Brazil
A drillstem test of 8 m of new pay in the Carboniferous Jurua formation in the 1-HRT-4-AM well in the Solimoes basin in Brazil indicated a production potential of 8.8 MMcfd of gas and 300 b/d of 65° gravity condensate, said HRT Participacoes em Petroleo SA, Rio de Janeiro.
HRT said the TUS-116 rig will remain on SOL-T-194 block to test an updip appraisal well on the same structure and further evaluate its commercial potential. The HRT-4 well, 25 km south of Urucu, reached a total depth of 2,806 m. HRT has 100% interest in the block.
Meanwhile, HRT spudded the 1-HRT-6-AM well on the Eucalipto prospect in the Tefe municipality in the SOL-T-170 block. It is to test a 20 sq km structure 10 km southwest of Araracanga field and 20 km southwest of the 1-BRSA-769-AM oil producing well.
Main targets of 1-HRT-6 are the Jurua at 2,950 m and the Devonian Uere formation. Forecast final depth is 3,400 m.
China
Far East Energy Corp., Houston, said it agreed with China United Coal Bed Methane Corp. to retain, relinquish, and extend the exploration period of CBM blocks in China.
The modification agreement will be forwarded to the Ministry of Commerce for formal approval.
On the Yunnan block in Yunnan Province, Far East would relinquish the Enhong area and retain the 119,340-acre Laochang area, which it considers to hold much greater potential.
Far East has drilled 11 wells in the Laochang area compared with three in Enhong, which has difficult topography, and considers large parts of Enhong marginal or nonprospective.
The company said that China in the last few weeks has discussed increasing CBM subsidies for producers to 0.5 yuan/cu m from the current 0.2 yuan. If enacted, that would increase the total for which gas produced by Far East may be sold to $7.85, including government subsidies.
France
Gallic Energy Ltd., Calgary, began operations at the first of two wells it will reenter seeking gas-condensate on the 127,000 net acre Ger permit east of Lacq and Meillon gas fields in the Aquitaine basin of France.
The company targets gas in three conventional formations to 3,000 m measured depth, including the 200-m thick Cretaceous flysch carbonate that had gas shows that were never tested, at the Ossun-2 well. Total SA predecessor Soc. National des Petroles d'Aquitaine drilled the well in the late 1960s.
Gallic is preparing a second drill site, Azereix-1, for reentry next. Gallic is 100% owner and operator of both wells.
Ireland
The PR Singleton Ltd. subsidiary of Providence Resources PLC has been offered a frontier exploration license on six blocks in the Rathlin basin off Northern Ireland.
The license covers the 125/18, 125/19, 125/20, 125/23, 125/24, and 125/25 licenses 75 km northeast of Londonderry. Several wells have been onshore from the offshore blocks.
The initial license phase requires a well to be drilled in order to advance to the next phase. Providence has begun technical studies. The offer, part of the UK's 26th seaward round announced Dec. 30, 2011, gives the company interests in eight basins off Ireland.
India
Jubilant Energy NV, Amsterdam, will test five zones totaling a gross 92.5 m in the Miocene Middle Bhuban formation encountered at the Srikantabari S-1 appraisal well on the southern part of the AA-ONN-2002/1 block in Tripura, eastern India.
The S-1 well was drilled to appraise Middle Bhuban reservoir sands tested in the Kathalchari-1 discovery well. Drilling was terminated for well control reasons at 2,973 m measured depth versus the planned target depth of 3,323 m because of a gas kick at 2,972 m. Another gas kick was observed at 2,781 m.
Jubilant holds a 20% participating interest in the block through its subsidiary Jubilant Oil & Gas Pvt. Ltd. India, operator for the block. GAIL Ltd. holds the balance 80% participating interest.
Indonesia
A 2D multiclient seismic survey is to start over several open acreage blocks in the Sumba Straits off Indonesia.
The prefunded program by CGGVeritas, Spectrum Geo Inc., and GeoData Ventures is to cover 1,325 km and start in early January. Final deliverables are expected in March.
Liberia
African Petroleum Corp. Ltd., Perth, has spudded the Narina-1 deepwater exploratory well on Block LB-09 in which the company has a 100% interest.
Narina-1 mainly targets a Turonian prospect similar to discoveries such as Jubilee off Ghana and Mercury and Venus off Sierra Leone.
African Petroleum drilled the first well in this previously untested frontier basin in 2011 with encouraging results. Apalis-1 went to 3,665 m in 988 m of water and proved a working hydrocarbon system.
Lithuania
Tethys Oil AB, Stockholm, has agreed with Odin Energi AS to acquire interests in Lithuanian oil companies UAB Minijos Nafta and UAB LL Investicos.
MN holds the Gargzdai license producing more than 700 b/d of 42° gravity oil from more than 6 million bbl of proved and probable reserves. LLI holds the Rietavas and Raiseiniai licenses with known oil deposits and large exploration upside. All licenses are onshore and cover a combined 4,000 sq km of the Baltic basin.
The interests will be held through Odin group companies, giving Tethys a net indirect interest of 25% in MN and 20% in LLI.
Together Tethys and Odin will have 50% of the shares in both MN and LLI. The remaining 50% of MN is owned by Lithuanian company Geonafta, part of the Polish Lotos group. The other 50% of LLI is owned by private interests.
