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Real Energy Records Strong Gas Readings at Tamarama-1 Well in Cooper Basin

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Real Energy Records Strong Gas Readings at Tamarama-1 Well in Cooper Basin

Cooper Basin focused oil & gas exploration company Real Energy Corporation Limited provided Friday this progress report for its maiden exploration well, Tamarama-1, in the Queensland Cooper Basin ATP 927P, Australia.

Electric logs have been recorded and preliminary wireline log interpretation in integration with mudlog gas readings and drill cuttings have indicated the presence of gas saturated Permian Toolachee and Patchawarra formations section at the Tamarama-1 location. The petrophysical evaluation, using conservative 8 percent porosity cutoff for pay calculation, indicates the well has encountered 69 feet (21 meters) of net sandstone gas pay (from gross 144 feet or 44 meters) in the Toolachee Formation and 216 feet (66 meters) of net sandstone gas pay (from gross 397 feet or 121 meters) in the Patchawarra Formation.

Tamarama-1 is located approximately 167 feet (51 meters) downdip from the Cocos-1 Permian gas well and outside any seismically mapped structural closure. Tamarama-1 will be cased and suspended for future flow testing.

Managing Director of Real Energy Scott Brown commented “Real Energy believes that basin centred gas exists in the Toolachee and Patchawarra formations in our acreage. We listed our Company on the ASX and raised funds to prove up this concept and designed our exploration program accordingly. Real Energy is the first oil and gas player to drill in this area outside structural closure, attempting to prove up basin centred gas play in this area.

We are very excited by the results received to date on Tamarama-1, which appears to confirm our understanding of the basin centred gas in this area. Tamarama-1 was drilled as a proof of concept well. While it is still early days in our exploration effort, Tamarama-1 success has provided us a very encouraging result as it proves our geological concept that gas saturated Permian Toolachee and Patchawarra formations section is present in our acreage outside any structural closure and most likely in the form of the unconventional continuous basin centred gas play.

If our geological model of a basin centred gas play proves to be correct, then the gas accumulation is likely to be extremely large. AWT International, the Independent Geologist that was engaged as part of our ASX listing process and provided a report in the company’s prospectus, estimated that the gross mean petroleum initially in place for the Toolachee and Patchawarra was 10.2 trillion cubic feet of gas in our acreage.

Due to the encouraging result with Tamarama-1, we have decided to commit to drilling our next well Queenscliff-1. Queenscliff-1 will further advance our knowledge of this exciting play within our acreage.”

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Statoil Hits Gas in Pingvin Prospect, Norway

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Statoil Hits Gas in Pingvin Prospect, Norway

Operator Statoil has together with PL713 partners made a gas discovery in the Pingvin prospect in the Barents Sea. The discovery is a play opener in a frontier unexplored area of the Barents Sea northwest of Johan Castberg.

The discovery well 7319/12-1, drilled by the drilling rig Transocean Spitsbergen, proved a 15-metre gas column in the well path. Statoil estimates the volumes in Pingvin to be in the range of 30-120 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent. The discovery is currently assessed as non-commercial.

“Pingvin is the first well drilled in PL713 – a large frontier area northwest of Johan Castberg awarded in the 22nd concession round. For a discovery in this area to be commercially viable it needs to be an oil accumulation of a significant size. A gas discovery does not have commercial value at present.

“On the positive side, it is encouraging that the first well drilled in this unexplored area has proven hydrocarbons in sandstones. This indicates that we have both a reservoir and a working hydrocarbon system in the area, and creates a good basis for further subsurface work in the licence,” says Dan Tuppen, vice president exploration Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea.

Pingvin is a good example of efficient exploration performance.

“The partnership drilled Pingvin just 15 months after the acreage award. The chosen well location allowed us to clarify the hydrocarbon volume in the structure with one very efficiently executed exploration well,” says Tuppen.

Exploration well 7319/12-1 is located in PL713 about 65 kilometres northwest of the Johan Castberg discovery. Statoil is operator with an interest of 40%. The partners are RN Nordic Oil AS (20%), North Energy ASA (20%) and Edison International Norway Branch (20%).

