With all this hustle propelling the worldwide industry toward the new millennium, where will the major plays be beyond 2,000? Offshore has already superseded onshore as the leading repository of the earth's hydrocarbons, and onshore prospects are on the decline, with possible recovery in the distant future when Russia's Siberian fields once again come into their own. Capitalizing on that trend, there are already some 50 nations producing oil offshore in more than 20 major offshore development areas, and another 20 nations have offshore reserves that are essentially untouched. The North Sea, today's leading contributor to offshore production, is expected to return to its inevitable decline, once the marginal and exhausted fields eventually cease production. So where will the oil come from? where will the action be? The money is on the Gulf of Mexico's deepwater, West Africa, Brazilian deepwater, the Timor Gap, the Caspian Sea, and Sakhalin Island waters, with the Malvinas/Falkland Islands, Alaska and Canada's arctic waters, Norway's and Russia's Barents Sea, as well as Norway's Møre and Vøring Basins, and finally the Atlantic frontier of northwestern Europe arriving on the scene about 2010.
Present known offshore reserves are estimated at 200 billion bbl, but the vast seas have yet to reveal most of their bounty. Three oceans hold the reserves of the future: the Indian, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans.
In the Indian Ocean, the prospects look extremely good for the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and the African mainland as well as the Madagascar Plateau south of the island; for the Seychelles waters south of Mah? Island; for India's Maldive Islands; and for the Exmouth Plateau west of Australia.
The Pacific's most promising prospects are China's East China Sea, which is just beginning to show hydrocarbons in the Pingu play; the Arafura Sea between New Guinea and northern Australia, which may hold massive gas reservoirs; and the New Zealand Plateau south of the big island.
The Arctic, certainly the last to be explored and developed, is believed to harbor huge reserves in many of its basins, but particularly the seas that drain Russia and the Siberian shelf - the Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi Seas - but they all await further technology.
West Africa Cooperation
Ghana is preaching the message of asset sharing and mutual projects in the West African region. "Sharing of infrastructure across fields in adjacent countries is an efficient way of exploiting our resources, and we should let the operators see that", says the head of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, Tsatsu Tsikata. "We know where the opportunities that benefit us the most are," he said. "We should guide the operators."He considers the West Africa Gas Pipeline Project, initiated by Chevron in Nigeria as a key, beneficial project that fits Africa's overall need for cooperation in the marketplace. "We have come to realize the importance of paying attention to natural gas to meet the domestic energy needs. Now Ghana is re-orienting its approach. Gas is always discounted in the economic realm, but in Ghana we are working on using it to complement hydroelectric power. The country hopes to generate 600-1000 MW of electric energy from gas in the next five years. The attitude to gas is changing. The attitude that spawned gas flaring tendency all over West Africa is only beginning to recede. In their operations in West Africa, International Companies should seek to aspire to the same standards of environmental quality that they insist on in their countries."
Qatar's Shaikh Hamad
Just over a year ago, in a bloodless coup, Qatari Prince Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani deposed his father the Emir Shaikh Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani and made his de facto rule of the oil and gas producing Gulf emirate official. It had been expected, but what had not been expected were the spate of foreign policy edicts that rapidly emanated thereafter from the palace. Always independently minded, but perhaps held in check by his father, Hamad established Qatar's independence - particularly from Saudi influence quickly, by reestablishing diplomatic relations with Iraq and Iran, penning agricultural cooperation and LNG deals with Isrel, and attempting to end the territorial disputes with both Saudi Arabia and neighboring Bahrain, the latter over the oil-rich Hawar Islands and Fahst al-Dibal and Jarjada reefs.
Hamad, possessor of the 225 tcf North Field, the world's largest non-associated gas field, is out to win friends and influence potential LNG customers. To that end, he's even taken a radical step for a Gulf state - he's introducing democratic reforms by allowing local elections, and has already lifted press censorship. This precedence may not sit well with the less benevolent kingdoms and shaikhdoms from Kuwait to Oman, with whom Hamad hopes to establish a gas grid.
Offshore Series of Conferences
Offshore Magazine has long maintained that the offshore petroleum industry is not a collection of isolated marine plays, but an international enterprise focused in many diverse geographic and political locations with a wide array of above and below water differences, and numerous similarities as well. Our editorial approach to the coverage of the industry has reflected that philosophy for years - we analyze the uniqueness of the locale, and we do our best to demonstrate the characteristics it has in common with the rest of the world's offshore provinces.
Believing this is the best approach to understanding and doing business globally, Offshore Magazine has launched a series of conferences and exhibitions that reflect this philosophy as well. The "Offshore Series of Conferences", for which I serve as chairman, convenes an international industry congress where the action is, with the entire program spotlighting regional uniqueness and international commonality.
The Series was inaugurated last November in Libreville, Gabon with the highly successful Offshore West Africa Conference & Exhibition. An annual event, it will rotate between English-speaking and French-speaking venues in West Africa, this year in Accra, Ghana.
