Blog Archives
Worldwide Field Development News Dec 30 – Jan 5, 2012
| This week the SubseaIQ team added 1 new projects and updated 16 projects. You can see all the updates made over any time period via the Project Update History search. The latest offshore field develoment news and activities are listed below for your convenience. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Jan 5, 2012 – Shell has restarted production at its Bonga oil field offshore Nigeria, after an oil leak was detected. The facility was closed after a leak during a tanker loading operation on Dec. 20, leading to a serious oil spill, announced Dow Jones newswires. Shell says it completed the clean-up from the spill and resumed output on Jan. 1 at the 200,000 bopd oil field. The 
Jan 5, 2012 – BPZ Energy expects to install the new CX-15 platform on the Corvina field and begin a development drilling campaign in the second half of 2012. Two wells are scheduled to be completed during 2012 with first oil production expected in the fourth quarter. The Corvina oil and gas field is situated in the offshore Block Z-1 in northwest Peru. BPZ Energy operates the field with a 100% interest in the license.
Jan 5, 2012 – Marathon awarded Aker Solutions a contract to supply a subsea production system for the Boyla (formerly Marihone) development in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The scope of work includes engineering, procurement, construction and delivery of four subsea trees, four over-trawlable subsea structures and control systems. Final deliveries will be made in 1Q 2013. The Boyla field, located in Production License 340 in 394 feet (120 meters) of water, will be subsea tied-back to the Alvheim FPSO. Marathon operates the project with a 65 percent interest; while ConocoPhillips holds 20 percent; and Lundin holds 15 percent.
Jan 3, 2012 – Petrobras has submitted a Declaration of Commerciality with the Brazilian National Agency of Petroluem, Natural Gas and Biofuels for the accumulations of light oil and gas in the Guara area. This declaration marks the start of the production phase for the field. The consortium will rename the field as Sapinhoa. The consortium drilled four wells in the area, including one well designed for reservoir data acquisition. Drill stem tests were performed on three of the wells. In addition, a five-month extended well test was carried out on the discovery well, confirming the excellent productivity of the Guara reservoir. Data gathered from this test will assist in the optimization of the field development plan. Guara is located in Block BM-S-6 about 186 miles (300 kilometers) off the Sao Paulo state coast. Petrobras serves as the operator of the consortium, holding a 45 percent interest; while BG Group holds 30 percent; and Repsol Sinopec Brazil holds 25 percent.Related articles
- Ophir Begins with Drilling Operations Offshore Tanzania (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Angola: Azul-1 Deepwater Well Brings Oil to Maersk Oil (mb50.wordpress.com)
- USA: Saratoga, McMoRan in Vermilion 16 Field JV Talks (mb50.wordpress.com)
USA: Busy December Ahead of Pacific Drilling’s Drillships
Pacific Drilling S.A. today provided an update on the status of its ultra-deepwater drillships. The Pacific Bora commenced its three year contract with a wholly owned Chevron subsidiary on August 26, 2011, and continues to operate in the Agbami Field in Nigeria. The rig has reached performance levels in line with industry expectations.
In addition, following previously announced repairs and upgrades, the Pacific Scirocco is mobilizing from quayside in Port Ngqura, South Africa, to Nigeria, where it is expected to commence a one year contract with Total E&P Nigeria Limited in December 2011.
The Pacific Santa Ana will complete upgrades prior to expected delivery in December 2011, before mobilizing to the US Gulf of Mexico for a five year contract with Chevron as the world’s first dual gradient drilling rig.
The Pacific Mistral arrived in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, on November 21, 2011. The rig will now undergo regulatory approvals and acceptance testing with its client, Petrobras, prior to beginning operations, which are expected to start in December 2011.
Related articles
- Dolphin Drilling to Provide Two Drillships for Anadarko’s Mozambique Operations (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Fred Olsen Wins Contract for Belford Dolphin and Newbuild Drillship (gcaptain.com)
- Ocean Rig Bidding to Rent 5 Drillships to Petrobras, Brazil (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Drillship animation in the Gulf of Mexico (video) (mb50.wordpress.com)
- South Korea: Naming Ceremony for Odfjell Drilling’s New UDW Drillship (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Inauguration of Noble Globetrotter I at Schiendam, the Netherlands (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Deepwater Millenium Drillship Not Moving to Brazil. Stays in Ghana (mb50.wordpress.com)
Usan Production Will Mitigate Yemen Loss, Nexen Says
Government of Yement today informed Nexen that the company’s application to extend the Block 14 (Masila) Production Sharing Contract has not been accepted, and that a newly Yemen national company will take over the operatorship of the block upon the PSC expiry on December 17.
Marvin Romanow, Nexen’s President and CEO said: “While we’re disappointed we did not receive an extension, we’re proud of the accomplishments we’ve achieved there. Our operations at Masila have generated significant value for our company, enabling us to deploy the cash flow to build our current portfolio of legacy assets.”
Nexen explained on its website that decrease in the company’s all round production volumes as a result of the contract expiry will be reduced by the start-up of the Usan project, offshore Nigeria, which is expected to begin production in the first half of next year.
