Ex John Brown Engineers India
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Market News
MIDDLE EAST, INDIA & CASPIAN
Qatar
Sasol is happy about its GTL opportunities with its first plant coming on line in Qatar early next year. The second one, in Nigeria appears to be on the start of construction while investigating the possibility of another two in Australia and Iran (Bloomberg Mar 19, 05)
The consortium of Kuwait Finance House (KFH), Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Corporation, Petrocanada and Petronas is considering plans to build a gas pipeline linking Qatar and Bahrain. The pipeline is most likely to follow the route of the proposed Qatar – Bahrain causeway (ME Digest Mar 19 05).
The pipeline would most likely follow the route of the causeway. EPC proposals are being finalized to be awarded on negotiated basis to GE Power system for the power, Weir Westgarth for desalination and Shaw International (formerly Stone Webster) for the petrochem portion (MEED Mar 17, 05)
ExxonMobil, Qatar Petroleum and Edison will be receiving commercial bids later this month from Technip with Dragados, Snam with local Rosetti Marino and Tecnicas Reunidas of Spain with Argentina’s Techint for the supply a 15,000-tonne topsides for the Rovigo LNG terminal in the Adriatic Sea off Italy. The topsides will sit on top of a concrete gravity based structure (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Bahrain
ChevronTexaco has exited after failing to find oil in three offshore areas. Malaysia’s Petronas is another foreign player that has so far failed to ?nd commercial quantities off Bahrain (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Kuwait
KGOC chairman said he was optimistic they will reach agreement with both Saudi and Iran over the sorvereignty of Dorra gas field and that a final settlement may be achievable soon. He said that gas is extremely important to Kuwait and that the Dorra development is Kuwait’s only ambition. KGOC has not plans to explore other offshore areas or to drill in already operational onshore fields (MEED Mar 17, 05)
KJO, KGOC and Aramco AGOC has launched three projects aimed at maintaining and increasing oil output in the Neutral Zone. Contractors have been invited to prequal for lump sum contract to expand the Hout’s field onshore production facilities estimated $60m in constructing storage tanks and the installation of reclaiming system at Ratawi. KJO is also drawing up shortlist of contractors for the offshore portion of the crude handling facilities consisting of subsea pipelines, cables and platform modifications. A tender is due to be released by Toyo in March (MEED Mar 24, 05)
Oman
Reliance has acquired exploration rights for the offshore Block 18 is located on the Batinah coast in the Gulf of Oman in shallow and deep water (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
India
ONGC is fast-tracking the Rs 219.77 Crore development of Block SB#11, MW of Vasai (Bassein) gas field. Success of recent exploratory well SB#11 led to determination of in-place oil potential. Development plan is a well platform for production from 1QTR07. The oil will go thru a subsea pipeline to BPA Process Complex for processing to Uran Plant (ONGC Mar 17, 05)
ONGC made a significant gas discovery in its on-going Sagar Samriddhi Deepwater Exploration campaign. The discovery well by DISCOVERER SEVEN SEAS was in VA-1A on Block No. KG-OS-DW-IV in the KG Basin is in 1,814 FSW (553 MSW) (Quest Mar 14, 05)
ONGC has started to drill in Sunderbans shallow water Block WB-OSN/200/1 offshore West Bengal in what is believed to be good prospects because of its proximity to the gas discoveries in Bangladesh. The site is 70 to 80km inside the Bay of Bengal at a depth of 10 meters (BStandard Mar 21, 05)
Nelp V has had an enormous response. As many as 69 oil and gas exploration companies have shown interest in viewing the data. The bids for NELP V close on May 31, 2005 (ASen Mar. 16, 05)
Iran
Shell and National Iranian Gas Export Co have settled the main issues over the Persian LNG project and may sign a shareholders agreement as early as May. Shell, which is partnered by Repsol-YPF, has a separate agreement on a buy-back basis for the upstream portion of Persian LNG with Pars Oil & Gas Company (POGC) (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Iran agreed gas export deals worth a total of $8 billion with Kuwait and Oman turning the heat on rival Qatar. Kuwait will take about 300 million cubic feet of gas per day from South Pars ?eld from 2007 via a 260km pipeline, under a 25-year contract. Oman agreed to take 1 Bcfd by pipeline from Iran, starting in 2008 (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Petropars has been named by NIOC to oversee the implementation of the 35′000 b/d South Pars Oilfield Development Plan carried out by Total (EPN Mar 14, 05)
Petropars has been awarded the Phase 12 development in a $3.5 billion buy-back contract that provides for foreign partners and eventual LNG facilities. The agreement provides Petropars with a 14% rate of return. Petropars has already had preliminary discussions, focussing on upstream facilities, with Eni and Statoil, whereas, for downstream, BG has been negotiating for quite some time (EPN Mar 11, 05)
The proposal for the $4 billion onshore gas pipeline from Iran to India is opposed by the U.S. who is exerting pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear program (ETimes Mar 17, 05)
Caspian
Russian Sector
VALKYRIES PETROLEUM two phase devel plan in the Caspian consisting of re-entry and WO of existing wells and drilling of new horiz wells is currently being devel. A third party reserve report has been commissioned and is exp to be completed by end of March (EPN Mar 14, 05)
Lukoil and KazMunaiGaz will sign the constituent documents of JV for develolpment of the Khvalynskaya field as well as transportation and sales of HC and refinery products (EPN Mar 14, 05)
AFRICA & EUROPE
Africa
Nigeria
Nigeria, began marketing 61 oil exploration blocks to international investors, hoping that high oil prices would tempt big bidders. The blocks ranging from highly prospective offshore areas in the Gulf of Guinea to little-known onshore blocks (Reuters Mar 12, 05)
Mediterranean
Including North Africa and Southern Europe
Algeria
Sonatrach and a consortium of partners have agreed to build a second gas pipeline to Italy, giving the country’s gas exports to Europe a further boost. Partners in the Galsi pipelines started feasibility studies in 2003 for the 770 km pipeline from Algeria to Sardinia. Algeria said construction should not take more than a year trying to finish it by early 2008 (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
Europe
UK Sector
Shell has made an oil discovery in block 22/12a, between the Nelson and Montrose ?elds in the UK Central North Sea on a block that was farmed-out to Apache. The block is located 200 km NE of Aberdeen and was acquired by Shell in 2002 (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
Shell has reviewed the remuneration policy for executive directors. It will discontinue stock option grants and enhance conditional awards under an amended Long Term Incentive Plan and amend the Deferred Bonus Plan to introduce long term performance conditions to the release of most of the matching shares (Shell Mar 18, 05)
Nexen has begun the tender for a temporary boom and flare for Buzzard, although plans are being developed to inject gas (EPN Mar 10, 05)
