There were some significant announcements in oil and gas this week. Here are some highlights.
88 Energy Ltd (LON:88E) told investors that a range of preliminary leads have now been identified as part of its conventional oil exploration programme.
It said that the forward work programme will mature prospects and leads, and high-grade the best ones into candidates for future drilling.
As part of this process, the company expects to have estimates of the exploration inventory’s resource potential by the end of 2016.
The first wave of leads are in the Brookian and Beaufortian sequences, which are proved to host hydrocarbons in the region. The company said it now has a diverse conventional Prospect and Lead inventory across the Icewine acreage, in Alaska’s North Slope.
Meanwhile, Mosman Oil And Gas Ltd (LON:MSMN) says it is looking forward to 2017 with cautious optimism.
In its financial results statement the company highlighted that actions taken in twelve months, ended June 30, have ensured the survival of the company.
During the year it reduced operational and corporate costs.
It agreed two acquisitions but neither deal completed. The first deal was cancelled in January, and after that it reviewed all expenditure and exploration activity.
A second deal was announced in early November, but, the company missed out to an alternative transaction – which saw another company pick up the asset.
To China, and contractor Greka Drilling Ltd (LON:GDL) has announced a new one year deal with PetroChina.
The oil and gas services contractor is to provide coal bed methane (CBM) drilling on PetroChina’s Fanzhuang block in Shanxi Province, China.
Specifically, the contract covers the drilling of five horizontal wells with operations due to start shortly.
Greka noted that it had drilled 13 wells – a total of 19,257 metres – for PetroChina between 2013 and 2015.
Chief executive Randeep Grewal said: "The winning of this 5 horizontal well contract proves once again that PetroChina recognizes Greka Drilling as a quality drilling company with advanced rig technology and experienced crews.
Well followed Faroe Petroleum plc (LON:FPM) is moving the Oda (previously known as Butch) oil field closer to production with the submission of a development plan to the Norwegian authorities.
Oda is located in shallow water and is just 13 kilometres from the producing Ula field.
It is estimated to contain 42mln barrels of oil equivalent reserves, of which 95% is crude. And peak production is forecast at around 35,000 boepd.
The proposed development will see two production wells connected to the Ula platform, in a sub-sea tie-back.
Oil production would be transported via the Norpipe system to the Teeside Terminal in the United Kingdom, whereas Oda’s gas be sold for re-injection at Ula to improve its oil recoveries.
LGO Energy PLC (LON:LGO) told investors it has sold more than 10,000 barrel shipment of crude from its stockpile in Spain.
A total of 11,200 barrels of crude from the Ayoluengo field will be delivered in December and January.
The company said the oil is being sold at a price that’s competitive with local fuel oil.
It will use the cash in Spain, within its local subsidiary Compañia Petrolifera de Sedano (CPS), for operations and general working capital.
Finally, Ophir Energy Plc (LON:OPHR) shares have been tipped by Macquarie to rise to 95p, from 74.68p currently, as the Fortuna project advances towards an anticipated final investment decision in the first half of 2017.
Analyst Kate Sloan explains that a recent deal – which saw existing partner Golar LNG establish a new tie-up bringing Schlumberger into the venture - has de-risked Ophir’s participation in the project.
“Ophir will now have an economic interest in both the upstream and midstream components of the project (previously just the upstream),” Sloan said in a note.
“This substantially removes the potential impact of the tariff structure on valuation, and, as such, the attractiveness of the project is now primarily driven by the gas price.
“Now that a financing solution is in place, there is a lower risk of Ophir needing to forward sell the gas into Europe on NBP-linked contracts, in our view.”
Also, Victoria Oil & Gas’ (LON:VOG) Cameroon subsidiary Gaz du Cameroun has started work on the second well of its exploration programme at the Logbaba gas field.
The wells are being dug as a 'batch drilling' operation, where the rig is moved back and forth between the wells on rails until they wells have reached target dept
The first well, La-107, reached 400 metres before it was suspended with the rig then ‘skidded’ 10m along the rail system to the La-108 well location.
Well La-108 was spudded on the 12 November and has been drilled and cased to a depth of 400m.