 Come see us at the AAPG's American Conference and Exhibition from May 19th-22nd!
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 Upcoming Events
- May 6th: Offshore Technology Conference - Houston, Texas, USA.
- May 9th: 9th Asia Gas Conference 2013 - Beijing, China.
- May 15th: 2nd Tight & Shale Gas Conference - Istanbul, Turkey.
- May 19th: AAPG American Conference & Exhibition - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
- May 22nd: 7th Deepwater China Convention - Shenzhen, China.
- May 28th: 1st Uganda Mining, Energy, & Oil & Gas Conference - Kampala, Uganda.
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Egyptian Proverbs
Egyptian Arabic is one of the most widely-understood dialects and is filled with colorful sayings and expressions. Below are a few of the more memorable and entertaining ones.
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"The ape is a gazelle in his mother's eye."
"A face only a mother could love."
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"The hand in water is unlike the hand in fire."
Easier said than done.
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"If you want to buy the camel, you have to buy the cat."
You can't pick and choose.
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(photo by "Crashsystems")
"The carpenter's door is out of joint."
Doctor, heal yourself.
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(photo by J.M. Garg)
"Birds fall according to their shapes."
Birds of a feather flock together.
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(photo by Luca Galuzzi - www.lucagaluzzi.it)
"This cub comes from that lion."
He's a chip off the old block.
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"I say 'bull,' he says 'Milk it.'"
Said of people who can't be reasoned with.
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"Repetition teaches the donkey."
Even the ignorant learn through hard work (often heard by beginning Arabic students).
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Greetings!
We're heading into the heart of convention season here at StratoChem Services. April saw us in Barcelona at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists' European Regional Conference and Exhibition, and in June we'll be at the European Association of Geologists and Engineers' 75th Conference and Exhibition in London.
But from May 19th-22nd, we'll be heading to Pittsburgh for another AAPG event, the American Conference and Exhibition. We'll be sharing booth #2041 with our partners at Sirius Exploration Geochemistry to showcase the ways our services, individual and shared, can aid in oil and gas exploration in the United States and around the world. If you're in Pittsburgh, we invite you to stop by and see us. Wherever you're working and whatever your upstream questions, we think we can help. Sincerely,
Your Friends at StratoChem Services
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StratoChem Exhibits at AAPG Barcelona
 Right to Left: New Markets Manager Adam Brauner and StratoChem associateJoe Pape.StratoChem Services exhibited at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists' European Regional Conference from April 8th-10th. Represented by Operations Manager Tarek El Azhary and New Markets Manager Adam Brauner, we took the opportunity to catch up with old friends, make new ones and, of course, tell the world about our geochemical solutions. In addition to exhibiting, our partner Joe Pape presented a paper co-authored with StratoChem General Manager Mohamed Said, Operations Manager Tarek El Azhary, and Modeling & Projects Manager Hossam Ali. Entitled "Deepwater Egypt, Cyprus, and Levant - Integrating Regional Seismic Data with Geochemical Data to Predict the Deeper Fluids Play," the paper showcases some of the data and interpretations from the Levantine Basin study we prepared with Spectrum ASA (for details on purchasing a complete copy of the study, contact StratoChem Business Development Manager David Mungo at < david.mungo@stratochemlabs.com>). To those who stopped by, it was great to see you. To those we missed, we hope to run into you at the American Conference and Exhibition this month in Pittsburgh!
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Dana Petroleum Appoints New Managing Director in Egypt
 April 24th, 2013
(Source: www.egyptoil-gas.com )
Aberdeen-based Dana Petroleum has appointed Paul Barnett as the new Managing Director of its Egypt business.
Paul took up his new position on 15 April. He has over 32 years of international exploration and production experience. Paul spent over 18 years with Shell in technical and managerial roles in Europe and the Middle East, and most recently held senior management roles for Hess Corporation in Libya and Russia.
Marcus Richards, Group Chief Executive said: "I'm delighted to welcome Paul to Dana at what is an exciting time for the Group. Paul's extensive experience leading operations in the Middle East will be a central part of driving our business in Egypt forward."
Paul Barnett, Dana's Egypt Managing Director said: "I'm very enthusiastic about my role with Dana, the company's growth plans are very exciting and I look forward to taking on a new challenge, together with the team in Egypt."
