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Australia invites investors to bid for 30 oil and gas blocks under the 2014 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release, the country’s Department of Industry announced Tuesday.

The 2014 Acreage Release comprises 30 areas located across four basins in the offshore areas of the Northern Territory, the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands and Western Australia.

Of these, 26 areas are available for work program bidding and 4 areas are available for cash bidding. Bids for Work Program Round 1, comprising 14 areas, close Oct. 2. The 14 areas are: NT14-1, NT14-2, NT14-3, AC14-2, AC14-3, AC14-4, W14-2, W14-3, W14-4, W14-5, W14-7, W14-14, W14-15 and W14-16. The closing date for Work Program Round 2 for 12 areas is April 2, 2015. The areas are located in AC14-1, W14-1, W14-6, W14-8, W14-9, W14-10, W14-11, W14-12, W14-13, W14-17, W14-18 and W14-19.

Prequalification for the 4 Areas under the Cash Bid Round will close Oct. 30 and prequalified applicants have to submit their Cash Bid by Feb. 5, 2015. The areas available in the Cash Bid Round are W14-20, W14-21, W14-22 and W14-23.

“The 2014 Acreage Release includes for the first time since the 1980s several areas for cash bidding. These four areas are considered mature in exploration status and will be attractive to explorers,” Minister for Industry Ian Macfarlane said at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) Conference in Perth, Australia Tuesday.

“There are also 26 areas available for work program bidding in the highly prospective Northern Carnarvon and Browse Basins and the under-explored Bonaparte Basin … Following strong industry interest in the Great Australian Bight off southern Australia, the 2014 Release also includes a large work program area in the frontier Eyre Sub-basin of the Bight Basin,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Department of Industry is offering 3 areas (W13-15, W13-16 and W13-17) for bidding under the 2013 Round 1 Work Program Re-release, with investors to submit their interests by Oct. 2.

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The UK’s Osiris Marine Services, a division of James Fisher and Sons plc, has completed what it says is the world’s first commercial Nitrox diver training at The Underwater Centre, Fort William.

A chemical product designed to kill bacteria in hospitals is gaining traction in the oil and gas industry as a solution for treating hydraulic fracturing water. Excelyte, which has been successfully tested on flowback water from the Piceance and Marcellus shale basins, is being tested in eastern Utah’s Uintah Basin for use in hydraulic fracturing, well maintenance and treatment of flowback water, said Integrated Environmental Technologies (IET) CEO David LaVance in an interview with Rigzone.

The water treatment solution is similar to bleach in the sense that chlorine is the active ingredient, but unlike bleach, which is caustic with a high alkaline content, Excelyte is Ph-neutral and benign to humans. However, the product is deadly to aerobic and anaerobic bacteria in water used in hydraulic fracturing.

Excelyte is also effective in killing viruses, and the product has yet been tested on a bacteria it couldn’t kill, including anthrax, said LaVance. Excelyte also is non-toxic and undetectable 90 days after use. Hypochlorous acid, the main active ingredient in Excelyte, has been known for decades as an effective biocide, first being identified as one of the agents used in the body to kill pathogens such as bacteria and viruses in the body.

The chlorine part of the molecule is primarily responsible for the biocidal action, with the remainder of the molecule acting as an oxidizing agent, which has a high affinity for the sulfur in hydrogen sulfide. The sulfur precipitates out of the solution as it oxidizes. IET has devised a method to manufacture the product efficiently and reliably, so it can be used in many applications, ranging from hospital disinfection and food processing to use in oil and gas.

“We did not have the useful product until we determined how to make the product in a Ph-neutral way,” said LaVance. Excelyte is ideal in that it will not impact the effectiveness of hydraulic fracturing fluid or proppants, said LaVance. It also is not corrosive to machinery, and is effective in removing deadly hydrogen sulfide.

The company was established a decade ago to develop Excelyte, originally intended for use in hospitals. The product’s effectiveness in killing bacteria in hospital settings and on fruits and vegetables eventually led to the product’s migration into oil and gas, LaVance explained.

The product now has approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use in hospital disinfection, food processing, veterinary practices and oil and gas. Benchmark Performance Group held the license for several years, and did its own testing, along with introducing the product to other companies, primarily for hydraulic fracturing.

Yates Petroleum was one of the original users of the producer for well maintenance. IET is working with about 10 companies in the oil and gas market, either in testing or in use. The impact of hydraulic fracturing on water resources in terms of supply consumption and water quality has led to interest in a water treatment solution effective in killing bacteria without leaving toxic remains over a long period of time.

Control of bacterial growth often is accomplished using biocides such as glutaraldehyde, particularly in multi-stage, high-volume hydraulic fracturing of shale, according to a case study presented at the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ International Symposium on Oilfield Chemistry in 2011.

