Western Australia Advances Wheatstone LNG

- Western Australia Advances Wheatstone LNG

Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Government of Western Australia

Final environmental approval has been given for Onslow's Wheatstone LNG development.

Environment Minister Bill Marmion said approval was granted with 25 conditions protecting marine fauna, including whales, turtles and dugongs.

Approval followed the Minister's consultation with the ministers for State Development; Lands; Planning; and Indigenous Affairs, as required under the Environmental Protection Act 1986.

Significantly, the environmental conditions require:

• immediate suspension to dredging if coral outside defined zones is damaged
• no blasting at night during peak nesting and hatching seasons for marine turtles and no piling activity at night during the southern whale migration when humpbacks are travelling with their calves
• $13million in environmental offsets, including $3.5million over four years to improve management of critical habitats for humpback whales, dugongs and snubfin dolphins in Pilbara waters
• reductions in greenhouse gas emissions through offsetting approximately 2.6 million tonnes per year of reservoir carbon dioxide emissions.

"The State Government will continue to ensure the highest environmental standards are applied to protect the local community and its environment," Mr Marmion said.

"This is a huge development for Western Australia. At its peak, the construction workforce for Wheatstone is expected to reach 3,000 people, in addition to a further 3,500 indirect jobs and billions of dollars in locally purchased goods and services."

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Range Advances Operations in Georgia and Texas

- Range Advances Operations in Georgia and Texas

Thursday, August 25, 2011
Range Resources Ltd.

Range provided the following update across a number of its international interests.
Georgia

Range announced that the hole to 700m has been opened up to 17 1/2" with the 13 3/8" casing successfully cemented to the depth of 700m. The blowout preventer ("BOP") is currently being fitted after which the rig will shortly resume drilling with a target total depth of approximately 3,500m expected to be reached in mid/late September.

The Mukhiani Well is targeting the Vani 3 prospect which has the following estimated undiscovered stock tank oil-in-place ("STOIIP"):

Vani 3 Prospect - STOIIP (MMbbls)

	P90	P50	P10	Mean
Gross (100%)	41.7	92.7	178.2	115.2
Net Attributable to Range (40%)	16.7	37.1	71.3	46.1

The recently completed geochemical helium survey undertaken by Range confirmed the suitability of the first drill location with oil exploration and development prospectivity complementing the earlier seismic work completed on the target.

Texas - North Chapman Ranch

Range also announced that the Company remains on track to commence the two well program on the North Chapman Ranch prospect in October 2011, with the Albrecht well to be drilled in the east south east portion of the license area with the second well location currently being finalized. With the Smith #1 and Russell-Bevly wells located in the north-west corner of the license area,
assuming success on the Albrecht well alone, the Company would expect a significant re-classification of the current P2 & P3 (Probable & Possible) reserves into the P1 (Proved) and P2 (Probable) categories.

In addition to the Howell Height formation that the Smith #1 and Russell- Bevly wells are currently producing from, the Albrecht well is
also targeting multiple shallower targets. The shallower objectives are known to produce within or on trend with our license area.

Texas - East Texas Cotton Valley

Operations have resumed on the Company's Ross 3H horizontal well after fluid samples from the well were recently collected and analyzed. The Ross 3H was drilled with significant oil shows and strong evidence of oil saturation from core data but experienced a high pressure salt water flow near the end of its nearly 3,500 ft. lateral section. Range and its partners will continue to perforate and test additional sections of the lateral. If successful, the Ross 3H could set up a multi-well horizontal development program to exploit the
shallow oil reservoir there.

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Commodity Corner: Crude Advances on A Weaker Dollar

Commodity Corner: Crude Advances on A Weaker Dollar

Thursday, April 14, 2011
Rigzone Staff
by Saaniya Bangee

Front-month crude futures gained a dollar Thursday after reversing earlier losses on a weaker greenback. Light sweet crude settled at $108.11 a barrel, up 0.9 percent.

Prior to the dollar's decline, the oil futures price fell to $105.77 during floor trading. The dollar fell against the euro on the U.S. Government's hovering budget battle and reports indicating an increase in jobless claims last week. According to the Department of Labor, applications for initial unemployment benefits soared to their highest level in two months. The Thursday report showed that 412,000 people had applied for claims, reflecting an increase of 27,000 from the previous week.

A weaker dollar increases the appeal of commodities, making it cheaper to purchase with other currencies. The dollar index, which compares the greenback to a basket of foreign currencies, also traded lower at 74.698 Thursday.

Meanwhile, political turmoil continues in the Middle East. Analysts believe Libya's structural problems will not be resolved in the near future but will continue to halt the country's previous exports of 1.5 million barrels a day.

Government reports of an increase in U.S. stockpiles pressured natural gas prices to rise by more than 2 percent Thursday. Prices settled at $4.212 per thousand cubic feet.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that U.S. gas inventories increased by 28 billion cubic feet last week. As of April 8, stockpiles were 0.6 percent above the five-year average at 1.607 trillion cubic feet.

The intraday range for natural gas was $4.06 to $4.26 per thousand cubic feet.

Gasoline prices lost 0.2 percent, settling at $3.23 a gallon. Thursday's gasoline futures peaked at $3.268, before bottoming out at $3.21.