BP said its earnings for last year would have been $1.3 billion higher under new IFRS accounting standards. This year it is moving from reporting under UK Generally Accepted Accounting Principles to the IFRS accounting standard (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Paladin Brechin development is proceeding on schedule and budget and first oil is expected in July 2005, only 14 months after discovery (EPN Mar 18, 05)
ATP plans to complete a devel plan for Cheviot during 2005 with the goal of recording proved undeveloped reserves by the end of 2005 (EPN Mar 14 05)
Danish Sector (Denmark)
ConocoPhillips is pushing ahead with the evaluation of its Hejre discovery in licence 5/98 off Denmark after the Hejre-2 appraisal well produced encouraging (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
Norwegian Sector
Statoil Toft discovery is to be produced with a single well drilled from one of Kristin seabed templates tied back to the nearby Kristin platform. Development cost is put at NOK 655M (EPN Mar 10, 05)
Norsk Hydro received approval from Ministry of Petroleum to proceed with the development of the Vilje (former Klegg) field (EPN March 18, 05)
Oilport five-well campaign is underway to develop the Gyda field (EPN Mar 16, 05)
GULF OF MEXICO (Partial)
ExxonMobil brushed aside the benefits of surging oil prices and preached patience when it comes to spending. ExxonMobil told analysts that capital spending should edge up to about $15 billion to $16 billion in 2005 from $14.9 billion in 2004. That target could rise to between $16 billion to $17 billion in 2006 (Reuters Mar 10, 05)
BHP Billiton is understood to have received facility configurations from Atlantia of the IGC Caland group and Modec International for a full scale floating production facility to develop the Shenzi deepwater oilfield, with a source claiming that BHP favors the tension leg over a semi sub hull. McDermott, Heerema and Saipem are thought to be among the likely bidders (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
FAR EAST & AUSTRALASIA
Australia & New Zealand
ChevronTexaco has requested another bid validity extension from the two groups competing for the all-subsea upstream contract on the A$11 billion ($8.6 billion) Gorgon gas project in Australia. Technip/JP Kenny and Fluor/Intec Engineering are bidding for the front-end engineering design/engineering, procurement, construction and management contract (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
Woodside has overcome its concerns about corrosion on the subsea 12″ x 23 km pipeline in 140- meters of water, at the Echo-Yodel gas and condensate project off Western Australia, but is monitoring its performance closely. The investigation concluded that the pipeline was performing to expectations and its integrity was intact. The pipeline was installed in the fourth quarter of 2001 by Co?exip Stena Offshore, which is now part of Technip by the reelship Apache (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
ROC Cliff Head 6 has been cased and suspended as a future oil producer. Two 14km 250mm pipes, plus umbilicals, will link the platform to onshore processing plant (EPN Mar 14, 05). The development has been given the green light following the final investment decision made by the JV expecting to cost about $179.6 million. It will consist of a small unmanned offshore platform and two 14 km pipelines (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
BHP Billiton has shortlisted SBM and Modec for its conversion or newbuild Stybarrow FPSO. SBM is almost certain to offer a conversion, while Modec is going for the newbuild (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Shell has sold its stake in Laminaria-Corallina development in the Timor Sea to Woodside and Paladin for a total of $140.2 million (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Burma
Daewoo International has drilled a successful appraisal well on its Shwe (Gold) gas discovery in offshore block A-1 (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
Cambodia
National Petroleum Authority and the Deputy Prime Minister have visited Modec and are keen for ChevronTexaco to fast-track development of its 2004-2005 oil ?nds in offshore block A to begin producing as early as 2007. An FPSO is viewed as a favored option (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
China
PETROCHINA has approved the $317million development schemes for two new oil ?elds in NW China’s Jungar basin. One of the prospects scheduled for development is Nanshi 31 will start in June. The second Jungar basin ?eld due for development this year is a heavy oil prospect comprising blocks 9-7 and 9-8 (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
CNOOC is going to build two identical FPSOs for the South China Sea. Award is expected in 2006 and hull delivery Aug 2007. The scope will include Hull & LQ. DNS, HXW and SWS are invited to bid (WChen Mar 19, 05)
CNOOC will offer 10 offshore oil and gas blocks for exploration and development by foreign companies for 2005 in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea, with water depths ranging from 10 to 200 metres (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Philippine National Oil Corp., China National Offshore Oil Co. and Vietnam Oil and Gas Corp agreed to conduct a joint marine seismic survey in certain areas in the South China Sea where they have overlapping territorial claims (Quest Mar 21, 05)
CNPC is aiming to double its overseas output to 60 million tonnes a year (1.2 million barrels per day) by 2010 (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
BP has signed an agreement with Kuwait Petroleum International to investigate and develop opportunities for future joint investment in China and elsewhere in Asia (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Kerr-McGee received approval from CNOOC for the development of the CFD 11-3 and CFD 11-5 field on block 04/36 in Bohai Bay, China. Development of the CFD 11-3 and CFD 11-5 fields will utilize four horizontal wells and a single unmanned well-head platform, tied back approximately 3 miles to the CFD 11-1 gathering platform for first production in second half of 2005 (Quest Mar 14, 05)
Indonesia
BG Group is looking at expanding its presence in Asia although it has recently sold large production assets in the region. BG said it was examining a number of new drilling opportunities and the possible purchase of discovered reserves in Southeast Asia. BG said it was selling out of Kashagan because it was primarily an oil project, while the company saw little opportunity in adding value in the Tangguh project which is being led by larger UK rival BP Plc (Reuters Mar 10, 05)
BP Tangguh LNG project will be brought into operation as a phased two train start up. One of the remote project’s two initial trains will not now come into operation until 2009, although the ?rst is still being targeted to come online in late 2008 (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Perusahaan Listrik Negara, the state-owned power utility will be receiving bids from Hyundai, Marubeni and Sumitomo to build Indonesia’s first LNG terminal. The other bidders for the project are Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, Taisei Corp, Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co, France’s Tractebel SA, and PT Petrosea, a unit of Clough Ltd Sumitomo is partnering Mitsui & Co and Indonesian company PT Waskita in its bid (Bloomberg Mar 19, 05)
Eni discovered oil and in the offshore Ambalat block in waters disputed by Indonesia and Malaysia off Borneo island, near a block where Petronas has awarded two deepwater blocks to Shell and Petronas Carigali (Quest Mar 21, 05)
Malaysia
