Gepetrol News

American upstream oil company founded and based in Dallas Kosmos Energy made an offshore oil discovery in Equatorial Guinea, Reuters reported quoting the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons.The S-5 well was drilled at a total depth of 4,400 meters and encountered 39 meters of net oil play in the Santonian reservoir, in the offshore Rio Muni Basin, it said. “The discovery is a strong validation of our strategy to replace oil reserves by exploring the highly prospective oil basins like Rio Muni,” the nation’s Minister of Mines, Industry and Energy Gabriel Obiang said in the statement.According to the report, Lima’s ministry said the well was drilled at a depth of 4…

SBM Offshore NV, a Netherlands-based maker of offshore oil drilling equipment, and its U.S. subsidiary, SBM Offshore USA Inc, agreed to settle criminal charges of bribing officials in five countries and pay a $238 million penalty, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday. The companies agreed to settle charges related to schemes lasting more than a decade involving bribery of foreign officials in Brazil, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan and Iraq, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Justice Department said in a statement. SBM Offshore USA pleaded guilty on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the statement said.

The Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons (MMH), Ophir Equatorial Guinea (Block R) Ltd, OneLNG SA and La Compania Nacional De Petroleos De Guinea Ecuatorial (GEPetrol) have nominated Gunvor Group Ltd (Gunvor) as its preferred LNG Buyer for offtake from the Fortuna FLNG project. All parties have agreed the principal commercial terms subject to finalising a Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) for the offtake ahead of the Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Fortuna FLNG project. Gunvor is committed to take the full contract capacity of the Gandria FLNG vessel of 2.2 MMTPA which will be purchased on a Brent-linked, Free on Board (FOB) basis for a 10 year term. The contract structure allows flexibility for up to 1.1mmtpa of the Fortuna capacity to be marketed on an alternate basis.

The Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons (MMH), Ophir Equatorial Guinea (Block R) Ltd, OneLNG SA and La Compania Nacional De Petroleos De Guinea Ecuatorial (GEPetrol) have nominated Gunvor Group Ltd (Gunvor) as its preferred LNG Buyer for offtake from the Fortuna FLNG project. All parties have agreed the principal commercial terms subject to finalizing a Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) for the offtake ahead of the Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Fortuna FLNG project. Gunvor will take the full contract capacity of the Gandria FLNG vessel of 2.2 MMTPA which will be purchased on a Brent-linked, Free on Board (FOB) basis for a 10 year term. The contract structure allows flexibility for up to 1.1mmtpa of the Fortuna capacity to be marketed on an alternate basis.

Oilfield services giant Schlumberger is entering Ophir Energy’s Fortune floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) project off Equatorial Guinea after agreeing a preliminary deal with the UK player for a stake in the development. The non-binding agreement has Schlumberger receiving a 40-percent interest in the project, with a permanent deal expected in Q2 2016. The services provider plans to reimburse 50 percent of Ophir’s past costs through a development carried interest. It is expected to cover the company’s capital expenditure on the project until the first sales of LNG. The Fortuna project is located on block R in offshore Equatorial Guinea, about 140 km off the coast of Bioko Island on the Distal Niger Delta.

Golar LNG has signed a binding Heads of Terms with Ophir Energy Plc for the provision of the GoFLNG vessel Gimi. Golar has started discussions with partners Keppel and Black & Veatch aimed at exercising an option, under an existing framework agreement, for the ordering of a third GoFLNG unit similar to the Hilli and the Gimi. The vessel will replace the previously announced floating liquefaction storage and offloading (FLSO) that would have been supplied by Houston-based Excelerate Energy. The Heads of Terms has been approved by Ophir's Equatorial Guinea, Block-R upstream partner GEPetrol, and will shortly be formally ratified. The agreement will be structured as a 20-year tolling contract, commencing commercial operations in the first half of 2019.

Keppel Shipyard Ltd's (Keppel Shipyard) conversion of the FPSO Aseng is nearing completion. The FPSO will be operated by Aseng Production Company Ltd, a joint venture by SBM Offshore and Compania Nacional de Petroleo de Guinea Ecuatorial (GEPetrol), the national oil company of Equatorial Guinea. Chartered by Noble Energy for the development of the Aseng field in offshore Equatorial Guinea, FPSO Aseng is designed to process 80,000 barrels of oil per day and store approximately 1.7 million barrels of oil. HE Marcelino Owono Edu, Minister of Mines, Industry and Energy of Equatorial Guinea, witnessed the naming of the FPSO by his daughter, Señorita Doña Ayingono Owono Nchama, at Keppel Shipyard.