Chile
GeoPark Holdings Ltd. will drill two to three more wells in 2013 in Konawentru oil field on its 100% owned Fell block in the Magallanes basin in southern Chile.
The 2011 discovery well, Konawentru-1, is making 1,120 b/d of oil, and its cumulative production exceeds 710,000 bbl of oil.
The most recent completion, Konawentru-4, went to 3,102 m total depth and flowed 730 b/d of oil with 462 psi wellhead pressure on a 10-mm choke on a production test of Jurassic Tobifera open hole at 3,031 m. Surface facilities are in place, and the well is to be produced at 700 b/d initially until production history has indicated a stabilized flow rate.
Further development of the field will begin immediately with the drilling of the Konawentru 3 well.
French Guiana
Tullow Oil PLC said the Shell-operated Zaedyus-2 exploratory well offshore French Guiana did not encounter commercial hydrocarbons and that it expects to spud the next well, Priodontes-1, on an adjacent prospect in the same Cingulata fan system, in early December.
Zaedyus-2 (GM-ES-2), 5 km updip from the Zaedyus-1 discovery well, encountered 85 m of reservoir quality sands with oil shows in several objectives.
Results of drilling, logging, and sampling to date have shown that the reservoirs in Zaedyus-2 are not in communication with Zaedyus-1.
Integration of data from both wells with the 3D seismic data suggests the reservoirs are geologically separated. As Zaedyus-2 is updip and disconnected from Zaedyus-1, this result has no bearing on the bulk of the undrilled prospectivity which is located downdip of Zaedyus-1, Tullow said.
Future drilling on the Zaedyus fan system should therefore target the significant upside in the Zaedyus downdip prospects and the downdip elements of Zaedyus Deep, Tullow said (see map, OGJ, June 4, 2012, p. 43).
Zaedyus-2 went to 6,200 m in 1,894 m on the Guyane Maritime license using the Stena DrillMax dynamically positioned drillship.
Guyane Maritime license interests are Shell 45%, Tullow 27.5%, Total 25%, and Northpet (a company owned 50% by Northern Petroleum PLC and 50% by Wessex Exploration PLC), 2.5%.
New Zealand
East West Petroleum Ltd. and TAG Oil Ltd. have formed a joint venture to drill four wells on three petroleum exploration permits in New Zealand's Taranaki basin.
PEP 54876, 54877, and 54879, awarded to TAG Oil, add at least 10 shallow, low-risk drilling prospects and numerous leads identified on 3D seismic near Cheal oil field.
TAG Oil was also awarded a 100% interest in PEP 54873, which contains several shallow drilling leads and exploration upside via a drill-ready deep gas-condensate prospect that has similar geological features to adjacent 1.3 tcf Kapuni gas-condensate field.
The four permits total 37,253 gross acres in the main Taranaki oil and gas fairway.
TAG Oil will operate the other three permits. East West will fund four wells on PEP 54876, 54877, and 54879 in 2013 to earn a 50% interest in PEP 54876 and PEP 54879 and a 30% interest in PEP 54877.
Meanwhile, TAG Oil said the Cheal-B8 well has reached a total depth of 3,600 m and encountered 26 m of high-quality oil and gas pay in the initial 2,000 m of the well.
The company will perforate and production-test the well.
The company deepened the well 1,600 m to test a wildcat target in the Tikorangi formation, but electric logs did not indicate sufficient pay at that depth.
TAG Oil noted that this result has no effect on the potential in the deeper Kapuni formation, a well established, commercially proven play level in numerous major fields discovered in the basin.
