Feature Articles

Leigh Creek lights up with two licence award in SA

13/07/2020 Posted by Dale

Oil and gas junior Leigh Creek Energy has been awarded two exploration blocks in South Australia.

The Adelaide-based explorer told share holders that it had successfully won PEL 675 and PEL 676 by the Department of Energy and Mining. Both licences were released in last year’s Cooper Basin Acreage Release.

Leigh Creek said it still has to secure Native Title agreements, before which planned work programs over the next five years could commence. These include 2D and 3D seismic surveying and the drilling of exploration wells at PEL 676.

Both permits are located in close proximity to previous hydrocarbon discoveries, Leigh Creek said, and the company will pursue farm-in endeavours to optimise its acreage in the Cooper and Eromanga basins.

Sercel acquires stake in autonomous robot start-up AMBPR

13/07/2020 Posted by Dale

CGG has announced that Sercel has acquired a 34% shareholding in AMBPR, a start-up company that designs and markets autonomous robots for repairing (sanding and painting) large metallic structures, used in the maritime and energy industries.

CGG said that Sercel recognised the potential of AMBPR through Axandus, Sercel’s Industrial Accelerator program, which helps start-ups to scale up their industrial growth.

The two companies have also signed an exclusive industrial partnership agreement whereby Sercel will manufacture AMBPR robots at its Saint-Gaudens site in France.

Delfin floating LNG project stalls with no buyers

13/07/2020 Posted by Dale

Delfin LNG, the company driving a 13 MTPA floating LNG development in the Gulf of Mexico, is treading water in its quest to secure offtake deals for the project.

This comes after Delfin was given last year given a one-year extension from US FERC to build the facilities and its financial investment decision for the project was also deferred to 2020.

Now the company is pushing for an additional one-year extension to construct the proposed terminal with moorings for four FLNG vessels, located 80km offshore of Cameron Parish, Louisiana.

However, FERC says Delfin is struggling to woo LNG buyers as a consequence of the COVID-19 virus, ongoing United States trade war conflict with China and the fall of global crude oil prices.

CGG and Alibaba Cloud Collaborate with Cloud Geoscience Technologies

06/07/2020 Posted by Dale

CGG GeoSoftware has collaborated with Alibaba Cloud to successfully deploy its suite of proprietary geoscience software solutions on the Alibaba Cloud platform.

All applications across the entire GeoSoftware portfolio also run on the Azure and AWS cloud platforms, offering “advanced capabilities in machine learning and artificial intelligence, as well as connections to Python ecosystem notebooks,” CGG said.

Alibaba Cloud, the data intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, is the third largest cloud service provider in the world, and holds the number one market share position in Asia Pacific, according to Gartner, a leading research and advisory company.

CGG...

SA announces successful applicants for acreage in Cooper and Otway Basins

06/07/2020 Posted by Dale

The State Government of South Australia has announced the successful bids for five new Petroleum Exploration Licences (PELs) with a guaranteed work program valued at $58.85 million over the next five years.

The Department for Energy and Mining said the successful applicants for new PELs in the Cooper Basin are Leigh Creek Energy, Cordillo Energy, Gidgee Energy and Vintage Energy.

Minister for Energy and Mining, Dan van Holst Pellekaan said there were great opportunities to ramp up exploration activities as South Australia’s restrictions due to COVID-19 begin to ease.

“South Australia aims to rebound quickly from the pandemic-led slowdown and petroleum exploration will be a significant contributor to a sharp recovery,” said Minister van Holst Pellekaan.

Shearwater wins two awards and launches deep water OBN operations

06/07/2020 Posted by Dale

Shearwater has announced two project awards. The first, for Oil India Limited, ensuring the company’s return to India following a successful execution of this year’s season. The second, a major Brazil project by CGG under the governing long-term capacity agreement between the companies.

Shearwater said that its first deep-water OBN award was launched successfully in the second quarter, “breaking the cost curve by implementing an industry leading wide-tow triple string and triple source configuration. Shearwater has through this project further demonstrated its strategic positioning in the deep-water OBN market.”

The utilisation numbers for the first half of the year have remained strong, the company added, resulting from a solid backlog at the start of the year and effective COVID-19 management throughout global operations.

Searcher launches advanced geo-imagery search engine, GeoClerk

06/07/2020 Posted by Dale

Searcher has announced the launch of its latest Searcher Technology Product, GeoClerk -- an advanced geo-imagery search engine that utilizes machine learning to intelligently extract imagery and surrounding data from all types of documents and classify them into intuitive and geologically relevant categories.

Traditional search functionality queries documents by text and are unable to instinctively provide context to an image beyond words. GeoClerk, through its use of algorithmic learning, interacts with internal document libraries, public sources, and institutional subscriptions to identify, define and present images in categories which are relevant to the exploration industry and the work of geoscientists.

Paul Larsen, Vice President of Sales & Commercial at Searcher, said, “Images, tables and maps are generally created by great minds that interpret complex theories and a large magnitude of data. F

LNG industry facing ‘strong headwinds’ from all sides

30/06/2020 Posted by Dale

The Resources and Energy Quarterly June 2020 release has confirmed the critical role resources and energy exports play in supporting the Australian economy but points to challenges ahead.

According to the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, the value of Australia’s resources and energy exports set a record $293 billion in 2019-20, up from $281 billion in 2018-19. The resources sector, including oil and gas, accounted for more than a quarter (28 per cent) of Australia’s GDP growth in 2019.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports have more than doubled over the last few years and are contributing significantly to this growth.

US LNG exports decline as buyers have all the flexibility

30/06/2020 Posted by Dale

Following the continued cancellation of US LNG cargoes, data and analytics company GlobalData, says buyers hold all the aces in the current COVID-19 inflicted climate which has impacted investment decisions on major LNG projects.

Adrian Lara, Senior Oil & Gas Analyst at GlobalData, said: “One of the reasons why the US is experiencing a high number of cargo cancellations has to do with the flexibility embedded in the selling of contracts, which is proving to be an advantage for LNG buyers.

The US tolling scheme establishes a penalty generally equal to agreed liquefaction fixed costs of US$2 to US$3 per million British Thermal Units (mmbtu), which is normally a lower penalty when compared to the penalty in traditional LNG take-or-pay contracts.

Knowledgette Partners with PESA to Promote Oil and Gas e-Learning

30/06/2020 Posted by Dale

Palo Alto, CA (June 19, 2020) -- Knowledgette, an online learning platform specializing in bite-sized video lectures for the oil and gas industry, and the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA) have partnered to deliver even more learning resources to individuals in the oil and gas industry.

“Furthering our mission to deliver short, in-depth, and engaging content individuals at all stages of their career in the oil and gas industry, we are thrilled to add PESA to our partner network,” said Dr. Shipeng Fu, Knowledgette’s Founder and CEO.