Total to start exploring in offshore Libya

Total is aiming to start offshore exploratory drilling in Libya May for gas, in a further sign the OPEC member's energy industry is returning to normal after the 2011 war.

Speaking at the Libya Oil & Gas Summit in Tripoli, Bernard Avignon, Managing Director of Total Exploration and Production in Libya, said the company was waiting for a drilling rig that was undergoing tests in Croatia. He added the cost of drilling the two exploration wells would be $130 million for this year.

Total, which operates in Libya through the Mabrouk joint venture with the state National Oil Corporation, currently produces 41,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil at its offshore al-Jurf field and 35,000 bpd at its onshore Mabrouk field. He said Total also wanted to do more seismic studies in the area around the Mabrouk oilfield.

Chevron hits Moroccan deep-water blocks

US supermajor Chevron has been awarded three new deep-water blocks off Morocco on 75% stakes. Moroccan hydrocarbon regulators ONHYM will retain a 25% stake in the block trio.

Chevron’s exploration president for Africa and Latin America Ali Moshiri said that the awards offered “promising geology in an emerging area”. The company’s vice chairman George Kirkland said entering Morocco was another step advancing Chevron’s frontier basin growth strategy.

The San Ramon, California-headquartered giant said that it would start with acquiring seismic data and conducting field studies on the deep-water trio, known as Cap Rhir Deep, Cap Cantin Deep and Cap Walidia Deep.

The blocks are located between 60 and 120 miles west and northwest of Agadir in the country's southwest. Totalling around 11,300 square miles in area, the blocks lie in average water depths ranging from between 330 feet and 14,700 feet.

ExxonMobil to explore offshore South Africa

ExxonMobil has announced that its affiliate, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production South Africa Limited, will soon begin exploration activities offshore South Africa.

The ExxonMobil affiliate signed an agreement with Impact Africa Limited (Impact), a subsidiary of Impact Oil & Gas Limited, to acquire a 75 percent participating interest in the Tugela South Exploration Right and will become operator. Under the agreement, the affiliate also has the right to acquire 75 percent participating interests in future exploration rights in three offshore areas covered by technical cooperation permits currently held by Impact. These exploration rights and the affiliate’s participating interest in them are subject to South African government approval.

The Tugela South Exploration Right covers approximately 2.8 million acres offshore Durban on the east coast of South Africa with water depths extending from the coastline to approximately 6,500 feet. The future exploration rights cover an additional 16 million acres offshore with water depths extending from the coastline to approximately 9,800 feet.

Separately, the ExxonMobil affiliate also has executed a technical cooperation permit with the South African government to study the hydrocarbon potential of the Deepwater Durban Basin covering approximately 12.4 million acres offshore Durban. A technical cooperation permit is an exclusive right to study an area for one year. The ExxonMobil affiliate can apply to the South African government for an exploration right if it chooses to explore this area further.

Akpabio Warns against Reintroducing Onshore/Offshore Laws

Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Godswill Akpabio, has warned that the plan to reintroduce the onshore and offshore oil laws in the country will break Nigeria, stating that the law is obnoxious, outdated and can cause hatred within the country.

Speaking on the issue, Akpabio said: “The planned re-introduction of the on and off shore laws is an evil wind that will not blow the country any good. The 19 Northern states are using the opportunity of the constitution review to champion the cause for the abrogation of the on and off shore oil laws that were abolished in Nigeria during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo. The Northern governors have gone to the extent of setting up a committee of state attorneys-general to come up with a bill that would be sent to National Assembly.”

According to him, “the planned re-introduction of the off and on shore laws will introduce a heightened vandalism of oil pipelines and militancy as well as hatred.  I don’t know why we should be contemplating the introduction of laws that will divide us as Nigerians.”

The governor said: “Nigeria is blessed with numerous natural resources”, citing the example of Australia that was dependent on mining, asking why states like Nasarawa State that is blessed with natural resources will not concentrate in the development of its natural resources.

Onshore-Offshore Dichotomy: FG Forecloses Review

The Federal Government has ruled out revisiting the issue of the onshore-offshore oil dichotomy. Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, stated the government’s position on the issue, which has already pitted the North against the South, at a valedictory session in honour of Justice Francis Fedode Tabai at the Supreme Court, Abuja.

He warned politicians and legal practitioners to avoid overheating the polity through the current debate on the need or otherwise to review the onshore-offshore oil dichotomy, which partly forms the basis for the allocation of derivation proceeds from the Federation Account.

His warning came against the backdrop of the clamour for a review of the onshore-offshore oil dichotomy by Northern governors who hold the view that the formula has reduced the distributable funds from the Federation Account to all tiers of government. However, their counterparts from the South-south and people of the oil-producing littoral states have rejected their position and even demanded that the derivation formula be raised from the current 13 per cent to 50 per cent.  Adoke said the debate, which is being elevated to an urgent national matter, with all the potential to generate acrimonious wrangling within the polity, and being made to look as if it was new, had been determined by the Supreme Court long time ago.