BP Moscow Office Resumes Work After Raid; Documents Sealed

- BP Moscow Office Resumes Work After Raid; Documents Sealed

Monday, September 05, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
MOSCOW
by William Mauldin

BP's Moscow office resumed work Monday following a raid last week by Russian court officials, a spokesman in Moscow for the U.K. oil giant said.

Documents gathered by the court bailiffs are currently sealed inside the office, and no papers have been removed, said the spokesman, Vladimir Buyanov.

BP said Friday that the search had been halted for 10 days and that it would challenge the operation in court.

Russian bailiffs on Wednesday and Thursday entered the BP office with special police armed with automatic weapons, as part of a search requested in a $3 billion lawsuit by investors in a traded unit of the oil company's Russian joint venture.

BP has called the lawsuit "absurd" and the search "unfounded" and directed at the wrong unit of the company.

The minority investors' attorneys said the search was carried out according to Russian law, regardless of which BP unit was searched.

The minority investors are seeking documents related to BP's Russia joint venture, TNK-BP Ltd., and to a failed Arctic deal between BP and state-controlled oil company Rosneft, as part of a lawsuit brought in Siberia's Tyumen Region Arbitration Court.

The minority investors, who live in Tyumen, have filed suits against BP and two of the U.K. company's executives at TNK-BP, claiming at least $3 billion in lost opportunities as a result of the failed Arctic deal with Rosneft.

The raid suggests BP's difficulties in Russia are likely to continue despite its efforts to put the fiasco of the Rosneft deal behind it, energy analysts said. BP initially disclosed the landmark alliance with Rosneft in January but found a deal blocked by opposition from its billionaire partners in TNK-BP Ltd.

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

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Canadian Natural Resources Resumes Ops in Alberta

- Canadian Natural Resources Resumes Ops in Alberta

Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.

Canadian Natural Resources announced that Synthetic Crude Oil ("SCO") sales have recommenced from its Horizon Oil Sands operation in Northern Alberta.

On August 16, 2011, Canadian Natural successfully and safely resumed production at Horizon from the fire that occurred in the coker unit on January 6th, 2011. Production for the past four days has consistently averaged approximately 75,000 bbl/d of SCO. Ramp up to full production capacity of 110,000 bbl/d of SCO is expected in the next week. First pipeline deliveries commenced on August 18, 2011.

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Hycarbex Resumes Production at Haseeb Gas Field in Pakistan

- Hycarbex Resumes Production at Haseeb Gas Field in Pakistan

Monday, August 22, 2011
American Energy Group Ltd.

The American Energy Group announced that Hycarbex has advised that continuous gas production from the Haseeb Gas Field resumed on July 12, 2011 under the Extended Well Test (EWT) project and the Haseeb #1 Well is currently producing 3.5 million cubic feet of gas per day. According to Hycarbex, the Haseeb #1 Well is expected to reach 15 million cubic feet of gas per day once the commissioning of the gas processing facility is optimally completed. Hycarbex further advised that as of August 11, 2011, around 106 million standard cubic feet has been delivered to Sui Southern Gas Company Limited under the Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement. Hycarbex had previously announced the interruption of the EWT project caused by mechanical problems encountered in the commissioning of the gas processing facility owned and operated by a third party.

The Haseeb Gas Field is a part of the Yasin 2768-7 Block Exploration License in which The American Energy Group, Ltd. owns an 18% royalty. Hycarbex is the operator of the Exploration License and owns a 95% Working Interest. A 5% (carried) Working Interest in the Exploration Block is held by Government Holdings (Pvt) Limited (GHPL). However, during the temporary EWT production phase, Hycarbex holds 75% Working Interest, including the cost obligations related to the EWT production facilities, and GHPL holds 25% Working Interest.

Hycarbex further advised that based upon evaluation of currently available technical data by GSM, USA, the Haseeb Gas Field is estimated to contain 174 billion cubic feet of P90 recoverable reserves, 177 billion cubic feet of P50 recoverable reserves and 196 billion cubic feet of P10 recoverable reserves, however these reserve estimates provided by Hycarbex are subject to further confirmation and full data evaluation after the appraisal program, as approved by the Pakistan Government, including the EWT.