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US Oil Industry Group API Issues Guidelines For Crude By Rail

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US Oil Industry Group API Issues Guidelines For Crude By Rail

The American Petroleum Institute on Thursday issued guidelines for moving crude oil by rail, the latest response to a string of fiery derailments in the United States and Canada that has raised calls for reform. The guidelines from the industry group include procedures for sampling and testing crude oil before transport, criteria on how often to test samples and document the results, and procedures to prevent overfilling crude oil in rail tank cars.

API President Jack Gerard said in a release that the guidelines represented cooperation between the energy and rail industries and the U.S. Transportation Department’s pipeline and hazardous materials safety office. While the guidelines are only recommendations, they could influence coming regulations on crude-by-rail. A federal proposal on moving hazardous cargoes was announced in July.

More than 100 API standards and technical publications have been incorporated into U.S. regulations since 1924, the group said. U.S. officials have been scrutinizing rail shipments from North Dakota’s Bakken oilfields, the heart of the country’s oil boom, since a derailment last year of a train carrying Bakken crude killed 47 people in the Canadian town of Lac Megantic.

In March, transport regulators scolded the oil industry for dragging its feet in providing information on the kinds of rail shipments that have been involved in a string of high profile train derailments. The API disputed those accusations in March. 

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Skandi Constructor Ready for GoM Action in 2015

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Skandi Constructor Ready for GoM Action in 2015

Well Ops, Inc. a subsidiary of Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. has announced that its well intervention vessel, Skandi Constructor, will be available for operation in the Gulf of Mexico for the first quarter of 2015.

The Skandi Constructor is a dedicated light intervention mono hull equipped with the Helix 7 3/8” 10,000psi Subsea Intervention lubricator (SIL) package.

The Skandi Constructor is a class III (DP3) vessel accommodating up to 100 persons on board. The vessel is equipped with two Canyon work class ROVs, launched by a heavy weather deployment system.

The planned campaign in the Gulf follows three very successful campaigns in West Africa, U.K. North Sea and East Coast Canada.

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Better Communication Needed About Benefits of Fracking

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Better Communication Needed About Benefits of Fracking

The results of a CBC/Radio-Canada poll released in September showed that while those polled were relatively evenly split on whether fracking was important to the economy, most respondents were more concerned with things like growing the economy and creating jobs.

Given the fact that fracking has been shown to bring about significant job creation and economic development for municipalities nearby, the results of the poll seem to indicate that the energy industry could do a better job of communicating with the public regarding the fiscal benefits of fracking. What is at question, according to economist Karr Ingham, is how they should do that.

Currently, the industry seems to be struggling to get the message out, Ingham – who created the Texas Petro Index (TPI) for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers – admitted, adding that it doesn’t help that groups against the oil and gas industry are constantly on the attack.

“They don’t do it as well as they might partly because it’s not what they do. What they do, they do very well, and that is to produce oil and gas. They have improved their technology, they have increased economies of scale, and they are getting much more efficient. That’s what they prefer to do, rather than having to put out fires from anti-industry groups,” Ingham said. “I think it’s widely believed that the industry has a communication problem, and that some of the people communicating the other point of view will say virtually anything to bring public opinion around to their side.”

There are many examples of municipalities that are benefitting significantly from fracking in the United States. Residents in cities and towns like San Antonio and Midland, Texas and Williston, North Dakota quickly learned that oil and gas fracking in nearby shale formations can generate enough job creation and economic growth to transform their localities. And now, it is the Rust Belt area of the United States that seems to be benefitting from fracking, as direct, indirect and induced job growth from fracking is providing significant economic revitalization for the area, according to the New York Times.

In Ohio, for example, economic indicators are beginning to point in the right direction, and it is energy production which is providing the spark, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Early in 2010, unemployment in Youngstown was 13.3 percent. In July 2014, it was 5.7 percent, nearly half-a-percent under the national average.

JOB CREATION, ECONOMIC GROWTH IN TEXAS

Economists agree that the growth of the shale boom is providing a booster shot for the Texas economy. The TPI for July showed that the number of Texans working in the oil and gas industry climbed above 300,000 to hit about 302,700. The July estimate marked the first time since the index began tracking jobs in 1995 that oil and gas employment in the state has been above 300,000, Ingham told Rigzone.  

