Company Updates

PESA to fly exploration flag at AOG.

06/02/2017 Posted by Dale

PESA will be hosting track sessions at the Australian Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference (AOG) at the Perth Convention Centre on Friday, February 24. Under the theme of, Exploration for oil and gas: New techniques and concepts, chair Andres Gongora, Immediate Past-President WA Branch, will facilitate discussion after three leading industry professionals have made their presentations. Ralf Opperman, director OPPtimal Resource Solutions, will open the session at 2.30pm with his presentation entitled, A new dimension in fault recognition from seismic implications for the exploration and development of resources. At 3.00pm Ameed Ghori, Senior Geologist, Geological Survey…

Statoil strikes gas near Valemon field.

06/02/2017 Posted by Dale

Statoil Petroleum has made a gas discovery after drilling an exploration well at the Valemon field in the North Sea, two years after Valemon came on stream. “This is an important discovery for the further development of Valemon,” Gunnar Nakken, Statoil’s senior vice president for the operations west cluster, which covers the company’s Bergen-operated fields, said. "These new reserves can be put on stream immediately and will add considerable value. The discovery proves that there are still good opportunities in the North Sea, an area we know well, and its infrastructure is extensive," says Nakken. "We are very pleased to…

Spectrum starts 6,000km Multi-Client 2D survey in Potiguar Basin

30/01/2017 Posted by Dale

Spectrum, in partnership with BGP, has announced the commencement of a 6,000 km Multi-Client 2D survey offshore Brazil in the Potiguar Basin. The new acquisition program is an extension of Spectrum's 2013 Potiguar phase 1 survey as the company said it continues to add to an extensive equatorial margin database offshore Brazil, which now totals more than 110,000 kilometers of modern 2D data and 11,300km2 of new 3D broadband data. The survey ties the Pitu discovery - announced by Petrobras in December 2013 in block POT-M-855. A discovery of the extension well Pitu Norte announced in November 2015 confirmed the…

Now Greenpeace targets Amazon exploration

30/01/2017 Posted by Dale

Greenpeace has launched a new campaign targeting exploration operations in Brazil with that stated intention of protecting the newly discovered Amazon coral reef, which was discovered in April last year. The environmental activist group charged that the reef, which could be a new marine biome comprising about 9500km2 of formations, primarily giant sponges and rhodolith, would be threatened by oil exploration. Total and BP, which was also in the activist crosshairs before it abandoned its planned $1 billion exploration in the Great Australian Bight, have flagged the mouth of the Amazon River for exploratory drilling. Total owns one block which…

Hess write down puts Equus in limbo

23/01/2017 Posted by Dale

US Independent Hess Corporation has taken the decision to write down the full value of the Equus development by $933 million. The New York-headquartered company has revealed its focus will switch to the Bakken Shale, the Valhall field in Norway and the Liza field, offshore Guyana, leaving Equus and joint venture partner Woodside with the challenge on how to expedite the Western Australian offshore discovery. Sixteen wells were drilled in the prospect over the past six years, resulting in 14 gas discoveries in WA-70, WA-390-P and WA-474-P. Tie-in options to bring the gas onshore for processing to the North West…

WGP Group wins Conoco seismic contract for North Sea

18/12/2016 Posted by Dale

Marine seismic service provider WGP Group , a subsidiary of Thalassa Holdings, has won a contract from ConocoPhillips to acquire seismic data in the North Sea. The two month shoot on the Eldfisk field is scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2017. The Eldfisk oilfield was discovered in 1970 and approved for development in 1975. Production started in 1979 and the field also contains some gas. Eldfisk is one of the largest fields on the Norwegian continental shelf and the second largest of three producing fields in the Greater Ekofisk area. It is located in Block 2/7, about…

APPEA red flags continuing trend of falling exploration

18/12/2016 Posted by Dale

APPEA says the results from the latest rounds of bidding for offshore petroleum exploration acreage, released recently, confirm a deepening problem for Australia. “The results announced today will surprise and alarm people across the industry. With just one bid in the first round of releases in 2016, offshore exploration is in dire straits,” said APPEA Chief Executive Dr Malcolm Roberts. “We are witnessing something more fundamental than just a passing, cyclical downturn. Offshore exploration has been in steady decline for many years, despite strong commodity prices until recently. “We are already feeling the effects of this decline. Australia’s oil production…

CGG delivers new gen systems to ONGC

18/12/2016 Posted by Dale

CGG announced that its equipment business, Sercel, has delivered four of its new-generation 508XT land acquisition systems to two seismic companies recently awarded survey work in India by ONGC and Oil India, as part of a new national seismic program commissioned by the Indian government. The two Indian clients purchasing the 508XT are Advent, a new seismic company, and Alphageo, a long-standing player. Both companies will use the systems to conduct two surveys each in India. Given the diverse and challenging survey environments, such as mountains, farmlands and cities, both companies will benefit from the system’s unique fault-tolerant cross-technology (X-Tech®)…

Seabird sets sail for South America

12/12/2016 Posted by Dale

SeaBird Exploration has announced that it will provide one of its vessels for a 2D seismic project in South America. In a short statement, the marine seismic surveyor said it had signed an agreement to despatch the vessel for a 2D seismic survey which is expected to commence in late December, 2016 and will have a duration of approximately 45 days. The company said it would deploy the Northern Explorer for the project, but did not release further details.

CGG delivers record survey offshore Morocco

07/12/2016 Posted by Dale

CGG has announced what the company described as “near real-time imaging results” for a 4,200 sq km BroadSeis 3D marine seismic survey acquired offshore Morocco. CGG said it had delivered the “very-fast-track (VFT) RTM PSDM volume to the client only four days after the last shot”. The Paris-headquartered geoscience company said the result was a “technical feat (that) crowned an excellent operational performance by the crew of the CGG Geo Caspian who worked in a safe, collaborative and effective partnership with the client to complete the program ahead of schedule. Jean-Georges Malcor, CEO, CGG, said: “This exceptional achievement surpasses our…