Monday, December 23, 2024

Research News

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)…

UK Readies Carbon Storage Road-map

Heriot-Watt University researchers are to map out the UK’s best sites for carbon capture by studying the geology of depleted gas fields in the North Sea.The team led by Professor John Underhill will use data from industry regulator the Oil and Gas Authority's (OGA) National Data Repository (NDR), which was opened up to access for the first time in 2019.Professor John Underhill said: “The Southern North Sea faces three of some of the UK’s largest carbon emission areas: the industrial hubs of Teesside…

Ørsted, US Unis to Study Whales in OWP

Danish developer Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind has signed a research partnership  with Rutgers University, the University of Rhode Island and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to support academic research activities related to offshore wind.The group is set to launch the Ecosystem and Passive Acoustic Monitoring (ECO-PAM) project.Ørsted signed an initial memorandum of understanding with Rutgers University in May 2019 to support academic research activities related to offshore wind.

Oil, Gas Players Optimistic on Profits

Companies  in the oil and gas sector are optimistic about their ability to achieve their financial targets for 2020, according to a survey from standards agency DNV GL.While the sector’s growth hangs in the balance for 2020, oil and gas leaders are optimistic that they will weather the storm, drawing on hard-earned cost efficiencies from the past five years to make margin.Some 64% predict their organizations will hit profit targets this year (largely consistent with 62% in 2019)…

Gassco Urges to Boost Barents Sea Gas Export

Norwegian state-owned natural gas pipelines operator Gassco published a study saying that  it could be profitable to increase the transport capacity for gas.According to the study regarding the transport of gas from the southern Barents Sea several gas transport options from the Barents Sea, including a new pipeline, could prove profitable with today’s known resources.The report, "Assessment of gas transport alternatives in the southern Barents Sea"…

Electrifying Norway's Offshore Production

According to Rystad Energy, Norway has taken several steps to reduce its upstream emissions through electrifying offshore platforms, reducing flaring volumes, installing carbon capture and storage (CCS), and other energy efficiency measures.It said that power from shore to offshore platforms already started in 1996 when Troll East (A) came on-stream, with the Johan Sverdrup field as the latest addition in 2019.The latter infrastructure…

Petrobras to be World's Largest Oil Producer

Brazil’s Petrobras is on track to become the world’s largest oil producer among publicly listed companies by 2030, based on Rystad Energy’s latest data and forecasts.Brazil’s biggest-ever oil auctions in November were generally deemed to be disappointing, receiving muted interest from international exploration and production companies.However, national oil company Petrobras could not have asked for a better outcome. The world’s fastest…

US Shale Sector Performs Well

U.S. shale operators are on track to grow 2019 oil production by around 16% over 2018 thanks to impressive operational execution so far this year.The third quarter earnings season revealed that shale companies increased their oil production by about two percent, all while cutting the midpoint guidance for yearly drilling and completions expenses, according to Rystad Energy.The energy research and consulting firm headquartered in Norway said that U.S.

Global Offshore Wind Market Grows 30%

The global offshore wind market grew nearly 30% per year between 2010 and 2018, benefiting from rapid technology improvements and about 150 new offshore wind projects are in active development around the world.Europe in particular has fostered the technology’s development, led by the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark, but China added more capacity than any other country in 2018, says 'Offshore Wind Outlook 2019',  a report funded by…

Maersk Develops Ship Fuel from Alcohol

Danish shipping conglomerate A.P. Moller - Maersk has joined forces with Wallenius Wilhelmsen, BMW Group, H&M Group, Levi Strauss and Marks & Spencer to explore LEO, a blend of lignin and ethanol, as a potential future sustainable shipping fuel.The LEO Coalition, which also includes Copenhagen University, will consider the environmental and commercial viability of LEO fuel for shipping. Shipping accounts for 2-3% of global CO2 emissions, a proportion that is set to increase as global trade continues to grow at a sluggish but steady pace.

