WA permit for Equinor

Equinor has been awarded an exploration permit off Western Australia near Santos’ Dorado oil discovery in the Northern Carnarvon basin. The Norwegian operator has been given a six-year term over the WA-542-P exploration permit, with the initial work programme including geological and geophysical studies, reprocessing of seismic data and new 3D seismic acquisition. WA-542-P covers 4815 square kil

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Tamarind contract up in air

Norwegian floating production specialist BW Offshore said its contract in New Zealand with Tamarind Resources has been terminated but Tamarind said a revised agreement is being worked on, writes Russell Searancke. BW said it had been notified by Tamarind that the contract for the Umuroa floating production, storage and offloading vessel at the Tui oilfields would not be extended, with an effectiv

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Carlyle Group gets 37% interest in Spanish outfit Cepsa

Private equity giant Carlyle Group has clinched a sizeable stake in Spanish player Cepsa after closing an earlier-announced deal with Abu Dhabi state vehicle Mubadala Investment Company, writes Eoin O'Cinneide. Closure of the deal has handed Carlyle a 37% interest in Cepsa, with Mubadala to retain the majority 67% share. At that time, the precise size of the stake to be acquired by Carlyle was n

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Addax seeks work unit

Sinopec-owned Addax Petroleum is on the hunt for a self-elevating work platform or jack-up barge to support its operations in Nigeria. A pre-qualification process due to close on 24 October covers a contract that is due to start in the second quarter of 2020 and run for two years, with a one-year extension option. The workscope calls on the selected contractor to handle the mobilisation and demo

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Cawthorne job on menu

Lagos-based Eroton E&P plans to award an operations and maintenance call-off contract for its Cawthorne Channel gas plant and associated gas gathering stations in OML 18 in Nigeria. Eroton — which operates the asset as part of its joint venture with state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation — said in a pre-qualification document that the contract has a firm period of two years with a on

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT Iain Esau and ....

Belemaoil plans 3D seismic

Nigerian junior Belemaoil Producing is looking to award a 3D seismic data processing and reprocessing contract covering OML 55 in the Niger Delta. Kula City-based Belamaoil operates the block on behalf of its joint venture partner, state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and wants the reprocessing work to start this quarter and run for two years with a possible optional term of

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Resumption at Buzzard

Production has resumed at the UK's Buzzard oilfield after being halted last week when operator CNOOC Petroleum Europe discovered faulty pipework. Production resumed on Sunday 13 October after a shutdown that started at 11pm UK time on Thursday 10 October. The unspecified defect with the topsides pipework was discovered during a planned inspection. There was no harm to “people, the environment o

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Chestnut contract extended

Spirit Energy and partner Dana Petroleum have extended the contract for Teekay’s Hummingbird Spirit floating production, storage and offloading vessel at the Chestnut field off the UK after deciding to invest £140 million ($180 million) in new drilling to unlock fresh reserves, writes Rob Watts. Spirit plans to start drilling a fourth production well by the end of year, which could extend the fie

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT Rob Watts

Doris and Hyundai team up for Shwe design contest

Paris-based Doris Engineering announced this week that it is in a team with South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries chasing a front-end engineering and design contract on phase three of Posco’s Shwe project off Myanmar. Upstream reported this summer that Hyundai and McDermott would take part in a FEED contest for Shwe's phase three, but the South Korean player’s partner at that time could not be c

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Payout for Sole delay

Australian operator Cooper Energy said it is receiving liquidated damages due to the delay in starting up its Sole offshore gas project. The upstream part of the project is completed, but the onshore gas processing plant owned by APA Group that will receive Sole gas is still not ready. Upgrading of the Orbost gas plant is nearing completion, said Cooper, and is expected to be ready to receive fi

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Correction

In the 11 October 2019 edition of Upstream, the article “WNEL spuds Tambak-2 appraisal well on Mako gas field” incorrectly stated that Conrad Petroleum was a subsidiary of Coro Energy. Conrad is a Singapore-registered private oil and gas company headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia. Coro is a London-registered company listed on the city’s junior AIM bourse. Both Conrad and Coro are partners in th

