Brasse's growth halts as Faroe's Rungne well disappoints

Faroe announced in November that the Rungne well came in disappointing with only sub-commercial levels of gas found. Although encountering hydrocarbons, the estimated volumes of 12-57bcf gas and 0.5-3.9mmboe condensates will mean the discovery is non-commercial on a standalone basis. Nevertheless it could form a future tie-back to Brage or Oseberg.

Faroe's exploration programme continues with Brasse East which could be another chance for Faroe to grow the Brasse Area prior to taking FID. Faroe is currently going through concept selection for the field with two potential hosts: Brage or Oseberg.

Related posts:

• Brasse - Brage's younger sibling
• Brasse continues to grow
• Brasse flow test shows promising results

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ExxonMobil makes 10th oil discovery offshore Guyana; resource increased to 5+ bnboe

ExxonMobil announced its tenth discovery offshore Guyana and its sixth discovery on the Stabroek Block in the past year.

The Pluma-1 well encountered c.121 feet of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoir and is located c.17 miles southwest of the Turbot-1 well and follows previous discoveries on the Stabroek Block at Liza, Liza Deep, Payara, Snoek, Turbot, Ranger, Pacora, Longtail and Hammerhead. The discovery adds to ExxonMobil's previous 4+ bnboe resource estimate which is now being increased to 5+ bnboe.

The drillship will next drill the Tilapia-1 prospect located 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) west of the Longtail-1 well, with ongoing work to evaluate development options in the southeastern portion of the block and potentially combining Pluma with the prior Turbot and Longtail discoveries.

Phase 1 of the development is underway, and will include 17 wells connected to a FPSO with 120mbopd capacity by early-2020.

Phase 2 is due to be sanctioned in early-2019 and will use a 220mbopd FPSO.

For Phase 3, ExxonMobil plans to use an 180mbopd FPSO, with first oil in 2023. FID for Phase 3 is expected in 2019, which is now further supported by the Pluma discovery.

ExxonMobil sees the potential for five FPSOs producing 750mbopd by 2025 offshore Guyana.

#ExxonMobil #Guyana #Pluma #Liza #Stabroek

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Kirkuk exports resume via Kurdistan

The Kurdistan and Federal Iraq governments have announced an agreement for the resumption of oil exports from Kirkuk via the Kurdistan export pipeline to Ceyhan. This positive development will benefit the public revenues of Federal Iraq which has been grappling with funding issues in recent years with the oil price collapse on the one hand and need to fund defences along its borders on the other.

Kirkuk production was locked out of the Kurdistan export pipeline following the Kurdistan independence referendum last autumn, the result of which also led to Federal Iraq taking back over the Kirkuk fields from the Kurds.

Related posts:

• Kurdistan referendum: Barzani's legacy
• Kurdistan independence referendum

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INEOS swoops in for Conoco North Sea

As widely reported over the weekend, INEOS is the front-runner for the ConocoPhillips’ UK North Sea portfolio. ConocoPhillips had a buyer for the portfolio back in 2015, but pulled the deal citing that it had no desire to sell-out at the bottom of oil price cycle,

INEOS has beaten other likely UK North Sea focussed contenders which could include Ithaca Energy, Premier Oil, Neptune Energy, Chrysaor and SiccarPoint. The sale, estimated to be around USD3 billion, will exclude the Teeside Norsea terminal and London trading business.

INEOS existing North Sea portfolio
Source: The Times

The below was originally published on 24^th June 2018:

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ConocoPhillips' is one of the largest operators in the UK North Sea, being the operator of the Britannia area, the J-Area and large swathes of the Southern North Sea. ConocoPhillips is also a non-operated partner in the giant Clair field.

Clair is one of the largest oil fields in the UK offshore and located in the West of Shetlands which is making a name for being the last frontier of the UK and is increasingly attracting further exploration activity. The Clair field was brought onstream in 2005 and is currently undergoing a second phase of development (Clair Ridge). Clair Ridge is planned to come onstream in Q4 2018 with operator BP targeting an additional 640mmbbl which will extend the life of the Clair Area beyond 2050. As soon as Clair Ridge is onstream, the partners will be planning for the Phase 3 of the development known as Clair South.

On the operated assets, Britannia is one of the largest gas fields in the UK which has acted as a hub for various tie-backs over the years. The J-Area, although now beginning to mature, has been a highly successful gas hub in the Central North Sea where more infill drilling and exploration activity is planned into 2019 and 2020.

The Southen North Sea assets are the most mature with some going into decommissioning. ConocoPhillips has widely announced the closure of the Theddlethorpe gas processing plant which is the terminus for its CMS pipeline. This will lead to early/forced decommissioning of all the fields which currently utilise the CMS pipeline as the export route including the Faroe and Tullow Schooner and Ketch fields which will cease production in August 2018.

