Search results

Vanoil Energy has signed a rig contract with Sinopec Corporation for two firm wells on Block 3A in north-east Kenya, and an option for two more. The contract, for what Vanoil described as “the last available onshore drilling rig in Kenya” follows a 100km2 3D seismic and gravity survey just completed over western leads on the block.

In a return to pure exploration for the UK major, BP has quietly taken 100% in four production-sharing contracts (PSCs) covering 45,000km2 offshore north-west Madagascar.The four blocks in the Majunga Basin, Ampasindava, Cap St André and Majunga 1 and 2 were previously held by ExxonMobil as three PSCs. ExxonMobil had planned a deep-water well on the Sifaka prospect on the Ampasindava Block, but drilling was repeatedly postponed amid the island’s political crisis.

Having passed the much-anticipated Petroleum Act 2012, and with the expectation that it will soon pass the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill 2012, South Sudan’s National Legislative Assembly is putting in place the key legislation to regulate the oil industry and revenue flows. This is much to be welcomed, advocacy group Global Witness said on 29 November as it unveiled a report on oil transparency in the new republic. The “legislation contains strong public reporting, revenue management and contract allocation requirements,” Global Witness campaigner Dana Wilkins said.

Interest in West African hydrocarbons has focused primarily on offshore plays in recent years.

The publication of Algeria’s Energy Future brings data into the public domain that show how Sonatrach expects gas output to decline, adding to pressures to develop non-conventional reserves, as well as the underperforming non-hydrocarbons economy.

A recent report by the Ministry of Finance indicates that the new Exploration and Production Bill has been submitted to the Attorney General for final comments and will be put to parliament in the near future. The law, whose drafting began in 2010, aims to provide a comprehensive legal framework for the oil and gas industry to replace the 1984 law, creating a new regulator and transforming Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) into a commercial entity. The slow pace of drafting has been criticised because the new regulatory framework comes more than two years after Ghana started to produce oil.

Tullow Oil has announced that the Cormorant-1 well on PEL 37 in the Walvis Basin failed to find commercial hydrocarbons. The well was drilled to 3,855 metres and tested an Early Cretaceous age submarine fan structure, but the sandstones it encountered were water-bearing. Tullow said the well encountered wet gas signatures in the overlying shale section, indicating a working oil system in the area. The well will be plugged and abandoned, and the Ocean Rig Poseidon drillship will move to PEL 71 to drill a well on Prospect S for Chariot Oil & Gas.

Transocean’s Discoverer India drillship has won a five-well drilling contract with Canadian Natural Resources (CNR). According to Transocean’s fleet status report published on 19 February, the contract starts in April and ends in November 2018. The dayrate was not disclosed. The drillship had been idle since December 2016. CNR’s 2018 budget provides for drilling on the Baobab oil field on Block CI-40.

Malaysia’s Petronas and partners have discovered significant amounts of dry, non-associated natural gas in onshore Block 8, south-east of Khartoum.

In its latest annual medium-term gas market report, published in early June, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has revised downward its forecasts for global gas demand between 2014 and 2020. Planned supply, meanwhile, is abundant, with liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects competing not only against each other, and piped gas, but also against cheap coal and increasingly competitive renewable alternatives.Global gas demand is forecast to increase by an average 2%/yr to 2020, down from 2.3% over the past ten years, according to the IEA.

BW Offshore has agreed to buy Harvest Natural Resources’ stake in the Dussafu Block offshore southern Gabon for $32m in cash. Harvest owns a 66.667% interest in the Dussafu production-sharing contract, while the remaining 33.333% interest is owned by Pan-Petroleum Gabon, a subsidiary of Oslo-listed Panoro Energy. BW has entered a memorandum of understanding with Pan-Petroleum relating to the proposed acquisition of a further 25% interest in Dussafu for $12m in cash subject to the closing of the Harvest transaction, and is also in discussions with the Gabon Oil Company for its participation.

Ambitious Gulf-based minnow Kuwait Energy Company (KEC) has said that newly discovered oil fields in Egypt will help it boost production capacity to 15,000 boe/d this year.

Anglo African Oil & Gas (AAOG) plans to start drilling a third well on the Tilapia field by the end of September. In addition to the producing R1/R2 horizon, Tilapia has an undeveloped discovery in the Mengo level and exploration potential in the Djeno. The planned TLP 103 well will target production from R1/R2 and the Mengo, and will appraise the potential from the Djeno horizon. Work to optimise production from the existing TLP 101 and TLP 102 wells is continuing.

There has been material progress reforming Angola’s opaque and nepotistic energy sector over the past year. Considerable work has gone into crafting new power sector regulations, and there have been notable changes to upstream licensing and the role of state oil and gas giant Sonangol, as well as important reforms to the downstream hydrocarbons sector. Investors and analysts canvassed by African Energy were impressed by the extent of the changes, although plenty of problems remain to be resolved.

Long the exclusive preserve of small, specialised companies, East Africa has seen the arrival of a number of big players in the past couple of years, and even BP has an East Africa exploration manager looking at opportunities. But management of expectations is emerging as a key challenge – highlighted by the standoff between Uganda and international oil companies (IOCs).