Equinor Gets Extension for Norne FPSO
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted consent to Equinor for the extension of production on Norne FPSO with associated facilities for the Norne, Urd and Skuld fields in the Norwegian Sea.Lifetime extension granted for FPSO is for four years to March 2026, as the operator eyes additional 132m barrels from Norwegian Sea field.In its application for extension, operator Equinor has described an improved drainage strategy for the Norne field and the nearby Urd and Skuld fields.The Norne, Urd, Skuld, Alve and Marulk fields are tied in to the Norne ship. The authorities approved an amended Plan for Development and Operation…
Gazprom & Rosneft Receive New Sites in the Arctic
The government supplemented the list of the subsoil sites of federal importance that are available for use without auctions. The Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, signed the respective decree.The list includes the Pritaymyrsky subsurface site in the Laptev Sea, as well as the Kheysovsky site in the Barents Sea. The area of the Pritaymyrsky plot is 20,619,000 sq. km. The extractable reserves are estimated to be 104.6 million tonnes. Gas reserves total 362.8 billion cubic meters. The Kheysovsky site covers an area of 83,590,000 sq. km. Its recoverable oil reserves are estimated at 118.1 million tonnes. Gas reserves are 2.081 trillion cubic meters. The right to use the latter was received by Russian monopolist Gazprom. The owner of the Pritaymyrsky site is Rosneft.
Russia Ships First Oil From Offshore Arctic Platform
President Vladimir Putin hailed Russia's first shipment of Arctic offshore oil on Friday, saying the platform decried by environmentalists will help Moscow expand its global energy markets share. Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russia's top gas producer Gazprom, shipped the first 70,000 tonnes of oil by tanker from the Prirazlomnoye platform, the site of a protest by 30 Greenpeace activists who were arrested last year. The launch of oil production in the Arctic, seen by Russia as one of the key sources in the gradual replacement of output from its depleted West Siberian fields…
US 2014 Petroleum Production: Why Hubbert was Wrong
Combined production of crude oil, gas and condensates in the United States is on course to a hit a record this year, passing the previous peak set in 1972. The rise in output has confounded the famous forecast made by Shell geologist M King Hubbert who predicted that U.S. oil and gas production would peak in the 1970s and then decline. Hubbert's prediction was contained in a paper entitled "Nuclear Energy and the Fossil Fuels," published in 1956, in which he argued the coming decline of oil and gas output would make the development of nuclear energy essential. Hubbert's prediction of peaking oil and gas production came to be known as "Hubbert's peak" and spawned the popular and influential theory known as "peak oil".
Despite Protests Gazprom Starts Arctic Oil Production
Gazprom says it has started producing oil from the Prirazlomnoye field, which is the first Russian project for developing the Arctic shelf and the commencement, they say, of their large-scale activities aimed at creating a large hydrocarbon production center in the region. The Prirazlomnoye oil field [scene of an earlier Greenpeace protest] is located in the Pechora Sea, 60 kilometers off the shore. The recoverable oil reserves amount to 71.96 million tons, projected oil production comes up to some 6 million tons a year (to be reached after 2020).
Brazil’s Libra Oilfield Auction Stirs Protest
Protestors are rallying against the Brazilian auction of the Libra oilfield site discovered in 2010 roughly 140 miles off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Multiple Sources reported that some 1,100 troops have already been deployed by the Brazilian government as a preventative measure after protests grew violent last week in Rio. The auction, which is scheduled to take place this afternoon, dictates that state-run Petrobras would bring in more than 40% of recovered oil from Libra for the Brazilian state.
An Energy SuperPower
Russia is an energy superpower and the country has vast and rich natural resources. Besides gas and coal reserves (some of the largest in the world), Russia today is ranked as the world’s biggest oil producing nation accounting for well over 12% of the global output. Moreover, the country exports more than 70% of its oil to the world markets. That said, Russia’s output of oil amounts to a third of what collectively the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) produces. The country has relied on oil production for decades, however there has been a notable geographical shift.
Drilling Rig Strikes Oil Again in Barents Sea
ENI has successfully drilled the appraisal well 7220/5-1 in the Skrugard discovery field 200 kilometres off the Norwegian coast.The well was drilled at a water depth of 388 metres, reaching a total depth of 1,740 metres at a site located approximately 3 kilometres from the Skrugard-1 discovery. A gas column of about 25 metres and an oil column of 48 metres was encountered in the Middle - Lower Jurassic reservoir, Stø & Nordmela Formations. Intensive data collection and sampling have been carried out in the well-bore and the results show a reservoir of excellent quality. The aim of the appraisal well was to prove the hydrocarbon extension in the middle section of the Skrugard structure.
