Drilling & production

Gladstone LNG, the coal seam gas to LNG project led by Santos, has signed an agreement with Origin Energy to supply feed gas for liquefaction into LNG.

Woodside has accepted an offer from Japan Australia LNG (MIMI Browse) Pty Ltd. to purchase a 14.7% interest in Browse LNG for US$ 2 billion.

GE Oil & Gas has been awarded a contract worth US$ 80 million to supply subsea and production equipment to ATP Oil & Gas’ Cheviot Field in the North Sea.

Woodside Petroleum has begun production from its Pluto LNG project in Western Australia and will load its first cargo of LNG today.

Wood Group Mustang has been awarded the topsides detailed engineering and procurement support for the semi-submersible production facility, which will operate in the offshore field.

Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister, Hussain Shahristani, has addressed outside pressure to resolve the ongoing dispute between Baghdad and Kurdistan over a block on oil deliveries, by stating that it was an “internal matter.”

Several European oil and gas companies have reported a favourable start to 2012, citing higher oil prices and the recovery of production from Libyan oilfields.

It has been announced that Argentina’s senate has approved the bill put forward for the expropriation of YPF, the bill will now move to Congress to be voted on next week. The expropriation of YPF has been popular amongst Argentinians.

Enagás is to purchase BG Group’s 40% stake in the Quintero LNG regas terminal in Chile.

Yemen LNG has stated that a 38 in. pipeline feeding its Balhaf terminal has been sabotage again.

Chart energy & Chemicals has won a contract worth US$ 40 million to supply heat exchangers to an LNG project in Eastern Australia.

Final gas content lab reports have been completed for the first coalbed methane (CBM) exploration test well at the Kutai West CBM production sharing contract block in East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Japanese company acquires 32.5% royalty interest in natural gas production from Encana fee lands.

PetroChina has begun work on the Tai'an plant in Eastern Shangdong province. The plant is scheduled for completion in late 2013 and will have a liquefaction capacity of 600 00 tpy of LNG.

An engineer, formerly employed by BP, has been charged with two counts of obstruction of justice in relation to the alleged deletion of 200 text messages that had been requested by federal investigative authorities.