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Mines Minister: S. Africa Ready to Re-Evaluate New Oil And Gas Law

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Mines Minister: S. Africa Ready to Re-Evaluate New Oil And Gas Law

South Africa may reconsider a new oil and gas law to ensure that investors can be make profits while securing a place for the state in the sector, Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said on Tuesday. Parliament passed the law in March, giving the state a 20 percent free stake in new gas and oil exploration and production ventures and alarming operators such as Total and Exxon Mobil, which are looking to explore in South Africa.

“Having spent time listening to stakeholders … I am ready for any eventuality,” Ramatlhodi told parliament. “In the event the current bill is assented to in its form, I commit to rigorous and transparent engagement with stakeholders on draft regulations,” he said. The bill is before President Jacob Zuma who must give it his assent before it becomes law.

Ramatlhodi told reporters there was broad agreement on the 20 percent free-carry for the state and 10 percent for “black empowerment”, but the sticking point was on where to cap these. “Black empowerment” refers to state-mandated targets to lift black ownership in Africa’s most advanced economy, part of a government drive to rectify the racial imbalances of white apartheid rule. “We want to limit the amount that the state can actually take, even on an agreed price, so that you allow investors to get their investment returns back,” the minister said. 

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PSS Plans to Recruit 40 Staff in NE Scotland

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PSS Plans to Recruit 40 Staff in NE Scotland

Aberdeen-based Process Safety Solutions plans to increase its staff by up to 40 people within two years at its new facility in Wick, northeast Scotland, which was opened Tuesday. PSS supports of the oil and gas sector in the UK and overseas, providing systems life-cycle management solutions. Its new base currently employs five staff but the firm is looking to boost its business by diversifying into the renewables market for wave, tidal and wind energy.

PSS founder David Green commented in a company statement: “We have had great support and have worked closely with the team from Highlands and Islands Enterprise as we saw great potential in utilizing the wide skills base in the area. More and more companies in Aberdeen are outsourcing engineering work, until now this has been largely to India and England. “We would like to reverse this trend and fully realize the potential within Scotland’s engineering community.

Access to the local skill base developed over the last 50 years at Dounreay was one of the main drivers to the new office location. When you couple that with the fact that I am originally from Wick so know the area and people very well, the reasons are quite compelling.” 

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New Zealand Oil & Gas Works on Abandoning of Oi-2 Well

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New Zealand Oil & Gas Works on Abandoning of Oi-2 Well

Operations this morning are continuing to plug and abandon the Oi-2 well in Petroleum Mining Permit 38158, offshore Taranaki, New Zealand.

The next operation will be to abandon Oi-1 prior to releasing the rig.

The well intersected the primary target Kapuni F10 sands and underlying secondary targets last week. No significant oil shows were encountered.

The joint venture partners in the Oi exploration well are: AWE Limited: 31.25% (Operator), Pan Pacific Petroleum: 50%, New Zealand Oil & Gas 18.75%.

The Joint Venture partners in PMP 38158 are: AWE Limited (Operator) 57.5%, New Zealand Oil & Gas 27.5%, Pan Pacific Petroleum 15%.

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Coast Guard Search for Missing Diver Continues, Bahamas

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Coast Guard Search for Missing Diver Continues, Bahamas

Coast Guard search-and-rescue crews are searching for a man who went missing during a commercial shark diving venture in the vicinity of West End, Bahamas, Sunday night.

Missing is John E. Petty, 63, hometown unknown.

Coast Guard 7th District command center watchstanders were contacted by the captain aboard the commercial dive vessel Shear Water late Sunday night stating that Petty went shark diving with eight others and he never resurfaced.

The Coast Guard immediately launched multiple air and sea assets that have been searching since. Currently on scene supporting Bahamian authorities and searching are the crews aboard:

– Coast Guard Cutter Dolphin, homeported in Miami, Florida,
– Coast Guard Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft,
– Coast Guard Air Station Miami MH-65 Dolphin rescue helicopter.

An Urgent Marine Information Broadcast was issued.

Petty was last seen 20 nautical miles northwest of West End, Bahamas by one of the divers in the group.

