Oil Development News

The U.S. Interior Department on Tuesday named Elizabeth Klein, a lawyer who worked in the Obama and Clinton administrations, to head the bureau that oversees offshore oil, gas and wind development.Klein will take over for the current head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Amanda Lefton, who has resigned from the post effective Jan.

Guyana is in "no rush" to draft a new production sharing agreement (PSA) for offshore oil development, its Natural Resources minister told Reuters, reversing a year-long drive to devise new rules for future output.The government of South America's newest crude oil producer said in 2021 it was planning a new agreement to revamp terms and boost royalties for future oil and gas projects. The proposed document was expected to improve terms for Guyana of a 2016 contract with Exxon Mobil and its partners for the prolific Stabroek block.But the tiny nation…

Exxon Mobil Corp on Friday said it is accelerating output at its Guyana offshore oil development, starting a new production vessel that will bring total capacity to more than 340,000 barrels per day.An Exxon-led consortium started production in the South America country in 2019 and is responsible for all oil and gas output in Guyana. Exxon and partners Hess Corp and CNOOC Ltd. have discovered some 10 billion barrels of oil.Production at the Liza Unity floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel is expected to reach 220,000 barrels of oil per day later this year, Exxon said.

A fire on the ocean surface west of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula early on Friday has been extinguished, state oil company Pemex said, blaming a gas leak from an underwater pipeline for sparking the blaze captured in videos that went viral.Bright orange flames jumping out of water resembling molten lava was dubbed an "eye of fire" on social media due to the blaze's circular shape, as it raged a short distance from a Pemex oil platform.The fire took more than five hours to fully put out…

A federal appeals court on Tuesday confirmed bans on offshore oil leasing in most federal Arctic waters and in the Atlantic after the Trump Administration tried to open them up to development.The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said President Joe Biden's reinstatement of Obama-era protections makes moot the previous administration's attempts to allow oil development there.The Trump administration pressed for oil-and-gas development throughout the United States as the nation's crude production surged to a record 13 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2019.

The conversion of a VLCC into an FPSO bound for Woodside's Sangomar project in Senegal has recently kicked off in China, the Australian oil firm said in a recent report.The 323 meters-long very large crude carrier (VLCC) Astipal in February arrived in China, where it will, in Woodside's words, undergo "a metamorphosis" into the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility for the Sangomar field. Japanese firm MODEC is responsible for the delivery of the FPSO for the Sangomar field, Senegal's first offshore oil development. The FPSO conversion will take around two years.

Japanese FPSO contractor Modec has won a contract with Woodside for the operations and maintenance of the Sangomar FPSO in Senegal.The deal follows a contract signed in January for Modec to deliver the FPSO for Sangomar field development  - Senegal's first offshore development.The operations and maintenance contract will cover all in-country installation and commissioning activities following which an initial 10-year operations and maintenance term will begin. Extension options…

U.S. oil major ExxonMobil has reached a final investment decision on a $9 billion offshore oil development project in Guyana, following the approval by the government.To remind, Reuters last Friday reported that Guyana was close to reaching a deal with Exxon to green-light the project "after the company committed to stricter environmental restrictions on gas flaring and wastewater."The project, called Payara, will target an estimated resource base of about 600 million oil-equivalent barrels.

Southeast Asia-focused oil and gas company KrisEnergy Apsara Co signed a conditional letter of award with PT Profab for the supply of a minimum facilities wellhead “mini-platform” for the Apsara oilfield – Cambodia’s maiden oil development.According to a press note from the Singapore-based parent company KrisEnergy, the scope of work covers key procurement, and the fabrication and construction of the jacket, topsides and other related accessories for the Mini-Platform, including full pre-commissioning and loading onto a barge for transportation.The work will be undertaken at Profab’s facility on Batam Island, Indonesia, it said.The Apsara field in Cambodia Block A lies over the Khmer Basin…

The provider tubular solutions for the energy markets Vallourec Soluçoes Tubulares do Brasil has been awarded by TechnipFMC in Brazil to supply around 12,000 tons of seamless steel rigid line pipe with outside diameters 8” and 10”.The pipe will be used in the fabrication of the riser and flowline system for interconnecting 13 wells (6 production wells and 7 water alternate gas injection wells), to be installed in the pre-salt field Mero 1, which is part of the giant Libra reservoir.Libra covers an area of 1,550 square kilometers, equivalent to the size of the Brazilian city of São Paulo, with recoverable reserves estimated in the range of 8 to 12 billion of barrels of oil.The Libra Block has been developed under a consortium agreement with Petrobras (40% share) as operator…

Singapore's Keppel Offshore & Marine said its wholly-owned subsidiary Keppel Shipyard has secured a contract worth about S$30 million (US$21.8 million) for the modification and upgrading of a production barge for SJ Production Barge Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of compatriot upstream oil and gas company KrisEnergy.Keppel Shipyard's scope of work includes installation of a power generation module, electrical house, new accommodation units and other refurbishment works. The work is expected to conclude around the third quarter of 2019.Chor How Jat, Managing Director (Conversions & Repairs) of Keppel O&M and Managing Director of Keppel Shipyard…

Spirit Energy will invest in exploration and appraisal West of Shetland for the first time early next year after farming into 50% of Hurricane Energy’s Greater Warwick Area.Spirit Energy will fund a $180 million (£139 million) campaign to drill three wells 100km West of Shetland, to further prove up the potential of an area which holds an estimated 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in prospective and contingent resources.The three wells will be drilled in licences operated by Hurricane Energy (“Hurricane”). They will target the Lincoln discovery and the Warwick exploration prospect, which are estimated to hold 604 million boe…

Vietnam's state oil firm PetroVietnam has ordered Spanish energy firm Repsol to suspend its "Red Emperor" project off the country's southeastern coast following pressure from China, the BBC reported on Friday. It would be the second time in less than a year that Vietnam has had to cancel a major oil development in the South China Sea under pressure from China. The move comes as Repsol was making final preparations for commercial drilling. A rig, the Ensco 8504, was scheduled to depart from Singapore for the drill site on Thursday, the report said, citing an unnamed energy industry source. The cancellation could cost Repsol and its partners $200 million in sunk investment, according to the BBC. Repsol and PetroVietnam executives could not immediately be reached for comment.

