Exploration/Development Briefs

Sept. 24, 2012

Bulgaria

Bulgarian authorities signed an exploration contract with Total SA covering the Khan Asparuh license in the Black Sea offshore Bulgaria.

Total said the license contains a number of oil and gas prospects. The company said Khan Asparuh represents the first time that this type of ultradeepwater abrupt margin play will have been explored outside Atlantic basins. Other such plays exist in French Guiana, Uruguay, Ivory Coast, and Mauritania, Total said.

The block, which was awarded in the January 2012 round, covers 14,220 sq km in 100-2,000 m of water 80-300 km off the coast.

Total has a 40% interest in the block, and OMV AG and Repsol have 30% each.

Colombia

Las Maracas field in Colombia's Llanos basin is producing at more than 4,600 b/d of oil with minimal water including test output from the Las Maracas-4 well, said Petroamerica Oil Corp., Calgary, which has a 50% participating interest in the Los Ocarros block.

Las Maracas-4 is contributing 1,500 b/d of oil on an electric submersible pump, and its oil rate is expected to increase in a week as the company eliminates site congestion caused by arrival of the Tuscany 109 rig for development drilling and the removal of the workover rig used to complete and test the well.

Las Maracas-4 flowed natural for 88 hr from a 12-ft perforated interval in the Gacheta formation. During the test, the well produced 30° gravity light oil at an average 1,400 b/d with short-term peaks of more than 1,600 b/d. On completion with the ESP, it produced at restricted rates of 1,500 b/d with 2.3% water cut on a 23⁄64-in. choke and a minimum pump frequency of 28 hz.

Meanwhile, the Las Maracas-2 sidetrack is making 1,150 b/d of oil from the Mirador formation, and Las Maracas-3 and Las Maracas-4 are producing 2,000 b/d and 1,500 b/d, respectively, from the Gacheta.

The Tuscany 119 rig is drilling the La Casona-1 exploratory well on the El Eden block. Tuscany 109 rig is being mobilized to drill Las Maracas-5 and Las Maracas-6 and a contingent water disposal well in October.

Block operator Cepcolsa has transferred its 50% participating interest to Parex Resources Colombia Ltd. Sucursal, which is still pending approval by Colombia's National Hydrocarbons Agency.

Israel

A group led by GeoGlobal Resources Inc., Calgary, has found promising rocks and gas shows at the Myra-1 wildcat in the Mediterranean offshore and will move the Noble Homer Ferrington semisubmersible to the Sara-1 wildcat location.

Wireline logs at Myra-1 confirmed the presence of high-quality Lower Miocene sands equivalent in age to the Tamar sands and gas shows that indicate an active hydrocarbon system on the Myra license (OGJ Online, June 26, 2012).

GeoGlobal said it will conduct further analysis to assess the potential for more drilling on the license, including the potential to sidetrack the Myra-1 well which has been plugged and abandoned.

Sara-1 is to spud by the end of September in 1,400 m of water 60 km off Israel. It is to be drilled vertically to 4,000 m subsea in about 50 days.

Malaysia

Lundin Petroleum AB, Stockholm, has spudded the Merawan Batu-1 exploratory well, the third well in the company's 2012 Malaysian drilling campaign.

The well targets hydrocarbons in Oligocene-aged sands in a faulted anticline on the PM308B block off peninsular Malaysia in an undrilled area 50 km west of Lundin's 2011 Janglau oil discovery. The West Courageous jackup is to drill the vertical well to 3,584 m in 60 m of water.

Lundin has 75% interest in PM308B, and Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd. has 25%.

Morocco

San Leon Energy PLC said Morocco's ONHYM has awarded the company more blocks at its Tarfaya oil shale project and extended the exclusivity period of the existing acreage.

San Leon was awarded four more blocks totaling 16 sq km. Blocks 13, 14, 15, and 16 can be mined and are candidates for the application of surface retorting processes.

The blocks are in addition to San Leon's existing 6,000 sq km awarded in 2009 under an exclusive memorandum of understanding dedicated to application of its in situ vapor extraction process (OGJ Online, Jan. 13, 2012).

ONHYM agreed to extend the duration of the exclusivity period of the original MOU for 2 years to March 2014 and to extend its scope to include application of any other ex situ (retort) process, San Leon said.

California

Neon Energy Ltd., Perth, reported test flow rates from three wells in Paloma field in Kern County, Calif., and looks forward to further testing.

