Lundin Petroleum has been granted a drilling permit for well 16/1-23 S from the NPD (Norwegian Petroleum Directorate). The company said well 16/1-23 S will be drilled from the Rowan Viking Drilling facility southeast of the Edvard Greig field in the central part of the North Sea. The drilling programme for the well relates to the drilling of an appraisal well in production licence 338.
A leading union is raising safety and job concerns over the technology to be used in a possible new nuclear power station. The GMB has written to the Government and safety bodies saying it feared the Bradwell nuclear site in Essex could be handed over “lock, stock and barrel“ to China’s national nuclear corporation. The Chinese could then use their own technology, and possibly bring thousands of workers to the UK, dealing a blow to this country’s own nuclear industry, the union claimed. National officer Gary Smith said in a letter to Energy Secretary Amber Rudd: “The idea that a Chinese state company will be given a site in the UK, not far from London, where they can use Chinese labour to construct a reactor to be made in China and using Chinese components would in our view constitute economic madness and raises serious safety issues.
Statoil has made a number of appointments to its board of directors after two of its board members chose not to stand for re-election. Øystein Løseth has been elected as new chair and Roy Franklin as a new member and deputy chair. It comes after the outgoing chair of the board Svein Rennemo and board member Jim Mulva informed the board in advance of their decision not to stand. Bjørn Tore Godal, Jakob Stausholm and Marjan Oudeman were re-elected as members of the board of directors.
British spot gas prices rose on Wednesday in response to strong inventory restocking demand which followed a shut-down of the gas link with Belgium for 16 days of annual maintenance. The price of gas for Wednesday delivery, known as the spot contract, rose 0.25 pence per therm to 45.70 pence by 0851 GMT, while gas for delivery on Thursday rose 0.05 pence to 45.25 pence. Britain's gas network was undersupplied by 21 million cubic metres/day (mcm), equating to around 11 percent of daily demand which was pegged at 190 mcm, according to figures from National Grid. The shortfall reflects both strong demand for refilling large- and mid-range storage facilities and the closure of the Britain-Belgium gas interconnector, which led to reduced gas deliveries from Norway and domestic terminals.
NorSea Group (UK) has won a decommissioning contract. The company said work has already begun on the six-month project which is being carried out by NorSea Group's Peterhead Facility on behalf of Endeavour Energy. The work will involve the safe disposal of subsea manifolds and associated pipework from the Renee and Rubie fields.
Figures from the ONS (Office of National Statistics) show UK industrial production rose more than economists originally forecast in the month of April as oil and gas output surged. Total production increased 0.4 percent from March, the Office for National Statistics said in London on Wednesday. Economists in a Bloomberg survey had forecast a 0.1 percent gain. Oil and gas extraction jumped 8.7 percent, the biggest increase in more than a year. Factory output fell 0.4 percent. A 0.1 percent increase was forecast.
Oil major BP said the global trade of natural gas via pipelines fell the most on record last year as Russia halted exports to Ukraine and shipments decline from the Netherlands. Exports of the fuel through pipelines fell by more than 6 percent last year, the biggest drop since the oil major started compiling the data in 1989, BP said in its annual Statistical Review. It’s only the second time global gas trade retreated. Russian shipments declined by 12 percent, while those from the Netherlands tumbled 30 percent, according to the data. Russia halted supplies to Ukraine for six months last year due to a price dispute between the two nations. Gas production in the Netherlands fell the most of all the EU nations last year as the country’s government decided to limit output from the Groningen field, Europe’s biggest, after earthquakes caused by gas extraction damaged buildings in its most northern province.
The new Westminster government has signalled that it is poised to unveil fresh tax breaks for the North Sea oil and gas sector. Ministers will today move to reassure offshore leaders that they remain committed to securing the industry’s future when they meet for the first time since the Conservatives’ majority government was formed. New Treasury minister Damian Hinds appeared to admit that the £4billion package of measures outlined by the coalition government at the last Autumn Statement and Budget did not go far enough. The Exchequer secretary welcomed “encouraging” cost-cutting measures taken by oil and gas firms, and hinted that ministers were preparing to take further action to help the industry as it attempts to recover from the global price slump.
Northern Petroleum will carry out a proposed offshore 3D seismic programme across the Giove oil discovery and the Cygnus exploration prospect after being given the go-ahead. An EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) has been approved by the Italian Authorities. The company is now looking for a partner to move the project along.
British oil explorer Soco International Plc defended paying $42,250 to an army major in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a security measure, after an anti-corruption group accused the officer of demanding bribes. London-based Global Witness said in a statement on Wednesday that it obtained documents showing Soco’s payments to the Congolese major. Global Witness and other human rights groups have accused the officer of trying to bribe and intimidate campaigners who opposed efforts by Soco to search for oil in Congo’s Virunga National Park.
US oil output will peak at a 43-year high in 2015 as producers work through a backlog of uncompleted wells before trailing off in the second half of the year. Production will increase to 9.43 million barrels a day this year, the most since 1972, the Energy Information Administration said Tuesday in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook. That’s 240,000 barrels higher than last month’s estimate. Monthly output will fall in June through early 2016.
