Ghana's oil production increases for the first time in five years
Ghana's crude output increased 10.7% on an annual basis in the first half of 2024. This reversed a five-year-old decline in production. Ghana, Africa's largest gold producer, started producing crude oil in 2010. However, output dropped to a 5-year low by 2023, due to declines in production from existing fields. This effectively erased gains made by new wells. PIAC, a government body tasked to monitor the oil sector, reported that the production of crude oil had risen to 24,86 million barrels in June 2024. This is compared with a decline of 13.2% over the same time period in 2023.
TSX Futures Rise as Oil Supports; US Election in Focus
Crude prices lifted futures linked to Canada's major stock index on Monday as investors prepared for the highly anticipated U.S. Presidential election this week and Federal Reserve policy decision. At 6:00 a.m., December futures for the S&P/TSX Index were up 0.4%. ET (11:00 GMT). As polls show, Donald Trump and Kamalah Harris are in a close race for the U.S. elections on Tuesday. The United States is Canada's largest trading partner. This means that the result of the election will have a significant impact on Canada's markets and economy. Market participants expect the Fed to lower interest rates by 25 basis points on Thursday.
Sources: Exxon pulls out of race to purchase stake in Namibian oil block from Galp
Exxon Mobil pulled out of the race for half of Galp Energia’s stake in a major oil discovery in Namibia, which has drawn interest from other top energy companies. Sources have previously stated that more than 12 oil companies, including Exxon Shell and Brazil's Petrobras, had expressed an interest in Galp’s 40% stake in Mopane's offshore discovery. Galp also proposes that the buyer operates the field. Exxon did not give any explanation for its withdrawal. Sources claim that other companies have engaged with Galp in the sale. Exxon Galp has declined to comment.
OMV Petrom Makes Largest Crude Oil Discovery in Decades
Romanian oil and gas group OMV Petrom, majority-controlled by Austria's OMV, said on Tuesday it discovered new crude oil and natural gas deposits equal to about three quarters of its overall 2022 production.The deposits are the largest crude oil discovery OMV Petrom has made in decades, it said, and were found in southern Romania holding over 30 million barrerls of oil equivalent (boe) of recoverable resources."The new discoveries will contribute to reducing the decline of our production and to the continuity of the supply of essential products for the economy…
Petronas Farms Out Part of Suriname Offshore Block to Exxon
Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas has completed the farm-down of a 50% stake in an offshore Suriname block to a subsidiary of ExxonMobil.The offshore block, known as Block 52, is located north of the coast of Paramaribo, Suriname’s capital city, and is situated in the prospective Suriname-Guyana basin where several major hydrocarbon discoveries were made recently. Block 52 covers an area of 4,749 km² with water depths ranging from 50 to 1,100 meters.Following the farm-down, Petronas will remain the operator of Block 52 with a 50% stake, while ExxonMobil will the remaining 50 percent.
Upland Relinquishes Moray Firth License
London-listed oil company Upland Resources has, with partners, relinquished an offshore license in the UK sector of the North Sea.Upland said Wednesday that it had relinquished Licence P2470 in the Inner Moray Firth. The license included blocks 11/23, 11/24c and 11/25b, surrounding the Wick Prospect in the Inner Moray Firth, on which Upland UK participated in the dry Wick Well (11/24b-4) at the beginning of 2019. The well was drilled using the Ensco-72 jack-up rig by the operator Corallian Energy"These blocks were applied for before the results of 11/24b-4 were known and…
Equinor Finds Oil at Monument Prospect in U.S. Gulf of Mexico
Norwegian oil firm Equinor, with partners Progress Resources and Repsol, has made an oil discovery in the Monument exploration well in the US Gulf of Mexico.The Monument exploration well found approximately 200 feet (c. 60 meters) of net oil pay with good reservoir characteristics in Paleogene sandstone. This provides an early indication of the productive reservoir interval at the well location, Equinor said Monday.The offshore well was drilled to a total depth of 33,348 feet (10,164 meters) using the Pacific Khamsin drillship.“We are pleased to have proved an accumulation of movable hydrocarbons in the Monument exploration well.
