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ORLA, Texas (Carlsbad Current-Argus) -- An Artesia man is among the victims of Wednesday morning' s fatal oilfield accident near Orla, Texas. The man, who law enforcement officials haven' t yet publicly identified, is around 46 years old. The other victim is an El Paso man who was born in 1973, according to the Loving County Sheriff' s Department.
Chevron has won a U.S. judge’s ruling that a multibillion-dollar pollution judgment issued in Ecuador was procured by fraud, making it less likely that plaintiffs will collect the $9.5 billion award.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said today that the second-largest U.S. oil company provided enough evidence that a 2011 judgment on behalf of rain forest dwellers in the country’s Lago Agrio area was secured by bribing a judge and ghostwriting court documents. Kaplan oversaw a seven-week nonjury trial over Chevron’s allegations.
“The decision in the Lago Agrio case was obtained by corrupt means,” Kaplan said in the opinion. “The defendants here may not be allowed to benefit from that in any way.”
Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, was ordered to pay $19 billion to a group of farmers and fishermen by the Ecuadorean court. The award was reduced to $9.5 billion on Nov. 12 by the Ecuadorean National Court of Justice, the nation’s highest tribunal.
The Ecuadorean villagers, and activists working on their behalf, argued the oil producer should be held financially responsible for pollution of the Amazon rainforest by Texaco Inc. from the 1960s through the early 1990s. Chevron, which bought Texaco in 2001, claims the company already paid $40 million to clean up its share of the drilling contamination.
Cases Pending
The Ecuadoreans have sued Chevron in Brazil, Argentina and Canada, where the company has assets that can be seized. The Court of Appeal for Ontario ruled in December that the 47 villagers have the right to pursue Chevron’s Canada assets. The other cases are pending.
The ruling bars the plaintiffs from trying to enforce the ruling within the U.S. but not elsewhere, Kaplan said, noting that Chevron had dropped a request for a worldwide injunction.
“This ruling will be very helpful if the plaintiffs continue to try to seek enforcement of a corrupt verdict that was obtained in Ecuador,” John Watson, Chevron’s chairman and chief executive officer, told reporters at the IHS CERAWeek energy conference in Houston today. “Having a judgment like this from a reputable court in the United States will certainly be helpful in preventing enforcement actions elsewhere. We will continue to defend ourselves in any enforcement actions around the world.”
Bribed Judge
In its racketeering case before Kaplan, Chevron alleged that a U.S. lawyer leading the Ecuadoreans, Steven Donziger, and members of his team engaged in “repeated acts of fraud, bribery, money laundering” and obstruction of justice in pursuit of a multibillion-dollar payout.
The company said that Donziger’s team bribed a judge who issued the decision with a promise of $500,000 from the proceeds, ghostwrote the ruling and arranged to have their own damages estimate submitted as independent findings to the court.
“This trial record proved what Chevron has been saying all along -- that Donziger, who professes merely to be a lawyer representing clients, is, in reality, a liar, con man, and criminal who has headed a racketeering enterprise targeting Chevron as its deep-pocketed victim,” Chevron lawyers said in a memorandum filed Dec. 23.
‘Flawed Proceeding’
Morgan Crinklaw, a Chevron spokesman, said in a statement today that Kaplan’s ruling is “a resounding victory for Chevron and our stockholders.”
“It confirms that the Ecuadorean judgment against Chevron is a fraud and the product of a criminal enterprise,” Crinklaw said. “Any court that respects the rule of law will find the Lago Agrio judgment to be illegitimate and unenforceable.”
Chevron shares were up .85 percent to $115.69 at noon in New York.
“This is an appalling decision resulting from a deeply flawed proceeding that overturns a unanimous ruling” by Ecuador’s high court, Donziger said today in a statement. “We believe Judge Kaplan is wrong on the law and wrong on the facts and that he repeatedly let his implacable hostility toward me, my Ecuadorean clients, and their country infect his view of the case.”
Donziger said he will pursue an “immediate and expedited appeal.”
Donziger has argued that he did nothing wrong in Ecuador and that any aggressive tactics he may have used were no worse than Chevron’s actions. Han Shan, a spokesman for the plaintiffs, described them as being “out-gunned on a profound level” against the oil company.
Corrupt Means
“The court assumes there is pollution in the Oriente,” Kaplan wrote, referring to the region of Ecuador where drilling occurred. “The issue here is not what happened in the Oriente more than twenty years ago and who, if anyone, now is responsible for any wrongs then done. It instead is whether a court decision was procured by corrupt means, regardless of whether the cause was just.”
During the trial, Chevron was represented in the courtroom by 10 lawyers, including seven partners, from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Donziger’s team included a group of volunteers and trial lawyers Zoe Littlepage and Richard Friedman, who told Kaplan they were working for discounted fees.
Appellate lawyer Deepak Gupta joined Donziger’s team after the trial concluded. The decision “should be extremely troubling for anybody who cares about the rule of law,” Gupta said in a statement today.
“This court has taken the extraordinary and unprecedented step of appointing itself a worldwide fact-finding commission,” issuing “what is in effect a global anti-collection injunction,” Gupta said.
Financing Firms
Chevron sought to show that its adversaries weren’t lacking in resources, eliciting testimony that they received more than $30 million from sources such as a Pennsylvania trial lawyer, an Internet gambling entrepreneur who was friends with Donziger, and specialty financing firms.
One of the investment firms, Burford Capital Ltd., backed out of a commitment to fund the litigation after learning about fraudulent activities by Donziger, Chevron alleged.
Some celebrities supported the campaign against Chevron, including Trudie Styler, who founded the Rainforest Foundation with her husband, musician Sting, and helped to start a project to make clean water available to forest inhabitants in Ecuador. Styler attended some of the New York court proceedings, bringing her husband to watch Donziger testify.
Public Support
Actress Mia Farrow and actor Danny Glover also voiced support for the campaign, and the case was featured in a documentary, “Crude,” by filmmaker Joe Berlinger. Chevron won access to hundreds of hours of outtakes from the film, which it contended showed Donziger acting inappropriately.
The company said in a Jan. 21 brief filed with the Manhattan court that it spent more than $10 million gathering evidence to build the racketeering case against Donziger.
Donziger, a Harvard Law School graduate, joined the case in a junior role in the late 1990s and gradually rose to a position as a strategist and fundraiser. He contends that Ecuador-based lawyers are now in charge of the case.
Kaplan called the case’s background “extraordinary” and said tactics used by the Ecuadorean plaintiffs “include things that normally come only out of Hollywood -- coded e-mails among Donziger and his colleagues describing their private interactions with and machinations directed at judges and a court-appointed expert.”
Secret Account
The defendants made surreptitious payments to an expert from a secret bank account, a judge who was so inexperienced he used an 18-year old typist to do legal research for his ruling on the Internet in three languages he didn’t speak and a lawyer who invited a film crew to their private strategy meetings, Kaplan said in his ruling.
Kaplan credited Donziger’s initial motives for getting involved in the case, saying he sought “to do well for himself while doing good for others.” However the tactics resulted in a “corrupted” Lago Agrio case,’’ he said.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
Capstone Turbine Corporation, a clean technology manufacturer of microturbine energy systems, announced that it has received orders for 50 Capstone C65 microturbines for oil and gas production in the U.S.
Horizon Power Systems, Capstone' s exclusive oil and gas distributor for the Eagle Ford, Permian, San Juan and Wattenberg shale plays, secured the orders. The orders will bring the total fleet to more than 550 microturbines in operation in Horizon' s area of responsibility, and will serve various stages of oil and gas production, including powering central processing stations, well-head operations and flare reduction.
Capstone manufactures low-emission, durable and highly efficient microturbines for around-the-clock production and optimized wellsite performance.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
Bakken field produces first billion barrels of oil OKLAHOMA CITY Continental Resources has announced that its Bakken field of North Dakota and Montana recently reached the production milestone of 1 Bbbl of llight, sweet crude oil produced. According to data
Halliburton launched recently its Drilling Engineering Solutions (DES) service. As drilling complexities increase, the need for comprehensive solutions continues to grow. DES provides fully integrated, custom-engineered solutions to optimize well design and placement - rom high volume wells to complex environments.
