Tethys awarded 15-year extension to Kazakhstan gas contract

Tethys Petroleum, following the recently reported Kazakh State Reserves Committee (GKZ) approval, confirmed that it has received approval from the Ministry of Oil & Gas of the Republic of Kazakhstan (MOG) for the extension its Kyzyloi Production Contract for a further 15 years, to June 2029.

The contract area currently covers some 287 sq km, and the company is currently producing gas from the shallow Kyzyloi sandstone in this area. This contract extension will give Tethys significantly more time to produce natural gas from the area.

The reserves attributed to the Kyzyloi contract area, determined in accordance with National Instrument 51-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators, are included in the company' s reserves evaluation for its oil and gas interests in Kazakhstan.

Tethys is focused on oil and gas exploration and production activities in Central Asia and the Caspian region, with activities currently in the Republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Georgia.

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Scotland may hold billions of barrels of shale oil, report says

Scotland may have billions of barrels of shale oil buried under the country’s most densely populated areas, geologists said June 30.

Scotland’s central belt, running between Glasgow and Edinburgh, may have 6 billion barrels of oil in place, according to a report by the British Geological Survey. While only a fraction of the resource will end up being viable, the deposits could supplement the UK’s 3 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, held mostly in North Sea fields off Scotland’s coast.

The oil and gas industry is central to the debate on Scotland’s independence before a referendum in September. The Scottish government says existing fields in the North Sea will underpin the economy of an independent nation, while opponents say declining production from offshore reserves leaves the country vulnerable.

“This report will give reassurance to investors who wish to explore for oil and gas onshore in Scotland,” said Ken Cronin, CEO of the UK Onshore Operators Group, an industry lobby. The resources “can help replace the UK’s growing dependency on imports and balance the decline of the North Sea.”

Bowland shale

Scotland’s shale gas potential is a fraction of northwest England, the report showed. Scotland’s central belt has shale gas in place of 80.3 Tcf, according to the middle estimate in the report. That compares with 1,300 Tcf in the Bowland shale in northwest England, according to research published by the British Geological Survey last year.

Exploiting the UK’s shale resources has been opposed by environmental campaigners and property owners concerned drilling techniques, including hydraulic fracturing, risk polluting water supplies. Britain’s greater population density will likely make production more difficult than in the U.S, where a shale boom has reversed declining oil and gas output.

The UK government is offering tax breaks to shale drillers to spur development of the resource as North Sea reserves dwindle. The Bowland basin in northern England may supply local natural gas demand for half a century at extraction rates of 10% similar to U.S. fields, according to a report last year.

“Only the broad shoulders of the UK can attract investment in new energy sources and maintain the UK’s position as one of the world’s great energy hubs,” said UK Energy Minister Michael Fallon.

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INPEX unloads first modules for Ichthys LNG Project processing facilities

The INPEX-operated Ichthys LNG Project is preparing for the next phase of its onshore construction effort, following the unloading of its first large pre-fabricated modules on June 29. The modules will be used to construct the Project’s LNG processing facilities at Bladin Point near Darwin, Australia.

Ichthys LNG Project Managing Director Louis Bon said the safe arrival of the first of more than 200 modules was an important milestone for the Project and marked the next phase for its onshore construction effort.

“Much of the work we have been doing to transform Bladin Point has been leading up to this event -- we have been setting the foundations to prepare for their arrival and installation at site,” he said

A modularized approach to construction is now common in Australia. For the Ichthys LNG Project, this approach involved having components of its onshore facilities assembled in modules at fabrication yards and tested before transporting them to site.

Designing and constructing modules in this way was a key part of delivering the global project on schedule and on budget, Bon said.

“The Ichthys LNG Project’s onshore facilities were designed so that some elements would be modularized while others could be stick-built on site in Darwin,” Bon added.

The Ichthys LNG Project’s pre-fabricated modules are being built at four yards in China, the Philippines and Thailand. Over the next 18 months, about 60 module shipments are scheduled to arrive in Darwin. The largest modules can weigh more than 6,000 tonnes.

Transported on large, custom-made marine vessels, module shipments will travel past Darwin on the way to the Project’s module offloading facility (MOF) at Bladin Point. The MOF supports the offloading of the large modules and oversized equipment that is too large to be transported to site by road.

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