TJ, those are more important news - first East Africa and now West Africa, who claimed "peak oil"? Not to mention NG, IMHO within few years if no major changes occur oil and NG will be irrelevant as an extortion weapon.
Someone within the Kremlin should be very worried. IMHO clean water and food staples are the next thing to invest
FAR Ltd. expects oil bonanza offshore Senegal
by Daniel J. Graeber
Melbourne (UPI) Apr 17, 2013
disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only |
Australian energy company FAR Ltd. said Thursday developing offshore reserves in Senegal may open the flood gates for new oil deposits.
FAR Ltd. said drilling began at the offshore exploration well, FAN-1, in the deep waters off the Senegalese coast. A second well is expected immediately after FAN-1 operations are completed and the Australian explorer said they're the first offshore wells targeting deep Senegalese waters in more than 20 years.
"We have high hopes for these two wells which have the potential to be company makers for FAR," Managing Director Cath Norman said in a statement. "Of course exploration has its risks but we are confident that FAR can maximize the value from these two exploration wells."
FAR said the targeted area may hold as much as 1.5 billion barrels of oil.
FAR is a minority shareholder in the region. Its majority partners are Cairn Energy and ConocoPhillips.
Cairn, serving as an operator, said in January frontier basins off the Senegalese and Moroccan coasts were key components of its exploration agenda for 2014.
West Africa has drawn interest from international energy companies eager to tap into unexploited reserves.
Total finds oil offshore Ivory Coast
by Daniel J. Graeber
Paris (UPI) Apr 17, 2013
French energy company Total said Thursday it made an oil discovery while drilling in the deep waters offshore Ivory Coast.
Mark Blaizot, a senior vice president in charge of exploration for the French company, said the discovery was made in the San Pedro basin, a frontier exploration area off the Ivorian coast.
"Having confirmed the presence of a petroleum system containing light oil, we will next evaluate this very promising find and focus on its extension to the north and east," he said in a statement.
The drilling site was in 7,500 feet of water. Total said it encountered an oil layer that measured 131 feet thick.
The company said it would take the data from the well, Saphir-1XB, and analyze it to determine the reserve potential in the area. Total said it was pursuing an "intensive exploration program" off the Ivorian coast.
Total last year said it encountered about 91 feet of net oil pay while drilling in Ivorian waters. The company said the well confirmed an extension of reserves in the Tano basin, which hosts the giant Jubilee field in Ghana.
Technip latest to join Total offshore Angola
Paris (UPI) Apr 18, 2013 - French energy services contractor Technip said Friday one of its subsidiaries landed a construction deal to help Total with its Kaombo oil project in Angola.
Technip said it would start immediately with construction of umbilicals -- hoses and tubes used to support electrical cables and fiber optics for offshore platforms -- for Total's offshore oil project.
The French contractor said the project is one of the largest of its kind to be launched from a manufacturing facility in Lobito, Angola.
No value was given for the lump-sum contract from Total.
The French supermajor this week said it was investing $16 billion to develop Kaombo.
On Wednesday, Total awarded Italian oil services group Saipem more than $4 billion in contracts for the development of two Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading units associated with the offshore oil field.
Kaombo has an estimated 650 million barrels of
Shell finds gas offshore Malaysia
The Hague, Netherlands (UPI) Apr 17, 2013 - Shell said Thursday it encountered a major deposit of natural gas while drilling in the deep waters off the coast of Malaysia.Shell said it encountered a gas column measuring 1,476 feet thick while drilling its Rosmari-1 well in deep Malaysia waters.
"With further exploration planned, the finding is a positive indicator of the gas potential in an area of strategic interest for Shell,' the company said in a statement.
Shell has a controlling interest in Rosmari-1 in partnership with Malaysia's state-owned energy company Petronas.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports Malaysia has about 83 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves and is No. 3 in the world in terms of exports of liquefied natural gas behind Qatar and Indonesia.
Exxon Mobil Corp. in February said it started production at the Damar field off the coast of Malaysia, which has a projected capacity of 200 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. |
