OIL & GAS UPDATES

Petrobras has still not managed to locate an operated helicopter and its four occupants which ditched into the sea off Macae on Friday. The search for the helicopter, which was returning from the P-65 rig on the Enchova field in the Campos Basin, resumed on Saturday morning after being suspended overnight. There were two crew members and two passengers onboard the craft which is believed to have made an emergency landing in the sea some 100 kilometres off Brazil�s south-east coast on Friday afternoon.

There has been no further oil leak from a flowline valve which was shut at Shell�s Gannet Alpha platform in the North Sea on Friday, the company reported. Close monitoring of the valve is, however, to continue over the weekend to make sure that there is no further leak, the Anglo-Dutch supermajor wrote in a statement on Saturday. Shell said on Friday that it had managed to shut down the valve on a flowline attached to the platform. A leak was first spotted around the facility on 10 August with some 1300 barrels of oil spilled. Thursday saw the company begin to place concrete mats, known as rock mattresses, on the flowline in an attempt to pin it down to the seabed

A purchase agreement concerning North Dakota oil and gas properties fell apart Thursday �due to unresolved issues,� a statement from Magnum Hunter Resources said on Friday. As outlined, the $57 million cash-and-stock deal would have transferred a 48% working interest in Williston basin properties from Kenmare, North Dakota-based Eagle Operating to a subsidiary of the Houston-based Magnum Hunter, the latter company claims. Staff who answered the phone at Eagle Operating said no one from the company was immediately available to comment.

BP's problems in the high-stakes Russian oil market mounted Friday with news that a Siberian court had set a hearing into a $3 billion claim by a local shareholder against the British energy giant, a Friday report said. The long-anticipated announcement came in the wake of this year's failed bid by BP to strike an unprecedented share swap and joint Arctic oil exploration agreement with the Russian state-held giant Rosneft, AFP reported. The May setback forced BP to reassess its growth strategy and jeopardized the health of TNK-BP -- the lucrative joint venture it created in Russia with a group of local tycoons in 2003.

Thousands of opponents of a $7 billion pipeline that would boost US dependence on Canadian oil sands plan to get arrested in protests over the next two weeks that they hope will help persuade the Obama administration to kill the project, a report Friday said.The State Department is set to issue a final environmental impact report this month on the Keystone XL pipeline project that would bring oil sands petroleum from Alberta to Texas refineries, Reuters reported. The department hopes to make a final decision on the TransCanada Corp line by the end of the year

Swedish explorer Lundin Petroleum has kicked off drilling of an exploration well at its Batu Hitam prospect off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The Batu Hitam-1 probe, being drilled by Seadrill jack-up Offshore Courageous, will test the hydrocarbon potential of a large basement high structure in Lundin-operated block PM308A. It will be drilled to a planned total depth of 2450 metres and is expected to take about 40 days to complete.

Chinese oil services newcomer SinoTech Energy is being held to account by the Nasdaq bourse after its shares were suspended over what it terms �blatantly self-interested� and �mercenary� allegations leveled at it by a website. The minnow plans to �cooperate fully� with the New York exchange after allegations made by short seller www.alfredlittle.com that it employed the services of shell companies and its �oil drilling technology is questionable, mispriced and uncompetitive� sent its shares crashing on Wednesday.

The clean-up effort following spills from two ConocoPhillips-operated platforms on an oilfield off China will be completed by the end of August, the US supermajor has vowed. The promise came the day after the company revealed it had restarted production at some platforms in Bohai Bay after they were ordered shut by Chinese officials following the separate spill incidents which began in June. Platform B on the Penglai 19-3 oilfield continues to seep about one litre of oil per day, although this is immediately captured. The platform first suffered a leak on 4 June

Libyan rebels reportedly could resume output at two oilfields with total capacity of about 250,000 barrels per day in about three weeks after security has been assured. "Our fields are under maintenance and we're still waiting for security," Abdeljalil Mayouf, information manager at Libya's Arabian Gulf Oil Company, which is operating the Sarir and Mesla fields, told Reuters. "When the security is okay we will start. Perhaps two or three weeks after the improvement in security. In three weeks maybe," he said.

