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Oilfield Discovered Onshore UK near London’s Gatwick Airport

Several UK-focused oil and gas companies reported Friday that an oil discovery of perhaps up to 20 million barrels has been made near London’s Gatwick Airport in southern England. The discovery – made by the Horse Hill-1 well located on the northern side of the Weald Basin near Gatwick Airport – was of an oil accumulation in the conventional Upper Jurassic Portland Sandstone at a top reservoir depth of 1,791 feet. Solo Oil, one of a number of companies involved in the Horse Hill consortium, said that a preliminary most likely estimate of 3.1 million barrels of gross in place hydrocarbon volume has been calculated within the upper Portland, with a further gross un-risked in place prospective hydrocarbon volume of 16.8 million barrels of oil in a separate lower sand in the Portland interval located in an untested fault block to the south. The well is being deepened to […]

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British frack plans delayed by county council

British shale pioneer Cuadrilla Resources waiting for decision from country council in drilling proposals. UPI/Gary C. Caskey PRESTON, England, Oct. 24 (UPI) — Planners in the British county of Lancashire said they needed more time to consider drilling plans from shale pioneer Cuadrilla Resources. Cuadrilla in June deposited 21 chapters of environmental studies with the Lancashire County Council associated with plans for up to four shale gas exploration wells. The council said initially it would make a determination by early November, but said they now needed more time to make a decision . "The council has now written to Cuadrilla asking for further time to receive, organize, assess, and present all the relevant information for the application to be determined by the committee," it said in a Thursday statement. Cuadrilla said there may be as much as 200 trillion cubic feet of shale natural gas in the Bowland basin […]

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BP, GDF Suez make North Sea oil find

BP, GDF Suez declare significant oil find in British waters of the North Sea. (UPI/Shutterstock/James Jones Jr.) GDF Suez and British counterpart BP said Thursday they made a significant new oil discovery in the central waters of the North Sea. "As BP marks its 50th year in the North Sea and as the industry looks to maximize economic recovery from the basin, increasing exploration activity and finding new ways to collaborate will be critical to realizing remaining potential," Trevor Garlick, BP’s regional president, said in a statement. "This discovery is a great example of both." The discovery, which straddles two license areas operated separately by the companies, tested at an initial flow rate of 5,350 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Garlick said the discovery shows how more oil can come from North Sea basins if regional players join forces to capitalize on what he said was a considerable […]

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BP To Restart North Sea Gas Field Half-Owned By Iran

BP will restart the Rhum gas field in the UK North Sea, half-owned by Iran’s National Oil Company, four years after the field was shut down due to Western sanctions, a BP spokesman said on Friday. Production from the field, which supplied 4 percent to 5 percent of Britain’s demand before its shutdown, is expected to begin this weekend. BP received approval from the British government to resume production after the government put the field under a temporary management scheme whereby all revenue due to Tehran will be held until sanctions are lifted, the spokesman said. The field started pumping gas in December 2005 and cost 350 million pounds ($565.6 million) to build. The British government gave the green light for the resumption late last year in order to avoid damage to the high pressure, high temperature gas field.

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London allays land value concerns with fracking

British farmers want protection against land value damage from fracking. (UPI Photo/Brian Kersey) LONDON, Oct. 6 (UPI) — There are few reasons to think advancing the shale natural gas agenda in the United Kingdom will hurt land values, a government spokesman said Monday. The British shale natural gas campaign is in its infancy, though the government said imports could be reduced dramatically if the fledgling sector succeeds . The British National Farmers Union, which represents the business interests of nearly 50,000 groups across the agricultural sector, says land values could be reduced simply because of the negative attitudes toward hydraulic fracturing. A spokesman for the British Department of Energy and Climate Change said other sectors of the economy are seeing few adverse impacts from underground cables or other infrastructure associated with conventional energy. "Of over half a century of oil and gas production in the United Kingdom, there has […]

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Huge investments needed offshore Britain