The Usan field was discovered in 2002 and is located some 100 kilometers offshore in water depths ranging from 750 to 850 meters. The field development plan includes a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel with a storage capacity of two million barrels of oil.
Related articles
- Nexen Inc. could see end of Yemeni operations – Calgary Herald (calgaryherald.com)
- Ship Photo Of The Week – FPSO Positioning (gcaptain.com)
- Yemen Crisis Situation Reports: Update 107 | Critical Threats (theromangate.wordpress.com)
- Nexen’s $3.3-billion North Sea project gets approved (calgaryherald.com)
- Nexen’s profit up slightly, cuts 2011 production (business.financialpost.com)
Dutch Fairmount Escorts Scarabeo 9 Rig around the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa
Fairmount Marine, a Dutch marine contractor for ocean towage and heavy lift transportation, announces that its powerful tug Fairmount Glacier has successfully assisted the new build semi submergible drilling rig Scarbeo 9 sailing around Cape of Good Hope.
For this operation Fairmount was contracted by Saipem Energies directly after the successful installation of the Usan FPSO Unit offshore Nigeria.
Fairmount Glacier was contracted to sail towards a meeting point offshore South Africa where she met with Scarabeo 9 and escorted her safely around the Cape of Good Hope. Despite the bad weather encountered during the route, the convoy proceeded at an average speed of 4.5 to 5.0 knots.
The semi submersible drilling rig Scarabeo 9 has a length of 115 metres, is 80 metres wide and her depth – from keel to main deck – is 35 metres. After they had safely cleared the South African Coast, the Master of Scarabeo 9 thanked Fairmount Glacier for her continued support throughout the voyage. The Fairmount Glacier returned to Cape Town.
Related articles
- Fairmount Marine Brings Ocean Yorktown Rig in U.S. Gulf of Mexico (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Singapore: Keppel Completes Scarabeo 9 for Saipem (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Anti-Castro Cuban Americans Fret Over Drilling Rig (mb50.wordpress.com)
Italy’s Saipem Inks Multiple Offshore Contracts Worth USD 1.5 Billion
In Iraq, Saipem has been awarded by South Oil Company the EPIC contract for the Iraq Crude Oil Export Expansion Project – Phase 2, within the framework of the expansion of the Basra Oil Terminal, off the Al Faw Peninsula in the Arabian Gulf, approximately 550 kilometres south-east of Baghdad.
The contract encompasses the engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of a Central Metering and Manifold Platform (CMMP), to be installed in a water depth of 28 metres, along with associated facilities.
Fabrication of the CMMP topsides will be carried out at Saipem’s yard in Karimun (Indonesia), while the jacket and piles will be fabricated at the Saipem Taqa Al-Rushid (STAR) yard in Dammam (Saudi Arabia). Offshore activities will be performed in the third and fourth quarter of 2013.
In Nigeria, Saipem has been awarded the OFON2 – D030 contract by Total E&P Nigeria Limited, for new offshore facilities in the Ofon field, about 50 kilometres off the southern coast of Nigeria.
Saipem will carry out the engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of the OFP2 Jacket (comprising the 1,970 ton jacket structures and the 4,500 ton piles), as well as the transportation and installation of the complete new OFQ living quarter offshore platform.
The fabrication of the jacket will take place in the Saipem Rumuolumeni Yard in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Offshore activities will be performed mainly by Saipem 3000 vessel, in different phases during 2013.
Furthermore, Saipem has been awarded contracts in the Norwegian and British sectors of the North Sea and in the Gulf of Mexico, mainly based on deployment of the Saipem 7000 vessel, for the transportation and installation of platforms and marine facilities, along with the decommissioning of existing offshore structures.
Offshore activities will be performed in several phases commencing in the fourth quarter of 2011 through to late 2014.
Finally, Saipem has agreed to increase the scopes of its work on a number of existing E&C Offshore contracts.
Saipem is organised into two Business Units: Engineering & Construction and Drilling, with a strong bias towards oil & gas related activities in remote areas and deepwater. Saipem is a leader in the provision of engineering, procurement, project management and construction services with distinctive capabilities in the design and execution of large-scale offshore and onshore projects, and technological competences such as gas monetisation and heavy oil exploitation.
Related articles
- Iraq Awards Oil Export Project to Italy’s Saipem $469 million contract (ataleoftwocitiesdotnet.wordpress.com)
- Chinese-built oil rig setting sail for Cuban waters (mb50.wordpress.com)
- Iraq inks final gas deal with SKorea’s KOGAS (seattlepi.com)
- High-Spec Jackup Market: Hercules Offshore increases stake in Discovery Offshore (mb50.wordpress.com)
Nigerian Presidential Election: Religious Tensions Threaten Democratic Progress
Almost immediately after it was announced that President Goodluck Jonathan won Nigeria’s presidential election this past weekend, violence erupted in many northern states. This post-election violence unfortunately tarnishes the nationwide vote that most observers deemed to be an improvement over previous elections, although it is evident that some rigging did occur.
