Al Shaheen Field News

Oil tanker operator International Seaways has sold its 50% stake in two floating storage and offshore (FSO) vessels, the FSO Asia and FSO Africa, to its joint venture partner Euronav NV. The purchase price values the two FSO vessels at $300 million in total. Net of adjustments for working capital and expenses, International Seaways received approximately $140 million in cash from the sale.The transaction has been approved by North Oil Company (“NOC”), the operator of the Al Shaheen offshore oil field in Qatar, whose shareholders are Qatar Energy and Total E&P Golfe Limited.

Gulf Drilling International (GDI) has signed a three-year contract with North Oil Company (NOC) to provide drilling services through the drilling rig Dukhan for NOC’s extensive development programmes in Al Shaheen oil field.The Al Shaheen Oil Field is a production oil and gas field off the north east coast of Qatar in the Persian Gulf, 80 kilometres north of Doha.The subsidiary of Gulf International Services (GIS) said in a press release that the signing ceremony was attended by GDI’s Chief Executive officer William Ceppi and NOC’s Chief Executive Officer Jacques Azibert. Also in attendance were Mark Gibson, Chief Operation Officer, and Francis Bourcier Drilling Manager of NOC…

Euronav's joint venture with International Seaways (INSW) has signed a contract for five years for the FSO Africa and FSO Asia in direct continuation of the current contractual service. The contract was signed with North Oil Company (NOC), the future operator of the Al-Shaheen oil field, whose shareholders are Qatar Petroleum Oil & Gas Limited and Total E&P Golfe Limited. The new contracts for these custom-made 3 million barrels capacity units which have been significantly converted and that have been serving the Al-Shaheen field without interruption since 2010 will have a duration of five years starting at the expiry of the existing contracts with Maersk Oil Qatar. The existing contracts will remain in force until expiry in the third quarter of 2017.

Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk and DONG Energy are in talks to merge their oil and gas operations in a deal that would create a business worth more than $10 billion including debt, sources familiar with the matter said. Maersk is working with Bank of America on the potential deal, while JP Morgan is assisting Dong Energy, said the people, who cautioned there is no certainty the parties would come to terms. Maersk said in September it planned to merge or spin-off its energy assets as part of a major restructuring and instead focus on its core transport and logistics businesses.

Award to be presented March 23, 2016 at the conclusion of the CMA’s Shipping 2016 Annual Conference and Exposition. Mr. Paddy Rodgers, CEO of Euronav NV has been named as the Connecticut Maritime Association (CMA) Commodore for the year 2016. Rodgers follows a long succession of influential maritime industry leaders as Commodore. The 2016 Commodore Award will be presented on March 23, 2016 at the Gala Dinner marking the conclusion of the annual Connecticut Maritime Association conference and trade exposition, at the Hilton Hotel in Stamford, Connecticut, USA. The Award is given each year to a person in the international maritime industry who has contributed to the growth and development of the industry.

Maersk Line lost market share in container shipping in the first quarter, disappointing analysts who said A.P. Moller-Maersk's  forecast-beating results on Wednesday had been helped by one-offs. While the world's largest container shipping business reported a jump in net profit to $714 million from $454 million, due largely to lower bunker fuel prices, analysts noted the Danish conglomerate failed to announce divestments or investor perks such as share buybacks and additional dividends, as it had in recent quarters.

'FSO Africa', owned by TI Africa, on long-term contract to Maersk Oil Qatar (MOQ) for services on the Al Shaheen Field. The contract has a fixed duration of five years from 1 October 2012 with an option granted to MOQ to extend the contract period for either one or two years. FSO Asia has been operating on the Al Shaheen field for two and a half years and FSO Africa for over two years. The vessels continue to operate at a high level of performance in terms of quality of oil produced and without incurrence of off-hire since their respective in- service dates. FSO Africa and FSO Asia are the two largest and most sophisticated double-hulled FSOs in the world. They are owned by joint venture companies in which Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. and Euronav each have a 50% interest.

Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. has announced that a new service agreement has been signed with Maersk Oil Qatar AS ("MOQ") for FSO Africa, a floating storage and offloading service vessel (FSO) jointly owned by OSG and Euronav N.V. (Euronext Brussels: EURN). The new agreement, which supersedes the previous FSO Africa contract, has a firm term of five years commencing October 1, 2012 and provides MOQ with an extension option for an additional term of either one or two years. In addition to the extension of the minimum contract term by over four years, the new agreement provides for an increase in the daily hire rate earned in each firm contract year to the same daily hire rate schedule as for the existing MOQ service contract for FSO Asia, its sister vessel.

Euronav has announce that TI Africa Limited, the owner of FSO Africa, has signed a new agreement with Maersk Oil Qatar AS (MOQ) for the provision of FSO services on the Al Shaheen field offshore Qatar. The contract has a fixed duration of five years beginning 1 October 2012 with an option granted to MOQ to extend the contract period for either one or two years. The new agreement extends to MOQ use of the full capacity and functionality against an increase of the daily hire earned in each contract year equal to the daily hire rate schedule of the existing service contract for FSO Asia, its sister vessel. FSO Asia has been operating on the Al Shaheen field for two and a half years and FSO Africa for over two years.