Hycarbex further advised that it intends to undertake additional work in the Yasin 2768-7 Exploration Block outside the Haseeb Discovery area so as to evaluate the productivity potential of the remaining License area. Since its initial license acquisition, Hycarbex has made an investment of approximately US $27 million in petroleum exploration and development in Pakistan, where it has exclusively focused its activities. In addition to the Yasin 2768-7 Block, Hycarbex currently operates two other petroleum exploration licenses (i.e. the Peshawar and Karachi Blocks) and is a working interest owner in two other exploration blocks (i.e. the Zamzama North and Sanjawi Blocks) operated by Heritage Oil Plc. The American Energy Group, Ltd. owns a 2.5% working interest in each of the Zamzama North and Sanjawi Blocks which is a carried interest for the initial 2 wells on the Sanjawi Block and the initial 3 wells on the Zamzama North Block. The American Energy Group, Ltd. has the option to convert its working interest in any well at any time to a 1.5% gross royalty interest free of any exploration costs or operating costs.

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ConocoPhillips China Resumes Some Production at Bohai Bay Oil Field

- ConocoPhillips China Resumes Some Production at Bohai Bay Oil Field

Thursday, August 18, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
BEIJING
by Wayne Ma

ConocoPhillips China said Thursday that it has restarted production at 14 production and water-injection wells at its Penglai 19-3 oil field in Bohai Bay.

The company has received approval from China's State Oceanic Administration to resume production after the wells were shut on July 13 because of an oil spill, it said in a statement on its website.

"Flowing these wells reduces the overall pressure in the subsurface formation, which will assure that the seeps stop and the fault, which was previously activated, naturally seals," the company said.

ConocoPhillips expects to have the oil spill cleaned up by the end of August, it added.

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

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Nostra Terra Resumes Production at Tx. Well

- Nostra Terra Resumes Production at Tx. Well

Thursday, August 18, 2011
Nostra Terra O&G Co. plc

Nostra Terra announced that the workover of the initial well, as previously announced, in the Agnello #1 horizontal well within the Vintage Hills prospect unit located in the Giddings Field in Texas, has been completed and the well has been put back into production.

The well was experiencing intermittent plugging in the lateral section. A remedial workover was conducted, along with installation of a larger compressor.

Nostra Terra has a 1% working interest in the Vintage Hills Prospect Unit, located within the large Giddings Field in Texas, which is operated by New Century Exploration, Inc.

The Company will provide an update on 30-day production figures in the future.
Nesbitt Prospect

The initial well in the Nesbitt prospect is also moving towards completion. Production facilities are currently being built and completion operations being finalized on the prospect.

Nostra Terra has a 3% working interest in the Nesbitt Prospect Unit, located in the Woodlawn Field in Texas, which is also operated by New Century Exploration, Inc.

Matt Lofgran, Chief Executive Officer of Nostra Terra, commented, "We are happy to add production and income flow but our focus going forward is on larger deals that will have a bigger impact. Our current prospects are fully-funded and we have cash available for acquisitions. We are targeting additional acreage with a view to increasing both the size of the company and its revenues."

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Candax Resumes Production at Robbana Field

- Candax Resumes Production at Robbana Field

Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Candax Energy Inc.

Candax has resumed production from its Robbana field onshore Tunisia.

As disclosed on March 18, 2011 and March 29, 2011, Candax initiated a workover of the existing Robbana-1 well following very positive results from an independent reservoir study. Pressure data obtained in March during the first phase of the workover were significantly better than expected, indicating very significant volumes of fluids connected to the well of approximately 27 million barrels. The Company then expected to stimulate the well before resuming production, however stimulation was not possible in the current configuration of the well and it was decided to resume production with the existing completion.

Production resumed in early August and the pumping parameters are still being adjusted. The current production of 20 bopd, although low and below the well's theoretical capacity, makes the well economic at the current oil price and is similar to the production experienced before the well was shut-in in 2009.

Candax is now accelerating the design of a full field development plan, which will include the drilling of several wells, the implementation of a waterflooding program and potentially the stimulation of the Robbana-1 well to access the full potential of that well.

Pascal Mirville, COO, stated, "We are pleased by the resumption of the production at the Robbana-1 well and are excited by the untapped potential of the field, with indications that the recoverable volumes may approach 9 million barrels (80% to Candax). We are now dedicating significant resources to the design of the development plan of the field and we expect the first wells to be drilled in the first quarter of 2012, or even earlier depending on rig availability and mobilization."

