Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
The Xinye-1 well flowed at a test rate of 530,000 cubic metres per day (!!!) of shale gas and Fog bobs up and down in the Beetaloo, far away from such a test production rate.
Sinopec cheers giant shale gas discovery
Sinopec claims new discovery could be China’s second largest shale gas find and plans more appraisal wells
1 July 2022 11:20 GMT UPDATED 1 July 2022 11:20 GMT
By Xu Yihe in Singapore
China’s top unconventional gas producer Sinopec has made what it claims could be the country’s second largest shale gas discovery and aims to develop the find into a major production hub over the next five years.
The Xinye-1 discovery well drilled at the Xinchang structure in the country’s southwestern Sichuan basin flowed at a rate of 530,000 cubic metres per day of shale gas during tests, the company said.
The Xinchang structure is located in the Xinchangnan-Dongxi-Dingshan-Lingtanchang area on the southwestern rim of the Sichuan basin, which Sinopec estimates holds an estimated 1.19
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I assume that GKP installed ESPs from Baker or SLB.
I hope GKP got a good contingency plan to keep the installed ESPs running, because in future it will be difficult to get a BH or SLB servic engineer together with replacement pumps and parts into N Irak Kurdistan. I would expect that Gkp spends some Capex for replacement pumps now? They have to take pumps, cables, wellheads etc into stocks IMHO to keep the production running.
The Business Council of Co-Operatives and Mutuals said this month manufacturers were choosing between shutting "uneconomic operations" and passing higher costs to consumers as energy bills jumped more than 600% in a few months.
Incitec Pivot (IPL) , Australia's top fertiliser maker, has said it would close its Brisbane plant at the end of 2022 because it was unable to line up an affordable gas contract.
GAS EXPORT CONTROLS The latest crisis has highlighted the need for more gas supply in the domestic market, for a country which is the world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Manufacturers have long clamoured for gas export controls or a reservation of gas for the domestic market. Gas prices have more than tripled in price since 2014, when Australia started exporting LNG from the east coast.
In Western Australia, where 15% of gas is reserved for local consumption, domestic prices are a fraction of the capped east coast price.
"There's certainly a strong call from many quarters for something to be done and a lot of people point to gas export controls," said Tennant Reed, energy policy director at the Australian Industry Group.
Australia's new resources minister, Madeleine King, has said all options are on the table for dealing with gas supply challenges.
Successive governments have previously opposed a gas reservation on the east coast, under pressure from gas producers which say the structure would deter further investment.
"It was something I raised 10-12 years ago with the previous Labor government about allowing all the gas to be exported, and connecting up the east coast of Australia into international markets," said Partridge, the Brickworks managing director.
"Now it's all come home to roost."
Hmm, no more flare. Hopefully not caused by the reservoir.
But Australia got a fundamental gas supply, demand problem
News: STO Australia power crisis forces manufacturers to eye offshore moves, production cuts 20/06/22 15:15:01 Hot News Australia's biggest building materials manufacturers are cutting back operations, hiking prices and considering moving production offshore to manage a spike in power and gas bills, adding to pressure on the government to resolve the country's energy crisis.
The CEOs of Brickworks Ltd (BKW) , the country's largest brickmaker, and Boral Ltd (BLD) , the top maker of most other construction materials, flagged the changes even as Australia's new Labor government scrambles to try to beef up power supplies and bring down electricity prices.
Power prices have surged in Australia amid a shortage of coal-fired generation due to planned and unplanned outages, which has driven up demand for gas-fired generation at the same time as gas demand for heating jumped during a cold snap.The price jump has been exacerbated by record high global coal and gas prices, stoked by sanctions on Russia.That has left Australia's A$100 billion ($70 billion) manufacturing sector, a major power and gas consumer, exposed to soaring costs, especially those whose cheaper, long-term energy contracts are expiring.
Brickworks, for example, has gas contracts with Santos Ltd (STO) averaging A$10 per gigajoule, locked in for two years, compared to the current government-mandated price cap of A$40.
"If we had to pay, when our contract rolled over, (the current spot price), we would no doubt be shutting plants down and moving production offshore," said Lindsay Partridge, managing director of Brickworks.
Brickworks pays just $3 per gigajoule for gas in the United States, where it owns Pennsylvania-based brickmaker Glen-Gery Corp."If we rolled over and you had to pay A$40, and I could buy gas in the U.S. for $3, then it's a pretty easy equation to work out," added Partridge. The United States generates just one-sixth of Brickworks' earnings from building materials, but the company could save money by shipping product back to Australia, he said.
