Company Updates

Santos makes FID for Timor Sea drilling and expansion

12/01/2021 Posted by Dale

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.

Emperor Energy given drilling extension for Gippsland Basin permit

05/01/2021 Posted by Dale

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.

ShearShearwater GeoServices signs US$437 million refinancing of main debt facilities

28/12/2020 Posted by Dale

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.

CGG, PGS and TGS announce strategic partnership for shared multi-client data

22/12/2020 Posted by Dale

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.

Shearwater GeoServices awarded 3D contract by ONGC

22/12/2020 Posted by Dale

Shearwater GeoServices has announced the award of a 3D broadband marine seismic acquisition contract by ONGC in the Western Offshore India area. The project is scheduled to commence in Q1 2021.

The four-month campaign covers two areas totalling 2,800 sq. km in the Arabian Sea off the west coast of India. Shearwater plans to use the SW Duchess and SW Vespucci for the surveys.

“Shearwater has a strong, long-standing relationship with ONGC and adding this award to our 2021 backlog demonstrates our market leading position in Indian offshore geophysics, enabling us to maintain high activity in the region throughout 2020 and into 2021”, said Irene Waage Basili, the CEO of Shearwater GeoServices.

Sercel wins second Saudi Mega-Crew Equipment Contract

15/12/2020 Posted by Dale

Sercel has won a second major contract to supply land seismic equipment to a leading seismic acquisition contractor for a 3D mega-crew survey in Saudi Arabia.

It has also won a smaller contract to equip a 2D survey to be conducted by the same contractor. These two new contracts closely follow the recently announced award to Sercel of a similar large-scale contract to equip a separate Saudi 3D mega-crew survey.

The new 3D contract includes a Sercel 508XT seismic acquisition system of over 60,000 channels equipped with strings of SG-10 geophones, and a fleet of over 30 Nomad 65 Neo all-terrain vibrator trucks with a full VE464 advanced vibrator electronics package.

Blue skies brighten after Queensland North Bowen Basin gas-supply agreement

06/12/2020 Posted by Dale

Blue Energy shares surged over 57% after announcing a 10-year Queensland gas supply deal with Energy Australia.

The agreement is for annual deliveries of 10PJ and on the ASX BLU stock climbed to 8.8 cents on news of the deal, before settling at 8.2 cents at close on Friday.

Blue’s Managing Director, John Phillips, said: “This is the first such agreement that will allow North Bowen Basin gas to be delivered into the main East Coast domestic market to the south from Moranbah”

“It is a foundation volume that will contribute to the underpinning of the proposed...

Katalyst Data Management releases Subsurface Data Search Engine for Oil and Gas Industry

06/12/2020 Posted by Dale

Katalyst Data Management has launched a new subsurface data search engine, powered by Elasticsearch, in the latest release of their iGlass data management solution.

The new release, named iGlass Portal ES, gives oil and gas companies the ability to use freestyle text searches on their seismic and well data volumes. This release marks the first time that Elasticsearch technology has been applied to an E&P subsurface data management solution.

Similar to search technology used for online shopping and searching, iGlass Portal ES harnesses the power of Elasticsearch, allowing users to search the entirety of their subsurface catalogue with a simple textual search.

CGG wins three-year contract extension for Dedicated Processing Centre in Oman

01/12/2020 Posted by Dale

CGG has been awarded a three-year contract extension by Petroleum Development Oman to continue providing advanced land seismic imaging services at its dedicated processing centre in Muscat. The new contract will run from 1 January 2022 until 31 December 2024.

PDO operates a concession in Oman that covers almost one third of the country’s land surface area. This makes the DPC a critical proving ground for deploying new technology and workflows that can meet the highly variable imaging requirements of PDO’s exploration and production activities.

With this contract extension, CGG said its specialists would continue to implement their latest proprietary algorithms to bring step-changes in the imaging of the ever-growing volumes of land data, characterized by complex near-surface conditions and strong multiples.

PGS launches ‘Scheme of Arrangement’ to implement financing transaction

01/12/2020 Posted by Dale

PGS has launched a scheme of arrangement in England via the issuance of a practice statement letter to the lenders under its ~$350 million revolving credit facility and ~$522 million term loan B facility.

PGS said it was proposing the scheme in order to implement the financing transaction announced on October 21, 2020 as contemplated in the Lock-Up Agreement dated October 21, 2020.

“As of the date of this announcement, lenders representing 95.4% by value of debt and 99.5% by number of the RCF/TLB Facility have entered into the Lock-up Agreement and thereby agreed to support the Transaction,” PGS said.