Total SA’s chief executive officer is looking at US solar power rather than fossil fuels as an investment for France’s largest oil and natural gas company. “Solar in the US is quite interesting,” Patrick Pouyanne said at a briefing Tuesday at IHS CERAWeek in Houston. “It’s one of the countries, it’s one of the states where you can make money. Here you can be competitive with other forms of energy to make power.”
A paralympian who has overcome significant hurdles within her own life will offer words of inspiration at this year’s UK Oil & Gas Industry Safety Awards. Karen Darke was just 21-years-old when she fell while climbing up a cliff in Aberdeen, leaving her paralysed from the chest down. The 43-year-old had always loved the outdoors, even prior to her accident, and after watching the 2008 Beijing Olympics decided she wanted to compete in London four years later.
Azinor Catalyst has acquired a licence in the UKCS (UK Continental Shelf) from Stavanger Petroleum Limited. The licence, P.1946, covers block 15/12a and gives the company a 100% working interest in the asset. The transaction was approved by DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change).
Nigeria has to raise its gas prices to attract an estimated $55 billion of investment needed to plug persistent local shortages, Nigerian Gas Association President Bolaji Osunsanya said. A government increase of gas prices in August for power plants to $2.50 for 1,000 cubic feet from about $0.50 isn’t enough, Osunsanya, who is also managing director of Oando Gas & Power Ltd., said in an interview in Lagos with Bloomberg TV Africa to be aired Friday. These investments are needed to explore for more gas, set up five processing facilities at about $2 billion each and develop domestic distribution channels, he said. International oil companies, which had been export-focused due to low domestic gas prices fixed by the government, have agreed to sell off $10 billion of assets over the past three years, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Those assets are largely being taken over by local companies, such as Seplat Petroleum Development Co. and Midwestern Oil and Gas Co. Ltd.
Baker Hughes has posted a quarterly loss after incurring a $772million charge in relation to restructuring and other items. The company, which is in the process of being acquired by Halliburton, also said it would reduce its global workforce by 17%. It brings the total headcount reductions to 10,500 - up from the 7,000 previously announced.
Norway is set to ask the European competition authorities whether it can provide state support to energy firm Statoil in a bid to bring oil and gas to the shore from its Johan Castberg field in the Arctic. The country's oil minister, Tord Lien, said bringing it to shore would provide more benefits. Statoil had initially planned to pipe the oil to an onshore loading terminal, but deemed it too expensive and said pumping it onto tankers at sea might be a more viable option.
ExxonMobil’s president said the US could be at risk of losing economic opportunity and the ability to solidify its role as a “global leader” unless the government moves to approve LNG exports. Rob Franklin, president of ExxonMobil Gas & Power Marketing, said it was important to make sure the case of LNG exports did not become “just another casualty of bureaucracy." The company has recently embarked on a $10billion project to convert the LNG regasification terminal at Golden Pass , Texas, into an LNG export terminal.
A number of oil companies including Statoil and GDF Suez are set to collaborate on solving operational tasks tied to exploration in the Barents Sea. The project, called BaSEC (Barents Sea Exploration Collaboration) will initially last for around three years. It will cover the Barents Sea, with a special focus on the areas which have been included in the 23rd licensing round. Other companies involved include Eni Norge, Lundin Norway and OMV.
Maersk Training has been using a unique system in a bid to go completely paperless. Staffs at the company’s centre in Aberdeen have been working closely with the creator of the iPad, Apple, to develop a unique learning experience. Operations manager Mike Prater-Cockayne said: “It’s quite an extensive project we are going through at the moment.
Odfjell Drilling has commenced drilling operations as part of its seven-year contract with BP on the Quad 204 development project West of Shetland. The company will use its new-build semi-submersible rig, Deepsea Aberdeen, on the project. The mobile offshore drilling unit it’s the latest addition to Odfjell’s fleet of deepwater and harsh environment units.
Oil giant Chevron has had its appeal hear in the US to uphold a ruling that a lawyer had used corrupt means to secure a $9.5billion pollution judgement in Ecuador. At the second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York a lawyer for the company alleged that Steven Donziger – the US lawyer who represented a group of Ecuadorians that sued the company – had pursued a case which was “shot with fraud.” The three-judge panel was asked to uphold a ban on Donziger profiting from the case and from the attorney or villagers enforcing the judgement in the US.
Woodside Petroleum has dropped its option to take operatorship and fund well costs in one of its shared Moroccan assets. The Australian company’s partner, Chariot Oil & Gas, said Woodside had decided against the move which would have given it an additional 25% stake in return. It means Chariot will remain the operator with a 50% interest, while Woodside will retain its current 25% stake and ONHYM will have a 25% carried interest.
Technip's Colombian subsidiary, Tipiel, has been awarded a front-end engineering design and detailed engineering design contract on a lump-sum basis. The deal, which was awarded by the Consorcio Constructor Ductos del Sur, is for the development of a new gas pipeline to transport gas from the Camisea field to Southern Peru. The project was launched by the Peruvian government and consists of more than 1,700 kilometres of 32" gas pipeline.
