The US Prepares To Open Up One Of The Most Exciting Untapped Energy Troves In The World

Mamta Badkar 

Apr. 4, 2012, 3:38 PM

U.S. secretary of state Hilary Clinton has reportedly said that the U.S. is prepared to move send a ‘full ambassador’ to Myanmar, and establish a US aid office in the country, according to Reuters.

The U.S. will also begin the process of easing away sanctions that have so far banned exports of U.S. financial services and investment to Myanmar in response to its democratic transition.

This comes after Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in parliamentary by-elections.

The easing of sanctions has massive implications for the U.S. since Myanmar is a country rich in resources from oil and gas to teak.

The country recently auctioned off 10 onshore oil and gas blocks that U.S. companies couldn’t partake in because of American sanctions on the country. Myanmar had 11.8 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves at the end of 2010 and has been tapped by energy hungry Asian giants like China and India.

Earlier this year we wrote that Myanmar’s economic isolation from the West was beginning to end. At the time Dr. Thein Swe, Senior Professor of Economics, Finance and Globalizationat South East Asian Institute of Global Studies said Western countries had been sending their companies to look for investment opportunities in Myanmar in anticipation of an easing up of sanctions.

Myanmar is also expected to be important from a stratetgic point of view as the Obama administration is looking at the Asia-Pacific region as a priority. Myanmar’s democtratic transition could also be one of the Obama administration’s only successful foriegn relations achievement in Asia, according to Myanmar specialisty David Steinberg.

And Myanmar’s been on the radar for many investors. When we spoke with investment guru Jim Rogers last month, he said with every day that goes by, he gets increasingly excited about opportunities in Myanmar. Rogers had previously said that those that invest in the country could be rich in the next 20 – 40 years and had opined, “Unfortunately I’m a citizen of the land of the free and we from the land of the free are not allowed to invest in Myanmar, it’s illegal. You could invest there, but I cannot.”

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Australia: Shell Completes Tortilla Survey

Octanex has been advised by Shell Development (Australia) Pty Ltd (Shell) that it has completed acquisition of the new Tortilla 2D seismic survey in the WA-385-P permit.

The Tortilla survey is a relatively small 783 km 2D marine seismic survey that fulfils the final work commitment for the WA-385-P permit in the current term. It was acquired off the North West Cape of Western Australia, largely within the area of the WA-385-P permit.

The survey also acquired ‘tie lines’ between the planned location for the Palta-1 well (to be drilled in the WA-384-P permit to the north) and previously drilled wells Herdsman-1 and Pendock-1A to the south and Falcone-1A to the north-east.

The acquisition of the Tortilla 2D survey was timed to avoid the humpback whale migration and took place over the last 10 days of March. As part of a range of management measures, Shell elected that the seismic survey would not come within a 10 km buffer zone to the outer boundary of the Ningaloo World Heritage Area.

Shell has committed to drill the Palta-1 exploration well in the WA-384-P permit and has received environmental approval for the drilling operations. The WA-384-P permit is adjacent to WA-385-P where the Tortilla 2D seismic survey was acquired.

Shell has advised that drilling operations on Palta-1 are being planned for Q3 2012, subject to their receiving all required regulatory approvals. The well is to be drilled in water depths of approximately 1350m and to a total depth of 5325m – 5675m. The Octanex Group originally held 100% of the WA-384-P, WA-385-P and WA-394-P permits that are located in the southern Exmouth Sub-basin.

In 2008,  Octanex concluded an agreement with Shell for the disposition of a 100% working interest in each of the three permits. Octanex holds residual rights in each of the permits in the form of discovery payments and a 1% royalty over any production from the permits, as well as rights of re- conveyance.

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India: Cochin Shipyard Delivers New AHTS to SCI

Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) delivered a 120T Bollard pull Anchor Handling Tug Supply Vessel (AHTS), “SCI Kundan”, to M/s Shipping Corporation of India, Mumbai (SCI). This is the Second of the series of 4 Nos of 120T Bollard pull AHTS being built by CSL for M/s Shipping Corporation of India.

The vessel is of AH03 type, designed by STX OSV, Norway (ex- Aker Yards) and is certified under dual class by the Rules and Regulations of American Bureau of Shipping & Indian Register of Shipping and is registered under Indian flag.

This 65.2 x 16.0 Meter vessel is a high end Anchor handler with a capacity of 120 T Bollard pull which is equipped with 2 Nos of 4000 KW Diesel Engines  and 2 Nos of Controlled pitch propeller in Kort Nozzles. The vessel is having Grade I Dynamic Positioning feature along with compliance to ERRV class ‘C’ and also having capability of Fire Fighting class I.

The vessel is built to accommodate 29 persons with all the capabilities of a Platform Supply Vessel in addition to the Anchor Handling facility. These vessels are used as support platforms to Rigs/Oil platforms. The shipyard is presently constructing another 4 nos of offshore vessels for M/s Shipping Corporation of India which are all in advanced stages of construction.