Crystal Sea is one of two near-identical FPSOs owned by Sea Tankers is understood to have a contract with Shell Malaysia for the remedial action on a subsea pipeline. The 10 year old FPSO would be brought as an oil storage facility for about 6 months while Shell conducted its works (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Myanmar
Unocal said it has finalized the settlement agreement of four lawsuits filed on behalf the people living near a gas pipeline who were allegedly subject o slave labor and other crimes. Unocal said it would compensate the plaintiffs and help fund aid programs to improve living conditions, health care and education for the people living near the $1.2 billion Yadana pipeline (Unocal Mar 21 05)
Thailand
PTT has come into the market for a feasibility study for its planned LNG import terminal for completion by September 2010. One of the aspects of the study will be to determine the optimum location for the plant, which sources said likely to be at Rayong on the Gulf of Thailand. PTTEP is set to team with PTT for parts of the project (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
Vietnam
Unocal is ready to start FEED for the $1.6 billion development off SW Vietnam but must first negotiate the sales agreements. PetroVietnam’s gas utilization masterplan projected recently that gas from Unocal’s blocks B, 48/95 and 52/97 would be ?owing in 2009 (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
PetroVietnams PM3 to Ca Mau gas pipeline project will be competed by leading installation companies and which is likely to be the largest subsea pipeline contact to b offered in 2005 in Asia Pacific scheduled for completion mid to late 2006. The 10 competing companies for the 18″ x 300km offshore pipeline are understood to include Allseas, Global Industries, Hyundai, J Ray McDermott, Saipem and Stolt Offshore (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
KNOC Rong Doi (Twin Dragon) development FPSO is likely to be awarded to Modec. Talks are under way with shipyards in China and Singapore but sources said Yantai Rafles in China was the leading candidate in a tie up with Modec(Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Other related News
Middle East, India & Caspian
Oil Industries Engineering & Construction (OIEC) has emerged as the low bidder for the buy-back contract to develop Pars Oil & Gas Co Phases 17 & 18 of the giant South Pars gas ?eld at an estimated cost of about $2 billion. OEIC was declared winner pending negotiations for a contract despite losing Technip and the local Saff as its initial partners and will have to find new foreign partner. the second lowest bidder was a group comprising Iranian company Petropars, Chiyoda, Daelim and local Idro – and including Norway’s Vetco Aibel for the offshore portion (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
Malaysia Shipyard & Engineering (MSE) and Technip have picked up sub-contracts related to Petronas Carigali’s Block 1 (East Livanov, East Livanov 2A, Gubkin and Barinov) offshore oil development in the Turkmenistan sector of the Caspian Sea. MSE has been awarded the main fabrication contract for a jack-up production barge that will be built in Malaysia and transported in modules to the Caspian Sea for final assembly. Technip is providing detailed design and procurement services, and the platform is a similar design to Technip’s TPG-500 self-installing fixed platform (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
Hyundai has filed an injunction in the Delhi High Court against India’s ONGC action in disqualifying HHI bid on the Pipeline Replacement Project. The Court has yet granted a stay on the bid processing by ONGC and the hearing is expected to take place next week. The priced bids for the project of L&T/Global Consortium (low bidder) and NPCC were opened by ONGC. HHI and IOEC Bids were not opened as they have been put on banned list by ONGC (ASen Mar 18, 05)
Intec Engineering KL office in Malaysia completed the FEED of India’s ONGC first deepwater field development offshore India in Krishna Godavari Basin in the Bay of Bengal in 1,000 FSW. Planned for completion 1QTR06. G1 project consist of subsea development with production through a subsea manifold and two multiphase pipelines tied-back 15 miles offshore to the onshore processing facility at Odalrevu. GS15 calls for modifications to an existing platform to accept new production; a new platform; and a new pipeline for tie-in to one of the new G1 pipelines to shore. Intec also prepared specifications for the technical bid packages and will approved detailed engineering and provide site supervision during execution by Clough (Quest Mar 21, 05)
Halliburton Energy Services Group and India ONGC signed a 5 year MOU to pursue services and support opportunities in India. Activities include recovery and production optimization and reservoir management; marginal field development; frontier basins; deepwater; logistic management; data and information management; joint study center for innovation and proprietary solutions; logging services; and production optimization for ONGC reservoirs through integrated project management (Quest Mar 21, 05)
Keppel wants to expand its global network of shipyards, especially in Qatar and the Middle East. Keppel Offshore said the continuing efforts to build global shipyard network was part of efforts to fight off competition (Quest Mar 21, 05)
L&T of India has been awarded a Rs 186 crore contract from ONGC for the revamp and reconstruction of the SH process platform complex in Bombay High South to be completed by April 2006 (BStandard Mar 17, 05)
Far East & Australasia
Sanggar Kaltim Jaya and Istana Karang Laut had ?led a bankruptcy petition against Total over a disputed $7.2 million payment relating to a fabrication contract for the operator’s Tunu gas ?eld Worley. The court has thrown out the petition as baseless (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
Saipem confirmed the award of three offshore construction contracts valued at $550 million in Indonesia and North Sea. Two EPIC contracts by BP for two platforms and pipelines for Tangguh LNG project in Indonesia will be installed by mid 2007 (Saipem Mar 8, 05)
Bluewater has beaten its rivals APL, Sofec and SBM for the $50 million contract for the mooring system for Peng Lai 19-3 Phase 2 FPSO (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Keppel has secured contracts worth $610.7 million from AP Moller-Maersk to build four CJ50 design jackups from Marine Structure Consultants that can operate in up to 250 ft of water. The first rig is scheduled for completion in 4QTR07 and the other three rigs consecutively at six month intervals (OGJ Mar 15 05)
Keppel FELS Ltd. has secured a contract from Odfjell Invest (Odfjell) for a repeat KFELS B class 350 FSW jackup drilling rig at $121 million. This contract follows from Odfjell’s exercise of its option, which was given to it when it signed the contract for the first rig in March 2004 (Quest Mar 21, 05)
SembCorp Industries (SCI) reached an amicable settlement of Sembawang Corp.’s counterclaims against Allseas in respect of the arbitration in the SOLITAIRE ship conversion dispute (Quest Mar 21, 05)
Sapura Crest Petroleum, Malaysia has awarded Sembawang and Holland’s Huisman Special Lifting Equipment BV (50-50 JV) a $150 million contract from to design and construct a 8,000T ABS class Self Propelled DP2 heavy lift DLB with 330 men accommodation with a Huisman 3,000ST crane and S-Lay pipelay system with expected delivery during 4QTR06. The Sapura 3000 will be deployed offshore Malaysia (Quest Mar 14 05). It is heard that Sapura has purchased bid documents from ONGC on modification work on platforms (ASen Mar 17, 05)
