Angolan state oil company Sonangol will begin in April to sell its stakes in several private firms, chair Sebastiao Gaspar Martins said, as part of a government bid to privatize key state assets including parts of Sonangol itself by 2022. The eleven companies include local bank Banco BAI as well as Sonamet, Sonatip, and Sonadit... Continue Reading →
Operators Could Soon Pay More for FPSOs
Amid a raft of February orders and near-orders for floating production storage and offloading vessels, or FPSOs, comes a new report suggesting those shipyards and engineers able to piece them together may soon be feeling the strain. "The strong pace of recent orders has a downside," says Jim McCaul, a leading authority on the FPSO... Continue Reading →
Eni’s Agogo field size increases to 1 billion barrels of oil
Italian oil and gas company Eni has drilled the Agogo-3, the second appraisal well of Agogo discovery in Block 15/06, offshore Angola, increasing by about 40% the estimate of oil in place, which is now of 1 billion barrels with further upside to be tested in the Northern sector of the field. Eni said on... Continue Reading →
Break it Down: The decommissioning market
The decommissioning market is making a comeback, with new fields of opportunity, and challenges, opening. TSB Offshore President Will Speck shares insights on the path ahead. The level of activity offshore both Australia and Brazil are likely to be similar, he adds, although each has its own challenges. For instance, Australia’s geography imposes logistics challenges... Continue Reading →
Aker Energy to award Pecan FPSO deal to Yinson
Aker Energy has entered into a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Yinson to award a bareboat charter and an operations and maintenance contract for a floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel at the Pecan field, offshore Ghana. The LOI follows a competitive tender and demonstrates Aker Energy’s intention to award the forthcoming bareboat charter and... Continue Reading →
Deepwater Drillship Rates Rising
In another sign of improving deepwater market conditions, drillship day rates are on-the-rise from Canada to China, judging by a new report by numbers crunchers, Rystad Energy. Although not the only deepwater floaters, drillships are still on order at Asian shipyards, just as drillship day rates approach the $300,000 mark. Continue reading
More offshore EPC spending in 2020, prices remain a focus
Significant cost reductions have improved E&P cashflows and should drive increased offshore tendering activity in 2020 with pricing expected to remain competitive, according to market research provider Westwood Global Energy Group. Westwood said on Thursday that contractors would need to remain focussed on profitability and avoid being locked into low-margin purgatory. The company identified that... Continue Reading →
Total CEO Dismisses Tullow Takeover Idea
Total Chief Patrick Pouyanne dismissed the idea it might buy its partner in East Africa and Guyana, Tullow Oil, whose share price slumped to 19-year lows in December over a string of bad news, stoking takeover speculation. Total is a partner in all growth markets for Tullow Oil whose market capitalization shrank to around 633... Continue Reading →
Floating Production Rebound Continues
Activity in the deepwater sector took a huge hit in the second half of last decade as a result of a global oil demand/supply imbalance, downturn in oil prices, hiatus in Petrobras production floater orders and large industry cutbacks in upstream spending. The downturn was the worst to ever hit the offshore sector. Orders for... Continue Reading →
Aquaterra to design offshore platform for Chevron off Angola
Aquaterra Energy, a provider of offshore engineering solutions, has secured a “significant” agreement from Chevron to design and support the installation of the Sea Swift offshore platform solution off the coast of Angola. Aquaterra said on Tuesday that the deal from Chevron was awarded through the oil major’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Angola – Cabinda Gulf... Continue Reading →