Author: Automotivedealernews.com

Drilling operations at the Velocette (PL1016) exploration well in Norway have kicked off, Longboat Energy has revealed. The company, which holds a 20 percent stake in the well, noted that it is a gas-condensate prospect targeting Cretaceous Nise turbidite sands on the eastern flank of the Utgard High in the Norwegian Sea. The prospect benefits from seismic amplitude anomalies indicative of gas-filled sands and is located within tieback distance from the Equinor operated, producing Aasta Hansteen field, the company said in its media statement. Velocette is estimated to contain gross unrisked mean resources of 177 mmboe (35 mmboe net to…

Read More

Jeff Currie, the prominent commodities analyst known for making bold — often bullish — pronouncements, is leaving Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Currie has been the face of the Wall Street titan’s commodities research for the better part of three decades, commanding attention in that market with a willingness to stick his neck out on calls, with mixed success.  Goldman announced his departure in a memo to staff on Monday. Currie doesn’t plan to take on another job immediately, and the bank won’t have a new head for his group. Instead, Daan Struyven, Sam Dart and Nick Snowdon — who are…

Read More

A Harvard University professor and environmental law scholar said she has quit the board of ConocoPhillips Co., after coming under scrutiny for her role in the oil and gas major. “I’ve stepped off the ConocoPhillips board to focus on my research at Harvard and make space for some new opportunities”, Jody Freeman said in a press statement on her personal website. She did not cite claims that in a potential breach of Harvard policy, she had helped arrange a meeting between the company and a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) director. Her purported middleman role was reported by The Bureau of…

Read More

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has secured a 30 percent equity stake in the Absheron gas and condensate field in the Caspian Sea following a deal with State Oil Company or Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and TotalEnergies. Financial details of the agreement remain undisclosed. Upon completion of the transaction, which is subject to customary regulatory approvals, ADNOC said in a media statement that it will own a 30 percent participating interest in Absheron, with SOCAR and TotalEnergies holding 35 percent stakes, respectively. In the media statement, ADNOC said the deal will enable it to build a major footprint in a region…

Read More

Saipem announced that it has been awarded two new engineering and construction offshore contracts in Romania and in Germany with a total value of around EUR 1.8 billion ($1.97 billion). With these acquisitions, Saipem confirms its leading role in the construction of infrastructures along the entire natural gas value chain, the company noted in a release sent to Rigzone.  In the release, Saipem outlined that its Romania deal relates to the Neptun Deep Gas Development Project located in the Black Sea, “for which the award procedure was completed by OMV Petrom”. The workscope for this contract includes the engineering, procurement,…

Read More

Quantum computers could power future oil and gas computations. That’s according to data and analytics company GlobalData, which made the statement in a release sent to Rigzone recently. “The oil and gas industry has relied on traditional computers to tackle their mathematical challenges for decades,” the company noted in the release. “Despite the significant improvements in the speed and precision of classical supercomputers, they can sometimes fall short when calculations involve multiple variables,” GlobalData added. “This limitation could be overcome with quantum computers, which, in theory, can perform some of the most complex computations,” the company continued. In the release, GlobalData…

Read More

Weaker oil and gas prices dragged down second quarter net income for ConocoPhillips Co. but the USA producer nonetheless plans to sustain record production through the rest of 2023. The Texas state-based company pocketed $2.232 billion in net earnings for the April-June quarter, apparently with no impact from extraordinary or non-recurring items, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). That was down by $688 million against the prior three-month period. As with its multinational peers, the slump in the second quarter becomes steeper when compared to April-June 2022. USA-based rivals Chevron Corp. fell $5.707 billion year…

Read More

Cheniere Energy Partners LP (Cheniere Partners) has posted $622 million in net income for the second quarter, up 82 percent against the same period a year ago due to higher commodity derivatives. That adds up to $4.85 million in first half net earnings, up 35 percent compared to January-June 2022, the partnership said in a press release. “The increases were primarily due to non-cash favorable changes in fair value of commodity derivatives”, said Cheniere Partners, which produces liquefied natural gas (LNG) and operates LNG logistics. Derivative gains came mostly from a distribution contract Cheniere Partners signed with Tourmaline Oil Marketing…

Read More

The 590-Mb/d Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) project, which is inching closer to its planned early 2024 completion, has been one of the most eagerly anticipated energy infrastructure projects in recent Canadian memory. Preliminary tolls for shipping crude on the expanded pipeline system, submitted to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) in June, are multiples higher than the tolls currently charged on the original 300-Mb/d Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMP), possibly undermining oil producers’ economics for shipping and exporting crude on the combined 890-Mb/d system. However, the higher tolls are not the only concern. Serious logistical challenges remain in the form of restricted…

Read More

Russia expects to get a huge inflow of energy revenue by the end of this year despite an oil price cap imposed by Group of Seven nations, and may channel it toward spending as the government continues to pour resources into the war in Ukraine.  In the last five months of 2023, total extra proceeds from oil and gas sales are estimated to reach 1 trillion rubles ($11 billion), according to two people close to the government with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity. That amount is above a baseline level in the budget. The Finance…

Read More