The West Australian government has determined appeals against the Environmental Protection Authority�s (EPA) report on Chevron�s Wheatstone liquefied natural gas project in the north-west of the state. In a statement on Friday Environment Minister Bill Marmion said in determining the appeals he considered the need for �world�s best practice standards� and as a result approved 24 conditions to limit environmental impacts. �These strict conditions will protect marine fauna, including whales, turtles and dugongs, require A$13million (US$13.5 million) in environmental offsets, and require the company to offset reservoir greenhouse gases which may be up to 2.6 million tonnes each year,� he said.

France�s Technip has received a letter of intentFrance�s Technip has received a letter of intent from US independent Anadarko Petroleum for the engineering construction and transport of a truss spar hull for the Lucius field development in the Gulf of Mexico. The letter of intent will allow Technip to begin preliminary work on the project, including ordering long-lead items for the 23,000 tonne hull prior to the planned sanction date of December this year. Technip said the Lucius spar would have a capacity of more than 80,000 barrels of oil and 450 million cubic feet of gas per day

Baker Hughes Introduces Advanced Reservoir Characterization TechnologyServices gather formation pressures and fluid samples in HP/HT environments HOUSTON, TEXAS � Aug. 16, 2011 � Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI) has introduced the next generation of its Reservoir Characterization eXplorer� (RCX�) and In-situ Fluids eXplorer� (IFX�) formation testing services.Used jointly, these services accurately characterize fluid properties in real time�eliminating the need for extensive and time-consuming analyses. Combined with other formation evaluation techniques, they provide critical information about a reservoir�s commercial viability.

Floating production specialist Floatec plans to launch a series of model tests of its dry-tree semi-submersible concept at the Lab Oceano wave basin facility in Brazil. The tests, which will involve Floatec�s proprietary extendable draft semi-submersible (EDS) and its deep draft semisub, would represent the first attempt to apply dry-tree technology to the challenges of the pre-salt province. Companies are eagerly positioning themselves for what is certain to be a lucrative new round of tenders for floating production units to develop the pre-salt. Bid documents for those tenders are expected to emerge in early September, Floatec�s wave basin tests will be carried out beginning in September at Lab Oceano�s laboratory, a part of the research and development arm of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the company said in a release.Houston-based Floatec is a 50:50 joint venture between McDermott and Keppel Fels

YPFB-Andina indicated it is ahead of schedule in drilling the closely-watched Sararenda X1 wildcat well in the Guairuy field in Bolivia�s sparsely populated Chaco region. The La Paz-based, state-owned company said the well � which is expected to test deep objectives in the Huamampampa Formation below 4800 meters � in July was drilling below 3500 meters, according to the company on 11 August. Repsol of Spain holds 49% in YPFB-Andina. The venture began spinning the drilling bit at the Sararenda-X1 in December after it received the Petrex-owned PTX-5918 rig to drill the well.

Onshore-drilling giant Nabors Industries is planning to issue a sale of 10-year unsecured notes and intends to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including repayment of debt. Nabors, the world's largest land-drilling contractor, hopes to raise $700 million in the debt sale, according to a Dow Jones report citing a person familiar with the deal. A Nabors spokesman was unable to confirm the size of the sale but said more details would be available later on Tuesday

A recent run of exploration success for Det Norske Oljeselskap failed to reverse red numbers in the second quarter and the company is now rationalizing its operations. The Norwegian player was basking in glory on Tuesday as its share price on the Oslo bourse leaped more than 26% after it was revealed that reserves at the Aldous Major South discovery, in which it has a 20% stake, are much greater than expected. The North Sea find is now believed to hold between 400 million and 800 million barrels � double the original estimate � while the combined Aldous-Avaldsnes area could hold up to 1.2 billion barrels, according to operator Statoil.

Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia�s PetroSaudi International, to jointly explore, develop and produce oil and gas and related services in Ghana. Ghana, Africa's newest crude producer, began pumping oil last December from its Jubilee oilfield, operated by UK energy company Tullow Oil."GNPC and PetroSaudi will explore joint ventures in oil and gas exploration, development and production; oilfield services and infrastructure," Reuters quoted GNPC as sayingwithout giving further details. The head of GNPC told Reuters details of how the two companies would work together had yet to be worked out

Houston-based drilling contractor Atwood Oceanics has secured a rig contract with Chevron Australia. The six-month contract for the semi-submersible Atwood Eagle will yield a dayrate of about $370,000 and is expected to extend to July 2012

Statoil may have hit "one of the ten largest oil finds ever on the Norwegian Continental Shelf" as it ups its estimate from recent discoveries. There could be as many as 1.2 billion barrels of recoverable oil equivalent between the Aldous and Avaldsnes discoveries with more appraisal wells planned for next year on the former, the Norwegian oil giant wrote on Tuesday. Communication between the two discoveries has now been confirmed which has led to a higher degree of optimism over the finds at Statoil. "In combination these discoveries may represent an oil structure of between 500 million and 1.2 billion barrels of recoverable oil equivalent," Statoil wrote.

The Vietnamese government has given approval for state oil group Petrovietnam to produce between 23 million and 34 million tonnes of oil and gas a year by 2015, from around 23 million tonnes this year, a report said Monday. Petrovietnam will step up exploration and production to increase the country's recoverable reserves of oil to 35 million-45 million tonnes a year under its 2011-2015 development plan, Reuters reported the government saying in a statement. The goal shows a significant boost from the group's targets for this year, with crude oil production to reach 15 million tonnes, unchanged from 2010, and natural gas output of 8.5 billion cubic metres

The offshore construction division of Singapore-based Emas has been awarded a contract to carry out offshore installation services for US supermajor Chevron in the Gulf of Thailand.The contract will see Emas AMC install a number of wellhead platforms and associated pipelines over a three year period, with an option for an additional two years. Emas said the award took the offshore construction division�s order book for the year to over $600 million. �The total subsea order book for Emas AMC is now past the halfway mark and is closer to our short-term target of $1 billion for the segment,� Emas managing director Lionel Lee said.

Australian independent Santos has commenced drilling on the Sampdoria-1 exploration well on the Wompi Block in ATP 752P, Queensland. The well will be drilled to a total depth of 1835 metres and target sands in the basal Birkhead formation and Hutton sandstone with secondary targets in the McKinlay member and Namur formation. Sampdoria-1 lies about four kilometres to the north-east of the producing Genoa oilfield which is situated on the neighbouring PL 68 permit.

Chinese maritime authorities are considering demanding more than 100 million yuan ($15.6 million) in compensation from CNOOC Ltd and ConocoPhillips following a spill at their jointly-owned Bohai Bay oilfield, according to reports. Citing unnamed sources, the Economic Information Daily said government officials were working on plans to deal with the ongoing spill at the Penglai 19-3 oilfield, Reuters reported. Operator ConocoPhillips China said on Friday that as many as 2500 barrels of oil and mud had leaked from the oilfield in the Bohai Bay, off the coast of northern China.

Australia-listed Entek Energy has brought its Galveston Area A133 (GA A133) gas discovery on stream in the Gulf of Mexico. Entek said the development of the discovery had been completed and it was now flowing gas at a restricted rate of 9.5 million cubic feet per day. The GA 133 discovery was made late last year and Entek said the block was estimated to hold gross reserves of about 10 billion cubic feet.

