BP, Rosneft agree to create joint venture to explore West Siberian, Yenisey-Khatanga basins
Rosneft and BP have signed final binding agreements to create a new joint venture, Yermak Neftegaz, to conduct exploration in the West Siberian and Yenisey-Khatanga basins in the Russian Federation.
The joint venture will focus on onshore exploration of two areas of mutual interest (AMIs) in the West Siberian and Yenisey-Khatanga basins covering a combined area of about 260,000 sq km. Yermak Neftegaz will be owned 51% by Rosneft and 49% by BP. In the initial stage, the joint venture will carry out further appraisal work on the 2009 Rosneft-discovered Baikalovskiy field inside the Yenisey-Khatanga AMI and on exploration of Zapadno-Yarudeiskoye, Kheiginskoye and Anomalnoye licenses in the West Siberian AMI.
Exploration activities in the two AMIs will include regional research, acquisition of seismic data and drilling of exploration wells, with the beginning of field works anticipated in the winter season of 2016/2017.
BP has committed to provide up to $300 million in two phases as its contribution to the cost of the JV’s activities at the exploration stage. Rosneft will contribute licenses and operational experience in West Siberia and Yenisey-Khatanga, with initial drilling to be performed by Rosneft subsidiaries.
ExxonMobil’s Liza-2 well confirms Guyana discovery
ExxonMobil has said drilling results from the Liza-2 well, the second exploration well in the Stabroek block offshore Guyana, confirm a discovery with a recoverable resource of between 800 million and 1.4 billion BOE.
The Liza wells are located in the Stabroek block, approximately 120 miles (193 km) offshore Guyana.
The Liza-2 well was drilled by ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana, approximately 2 miles (3.3 km) from the Liza-1 well. The Liza-2 well encountered more than 190 feet (58 m) of oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs in Upper Cretaceous formations. The well was drilled to 17,963 ft (5,475 m) in 5,551 ft (1,692 m) of water.
The Stabroek block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 sq km).
Esso Exploration and Production Guyana is operator and holds 45% interest in the Stabroek block. Hess Guyana Exploration holds 30% interest, and CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana holds 25% interest.
Keppel AmFELS delivers jackup to Perforadora Central
Keppel AmFELS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) in the US, has delivered Uxpanapa, a KFELS B Class jackup rig, to Mexico’s Central Panuco, a subsidiary of Mexico’s Perforadora Central.
The rig was christened on 13 July 2016 at Keppel AmFELS’ yard in Brownsville, Texas, by the owners of Central Panuco.
Uxpanapa is the fifth jackup built by Keppel AmFELS for Perforadora Central and the second based on Keppel’s proprietary KFELS B Class design.
“We are proud to be Central Panuco’s choice shipyard as they grow their fleet of rigs to be a premier rig operator in the region,” Simon Lee, President of Keppel AmFELS, said.
The Uxpanapa jackup rig will be chartered by PEMEX for work offshore Mexico.
Keppel AmFELS’ past collaboration with PEMEX includes having built two 220-men accommodation modules for PEMEX in 2006, as well as repairing and servicing a total of 18 rigs for various drilling operators that have been chartered by PEMEX over the years.
Keppel AmFELS previously completed Tonala, an ultra-premium KFELS B Class jackup, for Perforadora Central in 2004, followed by three LeTourneau S116E rigs: Tuxpan in 2010, Papaloapan in 2013 and Coatzacoalcos in 2014.
Keppel O&M has delivered 16 projects, including this latest rig, to the Mexican market, with an additional four on order for Mexico.
Seadrill receives contract extensions for two jackups
Seadrill has received three-year contract extensions from Saudi Aramco for the jackups AOD I and AOD II, expiring in June 2019 and July 2019, respectively. The extensions are in direct continuation of the current contracts and will add approximately $225 million in contract backlog.
These units have been working for Saudi Aramco since 2013.
Noble Energy commences production in Gunflint in GOM
Noble Energy recently commenced production at the company’s Gunflint oil development in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The two-well field is ramping up and is anticipated to reach a minimum gross production of 20,000 bbl of oil equivalent per day (BOED), with oil representing approximately 75% of the volumes produced. The Gunflint development, located at Mississippi Canyon Block 948, is a subsea tieback to the Gulfstar One facility owned by Williams Partners and Marubeni Corp.
