Listado de la etiqueta: Petroleum

U.S. oil prices rise as Gulf platforms shut ahead of hurricane

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Reuters / Henning Gloystein / September 3

 

* Storm Gordon to make U.S. landfall as hurricane

* Brent dips as India takes steps to continue Iran imports

* Global oil markets have tightened since 2017 – Barclays

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE, Sept 4 (Reuters) – U.S. oil prices edged up on Tuesday, rising back past $70 per barrel, after two Gulf of Mexico oil platforms were evacuated in preparation for a hurricane.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $70.04 per barrel at 0034 GMT, up 24 cents, or 0.3 percent from their last settlement.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp said on Monday it had evacuated and shut production at two oil platforms in the northern Gulf of Mexico ahead of the approach of Gordon, which is expected to come ashore as a hurricane.

International Brent crude futures, by contrast, lost ground, trading at $78.10 per barrel, down 5 cents from their last close.

This came as India allowed state refiners to import Iranian oil if Tehran arranges and insures tankers.

Many international shippers have stopped loading Iranian oil as U.S. financial sanctions against Tehran prevents them from insuring its cargoes.

Mirroring a step by China, where buyers are shifting nearly all their Iranian oil imports to vessels owned by National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC), this means that Asia’s two biggest oil importers are making plans to continue Iran purchases despite pressure by Washington to cut orders.

CHANGING MARKET

Britain’s Barclays bank said on Tuesday that oil markets had changed since 2017 when worries about rising supply were more evident.

“U.S. producers are resisting temptation and exercising capital discipline, OPEC and Russia have convinced market participants they are managing the supply of over half of global production, the U.S. is using sanctions more actively, and several key OPEC producers are at risk of being failed states,” Barclays said.

Crude oil “prices could reach $80 and higher in the short term”, the bank said, although it added that despite these developments global supply may exceed demand next year.

For 2020, Barclays said it expects Brent to average $75 per barrel, up from its previous forecast of just $55 a barrel.

French bank BNP Paribas struck a similar tone, warning of “supply issues” for the rest of the year and into 2019.

“Crude oil export losses from Iran due to U.S. sanctions, production decline in Venezuela and episodic outages in Libya are unlikely to be offset entirely by corresponding rises in OPEC+ production due to market share sensitivities,” the bank said.

“We do not expect oil demand to be materially impacted in the next 6-9 months by economic uncertainty linked to U.S./China trade tensions and recent concerns over emerging markets,” he added.

BNP Paribas expects Brent to average $79 per barrel in 2019.

 

Reuters / Henning Gloystein / September 3

 

Rangeland Energy Begins Operations at its South Texas Energy Products System (STEPS) Terminal Facility in Corpus Christi, Texas

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Oil and Gas 360 / june 5

 

SUGAR LAND, Texas

Rangeland Energy III, LLC (“Rangeland”) today announced that operations commenced at its STEPS terminal in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Monday, June 4. Rangeland also announced that in June the company will begin loading diesel onto railcars for a leading refined products customer. The diesel will be delivered to third-party inland terminals in Mexico via the Kansas City Southern Railway(NYSE: KSU).

“Rangeland is looking forward to facilitating the transportation of diesel to destinations in Mexico for a major industry player,” said Rangeland President and CEO Christopher W. Keene. “This is the first customer to contract with us for services at the STEPS facility. As we continue to build out the STEPS project, we are working with other key marketers, refiners and producers to provide services into and out of STEPS.”

About STEPS

STEPS is an integrated hydrocarbon logistics system that receives and stores refined products, liquefied petroleum gas (“LPG”) and other hydrocarbons at a new terminal hub located in Corpus Christi, Texas, and transports them to terminals primarily located in Mexico. During the initial phase of the project, refined products and LPGs will be received in the Corpus Christi terminal then shipped to third-party inland terminals located in Mexico. In subsequent phases, marine facilities in Corpus Christi and Mexico will be added to the system, along with the infrastructure to accommodate additional commodities including crude oil, condensate and fuel oil. The STEPS project expands upon and leverages Rangeland’s successful track record of developing similar infrastructure in the Bakken Shale and Permian Basin.

The terminal site in Corpus Christi is strategically situated along the Kansas City Southern Railroad mainline within five miles of the Port of Corpus Christi and the Valero, CITGO and Flint Hills refineries. Inbound products initially will be delivered by truck or rail, followed later by pipeline and barge. Refined products and LPGs will move out of the STEPS Corpus Terminal primarily by rail, but the terminal could eventually connect to pipelines and vessels.

