Gazprom plans to start production from two oil and gas fields offshore Russia this year: Prirazlomnoye in the Pichora Sea and Kirinskoye in the Sea of Okhotsk.

Cenovus Energy Inc., Calgary, reported a 15% increase in its western Canadian oil production in the quarter ended Mar. 31 on strong performance by its Christina Lake oil sands project.

MEG Energy, Calgary, has achieved a steam-oil ratio of 1:3, which it calls “industry-leading,” in a pilot project at its Christina Lake thermal oil sands project in Alberta.

Cairn India Ltd. plans to drill more than 450 wells over the next 3 years on its Barmer basin block in Rajasthan, India, where it is producing from five oil fields and recently revived exploration.

The Alberta government has awarded royalty allowances worth a total of $33 million to five pilot projects designed to improve recovery rates and lower environmental effects of oil sands and conventional oil and gas production.

Sunshine Oilsands Ltd., Calgary, expects to begin steam injection in the first phase of its West Ells thermal oil sands project in the late third quarter or fourth quarter, slightly later than originally scheduled.

CNOOC Ltd. expects production from Weizhou 6-12 oil field in the Beibu Gulf offshore China to reach its peak rate from 10 wells this year.

The US drilling rig count fell by 13 units during the week ended Apr. 19 to a total of 1,758 rotary rigs working, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. That compares with 1,972 rigs working in the comparable week last year.

Tests of the floating production, storage, and offloading vessel on Te Giac Trang (TGT) oil field offshore Vietnam have confirmed production capacity beyond the 55,000-b/d minimum contractual rate, reports SOCO International PLC, a partner.

Chevron Corp. has received final approval to restart oil production from Frade field off Brazil and was expected to bring the field on at about 20,000 b/d, said Inpex Corp., one of the partners.

A Utah company’s technology that uses an alkali metal in combination with hydrogen or methane to remove sulfur, nitrogen, and metals from bitumen and other heavy oils has been licensed to a Calgary upgrading company, the US Department of Energy announced.

A group led by E.On Ruhrgas UK E&P Ltd. has started oil production from Huntington field on Block 22/14b in the UK Central North sea 140 miles northeast of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Production has begun from the first phase of development of Manifa oil field offshore Saudi Arabia and is expected to reach 500,000 b/d by July.