This international roundup provides an overview of the offshore oil and gas news you may have missed over the holidays.
LATIN AMERICA
Shearwater gears up for offshore 4D surveying for Petrobras
Shearwater Geoservices will shortly start work on two 4D surveys for Petrobras in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil.
The Oceanic Vega vessel will acquire the data over an eight-month period over the Jubarte and Tartaruga Verde fields.
Petrobras pulls out of Santos Basin fields sale
On Dec. 21, Petrobras notified Brava Energia that it has decided to terminate a proposed transfer of its 100% interest in the Uruguá and Tamba fields in the Santos Basin offshore Brazil.
This follows Enauta Energia’s decision in July 2024 not to proceed with the acquisition of the FPSO Cidade de Santos (owned and operated by MODEC), which handles production from both fields. According to Petrobras, this had been one of the conditions of its transaction with Enauta.
Petrobras added that it would retain a deposit paid in December 2023, as provided for in the contract.
ASIA-PACIFIC
License terms extended for two fields offshore Vietnam
Vietnam’s government has approved five-year license extensions to the producing TGT and CNV fields offshore the country’s coast.
The partners in the Hoang Long Joint Operating Co. and the Hoan Vu Joint Operating Co. will now start preparation of supplementary documentation to finalize the extensions.
According to Pharos Energy, the TGT field license will run to Dec. 7, 2031, and the CNV field license through Dec. 15, 2032.
The first planned new work program should be the drilling of an appraisal well in the TGT field in fourth-quarter 2025, with additional infill wells to follow.
In exchange for securing the extensions, Pharos’ working interest will reduce after the present licenses expire in December 2026 and 2027, from 30.5% to 25.3% in TGT and from 25% to 20% in CNV.
The agreed work program commitments for the extension periods include 3D seismic reprocessing and one appraisal well on each field.
ADES gets offer of work for second drilling rig offshore Thailand
PTTEP issued a letter of award on Dec. 27 to ADES Holding for a jackup rig to work in the Gulf of Thailand. This would be for five years firm plus an optional three-year extension, with an estimated contract value of SAR1.035 billion ($276 million).
ADES will deploy the Admarine 503, a sister rig to the jackup Admarine 502, which has been operating offshore Thailand since last summer.
Following this latest award, the company will have jackup rigs under contract in the region, including two offshore Indonesia and one in the Malaysia-Thailand joint development area. It also has three rigs operating in India.
Admarine 503 has offline capabilities said to be adapted to “factory-style” drilling operations prevalent in the Gulf of Thailand.
AFRICA
Golar strengthens stake in FLNG Hilli
Golar LNG has acquired minority interests held by Seatrium and Black & Veatch in the FLNG Hilli, said to be equivalent to ~8% of the vessel’s full capacity, for $90.2 million.
At present, the Hilli is contracted to Perenco offshore Cameroon until July 2026, after which it is due to relocate to Argentina to start a 20-year contract for the gas-producer consortium, Southern Energy. However, that contract remains subject to conditions that include securing an export license, environmental assessment and FID by Southern Energy.
The vessel started operations in 2018 and has since delivered 124 LNG cargoes and offloaded more than 8.5 MMt of LNG.
Galp drills, logs deepwater well offshore Namibia
Galp Energia’s Mopane-2A well (well #4) in PEL83 offshore Namibia, which spudded on Dec. 2, encountered gas-condensate in the AVO-3 reservoir with a thin net pay in the reservoir sweet spot.
In addition, the well discovered a light oil in a smaller reservoir, AVO-4. Both reservoirs had good-quality sands, porosities and permeabilities, with high pressures and low fluid viscosities, minimal CO2 and no H2S concentrations. As with all previous wells on Mopane, no water contacts occurred.
Galp and its partners intended to analyze the latest results to improve their understanding of the Mopane complex. The drillship is preparing to drill the Mopane-3X exploration well location (well #5), targeting two stacked prospects, AVO-10 & AVO-13, with expected spud date. In parallel, a high-density and high-resolution proprietary 3D development seismic campaign continues over the Mopane complex.