Testing of the shallow gas sand in the Paloma-3 well resulted in a maximum, unassisted flow of 2.2 MMcfd. Neon said it "expects to commercialize the gas on the back of a greater Paloma development, and has signed a gas sales agreement with a local purchaser." Two shallow gas sands remain to be tested.

At the Paloma Deep-2 well, the company recovered 36° gravity oil and a small gas flow from the McDonald sandstone. Pressure data suggest that the formation has relatively low permeability, but Neon said it may be commercialized as part of a full-field development.

Neon is preparing to test the Fruitvale formation and the Lower Stevens B sandstone, the primary objectives of the Paloma Deep-2 well. Tests of those zones in Paloma Deep-1 achieved maximum unassisted flows of 1.9 MMcfd of gas and 226 b/d of condensate.

At Paloma Deep-1 the extended test of the Lower Antelope shale recovered 131 bbl of oil, and the well was shut in to monitor pressure buildup. The test will be resumed shortly with maximum drawdown to determine the reservoir's full deliverability potential of the reservoir, and the data will help determine the commercial viability of this unconventional zone. Then Neon will test the uppermost Paloma sand.

Colorado

The US Bureau of Land Management is seeking comments on a proposal by Encana Oil & Gas to construct a 5-acre natural gas well pad in the Piceance basin 5 miles south of Rangely, Colo., BLM's White River field office announced on Aug. 31.

Comments should be submitted by Sept. 17 to be considered for an environmental assessment that is being prepared, it noted.

The proposal includes a 300-yd access road and a 6.5-mile, 12-in. buried pipeline that would parallel County Road 27, according to BLM. Encana plans to drill eight wells from the pad, it said.

The total disturbance prior to interim reclamation would involve 53.2 acres of BLM land and 11.8 acres of private land, the agency said.

Dejour Energy Inc., Denver, is moving in a rig to drill the first well at its 72% owned Kokopelli gas project in the Piceance basin in Colorado.

To spud within the week, the well is to be directionally drilled to the base of the Williams Fork member of Cretaceous Mesaverde, logged, cased, and turned to production by yearend 2012. Its successful completion will secure for Dejour the substantial portion of the proven and probable undeveloped reserves that consulting engineers attribute to the Williams Fork section of this Kokopelli leasehold.

The company said the 2,200-acre project is ideally situated for exploitation of both the Williams Fork and Mancos hydrocarbon-laden shale bodies adjacent to acreage to the east, west, and north being developed by WPX and Bill Barrett Corp.

Construction started in late 2011 on the first drill pad, from which production expected to begin in the second half of 2012.

Oklahoma

Mesa Energy Holdings Inc., Dallas, has leased 1,525 net acres in Garfield and Major counties, Okla., bringing its total position to 3,245 net acres in the Mississippi lime play.

The new leases have a 3-year primary term plus option periods. Mesa also closed on a farmout with Twenty/Twenty Oil & Gas Inc. covering 1,720 net acres held by production. The Twenty/Twenty transaction also includes the outright purchase of three vertical Mississippi lime wells that will be operated by Mesa Midcontinent LLC, Mesa's Oklahoma operating subsidiary.

Mesa is to start a horizontal drilling program in the Mississippi lime in late 2012 or early 2013. Objectives are the Mississippi lime that is as thick as 500 ft at 7,000 ft and potentially the underlying Woodford shale 50-80 ft thick. Estimated ultimate recoveries from the Mississippi lime are 300,000-500,000 bbl/well.

Mesa continues to lease and to pursue agreements with operators to acquire HBP acreage.

Wyoming

The US Bureau of Land Management's Casper, Wyo., field office has released environmental assessments for three oil and gas projects in Converse County and a small part of Niobrara County and invited comment until Oct. 17.

The EAs for the three projects were prepared after multiple operators filed staking notices and applied for drilling permits to explore existing crude oil reserves and determine the potential for oil and natural gas production in the project areas, the field office said.

It said that the Spearhead Ranch EA would involve 56-224 wells from 56 proposed pads, the Highland Road EA 37-148 wells from 37 pads, and the East Converse EA 18-72 wells from 18 pads.

The notice indicated that the proposed projects could involve a combination of vertical and horizontal wells to explore and develop the federal mineral estate. As identified in the EAs, the typical well pad would be designed for 1-4 wells, it said.