Page 16 - Euroil Week 12 2020

EurOil
NEWS IN BRIEF
EurOil
Czech Rep’s EPH to acquire UK gas storage firm
EPH of Czech billionaire Kretinsky to acquire British gas storage facility Humbly Grove Energy.
EP UK Investments (EPUKI) from the Energy and Industrial Holding (EPH) of the Czech entrepreneur Daniel Kretinsky has completed the acquisition of Humbly Grove Energy, which owns and operates an underground gas storage facility in Hampshire, UK from Petronas Energy Trading, said EPH spokesperson Daniel Castvaj on March 23.
“EPUKI is a 100%-owned subsidiary of EP Power Europe, [a] 100% subsidiary of EPH. With this acquisition, the EPH group adds further to its portfolio of underground gas storage facilities, which it currently owns in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany,” Castvaj said.
Humbly Grove Energy owns and operates the Humbly Grove Oilfield. The company was acquired by Petronas in 2008 and currently employs 36 people. Since 1980 the field has produced in excess of 6mn barrels of oil and is forecast to produce an additional 1mn barrels following the introduction of gas storage.
EPH is the Central European energy group that owns and operates assets in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Italy, Ireland, the UK, France, Hungary and Poland. It comprises over 70 companies structured in two pillars, EP Infrastructure and EP Power Europe.
EPH is an integrated energy utility covering the complete chain ranging from cogeneration, power and heat generation, natural gas transmission, gas storage, as well as gas, heat and electricity distribution and supply. It employs 25,000 people.
MOL switches production
from windshield cleaner
fluids to sanitisers
Hungarian oil and gas company MOL has switched its lubricants unit Mol Lub in western Hungary to sanitiser production
to support the fight against coronavirus (COVID-19), the company said on March 25.
The company switched from producing windshield cleaner fluid to hand and surface sanitiser production in just two weeks after consultation with the government task force in charge of managing the coronavirus crisis.
MOL is planning to turn out 50,000 litres of sanitiser a day in three shifts. MOL Lub has already delivered the first volumes to hospitals, waste managers, public utilities
and municipalities and is working to launch retail sales of the product as soon as possible.
MOL will also start making producing disinfectants at its local plants in Slovakia and Croatia to cover national needs.
Chairman-CEO Zsolt Hernadi said in
a statement that addressing shortages of disinfectant worldwide are one of the most important tools in the fight against the coronavirus.
It took two weeks to convert the plant, obtain the necessary permits, and set up the production processes, he said, thanking the government and staff for their cooperation.
Head Energy hired for well hook-ups at Brage platform
Germany’s Wintershall Dea has awarded a contract for two well hook-ups at the Brage platform offshore Norway to engineering and consulting company Head Energy, the latter said on March 24.
The engineering phase will begin immediately, it said.
“This is a strategically important contract for us and a recognition of our skilled engineering team working with EPCIC offshore modification projects,” Head’s engineering director Oyvind Reksten said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing our good cooperation with Wintershall Dea and contribute to increased production at the Brage Platform.”
Brage is located in the northern North Sea, some 125 km west of Bergen. The field it is exploiting is one of Norway’s oldest, having been discovered in 1980 and put into production in 1993.
Wintershall Dea acquired operatorship of Brage in 2013 under an asset swap deal with Equinor. The platform is manned and consists of living quarters, auxiliary equipment module, process modules, drilling modules, well and manifold areas.
Norway-focused OKEA delays all project approvals
Norway-focused OKEA said on March
20 that its board of directors and the management team had been working closely together over the past weeks to assess and understand the impacts of this on the business, and to put a series of mitigations in place that will ensure the company is able to withstand the current market conditions for an extended period of time.
OKEA stated it is in a very strong financial position. Currently, the company has a significant cash reserve of NOK1.2bn
and its operated Draugen field, which provides a substantial proportion of the company’s revenues, has low lifting costs of less than $20 per barrel. It will therefore remain a positive contributor to the company even at current oil prices. The next OKEA Draugen lifting is scheduled for May and this has been hedged just below $50 per barrel.
The OKEA01 Bond was successfully refinanced and in Q4 2019 and replaced by a new facility, OKEA03, meaning that the company does not face any bond maturities until 2023 or refinancing requirements in the short term and has enough cash available to withstand a sustained period of low oil prices.
However, in a continuing low oil price scenario certain bond covenants may temporarily become in technical breach. The company said it is monitoring this closely and is prepared to take necessary actions going forward if required.
Importantly, the company does not have any RBL facilities which could be at risk of redetermination.
In addition to this, the company noted it has substantial flexibility to reduce expenditure through focused cost reduction measures, together with the deferral of non-essential activities into 2021 or beyond.
i3 strikes drilling contract with Dolphin
i3 announced on March 19 it had entered into a drilling contract with Dolphin Drilling to utilise either the Borgland Dolphin or Blackford Dolphin semi- submersible drilling rig for a minimum 82-day programme which is due to start not later than September 1 2020, or as otherwise agreed between the parties, and also has the ability to be extended for a period of 78 days.
The contract is conditional on i3 confirming the availability of funds to satisfy its obligations under the contract, 90 days prior to the beginning of drilling.
i3’s current minimum programme
for the appraisal drilling consists of two appraisal wells on Serenity plus a sidetrack on each well, contingent on drilling outcomes, at a total expected gross cost of approximately $33mn.
The option program would include wells on the Minos High structure and the Liberator West area in Block 13/23c.
Bjornar Iversen, CEO of Dolphin Drilling said: “We are extremely pleased to have been awarded this very important contract by i3 Energy under our four-year frame agreement.”
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Week 12 26•March•2020