DES combines expertise and experience across multiple Halliburton product service lines: Sperry Drilling, Baroid and Halliburton Drill Bits and Services, and is powered by Landmark Software. The DrillingXpert proprietary solution delivery platform allows DES teams to design an entire performance drilling system on a single platform.
The DrillingXpert platform is built on Landmark’s DecisionSpace Well Engineering software and the Engineer’s Data Model (EDM) application, a well data management solution. Utilizing the widely deployed DecisionSpace platform allows DES to exchange drilling technical information readily and more efficiently.
The core of the DES solution delivery is the Drilling Engineering Solution Centers (DESCs), which provide engineering, monitoring and support.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
BP has announced its intention to establish a separate business to manage its onshore oil and gas assets in the U.S. Lower 48.
The U.S. Lower 48 onshore oil and gas business environment has unique characteristics. Responding to these, the new business will operate separately from the rest of BP and will be designed to adapt to the rapidly changing and hyper-competitive energy landscape in the region. This move is expected to help unlock the significant value associated with BP’s extensive resource position in the U.S. Lower 48 onshore, which BP currently oversees through its Houston-based North America Gas group.
“Over the last few years, we have fundamentally reshaped our North America Gas portfolio,” said BP Upstream Chief Executive Lamar McKay. BP has done so by divesting non-core assets and focusing development in leading U.S. unconventional plays like the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas. “Now it’s time to reshape the way we run the business—and we are very excited about this bold step forward,” he said.
BP will own the new U.S. Lower 48 onshore business. But the business will be led by a separate management team and be housed at a new location in Houston, apart from BP’s Westlake campus. It will have separate governance, processes and systems designed to address the unique competitive and operating environment in the U.S. Lower 48 onshore. BP is expected to begin disclosing separate financials for the new business in 2015.
These changes are chiefly intended to improve competitiveness of the U.S. Lower 48 onshore business through greater speed of innovation, faster decision-making and shorter cycle times from access through to production, together with more efficient cost management.
The changes to BP’s U.S. Lower 48 onshore business are consistent with the group’s strategy of delivering value over volume. BP also believes these moves will enhance efforts to develop industry-leading technology that will be a critical part of BP’s global strategy in unconventional oil and gas resources going forward.
“Participating in the U.S. Lower 48 onshore is key to our upstream strategy because we believe the region will remain at the forefront of innovation and drive global learning in unconventional resources,” McKay said.
The approach BP intends to pursue for its U.S. Lower 48 onshore business is specifically designed in response to the unique business environment in the region. Much of what BP does in other onshore regions around the world will continue to rely on the scale, capital, technology and project management capabilities that only a major international oil company can provide.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
Dominion reported that Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will issue its Environmental Assessment for the Dominion Cove Point LNG liquefaction and export project on May 15.
"We are pleased to reach another important milestone in the development of a project that has very significant economic, environmental and geopolitical benefits," said Diane Leopold, President of Dominion Energy. "Dominion is dedicated to constructing a safe, environmentally compatible and reliable export facility that will be an asset to the community, state and country.
"The proposed export facility will be within the 131-acre footprint of the LNG import facility, which has been in Calvert County for 40 years. No new pipelines, storage tanks or piers are needed at the facility. The company needs about 50 permits and approvals before construction can begin.
Dominion filed notice for the pre-filing process with the FERC in June 2012 that it was planning to add export capability at its Cove Point terminal in Lusby MD in Calvert County on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay.
The FERC has been researching and analyzing the application since then. Dominion filed the application in April 2013 and it now totals more than 21,000 pages.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
Gas rigs rise for second week to rebound from 21 year low BY LYNN DOAN HOUSTON (Bloomberg) Rigs targeting natural gas in the U.S. rose for the second straight week, rebounding from their lowest level in 21 years, as an
ODIHAM, United Kingdom -- Egdon Resources Plc delayed shale gas drilling in northern England until next year to allow time for planning permission and public consultations.
Spain’s government will seek to overturn a ban on fracing in the wine-making region of La Rioja, relying in part on the European Union’s January guidelines for the drilling technique.
The cabinet voted today to file a constitutional challenge to La Rioja’s prohibition on the water-intensive method used to explore for oil and gas. The ban wrongly strips authority from the national government to regulate prospecting and runs contrary to Spanish law and preliminary EU rules that endorse fracing, the cabinet said in a statement.
The decision widens a policy to wrest control from regional governments over fracing. The cabinet this year voted to appeal a similar ban on fracing in Cantabria, a region that like La Rioja is in the north and is relatively rich in water resources.
The move today is a “logical step” given that Spain had previously acted against Cantabria, Juan Klimowitz, co-owner and general manager of exploration consulting firm Gessal in Madrid, said today in an interview. “It makes sense since the regions went outside the national law that covers hydrocarbon exploration.”
The central government began requiring environmental impact assessments on all fracing projects last year before deciding on permits for those that passed. It says allowing environmentally safe prospecting is necessary in a country dependent on oil and gas imports.
Wine has been cultivated for more than 1,000 years in La Rioja, which is home today to more than 500 vineyards including Marques de Riscal SA and Ramon Bilbao SA.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
ODIHAM, United Kingdom -- Egdon Resources plc has announced a summary of the results of an independent review of the shale-gas potential of some of Egdon’s Northern England licences.
MOSCOW -- Salym Petroleum Development N.V. (SPD) has completed the drilling of seven wells designed for its ASP pilot project.
LONDON -- Shale gas could create a new onshore supply chain market for equipment, services and skills across a number of industry sectors worth up to $55.4 bn (£33 bn) by 2032, according to a report by trade body United Kingdom Onshore Operators Group (UKOOG).
PARIS (Bloomberg) -- Technip SA rose to the highest level in almost six months after saying it has received major contracts from oil companies even as industry spending slows. “We have not yet seen a slowdown,” CEO Thierry Pilenko said on a conference call, citing recent orders in Angola, Brazil, Indonesia and the North Sea and expected future revenue from Yamal LNG in the Russian Arctic.
YPF, Argentina’s largest shale oil producer, has signed two contracts for a total of about $1.2 billion to lease 15 drilling rigs to develop the country’s Vaca Muerta shale formation.
The five-year accords adding rigs to the company’s existing 65 were signed with Norwegian Archer Ltd.’s DLS Argentina Ltd. unit, and Helmerich & Payne Inc., the Buenos Aires-based producer said today in an e-mailed statement. Helmerich & Payne, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, will provide 10 rigs while Hamilton, Bermuda-based Archer will provide the rest. The contracts have an option for a three-year extension, it said.
YPF is pledging to invest $37 billion through 2018 and is seeking partners to develop Vaca Muerta, an area the size of Belgium that contains an estimated 27 Bbbl of shale oil, the world’s fourth-largest deposit. YPF said it has 19 rigs in Vaca Muerta’s Loma Campana area, which it is jointly developing with Chevron.
The first rig is expected to start operating during the fourth quarter of 2014, said Helmerich & Payne, the largest onshore drilling rig contractor in the U.S. The other nine rigs are expected to be deployed sequentially until reaching full capacity by the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2015, the company said.
The Loma Campana area has 130 wells producing 20,000 boed, YPF said.
Argentina is Latin America’s second most active driller, one rig behind Mexico, according to a Baker Hughes report published Feb. 11. Argentina’s count rose by 26 units, or 37.7%, in the report of active rigs for January.
Rigs in the Latin American region, which accounts for 11% of the global total, fell by 16% to 401, the report said.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
WISE COUNTY, Texas -- A Dallas jury awarded a family $3 million for the illnesses they suffered from exposure to contaminated ground water, solid toxic waste and airborne chemicals generated by natural gas hydraulic fracturing operations surrounding their 40-acre ranch.
HOUSTON -- BP has announced that Team RECon of the University of Michigan has won the firm’s Ultimate Field Trip (UFT) 2014 U.S. competition, designed to identify top students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Occidental Petroleum Corp. fell the most in seven months after a Los Angeles-area city imposed a moratorium on new drilling.
The unanimous vote by the Carson, California, city council on March 18 imposed a 45-day hold on oil and gas activity and also halted negotiations on development of about 200 wells until Los Angeles-based Occidental completes the spinoff. Carson is the third local government in the state since September to seek restrictions on drilling.
