Woodside Petroleum
The energy takeover sector dance "has just begun", Woodside CEO Peter Coleman told North American business media overnight.
In television interviews with Bloomberg and CNBC, Coleman did not rule out lifting his $11.7 million tilt at Oil Search, despite saying the offer was "very fully priced and something that is something that is just going to take time".
He would also not rule out having a crack at Santos.
"You don't always have to sweeten deals," Coleman said when asked about Woodside's offer for Oil Search.
"What happens is, over time, expectations come together, and I think you're starting to see some M&A in Australia post the approach we made to Oil Search where you can see people's view of the world start to get a little closer."
When asked specifically whether a $13 billion bid would win over investors, he responded: "That's a good question. We'll just have to see how time plays that one out. I really can't comment one way or the other on where we are going to go.
"I'll just watch the marketplace and I think the market is going to give us some signals."
Santos
Speculation about how Santos will fix its debt mountain is ramping up, with The Australian reporting this morning that fund managers are predicting it will launch a rights issue worth at least $2 billion within the next two weeks as it prepares to offload a "small slice", understood to be 3.6%, of its stake in PNG LNG to Japanese trade and investment house Marubeni.
While Fairfax originally said the Marubeni deal could be worth $2 billion, The Australian's sources believe it would be worth between $1.2-1.5 billion - a figure analysts have told Energy News is more realistic.
Santos chairman Peter Coates told Energy News last week an equity raising was still on the cards after the asset sale is completed.
The Australian says the fund managers believe a bookbuild of between $300 million and $400 million is likely.
Fairfax also said Santos has had an incomplete, "low-ball" offer from private equity consortium for at least some of its Cooper Basin assets, along with interests in the Bass Strait, some NSW CSG and some Queensland tenements.
3D Oil
After months of delays, and several years between wells, 3D and its new partner Hibiscus Petroleum have successfully spudded the long-awaited Sea Lion-1 exploration well using the West Telesto jack-up rig.
Sea Lion is located in the offshore VIC/P57 where the junior has a 24.9% interest. 3D's share of Sea Lion-1 is being carried to $US7.5 million.
The planned total depth of the Sea Lion-1 well is 1800m and operations are scheduled to take a total of four weeks.
Sea Lion is one of the last undrilled four-way dip closures at the Top Latrobe level in the Gippsland Basin and has potential for 11MMbbl (P50).
Australian Oil Company
After a decade of being known as AOC, with little in the way of Australian oil interests for most of that time, the junior has received approval to change its name to Sacgasco to better reflect its gas ambitions in California's Sacramento Basin.
In its loftiest dreams, AOC hopes to develop an LNG export facility in the US.
While the name change was passed with little fanfare, the issue of shares and options to directors received little positive attention form shareholders, with issues to Andrew Childs and Aqeel Virk close to being voted down.
BHP Billiton
BHP has moved to renew the retention lease over the far flung Thebe field for another five years.
The 3Tcf Thebe is part of the proposed wider Scarborough FLNG development with ExxonMobil, which aims to develop 8Tcf of gas far from the WA coastline.
Scarborough was discovered in 1979 and appraised more recently, while Thebe-1 was discovered a decade ago by BHP.
Islamic State
ISIL militants are gaining at least $US50 million per month from illegally selling up to 50,000bopd crude oil from occupied oil fields in Iraq and Syria, US officials say.
The US government said the extremists are undercutting the market, selling barrels of crude for between $US10-35/bbl, according to a report from Associated Press.
The militants are transporting oil in small tankers for fear of airstrikes, AP reported.
The group has several small, rudimentary refineries located in trailers and controls around 253 oil wells in Syria, although only 161 of them operational. Some 275 engineers and 1107 workers are involved in wells maintenance.
Jereh Group
China's largest private listed oil and gas equipment company, Jereh Group, launched its O2O (online to offline) platform for global purchasers last week.
The Jereh Go O2O project displays more than 1000 types of products and services in the oil and gas engineering sectors.
The new service aims to reduce the purchasing costs for buyers and shorten the delivery time through effective integration of both foreign and domestic market resources.
Dolphin Geophysical
Oslo-listed Dolphin has received a notice of time charter termination from Sanco Shipping for the two seismic vessels: Sanco Swift and Sanco Sword.
Dolphin said it is "evaluating the validity and effect of the notice in respect to the present difficult market situation".
Dolphin signed a five-year charter with Sanco for Sanco Swift in 2011, with the vessel coming into service mid-2013. Dolphin had acquired a streamer package to be installed on the vessel at a cost of $55 million. Sanco Sword was also chartered for five years, with contracts signed in 2012 and the vessel delivered in 2014.
No reason for the termination of charter was given, but Dolphin was reportedly in default of its charter.
Dolphin recorded a net loss of $US15 million in its second quarter results, and it is no orphan as the entire geoscience segment of the offshore oil and gas industry was first to be hit when oil prices took a nose dive last year.
PGS will cold-stack its Ramform Explorer, Challenger and Viking, at the end of October, and has secured "attractive charter agreements" for the two Sanco vessels - "both among the most competitive conventional vessels in the seismic industry."
East West Petroleum
EWP says its share of production from the Cheal-E well (30%) in New Zealand's Taranaki Basin, which continues to supply it with stable production of 230 boepd and cash flow.
It and partner Tag Oil are planning to shoot 37.5sq.km 3D over the Cheal-G area locate and identify potential prospects for future drilling locations in PEP 54879, part of a larger regional survey.
The Cheal-G1 well (50%) remains shut in after testing 120 boepd due to lack of infrastructure in the area, which would allow for commercial production.