The TPI is based on a combination of upstream indicators in the overall economy, including the Baker Hughes active drilling rig count, Texas’ crude oil production and natural gas output, and the price of oil and natural gas.

The oil and gas employment picture in Texas has been showing steady growth for 19 of the past 20 months, Ingham noted. From July 2013 to July 2014, oil and gas employment increased by more than 20,000 jobs, the TPI showed. Year-over-year employment growth was 7 percent in July, Ingham added.

Ingham’s actual TPI number was at 309.9 in July 2014, 6.6 percent over July 2013 index figure. Prior to the expansion in the oil and gas market seen over the past four years, the highest figure for the TPI was 287.6, which was seen in the two-month period of September and October 2008. The TPI fell during the economic recession to hit a low of 188.5 in December 2009, before starting the climb to its current peak.

While direct oil and gas industry hiring has been significant, the overall contribution to job growth has come from indirect and induced jobs, Ingham said. Estimates vary, but for every new oil and gas job created, approximately three to five other jobs are created in oilfield services and the overall economy.

In addition to the job creation provided by the energy industry, municipalities depend on the industry for revenues. For example, the oil and gas industry accounts for about 25 percent of the tax dollars taken in by Houston, according to Xbig6, a group of former financial-sector employees.

Exploration and production activity in just the Barnett Shale alone has provided Texas with nearly $645 million in annual tax receipts in constant 2013 dollars, while local government entities receive more than $480 million, according to an analytical report by The Perryman Group.

GETTING THE ENERGY MESSAGE OUT

A recent U.S. survey revealed that more than half of the people polled were not aware that the country was experiencing an energy boom, and of the ones who did, many did not know what was driving it, according to Mining.com, an online news publication.  

While the oil and gas industry is working to connect with the public, there is a need to do more still to connect with those outside of the industry. At the North American Energy Security Dialogue event in Canada late last year, U.S. and Canadian oil and gas companies discussed the need for greater communication, and the mayor of Fort St. John, British Columbia admitted that “someone else owns” the dialog about the industry.

Oil and gas companies have strived to do a better job of communicating, but there is obviously room for improvement, according to Ingham.

“The message for some in the industry to get out is that oil and gas producers are providing people with a stable, sustainable, abundant and – believe it or not – affordable supply of energy now, and for decades to come. For the regions, cities and towns that are in the middle of, or on the periphery of, oil and gas development areas, the net effect of fracking for oil and gas is just staggering in terms of the economic benefit and job creation.”

Source

Reef Subsea Wins GT1 Field Support Gig

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Reef Subsea Wins GT1 Field Support Gig

Reef Subsea has been awarded a contract with Areva Wind GmbH, to provide field support in the GT1 wind farm.

Global Tech I (GT1) is one of the first offshore wind farms being built in the German North Sea.

The wind farm’s array consists of 80 AREVA M5000 wind turbines each with a capacity of 5 megawatts and so has a total installed capacity of 400 megawatts.

The project commences early October and is anticipated to continue until at least February 2015, with the option to extend the contract further.

Source

How to Become a Commercial Diver in the United States

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How to Become a Commercial Diver in the United States

Commercial divers install, inspect, repair and conduct routine maintenance of facilities that are located under water. These include bridges, dams and oil rigs. The job calls for a specialized set of skills and competencies and is ideal for people who like water and have no fear of depths.

What Does a Commercial Diver Do?

Commercial divers offer support services and usually need to be skilled in other jobs such as construction, welding, systems installation and so on. They are employed in a number of industries to handle all underwater activities that might arise. Their specific duties include:

  • Conduct site surveys and other forms of reconnaissance prior to the installation of the underwater facility and report back to the client on their findings
  • Diving under to assist in the installation of equipment and machinery by guiding them to the right position underwater and riveting, bolting or welding them in place
  • Inspect the underwater facility where a problem such as a leakage or loss in pressure has been detected
  • Once the issue has been detected the diver may proceed to repair it if he has the necessary skills to do it, or guide the diver who is sent down towards the source of the problem
  • Conduct routine maintenance on equipment such as buoys, distance markers and other flotation devices
  • Conduct search and recovery procedures for items, or even people lost in the water
  • Undertake salvage operations for items lost at sea, but that can still be re-used
  • Test underwater suits and devices to determine whether they function as required

Qualifications

To qualify as a commercial diver, you do not need an academic degree. However, you will need to undergo a training course in commercial diving so that you can be equipped with the techniques and other technical know-how required for the job.

