Statoil has made a gas discovery in the Gymir prospect, the third find the Aasta Hansteen area for the company and its PL602 partners. The Norwegian explorer estimates the volumes in Gymir to be in the range of between six and 19 milion barrels of oil equivalent. Well 6706/11-2 was drilled by the Transocean Spitsbergen rig in the Gymir prospect and proved a gross 70-metre gas column in the Nise formation.
Albania has delayed bidding for companies to explore for oil and gas on five onshore blocks for a further month. The country has also delayed bidding for a further two blocks indefinitely. Energy Minister Damian Gjiknuri ordered the bidding date be postponed for another month to allow companies more time.
The shale oil boom that turned the US into the world’s largest fuel exporter and brought $3 gasoline back to America’s pumps is grinding to a halt. Crude output from the prolific tight-rock formations such as North Dakota’s Bakken and Texas’s Eagle Ford shale will shrink 1.3 percent to 5.58 million barrels a day this month, based on Energy Information Administration estimates. It’ll drop further in July to 5.49 million, the lowest level since January, the agency said Monday.
At the time of writing, some seven E&A (exploration & appraisal) wells are active, with this representing no change since last month. Of these current seven, five are exploration and two appraisal in nature, with two in the Gas Basin, four in the Central North Sea and one in the Northern North Sea. To date this year, eight wells have spudded, representing an increase of one since the last report. Currently, some 30 mobile rigs are active on the UK Continental Shelf, with seven on E&A drilling duties and 23 on D&P (development & production) operations. In addition, 12 are in port, with five awaiting to resume contracts, and seven stacked, two of which are available.
This infographic shows the how the Baker Hughes rig count - which reached a peak in October 2014 - has dramatically dropped since the oil price decline. At the beginning of the month, the most recent figures from Baker Hughes rig count showed there had been a continued drop.
Amber Rudd the Tory Government’s new Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has made it clear she intends to make substantial changes to onshore wind financial support schemes in compliance with her party’s manifesto pledge to end “new public subsidy” for renewable wind power generation. There may be some public support for this move if it is perceived as an attempt to create a level playing field for providers of energy, which would indeed be an admirable ambition. But in reality such a policy change almost beggars belief. Perhaps the only great achievement of the late UK coalition government, with a huge amount of support from Holyrood, has been the successful deployment of onshore wind power generation; the achievement of renewable energy targets in Scotland is testimony to this success.
Panoro Energy has entered into a rig contract agreement with Saipem for the Scarabeo 3 drilling rig to carry out the drilling and completion programme for the Aje field Cenomanian oil development. The Aje field contains hydrocarbon resources in sandstone reservoirs at three main levels – a Turonian gas condensate reservoir, a Cenomanian oil reservoir and an Albian gas condensate reservoir. The rig will be moved to the Aje drilling location and will be used to carry out well operation for the first phase of the oil field development, which includes two subsea production wells.
Oilex has completed the laying of pipeline and pre-commissioning at the Cambay-73 oil and gas production facilities. The company said tie in to the production facilities are expected to be completed shortly. Cammbay-73 will supply gas to the low pressure gas market in the vicinity of the Cambay field and is expected to pr oduce approximately 50-60 boepd of gas and condensate.
An audit by the PSA (Petroleum Safety Authority) Norway has criticised Statoil over an alleged failure to monitor the condition of safety-critical blowout preventer equipment on a pair of North Sea platforms. Between October 2014 and January 2015 the PSA conducted the audits at Oseberg B and Gullfaks C. The authority said the findings were applied primarily to the BOP (Blowout Preventer) system which had been chosen as a particular object of verification during the audit.
Nigeria can boost its oil and gas production by changing the way capital investments are funded in its joint ventures with energy companies, according to Seplat Petroleum Development Co. State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., or NNPC, holds an average 55 percent stake in five joint ventures with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Total SA and Eni SpA that pump more than 80 percent of the country’s crude. It pays the same share of capital contributions for the operation of the oil ventures. Seplat, a Nigerian producer now running a joint venture with NNPC after buying assets sold by Shell, wants the current funding arrangement in Africa’s biggest oil producer scrapped in favor of a method less dependent on the government.
A union has pledged to represent workers if the shale gas industry develops, stressing the importance of securing decent pay and conditions in the fledgling sector. The GMB said it should be ready to organise workers if the so-called fracking process ever gets started. National officer Gary Smith told the union’s annual conference in Dublin it would be wrong to oppose fracking, as other unions have done. He said: “Jumping on bandwagons is easy, but doing the easy thing does not mean you are doing the right thing. It would be easy to come out against fracking, but it would be wrong for the union, and for the country.”
A lost racing pigeon was airlifted to safety by helicopter after it crash landed on a North Sea oil rig. The exhausted bird was found by workers on the Clyde platform, 100 miles offshore earlier this month. The pigeon, named Pedro by workers on the rig, was flown by helicopter to Aberdeen a few days later and taken to the National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Fishcross, Alloa.
