Australia’s Talon Petroleum is making a bid for 100 % takeover of EnCounter Oil, which is the owner of two UK North Sea licenses. EnCounter, a private UK-based company, was formed in 2012 by the former executive management team of EnCore Oil and was involved in 25 wells and produced significant hydrocarbon discoveries at Breagh, Cladhan, Catcher, Varadero. EnCore was acquired by Premier Oil in 2011 for £221 million. Talon said the completion of the transaction is subject to final legal and financial due diligence on EnCounter and all required shareholder approvals.
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Lightning strikes for Otto Energy with significant Gulf Coast discovery
Otto Energy shareholders had reason to celebrate yesterday after the ASX-listed exploration and production company announced a ‘Lightning strike’ in the Gulf that spiked its share price 69 per cent, to $0.071, before closing at $0.060 yesterday. The West Perth-headquartered company, which is already producing shallow oil from its SM 71 well, Louisiana, revealed that exploration well Green 1, which is testing the Lightning prospect in Matagorda County, Texas, had reached total depth of 15,218 feet. Otto, which has a 37.
Australia leads FPSO deployments in Oceania by 2025
Australia will account for all floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs) planned for deployment in Oceania during 2019–2025, according to GlobalData. The data and analytic company’s report reveals that 67 planned and announced FPSOs are expected to start operations globally between 2019 and 2025. Of these, 26 are planned and 41 are announced. In Oceania, all the five upcoming FPSOs – Barossa, Browse 1, Browse 2, Buffalo (Re-Development), and Crux – are announced FPSOs. Woodside Browse Ltd. leads among operators with two upcoming FPSOs, which are expected to commence operations during the outlook period.
FAR completes survey across WA-458-P permit
Late last quarter FAR concluded stakeholder engagements with CGG to join in the much anticipated Davros Extension Multiclient 3D Survey. FAR received a Notice of Start of Acquisition from CGG in mid-December as the MV Geo Coral began its mobilisation from southeast Asia. After a brief port call in Broome, the vessel commenced deployment of in-water equipment whilst on route to the survey area. Post end of the quarter, seismic acquisition across permit WA-458-Pbegan. The survey was safely and securely completed in mid-January and FAR anticipates receiving the final processed data in the second half of 2019.
AGIG Pluto facility taps into more gas for WA
The Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG) has announced the successful commissioning of the Pluto Inlet Station – the new facility connecting the Pluto LNG Project to the Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline (DBNGP). The successful commissioning allows additional gas supply to reach Western Australian consumers. Woodside – which operates the Pluto LNG plant near Karratha in WA – engaged AGIG’s development group to undertake a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) study to convert an existing outlet meter station to an inlet facility, along with the required compression.
APPEA says gas industry to play key role in hydrogen future
APPEA has welcomed the release of the Australian Labor Party’s National Hydrogen Plan. “There is tremendous interest in hydrogen as a new, cleaner fuel. Labor’s promise to direct $1 billion into funding of hydrogen research and commercial development would spur investment into this emerging technology,” said APPEA Chief Executive Malcolm Roberts. The Hydrogen Strategy Group, chaired by the Chief Scientist, Professor Alan Finkel AO, has highlighted the opportunity for Australia to export liquified hydrogen alongside liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet the growing demand for cleaner energy across the Asia-Pacific.
New CGG Survey Supports Gabon’s 12th Offshore Licensing Round
Building on the success of its 25,000 km2 3D BroadSeis™ survey, which led to the recent Boudji-1 and Ivela-1 oil discoveries, CGG is extending its Gabon multi-client data footprint with a 9,800-km long-offset 2D seismic survey in an unexplored deepwater area of the South Basin. A subset of the data over the offered license blocks will be available in advance of Gabon’s 12th offshore licensing round planned for June 2019. CGG said the new 2D data will help define the full extent of existing and new plays in the region.
Woodside announces Scarborough contracts
Woodside has awarded four contracts for front-end engineering design activities for the proposed Scarborough project located offshore Australia. The Perth-headquartered company said the contracts were for engineering activities related to the upstream development’s floating production unit, the export trunkline, and the subsea umbilical risers and flowlines. Woodside said each contract includes an option to progress to execute phase activities, which is subject to, among other conditions, a positive final investment decision (FID) being taken on the project by the Scarborough Joint Venture.
China to account for 44% of Asia’s crude oil refining capacity in 2023
China will drive the majority of growth in the crude oil refining industry in Asia between 2018 and 2023, contributing 44% of Asia’s crude oil refining capacity within five years. That was the conclusion drawn by data and analytics company, GlobalData, in its company report entitled: 'China Crude Oil Refinery Outlook to 2023'. The report reveals that the total refining capacity of China in 2018 was 15,994 thousand barrels per day (mbd), which was 46% of Asia's total refining capacity in 2018. The country’s total refining capacity is forecast to increase at an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 4.
Schlumberger revenue beats estimates ahead of upbeat forecast for 2019
Schlumberger has reported fourth quarter net earnings of US$538 billion, or 39c a share, compared to losses of US$2.2 billion, or $1.63 per share, in the corresponding period a year earlier. Schlumberger Chairman and CEO Paal Kibsgaard commented, “Full-year 2018 revenue of $32.8 billion increased 8% year-on-year and grew for the second successive year. Performance was driven by North America, where revenue of $12.0 billion increased 26% due to the results of our OneStim® business, which grew by 41%. Full-year international revenue of $20.4 billion was essentially flat compared with 2017.