PGNiG acquires Total's 22.2% stake in King Lear

Total has sold its 22.2% stake in King Lear to PGNiG. This follows AkerBP's acquisition of Equinor's 77.8% stake in the field in October 2018 for USD250 million.

In October 2018, AkerBP noted that King Lear is one of the largest undeveloped discoveries in Norway and that it planned to develope the field as a satellite to Ula. Ula is operated by AkerBP (80% with DNO as 20% partner) and the tie-back will improve capacity utilisation at the Ula facilities. Importantly, King Lear will also provide signifcant gas volumes for injection into the Ula field for increased oil recovery. Net recoverable resources at King Lear is estimated at c.100mmboe and is gas weighted.

PGNiG notes that the development of the field is planned to commence in 2021 with first production in 2025.

The King Lear development has stalled since its initial discovery as it was originally expected to be part of the Greater Ekofisk Area project which would have seen King Leat, Tommeliten Alpha and Tor tie back to Ekofisk. However gas processing capacity constraints at Ekofisk meant the project was not sanctioned.

With PGNiG entry into King Lear, and also ownership of Tommeliten Alpha (acquired from Equinor in October 2018) could see the latter now being routed to King Lear.

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Hurricane reaches first oil and Lancaster

Hurricane has reached first oil at the Lancaster field. The Aoka Mizu FPSO completed the start-up phase with a 72-hour production test and combined production from the wells reached the targeted 20mbopd, marking the contractual completion of commissioning. Hurricane now expects to ramp up production over the next six months towards the longer-term ~85% operating efficiency target.

Production guidance is:

• c.9mbopd for the next three months; followed by 
• c.13mcopd for the subsequent three months;
• before reaching a sustained target of c17mbopd

This is another step forward in demonstrating the scale and deliverability of the fractured basement play in the UK North Sea on the Lancaster licence. However fractured basement plays are risky propositions and production could be short lived with water breakthrough at risk of occuring in short order. Therefore 12-24 months of production data is now crucial in order to fully understand the scale of the reservoir and importantly, sustainability of production.

Meanwhile drilling continues on the nearby Greater Warwick Area licence with partner Spirit Energy.

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Chevron-Anadarko: the overlooked jewel

As Chevron swallows up its USD50 billion acquisition of Anadarko, OGInsights turns its focus away form the heavily covered synergies in the Permian, DJ Basin and Gulf of Mexico, and towards its LNG portfolio as Chevron strives to join the ranks of the supermajors in LNG.

Chevron has a Australasia-centric LNG business, but Anadarko's 27% operated interest in Mozambique Area 1 now broadens the former's reach. The Mozambique position is a low cost, integrated LNG project in an ideal geography with reach into the European and Asian markets.

Area 1 is close to FID with c.9.5mtpa of its 12.88mtpa capacity already signed up. The stepping in of Chevron into Anadarko's shoes adds further weight behind the project. 

In February, it was noted that Anadarko had signed a 2.6mtpa LNG SPA with Tokyo Gas/Centrica
joint agreement with implicit destination flexibility which will help broaden Chevron's LNG marketing portfolio, although it is yet to fully launch its own trading portfolio like the Shells and Totals of this world.

The Area 1 LNG joint venture in Mozambique comprises Anadarko, Mitsui, ONGC, ENH (Mozambique NOC), Bharat PetroResources, PTTEP and Oil India. In addition to the Area 1 development, the Area 4 joint venture between Exxon and Eni is on track for sanctioning later in 2019.

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Saudi oil optics

The release of the March Official Selling Prices begins to illustrate Saudi Arabia's complex and calculated moves in the global oil markets.

After years of trying to figure out the market dynamics of the brave new world with US shale and testing market responses to various signals, it knows that cutting its own production is not the only thing that matters (not to mentioned damaging to its own market share).

In fact, targeting data points that are strongly followed by the markets is more important, even if the signals they give are only superficial.

In March, Saudi Arabia increased its Official Selling Prices, pricing out its usual Asian buyers despite a market that is awash with light crude. However this is important in paving the way for more visible Atlantic Basin crudes (North Sea and West African) to be cleared,

In the first quarter, EIA data also shows that Saudi Arabia exported no barrels to its Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, USA, helping to manage storage levels in the US Gulf Coast and Caribbean, data from which drive global price sentiment.

Over the same time period, Saudi domestic inventory levels appear to have been rising.

