Wessex Exploration has revealed plans regarding an application for a new drilling permit in French Guiana's deep offshore licence area.
The company already owns a share in a drilling permit in Guyane Maritime alongside oil major Shell, which owns a 45% stake, and other partners including Total, Tullow and Northern Petroleum.
In a results report Wessex Petroleum said discussions were ongoing between partners regarding application for a new drilling permit in the region.
Renewable energy project developer One Plant Africa has appointed a former ambassador during the Clinton administration to its company’s board.
Ambassador Charles R Stith is considered to be one of America’s leading experts on development issues in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The company is a subsidiary of One Planet Infrastructure, a US-based developer which specialises in renewable energy and infrastructure projects in developing countries.
Oyster Petroleum has acquired interest in licences owned by Maersk Oil and Centrica in the North Sea.
The venture capital-backed explorer will acquire a 30% interest in licence P2132, covering blocks 16/11b and 16/16 in the South Viking Graben.
The transaction will be subject to regulatory approvals from the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Secretary of State.
Technip has approached seismic contractor CGG about a potential merger.
The French services company confirmed it wanted to enter into a "contstructive dialogue" with CGG regarding the integration and development of its reservoir, data processing and seismic activities with Technip.
However, a short statement released by CGG appears to dismiss the offer.
Empire Oil and Gas has sold off its assets in the onshore Carnarvon Basin to Bounty Oil and Gas.
An indicative agreement has been signed to sell the remaining acreage in Western Australia.
Australian explorer Karoon Gas has made further progress with its work at the Santos Basin exploration and drilling campaign.
The Kangaroo-2 has now penetrated the target Paleocene reservoir at 1,660 mRTas indicated by increased LWD readings, elevated gas readings and oil shows seen in mud log cuttings from the reservoir.
Drilling will continue to a total depth before wireline logging is run, which is designed to confirm the presence of the hydrocarbon column.
This week heralded a significant moment in the oil and gas industry as Halliburton confirmed plans to takeover Baker Hughes in a $36.4billion deal.
Energy Voice takes a look back at the previous ‘mega-mergers’ that have taken place in recent years.
Triggered by the $110billion merger between BP and Amoco in 1998 just prior to the millennium and a number of years after, some of the biggest oil companies includinging Exxon and Mobil, Chevron and Texaco and Conoco and Phillips merged.
Iraq’s biggest oil refinery at Baiji is set to reopen after government troops forced Islamic State militants further from the facility, according to state-sponsored Iraqiya television.
The army entered Baiji after clearing bombs and other equipment from around the plant, the station reported. It didn’t say when production would resume at the refinery that halted in mid-June.
“Army troops achieve a victory and lift the siege on Baiji refinery,” Iraqiya reported in the banner headline. “Baiji refinery to reopen soon.”
After a bitter two days, Dave Lesar drove out to Martin Craighead’s headquarters Sunday, taking the final play in a tense merger negotiation straight to his counterpart.
It was cold and windy in Houston as the two chief executive officers entered the last stages of a bid that had almost led to a fight for board nominations. Lesar, 61, the 14-year leader of Halliburton Inc, and Craighead, 54, a Baker Hughes veteran in his first year at the helm, sat down over a coke and a coffee to seal the $35 billion deal, the two men said yesterday.
For Lesar, the meeting culminated a campaign that began almost a decade earlier when executives from the companies first broached a possible merger. A month ago, he took advantage of a 32% drop in Baker Hughes stock since July in the wake of falling oil prices.
By Professor Alex Russell and Professor Peter Strachan
Almost in line with falling global oil prices share value of oilfield service companies have slumped by around 25% over the past four months.
These are the same companies that have benefited greatly from the US fracking boom that transformed the standing of the US as an oil and gas producer; its position as number one oil consumer has never been at risk.
But the halcyon days of unfettered profits for US frackers and service companies look to be over.
An Aberdeenshire firm has designed new technology for testing offshore fire sprinkler systems that should prevent glitches caused by existing methods.
Paradigm Flow Services (PFS), part of Netherlands-based investment firm Paradigm Group, has invested £180,000 in the research and development stage of its dryflow technology, which was carried out by academics, software designers and engineers in Aberdeen and Rotterdam over the past 18 months.
Conventional tests use large volumes of seawater, often leading to blockages and corrosion inside nozzles and pipework.
Leading conservation organisations are calling for a ban on mining and exploration for oil and gas in World Heritage Sites.
The organisations, including the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the RSPB and WWF, warn that growing pressure for resources means that a quarter of natural World Heritage Sites are under threat from commercial mining and extraction.
World Heritage Sites such as Virunga National Park, home of the critically endangered mountain gorilla in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Virgin Komi forests in Russia and the Belize Barrier Reef System are all under threat from exploitation, the groups said.
Chevron and Hess have started crude oil production from the Tubular Bells deepwater project in the Gulf of Mexico.
The project is expected to produce 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from three wells.
