UPSTREAM NEWS

Talos Energy has struck a deal with BP and Exxon separately in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The company has acquired the Hershey prospect from Exxon and will help BP drill and evaluate the Puma West prospect. "As these transactions prove, Talos is well-positioned to continue unlocking material resource opportunities in our basin through multiple creative business development avenues", said Talos CEO.

Mitsui has decided to sell its 35% stakes in Australian BassGas project. Rothschild is advising the Japanese company on the proposed disposal. Mitsui's share of output from the BassGas in the year to June 2019 was approx 1.1 million barrels of oil equivalent. It has come up with the sale plan at the same time when Exxon has out its ageing Bass Strait oil and gas assets up for sale.

BP has informed about first gas from Baltim field two months ahead of schedule. The firm has achieved an initial production rate of around 100 mmscfd. The production rate is expected to increase and reach 500 mmscfd before mid-2020. The production will be divided amongst BP, Eni (contractor), and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation. BSW was discovered in May 2016 and is said to have the potential of 610 BCF.

India's energy giant, ONGC has been fined Rs 2.05 crore by the Pollution Control Board, Assam. The board has slammed the firm for violating an order by the Supreme Court and causing pollution to the environment. ONGC disobeyed environmental laws in its six wells of Assam. The company will have to submit this amount within one month of the issuance of the order.

British E&P major, Tullow Oil has made another discovery on the Orinduik license, offshore Guyana. This marks the second in the line of discoveries for Tullow Oil in its Jethro-1 exploration well, the first discovery made back in August 2019. The exploration well was drilled to a final depth of 2,175m using Stena Forthdrillship. The Orinduik Block is operated by Tullow, where Total and Eco (Atlantic) Oil & Gas are partners.

India's largest petroleum explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will invest Rs 4,254 crore to drill 656 wells. These wells will be drilled in 52 Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) in the company’s Ahmedabad asset in Gujarat. The drilling activity is planned from 2019-20 to 2025-26. Also, the firm has planned a complete roadmap for its growth for the next two decade.

Ashtead Technology has completed a subsea installation monitoring project for Ocean Installer AS. To support the installation, Ashtead has integrated its Deflection Monitoring System (DMS) services and equipment. “The DMS system proved invaluable for the safe and efficient installation of the ITS structures during the Askeladd and Johan Castberg projects", said Ocean Installer, offshore manager.

Fullstream company, Baker Hughes has concluded its demerger with GE, closing a secondary offering of 132.25 million shares of BHGE Class A common stock. With Baker completing the share repurchase, GE and its affiliates lost ownership of more than 50% of the voting power of all classes of BHGE’s voting stock. BHGE aims to revise its corporate name to Baker Hughes Company, known as Baker Hughes.

World’s largest oilfield services firm, Schlumberger has entered into a strategic collaboration with IHS Markit, through its geophysical data solutions division WesternGeco. Through the collaboration, the firms intend to consolidate their data, technology and experience in exploration and production (E&P) and enable access to it through the GAIA digital subsurface platform. The GAIA platform was launched by WesternGeco and is powered by the DELFI cognitive E&P environment.

Oilfield services major, Weatherford has secured its biggest-ever fishing and intervention contract from Petrobras. The deal valued at $87 million will see Weatherford delivering fishing and intervention services to Petrobras. The four-year contract awarded to the Brazilian state-run firm also represents the largest single global award for this kind of work in the recent past.

Subsea 7 has landed three EPCI contracts from state-run Saudi Aramco. Subsea 7 will carry out the contracts with India’s L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering. The contract requires the firms to perform EPCI works for a total of 28 jackets involving eight new jackets to be instated in the Marjan and Zuluf fields, ten jackets in the Safaniya and Zuluf fields and another ten Jackets in the Zuluf and Ribyan fields.

The Norwegian energy major, Equinor, yesterday, said that it will commence cleaning activities for onshore oil spill discovered this week at its Bahamas storage terminal. The size of the oil spill which took place in the aftermath of hurricane Dorian has not been estimated yet. Operations at the South Riding Point terminal came to a halt on Aug 31st in lieu of the hurricane Dorian.

Oilfield services giant, Schlumberger has entered into a strategic collaboration with TGS on a new 3D seismic reimaging project. The project will see the reimaging of data from three overlapping seismic surveys across 3,600 sq km. Evidently, the seismic reimaging data is the only available 3D data in this area of the Red Sea. TGS and Schlumberger will deploy their proprietary geophysical services product line, WesternGeco on the project.

Ancala Midstream has won a multi-billion pound contract for Zennor Petroleum’s Finlaggan field in the North Sea. This deal will enable Ancala to process gas through its Scottish Area Gas Evacuation (SAGE) terminal in St Fergus near Peterhead. The first production is expected in the fourth quarter of 2020. Ancala's CEO said, "We are delighted to have secured this long-term contract to provide processing services to the Finlaggan field".

Total, Novatek and other shareholders of the project have given an agreement on the final investment decision for Arctic LNG 2. This project is a major LNG development on the Gydan peninsula, Russia. The production capacity of the project is expected to be 19.8 MM tons per year. Total has 10% interest in Arctic LNG 2, Novatek 60%, CNOOC 10%, CNPC 10% and a Mitsui-Jogmec consortium, Japan Arctic LNG 10%.

Restrata Platform is a system for real-time monitoring of people and assets. Serica Energy has signed a deal to adopt this platform for Bruce asset in the UK Northern North Sea. CEO of the company said, “Our team will work with Restrata to commence the roll out of the technology and integrate our operating procedures, specific to Bruce".

Olivier Le Peuch, the new CEO of Schlumberger, yesterday outlined his vision for the firm at the Barclays CEO Energy-Power Conference in New York. He vowed to withdraw from unprofitable businesses, rearrange some units and laid emphasis on returns. Peuch also cautioned towards a sizeable, non-cash charge to write down assets in this quarter. Analysts and investors are looking at Peuch to navigate Schlumberger through the new era of digitalization.

Oilfield services giant, Petrofac has secured a major contract extension to continue supporting the operations of Repsol-Sinopec Resources UK Limited’s in the North Sea. The Jersey-based firm will continue as a tier 1 contractor for brownfield modifications and projects for Repsol-Sinopec Resources’ operated assets and terminal at Flotta. Petrofac provides engineering support services for the Flotta asset.