Vietnam: JX Nippon joins Salamander at Cat Ba

June 1, 2011
JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp. took a farmout from Salamander Energy PLC to earn a 20% interest in Block 101-100/04 off northern Vietnam.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 1
-- JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp. took a farmout from Salamander Energy PLC to earn a 20% interest in Block 101-100/04 off northern Vietnam.

Salamander operates the block, which contains the Cat Ba oil prospect that will be tested with the CB-1X well in the third quarter of 2011. JX Nippon will earn its interest from Salamander by funding a promoted cost of the CB-1X well.

The prospect has oil potential in both basement and overlying clastics. Mean prospective resource is 100 million bbl. Cat Ba is an analog to neighboring Ham Rong oil field, which Petronas declared commercial in 2010. The CB-1X well is to be drilled in July 2011 using the Aquamarine Driller jackup.