Northern Petroleum issues French Guiana update

Northern Petroleum (NOP) on Friday stated that it was looking at the "big picture" when it came to French Guiana, as it provided an operational update on its fully-funded four-well drilling programme.

"The four-well exploration programme has been designed to look at the big picture of this licence which covers an enormous area, equivalent to approximately 100 UK North Sea blocks," said managing director Derek Musgrove.

The Zaedyus oil discovery well, GM-ES-1, encountered 72 metres of net oil pay in two turbidite sand systems. The joint venture, led by Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB), decided to extend the exploration activities through committing to and funding a four-well drilling programme and contracted the Stena IceMAX dynamically positioned drillship.

The recently completed GM-ES-2 was the first exploration well in the current programme and the drillship will be moved onto the GM-ES-3 location to drill the second well in the programme.

The GM-ES-3 well will be targeting several Cretaceous-aged reservoir intervals. The objective of the well is to explore for significant oil volumes in the fan, help determine the Cingulata sub-surface model, possibly determine an oil-water contact, assess the reservoir potential in the north-western part of the larger Cingulata fan system and better understand the potential of the entire block.

GM-ES-3 is predicted to take approximately three to four months and operational performance should benefit from the learning experiences of the first two successfully completed wells.

"The programme is intended to provide sufficient understanding of all aspects of the reservoir, oil generation, migration and entrapment to establish and provide the necessary information to unlock the massive potential of this exciting new oil province," added Musgrove. "The focus is on this wider and greater objective rather than individual prospect appraisal, hence the minimum four-well programme."

Northern Petroleum, through a 50% holding in Northpet Investments, owns a 1.25% net interest in the Guyane Maritime offshore exploration licence. Northern is in partnership with Shell (45%), Total (25%), Tullow Oil (TLW) (27.5%), and Wessex Exploration (WSX) (1.25% through the remaining 50% interest in Northpet Investments).

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Friday's oil and gas news: Max Petroleum restructures finances

Six oil and gas companies, including Max Petroleum and Victoria Oil and Gas, updated investors on Friday. Read on to see what they had to say.

Max Petroleum restructures finances

Max Petroleum (MXP) on Friday confirmed it was proceeding with the closure of its $90 million (

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Reliance Petroleum insider trading case gets murkier

According to Sebi, while the merger process between RPL with RIL was on, RIL was involved in short selling of RPL shares through its entities.

“RIL has been trying to settle the case through consent orders but its proposals have been rejected twice by the regulator, which felt the amount put up by the company was inadequate. In the first consent application, RIL offered to pay a penalty of Rs 3 crore while on the second occasion it offered to pay less than Rs 10 crore as penalty, which was unacceptable to the regulator,” the ET report said.

Consent order is an out-of-court settlement wherein  parties agree to a sum of amount as fine by the aggregator, while the regulator drops all charges of wrongdoing.

Reliance Industries, meanwhile, has sought time until January 14 to file a reply in the dispute between market regulator Sebi and the Central Information Commission (CIC) at the Bombay High Court. The case will now be heard on January 23.

In November, the CIC had ordered Sebi to reveal the identities of the the entities that were involved in short selling of Reliance Petroleum shares to a Bangalore-based lawyer who had sought these details under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, along with details of the investigation report and consent order proceedings in this matter. But on 21 November, Sebi  moved Bombay High Court against the CIC order saying CIC can’t force the regulator to disclose details of investigations before the final order has been issued.

The High Court on 4 December decided to make RIL a party to the case as it was involved in the settlement process.

While the battle continues, one wonders why Sebi took five years to investigate an insider trading case.

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Crescent Petroleum Gears Up for Expansion in Iraq

By John Lee.

Majid Jafar (pictured), the chief executive of UAE-based Crescent Petroleum, has said the company is gearing up for expansion in the Iraqi oil and gas sector.

Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Dubai, he said:

“We are looking at entering Libya with the right opportunity. Other countries like Lebanon, despite plans being delayed, have been setting up regulations bodies in preparation. It’s an area of potential interest.“

Crescent Petroleum, which is based in Sharjah, plans to expand investment and production in Kurdistan and into other areas in Iraq given the country’s under-explored state.

