Page 14 - Euroil Week 32 2019

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil
IOG spuds well at North Sea Harvey site
UK
IOG recently struck a “landmark” deal to sell a 50% stake in most of its North Sea assets.
NORTH Sea-focused Independent Oil and Gas (IOG) has launched appraisal drilling at its Har- vey prospect, where it hopes to con rm a major gas play.
The company has spudded an appraisal well at the southern North Sea prospect, it said on August 7, targeting some 129bn cubic feet (3.65bn cubic metres) in best-estimate gas resources. e Maersk Resilient rig arrived ons- ite the previous day, and is expected to take two months to complete the well.
“Spudding the Harvey appraisal well is an exciting development for IOG and potentially a major catalyst for the business,” company CEO Andrew Hockey explained. “Our objec- tive is to prove up a substantial, high-quality reservoir in the heart of our core asset base which would create signi cant shareholder value over and above our recently announced farm-out.”
IOG recently struck a “landmark” deal to farm out a 50% stake in all its southern North Sea assets bar Harvey to US-based CalEnergy Resources (CER), a subsidiary of Warren Buf- fett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy. CER paid GBP40mn ($49.7mn) for the interests, while
also agreeing to cover 80% of IOG’s development costs. It also has an option to buy into Harvey as well for GBP20mn ($24.9mn) upfront and a GBP0.95 per 1,000 cubic feet royalty on all its future net production at the prospect.
“Success at Harvey could trigger a further sig- ni cant near-term cash payment plus valuable life-of- eld royalties should our designated part- ner exercise its right to farm in,” Hockey said.
IOG has been under nancial strain since its main creditor, London Capital & Finance, went into administration in March. Its management nevertheless successfully fought o a takeover bid the following month from UK upstream player RockRose, and the recent deal with CER has boosted its cash reserves.
The Harvey well’s operator is UK-based Fraser Well Management, while US rm Halli- burton has been hired for o shore drilling ser- vices. e project lies near the IOG-operated ames Pipeline, which is set to transport gas from the company’s six North Sea gas discover- ies. IOG recently took control of the pipeline’s onshore reception facilities, so it could upgrade them to handle the extra supply.™
Serbia completes first
section of TurkStream gas
pipeline
Serbia has completed the construction of the rst section of the 403-km leg of Gazprom’s Turkish Stream (TurkStream) gas pipeline in the country, local media reported on August 12.
Gazprom plans to invest RUB58.8bn ($900mn) on expanding the TurkStream pipeline through Serbia in 2019. Gazprom has determined the itinerary of the second line of the Turkish Stream pipeline will span Bulgaria and Serbia starting from 2020, then go through Hungary and Slovakia starting from 2021 and the second half of 2022, respectively.
e rst section stretches from the Bulgarian border to the city of Cuprija.
Currently, construction works are underway on the second part from Cuprija to the Danube River in Serbia’s north, Blic reported.
e third section stretches from the
NEWS IN BRIEF
Danube to Gospogjinaca, and the fourth is from the Gospogjinaca to the border with Hungary near Horgos.
e four sections are planned to be completed by the end of 2019.
bne IntelliNews, August 13 2019
Romania’s largest refinery
invests $3mn into digital
transformation
Rompetrol Ra nare, Romania’s largest re nery and a member company of KMG International owned by Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas, announced that it has successfully completed a new phase of
the digital transformation programme
for the Petromidia Navodari re nery, the modernisation of the “n-line blending” units.
ting not just the local Lancashire economy but across the country as a shale industry is created.
e total investment amounts to about
€3mn, and the modernisation of the units mainly focused on optimising the production of fuels by improving the integrated system of management and automation of the technological ows.
e investment will allow the re nery to increase production volumes and achieve greater exibility in adapting to market requirements.
“Quality is the key word that de nes the fuels made at Petromidia, and the e orts
and investments made allow us a continuous improvement of them, of the operational ows and of the production units. In addition, recently implemented projects will help us
to increase the volumes obtained, but also
to achieve greater exibility in adapting to market requirements. I think this is another very important step that we are taking to align, both with international standards and with the innovative tendency to reach the industrial revolution — Industry 4.0,” said Yedil Utekov, general director of Rompetrol Ra nare.
Rompetrol Ra nare operates Petromidia Navodari on the Black Sea coast — the largest
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Week 32 15•August•2019