Showing posts with label Chevron. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chevron. Show all posts

07 March 2016

Chevron starts production at GORGON (Australia) #nlpoli

SAN RAMON, Calif.--(Chevron via BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar. 7, 2016-- Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) today announced it has started producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) and condensate at the Gorgon Project on Barrow Island off the northwest coast of Western Australia. The first LNG cargo is expected to be shipped next week.
This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here:http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160307006452/en/
Chevron has started producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the Gorgon Project off the northwest co ...
Chevron has started producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the Gorgon Project off the northwest coast of Western Australia. The company is poised to be one of the world's largest LNG suppliers by 2020. (Photo: Busines Wire)
"We expect legacy assets such as Gorgon will drive long-term growth and create shareholder value for decades to come," said Chairman and CEO John Watson. "The long-term fundamentals for LNG are attractive, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, and this is a significant milestone for all involved."
Chevron is positioned to become a major LNG supplier by 2020. In particular, Chevron's Australian projects are well located to meet growing demand for energy in the Asia-Pacific region and more than 80 percent of Chevron's Australian subsidiaries' equity LNG from the Gorgon and Wheatstone projects is covered by sales and purchase agreements and heads of agreements with customers in the region.
"We congratulate the Gorgon workforce on this achievement," Watson continued. "This is the result of the collaboration of hundreds of suppliers and contractors and many tens of thousands of people across the world during the project design and construction phases."
The Gorgon Project is supplied from the Gorgon and Jansz-Io gas fields, located within the Greater Gorgon area, between 80 miles (130 km) and 136 miles (220 km) off the northwest coast of Western Australia. It includes a 15.6 MTPA LNG plant on Barrow Island, a carbon dioxide injection project and a domestic gas plant with the capacity to supply 300 terajoules of gas per day to Western Australia.
The Chevron-operated Gorgon Project is a joint venture between the Australian subsidiaries of Chevron (47.3 percent), ExxonMobil (25 percent), Shell (25 percent), Osaka Gas (1.25 percent), Tokyo Gas (1 percent) and Chubu Electric Power (0.417 percent).
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25 January 2011

Chevron announces find offshore Africa

From Chevron’s news release:

“SAN RAMON, Calif., Jan 25, 2011 -- Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) today confirmed discoveries within the Moho-Bilondo license in the Republic of the Congo.

The Bilondo Marine 2 and 3 wells are located approximately 40 miles (70 kilometers) offshore of the Republic of the Congo, in 2,600 feet (800 meters) of water in the central part of the Moho-Bilondo license.

George Kirkland, vice chairman, Chevron Corporation, said, "These discoveries further demonstrate the potential of West Africa where Chevron has made significant investments to develop new energy resources."

Bilondo Marine 2 and 3 were drilled to a total depth of around 6,000 feet (1,800 m). The Bilondo Marine 2 (BILDM-2) well found 253 feet (77 m) of gross reservoir, while the Bilondo Marine 3 (BILDM-3) well, which had a different reservoir as objective, found 144 feet (44 m) of gross reservoir. Both wells were successfully tested and flowed oil.

"We look forward to continuing the work needed to further evaluate these discoveries and potential development options," said Ali Moshiri, president of Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production Company.

The discoveries follow two previous successful exploration wells, Moho Nord Marine-1 and 2, drilled in the permit area in 2007 and the positive appraisal wells Moho Nord Marine-3 in 2008 and Moho Nord Marine-4 in 2009.

The permit area's deep-water Moho-Bilondo project began production in April 2008 and is currently producing 90,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Chevron's subsidiary holds a 31.5 percent interest in the permit area with partners Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (15 percent) and Total E&P Congo (operator and 53.5 percent).

…”

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15 December 2010

Of pipelines and such

1.  Chevron and its Caspian pipeline partners are going to drop $5.4 billion to double the capacity of a pipeline bringing crude out of its Caspian Sea production operation. The line will be able to move 1.4 million barrels of oil per day when the project is finished.

2.  The federal government will drop as much as $18 million into a $24 million natural gas pipeline project between Vallee Jonction and Thetford Mines Quebec.

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08 May 2009

First oil and a new discovery

Chevron announced two milestones this week.

img2009-05-06 On Wednesday, the company achieved first oil on the  Tahiti field in the Gulf Of Mexico. production is expected to 125,000 barrels per day of oil and 70 million cubic feet of natural gas by the end of the year.