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Brazil: OGX Delivers Waimea Oil to Shell

Last week, OGX, the Brazilian oil and gas company responsible for the largest private-sector exploratory campaign in Brazil, has delivered its first shipment of approximately 600,000 barrels of oil to Shell Western Supply and Trading Ltd. (“Shell”).

On March 27, 2012, the Company, owned by Eike Batista, initiated the process of offloading the first shipment of OGX’s oil. At the conclusion of the procedure, a Bill of Lading was issued certifying that the shuttle tanker had taken possession of the oil. This shipment is bound for Europe, where Shell intends to process the oil in one of its refineries. On October 2011, OGX signed its first sales contract with the Anglo-Dutch partner, for the delivery of 1.2 million barrels of oil in two batches of 600,000 barrels each.

“The shipment of the first batch of oil to Shell represents the beginning of OGX’s cash generation and an important step towards the establishment of the Company as a major player in global E&P,” commented Paulo Mendonça, general Officer and Exploration Officer of OGX.

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Anadarko Successful at Barquentine-4 Well, Offshore Mozambique

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation today announced that with the success of its Barquentine-4 appraisal well, the partnership has completed the drilling portion of its planned appraisal program in the discovery area offshore Mozambique. The Barquentine-4 well, located in Offshore Area 1 of the Rovuma Basin, encountered approximately 525 net feet (160 meters) of natural gas pay, and became the Anadarko partnership’s ninth successful well in the complex.

Additionally, the company announced that sixth- and seventh-grade students at Escola Unidade and Escola Primaria 16 de Junho in Palma Village, Mozambique recently selected “Prosperidade” (Prosperity) as the name for the discovery area in the Offshore Area 1 block. Prosperidade includes the Windjammer, Barquentine, Lagosta and Camarao discoveries, as well as the five subsequent appraisal wells in the block. As previously announced, Prosperidade is estimated to hold recoverable resources of 17 to 30-plus trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

“Our appraisal drilling program in the Prosperidade complex offshore Mozambique delivered outstanding results that provide significant confidence in the vast extent of this accumulation and will be key in achieving third-party reserve certification, as we advance the partnership’s world-class LNG (liquefied natural gas) project toward FID (final investment decision),” Anadarko Sr. Vice President, Worldwide Exploration, Bob Daniels said. “The selection of Prosperidade as the field name is certainly appropriate, as it symbolizes the partnership’s expectations for this area and the opportunities it represents for the people of Mozambique. Our next step is to mobilize the drillship to the northern section of our block to begin testing additional high-potential exploration prospects that may expand the resource even further and provide tieback opportunities for future LNG hub facilities.”

The Barquentine-4 well is the northernmost well in the Prosperidade complex, approximately 19 miles (30 kilometers) north of the Lagosta discovery well located on the southern end. It is located in water depths of approximately 5,400 feet (1,650 meters). Once operations are complete at Barquentine-4, the drillship will be moved to the northern part of the Offshore Area 1 block to top-set the Atum prospect, and then begin drilling the Golfinho prospect. The partnership’s second drillship operating in the area is continuing to carry out an extensive testing program within the Prosperidade complex.

Anadarko is the operator of the 2.6-million-acre Offshore Area 1 with a 36.5-percent working interest. Co-owners in the area are Mitsui E&P Mozambique Area 1, Limited (20 percent), BPRL Ventures Mozambique B.V. (10 percent), Videocon Mozambique Rovuma 1 Limited (10 percent) and Cove Energy Mozambique Rovuma Offshore, Ltd. (8.5 percent). Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos, E.P.’s 15-percent interest is carried through the exploration phase.

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USA: Eight Firms Plan to Develop Wind Farms Offshore Virginia

As reported by the Associated Press, the potential of the project, aimed at developing wind turbines in the U.S., situated off the Virginia cost and encompassing circa 113,000 acres in the Atlantic Ocean, has been recognized by numerous investors including European ones.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, in charge of supervising offshore wind development, published the names of companies that submitted the necessary documentation in order to be eligible for project implementation, those being:

Arcadia Offshore Virginia LLC, New Jersey based branch of Arcadia Windpower, Cirrus Wind Energy Inc., based in Nevada; enXco Development Corp., based in California; Fishermen’s Energy LLC, based in New Jersey; Iberdrola Renewables Inc., an American subsidiary of a Spanish company with offices on the West and East coasts; Orisol Energy US Inc., another Spanish offshoot with American offices in Michigan; Apex Virginia; and Dominion Resources.

The paperwork will be scrutinized by the government regulators, in order to determine what company meets the technical and economic prerequisites in order to be able to push forward with the project implementation.

On March 27, Virginia regulators gave their consent to what might be the first offshore wind turbine built in the United States. Even though the prototype turbine still awaits approval of the U.S. Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers, it is said that it will be located in Chesapeake Bay and be able to meet the power needs of 1,250 households. The capacity of the wind turbine will equal to 5 megawatts of electricity and it should be ready for production by the end of 2013.

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