Land Rigs: Apr 12, 2013

Friday, April 12, 2013

TAQA Reviewing Cormorant Alpha Situation after Second Leak

Technical staff at TAQA Bratani are holding a meeting Monday morning to assess the situation at the Cormorant Alpha platform in the North Sea, after another leak was reported Saturday.

The incident is connected to the hydrocarbon leak that occurred on the platform in mid-January, a TAQA Bratani spokeswoman confirmed Monday in a phone call with Rigzone. The original leak was detected in one of the platform's legs and led to the shutting down of the Brent Pipeline System for several days.

"It concerns the same leg on Cormorant Alpha… but it's a different line," the spokeswoman said.

"The Brent Pipeline System has been shut down as a precaution and… there's a technical meeting going on this morning and we hope to get an update out today."

Speaking to Rigzone after the January incident, Oil & Gas UK Economics Director Mike Tholen said that fields that use the Brent Pipeline System account for around 10 percent of UK production. These fields include Causeway and Cormorant East.

TAQA Bratani said that the latest leak, which occurred at 9:40 a.m. (UK time) Saturday, has been contained with no further hydrocarbon release and that the hydrocarbons released in the incident have remained within the platform leg, with no hydrocarbons entering the environment. The company also reported that it removed 71 non-essential personnel from the platform and that everyone was safe and well.

The news was the second health and safety incident that Abu Dhabi national oil company TAQA, the parent of TAQA Bratani, was involved in over the weekend.

TAQA reported Saturday that in Morocco a worker at the Jorf Lasfar 5+6 construction site, 80 miles south of Casablanca, had died. The deceased was a Daewoo employee working under contract.

TAQA and its partners, Daewoo and Jorf Lasfar Energy Company, are conducting investigations into the incident and regulatory and government authorities have been informed, it said.

A former engineer, Jon is an award-winning editor who has covered the technology, engineering and energy sectors since the mid-1990s. Email Jon at jmainwaring@rigzone.com.

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Swift Wellhead Brought Under Control after Collision

Swift Energy has brought under control a well damaged by a marine vessel collision earlier this week, the company reported Friday.

The Houston-based company stopped the flow of water, oil and gas from a wellhead Thursday afternoon that was shut in at the Lake Washington field, located offshore Plaquemines Parish, La. A vessel collided with the well late Tuesday.

Swift said it was appreciative of the assistance it received from the U.S. Coast Guard, Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinators Office, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources and Plaquemines Parish to resolve the incident "in a safe, timely and efficient manner."

No injuries resulted from the incident, Swift said in a statement Tuesday. Primary containment boom and oil skimming equipment was deployed around the well site to protect the shorelines, facilities and private property.

Swift had shut in the well in January 2008; the well has not produced since that time. A last production test done before the well was shut in recorded production levels of 18 barrels of oil per day, three barrels of water per day and 59 thousand cubic feet per day of natural gas.

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Japex to Buy 10% of Petronas Canada LNG Project

TOKYO - Upstream energy company Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. said Monday it has agreed with Petroliam Nasional Berhad, or Petronas to buy 10% of a Canada liquefied natural gas venture and shale gas project controlled by the Malaysian state-owned energy company.

Its preliminary agreement to join the British Columbia Pacific Northwest LNG scheme and buy into the associated North Montney gas development is the latest in a string of moves by Japanese energy companies seeking to line up relatively cheap gas in North America to ship home to meet rising LNG demand caused by a shift away from nuclear power.

The Japanese upstream company, also known as Japex, will find ways to price the LNG at "reasonable levels," said Man Saito, Japex's Managing Director told reporters.

Mr. Saito said Japex is considering using more than one benchmark to price the gas it exports from Canada, but didn't give details.

Once finalized, Japex would receive 1.2 million metric tons of LNG annually from the project. He didn't disclose the price Japex will pay.

The Pacific Northwest LNG export terminal project in British Columbia was acquired by Petronas last year as part of its $5.2 billion purchase of Canada's Progress Energy Resources Corp.

The 12 million tons-a-year terminal, to be located on the Lelu island in the port city of Prince Rupert, will cost up to C$11 billion ($10.7 billion) to build, Petronas has said.

