Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) and Iran International Engineering Company (IRITEC) signed on 10th September 2006 a contract worth €1.2 million to implement Kharg NGL Project.

The Kharg project will gather 700 million cu. ft. of gases produced from the oilfields in Kharg and Bahregan regions. The oilfields include Sorush Noruz Bahregansar Hendijan Abuzar Foruzan and Dorud.

These will produce methane (403 million cu.f.per day) ethane (62 million cu.f.per day) propane (2196 tons a day) butane (1252 tons per day) pentane (2547 barrels per day) and condensates (4998 barrels per day). These will be piped into olefin methanol and petrochemical units at Kharg. Sour gases injection will be implemented for the first time ever in Iran and is aimed at environmental protection.

Additionally for the first time in Iran this contract possesses the advantages of Clean Air. In this regard the National Iranian Oil Company signed a memorandum of understanding (Mou) worth over $300 million with Norwegian Statoil Company.

Shell in Syria Signs for Two 20-Year Oil and Gas projects

May 2006 saw Syria s Oil Ministry sign two 20-year contracts worth $42 million with Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) for the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in the northeast.

Shell contract to conduct exploration and exploitation work in an area extending from southwest of Deir El-Zour 450 kilometers northeast of Damascus to the Iraqi border in one project worth $20 million.

The second contract is valued at $22 million and focuses on exploration in an area just south of Palmyra 256 kilometers north of Damascus.

Syria is the only significant producer of oil in the eastern Mediterranean but its production has declined over the past decade. In 1996 it peaked at 590 000 barrels a day dropping to some 365 000 b/d of crude in 2005. Syria will receive 12.5% of oil produced and Shell offers to train employees of the state-owned Syrian Oil Company Al-Furat Petroleum Co. which is currently joint owned by Syria s Oil Ministry Shell an Indian company and a Chinese firm.

Subsea 7 gains project in Angola

Subsea 7 has been awarded an Engineering Procurement Installation and Commissioning

contract off Angola by Cabinda Gulf Oil Company Limited a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron Corporation. The contract thought to be US$ 290 million is for developments in the Tombua and Landana fields in Block 14 offshore the Province of Cabinda in Angola.

The new Tombua Landana tower is in water depths of between 270 and 370 meters and involves tie-backs to a subsea well approximately 9 km from the Production Tower.

Subsea 7 will install steel pipelines flowline jumpers connectors and umbilicals and third party manifolds and distribution units. The fabrication of the pipelines will be at the existing spoolbase of Subsea7 s affiliate company Sevenseas Angola. Offshore Subsea 7 will use either the Skandi Navica or its new pipelay vessel Seven Oceans and will take part in two phases with final completion in the first quarter of 2009.

Transglobe with First Oil At Yemen Osaylan Block S-1

TransGlobe Energy have a new oil discovery at Osaylan #2 Block S-1 Yemen. This is located at 1.2 kilometers to the WNW of Osaylan #1 and 18 kilometers from the An Nagyah central production facility.

Drilling was started on October 15 and indicated a flowing rate of 1 307 barrels per day of 42.1 API oil with 629 thousand cubic feet of natural gas on a 32/64 inch choke at a flowing pressure of 425 psi.

Following Osaylan #2 the rig is scheduled to drill Al Qurain #1 an Alif/Lam exploration prospect located 5 kilometers west of the An Nagyah field.

Massive Saudi Manifa contract started

Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd. of Reading U.K. along with its Saudi Arabian partner SOFCON will provide in-Kingdom support such as front-end engineering and design and project-management services for the preliminary engineering and design work on Manifa - the second largest of Saudi Aramco s mega-projects in terms of production.

The contract is concerned with the central processing facilities and gas-producing facilities which will add 900 000 barrels per day of crude oil to Saudi Aramco s production. Work on the offshore engineering procurement and construction packages has already started

The Manifa field being mostly shallow water will use a causeway 21 km long with offshoots adding a further 20 km and leading to 27 drilling islands. Also 11 offshore wells will be drilled in the traditional way using platforms and jackets.

The Manifa central processing facility will be constructed on a site where there is nothing now but desert beach and one small communications building. Crude oil will be separated there from associated gasses water and other liquids and will be shipped by pipeline to Ju aymah.

The associated natural gas liquids (NGL) will be piped to the Khursaniyah Gas Plant which is still under construction. The Manifa gasses will be mixed with gas from the Khursaniyah field and all of it sent to Ju aymah Gas Plant. There it will become part of the sales gas for the Kingdom.

Lundin Petroleum with First Oil at Oudna Offshore Tunisia

Production is from a single production well commenced on 11th Nov to the IKDAM Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel from the Oudna field offshore Tunisia.

Lundin Petroleum AB and Sinochem Corporation announced that oil production is over 8 000 bopd gross and is forecast to shortly increase to 20 000 bopd gross from proven and probable reserves of 11.5 million barrels of oil.