JCE Group’s latest $95 million accommodation platform, SAFE CONCORDIA was named in a ceremony on March 10. The vessel was constructed by KeppelFels will be deployed for 75 days in Bayu Undan field in the Timor Sea as an accommodation and construction platform. JCE also christened Safe Astoria, as its second accommodation platform which will be ready for deployment in two months (Quest Mar 14, 05)
Aker Kvaerner won a contract from Unocal for the supply of surface wellhead equipment and associated services to be used within Unocal’s Gulf of Thailand operations. The two-year contract includes options for an additional two years. If all options are exercised, the contract has an estimated value of over $35 million (Quest Mar 14, 05)
Europe & Mediterranean
Saipem has con?rmed that it has been awarded a UK North Sea pipelay contract by Talisman Energy. The 60 km pipe-in-pipe Tweedsmuir project will be carried out by the Castoro Sei between second and third quarters of 2006 (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
Saipem has been downgraded at Morgan Stanley to “equalweight” from “overweight” (AFX Mar 14, 05)
Wood Group has been upgraded to “overweight” from “equalweight” at Morgan Stanley (AFX Mar 14, 05)
Amec has been awarded the hookup and commissioning support contract for Nexen’s Buzzard oil development off the UK North Sea. Work will be undertaken in 2005 and 2006 (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
Aker Kvaerner Chief of Staff and Executive Vice President Finn Berg Jacobsen resigned effective March 15, 2005. Executive Vice President Jon Erik Reinhardsen, who is responsible for Oil, Gas, Process & Energy, Subsea and Products & Technology, will assume some of the staff responsibilities (Quest Mar 14, 05)
Aker president and CEO said that the company is not seeking adventure and are no only after mega projects and that a typical project would now be in the range of $200 to $250 million where they can leverage their capability and the risk is low. He said that the company moved away from being a general contractor to focus on key technologies and client relationships with selective bidding in Middle East with primary focus on Saudi Arabia targeting two or three projects out of 40 projects so they will not be too massive (MEED Mar 17, 05)
Subsea 7 named Ian as vice president, Global Operations and Mike O’Meara has been appointed vice president, Global HSEQ (Quest Mar 21, 05)
Africa
JP Kenny/Woodhill Frontier joint venture is set to land a front-end engineering and design contract for Tullow Oil’s proposed $360 million Kudu gas project off Namibia. According to well-placed sources, a JP Kenny/Woodhill Frontier joint venture received a letter of intent last week (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
Technip is tipped to land one or two major subsea packages for the ChevronTexaco deep water Agbami project off Nigeria, ahead of Stolt Offshore to win the URF package and is also bidding the offloading system (Upstream Mar 11, 05)
America (Partial News)
ABB Lummus Global has received ABS marine classification approval in principle for a combination LNG and LPG FPSO. The concept revolves around ABB’s Niche LNG process – a proprietary LNG liquefaction scheme based on a dual turbo expander for chilling gases to a liquid form for transport (Upstream Mar 18, 05)
Posted by R N Sharma / 28-Mar-05
This is Kvitebjorn platform based on a previous design (Oseberg Sor platform) by Aker. Jacket is installed in two pieces in a water depth of 170m. Living Quarters is designed as stressed skin in aluminium cantilevered off the MSF installed at the yard. Designed to a storm (100yr) wave height of approximately 25m.
Thanks to CV Satyanarayana for sharing this info.
By RN Sharma
MIDDLE EAST, INDIA & CASPIAN
Qatar
Qatar Heir Apparent said that Qatar is one step closer towards setting up the world’s largest LNG trains (Train 4 & 5) at the laying of the foundation stone for the $12.8 billion Qatargas II project (70:30 JV between Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil) at Ras Laffan. $7.67 billion was raised from 57 institutions. A dedicated gas receiving terminal is being constructed at Milford Haven, West Wales in the UK to load Qatargas’s LNG starting winter 2007-2008. Thru Qatargas II (15.6mn tonnes annually), Qatargas 3, the refinery and other facilities, Qatar will be able to increase the annual LNG capacity to over 33mn tonnes and decrease unit costs (QTimes Feb 28, 05)
Shell and Qatar Petroleum signed a deal worth up to $7billion to supply LNG from Qatargas 4 project. QP is expected to sign a separate $3 billion petrochem deal with Shell as well as an estimated $3 billion with Total for a 5mn tonnes per year stake in Qatargas 2 (QTimes Feb 28, 05).
Qatar, Total and ExxonMobil signed the deal for Qatargas II LNG which targets North American and European markets. The agreement is the second Qatar has signed in the past two days. Total will invest $3.5 billion including $1 billion in the second production unit at Qatags II. Total will buy up to 5.2mn tonnes a year of LNG for 25 years. The second train will be owned by Qatar Petroleum with 65% while ExxonMobil will hold 18.3% and Total 16.7%. Output from the second train will be split equally between the UK, France and the US (QTimes Mar 1, 05)
Shell has signed a 10-year lease with Qatar Foundation for its Research and Technology Center. Shell plans to invest $100 million in the facility located in QF Science and Technology Park (MEED Mar 10, 05)
Prequal is underway for the EPC platforms package on the Shell/QP Pearl GTL expected to be issued for bid in May. Award is scheduled for Jan 2006 for the two wellhead jackets with topsides. Another package covering the pipelines will be tendered (MEED Mare 3, 05)
ConocoPhillips and Qatar are hoping to finalise a Heads of Agreement this year for Qatar’s third GTL plant. The project would be similar to Shell’s. Award of EPC contracts by 2006 for start of production by 2009 to 2010 (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Deputy Premier said Qatar had requests for LNG supply twice its production capacity and that it was imperative to increase LNG production to meet the needs of customer at the demand growing 3% annually. Also said that a minimum of $70 billion would be invested in LNG and GTL by 2010 (QTimes Feb 28, 05)
Deputy Premier said that Qatar planned to supply 5 billion cu.ft of natural gas every day to GCC countries thru a pipeline, and that work on the Dolphin to UAE is progressing. Also are awaiting permission from Saudi Arabia to lay a gas pipeline to Kuwait and another to Bahrain. (QTimes Feb 28, 05)
RasGas-II has signed a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with the Distrigas for the annual supply of 2.05mn tonnes of LNG to the Zeebrugge Terminal in Belgium for 20 years from 2007. Rasgas-II would make available the LNG required for Distrigas either from its Train-4 or Train-5 and deliver it to Zeebrugge Terminal on an ex-ship basis (QTimes Mar 1, 05)
Sasol and US firm ChevronTexaco will build a plant in Qatar to produce “high quality base oils” from natural gas. The $200 million plant will be built as part of Oryx GTL project, due to be commissioned early next year at Ras Laffan (Qtimes Mar 2, 05)
ONGC Videsh of India is eyeing Qatar as part of its aggressive sourcing of oil equity abroad. OVL already has projects in Vietnam, Russia, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Myanmar, Australia, and Ivory Coast. It is further pursuing oil and gas exploration blocks in various oil and gas rich countries. ONGC’s strategic objective of sourcing 20mn tonnes of equity oil abroad per year is likely to be fulfilled well before 2020 (QTimes Mar 2, 05).