Alaska Governor Bill Walker said on Tuesday he has asked U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to pare back a Trump administration plan for oil and gas leasing off the state's coast. While Walker supports offshore oil development, he said the Interior Department should focus on the most prospective areas off Alaska – the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in the Arctic and Cook Inlet in southern Alaska – and drop all others from the leasing plan. In asking for proposed lease sales to be dropped…

President Donald Trump's administration has proposed opening up nearly all of America's offshore waters to oil and gas drilling, but the industry says it is mainly interested in one part of it, now cordoned off by the Pentagon: the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The industry's focus on an area located near a sprawling network of existing platforms, pipes and ports could ease the path to new reserves, and assuage the drilling opponents near other places offered under the Interior Department's proposed drilling plan issued last week, like California's Pacific, the Atlantic and Arctic. But accessing it would likely require the consent of the U.S. military.

Vietnam has extended an Indian oil concession in the South China Sea and begun drilling in another area it disputes with China in moves that could heighten tensions over who owns what in the vital maritime region. The moves come at a delicate time in Beijing's relations with Vietnam, which claims parts of the sea, and India, which recently sent warships to monitor the Malacca Straits, through which most of China's energy supplies and trade passes. Vietnam granted Indian oil firm ONGC Videsh a two-year extension to explore oil block 128 in a letter that arrived earlier this week, the state-run company's managing director Narendra K. Verma told Reuters.

There has been little reaction by way of statements or position papers from marine fuel lubricant manufacturers to the IMO MEPC70 proposals for a global fuel sulfur content cap of 0.5 percent by 2020 but they are fully aware of the implications of the proposed regulations and are taking what could be termed a ‘pragmatic approach’ to fuel regulation compliance. Marine lubricant suppliers have avoided getting involved in the debate as to whether the IMO MEPC70 proposals to reduce permissible marine fuel sulfur content to 0.5 percent or less is good…

Global Maritime Consultancy & Engineering, a provider of offshore marine warranty, dynamic positioning and engineering services, has completed a suitability survey for the world’s second largest semi-submersible - the ‘Xin Guang Hua’ - in advance of her maiden voyage. For the survey, Global Maritime carried out an independent assessment of all aspects of the vessel’s condition. The Xin Guang Hua - at 255 meters long, 68 meters wide and with a lift/transportation capacity of 98,000 tons - has been built by Guangzhou Shipyard International Company and is owned by Cosco Shipping.

Cancelled order part of Statoil's Bressay project. South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd on Friday said a 1.58 trillion won ($1.41 billion) order placed in 2013 for a fixed oil production platform has been cancelled. The shipbuilder said in a regulatory filing that the cancellation would have no effect on its balance sheet as no costs had been incurred. A company spokesman also said the order had not been factored into any earnings forecasts. Daewoo Shipbuilding said a European company placed the order and had cancelled due to deterioration in its global operating environment. The cancelled order was an option in a contract signed with Norway's Statoil ASA as part of the Bressay oil development project on Britain's continental shelf…

Two of the major British players in Falkland Islands offshore oil development, Premier Oil and Rockhopper Exploration, cancelled a joint venture contract with Ocean Rig UDW. In June 2014, the companies entered into a contract with Ocean Rig for the provision of the Eirik Raude for an exploration drilling campaign in the Falkland Islands. However, following a number of material "operational issues" with the rig, Premier and Noble Energy issued a termination notice to Ocean Rig on Thursday, terminating the contract with immediate effect. "As a result, Premier will no longer be drilling the Chatham exploration well during the current campaign.

Italian energy group ENI plans to start oil production from Norway's first Arctic oil development in a few weeks after years of delays and cost overruns. Production from the Goliat field, estimated to hold about 174 million barrels of oil, was originally expected to start in 2013, and the latest deadline was the end of this summer. "We had some delays due to bad weather, but we are planning to start the production in a few weeks," said Andreas Wulff, the spokesman for ENI in Norway.

Iran is sidestepping Western sanctions and managing to sell hundreds of thousands of tonnes of fuel oil every month through companies based in the U.S.-allied United Arab Emirates, trading sources told Reuters. The U.S. and EU sanctions that came into force in 2012 prohibit the import, purchase and transport of Iranian petroleum products to pressure Tehran to halt its disputed nuclear programme. Washington has also pressed its allies around the world to clamp down on the shipping of Iranian oil products. But Tehran has been using innovative methods to circumvent the restrictions, several Middle East-based trading sources said. They include tankers switching off their tracking systems…

January 1, 2015 is an important date for ship owner and operators to ensure that their vessels, when operating inside ECA zones, are doing so in compliance with strict new emission edicts concerning the emission of sulfur. – to discuss some of the technical and logistical matters you must consider. The move to low sulfur fuels is well recorded, but from your point of view, describe the situation that ship owners face regarding fuel selection and cylinder lubrication come January 1, 2015?