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have fired a scud missile towards the coastal oil town of Brega, the first firing since the uprising against his rule began six months ago, according to reports. The missile was fired on Sunday morning local time from a location about 80 kilometres east of Gaddafi�s hometown of Sirte, but it landed in the desert and injured no-one, a US defence official told Reuters. It was unclear what Gaddafi might have been targeting, the official said, without speculating about the motives behind a missile launch that came in the wake of recent rebel gains that have increased pressure on the Libyan leader

A joint venture between a trio of Australian companies is looking to either sell or farm-out their Duvernay shale and Rock Creek petroleum rights in Alberta, Canada. TranServ Energy, Mako Energy and Kilgore Oil & Gas said Tuesday they had engaged Macquarie Capital as advisor for the potential farm-out or sale. TranServ said last month rising prices for Canadian acreage could prompt it to sell is Duvernay shale rights. It said prices had hit a record high of over $5000 per hectare, compared to an average of $200 per hectare it had paid in the past.

Offshore drilling contractor Transocean has launched a Nkr7.9 billion ($1.4 billion) bid for Norway�s Aker Drilling. Transocean has offered to buy all the outstanding shares in Aker Drilling for Nkr26.50 per share, which representes a 62% premium over Aker Drilling�s 30 day average price of Nkr16.39 per share. Transocean said Aker Drilling�s board of directors had unanimously recommended shareholders accept the offer. It added it had inked an irrevocable agreement with Aker Capital on Sunday to purchase 41% of the outstanding shares in Aker Drilling.

The subsea oil leak close to Shell�s Gannet Alpha platform has slowed further as new indications of the size of the spill emerged despite no official confirmation. Shell is understood to be estimating the amount of oil now on the surface of the sea as being between 12 and 120 barrels, down from earlier estimates of between 200 and 1000 barrels. However, this is after some natural dispersion and there remains no exact confirmation of the amount that has leaked into the sea. An inspection carried out on Saturday night by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) showed the leak rate had reduced, the Anglo-Dutch supermajor reported on Sunday afternoon

UK-based Centrica has spudded the first of three wells in its Butch prospect in licences PL405 and 405BS in the Norwegian North Sea. The prospect, awarded to Faroe Petroleum in 2006, is seven kilometres east of the Ula field and 10 kilometres north east of the Tambar field. Drilling of the exploration well, which will use the Maersk Guardian drilling rig, is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2011. Centrica holds a 40% operating stake in the prospect, while Faroe holds 15%. The remaining stakes are held by Suncor (30%) and Spring Energy Norway (15%). Faroe chief executive Graham Stewart said the prospect was an exciting opportunity to test a good prospect in the formation

London-listed Max Petroleum has kicked off drilling at another appraisal well at a Kazakh reservoir previously described as �excellent quality�. The Kazakhstan-focused outfit spudded the UTS-3 well on the Uytas prospect in Block A, it announced on Monday. Total depth on the well, which is targeting Cretaceous and Jurassic reservoirs, is expected to hit around 800 metres. Max has only recently logged indications of 12 metres of net oil pay in the Cretaceous section in its UTS-2 confirmation well. Significant oil shows were recorded continuously from 36 to 150 meters, which appear to confirm the oil column seen in the original UTS-1 discovery well

UK services player Hunting has agreed to buy US-based Dearborn Precision Tubular Products for $85 million. Hunting said the purchase of the US company, which provides specialist precision machining services, would be funded from its existing cash and bank borrowing facilities. It added it expected the acquisition to to be earnings enhancing in the first full financial year before acquisition costs and normal acquisition adjustments such as fair value adjustments and the amortisation of intangible assets.