ONGC Videsh has won the prospective offshore Najwat Najem Oil acreage, located about 100 km NE of Doha. The oil structure was discovered several years ago and requires appraisal. The terms of this agreement call for an initial two years appraisal. It may be connected to Halul Island for processing and export (AFP Mar 3, 05)
Shell and ExxonMobil may double sales to India by 2007 as economic growth boosts demand for the fuel. Sales may rise to 10 mtpa worth about $2.2 billion over the next three years according to India’s Petronet LNG and Shell which plans to start up a rival terminal by April (FExpress Feb 15, 05)
QP is studying a proposed £3 billion new phase development plan by Maersk to double output from offshore Al Shaheen. A final decision is expected in the second half of the year (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Saudi Arabia
Saudi plans to offer foreign companies new acreage for gas exploration as part of efforts to add to the country’s reserves and help meet growing domestic demand. A new licensing round would be held within the next three to four years (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
UAE
Zadco has awarded a contract to Veco to carry out a conceptual study on a project aimed at reducing water cuts at the Upper Zakum oil field. The Offshore Producing Water Facilities project is aimed at handling increasing water production at the oil field and will look at ways of separating, treating and disposing of water at three offshore platforms and transporting it to onshore. More work is planned by Zadco at the full field development of the offshore Satah field. Mott MacDonald, Parsons, Veco and Foster Wheeler and Shaw Group were prequalified for the Project Management Consultancy work on the project (MEED Feb 24, 05)
ENOC processing Company has invited six international companies to submit bids in April for the main contract for its $350 million Jebel Ali condensate refinery expansion project that will involve the installation of a 70,000 bpd hydrotreater and catalytic reformer and upgrade existing facilities on fast track basis. Foster Wheeler is the FEED contractor (MEED Feb 24, 05)
Fujeirah Government and Ukrain Naftogas company signed a Dh 5.4 billion deal involving oil and natural gas exploration in Fujeirah and Abu Dhabi (GN Mar 3, 05)
India
Premier has agreed to take over the operatorship of Ratna and R series oil and gas fields off Mumbai. The fields were awarded to a consortium of Essar Oil and Premier in 1996 but the PSC could not be signed due to doubts about Essar’s financial capability (BStandard Feb 22, 05)
ONGC celebrated the return of crude oil production from Bombay High to 270,000 bpd for the first time in 8 years. The enhanced output level was achieved by reducing back pressure on the wells, debottlenecking of surface facilities and pipelines, optimisation of the gas-lift mechanism and timely installation of clamp-ons and N9-N10 platforms, and drilling of several sidetracks (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
ONGC Videsh of India (49%) has signed a deal with Venezuela (51%) to operate San Cristobaan oilfield and import the output (Reuters Mar 6, 05)
ONGC has discovered a gas field at G1-12 well with potential reserves of about 4 trillion cubic feet in the deep-water Krishna Godavari basin off the country’s eastern coast. The well in 2,400 meters of water is located just 15km south of the G-1 field in a pre-New Exploration Licensing Policy block (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
ONGC said it made a significant discovery in the deepwaters at VA-1A in Block KG-OS-DW-IV in Krishna Godavari basin 30km from Amalapuram coast and about 75kms from kakinada port in 553 meters of water (FExpress Mar 5, 05)
ONGC announced tenders for Booster Compressor Platform BCP-B2 with likely award by July 1, 2005 (BStandard Feb 22, 05)
ONGC announced tender for Vasai East Development for one Booster Compressor Platform BCPA2 with process facilities and associated piplines 8” & 10” of approx 10 km (BStandard Mar 2, 05)
Reliance sold its entire 8.6 million shares in ONGC (or 0.6% of equity in ONGC) for $170 million to around 26 funds of foreign portfolio investors (Reuters Mar 3, 05)
Indian Oil Corp has appointed Sarthak Behuria as the new chairman and managing director replacing MS Ramachandran who retired (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Iran
Pars Oil & Gas Company is expected to receive fresh proposals from four consortia for the South Pars Ph 17 & 18 that include the consortium led by Iran Marine Industries (Sadra) and local Ghorb Khatem and Aker. Other bidders are Technip with oOil Industries Engineering and Saff Offshore, Chiyoda with Deaelim and Petropars, Hyundai with LG and Foster Wheeler with Iran shipbuilding & Offshore Industries (MEED Feb 24, 05)
Repsol YPF and Shell should start to carry out exploration, development and marketing of gas under a contract signed in 2004 for South Pars Stage 13. Tech studies and engineering activities will start once the contract is finalized. Project is a $4 billion investment ($1.5 billion for drilling, $2.5 billion for refining, marketing, distribution). Production should start in 2010. NIOC will hold 50%, Repsol YPF and Shell 25% each (EPN Feb 28, 05)
Pars Oil development of South Pars Ph 6, 7 & 8 is now almost $200 million over budget. Overall budget is over $1 billion. Cost overrun would be offset, however, by increase in production capacity (EPN Feb 25, 05)
Pars Oil discovered a gas field south of South Pars Field in Bushehr. The field is to be developed jointly with Qatar (EPN Mar 9, 05)
Caspian
Azerbaijan
ExxonMobil has decided to cut its exploration program on the Zafar (D9), Mashal (D-38) (Suleyman Vezirov) block (EPN Feb 25, 05)
Kazakhstan
ChevronTexaco and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium CPC will invest $1.5 billion to expand its oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea, enabling the central Asian state to export more crude and natural gas. They plan to more than double the pipeline’s capacity by 2008 (Bloomberg Mar 6, 05)
Amec is joining forces with McDermott in a fight against Aker Kvaerner and Saipem for a hook-up and commissioning contract for Agip Kashagan project likely to be worth between $400 million and $600 million. Technip is understood to have pulled out of the running (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
ENI has confirmed that members of the Kashagan development consortium are close to an agreement with the Kazakhstan government over the purchase of BG Group’s share in the project (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
AFRICA & EUROPE
Nigeria
Nigeria, facing a possible drop in fiscal oil revenue, is discussing ways to toughen contractual terms for big new offshore oil discoveries (Reuters Mar 3, 05)
Equatorial Guinea
Marathon has started evaluating the technical and commercial potential of an oil rim in its Alba gas/condensate field (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Mauritania
Woodside has suspended its key Tiof-6 oil well off Mauritania as a potential future producer and will now firm up its development plans for the deep-water discovery (Upstream Feb 25, 05). Woodside want another appraisal well drilled on the field o obtain more accurate assessment (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Egypt
ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) of India (70%) and its US partner IPR Energy Red Sea (30%) won exploration rights over an oilfield in Egypt. The block covers an area of 290sq km (116sq miles) in the central part of the Gulf of Suez, stake in the North Ramadan-Block No 6 oilfield (AFP Mar 2, 05)
Arabian Oil Company has confirmed that it is to sign a PSC with EGPC for the Northwest October oil and gas field in the Gulf of Suez. Exploration would start later this year and expect production in 2007 of about 12,000 bpd of crude. AOC plans to invest between $29 million and $38 million at Northwest October. BG had declared EGB-1 and Union’s Sabil 1 as commercial in September 95 but relinquished the lease two years later when it could not meet the regular production called for in its agreement (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Libya