The Tahiti production platform, left, is located 305 kilometres south of New Orleans and sits in 1250 metres of water.

On Friday, Chevron announced it had struck oil in a well drilled offshore Congo.

Moho Nord Marine-4 was drilled to a total depth of 13,907 feet (4,239 meters) and proved a 535 foot (163 meter) column of high-quality oil flowing at 8,100 barrels per day.

The discovery follows two previous successful exploration wells, Moho Nord Marine-1 and 2, drilled in the permit area in 2007, and the positive appraisal well Moho Nord Marine-3 in 2008.

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13 January 2009

Chevron postpones Orphan Basin drilling

Chevron has decided to postpone an exploration drilling program in the deep water Orphan Basin, according to The Telegram and CBC, due to higher than expected rig costs for 2009. 

Chevron regional manager Mark Macleod said the estimates were higher than the costs for the first well.  According to some reports, the first exploration well cost twice as much as anticipated.

In late 2007, the company committed to drilling a second well during 2008 but those plans didn’t turn into action. Rig availability  has been a consistent factor in drilling decisions since high demand has driven up costs accordingly against a relatively short supply of rigs capable of operating in deep water, difficult environments.

Chevron likely expects that demand will lessen for deep water drill rigs as the price of oil makes deep water plays less attractive. 

In addition, as the Telegram reported:

"As well, we felt we needed to do some additional technical work to re-evaluate all the prospects in the basin from a risk and cost basis," MacLeod said. "So, we've got a bit more homework to do to be ready to drill, hopefully, in 2010."

Late last year, Chevron and its partners consolidated eight Orphan Basin exploration licences (ELs) into four.
Those ELs give the companies the right to explore the seabed.

Under the consolidation, the companies will keep four reconfigured ELs until 2013. MacLeod says that consolidation didn't delay drilling.

"It's allowed us to more carefully focus on the best parts of the basin."

At the same time, Chevron is likely also looking closely at its bottom line.  The company warned investors last week that fourth quarter profits in 2008 will likely be lower than those in the third quarter. Chevron blamed the lower price of crude and natural gas.

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02 December 2008

Chevron delays '09 CAPEX plan

Chevron Corp is delaying release of its 2009 capital expenditure plans from December until January, citing significant changes in the marketplace.

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20 August 2008

Groundwork: The Hebron MOU deconstructed, as announced

To help in assessing the final Hebron deal, here are some notes drafted for a Bond Papers post last year:

Bottom line: Bond Papers said it about 18 months ago, and overall it remains true - a deal is good.

Both sides wanted it. The provincial government needed the deal, like they needed it 18 months ago. There are some implications of the delay as described below.

Even the memorandum of understanding takes a huge political monkey off Danny Williams' back.

The oil companies get to develop more oil than initially planned for about the same cost as originally proposed.

Much work needs to be done, especially on the local benefits package. The provincial government backgrounder contains conditional language that needs to be sorted out in the detailed negotiations.

As Williams said of Voisey's Bay, the detailed agreement are where the companies can find loopholes, escape hatches and off- ramps to avoid delivering on what they appear to have agreed to deliver.

Let's take a look at some specific issues.

1. Superlative language. Characteristically, the Premier and his energy minister used superlatives to praise their own memorandum of understanding.

Words like "tremendous", "historic" and "off the chart" were flowing easier than API 70 oil.

As a general rule, use of over-the-top language is an indicator of an insecurity in the announcement itself or an effort to offset some deficiencies. Hyperbole is a Danny Williams trademark.

2. What Danny originally asked for

Two of the three, depending on which April one considers.

- April 2005. [ram audio file] Better royalties, secondary processing i.e. a refinery, and better research and development funding.

- April 2006. Super-royalties, an "equity" stake, and better local benefits.

3. Equity. Total estimated cost: $360 to $660 million. 4.9%, costing $110 million plus an estimated $250 million of construction costs. The Premier also predicted an additional set of costs of some $2.0 to $6.0 billion over the 25 year life of the project; that would translate into additional costs from the equity position of $300 million.

Those costs must be recovered before the equity position yields any cash as net benefit to the provincial treasury.

Beyond that the province's energy company - that still exists only on paper - now holds a series of undisclosed risks and liabilities.

