Friday, September 25, 2015

Velociraptor Rigs; Schlumberger Drops Out Of Joint Venture With Russia's Largest Driller -- September 25, 2015

Velociraptor Rigs over at Rigzone:
The current downturn in the global oil and gas industry may not seem like an opportune time to introduce a new drilling rig. However, the founders of Raptor Rig see opportunities on the horizon for their drilling rig technology. 
Named for the fast-moving dinosaur, the Velociraptor Rig has been designed to eliminate the inefficiencies of the 100-year old drilling platform and include automation that industry is having trouble installing on the traditional platform, Brett Chell, an energy tech entrepreneur involved with the company and managing director of Axial Energy Technologies, told Rigzone in an interview. 
The rig is a conventional style jointed pipe rig that does simultaneous connections, something that Chell says has not been done before. The Velociraptor rig combines the best attributes and speed of a coil rig with the extreme capability and time-tested viability of jointed pipe. 
The rig has been created by oil and gas drilling company veterans, Reg Layden and Richard Havinga, who have designed some of the world’s fastest and most efficient rigs, said Chell. Layden is the ex-general manager of Xtreme Coil Drilling and Technicol, and Havinga is the former president of Xtreme Coil Drilling and Foremost Industries.
Much, much more at the link. Will be archived at the source.

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Schlumberger To Drop Out Of Joint Venture With Russia's Largest Driller

Rigzone is reporting:
Schlumberger Ltd. will not pursue a $1.7 billion agreement to buy a minority stake in Russia’s largest driller Eurasia Drilling Co. beyond Sept. 30 after a lack of regulatory approvals stalled the deal.
The world’s largest oilfield services provider will instead focus on other merger and acquisition opportunities.
Relations between Russia and the U.S. are the worst since the Cold War over the Kremlin’s support for separatists in Ukraine. Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB, was holding up the deal on concerns that Schlumberger, based in Houston and Paris, would have too much influence in Russia’s oil-services market.
“Schlumberger was ready to drop a $2 billion anchor in the country, now who knows if they won’t find better opportunities elsewhere,” Artem Konchin, an oil analyst at Otkritie Capital, said by telephone Thursday. “Schlumberger could have played a role in lobbying Russia’s economic interests amid sanctions” on the export of some drilling technology and equipment to the country, he said.
The approvals required for the deal were legal, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Friday. “There’s a certain framework to approve foreign investments in line with the law. Those are not voluntary requests.”
Schlumberger’s decision to pull out was a commercial decision, Peskov said.

Week 38: September 20, 2015 -- September 26, 2015

Top story of the week: $4 billion petrochemical plant to be built in North Dakota; ethane to be supplied by CLR

Bakken operations
RBN Energy has update on the Bakken 
Zeits on Oasis over at Seeking Alpha
Where we stand on permits for oil and gas wells in North Dakota
Update on EOG 

CBR
West Coast to get Bakken crude oil via rail indefinitely
New CBR loading facility, Palermo, North Dakota, about ready to begin operations

Fracking
Fracking firms that drove the oil boom now struggle to survive
Update of an MRO well re-entered / fracked

Flaring
North Dakota delays plan to limit natural gas flaring; also here

Bakken economy
Williston gets $27 million federal grant for airport relocation, expansion
Walmart says recent job fair in Williston one of the best in the country
Bakken man camps dwindling to ghost camps
General tax revenues projection down 4%
Halliburton layoffs in Williston confirmed 
 
For the archives
Preview of the Bakken and horizontal drilling, 1993

Miscellaneous
Weekly gasoline demand, natural gas, crude oil data points 
Greater sage grouse not placed on endangered list
Wells added to list of monster wells
Oasis fined for not paying royalties
Where's Waldo?

Five (5) New Permits -- September 25, 2015

Active rigs:


9/25/201509/25/201409/25/201309/25/201209/25/2011
Active Rigs71192186187195


Five (5) new permits:
Renewing permits:
  • Hess, two Beauty Valley permits; Williams County
  • American Eagle, both in Divide County; a Blanca State permit and an Ekness permit
  • Whtiing: a Demores Federal permit in Billings County