Oil And Gas Discovery News

Esgian reports fresh finds confirmed in Guyana, China and Norway in its Week 12 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report Outline:ContractsDolphin Drilling has announced the award of a $154 million drilling contract from India's exploration and production company, Oil India Limited (Oil India), to the 6,000-ft semisub Blackford Dolphin.Malaysian offshore drilling firm Velesto confirmed Friday it had recently secured long-term contract extensions for three of its jackup rigs with Petronas Carigali…

This week Esgian’s Week 50 Rig Analytics Market Roundup notes developments in the semisub sector including that Shell has decided to exercise its option on Stena Don in the North Sea but not on Deepsea Bollsta in Namibia. Meanwhile, a new contract for the Transocean Barents will see it operate in the Black Sea, and jackup Shelf Drilling Perseverance will move to Vietnam.ContractsShelf Drilling has secured a contract award for the 400ft Shelf Drilling Perseverance jackup rig with PetroVietnam Domestic Exploration Production Operating Company Limited (PVEP POC).

Britain said on Thursday it had summoned the Argentine ambassador to explain the latest war of words over the disputed Falkland Islands which included a threat to prosecute British energy firms operating in the area. Last week, Premier Oil Plc and Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd said they had made an oil and gas discovery at a well off the south Atlantic islands, the first in a nine-month drilling campaign. Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez called the announcement "almost provocative", and Argentine officials warned they were planning legal action against oil firms operating near the Falklands, which lie 300 miles off the Argentine coast and 8,000 miles from Britain.

Norwegian Arctic discovery could be game changer; Lundin Petroleum shares rise 7 percent. Noreco, Det Norske shares also rise on news. Swedish oil firm Lundin Petroleum has made a big oil and gas discovery in the Norwegian Arctic, sending its shares more than 7 percent higher and raising hopes that more oil could be found in the remote region. Lundin Petroleum's find in the Alta prospect contains between 125 and 400 million barrels of oil equivalent, including 85 to 310 million barrels of oil, near Statoil's Snoehvit field and Lundin's own Gohta find, the firm said in a statement on Tuesday. The discovery raises hopes that more oil could be found in a region where only a handful of oil fields have been discovered after several decades, and none have started production.

Sound Oil, the European / Mediterranean focused upstream oil and gas company, is pleased to update investors on its continued progress with the proposed second well addressing the Southern limb of the Nervesa gas discovery, onshore Italy. The 5,000psi single completion wellhead has now been delivered to a local warehouse and is ready for installation. The remaining long lead items have now also been ordered and are scheduled for delivery during September. These additional items include a full set of casing, tubing and the liner hanger. James Parsons, Sound Oil's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Preparations for the second appraisal well on the 24 Bscf Nervesa gas discovery continue.

A fixed platform has been selected by Statoil and its partners for the Dagny oil and gas discovery in the North Sea, while the Eirin gas field is to be developed with a subsea solution. Gas from Dagny will be exported through a tie-back to the infrastructure on Sleipner East, while offshore loading into shuttle tankers is proposed for the oil. The seabed production installation on Eirin will be tied back to the planned Dagny platform. Originally a small gas discovery just north of the Sleipner fields…

StatoilHydro has completed the drilling of an exploration well on the Nucula discovery, which is located around 110 kilometres east-northeast of the Goliat discovery in the Barents Sea. The purpose of exploration well 7125/4-2 in the StatoilHydro-operated production licence 393 was to delineate the Nucula oil and gas discovery from early 2007, and to explore another segment of the structure. The well confirmed a small oil column in sandstone of the Triassic age. The oil-bearing layers were thin, but showed good production properties. It is too early to reach a conclusion on the size of Nucula.

announced the conclusion of its seismic acquisition program in the and St. Georges Channel area, offshore . The program, first announced on 15 September, 2006 was carried out by Gardline Surveys Limited utilizing the MV Sea Surveyor. In total, approximately 1,000 kms of high quality data was acquired in the period 10 October 2006 through to 6 November 2006 Specifically, 286 kms of 2-D data was acquired over Pegasus, a large exploration structure in the St. Georges Channel, 369 kms of 3-D data was acquired over the Ardmore gas discovery and 279 kms over the Hook Head oil and gas discovery. As announced on 26 October 2006, Ocean Bottom Seismic (OBS) was successfully deployed over the Blackrock oil discovery.