Drilling Activity Buoyant in Norway

The number of wells drilled could challenge all-time high levels by the end of the year in the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), while global offshore exploration activity has been flat year-to-date.Rystad Energy expects that this high activity level will be sustained through the winter season and into 2020. Around 30 to 50 exploration wells will be drilled per year towards 2023.“Our preliminary analysis shows that a total of 130 wells are likely to be drilled this year – a 16% increase compared to 2018.

Digitalization: Oil Industry Could Save up to $100Bln

The global oil and gas industry can save as much as $100 billion through automation and digitalization in the 2020s, energy research firm Rystad Energy said."As much as $100 billion can be eliminated from E&P upstream budgets through automation and digitalization initiatives in the 2020s. Service companies are reinventing themselves to help operators unlock these savings," said the study by  Rystad.In 2018, $1 trillion was spent on operational expenditures…

Europe Looks for Gas as Groningen Folds

Europe’s energy landscape will be completely changed once the Dutch shut down the largest gas field on the continent years ahead of schedule, according to Rystad Energy.The Netherland recently announced that production at Groningen – Europe’s largest gas field – will be halted in 2022, eight years earlier than initially planned. However, despite the ambitious target of decommissioning the field by 2022, Rystad Energy expects that there…

US Shale is Not Doomed, Says Rystad Energy

Though bankruptcies among U.S. onshore exploration and production (E&P) companies are on the increase during these days, Rystad Energy doesn’t believe this indicates doom for the shale industry.“In a nutshell, we do not believe the recent bankruptcies that have beset a number of shale players are indicative of an industry-wide epidemic,” says Alisa Lukash, a senior analyst on Rystad Energy’s North American Shale team.During the next seven years…

Oil Price Spike after Saudi Attack Temporary

The drone attack on the world’s largest oil processing facility, Abqaiq in the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, forced Saudi Aramco to shut in 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude production, which equates to 7% of the current global crude and condensate production.Rystad Energy says that oil price spike will be short-lived. Bjørnar Tonhaugen, head of oil market research at Rystad Energy said: “The bullish reaction in oil prices will likely be limited by Saudi Arabia’s vast quantities of crude in storage…

US Shale to Peak at 14.5Mbpd in 2030

US shale supply will peak at approximately 14.5 million barrels per day (bpd) around 2030, said the energy research and business intelligence company Rystad Energy.In the past decade, crude oil coming from shale patches such as the Permian in the US has grown from a negligible contributor to an upstream behemoth, reshaping the industry and the oil market.US Light Tight Oil (LTO) represented less than 1% of global oil supply just nine years ago.

OFS Sector Expected to Take a Hit

Lower oil prices will push the global oilfield services (OFS) sector into a recession in 2020 after three successive years of growth, according to Rystad Energy.In a new sector outlook update, Audun Martinsen, head of oilfield services research at Rystad Energy, forecasts a 4% decline in global oilfield service revenue if oil prices stay flat next year.“Lower oil prices call for negative growth in the service market in 2020,” says Martinsen.

DNV GL Route Map for Energy Transition

Gas and variable renewables  must work together alongside greater uptake of carbon capture and storage (CCS) to secure a rapid energy transition, according to a new forecast of the energy transition by DNV GL.According to the report '2019 Energy Transition Outlook' published by the international accredited registrar and classification society, gas and variable renewables will be the only energy sources for which demand is higher in 2050 than today.There is no single pathway to a decarbonized energy mix.

Natural Gas to be 29% of World’s Energy Supply by 2050

The global oil demand will peak in the mid-2020s and gas demand will keep rising to 2033, says DNV GL.Gas demand will then plateau, and the fuel will remain dominant until the end of the forecast period in 2050, when it will account for over 29% of the world’s energy supply, it said.Significant investment will be required to ensure production meets demand, including realising the potential from stranded gas reserves and for reserve replacement.

Gas Flaring Dips in the Permian

Natural gas flaring in the Permian dropped in the first quarter of 2019 – the first drop in one-and-a-half years, according to energy research firm Rystad Energy.Rystad Energy has been closely monitoring the level of natural gas flaring in the Permian since 2017. "Our previous quarterly estimate suggested that basin-wide gas flaring reached record-high levels of beyond 660 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019…