NPD Head: Norway's New Oil Finds May Help Stem Mid-Term Output Fall

- NPD Head: Norway's New Oil Finds May Help Stem Mid-Term Output Fall

Monday, September 12, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
by Katarina Gustafsson

Two major oil finds this year by Norwegian oil and gas giant Statoil (STO) could stave off a steep decline in Norway's production in the mid-term, but won't reverse the longer downward trend, Bente Nyland, head of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has told Dow Jones Newswires.

This summer's find in the North Sea that is one of the 10th biggest discoveries ever on the Norwegian continental shelf and the earlier slightly smaller success in the Barents Sea complement measures to tackle the fall in the short- and mid-term that are being considered and implemented by the Scandinavian country.

However, ultimately Norway will have to open up new areas and that is more problematic.

"In the short- and mid-term it's important to keep and increase recovery, to have new finds in production and build out what you have found. While in the long run, it's necessary to discuss whether to open up new areas. And that is a political question," Nyland said.

Norway this year reached a treaty with Russia over a long disputed maritime border in the Barents Sea. But it could be a while before this new zone is opened up for exploration, Nyland said the quickest scenario would be around two or three years.

The petroleum directorate has started collecting seismic data from the region and Nyland, a geologist and head of the government body since 2008, said some indication of the region's resources could be given in 2012-13.

The state agency, tasked with overseeing Norway's oil and gas activities, predicts total production will be kept at about the current level until around 2020-25, Nyland said.

Norway's oil production peaked in 2001. Gas production is still rising but Nyland said she expects output to begin decreasing some time at the start of the 2020s given the lack of large gas finds.

"Gas production will to some extent fill in the gap in coming years," she said, adding that increasing the recovery rates in existing oil fields will be critical in the short term.

The petroleum sector is Norway's largest industry. Investments next year in oil and gas activities are seen at a record-high NOK172 billion ($32 billion), according to a recent forecast from Statistics Norway.

Last week, the Norwegian krone climbed to an eight-year high as traders sought a new safe haven after the Swiss National Bank capped the value of the Swiss franc against the euro.

"We have no indications that companies have become more restrictive. But it's too early to say," Nyland said.

In January, the Norwegian Petroleum directorate revised down estimates for undiscovered resources on the Norwegian continental shelf, to 2.6 billion standard cubic meters of oil equivalents from 3.3 billion standard cubic meters of oil equivalents.

"This year's finds give no base for changing our analysis," she said.

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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African Petroleum Finds Drilling Success Off Liberia

- African Petroleum Finds Drilling Success Off Liberia

Friday, September 09, 2011
African Petroleum

African Petroleum has completed drilling the first well (Apalis-1) in deep water offshore Liberia in Block LB-09.

The results of Apalis-1 confirm Blocks LB-08 and LB-09 (100% owned by African Petroleum) are located in a prospective oil basin, which is a major step forward. The geological and geophysical data have confirmed the critical components of a working hydrocarbon system are present and functioning. The Company is now accelerating a multi well drilling program on the 25+ exploration prospects identified on Blocks LB-08 & LB-09 offshore Liberia and are planning to drill the next well during 4th quarter 2011 and 1st quarter 2012.

Apalis-1 was drilled to a depth of 3665 meters and encountered oil shows in several geological units including the shallower (Tertiary) and deeper (Cretaceous) and petrophysical analysis indicates the presence of hydrocarbons. The well also confirmed the presence of organic oil prone source rocks confirming that Blocks LB-08 & LB-09 are in an attractive oil basin.

No commercial quality reservoir with hydrocarbons was encountered and consequently no well production test was undertaken.

The well was drilled without any technical problems and the costs have been materially under budget.

Having confirmed a working hydrocarbon system with the first well the forward exploration programme will focus on the deeper basinal zone where improved reservoir quality is anticipated in the well-developed Cretaceous fan system.

Karl Thompson, CEO, comments that “This is the first the first ever frontier well in the deep water in Liberia and has confirmed we are exploring in a highly prospective oil basin which was its key objective and we are committed to continuing exploration in the area”.

SIERRA LEONE

The 3D seismic survey underway in Block SL-03 Sierra Leone (100% owned by African Petroleum) to the west of the Anadarko Venus and Mercury discoveries is progressing well and is now 65% complete. The 3D survey is the start of the initial exploration phase in exploring for similar Upper Cretaceous targets as the nearby Mercury and Venus discoveries.

GAMBIA

The interpretation of the 3D seismic survey in The Gambia (60% owned by African Petroleum) is progressing very well and an extensive system of Upper Cretaceous fan systems has clearly been identified.

African Petroleum is one of the largest net exploration holders in the West African Upper Cretaceous Exploration fairway and is making continued progress in acquiring new exploration licences.

