Member Info for Exploration

FD20

Gardline’s Ocean Vantage geo-technical survey ship is nearby Selene prospect now.

Maybe a site-survey for a jack up about to happen, although OGA approval and JOA outstanding.

Ensco 122 is currently working on Shell’s Galleon gas field - just a few km from the Selene prospect.

This is a big jack-up rig on contract to Shell and no doubt drilling on Cluff’s block will be on its forward programme.

I doubt we’ll be waiting for years for a well - more likely months.

ddboy

Thanks - Luca’s connections go way back to being Agip’s number one on production geology, followed by a spell at Appenine Energy which merged with Sound Oil. The senior people at Lone Star, then Maghreb such as Onhym’s former geological ‘god’ Rabah Bouchta know Luca’s pedigree.

I can just imagine a Sound/Onhym meeting in Rabat suggesting Italfluid/Smape - under the FMA Schlumberger has first rights to provide services, but I doubt they could compete with Smape.

Jones1980

At the Balls Bros event BM mentioned Sound was planning to use ‘Italfluid’ - which is a part of Smape. Smape is southern Europe’s biggest CT operator and does all of Agip’s CT work in Italy.

The picture on Twitter seems to show same green color of equipment used by Smape, rather than blue for Schlumberger

http://www.smape.it/-coiled-tubing-service.aspx

As to who is providing the technical supervision, stimulation design etc, I guess Schlumberger may provide guidance but I wonder if ‘Luca’s Baby’ is helping in the form of Enexon Technology.

After leaving Sound Luca became head of the ‘new’ company Enexon Technology. The company is owned by Enexon Sviluppo, an Italian company headed by a relation, Stefano Madeddu - Luca’s brother - which is investing in solar energy.

With Luca’s arrival the blurb said Enexon Technology plans to restart operations on depleted hydrocarbon fields thanks to new technologies (such as coiled tubing). As we all know, Luca Madeddu has inside knowledge of Morocco's gas projects.

Looks like Schlumberger has given up too. See below.

Schlumberger to take no new field management projects, CEO says

Mar. 25, 2019 2:45 PM ET|About: Schlumberger Limited (SLB)|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

Schlumberger (SLB -0.5%) will stop taking new field management contracts, which have been criticized for their heavy upfront investment, while it seeks to sell off some existing deals, CEO Paal Kibsgaard says.
Speaking at the Scotia Howard Weil energy conference in New Orleans, Kibsgaard says the business known as Schlumberger Production Management was cash flow neutral last year and was expected to generate free cash flow starting this year.
The CEO had said in the past that the business was strong and offered the potential for higher margins by allowing SLB to choose all the equipment and services instead of the project operator.
Kibsgaard also says he sees signs that oil and gas producers' investment views were "starting to normalize" after deep cuts in projects earlier this decade.
But he predicts onshore exploration and production investment in North America will decline more than 10% this year from 2018, as shale producers, which have driven U.S. oil production to record levels, face growing technical challenges as drilling moves to less productive areas.

https://www.slb.com/news/presentations/2019/2019-03-25-kibsgaard-howard-weil.aspx

A1m1

I recall the discussion was about HMRC’s guidance to oil companies on the UKCS corporation tax ring fence:

Certain losses can be carried back and allowed generally against profits from production or gains meaning every $ spent is discounted by the Corporation Tax rate - at Group level within the ring fence (which is all UKCS Designated Areas). Losses can also be ‘assigned’ to a new owner should the holding company be sold. So losses (i.e. an impairment) on the balance sheet has a value in certain circumstances.

Looked at through a corporate lens using GAAP, CNRL elected to take the P2248 write off now, even though the relinquishment took place in the next (current) tax year rather than have it hanging around until next year.

So there are two distinct aspects to this. One is the issue of the UKCS tax regime designed to incentivize exploration and the other is Annual Results reporting.

Don’t get them mixed up.

Here’s another boost for prospectivity of P2252.

CNRL recognized the existence of a deep Carboniferous (Visean-Naumurian) source rock in the Quadrant 41, 42 and 43 area. But the prevailing geological dogma was that the source of gas must be younger (shallower) Westphalian coals. The Westphalian is largely absent from Quadrants 41 and 42 despite the presence of gas in fields like Breagh and Crosgan.

Recently OGA has sponsored studies of the area by the scientists at the British Geological Survey to provide a regional assessment, rather than the ‘postage stamp’ of a North Sea block.

This study backs CNRL’s assessment of gas and condensate source rocks - see Figure 15 Summary map of Visean–Namurian petroleum systems elements. As mentioned in the text, ‘it shatters the myth that all gas can only come from the Westphalian coals’.

