API-PA: Over $224 million invested in Pennsylvania communities by energy producers this year

API-PA, a division of the American Petroleum Institute, approved of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s (PUC) statement that more than $224 mn will be distributed to local communities through the fees paid by natural gas producers under Act 13.

“Shale energy production is generating huge revenues for Pennsylvania in addition to driving job growth,” said Stephanie Catarino Wissman, Executive Director, API-PA.“Pennsylvania has collected more than $220 mn dollars from shale development fees for 2013 production. That translates into better roads, better housing, and better services for families and communities across the state.”

Under Act 13 of 2012, natural gas producers are required to pay a local impact fee which is deposited into the Unconventional Gas Well Fund. More than $630 mn has been collected from 2012-2014, according to the PUC. These revenues have supported housing initiatives, highway and bridge improvements, and environmental programs.

“Shale energy development, made possible by hydraulic fracturing, has transformed Pennsylvania’s economic future,” said Wissman. “The oil and natural gas industry is investing in communities, providing new revenue for the government and delivering a long-term path to new jobs for Pennsylvania workers. With the right policies moving forward, energy development will mean good news for the commonwealth for many years to come.”

Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By Blockline and Associate Ltd Nigeria Ltd, online.

CGG starts 3D multi-client survey offshore Norway

CGG has announced the start of a large BroadSeis/BroadSource 3D multi-client survey in the Northern North Sea offshore Norway. The Horda survey will be the largest broadband multi-client program CGG has acquired in NW Europe as well as the largest multi-client 3D survey ever shot by any company in Norway.

Extending from the Horda platform in the southeast to the Sogn Graben in the north, the 19,000 sq km survey program includes the entire quadrant 35 and large parts of quadrant 31, 32 and 36 and covers more than 80 production licences such as Troll, Brage, Fram and Gjoa.

The survey is being acquired by the Viking Vanquish, and a second vessel will join later in the season. The acquisition program will continue in 2015.

Following several recent discoveries the greater Horda area has become an area of high exploration activity. The survey program’s main objective is to provide a large, uniform dataset with increased seismic resolution, which will offer a platform to improve industry understanding of the regional geology.

The survey has received high prefunding from the industry. Early participants have had the option to recommend priority areas and will also be invited to monitor the data processing which will be conducted in CGG’s Oslo subsurface imaging center.

Jean-Georges Malcor, CEO, CGG, said: “CGG is deploying its latest broadband acquisition and subsurface imaging technology on a seismic project of this magnitude in order to meet the industry’s need for state-of-the-art broadband data delivered in a cost-effective manner for  a large area offshore Norway where no equivalent data of this quality exists. The Horda project has already been well received among the key players in the Northern North Sea and we expect the survey to generate a significant uplift in data quality and provide a valuable tool for all stages of ongoing and future E&P activity in the region.”

Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By Blockline and Associate Ltd Nigeria Ltd, online.

Delineation of the 6407/1-6 S gas/condensate discovery near in the Norwegian Sea

Wintershall Norge, operator of production licence 475, has concluded the drilling of appraisal wells 6407/1-7 and 6407/1-7 A.

The wells were drilled about 8 km northeast of the Tyrihans field and 5 km northeast of the 6407/1-6 S gas condensate discovery in production licence 475. The reservoir in this discovery consists of thin sandstone layers from the Lange formation in the Lower Cretaceous. The discovery was made in January 2013. The resource estimate for the discovery was then between 3 and 20 million standard cubic meter of recoverable oil equivalents.

The objective of well 6407/1-7 was to delineate the 6407/1-6 gas/condensate discovery higher up in the structure. A new appraisal well, 6407/1-7 A, was therefore drilled downflank to investigate reservoir thickness and lithology.

Well 6407/1-7 proved gas/condensate in two sandstone intervals with a net vertical thickness of 12 m and a gross reservoir thickness of 16 m. Well 6407/1-7 A proved gas/condensate in two sandstone intervals with a vertical thickness of 7 m and a gross reservoir thickness of 13 m.

The difference in pressure measurements between wells 6407/1-7, 6407/1-7 A and the discovery well 6407/1-6 S indicates that there is no communication between the appraisal wells and the 6407/1-6 S discovery. Well 6407/1-7 has therefore proven a separate discovery, and will be reclassified as a wildcat well.

Preliminary estimates of the size of the new gas/condensate discovery range from 1 to 4 million standard cubic meter of recoverable oil equivalents.

The resource estimate for the 6407/1-6 S gas/condensate discovery has now been downgraded to between 1 and 6 million standard cubic meter of recoverable oil equivalents. The licensees will consider the discoveries in conjunction with other nearby discoveries as regards future development.

This is the second and third exploration well in production licence 475. The production licence was awarded on 29 February 2008 (APA 2007).

Wells 6407/1-7 and 6407/1-7 A were drilled to vertical depths of 3,345 and 3,311 m, respectively, below the sea surface, the latter with a measured depth of 3,571 m. Both wells were terminated in the Lange formation in the Early Cretaceous. Water depth at the site is 280 m. The well has been permanently plugged and abandoned.

Wells 6407/1-7 and 6407/1-7 A were drilled by the Borgland Dolphin drilling facility, which will now proceed to production licence 550 in the northern part of the North Sea to drill wildcat well  31/2-21 S, where Tullow Oil Norge is the operator.

Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By Blockline and Associate Ltd Nigeria Ltd, online.

Chevron production heads for 8-year low as profit declines

Chevron is on track to post its lowest first quarter production in eight years after bad weather disrupted operations in Central Asia and North America.

Chevron by its market value also signaled that profit for the first three months of the year was the lowest since late 2010, according to a statement. Chevron, which is overseeing the $54 bn Gorgon natural gas export project in Australia, cited currency fluctuations and the falling value of some assets for the decline.

Chevron said it pumped the equivalent of 2.579 MMbpd during January and February. If output persisted at that pace through March, production for the full quarter would have been the lowest for that time of year since 2006.

Chevron is scheduled to disclose results for the entire three month period on May 2.

Before its statement, the company was expected to report full quarter output of 2.61 MMbbl, based on the average of three analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with 2.645 MMbbl in the first three months of 2013.

Chevron is accelerating oil exploration from Argentina to China to add reserves and revive output. Chairman and CEO John Watson is spending almost $40 bn this year to find, extract, transport and process oil and gas. Watson’s strategy also calls for auctioning off $10 bn in oilfields and other assets to hone the Chevron’s focus on the highest profit projects.

The statement was released after the close of regular trading in New York, where the shares fell 0.7% to $118.22.

Chevron declined 4.7% this year through the close, after advancing 16% in 2013. In March, Watson cut the company’s long-term production target by 6.1% to the equivalent of 3.1 MMbpd in 2017.

The company’s output fell for a third consecutive year in 2013, the longest streak of declines since the 2001-2004 period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Exxon Mobil is the biggest energy company by market value, followed by Shell.

Providing useful resources, articles and writings on crude oil, other petroleum products, energy and gas. By Blockline and Associate Ltd Nigeria Ltd, online.