EWP also expects to spud its first well in Romania's Pannonian Basin with Naftna Industrija Srbije early next year.
The well will be targeting expected conventional natural gas-bearing zones and will be drilled to a total depth of some 2500m, consisting of two primary and three secondary geological targets.
The Romanian drilling program is expected to continue in the second half of 2016 with additional wells being drilled based on the interpretation of newly acquired seismic.
In total, 12 wells will be drilled as part of the work commitment across the four blocks in Romania during the first exploration period. NIS will be funding 100% and fully carrying East West through the two exploration periods in return for earning an 85% interest in the blocks.
Genel Energy
Genel has received another payment from the Kurdistan Regional Government for oil shipped out of the region.
The $US9 million is for production from the Tawke field in Iraq where it has a 25% stake and DNO is the operator.
DNO said the Tawke field partners had received a gross payment of $30 million for oil exported through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline.
It is Genel's second payment from Tawke, having received $US8 million in September.
The company has also started to receive regular payment from the Taq Taq field, where it has a 44% interest, with a second payment of $16.5 million.
In June, Genel said its arrears in Kurdistan were $378 million out of an estimated $1 billion owed by the regional government.
ExxonMobil
Globaldata says ExxonMobil's Liza discovery in deepwater Guyana, which the supermajor has moved into pre-front-end engineering design less than five months after confirming the find, has the potential to yield significant returns for investors.
GlobalData's latest analysis states that a floating, production storage and offloading vessel development at the field would return above 19.8% in a flat-oil-price scenario of $US61.68/barrel.
"While there is risk around the assumed initial production rates of 20,000bopd per development well, there is upside in additional cost efficiencies as low oil prices have been accompanied with decreases in FPSO leasing terms and drillship day rates," GlobalData's senior upstream analyst Anna Belova said.
"Additionally, the 201MMbbl recoverable reserves estimate falls on the lower end of 700MMbbl of oil reserve suggestions from Guyana's minister of governance. Higher reserve scenarios, recovering upward of 600MMbbl, have an internal rate of return over 35% while capturing the economies of scale realised with FPSO developments."
Palau
The chances of further exploration in the waters around the tiny Pacific nation of Palau have shrunk.
Explorers have looked at the island nation and its 200 mile exclusive economic zone before, most recently small Brisbane-based explorer Palau Petroleum and Singapore-based Cepu Sakti Energy, which hoped to drill the Velasco Bank last year, however five years after a new petroleum law was enacted Palau's president Tommy Remengesau is set to sign a law turning most of the country's waters into a marine sanctuary, one of the biggest in the world.
The sanctuary will be about the size of California — making it the world's sixth largest area in which commercial fishing and oil drilling will be banned.
The 500,000sq.km reserve covers 80% of Palau's territorial waters.
Royal Dutch Shell
A Commission on Audit decision on tax has prompted Shell in the Philippines to review its plan to develop an ambitious LNG import facility near its Batangas refinery.
The company's planned terminal, would have consisted a floating storage and regasifying unit, could power up to 2000 megawatts MW of power plants.
Shell (45%) and its partners in Malampaya project, Chevron (45%) and Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp (10%) have argued that the tax bill demanded by the government were already included in the government's 60% share in the Malampaya royalties from 2002 to 2009.
The Department of Energy and Shell appealed, but the COA over-ruled them.
No final investment decision into the import terminal is expected until 2017.
Aside from Shell, other industry players that are interested in invest in LNG projects include Manila Electric Co and Lopez Group's First Gen Corp.
Meralco and Osaka Gas are in talks for a 60:40 LNG import venture, while First Gen is looking for a partner for a planned LNG regasification terminal, hoped to start by 2022.
Transocean
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley has announced that Transocean Offshore, owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig, has agreed to pay the state $US20 million ($A27.62 million).
"The State of Alabama suffered tremendous environmental and economic losses because of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010," Bentley said.
The rig was on the BP-operated well when it exploded, causing catastrophic fires, a leak of over 3 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and the death of 11 people.
As a result, Alabama's Gulf Coast and the surrounding area experienced significant environmental and economic damages, as did the state.
Earlier this year, an agreement in principle was reached with BP that resulted in an agreement to pay the state of Alabama $US2.3 billion, with $US1.3 billion going directly to the Gulf Coast region and $US1 billion to be paid to the state.
Yantai Xinchao Industry Co
A Chinese investment holding company claims it has signed a letter of intent to purchase oil fields in Texas for $US1.3 billion.
In a disclosure to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Yantai Xinchao said the oil fields in Howard and Borden counties would be bought from Tall City Exploration and Plymouth Petroleum.
In the Saturday filing, Yantai Xinchao said it signed a letter of intent Friday with Ningbo Dingliang Huitong Equity Investment Center and its seven shareholders to buy the oil fields through a Ningbo Dingliang subsidiary, Moss Creek Resources LLC.
It said the transaction has been approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
Last year Tall City, which is backed by private equity sponsor Denham Capital Management, sold a number of Permian Basin fields to American Energy Partners.
APA Group
Fairfax also reported this morning that, having been outbid for the Iona gas plant by Queensland Investment Corporation's $A1.78 billion deal, APA Group sees a new opportunity in gas storage.
The news agency reported APA managing director Mick McCormack as saying he was "stunned" by the price QIC paid EnergyAustralia for the underground plant in Victoria, but would not confirm speculation that his company's bid for Iona was roughly $600 million short of the winning bid.
He said APA would "absolutely" consider building its own gas storage plant, having made an assessment about the value for storage.
"If that, on the face of it, turns out to be demonstrably wrong - as in people are prepared [to pay] more for it - that gives us a bigger target the way I see it," he added.
