Equinor Sells Eagle Ford Asset for $325 Mln
Norwegan energy company Equinor said it has signed an agreement to divest to Repsol its 63% interest in, and operatorship of, its onshore business in the Eagle Ford in the US state of Texas.The transaction is effective October 1, 2019, and covers all of Equinor’s interests in the Eagle Ford Joint Venture with Repsol, covering 69 000 net acres. Following this transaction Repsol will have a 100% interest in the asset.The total consideration is $325 million.“This transaction supports Equinor’s strategy to optimise our onshore US portfolio, enhancing our financial flexibility and focusing our capital on our core activities in the country…
BSEE, USCG Investigating GoM Rig Fatality
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) are investigating the fatality of a worker on board the Petrobras 10,000 drillship in the Gulf of Mexico. Petrobras America Inc. reported the fatality on board the Transocean Ltd. owned drillship at about 4:45 a.m., December 2, 2017. The rig was in an area of the Gulf known as Walker Ridge 469, about 172 miles south of Port Fourchon, La. The deceased worked for Spencer Ogden Ltd. and was participating in pipe handling operations at the time of his injury. No other personnel were harmed in the incident, and there was no pollution as a result of the incident, BSEE said.
Shell Exercises FPSO Turritella Purchase Option
Shell E&P Offshore Services B.V. will exercise its right under the charter agreement to purchase the floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) Turritella, enabling a Shell affiliate to assume operatorship of the Gulf of Mexico ultra-deepwater Stones development in its entirety. The company selling the FPSO is a joint-venture (JV) owned by SBM Offshore with 55 percent interest, Mitsubishi Corporation with 30 percent interest and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line) with 15 percent interest. The transaction comprises a total cash consideration to the JV of approximately $1 billion. The transaction is expected to close in early 2018.
Enbridge, Spectra Energy to Settle Charges Merger Would Harm Competition
Energy infrastructure firms Enbridge Inc and Spectra Energy Corp have agreed to settle charges their merger would hurt competition in the market for gas pipeline transportation in three areas off the Louisiana coast, the Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday. The FTC said the firms agreed to resolve the charges by adopting a consent decree that would require Enbridge to notify the panel before acquiring an ownership interest in any natural gas pipeline operating in the Grand Canyon, Walker Ridge and Keathley Canyon areas off Louisiana. The decree…
FPSO Turritella Producing, On Hire
SBM Offshore stated that FPSO Turritella is formally on hire as of September 2, 2016 after achieving Commencement of Commercial Production (CoCP). The CoCP certificate was issued on September 8, 2016. The vessel is installed in Shell's Stones development located in 2,896 meters (9,500 feet) of water approximately 320 kilometers (200 miles) offshore Louisiana in the Walker Ridge area. The lease and operate contracts include an initial period of 10 years with future extension options up to a total of 20 years. The FPSO is owned and operated by a Joint Venture owned by affiliated companies of SBM Offshore…
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. Having arrived in January 2016, the Turritella is a disconnectable turret moored FPSO with nine mooring lines consisting of chain and polyester, arrayed in three bundles of three.
InterMoor completes Chain Tensioning, Cutting on FPSO in GoM
InterMoor, an Acteon company, has successfully 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 9500 ft (2896 m) of water, breaking the existing water depth record for an oil and gas production facility. This ultra-deep water project marks the first FPSO for Shell in the GoM, and the second FPSO in the GoM. Having arrived in January 2016…
ExxonMobil Starts Production in GoM's Julia Field
Oil production has started ahead of schedule at the Julia oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, Exxon Mobil Corporation said today. The first production well is now online and a second well will start production in the coming weeks. The Julia development is located approximately 265 miles southwest of New Orleans in water depths of more than 7,000 feet. The initial development phase uses subsea tie-backs to the Chevron-operated Jack/St. Malo production facility, reducing the need for additional infrastructure and enhancing capital efficiency. Technology…
FPSO Turritella Financing Completed
The Turritella joint venture led by SBM Offshore has completed the project financing of FPSO Turritella for a total of $800 million. Project financing was secured by a consortium of 12 international banks with an average cost of debt of 3.5 percent over the 10 year post-completion maturity. FPSO Turritella is owned and operated by a joint venture owned by affiliated companies of SBM Offshore (55 percent), Mitsubishi Corporation (30 percent) and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (15 percent). The vessel is a typical Generation 2 design with a processing capacity of up to 60,000 barrels of oil per day and 15 mmscf/d of gas treatment and export.