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Kazakhstan: KazMunaiGas Eyes $10 Billion Investment to Boost Reserves
 April 29th, 2013
(Source: www.energy-pedia.com)
State-run KazMunaiGas, Kazakhstan's second-largest oil producer, said it would invest 1.5 trillion tenge ($9.9 billion) in exploration in the next 10 years as it aims to nearly double its reserves of crude oil and gas condensate.
KazMunaiGas Chief Executive Officer Lyazzat Kiinov said on Monday the company's current reserves stood at over 800 million tonnes of liquid hydrocarbons. 'We want to nearly double (reserves) in 10 years to over 1.4 billion tonnes,' Kiinov told a news conference broadcast live. 'In general, we are thinking of investing 1.5 trillion tenge within 10 years, that is until 2022.'
Larger reserves would boost the market value of KazMunaiGas and increase its output, Kiinov said. The company has said it plans to raise annual oil output by 60 percent to 35.4 million tonnes by 2022. Kazakhstan, the second-largest post-Soviet oil producer after Russia and home to 3 percent of the world's recoverable oil reserves, plans to boost oil output to 82 million tonnes this year from 79.2 million tonnes in 2012.
KazMunaiGas controls London-listed KazMunaiGas Exploration Production (KMG EP), whose output and financial results are consolidated in the results of the parent company.
Kiinov did not say where the company would raise the funds to finance its exploration projects.
'At the end of last year, they (KazMunaiGas) ... had more than 1 trillion tenge on their accounts (including KMG EP), which means that in principle they have money,' Maxim Edelson, director covering natural resources of the EMEA region at Fitch Ratings, said. 'The markets are generally favorable at the moment, and we believe the company will continue borrowing ... or it will partially use the ... funds from KMG EP accounts,' he added.
KMG EP plans to boost oil production by 1.6 percent to 12.4 million tonnes in 2013 to end its two-year output decline caused mainly by a workers' strike at its wells in Mangistau. Kiinov said the Ozen oil deposit, one of Kazakhstan's oldest and a core asset of KMG EP, ramped up output earlier this month after years of steady decline.
KazMunaiGas owns more than 40 oil deposits in the Mangistau and Atyrau regions in western Kazakhstan. It takes part in multinational consortia developing the giant onshore Tengiz oil deposit and the large Karachaganak oil and gas condensate field. The offshore Kashagan field, the world's largest oil discovery in more than four decades, is expected to produce its first oil later this year. KazMunaiGas holds a 16.81 percent stake in this project.
Last week KazMunaiGas raised $3 billion via two Eurobond tranches, part of a borrowing program of up to $10.5 billion. Fitch rated the sale of bonds maturing in 2023 and 2043 at BBB, at the low end of investment grade. The bulk of the $3 billion will be used to refinance old debts and will be invested in Kashagan, Kiinov said.
Kazakhstan has a pre-emptive right to buy out an 8.4 percent stake in Kashagan owned by U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips, which is shedding overseas assets to focus on lower-cost domestic shale oil and gas. Asked if KazMunaiGas intended to buy the stake for itself, Kiinov said: 'We are happy with our 16.8 percent; it's alright. We are not striving to be the main player (in Kashagan).'
ConocoPhillips has said it intends to sell the stake to India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp for about $5 billion. China also has shown interest in buying the stake, Kazakh Oil & Gas Minister Sauat Mynbayev said last week. A deal could be struck in the first half of this year.
Stakes in Kashagan identical to KazMunaiGas's 16.81 percent are held by Italy's Eni, U.S. major ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and France's Total. Japan's Inpex owns 7.56 percent.
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Hess to Exit Algerian Permit  April 29th, 2013(Source: www.petroleumafrica.com)
Two firms are looking to sell off their interests in certain assets in Algeria but what is not clear is if this is a result of the attack and hostage situation at the In Amenas gas plant that took place earlier this year, or just a realignment of assets for the two companies.
USindependent Hess Corp. holds stakes in two blocks in Algeria; the Bir el Msana field and the Gassi El Agreb complex. The company plans on selling its stake in the Bir el Msana field to Spanish firm Cepsa. In a Reuters report a source was quoted as saying the sale was due to the acreage's poor return potential.
Hess will focus on its production at the Gassi El Agreb complex, where it has a 49% stake through a JV with Sonatrach. The fields produce around 35,000 to 40,000 bpd.
According to the report Hess could spend over $1 billion in the producing block but is looking to negotiate better terms. "It's not unreasonable to assume that (Hess) wants better terms," a source told Reuters.
