PILBARA

14
NEWS | OIL & GAS
AUGUST 2014 | Resource Global Network
15
Woodside discovers gas
at Toro in WA
Australian oil and gas giant Woodside has
made a significant gas discovery at its Toro-
1 exploration well in Western Australia’s
Exmouth Sub-Basin.
The company intersected
approximately 150 metres gross gas and
65 metres net gas within the Mungaroo
Formation target.
In a press release, Woodside executive
vice president of global exploration Philip
Loader said the discovery created options
for “maximising the value” of the company’s
Australian assets.
The Toro-1 exploration well sits in
permit QA-430-P, in which Woodside holds
70% equity and Mitsui E&P Australia the
remaining 30%.
It is within 22km of Woodside’s existing
Ragnar-1A discovery.
The 3,724 metre-deep well will now be
plugged and abandoned as planned.
Whiting to become
biggest Bakken oil firm
with $6bn acquisition
Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE: WLL) is set to
buy Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. (NYSE: KOG) for
US$6 billion in stock in a deal that will make it
the biggest producer in the Bakken region.
The Bakken formation stretches across
US states North Dakota and Montana has
been the source of an oil production boom
since 2000.
This $6 billion stock deal, worth $13.90
per share, will create a merged company with
855,000 net acres, 3,460 net future drilling
locations and production equivalent to more
than 107,000 barrels of oil per day within the
first quarter.
Whiting CEO James Volker said the
transaction represented a “significant
opportunity for shareholders of either
The deal is expected to close before
the end of the year and will increase earnings
per share from 2015.
UK government to review
North Sea oil taxes
tried to improve business conditions by
introducing a number of tax allowances, such
as for small or hard-to-access oil fields, and
also to provide certainty over the tax relief
available for decommissioning North Sea
infrastructure when production ends.
However, these field allowances have
been criticised for only helping specific
projects and companies and introducing
further complexities.
Tax changes introduced in the March
budget brought further criticism.
Offshore oil and gas is the UK’s
most highly taxed industry, with oil fields
developed since March 1993 being taxed at
62% and those given consent before March
1993 at 81%.
It splits into a 30% corporation tax
on profits; a 32% supplementary charge on
profits; and a 50% petroleum revenue tax on
profits from individual oil and gas fields given
consent before March 1993.
company to benefit from the new combined
The UK government is reviewing the North
company’s strength.
Sea oil tax regime following criticism from oil
“The addition of Kodiak’s
companies and analysts.
complementary acreage position and
Critics including the US Energy
substantial inventory of high return drilling
Department (story here) claim that tax
locations will provide the opportunity to drive
increases and prohibitively high operating
significant value growth for both Whiting and
costs and have made North Sea oil projects
Kodiak shareholders through an acceleration
uncompetitive.
in drilling and increase in operational
They link the price hikes to Britain
efficiencies,” he added.
becoming a net importer of petroleum
Kodiak CEO Lynn A. Peterson said he
products for the first time in 30 years, and
expected the combined company to have
to government revenues from oil & gas
increased operational and financial flexibility,
plummeting by almost half between 2010-11
allowing for accelerated development of both
and 2013-14.
companies’ assets.
The UK government has previously