Friday, 07 October 2011 03:49

Written by WebMaster

World O&G landscape sees seismic shifts

ConocoPhillips to split into two and spin off refining arm in uncharacteristic move

SINGAPORE (19 July 2011) – Hot on the heels of Marathon Petroleum Corp’s spin off from Marathon Oil Co, ConocoPhillips announced its own split to better realise value of its exploration and production business. This is an about turn of industry strategy which saw a string of mergers and acquisitions in the vein of consolidation. Jim Mulva, chief executive of ConocoPhillips mentioned that, “We believe more value is created in the formation of two very clear stand-alone companies”.

A few weeks before, the International Energy Agency (IEA) shocked traders by releasing 60 million barrels of emergency stocks supposedly to tide markets and offset loss supplies from Libya for the third time in history. This followed from Opec’s unsuccessful round of talks to increase output. Member countries, heavily dependent on oil revenues had vehemently opposed the raise in production in the hope of maintaining oil prices above $100 a barrel. Abdullah El-Badri, Opec secretary general said that, “Unfortunately we are unable to reach a consensus to reduce or raise production”. Speculations are rife that IEA’s move was politically motivated and had less to do with addressing oil scarcities.

More than ever before, the global O&G market is demand-driven as emerging economies race to raise cities and beef up infrastructure. This steep rise in demand which will not plateau any time soon sees countries like Indonesia provision for additional gas supply from Australia and Papua New Guinea. Its state electricity monopoly PT PLN is even considering importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Iran and Kuwait. These measures are being pursued as companies like Chevron, CNOOC, Pertamina and Total fail to meet targets resulting in the government’s revision of production targets from 970,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 945,000 bpd.

In this seller’s market, Indonesia’s oil and gas regulator BPMigas is said to “strongly encourage” implementation of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technologies by production-sharing contract (PSC) holders in a bid to ramp up production. EOR is said to significantly enhance recovery factor from 30 per cent to 60 per cent and even up to 85 per cent.

According to Elan Biantoro, BPMigas spokesperson, 12 companies namely Pertamina EP, Kondur Petroleum, Vico, CNOOC, Pertamina Hulu Energi West Madura Offshore, Petrochina, Premier Oil, Petro Selat, Total EP Indonesie, Medco EP, Joint Operation Body (JOB) Pertamina-Medco Tomori and JOB Talisman Jambi Merang have pledged to utilise EOR to better reach production targets and meet energy needs.

Fuelled by unprecedented demand, the oil and gas landscape is transforming rapidly with backtracks from consolidations and increased leveraging on proprietary technologies for enhanced oil recovery. Industry professionals, technical experts and strategists are converging at Production Optimisation Week Asia 2011 (25-29 July) to make sense of these sweeping, ongoing changes.

With the resurgence of Southeast Asia’s oil and gas industry, we need to ask:

• Are we intensely pursuing domestic production and exploration?
• How can we increase recovery and fulfill production targets?
• What types of EOR technologies can PSC holders avail to?
• What is our role in the global energy business?

Production Optimisation Week Asia Welcomes Dr. Ing. Evita Legowo, Director-General, Oil & Gas, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Indonesia and Mr. Aftab Ahmad Khan, Executive Director, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, India

With the recent affirmation of the Indonesian government on its aim to increase oil production to one (1) million bpd over the coming years by offering new exploration rights and encouraging enhanced production from existing wells with its fresh incentives to oil and gas investors and ONGC Rajahmundry Asset’s over-achievement of its onshore oil & gas production targets year after year since 2006, we would like to welcome Dr. Ing. Evita Legowo and Mr Aftab Khan to Production Optimisation Week Asia!

Dr. Ing. Evita Legowo leads Indonesia’s oil and gas industry to new heights with favourable tax treatment and improved production splits, as the country considers offering more incentives to foreign investors to encourage oil and gas projects.

As Executive Director – Asset Manager, Rajahmundry Asset of ONGC, Mr. Khan is responsible for steering the most valuable region of ONGC where onshore activities are spread over three districts in the State of Andhra Pradesh viz., East Godavari, West Godavari and Krishna. Also looks after the drilling operations of ONGC in offshore in the East Coast.

The Center for Energy Sustainability and Economics is convening Production Optimisation Week Asia (POWA) 2011 from 25^th to 29^th July 2011 at the Westin Kuala Lumpur, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to help oil and gas companies such as state-owned oil companies from as far as the Africa, South America and the Middle East generate alignment to boost recovery and revenue and come together for informed and integrated approaches to a diverse variety of conditions. The meeting will involve senior company executives as well as functional heads in charge of reservoir engineering, production engineering, drilling and completions engineering, particularly those involved with each company’s mature, marginal, deepwater and other technically and commercially challenging fields.

POWA 2011 is specifically designed based on the feedback of experts and specialists from major oil and gas operators concerning their current challenges and needs associated with maximising production and with world-leading optimisation strategies and solutions. With a well-rounded and solution-focused structure, POWA will successfully respond to the need for ground breaking solutions and technology as well as policy, strategy and cost-efficient advanced techniques to maximise and optimise production and increase recovery whilst improving safety and environmental standards.

Thus, for the very first time – combining the reservoir, production and completions engineering, POWA 2011 is put together to provide national oil companies, joint ventures and subsidiaries with a real comprehensive, multidisciplinary platform highlighting the breadth and depth of information needed to provide the best solutions and services to clients in the upstream oil and gas industry, as peers and industry benchmarks share their current challenges and needs. More details on the event website http://www.arcmediaglob al.com/powa

The Center for Energy Sustainability and Economics (Center for Energy) is an industry research centre (IRC) that works to bring top executives together in communities of learning and practice to act as a catalyst for generating high-value energy business insight and channel top expertise to where the world needs it most. Meetings by the Center for Energy are managed by Arc Media Global, the world’s first B2B/G2B integrated marketing specialist headquartered in Singapore.

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If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with the speakers at
POWA 2011, please call Eunice Wee at +65 6818 6344 or email Eunice at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it