Despite a difficult year the energy sector is still a vital organ of our economy. Companies and policymakers have made a considerable effort to reduce production costs and ensure the industry remains a provider of thousands of jobs in the north-east. The Press and Journal Gold Awards marked 50 years of oil and gas activity in the region and outlined an optimistic outlook for the future of an industry that can thrive for 50 more. Mark Lammey reports. All that glitters in the North Sea oil and gas industry was celebrated at the weekend as the inaugural Press and Journal Gold Awards were held in Aberdeen. The event, run in association with the paper’s sister website Energy Voice and title sponsor Aberdeen Asset Management, marked a major milestone for the sector – the 50th year of the granite city’s involvement in the development of the North Sea.
Mitra Energy has commenced 3D seismic survey acquisition operations in offshore Vietnam. The survey work is being undertaken by PTSC CGGV Geophysical Survey using the seismic vessel Amadeus.
The IWCF (International Well Control Forum) has appointed its first chief financial officer. David Conroy will be based at the UK's headquarters in Montrose where he will be developing the role to lead changes to the technical aspects of IWCF's services. This will include exam quality, programme development, curriculum and training.
A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, owner of the world’s largest shipping container line, is seeking to win contracts to build and upgrade ports in Nigeria and Kenya as the Danish company expands its African operations. Maersk is awaiting a final sign-off on a contract to help build a new port in Badagry in Nigeria’s southern Lagos state, according to Lars Reno Jakobsen, the company’s senior vice president for Africa. “That project, once its been finalized could be more than $2 billion in terms of investment,” he said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Cape Town on Friday. “Hopefully we can start some time this year. It will provide capacity, not only for containers, but also for oil, break-bulk and offshore.”
Oil and gas companies need to take a long-term, strategic approach to recruitment if they are to avoid the pitfalls of a self-inflicted, perpetuating talent shortage, a new report says. Energy firms are more focused on reducing their headcounts to cope with the current oil price downturn, with industry body Oil and Gas UK venturing last month that as many as 4,000 North Sea jobs have been lost since last summer. But talent shortages have affected the industry since the 1990s, and many observers have warned that the sector still needs to find new workers, or it will not be ready to take advantage when the market picks up.
The Scottish energy minister has called on the UK Government not to “slash” support for onshore wind energy and undermine efforts against climate change. Fergus Ewing’s appeal comes as UN climate negotiations get underway in Bonn this week, in advance of talks to be held in Paris later this year. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) is expected to announce measures to deliver on the Conservatives’ manifesto pledge to “end any new public subsidy” for onshore windfarms. This week Mr Ewing will make the case to Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd on the need to continue support for the onshore wind sector as a way of driving down emissions, creating jobs and “keeping the lights on”.
The first person to be inducted into the North Sea industry hall of fame said he was “delighted” with the honour. Prominent petro-economist Professor Alex Kemp was recognised for a lifetime of achievements at the Press and Journal Gold Awards on Friday. Prof Kemp has played a key role in policy-making in his field, having worked as a specialist adviser to the UK House of Commons select committee on energy for a total of about 17 years spread across three decades. In a vast body of work, he has written more than 200 papers and books, including the Official History of North Sea Oil and Gas, which was published in 2011 in two volumes.
A former BP executive has been acquitted of lying about how much oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion five years ago. David Rainet had been facing up to five years in prison if he had been found guilty of wilfully making a fraudulent statement to federal law enforcement agents. The case had been brought by the government regarding statements Rainey made to agents from the FBI and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) nearly a year after the spill.
Oil major Chevron said three more tendons designed to link its Big Foot deepwater oil project to the Gulf of Mexico seabed have sunk. The announcement has created further concerns about how long it will take for the project to start. Chevron said a total of nine tendons rested on the seabed after failing to float after six had sunk earlier in the week.
Statoil has signed a joint venture contract with Kvaerener and KBR worth NOK 6.7billion on behalf of the Johan Sverdrup partnership. The contract includes engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the topside for the Johan Sverdrup utility and living quarter platform. The utility and living quarter platfrom consists of two modules, one utility module and one accommodation module. Fabrication of the utility module will be done by subcontractors in Poland under management of Kvaerner and completed at Stord Norway.
Fighting between rebels and government forces in South Sudan’s oil-producing states intensified, the army said before the two sides meet on Monday for peace talks. Rebels attacked non-producing oil fields north of the Unity state capital, Bentiu, on Friday and were repulsed, army spokesman Colonel Philip Aguer said by phone from the capital, Juba. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army is “in full control of Unity oilfields and has captured a number of equipment including tanks and ammunitions,” Aguer said.
About the only surprise to come from OPEC’s decision on June 5 to leave oil output unchanged was that everyone got along. “I have been in OPEC for some many years, and it is the first time I had seen this,” OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri said after the meeting. “Very, very positive.”
A storage and inspection company is set to make an investment of up to £10million to develop a site at Peterhead on a former World War II aerodrome. Independent Oilfield Services (IOS) has secured planning permission to develop a further 30 acres of its 80 acre supply base at the former Longside airfield to create secure warehouse facilities for the oil and gas and renewables industry. This week members of the Buchan area planning committee unanimously approved three linked planning applications allowing IOS to revamp the site. The firm, which also has an office in Aberdeen’s Golden Square, currently uses 30 acres of the site for pipe storage and inspection services. The planning permission granted by Aberdeenshire Council this week has given the green light for one 60,000 sq ft warehouse and a further two 30,000sq ft warehouses, including office accommodation, car parking for around 60 vehicles and yard space.