Latest Energy / Automotive News and Press Releases
London, March 10, (Oilandgaspress): U.S. Rig Count is down 3 from last week to 746 with oil rigs down 2 to 590, gas rigs down 1 to 153 and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 3.
Canada Rig Count is down 23 from last week to 223, with oil rigs down 19 to 139, gas rigs down 4 to 84.
RWE, in partnership with Commercial Rib Charters (CRC), can share a first look at the innovative amphibious vessel ‘CRC Walrus’ which has been designed by Commercial Rib Charters and built in the Isle of Wight to reach offshore wind farms in shallow waters.
The unique crew transfer vessel was specifically commissioned to access turbines at Scroby Sands, which have become stranded by the natural rising tide of the sandbank on which it is built. The vessel, which can also drive on land, provides access to generation assets affected by dynamic seabed conditions.
From first concepts less than 18 months ago, the project has been developed, designed and built with collaboration between RWE and Commercial Rib Charter (CRC). Naval architects Chartwell Marine carried out design specifications and the vessel was constructed by Diverse Marine in their Isle of Wight boat yard. Read More
The 2023 Formula One World Championship has begun in earnest. Last weekend, the premier class of motorsport embarked on its 74th campaign. The Bahrain Grand Prix was on the F1 calendar for the 19th time after its debut in 2004 – with the Sakhir Grand Prix also being held on the Outer Circuit of the Bahrain International Circuit in 2020. Sunday evening’s race under the Bahrain floodlights turned out to be a tough experience for the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team. Lewis Hamilton moved up two places from seventh on the grid to fifth over the course of the 57-lap race, while his team-mate George Russell, who had started the first Grand Prix of the year from sixth on the grid, eventually crossed the finish line in seventh place. The second round of the season takes the team to Saudi Arabia in a fortnight’s time (17 – 19 March), where F1 will be visiting the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for the third time in its history.
Two wins in two races at GT America curtain-raiser
The 2023 GT America series opened with two 40-minute races at the St Petersburg Street Circuit in Florida last weekend. Jason Daskalos (USA) in the 27 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of CRP Racing staged an impressive charge through the field in Race 1, securing victory from eleventh on the grid. CRP Racing followed this up with another podium on Saturday with a P3 finish. The winner on this occasion was Memo Gidler (USA) in the #101 Mercedes-AMG GT3; the TKO Motorsports man had claimed the runner-up spot on the previous day. Read More
Harbour Energy announces that ERCE, a consultancy specialising in geoscience evaluation, engineering, and economic assessments, has completed an independent audit of the CO2 storage capacity of the offshore Viking fields. Harbour was granted the CO2 appraisal and storage licence for the Viking area in 2021 and it is a key component of the company’s Viking CCS project.
Using the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ (SPE) Storage Resource Management System, ERCE has independently verified Harbour’s estimate of 300 million tonnes of contingent CO2 storage resources and considers the number to be fair and reasonable.
Viking CCS is expected to be operational from as early as 2027, assuming a Final Investment Decision in 2024, and has plans to transport and store 10 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030, and up to 15 million tonnes by 2035. Confirmation of the fields’ storage capacity by ERCE underscores the vital role that Viking CCS can play in enabling the UK Government to reach its target to capture up to 30 million tonnes a year of CO2 by 2030. Read More
88 Energy Limited reports that Nordic Calista’s Rig-2 commenced drilling of the Hickory-1 exploration well, located in Project Phoenix on the North Slope of Alaska, on the evening of the 9th of March 2023 (Alaska time). Hickory-1 is designed to appraise up to six conventional reservoir targets within the SMD, SFS, BFF and KUP reservoirs and 647 million barrels of oil1,2, and is permitted to a total depth (TD) of up to 12,500 feet. The primary targets for Hickory-1 are the 3 SMD reservoirs (SMD-C, B and A), with SFS and BFF reservoirs considered secondary targets. The KUP reservoir is a tertiary target and will be drilled subject to remaining time in the season, borehole conditions and other technical considerations.
Hickory-1 is planned to be initially drilled to 3,500 feet, with surface casing installed and the Blow-Out Preventer (BOP) system tested. This is anticipated to collectively take up to two weeks. Drilling to TD is then expected to take a further two weeks, including logging while drilling (LWD), at which point wireline logging is scheduled. LWD and mudlogging will provide initial indications as to the prospectivity of the Hickory-1 targets. The wireline program has been specifically designed to collect essential data,
necessary to optimise the future flow testing program. This includes multiple side wall coring runs and other specialised tools to enable detailed reservoir characterisation.