The ConocoPhillips' UK portfolio is concentrated around a few hubs and excluding the Southern North Sea, has a good amount of life remaining with current production at c.80mboe/d.

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PGNiG expands footprint in Norway

On 18^th October PGNiG announced that it had agreed to acquire Equinor's interest in the Tommeliten Alpha gas and condensate field in the Norwegian North Sea. This continues PGNiG's strategy of diversifying its gas supply away from Russia.

PGNiG has always had an interest in Norwegian gas seeing it as as logical and accessible source of gas for Poland. As the long term Russian gas supply contracts come to expiry, PGNiG is making bold moves to secure new sources of gas and LNG. See PGNiG shuns Russian gas.

The operator of the discovery is ConocoPhilips (28.26%), and current partners are Total (20.23%), Eni Norge (9.13%) and Equinor (42.38%) which will sell its entire working interest to PGNiG. The agreed price for Equinor's stake was USD220 million at 1 January 2018 effective date.

The Tommeliten Alpha discovery is located in the vicinity of large, existing fields, most notably the giant Ekofisk field. According to current plans, production is expected to commence in 2024, and the development concept assumes a subsea tie-back to the existing infrastructure on Ekofisk.

Tommeliten Alpha is a gas and condensate field with estimated recoverable resources of 52 mmboe (net to PGNiG's 42.38%). PGNiG believes in an upside potential in the field reserves as well as significant exploration upside in the area.

The field was originally planned to start production in 2019, but development plans were shelved by operator ConocoPhillips in 2016 due to low oil prices.

#PGNiG #NorthSea #TommelitenAlpha # Equinor #Conoco

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PGNiG shuns Russian gas

PGNiG is increasingly boldening its signals on shunning Russian gas as it turns to the west. The Polish state has historically been dependent on gas imports from its eastern neighbour but is looking to loosen its reliance to the communist state.

Poland consumes around 17 bcm of gas annually, more than half of which comes from Gazprom under a long-term contract that expires in 2022. It is seeing the upcoming expiry as the opportunity to diversify its gas supply ahead of time and has consistently stressed that Gazprom is charging Poland too much for the gas noting that Russia has taken advantage of the historic lack of other sources of gas which is now changing with the advent of LNG.

Poland has also vehemently opposed plans by Russia to build a new gas pipeline across the Baltic Sea which is aimed at strengthening its dominant market position into Europe. Instead Poland is looking to sanction the Baltic gas pipeline later this year or beginning of 2019 which will bring gas directly from Norway.

The last month has seen a flurry of newsflow around PGNiG’s activity in sourcing new gas.

In mid-October, PGNiG finalised terms with Venture Global for 2mtpa of LNG. It will buy LNG for 20 years on a FOB basis with supplies commencing under two contracts for 2022 and 2023. The FOB contracts are deemed attractive for PGNiG as it can choose to take the LNG to Poland or use it in its trading portfolio. The terms are not disclosed but understood to be in line with other Gulf Coast LNG contracts being 115% x Henry Hub plus a toll of c.USD2.50/mmbtu. Venture Global is currently developing the Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal on the US Gulf Coast.

This has been followed by a 24 year LNG deal with Cheniere Energy at the beginning of November. PGNiG has signed up a 1.45mtpa deal with LNG supplied by Cheniere’s Sabine Pass, Louisiana and Corpus Cristi, Texas liquefaction plants. The contract is for delivery on a DES basis directly to the 5Bcm/year Swinoujscie terminal in Poland. Poland is also looking to expand the import terminal to 7.5Bcm/year in part of the countries grander ambitions to become a LNG and gas trading hub.

PGNiG also farmed-in to the Tommeliten Alpha in the Norwegian North Sea on the upstream side at the end of October. See PGNiG expands footprint in Norway.

#PGNiG #LNG #Russia #Gazprom #VentureGlobal #Cheniere

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Second chance for Petronas in West Africa

Following the recent disappointment at the Samo-1 well in The Gambia, Petronas has another chance in West Africa on the other side of the border in Senegal. Petronas is growing its West African exploration portfolio and is continuing its search for more acreage.

In August Petronas had farmed-in to 30% of Total's Rufisque Offshore Profond block, marking its entry into Senegal. Total retains 60% in the block with Société Nationale des Pétroles du Sénégal (Petrosen) holding the remaining 10%.

The block lies immediately to east to the Sangomar Deep block which contains the Cairn/Woodside/FAR SNE and FAN fields. The Rufisque Offshore Profond block covers 10,357km² , with a water depth ranging from 100m to 3000m.

The partners now plan on the interpretation of the acquired 3D seismic data with exploration drilling activities planned to commence in 2019.

Related links:

• The Gambia's Samo-1 well disappoints
• FAR goes further with another industry partner

#Petronas #Samo #FAR #Senegal #Gambia #Total #SNE #FAN

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