About Rangeland Energy

Headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, Rangeland Energy was formed in 2009 to focus on developing, acquiring, owning and operating midstream infrastructure for crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids and other petroleum products. The company is focused on emerging hydrocarbon production areas across North America, with a current emphasis on the Gulf Coast and Canada. The Rangeland team represents more than 200 years of combined midstream experience and is backed by an equity commitment from EnCap Flatrock Midstream. Visit www.rangelandenergy.com for more information.

 

Oil and Gas 360 / june 5

 

Mexican Oil Giant Pemex Seeks Partners to Drill in 7 Southern Areas

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FROM: Sputnik News / 27 April 2017

 

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – Mexico’s state oil giant Pemex is looking for partners in joint ventures that will drill at seven onshore areas in the country’s south, the national hydrocarbons authority said Thursday.

Contracts for drilling in the states of Veracruz, Chiapas and Tabasco will be signed for a period of 35 to 40 years with a possibility of a ten-year extension, according to the National Hydrocarbons Commission.

Mexico has been overhauling its energy sector since late 2013. The reform ended almost 80 years of Pemex’s monopoly by allowing foreign investments and contracts with private businesses.

 

FROM: Sputnik News / 27 April 2017

 

Mexico’s Sureste Basin Returns To Super Basin Spotlight

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From: Hartenergy / 6 April

HOUSTON—The flurry of bidding activity from oil and gas companies willing to shell out millions of dollars for drilling rights in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) during Mexico’s latest bidding round showed there must still be something special about the Sureste (Southeast) Basin.

“I’ve never seen a structure like it in my career,” Mark Shann, subsurface director for Sierra Oil and Gas, said of Sureste during the AAPG’s recent Global Super Basins Leadership conference.

The multiplay basin, which includes prolific sub-basins such as Sonda de Campeche and Chiapas-Tabasco, spans about 65,000 sq km and is believed to hold 50 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the GoM’s shallow water and beyond. Its oil-prone prowess gained prominence in 1976 with Mexico’s game-changing Cantarell oil field discovery. Since then the basin has served as the main hydrocarbon-bearing province for Mexico, which is working to reverse declining production with global players eagerly chomping at the bit in search of oil.

RELATED: Southeast Basin Lures Oil Companies To Mexico’s Shallow Water

The historic Zama discovery made in 2017 by a Talos Energy-led consortium that includes Sierra and Premier Oil and another discovery—Amoca—by Italy’s Eni in 2017 have kept the basin in the spotlight, indicating it still has more to give. The Zama well, the first well drilled by the private sector since Mexico opened its doors to foreign investors, hit 170 m to 200 m (558 ft to 656 ft) of net oil pay in Upper Miocene sandstones. Initial gross original oil in place estimates ranged from 1.4 billion barrels (Bbbl) to 2 Bbbl.

Some would call it the rebirth of a super basin.

Shann said the basin—along with neighboring Tampico-Misantla—has all the qualities of a super basin.

“If you’re going to go into a super basin, you need at least one fantastic source rock and it has to be a mature source rock,” Shann said. He added that multiple reservoirs are also needed. “Having multiple reservoirs takes away the dependency of one reservoir working out or not, and you need seals to hold back hydrocarbons in their reservoirs.”

Having a diversity of traps is fantastic, he added, noting other attributes also define a super basin. These include having a regulatory framework in which to make the entire business work and super data, something Shann said Sureste Basin has plenty.

“Four years ago when we started our company we couldn’t get all seismic data from the country. Today you can access all the seismic,” Shann said. “You can access any well that is older than two years, and there are 39,000 wells in the country. The ability mine data and therefore to compete on an equal level playing field is hugely important,” especially for a small company competing against supermajors.

Sierra has picked up 11,000 sq km of wide azimuth data from Schlumberger and source rock is visible, he said. “The super data has really helped to underpin a story of success in one of the world’s greatest super basins.”

Today Sierra is focused mainly on Sureste, which Shann said extends beyond shallow and into deepwater.

The company said on its website that Sureste’s original oil and gas in place is about 220 Bboe, and the fact that it has numerous mature fields—including Ku Maloob Zaap and Sihil—and little reinvestment signals “significant opportunity for growth.”

Its reservoirs are associated with structural, salt tectonics, stratigraphic and combined traps, and the main structural styles include normal faulting with rotated blocks (Late Miocene-Holocene), salt cored anticlines and salt rollers and diapirs (Jurassic-Late Cretaceous), according to Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission.

In terms of source rock potential, Shann said “we’re definitely in a super basin.” He spoke about how the Zama discovery shed more light on source rock thickness. Taking into account a conservative 50% migration loss among other factors, the company was able to determine the source rock must be about 200 m thick.

