ConocoPhillips has made a financial investment decision on the Willow project in Alaska.
ConocoPhillips has made a financial investment decision on the Willow project in Alaska. The decision follows the US Department of the Interior March 2023 Record of Decision and recent positive court orders, including this week’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denial of plaintiffs’ request for an injunction.
According to the US Bureau of Land Management, the Willow project is projected to deliver $8 billion to $17 billion in new revenue for the federal government, the state of Alaska and Alaska Native communities. When completed, Willow is estimated to produce approximately 600 million barrels across the lifetime of the project. The Willow project underwent five years of rigorous regulatory and environmental review.
TotalEnergies (40%), QatarEnergy (30%) and Petronas (30%) have signed a production sharing contract for Block 64 with Staatsolie, the state-owned oil company of Suriname. Block 64 was awarded to TotalEnergies and its partners in the Bid Round 2022-2023. Block 64 is 6262 km2 block, 250 km from shore.
Petronas has an agreement with PTTEP to develop the PTTEP-operated Blocks SK405B and SK410B off the coast of Sarawak, offshore Malaysia.
Tethys Oil has completed drilling of exploration well Menna-1 in Oman, indicating hydrocarbons in three separate zones. The Menna-1 well was drilled vertically to a total depth of approx. 1600 m. The well logs indicate hydrocarbons in the Al Khlata, Karim and Birba formations. The prospect is one of several identified on the Eastern Flank trend, stretching alongside the border of Block 6’s productive Karim Small Fields. In total, the trend currently has more than a dozen prospects and leads that have not yet matured into prospects. A full prospect and lead inventory is expected to be finalised in the first quarter of 2024.
Galp (80%, operator) and partners Namcor and Custos (10% each), have drilled and logged the first exploration well (Mopane-1X) in block PEL83, offshore Namibia and confirmed the discovery of a significant column of light oil in reservoir-bearing sands of high quality. Galp will continue to analyse the acquired data and anticipates performing a Drill Stem Test (DST) in the coming weeks to assess the commerciality of this discovery. The drilling operations at Mopane-1X will proceed to explore deeper targets.
BlueNord has made a final investment decision on the Harald East Middle Jurassic well (HEMJ) in the Danish sector of the North Sea, expected to be spudded during the summer of 2024. Harald East is operated by the Danish Underground Consortium (DUC), a JV between TotalEnergies (43,2%), BlueNord (36,8%) and Nordsøfonden (20%) If successful, the well could deliver production by end of 2024. The expected gain from the well is up to 8 mmboe net to BlueNord of which ca 80% is gas. This well is drilled into the Jurassic with good reservoir properties.
Beacon Offshore Energy has taken a final investment decision to develop the Winterfell discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, which is operated by BOE and will be developed as a subsea tieback. The Miocene-aged project is located in Green Canyon blocks 943, 944, 987, and 988 with a water depth of approx. 5200 ft (1585 m). Winterfell was discovered in 2021 with subsequent successful appraisal drilling conducted in 2022. The field will be developed via a subsea tieback to the Heidelberg spar located in Green Canyon Block 860. First oil is expected to occur early in the second quarter 2024 and from three initial wells projected to deliver gross production of approx. 22,000 boepd.
