GoM Oil Output Set for Record Year
The U.S. Gulf of Mexico is positioned for another year of record oil production in 2020, despite massive cuts in investment.According to Rystad Energy, most of this growth coming from deep water projects.“2020 is expected to be another record year with average production above 1.9 million barrels per day,” says Joachim Milling Gregersen, an analyst on Rystad Energy’s upstream team.Oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has grown every year since 2013, with an average of 104,000 barrels per day added annually.
Private Equity Firm Energy Ventures Rebrands
A continuing low oil price has led to a re-focus of the investment strategy and a recent rebranding for independent private equity firm Energy Ventures. The company, which is headquartered in Stavanger and has offices in Houston and Aberdeen, has changed its name to EV Private Equity. EV is interested in the companies in the oil and gas services sector which require $10-25million of investment, where the focus is on provision of capital and competence to enable growth, debt deleveraging, succession planning…
Petronas Raises Government Payout as Profit Surges
Malaysia's state-owned energy firm Petroliam Nasional Bhd on Friday raised its dividend payment commitment to the government after reporting that second-quarter profit quadrupled because of higher oil prices and improved margins. But Petronas, as the company is known, maintained a cautious outlook, saying its overall year-end performance is expected to be "fair" as oil price volatility continues. The energy firm's second-quarter profit rose to 7.06 billion ringgit ($1.65 billion) from 1.68 billion ringgit in the corresponding quarter last year. Revenue rose 10 percent to 51.63 billion ringgit.
Norway OKs Statoil’s Trestakk Plan
Norwegian authorities have approved the Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) of the Trestakk discovery on the Halten Bank in the Norwegian Sea. Investments are calculated at NOK 5.5 billion ($646 million), almost half of the original estimate. Trestakk was discovered in 1986, and expected recoverable volumes are 76 million barrels of oil equivalent, mainly oil. Tied into the Åsgard A production vessel, Trestakk is expected to come on stream in 2019. On behalf of the license owners, Statoil submitted the PDO to the minister of petroleum and energy, on November 1, 2016.
ConocoPhillips Sheds Canadian Oil & Gas Assets
ConocoPhillips on Wednesday agreed to sell oil sands and western Canadian natural gas assets to Cenovus Energy Inc for C$17.7 billion ($13.3 billion), making it the latest international oil major to pull back from a region where high costs and low crude prices have made it hard for large companies to make an acceptable return. For Calgary-based Cenovus, among Canada's largest producers, the deal doubles its production to 588,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day as it takes full ownership of its main oil sands assets in northern Alberta.
Keppel FELS Delivers Accommodation Unit to Floatel
Keppel FELS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) has delivered Floatel Triumph, a fifth high-specification accommodation semisubmersible (semi), to Floatel International Ltd (Floatel). The semi, which is built to Keppel's proprietary SSAUTM5000NG design, will be chartered by Chevron Corporation for work in the Wheatstone field in Western Australia. Floatel Triumph is scheduled to arrive on location in mid-October 2016. Thereafter, it will work for INPEX Operations Australia in Ichthys Field, off Western Australia.
Total Looks Beyond Bolivia's Incahuasi to Regional Gas Market
Oil and gas giant Total could start the second phase of its Incahuasi gas project in Bolivia as early as 2017 if the right market conditions and incentives for investments are in place, the company's director for the Americas said on Friday. The $1.2 billion Incahuasi gas and condensate project which will officially be inaugurated on Friday, began production at three wells in August. Total aims to ramp output to more than 7 million cubic meters of gas per day by the end of September, about 10 percent of Bolivian production…
Iran Crude Exports at 5-yr High
August exports highest since Jan 2012; exports to Europe rise 48 pct from July to 630,000 bpd. Iran's August crude oil exports jumped 15 percent from July to more than 2 million barrels per day (bpd), according to a source with knowledge of its tanker loading schedule, closing in on Tehran's pre-sanctions shipment levels of five years ago. The No. 3 OPEC producer has more than doubled its crude exports, excluding the ultra light oil condensate, since December. Economic sanctions targeting Iran's disputed nuclear programme were lifted in January…
Steep Declines to Precede Land Rig Recovery
The global land rig market is predicted to see further compression in 2016, with the recovery forecast for the next four years. The international rig fleet is a critical enabler of global energy production but the quantity and quality of available information on both the international rig fleet and demand has historically been limited, particularly in core markets such as the Middle East, Asia and Russia. The new Douglas-Westwood (DW) World Land Drilling Rig Market Report addresses this problem…
BP, Rosneft JV for East, West Siberian Exploration
Rosneft and BP have today signed final binding agreements to create a new joint venture, Yermak Neftegaz LLC, to conduct exploration in the West Siberian and Yenisey-Khatanga basins in the Russian Federation. The document was signed at the XX St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) by Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and President of BP Russia David Campbell. The joint venture will focus on onshore exploration of two Areas of Mutual Interest (AMIs) in the West Siberian and Yenisey-Khatanga basins covering a combined area of about 260,000 square kilometers.
