TPT September 2011

G lobal M arketplace

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;

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S eptember 2011

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