Exploration activity on the Norwegian shelf 'remains vigorous', with 13 new discoveries made this year, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD). As of 24 June, 33 exploration wells (23 wildcat and 10 appraisal wells) have been spudded and 33 terminated…
Statoil’s Brugdan II well offshore the Faroe Islands is being plugged and abandoned after finding no hydrocarbons. The well, which was a re-entry of the 6104/21-2 well, was drilled to 4542m, 130km offshore the Faroe Islands. Drilling…
Tangiers Petroleum has said the Ralph Coffman jackup rig started drilling at the TAO-1 exploration well, offshore Morocco, yesterday. The TAO-1 well is within a proven petroleum system, adjacent to the Cap Juby heavy oil discovery and has been designed to test up to three stacked objectives…
Eni has entered into a production sharing contract (PSC) with state-owned PetroVietnam for the exploration of Block 122, off eastern Vietnam. The Italian firm’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, met with PetroVietnam President and CEO, Do Van Hau, in…
Ophir Energy says its Okala-1 well in the Mbeli Block offshore Gabon found developed sandstones but no significant hydrocarbon shows. The well was drilled by the Vantage Titanium Explorer drillship to a depth of 4229m measure depth targeting Cretaceous sands in the pre-salt section…
A wildcat well drilled by E.ON E&P Norge in production licence 558 was dry, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. Well 6507/5-7, which was the first well drilled in PL 558, was drilled about 18km southeast of the Skarv field in the Norwegian Sea…
One successful oil discovery in Ireland’s offshore Porcupine basin could supply all of Ireland’s oil demand, if not more, according to exploration minnow Petrel Resources. The Dublin-based firm is hoping to take part in drilling in the…
KrisEnergy Ltd. an independent upstream oil and gas company, announced it has contracted the Key Gibraltar jack-up rig for development, appraisal and exploration drilling in two licenses in the Gulf of Thailand. The contract with Shelf Drilling (Southeast Asia) Limited…
First steel cut on two supply vessels for Russia's Lukoil has started at Keppel Nantong Shipyard Co.'s yard in Nantong on 18 June. The two Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) class vessels have been designed to supply resources…
Lundin Petroleum AB (Lundin Petroleum), through its wholly owned subsidiary Lundin Norway AS (Lundin Norway), is pleased to announce that drilling of appraisal well 16/4- 8 S on the Luno II discovery has started. The Luno II discovery…
CGX Energy Inc. announced the completion of reprocessing and merging of existing seismic surveys from the company’s 100% owned Corentyne petroleum prospecting license (PPL) offshore Guyana. The results of the reprocessing have assisted in…
China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced today that it has signed a production sharing contract (PSC) with Eni for Block 50/34 in the South China Sea. Block 50/34 encompasses an area of 2000sq km in the Qiongdongnan Basin of offshore Hainan Island…
Ireland’s Government has launched the 2015 Atlantic Margin Oil and Gas Exploration Licensing Round and a new offshore oil and gas production taxation regime, including an increase in the top tax rate. The new round, which will close September 2015…
Two dry exploration well results have been announced offshore Norway. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said the Statoil Petroleum operated wildcat well 7324/2-1, 'Apollo,' which was the first well in production licence (PL)615…
Statoil announced the discovery of 2 to 3tcf of natural gas in place in the Piri-1 well, bringing the total of in-place natural gas volumes up to approximately 20tcf in Block 2 offshore Tanzania. The new gas discovery was made in the…