Technip Bags Stones Project Contract in GoM
Technip was awarded by Shell Offshore Inc. (“Shell”) a contract for the development of subsea infrastructure for the Stones project. Included in the service are two subsea production tie-backs to the Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel. The Stones field is located in the Walker Ridge area in the US Gulf of Mexico, at a water depth of 2,930 meters along the pipelay route. installation of the subsea production system(1), inclusive of associated project management, engineering and stalk fabrication. Technip will leverage its integrated approach in the subsea business. Its operating center in Houston, Texas, USA, will perform the overall project management.
SBM Offshore Divests Stake in Turritella Project
SBM Offshore has entered an agreement with Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line) for the acquisition of a stake in the joint venture companies incorporated for the purpose of owning and operating Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Turritella, the company announced today. Mitsubishi Corporation (30 percent interest) and NYK Line (15 percent interest) have acquired a 45 percent combined stake in the joint venture companies. SBM Offshore, MC and NYK Line are also partners in other joint venture companies incorporated for the purpose of owning and operating FPSOs such as Cidade de Maricá and Cidade de Saquarema.
Offshore O&G Lease Sale: Continued Interest in Deepwater
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) completed its required evaluation of bids to ensure that the public receives fair market value for tracts leased as part of the Gulf of Mexico Central Planning Area Oil and Gas Lease Sale 235. The sale held on March 18, 2015, made 7,788 unleased blocks covering about 41.2 million acres offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama available for lease. After extensive economic analysis, BOEM awarded 161 leases on tracts covering 923,711 acres to the successful high bidders who participated in the sale. The accepted high bids are valued at $533,090,640. During the sale, 42 companies submitted 195 bids totaling $583,201,520 on 169 tracts.
Fugro Drills Record 2,923 mtr in GoM
Fugro has set a new seafloor drill water depth record of 2,923 metres in the Gulf of Mexico. The new water depth record of 2,923 metres (9,589 feet) was set while completing a combined sampling and piezocone penetration testing (PCPT) borehole to 62 metres (203 feet) below the seafloor. Achieved using its ‘Seafloor Drill I,’ the single deployment in the Walker Ridge area of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) exceeded the previous water depth mark for seabed-based drilling technology. Andrew Cooper, the Fugro Project Manager, was onboard the vessel for the record-breaking dive in early April 2015 and was pleased with the results.
Statoil Reports GoM Oil Discovery
Statoil has made an oil discovery in its Miocene Yeti prospect located in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), the company announced today. “The Yeti discovery expands the proven sub-salt Miocene play further south and west of the Big Foot field,” said Jez Averty, Statoil’s senior vice president, exploration for North America. The Yeti discovery was made in Walker Ridge (WR) block 160, which is located approximately 15 kilometers south of the Big Foot field, and 11 kilometers from the Cascade field. All of the blocks making up Yeti were accessed by the current owners in recent years. Yeti was drilled with the Maersk Developer drilling rig, a sixth generation semi-submersible.
Petrobras Starts Production in GOM
State-run Brazilian oil company Petrobras said on Tuesday it had started oil and natural gas production at its ultra-deep field in the U.S. Gulf, 280 miles (450 km) off the coast of Louisiana. Petroleo Brasileiro SA as the company is officially called said the Jack/St. Malo production platform has can handle 170,000 barrels of oil a day and 1.2 million cubic meters of natural gas, rates that could be increased in the future. The St. Malo hydrocarbon field is located along a geological formation known as the Walker Ridge in the Gulf of Mexico. The deposit sits 8,077 meters (26,500 feet) from the surface under 2,100 meters of water.
First Oil From Jack/St. Malo Project in the Gulf of Mexico
Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) announced that crude oil and natural gas production has begun at the Jack/St. Malo project in the Lower Tertiary trend, deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Jack/St. Malo is a key part of Chevron's strong queue of upstream projects and was delivered on time and on budget. The Jack and St. Malo fields are among the largest in the Gulf of Mexico. They were discovered in 2004 and 2003, respectively, and production from the first development stage is expected to ramp up over the next several years to a total daily rate of 94,000 barrels of crude oil and 21 million cubic feet of natural gas.
