By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 13 -- BPZ Resources Inc., Houston, reported continuing efforts to move Corvina field off northwestern Peru to commercial production by Nov. 30, and Albacora field to commerciality later in 2011.
BPZ has spudded the CX11-23D well, the last well to be drilled from the CX-11 platform. Meanwhile, it completed the CX11-22D updip appraisal well to simultaneously produce oil and reinject formation water, but the well hasn’t achieved a consistent production rate.
The 22D well has 75 ft of net oil pay, 70 ft of prospective oil pay in lower zones, and 75 ft of net gas pay above the oil zones. The well tested at 300 b/d of oil with high gas rates due to gas coming from one of the shallower intervals opened to help define the gas-oil contact.
BPZ plans to rework 22D to isolate the gas sand once 23D has been drilled and the field enters commercial production. In the meantime it will produce 22D intermittently to manage the gas volume. After 23D is drilled, BPZ will install gas and water reinjection equipment.
Corvina and Albacora fields produced a combined 4,050 b/d in the 2010 second quarter, less than in the first quarter, because six Corvina wells were shut in pending the outcome of the company’s extended well test permit applications and issues with the 22D well.
Corvina 17D and 22D are the only Corvina wells on production. Albacora field’s A-14XD averaged 1,510 b/d in the second quarter and 1,438 b/d in June, but BPZ shut it in July 12 because it reached its initial 6-month production test limit. A-17D, now drilling, is to be complete this quarter, followed by the drilling of A-18D later this year.
BPZ, which has sold Albacora oil to the local refinery under fixed and spot contracts, has used chemicals and other processes to break the emulsion and reduce the crude’s salt content. The company is commissioning desalting equipment on the Albacora platform.
Hess Corp.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
