EnCana and NW Natural form Jonah field JV

Northwest Natural Gas Company (NW Natural) and Encana signed an agreement for NW Natural to invest in a joint venture to develop gas reserves that will provide long-term supplies for NW Natural’s Oregon utility customers over a 30-year period.

During the first 10 years of the joint venture, NW Natural expects the volume of gas produced to provide approximately 8-10 percent of the company’s average annual requirements for its utility customers. These gas reserves come from the Jonah Field in Wyoming, located north of Rock Springs.

Under terms of the agreement, NW Natural will pay approximately $45-55 million a year, for a five-year period, for a total investment of about $250 million, which will cover expected drilling costs in exchange for working interests in certain sections of the Jonah Field. The sections include both future and currently producing wells.

NW Natural estimates the gas reserves will save Oregon customers more than $50 million on a net present value basis over the life of the agreement. The Jonah Gas Field is considered to be one of the 10-largest gas fields in the U.S. with over 2 Trillion cubic feet equivalent (Tcfe) of proved reserves. 

About Jonah

Located south of Pinedale, Wyoming, the Jonah Field is one of our key resource plays. The life of the Jonah Field is estimated to be from 40 to 60 years.

Plains Exploration & Production (PXP) reported 2010 results; Production up 7% over 2009; Plan to invest $1.2 billion in 2011

PXP reported 2010 daily sales volume of 88,500 BOE up 7% over 2009. The company reported full-year revenues of $1.5 billion and net income of $103.3 million, compared to revenues of $1.2 billion and net income of $136.3 million, for the full-year 2009. PXP plan to increase its production and reserves rate from 15% to 20% per year over the next 3 years.

Keypoints:

-- Average daily sales volumes of 88,500 BOE up 7% over 2009. Operating cash flow of $976.7 million up 4% over 2009.

-- Proved reserves of 416.1 million BOE up 16%  over 2009.

--- $1.2 billion capital allocated for 2011.

HRT O&G to sell interest in two oil blocks offshore Namibia

HRT O&G Exploracao e Producao de Petroleo Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of HRT Participacoes em Petroleo SA) has announced that it may sell up to 50% of a pair of oil Blocks 2112A and 2212B in the Walvis Basin, offshore Namibia. HRT holds a 100% participating interest in the two blocks. The blocks are contiguous and span an area of 11,592 sq km (equal to 1,159,200 hectares, or 2,864,446 acres) with water depths ranging between 300 and 1,400 m. In January 2011, HRT has signed 3D seismic contract for 5,278 sq km over the blocks.

Top 20 US deals driven by shales, major oils and dramatic asset moves

• 14 of the top 20 US deals in 2010 were motivated by shale objectives with some of the largest deals (East, Atlas, Exco, Consol, Reliance) in the Marcellus.
• Apache’s purchase of BP’ Permian assets and SandRidge’s corporate acquisition of Arena were not driven by unconventional assets. While Concho’s acquisition of Marbob has some Avalon Shale hope.
• Energy XXI’s and Apache’s purchase of offshore assets from Exxon and Devon were somewhat driven by shales including Devon’s refocus and Exxon’s XTO commitment.
• Apache’s acquisition of Mariner’s deepwater assets was dramatic.
• The top 20 deals totaled $44.6bn or 59% of the total market. The 14 clearly shale deals totaled $32.6bn or 43% of the US total.