Occidental signed contract agreements with Libya’s National Oil Company for nine exploration blocks awarded in the EPSA-4 oil and gas licensing round in January. Occidental is also the operator and holds a 90% working interest in onshore Blocks 106 and 124 in the Sirte Basin, Blocks 131and 163 in the Murzuk Basin and Block 59 in the Cyrenaica Basin. Liwa Energy, owned by the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, holds the remaining 10% interest. Occidental also holds a 35% working interest in offshore Blocks 35, 36, 52 and 53, with Liwa holding a 10% share. Woodside Petroleum Ltd. has a 55% interest and is the operator (Occidental Mar 6, 05)
Europe
UK Sector
GASSCO Statfjord late-life development that includes the pipeline to Flags has received gvnt approval; it is planned for 2H 2006 and gas exports for 2H 2007 (EPN Mar 9, 05)
Dutch Sector (Netherlands)
Gasunie has penned a credit deal with BNP Paribas and ING Bank to help fund the Balgzand to Bacton Gas Pipeline (BBL) project (EPN Mar 9, 05)
Norwegian Sector
Norsk Hydro official is visiting Gazprom in Moscow to seek clarification from the Russian company on what will be required to participate in the development of the giant Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
Norsk Hydro has submitted a development plan for its $640 million Fram East subsea development in the North Sea (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
BP operator of Skarv, field development is likely to be delayed to 2012. Norway gas infrastructure operator Gassco states that Skarv gas should be transported through ATS to Kaarsto. (EPN Feb 25, 05)
GULF OF MEXICO (Partial)
DET Norske Veritas (DNV) has released a new recommended practice providing guidance for cost effective and safe design of top-tensioned risers on deep-water platforms. RP-F203, issued last week for industry comment, applies primarily to spars and tension-leg platforms, common users of top-tensioned risers (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
FAR EAST & AUSTRALASIA
Australia & New Zealand
Nexen has completed its exit from Australia with the successful decommissioning of the Buffalo oilfield in the Timor Sea. The Buffalo Venture FPSO vessel is currently in Singapore before relocating to the Jasmine field in Thailand (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
Woodside has plugged and abandoned its third deep-water exploration well in the Exmouth sub-basin off Western Australia after confirming it was non-commercial (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
Australian Worldwide Exploration Limited (AWE) revealed that the New Zealand Overseas Petroleum-operated PEP 38460 joint venture approved commencement of FEED work for the development of the Tui/Amokura/Pateke (Tui Area) oil fields in the Taranaki Basin, offshore New Zealand. Four or five subsea oil production wells may be tied back to an FPSO. (Quest Feb 28, 05)
The APC consortium of AGL,and Petronas is about to tender a FEED contract workth $20m for the Australian portion of the ExxonMobil operated PNG Gas Project. The Australian component is from the PNG terminal facility through the Torres Strait and down through Australia, and includes a combined 3000 kilometres of subsea gas pipeline and onshore Australian pipeline and facilities. This Australian portion will be built, owned and operated by the APC consortium of AGL and Petronas, which was appointed after an international tender process in 1997 (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Origin is a little behind schedule for issuing tenders to prequalified contractors now due mid March for the $290m Kupe gas and condensate development off New Zealand (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Agip Scalybutt-1H well is completed as producer and is ready to be tied into Woollybutt FPSO prod facility via Woollybutt-2 manifold (EPN Mar 9, 05)
China
CNOOC has stepped up work on natural gas development in the South China Sea in a bid to provide feedstock for its natural gas-based chemical production in Hainan Island. The company is developing one gas field, the second phase of Dongfang 1-1, and is preparing to develop the Ledong 15-1 and 22-1 fields located in the Yinggehai basin (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
PetroChina has scheduled startup of its field Dina 1 & Dina 2 for year end 2006, when it will be tied into the West-East pipe. It is expected to go on production in early 2007 (EPN Mar 3, 05)
PetroChina has approved Shell’s devel plan for the Changbei field. PetroChina has submitted the plan to the National Development & Reform Commission for final approval (EPN Mar 3, 05)
KerrMcGee has received approval from CNOOC for the development of CFD 11-3 and CFD 11-5 fields. First production from the development is expected in 2H 2005. Fluids will be processed on Hai Yang Shi You 112, KMG Global Producer VIII FPSO (EPN Mar 8, 05) plan to the National Development & Reform Commission for final approval (EPN Mar 3, 05)
Indonesia
Indonesia protested Malaysia’s move to award oil production sharing contracts to Royal Dutch/Shell in two offshore blocks, which Indonesia claims are within its territory. Earlier this month, Petroliam Nasional Bhd awarded contracts to two of Shell’s Malaysian units and to Petronas Carigali for deep-water blocks ND6 and ND7, off the coast of Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo Island. Indonesia claims that Malaysia’s water territory extends up to just 19 km from the islands (AP Feb 25, 05)
Indonesian navy has deployed three warships to waters claimed by Jakarta where the Malaysian government has conducted oil production sharing activities. In addition, Indonesia also deployed two Nomad maritime airplanes to conduct reconnaissance of a possible violation against the country’s territory, including airspace violations by foreign aircraft (DPA Mar 1, 05)
Santos is looking to fast-track liquids production at its Jeruk oil and gas field which is located in 44 meters of water 42 km East of Surabaya, and is hoping to firm up the development concept within six months (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
Santos has appointed Kenneth Dean and Christopher Recny to its Board of Directors (Energy N Mar 1, 05). Gary Christenson has been appointed as president of its expanding Indonesian Operations and will be based in Jakarta (Quest Feb 28, 05)
Lundin plans to spend $45 million on exploration this year, up 40% from 2004, including a wildcat in Indonesia. Lundin intends to spud the Cipari 1 exploration well on its Banyumas PSC (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
BP was officially granted an extension to its Tangguh Field devel contract covering the Berau, Muturi, and Wiriagar Blks up to 2035. Extension of the contract will guarantee supply of LNG and customers for LNG exports for 25 years (EPN Mar 9, 05)
Malaysia
ConocoPhillips and partner Petronas Carigali have obtained a PSC allowing them to develop the Kebabangan oilfield in Block J off Sabah (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Papua New Guinea
AGL / Petronas issued a tender, valued at $19.6 million, for FEED of the Australian segment of the gas pipe PNG to Brisbane (EPN Feb 28, 05). APC will call for tenders in March 2005 for A$25 million FEED for engineering, design, route selection and financial viability and environmental clearance process. The project target initial gas deliveries from late 2008 (Energy N Mar 1, 05)
South Korea
KNOC has discovered gas reserves with explo well Gorae VIII-1. The well was drilled by semisub Ocean General. KNOC plans to begin production in 2007 (EPN Mar 4, 05)
Thailand
PTTEP has sold for $236.5 million cash its stake in Indonesian independent Medco Energi, but it will still be looking to bid jointly for projects in Indonesia with the company (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
Vietnam
PIDC attempted to tap a possible new gas pool at Tien Hai C but the THC-04 devel well was p&a as a dry hole (EPN Mar 3, 05)
Russia
Sakhalin & East
