NEWS

Asian Concludes Seismic Acquisition Survey in Kurdistan for for Gazprom NEFT ME B.V with Zero Loss Time Injuries (LTI).

Asian Oilfield & Energy Services DMCC, the wholly owned subsidiary of Asian Oilfield Services Limited, based in Dubai has completed a 3D seismic survey over 100 Square kilometers in the challenging terrain of the exploration area of Shakal License Block for Gazprom NEFT ME B.V. in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The survey was completed safely with zero Loss Time Injuries (LTI).

AWARD OF CONTRACT BY JUBILANT OIL & GAS PRIVATE LIMITED WITH GAIL AS BLOCK PARTNER FOR 140.5 FULLFOLD LINE KILOMETER OF 2D SEISMIC DATA ACQUISITION AND BASIC PROCESSING AT TRIPURA

ASIAN OILFIELD SERVICES LIMITED has been awarded the Contract for 2D Seismic Data Acquisition and basic processing at Tripura from JOGPL with GAIL as block partner, for an estimated contract value of Rs. 130,000,000 (INR Thirteen Crores excluding Service tax) against Tender no. JOGPL/731/15-16/TD/01. Mobilization for this contract will start shortly.

NOTIFICATION OF AWARD OF CONTRACT BY ONGC FOR HIRING OF SERVICES FOR 3D SEISMIC DATA ACQUISITION AT BARAMURA BULGE TRIPURA OF ASSAM & ASSAM ARAKAN BASIN

ASIAN OILFIELD SERVICES LTD has been awarded the Contract for ‘3D Seismic Data Acquisition services at Baramura Bulge, Tripura, part of the Assam & Assam Arakan Basin, in the North East of India, against tender L26BC14027’, by ONGC, Jorhat.

ASIAN is a leading Seismic Contractor and has considerable experience for this type of work, having worked in this region earlier. Mobilization for this contract will be completed by 01st. October 2015. The entire data acquisition is to be completed by the end of Field Season 2015-2016, which is the fair-weather window normally available for data acquisition between October 2015 and July 2016.

ASIAN was successful in winning the ‘International competitive bidding’ (ICB) tender, through ONGC’s ‘e-procurement’ mode and their ‘Two Bid System’ for bidding.

World Record for Real-Time Wireless Recording of Seismic Data

Sugar Land, TX, October 16, 2013 — Wireless Seismic, Inc., Gazprom Neft, and Asian Oilfield Services Limited (ASIAN), announced today that a world record has been set for the number of live seismic channels recorded in real time by a cable-free seismic recording system.

ASIAN has been acquiring a 270km2 3D seismic survey over a mountainous prospect in the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq (Kurdistan). Data have now been acquired with a spread of more than 6,200 live channels with real-time transmission of all the seismic data, setting a new standard for real-time, cable-free seismic acquisition.

Gazprom Neft, operator of the Shakal Block in Kurdistan, contracted ASIAN to conduct a 3D seismic survey in its block using the RT System 2 real-time and cable-free seismic data acquisition system.

“The real-time functionality of RT System 2 has been invaluable,” stated Rahul Talwar, CEO, ASIAN. “When road construction started in one area of the survey, we saw noise on the spread, and the vibrators were stopped until the noise could be reduced to within specification. Simple problems, such as villagers disconnecting geophones out of curiosity, were detected quickly by its real-time monitoring capability. And, because RT System 2 is cable-free, our crew head count has been significantly reduced, as we have no need to move and repair cables.”

“With RT System 2, we can focus our efforts on the quality of the field acquisition rather than deploying highly skilled personnel to piece together transcribed data with gaps and GPS timing errors,” continued Talwar. “Above all, the data quality has been flawless. ASIAN is proud to have been part of this landmark in land seismic acquisition.”

“We are delighted to announce delivery on our promises to make a scalable real-time, cable-free seismic acquisition system,” said Roy Kligfield, CEO of Wireless Seismic. “The system has been very stable and productive despite afternoon temperatures above 50°C in adverse mountainous terrain. This world record is the latest milestone on our path to provide the industry with the capability to record more than 50,000 cable-free channels of seismic data in real time.”

