Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd. and Shell Malaysia signed an agreement for two 30-year production-sharing contracts for enhanced oil recovery projects offshore Sarawak and Sabah.

Sefton Resources Inc., Denver, said its TEG Oil and Gas USA Inc. unit will begin drilling four new wells in mid-November from existing pads in Tapia heavy oil field in the eastern Ventura basin in Los Angeles County, Calif.

A dramatic reduction in carbon dioxide capture and sequestration (CCS) costs are needed before society will accept CCS was the main consensus of a panel discussion on the role of the petroleum industry in CCS at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, in Denver on Nov. 1.

Norwegian and Danish energy agencies and 10 oil companies will extend a further 3 years a research and development program under way since 1982 to improve oil recovery from chalk fields on their respective North Sea continental shelves.

Gravis Oil Corp., Calgary, formerly MegaWest Energy Corp., elected to suspend operations at its Marmaton River and Grassy Creek thermal oil recovery projects in the Deerfield area of western Missouri.

Chevron Technology Ventures launched a demonstration project at Coalinga field in Kern County, Calif., to test the viability of using solar energy to enhance heavy oil production. The project uses 7,644 mirrors to focus the sun’s energy onto a solar boiler on top of a 327-ft tower. The produced steam then is injected into wells at Coalinga.

Vulcan Minerals Inc., St. John’s, and Investcan Energy Corp. began a 4-week program to drill five core holes near the Flat Bay-1 light oil discovery well in the Bay St. George basin in western Newfoundland.

Patos-Marinza heavy oil field in Albania is producing 13,400 b/d of oil, and steam injection is to start in the last quarter of 2011 at a pilot thermal program in the southwest part of the field.