A study of Excelyte’s use in the Marcellus shale play indicates that it does not persist in flowback water beyond a few days, and that the bacteria count stays at less than 10 cells/mL for up to 81 days after Excelyte’s application to slickwater fluid. The company has successfully deployed Excelyte on the Barnett, Haynesville, and Granite Wash shale regions following its initial deployment in the Marcellus, according to the paper.

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South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. (SHI) announced Wednesday that it has clinched a contract Tuesday to construct two new drillships for a company based in Oceania, the firm said in a disclosure to the Korea Exchange Wednesday.

The contract, valued at worth $1.3 billion (KRW 1.34 trillion), will take effect from April 8 to June 30, 2017. No further contract details for the drillships were available.

In late February SHI delivered to Maersk Drilling the Maersk Viking (UDW drillship), with the vessel scheduled to commence a three year contract with Exxon Mobil Corp. in the US Gulf of Mexico.

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Navy divers have been searching for parts of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane in the area where a signal was picked up.

Bass Strait Oil Company Ltd (ASX: BAS) revealed Thursday that the firm has commenced a formal divestment process for its offshore Gippsland Basin portfolio offshore Victoria, Australia as part of its forward strategy that is focused on delivering best value to shareholders.

Across Vic/P41 (BAS – 64.565 percent) and Vic/P68 (BAS – 100 percent), BAS holds a large trend focused acreage position containing significant conventional oil and gas prospects. With increasing Eastern Australian gas prices, growing customer demand for new sources of gas supply and significant value being placed on recent transactions in the Gippsland Basin, BAS believes that these assets are not being valued appropriately by the market and will consequently be seeking to extricate appropriate value for them through a divestment process.

Recent transactions in and around the Gippsland Basin have included permits within close proximity to those held by BAS and include:

• Cooper Energy (ASX:COE), the largest shareholder in BAS with a 22.9 percent equity interest, acquiring a 65 percent interest in the Basker Manta Gummy (BMG) production licenses; and
• Nexus Energy (ASX:NXS) entering into a merger implementation agreement and bridge facility with Seven Group Holdings (ASX:SVW)

The Bass Strait Oil Company CEO, Steven Noske commented: “These transactions coupled with the ongoing strength in eastern Australia gas prices, provides an opportunity for the company to realize best value for our Gippsland basin acreage. The Company intends to use any proceeds from the potential divestment of its Gippsland Basin acreage to continue to invest in new opportunities in the oil and gas sector and will remain focused on oil and gas exploration and development activities moving forward.”

The Company has engaged GMP Securities Australia Pty Ltd to assist with the divestment process and the execution of its forward strategy. BAS will keep the market informed of the progress made with the divestment process, including any potential requirement for shareholder approval to be sought for a transaction.

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SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd’s second largest shareholder plans to sell up to $305 million worth of shares in the Malaysian oil and gas services firm, according to a term sheet of the deal seen by Reuters.

Norway’s Seadrill Ltd., the world’s top offshore oil driller, is offering up to 230 million shares of SapuraKencana at 4.3 ringgit each, putting the total value of the deal at up to 989 million ringgit ($305 million).

The price is equivalent to a 3.4 percent discount to Wednesday’s closing price of 4.45 ringgit. The deal consists of a base offer of 180 million shares, with an option to grow by 50 million shares, according to the terms. Maybank was hired as sole placing agent for the selldown. ($1 = 3.2410 Malaysian Ringgits)

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AWE Limited reported that as at 06:00 hours (6:00 a.m. NZST) Tuesday, the Pateke-4H development well in petroleum mining permit (PMP) 38158 off New Zealand, including the sidetrack section, was at a measured depth of 13,395 feet (4,083 meters) with the 9.625 inch casing successfully installed and cemented to a depth of 12,037 feet (3,669 meters). Preparations are under way for the drilling of the next interval using an 8.5 inch drilling assembly to drill horizontally through the reservoir section to a planned measured depth of 17,588 feet (5,361 meters).

The Kapuni F10 sandstone objective has already been intersected on prognosis with oil shows and real time logging measurements indicating the likely presence of an oil bearing reservoir. The commercial significance of the oil shows will not be clear until the horizontal drilling is completed and the reservoir size and quality is fully assessed.

The Pateke-4H development well is in PMP 38158 and AWE is the Operator. Located in the offshore Taranaki Basin, New Zealand, PMP 38158 contains the Tui, Amokura and Pateke fields and has been producing since 2007.

Pateke-4H is targeting a mapped northern extension of the currently producing Pateke field. The well is being drilled in water depth of approximately 406 feet (124 meters) with a planned total measured depth of 17,588 feet (5,361 meters), including a 4,173 feet (1,272 meters) horizontal section. If successful, the well will be completed for subsequent tie-back to the Tui FPSO (Umuroa) for production in 2015.

The Joint Venture partners in PMP 38158 are:

• AWE Limited (via subsidiaries) (Operator): 57.5 percent
• New Zealand Oil & Gas (via subsidiaries): 27.5 percent
• Pan Pacific Petroleum (via subsidiaries): 15.0 percent

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