4. Larger field. The earlier negotiations involved only the Hebron field and its approximately 500 million barrels of heavy, sour crude. This project adds about 200 million barrels of light sweet crude in the Ben Nevis structure.

Ordinarily, this would add additional cash value to the project, but as noted below, the total projected revenue is not significantly better than that estimated for the earlier negotiation.

5. Tier 3 Royalties. Super-royalties that deliver a percentage based on oil above a certain dollar price? Not exactly.

What turned up in the news conference looks more like the Hibernia royalty regime.

From the official backgrounder:
The new super royalty for the province is an additional 6.5 per cent of net revenue at higher oil prices (>US$50 WTI/bbl) after net royalty payout;
From the Hibernia royalty regime:
The Net Royalty consists of a two tier profit sensitive royalty which becomes effective when Net Royalty Payout occurs.

• Tier 1

The Tier 1 Net Royalty is 30% of Net Revenue after a Return Allowance of 15% is achieved. Basic Royalty is a credit against this royalty. Therefore, the interest holders pay the higher of Basic Royalty or Tier 1 Net Royalty.

• Tier 2

The Tier 2 Net Royalty is 12.5% of Net Revenue after a Return Allowance of 18% plus the CPI is achieved. The Tier 2 Net Royalty is in addition to any other royalties payable.
Net royalty payout is "point in time when the costs related to a particular project are recovered plus a specified return allowance on those costs." A similar concept exists in the province's basic offshore royalty regime.

In all likelihood, the triggers to attain Tier Three royalties are such that they will not be achieved on Hebron until after other royalties have been triggered. There is no way to be certain since the language in the backgrounder is too vague to determine how the new Tier Three royalty relates to the rest of the royalty regime used for the Hebron negotiation.

One thing is certain: Tier Three royalties are only available after the project achieves simple payout. That means the possibility of collecting the additional revenue is contingent on the price of oil being above US$50 per barrel from the mid 2020s onward.

6. Other royalty regime changes. The provincial government's so-called generic royalty regime for offshore projects was developed in 1996. It clearly establishes the minimum royalty to be paid to the provincial government is 1% of gross revenue and increases progressively to 7.5% until simple payout occurs.

The backgrounder for the Hebron MOU refers to a change to royalty regime to "[p]rovide downside royalty protection by keeping the basic royalty rate at one per cent of gross revenue until project costs are recovered (i.e. simple payout)."

There is nothing in the provincial documentation to indicate why it would be necessary to introduce this new concept except that the progressive increase in the basic royalty rate is being eliminated.

As such, provincial government royalties will be a mere 1% until such time as the project achieves simple payout.

7. Revenues. The news release today provide a revenue estimate for the province of $16 billion over the 25 year lifespan of the Hebron project.

On the face of it, this figure appears to be nothing more than an adjustment to figures used by MUN economist Dr. Wade Locke that projected up to $10 billion, based on an assumed oil price of US$50 per barrel. Bond Papers noted this possibility in a pre-announcement post.

However, Locke did not anticipate a change to the basic royalty regime that reduces royalties to 1% during the entire pre-payout period.

There is also no indication from the Premier on the revenue flow anticipated from the equity position, thus, with the new lower royalty regime, this $16 billion is highly suspicious.

8. Research and Development. The commitment for $120 million over the 25 year lifespan of the project appears to be below the current standard set by the offshore regulatory board.

9. Timelines. The project may begin construction in 2010. This assumes that the complex negotiations for the development agreement are concluded successfully and quickly and that the development application to the offshore board is approved expeditiously.

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31 July 2008

The Old Approach

Turns out the scuttlebutt on the Hebron announcement was off.

No announcement this week.

The deal is apparently done, but the formal announcement has been moved.

Best guess:  August.

After the by-elections are underway and somewhere in the middle of the CRA polling time.

Perfect time for an announcement in the old fashioned political tradition.

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09 September 2007

Welcome to Energyville!

Energyville is an online game that illustrates the challenges and complexities of meeting energy needs in a modern society. The game was developed by The Economist Group and hosted at willyoujoinus.com, a site run by Chevron.

UK-based communications consultant Neville Hobson describes the game this way:
The game makes you think about the issues surrounding energy usage, society’s needs, security, effects on the environment… indeed, all the hot issues surrounding the changes happening in our world and the impacts we have on our environment.

Energyville is cleverly conceived and implemented. It has credibility, both in the breadth and depth of content and the fact that The Economist is behind its development.