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Apache Resumes Production at Van Gogh

- Apache Resumes Production at Van Gogh

Friday, August 05, 2011
Apache Corp.

Production has resumed at the Apache-operated Van Gogh development offshore Western Australia after the completion of repairs on the Ningaloo Vision floating production, storage and offloading vessel.

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Anadarko Resumes Exploration, Drilling in North Slope Foothills

- Anadarko Resumes Exploration, Drilling in North Slope Foothills

Monday, August 01, 2011
Alaska Journal of Commerce
by Tim Bradner

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. will test its Chandler No. 1 gas discovery made in 2009 in the foothills region of the southern North Slope, the company said. The company will move equipment to the site for testing later this year when cold weather allows the construction of a snow road, Anadarko spokesman Mark Hanley said.

Anadarko drilled the Chandler well over two winter seasons in 2008 and 2009, but did not conduct a production test, Hanley said. A production test was conducted, however, on another gas exploration well Anadarko drilled at Gubik, about 10 miles north of the Chandler well. Results of that test have not been disclosed, Hanley said.

Gas was first discovered at Gubik in exploration in the 1960s but the deposit was considered too small to be commercial. Anadarko and its partners acquired leases on the prospect and drilled two tests to delineate the old discovery including the one where production testing was done.

Anadarko has been active in exploring in the foothills region for several years but took a two-year hiatus after PetroCanada, who was a partner with Anadarko in the foothills exploration, merged with Suncor Energy in 2009. Suncor remained in the venture along with BG Energy and Anadarko, and has now approved its share of expenses related to the planned testing.

Encana and BP were previous partners with Anadarko in the foothills, but have pulled out.

Geologists consider the foothills of the southern North Slope to be gas-prone, but there is also some oil potential.

"There is gas in this region and almost every well that is drilled finds gas. The question is whether enough can be found to make a gas field," Hanley said.

Land ownership in the region is split between the state of Alaska and Arctic Slope Regional Corp., a private development corporation owned by Inupiat people of the region.

Hanley said Anadarko will build a snow road about 75 miles to the Chandler site from the Dalton Highway, a year-around road that parallels the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Testing will be done without a drill rig, he said.

Discussions are also underway with Linc Energy, an Australian-based independent, about coordinating winter exploration logistics with that company's plan to do test drilling at Umiat, a small oil field within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska about 13 miles west of the Chandler discovery.

Linc Energy has said it will be moving a drill rig to Umiat later this year for its drilling but had initially planned to move the rig by air. Umiat has an existing all-weather airstrip.


Copyright (c) 2011, Alaska Journal of Commerce, Anchorage

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Canadian Spirit Resumes Completion Prog. at Montney Wells

- Canadian Spirit Resumes Completion Prog. at Montney Wells

Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Canadian Spirit Resources Inc.

Canadian Spirit (CSRI) announced that the spring road bans have been removed in the Farrell Creek area in northeastern B.C. enabling Canbriam Energy BC Partnership ("Canbriam"), operator of the Farrell Creek Montney joint venture, to begin preparations for additional drilling and development in the second half of 2011.

The capital program will resume with the fracture stimulation and testing of two previously drilled upper Montney horizontal wells at the c-45-I/94-B-1 and c-B18-I/94-B-1 locations on the western portion of the Farrell Creek joint venture lands. Upon completion, the two wells will be tied-into the Farrell Creek gas facility resulting in five Montney wells on production. One upper and two lower Montney horizontal wells are currently flowing gas into the facility. A short lateral to connect the c-45-I well to existing infrastructure has received regulatory approval with construction to begin shortly.

The joint venture is also moving a portion of its planned capital program to its east Farrell Creek lands to test the potential for natural gas liquids in this area. The program will begin with the drilling and testing of a vertical well during the third quarter of 2011. Other Montney operators in the area appear to have indications of natural gas liquids and one has announced that they will invest in the refrigeration equipment required for extraction of the liquids.

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Icon Resumes Drilling at Lydia Well

- Icon Resumes Drilling at Lydia Well

Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Icon Energy Ltd.

