Month: October 2017

 

 

 

SDX Energy: Gas Discovery at KSR-14 Development Well, Morocco

Following its spud announcement on 18 September 2017, SDX Energy Inc., the North Africa focused oil and gas company, has announced that a gas discovery has been made at its KSR-14 development well on the Sebou permit in Morocco (SDX 75% working interest).

The KSR-14 well was drilled to a total depth of 1,830 metres and encountered 20 metres of net conventional natural gas pay in the Guebbas and Hoot formations over four intervals. The initial results have exceeded pre-drill estimates, and work is currently underway to further evaluate the well’s accurate recoverable volume estimate.

Once the drilling rig has left the location, the Company expects that the well will be connected to the existing infrastructure and produced. The well is anticipated to be on production in approximately 30 days.

Paul Welch, President and CEO of SDX, comments, “This positive result follows the Company’s recent oil discovery at our West Gharib Concession in Egypt and demonstrates the real momentum developing across our portfolio. This outcome in Morocco is an excellent start to our nine well programme, where we are targeting an increase in our local gas sales volumes in Morocco by up to 50%. I look forward to reporting on the flow rates from today’s KSR-14 discovery and last week’s Rabul 2 discovery in the near term along with updating our shareholders on further progress on our South Disouq Development activities in due course.”

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CGG: Bankruptcy Extension Sought

CGG Holding filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court a motion to extend the exclusive period during which the Company can file a Chapter 11 plan and solicit acceptances thereof through and including February 9, 2018 and April 10, 2018, respectively.

The motion explains, “Since the commencement of these chapter 11 cases less than four months ago, the Debtors have made extensive progress towards consummation of a plan of reorganization: they have successfully negotiated with their key constituencies regarding the terms of an agreed chapter 11 plan; they have filed the resulting plan and related disclosure statement, and all of the relevant exhibits, supplements and annexes thereto, with the Court; they have obtained this Court’s approval of their disclosure statement; and they have solicited votes on the plan from impaired creditors and received overwhelming acceptance thereof; and they have obtained this Court’s confirmation of the chapter 11 plan. All of this has been done in careful coordination with the Debtors’ affiliates, including their ultimate parent, CGG S.A., to ensure that the Debtors’ chapter 11 plan works in concert with the plan put forth by CGG S.A. in its concurrent restructuring proceeding in France to effectuate a single, integrated financial restructuring of the entire corporate group.”

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In addition, “Consistent with the basic premise of the Restructuring, the Debtors cannot consummate their Chapter 11 Plan and emerge from chapter 11 until and unless CGG S.A. is also ready to consummate its plan….In the meantime, the Debtors are taking all appropriate steps to manage their business operations while in chapter 11 and are working diligently to comply with the cash collateral budget and ensure they are able to pay their bills as they come due. As such, no creditor or party in interest will be prejudiced by the requested extension. Indeed, the Debtors’ requested extension of the Exclusive Periods is consistent with the timeframe envisioned by the parties at the outset of the Restructuring: The Lock-Up Agreement contemplates emergence in February 2018; and the cash collateral order entered by this Court similarly establishes a ‘Termination Date’ in February 2018.”

The Court scheduled a November 13, 2017 hearing on the extension motion.

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Chevron: Bight exit shows energy investment can’t be taken for granted

Chevron’s decision to not continue its Great Australian Bight exploration program is disappointing – for the wider Australian community who need new local energy supply, and for South Australians who would have benefitted from the activity.

APPEA’s Director South Australia Matthew Doman said success in the Bight would ease Australia’s reliance on imported oil and deliver the state much-needed new investment and jobs.

“Chevron has made clear its view that the resource potential of the Great Australian Bight remains significant but their decision is a reminder that much-needed investment in developing Australia’s energy resources cannot be taken for granted,” Mr Doman said.

“While several other companies continue to develop exploration plans for the Bight, the international environment for the oil and gas industry is challenging.

“With the oil price halving over the last three years, exploration activity around the world is at very low levels. Global exploration spending is expected to fall this year for the third year in a row to less than half 2014 levels.

“In Australia, onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration is at 30-year lows – due to difficult market conditions, escalating regulatory costs and political bans on energy development.”

Mr Doman said the economic and energy benefits of successful petroleum development in the Bight would be substantial.

He said any industry activity in the Bight would only proceed under the highest environmental standards, and only after wide community consultation and close scrutiny by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA).

“The industry will continue to work with local stakeholders and the wider community to build understanding of the benefits and impacts of offshore petroleum activity to South Australians,” Mr Doman said.

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AustinBridgeporth: Completes airborne FTG survey in Greenland

Bridgeporth’s parent company, AustinBridgeporth, has completed acquisition of an Airborne Full Tensor Gravity Gradiometry (FTG) survey for Greenland Gas & Oil over their concession in the Jameson Land area of South Eastern Greenland. This is a new frontier oil and gas province that is thought to be closely related to the prolific producing fields of Mid Norway. The processing of the acquired FTG data is nearing completion and will complement the current 2D seismic data and contribute towards developing a better understanding of the structural and sedimentary components of the Jameson Land Basin.

