E&P Highlights: July 25, 2022

From a gas discovery in the Norwegian Sea to a partnership between GD Energy Products and Texas Pump Systems, below is a compilation of the latest headlines in the E&P space within the past week.

Activity Headlines

Fenja field nears startup

Neptune Energy announced it had completed the drilling of four development wells on its operated Fenja field in the Norwegian Sea, in preparation for production startup.

Fenja, which is scheduled to come on stream in the first quarter of 2023, will produce approximately 28,000 boe/d at plateau.

The Fenja development in 325 meters water depth consists of two subsea templates tied back to the Njord A platform via a production pipeline, water and gas injection pipelines and an umbilical. The wells consist of two oil producers, one water injector and a gas injector. The gas injector will be converted to a gas producer toward the end of field life.

Earlier this summer, Equinor, on behalf of Neptune, pulled in the Fenja risers and dynamic umbilical to the host platform, Njord A, about 36 km away from Fenja. Final tie-in activities will be completed shortly and all subsea facilities are ready.

Neptune is developing Fenja with an electrically trace-heated (ETH) pipe-in-pipe solution that will transport oil from the Fenja field to the Njord A platform, operated by Equinor and in which Neptune holds a 22.5% interest. It is the longest ETH subsea production pipeline to date.

The Deepsea Yantai, a semi-submersible rig, operated by Odfjell Drilling, drilled the wells.

Neptune operates the field with 30% interest on behalf of partners Vår Energi with 45%, Suncor Energy with 17.5% and DNO with 7.5%.

Gas discovery near the Skarv field

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate announced that Aker BP’s Storjo exploration well in production license 261 near the Skarv field in the Norwegian Sea encountered gas.

The preliminary estimate of recoverable gas volume is between 25 million and 80 million boe.

Further delineation of the discovery is planned in 2023.

Aker BP operates PL 261 with 70% working interest on behalf of partner Wintershall Dea Norge with 30%.

Sembcorp wins EPCI work in Australia

Sembcorp Marine subsidiary Sembcorp Marine Offshore Platforms Pte. Ltd. inked an engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract with an unnamed “major energy company” for a gas topsides project in Australia.

The topsides project will take four years. 

PGS Wins Indonesia, Australia Surveys

PGS announced a pair of contract awards.

An unnamed “major energy company” awarded PGS a significant 3D exploration acquisition contract offshore Indonesia.

An unnamed international energy company awarded PGS a major 4D acquisition contract offshore Australia.

Ramform Sovereign will mobilize for the 3D exploration contract in Indonesia mid-October and acquisition is expected to complete mid-December. The vessel will continue to Australia and mobilize for the 4D contract around year-end 2022 and complete acquisition toward the end of February 2023.

“The seismic acquisition market in Asia-Pacific has been slower than in the Atlantic basins, so it is encouraging to experience increasing demand in the region, and we have good leads for additional work beyond the campaign we have already secured,” PGS President and CEO Rune Olav Pedersen said.

GeoPartners to survey off Mozambique

GeoPartners announced a deal to conduct a multiclient 3D survey in the offshore Angoche Basin for the Instituto Nacional de Petroleo (INP) for the government of Mozambique.

The project will comprise the acquisition of a minimum of 12,000 square km of 3D multiclient data over blocks that will be awarded following the closure of the current sixth licensing round.

GeoPartners Director Jim Gulland said the survey is in the “relatively underexplored but highly prospective Angoche Basin. The upcoming new multi-client 3D seismic acquisition program will help accelerate the identification of what will surely be the next wave of major discoveries in Mozambique.”

Advanced new acquisition and imaging techniques will provide better illumination of complex structures to help reduce exploration risk and fast-track the region for potential production and development. Pre-acquisition permitting has started, and GeoPartners anticipates starting the 3D acquisition in early 2023. Acquisition should take about six months and early processed results are expected to be available by the end of 2023.

Bidding opens for offshore China blocks

China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) announced that 13 offshore China exploration blocks covering an area of 17,205 sq km are available for bidding in 2022.

One block is in Bohai Bay and has an acreage of 330 sq km. Eleven blocks are in the Pearl River Mouth Basin covering 16,235 sq km. One block is located in the Yinggehai Basin and covers 640 sq km.

The data room will be open through the end of the year, and bids are due February 28, 2023.

CNOOC said it would “adopt flexible and preferential business arrangements in terms of exploration period, relinquishment, signature fee, participating interest and X factor in the hope of achieving the goals of expanding cooperation with foreign enterprises and enhancing foreign investments in China offshore oil and gas exploration and development.”

Pemex takes over YÙUM K'AK'NÁAB FPSO

BW Offshore Ltd. announced it has transferred ownership and operation of the FPSO YÙUM K'AK'NÁAB, effective July 22. The transfer was in accordance with the terms of the 15-year FPSO financial lease contract that started when the field went onstream in July 2007. The converted FPSO has 600,000 bbl/d capacity and storage for 2.2 million barrels.

