PGS to conduct 4D survey of Brazilian offshore fields

Norway-headquartered PGS has secured a contract from Petrobras to conduct a 4D seismic acquisition survey over two Brazilian offshore fields.

The contract will involve surveying the Roncador and Albacora Leste fields, both located in the Campos basin, and the survey is scheduled to be completed between the second and third quarters of 2022. A Ramform-class vessel will be used for the survey works.

PGS president and CEO Rune Olav Pedersen said: “We are very pleased to provide this significant 4D survey for Petrobras in the prolific Campos basin. We have acquired several 4D surveys offshore Brazil and gained significant operational experience.

Last month, Petrobras announced plans to invest $68bn to boost oil production in the subsea pre-salt area. The Brazilian state-owned firm will make this investment over the five-year period from 2022 to 2026. This represents a significant increase from the previously announced investment of $55bn for the 2020-2025 period.

“We appreciate Petrobras’ recognition of our Ramform-vessel acquisition platform and our GeoStreamer technology, which are well suited for large, high-quality 4D acquisition programmes.”

Fire shuts down Shell’s Prelude LNG facility; crew evacuated

Shell’s Prelude has been shut down since 3 December following a fire that started the previous night. The exact cause of the blaze, which was started in an electrical utility, is unknown and an investigation has been launched.

In response, 150 of the vessel’s crew were evacuated, though a Shell spokesperson has said a “skeleton crew” remains on board.

The Prelude facility, located in northwest Australia, marked a mammoth undertaking, costing between $12bn-$17bn for its 488m-long, 74m-wide bulk and is anticipated to produce 3.6 million tonnes of LNG each year. Full capacity has never been reached however, and production has been hobbled by delays.

Operations only resumed at the site in January this year following an 11-month closure due to electrical issues and three incidents that the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority described as “dangerous occurrences”.

“The incident resulted in the loss of main power and the facility is currently operating on back-up diesel generators,” a Shell spokesperson said. “While work is underway to restore main power, production on Prelude has been suspended temporarily.”

Shell looks to re-enter Libya’s oil and gas sector

Royal Dutch Shell is reportedly planning to develop new oil and gas fields and infrastructure in Libya to tap into the country’s vast oil and gas resources.

The plan, which has been discussed with the state-run National Oil Corporation (NOC), would mark the firm’s re-entry into the country after an almost decade-long hiatus following the political unrest in the country. Shell is exploring new projects to maintain output in the country as the reserves in their existing fields have dropped due to slow drilling activity.

As a part of the new Libya plan, Shell is considering creating new oil and gas fields in blocks offshore the Cyrenaica basin and onshore the Sirte and Ghadames basins. The firm is also planning to develop new fields in the Ain Jarbi block, and re-develop ageing fields, including block NC-174 in the Murzuq basin.

Other firms, including TotalEnergies, Italy’s Eni, and ConocoPhillips, are also working in Libya’s oil and gas sector. In September 2021, Royal Dutch Shell agreed to sell 225,000 net acres in the Permian Basin to ConocoPhillips for $9.5bn.

OPEC misses oil production targets once again

A Reuters survey has found that the November oil output of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) missed its target again, marking the latest in a several months long trend that has seen OPEC nations consistently unable to reach their production quotas.

The quotas were laid out under the OPEC+ deal, which states that members should be raising their combined production by 254,000 barrels per day. According to the latest Reuters survey, OPEC’s crude oil production rose by only 220,000 bpd over the month of November.

Of the participating nations, Saudi Arabia and Iraq – OPEC’s top two producers – had the highest increases in production, while Angola saw the greatest decline, with output dropping by 50,000 bpd between October and November.

The pandemic’s impact on oil-producing continues to be felt and the market has seen significant volatility as a result. While demand is gradually picking up again, some nations simply no longer have capacity to meet the renewed calls for supply, while others are reluctant to push supplies for fear of continued restrictions and delays.

Iran’s oil production set to increase amidst talks of nuclear deal

Iran is intending to increase its oil production levels to five million barrels per day, Bloomberg has reported, the same amount as it was seeing before a clamp down in sanctions from the Trump administration in 2018.

The managing director of National Iranian Oil, Mohsen Khojastehmehr, was cited as a source for this announcement, also saying that talks are under way with Chinese companies to develop the country’s oil fields, though no further details have been given on the claim.

The news comes as the nation has restarted talks with China, France, Germany, Russia, and the UK on the reestablishment of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), more commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal. The talks, taking place in Vienna, have resumed following a five-month hiatus triggered by the election of new Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi.

The talks are also considering the US’s return to a 2015 agreement that removed sanctions against Iran – including in the oil sector – in return for the monitoring and restriction of Iran’s nuclear activities. However, some diplomats and industry members have warned returning to JCPOA will not be easy given Trump’s pulling out of the deal in 2018 and his administration imposing sanctions targeting the Iranian oil industry.

In a statement, foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said: “There is no way to return to the JCPOA without verifiable and effective lifting of all sanctions imposed on the Iranian nation after the US departure.”

Aramco awards $10bn contracts for Jafurah field development project

Saudi Aramco has awarded subsurface and engineering, procurement and construction contracts worth $10bn for the development of the Jafurah gas field.

The contracts have been awarded to 16 undisclosed domestic and international service companies for the Jafurah Gas Plant and gas compression facilities, as well as infrastructure and related surface facilities. The contracts for the unconventional gas field mark the start of the company’s development phase, with the company expecting to invest $68bn over the next ten years into the project.

According to estimations, the Jafurah basin holds 200 trillion standard cubic feet of gas, making it the Middle East’s largest liquid-rich shale gas play. The Saudi Arabian oil giant said that the Jafurah field is a ‘major component of its unconventional gas programme which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the national energy sector’.

The Jafurah field is expected to make Saudi Arabia one of the largest natural gas producers in the world and aims to produce 200 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) of gas by 2025. By 2030, the field’s production is expected to reach up to two billion standard cubic feet per day of gas, approximately 630,000 barrels per day of gas liquids and condensates, and 418MMSCFD of ethane.

Saudi Arabia Minister of Energy Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud said: “The development of Jafurah will positively contribute to the Kingdom’s energy mix and it has been made possible thanks to close co-operation between more than 17 different agencies.”