Flow testing of the Hickory-1 well is planned to be undertaken during the 2023/24 winter season, subject to well results. This provides ample time post-drilling to optimise the flow test program, design, permitting and implementation. Read More
UK’s largest oil and gas producer, Harbour Energy, is cutting investments and jobs after the new windfall tax on the industry sapped nearly all of its 2022 profits.
Harbour Energy’s profits last year were $2.5 billion, pre-tax, but after taxes, the company was left with just an $8 million profit—that’s after the $1.5 billion that needed to go towards the Energy Profits Levy.
Harbour Energy has not divulged how many workers will lose their jobs.Harbour Energy said it has cut back on investments, too, with Harbour choosing not to move forward on two drill sites and declining to participate in the North Sea offshore licensing round.
The windfall tax has hit UK North Sea producers, many which have already announced reduced investments on the UK Continental Shelf, the new head of trade body Offshore Energies UK said last month. Read More
Baker Hughes Rig Count
U.S. Rig Count is down 3 from last week to 746 with oil rigs down 2 to 590, gas rigs down 1 to 153 and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 3.
Canada Rig Count is down 23 from last week to 223, with oil rigs down 19 to 139, gas rigs down 4 to 84.
| Region | Period | Rig Count | Change from Prior |
| U.S.A | 10 March 2023 | 746 | -3 |
| Canada | 10 March 2023 | 223 | -23 |
| International | February 2023 | 915 | +14 |
Chariot Limited announced that it has now completed the Front-End Engineering and Design (“FEED”) on the key components of its flagship Anchois gas development project (“Anchois”), offshore Morocco. The Anchois gas field is located within the Lixus Offshore licence area (“Lixus”), in which Chariot holds a 75% interest and operatorship, alongside ONHYM which holds a 25% interest.
• The FEED for the Anchois development was initiated in June 2022. In conjunction with the subsurface development studies, this work confirms the individual components of the initial development, which include:
o Three initial subsea producer wells, including the Anchois-2 well drilled by Chariot in 2022, with multi zone completions to enable gas recovery across multiple stacked
sands;
o Subsea infrastructure (“SURF” and “SPS”) capable of delivering produced hydrocarbons from the wells to the onshore facilities via a subsea flowline and
controlling the wells via an umbilical, with future expansion capabilities to tie-back additional wells;
o Onshore central processing facility (“CPF”) to process the hydrocarbons and to deliver treated gas and condensate to market, with an initial capacity of 105 mmscfd; and
o Onshore gas pipeline to deliver the gas to the anchor gas offtakers via the Maghreb Europe Gas Pipeline (“GME”), for which a tie-in agreement has already been signed.
• Engineering, Procurement and Construction (“EPC”) commercial proposals have now been requested.
• In addition to the FEED, other technical work has been progressing in parallel, in the lead up to development sanction, including:
o Environmental, Social Impact Assessment (“ESIA”), for which onshore and offshore environmental baseline surveys (“EBS”) have already been conducted;
o Field Development Plan (“FDP”) is being finalised by the Lixus joint venture partnership to enable the award of the production concession;
o Development drilling planning is ongoing which can further evaluate the potential of an additional 754 Bcf of 2U prospective gas resources for minimal additional cost. The
targets identified have an independently assessed geological chance of success (“Pg”) ranging from 49-61%. Read More
Zephyr Energy plc provided an update on operations on the State 36-2 LNW-CC well (the “State 36-2 well”) and the State 16-2 LN-CC well (the “State 16-2 well”) at the Company’s flagship project in the Paradox Basin, Utah, U.S (the “Paradox project”).
State 36-2 well update
As reported on 19 January 2023, the State 36-2 well intersected a major natural fracture network in the Cane Creek reservoir which led to a significant influx of hydrocarbons into the wellbore. This influx was managed and safely controlled, which subsequently allowed for the drilling of an additional 132 feet in the fractured and productive Cane Creek reservoir. The Company then elected to run production casing down to the total-depth of the well.
The Company has now finalised its planning for the completion and production testing of the well’s fractured reservoir interval. All services have been procured, with operations expected to start in the next two weeks when a service rig will be mobilised to site. Workover operations and production testing are expected to take four to six weeks to complete. The production test will be paid for from the Company’s existing cash resources and any oil and/or condensate produced during the test is expected to be sold via existing marketing partners.
Production test results from the well, along with results from the production test on the State 16-2 well, will be integrated into Zephyr’s overall reservoir model and will help define the next steps for the Paradox project development, including the sizing of related gas infrastructure and the associated capital expenditure. Read More
OilandGasPress Energy Newsbites and Analysis Roundup | Compiled by: OGP Staff, Segun Cole @oilandgaspress.
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