Company Briefs

Siemens Joins AWS Network

Siemens Energy Inc. has joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN). As a result, Siemens Energy’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) industrial cybersecurity solution will be listed in the AWS Marketplace.

Siemens said the MDR on AWS reduces the cost and technical barriers for companies working to protect physical infrastructure from cyber threats and helps them achieve strong, fast and comprehensive cyber defense.

MDR’s monitoring and detection insights provide scalable protection against cyberattacks in the energy sector using innovative artificial intelligence, according to the company.

MDR’s technology can quickly collect and analyze large volumes of data to monitor for cyber threats, giving energy sector chief information security officers (CISOs) the power to detect and uncover attacks before they execute.

“Siemens Energy’s AI-driven industrial cyber monitoring and detection platform is purpose-built to help CISOs identify, prevent, and mitigate cyber threats to the energy sector’s digital business model,” Leo Simonovich, Vice President and Global Head of Industrial Cyber, Siemens Energy, said. “Energy companies at every scale can now access and integrate advanced cyber threat detection across their operating environment, leveraging AWS’s secure cloud platform to build and defend the foundation of a digital energy ecosystem.”

Jeff Miers, Director of Partners and Alliances, Energy & Utilities Business Unit at AWS, said the relationship with Siemens makes it possible for the ANP to provide purpose-built operations technology (OT) cybersecurity solutions for the energy and utilities market.

Saipem, NSH team up in Saudi Arabia

Saipem and Saudi construction company Nasser S. Al Hajri Corp. (NSH) signed an industrial national engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) champion implementation agreement with Aramco for the execution of onshore EPC projects in the kingdom.

The initiative follows the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed and announced in September 2021, under Aramco’s Namaat Investment Industrial Programs, focused on building national champions, creating a robust industrial ecosystem and introducing unique job opportunities.

The establishment of the EPC National Champion—which is expected by the end of 2022—is subject to the definition at a later stage of the details concerning the relevant incorporation.

The establishment of the EPC National Champion combines Saipem’s engineering and project management skills with NSH’s construction skills.

Skills training for Angola, Guyana

Under a four-year exclusivity deal, 3t EnerMech has become the sole provider of Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) licensed training in Angola and Guyana.

Through the alliance between 3t Energy Group and EnerMech, 3t EnerMech will deliver ECITB accredited skills programs in each region until 2026.

In February, 3t EnerMech announced its venture with Orinduik Development Incorporated Training Centre to develop Guyana’s first oil and gas training facility, following more than $20 million of investment. The center will become the first and only ECITB internationally accredited training provider in Guyana.

The 3t EnerMech alliance opened its first dedicated training facility in Luanda, Angola, last year. Since its launch, 3t EnerMech has secured several contracts delivering its in-country service training to Angolan nationals.

“By delivering the ECITB’s products in Angola and Guyana we can empower workers by giving them accredited training and tools for their role,” Paul Attrill, Vice President of Sales at 3t EnerMech, said. 

FPSO pump partnership

GD Energy Products and Texas Pump Systems are partnering to develop pumps for a large FPSO facility.

GDEP and TPS designed the pumps with special fluid end materials such as 2205 duplex stainless steels, custom packing arrangements and valve designs. The two companies will provide packaged pump solutions for services including: hot diesel fuel circulation, flow line circulation, hot crude oil circulation; flow line displacement; bull-heading and squeeze operation; and flowline pigging.

TPS packages GDEP pumps that are certified to operate in potentially highly explosive atmospheres, on FPSOs that can produce up to 180,000 bbl/d and can store up to 2,000,000 bbl of crude oil. The pump packages are housed within one of 15 or more process equipment modules, weighing in excess of 5,000 tons each, mounted to the topsides.

“Our engineers have been working closely with TPS to supply a competitive, lightweight, proven pump package that works reliably in these highly demanding environments,” Larry Kerr, CEO of GDEP, said.

CGG releases GeoWells Brazil database

CGG has released a new GeoWells Brazil database with a re-interpreted digital data set for 197 key wells from the Santos, Campos, and Espirito Santo basins.

Available for license within CGG’s Earth Data library, the new GeoWells product provides every well in those three basins with a uniform view of the subsurface within a single digital ecosystem, enabling a better understanding of Brazil’s presalt blocks.

CGG’s Data Hub built the GeoWells Brazil database. A new feature used in the creation of GeoWells Brazil is a core image interpretation workflow that harnesses machine learning technology to predict core and thin section descriptions over hundreds of wells, and tens of thousands of images.

Previously, CGG released GeoWells Mexico.

“We will further expand the GeoWells portfolio into other core basins globally to deliver high-value insights to the energy industry,” Dechun Lin, executive vice president of Earth Data at CGG, said.