French oil company Total has said today it has achieved the significant milestone of producing a cumulative two billion barrels from its operated deep offshore Block 17 located 150 km off the coast of Angola.
With the recent start up of CLOV, Block 17 has become Total’s most prolific site with production of over 700,000 barrels per day, the company has revealed.
When Saudi Arabia argues next week that OPEC should keep up production to fight the rise in U.S. shale oil, prices will be on its side.
Crude plunged for eight of nine weeks prior to the group’s November gathering, when the kingdom faced down opposition from the majority of fellow members, who advocated output reductions to tackle a global glut. With oil companies around the world cutting investment, U.S. output peaking and prices up, Saudi Arabia’s strategy will be extended at OPEC’s semiannual meeting on June 5, say Societe Generale SA and Bank of America Corp.
Oil prices have recovered more than 40 percent from a six-year low in January as U.S. production eases from the highest in more than four decades. The rebound will help vindicate the approach taken by Saudi Arabia as it steers the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to favor market share over prices in a bid to drive out high-cost producers.
Energy firm Savannah Petroleum has announced that 14 drill-ready exploration sites with prospective oil resources of 215 million barrels were found in Niger. The prospects were found following detailed 3D seismic mapping over a 260-square mile area in the R1/R2 permit region, which is situated in the Agadem Rift Basin of southeast Niger.
Independent oil company Erin Energy Corporation announced Monday that its Oyo-8 well offshore Nigeria has exceeded expectations by producing a stable rate of 7,080 barrels of oil per day.
Erin Energy is the operator of Oyo-8 and holds a 100 percent interest in the well. The company is currently undertaking drilling and completion operations on its Oyo-7 development well and expects to achieve first oil production from the site in the next few weeks.
Erin Energy Senior Vice-President of Exploration and Production Segun Omidele commented in a company statement: “We are pleased with the Oyo-8 well’s performance and delighted that well parameters are stable. We plan to continue this very cautious well management approach and expect to bring Oyo-7 on production in a similar manner. We are advancing both our development and exploration work offshore Nigeria and look forward to an exciting second half of 2015.”
Millions of barrels of untapped oil that U.S. shale drillers discovered during the boom years are about to disappear from their inventories.
Six years ago, the industry pushed the Securities and Exchange Commission to make it easier for companies to claim proved reserves for wells that wouldn’t be drilled for years. Some prospects considered sure-things when crude was $95 a barrel are money losers at today’s $60. When crude crashed in 2008, 44 U.S. companies wiped 630 million barrels from their books.
Norway has overtaken Russia in terms of European gas supply, having delivered more gas to Western Europe in the first quarter of 2015, according to data from gas operators.
Norway surpassed Russian gas exports to Europe for the first time since a brief period in 2012, Reuters reported Friday comparing the figures released by Gassco and Gazprom.
Anadarko, one of the largest independent leaseholders and producers in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, has launched a video, or better yet, a movie, showing a long, but interesting process of bringing its Lucius development into production.
The film presents the project from its early beginnings and design selection, through construction of the Lucius production platform, to its first oil in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
Final Investment Decision (FID) for the project was made in December 2011.
Construction of the platform was carried out in two parts: Lower, truss spar, was made by Technip in Finland, and the topside was built in Texas.
The Lucius truss spar, Anadarko’s largest, is today located in 7100 feet of water, in Keathley Canyon 875, 236 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. First oil from the platform started flowing three years after the FID, in January 2015.
In its first quarter results for 2015, Anadarko said it continued to ramp up production at the Lucius spar toward its design rate of 80,000 barrels of oil per day.