Russia’s Odoptu and Chayvo (Sakhalin) to Dekastri Terminal pipeline design incorporates advanced technologies, including directional drilling for subsurface crossing of water bodies, automated shut-off valves for emergencies, and a software-based leak detection system (EPN Mar 4, 05)
Construction of the de-Kastri Harbor (DeKastri) oil loading terminal should be completed in 2005 and be fully put on stream in 2006. It will allow export of 12Mtpy of oil from Sakhalin 1 in 2007 (EPN Mar 4, 05)
Some 240km of the remaining 375km gas pipe have already been laid on the Sakhalin to Russia Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Khabarovsk. A 127km segment is already functioning (EPN Mar 4, 05)
Other related News
Middle East, India & Caspian
NPCC was awarded by Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Co (Takreer) a Dh 120 million EPIC contract for the onshore Gas Development OGDIII condensate storage tanks project, package five for the Ruwais refinery (GN Mar 2, 05)
IOOC has issued prequal tender asking foreign and local consulting engineering companies to express interest in providing specialised services, particularly in process mapping. It is running a much delayed tender for EPC contract on Kharg gas gathering (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
Nexan of Norway has been awarded a $67million contract by Dolphin Energy to manufacture and install umbilical lines from offshore platforms to the plant at Qatar’s Ras Laffan (GN Mar 3, 05)
Wavespec has been appointed to provide specialist engineering staff to Qatargas II LNG. The personnel will carry out studies on future shipping requirement and shipping systems and prepare technical specs for LNG tankers (MEED Mar 10, 05)
Hyundai and ONGC have locked horns over the validity of papers submitted for a $40 million contract for flexible pipes. Hyundai submitted Bureau Veritas certificates to say the pipes were suitable to ONGC’s needs. In Oct BV published an ad saying the documents were not genuine and should be treated as forged. A month later, Denmark’s NKT Flexibles which manufactured the pipes also took out similar ad to say it did not give these documents to Hyundai. ONGC served an ultimatum to Hyundai after failing to respond to several reminders (BStandard Feb 15, 05)
JP Kenny of Wood Group has been awarded contract by Zadco for design of potential replacement Zakum Main Oil Line, the 60km x 42” pipeline transports oil from Upper to Zirku Island. The pipeline has been in service since 1982 (GN Feb 25, 05)
Far East & Australasia
Transfield Worley JV is facing a battle to retain a lucrative multi-year contract worth about $25 million annually for the Woodside-operated North West Shelf operations in Australia. The scope includes LNG, LPG and domestic gas plants as well as offshore facilities including two of the world’s largest platforms North Rankin A and Goodwyn A and the FPSO Cossack Pioneer. The contract renewal is facing competition from Amec/Clough and Fluor who prequalified for the bid (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
Worley Parsons and KBR JV won the FEED for the Woodside Angel gas and condensate development off Western. Angel is earmarked for the North West Shelf Venture’s (NWSV) liquefied natural gas supply commitments. Fabrication of the platform, which is likely to occur at an Asian yard, is due to begin in late 2006 or early 2007 (Upstream Feb 25, 05).
Foster Wheeler and WorleyParsons have been confirmed as EPCM contractors for the proposed A$2 billion ($1.6 billion) train five expansion of the North West Shelf gas project in Western Australia (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
WorleyParsons reported an 80.5% rise in net profit to $18 million for the half year to 31 December 2004 (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Daewoo confirmed it has won a $978 million order to build the FPSO for ChevronTexaco’s Agbami field in the deep waters off Nigeria (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
Technip CSO DEEP BLUE is speculated to be likely frontrunner for ChevronTexaco’s Agbami EPIC URF contract, a significant workscope, with formal award slated for Q2 2004 (Quest Feb 28, 05)
Technip has signed a MOU for the sale of its diving support vessel Marianos to Mermaid Offshore Services to be handover in August 2005. Vessel will operate in SE Asia, particularly in the Gulf of Thailand (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Consafe was awarded by Samsung a $23 million sub-contract for providing an accommodation and service vessel to support offshore hook up and commissioning of topsides for Sakhalin 2 Complex of Phase II project. The nominated vessel Safe Bristolia is currently undergoing conversion and upgrading work to accommodate 550 people at China’s Yantai Raffles shipyard, which Consafe said will be completed by the end of this year (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Clough Limited’s Sino-Thai Joint Venture fabrication and assembly facility has signed its first contract – a US$40 million project with Alcan for the fabrication of preassembled modules for the Gove G3 Expansion project. The JV between Clough and STP&I, a member of Thailand’s Sino Thai Group, was announced in November 2004. The JV is utilising a waterside fabrication facility in the Sattahip port area, principally to target the Asian and Australian oil and gas fabrication and integrated process module markets. The facility is situated close to Thailand’s eastern seaboard petrochemical complex. Clough now offers full design expertise – through Shedden Uhde Thailand – and fabricate and install capability, from its Thai operations (Energy Mar 1, 05)
Clough reported a net loss of $42 million for the six months of 2004 which includes provisions of $45.3 million in connection with the BassGas contract. Orders won during the period totaled $827 million, generating work in hand at December 31 of $925 million. The resulting work in hand, notably from ONGC and BG India was up 81% from $510.9 million for the previous corresponding period and more than double the $407.6 million figure at June 30, 2004 (Energy Mar 1, 05)
Global Industries fleet utilization in Asia Pacific improved from 17% during 4QTR03 to 57% during 4QTR04. The DLB 264 and DLB 332 continue to work on a three year pipeline project offshore Malaysia, while the SEMINOLE is working for Talisman offshore Malaysia. In the Middle East region, the IROQUOIS completed pipeline scope of work for FMC’s Sontrach project offshore Algeria, while the TONKAWA continues to work on pipeline tie-in portion of the contract with completion slated for Q2 2005 (Quest Feb 26, 05)
GIL Mauritius Holdings has been awarded by CNOOC China a $125 million contract to install 338km of 20″ pipe and 1.8km of 12″ pipe for the Panyu/Huizhou gas devel project. Panyu – Huizhou – Guangdong (EPN Mar 4, 05)
Subsea 7 has been awarded a $750,000 contract for the provision of remotely operated vehicle services to Woodside for the next twelve months (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
BP gave the go ahead for its Tangguh LNG project and signed the engineering contracts after it was granted a key license extension. The onshore EPC contract for onshore work had been signed with a consortium of Kellog B&R and Japan JGC and Indonesian PT Pertafenikki Engineering. Saipem won the contract to build the offshore installations and pipelines (Reuters Mar 8, 05)
Europe & Mediterranean
KBR Production Services has won a contract from Badr Petroleum Company (Bapetco) to provide engineering and support services for the Obaiyed gas plant in Egypt over two years (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
KBR has confirmed plans to sell its mothballed Nigg fab yard in Scotland which possesses about 25% of the UK major yard capacity and also boasts the largest drydock facility in Europe (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Stolt Offshore returned to profit in 2004 after completing projects that caused it so many problems in 2003. Net income stood at $5.1 million for the year on revenues of $1.24 billion compared to 2003 which consisted of a loss of $418 million on revenues of $1.48 billion (Upstream Feb 25, 05).
