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.
Feature Articles
CGG adds new Santos VIII multic-client survey to broadband coverage offshore Brazil
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.
Energy industry on the cusp of large-scale digital transformation, says GlobalData
The global energy industry is facing major challenges from the ongoing environmental issues, changing regulations, low oil prices, and high capital and operating costs. They are forcing energy firms, which are traditionally considered conservative, to undergo a great deal of innovation and adopt disruptive technologies, according to leading data and analytics company, GlobalData. The company’s report ‘Technology Trends in Energy’ casts a lens over the technology trends affecting the energy industry, with a special focus on the oil and gas landscape.
Transocean rig heading for Phoenix South well
The Transocean-owned semi-submersible drilling rig GSF Development Driller-1 has started the final leg of its journey from Port Louis (Mauritius) to Australia for the task of drilling the Phoenix South-3 well for Quadrant Energy. Quadrant is the operator of the Phoenix project off Western Australia with an 80% interest with Carnarvon Petroleum holding the remaining 20%. Carnarvon said in a market update that slower than anticipated towing speeds had delayed the rig’s arrival, which was now scheduled for late March for drilling in early April.
CGG appoints three new board members
Following a board meeting on March 8, CGG has appointed three new board members. The company announced that Colette Lewiner will replace Hilde Myrberg, who will step down following a meeting to approve the financial statements for the fiscal year ending 31 December 2018. Lewiner graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure and has a PhD in Physics. She is a nuclear energy specialist and worked for many years in the consultancy business in energy, utilities and chemicals. She is presently independent board director at EDF, Groupe Bouygues, GETLINK (former Eurotunnel), EDF, Nexans and Ingénico. Mario Ruscev replaces Dr.
Woodside to operate Scarborough
Woodside and BHP have agreed that the Perth-headquartered independent will be operator of the Scarborough gas field. The deal comes in the wake of Woodside securing a 75% stake in the offshore field, located northwest Australia, when it acquired ExxonMobil’s 50% interest in WA-1-R and the Scarborough Joint Venture Agreement. Completion of the transaction has been targeted for the end of March. In a market update to the ASX, Woodside said BHP had waived its pre-emption rights and given consent to the US$744million transaction between Woodside and BHP.
Stalled oil and gas exploration is a major economic risk
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) exploration data confirms that the slump in petroleum exploration in Australia continues.
“Yesterday, the ABS released data for 2017, confirming that exploration in Australia is stalled. Exploration expenditure is well below trend, especially in offshore basins, said APPEA Chief Executive Dr Malcolm Roberts.
“Falling exploration activity has been evident for many years but the latest offshore expenditure numbers are alarming,” he said.
“Offshore activity has fallen to its lowest level since 2004. Other sources show that only five exploration and appraisal wells were drilled offshore in 2017.
“This situation is happening despite deep cost-cutting by the industry.
Revolutionary ‘Offset Installation Equipment’ for well-capping officially launched in Italy
Oil Spill Response Limited’s (OSRL) latest development in subsea well capping technology, Offset Installation Equipment (OIE), was officially launched today from the equipment’s new home base in Trieste, Italy. The well-attended event, which featured key figures from across the offshore industry, represented the culmination of six years’ work between members of the Subsea Well Response Project (SWRP), OSRL and leading oil and gas engineering specialists, Saipem.
Sercel Sells a Sentinel HR High-Resolution Streamer System to German AWI Research Institute
CGG announced today that Sercel has sold one of its new Sentinel HR high-resolution solid streamers to the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), a German research foundation specializing in polar and marine research in the Arctic and Antarctic. AWI will use the Sentinel HR on research projects it is conducting to record critical data about the relationship between geological activity and ecosystems in order to gain a better understanding of the Earth’s system. CGG said that Sentinel HR, launched in 2017, was the latest member of Sercel’s Sentinel solid streamer family. "With a close channel separation of 3.
Bass swimming in onshore oil in Indonesia
Australia’s Bass Oil Limited has announced a major upgrade to the prospectivity of its producing Tangai-Sukananti KSO, located in onshore Sumatra, Indonesia. Highlights of the upgrade, resulting from an independent review of the company’s stake in the KSO located in the prolific oil production province in southern Sumatra, include an additional 1.6 million barrels (0.893 million barrels net to Bass) of low-cost, unrisked, prospective oil resources, in two new near-field targets. As a result of the study’s findings, Bass immediately added these new targets to its planned 2018/2019 drilling program.