Occidental fell 3.9% to $91.44 as of 12:25 p.m. in New York after earlier sliding the most on an intraday basis since July. It was the worst performer on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
“There are too many unknowns and too much of a chance of something bad happening if the city allows fracing or other similar techniques,” Albert Robles, the Carson council member who proposed the moratorium, said yesterday in a telephone interview. “I don’t think these techniques have ever gotten enough scrutiny.”
California Governor Jerry Brown has introduced new regulations to govern the practice of hydraulic fracturing. The Democrat has stopped short of a statewide ban.
Occidental in 2011 filed applications to build a production facility that would consist of as many as 202 wells pinpointing oil reservoirs at depths of as much as 13,500 ft, according to a March 18 report to the Carson city council.
The company assured city officials in a March 10 email that it would not use fracing in the project or any techniques commonly used to stimulate production in old wells. Occidental also said that establishing a broad moratorium would run afoul of state law. An Occidental spokeswoman didn’t return a call and email seeking comment.
The Los Angeles City Council last month unanimously approved a motion to impose a moratorium on fracing that will still require a final vote to go into effect. Santa Cruz County approved a temporary moratorium on fracing in September.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
Sercel has unveiled its new broadband vibrator, the Nomad 65 Neo, at the Geo 2014 convention in Bahrain.
The Nomad 65 Neo optimizes broadband acquisition, by bringing down the sweep start’s frequency at full drive from 7 to 5.4Hz. Therefore, the time spent in emitting the very low frequencies from 1Hz will be significantly reduced, with a positive impact on crew production and cost. The Nomad Neo will facilitate the recording of an extra low frequency bandwidth that has proved to be very beneficial for vertical resolution and seismic inversion. Many of the vibrator’s components have also evolved to provide improved ergonomics.
A newly developed feature of the new Nomad 65 Neo is the IPM (Intelligent Power Management). This onboard software technology reduces environmental impact by performing an electronic control and regulation of the vibrator engine’s RPM to match engine load, allowing for an appreciable fuel saving. This option can also now be integrated into previous-generation Nomad 65 vibrators.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
HOUSTON (Bloomberg) -- Dave Lesar sees better days ahead for Halliburton Co. in North America’s oversupplied fracing market. The more than two-year glut in pressure-pumping equipment used to shoot water, sand and chemicals underground to release trapped oil and natural gas is easing “much faster” than expected, the CEO said.
ESSEN, Germany -- Commissioned by the Czech energy company MND a. s., Essen-based DMT GmbH & Co. KG has carried out seismic measurements in the southern Czech Republic close to the Austrian border. The purpose of the investigation was to detect oil and gas reserves at depths of between 800 and 4,500 sq m.
TGS has announced two new multi-client onshore 3D surveys, Freeport and Waterford, located within the central Appalachian basin in Ohio. These high resolution, wide aperture surveys will provide critical data for geotechnical evaluations of the emerging Utica-Point Pleasant fairway while enabling further exploration and development of secondary zones within the Cambrian to Devonian interval.
Freeport covers 1,217 sq km across Carroll, Harrison, Tuscarawas, Guernsey, Belmont and Noble counties in central Ohio and is located south of TGS' existing Firestone (1,054 sq km) survey. Waterford covers 210 sq km in Washington County, Ohio, within the current southern core of the Utica-Point Pleasant wet gas window.
TGS will support these new investments with data from its expansive well log library and new advanced products that will improve play, trend and prospect delineation. In addition to over 7,000 LAS well logs in the Ohio portion of the Appalachian basin, TGS also offers its proprietary formation tops database, updated well performance data through its Longbow solution and Basin Temperature Modeling (BTM) products.
"With the addition of Freeport and Waterford, TGS will have more than 2,480 sq km of high quality 3D seismic data and an extensive amount of geological data over the Utica formation," stated Rod Starr, senior V.P. Western Hemisphere for TGS. "No other company offers a more comprehensive geoscience data library over the emerging liquid rich Utica."
Acquisition of both surveys will begin Q4 2014 utilizing high channel count wireless equipped 3D crews. Data processing will be performed by TGS' Calgary-based subsidiary, Arcis Seismic Solutions, and available to clients late Q4 2015.
This survey is supported by industry funding.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta -- Suncor Energy has reported an employee fatality at its oil sands site on Sunday, April 20, 2014.
CGG and Industrialization & Energy Services Company (TAQA) have signed a Framework Agreement which strengthens and extends their historical and long-term partnership in the Middle East. The new agreement provides a simplified, more focused structure to better address the growing industry demand for high-end seismic solutions throughout the region.
CGG and TAQA are currently shareholders of two Joint Ventures in the Middle East: ARGAS, a Saudi company established in 1966, covering geophysical activities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), of which TAQA owns 51% and CGG owns 49%; ARDISEIS, a company established in 2006 in Dubai, covering land & shallow water data acquisition activities in the rest of the Middle East, of which CGG owns 51% and TAQA 49%. Through the Framework Agreement, ARGAS will become the sole shareholder of ARDISEIS, with ARGAS and ARDISEIS pooling all their resources to create a more efficient and powerful combined ARGAS Group. The new ARGAS group will have a stronger capital base, will cover a larger business scope, and will be 51% owned by TAQA and 49% owned by CGG.
Under the terms of the Framework Agreement, CGG and TAQA also extend their partnership to Seabed Geosolutions (SBGS), the Joint Venture addressing the seabed data acquisition market, which is owned 60% by FUGRO and 40% by CGG. In the same way as CGG will support the new ARGAS Group on all technological, industrial and commercial matters relating to land data acquisition, SBGS will provide similar support on all such matters relating to seabed data acquisition.
In addition, the Framework Agreement formalizes a strategic supplier agreement between SERCEL, CGG’s seismic equipment division, and the new ARGAS Group, aimed at mutually reinforcing the competitiveness of SERCEL and ARGAS and their respective positions in Middle East markets, which are set to see major growth notably driven by the mega-crews trend.
Jean-Georges Malcor, CEO, CGG said: “The Middle East will be at the heart of a technology revolution with ultra-high-channel-count crews and broadband technologies delivering previously unseen image definition to help our clients delineate and better utilize reservoirs in an optimum and sustainable manner. CGG and SERCEL technologies, from Equipment to Data Acquisition and Subsurface Imaging, are at the forefront of this revolution and we envision the new ARGAS Group, backed by its two shareholders, playing a leading role in this new paradigm.”
Mahmoud Abdulbaqi, Chairman, ARGAS, said: “The combination of ARGAS and ARDISEIS will provide the new ARGAS Group with a leadership position on the high-end land and seabed data acquisition markets across the Middle East. With its strong and experienced team, ARGAS will be able to fully benefit from the operational expertise of CGG and Seabed Geosolutions, as well as TAQA’s financial support and SERCEL’s latest technological innovations, to offer our customers in the region the best geophysical solutions.”
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
Imperial Oil Ltd., the Canadian energy company majority owned by Exxon Mobil Corp., agreed to sell some assets to Whitecap Resources Inc. for about C$855 million ($774 million) as it focuses on larger oil-sands projects.
The conventional oil and natural gas assets in British Columbia and Alberta produced the equivalent of about 15,000 bopd in 2013, the Calgary-based company said in a statement today. Half of the production is oil and the other half is gas.
Imperial has focused on expanding its so-called unconventional production, which includes oil sands. The company spent C$12.9 billion to bring the Kearl oil-sands project online last year and joined with Exxon, which owns 70% of its stock, to buy more oil-sands acreage for about C$751 million in August. Kearl and the Cold Lake oil-sands project provide an “incredible platform for growth,” Imperial CEO Rich Kruger said in September.
“For Imperial, I don’t think these assets really move the needle anymore, so it’s a focus on Cold Lake and Kearl, the big projects,” Justin Bouchard, an analyst at Desjardins Securities Inc. in Calgary, said in a phone interview today. “For the guys who bought it, it’s obviously meaningful.”
For Whitecap, also based in Calgary, the acquisition “greatly enhances our sustainable dividend-growth model and is accretive on all key measures both in 2014 and 2015,” the company said in a separate statement. The deal is expected to close in May.
