July’s top stories: China-Myanmar gas pipeline, UK begins shale gas licensing

China-Myanmar gas pipeline carries nearly 2 billion cubic metres in first year

The China-Myanmar gas pipeline owned by China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) carried 1.87 billion cubic metres of gas to China and 60 million cubic metres of gas to Myanmar in its first year of operation.

The gas pipeline is part of a $2.5bn oil and gas project between the two countries. It carries gas over 2,400km, allowing China to avoid the busy Malacca Strait shipping lanes.

The pipeline stretches from the Shwe fields off the coast of Myanmar’s Rakhine state to Kunming, a south-western Chinese city. At full capacity, the pipeline is expected to transport around 12 billion cubic metres of gas a year.

UK begins new shale gas onshore licensing round

The UK government started an onshore licensing round for the first time in six years for companies looking to explore shale gas reserves in the country.

This move aims to reduce the dependence on energy imports. It follows the declining production of natural gas in the North Sea and the successful implementation of shale gas for energy use in the US.

The UK has 26 trillion cubic feet of shale gas deposits, according to US Energy Information Administration data.

Shell awards contracts to Add Energy

Shell awarded two contracts to Add Energy Asset and Integrity Management for projects in South Gabon and Canada.

Under the first contract, Add Energy will manage Shell Gabon’s assets in the Gamba field in South Gabon. The company will provide maintenance, integrity and execution services for assets in the field, which was discovered 50 years ago.

The second contract with Shell Canada requires Add Energy to develop Bills of Materials (BoMs) for the Albian Sands project. The project includes the mining of oil from Canada’s oil sands where oil will be separated from clay, sand and water before being converted into synthetic crude.

Foster Wheeler JV wins FEED contract for onshore oilfield development in Libya

A joint venture (JV) of Foster Wheeler and Taknia Libya Engineering Company secured a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract from Nafusah Oil Operations BV Libyan Branch for an onshore oilfield development in Libya.

Dubbed the Area 47 development project, the planned development is situated in the Hamada region, approximately 200km south of Tripoli in the Ghadames Basin.

The project will feature flow-lines, a common gathering trunk-line and a total of 34 producing wells.

Sahara discovers oil in Nigerian onshore wells

Sahara Group discovered commercial hydrocarbons in three onshore oil wells drilled at Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 274 in the Edo State block in Nigeria.

The company’s upstream affiliate Enageed Resources has completed drilling the third well, part of a three-well onshore drilling programme, in the block and demobilised HPEB-187drilling rig.

Oluegi-1 was drilled to a total depth of 14,887ft with a horizontal displacement of 2.7km north of the wellhead. It encountered five hydrocarbon zones, totalling 110ft of net pay.

Technip and PT Wijaya secure Indonesia onshore gas development deal

A consortium of Technip and PT Wijaya Karya secured an onshore lump sum contract from PT Pertamina EP for the Matindok gas development project located in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The contract includes engineering, procurement, construction and installation of gas well pads, flowlines and pipelines, as well as a central processing plant with a capacity of 672 million cubic metres of gas a year.

It will also include work on gas treatment facilities like acid gas removals, sulphur removal and related infrastructure.

Petrofac wins oil gathering centre project in Kuwait

UK-based oilfield services provider Petrofac secured a contract to construct an oil gathering centre for Kuwait Oil Company (KOC).

The $700m project includes engineering, procurement, construction, pre-commissioning and commissioning of GC29, which will be located about 70km north of Kuwait City.

Petrofac expects to take around three years to complete the construction of GC29, one of three gathering facilities being built to support KOC’s plans to increase and maintain oil production in the next five years.

Developers sign agreement to advance Alaska LNG project

Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC), BP, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and TransCanada signed an agreement to advance the Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.

The project has entered the pre-front end engineering and design (Pre-FEED) phase, which will see producing parties investing on design and engineering.

The deal will enable the parties to move towards a permitting phase and carry out work to apply for an export licence with the US Department of Energy.