Emerson invests $60 million in new flow measurement facility

Emerson Process Management is expanding the company’s existing manufacturing and engineering services campus in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

The expansion includes a new, 18,800-sq-m flow measurement manufacturing building. This $60-million investment will help meet growing demand for the company’s flow measurement products and services in Europe and other regions.

Additionally, in the summer of 2014, Emerson Process Management moves into a separate, newly constructed $16-million facility on the Cluj campus that will be home to the Regional Project Engineering Center and the European System Integration Center for its PlantWeb Solutions Group. This facility will house up to 600 employees who provide engineering and support services for European control systems and automation projects, plus an initial 100 additional personnel to assemble and test control systems for projects throughout Europe.

The new flow technology manufacturing building will offer calibration, services, and customer training facilities for Emerson Process Management’s Micro Motion, Rosemount, and Roxar flow measurement technologies. This facility will provide modern and spacious production capabilities as well as offices for engineering and customer support services, and fulfill market demands for quality and traceable calibration.
 
In addition, a state-of-the-art customer experience center is planned that will incorporate training and meeting facilities, along with displays of Emerson technologies.  The new facility adds to Emerson’s current European network of facilities, which includes an existing flow manufacturing and service center in Ede, the Netherlands.

“These additional capabilities increase our flexibility and ability to manage our European customers’ most challenging needs,” said Sonnenberg.

The company’s Cluj-Napoca campus currently manufactures Fisher pressure regulators, Roxar flow metering and flow assurance products, Rosemount Analytical products, Leroy-Somer power generators, Control Techniques electrical equipment for photovoltaic power plants, RIDGID tools, and Appleton A.T.X. lighting fixtures and junction boxes for hazardous and adverse environments.

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

VNG Norway discovers 226-m hydrocarbon column near Njord field

VNG Norge AS, operator of production licence 586, has concluded the drilling of exploration well 6406/12-3 S. The test results indicate a discovery far larger than expected.

The well was drilled on the Halten Terrace, about 33 km southwest of the Njord field.

The main objective of the well was to test the hydrocarbon potential in the Pil prospect, up-dip from the offset well 6406/12-1 S. The primary reservoir target was Upper Jurassic sandstones of the Rogn and Melke formations.

The well encountered a 91 m gas column and a 135 m oil column in Upper Jurassic sandstones. Preliminary analyses based on extensive coring, wireline logs and pressure data show that the well has encountered sandstones with very good reservoir properties.

An extensive data acquisition program was carried out in the well, including a successful production test. The production rate was 1,067 Sm3 oil per flow day through a 56/64-in. nozzle. The test showed good flow properties and the gas/oil ratio was 152 Sm3/Sm3. Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery at between 8 and 27 million Sm³ recoverable oil equivalents with a considerable additional upside volume within the Pil closure not proven by the well.

Production licence 586 was awarded on 4 February 2011 (APA 2010) and this was the first well to be drilled in the licence. 6406/12-3 S was drilled to a vertical depth of 3,738 ms below sea level, and was terminated in the Upper Jurassic Melke formation. The water depth is 324 meters. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.

Well 6406/12-3 S was drilled by the Transocean Arctic drilling facility, which will now first drill a a down dip sidetrack to prove up the lateral extent of the Pil reservoir and the upside case.

This will be followed by a further sidetrack to assess the potential of the neighbouring Bue target.

VNG Norge is the operator in PL586 with a 30% share. Partners are Spike Exploration (30 %), Faroe Petroleum Norge (25 %) and Rocksource Exploration Norway (15 %).

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

Parex to focus on Colombia in bid to double production

Parex Resources Inc., the Canadian oil producer operating in Latin America, is focusing its growth efforts on Colombia as it aims to double production in the next five years.

CEO Wayne Foo is planning more land and asset acquisitions to boost the company’s output to as much as 50,000 bpd, he said in an interview at Parex’s headquarters in Calgary yesterday. Colombia’s stable government and well-understood oil resources make it a better investment than other countries in the region such as Argentina, Foo said.

“To be relevant in the market, you really have to be in the range of 25,000 to 50,000 barrels a day,” he said. Production will grow as much as 20% annually from 17,500 to 18,500 bpd this year, he said.

Parex began as an oil producer in Argentina in 2003. The Colombian business was spun off in 2009 and based in Calgary. One of about 10 Canadian energy producers operating in Colombia, Parex produces both light and medium crude in the Llanos basin.

Parex’s shares have more than doubled in the past 12 months, valuing the company at about C$1 billion ($911 million). The stock declined 2.1% yesterday, closing at C$9.50 in Toronto.

“They still have upside,” said John Stephenson, who helps oversee about C$3.1 billion at First Asset Investment Management Inc. in Toronto. “Historically they have been drilling targets that were small and they’re now going after bigger plays to add resource.”

The Canadian company has focused on purchasing land near its current holdings in the Llanos basin, boosting its position to about 2 million acres (809,371 hectares) from 250,000 acres in 2009.

Parex’s largest non-state-owned competitor is Pacific Rubiales Energy Co., a Bogota and Toronto-listed company with a market value of about C$6.7 billion. Colombia in February produced about 1 MMbpd of crude, according to the country’s Mines and Energy Ministry.

Oil transportation infrastructure has caught up with production, helping to relieve a bottleneck that existed for producers a couple of years ago, said Parex V.P. Mike Kruchten. Last year the Bicentenario line began operating, while the Ocensa pipeline has been expanded. Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. is also considering building a line to Colombia’s Pacific coast.

“At present there’s lots of excess capacity” in pipelines, said Foo.

Parex earns about 3% to 4% less on its Colombian oil than Brent crude, the global benchmark, said Kruchten. Brent crude for May settlement traded at about $106 a barrel on April 7.

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