Major investments needed to keep British offshore sector alive, industry group says UPI/A.J. Sisco.. LONDON, Sept. 30 (UPI) — British offshore oil and natural gas reserves will stop providing a return on investments if costs continue to rise, an industry report said Tuesday. Oil and Gas U.K., the British industry body, published its annual report Tuesday showing there may be as much as 24 billion barrels of oil equivalent left offshore, but it may require more than $1.6 trillion in investments to exploit. It warned that operating costs on the British continental shelf were 60 percent higher than they were in 2011. "If the current trend of rising cost continues, the British continental shelf will cease to provide a healthy return on investment and we’ll feel the brunt through falling levels of activity" Oil and Gas U.K. Chief Executive Officer Malcomb Webb said in a statement. The British economy […]

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U.K. Seeks to Criminalize Manipulation of 7 Benchmarks

The U.K. government plans to criminalize the manipulation of seven more benchmarks in markets from foreign exchange to gold and oil as it tries to revive confidence in the integrity of London as a financial center. The Treasury today started a review into whether it should extend legislation regulating the London Interbank Offered Rate to cover other key rates including the WM/Reuters 4 p.m. London currency fix, the Sterling Overnight Index Average, the London gold fixing and the ISDAFix, according to a statement . The government aims to have the rules in place by the year-end — five months before the next general election. The U.K. is stiffening the penalties for manipulation after benchmarks set in London were tainted by scandal. At least 10 firms have been fined almost $6.5 billion for rigging Libor and related gauges, and regulators are probing whether traders rigged key foreign-exchange rates used by […]

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UK weather: Britain must be prepared for ‘worst droughts in modern times’

The UK must prepare for “the worst droughts in modern times” experts will warn this week at a major international conference to discuss the growing global water crisis. As the population continues to grow and water is increasingly scarce, suppliers across Britain simply “cannot afford to fail”, according to Trevor Bishop, the Environment Agency’s deputy director. “We need to have more resilience, we need to be able to deal with tougher situations, and we cannot afford to fail. The consequences of failure would be very substantial,” he said. “In the past we have planned for our water resources to cope with the worst situation on record but records are only 100 years long,” he explained. “We may get a situation that is worse than that – with climate change that is perfectly possible.” He is expected to outline five key solutions the UK needs to embrace to avoid critical […]

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BP Seeks Access to $750 Million Transocean Insurance

BP Plc (BP/) , which has paid more than $28 billion for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, asked a Texas court to let it tap into $750 million in Transocean Ltd. (RIG) ’s insurance policies on the doomed Deepwater Horizon rig. BP filed claims with Transocean’s carriers in 2010, seeking to tap a $50 million primary policy issued by Ranger Insurance and $700 million in excess coverage from Lloyd’s of London and other underwriters. The carriers asked the court overseeing the spill litigation to rule that BP wasn’t entitled to unlimited access to Transocean’s insurance. BP lost its battle for coverage at a lower court, won reversal on appeal, then saw that victory erased last year as the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans withdrew its original opinion. The panel sent the case to the Texas Supreme Court , which held oral arguments today in Austin, […]

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Shell notes strong ties to Russian energy

MOSCOW, Sept. 15 (UPI) — A spokesman for Royal Dutch Shell said Monday the company was reviewing what impact, if any, sanctions would have on its ties to the Russian energy sector. "We are proud of our strong partnership with Russian companies," the spokesperson said. "We will explore the latest sanctions and their possible impact on our business." The European Union last week enacted tighter sanctions on Russia’s energy sector in response to ongoing crises in Ukraine. The measure was enforced in coordination with Washington. Russia’s government relies heavily on oil revenue. A spokesman for Shell told state news agency RIA Novosti the sanctions were under review. The Russian currency was trading at a record low against the U.S. dollar as sanctions started to take their toll on the Russian economy. Shell is working alongside Russian energy company Gazprom on the Sakhalin liquefied natural gas project in the Far […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple