Norway awards oil and gas exploration rights to 30 firms
Norway awarded 61 offshore exploration blocks to 30 oil firms in its latest pre-defined areas (APA) licensing round as it seeks to find more resources close to existing fields, Energy Minister Tina Bru said on Tuesday. Norway, which began to extract oil and gas from its offshore continental shelf 50 years ago, believes it has still only pumped about half of its available resources. Firms that won stakes in the licences included Equinor , Shell, Aker BP, ConocoPhillips , Total, Lundin Energy and Eni’s Vaar Energi. “These companies have shown great interest in gaining access to new exploration acreage, illustrating the industry’s confidence in continued profitability from exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf,” Bru said. APA rounds cover areas with known geology or near existing infrastructure. “The broad interest shows that companies still believe in the Norwegian continental shelf and in the future profitability of exploration,” said Anniken Hauglie, who heads the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, an industry group. Sweden’s Lundin received stakes in 19 licences, followed by Equinor with stakes in 17 licences, while Aker BP and DNO each got 10. ConocoPhillips received stakes in four licences, Total in three and Shell in one. Vaar Energi will operate all three licences awarded in the Arctic Barents Sea. Three companies on the original list of applicants did not win any acreage, including RN Nordic Oil, which is a unit of Russia’s Rosneft, and Horisont Energi, a firm dedicated to hydrogen, ammonia and carbon storage solutions. The third company left off the list of awards, Japan’s Idemitsu, recently sold much of its oil and gas business in Norway to Lundin Energy. Norway has also invited oil firms to submit applications by Feb. 23 for 136 exploration blocks in frontier areas in the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea. Last December, the country’s top court dismissed a lawsuit by environmental groups against oil exploration in Arctic waters. Norway is western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, with a daily output of around 4 million barrels of oil equivalent.
ONGC offers stakes to ExxonMobil in multiple offshore blocks
ONGC has recently approached the US super major about the possibility of the latter taking interests in six exploration tracts, according to a media report in India. “ONGC recently wrote to ExxonMobil, asking if it would like to be a joint venture partner in exploration acreages in Cauvery basin and Mumbai offshore,” leading Indian business news daily, The Economic Times, reported on Tuesday. The US giant is said to be presently studying the geological data involving the offshore blocks, following which it is likely to take a decision at a later stage. ONGC is expected to offer a significant minority stake to ExxonMobil in the six offshore blocks and is looking at partnering with ExxonMobil in some of its difficult producing fields, reports added. India’s Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said last month that ExxonMobil is in talks to buy stakes in producing oil and gas fields in state-owned oil companies. “ExxonMobil is in active discussion with some of our companies to participate in some of our producing fields,” Pradhan had said. ONGC in 2019 signed an agreement with ExxonMobil to carry out joint technical studies, co-operate in offshore blocks and together bid for upcoming licensing rounds in India.
Hazira gas plant fire due to faulty gasket: PNGRB
Use of an improper gasket procured from the local market has been identified as a probable cause of leak which led to the massive fire at ONGC’s Hazira gas plant in the early hours of September 24, 2020, according to a report by an enquiry committee set up by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) to investigate the incident. The report said that gaskets from the original equipment manufacturers (OEM) were not purchased, while the ‘O’ rings were bought from local markets and were used without any quality control measures. The gasket was last replaced on September 18, 2020 — a few days before the fire broke out in the gas terminal of the Hazira plant — after a leakage was observed in an old meter installed in 1986. “There is no record of date or authority of the decision to switch over from OEM supplied gasket to locally purchased gasket,” the PNGRB report noted, adding that “no hydro test was done after replacement of the gasket”. The leaked gas ignited, causing the fire, as it got exposed to the electrical fitting in one of the nearby faulty flame proof lamps. The report pointed that three bolts were missing in the lamp, resulting in it being open with the glass case getting detached from the main body, leaving a gap of six centimetres. Though electrical audit inspection is supposed to be done every six months, the last inspection before the incident was carried out in July, 2019. The Hazira plant is the largest sour gas processing complex in the country. The plant also supplies special grade of high-flash high-speed diesel for specific use of Indian Navy. Gas supply from the plant to the prime vendor Gail had been restored by ONGC just a day after the fire. The pipelines were depressurised by flaring through the stack, causing blast-like noise, and the fire was put off within four hours.
India blames Saudi oil output cut for surge in oil prices
ndia, the world’s third biggest oil importer and consumer, on Tuesday complained that recent output cuts by some OPEC nations had created uncertainty for customers and led to a surge in prices. Top exporter Saudi Arabia has pledged additional voluntary output cuts of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in February and March under a deal between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+. “A few months back we all were discussing about consumption-centric economic revival, demand revival, and we are supposed to restrict our production cuts and gradually ramp up the production by January – but in contradiction to that, now we all are controlling the oil production,” Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said at an energy conference organised by the Atlantic Council. Pradhan said the efforts to cut output, coordinated by OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, were creating confusion for consumer countries. “This kind of scenario will push us to more alternative methods of energy sourcing … if the producing country will not recognise our aspirations, then innovative new business models are bound to come up.” Barkindo said at the same conference that the steps taken were within the framework of last year’s deal to cut output by about 9.7 million bpd, and were aimed at keeping oil markets stable on a sustainable basis. Pradhan also said India was engaged on energy with the United States in many ways, and this would continue under the administration of Joe Biden, who becomes president on Wednesday. “Change of guard is not unusual in a democracy. India will continue to have a good relationship with the U.S., including on the energy front,” he said.
Shell India starts LNG truck-loading unit at Hazira
Royal Dutch Shell’s India unit on Tuesday announced the start of operation of its small-scale LNG supply with a truck-loading unit being inaugurated at its LNG import terminal at Hazira in Gujarat. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the LNG truck-loading unit, the company and the oil ministry said in separate statements. Speaking on the occasion, Pradhan said the unit will boost the availability of natural gas in off-grid areas where there are no gas pipelines and also promote the use of LNG in long-haul trucking. The government is promoting the use of natural gas through various policy and regulatory reforms towards making India a gas-based economy by raising the share of gas in the nation’s primary energy mix to 15 per cent from the current 6.2 per cent. Small-scale LNG can play an important role in realizing this target as it enhances clean energy access across the country. Gas is traditionally transported through pipelines from gas fields or liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals. Trucking LNG to users has lately emerged as an option to take the fuel to small and stranded users. “While gas customers in industrial clusters are expected to be the primary beneficiaries, small-scale LNG will also support the market seeding and development of the recently licensed city gas distribution (CD) geographical areas, not yet connected by pipelines,” Shell Energy India said in the statement. Apart from industrial and CGD segments, the small-scale LNG supply infrastructure will also contribute to the development of a conducive ecosystem for faster adoption of LNG as the preferred transportation fuel, especially for long-haul transport. The truck-loading unit will augment Shell’s natural gas supply offerings in India to include the supply of LNG via trucks. Shell Energy India owns and operates a 5 million tonnes a year LNG import terminal at Hazira (Surat), Gujarat. The terminal has been in operation since 2005 and received more than 600 LNG cargoes to date. “In early 2019, we acquired additional 26 per cent equity in the Hazira Terminal and created a fully-owned and integrated Shell value chain – supply from our global LNG portfolio, regasification at the Hazira facility, and downstream customer sales. “This development extends our downstream customer offering and now, in addition to the supply of R-LNG via pipeline, we can also supply LNG by trucks to customers across India,” Nakul Raheja, who has recently taken over as Country Head, Shell Energy India, said. Speaking on the occasion, Pradhan complimented Shell for their efforts in expanding the LNG infrastructure in the country. “Clean, affordable and reliable energy is the need of the growing population and a key priority for the Government of India,” he said. “The Government is committed to bringing in a clean energy future whilst reducing the adverse impact on the environment.” Innovative supply solutions like LNG by trucks will play a pivotal role in the development of gas markets across the country including hinterlands. “This infrastructure will also help support in the development of LNG as a clean transportation fuel,” he said. Pradhan said increasing competition in the LNG sector will help in the emergence of new markets, create new employment opportunities, ensure cleaner fuels for industries and facilitate environment conservation. “We are committed to increasing the clean energy share in our energy mix to transform into a gas-based economy, address issues of climate change and build an Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” he said.