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Job growth expected for petroleum engineers

by Stibbs & Co., P.C. on November 7, 2012

Houston oil and gas exploration firms are expected to offer more positions to petroleum engineers due to the expansion of the energy industry as a whole. Oil field services companies may need to hire more engineers to increase production from older wells and underground deposits. The Houston Chronicle reported that employment for petroleum engineers is expected to grow by at least 17 percent in the next eight years, based on the figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As some engineers are retiring or leaving their place of employment in order to start their own companies, there will be even more potential for younger generations of petroleum engineers to fill their role.

"The type of engineers has not changed," Rob Fulks, director of unconventional projects at Weatherford Engineering, told the news source. "The oil and gas industry still is in need of drilling, completion and production engineers. Graduates of petroleum engineering studies can choose an area in which to specialize. Shale oil and gas wells are completion intensive, with a majority of that budget now being spent on completion assemblies, hydraulic fracturing and other completion-related activities."

New discoveries in shale and the process of hydraulic fracturing have increased the demand for high skill oil field engineering services, according to the source. Since some shale wells have been around for as much as 15 years, it has become more imperative to develop new ways to increase production. This has companies looking toward petroleum engineers for potential solutions.

As more Houston-based exploration firms expand and hire more petroleum engineers, managers of these companies will need to work with Houston business attorneys who offer employer representation in case of any disputes. An energy law firm located in Spring, Texas is able to help with hiring and employment issues for any oil and gas exploration firm.

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Account Manager - Petroleum Information Services – EJL/WS/1006

Open To: EU Nationals or Holders of UK or Norwegian Work Permits

Package: Dependent on skills and experience, a Base Salary of £55K - £70K plus a commission giving a potential earning of £95K - £110K, plus Company Benefits. Role offers a great working dynamic environment.

Job Overview: Working for a global leading provider of information, technologies and solutions you will support sales activities of their Petroleum Information Services across their European Regions. Applicants are invited with some account experience, selling research, reports, news feed, market data, analytical tools, and/or intelligence to the oil and gas markets. The key to this role is a general interest in and affinity to selling information and the provision of business intelligence to your end client. Full training will be provided in the Company’s information solutions, workflows and practices….the Company is considered an authoritative source and market leader in the fields of market intelligence, data, market research and consulting services, covering a wide range of markets such as oil and gas, defense, chemicals, construction, power and utilities etc. They have 5000+ employees…currently operate the largest single source of market intelligence for the upstream oil and gas industry, covering marine operations, seismic, rigs, oil field development…Information services span, the latest supply of vessel chartering requirements, offshore rigs; seismic vessels; offshore wells; offshore field development activity; renewable energy, energy industry news and more. Information sources ranges from data, publications, online-subscriptions, powerful web-based analytical tools and related information consulting services. Requirements: some relevant experience selling information services to the oil and gas markets... You will be given a great deal of scope and autonomy to deliver successful results. Great career prospects working for a global conglomerate across multiple markets...

To review the full job spec and apply, go to the Web Site www.working-smart.co.uk. Select ‘Candidates’ ‘Review Jobs’ and apply online OR alternatively, you can forward your CV electronically to info@working-smart.co.uk, detailing the job title and reference number. We would also suggest that you forward a Cover Letter focused on your experience in line with the requirements specified.

Copyright © Working Smart 2012

WSL owns the copyright on all marketing materials written. If copyright is breached, WSL will take legal action.

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Consultant Petroleum Engineer

OPC requires 2 consultant Petroleum Engineers to form part of a full subsurface production team to be based in Southern Iraq on a 28/28 day rotation. The project will focus on operations and field development of the super giant Rumaila Field.

• Work with subsurface and operations teams to drive and optimize production
• Evaluate, develop and maintain up to date inventories of production enhancement opportunities in existing wells.
• Identify and justify value adding operations in existing wells, e.g. well interventions, work-overs.
• Build, maintain and use appropriate petroleum engineering tools, e.g. multiphase flow models.
• Work with subsurface and drilling teams to optimise completion design for new wells and work-overs.
• Responsible for supervising the management of production data, identifying, justifying and implementing improvements.
• Interface with operations personnel, to ensure subsurface requirements are delivered, e.g. during well operations.
• Collaborate with and provide expertise to colleagues and management, on acquisition and utilisation of petroleum engineering hardware and software and special projects.
• Take an active role in reservoir and management strategy development.

- Middle Eastern Experience is required
- 15+ years experience
- Contract position to be offered on a one year renewable basis
- High day rate + 40% uplift
- Accommodation provided (a newly built secure, gated facility with leisure facilities)
- Full Medical Insurance including Medevac

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