Statoil and partners have approved development of the Smorbukk South Extension in the Asgard unit in the central Norwegian Sea.

The Obama administration will need to open more onshore and offshore federal acreage to oil and gas development if it expects a proposed energy security research trust fund to work, experts agreed during a discussion of the concept Securing America’s Future Energy originally offered as part of its proposed national energy security strategy on Dec. 3, 2012.

The Shenandoah-2 appraisal well in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico has encountered more than 1,000 net ft of oil pay with “reservoir rock and fluid properties of much higher quality than previously encountered by industry in Lower Tertiary discoveries,” said Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

A unit of HRT Participacoes em Petroleo SA, Rio de Janeiro, has spudded the 1-HRT-11-AM exploratory well on the Cajazeira prospect on the SOL-T-172 block in Brazil’s Solimoes basin.

Cairn Energy PLC will take a farmout from an Australian company and become operator of three exploratory blocks offshore Senegal.

TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. has begun shooting 9,191 km of 2D multiclient seismic offshore Sierra Leone.

RWE Dea Norge AS and partners have decided to use subsea wells tied back to the platform on Heidrun oil and gas field to develop their Zidane natural gas discovery on the Halten Bank offshore Norway (OGJ Online, Dec. 8, 2010).

Statoil ASA and ExxonMobil Corp. have discovered gas at a third deepwater well, estimated to have 4 to 6 tcf of gas in place, on Block 2 offshore Tanzania.

Strata-X Energy Ltd., Golden, Colo., plans to drill a horizontal well in the Illinois basin to test for oil in an undisclosed dolomitic formation below the Devonian New Albany shale.

Mitsui & Co. Ltd., Tokyo, will acquire Total SA’s Italian subsidiary that holds a 25% participating interest in supergiant Tempa Rossa oil field in southern Italy, the largest proved undeveloped onshore oil field in Western Europe, from which production is projected to start in 2016.