Boral, which downgraded its annual profit forecast in May partly due to energy costs, told Reuters it has cut back on operations due to "the speed and magnitude of the change in energy prices". "We have been forced to temporarily curtail some areas of our operations and unfortunately have been left with no other option than to pass increases onto customers directly," said Chief Executive Officer Zlatko Todorcevski in an email to Reuters, without specifying the size or products affected by the cuts. "We have also had to accelerate plans to review our overheads as we offset these inflationary challenges."
Boral welcomed a move last week by the Australian energy market operator to cap wholesale power prices and take control over power supplies, but Todorcevski said those temporary measures "do not provide long-t
Although top oil companies like Conoco have shied away from Vaca Muerta in Argentina and although Australia has a more powerful economic system than Argentina, the Vaca Muerta is in front of the Australian Betaloo:
"For April 2022, 41% of petroleum and 53% of natural gas production came from non-conventional operations, compared to 30% and 37% a year earlier. Those numbers underscore the ongoing development of operations in the Vaca Muerta and the significant expansion of shale oil and natural gas in unconventional play. They also show that Argentina’s hydrocarbon operations and production have returned to pre-pandemic levels.The strong production growth witnessed over the last two years can be attributed to a significant increase in investment which will be further stimulated by the recent oil and natural gas price rallies. The latest developments, which see Brent trading at well over $119 a barrel, saw a number of energy companies operating in the Vaca Muerta earlier this year announce plans to fast-track investment in the shale formation. That includes Argentina’s national oil company YPF, 51% owned by the Argentine government, announcing plans to increase its $3.7 billion 2022 investment plan in response to significantly higher than expected oil prices. This, the company stated, would likely see greater exploration and development activity with a view to further expanding hydrocarbon production.
Argentina’s rig count is also steadily rising since hitting a low of no active rigs in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Baker Hughes data there were 50 active rigs at the end of May 2022, which despite being four less than April 2022 was higher than the 45 rigs reported for the same month in 2022.
That is a clear indicator of activity in Argentina’s oil patch, notably the Vaca Muerta shale formation, which is ramping up at a steady clip. YPF, in early June 2022, announced that it intended to widen its drilling program. This will see the national oil company drill two wildcat wells in Mendoza, the first such wells in the northern section of the Vaca Muerta, and if they are successful a further 150 wells on two blocks in the area will be drilled. These developments indicate that Argentina’s oil and natural gas output will keep growing at an impressive rate.
Rising investment, improved drilling techniques, and the building out of critical infrastructure in the Vaca Muerta, such as the 563km or 350mile natural gas pipeline connecting the formation to Buenos Aires, will cause breakeven prices to fall. YPF believes that a combination of technology, improved infrastructure, and drilling expertise will see breakeven prices fall to as low as $30 per barrel, making the formation competitive with U.S. shale oil and other Latin American jurisdictions." source: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/The-Energy-Crisis-Has-Been-A-Boon-For-Argentinas-Dead-Cow-Shale-Patch.html
Hotcopper comments:
Risk mgt at ORG is a real head scratcher for me.
Unhedged on coal purchases, almost fully hedged (via contracted price slopes and collars on non-contracted) on LNG sales.
It's completely backwards...
ORG Price at posting: $6.16 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
...and they sold 10% of APLNG for $2Billion - that 10% will probably produce a cash return (to buyer ConocoPhillips) of $650Million this year ! Sold on a PE of 3!
strategically and financially idiotic
Its time to monetize Fogs Beetaloo. Or do you think we will see a 100fold gas price?
Gas price ‘chaos’ forces capsAngela Macdonald-SmithSenior resources writerUpdated May 31, 2022 – 12.22pm, first published at 8.02amSaveShareA forecast spike in wholesale gas prices in Victoria of more than 50 times normal levels has prompted the Australian Energy Market Operator to impose a price cap, after a polar blast hitting Victoria has driven up household demand to record levels and more gas is used in power generation.Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox described the recent energy price rises as “apocalyptic”, and said they “threaten chaos for industry and pain for households”.EOFY Sale. Save 50% for 3 months.Subscribe before June 30 and save 50% on every package. Cancel anytime.GET OFFERAlready a subscriber?
And we got a clueless Org:
Coal supply cut to Australia's biggest coal-fired plant
Origin hit by soaring coal, power purchase costs
Shares fall as much as 15%
(Recasts, adds Origin comments)
Australia's second-largest power producer Origin Energy (ORG) withdrew its earnings guidance for the year to June 2023 on Wednesday, as it struggles to secure coal for a key power plant amid soaring spot energy prices, knocking its shares down 15%.
Origin's woes reflect the extreme volatility in Australia's energy market, fuelled by soaring global coal and gas prices in the wake of the Ukraine conflict and outages at local coal-fired power plants.
