Exploration

Halliburton acquires Pinnacle

Halliburton has entered into a definitive agreement with CARBO Ceramics Inc. to acquire the assets of Pinnacle Technologies Inc., including the Pinnacle brand. Pinnacle is a leading provider of microseismic fracture mapping services and tiltmeter mapping services.

RSI gets contracts

Rock Solid Images (RSI), a member of the OHM Group, has been chosen to provide rock physics-driven reservoir property inversion services to Kosmos Energy and Tullow’s appraisal and development drilling campaign for the Jubilee field, offshore the Republic of Ghana. The company also will provide technical services, including rock physics modeling, well and seismic data conditioning, and prestack reservoir property inversion to Vanco Energy Co. Studies are currently underway in Vanco’s Côte d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea blocks.

EMGS awarded contracts

Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA (EMGS) has been awarded a contract with a new customer to perform its Clearplay Evaluate service to appraise a hydrocarbon prospect. The contract is worth approximately US $10 million.

The company also has been awarded a contract worth more than $5 million by a repeat customer in Malaysia. The work has begun, and EMGS is using new technology in water depths of approximately 195 ft (60 m). EMGS also has completed the world’s largest multiclient 3-D EM survey in the Barents Sea.

CGGVeritas gets land contract

CGGVeritas has been awarded a contract by Qatar Petroleum to undertake a large, ultra-high-density, high-resolution onshore seismic survey. The expected value of the contract is approximately US $140 million. Work on the project will begin around year-end 2008 and is anticipated to have a duration of about 30 months. The survey will cover Qatar’s Dukhan field, which extends under desert plains, coastal salt flats, transition zones, and shallowwater areas.

Paradigm to consult on Vietnam projects

Paradigm will collaborate with Vietnam Petroleum Institute (VPI), a geoscientific and technological consultancy for state-owned Petrovietnam, on geosciences consulting projects within Vietnam. The agreement calls for cooperation on projects related to seismic interpretation, prospect generation, geological modeling, integrated field studies, and field development plans. In support of this collaboration, Paradigm will install its software at VPI offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and conduct employee training.

SCAN gets PdVSA contract

SCAN Geophysical ASA (SCAN) has been awarded the company’s largest-ever seismic contract, an approximately US $70 million program from Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PdVSA) for 1,274 sq miles (3,300 sq km) of 3-D seismic work offshore Venezuela. This contract calls for additional marine 3-D seismic to be acquired in the Dragon Norte region.

Weatherford acquires International Logging

Weatherford International Ltd. has acquired International Logging Inc. (ILI). ILI is a world-class provider of surface logging, or “mud logging,” and provides formation evaluation and drilling-related services at the well site through its team of more than 1,200 graduate field geologists.

Drilling

Stealth, BlackWatch shake on drilling deal

Stealth Ventures Ltd. has entered a long-term operating agreement that will give BlackWatch Energy Services Trust a right of first refusal for providing drilling rig services for Stealth’s shale gas development program in the Wildmere region of Alberta for the remainder of 2008 and all of 2009. In return, Stealth has been given preferred fixed pricing for the ’08 and ’09 drilling campaigns.

Aker aces contracts

Aker Solutions has signed contracts for delivery of two drilling equipment packages, and an option for a third package, with Sevan Marine ASA. The total contract value for the two firm contracts for Aker Solutions is approximately US $240 million. The contracts will cover delivery of complete drilling packages consisting of engineering and equipment for drilling rigs being built by Sevan Marine. Deliveries are underway for Sevan’s first drilling rig, which is to be delivered in 2009.

Production

First gas in Netherlands field

In early September, Total announced the production of first gas from the K5F field, part of its gas development project in the K5a block of the Dutch Continental Shelf, approximately 71 miles (115 km) northwest of Den Helder on the Dutch Coast.

K5F will be the first project in the world to use all-electrically activated subsea equipment (“Christmas Trees”) as opposed to hydraulically operated standard technology. This step-change in subsea technology will bring increased system reliability and enhanced environmental performance. Furthermore, it will add to Total’s capability of bringing new production from deepwater fields, including frontier areas of the North Sea where Total continues its strategy of investment in E&P. Production began on Sept. 6. The field is currently producing approximately 45 MMcf/d of gas. Production is expected to ramp up to 90 MMcf/d of gas in the coming months.

Chevron’s license extended

Saudi Arabia has given final approval to a deal to extend a license held by Chevron in the country’s Neutral Zone, which it shares with Kuwait. The block is the only oil production deal that survived the Saudi nationalization of the oil industry in the 1970s.

“The council of ministers has decided to approve the extension and amendment agreement between Saudi Arabia and Chevron at the Neutral Zone,” Saudi state news agency SPA reported (but gave no further details). Saudi Arabia and Kuwait share the estimated 550,000 b/d output from the Neutral Zone.

