Awards

• Geotrace has been awarded a long-offset survey in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The survey consists of nominal offsets of 40,000 ft (12,200 m), with maximum far offsets of 54,000 ft (16,470 m).

• Energy Partners Ltd. (EPL) has contracted Object Reservoir to evaluate multiple assets in their exploration and development portfolio during 2005. The agreement will assist EPL in performing reservoir characterization to aid development decisions.

VR center gets upgrade

Shell International Exploration & Production BV commissioned Barco to upgrade its virtual reality center in Rijswijk, The Netherlands. Existing CRT projectors were replaced by Barco's three-chip DLP projectors.

Teachers receive training

Paradigm is holding an intensive training course for university lecturers in Nigeria in conjunction with the Nigerian Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF). The course aims to introduce new areas of geoscience to the lecturers. Paradigm will provide the facility and software for the duration of the training, while the PTDF fund will cover logistics, accommodation and transportation.

Offshore rigs ordered

Singapore's Keppel FELS landed a US $130-million contract to build a jackup for Gulf Drilling International Ltd., a joint venture of Qatar Petroleum and Japan Drilling Co. The rig, scheduled for delivery by the end of 2007, will be named Gulf-5. This is the second jackup Keppel FELS will build for the company. It follows the KFELS B design that anticipates operations in Arabian Gulf and Indian waters. Gulf Drilling is expanding its rig fleet in the Persian Gulf to meet anticipated higher levels of activity. In other activity, Awilco Offshore has exercised an option for Keppel FELS to build a 400-ft (121-m) jackup with a depth capability of 30,000 ft (9,144 m) at a cost of $134 million. That rig also will be delivered in 2007.

Jackup rigs contracted

Rowan Companies received a drilling contract from the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. for five of its Class 116-C jackup rigs to begin work offshore Saudi Arabia early next year. The contract holds the rigs for 3 years with an option for another year. All five rigs currently are working under contract in the Gulf of Mexico. Rowan plans to move them across the Atlantic in the fourth quarter this and put them to work in the first quarter next year.

Drilling action increases

The Abbot Group completed its acquisition of Prosafe Drilling Services and captured new contracts valued at US $350 million. The company will integrate Prosafe into its KCA Deutag subsidiary. Abbot also said BP extended its platform-drilling contract with KCA Deutag through March 2008 on the Magnus, Miller, Bruce, Andrew and Harding platforms in the North Sea for $53 million. KCA Deutag also captured drilling contracts valued at more than $100 million with clients onshore and offshore around the world.

Drilling stock purchased

Norway's SeaDrill completed a stock issue that raised US $214 million that it plans use to buy 21.4 million shares in offshore drilling contractor Ocean Rig. The purchase represents about 24.5% of Ocean's Rig's outstanding shares.

Bit manufacturer grows

Bit manufacturer ReedHycalog completed the acquisition of Corion Diamond Products Ltd., an Alberta, Canada, company that specializes in conventional and unconsolidated formation coring services in the Western Hemisphere. The Canadian company manufactures the Corion Express, a through-the-bit coring system.

Offshore rules change

The US Minerals Management Service issued new rules designed to streamline permitting for floating platforms off the US coast. The new rules simply bring existing industry standards to floating production systems. Until now, the regulatory agency has included floating platforms with fixed offshore platforms. The rapid increase in deepwater exploration and development, with a subsequent increase in floating production platforms triggered the rule change. The new rules went into effect on August 18.

Court assigns P-36 blame

A Brazilian maritime court put the blame on Petrobras and Maritima for the sinking of the P-36 production platform in Brazil's Campos Basin in March 2001, according to Business News Americas. The explosion eventually sank the platform and killed 17 Petrobras workers. Maritima built and leased the platform. Petrobras plans to appeal the decision.

