Northern Oil and Gas Inc. agreement access to $25 million in debt financing
The Wayzata-based oil exploration and production company has signed a letter of intent with an unnamed financial institution. The firm plans to use $15 million in capital for drilling in North Dakota. The additional $10 million in financing would be made available to Northern Oil based on use of the principal amount.
The company will have access to the credit facility for four years.
Exxon plans investment $100 in Philippine basin
U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp has committed to invest up to $100 million to search for oil and gas in the southwestern Philippines, according to documents from the Department of Energy.
Exxon earlier took a 50 percent interest in a contract held by Malaysian exploration firm Mitra Energy Ltd to search for oil and gas in the deepwater portion of the Sandakan basin.
An official at the energy department, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak, confirmed on Tuesday that Exxon is planning to invest up to $100 million on a its drilling programme, adding the agency was waiting for company to provide details of its spending plans.
Interest in oil and gas in the Southeast Asian nation has increased following the discovery of Galoc oilfield, the country’s first major oil find since the 1990s, in the southwestern Philippines.
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Investors back out of Colorado-North Dakota pipeline project
The credit crunch has prompted some investors to withdraw from construction of a natural gas pipeline in northwestern Colorado.
Enterprise Products Partners and Quicksilver Gas Services have terminated plans for a 50 percent stake in TransCanada’s $2 billion Pathfinder pipeline project. The 673-mile pipeline would run from Colorado to North Dakota where it would link to a major system in the Midwest.
Quicksilver Gas Services, based in Fort Worth, Texas, decided in August that it wouldn’t pursue the project, spokesman Rick Buterbaugh said Tuesday.
“We think it’s a great project,” Buterbaugh said of the pipeline.
Quicksilver Gas Services, though, is exploring other opportunities, he added.
TransCanada, based in Calgary, Alberta, said it’s working with prospective investors to carry out the project.
Enterprise spokesman Rick Rainey told The Denver Post Monday that considering current credit markets, the Houston-based company is pursuing projects with better returns.
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Crude tumbled in second half of 2008, taking down oil company shares
Oil companies may have notched extraordinary profits in 2008, but their shares have largely tumbled with the price of crude as a broad recession cut into demand globally.
Oil giant Chevron Corp. is a prime example. As crude approached its all-time record above $147 a barrel in early July, Chevron shares were trading near $98, only a few dollars below their highest close of the year.
Since then, amid fears of a prolonged global recession and crumbling worldwide demand, crude prices have plunged more than 70 percent.
In a corresponding — albeit less severe — collapse, Chevron shares have slid about 25 percent since early July — even after the company posted the largest quarterly profit in its 129-year history in the third quarter. Read more
Nigeria’s oil woes draw world attention
– Xinhua, Qiu Jun
Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, generating huge oil wealth, which is in contrast to the impoverished life of local people, has drawn worldwide attention in 2008 with rampant sabotage on oil facilities and kidnapping.
Three militants were feared killed on Friday in an attempt to blow up a Nigeria Agip Oil Company flow station at Tebidaba in Nigeria’s southeastern Bayelsa State, the latest conflict between militant groups and Nigerian army in the region.
According to data provided by “oyibosonline,” a Nigerian expatriate on-line community website, before the international oil price reached its peak at about 150 U.S. dollars a barrel in later July this year, Nigerian militants had kidnapped 34 foreigners in Niger Delta. The number had risen to about 81 by Dec. 20.
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SeaBird Exploration award contracts for the Aquila Explorer in South America
SeaBird Exploration Limited has been awarded two contracts for the Aquila Explorer in South America and the Far East. These contracts are back-to-back and will commence when Aquila Explorer is ending the contract with Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) in early 2009. Furthermore, SeaBird has been awarded a new contract for the Geo Mariner in the Middle East.
These contracts secure satisfactory back-log for the Aquila Explorer and Geo Mariner until the later part of Q2 2009. The total value of these contracts are in the range of US $30 million and are expected to yield average day rates in excess of our current guiding for these vessels of US $75-90,000.
SeaBird has now executed a formal contract with BP Exploration & Production Inc. for the ocean bottom nodes seismic acquisition survey in Green Canyon, Gulf of Mexico, USA, including the Hugin Explorer and Kondor Explorer, following the letter of award previously announced.
This survey will commence upon completion of the current survey in Block 17, offshore Angola for Total. Completion date for this survey is now expected to be early Q2 2009 due to ongoing improvements to the deep-water node system. BP is also a partner in block 17.
CEO of SeaBird, Tim Isden stated, “We are pleased that we are able to continue building our vessel backlog at day-rates above our guided levels, despite the turmoil in the financial markets and the drop in oil price.”
China, Taiwan Sign Deals to Boost Oil Exploration
China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) and Taiwan’s CPC Corp signed four agreements on Friday to boost cooperation in exploration, including the transfer of equity in an oilfield in Kenya, the official Xinhua news agency said.
China’s top offshore oil firm agreed to transfer a 30 percent stake in onshore Block 9 in Kenya to Taiwan’s state-run CPC, Xinhua said, without providing more detail.
The agreements included a letter of intent for closer cooperation, a revised deal on joint exploration in the Tainan Basin of the Taiwan Strait and the Chaozhou Shantou Basin off China’s Guangdong coast, and a joint study on the Wuqiuyu Basin off China’s Fujian coast.
CNOOC’s Chairman and chief executive Fu Chengyu and CPC’s Chairman Wenent Pan, who was on a visit to Beijing, signed the agreements.
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