Forties Pipeline System reopens in time for the New Year

On 11th December, INEOS the owner of the Forties Pipeline System, had discovered a hairline crack in the pipeline at Red Moss near Netherley. The crack continued to grow upon monitoring and the entire system was subsequently shutdown. INEOS announced this morning that the repairs are "mechanically" complete with the system being restarted - export rates should resume to previous levels around the new year. The system carries c.450mbbl/d of production from the North Sea to the Kinneil processing facility in Scotland. The 235 mile pipeline links...

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Amerisur putting plans in motion

Amerisur is a story of slow and steady wins the race. The company had targeted 10mbbl/d to be reached a few years ago - with current production only at c.7mbbl/d, this target has clearly fallen by the wayside. Amerisur has learnt, and is continuing to learn, that doing business in Colombia (and Ecuador) is not straightforward and getting necessary government approvals can take months and sometimes years rather than weeks - the OBA pipeline...

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Premier's Christmas present

Premier Oil announced today that the Catcher field achieved first oil on 23rd December, on schedule and almost 30% below budget. Initial production will be c.10mbopd as gas processing and water injection modules are commissioned. Production will be ramped up in phases through H1 2018 as the Varadero and Burgman fields are brought onstream increasing production to 60,000mboepd (gross). The Catcher partners are Premier Oil (50% operator), Cairn...

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Kosmos: An unfinished West African story

Kosmos has had a busy 2017 chasing a high risk high reward oil play and working up its Senegal/Mauritania gas resources. In the second half of the year Hippocampe and Lamantin both came in dry ending the company's campaign for higher value oil. It can now focus on developing the c.40tcf of gas found at Tortue, Teranga, Yakaar and BirAllah. It has hopefully found the right partner in BP who farmed-in in late 2016. Although not generally seen...

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AWE: an unexpected union

The AWE Board has unanimously recommended a revised bid by Mineral Resources (“MinRes”). The offer terms are A$0.415 in cash and between 0.0198 and 0.0277 MinRes shares per AWE share. The exchange ratio will depend on the VWAP for the 10 days prior to the scheme vote. The previous offer was a full scrip offer at A$0.81. This values the offer at an implied price of c.A$0.83 per AWE share and will be implemented by a Scheme of Arrangement, which...

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Zohr record breaker

In record time for a deepwater gas development of this scale, Eni has announced first production from Zohr. The field was discovered in August 2015 and FID taken in early 2016 - Eni achieved first gas from discovery in 2.5 years. Zohr is the largest gas discovery ever made offshore Egypt and is located in the Shorouk block. The field has begun production at 350mmcfpd and is expected to grow to 1bcfpd by mid-2018. The speed of development is a...

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Kurdistan producers get paid for September

DNO and Genel Energy have reported receipt of USD54 million from the KRG for September crude sales from the Tawke licence - shared by DNO (USD40.7 million) and Genel (USD13.6 million) in line with the interests in the licence. In addition, a payment of USD10.8 million has been received by Genel and DNO, representing 7.5% of gross Tawke licence revenues during October 2017, as provided for under the receivables settlement agreement. Separately, the Taq Taq field partners have received a payment of $9.7m from the KRG for September oil sales - Genel's...

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Maersk Drilling exits Egyptian JV in line with strategy

Maersk continues to review and streamline its business portfolio. As part of that strategy, it announced today of its exit of the Egyptian rig company joint venture. Press release A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S ("A.P. Moller - Maersk") and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation ("EGPC") has today signed an agreement whereby EGPC will acquire A.P. Moller - Maersk’s 50 percent shareholding in Egyptian Drilling Company ("EDC") for USD 100m in an all-cash transaction. Following the transaction EGPC will become sole owner of EDC and will as part of the agreement...

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CNPC could take over Total's interests in Iran

CNPC is considering taking over Total's stake in a the giant South Pars development if Total needs to exit Iran to comply with any new U.S. sanctions. In October, President Trump refused to certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal leading to a Congressional vote on whether to reimpose sanctions on Iran. The date of the vote has not yet been set , but if sanctions are reimposed they could prohibit companies working in Iran from also operating in the United States. For Total, the stakes are high, where they have much larger operations in...

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Aker BP submits three PDOs

Aker BP ASA (Aker BP) has submitted the Plans for Development and Operations ("PDOs") for the Valhall Flank West, Ærfugl (formerly Snadd) and Skogul (formerly Storklakken) fields to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. Valhall Flank East This development represents an extension on the western Flank of the Valhall field. It will be developed from a new Normally Unmanned Installation and will be tied back to the Valhall field centre....

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Kosmos dry well at Lamantin

Lamantin-1 on Block C-12 offshore Mauritaniawas was drilled to a TD of 5,150m and designed to evaluate a previously untested structure. The logs and samples collected suggests the reservoir objective was water bearing with small amounts of hydrocarbons. The well will now be plugged and abandoned. Kosmos will drill the Requin Tigre prospect next and is targeting 60tcf. The well is epected to take around 60 da...

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In AWE

China Energy Reserve and Chemical Group (“CERCG”) has returned with a second bid for AWE at A$0.73/share, valuing the company at A$463 million. This follows the withdrawal of the earlier offer at A$0.71/share on 4th December. On 30th November, CERCG put out a takeover offer for AWE at A$0.71/share contingent on due diligence, approval by the regulatory authorities and the CERBG board. The offer was at a 30% premium to the share price was deemed insufficient by AWE to grant access for due diligence. The bid was subsequently withdrawn on 4th December. CERCG remains...

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Canacol: Sabanas export flowline comes online

Canacol has announced that the Sabanas gas flowline is now connected. It is in the final stage of testing and gas transportation is scheduled to commence on 5th December. The flowline has a capacity of 40mmcf/d which is expected to be reached in mid-January following completion of a second compression station - initial gas throughout is expected to be 20mmcfd. Gas will be routed from the Jobo processing facility to the Promigas export line at...

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Breathing new life into Tyra

The Danish Underground Consortium ("DUC") has approved an investment of DKK21 billion (USD3.4 billion) for the full redevelopment of the Tyra field. DUC members are Total/Mærsk (31.2 %), Shell (36.8 %), Chevron (12 %) and Nordsøfonden (20 %). The development will ensure continued production from Denmark's largest field for years to come and will also rejuvenate important Danish offshore infrastructure. About 80% of the investment will be for modification...

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