GLOBAL E&P
Judy Maksoud, Houston
Africa
Tullow Oil Plc. finished 2Q 2007 with an oil discovery offshore Ghana. The Mahogany-1 discovery well encountered a gross hydrocarbon column of 270 m (886 ft) with 95m (312 ft) of net pay.
The Mahogany discovery opens a new play fairway in the Tano basin, according to Tullow. The structure straddles both the West Cape Three Points and Deepwater Tano licenses.
Tullow holds a 22.9% working interest in West Cape Three Points and a 49.95% interest in Tano.
. . .
Noble Energy Inc. also discovered hydrocarbons off West Africa.
Production tests from well I-1 offshore Equatorial Guinea yielded flow rates of 1,038 b/d of condensate and 34.3 MMcf/d of natural gas, with production rates limited by test facilities.
Well I-1 lies in 886 m (2,880 ft) of water 40 km (25 mi) east of Bioko Island and 21 km (13 mi) south of the Belinda discovery on block O, which was announced in late 2005.
Noble says additional appraisal work will be necessary to verify the extent of the discovery.
. . .
Addax Petroleum Corp. had two finds in mid-July. The company found gas in the Udele West structure and oil and gas in the Ofrima North structure in OML137 offshore Nigeria.
The Ofrima-2 exploration well discovered a 43-m (140-ft) gross oil bearing interval at a depth of 2,134 m (7,000 ft) subsea.
Addax anticipates the presence of light oil similar to the crude oil produced from the Okwori and Nda fields in adjacent block OML126. The well also encountered three gas bearing intervals.
A second exploration well, Udele-2, was drilled on the Udele West structure. Udele-2 discovered seven gas bearing intervals.
. . .
Bowleven Plc. completed its D-1 exploration well in block MLHP 5 of the Etinde permit, Douala basin, offshore Cameroon, in early July as a gas and condensate discovery.
The well tested a75-ft (23-m) multiple turbidite channel sand at 25 MMcf/d of gas and 1,400 b/d of condensate through a 1-in (2.54-cm) choke, the company says.
. . .
In production news, Total Angola’s deepwater Rosa field in block 17 went online in late June. Rosa, in 1,350 m (4,429 ft) of water 135 km (84 mi) off Angola, produces via a 15-km (9.3-mi) tieback to theGirassol FPSO.
Rosa’s reserves are estimated at 370 MMbbl of oil and will contribute to Girassol maintaining plateau production for several years, according to the partners.
Americas
In mid-June, Petrobras announced that well 4-ESS-175-ES, drilled in the Pirambu field offshore Brazil, found 60 m (197 ft) of light oil reservoirs.
The well is in the old BC-60 block off Espírito Santo state, nearly 125 km (78 mi) south of the city of Vitória. Well 4-ESS-175-ES is in the northern Campos basin.
. . .
Offshore Trinidad, BG Trinidad & Tobago has awarded an engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) contract for Poinsettia, which lies off the northern coast in 530 ft (162 m) of water. A consortium made up of McDermott International Inc. subsidiary J. Ray McDermott S.A. and Fluor Corp. subsidiary Fluor Daniel South America Ltd. will carry out the work.
J. Ray will procure, design, and fabricate a 9,100-ton (8,255-metric ton) jacket and 4,600 tons (4,173 metric tons) of piles. Design work will be completed at J. Ray’s engineering office in Houston, with construction at the company’s fabrication facility in Morgan City, Louisiana.
Fluor Daniel will lead the consortium, performing project management as well as designing and fabricating the 4,000-ton (3,628.7-metric ton) topsides using the Trinidad-based fabrication services of TOFCO, a joint venture of Louisiana-based Chet Morrison Contractors and Trinidad-based Weldfab Ltd.
Petro-Canada, meanwhile, reported in mid-June that it is planning exploration drilling on shallow-water blocks 1a and 1b and deepwater block 22 off Tobago.
Petro-Canada already has contracted Diamond Offshore’sOcean Worker semisubmersible for block 22 and a Gorilla jackup rig from Rowan Companiess for block 1a and 1b. The company expects to have drilling results by the end of 1007 or early 2008.
While Petro-Canada lays plans, Canadian Superior Energy started drilling. In late June, the company began its Victory well on Intrepid block 5(c) approximately 97 km (60 mi) off Trinidad’s east coast.
TheKan Tan IV semisubmersible will drill a multi-well program of three back-to-back exploration wells on three large natural gas prospects -Victory, Bounty, and Endeavour.
. . .
In early June, Statoil finished drilling the Ballena I well on block 4 of Plataforma Deltana offshore eastern Venezuela in 350 m (1,148 ft) of water. One of the two intervals tested flowed gas at significant rates, but Statoil says it is too early to say if the volumes are commercially viable.
Mediterranean
In late June, Dresser-Rand secured a contract to supply three high-efficiency Datum compressor trains for the new Medgaz subsea pipeline that will transport gas across the Mediterranean from Algeria to Spain.
Construction will begin this year on the 210-km (130-mi) pipeline, which will originate in Beni Saf, Algeria, and connect to the Albacete pipeline in Almeria, Spain. The pipeline will transport gas from Algeria to European markets upon completion in 2009.