Imperial hired Scotiabank last year to sell the assets. National Bank Financial Inc. has acted as Whitecap’s financial adviser and GMP Securities LP, and TD Securities Inc. were strategic advisers on the purchase.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
ODESSA, Texas -- Artificial Lift Company’s Advantage Rigless ESP system was successfully pulled and reinstalled at a ConocoPhillips West Texas well and has been in continuous service for more than 180 days.
U.S. natural gas production, the quantity of natural gas resources and the advanced technologies of the industry were the focus of presentations delivered by three experts in the oil and gas industry at the BoyarMiller Breakfast Forum titled “Perspectives on the Energy Industry.”
There are a number of far-reaching benefits to growth in U.S. natural gas production, as cited by panelists David Pursell, Managing Director of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.; Thomas Bates, board member of several oil and gas companies and adjunct profession of energy macroeconomics at Texas Christian University; and Paul DeWeese, CEO of Southwest Oilfield Products.
“First and foremost, hydraulic fracturing saved the U.S. industrial sector,” said Pursell of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. “Without fracturing, we would not have the natural gas that benefits a number of industries. Remember that cheap natural gas makes electricity prices low - and that electricity powers so many industries like steel, paper and manufacturing.”
Pursell pointed out that the U.S. is experiencing sustainable onshore production growth of natural gas at a time when gas-directed rig counts are declining. “It’s about the Marcellus, Utica and Eagle Ford regions being very prolific and productive for significant growth through the end of the decade. LNG exports will start to come into the equation by 2017, and we think that by 2020 there will be over three Bcf a day of LNG exports.”
According to Pursell, the challenge is crude oil because of a tight global market. Outside the U.S. there is no oil production growth, so Pursell labeled what is happening in the U.S. as “miraculous.”
“It is unbelievable for anybody to think five years ago that the U.S. would be the only place in the non-OPEC world, particularly onshore, where oil production is growing,” said Pursell. “And that is what’s happening. We’ve gone from three MMbopd to over six MMbopd of onshore production; all of that growth is light sweet crude. The challenge is: what are we going to do with all this crude? We can’t export it. So we’re going to refine it but we don’t have the ability to refine all of it. So that’s going to create some pricing pressure on light sweet crude.”
Pursell summed his presentation stating that the winners of this situation are the refiners, and that means more growth for the Gulf Coast area.
“The economic impact of the U.S. shale plays is anywhere from $500 to $700 billion annually, depending on which economist you ask,” said Bates. “The last estimate I saw was that shale production contributed 3.5% to the U.S. gross domestic product. Without it, there would be negative growth in the United States.”
In addition to the benefit of low-priced natural gas to the electric power market, there is a $90 billion benefit to the residential, commercial and industrial markets. Bates said that MIT and the National Petroleum Council published a study in September 2011 that suggests the natural gas resource in the U.S. may provide a 100- to 150-year supply of natural gas in this country if it can be converted to reserves.
“So all of this gas is available to us at a cost that is 75% below the cost of imported crude oil that we deliver to our doorstep every day,” said Bates. “The International Energy Agency in its 2013 World Energy Outlook Report states that we have a structural, long-term competitive advantage in gas and electricity. In 2035, gas and electricity in the U.S. will cost half of what they cost in Europe or Asia. There is a long-term, structural competitive advantage that accrues to our economy because of natural gas. Even better news: it’s environmentally friendly!”
Bates gave his perspectives on oil production, which peaked in 1970 and then declined until 2008 when the shale developments transformed the industry. “Total oil production in this country went from five MMbopd to eight MMbopd at the end of last year. That is a 60% increase in only six years,” said Bates.
“Even better, our import bill keeps going down because of increased domestic production and decreased consumption. Oil prices were higher so we consumed less. Overall, imports went from 13 MMbopd to 7 MMbopd over a five or six year period of time,” said Bates.
Bates addressed the demand for an increased workforce in this thriving industry, stating estimates that the oil and gas business is going to create almost four million new jobs, more than any other industry.
DeWeese described a renaissance in technology to sustain the needs of the oil and gas industry and said that companies that don’t keep up with the technology curve will struggle. “There is a real shift in drilling technology because there are fewer rigs, drilling more feet and discovering more oil and gas,” said DeWeese. “Drilling contractors are doing a great job with advances in pad drilling, walking rigs and the ability to drill faster and be more efficient.”
While DeWeese cited some positive trends in offshore drilling activity, he is cautious about whether it will continue because the economics of oil and gas shale are more favorable.
From a manufacturer’s perspective, DeWeese added that competition from U.S.-based companies manufacturing products in China puts pressure on his company, and others, to stay competitive.
“Just six years ago it was more cumbersome to get Chinese-made products on rigs or well-service equipment into Louisiana or Texas. That has changed and there is greater acceptance of those products from China and other low-cost countries like India and Romania at a time when U.S. overhead costs are increasing for materials, labor, healthcare and more,” said DeWeese.
He said positive market trends include strong activity for North American drilling contractors, and increased activity in the Middle East and Asia that will continue in the near term. “The offshore market is strong right now and we expect that will decrease over time,” said DeWeese.
Additional trends to watch, according to DeWeese, include the oversupply situation for U.S. fracturing which is resulting in increased pricing pressure and the changes in Mexico with energy reform that will allow investors from outside the country to partner with PEMEX. Also, he said U.S. manufacturers could be negatively impacted by the struggles in Venezuela, Argentina, North Africa and Russia.
The biggest challenge for industry is a lot closer to home, said DeWeese. He reinforced earlier themes about the need for talent in the industry. “The availability of people is a real struggle. So many people are retiring and we are not seeing the influx of younger workers. Every company has open positions right now and it is a big challenge for us.”
03/18/2014
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
SOUTHLAKE, Texas (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. shale oil boom is putting millions of tons of sand onto North American railroads, enabling carriers to pack trains full instead of hauling just a handful of cars at a time. With help from Union Pacific Corp. and Warren Buffett’s BNSF Railway Co., the sleepy silica sand industry that once mostly supplied glassmakers now ships more than 20 million tons of the material a year. Buyers including Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger Ltd. use the sand in hydraulic fracturing at oil fields in Texas and North Dakota.
SYDNEY (Bloomberg) -- Tamboran Resources Ltd., an Australian shale explorer led by a former Cobalt International Energy Inc. executive, is considering going public in the U.S. as early as the second half of this year. Tamboran is studying a reverse merger in the U.S., a deal that involves a private firm purchasing a public company to gain a listing, or an initial public offering in Singapore or Australia, Joel Riddle, CEO of the Sydney-based company, said in a phone interview.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. and the U.S. unit of Encana Corp., rivals in developing American oil and gas resources, pleaded not guilty to conspiring to avoid competing for leases in Michigan. Company representatives entered the pleas Wednesday before a state court judge in Cheboygan, Michigan.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said March 5 that the companies violated state antitrust laws by agreeing in which counties each would bid before a May 2010 auction for exploration rights. Each company faces a charge of conspiring to restrain trade, punishable by a fine of as much as $1 million, and an attempted-conspiracy count that carries a $1,000 penalty.
Chesapeake, which spent $400 million on exploration of Michigan’s Collingwood shale formation, has since withdrawn from the state. Calgary-based Encana has invested $230 million in Michigan in the past five years, Doug Hock, a company spokesman, said today.
Schuette said the alleged agreement may have been a key factor in the decline of lease prices from $1,510 an acre at the May 2010 sale to less than $40 an acre five months later. The companies cite results of internal investigations in 2012 in maintaining they didn’t violate Michigan law.
“When all of the evidence is viewed by the courts, we believe the conclusion will be clear that Encana did not breach any antitrust laws,” Hock said in an emailed statement confirming the company’s plea. “Written evidence received from third parties since the completion of the board investigation clearly shows that Encana and Chesapeake remained fiercely competitive the entire time the two companies were active in purchasing leases in the state of Michigan.”
Gordon Pennoyer, a spokesman for Chesapeake, said today the state’s action has no merit and that the Oklahoma City-based Company also pleaded not guilty.