Origin has faced problems obtaining coal for its Eraring power station, the country's largest coal-fired plant, from its supplier Centennial Coal over the past year, and said the miner's output has "deteriorated significantly in recent weeks".
"The challenges with coal delivery to Eraring Power station are expected to persist into FY2023," Origin said.
"This is expected to result in a material increase in coal purchasing costs given high coal prices and continued exposure to high spot electricity prices."
Origin will have to replace coal supply at sharply higher prices while also cutting output from Eraring, exposing it to high spot electricity prices as it has to meet electricity demand from its customers.
Origin cut its Energy Markets division's underlying earnings guidance for the year to June 2022 by 27% at the midpoint, to between A$310 million ($223 million) and A$460 million, and withdrew its guidance for fiscal 2023.
Still, its gas business is benefiting from soaring global liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices, which are offsetting the pain in its energy markets arm.
Origin said it expected consolidated group underlying core earnings for the year to June 2022 to be around the mid-point of its original guidance range of A$1.95 billion to A$2.25 billion.
Origin shares were last trading down 11.7% at $6.05 in a firmer broader market.
($1 = 1.3914 Australian dollars)
“You didn’t ask if it was all right to come here. You made up the rules. Who will give you permission to come on my land? I can give you the answer now. No, you may not enter!
“My gates are locked. And don’t come with any helicopters, because my shotgun will be loaded.”
........................................................
Welcome to the oil and gas business.
I myself was involved in negotiations with farmers about entering, buying their sacrosanct land and property (ok in my case no shotgun was involved but it was a dung fork - and I was not in a wild west country as Texas ;-) At the end of the day the oil company sits together with the mining authorities (who handle oil, gas, coal etc for the state) together with the farmer and you as O&G company get your deal with the farmer (if you expect a lot of oil, gas, that is worth the effort)
corruption and/or allegatons of corruptions in Africa, thats nothing new to the oil industry: if you cannot or do not know how to deal with that you should not be a CEO of an O&G company with assets in Africa. There are many oil and gas managers out there who have a track record how to close deals successfully in Africa -
I think it is too easy to say thats the excuse or the reason to stop activities in SA. FOG has to set up a team to solve the SA problem in my opinion.
I was not amused when I saw the strange things happening in the Beetaloo concerning operations with Org. I think in the meantime Fog, POQ has tackled this problem . With the new guys with the Pioneer background I expect that the right people at FOG read the suggested work programs and read the daily well site reports from Org. And if something sounds strange or wrong I expect that somebody picks up the phone or sends an email for discussion with ORG to get the best result.
The same should be done with the SA problem. I am sure, there is a solution (not easy but can be done if you know your stake holders)
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-05-20-gas-is-going-to-be-a-game-changer-in-the-economy-says-mantashe/
The minister strongly supports gas as a driver for the economy, stating: “If we are going to develop fully, we cannot write off and kill prospects of gas and oil development before it even starts.”
He said the Council for Geoscience had confirmed the verification of the Karoo shale gas samples that had been tested internationally, which meant that: “Shale gas deposits in the central Karoo are a reality and they are economical. Gas is going to be a game changer in the economy. And we appreciate the fact that even the EU now is labelling gas and nuclear as part of the green transition.”
Mantashe noted that the Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Bill had been tabled to Parliament and that iGas, a subsidiary of the Central Energy Fund, had acquired an additional 40% ownership of the Rompco pipeline, which transports gas from Mozambique to South Africa.
A gas master plan was at an advanced stage of development, he said.
and thats the reason POQ should become more proactive and try to monetize Fog`s SA asset as well.
https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/ramaphosa-give-sa-space-to-extract-oil-gas-as-it-transitions-to-clean-energy-20220510
At least Tower informed that we do not have the worst scenario dooms day on 11th of May 2022.
The second problem is the farm in money from nigerian Beluga. Here Tower is working on contigency plan number 3 already.
Tower has difficulties to deliver and they are in an environment with difficult boundary conditions. We will see if Tower can deliver this time.
Perhaps Org does not tell anything about the planned seismic to the share holders. But I am sure that Org will tell about the progress of the planned seismic to all other stake holders like landowner, aborigins, local newspapers, local politicians and so on. And I would expect to read some news here: https://originbeetaloo.com.au/about/ And I would no be surprised if we hear about the seismic from our green friends like the Lock the Gate groupe.
South Africa has changed.
FOG has to become more proactive in South Africa and to monetize the Karoo asset as well.
https://twitter.com/YeyToTheNas/status/1520100398756937729?cxt=HBwWgoCyrcjQvZgqAAAA&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email