Calvalley to boost oil flow from Yemen Masila fields

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, May 6 -- Calvalley Petroleum Inc., Calgary, in mid-May will begin shipping blended crude from all Block 9 fields in Yemen when a company-owned metering system begins operating.

Those shipments will include crude from Hiswah, Al Roidhat, and Ras Nowmah fields in the Masila basin. Calvalley’s blended crude oil will continue to receive the Masila blend price, which is benchmarked to Brent crude pricing.

For now, Calvalley continues to deliver oil into the Masila Export Pipeline System through the company’s truck offloading facilities on Block 51. Current deliveries consist of crude oil from Hiswah field on Block 9 and continue to use existing space in the Block 51 metering system.

Meanwhile, Calvalley continues extended production and pressure buildup tests at the Qarn Qaymah-3 well, which went to 4,460 m including a highly deviated, 1,000-m open hole section in fractured granitic basement.

Wellbore image logs and electric logs indicate that the reservoir is extensively fractured and fully oil saturated. QQ-3 intersected 172 m of condensate-rich gas and 262 m of oil. The oil column could be thicker as no oil-water contact was encountered.

QQ-3 had a faster penetration rate and sharply higher average fracture porosity than the QQ-2 well. QQ-3 testing recovered drilling fluid used at QQ-2, but formation permeability gradually deteriorated due to a potential precipitation of paraffin and asphaltenes in open hole.

The company is optimistic that pending lab test results will indicate the potential of downhole chemical treatment to prevent future such deposits, a common production impairment phenomenon in many oil fields.

The Ras Nowmah East-1 exploratory well went to 1,559 m total depth and cut intermittent oil shows in Qishn clastics at 1,390-1,466 m. Electric logs indicated 44% average oil saturation, but test results yielded mainly formation water.

The company expects to use RNE-1 data to optimize future exploration success in the immediate Plateau Area. Based on the growing evidence of oil migration throughout the region, the company will continue investing in exploratory activities over this Plateau Area of Block 9.