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Halcon exits Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

US independent Halcon Resources has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, two months after it filed its initial restructuring plan. The company has wiped more than $750 million in debt from its balance sheet and has cut more than $40 million of annual interest expenses, the company said. Halcon now has $147 million available under its new senior secured revolving credit facility, includ

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Duo team up for India drive

ExxonMobil has signed an agreement with Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) that will see the US supermajor extend is liquefied natural gas business in India. The memorandum of understanding was signed early this week in New Delhi and will see the pair jointly pursue additional opportunities in the LNG sector. “This initiative focuses on exploring new models of delivering cost-effective natural gas in

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Morecambe Bay holds more reserves than expected

Two key periods of exploration activity stand out in the history of the East Irish Sea, writes Rob Watts. The first, during the 1970s, resulted in the discovery of the giant Morecambe Bay gas field, now operated by UK-headquartered Spirit Energy. The discovery was made largely thanks to the tenacity of petrophysicist John Bains, who pushed British Gas to drill more wells after the original drill

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Going with the flow...

Philippe Boisseau is replacing the retiring Pedro Miro as chief executive of Cepsa Julian Fowles has joined the board of FAR Ltd Lundin Petroleum has named Filippa Gerstadt, Aksel Azrac and Ian Lundin to its nomination committee Mike McTighe is leaving as chairman of IGas Energy, with Cuth McDowell taking over on an interim basis Airswift has named Ryan Carroll regional director Australia & N

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT Eoin O'Cinneide

ExxonMobil ONGC link

India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has teamed up with US supermajor ExxonMobil to work together ahead of upcoming licensing rounds in India. The state-controlled giant and ExxonMobil signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) this week to carry out technical studies and co-operate in offshore blocks. “This MoU will enable the two petroleum companies to undertake joint technical studies

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Spotlight to turn to ultra-deep outside EEZ

The Brazilian government will begin next year to analyse the inclusion of ultra-deepwater exploration blocks beyond the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in future bid rounds, writes Fabio Palmigiani. According to Brazil’s Mines & Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque, geological studies conducted by market regulator ANP suggest the region is rich in hydrocarbons reserves and can be considered

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Aker Solutions tipped for Marlim

Norway’s Aker Solutions has submitted the lowest bid in a tender to supply Brazil’s Petrobras with subsea manifolds for use in the revitalisation project of the ageing Marlim field in the Campos basin. Upstream understands that Aker edged out rivals including TechnipFMC and OneSubsea and is poised to enter negotiations with Petrobras for a potential contract award. Petrobras is seeking 16 manifo

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

International drillers ready for rig contest

Equinor plans drilling spree at Carcara development

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

TechnipFMC and OneSubsea in race for subsea contract

Equinor, of Norway, is expected to select a contractor and conceptual model by the end of the year for the subsea layout it is planning for the Carcara pre-salt project off Brazil, writes Fabio Palmigiani. The race to supply a rigid riser-based solution that will be linked to the Carcara-1 floating production, storage and offloading vessel is between TechnipFMC and a pairing of Subsea 7 and Schlu

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Semisub proposals received

Brazil’s Petrobras has received a handful of commercial proposals in the second of two tenders offering contracts for an anchor-moored semi-submersible rig to work in up to 400 metres of water in the Campos basin. Shandong Offshore, through PGP Engenharia, finished in pole position by offering one of its Tiger-class drillships for a dayrate of $175,000. However, sources cautioned that the propos

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....

Commonwealth eyes Ferc decision by end of next year

US Federal regulators have signalled that they expect to make a decision on whether to approve the planned Commonwealth liquefied natural gas terminal in Louisiana by the end of next year, writes Caroline Evans. According to a schedule released by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc), the panel plans to issue a final environmental impact statement on the project by 2 October 2020, w

Weekly  upstreamonline.com 17 Oct 22:00 GMT ....