Archives for July 2017

Canada’s Pacific NorthWest LNG succumbs to sluggish market forces

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Australia’s reputation as the ‘Lucky Country’ beneficiary of $200 billion LNG project investment decisions has been enhanced with news that the proposed Pacific NorthWest LNG project at Port Edward in British Columbia, Canada has been canned by its JV partners. This follows a major review of the proposed plant’s viability and revelations from Anuar Taib, Executive Vice President and CEO Upstream for majority partner Petronas, that ongoing subdued market conditions had prompted the decision. “We are disappointed that the extremely challenging environment brought about by the prolonged depressed prices and shifts in the energy industry have led us to this…

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CGG completes multi-client survey to optimise Saturno field imaging

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CGG has announced the completion of an extension of its Santos VII broadband 3D multiclient survey offshore Brazil. The 1,867 sq km extension to the original footprint gives CGG a total of almost 16,000 sq km of newly acquired and imaged pre-salt coverage. CGG said the extension was made to fully image this highly prospective area after images recently delivered from the Fast-Track PSDM over a priority area of the Saturno field clearly indicated further structure to the east. This addition will aid in the interpretation and understanding of the Saturno field well in advance of the May 2018 lease…

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Export controls risk jeopardising future gas supply

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Restricting gas exports to boost domestic supply is likely to be counterproductive, the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) has warned. APPEA Chief Executive Dr Malcolm Roberts said the government’s proposed Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM) was a short-term fix and not a long-term solution. The Government today confirmed it has begun the formal process to consider whether the ADGSM will be required to restrict Queensland liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports for 2018. But Dr Roberts warned export restrictions risked exacerbating the problem they were meant to solve. “The industry has tripled east coast gas production in the…

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China’s COSL partners Twinza Oil for drilling in PNG

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Chinese offshore services provider China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL), a Chinese offshore services has won a contract to perform drilling operations in Papua New Guinea from Australian oil and gas company, Twinza Oil. COSL said the deal represented the first time it would be operating with Twinza Oil on a project and that it would use the COSLSeeker jack-up rig, which is scheduled to arrive at Papua New Guinea in late August. The COSLSeeker will be deployed to PNG after completing operations at the Duyung production sharing contract located offshore Indonesia where the jack-up drilled the Mako South-1 appraisal well.…

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Japan-Russia exploration deal irks US

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The United States, according to a report in Bloomberg, is “irritated” by a signed offshore exploration cooperation agreement between Rosneft and a consortium of Japanese companies. Citing sources familiar with the issue, Bloomberg said the US believes that Japan, as part of the Group of Seven Allies, should not be working against sanctions imposed in 2014 on the Russian oil and gas industry in response to the Soviet’s annexation of Crimea. The Group of Seven Allies, known as G7, comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These sanctions apply to five Russian companies, Gazprom,…

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US offers 76 million acres in new Gulf of Mexico lease sale

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United States Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said his department would offer 75.9 million acres offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida for oil and gas exploration and development. The lease sale, scheduled for August 16, will include all available unleased areas in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico and provide a reduced royalty rate for shallow water leases to encourage exploration and production under current market conditions, the Department of the Interior said. Lease Sale 249, scheduled to be livestreamed from New Orleans, will be the first offshore sale under the National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil…

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Phillip Playford’s life is honoured and celebrated

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IT was with much sadness that PESA learned of the passing of Dr Phillip Playford AM at the age of 85 after a long battle with cancer. PESA President Toby Colson and Australia Geoscience Council President Bill Shaw both paid tribute to Dr Playford, a luminary of the geological profession, award-winning author and a remarkable man who even discovered a shipwreck, the Zuytdorp, which was the first Dutch ship to be found and identified in Western Australia. His book about the wreck, Carpet of Silver; The wreck of Zuytdorp, won a Premier’s Prize for literature. Dr Playford was a PESA…

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Tillerson sometimes longs for oilman life

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US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson picked up an industry award at the World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul, where he told delegates that he often missed his former life as an oilman. The Former ExxonMobil boss received the Dewhurst Award for his contribution to the oil and gas industry and told the conference that his expected retirement to spend fishing in the mountains had taken a dramatic turn since he was appointed the United States’ top diplomat. "It did not quite work out that way," he said. "I miss you as colleagues. I miss you as partners. I miss you…

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Timor-Leste champions ‘world-class’ resources

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Timor-Leste’s national oil company, Timor Gap, has claimed that the country’s offshore areas could hold “world-class” oil and gas resources.   This follows stimulating interpretation of the 2016 Crocodile seismic survey carried out by BGP Prospector, a 12 streamer seismic vessel over the PSC TL-SO-15-01 block.   The PSC block is located approximately 50km southeast of Timor’s island eastern tip, within exclusive Timor-Leste maritime borders, midway between Timor and the Greater Sunrise gas-condensate field and covered by modern broadband 2D and 3D seismic surveys.   Following the completion of the 2780SQKM Crocodile 3D seismic survey in early 2017, a contract…

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BassGas MLE arrives early and under budget

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Origin Energy announced that the final phase of the mid-life enhancement (MLE) project at BassGas offshore Tasmania – entailing installation and successful commissioning of compressor and condensate pumping unit at the Yolla-A platform - has been completed ahead of schedule and under budget. This follows the drilling and completion of, and gas sales from the final two development wells, Yolla-5 and Yolla-6, in 2015. Gas, condensate and LPG from the Yolla fields is transported by pipeline from the Yolla platform to a gas processing facility at Lang Lang in Victoria. David Biggs, CEO and Managing Director of AWE Limited, a…

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