See link;

http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/517817/1/CarboniferousProspectivityMNSHv7a_revisedsubmittedwithFigs.pdf

As for P2252 it confirms a low risk of source presence and effectiveness and explains why gas was found in the early wells on 41/5 and 41/10. These wells were not tested because of severe lost circulation during drilling in the Zechstein carbonates. In fact 41/5-1 almost blew out. Modern managed pressure drilling techniques can overcome these problems.

Treeman

Looks like Shearwater will acquire the P2252 3D seismic survey as part of Shell’s overall summer 2019 UKCS seismic campaign,

https://www.shearwatergeo.com/162/news/shearwater-awarded-multi-project-marine-seismic-acquisition-contract-by-shell

On P2437, which Graham Swindells said was a last minute addition to the P2252 deal, there is no need to gather new data but rather to integrate Shell’s velocity model for the area to refine the depth conversion of the existing seismic.

If you read Centrica’s relinquishment report for P1374, which includes CNRL’s P2347 Block 48/8 you can see Centrica gave up due to uncertainties in structure mapping and their perception the Leman sandstone reservoir would be sub-commercial. However, petroleum geology/engineering tends to advance surprisingly quickly - led in this area by Shell.

https://itportal.ogauthority.co.uk/web_files/relinqs/P1734.pdf

Shell’s Barque Field cluster is associated with some of the earliest gas discoveries in the southern North Sea. In the Sole Pit area the reservoir, the Rotliegend Group Leman Sandstone Formation of Lower Permian age, occurs between Carboniferous Coal Measures, which source the gas, and Zechstein evaporites which form an excellent seal. The Leman sandstone has generally very low permeability resulting from deep burial of the Sole Pit Trough. The deepest burial and hence the maximum diagenetic damage to the reservoir happened in the early Late Cretaceous prior to two phases of inversion (uplift) in Late Cretaceous and Mid-Tertiary.

Compaction and diagenesis reduced reservoir permeability to such an extent that parts of the Barque & Clipper fields would be non-productive were it not for the presence of effective natural fracture zones and well stimulation by hydraulic fracturing techniques.

Oil major

I made a mistake - CNRL’s Pensacola reef prospect has CoS of 20%. It’s defined on 30 year old 3D seismic.

The new seismic due this summer will no doubt improve the image of the subsurface and enable a decision about whether or not to drill a well. The whole point is to control as much acreage as possible before drilling, because better 3D and a successful well will trigger a rush of competitors to licence the play in 32nd Round.

Oilmajor

Just for interest;

The Permian reservoir in P2252 is similar to the Permian ‘Magnesian Limestone’ which is a dolomite quarried in Yorkshire.

It’s used as a building stone and was used to rebuild the Palace of Westminster after the 1843 fire which destroyed the original parliament building. The trouble was that it was dissolved by the acid rain of Victorian London.

Anyway, it’s a proven play in the Maxwell gas field.

http://www.devex-conference.org/perch/resources/devex-2017-arenite-cleveland-basin-gasfields.pdf

It’s also a multi-TCF producing trend operated by Shell in the Netherlands.

Treeman10

A1m1 is renowned for selective use of numbers - the best thing you can do is ignore the posts. The recent nonsense a1m1 posted about P2437 is just that - if Shell follows through and completes the farm-in the timing of a well depends on the need for more gas to keep the Clipper-Bacton system operating at full capacity.

On licence P2252, two wells, 41/5-1 and 42/10a-2, discovered gas in the Permian Zechstein and Carboniferous reservoirs. However, due to technical failures, the flow test results for both wells were inconclusive so Lytham, in 41/10, and Fairhaven, in 41/5, are considered for prospective resources pending further drilling and / or testing. A lead, St Anne’s, is also assessed for prospective resources.

There are several prospects with CoS of up to 50%. The smallest prospect has a CoS of ~20%

The new broadband 3D seismic to be acquired this summer covers 400 swim - equivalent to two UKCS blocks and the aim is to explore the neglected Permian Zechstein play which extends as fas as the onshore near Scarborough to the south-east. It also extends across the top row of blocks in Quadrant 42 where Oranje Nassau is Planning to drill the Ossian Prospect.

Shell/Cluff will no doubt keep results of seismic confidential prior to extending their acreage position in the 32nd Round later this year. There could be multi-TCF potential.

MENA = Middle East and North Africa

Well spotted Contractman - looking back it was said the Saipem drilling contract shenanigans were a precursor to the demise of Longreach, whose shareholders were so upset at the rig costs they took over the company and created PetroMaroc.

The rig lay idle at Sidi Moktar for three years until Sound arrived at Tendrara.

