Afghanistan Taking Off?
CNPC becomes first international player to secure Afghanistan acreage. Ravaged by years of war, geo graphic ally disadvantaged, land locked and mountainous and carrying genuine fears of political instability; hardly…
Exploration
Shell to Drill Arctic This Summer
In the first exploratory drilling program in US Arctic waters in two decades, Shell is to start drilling prospects in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas off northern Alaska this August.…
Liberia: Significant Oil Discovery
Liberia’s race to join its West African neighbours Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire and especially Ghana has moved an important step forward. Source: African Petroleum In late February African Petroleum, which…
Kenya Hits the Jackpot
After discoveries in Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda, Kenya hopes to join the club. For too long a backwater in hydrocarbon terms, dependent on imported oil and gas, East Africa is…
Extended North West African Margin Survey
Since May last year, Dolphin Geophysical has been acquiring long-offset, high specification, regional 2D data along the North West African Atlantic Margin (NWAAM). Initially covering Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and the…
Force Majeure in Syria
The much-vaunted Arab Spring, which has brought new life to the Libyan oil industry, where production is reportedly already nearly back to pre-revolution volumes, is having a less satisfactory impression…
Collaboration is the Future
A new atlas of the North East Atlantic region is the outcome of collaboration between national survey organizations. In the present straitened times, finances are tight for all research organizations,…
Cyprus: Historic Gas Discovery
The inhabitants of the island of Cyprus had a very exciting late Christmas present, when Noble Energy announced that they had made a significant gas discovery offshore on December 28…
From Trickle to Gusher: The Bakken Oil Story
Discovered in the 1950s, North Dakota’s Bakken Formation oil production was just 1,500 bpd in 2004. Today, it exceeds 440,000 bpd and is expected to be 700,000 bpd within the…
How can we explore the Russian Arctic Shelf?
The Arctic is often referred to as ‘the next global frontier’ – but is it possible to explore at reasonable cost? Western oil and gas technical journals as well as…
Malaysia: Two Gas Discoveries
At the tail end of 2011 Petronas, the state oil company of Malaysia, announced the success of an offshore well in moderately deep waters in Block SK316, about 100 km…
South East Asia – Where Are the Giant Fields Hiding?
Exploration in South East Asia has a long history – almost 150 years. Is its heyday gone or do giant fields still lie in wait? The state-run oil and gas…