Oil Potential News

Statoil has completed the extensive 2013-2014 exploration programme in the Barents Sea. This represents an all-time high exploration activity and 10% of all exploration wells drilled in the Barents Sea since its opening in 1980. “This is a unique exploration programme. A commitment of this size and complexity requires geological, technological and organisational muscle, and the data collected are important for the future understanding of the oil and gas potential in the Barents Sea,” says Irene Rummelhoff, senior vice president for exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf.

Colombia's top energy company Ecopetrol is targeting production of 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2015, a steep recovery over this year, clouded by rebel attacks on infrastructure and exploration failures. Ecopetrol chief financial officer Magda Manosalva told a conference in London that while the primary focus would remain on Colombia, the company also planned to bid for fields in Mexico, which is opening up its energy sector. "We see the internationalization as a chance to diversify," Manosalva said, adding that the firm would focus on available onshore fields. Rebel group attacks pushed Ecopetrol's production to an average of 750,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day so far this year -- well below the nearly 1 million in 2013.

Oil from a spill or oil well blowout in the Arctic waters of Canada's Beaufort Sea could easily become trapped in sea ice and potentially spread more than 1,000 kilometres to the west coast of Alaska, a World Wildlife Fund study showed on Friday. The WWF contracted RPS Applied Science Associates to model 22 different oil spill scenarios and map the spread of the oil, potential impact on the water and shoreline, and interaction with sea ice, wildlife and the surrounding ecology. Types of oil spills analyzed included shipping spills, shallow-water blowouts and deep-water blowouts. The BP Plc Macondo oil well rupture in 2010 that unleashed more than four million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico was a deep-water blowout.

Total signed today an agreement with Lukoil creating a joint venture (JV) to explore and develop the tight oil potential of the Bazhenov play in Western Siberia. Total will hold 49% of the JV and Lukoil 51%. This agreement finalizes the memorandum of understanding signed between the two companies in December 2013. The JV will assess the technical feasibility of developing the tight oil potential of the Bazhenov formation initially on 4 licenses covering an area of 2,700 km² in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District. Seismic acquisition will start in 2014 and exploration drilling will follow in 2015. Total will contribute its Lyaminskiy 3, Vostochno-Kovenskiy and Tashinskiy licences to the JV while Lukoil will add the Galyanovsky license.

Members of the U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Francisco Incident Management Division were notified by the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) on-scene coordinator that their contractor, Global Diving and Salvage, Inc. (GDSI), had discovered tar balls and heavy oil while removing sediment from the tug Respect in the Oakland Estuary Oct. 14, 2013. Further research on the Respect showed an estimated 300-500 gallons of oil had been left aboard during removal operations conducted in 1998. The Respect was then vandalized in 2007 and sank with an unknown oil potential.

Statoil, together with PL532 partners, has made a gas discovery in the Kramsnø prospect in the Barents Sea. The exploration program around the Johan Castberg field has been vital in providing area knowledge, but so far not delivered expected oil volumes. In 2011-2012 Statoil made a breakthrough in the Barents Sea with two high impact oil discoveries Skrugard and Havis, proving a total of 400-600 million barrels of recoverable oil. Skrugard and Havis opened a new petroleum province in the Barents Sea and created a basis for the Johan Castberg field development project.

What About Cuba? Political allegiance notwithstanding, continuing unrest and war in the energy critical Middle East continues to wreak havoc with world oil prices, with consumers around the world struggling to keep up with fast escalating gasoline prices. While (at press time) the benchmark prices for a barrel of crude have settled just under $40, the situation has spurred new exploration and production ventures, one such speculation in the Gulf of Mexico off of Cuba. According to a recent report in The Economist (June 5, 2004 edition, page 48), Spain's Repsol has moved into position a Deep Water drilling rig off of the country's northwest coast with the intention of drilling two wildcat wells in what could amount to a successful attempt to energize a failing economy.

Husky Energy Inc. announced that it is proceeding with its East Coast exploration drilling program. Husky plans to drill an exploration well in the Jeanne d'Arc Basin, located 217 miles east of Newfoundland and Labrador, on the Trepassey Exploration License (EL 1044). Husky holds a 100 per cent working interest in the license. The Trepassey exploration well is part of Husky's East Coast exploration strategy to identify new opportunities offshore Newfoundland and Labrador. The exploration well will test the oil potential of a large structure approximately 6 miles south of the White Rose oilfield. The company holds six additional licenses in the Jeanne d'Arc Basin and anticipates drilling a second well in late 2002 or in 2003. "The East Coast is a core growth area for Husky.

In the two years since oil reservoirs were discovered off Cuba's coast, Canadian, Chinese, Indian and Norwegian companies have lined up to explore the potentially lucrative Caribbean waters. U.S. oil exploration in Cuban waters - along with most U.S. trade - is prohibited under a 45-year-old U.S. embargo designed to undermine Fidel Castro's communist government. This week, American energy executives meet their Cuban counterparts in the first private-sector oil summit between the two countries. Cubans hope to inform the businessmen of their country's oil potential while undermining the embargo, which has often frustrated American corporations.

Santos Ltd said it plans to boost its expenditure on exploration to $169.3 million in 2006, from $140.6 million last year, focusing on liquefied natural gas and oil potential in a 25-well high-impact exploration program, Forbes reported. The program reflects the widening geographical nature of its exploration portfolio.17 of the 25 wildcat wells will be drilled outside of Australia, including eight wells in the company's core Indonesian area and two in its emerging Timor-Bonaparte region between Australia and East Timor. Seven wells will be drilled in new areas of interest including three in Egypt and four in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico.