Weekly oil inventories rose sharply this week, by around 5 million barrels, while economists were expecting a decline of 1.3 million barrels. However, this data has not prevented crude oil prices from rising by around 3% over the last five sessions. The reason for this is that traders are looking to the future, which is more likely to see a price recovery for two main reasons. Firstly, the US Department of Energy has announced the purchase of crude oil to start filling its strategic reserves. We are talking about 3 million barrels at the moment, which is relatively small, but the information is clear: the United States is starting to rebuild its strategic reserves, which, let's not forget, have melted like snow in the sun since last year. Secondly, the International Energy Agency has raised its demand growth forecast for 2023 and thus foresees a tighter market in the second half of the year. In this context, oil prices have recovered, with Brent crude at USD 76 per barrel and WTI at USD 72. In European natural gas, the Dutch benchmark, the Rotterdam TTF, is trading at EUR 30/MWh, a level not seen since November 2021.
If really kena cheat in public forum like this, it is part of learning to gain investment experience. I also fail many times after reading comment and believe end up lose money. But we need to learn. Always verify what people say.
US oil company ConocoPhillips is re-engaging with suppliers of floating, production, storage and offloading vessels as it seeks to unlock the development of its Salam-Patawali oil project offshore Sarawak in Malaysian waters.
ConocoPhillips operates offshore Block WL4-00, which is home to the Salam, Patawali and Benum oil discoveries.
The big US independent has been working discreetly on development solutions for the project for a few years, and is currently eyeing the potential for first production by as early as 2026, industry sources told Upstream.
The company recently initiated a process for carrying out technical studies on the project, engaging with leading FPSO contractors in the region, according to sources with direct knowledge of the development.
“They [ConocoPhillips] plan to carry out technical studies for the FPSO, a process which is similar to the project’s pre-front end engineering and design phase,” one well-placed source said.
FPSO contractors in contention include the Malaysians Bumi Armada, MISC and Yinson Holdings while global players such as Bluewater and BW Offshore are also in the running.
FPSO companies with an available floater that can be redeployed are likely to be favoured although, given the shrinking global pool of redeployable FPSOs, the possibility of supplying a new vessel based on a tanker conversion could not be ruled out, sources noted, adding that ConocoPhillips was interested in an aframax-size floater.
ConocoPhillips is expected to opt for a multi-year lease option for the vessel, and will also require an operations and maintenance contractor.
Production capacity for the FPSO has previously been estimated at between 30,000 and 55,000 barrels per day of oil, with a storage requirement of up to 600,000 barrels of oil.
The floater was also expected to handle just over 100 million cubic feet per day of gas.
Upstream has requested comment from ConocoPhillips about the Salam-Patawari development.
The US operator is believed to have awarded an engineering services contract to Genesis last year, with an emphasis on the subsea aspects of ConocoPhillips’ current and future activities in Malaysia, Upstream reported previously.
ConocoPhillips was awarded Block WL4-00 in 2017 when it already hosted the Salam-1 discovery.
In 2018 and 2019, oil discoveries were made at the Salam and Benum fields and, in 2022, two additional appraisal wells and one exploration well were drilled to evaluate those discoveries.
The Gagau-1 exploration well made a sub-commercial gas discovery and was expensed as a dry hole, and ConocoPhillips said all the well information would help optimise future development plans.
ConocoPhillips holds the operatorship of Block WL4-00 along with a 50% stake, with Malaysian state-giant Petronas holding the balance 50% stake.
ConocoPhillips has two more exploration permits offshore Malaysia — SK304 offshore Sarawak and SB405 offshore Sabah.
In SK304, a dry well called Mersing-1 was drilled in 2022, but ConocoPhillips said it is continuing to evaluate the potential of the permit.
In SB405, a 3D seismic survey was acquired in 2022, and processing and evaluation of the seismic data will be ongoing through 2023.
ConocoPhillips also has non-operated interests in four producing assets offshore Malaysia — the Gumusut field, the Malikai field, the Kebabangan field and the Siakap North-Petai project.
It generated net production in 2021 of 35,000 bpd of oil and 66 MMcfd of gas.
FPSO contractors in Southeast Asia are eyeing multiple FPSO projects in the region, but several projects are yet to achieve a final investment decision.
Malaysian state-owned giant Petronas is expected to lead the way with potential floater requirements in the near term for its Kelidang project offshore Brunei Darussalam.
In addition, Petronas might also seek a floater for its Limbayong and Bestari fields offshore Sabah, East Malaysia.
In addition, FPSOs are also required for UK-independent Harbour Energy’s Tuna oil and gas project offshore Indonesia and Chevron’s much-delayed and on-off Ubon gas condensate development in the Gulf of Thailand.
Great news about the Conoco Philips opportunity here in Malasia. Armada Claire would do well with their turret for stormy waters, but that ship is 'water under the brigde.' Armada Sterling is V is late, although I expected 6 months minimum. There is always an excuse that everyone uses. Like in this case, fishing nets. But there may be many issues being sorted behind the scenes. Once 7 out of 10 catalysts on Nick's lists are achieved, I will be out of here. It has been very long.
You tipu ka…i used to work for murphyoil and have many frens in Conocophillips hahA
Robert Waters Great news about the Conoco Philips opportunity here in Malasia. Armada Claire would do well with their turret for stormy waters, but that ship is 'water under the brigde.' Armada Sterling is V is late, although I expected 6 months minimum. There is always an excuse that everyone uses. Like in this case, fishing nets. But there may be many issues being sorted behind the scenes. Once 7 out of 10 catalysts on Nick's lists are achieved, I will be out of here. It has been very long. 4 hours ago
kebling98 Coming report, eye on derivatives yah If the deriviatives loss had turn around lei meaning forwards, hengheng will start enjoying derivatives gains loh
After petron results out , petron will move to 5 Hengheng will follow a bit and if hengheng result is good good one Hengheng fly back to 4.2-4.6
If tapis price keep at this low level lah than in Year end , petron and hengheng maybe back to 6 -7 loh
Hehe , above is my sifu sifu say one at dinner yah not me yah Kebling lose many money in hengheng last year. Waiting to buy back hengheng to take my money back lah
Cauca panas Need money pay TNB bills lah
Already bought petron / Hengyuan high risk high gain
GenS QR lousy..wonder how bad GenP QR nxt 54 minutes ago
1invest1 No need to read, depend & follow ff, IBs, etc. They can't win alot if you win too. There is no such thing as sharing for them. They win, you lose. That is the game of share market. Big fish eat small fish. 11 minutes ago
Malaysia’s national upstream company Petronas Carigali has kicked off the tender process for a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for the standalone development of its Bestari deep-water oilfield offshore Sabah, East Malaysia.
Petronas has been aiming to develop some of its key deep-water fields on the back of improved oil prices and market fundamentals, but the state giant shied away from taking the final investment decision on crucial projects including Limbayong, for which the process to charter a floater was shelved on multiple occasions.
However, Bestari, which is much smaller in size, provides an opportunity for Petronas to gain hands-on experience with deep-water developments and implement those learning on complex projects which have much higher capital expenditure, sources said.
The Malaysian giant has approached domestic and international floater specialists seeking budgetary quotes for an FPSO with a production capacity of at least 15,000 barrels per day (bpd) for Bestari, multiple people familiar with the development told Upstream.
Some of the key contenders which might queue up include domestic players— MISC, Yinson, MTC and Bumi Armada. India’s Shapoorji Pallonji Energy is also likely to be interested in a groping with Bumi Armada, one person noted.
Another one suggested that international contractors including BW Offshore could also have been approached for Bestari during the initial phase, but this could not be independently confirmed.
More clarity on the potential bidders for Bestari is likely to emerge at a later stage, once the bid process further progresses, industry sources said.
Upstream understands the operator has changed tactics from its earlier stance of developing the Limbayong field via a larger FPSO with the Bestari oilfield as a potential tie-back to benefit the Limbayong economics.
Various studies have been conducted for Limbayong, but Petronas Carigali could make the budget work amid the post-Covid high costs of labour and materials. It now seems that Bestari’s crude will be exploited first with Limbayong put on the — albeit likely temporary — backburner.
“They want to kick off with a relatively smaller project like Bestari at this stage," one source said.
Upstream has contacted Petronas for comment regarding its plans for Bestari.
An industry source pointed out that it might not be an easy task for Petronas to get a relatively smaller floater for Bestari at short notice, considering key international FPSO contractors are dealing with multiple prospects in Brazil and other key American markets.
“It [FPSO] is a very busy market with multiple new prospects coming up. Operators need to be decisive for securing units,” he said.
The conventional oilfield, which lies in a water depth of 4593 feet (approximately 1400 metres) on Block R offshore Sabah, was discovered in 2015 by Japan’s JX Nippon.
The Bestari-1 discovery well in March of that year encountered 67 metres of net oil pay in multiple sand packages within the Miocene-aged primary objectives at depths from 1860 metres to 2702 metres.
Petronas Carigali in March confirmed to Upstream that it pulled the plug on Limbayong, potentially with Bestari as a satellite tie-back, after being unable to make the economics stand up.
Limbayong was expected to produce almost 40,000 bpd of oil however the up-front costs required for a larger capacity FPSO would have been much higher than for Bestari.
In recent years, the operator had conducted at least three tender exercises for the Limbayong floater, much to the frustration of contractors that had invested time and money to bid on several occasions only for the project not to progress.
“The Limbayong development certainly has challenging economics, evident from the several delays and discussions for multiple development concepts. In the event of proceeding solely with Bestari's development, it is expected that the planned floater capacity will see a significant reduction of over 50%. However, it reflects Petronas' commitment to developing these discovered deep-water resources,” Prateek Pandey, Rystad Energy’s vice president E&P research Southeast Asia, told Upstream.
“Nonetheless, the progress made on the deep-water oil project promises to enhance Petronas' portfolio and tap into the immense potential of deep-water Sabah,” said Pandey.
"Limbayong is not [permanently] shelved yet, it could be taken up as a separate project in the future,” another source said.
This book is the result of the author's many years of experience and observation throughout his 26 years in the stockbroking industry. It was written for general public to learn to invest based on facts and not on fantasies or hearsay....
Bon888
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Posted by Bon888 > 2023-05-19 13:27 | Report Abuse
Absolutely, anytime from now.