Struck Oil News

Equinor and partners Lundin and Spirit Energy have struck oil in the PL 167 licence at the Utsira High in the North Sea.The discovery is currently estimated to contain 15-35 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.“We are very pleased to announce the first Equinor discovery,” said Nicholas Ashton, Equinor’s senior vice president, Exploration, Norway & UK.“This is a good discovery which we expect will be commercial. In addition, the results from the drilling indicate an upside potential in this discovery…

In an effort to spread out oil and gas production to other parts of the country and increase overall oil production, Brazil has finally intensified hydrocarbon exploration along its northeastern and northern coasts. These are some of the poorest regions in the country and infrastructure for oil and gas exploration is minimal, yet significant discoveries and seismic indicators of large reservoirs are tantalizing and have attracted major local and foreign investors. Potential for oil discoveries in the area is proven, yet players will be faced by many challenges offshore and on land in order to uncork reservoirs at the Northern Frontier.

Charter of 'Maersk Deliverer' to Chariot Oil & Gas to yield handome profit for Maersk Drilling Chariot’s wholly-owned subsidiary Enigma Oil & Gas has chartered the rig for two months to drill a single well on the Tapir South prospect, off Namibia. The Maersk Deliverer is an ultra-deepwater semi-submersible drilling rig, capable of operating in water depths of 10,000 feet and drilling to a depth of up to 30,000 feet. The rig has been operating off West Africa since Maersk took delivery in 2010 and most recently at the Narina-1 wildcat on Block LB-9, off Liberia struck oil.

Petrobras is operator for licence BM-ES-32, where the discovery was made and where Statoil holds a 40% stake. The exploration well was drilled at a depth of 2,130 metres and both oil and reservoir quality is good. The reservoir thickness is approximately 70 metres and is of good quality. The preliminary analysis of the oil shows a density in the range between 25 and 30 degrees API. The Inndra find was made by the semi-submersible rig Paul Wolfe. The location is situated 140 kilometres from land and some 400 kilometres north of the Peregrino field. At the moment Statoil is also participating in exploratory drilling in the Campos basin on licence BM-C-33, where Repsol is the operator.

StatoilHydro has struck oil during the drilling of an exploration well and a sidetrack north of the Vigdis East field in the North Sea. The proven recoverable resources are estimated at about 25 million barrels of oil. The well confirmed the existence of a 280-metre oil column in rocks with good reservoir properties. "Our exploration activities close to fields on stream are successful and the discovery again confirms that there is still a great potential in this part of the North Sea," said Tom Dreyer, StatoilHydro's vice president, infrastructure-led exploration, North Sea. The exploration well was drilled into the Vigdis North-East prospect, located 3 kilometres south of the Snorre field.

's oil industry called on the new Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Riis-Johansen to open up quickly more area for offshore oil and gas exploration. With oil output from ageing North Sea fields in decline, the industry sees access to new acreage as the best way to sustain a boom which has turned from the poorest country in the Nordic region to the richest in less than two generations. The lobby group said exploration drilling had picked up on the Norwegian shelf this year, with 26 wells begun in 2008 against 32 in all of last year. Twenty-two of the wells have already been completed an 15 of them struck oil or gas. Source:  Reuters

The Reliance Group is set to make an investment in shipbuilding and dredging with two separate companies. Sources said the petroleum-to-retail giant is expected to invest around $1b each in two companies and has begun talks with international majors for a strategic tie-up for the dredging business. This investment is over and above the $1.3b investment committed for the Rewas Port, off Navi Mumbai. The shipyard will come up at Rewas, where Reliance is setting up a mega port and a special economic zone (SEZ). The company is also looking at a ship repair yard at Kakinada for servicing offshore/platform vessels and rigs. This facility is expected to be the hub for all its offshore activities in the KG basin, where Reliance Industries (RIL) has struck oil and gas in abundance.

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