Oil & Natural Gas Net Profit Falls 17.5%

NEW DELHI - India's Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Monday said its third-quarter net profit fell 17.5%, hurt by state-mandated discounts given to government-run fuel retailers.

India's largest oil explorer by output said that its net profit for the October-December period shrank to 55.62 billion rupees ($1.04 billion) from 67.41 billion rupees a year earlier.

Sales rose 16% to 209.87 billion rupees from 181.24 billion rupees.

ONGC's year-earlier net profit was boosted by a one-time gain of 31.42 billion rupees.

At a press conference, ONGC Chairman Sudhir Vasudeva said net profit would have been higher by 72.70 billion rupees had the company not given discounts to fuel retailers.

He added that the company's net realization -- or the income on each barrel of oil -- rose to $47.97 from $44.71 a year earlier.

However, the cost of production climbed 18% to 141.62 billion rupees.

ONGC, like the country's other state-run explorer Oil India Ltd., is forced to give large discounts to fuel retailers Indian Oil Corp., Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd..

The retailers are, in turn, made to sell diesel and cooking fuels at government-set discounted prices to help control inflation.

Apart from the discounts, the government also gives cash to the fuel marketing companies to offset part of their losses.

ONGC, which contributes just under two-thirds of India's local crude oil output, has been struggling to raise production. It hasn't been able to bring any new major fields into operation in recent years.

Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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Harvest Scores Another Success Offshore Gabon

Houston-based Harvest Natural Resources announced Monday that it has made another oil discovery in the pre-salt layer offshore Gabon, West Africa.

Harvest said the Dussafu Tortue Marin-1 (DTM-1) well, drilled in the Dussafu Marin production sharing contract, was initially drilled in 380 feet of water to a vertical depth of 11,260 feet. On January 4, Harvest announced an oil discovery in the pre-salt Gamba and Dentale reservoirs and that it planned to drill a sidetrack to appraise the extent of the Dentale oil discovery.

The Tortue oil discovery was appraised by drilling a sidetrack (DTM-1ST1) to the southwest to test the lateral extent and structural elevation of both the Gamba and Dentale reservoirs. The sidetrack was drilled to a total depth in the Dentale of 11,385 feet, 10,790 feet true vertical depth subsea and approximately 1,800 feet from the original wellbore.

The well found 65 feet of oil pay in the primary Dentale reservoir with better reservoir character and an apparent similar fluid level to that encountered in the vertical well, DTM-1, according to Harvest. The firm added that several other stacked sands with oil shows were encountered, but due to a stuck downhole tool logging operations in the sidetrack were terminated early before pressure data could be collected to confirm connectivity.

"This discovery is the 2nd consecutive discovery that Panoro has made in the Southern Gabon, the first being the Ruche discovery in 2011," stated Nishant Dighe, Africa president for Panoro Energy. "This is an important step forward for the pre-salt in Gabon, but it is too soon to conclude on the results on the Tortue discovery as the partners will now spend some time understanding the results."

Panoro Energy holds a 33.33% stake in Dussafu Marin through a subsidiary company.

The well will be suspended pending future appraisal and development activities and the rig will be released and demobilized.

Harvest said that reservoir and conceptual engineering studies are to start with the aim of evaluating the commerciality of the discovered oil in the Gamba and Dentale reservoirs at Tortue, as well as the firm's previous Ruche oil discovery and the nearby Walt Whitman and Moubenga oil discoveries to determine the optimum development options for the block.

Harvest commented that the addition of the Tortue oil discovery extends the proven fairway for stacked pre-salt reservoirs and has demonstrated the exploration potential for the outboard part of the Dussafu license.

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JKX Upgrades Elizavetovskoye Reserves

JKX Oil & Gas announced Monday that it has seen an upgrade to the remaining reserves for its Elizavetovskoye field near Poltava, Ukraine. The reserves have been revised upwards to 22 billion cubic feet of gas (3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent) with a further 22 million barrels of net prospective resources in the license.

JKX said the revisions have followed long-term testing of the legacy East Machesvska 53 (M-53) well under a joint production agreement (JPA) between JKX and the well owner and former operator of the field. The reserves revision is based on mapping and material balance data from the M-53 well and other wells on the field.

JKX acquired the Elizavetovskoye license in November 2004 and finalized the JPA for the three legacy wells on the license in late 2011. In April 2012, JKX restored the M-53 well to production and now receives 33 percent of the production from it. It currently flows at 2.7 million cubic feet of gas per day on a restricted choke.

