Archives for March 2018

On the Topic of Lithostratigraphy and Sequence Stratigraphy

29/03/2018 Posted by Alison McLeod

PESA WA Branch hosted their March technical talk with over 70 people attending, with special thanks to our four sponsors: Spectrum (Platinum), CGG (Gold), Searcher Seismic (Gold) and DUG (Gold). After a delicious lunch, the WA Branch Vice – President, Victoria Seesaha, opened the meeting with the Branch updates. Victoria announced that Carnarvon Petroleum is the new PESA student sponsor for short courses and then handed over to Carnarvon representative, Andrew Padman, to talk about why they chose to sponsor the students attending the upcoming PESA WA courses, and also gave a short introduction on their company activities as part of…

Largest lease sale in history attracts a luke warm response

27/03/2018 Posted by Dale

Seventy-seven million acres were up for grabs in the US Gulf of Mexico, however bids were only made for 815,403 acres. The largest lease sale in history generated $124,763,581 in high bids for 148 tracts covering 815,403 acres, with 33 companies participating in the lease sale submitting $139,122,383 in bids. Lease Sale 250 included 14,474 unleased blocks, located from three to 231 miles offshore in water depths ranging from three to 3,400 meters. BP, with 27 bids, submitted the largest number of high bids $20 million. Chevron submitted 24 high bids, for about $29 million, and Shell had 16 high…

$9.1bn will be spent on Mozambique’s upstream capex by 2020, says GlobalData

27/03/2018 Posted by Dale

An average capex of US$3 billion per year would be spent on eight oil and gas fields in Mozambique between 2018 and 2020. Capital expenditure into Mozambique’s oil and gas projects, will add up to $9.1bn over the three-year period in upstream capital expenditure by 2020, according to data and analytics company GlobalData. Ultra-deepwater projects will be responsible for over 65 percent of $9.1bn of upstream capital expenditure in Mozambique, or $6.2bn by 2020. The deepwater projects will account for 25 percent of upstream capital expenditure with $2.3bn by 2020, while onshore projects will necessitate $0.6bn in capital expenditure over…

ADNOC Signs Offshore Concessions with CNPC

27/03/2018 Posted by Dale

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the world’s third largest oil company, has been awarded stakes in two of Abu Dhabi’s offshore concession areas following the signing of agreements with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).. Under the terms of the agreements, CNPC, through its majority-owned listed subsidiary PetroChina, has been granted a 10% interest in the Umm Shaif and Nasr concession and a 10% interest in the Lower Zakum concession. PetroChina contributed a participation fee of US $575 million to enter the Umm Shaif and Nasr concession and a fee of US$600 million to enter the Lower Zakum…

Over $114bn will be spent on Oceania’s upstream projects by 2025

27/03/2018 Posted by Dale

Over $114bn in capital expenditure will be spent over the lifetime of the top ten upcoming oil and gas upstream projects in Oceania, to produce 8,683 million barrels of oil equivalent, according to data and analytics company, GlobalData. These 10 projects, selected from 30 upcoming projects in Oceania, will contribute incremental capacity of 808 thousand barrels of oil equivalent to global supply by 2025. Out of top ten upcoming projects, nine are conventional gas developments and the remaining is a coalbed methane (CBM) development. Ichthys LNG Project in Australia is the largest with anticipated peak production at 333.8 thousand barrels…

Stepping out on an ancient coastline at Peppermint Grove

21/03/2018 Posted by Alison McLeod

Following the first technical talk of 2018, PESA WA Branch hosted the first evening field trip in partnership with the Geological Society of Australia (GSA) on 6 and 8 March, run over two evenings to cope with demand. Dr Milo Barham, an expert in Sedimentology and Stratigraphy from Curtin University, led the field trip which focused on exploring the well-exposed, Pleistocene-aged Tamala Limestone. The mini field trip covered six stops along a charming pathway next to the Swan River, stopping at various outcrops for observations and discussion before leading to the next. After getting our eye in to the several facies…

APPEA upbeat about post-election Bight prospects in SA

19/03/2018 Posted by Dale

APPEA has congratulated Steven Marshall and the South Australian Liberal Party on their election victory and said it "looks forward to working with the new government to secure South Australia’s economic and energy future". The oil and gas industry has been a significant contributor to the state’s economy and community for more than 60-years and can play a key role in developing much-needed energy resources in South Australia, onshore and offshore, APPEA said in a media release. "That includes the prospective exploration and development of oil and gas resources in the Great Australian Bight." "APPEA Director South Australia Matthew Doman…

Japan is the land of rising LNG regasification

19/03/2018 Posted by Dale

With Australia tipped to overtake Qatar as the world’s No.1 LNG producer – this year according to the IGU and 2021 by the Australian Federal Government’s estimate – the Lucky Country may be interested to know that Japan is the global regasification champion. Analysis of the global LNG regasification capacity by leading data and analytics company, GlobalData, shows that Japan has the highest LNG regasification capacity globally with 9.6 trillion cubic feet (tcf) in 2018. South Korea and China follow with 4.9 tcf and 3.2 tcf, respectively. Japan, China and Korea are the dominant destinations for exports from Australia, which…

‘It’s about the economy stupid’

19/03/2018 Posted by Dale

The Australian oil and gas sector is rebounding and is about to receive a further boost from government, the audience heard at the Australasian Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference (AOG) in Perth last week. In an address that resonated with Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 campaign slogan, ‘It’s all about the economy stupid’, Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan told the opening session of the AOG 2018 Collaboration Forum that his government was developing an LNG Jobs Taskforce. He told AOG delegates that the taskforce will be made up of members from both industry and government and will aim to establish…

CGG adds new Santos VIII multic-client survey to broadband coverage offshore Brazil

19/03/2018 Posted by Dale

CGG has commenced acquisition of a large broadband 3D multi-client survey in the pre-salt area of the deepwater Santos Basin. The geoscience company said Santos VIII is the most recent survey in CGG’s vast on-going pre-salt program that delivers “ultramodern seismic data, enabling exploration companies to better evaluate pre-salt opportunities in advance of Brazil’s pre-salt licensing rounds”. Santos VIII covers an area of over 8,000 km2 adjacent to the Peroba, Pau Brasil and Boumerangue fields. The resulting BroadSeis™ data will be imaged with CGG’s advanced full-waveform inversion (FWI) technology in its Rio de Janeiro Subsurface Imaging Center and merged with…