China's CNOOC signs contract for oil development in Iraq's Block 7
CNOOC Ltd, a Chinese company, announced Wednesday that it had signed an Exploration, Development & Production Contract with Iraq's State-run Midland Oil Company for the exploration of oil and gas in the Block 7 Field. CNOOC Africa Holding Ltd, the state oil and gas company's fully owned unit, will hold 100% interests and act as the operator for the 6,300-square-kilometer Block 7, located in central Iraq's Diwaniyah province. CNOOC won the bid to explore the block as part of Iraq's licensing round, which was a recent policy shift in which Baghdad began offering profit sharing with partners, instead of technical service contracts.
Saipem, Italy's largest energy company, increases its 2024 forecast and confirms dividend plan
Saipem, an Italian energy contractor, raised its full-year forecast and confirmed that it will resume dividend payments in 2019, after exceeding expectations for the third-quarter results. The group reported adjusted earnings between July and Septembre of 340 millions euros ($366million), above the analyst consensus of 323 millions euros compiled by LSEG. New contracts reached 6.4 billion euro in the third quarter thanks to projects awarded by Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Saipem expects to sell more than 14 billion euros in 2024, compared with a range previously between 12.7 billion euros and 13.3 billion.
Drill, baby, drill in Argentina's Vaca Muerta shale lands!
Argentina's new, market-friendly government, and concerns about oil supplies from the Middle East, and elsewhere, are driving a boom in drilling and production in the Patagonian South, which is home to the giant Vaca Muerta shale, Spanish for "Dead Cow". In the flat, arid terrain, the production of shale oil and gas is surging. Fracking wells have been drilled in record numbers, and pipelines have been built to transport gas to the capital Buenos Aires – and beyond once LNG plants are operational. A huge blue billboard, erected by the state energy giant YPF in front of Anelo's shale-town, proclaims "Our energy future will be built here." New homes are being constructed quickly.
KMG, Tatneft Outline Cooperation Roadmap
Chairman of the Management Board, NC KazMunayGas (KMG), Alik Aidarbayev and Director General of Tatneft Nail Maganov signed the Roadmap on Introduction of the Tatneft Best Practices in the Petroleum Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The implementation period is 2020.During the meeting, held in Nur-Sultan, the heads of KMG and Tatneft discussed how the partnership can be organized, including the establishment of a joint venture in Kazakhstan.The parties agreed that Tatarstan experts would analyze the efficiency of the current production system and measurement of production processes in KMG.
Woodside Sees Reserve Base Tripling
Australia's Woodside Petroleum on Tuesday laid out plans to triple its gas and oil reserve base as it pursues projects worth over $36 billion in Australia, Senegal and Myanmar.Success in those projects would result in its reserve base reaching 3.7 billion barrels over the next seven years and help Woodside expand production by 6% a year over the next decade, it said."We believe we now have a compelling growth story," Woodside Chief Executive Peter Coleman told an analysts briefing in Sydney.Coleman's comments highlight Woodside's bullish view as crunch time approaches on major projects.
Eni, Sonatrach Push Algeria Projects
Algeria's energy giant Sonatrach and Italian multinational oil and gas company announced the intention to accelerate the development of new oil and gas projects in North Berkine Basin in the Algeria, that will lead to a significant increase in national production.Sonatrach and Eni Chief Executive Officers, Rachid Hachichi and Claudio Descalzi, met in Algiers to review the progress made on the activities taking place in the country.The acceleration will significantly increase Algeria's overall oil production, Eni said. The project is composed of two phases: the first…
Exxon to Proceed with Argentina Development
US based ExxonMobil said on Tuesday it is proceeding with a long-term oil development in Argentina’s Bajo del Choique-La Invernada block.The project is expected to produce up to 55,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day within five years and will include 90 wells, a central production facility and export infrastructure connected to the Oldeval pipeline and refineries.“We are encouraged by the excellent results of our Neuquén pilot project and look forward to increased production through this significant expansion,” said Staale Gjervik, senior vice president of unconventional at ExxonMobil.
TechnipFMC Orders Vallourec Pipes for Mero 1
The provider tubular solutions for the energy markets Vallourec Soluçoes Tubulares do Brasil has been awarded by TechnipFMC in Brazil to supply around 12,000 tons of seamless steel rigid line pipe with outside diameters 8” and 10”.The pipe will be used in the fabrication of the riser and flowline system for interconnecting 13 wells (6 production wells and 7 water alternate gas injection wells), to be installed in the pre-salt field Mero 1, which is part of the giant Libra reservoir.Libra covers an area of 1,550 square kilometers, equivalent to the size of the Brazilian city of São Paulo…
Seismic Surveys Delayed in US Arctic
There will be no seismic exploration this winter on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Interior Department said on Friday, after the company seeking permission to conduct the tests ran out of time to get the required permit."We can confirm that seismic surveys will not take place until December 2019," said Alex Hinson, U.S. Department of the Interior spokesman, in an email.The company applying for the permits, SAExploration, had applied for a start date as early as December 2018 for seismic testing as a precursor to drill in the ANWR, which has been off-limits to drillers for decades.The application remains active, but will be altered.
US Working on Arctic Oil Leases Despite Shutdown
Even as a partial shutdown halts the functions of many U.S. government departments, forcing the Department of the Interior to close national parks, the Trump administration is continuing to push for the expansion of oil drilling on sensitive, federally owned lands in Arctic Alaska.The Alaska Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the Interior Department, was scheduled to hold a meeting on Wednesday night in Wainwright, an Inupiat village on the Arctic coast, over a plan to expand oil development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. The bureau is legally required to hold public meetings on its plans.Wednesday marked the 19th day of a partial U.S.
