Bridgeport Energy has announced that its BDR-1 rig, which is capable of drilling to depths of up to 2,500m, commenced the first of five oil development wells on 31 August. The two-month campaign was started in the Surat Basin on the Moonie field with Moonie-46, which will be follow by Moonie-45. Thereafter the rig will move to the Cooper Basin where it will drill three development wells on the Utopia field. Bridgeport said the rig will then go back into service mode to continue with infield workover activities planned for the balance of the year at Bridgeport’s producing fields.
Industry
ExxonMobil drilling two exploration wells in Gippsland Basin
ExxonMobil has commenced an offshore exploration drilling program in the Gippsland Basin in the search for new sources of gas supplies. ExxonMobil said that it was drilling two exploration wells, Baldfish and Hairtail, on the VIC/P70 block, located approximately 90km off the East Gippsland Victorian coast, in which Exxon’s Australian subsidiary Esso Deepwater Gippsland holds a 100 percent interest. The operation is expected to take several months and the wells are being drilled by Diamond Offshore’s Ocean Monarch semi-submersible drilling rig.
Woodside targeting Senegalese oilfield production by 2022
Woodside, is aiming to commercialise Senegal’s first ever oilfield by 2022, Mr Jamie Stewart, Woodside’s Business Integration Manager for the Senegal Field Development, told the Paydirt 2018 Africa Down Under mining conference in Perth last week. In an update on the SNE Development – Phase 1, Mr Stewart said a number of important items have already been ticked off in the lead-up to a Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2019 for the world-scale project, with a number of key decisions on the horizon.
CGG Develops a Centre for Advanced Imaging for PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd
CGG and PETRONAS Carigali, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), have agreed on collaboration to provide access to CGG’s latest technology and expertise in high-end seismic and multi-physics imaging and reservoir characterization, the Paris-based geoscience company announced. CGG said it had received a five-year contract by PETRONAS Carigali to develop a Centre for Advanced Imaging (CAI) to be operated by PETRONAS Carigali at its headquarters in the landmark PETRONAS Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
APPEA: New Ministers but same energy policy mountains to climb
The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) has congratulated Australia’s new Minister for Energy, the Hon Angus Taylor and also welcomed the reappointment of Senator Matt Canavan as Minister for Resources and Northern Australia. “APPEA looks forward to working with Mr Taylor. He has been given a huge policy challenge,” APPEA Chief Executive Dr Malcolm Roberts said. “Mr Taylor’s extensive commercial understanding will be critical in finding solutions to the competing arms of containing prices, maintaining reliable supply and attracting new investment to the energy sector. Australia’s oil and gas industry welcomes the opportunity to work with the Minister.
Gazprom will be the big spenders on global oil and gas projects to 2025
Gazprom, China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec) and Royal Dutch Shell are predicted to be the big global spenders on planned and announced projects among oil and gas companies. That is according to data and analytics company, GlobalData, which revealed that Gazprom tops the list with estimated capital expenditure of US$160bn expected to be spent on 84 oil and gas projects globally to 2025. Sinopec and Royal Dutch Shell follow with US$87bn (74 projects) and US$86bn (91 projects) respectively.
Bass says steady oil prices piqued production in July
Melbourne-based oil and gas producer Bass Oil says continued high monthly average oil prices of US$68.52 had piqued performance at its 55%-owned Tangai-Sukananti oil field onshore Sumatra, Indonesia, in July. The company said during July production volumes had totalled 11,350 barrels of oil (6,243 barrels net to Bass) and sales volumes 11,628 barrels of oil. However, production and sales had been impacted by scale problems at production wells. Bass said a remediation program underway was expected to restore daily production levels to those achieved in May, “with a strong full year (31 December 18) of oil production still expected”.
MGPalaeo and Petrosys to expand GPinfo’s Capabilities
MGPalaeo, Australian biostratigraphic experts, and Petrosys, an industry leader in mapping, surface-modeling and data-management software solutions, have signed an agreement that will allow data from MGPaleo’s AUSTRALIS™ geological database to be made available within the GPinfo data visualisation and manipulation package. In a media release, MGPalaeo announced that from August 2018, GPinfo subscribers will be able to view a high-level summary of all available geological data (biostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy, and sequence stratigraphic picks, plus wireline logs, checkshot surveys, deviation data, and more) within MGPalaeo’s AUSTRALIS database.
Ironbark takes its Cue for a delayed crescendo
Cue Energy has been granted a 12-month extension and suspension on exploration permit WA-359-P, host to the Ironbark gas prospect offshore Western Australia, entailing work commitment deferrals. The Melbourne headquartered oil and gas company said the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator had notified it of the extension, which was to allow Cue to time for detailed well planning using newly available data and preparing for drilling the Ironbark-1 well, which is targeted for 2019.
Wood wins new contract for Scarborough gas field development
Wood has been awarded a new contract by Woodside to support the execution of concept definition for the proposed Scarborough upstream development, offshore Western Australia. Wood said secured under a long-standing master services agreement, this latest contract extends the company’s 35-year relationship with Woodside across their asset portfolio. Concept definition level engineering associated with the floating production unit, subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines, flow assurance and overall system integration of the upstream development, will be delivered by Wood’s specialist field development studies team in Houston, US and Perth, Australia.