Three new wells for Columbia

In early September, Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. announced the results of three new wells drilled and completed as part of the appraisal and exploration plan of the Rubiales/Piriri field in Colombia’s Llanos Basin.

Drilled in the southwestern area of the Rubiales block, the three wells, identified as RUB-52, RUB-117 and RUB-119, have added not only fresh production, but also important petrophysical information that is expected to allow the company to better evaluate the field’s resources.

The wells found significantly larger net-pay sand than was originally expected based on existing reservoir mapping. These results, coupled with existing information from the field, were used to create a new and more prospective map of the reservoir. Management expects that processed data will increase recoverable reserves estimates.

Meanwhile, the wider and better net-pay extensions will allow the company to develop two additional clusters comprising 10 horizontal wells and two vertical wells in the area.

Offshore

Concept study at Valemon

StatoilHydro has awarded Alliance Engineering a concept feasibility study for a new fixed jacket platform and topsides production facilities for the Valemon field. which lies in 443 ft (135 m) of water in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. This concept work facilitates early drilling with a cantilevered jackup and later life installation of gas compression facilities.

Italy gets offshore LNG terminal

The world’s first offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal arrived at its final destination in the Adriatic Sea in late September 2008. The terminal has been positioned about 10 miles (15 km) offshore Porto Levante, Italy, in approximately 95 ft (28 m) of water and will be connected via pipeline to Italy’s natural-gas grid.

The facility will be capable of supplying about 10% of the country’s natural gas requirements. It is designed to store and re-gasify LNG to deliver 775 MMcf/d of gas when it reaches full operational capacity in 2009.

The Adriatic LNG terminal will receive natural gas produced from Qatar’s North field, which has resources of more than 900 Tcf, making it the largest non-associated natural gas field in the world.

Partners in the Adriatic LNG project include ExxonMobil Italiana Gas, Qatar Petroleum subsidiary Qatar Terminal Ltd., and Edison.

According to Neil Duffin, president of ExxonMobil Development Co., the company is employing new technology to build four of the largest LNG production facilities in the world as well as the industry’s largest vessels to carry LNG to market. The company is working with its partners to build LNG regasification terminals in the UK and the US as well.

Seven Seas completes first installation project

Subsea 7’s deepwater flex/J-lay vessel Seven Seas has completed its first major installation project on StatoilHydro’s Yttergryta field in the Norwegian North Sea in 3Q 2008. The vessel carried out two offshore installations that included placing a 130-metric-ton pipeline end manifold, a 25-metric-ton flowbase, a 3.7-mile (6-km) dual lay umbilical/3-in. mono ethylene glycol line, and three spools.

The next project for the Seven Seas is on the BC-10 development in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil.

The Seven Seas is designed to perform specialized subsea laying, construction, and engineering work for the deepwater global offshore pipe oil and gas industry and is capable of operating in water depths to 9,843 ft (3,000 m). The vessel is the fourth in a series of eight new vessels joining the fleet between 2007 and 2010, representing a total investment of over $1.8 billion.

General

MMS approves $8.5 million grant

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) has awarded a US $8.5 million grant to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources through the Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP) to study different types of shoreline protection at the existing Rockefeller Refuge area along the Louisiana Gulf of Mexico shoreline.

The proposed project will install and analyze the effectiveness of four different test sections of shoreline protection located along the Gulf of Mexico from Beach Prong to Joseph Harbor, approximately 45 miles (72 km) southeast of Lake Charles, La. These alternatives will include a 700-ft (213.5-m) section of beach fill with gravel and crushed stone, a 500-ft (152.5-m) section of reef breakwater with gravel and crushed stone beach fill, a 500-ft section of reef breakwater with lightweight aggregate core, and a 500-ft section of concrete panel breakwater.

Permian and Piceance acquisitions announced

Occidental Petroleum Corp. has signed a definitive purchase and sale agreement with Plains Exploration & Production Co. (PXP) to purchase all of PXP’s interests in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico and Piceance Basin of Colorado for US $1.25 billion. Current production (net to Occidental) from the properties being acquired is approximately 4,300 bbl of liquids and 52 MMcf/d of gas; for a total of 13,000 boe/d. The properties have approximately 92 million boe of proved reserves (net to Occidental), of which approximately 69% are natural gas and 45% are developed.

Occidental produced in excess of 50 MMcf/d in the Piceance basin in the first half of 2008. The company expects this to grow to at least 200 MMcf/d in 2010, including
this acquisition. Occidental’s net acreage position in the Piceance Basin now totals 129,000 acres.

Closing of the transaction is expected in the fourth quarter and is subject to government approvals.