Oil And Gas Province News

Offshore seismic survey specialist Shearwater on Friday announced a new project with the Austrian oil firm OMV for a "pioneering" towed streamer survey with Ocean Bottom Nodes over the Berling gas and condensate discovery in the Norwegian Sea. Spanning 1040 sq.km, this hybrid survey starts in July 2023 and will last for three months. Shearwater's vessels, SW Tasman and Oceanic Vega, will lead the operations. SW Tasman will operate as an ROV node deployment vessel for first time…

The U.S. Gulf of Mexico, best known to the offshore energy industry as an oil and gas province, is for the first time opening its doors to the offshore wind industry, with the U.S administration on Monday designating two areas for offshore wind development in the region.The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Monday said it had finalized two Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) in the Gulf of Mexico, with the potential to produce enough electricity to power nearly 3 million households.The first WEA is located approximately 24 nautical miles (nm) off the coast of Galveston, TX.

Russian oil and gas giant Rosneft has signed a contract with India’s largest fuel retailer Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for supply of 2 million tonne (MT) crude oil to India by end 2020.The Moscow-headquartered integrated energy company said in a press release that the oil will be shipped to the refiner via the port of Novorossiysk.The signing took place during the visit of the Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft Igor Sechin to New Delhi. During this visit, a working meeting was also held with Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas of India.The parties discussed the ongoing joint projects of Rosneft and Indian companies…

Today's U.S. auction of Gulf of Mexico exploration leases drew tepid response from oil companies, but marked notable progress for an industry still in a state of recovery.“While not a barn burner, Lease Sale 251 tops the previous Gulf sale in terms of increased participation, increased competition for offerings, and bid amounts,” said Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA). “In addition, bidding activity demonstrates both continued interest in deepwater tracts and renewed interest in shallow water tracts.”Luthi continued…

Two years after Iran pledged to open up its oil industry in anticipation of the lifting of sanctions, foreign companies say they still have little information about Iranian oil fields and contract terms, hindering investment decisions. Bosses from oil majors including BP, Total, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell and LUKOIL have all travelled to Tehran this year, since the EU sanctions ended in January. Their teams spent weeks meeting local officials ahead of investment tenders due to start next month. But several senior executives and members of their negotiating teams told Reuters they still had not been given sufficient information about the geology of Iranian fields or contract terms.

The ceremonial launch of construction of the lead icebreaking support vessel for Gazprom Neft Novy Port was held today at Vyborg Shipyard, a corporate member of the United Shipbuilding Corporation. Guests were greeted by Kirill Voroshilov, First Deputy General Director of the Vyborg Shipyard, who noted, “The newbuild laid down at the shipyard is a multipurpose vessel and is capable of coping with a great number of tasks while operating in heavy ice conditions. This icebreaking vessel is unique and to date it has been unrivalled on a global scale. The icebreaking support vessel will be built in accordance with a design targetting maximum icebreaking capability and considerable maneuverability with comparatively shallow draught.

According to a report from PennEnergy, on April 21, a group of 11 Greenpeace protesters climbed the Leiv Eiriksson semisubmersible drilling rig  to stop its mobilization. The Leiv Eiriksson was slated to depart Turkish waters for a drilling campaign in the Baffin Bay offshore Greenland. Cairn Energy contracted the rig to perform exploration drilling in the Arctic waters offshore Greenland in an ongoing effort to establish the region as a new oil and gas province.   (Source: PennEnergy)

One of the biggest fields in the north of the Timan Pechora oil and gas province, this field is developed by OOO Naryanmarneftegaz, a LUKOIL and ConocoPhillips joint venture (70% and 30%, respectively). The field was discovered in 1981. Oil quality there surpasses the Russian Urals export blend quality: its density is 35.5 API (Urals, 32.0 API), and sulfur content is 0.71% (Urals, 1.3%). The first stage comprises 32 development wells, an oil treatment unit, an oil desulfurization unit…