Statoil Gulf News

Schlumberger announced today that Statoil Gulf of Mexico LLC has signed an agreement to license a large part of the WesternGeco Campeche wide-azimuth (WAZ) deepwater multiclient seismic survey in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The license also includes collaboration with WesternGeco in the seismic processing phase. “We are pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with Statoil in this breakthrough project, which is the first WAZ multiclient broadband survey in Mexican waters of the Gulf of Mexico,” said Maurice Nessim, president, WesternGeco. A fleet of eight vessels is conducting the survey in the Bay of Campeche for the three-year project. The project follows the Mexican government opening licensing rounds to non-government companies for the first time.

Bureau Veritas has awarded certification to Statoil for meeting the Safety and Environmental Management Systems (SEMS) protocols developed by the Center for Offshore Safety (COS), an enhanced set of requirements in the offshore oil and gas industry. Statoil is the first organization to be issued a SEMS certificate by Bureau Veritas and is also the first offshore operator to successfully complete an independent assessment and demonstrate compliance with the offshore safety and environmental sustainability rule. The certification recognizes that Statoil Gulf of Mexico E&P’s management system meets industry and regulatory requirements for SEMS.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) completed its required evaluation to ensure that the public receives fair market value for tracts leased as part of Central Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 227, which was held on March 20, 2013. After extensive economic analysis, BOEM has awarded 307 leases on tracts covering 1,648,831 acres to the successful high bidders who participated in the sale, which made 7,299 unleased blocks covering about 38.6 million acres available offshore Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The accepted high bids are valued at $1,199,052,037. The terms of Sale 227 continued a range of incentives to encourage diligent development and ensure a fair return to taxpayers — including an increased minimum bid for deepwater tracts…

Statoil’s operations in North America got another boost when operator Anadarko Petroleum and co-owners Shell and Chevron today announced the beginning of first oil production from the Caesar Tonga deep-water project in the Gulf of Mexico. Caesar Tonga, in which Statoil Gulf of Mexico LLC has a 23.55 percent  working interest, began flowing high-quality oil on March 7. Production from the project’s first three wells is expected to ramp up to approximately 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) approved a sixth deepwater drilling permit on March 25 that complies with rigorous new safety standards implemented in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting oil spill. This includes satisfying the requirement to demonstrate the capacity to contain a subsea blowout. The approved permit is a revised permit to drill a new well for Statoil Gulf of Mexico LLC’s Well #1 in Alaminos Canyon Block 810 in 7,134 ft. water depth, approximately 216 miles off the Texas coastline, south of Texas City. “This permit is the sixth we have approved since February 17, when industry demonstrated that it had the capacity to handle subsea blowouts and spills.

Subsea 7 S.A., a global leader in seabed-to-surface engineering, construction and services, announced the award of an engineering and installation contract by Chevron U.S.A. Inc. for Tahiti Phase 2 development in the Gulf of Mexico. The Subsea 7 workscope is to install one 7.5” x 13,000ft long flexible riser, one 4” x 4,500ft long umbilical, five rigid well jumpers, 10 electrical flying leads (EFL) and seven steel flying leads (SFL). Subsea 7 will also transport the flexible riser from Le Trait, France to the Gulf of Mexico. The engineering work will commence immediately at Subsea 7’s Houston office. The installation of the flexible and umbilical will take place Q3, 2011 with the five well tie-ins occurring through to mid 2012.

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) announced that the newbuild ultra-deepwater drillship Discoverer Americas has commenced operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for Statoil Gulf of Mexico, a subsidiary of Statoil ASA, under a four-year drilling contract. The dynamically positioned double-hulled Discoverer Americas is an enhanced version of Transocean's three predecessor Enterprise-class drillships, which have set deepwater drilling records in recent years, including the world water-depth drilling record of 10,011 feet set by the Discoverer Deep Seas in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. One of 22 Ultra-Deepwater Floaters in the Transocean fleet, the Discoverer Americas features Transocean's patented dual-activity drilling technology…

Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced that the Western Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 207, held in New Orleans, attracted $487,297,676 in high bids. The sale was conducted by Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) and had 53 companies submitting 423 bids on 319 tracts comprising over 1.8 million acres offshore Texas. The sum of all bids received totaled $607,134,968. “In the midst of the national discussion about energy production, the activity at today’s sale signals that the offshore oil and gas industry is serious about developing our Nation’s resources,” said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. Approximately 17 percent of the tracts receiving bids are in ultra-deep water (more than 1,600 meters).