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Privately-owned Greenland Gas & Oil Limited, the Greenland focussed oil & gas exploration and development company, is pleased to announce that it has closed a £1.1 million funding round raised via management and associates. The proceeds will contribute to exploration activities in the first phase of its exploration licences 2015/13 and 2015/14 in Jameson Land, south-east Greenland.

Consequently, the Company has been able to enter in to a Master Services Agreement with AustinBridgeporth, specialists in non-seismic data acquisition, with a view to acquiring a non-intrusive Full Tensor Gravimetric (‘FTG’) airborne survey over the Jameson Land licences this summer. This data will complement the current 2D seismic data which is also being reprocessedand ongoing multidisciplinary G&G work, which will provide a more comprehensive picture of the structural and sedimentary components of the Jameson Land Basin. GGO expects to confirm the substantial resource potential of its licences ahead of a farm- out process anticipated to commence in early 2018.

Mark Bilsland, Chief Executive, commented: “We are pleased to have secured the financing that enables us to move forward with the FTG survey, an important part of our technical work to assess further the potential of our portfolio. We are extremely excited by the prospectivity of the acreage and believe this work will significantly enhance our understanding of the exploration opportunities that it holds.”

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Fugro: Divests Non-Core Trenching and Cable Laying business to Global Marine Group

Fugro finds a strong partner for an important part of its non-core marine construction and installation activities.

Fugro will contribute its trenching and cable laying business to the Global Marine Group (GMG) in return for an equity interest of around 24% in the combined business and a US$ 7.5 million secured vendor loan.

The transaction involves the transfer of 23 Aberdeen based employees, 1 vessel, 2 trenchers and 2 remotely operated vehicles.

Fugro will participate in a diversified subsea cable installation, maintenance and marine telecom component manufacturing and cable integration business. Fugro will also become GMG’s preferred provider of site characterisation and asset integrity services.

GMG is a global, leading supplier of subsea cable installation and maintenance services in four market segments: telecoms, offshore renewables, power and oil & gas. The company has several longstanding partnerships which include SB Submarine Systems (a joint venture with China Telecom offering cable installation and maintenance services in Asia Pacific) as well as Huawei Marine Networks (a joint venture with Huawei Technologies focused on manufacturing marine telecom components and cable integration to provide complete turnkey subsea telecom systems).

GMG operates worldwide from its main offices in Chelmsford (United Kingdom) and Singapore. NYSE listed diversified holding company HC2 Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HCHC) is the majority owner of GMG.

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Paradigm: Geolog User Group Meeting – 17 Oct 17, Calgary

Palliser Amphitheater (2^nd floor between the Calgary Tower and the Paradigm Office) 115 9th Ave SE, 2nd floor, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Paradigm are pleased to invite the Geolog user community to the 2017 Geolog User Group Meeting, to be held in Calgary on Tuesday, October 17, 2017.

It has always been the user community that drives the innovation behind Geolog. We’d like to show you how your ideas and suggestions have been incorporated into the latest Geolog release, and present our road maps for medium and longer term development.

This meeting will also provide you an opportunity to network with other Geolog users and share your Geolog experience and best practices with your peers.

Geolog Product Manager Richard Pelling will present highlights of the Geolog 8 release, as well as many of Geolog’s newest and most advanced technologies.

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SovComFlot: New icebreaking standby vessel named Fedor Ushakov

On 11 October 2017, the naming ceremony took place for Fedor Ushakov, a new multifunctional icebreaking standby vessel (IBSBV) built to order for PAO Sovcomflot (“SCF Group”), to serve the Sakhalin-2 project.

The naming ceremony was attended by: Igor Tonkovidov, Executive Vice-President and Technical Director of Sovcomflot; Paul Eykhout, Offshore Asset Manager at Sakhalin Energy; and Alexey Rakhmanov, President of United Shipbuilding Corporation.

The ceremony was also attended by representatives of the Admiral Ushakov Maritime State University (AUMSU). The vessel’s godmother is Tatyana Timchenko, Ph.D. in Economics, Vice-Rector of AUMSU, Associate Professor at the Organisation of Transportation and Transport Management Department, Head of the Customs Law Department. Also present at the ceremony was Viktor Pushkarev, a fourth-year Mechanical Engineering student at AUMSU.

Fedor Ushakov is the third in a series of four multifunctional icebreaking supply and standby vessels commissioned by SCF Group, under a long-term agreement with Sakhalin Energy – the Sakhalin-2 project operator. Two of these vessels have already been delivered: Gennadiy Nevelskoy, in the spring of 2017, and Stepan Makarov, in the summer of 2017.

The vessels of this series are among the best in their class and are purpose-designed for operating in challenging ice conditions of the Sea of Okhotsk.

