PetroVietnam Explores Overseas Options
Friday, April 01, 2011
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
The PetroVietnam Group will spend US $2.35 billion developing 25 petroleum projects in countries of the former Soviet Union, as well as Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America. Oil and gas exploitation overseas would eventually reach 2-3 million tonnes per year, with reserves as high as 15 million tonnes.
The group made the announcement at a conference in Ha Noi this week held by the ministry of industry and trade to discuss opportunities for the development of Viet Nam's oil and gas industry with Dutch companies.
PetroVietnam was also intending to invest a total of $84 billion between now and 2015 in strengthening oil and gas exploitation, petrochemicals production and other related lines of business, the group said.
Nguyen Thanh Tung, an official from the ministry of industry and trade, told the conference that the potential for the oil and gas industry and the energy sector overall in Vietnam remained great. However, he said, foreign investment and technology was needed to develop a domestic gas processing industry.
Tung said that, to attract investment in the petroleum sector, the Vietnamese government had offered incentives and created opportunities for foreign investors and joint ventures to develop various projects in the nation's oil industry.
Gas exploration and exploitation, particularly in the southern part of the continental shelf, remained in the beginning stages, he said. The nation's untapped gas reserves have been estimated at 682 billion cubic meters, offering a greater potential for exploitation than oil.
According to PetroVietnam, Vietnam's crude oil reserves stood at 4.4 billion barrels at the end of 2010, while crude oil productivity last year reached 15.1 million tonnes. Gas production reached 9.4 billion cubic meters.
The Dung Quat oil refinery has been in operation for two years with a capacity of 6.5 million tonnes per year, corresponding to approximately 148,000 barrels a day and meeting 30 percent of domestic demand for refined petroleum products.
PetroVietnam has plans to build additional refineries in the provinces of Thanh Hoa and Ba Ria-Vung Tau.
Showing posts with label cubic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cubic. Show all posts
Friday, April 1, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Devon Chairman Sees Plenty of Barnett Drilling
Devon Chairman Sees Plenty of Barnett Drilling
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
by Jack Z. Smith
Devon Energy, the largest producer in North Texas' Barnett Shale, has lots of drilling ahead of it in the big natural gas play, Executive Chairman Larry Nichols told the Star-Telegram in a telephone interview.
"We have at least 7,500 undrilled locations," said Nichols, who last year gave up his CEO title after 30 years in the job. Devon plans to keep about a dozen drilling rigs busy in the Barnett this year and will drill perhaps 325 wells, he said.
The Oklahoma City-based company has an office in downtown Fort Worth and 550 employees involved in Barnett Shale operations.
Devon's net Barnett production peaked at the equivalent of 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day in the fourth quarter last year. As a result of weak gas prices and limited demand, the company will probably maintain production at about that level this year, but it has the capability to increase output to at least 1.5 billion cubic feet Nichols said.
While current natural gas prices of slightly more than $4 per million British thermal units are not sufficiently high for sustaining production levels for "dry gas," it can be sufficient for "wet gas" production, which includes natural gas liquids that generate additional revenue, Nichols said. Devon's Barnett production is a mix of dry and wet gas, he said.
A geologist and lawyer by training, Nichols said he expects continued technological advances in drilling and completion of wells that will result in greater recovery of oil and natural gas.
As an example, he cited major technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing that -- along with higher oil prices -- have revived activity in West Texas' heavily drilled Permian Basin.
Devon currently has 17 drilling rigs running in the Permian, where the company has about one million acres under lease, Nichols said.
He said he's "very excited" about the company's new 50-story corporate headquarters under construction in Oklahoma City. It will allow the company to consolidate its approximately 1,700 workers in Oklahoma City into a single building. They presently are scattered among five buildings, he said.
All the Devon employees are expected to be in the new building by the end of 2012.
"We have at least 7,500 undrilled locations," said Nichols, who last year gave up his CEO title after 30 years in the job. Devon plans to keep about a dozen drilling rigs busy in the Barnett this year and will drill perhaps 325 wells, he said.
The Oklahoma City-based company has an office in downtown Fort Worth and 550 employees involved in Barnett Shale operations.
Devon's net Barnett production peaked at the equivalent of 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day in the fourth quarter last year. As a result of weak gas prices and limited demand, the company will probably maintain production at about that level this year, but it has the capability to increase output to at least 1.5 billion cubic feet Nichols said.
While current natural gas prices of slightly more than $4 per million British thermal units are not sufficiently high for sustaining production levels for "dry gas," it can be sufficient for "wet gas" production, which includes natural gas liquids that generate additional revenue, Nichols said. Devon's Barnett production is a mix of dry and wet gas, he said.
A geologist and lawyer by training, Nichols said he expects continued technological advances in drilling and completion of wells that will result in greater recovery of oil and natural gas.
As an example, he cited major technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing that -- along with higher oil prices -- have revived activity in West Texas' heavily drilled Permian Basin.
Devon currently has 17 drilling rigs running in the Permian, where the company has about one million acres under lease, Nichols said.
He said he's "very excited" about the company's new 50-story corporate headquarters under construction in Oklahoma City. It will allow the company to consolidate its approximately 1,700 workers in Oklahoma City into a single building. They presently are scattered among five buildings, he said.
All the Devon employees are expected to be in the new building by the end of 2012.
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