Tullow Reports French Guiana Discovery

- Tullow Reports French Guiana Discovery

Friday, September 09, 2011
Tullow Oil plc

Tullow Oil plc announced Friday that the Zaedyus exploration well (GM-ES-1), offshore French Guiana, has made an oil discovery having encountered 72 meters of net oil pay in two turbidite fans. Results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluids show that the well has encountered good quality reservoir sands on prognosis.

The objective of the Zaedyus well was to test whether the Jubilee-play, successfully established in West Africa, was mirrored on the other side of the Atlantic. This discovery therefore opens a new hydrocarbon basin within which several neighboring prospects have been mapped. This result also reduces the exploration risk associated with Tullow's prospect inventory offshore French Guiana, Suriname and Guyana. An appraisal program and extensive follow-up exploration activities will now be considered.

The Zaedyus well is being drilled in the Guyane Maritime license using the ENSCO 8503 deepwater semi submersible. The well was drilled in water depths of 2,048 meters and has been drilled to a depth of 5,711 meters. Drilling operations will now continue and the well will be deepened to over 6,000 meters to calibrate the deeper geology. The well will then likely be sidetracked to enable cores to be obtained over the reservoir sections.

Tullow (27.5%) operates the Guyane Maritime license and is partnered by Shell (45%), Total (25%) and Northpet (2.5%), a company owned 50% by Northern Petroleum plc and 50% by Wessex Exploration plc.

Angus McCoss, Tullow's Exploration Director, commented Friday:

"The discovery at Zaedyus has proved the extension of the Jubilee-play across the Atlantic and made an important new discovery in French Guiana. Tullow has built a commanding and unique acreage position in South America and this result marks the start of a significant and potentially transformational long-term exploration and appraisal campaign in the region."

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French, US, Canadian Oil Ventures in Libya

French, US, Canadian Oil Ventures in Libya

Thursday, April 14, 2011
Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)

Three Libyan oil ventures involving French, US and Canadian companies had their assets frozen by the European Union on Thursday, as it issued a fresh round of sanctions in a bid to increase pressure on the regime of Moammer Gaddafi.

Sanctions against a total of 11 Libyan energy firms came into force Thursday.

The three joint ventures are between Libya's National Oil Corporation and France-based Total, and the US-based Occidental Petroleum Corporation and Petro Canada.

The other companies targeted by the sanctions are all subsidiaries of the National Oil Corporation.

These sanctions add to the 16 energy companies already placed under sanctions, implementing a "de facto oil and gas embargo," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Tuesday while announcing the extra sanctions.

The EU also froze the assets of 15 other Libyan companies, including banks, investment firms and Libyan Arab Airlines, which is owned by the Libyan government.

Libya's ambassador to Chad and the governor of Libya's southern Ghat district were also hit with travel bans and asset freezes for recruiting mercenaries to support Gaddafi's regime.

Some two dozen people, including Gaddafi, his relatives and close associates, had earlier been targeted by EU sanctions.

One, however, had his travel ban and asset freeze lifted on Thursday, former foreign minister Musa Kusa, who had been defected on March 30, in Britain.

Total to Start Gas Production Project in China

PARIS (Dow Jones Newswires), March 23, 2011

Total with partner PetroChina will start a non-conventional gas production project in China, La Tribune newspaper reported, citing the French company's Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie.

PetroChina will own 51% of the operation, located in Interior Mongolia, the newspaper said.

The project will require $2 billion in investment and is expected to start production in 2012 or 2013. Output will plateau at 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, La Tribune said. The reserves are estimated at 440 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Total also plans to open a second oil refinery in China, the newspaper said.

Separately, the French company's CEO said Total won the rights to operate a field in Uganda.
No officials at Total were immediately available for comment.

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