Contractor cuts signal “industry-wide phenomenon”
Industry expert Alex Kemp said the latest raft of contractor cuts signalled the start of an industry-wide phenomenon.
Oil & Gas
Afren fires CEO, COO for ‘gross misconduct’ in undisclosed deals
Afren Plc, a UK oil and gas explorer, fired chief executive officer Osman Shahenshah and chief operating officer Shahid Ullah for gross misconduct following an investigation into unauthorized payments. Afren, which operates in Nigeria and Kurdistan, has started legal action to recover the missing funds, it said in an e- mailed statement dated Oct. 13. Afren had suspended Shahenshah and three senior staff in July and August amid a review of the transactions. The terminations follow an inquiry which examined about $433 million on the explorer’s half-year balance sheet and reviewed three transactions between the explorer and partners in 2012 and 2013. Afren has slumped 42 percent this year in London trading amid the probe into the payments.
Dana unveils proposals to cut 40 jobs
Dana Petroleum yesterday revealed plans to cut up to 20% of its work force as it continues a review of its organisational structure.
Exclusive: Shell cuts contractor rates
Shell has confirmed plans to slash its North Sea contractor rates.
Targa makes $5.8billion buyout
Targa Resources has snapped up Atlas Pipeline Partners for $5.8billion.
Russia seeks China support for Rosneft
Russia signed 38 accords with China spanning energy, banking and technology during Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Moscow as the country pivots to Asia to keep its economy growing amid sanctions over Ukraine. Among the documents were an intergovernmental agreement backing OAO Gazprom’s $400billion contract to supply natural gas through a planned eastern pipeline and an accord on increasing cooperation between OAO Rosneft and China National Petroleum Corp.
CNOOC strikes first oil in South China Sea
CNOOC has struck its first oil in the South China Sea. The corporation has a 100% interest in the Enping 24-2 oilfield, which is located in the Pear River Mouth Basin of the South China Sea, and has a water depth of 86-96 metres.
Ineos snaps up second shale investment in Scotland
Petrochemical company Ineos has bought its second licence for shale exploration just two months after acquiring land at Grangemouth. The acquisition means the company now has an 80% interest in a petroleum exploration and development licence for PEDL 162, which covers a 400 km2 are of the Scottish central belt.
Bankruptcy firm blames North Sea assets for ballooning debt
Endeavour International Corp., a US-based oil and gas exploration firm with operations in the North Sea, sought bankruptcy protection yesterday, saying it has a restructuring agreement with some creditors.
Lundin Petroleum spuds exploration well
Lundin Petroleum has spudded an exploration well in the Gobi prospect within the Natuna Gas field, near Indonesia. The Gobi-1 is a wildcat exploration well designed to test the hydrocarbon potential of Oligocene and Miocene stacked fluvial reservoirs in the Jemaja Basin.
Sound Oil strikes deal for gas sales
European-focused Sound Oil has won two gas sales contracts for fields in Italy, the company has announced. The upstream oil and gas group has been awarded the contracts in relation to the Badile drill site.
Statoil sells assets in Azerbaijan for $2.25billion
Statoil has sold off a share in a number of its Shah Deniz assets to the Malaysian oil and gas company PETRONAS for $2.25billion. The assets include a 15.5% share in the South Caucasus Pipeline Company (SCPC) and a 12.4% share in the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company (AGSC).
GDF Suez linked to possible takeover bid for Talisman
Talisman Energy and its UK North Sea interests could end up under French ownership, it has emerged.
BP announces Kinnoull start-up but it’s bad news for BG Group’s Jackdaw project
The North Sea will soon produce an extra 45,000 barrels of oil a day after start-up on the £700million Kinnoull field, BP chief executive Bob Dudley has announced.
BP to start Kinnoull field in UK North Sea this month
Fifty years since acquiring its first North Sea license, BP is preparing to start a £700million ($1.1billion) project in the region that’s expected to produce oil and gas into the next decade.
Russia lessens sanctions sting with Siberia stash
US and European Union moves to pressure Russia by threatening its oil output overlook one detail: a mass of conventional resources across Siberia, according to Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoi. Russia will distribute more oil and gas deposits found in traditional areas during the Soviet era, dulling the sting of US and EU sanctions that aim to keep new provinces locked in layers of shale or under Arctic waters, according to Donskoi.
Dart Energy wins planning appeal to proceed with well
Dart Energy has won an appeal after a local authority in Wales rejected a planning application for a coal bed methane exploration well. The planning application had been turned down by Wrexham County Borough Council in March this year, despite approval from the authority’s planning officer.
Venezuela ordered to pay $1.6billion to Exxon
A World Bank tribunal has ordered Venezuela to pay oil giant ExxonMobil about $1.6billion to compensate for oil nationalisation. Venezuela said it would pay the award, but only after deducting a previous Exxon award from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) of $908million.
Infographic: Piracy attacks could rise in South East Asia
A marine intelligence company said piracy in the waters around South East Asia could rise within the coming months.
Tullow Oil sells off interest in two North Sea assets for $75million
Tullow Oil has completed has completed a deal to sell off its interest of two assets in the North Sea,the company has announced. A 53.1% share of its Schooner interest and 60% of its Ketch asset in the Southern North Sea has been sold to Faroe Petroleum.
Statoil to cut an additional 500 jobs
Norwegian energy firm Statoil has confirmed it plans to cut an additional 500 jobs. The company confirmed the job losses would affect workers in DPN (development and production).
Statoil’s wildcat returns gas discovery
Statoil’s wildcat well drilled northeast of Johan Castberg has returned a viable gas find.
Fracking setback in Poland dims hope for less Russia gas
Poland’s ambition to achieve energy independence from Russia is being undermined by drillers giving up on the nation’s shale wells after disappointing results. The highest test flows during the country’s five-year search for unconventional gas were just 30 percent of what’s needed for commercial production, said Pawel Poprawa, a geologist at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow. The number of active shale permits has fallen 43 percent from a high in January 2013 and explorers probably won’t extend all those expiring this year, according to Slawomir Brodzinski, the nation’s deputy environment minister. 3Legs Resources Plc, the Isle of Man-based company that was the first foreign explorer to buy a license in the East European nation, said last month it’s leaving after poor results at Poland’s biggest fracking operation in the northeastern Baltic Basin. The “poorly understood” formation may hold more gas than Texas’s Barnett Shale, where commercial output from 2000 helped turn the U.S. into the world’s largest gas producer, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
Petrofac wins £74m North Sea contract
Energy service giant Petrofac said yesterday it had won a new contract worth more than £74million for work in the central UK North Sea.
DNV GL launches new subsea section in Aberdeen
Global risk management group DNV GL has set up a new subsea team in Aberdeen to grab a slice of a market expected to quadruple in size by 2020. The Norwegian company, which has Scottish offices in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, wants a share of the £85billion annual revenue the subsea industry is expected to generate around the world by the end of the decade.