At 02:46 on 21 April a fire broke out on the Maersk Oil Qatar operated AD accommodation platform in the Al Shaheen field, 80 km north of Qatar. The fire which took place in the emergency generator room has been extinguished and the situation is under control. All employees are safe and accounted for with no serious injuries. Our primary concern remains the safety and wellbeing of our personnel and those affected by the situation. All non-essential personnel have been evacuated from the platform and crisis counselling made available.

The time charter party of the Cap Victor (2007 -158,853 dwt) with BP and the time charter party of  the Fraternity  (2009 – 157,714 dwt) with Vitol have been extended with 24 and 12 months respectively. On 10 February 2010, the company took delivery of the newbuilding Suezmax Eugenie (2010 – 157,677 dwt)  from Samsung Heavy  Industries, Koje  Island, South Korea. The vessel, which  is owned 50%-50% in joint venture with JM Maritime, is being operated on the spot market. The  storage  contract of  the V-plus TI Europe  (2002 – 441…

The executive committee of Euronav NV (NYSE EURONEXT BRUSSELS: EURN) reported its preliminary non-audited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2010. The company had a net result of USD -17.6 million (fourth quarter 2009: USD -23.6 million) for the three months ended 31st December 2010 or USD -0.35 per share (fourth quarter 2009: USD -0.47 per share). EBITDA was USD 34.5 million (fourth quarter 2009: USD 34.3 million). For the full year ending 31 December 2010, the net results before deferred tax are USD 20.2 million (2009: USD -17.6 million) or USD 0.40 per share (2009: USD -0.35 per share). The average daily time charter equivalent rates (TCE) obtained by the company’s fleet in the Tankers International (TI) pool was for the fourth quarter approximately USD 17…

Overseas Shipholding Group’s Q4 2009 results were aided by an unexpected tax credit. OSG reported a loss of $0.59 excluding one-time items versus our ($1.02) forecast and the Street’s ($1.25) forecast. However a $30.5 million tax credit for 2009 against 2004 earnings led to the earnings beat, as earnings without the tax credit would have been ($1.73). The actual cash tax credit will be $43 million, which OSG will receive in 2010. TCE revenues were $5 million below our forecasts on slightly lower utilization than we had expected while G&A costs of $36 million were $5 million higher than we forecast. Management guided stronger 1Q10 results.OSG disclosed that 66% of its spot VLCC days have been fixed at an average of $50,000/day, with 57% of its spot Aframax days done at $25,000/day.

The credit facility consists of a USD 180 million term loan to finance the acquisition of TI Asia (2002) and TI Africa (2002) by joint venture companies owned equally by Euronav and OSG and USD 320 million term loan to finance the conversion of the ships into FSO (Floating Storage Offloading) service vessels, which are scheduled to deliver to Maersk Oil Qatar on the Al Shaheen field offshore Qatar and start operation respectively on July and September 2009. The credit facilities have 8 year maturity as from the date of deliveries of each of the 2 vessels on site. Borrowings under this facility bear interest at a rate based on LIBOR plus an attractive margin.

Transocean Inc. said that the its jackup GSF Rig 127 set a world record for the longest extended-reach well ever drilled at 40,320 ft. (12,289 m) MD (measured depth) with a 35,770-ft. (10,902-m) horizontal section. The well was drilled offshore Qatar in 36 days and incident-free. The new record of 7.6 miles is also the first well in the history of offshore drilling that exceeds 40,000 ft. (12,191 m). The well surpasses by approximately 2,000 ft. the prior extended-reach record of 38,322 ft. (11,680 m) MD set by another drilling contractor with a land rig drilling at Sakhalin Island earlier this year. The rig's crewmembers, working with the client, Maersk Oil Qatar AS, overcame many constraints, including high drilling torque throughout certain parts of the horizontal section.

Euronav NV announced that Maersk Oil Qatar AS has awarded two contracts for the provision of Floating Storage and Offloading (‘FSO’) services on the Al Shaheen field off shore Qatar. Euronav NV and Overseas Shipholding Group. obligations, the company can disclose that the award of the contracts for eight years is to be performed by two vessels, the TI Asia (2002) and the TI Africa (2002), both double hull tankers with 442,000 deadweight tones, the largest ships of this type in the world and currently respectively in the ownership of Euronav and OSG. The Contracts will call for extensive conversion and the vessels will commence the provision of FSO services in July and September of 2009.

Qatar Petroleum and Maersk Oil Qatar recently agreed on a new plan for further development of Al Shaheen Field in Block 5, offshore Qatar, according to an OilVoice report. The work will commence immediately and continue through the next six years. The 2005 Field Development Plan (FDP) comprises of drilling of more than 160 additional production and water injection wells during the 6-year period, as well as establishment of three further offshore platform locations with production and accommodation facilities, totaling 19 new platforms - interconnected by subsea pipelines. The Al Shaheen field oil production will be gradually increased to a plateau level of 525,000 barrels/day from late 2009.