The firm is now proceeding with a five-well development of the license, with the spudding of the first new well scheduled for middle of this year. First gas is anticipated in 4Q 2013.

JKX Chief Executive Dr Paul Davies commented in a statement:

"We are very pleased that the data collected from our joint activity with the Ukrainian state production company has demonstrated both the materiality of the 2P reserves and the significant prospective resources on our Elizavetovskoye licence."

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Eni CEO to Rethink Structure of Saipem Relationship

NEW YORK - Eni SpA is rethinking the structure of its relationship with oil-services provider Saipem SpA in light of a criminal inquiry into the company for alleged bribes of Algerian officials, Eni Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni said Monday.

"What has happened leads us to think again and look again at the situation," said Mr. Scaroni in response to a question about Eni's stake in Saipem. "There is nothing worse than having no control and full responsibility."

Last week Milan prosecutors placed Mr. Scaroni under investigation as part of the Saipem inquiry. Prosecutors are investigating whether Saipem, which is 43% owned by Eni, paid bribes to secure billions of dollars in natural-gas contracts over a period of years leading up to 2009, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Mr. Scaroni and representatives from Eni said that they believe he is being investigated due to a series of meetings he had with Algeria's oil minister Chekib Kheli. On three or four occasions, Mr. Scaroni said, Mr. Kheli was accompanied by Farid Bedjaoui, who was introduced to Mr. Scaroni as a "personal assistant."

On Friday, Reuters first reported that the investigation into Mr. Scaroni was based on meetings with Mr. Bedjaoui, who allegedly distributed bribes to win gas contracts in Algeria.

In a statement Thursday, Eni said "Eni and its CEO declare themselves totally unrelated to the object of the investigation."

Mr. Scaroni said Monday that he and the company are fully cooperating with authorities but Eni will not conduct its own internal probe.

"We have nothing to investigate," he said. He also said that he never discusses Saipem's business during meetings with customers or other business contacts.

"Saipem has always been managed hands off completely," he said.

Mr. Scaroni said he learned in November that Saipem had a brokerage agreement in place since 2007, which could allow intermediaries to be paid to help arrange contracts.

Eni, he said, "does not have any intermediation contracts, they are forbidden." He said that when he learned of Saipem's arrangements, he "acted immediately" by contacting the chairman of Saipem.

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BG Group Director Retires

BG Group announced Monday that one of its non-executive directors, Philippe Varin, has retired from the firm's board.

BG Group Chairman Andrew Gold commented in a company statement:

"I would like to express on behalf of BG Group's board our thanks and appreciation for Philippe's advice and support over the years. We have benefited greatly from his contributions."

Varin was appointed as a non-executive director in 2006. He was a member of the firm's audit and remuneration committees.

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Archer Wins Statoil Rig Contract

Oilfield services supplier Archer announced Monday it has secured a contract with Statoil for the permanent plugging and abandonment of 12 gas wells on the Heimdal field in the Norwegian North Sea. The firm said the work will use its modular rig, the Archer Topaz.

The total contract value, including the startup, operating and decommissioning phases, is estimated at USD 115 million. Operations are expected to begin in the second half of 2014 and the contract duration is 34 months with four option periods of three months each.

Carrying out plugging and abandonment operations on a modular rig is a first for Archer and the industry as a whole. The firm said it represents a major advancement for the industry and will see safer, faster, more efficient plugging and abandonment operations with fewer people on board.
Archer said its Archer Topaz rig has been developed to meet the specific requirements of the Heimdal contract which includes flexibility for the client as regards quick installation and removal times.

Kjetil Bjørnson, Archer's general manager for the North Sea region, commented in a company statement:

"This modular rig contract for Archer in the North Sea represents an important strategic move in the direction of offshore plugging and abandonment solutions. We are excited to secure our first modular rig contract in the North Sea, which is the market the modular rig was designed for."

The rig will be operated by Statoil along with its partners Total, Centrica and Petoro.

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Drilling Report, February 10

Posted 10:30 pm  Sunday, February 10, 2013

The drilling report was produced with data from the Texas Railroad Commission, from January 13 to 19. The following counties were searched: Anderson, Angelina, Camp, Cass, Cherokee, Dallas, Ellis, Freestone, Gregg, Harrison, Henderson, Houston, Kaufman, Leon, Limestone, Marion, Nacogdoches, Navarro, Panola, Rains, Robertson, Rusk, San Augustine, Shelby, Smith, Upshur, Van Zandt and Wood. For information contact Business Editor Casey Murphy at cmurphy@tylerpaper.com or 903-596-6289.

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