Judge Maria Barton at the state court in Cheboygan, on the northern edge of Michigan’s lower peninsula, scheduled a May 5 hearing where the companies can challenge whether prosecutors had probable cause to bring the charges.
The internal investigations of Michigan bidding practices were prompted by a 2012 Reuters report citing emails among executives from both companies, including then-Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon and an Encana vice president.
In one exchange, McClendon said his company needed to “smoke a peace pipe” with Encana to avoid a bidding war, Reuters said, without saying where it obtained the emails.
Schuette cited the Reuters investigation in announcing the charges.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
Anadarko, Noble spend big to fight Colorado fracing limits JENNIFER OLDHAM DENVER, Colorado (Bloomberg) Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Noble Energy Inc., Colorado’s largest oil producers, are waging a media campaign to promote the benefits of hydraulic fracturing as residents push
Wood Group has been awarded its first major contract in the UK in 2014. The five-year contract extension from Talisman Sinopec Energy is valued at $500 million and includes an option for two additional, two year extensions.
Effective immediately, this award enables WGPSN to retain approximately 550 jobs onshore and offshore in the UK. This is one of two major contracts WGPSN has with Talisman Sinopec Energy. The other is for the provision of operations and maintenance services to the same 12 assets.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
JUBA, South Sudan (Bloomberg) -- South Sudanese rebels seized the capital of oil-rich Unity state, demanding companies in government-held territory suspend crude production and evacuate staff within a week.
DENVER, Colorado -- Air Energi Group has opened a new office in Denver, Colorado, to complement its current U.S. presence and boost its activities in North America' s booming shale oil and gas sector.
DNV GL has launched an independent verification service based on the provisions of its Recommended Practice for risk management of shale gas developments and operations (RP), regulatory requirements and other publicly available standards.
The new service will be used as a tool to help assure stakeholders that an independent assessment can assist in preventing incidents, reducing operational costs and limiting the environmental footprint of shale gas developments. Best practices measured in the assessment process include environmental, occupational and process safety, human factors, well integrity, and other elements that may help address the low probability, high consequence incidents under review today.
The verification process determines whether a comprehensive, transparent risk management approach related to risk identification and mitigation has been implemented to allow sustainable shale gas project development or expansion.
The verification service may be used by operators, regulators, insurance companies, banks and other oil and gas stakeholders to frame the risk dialogue, based on international approaches to risk identification, mitigation and monitoring best practices.
DNV GL’s verification protocol will issue a conformance statement for all or part of the RP provisions and applicable publicly available standards and regulations.
“As shale gas and liquids development are experiencing exponential growth in North America, a wide range of operational risks have been realized, including gas flaring, fugitive emissions, rail transport incidents, water management, fracing chemicals, explosions, fires, infrastructure limitations, occupational risks, and asset integrity issues,” said Elisabeth TØrstad, CEO of DNV GL Maritime and Oil & Gas. “Industry can gain stakeholder acceptance only by implementing best practices and proactive risk management.”
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
HOUSTON -- The worsening political and military situation in Ukraine is having far-reaching effects. As Ukrainian and pro-Russian protestors clashed over the weekend in eastern Ukraine, Norway felt compelled to bring home Foreign Minister BØrge Brende for consultations with other Western European countries about potential natural gas supply ramifications. Brende’s abrupt return to Europe also forced postponement of a long-awaited appearance Monday at Rice University’s Baker Institute, where he had been scheduled to discuss global energy challenges and opportunities, particularly for oil and natural gas, from Norway’s perspective.
DENVER, Colorado (Bloomberg) -- Antero Resources Corp. fell the most ever after cutting its production estimate for a section of its Utica shale holdings.
Mexco Energy has announced plans to drill certain oil and gas properties in the Permian basin. The company will participate as a working interest owner in a joint venture for seven horizontal wells developing the Wolfcamp formation on a 1,125-acre property in Reagan County.
These wells are to be drilled during 2014 using horizontal drilling and multistage fracture stimulation. Mexco Energy' s estimated costs in this development for its approximately 0.57% working interest (0.49% net revenue interest) are $350,000.
The Wolfcamp formation in this area is approximately 1,700 ft thick section consisting of interbedded organic shales and carbonates. The Wolfcamp formation in this area includes two reservoir units, the "A" and "B" benches that have both been successfully developed with horizontal wells.
Typically, offset drilling units have been developed with 1.5-mi laterals at 1,300-ft well spacing in each bench. The completion programs for the proposed wells are designed with 50 fracture stages at a total measured depth of 15,000 ft, including the horizontal portion.
In this area, Mexco has various interests in six horizontal wells and 276 vertical wells in adjacent Reagan and Upton Counties. Mexco' s net revenue interests in these wells range from .013% to 1.558% where there is potential for further horizontal development.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
Wavefront Technology Solutions, a provider of fluid injection processes primarily for mature field revitalization (EOR), as well as oil and gas well stimulation, has announced that Pan American Energy has awarded it (through agent Chilicote) a renewed, 12-month Powerwave contract worth approximately $533,000.
The contract renewal with PAE is for the Los Flores Norte–Cerro Dragon field in Argentina, and expands the existing project from three to seven Powerwave-driven water injectors.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Director James Zehringer has announced new, stronger permit conditions for drilling near faults or areas of past seismic activity. The new policies are in response to recent seismic events in Poland Township (Mahoning County) that show a probable connection to hydraulic fracturing near a previously unknown microfault.
HOUSTON -- Baker Hughes Incorporated has announced that the U.S. onshore well count for the first quarter of 2014 was 8,853 wells, down 230 wells or 3% compared to the fourth quarter 2013. Compared to the first quarter of 2013, the well count was up 319 wells or 4%.
Pioneer Natural Resources is tripling drilling in shale fields as international energy explorers five times its size recoil from losses on the U.S. oil renaissance.
Pioneer is expanding its fleet of drilling rigs in the northern part of Texas’ Spraberry field to 16 from five this quarter after striking reservoirs so rich that some wells are expected to pump as much as 1 MMbbl of crude during their lifespans. Pioneer’s wildcatting bucks the trend among bigger explorers including Royal Dutch Shell Plc that are writing down U.S. shale assets and shrinking their footprints after drilling money-losing wells.
Pioneer plans to double crude and natural gas output by the end of 2018 by exploiting deep layers of shale beneath a Texas oilfield that has been in production for more than six decades. Pioneer amassed those assets in the 1990s from international companies that didn’t foresee the shale-drilling revolution and were fleeing what they regarded as a withering oil province in favor of the Gulf of Mexico and Africa.
“The technology changed,” Timothy Dove, Pioneer’s president and COO, said in a telephone interview on March 7. “What we’re doing is going back into a large, already-discovered oilfield.”
Pioneer has risen 6.5% this year after surging 73% in 2013 as production climbed to an eight-year high and Texas crude prices averaged above $90 a barrel.
International explorers who were late to the land rush for U.S. shale fields during the past decade haven’t been able to mimic Pioneer’s success.
For Shell, the world’s second-largest oil producer by market value, the dwindling value of its U.S. shale prospects contributed to a $2.7 billion writedown of its oil and gas portfolio announced in January.
The Hague-based company said it would scale back drilling in those fields because of disappointing results. Shell’s global output dropped 1.9% last year to the lowest since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
BP Plc announced a restructuring of its onshore U.S. business last week to improve results. That was after the London-based company’s global, full-year 2013 production tumbled 32% to the smallest in at least 15 years.
Energy companies also are contending with soaring costs for everything from rig crews to the sand used in mixtures that fracture oil-soaked rocks deep underground, industry executives including Chevron Corp. Chairman and CEO John Watson said during the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston last week.
Escalating costs are creating a “squeeze” on the biggest oil producers that is eroding profitability, Watson said.
Pioneer’s lack of exposure to the costliest and riskiest international projects, such as LNG complexes and ultra-deepwater oil platforms, shields it from some of the pressures impacting larger peers. Pioneer’s cost to extract the equivalent of a barrel of crude declined 4.8% during the final three months of 2013 to $13.36.
Pioneer is spending about $8 million a well to drill sideways through the Spraberry field, Dove said. Some of those wells probably will gush 1 MMbbl or more before they peter out decades from now, according to a presentation published on the Irving, Texas-based company’s website on March 7.