Gargzdai covers 900 sq km in western Lithuania and has produced 15 million bbl from Cambrian sandstone reservoirs. Proved, probable, and possible reserves exceed 12 million bbl. A reservoir study suggests that the reserves could be greatly increased with the use of modern alternative oil recovery techniques. The license also holds major unconventional hydrocarbon potential, including exposure to Silurian-Ordovician shale sections.
Rietavas covers 1,600 sq km near Gargzdai with a known oil discovery in Cambrian sandstones. Rietavas is unexplored. Raiseiniai, with an areal extent of more than 1,500 sq km, covers an unexplored trend of Silurian reefs similar to, but expected to be of larger size, compared to the Ordovician reefs found on Gotland. The Silurian-Ordovician shale section is present also in Rietavas and Raiseiniai.
Mauritania
Total SA has signed exploration licenses with the Mauritanian government, one for an ultradeepwater block and one for an onshore block.
Total will hold 90% interest and Mauritania's state SMH 10% in offshore Block C 9 and Block Ta 29 in the Taoudeni basin.
C 9 covers more than 10,000 sq km 140 km off Mauritania in 2,500-3,000 m of water. Ta 29 is in the Sahara 1,000 km east of Nouakchott and is north of and on trend with Total's Block Ta 7, on which the company said the latest exploratory results show good prospectivity.
Niger
TVI Pacific Inc., Calgary, has withdrawn from the Tenere block in Niger in which it had participated in exploratory drilling with China National Petroleum Corp. Tenere.
TVI Pacific, which had a 20% carried interest in the first phase, chose not to participate in the second exploration phase of the block after analyzing final well data and reports from the Facai-1 exploratory well drilled in August 2011 in the Termit rift basin (OGJ Online, June 13, 2011).
On Aug. 30, 2011, TVI announced that it had plugged and abandoned the third and last exploratory well of a three-well carried program in the block. Facai-1, drilled by operator CNPCIT, encountered two small gas shows during drilling, but wireline logs indicated there were no zones worth testing.
Norway
Det Norske Oljeselskap has spudded an exploratory well on the Kalvklumpen prospect in the PL 414 license on Block 25/6 in the North Sea off Norway.
The well targets Paleocene Hermod formation and Jurassic Brent Group sandstones at a location east of abandoned Froy field and Total SA's recent Atla discovery.
DNO is operator with 40% participating interest. Bayerngas Norge AS, Faroe Petroleum PLC, and Norwegian Energy Co. ASA hold 20% each.
Tunisia
The Tunisian unit of DualEx Energy International Inc., Calgary, let a contract to CGGVeritas Services SA to shoot a 55 sq km 3D seismic survey over the Bouhajla North prospect on the Bouhajla permit onshore Tunisia.
Surveying and permitting are to start in January 2012, with field recording anticipated to be completed around the end of February. The block lies west of Sidi el Kilani oil field in north-central Tunisia. Depth to the primary Cretaceous Abiod chalk reservoir is 2,200 m.
UK
Hurricane Exploration PLC, focused on hydrocarbon resources in fractured basement reservoirs, has been awarded a frontier license in the second tranche UK 26th seaward license round.
The license covers ten offshore blocks: 5/1, 5/2, 5/3, 5/4, 5/5, 5/6, 5/7, 5/8, 5/9, and 206/28. The area is on the West Shetland platform immediately southwest of the Shetland Isles and northwest of the Orkneys. Hurricane will have a 100% operated interest.
The acreage fits with Hurricane's strategy of exploring niche plays. While focused on the Devonian, the location also offers potential within the underlying basement, a cornerstone of Hurricane's success to date.
The company noted that the license covers a large part of the Devonian Orcadian basin that has the potential to yield important resources in an area largely overlooked on the UKCS. The initial work program will involve shooting 2D seismic.
Colorado
A nonoperated exploratory well in Rio Blanco County, Colo., flowed a stable 315 Mcfd of gas from Cretaceous Mancos for more than 10 days with no pressure decline, confirming the presence of hydrocarbons in commercial quantities, said Dejour Energy Inc., Denver.
The vertical well off the southwest flank of giant Rangely oil field cut 90 ft of net hydrocarbon-bearing sand and had been fracture stimulated with 100,000 lb of proppant and flow-tested in late December 2011. Dejour sees the South Rangely leasehold as a Mancos C (Niobrara) type resource play most suitable for horizontal development. Dejour has a 30% working interest in the vertical well.
TD is 3,863 ft. Results of the vertical test confirmed a trapped hydrocarbon presence in commercial quantities and opened up all of Dejour's remaining South Rangely acreage in the Piceance basin to lower risk exploration downstructure from the gas accumulation.
Dejour said the company and its partners will focus on the oil leg that is typically found downdip from similar gas accumulations in the Mancos C in this area. The company will report an action plan to efficiently exploit its 6,750 operated gross leasehold acres early in the second quarter of 2012.
Dejour said it will immediately begin working with the US Bureau of Land Management to obtain more drilling permits and with partners and offset leaseholders to create a drilling unit to facilitate an orderly and efficient exploitation of the discovery.
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