Australian firm spuds new well off Brazil Click to view largerKaroon spudded its Emu-1 exploration well located within Blocks S-M-1102 and S-M-1037 in the Santos Basin off Brazil, the company announced on 11 February 2013.Karoon鈥
Lundin Petroleum spud its Ogna exploration well, in PL453S, off Norway. Drilled by the Maersk Guardian, the wildcat will target hydrocarbons in the upper to middle Jurassic reservoirs of the Ogna prospect, located 65km northeast of BP鈥檚 Ula field in the southern North Sea鈥
Shell spudded its French Guiana prospect, GM-ES-3, the second of a four-well program. The well will target the Priodontes prospect, providing critical geological data. Shell operates the field with 45%; its partners include Total (25%), Tullow (27鈥
Andrew McBarnet assesses the state of the marine seismic business and where it is going in 2013.Rarely, if ever, can the marine seismic business have been so busy in so many places around the world. Demand for surveys is nearly at an almost all-time high鈥
Panoro has struck oil at its wildcat well, Dussafu Torue Marin-1, off Gabon. The well, drilled by Saipem鈥檚 semisubmersible Scarabeo 3, found 13m of pay in a 22m oil column in the Gamba formation and 38m of pay within stacked reservoirs of the Dentale formation鈥
BC Petroleum (a ROC, Dialog Group and Petronas venture) discovered 87m of hydrocarbon pay in multiple zones of the Balai-2 well off east Malaysia. Drilled to 2266m TD, Balai-2 targeted a shallow carbonate reservoir and a deeper series of stacked sandstone reservoirs鈥
As oil and natural gas production continues to fluctuate at a level well below demand, John Mueller looks at New Zealand鈥檚 growing need to aggressively explore the nation鈥檚 vast and extensive offshore sedimentary basins.Taranaki Basin, located along the west coast of New Zealand鈥檚 North Island鈥
Australian firm locates light oil off Brazil Click to view largerKaroon Gas Australia has encountered light oil at the Kangaroo-1 exploration well on Block S-M-1101 in the Santos Basin off Brazil, partner Pacific Rubiales announced on 25 January 2013鈥
Delegates at the Arctic Technology Conference, held recently in Houston, examined the potential of the region to the oil & gas industry. Victor Schmidt and Nina Rach listened in.Two Russian icebreakers create a wide path for the LNG carrier鈥
The challenges of drilling in the Arctic have become so multifaceted it鈥檚 hard to know what position folks line up behind. If it were just the usual environmentalist vs oil companies 鈥 and that fight is perennial to be sure 鈥 things would be clearer鈥
Andrew McBarnetIf there was such a thing as an annual horoscope for the marine seismic and related geophysical businesses, then in the coming year we can expect at least some improvement on 2012. In other words, unless there is some totally unexpected destabilizing economic鈥
Chevron needed to survey 14 sites in the Gulf of Mexico, most of which were slated for decommissioning, so it hired Lockheed Martin to deploy its new Marlin AUV to assist. Chevron subsea survey engineer Olugbena Esan and Lou Dennis, Lockheed Martin business development manager鈥
ITF, the global industry technology facilitator, was set up in 1999 and is today owned by 30 major operating and service companies from around the globe, Qatar Petroleum having become the latest recruit in July. Meg Chesshyre talked to chairman鈥
Chevron and its 50:50 joint partner Shell have scored two gas finds in the Exmouth Plateau of the Carnavon Basin off Western Australia. Pinhoe-1, drilled to 13,396ft TD, encountered 197ft of net gas pay in the Barrow and Mungaroo Sands. The Arnhem-1鈥
UK to resume fracking with control measures The UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced on 13 December that hydraulic fracturing can resume although the practice will be subject to new controls.The new controls announced鈥