Those wells cost four times as much as traditional, $2 million vertical wells that typically yield 140,000 to 170,000 bbl over their lifetimes, Dove said. The higher costs and risks of drilling horizontally are justified because the return on each dollar invested is so much greater, he said.
At an oil price of $95 a barrel, an $8 million, million-barrel well would yield an average of $11.88 for each $1 of initial investment, based on Bloomberg calculations. That’s 61% above the $7.36 earned per dollar spent at the midpoint production estimate for the $2 million vertical well.
Pioneer plans to drill 250 horizontal wells in the Spraberry and other nearby fields in the Permian basin that straddles the Texas-New Mexico border, Dove said. That’s in addition to 200 vertical wells planned for the area in 2013.
Pioneer is selling fields in Alaska and the Barnett shale in north Texas after quitting African exploration in 2011 and 2012 to focus on its most-promising domestic prospects.
In its 2013 annual report, Pioneer identified the Spraberry field and the Eagle Ford shale in the southern part of the state as its main growth areas. The company also produces oil, gas and byproducts such as propane in Kansas, Colorado and the Texas panhandle.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
MOSCOW -- LUKOIL Overseas has started a 2D seismic survey at Block 10 in the south of Iraq. 2,000 linear km of seismic surveys will be completed by the BGP Inc. geophysical company within 16 months.
The oil and natural gas industry continues to work collaboratively with the U.S. Department of Transportation, and America' s railroad industry, to improve rail safety. To highlight actions being taken following a recent meeting with the Secretary of Transportation, API President and CEO Jack Gerard released the following statement:
"Safety is always our top priority. We are working closely with the regulators and the railroad industry and looking in a holistic way at how to prevent accidents, mitigate impacts if they occur, and support emergency response.
"While nearly all rail shipments reach their destinations without incident, our common goal should be zero rail incidents. All options must be considered to reach this goal. Prevention efforts should examine issues like track maintenance and Positive Train Control (PTC). Our mitigation efforts are looking at topics like tank car design and crude oil testing and classification. And a review of emergency response is examining ways to improve training and communications for emergency responders.
"We are committed to using the best science, research and real-world data to make measurable improvements to safety. A holistic approach based on sound science and data will ensure that any changes to existing standards and practices achieve real safety improvements and do not shift risk to other areas. It is critical that our actions actually improve safety and reduce risk."
API said it is taking the following actions to improve safety in a collaborative and holistic way:
API has assembled top experts to develop a comprehensive standard for testing, classification, loading and unloading of crude oil based on the best available science and data. PHMSA has committed to participate in this effort aimed at ensuring crude oil is packaged and shipped safely and appropriately. API' s standards are accredited by the American National Standards Institute, the designated standards authority in the U.S., and the same organization that accredits similar programs at several U.S. national laboratories.
API continues to work with PHMSA and other representatives from the Department of Transportation to share information and expertise on crude oil characteristics.
API has helped to lead the effort to improve tank car design. Our industry has been building next generation tank cars since 2011 that exceed federal standards. These new cars make up nearly 40 percent of the crude oil tank car fleet and will be 60 percent by the end of 2015. API is engaged in a holistic, data-driven examination with the railroads and railcar manufacturers, as to whether additional design changes would measurably improve safety without shifting risk to other areas.
API is working with the railroads to enhance emergency response training through Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response. Known as TRANSCAER, this organization is a voluntary national outreach effort that assists communities in preparing for and responding to incidents.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
SAN RAMON, California -- Chevron Corporation has confirmed that subsidiaries of the company have signed agreements with the Argentine oil company YPF S.A. to continue development of shale oil and gas resources from the Vaca Muerta formation located in the Neuquén province in Argentina.
PARIS (Bloomberg) -- Total SA is sticking with investment plans in Russia including a JV with OAO Lukoil for shale oil exploration in Western Siberia, Nefte Compass reported, citing an executive. U.S. sanctions against Russian officials including OAO Novatek shareholder Gennady Timchenko won’t affect that company or its Yamal LNG project, Jacques de Boisseson, Total’s head of exploration and production in Russia, was quoted as saying in an interview published in Nefte Compass.
HOUSTON -- NEOS GeoSolutions, Inc. has secured the underwriting needed to launch an integrated geological and geophysical program in a roughly 1,100 sq mi area of the Austin Chalk, an Upper Cretaceous geologic formation that extends from the Rio Grande eastward through southeast Texas, central Louisiana, and southern Mississippi. The Eagle Ford and Tuscaloosa Marine shales underlie the Austin Chalk in many areas.
Petrofac, the international oil and gas services provider, has been awarded a contract by BP, worth approximately $1.2 billion, for the central processing facility (CPF) for the Khazzan gas project in the Oman sultanate.
The scope of work will include engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the central processing facility (CPF) at the Khazzan field. The CPF will include two process trains, each having a capacity of 525 MMcfgd. The project also includes an associated condensate processing system, power generation plant, water treatment system and all associated utilities and infrastructure. The project is expected to be completed in 2017.
Subramanian Sarma, Managing Director of Petrofac' s Onshore Engineering & Construction business, commented: “Petrofac has executed a large number of projects for BP across many aspects of our business and we are delighted to be supporting them on this pioneering project at Khazzan, the largest new upstream project in Oman."
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
Canada needs to push harder on Gateway pipeline, Alberta minister says STEPHEN CUNNINGHAM and ANDREW MAYEDA NEW YORK (Bloomberg) Canada’s federal government isn’t doing enough to build support for Enbridge Inc.’s proposed pipeline to ship crude from the oil sands
DECATUR, Texas -- Circulation Solutions, LLC, a drilling and completion products company specializing in lost circulation and other completion problems, has opened a new warehouse and sales location in Beeville, Texas, to better service customers in South Texas and the Eagle Ford.
Schlumberger has introduced the ELEMENTAL degradable alloy balls for multistage stimulation treatments. The technology demonstrates predictable, complete degradation of the alloy balls, ensuring maximum well productivity.
The alloy balls degrade predictably in a wide range of downhole conditions, well depths, temperatures, pressures and well fluids. Controlled degradation takes place, without the need for chemical additives, low pH environment, retrieval operations or milling after fracturing.
The ELEMENTAL degradable alloy technology can be used with Schlumberger multistage stimulation systems. The technology has been deployed with the Falcon multistage stimulation system for uncemented wells in formations representing a significant challenge to degradation times, such as Gold Creek, Slave Point, Glauconite, Cardium, Montney and Lower Montney, with bottomhole temperatures as low as 86°F. The technology has also been used in the Bakken, where formation temperatures are around 260°F.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
STAVANGER, Norway (Bloomberg) -- Statoil ASA expects to decrease carbon-dioxide emissions per barrel from its Canadian oil-sands projects by 20% within six years, responding to environmental criticism of the crude production method.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Bloomberg) -- South Africa will make sure its population benefits when it develops its shale gas and offshore oil industries and won’t repeat the errors it made with mining, said Zweli Mkhize, treasurer of the ruling party. A law approved by South Africa’s parliament that will give the state a free 20% stake in new oil and gas ventures and enable it to buy an unspecified additional share at an agreed price is awaiting the signature of President Jacob Zuma.
SAN JOSE, California (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is lobbying for a new law in California that would force energy companies to share as much as $2 billion of the state’s oil wealth with residents. The proceeds would come from an “extraction tax” -- fees producers would pay on their crude oil output. Similar taxes already exist in most major drilling states such as Texas and North Dakota, with California a longtime holdout.
HOUSTON -- MicroSeismic, Inc. has signed its first downhole hydraulic fracture monitoring contract in the Permian basin since acquiring downhole acquisition equipment earlier this year. The project includes downhole monitoring in conjunction with MicroSeismic’s proprietary EventPick processing technology.
VIENNA, Austria -- OMV is consolidating its commitment to oil and gas production in Lower Austria. The Weinviertel region is the third most important production site in the company’s global portfolio after the exploration and production areas in Romania and Norway.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Bloomberg) -- The Public Investment Corp. plans to lead investment in energy projects in Africa by buying into South African shale gas projects and helping to fund what could be the world’s biggest power generation complex in Democratic Republic of Congo.
