Mexico's Carlos Slim: 'Complicated' deepwater project being evaluated
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim announced on Monday that he and his team are re-evaluating the deal they signed with Pemex, Mexico's state oil company to develop Mexico’s first deepwater gas field. The project has been plagued by issues over its commercial viability for years. The comments are in line with an exclusive published last month, which revealed that representatives from Grupo Carso of Slim and Pemex had discussed changes to the agreement to make the Lakach Project profitable despite lower gas prices forecast.
Nigeria approves Shell’s $2.4 billion asset sales to Renaissance
Shell received approval from Nigeria’s oil minister to sell $2.4 billion worth of onshore and shallow water assets to Renaissance Group. Renaissance Group said this in a Wednesday statement. Shell has been operating in Nigerian oil and gas for nearly a hundred years. The Shell approval is part of an overall retreat of western energy companies, such as Exxon Mobil and Eni of Italy, and Equinor of Norway. The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, blocked Shell's sale of Renaissance, which comprises five companies, in October.
Petrobras bids for ships for Sergipe Deepwater Project
Petrobras, the state-owned oil company of Brazil, has announced a bid to purchase up to two offshore production vessels as part of its Sergipe deepwater project SEAP. The announcement was made in a late Friday securities filing. The floating production, storage, and offloading units (FPSOs) will be contract on a build, operate, and transfer model (BOT), where the hired firm plans, builds, and operates the unit over a period of time before transferring to Petrobras. The Brazilian…
Petronas Indonesia plans major expansion, says country head
Petronas, the Malaysian state-owned energy company, plans to expand "aggressively" in Indonesia. It will create a hub in East Java for its operations and invest in exploration of Indonesia's remote eastern regions. The new government of Indonesian President Prabowo Subito, which came into office in this month, pledged to boost energy development and reverse a decade-long decline by the former OPEC country. Yuzaini Md Yusof is the head of Petronas Indonesia. She said that recent regulatory changes have made it easier for companies to develop energy projects.
Webinar: Floating Production Forecasts & Analysis
A free webinar will deliver latest forecasts and market intelligence for the global floating production industry, offering insider access to business and investment opportunities in the deepwater sector.Floating Production Systems: 2020 Forecasts & Analysis, presented by ABS and World Energy Reports, will be held July 29, 2020, 11 a.m. (EDT). REGISTER HERE.The effects of the COVID-19 crisis and oil supply glut continue to seriously dampen investment appetite in the oil and gas sector…
Webinar: Floating Production Forecasts & Analysis
A free webinar will deliver latest forecasts and market intelligence for the global floating production industry, offering insider access to business and investment opportunities in the deepwater sector.Floating Production Systems: 2020 Forecasts & Analysis, presented by ABS and World Energy Reports, will be held July 29, 2020, 11 a.m. (EDT). REGISTER HERE.The effects of the COVID-19 crisis and oil supply glut continue to seriously dampen investment appetite in the oil and gas sector…
Floater Sector Active Despite Market Volatility
Activity in the floating production sector has not been slowed by the recent volatility seen across global oil markets, according to a recent report by World Energy Reports (WER).Brent oil, which had reached as high as the mid $70 range earlier this year, fell 17% from mid-May and mid-June on demand growth fears and swelling crude inventory, only to rebound back to current levels in the mid $60 range following several tanker attacks and a drone downing near the Strait of Hormuz.
Repsol, LLOG to Partner on Deepwater US Gulf Developments
The U.S.-based exploration and production company LLOG Exploration Offshore and Spanish oil company Repsol announced the signing of an Asset Exchange and Joint Participation Agreement in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.The agreement provides for the drilling of a delineation well at Repsol’s Leon discovery and covers Keathley Canyon blocks 642, 643, 686 and 687. In addition, Repsol will acquire an interest in the LLOG-operated discovery Moccasin in Keathley Canyon 736.Leon is…
Chevron: First Oil From Big Foot
U.S. supermajor Chevron announced that its operated Big Foot deepwater project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico has started crude oil and natural gas production.The field is located approximately 225 miles (360 km) south of New Orleans, La., in a water depth of approximately 5,200 feet (1,584 m.). The Big Foot field was discovered in 2006, is estimated to contain total recoverable resources of more than 200 million oil-equivalent barrels and has a projected production life of 35 years.The project uses a 15-slot drilling and production tension-leg platform…
NAFTA Doubts Impact Mexico Oil Tenders
Uncertainty about the fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and investor protections it guarantees could crimp future investment in Mexico's oil industry, including a high-stakes January deepwater auction. Ahead of a fifth round of NAFTA talks in Mexico City in mid-November, Washington's tough demands that partners Canada and Mexico resist has clouded the future of the 23-year-old pact President Donald Trump has threatened to quit if he cannot get a better deal.