Also, Recoing and Jaquety is the only service provider for heavy duty road transport in Morocco, not to mention port facilities, customs clearance, work camps etc. They also provide supply bases for any offshore drilling. If you recall, Saipem 2000 Drill ship completed the RD1 offshore well for Chariot last year.

Fairdealer

It is likely that a prolific poster on a single company does so for reasons other than the performance of the company.

Some posters come into a social media discussion and posts comments designed to upset or disrupt the conversation. Often it seems like there is no real purpose behind their comments except to provoke everyone else involved and offend to get a response. 

Studies by psychologists have found they just want to have fun ... and bulletin boards are one of their playgrounds.

The best thing you can do is ignore them.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-social-net/201708/the-internet-is-narcissist-s-paradise

TE-2 has 38m of Tagi net pay with 9% porosity - with gas.

If the new seismic shows it is a big enough structure it’s a valid target.

It would be interesting to see the whole prospect inventory.

I’ve been involved in a few frac jobs. It’s serious stuff.

Here’s a useful you tube link.

https://youtu.be/KR9rNzHl57Q

ddboy

If you drilled around West Sole, Leman and Indefatigable you’ll have made simple completions in the Rotliegendes. More recently companies like Shell moved eastwards into the Sole Pit Basin where the Rolliegendes was buried deeper during the Cretaceous (and ruining the porosity/permeability) before being uplifted - exactly same sequence of events as the Tagi in Morocco when the two areas were on a single landmass, close to the equator.

Horizontal drilling and new-build, dedicated ‘frac boats’ have revitalized this part of the UKCS. Shell has just completed a $multi million upgrade at their Bacton Terminal to take new gas from their Clipper/Barque area - and the new gas will come from hydraulic fracturing of the Rotliegendes Sandstone.

These technology ‘breakthroughs’ have come from field development projects which are readily transferable to Tendrara, Sidi Moktar, etc.

Shell watching all this, and with Repsol in partnership, licenced the Boughezoul area in the north of Algeria last year. This is known as the ‘haute plateaux’ in Algeria - an extension of the High Plateau in Morocco where Tendrara sits.

Goza

I don’t know. Sound’s technical team have all the data to conduct the testing. Yoghurt’s observation about the fractures is important, especially if they are conductive, as opposed to resistive.

It’s clearly a massive operation to assemble the testing/fracking equipment at TE-10, including ~100 tons of proppant and tankage for a lot of water.

I dare say Sound is keeping all the technical details confidential. This is one of the ‘most watched’ tests in North Africa by industry because it may be the key to producing a sizable chunk of BM’s 30 TCF in Morocco’s High Plateau.

Giza

On pressures, reservoirs like the Tagi tend to be ‘compartmentalized - vertically and horizontally. Sound is pioneering the production technology, but there are analogues elsewhere in the world with pressure variability.

Apart from the TE-6 and TE-7 successes, no information has been provided about proposals for hydraulic stimulation in Tendrara. In contrast, the Rotliegendes Sandstone in the Southern North Sea, Netherlands, Germany and Poland has turned out to be a commercial bonanza thanks to fracking. Not only is the Rotliegendes Sandstone the time equivalent of the Tagi in Morocco, it was deposited in a similar depositional environment.

Huge amounts of production experience has been accumulated an the link below describes work on the Ensign Field which took 20 years to move from discovery to commercial production - mainly thanks to horizontal drilling, multi-stage fracking and 3D seismic.

http://www.devex-conference.org/perch/resources/ensign-unravelling-the-enigma-final-1.pdf

https://pgc.lyellcollection.org/content/7/1/325

If you search Google Images as ‘Ensign gas field enigma’ you’ll find a complete set of images from the paper.

Note that Ensign had the benefit of 3D seismic and conventional cores. While hydraulic stimulation of vertical wells achieved up to 14 mmscfd, it was a horizontal well with multi-stage fracs which achieved 44 mmscfd. The horizontal well had a 2000 ft horizontal leg and 2 million pounds of proppant (yes, ~1000 tons!) was injected. Vertical wells took 250 tons of proppant.

It goes without saying a1m1. Sorry if you failed to recognize that.

You missed the point about the succession plan that Mark Lappin was lined up to become Chairman a year ago and was qualified for that role. It’s part of normal corporate ‘risk management’.

It addresses the risk of a key position being vacant should an unforeseen departure arise.

It addresses the risk of unprepared successors. This kind of risk becomes fairly debilitating when it happens at the senior level positions.

It addresses he risk of failure of an external successor who has not been part of the business.

It addresses portfolio risk -the risk of poor deployment of talent against business goals.