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Carbon Trust OWA Awards Contracts to Three Cable Manufacturers

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Carbon Trust OWA Awards Contracts to Three Cable Manufacturers

Following an international competition the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) has awarded contracts to three cable manufacturers to help commercialise the development of 66kV offshore wind farm intra-array cables. It is providing funding of £400k (£133k to each cable manufacturer) to accelerate the time to market of the cables for use in the large scale UK Round 3 offshore wind farms. Testing of two of the new cable designs is due to be completed as early as the end of 2015.

The OWA identified the potential for higher voltage electrical arrays to deliver significant cost benefits to the design of future offshore wind farms. It was found that moving to 66kV can demonstrate a material improvement in lifecycle costs compared with 33kV. Moving to the higher voltage becomes even more attractive as wind turbines continue to increase in size – and it should also allow intra-array cable lengths to be reduced.

The Carbon Trust has calculated that a move to 66kV cables could cut the cost of offshore wind energy by 1.5% which equates to a Round 3 cost of energy saving by up to £100m per year[1].  Cost saving benefits of 66kV will be achieved through increasing the availability of turbines by optimising the intra array cable layout of offshore wind farms.

Megan Smith (Electrical Systems Project Manager, Offshore Wind Accelerator) said:

‘Moving to 66kV intra-array networks offers a great opportunity to cut costs in time for Round 3 offshore wind farms.  But the industry faced a classic chicken and egg problem.  Cable manufacturers were unwilling to invest in the certification process of a new cost effective 66kV cable without knowing if there is demand, and developers can’t specify a new array cable voltage when cables are not yet certified.  The Carbon Trust’s OWA has resolved this by enabling the cable industry to work with the offshore wind sector to develop a solution that will benefit all.”

The Carbon Trust has awarded funding to the three cable manufacturers to qualify 3 different cost effective cable designs, as well as share the results from the qualification of a fourth cable. These are:

– JDR: will qualify a 3-core 630mm2, copper conductor, wet design, 66kV cable,
– Nexans: will qualify a 3-core 630mm2 aluminium conductor, dry design, 66kV cable, as well as share findings from their qualification of a 3-core 630mm2, copper conductor, dry design, 66kV cable,
– Prysmian: will qualify a 3-core 800mm2, aluminium conductor, 66kV cable.

Test results from all four cables will be available in 2015, with extended test programmes for some cable prototypes expected to be complete by 2017.

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SgurrEnergy Kicks Off Wave and Tidal Research Project in UK

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SgurrEnergy Kicks Off Wave and Tidal Research Project in UK

Leading renewable energy consultancy, SgurrEnergy, has commenced a research project with the University of Edinburgh and ScottishPower Renewables to establish ways to reduce uncertainties for wave and tidal projects. The three-year project will provide solutions to some of the current issues in order to meet the needs of the growing wave and tidal industry and help to unlock the vast potential of the UK’s renewable resources.

For the emerging wave and tidal sector, the issue of energy yield uncertainty represents a real challenge- one that has slowed the growth of the industry for some time. As part of the University of Edinburgh’s Industrial Doctoral Centre for Offshore Renewable Energy (IDCORE), the research campaign will identify individual components of the energy yield estimation process. Based on this research, priority areas will be highlighted and further quantified in order to understand where the biggest reductions can be achieved.

These areas will then become the focus of targeted research which will seek to develop improved measurement techniques, modelling tools and yield prediction processes for the benefit of the industry.

Director of innovation at SgurrEnergy, Alan Mortimer, said: “The uncertainty calculation is the result of a long chain of measurements, modelling and calculations, all of which have their error bands.  At present, uncertainty in wave and tidal is far too high, in some cases 30% of total energy yield estimate.

Resolving this issue could help to secure greater investment for technologies and for projects, and encourage faster growth in the sector.  The reduction of energy yield uncertainty is seen as a priority area for the wave and tidal industry to move forward.”

Ksenia Siedlecka, IDCORE manager at University of Edinburgh, said: “This project is a collaboration between academia and industry, harnessing industry expertise, practical experience and theory to shed light on this important area of research.”