Statoil: PDO for Oseberg Vestflanken 2 sanctioned
The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has sanctioned the Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) of Oseberg Vestflanken 2. Reserves projected at 110 million barrels of oil equivalent the investments are estimated at NOK 8.2 billion (2015). The Oseberg Vestflanken 2 development consists of an unmanned wellhead platform with ten well slots. In addition two existing subsea wells will be reused. All wells will be remote-controlled from Oseberg field centre. “Oseberg Vestflanken 2 is a pioneer project of great strategic importance,” says Torger Rød, Statoil’s senior vice president for project management.
Petrofac Reports Record Order Book
British oilfield services company Petrofac Ltd said its full-year revenue grew 10 percent and that its order book stood at record levels at the end of the year, sending shares up more than 12 percent on Wednesday morning. Petrofac said most of the $20.7 billion backlog came from its core Middle Eastern markets. "The pipeline appears strong, although we have concerns that it may be much weaker if further contracts are deferred/cancelled as a result of the continuing low oil price environment" analysts at Cenkos Securities said.
BP's Dudley Pay Soars Despite 2015 Loss
Dudley's total remuneration rises to $19.6 million as BP recorded biggest loss ever in 2015. BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley's total pay rose 20 percent to nearly $20 million in 2015, a year when the oil major settled most of its U.S. oil spill litigations but also posted a large loss as crude prices plummeted. BP has slashed thousands of jobs and sharply cut investments over the past year in the face of the market downturn, while reaching a landmark $20 billion settlement to resolve most claims from its deadly 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Another 2 Keppel FELS Rigs for Mexico
Keppel FELS Limited (Keppel FELS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M), has delivered two jackup rigs to Mexican company, Grupo R. Built to Keppel's proprietary KFELS B Class design, the rigs, CANTARELL I and CANTARELL II, will be chartered to PEMEX, Mexico's national oil company, for operations in the Cantarell oil field in offshore Mexico. They are the first two of five jackup rigs that Keppel FELS is building for Grupo R. Mr Wong Kok Seng, Managing Director of Keppel O&M (Offshore) and Keppel FELS…
U.S. Regional Banks Brace for Energy Loan Losses
The five U.S. regional banks most exposed to the energy sector set aside millions of dollars more in the first quarter to cover potential losses from bad loans to the struggling oil industry. Overall, provisions for bad loans at Comerica Inc, Regions Financial Corp, KeyCorp, SunTrust Banks Inc and Fifth Third Bancorp more than doubled to $570 million in the period from $222 million a year earlier. "The low oil price environment continues to pressure our energy clients, which contributed to the increase in non-performing loans…
Breaking Even in an Uneven Oil Market -Douglas Westwood
The Johan Castberg development has faced numerous challenges since inception. If production in the Barents Sea wasn’t difficult enough, Statoil has had to contend with changes to Norwegian Tax laws as well as disappointing drilling results. In May 2014, it was confirmed that of five exploration wells drilled in the area, only two yielded oil reserves: the Skavl and Drivis fields. This initially challenged the viability of commercial development, however, it now appears Statoil may have found a solution. Low oil prices have pushed back Johan Castberg’s onstream year considerably.
ProSep to Supply ProMix Units for NOC
ProSep, a technology and service provider for integrated process solutions, announced it will supply four ProMix units to a National Oil Company based in the Middle East. “The ProMix technology generates homogeneous and moderate shear force to the dispersed phase across the cross section of the main flow, providing a narrow uniform droplet size distribution, significantly increasing interfacial contact area, enhancing mass transfer between different flows, and meanwhile preventing formation of an emulsion,” said Mahesh Konduru, chief financial officer and head of operations for ProSep.
Andreae Appointed MD of DEA Norge
After a five-month integration process, DEA has set up a new organisation, DEA Norge in Norway and has appointed Hans-Hermann Andreae as its Managing Director. He heads the business in Norway from the new headquarters in Stavanger. The company will continue to pursue its long-term growth strategy on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). The changes to DEA in Norway follow the acquisition of E.ON E&P Norge in December 2015. In line with the requirements of Norwegian authorities, the two companies are now legally merged. The name of the new company is DEA Norge AS.
Wood Group Develops Advanced Analytics Capability with CeADA
Wood Group today announced that it is collaborating with the Centre for Applied Data Analytics (CeADAR), located at University College Dublin (UCD), to launch a new data analytics capability to deliver significant savings for the energy and industrial sectors. Wood Group Kenny (WGK) will work with CeADAR to develop predictive analytics for deployment particularly in the oil and gas industry. This will initially be targeted at brownfield engineering services and will strengthen WGK's existing services in the area of measured data analysis.
Douglas Westwood: Brexit and Potential Threats to the Energy Industry
With the referendum rapidly approaching, the question of what Brexit could mean for the UK oil & gas industry has become increasingly intriguing. As a market broadly regulated in London, many argue that an exit vote would lead to no significant changes – at least in the short term. However, new uncertainties for the energy industry may emerge, should the UK decide to part ways with Europe. In 2013, the UK became a net importer of petroleum products. Traditionally the main sources of the UK imports are from EU countries including France and the Netherlands.
