FAR from a solution

FAR has defaulted on its most recent development cash call on Phase 1 of the Sangomar/SNE development. Under the Sangomar Joint Operating Agreement, any party that defaults on its financial obligations and cash calls have a six month rectification period, during which time it will pay LIBOR+2% on the unpaid amounts. FAR will also not be able to participate in any of the operating committee meetings or participate in any voting on JV issues. If...

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SNE partners buy FPSO

Cairn and FAR have announced a material increase in the capex for the SNE development from USD2.2 billion to USD3.7 billion (plus USD500 million contingency) for Phase 1. This has been driven by the partners' decision to buy an FPSO rather than lease it. This does however bring the opex down, estimated form c.USD14/boe to c.USD11/boe. FID is expected to be taken at the end of 2019 with first oil forecast for late 2022. The development will...

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Fighting the Kraken

Cairn has announced a reserves downgrade on Kraken by 6.8mmboe (net) or 19% to reflect ongoing production issues. The field has been hit by a myriad of problems since start-up in 2017 and its failure to be farmed-down by operator EnQuest in 2018 highlights the technical concerns on the field. The field's output has been hit by poor FPSO uptime driven by system outages as well as higher water-cut than originally expected. There will be a planned...

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SNE partners progress to FEED for Phase 1 of the development

The SNE JV offshore Senegal (Cairn 40%, Woodside 35%, FAR 15%, Petrosen 10%) has entered FEED for Phase 1 of the SNE development. The engineering contract has been awarded to the Subsea Integration Alliance (OneSubsea, Schlumberger and Subsea 7). First oil is being targeted for 2022 with an initial production rate of c.100mbopd. The exploitation plan had previously identified a total development of 500mmbbl of oil over a multi-phase development...

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Nova development could face delays with Gjøa tie-back challenges

Nova (formerly Skarfjell) is planning to submit the field development plan to the Norwegian authorities in H1 2018. The selected development concept is four production wells and three injection wells from two subsea templates tied back to the Gjøa platform. Neptune which operates Gjøa has raised concerns about the potential tie-back which it has now raised with the Ministry of Petroleum. Nova is an oil and gas field operated by Wintershall...

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Norway awards record 75 exploration licences in 2017 APA

Norway has awarded a record number of 75 exploration licences in the APA 2017 licensing round to 34 companies. The licences comprised 45 in the Norwegian North Sea, 22 in the Norwegian Sea and 8 in the Barents Sea. Statoil was the biggest winnder with 31 awards. Supermajors ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Shell and Total also picked up licences. Of the E&Ps: Aker BP was the winner with 23 licences (14 as operator) Lundin has been awarded 14 licences (5 as operator) DNO has been awarded in 10 licences Faroe Petroleum has been awarded 8 licences...

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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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Kraken emerges

In mythology, the Kraken was a giant sea monster that dwelled in the present day North Sea. Today, the Kraken field is emerging with production growing day-by-day and a target to reach 50mbopd in H1 2018. Gross production reached 23mbopd in November (month average) and the second processing train was brought online at the end of the month. The final DC2 production well is now onstream and the DC3 wells are near completion and expected to be brought...

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Senegal moves ahead

Cairn Energy, the operator of the SNE field in Senegal, released a resource update on 22nd August as part of its half-year announcement. The updated 2C resource base is 563mmbbl gross (vs. 473mmbbl in May 2016) and now brings it in line with Woodside's estimate of 560mmbbl, but is still far below that of partner FAR which carries 641mmbbl (assessed by RISC). The differing resource estimates is nothing new and we constantly see the other partners...

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Sail-away to Catcher

The Catcher FPSO sailed away on 26th August from Singapore. It will take around 45 days to reach the UK North Sea, following which it will be connected and commissioned, a process expected to take 60-65 days with first oil targeting December. The project is on schedule and c.30% below budget. Development drilling results have been promising with 30% more net pay and 40% better well deliverability. Expected plateau will now increase by 20% to 60mboepd with a potential for reserves upgrade from the 96mboe 2P at sanction. The Catcher field partners...

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SNE North is Sirius

Cairn has completed the SNE-1 North exploration well (Sirius prospect), located c.15km north of the original SNE-1 discovery. The well reach TD 2,837m and was completed ahead of schedule. A 24m gross hydrocarbon column was encountered across three intervals with 11m net condensate and gas pay in the primary objective and 4m net oil pay in the secondary objective. A full set of oil, condensates and gas samples were recovered to surface from the...

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Barents Sea licence awards

The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has issued ten new production licences in the Barents Sea as part of Norway’s 23rd licencing round, following applications made by 26 companies in January. This is the first time since 1994 that new exploration acreage has been made available to the industry in the southeastern Barents Sea.  From the International E&P names: Lundin has been awarded interests in five licences (three...

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Senegal offshore reaches threshold for commerciality

On 8th February, FAR Ltd announced an updated independent resource report (by RISC) of the SNE discovery offshore Senegal (Cairn 40%, ConocoPhillips 35%, FAR 15% and Petrosen 10%). The report increases contingent resources for the discovery to 240mmbbl 1C (from 150mmbbl), 468mmbbl 2C (from 330mmbbl) and 940mmbbl (from 670mmbbl). This assessment includes the SNE-1 discovery well and subsequently reprocessed (more accurate) 3D seismic. Significantly...

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Sangomar Deep - Senegal's first offshore discovery

On 7 October 2014, Cairn Energy and its partners announced that a significant oil discovery had been made in the FAN-1 exploration well in the Sangomar Deep block, Senegal's first offshore discovery 29m net pay Gross oil interval of >500m No OWC encountered Distinct oil types recovered 28-41 API This was followed by a second discovery in the SNE-1 well, announced on 10 November 2014 36m net pay Gross oil interval of 95m with gas...

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