SgurrEnergy’s expertise with wind energy performance prediction and analysis will play a key role in the project.  Analysis and calculation techniques have benefited from a huge amount of development over the years, under considerable pressure from investors who need to know that their project will meet its IRR requirements.  Much of this learning is also relevant to wave and tidal technologies.

The additional collaboration with Scottish Power Renewables brings a pragmatic and practical approach to the project, with a wealth of wave and tidal development experience, including the industry-leading Islay Tidal Array project.

Paul Carruthers at Scottish Power Renewables, said: “Energy yield uncertainty is a key consideration for wave and tidal investments and its reduction is paramount to the development of the sector.  The findings of this research project will deliver greater understanding of risk reduction in the industry, making investment in wave and tidal a more attractive offer and ensuring certainty of this exciting sector.”

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Sound Sees ‘Significant Upgrade’ to Onshore Italy Prospect

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Sound Sees ‘Significant Upgrade’ to Onshore Italy Prospect

Junior explorer Sound Oil reported Tuesday that its Santa Maria Goretti gas prospect, onshore Italy, has received a “significant upgrade”. The firm said that a competent person’s report has upgraded the gas initially in place to 66.4 billion standard cubic feet while the recoverable best-estimate prospective resources is judged to be 32.8 billion cubic feet.

Meanwhile, the CPR also confirmed Sound’s plans to drill one exploration well and one contingent development well addressing primarily the shallow Thin Beds objective. The study estimates a 68-percent geological chance of success for Thin Beds. Sound CEO James Parsons commented in a company statement: “This CPR uplifts the company’s previous resource estimate by 82 percent and confirms the addition of a further low-risk, yet hugely material, asset into Sound Oil’s Italian onshore gas portfolio.

The top-hole location has already been identified and an application to drill will be submitted to the permitting authorities shortly, with a view to drilling during 2015.”

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Lot Watch: Rolex divers surface together

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Lot Watch: Rolex divers surface together

Rolex played an instrumental role in the development of the diving watch, and four separate lots in an upcoming auction illustrate the evolution from the early 1970s to the present day.

The first, lot 189, is a prototype Rolex Comex. The watch takes its name from a collaboration with the French firm Comex, (Compagnie Maritime d’Expertises) specialising in deep-diving operations. This watch, from 1972, has the appearance of a regular Rolex 5513 Submariner, but a closer look at the case shows a helium escape valve at nine o’clock.

The escape valve, which was designed to prevent damage from a build-up of helium after full-saturation diving, is seen on the production Comex Sea-Dweller. Lot 255 is a Sea-Dweller from 1979, which comes complete with owner’s dive-log, diary passport photographs and Comex documents.

Lot 298 is a Military Submariner, or MilSub, from 1979. This was made for active military service and is for many the ultimate tool watch. Few of the original watches (roughly 1,200) ordered by the MoD from Rolex have survived.

The last watch, lot 254, is a Rolex Deep-Sea. The Deep-Sea is water resistant to 3,900 metres and represented a huge leap forward in diving watch technology. This is one of a limited edition of 50 watches made in 2013 to celebrate 60 years of the Royal Navy’s Mine Clearance Diving Unit. The watch was owned by Royal Navy Clearance Diver (first class) Dean Simpson, who sells it along with a copy of his extensive dive logs.

In many ways the prototype Comex is the most interesting piece, according to Adrian Hailwood from Fellows auction house. “Normally collectors like to see a fully fledged Comex with Comex written on the dial. But the prototype really illustrated the steps in developing the watch,” he said. “You could never have bought this as a member of the public, but it really is indicative of the relationship between Rolex and Comex.”

The watches are being auctioned in the Fellows Vintage and Modern Wrist Watches sale on 21st July in Birmingham

Lot 189 prototype Rolex Comex, estimate £12,000-£18,000

Lot 255 Rolex Comex Sea-Dweller, estimate £30,000-£40,000

Lot 298 Rolex MilSub, estimate £12,000-£18,000

Lot 254 Rolex Deep-Sea, estimate £30,000-£40,000

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Mexico’s Senate Committees Approve Key Part Of Energy Bill

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Mexico’s Senate Committees Approve Key Part Of Energy Bill

Senate committees approved a set of laws on Tuesday to regulate the opening of Mexico’s oil and gas industries to private investment, the centerpiece of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s economic agenda. The committees passed four bills fleshing out a historic overhaul of the state-run energy sector, including the power market. The bills will pass to the floor of the Senate on Thursday and then the lower house of Congress for approval.

