Month: August 2017

 

 

 

 

The kidnapping of the employees of the Oil and Gas Exploration and Production (E&P) companies, twice in less than one year in the Fata has sent a wrong signal to the investors who are now holding back from investment in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

 

Taking serious notice of the deteriorating security situation for the oil and gas companies’ employees in the tribal areas, the KP government in a letter dated August 11, 2017 addressed to the Directorate General of Petroleum Concessions (Petroleum Division) said that the recent kidnapping incidents in the tribal areas had created anxiety among the oil and gas exploration and production companies working in the province.

According the letter, available with The Nation, four employees of the BGP (Pakistan International) company, which works under the supervision of Oil and Gas Facilitation Unit (OGFU) Fata went missing earlier this month.

This is second kidnapping in less than a year as in November 2016 another kidnapping took place.

The kidnapping incidents have negatively affected oil and gas sector in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The letter has claimed that the investors have started holding back their investments.

Earlier, in another letter to Saeed Khan Jadoon, acting executive director exploration OGDCL, BGP (Pakistan international) informed that on August 9, 2017 four BGP personnel were kidnapped from the Fata.

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Shares in CGG have started with a downward shift early on Monday morning.

 

 

 

 

 

CGG Holding (U.S.) filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court a Revised Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization and related Disclosure Statement.

According to the Disclosure Statement, “The Plan is part of a comprehensive reorganization of the Company in France and the United States through plans approved (i) in the Safeguard and (ii) under chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code with respect to the Debtors….

Under the Safeguard Plan,

(i) conversion into New CGG Shares in the context of the Rights Issue, at a price equal to the Euro equivalent of $1.75 per New CGG Share with Warrants2, by way of set-off against the Allowed Senior Notes Claims if, and to the extent that, the backstop of the Holders of Senior Notes is called and

(ii) conversion into New CGG Shares in the context of the Senior Notes Equitization at a price equal to the Euro equivalent of $3.50 per New CGG Share, in each case in accordance with and subject to the Safeguard Plan.”

The Court previously scheduled an August 28, 2017 hearing to consider the Disclosure Statement.

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All of Team DUG is thinking of our colleagues and friends in Houston and hoping that they are staying safe from the devastatation that Hurricane Harvey is currently inflicting on the city. The pictures we are seeing across the world are beyond comprehension. We hope that relief is in sight soon.

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The team at Seis News is thinking of all of our friends and associates  in Houston and Hong Kong / Macau. We hope that they are safe and comfortable. The various views and media coverage available on line show the devastation that has been caused and it follows that the recover will take some time to effect.

We wish you well and look forward to seeing you all again soon.

 

Typhoon Hato

On Wednesday morning, the Hong Kong Observatory issued a typhoon warning signal number 10, the highest such level in Hong Kong’s warning system, for Typhoon Hato. A level 10 warning signal has only ever been issued 15 times in Hong Kong since 1946, with the last issuance coming in 2012.

Early Wednesday morning, Hato slammed into the autonomous region Macau, just south of Hong Kong, causing widespread flooding and damage in one of the most densely populated regions in the world. At least 16 deaths are blamed on the typhoon that local residents are describing as “the strongest and the scariest typhoon” the area has ever experienced. Powerful words for an area that averages five to six typhoons passing close by per year.

Tropical Storm Pakhar followed on just four days later.

 

Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey has slammed into Texas with initial winds of up to 130mph (215km/h) battering coastal areas.

The biggest storm to hit the US mainland in 13 years is moving slowly, with 16.43in (42cm) of rain reported in one area.

Catastrophic flooding is expected, though Harvey’s winds were downgraded from category four to category one.

Some residents are feared trapped in collapsed buildings and there have been widespread power cuts.

More than 200,000 customers are without electricity, utility companies say.

After freeing up federal aid for the worst-affected areas, President Donald Trump praised emergency services in a tweet, saying: “You are doing a great job – the world is watching! Be safe.”