To be admitted to a commercial diving training course you will need:

  • To be at least at least 18 years old and above
  • Have completed your high school education
  • Be a good swimmer
  • Be physically fit and to undergo a medical examination to discover any underlying or previously unknown condition that may be exacerbated at great depths, such as an aneurysm
  • There are other disqualifying medical conditions such as epilepsy, pregnancy, sickle cell anemia or a ruptured eardrum that keeps you from being able to balance or equalize pressure

A training course will cover aspects such as:

  • Diving physics
  • Human anatomy and physiology
  • Decompression techniques
  • Operation of underwater equipment
  • Reading blueprints and technical drawing
  • Offshore safety
  • First aid training and emergency medical rescue
  • You will need to have a significant amount of on-the-job training before you are able to dive on your own.
  • In addition, you will require Transportation Worker Identification credentials from the Department of Homeland Security because you are likely to be called to work in various locations across the earth.

Skills

There are skills that will help you to perform better at your job:

  • Determination and single-minded focus as even simple tasks, such as welding are complicated under water
  • Ability to multitask as you will need to keep monitoring your equipment and surroundings as you work
  • Mechanical ability or other trade craft that you will perform while under water
  • Excellent planning and coordination skills to be able to do your work within the prescribed time frame

Salary

Commercial divers’ salary varies depending on the industry they work in and their level of experience. For example, those in the oil and gas business tend to make more than those in heavy construction and water transportation. However, the average wages for commercial divers are:

Entry Level  $28,720
Mid Career $47,930
Successful $94,440

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

The best job markets in terms of salary for commercial divers are Louisiana, Texas and Florida.

Work Environment

Commercial divers work almost exclusively underwater. They do not have a fixed work schedule and tend to work irregular hours, particularly when they are called in to perform repair services. If you are posted to an offshore location away from the United States, then you are going to have to be away from your family and friends for an extended period of time.

Career Growth and Job Outlook

Employment in this sector is expected to grow at a rate of 22% between 2012 and 2022. Changes in ocean patterns and conditions as result of global warming and heightening concern for marine life protection are among some of the factors increasing job prospects in this profession. There are also new projects being conducted underwater such as the laying of fiber optic cables that are also contributing to the positive outlook. However, take note that diving is not a profession for those advanced in age. In fact, most employers tend to refuse employing divers aged 45 and above.

This is a profession to get in while young, earn your money and then use your transferable skills elsewhere. If you are young, have no fear of water or the deep blue sea and want to work in an unconventional environment, then this could be the career for you.

Source

Mexican Cartels Steal Billions From Oil Industry

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Mexican Cartels Steal Billions From Oil Industry

Mexico overcame 75 years of nationalist pride to reform its flagging, state-owned oil industry. But as it prepares to develop rich shale fields along the Gulf Coast, and attract foreign investors, another challenge awaits: taming the brutal drug cartels that rule the region and are stealing billions of dollars’ worth of oil from pipelines.

Figures released by Petroleos Mexicanos last week show the gangs are becoming more prolific and sophisticated. So far this year, thieves across Mexico have drilled 2,481 illegal taps into state-owned pipelines, up more than one-third from the same period of 2013. Pemex estimates it’s lost some 7.5 million barrels worth $1.15 billion.

Pemex director Emilio Lozoya called the trend “worrisome.”

More than a fifth of the illegal taps occurred in Tamaulipas, the Gulf state neighboring Texas that is a cornerstone for Mexico’s future oil plans. It has Mexico’s largest fields of recoverable shale gas, the natural gas extracted by fracturing rock layers, or fracking. Mexico, overall, is believed to have the world’s sixth-largest reserves of shale gas — equivalent to 60 billion barrels of crude oil. That’s more than twice the total amount of oil that Mexico has produced by conventional means over the last century.

