Norwegian E&P company Aker BP is upping the ante this year with a turbo-charged exploration program in 2019 aimed at tripling production by 2025. The company said from the launchpad of a strong performance in 2018, it now plans to cut production costs from US$12 to US$7 per barrel and to significantly increase dividend payments to shareholders. “Excellent execution and rapid change towards lower cost, lower emissions and improved efficiency are key ingredients to value creation in Aker BP.
Feature Articles
Montara back on line after maintenance shutdown
Jadestone Energy has restarted production at the Montara oil field after a shutdown for maintenance and inspection dating back to November 2018. The independent oil and gas company announced that operations had restarted at the field, located offshore north-west Australia, on January 11 and that production volumes would be ramped up while final checks are concluded. The entire facility will be restarted, including both the oil production system and the gas system, which enables gas-lift and gas re-injection so as to optimise production operations as rapidly as possible.
Australian LNG hit new highs in 2018
Australian LNG exports reached 69.5 Mt in 2018, up 23.0% from 56.5 Mt in 2017, EnergyQuest has revealed in its latest LNG report. The energy advisory firm said the start-up of the Ichthys project during 2018 and continued good performance of Wheatstone, which started production from Train 2 during 2018, has made a major contribution to the growth in Australian exports. The long-awaited Prelude project also began production in late December with the first cargoes expected in early 2019. The report further revealed that: Notwithstanding media headlines about “record” Queensland LNG exports, east coast exports only grew by 0.3 Mt.
Norway anticipates accelerated oil and gas production
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s has predicted that oil and gas production will recover from a slight dip in 2019 and increase in the period 2020 to 2023 as it approaches record production set in 2004. The NPD Director General, Bente Nyland, said: “The activity level on the Norwegian Shelf is high. Production forecasts for the next few years are promising and lay a foundation for substantial revenues, both for the companies and the Norwegian society. There is considerable interest in exploring for oil and gas.
CGG flags solid Q4 revenue performance
CGG says it anticipates fourth quarter revenue for 2018 of around $432 million, up 16% year-on-year and 54% sequentially. In a financial update the Paris-headquartered company said it expected segment geoscience fourth quarter 2018 revenue of around $108 million, up 16% sequentially. CGG anticipates segment Multi-Client sales of around $219 million for the fourth quarter of 2018, the highest quarterly segment revenue since Q4 2015. After-sales are expected to be around $114 million.
Alaska Gasline Development Corp tops capex charts in North America
Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC) is the top spender among all oil and gas companies in North America, in terms of new build capital expenditure (capex) to be spent during 2018–2025, on planned and announced projects across midstream and downstream segments (including petrochemicals). This was revealed in a report by data and analytics company GlobalData which confirmed that AGDC tops the list with capex of US$37.3bn, followed by Canada Stewart Energy and NextDecade Corp with capex of US$30.3bn and US$28.4bn, respectively.
Calima spuds three-well drilling campaign in British Columbia
ASX-listed Calima Energy has spud of the first well of a three well programme to test the prospectivity of the Montney Formation in the company’s 72,000 acre lease holdings in British Columbia, Canada. The Calima-1 vertical well, Calima Tommy A-54-C/94-G-09, is planned to be drilled to a total depth of 1,860m. Calima said core data will be collected over a substantial section of the Montney interval followed by the acquisition of a full suite of wireline logs.
Mount Barker “big winner” from AER approval of new $33 million natural gas pipeline
The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has given its approval to a proposed extension of Australian Gas Networks’ (AGN) South Australian natural gas network to Mount Barker. The approval, granted in late December, is for a new 40km, $33 million natural gas pipeline extending the existing natural gas network from Murray Bridge, through Monarto South and Kanmantoo, to the Mount Barker region. Welcoming the AER final approval, AGN Chief Customer Officer, Mr Andrew Staniford, said the company was able to move ahead with finalising specific technical details and to once again engage with affected landholders along the proposed pipeline route.
Bass Oil backs out of Indonesian deal
Australian-based Indonesian oil producer, Bass Oil has decided to withdraw from the acquisition of a 100% participating interest in the North Madura Production Sharing Contract (PSC) (Java) from AziPac Limited. Bass Oil announced that finalisation of the acquisition was subject to the execution of a detailed sale and purchase agreement and Bass being satisfied with the results of its due diligence enquiries on the two AziPac subsidiaries - which were to be acquired by Bass to effect the transaction.
Sercel Awarded Contract for 100,000-Channel 508XT Land Seismic Acquisition System
CGG announces that Sercel has been awarded a contract by a major data acquisition company to supply land seismic equipment for a large onshore 3D seismic survey in the Middle East. The contract includes 100,000 Sercel 508XT channels equipped with strings of 12 SG-10 geophones. This large-scale 3D project encompasses several diverse environments, including areas with limited access, such as industrial complexes, agricultural land and urban areas. The 508XT system is an ideal choice for these challenging conditions: its unique fault-tolerant cross-technology (X-Tech®) architecture, including local storage and automatic data rerouting, simplifies field operations and enables continuous acquisition.