Venezuela plans LNG

Chevron's recent discoveries on the Deltana Platform off the east coast of Venezuela and south of Trinidad are large enough to justify that nation's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) train. Venezuela has planned an LNG plant in Guaria, in Sucre state. By 2009, Venezuelan authorities said, gas from the 38-Tcf Deltana Platform should supply both eastern Venezuela and an export market, according to Business News Americas.

Strippers lose tax break

High oil prices are a financial boon for operators, but they may cost owners of US stripper wells their tax break. Back in the 1990s, when prices dove below US $10/bbl, the government reduced its royalty charge for wells producing less than 15 bbl of oil a day. Now, with prices climbing higher than $60/bbl, the US Bureau of Land Management figures the operators should be able to make a profit. The federal agency also plans to raise fees for environmental impact studies and other costs of administration.

Chevron gets Unocal

Chevron acquired Unocal when CNOOC pulled out of a bidding war that reached US $18.5 billion. Both companies had an eye on Unocal's operations in Thailand and Indonesia, but CNOOC wanted to use Unocal as an entry to the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and it wanted access to the company's expertise as the driller of the deepest successful ultradeepwater wells in the world. With China's demand for oil and gas soaring, Chinese companies have built a reputation for overpaying for assets worldwide. At the same time, US legislators asked the Bush administration to find a way to block the proposed takeover by CNOOC even to the point of suggesting the acquisition would violate World Trade Organization since the buyout money represented a subsidy by the Chinese government. The Chinese government responded with accusations that they are trying to establish trade barriers.

East Timor adopts oil law

The parliament of East Timor unanimously passed the first of three laws that will open the recently formed nation's offshore territory to oil and gas exploration and production in territory not involved in boundary disputes. All revenues and all payments for exploration will go into a fund transparently managed.

Oil futures boost drilling

Drilling activity rose in most of the world as closing prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed above US $65 a barrel. News, however, was mixed from the International Energy Agency. The organization's monthly oil market report said high prices may be getting new fields on line faster and may be extending the lives of existing fields. Independent reports corroborate that assessment as operators increased capital spending by 13% this year, compared with earlier predictions of a 4% to 6% increase. Developments that also may have an impact, the agency said, are a slower-than-anticipated growth in the United States and a cap on fuel prices in China. That cap meant refiners couldn't buy at world prices and sell at regulated prices, so they slowed production. Overall, the agency said, the world can expect oil consumption to grow by only 400,000 b/d this year instead of the 1.1 million b/d forecast earlier.

Kwanza will reopen

Angola plans to reopen the onshore portion of the Kwanza Basin in the southern sector of the country late this year or early next year. according to Dow Jones Commodities News. A civil war forced a halt to exploration, but it had produced in the 1970s. Offshore, drilling results in the Kwanza Basin have been disappointing.

OPEC falls behind

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties can't meet its anticipated share of world oil demand within the next 15 years. According to a Financial Times report, the International Energy Agency said a working cartel would have to form for the organization to raise production from 30 million b/d to 50 million b/d by 2020. Saudi officials have said it would be difficult for OPEC to meet the demand under any conditions. They estimated a 4.5 million b/d gap between what the world wants and what Saudi Arabia can provide.

Nigeria may delay deadline

In the wake of a Shell announcement that it will not be able to meet the Nigerian governments deadline to end gas flaring while producing oil until the end of 2009, the government is considering setting its deadline back a year to the end of 2009, said the Xinhua News Agency. Among reasons for its announcement, Shell said the Nigerian government partner in the Niger Delta project was having trouble finding the money to fund its share of the anti-flaring program.

Pemex gets tax break

The Mexican legislature's lower house approved a proposal passed earlier by the Senate that will give government oil company Pemex a smaller tax burden and more money to reinvest in exploration and production. The state now taxes Pemex at 60% of revenues. The tax break will give the company about US $2.27 billion more to invest, according to EFE News. The new legislation also will set up a stabilization fund to smooth the flow of revenues in case of sharp oil price fluctuations.