About Wireless Seismic
Wireless Seismic, Inc. is revolutionizing onshore seismic data acquisition with RT System 2, the industry’s only fully scalable wireless seismic recording system with real-time data transmission. Headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, with offices worldwide, the company’s recording systems enable contractors to efficiently tackle the most challenging projects by delivering commercially compelling solutions for conventional surveys and passive monitoring for hydraulic fracturing.

About ASIAN
Asian Oilfield Services Limited (ASIAN), headquartered in National Capital Region of India, provides Geophysical, Drilling and Well services across the Indian sub-continent and other regions in Asia including 2D and 3D seismic data acquisition and processing, topographic surveying, continuous core drilling for mineral and CBM exploration, wire-line logging, and directional core drilling to target shallow horizons .

About Gazprom Neft
Gazprom Neft, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Russia, is a vertically integrated oil company primarily engaged in oil & gas exploration and production (E&P), the sale and distribution of crude oil, and the production and sale of petroleum products. The company operates in many of Russia’s prominent oil and gas regions and is involved in international E&P, including projects in Iraq and Venezuela.

ONGC to spend Rs.15,000 crore to drill 480 wells this fiscal

Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) will spend about Rs.15,000 crore to drill 480 wells in 2012-13, the most in the past 17 years, as India’s biggest oil and gas explorer battles concern over its production capabilities and diminishing yields at its ageing oil fields.

Of the 480 wells, 125 will be offshore, said U.N. Bose, director of technology and field services at ONGC. “We have already drilled 100 wells this fiscal.” Improvement in ONGC’s production is crucial for the world’s fourth largest energy consuming nation, which imports as much as 80% of its crude oil and 25% of its natural gas requirements. The country trails behind the US, China and Russia in energy consumption, accounting for 4.4% of global production.

India’s energy demand is expected to more than double by 2035, from less than 700 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe) today, to around 1,500 mtoe, according to India’s oil ministry’s estimates. ONGC said earlier this month it has made a big discovery off the nation’s western coast taking the initial oil-in place reserve at its D1 field to one billion barrels.

Most of the company’s domestic fields are more than 30 years old. While ONGC’s domestic reserves increased to 1,287 mtoe in 2011-12 from 1,243 mtoe in 2010-11, its production declined to 52.4 million tonnes (mt) from 52.6 mt in that period. ONGC had drilled 415 wells in 2011-12 at an investment of about Rs.13,000crore.

“In spite of frequent additions to its oil and natural gas reserves, production growth has been very slow in the recent past,” BOB Capital Markets Ltd said in a 31 May report. “Industry-leading reserve replacement ratio has not translated into higher production. For example, exploration in the KG (Krishna-Godavari) basin has been going on for 11 years now.”

At 5.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent (bboe), India’s proven balance recoverable oil reserves amount to 0.3% of world’s total reserves, according to BP Statistical Review 2012. State-controlled ONGC is entrusted with ensuring India’s energy security and has a total of 125 rigs working on various drilling programmes across the country.

“We have a total of 90 onshore rigs of which 70 are ours. For our offshore drilling programme, we have 36 rigs of which nine are ours and the balance 27 chartered from other service providers. We have brought more technology to our exploration and production programme,” said Bose.

It has also been scouting abroad for opportunities to plug technology gaps and to leverage the strengths of large oil companies. Mint reported on 27 July that ONGC has shortlisted 10 companies, including the world’s top hydrocarbon exploration service providers Schlumberger Ltd, Petroleum Geo-Services ASA and CGGVeritas, for a seismic survey of 19,000km of exploratory blocks. The tender for the survey is valued at around Rs.1,200crore.

While India has 26 sedimentary basins, covering 3.14 million sq. km, only 22% has been moderately-towell explored, with 34% remaining poorly-to-completely unexplored. With interest in India’s hydrocarbon sector waning in recent months, and foreign firms planning to exit their oil and gas exploration and production businesses, it will depend on ONGC and state-run Oil India Ltd to boost the nation’s energy production.