In business, good news has the habit of being bad news for someone else. Last year’s fall in the cost of oil and gas was great news for households: it meant lower bills and less pain at the petrol pumps. But I know that for those in the North Sea oil and gas industry, there were few celebrations. We took this seriously – because this is an industry we want to see succeeding. Our oil and gas industry is our biggest industrial investor. It supports hundreds of thousands of jobs. Its performance is directly linked to our GDP and, longer-term, our energy security.
Over 140 companies are already working directly in sensor system technologies in Scotland, with quite a number in offshore oil & gas. Read the website blurb and it says that the Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems (CENSIS) was described as a game changer for Scotland in April 2013. One of a family of eight technology innovation centres set up around that time by the Scottish Funding Council, CENSIS was to be a catalyst to an apparently “already rapidly growing technology market”.
More than $426billion is forecast to be spent over the next five years on offshore oil and gas maintenance, modifications and operations (MMO). However, analysts at Douglas-Westwood warn in a new study of the MMO market that a 12% decline in expenditure is expected this year. This is due to the delay of some major modifications by operators and a reduction as some aspects of MMO that are not directly associated to production are cut and further pricing pressures are applied by oil & gas operators. “Despite this, the long-term outlook for MMO expenditure is positive and expected to reach 2014 levels by 2017,” says DW.
General Electric Co. agreed to sell most of its US private-equity lending business to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for about $12 billion, accelerating its strategy to pull back from finance and emphasize manufacturing. Canada Pension will acquire about $11 billion of assets in the Sponsor Finance unit, which helps buyout firms line up funding, GE said Tuesday. The business, consisting chiefly of the GE Antares operation, will be run independently and continue to be led by managing partners David Brackett and John Martin, GE said. The accord marks the first major divestiture since GE announced a goal April 10 of unloading about $200 billion of GE Capital assets. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt is speeding the exit of the banking division that imperiled the Fairfield, Connecticut-based parent company during the financial crisis.
Anton Oilfield Services Group has won a bid for the provision of tight oil development services for two well projects in China. The contract has been valued at more than $6.6million. It follows a similar contract win involving horizontal well open hole multi-stage fracturing services for another tight oil development project in the Sulige area in Erdos last month.
Statoil has entered into an agreement with Colony Capital for the sale of its head office building in Norway. The company will also sign a 15-year lease agreement with an extension option at the same time. Statoil's head office building is at Forus in Stavanger.
Gazprom has been given more time to respond to charges by European Union antitrust regulators after it was alleged the company levies excessive prices and blocks rivals in Eastern Europe. The European Commission announced in April that the Russian oil giant had been given 12 weeks to reply to the charges. Antitrust regulators had brought the charges after more than two years of investigation.
Key Petroleum said testing operations had been completed at the Dunnart-2 well in the Perth Basin after no commercial hydrocarbons were discovered.
National Oilwell Varco has launched a consultation period over potential job losses related to its operations the UK. The Houston-based company, which has five difference premises working under the same umbrella in the UK, said up to 100 jobs could be at risk.
Swire Oilfield Services has made an appointment to its executive team. Roy Shearer will join the company as its chief financial officer and will be based at the offices in Aberdeen. He will be responsible for the finance function across the group, including accounting and reporting, planning, tax and treasury.
The Scottish Government has missed its climate-change targets for the fourth year in a row, even though there has been a fall in greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental campaigners called for action after figures show an estimated 53 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) was produced in 2013. When that total is adjusted to take into account trading in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), that falls to 49.725 MtCO2e. But it is still above the target set by Scotland’s climate-change laws of 47.976 MtCO2e for that year. Environment minister Aileen McLeod is due to make a statement to Holyrood this afternoon on the failure to meet the target - but stressed Scotland was on course to meet the target of cutting emissions by 42% by 2020.
Cairn India Ltd., operator of the nation’s biggest oil field on land, headed for its lowest price in more than six years in Mumbai following a report Vedanta Ltd. plans to announce it will absorb the unit. The stock dropped 4.3 percent to 173 rupees as of 2:42 p.m. local time, poised for the lowest close since March 2009. The shares have lost 28 percent this year, compared with a 3.7 percent drop in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex index. Absorbing Cairn India will give billionaire Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta access to its unit’s cash and help reduce group debt, The Economic Times reported today, citing two people it didn’t identify. Cairn India had 168.7 billion rupees ($2.6 billion) of cash and cash equivalent as on March 31, the company said on April 23.
The former chief executive of Centrica has joined up with the Carlyle Group and CVC Capital Partners to launch a new oil and gas vehicle targeting $5billion in deals. Sam Laidlaw said his Neptune Oil & Gas would be looking for acquisitions in the North Sea, North Africa and Southeast Asia. The company will be eyeing up possible acquisitions as energy groups looks to sell assets after the decline in oil prices.
AWE Limited has reached total depth at the Waitsia-1 appraisal well in the Perth Basin, Western Australia. The company said the Holmwood Shale was intersected at 3,490metres and total depth was achieved 17metres into the Holmwood Shale. Wireline logs will be run over a number of intervals, including the Dongara and Kingia Sandstones.