Latest News

Total withdraws from American Petroleum Institute

22/01/2021 Posted by Dale

Total has withdrawn from the American Petroleum Institute (API), citing differences over API’s position on climate change.

The French energy giant said this followed a detailed analysis of API’s climate change position, whereafter it decided not to renew its membership for 2021.

Total said it assesses all industry associations it is a member of each year to ensure they are aligned with the group’s climate change position.

The six key points it uses to test this alignment are:

Total said that following the 2019 and 2020 reviews, API's positions were assessed as "partially aligned" with those of the Group.

Chevron personnel on Barrow Island at the carbon injection facility

Chevron invests in carbon capture start-up Blue Planet

22/01/2021 Posted by Dale

Chevron has announced a Series C investment in San Jose-based Blue Planet Systems Corporation, a start-up that manufactures and develops carbonate aggregates and carbon capture technology intended to reduce the carbon intensity of industrial operations.

The San Ramon headquartered company said: “Chevron Technology Ventures’ ongoing investment in carbon capture and utilization technologies supports Chevron’s focus on a diverse portfolio of lower-carbon solutions."

In connection with its investment, Chevron and Blue Planet also executed a letter of intent to collaborate on potential pilot projects and commercial development in key geographies, with the goal of jointly advancing lower-carbon opportunities.

Blue Planet creates carbonate-based building aggregate made from flue gas-captured CO2.

Norwest Energy raises $2 million for Perth Basin exploration well

22/01/2021 Posted by Dale

Norwest has completed a successful bookbuild to raise $2 million (before costs) through a placement of shares to a range of sophisticated and institutional investors, including major shareholders, to fund drilling costs of the Lockyer Deep-1 exploration well in the Perth Basin.

Norwest's has a 20% interest in Lockyer Deep-1 , located on EP368 on trend with three significant recent discoveries, for which drilling is targeted during the first half of 2021.

Norwest said funds will also be allocated towards planning and preparation for a 3D seismic survey across EP368 and EP426 (post drilling of Lockyer Deep-1), desktop studies on exploration permit TP/15, and general working capital.

CGG joins mine tailings monitoring research project led by Amira

22/01/2021 Posted by Dale

CGG has become a member of Amira, an independent global not-for-profit organization representing members from the mineral resources industry seeking to enhance, sustain and deliver transformational R&D, innovation and implementation to the benefit of society.

CGG said that as part of its membership, CGG’s Minerals & Mining group is sponsoring an independent industry research program developed in response to several recent and well-documented accidents and catastrophic failures at mine tailings storage facilities (TSF).

The program will evaluate the suitability of a range of monitoring technologies for giving advance warning of dam instability based on the analysis and modelling of data collected at TSFs provided by key mining company sponsors.

Australia exported record LNG cargoes in 2020

19/01/2021 Posted by Dale

EnergyQuest estimates that Australia exported a record 78.0 Mt of LNG in 2020, up from 77.5 Mt in 2019. This is a good result given the disruptions to Gorgon, the fact that Prelude hadn’t produced since early February, issues seen at Wheatstone with reduced production, and the COVID-19 destruction of LNG demand, particularly early in the year.

Australian production was above Qatar nameplate capacity of 77 Mtpa. (The precise level of Qatar LNG exports is uncertain because Qatar does not disclose its actual LNG export volumes.)

The Australian projects operated at 89% of operation nameplate capacity of 87.8 Mtpa.

Western Australian production was up by 5% on 2019 to 43.7 Mt, but Northern Territory again proved the standout with production up by 11% on 2019 to 11.7 Mt.

Searcher releases MapStand and NVentures data layers on its on-demand sAIsmic platform

15/01/2021 Posted by Dale

Searcher has launched new data layers functionality on its on-demand seismic web platform, sAIsmic, from Searcher’s partnerships with MapStand and NVentures.

The new MapStand and NVentures layers functionality on sAIsmic with an info tab that allows users to view blocks, wells and field information, anywhere in the world, providing valuable location context for sAIsmic users.

“We are very excited to have launched this latest functionality on sAIsmic through the partnerships with MapStand and NVentures which highly complement the on-demand platform,” Alan Hopping, VP at Searcher stated.

“Continually developing, adding functionality and new data to the sAIsmic platform is Searcher’s primary focus to assist in advancing our clients exploration efforts.

PGS picks up as multiclient sales double in fourth quarter

15/01/2021 Posted by Dale

PGS expects to report segment revenues for Q4 2020 of approximately $158 million. Contract revenues ended at approximately $21 million. MultiClient pre-funding revenues were approximately $61 million and MultiClient Late Sales approximately $70 million.

“We achieved a sequential revenue increase from our vessel operations in Q4, and a MultiClient pre-funding level benefitting from additional sales from ongoing surveys. Our MultiClient Late Sales more than doubled, compared to the average in the previous three quarters of the year.

"The drivers for the increased Late Sales were a mix of the usual seasonal Q4 increase and sales relating to licensing rounds in West Africa and Brazil,” PGS President and CEO, Rune Olav Pedersen, said.

Searcher announces onshore Peru multiclient campaign

15/01/2021 Posted by Dale

Searcher has announced a new onshore Peru Campaign, in collaboration with PeruPetro S.A. 2D & 3D Seismic Rectification and a Well Atlas including post-drill analysis to provide a renewed and enhanced dataset to support future bid rounds, regional evaluations and due diligence of existing commercial opportunities.

The Onshore Peru 2D & 3D Rectification consists of both 2D and 3D vintage seismic data which has been rectified with Searcher’s proprietary post-stack reprocessing method. The post-stack reprocessing rectifies navigation, metadata, amplitude, phase and time to create a contiguous database that can be easily loaded into any interpretation software.

Ironbark exploration well delivers a disappointing duster

12/01/2021 Posted by Dale

The eagerly-anticipated Ironbark exploration well offshore north-western Australia has failed to produce hydrocarbon discoveries and will be plugged and abandoned.

The well in WA-359-P had hoped to discover up to 15Tcf of gas, measuring up to Gorgon and was drilled to a total depth of 5,618m, intersecting the primary target of the Mungaroo Formation at 5,275m.

However, Beach Energy announced the disappointment last week, saying in a statement: “no significant hydrocarbon shows were encountered in the target sandstones. The exploration well will now be plugged and abandoned, in line with pre-drill planning.”

The Ironbark well spudded on October 31 and was drilled by Diamond Offshore’s Ocean Apex semi-submersible.

Santos makes FID for Timor Sea drilling and expansion

12/01/2021 Posted by Dale

Santos has made a final investment decision for the $306 million, Phase 3C infill drilling program at the Bayu-Undan field in the Timor Sea offshore Timor-Leste.

The Adelaide-based company said the program would include three production wells (two platform and one subsea) to develop additional natural gas and liquid reserves, extending field life as well as production from the offshore facilities and the Darwin LNG plant.

Santo, with 68.4 per cent of the Bayu-Undan joint venture, became operator in June last year after acquiring ConocoPhillips’ northern Australia and Timor-Leste assets.

The Noble Tim Proser jack-up rig will de deployed to drill the wells with the first spud scheduled for the second quarter of 2021 and production targeted in the third quarter.