Tullow oil reported 2010 annual results; Reported 2010 annual production of 58,100 boepd surpassing initial 2010 guidance of 55-57 kboepd; Plan to invest for exploration led value growth in Mauri-Tano trend , South America and East Africa

Tullow reported 2010 annual production of 58,100 boepd surpassed 2010 guidance. The company achieved 82% exploration and appraisal success rate and three year reserves replacement ratio of 250%. Tullow plan to invest $1,500 million in 2011 and is planning to produce 86-92 kboepd in 2011.

Highlights:

-- 2010 annual production of 58,100 boepd surpassing initial 2010 guidance of 55-57 kboepd

-- 83% Exploration and Appraisal success rate in 2010

Plan to invest $1,500 million in 2011

-- Frontier exploration to open new basins in 2011

BP Rosneft share Swap in problem – Rosneft may look for new Asian partners to develop the Arctic project

Share swap between BP and state-controlled Rosneft under which they agreed to jointly explore for offshore oil and gas in the areas of the Arctic is in problem after TNK BP won an injunction in a London court that froze the deal and is now seeking to be part of it. 

Rosneft and the Russian government have made clear such move was not welcome. On 2 March the TNK-BP management had proposed buying a $7.6 billion stake in BP and joining the offshore partnership with Rosneft. The deal with Rosneft gives BP more clout in Russia and effectively sidelines TNK BP.

Two months after Rosneft-BP strategic alliance announcement, Rosneft  is considering new partners

After 2 months of BP Rosneft deal, Rosneft is considering partnering with Chinese and Indian energy companies to work on Arctic projects.

Arctic Project Overview

For more: www.deerickpetroleum.com

ConocoPhillips slows down gas business and accelerates oilsands investment… Many more including Chesapeake and EOG are transiting from gas to oil!!!

ConocoPhillips’ Canadian president, Joe Marushack said, "ConocoPhillips Canada will go in full-speed ahead on its Alberta in situ oilsands investments this year while choking back spending on its natural gas business and maintaining support for liquids-rich conventional plays. The dramatic drop in gas prices, which at $4/MMBTU are a fraction of their level of several years ago, has forced substantial changes at the US energy giant. Late last year, it closed off the taps on 12% of its Canadian gas output for three months. ConocoPhillips is not the only company transiting from gas focus to oil focus but also other majors like Chesapeake, EOG Resources, etc.,

The company also intends to continue selling some non-strategic assets from its gas-heavy Canadian portfolio, although it's not huge numbers compared to the overall size of its operations. “If you go back to 2008, folks were drilling under the assumption of $8 gas. That’s a very different capital profile than what you’d use when you have $3.50 gas,” Mr. Marushack said.


The company’s primary focus remains on the oil sands, despite selling its 9% stake in Syncrude Canada– a transaction with Sinopec that netted it $4.65-billion. ConocoPhillips is investing heavily in developing new oilsands projects. Its expansion comes both through its 50% partnership with Cenovus Energy on several projects, and its Surmont development, which it owns with Total E&P Canada. Last year, ConocoPhillips began work on the second, 83,000 barrel-per-day phase of Surmont. The company is also spending heavily on new technology in the oilsands, where Mr. Marushack said improving environmental performance has become a key goal. Last month, ConocoPhillips, announced a $13.5-billion US capital budget for 2011, with about $6 billion to be spent on North American exploration and development. The following graph shows the trend of oilsands deals since 2006..

A list of the oilsands deals in 2010 captured by Derrick Petroleum

2010 divestitures of ConocoPhillips...

See the publications of ConocoPhillips: http://docsearch.derrickpetroleum.com/research/q/conocophillips.html

Norway determined to “crack the code”- Plans to drill about 60 wells on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in 2011 as compared to 40 in 2010!!!

Whilst the number of wells drilled on the NCS decreased last year to 40 wells compared to 65 exploration wells in 2009, 2011 is set to match the record year of 2009. About 60 wells have been scheduled so far.

• Only one exploration well was drilled in the Barents sea in 2011.
• The CEO of state-run producer Statoil , Helge Lund, told Bloomberg that the oil industry has been unable to 'crack the code' of the Barents Sea. However, a company spokesperson said earlier in the week that Statoil 'still believes' in the Barents Sea, underscoring its importance to the plans of Norway's upstream players.
• About 32 wildcat wells were completed by the end of 2010, out of which 16 wells discovered hydrocarbons in them.

• So far in 2011, six wells have been drilled offshore Norway: two each in the North, Barents and Norwegian seas. All six have failed to yield hydrocarbons. This is the largest number of dusters to start a calendar year in Norway's drilling history since 1966, according to Norwegian government data.
• Norway estimates the Norwegian Sea holds 455 billion cubic meters in undiscovered gas and the Barents Sea 520 billion cubic meters. Total undiscovered gas resources may be 1.26 trillion cubic meters, the directorate said in January, down from an estimate of 1.82 trillion cubic meters last year. The country had proven gas reserves of 2 trillion cubic meters in 2009.
• The lack of discoveries is challenging targets to maintain production offshore Norway and imperiling the development of a second gas hub in the Norwegian Sea.
• Statoil missed production targets last year and has said a goal of keeping output in Norway at current levels until 2020 is “ambitious.”
• Producers operating off Norway are investing a record amount in exploration and production this year to make bigger discoveries and prolong output from existing fields.
• Investments are estimated to climb 13 percent to 141.1 billion kroner ($25 billion) driven by an 11 percent increase in spending on exploration.

