Gas Reserve News

Indonesia is looking to offer more oil and gas blocks in North Sumatra basin this year following a major discovery by Mubadala Energy in a bid to accelerate gas production, a senior energy ministry official said on Tuesday.The energy ministry is currently reviewing potential energy blocks for auction this year, director general for oil and gas Tutuka Ariadji told reporters."North Sumatra basin is one of the potential area for further exploration after a major discovery recently in Layaran-1 by Mubadala Energy," Tutuka said.United Arab Emirates' Mubadala said in December it had discovered a maj

Qatargas, the world's largest LNG producer, announced the commercial start-up of Laffan Refinery 2, marking a major milestone in the expansion of refining capacity in the State of Qatar. The project will refine 146,000 barrels per day of condensate from the North Field, the largest non-associated natural gas reserve in the world. Laffan Refinery 2 produces low Sulfur Euro-V specifications products such as Naphtha, Jet-A1, Ultra low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD), Propane and Butane for local and international markets. Alongside Laffan Refinery 1, this new facility is strategically important due to its role in diversifying Qatar’s energy mix, which will double the existing production capacity. Mr.

The latest country included in the Maersk Line organization is part of the UAE cluster comprising of UAE, Oman, Qatar and Iran. Christian Juul-Nyholm, Managing Director, UAE Cluster, is upbeat about this development. He says, “Global container trade has matured over the past years and is growing at a slower pace. Iran has the potential to be the market which stands out with faster growth. With a long and proud history in Iran, we are very pleased to be back, offering our customers access to our global network and vast pool of equipment including the most modern reefer fleet. Iran is the second largest country in the Middle East with a population of 80 million. It has the second largest gas reserve and the fourth largest oil reserve in the world.

William Cho, Head of MatthewsDaniel Weather, a division of the Bureau Veritas Group, explains why improvements in drilling technologies and weather monitoring systems have made offshore shelf drilling operations in the Arctic Circle increasingly attractive to upstream oil and gas companies and their investors. Rising crude oil prices motivate not only technological innovators to explore cheaper alternative energy sources, such as solar panels and wind turbines, but also upstream oil and gas companies to explore new oil reserves which had not otherwise been economical.

Keppel AmFELS LLC, a US wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M), has won a contract from Mexico's Perforadora Central SA de CV (Perforadora Central) to build a repeat jackup rig valued at about US$195 million. Slated for delivery in 1Q 2013, this latest high specification unit will be based on the LeTourneau Super 116E design. Unlike the existing LeTourneau Super 116Es, this will be the first Super 116E newbuild to be further enhanced to provide for an additional 1,500 kips of elevated load. It will have leg lengths of 511 ft and the capability to drill wells up to 30,000 ft at a water depth of 375 ft. Mexico is the world's sixth largest producer of oil and has the seventh largest natural gas reserve in the western hemisphere.

William I. Koch, founder of the Oxbow Group, philanthropist, collector and sailor, has been named the recipient of the America and the Sea award which is presented annually by Mystic Seaport. Koch will receive the award Thursday, October 29, at a gala held in his honor in New York City. The annual award recognizes an individual or organization whose contributions to the history, arts or sciences of the sea best exemplify the American spirit and character. Previous winners have included pre-eminent yacht designer Olin J. Stephens II, respected author and historian David McCullough and the President and CEO of Crowley Maritime Corporation Thomas B. Crowley, Jr.

Norsk Hydro ASA struck oil and natural gas reserves off the western Norway city of Bergen, reports said. The directorate described the strike as minor though no estimate was given for the size of the find. It said field partners may link the oil and gas reserve to existing production facilities at the nearby Fram field, also operated by Norsk Hydro. The Norwegian government has encouraged oil companies to look for small finds near producing offshore fields to maintain the oil flows that make the Nordic country a major oil exporter. Linking new discoveries to existing platforms sharply reduces development costs. Source: Canada East

Brazil's state-owned Petrobras confirmed the discovery of a significant amount of light oil in the Santos Basin. The confirmation was made after the company conducted tests in a vertical well and detected a flow of 4,900 barrels of oil and 150,000 cubic meters of natural gas per day. The highly productive reservoir was found under a 2,000-meter thick layer of salt, also known as pre-salt. Petrobras said it would make further investigations to determine the total oil and gas reserve of the well. According to experts, a reservoir that lies underneath a layer of pre-salt is commercially viable if its total capacity exceeds 700 million barrels.

Three more available blocks off Myanmar's southern Tanintharyi coast are under natural gas exploration with test wells being planned for drilling by Malaysia 's Petronas Company. A geophysical site survey at blocks M-16, M-17 and M-18, with areas ranging from about 13,000 square-kilometers (sq-km) to 14, 000 sq-km, has begun this week and the survey will last over a month until late March. Recent years have seen foreign oil companies increase engagement in oil and gas exploration in Myanmar. Thailand's PTTEP, for example, has covered a number of blocks including M-3, M-4, M- 7, M-9 and M-11 under contracts. Besides, a consortium comprising South Korea's Daewoo International…

Oil and gas firm Cairn Energy announced plans for further exploration and development drilling in Bangladesh's offshore gas field. Cairn Energy is currently operating Bangladesh's only offshore gas field at Sangu in the Bay of Bengal, off Chittagong port. In addition, Cairn is actively exploring in blocks 5 and 10, where new seismic data has been acquired, and is participating with Chevron in block 7, where a seismic campaign commenced recently. It has identified a new possible gas field at Char Jabbar under Noakhali district in block 10 with an indication of 2.8 tcf of gas reserves. Cairn also conducted seismic surveys at Meghnama and at Hatiya under the block 16. The possible gas reserve would be 3.5 tcf at Meghnama and 1.8 tcf at Hatiya, Reuters reported.

The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced the discovery of 200 million cubic meters of oil in Bohai Bay this year, China View reports. CNOOC made the announcement after the discovery of the Jinxian (JX) 1-1 high yield oil-bearing structure while drilling the JX1-1-2D well in Liaodong Bay, in the eastern part of Bohai Bay. So far, CNOOC has made eight new discoveries in Bohai Bay with an estimated oil reserve of 200 million cubic meters and gas reserve of 1.5 billion cubic meters, according to the report. The discoveries make it possible for the Bohai Bay to turn out 30 million cubic meters of oil by 2010. Additionally, Bohai Bay produced 14 million cubic meters of oil and gas this year, becoming China’s third largest oilfield. Source: China View

Western Australian Mines Minister Norman Moore announced last week that West Australian Petroleum Pty Ltd (WAPET) had made a significant gas discovery in its deepwater exploration area off the state's northwest coast. Moore said the Geryon 1 well was drilled in exploration area WA 267-P, operated by WAPET. "Preliminary estimates suggest that the field contains a world-class gas resource," he said. A WAPET spokesman said the well was the second in a seven well drilling program in the permit area. The first well was Euryale and drilling of the third well was underway. Other stakeholders in WA-267-P are local units of Texaco Inc and Mobil Corp. that each have 25 percent. Units of BP Amoco and Royal Dutch/Shell each have 12.5 percent.