Where it really scores is in how it wraps all of this up and presents it in a highly entertaining way.

What would be great is if this online game were to be developed as a standalone, downloadable version and made available for a nominal cost if not for free. Then I think there would be real opportunities for enormous awareness-raising.

Anyway, have a go yourself and see if it impacts your thinking about our environment
willyoujoinus.com is a Chevron initiative designed to foster an online discussion about energy and environmental issues. The website is essentially conventional in many respects, although it apes the interactivity and language of Web 2.0 with terms like "post".

As Neville Hobson has pointed out in another post, a blog approach would have provided Chevron with a site that offers personality and authenticity. those are key factors in establishing credibility and credibility is one area where a website on energy and the environment may suffer when run by a major oil company.

As it is, the site includes e-cards, but the bulk of the site - aside from Energyville and the discussion forum are Chevron's standard advertising content supporting the initiative. lovely stuff, that it is, these traditional approaches won't succeed where a more up-to-date approach would likely have succeeded. In an online world where "go big or go home" is more likely get positive results, Chevron stuck with the same-old, same-old.

Still, willyoujoinus.com is a step in the right direction. Energyville in particular has bags of content that will be highly provocative. Having the game designed by The Economist helps significantly with its credibility. Just imagine the impact this site might have had if Chevron employees were able to speak directly about major issues they deal with each day.

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22 August 2007

Waiting for the "real deal": deconstructing the Hebron announcement

"That's the details...That's where the deal gets done. That's where the off-ramps are. That's where the security is for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. ... We want to see the real deal."
Danny Williams, Leader of the Official Opposition, June 2002

At 10:00 AM on August 22, 2007, Premier Danny Williams will hold a news conference and announce a miracle.

[Update 0745 hrs 22 Aug: According to CBC Radio's David Cochrane, the news conference will take place at 11:00 AM or noon. Bond papers understands it will involve only Premier Williams. As Cochrane indicated, there is no final and binding legal agreement but rather a general statement of principles (see below). Cochrane compared the situation to Voisey's Bay (again, see below), and acknowledged that there may not be an agreement reached. Cochrane dismissed the prospect given that both sides need a deal.]

The Premier will announce a deal to develop Hebron in which he negotiated every single one of his demands successfully at no or virtually no cost.

The reality is starkly different, if for no other reason than what the Premier is likely to discuss on Wednesday is not a complete agreement but rather a memorandum of understanding [MOU], a statement of principles to guide further talks that in itself is not legally binding on either party. According to some indications, the MOU will be kept confidential.

The details of the development agreement for Hebron remain to be negotiated.

The Hebron announcement will be starkly different from the position Danny Williams took as opposition leader in 2002 on the Voisey's Bay deal, although the circumstances are virtually identical.

As a Canadian Press story put it in June 2002:
But critics on the opposition benches warned a monumental bungle is in the making because the vote [in the House of Assembly] dealt with an 18-page statement of principles, not a legally binding commercial agreement.

"It's the worst ... document I've ever seen," Conservative Leader Danny Williams said outside the legislature. "It's not even a legal document because it's not legally enforceable. We as a people are being insulted by being asked to vote on this."

The legal text, which could comprise up to 150 pages of dense terminology, will be drafted by lawyers behind closed doors later this fall.

For the past nine days, Williams insisted the final text, not statement of principles, should be debated and put to a vote in the legislature.

"That's the details," he said. "That's where the deal gets done. That's where the off-ramps are. That's where the security is for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. ... We want to see the real deal."
Effectively, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will be voting on a Hebron statement of principles come October 9 but without the details which, as Danny Williams himself put it five years ago, is "where security is for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador."

It would be even more ironic - if that is even possible - were the Premier to make a comment along these lines on Wednesday: "We're completely satisfied we have all of the provisions that we need, all of the stop-gap measures, all the guarantees."

To give a sense of what likely won't be known on Wednesday with any certainty, consider these points:

1. Super-royalty: There will apparently be a provision covering special royalties while oil is priced above a certain dollar amount per barrel. There has been no public discussion of how this would work and hence there is no calculation of how this regime will interact with the other royalty regime.

It is conceivable that the province's existing royalty regime has been supplanted by an entirely new one - never publicly disclosed - complete with different triggers, different calculations and therefore different potential cash values to the provincial treasury.