The energy reform passed in December loosened Mexico’s protectionist policies, opening the way for Pemex to seek foreign investors and expertise to help it exploit its shale fields. It hopes to draw $10 billion to $15 billion in private investment each year. The attractiveness of the venture may hinge on bringing Tamaulipas under control.  

“The energy reform won’t be viable if we aren’t successful … in solving the problem of crime and impunity,” said Sen. David Penchyna, who heads the Senate Energy Commission. “The biggest challenge we Mexicans have, and I say it without shame, is Tamaulipas.”

Two rival gangs, the Zetas and the Gulf cartel, long have used Tamaulipas as a route to ferry drugs and migrants to the United States and, in recent years, diversified their business: stealing gas and crude and selling it to refineries in Texas or to gas stations on either side of the border.

At least twice a day, the gangs pull up to one of the hundreds of pipelines that crisscross the state. Workers quickly shovel down a couple of yards (meters) to uncover a pipeline and siphon their booty into a stolen tanker truck, said army Col. Juan Carlos Guzman, whose troops have raided a number of such illegal taps.

A dirt farm road led down to one site outside Ciudad Victoria, 180 miles southwest of McAllen, Texas. About a half-mile from a nearby highway, thieves had dug out a pit and inserted a large needle-like device into the pipeline. By the time soldiers arrived, the gang members had fled, and only the driver of the half-loaded gasoline truck was arrested.

The knowledge needed to tap into the pressurized pipelines leads authorities to suspect the gangs have infiltrated Pemex or co-opted company workers. “It is impossible to do this without information on the timing and level of flows,” said Marco Antonio Bernal, a federal congressman from Tamaulipas who is drafting legislation to toughen punishment for pipeline thefts.

The suspicions were reinforced earlier this month when detectives nabbed a Gulf cartel leader who was found carrying a fake Pemex employee credential, complete with his photo and a false name. Pemex is installing more automated pipeline shut-off valves operated remotely from a control room in Mexico City. Such controls allow them to not only stop spills often caused by illegal taps but to avoid having to send workers out to unpopulated, dangerous areas to turn off valves manually.

With thousands of miles of pipeline stretching over far-flung regions of Tamaulipas, stopping oil theft is proving hard to do. Mexico has taken steps to rein in the cartels, putting military leaders in charge of the state’s security and sending in soldiers, marines and federal police to patrol key cities.

Arrests and violence have taken out so many key Zetas leaders that the cartel’s members have taken to camping out in the bush, dragooning Central American migrants into their ranks. They live off the land and change campsites constantly to avoid detection.

“They don’t have structures. They sleep under the trees, near rivers to get water,” said Gen. Mario Lopez Miguez, who commands nearly 600 soldiers at a base in the once cartel-dominated town of Ciudad Mier.

The Gulf cartel, for its part, remains in control of Tamaulipas’ largest city, Reynosa, which sits across from McAllen, although the military has increased its patrols, making some residents feel safer.

“The situation has gotten a lot better,” said Nora Gonzalez, who runs a secondhand furniture shop near downtown Reynosa.

Still, just a few blocks away, Reynosa remains dangerous. A reporter asking residents about the crime situation was quickly approached by a young man driving a battered car with no license plates.”Where are you from? What are you doing here? Identify yourself,” said the young man, using language similar to that of drug cartel lookouts, known as “halcones,” or falcons.

“How much money are you carrying? Pull over,” the man demanded, as the reporter opted to drive away.

Source

CRP Launches Marine Consent Application to EPA

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CRP Launches Marine Consent Application to EPA

Chatham Rock Phosphate launched its application to the Environmental Protection Authority for a marine consent to extract rock phosphate nodules from the seabed on the Chatham Rise, 450 km from New Zealand.

CRP, a New Zealand NZAX listed company, has spent four years and nearly $30 million to research its proposals to mine 1.5 million tonnes for use on New Zealand farms and export markets.