Offshore Accounts for 60% of Oil Discoveries
Offshore discoveries accounted for more than 60% of global discoveries in 2019, up significantly on previous years, according to a study by GlobalData.GlobalData report reveals that while Colombia and Norway saw the highest number of discoveries drilled in 2019, Guyana, Mauritania and Russia hosted the most significant finds.In Guyana, ExxonMobil drilled five discoveries in the deepwater Stabroek Block. Following the additional well drilled in January 2020 (Uaru-1), the company has increased its estimated gross recoverable resources for the block to more…
Apache Makes Major Discovery Offshore Suriname
Apache Corp and Total SA said on Tuesday they had made a major oil discovery in a closely watched area off the coast of South America's Suriname, sending Apache's shares surging nearly 27%.The discovery, dubbed "among the most anticipated in the world" by one brokerage, is seen as central to Apache's efforts to reduce its reliance on the Alpine High venture in Texas' Permian basin, which has suffered from a dive in natural gas prices.Analysts said it was impossible to ascertain as yet how much oil the well would generate but it is just over the border…
Kosmos Strikes Oil Off Equatorial Guinea
American upstream oil company founded and based in Dallas Kosmos Energy made an offshore oil discovery in Equatorial Guinea, Reuters reported quoting the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons.The S-5 well was drilled at a total depth of 4,400 meters and encountered 39 meters of net oil play in the Santonian reservoir, in the offshore Rio Muni Basin, it said. “The discovery is a strong validation of our strategy to replace oil reserves by exploring the highly prospective oil basins like Rio Muni,” the nation’s Minister of Mines, Industry and Energy Gabriel Obiang said in the statement.According to the report…
South Sudan to Offer Oil Blocks for 2020
South Sudan plans to offer 14 oil blocks to exploration companies in a licensing round by the first quarter 2020, its oil minister said on Tuesday, switching from its previous method of direct negotiations with explorers.The country gets almost all its revenue from oil and has boosted output, now at 180,000 barrels per day, as it struggles to rebuild its shattered economy after a five-year civil war."We are inviting all our investors that wanted to invest in South Sudan to come and move onto those blocks," Awow Daniel Chuang, told an Africa Oil and Power…
38 Oil and Gas Discoveries Made in Q3
GlobalData revealed that a total of 38 oil and gas discoveries were made globally in Q3 2019.South America and Europe led globally with the highest number of oil and gas discoveries during the third quarter (Q3) of 2019, with eight discoveries each during the quarter, according to GlobalData.Out of eight discoveries in South America, six are conventional oil discoveries, one is a conventional gas discovery and the remaining is a heavy oil discovery, said the report.Europe had five conventional oil discoveries and three conventional gas discoveries in the quarter.Adithya Rekha…
Aker Energy IPO May be in Late 2019 or 2020
Norwegian investment firm Aker could launch its planned initial public offering (IPO) of Aker Energy in late 2019 or in 2020, depending on when Ghana approves the development plan of its Pecan oilfield, the CEO said.The company, controlled by Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke, has said it wants to make Aker Energy a leading exploration and production company on Ghana's continental shelf."My educated guess is a late 2019 or during the course of next year," Aker Chief Executive Oeyvind Eriksen told Reuters when asked about the IPO plans.Ghana's authorities are expected to approve Aker Energy's revised $4.4 billion development plan for its offshore Pecan field by late in the third qu
Aker BP Discovers Oil at Frosk
Aker BP ASA, operator of production license 340, has finalized the results after drilling wildcat well 24/9-15 S (Froskelår Nordøst) and appraisal well 24/9-15 A.According to a press note from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), the wells, which are also pilot wells for test production, were drilled diagonally and horizontally, 2 and 3 kilometers northeast and north respectively, from the subsea template on the Bøyla field in the central part of the North Sea, and 225 kilometers west of Stavanger.The 24/9-12 S (Frosk) oil discovery was proven in reservoir rocks (injectites) in the Eocene (the Intra Hordaland group) in the winter of 2018.