Petronas aims to make a final investment decision on it by the end of 2014 and start commercial operations by the end of 2018.

It is just one of several energy companies building LNG export terminals in Canada and the U.S. to create outlets for surplus gas caused by shale-drilling technology that has unlocked massive new reserves.

The oversupply has caused North American gas prices to fall to below $2 a million British thermal units earlier last year, compared with as much as $18/MMBtu in Asia, where LNG is priced against oil.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc is spearheading one LNG venture at Kitimat, some 200 kilometers from the Petronas one, working with several Asian partners including Japan's Mitsubishi Corp.

Another LNG project is a 50-50 joint venture by Chevron Corp. and Apache Corp, also at Kitimat.

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Indonesia Extends Pertamina CEO Tenure

JAKARTA - Indonesia's government has extended the tenure of Karen Agustiawan, the president director of state energy company Pertamina, to ensure the continuity of business plans currently being implemented, a minister said Tuesday.

"We extended Karen's period temporarily," State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting. The government may retain her for a full-five year term, he said.

Mr. Iskan said the decision to extend was made last Thursday at a shareholders' meeting.

Ms. Agustiawan's term began in February 2009 and had been scheduled to end on March 5. Tenure at the company's top spot typically lasts five years, but governments in the past have occasionally changed the CEO early.

Achievements during her tenure include a foray into alternative energy such as geothermal and coal-bed methane, and pursuit of assets outside Indonesia.

In a vote of confidence for Pertamina's development under Ms. Agustiawan, investors flocked to the U.S. dollar-denominated bonds the company issued in 2011 and 2012, from which it raised US$3.9 billion.

Pertamina's net profit in 2012 rose 26% to 25.89 trillion rupiah (US$2.7 billion), Ms. Agustiawan said last week.

Output rose to 461,640 barrels of oil equivalent last year from 457,640 barrels.

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Keppel O&M's Order Book Swells $300M with Three New Contracts

Keppel FELS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M), has won three contracts worth a combined $300 million from repeat customers, the company disclosed in statement late Wednesday.

The contracts are for the construction of a KFELS B Class jackup from Star Drilling, the upgrading of the semisubmersible Ensco 5006 for Ensco and the upgrading of the semisubmersible Ocean Patriot for Diamond Offshore.

For the contract with Star Drilling, the jackup will be built to Keppel's proprietary design and customized to meet the owner's operational needs in water depths of up to 350 feet for deployment in offshore India. The rig will have a drilling depth capability of 30,000 feet. Delivery of the rig is scheduled for 4Q 2014.

For the contract with Ensco, Keppel FELS' major workscope includes upgrading of the living quarters, and other contract-specific upgrades for operating in Australia on the Inpex's Ichthys project. The vessel is expected to arrive at the yard in 1Q 2014 with redelivery in 2Q 2014, after which it will be chartered to Inpex for work in Australia.

For the contract with Diamond Offshore on the Ocean Patriot, Keppel FELS will undertake the fabrication and installation of four 24-foot diameter stability columns and new lower hull inboard pontoon sponsons as well as upgrade the living quarters. Work on Ocean Patriot is expected to start in June this year, with redelivery at the end of the year. When completed, the semisubmersible will be chartered to Shell for work at the Fram field in the UK North Sea.

"We are glad to be able to continue from 2012 into2013 by adding more contracts to our orderbook. Even as we add to our new orders, we continue to deliver our projects safely, on time and on budget. Just over the last two months, we delivered four newbuild rigs by up to a month ahead of schedule," Keppel O&M's Managing Director, Wong Kok Seng, said in a statement.

Analysts predicted in January that Keppel O&M will this year realize around $4.4 billion in contract wins, the bulk of its revenue coming from delivering jackups, its traditional area of strength.

Earlier this week, Keppel O&M revealed that it was handed two contracts from repeat customers MODEC and Toyo Offshore Production Systems and SBM Offshore. The two contracts in total are worth $161 million.

Quintella has reported on the upstream and downstream oil and petrochemicals markets from 2004. Email Quintella at quintella.koh@rigzone.com.