US oilfield services giant National Oilwell Varco (NOV) has signed a $1.5 billion contract to provide drilling equipment packages for seven drillships to shipyard company Estaleiro Atlantico Sul,The packages will include drilling riser and pressure control equipment, NOV said in its announcement. NOV chief executive Pete Miller said deepwater discoveries in Brazil had made the nation a significant offshore market for the company. �We are investing heavily in Brazil to manufacture more of the products and technologies National Oilwell Varco provides to our oil and gas customers, and to service the rapidly growing installed base of NOV drilling equipment in the region,� he said


Australian independent Beach Energy has made a new field oil discovery in PEL 92 in the Western Flank of South Australia�s onshore Cooper basin. The Elliston-1 well encountered an oil column with net pay of three metres in the Namur sandstone section of the well. It added the reservoir appeared to be of high quality with the potential to deliver strong flow rates. Based on its preliminary volumetric assessment Beach estimated the discovery to hold about 100,000 barrels of recoverable oil

The UK oil and gas industry has successfully tested its ability to deploy a well capping device in the waters west of Shetland. As part of the industry's commitment to further strengthen the UK's emergency response capabilities, the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Advisory Group (OSPRAG) has undertaken a number of initiatives to improve well engineering and oil spill response capability, including the development of a well capping device for use in UK waters to seal-off an uncontrolled subsea oil well in the unlikely event of a major well control incident.

Oklahoma Pipe line boom arrest An Oklahoma man was arrested and charged on Friday with trying to destroy a natural gas pipeline with a homemade bomb, the FBI said. The Oklahoma City division of the FBI said on Friday that Daniel Wells Herriman, 40, of Konawa, Oklahoma, called Seminole County 911 emergency response on Wednesday and said he had made the device at his home, Reuters reported. He said that he put it under the above-ground pipeline on Sunday in a remote area near Okemah, about 75 miles (120 kilometres) east of Oklahoma City and set the timer

Shell is battling to contain a subsea oil leak close to the Gannet Alpha platform in the UK North Sea. The Anglo-Dutch supermajor confirmed this afternoon it was managing an oil leak in a flowline that serves the platform. There is as yet no formal confirmation of the size and scale of the spill. Shell said a light sheen was noticed in the area on Wednesday.

Excitement as Well results boost BP's hopes There is early excitement within supermajor BP about a potential development phase at a prolific oilfield on the UK Atlantic Margin after an appraisal well completed last week delivered promising results.

Petrobras chief executive Jose Sergio Gabrielli said the company will likely be fined by the Brazilian government because it cannot prove that it met rules requiring some use of locally produced equipment, a report Friday said. Prior to the seventh round of oil concessions, held in 2005, Petrobras had no way to document what portion of the oil-exploration equipment it used was produced in Brazil, the head of the state-controlled oil company said in an interview on the Globo television network, Dow Jones reported. "Petrobras will be fined because we didn't have a system in place to prove" the national content, he said.

Iranian gas flow to Turkey has been halted due to an explosion on the pipeline in Turkey overnight, a Turkish Energy Ministry official said Friday. "Repairs have been started on the Turkey-Iran pipeline. The repairs and restarting of gas flows will take one week," the official told Reuters. He said Turkey was buying additional gas from Azerbaijan and Russia to cover the shortfall caused by the explosion, which according to state-run Anatolian news agency occurred in the eastern Turkish province of Agri. Iran is Turkey's second-biggest supplier of natural gas after Russia, sending 10 billion cubic meters of gas each year. Turkey uses gas to fire half of its power plants

Singapore-based supply vessel player Swiber Holdings said Friday it has landed three new contracts worth $82 million.Swiber did not give specific contract details but said the projects were for Southeast Asian oil companies and include pipeline installation work, mobilisation of marine vessels, equipment, and personnel. All three projects will start straight away with completion targeted for the second quarter of next year. To date, Swiber has secured new contracts totalling $377 million this year.

China�s export-import bank has loaned $60 million to the drilling plan of Bolivia�s national oil company, a report said this week. The investment, reported by the La Razon newspaper of La Paz, will bolster the programme of YPFB, which told the paper earlier this year it plans an �aggressive� drilling plan that includes 15 exploratory wells and 26 for development

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