Myanmar O&G Exploration Tender Draws over 50 Bids

- Myanmar O&G Exploration Tender Draws over 50 Bids

Thursday, September 01, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
SINGAPORE
by Cheang Chee Yew

Myanmar has received more than 50 bids for an oil and gas exploration tender, which closed last week, a government official said Thursday.

The bidders are from China, Europe, Middle East, Russia and Southeast Asia, the official, who didn't wish to be named, said.

The energy planning department is now short-listing the bidders and will invite selected firms to review the geological and geophysical data of 18 onshore blocks, mostly in central areas, the official said.

Each short-listed foreign firm is required to form a joint venture with an approved Myanmarese company to bid in the tender. Local companies participating in the tender have to register with the energy ministry by Sept. 9.

Once the review of geological and geophysical data is completed, the joint ventures can submit details on the work program and budget to the ministry.

As of April 1, 2008 the country's proven onshore and offshore crude-oil reserves were 112 million barrels and 101 million barrels respectively, Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, which regulates the upstream oil and gas sector, said previously.

Proven onshore and offshore natural gas reserves totaled 0.46 trillion cubic feet and 17 trillion cubic feet respectively.

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

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Commodity Corner: Oil Declines on bin Laden News

Commodity Corner: Oil Declines on bin Laden News

Monday, May 02, 2011
Rigzone Staff
by Matthew V. Veazey

News that Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. covert operation in Pakistan contributed to a temporary dip in oil futures Monday, with oil bottoming out at $110.82 a barrel.

June crude oil would ultimately settle at $113.52, though. Despite reports that bin Laden's remains are now somewhere in the ocean as well as assurances by President Obama that the world is "safer" without the 9/11 mastermind, Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations remain a serious threat to the world's oil supply. This latter realization, along with unconfirmed reports by Iranian state media that Israeli military jets were preparing airstrikes against Iran, caused the oil price to regain territory lost earlier in the day.

Crude oil peaked at $114.83 Monday.

Natural gas for June delivery also ended the day higher, settling at $4.69 per thousand cubic feet. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center recently forecast below-normal temperatures for May throughout the northern tier of the Lower 48 states. This outlook has been bullish for natural gas given the boost in heating demand that could occur should it come to fruition.

Front-month natural gas traded within a range from $4.64 to $4.73 Monday. June gasoline slipped to $3.35 a gallon after fluctuating from $3.31 to $3.42.

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Commodity Corner: Oil Edges Downward

Commodity Corner: Oil Edges Downward

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Rigzone Staff

by Matthew V. Veazey

June crude oil fell slightly Tuesday as investors anticipated the outcome of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, which concludes Wednesday.

Oil lost seven cents to end the day at $112.21 a barrel as the FOMC began its regular two-day meeting to decide on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to provide clues about any changes to existing policy Wednesday. The Fed's latest policy course has been to keep interest rates very low in an attempt to stimulate the economy. The policy has had the effect of weakening the U.S. dollar, which in turn has been bullish for oil.

Crude oil peaked at $112.64 and bottomed out at $111.12 Tuesday.

Gasoline for May delivery gained four cents Tuesday after a late-Monday power outage resulted in the temporary shut down of three Texas City, Texas, refineries. The BP, Valero, and Marathon refineries together can process 796,000 barrels of oil per day.

Gasoline futures settled at $3.36 a barrel Tuesday. U.S. gasoline inventories have trended downward over the past two months, prompting investors to pay particularly close attention to the Gulf Coast outages.

May gasoline traded within a range from $3.30 to $3.37 Tuesday.

Front-month natural gas ultimately remained flat at $4.39 per thousand cubic feet Tuesday after fluctuating from $4.34 to $4.41.

Batista: No Need for OGXto Sell 30% Stake in Campos Basin

Batista: No Need for OGXto Sell 30% Stake in Campos Basin

Monday, April 18, 2011
by Jeff Fick

OGX is continuing to explore the sale of part of its Campos Basin oil fields but has reduced the size of the stake to be sold, said OGX Chairman Eike Batista.

"We have discovered such high-quality oil and such high-productivity that we don't see it as necessary to sell a maximum of 30% of our assets," Batista said in a conference call with investors. "The farm-out is ongoing, but it will be reduced to 10%." OGX is part of the billionaire investor's ever-growing industrial conglomerate, which includes energy, mining, logistics and oilfield services companies.

OGX gave investors a clearer picture of the company's value late Friday, when it announced that oilfield consultants DeGolyer and MacNaughton had certified prospective, contingent and delineated resources of 10.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent, or BOE. That was up from an earlier estimate of 6.8 billion BOE made in September 2009. The total included OGX's first contingent resources in the offshore Campos Basin, where the company booked 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent, or BOE.

The report did not include any possible pre-salt resources from the Campos Basin, which could add more than 1 billion BOE to the 5.7 billion BOE total resources in the basin, Batista said.

"We have a huge area to be added," said OGX Chief Executive Paulo Mendonca. The company will further evaluate the pre-salt prospects with fresh three-dimensional seismic data, Mendonca added.

While OGX's pre-salt prospects will require further evaluation, the company is quickly closing in on moving from a pure exploration play to a crude oil producer.

In September, OGX plans to produce its first crude oil. The company will start an extended well test at the Waimea prospect, which is expected to produce about 20,000 barrels a day later this year. The OSX-1 floating production, storage and offloading vessel, or FPSO, will be installed at the site in August, OGX officials have said.

OGX's Batista said that the quality of the oil to be produced from the company's Campos Basin field would range between 20 and 21 degrees on the American Petroleum Institute's grading scale. In talks with refiners in Houston and London, the crude should fetch a better-than-expected price for the company, he added.

"We will fetch Brent oil prices considering today's market situation," Batista said. The company had previously expected to receive a price at a $10-a-barrel discount to U.S. WTI prices, he said.

The shallow waters of the basin will also allow the company to produce the crude at about $7 a barrel, with total operating expenses of about $16 a barrel, Batista said.

Commodity Corner: Oil Clears $110

Commodity Corner: Oil Clears $110

Thursday, April 07, 2011
Rigzone Staff

by  Matthew V. Veazey

The recent surge in oil futures showed no sign of abating Thursday as the commodity ended the day at $110.30 a barrel.

The $1.47 day-on-day gain followed a report by NATO that Libyan forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi have attacked the Sarir oil field, resulting in a fire at one or more oil facilities nearby. Earlier Gaddafi had blamed NATO coalition forces with setting the fire, but the mission's commander denied the accusation.

"We have never conducted strike operations in this area because his forces were not threatening civilian population centers from there," said Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, Commander of NATO's Operation Unified Protector, in a written statement. "The only one responsible for this fire is the Gaddafi regime and we know he wants to disrupt oil getting to Tobruk," where terminal and port facilities are located.

Also providing a boost for crude oil was a report by the U.S. Labor Department showing a decrease in first-time jobless claims for the week ending April 2. According to the agency, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 2.5 percent week-on-week to 382,000. For the same period last year, the number of claimants was 472,000.

The price of May crude fluctuated from $108.23 to $110.26 Thursday.
Moderating temperatures throughout the eastern half of the U.S. contributed to a nine-cent drop in natural gas futures Thursday. Natural gas for May delivery settled at $4.06 per thousand cubic feet after trading within a range from $4.03 to $4.16.
May gasoline held flat at $3.19 a gallon Thursday. It peaked at $3.20 and bottomed out at $3.16.