Offshore's second Series conference, Subsalt '97, was held in Houston in January and will be in New Orleans, Louisiana next year. Offshore Egypt will be held later this year in Cairo.
Other conferences in the Offshore Series, scheduled for 1998-99, are: Offshore Western Australia, to be held in Perth; Offshore China, in Shanghai; Offshore Thailand, in Bangkok, Offshore Canada, in St. John's Newfoundland; and Offshore Russia, to be held in St. Petersburg. [For more information on any of these conferences, send your name, address, telephone, and fax number to: Offshore Series of Conferences, c/o Offshore Magazine, PO Box 1941, Houston, TX 77252 USA.]
Briefs. . .
Americas:
Trinidad & Tobago deepwater Atlantic blocks are now on offer. The government of Trinidad & Tobago has placed some nine deepwater blocks up for bid, in addition to the ten blocks currently open to concession, several of which are in highly prospective areas adjacent to present producing fields.Cuba's Caribbean Blocks V, VI, VII are about to be probed again. Toronto company Sherritt and its partners Taurus and Genoil will be spudding their Anna Maria-1 well this month. Targeted is a structure with potential reserves of more than a billion bbl oil.
Mexico's Pemex has granted a three-well turnkey drilling contract to Houston-based Transocean. The $124 million Gulf of Campeche program is for two delineation wells and one wildcat, each in 600 or more ft of water, will be drilled by the Ghana National Petroleum Corp. drillship Discoverer 511.
Canada's Sable Island gas project go-ahead now depends on regulators approving plans for delivery to the New England region of the USA by 1999. Westcoast, Mobil Canada, and PanEnergy Corp comprise the consortium set to deliver the gas. Another group composed of TransCanada Pipelines and Gaz Metropolitain is contending for the contract.
Europe:
New North Sea block 49/30c, awarded to Amerada Hess, Amoco (operator), and British Gas, are scheduled for drilling within the year. Amoco's Davy gasfield and its tie-in Indefatigable Field are nearby.
Mideast:
Egyptian Mediterranean Blocks A and B are up for bid. Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. is offering the 21,600 sq km and 15,600 sq km blocks as a part of a new six-block offering. The west Mediterranean blocks A and B are in water ranging to a depth of 2,000 meters and have never been drilled. PGS Exploration is to do a 2D shoot of A and a 3D shoot of B.
Africa:
Angola's Girassol Field operated by Elf, may very well turn out to be the largest field offshore Africa. Some 200 km northwest of Luanda, at a water depth of more than 1,300 meters, Girassol has estimated in-place 3.5 billion bbl oil, of which 1-1.4 billion is recoverable.
Gabon has sold Energy Africa its interests in more than 80% of the country's sedimentary basins. The new owner, Energy Africa Gabon, is owned 25% by Gabon and 75% by a JV composed of Energy Africa, a division of South Africa's Engen, and a group of unnamed African investors.
Côte d'Ivoire's Kudo Field has been tested by United Meridian at an estimated 200 bcf gas, which will more than meet the estimated demands of Cote d'Ivoire and neighboring Ghana. Located in Block CI-01, beside the Ghanian frontier, the test well flowed 27.7 million cf/d gas and 740 b/d condensate at a depth of 7,300 ft. United Meridian predicts the field will be capable of delivering over 80 million cf/d for electrical generation in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.
Ghana's Cape Three Points has been awarded to Nuevo Energy and Yukong. The sub-basin, which lies within both Blocks 9 and 10, has water depths to 3,000 meters and is relatively unexplored.
Asia-Pacific:
China's Bohai Bay fields have produced approximately 42,500 b/d oil and 367 million cm gas during 1996. China National Offshore Oil Co. was their developer, and is now seeking ways of strengthening their output, as several fields such as Chengbei and Suizhong 36-1 begin to decline.
Brunei's Maharaja Lela gas and condensate field is to be developed by the New Zealand oil and gas company Fletcher Challenge Energy and partners. The $230 million project begins this year, with first production expected in 1999. Brunei LNG will be the primary market for the gas.
Cambodia's loosing operators. With a disappointing offshore province proving to be of less and less interest, Enterprise and Cambodia Petroleum Exploration have had nothing but dry holes, and now Premier is pulling out of its exploration partnership, leaving only Idemitsu to carry on.
Western Australia's oil production continues to rise, despite January's severe weather and cyclones Phil and Rachel raking the region from Barrow and Thevenard Islands to the Bonaparte Basin - necessitating the unhooking of the Cossack Pioneer and Griffin Venture FPSOs and a break in operations at Challis-Cassini, Jabiru, and Skua Fields.
The elephant gas field Gorgon, off Western Australia, is under investigation by Mobil and Texaco to determine the economic viability of its development independent of the nearby North West Shelf LNG Project.
Copyright 1997 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