Springfield achieves drilling appraisal objectives offshore Ghana
Springfield Exploration and Production (SEP) completed appraisal well test activity on its 2019 Afina discovery via a re-entry of the Afina-1x well offshore Ghana, according to a Nov. 28 SEP news release. It was drilled in 1,030 m of water to a TD of 4,085 m, finding 50 m of light net oil pay in good-quality Cenomanian sandstones. A secondary target drilled at the edge of the structure in the Turonian intersected 10 m of gas/condensate-bearing sands.
The recent Afina-1x DST was conducted in Cenomanian sandstone, flowing up to 4,500 bbl/d of oil and confirming good reservoir productivity at the upper end of expectations, the company said. A mini-DST conducted on the Turonian sandstone confirmed gas/condensate and indicated a potential flow rate of up to 12,000 boe/d.
The Deepsea Bollsta semisubmersible completed operations and departed the location in late November.
“We are extremely happy with the results of the appraisal program, which has further confirmed our understanding of our geological, geophysical, reservoir models and demonstrated our operational capacity," Springfield CEO Kevin Okyere said. “Afina-1x is a vertical well; we are confident that a horizontal well or other well completion options that maximize reservoir exposure in the fields would deliver much higher production rates.”
Drillship to begin work offshore Egypt for Eni
A drillship will arrive in Egypt this month as operator Eni starts work on increasing production from the giant Zohr offshore gas field, Egypt's petroleum ministry said, according to a Jan. 3 Reuters report.
Egypt had planned to become a major gas exporter after Eni discovered the field in 2015, but domestic gas production in the African country has been falling since 2021 reaching a six-year low in 2024. Average production at Zohr was 1.9 Bcf/d in first-half 2024, well below the peak reached in 2019.
"As already stated by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Egypt, Eni confirms that it is preparing to resume drilling in the Zohr gas field in the eastern Mediterranean," a spokesman for the Italian energy group told Reuters.
The Saipem 10000 vessel is scheduled to move to Egypt in the coming weeks where it will begin a drilling campaign.
MIDDLE EAST
Iran steps up development of intelligent wells management center
Iran opened the country’s first simultaneous, real-time center for Wells Reservoir and Facility Management (WRFM) on Dec. 24, according to news service Shana.
The WRFM center, run by a subsidiary of the Pasargad Energy Group, performs monitoring, transfer, analysis and processing data for real-time and simultaneous management of operations related to wells, reservoirs and surface facilities.
It uses sensors, data management systems, AI and real-time data analytics to provide updates on well conditions, reservoir flow and facility performance.
Development for the first phase of the center started in February 2024; costs to date, including hardware and software infrastructure, total $10 million, with a further $5 million earmarked for smart systems for production engineering, drilling operations, well management, maintenance and safety.
This next phase, due to be completed in late 2025, targets digital transformation of Iran’s upstream oilfield management. The focus will be on expanding the facility to include machine learning, deep learning, AI models and large language models.
Key objectives, Shana added, include optimizing production and ensuring flow through intelligent monitoring of downhole pumps; monitoring asphaltene deposition's corrosion detection in pipelines, completing real-time hardware infrastructure; smarter maintenance operations; and enhancing wellbore operations, safety, drilling activities and horizontal well guidance.
The facility in its current form is said to support quick decision-making in development and production operations, while also reducing operational risks and that performance indicators are met from different upstream assets.
One achievement claimed so far is the stemming of a daily oil production decline of 8,000 bbl, leading to a cumulative production increase of 1.4 MMbbl.
South Pars 11 gas well undergoes enhancement measures
Following pressure testing, the acidizing operation took place Dec. 31 using the Deep Cleaner specialist vessel, with the purpose being to maximize well performance and enhance production capacity.
Flowback operations are underway to clean up the well. Work will continue to improve gas flow and productivity and increase daily gas output from Phase 11, the report added.