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Penn State Study Finds Smaller Marcellus Jobs Impact; 'Still Big Numbers'

- Penn State Study Finds Smaller Marcellus Jobs Impact; 'Still Big Numbers'

Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
by Bill Toland

Jobs related to natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale field were about half what previous studies had estimated for 2009, but the industry still supported about 23,500 jobs that year, according to a new study issued by Penn State researchers.

"It's still big numbers," said Timothy W. Kelsey, professor of agricultural economics with Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, and one of the study's authors.

"It's just not as big as what the industry is talking about."

The study, issued Monday by the Marcellus Shale Education & Training Center, a partnership of the Pennsylvania College of Technology and the Penn State Extension, also said that about half of the land being leased by drillers was owned by people living in those counties in 2009 -- the rest was owned by people or firms based out of state or elsewhere in Pennsylvania, or owned by the state itself.

That means much of the leasing and royalty money derived from drilling goes out of the county in which the drilling takes place, according to the study.

It's an economics phenomenon known as "leakage" -- money that looks as if it is benefitting a particular area is actually going elsewhere. And it's not an economic phenomenon native to gas drilling: Coal interests, limestone and gravel deposits and other mineral-related economic activity is subject to the same kind of leakage.

The study, "Economic Impacts of Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania: Employment and Income in 2009," bills itself as the first paper to look at not just the number of jobs and amount of revenue generated by drilling but also where that money is going and how quickly it's being spent.

The jobs figure, as with previous studies, accounts for actual jobs created -- front office jobs, drilling jobs, engineering jobs -- as well as "induced" and "indirect" jobs, which are those not created by the industry itself but by the money the industry spreads around to local suppliers, hotels and restaurants, for example.

The study suggested that the industry generated around $3.1 billion in economic activity -- $1.2 billion in income and $1.9 billion in "added value."

Also of note was that locals who benefit from the gas play do not spend their lease and royalty checks immediately, meaning the money is not a direct, immediate benefit to the local economy. By surveying landowners in Bradford and Tioga counties, the study's authors estimate that leaseholders save or invest about 55 percent of leasing proceeds and about 66 percent of royalty payments in the year they are received, instead of spending the money.

The study's attempt to get a more accurate read on who -- and which areas -- benefit from drilling activity was hampered, Mr. Kelsey said, by the absence of any state or county database for who owns mineral rights (and thus owns the royalty rights to gas and shale deposits).

While it was relatively easier to find out who owns the land being leased -- about 51 percent of drilling plots are owned by people in that county -- it's far less clear who owns the rights to the gas below the surface and where those people live. The researchers, in calculating the economic benefits of the shale play, assumed an identical local ownership share (51 percent) for the mineral rights as well as the surface rights.

"We know that's not accurate," Mr. Kelsey said. "But there isn't anybody who has that data."

In many cases, mineral rights were separated from surface rights decades ago. It's more likely, he said, that the mineral rights owner lives out of state than the actual landowners, which means that it's also more likely gas royalty payments are going out of state.

But suspecting that and finding data to prove it are two different things, he said.

The state and county assessment offices need to do a better job of tracking that information if they want to have a more accurate picture of where mineral rights royalties are going, he said.

The study also surveyed 2,000 randomly selected businesses in Bradford and Washington counties to "identify the impacts they are experiencing from Marcellus Shale development." The responses "indicated positive economic impacts are occurring broadly across the economy in the communities where drilling is very actively occurring."

About 23 percent of Washington County business respondents said that natural gas drilling had helped to improve sales, while only 2 percent of respondents said that the drilling had hurt sales.

The full paper is available at http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas/publications.

The study was paid for by funding from state Department of Community and Economic Development and money from Penn State and the Pennsylvania College of Technology.

(c)2011 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Distributed by MCT Information Services.


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ConocoPhillips Finds New Leaks Off China's Northern Coast

- ConocoPhillips Finds New Leaks Off China's Northern Coast



Aug 26, 2011

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has found seven new leaks off China's northern coast.

According to the State Oceanic Administration's North China Sea branch, ConocoPhillips found the new leaks near the Platform C of 19-3 Oilfeld in Bohai Bay.

Last week, the company reported nine leaks near the same platform, and is facing legal action for the spills.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has a potential upside of 28.9% based on a current price of $64.24 and an average consensus analyst price target of $82.8.

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Mexico's Pemex Finds Light Crude in Shallow Gulf Waters

- Mexico's Pemex Finds Light Crude in Shallow Gulf Waters

Monday, August 22, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
MEXICO CITY
by Laurence Iliff

Mexico's state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said Monday that it successfully carried out production tests at new oil field in the southern Gulf of Mexico.

