Claiming it holds preferential rights to Starbroek partner Hess’ Guyanese assets, ExxonMobil says it is willing to negotiate regarding Chevron’s proposed acquisition of Hess
Chevron made a deal to buy Hess for US$53Bn in October 2023, citing Hess’ ’extraordinary’ Guyana asset – which accounts for more than 11Bn recoverable barrels of oil – that is operated and 45% owned by ExxonMobil and where Hess holds a 30% interest.
In the wake of Chevron’s Hess acquisition, ExxonMobil has filed for arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris over differences around the interpretation of the joint operating agreement that governs the consortium responsible for all of Guyana’s oil production. ExxonMobil claims the agreement includes a right of first refusal that would allow it to take Hess’ stake.
Speaking at an industry event, ExxonMobil chief executive Darren Woods said the firm wants to establish that it holds preferential rights over Hess’ Guyana’s assets, but Mr Woods also said the company is willing to engage in discussions with Chevron over the issue.
“The channels for dialogue remain open,” he said. “We’re not trying to stop the Chevron-Hess transaction. We’re trying to preserve the rights we have for the Guyana asset that we’ve developed.”
Chevron has said it will cancel the Hess deal if the company’s Guyana stake was not included in the transaction.
Guyana’s Stabroek block continues to yield bounties. Last week ExxonMobil, Hess, and CNOOC announced another discovery named ‘Bluefin’. The Stena Drillmax drillship drilled in 1,294 m of water and is the latest of 30 oil discoveries in the Stabroek block since 2015.
Elsewhere offshore Africa, in Namibia’s waters, Galp Energia has made another hydrocarbon discovery in the Mopane-2X well in petroleum exploration licence (PEL) 83 in Namibia’s Orange basin. The news was confirmed by partner Sintana Energy last week.
Portugese firm Galp serves as operator of PEL 83 with an 80% stake. Partners National Petroleum Corp of Namibia and Custos Energy hold 10% each. Sintana has a 49% carried interest through its indirect investment in Custos Energy.
Galp drilled Mopane-2X to its designated depth and encountered a column of light oil in reservoirs of high quality. The exploration campaign on blocks 2813A and 2814B is located in the heart of the Orange Basin and was drilled with Odfjell’s Hercules semi-submersible rig.
PEL 83 is located north of PEL 39 where Shell made recent discoveries at at Graff-1, La Rona-1, and Jonker-1 and is contiguous to Block 2913B where TotalEnergies made its Venus-1 discovery.
Readers will recall that TotalEnergies and QatarEnergy are looking to boost their interests in the Orange Basin in Block 3B/4B. Another block partner, Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas, expects to begin exploration drilling of two wells on the block in the next 18 months.
Contracts
Southeast Asia is in focus this week. Drilling contractor Noble Corp clinched a new multi-well deal worth almost US$70M for its drillship Noble Viking to drill three wells (with an additional one-well option) for Prime Energy Resources Development at the Malampaya-Camago field off the coast of the Philippines once it concludes its work scope with Shell’s Malay subsidiaries, Sarawak Shell Berhad and Sabah Shell Petroleum Co.
Prime Energy owns a 45% operating interest in the Malampaya deepwater gas-to-power project which helps meet the electricity needs of Luzon, the Philippines’ largest and most populous island.
Oil India Ltd awarded Dolphin Drilling a contract for its 1974-built semi-submersible Blackford Dolphin to support the company’s exploration work which begins in the second half of 2024.
The contract duration spans a drilling campaign for three wells over 14 months representing a firm value of US$154M for the rig and associated services, plus an optional extension period of seven months. Dolphin Drilling received a letter of award after emerging as the lowest bidder in Oil India’s rig tender in September 2023.
Seadrill’s 3,048-m drillship West Polaris arrived in Singapore to dock in Seatrium shipyard ahead of a lengthy contract for Petrobras offshore Brazil that begins in November. Seadrill acquired the rig from Vantage Drilling when it acquired Aquadrill in April 2023.
The drillship most recently completed drilling work for India’s state run Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd (ONGC) in January and left India in February. ONGC has opened commercial bids for its four jack-up tender, which is estimated to start in Q4 2024. Bidders include Shelf Drilling, Dynamic Drilling and Greatship. All four rigs are currently working for ONGC.
Finally, Equinor has exercised options to extend drilling contracts with three suppliers – Archer, KCA Deutag Drilling Norway and Odfjell Operations – for four more years. The three firms provide drilling, completion, intervention services, plugging, maintenance and modifications on 19 of Equinor’s fixed installations. The contracts were initially signed in 2018 with three option periods of two years. The first two-year option was exercised in 2022. The new contract period runs for four years beginning on 1 October 2024. The extensions have a cumulative value of about Nkr18.4Bn (US$1.7Bn).
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