Icon announced that Atlas Drilling Rig #2 returned to the Lydia-12 well on March 25. Lydia-12 had been suspended awaiting the arrival of specialized equipment from Perth.

On May 30, operations to recover the stuck drilling assembly were successful.

Drilling recommenced on May 31.

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Chesapeake Resumes Work Three Weeks after Accident

- Chesapeake Resumes Work Three Weeks after Accident

Monday, May 16, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
by Laura Olson

Three weeks after the gas-well blowout at one of its Bradford County sites, Chesapeake Energy announced it will resume well-completion operations in Pennsylvania.

The company had voluntarily halted hydraulic fracturing and other procedures to prepare a well for production following an April 19 accident. As workers attempted to seal that well, briny wastewater spilled for several hours into a nearby creek tributary.

Chesapeake's well-completion work resumed in late April at its West Virginia and Ohio sites, but sites here remained idle as state Department of Environmental Protection officials sorted through company paperwork detailing what happened.

DEP spokeswoman Katy Gresh said the agency also was waiting on "assurances" from Chesapeake that they would use local well-control specialists if the company has an accident requiring such assistance. In the Bradford incident, the company called the Houston-based company Boots and Coots, who did not arrive on the scene for 12 hours.

Ms. Gresh said Chesapeake agreed to local well-control specialists in the future, which the company also noted in its statement.

The company attributed the accident's cause to a faulty connection at the wellhead, which allowed fluid to be released. They described the valve failure as "extremely rare," adding that they have since inspected their wellheads and updated how the equipment is assembled.

"We understand that operating in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a privilege," said John Reinhart, Chesapeake's vice president of operations for its eastern division. "We have learned from this and have taken steps to mitigate the risk of this type of event happening in the future."

Of the wastewater that spilled off the well pad, Chesapeake officials said about 240 barrels of "a mixture of well fluid and rain water" flowed onto nearby land and into a small tributary. They estimated that figure included one barrel's worth of highly diluted chemical additives used in hydraulic fracturing.

The spill caused "minimal and localized impact" to the environment, according to the company. They said a small farm pond near the well was drained, and the water treated at a Chesapeake wastewater recycling facility. DEP officials also have reported that an unknown number of amphibians died in the pond.

State environmental officials have not yet issued any fines or violations in response to the incident. Ms. Gresh said the DEP investigation is ongoing.

Copyright (c) 2011, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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Salamander Resumes Drilling Ops at Thai Block

Salamander Resumes Drilling Ops at Thai Block

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Salamander Energy plc

Salamander provided the following update on its current drilling operations in Thailand and Indonesia.

- Thailand -

Dao Ruang-3 well, Block L15/50

The Dao Ruang-3 appraisal well has spudded and will be drilled to a planned depth of 1,900 m TVDSS using the MB Century-26 rig. The well is forecast to take 45 days to drill on a dry hole basis. Salamander has a 50% interest in, and is operator of, Block L15/50.

Block B8/38

The Ocean Sovereign rig is back on location at the Bualuang Alpha wellhead platform and has resumed drilling operations. Salamander has a 100% interest in, and operatorship of, Block B8/38.

- Indonesia -

South Sebuku-2 appraisal well, Bengara-1 PSC

The HPS-1 land rig that will be used to drill the South Sebuku-2 well ("SS-2") has commenced mobilization to the well site. The SS-2 well is expected to spud in mid-May. SS-2 is appraising the South Sebuku gas discovery made in 2009 that is thought to contain gross mean contingent resources of 80 Bcf. Salamander has a 41% interest in the Bengara-1 PSC.

Crown Point Resumes Drilling Ops in Golfo San Jorge Basin

Crown Point Resumes Drilling Ops in Golfo San Jorge Basin

Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Crown Point Ventures Ltd.

Crown Point advised that drilling and production operations have resumed at El Valle in the Golfo San Jorge Basin. The labor dispute which forced the Santa Cruz basin wide shut down has been resolved and normal operations in the basin are resuming. Crown Points drilling operation has resumed and today is recommencing production operations.

Crown Point's first well of a 6 well program has been drilled to total depth and is waiting to be logged. Once logging has been completed Crown Point expects to case the well as a potential oil well. The five remaining wells will be drilled sequentially.