Analysis of Saudi Arabia’s crude oil production shows that over $79.6bn in capital expenditure (capex) would be spent by Saudi Arabia Oil Co on oil projects over the next four years, to ensure that country’s production remains around 11.2 million barrel per day (mmbd) in 2021. The company will have 17 fields producing in 2021, of which 13 are conventional oil fields and four are gas fields producing condensate, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. Saudi Arabia is expected to spend $79.
Dale


New UK grants open for Australian fellows
Brunel University in London will soon offer five short-term fellowships to Australian early career researchers, thanks to a new grant from Universities UK International’s (UUKi) Rutherford Fund. Funded by the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the new fellows will be tasked with researching resource efficient future cities, the environment, and health. The researchers will be selected from the University of New South Wales, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Curtin University, University of Sydney and The University of Queensland, all of which are Brunel strategic partners.

Po Valley upgrades maiden 2P reserves to 36.5 bcf for Teodorico.
Po Valley Energy has upgraded its oil and gas reserves and resources for its 100% owned subsidiary Po Valley Operations, with maiden 2P reserves of 36.5 bcf of gas now declared at the company’s offshore Adriatic development Teodorico gas field. Teodorico has the largest gas in place of all of Po Valley’s gas fields and is at an advanced stage of assessment and is ready for development. The company received a preliminary award of the Teodorico Production Concession last year and is advanced in securing environmental approval which is the critical step before the full grant of the production concession.

New CGG GeoSoftware Technology ‘Drives Greater E&P Efficiency’
CGG GeoSoftware has announced new releases across its entire geoscience portfolio. Its complementary HampsonRussell, Jason, PowerLog, InsightEarth, VelPro, and EarthModel FT solutions are the industry’s preferred set of tools and support for multi-disciplinary teamwork at every stage from exploration and development to life-of-field production management. In a media release CGG said recent developments “bring exciting new capabilities within each individual solution while offering increasingly integrated workflows from geology and geophysics to reservoir engineering.

AWU’s gas campaign – ‘a bad idea reheated and served up again’
The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association has torpedoed the ‘Shipping Away Our Competitive Advantage’ report released by the Australian Workers’ Union, saying the release “confirms that the AWU’s campaign to control gas exports is disconnected from economic reality”. “The AWU report’s central claims do not withstand scrutiny,” said APPEA Chief Executive Dr Malcolm Roberts. “The report ignores the latest independent data, such as the Gas Price Trends report to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and the December 2017 report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The Eagle has Landed – in Carnarvon’s basket
Carnarvon Petroleum has been awarded the AC/P63 permit within the Southern Vulcan Sub-basin, on Western Australia’s North West Shelf, which will be known as the Eagle Project. This 585km² permit is in shallow water and contains multiple attractive leads in the same proven oil producing basin that includes the Talbot, Jabiru, and Cassini / Challis oil fields. Carnarvon said prides itself on applying leading technologies to its technical work to assist in unlocking an area’s potential.

CGG and Ardiseis complete highest-density seismic survey ever acquired
CGG, its technology partner, and Ardiseis, subsidiary of the Arabian Geophysical and Surveying Company (ARGAS), the Middle East’s seismic acquisition specialist, have announced the successful completion of the world’s highest-density broadband seismic survey ever acquired onshore or offshore. The ultra-high density of the data recorded on the West-Kalabsha survey on behalf of Apache Corporation (Apache) heralds a step-change in the quality of seismic that can be economically acquired in Egypt’s Western Desert and a quantum leap in imaging for the Middle East and North Africa region, CGG said in a media release.

CNOOC plans 132 exploration wells and will splash out up to $12.7B in 2018
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has announced that it will drill up to 132 exploration wells in 2018 and that it will also bring five projects into production.
The giant Chinese oil and gas major said it will acquired about 19000km² of 3-D seismic data as it also strives to bring the Hess-operated Stampede oil field in the United States, the Weizhou 6-13 oil field, Penglai 19-3 oil field 1/3/8/9 comprehensive adjustment project, Dongfang 13-2 gas fields and Wenchang 9-2/9-3/10-3 gas fields offshore China into production.
Bloomberg said the $12,7 billion that CNOOC planned to spend in 2018 represented the company’s highest capex in four years.

‘AWU missing the point with calls to curb gas exports’
The Australian Workers’ Union should be calling for the immediate removal of state government-imposed bans on natural gas development instead of demanding heavy-handed restrictions on gas exports. APPEA Chief Executive Dr Malcolm Roberts said the gas reservation policies being pushed by the AWU would discourage investment in new domestic gas supply, drive up energy costs for businesses and families and, ultimately, cost union members their jobs. Dr Roberts said the AWU was relying on economic modelling that is dated and ignores evidence that gas prices are falling.

Katalyst Data Management Launches Well File and Well Log Scanning “Paper to Digits” Service
Katalyst Data Management announced that it has launched well file and well log scanning services for the oil and gas industry. The company now has the capacity to scan volumes of well logs and associated files that are created during the life cycle of a well into an accessible PPDM database. This announcement follows Katalyst's recent completion of a successful well file scanning project involving the scanning and classification of physical well files associated with over 20,000 wells in the US Lower 48.
