Hans Jacob Bassoe, Esgian

This week Chariot made a new gas discovery offshore Morocco while drilling with semisub Stena Don, and TotalEnergies extended the contract for use of semisub Maersk Valiant offshore Suriname by 100 days.

Contracts 

TotalEnergies has exercised an option to add the drilling of one additional well in Block 58 offshore Suriname to the work scope of drillship Maersk Valiant. The contract extension has an estimated duration of 100 days, with work expected to commence in March 2022 in direct continuation of the rig’s previously agreed work scope. The contract value of the extension is approximately USD 20.5m, including integrated services provided. Two one-well options remain on Maersk Valiant’s contract with TotalEnergies.

Drilling and discoveries

Equinor has discovered oil in the Troll and Fram area in exploration wells 35/10-7 S and 35/10-7 A in the Norwegian North Sea. Preliminary calculations of the expected sized indicate between 3.3 and 5.2 million standard cubic metres of recoverable oil equivalent (21-33 million recoverable boe). The wells were drilled by the harsh-environment semisub West Hercules, which has moved to drill exploration well 6407/9-13 in PL 1060.

Petronas announced a new gas discovery at the exploration well Hadrah-1 located in Block SK411, offshore Malaysia. The well was drilled in shallow water to a total depth of 1,850 metres in November. Hadrah-1 is the company’s third gas discovery in the province in 2021, after Sirung-1 and Kulingtang-1 in March and May.

Chariot announced that it has made a discovery at the exploration well Anchois-2 in the Lixus licence, offshore Morocco. The preliminary interpretation of the data confirms the presence of significant gas with a calculated net gas pay totaling more than 100m, compared to 55m in the original Anchois-1 discovery well. The well will be now suspended for future re-entry and completion as a production well in the development field. The exploration well was drilled by the harsh-environment semisub Stena Don, which will move to Anchois-1 gas discovery well to perform re-entry to assess the integrity of the previously drilled well potentially provide a future production well for the development field.

Drilling operations have continued at Southwark since the first development well was drilled on December 30th, 2021. However, the Noble jackup Noble Hans Deul has experienced an increasing challenge with seabed conditions that would compromise rig stability. Noble Corp. concluded on January 7th that, as a precautionary measure, the jackup will relocate to then facilitate seabed remediation and enable safe continuation of Southwark drilling operations. Noble Hans Deul is expected to remain offshore with non-essential crew and equipment demobilized whiole the issue is rectified.

ExxonMobil continues its exploration program in the prolific Stabroek Block and have commenced drilling the exploration well Barreleye-1 with ultra-deepwater drillship Noble Don Taylor, offshore Guyana. The drilling activities are expected to last until mid-March 2022. Exxon, with partners Hess and CNOOC, have made more than 20 significant discoveries in the Stabroek Block so far and the recoverable resource estimate for the block is over 10 billion boe.

Petrobras has made a gas discovery in the Tres Marias block in the pre-salt Santos Basin. The exploration well was drilled by Diamond Offshore's semisub Ocean Courage, which is contracted to Petrobras until November 2022.

TPAO has successfully completed a flow test of the appraisal well Turkali-1 in the Sakarya Gas Field located in the western part of the Black Sea. Data and samples acquired from the flow test will be used to optimise the field development and to refine the front-end engineering and design (FEED). First gas is anticipated in 2023. The appraisal well Turkali-1 was drilled by ultra-deepwater drillship Fatih and was drilled to a total depth of 3,920 meters in 2,143 meters of water.

Ultra-deepwater drillship Saipem 12000 is drilling the Milma-1 exploration well for Eni offshore Kenya, in the Lamu basin. The well is located in Block L11B and will be drilled in a water depth of around 2,400m.  

Demand

ENI has been awarded five new exploration licenses in Egypt, four of which as operator. The licenses are located both offshore and onshore, whereas the offshore blocks are Block EGY-MED-E5 (ENI 50%/BP 50%) and EGY-MED-E6 (ENI 100%) in Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Block EGY-GOS-13 (ENI 100%) in the Gulf of Suez.

Rex International Holding says that it is focusing efforts on the pre-development phase of two oilfield clusters offshore Malaysia in the next two years. The company has received a 95% operated interest in two production sharing contracts for the development and production of the Rhu-Ara and Diwangsa clusters off Peninsular Malaysia. Collectively these contain six oilfield discoveries. The new PSC terms under Malaysia’s Small Fields Assets arrangement include a pre-development phase of up to two years followed by a two-year development and 10-year production period. Elsewhere, Rex is involved in oil production in block 50 offshore Oman via Masirah Oil. Last year Masira completed 12 liftings of oil from the Yumna field and drilled three exploration wells.

Financial 

Reference is made to Borr Drilling Limited's announcement 28 December 2021 about the subscription and allocation of a total of 13,333,333 new depository receipts (the "Offer Shares"), raising gross proceeds of USD 30 million. As stated in the announcement, a condition for completion of the Equity Offering is board approvals by the Singaporean yards for amendments to and refinancing of the Company's financing arrangements with the yards. The Company is expecting the board decisions of the Singaporean yards in the week of 24 January 2022 due to their current scheduling of board meetings. Therefore, the date of settlement of the Offer Shares is adjusted to be on or about 28 January 2022, subject to satisfaction of the other closing conditions referred to in the announcement 28 December 2021. The Offer Shares will be listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (“OSE”) upon delivery. No Offer Shares will be offered or sold in transactions on the NYSE.

Other Market news

CNOOC plans to drill 227 offshore exploration wells and to acquire around 17,000 sq km (6,564 sq mi) of 3D seismic data this year. It also plans to bring online 13 new developments. The operator also targets net production for 2022 of 600-610 MMboe, rising in 2023 and 2024 to 640-650 MMboe and 680-690 MMboe, respectively. Its budgeted capex for 2022 is RMB 90-100 billion ($14-16 billion), with exploration, development, production accounting for respectively 20%, 57%, and 21%.

Eco Atlantic announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to acquire 100% of Azinam Group Ltd., including Azinam’s entire offshore asset portfolio, and return for a 16.65% equity stake in the enlarged Group on completion of the acquisition. Eco Atlantic will acquire 50% working interest and operatorship in Block 2B, offshore South Africa, where Africa Energy Corp. and Panoro Energy maintain their working interest. Eco will also acquire a material 20% working interest in the deepwater 3B/4B block and shallow water and nearshore 3B/4B blocks. Offshore Namibia, the company will acquire additional working interest in Petroleum Exploration Licenses (PELs) #97, #98 and #99. The working interest in these PELS will be 85% after completion. 

W&T Offshore has entered into a definitive purchase and sale agreement to acquire working interests in and operatorship of oil and gas producing properties in Federal shallow waters in the central region of the Gulf of Mexico. Total cash consideration is $47 million, subject to normal and customary adjustments. The transaction adds over 50 gross producing wells in three shallow water fields and internally estimated proved reserves of 5.5 million boe (69% oil) and proved and probable (2P) reserves of 7.6 million boe (75% oil).

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Esgian