Updates
November 27, 2012: India will buy COP's assets in the Caspian.
Oil & Natural Gas Corp.'s plan to pay as much as $5 billion to ConocoPhillips for a stake in a Kazakhstan oil project could herald more such deals by Indian energy companies seeking to offset declining domestic production in the face of rising energy demand.
The purchase by ONGC Videsh Ltd., the state-owned company's overseas investment arm, will likely help India's largest explorer to arrest a steady decline of oil and gas production in recent years.
Original Post
The story:
ConocoPhillips is selling a minority interest in drilling sites off the coast of Kazakhstan for about $5 billion as it continues to downsize.
The Houston company has aggressively sold refineries, pipelines and other assets over the past few years to remake itself as an independent oil and gas producer. It has sold more than $20 billion in assets and investments since 2010.I could be wrong, but this seems to be shouting: we are going to focus on the continental US and Canada. COP operates in the Bakken through Burlington Resources.
By the way, whether the area under discussion is the very same area or not, it's probably close enough to remind readers that the MillionDollarWay posted a story about this area almost exactly one year ago: the Caspian Sea is turning out to be a bust. The link to the original story is still there, surprisingly.
Hello Bruce,
ReplyDeleteSorry I didn't know how to post this on FAQ but I was wondering if you could tell me the difference between "Development" "Wildcat" and "Extension" permits/wells?
Thanks for all the great work you do.
That's a very, very good question.
DeleteWildcat is probably the easiest to explain: there's much more to it, but two factors -- drilling in an area that has not yet been designated a field, and a "six-mile" rule. I could be way wrong on this, but it appears that even if a company drills inside a designated field, if there is no other activity within six miles, it is deemed a wildcat. I have seen some wells that are designated "wildcats" in the Bakken and they are literally sitting in a sweet spot, but because there is no other local activity, they are considered wildcats. For me, the designation of "wildcat" in the Bakken has lost a lot of its historical meaning.
"Development" and "extension" are a bit more difficult for me to understand. Perhaps just a continuum. Regardless, "development" wells are additional wells in the same section or, I suppose, adjacent sections, where there are already producing wells.
But it's a fine line. I will post this as a stand-alone and see if a roughneck has time to set me straight.
http://www.milliondollarwayblog.com/2012/11/definining-terms-wildcat-development.html
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