---- Gazprom Eyes Asset Swap Deals With Shell, OMV
Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom could gain control over some of the assets that Shell acquired earlier this year from BG group, a senior Gazprom executive said in an interview.
Gazprom's Deputy Chief Executive Alexander Medvedev said the BG holdings could be included in an asset swap deal between Gazprom and Shell that was announced last year. He did not say what the BG holdings were or where they were located.
"The work is under way, progress has been made and the final result is just around the corner - it's certain that the (deals will be completed) by the year-end, maybe earlier," Medvedev said in an interview.
"Obviously, the BG assets are also in that basket," Medvedev told Reuters in the interview.
Gazprom is subject to U.S. financial sanctions imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.
Shell signed a deal with Gazprom last week to study jointly building a $10 billion gas plant on the Baltic Sea, as part of their strategic partnership which also foresees asset swaps.
Shell, which wants to sell as much as $30 billion worth of assets and exit 10 countries after merging with BG, has never commented on the assets it plans to offer to Gazprom.
The asset swap deal is not covered by the scope of the sanctions. Nevertheless, it could still arouse political sensitivities, especially if as part of the deal the Russian company, run by a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, ends up controlling assets in western Europe.
Under the previously-announced terms of their asset swap deal, Gazprom and Shell will jointly invest $13 billion in three projects in Russia, including construction of a liquefied natural gas plant on the Baltic Sea and the Sakhalin-2 LNG plant expansion, in the Pacific Ocean.
----Technip Replaces Offshore UAE Pipeline
Technip has won a contract for additional work at the ongoing Rashid-C development offshore Dubai.
The scope covers engineering, procurement, fabrication, installation, and pre-commissioning of a replacement 42-in. export pipeline.
Technip allocated the derrick pipelay vessel G1201 for Rashid-C, where project operator Dubai Petroleum Establishment has commissioned a new platform.
During 1Q, the company also secured a fasttrack order for disconnection of the Kitan field FPSO in the Timor Sea off northern Australia, using the Deep Orient vessel.
The vessel has since mobilized to Indonesia for installation of flexible pipe, manufactured at Technip’s Asiaflex plant in Malaysia, for Eni’s Jangkrik project.
Offshore Congo, the G1200 and the newbuild Skandi Africa are on construction duty for Total’s Moho Nord development.
8----- US Adds Most Oil Storage Capacity
The United States added 34 million barrels of crude oil storage capacity from September 2015 to March 2016, the largest expansion since the Energy Information Administration began tracking the data in 2011, it said.
Capacity has grown as oil inventories in the U.S. swelled over the last two years as a result of a massive glut, which also led to prices crashing to 12-year lows early in 2016.
Inventories are up more than 15 percent since the end of September. This has pushed crude oil storage capacity utilization to a near record high of 73 percent for the week ending June 10, the EIA said.
However, crude stocks have begun to drop in the last two months largely due to reduced output by U.S. producers, rising demand and reduced supply, especially in crude from Canada following the May wildfires.
-----OMV Outlines Findings of Barents Sea Horizontal Well
The semisubmersible Transocean Spitsbergen has completed drilling and testing of the OMV-operated Wisting Central II appraisal well in the Barents Sea.
The location, 310 km (192 mi) north of Hammerfest, is the most northerly to date for an oil discovery offshore Norway, in a water depth of 302 m (991 ft).
This was also the fifth well on production license PL537, awarded in 2009. OMV conducted planning and execution of the well in cooperation with various divisions of Schlumberger.
Wisting Central II was the first horizontal appraisal well in the Barents Sea and the shallowest horizontal offshore well ever drilled from a floating drilling unit, OMV claims, with the targeted reservoir just 250 m (820 ft) below the seabed.
The well, spudded on Jan. 15, started vertically and was then steered into a horizontal orientation within a 250-m vertical depth interval.
Subsequently it was landed horizontally with a 12¼-in. hole size; total well length is 2,354 m (7,723 ft) with a horizontal section of 1,452 m (4,764 ft). Advanced data collection and geo-steering continued through the horizontal phase.
The well test, with 461 m (1,512 ft) net perforations at the toe of the horizontal section, was finalized at the end of March. The well has since been permanently P&A’d.
OMV’s aims were to confirm the field’s economic potential by hydrocarbons in the previously undrilled Wisting Central South and Central West segments, and to assess the technical feasibility of long-reach horizontal wells in a very shallow reservoir ahead of a possible development.
TransCanada Wins Offshore Mexico Pipeline Contract
TransCanada says it has been chosen to build, own, and operate the $2.1-billion Sur de Texas-Tuxpan natural gas pipeline in Mexico.
The bid for the Sur de Texas-Tuxpan project was presented in partnership with IEnova, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy. The project will be supported by a 25-year natural gas transportation service contract for 2.6 bcf/d with the Comisión Federal de Electricidad, Mexico’ state-owned power company.
TransCanada expects to invest approximately $1.3 billion in the partnership to construct an approximately 800-km (497-mi), 42-in. pipeline that will run mostly offshore.
Plans call for the pipeline to begin in the Gulf of Mexico, at the border point near Brownsville, Texas, then offshore along the Mexican coast. The system will have three laterals that extend onshore to power generation markets in Matamoros in Tamaulipas state, and Altamira and Tuxpan in the state of Veracruz.
The joint venture, Infraestructura Marina del Golfo, is targeting a late 2018 in-service date.
-----Oil Find in Oman
Masirah Oil has discovered hydrocarbons offshore Oman with its Manarah-1 well in block 50.
The well was drilled to a TD of 3,000 m (9,842 ft). Currently Masirah is analyzing the results and is in discussions with the Ministry of Oil and Gas of Oman concerning a time extension as it plans follow-up wells.
Dr. Rabi Bastia, a G&G consultant and advisor to Masirah, said: “Manarah-1’s confirmation of the source rock and a working petroleum system in block 50 gives us great encouragement and important information towards our deeper understanding of the 17,000-sq km (6,564-sq mi) block.”
The well had two primary sandstone and carbonates targets and three secondary targets, with the selected target based on G&G analysis supported by Masirah’s co-owner Rex Virtual Drilling