Dow Jones: OPEC President Doesn't Rule Out $200/Bbl.
"Chakib Khelil was also quoted as saying ‘prices are high because of the U.S. recession and the economic crisis that has affected many countries, a situation that influences the dollar slide. Every time the dollar drops by 1%, the price of a barrel rises by $4....’"
Houston Chronicle: Pioneering vessel clears a Gulf hurdle.
"Brazil's Petrobras moved a step closer Tuesday to bringing the Gulf of Mexico its first-ever floating production and storage tanker.... Such vessels, known as FPSOs, are used for offshore production in areas where underwater pipelines don't exist. Petrobras has a fleet of FPSOs off Brazil, and the vessels are widely used off West Africa. Exxon Mobil Corp. uses the world's largest FPSO at one of its offshore Angola fields."
WSJ: Saudis Face Hurdle In New Oil Drilling.
"The Khurais project is at the heart of an all-out effort by Saudi Arabia to keep abreast of natural declines in older fields while trying to preserve its status as the oil world's lone safety valve. To do that, Aramco is scrambling to boost its overall production capacity, currently just over 11 million barrels a day, to 12.5 million." ...
"With output declining or flat in Mexico, Venezuela, the North Sea and Russia, all eyes are on the Saudis to fill much of the gap, even as oil demand soars within Saudi Arabia itself."
Penn Energy: Fusion, JOA form reservoir engineering venture.
"Formation of Fusion Reservoir Engineering Services Inc. was announced today at the AAPG Annual Convention by Fusion Geophysical LLC and JOA Oil & Gas B.V."
Press Release: Spectrum demerger signals seismic expansion.
"On 16 April 2008 the Board of Directors of Global Geo Services ASA resolved to spin off the majority of the group's seismic business to a newly established, wholly owned subsidiary, Spectrum ASA for MNOK 275."
Asia Business News: Wave secures additional seismic vessel capacity.
"Wavefield Inseis ASA announced today that it has signed an agreement with Shanghai Offshore Petroleum Geophysical Corporation for a one and a half year Bare-Boat Charter of the fully equipped 2D/source vessel Discoverer 2 with two single year extension options. The Discoverer 2 was built in 1993 and was converted into a seismic 2D/source vessel in 1996."
Press Release: New Seismic Ready For Barbados 1st Offshore Licensing Round.
"Wavefield Inseis has successfully acquired a 8,000 km long offset multi-client 2D seismic survey offshore Barbados...."
WSJ: Russian Oil Slump Stirs Supply Jitters.
"Russian output fell for the first time in a decade in the first three months of this year, according to the International Energy Agency, which represents industrialized oil-consuming countries. It said Russian production averaged about 10 million barrels a day, a 1% drop from the first-quarter of 2007."
Reuters: Brazil's oil snafu -- much ado about something big.
"Brazil's oil market regulator may have jumped the gun by providing a huge new oil reserve estimate with little data to back it up, but analysts have little doubt about the country's oil potential measured in billions of barrels. Just how many billion remains to be seen, and the discovery in the subsalt cluster at great depths represents major technological and cost challenges, they said." ...
"But in any case, a big new find under evaluation that follows last year's announcement of a giant subsalt field known as Tupi boosts Brazil's prospects as a major world oil province."
PR Newswire: ION Completes Acquisition of JavaSPAN.
"The program provides a new regional 2D seismic framework of the Eastern Java Sea and the Makassar Straits, two highly prospective areas offshore Indonesia and Malaysia."
Press Release: TGS Acquires Multi-Client Seismic And Aeromagnetic Programs in Somaliland.
Press Release: SCAN Geophysical -- Update On Delivery Of M/V SCAN Stigandi.
"The vessel M/V SCAN Stigandi has been converted to a 3D seismic acquisition vessel at the Irving Shipyard in Halifax in Canada."
Energy Current: Measures could bring end of seismic, fishing rows.
"Rows between seismic companies and fishermen on the Norwegian Continental Shelf could soon be a thing of the past. A working group of representatives from both industries have agreed to a string of proposals that should head off any conflict in the future."
Press Release: GGS-Spectrum expands seismic processing operations into China.
"Zhao employs a team of local geoscientists at the state-of-the-art offices in the Wangjing district of Beijing. She has over 20 years experience in seismic data processing and project management, of which 15 years were spent with geophysical service contractor BGP."
Washington Post: Energy's Hot in Brazil.
"The key player for investors is Brazil's national oil company, Petrobras, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PBR." ...
"‘Petrobras is just at the leading edge of a new production boom as it brings new deepwater projects on line gradually to 2012,’ [Elliott H. Gue, editor of the newsletter Energy Strategist] wrote, adding that the oil giant is ‘widely regarded as the best-run national oil company.’"
Reuters: PGS says Q1 fleet utilisation rose to 91 pct.
"Norwegian seismic survey group Petroleum Geo-Services said on Friday that its seismic 3D vessel fleet utilisation in the first quarter rose to 91 percent."
WSJ: Billionaire Cashes In On Offshore Oil Rush.
"As oil prices began their ascent in 2003, contractors were putting in big orders for mobile drilling platforms that operate in shallow waters. But Mr. Fredriksen says his contacts in Asian shipyards told him the majors weren't investing enough in deep-water rigs.... Messrs. Fredriksen and Troim started ordering semisubmersibles, or ‘semis’ -- one of the most advanced kind of floating rigs." ...
"Mr. Troim was recently in Houston meeting with potential customers: One person familiar with the talks said oil executives came away shaken by the sky-high rates Mr. Troim was demanding -- up to $600,000 a day."
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate: Norwegian Agency to Acquire Seismic Data.
"The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) will commence acquisition of 2D seismic data in Nordland VII outside of Lofoten and Vesteralen around May 15.... The NPD will also be acquiring 3D seismic data this summer."
Associated Press: Record Petroleum Lease Sale in Gulf.
"Energy companies placed a record $3.67 billion in winning bids for the right to drill on federal lease tracts off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. In the largest sale since 1983, when $3.49 billion in high bids were issued during another oil price boom, explorers snatched up 615 tracts in the central Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday."
Associated Press: Iraq's oil ministry invites companies to bid on seismic surveys for two key fields.
"Companies interested in providing 3D seismic surveys for the Kirkuk field in the north and Rumaila oil field in the south must meet the ministry's deadline of April 30, said the ministry's Oil Exploration Company in two tenders issued on the ministry Web Site."
Marketwire: Weston Geophysical Achieves a 25% Reduction in Debugging Time With the TotalView Debugger.
"TotalView Debugger is a comprehensive source code and optional memory debugging solution that dramatically enhances and simplifies the process of debugging parallel, data-intensive, multi-process, multi-threaded or network-distributed applications."