Counsel James Winchester, in his opening submissions, said the research has found effects are confined to a small area.  He said the key conclusions from an enormous body of evidence were:

– The area is not significant for fishing or spawning,

– There is expert consensus the effects on fish and fishing are low,

– Modelling of sediment plume shows the effects will be confined and the main impact on benthic (seabed) organisms will be within the mining blocks.  There will not be material adverse effects on fish, eggs or larvae over a wider area, with suspended solids quickly returning to normal between mining cycles,

– Risks to marine mammals and seabirds from a single vessel and the mining operation are low and can be appropriately managed,

– There will be significant and irreversible effects on the benthic environment where mining occurs, but these are unlikely to have flow-on consequences for the food web of the Chatham Rise.  While the impact included permanent effects on stony corals, these are present throughout the Exclusive Economic Zone and CRP is proposing significant mitigation.

CRP’s proposed mitigation includes mining exclusion areas covering one fifth of the marine consent area to include sensitive and important seabed features and benthic communities, and trials to create areas of hard substrate to enable recolonisation of stony corals and other species.

“It is submitted that the greatest impacts and risks to the fishing industry and the fish that they rely on arise from their own unregulated bottom trawling, rather than a very small amount of seabed disturbance in an areas that is not important for fishing or spawning.”

Mr. Winchester began his submissions saying phosphate, a natural mineral, is as essential to life as water, oxygen and carbon.  It cannot be manufactured, there is no synthetic substitute and New Zealand has no on-land sources, so all phosphate is imported, much from politically unstable parts of North Africa.

“The availability of a high quality, low cadmium local source of rock phosphate on the Chatham Rise makes this a strategic resource of national significance.”

He said the proposed dredging process is one of the most environmentally benign forms of mining practised anywhere in the world.  No overburden removal is required and no chemicals are introduced to the environment.  Damage is minimal and restricted almost entirely to the mined area.

In contrast the environmental costs and potential damage of using an alternative supply of phosphate involves removing vast quantities of overburden, containing much higher levels of cadmium and – shipped from the other side of the world – leaving a large carbon footprint.

Mr. Winchester said CRP is proposing a suite of conditions to deal with risks and effects including an adaptive management approach.

Source

Denmark’s Maersk Drilling CEO Sees Slow Deepwater Rig Market In 2014, 2015

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Denmark’s Maersk Drilling CEO Sees Slow Deepwater Rig Market In 2014, 2015

COPENHAGEN, Sept 24 (Reuters) – Maersk Drilling Chief Executive Claus Hemmingsen talked to Reuters on the sidelines of A.P. Moller-Maersk’s annual capital markets day.

Maersk Drilling has focused on two areas – harsh environment rigs primarily in Norway and deepwater rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and off West Africa.

ON DAY RATES FOR DEEPWATER RIGS

“The deepwater market will be slow, for the rest of 2014 and in 2015. We do believe however it will come up in the mid-term and long-term.

“If you go back one and a half years ago, you would say (the day rates would reach) $500,000-600,000, a few above that, but that would be in Angola.

“Currently, we’re probably talking about $400,000-$500,000 for day rates. So we have seen, and will see, a decline in day rates for deepwater (rigs).”

ON CONTRACTS FOR NEW RIGS

“We have actually six rigs out of eight coming out (of shipyards) with very strong contracts.

“The two rigs (without contracts) are for the deepwater market and when you see a market that is going in the wrong direction, there is of course concern. We have just managed to land a contract extension for one deepwater rig in Angola.

“We’ve landed on a one-year extension with a jackup in Malaysia; that’s a smaller rig; that’s $56 million revenues to the end of 2016. And we actually have a letter of award for the first of the uncontracted drillships for a short-term contract in South East Asia…I can’t reveal any more details about it.

“Those things will take our contract coverage of the Maersk Drilling company up to 78 percent for 2015. I think many of our peers in the industry will probably envy that percentage.”

ON THE MARKET OUTLOOK FOR NORWAY

“Rates are not falling in the Norway part because we have not seen any fixtures to that effect but there is a pause, a little bit of a slowdown, in terms of decision-making on the oil companies’ part with new projects.

“So far, all the assets are fully occupied in Norway. Our fleet has very long contracts for all rigs, except for one of them.

“So we’re actually pretty confident that, yes, it will settle a little in Norway, but its not going to be a market that is hugely affected. Whereas the deepwater market, yes, it will be affected.

“Because first of all, you get a lot of new rigs out, and secondly, there is a very slow decision-making process from the oil companies on new projects.”

Source

 

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