Oil Plc News

Ghana is set to award nine new upstream oil blocks for commercial exploration off its western coast beginning this year, the energy ministry said on Thursday.The West African country plans to award six of the nine blocks this year while the remaining three will be given out next year through a mix of open competitive tender and direct negotiations, the ministry said in a statement.It said state oil company Ghana National Petroleum Corporation will acquire one of the blocks to explore in partnership with a strategic partner to develop its technical capacity and become an operator.Ghana, which b

Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. announced that Ian Craig has accepted an invitation to join Teekay Offshore's Board of Directors, effective June 6, 2017. Craig has served in various executive positions in Shell, most recently in Nigeria where he was Executive Vice President for Sub-Saharan Africa, and in Russia where he was CEO of Sakhalin Energy, an incorporated joint venture of Gazprom, Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi. Prior to that, Craig was a Board member and Technical Director of Enterprise Oil plc until its acquisition by Shell in 2002. He had earlier held executive and management positions with other exploration and production (E&P) companies including Sun Oil and BP.

Ocean Rig UDW Inc., a global provider of offshore deepwater drilling services, announced  that two of its drilling contracts have been terminated. The Nasdaq-listed drilling affiliate of DryShips said that Total E&P Congo has terminated its long-term charter of the ultra-deepwater drillship Ocean Rig Apollo, which is currently deployed in Congo and will be demobilised “in due course”. As per the contract Ocean Rig is entitled to a termination fee that varies from 50% to 95% of the operating daily rate that will be payable over the balance of the contract. The Ocean Rig Apollo will demobilize from Congo in due course and is available for alternative employment.

SBM Offshore announced it has been awarded a front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract from Premier Oil plc for an FPSO for Phase 1 of its Sea Lion development in the North Falkland Basin. The 18-month contract awarded to SBM Offshore covers the FEED elements of the proposed FPSO. The asset will be a converted FPSO with a throughput capacity of approximately 85,000 barrels per day and will operate in 450 meters of water. The proposed Phase 1 Sea Lion project, operated by Premier with Rockhopper Exploration plc as the JV partner, is located 220 kilometers north of the Falkland Islands. This first phase is subject to final investment decision targeted for the end of the FEED in the second half of 2017.

SBM Offshore informed that Premier Oil plc (Premier) has awarded the Company the Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) contract for an FPSO for Phase 1 of its Sea Lion development in the North Falkland Basin. The 18-month contract awarded to SBM Offshore covers the FEED elements of the proposed FPSO. The asset will be a converted FPSO with a throughput capacity of approximately 85,000 barrels per day and will operate in 450 meters of water. The proposed Phase 1 Sea Lion project, operated by Premier with Rockhopper Exploration plc as the JV partner, is located 220 kilometers north of the Falkland Islands. This first phase is subject to final investment decision targeted for the end of the FEED in the second half of 2017.

Teekay LNG Partners L.P. announced changes to Teekay LNG’s board of directors. Jane Hinkley has been appointed to the chairmanship position succeeding C. Sean Day, who will remain a director of Teekay LNG and chairman of the partnership’s sponsor, Teekay Corporation. Hinkley has been a director of Teekay LNG for over 10 years and has management and board experience in the shipping and oil and gas industry, including serving as the managing director of Navion Shipping AS, and chief financial officer and managing director of Gotaas-Larsen Shipping Corporation, and currently serves on the board of directors of Premier Oil plc and Vesuvius plc.

Britain said on Thursday it had summoned the Argentine ambassador to explain the latest war of words over the disputed Falkland Islands which included a threat to prosecute British energy firms operating in the area. Last week, Premier Oil Plc and Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd said they had made an oil and gas discovery at a well off the south Atlantic islands, the first in a nine-month drilling campaign. Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez called the announcement "almost provocative", and Argentine officials warned they were planning legal action against oil firms operating near the Falklands, which lie 300 miles off the Argentine coast and 8,000 miles from Britain.

