executive officers entered the last stages of a bid that had almost led to a fight for board nominations. Lesar, 61, the 14-year leader of Halliburton Inc, and Craighead, 54, a Baker Hughes veteran in his first year at the helm, sat down over a coke and a coffee to seal the $35 billion deal, the two men said yesterday. For Lesar, the meeting culminated a campaign that began almost a decade earlier when executives from the companies first broached a possible merger. A month ago, he took advantage of a 32% drop in Baker Hughes stock since July in the wake of falling oil prices.
Seabird Exploration has won two contracts in South East Asia and West Africa worth a combined $15million. The company said it had received two Letters of Intent (LOI) for 2D seismic surveys for both projects.
A well drilled by Lundin Petroleum in offshore Malaysia has come up dry. The company said it had completed the Kitabu-1 well located in blocks SB307/SB308, offshore Sabah. The objectives for the well had been Miocene aged turbidite sands of similar age to the Shell operated South Furious 30 oil field.
Technip has been awarded an engineering and procurement contract for a chemical ethylene plant expansion in Louisiana. The award will see the French company provide its services to expand the recovery section of Westlake’s Petro 1 ethylene plant at its complex in Sulphur. Technip’s operating centre in Houston will execute the project with support from the group’s office in Mumbai.
Governments should seize all oil tanker-trucks coming from or headed to Islamic State-held territories in Iraq and Syria to help stop smuggling by the extremist group, United Nations advisers said.
Talisman Sinopec is splitting its North Sea business in two as it undertakes a “major transformation” of its operations in the face of spiraling costs and aging platforms and infrastructure. The firm, which is a joint venture between Calgary-based Talisman Energy and Chinese state-owned Sinopec, said the company would be divided into an operations division holding some North Sea assets and a “late life asset division”.
An Aberdeenshire firm has designed new technology for testing offshore fire sprinkler systems that should prevent glitches caused by existing methods. Paradigm Flow Services (PFS), part of Netherlands-based investment firm Paradigm Group, has invested £180,000 in the research and development stage of its dryflow technology, which was carried out by academics, software designers and engineers in Aberdeen and Rotterdam over the past 18 months. Conventional tests use large volumes of seawater, often leading to blockages and corrosion inside nozzles and pipework.
Leading conservation organisations are calling for a ban on mining and exploration for oil and gas in World Heritage Sites. The organisations, including the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the RSPB and WWF, warn that growing pressure for resources means that a quarter of natural World Heritage Sites are under threat from commercial mining and extraction. World Heritage Sites such as Virunga National Park, home of the critically endangered mountain gorilla in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Virgin Komi forests in Russia and the Belize Barrier Reef System are all under threat from exploitation, the groups said.
Chevron and Hess have started crude oil production from the Tubular Bells deepwater project in the Gulf of Mexico. The project is expected to produce 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from three wells. The field is 135 miles southeast of New Orleans in 4,300 feet of water in the Mississippi Canyon area and was discovered in 2003.
Two Anglolan oil giants have today signed an agreement that could enhance the country's presence on the industry map. The chairman of Sonangol and Eni's chief executive have reached a deal to maximise activities and projects in offshore Angola.
Internationally based Sea Trucks has landed a contract for a development in Nigeria. The deal will see the offshore support firm provide subsea installation work in the Okwok Field.
Halliburton Co., the world’s second- biggest provider of oilfield services, agreed to buy No. 3 Baker Hughes Inc. in one of the largest takeovers of a U.S. energy company in years. Baker Hughes shareholders will receive 1.12 Halliburton shares plus $19 in cash for each share they own, both companies said today in a statement. Halliburton plans to finance the cash portion of the deal through a combination of cash on hand and debt financing. Halliburton eliminates one of its chief rivals in the merger, expanding its business portfolio and global reach at a time when falling oil prices have plunged the industry into a downturn. The combined company will be a little more than half the size of larger rival Schlumberger Ltd.