Deepwater Millennium: gas discovery offshore Mozambique

Transocean’s Deepwater Millennium is performing an accelerated well testing program that includes installing observation gauges and conducting several drill stem tests for Anadarko’s natural gas wells offshore Mozambique. 

 Anadarko Petroleum Corporation reported July 18 that it has discovered a new natural gas accumulation within Offshore Area 1 of the Rovuma Basin, offshore Mozambique.
 The Orca-1 discovery well encountered approximately 190 net feet of natural gas pay in a Paleocene fan system.

Videocon Industries has sold off to ONGC Videsh and Oil India (OIL) for $2.48 billion (Rs 14,880 crore) its 10 per cent interest in the prolific oil and gas offshore block in Mozambique’s Rovuma basin. The deal is expected to help Videocon reduce its huge debt and provide a piece of pie to the two Indian oil and gas explorers chasing resources abroad.

ONGC Videsh, the wholly owned subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and OIL expect to implement the acquisition through a newly incorporated entity in which OVL would hold 60 per cent stake while OIL would have 40 per cent stake by the end of this financial year.

 The largest deal of the quarter involved ONGC and Oil India, who acquired a 10% stake in the 100+ tcf gas discovery offshore Mozambique in the Rovuma basin for $2.5 billion from Videocon Industries. The $0.50 cost per recoverable mcf of gas reserves would usually represent good value but commercialization of the asset is at least five years away and will require large upfront payments to develop the field and construct the necessary LNG exporting terminal which would have made this field fall short of many public companies’ investment appraisals. The deal follows the acquisition of Cove Energy at the end of 2012 when another national oil company, PTT, keen to gain control of the company’s flagship asset of an 8.5% interest in the Rovuma Offshore Area 1, paid $2.2 billion.

Deepwater Horizon: BP's former chief executive head of Xstrata

 Ivan Glasenberg two years ago selected Tony Hayward to back the group’s initial public offering: the Glencore chief executive sees the former BP chief executive as one of the best in the oil industry.

. They share a lifestyle that involves near-constant travel. Both had to work hard to climb the corporate ladder..

The personal connection was evident Thursday at the maiden annual meeting of Glencore Xstrata as an enlarged company in Zug, Switzerland, with both men seeming at ease with their respective roles as chief executive and interim chairman.

Yet few expect him to stay in the job for long. Genel, his post-BP vehicle, is his primary focus these days: the company is now the largest independent crude producer in Iraqi Kurdistan.

[May 16]

John Bond, a City veteran and former chairman of Xstrata, earlier surprised investors by announcing he had been voted out of the top job at the miner and trader at its first annual shareholders' meeting, which he then asked Tony Hayward, the former chief executive of BP to lead.

Bond, who had been expected to relinquish his role once a replacement was found, gave no explanation for the vote in Zug, Switzerland, which was presumably backed by Glencore executives who still own almost 25 percent of the company.

As interim chairman, Hayward, already senior independent director, is expected to lead the nominations committee which will pick a permanent replacement. The committee had until Thursday been chaired by Bond.

A new chairman is expected to be appointed by the end of the year, a second source with knowledge of the matter said.

For Hayward, who said he felt "demonized and vilified" over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the appointment at Glencore is a return to the top at a major UK-listed resource firm.

[July 25 2010]
Tony Hayward, the embattled chief executive of BP, has agreed to step down and be replaced by Robert Dudley, the company’s most senior American executive who is now in charge of BP’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a person close to the company’s board.

Deepwater Horizon: litigation frenzy

The Swiss-incorporated, Houston-based drilling contractor is caught in a litigation frenzy over claims related to the blowout of BP’s Macondo well on Apr. 20, 2010 involving British Petroleum; Halliburton (HAL), which did cement work; and several other companies, including Anadarko Petroleum (AAPC), one of the minority stakeholders in the well, and Cameron International (CAM), manufacturer of a critical piece of safety equipment known as the blowout preventer. They are wrestling over who will get stuck with tens of billions of dollars in environmental damages. Its June 22 investigative report alleged that BP used a risky well design, skimped on the heavy drilling mud needed to hold back high-pressure hydrocarbons, and kept changing its plans in a way that invited disaster. The British company revised its plans for temporarily sealing Macondo five times in the two weeks preceding the blowout, according to Transocean. The fateful changes “were driven by BP’s knowledge that the geological window for safe drilling was becoming increasingly narrow.”
Lloyd’s of London may cover BP’s “excess liability” in cleanup and other costs. under its Transocean contract affording protection to pollution “originating above the surface of the land or water.”

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Deepwater Horizon: RIG blasts BP

Transocean Ltd.'s (RIG) internal investigation blames decisions by BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, contrasting with at least two earlier reports from U.S. government agencies that put a large share of the blame on Transocean.
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Deepwater Horizon: normalized activity in 2011

Transocean's "customer relationships have not suffered" because of the company's involvement in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, Chief Executive
Steven L. Newman said. Geneva-based Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon, which was leased to BP PLC to drill its Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico.

The uncertainty surrounding U.S. offshore drilling, particularly in deepwater, will have a "limited near-term financial impact" on Transocean, which has 12 rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, Newman said. The company expects the slowdown in Gulf drilling permits to reduce fourth quarter revenue by about $200 million.

Transocean expects "normalized" activity in the Gulf by mid 2011

The story that has unfolded so far indicated the need for "top to bottom" reform of the companies according to William K. Reilly, co-chairman of the presidential commission.