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Further positive momentum at Zama

The Zama-2ST1 well (side-track well son Zama-2) encountered 873ft of gross oil bearing column with a net-to-gross ratio of c.70%. The well flowed at 7.9mboepd of which 94% was light 26-30 API oil. The well results indicated a prolific reservoir and potential to achieve significant plateau rates at the field. The operator estimates that a peak production of 150-175mboe/d is achievable.

This news is positive for the recoverable reserves of the field and could tighten the current estimates range of 400-800mmboe upwards.

The rig will now move to drill the Zama-3 well, the last in the 2019 campaign, and should confirm the extent of the field to the south. The drilling programme remains ahead of schedule with the Zama-2ST1 completed 9 days ahead of schedule and 16% below budget.

The Zama field is planned to be developed from a single drill centre with drilling from the platform. Three production platforms are envisaged, each with capacity of up to 100mbopd. Produced oil is planned to be transported via a pipeline to the Dos Bocas terminal located onshore, c.70km away from the field.

The Zama partners are: Talos (35% operator), DEA (40%) and Premier Oil (25%).

For Premier Oil, this development could overtake the Sea Lion development in the Falklands (another large resource optionality for the company), adding visibility to additional near-term production growth.

Premier Oil also has a non-operated interest in Block 30 which could see Mexico transform into another important leg of its portfolio.

Block 30 is operated by DEA 40% with partners Premier Oil 30% and Sapura Energy 30%.

See also Premier success at Zama on the Zama-2 result in January 2019.

Premier Oil Camarco RBC Capital Markets

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Energean success at Karish North

Energean has made a significant gas find at its high profile Karish North well. The well reached a depth of 4,880m and encountered a fantastic hydrocarbon column of c.250m

Management guidance of the estimated Gas-in-Place is 1-1.5tcf of which ~875bcf could be recoverable resource (i.e. close to 60% recovery factor).

Further evaluation will now be undertaken to determine the liquids content on the discovery.  The A, B and C sands have been drilled and Energean will now deepen the well to the D4 horizon. Following completion of D4 at Karish North, the rig (Stena DrillMAX) will return to drill the three development wells at the Karish Main development.

Karish North could be developed as a tie-back to the Energean Power FPSO which is located 5.4km from the Karish North well.

The FPSO is designed to handle 8bcm/y and Energean has so far secured 4.2bcm/y of offtake. It is expecting to finalise another 1.1bcm/y shortly, bringing contracted volumes up to 5.3bcm/y. Energean therefore has another 2.7bcm/y of capacity and Energean will look to contract this as soon as it is comfortable that it has more upstream gas volumes to underpin this.

In December 2018, Energean signed a contract with power supplier I.P.M. for 0.2tcf of gas over the life of the contract contingent on the results of the 2019 drilling programme. The result at Karish North significantly increases the chance of such potential supply being converted into firm contracted volumes.

Energean see lots of opportunity to sell more gas, led by the privatisation of Israeli power stations in the period 2019-22 which will open up 4.3bcm/y of demand.

See also: Energean targets Karish North

RBC Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley

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Mediocre week for UK exploration

This week saw a disappointing well result in Rowallan and a mediocre result in Verbier.

Rowallan
The keenly watched wildcat drilled at the Rowallan prospect "was not found to be hydrocarbon-bearing”. The 22/19c-7 well was targeting 143mmbbl in a structural fault and dip-closed trap analogous to Total’s Culzean field 20km away.

The well encountered a 182m section of sandstone and shale after being drilled to a depth of 4,641m .

The Dundonald and Sundrum prospects, which are geologically similar to Rowallan, have previously been identified as potential drilling targets in the block but will now be “re-evaluated in the light of the drilling results”, Serica said.

Serica, with a 15% interest in the block, did not incur any costs for the well as it was fully carried following an earlier farm-out. Eni operates the block with a 32% stake, with remaining partners JX Nippon (25%), Mitsui (20%) and Equinor (8%).

Verbier

Equinor (70%), Jersey Oil & Gas (18%) and CIECO (12%) completed appraisal well 20/05b-14 on the Verbier discovery last week. The well did not encounter Upper Jurassic sands as anticipated, and the contingent resources have been revised towards the lower end of initial resource estimates to 25mmboe.

Further upside potential exists in the area at deeper horizons and an additional prospect at Cortina. This will continue to be matured. At 25mmboe, Verbier is viewed to be commercial and development planning will now commence as part of a wider area development plan, which could include the Buchan Area.

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