Company Updates

Norwest has completed a successful bookbuild to raise $2 million (before costs) through a placement of shares to a range of sophisticated and institutional investors, including major shareholders, to fund drilling costs of the Lockyer Deep-1 exploration well in the Perth Basin.

Norwest's has a 20% interest in Lockyer Deep-1 , located on EP368 on trend with three significant recent discoveries, for which drilling is targeted during the first half of 2021.

Norwest said funds will also be allocated towards planning and preparation for a 3D seismic survey across EP368 and EP426 (post drilling of Lockyer Deep-1), desktop studies on exploration permit TP/15, and general working capital.

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CGG has become a member of Amira, an independent global not-for-profit organization representing members from the mineral resources industry seeking to enhance, sustain and deliver transformational R&D, innovation and implementation to the benefit of society.

CGG said that as part of its membership, CGG’s Minerals & Mining group is sponsoring an independent industry research program developed in response to several recent and well-documented accidents and catastrophic failures at mine tailings storage facilities (TSF).

The program will evaluate the suitability of a range of monitoring technologies for giving advance warning of dam instability based on the analysis and modelling of data collected at TSFs provided by key mining company sponsors.

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PGS expects to report segment revenues for Q4 2020 of approximately $158 million. Contract revenues ended at approximately $21 million. MultiClient pre-funding revenues were approximately $61 million and MultiClient Late Sales approximately $70 million.

“We achieved a sequential revenue increase from our vessel operations in Q4, and a MultiClient pre-funding level benefitting from additional sales from ongoing surveys. Our MultiClient Late Sales more than doubled, compared to the average in the previous three quarters of the year.

"The drivers for the increased Late Sales were a mix of the usual seasonal Q4 increase and sales relating to licensing rounds in West Africa and Brazil,” PGS President and CEO, Rune Olav Pedersen, said.

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The eagerly-anticipated Ironbark exploration well offshore north-western Australia has failed to produce hydrocarbon discoveries and will be plugged and abandoned.

The well in WA-359-P had hoped to discover up to 15Tcf of gas, measuring up to Gorgon and was drilled to a total depth of 5,618m, intersecting the primary target of the Mungaroo Formation at 5,275m.

However, Beach Energy announced the disappointment last week, saying in a statement: “no significant hydrocarbon shows were encountered in the target sandstones. The exploration well will now be plugged and abandoned, in line with pre-drill planning.”

The Ironbark well spudded on October 31 and was drilled by Diamond Offshore’s Ocean Apex semi-submersible.

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Santos has made a final investment decision for the $306 million, Phase 3C infill drilling program at the Bayu-Undan field in the Timor Sea offshore Timor-Leste.

The Adelaide-based company said the program would include three production wells (two platform and one subsea) to develop additional natural gas and liquid reserves, extending field life as well as production from the offshore facilities and the Darwin LNG plant.

Santo, with 68.4 per cent of the Bayu-Undan joint venture, became operator in June last year after acquiring ConocoPhillips’ northern Australia and Timor-Leste assets.

The Noble Tim Proser jack-up rig will de deployed to drill the wells with the first spud scheduled for the second quarter of 2021 and production targeted in the third quarter.

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NOPTA has approved Emperor Energy’s application to extend the primary term of the VIC/P47 exploration permit in the Gippsland Basin.

Emperor Energy said the extension had been given based on two factors, the imminent availability of new seismic data that will be generated from the Multi Client 3D seismic acquisition completed across the Offshore Gippsland Basin, including the Judith Gas Field in Vic/P47 in July 2020 by CGG.

The second criteria was the combined impact of COVID-19 on the petroleum industry.

The approval has extended the final date for drilling of the Judith 2 Exploration Well by 30 months from February 2021 to August 2023.

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Shearwater has signed new debt and guarantee facilities totalling US$437 million, as part of the planned refinancing of the company’s maturing debt.

The new facilities include the refinancing of the US$325 million bridge facility originating from the acquisition of the marine seismic acquisition assets and operations of WesternGeco in November 2018.

“We enjoy continued confidence from our lenders whose long-term backing has supported Shearwater in driving the necessary consolidation in the market.

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CGG, PGS and TGS have announced a pioneering strategic partnership to offer a shared ecosystem providing direct access to their subsurface multi-client data libraries.

The independent, cloud-based ecosystem will offer a single search point to access all three companies’ multi-client data and allow customers to interactively find, visualize and download their subsurface assets and entitlements all in one place.

All three companies released a joint media statement and commented on developments as follows:

Sophie Zurquiyah, CEO, CGG, said: “The industry historically lacked an ecosystem that provided a vendor neutral single point of access to the industry’s commercial data.

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