KBR has been selected by Chevron USA, Inc. to execute the detailed design for the Chevron Big Foot Topsides project. The Big Foot field is located in the Walker Ridge 29 in approximately 5,200 feet of water.

 

Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P. announced that its subsidiary, Sabine Pass Liquefaction, LLC has entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Sumitomo Corporation, under which Sumitomo intends to contract up to approximately 1.5 million tons per annum of processing capacity at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal located in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.

Noble Drilling reported that for the fourth quarter of 2010, it had earnings of $99 million on revenues of $614 million. In the same period in 2009, the company earned $446 million on contract drilling revenues of $894 million. For the full year 2010, Noble had net income of $773 million on contract drilling revenues of $2.69 billion versus net income of $1.68 billion on contract drilling revenues of $3.51 billion in 2009.

 

Pride International has taken delivery of a third newbuild drillship, the Deepwater Mendocino, from Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea. The rig will depart the yard around mid-February and is expected to arrive in the US Gulf of Mexico in May. Pride has a five-year contract for the rig with Petrobras scheduled to begin in June, but given the ongoing dearth of well permit approvals, whether the rig will end up drilling in the Gulf remains to be seen. Pride’s recently delivered newbuild Deep Ocean Clarion, which has a five-year contract with BP, is rumored to be leaving the Gulf for Brazil, with departure possibly as soon as next month. Finally, reports indicate Pride is inching closer to finalizing an agreement to move newbuild Deep Ocean ...

Stone Energy Corporation announced its estimated year-end 2010 proved reserves were 474 BCFe, as compared with 411 Bcfe at year-end 2009, representing a 15% increase in its estimated proved reserves.

 

ConocoPhillips announced preliminary 2010 organic net proved reserve additions of 920 mmboe. The Exploration and Production segment’s organic reserve replacement ratio is expected to be 138 percent of 2010 production.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation reported a mechanical issue involving the production riser system at the Caesar/Tonga project in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. In the interest of safety and the environment, Anadarko and project co-owners Statoil Gulf of Mexico, LLC, Shell Offshore, Inc., and Chevron U.S.A., Inc will delay first production, which was initially expected in mid-2011. Although the production riser system underwent an extensive qualification program prior to installation, Anadarko’s recent hydro-testing of the riser provided results that preclude it from being put into service on this project.

Total mobile rig utilization in the Gulf of Mexico is unchanged this week. Current fleet utilization is 44% with 55 of 125 mobile rigs under contract or committed for work. Marketed utilization, which excludes cold stacked and other non-marketed rigs, now stands at 71.4%, with 55 of 77 rigs under contract.

 

Within the jackup fleet, total utilization remains at 34.1%, with 29 of 85 rigs under contract or committed for work. Marketed utilization rose as one previously marketed rig was cold stacked. As a result, marketed utilization is now 64.4%, with 29 of 45 units contracted.

 

Floating rig, utilization is unchanged from a week ago as well. Currently, 26 of 34 rigs are under contract for utilization of 76.5%. Marketed utilization is now 83.9% with 26 of 31 rigs under contract.

 

Total Platform rig fleet utilization is also unchanged from last week. Fleet utilization is now at 37.3% with 19 of 51 units under contract. Marketed utilization stays at 57.6% with 19 of 33 rigs contracted.

 

Inland barge utilization was also unchanged this week as one rig was released along with one idle rig receiving a contract. As a result, fleet utilization remains at 43.1% with ...

Expectations for $100+ oil helped push the number of traditional (>5,000 ft) oil rigs past 700 last week—a Biweekly Report first. Strong demand in emerging economies and diminishing excess productive capacity should underpin long-term support for domestic drilling for oil and liquids. That said, the yearend rally in the overall rig count fizzled quickly. Looking at 2010, the average change in rig count for sequential biweekly periods was 3% in Q1, 1.8% in Q2, and 0.8% in Q3.


Sequential declines didn’t crop up until Q3, and since early October, changes typically were much less than 1% and mainly small declines. But the surge past 1,700 in mid-December was the third biggest gain of the year at 4.7%. This was probably a last-gasp effort by operators dealing with budget spend-downs and uncertainty over taxes this year. Yet it was quickly followed by a drop of 3.7% December 31, leaving the Q4 average at 0.7%. This pattern probably will persist in 2011, as hikes in the oil rig count often offset declines in the gas rig count.