Planned exploration wells on NCS 2011 sorted by operating company:

    

Companies which have not planned any wells as operators in 2011:

BP, Chevron, Dana Petroleum, Lotos, VNG, North Energy, Front Exploration, Spring Energy, Hess, Bridge Energy, Talisman Energy, Repsol, Shell and ExxonMobil.

For further information on Derrick Petroleum Exploration Database, please visit:
http://www.derrickpetroleum.com/explorationdatabaase.html

Det norske oljeselskap ASA reported 2010 annual results; Production up 13.4% over 2009; Plan to produce ~2,000 boepd net in 2011

Det norske reported 2010 annual results. The company reported 2010 annual production of 2,092 boepd (WI), which is 13.4% higher than 2009 annual production of 1,845 boepd. Det norske is planning to invest NOK 300 million ($53.5 million) in 2011 including NOK 220 million ($39.3 million) for development assets.

Highlights:

-- Annual production of 2,092 boepd in 2010

-- Developments in the pipeline

-- Expected post-tax exploration spending in 2011 amounts to approximately NOK 400 million ($71.4 million)

More to be raised to fund APLNG JV

Origin is assessing a range of funding options for the joint venture, which includes tapping debt markets ,  conducting another equity raising and selling up to 7.5% interest in APLNG.

Origin and Conoco Phillips have agreed to sell LNG cargoes and 15% of the project to China's Sinopec, reducing their holdings to 42.5% each. Talks with other potential LNG buyers continue and that Origin expects to end up with more than 35% of the project's equity, but probably closer to 40%.  

Origin is optimistic about raising more through share issue after $2.3 billion capital raising

Origin Energy will raise 2.3 billion Australian dollars (US$2.32 billion) through share issue on the Australian market this year.Proceeds will reduce debt associated with the A$3.26 billion purchase of electricity assets privatized by the New South Wales state government.

Origin will continue to have Australia's strongest balance sheets

Origin already had one of Australia's strongest balance sheets after it sold a half share of its coal seam gas assets in Queensland state to U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips (COP) in 2007 for up to US$8 billion. By launching the raising early in 2011, Origin has been able to reinstate full year underlying profit guidance of around 15% growth, having lowered it last month to 10-15%, because paying off debt will reduce its interest bill. 

Brazil- World’s next oil bank!! O&G players flocking towards Brazlian pre-salt discoveries. BG to invest $30 billion in Brazil!!

Brazil's quest to remake itself into a global oil superpower is gaining momentum.

BG is to invest $30 billion in Brazil in the next decade, an increase from the $5 billion it has invested since 1994. BG has stakes in some of Brazil’s largest oil discoveries, including the 6.5 billion barrel Lula field, formerly known as Tupi. BG plans to produce 550,000 barrels a day in Brazil by 2020, or a third of the company’s total production by the end of the decade. Brazil is preparing to auction exploration areas in the first half of this year as the country plans to double oil production to 5 million barrels a day by 2020. Brazil also plans to auction exploration areas in the so-called pre-salt region in deep waters of the Atlantic where the Lula field is located.

Portugal's Galp Energia will also invest $4.87 billion through 2015 as it ramps up spending to pay for the company's share of developing massive oil fields including the Lula and Cernambi fields in Brazil's pre-salt region. Galp Energia is considering the sale of a 30% stake in its Brazilian assets to finance the company's investment plans. To know more read here: http://mergersandacquisitionreviewcom.blogspot.com/2011/03/galp-to-sell-42bn-stake-opportunity-for.html

Brazil- World’s next oil bank

A consortium of Petrobras, BG and Petrogal discovered the Tupi field in 2007, which contains substantial reserves that occur in a pre-salt zone 18,000 feet below the ocean surface under a thick layer of salt. Following Tupi, numerous additional pre-salt finds were announced in the Santos Basin, such as Iracema, Carioca, Iara, Libra, Franco and Guara. Additional pre-salt discoveries were also announced in the Campos and Espirito Santo Basins.

These significant discoveries have ignited interests among certain O&G companies, which made Brazil to see many foreigners like Maersk, Sinopec and BP stepping deep into the discoveries in 2010. Also, with the market rumors of Sonangol and certain Chinese companies interested in taking a stake in Galp Energia, this year will again see many more foreigners exploiting the Brazlian reserves.

See the Global E&P Transactions 2010 review: http://www.derrickpetroleum.com/reports1.html

Pre-salt deals of 2010...

In 2009, Brazil’s liquids production surpassed its liquids consumption. In the January 2011Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA projects that Brazil will continue to be a net exporter through the end of 2012. As pre-salt discoveries boost Brazilian production in the medium and long term, crude oil exports should steadily increase.