DNO International ASA, Oslo, has a Jurassic oil discovery in Tawke field in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where the field’s first horizontal well, Tawke-20, averaged 8,000 b/d of oil from each of the first four of 10 fractured corridors in Cretaceous.

Sinopec Southern Exploration Co. of China and the Oil and Gas Resources Research Center of Geological Survey Bureau of Ministry of Land Resources have signed an agreement on joint exploration for oil and gas in selected areas of the Lunpola basin in Tibet.

The tender process has been completed for a high-resolution gravity and magnetic survey on 5.3 million acres of blocks in the Owambo basin in northern Namibia in advance of a reconnaissance 2D seismic grid to be shot in 2014.

Inpex Browse Ltd. has been awarded a 305 sq km block southeast of giant Ichthys gas-condensate field and Prelude and Concerto gas fields offshore Western Australia.

Petroleos de Portugal-Petrogal SA (Galp) has exercised its option to assume operatorship of the Aljubarrota-3 onshore concession in Portugal’s Lusitanian basin, subject to Portuguese government approval, said Porto Energy Corp., The Woodlands, Tex.

A group led by Idemitsu Oil & Gas Co. Ltd., Tokyo, has made a gas-condensate discovery at the third well drilled on blocks 05-1b and 05-1c offshore 300 km southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Expanded oil and gas activity on the US Outer Continental Shelf would produce substantial economic and energy security benefits, three witnesses told a US House Natural Resources subcommittee. But a fourth witness said alternative energy and other offshore industries should also be allowed to grow.

Alberta Oil Sands Inc. (AOS), Calgary, has entered a farmout agreement with privately held Crescendo Resources Ltd. that will advance exploration of its Algar Lake oil sands prospect in Alberta.

BP Trinidad & Tobago (BPTT) reported that it will conduct joint seismic surveys with BHP Billiton on its deepwater blocks off Trinidad and Tobago’s eastern coast.

Oil and gas producers will have another 60 days to comment on the US Bureau of Land Management’s latest proposed regulations for hydraulic fracturing operations on onshore public lands, US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced.

A third prospect has been identified on Eni Vietnam BV-operated Block 120 offshore southeast of Da Nang, Vietnam, from 500 sq km of 3D seismic shot in mid-2012, said partner Neon Energy Ltd., Perth.

Petromanas Energy Inc., Calgary, has won Albanian government approval for three more exploratory well locations on Blocks 2-3 and has chosen not to enter the third exploration phase on Blocks A-B in Albania.