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.

Buccaneer Gets ADEC Nod for Drilling Offshore Cook Inlet

Buccaneer Gets ADEC Nod for Drilling Offshore Cook Inlet

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Buccaneer Energy Ltd.

Buccaneer advised that the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation ("ADEC") has reviewed Buccaneer's February 1, 2011 permit application for the offshore Cook Inlet Exploratory Drilling project and has issued a preliminary decision to approve the permit application.

As the Air Quality Permits are the longest lead time permits to obtain, taking a minimum 180 days, this milestone is an important step towards drilling the Company's offshore Cook Inlet projects.

The Company already held Air Quality Permits for two drilling locations in the offshore Cook Inlet, one at each of the Southern Cross Unit and North West Cook Inlet Unit. This application was in respect to an Air Quality Permit for an additional two drilling locations, one at each of the Southern Cross Unit and North West Cook Inlet Unit.

Extensive air modeling at each drilling location was required as part of the Air Quality Permitting process. This air modeling is required to assess the impact of emissions on the environment from a drilling rig and support vessels at the particular drilling location.
ADEC is now providing opportunity for a 30 day public comment period which expires on May 2, 2011.

ASCO Awarded Contract Extension from Perenco

ASCO Awarded Contract Extension from Perenco

Thursday, April 07, 2011

ASCO

ASCO UK announced the award of a 5-year contract extension from Perenco UK.

The contract is worth around £21.5million and covers logistics, transport, fuel and port services for Perenco's Southern North Sea operations in Great Yarmouth and its Northern North Sea ports in Aberdeen and Peterhead.

Derek Smith, Chief Executive Officer of ASCO's Europe, Middle East and Africa region, commented, "We're very pleased to have developed a long-standing relationship with Perenco and the award of this 5-year contract extension is testament to the safe, efficient, innovative and collaborative logistics service we have provided them so far."

Roger Everitt, ASCO's Southern North Sea Managing Director, continued, "We're delighted that the new contract will involve the addition of Aberdeen and Peterhead locations, supporting Perenco's continued North Sea expansion plans over the coming years. We very much look forward to working closely with Perenco in support of these plans."

Plexus Bags Gazflot Contract in Okhotsk Sea

Plexus Bags Gazflot Contract in Okhotsk Sea

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Plexus Holdings plc

Plexus has signed an agreement to supply as the end user Gazflot, a subsidiary of leading Russian oil and gas company Gazprom, with its proprietary TRT-S™ mudline suspension ('MLS') equipment for oil and gas exploration drilling activities for one well offshore West Kamchatka in the Magadan Basin in the Okhotsk Sea, Russia. The contract for the supply of both MLS and service is worth approximately $500,000 USD, and is expected to be completed by November 2011.

Plexus' patented TRT-S MLS equipment enables jack-up drilling rigs to transfer casing loads from a rig to the sea bed whilst allowing for a subsequent planned disengagement and possible suspension platform tieback options for a wellhead system. Due to climate conditions in the West Kamchatka region drilling activities for the well can only be conducted from May to September. However it is anticipated that additional wells will be drilled in 2012, of which Plexus is hopeful to tender both MLS services and potentially for the supply of its POS-GRIP surface wellhead equipment technology.

Plexus CEO Ben van Bilderbeek said, "This contract marks yet another geographic milestone in Plexus' growth strategy as it continues to develop into an internationally recognised force in the supply of specialised and technically superior oil and gas wellhead and equipment services. Not only is Gazflot a new customer for the Company, Russia is also a new region for us and one in which Plexus is focussed on gaining a foothold in given the ever increasing number of opportunities with large operators active in the Russian Artic Shelf such as Rosneft and Lukoil.

"I would also like to highlight that our equipment allows the removal of temporary abandonment caps through the blow out preventer ('BOP'), and for tie back to occur before the abandonment caps are removed. The importance of such an essential safety feature was formally recognised by the Montara Commission of Inquiry Report in June 2010 in relation to the oil spill incident offshore Australia in late 2009."