TPT September 2011

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S eptember 2011 107 ›
Global Marketplace
Elsewhere in oil and gas . . .
› Royal Dutch Shell said on 24 June that the Canadian government
and the province of Alberta had together agreed to contribute
C$865mn towards the cost of a project at Shell’s Scotford oil sands
upgrader in the province. The money will go to the construction
and operation of Shell’s Quest carbon capture-and-storage (CCS)
project at the site northeast of Edmonton. When work is complete,
in 2015, more than 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year
will be “captured” from the upgrading process and pumped into
underground storage reservoirs. Both governments are promoting
carbon-capture technologies, to reduce the environmental impact of
producing oil from the tar sands of northern Alberta and to deflect
criticism from conservationist groups.
› The effects of the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill
of April 2010 are expected to linger for some time. But a flurry
of activity in the Gulf of Mexico suggests a revival of the oil and gas
industry in the region.
On 8 June, Italy’s Eni announced a major deepwater oil discovery
from its first exploration well in the Gulf since the US lifted a drilling
moratorium imposed after the disaster. The Milan-based oil and gas
company made the find while drilling at the Hadrian North Prospect
some 250 miles southwest of New Orleans in approximately 6,900ft
of water. The discovery further strengthens Eni’s role in exploration
and production in the Gulf.
Eni holds a 25% working interest in the prospect, together with
Brazil’s Petrobras (25%) and operator ExxonMobil of the US (50%).
As reported by eurasiareview.com, Eni owned lease interests
in 333 blocks in the US Gulf of Mexico and is among the leading
producers with a daily net capacity in excess of 100,000 barrels of
oil equivalent. The Italian company is also present in Alaska, where
it owns interests in 140 leases between offshore and the North Slope
and is currently operating the Nikaitchuq oil project.
As noted by the Financial Times (9 June), the revival of drilling in the
Gulf underlines the fact that the region remains one of the world’s
most important places for deepwater oil and gas development. The
month of June alone saw these other notable announcements:
› Royal Dutch Shell, the largest European group, said it would
make a multi billion-dollar investment to develop its Cardamom
oil and gas field in the Gulf, for which it projects peak production of
50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day;