Hari Vamadevan has been appointed as DNV GL’s regional manager for the UK and southern Africa. He was previously DNV’s UK regional manager, and he will oversee 13 oil and gas offices throughout the UK in this new role. The number of staff in the country has doubled from 400 to 800.
The addition of southern Africa to the region brings opportunities to transfer the knowledge and technology from the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) to areas such as Angola, Nigeria, Ghana, and newer developments in Mozambique and Tanzania.
DNV GL’s offering to the market includes the Spadeadam test site in northern England. The facility is equipped to carry out large- and full-scale hazardous trials on oil and gas assets, simulating real-world environments.
In addition, DNV GL has onshore pipeline expertise at a flow center in northeast England. The center is one of the largest high-pressure natural gas flow facilities in the world.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
ANKARA, Turkey (Bloomberg) -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been embroiled in a corruption scandal that helped send the country’s currency to an all-time low. It hasn’t discouraged foreign oil companies eyeing the country’s shale gas reserves. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, TransAtlantic Petroleum Ltd. and Valeura Energy Inc. are among explorers shrugging off the bribery probe that has ensnared Turkey’s rulers and undermined Erdogan’s 11-year rule. They’re forging ahead with plans to drill shale rock that holds as much as 4.6 Tcm of gas and 94 billion bbl of oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
OKLAHOMA CITY (Bloomberg) -- There have been more earthquakes strong enough to be felt in Oklahoma this year than in all of 2013, overwhelming state officials who are trying to determine if the temblors are linked to oil and natural gas production.The state on April 6 experienced its 109th earthquake of a magnitude 3 or higher, matching the total for all of 2013, according to Austin Holland, a research seismologist with the Oklahoma Geological Survey.
TRIPOLI, Libya (Bloomberg) -- Brent and West Texas Intermediate crudes fell for the first time in three days after Libyan rebels surrendered control of two oil ports to the government, enabling the OPEC country to increase exports.
SALT LAKE CITY -- American Sands Energy Corp., an oil sands exploration and development company operating in Utah, has completed the purchase of its pilot plant, used to demonstrate its water-free extraction of bitumen, or heavy oil, from leased oil sands deposits the firm intends to mine. The agreement with Elemax, Inc., included a combination of cash and stock to purchase the trailer-mounted mobile oil recovery system.
THE HAGUE -- Shell announced April 7 that the Majnoon oil field it operates, in partnership with South Oil Company (SOC), Petronas and Missan Oil, in Southern Iraq has successfully exported its first shipment of crude oil to Shell trading, a significant milestone for the field.
Schlumberger has launched the PowerDrive Orbit rotary steerable system (RSS). The new RSS expands the operating envelope of rotary steerable technology by extending system life, delivering precise directional control, and increasing drilling efficiency.
The newly designed pad actuation system, combined with real-time, three-axis shock-and-vibration measurements, allows the new RSS to withstand difficult drilling conditions, and operate at higher rotational speeds than conventional systems. The multi-axis continuous inclination and azimuthal gamma ray capabilities reduce the uncertainty of well positioning, and enable self-steering, to deliver a smoother wellbore.
The PowerDrive Orbit RSS was field tested in more than 500 runs over two years in challenging onshore and offshore drilling conditions, in regions that included the Middle East, onshore U.S., U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Colombia, Mexico, China, Venezuela and the North Sea.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
PERTH, Australia (Bloomberg) -- Oil Search Ltd., Papua New Guinea’s largest energy producer, will drill four wells at its oil discovery in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and aims to determine the size of the resource by the end of 2015.
DENVER, Coloardo (Bloomberg) -- Companies from Noble Energy Inc. to Whiting Petroleum Corp. are ramping up output in the Niobrara shale oil play near the Rocky Mountains that may help save U.S. West Coast refiners from dwindling supplies in their own region. The formation spread across parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming is estimated to hold as much as 2 billion bbl of oil, Energy Information Administration data show. Niobrara’s oil and lease condensate output will reach a record 304,434 bpd this month, the agency said.
Rigs targeting oil in the U.S. surged to a record this week as producers from Concho Resources Inc. to Pioneer Natural Resources Co. boost horizontal drilling in the Permian basin.
U.S. oil rigs jumped by 13 to 1,443, the highest level since Baker Hughes separated its oil and gas rig counts in 1987, the Houston-based company said in a weekly report posted on its website. Rigs drilling horizontally in the Texas- New Mexico formation rose by 10 to 265, the highest level since at least February 2011, while vertical rigs there gained three and the directional count added one.
“One could argue that all of the increase in the oil rig count this week was because of the Permian,” James Williams, president of WTRG Economics in London, Arkansas, said by telephone. “While it’s one of the oldest fields in the U.S., there are multiple producing formations there and companies are learning how to optimize horizontal drilling in them. The growth is evidence that they’re figuring it out.”
Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have unlocked shale deposits of oil from North Dakota to Texas, boosting crude output to the most in a quarter-century and cutting energy costs for industries from airlines to chemical plants. The increase also helped the U.S. meet 86 percent of its energy needs in the first 11 months of 2013, the highest level since 1986, Energy Information Administration data show.
Rig Output
Crude production per rig in the Permian is expected to climb to 98,000 bopd in March, up from 83,000 bopd, the Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department’s statistical arm, said in a Feb. 10 report.
Pioneer, which holds one of the largest positions in the Permian, is spending “the vast majority” of its 2014 drilling capital in northern areas of the basin such as Spraberry and Wolfcamp, Timothy Dove, the Irving, Texas-based company’s chief operating officer, said during a presentation March 4.
While Pioneer is drilling in a 300-ft-thick shale formation in Texas’s Eagle Ford play, the Permian offers shale thickness of 3,500 ft, Dove said. “So this is why this area has really substantial running room going forward,” he said.
Concho, the biggest Permian Basin operator drilling for oil, is adding four rigs throughout the year, E. Joseph Wright, the Midland, Texas-based company’s chief operating officer, said at a conference March 3.
More Growth
“When you look at our rate of growth going forward, in the last half of 2014, we’ll increase that rate of growth and on into 2015 as well,” Wright said.
U.S. oil output climbed 18,000 bopd last week to 8.08 MMbopd, EIA data show. Crude stockpiles jumped 1.43 MMbbl to 363.8 MMbbl.
West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery rose $1.02, or 1%, to settle at $102.58/bbl on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 12% in the past year.
U.S. gas stockpiles dropped 152 Bcf to 1.196 Tcf, EIA data show. Supplies were a record 38.8% below the five-year average and 43.2% below year-earlier levels.
Natural gas for April delivery dipped 0.9% to $4.618/MMbty on the Nymex and has risen 29% in the past year.
U.S. gas rigs jumped 10 to 345 this week, Baker Hughes said. The total rig count rose by 23 to 1,792, the highest level in more than a year.
“We may be finally be seeing some impact in the gas count from natural gas prices,” Williams said.
Iain McIntosh, Baker Hughes’s vice president for U.S. lands operations, said at a conference March 5 that the amount of time it takes to drill a gas well has fallen to less than 10 days in some cases from 40.
Rigs on land jumped by 23 this week to 1,719. Rigs in inland waters and miscellaneous rigs, which usually drill for geothermal energy, were unchanged at 18 and four, respectively. Offshore rigs, primarily in the Gulf of Mexico, were also unchanged at 55.
The count in Texas gained the most this week, up 20 to 864. Energy rigs in Canada fell by 39 to 587.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
CGG and the Benin Ministry of Energy, Mining and Petroleum Research, and Renewable Energy Development (MERPMEDER) have announced the completion of an onshore country-wide airborne geophysical survey of the Republic of Benin.
The survey program was commissioned by the Government of Benin to enhance the development of Benin’s natural resource sector, including both petroleum and mineral resources.
Altogether approximately 160,000 line km of magnetic and radiometric data and 16,000 line km of FALCON Airborne Gravity Gradiometer data were acquired from May to October 2013. The airborne data has been processed and is currently in the final stages of geological interpretation at CGG’s interpretation center in Perth.
All products from the program, including a Natural Resource Prospectivity report and updated geological maps, will be placed on the Benin Government’s open-file system. Visitors to the PDAC show in Toronto can view the data on CGG booth 203.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
Mexco Energy Corporation has announced the drilling of certain properties in the Permian basin of West Texas and the acquisition of producing properties in four states.
