Rick Wilkinson
OGJ correspondent
MELBOURNE, Dec. 8 -- Oil Search Ltd., Sydney, is preparing in the third week of December to spud the Al Akhaf-1 wildcat on Block 35 in the Hadraumat region of eastern Yemen.
Voyager Energy Ltd., which has farmed into the block with a 15% interest, is paying $1.2 million (Australian) toward the cost of the wildcat.
The Al Akhaf structure is the largest of several fault-controlled structures in the permit fringing a deep trough of Jurassic sediments similar to kitchen areas sourcing oil elsewhere in the country. The prospect has the potential to hold 106 million bbl of recoverable oil.
Block 35 is near the Nexen Energy Inc.-operated Masilah Block, which is producing 230,000 b/d of oil and holds an estimated 1.2 billion bbl of recoverable oil. Block 35 also is adjacent to Block 43, where Oil Search currently is appraising the recent Nabrajah oil discovery (OGJ Online, Nov. 16, 2004).