Norway Wealth Fund to Drop ConocoPhillips, Hess
Norway's wealth fund will have to divest its holdings in ConocoPhillips and Hess after both U.S. oil companies were added to a list which effectively excludes them from the Nordic country's portfolio.As part of Norway's efforts to shift its $1 trillion "rainy day" fund away from oil, the country's parliament on Wednesday adopted a plan to drop all dedicated oil and gas explorers and producers, as defined by stock market indices provider FTSE Russell, from the fund's benchmark index.ConocoPhillips and Hess were both added to the list of those classified as "exploration and production" this month…
Oxy Enters Four Blocks in Southern Colombia
U.S.-based oil company Occidental Petroleum Corp has partnered with Amerisur Resources Plc on four exploration and production blocks in southern Colombia, near the border with Ecuador, the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH) said on Tuesday.The Tacacho, Terecay, PUT-9 and Mecaya blocks are in the jungle region of Putumayo, one of the provinces with the greatest potential for oil discovery.Amerisur, which will continue as operator of the blocks, ceded 50% of its participation in the blocks to Occidental, the ANH said."These are four very important blocks in Putumayo, a very prospective area of the country that's developing in leaps and bounds," ANH President Luis Miguel Morelli said in a
Shell Sees Significant Oil Discovery in Albania
Shell Upstream Albania B.V. said on Friday initial tests showed "a flow potential of several thousand barrels of oil per day" from its Shpirag 4 well in central Albania, and it needed more work to determine its commercial volume."We are pleased that these initial tests have confirmed the potential of this discovery and look forward to growing our business in Albania," Marc Gerrits, Shell's Executive Vice-President of Exploration, said.The Shpirag 4 well west of Berat had confirmed the flow potential of a significant light oil discovery, it added.More appraisal work was needed to assess commercial volumes in Shpirag…
Santos Posts Record Production in Q1
Australia's No.2 independent gas producer Santos Ltd on Wednesday posted record quarterly production, boosted by its acquisition of Quadrant Energy assets, while sales revenue jumped 28 percent.Santos said production for the quarter ended March 31 rose to a record 18.4 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), up from 13.8 mmboe last year.Revenue came in at $1.02 billion, the second-highest quarterly revenue on record, it said.Santos acquired Quadrant Energy last year in a $2.15 billion deal, snapping up Quadrant's 80 percent stake in the promising Dorado oil find."In the second quarter, we look forward to continued drilling success, including commencing appraisal of the ...
Santos Finds Gas Off Western Australia
Santos announced Tuesday it has confirmed significant gas resource in the Corvus-2 appraisal in the Carnarvon Basin, offshore Western Australia.Corvus-2 is located in 63 meters water depth, approximately 90 kilometers northwest of Dampier in Commonwealth waters within petroleum permit WA-45-R, in which Santos has a 100% interest.The well was drilled approximately 3 kilometers southwest of Corvus-1 (drilled in 2000) using the jack-up mobile offshore drilling unit Noble Tom Prosser and reached a total depth of 3,998 meters. According to Santos, the well intersected a gross interval of 638 meters…
Glengorm Discovery Highlights UKCS Potential
CNOOC announced Tuesday it has made a significant discovery on the Glengorm prospect, located in the Central North Sea of the U.K. continental shelf (UKCS), with recoverable resources estimated at close to 250 million barrels of oil equivalent.The exploration well was drilled in License P2215 in approximately 86 meters water depth to a total depth of 5,056 meters and encountered 37 meters net gas and condensate pay zones in an Upper Jurassic reservoir.Kevin Swann, a senior analyst with Wood Mackenzie’s North Sea upstream team, said Glengorm is the largest gas discovery in the U.K.
