Page 15 - AsiaElec Week 15

EurOil
NEWS IN BRIEF
EurOil
Canada-based Valeura says its oil and natural gas production in Turkey continues
Canada-based Valeura Energy said on April 14 its oil and natural gas production in Turkey’s Thrace region were continuing despite the coronavirus pandemic-related weak economic activity and a fall in gas demand.
“Recently, in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic, economic activity in Turkey has begun to slow down, resulting in reduced gas demand from some of Valeura’s light industrial customers,” the company said in a statement.
“This reduced demand has been managed primarily by curtailing third- party gas throughput and imposing only minimal reductions to Valeura’s equity gas production.”
The company’s production averaged 706 boe/day (barrel of oil equivalent/day) in Q1 this year, an increase of 9% over Q4 2019.
Its revenue from petroleum and natural gas sales rose by 6% over that period, it added.
The company still anticipated completing its two shallow wells under the West Thrace licence in Q2, but said it would continue to conduct its operations in accordance with expert medical guidance and government directives related to COVID-19.
Although most of the company’s production operations were able to proceed normally, the firm said it had suspended non-critical field work, including workovers and redevelopment of existing wells,
and had implemented work-from-home arrangements wherever possible.
Valeura Energy is an upstream natural gas producer focused on appraising and developing an unconventional gas and condensate accumulation in the Thrace basin of Turkey. The company’s shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Romania-Hungary gas
interconnector upgrade
blocked amid weak demand
There is not enough demand for increasing the capacity of the gas interconnector between Romania and Hungary along
the BRUA (Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary- Austria) route from 1.75bn cubic metres (bcm) per year to 4.4 bcm per year, the natural gas transport system operators in the two countries, Transgaz and FGSZ, announced.
The weak demand may be linked to
the repeated delays and the still uncertain calendar of the offshore projects in Romania’s Black Sea area. When these projects enter the production stage, it is likely that the upgrade of the interconnector will again come on the agenda of the two gas transport companies.
Transgaz and FGSZ reached this conclusion after an open tender for allocating the additional transport capacity. Although insufficient for justifying the investment, the capacity allocations on the Romania-Hungary direction were a few orders of magnitude larger than those on the reverse direction, of importing gas from Hungary to Romania, according to the data released by the two companies.
The tender for the enlargement of the Romania-Hungary interconnector, to serve the BRUA 2 route supposed to link the Black Sea offshore projects with Central Europe, was launched in 2017. The results reflect the uncertainties related to Romania’s offshore gas projects in the Black Sea, delayed due to regulatory changes.
The European Commission has accepted in early March commitments made by Romanian state-owned gas transport company Transgaz to export at least 1.7 bcm of natural gas to Hungary and 3.7 bcm to Bulgaria annually.
The Commission announced a formal investigation in June 2017 to assess whether Transgaz infringed EU antitrust rules by restricting exports of natural gas from Romania.
Lundin extends credit line as costs creep up
Sweden’s Lundin Energy has secured a further credit commitment to provide the company with further financing flexibility amid expected exploration costs of $28 million and forex loss of $359mn in 1Q 2020.
Lundin said on Wednesday it would expense pre-tax exploration costs of approximately $28mn and recognise a net foreign exchange loss of approximately $359mnfor the first quarter of 2020.
In addition, Lundin has secured additional credit commitments of $340mn.
It is the company’s policy to capitalise costs associated with its exploration activities and if it is determined that
a commercial discovery has not been achieved, the associated exploration costs are charged to the income statement.
For the first quarter of 2020, Lundin Energy will incur a pre-tax charge to the income statement of $28mn relating to exploration costs. These exploration costs will be offset by a tax credit of
approximately $22mn. The costs are mainly related to the appraisal of the Balderbra discovery and other exploration costs on PL894, the Hasselbaink exploration well (PL917) and relinquished licences.
Equinor farms out two
Norwegian licences to Lime
Petroleum
Rex International’s 90% subsidiary, Lime Petroleum, has signed an agreement
with Equinor to acquire 20%interests in each of the licences PL263D and PL263E located in the Norwegian Sea. Exploration drilling is planned for the last quarter of the year.
The agreement between Lime and Equinor was signed on April 8, and the transfer of interests is pending regulatory approval. Dan Broström, Executive Chairman of Rex International Holding, said: “This is our second farm-in in Norway in 2020, in line with our ‘just-in-time’ farm-in strategy.
As with our other farm-ins, including those which resulted in the Rolvsnes
and Shrek discoveries, we have used our RVD technology to screen and de-risk the Apollonia prospect. We anticipate
the opportunity to take part in another successful exploration drilling in the near future”.
ExxonMobil puts Cyprus drilling plans on hold
ExxonMobil’s crucial drilling plans to confirm a large gas deposit south of Cyprus have been put on hold, with a local media report citing delays due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to Philenews, verification drilling that was scheduled to take place in Block 10 of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone has been pushed back to September 2021.
ExxonMobil reportedly wrote a letter last week informing the government of the Republic of Cyprus that scheduled drilling at two targets was being pushed back due to the coronavirus global outbreak and operational difficulties it has caused within the company.
Energy Minister Georgios Lakkotrypis was quoted as saying “the company has informed us regarding some delays over their planning, as these results are crucial in establishing whether natural gas deposit in the Republic of Cyprus’ EEZ can be commercially viable.”.
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