Archives for December 2017

W&T hits a duster in Gulf of Mexico exploration well

19/12/2017 Posted by Dale

W&T Offshore’s ST 224#1 exploration well has failed to find hydrocarbons in the Gulf of Mexico offshore the United States. W&T’s partner in the project, Otto Energy, said the well had been drilled to a total measured depth of 3,322 meters. Otto said the targeted BN sand interval was intersected close to prognosis at 3,149 meters measured depth, however based on log observations the sand is considered to be water bearing, Otto said. The well will now be plugged and abandoned. The Enterprise 264 jack-up drilling rig had been used to drill the prospect, which sits in approximately 170 feet…

WA gas report warns of declining exploration consequences

19/12/2017 Posted by Dale

An independent review of Western Australia’s gas market highlights the urgent need for more exploration to secure future supply. The Australian Energy Market Operator’s annual WA Gas Statement of Opportunity (GSOO), released recently, warns of a gas shortage in the west if new supply is not developed in the next five to seven years. The report shows exploration in WA in 2017 was at its lowest level since 1990. APPEA Chief Operating Officer WA Steadman Ellis said there was an urgent need for Government policies to encourage exploration given new gas projects could take up to five years to be…

Polarcus gets permission for seismic survey in Australia

12/12/2017 Posted by Dale

Polarcus has secured significant industry prefunding and has been granted the environmental permit for a broadband 3D marine seismic project in Australia. Polarcus did not provide details on the project, but the Australian offshore safety regulator NOPSEMA has revealed that the project is called the Zénaïde 3D. NOPSEMA recently accepted the environment plan for the project, a three-dimensional multi-client marine seismic survey to be undertaken in Commonwealth waters located approximately 50 km off the Kimberley coast of northern Western Australia. The acquisition area is approximately 3,300 km2 within the western Joseph Bonaparte Gulf of the Bonaparte Basin (title block WA-522-P)…

CNOOC hits gas in Bohai Bay

12/12/2017 Posted by Dale

China’s CNOOC has announced a mid-sized natural gas field discovery, Bozhong 19-6 in Bohai Bay, offshore China. The company said Bozhong 19-6 trap was located in the southwest sag of Bozhong south central Bohai, in average water depths of about 22 meters. The discovery well Bozhong 19-6-1 was drilled and completed at a depth of 4,181 meters and encountered oil pay zones with a total thickness of approximately 25 meters and a gas reservoir with a total thickness of about 348 meters. The well was tested to produce about 1,000 barrels of oil and 6.4 million cubic feet of natural…

Po Valley toasts Podere Majar well in Italy

12/12/2017 Posted by Dale

Positive log results have been announced by Australian ASX-listed natural gas company, Po Valley Energy Limited, from the drilling of its Podere Maiar 1dir (“PM1”) well in the Selva Gas Field in northern Italy’s Podere Gallina licence area. It will now be completed as a production well. PM1 was successfully drilled to a total depth of 1,330 metres in the Pliocene ahead of schedule and on budget. Downhole log results from Schlumberger confirm a gross gas pay of 53m. The top of the reservoir was encountered at 1,245m TVD (1,223m TVDSS), some 12m above the level of any previous production…

AWE rejects China takeover woos

05/12/2017 Posted by Dale

AWE Limited has resisted a proposal from China Energy Reserve and Chemical Group for the acquisition of 100% of its shares. AWE revealed that the unsolicited, non-binding, indicative, and conditional offer came from China Energy Reserve and Chemical Group’s (CERCG) Australian subsidiary. The company said China’s state-owned CERCG wanted to acquire 100% of its shares on a fully diluted basis, at a price of $0.71 cash per share under either a recommended takeover bid or a scheme of arrangement (indicative proposal). The total cash consideration for a 100% share acquisition stands at around $430 million. The $0.71 per share offer…

Zoe Yujnovich becomes first woman Chair of APPEA

04/12/2017 Posted by Dale

The Board of the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) was pleased to announce the election of Zoe Yujnovich as Chair and Michael Abbott as Vice Chair following APPEA’s Annual General Meeting in Perth last week. Ms Yujnovich, Chairman of Shell Australia, has more than 25 years’ experience in the international resources industry. She has a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Western Australia and an MBA from the University of Utah. Ms Yujnovich is the first woman elected as Chair of the APPEA Board. Mr Abbott is the Senior Vice President, Corporate and Legal from Woodside Energy.…

OGA releases free UK offshore seismic data

04/12/2017 Posted by Dale

The Oil and Gas Authority in the United Kingdom has released the $35 million government-funded seismic data to promote exploration in under-explored areas of the UK and the North Sea. The datasets, now available to industry and academia, will support the next Offshore Licensing Round, set to open in mid-2018, and contains 19,000km of newly acquired broadband seismic data, new gravity and magnetic surveys, approximately 23,000km of reprocessed legacy seismic data and a rejuvenated set of digital well data, in addition to various supplementary reports. OGA said the new marine 2D surveys, acquired during Summer 2016, cover the East Shetland…