Wade Locke's assessment of Hebron royalties of $8.0 to $10.0 billion over the 20 year lifespan of the project may well need to be replaced by an entirely new set of calculations.

Unless details of the royalty regime are released, there will be no way for an independent analyst, such as Locke, to assess any provincial government claims about royalties.

2. Equity stake. There will be a 4.9% equity position for the provincial energy company, according to media reports. Expect the provincial government will pay a fair market price - yet to be determined - for the stake and that the energy company will also bear its share of project development cost and downstream liabilities.

Those points have been at the heart of the oil companies' position on equity. The Premier has essentially accepted them already publicly when he stated that the provincial government would pay fair market price.

The problem for the public will come in assessing the real value of the equity stake. Premier Williams gave it a net value of only $1.5 billion over the life of the project based on discussions up to April 3, 2006. It is possible that in accepting operator risk - something the province has eschewed until now, apparently - the net cash value of the equity stake will be near zero.

The Premier has never publicly indicated any other value to the province of the equity stake and establishing an oil company.

[Update: CBC's David Cochrane attributed to Premier Williams acquisition cost of $150 million to the equity position. On the face of it, this is ridiculously low. If Hebron development cost were $5.0 billion, then 4.9% of that alone would be $245 million.

Added to that cost must be the share of other downstream costs and liabilities. If getting into the oil business on a project like Hebron - estimated gross value of US$25 to US$35 billion- was that cheap, everyone would be in it. ]

3. Local benefits: One of the major issues in the 2005/06 negotiations was apparently the amount of work to be done within the province. This remains an significant issue, made more acute by outmigration since April 2006.

Any provisions of the agreement which establish local benefits as work commitments must take into consideration the local labour market and the local industrial capacity in the context of a major construction project at Long Harbour, the likelihood that the Lower Churchill will start within the next three to five years, and the possibility that one or two other major construction projects at the northeastern end of Placentia Bay would also tax the local industrial capacity.

One way of coping with the issue would be to allow work - such as the topsides - to be shipped out of the province for completion based on certain conditions being met. As well, the provincial energy company may opt to slow work on the Lower Churchill or allow that project to export components or outsource supplies to ensure that Hebron can meet its first-oil target.

Since there are a limited number of facilities in the province capable of constructing some of the larger project components, a project such as the Joint Support Ship for the Canadian navy, might take a facility such as the Marystown yard out of contention for one or the other project.

The superheated Alberta construction marketplace has already taxed some aspects of the national labour supply. Challenges would exist in finding enough skilled workers in a relatively tight time frame to complete the planned and potential major projects across Canada, including the ones listed above.

4. Conflict of interest: Bond Papers raised this issue specifically focused on Ed Martin, the chief executive of Hydro who headed the 2006 negotiating team. The conflict remains, even though this round of negotiations appears to have been headed by the Premier himself.

Fundamentally, any political demands that insist on work being done in the province have to be paid for by some party.

Given that the provincial government is almost certain to become an operator, it is now faced with the dilemma. As an operator, it would seek to lower costs and thereby maximize profit which would flow ultimately to the provincial treasury. As a provincial administration interested in maximising local work, it would seek to maximize that local work irrespective of costs.

Until now, those interests were aligned: lower costs meant higher royalties.

Beginning with this agreement - when and if the details are finalized - the provincial government faces an internal conflict of interest not seen since the Peckford administration and negotiations on Hibernia.

How that conflict is resolved will determine much of the value of the final agreement, when and if it is reached.

5. There has been no public discussion of potential research and development work related to Hebron, let alone what the requirements might be.

6. Tax concessions: One sticking point for the provincial government in 2006 was a demand by the companies for a sales tax exemption for the construction phase of the project, similar to an exemption granted to Hibernia, as well as the creation of an investment tax credit.

Tax concessions - although not characterised as such - might form a part of this agreement as a mechanism to lower operator costs on an already difficult and costly project.

7. Dates and timelines. Some 18 months have already been lost on the project. The operators disbanded the project management team in 2006.

That team now must be assembled again.

The details of the agreement with the provincial government must be negotiated.

A development application must be submitted to the offshore regulatory board. The board must review the application, adjust portions and hold public hearings before the project can be sanctioned.

Even allowing some concurrent work, it is likely that first oil from Hebron will not be achieved much before 2014.

8. Hibernia South. As much as the parties attempted to downplay it, it appears that the provincial government's rejection of Hibernia South development was linked to collapse of the Hebron talks.