U.S. Crude, Natgas Proved Reserves Hit Record Highs in 2017 -EIA
U.S. crude oil and natural gas proved reserves rose to record highs in 2017, driven by stronger energy prices and the continuing development of shale formations, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Thursday.Crude reserves increased 6.4 billion barrels, or 19.5 percent, to 39.2 billion barrels at year-end 2017, marginally higher than the previous record of 39 billion barrels set in 1970."Total U.S. oil reserves in 2017 exceeded a brief, one-year, 47-year-old record, highlighting the importance of crude oil development in shales and low permeability plays, mainly in the Southwest," the statistical arm of the U.S.
Montha-1 Exploration Well Disappoints KrisEnergy
KrisEnergy, a Southeast Asian upstream company, focuses on the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas, has failed to find significant hydrocarbon shows in the Montha-1 exploration well in the reservation area of the G10/48 license in the Gulf of Thailand.The Singapore-based said in a stock exchange annoucement that Montha-1, which was drilled by the Mist jack-up rig, reached a total depth of 10,396 feet measured depth rotary kelly bushing (RKB) (-9,138 feet true vertical depth subsea). No significant hydrocarbon shows were detected in the target reservoirs.
Hess Corp Losses Shrink on Higher Oil Prices
Oil and gas producer Hess Corp posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss on Wednesday as it raked in more money per barrel even as production fell, thanks to higher oil prices.The company's average realized price of crude oil jumped 36 percent to $62.65 per barrel, while production fell 16 percent to 247,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day boe/d, excluding its operations in Libya.U.S. crude prices topped $75 a barrel at June end, rising more than 18 percent in the second quarter.Hess said it earned $31 million from its exploration and production…
Vietnam Scraps South China Sea Oil Drilling Project
Vietnam's state oil firm PetroVietnam has ordered Spanish energy firm Repsol to suspend its "Red Emperor" project off the country's southeastern coast following pressure from China, the BBC reported on Friday. It would be the second time in less than a year that Vietnam has had to cancel a major oil development in the South China Sea under pressure from China. The move comes as Repsol was making final preparations for commercial drilling. A rig, the Ensco 8504, was scheduled to depart from Singapore for the drill site on Thursday, the report said, citing an unnamed energy industry source.
Alaskan Lease Sale Draws Tepid Response
An oil-and-gas lease sale that raised concerns with environmentalists due to the vast amount of acres offered in Arctic Alaska drew few bids on Wednesday, government officials said. Seven bids were received, covering about 80,000 acres - or less than 1 percent of the 10.3 million acres offered in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska by the Trump administration. It was, by far, more territory than ever offered in any of the previous 12 NPR-A lease sales held since 1999. The sale was the latest move by the administration of President Donald Trump, a Republican, supporting his pledge to make the United States "energy dominant" by boosting output of oil, natural gas and coal.
Brazil's "Local Content" Rule likely to Stay
Brazil will likely limit planned cuts in local content requirements for future oil exploration and production contracts in a move aimed at appeasing local suppliers and to pave the way for an extension of customs breaks for oil companies. The measures would be a concession to some opponents of "Repetro," a preferential customs regime for oil and gas companies, who were angered by steep cuts in local content requirements for oil contracts, according to Abimaq, a group which represents local suppliers. "The proposal is already in place, it should be voted on this week and it will be compensation for the absence of tariff barriers from Repetro…
As US Opens Up Offshore Waters, Eastern GoM Beckons
President Donald Trump's administration has proposed opening up nearly all of America's offshore waters to oil and gas drilling, but the industry says it is mainly interested in one part of it, now cordoned off by the Pentagon: the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The industry's focus on an area located near a sprawling network of existing platforms, pipes and ports could ease the path to new reserves, and assuage the drilling opponents near other places offered under the Interior Department's proposed drilling plan issued last week, like California's Pacific, the Atlantic and Arctic. But accessing it would likely require the consent of the U.S. military.
Alaska Requests Limits on US Offshore Drilling
Alaska Governor Bill Walker said on Tuesday he has asked U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to pare back a Trump administration plan for oil and gas leasing off the state's coast. While Walker supports offshore oil development, he said the Interior Department should focus on the most prospective areas off Alaska – the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in the Arctic and Cook Inlet in southern Alaska – and drop all others from the leasing plan. In asking for proposed lease sales to be dropped, Walker, an independent, joins governors of several other coastal states after Zinke's unexpected move to exempt Florida from the department's plans soon after the initial announcement.
Statoil: Room to Grow North Dakota's Bakken
Statoil ASA, the Norwegian state-controlled oil producer, has plenty of growth opportunities left in North Dakota's Bakken shale formation, an executive said on Tuesday. "We have quite a lot of running room" in North Dakota, Torgrim Reitan, head of Statoil's U.S. operations, said in an interview on the sidelines of CERAWeek in Houston, one of the world's largest gathering of energy executives. Oil development has spiked in recent years in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico. Concern has spread about a maturation of operations in North Dakota, the second-largest oil-producing U.S. state where Statoil is one of the largest producers.
Trump Administration Seeks Swift Action on Alaska Oil Leases
The Trump administration is seeking to sell leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as quickly as possible – drawing fire from opponents of drilling in the sensitive area, who are warning against a rushed process. A top Department of Interior official who traveled to Alaska last week promised an imminent start to the leasing process, saying he wanted to wrap up environmental studies within a year, more quickly than such documents have been completed in the past. The department will “move very, very quickly on that project,” David Bernhardt, deputy secretary…
