Upstream news

PentaNova Energy Corp. has announced that it has signed contracts for the civil works and drilling rig to be deployed to the company's 60 076 gross acre Maria Conchita block in the Guajira Basin of Colombia.

At its Megiddo-Jezreel #1 well in Israel, near the eastern border with Jordan, Zion has reached a depth of approximately 9200 ft (~2800 m) toward a possible total depth of up to ~15 000 ft.

The associated prospects are located in two promising plays and areas of the GoM: Wilcox in Central GoM next to the Anchor discovery, and Norphlet in Eastern GoM nearby to the Appomattox discovery.

Atwood Oceanics, Inc. has announced that one of its subsidiaries has agreed to a four month extension on the jackup rig Atwood Orca with Mubadala Petroleum for drilling operations offshore Thailand.

The indoor fresh water tank, which can hold 73 600 l of water, has been created for the primary purpose of testing ROVs and ancillary equipment.

The Icewine#2 well was shut-in on 10 July to allow for imbibition and pressure build up to occur within the HRZ shale. Flow testing re-commenced on 31 August at 10:26 (AK time), and was suspended on 18 September (AK time).

The fracture stimulation is anticipated to take approximately two weeks, after which the equipment will be removed and the flowback will commence.

Aker Solutions won a contract from Statoil for front end engineering and design of a module that will increase output at Troll, one of Norway's largest natural gas fields.

The 89 184 dwt, 248.1 m long FPSO Aoka Mizu (Japanese for Bluewater), which is owned and operated by Holland’s Bluewater Energy Services, has recently been assigned a new contract.

The barrier has a large operational envelope: it is capable of withstanding pressure differentials up to 10 000 psi (68.95 MPa) and temperatures between 40 and 325°F (4 and 163°C), which reduces the loss-of-containment risk in extreme environments.