New Round of Layoffs at Maersk Drilling
Offshore drilling company Maersk Drilling has announced a new wave of layoffs and has revised its financial guidance for 2020, citing oil and gas companies' budget cuts and delays and cancellations in offshore drilling tenders.As previously reported, Maersk Drilling in April said it would lay off around 250-300 people in its North Sea crew pool…
Maersk Drilling Loses Two Offshore Rig Deals
Danish offshore drilling company Maersk Drilling has said it has received early contract termination notices for two of its drilling rigs.Maersk Drilling said Friday that Shell had the contract for the semi-submersible Mærsk Developer "with immediate effect." The original end of the contract for the Maersk Developer was expected to be in August 2020.Further…
Offshore Accounts for 60% of Oil Discoveries
Offshore discoveries accounted for more than 60% of global discoveries in 2019, up significantly on previous years, according to a study by GlobalData.GlobalData report reveals that while Colombia and Norway saw the highest number of discoveries drilled in 2019, Guyana, Mauritania and Russia hosted the most significant finds.In Guyana…
Tullow to Axe a Third of Its Workforce
Tullow Oil plans to cut a third of its staff to slash its administration costs by a fifth, or around $20 million, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said, after weak output in Ghana, delays in East Africa and lower-than-hoped-for oil quality in Guyana.The move would shrink Tullow, which industry sources…
Oil And Gas Discoveries Hit 4-Year High
The global oil and gas explorers powered ahead and discovered 12.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in 2019, the highest volume since 2015.According to Rystad Energy, last year recorded 26 discoveries of more than 100 million boe, with offshore regions dominating the list of new oil and gas deposits.Guyana’s success story from 2018 continued in 2019…
EGPC Leads Oil, Gas Discoveries in Q3 2019
Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) led globally among companies in the third quarter (Q3) 2019 in terms of the highest number of oil and gas discoveries, said GlobalData.Of the total 38 discoveries made worldwide, EGPC had four, all being onshore discoveries. Of these, three were conventional oil discoveries while the remaining was a conventional gas discovery…
Guyana Boosts Gov't Royalties for Future Oil Licenses
Guyana is preparing to raise the take of the government in future oil licences, the director of the South American country's Department of Energy said on Wednesday.U.S. energy giant Exxon, French group Total and Britain's Tullow Oil are drilling wells offshore Guyana, where Exxon has discovered over 4 billion barrels of oil, a major global find."Royalties will all have to be examined.
Tullow's Kenya, Uganda Projects Timelines Slip
Britain's Tullow Oil has delayed the final investment decision (FID) for its Kenya project to 2020 and has not yet sealed a tax deal in Uganda that is needed for the progress of its plans there with Total , it said on Wednesday.The company had aimed to give the final go-ahead by the end of 2019 for its onshore Kenyan oilfields…
Argentina Grants Offshore Exploration Permits
Argentina awarded permits to begin hydrocarbon exploration in 18 areas off the coast of the country in the Malvinas West basin to companies including Exxon Mobil Corp, Total SA, YPF SA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the government said on Friday.The winning companies offered bids totaling $724 million, the government said…
Tullow Oil Cuts Output Guidance
Tullow Oil downgraded its 2019 output guidance to 90,000-98,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) due to problems at its Ghana fields and sees final go-aheads for its Uganda in the second half while its Kenya project timeline was "ambitious"."(Ghana) performance was below expectations due to gas compression constraints…
Orinduik Partners to Drill 2nd Well Off Guyana
Partners Tullow Oil, Total and Eco Atlantic have chosen the Joe prospect for a second well in their much-watched Orinduik oil and gas field off Guyana's coast, Eco said on Friday.Eco earlier this month increased the estimate for the field to about 3.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent, a third more than announced…
Norway Fund to Sell E&P Firms
Norway's trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, will sell its stakes in oil and gas explorers and producers but still invest in energy firms that have refineries and other downstream activities, according to a government plan.The proposal announced on Friday said the fund's stakes in integrated companies…
Tullow Oil Returns to Net Profit
Africa-focused Tullow Oil reported its first annual net profit in five years on Wednesday and said it would resume dividends with a 4.8 cent per share payout as it sets its sights on East African projects and drilling in Guyana.As flagged in November, Tullow will pay out at least $100 million to shareholders from this year…
Uganda Expects Delayed First Oil Production
Uganda expects to begin producing oil in 2022, its energy minister Irene Muloni said on Wednesday, indicating a slight delay from the east African country's revised target of 2021.Uganda discovered crude reserves more than 10 years ago but production has been repeatedly delayed by disagreements with field operators…
Tullow to Boost 2019 Output
Africa-focused Tullow Oil's production is set to grow to between 94,000 and 102,000 barrel of oil equivalent per day (boed) this year, it said in a trading update on Wednesday, from 90,000 boed last year as it increases output in Ghana.Free cash flow stood at $400 million. It had previously said that with oil prices of $70 a barrel…
Ghana Exploration Licensing Round Attracts Global Majors
Sixteen oil and gas firms have submitted applications for one or more of five Ghanaian offshore blocks in the West African country's first exploration licensing round, its energy ministry said.The interest is a major vote of confidence in Ghana, which is keen to unlock more resources after it began pumping from…
Tullow Oil Debt Down to $2.8 Bln
Tullow Oil forecast its net debt would drop to $2.8 billion by the end of the year and slightly raised its full-year free cash flow to $700 million, helped by trimming its capital expenditure.The company had previously said it might reach free cash flow of about $650 million, but in a trading update on Thursday…
Uganda Expects First Oil Production in 2021
Uganda expects to start producing oil in 2021, a year later than initially planned, and its refinery should be up and running by 2023, its oil minister said on Thursday.France's Total is an investor in Uganda's oilfields, with China's CNOOC and Britain's Tullow Oil."Our initial target was 2020. That seems to have slipped and we are looking now at 2021…
Tullow: First Kenyan Crude Shipments in 2019
Africa-focused Tullow Oil expects the first crude shipments from its Kenyan oilfields in the first half of 2019 and is pricing the product for the market, the company's chief executive said on Tuesday.Paul McDade also told Reuters that Tullow, which has expanded beyond Africa to the coast of Guyana, was bringing…
UK's Tullow to Ramp Up Ghana Oil Production
UK-based Tullow Oil aims to ramp up its oil production in Ghana to 180,000 barrels per day by the end of the year, following successful drilling of additional wells, its Ghana head Kweku Awotwi said on Tuesday.Tullow is confident of sustaining peak production from its two oilfields in Ghana, using "significant" near-field resources and will leverage additional exploration acreage to grow
