News of the Day:
ConocoPhillips Norway: Explorer of the Year 2020
Halfden Carstens, expronews.com, January 10, 2021
In 2016 ConocoPhillips built a new exploration strategy,” Arild Skjervøy, Exploration Manager in ConocoPhillips Norway, says.
“We focus on countries, basins and plays, with substantial remaining potential and material value propositions that compete in the global portfolio. For Norway, where we have legacy positions and a long-term presence, we can further leverage that knowledge and competence”.
The multinational oil company that discovered Ekofisk in 1969 and Heidrun in 1985, maintained a special focus on four business units for growth: Norway, Malaysia, Alaska and the Lower 48 (the 48 adjoining U.S. states on the continent of North America).
Four years later, in 2020, ConocoPhillips was undeniably and by far the most successful explorer on the NCS.
GeoPublishing and Wittemann E&P Consulting have therefore unanimously chosen ConocoPhillips Norway as “Explorer of the Year (2020)”.
OIL:
88 Energy expands Alaskan oil portfolio
Matt Birney, The West Australia, January 10, 2021
ASX-listed 88 Energy has added a historic oil project to its armoury of petroleum assets picking up the old Umiat oil discovery that sits immediately south of its Project Peregrine on the North Slope of Alaska where planning is well advanced for the spudding of the Merlin-1 well next month.
The Perth-based oil and gas explorer acquired Umiat from Malamute Energy and Renaissance Umiat for an overriding 4 per cent royalty interest and assumption of the liability for the abandonment of two Umiat wells drilled by Linc Energy in 2013-14. 88 Energy says the approximate cost to abandon the two wells is US$1 million.
The undeveloped Umiat project, which spans an area of about 7,135 hectares across two leases, hosts gross 2P reserves independently estimated at 123.69 million barrels of oil by Houston, Texas-headquartered oil, and gas consulting firm Ryder Scott five years ago.
Of the overall total, 94 million barrels of oil are attributable to 88 Energy’s 76 per cent net revenue interest.
Umiat was discovered in the mid-1940s by the US Navy with 11 appraisal wells drilled by 1953, several of which were tested. Umiat-5 flowed 268 barrels a day on a three-month test and Umiat-8 had a peak flow rate of 5.9 million cubic feet of natural gas per day during a four-day test.
According to 88 Energy, little follow-up work was undertaken at Umiat until 2013-14 when Linc drilled two wells, Umiat-18 and Umiat-23H, with the latter registering a maximum flow rate of 800 barrels a day and a sustained flow rate of 200 barrels a day.
The company now plans to conduct a full field review of Umiat to work out at what oil price a possible stand-alone development may be deemed economic. In addition, in the event of a discovery at Project Peregrine, the company says Umiat may contribute significant value to any development.
GAS:
Shell and Q-LNG Hit US Offshore Milestone
Matthew V. Veazey, Rigzone, January 13, 2021
The first offshore LNG bunkering articulated tug and barge (ATB) in the United States is ready for operations, marking a critical milestone in developing North America’s marine LNG supply chain, Shell Trading (US) Co. and Q-LNG Transport revealed Wednesday.
Shell and Q-LNG, a service company managed by New Orleans-based Harvey Gulf International Marine, assert the “Q-LNG 4000” ATB represents an integral part of the LNG infrastructure along the southeastern U.S. coast. The ATB can provide ship-to-ship transfers of LNG to LNG-fueled vessels as well as ship-to-shore transfers to small-scale marine distribution infrastructure, Shell and Q-LNG noted in a written statement emailed to Rigzone.
“Shell has an ambition to be a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 or sooner, in step with society, and we are working hard to deliver the kind of solutions our customers need now to help them decarbonize,” remarked Karrie Trauth, Shell’s general manager for Shipping and Maritime, Americas. “LNG is an important part of the solution today, and I’m proud that this vessel will effectively double the number of LNG bunker vessels in the U.S. and making it possible for us to continue to help others accelerate their own transition.”
MINING:
Discovering the elements of innovation
Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News, January 12, 2021
Metal Tech News is a first-of-its-kind newsletter and magazine that reports on the exciting new applications of minerals and metals in technology and cutting-edge technologies that are making mining more efficient and sustainable.
Are you ready to join Metal Tech News on an expedition to discover the elements of innovation that will ensure a more sustainable and prosperous future for mankind?
I understand – this is an enormous claim for an upstart news magazine reporting on metals, technology, and mining. But, as the late Steve Jobs put it, “The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
How exactly, you might ask, does Metal Tech News plan to “change the world?”
First, this new online and print news magazine will help bridge an age-old chasm between technology and the elements that make these innovations possible.
POLITICS:
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy:
OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY PREPARES FOR BIDEN: The American Petroleum Institute is promising to fight Biden’s proposed ban on new oil and gas drilling on public lands and waters, but the fossil fuel industry also sees opportunities to work with the new administration on combating climate change.
“If he is interested in finding commonsense solutions, President Biden has a willing and able partner in the oil and gas industry,” Mike Sommers, the CEO of API, the largest U.S. oil and gas lobby group, told Josh in an exclusive interview ahead of its State of American Energy event today, in which the industry previews priorities for the new year.
Sommers said Biden cannot reach his goal of achieving net-zero emissions across the economy “without us,” citing the importance of investing significantly in carbon capture technologies for fossil fuel projects, which is still not commercially widespread.
Coming to the table on methane: API is ready to support federal regulation of methane, Sommers said, a shift after the group backed the Trump administration’s elimination rollback of methane rules.
But Sommers suggested that position is untenable now, as Biden has promised stricter actions and Europe moves in the same direction, putting the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage.
“If they did it right and do it in a way that is consistent with our principles, there is going to be common ground with methane regulations,” Sommers said. “If I am a new administration, I would want the people actually in the business at the table as I am writing a regulation.”
It’s worth noting API opposed the Obama administration’s methane regulations (spearheaded by Biden’s new domestic climate czar Gina McCarthy, who was EPA chief at the time) that required oil and gas companies check for leaks twice a year, and Biden would likely move in a more aggressive direction, so it’s unclear what kind of rules the group would support.
CLIMATE CHANGE CONVERSATIONS:
Occidental to Strip Carbon From the Air and Use It to Pump Crude
Kevin Crowley, Akshat Rathi, Bloomberg Green, January 13, 2021
A new technology could help reduce pollution at the same time it increases the supply of fossil fuels.
Deep in the Permian Basin, America’s biggest oilfield, Occidental Petroleum Corp. plans to build a facility that it believes could change the way the world thinks about fossil-fuel emissions. The globe’s first large-scale direct air capture (DAC) plant will remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and pump it deep underground, where it will remain for millions of years. The process would essentially be the reverse of what oil and gas companies do today. The goal is to lower emissions of the primary greenhouse gas responsible for global warming—and one day even produce a carbon-negative barrel of oil.
But to cover the cost of operating the plant, Occidental will initially use much of the CO2 to push out lucrative oil from underground reservoirs, thereby replacing one pollutant with another. The facility, expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, will also need support from tax credits and outside investors to be financially viable.