Member's Login
Username:

Password:


Forgotten your password? Click here

This site has been optimised to use Internet Explorer. To access the full features of the site, please use Internet Explorer if possible. If you wish to register and do not have Internet Explorer, please contact us.

Brent Crude price

Kingfisher scents gas

P

Australia’s Metgasco has discovered gas in its 100%-operated Kingfisher E1 well drilled in PEL 16 permit about two kilometres from Casino, New South Wales.eam staff

Kingfisher E1 encounters at least 32 metres of gas bearing sands over an interval from 1058 metres to 2067 metres.

Metgasco hails the gas find as the first significant conventional gas discovery in over a century of exploration in the NSW.

The Australian minnow will undertake further tests in the Kingfisher field over the next three months to determine its full potential.

The Kingfisher structure holds 82 billion cubic feet of contingent gas resources at P50 level with 36.6 bcf attributed to the gas sands intersected in an earlier discovery, Riflebird E14.

Cairn's fourth Rajasthan find

P

UK producer Cairn Energy has encountered hydrocarbons at its RJ-Q-1 exploration well on the Central Basin High in Rajasthan, western India.

A short drill stem test conducted on an interval from 3112 to 3174 metres in the deep Fatehgarh section flowed gas and condensate of 52 degrees API to surface prior to mechanical failure while the shallow Thumbli section encountered a log-evaluated gross hydrocarbon interval of 250 metres in RJ-Q-1.

Cairn will suspend the well for additional testing of the deep Fatehgarh section using a service rig while the shallow Thumbli will be tested in a second dedicated well.

The deep drilling rig is now moving to drill an exploration well on the GR-F prospect, which is also located on the Central Basin High about 40 kilometres south of RJ-Q-1.

Cairn chief executive Bill Gammell said: “I am delighted with our fourth exploration discovery in Rajasthan which further confirms the extensive distribution of hydrocarbons across the basin.

“Over the coming months we will be commencing exploration wells more than 120 kilometres apart and we are confident of the potential for Rajasthan to become a new core producing area for Cairn.”

Cairn has also performed a second successful extended well test at Saraswati-1 discovery well. The well recovered oil at rate of 1000 bpd for 14 dyas from the Barmer Hill interval. It had flowed for 13 days at an average rate of 470 barrels of oil per day from the Fatehgarh interval during an earlier test.

Iraq Drilling Company plans to drill 180 oil wells

The state-run Iraq Drilling Company plans to drill 180 oil wells in 2010, and will be able to drill more than 250 new wells every year from 2011 onwards, company boss Idrees al-Yassiri said

Thirty of the new wells planned for 2010 will be in northern oilfields and 150 in the south, adding roughly 360,000 barrels of oil per day to Iraq's output capacity, Iraqi Drilling Company director Yassiri told Reuters in an interview.

The number of new wells next year will exceed the total number drilled in the six and a half years since the US invasion, he said.

"The approximate production that each well will add is 2000 barrels per day, that is, they will together add 360,000 bpd and this will mean additional revenue of billions of dollars for Iraq," Yassiri said in the interview with Reuters on Thursday.

"In 2011 the production capacity of the Iraq Drilling Company will exceed 250 wells annually," he added.

Iraq currently produces around 2.5 million bpd, and has struggled to ramp up production because its oil infrastructure has been left in a state of decay after decades of war, sanctions and underinvestment.

That may soon change. The country is in the process of signing multibillion-dollar deals with global oil majors that will nearly triple crude output to 7 million bpd and transform it into the third-largest crude producer in the world.

The first agreement finalised is for BP and China National Petroleum Corporation to develop Rumaila, Iraq's largest oilfield.

It was the only contract successfully bid on at Iraq's first tender of oilfield deals in June.

Subsequent negotiations have led to initial agreements for an Eni-led group to develop Zubair and an ExxonMobil-led group to take on West Qurna Phase One.

A second auction of oilfield contracts for 10 largely undeveloped fields will take place 11 December to 12 December.

Total Vietnam makes oil discovery

Total announces that its subsidiary, Total E&P Vietnam, and its partners on Block 15-1/05, have discovered oil in the Lac Da Nau prospect, located in the southern part of the block in the Vietnamese offshore.

15-01/05 LDN-1X exploration well is the first well drilled and the first discovery made on Block 15-01/05. It is located approximately 110 kilometers to the East of Vung Tau, about 65 kilometers off the coast, and was drilled in a water depth of 45 meters. The well produced 4,200 barrels per day of 44 API° oil during tests performed in the basement.

