New Zealand
GeoSphere Exploration Ltd., Wellington, and Thomasson International Ventures Inc., Denver, were awarded 3,124 sq km PEP 38223 on the southernmost South Island.
The 50-50 grantees are seeking partners to drill the Eastern Bush Tertiary prospect in the Waiau basin, which the former EEX Corp. had committed to drill under a former permit relinquished at yearend 2001 because funds could not be raised.
Part of PEP 38223 also covers the Te Anau basin, where exploration is less advanced (OGJ, Jan. 13, 1997, p. 62).
Portugal
Mohave Oil & Gas Corp., Houston, is to begin in September a 6-well shallow drilling program onshore in the Lusitanian basin.
The wells are projected to 300 m in the Torres Vedras area 25 miles north of Lisbon (OGJ, Dec. 8, 1997, p. 67). The area produced small amounts of oil in the 1950s from fractured carbonates. Mohave plans to drill directionally to optimize fracture intersections and to produce the wells on the pump.
The company also plans to acquire 450 line km of new onshore seismic data in the basin by yearend.
Portugal in July 2002 opened a licensing round that includes offshore blocks along much of its Atlantic coast.
Nova Scotia
Marathon Oil Co. and partners have a gas discovery of unspecified proportion at the first deepwater prospect drilled off the province.
Annapolis G-24, in the Scotian basin 215 miles south of Halifax, cut 100 ft of net gas pay in several zones at undisclosed depths. More seismic and drilling planned in 2003 are needed to determine commerciality, Marathon said.
G-24 went to TD 20,282 ft in 5,500 ft of water on Exploration License 2,377. Marathon also operates the Empire and Cortland leases and has identified 10 prospects/leads on the three parcels.
Interests are Marathon 30%, EnCana Corp. 26%, Norsk Hydro Canada Oil & Gas Inc. 25%, and Murphy Oil Co. Ltd. 19%.
Meanwhile, Canadian Superior Energy Inc., Calgary, set intermediate casing at the top of the Jurassic Abenaki reef in its L-35 Marquis wildcat off Nova Scotia.
New York
Results are expected shortly at a deep exploratory test in western New York.
Fortuna Inc., Calgary, a subsidiary of Talisman Energy Inc., is drilling Ballymoney-1, in Rexville Quad, Town of West Union, Steuben County, 45 miles west of Elmira. Planned TD is 15,500 ft, and the state drilling depth record is 13,500 ft at a well drilled in Steuben County in 1958. Some 5,300 ft of the wellbore is to be drilled directionally or horizontally to the south and southeast.
The companies' first well in the US, in Pennsylvania, found the formation and thickness as expected but not a large section of dolomite, rather primary limestone. A completion is contemplated in an uphole gas zone, Talisman said.
The well is part of a joint venture of Talisman and Seneca Resources Corp. (OGJ Online, Jan. 22, 2001).
