A 10-year low in oil discoveries in Norway in 2017 doesn’t deter an expected increase in drilling in 2018, whilst performance continues to improve in the UK with the focus switching to gas for 2018, says Westwood Global Energy's Dave Moseley…
Study area, in red. Map from Total. Total and the National Office of Petroleum of Guinea (ONAP) signed a technical evaluation agreement to study deep and ultra deep offshore areas located off the coast of Guinea Conakry…
Bissau Exploration Co. (BEC) has signed a joint venture participation agreement between themselves and state oil firm A Empresa Nacional de Pesquisa e Exploracao Petroliferas (Petroguin) for petroleum exploration, development and production in the area of Block 4B…
Six of the offshore exploration wells that are set to drill in the UK in 2017 have an average pre-drill prospect volume of over 100 MMboe. Douglas-Westwood, through its Westwood Insight, asks if this signal a renaissance for UK exploration…
Members on an Australian Senate Inquiry have mostly supported oil and gas activities in the Great Australian Bight, subject to robust regulatory standards, says the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA). The…
Canadian explorer Husky Energy has signed a production sharing contract (PSC) for a new exploration block offshore China. Block 16/25 is in the Pearl River Mouth Basin, about 150km southeast of Hong Kong. Husky expects to drill two exploration wells on the shallow water block during 2018…
Kosmos Energy started the second phase of its multi-well exploration drilling program offshore Mauritania and Senegal. The Atwood Achiever drillship is now on location offshore Senegal in the Cayar Offshore Profond block and has started…
Newfield Exploration Co. signed a sales agreement with some of its joint venture partners to divest its non-operated 12% stake in the Bohai Bay field in China for approximately US$39 million. The deal is subject to customary regulatory approval…
Offshore Ireland focused Providence Resources has been approved to move into the second phase of exploration on Frontier Exploration License (FEL) 2/14, containing the Druid and Drombeg prospects. FEL 2/14 is in about 2250m water depth…
Norwegian oil firm Statoil has set out its plans to drill around 30 exploration wells, in up to 11 countries on five continents, as operator and partner, in 2017 - an increase of around 30% compared to 2016. More than half of the wells will be drilled on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS)…
Providence Resources is putting a tender for a rig contract for the 2017 Druid drilling program in the southern Porcupine Basin in FEL 2/14, off the south west coast of Ireland. It is expected that the rig contract will be signed during Q4 2016 to facilitate summer 2017 drilling…
The latest Australian petroleum exploration spending data is 'an urgent wake-up call for governments and industry,' the country's oil industry body has warned. Dr Malcolm Roberts, CEO of the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration…
Anadarko Petroleum has appointed two of its executives as its new executive vice president of operations, and executive vice president, international and deepwater exploration. Hollek. Image from Anadarko…
The first exploration wells on new Barents Sea acreage, which has been opened to the industry for the first time, could be in place as early as next year, targeting billion barrels of oil equivalent prospects. Three new licenses in areas…
This year, the deepwater drilling record could be broken not just once, but twice, breaking the last record, set back in 2013. Elaine Maslin takes a look. Total’s Raya-1 well is due to be drilled offshore Uruguay using Maersk Oil’s ultra…