According to ONGC’s Perspective Plan 2030, the company aims to unlock more than 450 mtoe from “yet-to-find” reserves. The company is targeting production of more than 130 mtoe in 2030, of which half will come from assets owned by its overseas arm ONGC Videsh Ltd. The explorer made an investment of Rs.22,700crore in the 10th Plan (2002-07) and increased it to Rs.1.7 trillion in the recently ended 11th Plan (2007-12). It now seeks to spend Rs.2.65 trillion in the 12th Plan (2012-17).

Energy companies like RIL, Cairn India want government to retain incentives for oil and gas contracts

New Delhi : Exploration companies such as Reliance Industries, BP and Cairn India have urged the Rangarajan committee, which is reviewing oil and gas contracts, to improve administration of oil and gas blocks while continuing with the contentious but lucrative system that allows them to recover field development costs before sharing profits with the government.

The committee to review the existing Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) was set up on the recommendation of Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy, and is considering a system that is prevalent in many developed countries. The proposed new system will eliminate several disputes between field operators and the government and leave dayto-day operations to companies.

The existing system of 'cost recovery' has been under the spotlight after CAG found faults with the way the government administered its contracts with firms such as Reliance, Cairn India and BG, and the oil ministry penalised Reliance for building infrastructure that turned out to be surplus after gas output from the D6 field plummeted.

The oil industry says the current system gives a bigger incentive to exploration firms to undertake the risk of drilling. They say the incentive is important because, given the relatively high risk involved in drilling in India, the country needs to give strong incentives to woo private capital. "There is a need for better administration of contracts.

India is still not a very high prospective region for E&P (exploration & production), therefore, it is not advisable to change the existing contractual structure," said Jubilant Energy CEO Ajay Khandelwal, who made a presentation on behalf of energy firms to the Rangarajan Committee last week. The committee is expected to submit its report in October and currently holding public hearings.

The oil sector finds no fault with the existing fiscal regime. "The existing PSC regime remains the most appropriate form of licensing regime for India but contract administration needs to be streamlined," said Vikram S Mehta, Chairman of CII Committee on Hydrocarbons & Chairman, Shell Group of Companies in India.

"Consistency in policy and regulation is critical for a successful E&P cycle," Association of Oil & Gas Operators (AOGO), which has 26 members, including ONGC, Cairn RIL, BP, BG, Eni, and BHP, said in its presentation to the committee. Former ONGC chairman and Ficci's hydrocarbons committee chairman RS Sharma said that while drafting fiscal terms for future, the government should keep in mind the prospectivity and risks associated with Indian E&P industry. AOGO told the Rangarajan committee that the E&P activities have fallen "drastically" in 2011-12.

The association said government's decision to curb marketing freedom of energy firms, denying tax concession to natural gas production, making cost recovery conditional and CAG's adverse comments were some of the reasons responsible for a slowdown.

ONGC keen on stake in Russia's Arctic oil and gas fields

New Delhi : ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), is eyeing stake in Russia's ambitious Arctic Ocean oil and gas projects with US supermajor ExxonMobil and Italian energy giant ENI.

OVL on May 4 wrote to Russian state oil company Rosneft expressing interest in taking stake in one of the three joint ventures announced to explore for oil and gas beneath Arctic Ocean, sources privy to the development said.

Rosneft has signed separate deals with ExxonMobil, ENI and Norway's Statoil for three multi-billion dollar projects in coastal seas north of Russia.

Under the agreements, the foreign companies get about 33 per cent stake in the joint project with Rosneft and pay for all of the initial exploration cost.

Sources said OVL wants Rosneft to give a part of its about 67 per cent stake in one of the three projects. In case Rosneft is not able to accommodate OVL in any of the three existing projects, the Indian flagship firm wants to join one of the 12 Arctic shelf fields that Russia plans to offer in near future.