Australia
PetroFrontier Corp., Calgary, said its Australian unit has earned a 50% working interest in EP 127 and EP 128 in Australia's Northern Territory under an agreement with Baraka Energy & Resources Ltd., formerly Baraka Petroleum Ltd.
The earning increases PetroFrontier's working interest in the two Georgina basin licenses to 75% from 25% in 5.9 million net exploratory acres.
PetroFrontier is drilling the MacIntyre-2H well on EP 127, which has now exceeded a horizontal length of 501 m, the minimum farm-in commitment. PetroFrontier intends to continue drilling to a total horizontal length of 1,000 m. After MacIntyre, the rig will move to the Owen-3 wellsite.
Cameroon
The Cameroon government has awarded a group led by a unit of Dana Petroleum PLC, Aberdeen, a production sharing contract for the Bakassi West block in the Rio Del Rey basin adjoining the marine border with Nigeria.
The area covers nearly 390 sq km in shallow water. Dana is operator with 55% interest. Madison Cameroon Oil & Gas Ltd., an affiliate of Madison PetroGas, Calgary, has 35%, and SoftRock Oil & Gas Ltd., Douala, has 10%.
Work is to start almost immediately with data gathering and geological studies. Dana plans seismic in 2013 and 2014 and drilling by 2015. The 4-year, $31 million work program involves 250 km of 2D seismic, one commitment well, and one contingent well.
Depending on results, the program could be extended to two further 2-year periods. The supplementary periods would include 100 km of 2D seismic and the drilling of at least one exploration well per period. The total minimum investment for all three periods is $71 million.
China
Primeline Energy Holdings Inc. has signed a petroleum contract with China National Offshore Oil Corp. covering Block 33/07 in the East China Sea.
The contract replaces the previous contract on Block 25/34, which covered the 84.7 sq km development and production area of LS36-1 gas field under which CNOOC Ltd. was operator with 51% interest and PEH and Primeline Petroleum Corp. held 36.75% and 12.25%, respectively.
Block 33/07 covers 1.45 million acres enclosing Block 25/34, and the contractor's interest is shared 75%-25% by PEH and PPC. Another subsidiary, Primeline Energy Operations International Ltd., is operator of Block 33/07. PEOIL is responsible for 100% of exploration costs, and CNOOC has the right to participate, up to 51%, in any commercial development.
The new contract has a 7-year exploration period divided into three exploration phases of 3, 2, and 2 years, each with a minimum work commitment. The firm commitment in the first phase is for two exploratory wells and 600 sq km of 3D seismic. Any discoveries in the new contract area have the right to use the production facilities being built for LS36-1 gas field. Block 33/07 and Block 25/34 fiscal terms are identical.
Block 33/07 covers the majority of the Lishui basin where LS36-1 gas field is to begin producing in 2013. Primeline has 737 sq km of 3D seismic data in the block within which a number of potential prospects near LS36-1 have been mapped. Primeline also has extensive 2D seismic coverage over the rest of the block and has identified a number of exploration leads in this area.
Turkey
Turkey awarded Anatolia Energy Corp., Calgary, and Calik Enerji San. Ve Tic. AS three contiguous licenses that total 366,990 gross acres prospective for the Silurian Dadas shale in southeastern Turkey.
The three new licenses in the Gaziantep District are adjacent to the existing Antep block in which Anatolia can earn a 50% interest. They expand Anatolia's position in the Antep block to 845,418 gross acres and cover what the company believes to be the entire extent of prospective shale acreage in the Antep basin.
Anatolia has identified an expansive area of prospective Dadas shale and a large portfolio of prospects in the Ordovician Bedinan sand and the Cretaceous Mardin carbonates in the Antep area.
Anatolia and its partner expect to spud the first well at Antep in August 2012. The well will be drilled on the original Antep licenses to 2,600 m to test both the Dadas shale and the underlying conventional Bedinan sand. A core will be cut in the shale, and hydraulic fracture stimulation is planned to obtain critical data from the shale reservoir to aid in horizontal well and fracture stimulation design.
Louisiana
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. completed the GASRS 23-1 well that targeted Cretaceous Austin chalk in South Burr Ferry field, Vernon Parish, La.
The well's initial test rate was 744 b/d of oil and 7.2 MMcfd of gas with 4,100 psi flowing tubing pressure on a 34⁄64-in. choke, said partner Swift Energy Co. It is the first of four to six wells in the area that are planned to be drilled this year.
Other operators are drilling and completing wells along the same trend that target Austin Chalk, Wilcox, and Tuscaloosa marine shale (OGJ Online, Dec. 9, 2011).
Ohio
Gulfport Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, said two of its Utica shale wells represent the longest laterals and longest measured depth wells ever drilled in Ohio.
The record wells are the Boy Scout 1-33H and Wagner 1-28H, in Harrison County, two of the company's first three horizontal wells in the play.
Wagner 1-28H encountered an average vertical thickness of 123 ft in the Point Pleasant member of Utica, has been successfully completed with a 28-stage hydraulic frac, and is in a 60-day resting period prior to testing and flowing.
The Boy Scout 1-33H, under frac in early June, was drilled to a true vertical depth of 7,704 ft with a 7,974-ft horizontal lateral and encountered an average vertical thickness of 126 ft in Point Pleasant.
The Groh 1-12H, awaiting completion in Guernsey County, was drilled to 7,327 ft true vertical depth with a 5,414-ft horizontal lateral and encountered an average vertical thickness of 119 ft in Point Pleasant.
Gulfport is drilling its fourth and fifth horizontal wells of 2012, Shugert 1-1H and Shugert 1-12H in Belmont County, in the play, where it holds 62,500 net acres.
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