LB200 is to commence the Langeled pipelay project in 2QTR05. Stolt observed that the initial phases of the Santos Casino and the Sakhalin construction projects progressed according to plan. The SEAWAY HAWK has be mobilized to the region where the vessel is being actively marketed for SURF work. Stolt stated that the deepwater SURF trend is strengthening in the region and sizeable projects are emerging (Quest Feb 28, 05)
Technip reported a 35.9% increase in Net Income for 2004 over the last year at Eu138.1 million before Non-Operating Items and Goodwill Amortization Reported that contracts such as Qatargas II, Freeport, Kikeh and Horizon place Technip at the cutting edge of the gas processing, deepwater and non-conventional oil markets (Technip Feb 25, 05)
Saipem reported that full year sales rose to Eu 4.306 billion from Eu 4.231 billion a year earlier but were affected by the Euro’s appreciation against the dollar (Saipem Feb 25, 05)
Oceaneering reported Q4 2004 net income of $11.7 million on revenue of $226.0 million, compared to a Q4 2003 net income of $6.1 million on revenue of $162.1 million. For the full-year 2004 Oceaneering reported net income of $40.3 million, or $1.57 per share, on revenue of $780.2 million, compared to net income of $29.3 million, or $1.20 per share, on revenue of $639.2 million for 2003. The company’s Subsea Products division reported 2004 operating income of $10.9 million, up 150% over 2003 operating income of $4.5 million (Quest Feb 28, 05)
Keppel has won contract from Maersk Norway to modify the hull of MST Odin which is being converted into a FPSO for the Alveim field (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
AMEC has won a contract for the hook-up and commissioning support on the UK Nexen Buzzard production platform (EPN Mar 7, 05)
Heerema’s Vlissingen yard is fabricating the 880 T jacket for Netherlands Gas De France K2b-A and 830T G17d-AP platforms. Installation is forecast between March and July 2005 with Seaway Heavy Lifting’s Stanislav Yudin vessel. Bam Steel Structures is building an 1100 T topsides for K2b-A. and 2000t deck for the G17d-AP platform. Pipelines for G14, G16 will be installed by Allseas in July. Nami is building jackets for the G14-A and G16a-A platforms. GdF decided to re-use the 740t deck from the K11-B and the 600t deck from the K12-E platforms on the new G14 A&B and G16a-A platforms (EPN Mar 7, 05)
CB&I has been awarded $325 million for the second phase EPC contract for the UK gas receiving terminal for Qatar Gas II LNG which calls for doubling the facility regas and send out capacity, refurbish a second loading berth and two additional LNG storage tanks at Milford Haven. Phase 1 was awarded in October (MEED Mar 10, 05)
Africa
KBR announced award of an engineering services contract from Cabinda Gulf Oil Co. for the Tombua Landana Drilling Production Platform in Block 14, Cabinda, Angola. The project will include definition and development of engineering bid packages and has an estimated total installed cost of $1.5 bn (KBR Mar 2, 05)
Global Industries vessels in West Africa recorded 0% utilization for the quarter. Global noted that little or no opportunities remain for the Navajo. During 1QTR05 the Commanche will install 18” and 36” pipelines for the Tema project offshore Ghana (Quest Feb 26, 05)
Stolt has been tipped as the favourite to win the last major contract from Amerada Hess for the Okume complex, formerly Northern Block G off Equatorial Guinea (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
Jagal Group of Nigeria which controls the Lagos NigerDock has won approval to create a full Export Free Zone around its base. The deal will raise the yard into the frontline for deepwater contracts and marine servicing operations (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
America
(Partial News)
Torch Offshore bankrupt and lien holder GE Capital have reached an agreement to hold an auction in late April or early May for the Torch vessels Midnight Wrangler, Midnight Eagle, Midnight Runner and pipeline burial dredge Midnight Gator. GE has agreed to act as a stalking horse bidder by ponying up $18.36 million, which means if no one buys the vessels GE will take over as owner of the equipment for that amount. GE has about $22 million in liens, and other vendors have liens on the assets of about $7.4 million, which adds up to $29.4 million in total claimed against the vessels. Stolt had offered more than $70 million to buy the Midnight Express when Torch filed for bankruptcy. Subsea 7, Technip and J Ray McDermott are also potential bidders, according to an industry source. Estimates of the fair market value for the Midnight Express range from $60 million to $105 million (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
Torch Offshore GM of Business Development James Mermis has resigned as well as pipelay project engineer Mary Scardino Nash (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
Houston Offshore Engineering (HOE) is in talks with Keppel Fels and McDermott over a possible deal that could see HOE provide engineering support for the patented floater designs Keppel and J Ray acquired from ABB Lummus Global last January (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
Han Padron (HPA), coastal and marine engineers, headed by Michael Praught, who recently worked on TLP for Modec, has opened a new office in Houston to focus on civil and marine engineering including LNG receiving terminal design as well as provide engineering support for deep-water platforms (Upstream Feb 25, 05)
Cal Dive confirmed that it has been engaged in talks with other marine companies. It is believed that Cal Dive intends to buy competing dive boat fleets in the region. Cal Dive said Stolt fleet of dive boats in the US Gulf was one target (Upstream Mar 4, 05)
By MRC Nagarajan
The other day I was reading a book on corrosion, in which I found this poem.
Stress Corrosion
The image of stress corrosion I see,
Is that of a huge unwanted tree.
Against whose trunk we chop and chop,
But which out grows the chips that drop,
And from each gash made on its bark
A new branch grows to make more dark.
The shade of ignorance around its base
Where scientists toil with puzzled faces.
— SP Rideout (1967)
I do not know about the quality of poem, but the content impressed me. Even to day we are not aware of the full extent this form of corrosion affecting our material world. Just like the type and number of allergens in nature which affects us. Just see how the basic thin document NACE MR0175 has grown into ISO 15156! There is cracking possible with stress, without stress, there is hydrogen induced cracking, chlorine induced cracking, hydrogen sulphide induced cracking, cracking of nickel base alloys in boiler condensate water, dry ammonia causing cracking on carbon steel, ammonia cracking brass material in stressed condition, and the mercury compounds just accelerating this aspect, common salt cracking stainless steel, etc., etc.
There are several theories what might be causing the cracking of material in various environments, how some prevents its and how some accelerates it. But yet they stop at some point.
Should we start a chain correspondence to collect what we have seen or learnt in course of our service on this colourful subject?
Sometimes a load of email everyday is overwhelming and it can occupy considerable amount of your productive time. So, how to deal with the distraction of you’ve got mail? 43 Folders has some really effective tips. 4 ways to take control of your e-mail inbox is another similar such gem from Microsoft.
Course Overview: The short course will provide the participants with state-of-the-art knowledge on tubular structures. Tubular hollow sections are increasingly used in offshore structures, large-span roofs and multi-storey buildings due to their excellent properties and the associated advances in fabrication technology. The course will cover a wide range of topics, including guidance for strength and fatigue design for various types of connections. Recommendations from CIDECT, API and ISO will be highlighted and discussed. Advanced analysis techniques for frames and connections will also be introduced to provide a preview to integrated strength analysis of complex frames.
The course is held between March 15-17 in Singapore organized by the National University of Singapore. For more details and registration enquiries, please contact Ms Lilian Choong (Email: engcll@nus.edu.sg, Tel: +65 6874 5113 / +65 6778 2314).
Thanks to John William R for sending this info.
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