Production has started from Train 2 at the Wheatstone Project’s onshore facility near Onslow in Western Australia. Woodside announced that production from the Chevron-operated LNG plant, fed by offshore gas from the lago, Julimar and Brunello fields, had commenced and was running smoothly Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said the safe start-up had demonstrated the success of the project as part of Woodside’s growth strategy and the company’s legacy of safely delivering domestic gas and LNG to Western Australia and the world for over 30-years.
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Cooper suspends Sole flow back due to foul weather
Cooper Energy has taken a decision to suspend operations at its Sole well offshore Victoria in the Gippsland Basin due to adverse weather conditions. The E&P company said it had battened down the hatches after the Bureau of Meteorology had red flagged encroaching conditions that were “outside operating limits for the forthcoming weekend.” “In such weather conditions safe operations of the Sole flow back cannot be assured and therefore preparations for the flow back have been suspended until the weather forecast improves.
OPEC trio ready to red card Russia and Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia and Russia’s desire to open the spigots to cool the surging price of oil is heading for a World Cup style gang tackle from Iran, Venezuela and Iraq at the OPEC meeting in Vienna on Friday. According to Bloomberg, quoting Iran OPEC representative Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, any agreement to raise or cut output agreement requires unanimity from the Vienna meeting and any attempt at increased production will meet with resistance. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has suggested a desired output of 1.
CGG Completes Mozambique Multi-Client Survey in Zambezi Delta
CGG has completed acquisition of 15,400 km2 of 3D marine seismic data in the outer Zambezi Delta Basin, west of the Beira High. The survey area covers blocks Z5-C and Z5-D and surrounding non-held acreage. This is the first survey to be conducted following the agreement CGG signed with Mozambique’s Instituto Nacional de Petroleo (INP) in 2017 for the acquisition of a new multi-client program. CGG said the fast-track PreSTM data set will be available in Q4 2018 in anticipation of a licence round during 2019 and final PreSDM deliverables will be made available in Q4 2019.
Local government “out of its depth” opposing oil drilling in the Great Australian Bight
Independent energy consultant Dr Graeme Bethune, CEO EnergyQuest, contributed this article on exploration in the Great Australian Bight It’s ironic SA’s local government is being manipulated to oppose oil exploration in the Great Australian Bight. Councils’ claims, led by Kangaroo Island, include that they express the ‘voice of hundreds of thousands’, drilling threatens tourism, ecosystems will become dysfunctional and regulation will be poor. Local government has fallen under the spell of experienced propagandists, the Wilderness Society, which funded a visit to Norway by KI’s Mayor to protest Bight drilling and lecture Norwegians on the evils of oil exploration.
Equinor toasts its ‘first’ oil discovery at the Utsira High
Norwegian multinational energy company Equinor, formerly Statoil, and partners Lundin and Spirit Energy have struck oil in the PL 167 licence at the Utsira High in the North Sea with a discovery estimated to contain 15-35 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalents. The wildcat well 16/1-29S is located in the central part of the North Sea and was drilled by the Deepsea Bergen drilling rig, which is now scheduled for appraisal drilling duties at another nearby well operated by Equinor, 15/3-10 in production licence 025.
Polarcus awarded seismic survey projects in Australia and Europe
Melbana Energy has awarded Polarcus the contract to undertake a 3D seismic survey over the Beehive Prospect, which is one of the largest undrilled hydrocarbon structures in Australia. The Beehive 3D Seismic Survey is being operated by Australian energy company Santos pursuant to an operations services agreement and is fully funded by French major Total and Santos. Melbana Energy said the Beehive 3D survey is expected to be commenced in July and completed before the end of August 2018. “The survey is a typical 3D survey using methods and procedures similar to others conducted in Australian waters,” the company said.
CGG Adds Two New Surveys to Anadarko Basin Coverage
CGG has completed acquisition of its Chickasha 3D survey in Grady and Caddo Counties, Oklahoma. CGG has also purchased the rights to the Ft. Reno 3D survey in Canadian County, adding to its continuously growing data library. CGG said the addition of these two surveys, along with the company's Yukon survey, "will provide extensive coverage of the Scoop and Stack play in the Anadarko Basin and will provide our clients with greater insight into the geology of the area.
Searcher Completes 3D Reprocessing Project in PNG
Searcher Seismic has announced the expansion of its modern, high-quality and exploration focused seismic, magnetic and geochemical focused production offerings offshore Papua New Guinea with the completion of the Laurabada UltracubeTM 3D reprocessing project. The Laurabada UltracubeTM project entailed the reprocessing of two open-file 3D datasets with a modern broadband de-ghosting and pre-stack depth migration sequence over what is highly sought-after acreage. The UltracubeTM is split into two cubes: The Eastern cube is near-shore, shallow water whilst the Western cube is deep-water in the Gulf of Papua.
Geoscience study sees below the salt to solve exploration challenges in Southwest Africa
Surmounting the significant challenges of mapping deep structures below salt with seismic data alone, a new non-seismic study which includes the Gabon to Angola margin, encourages further interest in the largely under-explored Southwest Africa offshore region. The newly-released Southwest Africa Margin SEEBASE® multi-client Study and GIS from Frogtech Geoscience focuses on syn-rift basement evolution highlighting the pre-salt petroleum plays that constitute the main target following the recently discovered giant field accumulation in the South Atlantic-conjugate margin of the Santos basin in Brazil.