Pemex Seeks Oil Projects in Americas
Mexico's Pemex is looking for oil projects in the United States, Brazil, Colombia and Argentina to keep up output after an energy reform that means it is sharing more domestic production, a top executive from the state-run oil company said on Wednesday. Exploration chief Jose Antonio Escalera mentioned Argentina's giant Vaca Muerta shale play as an interesting project where Pemex could jump into a partnership. "We are willing to participate in projects even with minimum stakes," Escalera said in an interview at the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit.
Exxon, Partners Set $4.4 Bln for Oil Project Offshore Guyana
Exxon Mobil Corp said on Friday it and partners would spend $4.4 billion to develop part of the Liza oilfield off the coast of Guyana, approving a megaproject at a time when the oil industry has grown obsessed with lower-cost shale. Exxon's decision shows that oil companies remain interested in large projects, especially offshore, even in an era of belt-tightening after two years of low crude prices. The Guyana announcement from Exxon and partners Hess Corp and CNOOC was the fifth deepwater project to gain approvals this year.
Offshore Technical Compliance Acquires Northwest Technical Solutions
Offshore Technical Compliance (OTC), provider of compliance related services, has acquired Northwest Technical Solutions (NWTS) as a wholly-owned subsidiary, extending the efficiency and reach of its offshore services. The acquisition of NWTS, which will be renamed as OTC Solutions, adds third party verification of compliance for well control equipment by a registered professional engineering firm to OTC’s portfolio, enabling its customers to access the full spectrum of compliance related services under the OTC brand. OTC now operates out of offices in Houston and Covington, La.
Shell Approves New Gulf of Mexico Project
Royal Dutch Shell has given the go-ahead to develop its Kaikias deepwater field in the Gulf of Mexico, the first such project the oil and gas company has approved in 18 months. Oil companies around the world are emerging from one of the longest downturns in recent decades amid warnings that the drop in investment in recent years may lead to a supply deficit by the end of the decade. Shell said the Kaikias oil and gas project, located some 210 kilometres (130 miles) from the Louisiana coast…
What’s New in Floating Production? December 2016
The December WER report examines whether OPEC’s decision to limit crude production will accelerate deepwater project starts over the next 12 to 24 months, given 3 billion barrels of oil stocks in global inventory, 5,000+ drilled-but-uncompleted shale wells in the U.S. ready to be fracked and likelihood that producers will cheat on output quotas. As we discuss in the report, the output cut could stimulate deepwater orders – but with a time lag. We also assess whether Hoegh and Maran’s orders for seven speculative FSRUs (two firm…
Mexico Finalizes Terms for First Deepwater Project
Mexico's oil regulator approved on Friday a final set of business-friendly tweaks to bid rules for a highly-anticipated upcoming auction that will pick a partner for state oil company Pemex to develop its first-ever deep water project. The joint venture covers Pemex's Trion field and marks a major step in the opening up of Mexico's oil industry, a process enabled by a landmark energy reform in 2013 that permits Pemex to enter into exploration and production joint ventures for the first time.
Low Crude Prices dim Revenue Hopes from new Ghana oilfield
New oil production ship cost $1.6 billion. Some analysts say output from Jubilee field disappointing, but Tullow confident new ship avoids problems on Jubilee vessel. In the depths of Ghana's fiscal crisis in 2014 policymakers looked forward to a time when a new oil field would open to boost the economy. That time has come but there's a catch: oil prices have halved since the project started. The drop in the crude price to under $50 a barrel reduces the short-term boost to…
Offshore Opex Under Pressure
Reducing drilling and development spend has largely been the focus of services and equipment providers in the Gulf of Mexico – with the aim of lowering costs at the most capital intensive period of asset lifecycles. Often overlooked, Opex costs have grown in line with other upstream costs – 7 percent CAGR from 2010 to 2014 in the Gulf of Mexico. The North American offshore market has some of the highest overall MMO costs per barrel – more than twice the global average. Historically…
Chain Tensioning, Cutting Completed for FPSO Turritella
InterMoor said it has completed the final tensioning and chain cutting operations on the FPSO Turritella for the Shell Stones project, located in the Walker Ridge protraction area in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The FPSO Turritella will connect to subsea infrastructure located beneath approximately 9,500 ft (2,896 m) of water, breaking the existing water depth record for an oil and gas production facility. This ultra-deepwater project marks the first FPSO for Shell in the GoM, and the second FPSO in the GoM.
Floating Production's Future: The 6 Things You Need to Know Now
No question that the market for new floating production systems has taken a battering. The past 12 to 18 months have been a difficult period for everyone in the business sector. Absence of new contracts has forced fabricators and equipment suppliers to make huge cutbacks in personnel and spending. But deepwater production will rebound – oil demand keeps growing -- and though the signs are mixed we see indications of the rebound starting. First some numbers about the state of the business. 261 oil/gas floating production units are currently installed on offshore fields.