Mexco Energy Corporation is participating as a working interest owner in a JV drilling four vertical development wells to a depth of 11,000 ft on 160 acre spacing in the Dean, Wolfcamp, Cline and Atoka formations on 640 acres in Reagan County, Texas. Initial per day production rates from two of these wells respectively are 128 bbl of oil and 110,000 cubic feet of natural gas and 94 bbl of oil and 179,000 cubic feet of natural gas. Mexco' s working interest in this JV is .3% (.24% net revenue interest).
These wells will hold the deep rights for further development by horizontal drilling. The Wolfcamp formation in this area is an approximately 1,700 ft thick section consisting of interbedded organic shales and carbonates and includes two reservoir units, the "A" and "B" benches that have both been successfully developed with horizontal wells. These four vertical wells in Reagan County, Texas, are in addition to two horizontal wells in which Mexco is also participating in Reagan County, Texas.
Also, Mexco has acquired for $450,000, a package of non-operated producing properties consisting of 10 oil wells and 1 gas well located in Webster Parish, Louisiana; Eddy County, New Mexico; Billings County, North Dakota; and, Nolan and Smith Counties, Texas. The purchase price was funded from the company' s $4.9 million bank credit facility.
This purchase, effective March 1, 2014, includes working interests ranging from 27.5% to .13% (net revenue interests of 24.06% - .11%) adding estimated net proved reserves of approximately 35,000 boe at a cost of $12.86 per bbl.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
FORT WORTH, Texas (Bloomberg) -- BNSF Railway Co., the carrier owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., will need the rest of 2014 to untangle train tie-ups in the corridor that serves North Dakota’s Bakken shale region. A system-wide traffic jam, caused by surging grain and crude-oil volumes coupled with harsh weather, is being resolved on the southern lines linking Chicago and Los Angeles, CEO Carl Ice said in an interview at the railroad’s headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.
HOUSTON (Bloomberg) -- Jan Arps is the most influential oilman you’ve never heard of. In 1945, Arps, then a 33-year-old petroleum engineer for British-American Oil Producing Co., published a formula to predict how much crude a well will produce and when it will run dry. The Arps method has become one of the most widely used measures in the industry. Companies rely on it to predict the profitability of drilling, secure loans and report reserves to regulators. When Representative Ed Royce, a California Republican, said at a March 26 hearing in Washington that the U.S. should start exporting its oil to undermine Russian influence, his forecast of “increasing U.S. energy production” can be traced back to Arps.
Applied Natural Gas Fuels (ANGF) has completed the purchase of 31 acres of land in RailPort Business Park in Midlothian, Texas, to build a multi-liquefier LNG production platform.
The platform will consist of up to five liquefiers with a production capacity of 86,000 LNG gallons per day per liquefier and a total on-site storage of 1.5 million LNG gallons.
In addition to formally acquiring the land, the company has executed purchase orders for all long lead items such as storage tanks, production skids and the electric motor and compressor unit.
“Midlothian is a perfect location to build our plant,” said Cem Hacioglu, president and CEO of ANGF. “In addition to having all the required amenities to construct a state-of-the art facility, Midlothian’s strategically important location will allow us to tap into a wide range of customers in fast growing verticals,” added Hacioglu.
The Midlothian LNG plant, which is expected to be operational in early 2015, will focus on end users in the high-horsepower, trucking, E&P, rail, marine, remote power generation and mining markets that currently use diesel fuel and are interested in converting to a lower-cost, cleaner-burning alternative.
ANGF is currently in the process of doubling the production capacity at its Topock, Arizona, LNG plant by adding a second liquefier which is scheduled to come on line in July 2014. When completed, the Topock LNG plant will produce about 172,000 LNG gallons per day. Upon commissioning of all five liquefiers at the Midlothian LNG plant, ANGF' s total production capacity will reach over 600,000 LNG gallons per day.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
DALLAS -- Crude Energy, LLC has acquired a 50% working interest in 3,680 acres located in Sterling County, Texas, in the heart of the Permian basin.
HOUSTON and EDINBURGH -- The Bakken and Three Forks plays hold close to $118 billion in remaining value and unlike other key plays, every single Bakken sub-play generates positive returns, according to Wood Mackenzie' s latest key play analysis.
CALGARY, Canada -- Canadian Natural Resources Limited has announced that the agreement relating to the acquisition of Devon Canada’s Canadian conventional assets, excluding Horn River and the heavy oil properties, has been completed.
TOKYO (Bloomberg) -- Itochu Corp., Japan’s third-largest trading house, said it booked another writedown on its investment in oil and gas producer Samson Investment Co., as its bet on the U.S. shale boom sours. The latest impairment of 29 billion yen ($279 million) follows charges of about 33 billion yen reported by the Tokyo-based company last year. Itochu has now written down most of the 78 billion yen, worth $1.04 billion at the time, it paid in 2011 for a 25% stake in family-owned Samson.
Hicks Equity Partners (HEP), a private equity firm led by the Thomas O. Hicks family, announced that its portfolio company, Directional Rentals, Inc., has acquired Reamco, Inc., a company based in Lafayette, La., that manufactures, rents and refurbishes downhole drilling tools and related products.
Directional Rentals, an oilfield services company, has also been renamed Drilling Tools International (DTI). According to the company, the new name more accurately reflects its mission of renting, manufacturing and selling drilling tools, used in bottomhole assemblies, to oilfield services companies, independent directional drillers and exploration companies, both onshore and offshore.
Reamco specializes in the manufacture and refurbishment of stabilizers, drill collars, reamers and related products, and also offers grinding and hardfacing capabilities. The firm maintains key certifications from the API, and is ISO certified.
Reamco’s previous owners, Brent Milam and Ashley Lane, have become shareholders in DTI and have joined the company’s management team. Milam founded Reamco in 1985, and has served as the company’s president since that time. Lane was instrumental in Reamco’s founding, and returned to the company as CEO in 2011, after leading Drilling Logistics, Inc., for several years.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- The success of the U.S. shale revolution is unlikely to serve as a template for shale development around the world because of unique services and infrastructure in the country, a speaker said on Monday at the International Petrochemical Conference.
BOGOTA , Colombia -- Ecopetrol S.A. reports that the exploratory well Tibirita-1A, located in the municipality of San Martin, Meta province, Colombia, has shown the presence of hydrocarbons.
HOUSTON -- Wood Group has acquired Sunstone Projects Ltd. of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, for roughly $13.2 million. Sunstone is a pipeline consulting company providing engineering, procurement and construction management services to clients in the Canadian oil and gas industry. Sunstone generated sales of approximately $19 million in 2013 and employs approximately 70 people.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Pluspetrol successfully used Dopeless technology for the first time in a horizontal well in Vaca Muerta, a field in the Argentine province of Neuquén. This field has technically recoverable resources of 20 billion bbl of oil and 583 Tcf of gas.
BHP Billiton expects the U.S. to maintain its lead in shale development for some time. “The shale-gas revolution is unlikely to go global quickly,” CEO Andrew Mackenzie said at the IHS CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. “We are unlikely to see gas replace coal globally at the scale and pace seen here in the U.S.”
Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have unlocked shale deposits of oil across the U.S., and drilling efficiency has helped boost rig yields to record volumes from the Permian to the Bakken play. The U.S. met 86% of its energy needs in the first 11 months of 2013, the highest level since 1986, data from the Energy Information Administration show.
Too many unknown factors make it “impossible to forecast” when the rest of the world will catch up to shale development in the U.S., Mackenzie said in an interview after his presentation.
“You don’t have anything like the complex gathering and distribution systems” in the U.S, he said. “It’s kind of tough to think how you could transport that to a part of the world which has not had a gas industry before.”
BHP holds more than 1.5 million acres in the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin of Texas, the Haynesville Shale of Louisiana and the Fayetteville Shale of Arkansas, according to a Dec. 10 presentation.
The U.S. holds the world’s second-largest amount of recoverable shale oil and the fourth-largest of shale gas, according to the EIA.
Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By O'Niel Petroserve Nigeria Ltd, online.
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