Scomi Group has increased its international presence with operations into Iran, Qatar, Turkmenistan and Angola taking its operations into 34 countries and 60 locations. The inroads into these four new countries are for its drilling fluids and drilling waste management businesses under Scomi’s subsidiary companies, which is in line with Scomi’s strategic international expansion plan.
It is also in line with an independent survey which indicated that for this year, drilling in the international market will expand by 5% with operators increasing their activities in terms of rigs, wells and footage by between 4% and 6% in most regions. Global expenditures on drilling and completing new wells are expected to increase by up to 15%.
In Iran, the oil and gas activity is mainly onshore with the National Iranian Oil Company, NIOC, being the major operator. The international oil majors are mainly involved in the offshore activity. Iran’s reserves are estimated at 125.8 billion barrels of oil and 26.3 trillion cubic metres of gas.
In Qatar, the activity remains primarily offshore with minimal activity onshore. While Qatar Petroleum Company , QPC , is the national oil company, many international operators have activities in this market working under production sharing agreements with QPC. Qatar’s reserves are estimated at 15.2 billion barrels of oil and 14.6 trillion cubic metres of gas.
In Angola, 90% of its export is derived from the export of crude oil with all its drilling activities concentrated offshore. Exploration activities by many international operators have resulted in major deepwater oil discoveries indicating large reserves in Angola’s deepwater blocks. Angola is the second largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimate 5.4 billion barrels of oil and 1.6 trillion cubic feet of gas.
The rich reserves of the above countries and the world demand fuelled by the increasing energy consumption, is a positive outlook for the industry. This demand has spurred greater activity in exploration and development of oil and gas fields.
