Page 16 - MEOG Week 19

MEOG ProjeCts & ComPanIes MEOG
ENI, Total postpone East Med drilling
east med
ENI and Total are reported to be postponing their proposed gas exploration operations in the Eastern Mediterranean for about a year.
The companies notified the Greek Cypriot administration about their decision to delay their drilling operations until March or april 2021, the administration’s spokesman Kyriacos Koushios told the Cyprus Mail.
However, the companies will not cancel the capital expenditure allocated to the drills, which Koushios described as “good news.”
Before the coronavirus outbreak, ENI and Total had earlier announced their plan to start exploratory drilling in what they called “block 6” in early February.
The Greek Politis newspaper reported on
april 14 that drilling work in the so-called 6th parcel, planned by an ENI and Total consortium at the end of april, would be postponed due to economic difficulties caused by COVID-19.
In mid-april ExxonMobil had likewise told the Greek administration they would postpone a planned drill in so-called block 10, which was rescheduled to start in September 2021. The company also said is had pushed back to Septem- ber 2021 an appraisal (or follow-up) well at the Glafcos site in block 10. The Glafcos reservoir, bearing an estimated 5 to 8 trillion cubic feet of gas, is the largest gas discovery to date off Cyprus. The appraisal drilling there – initially scheduled for this summer – would have helped the com- pany with its commercialisation decision.™
DNO’s cuts to include Kurdistan fields
KurdIstan
NOrWaY’S DNO reported this week that it had identified and implemented 2020 budget cuts of US$ 350 million or 35 per cent across all spend categories as the Company moved early and quickly to protect its personnel and operations and preserve its cash position in response to the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The Company exited the first quarter of 2020 with a cash balance of US$ 543 million, up from US$ 486 million at the end of 2019.
In releasing its interim first quarter results, DNO reported revenues of USD 206 million largely driven by lower oil prices and a net loss of US$ 40 million on the back of impairments of its North Sea assets, again driven by lower oil prices. Notwithstanding the turmoil in the oil industry, DNO delivered strong operational metrics with production split 80:20 between the Kurdistan region of Iraq and the North Sea.
DNO’s Company Working Interest (CWI) production averaged 99,857 barrels of oil equiv- alent per day (boepd) in the quarter, of which Kurdistan contributed 81,221 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and the North Sea 18,636 boepd. Gross production at the DNO-operated Tawke
and Peshkabir fields in Kurdistan averaged 61,493 barrels and 53,714 bopd, respectively, as DNO hit the brakes on spending. after complet- ing five development wells in the license during the quarter, DNO released four drilling rigs in Kurdistan but continues to utilize the Compa- ny-operated workover rig to service production wells, some of which have been shut in given current oil prices and payment delays. a drilling rig has been cold stacked at each field and can quickly be mobilized if conditions warrant.
The Company has had recent successes with the drill bit. In the North Sea, the Bergknapp exploration well (DNO 30 per cent) discov- ered hydrocarbons in multiple formations of poor to good reservoir quality with recoverable resources ranging 26-97 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe); the near-field discovery is Norway’s largest to date in 2020 and with high probability of commerciality.
In Kurdistan, the Company has reported a discovery in its operated Baeshiqa-2 exploration well after flowing variable rates of light oil and sour gas to surface from three Triassic aged res- ervoirs. Evaluation of test results will determine
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 19 13•May•2020