Sound to Spud Nervesa Well Within Weeks

Italy-focused Sound Oil expects to spud its first appraisal well on its onshore Nervesa discovery within weeks, after it announced Thursday that a land rig currently being used in the Netherlands is about to be released to the company.

LP Drilling, the owner of the contracted TB2100S drilling rig, has informed Sound that its operations in the Netherlands are being finalized, with mobilization to Italy expected to begin within the next fortnight. The estimated time taken to transport the rig to Italy is up to six days, while rigging up the rig will take another six days after which the well will be spud. Preparations at the Nervesa sites are now "materially complete", Sound said.

Drilling and logging is expected to take up to 30 days, while six days has been set aside for completion and clean up. Well testing should then take an additional five days.

Sound CEO James Parsons commented in a company statement:

"Nervesa is a 21 billion standard cubic feet gas discovery which was discovered by ENI in 1985, flowed for a couple of years and has an independently assessed base case value of circa $60 million.

"Following the decision to drill a second Nervesa well in 2013, the company estimates initial annual cash flows in a success case scenario of circa $21 million per annum, after tax and after the CSTI funding.

"The successful drilling of this flagship asset will be the first step in unlocking the significant value inherent in the Sound Oil portfolio. April and May will be critical months for the company."

Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

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Sound to Spud Nervesa Well Within Weeks

Italy-focused Sound Oil expects to spud its first appraisal well on its onshore Nervesa discovery within weeks, after it announced Thursday that a land rig currently being used in the Netherlands is about to be released to the company.

LP Drilling, the owner of the contracted TB2100S drilling rig, has informed Sound that its operations in the Netherlands are being finalized, with mobilization to Italy expected to begin within the next fortnight. The estimated time taken to transport the rig to Italy is up to six days, while rigging up the rig will take another six days after which the well will be spud. Preparations at the Nervesa sites are now "materially complete", Sound said.

Drilling and logging is expected to take up to 30 days, while six days has been set aside for completion and clean up. Well testing should then take an additional five days.

Sound CEO James Parsons commented in a company statement:

"Nervesa is a 21 billion standard cubic feet gas discovery which was discovered by ENI in 1985, flowed for a couple of years and has an independently assessed base case value of circa $60 million.

"Following the decision to drill a second Nervesa well in 2013, the company estimates initial annual cash flows in a success case scenario of circa $21 million per annum, after tax and after the CSTI funding.

"The successful drilling of this flagship asset will be the first step in unlocking the significant value inherent in the Sound Oil portfolio. April and May will be critical months for the company."

Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

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Total Expects to Restart Elgin within a 'Very Few Days'

Total expects to restart production from the Elgin and Franklin fields in the North Sea within "a very few days" after the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announced Wednesday this week that it had given the go ahead for production to resume on the company's Elgin platform. The Elgin platform was shut down almost a year ago, on March 25, 2012, after a major gas leak.

A spokesman for Total told Rigzone following the HSE announcement:

"Now that the HSE has accepted the safety case we will be looking to restart safe production at Elgin as soon as it's practical to do so, which we hope will be within a very few days."

The spokesman added that Total would make an announcement once production has resumed.

The resumption of gas production at Elgin is much needed by the UK's energy infrastructure at the moment. UK energy regulator Ofgem warned Feb. 19 that a dwindling of foreign gas supplies was among the factors contributing to "uncomfortably tight" energy reserves in the country.

At the time of the leak incident in March last year, the Elgin and Franklin fields were producing around 9 percent of total UK gas production. At their peak the two fields can produce up to 280,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), according to Total.

Once resumption begins Elgin/Franklin will reach 70,000 boepd – only half its pre-shutdown output of 140,000 boepd – by the end of this year and that it will not reach its full output until 2015, warned Patrice de Vivies, Total's senior vice president of exploration and production for Northern Europe, in February.

The restart of production should also eventually see the full complement of more than 230 personnel who work on the platform return to duty.

Total had hoped that production on the Elgin platform would resume by the end of 2012, but the HSE took longer than expected to decide if it was safe to resume production. Indeed, there was concern that the resumption of production might be delayed further when an HSE spokesman said March 1 that the safety regulator was still assessing the case for the Elgin restart and that the matter was "complex".

Total shut down and evacuated non-essential personnel from the Elgin March 25, 2012 after a sheen of gas was reported within the vicinity of the platform.

The firm soon performed a "dynamic kill" well-intervention operation – using the West Phoenix (UDW semisub) rig – that involved pumping heavy mud into the well that had leaked, which was achieved in May. A lengthier process to seal the well with cement was completed in autumn.

Total stated in August last year that the overall environmental impact of the gas leak incident at Elgin was "minimal", with 3,096 tons of natural gas and 3,076 tons of condensate being lost because of the leak. Most of this evaporated in the atmosphere, the firm said, while the sheen – representing some 407 tons of condensate – dispersed naturally into the sea.

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.

Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
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A quiet revolution: oil security is within our grasp by Bill Glahn

Posted on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 by Kim Crockett

Just when it seems that the news is bad, peek a beam of a light through the clouds.  Our dependence on foreign oil, a bugaboo for Presidents dating back to Nixon, has finally started to recede.  And the biggest reason next door inNorth Dakota can be found.

 

As with the natural gas revolution of recent years, the latest oil boom powered by new drilling techniques, particularly the use of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."

 

The u.s. Department of energy energy information Administration (EIA) reports that imports of the share of imported oil fell below 50 percent in 2010, the first time represented less than half of the total since 1999.  (Canada is our number one foreign supplier, withSaudi Arabia andMexico alternately in second and third place.)

 

Our dependence on foreign oil peaked above 60% in 2005.  The fall in imports can be attributed to a decline in consumption, in connection with the economic recession and an increase in production, with North Dakotabeing the fastest growing State.  The EIA reports that North Dakota fourth, behind only Texas, Alaska and California oil production ranks.  Production levels in North Dakota are double their 2008 levels.  The Wall Street Journal reports that, if current trends hold, (North Dakota) to the number two spot, afterTexas, will move by the end of the Decade.

 

It may surprise some to learn that the world's third largest oil producer U.S.is, after Saudi Arabiaand Russia.  It will amaze even more to hear that there are published reports that investment bank Goldman Sachs believes that the US has the potential to be the number one oil-producing country in the world as soon as 2017.

 

This story of National Public Radio, describes the oil boom in North Dakota and gives a feel for the employment and economic development produced by domestic oil production.  The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, estimates that we by a shift of federal policy on oil drilling an extra 1 million jobs could lead inAmerica.

 

LikeCanada other advanced countries (World No. 6), Norway (World No. 13), and theU. K.(World No. 19) don't seem squeamish about developing their natural resources.  Nor should we.

Category: Bill Glahn, climate change, energy, Environment, comments tags: Bakken oil field, Bill Glahn, climate change, energy, energy policy, environment, fracking, North Dakota, independence of oil, oil Security Email friendBlog leave a Reply to itStay updated Click here to cancel reply.

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