Central Asia
Gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea began flowing to Turkey in early July.
Statoil, interest holder in the project, says Azerbaijan and Georgia received gas from the field prior to July. Now, the bulk of Shah Deniz gas is sold to Turkey. Statoil is responsible for sale of phase one Shah Deniz gas, as operator for the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Co. Ltd.
BP operates the licensees in the Shah Deniz exploration, development, and production-sharing agreement with 25.5% interest. Partners include Statoil with 25.5% interest, the State Oil Co. of the Azerbaijan Republic (Socar) with 10% interest, LukOil with 10% interest, Nico with 10% interest, Total with 10% interest, and Turkey’s TPAO with the remaining 9%.
. . .
Agip KCO awarded the Saipem and Aker Kvaerner unincorporated consortium a contract as part of the experimental program for the Kashagan field development in the Caspian Sea.
The contract includes early work activities for hookup and commissioning of the offshore facilities as well as for the inshore completion, which is to be executed in the Kuryk yard. The scope of work also includes procurement, refurbishment, and preparation of five barges to be converted into temporary living quarters and offices, as well as temporary barges for power generation, tool sheds, and warehouses.
Asia-Pacific
Norway’s Norsk Hydro and India’s ONGC signed an agreement in early July that grants Hydro access to mostly deepwater exploration acreage on the India continental shelf plus 10% interest in block 98/2 on India’s east coast.
ONGC also will receive technical support from Hydro to increase recovery from the Vasai East oilfield. The exploration deal covers 32 offshore blocks at depths to 3,000 m (9,842 ft).
This agreement follows an earlier one between ONGC and Petrobras. That agreement, signed in early June, gives the two shared operatorship in three deepwater exploration blocks offshore India and three more off Brazil.
ONGC Videsh Ltd., ONGC’s international arm, reportedly plans to spend more than $10 billion over the next five years acquiring additional overseas assets and expanding production capacity.
. . .
Roc Oil (WA) Pty. Ltd. says its Dunsborough-1 exploration well, WA-286-P, in the offshore Perth basin, has been classified as a new field oil and gas discovery. ROC estimates the structure could contain 20-40 MMbbl of oil in-place.
Dunsborough-1 lies about 50 km (31 mi) northwest of the Cliff Head oil field. The well is the third and final one in an offshore Perth basin drilling program initiated in early April 2007 by the WA-286-P and WA-325-P joint ventures, both of which are operated by ROC. Roc operates WA-286-P are with 37.5% interest.
. . .
Australian acreage for 2007 is now open for bidders.
The 34 areas include:
- 21 areas off Western Australia
- 5 areas off the Northern Territory
- 3 areas off Victoria
- 5 areas in the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands.
The 2007 release includes six Designated Frontier Areas (DFAs) that are subject to the frontier tax concession incentive announced in May 2004.
The 2007 DFA areas are:
- NT07-1 on the Troubadour terrace, Northern Bonaparte basin, off Northern Australia.
- NT07-4 in the Petrel sub-basin of the Bon- aparte basin
- W07-12 to W07-15 in the offshore Canning basin, Western Australia.
Australia also is releasing four blocks that did not earn bids during the 2006 bidding round.
Bids for 17 of the new areas will close on Oct. 18, 2007. Bids for the remaining 17 areas will close on April 17, 2008.
Europe
In July, Alexander Ananenkov, Gazprom’s acting CEO, Yury Komarov, general director of OOO Sevmorneftegaz, and Christophe de Margerie, CEO of Total, signed a framework agreement for cooperation in the development of the first phase of the Shtokman gas condensate field.
The parties will set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to organize the design, finance, construction, and operation of Shtokman phase one infrastructure. The SPV will own this infrastructure for 25 years from field commissioning.
The relationship between the SPV and OOO Sevmorneftegaz will be based on a contract under which the SPV will bear all financial, geological, and technical risks related to the production of gas, condensate, and LNG.
The first phase of development is intended to produce 23.7 bcm/year of natural gas. Gas deliveries are expected to begin in 2013, with first LNG to be delivered in 2014.
The Shtokman field is in the Barents Sea 555 km (345 mi) east of Murmansk in 350 m (1,148 ft) water depth. The field lies inside the Arctic Circle.
Middle East
Swiber Holdings Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with UAE-based Emirates Investments Group Llc. in late June. The MoU states that the companies will combine resources for joint explore investment opportunities to expand engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and commissioning activities in the Gulf and the Middle East, including Pakistan.
. . .
One of the largest energy projects ever to be undertaken in the Middle East, the Dolphin Gas project, began producing natural gas from Qatar and exporting it to the United Arab Emirates in early July.
The project involved developing natural gas reserves from Qatar’s giant offshore North field via two unmanned production platforms. A 48-in (122-cm), 370-km (230-mi) subsea pipeline transports the natural gas from a gas processing plant in Ras Laffan to the Taweelah receiving facility in the UAE.
Gas production for export is scheduled to ramp up to 2 bcm/d in early 2008.
Partners in the project include Total with 24.5% interest, Mubadala Development Co. on behalf of the government of Abu Dhabi with 51% interest, and Occidental Petroleum with 24.5% interest. The companies are grouped together in the company Dolphin Energy Ltd.