Some aspect of this MOU may include a side agreement to expedite development of Hibernia South, with the province essentially abandoning any demands for additional royalties and developments from the 300 million barrels of oil in the Hibernia extension. Hebron - the subject of the current discussions - is estimated to contain slightly more than 500 million barrels of heavy, sour crude oil.

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18 July 2007

Hebron talks going somewhere. Or nowhere. Maybe. Sort of.

A vice president of Chevron, the lead partner on the Hebron project, was in St. John's this week for meetings on an unspecified topic, as CBC reported.

Premier Danny Williams is downplaying the significance of the visit.

Sort of.

Williams seemed to be playing coy with reporters in Corner Brook on Wednesday saying only that James Bates "...could be in [town] for some interaction with some officials...".

The logical deduction from that comment is that Bates also might not be in town for talks with government officials.

Williams also said that while "at this particular point" he would not say negotiations were back on - obviously they aren't - he said that "[i]f there's going to be negotiations on the project, I would estimate that it would be sooner rather than later."

Williams also said the talks are exactly where they were when they broke off and that the provincial government's position is exactly where it was at that time.

Given the Premier's extensive use of conditional language - "could", "if", "would" - no one should be at all optimistic that talks actually will begin at all, let alone by the fall.

Maybe there's a clue in Bates' background and other appointments. Bates is general manager, asset development with Chevron Canada. He previously held an appointment with Chevron Nigeria. But, as the link indicates Bates also sits on the board of the Centre for Cold Ocean research and Development at Memorial University. Bates may well have been in St. John's in connection with that responsibility.

That would certainly explain the Premier's use of conditional language, since saying definitely that Bates was here for an exchange of information could have easily been acknowledged with the proviso that there are no negotiations. The Premier's vague response suggests that he was merely trying to keep alive the prospect formal negotiations might resume in the fall.

Straight answers like yes or no - something the Premier definitely didn't give in this instance - are usually a sign of credibility. Vagueness suggests something else.

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18 May 2007

Chevron to spend US$4.0 billion in Asia in '07

From the International Herald Tribune:
BANGKOK, Thailand: Chevron Corp. will invest about US$4 billion in Asia this year for petroleum exploration and production, a company executive said Friday.

"The company sees Asia as a very attractive place for investment for future growth," Steve Green, managing director of Chevron Asia South Ltd., told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.
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07 May 2007

Where are they now?

Alex Archila, former head of Chevron Canada has been running Madagascar Oil since July 2006.

Hebron failure fallout?

Probably not. They likely just wanted to "move it, move it."

Madagascar's oil and gas reserves may be larger than those offshore Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Chevron looking to Singapore for possible expansion

Chevron, one of the largest integrated energy companies in the world, may be looking at plans to further expand its business in Singapore.
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10 April 2007

Chevron: Bay area company of the year

From the San Francisco Chronicle.
Chevron is devoting about 39 percent of its exploration and development budget to North America, which includes the gulf as well as projects in Alaska and the waters off Newfoundland. But the company also is betting heavily on offshore oil and gas fields near Angola, Australia and Thailand. About 25 percent of the company's exploration money goes to Africa, 19 percent to Asia and the Pacific.

Those areas all show great promise. They're also open to foreign investment. Much of the world isn't, at least not on terms Chevron and other international oil companies might like. Governments from Venezuela to Newfoundland have become more assertive about the deals they're willing to make with Big Oil, often demanding control over joint ventures and a far higher cut of the profit than they used to. National oil companies, such as Saudi Aramco or the National Iranian Oil Co., control the vast majority of the world's reserves, and they see less reason to seek Chevron's help in developing their resources.
________________________________

There's an interesting Chronicle podcast here.

Note the list of projects where Chevron is interested in developing the short- to medium-term. Gulf of Mexico, Thailand, Tenghiz, Australia, West Africa.

Hebron is not there.

Check the example of bringing a project on stream.

Tahiti, a major field in the Gulf of Mexico. From idea to production: 14 years. From discovery to production: six years.

Compare that to Hebron.

Actually it isn't bad considering that the field became commercially viable in the same time frame. The only thing that knocked Hebron off the rails - the only thing - was the provincial government.

Listen carefully to the discussion of economics of the oil business. More people in Newfoundland and Labrador - especially politicians - need to pay attention.

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