As part of a measure to resolve future gas crisis, the government of Bangladesh in October may announce the third round of block bidding for oil and gas exploration in the offshore and deep-sea areas of the Bay of Bengal. However, the government is reportedly also ready to open a number of on-shore blocks, especially in the western region of the country, in the same bidding. There is a court injunction on bidding of the on-shore blocks. The bidding will offer attractive gas price prospects, but it also withdraws zero corporate tax facilities for oil companies--a benefit that was offered in the previous bidding of blocks. The biggest…

China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) has signed an LNG delivery agreement with Shell, Total and French energy company Suez. The company has signed the LNG spot delivery master agreement with the three companies. The agreement will lead these companies into China's LNG spot market, and make a reasonable profit for them. Santos Ltd said it has signed a production sharing contract with the Vietnam Oil and Gas Corp (Petrovietnam) for an exploration site in the Song Hong basin, offshore Vietnam. Santos, Australia's second largest oil and gas company, will conduct the exploration and hold a 55 pct interest while Singapore Petroleum Co Ltd will hold the remaining 45 pct share.

According to reports, the Australian oil exploration company Santos announced an oil and gas discovery at the Dua-4X exploration well currently being drilled in exploration Block 12E, offshore of Vietnam. Initial tests at the Dua-4X and Dua-4X ST1 wells, operated by Premier Oil, discovered oil and another well is to be drilled to evaluate reserves in the southern part of the field, said a Santos report. Santos have agreed in April this year to take a 37.5% interest in two Vietnam exploration permits - Block 12E and Block 12W. Dua-4X was drilled down-flank from the 1974 Dua-IX disco very well that produces: 1,500 barrels of oil per day. Following the intersection of hydrocarbons in the Dua 4X,vprineal well, a sidetrack has been drilled (Dua-4X ST1) to provide further geological information.

Exxon Mobil Corp. made a major oil and gas discovery in the deepwater off the coast of Nigeria. Located about 100 miles southeast of Lagos, the discovery well, Erha-1, was drilled from December 1998 to February 1999. Exxon Mobil said the appraisal well, Erha-2, stood in 3,860 feet of water and was drilled to a total depth of 12,287 feet. It tested at a flow rate of 2,800 barrels per day. As operator, Exxon will hold a 56.25 percent participating interest and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Co., a unit of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, will a hold 43.75 percent stake. Including the Erha find, Exxon Mobil holds an interest in 44 deepwater blocks in West Africa.

Advances in satellite communication product and service technology seem to have outpaced many of the markets they seek to serve. However, despite some jittery times for the big three global satcom providers, it appears that maritime and offshore markets stand to gain real, bottom-line-driven results by adopting the latest communication technology solutions. The maritime industry has traditionally — with its generous mix of large corporate and small independent ownership — taken considerable flak for its collective conservative nature in regards to the integration of advanced technological products and systems onboard vessels, large and small.

Advances in satellite communication product and service technology seem to have outpaced many of the markets they seek to serve. However, despite some jittery times for the big three global satcom providers, it appears that maritime and offshore markets stand to gain real, bottom-line-driven results by adopting the latest communication technology solutions. The maritime industry has traditionally — with its generous mix of large corporate and small independent ownership — taken considerable flak for its collective conservative nature in regards to the integration of advanced technological products and systems onboard vessels, large and small.

Early exploration work off the east coast of Australia may lead to a major new oil and gas discovery, according to Australian geologists. About 100 large sedimentary domes were discovered buried under the seabed in the Fairway Basin, the Australian Geological Survey Organization (AGSO) said. Such domes are a key component of many petroleum fields and have led to major exploration success in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere, according to officials.