Pemex said the Kinbe-1 well reached an initial average production of 5,600 barrels of light crude per day. The well took more than a year to drill, and was finished Aug. 9. Kinbe-1 also has reached natural gas production of 9 million cubic feet per day on average, the oil monopoly said.

Pemex said "this new discovery increases the petroleum potential of the zone comprised by the fields Tsimin, Xux and Kab" as part of the company's light-crude marine project. Kinbe-1 was drilled in 22 meters of water.

After six years of steady declines in crude-oil production, Pemex is trying to ramp up output in order to break the slide, but has struggled due to declines at the Cantarell offshore fields that once accounted for more than half of the company's total production. Cantarell's decline has brought Pemex's overall production down to just under 2.6 million barrels a day currently from nearly 3.4 million barrels a day in 2004.

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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Lundin Finds Success with Avaldsnes Sidetrack

- Lundin Finds Success with Avaldsnes Sidetrack

Monday, July 18, 2011
Lundin Petroleum

Lundin Norway AS (Lundin Norway) a wholly owned subsidiary of Lundin Petroleum AB (Lundin Petroleum) has completed the sidetrack well 16/3-4A of the first appraisal well 16/3-4 on the Avaldsnes discovery in PL501 on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). A comprehensive data acquisition and sampling program has been acquired from the sidetrack well.

The objective of the sidetrack well 16/3-4A was to confirm lateral reservoir continuity and sand quality to the west of the first appraisal well. The results from the sidetrack well shows good lateral continuity of the reservoir with a proved oil column in excess of 4 meters with excellent quality sands.

The well 16/3-4A was drilled to a vertical depth of 1,934 meters below sea level using the drilling rig Bredford Dolphin. The rig will now move on to drill the second appraisal well, 16/2-7 over the Avaldsnes discovery.

Ashley Heppenstall, President and CEO of Lundin Petroleum comments ' The results of the first Avalsdnes appraisal well and subsequent sidetrack are very positive having proven the lateral continuity of the Upper Jurassic Draupne reservoir with high porosity and permeability. Whilst the reservoir thickness across the Avalsdnes structure will be variable we now have a higher degree of confidence that the part of the structure previously assumed to be non hydrocarbon bearing will in fact be covered by Upper Jurassic hydrocarbon bearing reservoir. '

Lundin Norway is the operator with 40 percent interest. Partners are Statoil Petroleum AS with 40 percent interest and Mærsk Oil Norway with 20 percent.

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Kulczyk Finds Potential Gas Reservoirs in Olgovskoye Well

- Kulczyk Finds Potential Gas Reservoirs in Olgovskoye Well

Monday, July 18, 2011
Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc.

Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc. announced the O-14 well in the Olgovskoye Field, in north-eastern Ukraine, has been cased to total depth ("TD") after encountering eight potential gas bearing reservoirs.

O-14 Exploration Well

The O-14 exploratory well was drilled to a TD of 2,800 metres. The eight potential gas-bearing zones where encountered in the Middle and Lower Bashkirian portions of the well. The well was drilled to further increase the gas production capability of the Olgovskoye Field and was drilled into a separate fault block which had not previously produced gas. Production testing of the O-14 well is expected to commence in late August / early September.

Next Well

The drilling rig will now be moved to a new location at O-12 which lies at the north end of the Olgovskoye license area. The new well is located 500 metres northeast of the O-7 well and 7,000 metres northeast of the recently drilled O-14 location. The O-12 well is designed to test gas-bearing reservoirs in the Muscovian and Middle Bashkirian and to further develop the gas production capability of the Olgovskoye Field. The O-12 well is expected to commence drilling in late July.

Olgovskoye Field

The O-14 well is the third new well drilled on the Olgovskoye license since the Company acquired its 70% interest in KUB-Gas in June 2010 and is part of a larger development program on the KUB-Gas assets through 2011 and 2012.

Kulczyk Oil completed drilling of the Olgovskoye-8 well in early January 2011. This well is expected to be tested and completed later in the third quarter of 2011. The O-8 well was drilled to a TD of 2,780 metres and wireline logging of the open hole identified several potential hydrocarbon-bearing zones. Another well on the Olgovskoye license, the O-9 well, reached its TD of 2,638 metres in mid-April and was cased to total depth as a potential multi-zone gas well. Completion and testing of the O-9 well indicated a gas discovery in a new zone known as the R37 unit.

The Olgovskoye Field currently produces from 4 wells (O-3, O-4, O-5 and O-7) with each well producing from a separate horizon.

Through its interest in KUB-Gas, one of the largest private gas producers in the Ukraine, KOV has an effective 70% interest in the Olgovskoye Field.

Assets of Kulczyk Oil

Kulczyk Oil is an international upstream oil and gas exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Brunei, Syria and Ukraine and with a risk profile ranging from exploration in Brunei and Syria to production and development in Ukraine.

