Page 9 - NorthAmOil Week 25

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W&T buying Gulf assets from ExxonMobil
GULF OF MEXICO
W&T O shore announced on June 27 that it had struck a deal to buy o shore assets in the deep- water US Gulf of Mexico from ExxonMobil for $200mn. e assets are located in the eastern Gulf, o shore Alabama, and include interests in and operatorship of oil- and gas-producing properties, as well as related onshore processing facilities.
W&T noted that the acquisition includes interests in nine shallow-water producing elds and an onshore treating facility that are imme- diately adjacent to existing properties it already owns and operates in the region. e company said buying the assets would make it the larg- est operator in the area, allowing it to achieve “signi cant synergies, consolidations and cost savings”. e purchase will add 74mn barrels of oil equivalent of proven reserves on a net basis to W&T’s portfolio, with liquids accounting for 22%. The assets produced roughly 19,800mn boepd on a net basis in the rst quarter of 2019, with liquids comprising 25%.
e company said there was potential to add incremental reserves with little or no capital out- lays by consolidating operations and extending
the life of producing elds. ere are also thought to be further upside opportunities from potential future drilling and facility modi cations.
“ ese low-decline assets are highly accretive, free cash ow positive, and adjacent to our cur- rent operations thereby providing us the oppor- tunity to recognise increased scale, rationalise operations and capture cost e ciencies to fur- ther grow cash ow,” W&T’s chairman and CEO, Tracy Krohn, said. “In addition, we also have the opportunity for further growth in reserves from potential eld life extensions and drilling and facility upgrade opportunities.”
e e ective date of the transaction is January 1, 2019, and it is expected to close on or about August 30. W&T said it would fund the acquisi- tion from cash on hand and its revolving credit facility.
e acquisition follows a W&T announce- ment earlier this month that it made a dis- covery at the Gladden Deep prospect in Mississippi Canyon block 800 in the deepwater Gulf. Gladden Deep is one of 14 wells planned for a drilling programme under the Monza joint venture.™
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
BHGE forms AI partnership
US
BAKER Hughes, a GE company (BHGE) announced on June 24 that it had entered into a deal with arti cial intelligence (AI) company C3.ai. Under the agreement, BHGE is buying a minority stake in California-based C3.ai. e two companies have also launched a joint ven- ture that will seek to boost the use of AI in the oil and gas industry by combining both rms’ expertise.
“ is agreement is a mutual recognition of the technology leadership we each bring to the table and a willingness to work in new ways that deliver the best possible outcomes for our cus- tomers,” BHGE’s CEO, Lorenzo Simonelli, said in a statement. “Integrating our strong digital capabilities and oil and gas industry expertise with C3.ai’s unique AI solutions, we will accel- erate the overall digital transformation of this industry.”
e comments came as digital transforma- tion becomes an increasingly important part of the oil industry’s evolution.
e two companies said they would imme- diately market and deploy C3.ai’s AI technology, including the C3 AI Suite and applications, to oil and gas businesses. ey said they would also leverage BHGE’s existing digital portfolio to collaborate on new integrated AI applications
speci c to oil and gas.
BHGE said it would also accelerate its own
use of AI, deploying the C3 AI Suite across its business to enable new BHGE AI applica- tions that “improve core operations and better serve customers with AI-enabled products and services”.
is is not C3.ai’s rst foray into oil and gas, and indeed the AI firm works with some of BHGE’s customers.
“Shell utilises the C3.ai platform to acceler- ate digital transformation across our business, focusing on using AI and machine learning to improve overall operations starting with pre- dictive maintenance,” said Royal Dutch Shell’s group chief information o cer, Jay Crotts. “Shell also has a long-standing relationship with BHGE in oil eld services and so ware development. ere is real potential in exploring the fusion of existing oil eld technology and emerging dig- ital technology, in this case combining C3.ai’s capabilities with BHGE’s domain expertise to create new solutions that truly address oil and gas speci c challenges with powerful advanced analytics technology.”
e announcement comes as GE prepares to o oad its stake in Baker Hughes, having only acquired the oil eld services rm in 2017.™
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