August 2007

Kashagan field development suspended Posted Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 3:43 by petromin
Kazakhstan officials Aug. 27 have reportedly suspended the permit for exploration and development work in Kashagan oil field off Kazakhstan, effectively halting work on the vast field for the next 3 months.

This is the latest in a series of obstacles that the consortium behind Kashagan's development�led by Agip Kazakhstan North Caspian Operating Co. NV (Agip KCO), a unit of Italy's Eni SPA�has had to contend with. Most recently work in Kashagan was snagged by alleged environmental violations that threatened to revoke the consortium's license.

Eni is sole operator and holds an 18.52% interest in the North Caspian Sea production-sharing agreement to carry out exploration, development, and production activities in an offshore area in the northern part of the Caspian Sea, where giant Kashagan field was discovered.

To carry out operations, Eni created Agip KCO, which acts on behalf of the consortium.

The group plans to develop the field by drilling about 280 wells and building offshore platforms and artificial islands.

Oil and part of the natural gas produced will be sent in two separate trains to the treatment plant of Bolashak near Atyrau. Export options for production being considered include using an oil pipeline owned and operated by Caspian Pipeline Consortium, in which Eni holds a 2% interest, that links Atyrau, in Kazakhstan, to the Russian oil terminal of Novorossisysk, in the Black Sea.

Eni also is cooperator and holds a 32.5% interest in Karachaganak Petroleum Operating BV, a consortium created to develop and operate the Karachaganak field, one of the world's largest oil and gas fields, in northwestern Kazakhstan

Six blocks in the Assam-Arakan basin in India Posted Thursday, August 30, 2007 - 3:34 by petromin
Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. of India and Canoro Resources Ltd., Calgary, agreed on a work program for six blocks in the Assam-Arakan basin in Nagaland state, northeastern India.

The program includes restoring production from Changpang oil field and shooting 2D and 3D seismic aimed at a subthrust trend on five exploration blocks.

Separately, Canoro recently shot 140 line-km of 2D seismic on its nearby operated AA-ON/7 block and 220 line-km on its nonoperated AA-ONN-2003/2 block looking at the same fold and thrust trend. Preliminary results indicate several prospective structures on each block.

Changpang field was reported to be flowing more than 1,000 b/d of 30� gravity oil from the Paleogene Kopili, Sylhet, Basal sandstone, and fractured basement before production was suspended in 1994.

Besides Changpang, the five exploration blocks are AA-ONN-2001/4, 645 sq km; AA-ONN-2002/4, 1,060 sq km; Singphan, 320 sq km; Bhagty-Bhandari, 620 sq km; and Dimapur, 650 sq km.

Pertamina, Petronas and PetroVietnam sign joint-exploration agreement Posted Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 3:20 by petromin
Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina, Malaysia's Petronas and Vietnam's PetroVietnam signed an agreement in Jakarta to jointly explore and develop oil and gas reserves in the Randu Gunting block in East Java.

The agreement was signed in the presence of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Indonesian Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro. The agreement paves the way for the three oil firms to invest US$7.6 million in the block over the first three years. The Indonesian government will receive $500,000 as a signature bonus under the agreement.

While Pertamina has a 40 percent working interest interesting the block, Petronas and Petrovietnam each have 30% stake. Under the production-sharing contract (PSC), the government is entitled to 85% of the production and the contractors the remaining 15%.

Randu Gunting block, located near the Cepu block in East Java, is estimated to contain 190 million barrels of oil and 1.7 trillion cubic feet of gas. In early 2002, PetroVietnam, Pertamina and Petronas signed a tripartite cooperation arrangement to jointly explore oil and gas in their respective countries, which is part of an economic cooperation under the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The three companies had agreed to jointly develop oil blocks in Malaysia and Vietnam. So far, PetroVietnam, Pertamina and Petronas have developed in Block 10 and Block 11.1 offshore Vietnam and Block SK 305 offshore Sarawak, Malaysia. The Vietnamese agreement was signed in 2002, while the Malaysian deal in June 2003.