In Brunei, KOV owns working interests in two production sharing agreements which gives the Company the right to explore for and produce oil and natural gas from Block L and Block M. KOV owns a 40% working interest in Block L, a 2,220 square kilometre (550,000 acre) area covering onshore and offshore areas in northern Brunei and a 36% working interest in Block M, a 3,011 square kilometre (744,000 acre) area onshore in southern Brunei.

In Ukraine, KOV owns an effective 70% interest in KUB-Gas LLC. The assets of KUB-Gas consist of 100% interests in five licenses near the City of Lugansk in the northeast part of Ukraine. Four of the licenses are gas producing.

In Syria, KOV holds a participating interest of 70% in the Syria Block 9 production sharing contract which provides the right to explore for and, upon fulfillment of certain conditions, to produce oil and gas from Block 9, a 10,032 square kilometre (2.48 million acre) area in northwest Syria. The Company has agreements to assign an aggregate of 25% in ownership interests to third parties which are subject to the approval of Syrian authorities and which, if approved, would leave the Company with a remaining effective interest of 45% in Syria Block 9.

The main shareholder of the Company, Kulczyk Investments S.A. owns almost 50% of the issued common shares. Kulczyk Investments S.A. is an international investment house founded by Polish businessman Dr. Jan Kulczyk.

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Exxon Finds 2nd Oil Field at Indonesia Cepu Block

Exxon Finds 2nd Oil Field at Indonesia Cepu Block

Monday, April 25, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
by Andreas Ismar

ExxonMobil's Indonesian unit said it has discovered a second oil field at the Cepu Block it operates in East Java Province.

"Its similarity to the other Cepu fields provides confirmation of our exploration strategy on the block, and its proximity to Banyu Urip provides a good opportunity to advance development of this new oil discovery," Mobil Cepu Ltd. President Terry McPhail said.

The well is located about 14 kilometers from Banyu Urip, the first oil field found on the Cepu block in 2001.

The company will analyze data from the newly found Kedung Keris-1 field to evaluate the resource potential of the reservoir.

Mobil Cepu and Ampolex (Cepu) Pte. Ltd., both subsidiaries of Exxon Mobil, have a combined 45% stake in the block, while Pertamina EP Cepu owns 45% and the Cepu Block Cooperation Body, or BKS, holds the remaining 10%.

Tullow IDs Gas Finds at Tano License

Tullow IDs Gas Finds at Tano License

Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tullow Oil plc

The Tweneboa-4 appraisal well in the Deepwater Tano license offshore Ghana has successfully encountered gas condensate in good quality sandstone reservoirs. Results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluids have confirmed the western extent of the Tweneboa gas condensate accumulation.

The well, located 3.9 kilometres southwest of the Tweneboa-2 appraisal well was drilled in the western flank of the accumulation to complete the appraisal of the Tweneboa gas-condensate discovery. The well encountered 18 meters of net gas condensate pay in high quality stacked reservoir sandstones which are in static pressure communication with both the Tweneboa-1 and Tweneboa-2 wells.

The Deepwater Millennium dynamically positioned drillship drilled Tweneboa-4 to a total depth of 4,007 meters in water depths of 1,436 meters. On completion of operations, the well will be suspended for future use in field appraisal and development. The rig will then move to perform drill stem tests on the Tweneboa-2 oil and gas-condensate accumulations.

Tullow (49.95%) operates the Deepwater Tano license and is partnered by Kosmos Energy Ghana (18%), Anadarko Petroleum (18%), Sabre Oil & Gas (4.05%) and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) (10% carried interest).

Uganda exploration and appraisal campaign commences

Following the signing of the SPAs for the farmdown to CNOOC and Total on March 29, 2011, the exploration and appraisal program has been reactivated and two wells are expected to commence drilling in Exploration Area 1 (EA 1) within the next two weeks. The OGEC 600 rig is preparing to spud the high-impact Jobi-East prospect and the OGEC 750 rig is getting ready to drill the first Mpyo exploratory appraisal well to test its upside potential. These wells are the start of a major program of exploration and appraisal drilling, seismic acquisition, and well testing to access the significant remaining upside potential in the basin and further expand the resource base for development.

Commenting, Angus McCoss, Exploration Director, said, "Tweneboa-4 is an important milestone as it is the final well to be drilled in the Tweneboa appraisal program. The upcoming program of well testing in the Tweneboa field, along with drilling and well testing in the Enyenra field, will provide essential information on well deliverability, dynamic reservoir connectivity and hydrocarbon volumes, which will be used to optimize our development plans for these major fields. We are also delighted to be starting drilling activities again in EA 1 in Uganda and are now gearing up for a five-rig drill-out campaign in the second half of the year."