Egdon Resources plc has received consent of the Planning and Regulation Committee during the Meeting of Lincolnshire County Council yesterday. The planning consent was granted for the drilling and any subsequent testing of the North Kelsey-1 exploration well in Lincolnshire licence PEDL241. The North Kelsey Prospect is located approximately 10 kilometres to the south of the Wressle-1 discovery well in PEDL180. The prospect is defined on 3D seismic data and has potential for up to four stacked conventional reservoir intervals in the Chatsworth, Beacon Hill, Ravensthorpe and Santon sandstones. The gross mean combined Prospective Resources for these multiple objectives, as calculated by Egdon are estimated to be 6.7 million barrels of oil.

Tullow Oil plc announces the successful results from a series of exploration, appraisal and testing activities conducted in Blocks 10BB and 13T onshore Kenya. The Etom-1 well in Block 13T is the most northerly well drilled to date in the South Lokichar basin, 6.5 km north of the previous Agete-1 discovery. The well encountered approximately 10 metres of net oil pay, extending the proven oil basin significantly northwards. Based on this result the ongoing 550 sq km 3D seismic survey in the South Lokichar basin has been extended to cover a further 247sq km in this northern area, including several similar prospects which are scheduled to be drilled in 2015. The Weatherford 804 rig drilled the Etom-1 well to a final depth of 2,000 metres.

BMT ARGOSS (BMT), a subsidiary of BMT Group, has announced the award of a number of metocean assessments for Tullow Oil Plc., including comprehensive overviews of meteorological and oceanographic conditions in West Africa and South America, to help support the company’s offshore oil and gas exploration and operating activities. Colleen Abell, Senior Environmental Remote Sensing & GIS Specialist at Tullow Oil Plc commented, “Tullow have been engaging with BMT ARGOSS with regards to their metocean and regional reporting capabilities.

Hermes Datacommunications International Ltd., a company providing Wide Area Network communications to the upstream oil and gas industry, won a contract to support Tullow Oil plc. for their operations in Africa. The 24-month deal sees the company use its pan–African satellite platform to provide a connection from Tullow Oil’s data center in London to its Ethiopia office in Addis Ababa, extending core services to the continent and growing the current services in Kenya. Ian Theophilus…

Kosmos Energy KOS 0.00% today provided an update on the company's drilling of the Cedrela-1 exploration well offshore the Republic of Ghana. The "Transocean Marianas" semi-submersible drilling rig, under contract to another operator in Ghana, was expected to arrive at the Cedrela-1 well location on the West Cape Three Points Block on or about July 10 to commence drilling Kosmos' Cedrela-1 well near the block's southern boundary. The rig was rendered temporarily inoperable following a reported anchor-handling incident on the Offshore Cape Three Points Block, which is east of the Kosmos-operated West Cape Three Points Block. The incident occurred while preparations were being made to move the rig from the other operator's block to the Cedrela-1 well location.

According to a July 20 report from Bloomberg,Premier Oil Plc, the U.K. explorer operating in Europe, Asia and Africa, bought Delek Energy Systems Ltd. out of an offshore project in Vietnam. (Source: Bloomberg.com)

According to a recent Reuters report, European energy major Total SA (TOTF.PA) will begin exploring for hydrocarbons in the Bay of Bengal in November, a senior energy official recently stated. In March this year, Total acquired the major stakes of UK-based Tullow Oil PLC (TLW.L) in offshore blocks 17 and 18 and received energy ministry approval to extend the exploration period stated in the production sharing contract by three years until May 5, 2009. The acquisition has left Tullow with a 32 percent stake, U.S.-based Okland Oil Co with 8.0 percent, while Total holds the remaining 60 percent in the offshore blocks. The firm will also drill one exploratory well to a depth of at least 3,000 metres (9,840 ft) in the Bay of Bengal to find new gas reserves in the structure, the official said.