UPSTREAM NEWS

Nigeria’s oil industry has continued to bleed owing to incessant shutdowns due to ageing upstream infrastructure, vandalism and community-related issues, with the country losing over 4.82 million barrels to the challenges, industry data obtained by THISDAY has revealed. Although a marked reduction from the 6.3 million barrels lost in the preceding month, the country’s production losses recorded in October came mainly from Forcados, Bonny, Odudu, Brass, Yoho, Urha, Ajapa and Aje in the Niger Delta. But a review showed that the situation will most likely continue unmitigated, at least in the short term, as Shell a few days ago announced a halt in crude shipments from the same Forcados, a situation that may negatively impact the country’s revenue stream and worsen existing shortages in the international market.

"The Indonesian government estimates that $187 billion needs to be invested in its upstream sector to meet its 2030 oil and gas production targets of 1 million barrels per day of oil and 12 billion standard cubic feet per day of gas. However, this target seems ambitious with major investors seeking to exit Indonesia’s oil and gas sector."

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 9): Oil and gas (O&G) upstream investment will need to increase and be sustained at near pre-Covid-19 levels of US$525 billion (about RM2.21 trillion) through 2030 to ensure market balance despite slowing demand growth. A recent report titled “Investment Crisis Threatens Energy Security” by the International Energy Forum and IHS Markit said upstream investment in the O&G sector in 2021 was depressed for a second consecutive year at US$341 billion — nearly 25% below 2019 levels. Meanwhile, O&G demand is now near pre-pandemic highs and will continue to rise for the next several years, particularly in developing countries.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), has outlined action plans to deal with the recent oil spill in Santa Barbara, Nembe, Bayelsa at an AITEO facility, as investigations into the cause of the spill continues.

With the immediate end to spending on new upstream projects and an expected shutting-in of higher-cost production, global oil supplies would shrink by more than 8% each year, the IEA estimates under its Net-Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario or NZE. Oil demand will never again reach its historic peak in 2019 before shrinking to 24 million b/d in 2050, from around 90 million b/d in 2020, the IEA's scenario showed. Gas demand would also decline by 55% over 2020 levels to 1,750 Bcm by 2050.

Egypt is in the process of launching the Egypt Upstream Gateway, a digital subsurface platform that will act as an up-to-date repository of the country’s subsurface data. This unique digital initiative will be used to unlock the potential of Egypt's petroleum sector and promote the country's exploration and production potential worldwide.

Joe Biden’s move to block the $9 billion Keystone XL project is the clearest sign yet that constructing a major new pipeline in the U.S. has become an impossible task. Even before Biden’s inauguration, the oil and gas industry was on its back foot when it came to building major new infrastructure.

A few days ago, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and BP announced the start of production from the R Cluster. It is an ultra-deepwater gas field in block KG D6 off the east coast of India. it is located at a depth of more than 2,000 meters, making R Cluster the deepest offshore gas field in Asia. RIL and BP are developing three deepwater gas projects in block KG D6.

A big decision comes the industry's way as Denmark decides to retire from the North Sea. On Thursday, the Danish Parliament voted in favour of ending the offshore oil and gas extraction. The nation has cancelled it's latest licensing round, saying the country is "now putting an end to the fossil fuel era". Currently, one-third of Denmark's electricity production derives from wind turbines.

OPEC+ fears the second wave of COVID-19. The cartel is particularly troubled due to the jump in Libyan output. On Thursday, the Joint Technical Committee held a virtual meeting to discuss the issues. "In particular, a resurgence of COVID-19 cases across the world and prospects for partial lockdowns in the coming winter months could compound the risks to economic and oil demand recovery," said the panel.

Seabed Geosolutions has been awarded a survey contract in the Brazilian waters. The company will have to perform a baseline 4D ocean bottom node (OBN) survey and a future 4D monitor OBN survey. The operations will be performed in water depths over 2,200m. "We are delighted to be awarded another high-profile, deepwater OBN project in Brazil", said the company. Seabed is a joint venture between Fugro and CGG.

Ithaca Energy has awarded a five-year integrated services contract to oilfield services provider Petrofac. According to the contract, Petrofac will integrate operations, as well as provide maintenance, engineering and construction services for Ithaca’s North Sea assets. Petrofac will also provide onshore and offshore technical support across all of the Ithaca’s North Sea operated asset base. Ithaca Energy has working interests in 18 offshore producing fields in the UK North Sea.

Well-Safe Solutions has acquired the harsh-environment jack-up West Epsilon from deepwater drilling contractor Seadrill. Well-Safe Solutions noted that the rig will be refurbished and renamed ‘Well-Safe Protector’. Operations on the upgrade of the company’s first rig Well-Safe Guardian were paused earlier this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, operations are restarting, and the company expects to deploy both Guardian and Protector early next year.

The contractor has downplayed an incident that took place during work to dismantle what’s left of the Buchan Alpha oil rig. A video appears to show a worker attempting to run to safety when the structure he’s cutting into with a blowtorch, in waters off Shetland, becomes detached and off-balance. No one was injured and the Health and Safety Executive has not been involved.

More than one-fifth of U.S. offshore oil production and exporting ports were shut in lieu of Hurricane Sally which will make landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Sally was upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane and could strengthen further before making landfall late on Tuesday. 21% of offshore crude oil production and 25% of natural gas output were shut in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Kosmos Energy has agreed to sell certain exploration assets worth $200 million in Africa and South America to Royal Dutch Shell. Kosmos plans to use up to one-third of the initial sale proceeds of $100 million to test two high-quality infrastructure-led exploration prospects in the Gulf of Mexico. Shell will acquire the company’s participating interest in blocks offshore São Tomé and Príncipe, Suriname, Namibia and South Africa.

Cairn has signed an agreement to sell its entire Senegalese stake to Woodside Energy. Cairn at first was planning to sell its 40% of the Senegalese stake to Lukoil in a deal worth up to $400m, but Woodside had exercised its right to pre-empt the transaction on the same terms and conditions. Woodside Energy will hold a 68.3% stake in the main Sangomar deepwater project and a 75% stake in the remaining areas.

UK-based Geoteric has launched two new seismic interpretation products, Collaborative AI and Geoteric Stratum. Collaborative AI complements the existing Geoteric workflows. It enhances traditional interpretation, and efficiently extracts faults from seismic data. While, Geoteric Stratum is a new cloud-based AI software that delivers simple usability and even greater detail for fault identification, reservoir compartmentalization, and well trajectory planning. Geoteric's products enable faster and more accurate results.