Crescent Petroleum

Crescent Petroleum

Industry	Oil and Gas
Founded	1971
Headquarters	Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Number of locations	UAE, UK, Iraq and affiliates in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain
Area served	worldwide
Key people	Hamid Jafar (Group Chairman) Majid Jafar (Chief Executive Officer) Badr Jafar (President)
Services	Oil and gas exploration, production, and transport
Website	www.crescentpetroleum.com

Crescent Petroleum is a privately owned oil and gas company headquartered in the United Arab Emirates. It began operations in 1971 as the first independent and privately owned Middle Eastern petroleum company to engage in the acquisition, exploration and development of petroleum concessions. The company has its headquarters in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Crescent Petroleum is also the largest private shareholder in Dana Gas, the first and largest publicly listed private-sector natural gas company in the Middle East.^[1] Through GasCities, a joint venture between Crescent Petroleum and Dana Gas, it is creating self-sustaining industrial parks based on the effective utilization of natural gas as feedstock.

History

Crescent petroleum traces its origins to Buttes Gas & Oil Co. International Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Crescent Petroleum. Buttes Gas & Oil Co. was the holder of a Concession granted in 1969 by the Government of Sharjah. Following offshore seismic work in 1971, the Mubarek Field discovery wildcat was drilled in 1972. Over the next decade, Crescent Petroleum identified several opportunities in the kelechukwu oil and gas sector across the world, that led to the company securing concessions in Argentina, Canada, France, Tunisia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, and the erstwhile Yugoslavia. By the late 1990s, additional concessions were procured in Egypt, Pakistan, Oman, and Yemen.^[2]

Crescent Petroleum’s current major operations are in the UAE and in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, where along with its affiliate Dana Gas, it is the largest private investor in the local energy sector, investing over USD 1.1 billion and producing over 300 million cubic feet of gas and 14,000 barrels of condensate per day, enabling almost continuous electricity in the main cities of Iraq's Kurdistan region.

Operations

Mubarek Oil Field

The Mubarak Oil Field

The first project handled by Crescent was the Mubarek Field off the coast of UAE. Within 13 months from the discovery confirmation well, the field was put on full production at a rate of over 60,000 barrels of oil per day, with the drilling of three additional wells, the installation of the processing platform, an additional well-head platform, export loading terminal, and associated support structures and pipelines. This was a world record at the time for bringing an offshore field on-stream from oil discovery. Crescent Petroleum has also earned several operational world records including the deepest short radius horizontal section drilled, and the deepest slim hole to be cased by expandable casing.^[3] Since the start of production in 1974, the Mubarek Field has undergone several development phases. The initial phase of the development of Ilam/Mishrif oil reservoir, at a depth of 12,500 feet (3,800 m) was completed in 1977. Development of the Thamama gas condensate reservoir, at a depth of 15,500 feet (4,700 m), was started in 1987 for production of the gas and condensate.^[4] A central gas processing facility was established in the early 1990s, and gas export to Jebel Ali through a 150 kilometres (93 mi) offshore pipeline was constructed by Crescent Petroleum.^[5] In late 2005, the company commenced a program of drilling further infill wells to increase production of petroleum.^[6][7]

Crescent Petroleum also discovered the Zora Gas Field off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in 2001 and has drilled two horizontal wells which both tested positive for hydrocarbons.^[8]

Crescent Petroleum has an offshore concession to Sir Abu Nu'ayr, an island owned by the Emirate of Sharjah, and its territorial seas. The area is known to have an abundant hydrocarbon basin. Crescent Petroleum was also granted a 1,243 square kilometres (480 sq mi) of acreage concession onshore Sharjah for hydrocarbon exploration, and has commenced extensive appraisal works within the block.^[9]

The Gulf-South Asia Gas Project (GUSA) launched by Crescent in 1991 was the first workable project for producing, transmitting by pipeline and delivering natural gas from Qatar to Pakistan and eventually other parts of the South Asia. The GUSA Project comprises two main parts that will transport the gas 1,186 kilometres (737 mi) to Pakistan.^[10]

Khor Mor and Chemchemal Fields

Khor Mor and Chemchemal Fields

In 2007 and in a 50-50 joint venture with its affiliate Dana Gas PJSC, Crescent Petroleum signed contracts with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to develop and process the Khor Mor and Chemchemal gas fields. The project required the international joint operators to also transport the natural gas supplies to the power stations of Erbil and Suleymania in order to fuel domestic electric power generation needed for over four million people. The projects implementation was completed within 15 months and involved upstream development, the construction of two Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plants and 180 kilometres (110 mi) of pipeline in challenging terrain. Gas deliveries to the Erbil Power Station commenced on 1 October 2008. The project has also secured over 2,000 jobs for Iraqi nationals.^[11][12]

In May 2009, petroleum companies OMV of Austria and MOL of Hungary each purchased 10% of the shares in Pearl Petroleum (the corporate entity which owns the project), forming a four-way consortium.^[13]

Sharjah Onshore Concession

In May 2010, Crescent Petroleum and the Russian government-owned oil company, Rosneft signed a Strategic Cooperation Agreement to jointly develop material oil and gas opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa region. The following month, the two companies signed a Farm-Out agreement under the aegis of the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin. Under the terms of the agreement, both companies would jointly develop the Sharjah Onshore Concession, with Rosneft holding a 49% stake as participating interest. The two companies agreed to invest USD 60 million in initial exploration activities which includes the drilling of two oil wells to a depth of 4,500 metres (14,800 ft). The project hopes to benefit from existing infrastructure in Sharjah to produce condensates and natural gas liquids that could be consumed domestically and exported internationally. The agreement also includes a budget for the development of local infrastructure while preserving the region's natural ecosystems and terrain. In 2014, both companies will undertake the drilling of the second well (SOC-2), which is a reservoir part of the Thamama carbonates group located off of the Arabian shelf.

Levantine Basin

In November 2013, Crescent Petroleum prequalified as part of the consortia bidding for the Levantine basin, an area covering 22,000 square kilometres (8,500 sq mi) of deep water off the coast of Lebanon.^[14]

Structure

Crescent Petroleum is part of the Crescent Group of Companies which includes Crescent Petroleum Company International Limited, and Crescent Enterprises Limited, holder of the Group's non-energy interests. The non-executive Chairman of the Group is Hamid Jafar, with his son Majid Jafar as Vice-Chairman of Crescent Group and CEO of Crescent Petroleum, and son Badr Jafar as Managing Director of Crescent Group, President of Crescent Petroleum and CEO of Crescent Enterprises.^[15]

See also

• Sir Abu Nu’ayr

References

External links

Official website