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Gold/Mining/Energy : Lundin Oil (LOILY, LOILB Sweden) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Greywolf who wrote (819)	11/5/1998 8:13:00 PM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 2742

Falklands: Amerada indicates data gathered so far looks relatively promising The Oil Daily, November 3: The future of the Falklands oil sector hangs in the balance, as an Amerada Hess Corp.-led consortium on Friday plugged and abandoned the last of five obligatory wells that four consortia had committed to drilling. Two earlier wells, including Amerada's first, had oil or gas shows, albeit not in commercial quantities. The driller of the other well with hydrocarbon shows, the 70-30 partnering of Shell Exploration and Production South West Atlantic with Agip Exploration, has committed to drilling one optional well. If the Shell well -- expected to be completed by the end of November -- is also abandoned, the consortia will have to decide whether to continue drilling optional wells or pack it up. Amerada indicated the data gathered so far looks relatively promising. " The two wells on Tranche A have established good source rocks and potential reservoir rocks," it said. The Tranche A consortium "will next assess the data gathered from their two wells and determine forward strategy for the acreage," Amerada said.

To: Greywolf who wrote (819)	11/9/1998 3:51:00 PM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 2742

Shell seen as last big hope for Falklands Upstream, November 6 By CHRISTOPHER HOPSON, London Explorers likely to pull out if oil major fails with its latest wildcat. OIL COMPANY enthusiasm for the Falkland Islands is waning as explorers get hit by the double whammy of a string of non-commercial wells and tighter budgets caused by low oil prices. With five wells completed and no significant drilling successes to date, oil company executives are questioning the viability of working in Falklands waters. A growing consensus emerging among the main operators is that unless Shell makes a commercial discovery with its current drilling (the last of the six commitment wells) then interest is likely to fall away. It is understood Amerada Hess has decided to move the semi-submersible drilling rig Borgny Dolphin back to the North Sea after Shell s well has been completed. "We are obviously disappointed. There are source rocks and sands but we have found nothing commercial.," said Amerada's vice president of international operations Andy Morrison. "It will be a big if should we decide to go back but I doubt it will be in a hurry." Sources have indicated that Lasmo, which drilled a dry well in tranche C, is studying what its next move should be and may well choose to downgrade its exploration effort or offload part of its interest. "We are looking at well data from all the drilling efforts to date and no formal moves have been made to sell off anything," said a Lasmo spokesman. Immediate hopes for a commercial discovery now rest with Shell s second well, Fitzroy-1, which was recently spudded by the Borgny Dolphin. The wildcat has a planned target depth of around 3000 metres. The Anglo-Dutch oil major abandoned its first well, Sebald-1A, on the tranche in early September after encountering hydrocarbon indications but not in commercial quantities. Smaller Falklands players appear keener than the bigger oil companies to try their luck with further drilling. Costs of the rig as well as final data from the drilling is being shared by all the oil companies working off the islands. "My impression is that there are going to be oil and gas fields out there but they will be smaller than originally thought and scattered around," said another senior exploration source. Players such as Desire Petroleum and Lundin Oil have expressed a keen interest in drilling wells, possibly next year, after more time has been spent on interpretation of the initial well data. "The bigger structures in the North Falklands basin may have now been drilled, proving there are no new Brent s down there, but there may still be a few smaller finds to be made," said the exploration source. Drilling began in April in the waters to the north of the disputed islands, one of the world s last unexplored sedimentary basins. Seven tranches have been licensed in total, covering 12,800 square kilometres.

To: Greywolf who wrote (819)	11/10/1998 12:01:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Will there be a market for the Falkland gas? From Upstream November 6 ENERGY BORDERS are falling across Latin America, creating opportunities from wellhead to end-use markets for both large and small upstream companies. South America is transforming into an integrated energy market. Privatization of many former state monopolies is enabling private companies to take the lead in countries right across the continent. Considering the region's severe energy deficit, "the gas marketing opportunities are quite mind-boggling", Shell International Gas business development manager Enrique Morales told Global Pacific's Latin upstream conference in Miami. Political stability, market liberalization and deregulation are also contributing to competitive, integrated energy markets, said Buenos Aires-based Pluspetrol Exploration & Production international negotiations manager Francisco Pulit. He said economic growth in South America, which averaged about 4.5% from 1993 to 1996, is expected to average about 4.3% through to 2006. Energy demand is expected to grow even faster. Gas-power integration in the "Southern Cone" countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) is shaping Bolivia and northern Argentina into a regional gas hub with proven reserves of 12 trillion cubic feet and deliverability of about 1 billion cubic feet per day, Pulit said. Shell's Morales estimates that gas demand in Brazil alone could reach more than 2 Bcf per day by 2005 from about 500 MMcf per day now "and will continue increasing thereafter". Much of the pipeline infrastructure needed to expand markets is being developed, he added. Morales said that Shell aspires to becoming "the pre-eminent and most competitive gas player in Latin America by 2010". SHELL'S upstream spending in South America could top $1 billion in the next five years with a hefty chunk of it going to projects that were believed to be off its drawing board. The company has in the last three years acquired interests in exploration and development acreage, oil and gas transportation assets, and hydrocarbon-fuelled co-generation projects in more than half-a-dozen South American countries.