Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane announced the award of nine new permits located in Commonwealth waters offshore Western Australia, Victoria, and the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands as part of round one of the Australian government’s 2013 Offshore Petroleum Exploration Acreage Release…
Oil and gas exploration efforts around the Falkland Islands are set to ramp up next year after rig contracts were agreed. Ocean Rig's deepwater, harsh environment semisubmersible drilling rig Eirik Raude (pictured) has been signed up…
CGG has started acquiring a large BroadSeisT 3D multi-client survey program in the deep and ultra-deep waters of the Espirito Santo Basin, offshore Brazil. The project has received high prefunding from major industry players. The Espirito Santo Phase III survey will cover more than 9500sq km…
New Zealand's Minister of Energy and Resources Simon Bridges announced the country's third block offering. Up for grabs is a total of 405,000sq km, including both on and offshore acreage. Offshore release areas include the Reinga-Northland Basin…
On 20 Feb, oil production in fields operated by Petrobras in the Santos and Campos Basin pre-salt accumulations rose to 407,000bpd, a record daily output. It has taken eight years to achieve this level of output since initial discovery in 2006…
Norway's Electromagnetic Geoservices (EMGS) has been awarded a US$5 million contract to acquire 3D EM data in the Asia-Pacific region. The contract, with US oil firm Apache, will see the the BOA Thalassa (pictured)start operations in northwest Australia on 25January…
Petrobras' proven pre-salt reserves are up 43% in 2013. Since 2007, the company has been adding increasing amounts to its proven reserves coming from the pre-salt layer, which extends from the south of the state of Espírito Santo to the state of Santa Catarina…
New Zealand’s offshore exploration prospects have risen after a renewed interest in the region. Today, Shell New Zealand, and its partners OMV New Zealand and Mitsui E&P Australia, announced plans to drill an exploration well in Production Exploration Permit (PEP) 50119…
Eni successfully completed the Evans Shoal North-1 appraisal well in the Evans Shoal gas field in the Timor Sea, Australia. The field is located offshore in the NT/P48 exploration permit in the north Bonaparte Basin, approximately 300km northwest of Darwin…
Austalia's Woodside has been given the official go-ahead to start exploration acitivies in Ireland's offshore Porcupine basin. Its joint venture partner Petrel Resources said Ireland's minister of state at the Department of Communications…
Wood Group Kenny (WGK) is to work on a subsea concept definition project for GDF Suez' Australian Bonaparte LNG project. The Bonaparte LNG project is made up of the Petrel, Frigate and Tern fields, located in the Timor Sea. They were previously stranded gas fields…
As Australia grapples with chronic oil production decline in the face of rising imports, the buoyant gas sector offers the prospect of rising revenue from LNG export. John Mueller reports.Eyebrow Natural gas lifts Australian reserves As Australia…
As oil and natural gas production continues to fluctuate at a level well below demand, John Mueller looks at New Zealand’s growing need to aggressively explore the nation’s vast and extensive offshore sedimentary basins.Taranaki Basin, located along the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island…
Illustration: Bonaparte LNGGDF Suez has selected KBR to design an FLNG production vessel for its Bonaparte LNG project offshore Darwin, Australia, KBR announced on 8 November 2012.The contract is part of an initial concept definition design competition for the vessel…
Integrating several imaging and modeling technologies can reduce exploration risk. Ian Bryant (Schlumberger) and Paul Xu (formerly of Ipex) present an integrated basin and petroleum system study that predicted many oil and gas accumulations in a relatively unexplored region offshore Brazil…