Take care out there from all at Seis News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seismic surveys critical part if the US is to harness its energy potential

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in early August published its final programmatic environmental impact statement (EIS), evaluating the environmental impacts of geological & geophysical surveys on marine mammals in the Gulf of Mexico region.

According to the bureau, the EIS establishes a framework for BOEM to guide subsequent National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analyses of site-specific actions while identifying and analyzing appropriate mitigation measures to be used during future G&G activities on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in support of oil and gas, renewable energy, and marine mineral resource programs.

Using a tiering process based on this programmatic evaluation, BOEM will address the impacts of future site-specific actions in subsequent NEPA evaluations.

The EIS release came as the U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking to expand offshore drilling in federal waters. It is a response to a court-ordered settlement of a lawsuit brought by environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Center for Biological Diversity, Gulf Restoration Network and Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice.

The extensive report was not very well received by environmentalist groups nor by the oil and gas industry. In fact, this was a rare occasion that environmentalists and the oil and gas industry agreed on something, with both sides expressing disappointment by the report’s findings.

Namely, while the oil and gas industry claimed the report was not based on scientific facts and as such it is putting energy exploration at risk, the environmentalists claimed that BOEM did not do enough to protect the marine mammals from the seismic surveys.

According to Earthjustice, a non-profit law organization dedicated to environmental issues, the report outlines possible mitigation measures, including closure areas where seismic blasting would be banned, and reductions in the amount of activity permissible each year.

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Clive Palmer’s lawyers blasted over last-minute evidence in $22m lawsuit

Mr Palmer’s flagship company, Mineralogy, wants a declaration that it is not obliged to pay exploration company BGP Geoexplorer any money over a $22 million debt owed to it by another of his businesses, Palmer Petroleum, which is in liquidation.

 

BGP Geoexplorer has filed a counterclaim and the case has been set down for trial over two days in the Supreme Court starting today.

Justice David Jackson questioned why Mineralogy’s legal team wanted to rely on a new expert report just five days before the trial in an attempt to prove its case that BGP breached a contract for exploration work done in the Gulf of Papua.

“How can that possibly be appropriate subject matter to raise five days before the trial?” he said.

He ordered the lawyers to prepare an affidavit by 2.30pm today “as to who considered it appropriate, and why”.

“Because it seems to me that it’s a fundamental default in the procedural law of this court,” Justice Jackson said.

Mr Palmer touched down in Townsville this morning to visit the Yabulu refinery of his company, Queensland Nickel.

QNI went into liquidation last year with $300 million in debts. More than 800 people were left out of work.

Last week, Mr Palmer had to promise not to sell the refinery until a hearing next month to decide whether his assets would be frozen amid another multimillion-dollar lawsuit brought on by QNI’s taxpayer-funded liquidators.

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Introduction to CSEM

Curious about what EMGS actually provide of value to their customers?

Have a look at this video explaining in simple terms what EMGS does:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drilling in a Digital World – Integration and digital enablement to rise above domain silos

Drilling will never be a one-size-fits-all operation. Every well presents a unique set of conditions that vary during construction. For years, the industry has been applying discrete drilling technologies and relying on incremental enhancements to improve drilling efficiencies. While this has produced noteworthy results, there are still performance inefficiencies due to the interfaces between multiple technology and service providers.

In the E&P article “Drilling in a Digital World,” Catherine MacGregor, president of the Drilling Group at Schlumberger, discusses how the industry can achieve fundamental improvements and new levels of drilling performance by adopting a holistic, consistent, and collaborative approach to managing the entire drilling system. She describes how this requires industry participants to completely rethink the way the industry operates, and the need to redesign and digitally enable workflows to drive integrated technology and service delivery platforms built on cloud-based single data sources. Read the article here.

As part of the company’s Insights series, MacGregor further shares her views on how drilling is being driven by digital workflow opportunities—such as the Schlumberger cognitive drilling rig, the company’s rig of the future. Read the article here.

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