EMGS (Electromagnetic Geoservices) has been awarded a $27million contract by BG Group for data acquisition work in Uruguay. The work is expected to begin next week using the vessel EM Leader and will last around three months.
Empire Oil and Gas has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with drilling contractor Enerdrill. The agreement is for the upcoming planned three-well programme at the onshore Perth Basin. The company said one of these is planned to be within Permit 389, which hosts Empire’s Red Gully Gas and Condensate project.
Europa Oil and Gas has identified new prospects on two of its licences in Ireland. The company said the discoveries had been made in the FEL 2/13 and FEL 3/13 licences in the South Porcupine Basin. Further analysis will take place to provide a definitive prospect risking and ranking.
Worldview Capital Management, one of the biggest shareholders in Petroceltic, has taken legal action against the company for an alleged breach of its corporate governance agreement. The company has also called for the immediate resignation of its chief executive Brian O’Cathain. The move was taken after the two entered in an agreement in June this year.
Oilex has completed proof-of-concept objectives for the commercial development of the Cambay field in India. The company said initial the key field results from Cambay-77H flowback and production tests were encouraging. The sustained initial 24 hour rate during flowback was 2.03MMscfe/d, comprising 55% light oil with concurrent operations water production of 1,867bbls/d.
Enegi Oil has agreed to end a farm-in agreement with BSE (Black Spruce Exploration) in Canada. The company said it the decision had been taken in recognition of the “problems” in completing investment for large-scale plans in the current climate. It said the termination of the agreement would also allow for faster results and appropriate regional development in plays such as western Newfoundland.
Algeria will press ahead with its $90 billion investment plan in the North African country’s oil and gas industry even with crude prices trading near five-year lows, said the head of state-run energy producer Sonatrach. Sonatrach will invest $22 billion in natural-gas field development as part of the $90 billion program for 2015-19, said Sahnoun, the company’s interim chief executive officer, said at the North Africa Oil & Gas Summit conference in Algiers yesterday. Oil prices have declined about 40% from a June peak amid overproduction and slower demand growth. Brent crude ended last week at $69.07 a barrel.
Oil and gas services firm Can Group has recorded a boost in turnover and pre-tax profits for the year ending December 2013. The Aberdeen-headquartered firm, which provides engineering, inspection and trade services to the oil and gas sector, posted a 20% increase in pre-tax profits to £18.5million, from £15.4million previously.
West Texas Intermediate and Brent extended declines from the lowest close in more than five years amid speculation that US oil producers will fight OPEC for market share. Futures dropped as much as 1.8% in New York and 1.9% in London. Explorers in the U.S. increased the number of operating rigs last week, defying predictions of a drilling slowdown, according to data from Baker Hughes Inc. Brent’s 14-day relative strength index has been below 30 since November 27, a reading that signals crude is oversold. Oil is trading in a bear market amid signs that US output is expanding even after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries opted not to reduce its production target.
The rate of job losses across BP in the UK and abroad will increase after dropping oil prices intensified the company’s simplification plans, the oil giant said. Some 15,000 of BP’s employees are based in the UK, while the company employs about 84,000 people worldwide. BP’s finance director Brian Gilvary is reported to have said: “What you’ll see with this simplification plan is that headcounts are starting to come down across all of our activities in upstream, downstream and in the corporate centres - essentially the layers above operations.”
Staff working over the Christmas period all know how tough it can be. These oil workers in Azerbaijan decided to make light of celebrating the holiday away from home by creating a tongue-in-cheek clip. Watch the video below.
The boom in US oil production will live to see another week. The nation’s crude explorers, engaged in a pricing war with the world’s largest suppliers, defied predictions of a drilling slowdown and ran the most rigs since mid-November, boosting the US count by three to 1,575, Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) said. Rigs targeting natural gas were unchanged at 344, the Houston-based field services company’s website showed.
Global oil and gas exploration projects worth more than £95billion are likely to be put on hold next year as plunging oil prices render them uneconomic, new figures show. The shelving of developments around the world could put a severe constraint on supplies by the end of the decade, it is feared. As big oil fields that were discovered decades ago begin to deplete oil companies are trying to access more complex and hard-to-reach fields, which in some cases are deep under sea level.
