UPSTREAM REVIEW

• Published date: 01 November 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/oet.12440
• Date: 01 November 2016

UPSTREAM REVIEW

Africa

Niger ia:ExxonMobilhasmadea“signicant”discovery

with a potential recoverableresource of between 500 mn

and 1 bn bbl of oil on the Owowo eld oshore Nige-

ria. e eld spans portions of the contract are as of

Oil Prospecting License 223 (OPL 223) and Oil Mining

License 139 (OML 139).

Owowo-3 was drilled to 3,173 m (10,410) in 576 m

(1,890 ) of water and builds on resources uncovered

by the Owowo-2 well, which encountered about 157 m

(515 ) of oil-bearing sandstone reservoi r.

Stephen M. Greenlee, President of Exxon Mobil

Exploration Company, said: “We are encouraged by

the results and will work with our partners and the

government on future development plans.”

ExxonMobil holds 27% interestand is the operator for

OPL 223 and OML 139. Joint venture partners include

Chevron Nigeria Deepwater G Limited (27% inter-

est), Total E&P Nigeria Limited (18% interest), Nexen

Petroleum Deepwater Nigeria Limited (18% interest),

and the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company

Limited (10% interest).

Gabon: A strike in Gabon by the nationa l oil workers’

union Organisation nationale des employés du pétrole

(ONEP) has forced French company Maurel and Prom

to reduce output from the Ezanga elds from 28,000 to

10,000 bpd, the oil ministry announced.

e strike, which began on October 17, was related to

11 oil workers who were laid o for missing work dur-

ing the period of unrest and violence that followed the

election of Ali B ongo as president. Jean Ping, opposition

leader, said the election was “rigged” and the number

of fatalities was far greater than that repor ted by the oil

ministry. Many in Gabon stayed at home that day for fear

of further violence.

e strike also impacted the Coucal oil eld, the

ministry and ONEP said. ONEP threatened a general

oil strike if the workers were not allowed to return

to work.

On October 26, an agreement was signed between

Maurel and Prom, the labor ministry and ONEP oil

workers union aer the company said that sta would

no longer be dismissed.

Gabon is Africa’s fourth largest oil producer with

an output of around 220,000bpd and is dominated by

international oil majors Total and Royal Dutch Shell.

Asia Pacic

Austral ia:BeachEnergyhasmadeaWesternFlankoil

discover y within the Poolowanna formati on in the PEL

91 permit area, located in the onshore Cooper basin of

South Australia.

A drill stem test was undertaken over the inter val

1,928 m (6,326 ) to 1,936 m (6,352 ) and recovered

15.2 bbl of approx imately 42∘API oil from the drill string

over a 1.5-hour  ow period. e ow rate was ca lculated

to be 210 bbl of oil p er day.

e results are current ly being reviewe d and fur-

ther production testing is planned to conrm the

resource size, the company said. Further analysis of the

PoolowannaoilplaywillbeundertakeninFY17,with

potential appraisal and near eld exploration activities

in FY18.

Matt Kay, Chief Executive Ocer, Beach Energy, said

the discovery “reinforces our condence in the ongoing

prospectivity of our Western Flank acreage.”

Japan: Inp ex Corporation an nounced that the dr illing

operations on an explorator y well oshore Shimane and

Yamaguchi prefectures were concluded on Oc tober 26,

2016.

Drilling operations, w hich began on June 5, consisted

of drilling to a depth of 2,900 m (9,514) below the sea

oor at a location approximately 129 km (80 mi) north-

west of Shimane prefecture and approximately 138 km

(86 mi) north of Yamaguchi Prefecture.

In a statement , Inpex said an oshore ex ploratory well

encountered a thin natural gas reser voir in a shallow

zone and “unexpected, strong gas indications” in the

deepest zone, “suggestingthe presence of a high-pressure

gas column.”

e company also conrmed that it will conduct

a detailed analysis and evaluation of data obtained

through the drill ing operations in order to continue the

exploration of prospects in this area.

CIS

Russia: Russian oil company, Lukoil, starte d commer-

cial production of oil at the Vladimir Fi lanovsky eld,

located in the northern Caspian Sea, 220 km (137 mi)

away from the city of Astrakhan.

e V. Filanovsky eld, discovered by Lukoil in 2005,

is Russia’s largest oil discovery for the past 25 ye ars and

thesecondeldcommissionedbytheCompanyinthe

Russian oshore sector of the Caspian Sea. e eld’s

C1 +C2 recoverable reserves under the Russian classi-

cation areestimated at 129 mn t of crude oil and 30 bn m3

of gas. Annual oil production at the eld is estimated at

6mnt.

Two horizontal production wel ls have been drilled to

date, yielding a total daily ow rate of over 45,000 bbl of

oil. Construction of a third well is unde rway.

e sweet light crude oil lied from the wells is

transported vi a a subsea pipeline to t he onshore stor-

age facilities and subsequently fed into the Caspian

Pipeline Consor tium system for further exports. Ass o-

ciated petroleum gas is transportedto the gas processing

© 2016 John Wiley& Sons Ltd