Amec Foster Wheeler has been awarded a contract by Hyundai Engineering for the design and supply of two 15-megawatt CFB cteam generators for a new power plant in the Phillipines. The company, which did not disclose the value of the awarded, said the generators would be for the power plant's boiler island and provide onsite technical advisory services. Commercial operation of the plant, in the central province of Cebu,is scheduled for the first quarter of 2018.
In a quest to overturn the decades-old restrictions on exporting American crude, the oil industry is seeking the help of an unlikely ally: consumers. ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Ryan Lance wants to convince the public that allowing exports would actually help push US gasoline prices down. Existing policy hurts consumers because, while it keeps U.S. oil prices lower than the global crude benchmark, it doesn’t do much to pass that savings on at the pump, he said. Instead, refiners capable of processing the oil produced by the shale boom profit from lower prices, and then can sell their refined products overseas. “The ban on exports is anti-consumer,” Lance told reporters after giving a speech at the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston. The industry “needs to educate people that it is better for consumers to be exporting our crude.”
A fresh profits warning on the troubled Laggan-Tormore gas terminal development hit the share price of service giant Petrofac yesterday. Almost £350million was wiped off Petrofac’s market value as shares slid 10% to 912.5p. The firm admitted it would lose a further £130million on the Total-operated project, in addition to the £154million in losses it took on the scheme in 2014. This on a project value of £800million. Ayman Asfari, Petrofac’s Chief Executive listed a number of difficulties facing the development of the loss-making gas terminal that included industrial action and the high cost of doing business in the North Sea.
Oil major Chevron is planning to decommission a number of installations offshore Australia. The company said the move is in response to the oil price decline. It includes a number of installations at the Saladin, Cowle, Crest, Roller and Skate fields.
As the oil industry takes stock of Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s $70 billion move for BG Group Plc, one company has more to chew on than most. BP Plc, the UK’s most storied oil producer and prime mover in previous rounds of consolidation, is now thinking what was once unthinkable: that it could be next in the cross-hairs. BP executives are concerned the company is vulnerable to an opportunistic bid, according to people familiar with the situation. In response, they’ve stepped up internal reviews of takeover scenarios and war-gamed defense strategies with advisers from firms including Morgan Stanley, said the people, all of whom asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., the two largest US producers, are seen as the only realistic predators.
UK North Sea gas fields could be forced to shut down if a Russian oligarch ignores a UK Government demand to sell them. Energy Secretary Ed Davey yesterday warned Dea UK its operating licences may be revoked by the UK Government unless owner LetterOne, led by billionaire Mikhail Fridman, sells up within six months. The threat affects five Dea-operated gas fields – Breagh, Cavendish, Clipper South, Topaz and Windermere – and comes as the UK offshore industry is already struggling to safeguard investment and jobs in the wake of a sharp plunge in oil prices.
OAO Gazprom will get an antitrust complaint from the European Union as soon as Wednesday in a two-year-old probe into gas pricing that’s been delayed amid political tension in Ukraine, according to an EU official. The EU, which relies heavily on Russian gas, will send a statement of objections to Gazprom that lays out where regulators see possible violations of competition law, according to the official, who asked not to be identified because the decision isn’t public. The EU was examining whether the company’s contracts unfairly link oil and gas prices and prevent customers from reselling gas. The complaint would be the second in as many weeks for EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who escalated a probe into search-engine giant Google Inc. The 47-year-old Vestager said last week that she planned to act “decisively against energy companies that harm rivals” and “block energy flows from one EU country to another.”
The UK Government has decided to revoke North Sea oil field licences owned by DEA, RWE's oil and gas unit bought last month by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's LetterOne, unless the licences change ownership, the energy ministry said today. "The Secretary of State Ed Davey ... proposes to revoke DEA UK's North Sea petroleum licences unless LetterOne arranges for a further change of control of the DEA UK gas fields in the North Sea," the ministry said in a statement.
Proserv and hazardous environment specialist JCE Group are to join forces in the Middle East and Africa. The deal between the firms will allow Proserv to supply JCE’s products and services to the region, as well as providing engineering support Andy Anderson, Proserv’s president for the Middle East and Africa, said the firms had already been working on projects together for at least two years.
The Prime Minster has written to the President of Gabon in a disagreement between oil companies and the country’s petroleum ministry. According to reports, the move comes after previous interventions from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office were unable to solve the dispute. The petroleum ministry had expropriated assets from Tullow Oil as well as threatening oil giant Shell with a fine for alleged non-payment of back taxes.
Africa Oil said its current vice president of development will move to a new role within the company. Tim Thomas will now become chief operation officer at the firm's Calgary-based office.
Australian oil and gas company Titan Energy has experienced success in its drilling program on Allen Dome. The JT Reese #14 has reached a total depth of 4,390 feet and has been logged to a depth of 3,950 feet.