The field is 135 miles southeast of New Orleans in 4,300 feet of water in the Mississippi Canyon area and was discovered in 2003.
The UK Government has been urged to provide more support to the North Sea oil and gas industry to address claims of a downturn in confidence and job losses.
Sir Robert Smith, MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, has raised the issue with Chancellor George Osborne ahead of the autumn Budget statement on December 3.
He told the Conservative MP that the industry was facing a difficult time, with many projects coming to the end of their labour-intensive phases.
Technip has been awarded a contract for project management consultancy services for the Nasr Phase II full field development project by Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (ADMA-OPCO).
The Nasr Field is being developed to secure an annual average production of 65kb/d of crude oil by using offshore process facilities, wellheads, pipelines and facilities on Das Island.
The contract is the second win for the company this week after it was awarded a subsea contract for the K2 field in the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil prices have dipped below 80 US dollars a barrel for the first time in four years, boosting hopes for cheaper petrol on UK forecourts.
The price of Brent crude for December delivery fell as low as 79 US dollars a barrel after industry cartel Opec yesterday predicted that demand for its oil will be slightly lower next year at 29.2 million barrels a day.
The world’s uncertain growth outlook, with the eurozone stagnant and Chinese expansion showing signs of easing, has fuelled fears that there will be a glut of oil swilling around the global economy.
Gulf Keystone Petroleum is on track to produce 40,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) by the end of the year at its Shaikan facilities in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
The company said its production levels are stable, averaging 23,000 bopd from three wells at PF-1 and two wells at PF-2.
Civil works are also ongoing to connect the Shaikan-7 and -8 wells to PF-1.
In the final video on National Oil and Gas skills week, Energy Voice spoke to Jeanette Forbes about her experience as a woman in the industry.
A qualified systems engineer, she is chief executive and founder of the PCL Group.
National Oil and Gas Skills Week will see around 50 events take place across the UK.
In search of a way out of the energy crisis, Ukrainian experts claim to have found the solution - hydropower.
The auxiliary resource has been successfully compensating the increasing energy demand triggered by the lack of power capacity and fuel in the past months. High liquidity and sustainability were identified as some of the major advantages of hydroelectric energy.
“Prior to the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) in the east of the country and before the problems with energy supply, hydroelectric power stations produced electricity primarily during peak demand,” said the director general of Ukraine’s largest hydropower company, Ukrhydroenergo, Ihor Syrota.
The chief executive of the newly launched Oil and Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC) said the organisation will have to brave “industry skepticism” as it looks to encourage more collaboration between universities and oil companies.
Ian Phillips said the OGIC could be seen as simply “another initiative”, but he believes its creation has come about from a growing demand amongst companies to meet the challenges within the industry.
Mr Phillips, who has 30 years’ experience in the industry, said there would also need to be a culture change in academia to think more flexibly and quickly.
BP Egypt and its partners plan to invest $240million in a pair of blocks just awarded as a result of the 2013 EGAS (Egyptian Natural Gas Holding) round.
The oil major said the programme will include 3D seismic and three exploration wells in each of the onshore and offshore blocks in phases lasting between six to eight years.
The first block, the North El Mataria, is BP’s first entry into the Onshore Nile Delta.
Songa Offshore have announced a loss of $6.4million in its third quarter statement.
The company’s profit was $1.1million during the same period which it said had been affected by the lower revenue contribution from the sale of the Songa Venus and Songa Mercur rigs.
Last month, the company cut its financial liabilities in relation to its Song Venus bareboat charter agreement.
Cairn Energy has made a second oil discovery during its Senegal exploration programme.
The Scottish oil firm announced last month it had made an initial oil find it its FAN-1 exploration well in the West African country.
The SNE-1 well is located in 1,100 metres water depth and is 100km offshore in the Sangomar block.
The slump in oil prices is a boon to China as the world’s second-biggest oil consumer. It’s a different story for the country as a major producer.
The slide in prices to a four-year low threatens to cut spending, production and profit for the country’s oil companies including PetroChina Co (857) Brent, the global benchmark, has fallen 26% this year to below $83 a barrel.
The decline, amid signs that global supply is outpacing demand, is pressuring profits from oil extraction across the globe. After a flurry of acquisitions and spending that’s stretched the balance sheets of Chinese oil companies, the country will also have a diminished appetite for deals, according to Sanford C Bernstein & Co.
The newly appointed Oil and Gas authority (OGA) chief executive said the biggest challenge the industry faced was a change in culture and behaviour in the industry.
Andy Samuel, BG managing director, was named as the man to take the helm of the new industry body during a visit with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander in Aberdeen.
Mr Samuel said he wanted to work at pace but with “wisdom” to ensure no “false starts” were made as the industry body moved a step further to becoming fully operational.
Speaking at Archer’s headquarters in Blackburn, he said: “I think I want to work at pace but with wisdom, we don’t want to make any false starts.
“We need to work together in a tripartite relationship. The industry, the OGA and the government closely working together is vital.