Rosneft to harness flared gas

Azadegan drillin CNPC plans Azadegan drilling Gas Flare

Russian outfit Rosneft has signed a deal use natural gas from two oilfields instead of flaring it, the state-controlled company said today.

Rosneft will achieve the emissions cuts by harnessing gas at its Kharampursk and Kasyreysk fields in southern Siberia.

The company is ready to invest 5 billion roubles (US$137.7 million) in associated gas projects and hopes to sell the resulting Emissions Reduction Units to make back some of these investments, it said in a Reuters report.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty to fight climate change, ERUs can be sold to developed countries, which buy them to meet their emissions reduction targets under the treaty.

Carbon Trade & Finance SICAR, a joint venture between Germany's Dresdner Bank and Russia's Gazprombank, will purchase Rosneft emissions cuts made from 2008 to 2012 in the form of ERUs.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has asked Russian firms to cut gas flaring by 95% by 2012. When president, he originally set a deadline of 2011, but this was delayed as companies fell behind on their schedules.

The Rosneft statement did not say how many units it would produce and sell under the deal.

A similar agreement with the World Bank signed last year pledged to cut 5.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2012. Each tonne is equivalent to one ERU, and can be sold for around 10-20 euros each on the global carbon market.

Coastal Energy Announces Results of Songkhla Development Well

flare Coastal Energy Company, an AIM listed independent exploration and production company with assets in Thailand, announces the completion of the Songkhla A-08 development well on Block G5/43 in the Gulf of Thailand.

The Songkhla A-08 well was drilled to a total measured depth of 9,112 feet (2,777 meters) and logged approximately 92 feet (28 meters) of net pay with 18% porosity in the Lower Oligocene primary reservoir. The well is currently testing over 3,500 bopd with a 3% water cut.

The Songkhla A-08 well was drilled as a replacement development well for the A-02 well, which was converted into a water injection well due to a mechanical problem.

Oil rebounds on weak US dollar

Oil prices rebounded toward $77 a barrel today, aided by a weaker US dollar, but investors continued to eye developments in debt-laden Dubai with caution over their impact on the pace of the global economic recovery.

Concerns about a sluggish recovery in global fuel demand, along with high fuel stockpiles in the United States, have pressured crude prices, which are set for a fall of about 0.7% this month, their first decline in four months.

"The Dubai debt scare situation has eased slightly and the US dollar has weakened, so we're now seeing more investors flood back into the market and that's driving prices up," said Ben Westmore, a commodities analyst at National Australia Bank.

"But the rebound will be limited because there's still a lot of uncertainty around the Dubai issues and people are still trying to digest what it could mean to the world economic recovery."

US crude for January delivery rose 50 cents to $76.55 a barrel by 0237 GMT, retracing some of Friday's $1.91 losses.

London Brent crude gained 37 cents to $77.55.

Prices are up 72% so far this year, but are still roughly half their July 2008 high of more than $147 a barrel.

Financial markets shuddered last week after Dubai said it would ask creditors of state-owned Dubai World and Nakheel, the builder of its palm-shaped islands, for a standstill pact as a first step toward restructuring billions of dollars of debt.

But confirmation from Abu Dhabi, the wealthy capital of the United Arab Emirates, that it would extend some help to Dubai helped calm some market concerns.

Moves by the United Arab Emirates to offer emergency assistance to banks in Dubai also soothed market fears about a looming debt default.

Asian stocks made a tentative recovery after last week's steep sell-off over the Dubai debt crisis as investors' nerves steadied on hopes the fallout of a potential default would be limited.

US dollar movements and developments in Dubai, will be key factors in driving the direction of oil prices this week, analysts said.

Despite today's rally, analysts cautioned that sentiment remains on edge and there could be another round of correction in the equities and commodities markets if Dubai was not able to resolve its debt woes.

"Indeed, oil prices could be at the mercy of the renewed financial pessimism till further clarity on the Dubai situation emerges," Barclays Capital said in a research note on Friday.

"While short forays below the recent trading range cannot be ruled out as a result of the renewed pessimism, we do not see any underlying shift in the oil market fundamentals and thus expect a return to normalcy once initial fears abate," it said, adding that it saw $70 as the minimum support level.

Separately, Iran announced plans yesterday to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants in a major expansion of its atomic programme, just two days after the UN nuclear watchdog rebuked it for carrying out such work in secret.

Analysts said traders were unlikely to place too much premium on supply risks at the moment as the market remained well supplied and overall demand outlook was still bearish.