Shann said the company and its partners’ plan to test the Jurassic next year.

“Sureste is one of those amazing salt-related basins,” he added, speaking highly of the carbonate potential of the basin in Mexican waters and on the U.S. side. “I think we can still find some big carbonate fields in the Campeche Slope.”

Located about 37 miles offshore, Zama is between Eni’s Amoca appraisal well in the Lower Pliocene and Pan American’s Hokchi 2 in the Middle Miocene.

“Between the three of us, we’re exploiting different parts of this basin, which helps the industry’s understanding of the whole basin,” Talos CEO Tim Duncan told Hart Energy’s Oil and Gas Investor last summer.

RELATED: Talos Energy CEO Talks About Historic Zama Well

Talos, which will merge with Stone Energy, said in its March 15 fourth-quarter earnings release that the company is in the appraisal planning stages for the Zama-1 discovery. Zama-1 is located in Block 7 of the Sureste Basin at a water depth of about 165 m.

Other exploration opportunities exist, according to Talos.

Talos holds a 35% participating interest with Sierra holding 40% and Premier, 25%.

From: Hartenergy / 6 April

 

ExxonMobil named 2017 Explorer of the Year by World Oil and Gas Council

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FROM: Your Oil & Gas News / 23 de Enero de 2018

 

ExxonMobil has been named 2017 Explorer of the Year by the World Oil and Gas Council in recognition of excellence and innovation in the global energy industry.

“This award is recognition of ExxonMobil’s successful efforts to strengthen our portfolio by accessing and discovering the highest quality resources,” said Steve Greenlee, president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company. “This recognition would not be possible without the dedication of our employees and their daily commitment to safety and operational excellence at every stage of exploration.”

During the year, ExxonMobil announced a number of discoveries, acquisitions and other activities in various countries, including Brazil, Cyprus, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana, Mauritania, Papua New Guinea and Suriname.

Significant exploration activity took place offshore Guyana, where ExxonMobil announced four discoveries in 2017 at Payara, Liza Deep, Snoek, and Turbot. These four discoveries added to the earlier Liza discovery, made in 2015.

Mike Cousins, executive vice president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company, accepted the award on behalf of ExxonMobil at an award dinner in London in December. He was accompanied by a number of company representatives, including Kerry Moreland, Guyana Basin exploration manager.

“Guyana has become an exciting exploration area where we have consistently demonstrated our technical ability in deepwater exploration and operations,” said Moreland. “We are planning for continued success with our drilling program in 2018.”

Since receipt of the award in December 2017, ExxonMobil has announced a sixth discovery offshore Guyana at the Ranger-1 exploration well.

Other notable ExxonMobil exploration highlights throughout the year include:

 

Brazil

In September and October, the company added 14 blocks comprising more than 1.25 million net acres offshore Brazil through bid rounds and farm-in agreements, bringing its total acreage in the country to more than 1.4 million net acres. These included an agreement to purchase half of Statoil’s interest in an offshore block containing the Carcara field, estimated to contain a recoverable resource of two billion barrels of oil.
In December, ExxonMobil signed a memorandum of understanding with Petrobras to jointly identify and evaluate potential business opportunities.

Cyprus

In April, the company signed an exploration and production sharing contract for offshore Block 10.

Equatorial Guinea

In June, ExxonMobil signed a production sharing contract with the government of Equatorial Guinea for deepwater block EG-11.

Malaysia

In November, ExxonMobil signed production sharing contracts for acreage offshore Sabah, Malaysia.

Mauritania

In December, ExxonMobil signed production sharing contracts for three offshore blocks: C22, C17 and C14.

Papua New Guinea

In June, ExxonMobil announced positive production well tests results from the Muruk-1 sidetrack 3 well. ExxonMobil also drilled the P’nyang South-2 well, which successfully confirmed an extension to the earlier P’nyang discovery.
Across Papua New Guinea, ExxonMobil acquired an additional 5.7 million net acres of prospective acreage, onshore and offshore.

Suriname

In July, ExxonMobil signed a production sharing contract for Block 59 offshore Suriname in the Guyana-Suriname Basin.

United States – Gulf of Mexico

In March and August, ExxonMobil was awarded 25 blocks in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico lease sales.
About ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil, the largest publicly traded international energy company, uses technology and innovation to help meet the world’s growing energy needs. ExxonMobil holds an industry-leading inventory of resources, is one of the largest refiners and marketers of petroleum products, and its chemical company is one of the largest in the world.

 

FROM: Your Oil & Gas News / 23 de Enero de 2018