Frustrated Commodore crosses the line

Matt Allen, the Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the organising club for the Rolex Sydney Hobart, has crossed the finish line in the Rolex Sydney Hobart at the helm of his modified Volvo 70 Ichi Ban.

She crossed at 6:01pm this afternoon, the third boat to finish the race. It has been a frustrating day for Allen and his crew. They were enjoying the best sailing of the race this morning ahead of a fresh northerly when a loud bang signalled the end of their bid for a podium spot. One of Ichi Ban’s twin rudders had snapped off. “We had dropped a spinnaker in the water as a result of a halyard failure half an hour before it broke and the spinnaker underwater did hit the rudder, but we don’t think that would have caused the failure,” Allen said. Volvo 70s have a rudder on either side, and it was the port rudder that went. So, while the boat would continue to handle well on port tack, on starboard tack it would be very difficult to keep the remaining rudder in the water.

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Iraq threatens to stop oil exports to South Korea over its direct dealings with Kurds

Iraq's oil ministry has threatened to stop all crude exports to South Korea if that nation proceeds with a deal it signed with the semiautonomous Kurdistan regional government.

In early November, a consortium led by the state-run Korea National Oil Corp., or KNOC, secured exploration rights from the Kurdish regional government for an oil field in the Northern Province. The Korean consortium includes SK Energy, South Korea's biggest oil refiner, and GS Holdings Corp. The ministry has made it clear that no contracts should be signed until a new national oil law is passed. There was a clear warning to these companies that they will be blacklisted and excluded from any future cooperation with the ministry. Iraq is the sixth-largest provider of oil to the country. The Kurds have signed more than a dozen contracts with foreign oil companies, insisting Iraq's constitution gives them that authority.

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Mariner ties up StatoilHydro Gulf assets

Houston-based Mariner Energy would buy StatoilHydro’s Gulf of Mexico shelf operations for $243 million.

Mariner said it would take over StatoilHydro unit Hydro Gulf of Mexico, which controls the Norewgian giant’s operations in the region. The deal, which is expected to close by the end of next month, includes estimated proved oil and gas reserves of 52.4 billion cubic feet equivalent, of which 95% are developed. The assets also include 24.1 Bcfe of probable reserves. Production from the assets is 58.2 million cubic feet per day from 32 wells, out of which 71% are operated. The deal also includes 256,000 acres including 11 drill sites. The company said the acquisitions, on the Permian basin’s Spraberry field, included production of about 1250 barrels of oil from 348 wells.
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US rig count plunges 27

The number of rigs exploring in the US fell 27 to 1782 this week.

During the same week last year, there were 1710 rigs active. The number of rigs in the Gulf of Mexico rose one to 61, compared with 81 last year. The number of rigs exploring in Canada fell 112 to 260. Last year there were 429 rigs active. There were 365 directional rigs operating along with 443 horizontal rigs and 974 vertical rigs. The number of rigs searching for oil fell 18 to 325 while the number of rigs searching for gas fell nine to 1452. There were five miscellaneous rigs operating, steady with last week. The number of rigs operating in Texas fell 23 to 871, while in Louisiana rig use fell one to 158.
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Shell joins China coalbed methane project

Shell China Exploration and Production Company Limited has acquired a 55% equity interest in a coalbed methane venture in Shanxi Province and will take over as operator.

China’s Ministry of Commerce recently approved an agreement for Shell to acquire Verona Development Corporation’s majority equity position in a 30-year production-sharing contract covering the North Shilou block, an area of 1,015 square kilometres in the eastern part of the Ordos Basin. Verona maintains a 5% interest in the venture with China United Coalbed Methane Company (CUCBM) holding the remaining 40% equity. The exploration period of the PSC will end in December 2010. Following this, the PSC stipulates five years of development and a 20-year production period. The North Shilou block is about 150 km southeast of the Changbei gas field, a joint project between PetroChina and Shell, which is the operator.
A comprehensive appraisal programme, comprising 2D seismic acquisition and the drilling of pilot wells, will start early next year.
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Terri Irwin to launch whale research

The widow of TV wildlife entertainer "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin said she would launch a non-lethal whale research programme in Antarctic waters next year in an effort to show that Japan's scientific whaling cull is a sham.

Terri Irwin announced that the whale-watching programme she started to honor her late husband, who died in a freak stingray attack off Australia's Great Barrier Reef, would expand into scientific research. Tokyo has staunchly defended its annual cull of more than 1,000 whales as crucial for research purposes, and says killing whales is necessary to gather information about their breeding and migratory habits. Environmentalists and anti-whaling nations say the slaughter is commercial whaling in disguise. Japan had planned to kill up to 50 endangered humpback whales this season, but backed away from the plan in the face of strong international condemnation. Irwin says that they can actually learn everything the Japanese are learning with lethal research by using non-lethal research.
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Leading yachts surge into Bass Strait, Slade still hopeful of record

The three maxis leading the Rolex Sydney Hobart fleet entered Bass Strait around 4am this morning with Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats XI still in the lead.

At 0500hrs the Sydney maxi, which is aiming for a hat trick of line honors wins, held a 9-mile break on Mike Slade’s British maxi City Index Leopard, with Skandia another 6 miles astern. Nevertheless, with the wind now on the nose, Slade is hopeful he may yet wind the local race favorite in. Slade believes that, with the amount of ground the maxis covered in the first 10 hours of the race the record is still a possibility even though the front has slowed them down. At their present speed, City Index Leopard would expect to arrive in Hobart about an hour and a half too late to break the record, but if the breeze freshens during the day “we could easily gain that hour and a half.” Roger Sturgeon’s Farr STP 65 Rosebud is hanging onto fourth as the American boat prepares to enter Bass Strait, narrowly ahead of Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban in fifth.
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