For over 20 years I have analysed oil price fluctuations. Why? Well, every country’s economic prospects and people’s jobs, yours and mine, are affected in one way or another by what happens to oil prices. Life and death decisions, including continuing national sovereignty for some nations, hinge on the price of oil. The current dramatic and fast 35% fall in oil price could be a pivotal moment in historical events. For example, will the oil revenue dependent Russian economy survive if oil prices stay at around $70 a barrel? If not, what action will Russia take?
A North Sea boss has warned he will shift investment from the North Sea to other areas of the world after being disappointed by the results of HM Treasury’s fiscal review of the oil and gas industry. James Edens, vice-president and managing director of CNR International, told Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander that changes proposed to the UK tax regime were not coming quickly enough to help his company. At the presentation of the Treasury’s plan to reform the UK oil and gas fiscal regime, Mr Edens told Mr Alexander: “the speed of change here is too slow - you must speed up, you must accelerate.”
Cluff Natural Resources (CLNR) has been awarded five licenses by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in the UK's 28th Offshore Licencing Round. The awards cover eleven blocks in an under-explored gas province of the southern North Sea. They were given by DECC to the company on a ‘promote’ basis.
This video shows a perfect flare shot set off to ignite gas streaming out on a North Sea rig.
Ophir Energy has signed a production sharing contract with the Myanmar Ministry of Energy. The move finalises the award of Block AD-03 offshore Myanmar, which the company has a 95% interest in.
Halliburton has appointed its chief financial officer (CFO) as chief integration officer to lead its merger with Baker Hughes. Mark McCollum will serve as head of the joint integration team the two companies are assembling. It comes after they revealed plans to merge last month in a $34.6billion deal.
As a result of lower prices and rising cost the oil and gas industry has been lobbying hard for improvements to the oil and gas fiscal regime and will have been watching the Autumn Statement closely for positive reforms. Whilst some announcements were made, further consultation will take place before the package is agreed. It is not clear whether this will happen ahead of next year’s general election. Further details were announced by the Rt Hon Danny Alexander MP in Aberdeen on Thursday.
Brent extended losses from a four-year low as Saudi Arabia offered customers in Asia record discounts on its crude, bolstering speculation it’s defending market share. West Texas Intermediate dropped in New York. Futures fell as much as 0.8% in London and are headed for a second weekly decline. State-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. cut its differential for Arab Light sales to Asia next month to $2 a barrel below a regional benchmark, according to a company statement.
French oil company Total has finally admitted its new £800million Shetland gas plant will not be completed this year. A company spokesman said it was likely to be ready during the first three months of the 2015, about nine months behind schedule. Following months of denial and a profit warning from main contractor Petrofac last month, Total issued a short statement yesterday.
Offshore industry chiefs have urged the UK Government to speed up measures to support the sector after coalition ministers unveiled radical plans to reward North Sea investment. Tax regime changes aimed at making sure as much oil and gas as possible is extracted have been welcomed by operators. But they want them implemented sooner rather than later because of the challenges posed by low crude prices and high exploration costs. Highland MP and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, and Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Priti Patel, were both in Aberdeen yesterday to present their department’s financial review of the sector.
In the Autumn Statement, the UK Government announced a number of measures aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the UK Continental Shelf. This included a 2% reduction in the Supplementary Charge to Corporation Tax, new tax allowances to encourage development of complex fields as well as enhanced tax measures for the exploration phase. But this was the curtain raiser to the main event in Aberdeen, where the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander MP, presented a more detailed roadmap for the future fiscal approach to the UK oil and gas tax regime.
The reforms to the oil and gas tax regime announced by the Chancellor and Danny Alexander this week are, of course, welcome. Particularly in light of the Chancellor’s admission that it has been 21 years since the oil and gas industry last received a tax reduction. However, this announcement only goes a short way towards reversing the unexpected and damaging 12% increase in Supplementary Charge tax introduced by Danny Alexander at the 2011 Budget.