Pledging to reverse a decade of falling oil and gas output, Pena Nieto pushed through a reform in December 2013, ending state oil giant Pemex’s 75-year oil and gas monopoly, and opening production and exploration to private companies. The reform is the central plank of Pena Nieto’s plan to boost growth in Latin America’s No. 2 economy, which has lagged behind more dynamic emerging markets. Pena Nieto presented a draft of the so-called secondary laws that are needed to implement the energy reform in late April, and lawmakers made several important changes. Senators raised requirements for the amounts of local labor and materials investors will need to use in energy projects.

The approved bill called for local content of 25 percent by 2015 that would rise to 35 percent by 2025. The original draft set the local content bar at 25 percent by 2025. The changes keep the content requirements below regional rival Brazil, which has rates as high as 55 percent. Jorge Lavalle, a senator for the center-right opposition National Action Party, which pushed through dozens of changes to the legislation, said the bills would pass to the full floor of the Senate on Thursday and should be approved by Saturday. Once it reaches the lower house, the legislation will be presented with a separate section that sets out a new fiscal regime under the reform, and a planned oil wealth fund.

That would likely pass next week, sending the package of legislation back to the Senate for final approval, Lavalle said, forecasting that could occur in the final days of July. Senators amended a section of the draft law that allowed for the expropriation of land containing oil or gas reserves. In its place, they put provisions that would allow companies to lease land and give owners a share of profits. Among the bills approved by the committees was a hydrocarbons law, which sets out key elements of the energy reform, including contracts, fines and the ownership of Mexican oil and gas. Another establishes the framework for private companies to sell electricity on the open market. Private companies can currently generate their own power, but they can only sell excess energy to the state electricity company.

Opposition leftist lawmakers abandoned the committee meetings, saying the bills would give away the country’s oil wealth to foreign companies. –

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L&T Hydrocarbon Bags $846M EPC Contract from Kuwait Oil Company

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L&T Hydrocarbon Bags $846M EPC Contract from Kuwait Oil Company

India’s L&T Hydrocarbon – the wholly-owned subsidiary of Larsen & Tubro Ltd. (L&T) dedicated to oil and gas – disclosed Monday that it has achieved a major breakthrough in the Middle East by securing a contract valued at approximately $846 million (KWD 239.7 million) from the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC). L&T Hydrocarbon will execute a complete Engineer-Procure-Construct contract for a Gathering Center for KOC, a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and fully owned by the State of Kuwait.

Located in north Kuwait, the oil gathering facilities will receive crude from the Raudhatain fields. The Gathering Centre is designed for a multi-stage process that will separate 100,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) of crude oil, 240,000 barrels of water per day and 62.5 million standard cubic feet per day of associated gas to meet the quality requirements of downstream operations.

The scope of L&T’s contract includes project management, detailed engineering, procurement, supply, construction, testing, mechanical completion, pre-commissioning, commissioning assistance including performance testing. The new facilities will support KOC’s long term strategy for the development of the North Kuwait fields to increase oil production to 1 million bopd by 2015/2016.

The contract was won by L&T against stiff competition from European and Korean EPC majors. It represents a significant step forward in L&T’s strategic growth plan in the international hydrocarbon sector. As with all other projects being executed by the L&T Group, the Gathering Centre project will maintain high standards of health, safety and environment, engineering, procurement, project and construction management, quality and delivery.

L&T’s track record in Kuwait includes critical sections of oil refineries at Shuaiba and Mina Abdullah, an aviation fuel depot and supply of 22 reactors that were part of the country’s ‘Clean Fuel Program’.

BACKGROUND

Larsen & Toubro is a $14.3 billion technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services conglomerate, with global operations. Its products and systems are marketed in over 30 countries worldwide. L&T is one of the largest and most respected companies in India’s private sector. A strong, customer–focused approach and the constant quest for top-class quality have enabled L&T to attain and sustain leadership in its major lines of business over seven decades.

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