There is also a rumor that BG is looking to sell off its stake in the Hassi Ba Hamou Permit (HBH), The company's license for the HBH expired last year and while BG attempted to get an extension for the license, negotiations have stalled.
"For the last 12-18 months there has been no one present on the ground," a BG spokesman was quoted as saying in the Reuters report. "We do have a permit and are in discussions with the Algerians."
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E&P Firms Prepare for Tunisian Spud
 April 26th, 2013
(Source: www.petroleumafrica.com)
Africa Hydrocarbons Inc. (AHI) is progressing towards the spudding of the BHN-1 well to test the Bouhjla North prospect in Tunisia. The company reported that the operator, DualEx Energy International, expects to see the CTF-6 drilling rig shortly from its current location. The rig, once released, will be moved and set up on the BHN-1 well site. The moving of the rig and set-up is anticipated to be completed around the middle of May, with drilling to start immediately thereafter. As previously announced DualEx applied for a one-year extension of the first exploration period of the permit, in February, due to the possibility that the BHN-1 well would not be completed by the original expiry date of April 29. The Hydrocarbon Committee, which issues the formal approvals for such matters, has not met since the application was submitted. The company is continuing its planned operations despite delays in the receiving a formal extension, which is expected to be granted shortly. The BHN-1 well will be drilled to a total depth of 2,500 meters and is planned to test a Cretaceous Abiod target, analogous to the Sidi el Kilani field 25 km east of the Bouhajla North prospect. The well is expected to take four to six weeks to reach total depth. "We are excited to know our contracted drill rig is close to being released and will be mobilized to our drill location in the coming weeks," states John Nelson, CEO of the AHI. "We are looking forward to getting this key well drilled and test the first potential high impact play on our acreage." |
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Global Reports on Namibia and Juan de Nova
 April 29th, 2013 (Source: www.petroleumafrica.com ) Global Petroleum reported on Namibia where it holds an 85% interest in PEL 29 covering Blocks 1910B and 2010A. The license, issued in December 2010, covers 11,730 sq km and is located in water depths ranging from 1,300 meters to 3,000 meters. Global fulfilled its work obligations regarding the license, which involved reinterpretation of 2,000 km of purchased seismic and commissioning of a high resolution 2D seismic acquisition program of some 2,000 km over the acreage. The new data confirmed the presence of two large structures and other potential leads.
The company's exploration manager, Chris Lewis, completed a review of all 2D data purchased or acquired by the company on the two blocks covered by the license and his findings confirmed that the structural prospects identified are both anticipated to contain a thick, Albian to Aptian age, carbonate reservoir within a fault controlled trap, sealed by overlying deep marine shales. Within, or close to the blocks there are oil slicks on the ocean surface, hydrocarbons recovered from seabed cores, evidence of hydrocarbons on 2D seismic, and oil and gas shows in a nearby well which all provide positive evidence for the generation and migration of hydrocarbons. Therefore there is every indication of a working petroleum system in this part of the Walvis Basin. Current internal estimates of mean prospective resources for each prospect are greater than one billion barrels of recoverable oil.
Landward of the structural prospects, sedimentary features are clearly visible on the seismic data showing the potential for the development of sandstone reservoirs within stratigraphic traps. There is a large late-Cretaceous delta evident from seismic, which will provide the source of significant volumes of sand, confirmed by the sandstones intersected in nearby wells and in the recent Tapir South well. The company said that several stratigraphic leads have been mapped, along two independent fairways, with the potential to contain significant resources.
Given the amount of equity the company has in the acreage Global's board decided to seek a partner for the next phases of exploration activity on its acreage, commencing with 3D seismic. Following the review full review of all 2D seismic information, a data room was established in London and prospective farm in partners are being invited to review the complete data sets. In addition the company's subsidiary, Jupiter Petroleum, saw the reprocessing of historic 2D data acquired by the operator, Wessex Exploration, completed on acreage in Juan de Nova est Permit. The permit is situated to the east of the small island of Juan de Nova in the Mozambique Channel, immediately to the west of Madagascar. The company reported that it has been in active dialogue with Wessex regarding the next stages of operations on the block. Phase I of the permit expires in December 2013. Global has indicated to Wessex that it wishes to progress a work program to maintain its 30% interest in the project. Jupiter holds a 30% interest in the Juan de Nova Est Permit, with Wessex as the operator holding the remaining 70%. |
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