Algeria
Sonatrach let a $257 million contract to a joint venture of Saipem SPA and Bouygues Group for development of oil reserves in the Berkine basin.
The contract involves development of Rhourde Oued Djemaa oil field and five nearby oil fields in southeastern Algeria. Sonatrach, Agip SPA of Italy, and BHP Billiton of Australia jointly hold the fields.
The project involves various installations, including a central treatment unit, a gathering network, and oil storage tanks. The companies will spend another $190 million to drill 20 production wells. With reserves of 300 million bbl, the six fields are to begin producing 80,000 b/d in 2004.
United Kingdom
Roc Oil Ltd., Sydney, is gathering 400 sq km of 3D seismic data in January-April to delineate prospects adjacent to Saltfleetby gas-condensate field 10 km northwest of Theddlethorpe gas terminal in the South Humber basin.
Positive results would place Roc Oil in position by yearend 2002 to start a multiwell drilling program. The most recent well proved the field's previously untested southern area and was the first to find its gas-water contact, 19 m deeper than that used in previous reserve estimates.
Saltfleetby, the UK's largest onshore gas field, was making 32 MMcfd from a reservoir at 2,300 m through five wells on compression in January 2002.
Cumulative production is 28.9 bcf from December 1999 through end-2001, when proved and probable reserves were revised upward to 58 bcf, 15% more than the end-1999 estimate despite production of almost 30 bcf in the interim.
Kentucky
Young Oil Corp., private Knob Lick, Ky., operator, plans a multiwell drilling program this year around a 1,000-acre lease in Metcalfe County, along the Cincinnati arch.
Each of 8 wells on the lease is making 100 bo/d or more. The 4 Bell, the most recent completion, came in at more than 200 b/d, natural, when drilled to 580 ft in a Mississippian Fort Payne reef, the company said.
Mississippi
Westfort Energy Ltd., Jackson, Miss., plans to purchase interests in and further develop Gilbertown and West Barrytown fields, Choctaw County, Ala., and Junction City field, Clarke County, Miss.
Sellers are Field Management LLC, Cedarhill Operating Co. LLC, and associates. The $4 million purchase includes 6,067 net acres and rights to formations from surface to base of Upper Cretaceous Eutaw. The properties contain 24 active wells producing a combined 200 bo/d. Westfort, citing a late 1998 University of Alabama study that indicated considerable untapped potential in Gilbertown field, plans to drill as many as 40 wells to 3,500 ft during 2 years.
Separately, Westfort sought partners to participate in Pickens oil field, Madison and Yazoo counties, and Pelahatchie oil and gas field, Rankin County.
New Mexico
Magnum Hunter Resources Inc., Irving, Tex., formed a joint venture to explore 49,000 gross mineral acres in Eddy and Lea counties around its existing leasehold.
Magnum Hunter, Southwestern Energy Co., and Phillips Petroleum Co. will drill at least three exploratory wells the first year to Pennsylvanian Atoka and Morrow targets. Magnum Hunter said it drilled 20 exploration wells in the area the past several years without a dry hole. The firm was negotiating drilling contracts for a minimum 10 total wells to be drilled in the area in 2002.
Utah
The area under lease for oil shale almost doubled during 2001 to nearly 87,000 acres, said the Utah School & Institutional Trust Lands Administration.
The 2001 lessees are Morgan LP and Oil Tech Inc. Lessees through 2000 are Tosco Corp., Shale Technologies Inc., Geokinetics Inc., Mitchell Lekas, James Lekas, James W. Bunger & Associates Inc., and Cliffs Synfuels Corp.
The first 200,000 bbl of shale oil produced from trust lands is exempt from a 5% royalty, but no one has yet claimed this. Primary lease term is 20 years. The leases are in Uintah County.