Ethemba to buy 45% interest in Avgol

UK-based Ethemba will buy 45% interest in Avgol held by Israel Petrochemical Enterprises (IPE) for a consideration of $106.8m, following the approval from IPE’s board of directors. IPE plans to use the sales proceeds to clear its $500m debt. It will also get a payment of $16m depending upon next year's financial results, reported Platts. The Israeli company will retain 21% interest in Avgol and the remaining will be traded on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. IPE has plans to invest about $71m in new production lines in China and the US, and expand business into India. Ethemba is a private equity firm based in London, while Avgol Nonwoven Industries is a manufacturer and supplier of ultra lightweight and top quality nonwoven fabrics.

Ecopetrol discovers new oil field

Ecopetrol announced the discovery of crude oil at the Aullador-I exploratory well located in Colombia’s Santander Province. Initial tests at the well, drilled to a depth of 11,393ft, produced 300 barrels of crude of 24 degrees API per day on the natural flow. The company said the Aullador-I exploratory well indicated low water cut and sediment of just 0.1% and a gas-oil ratio of 200. Ecopetrol plans to carry out extensive testing in the following months to define the potential of the discovery. The well is part of the Playon exploration and production agreement signed between the National Hydrocarbons Agency and Ecopetrol in April 2008. Colombia-based Ecopetrol owns two refineries in Colombia and a majority of oil and multiuse pipelines in the nation. It is also involved in exploration and production activities in Brazil, Peru and the US (Gulf of Mexico).

MHB Awarded RM278 Million F14/F29 Topsides, Substructure And Process Module Contract By Shell

Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Berhad (“MHB”) announces that its wholly owned subsidiary, Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Sdn Bhd, has successfully bidded for the F14/F29 project award which comprises three (3) structures by Sarawak Shell Berhad (“SSB”). The combined contract value of the project is RM278 million. Mr. Dominique de Soras, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of MHB shared, “We are honoured to be awarded another project by a member company of Shell. With the addition of F14/F29 topsides, substructure and process module contract, MHB would have two projects being fabricated simultaneously at our MMHE West Yard – the other being the Gumusut-Kakap Floating Production System. The F14/F29 would enhance the production of gas in Sarawak as these structures would be installed at gas field located at a water depth of about 320 feet when they are completed in about a year’s time.”

Remarkable Output Proven at Donggi 6

JAKARTA: PT Pertamina EP has proved successfully success reserves in well of Donggi 6, Central Sulawesi with output more than 17 Million Metric Standard Cubic Feet per Day after undergoing an output test in the well.

President Director of Pertamina EP Syamsu Alam revealed the management is more optimistic to start distributing the gas from the structure of Donggi in the fourth quarter of 2014. Donggi site having 8 wells is a part of gas development project of Matindok.

"We are grateful that the success of Donggi-6 has added the success record of Pertamina EP after proving the gas and oil reserves in the first two months in 2012. the success has strengthened the optimism of Pertamina EP in achieving the target of gas distribution from Donggi’s structure in the fourth quarter of 2014,” he said in a press conference yesterday.

Shell Looking to Cash in on PetroChina’s Quest for Shale Gas

China, with an 1,275 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of technically recoverable shale gas resources, is certainly not short of supply, but what it does lack is the technology and know-how to extract the hard to reach gas from the country’s complex shale formations.
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It has tasked its three major state-owned oil and gas companies: PetroChina, Sinopec Corp. (NYSE:SHI), and CNOOC Ltd.(NYSE:CEO), with acquiring the requisite expertise in shale development from foreign operators to unlock their vast domestic reserves.

And PetroChina, the listed arm of state-run China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and the largest downstream operator of the three, has increasingly been turning to Shell to achieve this.

More environmental rules needed for shale gas, says Stanford geophysicist

The topic is controversial. Breaking up rock layers thousands of feet underground with hydraulic fracturing has unleashed so many minuscule bubbles of methane that shale gas now accounts for 30 percent of U.S. gas production, an increase in supply that has pummeled the commodity's price. The gas industry will support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade, Obama said.
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But environmental concerns about the technology behind the boom – specifically hydraulic fracturing – receive near daily news coverage, with opponents saying that toxic additives in the water used for the fracturing have found their way into household tap water, among other concerns.

Obama said natural gas producers will have to disclose the chemicals they add to the fracturing slurry of water and sand when they are working on federal lands. The Secretary of Energy's seven-person advisory group on shale gas, of which Zoback was a member, called for such disclosure by shale gas operators on all lands. The advisory group further recommended that data on a well-by-well basis be posted on publicly available, searchable websites.