The vessels’ design and equipment allows them to ensure the safety of Sakhalin-2’s personnel, employed at three offshore production platforms, and a rapid response to emergency situations throughout the year.

Fedor Ushakov will have Saint Petersburg as her home port and is registered under the Russian flag. The all-Russian crew numbers 28.

Principal parameters of the new IBSBV are as follows:

• Length:            99.9m
• Breadth:          21.6m
• Draught:          7.6m
• Deadweight: 3,824 t
• Ice class:         Icebreaker 6

The construction of the four vessels was contracted United Shipbuilding Corporation, with the actual construction being carried out by its subsidiary, Arctech Helsinki Shipyard.

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The Offshore Energy 2017 kicked off on Tuesday in Amsterdam with participation of 7550 international companies from 99 countries, including Iran, with an aim to present opportunities, capabilities and transfer of new technologies in the offshore and marine energy sectors.

In this year’s edition, 18 Iranian companies in the form of 10-membered delegations comprising managers and experts from the offshore oil and gas industry are showcasing their products and services at Iran’s pavilion.

The three-day event addresses the technical, operational and commercial challenges associated with future sector growth.

Speaking on the sidelines of the exhibition, Iranian ambassador to The Hague Alireza Jahangiri highlighted Iran and the Netherlands’ relations in the post-JCPOA era, saying the two countries have a number of plans and policies on agenda for further development of bilateral cooperation; “within this framework, the energy sector is one of the most promising sectors for expanding relations between the two countries,” he added.

“Iran’s policy is to stay away from crude oil and gas sales and move toward offshore energy,” Jahangiri said. “For this end, the Netherlands’ technology and investment can prove helpful for realization of Iran’s policies.”

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Thalassa Holdings: Is there now an opportunity in THAL?

Thalassa Holdings Limited (AIM:THAL), an energy company based in British Virgin Islands, received a lot of attention from a substantial price increase on the AIM in the over the last few months. Less covered, small-stocks like THAL sees more of an opportunity for mispricing due to the lack of information available to the public, which can be a good thing. So, could THAL still be trading at a low price relative to its actual value? Let’s take a look at THAL’s outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if the opportunity still exists.

What is THAL worth?

Great news for investors – THAL is still trading at a fairly cheap price. I’ve used the price-to-equity ratio in this instance because there’s not enough visibility to forecast its cash flows. The stock’s ratio of 11.6x is currently well-below the industry average of 58.4x, meaning that it is trading at a cheaper price relative to its peers. Although, there may be another chance to buy again in the future. This is because THAL’s beta (a measure of share price volatility) is high, meaning its price movements will be exaggerated relative to the rest of the market. If the market is bearish, THAL’s shares will likely fall by more than the rest of the market, providing a prime buying opportunity.

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Fugro: Airborne LiDAR production now fully integrated with Leica HxMap workflow

Leica Geosystems, industry leader for reality capture and measurement technology, announced today the release of LiDAR data processing capability in the Leica RealCity solution package. Leica Geosystems partnered with international asset integrity and geo-intelligence solutions provider, Fugro, to begin acquiring and processing data over multiple cities and coastal regions across the US.

Using CityMapper, Fugro conducted aerial surveys over some of North America’s most densely populated urban centres, in support of their geospatial mapping services. As the world’s first hybrid airborne sensor combining oblique and nadir imaging as well as a LiDAR system into one instrument, the CityMapper enables significant time and cost savings by flying once to collect both imagery and LiDAR data. All collected LiDAR and imaging data can be processed in the one unified workflow solution, Leica HxMap.

“We have a long history working with Leica Geosystems sensors, because they are so reliable. CityMapper has proven no different,” said Mike Wernau, Fugro program manager. “The platform’s superior design, coupled with Leica Geosystems’ newest version of HxMap, amplifies our ability to create highly accurate, feature-rich geospatial content.”

Upgraded end-to-end workflow

The results of the airborne surveys were post-processed using the latest version of Leica HxMap, the unified high-performance multi-sensor workflow. Within a single and familiar interface common to processing other Leica Geosystems airborne sensors, all typical data products, from orthophotos and oblique images to point clouds, 3D meshes and models, can be quickly and efficiently produced.

“The added enhancements enable users to work more efficiently while saving on training and IT costs,” said Belai Beshah, VP Software, Leica Geosystems, Geospatial Solutions Division.

The latest update of the common-sensor post-processing software sees the addition of LiDAR point cloud generation, calibration, strip matching and viewing to the current image processing capability.  Leica HxMap version 2.2 also incorporates enhanced noise filtering for both CityMapper and Leica SPL100 single-photon LiDAR sensors.

“HxMap v2.2 is extremely powerful, as it establishes a single environment to process our CityMapper oblique and nadir imagery, point cloud and terrain data all at once,” said Wernau. “The products derived from the Leica RealCity workflow serve as the foundation for our land and property solutions, delivering real value to our customers in state and local government, insurance, and land-use management.”

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