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Drilling & Production — Quick Takes
Perdido well sets subsea producer water-depth record
A completed subsea well in the Gulf of Mexico's Tobago field set a producing well water depth record of 9,627 ft, according to Shell Oil Co. Tobago is one of the three Lower Tertiary fields producing to the Perdido drilling and production spar, moored in about 8,000 ft of water on Alaminos Canyon Block 857. Tobago field lies about 8 miles from Mexican waters.
Shell said the previous water depth record of 9,356 ft was held by a Silvertip well also producing to the Perdido spar.
Great White is the third field producing to the Perdido spar, which has a capacity to handle 100,000 bo/d and 200 MMscfd.
Perdido accesses the Great White, Tobago, and Silvertip oil and gas fields with subsea completed wells directly below the facility and from wells up to 7 miles away.
Production to Perdido started on Mar. 31, 2010.
GKP sees 40,000 b/d in Iraq by end-2012
Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. (GKP) plans to build and upgrade facilities that will make it possible to produce and export 20,000 b/d of oil by mid-2012 and 40,000 b/d by the end of the year from Shaikan, which it calls one of the three major oil fields in Iraqi Kurdistan.
GKP has conducted nine well tests in all target formations in the Triassic and Jurassic that tested a combined 18,900 b/d of oil at the Shaikan-2 appraisal well 9 km southeast of the discovery well.
In anticipation of equally positive results from the Shaikan-4 appraisal well, the company plans to design and build an additional testing and production facility for Shaikan-2 with a minimum capacity of 20,000 b/d of oil. Upgrading of the existing Shaikan-1 and Shaikan-3 early well test facilities will lead to initial production of 20,000 b/d to export specifications by mid-2012, and the Shaikan-2 facility will increase this to 40,000 b/d by yearend 2012.
The rig is moving to drill the Shaikan-6 appraisal well, 9 km east of Shaikan-2, to 3,800 m. Shaikan has independently audited volumes of 8-13.4 billion bbl of oil in place.
Noble group starts Aseng output in Douala basin
A group led by Noble Energy Inc. has started up Aseng oil and gas-condensate field in the Douala basin east of Equatorial Guinea's Bioko Island 13% under budget and 7 months ahead of the original schedule (OGJ Online, July 22, 2009).
Four subsea wells at Aseng on Block I are making 50,000 b/d into a floating production, storage and offloading vessel. The first lifting from the Aseng FPSO is expected in December.
Production at the Alen project on Block O remains on schedule for start-up in late 2013 at 37,000 b/d.
Meanwhile, the company and its partners have made an oil discovery on Block O at the Carla prospect, which is estimated to contain 35-100 million boe gross resources, 80% liquids.
The Carla well, which went to 11,500 ft in 1,900 ft of water, encountered 26 net ft of oil pay in high-quality Upper Oligocene sands under Alen field. Noble is Carla operator with 51% working interest.
A second exploratory well testing the Bwabe prospect on the sprawling Tilapia block off Cameroon reached total depth and did not find commercial hydrocarbons. Noble has identified the Bouma prospect off Cameroon with a 95-400 million boe gross unrisked resource and 35% probability of geologic success.
Recent appraisal work at Diega, a 2008 discovery on Block O, has confirmed a gross resource range of 45-110 million boe, 60% liquids. Noble anticipates developing Carla and Diega through Aseng or Alen facilities.
In development the area's liquids resources, Noble noted that the three blocks cover a combined 1.5 million underexplored acres and that the discovered fields have 4 tcf of gross gas resources remaining to be monetized.
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