Deepwater Frontier: well going to 4,000 feet

About a third of the world’s oil production occurs offshore and by 2015, that share could be half.
In East Timor, a joint venture led by India’s largest private conglomerate, Reliance, will create a test well about 1,200 meters, or 4,000 feet, below the surface in a nearby region known as Block K. environmental approval for the projects came on Sept. 20.

Of particular concern to environmentalists is that the project is to be carried out by the Deepwater Frontier, a ship belonging to Transocean, the same drilling contractor that owned the Deepwater Horizon. The April 20 explosion on that rig happened while it was drilling an exploratory well at about 1,500 meters.
Much of East Timor lives off subsistence agriculture, and there is negligible industry nor many exports. Many roads outside Dili, the capital, are barely passable by most cars.

The one exception is billions of dollars earned from offshore oil and natural gas production — money that is being used to build infrastructure and subsidize basic food needs. East Timor’s Petroleum Fund, which holds money in foreign investments, was worth $6.3 billion as of June 30, according to the latest quarterly report.

Deepwater Frontier IMO 9170224
- Drillship - Dynamic Positioning

The offshore drilling rig Deepwater Frontier is a Drillship type rig. It is currently owned by Deepwater Drilling LLC
Panama Flag.
Design: Samsung/Reading & Bates
Built: Samsung Heavy Industries at the Kyungnam, South Korea shipyard
Age: 1999
Water Depth Rating: 10,000 ft
Drilling Depth: 30,000 ft
Classification: ABS
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Deepwater Horizon: Smit Salvage on stand

The joint investigation hearings on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster began its fifth round of questioning in New Orleans on October 4, 2010. here

Deepwater Horizon: 200 lawyers

NEW ORLEANS (CN sep 17, 2010) - More than 200 attorneys filled three courtrooms Thursday for a pretrial conference to chart the course of litigation for hundreds of lawsuits involving the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. Presiding Judge Carl J. Barbier apologized that the courtroom was not large enough. "Unfortunately, this is the largest we have," he said to the roomful of more than 150 attorneys, packed along walls to the back doors.
The location was changed last minute from Judge Barbier's courtroom to larger courtroom in the Federal Courthouse, and two overspill rooms were opened before the hearing began.
"I'm not sure how many cases we already have," Barbier said, explaining that some cases from other courts have yet to be transferred to the Eastern District of Louisiana.
"Certainly there are currently hundreds and there will be hundreds, if not thousands more, filed," he said. "On top of all that, investigations by the federal government seeking criminal and civil damages are pending."
In August, a federal panel of judges selected New Orleans as the venue for all Deepwater Horizon oil spill-related lawsuits. The panel also appointed Judge Barbier.
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Deepwater Horizon: second pipe running

This crisp image taken after the section of tubing called a riser had been lifted to the dock. It's the clearest sign yet to back up the theory that a second drill pipe was also running into the blowout preventer, the huge system of valves and rams that are designed to close in the well in an emergency, and fouled up the works when the well blew.

,Anadarko Petroleum, has a 25 percent stake in the project, and its joint operating agreement with BP gives it a 25 percent share of the liability, a potentially ruinous amount. “The mounting evidence clearly demonstrates that this tragedy was preventable and the direct result of BP’s reckless decisions and actions,”

Mitsui Oil Exploration Company of Japan, which owns the remaining 10 percent of the well, said the company had given up its interest in oil from the well. The company may be hoping that relinquishing its interest will shield it from liability,

Lloyd’s of London may cover BP’s “excess liability” in cleanup and other costs. under its Transocean contract affording protection to pollution “originating above the surface of the land or water.”

Development Driller: pulling up pipe

Development Driller II (left) and Development Driller III, which are drilling the relief wells at the Deepwater Horizon oil spill site in the Gulf of Mexico.
Crews of vessels, including one boring the tunnel meant to kill the flow of crude for good, spent Friday hauling in their gear and getting out of the storm's way. Workers were pulling up a mile of pipe in 40-to-60-foot sections and laying it on deck of the drilling rig so they could move to safer water, probably to the southwest flank of the storm. earlier blog

deepwater horizon: Ixtoc 1 a bigger spill

If your criterion for the worst oil disaster is the greatest volume of oil leaked, then the Lakeview Gusher of 1910 released at least twice as much oil into a semi-desert area of California as this leak has released so far. This leak is without question the worst oil disaster at sea in United States history, but it does not yet match the volume of an Mexican oil-well blowout known as Ixtoc 1, also in the gulf, in 1979-80.

effects of the oil spill? Under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, BP, the owner of the well, has been named the “responsible party” and bears the brunt of liability for the spill. That means the company must foot the bill for the cleanup efforts and pay claims for economic damage, as well as penalties under the law. Other companies involved with the well could find themselves drawn into litigation.

BP is owned by investors all over the world. BP estimates that about 40 percent of their shares are owned by British investors, and nearly as much by American investors. Another 10 percent are owned by other Europeans, and the remaining 10 percent by investors from other countries outside Europe. Since much of the stock is owned by mutual funds, it is not easy to determine the exact percentages of the nationalities of its owners. Suffice it to say, many Americans and Britons depend on BP dividends. here







Anadarko Petroleum, has a 25 percent stake in the project, and its joint operating agreement with BP gives it a 25 percent share of the liability, a potentially ruinous amount. “The mounting evidence clearly demonstrates that this tragedy was preventable and the direct result of BP’s reckless decisions and actions,”

Mitsui Oil Exploration Company of Japan, which owns the remaining 10 percent of the well, said the company had given up its interest in oil from the well. The company may be hoping that relinquishing its interest will shield it from liability,

Lloyd’s of London may cover BP’s “excess liability” in cleanup and other costs. under its Transocean contract affording protection to pollution “originating above the surface of the land or water.” here