drekasvæði

January 4, 2017

China’s CNOOC now only player in Iceland oil

Ithaca Energy and minor partners Petoro and Kolvetni have handed back their oil and gas exploration permit for a sector of the Icelandic Jan Mayen area after seismic exploration yielded disappointing results. Another license holder, Faroe Petroleum, had already given up already in late ’14. That leaves only one active license, whose operator and majority owner is China’s state-owned CNOOC (中海油), in partnership with local company Eykon and Norway’s Petoro.

CNOOC have been exploring in the area. Their local partner Eykon have talked of plans to continue exploring and shown optimism about the results so far. Eykon have a record of optimism on the probability of finding oil off Iceland, and have at different times aired estimates in the high gazillions. Judging by the consistent lack of interest in Iceland from oil majors, even when oil prices were high, no one in the industry shares that optimism. Except CNOOC of course.

For an older but deeper look into CNOOC and Icelandic oil, there’s always what I wrote back when they bought the license.

October 6, 2015

China’s CNOOC starts exploring for Icelandic oil

Surface exploration began last month in the Dreki area off Iceland, in an area licensed to China’s state owned oil company CNOOC (中海油) together with two minority partners, Norway’s Petoro and local company Eykon Energy. Measurements were conducted on the Oceanic Challenger, that operated from Reyðarfjörður with a crew of 60, and a support vessel. (News I reported in June indicated the operation would be exempt from port fees.) This first stage of exploration was expected to last for around three weeks (at any rate the ship is already in Dunkirk).

Eykon chairman Heiðar Már Guðjónsson says the plan is to conduct exploration drilling in three phases, in 2020, 2022 and 2023. The area is quite expensive to explore, and estimates about possible hydrocarbon reserves tend to be rather speculative due to the presence of a thick layer of basaltic lava that makes ascertaining the presence of any oil at all rather tricky without boring actual holes through it. Heyðar Már and others from Eykon have attracted a lot of attention in the past with estimates in the high gazillions, but hardly anyone else is half that upbeat. No oil majors showed interest in Dreki licenses when they were for grabs, and the holders of one of the three awarded licenses, Faroe Petroleum, actually gave up on it last year. CNOOC, on the other hand, are enthusiastic enough to invest in exploration, while keeping remarkably quiet about it (no information on Icelandic oil has shown up on Chinese media).

June 9, 2015

port chosen for CNOOC Iceland oil exploration

Eykon Energy, CNOOC’s local partner for their oil and gas license off Iceland, are being offered access to the Mjóeyri harbour, with a fee exemption during the exploration stages of the project, says the mayor of Fjarðabyggð municipality (Vísir). The announcement came after negotiations between Eykon and the municipality, which haven’t yet resulted in a formal agreement.

Mjóeyri harbour (Mjóeyrarhöfn), on the island’s eastern shore, was built for the Alcoa aluminium plant in nearby Reyðarfjörður.

Here’s more on Iceland oil.

March 27, 2015

not just CNOOC to explore for oil off Iceland this year

Ithaca Energy, the operator for one of the two offshore oil and gas licenses in the Icelandic Jan Mayen area (Drekasvæðið), are planning to start 2D measurements this year, reports Vísir. Ithaca are thus joining China’s state-owned CNOOC (中海油), the operator of the other license and by far the biggest company with an interest in Icelandic oil, who have similar plans according to an announcement from last year.

CNOOC’s local partner, Eykon Energy, said in January that they’re optimistic about the project and undeterred by low oil prices. Faroe Petroleum, where Korea’s KNOC has a stake, don’t share such optimism and relinquished their own Jan Mayen license in December after preliminary studies yielded disappointing results.

The problem with any potential hydrocarbon reserves in the area is that they mostly lie under a thick layer of basaltic lava. Surface measurements like the ones planned for this year might not be enough to ascertain if there’s any oil worth extracting down there, making it hard to settle down the question without rather costly deepwater drilling. Those were precisely the reasons why the Faroe-led group gave up on the area, and Ithaca’s reported will to spend money on exploration counts as the first sign of optimism not coming from the CNOOC-Eykon partnership themselves (people with Eykon have a long record of enthusiasm about the area’s prospects).

More about Icelandic oil in my longish CNOOC backgrounder and here and there in shorter posts.