Since the government transferred from military to civilian rule in 1999, each election has been riddled with violations. The 2007 presidential elections were generally considered deeply flawed. Election rigging, electoral fraud, and voter intimidation have been fixtures in Nigerian elections. Much of this was owed to the massively inaccurate voter registration list—which laughably listed Nelson Mandela and Mike Tyson as voters.
This election year, the government made significant attempts to reform the system. Last June, Jonathan appointed a respected academic, Attahiru Jega, to head the Independent National Electoral Commission. Tasked with ensuring that the elections were free and fair, Jega implemented robust reforms and held those seeking to disrupt the process accountable. Despite initial delays in the election process, international observers endorsed the election results, describing them as “generally acceptable.” Jonathan won, quickly surpassing the mandatory 25 percent of the vote in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states. He reportedly received 22.5 million votes, with his nearest rival trailing by 10 million. The U.S. State Department hailed the elections a “positive new beginning for Nigeria.”
While the international community has accepted the results, many in northern Nigeria have not. Nigeria’s religious divisions between North and South will remain a flashpoint for some time. Tensions flared considerably since last September when President Jonathan, a Southern Christian, decided to run as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, a choice opponents say violates Nigeria’s zoning system, under which the presidency is supposed to rotate between the North and South.
Rioters have burned churches and mosques and targeted PDP officials and supporters in the North. Both President Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari have called for a restoration of peace. Former Ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell sees this escalation of violence as the continuing pattern of bifurcation within the country.
With gubernatorial elections scheduled for this weekend, continued violence is expected. In many areas, curfews have been declared and the Nigerian military is patrolling the streets. Campbell anticipates that the “the gubernatorial elections will be a further indication of whether the country is bifurcating along regional and religious lines.”
Once Nigeria’s elections are over, the Nigerian government should make a determined effort to ease religious and ethnic tensions. This will require working closely with state and local leaders to resolve issues regarding marginalization and discrimination.
As Africa’s most populous country and a major oil supplier, Nigeria is a key U.S. trade partner. It has also proven to be a force for stability in Africa in recent years. In order for Nigeria to sustain its international commitments, democratic governance must improve and energetic efforts must be made to heal the North–South, Christian–Muslim divide.
Author: Morgan Roach
Drilling: Pull your weight, America
By THOMPSON AYODELE
Turmoil in the Middle East is once again causing a spike in US energy prices, along with the usual hand- wringing over how the country can feed its oil addiction in the years ahead. With quick stops at alternative fuels (not a serious, large-scale option for decades to come) and nuclear (hello, Fukushima Daiichi), the debate quickly comes back to America’s own domestic oil production: To drill or not to drill?
And here some global perspective may help Americans find a way out of a blisteringly politicized discussion that generates, literally, more noise than light.
As a Nigerian who is proud of his country’s contributions to the world’s oil supply — we are the single largest producer of oil in Africa, and one of the top five exporters to your nation — I wonder how it is that Americans never seems to ask yourselves one fundamental question: What if all countries restricted access to their oil and gas reserves the way you do? Where would the world — let alone the United States — get its energy from?
America’s unwillingness to tap its oil reserves would be defensible if you were equally conservative with your consumption. But, sorry, you consume roughly a quarter of the world’s oil. Meanwhile, you severely restrict or outright forbid access to oil bounties along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in the Alaskan tundra.
If countries in the Middle East, South America or Africa were to adopt a similar attitude, America would be left gasping for energy.
The arguments against tapping US oil reserves are familiar. Most popular is the refrain that there are barely enough “proved reserves” of oil beneath the US to last more than three years or so. But that statistic is based on a set of criteria set by the Society of Petroleum Engineers that is itself defined by the restrictions on exploration.
These “proved reserves” count only the oil that is “commercially recoverable” under “current economic conditions, operating methods and government regulations” (emphasis added). In other words, the term defines how much oil your government allows access to, not how much is actually there.
If you ease restrictions on drilling, the amount of US “proved reserves” will magically increase.
Meanwhile, tapping those reserves would mean significant economic growth, increased energy security and lower US energy prices. Developing the oil and natural-gas reserves now kept off-limits by Congress could mean another $1.7 trillion in government revenue, according to a study from the American Petroleum Institute. Not to mention millions of good-paying jobs in states that could use an influx of employment right now.
In Nigeria, oil and gas exploration now accounts for 40 percent of our GDP, as well as 98 percent of export earnings and about 83 percent of federal-government revenue. We are a developing nation, but we manage to access our reserves in a safe, environmentally sound way despite our challenges. Were America to enter full-scale production, it would force producers everywhere — including Nigeria — to be more competitive, thereby making energy cheaper for consumers worldwide.
In March, the Obama administration awarded its first permit for a new deep-water drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico (with beefed-up safety regulations) since the Deepwater Horizon disaster. This is a step in the right direction — but dozens of permits still await consideration, and the current snail-like pace of approval only exacerbates America’s energy anxiety.
President Obama has earned global good will for his efforts to make America a better international partner. Those efforts shouldn’t exclude his country’s obligation to kick in its share of the heating bill.
Thompson Ayodele is execu tive director of Initiative for Public Policy Analysis (www.ippanigeria.org), a policy think tank based in Lagos, Nigeria.
Continents of the World
